NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Renowned MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, known for her in-depth analysis and reporting, recently appeared on NBC’s ‘Today’ show and opened up about her ‘Prequel’ book and ‘worst year’.
On Monday, October 16, Maddow was warmly welcomed by 'Today' hosts Al Roker, Sheinelle Jones, and Dylan Dreyer. During the show, she unveiled her latest book, ‘Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism’.
‘Prequel’ provides a fresh perspective on WWII and explores the support for Germany during that time. Maddow is widely acclaimed for her incisive analysis of current events, politics, and news.
Beyond her role as a political commentator, Maddow is also a prolific author, having penned notable books like ‘Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth’ and ‘Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power’.
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow promotes her book on ‘Today’ Show
In a recent episode of ‘Today’, Al Roker greeted MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, acknowledging her remarkable 15-year journey with the news channel.
While discussing Maddow’s book ‘Prequel’, Roker asked, “This book is based on your award-winning podcast, which was terrific. But there was a huge network of Americans, both in government and out of government, who were German sympathizers during World War II."
Maddow responded, “We think of World War II as us being the good guys. We went over there and beat them. While that is true, there is a story about Americans here that sided with the Germans.”
Dreyer chimed in and asked Maddow, “Tell us the lessons learned to get us through the bleak moment we’re at now. What lessons were learned?”
Maddow said, “I feel like the book is a bit of an inkblot test. In learning that we had to face an ultra-right violent movement that wanted to get rid of democracy in this country and learning we had to do that before, some people say like, ‘Oh, God, we can never escape this stuff. It keeps coming around. Why do we keep having to fight this fight?' Or you are another kind of person that says, ‘We faced threats like this and worse before.'”
“So, whatever you are worried, there is rising authoritarianism around the world. There are violent people working on the edges of our politics now," she claimed.
"It is all scary. But to me, it is actually heartening that we faced it before because it means there is all these stories about Americans that faced that threat, faced it down, beat it, and won. They have stories to tell. They gave us an instruction manual for how to fight it,” she added.
Rachel Maddow on ‘weird year’ heading into 2024
During the conversation, Sheinelle Jones asked, “We're only about a year from the next election. You are great at making complex things digestible. Look at your crystal ball. What does your gut tell you?”
Maddow responded, “My crystal ball is a troubling look. I think we will have a weird year, honestly. I mean, the Republican party is, you know, having a presidential debate, and they have had a couple already.”
She continued, “And I think it is instructive that after the first debate, there was one Republican candidate that got a big bump out of that debate, and it was the candidate that was not there after the debate."
"Trump got the bump out of it. Right now, Republican voters are looking at all of their choices and saying, ‘We don't want any of them. We want to go back to Trump.'” she said, analyzing the current set of circumstances.
“With Trump having his legal troubles and what he's saying he wants for the country ahead, it means we will have a different kind of choice than we've ever had before. If President Biden is the nominee for the Democrats, which he will be, and former president Trump is the nominee for the Republicans, it will just be a really intense year,” she added.
Maddow concluded, “Part of the reason I wanted to do a historical project heading into it is I feel a need to be grounded in what has happened before to take strength from what Americans have faced now before and realize that radical threats to what kind of country we have are not something new and we can deal.”
