Six months after 9/11, Jean-Marie Le Pen was almost elected president of France. There were a number of leaders and a number of parties running in the French national elections that year in the spring of 2002. But it ended up being not just a shock across France, and not just a shock across Europe. But it ended up being almost a worldwide shock when in the spring of 2002, Jean-Marie Le Pen came in second in those national elections. That put him in a two-man runoff for the presidency of France, spring of 2002.
Rachel MaddowI don`t think we have thought of ourselves, at least in a modern iteration, as being a nationalist country or a country that has nationalist movements.
Rachel MaddowIf you want to make the government take a religious side, then make the case, it should be Christian republic.
Rachel Maddow[Dan fried] is the department`s foremost Russia expert and he, too, is now leaving at a time when arguably the State Department needs it most, the State Department will not have the benefit of his insight going forward.
Rachel MaddowRidding Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. That was the whole idea, right? Thatโs why we went. I am reluctant to let that fact disappear down the memory hole, because if โ as the war ends, or at least starts to end โ if, at this time, the history of the war is written as us going there to topple the regime of a bad man when that frankly isnโt why were told that we were going there โ Arenโt we still at risk of making this horrific mistake again? And, arenโt we letting the people who foisted the WMD idea on us, not many years ago, arenโt we sort of letting them get away with it?
Rachel Maddow