Rachel Maddow looks at the powerful political momentum Democrats had built, including massive nationwide protests and a wildly successful election, only to have their unity falter on the shutdown fight with Republicans, resulting in capitulation that leaves many Americans who'd been encouraging Democrats to stand up and fight feeling hopeless and dispirited. Senator Bernie Sanders talks with Maddow about his objections to vote, Democratic plans going forward, and why "the Democratic establishment" should be the target of primarying.

Rachel Maddow reports on a new set of dubious pardons from Donald Trump, this time of people involved in his schemes to overturn his 2020 election loss, on top of previous pardons of January 6 insurrectionists, and several with whom he has business conflicts. From these pardons a pattern is emerging that law-breaking is permissible when it's done in the service of Trump. Former DOJ pardon attorney Liz Oyer joins to discuss.

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Rachel Maddow shares the results of several new polls, all showing the deepening descent of Donald Trump's popularity with the American people. Not only are Trump's actions being met with displeasure, but a remarkable number of people are supportive of the No Kings movement as MAGA's popularity fades.

MSNBC's Carol Leonnig joins Rachel to discuss her new book about how the prosecution of Donald Trump in the classified documents case fell apart.

And Rachel Maddow salutes the bravery and resourcefulness of people of Evanston, Illinois, who have not only activated to help protect their neighbors against the abuses of Donald Trump's ICE agents, but have rallied to collect food to help struggling neighbors as Trump's Republicans try leverage food assistance to force their budget to pass. Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss talks with Rachel Maddow about his community's activism and pushing back against federal agents going too far.

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Rachel Maddow explains that while much of Donald Trump's abuse of power is typical of authoritarians, Trump has a new tool that no authoritarian before him has had: extremely advanced spyware. Trump is already deploying this new weapon through ICE, which intends to use this surveillance technology against immigrants but also against Americans who protest against ICE, and anyone they might snare with an extremely loose definition of "anti-fascist."

Rachel Maddow considers reasons why protesting against authoritarians is important, from feeling empowered to ensuring that important rights don't atrophy or get taken away when they're not in use. But another important use for protest is to send a message to the people and entities that would capitulate and become accomplices in the authoritarian's abuses.

Marc Elias, attorney and founder of Democracy Docket, talks with Rachel Maddow about the fight he expects Donald Trump to put up as Trump's unpopularity makes a clean election victory less likely. Even as Trump will abuse the power and credibility of the Justice Department to serve his ends, his past bad faith in making bogus election fraud accusations gives his legal opponents an advantage.

Want more of Rachel? Check out the "Rachel Maddow Presents" feed to listen to all of her chart-topping original podcasts.

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