A new "Atlantic" article explores the threat to the 2024 election. As tensions in Ukraine increase, President Joe Biden will speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Justice Department sued Texas for discriminating against election maps.

MSNBC Senior Political Analyst ASHLEY PARKER: So even if you think this is a false report of Trump, you now know that he often comes into contact with people infected with the virus. Before they boarded Marine One with Trump without a mask, they were not told that he owned it.

CHRIS HAYES, MSNBC host: Ashley Parker, great report. thank you very much.

This is "ALL IN" on Monday night.

Hayes: The Rachel Maddeau show starts now.

RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC Moderator: Good evening, Chris. Friends, thank you. Grateful.

MADDOW: Thank you for joining us this hour at home. It is a pleasure to have you with us this Monday night.

Thirty years ago this week, another superpower in the world except the United States took its last breath as a country. Thirty years ago this week, Russia at the time was not an independent country, but a part of the Soviet Union. The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus met in Belarus and signed a document that recognized the Soviet Union and Soviet Union socialism. The republic is coming to an end.

The Baltic States were the first to withdraw from the Soviet Union, but by the end of 1991, 30 years ago, all the components of the Soviet Union were fighting for or just declaring the status of an independent state. This was a landmark moment. This week 30 years ago, Russia itself recognized This game is over. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev basically realized that he had to agree.

Before the end of that month, on Christmas Eve, December 25, 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev stepped down as the leader of the Soviet Union. The Soviet hammer and sickle flag was lowered in the Kremlin. The tricolor flag of the Russian Federation took its place.

On Christmas 30 years ago, in 1991, Boris Yeltsin became President of the Russian Federation. From Christmas 1991 to New Year's Eve in 1999, he served as president for almost eight years. He served as president until the Y2K bug on December 31, 1999. Yeltsin left that night, Vladimir Putin-surprise, who is he? -Become the President of the Russian Federation. Since then, Putin has been using increasingly authoritarian hands to manage the country.

Since 22 years in power is obviously not long enough for him, Putin has just authorized himself to be in power until 2036. democracy?

Vladimir Putin described the disintegration of the Soviet Union 30 years ago as the greatest geopolitical disaster of the century. This is a true tragedy. When he said that this was the greatest geopolitical disaster of this century, he was referring to the 20th century. This century includes, for example, at least 20 million deaths in the First World War, 50 million deaths in the 1918 influenza pandemic, and 60 million deaths in the Second World War.

Putin believes that the week of the collapse of the Soviet Union 30 years ago was worse than all of them. He said that the end of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century.

So, tomorrow, President Biden will hold a long conference call with Vladimir Putin.

Putin is currently regrouping Russian troops on the Ukrainian border. Except for Putin's actual invasion of Ukraine in 2014, Russia has been waging a low-level war in Ukraine for more than seven years. He has just occupied part of the country for himself and merged part of Ukraine into Russia. That was the only time a country in Europe allowed another country to invade and take over and change its borders since World War II.

President Biden will try to prevent Russia from invading Ukraine again tomorrow. Presumably at that meeting, he could still find a way to introduce to Mr. Putin the grand finale of the 30th anniversary of the Soviet Union this week. 30 years is a big year. If this is a wedding anniversary, he can buy him pearl earrings, 30 years are pearls. I don’t think they treat the anniversary of your country’s dissolution in the same way as a wedding anniversary, but I still spend a lot of money to watch him open the box. Oh, pearls.

After Putin and President Biden met on Thursday and Friday this week, he will immediately preside over what the White House calls the Democracy Summit. This is a meeting of 110 Democratic countries at the invitation of President Biden.

The conference agenda is divided into three parts: promoting respect for human rights, addressing and combating corruption, and opposing authoritarianism. Similarly, this democracy summit happened at the end of this week, just after Putin, 110 countries.

The Chinese and Russian governments have issued a very angry statement saying that they are very dissatisfied with the summit of democracies because they think it means criticism of the type of government they manage.

The answer is of course, yes, it is correct. You guessed it, President Biden is trying to unite the small democracies in the world to persist in democracy, promote democracy, and protect democracy, instead of slipping into the authoritarian model represented by China and Russia. Yes, you are right. The whole idea is a suggestive criticism of you.

Look at the top three points. As it says: Promote respect for human rights, fight corruption, and oppose authoritarianism. Now, before this summit, because President Biden invented this summit, he invited all other countries. The United States is leading it. Before the summit, the United States wants to show off that we are taking these three things seriously and taking ourselves seriously.

The United States is trying to lead by example on all three points. Therefore, on the first issue, such as the human rights issue, the White House announced today that the US government will not send any US government officials to participate in the Beijing Winter Olympics to protest against the Chinese government’s human rights violations, especially when they are used to imprison hundreds of thousands of people. Large-scale internment camps and prisons for Chinese Muslims.

The United States did not boycott the end of the Beijing Olympics. American athletes will still participate in the competition, but will conduct a full diplomatic boycott. No U.S. government official was present.

Again, here’s the time, today before the Democracy Summit this weekend, if action is taken to promote human rights is one of the themes of the large democracy summit hosted by President Biden-well, this announcement is specific about the diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics. He and the US government can point out, hey, we are not just talking about this. We are walking on that point.

So, human rights. The second point is corruption. Corruption is the unchanging partner of autocratic government that is not taken seriously. You won't get one without the other, and you won't get the other without the first.

However, today, the Biden administration has launched a new, long-term US government anti-corruption strategy. A large 38-page document lists new ways to combat corruption at home and abroad, including specific new steps such as preventing people from laundering money and storing illegally obtained funds in US assets, especially US real estate. The anti-corruption strategy is being launched today.

Once again, this timing is very helpful for this week's summit of democratic nations. So the US government can point out what we are doing in each of these three points, yes, human rights, and anti-corruption. What is the third one? What is the third one? Oh, yes, against authoritarianism.

So, about the last one, what will the Biden administration be able to say about its actions there? About its priorities there, about how it walks and not just talk about it? Defend authoritarianism.

That is not so easy, because on that, we do have our own important and very realistic domestic challenges. I mean, today’s news alone shows this aspect-let you know how big and active the challenges facing the United States are.

This is a small piece. Of course, the traditional view in Washington is that the Republican Party may control Congress, at least the House of Representatives, in next year’s elections. Historically, they are likely to do this.

If this happens, it will mean any senior Republican, anyone who is now the highest Republican on the committee, or anyone who has served as the chairman of the committee, the last time the Republicans were in power, all the top Republicans, all the leading Republicans. They are preparing to regain power and be in power again under the assumption that they will perform well in next year’s elections. You know, especially as committee chairmen-if you are waiting in line for that kind of thing-committee chairmen, some boring things, but they kind of host shows on Capitol Hill. They are a bit like managing the legislative branch.

Therefore, Republicans who are likely to run for these leadership positions are really excited if Republicans take control again. They are fulfilling their promises. They are raising funds. They are planning to hire employees. They are doing all the horse transactions that need to be carried out between them to maximize the power they think they are about to gain.

This is a very exciting time. If you are a Republican, you want your party to regain control, and once this happens, you want to become one of the power brokers. As far as Washington is currently looking ahead to next year’s elections, this is a kind of conventional wisdom.

But on the contrary, in the news tonight, there is news that Republican Representative Devin Nunes is withdrawing from Congress. Now, he is definitely one of the people in line for a major gig if Republicans win the elections and do well next year. I mean, the last time the Republicans controlled Congress, Devin Nunes was very Chairman of the powerful Intelligence Committee.

If they win the post of president of the fundraising committee next year, he will be eligible, which may be a more powerful job than operating Intel. However, despite this, as of tonight, we learned that he will withdraw from Congress, basically effective immediately, and leave at the end of this month.

How could he leave now? Especially when he is ready to go? Well, because instead of having this kind of power in Congress, he is obviously more willing to become the CEO of former President Trump’s New Media Company. Ha ha.

We also learned today that this media company is undergoing federal investigations by the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority FINRA, the latter usually investigating things such as illegal insider trading. In this case, another agency, the SEC, seems to be investigating whether the entire Trump media release may have been illegally constructed to raise hundreds of millions of dollars.

Therefore, it has been under federal investigation by two powerful agencies. Naturally, would you give up one of the most powerful jobs in government to do this? This is not surprising at all. This does not imply anything strange about this country's perception of corruption related to government services.

This weekend, the same former president said in an interview with Fox News last night that he fired FBI Director James Comey during his presidency to prevent an FBI investigation that he thought would lead to his removal. He just volunteered to provide this information.

He said, quote, don't forget, I fired Comey. If I hadn't fired Comey, you might not be talking to me about my four years in the White House now. He said, quoted, if I don't fire him, I don't think I can survive.

He does not mean that he will die. What he meant was that he could not survive as president. It is impossible for him to be president for four years. Because the FBI investigation under the leadership of Comey decided to remove him.

So he fired the director of the FBI to transfer those investigations in order to maintain his power. He just admitted that this is why he did it and it worked. This is how he managed to serve in the office for four years.

It's like something you wish to like, you know, to induce someone to say it. This is what you want, such as recording someone accidentally confessing to someone who doesn't know they will get into trouble by saying this sentence.

This is his confession. I just want to say that I’m not a lawyer, but in theory, if someone wants to file an obstruction of justice suit against him for this, fire the FBI Director to get rid of the investigation that removes him. If someone wants to file an obstruction of justice suit for this, if this It is actually a crime, and we are still within the statute of limitations. I just said. He just confessed this in detail on national television last night. I can send you the transcript. I just said.

We also have news today that Vice President Trump’s Chief of Staff Marc Short (Marc Short) is reportedly cooperating with the January 6 investigation and the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters and conspiracy. survey. The overthrow led to the election results that day.

In Washington this weekend, a ridiculous white supremacist boy club named Patriot Front wore matching outfits to make himself look like a threatening mid-level manager of an electronics store. Holding white nationalist flags, small shields, khaki pants and leggings, they marched along the National Mall from the Lincoln Memorial and held a white supremacist force show in the capital.

According to today’s report in "The Daily Beast," this is a neo-Nazi organization that used to be called the American Vanguard, but when one of their members drove into a counter-protester in Charlottesville, Virginia, and killed After one person, they changed their name to the Patriot Front and wounded more than a dozen people.

It was at a rally of the United Right. President Trump at the time said that there were good people on both sides, both neo-Nazis and protesters against them.

In Dallas this weekend, a branch of QAnon, a cult conspiracy theory supporting Trump, appeared at the Dallas Christmas Parade. This is a Trump supporter, a branch of QAnon, a branch of Trump supporter QAnon. They believe that Trump will become the king of the world, or he is already the king of the world, the reason why they have John The photo of F. Kennedy wearing the MAGA hat is because they say that President John F. Kennedy is resurrecting from the dead, as is his son John F. Kennedy Jr.

I will show you a video here, taken by an online reporter named Hot Tub Twin on Twitter. She has been reporting on these people and what they did in Dallas, because people are increasingly worried about this kind of mass-this kind of mass delusion of Trump supporters may be turning into something that seems more dangerous than weird. . Of course it is a potential danger for the people involved.

Unidentified woman: Do you know Jack?

Unidentified woman: Do you remember Jack? He is our president. JFK Jr. is our vice president. You will find out soon.

Unidentified woman: Kennedy is alive, 174 years old. You will find out. It's 165 on your face.

MADDOW: Do you see how they say numbers between these statements? Kennedy is still alive, 174. You will find that 174. It's on your face, 165.

The numbers they say at the end of these phrases are because what they do is like a fake kindergarten-level numerology. They think they can unlock the secret code of their leader's communication with Trump, and use it to communicate with Donald Trump. , And the secret code is about how Trump will recover, and how he secretly planned the return of the Kennedy family after death, and all the celebrities who died. They are very happy about it, because the numbers tell you that all of this will happen.

They wore the head of Kennedy wearing MAGA hats at the Dallas Christmas Parade this weekend. They have been in Dallas for a few weeks because they have been expecting that when the dead celebrities come back, like the opposite of the zombie apocalypse, it is a good thing that Trump is restored.

This is the current state of political rights in the United States. This is how half of our two-party system persists.

Before the 2020 election, Pulitzer Prize winner Barton Gellman wrote an article for The Atlantic about this seemingly far-fetched plan. This article was called "may destroy the elections in the United States." The subheading there says that if the vote is close, Donald Trump could easily throw the election into chaos and upset the results. Who will stop him?

Gellman described the plan. Again, this was before the election in September last year. He wrote that Trump and his supporters would try to maintain the election through such a plan, or at least make the election appear to have no clear outcome.

Gellman reported in that article that he broke the news that Republican officials in at least one swing state in Pennsylvania had already planned to establish Republican-led state legislatures in that state and other states with the Trump campaign before the election.了contact. The result of overthrowing voters. Instead, state legislators will declare that they cannot clearly discern the intentions of voters. There was a big problem with voting. Therefore, the legislature will only declare Trump's victory.

The legislature, the Republican-controlled legislature will decide to ignore the vote, and even if Biden wins the state, it will only send Trump voters to the Electoral College. Mark Gellman (Mark Gellman) once again wrote that before the September election last year, this was the plan Trump was making, and it seemed crazy at the time. I mean, even if Trump publicly laid the foundation for him before the vote began, even before the vote, he called the election a scam. Even so, Gellman's report seems to come from another planet, a planet that may not necessarily sustain the life of the Democratic Party.

But then it turned out that this was what happened. This is exactly what Trump and the company did. In fact, this is exactly what they are still trying to achieve in the state legislatures through these election reviews by the Republican legislatures of Arizona, Wisconsin, and other states. They said that the election results should be de-certified, which means there should be no Biden voters there. There should be Trump voters. Trump won the election secretly and should be restored to power. This is what they tried after the election, and it is still what Trump is trying.

Bart Gellman was right about what Trump will do in 2020, although it seemed far-fetched at the time.

Well, now, today, Bartman Gellman (Bartman Gellman) also wrote his follow-up in the "Atlantic". This is a new cover story released today, and it is called "January 6th is an exercise."

It started like this: Technically, the next attempt to overthrow a national election may not qualify for a coup. It will rely on subversion rather than violence, although everyone has their place. If the conspiracy succeeds, the votes cast by American voters will not be able to determine the presidency in 2024. Thousands of votes or millions of votes will be thrown away to produce the desired effect.

The winner will be declared the loser. The loser will be certified as a presidential voter. The prospect of this democratic collapse is not far away. Motivated people are creating means. Whenever there is a chance, they will take action. They are already in action.

It is not obvious who or what will maintain our constitutional order today. It's not even clear who will try. Democrats large and small D Democrats did not act as if they believed the threat was real. Some of them, including President Biden, have taken verbal attention, but their attention lingers. They are making a serious mistake.

Richard Hasen, a professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine, told me at the end of October, quotation: The democratic emergency has arrived. Hasen is proud of his prudent temperament. Just a year ago, he warned me not to exaggerate. Now he talks about the death of our political group realistically.

To quote, we face a serious risk that American democracy as we know it will end in 2024, he said. But the emergency action did not happen. For more than a year, with the tacit approval and explicit support of their party’s national leaders, state Republican agents have been building an election theft device.

Election-I'm sorry-elected officials in Arizona, Texas, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and other states studied Trump's crusade to overthrow the 2020 election. They have noticed the failure points since 2020 and have taken specific measures to avoid the next failure.

Some of them have rewrote the regulations to control the party’s control over which votes are counted, which votes are discarded, which votes are verified, and which votes are rejected. They are expelling or depriving election officials who refused to agree to the conspiracy in November last year, aiming to replace them with the spokesperson of the big lie.

They are fine-tuning a legal argument designed to allow state legislators to override the choice of voters. As the foundation for everyone else, Trump and his party have convinced a staggering number of Americans that the basic operation of democracy is corrupt. The false claims are true, and only cheating can hinder their victory in the polls. That tyranny usurped their government. This violence is a legitimate response.

Any Republican may benefit from these conspiracies, but we should not pretend to have any suspense. Unless biology intervenes, Trump will seek and win the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. The party has been restrained by him. No opponent can break it, and few people will try.

Setbacks outside of politics will not be the same as prosecutions, or catastrophic changes in business-these things will not deter Trump's campaign. If anything, those can double his will to power. To quote, on almost every battlefield in the war to control the next election count, the state legislature, state electoral authorities, courts, Congress, and Republican institutions, Trump’s status has improved from a year ago.

To understand today’s threats, you must clearly see what happened and what is still happening after the 2020 election. The crooks and weirdos who filed lawsuits on behalf of Trump and caused a sensation in public are juggling. They distracted the main events, systematically tried to invalidate the election results, and then reversed them.

After the Biden election was announced on the Internet on November 7, the strategic goal of almost every action of the Trump team was to make Biden win the state’s Republican legislature to control the election results and appoint Trump electors. Every other goal in the courts, the state election team, the Department of Justice, and the vice president’s office, every other goal, helps the state legislature to achieve this goal.

Although Trump won wide-ranging support from state legislators for his false voter fraud allegations, legislators were reluctant to take radical and concrete steps. Despite the pressure, none of the six controversial states proposed alternatives to cancel the country. Citizen's vote. Trump's voters. It was not until later that Congress was preparing to count electoral votes that lawmakers in some of these states began informally talking about disqualifying Biden as voters.

Nevertheless, in a November poll, the Trump team persuaded tens of millions of angry supporters, including a disastrous 68% of all Republicans, to believe that the election was stolen from Trump, and thus obtained An important and lasting achievement.

This loss of confidence in democracy has never happened here before. Even the League recognized the election of Abraham Lincoln. They tried to break away because they knew they had failed.

Legitimizing Biden's victory was Trump's strategic victory then and now, because this big lie became the driving force of voters who controlled the destiny of Republican lawmakers. The fate of Trump is in the hands of lawmakers.

Gellman then explained how the strange world theory that the Republican Party and state legislatures should take over is how to cancel the actual votes in their state and instead declare that they prefer their winners. He explained in detail that this crazy theory is now not just proposed by crazy people such as Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell. It is being fine-tuned by real lawyers, and it has been circulated as a talking point for the Republican Party in the 2024 election in places such as Fox News.

Gellman explained point by point the Republicans who did not participate in these efforts to deliver the real election results in 2020, those Republicans, from Brad Raffensperger and Brian Kemp in Georgia. (Brian Kemp) To the little-known officials in Michigan Statewide, those Republicans who disagreed in the 2020 election have been removed, and they have been condemned. If they want to stay in office, they will face a primary election supported by Trump.

The poll data he showed showed that the basic Republican voters did not cool down or flinch from the truly revolutionary influence of Trump's attempt to overthrow the election. On the contrary, in the past year, Republican voters have become more radical on this issue and are more likely to accept violence as a potential solution.

He said, citing, that Donald Trump was closer than anyone thought to overthrowing free elections a year ago. He is preparing to do so again, and his position is getting stronger and stronger. The followers of the Republican Party have identified the weaknesses of our electoral institutions and used them methodically.

Tens of millions of dissatisfied Trump supporters tend to accept violence and reject the security mindset of democratic failure. They have begun to loosen up and are driven by their hostility. These supporters are fully armed and single-minded, and they know what to do the next time Trump calls on them to take action.

Democracy will stand trial in 2024. The midterm elections marked by district elections are likely to strengthen Republican control over swing state legislatures. The Supreme Court may be ready to give these legislative bodies almost absolute control over presidential electors.

If the Republicans retake the House of Representatives and the Senate, just as oddsmakers seem to believe they will, the Republicans will be firmly responsible for counting the electoral votes. Compared with Biden or another Democratic candidate, Donald Trump may be able to win a fair election in 2024, but he does not intend to seize this opportunity, which means that he does not intend to seize the opportunity to conduct a fair election.

It sounds dystopian, I know. But the last time I read an article that was also so serious and reported more brilliantly than dystopia, it was Barton Gellman in September 2020. He accurately predicted the 2020 election and its consequences until January 6 (including January). 6th).

The last time I read such a serious and worrying article, it was Barton Gellman who predicted something accurately. Well, this is what Bart Gellman reported today. He joins us next.

MADDOW: Later in this hour, we will pay attention to the US Department of Justice's efforts to protect the voting rights in Texas today. The Justice Department today used the case as a new election map drawn by Texas Republicans. These election maps are illegally disadvantaged minorities in order to provide additional disproportionate representation of Texas white Republicans. right. This is the voting right action that the Ministry of Justice has been taking. This is actually the second time they have sued Texas in a month.

But as Barton Gellman pointed out in his terrifying new cover story for The Atlantic, even though Biden’s Justice Department sometimes expressed its willingness to go to court to protect voting rights from Republicans, they did not There is no court to protect the election itself, to protect democracy itself.

He took Georgia as an example, citing that the state’s Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit to overturn certain provisions of the new Georgia law, but did not challenge the hostile takeover of the electoral authority. In contrast, the Justice Department’s federal lawsuit has challenged a long list of traditional voter suppression tactics. These regulations make it more difficult for Democrats to vote in Georgia.

However, the terms that Attorney General Garland did not challenge make it easier for Republicans to determine the outcome. These regulations represent a completely different degree of danger. At the same time, Gellman wrote: The Justice Department and the FBI are pursuing the infantry on January 6, but there is no public indication that they are suing the men and women who dispatched the infantry. If there are no consequences, they will definitely try again. An impunity episode is an exercise for the next episode.

Joining us now is Barton Gellman, a guest writer for The Atlantic, who is the author of today's cover story "January 6 is an exercise."

Mr. Gellman, I am very glad that you are here. Thank you for scaring me again. Thank you for taking the time to come here tonight.

BARTON GELLMAN, Special Writer, Atlantic: Thank you for allowing me to participate and read my story. I don’t want to post any other content. I just want you to read my story aloud.

MADDOW: I will read anything you post. I tell you that I will read most of the content aloud, and I can assure you.

Well, let me ask you the elements I choose to read and broadcast, let me ask you if I have important parts, or if there are other parts you think you want a front page and make sure people understand it?

GELLMAN: You directly hone the most important points as usual, and you pay close attention to these things like anyone else. Most of the rest of the story details what is happening in the states, and also focuses on some individuals.

I spent a long time with this firefighter in New York. He is a Trump supporter. He thinks the election was stolen. I want to know why he thinks so and whether his beliefs can be changed by evidence. Frankly, I found this very interesting and frustrating because I couldn't make him move.

MADDOW: Bart, when you talk to Republican officials before the 2020 election, they are willing to tell you in that very scary article that they are in dialogue with the Trump campaign and are developing a plan for state legislation The agency replaced the vote with what they wanted the result of the election in their state. You wrote it down in an enlightening and shocking way before the election, but it was finally confirmed.

Do you feel that in your reports, especially the idea of ​​casting thousands or even millions of votes in the 2024 general election, do you feel that you have similar findings far-fetched and unbelievable, but in fact it is a real thing? Plan?

Gellman: I think this is very real. As a citizen, I am personally very worried about this. I think some people must and are determined not to allow Republicans to lose in another national election, nor to allow Trump to lose in another election. They allow themselves to do this, which is something I did not cover in this article, but as you have seen, they describe the Democrats as tyrants, as election thieves, they actually stole the presidency as communists, as an annoying People in America, they can't—they can't discuss it more extreme than they are now.

When you do this, you allow yourself to take all the opposite steps. I mean, if you have an existential threat to the United States of America, which is what the Republicans think of Biden, what remedial measures are you not allowed to take?

MADDOW: That's why you believe that Bart, the feeling among Trump supporters, especially the hardline Trump supporters, has become tougher in the fight around election issues, which has been getting worse in the past year. , And violence as a potential solution here has gotten worse in the course of this year. Is this just the result of the type of rhetoric you describe or is there some other dynamic at work?

Gellman: I think there is a powerful and continuous message that has been magnified thousands of times by the entire ecosystem on the right. This is a propaganda ecosystem. It tells people that someone has stolen their elections, the Democratic Party is destroying the country, more and more so-called evidence proves these things, and yes. I think-there are a large number of Trump supporters who think that Biden is an illegal president who stole the office and that violence is justified.

And, frankly, if you live in a country where elections are actually stolen and an imposter is in office, why does violence make no sense? I mean, they are arguing about pointing to only one place.

MADDOW: The cover story of "The Atlantic" is now called "January 6 is an exercise. Donald Trump is now more capable of subverting the election than in 2020." It was written by Barton Gellman. Bart, guest writer for "Atlantic"-thank you very much for taking the time tonight.

Again, this is terrible, but requires reading, very important things. Thank you.

Gellman: Thank you for inviting me.

MADDOW: There is more tonight. Stay with us.

MADDOW: This is a five-way call. President Biden spoke on the phone with the leaders of France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom tonight

This is the White House's announcement of the call. Quote: Leaders discussed their common concerns about Russia's build-up of troops on the Ukrainian border. They called on Russia to ease tensions. The leaders emphasized their support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Tonight, President Biden will have a five-way call with major European allies before his one-on-one meeting with Vladimir Putin tomorrow. Now, there are several things on the agenda of his meeting with Putin tomorrow, but the most important thing is to resolve what NATO says is the large and unusual movement of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border. No one knows exactly what Putin did here, I think this is part of the point.

Did Russia deliberately create the fear that they would invade Ukraine again, but actually did not intend to do so?

Or is this really a prelude to an invasion? If the United States knew, would we know through the actions of our own government that they thought based on the way President Biden behaved at this meeting?

Joining us now is Michael McFall. He served as the U.S. ambassador to Russia under the leadership of President Obama.

Mr. Ambassador, it is nice to meet you. Thank you for taking the time tonight.

MICHAEL MCFAUL, former US Ambassador to Russia: Of course. It is a pleasure to be here.

MADDOW: You are very happy that the US government has agreed to this one-on-one negotiation between President Biden and President Putin tomorrow, or is it possible that this is what Putin wants in itself, and the US government may not give it to him? ?

McFall: I'm not happy. I do think it is necessary, although at this moment of this crisis, yes, that is to say, yes, Putin created this crisis. I want to emphasize this point, 100 times.

There is no reason for this accumulation. There is no threat of attempting to retake the Donbass by force in Ukraine. Ukraine’s prospects for joining NATO should be measured in decades rather than years.

He created this crisis, but in times of crisis, leaders need to talk. So I support the idea of ​​speaking. Rachel, I hope to see more compulsory diplomacy before the call. Not after them.

But I think they have to talk, and I hope this will lead to some kind of spread at this moment.

MADDOW: Do you feel that Putin is trying to create the appearance of a crisis here, trying to create a crisis environment, but actually has no intention of re-invading Ukraine? Is there something we should look for from the outside, or the US government may or may not understand his true intentions here?

McFall: I don't know. The Director of the Central Intelligence Agency does not know, nor does President Biden. I don’t think Vladimir Putin himself knows the answer to your question, Rachel, that is to say, as you said in your setup, he likes unpredictability, which moves us all and makes us all Thinking, well, let `do this and that is to appease him. Therefore, this uncertainty is exactly what he wants.

Now, having said so much, this is the largest building in history. This is much bigger than what he did in the spring. If he wants to move, he has the ability to do it, whether he made that decision or not, I don’t know, and I actually don’t believe other people will do it.

MADDOW: A lot of crazy things are happening in Belarus right now. I don’t want to try to justify the actions of that Russian ally, but what shocked me was that just a few days ago, the Belarusian dictator said that if Russia invaded Ukraine, Belarus would also join the war, and they did so. , I will stand on the side of Russia.

If Putin does pull the trigger here, and does send troops across the border, regardless of whether he wears a badge, is this likely to trigger a wider European war?

McFall: Well, Mr. Lukashenko may join, which reminds me of the Soviet intervention in Hungary in 1956 and the intervention in Czechoslovakia in 1968, when the smaller allies reportedly announced that they had joined the Soviet Union. . I don't think this will lead to an interstate war with NATO allies. To be sure, the United States will not go to war with Russia because of Ukraine.

But I do think that as far as European security is concerned, this means a qualitatively different moment. I hope that President Biden and everyone with whom he is talking on the phone today will understand that this will be a qualitative difference, and therefore take measures in response. Qualitative actions include large-scale sanctions against Ukrainians and large-scale military assistance.

We want to deter Putin. These are two things we should do more.

MADDOW: Michael McFall, the US Ambassador to Russia under President Obama, thank you very much for your time tonight, Mr. Ambassador. Nice to meet you here.

McFall: It's a pleasure to be here.

MADDOW: We will be back soon. Stay with us.

US Attorney General MERRICK GARLAND: Today, the Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against Texas, accusing it of violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The state of Texas has established a reclassification plan that denies or denies Latino and black voters’ racial, color, or linguistic minority membership, thereby violating Section 2.

US Assistant Attorney General VANITA GUPTA: From 2010 to 2020, the population of Texas has increased by 4 million. 95% of the growth came from ethnic minorities. Texas will get two new congressional seats because its population growth is almost all due to the growth of the state's minority population. However, Texas designed these two new seats with a white majority.

In the face of illegal attempts to restrict voting, the Justice Department will not stand idly by.

MADDOW: Attorney General Merrick Garland and senior Justice Department official Vanita Gupta today announced that the Justice Department will sue Germany for the election map drawn by the new Republican Party in Texas. Texas.

We’ve been reporting on this show how these new Texas Capitol Maps are blatantly reducing the number of congressional districts with a majority of black and Latino voters. In a lawsuit filed today, the Justice Department stated that citing the Republicans’ new congressional map effectively reversed a decade of rapid growth in the Latino population and retained Anglo control over most of the remaining areas.

They asked the court to immediately prevent Texas from using these new congressional maps to hold any elections. The Justice Department asked the court to act quickly before the upcoming primary elections in Texas in March.

Based on how the court views this challenge from the Ministry of Justice, this means that the case may proceed relatively quickly. In other words, since the Supreme Court decided to abolish the Voting Rights Act in 2013, the Ministry of Justice will start an uphill battle here.

By now, you probably know that Attorney General Merrick Garland is very non-interfering when it comes to Congressional affairs. He did not tell Congress what to do. He doesn't like Congress telling him what to do.

But on this topic, AG Garland is very blunt about what he wants Congress to do. Today, he ended this press conference on prosecuting Texas and asked Congress to pass new federal voting rights legislation to prevent this kind of electoral voting, this kind of election sloping playing field, to prevent it from happening in the future. .

In other words, the Ministry of Justice has made it clear that it will do everything it can, but it hopes that members of Congress will do the same.

Maduo: Okay. Thank you for being with us tonight.

One last reminder before we go. Tomorrow, President Biden will hold a large-scale one-on-one summit with Vladimir Putin. They call it one-on-one conference calls. This basically means meeting on Zoom.

The two of them held some sort of conference call in the situation room at 10:00 am Eastern time. This of course happened because Russia seems to have assembled as many as 175,000 soldiers on or near the border with Ukraine.

Russia insists that it does not intend to invade, they are like, I don't know, they are washing their hair or something. But we expect that soon after the meeting, the White House will announce a resolution on this matter.

The question of whether the United States will impose certain sanctions on Russia is because of other things they have been fighting against Russia recently. It can be solved as soon as possible tomorrow. If the duration of this relationship and all the high risks it implies, tomorrow should be a bit tricky day. Pay attention to that tomorrow.

This works for us now.

Now, it's time for "last words with Lawrence O'Donnell".