Officer joins us to break down how this happened. Then, the nfl scandal spreads to the worldwide leader. I really hope somebody calls me. If one person says that to me, im going public. G g glt. The latest from bill simmons. Please, call me and say im in trouble. I dare you. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. Its a decision that might have arrived a year sooner if obama caved to the criticism of his harshest critic. Today, president obama accepted the resignation of the u. S. Attorney eric holder. President obama praised the attorney general for overseeing hundreds of cases of prosecution and for a wide range of civil rights issues. Since i took office, the overall crime rate and the overall incarceration rate have gone down by about 10 . He has been relentless against the tax on the Voting Rights act. No citizen, including our service members, should have to juch throu jump through hoops to exercise their most fundmentedal right. A decision vindicated by the Supreme Court and opened the door to federal recognition of samesex marriage and samesex couples. If holder receivables until the end of this year, he will be the third longest serving attorney general in american history. Notably, he is the nations first black tern general. The highest in the land. And has been widely praised on civil rights and Voting Rights. Some holder singled out today as well as his relationship with the president. In good times and bad, through things personal and things professional, you have been there for me. Im proud to call you my friend. Over the last six years, our administration, your administration has made historic gains in realizing the principles of the founding documents and fought to protect the most sacred of american rights. The right to vote. Todays news came as a surprise. The message is that the attorney general will be submitting his resignation to the president. So let us salute him, once again, for all of his work. Joining me now, reverend al sharpton, host of politics nation which airs here at 6 00 p. M. On msnbc. Talk about eric rights civil legacy. The Civil Rights Department has been one of the high points of this administration. How do you think that legacy will be understood . Well, i think that the legacy will be understood as having raised the bar higher than its ever been raised. You must remember that eric holder, in many ways, single handedly went in after the Supreme Court gutted section 5 of the Voting Rights act and went into those states and put lawsuits down that literally protected the right to vote. That Martin Luther king and others are being applauded in history for gaining. So you cant at all minimize the impact of what he did around Voting Rights. Opening up this whole question of december parisparities and s and getting blacks and browns sentenced longer. Telling citizens that they must be mindful of the way theyre handling cases, who theyre tar getting in cases. What hes done in terms of not challenging samesex marriage. What hes done in terms of immigration. So in the broad civil rights community, i dont think that you could find an attorney general that has any record anywhere near his in terms of civil rights. You must remember, even Bobby D Kennedy never went south. Eric holder went south himself. So, yes, we can raise questions that we wish could have, should have, would have been done. But theres no one anywhere near the stature of eric holder in the areas of civil rights and Voting Rights and those areas that youre talking about. The attorney general has always put an interesting role, rhetorically, in terms of discussion of race. He said were a nation of cowards. And ive heard more than one person compare him to this comedy sketch which is about how barack obama has to be so calm, so composed, he cant get angry because hes the first African American president. I have a clip for you, take a look. This november, i want each and every one of you to ask yourself what has changed in the last four years . Who killed Osama Bin Laden . What has my administration accomplished . Did we accomplish americas biggest enemy. Check. Did that. Boom. There was always a sense that eric holder could say things about race. Specifically, the president couldnt and pushed the conversation about race in a pretty incredible way. You know, the comedy of it is whatever it is. But i think if you look at the different role, the president is the president. And he operates as the chief dpektive. Eric holder operated as the chief and still will until his successor is confirmed as the chief Law Enforcement officer chlts so in many ways, when i hear the come parsons about president obama and eric holder, well, when i was a kid, they said the same thing about president kennedy and bobby kennedy. He did things that his brother wanted to do. He could execute. That was his job. That wasnt around race. That was around Something Else. I think eric holder did things against terrorism that the president didnt verbalize. I think it was easy for them to limit it to race, but there were many things eric holder did aggressively. Dealing with the financial institutions, the lawsuits, holding them akouchbtble. He did many things aggressively that would not be within the purview of the presidency. I think that they always would use the comedy. But i think the joke was on them. I think that president obama around er and eric holder was always smarter than those that did satire on him. You were con sulting with replacing eric holder. The naacp, black womans round table and i were in the middle of a press conference with the families from ferguson, Michael Browns family in staten island. And we said we would send to the wliet hou white house and we called the office of engagement that we always deal with. Saying we wanted input that all kinds of advocacy groups would want to. Im sure that all of us would want to way in and have ideas. We dont have a candidate. Were not trying to pick anybody. We have no one in mind. Wech in mind the things we advocated that eric holder was, in our opinion, moving forward on. That whoever is chosen, that that be on the table. Gej, we do that as advocacy groups. Just like the right wing decided that, you know, eric holder was gmt of everything under the son but being a good attorney general. They tried to act as though were part of a good decisionmaking process. Reverend al sharpton, thank you very much. Thank you. Republicans were predictably elated by yesterdays announcement. Eric holders rez igresignations long overdue. And the main force behind holder being held in contempt of congress for allegedly not submitting sufficient documents on the fast and furious gun hearings. Sir, ive read you what your department has said is adequate. But it is important that we have proper oversight. You dont want to go there, okay . I dont want to go there . No. About the contempt . You should not assume that thats not a big deal to me. Im sure there must have been a good reason why only the to and from parts were yes, you didnt want us to see the details. No. Mr. Attorney general, knowing the im not going to stop talking now. Um, mr. Chairman, would you inform the witness as to the rules of this committee. Its too inconsistent with the way that you conduct yourself as a member of congress. Mr. Attorney general, do you take seriously a subpoena signed by the clerk of the house . Of course. I wish the attorney general would give us the documents. I would rather have the documents than have this vote on contempt of congress. The grand jury thats convened is most likely going to come back with an indictment of eric holder. This is false naiting. Fascinating. Playing the race card, on my opinion, is intellectually. Eric holder, he won that d. O. J. Like the black panthers did. He let the black panthers off the hook when they were voter intimidating people. The legislative office for the American Civil Liberties union. I know you know eric holder. Why do you think he became such a target, a consistent target, for the conservative movement during his tenure . I think because he didnt want to take a lot of gruff off of people. I think hes a man. He believes in his principles. And hes going to stand up for what he believes. If he disagrees with you, hes going to tell you. Hes the kind of guy who is very quiet, peaceful perng. But in a confrontation, hes going to stand his ground. You talked about his ten your. D. O. G. Approved and you said though during a ten your, doj approved drones, failed to prosecute the Bush Administration torturers and all previous justice departments combined. What has that relationship been like when youre pressing him on these issues in court . Well, its been a very ammicble relationship. Hes been very accessible. Weve agreed to disagree. He is not thinskinned. We celebrate him for revitalizing the Civil Rights Division but for the strong and historic decision he took in the defensive marriage case, the windsor case where the aclu was cocounsel. And after that case was decided, he brought all the civil Rights Groups and l. G. B. T. Groups in and said look, how can we extend the protections of marriage to samesex couples. And he consistently moved forward to do that. So hes been a very thoughtful attorney general and a very engaging attorney general. Im going to miss him sorely. Laura murphy, 2 aclu, thank you very much. Much more ahead. Goodnight. Goodnight. For those kept awake by pain the night is anything but good. Introducing new aleve pm. The first one with a sleep aid. Plus the 12 hour strength of aleve for pain relief that can last until the am. Now you can have a good night and a. Good morning new aleve pm. For a better am. Machines will be sprayed to be made. And making something stronger. Will mean making it lighter. One day, factories will work with the cloud. One day. Is today. The smartest or nothing. The quietest or nothing. The sleekest. Sexiest,. Baddest,. Safest,. Tightest,. Quickest,. Harshest. Or nothing. At mercedesbenz, we do things one way or we dont do them at all. Introducing the allnew cclass. The best or nothing. There was a really odd back and forth today over a supposed isis plot. A new inclusion rule of law and who just met with president obama yesterday here in new york, announced to the press this morning that isis fighters captured by iraqis had revealed a plot to attack subway systems in paris and the united states. But then, in a brief to reporters, f. B. I. Director said a terrorist threat is about the same today as it was last week. Theres no evidence of any such plot. They say its odd the Prime Minister would announce a threat publicly rather than going through the normal, private channels. And of the whole, one senior sbel ens intelligence official said the report is viewed as total bunk. It has identified the masked man depicting the beheadings of attorney american journalists. Hes told reporters hes not confident at all that air strikes limited the threat of the khoresan group. It may have been made up by the u. S. Sbintelligence community. In the video released today, fighting with iraq, says theyre actively plotting attacks within the u. S. What are they mobilizing for . Mobilizing for a brim i cant attack, my friend. All of which leaves your average citizen bewildered from fear mongering. Joining me now, its really hard to figure out right now. Lets start with this iraq thing. Its so bizarre because a body comes out and says we have foiled this attack. And the u. S. Government is saying what are you talking about . How do we make sense ofd what theyre talking about . Iraqi officials are, as you mentioned, an unprofessional way that the leader would announce it to the media before. Presumably, theres a high level of security right now between the urs government and the president Iraqi Government. I would say the u. S. Would know about that intelligence before some iraqi officials. That interrogation process that took place, which is certainly acceptable very early on. The u. S. Is investing as much as it is in trying to fight isis inside iraq. He met with the president yesterday. If he didnt have the intelligence yesterday, he had the intelligence in the span of 12, 13, 14 hours. Its one of those situations where the Prime Minister was perhaps trying to say, listen, it was a serious threat, but it may not be as credible. Theres a little bit of par noi ya in this country. Thiss a little bit of hysteria that we, as journalists, dont look at this as a grain of salt. Far of that has to do with the fact that not only do you get news about the possibility of terrorists whether its international or talked to someone once on a piece of paper, right . Theres one thing coming from the u. S. Government and then the australia government or the Iraqi Government. Who is to say when the iraqi Prime Minister kbets up and then you have people saying no. You have to approach this with the mind set that it was coming out of. It was made off the cuff, so to speak. The statement that is coming out is much more subdued. Theyre saying there is a threat of it. This is just the Iraqi Government. The plot is announced, it looks terrifying. I remember down in florida. Who were part of some weird cult that were going to blow up the sears tower. I want to bring into the conversation former governor of vermont. You were always prominent politically back in 2000 to 2004, in a tremendous fear of anxiety about terrorism, this constant threat. And you said some things that were difficult and politically courageous to say in that moment. And i wonder how you watching evaluate the Consumer Information about threats. The last time this happens with the president and Vice President as much as they could because they had every intention of going to iraq. We now see a president whos actually not anxious to engage in doing so. Is a matter of defernding the country because he has to. We also see it in iraq that is completely disintegrated. There are two issues i have a disagreement with. One, iraq is not a free country. We should recognize that. The Iraqi Government is pretty much a disaster. Were not going to be able to work with these folks. Our money ought to be on the kurds. Im not advocating arming them, but we need to get them out of there. I thought theres sort of two different ways politicians can deal with this. One is to lean into it and people trying to use that scott brown. I thought the tweet today was pretty good. Were convinced new yorkers are safe if people are convinced to go about their normal routine. The message is Everyone Needs to go about life and be, you know, love the people you love and be a good, free, american citizen and not be sent into a spiral panic. So many people are talking about isis and ebola coming over the southern border. If theyre not crazy, theyre certainly irresponsible. What we need is level headed leadership. I do think theres confidence in the intelligence agencies, although i dont like the extent of the spy program and i think it ought to be throttled back some. I do think this president is doing a very, very good job being level headed and doing what he needs to be done. We do need to be engaged in the middle east. We do not need to have troops on the ground. There will be problems associated with isis attacking it. So they clearly need to attack it. I have very great confidence in both our Intelligence Services and Armed Services to keep them at bay and i think with we will. One of the things we have learned throughout 9 11 is intention and capacity are two Different Things that. s the big question. Thank you both. Theres breaking news in the case of nfl star ray rice. A Law Enforcement official says he sent a copy of that infamous video from inside the elevator to the nfl. More specifically, to the head of nfl security. Nfl is once again in denial mode. More on the fallout from that to come. My motheits delicious. Toffee in the world. So now weve turned her toffee into a business. My goal was to take an idea and make it happen. 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And yet another Energy Saving opportunity from pg e. Find new ways to save energy and money with pg es Business Energy checkup. Breaking news tonight. Law enforcement official says he sent that video to the nfl. Th it was to the attention of, wait for it, the nfl skoourt chief. That report comes in the wake of a decision by espn to suspend one of its biggest stars for saying what the nfl indicates. Roger goodell has not learned the truth of what that shows. On friday, a block buster story reporting that four sources indicates that rice told goodell early on that he had hit his wife and knoc