← The Beat with Ari Melber
The Beat with Ari Melber
Trump Fact-Checked on False "Affordability" Claims
00:41:32
Americans are facing high prices. MS NOW’s Ari Melber fact-checks President Trump’s comments on prices and reports on how these prices are shaping voters’ economic priorities.
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Are watching what looks like a serious escalation in Donald Trump's administration's dealings with Venezuela and its leader Maduro, the US Dramatically seizing a Venezuelan oil tanker. You're looking at brand new video released within the last hour officially from the Attorney General. You can see the tanker in the distance, US agents rappelling down from helicopters you see here. They appear to search cabins and compartments on board. As the footage goes on, the Attorney General says the agents executed a seizure warrant for a crude oil tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela as well as Iran. And you're looking at this brand new video. As you can see, it's courtesy of the Attorney General and it is unclassified, according to the United States, which is why it's now on the news. The New York Times reports a federal judge signed off on this warrant. Of course there is a domestic element to this, the laws being applied, but also this is a major international act. The Attorney General says the seizure was done, quote, safely and securely. The US Coast Guard boarding the tanker, as you can see from a. That's from US officials, but you can see what it looks like as they rappel down and board it. This comes amidst a wider campaign by the United States under the Trump administration and significant scrutiny on what we have learned from about these deadly boat strikes. Legal experts, referring to that prior strike that has gotten so much attention and scrutiny, have viewed it as, on its face, a potential war crime. The administration has not really provided legal justifications for the killing in that second strike. The US has roughly 15,000 troops, we should note in the largest aircraft carrier in its fleet now deployed in that same region. This is dramatic new video. I want to bring in General Barry McCaffrey, retired four star army general and an analyst for us and first give us context on what this means in the wider campaign. And then after we hear your analysis, I'll tell viewers we're going to play the video again so you can give us your expertise on it.
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D
Well, it's an enormous escalation and an ongoing attempt to I think run Maduro out of office and to gain access to 300 million barrels of oil reserves in Venezuela. I think that's what's going on. So we've seen the 22 strikes and 87 some odd so called drug runners killed. We have Mr. Trump now saying there will be land strikes to follow. We have Mr. Trump saying about President Maduro his days are numbered. And we have as far as I can tell, almost zero consultation with Congress, certainly not the Senate. So what's going on? Looks like an unauthorized unilateral employment of military power against Maduro to get him out of office.
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A
Where does that fall within the, what are obviously the massive capabilities of the US Military as well as our assorted support, Coast Guard, et cetera. And do you have any concerns you mentioned Congress about the validity of this process?
- [04:18]
D
Well, on the face of it, the whole drug explanation is nonsense. I mean the heart and soul of coca production in Latin America and Colombia tripled in the last decade. Venezuela is a transit company country. Perhaps 10% of the drugs, a lot of it really headed through Africa to Europe. And so, you know, the 15,000 sailors and Marines and B52 bombers and B1 bombers and special operations forces have little to do with applying force to stop drunks. Just nonsense. You can't bomb transit routes through jungle. So again, I think it's at face value to me an attempt to move Maduro out of office. Now to be direct about it though, Maduro is under indictment. He's got a $50 million reward and has had 14 of his associates have been indicted. He's alleged to be the head of a cartel which really doesn't exist. It's a collection of individual criminal organizations. But I think the fascinating part to me is an inappropriate military force being explained as acting against drug cartel terrorist organizations and, and therefore employing the right to use the armed forces to destroy them. And that's unprecedented. Congress isn't acting the court has interfered. So we have the president on his own.
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A
Yeah, and as you mentioned, it's an escalation because of what's been going on. And then here you're on a tanker itself. Let's play this video, which is courtesy of the Justice Department. Uh, and you know what, let's take it in full so viewers can see and afterward you can tell us what we see here.
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And, General, go ahead and tell us what you assess based on this video. First, what's happening here, and then perhaps afterward, the use of these videos as part of the United States sort of messaging.
- [06:36]
D
Yeah, well, you know, ostensibly what we're seeing is Seahawk choppers off the carrier Roosevelt lifting Coast Guard boarding crews to seize this oil vessel. I've never seen the Coast Guard in that kind of a get up. These look like more likely Navy seals, but allegedly it's a Coast Guard landing team. So, again, mixed metaphors. Is this a law enforcement operation or is it a military operation? Back to the, you know, 22, some odd lethal strikes on drug cartel boats that was clearly solely a military operation. How was it justified? Under what authorization of military force, which has not happened out of Congress, under what standing procedures of defending the United States from an existential threat. But that first strike, by the way, allegedly was actually bound for Suriname, where a lot of the transit drugs do go before they head out to Europe.
- [07:41]
A
And what are the rules of engagement on what we're witnessing on the screen here?
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D
Well, when I was a Southcom commander and follow on responsibility as the Clinton administration drug czar, we have authority for Coast Guard vessels and aircraft to stop, search and seize drugs on the high seas. And indeed, we upped the ante and gave them the Coast Guard permission to use military firepower to stop drug boats from moving. They engage the engine, try and knock it out, but we've never seen this. This kind of engagement. Now, by the way, the oil tanker has nothing to do with the drug trade. So we're sort of a rolling set of rationale on why we're applying military force against Venezuela. Again, I think the only explanation can be that we want Maduro out hard out, and we want Chevron in hard in.
- [08:44]
A
Right. And as you reminding everyone, this comes in the context of those other strikes and a mix of possible drug enforcement, Coast Guard, US Law, possible acts of aggression or war without a Congress declaring war. And then these other questions about whether there has been war crimes or violations amidst a foreign policy goal of perhaps dislodging this other leader. All of this against the backdrop of A president who did run on and vow less foreign entanglements. I guess it depends, of course, on the region and the time. General McCaffrey, thank you very much. We appreciate your expertise. We wanted to begin there. And that's our top story. Turning now to domestic news, inside the U.S. americans are facing these high prices. It's something the president has been facing in his politics, and now he's pushing back on the facts. People are living.
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They use the word affordability, and that's their only word. They say affordability, and everyone says, oh, that must mean Trump has high prices. No, our prices are coming down.
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Fact check false. And we put that up so you could see it in real time. The prices are going up as they did last year under the Biden Harris administration. But this year, the inflation is hurting people on things they can't really turn off. I mean, it's one thing to tighten your belt, another thing to turn off heat in winter, electricity up 5%, cost of food up 3%, medical care up 4%, while the Trump administration has slashed the safety net and healthcare support. Now, some of this, as I mentioned, is macroeconomic. If you forget who is president, you could say last year there was this problem, they had an election. This year there's this problem. But Americans are living through this now with a president who did run more than anything, if you remember, on cutting the high prices, he has now added his policies, which include those punishing tariffs, which, as predicted, have hit certain sectors of the United States hard. Farmers feeling the effect of that increase in cost. A trade war has crushed exports. So he's taking your taxpayer dollars because you fund the bailout to the farmers. Now, some people say some of these farmers are hit so hard, soybean, et cetera, that they do need this as a stopgap. But remember, if Trump doesn't change the tariff policies, then we'll have three more years of costly tariffs and three more years of bailouts funded by you. Here's his message to the farmers.
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I just helped our farmers out because they're starting to do really well. The tariffs are making them rich. Agriculture in this country has been in a complete turbulence and turmoil in this.
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Country since the president got elected.
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C
Where we are, because I'm struggling, too, is by design. It's by design that you are now dependent upon this administration for your very survival.
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A
What he is doing is destroying our markets. I want trade, not aid.
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C
This is Donald Trump's problem. He's the one that caused this.
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A
You can listen to the politician, you can listen to the farmers. You can listen to both, but that's what people are saying now. You can say that's quotes. We used to call that, you know, person on the street or person on the farm and different folks interview them. And on social media you have different folks weighing in. But if you just zoom out on the data, we also have a very clear picture of how people feel. Polling shows about half of Americans say it's hard to pay for groceries right now. A majority blame the Trump administration for this, and 27% of people say they have skipped medical care that they would otherwise choose, meaning what they consider necessary regular care or health care because of the cost. This is the real world environment of a president who ran against high prices, now is overseeing high prices plus the price of tariffs, while telling everyone affordability is some sort of joke buzzword. Does that message land Right now? This is our top domestic story, as I said after covering some of those other Trump issues abroad. And we have Obama campaign veteran Che Koman Duri when we're back together in 90 seconds.
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We're back with Obama campaign veteran Che Kohman Durie. Welcome. When you see these. Good to have you. You see these clear economic problems that the president's facing, and he's on a tour that suggests they know it's a political problem. What do you think of the argument he's making?
- [14:52]
B
Well, it's a terrible argument. You know, Bill Clinton was famous for saying, I feel your pain. Donald Trump's motto is, now there is no pain. You know, he is basically trying to tell people, do not believe your lying wallets. Do not believe your diminishing bank accounts. And the reason he's doing this is because it's worked for him in the past. Let's be honest. You know, Donald Trump is actually a very effective con man. He is able to say things like, I won the 2020 election. Well, in the case of the 2020 election, a lot of his base watches Fox News gets lives in a right wing information ecosystem and they're not presented with information to the contrary. This is a situation where a simple trip to the grocery store will give you information to the contrary. So I think this is not going to really work. I think that the magician in this case is out of tricks.
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Well, one trick is buying less toys. Here's Trump on Christmas plans.
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You can give up certain products. You can give up pencils.
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That's under the China policy. You know, every child can get 37 pencils. They only need one or two.
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D
You know, they don't need that many.
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A
You don't need 37 dolls for your daughter. Two or three is nice, but you don't need 37 dolls.
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Let them eat, I don't know.
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Discount products while he reaps the crypto and everything else. I mean, he certainly isn't known for tightening the belt on anything related to Trump, Trump hotels or golden bathtubs, you know.
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B
Yeah, I mean, it made me think of, you know, you're a mean one, Mr. Grinch. You know, the way he was talking about, oh, we could do with less toys, less pencils, less items for all, all of, all of the kids. This is a complete inversion of trad. Traditional Republican ideas about the free market. This is a scarcity mindset that Trump has created. And he's created it at the same time that he's spending money on improving the White House ballroom. He's improving. He's getting a jet from Qatar. That's over $400 million. He's enriched himself by a tune of about $5 billion from various crypto schemes that him and his family have been involved in. So Donald Trump has been doing very well. He is certainly not part of the scarcity mindset that he's trying to transfer to Americans.
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A
Yeah, I mean, I want to show where, where people are at. Small business owners looking at prices. 45% say that inflation is their biggest challenge now and they're bracing by majority there for higher prices this season. If, if the answer is to, quote, unquote, downplay it or spin it. This might be one of the rare things, Jay, where we have a kind of a nonpartisan example because I think it's, it's really fair to critique the Biden Harris history here, especially President Biden who seemed like he was sort of, you know, locked off, away from all of these concerns and kept saying, well, we, you know, our economy is the envy of the world. And it's like you can't tell people, oh, you know, you're luckier than whatever. China, when the prices kept going up, made him seem out of touch. Longtime Republicans. Eric Erickson says Republicans will, excuse me, their excuses will go the same way, Democratic excuses and all of Biden's issues, and they'll get the same results Democrats got. Predicting a blue wave. He says, welcome, Speaker Jeffries. He's trying to warn his party. That's a new post. What do you think of that point?
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B
Yeah, I mean, I think the issue with the point that Joe Biden made was it was a factually accurate point. He said America is better off than Canada, better off than China, better off than Europe, better off than all the other industrialized countries in the world. The problem is Americans didn't live in all those other countries. They lived in the United States. And they simply do not have that point of comparison that would have made that talking point any better. In addition, you needed to also really effectively communicate what is your plan going forward to lower prices? What is your plan going forward to make life more affordable? You know, Zoramdani really connected with voters. Mikey Sherrill and Abigail Spamberger also connected with voters talking about utility costs, housing costs, transportation costs, things to actually your life better by making things more affordable. That was the thing that was missing from Biden. That is also something that is not only missing from Trump, but he's actually rather nonchalant and aggressively, I would say grinchy about, about, about, about all this.
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A
Yeah. And there's, you can almost see, and maybe it's because he's a little tired or a little less disciplined. I mean he's, he's, there's been times when he's been an effective communicator for his goals. But as you say, grinchy or outright annoyed. He almost they talked him into doing this tour. There is a messaging problem, but then he mocks it, he zigzags on it. And lying about prices, as you say, is very different from saying we've got a plan, here we go. Instead, he's saying your prices aren't getting higher. And as we showed, they are. And that's just the facts. Che, good to see you and have you back later in the hour for something special. Today we have an update on another Epstein ruling for transparency. Zoran Mamdani talks to Ms. Now. Interesting interview. We'll show you some of that tonight. But first, the pushback to the corruption. Donald Trump meddling again with the First Amendment. We have our breakdown on that. I'm going to get into it next.
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Some of the richest billionaires and companies in the world now battling over buying the Warner Brothers empire and possibly CNN as well. It's a high stakes clash which has Hollywood and Washington riveted. The Ellison family, Trump allies jumping in now with this whopping $108 billion hostile bid to try to get Warner and CNN. The famed studio had basically accepted the outline from Netflix in principle. But the story is far from over. Warner Brothers must consider all offers and ultimately get past any DOJ monopoly concerns. Lawmakers are already concerned on that front. Any new combined company will have more power over the information and media ecosystem. And many creatives and democracy advocates warn against this type of consolidation. There's criticism and concerns about corporate greed, which could be bad for creatives and for market competition, depending on who you ask. The bidding war is so expensive that even the richest firms in the world, like Netflix, one of the magnificent seven biggest stocks in our entire economy, they still need extra money for this deal. Netflix tanking bank financing, the Ellison Group. I mentioned taking some controversial potential money from Gulf states and tapping a walking conflict of interest in Trump's son in law, Jared Kushner. All of this has drawn jokes from a comic who remember is still employed by the Paramount company at the Ellison's.
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D
Bought.
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B
My beloved parent company. Paramount reportedly launched a hostile takeover bid.
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For Warner brothers valued at $108 billion.
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B
Wow. I gotta say, if my company's got that kind of green, I'm sure they.
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Can afford to un cancel one of their best shows. Their bid includes $24 billion from Saudi.
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B
Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi wealth funds.
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And when the dictator of Saudi Arabia gives you billions of dollars, I'm sure there's no catch.
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A
No catch, right? Just a little friendly international business tbd. But if there is another catch here that's getting a lot of attention, it's that Donald Trump clearly wants CNN to go to new owners and to change. He admits his demands to censor and distort coverage at all kinds of places. He's sued outlets, as you know. He's demanded changes at cbs, which is now owned by that company, and has demanded programming changes at CNN if his friends get a hold of it. Remember, Trump has attacked any press that's critical. He's taken shoot the messenger to new levels. He's currently still suing the Fox News sister outlet, the Wall Street Journal over reports about Epstein that have been verified that are not really in doubt. He's tried to sue the messenger, getting strong arm settlements from those media companies. And he's tried to cancel the messenger in the failed bid to get Jimmy Kimmel fired. So he's shooting away. But what you see now is he has billionaire allies literally also trying to buy the messenger. Remember, the government is barred from abusing powers like regulation to control free speech. Yet Trump wants his billionaire ally to get a hold of CNN over the other corporate bidders. He said today it's imperative that CNN be sold, he said, because I think the people running CNN right now are corrupt or incompetent. Politician wants to pull the strings of the free press, which is a problem as old as the founding of this country. Which is why of all the amendments, the first one is about preventing would be autocrats from doing just that. And Trump's long obsession over his legacy media coverage, these messengers shows as well that some of these outlets do still matter, even if they face more competition from streaming and podcasts and the Internet. Even if there's pressure on their long term revenue models, which could include all television, including the one you're watching. But it is a problem for free speech if big government can crush the free market to pick winners and losers, or worse to punish dissent. An honest journalism. Even Trump knows that doing that or being seen to do that is still very unpopular. So while I just read you one time recently where today he's saying, you know, he'd like CNN under different management when it comes to overseeing this potential merger, he still claims the free market should prevail, saying he wants Warner to go to the highest bidder and he's neutral on who buys what. That's a report from veteran insider Matt Bellany for Puck, who also notes the contradiction, adding, please stop laughing. And Matt Bellany is our special guest on this big Story. He's known for his must read Hollywood newsletter and podcast the Town, drawing on his experience as editor of the famed Hollywood Reporter and as an entertainment lawyer. In fact, many Hollywood moguls, actors and creatives hang on his reporting. So much so that he became a kind of meta inside joke on the very insidery Apple show the Studio, appearing as himself.
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Matt Valentin.
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Hi.
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B
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My favorite up and coming executive.
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I am a huge fan of the podcast.
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A
Okay, bye bye.
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C
Good luck with the presentation.
- [26:03]
A
Matt. Thanks for being here.
- [26:05]
C
Wow. That was my Emmy clip. Thank you very much for showing that. Sadly, I was snubbed.
- [26:12]
A
Well, it's all meta in a way, but you're really in this and I mentioned your reporting cuz you've really charted this long before it hit the front pages and the politics. Let's start with what you reported about the president and the free speech and free market battles here. Your thoughts?
- [26:29]
C
It's really interesting that Trump isn't even saying it quietly. He's saying it out loud. He wants CNN under a new owner, plain and simple. And the interesting thing that's going on right now is there's only one company looking to buy the division that includes cnn and that is the Ellisons and Paramount. Larry Ellison, the second richest man in the world, very good friends with Donald Trump. David Ellison, he has said very positive things about he just took over the Paramount studio. Netflix doesn't want cnn. They don't want the TV division. So if they buy the company, it will be spun out into a new division and there will be others potentially that will come after it or it will just be a publicly traded company with all the TV stuff. So it's very interesting Trump is saying that now about him wanting new ownership.
- [27:17]
A
There you think about streaming distribution and sort of the chain of that process. More than most people in Washington and viewers who we know, we like to watch Netflix, we flip around. You really study this. And so I'm curious, do you have a view based on the evidence I know you're fair about which deal is better for what we might call independent and diverse media?
- [27:45]
C
It's a fascinating question because it depends entirely how you define the market. Are we defining the market here as the streaming universe, just the streamers? Because if this deal goes through with Netflix, Netflix will have a huge chunk of the market for Streaming, because they'll be able to bolt HBO Max onto Netflix, which already has 300 million subscribers worldwide. It would give them about 450 million subscribers worldwide. But if you are Netflix and you are trying to define the market as anybody who watches television and time spent watching video, that includes YouTube, that includes linear networks like this one, that includes TikTok. And when you define it that way, even this deal would give Netflix a pretty small share of overall time spent watching video.
- [28:37]
A
Well, let's. Let's jump. I'm gonna let you finish, but just on your point about what Netflix could be. You know, in politics, when sometimes they say, oh, you know, this candidate was best when they were themselves, they'll say, you know, let Al Gore be Al Gore, and you get a better earnest version of a boring nerd than Al Gore trying to be something else. And Netflix is now making the argument, well, hbo, which a lot of people love over the years, I mean, a lot of great shows, they say, well, we'll let HBO be hbo. We won't try what's currently happening, which is to broaden them to be everything to everyone. We've seen some creatives say, oh, interesting, and other creatives say, no, they don't trust consolidation. What's your view on that argument?
- [29:19]
C
You know, it's very hard to determine whether what is being said now is going to be what's true once this deal closes. Especially when you start to talk about year two, year four, year six, year 10, whether the model will change. And they're thinking long term here now, oh, yeah, we'll keep HBO separate. But then a couple of quarters of bad growth, and all of a sudden they start to merge. And then we wake up in five years and HBO is gone. Because once the deal closes, if there are not conditions placed on this deal from the government that mandate things stay the same or things change, who knows what is going to happen?
- [29:59]
A
Are we in a golden era of TV and content, or are we in this sort of doomsday scenario that, I mean, as you know, some of the creatives and the labor side are very concerned.
- [30:11]
C
Absolutely. I mean, I think it depends who you talk to. If you talk to people in Hollywood right now, it is a doomsday scenario. The peak TV days are over where all of these streaming services were trying to grow, grow, grow, and there was still a really robust ecosystem of great content on the linear channels. Now, most of the cable channels, most of the broadcast channels, have gotten rid of their original programming, except for sports and news. And the streaming services are still Growing, and they have billions of dollars worth of content every year, but they're not growing at the same pace as they were during that peak TV era. So the content creators in the community are really feeling a downsizing moment.
- [30:52]
On the consumer side. I think most people would say there's still a lot to watch out there, but who knows whether there's consolidation and four studios instead of six, as we had a decade ago. And these streaming services have a incentive to really coalesce around each other and consolidate. Maybe the market for this kind of content will continue to decline.
- [31:15]
A
Yeah, on the pursuit, I mean, I've told viewers everyone remembers Elon Musk for all the reasons. I don't think David Ellison and his son are the same household names, but you can think of them as the other kind of top five richest people in the world working with Trump. Some of the reporting from the Journal talks about there was a relentless campaign by the Ellison Paramount faction. They started this whole thing off. And Ellison offered assurances to Trump officials reportedly that if he bought Warner, he'd make sweeping changes to cnn, that he would magnify it. And Trump got some headway on that in the tech space. So I guess my question to you as someone who talks to everybody is, are they not as good at this as they claim to be? How is it that they started this, didn't get it, now they're on their back foot offering $108 billion and according to the texts that are in the filing, maybe more. Are they not good at this, Matt?
- [32:10]
C
I mean, for the record, if you talk to people at Paramount, they say that no explicit promises have been made to Trump and he tends to overstate these kinds of things. But I think Paramount really underestimated Netflix. They did not think they were serious about this bid. They didn't think they'd be able to put together the financing and put together a whole proposal in the six week period before it was made official. And they were flat footed. They thought that they had a cleaner path to get this approved by the Trump administration. So they priced their bid a little bit lower because of that, because of that smoothness to approval. And then they said all of a sudden there were reports that the co CEO of Netflix, Ted Sarandos, was also meeting with Donald Trump. And Trump comes out and says nice things about Netflix. Trump is clearly positioning himself between these two companies. He wants to extract something like everything else with Trump. It is purely transactional, what's in it for me? And he wants these companies to battle it out and have him be the decider where he can extract something for himself.
- [33:16]
A
Right. And what you're describing is the opposite of the public interest oath that officials are supposed to take. We don't want an FCC carrying out a political agenda or a big government agenda which is anti conservative. We want them looking out for the things you were mentioning earlier, which is how does the consumer fare? Is there a level of monopoly that's bad for the public or the civic square? I'm running out of time. But I guess the final question to you on a narrower point is looking at CNN not as it happens to be a competitor of this channel, yada yada, but looking at them as a group of journalists that ought to be in our system independent and not railroaded by friends of the government. When this is all said and done, do you think that CNN will be in the hands of Trump's buddies or not?
- [33:59]
C
I think if I had to bet, I would say that the Ellisons will go as high as they need to go in this bidding war in order to win over shareholders in order to get these assets. I think it's unfortunate that the president seems to think that he gets to choose who the owner of a media outlet should be. It doesn't work that way and he doesn't actually have that power. Whether he exerts power over the Department of Justice to sue to block one of these transactions, that's left to be seen. But I think at the end of the day, the Ellisons are extremely motivated here. They feel they need these assets to boost up Paramount, their media company, and they will ultimately prevail over Netflix. But I wouldn't be surprised if it goes to either one of these companies.
- [34:46]
A
Really interesting. As we said, you're the guy on the beat, so I appreciate you coming here. And just like the Apple show, we are thankful that you were willing to cameo as yourself today. Matt, thank you. All right. Merry Christmas. We're going to fit in a break. We come back to what just happened in Miami. Part of what some are calling a slow rolling blue wave.
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When you heard the President talk about.
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A
Affordability in the speech and after your.
- [36:45]
B
Meeting as a hoax, what's your reaction to that?
- [36:48]
A
I think it continues to be a very real issue for New Yorkers across the five boroughs. And when I sat with the president of the Oval Office, I spoke about the fact that this is what is pushing New Yorkers out of this city. Mayor Elect Mamdani speaking to Ms. Now's Jacob Soboroff today. And we're joined by Cheik Home indoor political strategist who was with us earlier. And on the other side, Che is an Obama veteran. Angie Wong, Miami Republican Committee woman and political commentator. Welcome to both of you.
- [37:17]
E
Thank you.
- [37:18]
D
Good to be here again, Ari.
- [37:20]
A
Angie, your thoughts on the affordability problem that clearly the President is facing? He's on a tour about it, but he's sort of made some counterfactual claims. And the news coming out of Miami's election.
- [37:31]
E
Yeah, both parties are battling over the word affordability. They're trying to own that word ahead of the midterm elections next year. And President Trump just kicked off his affordability tour in Pennsylvania last night and we're gonna expect to see a lot more Trump rally talking about this very thing. He also appointed Scott Besant to be the affordability czar. So he understands that affordability is going to be the buzzword and the issue for Americans going into the midterms. He wants to do everything he can, which he has already. He's already brought down A lot of our popular drug prices. He's lowered our gases, he's done the Trump accounts and now there's no taxes on already is trying to do everything he can within the confines of the federal government to lower our bills every single month. I just hope that he has enough Runway to do this prior to November 2026.
- [38:26]
D
Jay?
- [38:28]
B
Yeah, as a Democrat, I very much would like the Trump affordability tour to continue. I would like to see more, I would like more Americans to see his message, or rather lack of a message on affordability where he said last night this is not a problem, this is not an issue. This is something that's been up. He repeatedly calls this a hoax. He has no solution to do this to solve this problem. And everything he's done with those tariffs has made it all worse. So I would like the Trump affordability toward to continue and I would like Donald Trump's affordability message to be more in the minds of Americans as a Democrat.
- [39:05]
A
Well, Angie, I'll let you respond to Chase Point. And as mentioned, Miami elects a Democratic mayor there. It's a big American city, of course, and it's a place that has been a foothold for Republicans, just as that whole state, as you know, you're there has been more red. Why do you think Republicans lost in Miami? And you mentioned the midterms. Are you worried they're vulnerable in November?
- [39:29]
E
Yeah, no, I've been on the ground for this race. I'm here as a committee woman from Miami. Look, this was normally a very sleepy local race. It only jumped to national attention because it's become a national proxy war between Trump and the dnc. Soon as Trump endorsed Emilio Gonzalez, the DNC sent in their heavyweights to Miami, such as Ron Emanuel to run the show. So we know that there's a bigger play here. We understand that this was a win that they needed to win. Now understand this was a very small race. Eileen Higgins only won by 7,000 votes and that's something we could have made up. I'm sure the RNC right now is having a bit of a pause and a heart to heart going well, how are we going to handle this come the midterms? Because certainly this could be seen as a bellwether to the midterms. And I hope there's going to be more soul searching that happens and some real action that takes place because we certainly don't want to lose there.
- [40:27]
A
And I'll put up the numbers for both of you to speak on. But you'd mentioned earlier, oh, Trump's Done everything he can. Well, if that's the case, this would look like a failure. The inflation is up 5% on lights, 3% on food, 4%, about 3.9 on medical care. The Fed today taking action, showing they're concerned about slower growth. If this is the best Trump economy can do, I think it's a problem, wouldn't you agree?
- [40:58]
E
Well, look, Biden brought us 9.1% inflation overall, so I'll take those lower numbers any day of the week. Things look, Trump and his administration inherited so much of this. He's only been in office for 11 months. He's trying to bring everything down. He's got to renegotiate all the deals. I mean, we saw him work so hard getting the tariffs through. So we're going to start seeing the rollouts of that because remember, everything that happens with the tariff hasn't actually been affected with the consumers just yet. The consumable goods that we've experienced in 2025 were pre bought six 12 months ago. So we're going to now start seeing those roll out, hopefully quarter one and quarter two of next year. Again, he's trying to solve as much as he could. He's only been in for 11 months. Give the guy a break. Let him show you what the big beautiful bill is all about.
- [41:48]
A
Jay, your thoughts on that? And if that's the Republican message, a 5% price problem is better than a 9%.
- [41:56]
B
Yeah, I mean, I think Americans will see what the big beautiful bill is all about very soon here in January when health care costs really rise because of the lack of subsidies for the Affordable Care Act. That was, that was cut by the Republican Congress and by Donald Trump. So people's healthcare costs are gonna soar in January because of that. So he has made all these problems worse, including his tariffs. I look forward to those tariffs working. You know, if they work, maybe Donald Trump doesn't deserve a peace prize. He should get an economics prize because he will have reinvented the entire field of economics where the where whereby all these tariffs somehow are somehow gonna magically work. You have a country like Brazil where America has a trade surplus, but Donald Trump doesn't happen to, like, the leader of Brazil. So we have tariffs on Brazil. Hence ground beef and hamburgers are more expensive. Everything is simply more expensive under Donald Trump. And there is no, there is no sign that any relief is in sight.
- [42:58]
A
Well, A.C. we wanted to hear from. I'm out of time. I am out of time. But I will invite you both back just because you know how close it was the end of the hour, but hearing from both sides, especially after the election last night. Angie and Che, my thanks to both of you. We're going to finish a break. And next up, we end the hour with the update as promised, a third judge ordering Epstein transparency.
- [43:25]
Another win for those seeking Epstein transparency as we await the big deadline. The Epstein Transparency act that Trump was pushed to sign is law of the land. And that means we are following it being applied in multiple cases and there are several cases because there were so many, several types of alleged crimes. Today. This is a third judge ruling with the other two that we've been reporting on, ordering that these Epstein records be unsealed. Ruling covers federal grand jury material and documents from the more serious 2019 probe into Epstein. Some of those materials might have become public if not for his death. So there was no trial to release all the evidence. The judges also have said that they don't necessarily really think there will be a ton of new information in the grand jury files. That is just one category among many that the DOJ has a deadline to provide. But it is the, quote, unequivocal right of Epstein victims to have their identity and privacy protected during this transparency process. The judge notes we should remind you Congress's law has many requirements but grants a big exception to, of course, protect victims, some of whom were minors at the time. All of this is headed to the deadline, if you're keeping track. And there's a lot going on, including the holidays because of the nature of the 30 days and when the pressure build, it has nothing to do with Christmas. It just happens to be that Congress passed this and made Trump sign it last month. And 30 days hits this December 19th. It's a day Trump might be fearing, but we will stay on it. And seeing how the DOJ complies with the law the president signed. We'll be right back.
- [45:02]
C
Back.
- [45:06]
A
If you want to keep up with the beat, you can always go to Ms. Now. That's our new website, Ms. Now ari, and it'll take you directly to our YouTube playlist. You'll see videos from tonight's show and this week, Paul Krugman, 50 Cent. If we've aired it, you'll find it there. Check it out. And thanks for watching. Tyler redick here from 2311 Racing. You think racing's tough, try getting your friends to agree on dinner plans.
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