Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics,
Speaker 1: where we discussed the top political headlines with some of
Speaker 1: today's best minds. And Donald Trump isn't even bothering to
Speaker 1: call world leaders back on tariffs. We have such a
Speaker 1: great show for you today. The New Abnormals and the
Speaker 1: Levy stops by to talk about the market chaos caused
Speaker 1: by Trump's temperamental tariffs. Then we'll talk to Congressman Gregory
Speaker 1: Meeks about how Congress can stop Trump's tariff madness. But
Speaker 1: first the news.
Speaker 2: So, one of the funny things about the new Trump
Speaker 2: two point zero regime is that to keep disbanding these
Speaker 2: people who might oversee crimes, they make commit and this
Speaker 2: time it's the Crypto Enforcement Team, which seems pretty important
Speaker 2: for money laundering purposes, since while I'm someone with money
Speaker 2: in crypto, I also know, boy, is it easy to
Speaker 2: launder money through it?
Speaker 1: Yeah, So basically the US Department of Justice is disbanded crypto.
Speaker 1: Crypto is a thing that is quite easy to use
Speaker 1: for any number of things, and largely that means the
Speaker 1: Justice Department disbanding its Crypto Enforcement unit will mean that
Speaker 1: there won't be investigations of cryptno and that means any
Speaker 1: number of things, but the worst of which is that
Speaker 1: people will do crypto scams and they will not get
Speaker 1: caught for it or they will not be held accountable,
Speaker 1: and this will mean they'll be a lot more fraud.
Speaker 1: There'll be a lot more of these kind of stuff
Speaker 1: and it's obviously bad for everyone. And you know, again
Speaker 1: we don't know what's happening behind the scenes, but if
Speaker 1: you are anti anti crime, usually where there is smoke, there.
Speaker 2: Is fire, Yeah, I especially when you're wheeling and dealing
Speaker 2: meme coins with you and your wife's names on it. Right, So,
Speaker 2: as well as other things that they're dismantling is election
Speaker 2: security and Elon Musks Doge is on the.
Speaker 1: Task election security at risk. As Elon Musk dismantles critical network,
Speaker 1: you'll be shocked. This is very like dogy stuff. Right,
Speaker 1: We're going to take apard parts of the government that
Speaker 1: work well in order to save you money and perhaps
Speaker 1: also do stuff we want. So one of the things
Speaker 1: that they've done is they've had you know, some election
Speaker 1: security that has kept sort of cyber attacks and those
Speaker 1: kind of threats at bay. There's been that there's been
Speaker 1: Russia and China there's the far right of course too.
Speaker 1: These attacks they're meant to be disruptive, but they would
Speaker 1: like to change the elections or it's just there's quite
Speaker 1: a lot of reasons why we really want to see
Speaker 1: account ability and transparency when it comes to our elections,
Speaker 1: and we really don't want to see Musk disbanding things.
Speaker 1: And you know, if we just want to take a
Speaker 1: minute and remember that Elon Musk did this to Twitter
Speaker 1: and what happened is that Twitter works much less well now.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: Part of this is a war on the administrative state.
Speaker 1: The goal here is to dismantle the federal government, to
Speaker 1: make it so it doesn't work that well, so that
Speaker 1: people aren't relying on it right now. The federal government
Speaker 1: does things that you know, they are avoiding catastrophe, right
Speaker 1: They are, you know, monitoring the air and the water
Speaker 1: and certain foods, and these are things that you don't
Speaker 1: think add value, but when you are in the middle
Speaker 1: of you know, they prevent people from getting poisoned from
Speaker 1: you know, weird kind of you know, hepatitis that gets
Speaker 1: into food and stuff like that. What happens when you
Speaker 1: disassemble these guardrails is you are much likely to have
Speaker 1: a catastrophe. And so obviously they don't want safe and
Speaker 1: secure elections, and you know, any kind of hacking serves
Speaker 1: them right because then they can say it was stolen
Speaker 1: if they lose, they can say it was fine if
Speaker 1: they win. So they really don't want things to work.
Speaker 1: And that's what we're seeing here.
Speaker 2: Yep, that sounds right. So I'm a gen x man,
Speaker 2: and one of the things that's gen x men. I
Speaker 2: know one of the things that gen x men do
Speaker 2: is we watch World War two documentaries. We've put hundreds
Speaker 2: of hours into them. I don't seem to recall Trump's
Speaker 2: claim that Nazis treated Jewish prisoners with quote unquote love
Speaker 2: to be accurate with what I've seen in those documentaries.
Speaker 1: Trump keeps sort of going right up to the line
Speaker 1: here with the anti semitism. I mean, certainly he's also
Speaker 1: engaged in anti Semitism. But you know, nt Yaho's presidency
Speaker 1: is inexetorbally linked to his right that Netyel made a
Speaker 1: real concerted effort to say that he was good for Israel,
Speaker 1: to make the case that trump Ism would be good
Speaker 1: for Israel. This is Trump says, he said so basically
Speaker 1: when he was I guess he's talking about the hostages,
Speaker 1: and he said, did the Kammahamas show any signs of
Speaker 1: help or liking you? Did they wink? Did they give
Speaker 1: you a piece of bread? Extra? Did they give you
Speaker 1: a meal on the side, like you know what happened
Speaker 1: in Germany? Trump said, absurdly, comparing the hostages situation to
Speaker 1: the Holocaust, where they murdered six million Jews. People would
Speaker 1: try to help people that were in unbelievable distress. The
Speaker 1: President went on, he really has Are we sure RFK
Speaker 1: is the one with the worms in his brain? The
Speaker 1: President went on, suggesting that the Nazis were known for
Speaker 1: their generosity. No, they didn't do that, they'd slap us.
Speaker 1: Trump said, the hostages told him about Hamas while they
Speaker 1: were sitting next to a man who is currently leading
Speaker 1: Israel's genocide and Gaza. Yeah, you guys, not good, not good,
Speaker 1: not good smoy.
Speaker 2: We touched later on in the show on the absolute
Speaker 2: chaos in the markets today. Now the markets have closed,
Speaker 2: they didn't crush quite as hard as we thought. We're
Speaker 2: still down about seven thousand points, but it went up
Speaker 2: twenty five hundred points. But Fox commentator Charles Gasparino had
Speaker 2: a quote that really resonated with you. Let me play
Speaker 2: it for the listeners.
Speaker 1: Yeah, gaspell mixed messaging.
Speaker 4: How can you buy? How can you doubt them? I mean, well,
Speaker 4: I mean because of the mixed messaging, how can you buy?
Speaker 4: How can you doubt them? I mean, let's be clear,
Speaker 4: what happened. You know who capitulated here and why? And
Speaker 4: you know, I don't want to say this because I'm
Speaker 4: a patriot, I'm an American, but it is the White
Speaker 4: House who capitulated based on everything I hear and all
Speaker 4: my sources, and the reason why is because of the
Speaker 4: bond market and what happened last night. You know, Bessen
Speaker 4: knows this better than anybody. When you have yields on
Speaker 4: the ten year rising to five percent, stuff starts shutting
Speaker 4: down when you have the lending markets screwed up. By
Speaker 4: the way, who was dumping the bonds? Somebody asked them
Speaker 4: if it was China, right, it wasn't.
Speaker 3: It was Japan.
Speaker 4: While he was negotiating with Japan, Japan, according to my sources,
Speaker 4: were running major money management firms that.
Speaker 1: Are involved in the bond market.
Speaker 4: Without giving up names, Japan was dumping bonds because they
Speaker 4: believe this was not a great place to do business.
Speaker 4: That forced their hands. Now, which you can say I
Speaker 4: think legitimately. Here is Trump decided to take the win.
Speaker 4: And here's why. There was overwhelmingly, you know, deal potential
Speaker 4: here among the entire world except for maybe China, right,
Speaker 4: everybody really wanted something.
Speaker 3: So he did take the win.
Speaker 4: But make make no mistake about it, Peter Navara was
Speaker 4: talking as of yesterday about not taking the win, and.
Speaker 3: Now they did.
Speaker 4: And it's all because of a bond market.
Speaker 1: I want to point out, Yeah, I don't know. Charles
Speaker 1: Gasparino is going to end up in a detention camp.
Speaker 1: Maybe we'll be in one together, Gaspo. Good for you
Speaker 1: for saying the truth on Fox News. Good for him,
Speaker 1: he's definitely going to a Louisiana detention camp. Not allowed
Speaker 1: to say bad things about dear leader. This whole thing
Speaker 1: was stupid. It was stupid. You can't onshore manufacturing just
Speaker 1: by putting on tariffs. We all know this. We've been
Speaker 1: told it again and again and again. It was a
Speaker 1: real mad King Donald's moment. But the one bright spot,
Speaker 1: besides the fact that all of these people lost so
Speaker 1: much money, that wasn't the bright spot The bright spot
Speaker 1: was watching some of the richest people in the world
Speaker 1: be pathetically groveling to Donald Trump, and for that that
Speaker 1: is our moment of zen. Andy Levy is the co
Speaker 1: host of The Daily Beasts The New Abnormal. Hello Andy Levy.
Speaker 5: Hello Mali Junkfest.
Speaker 1: We are here today. So we had Liberation Day. That
Speaker 1: was a week ago. We were liberated. It's a week later.
Speaker 1: We've been liberated. Our four oh one ks are now
Speaker 1: four oh one zip for one each for one right exactly.
Speaker 1: We've been liberated.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we've been liberated from our need to ever retire.
Speaker 1: Yes, now that that's over. Donald Trump has paused the
Speaker 1: tariffs for ninety days.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and you know, the markets are being good little
Speaker 5: boys and their respond to and shooting up, and I
Speaker 5: just like, I look at this and I'm like, how
Speaker 5: are you falling for this? How are you continually falling
Speaker 5: for this? And then someone I can't remember who on
Speaker 5: Blue Sky put up some stuff that Bill Ackman had
Speaker 5: been tweeting.
Speaker 1: Yeah it was me.
Speaker 3: That was me? Was that you? Yeah?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Can I just reat it? I mean, how please? I
Speaker 1: wish we were alive so we could figure out if
Speaker 1: people like this, let me give you a two second
Speaker 1: explainer on Bill Lackman, very rich, made a ton of
Speaker 1: money in hedge funds. Yet another person who we all
Speaker 1: thought was smart before he started tweeting. His pin tweet
Speaker 1: from sixteen minutes ago is that was brilliantly executed at
Speaker 1: real Donald Trump textbook Comma art of the Deal. Period.
Speaker 1: Then there's another one from twenty seven minutes ago ampersand
Speaker 1: Secretary Scott Bessett Rock's explanation point, and from forty six
Speaker 1: minutes ago, we're seeing my man, he's processing making money again,
Speaker 1: thank you on behalf of all Americans, period.
Speaker 5: And this is like I believe it was just yesterday
Speaker 5: that he was saying how he couldn't believe what was happening,
Speaker 5: and that I believe he signed one. My bad for
Speaker 5: supporting Trump basically, or for thinking that Trump wouldn't do
Speaker 5: what Trump said he was going to do during the campaign,
Speaker 5: which was in act these ridiculous tariffs. First of all,
Speaker 5: Bill Ackman, don't be thanking people on my behalf.
Speaker 1: I'm just one of the American people. So I like
Speaker 1: to be involved in anything Bill Ackman's doing.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I did not. I have not given you my proxy.
Speaker 5: I'm at the point where I think his company should
Speaker 5: be put in receivership because I think there's something very
Speaker 5: wrong with this dude.
Speaker 1: Bill Ackman or Donald Trump or both.
Speaker 5: Bill Ackman he's got a.
Speaker 1: Hedge fund, but sure, I mean, I don't.
Speaker 5: Know, whatever he does for a living, he should be
Speaker 5: it should be taken away from him because he should
Speaker 5: not be allowed to deal with a lot of us
Speaker 5: are dealing with elderly parents or grandparents who you know,
Speaker 5: they reach a point and you can't really let them
Speaker 5: deal with money. And I think Bill Ackman's, you know,
Speaker 5: a little younger, but I think he's at that point.
Speaker 5: Donald Trump is I actually realized this, I think yesterday,
Speaker 5: because it's a word I hadn't thought of in forever.
Speaker 5: He's a mercantilist.
Speaker 1: I don't know what that means.
Speaker 5: The mercantile system was like super popular in I want
Speaker 5: to say, like I don't know, the Middle Ages or
Speaker 5: like the beginning of the Enlightenment maybe, And mercantilism is
Speaker 5: basically what you want is you want to export everything
Speaker 5: and import nothing. And it's been a completely discredited theory
Speaker 5: of economics because it, you know, surprise, surprise led to
Speaker 5: a lot of wars. It led to colonialism because if
Speaker 5: you don't have the products to export or the raw
Speaker 5: materials and you don't want to import, what do you
Speaker 5: do You take over the places that do have those.
Speaker 5: And this is Donald Trump's worldview. He really thinks that
Speaker 5: having a trade deficit is like the worst thing in
Speaker 5: the world. So they've now gone from Originally I thought
Speaker 5: they wanted to take us back to the nineteen fifties.
Speaker 5: Then I thought it was the eighteen fifties, and now
Speaker 5: I'm fairly certain it's like the sixteen and seventeen fifties.
Speaker 3: It is.
Speaker 5: It just never ends.
Speaker 1: One of the many things I appreciate about how stupid
Speaker 1: this is is that here's Donald Trump. He is not
Speaker 1: so smart. He has very rich people decided that he
Speaker 1: would be good for the markets based on almost nothing.
Speaker 1: It was like they were in a coma from twenty
Speaker 1: sixteen to twenty twenty. Now here we are. It is
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. Yesternight. The markets were cratering and Donald
Speaker 1: Trump was having a make coal Great Again event. Okay,
Speaker 1: they are like, you know many coal plants there are
Speaker 1: in the United States. There are two hundred coal plants.
Speaker 1: Their last large coal fire power plant was built in
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen. Okay, but we're going to change all that, Molly, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because we're going to make a great again exactly. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, I just want so we like he loves call,
Speaker 1: he loves unvaccinated children, he loves tariffs. He doesn't really
Speaker 1: understand how any of this works. Now here's a question.
Speaker 1: So we now see there are no guardrails on Trump, right,
Speaker 1: disappearing grad students, crashing the economy. There are no grown
Speaker 1: ups in the room. So anything Trump does, he's going
Speaker 1: to do it ten times worse in twenty twenty four
Speaker 1: than he did in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 5: Discuss I mean, that much is true. And it's interesting
Speaker 5: in that a lot of the lower federal courts have
Speaker 5: been very good in these past couple months in ruling
Speaker 5: against Trump, in allowing temporary restraining orders and stays and
Speaker 5: all that stuff, and then yesterday there comes the Supreme
Speaker 5: Court to basically handwave all of that away. I think,
Speaker 5: probably more than anything, the MAGA capture of the judiciary
Speaker 5: is maybe the leading cause of our downfall right now,
Speaker 5: because that was sort of like the ultimate guardrail, you know,
Speaker 5: if Congress wasn't going to do its job, and the
Speaker 5: president was gonna think he was an emperor. It was
Speaker 5: always like, well, at least we have the courts and
Speaker 5: we can sit here and say now that's illegal, that's unconstitutional.
Speaker 5: We don't really have that anymore. We have it a
Speaker 5: little bit. Like I said, the lower federal courts have
Speaker 5: been doing pretty good work. I assume that will all
Speaker 5: change now that the Supreme Court says, for example, that
Speaker 5: the habeas suits of people that have been kidnapped to
Speaker 5: Texas to Louisiana, that's all the Fifth Circuit. And that's
Speaker 5: fairly maga. So I think we're kind of screwed there.
Speaker 5: But that really was I think the ultimate guardrail, and
Speaker 5: thanks to the Supreme Court, we've lost it.
Speaker 1: Don't get me wrong. I think this Supreme Court is wild.
Speaker 1: They have of control. That's sad. I also think that
Speaker 1: they did say everybody agreed that you have a right
Speaker 1: to do process even if you are not a citizen,
Speaker 1: and we heard Trump saying no if you're notices and
Speaker 1: you know, never right to do process. The only people
Speaker 1: who have a right to do process or citizens. So
Speaker 1: they're spinning this as a win, and in some ways,
Speaker 1: certainly this court does absolutely suck beyond measure. But I mean,
Speaker 1: the one thing I would say is don't let Trump
Speaker 1: World spin you harder than they're already doing. Like they
Speaker 1: came out and was like this is a win for MAGA,
Speaker 1: and it is and it isn't. Yeah.
Speaker 5: The thing is though, the part that isn't is not great.
Speaker 5: The problem is that the Supreme Court, particularly the I
Speaker 5: think it was the five justices that issued this decision.
Speaker 1: Everyone but the liberals and Jay.
Speaker 5: Yeah, they issued it what procureum, so it wasn't signed
Speaker 5: because they're ultimately kind of cowardly.
Speaker 1: Just put a lido on each one, I know.
Speaker 5: But this whole thing where it's like, oh no, you
Speaker 5: still have habeas right. But instead of saying, hey, you
Speaker 5: can't kidnap people off the streets and send them to
Speaker 5: Louisiana to then move them to El Salvador, what they
Speaker 5: said was, well, no, before they're sent to another country,
Speaker 5: they have to have a habeas suit. Do you really
Speaker 5: think that the poor people who are I would assume
Speaker 5: most of them are not lawyers, are not highly educated.
Speaker 5: Do you think they're even going to know that they
Speaker 5: have this right as they sit there in a Louisiana
Speaker 5: detention center. Like to me, I understand what you're saying,
Speaker 5: and I think legally you're absolutely right. But I think
Speaker 5: in reality, which is someplace where I think the Supreme
Speaker 5: Court doesn't exist, or in which the Supreme Court doesn't exist,
Speaker 5: none of these people are going to know that they
Speaker 5: have this right. And I do not have any faith
Speaker 5: whatsoever that their captors are going to inform them of
Speaker 5: this right. And my guess is they'll be well on
Speaker 5: their way to Al Salvador. You know, a lot of
Speaker 5: the times we don't even know they've been taken until
Speaker 5: they're gone. So what's the point of what's the point
Speaker 5: of having this right if you're already you know, you've
Speaker 5: already been shipped off to a foreign prison.
Speaker 3: A hell?
Speaker 5: And then someone says, oh, no, well you had this right.
Speaker 5: I don't know why you didn't exercise it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. What you're saying here is that the rule of
Speaker 1: law stuff that Trump and Ice have really perverted the
Speaker 1: rule of law. Ye've got America to a place where
Speaker 1: a lot of lawless stuff is happening under Trump's watch.
Speaker 1: And that's a real thing. And that is you know,
Speaker 1: it's that question of how much is the sort of
Speaker 1: rule of law worth right, how much is American democracy worth?
Speaker 1: And that is a I mean, I think we do
Speaker 1: have to talk about that. But Trump world continues to
Speaker 1: lose in the courts, and they do often ignore it,
Speaker 1: so that is like also worth thinking about. But they
Speaker 1: do continue to lose, and when there's not a ton
Speaker 1: of legal justification for what they're doing.
Speaker 5: Agreed, And I agree with you that it is important
Speaker 5: that they continue to lose, at least in the unsupreme
Speaker 5: courts of the land, particularly since I have this wild
Speaker 5: hope Molly that when all of this is over, there's
Speaker 5: going to be a mass trial that maybe takes place
Speaker 5: in like one city and we can call the trials
Speaker 5: by the name of that city. And I do think
Speaker 5: it's going to be important to have a long list
Speaker 5: of just how many times and how often all these
Speaker 5: people broke the law and subverted the constitution, acted unconstitutionally,
Speaker 5: how many people died because of all the things that
Speaker 5: they are doing. So I agree with you it's very
Speaker 5: important that these lower courts keep ruling against the administration,
Speaker 5: and it's very important that the suits keep being brought
Speaker 5: by the ACLU and the countless other groups that are
Speaker 5: doing that. I mean, God bless them. It's just as
Speaker 5: you said, they don't seem to really care. So in
Speaker 5: the moment, it gets really frustrating because you're like, no,
Speaker 5: you can't do that, and they're like stop us, right, and.
Speaker 1: Again, that is what the they want. I talk to
Speaker 1: a lot of these experts in authoritarianism and how to
Speaker 1: prevent authoritarianism and how to prevent the authoritarian slide, and
Speaker 1: part of it is that this is a game of inches,
Speaker 1: not feet. So when we ask ourselves in the pundit
Speaker 1: industrial complex, as we are in the content minds, when
Speaker 1: we ask ourselves like will this breakthrough? Does this matter?
Speaker 1: Everything matters, Every single fucking thing matters. This weekend, millions
Speaker 1: of people marched in their cities and their towns. That matters.
Speaker 1: And I think that we need to just keep reminding
Speaker 1: ourselves and our listeners that all of this, we are
Speaker 1: doing the things to protect our norms and institutions, and
Speaker 1: we just have to keep going. I get how frustrating
Speaker 1: it is for you, I get how frustrating it is
Speaker 1: for everyone, but it is what maps matters is that
Speaker 1: we stay the course and that we believe. You know,
Speaker 1: it's funny because it's like public sentiment towards Trump. He
Speaker 1: came in riding on this approval rating. He's squandered almost
Speaker 1: all of it, and things are changing and that's good,
Speaker 1: but I understand there's frustration, and that is why we
Speaker 1: just have to trust that all of us doing the
Speaker 1: right thing will eventually win out. But it's very dark.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Look, I completely agree with you, and you know, all
Speaker 5: the marches and rallies over the weekend were absolutely fantastic,
Speaker 5: and I do think it's important, like you said, for
Speaker 5: people like us to be pushing that because you know,
Speaker 5: fairly soon all the content minds that you talked over
Speaker 5: are going to be coal mines.
Speaker 1: So that's right.
Speaker 5: We got to talk while we can, right.
Speaker 1: And only two hundred places for us to work.
Speaker 5: So yeah, I mean it's almost as bad as the
Speaker 5: media right now. I do think you're absolutely right. And
Speaker 5: when I say it's frustrating, it's because it's frustrating. But
Speaker 5: we absolutely can't stop. And even more than you know,
Speaker 5: you and me, the people who really can't stop are
Speaker 5: the ACLU and all these other groups that are bringing
Speaker 5: these lawsuits and all the people that are going out
Speaker 5: to these marches and saying.
Speaker 3: Hell no to all of this.
Speaker 5: I don't even know if I'm half joking about the
Speaker 5: trials after all of this is over. But I do
Speaker 5: think at some point all of this will be over.
Speaker 5: I think a lot of damage will be done and
Speaker 5: a lot of people will be hurt and die before
Speaker 5: it is. But I do have at least the faith
Speaker 5: that you know, like every other totalitarian, authoritarian fascist regime
Speaker 5: in history, it will eventually crumble. As you said, it's
Speaker 5: important to be fighting the whole way through.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think what was I thought pretty interesting when
Speaker 1: I took to Sarah Longwell, who does these focus groups,
Speaker 1: and she was talking about how she had done these
Speaker 1: two focus groups, one very liberal, one sort of very centrist,
Speaker 1: and both times it said they just want their leaders
Speaker 1: to fight. And again, this comes back to this idea
Speaker 1: that Pritzkers people were talking about. Pritzger's chief of staff
Speaker 1: was writing about this idea that it's not left versus center,
Speaker 1: it's fight versus cave, and that is where we are
Speaker 1: right now. Are you going to fight for norms and institutions?
Speaker 1: Are you going to fight for American democracy as we
Speaker 1: know it? Or are you going to cave and people?
Speaker 1: Sometimes I'll be in conversations where a friend of mine
Speaker 1: will say, you know, where are you going to move
Speaker 1: when things go bad? You're going to move to Europe?
Speaker 1: You can move to Canada, you know, And I always say, no,
Speaker 1: I'm going to fight. I'm going to stay here. You know.
Speaker 1: My plan B is that they'll you know, I'll end
Speaker 1: up and hopefully not. But you know, I mean that's
Speaker 1: what this is. There is no this is our plan BA,
Speaker 1: You're like.
Speaker 5: No, I know. Look, I know people also that have
Speaker 5: been talking about it's become a little less of a
Speaker 5: thought experiment for some people I know as to where
Speaker 5: they would go. And it was always sort of the
Speaker 5: people who would always talk about, I'm leaving the country
Speaker 5: where the barber Streisands of the world and the super rich,
Speaker 5: the people who could very easily just pick up and
Speaker 5: go live anywhere and live out their days in comfort.
Speaker 5: I do feel like that's kind of seeping down a
Speaker 5: little bit towards more normal people in the sense that
Speaker 5: it's become like a conversation. I don't think anyone that
Speaker 5: I know is seriously planning it, but I do know
Speaker 5: they're actually like say, you know, they're saying, like, like,
Speaker 5: what you said MA, like, where would you go and
Speaker 5: what would you do? And there are people I know
Speaker 5: who have been like, well, I've been looking into X,
Speaker 5: you know, and I've never heard that before. I really
Speaker 5: had only heard that from celebrities. I just had never
Speaker 5: heard it from normies. And it's wild that we are
Speaker 5: at that point. Look, I'm with you, I'm you know,
Speaker 5: I got nowhere to go. I don't even have a passport, Molly.
Speaker 1: You don't have a passport.
Speaker 5: You need a pass for No. Well, I think without
Speaker 5: a passport, they can't send me to El Salvador. So
Speaker 5: I think I am being really smart. Yeah, oh I've
Speaker 5: thought this through. Yeah, I'm just gonna sit there and say,
Speaker 5: no passport and I don't have a real ID driver's license.
Speaker 3: You can't.
Speaker 5: You can't even send me to Canada pal So so
Speaker 5: just let me go. They'll and they'll say he's got.
Speaker 1: Us, Andy Laby. I'm not sure who got who here.
Speaker 1: Congressman Gregory Meeks represents New York's fifth district. Welcome to
Speaker 1: fast Politics, Representative meets thank you, good to be with you.
Speaker 1: So we are right out of tariff gate or is
Speaker 1: it tariff apocalypse? The tariff apocalypse now the tariffs are
Speaker 1: on pause. One of the things that you did, which
Speaker 1: I think is very smart, is you had legislation to
Speaker 1: try and stop Trump from adding on these tariffs. And
Speaker 1: it was because Trump said he had this power that
Speaker 1: he didn't. So explain to us what your legislation was
Speaker 1: and is.
Speaker 3: Let me just say this Congress has the rights to
Speaker 3: to deal with tariffs. He comes up with and the
Speaker 3: only way that he can impose a tariff is say
Speaker 3: that it's an emergency. So he says he makes up
Speaker 3: an emergency.
Speaker 6: He goes from when you know, for Canada, first it
Speaker 6: was dealing with people crossing the border or dealing with fentanol,
Speaker 6: none of which is true.
Speaker 3: What we wanted to do is to make sure that
Speaker 3: there's a vote on the floor so we know how
Speaker 3: members feel because we're supposed to be having the oversight
Speaker 3: of the president, etc. So I had a resolution with
Speaker 3: personal resolution that I put together so that they would
Speaker 3: be fifteen days if not acted on, they would be
Speaker 3: a vote on the floor. So they came up with
Speaker 3: some crazy rule that a day is not a day,
Speaker 3: and for this first one it says for the whole year,
Speaker 3: so that it would prevent the bill from getting on
Speaker 3: the floor. We're going to do what's called emotion to
Speaker 3: discharge also to get it on the floor anyway, we
Speaker 3: just need two or three Republicans and we're working on
Speaker 3: that because this is ridiculous. You know, they're trying to
Speaker 3: avoid a vote of Congress, and we need to put
Speaker 3: all of the Republicans. Let us know where you are. Either
Speaker 3: you four tariffs or you're not. So that was the
Speaker 3: first bell that I put forward personal resolution, and we're
Speaker 3: going to do a motion of discharge on that. And
Speaker 3: then with this new set of tariffs that he just
Speaker 3: placed the other day, we did drop another one and
Speaker 3: so they came out with the same kind of rule
Speaker 3: that prevents it from hitting the floor. So we're back
Speaker 3: to the same thing and we're not gonna let it go.
Speaker 3: We're going to then do another motion to discharge so
Speaker 3: that we can get a vote on the floor so
Speaker 3: the American people know where Congress stands. Now there's another
Speaker 3: bell that's floating. It was bipartisan in the Senate. So
Speaker 3: we have now looking at the House of Republican. Representative
Speaker 3: Bacon is going to introduce the exact same bill that
Speaker 3: Congress needs to have the power, take the power bet
Speaker 3: that the Constitution gave us. So I'm hoping that they
Speaker 3: let that bill on the floor so that we can
Speaker 3: vote on it. So we've got all of these things
Speaker 3: going at the same time.
Speaker 1: So that bill has a bunch of Republicans, that has
Speaker 1: the sort of four Senate Republicans behind it, which is McConnell, Murkowski, Collins,
Speaker 1: and oh Ram Paul. Is unusual to have ran Paul
Speaker 1: in a Democratic bill. But the problem with a lot
Speaker 1: of this legislation, and Trump has still thirteen hundred plus
Speaker 1: days in his administration left, so there are going to
Speaker 1: be times when Congress is going to at least try
Speaker 1: to check him. He has said that he would veto
Speaker 1: that bill. Do you think there's a way now that
Speaker 1: people are starting to see that Trump is really unfettered
Speaker 1: by normalcy? Is a nice way to put it. Do
Speaker 1: you think there's a world in which you can get
Speaker 1: a veto proof major?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, we're going to put it to the test,
Speaker 3: because you know, for years and years the Republicans have
Speaker 3: said that they were against terras. Now this was Joe
Speaker 3: Biden or Barack Obama or Bill Clinton, any Democrat, they
Speaker 3: would be against this We're going to find out where
Speaker 3: they are on this issue. And that's what this is about.
Speaker 3: So it's about Congress on us wrestling back our authority.
Speaker 3: But since they have the numbers in the House and
Speaker 3: in the Senate, we Democrats are going to fight and
Speaker 3: we're going to use every tool that we have so
Speaker 3: that the American people can know what's going on and
Speaker 3: that how this president has broke his promises. Remember, we've
Speaker 3: got to hold him accountable, you know. And I just
Speaker 3: say this so you know, in any case, whoever you elect,
Speaker 3: whoever's elected, you had to hold them accountable once they're elected. Now,
Speaker 3: he said on day one, inflation would go down, prices
Speaker 3: would go down on day one, and just the opposite,
Speaker 3: this is the largest tax increase in peacetime history. Hasn't happened.
Speaker 3: Inflation is going back up. People are losing their four
Speaker 3: oh one case. The cost of food, the cost of technology,
Speaker 3: the cost of cause are all going up. We've got
Speaker 3: to fight for the American people. That's what we're going
Speaker 3: to go.
Speaker 1: So you have an opportunity now right Trump has one big,
Speaker 1: beautiful bill. Part of these tariffs were to put pressure
Speaker 1: on Republicans to pass this tax cut. That's one big
Speaker 1: beautiful bill. Republicans have a very very very small minority
Speaker 1: in the House, one two seats. Can you there are defectors?
Speaker 1: Clearly we know certain people Thomas Matsey that crew will
Speaker 1: not sign on. The last time with the cr the
Speaker 1: reason that the legislation got out of the House was
Speaker 1: because Trump and Elon went around and whipped votes. Can
Speaker 1: you come up the works enough so that this big
Speaker 1: beautiful bill doesn't pass.
Speaker 3: We're working on it. We just need three, right, just
Speaker 3: need three. And so I'm doing everything that I can,
Speaker 3: and I know that Leader Jefferies and our Democratic leadership
Speaker 3: are talking and working to just get three members to
Speaker 3: stand up because guess what they know is hurting their
Speaker 3: people in their distance. We are doing everything that we
Speaker 3: can behind the scenes, in front of the scenes, and
Speaker 3: just talking to individuals that know the damage that these
Speaker 3: taks will give to their people. Now that's why, for example,
Speaker 3: I joined to show the bipartisanship that I'm ready to have.
Speaker 3: I joined the bill with in the Bacon to make it.
Speaker 3: You know, so the Democrats are ready to do the
Speaker 3: right thing. We'll join with Republicans and they should join
Speaker 3: with us. And so I'm hopeful that we will get
Speaker 3: the three that we need so that we can get
Speaker 3: these bills on the floor and vote on.
Speaker 1: So, this big beautiful bill that Trump wants to pass,
Speaker 1: that he's trying to get through before, he's trying to
Speaker 1: get some sort of version of it, you know, the
Speaker 1: very the sort of outline passed before people leave for
Speaker 1: codels and for passover. Do you think that people understand
Speaker 1: that it will grow the debt? I mean what I've
Speaker 1: seen the that I've seen the scoring on that that
Speaker 1: it will actually add to the deficit.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because what they're doing, they're doing a reverse robinhood.
Speaker 3: They want to take from the poor to give tax
Speaker 3: cuts to the rich. So with this big budget bill,
Speaker 3: what it does and the bill that was passed the
Speaker 3: continuing resolution, it demanded that they cut eight hundred and
Speaker 3: a billion dollars, which means if you just use math,
Speaker 3: because you could cut everything else, and that only turns
Speaker 3: up to two hundred and twenty billion dollars. So it
Speaker 3: means that you have to cut medicaid to hurt people.
Speaker 3: And what do they want to do the money. They're
Speaker 3: not using the money really to reduce the deficit. They're
Speaker 3: using the money to give to the billionaires for their
Speaker 3: tax cut. And that's why Republicans don't want to hold
Speaker 3: town hall meetings anymore because people are going to hold
Speaker 3: them accountable. So I'm hopeful that they realize that, you know,
Speaker 3: thou constitution says that you have a president, but not
Speaker 3: a king, and they don't have to follow a do everything.
Speaker 3: When he say jump, jump, you know he's talking about
Speaker 3: how you know people are kissing his whatever. You know,
Speaker 3: that's he's really talking about. The Republicans. He literally told
Speaker 3: them just to close their eyes, don't even think about
Speaker 3: this vote the way I'll tell you to vote. That's
Speaker 3: not who should be. And members of Congress, Democrats and
Speaker 3: Republicans alike, we took an oath the office not to
Speaker 3: follow a man, but to protect the country. So I'm
Speaker 3: hoped that there's go and the way you hope because
Speaker 3: the people still hold the power. So that's what is
Speaker 3: recently set on the floor that they can run, but
Speaker 3: they cannot hide from the American people, and we Democrats
Speaker 3: have got to make sure that we are letting the
Speaker 3: people know. And that's why admire you and your show
Speaker 3: and your listeners, because they are getting the facts and
Speaker 3: that's why just this past weekend, we saw people all
Speaker 3: across America saying there are against these tax cuts, They're
Speaker 3: against these tariffs, not only all over America, but all
Speaker 3: over the world. These demonstrations took place, and that's how
Speaker 3: I think that you make change happen.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about the protests for one more minute.
Speaker 1: We're seeing mass protests, millions of people, all different states,
Speaker 1: all different cities, really wide swaths. They want their electeds
Speaker 1: to fight. That's really what they don't have. They want.
Speaker 1: They don't like Dog, they don't like Trump. Trump's back
Speaker 1: to forty one percent approval rating. You know, He's this
Speaker 1: is sort of the high water mark of his first presidency.
Speaker 1: Do you feel there's a vibe shift in DC.
Speaker 3: Yeah? I do. Look, my staff was just yelling at
Speaker 3: me because I'm calling it like it is. I was
Speaker 3: calling the president Elijah and did to say anything about it.
Speaker 3: I'll fight and stand up. We got to stand in
Speaker 3: his face and let him know and tell the truth.
Speaker 3: Here's a guy that you know, talk about economy and
Speaker 3: making a deal. He bankrupted six of his own businesses.
Speaker 3: He's not a successful businessman, and we've got to stand
Speaker 3: up and fight, and I think that's what's happening. I
Speaker 3: think there's been dialogue in conversation between Democratic House members
Speaker 3: and Democratic Senate members so that we don't have the
Speaker 3: miss direction that we had, because we've got to now
Speaker 3: sit down and just the way. Look, I gotta tell you,
Speaker 3: I'm from the streets before I became a member of
Speaker 3: Congress and wearing this tie. I grew up in public
Speaker 3: housing and I had to deal with bullies. And the
Speaker 3: way you deal with the bully is you stand up
Speaker 3: to them, and if they punch at you, you punch
Speaker 3: back at them. You don't run from them. And I
Speaker 3: think that's what you're gonna do now as Democrats. We
Speaker 3: have running from this guy. He's a bully, he's a liar,
Speaker 3: he's a cheetah. He doesn't care about the common, average
Speaker 3: day person. And we're going to stand up to him.
Speaker 3: And just as he's blinked for ninety days, right now,
Speaker 3: we're gonna make him blink.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Representative Meets.
Speaker 3: Thank you for having me. Thank you for what you
Speaker 3: do on a regular basis, delivering truth in the message
Speaker 3: out there. Appreciate it.
Speaker 1: They no moment Jesse Cannon Smiley.
Speaker 2: Todd Lyons, who is a US Immigration Agency head, says
Speaker 2: he wants to run deportations like Amazon Prime for human beings.
Speaker 2: And well, if there's a sound in the background, that
Speaker 2: might be me tying the news for myself.
Speaker 1: These people have squandered what little goodwill Americans have had
Speaker 1: towards them, so, you know, they crash the markets for
Speaker 1: no reason. They're disappearing grad students. They're doing all of
Speaker 1: this incredibly. You know, they're just fucking with every part
Speaker 1: of the federal government in the hopes of saving money
Speaker 1: so they can get a tax cut through. And now
Speaker 1: the ICE director wants to run deportations like Amazon Prime
Speaker 1: for human beings. You know, they're going to use this
Speaker 1: Alien Enemies Act. By the way, the fact that we're
Speaker 1: not at war and the whole point of the Alien
Speaker 1: Enemies Act is a wartime power, and this fucking Supreme
Speaker 1: Court is letting them do it because Alito and Thomas
Speaker 1: are Fox News anchors. It is just so annoying and
Speaker 1: so dispiriting, and that is our moment of Buck Ray.
Speaker 1: That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in
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Speaker 1: and keep the conversation going. Thanks for listening.