← The Beat with Ari Melber
The Beat with Ari Melber
Trump sinks in polls ahead of State of the Union
00:40:09
MS NOW's Ari Melber examines President Trump’s plummeting approval rating in a special "Beat" report. The latest Washington Post–ABC–Ipsos poll shows 60% of Americans disapprove of the president ahead of the State of the Union address. Another poll from Economist/YouGov finds Trump’s support among independent voters has dropped to a new low across both terms in office.
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back to your regularly scheduled listening welcome to the Beat.
- [01:02]
Lead News Anchor
We are tracking Donald Trump reeling from the Supreme Court's strongest rebuke this term and tomorrow's State of the Union, as I just mentioned, gearing up for that. While the DOJ's Epstein files release has now led today to another arrest. It's a story that Donald Trump cannot stop or control, not in the US or abroad. And we'll be getting to that tonight. Plus the blizzard that continues to rock the east coast and maybe many people today can agree on at least one the State of our Union is frozen. Now. I have a special report for you on Donald Trump's seeking approval in a moment. It is the context for the headwinds of the State of the Union that's a bad thing for Trump and of course his top economic plan, the tariff trade war, now decisively struck down. The news today. Trump vowing even more tariffs, at least, least the ones that he can legally do. But those are temporary. Under law, Trump is powerless to make the kind of long term sweeping tariffs that he likes on his own. He would have to work with Congress, which he refuses to do. That is all part of driving Donald Trump's plummeting support. The new polls show that now 60% of Americans disapprove of Trump's job performance. We're told that we are this divided nation on every issue. Well, not this one. You can see the wide gap, the public souring on Trump as he heads into this big address. He's hit an all time low with independents, which is a key voting block for the Midterms. Trump says he's amazed that there is not more support, but he adds that he has silent support. Well, consciously or not, he is echoing a claim made by the most unpopular, reviled president in modern American history, whose scandals drove him from office early. Remember, Nixon argued that even if he seemed unpopular, he actually represented a, quote, silent majority that backs him, that backs what he was saying, just quietly. Well, few people seriously think that Donald Trump and his MAGA fans are quiet or silent or shy in their support of him or just about anything. We saw that on the campaign trail. We saw that at the MSG rally, now infamous for some of its hate. And the broad opposition to Donald Trump matters for the next three years, especially for how people meet his threats, because we saw this first year where many elites caved to even unlawful demands that they probably would have combat over time and won in court if they were willing to publicly fight. Today, only about 36% of Americans approve of his presidency. That's roughly one third of our nation. So how low is that support in history? There's so many ways. We could take a number. You can say, obviously, you get down to a third. That sounds low, a lot lower than the half you usually need to win an election. But here's another way to put it. It matches lowest point after losing the 2020 election and trying to overthrow the results leading to January 6th. That's how low Trump's support is now. Meaning it echoes a period of Trump rejection of total weakness for his support around the country that actually, in a way, can feel sometimes like ancient history. So right now, just remember how the Republicans sounded then. This failed insurrection only underscores how crucial the task before us is for our republic.
- [04:28]
Political Commentator
We had police officers, the men and women that we walk by every single day, that guard the doors, and we say hello to, out there with riot gear, getting spit on and attacked.
- [04:36]
Lead News Anchor
All I can say is count me out.
- [04:40]
Adam Auchler
Enough is enough.
- [04:44]
Lead News Anchor
Count me out, they said, because Trump was clearly weak. Well, right now, tonight, his support is again that week. And that brings us to our special report for you. Right now, heading into the State of the Union, we are going to document a resilient civic fact, often obscured because Trump's movement works hard and spends millions to spin it. But Donald Trump in America is unpopular. He has netted fewer votes in most of the elections he's run in. As you can see here. Very simply, most of his political career, he has been leading what is a loyal minority. In 16, he was down two points. When everyone had voted, they preferred the alternative of Hillary Clinton in 20, he famously lost by over four points. He doesn't have much of a majority over time, silent or otherwise. This is a fact in every measurable way. Votes, approval and polling. He came back there with about a point and a half. And Trump's chaotic year since that one and a half point win has landed him back in the same weak spot that's his norm. This low that he's in tonight that had Republicans talking about enough is enough. This is a far cry from those early claims. We heard that the 2024 win was a broad realignment. Good times. They're ahead. Hopefully lasting, transformational change.
- [06:07]
Political Analyst
President Trump doesn't get credit for the complete realignment of of American politics.
- [06:11]
Lead News Anchor
President Trump will do nothing that interferes with the success of the country.
- [06:15]
Political Analyst
The overall agenda.
- [06:17]
Lead News Anchor
I want to be clear about this. What Trump, President Trump is trying to
- [06:21]
Legal Expert
do has significant support. What is going to be the biggest political phoenix from the ashes story that we have ever seen?
- [06:32]
Lead News Anchor
Ever. All right, it's chill. If any of those claims were even largely true, Donald Trump would not have crashed down to today's historically low support. By definition, a political realignment would last more than a year. And narratives matter because they shape actions. They get in people's heads. Many debated whether 2024 was either a, more about a rejection of Biden, Harris and their economy, or B, a big embrace of Trump and his plans for the long term, which would certainly mean more than a year. Trump narrowly won by a point and a half overall, as I showed you, and that is one of the closest finishes in the modern era. You can see little tiny 2024 Trump margin there against the much taller Biden. Let's not even get into Obama. If you want to talk about when he first came charging onto the scene with seven points, Trump has never gotten half of that margin. So the claim that there was a Republican with a mandate in the country does not apply to any of Trump's races. Not the two where he got fewer votes, not the one where he got a point and a half. And it's now undercut by the enduring fact that, remember, most Americans choose the Democrat for White House races over the Republican most of the time. That is in seven of the last nine elections, the blue is usually above. You're looking at a historical fact that the American people usually choose the Democrat. It's the clearest view of the public's preference. If you just want to put all the punditry aside, forget everyone talking on TV and podcasts and just say but what has the public actually been choosing? Usually the Democrat for president? I'm not telling you whether that's good or bad or you have to agree. I'm just telling you that's what more people have done. Most of the time. That's the context of Trump trying to claim he's so popular. And if that seems odd or surprising, maybe it's because, one, we have an electoral College, which sometimes put this number two in the White House, which is confusing. You start to think back and kind of forget that, well, Hillary Clinton was actually preferred by more voters. And also there's a well funded right wing media machine and it insists that Democrats are an out of touch, woke losing minority party. And it says that over and over and over. And the opinion words in there are fine. If you want to just say you don't like them, fine. As for whether they're losing, no, most of the time, as you see on your screen, including in the Trump era, people choose the Democrat and the people are also speaking against Trump. Now, Americans are rejecting this term as they've learned about it. It's a reaction to his governing. He's about 15 points underwater. So here's my point tonight as Trump goes into this State of the Union. He was always an unpopular figure. He began as an unpopular figure. Tonight, he is historically unpopular. He got fewer votes in 2016 and 2020. That's even before we get to the midterms where it was his type of party leadership that was shellacked. He returned to the White House on a very clear promise to fix something that many people, most people, thought Biden and Harris were doing wrong, that the economy was bad, the prices were too high, they weren't fixing it. That's what he ran on. And Americans now disapprove of Trump's results on that issue. Donald Trump was hired or rehired to fix the economy. And Americans don't like what's cooking with the economy. A year ago when we got these exit polls, it said 45% of voters felt worse off than before economically. Here we are a year later, and what I think we're seeing at least some Democrats succeed on is, how's that going? Are you better off than a year ago? And is this Trump thing working? This is the first chance we have to be like, okay, voters, like, thumbs
- [10:15]
Political Commentator
up, thumbs down, broadly, how are we doing? And it's a big thumbs down.
- [10:19]
Caller/Consumer
All of these elections are about affordability.
- [10:24]
Lead News Anchor
The public rejecting Trump's record on the economy and affordability. Now, Friday, the Supreme Court rejecting His trade war, power grab. And you have those elections that we were talking about at the table, a rejection of Trump's policies, embracing Democrats instead. Some of them quite liberal MAGA allies, say Trump still has his own special loyal voting bloc. And you'll hear about that if you talk about the facts that I'm mentioning, that he is historically unpopular, that people don't like Trump, that they didn't vote for him. Most of the time, those are facts. Then the young men who did go towards Trump, which is unusual based on how younger voters tend to come out, they're not all staying, but some of them have started to lean blue in those races I mentioned. Now, that didn't cover the whole country, but they do match a return to the norm. Trump is unpopular. Voters have usually preferred the alternative when offered. So it's actually, I gotta tell you, pretty remarkable that Trump and his allies have spun a long running mediocre electoral hand into claims of this mass realignment. And that tech and business elites seem to perceive and fear that there might be a MAGA permanent majority. That after Trump's lame duck term, which is about three years left, they would still have to contend with all of this, rather than the measurable reality, which is that Donald Trump has been and remains a largely unpopular leader. Now an unpopular lame duck president and some of his supporters might have gotten kind of high on their own supply, because you can judge for yourself. But we checked the tape. They did seem almost genuinely emotionally shocked that the numbers I just showed you, which are long running, led to their expected result, a 2025 route, when it was entirely in line with this long, unpopular Trump track record.
- [12:11]
Caller/Consumer
How are you feeling this morning? Like, yeah, I can relate.
- [12:15]
Lead News Anchor
Look, last night was a disaster. Last night was a total and complete disaster. It was an electoral blowout. The results in New Jersey were disastrous. The results in Virginia were terrible. You destroyed. You destroyed the Republican Party. For a generation, Republicans did not have a good day. So anyone who says, well, not really that, but no, it was bad,
- [12:40]
Political Analyst
it
- [12:40]
Lead News Anchor
was not a good day. And maybe for some it was a type of whiplash. If you weren't tracking that Trump had this long term weak support, that the point and a half that he got in 24 was actually an outlier after many other losses and troubled elections, all of this could drive a larger route, a blue wave in these midterms. So how does this all end as Trump prepares to give a speech tomorrow night on defense? Well, this is a special report and I'm going to show you the road that Trump fears most when we come back after this 92nd break.
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- [14:49]
Lead News Anchor
We are in the middle of an interesting moment heading into the State of the Union tomorrow, where the President will make the usual remarks about how the State of the Union is doing. But for Donald Trump, that often means how he's doing, and Trump has plagiarized Make America Great Again. It was a Reagan slogan. He sounded like Nixon in trying to downplay his approval problems today, claiming there's a silent support out there for him. But he lags behind both of those presidents and all modern presidents who've done two terms in their support. At this point in the second term, I showed you how short he was when it came to actual elections and margins. This is how short he is against these other two termers. He's the least popular second term president we've had after squeaking in on a 1.6 1.6 margin. He's shorter than them in approval, probably because it's math. He started out shorter. He had less of a base to build on, even though we hear so much from his side about his base. But he's unpopular now. Trump has tried to distort that reality. He's abused government power to censor how journalists or comedians mention it he's launched a record breaking number of criminal probes which aren't just revenge, although they are that, to harass perceived critics. You can see we're running out of space on monitoring these attempts, many of them failing in court. But these are also efforts to intimidate others who might not have the position or the lawyers or the stomach for a long term fight. To distort how people hear about his problems, he's threatened retaliations against media companies as well as and law firms and colleges. Some unfolded in fear. I want to tell you this tonight as we broaden out much of Donald Trump's second term has become a kind of live action cynical exercise in testing how much all of those threats will work not only against the obvious fact that most appear unconstitutional, but that also against the politically absurd backdrop I'm telling you about, that this is a leader who does not command even a decent plurality of support, that he is small and short, electorally, doesn't have that as he goes around making these threats, let alone a mandate.
- [17:01]
Legal Expert
Could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters. You also had people that were very fine people on both sides. It will be my great honor to pardon the peaceful January 6th protesters. Let's put her with a rifle, standing there with nine barrels shooting at her.
- [17:20]
Political Commentator
Okay?
- [17:20]
Lead News Anchor
Knock the crap out of them, would you? Trump using his government powers to reward political violence, to embrace literal sedition against the United States, violent thugs. It's an embrace of criminality that continues to distort the rule of law today. And if we get through this period, we'll have to have a reckoning for it, whether that is investigations, prosecutions, what some countries do, truth and reconciliation committees, but we'll have to deal with that. He's also combining the power of the White House with the petty hate of routinely posting misogynistic and racist attacks. Former President Obama recently responding to that hateful Ape video by noting that most Americans oppose this, which is certainly the case when it comes now to Donald Trump's lame duck presidency. A majority now oppose the actual deportations filing they are far more lethal, risky and less effective than his campaign vows. The public also struggling with high prices while watching an administration with the most allegations of gifts, grifting and bribes ever, a mockery of any vow to drain the swamp. Just as Donald Trump spent really most of the first year of this term fighting an Epstein files release, which has only drawn heat across the spectrum over another broken promise. All of that operating against the economic Reality. I mentioned the very issue that Donald Trump used in 2024, which is the only race when he ever got more votes on the ballot. The public has rejected this record much of today. I have talked to you in the Special Report about these stubborn facts, the results, the indicators that the American people have long opposed Donald Trump and preferred alternatives most of the time. Now I'm mentioning some of the reasons why, particularly in the hardened sort of extreme mode of the second term. And again, that is, while he's also still tried to distort whether you find out about this full picture, to censor criticism, to distort coverage of those realities. And yet Trump is now at the low of January 6th level approval. So one could also understandably ask how much lower would it be if we were in a society that dealt more in facts than it does if people were learning about these realities without today's very well funded filters, starting with Fox News, which had to settle a half a billion dollar defamation suit over the way that it platformed MAGA election lives, or the broader emerging MAGA media system that spans from podcasts to big tech to billionaires buying up CBS and more. So they can run point on how Trump wants these stories covered and it ain't covering them accurately like the facts I've mentioned. And amidst all that, Trump's policies are still finding cracks of concern on the right. His bids to abuse government powers, to undercut the Constitution, and of course to do things that undercut what we would call the actual or traditional conservative values. Those have drawn scorn from some even in these safe spaces. Apart from any other independent or liberal concern. There's a list of issues that we asked people what they felt about. And the president is underwater in all but one. When people thought about ice, they thought, great, we're gonna get rid of the gang members. They didn't think, great, you're gonna get rid of a landscaper.
- [20:56]
Adam Auchler
What the is going on with our country, guys?
- [20:59]
Political Commentator
Why am I poor?
- [21:00]
Lead News Anchor
I think it is unbelievably dangerous for government to put itself in the position of saying we're going to decide what speech we like and what we don't.
- [21:11]
BetterHelp Advertiser
Do you regret your vote?
- [21:12]
Lead News Anchor
Yes, I do, very much so. I, you know, I feel shame, guilt
- [21:18]
Political Commentator
and anger at the same time.
- [21:23]
Lead News Anchor
How common is that? I wonder if there's a way we could figure out how many Republicans have turned on the Trump agenda. Well, we have that data. I reminded you of how much spin and lie there is about this, but 15% of Republicans now disapprove of Trump's term, along with the much more vast numbers I showed you, which is how he's gotten this low. And then there's that record breaking mass protest movement we saw across this year. Even as federal agents kill people in broad daylight, we see these protests. Brave individuals who really, when you think about it, echo the principles of our nation's founders. A revolt against kings and would be kings against abusive government intrusion into the liberties of the people. So here we are. I'll tell you, when we put a report together like this, we write it over time, not all just in one day, and our team works on it. And sometimes I look at it and I think, you know, it is strange to live through this time together with a leader who is so historically unpopular and watch them sometimes wield more impact than others who had actual mandates and public support. There's something that seems really off about that. I bet you feel like that sometimes, if I were guessing. And yet that is also a very old story. Maybe the oldest King George was not popular. That was kind of the whole point. He just had power until he didn't. When enough people come together to assess a ruler based on what they're doing in their facts and also discover they have very little support, well, that can begin their downfall. In a lawful democracy, that can be as simple as realizing that you're dealing with an unpopular lame duck whose time is almost up, who is threatening and cajoling because I guess that's one of the only tools he has left, rather than actually summoning a popular movement that isn't there. Or to paraphrase another student of power, some cowards play tough, switch their demeanor. We don't believe you. You need more people. That was Jay Z addressing a foe who was fake and unpopular. This unpopular leader, Donald Trump, would need a lot more people and the nation stopped believing him a long time ago. That's our special report for you tonight. We'll be right back with Jaco Munduri.
- [24:09]
Legal Expert
It just amazes me that there's not more support out there. It's just we actually have a silent support.
- [24:19]
Lead News Anchor
Donald Trump referencing what has been a polling crash. He's now at a January 6th level low. We're back with Obama campaign veteran Che Komindouri. We worked on that report, Che, to learn from the history. Your thoughts are welcome on all of that. And the question, does it matter that in many parts of the country Donald Trump has engineered an inflated sense or fear of his support?
- [24:46]
Political Commentator
Yeah. I think we have to look back and understand what happened after that. Election. It was a real shock to the country that Donald Trump, number one, won the popular vote and number two, that he did so well with young people, particularly young men. I mean, I remember after the election you saw athletes doing that Trump dance at football games, at ufc. See, even the captain of the US Men's soccer team did the Trump dance. And there was a belief, there was a mistaken belief that people had that, oh, the MAGA future is upon us. This is what Americans want. This is the direction Americans want to go in. Well, newsflash, that is not the direction Americans want to go in. In politics, every day that you spend not talking about something that people care about is a day you have lost. And Trump basically has lost every single day since the inauguration. He has spent every single day of his presidency talking about things that nobody cares about. Whether it's Greenland, whether it's now Susan Rice on the board of Netflix, whether it's, you know, going after the Canadians saying they're going to be the 51st state, going after the Panama Canal. None of this is anything that anybody cares about. Yet Donald Trump incessantly talks about it and doesn't talk about the economy and the cost of living. In fact, he raises and makes the cost of living worse with his tariffs.
- [26:13]
Lead News Anchor
Yeah, and let's show the chart here. I know I showed several, but if you look at the start of the first term to now that slide continues this idea that unbridled, you know, Trump well, this is, I'll show this one as well. This is compared to all the others. So he's got a problem compared to every other two termer. And then if we have, I'm going to tell the Trump approval January 27 to February 2026, we may have or pull it up. You see here, what's the story, you see here of this slide? I mean, there's a thing about Trump where people seem like, oh, he's back, so he must be resilient. It was a comeback, especially after the indictments politically. But 36% is historically weak and he's a lame duck.
- [27:03]
Political Commentator
Well, we have to remember in the first Trump term, Donald Trump inherited a very good economy from Barack Obama. Now, part of the problem that Hillary Clinton and Democrats had was that The Fed in 2015 started raising interest rates cuz they were worried about inflation. Then when Trump took office, they did those huge interest rate cuts so that by 2019, you had an absolutely excellent economy that was roaring that Trump was taking credit for. Now he was reelected, people wanted that pre pandemic economy back he has not brought it back. And not only has he not brought it back, he shows no interest in bringing it back. I will also add, the fact is Trump is not what he used to be. He is not the communicator that he used to be. You know, it is, he's, it's like the cliche of Willie Mays flopping around in the outfield when he got older. That is what Donald Trump is now. He is simply not an effective communicator anymore. I think we have to get over the idea that we are dealing with Donald Trump of the Apprentice, of reality TV fame that we knew from 10 years ago.
- [28:10]
Lead News Anchor
Could we even update, could we even update the reference to Mike Tyson trying to fight today on Netflix?
- [28:19]
Political Commentator
Oh, yeah, exactly. Or you can. Another one I think about is Ali against Trevor Burbeck. Right. Like, you know, that the aging fighter, you know, who is just a shadow of himself. And yeah, Mike Tyson, I think it was against Logan Paul or Jake Paul. I get the. Paul's mixed up. You know, you know this guy.
- [28:36]
Adam Auchler
Yeah.
- [28:36]
Political Commentator
Who's basically an amateur boxer. And, you know, Tyson, you know, has lost a step, obviously. It happens to all of us. It has really happened very much to Donald Trump and that was his superpower. And now it has been taken away.
- [28:50]
Lead News Anchor
Yeah, his superpower taken away. His public approval, historically low. He is, in that sense, defenestrated. And yet some of the most powerful people in the world running these tech companies, these businesses, these billionaires and others bowing to him.
- [29:06]
Political Commentator
Wall.
- [29:06]
Lead News Anchor
And this has become a theme. We don't, you know, this isn't movies. We don't write these scripts. We watch what's happening while the public shows up in this big way. And so he's got all of that coming at him, trying to level up tomorrow and tell a story that a lot of people aren't buying, which was sort of what the data showed us here. Che, always good to see you. Thanks for giving us some context there. It is State of the Union Eve. We're going to look at what Democrats are doing also to change their response, make it different this year. A special guest on that. But the Epstein files. Accountability continues. Donald Trump's nightmare. Other countries showing what accountability looks like. The great Andrew Weissman is here next.
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- [31:16]
Lead News Anchor
A Diplomat to the United States arrested after information from the Epstein files this is a big developing story. It's about a former ambassador to the US In British lore, his name is Peter Mandelson, arrested in the uk. The suspicion is for what they have as a charge called misconduct in public office and it allegedly relates to Epstein. That charge is the same one that British authorities were using against former Prince Andrew, just arrested last week. And you can see to step outside of our own country for a moment just how big this story and the Epstein related fallout, which is from the US Files that were forced to be released over December to January up through the last few weeks, how that is playing out in that country. Both these individuals are accused of improperly leaking information that they had to Epstein. Both have denied wrongdoing. You can see it is part of a growing sweep of accountability all over the place except for inside the Trump Cabinet. There was scrutiny meanwhile on how the Congress has done things that apparently the DOJ under both parties has not, including making a very powerful rich billionaire sit down and face questions under oath about funding Epstein. This was someone you may now have heard of, Les Wexner. Reports are the DOJ never bothered to do an investigative interview and this was how his lawyer was counseling him in terms of not giving long answers during the new deposition.
- [32:42]
Political Analyst
But then all the things were inventoried. That wasn't work for me or Jeffrey. It was just regularly done.
- [33:00]
Lead News Anchor
A lawyer trying to get through to his client. I will effing kill you. We take the words to not be literal. If you go over five words again. But again, as we've said throughout, if you have nothing to hide, why not use more than five words? Tell the truth. And if you care about providing Congress or other parts of the government with information so that they might pursue these leads, couldn't you use more than five words? Democrats say this is part of the larger cover up
- [33:29]
Legal Expert
that seems like coaching the witness and legal parlance. I think that that's not something that is going to be viewed very well by the committee, at least not by me. I think that Mr. Wexner has been coached and I think that is again why so many people think there's a cover up here. There's a cover up of immense dimensions.
- [33:56]
Lead News Anchor
The leads are bringing out action, including arrests abroad. We're joined by Andrew Weisman, former FBI general counsel and former deputy prosecutor in charge of the Mueller probe. Welcome back, Andrew. I do expect you to use more than five words tonight.
- [34:13]
Political Analyst
I will do that even without being
- [34:16]
Lead News Anchor
it's up to you. But that's, yeah, that's the expectation. We mix the almost silly and the baroque with the very serious. Obviously on this story, your view of the first, the investigative process that we are seeing in the UK that the documents added evidence along with perhaps scrutiny and public pressure. What's happening that files uncorked in the US have now led to two high ranking arrests?
- [34:43]
Political Analyst
Well, I think you should put this in the category of people who like to think that America exceptionalism means that our justice system is preeminent and that we do a better job than anyone else. And here you compare what is happening to Lord Mandelson, who is essentially a cabinet. He's a cabinet former, now cabinet minister, but he is like our current cabinet secretary who is the head of commerce, Mr. Lutnick, who was caught as you have regaled us sort of red handed saying something completely untrue to the public and there have been no political repercussions. And yet you have someone in England, not just the man formerly known as Prince Andrew, but also Lord Mandelson. Both have been arrested and investigated. They have also, I should say England, France, Germany, a host of countries have held significant political leaders to account. We have not done that other than in New York State. So people should really think and when they're thinking long and hard about our justice system, there really are models in other countries. Just think about the fact that we have a cabinet secretary, a sitting cabinet secretary who went on air to boast about how much he distanced himself from Jeffrey Epstein only to have that uncovered as simply false. And that means he, in my view, lied, but didn't just make a mistake to the American people. It means that Pam Bondi, who said that she knew everything that was in the Epstein files and reviewed everything, meant she knew that one of her colleagues, another cabinet official, had done this. But she didn't come public with this information. And there's been no repercussions to either of them, in spite of the fact that they have not been, in my view, honest with the American people.
- [36:54]
Lead News Anchor
Right. And that's a level of misconduct that again, Congress, if it took it seriously, could pursue. They could try to have him speak on this matter in more detail. They had him under oath, where he came clean, but ultimately, you know, they could decide whether they view it as something where he's eventually lost confidence, whether he's impeachable. And then you say if the Democrats were to win the midterms because they seem more interested in this accountability than the Republicans right now, you can have a vote in the Senate. You could see how many Republican senators would say no, lying to the public is fine about your association with this sex trafficker pedophile. They're going to get his back, we never know. But I'd be surprised if a lot of them wanted to line up and take that hard vote. And so you get to this question of sort of, yeah, what are the accountability mechanisms when the doj, as you just elucidated, does this and the president clearly doesn't care about this kind of stuff. I wanted to show you other news on this. People say, gosh, this story's going so long and this man died a long time ago. It's only now, this week that Reuters has the report on the Epstein estate finally agreeing to a resolution. They're paying $35 million out of what are the deceased traffickers funds. It still has to be approved by a judge, but it comes from a more recent lawsuit that went after his personal lawyer and accountant Khan, who are the co executors. There's no admission of misconduct, which is often the case in these kind of deals. I'm curious your view of that, Andrew, because while everyone, the worst of the worst, have a right to a lawyer and the confidentialities that go with that, there are serious questions about whether any of the individuals in that circle and DOJ was once looking at this, stepped over the line into other things, which is not part of your legal right. And what do you think of this late effort to move some of this dead traffickers funds back towards the victims.
- [38:51]
Political Analyst
So this is where it's really important to tie this together in terms of accountability. If you are a victim and you are afraid to come forward or you have come forward and people say, well, it's a he said, she said, this is where the disclosure of documents is so important. We still don't have a good sense that whether the Department of Justice really did a thorough investigation. There are all sorts of reports coming out about things that were not done. But we also know that not all of the documents have been revealed, that the Department of Justice has been sitting on them, I think to protect the president, because otherwise there's no reason not to just turn them over in this circumstance, especially since the law requires it and yet they're not doing it. And that means that the victims do not have access to the victims who you're supposed to be protecting. That is why you are in law enforcement, is to do this for victims, not to re victimize them. They don't have the documents. And so I don't really view it as so belated that there may be claims coming up. Now, this is the kind of thing that if they had a full access to the documents to show the full scope of abuse and who participated in the abuse, who either intentionally or recklessly, who aided it, all of the people around Epstein, who facilitated what he was doing, there's no question he couldn't possibly pull this off where it's just him and Ghislaine Maxwell. All of that is material that victims are entitled to in order to vindicate in some measure. They have some recompense for what they went through.
- [40:41]
Lead News Anchor
Yeah, all fair points. And you're reminding us. Right. It's complex when you talk about when something started. Well, when did they get enough evidence to work on it? Andrew, thank you. We have a quick break and then we look at how Democrats are treating tomorrow's State of the Union as not normal. The State of the Union is tomorrow. At least a dozen Democrats will boycott it and they are pursuing alternative programming. There's a rally on the National Mall organized partly in coordination with a very big liberal YouTube network, Midas Touch, that is critical of Trump and has been pushing Democrats at times to adopt a more confrontational stance. We are joined now by Adam Auchler, host, the Adam Auchler show that is part of the Midas Touch Network. Welcome. Tell us about what you're doing and why you think it's time to do something different with these States of the Union.
- [41:35]
Adam Auchler
Abnormal times call for abnormal measures first of all, thank you for having me. I appreciate this. But we have watched this administration lie to our faces time and time again, whether it's about the Epstein files, as you just pointed out in your previous segment, whether it's about Renee, Nicole Good or Alex Preddy, they lied to our eyes about strikes in the Caribbean. And this has been, as everyone could agree, an abnormal administration. So this calls for non traditional techniques, which means not showing up to a State of the Union where they will gaslight the American people. A lot of people don't want to legitimize the speech and that's why the people's State of the Union is happening. I believe the number is actually 20 to 30 Democratic lawmakers from representatives to senators will be skipping Donald Trump's State of the Union showing up to the people's State of the Union. We have Representative Robert Garcia, Senator Ruben Gallego, Senator Ed Markey, Senator Chris Murphy, a bunch of leaders saying that, hey, if they're going to attack the Supreme Court, crash the economy, trample on our rights, then we're not going to play by the rules that they call for.
- [42:36]
Lead News Anchor
When you look at the Democrats in Washington, how do you contrast this level of sort of collaboration with you to say five years ago, there has been
- [42:45]
Adam Auchler
a huge shift in the way that people treat digital media and understand the power in digital media. And that's happened as people have realized that a decentralized way to consume news and share news is very, very helpful. So I think that they're taking this a lot more seriously. And there's a lot of power in that. And that's going to be illustrated 24 hours from now with the People's State of the Union.
- [43:08]
Lead News Anchor
Hmm. Running over on time. How should people connect with you? If they're interested, you can check out
- [43:13]
Adam Auchler
Adam Ochler on YouTube, Midas Touch on YouTube, on all platforms, Facebook, Instagram. Adam Ochler, thank you for having me on.
- [43:20]
Lead News Anchor
Hey, thanks, Adam. And as you know, we were running out of time here, but I wanted to get this in. Definitely interesting thing we'll be keeping an eye on tomorrow. Thank you. We'll be right back. We gave you our State of the Union preview tomorrow. Rachel leads special coverage starting at 7pm Eastern. So you can lock in for the beat at six and keep it going. Rachel and the whole team will be there up through and after the address. As for the beat, I want you to know that Senator Klobuchar and Governor Bashir are both my special guests tomorrow. So we're looking forward to that. Please join us.
- [44:00]
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