← The Beat with Ari Melber
The Beat with Ari Melber
New Heat on Trump AG Pick
00:42:19
Ty Cobb, who served as a White House lawyer during President Trump’s first term, joins MS NOW’s Ari Melber on "The Beat" for a wide-ranging discussion on the Trump administration and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
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- [00:00]
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- [01:00]
Ari Melber
Welcome to the Beat. I'm Ari Melber. We are tracking a lot of stories tonight. There's been a lot this week and we have some special guests moments away. Be joined by Ty Cobb, a former White House lawyer under Donald Trump, turned critic and advocate for the rule of law. We're looking forward to having Ty here tonight. We all know what's going on as we end the week. If you follow news and politics, the system has been clearly flashing red as we have a president lying to the country about an election he lost on the one hand, kind of an old tired storyline we've all lived through. And yet with the midterms coming, not one people can just ignore completely. Trump is leaning on his Justice Department to continue these revenge cases to try to bury all kinds of critics, independent reporters and others under harassing investigations, subpoenas like we saw new to the New York Times, and outright efforts to jail critics. Then there's the Epstein scandal today. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch, who of course is under actual pressure because he still needs Senate votes to turn into the permanent Attorney General. He is of course up for that vote anytime. He just had the hearing this week. Well, he's facing heat from Epstein survivors. Remember, up until now, this is an administration that has obviously mishandled the Epstein case in all sorts of ways. Even Trump allies, MAGA podcasters, a lot of different people have said that and observed that. But but it wasn't until Blanche actually needed to get the votes for this job he wants that he's now decided to meet with some of those survivors that's after one Republican senator said they would at least delay, if not spike the confirmation if he didn't do it. Now, the people in this meeting are characterizing Blanche, in this basically session that we know he was dragged to as acting dismissively. They thought the meeting overall was in a sense demoralizing. One accuser speaking on the record, Annie Farmer saying, quote, after meeting with Blanche, I feel even more confident in urging senators to vote against his confirmation. And again, we are just quoting what some of these people have said on the record. She added that she found him abrasive, condescending and intentionally non committal to survivors. Another survivor telling Ms. Now this
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Juvenile
it
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Alicia Menendez
was demoralizing, to say the very least. He completely talked around questions. He didn't give transparent answers. He didn't give us any promises as far as following up on investigative leads. He had no real answers for the Ghislaine Maxwell transfer and no real explanation for the improper redactions.
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Ari Melber
Now think about that. If there was anyone that you might want to use this meeting to address, it would be these survivors who everyone agrees the facts show have been harmed by some of those redaction mistakes. And of course, the softball sort of special treatment for Maxwell, who's an actual co conspirator of Epstein, the only person currently in a federal prison related to the entire Epstein case and sex trafficking scandal. Of course, she got better treatment under Todd Blanche. So if he had a good reason or good explanation or something to offer them, this would have been the time. According to these survivors, he failed to do that. All of this following the confirmation hearings, where Blanche, who comes out of a background of being Trump's personal former criminal lawyer, had to kind of clean up his history, including the obvious conflict of interest that he's too close to the president to be an independent leader of the doj if he still thinks of himself as the lawyer, the personal representative of the president. And so one of the things that his job was, at least if he was trying to make that case, make it easier for him to get confirmed, was to try to put some distance, some air, as they say, some daylight between his recent job being Donald Trump's criminal defense lawyer, when Trump was the first former president to ever need a lawyer to keep him out of prison, by the way, and what his job is now and even by the lower standards of this era, when he made a kind of a slip, you can decide for yourself if you think it was one of these Freudian slips that was telling or just kind of a flub because he was Testifying for a while. But what he said certainly added to the questions and heat on him for just being the President's lawyer, fixer or hatchet man. Senators also putting Blanche on defense over the now frozen plan to try to give your taxpayer money to MAGA allied convicts, the claimed IRS immunity for Trump and possibly his family, which also may not be legal, and other important issues. Take a look.
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Ty Cobb
Are you and President Trump friends?
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Todd Blanche
I'm his lawyer. Was his lawyer.
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Ty Cobb
Is the Department of Justice that you
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Todd Blanche
are running independent from the White House? The Department of Justice, like every single department in the executive, is part of the executive.
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Ty Cobb
You have said that the weaponization fund is a moot issue. Is that your position?
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Todd Blanche
Yes, it is a moot issue. I suppose if President Trump's counsel sought to enforce it, they potentially could, including the weaponization fund. Well, they could try to enforce the contract.
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Ari Melber
Do you personally believe that someone who
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Jason Johnson
forcibly entered the US Capitol, assaulted law
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Ari Melber
enforcement should be rewarded with taxpayer money? Yes or no?
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Todd Blanche
I can't answer it. Yes or no?
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Ari Melber
Can't answer. Yes or no. A lot of senators, a lot of experts, certainly people who are supportive of police, would say, yeah, answer it.
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Alicia Menendez
No.
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Ari Melber
Duh. Blanche was also asked about these new subpoenas fresh this week, sent to New York Times journalists. Trump has also threatened now to go back after the broadcast licenses for ABC and NBC. This is over the network's decision, which of course, in a free society like ours, is their independent press decision over whether or not to give him airtime. And this wasn't exactly an election night speech or a war address. This was a political presentation he wanted to make. And he's mad that they didn't deem it newsworthy enough to bump other programming. So he is retaliating with these threats. Blanche's nomination does hang in the balance. Republican Senator Cornyn reportedly on the fence. A defection could derail the nomination out of the committee, which is now down to a one vote margin. So when you think about what it takes to be a prosecutor at doj, how this Attorney General nominee is viewed inside that department, as well as the interplay with the Trump White House with the rule of law under threat, well, we think one of the best experts in the country is the one we actually have on deck for you right here. Joining me is Ty Cobb, former White House attorney during Trump's first administration. He's become a prominent Trump critic and advocate for the rule of law. Welcome back, Ty. I enjoy our chance. Sometimes at the end of the week with a little more time to go into these things. I haven't heard from you yet on what we saw in that nomination hearing and how you view now with this new testimony, Blanche's prospects and qualifications to be AG for good.
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Ty Cobb
I think it's clear. You know, Blanche has said testified yesterday he is Trump's lawyer, tried to correct himself, but that's his mentality. You know, keep in mind that he just gave a press conference just a couple of weeks ago where what he said to the President was, I love you, sir. You know, his fealty is totally devoted to the President and not sadly to his oath of office, which requires him to pledge to preserve and protect the Constitution, which is, you know, the time honored approach of people who have been honored and selected for the position which he will now sadly fill if confirmed.
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Ari Melber
Yeah, we think about that. What has been a decline in the integrity and frankly sometimes just the professional quality of appointees for Donald Trump in the second term. Bill Barr was controversial for certain reasons, but I want to just show a comparison of him to blanch on some of these issues. Take a look. I repeatedly told the President in no
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Todd Blanche
uncertain terms that I did not see evidence of fraud.
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Ari Melber
I made it clear I did not
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Todd Blanche
agree with the idea of saying the election was stolen and putting out this stuff, which I told the President was bull. Today a grand jury sitting in the Eastern District of North Carolina returned an indictment against James Comey on two counts. I love working for President Trump. I love you, sir.
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Ari Melber
Do you see a contrast or a decline here?
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Ty Cobb
Oh, extraordinary. Bill Barr, for whatever quarrels people have about some of the decisions he made, he made him on a legal basis and he was a good counselor to the President, trying to explain to the President where the guardrails were, what the evidence was, what the appropriate response to things were. There are no people in the White House, this White House, who take that role road. The reality is they know, as Jay Clayton proved yesterday, that if they say anything that's contrary to the narratives, the false narratives that the President is so attached to that they'll be fired as, as, as the chief lawyer at the IRS was in essence today because they didn't like the way that he handled that he objected to certain measures that the President's want, the president and the White House wanted to do with regard to tax audits likely of the its enemies.
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Ari Melber
Yeah. And you know, you look at some of the back and forth, I wonder what you as a DOJ veteran thought of Blanche trying to sort of drape himself in the credibility of these other people, some of whom are residing in protest or having their careers railroaded over what are, again, not a left or right, not a red blue thing, but baseless cases, cases floundering, the grand jury, cases tossed by independent judges and Republican appointees. That's context for this exchange. Take a look with White House
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MSNow Announcer
when
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Ari Melber
for the first time in history, there's inquiry and to fraud upon the court committed by the Department of Justice. The silence from the department in response to that is deafening. Mr. Blanche, this seems to be the most troubled Department of Justice in history.
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Todd Blanche
The Department of Justice works hard. The prosecutors work hard every day. And I appreciate the handpicked words that you have behind you right now, but that's not reflective of the hundreds, indictments and informations that have been filed to do the work that I talked about earlier today,
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Ari Melber
Ty.
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Ty Cobb
So the work that they do is carefully curated by Blanche and his colleagues. They're not allowed to go out and pursue some of the obvious corruption that is rampant in this administration. The president, as we know, made 22,000 stock trades, and it amounts between 750 million and $1.6 billion in the past year. You know, President Obama, by comparison, made zero and Biden made 13. You know, this is the level of corruption that we're faced with at this stage of the game is shocking. And Blanche was a participant in what is probably the most corrupt act in the history of the Justice Department by a Justice Department official when he tried to facilitate the transfer of $1.8 billion for Trump's own purposes. And, and on his own, after that agreement had been reached on his own, he added a provision for no consideration immunizing the Trump, the Trump family, and the president from IRS scrutiny in perpetuity. You know, he's. He is. He is corrupt. He's unqualified. Very, very telling that in the same week that he shows up for his nomination here in Florida, referred him to the New York bar for disciplinary action because of the fraud that he committed on the court in connection with the slush fund case.
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Ari Melber
Yeah, it's bonkers. It's brazen. It's preposterous. People say, where's the line on the bottom? Well, they found it on that because you had Republican senators publicly, which means politically, they probably already tried it privately, to tell the White House this is a no go. I did want to ask you, Ty, because you're a skilled lawyer, and I think people can tell. The way you present yourself and your ideas is very crisp, very clear. Did you notice? And do you think Blanche was effective at lawyering? So much of the day. In other words, he had arguably a poor hand, but he played it sometimes effectively by parsing and making things seem like this was just another Washington back and forth when, for the reasons you just reminded everyone there's nothing normal about any of this.
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Ty Cobb
No, I do. And I think, sadly, we've seen the cowardly Republican senators, you know, supportive of him and, you know, feeding him softballs and doing whataboutism, you know, that functionally comparing, as far as I was concerned, jaywalkers with Jeffrey Dahmer, you know, Trump is Trump. Trump's level of corruption and the misconduct that Blanche is engaged in in terms of these revenge prosecutions, extorting a favorable statement out of Ghislaine Maxwell in exchange for treatment at a facility to which she's not qualified to be. And, and, and the slush fund, you know, those are only, those are only tip of the iceberg. You know, he has hollowed out 20% of the most experienced, talented people at the Justice Department. You know, the Justice Department, national security efforts, counterterrorism efforts, civil rights efforts, you know, major corruption efforts, you know, particularly public corruption. You know, they've been hollowed out. Lawyers have been reassigned to immigration cases. You know, a substantial portion of the lawyers that used to try to keep us safe in the security world and in the major fraud world, they are now doing only immigration work because that's the priority of this administration. It is the most politicized Justice Department in our history, and it will take a generation or maybe more, you know, to correct that for the benefit of the people that they're intended to serve.
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Ari Melber
Yeah, I think that's fair. And we've discussed this. There are other countries that have had these problems, this level of corruption and cynicism, and it is hard to go back because people look at it and say, well, I guess this is where we live now, or they want to get away with it, too. Or why would you want to even work there? Look what it's become. Which may not be the happiest Friday message, but it's where we're at. Ty's agreed to stick around. I want to show JD Vance running into a buzzsaw on Joe Rogan and some other important stuff. So we'll be back with you in just 90 seconds.
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Ari Melber
We're back with White House Legal Veteran Ty COBB. Here is J.D. vance on Joe Rogan, which I wanted to play, and some of the other Todd Blanche reactions to these Epstein issues. If people want to say we mishandled the Epstein release, guilty, we did mishandle.
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Todd Blanche
That doesn't excuse the mistakes of which I take responsibility. But it does mean that we tried to fix them. We complied with the act.
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Ari Melber
It takes a little time to review the stuff, to find the stuff, to redact things where you have victims.
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Todd Blanche
Whenever we learned that any victim's name had been improperly not redacted, we immediately took the document down and fixed it.
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Ty Cobb
Some of the names that redacted weren't victims.
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Ari Melber
Ty, your view on this, the substance and sort of the, hey, the answer they seem to have landed on is, hey, my bad, we'll keep it moving,
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Ty Cobb
but they won't keep it moving. And actually, the most important point was the point that Joe Rogan made at the end when he said some names, some names that, you know, were redacted weren't victims. In fact, that's true. We know, you know, from multiple, multiple senators and congressmen that the evidence with regard to Trump and, you know, a seriously underage girl who alleged that he raped her was, was redacted. We know that multiple references to the President have been redacted. The President is one of the most talked about people, though, in the. The files that have been made available. And the fact that they have done this in a way solely to shield him is palpably obvious to all Americans, even the maga, people who are willing to forgive him many other things, but have been very concerned about this, understand that they're not being treated fairly, that they're being lied to, and that this Justice Department, notwithstanding the fact that Congress almost unanimously, almost unanimously passed the Epstein Disclosure act, that this Justice Department has not complied, they have no intent to comply, and we will not see these documents absent a court order.
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Ari Melber
And finally, we didn't give much coverage to what was largely not a new or newsworthy presentation by the President last night. But given that you've worked in his White House, what do you think is the right way to respond or contextualize that, if at all?
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Ty Cobb
I think what's important is to understand that the President losing the 2020 election was the most grievous insult and injury that he ever suffered. And psychologically, it burns. His malignant narcissism cannot abide that insult. And he has devoted himself to trying to rewrite history, pardon the January 6th protesters and people who assaulted others, violently destroying, trying to destroy Capitol and whom the president basically was willing to let hang. Mike Pence. They're all pardoned. Now, the slush fund that has been slowed down but is by no means dead, no matter what Blanche says was intended to help them. Not to help the poor police officers like Danny Hodges, who just got injured severely and tortured by that crowd, but no, it's to help the people who actually did the torturing and the destruction.
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Juvenile
So
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Ty Cobb
I think what we saw last night when he talked about these elections, it was fascinating because not a single thing he said of consequence was true. He claims that the deep state hid stuff from him. The deep state included his head of the CIA, his odni, John Ratcliffe, who is currently the head of the CIA, who you didn't see prominently featured anywhere in statements today or yesterday with regard to support for the president on these things. And the documents that they release clearly lay bare the fact that the president simply lied to America last night. The Chinese atrocities that he referred to are clearly referenced in the documents as aspirational under consideration, low level players, and that it never happened. The National Intelligence Report that followed the 2020 election came out in March of 2021, made it plain that not a single foreign actor had taken any consequen and that not a single vote had been affected. So what the president said last night was simply false. And some of the documents that he released oddly portray him in a very negative way because they demonstrate clearly that Russia interfered in the 2020 election to the detriment of Biden in order to support the president and with very clear documents showing that that was Russia's intent. So I think what we saw last night with the President was a moment that, you know, even Fox News has been unable to cheerlead on many people today. You know, on Fox and Friends today, for example, their three hour leadoff show in the morning, there was not a single mention of the president's speech. That should tell everybody how well it went over. And perhaps it's a moment like January 7th when the country recognized that the emperor has no clothes. Let's hope that people wake up because of what happened last night.
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Ari Melber
Yeah. For those who saw it, and as you say, even his allies, looking and going well, can't defend it, would rather pretend it's not there, which is a real indictment of a sitting president. We covered the Epstein matters where, of course, Donald Trump has denied wrongdoing, has not been, of course, indicted for anything related to that. We say in fairness, and on January 6th, he was indicted, but everyone remembers he legally is presumed innocent because we didn't get the trial. But his choice to pardon the violence has shown the country, as you've, as you've pointed out, exactly where he stood being for violence and against police. Ty Cobb, thank you very much. I wish you a good weekend. We got a lot more on the show. I'll tell folks. There's great to have you. Ty maga, Civil war, remember the burning hats. Some of that is back. Tucker and the new right wing culture war. We will be hitting that and mom Donnie finding a new way to route around not only an aging democratic system in D.C. but getting the his licks in on Donald Trump. All of that coming up. Elections often boil down to the economy. And here is the economic report card for Trump growing pessimism. 61% of Americans say they see things getting worse. A whopping two thirds say groceries are still not affordable, something that was the core of the 2024 campaign debates. It's up actually 20% since this war that Trump started. 15% of Americans say they still strongly support Trump. That's half of what it was after Trump's prior low point after January 6th. So you just think about how he's struggling to even hold the kind of red hot base he once had. Now Trump, Trump made this big effort to basically push his pet priorities, erase parts of American history. And that's something that in this new podcast, Barack Obama is addressing.
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Juvenile
It's so interesting to see today this contest over what is the dominant narrative of America. And, and you have an administration that is trying to change the plaques at national monuments. But it does speak to the power of stories.
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Ari Melber
We have a republic if we can keep it.
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Juvenile
If we can keep it,
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Ari Melber
the narrative, the story, the propaganda, with efforts by Donald Trump, the famous reality show PR guy, that get more and more extreme and bizarre as people are tired of the shtick. I showed you the polling Trump's defense secretary basically ridiculed for his testosterone announcement.
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Ty Cobb
I'm authorizing a new screening program for
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Ari Melber
testosterone deficiency for our service members, ensuring you have the right testosterone levels to
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Todd Blanche
operate at your absolute best.
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Ari Melber
It's self parody. It's like a South Parker Simpsons episode. But of course, we're at war. A war that Donald Trump's having trouble ending. So this being the content priorities of the Pentagon is, well, a problem to many Americans. As for this whole pee obsession, it goes all the way back to a big part of the manosphere that Steve Bannon thought they could successfully kind of recruit into Republican politics. If you really want to go Back a ways. You have Tucker Carlson's film the End of Men. That is the real video of the thing, not an attack ad or satire of the thing. And yet the people sharing that thing's testosterone worldview are running well. Your Pentagon and a open ended failed war in Iran. I have Juanita and Jason here as our special political guests. When we come back,
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Juanita Tolliver
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- [27:34]
Alicia Menendez
Ever since I was young, I've watched people working hard, chasing opportunity, making sacrifices, doing everything they can to build a better life. And now we're shining a light on what matters most. Our economy, our national identity, our democracy, our future. The stakes have never been higher. It's all on the line.
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MSNow Announcer
On the line with Alicia Menendez, weekdays at 12pm Eastern on MSNOW.
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Ari Melber
We're back with Lyndia Tolliver, MSNow analyst, host of the archival podcast, and Morgan State politics professor Jason Johnson. Welcome to both of you. Juanita, we checked. There was no end of men. Men are still here. But. But I wanted to get your view on the. The baroque silliness of it is matched by an open ended war that Trump promised would be done by now and gas prices up and the economic backlash to the Republicans going into the midterms that I mentioned.
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Juanita Tolliver
So your thoughts like Ari, all I could think about as I saw that image of that man sunning his genitalia was like, oh, so Republicans do support hormone therapy. Are they going to bring back all the trans soldiers that Donald Trump unceremoniously dismissed from the armed forces? I just want to be clear because having testosterone injections is hormone therapy. It Is gender affirming care. It just seems like they only want to do that for the manliest of men in their definition, the men who they're going to likely deploy in an unending war that they have started unnecessarily that has prompted economic fallout, which is prompting Republican voters to turn away from them. I want to go to the economic polling, though, Ari, because what it shows is that when the rent is too high, when gas prices are too high, when health care costs are too high, when the cost of the shoes for your kids is too high, and you're sitting at your table on the first of the month looking at those increased prices, there is no way to avoid that reality. And people know exactly who to blame. Like, the first of the month is something that comes with a sinking feeling. And every time I say that phrase, I think of bone bugs in harmony. I got. I don't know if y' all are like me, but the first of the month does come with a sinking feeling of the reality of your bank balance compared to all of the expenses that you have to try to cover. Well, I'll let you show.
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Ari Melber
I'll let you finish. Juanita.
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Juanita Tolliver
Voters are negative.
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Ari Melber
Yeah, I mean, bone thugs. I know, I know. Professor Johnson appreciates that. I believe that's a shout out Ohio. And the first also makes me think of hov, who's been celebrating this past weekend. No two days are alike, except the 1st and 15th, pretty much. And there's a lot of music that talks of. Talks about the struggle of getting by. And you're saying, Juanita, people know why it's harder to get by right now. They know why gas is up.
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Juanita Tolliver
And Republican voters aren't impervious to that, Ari. And that's why you see that dramatic decline in Trump support among Republican voters. They feel it the same way as anybody else because the math isn't mathing for them in their day to day lives. And no message, no amount of racism, no amount of transphobia or testosterone shots is going to deflect from that reality.
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Ari Melber
Jason.
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Jason Johnson
Ari, when I heard that Pete Hegseth was pushing hormone therapy or testosterone, it was Curtis Mayfield's push. A man is Jay Z talking about dope boys. One thing we know about these Republicans is that they love the grift. And so many of them, from Dr. Oz to RFK Jr. To Alex Jones, they're supplement pushers. That's what they're gonna do. We're gonna find out that after this testing is implemented that there's gonna be some wealthy maga donor who has a supplement company that's going to get some huge contract. Because what they're saying right now is, well, it may not be mandatory for these soldier do this. They will eventually try to put pressure on them to do it. And not only does it make no sense, look, the reason that we're losing to Iran right now is not because Basmati's rice is healthier than Uncle Ben's. Right. It's not genetics. It's called technology strategy in geography. And that is what's missing right now. The intelligence that we need to run these kinds of agencies, not some sort of MAGA incel nonsense. And look, the voters realize it. That's why they're unhappy. That's why Trump is giving these kinds of speech every single distraction you can other than the fact that that people are unhappy with the incompetence of this administration.
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Ari Melber
Yeah. And then broadening even beyond sort of the hijinks of the administration. Jason, there's something larger happening. There is the current economic crisis, affordability. But there is a clear deeper distrust and revolution against a lot of the elites, elites in Washington, people clinging to power. We've seen elites in New York and Wall street, the AI tech thing coming out of Silicon Valley. People can see it. People don't think AI and the plans are working for them or the labor protections are there. Interesting, because this kind of cuts multiple directions. But this chart, when you look at MAGA and a label that people would say actually makes them on a glance be more interested in supporting a candidate. MAGA's down to 27 below Trump. Trump is about 29, which gives him leverage in primaries, we've seen. But the label democratic socialist now, Jason, beats those slightly. This is a CNBC poll. That's our sister business network, Business News. What do you think about what might be a fracturing but also reflects a kind of a populist revolt against the economic business as usual, even beyond inflation.
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Jason Johnson
All right, this is the political scientist of me. I've been saying this for a long time. Democratic socialism in 2026 is what we used to call good governance in the 1960s. It's just the idea that cities and urban areas should be affordable, that people should be able to walk to get to the grocery store, that public transportation is cheaper than when you used to have to live out on farms. And so what people have been seeing is democratic socialism is being branded by Mamdani. It's being branded by people who have helped to lower costs and lower crime. And it's more branding than actually politically changing because I point out all the time that what Brandon Scott has accomplished in Baltimore is almost as impressive. It's just Baltimore is not as interesting to most people in the public as in New York City. If you look like a government official who is accomplishing things, lowering costs, listening to people going to concerts, championship teams win, watching the World cup of people who are in prison, people will take, they will accept whatever you want to call your policy if it looks like their lives are being improved. And that's what we're seeing now. The challenge is going to be if you get a certain number of Democratic socialists in Congress this fall, are they able to push legislation or are they able to just stop things? But right now, it looks like the best deal in town because the Democratic branding is garbage, the Republicans are incompetent, and MAGA is afraid of their own tax sales.
- [34:20]
Juanita Tolliver
Juanita, I think it's also important to highlight what Jason mentioned about these mayors delivering to the public. They are, as en Vogue says, giving people something they can feel in real time. There is no lag. Yes, your potholes will be filled. Yes, we're templating a free child care program so parents can go out for an evening. Yes, we're offering free child care for city workers. That is something that has immediate impact. That is also the beauty of being a mayor. But I think that's something that is going to have to be part of the vision that Democrats present in this midterm election cycle, because it can't just be bad, bad, bad over there. What is your vision of possibility that will impact people's lives? And sure, being a stopgap against Donald Trump and the Trump administration is a big point, but what are you giving people that they can potentially fill with Democratic control?
- [35:16]
Ari Melber
All makes sense. Juanita, do you have a favorite Bone Thugs in Harmony song?
- [35:20]
Juanita Tolliver
I already said it. First of the month. Like growing up in Memphis, Tennessee, that
- [35:24]
Ari Melber
was on repeat because Crossroads, Jason, Crossroads played a lot. And then there was the Biggie collab Bone and Biggie.
- [35:33]
Jason Johnson
Yeah, yeah. Every graduation, someone is playing Crossroads. Like, that's my song.
- [35:40]
Juanita Tolliver
Oh, it makes me so sad, though. It makes me sad.
- [35:44]
Ari Melber
Well, it's like, it's like it's so hard to say Goodbye by Boys to Men. It's just once you hear it, you're like, I'll give you a fun fact, since it's Friday. That was the last song we played at my bar mitzvah at the dance. We ended on Boys to Men. It's so hard to say goodbye there. I shared something because we got to share. You know, in addition to all of our news talk, Juanita and Jason Juanita brought the music to the table tonight. So credit to you for starting that. Have a great weekend to both of you. We're in a break. When we come back, Democrats are actually more bullish on some of these Senate races with the heat we've been covering this week on Susan Collins. I have an update on that actually. Next, Turning to the mad dash out of Maine. There are more candidates, Democrats trying to take up what is a political void. And politics doesn't like a void. The now absent position of former Democratic nominee Graham Platner. They have less than three weeks to pull off what typically takes campaigns months or more. The Democratic nominee will then face off against the incumbent who is so vulnerable that Maine has become such a big issue. I mentioned in reporting this week that while we've talked a lot, understandably, about Platner's scandals, the whole reason that there's more coverage of Maine than almost any other Senate race case in the country is that Collins is vulnerable. And of course, you had last night's debate which repeatedly presented the fact that she is a Trump enabler. That's what the Democratic candidates, Senate candidates, I should say, hammered on because of the record. And it's also something that we showed on the facts. You can decide whether you want your vote in Maine to be a vote for Trump or not. But our special report documented her record record. They needed Collins vote to get to 50. And she'd made a big show of sharing her concerns, raising Roe and these issues in her meeting with him, which drove headlines about what she would do in the end after everything I just showed you, everything she told Maine voters for years. She then came out casting the 50th vote for justice Kavanaugh, breaking the thrust of her promise, which she memorably tried to explain, casting this key anti abortion vote, this pro life vote, this anti Roe vote. She tried to explain it in a long and winding floor speech. The day of that vote,
- [38:15]
Alicia Menendez
King pledged to nominate only judges who would overturn Roe. There has also been considerable focus on the future of abortion rights based on the concern that Judge Kavanaugh would seek to overturn Roe v. Wade. Protecting this right is important to me, the judge asserted to me a long established precedent. It's not something to be trimmed, narrowed, discarded or overlooked. Mr. President, I will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh.
- [38:54]
Ty Cobb
The ayes are 50, the nays are 48.
- [39:01]
Ari Melber
That's how she actually governed, leading, of course, to the end of Roe v. Wade. Susan Collins has a record that is over 90% voting for Trump with Trump in this current term, which is what's made her vote so vulnerable in the blue state of Maine. We will be right back. There is a lot going on. We might need this even more than usual because we have a special edition of fallback. And wait till you see this pairing. MSNow analyst and veteran fallback expert Alex Wagner. She's a Webby award winner, known for newsmaking, interviews and her political reporting in the field. She hosts the Runaway country podcast. She also is editor in chief of the celebrated music magazine the Fader, which is relevant today because making his fallback debut along with Alex's Juvenile, the New Orleans rapper has 12 albums, his latest Boiling Pop, and hits that have transcended what was once rap's regional pockets to become national favorites we all know and love. He was recognized recently as a hip hop pioneer by his hometown shout out to that and made even a brief foray into the Democratic primaries with his memorable call to back that vote up.
- [40:13]
Juvenile
Cash Money Records taking over for the nine nine in the 2000s.
- [40:17]
Ari Melber
Tom Starr and the popular musician Juvenile at a get out the vote rally.
- [40:28]
Juvenile
All this Le Bounce stuff, you see all these people out here falling behind trying to do. They could do it, but they can't do it like I did it because I'm the originator.
- [40:35]
Ari Melber
Respect. Great to have you in for the first time. Great to have you together.
- [40:38]
Juvenile
Thank y' all for having you.
- [40:39]
Alicia Menendez
I'm thrilled. I'm always thrilled that I'm particularly.
- [40:42]
Ari Melber
This is thrilling. And so we're gonna get to everything, including back that vote. But, Alex, you're the hometown. Yes, you're the hometown. What's on your fallback list?
- [40:52]
Alicia Menendez
On my fallback list is the news made by the head of the center for Medicaid, Dr. Mehmet Oz, on Eric Trump's podcast, wherein Dr. Oz explained that President Trump believes that soda kills cancer cells in the body.
- [41:09]
Juvenile
Really?
- [41:10]
Alicia Menendez
Yes. This is not science. Just in case anybody's wondering, much like you don't want to drink bleach or ivermectin if you have Covid, you do not want drink Fanta if you think you have cancer, but apparently because if you pour soda out on the ground, it will kill the grass. President Trump is under the impression that soda will also kill cancer cells in the body. This is. I just. This is part of a portfolio of poor eating choices that the president's making. You know, he loves a Big Mac. He loves McDonald's I will also, like, eat a chicken nugget from time to time. No disrespect, right? But he eats a lot of it, sir. He eats a lot of it. And according to Dr. Oz, it is because he believes that fast food is cleaner, safer, because it is ultra processed and there is high quality control. I just need to remind our audience of the E. Coli scare of McDonald's 2024, the salmonella outbreak, I believe it was at Taco Bell in 2023, the norovirus outbreak at Chipotle. It's not a winner to suggest that you're always going to be safe eating fast food.
- [42:12]
Ari Melber
And. And the follow up question then becomes, alex, are we in a movie?
- [42:17]
Alicia Menendez
I mean, that would explain a lot of this because it's like you couldn't write it unless maybe you are.
- [42:21]
Ari Melber
Yeah. Wild.
- [42:22]
Alicia Menendez
I would also. Can I just say one thing? It's hard to take Trump's word on food safety when his FDA is literally dismantling food inspections.
- [42:31]
Ari Melber
And you were out on the campaign trail. Tell us about Back the Vote up. Because Tom Steyer, people know, is now a big figure in California politics. Just tell us about all of that.
- [42:42]
Juvenile
You know, the whole thing with that was, you know, at a time we was trying to get people to go out there, get out there and vote. And, you know, you know, the whole thing with the coronavirus and all of that was my second thing. But I wanted to get out there and tell people to go out there and vote because, you know, everybody have a word to say, have something to say if they take their. If they use their rights. The other part was I wanted to do it in an entertaining way. So what better way to do it than back then? Back that. Vote up.
- [43:14]
Alicia Menendez
Did you come up with that?
- [43:15]
Juvenile
I didn't come up with it.
- [43:16]
Alicia Menendez
Who came up with that?
- [43:17]
Juvenile
I can't even remember who came up with the whole idea of it, but they knew I was the perfect person for it and, you know, I had to be with it to do it.
- [43:25]
Alicia Menendez
Yeah, yeah. When you were like back then, vote up.
- [43:28]
Ari Melber
Okay.
- [43:29]
Juvenile
Yeah.
- [43:29]
Alicia Menendez
Do you feel like, I mean, hip hop's also always been political. There's always been a social, racial, cultural element to all of it. Do you feel like, I mean, what do you feel about right now in terms of politics and also the intersection of politics and hip hop? Do you feel like, you know, we have elections coming up this year, there's gonna be elections in 2028. Do you feel like people. Do you feel like hip hop fans are following politics, that this is like.
- [43:52]
Juvenile
We are. We are. I mean, my guy Luke Skywalker is running for office. I don't know if he ran yet, but I hear Luke Skywalker is running for office.
- [43:59]
Alicia Menendez
Okay, who would you like to work with that you haven't worked with yet?
- [44:03]
Juvenile
Oh, man. One we, like, make music with is. It has to be. It has to be Drake. Kendrick.
- [44:14]
Ari Melber
Drake got his start with Help from the south and Birdman. I mean, you guys are all connected. You're one call away from Drake. If you want to say, hey, put
- [44:22]
Alicia Menendez
me on the Iceman, I can connect you.
- [44:24]
Ari Melber
Put me on the ice. We've had Birdman on the show. Put me on the Iceman remix.
- [44:26]
Juvenile
I saw him breaking the ice up over there.
- [44:28]
Ari Melber
Yeah.
- [44:30]
Juvenile
I hope I could have caught a flight over there and got them. 50,000, right? Yeah, man. Y' all put the word out for me. Tell Drake juvie wants to do a song with him.
- [44:38]
Ari Melber
All right, well, we'll put this not only on tv.
- [44:41]
Juvenile
Let's do that.
- [44:41]
Ari Melber
We'll put it on the gram.
- [44:42]
Juvenile
Hey, I appreciate y'.
- [44:43]
Todd Blanche
All.
- [44:43]
Ari Melber
Great to see you. Thanks for coming in.
- [44:45]
Juvenile
Thank you.
- [44:45]
Ari Melber
Alex Wagner showing the musical chops people forget.
- [44:48]
Alicia Menendez
People do.
- [44:52]
Ari Melber
What a nice way to end the week. As we look out at Washington, what we can learn back that vote up. Stay involved. A fitting message there. Our thanks again to juvenile and Alex Wagner, our colleague. That does it for us. The weeknight is up next.
- [45:06]
MSNow Announcer
Mississippi now presents the chart topping original podcast, the Best People with Nicole Wallace. This former CNN White House correspondent and anchor Jim Acosta.
- [45:16]
Ty Cobb
I think people have to make it their jobs to vote this fall. I believe the best turnout we've ever had in this country when it comes to a midterm, it's right around 50%.
- [45:24]
Ari Melber
That's terrible.
- [45:26]
MSNow Announcer
The Best People with Nicole Wallace. Listen now. For early access ad free listening and bonus content, subscribe to Ms. Now premium on Apple podcasts.