WEBVTT - Rick Wilson & Michael Waldman 0:00:00.640 --> 0:00:04.160 Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics, 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:07.120 where we discussed the top political headlines with some of 0:00:07.160 --> 0:00:12.160 today's best minds, and Chuck Schumer said Senate Democrats will 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:17.400 not provide the votes to fund another year of ice madness. 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:20.239 We have such a great show for you today. The 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:24.799 Lincoln Project Zone Rick Wilson joins us to talk about 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:28.080 ICE's second murder of an American citizen. 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:30.320 Then we'll talk to the Brennan Center. 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:35.320 Zone Michael Waldman about how we can stop this corruption 0:00:35.680 --> 0:00:36.160 right now. 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:37.120 But first the. 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:41.520 News, Smiley, the Democrats are threatening a government shutdown over 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:44.800 ice funding. We were talking about earlier this week, how 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:48.120 bad the it's going to age the Democrats who voted 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:51.159 to fund ice in the House, and it seems that 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:53.800 it's aging very bad, very very fast. 0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:59.200 Okay, So last week Congress passed this cr which included 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:03.120 another year funding for Ice. There were seven Democrats who 0:01:03.200 --> 0:01:09.600 voted to fund ICE last week, including people like Gared 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:13.800 Golden who aren't running for reelection. The worst offender I 0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:20.560 think was Tom Swazi, who occupies the seat now that 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:26.200 used to belong to everyone's favorite scary criminal, George Santos. 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:30.440 My personal favorite is Henry Quailar Trump curiously pardoned. 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:35.440 So seven Democrats voted with the Republicans to fund ICE. Well, 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:41.720 that appropriation process continues. The ICE money dr is in 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:46.639 the Senate this weekend after border patrol murdered a thirty 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:51.480 seven year old nurse with a legally registered firearm that 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:56.600 was not being drawn. The Senate has finally gotten the balls, 0:01:56.920 --> 0:02:01.160 so they are not going to rubber stamps Donald Trump's 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:07.360 private Militia Cortes Mastow Jackie Rosen say they'll oppose DHS funding. 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:13.639 Important to realize Nevada is a state with a high 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:17.320 Hispanic population, right, so they're probably getting a lot of 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:20.359 phone calls from a lot of people who do not 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:24.760 want to end up in these terrifying facilities, because remember, 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:28.320 if you just look Hispanic, you can get swept up. 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:32.720 And we've seen reporting from Florida that Cuban voters who 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:36.560 thought that the Republican Party didn't mean them, well, they're 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:37.799 getting deported. 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:39.960 At a rapid clip, just like everyone else. 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:44.240 Because this administration it's just if you don't look white, 0:02:44.320 --> 0:02:47.240 it doesn't matter where you voted, how you voted. A 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:51.080 small group of Democratic Senators, led by probably the person 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:53.840 who should be the minority leader at this moment. Chris 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:57.720 Murphy and Alex Padilla spent the last two days making 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:00.880 calls to colleagues whipping against the dah test funding bill, 0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:04.600 according to a source familiar, So the job of whip 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:08.000 is supposed to be Chuck Schumer's, but it's really important 0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:12.080 to see that when there's a power vacuum, Chris Murphy 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:16.720 and Alex Badilla are in fact filling that power vacuum. 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:20.760 And so keep that in mind when Tuck Schumer says, 0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:24.480 you know, whatever wants to keep the job, we're really 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:27.679 seeing whipping going from people who are not in leadership, 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:29.960 and that I think is important. I says, money to 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:33.200 continue its operations. You know, they have still a year 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:36.320 left of money because of the BBB, the big beautiful 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:40.400 bullshit bill. But I think that this may lead to 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:43.760 a shutdown. But I think that's a good thing. By 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:47.160 the way, Trump advisor says, there's no way any Democrat 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:49.320 can vote for the Homeland Security funding as it is, 0:03:49.320 --> 0:03:51.760 says one Trump advisor. It's a problem, by the way, 0:03:52.000 --> 0:03:54.200 if you're a fucking Republican and you're voting for this, 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:58.200 and all of them will because they're cowards history. Maybe 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:01.760 not all of them, Collins Murkowski, but history will judge 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:06.240 you really badly. History will judge you really, really badly. 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:09.160 I mean, this is like our country has done this before. 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:12.400 We did slavery. Where the country of slavery, where the 0:04:12.400 --> 0:04:15.560 country of Jim Crow or the country of Operation Wetback, 0:04:15.680 --> 0:04:17.880 Like we are a country that has done this to 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:21.800 people of color before. But it is a year twenty 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:25.000 twenty six and you are doing this and so ultimately 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:27.880 you will have to look at your grandchildren and your 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:30.440 children and you will have to say, yes, I was 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:34.240 involved in this second coming of authoritarianism in the country, 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:36.400 maybe the third, and I was a part of it. 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:37.680 I was a willing participant. 0:04:37.839 --> 0:04:40.560 Yeah. And the families of people like Renee Good and 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:41.800 Alex pretty yeah. 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:44.120 And by the way, Alex Pritty's parents are not going 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:47.720 quietly like they released a statement. They are furious and 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:50.320 they know their son did nothing wrong, just like Renee Good. 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:54.839 By the way, Renee Goods autopsy released this week showed 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:57.960 in fact the shot that killed her was as she 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:01.160 was driving away, turning the car through the side. 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:04.599 So continuing with that thought, Greg Bovino, a man who 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:07.960 likes to coseplay in Fashions Circle of nineteen forty three. 0:05:08.200 --> 0:05:12.960 He has bragged their experts in detaining small children, and 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:16.279 he praised the agent who killed Alex pretty. 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:17.240 Yeah for Veno. 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:21.400 He is just appalling. And this is the thing this 0:05:21.440 --> 0:05:24.120 administration does. We see this again and again and again. 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:28.680 They brag about doing horrible things because they don't know 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:31.359 right from wrong. I think what's important about this story 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:34.359 is reports emerged Thursday that ICE had also detained at 0:05:34.440 --> 0:05:37.080 least four Minnesota children. One of them was a five 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:41.440 year old preschooler, Liam Ramos, who was abducted by massed 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:44.920 agents in his driveway shortly after his father arrived home. 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:48.320 ICE detained a two year old at a traffic stop 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:53.600 in Minnesota just hours after, but Vino recounted his dystopian 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:57.719 rather than feel good story about detaining children. Another report 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:02.359 emerged that immigration agents grabbed a child. They also detained 0:06:02.360 --> 0:06:05.359 a family, including a seven year old girl, outside a Portland, 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:08.960 Oregon hospital. The girl's parents had been rushing her to 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:13.040 an emergency room. It's just appalling. These people are appalling. 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:18.080 There is absolutely no words to describe how appalling this is. 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:22.839 Another aspect of the Trump administration is they really love 0:06:22.960 --> 0:06:25.760 starving people out. We have an estimated half a million 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:29.320 dead from USAID, and now we're seeing Venezuela, which we 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:32.880 just captured the leader of starving out and Cuba starving 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:34.880 because of the capture of oil. 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:35.200 In the region. 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:38.640 Yeah, you know, they went in. They kidnapped the president 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:43.200 of Venezuela and his wife. They are now in jail. 0:06:43.640 --> 0:06:49.640 The Maduro regime is very much still in power, as 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:51.240 one would expect. 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:56.359 They're locking up people who are protesting or who have 0:06:56.600 --> 0:06:59.839 any connection to the United States. I mean, it's just 0:07:00.640 --> 0:07:04.560 madness and people are starving. I think you will absolutely 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:07.640 not hear about this anymore. Right, I do not think 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:12.320 you will hear any more about Venezuela because this administration 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:12.960 has moved on. 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:13.600 Right. 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:15.760 I don't think they're coming back for Venezuela. 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:19.000 I think they have so many problems that they've just 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:23.240 moved on, and so I think it's very likely that 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:27.240 the carnage, the removing the president and then not really 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:29.400 caring about what happens next. 0:07:29.680 --> 0:07:31.280 I don't think we'll see any more of this. 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:35.600 Wouldn't be shocked Trump is pushing AI data centers. But 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:38.040 it's very interesting. This is becoming one of the biggest 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:41.360 divides and losing issues in American elections. We saw the 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:45.080 Virginia New Jersey elections for governor make this a huge issue, 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:47.720 and we're now even seeing an Alabama. This is starting 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:49.280 to get very, very unpopular. 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:52.600 I think it's important just for a minute to put 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:55.720 back and talk about this scale of these AI data centers. 0:07:55.840 --> 0:07:58.680 This one would be the size of eighteen Walmart. So 0:07:58.720 --> 0:08:04.680 it's this pristine inland outside of Bessemer, Alabama. The mayor, 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:08.960 of course, probably a Republican, does not understand why people 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:11.960 in this community would be opposed to the construction of 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:16.800 a fourteen point five billion dollar artificial intelligence data center 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:18.920 in the woodlands just outside of town. 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:21.360 Is this Kristen Cinema dressed up as the mayor? 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:22.640 It sounds like it, right. 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:25.520 A data center is probably the most unintrusive thing, and 0:08:25.560 --> 0:08:28.840 you'll enjoy paying more for your electricity. You know, it's 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:31.080 just a big computer sitting in your backyard. 0:08:31.280 --> 0:08:31.720 Wow. 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:36.360 Several residents whose backyards may soon adjoin a digital facility 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:40.400 the size of eighteen Walmarts freely acknowledge their displeasure. This 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:43.680 is as pristina forest as you'll find in the foothouse 0:08:43.720 --> 0:08:45.160 of the Appalachian Mountains. 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:46.040 Not for long. 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:50.600 You got a diesel mechanist and retired military veteran is 0:08:50.720 --> 0:08:55.240 trying to get them not to build a giant data 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:59.400 center so that we can all have AI slob for days. 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:01.280 We'll see what happens. 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:07.760 Luckily, Alabama has Katie Brett, who is a real class 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:11.760 act and often pretends to cry on television. I remain 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:14.840 motivated to ensure that ratepayers are not fooding the bill 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:15.920 for data centers. 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:17.800 Sure, sure, Jan. 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:20.080 Sure, Yeah. I love the trade off. 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:22.920 Everybody gets slop artwork in exchange for a dry to 0:09:22.920 --> 0:09:25.120 aquifer where they can't tap their will anymore. 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:27.839 Listen, man, everybody loves it. 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:31.800 Speaking of things, everybody just loves the Malania movie. 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:32.440 Yeah. 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:34.800 I heard there's a screening at the White House last 0:09:34.880 --> 0:09:37.040 night that You're really sad you weren't there for Yeah, 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:37.559 I want. 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:41.080 To talk about optics because we talk so much about 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:44.840 how disgusting this administration is, but this really feels like 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:45.800 even for. 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:47.720 Them, really bad call. 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:52.839 So Saturday night we have the murder of thirty seven 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:57.960 year old VA nurse. That night we have the premiere 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:02.960 or a screening. I'm sorry a screening of the Milania movie. Now, 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:05.640 I just want to point out they couldn't have it 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:08.120 in the regular White House screening room. 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:11.199 You know why was it torn down in the ballroom Because. 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:15.280 Donald Trump tore down the East Wing because he doesn't 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:19.360 think that Eleanor Roosevelt is hot. No, I'm just kidding, 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:22.199 but if he knew who elevanor Roosevelt were, he wouldn't 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:25.400 like her. So the people who came to the screening, 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:30.920 Andy Jase, Amazon CEO, Tim Cook, Apple CEO, Eric eun 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:37.959 Zoom CEO, Lisa Sue Amd CEO, the CEO of ge 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:41.120 the CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, Mike Tyson. 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:43.800 Tony Robbins is my personal wild. 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:47.240 Card, Tony Robbins, I mean the heartiest fuck that guy 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:50.200 for Tony Robbins. Brett Ratner, who is an occupant of 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:53.880 the Epstein Files and also a director Suir who was 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:55.000 canceled because of. 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:57.480 Me too, because he's a creepy, creepy guy. 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:03.440 And photographer Ellen or With who took the photos. You 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:07.160 should probably just protest all of them. There is no 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:10.319 East Wing theater, so they had to set something up. 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:14.320 Amazon paid forty million dollars to bribe the Trump administration. 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:18.840 According to Matt Belanie, the studio has spent thirty five 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:22.320 million dollars trying to get people to see a movie 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:26.240 no one will see. But the good news is no, 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:35.440 there is no good news. Protest them all. Rick Wilson 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:37.360 is the founder of the Lincoln Project and the host 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:41.560 of the Enemy's List. Rick Wilson Molly John Fast, I 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:45.680 am without words about what has happened. So we have 0:11:45.679 --> 0:11:49.079 a second murder in. 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:50.440 Minnesota, Minneapolis. 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:56.640 This one thirty seven year old VA nurse. He was 0:11:56.720 --> 0:12:01.000 helping a woman across the street, yep, and they took 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:01.520 his gun. 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:05.680 And just Molly, look, the anger, the anger of people 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:08.840 are feeling is legitimate. Yeah, and I'm going to say this, 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:12.280 I think there was no excuse for shooting Reney Good whatsoever. 0:12:13.160 --> 0:12:15.000 And the autopsy shows right. 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:19.160 However, this murder is even more egregious in some ways 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:24.439 because there were eight DHS agents mobbing, chemically sprang the 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:29.840 guy in the face. They took his legally carried firearm, 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:33.360 a firearm with a permit actually in Florida. I don't 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:35.640 need the permit anymore, but you know I legally carried 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:37.920 it when it was conceal carry. I had the conceal 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:40.480 carry license is now no longer required in Florida, but 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:45.480 there it was required. He was legally carrying his firearm 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:48.840 in a holster. It was not out, It was not 0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:52.280 pointed at the officers. It was not brandished at any point. 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:54.560 They never saw it until they took it off of 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:57.360 his body while they were beating him. While they were 0:12:57.360 --> 0:12:59.360 striking him in the head pistol, whipping him in the 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:01.600 head over and over again. I don't know if it 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:03.560 was a gun or a can of tear gas, but 0:13:03.559 --> 0:13:05.600 they were beating him in the head with it. He 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:09.320 was down, he was restrained, both of his hands were free. 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:12.040 You saw there was no gun in his hands. They 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:14.720 took his firearm away, walked away with it, and shot 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:19.200 him over and over at least five times, some accounts 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:20.600 say up to ten times. 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:25.359 I want to talk about the the witness test Stemony 0:13:25.840 --> 0:13:29.400 Yep where she said that they were not doing CPR. 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:30.920 They were instead counting. 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:33.360 They were counting the bullet holes. These people are fucking 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:35.960 monsters and they are murderers, and they need to be arrested. 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:39.800 And I'm sorry. Keith Ellison, as the attorney general of 0:13:39.840 --> 0:13:43.600 that state. You need to bring charges today. Yeah, you 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:45.199 need to do it. I'm sorry, folks. And a guy 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:45.880 broke out a tooth. 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:47.600 Yeah yeah, yeah. Keith Elsey needs. 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:49.839 To bring charges today today. Yeah. 0:13:49.880 --> 0:13:52.320 They need to be charged with murder. There is no 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:56.199 qualified immunity because they were not acting in the proper 0:13:56.320 --> 0:13:59.560 execution of their duties. They were murdering a man in 0:13:59.600 --> 0:14:02.960 the street. They are violent thugs, they are murderers, and 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:04.880 they were and then they tried to cover it up. 0:14:05.080 --> 0:14:07.040 Then they tried to seize the scene and cover it up, 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:10.240 just as they tried to cover up Renee Good. And 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:14.520 to their credit, MPD said on not this time, pal. 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:17.760 Yeah, And I want to pull back for a minute 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:20.640 and ask the question of why are they in Minnesota 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:23.480 in the first place, because I think it really is 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:26.080 important to sort of beg this question. I had long 0:14:26.160 --> 0:14:30.120 thought that they were in Minnesota because of the Nick 0:14:30.240 --> 0:14:32.080 Suurly YouTube video. 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:34.400 They said that for a long time. 0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:35.720 Odd in Minnesota. 0:14:36.160 --> 0:14:40.160 It was a video that was just a two second reminder. 0:14:40.600 --> 0:14:43.960 It was about fraud that had happened basically post pandemic 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:47.480 or during the pandemic. These people were all charged by 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:52.560 the Biden DOJ. Many of them went to jail. These 0:14:52.600 --> 0:14:56.800 people rediscovered this scandal because of the Nick Shirley YouTube 0:14:56.840 --> 0:14:59.600 video were furious that it wasn't covered to the mainstream media. 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:02.560 Of course, it had been yet another sort of echo 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:04.400 chamber situation from. 0:15:04.320 --> 0:15:08.800 The definitional fake news. But they every one's faking the news. 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:11.520 Yes, there's a sort of new rip ball in this 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:13.440 because of Pam Bondy. 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:14.600 Talk us through it. 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:18.440 Pam Bondy sents a letter to Minnesota basically saying, we 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:22.080 hate you, you're terrorists, you love terrorists, you love illegal criminals, 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:24.280 you love all this. But by the way, we'll leave 0:15:24.320 --> 0:15:26.120 if you'll just turn over your voter files to us. 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:29.080 This gets to the nut of this thing. ICE is 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:34.720 not a law enforcement agency. ICE is not an immigration agency. 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:37.240 They are an arm of the political will of the 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:39.880 Trump administration, and Pam Bondy at the head of a 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:44.800 DOJ is equally a part of Trump's political operation. They 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:47.880 gave away the game. This is partly because Pam Bondy, 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:49.840 I don't know if you guys know this yet, is stupid. 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:51.520 Yeah, then disciplined. 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:54.200 The one bit of good news here is these people 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:57.280 are fugging more on but this is still a nightmare 0:15:57.320 --> 0:16:02.840 scenario if Trump's private police force occupying a stage until 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:07.200 they give up voter rolls. Because Donald Trump is and 0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:09.840 well he should be, and we'll get to this in 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:12.880 a minute, very nervous about the midterms. 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:15.040 He ought to be what's the play? 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:18.000 Just on the voter roll stuff. So you get the 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:20.120 voter rolls, and then what happens. 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:21.960 Then they turn it over to a bunch of data 0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:23.280 analysis guys. 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:27.680 Right, who pretend palenteer types exactly. 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:29.920 Who pretend, oh my god, we found so much fraud. 0:16:29.960 --> 0:16:30.600 Oh my god. 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:32.880 And just like they've done in other states where they 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:35.280 claim there's massive voter fraud, they make a lot of 0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:38.960 noise for their people, and no massive voter fraud ever appears. 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:41.160 It's not a scale problem. Voter fraud is not a 0:16:41.200 --> 0:16:43.600 big problem in this country. It's not a problem at scale. 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:47.080 And they want to invalidate elections. They want to be 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:49.200 able to say, well, we looked at this voter file. 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:53.000 It was fraudulent. Everybody in there is, every Democrat has 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:55.840 registered twelve times, and they're all in egalaliens, they're all criminals, 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:57.400 they're all blah blah blah blah blah, they want to 0:16:57.440 --> 0:16:59.000 do that because they know they're about to get their 0:16:59.040 --> 0:16:59.960 asses handed to them. 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:01.600 The professional races. Again. 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:03.720 I'm not a guy who like eats out ahead of 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:05.879 time on the news of the Senate, but the Senate 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:10.400 is looking very or increasingly less hospitable for the Republicans. 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:13.760 And you know you see it, right. I think a 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:19.879 really good example is Ted Cruz. So Axios had a 0:17:20.080 --> 0:17:25.159 bit of reporting. You're so excited, a bit of reporting 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:32.160 about my man, and quite frankly, he's none of our man, Raphael, 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:35.480 And I think that I would love you to just 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:37.640 talk for a minute as someone who knows the dark 0:17:37.800 --> 0:17:42.760 arts of how this reporting gets leaked to Axios, and 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:44.160 then we'll talk more. 0:17:44.640 --> 0:17:49.680 Look, somebody in that donor meeting either has decided that 0:17:50.040 --> 0:17:53.760 it's a really smart idea to preposition Cruise is a 0:17:53.760 --> 0:17:54.720 post Trump. 0:17:55.000 --> 0:17:57.639 Conservative, That's what I think, which is. 0:17:57.640 --> 0:18:02.199 My belief, or somebody got sour on Ted, And I 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:05.320 will tell you the former is a much higher likelihood 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:08.159 thing than the latter. This smells like a little bit 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:12.359 too packaged to me to be some disgruntled staffer or 0:18:12.400 --> 0:18:16.560 disgruntled donor. And the messages Cruise delivered in that leak 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:20.840 were a little too on the nose for twenty twenty eight. 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:23.800 So you think Cruz leaked this to Axios himself. 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:27.960 Yeah, that's or or a consultant or staffer or somebody. 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:29.560 But yeah, I think this is a play. I don't 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:31.159 think it's an accident. I think it's a play. 0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:34.640 And I think what's important about it is that in 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:39.400 it Ted Cruz or is reported by whoever in Ted 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:42.960 Cruz's camp leaked it that Donald Trump said fuck you 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:45.400 when Ted said you're now. 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:47.720 Honestly, who among us hasn't said. 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:48.120 Fuck you Ted? 0:18:48.440 --> 0:18:50.560 Amazingly some of us to his face. 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:52.679 I'll never forget. In twenty sixteen, I remember being in 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:55.040 this green room with Ted Cruz at the Texas trip 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:59.000 Fest and he was just like, oh, you know, I 0:18:59.160 --> 0:19:01.280 Trump's gonna just I hate him so much. 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:02.680 I'm like, okay, we'll stand the fuck up. 0:19:03.280 --> 0:19:03.879 Yeah we do. 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:06.359 What are you gonna do? And I have a photograph 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:08.320 of that. Somebody took a picture of me and it's 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:10.840 like Rick with his finger up and you know, giving 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:12.800 it to Ted Cruz. But there are two types of 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:15.240 people in the world, Ted Cruz and everybody who hates 0:19:15.280 --> 0:19:16.920 Ted Cruse, which is everybody else in the world. 0:19:17.000 --> 0:19:20.199 So I'm going to read the secret recording just for 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:20.639 a minute. 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:21.320 So we have it. 0:19:21.480 --> 0:19:21.760 Matt A. 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:25.040 Cruise, You're going to lose the House, You're going to 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:27.560 lose the Senate. You're going to spend the next two 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:31.919 years being impeached every single week. Absolutely could not be 0:19:32.040 --> 0:19:36.480 more true. Trump's response, according to Cruz, fuck you, Ted. 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:40.199 Look, Cruise, god knows, I'm gonna probably get struck by 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:43.359 lightning for this. The Cruise's analysis of why that was 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:46.760 going to happen was correct, because he said, these tariffs 0:19:46.800 --> 0:19:49.840 are going to destroy the country, and they destroy the economy, 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:53.280 and they have Remember this, this stuff was recorded last 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:58.240 spring and summer, and so Cruise was correct. And Molly, 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:00.320 this is one of those things where where you you 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:03.639 see that hidden nature of the Republican Party of today. 0:20:04.600 --> 0:20:07.600 These guys privately say to themselves, oh my god, he's 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:10.280 fucking us. We're getting destroyed. He's gonna blow us up, 0:20:10.320 --> 0:20:13.160 We're gonna lose everything. They say it to themselves all 0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:16.879 the time, and their right to do so, because he 0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:21.679 is and they they don't seem to ever quite have 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:24.240 that moment where they go okay, now the next step 0:20:24.280 --> 0:20:27.680 of this procedure is to break with the president. Yes, 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:30.840 they know it's coming, they can't break the spell. Ted 0:20:30.920 --> 0:20:33.560 Cruz will still go out right now and try to 0:20:33.600 --> 0:20:34.600 kiss Trump's ass. 0:20:34.960 --> 0:20:38.639 Now, let's talk about this because Republicans are seeing the 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:43.680 writing on the wall and they are worried about losing 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:49.080 in the midterms. But they all are cowards and traders. 0:20:48.960 --> 0:20:51.120 So profiles and chicken shit, as I like to say. 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:54.320 Right, but this is an interesting piece and I want 0:20:54.320 --> 0:20:57.680 to talk about it. Significant step in the oversight front 0:20:57.720 --> 0:21:03.680 from the House majority that has done little Okay, Chairman Rep. Gambarino, 0:21:05.080 --> 0:21:10.240 who is a New York Republican, So that says all 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:12.440 you need to know. Right, he knows he's going to 0:21:12.480 --> 0:21:16.399 lose his seat. I think it's important, has formally requested 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:23.040 testimony from ICE, CPB, and USCIS in a full committee hearing. 0:21:23.359 --> 0:21:26.840 Congress is an important responsibility to ensure the safety of 0:21:27.040 --> 0:21:31.800 law enforcement and the people they serve and protect. Talk 0:21:31.880 --> 0:21:34.160 us through why he's doing this. 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:36.639 This little crease, this little crevice in the wall of 0:21:36.760 --> 0:21:41.399 MAGA discipline, I think is extraordinarily dangerous. Here's the story 0:21:41.400 --> 0:21:44.560 that we have to understand. When Trump came in in 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:49.040 February a year ago, his approval rating on his immigration 0:21:49.119 --> 0:21:51.920 policies was basically fifty nine to thirty. It's really good. 0:21:52.040 --> 0:21:54.480 People saw the rubber hit the road, however, and now 0:21:54.960 --> 0:21:57.159 it's about thirty to fifty nine people now hate his 0:21:57.200 --> 0:21:58.160 immigration policy. 0:21:58.760 --> 0:22:01.560 And that was one before they killed that great. 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:03.720 That was, and that poll was taken this last week. 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:07.840 It was yah, post Renee good but pre Alex pretty okay. 0:22:08.119 --> 0:22:10.119 It is not going to get any better that the 0:22:10.400 --> 0:22:13.040 dead fish doesn't stop stinking. It's gonna smell worse. It's 0:22:13.080 --> 0:22:15.840 gonna be worse. It's gonna be tougher for them to justify. 0:22:15.960 --> 0:22:20.320 So you're going to see them pull carry uh carry 0:22:20.359 --> 0:22:23.680 like Christinome and little little Greg Bavino and the rest 0:22:23.680 --> 0:22:25.960 of these weirdos. Yeah, they're going to pull them in 0:22:26.000 --> 0:22:27.359 and they're going to have a hearing and they're going 0:22:27.440 --> 0:22:30.520 to say, I favor the president's immigration policies, and I 0:22:30.560 --> 0:22:32.480 want you to be able to do the best job ever, 0:22:32.600 --> 0:22:35.000 so so let's talk about how you're going to do better. 0:22:35.080 --> 0:22:38.080 They're not going to burn it down. They're not going 0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:40.760 to go against Trump. They're not going to say we 0:22:40.840 --> 0:22:42.080 got to get rid of ice. 0:22:42.359 --> 0:22:45.960 But one of the things, it's a it's a crack 0:22:46.040 --> 0:22:46.480 in the wall. 0:22:46.720 --> 0:22:49.920 And I will tell you this. My chats and emails 0:22:50.000 --> 0:22:53.439 were burning up last night from a lot of my 0:22:54.800 --> 0:22:57.920 pro gun pro two A friends, like like, I'm not 0:22:57.960 --> 0:22:59.840 going to go against Trump yet, but man, this is 0:22:59.840 --> 0:23:04.600 a really bad look a legal concealed carry permit holder 0:23:04.720 --> 0:23:07.360 not engaged in violence. And Baveno goes out and says, 0:23:07.359 --> 0:23:09.879 if you carry a gun around us, not pointing it 0:23:09.920 --> 0:23:12.520 at us, but if you carry it around us exercising 0:23:12.520 --> 0:23:14.439 your Secondmendment of rights, you're gonna get killed. 0:23:14.840 --> 0:23:16.320 Yeah, that's a fault. 0:23:16.000 --> 0:23:18.000 Line inside of MAGA right now that I don't think 0:23:18.000 --> 0:23:19.120 people have weighed in yet. 0:23:19.240 --> 0:23:22.119 Enough on I want to point out something else though 0:23:22.280 --> 0:23:25.399 about this and why hearings are good and why getting 0:23:25.440 --> 0:23:28.080 these people to talk as much as possible is important. Yeah, 0:23:28.560 --> 0:23:33.000 because they're constantly lying, so they're constantly getting caught in lies. 0:23:33.320 --> 0:23:38.280 And already on Twitter, I've seen like four different videos 0:23:38.720 --> 0:23:41.920 that have you know, Bovino says something, the video says 0:23:41.960 --> 0:23:45.719 something different, Christy Noam says something, the video says something different. 0:23:46.080 --> 0:23:49.880 Jd Vance says something, the video says something different, and 0:23:50.160 --> 0:23:53.720 even worse, I mean, Jadvans has spent so much time 0:23:53.800 --> 0:23:58.040 just defending everything indefensible that you literally have Jady Van's 0:23:58.320 --> 0:24:03.760 defending Kyle written, you know, and then trashing Alex Petrie. 0:24:03.800 --> 0:24:04.679 So explain this. 0:24:04.680 --> 0:24:07.720 Everything out of JD Vance's mouth. You should process it with. 0:24:08.000 --> 0:24:10.440 This is his twenty twenty eight campaign. He's going to 0:24:10.480 --> 0:24:13.440 be the biggest asshole possible to the victims of ice. 0:24:13.640 --> 0:24:15.840 He has to win in a race. They're going to 0:24:15.880 --> 0:24:19.240 be fifteen Republicans in that race. He's going to go 0:24:19.320 --> 0:24:23.280 into it on paper as the presumptive. But in reality, 0:24:23.520 --> 0:24:26.119 you know what MAGA wants. They want more blood, more ugly, 0:24:26.200 --> 0:24:30.359 more anger, more hatred, more screaming, more chaos. Vance is 0:24:30.640 --> 0:24:33.240 all he's doing is setting up twenty twenty eight. He 0:24:33.320 --> 0:24:35.520 probably is laying awake at night going, oh my god, 0:24:35.560 --> 0:24:37.960 I'm going to get struck down by lightning. 0:24:38.160 --> 0:24:39.280 Good Catholic there, JD. 0:24:41.520 --> 0:24:42.440 But it's important. 0:24:42.560 --> 0:24:45.560 I think it's really important to realize, like that is 0:24:45.600 --> 0:24:50.640 what's happening here. Jadie Vance is just defending the indefensible. 0:24:51.000 --> 0:24:54.080 He has no principles, correct, Mary, That's exactly your point 0:24:54.119 --> 0:24:58.240 is exactly right. JD. Vance has no principles whatsoever. You know, 0:24:58.240 --> 0:25:00.840 he's a guy who's had four names. If he can 0:25:00.880 --> 0:25:03.600 change his name four times, he can change his principles 0:25:03.600 --> 0:25:06.880 even even more easily. And he's done so. 0:25:06.880 --> 0:25:09.200 So the other thing that happened that I think is 0:25:09.240 --> 0:25:12.480 a big deal is that well they were I mean, 0:25:12.480 --> 0:25:14.479 this is why these guys are such fugging morons, is 0:25:14.640 --> 0:25:19.560 they're shooting a nurse while their funding appropriation is in 0:25:19.600 --> 0:25:23.359 the Senate. It had passed the House, yep, and last 0:25:23.680 --> 0:25:25.280 my Democrats had voted for it. 0:25:25.880 --> 0:25:30.000 Go on Saturday night, you finally saw Mount Schumer erupt. 0:25:30.359 --> 0:25:32.360 You finally saw them say we're not going to vote 0:25:32.400 --> 0:25:34.240 for this. And look, the rubber's got to meet the road. 0:25:34.280 --> 0:25:38.600 He's got to whip his caucus against it. That's the test. Okay, 0:25:38.840 --> 0:25:40.960 not a humor can do it. 0:25:41.200 --> 0:25:42.160 He could do it if. 0:25:42.040 --> 0:25:43.920 You wanted to, and I hope you want to now, 0:25:44.119 --> 0:25:49.600 because if the Democrats vote for this CR that funds ICE, they. 0:25:49.480 --> 0:25:50.600 Are now completely fucked. 0:25:51.119 --> 0:25:54.040 They're complicit, and their base is going to go fuck you, 0:25:54.520 --> 0:25:55.120 stay home. 0:25:55.840 --> 0:25:59.280 Yeah. I think their base is going to primary everyone. 0:25:59.359 --> 0:26:00.480 I think it's going to be like. 0:26:01.600 --> 0:26:04.000 If you if you don't, if you don't vote to 0:26:04.080 --> 0:26:06.439 kill this c R. There's blood on your hands if 0:26:06.440 --> 0:26:08.760 you're a Democrat. And I and I mean, you know what, 0:26:08.840 --> 0:26:13.080 And and while John Fetterman is now functionally a Republican, yeah, 0:26:13.640 --> 0:26:16.639 the rest of those soft Democrats, y'all best get your 0:26:16.680 --> 0:26:18.920 act in gear because this ship does not work. 0:26:19.440 --> 0:26:21.720 And also they're all going to get primaried. I mean 0:26:22.080 --> 0:26:23.359 like they're all going to get. 0:26:23.400 --> 0:26:25.720 You're going to catch a primary. The ads are going 0:26:25.800 --> 0:26:28.800 to be brutal. It's going to be Senators John Smith says, 0:26:29.480 --> 0:26:31.720 says he believes in human rights and human dignity and 0:26:31.760 --> 0:26:34.080 the rule of law, but he voted to give Greg 0:26:34.119 --> 0:26:37.200 Bavino and Christy no more money to kill more Americans. 0:26:37.560 --> 0:26:40.160 I could write that ad in my sleep. I could 0:26:40.160 --> 0:26:41.680 write that ad in my sleep, and you'd watch it 0:26:41.720 --> 0:26:43.639 and you'd cry like a baby because it's so tragic 0:26:43.840 --> 0:26:47.919 and rightly so. But these people if Chuck Schumer and 0:26:48.000 --> 0:26:51.000 I've been very hard on Chuck Schumer, which he deserves, 0:26:51.200 --> 0:26:54.440 which he's deserved, But if he does this, this will 0:26:54.480 --> 0:26:56.920 be a legacy moment for him where he will walk 0:26:56.920 --> 0:26:59.800 out of the Senate with his head held high, that 0:27:00.160 --> 0:27:01.959 fought the good fight at the end on something that 0:27:02.040 --> 0:27:05.040 was a gigantic civil rights issue, because that's what this 0:27:05.119 --> 0:27:07.920 bill really has become. It is a question of American 0:27:07.960 --> 0:27:11.040 civil rights or the power of ice to kill us. 0:27:11.400 --> 0:27:15.720 And if Democrats do the right thing, the morally correct thing, 0:27:16.280 --> 0:27:20.199 and they vote against this cr which gives billions of 0:27:20.240 --> 0:27:23.720 dollars to Trump's pride and militia, then Republicans will be 0:27:23.800 --> 0:27:27.880 forced to shut down the government. And they should because 0:27:27.920 --> 0:27:30.000 this government is hurting its people. 0:27:30.240 --> 0:27:30.480 Yep. 0:27:30.600 --> 0:27:33.600 And there's already a little like buzz around some sort 0:27:33.640 --> 0:27:37.359 of compromise from Thune where he's telling people like, well, 0:27:37.359 --> 0:27:40.199 we'll do an ice reform bill that'll kick in in 0:27:40.280 --> 0:27:43.880 two years and da da da no uh uh, no deals, 0:27:44.480 --> 0:27:45.320 no negotiation. 0:27:46.000 --> 0:27:46.480 That's it. 0:27:46.720 --> 0:27:51.720 These people are violating our first, second, fourth, fifth, sixth, 0:27:51.720 --> 0:27:54.920 and tenth Amendment rights every single leek, steenth at fourteenth, Yes, 0:27:54.960 --> 0:27:58.240 ma'am correct, every single day. And as I was joking yesterday, 0:27:58.400 --> 0:28:00.760 at this point, I'm shocked they haven't did the third 0:28:00.840 --> 0:28:04.240 and forced people to quarter ice troops in their homes. Yes, 0:28:04.560 --> 0:28:07.520 this is madness to let this thing go even an 0:28:07.520 --> 0:28:11.480 inch further. And look, I think the Democrats need to 0:28:11.520 --> 0:28:15.040 also think about this as what the Republicans think about everything. 0:28:15.400 --> 0:28:18.919 How do you engineer the spectacle. I want Preddy's family 0:28:19.000 --> 0:28:22.840 in those hearings. Yeah, I want Rachel Good's wife in 0:28:22.920 --> 0:28:23.600 those hearings. 0:28:23.880 --> 0:28:28.760 And by the way, Pretty's family does not hear about 0:28:28.800 --> 0:28:32.640 his murder until the Associated Press calls the family. 0:28:32.400 --> 0:28:36.760 Right horrifying and Pretty was by every account. And I 0:28:36.760 --> 0:28:39.080 don't know, folks, you've probably seen the YouTube video now 0:28:39.160 --> 0:28:43.400 of him saying last words over a veteran's coffin or 0:28:43.440 --> 0:28:47.040 a hospital bed with a flag draped veterans passing. 0:28:48.080 --> 0:28:48.920 This was a good guy. 0:28:49.720 --> 0:28:50.400 Are you crying? 0:28:50.680 --> 0:28:55.240 Yeah, I'm upset, Molly, I'm fucking upset. I'm upset that 0:28:55.360 --> 0:28:58.320 a good person who was trying to do a good 0:28:58.400 --> 0:29:04.240 thing is now being vilified by scumbag worms like Steven Miller. 0:29:04.560 --> 0:29:06.840 Steven Miller is not fit to lick the shit off 0:29:06.840 --> 0:29:12.240 his shoes and immediately pops out domestic terrorists. I hope 0:29:12.240 --> 0:29:16.120 the family sues the ever loving fuck out of Steve 0:29:16.320 --> 0:29:19.720 Miller and Christy Nome and Greg Bavino and Donald Trump 0:29:19.800 --> 0:29:22.640 for defamation. This is a black and white defamation case. 0:29:22.880 --> 0:29:28.120 You call someone a domestic terrorist with no evidence, with zero, 0:29:29.000 --> 0:29:32.160 zero evidence, and of course when they did it before 0:29:32.160 --> 0:29:34.120 there were any facts established in the case. They were 0:29:34.160 --> 0:29:38.200 domestic terrorists attack the police. Sorry, and they really should, 0:29:38.360 --> 0:29:41.840 because there is a civil legal exposure for these people 0:29:41.880 --> 0:29:46.520 that that's been underestimated so far. And I hope and 0:29:46.560 --> 0:29:50.120 I pray that there are some junkyard dog lawyers out 0:29:50.160 --> 0:29:52.760 there on this side of the issue that are willing 0:29:52.800 --> 0:29:57.520 to go and burn this administration's leadership, that are saying 0:29:57.560 --> 0:29:59.280 these things to the fucking ground. 0:30:01.120 --> 0:30:01.880 I drunk fast. 0:30:04.120 --> 0:30:06.880 Michael Waldman is the President and CEO of the Brendon 0:30:06.960 --> 0:30:09.840 Center for Justice at NYU's School of Law. 0:30:10.160 --> 0:30:15.920 Michael Waldman, Hi, Molly, Happy New Year. Too late. It's 0:30:16.040 --> 0:30:17.400 too late. You can't do that. 0:30:17.560 --> 0:30:20.280 As we both know, you are out of the statute 0:30:20.280 --> 0:30:23.600 of limitations of New Year's according to Larry David. So 0:30:24.040 --> 0:30:26.960 you are the head of the Brandon Center. You guys 0:30:27.080 --> 0:30:32.720 have this really important new project which is nine Solutions 0:30:32.720 --> 0:30:35.840 for Political Corruption. I don't know why you're so focused 0:30:35.840 --> 0:30:39.200 on political corruption because everything is going great. First, I 0:30:39.240 --> 0:30:40.720 want you to explain how do you get to a 0:30:40.760 --> 0:30:45.360 place where the political corruption is so everywhere that you 0:30:45.480 --> 0:30:47.080 have to sort of narrow it down. 0:30:47.400 --> 0:30:50.000 One of the amazing things to me, right now is 0:30:50.360 --> 0:30:55.080 lots of polls show that voters citizens name corruption is 0:30:55.080 --> 0:30:57.600 one of their top issues have for months and months. 0:30:57.720 --> 0:31:00.800 And given the fact that the traditional news media, which 0:31:00.920 --> 0:31:02.840 used to be the thing that told us when there 0:31:02.920 --> 0:31:06.320 was a scandal, you know, barely exists in some respects, 0:31:06.520 --> 0:31:09.520 my reaction is, how do voters even know that they 0:31:09.560 --> 0:31:12.840 basically are way ahead of the political system and seeing 0:31:12.880 --> 0:31:16.080 that the rot that is pervasive right now in government 0:31:16.160 --> 0:31:19.240 and politics in Washington. You know, look, corruption is not 0:31:19.640 --> 0:31:23.880 exactly a new phenomenon in human history, fair enough to say. 0:31:24.120 --> 0:31:26.600 And for a long time in our country there was 0:31:26.960 --> 0:31:30.760 personal corruption in public office if we think about Tammany 0:31:30.800 --> 0:31:34.600 hall boss tweet, people taking money, graft, that kind of thing, 0:31:34.840 --> 0:31:37.720 and then later on in the late twentieth century that 0:31:37.840 --> 0:31:40.680 was really supplanted in a lot of ways by the 0:31:40.920 --> 0:31:45.000 institutional corruption of something like the campaign finance system when money, 0:31:45.320 --> 0:31:49.760 big money became especially really important in how elections got run. 0:31:50.000 --> 0:31:53.800 Now you see both of those things roaring back and combined, 0:31:54.120 --> 0:31:58.400 and we see a fusion of public power and private 0:31:58.600 --> 0:32:01.000 wealth in a way we just have not seen since 0:32:01.040 --> 0:32:03.480 the Gilded Age of the late eighteen hundreds, if that, 0:32:03.840 --> 0:32:06.960 you know, back then the robber barons had a big impact, 0:32:07.280 --> 0:32:09.960 but they did not have a situation where the world's 0:32:09.960 --> 0:32:14.960 wealthiest man, Elan Musk, paid for basically the winning presidential campaign, 0:32:15.160 --> 0:32:18.480 then moved into the White House, literally slept on a cot, 0:32:18.600 --> 0:32:22.000 and was given prime ministerial authority for a few months 0:32:22.040 --> 0:32:24.040 to wreck as many agents ands as he could get 0:32:24.080 --> 0:32:24.640 his hands on. 0:32:24.920 --> 0:32:27.080 You didn't back then have this thing. 0:32:27.240 --> 0:32:30.000 You and I have talked about the unitary executive theory, 0:32:30.040 --> 0:32:32.560 which was is this notion that the president has the 0:32:32.560 --> 0:32:35.240 power of a king, that the rule of law doesn't apply. 0:32:35.640 --> 0:32:39.280 All of these things make the corruption really really significant. 0:32:39.360 --> 0:32:42.080 And if you want to understand why government doesn't work, 0:32:42.120 --> 0:32:45.280 if you want to understand why people feel the economic 0:32:45.320 --> 0:32:48.959 system is rigged, there's an affordability crisis, all these other things, 0:32:49.600 --> 0:32:52.560 they are rightly blaming this. 0:32:52.600 --> 0:32:53.640 As one of the reasons. 0:32:53.920 --> 0:32:57.240 So we thought it was important to start this Solution's 0:32:57.280 --> 0:33:00.520 series by looking at corruption. And you know, so it's 0:33:00.560 --> 0:33:02.800 a little presumptuous in a way to be thinking, well, 0:33:02.800 --> 0:33:05.160 what are the solutions, how can we fix things in 0:33:05.200 --> 0:33:09.080 the future When the wreckage is being cleaned up, aren't 0:33:09.080 --> 0:33:10.960 the barbarians at the gates of the city is this 0:33:11.080 --> 0:33:13.560 really the time to be doing, you know, urban planning. 0:33:13.600 --> 0:33:16.160 We think emphatically yes, that we have to be thinking 0:33:16.240 --> 0:33:18.680 right now, talking right now about what would be the 0:33:18.680 --> 0:33:21.240 big changes that would actually make a difference to undo 0:33:21.360 --> 0:33:23.640 some of the damage but also do things better. 0:33:24.080 --> 0:33:26.400 Right, And that's a really good point, because there's like 0:33:26.800 --> 0:33:31.520 digging out from the trumpest corruption, and then there's trying 0:33:31.800 --> 0:33:36.160 to have reforms like post NIX and like post civil war, 0:33:36.720 --> 0:33:41.600 the kind of things you must have in order to survive. 0:33:41.720 --> 0:33:45.200 So first let's talk about the campaign finance because that 0:33:45.280 --> 0:33:48.560 seems to be certainly the most obvious when you talk 0:33:48.560 --> 0:33:49.480 about Elon Musk. 0:33:49.920 --> 0:33:52.480 Yeah, and we we do begin with the campaign finance 0:33:52.840 --> 0:33:56.000 solutions because that is so big, so pervasive, and has 0:33:56.000 --> 0:33:58.640 such an obviously such a huge impact on so much 0:33:58.640 --> 0:34:00.360 of what government doesn't have. 0:34:00.480 --> 0:34:02.360 Billions of dollars being. 0:34:02.480 --> 0:34:05.520 Contributed in American elections in a way that no other 0:34:05.640 --> 0:34:09.839 democracy does, and a lot of this is secret money. 0:34:09.880 --> 0:34:11.400 In other words, it's called dark money. 0:34:11.400 --> 0:34:14.880 It's undisclosed who gives the money, but billions of dollars 0:34:15.000 --> 0:34:18.600 coming in and very often from very very wealthy individuals 0:34:18.800 --> 0:34:20.960 or from people who have a big interest in how 0:34:21.360 --> 0:34:23.239 government contracts work and that sort of thing. 0:34:23.400 --> 0:34:24.799 So the steps that need to be. 0:34:24.800 --> 0:34:28.560 Taken, we think range from looking at the constitution itself, 0:34:28.600 --> 0:34:32.839 a constitutional amendment to undo Citizens United which is now 0:34:32.920 --> 0:34:37.319 fifteen sixteen years old, just as of a few days ago, 0:34:37.600 --> 0:34:41.240 and actually other really bad Supreme Court decisions that wrecked 0:34:41.239 --> 0:34:43.080 the campaign finance laws and gave us. 0:34:43.000 --> 0:34:45.440 This toxic politics that we have right now. 0:34:45.560 --> 0:34:49.160 There's also a need for legislation to end dark money, 0:34:49.160 --> 0:34:53.759 to require disclosure of all this spending and contributions. And 0:34:53.840 --> 0:34:58.120 I think something that really makes a big difference that 0:34:58.160 --> 0:35:00.319 I've been fighting for for years and years, which is 0:35:00.360 --> 0:35:03.439 public financing of campaigns, the system that New York State 0:35:03.520 --> 0:35:07.280 has now and New York City too, where small contributions 0:35:07.440 --> 0:35:10.319 get a match. It boosts the power of small contributions 0:35:10.360 --> 0:35:12.680 and it makes it possible to run without just being 0:35:12.840 --> 0:35:14.080 beholden to the big money. 0:35:14.160 --> 0:35:16.399 Those are some of the ideas. I'll mention one other 0:35:16.480 --> 0:35:17.960 that is a newer one. 0:35:18.000 --> 0:35:21.640 I think there is not really right now an effective 0:35:21.960 --> 0:35:27.120 ban on campaign contributions from government to contractors in the government, 0:35:27.280 --> 0:35:29.880 and think of how much money is at stake. 0:35:30.200 --> 0:35:32.840 Give us an example of what that means, because I 0:35:32.840 --> 0:35:35.160 think people might not understand exactly. 0:35:35.440 --> 0:35:39.080 Government contractors make billions and billions and billions of dollars, 0:35:39.160 --> 0:35:41.239 and it's not like they're just skimming it off the top. 0:35:41.280 --> 0:35:44.960 They're providing services very often. But there's tremendous potential for 0:35:45.040 --> 0:35:48.560 waste and overcharging and all the things we're familiar with. 0:35:48.760 --> 0:35:52.520 And you don't want those billions of dollars of contracts 0:35:52.560 --> 0:35:55.719 going just because somebody contributed to someone's campaign or as 0:35:55.760 --> 0:35:58.400 a political backer. There are laws on the books, federal 0:35:58.480 --> 0:36:02.360 laws that supposedly stopped up this kind of campaign contributions, 0:36:02.360 --> 0:36:04.680 but it's very narrow and so the executives of a 0:36:04.719 --> 0:36:07.960 company or the subsidiaries of a company aren't really covered. 0:36:08.080 --> 0:36:10.480 So you need to make the law real and tight 0:36:10.560 --> 0:36:13.160 and effective. And I think a lot of people on 0:36:13.200 --> 0:36:16.120 all sides of those transactions would be very happy because 0:36:16.160 --> 0:36:18.000 they don't really want to have to be doing this. 0:36:18.080 --> 0:36:20.360 And if you look at how Trump is running the 0:36:20.360 --> 0:36:24.320 federal government, it's so clear that giving campaign contributions or 0:36:24.719 --> 0:36:28.040 to his library or to his ballroom is how you 0:36:28.080 --> 0:36:32.000 get stuff done. Is inaugural fund is very transactional, and 0:36:32.040 --> 0:36:35.880 it's just gets yeah. And for the pardons, all these 0:36:36.000 --> 0:36:38.239 kinds of things. Again that the Supreme Court has made 0:36:38.239 --> 0:36:40.720 the corruption easy. So we do start with the campaign 0:36:40.800 --> 0:36:45.520 finance system. It's very, very broadly popular with the public, 0:36:45.640 --> 0:36:50.000 with Democrats and Republicans. The challenge is that the politicians 0:36:50.160 --> 0:36:53.439 in Washington and everywhere else, they tend usually to think 0:36:53.600 --> 0:36:54.800 of themselves. 0:36:54.360 --> 0:36:56.960 As incumbents more than anything else. They don't really want 0:36:57.000 --> 0:36:59.160 to change this that much. But it's the big one, 0:36:59.200 --> 0:36:59.640 I think. 0:37:00.040 --> 0:37:03.560 And government contractors. That's things like Boeing Right. 0:37:03.680 --> 0:37:09.640 Boeing Defense contractors, the Pentagon spends in contracts trillions. 0:37:09.080 --> 0:37:10.320 Of dollars over a decade. 0:37:10.440 --> 0:37:12.680 Things are really expensive, and you want them to work, 0:37:12.760 --> 0:37:15.080 and you want them not to be based on favoritism 0:37:15.280 --> 0:37:17.759 or graft. You want them to be based as much 0:37:17.840 --> 0:37:20.120 as you can on it actually being the best value 0:37:20.160 --> 0:37:20.920 for taxpayers. 0:37:21.320 --> 0:37:26.040 So publicly funded campaigns really annoys me, but I understand 0:37:26.160 --> 0:37:29.040 why they exist. But it makes me mad every time 0:37:29.040 --> 0:37:32.080 we talk about it. So let's talk about it. Very annoying, 0:37:32.160 --> 0:37:33.560 but let's talk about it. 0:37:33.680 --> 0:37:35.839 You are now a loan you know, it's very often 0:37:35.920 --> 0:37:38.640 the people who are most upset about the current system 0:37:38.719 --> 0:37:40.680 who have the hardest time of this because it's like, 0:37:40.719 --> 0:37:43.520 why are we giving money to these politicians. 0:37:43.000 --> 0:37:44.239 So they can spend it on? 0:37:44.760 --> 0:37:44.960 Right? 0:37:45.000 --> 0:37:47.040 But yes, go on explain why, Well, it's. 0:37:46.920 --> 0:37:49.600 Better that the money come from taxpayers or some other 0:37:49.680 --> 0:37:52.280 fund like that than from somebody who wants a contract 0:37:52.440 --> 0:37:52.960 or something. 0:37:53.239 --> 0:37:54.839 And the way to do it. 0:37:54.920 --> 0:37:58.080 I think it doesn't get all private money out of politics, 0:37:58.360 --> 0:38:01.040 but it makes it possible to run a campaign going 0:38:01.080 --> 0:38:04.480 to voters, going to small dollar contributors. And you're seeing 0:38:04.520 --> 0:38:07.080 that in New York State, and it's been very successful 0:38:07.160 --> 0:38:10.040 in New York City over the years and really changing 0:38:10.080 --> 0:38:13.520 who gives money to campaigns. You're totally not alone in 0:38:13.640 --> 0:38:16.680 getting the hebgb's over the idea of spending the money 0:38:16.680 --> 0:38:17.040 this way. 0:38:17.200 --> 0:38:19.239 You sort of have to raise a certain amount of 0:38:19.320 --> 0:38:23.839 money in order to get the matching fund. 0:38:23.960 --> 0:38:26.480 We're not just giving money out to people, right. 0:38:26.800 --> 0:38:29.600 You have to have supporters support you, and then their 0:38:29.719 --> 0:38:32.799 contributions are enhanced basically, and as you know, in New 0:38:32.880 --> 0:38:35.440 York City or New York State, it's a multiple match, 0:38:35.560 --> 0:38:37.799 like if I give ten dollars, then it might be 0:38:37.880 --> 0:38:41.960 worth eighty dollars to the campaign. And it does encourage 0:38:41.960 --> 0:38:43.960 the candidates to actually talk to people. It means that 0:38:44.040 --> 0:38:46.799 having a coffee clutch in someone's living room gets them 0:38:46.840 --> 0:38:49.440 as much money as having a private meeting in a 0:38:49.480 --> 0:38:52.520 real estate office. But it's new right now, but it's 0:38:52.560 --> 0:38:55.120 actually not a brand new idea. We had a public 0:38:55.160 --> 0:38:59.080 financing system in the United States after Watergate, as you 0:38:59.160 --> 0:39:02.080 correctly said, when we have big scandals, when we have 0:39:02.160 --> 0:39:04.640 moments like this, that's when you get change. 0:39:04.760 --> 0:39:07.800 Afterwards. It's not always what happens, but that's when it happens. 0:39:07.960 --> 0:39:12.040 After Nixon resigned, Congress passed a public financing system for 0:39:12.080 --> 0:39:15.560 the presidential campaigns that actually worked really well, and it 0:39:15.800 --> 0:39:18.680 actually meant that Ronald Reagan when he ran for reelection, 0:39:19.280 --> 0:39:21.920 didn't do any fundraisers in the general election. 0:39:22.040 --> 0:39:23.880 Think of that. It really was effective. 0:39:24.000 --> 0:39:26.040 It just the money wasn't enough and it never got 0:39:26.160 --> 0:39:28.399 updated by Congress and it sort of faded away. That's 0:39:28.440 --> 0:39:30.880 why it's this dollar checkof on your taxes that no 0:39:30.880 --> 0:39:32.319 one really knew why it's there. 0:39:32.400 --> 0:39:34.520 But the idea was originally from Teddy Roosevelt. 0:39:34.640 --> 0:39:38.239 I want to talk about a monuments feels very apropos 0:39:38.320 --> 0:39:38.759 right now. 0:39:39.120 --> 0:39:41.839 Well, that's the other side of this, right which is 0:39:41.880 --> 0:39:45.720 that if you think about personal corruption, the personal milking 0:39:45.760 --> 0:39:48.239 of the system that you might have thought about being 0:39:48.400 --> 0:39:51.439 in an earlier era. Of course, as we know from 0:39:51.480 --> 0:39:55.520 Donald Trump outward, it is very much happening in the 0:39:55.520 --> 0:39:58.080 federal government. And then what this publication is all about. 0:39:58.080 --> 0:40:01.880 The federal governments obviously not the only place that needs improvement. 0:40:02.000 --> 0:40:06.080 The emoluments Clause is part of the Constitution. The founders 0:40:06.160 --> 0:40:08.239 when they wrote the Constitution really cared about all this 0:40:08.280 --> 0:40:11.920 corruption stuff, and it says that whoever's the president cannot 0:40:12.320 --> 0:40:17.520 take gifts from foreign governments or from domestic people basically 0:40:17.800 --> 0:40:21.120 without Congress's approval. They knew that there would be a 0:40:21.200 --> 0:40:24.280 chance that you would have corrupt presidents and that foreign 0:40:24.440 --> 0:40:27.919 entities would try to influence them with an airplane or 0:40:28.160 --> 0:40:32.799 buying their crypto or coins. They might have thought of 0:40:32.840 --> 0:40:35.279 that or the airplane, but they were very aware of 0:40:35.320 --> 0:40:39.319 the potential for corruption, and the Constitution already bans it, 0:40:39.400 --> 0:40:42.759 but there's no statute, there's no penalties attached to that. 0:40:42.880 --> 0:40:44.759 So one of the things we say that should. 0:40:44.440 --> 0:40:47.200 Happen is there needs to be a statute, a law 0:40:47.600 --> 0:40:50.520 that actually enforces the constitutions and monuments clause. 0:40:50.760 --> 0:40:51.520 There's other ways. 0:40:51.520 --> 0:40:55.520 The president right now has a big set of loopholes 0:40:56.000 --> 0:40:59.000 in the federal ethics laws that really make it easy 0:40:59.080 --> 0:41:03.520 for a grifting president to grift. The ethics laws apply 0:41:03.640 --> 0:41:05.680 to everybody in the government except the president and the 0:41:05.760 --> 0:41:07.239 vice president in the Supreme Court. 0:41:07.520 --> 0:41:09.240 That's a loophole that should be plugged. 0:41:09.400 --> 0:41:11.600 We think, as we describe here, that there are to 0:41:11.600 --> 0:41:13.960 be a new ethics agency that has the ability to 0:41:14.680 --> 0:41:17.640 enforce these things all across the government. We shouldn't let 0:41:17.640 --> 0:41:20.319 Congress off the hook either. You know, Capitol Hill has 0:41:20.320 --> 0:41:22.760 always been a place where money talks in a variety 0:41:22.800 --> 0:41:24.759 of ways, and right now one of the things people 0:41:24.800 --> 0:41:28.800 are really upset about is the incredible amount of stock 0:41:28.920 --> 0:41:30.800 trading that seems to happen. 0:41:30.960 --> 0:41:34.279 This is like my favorite topic, Congressional stock trading. I 0:41:34.320 --> 0:41:37.080 saw it on the list. I was delighted. So let's 0:41:37.120 --> 0:41:39.040 talk about this stock trading bill. 0:41:39.400 --> 0:41:43.319 So members of Congress have a suspiciously high rate of 0:41:43.360 --> 0:41:46.640 success in the stock market. They are privy to all 0:41:46.719 --> 0:41:50.320 kinds of insider information, non public information. The way that 0:41:50.640 --> 0:41:53.480 insider trading laws are written, they don't really stop them 0:41:53.520 --> 0:41:55.880 from doing this kind of stock trading. 0:41:56.000 --> 0:41:57.920 And you see their returns just way. 0:41:57.680 --> 0:42:01.240 Above you know, standard and pores or something like that way, 0:42:01.560 --> 0:42:04.600 and again, it's just quite a coincidence. And so it's 0:42:04.640 --> 0:42:07.719 something where I think the public is really outraged about this, 0:42:07.880 --> 0:42:10.520 and Congress just should pass the law right away to 0:42:10.640 --> 0:42:14.359 stop it. The Democrats have been increasingly energetic about this. 0:42:14.600 --> 0:42:17.680 The Republicans, seeing that people care about it, they actually 0:42:17.719 --> 0:42:19.840 put forward a bill a couple of weeks ago. It 0:42:19.920 --> 0:42:22.440 was very weak, but that sort of started to get 0:42:22.440 --> 0:42:24.840 the bidding going on it. I think there's a chance 0:42:25.000 --> 0:42:28.400 that this could happen even before twenty twenty eight, because 0:42:28.400 --> 0:42:30.800 it's so smelly and so there's a lot of things 0:42:30.800 --> 0:42:33.359 of that nature. And I think there's some things that 0:42:33.400 --> 0:42:36.600 go even deeper because one of the ways, as we 0:42:36.719 --> 0:42:40.360 now know, that this kind of personal corruption is happening, 0:42:40.640 --> 0:42:42.800 has to do with one of the powers the president 0:42:42.960 --> 0:42:45.680 is given in the Constitution, the pardon power. 0:42:45.960 --> 0:42:49.040 Talk about this, there's an idea that pardons need to 0:42:49.080 --> 0:42:52.239 be taken away from the president, and that is because 0:42:52.440 --> 0:42:55.359 Trump is pretty amazing in the way he has used it, 0:42:55.440 --> 0:42:58.759 but that there really is no good use of a 0:42:58.800 --> 0:43:00.000 president with a pardon power. 0:43:00.200 --> 0:43:03.680 Discuss I think presidents shouldn't have the power all on 0:43:03.719 --> 0:43:05.839 their own to do it. I think there's a roll 0:43:05.960 --> 0:43:09.759 for presidents in this. The Constitution is very clear the 0:43:09.800 --> 0:43:12.080 president has the power to issue pardons. It's one of 0:43:12.080 --> 0:43:15.000 the clearest grants of power in the whole Constitution to 0:43:15.040 --> 0:43:18.080 a president. It comes from King George the Third was 0:43:18.120 --> 0:43:19.600 one of the things you got to do as a 0:43:19.719 --> 0:43:22.040 king back in the seventeen hundreds, and that was one 0:43:22.080 --> 0:43:24.280 of the things they kind of took cut and pasted 0:43:24.440 --> 0:43:26.400 into the US Constitution because the didn't really know what 0:43:26.440 --> 0:43:28.839 a president was going to be like, and the thing 0:43:28.880 --> 0:43:31.520 they understood was a king. And it didn't really bother 0:43:31.560 --> 0:43:33.560 them because George Washington was going to be the president. 0:43:33.640 --> 0:43:36.520 He was ault so, you know, well respected that they 0:43:36.680 --> 0:43:38.840 just didn't think it all through quite as much. And 0:43:38.920 --> 0:43:41.960 it is really important that there be a place in 0:43:42.360 --> 0:43:46.560 the criminal justice system for mercy, for correcting mistakes. 0:43:46.719 --> 0:43:48.320 You know, it's an unfair system. 0:43:48.440 --> 0:43:52.520 It's very punitive, it's racially discriminatory, all of those things 0:43:53.000 --> 0:43:55.560 that we all know about. But in recent years, and 0:43:55.680 --> 0:44:00.640 especially under Trump, this unlimited power to issue pardons has 0:44:00.680 --> 0:44:04.080 become an engine of corruption. We see people giving big 0:44:04.120 --> 0:44:07.759 campaign contributions or big cash grants or other things to 0:44:07.840 --> 0:44:11.799 Trump getting pardons for family members the president of I 0:44:11.840 --> 0:44:14.320 never can remember the country. I don't think it's Ecuador, 0:44:14.560 --> 0:44:16.040 one of the other South American countries. 0:44:16.080 --> 0:44:16.800 It was convicted. 0:44:16.920 --> 0:44:20.520 Oh yeah, he just got pardoned drug trafficking. 0:44:20.760 --> 0:44:24.799 Just as we were attacking Venezuela. He's pardoned. There's every 0:44:24.840 --> 0:44:27.920 reason to think that these pardons are being issued in 0:44:27.960 --> 0:44:30.520 a corrupt way. And it's important to note that Trump, 0:44:30.520 --> 0:44:33.400 of course has taken this to an extraordinary extent. 0:44:33.760 --> 0:44:34.560 He didn't start it. 0:44:34.680 --> 0:44:37.120 Joe Biden at the end of his term pardoning his 0:44:37.280 --> 0:44:40.080 son and other family members was also. 0:44:39.880 --> 0:44:43.600 Problematic as blanket preemptive pardons. 0:44:43.800 --> 0:44:46.400 And even the president I worked for, Bill Clinton. 0:44:46.719 --> 0:44:49.560 Mark Ridge, Yeah, at the very end of his presidency 0:44:49.800 --> 0:44:50.799 pardoned Mark Rich. 0:44:50.920 --> 0:44:53.719 As they say, fugitive financier Mark Ridge. That is his 0:44:54.239 --> 0:44:55.800 homeric epithet. 0:44:55.520 --> 0:44:58.080 Who was a major Democratic donor too. 0:44:58.360 --> 0:45:00.000 I don't know if he was his wife was. 0:45:00.200 --> 0:45:00.920 But his wife was. 0:45:01.040 --> 0:45:03.560 Yeah, he was on the lamb and it had never 0:45:03.600 --> 0:45:05.120 pleaded guilty or anything like that. 0:45:05.200 --> 0:45:06.600 He was just literally a fugitive. 0:45:06.680 --> 0:45:08.840 His wife was this Clinton supporter and gave money to 0:45:08.880 --> 0:45:11.960 the library that Clinton was getting ready to start building, 0:45:12.200 --> 0:45:14.719 and he gave Mark Rich to pardon and it was 0:45:14.760 --> 0:45:16.879 a huge outcry, as it should have been, and there 0:45:16.880 --> 0:45:19.000 was even a criminal investigation of it. In the end, 0:45:19.040 --> 0:45:21.680 Clinton was cleared because in fact, there were a number 0:45:21.680 --> 0:45:24.000 of people in the federal government who had urged him 0:45:24.000 --> 0:45:26.440 to do this pardon and the government of Israel had 0:45:26.600 --> 0:45:28.279 urged him to do it because this guy had been 0:45:28.320 --> 0:45:30.000 helpful to the peace process. I mean, there were a 0:45:30.040 --> 0:45:32.120 lot of different things. There's a lot of reasons he 0:45:32.160 --> 0:45:33.920 did it. It was a bad idea and showed what 0:45:34.000 --> 0:45:36.440 could go wrong with the pardon power. And so in 0:45:36.480 --> 0:45:39.520 all the states, governors have pardon power, but there's also 0:45:39.640 --> 0:45:43.719 a board of Pardons or clemency that looks at the 0:45:43.719 --> 0:45:47.719 individual cases. There should be a constitutional amendment to address this. 0:45:48.160 --> 0:45:50.320 How do you did this stuff pass the Supreme Court? 0:45:50.640 --> 0:45:53.600 So, I mean, some of it, if you changed the constitution, 0:45:53.960 --> 0:45:56.759 they're supposed to follow that, although they don't always, but 0:45:56.920 --> 0:46:00.279 you're supposed to. And some of it are things where 0:46:00.320 --> 0:46:03.160 you can even now do things where the Supreme Court 0:46:03.200 --> 0:46:05.480 will let you do them. So this Supreme Court, which 0:46:05.560 --> 0:46:09.440 did Citizens United, has still allowed public financing system to 0:46:09.480 --> 0:46:12.319 go forward because they're voluntary and they boost speech. Just 0:46:12.480 --> 0:46:16.920 an example, they say they want disclosure of campaign money. 0:46:17.040 --> 0:46:18.960 None of us should be under any illusions that this 0:46:19.040 --> 0:46:21.160 Supreme Court has done everything it can to make it 0:46:21.200 --> 0:46:24.359 easy to be a corrupt public official. They've narrowed what 0:46:24.400 --> 0:46:27.120 corruption means, all these other things. But there have been 0:46:27.200 --> 0:46:30.200 other times. You mentioned Watergate, you mentioned after the Civil War, 0:46:30.440 --> 0:46:33.960 when things get really bad, people rise up, and you 0:46:34.040 --> 0:46:37.800 had the Progressive era, which was a series of reforms 0:46:37.840 --> 0:46:40.680 often in response to this very kind of thing. After 0:46:40.760 --> 0:46:43.319 Watergate in the nineteen seventies, you hit the same thing. 0:46:43.640 --> 0:46:46.000 So it's up to all of us. Do we want 0:46:46.040 --> 0:46:48.880 to just stand there at the end of assuming there 0:46:48.920 --> 0:46:50.840 is an end to all this, and look at the 0:46:50.880 --> 0:46:57.360 wreckage and see this wisps of smoke rising from the. 0:46:55.840 --> 0:46:58.319 The embers, and just say, well, there's nothing we can do. 0:46:58.440 --> 0:47:01.560 Or do we take this chance to build something that's 0:47:01.600 --> 0:47:04.520 a better system, that works better for people, that actually 0:47:04.560 --> 0:47:07.360 makes government serve them. I think it's actually going to 0:47:07.440 --> 0:47:09.520 be a major set of issues going forward. I think 0:47:09.560 --> 0:47:13.000 it's the campaign finance issue. I spoke to Selinda Lake, 0:47:13.000 --> 0:47:16.280 who's a major Democrat polster. She says she thinks campaign 0:47:16.320 --> 0:47:18.799 finance reform is the key issue for the Democrats, which 0:47:18.840 --> 0:47:19.919 is kind of an amazing thing. 0:47:20.200 --> 0:47:21.920 That is an insane statement. 0:47:22.320 --> 0:47:24.960 You know, it's not just dreamy eyed goo goo's like me. 0:47:25.239 --> 0:47:28.520 I think it's a real hardball political issue too wild. 0:47:28.880 --> 0:47:31.479 Michael, thank you. I hope you'll come back. 0:47:31.680 --> 0:47:32.879 I would love to thank you. 0:47:35.560 --> 0:47:41.239 No moment, Rick Wilson clue. 0:47:41.600 --> 0:47:44.080 So it is our moment of rockery and I have 0:47:44.120 --> 0:47:47.839 it today. It's a toy shop in Saint Paul, Minnesota 0:47:48.000 --> 0:47:52.080 called Mischief Toy Store and they were three D printing 0:47:52.680 --> 0:47:58.440 and giving away whistles right well, now they're being targeted 0:47:58.560 --> 0:48:01.719 by ICE. It's a beho owns it. They say that 0:48:01.920 --> 0:48:05.760 two ICE agents went to the store to hand deliver 0:48:06.440 --> 0:48:11.759 an audit asking for federal employee forms, payroll records, and 0:48:11.880 --> 0:48:17.880 names of past and present employees, just hours after the 0:48:18.080 --> 0:48:20.680 daughter of the owner of the store spoke to ABC 0:48:20.880 --> 0:48:25.000 News about the ongoing Trump operation and criticized DHS. 0:48:25.360 --> 0:48:27.359 I want to know what an ICE audit is? What 0:48:27.480 --> 0:48:28.400 is an ICE audit? 0:48:28.560 --> 0:48:31.000 What audit power does ICE have in any universe? 0:48:31.360 --> 0:48:34.879 They have given away thousands of three D printed whistles 0:48:35.040 --> 0:48:39.560 since Thanksgiving and they are being targeted by ICE for 0:48:39.640 --> 0:48:42.919 an audit. What does the Party of Small government say 0:48:43.000 --> 0:48:43.719 about such as it. 0:48:44.239 --> 0:48:46.439 You know, this is a fascinating example of the Party 0:48:46.480 --> 0:48:49.600 of small government being in everybody's fucking business. In what 0:48:49.800 --> 0:48:54.359 universe does this store printing out whistles? And by the way, folks, 0:48:54.400 --> 0:48:55.680 if you do want to get a three D printer, 0:48:55.680 --> 0:48:59.399 they're like less than one hundred bucks. Now you could 0:48:59.400 --> 0:49:01.560 print the a tech death whistle, which makes these ice 0:49:01.560 --> 0:49:04.239 whistles sound like nothing. So it is the loudest was 0:49:04.360 --> 0:49:07.279 terrified that you've ever heard. But look, this is the 0:49:07.360 --> 0:49:10.799 idea that they're going to use the power of the 0:49:10.840 --> 0:49:14.360 state to shut down a private business that's exercising the 0:49:14.400 --> 0:49:17.319 First Amendment rights of its owners. The correct answer to 0:49:17.320 --> 0:49:20.200 these guys is go fuck yourself, get a lawyer, come 0:49:20.239 --> 0:49:23.400 back with a real warrant. Otherwise we're calling the cops. 0:49:23.840 --> 0:49:25.920 And they should have called the cops to have these 0:49:25.920 --> 0:49:29.239 guys arrested for harassing them. Rick Wilson, oh I drunk, 0:49:29.280 --> 0:49:31.400 Fast Go mischief toys. 0:49:31.400 --> 0:49:32.600 Go mischief Toys. 0:49:33.520 --> 0:49:37.919 That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in 0:49:38.200 --> 0:49:43.640 every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday to hear the best 0:49:43.760 --> 0:49:48.040 minds and politics make sense of all this chaos. If 0:49:48.080 --> 0:49:51.120 you enjoy this podcast. Please send it to a friend 0:49:51.560 --> 0:49:54.800 and keep the conversation going. Thanks for listening.