← The Beat with Ari Melber
The Beat with Ari Melber
"No Kings" Protests Fill Streets in All 50 States
00:41:28
MS NOW's Ayman Mohyeldin reports on the impact of the massive "No Kings" protests. The New York Times' Molly Jong-Fast and Leah Greenberg, co-executive director of "Indivisible" join.
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Ayman Mohidin
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Ayman Mohidin
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- [01:02]
Ayman Mohidin
Welcome to youo at Home to the Beat. I'm Ayman Mohidin in for Ari Melbourne this hour and we begin tonight with the impact of the massive no Kings protest that took place all across the country this weekend. You can see here just some of the events that organizers reported. Thousands of protesters took to the streets across all 50 states. Americans turned out in huge numbers yet again to protest against Donald Trump and his policies. And the discontent is is now showing up in the data. New polling from the University of Massachusetts shows that Trump has his lowest approval ratings yet only 33% approve, 62% disapprove. Conservative podcaster Megyn Kelly calling the poll numbers a quote, five alarm fire for Republicans chances in the upcoming November midterms. Now this as Trump doubles down on one of his most unpopular policies, his war of choice in Iran. Sending more ground troops to the region seems to be in the cards. The New York Times reporting, quote, the newly deployed commandos joined 2,500 Marines and another 2,500 sailors who recently arrived in the region. Altogether, there are now more than 50,000American troops stationed in the Middle east, roughly 10,000 more than usual. The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump is considering sending boots on the ground to extract uranium from Iran. Even many prominent conservative voices, including some who actually supported the war in Iraq, are now sounding off.
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Paul Rykoff
I counseled as loud as possible against doing this in the first place.
- [02:45]
Melissa Murray
As this thing goes south, we need
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Basil Smael
to know exactly who talked him into it.
- [02:49]
Melissa Murray
And what representations were made to convince the President that this was a good idea.
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Paul Rykoff
I don't share the optimism of the administration that there's going to be a peaceful, a stop to this.
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Ayman Mohidin
I don't even have to agree with you on it.
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Paul Rykoff
Just please do this.
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Ayman Mohidin
Don't nation build. I don't think there's a will for a ground conflict between America and Iran.
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Molly Jung
I know a lot of Republicans don't support that.
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Ayman Mohidin
Get the hell out of there. That's all we have tolerance for. It's all. That's all that will work. Again, just to remind you, those are Republicans and conservative media voices that you were just listening to and echoing the message from protesters carrying anti war signs demanding an immediate end to military action in the region and accountability for Trump and those who enabled him. Other rally goers, well, they were holding signs calling out to abolish ice, to fund healthcare and education, and over and over and over reminding Trump that there will be no kings here in these United States. Now, organizers estimated that There were over 8 million participants nationwide, and that would be the largest no Kings rally yet.
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There's no money for snap. SNAP is running out. There's no money, there's no more pantries, there's no more food resources.
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Ayman Mohidin
But we can fund a war.
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Basil Smael
The thing that pisses me off the
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Leah Greenberg
most every day is the people that I elected are not taking a stand.
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Basil Smael
They're not being outraged with us. They're not holding the line. They're not doing their job to save democracy.
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Ayman Mohidin
The reason that you see so many people out on the streets today is because when we are bombing Iran, when Israel is bombing Lebanon, they understand that that comes from the same place as ice, arresting and killing people in the streets.
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Paul Rykoff
I've been a MAGA supporter from the very beginning. You know, I believed in him.
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Ayman Mohidin
I thought he would end wars like he said in his campaign.
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Paul Rykoff
He said he wouldn't start wars.
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Ayman Mohidin
Tate, bring peace to the Middle East. Now look at us. We're further from peace and closer to
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Paul Rykoff
catastrophe than ever before. I feel so betrayed.
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Ayman Mohidin
I feel so betrayed. And even some of Trump's own voters, as you heard that gentleman there saying, are taking to the streets, talking about his catastrophic tenure. Trump didn't acknowledge the protests at all, even though they compromised one of the largest single day demonstrations in American history. Instead, as millions accused Trump of being out of touch, he boasted about the fancy columns on his new $400 million White House ballroom watch.
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Paul Rykoff
I think it'll be the finest ballroom
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Ayman Mohidin
of its kind anywhere in the world.
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Paul Rykoff
This is a view of the columns as they are going to be made. They're going to be hand carved and they're beautiful, top of the line. They'll be Corinthian, which is considered the best, most beautiful by far.
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Ayman Mohidin
Joining me now is Molly Jung, fast, New York Times opinion writer and host of the Fast Politics podcast, and Leah Greenberg, co executive director of Indivisible, organizers of those massive no king protests. Leah, I'd love to start with you and kind of get your thoughts. We're now a day out after those massive protests across the country. Give me your sense of what your biggest takeaway was to the turnout on Saturday and your general reactions to it.
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Leah Greenberg
Well, what we saw on Saturday was a historic outpouring of anger across the country. I think it is powerful and incredible that we see these photos and these videos from the big city protests where you get hundreds of thousands of people out. But what I think might, might not always be captured by those videos is the extraordinary growth of these protests and these, this organizing in red and rural and suburban communities all over the country, which is happening at the same time. More than 60% of the folks who RSVP'd to our event this time around were coming from red R and suburban and swing state areas. And we think that is an extraordinary demonstration of the fact that opposition to Trump is really reaching across the country and across the globe. I should also note, we had protests on all seven continents.
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Ayman Mohidin
Yeah, it's a very important point, Molly, that she brings up that, you know, 60% is in red, rural and swing states. And it doesn't bode well for Trump going into the midterms and the Republicans, because as you are seeing at a time when he should be trying to consolidate support and trying to lift his party or try to at least get it across the finishing line, he's on a plane with a poster talking of our columns and ignoring the fact that 8 million people took to the streets against it.
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Basil Smael
Right. And remember, these are midterms coming up. So this is the House of Representatives. That means he's gotta win or he's gotta at least keep House seats in red states and blue states. I do think, like, you know, I think so much about my father who marched this weekend. And, you know, he was in a retirement area of California and he sent me these pictures of huge groups. And, you know, this, my father's age, he's a baby boomer. This group cut their teeth as anti war protesters during a very different war, the Vietnam War. And so they are as galvanized as ever. And there's nothing that's gonna get them more galvanized than the possibility of boots on the ground for a war that no one has explained to them why it's happening or what even success with it would look like.
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Ayman Mohidin
Leah, you brought up the fact that, you know, there were protesters in red states, and I kind of want to drill down on that a little bit. Let me play for you just a few more sound bites from states and cities that historically have been read even in recent years. Take a listen to what they said. He creeps me out that we.
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Melissa Murray
That he is our what the world sees.
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Ayman Mohidin
But I have friends in many countries and I apologize to them.
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Leah Greenberg
And they say, we know we just have to get through this, not give
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Ayman Mohidin
up and fight for our country.
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Paul Rykoff
I'm Todd Heartiness, and I'm out here because of my grandchildren. We're not gonna stay silent.
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Melissa Murray
He has to take that into accountability
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Basil Smael
and still love all of us as
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Melissa Murray
one and still make sure that he
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do the right thing for all of
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Basil Smael
us as one to build this country
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Ayman Mohidin
and to help make this country stay strong. So, Leah, when you hear those protesters, you know, in different parts of the country, in red states or red cities, if you will, do you find that there is a single animating reason or animating ideology in some of these red and rural areas to these protests against Donald Trump and his policies?
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Leah Greenberg
I think it's hard to pinpoint just one thing. I think people are responding to a broad understanding that there is this imperious, unaccountable governance by this man who's out of control, who's raiding the federal government in order to enrich himself, who's unleashing violence and terror at home and abroad, who is collectively a threat to our freedom, freedom, our safety, our well being in this country. People will talk about the Doge Cuts as an early radicalizer, about the ways that those hurt veterans. They will talk about masked secret police coming in and taking their neighbors. They will talk about why are we in an illegal, catastrophic war where we're spending money that should go to healthcare and education to bomb Iranian schoolgirls. All of those things fuse together into the sense that the government is not representing people. And that is the core sentiment at the heart of no Kings.
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Ayman Mohidin
Yeah, no Kings. Mali is a very, you know, appropriate title because in many of these issues that we're seeing, it is the abuse of power. It is a president who's going to war in Iran without the authorization from Congress. It is a president who is, in some cases supporting the arresting of American citizens without proper warrants, or going into private property without proper warrants, spending money that is not necessarily authorized for specific programs. I can go on and on and on. And so in so many ways, no Kings is a very appropriate title for these protests. Yeah, it all comes back to this abuse of power.
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Basil Smael
Right. And remember, this is all by design, right? Project 2025 in a unitary executive theory, a president with extra, you know, with powers that were beyond the presidency. A DOJ that has, you know, is essentially an arm of the Trump campaign. I mean, this was all, you know, in the plan, the Heritage foundation plan. And so what I think is. Hurts him the most in a weird way is that he sort of leans into a lot of the autocratic tropes. You know, he's got the banners, he loves strongmen, right? He's got the banners with his face on federal buildings. He wants to sign, you know, he's gonna sign currency and he wants to have his face on money. I mean, these are things we have never done in this country. And I think that when you see the protesters, like, he's sort of leaning into the worst aspects of authoritarian, you know, this sort of North Korea style stuff. And I don't think it, you know, when you have him on the plane pointing to the columns, I just think that visual is not gonna serve the Republican Party in the midterms.
- [11:46]
Ayman Mohidin
Yeah, it's a very important point. So going into the midterms, Leah, how what has happened over this weekend, 8 million strong and over the past several months of sustained protests, translate into political action among the voters who don't want Donald Trump or the Republicans to continue down this path?
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Leah Greenberg
Well, it's a great question because every. Every no Kings rally or protest, it is that that day of it is that mass show of defiance. But it is also a massive recruitment and absorption event. The people who are putting on these events, they are organizing their communities day in, day out. They are doing mutual aid, they are doing immig defense, they are doing advocacy, and they are doing electoral organizing and voter registration. And so when people show up to a protest around the country, a lot of times what they're meeting is folks in their community who will get them engaged, whether that is, you know, oka organizing a food drive, or whether that is going and knocking on doors and talking to voters. What we know is that mass protests like this have a measurable and significant effect on voter turnout in following elections. We've seen that with the Tea Party, we've seen that with the women's March. We are very much expecting that in much the same way that a massive protest in October was shortly followed by one of the most historically successful elections for Democrats in history in. In November, we are expecting that same effect to be playing out in the midterms.
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Ayman Mohidin
Yeah. And let me read this part to you, Molly. This is from the Guardian on what comes after no Kings protest. The headline was so you went to no Kings protest, now what? And in it, it writes, scholars say social change doesn't begin and end with one protest. It takes activism at the local and national level to bring about change. No Kings success, organizers say, will be by whether attendees have signed up to organize in their communities and follow through on other actions, like know your rights trainings and mutual aid and even voter registration drives and what have you. And we heard there from Leah some of the other actions. How did Democrats either keep that momentum going, capitalize on it going into the midterms, or continue to. To advocate for it?
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Basil Smael
Right. I mean, it's a. What you're talking about is absolutely right. And I just want to add this idea of the 3.5 rule, which is this theory thought up some Harvard Kennedy School scholars who talk about that. They studied 300 cases between 1900 and 2006, and they found that nonviolence resistance is twice as likely to succeed as violent conflict. And Once you have 3.5% of the population engaged in nonviolent peaceful protest, you will absolutely have change. And so I do think that's. We're not quite at those numbers yet, but clearly the trajectory is going in one direction, and there's a lot to support that. Look, Democrats have to run in every area. You know, they have to run in red states, even if it's an unwinnable seat. And that they've learned that lesson. We've seen run for something, you know, Amanda Lippman getting people to run, you know, at the bottom of the ballot for things like dog, cat, everything, dog catcher, you know, that kind of thing. Every. Every seat. And so that's one thing. And then there's state legislatures. We saw two state legislatures in Florida State flip last week. So, you know, it's that kind of quiet work that builds the momentum and that supports the candidates on the top of the table.
- [15:07]
Ayman Mohidin
Yeah, I was gonna say it's one thing I heard throughout the course of the weekend in our coverage that people were saying, at the end of the day, it's gonna be the people who are gonna save this country. It's not the institutions, it's not government it's not agencies, but the people going to the streets and demanding that change. Molly, Leah, please stick around. We're gonna be back in 90 seconds. Don't go.
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Paul Rykoff
Minnesota was an inspiration to the entire country. Your strength and your commitment told us that this is still America and this reactionary nightmare and these invasions of American cities will not stand. You gave us hope. You gave us courage.
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Ayman Mohidin
All right, Molly Jung Fast and Leah Greenberg are still with me. So you brought up an interesting point in the break about the Democrats and some of the notable names, some of the names that people are anticipating to be front runners for 2028, not necessarily out there. And I wonder if that's a good thing or a bad thing, because this is a grassroots movement. This is a people led movement. Does it look opportunistic for them to be out there and kind of leading that charge or does it look that they are in touch with where the sentiment of this country is right now and try to be out there speaking to these potential voters?
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Basil Smael
Well, I think that's a really important question and I don't know the answer. But you do see, these people protesting are really, really mad and they're mad at Republicans, but they're also mad at Democratic leadership. And that I think may actually be a problem. There was reporting in the Wall Street Journal, you remember, last week, about the Senate leadership and that there were maybe challenges internally. I don't think that there is an obvious answer to this question, but it would have been quite easy. And we did see some Democratic politicians speaking at these rallies. But, you know, this is a place where your voters are right. And so it seems like a pretty obvious win to get there. And there were people, I mean, at different ones.
- [17:05]
Ayman Mohidin
Leah, what is your take on it? I mean, as one of the organizers and as obviously somebody who's very in touch with the sentiment out there on the street. I mean, there is this situation, where do you want these high profile names out there speaking to these crowds, giving them an alternative to Donald Trump and the Republicans? Or as I was saying, this is a grassroots movement led by organizations like yours and others that is people led.
- [17:29]
Leah Greenberg
Well, fundamentally, the program and the lineup is set at a local level and it's often a product of, you know, what is the interaction between that elected official and their constituents that makes them a good candidate to speak or not a good candidate to speak. Right now it is absolutely the case that the base wants to see Democrats fight with everything they've got. And part of the theory of the no Kings events is that you know, we're not going to be able to say, here's an entire policy platform with all of the different things we need you to do. Here's every single ask for everyone from your local city councilman to your attorney general to your governor to your senator. But what we want is for any elected official who shows up to one of those to walk away like, oh, gosh, I got to do more. I got to fight harder. I got to be able to come to the next one of these and give an accounting of how hard I have fought to protect people, to stop the authoritarian onslaught, to do my. For everybody here who is looking to me.
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Ayman Mohidin
Yeah. And, Leah, it doesn't seem that Donald Trump is getting the message, though, because as Molly was saying, all of these protesters coming out speaking loudly, no kings, he's still putting his name or trying to put his name on the currency. He's putting his name on the Kennedy Center. He's putting his name and pictures on the Department of Justice building. You know, I'm looking here. You know, he's planning a ARC. U.S. treasury plans to put Trump's signature on new paper. Gold coin with Trump's image gets approved by the president's handpicked panel. And he wants to propose an ARC to be the world's biggest. So this is a guy who's. Who seems to be doubling down on his tendency to plaster his name and likeness all over this country.
- [18:59]
Leah Greenberg
Well, fundamentally, I would say that we're not marching primarily to change Donald Trump's mind. He is a narcissistic, borderline senile toddler guy with the emotional makeup of a toddler on his best days. That's not the theory of the case here. The theory of the case is that millions and millions of people out on the street send a message to every other actor in American society that this reign of Donald Trump is temporary, that there will be a period in which we will push back, we will win elections, we will demand accountability. And you want to have been on the right side of that all along, because that day of accountability is coming.
- [19:34]
Ayman Mohidin
His reign might be temporary, but the damage he's doing to this country might be permanent.
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Basil Smael
Yeah, I mean, look, I think that's right. And I also think it's good for the rest of the world, which thinks that we as a country have lost our minds to see that Donald Trump does not, you know, he's not popular, he doesn't represent. Represent the rest of us. A lot of people in this country are pretty sane and, you know, don't want this war that no one has still explained to us what why it's happening or what a victory would look like.
- [20:04]
Ayman Mohidin
Yeah, absolutely. Very important point. Molly Jung fastly at Greenberg thank you to the both of you for starting us off this evening. Still had Trump and his top officials pressed on contradictory messages about troops in Iran, regime change and the missing endgame in all of this. Also, revelations on GOP plans to potentially pay for the war with cuts to your health care. Plus new heat on ice as NBA legend Charles Barkley speaks out.
- [20:30]
Paul Rykoff
The way some of these other immigrants are getting treated in our country right now is a travesty and a disgrace.
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Ayman Mohidin
But first, a right wing effort to rewrite history puts new scrutiny on on Trump's doj. Melissa Murray is here on set with us.
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Molly Jung
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- [23:25]
Ayman Mohidin
All right, we want to turn now to a disturbing attempt to rewrite history. Rioters who stormed the Capitol on January 6th. You may recall 2021. It happened after Donald Trump lost the election. They are now suing the government, accusing police of using excessive force against them, that they, quote, indiscriminately fired chemical munitions, pepper spray and other projectiles, claiming they were exercising their First Amendment rights, describing the crowd as, quote, overwhelmingly peaceful. And for those who may not remember, let's take a look back on actual footage from that day. That video that you saw there, that is what they are trying to portray as overwhelmingly peaceful. The plaintiffs are seeking at least $18 million in damages. And now, emboldened by the actions of the second Trump presidency after Trump pardoned 1500 rioters on day one, including known violent offenders and Trump's DOJ purging the Department of career prosecutors who actually participated in January 6th cases, former Capitol Police officer Aquilino Gonel called the lawsuit shockingly unsurprising, writing, quote, they have seen other insurrectionists being rewarded with government jobs, settlements, praises, elevating them as heroes and villains at the same time. Joining me now is Melissa Murray, law professor with New York University and msnow legal analyst. Her forthcoming book is called the US A Comprehensive and Annotated Guideline for the Modern reader. It's out May 5th. So, Melissa, it's great to have you with us. I mean, first of all, does this lawsuit actually hold any water?
- [25:26]
Melissa Murray
So I think when you show the footage as you just did, it's going to be hard for any court or any jury, if it gets to a jury, to take seriously the idea that these were overwhelmingly peaceful people who are now aggrieved by the actions of the Capitol Police on that day. But I don't think prevailing is actually the play here. I think this is about using the legal system to, to construct a new narrative for what happened on January 6. The idea that these individuals who thought they could defile democracy in the name of defending their vision of democracy, and somehow it's okay, we're going to rewrite history to make them the injured as opposed to those who were actually doing wrong on that day. And this is part and parcel of the Trump presidency 2.0 playbook. We've seen this with the executive orders against the law firms. This idea that if you talk about what the law firms doing, they're engaging in unconstitutional dei. They're representing my enemies. You can solidify for the public that DEI is unconstitutional, even though no court has ever said that. You can solidify for the public that it is a problem for law firms to defend people or to bring lawsuits against the president. And you can continue to silence dissent and shore up a narrative where you are the aggrieved and everyone else has injured you.
- [26:42]
Ayman Mohidin
All right, you brought up a really important point about reconstructing the narrative and rewriting history. Let me play for you what the former January 6 committee members, both Congressman Adam Schiff and Benny Thompson, had to say about that. Take a listen.
- [26:57]
Paul Rykoff
We must never allow the truth of what happened five years ago to be forgotten. And we must rededicate ourselves to making sure that something like January 6th never happens in our country again. Many wanted to rewrite the history of
- [27:11]
Political Commentator
January 6th to ignore that.
- [27:14]
Paul Rykoff
What we saw with our own eyes, we cannot and will not allow that to happen. Passing this legislation for the commission to install the plaque was absolute minimum we could do.
- [27:28]
Ayman Mohidin
So that was to dedicate a plaque to the Capitol Police officers who were attacked on that day, as we showed in that footage. Is that enough? I mean, I don't want to take anything away from that plaque. It's important, and those comments are important. And we wanted to kind of figure out, how do you counter a propaganda machine that is coming down from the White House, the media, the conservative media ecosystem. You have people out there saying it was peaceful protesters, including senators who were attacked that day, coming out and say it looked peaceful to them. And now you've got this legal fight. How do you counter that legal fight?
- [27:59]
Melissa Murray
So one again showing that footage saying over and over again that this was an insurrection against democracy. This was an attempt to stop the electoral College and the peaceful transition of power. Something that every generation of Americans has known. Something. We've never had anything like this. The politics of memory are really complicated. They're constantly contested. It is why we are seeing these assaults on so called woke history. Why can't we tell the history of this country? Why can't we talk about history? Why is it damaging to raise those things? Because people want everyone to forget what this country was. But Sherrilyn Ifill, again, a great leader, a great advocate, has said over and over again, we know that in our DNA that there are comorbidities, that if we don't take care of them, they will manifest themselves in serious problems, whether it's breast cancer, diabetes, whatever. Nations have DNA too. And we have things in our DNA that if we don't guard against it, whether that's by talking about our history openly and honestly, having legal systems in place to stop the things that are in our DNA, we're going to have this problem. You talked about my book that's coming out on May 5th. I canvas the Constitution extensively in annotating this book. There are so many episodes in the original Constitution that are about slavery, about maintaining it, about accommodating it. And we live with that. That's in our DNA. We see the residue, we live with residue of violence and we have to combat it. The plaque is a start. But again, talking about everything that has actually happened with truth and with foresight, that's important too.
- [29:29]
Ayman Mohidin
I'm going to get to that in just a second. But I want to put a quick point on this about comorbidities that you brought up. We got a January six rioter who stole Nancy Pelosi's lectern, who was pardoned by Donald Trump, now running for a board of commissioner in Florida, Manatee County. Yeah. Johnson is a creature of a mummified and Trumpified politics challenges voters to confront a paradox and decide whether they believe that someone who joined a move movement to upend democracy can now help lead it. This is a guy who did not believe in the outcome of an election, wanting to participate in an election.
- [30:00]
Leah Greenberg
Right.
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Melissa Murray
I mean make it make sense. I mean this is the same kind of illogic that gets you to January six rioters suing the Capitol Police under the federal Torts Claims act, requiring the American public if they prevail to make good on their claims, saying that they were the ones who were injured. When we all saw what we saw on January 6, we saw them flooding the Capitol. We saw them leading Capitol police officers. We saw all of this and they're here telling us that we shouldn't believe what we saw.
- [30:29]
Ayman Mohidin
Let me get your thoughts on the SCOTUS hearing on birthright citizenship case. You spoke of the Constitution earlier. This is in the Constitution, the 14th Amendment, very clear first section. And it also has to deal with immigrants, descendants of slaves. They're trying to now remangle the Constitution to fit their cause.
- [30:49]
Melissa Murray
So this is very plain in the text of the 14th Amendment. It is also very plain in the history of the 14th Amendment which the so called originalists on this court love to talk about history, but they're very selective about which histories they look to. Kate Mazur and Martha Jones, two brilliant historians, have talked about. Like you can just look at the congressional debates over the 14th Amendment. They were not just focused on the rights of the formerly enslaved, they were talking about immigrants. Would the children of immigrants be included in the text of the 14th Amendment in this idea of birthright citizenship? They had very specific exemptions for the children of diplomats, for the children of Native Americans who were understood to be sovereign nations within our borders, later passed an act allowing for the children of Native Americans to be included within birthright citizenship. But all of that was debated. And so for the court on Wednesday when this is discussed, if the court overlooks that history again, this originalism, this history and tradition will be the bunk that it is.
- [31:43]
Ayman Mohidin
Yeah, and upending one of America's greatest virtues, I would say. Melissa Murray, thank you so much. Great to have you with us. Still ahead, the GOP midterm message. House Republicans weigh a plan to cut health care in order to pay for the Iran war and what veterans think about Trump's decision on sending ground troops into Iran. We'll be right back.
- [32:04]
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Ayman Mohidin
Right, turning back now to the war in Iran and growing questions about Trump's lack of strategy here and the growing risk of escalation. One Wall Street Journal columnist calling Trump's Iran strategy chaotic. Other conservative outlets are calling the war a quagmire and saying that Trump can't fool markets forever. Trump now raising eyebrows with new comments on Iranian oil and possible boots on the ground, telling the Financial Times, quote, maybe we take Carg island, maybe we don't. We have a lot of options. Trump told the ft, it would also mean that we had to be there in Carg island for a while. Adding, to be honest with you, my favorite thing is to take the oil in Iran, which is an odd threat considering just this weekend Trump said that negotiations with the new regime have been reasonable.
- [34:16]
Paul Rykoff
We are negotiating with them directly and indirectly. Things, frankly, they've been very reasonable. So I think we've had regime change. Can't do much better than that.
- [34:27]
Ayman Mohidin
Joining me now is Paul Rykoff, national security and political analyst, host of the Independent Americans podcast, and founder and CEO of Independent Veterans of America. Paul, it's great to see you again. So, I mean, how do you see this strategy right now? I mean, this is a president who on Sunday night, flying back to D.C. made those comments, wakes up Monday morning, says, we're going to take oil, and threatens to obliterate all of Iran's oil Energy, where 12 hours earlier, maybe 24 hours earlier, he was saying, they're reasonable, there's progress on the negotiations and we have no insight. As more troops begin to make their way into the region, it's vintage Trump.
- [35:01]
Paul Rykoff
I've called him President Mayhem, and mayhem is often the strategy. Whether or not he has a plan on the ground, we could debate. What's clear is he doesn't have control. The lid has been blown off on Iran now, and the countries in the region are being threatened. People of all backgrounds are now outraged. Only 12% of our country supports this war, which is a. Historically, I think the biggest part of his strategy that has failed is he sent the troops before he's rallied the country. And every time a president does that, every time you don't send the country, commit the country first and then commit the troops, we get into disasters. And that's a situation where I think a really, really untold part of this story is what happens if this goes on and only 12% of the country supports it, only 5% of the country supports it. What does that mean for the support for our troops? Americans have been good about separating the two. But the American military has been like the last bastion of respect and integrity in America. And Hex has blowing that apart every day with his war. You know, ice in the National Guard and the streets have eroded that. And this has a real potential to lower the trust, not just in America, but worldwide for American troops.
- [36:02]
Ayman Mohidin
Yeah. You brought up the issue of strategy, which is very important. I want to put it to you this way. The Economist is now showing how Iran is actually making a bit of money on behalf of Donald Trump's war here. Iran is now earning nearly twice as much from oil sales each day as it did before America and Israel began to bomb it on February 28. It may be pummeled on the battlefield, but the regime is winning the energy. Not to mention Americans are paying almost a dollar more per gas. The price goes up. The Iranian speaker of their parliament is trolling President Trump in the way he's trying to manipulate the stock market. It seems that Iran has the global economy by the chokehold right now.
- [36:40]
Paul Rykoff
I think that's right. And also he just allowed Russian cargo ships to go into Cuba.
- [36:44]
Ayman Mohidin
Right.
- [36:44]
Paul Rykoff
So Russia's oil situation is improving as well. I think the bottom line is our enemies are celebrating. And you have to look not just at whether or not America is safer, what does the global order look like? And right now, our enemy's positions are strengthened by the day. And the potential of a quag, the potential of boots on the ground has our enemies salivating. They would love to see America get dragged into another long entrenched, drawn out war that's unpopular back home. And the Chinese also are just sitting back, you know, rubbing their hands, waiting for us to punch ourselves out, not only there, but in the region. Iran is becoming a sucking chess wound.
- [37:13]
Political Commentator
Right.
- [37:13]
Paul Rykoff
Where we keep putting resources in, and that could go on for months and months. Boots on the ground is very important. I think Americans need to understand it's not just the boots on the ground that potentially are going in. 50,000American troops are in the region. Right. And they're all in harm's way. Rocket attacks, drone attacks are every single day. And that risk could go sideways at any moment. And then Trump's got a real problem on his hands. We have to ask him, what is the cost of war you're willing to accept? Is it a couple hundred Marines? Is it a couple thousand Marines? Is it more? And that's the question he hasn't answered.
- [37:39]
Ayman Mohidin
Yeah. So I want to ask you from kind of a military perspective, the idea of just landing thousands of troops Inside Iran. I mean, it sounds extremely dangerous because we're not even in Iran. And American bases across the region are being hit. The raiders are being hit. We've unfortunately lost 13 soldiers, hundreds more injured. So I can't imagine how much more that risk will be if American troops are landing under daily attack from somewhere like Carg island, which is just 15 miles off the coast of Iran, being hit every day with drones, artillery, what have you.
- [38:12]
Paul Rykoff
I think that's a really, really important issue. Taking Carg island could be militarily relatively
- [38:16]
Ayman Mohidin
easy or symbolically because they take the
- [38:17]
Paul Rykoff
oil with it, but holding it.
- [38:19]
Ayman Mohidin
Yeah.
- [38:19]
Paul Rykoff
And protecting the people who are there is going to be the hard part. We saw this in Iraq, right? Taking Baghdad was relatively easy. Protecting our troops over a 10 year war from IED attacks and else in the insurgency was very, very difficult. And that's where the Iranians are happy to try to literally bleed us out. Let the American troops hold an area and hit them with drones, hit them with missiles, hit them with any other kind of insurgent attacks or proxy attacks and bleed us out. They think America will quit. And if you look at our history over the years, that's true. Right. The American public will lose support, Congress will lose support, and our troops will be stranded out here in what is a very, very dangerous and complex area that no American troops want to be in.
- [38:55]
Molly Jung
Yeah.
- [38:55]
Ayman Mohidin
And Congress is asleep at the wheel, not even pushing against the President to get some kind of authorization. Own party at least.
- [39:00]
Paul Rykoff
They need to do an authorization now on Cuba before he hits that. Maybe they can get ahead here on Cuba and Colombia and the other places he's threatened to hit soon.
- [39:07]
Ayman Mohidin
Paul Rykoff, really appreciate it. Thanks for coming in.
- [39:09]
Paul Rykoff
Anytime.
- [39:10]
Ayman Mohidin
Up next, a record number of GOP lawmakers resigning as the midterm elections approach. Turning to a new story which could have a big effect on the upcoming midterm elections. Republicans in Congress are are weighing hefty healthcare cuts in order to pay for a massive budget bill containing up to $200 billion in additional funding for the war in Iran. Now, this comes ahead of a midterm election cycle in which many Americans are already feeling the squeeze of rising prices everywhere. And cuts to healthcare spending would only make those prices higher. New polling this week shows that just 24% of Americans think Trump is handling inflation well, and a staggering more than 70% think he's is not. This, coupled with a record wave of GOP lawmakers and resignations, could spell trouble for Republicans in the midterms. The New York Times reports that Republicans are, quote, anticipating defeats in November that could cost them control of Congress.
- [40:17]
Paul Rykoff
House Republicans are fleeing their jobs in
- [40:20]
Ayman Mohidin
Congress at a record pace.
- [40:21]
Paul Rykoff
And it's complicating GOP attempts to keep control of the House in this year's midterm elections.
- [40:26]
Leah Greenberg
So so far, 36 House Republicans have announced that they're either going to not
- [40:31]
Basil Smael
seek reelection, ret that they're going to seek another office.
- [40:35]
Ayman Mohidin
A party with a fewer House retirements since 1982 and midterm cycles, they went on to win the U.S. house 80% of the time.
- [40:44]
Paul Rykoff
Speaker Mike Johnson is already working with a razor thin majority House from Democrats
- [40:49]
Ayman Mohidin
only need a pickup of 1, 2, 3 in order to gain a majority. Joining me now is Basil Michael, Democratic strategist, Mississippi now political analyst and professor at Columbia's School of Professional Studies. It's great to have you with us, Basil. So the data, the numbers all favor Democrats. Let's talk about what is working in their advantage right now. What impact will, for example, the Iran war have on these Republicans that are retiring in the midterms?
- [41:17]
Political Commentator
Well, the way you set up the segment in talking about the decision that the President might make to fund the war in Iran, I have to think that Republican members are like, how am I supposed to tell that to my constituents? What am I supposed to say? And I think the throwing the hands up and the concern around how to actually, actually translate what the President is doing to benefits for constituents is where Republicans are having problems and why they're making the decision that they're making to leave rather than face their actual voters. And I think one of the strategies you saw from Democrats going back to the first shutdown is that they use what little legislative opportunity they have to call attention to the issues, whether it's taxation, crony capitalism, the cost of healthcare, immigration and ice, and of course, the war in Iran. So I think the Democrats have been great at calling, at making sure that voters know what's at stake. And I think you have local candidates running wherever they are, including at the state level, amplifying a lot of those concerns and attaching it to the economics and affordability.
- [42:27]
Ayman Mohidin
Yeah, we don't necessarily think of foreign policy as being a factor in how Americans will vote, but this particular war has had an unbelievable economic consequence on Americans. I mean, this is a war that has already in about a month, cost Americans a dollar more at the pump. It's potentially going to upend their healthcare if they get 200 more billion dollars pulled out of the healthcare system to go into funding this and we've got another couple billion dollars that are waiting to be spent in ice that is tearing up communities and leading to Americans being shot.
- [43:02]
Political Commentator
Right. I mean, look, the president had a big rally or in front of the, I think it was in front of the White House with farmers the other day and about giving them some resources to be able to get through this moment. But what he didn't talk about is the fact that his actions in Iran are causing things, not only just oil, but things like fertilizer to go up and potentially be unattainable for a lot of the work that farmers and ranchers need to do in their home states. A lot of areas that voted, a lot of areas and voters that supported the president. And I was on with you last night listening to some reporting from the rallies. And you had one person that came out for the no Kings rally saying all of these cuts to snap into all of these other areas, other programs are being used to fund a war that is by choice of this president, not something that anybody felt that we had to go into. And so that resonates. There is emotional resonance there.
- [44:04]
Ayman Mohidin
Yeah. And it's not just the protests that we saw. We've already seen a string of special elections, including the New York City mayoral race. We've seen others that Republicans have lost. So the signs are there. It's definitely a warning sign for Republicans ahead of the midterms. Basil Smael, it's great to see you as always. Thank you so much, my friend. Really appreciate it.
- [44:21]
Political Commentator
Thank you.
- [44:22]
Ayman Mohidin
Up next, a surprising moment from March Madness. We'll tell you about that. Stay with us.
- [44:33]
Basil Smael
We have to show out, as we're
- [44:35]
Melissa Murray
doing today in record numbers to say this is not okay with us.
- [44:39]
Paul Rykoff
Trump has to be stopped. And that's what no Kings is all about, because he can't do all the up things that he's been doing without the collusion of Congress and the goons in his in his administration.
- [44:54]
Ayman Mohidin
So that was famed Oscar winning actor Robert De Niro and Cynthia Nixon. Just a few of the celebrities who spoke at some of the no Kings protest this weekend as Americans all across this country take to the streets against the Trump agenda. And that included a notable NBA legend, Charles Barkley, who felt moved to talk about immigration during the halftime show of a March Madness game. Take a listen.
- [45:19]
Paul Rykoff
The way some of these other immigrants are getting treated in our country right now is a travesty and a disgrace. I think there is a difference between amazing immigrants and criminal immigrants. And I think what's going on in our country. What we're doing to some of these amazing immigrants is really unfortunate and it's really sad. Some of the stuff that's happening to immigrants in our country right now is really unfortunate and it's really unfair. But immigrants built this country and we should admire them and respect respect them.
- [46:01]
Ayman Mohidin
Some powerful words there from the legend Charles Barkley, an athlete and a commentator who's never been shy to hold his thoughts or share his thoughts with the public. He has the last word tonight and that does it for me. You can catch me on the weekend primetime Saturdays and Sundays starting at 6pm Eastern.
- [46:19]
Molly Jung
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