Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to Okay F Daily with
Speaker 1: me your Girl, Danielle Moody, recording live ish from the
Speaker 1: pod Stream studios here in Times Square. I want to
Speaker 1: pose a question to all of you, and it's something
Speaker 1: that I have been grappling with for the last couple
Speaker 1: of months, particularly coming off of this summer, and you
Speaker 1: know this week is going to be the fall solstice.
Speaker 1: We're changing seasons. Here's the question. Has the election of
Speaker 1: Joe Biden as president over the last eight months changed anything?
Speaker 1: You see, eight months ago, we were all hanging on
Speaker 1: to a hope and a prayer following the Insurrection, praying
Speaker 1: to God that Joe Biden would win an election against
Speaker 1: Donald Trump. We were all hoping that the masses would
Speaker 1: show up and rid us forever of Donald Trump. And
Speaker 1: what we thought at the time was also Trumpism that miraculously,
Speaker 1: after the election and the inauguration of Joe Biden on
Speaker 1: January twentieth, twenty twenty one, that the Republicans that had
Speaker 1: been supporting Donald Trump, that had been lifting him up,
Speaker 1: and as we now know through the Bob Woodword book tour,
Speaker 1: that is happening. The military personnel that essentially worked as
Speaker 1: his accomplices, you know, working behind the scenes, as General
Speaker 1: Milly has said, you know, to make sure that Donald
Speaker 1: Trump wouldn't start a nuclear reward just because he felt
Speaker 1: like it. I'm wondering now, as we look at our
Speaker 1: country in disarray, if it has actually made anything better. Now.
Speaker 1: A friend and colleague says, well, we have less anxiety,
Speaker 1: we have less stress in the country isn't being run
Speaker 1: by a madman. Those things are true. The country isn't
Speaker 1: being run by a madman. But I don't know if
Speaker 1: I have less stress and less anxiety right because every
Speaker 1: single headline every day is about some catastrophic event, some
Speaker 1: awful shooting, some rollback of rights, and it seems to
Speaker 1: be raining down in the same way that we were
Speaker 1: attached to Twitter and attached to the television over the
Speaker 1: four years of Trump, just waiting for when that lunatic
Speaker 1: was going to run this country head first into a
Speaker 1: nuclear World War three, just because you know, he didn't
Speaker 1: like how somebody made him feel that day. But here
Speaker 1: we are, and I am not feeling great, and I
Speaker 1: know that many of you aren't either, because you share
Speaker 1: that with me on social media or in the DMS
Speaker 1: on Patreon. The reality is is that I still have
Speaker 1: the same amount of sleepless nights. I still need to
Speaker 1: meditate multiple times a day to alleviate my stress and
Speaker 1: my anxiety and frustration about the lack of control that
Speaker 1: I have over the direction that this country is taking now.
Speaker 1: While I enjoy listening to Biden sometimes, as folks do,
Speaker 1: I enjoy the content of the things that he is
Speaker 1: saying and what we need to have done. We need
Speaker 1: to lower prescription drug prices. We need to make it,
Speaker 1: you know, childcare affordable. We need to make sure that
Speaker 1: people can afford this, that and the other thing and
Speaker 1: have good paying jobs, and blah blah blah. It's the
Speaker 1: same fucking talking points that we've heard from Democrats since
Speaker 1: the beginning of time, and yet we're in worse shape now, folks,
Speaker 1: than I think that we have been in quite some
Speaker 1: time now. Just to be clear, I'm not blaming the
Speaker 1: Biden administration for the shit show that they inherited and
Speaker 1: actually chose to run for. I'm not blaming them, but
Speaker 1: I'm asking the question, do you feel better that Joe
Speaker 1: Biden is president and not Donald Trump? What have been
Speaker 1: like the I don't know, changes that you can actually
Speaker 1: articulate where you're like, if Donald Trump were still president,
Speaker 1: I would feel X. But now that Joe Biden is president,
Speaker 1: I feel why. I thought that I was going to
Speaker 1: have a great sense of relief. I thought that I
Speaker 1: was going to have to come up with new content
Speaker 1: since I've been talking about the demise of our democracy
Speaker 1: and the rise of fascism. I thought that I was
Speaker 1: going to have to change and pivot course. But you see,
Speaker 1: I feel like we're moving faster in that direction than
Speaker 1: we even were under Donald Trump. I feel like Democrats
Speaker 1: showed more grit and fortitude when they weren't in power
Speaker 1: than they are now when they are in power. Look,
Speaker 1: I know that the majorities are slim. I'm really aware
Speaker 1: of that. And in twenty twenty two, you have fourteen
Speaker 1: Democratic Senate seats that are up, and you have twenty
Speaker 1: GOP seats that are up, and guess what, there's a
Speaker 1: big probability that we're gonna lose the fucking Senate. But
Speaker 1: the question that I will ask again is did we
Speaker 1: have it to begin with? With a fifty fifty margin?
Speaker 1: And you have Democrats marauding as fucking Republicans like Mansion
Speaker 1: in cinema and others. It's like, is this as good
Speaker 1: as it gets? Because if it is, I want my
Speaker 1: fucking money back. You know, we talk about the same
Speaker 1: issues and the same things, and I recognize that after
Speaker 1: decades of being in politics, at this point, I realize
Speaker 1: all we ever applaud, all we ever get to celebrate,
Speaker 1: is incremental change that with the wrong president or the
Speaker 1: wrong congress in power, it's gone in the blink of
Speaker 1: an eye. Barack Obama needed to roll out multiple, multiple
Speaker 1: executive orders because he had a hostile Congress that he
Speaker 1: was working with that wasn't going to help him in
Speaker 1: any way or help the country better. Yet and here
Speaker 1: we are again with the democratic president, and I feel
Speaker 1: like he is more impotent now than when he wasn't president, right, Like,
Speaker 1: I feel like Democrats show more grits and have more
Speaker 1: power and a bigger voice in commanding people into voting,
Speaker 1: into reclaiming their democracy than they do when they're actually empowered.
Speaker 1: So what does that say? How do you motivate people
Speaker 1: to continue to show up for you to give them nothing?
Speaker 1: It's been eight months, and yes, we have a vaccine
Speaker 1: that we did not have eight months ago. I credit
Speaker 1: doctors and scientists with that, but we also had greater
Speaker 1: ambitions that at this stage that seventy percent of the
Speaker 1: country would be vaccinated. And yet here we are with
Speaker 1: Democrats once again caught off guard that the public is
Speaker 1: not acting in the way that they thought that they were.
Speaker 1: And so the question that I have really is do
Speaker 1: Democrats really know their constituents? Do they really know anything
Speaker 1: about the public, because it seems that Republicans do. They
Speaker 1: know everything about the basket of deplorables that are their base.
Speaker 1: They know how to reach them, they know how to inspire,
Speaker 1: raging them, they know how to move them to donate
Speaker 1: more money to Donald Trump, right, And I wonder about Democrats,
Speaker 1: how are you surprised after four years under Donald Trump
Speaker 1: that you are only able to vaccinate fifty four percent
Speaker 1: of the country. Now, at any other time, I would say, hell,
Speaker 1: anything over fifty percent is great, Not when you're dealing
Speaker 1: with a communicable virus. Right, you need more than half
Speaker 1: of the people to recognize that science is a thing.
Speaker 1: But given the fact that we have seen, we have
Speaker 1: watched in real time as this country has become more
Speaker 1: and more divided, that we have seen how like just
Speaker 1: misinformation can just turn this country on its head, right, Like,
Speaker 1: we see these things, we knew what was happening, and
Speaker 1: yet we're still surprised. There should have been better things
Speaker 1: that were rolled out. Right, then, oh, have a beer
Speaker 1: and get a shot in the arm. You need to
Speaker 1: understand how people work, the best of people and the
Speaker 1: worst of people. And what I recognize about Democrats is
Speaker 1: that they kind of function like fucking Mary Poppins wanted
Speaker 1: to see the best in everything, swoop in and do
Speaker 1: some dances, do some songs, and swoop out, and you're
Speaker 1: supposed to be left feeling all warm and fuzzy. But
Speaker 1: now that you're left to lead your own life without
Speaker 1: the support of bananny, Like, are you really prepared? I
Speaker 1: don't think so. Democrats are not prepared for pretty much
Speaker 1: anything except for reaction, and in this moment in time,
Speaker 1: we actually just need action. I don't like Republicans at all.
Speaker 1: I think that they're morals, morally bankrupt, and absolute fucking trash.
Speaker 1: But you see, they know how to get to people.
Speaker 1: They know how to move them. Unfortunately they move them
Speaker 1: in the wrong direction, they're moving them off of a cliff.
Speaker 1: But they know how to get them going, can we
Speaker 1: say the same thing about Democrats? Coming up next, friends,
Speaker 1: is my conversation with our good, good friend Glenn Kershner
Speaker 1: to walk us through the latest legal nonsense and criminal
Speaker 1: web that Donald Trump and his sycophants are continuing to
Speaker 1: weave without accountability and responsibility. Friends, you know that I'm
Speaker 1: always so happy when we have our friend MSNBC legal
Speaker 1: analysts and host of Justice Matters Glenn Kershner joining woke
Speaker 1: F two usher us through the legal lease and legal
Speaker 1: webs that this country is in right now on so
Speaker 1: many fronts. Glenn, this past week we watched crushing, just
Speaker 1: devastating testimony from several US decorated A gymnasts about how
Speaker 1: the FBI failed them during their time when Larry Naser,
Speaker 1: the former coach who is now going to serve over
Speaker 1: a century in jail, was abusing them. Many tips went
Speaker 1: out to the FBI, and it is as if they
Speaker 1: put that in a I guess a wastebin and just
Speaker 1: let it go. What is happening with our FBI? Because
Speaker 1: this is not the first, second, or third time that
Speaker 1: we have heard about people reaching out with tips, whether
Speaker 1: it be about Brett Kavanaugh and his line of alleged
Speaker 1: sexual assault, alleged sexual harassment, or Larry Nayser, what is
Speaker 1: happening here? You know. Let me start Danielle by saying,
Speaker 1: I take no pleasure in beating up the FBI. I
Speaker 1: worked rico cases in the courts of Watchington, DC with
Speaker 1: the FBI for years, and I worked with a lot
Speaker 1: of great agents. The hat that's over my shoulder here,
Speaker 1: I have that up on my wall because a member
Speaker 1: of an FBI undercover task force was murdered as part
Speaker 1: of an FBI drug operation and I handle that case.
Speaker 1: So I don't say this casually or cavalierly, but it
Speaker 1: is time for new leadership at the top of the FBI.
Speaker 1: And frankly, I don't even know how much good that's
Speaker 1: going to do, but the time has come because I
Speaker 1: think Director Ray has disqualified himself a couple of times
Speaker 1: over and I think the two most compelling examples of
Speaker 1: that are the Larry Nasser case and the Brett Kavanaugh
Speaker 1: background investigation. First of all, the Nasser case, those gymnasts,
Speaker 1: those victims of sexual assault testified. It was heart wrenching,
Speaker 1: and the fact that their cases were not just mismanaged,
Speaker 1: We're not just neglected by the FBI. FBI agents involved
Speaker 1: engaged in misconduct and covered up the information of their abuse.
Speaker 1: And now the two agents who were primarily responsible for
Speaker 1: that aren't, as far as we know, being criminally investigated
Speaker 1: for it, aren't being prosecuted. One was let go by
Speaker 1: the FBI two weeks ago. You think that was for
Speaker 1: show in advance of yesterday's hearing, and the other was
Speaker 1: allowed to retire and continue to get our tax dollars
Speaker 1: as his retirement compensation. That shows that the FBI leadership
Speaker 1: does not take seriously what happened to those gymnasts or
Speaker 1: the fact that the FBI badly botched that investigation to
Speaker 1: the extreme detriment of those young sex victims. That's one
Speaker 1: the Brett Kavanaugh debacle. Danielle I wrote a piece about
Speaker 1: this for MSNBC Daily, and it boggles my mind. Because
Speaker 1: the FBI opened the tipline for citizens to provide derogatory
Speaker 1: information about Brett Kavanaugh. Forty five hundred citizens took the
Speaker 1: FBI up on that. What did the FBI do with
Speaker 1: those tips? They didn't investigate them. They took them and
Speaker 1: they delivered them to the very person who had every
Speaker 1: incentive to bury them. Donald Trump and his White House
Speaker 1: Council beyond bury them. And of course we never heard
Speaker 1: anything about all that derogatory information about a person who
Speaker 1: would be in a position to decide whether women in
Speaker 1: Texas have constitutional rights or not. We didn't get any
Speaker 1: of that information. But you know what, I think Donald
Speaker 1: Trump used it to try to hold sway over Brett Kavanaugh,
Speaker 1: potentially to try to blackmail him. Remember a few months
Speaker 1: ago when there was reporting about Donald Trump saying Brett
Speaker 1: Kavanaugh he was his career was dead, a law firm
Speaker 1: wouldn't have him back. He was in disgrace until I
Speaker 1: revived him. What did Donald Trump base that on? I'm
Speaker 1: betting putting two and two the together and concluding it
Speaker 1: equals four. It was forty five hundred pieces of derogatory
Speaker 1: information that was hand delivered privately by the FBI to
Speaker 1: Donald Trump and his White House counsel. The two things
Speaker 1: that need to happen. Let me go back to the
Speaker 1: FBI and as I think, two things that need to
Speaker 1: happen now, they were delivered a White House counsel. They
Speaker 1: are either still sitting at White House Counsel's office, but
Speaker 1: now it's Joe Biden's White House counsel such that they
Speaker 1: can be exposed and he can share with the American
Speaker 1: people that information about a Supreme Court justice and we
Speaker 1: can decide what to do about it. Or if they
Speaker 1: no longer exist because Trump and his White House counsel
Speaker 1: destroyed them, the FBI still has them right. So, first
Speaker 1: of all, the White House Counsel, Biden's White House counsel
Speaker 1: should now disclose them to us and or Congress should
Speaker 1: subpoena them, because we need to get to the bottom
Speaker 1: of what the FBI and the White House knew about
Speaker 1: Brett Kavanaugh four they crammed his nomination down America's throat,
Speaker 1: And is there anything in those forty five hundred tips
Speaker 1: that contradicts and I'm betting there is Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation testimony,
Speaker 1: because if so, he can be charged with a false
Speaker 1: statement eighteen USC. One thousand and one, He can be convicted,
Speaker 1: he can be impeached, and he can be removed from
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court. This is not hyperbole. This is just
Speaker 1: good government and good law enforcement. Going back to the FBI,
Speaker 1: we need new leadership. Go ahead, let me ask this question,
Speaker 1: because this is what frustrates me. Glenn, because you just
Speaker 1: connected these dots so perfectly. Here's the thing. We know
Speaker 1: this information. We know about the forty five hundred calls
Speaker 1: and tips to the FBI. We know we knew that
Speaker 1: Brett Kavanaugh lied during his confirmation hearing, right, we knew
Speaker 1: what information that he kept. The question that I have
Speaker 1: is is there any will from this Department of Justice
Speaker 1: which we have seen to be and I know some
Speaker 1: of your friends are still there, it is very lackluster
Speaker 1: in terms of where I thought that we would be
Speaker 1: nine months right after the Biden administration was some more
Speaker 1: eight months excuse me, after the Biden administration was sworn in,
Speaker 1: we are nowhere near where I thought we would be
Speaker 1: with indictments, with subpoenas around what we have seen was
Speaker 1: blatant criminality. What I've seen was blatant lies. And we've
Speaker 1: just continued to brush it under the rug. And so
Speaker 1: is there a desire from this dj from this White House,
Speaker 1: from Congress to issue these kinds of subpoenas because let
Speaker 1: me ask this also, have we ever impeached a Supreme
Speaker 1: Court justice? Because it also seems to me that if
Speaker 1: there is no precedent, there is a lot of fear
Speaker 1: around what then the reaction from Republicans will be and
Speaker 1: who they will go after. So it is there a
Speaker 1: will inside the Department of Justice. Here's the only way
Speaker 1: I can answer that. We haven't seen any indication of
Speaker 1: it yet. But the other thing that I always cite,
Speaker 1: Danielle is the only thing that's loosely comparable to this
Speaker 1: in its White Watergate. Right Watergate, it took twenty one
Speaker 1: months to finally get our arms around and return indictments
Speaker 1: against all of the bad actors, not the guys who
Speaker 1: broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate.
Speaker 1: We caught five of the seven of them that night,
Speaker 1: and it still took us five months to indict them.
Speaker 1: It took twenty one months to get our arms around
Speaker 1: the rest of the characters, and then it took twenty
Speaker 1: six months from the time of the break in for
Speaker 1: Richard Nixon to resign. What I am hoping is that
Speaker 1: there is a will and there is an investigation up
Speaker 1: and running inside the Department of Justice that will culminate
Speaker 1: in holding Trump and company accountable. We haven't seen any
Speaker 1: indication of it yet. And what I keep talking about
Speaker 1: is that public safety is at risk. We are now
Speaker 1: on the eve of insurrection two point zero. I think
Speaker 1: this one will fizzle. I hope this one will fizzle.
Speaker 1: And if it does fizzle, that will be further evidence
Speaker 1: that Donald Trump orchestrated the January sixth one, because that
Speaker 1: was a Donald Trump production. Expressly, come to DC on
Speaker 1: January sixth will be wild. Go down there and stop
Speaker 1: the steal fight, or you won't have a country left anymore.
Speaker 1: That was a Donald Trump production. He incited it, He's
Speaker 1: criminally responsible for it. If Tomorrow fizzles, that will be
Speaker 1: further evidence that Donald Trump incited January sixth, because this
Speaker 1: is not a Donald Trump production, even though he put
Speaker 1: out that pathetic little press release, Yes to night, tomorrow
Speaker 1: is not a Donald Trump production. So if it fizzles,
Speaker 1: that goes further improving that he is the one who
Speaker 1: incited January sixth. You know, you make such a good
Speaker 1: point because I did read the statement, right, which was
Speaker 1: pretty much a cya statement on Donald Trump's part. Right, Oh,
Speaker 1: they're going to ruin my brand. I'm not quite sure
Speaker 1: what brand he's talking about at this point, twice impeached president.
Speaker 1: But you know, the reality for me, and this is
Speaker 1: another question is how are these people able to get
Speaker 1: another permit? How is it that I am seeing headlines
Speaker 1: on cable news stations talking about armed protesters right coming
Speaker 1: to Washington, DC. Again, we are seeing now seven eight
Speaker 1: foot fences around our capitol building, as if these people,
Speaker 1: these insurrectionist Glenn are holding our government, our democracy hostage.
Speaker 1: This is what this looks like, not just to me,
Speaker 1: but to the world. And so I understand the constitutionality
Speaker 1: of the right to assemble, But do we not draw
Speaker 1: a line? Do draw a line? And but let me
Speaker 1: tell you, it's very hard to gauge in prior restraint
Speaker 1: of speech. So hate, hateful groups, hateful speech actually enjoys
Speaker 1: First Amendment protection. What doesn't enjoy First Amendment protection is
Speaker 1: violence or an imminent threat of violence. So there are
Speaker 1: lines that have to be drawn. But prior restraint of
Speaker 1: speech is a very difficult thing. And I would argue
Speaker 1: it should be a difficult thing because everybody should have
Speaker 1: their First Amendment right to speak their mind, as long
Speaker 1: as they're not engaging in or imminently inciting violence. But
Speaker 1: it's a tough line to draw. I have often said,
Speaker 1: we're going to freedom ourselves to death. We're going to
Speaker 1: First Amendment ourselves to death, and we have to make
Speaker 1: more sensible choices about what speech and what behavior we
Speaker 1: are willing to say should enjoy First Amendment protections and
Speaker 1: what speech shouldn't. But that's a very tricky gray area.
Speaker 1: That is it for me today. Folks on the Woke
Speaker 1: a f daily podcast to hear more conversations like the
Speaker 1: one I have with our friend Glenn Kirshner. Check me
Speaker 1: out on patreon dot com slash woke AF Power to
Speaker 1: the people and to all the people. Power, get woke
Speaker 1: and stay woke as fuck.