Watch The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell Highlights: March 13

Well, from now until Tuesday, November 5, the two biggest stories we will be covering at this hour are the multiple indictments of criminal defendant Donald Trump and the presidential election; Of course, there are obviously hugely important stories happening at the same time all over the world. Ukraine in Gaza and Israel and other parts of the world in Africa and Asia in South America, but the presidential election is the most important of all those stories because what happens in all those other stories around the world after November 5 depends largely on who wins the elections. election if Donald Trump wins the election, the Israeli government and the Israeli army will be free to do so, as Donald Trump says, finish the job in Gaza those are Trump's

word

s, finish the job, it means kill as many people as you want, Donald Trump won't try. to achieve a ceasefire in the same way that President Biden has been working to achieve a ceasefire and in Ukraine, if Donald Trump wins the election, Vladimir Putin will be free to continue killing Ukrainians in his imperialist

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to take over Ukraine without any resistance from the Americans. president and if Donald Trump is elected president, the story of accused criminal Trump effectively disappears.

Donald Trump could end both federal prosecutions against him by special prosecutor Jack Smith, who would be instantly fired by Donald Trump and the two state prosecutions against him in New York and Georgia would be forced into a delay of at least 4 years until Donald Trump is no longer president if Donald Trump wins then Justice loses if Donald Trump wins human decency loses if Donald Trump wins then all is lost and as of tonight the majority American voters know that Joe Biden is going to win millions of votes more than Donald Trump, but this is the country where you can come in second place with the voter and still become president and win thanks to the perversion of democracy that the founders called The Electoral College and since tonight there is no There are not enough people in a handful of the so-called battleground states that will decide this election who understand what is at stake in this election, there are not enough people in those few states who still understand what they will lose if Donald Trump wins, so We start tonight with what is Now the most important of those stories that we will cover this year because it will determine the outcome of the rest of those stories.

We begin with

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night's presidential election and presidential primaries. Joe Biden was the first to win enough delegates to secure the Democratic election. nomination for president hours later, Donald Trump won enough delegates to secure the Republican nomination for president and today President Biden continued his campaign in the battleground states by appearing at the inauguration of the Biden Harris Wisconsin coordinated campaign headquarters in Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes it's the first Milwaukee campaign base for a Democratic presidential candidate in at least 20 years the Biden Harris campaign is opening 43 more Wisconsin campaign offices across the state here's President Biden speaking at the Wisconsin campaign headquarters in Milwaukee today our freedoms are at stake, they really are in don't make a joke the right to choose the right to be able to determine if you are going to vote how we vote if everything is in your hands and you like the whole country because that's how I won the first one The time I posted this about how we're going to win again many of you helped me in 2020 and we made sure he was a loser and we'll make sure that happens again at a campaign event Milwaukee's president explained what his infrastructure bill means for everyday life: it means wider sidewalks for children walking to school safer bike lanes for residents and visitors dedicated bus lanes to get to work more fast new new trees to provide shade and modern infrastructure to prevent wastewater from flowing into the Milwaukee River into Lake Michigan.

These are life-changing improvements. They will also make it easier for historic black communities in the north and Latino communities in the south to access jobs, schools and entertainment opportunities in the city. Central center from

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ing the Milwaukee Bucks play to attending Milwaukee Area Technical College my predecessor talked about infrastructure week for four years you did nothing not a single Ron Johnson, every Republican in Congress voted against the abatement bill of inflation that is helping to finance these projects and wants to repeal them President Biden explained some of what is at stake in the presidential ballot This same week, Donald Trump said that cuts to Social Security and Medicare are on the table instead from cutting Social Security and Medicare to giving a tax cut to the super rich I'm going to protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare so the rich start paying their fair share keep this number in mind Joe Biden won Georgia by just 11,000 779 votes in 2020 and yesterday's election day in Georgia Niki Haley won almost 20,000 votes, all those voters knew that Nikki Haley had already abandoned the presidential campaign, but yesterday, on election day, 20,000 voters went to the polls in Georgia to vote in the presidential primaries for Nikki Haley against Donald Trump, which is a sign. of Donald Trump's possible weakness in November Nikki Haley's total vote in Georgia was 77,000, which includes early votes cast before Nikki Haley left the presidential campaign today the Biden Harris campaign released this statement Haley voters continue making it very clear that Donald Trump is not building a coalition that can win in November Moderate and independent voters in the suburbs are rejecting Trump's divisive rhetoric and extreme policies and it is no surprise that Donald Trump is running with the same extreme agenda as Maga that has cost Republicans election after election, threatening democracy, nullifying the dispute over the approval of a national election.

Abortion ban that repeals the Affordable Care Act and cuts Medicare and Social Security when Ben Wiler talks about Wisconsin. I'm just listening, tell me what we need to know about this kind of historic and important investment of the Democratic campaign in Wisconsin, so President Biden was in Wisconsin. I think it was his sixth visit today um and uh KLA Harris has been here five times we are a constant focus because Wisconsin is the tipping point state it is the state that tipped for Trump the presidential election in 2016 for Biden in 2020 four the

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six presidential election campaign uh campaign uh the margins of victory here were reduced to less than one percentage point, the Biden Harris administration knows this and is investing with its presence in campaign resources and making sure that this presidency and this administration deliver for the voters of Wisconsin as they are doing nationally.

So today President Biden was here announcing a $35 million investment in the Sixth Street neighborhood of Milwaukee to ensure that where an interstate ran through and divided communities decades ago, they will now be rebuilt in a way that brings communities together and then He came to the campaign headquarters and basically opened up and connected with dozens of volunteers and supporters who were cheering him on. He had conversations. He took selfies with them. The office that will be the heart of the state operation to make sure we go out and persuade every potential Biden Harris voter. every voter who doesn't want a Trump dictatorship starting in 2025.

The nerve center of this campaign is in Milwaukee because the Republicans have targeted Milwaukee for voter suppression and have bragged about it and we are going to fight Ben, like you knows. There is a tension around this campaign. I remember in past presidential campaigns, in the pre-Trump era, people told me: you know what's going to happen, like I know, and I always told them I don't know, and now. What I hear from people is telling me everything is going to be okay, telling me everything is going to be okay, it's very different from the feelings you had in Democratic versus Republican presidential campaigns in the past, it's about are we going to be okay? ?

Is the country going to be fine? Are we going to get through this? Which means, uh, Donald Trump, uh, we're going to lose. We are? What do you say when people ask you that in a state where it's 1%? One way or another, I say that Wisconsin over and over again, and this is true in all the closest battleground states, will come down to margin of effort, in other

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s, to the work that is done by the volunteers who want to help us to become wise. org uh you can sign up to volunteer or donate anywhere in the country and people in Wisconsin are knocking on doors and making those phone calls that will help determine the outcome because it's going to come down to two or three votes per precinct across our state. and The good thing about an incredibly small margin like that is that you yourself can make a difference by

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ing this right now, you can play the role of changing a congressional district that helps change the state that tilts the entire electoral college, that's a privilege extraordinary, is the power. to be in a genuine democracy and it's use it or lose it, this is the time, if you care about our democracy, to fight for it and the polls say that in Wisconsin it is tied, this could absolutely come down to a minuscule margin that the volunteers later win the election and Joe Biden wins another term and we can all exhale.

Volunteers in this election will be able to look in the mirror and say to themselves I did this, that's what we want everyone to feel in this race Ben Wickler, thank you very much. Much for giving us that guidance. I know there are a lot of voters in states like California, New York, Massachusetts, other places where they're out of the electoral college game. They're definitely going to go to Joe Biden and they just wish. could help in some way in those states that have that burden, privilege and responsibility at the end of electing a president, so the guidance is very helpful Beyond Wisconsin, thank you very much, you can call and join our virtual phone.

Banks, let me tell you. We welcome people from out of state, they will call strong Democrats and remind them to vote. We don't want out-of-state volunteers to do the persuasion here, but we absolutely can use all the volunteers anywhere in the country because there. Did we have 3.28 million votes in 2020? Who knows how many we'll need this time. We bring the numbers. Now we want help from anyone who can help because it will be all hands on deck to win this, Ben. thank you very much for joining us tonight thank you this week the Biden Harris campaign announced the endorsement of a coalition of 15 youth and Gen Z voter groups to campaign and also launched students for Biden Harris who will mobilize volunteers on more than a thousand campuses university students throughout the country.

In 2020, President Biden won voters under 30 by 24 points over Donald Trump, and young voters will obviously be a crucial voting bloc again this November. A recent poll found that 72% of young voters say they are likely to vote in the 2024 election, with 57% of them saying they are very likely to vote in the last election young voters helped elect the driver of cars Maxwell Frost, the youngest member of Congress, gun safety advocate and survivor of the Parkland, Florida shooting. David Hog was active in Maxwell Frost's campaign after David Hog founded an organization to support young people. candidates for office The David Hog Leadership Organization We Deserve supports young candidates for more diversity and greater representation in state legislatures, which are largely male and overwhelmingly white, and joining us now is David Hog, President Of the leaders we deserve with him, are two candidates that his organization has recently presented. endorsed christine cockley and she is running for state house representative in ohio's 6th district and ashwan ramawami he is running for state senate in georgia's 48th district david let me start with you and your choice by endorsing these two candidates Well, there are incredible representations of all the best our generation has to offer from Christine's work across Ohio to help you know how to bring the Next Generation into power and with the party and with Asheron's work to help secure our elections in 2020 uh and the fact that Ashon himself is running against a fake Trump elector in one of the most competitive races in Georgia is important because we have to show our generation that we are not only voting from the outside, but also we're getting representation from within, people who understand the anxiety of what it is. going through a school shooting drill because unfortunately Biden has a bit of a problem with young voters, and part of our hope with this work is to show young people that there area lot of people on the ballot, a lot of young people on the ballot that are Not only do you know the president, but they're all over the place.

Christine. Ohio can sometimes be a lonely place for a Democrat to be campaigning. What made you decide to run for state house? Yes, thank you, thank you for inviting me. I'm running to represent the west side of Columbus because I saw Republicans try to take away voting rights and reproductive rights in Ohio last year. This is out of touch with what Ohioans and the people in my community really need. Most Ohio state legislators do not look like my community and do not have the lived experiences in my community, it is unrealistic to expect people without past experiences to legislate for the benefit of Ohioans.

I know what it's like to live paycheck to paycheck and I know what it's like to live. with a disability that's why I want to lead with empathy advocate for our most vulnerable neighbors and take concrete action at the state house and Ash. I've had this conversation with David about the need to focus on the state legislator since there is so much going on there. from gun safety issues and other issues that are crucial and yet Al's national media attention is always onElective office in Washington is always in the House of Representatives in Washington United States Senate uh, what made you run for the state Senate in Georgia, well what I saw was that I really want to contribute to my own community and what we often see is that The way to achieve broader systemic change is actually not to start in Washington, but to start in their own communities and do the kind of civic engagement necessary to do that kind of work and, for me, as David mentioned, I worked in the federal government in Election Security in 2020 working with the states to ensure that our elections are secure and I saw the important need for more talented people to work at the state level and when I saw that Sean, my current state senator, was accused along with Trump of being a False Elector I realized that someone needed to step forward and really show that they were not We're going to tolerate that and we really want people working on the issues that matter and not just overruling the voters.

Christine uh What do you think voters need to know about you and what you bring to what you would bring to that office? I think it goes back to that empathy and being able to advocate for our most vulnerable neighbors. The most important thing is that the primary elections are underway. On Tuesdays I do not accept corporate package money and rely on small dollar contributions. If anyone wants to learn more about me and help send me to the state house, you can do so at cockle for ohio.com and Ashwin, what should voters do? In Georgia I know about you and what you would bring to the job, what voters need to know is that I'm from John's Creek, it's where I was born and raised.

I went to public schools here and I really want to make sure that everyone has the opportunities that I did and would bring A New Perspective to the legislature. I would be the first Gen Z member of the state senate, the first computer scientist, and the first Indian-American legislature in Georgia, but I hope that by playing this role I can bring these communities together. It would be representative of everyone and I want to make sure that we are really bringing the energy, the integrity and the unity to make sure that people from all sectors can really work together on the issues that matter to us.

Are you working with more candidates for the State Legislative Office across the country this cycle we're going to be working with 30 across the country and a big reason for that Lawrence is because we want to show that you know we can't support. Unfortunately, all the candidates, except the ones we want, we want to support a lot, we work day by day with their campaigns, whether it's figuring out how to knock on their doors, whether it's how to make the call time and we also support financially. campaigns too because that's where a lot of young people need that support, but the real reason we do this more than anything, Lawrence, is because I think the biggest threat to American democracy is the hopelessness and apathy that has created people like Trump and my The hope is that when young people look at candidates like Christine or Ashwin, they know that not all hope is lost and if anyone wants to support him, they can turn to the Weed Deserves.com leaders.

Thank you so much.