WEBVTT - Work in Progress: Aaron Parnas 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:16.000 Hi everyone, It's Sophia. Welcome to Work in Progress. Hello friends, 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:19.360 Welcome back to another episode of Work in Progress. Today 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:21.480 I am sitting down with someone whose brain I am 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:27.160 absolutely obsessed with, and whose TikTok I am also obsessed with. 0:00:27.520 --> 0:00:31.360 Today we are joined by none other than Aaron Parnas. 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:35.040 He is a lawyer, he is an activist, and he 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:39.000 also happens to be the son of Lov Parness. Yes, 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:42.519 the gentleman who was arrested for his role in the 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:49.400 whole Trump Ukraine scandal. My goodness. Aaron grew up in 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:53.320 a staunchly Republican family, was a Trump voter in twenty sixteen, 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:57.680 and then was inside the first administration and saw things 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:01.600 that really will come up to the reality of what 0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:06.280 most of America is up against with an incoming oligarchy. 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:11.160 He has since become an activist in support of the 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:13.920 Democratic Party. Sure, but I would really just say in 0:01:14.000 --> 0:01:18.520 support of Americans, particularly school children. It was the twenty 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:22.600 twenty two Russian invasion of Ukraine that led Aaron Parnas 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:26.240 to TikTok. He actually works as a securities litigation attorney 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:29.000 at a law firm in Washington, d C. But it 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:32.280 was his personal connection to Ukraine and family on the 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:35.839 ground that really alerted him to the fact that American 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:39.520 media wasn't covering the whole story. So Aaron decided to 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:42.280 get on the internet and help. Not only is he 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:45.640 an impressive leader and the kind of guy who's bringing 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:49.440 Walter Cronkite energy back to the world of social media news, 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:54.320 but he's also a lawyer. He graduated with honors from 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:57.080 law school at the age of twenty one. Yeah, this 0:01:57.160 --> 0:01:58.800 is a guy who got bumped up to high school 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:02.080 at the age of fourteen. And in twenty twenty he 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:05.440 published a memoir titled Trump First, How the President and 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:09.840 his associates turned their backs on me and my family. Today, 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:11.639 we're going to talk about what that was like, seeing 0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:17.160 from the inside of a scandal, how these enormous systems 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:21.320 of politics work, and how it really led him to 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:27.400 interrogate himself, his beliefs, and why he believes that truth 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:31.360 and trustworthy information should actually be the thing we are 0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:34.520 all the most loyal to. As of today, he's amassed 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:38.000 more than three million followers on TikTok and he is 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:41.640 usually the first social media account that I check when 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:44.760 I finally let myself into my apps in the morning. 0:02:45.560 --> 0:03:00.400 Let's hear from Aaron Parness. Hi, Hi, my internet friend. 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:02.160 I'm so excited we're here. 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:05.040 I'm so excited. Also, I didn't, like, I completely did 0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:08.160 not realize I met you at the DNC when you're 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:09.079 with Governor Moore. 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:13.600 Yes, yes, I mean it was so brief, but like 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:14.520 so brief. 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:17.200 Yes, it is going to be so fun. I'm really excited. 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:24.440 Yeah, I'm so amped. I like, I'm I'm sort of 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:28.160 at a loss for words because Aaron, where do we 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:30.120 even start? 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:32.720 Where? I don't I don't know. I mean, I couldn't 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:37.360 tell you. It's a show like truthfully, like bigger than 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:38.480 I could have ever imagined. 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:43.520 The weird thing is in these really bizarre ways. I'm 0:03:43.520 --> 0:03:46.320 not surprised by anything. They gave us a roadmap, they 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:47.960 told us what they were going to do. Yes, it 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:50.160 was evil. Yes, it read like, you know, some sort 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:52.160 of insane spy movie that if you turned it in 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:54.200 at a Hollywood studio they'd be like, tone it down, 0:03:54.200 --> 0:04:00.240 you're being ridiculous. But I'm I'm so I'm in shock 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:03.280 every day that it's really this depraved and terrible. 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:06.920 I get it. I mean I think that like it's interesting, right, 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:09.520 Like he did have the Project twenty twenty five roadmap. 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:11.880 We knew what they were. And then everyone was like, well, 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:13.880 he's saying he has nothing to do with Project twenty 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:17.440 twenty five. Okay, great, look where we are at now. 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:19.039 I mean, I don't know if you saw a political 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:22.080 had an interview with the former Project twenty twenty five architect, 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:24.400 he was asked, what do you think about this? And 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:26.520 he goes, well, it's beyond my wildest dreams, like it's 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:31.560 even betaw that, and I mean, I think it's and 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:33.200 I think this goes to something that I've been talking 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:34.839 a lot about with like my friends and stuff, is 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:37.799 that the reason why Democrats don't have their act together 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:40.960 right now is because they're trying to compete against As 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:44.320 though Trump is running for reelection, he's not completely different 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:47.360 beasts right now, right like, he has completely unchecked power 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:49.719 in a way, he has a Republican House or Republican Senate, 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:52.479 and he doesn't care what the voters think because he's 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:55.240 not running for reelection, he has the next three and 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:56.240 a half years. 0:04:56.680 --> 0:04:58.440 Not only does he not care what the voters think, 0:04:58.480 --> 0:05:01.760 he doesn't care what the courts. Thing we have someone 0:05:02.200 --> 0:05:06.760 who is occupying the highest office in the land, who 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:10.040 is often in the world called the leader of the 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:12.160 free world. You know, make up that what you will, 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:15.400 but that's the age old tagline for the American president. 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:21.240 This person doesn't care about anything but money and power. 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:27.479 And so I'm trying to like make sense. Had I 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:31.479 posted something about them gutting the EPA, and I just said, 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:34.640 tell me why this makes sense. I don't care if 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:36.960 you are a died in the wold liberal, if you 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:44.200 are a hyper religious conservative. Dirty air and poisoned water 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:48.919 and sewage in your drinking water and poisoned earth that 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:53.440 you can't grow food in is bad for everybody. So like, 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:55.640 what are we doing here? 0:05:56.279 --> 0:05:58.279 To anyone's guess, I mean, I really think we're in 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:02.159 a position right now where he as president, really only 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:05.200 knows about ten percent of what's happening in his own government. 0:06:05.560 --> 0:06:09.640 And I think he's really I mean every president really has, 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:13.400 in my opinion, kind of limited oversight of what actually 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:15.599 is happening day to day and all these agencies. But 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:17.479 I think he's gotten to a point where he's kind 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:19.760 of he has his little pet projects that he really 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:24.359 cares about, like provoking Hunter Biden secret Service protection, but 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:27.680 everything kind of give him carp blanche authority to those 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:31.400 overseeing these agencies, many of whom have their own pet 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:35.120 projects and their own kind of goals, whether it's remote 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:39.440 business interests for big oil for example in the epaight example, 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:42.279 or really anything else. So I don't think he really cares, 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:44.400 is the thing. He doesn't really care to go and say, 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:46.440 you know what, this is bad. It's more of like, 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:48.080 you know what, if you think that's good, if you 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:49.360 want to do it, go ahead and do it. I 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:51.520 don't really care. That's kind of where I think we're at. 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:55.680 Wow, Okay, so we have to pause, We have to 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:58.080 rewind to catch back up to where we are today. 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:03.839 Because you have, I've really become such a trusted voice 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:07.599 out talking about the news. You are meeting the viewers 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:10.640 where they're at, which is largely on social media. Rather 0:07:10.680 --> 0:07:13.000 than complaining that you know, no one's watching the five 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:15.720 o'clock news anymore, you're taking the news to the people, 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:19.120 which I think is incredibly important. I know, you and 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:24.120 me and everyone else paying attention saw the actual scale 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:31.600 infographic of how dwarfed by right wing influencers. Any truth 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:34.720 teller or messager on the left is so we got 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:39.720 to go, we got to go to the battlefield. How 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:42.760 did you get this way? Like, talk to me about 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:46.920 your childhood. You have always been brilliant. You started college 0:07:46.920 --> 0:07:49.000 when you were only fourteen, you were in law school 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:53.600 by eighteen. Like the accelerated track is wild. And not 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:56.119 only were you clearly a brilliant kid, but you grew 0:07:56.320 --> 0:07:59.720 up in a very political landscape. So can you give 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:03.520 the listeners who I very affectionately call my whipsmarties, So 0:08:03.600 --> 0:08:06.240 they're exactly your kind of people. They like to know things. 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:09.080 Give them a little bit of like the background t 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:10.560 on how you got like this? 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:13.160 Yeah, truth be told. I never wanted to be an 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:16.760 influencer or even do journalism. I always had a dream 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:19.720 of going to law school, working as a public defender 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:21.560 and kind of just doing that for the rest of 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:25.600 my life. Really, law school changed that. And talk about 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:28.640 what happened twenty twenty two, but that also changed. But 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:31.400 growing up, I grew up in a political household to 0:08:31.480 --> 0:08:34.040 the extent that I had family that was close to 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:39.400 Donald Trump and had deep ties to the first Trump administration, 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:43.320 deep ties to those around they're now president, the former 0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:48.559 president and really grew up in kinda maga world. I 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:50.760 claimed to be a Republican myself, even though I really 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:53.680 didn't know what that meant at the time, and I 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:56.040 was just I really saw a maga for what it 0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:59.560 was from inside, being so close to it. And I 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:04.160 did that for several years while also in college slash 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:07.440 high school between before starting law school and then really 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:10.040 when I started law schoo when I was eighteen and 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:13.520 really exposed me to a lot. But I really didn't 0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:17.120 start being on social media until twenty twenty two when 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:20.320 Russia did Ukraine. By then, I had already decided I 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:22.280 was no longer a publican. I'm actually a democrat. I 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:25.160 realized what that was. But in twenty twenty two, when 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:28.959 Russia invaded Ukraine, I had family in Ukraine, and I 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:31.440 would be hearing from my uncle and folks there about 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:34.880 what was happening on the ground in front of their house, bombs, overhead, tanks, outside, 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:38.440 crazy situation. Thankfully, everyone's okay. But I would hear from them, 0:09:38.480 --> 0:09:40.520 and then I would see what's happening on mainstream media 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:44.440 here and it'd be completely different worlds. And so I 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:46.840 just opened up a TikTok account and just started making 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:49.640 videos and kind of the rest is history. So it's 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:51.880 been a wild, wild journey. 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:55.199 Yeah, it's really interesting that you say the thing about 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:58.760 what you knew to be true from reporting on the 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:01.040 ground and what was being repped resented on the media, 0:10:01.480 --> 0:10:05.040 because back in the day, you know, I'm not old 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:06.800 enough to be your mother, but I'm in that like 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:10.880 half generation above you. So imagine a time before TikTok, 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:15.000 before even Instagram, you know, Twitter had launched. When it 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:16.760 first did, I was like, who cares about pictures of 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:19.160 anyone's breakfast? The irony being that now I follow one 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:22.800 million food bloggers because I care turns out. But I 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:27.120 was sort of like, the landscape is weird, and as 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:30.680 an entertainer, you know, the tabloid culture then was crazy. 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:32.520 I was like, I don't want to participate anymore in 0:10:32.559 --> 0:10:36.439 this cesspool that I have to. And then Deepwater Horizon happened, 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:39.840 and I knew that they weren't telling the truth about 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:43.800 this massive oil spill off the coast of Louisiana. I 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:46.320 had friends down there because I'd been making a film 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:49.200 there a few summers before. Fishermen I knew were sending 0:10:49.240 --> 0:10:53.560 me videos and We're like, the news is lying. So 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:55.920 that's why I got on Twitter and I flew down there, 0:10:55.960 --> 0:10:57.920 and then the Sheriff's threatened to arrest me and a 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:00.400 bunch of lawyers we brought from Global Green. It was 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:03.360 a whole situation, and I was reporting the news on 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:06.800 Twitter because the news wasn't reporting the news. And when 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:10.480 you talk about Ukraine, I feel like there were moments 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:13.680 when I went looking where I saw what was happening 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:16.240 on the ground there where I saw Russian forces tying 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:18.920 men up and executing them outside of their homes. We 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:23.040 knew they were kidnapping children, we knew that hospitals were 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:26.800 being bombed. I mean, it was horror, horror after horror, 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:30.120 but it wasn't It wasn't in the sort of Walter 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:33.520 Cronkite news package you would have expected from the American news. 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:38.440 And now protests are happening in cities around America and 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:42.920 cities around the world about what's happening in America, and 0:11:42.920 --> 0:11:46.040 they're not being covered on the news at all. So 0:11:47.120 --> 0:11:53.000 how do you make sense of that? Because you've said, 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:57.320 you know, you mentioned earlier your family was very in 0:11:57.360 --> 0:12:00.960 the mix in Maga World for our listeners, Love part 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:07.600 Us was tight heavily involved with Rudy Giuliani, Trump's first admin. 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:14.719 You've talked about having seen inside version one of this administration, 0:12:15.320 --> 0:12:18.880 having been in the room for these conversations with top 0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:23.880 Republican allies. So I'm curious because of what you've seen, 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:28.120 why you think they don't want us to see so much, 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:31.080 Whether it's about Ukraine, whether it's about the protests, like 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:32.400 what's going on here. 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:34.679 I think it's two things. I think number one, it's 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:37.720 fear and number two it's money. Right. I think the 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:40.560 mainstream media and just media generally is fearful of what 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:45.880 Trump can do to if they report something that's in 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:47.600 his eyes not correct. I mean we see it with 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:50.720 the ABC News settlements, right, we see it with It's 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:53.360 the sixty minutes Kamala Harrison or you lost suit. I mean, 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:56.160 he's going after the media now more than ever before, 0:12:56.200 --> 0:12:58.800 and he has the people in his administration to do that. 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:01.000 So I think that's number one. I think fearful of 0:13:01.040 --> 0:13:03.400 really getting attacked by the Trump administration. And that's also 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:05.600 why you see it's funny no one else is standing 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:08.400 up with the Associated Press right now after the Associated 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:10.319 Press was kicked out of the OBOL all these other 0:13:10.640 --> 0:13:14.640 sane they're just fine with it apparently. So that's number one. 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:16.240 And then number two, I think it's money. I think 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:19.839 ultimately mainstream media is their company is just like anyone else, 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:23.120 any other company, ultimately about their bottom line. They care 0:13:23.160 --> 0:13:27.120 about how much money they're making from ad sales, from 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:31.080 watch time and all that. So I think that they're 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:33.800 beholden to those that are paying their bills, and I 0:13:33.800 --> 0:13:36.680 think those that are their bills often don't want the 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:40.000 same narrative that every day people want to see, in 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:43.079 my opinion, and I think that to your point, the 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:45.439 protests aren't being covered and all that, it's one hundred 0:13:45.480 --> 0:13:48.920 percent true. And part of that goes to why there's 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:51.679 been such a rise in independent media right now and 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:54.400 why social media has really empowered kind of the next 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:59.760 generation of media, because mainstream media companies are slowly realizing 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:03.079 that they have to cover these events. If they don't, 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:06.360 they're just going to be left behind. And I do 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:10.480 see some subtle shifts in their coverage, but it's still 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:12.080 not there yet. I mean, we still have an hour 0:14:12.160 --> 0:14:15.240 every night on CNN with Scott Jennings arguing in a 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:18.240 round Table with Abby Phillips. I feel so bad for 0:14:18.240 --> 0:14:20.160 her because she's such a great journalist. 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:21.440 Because she's incredible great. 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:23.520 They put her on this panel with Scott Jennings and 0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:26.400 it's no longer news, it's not Walter Cronkite. It's an 0:14:26.440 --> 0:14:29.720 hour of opinion, and Americans are frustrated. 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:39.040 So absolutely, and now for our sponsors, I do hear 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:41.720 you on why they're afraid, But I also find it 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:44.000 to be ridiculous. I mean even the fact that ABC 0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:48.880 News caved and the judge had to say, what's going 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:53.120 on here? He was convicted, He was found guilty of 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:56.520 raping this woman. What do you mean you can't talk 0:14:56.520 --> 0:15:01.520 about that on the news. It's like splitting hairs here 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:05.520 in this way. That is so crazy, And yet they 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:08.920 want to him in haw ensue and claim, oh, he 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:12.760 could never And then here's Trump importing the Tape Brothers, 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:20.680 violent violent rape culture guys, having Connor McGregor accused multiple times, 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:23.240 and if I'm remembering correctly, someone on the internet can 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:26.080 fact check me in real time. Convicted of having raped 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:31.000 and assaulted multiple women, The Spiritual Advisor is on trial 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:36.080 for raping a twelve year old girl. Trump's spiritual advisor 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:38.160 for my friends at home. I'm air quoting so I 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:42.440 don't throw up on myself, Like I'm just I don't 0:15:42.520 --> 0:15:49.400 understand how they will fold when the truth is called 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:51.600 a lie and then not talk about any of the 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:57.720 rest of the truth. And I'm curious your perspective on that, 0:15:58.080 --> 0:16:02.840 because that seems like the sort of central core of 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:05.920 trump Ism, right, is to say everything you don't like 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:08.840 is a lie, and then two in the same breath, 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:11.760 say you love free speech, but then sue everyone who 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:13.800 uses their free speech in a way you don't like. 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:20.000 When you've talked about these conversations that you were privy 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:24.440 to for years, did you kind of see inside the 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:26.800 hive mind of this, Like what did you see that 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:31.960 made you go, oh, the emperor really has no clothes? 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:33.960 What revealed it to you? 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:37.160 Yeah? I mean, I think just constantly how they spoke 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:39.800 about folks behind the scenes, like average everyday people and 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:43.320 especially young people. There was a constant, like subtle undertone 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:45.960 of like, they're not smart enough to really grasp what 0:16:46.000 --> 0:16:49.640 we're serving, right, like what we're kind of telling the public, 0:16:49.680 --> 0:16:52.120 and especially what we're trying to push towards young people. 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:54.320 They're not smart enough to really realize what we're going 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:56.240 to do, right, Like they're going to support us, and 0:16:56.240 --> 0:16:57.480 then we're going to be able to do whatever we 0:16:57.520 --> 0:16:59.320 want when we get into office. And that's kind of 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:02.560 what I saw over those years. And it's actually why 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:05.360 I'm not really surprised that young people and especially young 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:08.040 men voted for him a lot more now than they 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:11.240 did that even back in twenty sixteen, because what he 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:13.520 was selling appeal to them, even if it wasn't what 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:16.399 they're actually going to get over the next four years. 0:17:16.680 --> 0:17:19.320 I will say that. So, I think something that people 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:22.119 don't really realize is that the weight of the Justice 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:24.679 Department and the federal government on your shoulders, whether you 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:29.200 are an individual being prosecuted or a company being sued 0:17:29.240 --> 0:17:33.119 by the Trump administration, is so great, I mean, so 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:39.760 puditarily just anxiety inducing. I mean it is. And I 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:43.320 represented a lot of folks in criminal matters when I 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:46.159 was practicing as a lawyer, and there's nothing scarier than 0:17:46.200 --> 0:17:49.320 having the Department of Justice go after you, because it 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:52.879 will cost you millions in legal fees, it will cost months, 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:56.120 if not years, of headache, It'll cost you so much 0:17:56.200 --> 0:17:58.560 damage to your reputation, and the same thing applies to 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:01.080 any one of these media companies. ABC News is a 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:05.000 very large company. But if fearful that the Trump Justice 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:08.480 Department or the Trump FCC can go after them, then 0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:10.920 to them, it's it's much easier to pay them off 0:18:10.960 --> 0:18:15.719 fifteen million dollars then me in a year's worth of 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:16.960 litigation right now. 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:24.280 Right, But isn't that Isn't that dictatorship weaponizing a Justice Department, 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:31.280 weaponizing federal departments like the FBI to go after people 0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:34.240 you don't like, rather than to go after people who've 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:35.520 committed crimes. 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:40.760 It is, and I thankfully, I mean, they haven't prosecuted 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:44.000 anyone yet, right, I mean it's only been two months. 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:47.240 They haven't. They haven't used the Justice Department to specifically 0:18:47.280 --> 0:18:49.720 prosecute any of his quote unquote enemies just yet. But 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:53.280 we're seeing him lay the groundwork with him trying to 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:58.120 at least publicly say he's reversing Joe Biden's pardons, which 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:02.560 is insanity. We see the FBI purging and demoting a 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:07.480 number of top officials who worked on January sixth related cases, 0:19:07.720 --> 0:19:10.880 and interestingly enough, in DC where I live, the US 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:13.680 Attorney or the acting US Attorney Ed Martin has really 0:19:14.040 --> 0:19:17.320 claimed he's Donald Trump's personal attorney, has claimed that he's 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:20.720 going to be going after people who go after Elon Musk, 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:24.160 And so they're laying the groundwork to eventually do something. 0:19:24.480 --> 0:19:26.199 I'm just glad they haven't done it yet, and I 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:27.840 hope they don't do it. Book you never know. 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:32.400 But here's what frightens me. It reminds me of the adage. 0:19:32.440 --> 0:19:36.640 First they came for right. We all know the poem, 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:43.400 and we're seeing it now. They are disappearing people and 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:49.160 then claiming with no due process, no investigation, no evidence, 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:52.359 no proof in a court of law that any of 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:55.800 what they're saying is true. These men that they essentially 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:59.960 kidnapped and sent to this violent prison. And I'll salva 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:05.240 door the doctor who, uh you know, the kidney transplant 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:10.399 doctor who they deported. They said that they found photographs 0:20:10.680 --> 0:20:15.880 sympathetic to Hesbolah on her phone. What does that mean? 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:21.240 Who investigated that she's a doctor? Did she did she 0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:24.800 download photos of a war zone? Did she like? What? 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:27.879 Tell me, tell me why and tell me the truth, 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:31.800 because I don't think anybody would want any version of 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:35.119 a violent criminal here. But what happens when we find 0:20:35.119 --> 0:20:38.840 out that a number of those men that were sent 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:43.040 by the Trump administration to Venezuela were just dads. Yeah, 0:20:43.080 --> 0:20:47.280 what happens if they're American citizens? If they can come 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:50.720 for if they can come for fill in the blank, 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:55.119 if they can overturn your green card status, if they 0:20:55.200 --> 0:20:57.960 if they can revoke your citizenship as they're threatening to, 0:20:58.359 --> 0:21:02.600 they can do it to anyone, anyone. And that's what's 0:21:02.680 --> 0:21:05.840 terrifying to me. So even what you're saying, you know, 0:21:05.960 --> 0:21:09.800 they're laying the groundwork to weaponize the DOJ. They haven't 0:21:09.840 --> 0:21:12.640 done it yet, it sure seems like they're going to. 0:21:13.119 --> 0:21:18.960 And when a court orders them to stop these deportations 0:21:19.000 --> 0:21:23.400 that don't have any what's the word, I'm looking for, 0:21:24.080 --> 0:21:26.400 any any grounding in the rule of law, and they 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:30.199 say no, what do we do, Like, if there's no 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:32.600 checks and balances, who's going to check this guy? 0:21:33.320 --> 0:21:36.080 Well, I mean, I don't know. And the truth be told, 0:21:36.119 --> 0:21:38.960 I've asked members of Congress, I've asked House member senators like, 0:21:39.040 --> 0:21:40.600 no one knows, No one has an answer to it. 0:21:40.600 --> 0:21:42.960 And I think I think you made an important point 0:21:42.960 --> 0:21:44.520 that a lot of people, especially on the writer, are 0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:49.040 missing and not that Democrats and just Americans generally are 0:21:49.080 --> 0:21:52.400 okay with, for example, trend dere Aragua members walking around 0:21:52.440 --> 0:21:55.480 on the streets. No one wants, no violent crime, and 0:21:55.520 --> 0:21:59.919 they're undocumented. Remove them. Everyone's saying that. But under the 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:03.280 United States Constitution and under Supreme Court, President everyone, no 0:22:03.320 --> 0:22:06.520 matter whether you're documented or undocumented, you have due process rights. Right, 0:22:06.560 --> 0:22:09.960 you have the ability to face your accuser. And right 0:22:09.960 --> 0:22:12.119 now he is suspending that, and that is dangerous. In 0:22:12.119 --> 0:22:15.680 the situation of the kidney transplant doctor, I don't really 0:22:15.880 --> 0:22:17.600 care about what she found, what they found on her 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:19.159 phone as much as I care about the fact that 0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:22.200 there was a judicial order in place. That's exactly, don't 0:22:22.240 --> 0:22:24.320 let her leave the country. And they let her leave 0:22:24.320 --> 0:22:27.240 the country anyway, they deport you, exactly. That's the problem. 0:22:27.920 --> 0:22:30.600 They're not going through the proper channels. And today Justice 0:22:30.680 --> 0:22:34.119 Roberts rebuked Trump for calling for the epachment of Judge Bosberg, 0:22:34.160 --> 0:22:38.119 which I thought was yes, you never hear that ever. 0:22:38.400 --> 0:22:41.840 Okay, Okay, can you walk folks through that because you 0:22:42.040 --> 0:22:47.639 are you are a politically brilliant human. I am a 0:22:47.640 --> 0:22:51.040 bit of a political junkie. Not everyone spends as much 0:22:51.080 --> 0:22:53.000 time as I do, or as you do reading the 0:22:53.040 --> 0:22:56.480 news and studying this stuff. Tell the folks at home 0:22:58.200 --> 0:23:02.160 what that means for Chief Justice John Roberts to do 0:23:02.200 --> 0:23:04.600 what he did today. Can you walk us through what 0:23:04.640 --> 0:23:08.520 a big deal that is and kind of paint the picture. 0:23:09.160 --> 0:23:12.200 Yeah, I mean to put it into perspective. The Supreme 0:23:12.240 --> 0:23:15.959 Court does not issue political statements, does not issue statements 0:23:15.960 --> 0:23:18.159