All In with Chris Hayes

If we're going to be at a moment in time when so many people are saying we have to understand the constitution as it was intended, we have to understand that it was intended to check democracy, not to expand it.

And we can have such a view of the constitution that says that all of these institutions are so amazing when it's so obvious that they made a lot of mistakes and that a lot of it needs to be corrected.

As Ari Berman writes in his new book, to entrench and hold on to power, a shrinking conservative white minority is relentlessly exploiting the undemocratic features of America's political institutions.

Ari Berman joins me now, he's the National Voting Rights Correspondent from Mother Jones, his new book out today, Minority Rule, the right-wing attack on the will of the people and the fight to resist it.

It is out right now, it's a fantastic piece of work, sort of the unified theory I think of a lot of the politics at the moment. Let's start with Florida and abortion.

That's right, Republicans know abortion rights are popular so they've relied on all these counter-majoritarian institutions to take away abortion rights.

Exactly, and that's one of the main points I wanted to make in the book is that yes, Donald Trump is an accelerant of a broken political system, but he's also a product of a broken political system.

Ari Berman is the national voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones, as well as the author of the book Minority Rule, The Right-Wing Attack on the Will of the People and the Fight to Resist It. He joins me now.

John Lovett's new book, Democracy or Else is out now. Check it out.

Also the coauthor of Democracy or Else, which you can get wherever you get your books.

Also coauthor of the book Democracy or Else.

Beverly Gage, author of GMan, J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century.

Beverly Gage, author of G-Man, J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century.

This week on my podcast, Why Is This Happening, Beverly Gage, author of GMan, J.Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century.

Heather McGhee is a long time political strategist and author of the bestselling book, The Sum of Us, What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together.

Heather McGhee a long time political strategist author of the fantastic bestselling book of The Sum of Us what racism costs everyone how we can prosper together

Heather McGee, longtime progressive strategist, author of the bestselling book, The Sum of Us

Timothy Snyder ... whose books on the subject include on tyranny and On Freedom

Timothy Snyder ... whose books on the subject include on tyranny and On Freedom.

Timothy Snyder is a professor of history at Yale University, author of the book On Freedom.

Author and YouTuber John Green on his book, Everything Is Tuberculosis, the history and persistence of our deadliest infection.

Author and YouTuber John Green on his book, Everything Is Tuberculosis, The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection. I think of the story of human health as like this long staircase that we're walking up. You know, you start out with Hippocrates telling people, like, don't even bother treating this. It's totally impossible. And then eventually in 1882, Robert Koch figures out it's infectious.

Author and YouTuber John Green on his book Everything Is Tuberculosis, the history and persistence of our deadliest infection.

I got to talk to the author John Green about that in his new fantastic book, Everything Is Tuberculosis.

History professor and author of America, America, A New History of the New World, Greg Grandin.

Hey, everyone. It's Chris Hayes. This week on my podcast, Why Is This Happening? History professor and author of America, America, A New History of the New World, Greg Grandin.

He's got this incredible new book, magisterial history, called America, America. It reexamines the historical relationship between the U.S. and Latin America.

Jason Stanley is a professor at University of Toronto, author of Erasing History, How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future

His latest book is entitled Erasing History, How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future.

He's the author of Erasing History, How the Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future.

Ben Rhodes served as national deputy security advisor under President Obama, author of After the Fall, The Rise of Authoritarianism in the World We've Made

Ben Rhodes served as deputy national security advisor to President Barack Obama, author of After the Fall, The Rise of Authoritarianism in the World We've Made.

Ben Rhodes served as the Deputy National Security Advisor for President Obama, and now cohosts Crooked Media's Pod Save the World podcast. He's also, importantly for the purposes of this discussion, the author of the book, After the Fall, Authoritarianism in the World We've Made.

You literally wrote a book on American authoritarianism and you talk about this force that he's building.

Well, we're also saying, you know, in 1984, the book 1984, George Orwell's 1984 dystopian novel. There is in that a ministry of truth. That's right. And the dictator in 1984 has a ministry that basically censors everything, wants people to understand what the dictator believes is the truth.

Minnesota's Democratic Governor Tim Walz quoted George Orwell's 1984 when lambasting the Trump administration for trying to convince the American public not to believe what we can all clearly see on the tape.

A U.S. senator destroyed by blackmail. He was not bound by the truth or by facts. The country's most outrageous political demagogue ascending toward the peak of American power. Millions upon millions of devoted followers. This is a story of heroes willing to face down tyranny and the risk to the country if they fail.

I've been gobbling up every episode of that.

Rachel, just your thoughts. I remember talking to you the day of oral arguments when we did a special, and I think everyone's reaction to that was, whoa, this is... Are they going to do this? Yeah. We got our answer today.

I remember talking to you about this, Chris, the day they chose to take it up. I mean, the decision to take it up itself was so gobsmacking.

I always see the cloud before I see the silver lining. But even when they took it up, I remember you and I talking about the radicalism of that decision in itself, because when the district court, the first level federal court ruled on this issue, basically the rule was, you know, duh, of course the president isn't immune.

I mean, the joke I made today was like John Roberts pulled down the American flag, turned it upside down and hoisted it back up on the Supreme Court.

A U.S. senator destroyed by blackmail. He was not bound by the truth or by facts. The country's most outrageous political demagogue ascending toward the peak of American power. Millions upon millions of devoted followers. This is a story of heroes willing to face down tyranny and the risk to the country if they fail. Rachel Maddow presents Ultra, season two of the chart-topping original podcast.

A U.S. senator destroyed by blackmail. He was not bound by the truth or by facts. The country's most outrageous political demagogue ascending toward the peak of American power. Millions upon millions of devoted followers. This is a story of heroes willing to face down tyranny and the risk to the country if they fail. Rachel Maddow presents Ultra, season two of the chart-topping original podcast. Listen now on Amazon Music.

It'll be moderated by the renowned social psychologist and bestselling author Jonathan Haidt, who wrote that fantastic book, The Anxious Generation, where both can be talking about attention and its extraction.

It will be held at the Great Hall in Cooper Union right here in New York City on Thursday, February 5th at 7 p.m. It'll be moderated by the renowned social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt, who wrote the very, very bestseller Anxious Generation.

I'll discuss that and more with Timothy Snyder who wrote the book On Tyranny

Timothy Snyder ... whose books on the subject include On Tyranny

Timothy Snyder ... whose books on the subject include On Tyranny and on freedom.

Timothy, in that book On Tyranny which has sold an enormous amount of copies since that first Trump administration, there's a line about not obeying in advance that often gets quoted.

In Disloyal, that would be Cohen's first book, you described your feeling for President Trump as being obsessed, correct?

Correct.

they required me to waive my First Amendment constitutional right and not publish my first book, Disloyal.

When I got back into my truck, Cricket was sitting in the passenger seat looking like she had just won the lottery. The picture of pure joy. I hated that dog.

The truth of this story is that this was a working dog and it was not a puppy. It was a dog that was extremely dangerous.

These horses were old. They were in their late, late 20s. They were our rodeo horses, ranch horses, and they raised my girls. They took care of them.

I'm not going to talk about my specific meetings with world leaders. I'm just not going to do that.

Well, I'll tell you, Stuart, I'm sorry you're not hearing from real Americans that live on farms and ranches.

Now in Noem's defense, the book is generating her a bunch of headlines like, for instance, quote, Kristi Noem describes executing puppies she hated in New Book and, quote, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem defends her account of killing own dog in New Book.

And finally, quote, Kristi Noem's VP chances appear as dead as the dog she killed.

If you want more real, honest and politically incorrect stories that will have the media gasping pre-order No Going Back.

I've always been an advocate of a of a of a of a woman as a VP because I think you have some strong woman, although Christy Noem, I think is maybe a little too based shooting the shooting the puppy in the in the gravel.

Who put that in the book? Like I think I was like your your ghostwriter must really not like you if they get to include that one.

including How to Win 2024,

The Velshey Band Book Club, which is so good,

So you think I would have been president without The Apprentice? I say yes, but some people say no. Many smart people say no.

Eric Trump in the book says that The Apprentice paved the way for the entire presidency.

This sheet of paper comes from America where The Apprentice was, if only for a simple week, the number one show. This is my whole life.

Ratings are what drives him. Audience is what is important to him.

He told me that he didn't think he would have run for president if it wasn't for the apprentice. Donald Trump wouldn't say out loud that he regrets being president of the United States, but he missed being on The Apprentice. It was clear this is what he wants to do.

they will discuss the new book, The Look, and so much more about what's happening in our country right now.

Mitt Romney which is available in paperback as of today complete with new reporting

McKay Coppins is a staff writer for The Atlantic and author of Romney, A Reckoning.

Mike's excellent new book, They Came for the Schools, One Town's Fight Over Race and Identity and the New War for Americans Classrooms is out now. I suggest you check it out.

The schools are where America tries to tell, teach the next generation what this country is about, what's right and wrong.

And so of course when these fights over race and identity and belonging take off in national politics, the schools are the place where they are the most intense. I wrote this book so that if you're a teacher or a parent in a community where you've seen angry neighbors come to school board meetings complaining about critical race theory or woke gender identity, or trying to ban library books that, you could get a sense or understanding of why that's happening.

And the way we I do that in the book is by telling the story of one town where that fight has been really intense.

There's in 2021, as you were seeing backlash to pandemic safety restrictions and the protests of racial justice, Black Lives Matter, there were parents showing up at school board meetings concerned about DEI programs. But then what happened is the Steve Bannon's of the world and Chris Ruffo and Donald Trump saw that as an opportunity, and for the last three years, Americans have been fed a really scary story about public schools that have been taken over by this shadowy liberal cabal whose mission is to indoctrinate and teach white children to hate themselves, to get kids to change their genders. It's kind of this straw man, very scary image, and folks some parents really have taken in that message and have worked to try to push those things out of the schools, even though they're those things aren't really happening.

This is what's happening now is maybe unprecedented in its scale and how much is connected to national politics, but this this type of thing has happened repeatedly throughout our history, and I think knowing that and recognizing that helps us understand where this is all going and and how we fit into that story.

Mikhail Zigar is the founding editor in chief of the exiled independent Russian TV news outlet TV Reign. The author of War and Punishment Putin Zelensky in the path to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

He's author of War and Punishment Putin Zelensky in the path to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Using contact with the Volnigerism.

And I started that chapter saying that he's not an ordinary human being, he's an alliance, he's something beyond our comprehension.