Good evening, Rachel. So, it sounds like the New Hampshire lesson is a version of a lesson I think we’ve learned before that if you’re a Republican who was not previously judged to be incompetent, Donald Trump will take care of that. Donald Trump will get you declared and revealed to be completely incompetent, at least if it involves going up against any horrible thing Donald Trump wants to do to your constituents.

or even exhibiting any clarity whatsoever when it comes to something that your constituents want. I mean, if Kelly Ayat had the stones to come out and say, «I recognize that the dumb liberals of my state don’t want a Trump prison camp here, but we patriots would love to have one.» I mean, she could try something like that, right? And it would at least have some coherence. Or she could come out and say like Mississippi Senator Roger Ricker did and say like, «Oh, this isn’t good for Mississippi. Don’t put one here.» She could try either of those things. But instead, what she’s saying is I don’t know whether this is okay, but I would definitely like to be CCD on all the letters. And I haven’t—I’m confused as to whether or not it’s happening. Like, talk about absolutely blowing it in every direction. I at least thought that Kelly Ayat had political peripheral vision. Like, I thought she was a competent politician, whether or not I’ve ever agreed with her on anything, but I just haven’t seen a political performance this pitiful at a state governance level in like since co—

Yeah. And the governor’s staff could simply get a copy of Senator Wicker’s letter which is public, which we read on this TV show, saying yeah, saying to Christine Gnome not only do I not want you to try to do one of these facilities in the small town in Mississippi they were trying to do it in, but don’t try to do it in the state of Mississippi. Stay out of the state of Mississippi. It’s all in polite senatorial language. It’s really easy to copy. You can just write one of those and send them to Christine.

And instead Kelly Ayat is now, who like succeeding before now in keeping her head below water and not really being tarred with the brush of being a Trump-era Republican, therefore potentially having some future political campaigns, potentially even national political campaigns ahead of her, right? Except this is the way that she wants to make herself known nationally as the governor with the nation’s most embarrassing and pitiful performance on the issue of whether or not the Donald Trump presidency will include the building of a gulag archipelago. I mean it’s just—

And Senator Rick’s letter actually makes the case that is the opposite case of the Trump propaganda stuff, which is these kinds of things are bad economically. They are harmful to the local economy. They overburden the local medical systems which normally have, if they have a hospital, it’s a small hospital that can’t handle this giant increase in the population—the incarcerated population there. Those people incarcerated still need healthcare. They still need water supply. They still need electricity. They need all of that. And the local infrastructure doesn’t have it. The Wicker letter is just a perfect model for every Republican out there who doesn’t want these in their state, which is every Republican except the governor of New Hampshire, I guess.

The governor of New Hampshire who isn’t in favor. She just doesn’t know.

She doesn’t know how she feels about it. It’s just absolutely amazing. So, I mean, we will see what would happen. Talking to my guest tonight, the state rep from New Hampshire about what she said, and I did not know this, and I have not verified it, but what my guest asserted is that the owner of the facility that was sold to ICE is an Ayat donor, a major Ayat donor, and we’ll look into that. If that proves to be the case, that means that Ayat had even more so than Roger Wicker. She would have had leverage over whether or not this happened over and above your typical politician’s leverage if this was one of her major donors. And if she didn’t exert that leverage and professes to be confused and is trying to get away with taking no position while the rest of her state and that town are against it, I mean, I just think she’s toast.

Rachel, thanks for bringing the story to this network. We will be following it.

Thanks, Lawrence.

Thanks, Rachel. Thank you. Okay, if the kids are nearby, gather them together around the TV so that they can hear a president speak on President’s Day. Not the current president, of course. On this President’s Day 2026, the current president, as usual, gave himself a day off, which was not the idea when President’s Day was created. Donald Trump, who spent the day at his Florida golf club, posted a President’s Day greeting to the world, claiming that he was quote working hard.

No one believes that. In fact, a solid majority of the country doesn’t believe Donald Trump is working hard any day of the week with 62% now disapproving of the way Donald Trump does and does not do his job as president.

In 1879, 90 years after George Washington took the oath of office and 80 years after he died, the United States Congress made George Washington’s birthday, February 22nd, a national holiday. Later, some states made Abraham Lincoln’s birthday a holiday. In 1971, most states agreed to combine those holidays into what we now call President’s Day and set that for the third Monday of February.

And the president then didn’t think, «Oh boy, they made a holiday for me to take the day off.» In fact, on President’s Day in 1972, Richard Nixon was actually working hard as president, doing one of the very few good things he did as president, making his first trip to China. Richard Nixon was literally making history on that President’s Day by making the first trip by a president of the United States to China.

With a barely literate, profane vulgarian living on most weekdays in the portion of the White House that he has not yet torn down, America has lost any expectation of decency or intelligence or wisdom or even coherent speech from the president. High school students in America today, many of whom are listening to a president for the first time, are hearing the stupidest things ever said in the White House. This is a day to teach those high school students and to remind voters that the hateful venom and incoherent ravings of Donald Trump are unique to his presidency.

The first president of the 21st century, Republican George W. Bush, published an article today about George Washington and released an audio version of that article in which President George W. Bush said the most non-controversial things that could be said about George Washington and which every president other than Donald Trump hoped would be said about them.

Our first leader helped define not only the character of the presidency but the character of the country. Washington modeled what it means to put the good of the nation over self-interest and selfish ambitions. He embodied integrity and modeled why it’s worth aspiring to. And he carried himself with dignity and self-restraint, honoring the office without allowing it to become invested with near mythical powers.

As our worst president, Donald Trump stands alone. Every other president, including Richard Nixon, who committed crimes in office, stands above Donald Trump. But no president is more fully opposite to Donald Trump than Barack Obama, the only Black president. So on this President’s Day, when the United States of America would be better off with any previous occupant of the White House than we are with Donald Trump, we can best observe President’s Day here by listening to President Obama, who appeared on Brian Tyler Cohen’s podcast released over the weekend.

President Obama offered a rebuke to Donald Trump simply by being himself. President Obama did what Donald Trump never does. He actually answered every question. Really answered the questions. The Washington press corps often gives Donald Trump unearned points for taking questions from them, even though Donald Trump never actually answers those questions. He simply throws live-filled gibberish at the reporters who ask the questions, most of whom never actually attempt to get an answer from Donald Trump.

As a reminder of what it’s like to listen to a president who can speak and think and feel at the same time, here is President Obama’s full five-minute answer to Brian Tyler Cohen’s first excellent question. The answer includes words Donald Trump doesn’t understand like decency, courtesy, kindness. But the answer also embodies those words as Barack Obama’s response to Donald Trump’s racist poison.

As you know better than anybody, the discourse has devolved into a level of cruelty that we haven’t seen before.

It’s true that it gets attention. It’s true that it’s a distraction, but as I’m traveling around the country, as you’re traveling around the country, you meet people—they still believe in decency, courtesy, kindness. And there’s this sort of clown show that’s happening in social media and on television. And what is true is that there doesn’t seem to be any shame about this among people who used to feel like you had to have some sort of decorum and a sense of propriety and respect for the office. So that’s been lost. But the reason I point out that I don’t think the majority of the American people approve of this is because ultimately the answer is going to come from the American people.

We just saw this in Minnesota and Minneapolis. It is important for us to recognize the unprecedented nature of what ICE was doing in Minneapolis and St. Paul—the way that federal agents, ICE agents, were being deployed without any clear guidelines, training, pulling people out of their homes, using 5-year-olds to try to bait their parents, tear gassing crowds who were standing there not breaking any laws. So the rogue behavior of agents of the federal government is deeply concerning and dangerous.

But we should take a moment to appreciate the extraordinary outpouring of organizing, community building, decency. Neighbors buying groceries for folks, accompanying children to school. Teachers who were standing up for their kids. Not just randomly, but in a systematic, organized way. Citizens saying this is not the America we believe in and we’re going to fight back and we’re going to push back with the truth and with cameras and with peaceful protests and shining a light on the sort of behavior that in the past we’ve seen in authoritarian countries and dictatorships but we have not seen in America.

That kind of heroic, sustained behavior in subzero weather by ordinary people is what should give us hope and should remind us that at the end of the day, the way we get a democracy that’s working, the way we get policies that actually are helping working families get ahead, the way that we restore norms, rule of law, decency—it’s going to be because we citizens are activated and paying attention and saying enough and saying we have a different idea of what the American family should look like and what community should look like. And that is what I’m seeing across the board.

A lot of the values that we say we subscribe to during easy times, during peaceful times, it’s easy to say we believe in those things when they’re not challenged. It’s easy to believe in free speech when it doesn’t seem like the government’s trying to crack down on free speech. It’s easy to say we believe in the golden rule when we aren’t at risk of being arrested when we exercise the golden rule.

Right now we’re being tested. And the good news is what we saw in Minneapolis and St. Paul and what we’re seeing in places across the country, including here in Los Angeles, has been the American people saying we’re going to live up to those values that we say we believe in. And as long as we have folks doing that, I feel like we’re going to get through this.

President Obama offered what he believes is a winning formula for Democratic Party unity.

If you want to create an environment that is welcoming and makes people feel there’s room for me here, then the message and the story we tell has to be all right, none of us are perfect. All of us count. We all have good in us that we can tap into. We can all learn from each other.

That’s part of the fun of politics. That’s part of the community and the social bonding that can come about. We saw that in Minneapolis. A friend of mine, Michelle Norris, is from Minnesota and she was up there talking to neighbors and people she had known for a long time as they were mobilizing protests and activities around ICE. She showed me a clip of this street band that was performing every night after all these activities had been taking place and protests, etc., and they were out there playing music in zero degree weather. And people were celebrating what they had accomplished.

It was an embodiment of the values that make us care about other people. And that I think is a spirit that when Democrats tap into that spirit, then we win. The other side does the mean, angry demagoguery, exclusive us-versus-them divisive politics. That’s their home court.

Our court is coming together.

You should give yourself the President’s Day treat of watching Brian Tyler Cohen’s full interview with President Obama on Brian’s YouTube channel.