Maddow: 'No Kings' protests send message to Trump from EVERY state in the nation

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All right.

One piece of business to get to before we get started tonight.

If you want to come to a live event that I'm doing, there are tickets available right now for an interview I'm going to be doing with Michael McFall on the topic of autocrats versus democrats.

That is the title of his new book, which is out next week.

I'm going to be doing a live event with Michael McFall on that topic, autocracy versus democracy, next Thursday night, October 30th, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

So you can use that little QR code thing on your screen or just go to mattoblog.com if you want to get tickets.

Next Thursday, October 30th in Cambridge.

All right, that's it.

Now let's get down to the real business at hand.

You know, you cannot help but wonder if President Donald Trump didn't wait until after

this weekend's massive no kings protests.

You can't help but wonder if he didn't wait until these protests were already done before today he started literally physically tearing down the White House.

This is not AI.

That is a real thing.

I mean, the No Kings Day protests saw 7 million Americans turning out in the streets coast to coast protesting against him this weekend.

Imagine how many millions more there might have been if we had seen these images on Friday instead of him starting to do do this today.

Trump literally today sent a like a rental backhoe to physically rip down the east wing of the White House.

Okay.

He's already paved the rose garden.

Literally, he paved it.

That's the rose garden, except, oh no, it's a patio at a Panera in a strip mall.

He paved the rose garden.

He took up parts of the White House lawn to put up huge flagpoles so he could fly novelty-size American flags over the White House to make it look like it's an RV dealership that's going out of business.

He hung cheap gold decorations all over the Oval Office, just random little gold GIGAWs to make it look like a Hilton Hotel banquet room in 1992 before the renovation.

He tried to give away Eisenhower's sword as like a hostess gift to a foreign head of state.

The head of the Eisenhower Presidential Library resigned in protest and said he wouldn't do it, right?

So, this is how the man is treating the legacy, the physical legacy of the presidency of the United States.

So, maybe we should have seen it coming, right?

Especially after he promised everybody this summer that to build this new ballroom he wants for himself.

He promised this summer overtly that the construction of the new ballroom wouldn't affect anything else at the White House.

He said everything else would be left intact.

It, quote, won't interfere with the current building.

As soon as he said that, we should have imagined him rolling the backhoes up to the White House to start literally ripping it down,

which is what happened today.

We should have known, but still nothing can quite prepare you for the sight of him actually doing it.

Absolutely amazing.

Surprise, Donald Trump is literally destroying the people's house

because apparently he thinks it's his house.

and not ours.

And I'm guessing he has no intention of moving out of it ever.

So yeah, he waited to start tearing down the White House with a backhoe until today.

Imagine how many more people might have turned up for the No Kings protest this weekend had we seen this stuff a few days ago.

I mean,

above and on top of the 7 million people who showed up, I thought we'd get maybe five or six million people like we did in June.

We got five million-ish in June.

I thought maybe 6 million, 7 million plus.

People showed up to protest against Trump everywhere, not just in all 50 states, but in every state, multiple, sometimes dozens, sometimes hundreds of protests.

Start in the great state of Alabama, at least 15 no-kings protests all around the state of Alabama.

People protested at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.

They protested in Oxford, Alabama.

Hundreds of people turned out there.

In Montgomery, they marched from Riverfront Park.

Here's a look at the crowds that turned out in Huntsville, Alabama, and in Birmingham, where the march started at Railroad Park.

Here's Dothan, Alabama and Guntersville, Alabama.

And up to Alaska, at least 25 No Kings protests all across Alaska, including Nome and Homer and Juneau and Sitka, basically every town of any size that you can name in Alaska and a bunch you've never heard of.

Look at the big crowd in Anchorage.

Right?

We've got a big, look at the crowd in Anchorage.

Here's also Seward and Fairbanks and in Wasilla, from which Sarah Palin can see Russia from her house.

Now to Arizona, more than 60 No Kings protests all across the state of Arizona.

State's newsroom reports that when Arizona had its huge turnout for the No Kings protests in June, one of those states where people really wowed by the turnout in June, that was about 40 Arizona protests in June.

This time they had 60, including Scottsdale and Goodyear, Arizona.

Also Flagstaff, one of my favorite places in the whole country.

People turned out all along Route 66 in Flagstaff.

And look at the huge crowd.

Look at Phoenix.

Look at the huge crowd that turned out at the state capitol in Phoenix.

On to Arkansas.

No Kings organizers and Pride March organizers got lucky this weekend when both Arkansas's annual Pride Parade and the No Kings protests happened to fall on the same day on Saturday.

Everybody seemed pretty happy with the coincidence.

Events kind of dovetailed in Little Rock.

This woman from Conway, Arkansas came out to Little Rock to show that she was proud of her three Antifa, that is anti-fascist uncles who fought for this country and against fascism in World War II.

But lots and lots of people turned out in Little Rock, Arkansas this weekend.

Here's also a look at Jonesboro, Arkansas, and Villonia, Arkansas.

That's in Faulkner County, population less than 5,000.

And here's Hot Springs, Arkansas in the pouring rain.

Tons of people turned out.

Today, I was reminded for the first time since elementary school that there are no states that start with B.

So we just jump right from Arkansas to

California, where there were hundreds of No Kings events in California.

I could spend the whole night just showing you protests in California alone, but here's just a sampling from Livermore and Oakland, both in Northern California, and then Long Beach and Los Angeles in Southern California.

Los Angeles had big protests over the course of the day, spread out over the course of the day.

But so many of the California protests were just huge.

I mean, Sacramento was really, really big.

Look at Sacramento, upper left there.

San Diego, upper right, look how big that is.

Look at Santa Cruz.

San Francisco was always going to be big, but Trump's threat to send troops to San Francisco may have goosed the turnout there.

It covered more than a dozen city blocks in San Francisco.

Colorado, here's Denver, where an overflow crowd spilled out of Civic Center Park.

And here's Colorado Springs, and here's Centennial, Colorado.

Here's Littleton, Colorado.

Connecticut, at least 50 different no-kings protests in Little Connecticut this weekend.

50 different events.

Here's New Haven and Milford and Westport and Hartford, the state capital.

It was a huge turnout at the state capitol in Connecticut this weekend.

On to Delaware.

Here's Rehoboth Beach and Bethany Beach.

and Newark and Wilmington, North Carolina.

They got a big crowd along the Bancroft Parkway in Wilmington.

Florida never disappoints, depending on how you think about disappointment.

Really big crowds in Miami in particular this weekend.

Apparently, some local Proud Boys came out to try to start stuff with No Kings Proud in Miami, but people just shouted them down and nothing really happened.

So here's a look at Miami.

Again, big crowds in Miami, big crowds in Jacksonville.

We saw good turnout in St.

Augustine and in St.

Petersburg and in Tampa.

Just tons of people turned out in all sorts of different protests all across Florida.

The bulwark posted this video.

This is of interest, particularly to political junkies.

This is the villages in Florida, which is the famous supposed Republican voting stronghold in Florida.

Thousands of retirees turned out at the villages this weekend to protest against Trump there.

That's something.

In Georgia, there was a huge no-kings protest in Atlanta,

but that wasn't the only one.

State's newsroom is reporting that there were 40 different no kings protests in Georgia this weekend, including these in Savannah and in Macon and in Augusta, in addition to that huge one in Atlanta that just covered multiple city blocks and seemed to go on forever.

Hawaii, Hawaii, point of interest here, Hawaii did not call itself

no kings.

this weekend.

Hawaii did not call their protest no kings protests since the Hawaiian people, quite rightfully, did have kings and also queens so in hawaii

in order to be sensitive on that issue it was instead no dictators and who can argue with that they had a good turnout at their no dictators protests on maui and in hilo and in kona in the pouring rain and a ton of people turned out in honolulu Idaho.

Everybody thinks of Idaho as so hard right.

It's like the poster child for a hard right wing state.

But tell that to the massive numbers of people who keep turning up for anti-Trump events like this No Kings protest this weekend in Boise.

The Idaho statesmen said they talked to a number of people who said this might be the largest protest anyone has ever seen in Boise for anything.

So here's a look at Boise and also Pocatello and McCall, Idaho and Nampa, Idaho.

In Illinois, I think we knew that Chicago was going to be pretty big given the way Trump is trying to wage war on the city of Chicago and given the kind of spontaneous and just absolutely uncompromising resistance that we are seeing against Trump and his, particularly his federal immigration agents, every single day, we knew it was going to be big in Chicago.

Did we know the Chicago protest would stretch to fill 22 city blocks?

I'm not sure we knew it was going to be that big.

I'm not sure anybody could have expected that.

But yeah, Chicago there in the upper right-hand side.

Here's also Carbondale, Illinois.

Here's Little Park Ridge, Illinois.

Here's Urbana, Illinois.

On to Indiana.

Indianapolis was really, really big.

Look at that upper left-hand corner.

Indianapolis was bigger than anything I've seen there.

As we've been covering protests this year in Indiana, Indianapolis has been turning on pretty big numbers.

Here's also Columbus, Indiana, and South Bend and Fort Wayne, Indiana.

In Iowa, Des Moines was huge.

And I think maybe we now know to expect that in Des Moines, the turnout for something like this will be huge.

But also, look at Davenport was really big.

Look at Cedar Rapids was really big.

Here's Des Moines again, along with Dubuque, Iowa, and Decorah, Iowa, and Iowa City.

Just big turnout all over Iowa this weekend.

Kansas, here's Topeka, Kansas.

That's in the upper right.

You got Overland Park in the upper left.

Wichita, Kansas in the lower left.

Hello, Frog Hat.

Lawrence, Kansas.

in the lower right.

Kentucky.

In Kentucky, the headline at the Lexington Herald Leader thousands march at No Kings Rally in downtown Lexington.

Quote, we are anti-fascists.

In Lexington, it was a mile-long march route up Main Street and down Vine Street, and the whole No Kings crowd filled that whole mile plus route plus Courthouse Plaza in Lexington.

Just huge turnout in Lexington.

Here's a look at that crowd in Lexington and also the crowd in Paducah and Owensboro, Kentucky.

And of course, Louisville, which saw a bunch of people turn out in Louisville, Kentucky this weekend.

Louisiana, Louisiana had at least 11 different No Kings protests all over the state.

Here's New Orleans and Baton Rouge and Lafayette and Shreveport up to Maine.

No Kings Day this weekend happened to be the...

250 years to the day, the 250-year anniversary of the British attacking Portland, Maine, because you know, no kings.

This was the 250th anniversary of the British attack on Portland, Maine.

Thousands of people turned out at more than 30 protests in Maine.

In Portland, they say they had a really, really big turnout at the June No Kings event, but this time they say they think they may have doubled the numbers that they had turnout in June.

Look at that.

Here's Portland and Bangor and Augusta, the state capital.

Also Southwest Harbor on Mount Desert Island in Maine.

Maryland.

Maryland was a little bit off the hook.

The biggest city in the state, Baltimore, of course, not only had a huge turnout for No Kings.

Again, it's another one of those cities that Trump is threatening to send the military into it.

That, I think, helps goose turnout in any city that he's threatening.

But Baltimore, simultaneous to its very large No Kings event, also had a huge marathon this weekend.

That said, credit to the city and its public safety and political leadership.

Everything seems to have gone off without a hitch in Baltimore.

Here's a look at Baltimore and also Townsend, Maryland and Frederick, Maryland.

Local press in Maryland reported on surprisingly large no kings events, even in the really Republican parts of the state, like out on the Eastern Shore.

Okay, Massachusetts,

Boston, come on, look at that.

Again, not AI.

That's a real thing.

Look at that crowd in Boston.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu told the huge crowd at the Boston Common that in Boston, every day is is No Kings Day because duh.

It was just huge in Boston, but there were more than 100 no Kings protests in Little Old Massachusetts, including one in Western Massachusetts in Northampton, which shut down the whole downtown.

They had to close all of Main Street in downtown Northampton.

Here's a look at Boston alongside Concord and Haverhill, Massachusetts, that long stretch of people there.

Also Maynard, Massachusetts, but again, more than 100 no Kings events in Massachusetts.

Michigan also had more than 100 No Kings protests this weekend, all over the state, including up into the Upper Peninsula.

Here's a look at Ann Arbor up in the upper left, where they had a huge turnout.

Also, a really big turnout in Detroit.

There's a look at Ferndale, Michigan in the lower left there.

And of course, our beloved Flint, Michigan in the lower right.

Minnesota, did you see the aerial shots of Minneapolis this weekend?

I mean, I don't know, head to head, Minneapolis to Boston.

This is pretty intense, right?

I don't know why I was surprised to see something that huge for no kings in Minneapolis, but Minneapolis was just gigantic.

Here's Minneapolis and also Duluth in the upper left,

Anoka, Minnesota, and Northfield, Minnesota.

Head from Minnesota down to Mississippi.

No Kings protests, not just in

college town, Oxford, Mississippi, the home of old Miss, and in Jackson, where people rallied on the South Lawn in the Mississippi State Capitol.

But you also saw good turnout and big protests in Hernando, Mississippi, and in spunky little beautiful Gulfport, Mississippi.

They got a big crowd there.

Missouri, Kansas City star, described the No Kings protests in Missouri as, quote, taking over Kansas City.

The paper is saying throngs of people filled and then spilled out of Mill Creek Park in Kansas City.

So here's a look at Kansas City, Missouri.

It really was big.

And Columbia, Missouri, which was also really big.

Springfield, Missouri.

Look at that, both sides of the street.

And then up at the upper right-hand corner there, that's Jeff City, Jeff City, Jefferson City, the state capital of Missouri people there on the state capitol steps.

Montana, 31 different No Kings events in Montana.

Lots of people in Missoula turned out, but also surprising numbers in some surprising places.

Here's West Yellowstone and Red Lodge, Montana.

That's Bozeman up in the upper left.

Our friends again at State's Newsroom report that in Polebridge, Montana, which is right on the edge of Glacier National Park, they had more people turn out to protest than the actual population of the town.

Welcome, visitors.

Here's a hippo suit and a sign.

Thank you for visiting.

Nebraska, 15 different No Kings protests across the state.

Hello, Omaha.

Here's Lincoln, Nebraska in the upper right there.

Look at that crowd.

And Fremont, Nebraska, and Scotts Bluff in the lower right there.

Nevada, in Nevada, the Reno one was really, really big.

Here's Carson City as well as Reno.

Here's Henderson, Nevada, and of course, beautiful Las Vegas.

There were dozens of No Kings protests in Live Free or Die, New Hampshire this weekend.

NHPR, New Hampshire Public Radio, talked to people who said they had never seen a protest in Concord, New Hampshire that was as large as the one there this weekend at the State House and along Main Street in Concord.

Here's a look at Littleton, New Hampshire and Portsmouth.

Here's Plymouth, New Hampshire and New London.

People turned out in revolutionary war garb because, of course, it's New Hampshire.

New Jersey had dozens of no-kings protests.

Here's a look at some of the New Jersey no-kings protests.

Montclair, New Jersey, up in the upper left.

Newton.

Morristown, the great city of Newark, New Jersey, Toms River, Red Bank, New Jersey.

I draw your attention to Red Bank there in the center on the top row.

I draw your attention there because that's the No Kings protest this weekend that John Bon Jovi went to.

John Bon Jovi, who MSNBC producer Rainey Kale may or may not be actively in love with, do not tell her husband, Jimmy.

John Bon Jovi's restaurant in Red Bank is offering free meals to furloughed federal workers during the shutdown.

Mr.

Bon Jovi himself turned up there this weekend and then joined the No Kings protest in that great little town, Red Bank, New Jersey.

Hello.

New Mexico, thousands and thousands of people absolutely, look at that, filled the streets of Albuquerque.

Local Channel 7 reported that it brought Albuquerque traffic to a halt for so long and across so many streets that Albuquerque drivers stopped waiting for it to pass and just parked their cars and got out of their cars to either watch and wait or to themselves just join it.

So that is the huge crowds in Albuquerque on the left side of your screen there.

Also really big numbers turning out in places like Santa Fe and Las Cruces.

Now, alphabetically, after New Mexico, that brings us to

New York.

Think anybody turned out for No Kings in New York?

I don't know.

There's a lot to do in New York this weekend.

A lot of comp, oh, yeah, okay.

How about an unbroken sea of people from 14th Street all the way to 47th Street and beyond?

Look at that.

I mean, New York is not just New York City.

Upstate New York had more than 20 different no-kings protests, but in New York City, it was just absolutely massive.

The ACLU says that 20,000 people trained in advance of this protest.

20,000 people did some kind of training with the ACLU, nonviolence training, de-escalation training, know your rights training.

That should have given us some sort of sign that the turnout in New York City was going to be this massive, just unbelievable in New York.

Here's also a look at Buffalo, New York, and Syracuse, and Rochester as well.

North Carolina, big protests in Raleigh, North Carolina this weekend.

Here's also a look at Charlotte, North Carolina, and Waxaw and Morganton and Durham, North Carolina, with that aerial shot there.

So you can see how it wraps around the downtown in Durham.

Head up to North Dakota.

Local press in Fargo reports that thousands of people turned out at No Kings events in Fargo and in Bismarck.

That was no sure thing, not only because it's North Dakota, but also because it was really windy and cold in North Dakota this weekend.

So nobody quite knew what to expect in terms of turnout.

But there were not only these big crowds in Fargo and Bismarck, but there were No Kings protests in Grand Forks and Jamestown and Devil's Lake and Dickinson and Williston and Minot and a bunch of other places.

Here's Fargo on your left and Bismarck on your right.

We've also got shots from Valley City, North Dakota, upper right there, and Grand Forks in the lower right there, all those places in North Dakota.

On to Ohio, our friend Professor Tim Snyder, the author of On Tyranny, he spoke at a No Kings event in Cincinnati, right there at the Riverfront Park.

Thousands of people turned out at the Ohio State House in Columbus.

Look at that.

Really big turnout in Columbus, Ohio.

But there were dozens of No Kings events in Ohio this weekend.

Hello, Toledo.

Hello, Dayton.

hello worcester ohio

and uh

say it with me now hello cleveland

uh oklahoma saw just huge crowds in oklahoma city look at that look at that shot in oklahoma city but there were 19 different oklahoma no kings protests this weekend here's a look at tulsa as well in the upper left uh one of my favorite cities in the country durant oklahoma muscogee oklahoma lots of people turning out in oklahoma in the rain up to oregon you think anybody turned out in portland Oregon?

Thousands and thousands and thousands of people turned out in Portland, Oregon.

Nobody was left at home in Portland this weekend.

Everybody was out at a No Kings event.

But Oregon did not only turn out in Portland.

They turned out everywhere from the state capitol in Salem to Eugene and Beaverton and Oregon City.

There were more than 50 No Kings protests all across the great state of Oregon this weekend.

Pennsylvania saw massive crowds in Philadelphia.

Look at that aerial shot in Philly, upper left-hand side there.

But here's also a look at Pittsburgh and Westchester and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Rhode Island, little old Rhode Island, it's famous for you.

Here's Providence, where there were tens of thousands of people at the state capitol.

Here's also Little Compton, Rhode Island on the upper right there.

East Greenwich and Westerly, Rhode Island saw tons of people turn out.

South Carolina, here's Columbia and Spartanburg and Greenville and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

I have to tell you, Myrtle Beach got this big, very festive turnout.

It's also one of the only places where anyone got arrested this weekend.

There was a single arrest when a woman who was driving near the protest, for some reason, pulled out a gun and waved it at people who were at the protest.

She was arrested, spent a little time in jail.

She says the gun was not loaded, but she says she is full of regret about what she did and she's very sorry that she did it.

That was weird in Myrtle Beach.

Up Up to South Dakota, thousands of people showed up in Sioux Falls,

far outdrawing the numbers that organizers expected, according to reporting from the South Dakota searchlight.

Thousands of people turned out in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Now in Sioux Falls, there was a planned counter-demonstration, but as thousands of people turned out for the main no-kings thing, apparently only 30 people showed up for the whole counter-demonstration, which was quite a disappointment for the counter-demonstration organizers, who I guess thought they'd get like equal numbers.

Sorry.

Here's a look at Sioux Falls and Vermilion, South Dakota, and Aberdeen and Sturgis.

Tennessee saw nearly three dozen no-kings protests this weekend, including really big ones in Memphis, as you might expect, as Trump tries to send the military into Memphis as well.

Also, really big turnout in Nashville.

Look at that on the upper right.

Here's also a look at Knoxville, which was big in the lower left-hand corner there, and Chattanooga, Tennessee.

On to Texas, Texas was hilarious.

So there were thousands and thousands and thousands of people who turned out to attend No Kings events in Texas this weekend, including a really big No Kings event in Austin.

But in Austin,

Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott was so afraid.

He was so afraid of the Austin No Kings protest.

So afraid of the, you know, grandmas and the kids and the, you know, blind people and the people in wheelchairs and the people with their dogs and strollers and the people in inflatable lobster suits.

He was so afraid that he literally called out the Texas National Guard.

He told them to, quote, surge forces.

That was his term.

Surge forces into Austin.

Surge forces.

Look, there's a guy with the pride flag.

There's a lady who says, my name is Aunt Tifa.

Send in the troops.

Meanwhile, Austin police sent out a tweet showing their smiling officers having a great time on a great day and thanking everybody in Austin for being so nice and so peaceful with zero arrests.

Literally, they ended their tweet.

Great job, Austin.

While Texas's Republican Governor Greg Abbott is hiding in a closet saying, surge forces.

He literally called in air support.

Okay.

Texas also got big crowds at Fort Worth and in Frisco, Texas.

Dallas, huge crowds in Dallas, huge crowds in Houston, one of the greatest cities in America.

A good turnout in Laredo, right on the border.

Over in Utah, Utah saw a really, really, really big crowd.

Look at that upper left-hand corner.

Look at the crowd in Utah at the state house there in Salt Lake City.

Here's also a look at Ogden, Utah in the upper right there, Heber City, Utah, Logan, Utah in the lower right-hand corner there.

We're almost there.

Vermont, here's a look at Burlington, Vermont.

Look at the turnout in Burlington and Montpelier, the state capital.

Pay teachers, not ice.

Virginia, where Virginia's Republican governor, Glenn Young, was also apparently terrified.

Glenn Youngkin put the National Guard in a state of active duty status because he too was so afraid of the, you know, high school kids and the grandmas with the peace signs.

But here's Virginia Beach and Arlington and Richmond and Roanoke, Virginia, and Glenn Young hiding under a desk somewhere.

Washington State saw really big crowds all over, including at Everett, Washington, where thousands of people turned out.

And Governor Bob Ferguson turned out to address the crowd in Everett.

There was really big turnout in Washington State in both Seattle and in Vancouver.

That's Seattle on the left side of your screen there, Vancouver, Washington on the right side of your screen.

Did West Virginia turn out for No Kings this weekend?

Yes, they did, among other places.

They turned out in Charleston and in Kaiser and Berkeley Springs and Morgantown, West Virginia.

Love your country enough to fight for it.

Wisconsin, dozens of protests across Wisconsin.

Thousands and thousands of people in Cathedral Square Park in Milwaukee.

That's a time-lapse there in Madison, Wisconsin on the lower left.

Also, Catersburg, Wisconsin here, and Appleton, Wisconsin.

Wyoming, a frigid, windy day in Wyoming, but people turned out at the state capitol in Cheyenne.

Here's a look as well at Laramie and Jackson and Rocky Springs, Wyoming.

And you've been waiting for this one.

You've been waiting for this one.

You think anybody turned out in Washington, D.C.?

What do you think?

D.C.

was huge.

There was not a big No Kings event in D.C.

in June, because that's when Trump was doing his big, weird military parade on his birthday, remember?

But this time, No Kings more than made up for it.

Huge crowds in DC.

He's not even one year into his first term in office.

And this is what D.C.

looks like lined up against him.

He is not even one year into his first,

not even fully into his first year in office here.

And he just had one of the largest days of protest in American history against him in every freaking state in the country.

And so, yeah, naturally, he celebrates the occasion by getting out a backhoe to start tearing down the White House.

He really doesn't want to have to answer to the people.

You wouldn't do that if you ever thought you had to.

There's a big protest movement now in this country, a big, sustainable, growing, peaceful, fired-up protest movement standing against this very unpopular president who is not doing anything to make himself more popular over time, while the popular resistance to him just grows and grows and grows.

We will talk about what that means in very specific terms coming up.

Stay with us.

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So Indivisible was one of the hundreds of groups who helped organize the No Kings Day protest this weekend.

With 7 million plus people turning out, these really are some of the largest protests ever in American history.

Now, if you've watched this show in the past, you might have noticed that we've talked to the folks from Indivisible a number of times on this show, and not just this year, not just recently.

We've talked to them a lot, many times, going back years.

You might also have noticed that every time we talk to the folks from Indivisible, Going back to the very beginning, they emphasize one specific thing.

They emphasize thinking local.

So for these no kings protests, for example, they said, if you have to travel more than an hour in order to get to your nearest no kings protest, then don't do that.

Don't travel more than an hour.

If you have to go more than an hour to find one, that means you should be organizing your own, wherever it is that you live.

Now, that is not generic protest advice.

That is very specific to this movement, and it has specific consequences.

In practical terms, following that principle this weekend looked like this.

Not one giant protest in one central place, even though there were some really big protests in some places.

Instead,

it was a gazillion different protests.

Yes, in some big cities, but also in small towns, in every nook and cranny all across this country.

Anywhere there were people, there were anti-Trump protests.

And if that dynamic feels a little different to you, it's because it might be a little different.

from what we're used to in this country.

We talked last week on this show about new research from the Kennedy School at Harvard titled, quote, the resistance reaches into Trump Country.

Quote, the share of counties hosting at least one anti-Trump protest has risen markedly during Trump's second term, surpassing the historic spikes observed during his first term.

What that means is compared to his first term as president, there are more protests now in what we traditionally think of as red Republican pro-Trump areas of the country.

In the month that they studied this year, Kennedy Center researchers found that, quote, the median protest county in the U.S.

actually cast more votes for Trump than for Kamala Harris.

One of the academics who did that research on protests spreading into Trump country,

what that person is most famous for is something that's called the 3.5% rule.

This academic has studied hundreds of protest movements around the world over the last century to see if you can identify what makes for

a successful popular campaign against an authoritarian government.

It turns out, if you actually study this scientifically, successful anti-authoritarian movements tend to share a number of things in common.

Number one, nonviolence.

Scientifically speaking, nonviolent protest movements are twice as likely to prevail as violent ones.

Successful movements are not only non-violent, they also reach into uncharted territories.

They appeal constantly to new constituencies, which is what makes the spread of the No Kings movement particularly interesting right now.

Successful movements establish and maintain momentum.

They're ultimately able to get people in positions of influence to change their behavior and priorities, as you see Democrats starting to get a little steel in their spine with all of these protests encouraging them to do so.

Again, this research has determined that all of these things are necessary for an anti-authoritarian movement to succeed, but they're still not enough.

You must be nonviolent.

You must expand the map.

You must appeal to new people all the time.

You must establish momentum.

You must start to get powerful people to change.

Yes, you need all that.

But if you want to guarantee success against authoritarianism,

you do have to get big enough.

And specifically, according to these political scientists, you need to grow to the size where you are speaking for at least 3.5% of the population, where at least 3.5% of the population is out in the streets protesting and taking part in the movement.

Pretty much every successful movement has hit that threshold.

They call it the 3.5% rule.

If you keep all the other criteria and you get 3.5% of the country out in the streets with you, history suggests you will win.

Are you doing the math already?

I'll do it for you.

In the United States, 3.5% of the population would be almost 12 million people, which is a lot of people.

But consider the trend line just this year.

For the big hands-off protests in April, Indivisible estimated turnout of 3 million people.

For the big No Kings Day protests in June, estimates were 5 million people.

This weekend, The estimates are more than 7 million people.

So we've gone from 3 to 5 to 7 in just a few months.

Does 12 million seem so impossible when the movement is growing like this and growing everywhere?

When it's growing right where you live, where you're one voice and your neighbors count?

Indivisible is not yet.

Indivisible and this no kings movement, 50-51, all these other people who are participating in this anti-authoritarian movement, they're not yet at 3.5%.

They're not yet at 11.9 million, but they are aiming at it and they're doing it by being everywhere.

Erica Chenoweth is the researcher who coined this 3.5% rule and who has studied it all over the globe.

Erica Chenoweth joins us next.

Stay with us.

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Through research on hundreds of anti-authoritarian movements worldwide and a breakthrough book called Why Civil Resistance Works.

Dr.

Erika Chenoweth has coined what is known as the 3.5% rule.

3.5% rule says that movements that engage at least 3.5% of a country's population in active nonviolent protest against an authoritarian government,

those movements succeed.

Those movements have never failed to bring about the change that they seek.

Dr.

Chenoweth is a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School, a faculty dean at Harvard College, and a professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

Dr.

Erica Chenoweth, I really appreciate you making time to be here.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for having me.

Let me ask you if you feel like

we Americans looking at this no kings turnout over the course of this weekend should think of ourselves as doing something that's analogous to any other movement of the past several decades.

Any of the other movements around the world that you've studied and that you've analyzed that you think looks a little bit like what we're doing?

Or are we doing something unique?

Yeah, so that's a great question.

I think there are lots of different historical analogs.

There are analogs from our own history,

cases in the United States where we've had

what political scientists refer to as sub-state authoritarianism.

That means where it's happening in different states or in whole regions of the country.

And I think that we're now in a situation where, you know, I and a lot of others in my field kind of think of what's happening in the U.S.

right now as kind of an acute democratic backsliding episode.

And there are certainly many other cases from around the world where people have mobilized nonviolent civil resistance to try to push back against that and defend, expand, and improve their democracy.

We're seeing opponents of the anti-authoritarian movement characterize it as if it is violent when it very clearly isn't.

I think it's pretty remarkable that we had 7 million plus people out protesting on Saturday.

There was basically zero violence.

One of the things I've been interested about in your research is thinking about that not just as like a moral good, but the tactical advantages of nonviolence.

Obviously, a nonviolent movement is going to attract larger numbers of people and has more potential to attract larger numbers of people over time just because more people are turned off by violence than turned on by it.

But why else is nonviolence tactically smart?

Well, first, I would say remarkable is the word for the fact that millions and millions of Americans,

you know, engaged in a nationwide protest on Saturday and there was basically no violence.

That is something that is truly historic.

There are not very many historical reference points for something that disciplined, and I just want to call that out.

I mean, that is a truly remarkable fact.

And then, in terms of why it is that nonviolent resistance tends to be more likely to succeed, I mean, one of the things you mentioned is numbers, for sure, but it's not just that the numbers matter.

It's what the numbers then allow the movement to do.

And one of the things that they allow the movement to do is to begin

to leverage those numbers into social, economic, cultural, and political power.

You know, so in democracies where people get to elect out their leaders, often we see very high correlations between protest turnout and the outcomes of elections.

So, that is true in the United States, even during midterm elections.

In fact, the Tea Party protests of 2009 were shown to have a strong correlation with turnout for kind of Tea Party Republicans in the 2010 2010 midterms.

The 2018 blue wave and not just turnout in support of Democratic candidates, but also the diversity of the candidates who ran, leading to the most diverse U.S.

Congress we've ever had, was strongly correlated to participation in the Women's March.

The 2020 protests associated with Black Lives Matter were similarly associated with electoral outcomes and many other reform outcomes in the 2020 election as well.

So, you know, even just in terms of how protest relates to political transformations through our institutions, there are many different studies that show those correlations.

More broadly, protests, even in countries where elections aren't available to change the political environment, they can be incredibly powerful in making elite behavior change in general, right?

So a lot of times people in this field refer to pillars of support, that every authoritarian relies entirely on the cooperation, obedience, and help of people in the civil service and the security forces within their inner entourage, the business and economic community, cultural and faith leaders.

And when people who are in those institutions begin to think, you know what, there are a lot more people in this protest movement than I expected.

And I recognize my associates there.

And I align my future more with them than with this person who I think is kind of bumbling and incompetent anyway.

That's when you start to see those loyalty shifts and those pillars of support

shift in their own behavior.

And so I think that nonviolent resistance movements have those opportunities precisely because they are more likely to elicit the direct participation of people from all walks of life.

And then that can translate into meaningful shifts and the sort of self-interested calculation of people in all kinds of different positions of influence.

I know this is highly calculated and highly metric-driven political science, but it's also totally rational and explicable.

And I thank you for helping us understand it.

Erica Chenoweth, professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, speaking on their own behalf here, not on behalf of Harvard, I should note.

But Dr.

Chenoweth, I really appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

All right, more news ahead tonight.

Stay with us.

This was seen in a bunch of protests around the country.

Women holding signs that described themselves as Aunt Tifa.

Also, don't piss off the old ladies.

No one crowns you king.

This one moved me.

100 years old, first protest.

This wannabe king deserves a royal flush.

That was Venice, Florida.

This one, I think we can put this on television.

Do we have the free balls one?

Free balls for members of Congress who lost theirs.

Here's one from DC.

No wonder eggs are so expensive.

All the chickens are in Congress.

Here's one special out of Illinois.

Mike Johnson blocked me on Grindr.

I don't know what that means.

I'll look it up.

In Alaska, the only kings we want are crab.

The only kings we want are salmon.

In San Diego, California, don't poke the bear, although it's almost impossible when they're that cute.

So bad, even the unicorns are here.

That was San Francisco.

This is a good one.

Donald T.

wrecks everything he touches.

That was Minneapolis.

Get it?

Wrecks everything he touches.

Duck taping the USA together till 2029.

That's in DC.

And of all the inflatable ones, this one's my favorite.

Sorry for being weird.

This is my first dictatorship.

That's in DC.

We'll be right back.

That's going to do it for me tonight.

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