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- [00:01]
Tommy Vitor
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with a name your price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try it@progressive.com, progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law. Not available in all states.
- [00:22]
Brian Teller Cohen
Trump gets nightmarish economic data, the same that sank Joe Biden's presidency. And I have three Robert Garcia, Tommy Vitor, and Hakeem Jeffries. I'm Brian Teller Cohen, and you're listening to no Lie. Donald Trump is now facing down the barrel of a phenomenon so damaging it was literally the demise of Biden's presidency. So a new piece of analysis just showed that US inflation is expected to surge past 5% this year. Here's FOX reporting the news.
- [00:49]
Hakeem Jeffries
I'm really, really not happy about this inflation report. And I know it's one data point.
- [00:55]
Brian Teller Cohen
The Fed looks through it. We try to look at two or
- [00:58]
Hakeem Jeffries
three month trends, but this does not
- [01:00]
Brian Teller Cohen
look good to me. And I don't like sitting here after
- [01:03]
Hakeem Jeffries
everything we're talking about and saying, oh,
- [01:05]
Brian Teller Cohen
well, okay, but it's just one month because unfortunately, March is guaranteed 95% chance to get worse than what we saw. Now, keep in mind, less than a month ago, Trump was demanding that Jerome Powell lower interest rates. Now it's likely that interest rates are actually going to go up to try and counteract rising inflation. And to be clear, when Joe Biden left office, inflation was 3% and it was Biden's biggest liability. The cost of regular items, right? Housing, rent, groceries. Costs rising were why Trump won. And that's not my take, by the way. It was Trump's.
- [01:39]
Robert Garcia
I won on two things, the border and more than immigration. You know, they like to say immigration. I break it down more to the border. But I won on the border and I won on groceries. It's a very simple word, groceries, like almost, you know, who uses the word? I started using the word the groceries. When you buy apples, when you buy bacon, when you buy eggs, they would double and triple the price over a
- [02:05]
Brian Teller Cohen
short period of time.
- [02:06]
Robert Garcia
And I won an election based on that. We're going to bring those prices way down.
- [02:10]
Brian Teller Cohen
So again, he's well aware of the potency of high prices. He owes his win to it, owes his presidency to it. And yet now prices are expected to increase to almost double the rate as when Biden left office. And Trump won't have anybody to blame but himself. I mean, think about it. This war was the Direct result of his new strategy to make himself king of the world and topple every government that he didn't like. And he saw how easy it was in Venezuela, so he decided that each week he would just do it again. And turns out that Iran wasn't quite as easy as he hoped. And so now we're embroiled in a new war in the Middle east, despite promises that he wouldn't engage in new wars in the Middle east, which has led to surging gas prices, despite promises that we would be paying lower for gas, which has in turn led to higher costs for all consumer goods, despite promises that prices for everything would go down. Like this dude has ushered in the holy trinity of broken campaign promises. And the worst part for Trump is that we all know he's going to get bored, right? But at this point, like toothpastes out of the tube, major energy hubs are being bombed. The Strait of Hormuz is being mined. So even if Trump decided that this needed to end tomorrow, this is not the kind of thing that you can just neatly wrap up anymore. The fighting that had been isolated to the US And Israel and Iran has now broken out to include other countries. Trump on Saturday night threatened to bomb Iran's power plants if the Strait wasn't reopened within 48 hours. Which means sometime Monday afternoon. Which is to say that this will continue to spiral out of control because Trump no longer has control. This is no longer in his hands. And so the pain is going to be felt for months, if not years beyond this. Which means that like just a few months before midterms, Donald Trump has saddled his own party with a billion dollar A that he swore he'd avoid and that we're all paying for as our own costs surge here at home. And let's be crystal clear, cuz I think this part is important. This is not just Trump's fault. Every single Republican has agency. They all could have spoken out, but these cowards coddled him every single step of the way. They were so afraid of a mean tweet that they all contracted every ounce of power to him. Mike Johnson basically rented out space in this guy's colon. They all own this just as much as he does. And now they're gonna have to try and spin surging costs, high gas prices, and a new war in the Middle east as being good for America. Which will be an interesting little exercise in how much a bunch of 70 year old men can twist themselves into pretzels as they beg voters to send them back to Washington. Next up are my interviews with Robert Garcia, Tommy Vitor and Hakeem Jeffries. No lie is brought to you by Factor. So somewhere between the first warm weekend and realizing short season is getting close, eating well stops feeling optional for obvious reasons. Factor is how I stopped letting a busy schedule be my excuse. Fully prepared meals designed by dietitians and crafted by chefs. Ready in two minutes. No planning, no cooking. And best of all, Factor's food options have everything I quality, functional ingredients including lean proteins, colorful veggies, whole food ingredients and healthy fats. No refined sugars, no artificial sweeteners, no refined seed oils. Meals that fit your goals and schedule. Eating healthy, calorie management, more protein and also they taste great. I had the Tex Mex Chicken bowl after I worked out last night and it was genuinely the best decision that I made all day. I also love the variety. There are 100 rotating weekly meals to keep things fresh and delicious through winter. Options include High Protein Calorie, smart Mediterranean diet, GLP1 support, and ready to eat salads. Plus the new MusclePro collection supports strength and recovery. Perfect for if you're getting back into the workout routine. Factor meals are always fresh, never frozen, ready in about two minutes. No prep, no stress, so you can actually stick to your goals. Because I have no free time, I have tried so many of these meal services, but Factor is legitimately fantastic. I promise you it's worth trying coming from somebody who cares a lot about what I put into my body. So head to FactorMeals.com BTC50OFF and use code BTC50OFF to get 50% off and free breakfast for year offer only valid for new Factor customers with code and qualifying auto renewing subscription purchase. Make Healthier Eating Easy with Factor. I'm joined now by the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, Robert Garcia. Congressman, thanks for joining me.
- [06:25]
Robert Garcia
Sure thing.
- [06:26]
Brian Teller Cohen
So, curiously, you have an upcoming briefing with the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, that is in addition to the deposition that she was subpoenaed for. That's going to happen in a few weeks. So why do you presume that it was so important for Pam Bondi to voluntarily offer up a briefing for members of Congress when she has this deposition that she was subpoenaed for anyway?
- [06:46]
Robert Garcia
We're not sure. I mean, look, we've been asking for meetings with the Attorney General for her to come in. It's all been, of course denied. And so it's interesting now that there's an official subpoena in place for her to testify under oath, of course she wants to do this Briefing. Now, look, we'll do the briefing, but the very first thing I'm going to say and make it very clear is that this briefing is not in lieu of the under oath deposition that she has to sit for. And so I think there are some that are, including myself, that are going to make it very clear and are concerned that somehow she's going to try to get out of doing her official deposition. That's by subpoena. We're not going to allow that. The subpoena has gone out. It was bipartisan. She has to come under oath. And if she wants to give us a briefing and answer more questions, we're happy to do that.
- [07:34]
Brian Teller Cohen
What is the point of coming and briefing members of Congress? What's the point of any of this when the issue at hand here is something that she has full control over, which is to release the outstanding 3 million documents in the Epstein files?
- [07:45]
Robert Garcia
Well, that's exactly what we're gonna ask her. I mean, at the end of the day, why hasn't she released all the files? And I'm gonna. And I'm gonna ask her why she continues to defy the subpoena. She keeps pointing to the subpoena as it relates to the Epstein files that we put in place last summer. Right, right. She keeps pointing to the Transparency act, which she notes has some provisions where interagency communication or ongoing investigation, she can hold those files. That's not the case in the subpoena, and I remind folks of that all the time, which is exactly why we did both of those efforts. And so she has a responsibility to give us all the files. We're gonna ask her, both in the briefing and at the deposition, why she's unwilling to do that.
- [08:25]
Brian Teller Cohen
To what extent are we in the public gonna have some visibility into what happens in both the briefing and. And the deposition? Because both of those, obviously, are behind closed doors. There's no public testimony. It's a private deposition. And so in the instance of today, when you speak with her, and also in April, to what extent are we going to have some visibility into that?
- [08:47]
Robert Garcia
Well, look, as it relates to the under oath deposition, I would expect that the Oversight Committee and the majority in this case, Chairman Comru, will essentially do what he's done for all the depositions, which has been the agreement, which he will release them. Well, obviously, whether it was the Clintons, whether it's been other major depositions, like around Les Wexner, he has released the video and the transcripts of those depositions, and we would expect and demand they did the exact same thing for the Attorney General. There is no reason why he would hide that. And if he did, I think the question is going to be why? Why this double standard? Why are we now participating in this coverup? Now, as it relates to the briefing, I think we're going to have to figure out and understand what we're actually able to say to the public. I imagine that we'll be describing what happens there, but look, it's not going to be recorded. There is going to be no official transcript. And so a lot of it's going to be interesting to see how they choose to frame what happened in this briefing. We're going to come out and say what we need to say. If there is information that somehow classified in some way, or there's information in that briefing that can't be put out to the public to protect survivors, we'll make note of that. But I plan to be able to tell public as much as possible from both the briefing and, of course, the deposition.
- [10:03]
Brian Teller Cohen
At what point do you think that Pam Bondi is no longer capable of doing her job?
- [10:09]
Robert Garcia
I mean, quite frankly, she hasn't done her job now. She's not doing her job. She's not releasing the files, she's going back on her word. She's using the DOJ to play cover for Donald Trump. And so as it relates to her job performance, I think next to Kristi Noem, there's no one that has been involved more in damage, hurting her institutions. The Epstein cover up, all she's doing to protect Donald Trump, going after the president's political enemies, whether they're members of Congress, whether they're in the court system, whether they're at institutions, I mean, it is real. And I think she's got a lot to answer for.
- [10:46]
Brian Teller Cohen
You know, there are a number of Republicans who are sympathetic to the cause of trying to get some transparency as it relates to the Epstein files, accountability for, for. On behalf of the survivors. Is there going to be a world where, if Pam Bondi continues to serve as an impediment to getting any of this information released, that there may be Republican support for an impeachment effort, for example?
- [11:11]
Robert Garcia
I would hope so. I mean, I would hope that we'd be able to build that case. I mean, the fact that we got a handful of Republicans to join all Democrats on the committee and actually get the committee to subpoena the Attorney General of the United States, Donald Trump's Attorney General, I think was a huge step forward in the right direction. I think that a lot of Republicans are hearing from their base, especially their MAGA base, that this Epstein cover up is damaging the President. It's causing people to leave him as supporters. And so I would hope they would continue in partnership around the Attorney General. And it's not just the ag. I mean the Deputy ag, Todd Blanche, what's remember is the one that actually visited Ghislaine Maxwell. He's the one that actually moved her to that lower security facility. He's the President's former lawyer. I mean, this is just corruption at its very core. And so we need a DOJ that's actually going to hold powerful people accountable, that's going to actually be independent from the executive branch, which as you know, has been the case. And the DOJ should not be taking direction from the Oval Office. That's not the way it's ever worked and it's not the way it should work Now.
- [12:17]
Brian Teller Cohen
I wanna bring to your attention a pretty explosive story that's being reported in the Miami Herald by Julie K. Brown, who has been obviously for years and years and years. On top of this, she wrote the House Oversight Committee wants to interview Epstein prison guards who work the night that Epstein died or an Epstein prison guard who worked the night that Epstein died. The interview request comes after Miami Herald exclusively, exclusively reported that she was overheard by an inmate talking about covering up his killing. Can you speak to the legitimacy of that claim? Is the Oversight Committee looking to have come testify the Epstein prison guard who worked the night that he died?
- [12:55]
Robert Garcia
Yeah, we support obviously this deposition and that's something that I think is really important. Look, there has been the government itself and the doj. They put out their conclusive report as far as relates to Epstein's death and they declared it a suicide. There have been experts that were involved in that. At the same time there are so many inconsistencies, so many mistakes that were made, so many, quite frankly, strange incidents that have happened since that I think lead a lot of folks, including myself, to believe that there is more there and that we need to ask the right questions, that we need to re look at how and why Jeffrey Epstein died. And there are some outside independent experts that have also looked at the circumstances and that have come to a different conclusion. They don't believe that Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide. There's that missing footage, there's the fact that the security guard was receiving some payments. And look all of these things. I'm not saying that there is evidence per se that somehow Jeffrey Epstein didn't commit suicide because I think the evidence and the Experts have pointed in that direction, but I think to give us clarity to ensure that we are following every single lead, I think it's something we've got to take a look at. So I support interviewing the prison guard.
- [14:11]
Brian Teller Cohen
Do the Republicans on the committee, as far as, you know, support that as well? Because obviously Democrats don't have subpoena power right now. And so everything kind of has to go through James Comer and the Republican majority.
- [14:22]
Robert Garcia
They do. In fact, we're working to bring the bodyguard was the last person to see Epstein actually alive into the committee.
- [14:29]
Brian Teller Cohen
Do you feel that the, that the successful effort to formally subpoena Pam Bondi was a way by Republicans on the committee to placate the Democrats and kind of succumb to a lot of the pressure that they were contending with? Or is this an affirmative effort? Is this them, you know, also leading? Because they have questions that need to be answered by Pam Bondi? Are they doing it through gritted teeth, kicking and screaming, or are they doing it because they actually have legitimate questions and legitimate concerns about the way that this whole investigation, the release or failure to release the Epstein files is being carried out?
- [15:05]
Robert Garcia
Look, I think a majority of Republicans, they'll do whatever Donald Trump tells them to do and are part of the COVID up that the White House clearly has been involved in. And they've supported that by not demanding transparency. But I think there are several Republicans, some of them are on our committee, that genuinely have concern for the survivors in a way that pushes them and makes them act on getting additional subpoenas in place, pushing Comer to do the right thing, demanding like Nancy Mace did, to get bonding in front of our committee. I think there are those moments where you are seeing Republicans, whether it's been Nancy Mace or whether it's been Anna Paulina Luna or others, there has been courage on that side and I think we hopefully will continue to see that.
- [15:50]
Brian Teller Cohen
You know, you are making good progress right now. What does this progress look like compared to if Democrats are able to take the gavel, if you become the chairman of the, of the Oversight Committee? What does that look like compared to what we're seeing now?
- [16:03]
Robert Garcia
I mean, it'll be night and day. I mean, right now we are dependent on Republicans to set the agenda, set the meeting, set the depositions, set the rules. They're the only ones that have subpoena power. If we were in the majority, we would have enough votes on every vote to get exactly what we wanted. We would be able to send out any subpoena to anyone that we wanted to do and speak with. And so it's significantly different. And so we're fighting really hard doing everything we can right now. With the power of the majority comes additional powers for the committee. So we look forward to that.
- [16:35]
Brian Teller Cohen
And can you give us some examples of who might be of interest to speak with if you do gain the gavel?
- [16:43]
Robert Garcia
Well, as it relates to the Epstein investigation, there's a series of folks that eras point to as far as possible co conspirators. There's additional people that were in Jeffrey Epstein's orbit that worked with them very closely. There are banks and figures and executives at many of the banks. There are people that finance some of these activities. So there's a long list of folks. I mean there are, there's probably 30, 30 to 40 individuals that all could have interesting and important information for investigation as it relates to other investigations. We want to talk to Stephen Miller. We want to talk to Kristi Noem. She, just because she's moved on to another agency doesn't absolve her of her crimes or corruption. Corey Lewandowski, we're seeing a lot of reports right now about what exactly happened around him and certain arrangements and certain contracts that were made out of dhs. We want to talk to folks at Health and Human Services, the destruction of our vaccine system, the destruction of our boards of science. And so there's a long list of folks that we want to talk to. And we will absolutely be committed to getting the truth and forcing accountability and ensuring that the Trump corruption era is over.
- [17:51]
Brian Teller Cohen
Perfectly put. We'll leave it there. Congressman, as always, thanks so much for taking the time.
- [17:55]
Robert Garcia
Thank you.
- [17:58]
Brian Teller Cohen
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- [19:22]
Tommy Vitor
Good to see you.
- [19:23]
Brian Teller Cohen
So we just saw Donald Trump do something that seems scientifically engineered to destroy what's left of his presidency. He just had the PENTAGON Request another $200 billion for this war in Iran. And of course, that would be bad enough unto itself given the fact that we have so little to offer Americans at home as we're watching healthcare get cut, food assistants get cut, infrastructure crumble, education be underfunded. But this is completely counter to exactly what he promised on the campaign trail, which was that he wouldn't engage in foreign wars, that he would focus on America first. Even made it his whole whole ass campaign slogan. So can you talk about first and foremost, like, what would the administration be able to do if it didn't write a blank check to this war effort in the Middle East?
- [20:05]
Tommy Vitor
Oh my God. I mean, anything they could restore. I think all of the Medicaid cuts two times over feels like that would be a little more popular, right? Yeah, maybe cut the price of health care, better schools, prescribe like end child poverty, like there's unlimited things you could do with $200 billion. And as you, as you pointed out, like, this is wildly unpopular. Reuters has a poll out today. Only 37% of voters approve of the war in Iran, 59% disapprove. And we're only a couple weeks in.
- [20:33]
Brian Teller Cohen
Yeah, the least popular war at its outset in American history. But look, the Trump administration is nothing if not adept at managing the media, managing like how it promotes the optics of everything that they do. They're pretty savvy operators in that respect.
- [20:49]
Tommy Vitor
Normally.
- [20:50]
Brian Teller Cohen
Yes, normally. And so what do you think is the Upside for Trump as we head toward midterms. Midterms are only six months away, and it already doesn't look like, you know, even if they ended this thing tomorrow, it already seems to be unraveled enough that they wouldn't be able to put the pieces back together where. Where people wouldn't be feeling this, you know, come November. We. What do you think the upside is? What do you think the rationale for them is? Because I'm assuming you don't believe that it's that there was an imminent threat from Iran. So. So what do you think it was?
- [21:17]
Tommy Vitor
Why did he do this? I mean, I think why? The reason he started the war is because, look, last June, there was the Midnight Hammer operation where they bombed a couple of Iran's nuclear sites. No one was hurt. Everyone told him he was amazing. Tough, historic figure, right? Then there was the Venezuela operation earlier this year where Special Forces were able to swoop in, capture Nicolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela, yank him out, install the vice president. And now Trump feels like he's running Venezuela as this vassal state. So he has decided that he has almost godlike powers via the US Military, especially Special Forces, that there's no cost, there is no downside, that he can do literally whatever he wants. And he had lunatics like Lindsey fucking Graham talk him into this war and say, sir, if you take out Maduro and the Ayatollah is in Iran and the Cuban government is next, you're the greatest president in history. And that was just an insane thing to argue, given what we know about Iran and the capability of their military and how they would fight. And also, I mean, just to talk about the communications piece of this a bit, normally, Donald Trump is an excellent communicator. Like, we don't like him. He's crazy. But, like, he is able to drive a narrative, control the media, right? Like, get people to talk about what he wants to talk about. He has utterly failed to do that on Iran. Like, he never gave a major speech explaining his rationale. He's doing, like, random little toppers about Iran at the same time. He's, like, welcoming the MLS soccer team champion to the White House, right?
- [22:42]
Brian Teller Cohen
Like, he just looks like he's still golfing on the weekends.
- [22:44]
Tommy Vitor
Yeah, he's golfing on the weekends. Like, reporters are, like, drunk dialing him, and he's doing, like, 40 mini interviews where he's saying different things. Like, he has created a lot of the communications problems that have fed into the political problems behind the war itself.
- [22:58]
Brian Teller Cohen
Okay, so you're Actually, really well positioned to be able to answer this because you were spokesman for the National Security Council. But I'm curious what the options are in terms of moving forward. Like, if Trump extracts the United States right now, what does that look like, best case scenario and worst case scenario? And I ask that because it doesn't feel like even if we ended this today, it would be as neat as I think he anticipates. Like, we're now seeing Iran bomb other countries in the region, and those countries begin to retaliate. So it feels like Iran, it's already gotten out of our hands a little bit out of control. And so just give me, give me a sense of best case scenario and worst case scenario. Even if we were able to leave tomorrow.
- [23:38]
Tommy Vitor
Yeah, look, I think if Trump decided he woke up tomorrow and he thought, okay, this is not going well, like, we're done, we're done hitting targets. I think the Israelis keep going, which means the Iranians keep going, which means the Strait of Hormuz stays closed. And the Iranians probably also retaliate against U.S. interests in the region because they think that putting pressure on the US Will be the only way to get Netanyahu and the Israelis to stop. Now, I think what's most likely to happen is Trump is going to keep going for several weeks, if not longer. There's a lot of concern. You know, there's reports that are sending, like, thousands of Marines to the Middle east right now to do maybe ground operations. Those could include going in and getting highly enriched uranium and pulling it out of Iran. Those are the sites that we bombed
- [24:19]
Brian Teller Cohen
last June that we supposedly obliterated.
- [24:21]
Tommy Vitor
Yes, but we obliterated last June. It could mean taking oil and gas infrastructure on this place called Carg island, and it could mean God knows what. And so I just fear that we are getting slowly sucked into this war deeper and deeper. And as more of these energy installations get targeted, you could see the price of a barrel of oil go to like 150, 200. I mean, God knows.
- [24:41]
Brian Teller Cohen
Was that not even a concern for this administration? Like, they knew. I mean, it was something that Trump was hammering on a daily basis, that he'd gotten the price of gas down, and now he seems to have relinquished the, like, his last saving grace. Because obviously the price of housing has continued to rise. The price of groceries, price of utilities, all of these things that he promised he would bring down and the things that he exploited when he was on the campaign trail, those have all gone up. But he at least, you know, had this last vestige this last silver lining, which was low gas prices, he had to know, I mean, you know, that. That one of the weapons that Iran could deploy was closing or even mining the Strait of Hormuz. And so was there nobody there to tell them, like, hey, you might want to hold onto this last thing that you have as we especially enter midterms.
- [25:27]
Tommy Vitor
Yeah. I mean, look, every expert would have told you that a war game with Iran ends with them mining or closing the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranians told us as much, basically, like, if you attack us again, we are going to regionalize this war, meaning attack your interests in the region, but attack other countries. You're right, though. Trump has had. This man is completely out of touch with every normal American. Right. He lives at a country club half the time, but he does know that people care about gas prices. It's like a thing he's internalized since the 80s. He used to brag about it all the time. But now the net, the national average for gas in the US has reached $3.90 per gallon. It could hit $4 a gallon next week. That's basically up a buck in like a month.
- [26:07]
Brian Teller Cohen
And diesel has already exceeded $5.
- [26:09]
Tommy Vitor
And on top of that, I mean, one third of the world's fertilizer passes through the Strait of Hormuz. That's not getting through other critical minerals and elements like sulfur or helium that, like, you need in Manu. They're not getting out. So this is going to hammer prices in the U.S. but also, like, really poor countries are going to get especially fucked by this.
- [26:28]
Brian Teller Cohen
Is this the kind of thing that, best case scenario, could go away in a couple of weeks? Like, there is a world where Trump gets bored, you know, and, and see something else that's shiny if things tamp down. What is, like, what's the tail on this thing?
- [26:41]
Tommy Vitor
I think the tail is months at a minimum. I think gas prices are elevated through the summer, even if things like calm down right now just because it takes a while to get these supply chains back revved up.
- [26:51]
Brian Teller Cohen
And then it's Republicans that have to shoulder this stuff because they're going on campaign trail and they have to somehow say the President that we have refused every single step of the way to, To. To serve as a check on, has engaged in this whole process that's raised the cost of everything. We were, we were instrumental in cutting Medicaid and cutting ACA subsidies and cutting food assistance. Like, I mean, I'm not. I kind of have to ask you to get in the head of these Republicans, what do you say on the campaign trail other than we had to do it because a threat from Iran was imminent against the homeland? How do you go on the campaign trail when you have nothing to point to?
- [27:28]
Tommy Vitor
Yeah. I think you have to try to regurgitate this lie that there was some sort of imminent threat, but voters aren't buying it.
- [27:33]
Brian Teller Cohen
After 20 years of. And $2 trillion being spent on the war in Iraq, now you think the voters have an app? I mean, they voted expressly for him because he promised he wouldn't do this.
- [27:44]
Tommy Vitor
Yep. And by the way, There was a YouGov poll out on Thursday that found 24% of 2024 Trump voters disapprove of his handling of Iran, which is pretty.
- [27:53]
Brian Teller Cohen
Pretty enormous considering these people. This is the North Korea numbers, Correct? Correct. Even within his own. Within his own conference, we always see, like, you know, 96% support for the craziest fucking thing. Like Trump shoots puppy point blank on the side of the road. It's like, 96% support this guy.
- [28:09]
Tommy Vitor
Yeah. And it look. And it's just not gonna get better. I mean, if I were a member of Congress, I think your only prayer is like, is my district gerrymandered enough? Like, wow, I don't know what else we got.
- [28:18]
Brian Teller Cohen
Yeah, I mean, that. That should be kind of a blinking red light, because we've already seen, just on the affordability stuff unto itself, some staggering numbers in terms of the swings that we're seeing. 12, 14, 16 points to the left. And these are not even in, you know, purple districts. Like, we're seeing some districts in Arkansas, you know, some, like, some Florida districts, we're seeing districts where. Where. Or jurisdictions where the population is primarily Latino swing like, 40, 50 points left. It's crazy numbers. And if you.
- [28:48]
Tommy Vitor
And that was before the war.
- [28:49]
Brian Teller Cohen
That was before the war. Which is only gonna exacerbate the affordability problems. And now add war on top of that, a war that, by the way, cost $1 billion a day that we presumably, apparently didn't have any money for. You know, American priorities before this. But now we've come up with all of this funding for. For the war. But we have some Senate seats that are. That are pretty close. Oh, yeah, we're talking Senate seats in Maine and North Carolina, Ohio, Alaska, Iowa, Texas. Yeah. And so, like, that puts these states in play in a big way. You know, in a way that may not have happened if Donald Trump didn't engage in all of this voluntarily, because this didn't have to happen.
- [29:32]
Tommy Vitor
That's the thing, it's like, look, at the end of four years, voters blamed Joe Biden for inflation, even if it wasn't necessarily his fault, because the buck
- [29:40]
Brian Teller Cohen
stops with the president.
- [29:40]
Tommy Vitor
Buck stocks with the president.
- [29:41]
Brian Teller Cohen
Yeah.
- [29:41]
Tommy Vitor
In this case, like if you asked the majority of voters, I think if you'd asked in 2024, why'd you vote for Trump? It would be to get inflation and get prices down because things are too expensive. And they were pissed. He already had not solved that problem.
- [29:53]
Brian Teller Cohen
Yeah, inflation was basically 2.9%, 3%. Biden left office with inflation at 3%. So that was not solved.
- [30:01]
Tommy Vitor
It was not handled. And then Trump did this thing that is obvious to everyone. He started a war that single handedly ramped up like one of their biggest costs, which is gasoline.
- [30:11]
Brian Teller Cohen
Yeah. I mean, that was the hard thing for Democrats to reconcile is like, you know, that Biden's gonna take the blame for high gas prices, even though, you know, the economy was opening up after, after Covid had shut everything down. It takes a little bit of time to get, you know, some of these, these oil wells back online that had been offline prior to that. There was obviously global inflation. Russia had invaded Ukraine. That had some impact on the war. And so, like the, like, whether it was Joe Biden in office or any other president, those gas price, those high prices would have been there regardless. And so, you know, you can, you can make that argument. People are still gonna blame the President, but, but, you know, that was the kind of thing where, you know, if you were acting in good faith, it doesn't really matter who the President was or what his policies were that was gonna happen. This is an instance where Donald Trump is unilaterally and directly responsible because had he not done that Friday night a couple of weeks ago, we would have woken up Saturday and there would be no war. The Strait of Hormuz would still be open. A barrel of oil would still be like 60 bucks or whatever it was.
- [31:07]
Tommy Vitor
And like his interviews about this, he's like, well, it's a small price to pay to eliminate the threat from Iran. No, no one agrees with that.
- [31:15]
Brian Teller Cohen
Yeah, well, I think that the part that was funny about that is like this, ok, we have to be like patriotic and accept like, you know, some temporary pain. This is an entire political party that railed against the, the concept of wearing masks during COVID because it's like, I'm not going to allow a single inch of sacrifice in my life, even if it, you know, they, they made fun of like, you know, stay inside to stop the spread for a week or whatever. It was like, a pretty small sacrifice for a global pandemic, and that was a bridge too far. But now everybody has to pay higher gas prices because Donald Trump has decided that he needed to do regime change
- [31:52]
Tommy Vitor
in the Middle east without telling anyone.
- [31:53]
Brian Teller Cohen
Without telling anybody or making any case for any of this.
- [31:56]
Tommy Vitor
Yeah, it's a nightmare.
- [31:58]
Brian Teller Cohen
Yeah. I'm curious, too. Like, you know, one of the things that I've seen as we look towards some tenuous justification, and I think you're exactly right, in terms of Trump looking at how he can build up his legacy, there is kind of the. The beneficial consequence, as far as he's concerned, of less talk about the Epstein files. To what extent do you think that this did serve a dual purpose in that, you know, talk about the Epstein files is obviously a little bit subdued relative to where it was before?
- [32:26]
Tommy Vitor
I mean, I guess my. The reason I struggle with that theory is, like, he might have found something nearly as unpopular as, like, Jeffrey Epstein.
- [32:34]
Brian Teller Cohen
Yeah. But he didn't intend for it to be unpopular like he thought. I think that you're exactly right that he thought this would be easy.
- [32:40]
Robert Garcia
Yeah.
- [32:41]
Tommy Vitor
But look, it's something he, like, overtly ran against.
- [32:44]
Robert Garcia
Yeah.
- [32:45]
Tommy Vitor
And it's an. And so this. It cuts. It hurts him in two different ways. Like, one, there's a lot of people who are like, no, I don't want to go to war in the Middle East.
- [32:52]
Hakeem Jeffries
Right.
- [32:52]
Tommy Vitor
There's a lot of veterans or young people who want to spend money elsewhere. Like, our buddy Peter Hamby did a big polling project where they looked at. They did quantitative and qualitative research with all these young men, like, 18 to 29, of all political persuasions. And the thing that pissed them off the most was, why are we spending money on bombs and not here when my life sucks and I don't feel like things are getting better? And also, they were worried about getting drafted. And then they're.
- [33:16]
Brian Teller Cohen
Which, by the way, Caroline Levitt refused to rule out.
- [33:18]
Tommy Vitor
She refused to rule out. And then also mostly they're like, it's another thing he lied about.
- [33:22]
Brian Teller Cohen
Right.
- [33:22]
Tommy Vitor
Like, there is a group of people who are new voters, maybe like, sporadic voters, who voted for Trump because they were pissed off at the status quo and pissed off at the system. And they believed Trump when he said he would release the Epstein files, care about cost of living, and not get us into dumb wars. And now that he's overtly lied to their face about all those things, it's really like cracking something. I think in his political support.
- [33:42]
Brian Teller Cohen
Yeah. I mean, the reality is, like, his entire presidency has been a graveyard of broken promises. He promised free ivf. Didn't happen. He promised lower cost, instead engaged in a trade war that raised costs, promised an end to the Russia Ukraine war that's still raging a year and a half later.
- [33:56]
Tommy Vitor
All the Maha people are pissed off at him because despite, like, Bobby Kennedy releasing videos with Kid Rock and, like,
- [34:02]
Brian Teller Cohen
a, you know, working out in airports.
- [34:03]
Tommy Vitor
Yeah. Like, driving a scooter and then getting in, like, the cold plunge, they have refused to ban Roundup, this weed killer that is linked to all this cancer. That was a huge priority for the Maha world. So, like, breaking promises left and right.
- [34:16]
Brian Teller Cohen
Yeah.
- [34:16]
Tommy Vitor
And there's corporate interest behind it.
- [34:17]
Brian Teller Cohen
There are a lot of studies that show that Roundup is actually healthy for you if you drink one shot of it per day post workout. Pretty good. I don't know if we can do.
- [34:28]
Tommy Vitor
That was honestly pretty good.
- [34:30]
Hakeem Jeffries
That was really good.
- [34:31]
Brian Teller Cohen
Well, so, look, I think. I think to that end, if you want to see more RFK impressions, I
- [34:37]
Tommy Vitor
do take that show on the road.
- [34:39]
Brian Teller Cohen
Yeah, I think we are going to. I think we're going to do exactly that. You in. You in, Tommy.
- [34:43]
Tommy Vitor
See you in Boston. Die of the river.
- [34:47]
Brian Teller Cohen
What that is a reference to is I recently did a live event in Boston and confused Boston and Chicago.
- [34:53]
Tommy Vitor
Who were you talking to?
- [34:54]
Brian Teller Cohen
I was talking to the governor of Massachusetts and asked how much green dye they put in the Boston harbor because I forgot that it was Chicago. Whose river they die.
- [35:03]
Tommy Vitor
Yeah, it's a bit.
- [35:04]
Brian Teller Cohen
So anyway, only the real ones will have watched this deep into the video to even know that.
- [35:08]
Tommy Vitor
So all Irish people look alike to this guy.
- [35:12]
Brian Teller Cohen
For those who haven't yet subscribed to Positive America's YouTube channel, I'm gonna put the link right here on the screen.
- [35:17]
Tommy Vitor
You're fine. Give it a pass.
- [35:18]
Brian Teller Cohen
It is completely free to subscribe. So if you want to help build up this progressive media ecosystem, please make sure to subscribe. And this way you can see more from Tommy. No Lie is brought to you by Shopify. Starting something new isn't just hard, it's scary. So much work goes into this thing that you're not entirely sure is going to work out. And it can be hard to make that leap of faith. Trust me, I know. When I started this podcast, I wasn't even sure what I was doing. What if nobody listens? What if I can't offer something worth listening to? Now I'm glad that I believed in myself and launched this podcast despite all the fears and hesitations. But let's be clear, it certainly helps when you have a partner like Shopify on your side to help. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all E commerce in the United States. From my website brianteller cohen.com to brands just Getting Started. Get started with your own design studio. With hundreds of ready to use templates, Shopify helps you build a beautiful online store that matches your your brand style, accelerate your efficiency. Whether you're uploading products or trying to improve existing ones, Shopify is packed with helpful AI tools that write product descriptions, page headlines, and even enhance your product photography. Get the word out like you have an entire marketing team behind you. Easily create email and social media campaigns wherever your customers are scrolling or strolling. And best yet, Shopify is your commerce expert with world class expertise in everything from managing inventory to international shipping to processing returns and beyond. And what if people haven't heard about my brand? Shopify helps you find your customers with easy to run email and social media campaigns. It's time to turn those what ifs into with Shopify today. Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at shopify.com BTC go to shopify.com BTC that's shopify.com BTC I'm joined now by the Democratic Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries. Thanks so much for joining me.
- [37:07]
Hakeem Jeffries
Good to be with you.
- [37:08]
Brian Teller Cohen
So I want to talk about the number one issue that the Right is pushing right now, which is the lack of funding for tsa. Obviously we're seeing massive amounts of TSA agents call out of work because DHS hasn't been funded. The Right is claiming that this is all the result of the Democrats. They're waging this big disinformation campaign where every time there's a delay in some airport and we're seeing massive delays, they're saying thank a Democrat. Can you talk to me about the effort being put forward by Democrats to get TSA funded?
- [37:37]
Hakeem Jeffries
Thanks for asking. Because there are a few things that are important here. 1. Listen. Republicans control the House, the Senate and the Presidency. And from the very beginning of this President's term, they've taken a my way of the highway approach. The reason why TSA is not being paid is because Republicans have made the decision to hold TSA agents hostage and to create chaos in airports all across the country because they don't want to get ICE under control. And if you go Back to the one big ugly bill $191 billion was given to the Department of Homeland Security, including $75 billion in the slush fund to ICE. They have more than enough money to make sure that every single TSA agent is paid. They've made an affirmative decision not to do so, which is why we've launched this discharge petition to force an up or down vote to ensure that we can pay TSA agents and reopen the other parts of the Department of Homeland Security, like FEMA and the Coast Guard and our cybersecurity professionals that don't have to do with ICE or don't have to do with Donald Trump's extreme and violent mass deportation machine.
- [38:46]
Brian Teller Cohen
So if, if they're saying right now that it's the Democrats fault for not funding TSA, and the Democrats have standalone bills to fund tsa, then what is the excuse for TSA not being funded?
- [38:57]
Hakeem Jeffries
Yeah, it's just Republicans again, engaging in massive disinformation and lying, straight up lying to the American people. These are pathological liars over on the other side of the aisle in terms of what many of them just do. And certainly we see that on the extreme far right. They know they're on the run. They know that the American people recognize that Donald Trump and Republican policies have been a complete and total failure. This guy promised to lower costs on day one. Costs haven't gone down, costs have gone up. Republicans are losing elections all across the country, up and down the ballot. We've seen that now happening for about 15 consecutive months. Donald Trump is deeply unpopular. The one big ugly bill is unpopular. This reckless war of choice that Donald Trump has gotten us into in the Middle east is deeply unpopular. And the American people want to see taxpayer dollars being spent to improve their quality of life. And that's what Democrats have been fighting hard to achieve. Whereas Republicans are spending billions of dollars to do things like drop bombs in Iran or to unleash violent, untrained and mass ICE agents to brutalize or in some cases kill American citizens and violently target law abiding immigrant families. And so of course, they're trying to distract the American people, but we're not going to let them do it.
- [40:20]
Brian Teller Cohen
To that end, there is reporting that the White House is now asking or considering asking for $200 billion as a supplemental aid package for the ongoing Iran war. Can I have your reaction to that news?
- [40:34]
Hakeem Jeffries
I mean, it's the craziest thing in the world that the White House might potentially be floating, coming to Congress for an additional $200 billion when they haven't justified a dime that has already been spent and have no view as to how to actually get us out of the situation that they recklessly got us into and simply want taxpayers to be on the hook for tens of billions of dollars more when there's no justification for the billions of dollars per day that they're spending right now. They've not made the case in any compelling way as to how actually the American people have been made safer by this conflict. Of course. And we're seeing as a result of this reckless war of choice, costs go up, particularly gasoline prices, which are through the roof right now, by the way. This all happened when Donald Trump came to the House floor bragging about the fact that, in his view, gasoline prices were down. The guy has been a complete and total failure. And so while we haven't been presented with any request for additional funding, they don't have any ability, in my view, to justify additional funding at this point in time when they haven't made the case to the American people, to the Congress, or even to our NATO allies as to why we're in this situation in the first place.
- [42:01]
Brian Teller Cohen
Well, we've already seen a few instances where that spending for this war is already out of control. The first couple of days cost roughly five to six billion dollars. The first six days of this conflict, or war incursion or excursion or whatever they're going with today cost over $11 billion. And now, as I mentioned, there's that reporting that suggests that they're looking for $200 billion. What could that money be used for if not dropping bombs in the Middle east at the hands of a president who swore up and down that there would be no new wars?
- [42:31]
Hakeem Jeffries
Yeah, it's a very important point. Candidate Trump said that he's not going to get America into another reckless war of choice in the Middle East. President Trump has done the exact opposite, gotten us into a reckless war of choice in the Middle east, spending billions and billions of dollars already, Perhaps up to $30 billion have already been spent, if not more. And now he wants to come to us potentially for an additional $200 billion. Listen, this is the same group of people who enacted the largest cut to Medicaid in American history, ripping health care away from millions of people, including children, women, and seniors. They also enacted the largest cut to nutritional assistance in American history, $186 billion in their 1 big, ugly bill. They've literally stolen food from the mouths of hungry children and veterans. And so that money could and should be used to restore as many of the Medicaid cuts as Possible. That money should be used to make sure that no one in America goes hungry. That money should be used to make sure that the money that was stolen from consumers as a result of the Trump tariffs, which have cost them thousands of dollars in additional expense per year and have now been declared illegal and unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, the American people should have their money refunded to them. And of course, that money could be used to make sure that we extend the Affordable Care act tax credits so more than 20 million Americans aren't put in the situation that they're in right now because of Donald Trump, where they can't afford to go see a doctor when they need one.
- [44:18]
Brian Teller Cohen
I would also add that TSA's budget, I checked their 2025 full year budget, it was like $11.8 billion, meaning TSA could have been funded three times over for the amount of money that Donald Trump has spent dropping bombs in the Middle east again, which would be bad enough, but even more egregious given the fact that he campaigned expressly on never doing this. I wanna switch gears here to a different topic, and that is Pam Bondi. Do you think that what Pam Bondi is attempting to do in the aftermath of the subpoena being issued to her to come testify before for a private depos, that by holding a, a briefing, and this was just, this just took place yesterday, that she's looking to basically satisfy her requirements in her own mind so that she doesn't have to fulfill any obligations to appear for that private deposition per the subpoena that she received?
- [45:12]
Hakeem Jeffries
Pam Bondi is a partisan, petulant, petty fogger. She is a political hack. She's deeply unqualified. And we saw how she performed when she came before the House Judiciary Committee, before the American people performing for Donald Trump and no one else acting like she's his personal lawyer as opposed to the people's lawyer, which is the job of the Attorney General. And she's engaging in a massive cover up as it relates to the Epstein files, which is why, led by House Democrats, we have forced the Oversight Committee to subpoena her. And now, Brian, as you've indicated, she's trying to get around that by holding a briefing. This is unheard of as far as I'm concerned. There was no deposition transcript, there was no recordings, and there was no swearing her under oath. And so she can say all manner of things without fear of being prosecuted at some point later on for perjury. And so Summer Lee was exactly right that Pam Bondi needs to testify under oath before the American people. So we can talk about the massive cover up that the Department of Justice has undertaken. There are about 3 million files connected to the Jeffrey Epstein situation that Epstein survivors have firmly and appropriately and passionately demanded be released so we can achieve transparency and full accountability.
- [46:50]
Brian Teller Cohen
You know, the problem as it relates to Pam Bondi and her failing to comply with a congressional subpoena is that the agency that would normally be tasked with enforcing that subpoena is the one that she herself leads. And so I spoke with Congressman Raskin, and he brought up the fact that Congress does have inherent contempt powers. Is that something that you think Congress would be in the right to wield in the event that Democrats took control of the House in the aftermath of the 2026 election and we still have an attorney general who refuses to comply with the law?
- [47:26]
Hakeem Jeffries
Absolutely. Congress has inherent contempt powers. And it's going to be one of the tools that we will have to use when Democrats take back control of the House of Representatives in order to make clear that there will be consequences if congressional subpoenas are violated or the Department of Justice continues to try to conduct itself like it's above the law, in addition to a wide variety of other tools that we'll need to utilize. Listen, there's going to have to be accountability. And my view about how we move forward are promised to the American people is that we're going to relentlessly focus on the affordability crisis that Donald Trump thinks is a hoax. We're committed to driving down the high cost of living. We're committed to fixing our broken health care system at the same period of time. We're also committed to cleaning up corruption. And we know there's a lot of it that has taken place in the White House and with the Trump cartel. And the Department of Justice is front and center in that regard, particularly as it relates to the active cover up that many people have correctly concluded is taking place right now. And so, yes, it certainly is the case that inherent contempt is something that should be under consideration right now. But James Comer, who continues to behave like a malignant buffoon, is someone who is actively participating in the effort to shield the White House. He's leading the COVID up caucus as opposed to leading the Oversight Committee.
- [48:56]
Brian Teller Cohen
We'll leave it there. Leader Jeffries, I appreciate your time.
- [48:59]
Hakeem Jeffries
Thank you much.
- [49:02]
Tommy Vitor
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