← The Beat with Ari Melber
The Beat with Ari Melber
Lawmakers Say New DOJ Filing Suggests Epstein “Cover-Up”
00:41:30
MSNOW’s Ari Melber reports on the Trump DOJ’s handling of the Epstein files, as lawmakers criticize the department over a lack of transparency. Former FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissmann and The New York Times' Michelle Goldberg join.
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- [00:01]
A
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- [03:28]
C
This is a massive cover up being led by the White House and the doj.
- [03:31]
D
Do you still have confidence in Pam Bondi as Attorney General?
- [03:39]
B
I don't think Pam Bondi has confidence in Pam Bondi.
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C
The actual files that have been out in the public or that we've seen, they're overly redacted.
- [03:46]
D
Ultimately, it's her who is responsible for the document production.
- [03:52]
B
The last voice you heard is a Republican member of Congress discussing the obvious. Despite all of the lower standards or rank incompetence that has been on display in the administration recently, the attorney General is responsible for this and the letter's not accurate. And they already broke the law by being this late. And Pond, he's been caught making several misstatements or lies about the Epstein files. So in a healthy, normal democracy, you would have accountability for that. The person might resign trying to show the president they get it, or they might be removed by the president. Or if the malfeasance is proven, Congress might ultimately consider impeaching Bondi out of her role, something that former Trump lawyer Ty Cobb talked to us about making some headlines. That was just last week. As for what we're learning in the files, well, there was one Trump confidant, Tom Barak, who is the U.S. ambassador to Turkey and has been a special envoy who had contact with Epstein for years. Commerce Secretary Lutnick only admitted that he visited Epstein's island after the new files showed that he'd been lying about that in public. Other powerful individuals outside of the Trump Cabinet and administration have faced far more accountability than people working for Trump. There was a story we reported on when it first broke that Casey Wasserman, who's really a powerhouse figure behind the scenes in la, not maybe a name that everybody knows, but you know, all his clients, he's one of these super agents. And so Many of his clients, clients have basically protested his link to Maxwell in the files, saying they would or will leave if he doesn't do something, that he's actually selling his entire agency, his entire empire because he doesn't have clients who will stand by him. Or Obama vet and prominent business people ousted international figures have been held to account. We have continued to see this contrast between accountability in independent institutions and abroad. While President Trump, who once claimed he wanted to get to the bottom of these files, won't even remove a single employee of their role, despite really audacious links to Epstein, the discrepancy in the accountability is glaring. So as we begin the week, I want to bring in two people who have done a lot of work on this, covering it, discussing it. Andrew Weissman is a former FBI general counsel, former prosecutor, New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg. Welcome to both of you. Michelle, I mentioned that contrast is something you raised on this program and others have that abroad there are governments taking this more seriously in corrective action. Everybody knows what's done, sometimes sadly is done, but action and Donald Trump, who rode a wave of Epstein outrage in 24, won't so much as relieve a single, you know, a single employee entangled up with Epstein. What do you see there in that contrast tonight?
- [06:45]
A
Well, I mean, I think the, the difference in democratic accountability is a big part of it. This government has worked to insulate itself from any of the mechanisms of accountability. There's also just different interests at play. I don't think that, you know, I don't think that the government of, of England or of France where a diplomat is in trouble over his Epstein ties, the governments themselves are not fundament fundamentally invested in minimizing Epstein and his crimes the way that this government is, because the head of this government is one people that you would think would be held accountable if you start going down that road. Right. I mean, it's the head of, the head of the head of the United States, members of his cabinet, people who were intimately involved in his campaign. This is his circle. And so obviously he has a, not just vested interest, but really an existential interest in avoiding accountability for Epstein. Epstein relationships.
- [07:45]
B
Yeah. And Andrew, I mentioned the letter. There were many people skeptical of this DOJ under Bondi who thought, would you ever get any documents? Would you ever get anything that wasn't totally blacked out? And so in, in my job as a journalist, I think it's important that we reflect that there was a lot of new material released and some of it made Trump figures look bad for the reasons we just discussed some of them made Steve Bannon and others look bad. We don't know perhaps whether other really hot material around the president, et cetera, was still not given up. But I'm wondering how you view that level of compliance. The DOJ apparently did not want to just completely break the law, obviously. And now their partial compliance with the letter, which matters because that's where they document under the law what they gave over. But names like Marilyn Monroe and Joplin kind of at a minimum, make a joke of it. How do we look at this with nuance, with balance for what's happening? Andrew?
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C
Sure. Well, let's start with the fact that there are documents that were released. But it's hard to say that you should give credit to the Department of Justice for partially complying with the law. Remember, they weren't doing any of this until Congress passed a law that said you have to. And so I just can't stomach the idea that I'm going to be saying, oh, well, attorney general deserves credit for complying in part with the law. That's her job. That is what the Department of Justice is supposed to do. But let's now focus on the in part, in the letter that was just released to Congress, they actually say that they are withholding documents. They don't say how many, but it could be in the millions because we know that there's a huge tranche they turned over, but there's a huge tranche they're keeping. And they say they're withholding it based on privileges. They say it's attorney client. They say it's work product, it's deliberative process. That means all of the documents that we'd be very interested in, which is government reports, government assessments, all of that could be withheld under those claimed privileges. Why is that a problem? It's a problem because the law itself does not permit that. The law actually says these are the grounds you can assert and these are the grounds you cannot assert. And so the department is not in compliance with the law. So that's another reason that I think it's fair to say about the department that they are completely flouting their legal responsibilities. And if you think there's damning material in what's been released, you do have to ask yourself what's in the remaining parts.
- [10:43]
B
Yeah, exactly. Michelle Joe Rogan rode this wave with Trump in 24. But unlike, say, most of the Republican members of Congress or Fox News, he has a type of independent audience and voice where he is calling out what he sees is wrong with it, which is obviously quite different than some of the other folks who wrote along with Trump at 24 here. He was speaking recently about how the Epstein release is going.
- [11:14]
C
Why would your name be redacted if.
- [11:16]
B
You'Re not a victim?
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C
Like, this is what's crazy about all this. How come you redact some people and you don't redact other people? Like, what is this? This is not good. None of this is good for this administration.
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B
It looks terrible. It looks terrible.
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C
It looks terrible for Trump when he.
- [11:34]
B
Was saying that none of this was real. This is all a hoax. This is not a hoax.
- [11:39]
C
Did you not know.
- [11:43]
B
Michelle? Where does that fit into this? As a very widely discussed story that has some people refereeing it, saying no to what Rogan has called Trump's gaslighting and lies.
- [11:57]
A
Look, I'm certainly glad that Joe Rogan and kind of other manosphere influencers are coming around to seeing what many other people have seen in Donald Trump for a long time, because it's not as if Donald Trump's very close relationship with Epstein was a secret before any of this, you know, before his reelection, before his, before his first election, frankly, you know, at the time when he, when he hired Alex Acosta into his government the first time around. That said, I think that because the way that they're handling it, the, the, the ever changing stories that are irreconcilable on their face from, you know, I have all these documents on my desk to the documents don't exist with Pam Bondi, you know, to that embarrassing display before Congress where, you know, we should be talking about the fact that the stock market is at 50,000. It's. So it maybe works if you are entirely encased within the bubble of Donald Trump's alternative reality, but if you have even, you know, a finger or a toe in the real world, you can see how that. It just doesn't add up. Right. It's so obvious that they are not being honest and not being frank. And then you have these documents, both the way that they were released, the weird redactions, the fact that they weren't released in total just feeds kind of the sense of mystery and conspiratorial thinking. And in this case, the sense that there are, the legitimate sense that there are real conspiracies out there, that feeds kind of discourse and that feeds podcasts.
- [13:40]
B
Yeah. And Andrew, I've just about a minute left, we mentioned, of course, some of these individuals, they weren't accused of criminal wrongdoing. There's a DOJ process for this that's been running a long time. When you look, though, at the fact checking or the question of if there are materials being held back that should not be under the law, is this the end of the line? What else does Congress do? Are they just taking the DOJ's word for it?
- [14:06]
C
Well, that's not really a question for me. There's lots of levers they could pull. So remember that Congress does have the power of the purse. They also do have the ability to hold, hold on nominations. So they do actually have a lot of power. Remember, they did manage to get a consensus to pass the Epstein Transparency Act. So now it really is a question of are they going to take action given that the department is now an open defiance of them in terms of what it is that Congress said they wanted. So, you know, obviously we've seen Congress, you know, back down and and not assert its will. That's not how the Constitution was envision. It was envisaged that it would be ambition against ambition. And it remains to be seen if they will do that here.
- [14:59]
B
Yeah. Understood. Andrew Weissman and Michelle Goldberg, thanks to both of you. Happy President's Day. Coming up, we'll look at how Democrats are using their powers to try to get control of ICE and that new Obama interview we have. But next we look at Kristi Noem's election problems. Gene Robinson is here in 90 seconds.
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- [16:49]
B
Democrats are playing hardball if you follow all of these shutdown politics. We start the week here on a holiday with DHS employees working without pay. Democrats say there are restrictions they demand on ICE to reopen the government, making them follow these warrant rules. That's in the Constitution itself, showing ID body cams and getting rid of these masks. Here's Trump border czar Tom Homan.
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G
As far as the mask look, you know, I don't like the masks either. But because threats against ICE officers, you know, are up over 1500%, actual assaults and threats are up over 8000%. These men and women have to protect themselves. I'll let the White House and members of Congress, you know, fight that out. But I think some of the asks are just, I think they're unreasonable.
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B
The White House thinks the asks are basically unreasonable. The Democrats have the wind at their backs. As for what's reasonable, well, a majority of the country is against Trump's ICE tactics as having gone too far. And the very disturbing and terrible reality of two Americans slain in the streets has not exactly made people think that the ICE approach is very reasonable. Politico has an assessment of Trump's second year in office thus far, the second, excuse me, the first year of the second term, discussing a kind of whiplash, a series of self inflicted wounds, the about face on everything from immigration and tariffs to all that time spent on threatening Greenland. Politico says it's painfully obvious there's no strategy. And the Times looks at how Trump has tried to take President's Day and make himself the focus of everything. They liken that more to what dictators do, a spree of self aggrandizement that goes beyond mere vanity. Mr. Trump, the Times writes, is making himself an inescapable force in American life and yet it is not making him any more popular. Seeing Trump everywhere is apparently reminding people of what Trump's government is doing. And he's crashed to his lowest polling point overall, including on issues he once did better on, like immigration and economics. We are joined by Eugene Robinson, Pulitzer private and columnist and Ms. Now analyst, your thoughts on all of that, including a second shutdown. We all know that the more you experience something, the more you get used to it. I'm old enough, so I bet you're probably old enough to remember that 20 years ago a shutdown was like a big deal. Now we have a second one. There's a lot of other important stuff going on. What does it tell you, though, the Democrats think they can hold the line here again, that they want to use what, what few minority powers they have to try to trim ice?
- [19:33]
E
Well, number one, yes, I am old enough to remember when a shutdown was a big deal. Now, this is just a partial shutdown. It's DHS shut down. But. Right, but that's, that's a lot of, lot of stuff. Look, I don't think Democrats have a choice. Democrats have to answer to their voters, and their voters will not stand for Democrats quickly caving on this. So that's number one. I mean, I think it's kind of a matter of political survival for Democrats at this point. And second, what they're protesting, what they're asking for, rather, is just plain common sense. It's so normal that, again, I don't see how they could do otherwise. Don't wear masks, okay? This is not an American thing for a policing agency to be running around the streets with masks with no id, with no warrants, just grabbing people. I remember that elderly man who was taken out of his house in his shorts and bathrobe with no warrant by masked men. That's not supposed to be America. And I think you have to simply take a stand. If you don't take a stand here, where do you take a stand?
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B
Yeah, Nancy Pelosi was speaking out. She's widely seen as one of the Democrats tough, more effective leaders during her tenure. And she was drawing this line on the concern about Trump's effort to undercut or steal elections in the future. Take a look. I hear that all over the United States, not just in Europe, that there.
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F
Is concern about the election. Let me just say that surveillance by the intelligence operation of our country, surveillance in our own country, is something that is absolutely not to be allowed. Now, if there's some particular reason, there's one thing, but for them, for Tulsi Gabbard to be looking into elections is really not right. It's not lawful.
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B
Gene?
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E
No, I would agree. And look, add to that what Kristi Noem had to say about elections. And Kristi Noem said, essentially, we're going to make sure, referring to the midterm, we're going to make sure that the right people get to the polls to elect the right people. Right. The right voters get to elect the right people. Well, that's pretty ominous sounding because it sounds as if she's saying we're going to decide who the right people are and act accordingly. And so it's not paranoia to be really concerned about the coming election and to guard against any sort of shenanigans that this administration might have pull.
- [22:52]
B
Yeah. It is President's Day, so we will end with a little more historical view. These are two historians talking about their Mount Rushmore. This is on Ari Emanuel's podcast who stopped by here recently. Take a listen to their picks.
- [23:10]
D
I'm going to keep Washington.
- [23:12]
A
I'm going to keep Lincoln, I'm going to keep Teddy, but I'm going to replace Jefferson with fdr.
- [23:20]
B
Each one of those other four were.
- [23:22]
A
At presidents at a moment when democracy was in peril. And I think that's a topic that's so critical right now.
- [23:27]
C
I don't think an evening with George.
- [23:29]
B
Washington would be a lot of fun. So I'm taking Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, FDR and Reagan. That's their Rushmore picks. Do you have anyone you would put on Mount Rushmore or a favorite president to share with us this Hal Holladay.
- [23:47]
E
You know, I'm going classic on this. I think I'm keeping the form we got there. Right. I'm not getting rid of Jefferson. Jefferson was a problematic character, but he wrote the Declaration of Independence. I mean, and the Declaration of Independence, even though the nation has taken a long time to really live up to its stirring words, it is an amazing, stirring document. So I'm leaving him up there. Certainly Washington. Read about the Revolutionary War. Read we don't have a country, we don't have Washington. Lincoln, obviously in my opinion, our greatest president. And then you know, the one. I guess you could argue whether or not we have the Wright Roosevelt on Mount Rushmore. Teddy was an important figure. I guess I might argue that fdr, Teddy's district cousin, was a more consequential president because of the depression in World War II.
- [25:04]
B
Yeah. And he got the extra terms very consequential. Teddy was an iconoclast and he wasn't afraid of the powerful and the powers that be, which is also good quality to president. We thought this would be fun. Here to mark the holiday for a second with Eugene. Thank you so much.
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E
Okay, thank you. Happy President.
- [25:25]
B
Happy President's Day. Yes, sir. Now, speaking of presidents, Barack Obama was the popular president at the All Star Game, even catching the ball. Look at that. Extraordinary. We're going to show you what he's saying about Trump, politics, ice and racism. He paired that, that special fun visit with a serious new interview on politics. We're going to show you that with the podcaster who who got the big exclusive Next.
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- [28:20]
G
As I'm traveling around the country. As you're traveling around the country, you meet people, they still believe in decency, courtesy, kindness, and there's this sort of clown show that's happening in social media and on television. And what is true is that there doesn't seem to be any shame about this among people who used to feel like you had to have some sort of decorum and a sense of propriety and respect for the office. Right. So that's been lost. But the reason I point out that I don't think the majority of the American people approve of this is because ultimately the answer is going to come from the American people.
- [29:17]
B
Classic Obama, a classy response to an ugly kind of gutterball attack. And Obama quick to position this as a compliment to the public. Of course, the majority of the public in America doesn't want Trump's racism. And he went on to try to discuss in depth what maybe America would want. He wasn't sparing, though, the fact that he disagrees with many of the things Trump's administration is doing, including the ICE power grab and the rule of law.
- [29:53]
G
It is important for us to recognize the unprecedented nature of what ICE was doing in Minneapolis. The way that federal agents, ICE agents were being deployed without any clear guidelines, training, pulling people off out of their homes, using five year olds to try to bait their parents, bait their parents, all the stuff that we saw, tear gassing, crowds, simply who were standing there not breaking any laws. So the rogue behavior of agents of the federal government is deeply concerning and dangerous.
- [30:52]
B
When he first came into office, Obama was one of the younger modern presidents on par with Clinton or Kennedy rather than Trump or Biden. And he discussed how elder Democrats need to be open to the younger generation.
- [31:09]
G
I'm pretty healthy, 64 feel great.
- [31:13]
A
Yeah.
- [31:14]
G
But the truth is, half of the references that my daughters make about social media, TikTok, et cetera, I don't know who they're talking about. Yeah, there is a element of at some point you age out, you're not connected directly to the immediate struggles that folks are going through. I'm not making a hard and fast rule here, but I do think that Democrats do well when we have candidates who are plugged into the moment, to the zeitgeist, to the times, and the particular struggles that folks are thinking about as they look towards the future rather than look backward toward the past. That spirit, that energy, it's out there and you can feel it, but it's bottled up. We haven't given enough outlets for young people to figure out, how do I become a part of that? And that's this enormous untapped power that we have to get back to.
- [32:23]
B
Ever respectful Obama Saying the party's got to look to the younger candidates who are plugged in. And he wasn't just saying that in some New York Times op ed respect. Or some 60 minutes conversation like politicians have been doing for 50 years. Respect, depending on the Sunday or the episode. He was saying it walking the walk in a new format that he and his team had clearly picked over television. They went to a hit, liberal podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen, who got the big interview and is our guests about the Obama interview next? No, actually, I think exactly what he.
- [33:04]
E
Said was, that's what I do.
- [33:06]
B
I got it. That's what I do. Would have been better. He would have stood up and went right to the three and rang. Just knocked it through. Or he could do a mellow and.
- [33:14]
E
Pump fake it, right?
- [33:15]
B
No, actually, I think Barack Obama's everywhere. Courtside can catch the ball. Little memories of that's what I do. And he just sat down for a lengthy substantive interview with podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen, who hosts no Lie and just sat down with the former president. Congrats on the big get.
- [33:33]
D
Thanks, Ari. I appreciate it.
- [33:36]
B
Yeah, really interesting. I would encourage all viewers to go check out the full 40 plus minutes on YouTube, but we've got the highlights, so don't do it yet. If people are watching right now. Let's start with what he said about how he thinks Trump's conduct will help Dems in the midterms.
- [33:55]
G
The current White House, this administration and their enablers, they're behaving so badly. They're doing such crazy stuff that it shouldn't be hard for our side to coalesce around the areas where we need agree on and focus on that. And I think that that is going to happen if we are effective in winning the midterms.
- [34:28]
B
What did you see him emphasizing there?
- [34:31]
D
Look, I think he's saying what a lot of people already recognize, which is in terms of the midterms, that's going to be largely a referendum off of Trump. But we have a long path forward. You know, Democrats do have a poor approval rating. We have brand problems that need to be fix, just going to fix themselves in a vacuum. I hope that people don't see success in the midterms as some indication that, you know, we've solved everything, because we haven't. But, you know, he talked about that a little bit and I'm not sure if you're going to show a subsequent clip where he does discuss a little bit of the infighting. But. But, you know, I think that's going to be it he has a very particular focus on coalition building as opposed to purity politics. And I think, you know, in an era where everybody has a voice, everybody has a platform online, making sure that we can still remember that the. The goal of politics is actually to build a coalition, to cobble together a big enough coalition to win to be able to do something is first and foremost.
- [35:29]
B
Well, let's turn to that, because he discussed it with you at length. He referenced things that people are familiar with, the kind of mood of certain people being a scold, trying to dictate to others what their political morality should be, or this term virtue signaling. And this, I thought, was an interesting exchange. So we cut it at some length. Let's take a look.
- [35:56]
G
I think there was a certain way of talking about issues for Democrats where we sounded like scolds. There was a. A virtue signaling that made it seem as if ordinary folks, if they did not say things in exactly the right way or meet this litmus test, that they were being chastised, pushed away. And the truth is, most of us, all of us are complicated, and we have blind spots, and sometimes we say dumb stuff. And we. And if you want to create an environment that is welcoming and makes people feel okay, there's room for me here, then the message and the story we tell has to be, all right. None of us are perfect. All of us count. We all have good in us that we can tap into. We can all learn from each other. And I think that is something we need to recover.
- [37:13]
B
What did you see him hitting there?
- [37:16]
D
I mean, you know, similar to what I was saying before, I think that, you know, at its core, again, politics is about getting enough votes to actually win. And this stuff really does. It's personal for a lot of people. They hold it really. You know, they. They wear it on their shirt sleeve. And so it's. It's not a surprise that when it comes to these political matters that people will take it personally and they will want to impose litmus tests and they'll, you know, do what they do online these days.
- [37:42]
A
But.
- [37:43]
D
But I think it's important to get these reminders from somebody who, you know, doesn't have any skin in the game, but he has a lot of cachet, and so he has the freedom to be able to come out and say this kind of stuff to. To reroute the party, I think, into a. Into a smarter direction as we head toward 2028, even if it's just planting a little in our heads to say, like, we are. We are, you know, I'M sure you've heard people say politics is a bus. You're, you're getting, you're not necessarily going right to your front door. You are, you are taking the bus to the closest destination to, to where you live. And, and, and that's how we have to think of it. We can't let perfect be the enemy of good. And, and you're going to have people within the coalition who disagree with each other, but it's going to be important to make sure to remember that it is a coalition at the end of the day.
- [38:29]
B
It's interesting coming from him as well, because he's won these campaigns, doesn't have more to run. So even for people who are skeptical, don't like the message, it's different than some other old school Democrat saying, hey, I don't like this. He's speaking about it from the kind of good faith position within his party of how to win. You guys also touched on the mom Donnie energy. Take a look.
- [38:53]
G
What happened in our campaign and what you recently saw in Mondami's campaign in New York. When there's that sense of joy and engagement and involvement, then people feel like, all right, this is not just some transactional grind. This is me becoming part of a community.
- [39:23]
B
Isn't it funny? Because I don't know about you, but like, we use this word culture in different ways, but there is a, there is a culture of politics. And the idea that what was once the liberal street protests, counterculture energy, say of the 70s, lost sight of that. How did liberals even, sometimes young liberals get perhaps unfairly caricatured as no fun or hall monitors. And then Mamdani came along and reminded everyone, or you could be like this.
- [39:57]
D
And look, between Mamdani now in 2026 and Obama in 2008, those are parallel campaigns. Those are people whose campaigns actually did inspire hope as opposed to feeling like, I mean, as opposed to feeling like it's the lesser of two evils or whatever it may be. But politics needs to be hopeful. I mean, it is. You are building a culture. I to your exact point, you're building a culture and a community. And people don't want to join a community that, that, you know, is overwhelmingly negative, especially on, on this side. And so we have like, winning formulas right in front of us. I don't know how many times we need to be hit over the head with this idea that if you can have a hopeful, inclusive campaign a la Barack Obama in 2008 or Zoran Mamdani in 2026, that the formula is there. We just need people who are willing to, like, pick up that mantle and not, you know, fall into the DC trap of protecting institutions and processes and norms that those institutions are, you know, not the end. They are a means to an end. But the end has to be people. It has to be people focused. And that's what Barack Obama's campaign was, you know, 20 years ago almost. And it's what Zoramdani's campaign was just this past year.
- [41:09]
B
And real quick, here were some of the quick light moments you guys had.
- [41:16]
G
Wasn't political Bad bunnies halftime show. It was demonstrating and displaying this is what a community is.
- [41:23]
D
Are aliens real?
- [41:25]
G
They're real, but I haven't seen them.
- [41:27]
C
Is Tupac alive?
- [41:30]
G
He's alive on my playlist. If you're going to pull off a prank, it's got to be on somebody who can prank you back. And wasn't nobody going to prank me.
- [41:41]
B
Did you find him to be the same old fun Obama or now he's in his elder statesman role?
- [41:47]
D
No, look, this, this, this dude knows how to hang. And I think that is such an under, under understated value. Like if you can get a guy who can, who can just, you know, without cursing, who can just like hang on a podcast, who can go the next day to the NBA All Star game and throw down about sports and who can talk politics better than anybod. I think, like that there is, there is so much power in something like that because we've, you know, look, we're in the TikTok era. There is so much focus on authenticity and relatability. And this dude is the ultimate, like, he is the ultimate guy and, and he can, he can do everything. He doesn't just fit neatly into like one bucket where the only thing you can talk about is politics. And, and there's a lot of virtue in that. And that's why Barack Obama is Barack Obama. And it's so difficult for other people to replicate that.
- [42:37]
B
That, that's fair. And as you say, hanging on a pod where it's a little more free form can be a bit back. Like retail politics, like when you go to Iowa and some people could get along with folks and that matters in ways that, that we're seeing in, in any era. Brian, again, congrats to the interview. Thanks for coming. We will be right back. Americans continue to find ways to push back against Trump's ice tactics. In California, Michigan and New York, local officials are pushing what they call ice free zones, restricting the way agents may be able to get near government owned spaces. Some communities successfully blocking ICE attempts to convert warehouses into new additional detention facilities. There's also evidence of ICE raids that expose agents sometimes making false claims. In Chicago, a Border Patrol agent who shot an American citizen five times is under investigation. Prosecutors had charged the woman with using her car to assault agents. And yet body cam video shows an agent at the wheel swerving over into her car, then exiting and firing what appear to be five shots.
- [43:51]
A
The mental scars will always be there as a reminder of the time my own government attempted to execute me. And when they fell, they chose to vilify me. I am Renee Goode. I am Alex Preddy. I am Silverio Villega Gonzalez. I am Keith Porter. They should all be here today.
- [44:19]
B
Barack Obama making news on President's Day, as we mentioned. And here's a little bit more from that interview we hadn't aired yet about activism.
- [44:28]
G
We should take a moment to appreciate the extraordinary outpouring of organizing, community building, decency citizens saying this is not the America we believe in and we're going to fight back and we're going to push back with the truth and with cameras and with peaceful protests and, and shining a light on the sort of behavior that in the past we've seen in authoritarian countries and we've seen in dictatorships, but we have not seen in America.
- [45:12]
B
A practical call to do what you can, when you can, how you can, peacefully and lawfully by a former president on this holiday. We close with that tonight.