Watch Rachel Maddow Highlights: March 11

uh do you remember when the right-wing freaked out about Bud Light I they really freaked out about budlight they were shooting budlight cans uh the wght was very very very upset about budlight they were so mad in Florida Republican Governor Ronda santis got so excited about it he ordered an official Florida State investigation into budlight in Congress House Republicans started their own Federal Congressional investigation of Bud Light they have spent the better part of the past year on this no

longer would everyone in the country see Bud Light as the beer that is slightly more flavorful than Kors light but not quite as flavorful as Miller Light but the Bud Light Blue is kind of a pretty color and sometimes it's on sale so sometimes you buy it even if you're not in love with it because no one's really in love with it and hey if you're drinking light beer no one expects to be in love with that stuff anyway I mean that's how we all used to think of Bud Light admit it but after nearly a y

ear of right-wing culture war no holds barar demagoguery against budl no longer would any self-respecting right-winger would any self-respecting Republican buy budlight because it was on the end cap and came with a free Koozie no over the course of just under a Year Bud Light was transformed from a normal American thing you don't think much about into something very very bad something they would shoot on site former president Donald Trump of course jumped on board money does talk anheiser Bush n

ow understands that he said in in a post promoting right-wing boycotts of of companies that were seen to be liberal or liberal seeming or maybe if you squinted they might feel a little liberal but you're not sure why budlight over the course of this past year became a conservative Target became a Trump World Boogeyman until Donald Trump did a total 180 out of the blue he decided unilaterally to call off the right-wing Jeremiah against budlight he told all his followers to start drinking budlight

again quote anheiser bush is a great American brand that deserves a second chance now what caused this radical U-turn what caused the former president to turn on a dime like this the word dime is a help in this question because if you put that Trump post back up there the one where he says everybody should go back to drinking Bud Light look at the the time and date stamp on that one can we actually just make that part of it a little bigger you can see the stamp yeah there we go all right so kee

p that in mind 3:30 pm on February 6th why is that when Trump did his 180 degree u-turn on budlight well H look what happened that same day lobbyist for anheiser Bush announces $10,000 a plate fundraiser ER for Donald Trump so at 9:47 a.m. the lobbyist for anheiser Bush announces a $10,000 a plate fundraiser for Trump 9:47 a.m. that same day at 3:30 PM Trump announces that he has changed his mind on budlight and conservatives should all drink budlight again that fundraiser was announced on Febru

ary 6th uh it was actually held last week Wednesday last week but you know all anheiser bush had to do was announce they were going to do the fundraiser to get Trump to do what they wanted to get Trump to call off what had been a yearslong conservative culture War Topline issue would you like the head of the Republican party and the Republican party's next nominee to be president of the United States to do something for you would is there something you would like him to do for you or your compan

y perhaps you would consider opening your checkbook and swiveling your wrist because that's apparently What it Took took to end the Great right-wing Bud Light freakout of 2023 and 2024 one fundraiser that's how that one sort of that ended in Fiasco but now behold here comes the same process again last week end of last week something happened in Washington that almost never happens anymore there was a vote in Congress uh this was an actual policy and it's even on a somewhat controversial issue ne

vertheless the vote on this bill last week Congress was 50 to nothing now this bill is on the issue of Tik Tock social media app and whatever you think of Tik Tock or whether you think of Tik Tok at all there have been bipartisan concerns um that have been expressed for a long time that this very popular social media app could pose a national security threat in the United States because of links between the company that owns Tik Tok and the Chinese government um I say there are widespread concer

ns about this these have been manifest already in policy at lots of different levels already if you are a federal government employee or contractor if for work you have a phone or another device that belongs to the federal government the federal government says you are not allowed to install Tik tock on that device in more than 30 states there are similar banss on installing Tik tock on any device that belongs to the state government this bill that's racing through Congress would require App Sto

re to remove Tik Tok so you can't download the app anymore the contingent the only contingency would be if the company was sold to a firm that didn't have links to the Chinese government that didn't have links to Beijing barring the company that runs Tik Tok being sold Tik Tok would effectively be off the market when Trump was president in the summer of 2020 he tried to ban Tik Tock unilaterally himself he tried to for forced the company to be sold he issued an executive order Banning any Americ

an citizen from having any transaction with the company that owns Tik Tok which effectively would have banned the use of Tik Tok by anyone in the United States he tried that he did that in the summer of 2020 that executive order was eventually struck down by the courts which is why Tik Tok is not banned right now but Trump was very clear on this he made a huge issue out of Tik Tock being evil and bad and dangerous it had to be stopped he was going to stop it that was his stance until until somet

hing happened do we have that do we have that cast register sound did you guys find it oh suddenly he's just made a total U-turn I wonder why um after after personally trying to ban Tik Tok after railing against it and playing Mr tough guy against Tik Tok for years now trying to shut down this app in the United States Trump has just come out and said actually we shouldn't get rid of Tik Tok that would be terrible Tik tok's actually got a lot going for it he said so online on Thursday and now tod

ay he said it in an interview on CNBC there are a lot of people on Tik Tok that love it there are a lot of young kids on Tik Tok who who will go crazy without it there are a lot of uh users there's you know a lot of good it's a lot of good really all of a sudden why the change quote some have noted that Trump recently hosted Jeff Yas at his Mara Lago Club in Florida yass is a billionaire investor in bite dance the parent company of Tik Tock and Trump is seeking his support in the presidential ra

ce so follow the bouncing coin if you will step one take very aggressive aggressive very public position against foreign company step two notice nearby man who has a $33 billion 15% stake in that company step three need money desperately step four announce new stance very much in favor of the same foreign company you used to oppose while blinking one's eyelashes at the man you just noticed step five King cash in if you would like the head of the Republican party and the Republican party's next n

ominee to be president of the United States to do something for you or your company open checkbook swivel wrist anything is possible and if you don't believe me take it from Trump's own folks this is the headline in Newsweek right now quote Steve Bannon suggests Donald Trump has been bought Steve Bannon former adviser to Donald Trump suggested on Saturday that the former president was paid off after a shift in his stance on Tik Tock when even Steve Bannon is like this guy appears to be for sale

Steve Bannon right now has been sentenced to prison for a massive Steve Bannon has been sentenced to prison and is out of prison while his appeal is pending Steve Bannon has been put up on charges had to be pardoned by Trump for an alleged massive fraud scheme Steve Bannon is going to be charged for that mass alleged massive fraud scheme in New York state court and Steve Bannon is like seems a little transactional I don't know this guy appears to be for sale if Steve Bannon is saying you appear

to be a little fraud a little for sale a little transactional that means you have ceased to be subtle about it there is a lot that is going on in Republican politics right now which is not the way things usually go in politics there's a lot of overlap between like crime and politics prison and politics but as politico.com reports tonight on the quote bloodbath at the RNC with Trump's people finally taking over as of this weekend and now as of today they are firing dozens of people who work at th

e Republican National Committee with confirmation that there is no longer even an effort to stop the national the Republican National committee from paying Trump's personal legal expenses out of the Republican party coffers we are in a place where the entire Republican party apparatus is merging with Trump's personal legal defense apparatus and the way he has been behaving when it comes to being transactional at his time of most desperate Financial need puts us no matter how you think of Trump n

o matter whether you support him or not no matter whether you care about politics or not it puts us the American people in a radically fragile place when it comes to what exactly is for sale in our country and from our government I mean the budlight and Tik Tok seem to have figured out very early on where exactly you insert the coins to receive your prize but but if anything is for sale right if if everything is for sale what makes you think it's going to stop with thin beer in Chinese social me

dia apps Everything Must Go everything's for sale anybody who can pay and get what they want and you wonder why guys like this always want to undermine the rule of law right on Friday Donald Trump had to put up cash in collateral for a $91 million bond in the New York case in which he was found liable for repeatedly defaming egene Carroll by making what the court concluded were false claims that he had not sexually assaulted her 2 weeks from today he will have to put up cash in collateral for a

bond that is closer to half a billion dollars in the case where his real estate business was found to have engaged in years and years of Fraud and we've been looking at that I think the frame on that has been that this is a difficult and dangerous time for Donald Trump right now but because of the position that he's in that makes this a difficult and dangerous thing for us as a country right now because he's got to put up bonds for over 500 $1 million worth of Court judgments right now within th

e next two weeks he's put up already just under $100 million of that still another 400 plus million to go very soon he does not appear to have the cash and assets and collateral to pay for those bonds to put up what he needs to put up for those bonds without considerable strain if he even can Cobble anything together to bolster those Bonds in total so he desperately needs money I mean right now that Bond the half billion dollar Bond that's two weeks from today and he needs that money so urgently

right now while he is openly changing his publicly held long held supposedly heartfelt policy position positions in ways that appear to be just straight up responsiveness to financial incentives on the bond he paid already and the huge one he's got to put up for within the next two weeks there is no public transparency into who might be co-signing with him or otherwise underwriting these bonds somebody helping him put up the cash and collateral for these bonds if so what are they getting in exc

hange for their generosity to him I mean we know the name of the bonding company that put up the $91 million bond for the EG Caroll case but we don't know if it was Trump alone or Trump and some helpers who put up the cash and collateral necessary to obtain that bond from that company we have asked Mr Trump this evening if he will tell us if there were co-signers or anyone otherwise assisting him in obtaining that Bond we have not yet heard back from him we will let you know if we do but in Nati

onal Security terms this is a profoundly dangerous thing regardless of what it means for him personally and politically it's a dangerous thing for us as a country I mean think about if if you needed to get a security clearance for work right you wanted to get a security clearance but when you applied for that clearance the FBI did their background check on you and they became aware that you were in this much need of this much money this urgently if you were applying for a security clearance righ

t now and the FBI found that two weeks from today you need to put up cash in collateral collateral to secure almost a half billion dollar of a bond to pay your court judgments do you think you would get a security clearance there is no chance you would ever be approved for even the lowest level security clearance because the risk is just too obvious that you would be tempted to sell American Secrets for this money that you so desperately need whether or not you were known to be a particularly tr

ansactional kind of person there's no way that wouldn't be seen as a massive National Security risk last week Politico was first to report that Trump is about to start receiving classified intelligence briefings again presidential candidates major party nominees always get these at least they have historically but no one's ever received a classified briefing as a presidential candidate while he or she was awaiting trial in federal court on multiple felony charges of violating the Espionage Act b

y deliberately mishandling classified material and no no one's ever received those kinds of briefings while they quick need to come up with a half billion dollars worth of cash and collateral to put up bonds to pay their Court judgments in the days after Russian opposition leader Alexa naali was killed in an Arctic prison in Russia a Russian website that was made to look like a news Outlet posted what it claimed was a leaked audio recording of two highlevel US State Department officials discussi

ng who should replace navali as leader of the Russian opposition the implication of course was that there's no real Russian opposition to Vladimir Putin that anybody in Russia who's opposed to Putin must be part of an American front must be part of what is in effect a US Government creation like navali wasn't a real resistance leader he wasn't a real opposition figure he was just a tool of the American government and they'd pick a new one to replace him now this supposedly leaked audio was so ob

viously fake it would fool exactly no one a state department official told The Daily Beast which broke the story quote in the CA in case the thick Russian accents pretending to be us officials were not clear yes we can confirm this audio is fake but still doesn't have to appear to be all that real you launder it right you you say it's been cited here you describe it here you move it into another fake news site here I mean the Russians successfully got this idea into circulation for a time if you

search the names of the people in this story the US government officials who were named as the supposed you know source of this leaked audio in the story The The hoax audio came up as results number two and number three on Google and if you clicked through to the quote unquote news story you would be taken to this site the Miami Chronicle which at first glance might appear to be an actual Florida news site at one point it featured the tagline Florida news since 1937 but this Chronicle has exist

ed for less than a month and it's created by Russians so is this very similar looking one not the famous New York daily news but instead the New York News Daily also here's another one the Chicago Chronicle that sounds like it could be a real paper it's not or this one the DC weekly all of these different sites have the same mix of AI generated stories on right-wing hot button issues like crime immigration plus a whole slew of stories advancing the Kremlin line on the war in Ukraine not long ago

the DC weekly site posted an entirely madeup story about Ukraine's President Vladimir zalinski spending tens of millions of dollars on a pair of Yachts Yachts for himself the story was total bullpucky but it's perfectly designed to spread on social media as if it were from some real news site which it is not at least one Republican member of Congress and one Republican senator then cited the fake Yachts as a reason to oo oppose approving any more funding for Ukraine Republican senator JD Vance

Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor green and while that's hilarious about them in all seriousness Ukraine funding is still being blocked by republicans in Congress these very obvious Russian fake news sites are proliferating right now and again they are not sophisticated you spend just a few seconds on one of these sites and you quickly realize this is not say a newspaper that has been bringing you Florida news since 1937 but these efforts do not have to be sophisticated to spread disinfor

mation effectively you just launder it you just spread it around you say you've seen it somewhere else you get you get the government to comment on it if you can just get it into the bloodstream if you can just lend a sort of Aura of credibility to post flying by on any social media feed mission accomplished