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All In With Chris Hayes, Monday, October 20th, 2014

Read the transcript from the Monday show

ALL IN with CHRIS HAYES
October 20, 2014


Guest: Corey Hebert, Charlie Pierce, Ben Jealous, Terry O`Neill, Rick
Weiland, Shirley Franklin


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS HAYES, MSNBC HOST (voice-over): Tonight on ALL IN.

JUDGE CLAY JENKINS, DALLAS COUNTY, TEXAS: There`s zero risk that any of
those people who have been marked off the list have Ebola.

HAYES: Finally, some good news -- 43 people are cleared from the Ebola
watch list, including fiancee at the first patient diagnosed in the U.S.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m freed. Ebola-free.

HAYES: Then, despite calls to remain calm --

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It`s a serious disease. But
we can`t get into hysteria or fear.

HAYES: The fear-mongering continues.

GEORGE WILL, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: There are doctors that are saying in a
sneeze or some, or cough, some of the airborne particles can be infectious.

HAYES: Then, the kissing congressman tries for a comeback.

Plus, some unexpected hope for Democrats in red states.

And, the great pumpkin riot of 2014.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were just walking on the street with, like, mace,
tear gas.

HAYES: ALL IN starts right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HAYES: Good evening from New York. I`m Chris Hayes.

On this Monday night, we have some good news -- a landmark day in the fight
against Ebola here in the U.S., 43 of the individuals being monitored for
the virus were cleared today. Having made it through the 21-day incubation
period without developing symptoms.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENKINS: There`s zero risk that any of those people who have been marked
off the list have Ebola. They were in contact with a person who had Ebola.
And the time period for them to get Ebola has lapsed. It is over. So,
they are -- they do not have Ebola.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Now, those 43 cleared today were part of the original group who had
contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, Liberian man, before he was finally
admitted to the hospital.

Among them is Louise Troh, Duncan`s fiancee, who was under quarantine with
other family members when he passed away on October 8th.

Troh`s pastor her state of mind this morning on "The Today Show".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mixed emotions, I suppose, is still the right thing.
But, today, joy is taking over, for sure. She continues to mourn the loss
of not only her beloved fiance, but, also, all of her possessions and being
displaced and those sorts of things. I also have sympathy for those who
have contracted Ebola, but today, today is a good day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: The cleared group includes eight children, several of whom are
already back in school today. Dallas officials are asking the community
not to let fear affect that treatment of those kids.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUPERINTENDENT MIKE MILES, DALLAS INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT: They`ve
been through quite an ordeal. And so, we want to respect them. We want to
treat them with dignity. But, also, be very welcoming. We really want to
make sure that the kids are not treated poorly or in a way that the kids
may not understand them or may think that they have some problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: But today`s news in perspective at this point, among the 300-plus
people who came in contact with Duncan or the two nurses who have
contracted the disease from him, we have yet to see another case of Ebola.

That includes the family members released from quarantine today who shared
an apartment with Duncan and took care of him after he was originally sent
home from the hospital, and instead they were initially forced to remain in
the apartment with contaminated items after he tested positive.

Today, those people are officially Ebola-free.

The two people who did contract the virus from Duncan, nurses Nina Pham and
Amber Vinson, were directly engaged on the most hands-on care, reportedly
changing his hospital gown, and bed leanings and dealing with the patient`s
body fluids. All of this serves to reaffirm what public health officials
have been saying all along. Ebola is relatively difficult to transmit.
And though contact tracing -- and through contact tracing and monitoring,
we know how to stamp it out.

And while that position may have seemed overconfident and after some
initial missteps, the latest developments are starting to bear it out.
Today, we learn that Ashoka Mukpo, the NBC cameraman who contracted Ebola
in Liberia, is awaiting test to confirm he is disease-free and could be
home by the end of the week.

And, yesterday, a carnival cruise ship jokingly dubbed the SS Ebola
returned safely to the U.S., after a health care worker would handle
Duncan`s blood samples, tested negative for the virus. The woman, a lab
technician at Texas Presbyterian hospital, had been under voluntary
quarantine on the boat with her husband for the duration of what must have
been a not particularly fun Caribbean cruise.

And a sign of hope for the region where the outbreak began, the World
Health Organization announced today, Nigeria is now Ebola free.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUI GAMA VAZ, WHO NIGERIA REPRESENTATIVE: The chains of transmission have
been broken. WHO officially declares that Liberia is now free of Ebola
virus transmission.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: This comes just three days after WHO declared the end of the Ebola
outbreak another West African nation Senegal.

The global health community knows how to stop transmission, but it won`t be
able to keep it from re-entering the U.S. until it is eradicated where it
first began, in Liberia, Serra Leone, and Guinea in West Africa.

Joining me now, Dr. Corey Hebert, assistant professor at LSU Health Science
Center at Tulane University Medical Center, also CEO for Community Health
TV.

Doctor, from the beginning, public officials said, we know how to do this,
we`re going to implement it. It`s going to be OK.

Today, that is looking like a more trustworthy pronouncement than it might
have looked two weeks ago for instance.

DR. COREY HEBERT, TULANE UNIVERSITY: Yes, I think it`s time to reset our
thinking, because I mean, we have cleared Ebola from Nigeria.

Let`s be very clear. I`d like to bring just the facts. So, let`s talk
about what does clearance mean? Clearance means according to the World
Health Organization, a country must have a 42-day period with active
surveillance in place supported by good, diagnostic capacity with no new
cases detected. That is a great thing.

And any country with financial means and a functioning health care system
will stop the spread. That`s why we won`t have a problem in this country
as I`ve said over and over and over.

HAYES: And, yet, there has been, obviously. There has been some worry.
There is no question the CDC tonight, just at 7:00, announced some new
guidelines for health care workers. There`s no question, I think, that
they underestimated the difficulty or the danger to frontline health care
workers. That seems clear.

Their diagnosis of the risk to everyone else looks as if to be what they
said it was, which is extremely low.

HEBERT: Right. We have to think about those CDC guidelines for the
protocols on how to deal with an Ebola patient. Remember, those were
developed in third world countries and in places without a lot of
infrastructure. So, you have to think about how does that translate to a
tertiary care facility in the United States, where people do not have those
types of, that type of training, especially the front line nurses,
absolutely not.

HAYES: And the thing about here, right, the ultimate goal has to be
stamping out this Ebola epidemic, entirely, which has happened to any
previous one. This is the largest one, but it is a disease that can be
wrestled to the ground and essentially snuffed out the way you might
successfully fight a forest fire if there`s sufficient resources in those
three West African countries.

HEBERT: Sure. We`ve had 27 outbreaks of Ebola around the globe. And
they`ve never spread outside of the confines of the countries that were
initially affected.

So, I mean , it`s not something that we need to worry about in a way that,
you know, with like the movie "Outbreak". It`s not like that. But we will
-- we have contained it, we will contain it, and we should move on.

The biggest thing now is that we cannot stigmatize the people that actually
came in contact with the man who actually succumb, because that would be a
really unfortunate thing.

HAYES: Yes, you saw the county executive, Clay Jenkins, county judge.
Clay Jenkins talking about precisely that. You don`t want kids coming to
school. Lord knows, I mean, they`ve had a rough 21 days.

HEBERT: Exactly. And you know, I`m sick of the fear-mongering, too.
You`ve got George Will out there quoting a study for the Minnesota Center
for Infectious Disease and Health Policy. They said he misinterpreted the
study.

I mean, people are just trying to get people all worked, and it`s really
not fair. It`s not fair.

HAYES: Dr. Corey Hebert, thanks very much.

HEBERT: Thank you.

HAYES: Nebraska University Medical Center, which is one of four
specialized facilities in country, where Ashoka Mukpo is currently in
treatment, sent out the following tweet today. Read this -- children of
parents who are working in our biocontainment unit are being shunned. This
isn`t helpful or appropriate, said on their statement. This isn`t an
isolated incident, part of a rising tide of stories in the country
involving freaked out communities who are misplacing their fear.

There`s a school in New Jersey where two new students from Rwanda were kept
home, rather than starting to classes today, even though Rwanda is in East
Africa.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The children in question moved from Rwanda. That`s
about 2,600 miles away from the closest affected country in West Africa,
about as close as Seattle Washington is to Philadelphia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Another school in Mississippi where parents pulled their kid out of
class after the principle had just traveled to Zambia, also located
thousands of miles away.

Some degree, people are just taking their cue from politicians and talking
heads, eager it seems to stoke fears about the virus.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: I`ll tell you, the biggest mistake that
continues to be made is now more than two weeks into this, we continue to
allow open commercial air flights from countries that have been stricken by
Ebola.

REP. TIM MURPHY (R), PENNSYLVANIA: Let`s focus on concentrating our
efforts to stop it in Africa. But let`s also make sure that we`re
protecting America`s borders from coming in here, too.

WILL: There are now doctors saying that we`re not so sure that it can`t be
transmitted by airborne.

CRUZ: What we need from the president is serious leadership to protect the
American people. This shouldn`t be a partisan issue. We should be
protecting c citizens of this country.

WILL: In fact, there are doctors that are saying in a sneeze or a cough,
some of the airborne particles can be infectious.

CRUZ: The administration is not acting to protect our southern borders or
to restrict commercial airline flights from places with an active outbreak.

MURPHY: This is like dealing with terrorism. We have to be right 100
percent at a time. And Ebola only has to get in once.

(END VDIEO CLIPS)

HAYES: I think this tweet today from (INAUDIBLE) "New York Times" pretty
sums it all up. "Congressional press releases with Ebola entitled month
this year, April, zero, June, zero, July, two, August, eight, September,
56, October, 275."

Joining me now, Charlie Pierce, writer at large for "Esquire".

All right, Charlie, can we start with George Will? Spouting absolutely
irresponsible nonsense, again, as Dr. Hebert said, was sort of walked back
from the source that he attended to cite. This is like the great
intellectual of the right. He`s the person that we`re supposed to take
seriously.

I was really -- my jaw was on the floor when I saw that clip.

CHARLIE PIERCE, ESQUIRE: At some point in the last five years, George Will
was taken over by the spirit of Alex Jones, I mean, his initial foray was
when he became a climate change denialist. Now, he`s an Ebola truther.

(CROSSTALK)

PIERCE: I mean, the FEMA camps are not far down the road, I`m telling you.

HAYES: The climate denial point is so key, too, because Think Progress was
compiling today that Republican politicians were saying, well, I`m not a
scientist when asked a very easy question about where scientific on
climate. You know, people are saying on one level, I`m not a scientist but
then turning around and giving you their epidemiological take on the spread
of Ebola all with the cause of further panicking people.

PIERCE: Well, I`ll tell you, somebody should write a book about what
happens to a self governing democracy when it abandons. Oh, no, wait.
Somebody already did write a book about that.

In any event, you know, Chris, the first time I ever became aware of you as
a journalist was when you did that great piece for "The Nation" about the
NAFTA super highway, which existed as an issue even though the NAFTA
superhighway doesn`t exist.

HAYES: That`s right.

PIERCE: And that`s we have here I think. We have this taken to the
extreme.

HAYES: Yes, we have a situation I think also where there`s been people
spotting some political daylight, they think they can make some hay out of
the travel ban. But here`s my question for you, I`ve been sort of
conducting this informal survey. I can`t tell if people are actually
freaking out. So I think it depends on your sources. It depends on your
world and anecdotal evidence from folks. Some of the people in my social
circle do seem generally scared, most seem to be kind of like shrugging
their shoulders.

There`s this great quote from a guy who went to the bridal shop in Ohio and
Cleveland, where Amber Vinson had been. He said, I`m more likely to get
shot by a cop than to get Ebola.

What is your take as you take the temperature of people like whether people
are actually freaking out, because I feel actually the American people
maybe not as freak out people think they are?

PIERCE: Yes, I think you`re probably right. I also think it depends on
which particular closed loop of a universe you happen to exist in, if you
exist in the closed loop of the FOX News, daytime a.m., talk radio loop,
you`re liable to be freaked out about anything. The further you get away
from that, the less freaked out you are. And since most people in this
country aren`t involved in that particular universe, I think that you`re
right.

I think that hysteria that`s become pumped into the dialogue by ambitious
politicians and no-nothing pundits, I think it`s dissipating a little
faster than people think it is.

HAYES: I sort of marvel at the last three months of the news cycle, four
months of the news cycle. It`s so sort of run by fear and thread. And
there`s some scary stuff out there. ISIS, monsters and scary. Ebola,
scary, doing horrible things to people in West Africa. Killed someone
here. It`s understandable. These are genuinely scary things.

But the magnitude to which they are interpreted makes me think there`s
looking about the American political consciousness that`s looking for
something to fear at all times.

PIERCE: I think that that`s part of the condition reflex that was in our
public and into our political culture by the last generation, in which, you
know, you had 9/11, and then you had anthrax, and then you had the snipers,
and then you had every bit of the government dedicated to scaring you about
nuclear bombs from Iraq.

You have three years of being blindsided by enormously terrible events.
And then when that was done, you had a hurricane in New Orleans that the
government`s response to was awful, and the entire economic system collapse
what seems like overnight.

So, the ground had already been prepared by fake threats, and then you got
real catastrophes for which we weren`t prepared. And all of that adds up
to the kind of thing you`re seeing now.

HAYES: Charlie Pierce, thank you.

We are just 15 days away from the midterm election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Cousin Pookie -- he`s sitting on the couch right now watching
football, hadn`t voted in the last five elections. You`ve got to grab him
and tell him to go vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Over the weekend, President Obama stumped for Democratic candidates
in two states that have one thing in common, what that is ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAYES: Right wing trickster James O`Keefe has had it again, this time in
Colorado, reportedly trying to get Democratic field staffers to engage in
voter fraud. Now, this wouldn`t normally be news, but the notable thing
here, that he showed up to a campaign with one of his buddies looking like
this. He`s posing as a civics professor after his buddy had gone to the
field office earlier to ask if he should fill out and mail in ballots for
college students who had moved away but still got mail delivered on campus,
to which the staffer had basically replied, no, you cannot do that.

So, there you have it. Really just an excuse for us to show an absolutely
ridiculous picture of James O`Keefe in a mustache. You`re welcome,
America.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAYES: Today, the president of the United States voted. We have a
photographic evidence. He voted in his home state of Illinois, which has
early voting, in the midst of a bit of a campaign swing.

Yesterday, he went to Maryland, to campaign for the Democratic candidate
for governor, Anthony Brown, and he packed up, went to Illinois to stump
for Democratic Governor Pat Quinn, running for reelection in a very tight
race. And today, after casting his vote, he stopped by Quinn`s campaign
headquarters to thank volunteers for their efforts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: First of all, Michelle sent this, we`ve got broccoli in here.

I`m just teasing. Actually, we`ve got some classic campaign snacks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Now, the thing that these two places have in common is that they
are blue. Very, very blue.

President won Prince Georges County, Maryland, where he campaigned
yesterday, with 90 percent of the vote. He took Cook County in Illinois,
which contains Chicago, with close to 75 percent of the vote.

These are states and counties where even with the president struggling
nationally in terms of the approval rating, he`s still an asset. And while
he`s still very good at raising money and turning out the vote in states
like Illinois and Maryland, in many states where control of the Senate will
be decided, Georgia, North Carolina, and Kentucky, to name just a few,
Barack Obama is not particularly welcomed by Democratic candidates.

But here`s the thing, Barack Obama might not be on the ballot in those
states, as Alison Lundergan Grimes is fond of saying, but it`s his turnout
operation the Democrats are banking onto get them over the finish line.
Obama and his political folks figured out a way to assemble a coalition of
voters for the first two back to back Democratic wins with the majority of
the vote, for the first time since FDR. I mean, a governing majority,
think about that.

And it`s that coalition, the Obama coalition, its strength, resiliency and
durability that will decide this election in places as far flung as Alaska
and Arkansas. The real question is whether or not it can be activated
without him. Over the weekend, a confidential memo written by an Obama
pollster raised an alarm about that central voting block.

It reads, quote, "African-Americans surge voters came out in force in 2008
and 2012, but they are not well positioned to do so again in 2014. In
fact, over half aren`t even sure when the midterm elections are taking
place."

Today, the president tried to project some urgency into Democrats` get out
the vote efforts, with just over two weeks to go.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

OBAMA: We can`t afford to be sitting at home thinking that the midterms
don`t matter, because I`ve got two years left in my presidency and I want
to make every single one of them count. And I need a partner in Congress.
And the truth is, in most of these states, in most of these congressional
districts, if we have high turnout, we win. And when we have low turnout,
we lose, it`s as simple as that. So, what I need everybody to do is just
go out there and vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Joining me now, Ben Jealous, former president and CEO of the NAACP.
He`s now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, and a partner
at Kapor Capital.

So, this is the thing. We`ve got two Americans now. We`ve got two
American electorates. We`ve got the midterm electorate, the presidential
electorate.

And what evidence do you think there is? Why do you think we have those
two? Let me ask you that first question?

BEN JEALOUS, CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS: Look, folks on the left get
really excited about the presidential, seem to think we need to invest
every four years. We`re going to have a conversation that I predict on
November 5th, we can`t let this happen again. We had it back in 2010.

HAYES: OK. I want to stop you right there, because you say this is about
investment, and you say it`s about sort of organizational capacity, which I
think is partly true. But there`s something about the actual demand
interest, fire within people that isn`t present.

JEALOUS: Well, I mean, part of it -- Congress has made itself almost
irrelevant to the American people. You look at the last Congress, right?

HAYES: Right.

JEALOUS: The do-nothing Congress we were taught about as kids, it`s called
do-nothing because there`s less than a thousand bills passed. This last
one was 220, 10 percent of those are for commemorative coins. So --

HAYES: That`s a record. They smashed the record --

JEALOUS: So, no nothing is up here, they`re down there. That`s a problem.

The other part when you get right down to it is Harry Reid hasn`t helped.
I mean, to be quite frank, we had to push and push and push him to get him
to change the rules at the point you`re allowed to change the rules. He
acts like it`s the nuclear option. It`s not.

What has that added up to? If you go back to the Congress of 2009, 2010,
going into the last midterms, there was some 400 bills that Nancy, the
Democratic-controlled House had passed that the Democratic-controlled
Senate couldn`t pass because Harry Reid has insisted on playing by these
super-majority rules that nobody in the country really understands.

So, yes, Congress has to do a better job of selling itself. And the
Republicans have just made things even worse.

With that said, we actually have a habit on the left of not really
investing in the midterms. Republicans have been much smarter about it.
Actually looking at what the actual numbers are and then marshalling
massive amounts of money to get -- you know, it`s not like their voters are
naturally more likely to care about the midterms.

HAYES: Well, that`s the question, isn`t it?

JEALOUS: When I look at it, they actually invest -- if you go back to
2010, right? Black voters in places like California where Kamala Harris on
the ballot, turned out much higher than Obama in 2008 in some precincts
where a lot of money was invested.

HAYES: Let`s just show this number, because I think it`s important thing.
When you look at whites above 30 and blacks above 30, you know, it`s --
it`s -- black drop off isn`t the huge problem. It`s actually, the bigger
thing is age. If you look at 18 to 29-year-olds, they`re dropping off by
more. And if you`re looking at old, white people, they`re steady, steady,
steady.

That`s where you`re actually seeing it. It`s not the case that a ton of
black voters are staying home in the midterms. It`s that compared to the
other cohorts, they`re declining more.

JEALOUS: But what you also need, quiet frankly, what you get is surge
voting. So the kind of untold story of 2010 was really where people
invested, you saw voter surge. Now, the Tea Party was investing in a lot
of places. But the Democrats invested in California. They invested in
Nevada. I think Harry Reid was up that year. And you know what, you saw
surges there, too.

HAYES: Yes, that`s right. He pulled out Nevada against what the polls
thought, he pulled out an amazing turnout operation, I will note in
Georgia, which you and I have been talking about, a lot of new registrants.
Michelle Nunn is pulling up. We`re going to talk about that race in just a
little bit.

Ben Jealous, always a pleasure.

JEALOUS: Good to see you.

HAYES: Every year, the Keene Pumpkin Festival tries to set a world record
for the largest number of carved jack-o-lanterns in one place.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLIE BROWN: I don`t see how a pumpkin fest can be more sincere than
this one. You can look all around and there`s not a sign of hypocrisy.
Nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: This year, something else happened at the festival, instead. It`s
a riot, Charlie Brown. That`s next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAYES: Two things happened over the weekend. First, a full-on riot in the
small city of Keene, New Hampshire, involving students from nearby Keene
State College, as well as outsiders. They threw rocks and bottles at each
other, flipped over at least one car, set fires in the streets, tore down
street signs, as you see, and destroyed.

The violence was precipitated by, of all things, a big family fun event
called the Keene Pumpkin Festival, which Republican Senate candidate Scott
Brown visited on Saturday, as you can see here -- nothing amiss.

Police in a riot gear used pepper spray against the drunken students. They
arrested 84 people starting Friday night and say they will likely arrest
more after reviewing photos and video from the melee.

Now the second thing that happened that was as news about the pumpkin riot
got out, Twitter users pointed out the difference in the way these largely
white riots in key more coverage compared to the largely black unrest after
a police shooting at unarmed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson.

Columnist Tina Dupip sarcastically urged white parents not to let their
children go out wearing L.L. Bean. Reporter (inaudible) ripping off the
recurring sermons on absentee black fathers asked, don`t these people have
jobs? Where are the white fathers?

Now, there has been plenty of soul searching in Keen following the riots.
Yesterday, about 200 Keen State students and community members volunteered
to clean up the mess.

As it happens, Keen Police had foreseen there might be some problems at the
pumpkin festival. As John Oliver pointed out, the Keen P.D. had acquired a
Bear Cat, an armored personnel truck through a federal government grant,
but not to deal with a bunch of alcohol-fuelled, out-of-control, college
students.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is a possible target there at the annual pumpkin
festival specifically this pumpkin festival.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: There`s a lesson here I think. The threats that we face are much
less likely to come from home grown, borish stupidity than bad guys
overseas.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAYES: Monica Lewinski is now on Twitter and made her first ever public
address today. And the reason that that is news is because Monica Lewinski
is both a private citizen, human being, and a public person, one of many,
many people who have been told over that distinction in the new cycle
against their will and their interest.

Lewinski spoke today at "Forbes" 30 under 30 Summit about being a victim of
the internet age.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MONICA LEWINSKI: A 22-year-old intern in the White House and more than
averagely romantic. I fell in love with my boss in a 22-year-old sort of
way. Overnight, I went from being a completely private figure to a
publicly humiliated one. I was patient zero.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Now, the circle of newsworthy scandal around politicians have
expanded decade after decade, generation after generation.

In 1987, a supposedly damning photo of then presidential candidate, Gary
Hart, with someone other than his wife sitting on his lap doomed his
candidacy and was a clear turning point. But the details of how that
scandal is remembered may not utterly comport with fact as noted in the new
book.

In the 1992 race, there`s another turning point when Bill Clinton got the
Democratic nomination despite allegations of an affair with Jennifer
Flowers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know her?

FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How would you describe your relationship?

CLINTON: Very limited. You know, friendly, but limited.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s a legend and is described in some detail in a
supermarket tabloid in which she calls a 12-year affair with you.

CLINTON: That allegation is false.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Right now, in a Louisiana congressional election, in this election,
right near the Mississippi border, there is a test of just what the new
parameters are. What will voters not abide and shake their heads at and
say, I still like the guy even if the media consider it as a massive
scandal.

Remember this? Surveillance video from an anonymous source given to a
local Louisiana newspaper that led to Representative Vance McAlister being
dubbed the kissing congressman.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Representative Vance McAlister issued a statement
Monday saying he`s fallen short and he seeks forgiveness. The woman in the
surveillance video is a married female staffer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: But, after vowing not to run again, McAlister changed his mind.
"Politico" followed him around recently as he campaigned and found that not
a single person in the city near the Mississippi border or at any other
event on this scorching October day takes McAlister`s task for locking lips
last December.

So, is there a gap between what the press finds noteworthy than the
politician`s personal life and what voters do? Joining me now Terry
O`Neill, the president of the National Organization for Women.

Terry, what do you think about this particularly in the case of this guy,
right? So this infraction, this is a bad thing to do, a bad thing to do to
your staff, a bad thing to do to the woman that you`re married to. It`s
bad. We all agree. Don`t do that.

But it was seen as this massive scandal. Obviously, can`t run again. He`s
just putting it to the test of the voters. What do you think?

TERRY O`NEILL, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN: I guess whether
politicians like it or not, their personal conduct matters to the voters.
Honestly, whether opposition researchers like it or not, there is a limit
to which the voters will decide that one scandal is the be all and end all,
and sometimes they will.

Look, Bob Livingston from Louisiana is a notable example of an individual
who lost his seat in Congress because of his personal behaviour but others
don`t.

HAYES: But he lost it, right, because it came out he had an affair after
amidst, actually, I think, right? It was during the impeachment trial of
Bill Clinton. It was this sort of manifest hypocrisy that ended up sinking
him, right?

O`NEILL: Absolutely. Absolutely. So it`s the hypocrisy, you know, with
the bad behavior. You`re absolutely right. So yes, the voters do consider
that to be part of the package that they`re voting about. They don`t
consider it to be the be all and end all.

HAYES: One of the things that Matt Bai talks about in this new book, which
is really fascinating. I`ve read a number of the chapters in it. There`s
sort of a generational shift, right. The part what brought down Hart and
subjected politician`s personal lives to more scrutiny was actually kind of
this feminist revolution.

The idea that it wasn`t a mad man era where you just shrugged your
shoulders at boys chasing skirts as it were, but that there was a sort of a
flipside to that, do you buy that?

O`NEILL: You know, in a way, I do. I think it wasn`t just a madman era
and people thought it was normal to happen. I think there was sort of a
conspiracy of silence in the media that has been sort of flipped around on
a 180-degree change, meaning not specifically and intentionally not report
that kind of behavior.

Now the media reports it all together. I have to say I also think that
part of the feminist revolution can be seen in the way the media is I think
trying to decide how to cover male candidates and female candidates.

Frankly, the case of Krystal Ball comes to mind. There was a photograph of
her kissing the tip of her young husband`s nose, remember that?

HAYES: Scandalous image of her husband.

O`NEILL: Well, because of his reindeer, his Rudolph nose was blah, blah,
but you know, her response was exactly spot on and I think it really show
the generational shift. What she said about it was, look, we live in the
world of Facebook nowadays. There are going to be pictures.

People have to get over it. I hope the voters, she said, will look at me
and look at my qualifications and look at my agenda that I would like to
bring to elected office. So -- and I think that was exactly the right
answer and in fact, her numbers went up after she made that statement.

HAYES: Big question for me I think is in the future what we see happen
around sort of issues of infidelity or sort of intimate lives of people
happen what happened to drug use, which used to be seen as disqualifying.
And now I think no longer is. It`s possible that might be in our future.
Terry O`Neill, thank you.

O`NEILL: Thank you.

HAYES: Someone who`s running one of the most unapologetically, progressive
campaigns in the country.

(VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: I`ll talk to Rick Weiland ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAYES: The headlines right now are downright depressing for Democrats.
Republicans chance of winning the Senate keep getting better. Republican
Senate chances keep rising. Can we expect a Republican blowout? Current
polling has Republicans flipping seven vulnerable seats in right leaning
states. GOP only needs a net gain of six to take control of the upper
chamber.

But, there`s a "but," 15 days before Election Day, there is hope in three
right leaning states, where Republican Senate candidate should be handily
in the polls, they aren`t.

In Kansas, polling released today shows incumbent Republican Senator Pat
Robert tied with challenger, Greg Orman. Orman is running as an
independent, which really helps in Kansas, a state where President Obama`s
approval rating is barely above 30 percent.

And then there`s the race to replace retiring Republican Senator Saxby
Chambliss in the state of Georgia. A survey USA poll now has Democrat
Michelle Nunn with a three-point lead over Republican nominee, David
Perdue.

This is the first poll that showed Nunn with a lead and it may have less to
do with the fact she`s the daughter of former Georgia Senator Sam Nunn and
more to do with her line of attack against her opponent a former CEO.
She`s repeatedly accused David Perdue about sourcing jobs and Perdue when
asked to defend his record celebrated it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID PERDUE, GEORGIA SENATE CANDIDATE: I`m proud of it. This is a part
of American business. I mean, outsourcing is the procurement of products
and services to help your business run. I mean, people do that all day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: And then there`s South Dakota. There`s a four-way race underway to
replace retiring Democratic Senator Tim Johnson. On the ballot, Mike
Rounds, Republican nominee and former governor, Larry Pressler, a former
Republican senator who is now running as an independent, Democrat Rick
Weiland, and conservative independent candidate, Gordon Howie.

I want to talk about the Democrats. Rick Weiland is running in a red
state, one of the most liberal campaigns in 2014. And not just in a red
state, in the country. He`s running on a platform to expand Medicaid,
raise the minimum wage as well as raise the Kaplan social security taxes,
and even expand the program.

Also as reporter David Wieger points out, Weiland sought out and won the
endorsement of Elizabeth Warren. The latest polling has Weiland in third
place at 28 percent with four people in the race and no run off. This is
key.

It is possible a candidate like Rick Weiland could ride a progressive race
to victory in a state that Mitt Romney won by 18 points. Joining me now is
Rick Weiland. Mr. Weiland, how is it going up there? How are things
looking?

RICK WEILAND (D-SD), U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: I think it`s looking great,
Chris. I just came off the campaign trail for this interview. I hit
another half a dozen towns in my state. We`re out there talking to the
voters and I think they`re listening. I think they`re fed up with a
dysfunctional government.

I`ve been talking about how big money has gotten in the way of good public
policy, and I think the voters are ready for some changes here come
November 4th.

HAYES: So a big part of your situation has to do with the fact that you`ve
got a four way race and no runoff. And that is part of the reason that I
think you`ve got a path to victory in a state that might otherwise be hard
for a Democrat. Is that your understanding of how you might make it
through here?

WEILAND: I think you folks out there are just too focused on red states
versus blue states. I mean, I`ve been out there talking about, you know,
opening up Medicare. We have 140,000 people in South Dakota rely on
Medicare. They wouldn`t give it up for private insurance.

I keep saying, you know, we would have gotten better health care reform if
Medicare had been part of Obamacare. But the big insurance companies just
did not want the competition. That`s big money. Their lobbyists and their
political contributions calling the shots on health care reform.

And people in South Dakota liked their Medicare. I just think we should
make Medicare available to everyone as a choice, as a choice. Not a single
payer system, but as a choice. If we could get that done, if big money
would step aside, I think you`d have more affordable health insurance in
this country. I don`t think that`s too liberal. I think that`s smart and
that`s fair.

HAYES: And you`re basically running this on a boot strap campaign. Have
you gotten help from National Democrats? Have the DSCC come in? Are you
getting super PAC help, Harry Reid, anyone coming to help you out there?

WEILAND: Well, we`ve had some folks come in recently because I`ve been out
there for the last 18 months going town-to-town. We`ve been to over 500
communities so far. We`ve held over 250 town hall meetings when no one was
paying any attention. I know my state. This is a retail state, grass
roots.

Going out and talking to the voters makes things work out here. A lot of
the folks nationally, the punditry, the establishment, just doesn`t get
that in a state like South Dakota. I do. I think that`s what`s going to
carry us into the end zone on November 4th.

You know, it`s not just the retail. It`s out there talking about what`s at
stake here. People want their government to work again and they don`t feel
it`s on their side.

When you hear about tax provisions that allow big corporations to park
their profits offshore without having to pay any tax on it and getting tax
refunds back from the federal government, and we`re throwing kids off of
head start and our veterans to the curb, that`s not liberal.

That`s not conservative. That`s what makes this campaign work. This is
just good old South Dakota common sense and values.

HAYES: Your governor, Mike Brown, who`s now running for Senate has been
embroiled over a scandal over a state visa provision. He has found himself
investigated. Do you think there`s an era of frustration with corruption
more broadly that`s driving the electorate right now?

WEIDLAND: You know, a little bit. This has been an ongoing debacle from
day one. I actually came out several months ago and said, I don`t like
this program where essentially, big money investors from foreign companies
allowing them to buy in and cut to the front of the immigration line to get
their permanent residency.

We`re selling green cards for big money contributions. That`s big
government in the employee of big money. I don`t like it. I`ll repeal it
if I get elected or when I get elected, which I think is going to happen
because it`s just not right. It doesn`t square with South Dakota values.

HAYES: Rick Weiland, he is running for Senate in South Dakota as a
Democrat. Thank you, sir.

Democrat`s single biggest challenge taking a seat in a state we`ve been
covering a lot here on ALL IN. It all comes down to who registered to
vote, whose registration is processed to vote and who actually votes.
That`s next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAYES: David Purdue, Republican Senate candidate in Georgia, is on defense
over his business record and it was ironically that same business record
that helped him win the crowded, imperative Republican Georgia Senate
primary because he manage to avoid the stain of politics, at least until
now.

Instead, he had been working for companies like Sara Lee and Reebok. What
did he do for those companies, you might ask?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Republican U.S. Senate candidate, David Purdue`s
business background may be coming back to haunt him on the campaign trail.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We got our hands on and read through a copy of a
186-page deposition relating to Purdue`s nine-month stint as CEO of a North
Carolina company that eventually shuddered. The attorney asked can you
describe your experience with outsourcing? Purdue responds, "Yes, I spent
most of my career doing that."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: That`s the key sentence. I spent most of my career doing that. Of
course, several reporters recently asked Purdue about that 2005 statement
asking him how he defended it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PURDUE: Defending it? I`m proud of it. This is a part of American
business, a part of any business. I mean, outsourcing is the procurement
of products and services to help your business run. People do that all
day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Purdue`s political opponent, Democrat Michelle Nunn, has spent much
of her life working in politics and those statewide name recognition thanks
to being the daughter of former four-term Georgia Senator Sam Nunn, she`s
already launched several ads hitting Purdue on his outsourcing comments.

In a new state while unemployment is at 7.9 percent so two points higher
than national average, it seems to be working. The latest polling has Nunn
now leading Purdue 48 versus 45 percent within the margin of error in that
red state.

Joining me now, former Democratic mayor of Atlanta, Shirley Franklin, a
former advisor of Michelle Nunn`s campaign, she`s also visiting professor
of Ethics and Political Values at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the
University of Texas, Austin.

Ms. Franklin, I`ve been following closely the Georgia press and the Atlanta
possess, and it seems like the political campaign cycle has been dominated
by this outsourcing question ever since that deposition came to light about
10 days ago.

FORMER MAYOR SHIRLEY FRANKLIN (D) ATLANTA: There`s no question that that`s
been an issue in the press. But, out on the campaign trail, the big issue
is who`s going to represent Georgia and bring jobs and restore the economy?

And Michelle Nunn`s gotten traction because that`s what Georgians want.
That`s what the voters want to know, what are you going to do to help
Georgia? How will you represent the state when you`re elected?

HAYES: What are the dynamics of this race been like throughout?
Obviously, Michelle Nunn has high name recognition, thanks to her father
who`s very popular, retired, while being very popular. What have been the
dynamics driving this? Is it a question of this sort of turnout base
question?

Is it a question of whether she can win over a certain segment of the
population, particularly the Atlanta suburbs, who are generally inclined to
vote for Republicans but might give her a look?

FRANKLIN: Michelle is appealing to people across the state. I know the
suburbs and the city have a predominant number of voters, but Michelle has
been working all across the state. She`s appealing to people, who want to
see a change in Washington and want to see a representative in Washington
in the Senate, who`s going to see a representative the issues of all
Georgians.

Both business and everyday citizens, so women are attracted to her,
everyday folks, entrepreneurs are attracted to her. You`ll see she`s spent
her entire career building bridges. Michelle is known for working across
political parties, different segments of the community.

She`s brought people together. Her public service is around volunteerism,
leadership, finding ways to work together and that`s what`s appealing.

HAYES: There have been some questions about the secretary of state, this
Republican in Georgia and whether he is effectively processing new voter
registrations. There are about 40,000 votes missing from the rolls that
should be on there.

This is while the secretary of state is suing that group because he says
that they are not on the up and up or they`ve engaged in fraudulent
practices. Is there a concern about that? Are you concerned about the
integrity of this going forward?

FRANKLIN: We certainly are concerned. Actually the group is suing and has
sought help from Washington, from the Justice Department. The secretary of
state is just dragging its feet and I do believe that there are political
reasons for him to do that. There`s no expectation that over 120,000 new
registered voters seek to participate in this election.

A lot of them have been processed and with good solid turnout, a solid
message, and we have a great candidate. I expect Michelle Nunn will win.

HAYES: Shirley Franklin, former mayor of Atlanta, thank you for your time
tonight.

FRANKLIN: Thank you.

HAYES: That Georgia race is going to be very, very interesting one.
Michelle Nunn, pulling in the lead for the first time we`ve been covering
for months. The fact that Georgia, if it were to get enough of its young
voters and voters of color registered to the polls would actually predict
Democrats. So we are going to be following that closely down the stretch.

That is ALL IN for this evening. "THE RACHEL MADDOW" show starts right
now.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY
BE UPDATED.
END

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