Show: THE LAST WORD WITH LAWRENCE O`DONNELL
Date: November 12, 2014
Guest: Mary Pat Flaherty, Tom Tancredo, Robert Costa, Bill Nye; Tom Von
Essen
LAWRENCE O`DONNELL, MSNBC HOST: Rachel, I love your moment of geek
tonight. But I haven`t heard enough about that. And so, we`re going to
have Bill Nye the Science Guy give us his view of what happened up there
today.
RACHEL MADDOW, "TRMS" HOST: Great, awesome. Congratulations, man.
Thanks.
O`DONNELL: Well, Chinese hackers have broken into the government agency
that tracks the weather.
And you are about to watch Al Roker try to break into the Guinness Book of
World Records.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s been 100 years since it was this cold this early.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The cold now covers about half the country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Temperatures are expected to drop.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Crazy temperature drops.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: By double digits.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not to rub anything in, but it`s about 70 degrees here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`re a cruel individual. How dare you mention those
temperatures, my friend?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Records are falling. And it`s really cold out there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Al, what are you going to do today? You`re going to
do the 34-hour Roker-thon?
AL ROKER, NBC NEWS: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, how do you prepare for it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are going to watch Al set a Guinness Book of World
Record.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Today Show`s" Al Roker will try to set a world record.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thirty-four hours straight.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Forecasting the weather for 34 hours straight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re trying to raise money for USO.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Al, what are you going to do today? You`re going to
do the 34-hour Roker-thon?
AL ROKER: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, how do you prepare for it?
ROKER: A hundred twenty mile winds, hurricane warnings extend --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were able to predict this storm fairly early.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Al Roker will be trying to set a new record.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: #Rokerthon.
(MUSIC)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O`DONNELL: The Guinness Book of World Records was created in Ireland where
it was designed not so much to honor the best in the world but to allow for
the speedy and fair settling of bar bets. Now, it celebrates the world`s
best, biggest, fastest and sometimes just the world`s craziest, but there
is no record in the book for the longest live weather broadcast.
Norwegian weather broadcaster attempted to set a record with a 33-hour-long
broadcast in September, but it has not yet been verified by Guinness.
NBC`s Al Roker hopes he can beat 33 hours starting tonight. He will begin
a 34-hour-long weather report right here beginning it right here on "the
last word." the Rokerthon.
Joining me now is NBC`s Al Roker.
Al, why are you doing this?
ROKER: Well, Lawrence, A, to get on your show.
O`DONNELL: It worked.
ROKER: That`s worked. And I`m being joined by Diego Klattenhoff from "The
Blacklist" and from Guinness World Record, we got Alex Angert, who will be
helping to verify all of this.
And because -- in fact, Alex, let me ask you. Allie (ph), the young woman,
still has not been verified she`s broken the record yet.
ALEX ANGERT, GUINNESS WORLD RECORD: That is correct, she did not have a
Guinness official on site. So, the record is 24 hours as of now. But I
know you`re going for 34.
ROKER: We`re going for 34 just in case, just in case.
So, here`s the deal, Lawrence. I decided when I heard about this record, I
thought, why not, could be fun. Never done anything like this before. And
I thought I could also raise money for the USO part of the shine a light
initiative on "The Today Show" for the USO. So people go to
crowdrise.com/roker, they can donate. If they donate for every hour we`re
on, we can raise a lot of money for our veterans and for our service
members all around the world.
So, that`s why I`m doing this.
O`DONNELL: It`s going to be a weather man`s filibuster.
ROKER: Yes, it is.
And I`ve got a guy who knows all about danger. I`ve got Diego Klattenhoff
who plays Mr. Danger, an FBI agent on "The Blacklist."
Have you ever heard of anything this stupid before?
DIEGO KLATTENHOFF, THE BLACKLIST: Crazy, but not stupid, Al.
ROKER: There you.
So, I`m really excited about it, Lawrence. I really thank you guys for
letting us launch it on your show.
O`DONNELL: Listen, Al, we`re making history here together. This is
fantastic. And are you ready to start now, Al?
ROKER: I am ready to start.
Alex, are we good to start now?
ANGER: We`re good to go, as soon as you`re ready.
ROKER: Diego Klattenhoff will do the honors of hitting the button.
Three, two, one. Let the Rokerthon begin.
Here we go. All right. The clock has started.
So, Lawrence, how about I tell you about all this cold air coming in.
O`DONNELL: That would be great.
ROKER: Would you guys like to hear about this? It`s almost like a bedtime
story. That`s right.
Once upon a time, we had this polar vortex and what`s happening is a piece
of the vortex has broken off and now, we` got this arctic express. All
this frigid air coming in. Oh, by the way, we`ve got the window here where
people can come by here at the todayshow.com. Come down the Today Show
Plaza and watch.
Here`s what`s happening. Look at these temperature. These are lows versus
their normals. Little Rock is going to be 29 degrees tonight. That`s 14
degrees below average. San Angelo, 17 degrees below average.
The highs for tomorrow, Memphis is only going to be 29. Chicago 33.
Pittsburgh, 39. Denver, 37 degrees below normal, Lawrence, at 16 degrees.
It`s only seven for a low of Denver tomorrow. Atlanta, 28.
And then Friday afternoon, we`ve got Boston at 44, Chicago 17 degrees below
average. San Antonio, 20 degrees below average, 52 degrees. Have you ever
watched the weather forecast live like this?
KLATTENHOFF: No, it`s very exciting.
ROKER: Isn`t it exciting?
KLATTENHOFF: Makes me think of the war room right now.
ROKER: He is riveted right now, Lawrence. And we`ve also got lake-effect
snow to talk about. We`ve got this warm water over the lake, the colder
air comes across.
So, over the next 24 hours, look at the snow coming across Chicago,
Marquette, Western New York, we`re talking a decent amount of snow. I
mean, we`re talking from Marquette to south bend, three to six inches. You
get to the leeward side near Jamestown, New York, upwards of a foot of
snow. The tug hill plateau between Watertown and Syracuse, about a foot of
snow, Lawrence.
So, this is what we`re going to be doing all night long for the next 34
hours. We`re bringing the weather, Lawrence.
O`DONNELL: Al, I`m tired already. I`ve seen enough.
I`m going to be watching tonight from bed. I wish you look, Al.
If you want to find out what`s happening in Al`s neck of the woods, you
will be able to go to, what is it?
ROKER: Go to today.com. Today.com. You bet.
O`DONNELL: Thank you, Al.
ROKER: All right, Lawrence. Thanks so much. Thank you.
And we`re going to --
O`DONNELL: Al Roker, like airlines and disaster planners and shipping
companies and the military depends on the National Weather Service, the
world depends on our national weather service, which is part of NOAA, the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, for weather data, which
means we all depend on it.
This morning, "The Washington Post" reported that Chinese hackers broke
into the NOAA computer network in late September.
Joining me now to explain all this is the Pulitzer Prize-winning
journalist, Mary Pat Flaherty. She broke the story of the hack of NOAA for
"The Post."
Mary, what`s -- what`s of interest to Chinese hackers in breaking into our
weather operations?
MARY PAT FLAHERTY, THE WASHINGTON POST: Well, we have people discussing
that as part of this story today. And there are a number of things. You
might want to say they wanted the information that`s there, it does, as you
say, talk about, effect commercial interest in the United States. The
public safety issues of our citizens. There`s also an asset there that you
have technical data so that if you can just get in and take a look around,
you might find something valuable you can apply at home.
And you also have the notion, which was raised by one of the experts with
whom we spoke that the task of just seeing if you can pierce a U.S. system
is enough to try it. And that if you harden up some other targets within
the United States and you have some softer agencies or vulnerabilities that
can be exploited, then why not take a run at it. See if you can get in and
see if that lead you somewhere else.
O`DONNELL: I know NSA analysts say Chinese hackers and Russian hackers and
others around the world, but primarily Chinese, are just kind of sitting
there all day, trying to get in somewhere. Like you say, and if one of
them says hey look, I just found my way into their weather system, they`re
going to want to know how that happened.
FLAHERTY: Well, and I need to say that right before I came on the air
literally, the Chinese embassy responded to a request that I had made
earlier today for comment on this. And they point out that there is no
hard evidence, they say. To throw out accusations without that is
irresponsible, and they called on people who were quoted in our stories
including a U.S. official, a congressman who commented on the fact that it
was China to really not make those accusations without having something
back them up.
So, they`re pushing back on it, said that they had not been contacted by
the United States government, but our sourcing and then a direct
acknowledgment of what a congressman from Virginia was told, speak to, that
they were being told that a hack from China is what was going into the
federal network.
Now, it`s very difficult to always pin down with precision where those
things come from. The government, not tonight, but also repeatedly has
said on their side that they don`t engage in that. And so, you do have
that stand off.
But the people that we were talking with and as we reported said there was
incursion. It occurred late in September, affected federal network and for
a couple of days caused the weather service to take off line some of the
satellite images, which, in fact, tipped us off to something being awry
there.
O`DONNELL: And there`s also the possibility with this kind of hacking,
that it could find a circuitous route into some other system, that a NOAA
user is using, which is to say some other Defense Department, for example,
system.
FLAHERTY: Yes, we didn`t address that in the story because we didn`t have
evidence of where the lead pick on. The NOAA people in response to us
declined to say whether there was any classified access done, whether there
was information extracted, whether there might have been malware, something
lingering put into the system.
So, we`re left a little bit with answers that we don`t have yet. But we do
-- we can say as we did in the story that the systems that are there serve
a number of interests. Among them, aviation, military certainly isn`t
totally reliant on the weather service, but that`s one of the aspects they
use. There`s an ice and snow center, which is important for navigational
reasons to the United States Coast Guard and Navy. They`re partners in one
of the NOAA systems that go into this weather service overarching system.
So, there are points on which these things intersect. The degree to which
the firewalls that are there separate them once you get a little bit I side
the system is not something I know, but there`s certainly connections at
least on the public side of it viewable.
O`DONNELL: I guess the most innocent interpretation of it is, this is one
of those instances where they just are jealous and want to create one of
these for themselves. And so, they`re going to go in there as they`ve done
before, and try to figure it all out and copy it.
FLAHERTY: And more instant is that perhaps somebody looked at something
and misread what they were looking at. That`s not the evidence that we
have on that, but it would be even the more innocent explanation.
O`DONNELL: Right, yes.
Mary Pat Flaherty, thank you very, very much for joining us tonight.
FLAHERTY: You`re welcome. Thanks.
O`DONNELL: Thank you.
Coming up, why former Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo wants to stop
Chris Christie from becoming president.
And, after a ten-year adventure, a spacecraft has finally landed on a
comet. And Bill Nye the Science Guy will join me here in the studio to
explain that one.
Stephen Colbert proves why he is our most precious political analyst.
That`s in "The Rewrite."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGN VIDEO CLIPS)
JIMMY FALLON, COMEDIAN: FOX News host Megyn Kelly had the former
presidential candidate Mike Huckabee on her show. And listen to what she
said when she tried to introduce him.
MEGYN KELLY, FOX NEWS: Joining me now, former Arkansas Governor Mike
Huckabee, who`s the host of (EXPLETIVE DELETED) Huckabee."
Wow!
FALLON: Fox my life, fox my life. Man. By the way, that`s the dirtiest
a woman has ever talked to Mike Huckabee.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O`DONNELL: Just to be clear, you are only allowed to pronounce Huckabee
that way on FOX News. I will not have that pleasure, when we talk about
Mike Huckabee in the segment coming up here.
Also, the move to stop Chris Christie in the Republican Party.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O`DONNELL: This week, former Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo started a
political action committee to stop a potential Chris Christie presidential
run called Stop Chris Christie.
Tancredo says the New Jersey governor is not conservative enough and blame
Christie and the Republican Governors Association for Tancredo`s loss in
the Republican primary for Colorado earlier this year. According to a
report by the watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, the RGA
appears to have quietly taken sides in Colorado`s gubernatorial primary by
funneling money to third party groups through the Republican Attorneys
General Association.
That report says the money went to attack ads against Tom Tancredo. In
June, Tancredo lost the primary to Beauprez, 30 to 27 percent. Bob
Beauprez went on to lose the governorship to Democratic incumbent John
Hickenlooper, 49 to 46 percent.
Chris Christie said that Tom Tancredo`s loss in the Republican primary was
not his fault.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: Anybody who losses an election is
always unhappy and looking for someone else to blame. And what I find most
of the time, especially when I`ve lost, this is my fault when I lose. So,
you know, candidates who lost elections should not be worrying to blame --
should not be looking to blame other people. They should just take the
responsibility for themselves.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O`DONNELL: In other Republican presidential campaigning news, "The
Washington Post" reports, Robert Costa reports, that 2008, Iowa Republican
caucus winner Mike Huckabee is getting ready for another presidential run.
Joining me now, former Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo, founder of the
Stop Chris Christie PAC, and Robert Costa, national political reporter for
"The Washington Post."
Tom Tancredo, when I listen to Chris Christie, them explaining your loss
and saying it wasn`t his fault, I did not hear him deny that he pumped
money into attack ads against you.
TOM TANCREDO, FORMER U.S. REPO. (R-CO): Now, well, first of all, Lawrence,
by the way, it`s very cold here in Denver for our weather report.
O`DONNELL: You`re doing your part.
TANCREDO: I`m doing my part. It`s very cold. That`s right.
Anyway, the fact is that immediately after the story broke, and it broke as
a result of that watchdog group informing "The Denver Post" about it.
That`s how we found out about it. We tried very hard to find out where
these ads were coming from, but they had covered their tracks fairly well.
And so, it took us a while.
But this group was able to find it. When they reported it, his first
reaction was to say I don`t know what you`re talking about, you know? Tom
who essentially.
But indeed, they were behind it. And now, I think he`s just at the point
of trying to avoid talking about it at all. Because there`s plenty of
evidence of the fact that he indeed funneled well over $250,000 into this
campaign. A bizarre thing maybe from my point of view to have a Republican
Governors Association funding an attack on a Republican in the primary.
O`DONNELL: Robert Costa, this really tracks this money and it seems to be
very little doubt that what Tom Tancredo suspected happened is what
happened. And that would have would have been part of Republican
establishment`s attempt to get the Tea Party, the kind of fringe candidates
out of the race, out of all races, Senate, gubernatorial, in favor of these
more mainstream Republican candidates that they wanted to win.
ROBERT COSTA, THE WASHINGTON POST: We`ve seen this across the board, not
only in gubernatorial race, but in Senate races. There`s a view from the
party officials and the establishment that those who have -- who are gaffe
prone, perhaps, or who have hard-line stances on immigration, like former
Congressman Tancredo, they are seen by party leaders as the kind of
candidates they don`t want. And so, they tried to back some more
mainstream candidates this cycle.
O`DONNELL: And I just want to play for you something that Chris Christie
said at the first big press conference he had to explain how he knew
nothing about what happened at the George Washington Bridge. Let`s listen
to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTIE: I delegate enormous authority to my staff and enormous authority
to my cabinet. I am embarrassed and humiliated by the conduct of some of
the people on my team.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O`DONNELL: Tom Tancredo, from the day he said that, I have held that
within a Republican presidential primary, he would not be able to survive
either one of those two sentences being quoted back to him on a debate
stage with some hard-charging Republican candidates running against him.
TANCREDO: That`s perhaps true, Lawrence, but here`s what`s going to
happen. And it happens, of course, in both parties.
And when anybody is running for the presidential nomination, or it happens
in the governor`s races, too, you run to the right if you`re a Republican
and to the left if you`re a Democrat because those, of course -- they make
up the base. And they`re the ones that vote in primaries.
So, Christie will be -- and is indeed trying to contort himself into a
right-wing politician and claim all kinds of conservative philosophies and
agenda.
Well, the things that you just pointed will be less significant to primary
voters probably than whether or not he is indeed a conservative and whether
he can win. That`s the other thing that will be promoted.
(CROSSTALK)
COSTA: The congressman`s group -- the congressman`s group really only
going to get traction, I think, the congressman`s group, his anti-Christie
group, is only going to get traction if Christie emerges somehow as a front
runner and the establishment favorite. I just don`t see that right now on
the Republican side. That`s why you see such a pining for Jeb Bush to get
in the race. You see people in the donor class asking Mitt Romney to jump
in.
There`s a sense that Chris Christie, regardless all the ire on the right,
he`s a hobbled candidate because of the bridge situation.
O`DONNELL: And Robert Costa --
TANCREDO: Well, it could be, and I don`t think that bridgegate is over
with, by the way. I do not believe that we`ve heard of it.
O`DONNELL: That`s right.
I want to get to Robert for a second.
Robert, who else -- I mean, I`ve written off Christie a long time ago. I
think Tim Tancredo is going to have an easy time stopping Chris Christie
because he`s kind of already stopped.
But, Robert, who else is emerging, and what is the news that you found
about Mike Huckabee?
COSTA: Well, Mike Huckabee is one of a dozen Republicans when I counted
up, who are looking at the GOP`s midterm gains in the last week and they
think there`s no clear front-runner for the nomination, there`s no
incumbent president running for reelection. There`s no vice president
angling for it. It`s an open field.
So, there are a lot of people like Mike Huckabee who weren`t on the radar a
week ago who are now on it.
Also on the radar, Mike Pence from Indiana, John Kasich from Ohio, Scott
Walker from Wisconsin, all won reelection. Pence is popular with the
conservative grassroots.
Huckabee, he almost ran in 2012. He thinks he can go into Iowa. He thinks
he can have a populist message like he used to in Arkansas when he was
governor. There are a lot of names in this mix.
O`DONNELL: Tom Tancredo, when you dropped out of the presidential campaign
last time before, that 2010 vote (INAUDIBLE), you endorsed Mitt Romney who
was not the most conservative candidate in that group.
TANCREDO: Well, that`s you have to remember where we were by that time.
And really, his opponents, the primary opponent was John McCain for the
nomination.
And I assure you in comparison to John McCain, simply from my point of
view, he was the conservative candidate. So, it really didn`t leave much
of an alternative.
However, let me go back to one thing that Mr. Costa was talking about in
terms of support for other candidates who were perhaps more viable than
candidates like me, more conservative and maybe prone to gaffes, I hear you
say?
At any rate, the candidate they put in in Colorado, the candidate they
supported here in Colorado was the only candidate to lose, the only
Republican to lose a statewide -- on the statewide election ticket. Every
other --
(CROSSTALK)
COSTA: That`s a fair point. I mean, look, Christine had all these gains,
right?
Christie had a lot of gains at the RGA, had a positive year at the RGA in
terms of fundraising and wins. But you`re right, Colorado was one place on
the map where Christie seemed to stumble.
TANCREDO: Sure did.
O`DONNELL: And, Tom Tancredo, what are your plans for this Stop Christie
movement?
TANCREDO: Well, of course, we`re going to do whatever we can with whatever
money he can garner. We will place ads. I`ll open offices if I can in
Iowa and New Hampshire. We will be there when he`s there.
My whole effort is to try and make sure that the Republicans voting in
those primaries know who this guy is. Because I have a feeling he`s going
to try and present a totally different picture to them.
O`DONNELL: Robert Costa, what do you think of the top three policy
elements that a successful -- the next successful Republican presidential
nominee is going to have to have. The things that get you -- and those top
three things get you past the Tom Tancredo resistance in that party?
COSTA: If you`re asking how you win a general election, you`re going to
have to have a candidate that appeals more to women and young voters.
You`re going to have to have a candidate that has an answer on immigration
that is more centrist. That`s probably able to win over some of these
purple states that are more center in immigration.
And you`re going to have to have someone who speaks to the widening gap
between rich and poor. Income inequality is likely to be a large focus in
2016. If the Republicans don`t have a respond to this strain of populism
in the country, they`re going to struggle.
O`DONNELL: And, Tom, that sounds like the candidate you would want to stop
in a Republican primary.
TANCREDO: Well, only parts of it I would agree with, certainly. I do not
believe for a moment that it is imperative for a candidate for presidency
on the Republican side to become an open borders candidate. And that`s
essentially what we`re talking about.
I know we try to couch nit all other types of terms of immigration reform.
But in reality, that certainly won`t fly in the Republican Party. And I
tell you, it won`t fly with the American public.
Most people, believe it or not, are on our side about secure borders and
opposition to illegal immigration. So, I certainly don`t think that that`s
a position that a Republican candidate has to take. In fact, certainly, I
think it would hurt him in the primary and in the general election.
O`DONNELL: Former Congressman Tom Tancredo and Robert Costa. Thank you
both for joining me tonight.
COSTA: Thank you.
TANCREDO: Pleasure.
O`DONNELL: Coming up, what does a comet sound like? That`s something I
never thought of before. Bill Nye the Science Guy is here to explain that
on this historic day in science.
And two window washers today in New York City dangled 68 floors up in the
air at One World Trade Center. New York watched riveted live TV coverage
as those lives hung in danger. The rescue was astonishing. We`ll have it
for you in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O`DONNELL: In the "Spotlight" tonight a historic day in space. That was
the reaction at the European Space Agency`s Mission Control Center and
journey one for the first time a spacecraft successfully landed on a comet.
That`s right, a moving comet. After 10 years of chasing Comet 67P through
space, the Rosetta probe released the Philae Lander on to the surface of
that comet. It took seven hours for the Lander to touchdown on the comet,
which is 300 million miles away and traveling up to 80,000 miles per hour.
Signal from the unmanned spacecraft arrived at the Mission Control Center
just after 11:00 a.m. Eastern time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHAN ULAMEC, PHILAE LANDER MANAGER: We are there and Philae is talking
to us. First thing he told us was the harpoons have been fired, rewound
and the landing gear has been moved inside. So we are sitting on the
surface. Philae is talking to us.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O`DONNELL: In a press conference later in the day, the mission leader
confirmed that the landing was successful, but did have a couple of
glitches.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ULAMEC: We have a very clear signal there and we also received data from
the Lander, a housekeeping data and also science data. That`s the very
good news. Not so good news is that the anchoring harpoons apparently did
not fire. So the Lander is not anchored to the surface.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O`DONNELL: Oh, look at this. Bill Nye the science guy is here. How
convenient. We`re so lucky that you dropped by. The new book is what?
BILL NYE, THE SCIENCE GUY: "Undeniable."
O`DONNELL: "Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation" by Bill
Nye.
Bill, you --
NYE: You had a big role in that.
O`DONNELL: I did?
NYE: You interviewed me after this debate.
O`DONNELL: That`s right. Yes.
NYE: Right here on your show.
O`DONNELL: You are the science, I am the science ignorance guy, so I`m
sitting here thinking wait, this thing is landing on a thing that`s moving
80,000 --
NYE: Catching a bullet with a bullet.
O`DONNELL: That`s harder than landing on a moving aircraft carrier, isn`t
it?
NYE: Yes. Plus you`ve been at it 10 years. These guys have been -- this
is their whole career, is getting this thing to land on this object.
O`DONNELL: And it`s only 300 million miles away.
NYE: Yes, how hard could it be?
O`DONNELL: I mean --
NYE: There`s so much space in space.
O`DONNELL: Yes. And there`s -- this mounting marvel on top of marvel in
this achievement, isn`t it?
NYE: Yes. It`s fantastic. I mean, as we say, you know, when you do
something like this, you`re exploring. You`re going to have two things
happen. You`re going to make discoveries.
Did you hear about the sounds?
O`DONNELL: No.
NYE: So it`s making this sound, and do you know why?
O`DONNELL: I think we have that sound. Do we have -- OK.
NYE: No one is really sure why.
O`DONNELL: Let`s play the sound.
NYE: There we go.
O`DONNELL: And that`s the sound of what?
NYE: It`s a great question. So it seems to be rocks and ice sliding on
each other producing an electromagnetic --
O`DONNELL: It`s static electricity style signal.
NYE: The comet is snoring.
(CROSSTALK)
NYE: Or something like that.
O`DONNELL: Something like that.
NYE: And so no one anticipated that.
O`DONNELL: It just makes a noise.
NYE: Or if anybody anticipated it, it`s whole another to actually hear it.
And so this is the kind of thing that people didn`t anticipate. It`s a
discovery. No one is really sure what it means. But I`ll tell you, if
anybody ever had to deflect one of these, for example, there is no evidence
that the ancient dinosaurs had a space program. They could have used one.
O`DONNELL: Right.
NYE: Right. Yes.
O`DONNELL: Yes.
NYE: And so there may be a day in a second where we need to deflect
something like this. And so what causes this sound will be of great
interest.
O`DONNELL: We can`t possibly deflect something like this.
NYE: Oh, yes. Yes.
O`DONNELL: What do we have that could deflect it?
NYE: We don`t have it. We have to work.
O`DONNELL: To work. Yes. We`ve got to start thinking --
NYE: Yes, but this is the kind of mission where people actually pull it
off. And then --
O`DONNELL: Yes -- but as a result of this kind of thing, you start to
build a set of characteristics of what the comet actually is.
NYE: You understand. That`s right.
O`DONNELL: So many decades down the road somewhere, if we ever have to
deflect one and we`re -- we`ve learned that this is --
NYE: This is a practical thing.
O`DONNELL: Yes.
NYE: But the other thing, the two questions that get to us all, where did
we come from? Are we alone? Where did we come from? Where did all the
water on earth come from? Why is all this water on this object that maybe
has a role in making the bubbly sound? Where did all that happen? Let`s
find out. Are there amino acids? What are they doing there? It`s really
an astonishing thing.
You know what, space is fantastically cold, but when you have an object and
a little bit of sunlight hits it, it gets a little bit warmer.
O`DONNELL: OK. So we don`t even know where water comes from?
NYE: Not really. I mean, it`s just so much more common than -- it has
been found to be so much more common than I was given to believe when I was
in school. There`s ice on everything out there.
O`DONNELL: Like what? Like where was the surprise ice find, the big
surprise ice find?
NYE: Well, everything beyond Pluto is icy.
O`DONNELL: Really?
NYE: Yes. And --
O`DONNELL: Who was going to tell me?
NYE: What makes an asteroid different from a comet, it`s almost arbitrary.
Comets have enough water to make a tail. And this is from sunlight. And
so we call it a comet, but it`s an object. It`s got rocks, it`s got ice,
and it`s solid enough for this thing to land on it. And it has gravity.
You know, this is a strange thing. As small as these things are, they have
mutual gravity. Not only is the earth pulling the apple down, the apple is
slightly pulling the earth up.
O`DONNELL: Yes.
NYE: So this Lander will probably stay there just from its little bit of
gravity.
O`DONNELL: And how did they pick this particular --
NYE: Because they could get to it, A.
O`DONNELL: Yes. It was like -- this was the one they could reach?
NYE: Yes. And it`s really an extraordinary thing. I mean, if you look at
the picture of the orbit, it`s so complex. It`s rocket science to get this
thing to rendezvous. You know, you got to push from the earth twice, then
you`ve got to push from Mars.
O`DONNELL: And, you know, it`s funny. When you say mission control, I`m
just thinking, you know, Florida.
NYE: Oh, yes. Well --
O`DONNELL: This is -- this is a whole other game.
NYE: The European Space Agency. And the reason they have a European Space
Agency is because they know, first of all, you`re going to make
discoveries. It`s going to change the world. The other thing is when you
have a space program, it raises the expectations of your society. You
solve problems that have never been solved before. And this is planetary
science. And this was in U.S. terms $1.3 billion spent over 12 years.
O`DONNELL: That`s all. That`s all.
NYE: It`s nothing. It`s a cup of coffee at one of them fancy coffee
stores.
O`DONNELL: In government spending terms.
NYE: Yes -- no, but no, no, no. Per taxpayer.
O`DONNELL: Yes.
NYE: One cup of coffee over 13 years.
O`DONNELL: Yes.
NYE: Didn`t even notice it.
O`DONNELL: And what is this kind of raw science do for the scientific
community in general?
NYE: Well, it raises -- that`s a great question. But everybody is going
to be involved. The geologists, the chemists, the astrobiologists.
Everybody is going to want to know more about this object. You see those
pebbles that are on the surface? They`re held there by gravity. Are they
stuck? Are they held there by ice? Why are they there? Why aren`t they
somewhere else? And so on and so on. Is it sandy? Is it sand papery? No
one is really sure.
O`DONNELL: You know, the reason I always want to talk to you is that I
want to feel smarter, you know. by learning something. Every single time I
feel so much more ignorant.
NYE: Oh, no.
(CROSSTALK)
O`DONNELL: Where was all that ice out there?
NYE: The more we know the more we realize we don`t know.
O`DONNELL: The things I don`t know.
NYE: Man, it`s amazing.
O`DONNELL: That`s right.
NYE: So we`re making discoveries. The sound bubbling off there to me it`s
just -- I don`t know. We`ll figure it out.
O`DONNELL: Let`s listen to that sound one more time. Let`s just listen to
that magical sound. Control room, come on. Come on. You can hear it.
NYE: Oh, beautiful.
O`DONNELL: It is beautiful.
Bill Nye, thank you very much.
NYE: Thank you.
O`DONNELL: Great to see you tonight.
Coming up, how much would they have to pay you to wash windows at One World
Trade Center. And then, how would you feel about that paycheck if your
scaffolding collapsed and you`re dangling 68 floors above the ground
desperately hoping to be rescued?
Two men survived that experience today and we will show you the video
rescue that New York City stared at.
And in the "Rewrite" tonight, Stephen Colbert rewrites a conservative Web
site`s rewrite of its own false story.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you bummed the Stephen Colbert character will be no
more come December?
JON STEWART, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW": That`s not usually the one I talk to
on the phone, so I`m OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O`DONNELL: Well, for the rest of us, our lives are going to change a whole
lot when "The Colbert Report" ends December 18th. Feel like it`s tomorrow.
And then our most precious political analyst will be no more. The actor
playing Stephen Colbert will move to another network and begin for the
first time in his life playing himself.
As we begin to brace ourselves for the final "Colbert Report," let`s take a
look at what we`re going to miss. Like Stephen`s rewrite of Breitbart`s
rewrite of Breitbart`s fake story about President Obama`s choice for his
next attorney general, Loretta Lynch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Loretta might be the only
lawyer in America who battles mobsters and drug lords and terrorists and
still has a reputation for being a charming people person.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O`DONNELL: The Breitbart Web site didn`t fall for any of that. The
Breitbart team found what they believed was the scoop that would disqualify
Loretta Lynch. Obama`s attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch represented
Clintons during Whitewater.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE COLBERT REPORT": This bombshell destroys
Loretta Lynch`s credibility to be attorney general if it were true. But it
turns out Teddy Roosevelt here had the wrong, the wrong Loretta Lynch.
This is the attorney general nominee. This is the one who defended Clinton
during Whitewater. And there`s just no way to tell these two women apart.
But as soon as walrus man noticed the mistake, Breitbart issued a
correction by leaving up the same headline and adding the word corrected.
From there, it`s the exact same article about how Obama`s Loretta Lynch
depended the Clintons until you get to the very bottom of the article where
it reads, "Correction, the Loretta Lynch identified earlier as the
Whitewater attorney was, in fact, a different attorney."
I salute Breitbart for not taking down a headline that you know is false.
You are craven political hatchet man.
They eventually took it down? Oh, my apologies, they are craven political
hatchet men. Corrected.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SETH MEYERS, HOST, "LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS": There is a summit of
world leaders happening in China right now and President Obama is facing
criticism after he was seen chewing gum while walking to a meeting in
China. President Bush would have never done that. But only because he
can`t walk and chew gum at the same time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O`DONNELL: Senator Elizabeth Warren was on Seth Meyers show last night,
and this is what she told him about the government agency that she helped
create.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MEYERS: You helped create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The -
- it`s not a great name.
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Four random initials.
MEYERS: Yes. Four random initials.
WARREN: That`s right. It was named by the Republicans.
MEYERS: Oh, so you think they gave it a bad name?
WARREN: Do you know what the truth is? I never say this publicly, yes, I
actually do think they chose a bad name.
MEYERS: Wow.
WARREN: We had better names out there. And so I just call it the consumer
agency.
MEYERS: Yes. I have a great example of how hard this name is to remember.
You -- did you see that you were a question on "Jeopardy"?
WARREN: I did.
MEYERS: Let`s take a look. This is, "Mrs. Warren championed the creation
and was the interim director of the bureau CFPB for short." No one got it.
(LAUGHTER)
MEYERS: But guess what? Someone told me this was a question that also no
one got. This is recently only "Jeopardy." "When Jimmy Fallon took over
`The Tonight Show`, this SNL vet began hosting "Late Night` on NBC."
I`m as hard to remember -- I`m as hard to remember as the CFPB.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O`DONNELL: We have some breaking political news about Elizabeth Warren
tonight. Politico reports that Harry Reid wants Elizabeth Warren to have a
leadership role with the Democratic Congress -- the Democratic Senate when
the Congress convenes in January. Politico says Reid is engaged in private
talks with Senator Warren, but the report doesn`t say exactly what her role
would be.
Up next, how do you rescue two men hanging from the tallest building in
America? The dramatic video is something you`re going to want to see.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O`DONNELL: We are watch Al Roker going to cut back in, I think. We`re
going to cut back in to Al Roker doing the strangest weather cast of his
career. He is going for the world record longest newscast ever. He`s 48
minutes into it. He only has 33 hours to go to set a Guinness record for
longest weather cast in history.
Why anyone would want to do this is something Al actually explained earlier
in this program. He will be explaining it for the rest of his life, I`m
sure.
Up next, some dramatic video of two men hanging from the World Trade Center
today who had to be saved. It was a stunning thing. Live TV coverage here
in New York had the city riveted to this. It`s coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O`DONNELL: Two high-rise New York City window washers are very lucky to be
back on the ground floor tonight as they are every night but today was
special. They spent an hour and a half dangling from a scaffold between
the 68th and 69th floors of One World Trade Center when one of four cables
holding their scaffold developed some slack, tilting the platform into a
nearly vertical position.
New York NBC station WNBC broadcast the rescue of 41-year-old Juan Lozano
and 43-year-old Juan Lopez live this afternoon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Breaking news here in Lower Manhattan at One World
Trade Center. You are watching maybe the most impressive rescue I can
recall seeing in a number of years. This is really something.
Two workers, a scaffold collapsed and you can see the angle of that
scaffold. How horrifying that must have been. The scaffold holding on
just from one side. And the FDNY has come up to the 68th floor of One
World Trade Center and cut out a window to access these two workers and try
and pull them back into the building. And that`s what you`re seeing right
now.
It looks like they`re about to take worker number one. They`re going to do
this one at a time. They`re going to take worker number one into the
building. It looks like they`re making that happen right now. And here he
is, walking out, what a sigh of relief this is going to be once he makes
that step. And there he goes.
Tom, how is he secured? It looks like he`s secured from the roof.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s probably he still got his harness attached to that
-- see it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Waist there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we have one -- OK. We have one worker safely
inside.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were lucky that in a place where they weren`t in
jeopardy. But they`re working --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And here comes number two, worker number two, stepping
in as we speak inside on the -- OK. We have a successful mission.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O`DONNELL: The men were taken to local hospital with minor hypothermia and
were treated and released.
Joining me now is Tom Von Essen, the former commissioner for the New York
Fire Department.
Tom, it`s just stunning to watch. But it`s a day in the life of New York
City window washers and your old fire department.
TOM VON ESSEN, FORMER COMMISSIONER, NEW YORK FIRE DEPARTMENT: It`s a great
day for the firefighters. A real good feeling to make a difference like
that.
O`DONNELL: And first of all, how does that slack happen? We said there
was slack in one of the cables holding up the scaffolding? How does that
happen?
VON ESSEN: You know, it must have slid off the wheels.
O`DONNELL: Yes.
VON ESSEN: Actually it goes up. And they originally reported one of the
cables broke. And it didn`t make any sense that one of those cable would
break because they really are tested and they are really high quality
cable.
O`DONNELL: Yes.
VON ESSEN: So what must have happened maybe it was going to too fast,
maybe something put it out of line, the rolled off. So you -- you`ve still
got all the strength holding the platform up but now you can`t maneuver it.
And that was the problem.
O`DONNELL: And the fire department gets the call. They respond and it
looked -- it looked -- they made it look like routine business, cutting
through that window, let`s just take one, take the other.
VON ESSEN: Well, you know, Rob described it as one of the, you know, most
fascinating rescues but when you think of what the firefighters had to do,
compared to a firefighter which I`ve seen many times repel off the
building, go out another window, try to grab somebody like one of those
people, one of those guys who maybe had a heart attack or something.
O`DONNELL: Right.
VON ESSEN: That was in a panic situation. Those guys are in good shape.
They were communicating with them right through the window. They weren`t
suffering any kind of physical damage or injury or anything. They knew
that the apparatus wasn`t going anywhere. They had the time to cut through
the panels of the window. They had the right tools. So it really was not
a really big deal for our guys. Except for the fact that they`re so
concerned about the life of these two workers.
O`DONNELL: Yes.
VON ESSEN: That I`m sure were more than uncomfortable, which is the word
they used today.
O`DONNELL: Oh, yes. It looked like these brave men from the fire
department coming to save these brave guys who were hanging out there.
Tom Von Essen, thank you very much for joining us tonight. Thanks.
Chris Hayes is up next.
END
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'The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell' for Wednesday, November 12th, 2014
Read the transcript to the Wednesday show