Raped me repeatedly. several times. the only reason it stopped is because my father found us. my parents protected me and they made good decisions on my behalf. and i am a whole person because of the love and care of my parents and my faith community and the counseling that i was able to receive, individually, and with my family. and that should have been kept private. but because of this bill, i need to tell this story. because of this bill, which in wisconsin, there was a mandatory ultrasound bill, because of this bill, i need to tell this story. this is a wbr-id= wbr22010 /> new phenomenon in our politics. in state after state, and sometimes in congress, women lawmakers deciding to tell these incredibly personal stories. and you can tell they do not want to be telling these stories. but they say they feel compelled to do this because of republicans pushing so hard
i was 8 years old, visiting the family farm, and my cousin raped me repeatedly. several times. the only reason it stopped is because my father found us. my parents protected me and they made good decisions on my behalf. and i am a whole person because of the love and care of my parents and my faith community and the counseling that i was able to receive, individually, and with my family. and that should have been kept private. but because of this bill, i need to tell this story. because of this bill, which in wisconsin, there was a mandatory ultrasound bill, because of this bill, i need to tell this story. this is a new phenomenon in our politics. in state after state, and sometimes in congress, women lawmakers deciding to tell these incredibly personal stories. and you can tell they do not
Approval on something this extreme. after she gave that remarkable speech yesterday in the michigan senate, senator gretchen whitmer says she called her father right away, because she had never told him that story before she said it last night on the senate floor and she wanted him to hear it from her. joining us now is gretchen whitmer, the leader of the minority democratic caucus in the state senate. senator whitmer, thank you so much for being with us tonight. i really appreciate it. thank you for having me, rachel. i m a huge fan and i m glad to be with you. oh, thank you. well, i have to ask you about that decision to tell the story. i mean, watching your speech, it seems like it probably was not in your prepared remarks and that you were speaking from the heart. is it just that you felt moved to do it? well, i tell you, you know, i ve spent the better part of my life trying not to talk about that and not think about it, but it became very clear that the republicans were not listening to any women in our state. they didn t hold a hearing where
I was the guy working the cones out there. you really are not serious with that question. oh, pugnacious, the tough guy who plays for laughs. that is the patented and trademarked chris christie recipe for getting good press, no matter what, despite everything else about you. but that last bit there, the one about the overalls and the hat and the traffic cones, that may not be a serious enough answer to the questions that he was being asked there. because although he has been joking about it in public, governor christie is apparently dead serious about that subject when you talks about it in private. and the way we know that, and we do know it now, is coming up and it is a remarkable story. stay with us. [ male announcer ] here s a question for you: if every u.s. home replaced one light bulb with a compact fluorescent bulb, the energy saved could light how many homes? 1 million? 2 million? 3 million? the answer is. 3 million homes. by 2030, investments in energy efficiency
Be and they ve been conditioned. and i think you can t overstate the fact that everyone in washington, until the shutdown happened, knew the shutdown wasn t going to happen, because obviously that s a crazy idea. their world got flipped upsidedown when the shutdown happened. when literal a few dudes in the think tank in washington called the shots and made the government shutdown. all of a sudden it s like, whoa, if they can make that happen, all bets are off. we don t know what the rules are. and seeing everybody attack john boehner for that. that s amazing. chris hayes, very nice of you to stay. thank you very much. great to have you here. the one story in politics right now that feels like it was lifted from outtakes from the sopranos today got even more new jersey than it was yesterday. and it looks like it now may be turning into a real problem for new jersey governor chris christie, and that story is coming up. stay with us. [ male announcer ] if you stash tissues like a squirrel stashes nuts, you may be muddling through allergies.