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tv   The Last Word With Lawrence O Donnell  MSNBC  December 6, 2021 10:00pm-11:00pm PST

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happens as russia appears to be 175,000 troops on the border with ukraine. russia is insisting it is not planning on invading. but we expect tomorrow to have a readout from the white house very shortly after that conference ends, in terms of the resolution of that matter. the question of whether or not the u.s. is going to put some sort of sanctions in place against russia, for that buildup, for other things that they've been fighting with russia against recently. that may be resolved as soon as tomorrow, tomorrow is going to be a prickly day in terms of that relationship. and all the high stakes that it means. watch for that tomorrow. that's going to do it for us. now it's time for the last word with lawrence o'donnell. >> good evening rachel. i wonder if you can remember who was the first person whose name you knew, but who you didn't know? when you are tiny. maybe it was mr. rogers.
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maybe it was someone you -- >> captain kangaroo. >> captain kangaroo? >> captain kangaroo for sure. >> how old were you when you could say captain kangaroo, because that's a mouthful? >> my first word was donut. my aunt came over, she came over every sunday after church, she would bring us donuts. she walked in the door one day, and when i was like, zero, she walked in the door and i pointed at her and said donut. that was my first word. and i think fairly soon after that it was, captain kangaroo. my parents were very disappointed in my early language. >> so my daughter was born in 1994. and bob dole decided to run for president starting in 1995. and that campaign book came out. you know, the dole campaign book entitled, bob dole. with this picture on the cover. and so that means that for one
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little girl in america, the very first name that she knew, of a person she didn't know was bob dole. and she remembers that because we have the video. take a look at these fierce words of the name of someone she didn't know. >> bob dole? >> yeah. >> say bob dole. >> bob dole. >> say it again. >> bob dole? >> who is it? >> bob dole. >> bob dole. it's the perfect baby name. it's just, i mean, it couldn't
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be easier. >> that is so much better than donut. >> did you hear her say, at one point, brig bob dole to daddy? >> yes. that is tonight's most important line. bring bob dole to daddy. which, she did. >> i don't care whatever you do on the show, but keep playing that for an hour, and it will be your high official rating for a very long time. i could watch that 4000 more times. >> i think i watched it about 1000 times yesterday. it will be tweeted. >> well done. >> thank you. well last week, the democratic party was thrilled with the news that stacey abrams has decided to run for governor of georgia, again. when she ran in 2018, stacey abrams lost to republican brian kemp, by about one and a half percent of the vote. but that was before stacey abrams led the massive voter registration drive in georgia that helped deliver democratic
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victories in two statewide united states senate campaigns in georgia this year. stacey abrams, helped georges freshman center give control of the senate to the democratic party. stacy runs campaign advertisement so far has stressed her leadership skills that she would bring to the governorship. and does not attack georgia's republican. so far, brian kemp does have a very loud political opponent. who today said, brian kemp has filled georgia. camped has been a very weak governor, most importantly he can't win. that attack on brian kemp, came from republican in name only. donald trump. the new york times reports that trump has vowed to orchestrate brian kemp's defeat as a payback for the governor's refusal to help overturn the former president's november
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election lost in the state. donald trump has found someone else who lost in georgia to run against brian camped in the republican primary for governor. former republican senator, david perdue, announced today that he is running for governor next year in the state that already has a republican governor. that means, david perdue and brian kemp, will be joining massive amounts of republican money that could go to republican campaigns elsewhere in the country that are trying to knock democrats out of office. everything about this expensive republican challenges seems helpful to the democrats. it seems to guarantee that the republican nominee for governor, presumably, running against stacey abrams, as the democratic nominee, will have been salvaged on his way to that republican nomination. david perdue's first ad,
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released today, was a negative attack that mentioned republican governor by name, repeatedly. and he threw in the name of georgia's republican secretary of state. while he was at it, as if he was running against both of them. donald trump issued a statement endorsing david perdue, and attacking brian kemp. they said nothing about david perdue. i was entirely okay with attacking. the next several months, they spent attacking each other, stacey abrams will be trying to register more voters and assured them of their voting rights in georgia. the new york times reports, her candidacy ensures that voting rights will remain at the center of the political conversation in democratic circle and in georgia, where republicans enacted a sweeping law of voting restrictions this year. stacey abrams, campaigns also carries, if she is successful, she will become the first black governor of georgia. and the first black woman to
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serve as governor of any state. here is some of what's abrams told rachel maddow last week. >> my mission is service. and to serve people, you have to care about them. you have to care about all of them. i have spent my time doing what i can to serve georgia. whether that was expanding access to vaccine, paying off 60,000 georgia medical debts. getting thousands of pounds of food banks. helping families keep their incomes high. helping small businesses. i have tried, in every way possible, to serve the people of georgia. but the best way to serve georgia, in my estimation, is to run for governor. >> leading off our discussion tonight is, lauren, she is the manager of stacey's campaign, for governor of georgia. thank you very much for joining us tonight. i am reading this as good news for your campaign. and democrats generally in georgia say that republicans
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are now really attacking each other over this republican gubernatorial nomination. >> it is quite a development that are incumbent republican governor has passed a challenge by trump, and they failed u.s. senator. a loser who is a, quote, debate dodger and coastal elite who patted his pocket in the pandemic. that actually is all the lines from his spokesperson. i did not write those words. that what his spokesperson said. interestingly, we agree that he has been an ineffective governor. at the end of the day, georgians are suffering and struggling in this pandemic. we are going into a winter, lawrence. where the omicron variant is no doubt going to wreak so much havoc. it is a confusing covid response. so we are about serving
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georgians. we are about serving and fighting for georgians. and the contrast just could not be any more clear. >> what does it mean to the republican party, more genuinely, if donald trump is going to come in and create republican primaries where there otherwise would not be any. >> it is a clear message to normal voters that their concerns and their struggles, and their pain, and their needs are not important to this party. what matters to this party is that those who appeal to donald trump, himself. and to his maga faction overall. and that is not with georgians are about. since stacy's last campaign, in 2018, about 1.3 million new voters have registered in georgia. and they skew heavily demographic. the white set, are more liberal. we have very young voters. overall, skewing young in our
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state. we will build a multiracial, multi ethnical variety. because we are about the people. and that is what stacey has been doing for the last four years. i have been on your show talking about voting rights. but we are also forgetting georgia's medical debts, we have been out there advocating for vaccines. getting vaccines in arms. we have been about the work, about the people. meanwhile, these guys are in some brawl about who is cozying up to donald trump. and we get to be about the works. so i am not happy about this. i am very concerned about what is happening in our public schools. they continue to be underfunded. with a completely illogical and not streamline covid response. every day, it's a very difficult thing to live in in the state of the pandemic. because we have no leadership. he is a failure, and that's why using strong tell images on both his side. and so, they can fight and do their thing, and distract camped even further from his
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duty as governor from taking care of the state. but we are going to be out here making our case in 2020 to be a good year for georgia families coming out of these holidays. it is time for new leadership, it is time for stacey abrams. and we are unified, lawrence. that's the other thing. we are unified, we are so proud of our senator who went to washington and bringing real money to our state. towards porto, our former's, they have been delivering. they have been present. they are doing the work. so we feel there is a great case against this consolidated republican government that has not been served in georgia. that has been focused on conspiracy theories, the so-called election issues. it's about mitigating voter suppression, fighting for the people, and we want everybody to join us, go to stacey abrams talk calm. and get the job done. >> so how many votes will the
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democrats have to get to win? and i say that based on rachel's last hour. which was an examination of all the ways in which republican legislatures around the country have changed laws and vote counting processes so that they can be able to control them. and that happened in georgia. there has been a change in law, in the election process in georgia. does that mean that you are going to need a cushion on top of a cushion? a number that is too big for them to cheat? >> i get this question all the time. i'm here on this monday, it is literally five weeks until the georgia legislature, the arizona legislature, and so many other states legislatures, come back into session. and they have plans to do more voter fraud conspiracies around fraud and all kinds of maga
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faction ideas. this is not about that issue, we need the freedom to vote act, we need this passed by the congress as soon as possible. in six weeks, from today. more states are reconvening and we still have not had congressional action. voters, they demand their democracy function. so we are not going to let them break the game. yes, you are correct, all these bills are passing, and they're going to come back and pass more. so we are going to keep fighting those bills. but this is clear, congress must act. we must have a functioning democracy. and to your question on campaign strategy, we, from a campaign perspective, i have to assume no help is coming. they will continue to advocate. and that we will have to assume that we are going to have the tools that we have unknown new tools for voters who are going to be here. if that's the case, we are going to go out there make our case. we are going to put together this coalition. we are going to win as strongly as we can, and we are going to try and win up and down the
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ballot. because we have been talking about the secretary of state, they're so mad they didn't overturn the election. brad raffensperger has a challenge by his right for his staff of steel, who would never certify an election. so it is critical that we get involved. not just in georgia, in your state races around the country, two elected governors, and tua like secretaries of state. and other folks, to help shore up our democracy in this mid term and for the next decade. georgia becomes a majority of people of color, this decade lawrence. they are going to continue to rig. here in across the country. they're going to try to steal power. >> lauren groh-wargo, think you very much for joining us. please come back during the campaign. >> thank you lawrence. >> thank you. >> coming up last week, while republican senators were talking about abortion, chris murphy went to the senate floor to change the subject to the mass murders in our schools that are the result of the field to the republican senators show to lobbyist for the national rifle association.
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senator murphy, joins us next. t. allstate. where everything just seems to go your way. ♪ ♪ you're in good hands with allstate. click or call for a lower auto rate today. i've got moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now, there's skyrizi. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months, after just 2 doses. skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms such as fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches, or coughs or if you plan to or recently received a vaccine. ♪nothing is everything♪ talk to your dermatologist about skyrizi. learn how abbvie could help you save. ♪ ♪ cases of anxiety in young adults are rising as experts warn of the effects on well-being caused by the pandemic. ♪ ♪
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the parents of the student at oxford college in michigan, who is now accused of murder and terrorism after shooting and killing four students and injuring seven other people. james crumbley and jennifer crumbley were captured hiding in a warehouse in detroit. they've pleaded not guilty to four counts each of involuntary manslaughter and their bond was set at $500,000 each. oxford county prosecutor erin mcdonald laid out on friday how james crumbley and jennifer crumbley brought the gun for their son. who used it as a christmas gift for him. and that they ignored clear warnings that he was dangerous. james crumbley and jennifer crumbley are now being held under suicide watch in the same
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jail as their son. hours after ethan crumbley shot and killed four of his classmates, senate republicans were speaking on the senate floor about abortion. so our next guest, democratic senator, chris murphy from connecticut took to the senate floor and said this. >> mister president, i understand that my republican colleagues have very strong views on issues related to abortion. but i listened to my republican colleagues come down here one after another today and talk about the sanctity of life. at the very moment that moms and dads in michigan were being told that their kids weren't coming home because they were shot in school due to a country that has accepted gun violence due to republicans fealty to the gun lobby. do not lecture us about the sanctity, the importance of life. when 100 people every single
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day are losing their lives every single day to guns. when kids go to school fearful that they won't return home because their classmate will turn a gun on them. when it is in our control whether this happens. you care about life, then get these dangerous maryland terry style weapons off the streets, out of our schools. you care about life, make sure that criminals don't get guns. making sure that everybody goes through a background check in this country. we are not unlucky, this is purposeful. this is a choice made by the united states senate to sit on our hands and do nothing, while kids die. >> joining us now is democratic senator chris murphy of connecticut. senator, thank you very much for joining us, i really appreciate it. i know you spoke for millions of americans, not just in connecticut, but all over the country. when you made that point on the senate floor, that what is happening in our schools is a choice. it is a choice being made by
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republicans in congress. >> of course it is. of course it is. listen, that anger last week from me is the anger of apparent. i have a seventh grader and a fourth grader and it's terrifying to me. that this generation of kids goes to school expecting that a shooting will happen. at the place where they learn. it is of course a choice that we are making. because there is no other country in the high income world that experience this rate of gun violence. it's not that the united states has any more mental illness than other countries. it's not that the united states has spends any less money on law enforcements than those other countries. the difference is that the ease of access here in the united states to these high powered weapons is just absolutely differentiating from of the nation that we do business
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with. these broken brains in other countries may end up in a fistfight. maybe the worst-case, somebody getting stabbed. but here in the united states it ends up with dozens of people getting killed in places like sandy hook and others across the country. we make a choice to populate this country with wildly powerful guns that are designed to kill as many people as quickly as possible. and we get the policy that we have chosen to live with. that is 100 people every single day dying from guns. >> how do you deal with your own personal angler about this? sandy hook was obviously in your state. that was the time where if there was ever a moment where something was going to be done, it was going to be when we saw kids in kindergarten and first grade assassinated in their school, just mowed down. and that ended up moving, changing nothing.
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you have gotten to know the families of those kids and those victims. worked with them closely. how do you deal with your own personal anger about the body you work in, the senate doing absolutely nothing. i let me maybe contest the premise a little bit. this is a popular idea that if sandy hook didn't change this country decision about guns, if sandy hook didn't force congress to action, that nothing will. i'm convinced that this is as you know, just about good old-fashioned political movement building. that in 2012, in december of 2012, when sandy hook happened, the anti gun violence movement essentially didn't exist. the brady group had been carrying the torch for years. there were hundreds of activists. not the tens of thousands that we have today. and the nra and the gun lobby
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were at their zenith, their peak in 2012. we spent the last nine years building a movement. we are getting to the point where we are stronger than the nra and the gun lobby. we may not be there yet. it took ten years from when jim brady was shot to the passage of the brady hand gun bill. it took over a decade from the time in which the country saw emmett till's open casket, to the passing of the civil rights bill. sometimes these movement take a decade or more to build. i just have confidence that we are part of one of those great social change movements. so that is what i tell these families. if you believe in honoring your children's death with action, then we all have to stick with this. we have to be so confident in the righteousness of our cause, that we don't let any of these obstacles get in our way. >> is it time to start taking the language that republicans use in their own arguments about other subjects, like
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sanctity of life and applying it to the subject? >> i at least think we have to call them out on their bs. it's really stunning how cavalier the republicans are with life after birth. it's not just the way they except the carnage that exists in this country due to gun violence, it's also the way in which they just wave a hand to 700,000 people that have died from covid. how they're fighting measures designed to save peoples lives in this pandemic. they care a whole lot about the unborn. but once you are born, there doesn't seem to be a lot of concern for the livelihood of individuals who are on this planet with us. whether we adopt their phrase all edgy or not, i don't know. but i think more people need to do but i did last week, which was called him out on this pretty incredible hypocrisy.
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>> senator chris murphy, thank you very much for joining us tonight, really appreciate it. >> thanks a lot. >> coming up, america is experiencing one of the lowest unemployment rates in modern history right now, during the biden administration. and no one predicted that. including the biden administration. james berlin who was in charge of delivering the benefits of the biden administration will join us next. il join us next how liberty mutual customizes their car insurance. ow! i'm ok! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ only in theaters december 17th. ♪ baby got back by sir mix-a-lot ♪ ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ unlimited cashback match... only from discover.
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the white house coordinator of the american rescue plan, james frilling, tweeted, 4.2% unemployment before american rescue plan was passed. c o projected it wouldn't reach 4.2% until october 1st of 2025. with passage of rescue plan, it falls to 4.2% before 2021 is over. don't even try to tell me the
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american rescue plan has not been big for slashing unemployment. next week, the irs will send a six round of child tax credit to approximately 36 million families. those child tax credits which are a key part of the american rescue plan, are set to expire at the end of the year. president biden's build back better plan includes an expansion of the child tax credit that could keep an estimate of 9 million children from slipping into poverty. the build back better plan would also lower the cost of insulin, which is used by about seven point million americans to treat diabetes. today, president joe biden, said this. >> we are committed to using every tool i have. consistent with the drug companies getting a fair return on their investment. it is really to solve this problem, we need to follow their lead. in addition to the specific
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progress at the build back better bill is going to make for families facing diabetes. i will also take the additional step of helping people on medicare. >> joining us now is gene sperling, the white house coordinator for the rescue plan. jeanne, thank you very much for joining us tonight. and i have to say, why did you not predict that the unemployment rate was going to go as low as it has as a result of the american rescue plan? >> well lawrence, it is so important for people to remember what the world looked alike before joe biden passed and signed the american rescue plan. but let's think about it. we were creating, in the three months before president biden came in, about 60,000 jobs a month. we were losing about over 100,000 leisure and hospitality jobs. and yes, unemployment was not projected to get to 4.2% until
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2025. then, the american rescue plan passes, let's see what's happened since then, jobs are up about 580,000 a month. let's just think about that for a second. that means that about every day in the united states, there are about ten more jobs created for every one job that was created before joe biden came into office. unemployment hits 4.2% in 2021 as opposed to the 2025 that was projected right before the american rescue plan passed. and i cannot say this enough, the united states is the only major country in the world that we turn to in our growth level. our output level. by the end of june, all of our other major partners are still behind even when you at the third quarter. so you cannot tell me that these things would've happened
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without the american rescue plan. there's just no evidence, we would be the only country in the world to have returned to our growth output level by the end of june, without the american rescue plan. or that we'd be creating ten times the amount of jobs. or that those hospitality jobs would be using 100,000. or that we are up and that employment would fall this fast. >> senator joe manchin, the votes that you need on future legislation says that because he has it in the past, that this works so well. maybe you don't need everything that you are asking for in the build back better plan. >> well we have great respect for senator manchin. i've known him for a long time, but i think that we need to keep this going. i look and see things that he believes in. universal child care, preschool. those things won't happen if the build back better plan
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doesn't pass. the child tax credit, the dramatic impact that is happening on reducing child poverty. it goes 97, 98% of those who get it are people who are working hard. the others are people who are suffering with disabilities or other issues, or deep care issues. that monthly payment will not happen after december 15th. if this doesn't happen, morally or economically to move kids out of poverty, people will find families needing to deal with basic necessities. having to pay down debts. we have had since they started counting after the american rescue plan. so whether you are middle class family or a low income family, the child tax credit has been absolutely essential. and let me just make one final point on this. we totally understand president
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biden, people feel frustrated with covid, frustrated with seeing higher prices in the stores or in the gasoline, but remember this. because americans get the child tax credit and the earning the child tax credit and the economic impact payments that they get at the beginning of the year due to the american rescue plan, because of, that those families, even those families pacing high prices at the gas pump in the stores are still having $100 more than what they did last year. each and every month, $350 more before the pandemic because in large part due to the child tax credit and the monthly payment. so it is maybe never been more essential and i think it is helping families meet their paycheck. and it's helping our lowest income children have a chance of a lifetime out of poverty. >> james, gene sperling, i
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thank you so much for joining our discussion tonight. >> thank you lawrence. >> coming up, former senator and republican nominee, bob, died at the age of 98. almost every democratic senator liked and respected bob dole. throughout his time in the senate, senate leadership, bob dole relied on the daily advice and counsel of sheila byrd. his chief of staff. who came to be known in the office as the best when it. . gold bond. champion your skin. ♪♪ lisa here, has had many jobs. she's worked in retail during the holidays. as a barista during rush hour. and a nanny to a couple of rambunctious kids. now, all that experience has led her to a job
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no one can deliver your mom's homemade short ribs. that's why instacart helps deliver the ingredients. and you add the love. here is what former democratic leader of the senate, said today about his dear friend bob dole. who he usually opposed on the senate floor. when bob dole was the republican leader of the senate. >> bob dole is a partisan. but it was he who saved the social security system. he is a partisan.
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it was he and tom who created the disability act that made it historic. when he was governing, they created one of the best nutrition programs today. that is the kind of institutional political leader that we need so badly today. bob dole understood the importance of compromise. compromises the oxygen of democracy. and bob dole provided a lot of oxygen in those years. >> on my very first day in politics, i watched new york's liberal democratic senator, daniel patrick, take ten minutes to write himself a tv commercial for his 19th 88 reelection campaign. in which senator morning ham, including a quote from bob dole saying, pat mourning him and i saved social security. the campaign professionals in the room told senator morning him that the republican leader of the senate was never going to appear.
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in a democrat's corner shull. to which senator morning him said that he had seen bob dole say that in a speech in kansas that was carried on c-span. they just need to grab that video. the campaign professional explained that bob dole would publicly object to the morning ham campaign using that video of bob dole for a democratic candidate for senate. and demand that the ad be taken off tv. morning have said, no he won't. and pat mourning him was right, he did not object to the use of that video in that campaign commercial. and the senator went on to win with 67% of the vote. that is a lost world of politics in which not just republican senators but democratic senators loved. and i mean loved the republican leader of the senate. bob dole was irresistible and private. he was warm, funny, wise, careful. it was bob dole who announced
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to a closed-door meeting of the senate finance committee when i was a committee chief of staff, that my daughter was born over the previous weekend that produced a big burst of applause for everyone in the rule. bob dole announced her name saying that he really liked her first name which was the same name as bob dole's wife. and it was our next guest who told bob dole about the birth of my daughter. he graduated from the university of san francisco with a degree in nursing, and after working as a nurse for a few years in california, the twist of turns on life landed her in a health policy job on the staff of senator bob dole who wanted someone with experience and actually providing health care. sheila worked her way off the staff chain of command, where bob dole was chairman, and eventually, chief of staff to the republican senate leader, bob dole. sheila burke, was so good at her job, she was so powerful
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and so important to the workings of the senate, that she became known as the 100th first senator. sheila, did this all consuming while raising three children. every senate staff member wasn't all of sheila, including the staff members who disagreed with her. in 1995 when bob dole began his last campaign. the campaign for president. that he would lose to bill clinton in 1996. sheila, was in her 18th year on senator dole's staff and the new brand of conservative republicans in washington, who didn't believe that compromise with democrats was ever necessary decided that the problem with bob dole was sheila burke. oppressively's from a right-wing group at the time said that if the american people, like hillary clinton, they would love hillary and sheila burke. they told the review in 1990, five that the one consistent theme over every battle of conservatives loss was a knife
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in the back from bob dole, frequently at the behest of sheila. those republicans feared what it would mean to have sheila berke as white house chief of staff if bob dole won the presidency. but he lost to bill clinton. and one of president clinton's first act, after his second inauguration, was to present bob dole with the presidential medal of freedom. >> i, robert j. dull [applause] do solemnly swear sirens speech. [laughs] but i had a dream [laughs]
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-- that i would be here at this historic week receiving something from the president. but i thought it would be the front door key. [laughs] >> bob dole died yesterday, at the age of 98. and joining us now is sheila burke, at the kennedy school of government at harvard university. sheila, thank you very much for joining us tonight. it is great to see you. and let me begin by saying i am sorry for your loss. >> thank you lawrence, it's a wonderful tree to see you again after all these years. and it has been a bittersweet day. to say, i have watched all the clips of dole, and hearing people speak so well of him, your commentary was certainly kind and thoughtful. so thank you for that. >> i was one of the lucky democratic staffers who had a
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lot of intersection with you and with senator dole since he was a member of the finance committee as well as the republican leader in the senate. and in all legislating, had to include bob dole and sheila burke at some point in the discussion. i felt very lucky about that. i also had to say that i felt way in over my head every time i was talking to you about anything. you are very gracious about not letting anyone know just how many more cards you had in the deck that i didn't. but sheila, when you look at the way senator dole operated, and you look at the way you grew up in the senate as a staffer, climbing up to that kind of experience, it doesn't seem like anything in that experience is available there now. you were involved in real governing senator. senator dole was involved in real governing. and it seemed to have not worked the same way at all. >> i think you are right.
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we were there, you and i, at a very remarkable time with remarkable people. pat being among those with whom we have worked very closely. it was a different time. there was a desire to reach an agreement. not to suggest that they work where they needed to. certainly bob dole could be, and others. here, we see a wonderful photograph of daniel patrick moynihan. but in fact, there was a desire to find solid ground. and a willingness to do so. which is how they created the disability rights legislation, and a set of things that would work for the food stamp and nutritional program. all the examples of members reaching across the aisle. and sadly, i think that the staff, then, did the same and i find that there is somewhat
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less of that today. >> sheila burke, you had three kids while you are doing this work. which is absolutely inconceivable to most of the rest of us who do not have children while we were trying to do this work. and i remember, we would wonder by your office and one of them, invariably, would be waiting for you to take them to something which i think they might have been disappointed in a few times not being able to leave. but tell us what it was like to be working with senator dole. here is the republican leader of the senate. and he knows you have all of these other things on your plate as a mother, everything else you have going on in your life, but he is still choosing to rely on you every day in that position. >> dole, was someone who was remarkably supportive of his staff and their entirety, a number of us had children well we worked from him. i was the first. and i had all of my three children interestingly enough, i had them oddly enough during
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senate recesses. and dole, at one point, in fact when i was about to deliver a child and had to leave the senate, called looking for me. and he was stunned to find that it was not a recess, but in fact i was delivering one of my children. but he was very supportive, never criticize does for taking the time that we needed. it was my son, daniel, who was very disappointed that he did not go to yankees game when evening. because i had to stay in session. but dole was supportive, and supportive of each of us. in all of the things that we did. and i was lucky in that respect to be working for someone who was in fact, willing to let us lead our lives privately. when we needed to be there, we were there. and we had a terrific staff. again, many of whom were parents. many of whom had responsibilities. and that was remarkable.
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>> i think that there are a lot of senators who choose staff members who resemble them and their values and their approach to life. and i always had that feeling with you and bob dole. he didn't have to teach you decency and fairness and dealing with people in the way that bob dole dealt with everyone. >> it is interesting. there were things about which we agreed, and things about which we disagreed. he was the boss, he was the one that made the decisions. but as an individual, he was so remarkable. and in looking at staff, he wanted people who would give in information that was balance. allowing him to make a decision based on the best information available. he certainly assumed that we would be fair in our analysis. fair in presenting our information. but he gave us the support we needed. never, essentially, stepping
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away from us in terms of positions that we have taken. describing what it was that he wanted. we always knew he had our backs. and from a staff member, that is enormously important. we want our boss to be there for us. and in return, you there for your boss. and that is how bob dole treated all of us. >> well it became important for you when you became a target for newly arrived conservative republicans in washington. >> yes. there was a period of time, as you noted in your description of where i became the target of a lot of attention. and the concern that i was helping senator dole. bill was the die. >> sheila burke, thank you very much for joining us tonight. it was really an honor to have. you and again, i'm sorry for your loss. >> great, thank you lawrence. >> thank you. tonight's last word, is next.
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and msnbc films presents paper and glue from oscar winning producer's brian grazer and ron howard. the award winning documentary follows visionary french artist jr as his work transcends rules and borders. watch the world television premiere of paper and glue friday on 10 pm eastern right here on msnbc. that is tonight's last word, the 11th hour with brian williams starts now. >> well good evening once again, day 3:21 of the biden administration, it is exactly 11 months to the day since the january 6th insurrection. while some feel that we find ourselves in, you'll forgive the phrase, the 11th hour, in terms of consequences for that.
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what we can report tonight is a development at least, where the investigation is concerned. we learned today that nbc news has since confirmed, mark sure is what operating with the house committee investigating the riot and attempt to overturn our election. mark sure is notable because he was chief of staff to mike pence and was with the then-vice president on that day when you will recall the rioters were hunting for mike pence. [inaudible] >> marc short was also reported to be in key meetings just days before the insurrection when trump team lawyer john eastman was reportedly trying to convince fans to subvert the process of certifying joe biden 's election. washington post reports that