Welcome to welcome to primetime weekend. I'm rachel maddow. Let's get right to the week's top stories. The past 24 hours have been a microcosm of the race. Kamala harris and tim walz doing the standard campaign work for a major party candidate. They kept an even keel at the sitdown interview last night that went through a lot of the republican charges against them. While they are doing that, trump is out there, honestly stumbling to put together english sentences. His campaign keeps stepping in masses of its own making including an enormous one tonight which we will get to. Both the candidate and his aides are, as usual, posting through it. The fallout continues from trumps a political photo op and campaign commercial on tiktok at arlington national cemetery at the beginning of the week where he gave the thumbs up over the graves of veterans, including many who did not consent to any of this. He cut a video blaming their deaths on democrats. Now, his campaign is openly doing battle with the united states army. Remember, when a worker tried to enforce rules against political campaigning among the graves, the campaign got physical with her. She filed a report. The trump campaign spokesman immediately when confronted by this said she was a liar really suffering a mental health episode. And so, the army was forced to put out a remarkable statement rebuking the trump team for lying, quote, this incident was unfortunate, it is also unfortunate that a cemetery employee and her professionalism has been attacked. Arlington is an honored shrine to the dead of our armed forces. Now, when all this went down, the trump campaign said that they had video of the incident that would vindicate their version of events and prove they were being defamed. Have you seen the video? i haven't seen the video. Weirdly, they still have not provided that video. Instead, trump campaign manager chris less evita posted this, unrelated video to social media showing trump standing in a different part of the cemetery. He put it up again with a note, reposting this, hoping to trigger the hacks at the secretary of the army's office. The ground man who wrote that post, chris less evita is a marine veteran, his first big swing of politics was putting together the swiftboat attacks on residential candidate john kerry. His entire career is built on the begins being the real military loving patriots. Now for trump he is reduced to being a big mouth on social media. So, who is triggered here exactly? last night, republicans sought media attention turned to the big sitdown interview between kamala harris and tim walz. Seem to be anticipated among rightwing viewers as it was among supporters of the democratic ticket, because a lot of republicans, and i think this has become almost kind of cannon, really seem to believe against all the available evidence that harris is not a smart person. It is a baseless charge and carries with it a lot of sexism and racism i think but if you need more evidence of that, trump running mate jd vance provided it, posting to social media, braking, i have gotten a hold of the full kamala harris interview accompanied by that notorious viral video of a flustered beauty pageant contestant flubbing the question, that is what jd vance thinks of visiting vice president of the united states but here is some of what kamala harris actually said. When we came in, our highest priority to was to do what we could to rescue america, and today, we know that we have inflation at under 3%, a lot of our policies have led to the reality that america recovered faster than any wealthy nation around the world. But you are right, prices in particular for groceries are still too high. The american people know it and i know it, which is why my agenda includes what we need to do to bring down the price of groceries. For example, dealing with an issue like price gouging and doing what we need to do to help young families take care of their children in their most formative years. What we need to do to bring down the cost of housing, and the true measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift up. That is what is at stake as much as any other detail we have discussed in this election. Did that sound to you like the infamous meme from the beauty pageant respondent? is that what that sounded like to you? meanwhile, here was donald trump last night. She destroyed the city of san francisco. I own a big building there. I shouldn't talk about this but that's okay, i don't give a i should say it's the finest city in the world, sell and get the hell out of there. I lost billions of dollars. So he asked me how much i lost i said probably two or 3 billion. Do you think you would do it again? that's the least of it. Nobody, they always say, when can was treated horribly, jefferson pretty horribly, andrew jackson they say was the worst of all but he was treated worse than any other president, and they should do that study again because i think there is nobody close to trump. I even got shot. And who the hell knows where that came from, right? he can't keep a single thought in his head for longer than three seconds. Where is jd vance, so addled that he cannot stay on topic, cannot stay with a thought for more than a few seconds before returning to his resentments. Nothing so far. There was an even darker substantive subtext to the viral video, you have to say actually kind of shocked me because it is so gross and uncalled for. The actual woman in that clip is caitlin upton and that clip brought her at the time, totally wrought havoc on her life and jd vance was asked about her this morning. I'm not sure you're aware. In 2014, caitlin upton did an interview in new york magazine about all the social media attention and she said, i definitely went through a period where i was very depressed, but i never let anybody see that stuff except for people i could trust. I had some very dark moments, or i thought about committing suicide. So, when you posted this last night, were you aware that the woman you were posting a picture of had contemplated committing suicide for the attention of your seat? certainly not, john. My heart goes out to her and i hope that she is doing well. Politics has gotten way too lame, john, way too boring. You can have some fun while making a good argument to the megan people that how you will prove there lies. Just to be clear, do you want to apologize for caitlin for posting that last night given what you now know? john, i'm not going to apologize for posting a joke, but i wish the best for caitlin. Caitlin upton, who has posted support in the past said it's a shame that 17 years later this is still being brought up. One thing i do know is that social media and online bullying needs to stop. She of course had to delete her account sometime later because, of course. Lexi mccann is an nbc political analyst and host of the upcoming insync with lexi podcast. Senior legal adviser to bernie sanders, executive director of the nonprofit for a more perfect union. We got some news that just broke on the campaign, literally 10 minutes before going to air, about donald trump and abortion. You might remember, yesterday my colleague, dr. Burns interviewed donald trump about the referendum in florida which would uphold abortion rights, it is on the ball it this fall, it would overturn the six week ban signed into law by ron desantis but when asked by dr. Burns yesterday, donald trump did not actually answer the question, but he seems to indicate that he was going to vote for that piece of that referendum as a voter in the state of florida with abortion rights, and an avalanche of pushback and anger from the antiabortion right came his way after that, and so, he was asked about it today after his campaign walked it back, i think we have the clip, here is what he said to that. I think, six weeks you need more time than six weeks. I have disagreed with that right from the early primaries where i heard about it, at the same time, the democrats are radical because the nine months is a ridiculous situation. So, i will be voting no for that reason. Just to be clear, lexi, he is on the record, so he seems to say, i am going to vote yes on this referendum, i think the six week ban is bad, he got hammered, walked away from it, has now done an apparent 180 today, what do you make of it? i think it is incredible that anyone in the media can have a conversation with kamala harris allegedly flipflopping on anything when donald trump is giving us a masters class in the last 24 hours in the literal definition of flip flopping. Worse than that, chris, it is another example of the central question that we have to ask ourselves, not just with trump as a candidate, but got the bid he becomes president again, is women's health to him a political tool or a genuine policy proposal? when he is talking about anything from abortion to the government now suddenly paying for people to use ivf, which i would implore him to actually explain whether he even knows what that procedure is, or what it entails. It is a disaster. I think the one thing is clear, nobody should believe anything he says because he will listen to whoever talks to him last and apparently this time it was marjorie dennen felder from the sba list. On that last one i agree with you. It is all bs, quintessentially. Words are coming out like oh, you guys like ivf now? how about free ivf? it's just like whatever. But the one thing that is clear here, and the reason that i think you probably could hear the cheers go up in the harrison walls camp is that the one thing that is clear is he made a promise to get elected in 2016 to the antiabortion movement that he would choose justices who would overturn roe from a prevetted list. Then almost unlike every promise he's ever made in his life kept that promise. Overturned row, and the last 24 hours shows that there is one group the guy wants doublecross, but he won't screw over, but he will bow before, and that is the antiabortion forces in the republican party. That and, chris, let's be clear. Why are we talking about ivf? why are we talking about the florida abortion measure? why? donald trump, the arsonist, going to trust the arsonist? who cares about ivf, he created this problem. His supreme court justices put us in this position. You want the arsonist to come in and say hey we got this major fire here, i'm wondering what you would make of burning down this or that part. You got to move on from him and we are sometimes having too much of a rational debate about, oh, he came up with this interesting position. He is trying to win an election and he is lying to people, and he is trying to deceive you here on abortion, he is trying to move on florida every which way, trying to win the election, got it but he also doesn't care about women's rights, reproductive rights, just to be clear, he started this fire that we 813 it's a great point. It is also worth reminding people that whatever people say on campaigns, there are two major parties that actually do stuff and vote on stuff, they passed things, donald trump appointed the three justices that overturned roe versus wade after promising to do so and there was also a vote this year, in the united states senate, one of the places that makes the laws for the nation, to basically mandate ivf treatment, for americans under insurance, democrats making a push on reproductive care, it'll only got two republican votes, these makowski and susan collins of maine voted for it, but everyone including jd vance on the ticket voted against it. So, there is no daylight here. Everyone, i think, knows who is on what side. Who is on what side, and also the number of times that trump continues to lie any given time he opens his mouth to give a speech or a comment to the press or anything. I mean, that cannot and should not be discounted. The man is going so far as to evolve from fake news in 2016 to now complain that there are a. I. Crowds, images of a. I. Crowds he has created, because he is not living in the same reality. And, the fact do not matter to him and that is a problem, whether it comes to women's health or otherwise and i feel like we cannot state that enough. The man lies so much but we don't keep up with it, so the fastest point, who cares what he has to say. When he started this fire, and also, when he doesn't even believe or know the words that are coming out of his mouth half the time he is saying them. That is a good point. I think this is a real conundrum, right? you can see this in campaign coverage, but it is past lies to them, it is just a sort of meaningless addled prattle combined with, maybe cognitive decline? there is no propositional context. Now we get into trump and why he is uniquely dangerous in american politics, because he is so deeply amoral and has no notion of right or wrong in anything, and he is going to create false realities for his own followers, he will tell them they've cooked up economic stats and it's all false, they are feeding you lies, saying democracy doesn't even work because they're creating fake crowds for kamala. He is creating a false reality for his followers, which of course then goes to the election, which is, if he loses, how does he talk about a rational logical loss? he doesn't, right? he is sowing seeds of distrust in various institutions and telling people honestly and openly that this is the last time you got to vote. People are reading between the lines, and saying that he is building a reality that is dangerous for all of us in democracy. Alexi, i found myself pretty disgusted by these comments about kamala harris like she is not smart, is what trump said and jd vance posting, i think it is gross, but it also strikes me as a little counterproductive, because you know, you are making her out to seem so ridiculous and then she does an interview like okay, that's the vice president of united states, she knows what she's talking about. Tonight not quite sure it is such a technically brilliant move. It is in such contrast to the interview that harrison walls gave last night. They had so many opportunities to take pot shots at trump and vance the entire. )ptime to rem people out, you are ripping us about positions we have evolved on overtime because of intellectual curiosity, meanwhile, these folks are doing x, y, and z and yet they don't, they try to keep it above the fray. I think it is disgusting to see the sexism, the racism that is already coming from that side, but i think it will remind, not just americans, but women who are crucial voters in swing states, these guys have no idea what they are doing on abortion rights, they have no idea what they are doing with reproductive rights in general and now they have no idea how to even give respect to the sitting vice president of the united states but they have a complete lack of respect for many traditional american institutions, or leaders, or organizations like the army, like you were just talking about at the start. It is complete in contrast, not just to traditional republican party values, but also i would say to the core of america, and the american dream at the end of the day. Coming up, one of the underappreciated threats of project 2025, what encouraging the civil replacement of civil servants would mean to you, next. Versus the other gu” forget it. Check out the tmobile savings calculator to see how mucyou can save. Are these my only lines? they sure are! leo! [whistling] ever since we introduced him to the farmer's dog, it's changed his quality of life. Leo's number 2's are really getting better. Better poo, better you! that's a good boy, leo! i think i think if i was giving trump one piece of advice, fire every midlevel bureaucrat and civil service in the united states, replaced them with our people, and then when the courts stop you, stand before the country, like andrew jackson did and say that chief justice has made him his ruling, now let him enforce it. That was donald trump's vice president pick nearly 3 years ago laying out what is now understood to be a central part of the project 2025 vision, purging the federal government and replacing it with in his words, our people, right? corrupt pro trump loyalist. Trump tried something like this last time around, he really did. It was an effort chronicled in the fifth risk, one of the greatest books about the trump era and it chronicles how crucial that expertise is not just to the daytoday function of the government but for preventing catastrophes like nuclear war. Now in an upcoming piece for the nuclear post lewis pushes that theme forward by exploring this how critical the civil service is, the very people donald trump wants to punish under 2025. His latest book going about sending free. Michael, i thought about the fifth risk when i saw the 2025 section when i saw the service and also when i first heard that jd vance clip because i think that book more than any i've read is sort of about, just how central and is central exactly that vast expertise basis is to running the entire country. It is like one of the great untold stories of our era. The civil service, it is what the president is supposed to be managing or at least, not screwing up, and when you actually go in and ask what they do, when you don't just, you know, handwaving is a deep state and all the rest, you find that they have the most amazing stories. It's not boring but you know, it sounds boring, but the people who are engaged passionately with the subject, they become obsessed with it and solving problems that will not be solved any other way than by this instrument. And so, for me, i was kind of shocked by how receptive the audience was to it. So, what we have done in the washington post, starting tuesday, have brought in six other writers. I said here is the literary opportunity of your career, and we parachuted them into different parts of the federal government and these pieces are going to run once per week up until the election, and the writer was told, go find something that interests you and i swear to god, after about five minutes, they all came out and said, how did i not vote on this? how did i not at least count on them being as good as they are. I hope people will read it, because i think the country needs a civic lesson. Yeah, that point about, one of the things that came through that i've had an opportunity to interact with folks in the federal bureaucracy in different ways, a lot of times you know, these are people really taken seriously with what they are doing, whether they are checking hormone levels or they are doing soil erosion work, or whatever it is, they really are doing it because they care about it and also you have no idea what the politics are. Literally none. They could have whatever politics. With their focused on is doing the job and there is something so important about that, and also so ominous to me about the phrase our people as a recipe for replacing that knowledge base with who signs the loyalty card. That's exactly right. Their politics are largely irrelevant. They are dealing with problems that no one else is going to deal with, and they're not even thinking of their politics. As a group, it is like, the kind of people who are i don't know, it's not a sound boring if i tell you about it, he spent his entire career trying to figure out how to prevent roof is falling in on coal miners, the problem that you and i have never thought about that killed 50,000 coal miners in the 20th century, and it's like a huge deal. Is a 30 year odyssey and it is an incredible story, but this guy, and you can read about it, but this guy has never once asked for attention, and it's like the opposite. Not just of trump, obviously the opposite of trump, but it is sort of the opposite of the person who stands up to run for office. They are like the most important person here, and the goal michael as i say was literary opportunism. The stories are so good, but did it is sort of like, stop looking at what you are looking at all the time and start paying attention to this, because i mean, this is critical. This is life or death stuff, and you need to know about it. You need to know about it before you decide who you are going to vote for. One thing that points to when you talk about the opposite of the person who runs for office is that, of all the things that we think of that person's job, you know, the sort of some sort of symbolic role, right, where they channel the nation they talk to the nation about stuff, the proposer of legislation and budgets, the thing they are more aware of than anything is the boss of the top of the org chart, all the people from seal team six to the guy that works on the problem of coal mines collapsing. That is literally what the job is. Literally the job. If you have someone in the officer is just constantly abusing and insulting the people, that cannot be a recipe for successful management, right? we have an episode yesterday, but it before, where trump went into the military cemetery and tried to use it for his political purposes, which is actually against the rules. No one ever said that the person in the department of veterans affairs who runs that sacred part of our government, how we bury our war dead, that person turned it from kind of a well run thing into the best run organization into the country. There is an operation at the university of michigan that ranks the consumer satisfaction or customer satisfaction of private and public institutions, and those people are number one. And, trump is rolling in there and using it for his purposes, and it happens that people say oh, those people are not doing the work in the cemetery, they are functionaries or bureaucrats know, they are delivering a service that is a sacred duty in the country, and they are better added than anybody and we don't even know how that happened, or why, and i think, you know, this is like a failure of the cynics to understand the government, and that is sort of where we need to step in and correct. These stories are so fun, i'm hoping that everybody reads that and says i want to know more about that because it is not really just trump that is a problem here, nobody is really telling the stories and people don't know they need to know them. Primetime weekend continues ahead. Rachel maddow. Dow. This country this country has never been so divided. Before my doctor and i chose breztri for my copd, i had bad days. [cough] flareups that could permanently damage my lungs. With breztri, things changed for me. Breztri gave me better breathing. Starting within 5 minutes, i noticed my lung function improved. It helped improve my symptoms, and breztri was even proven to reduce flareups, including those that could send me to the hospital. So now i look forward to more good days. Breztri won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. It is not for asthma. Tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. 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Looking at looking at presidential polling averages from swing states, it is clear who has the momentum right now, according to the washington post pulling averages, kamala harris and donald trump are practically tied in all seven swing states. But, the momentum is with the democrats. Since president biden decided not to run for reelection, harris has increased the democrats lead in just about every state by at least three points. Which is no small feat in any of these tight races, any of these hardfought state, but it is particularly striking in north carolina, where democrats haven't won a residential race since 2008. Obviously the enthusiasm for harris and the strength of her campaign has a lot to do with it but there was something else going on in north carolina, as well. This november, on the same ballot as the presidential race, north carolina voters will also be choosing a new governor. The guy on the left here is the democratic nominee, his name is josh stein. The guy on the right side of your screen is the republican pig, his name is mark robinson. In of the movie, black panther? the republican candidate, mark robinson, says that movie was, quote, created by an agnostic jew and put to film by a satanic marxist. Really? he says the music industry is run by satan, and by the illuminati. He calls gay people filth and maggots. He says children who survive school gun massacres are media prostitots and victims who need to shut up. So, survey says? even in a closely fought swing state like carolina, north carolina does not want that guy. The republican candidate for governor in north carolina is currently polling 14 points behind his democratic opponent, josh stein. Democrats are not only hoping to beat mark robinson very badly, they are hoping that he will be such a drag on republicans up and down the ticket that it will give kamala harris and every other democrat on the north carolina ballot a considerable boost. North carolina democrats have announced a fairly epic get out the vote efforts targeting young voters in particular, they are holding 30 different college campus events across the state in 30 days. 30 campuses in 30 days. That campaign will be led by anderson clayton, chair of the north carolina democratic party, she is also only 26 years old, which makes her the youngest chair of any state political party in the whole country. She joins us now. Thank you very much for being here, appreciate your time. Thank you for having us. I am looking at this through an admittedly reductive lens about who is at the top of the ticket on the ballot in your state. Are there nuances, or angles here that i ought to be noticing , or that should give people a different impression about how things are going to be fought in your state? i think you laid out the case against mark robinson just fine. I also think that the extremism at the top of the ticket is one that we are finding runs right down the ballot as well. North carolina is one of 11 states in the entire country that elected a council estates or executive branches, not just the governor's office, there are also nine other positions. Our attorney general that we have, congressman jeff jackson running against dan bishop, author of the bathroom bill in north carolina, hb two, for those of you that remember that is 16 in our state, that caused north carolina over $3 billion, michelle morrow is running against mcgrane to be superintendent of schools right now. Someone who called for the public execution of barack obama to be publicly televised. She belongs nowhere near our classrooms right now. Mcgrane is someone who has been the superintendent of the third largest school system in north carolina, and made the case that our children, and our public schools matter more than anything this year and so i just think it is not just donald trump and mark robin this year, or extremism, but it runs throughout and also down to our state what a slate of races that have only endorsed mark robinson's stance now at the top of the ticket that we have not had one republican in our state that has separated themselves from him this year. I was to ask you about that dynamic that sometimes when you get extremism of the kind you are describing, that opens up an opportunity for the non extremist party, in this case the democrats, to win the crossover voters, to start targeting a different audience than we might in a typical election, to try to target not just independence but even republicans to cross over and vote for the more sane ticket. How are you allocating resources? how are you thinking about the type of messaging, the type of events and spending that you are doing in your party to maximize persuadable voters in the region? we have a campaign which is reaching people across the state. I think that we have taken the approach this year that everybody is somebody worth talking to, and that means, you know, because of the fact that we had true public servants running for these positions, josh stein is someone who has taken on and been a consumer financial protection person. In our attorney general's office, before he was the attorney general, someone who has always been protecting the people of north carolina, and letting it is important that folks realize, that is not just a democrat running on your ballot, that is someone who cares about everybody up and down the ticket this year, and goes so far as to look at people like natosha marcus, too, running for commissioner of insurance in north carolina. You know, people talk about the races that affect your pocketbooks the most, north carolina has had over 16 rate hikes in our state in the last eight years alone because we have had a republican commissioner of insurance, mike causey, that has allowed for those rate hikes to happen and it has taken insurance commissioner while he has been in the commission's office and he has not actually been working for the people of north carolina. We have got a state senator named natosha marcus running against him this year, and she is not taking a dime of insurance corporation money, because she wants to make sure that the people of north carolina know who she represents. Those other folks that should appeal to anybody on the ballot, we are trying to speak to everybody this year, really. Primetime weekend continues ahead with my colleague, joy reed. Coming up, project 2025 exposed with donald trump speaking at a book banning moms for liberty conference. We will talk about their plans for project 2025 targeting teachers and librarians. Do not go anywhere. All in one place. And new patients without insurance get $29 exams and xrays. Plus 20% off treatment plans for everyone. Loving our patients unconditionally. It's one more way aspen dental is in your corner. What tractor supply customers experience is personalized service. Made possible by tmobile for business. With tmobile's reliable 5g business internet. Employees get the information they need instantly. This is how business goes further with tmobile for business. We really don't want people to think of feeding food like ours is spoiling their dogs. Good, real food is simple. It looks like food, it smells like food, it's what dogs are supposed to be eating. ♪ with fatigue and lightheadedness, i knew something was wrong. Then i saw my doctor and found out i have afib, and that means there's about a 5 times greater risk of stroke. Symptoms like irregular heartbeat, heart racing, chest pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, or lightheadedness, can come and go. But if you have afib, the risk of stroke is always there. If you have one or more symptoms, get checked out. Making that appointment can help you get ahead of stroke risk. This is no time to wait. Donald trump donald trump will speak at an event hosted by moms for liberty, the far right group that advocates for banning books in schools under the guise of parental rights. This comes as we have seen an alarming rise in book bands across the u. S. Panamerican recorded more than 4300 instances of book bands between last july and december. More books were banned in those six months alone than in the entire previous school year. Over the summer, new laws have gone into effect in states like utah, idaho, south carolina, and tennessee, that will make it more difficult for students this coming school year to access books deemed obscene or indecent by groups like mom's for liberty. What is happening in those states could start happening on the national level. Should donald trump retake the white house. Something we know because his buddies at the heritage foundation wrote it all down and project 2025. In fact, moms for liberty actually serves on the advisory board for project 2025 and several individuals tied to the 900 page document will be speaking at their summit this weekend, including the author of the manifestoes section, on education. You know, the chapter where they say they want to eliminate the department of education. Project 2025 also distinctly targets libraries, writing on page 1, the children, quote, suffer the toxic normalization of transgender is him with drag queens and pornography invading their school libraries. Let's be clear, when they say pornography what they really mean is books by black or lgbtq authors, written for young adults, sometimes including as little as one page that mentions sex, sexual violence, sexuality, or in some cases, just accurate depictions of racism. But project 2025 directly calls for the prosecution of teachers and librarians who provide access to any books that these rightwing extremists consider pornographic, saying they should be classed as registered sex offenders. What project 2025 and groups like mom's for liberty are doing in their book banning crusade is not just restricting what students can and cannot read they are also putting librarians at risk physically doing their jobs. People like amanda jones, a smalltown louisiana librarian who spoke out against censorship in her community. After those comments, she became the target of a years long harassment campaign. Well, now amanda jones has a book of her own detailing that experience, and how she fought back, and she joins me next. Ned, ned, who are you wearing? he thinks his flaky red patches are all people see. Otezla is the #1 prescribed pill to treat plaque psoriasis. Ned? otezla can help you get clearer skin, and reduce itching and flaking. With no routine blood tests required. Doctors have been prescribing otezla for over a decade. Otezla is also approved to treat psoriatic arthritis. Don't use otezla if you're allergic to it. Serious allergic reactions can happen. Otezla may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. Some people taking otezla had depression, suicidal thoughts, or weight loss. Upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. Audience: ohhh. . . 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Plus, you'll receive the revive and brighten eye mask, the celebrity secret that visibly smooths, brightens and awakens eye areas to appear more alert and youthful. This is a limited time only special offer. Only $49. 95 for everything you see here. Call the number below or go to meaningfulbeauty. Com right now. In july in july of 22, louisiana librarian, amanda jones, spoke out against censorship at her small town's public library board meeting. Faced with concerns that they might remove books with lgbtq themes, jones spoke as a concerned citizen, saying, in part, all members of our community deserve to be seen to have access to information, and to see themselves in our public library collection. Censoring and relocating books and displays is harmful to our community. But, it will be extremely harmful to our most vulnerable, our children. Days later, amanda became the target of a hateful smear campaign fueled by far right activists who called her a pedophile, a groomer, and accused her of advocating to keep pornographic materials in the library's kid section. She even began to receive death threats, which took a toll on her physical and mental health. But, jones decided to fight back, making headlines after becoming one of the first librarians in the u. S. To sue those who launched those attacks against her. And now, she is telling her story in her new book titled, that librarian, the fight against book bands in america. Amanda jones joins me now. Amanda, thank you so much for being here. This is your book, i am very glad that you wrote in. What prompted you to go this public and the fact that you have faced so many death threats in your communities? i wanted to tell my story. People were telling a perceived story about me across social media. What better way to do that than to write your own book? absolutely. Let me read a little bit of you to you. A core claim of the far right is that any book with any sexual theme or character in it is pornography. Here is what you wrote. Book sensors will often say that there are books containing pornographic or sexually explicit material in the library to rile up fear, they decry the need to protect children from the evil smoke they say is next to dr. Seuss books. As if a kid could be looking for the very hungry caterpillar and what's, the joy of sex is right next to it. That is never the case, libraries have collection policies for ordering books and appropriate books are placed in appropriate sections. Public libraries do not purchase or not the. Adult books are not in the children section and is it just otherwise is ridiculous. This seems so elementary. The fact that we have to explain it makes me sad. What do you make of the fact that this is the way that they are trying to get these books out of libraries? yes, they take a book out of context and they say there is pornography in the library and there is not, it is basically an attempt to continually marginalize already marginalized members of our society, the lgbtq community, people of color, they say they are not banning it but and and the challenges it will say, removed. And you know, even if books are not banned, if they are challenged, they are trying to suppress the information from our public and school libraries. Let me get a read on you from panamerican, the most banned books are in florida, texas, pennsylvania, wisconsin, tennessee, utah, and missouri. Gender clear is the most banned book, all boys aren't blue, the same topic. This book is gay by gina dawson. The perks of being a wallflower which my kids all read. By mike colorado, and of course , by toni morrison. But have deemed the blues i to be pornography which just saying that is pornography. It's so ridiculous. That book has been around forever. I feel like we have all read it at this point, and it is an amazing book. It is raw and it is real, and it reflects how we are as a society and they don't want people to read these stories, they want to put suppress the information and pretend it didn't happen, but if you love our country like i do, we want it to be the best it can be, we want to learn about our society, learn from our mistakes and move forward but they don't want anyone to hear these stories. How fearful are you that in a world in which project 2025 is a law of the land, librarians like you could be put in jail or labeled sex offenders, just for providing books? very fearful. You know, there have already been laws. They tried to pass laws in louisiana to imprison librarians, they tried to pass a law to imprison librarians for attending american library association conferences which we successfully defeated, but it's dystopian. For lack of a better word, it is unhinged, in my opinion. You know, librarians love our community. The field of library science to get back to the committee, i don't know a single librarian who doesn't love children and want to do the best that we can. They are using us as political pawns and it is really sad that politicians would use librarians and educators for political gain. Did you think of yourself as political before this all started? did you think of yourself as a liberal or moderate or conservative? i am actually a registered republican, and i have been my entire life. I will say, the past three or four years i have definitely voted more democratic, for the democratic party, but i consider myself primarily an independent. I'm glad that you mentioned the republic and party, because this is happening within one political party, this is not a broad fear shared across independents and democrats, it is just the republican party, do you think it is a sincere belief that these books are harmful, or that it is really just politics and about getting conservatives elected? well, with the politicians, they do not really believe any of this, they are just using us as pawns, using the books as political pawns but they stir up real fear in communities where there are real citizens who believe this, because you are raised to trust your politicians. And so, you know, when they say that they tend to be believed and that is what is really harmful, that it is being led by politicians. I interviewed the heads of moms for liberty, one of the cofounders and she could not answer me, why they do not just use this form you can get in the state of florida which lets you opt your own kids out of reading books you object to. Why do you have to make that decision for other parents? they couldn't get an answer to that because they want to control everyone, not just their own children but here is the book, amanda jones, it is called that librarian and i don't know if you noticed but librarians are my favorite people. I absolutely love librarians. Thank you so much for being a librarian, and thank you for being here. Hpji■ this has been primetime weekend, i'm % please tune into the readout at 7:00 p. M. Eastern and all of our prime time shows weeknights on msnbc. She switched careers to make money for your weddings. Ooh! penny stocks are blowing up. Sweetie, grab your piggy bank, we're going all in. Let me ask you. For your wedding, do you want a gazebo and a river? uh, i don't. . . What's a gazebo? something that your mother always wanted and never got. Or. . . You could give these different investment options a shot. The right money moves aren't as aggressive as you think. I'm keeping the vest. 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