← The Briefing with Jen Psaki
The Briefing with Jen Psaki
Blurting Kash Patel brings fresh embarrassment to Donald Trump
00:41:26
Donald Trump's sycophantic FBI director, Kash Patel, has reportedly caused a rift between the FBI and the Secret Service for impulsively posting to social media about an investigation that was still ongoing, part of a pattern of Patel being unable to restrain himself. Patel's embarrassment comes as he is newly accused of making payouts to his inner circle from a taxpayer funded slush fund. Senator Adam Schiff joins Jen Psaki to discuss.
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- [00:00]
A
It is Tuesday in the summer of an election year, and that means we are continuing to track primary elections all across the country. There are primary elections in Alabama, Oklahoma, right here in Washington, D.C. a special election in California, all happening today. But the biggest elections we're following tonight are the Republican runoffs in Georgia, including the race to see which Republican candidate will challenge Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff and Ossoff's reelection fight this November. Now, in that race, Trump decided to throw his support behind Republican Congressman Mike Collins, who is, to put it mildly, this is very generous, loaded with problematic baggage. And in just the last half hour, we learned that Trump backed election denier Mike Collins is projected to become the Republican nominee for Senate in Georgia, beating his opponent, Derek Dooley. Now, as a member of Congress, Mike Collins has used his social media presence to offend just about everybody he can. I mean, there is a social media post just offending just about everybody out there. He's posted in support of throwing an immigrant out of a helicopter. He posted in support of a group of counter protesters harassing a black protester at the University of Missouri, one of whom taunted that black student with monkey noises. He once endorsed a post from an anti Semitic troll who was attacking a reporter for being Jewish. And that's not to say nothing of his latest horrifying social media controversy, which I will try to get into later. A little bit later this hour, as one Georgia Republican strategist told Ms. Now, quote, if you went to a laboratory and tried to create the worst general election candidate for this state and environment possible, you couldn't do better than Mike Collins. He has a ton of personal baggage and won't be able to raise money. He possesses the unique ability to offend female voters with that personal baggage. But also with the hardest right abortion stance you can have, he will lose the Atlanta metro in unprecedented fashion. And we have to hope he doesn't take everyone else down with him. How do you really feel? Anonymous Republican strategist that is now. But on top of all that, Mike Collins is also a notorious election denier, which is of course why Donald Trump decided to endorse him. And that's not just me speculating on that one. When he endorsed Collins, Trump specifically attacked his opponent for admitting Biden had won Georgia in the 2020 election. And that was apparently a deal breaker for Trump. Of course, Trump did in fact lose the state of Georgia in the 2020 election, which isn't something I should have to keep saying six years later, but nevertheless, here we are. Now tonight, we're also watching to find out which Republican candidate will face off against Georgia Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms in the general election for governor. Who's going to join me here in just a few minutes to talk about that. Donald Trump has long supported Georgia's Lieutenant Governor, Bert Jones in that race, a man who narrowly avoided criminal charges for his role in Trump's scheme to overturn the 2020 election. And Jones was one of Georgia's 16 fake electors who tried to throw out the legitimate results from the 2020 election in an attempt to install Trump as president after he had lost to Joe Biden late last year. Trump pardoned Bert Jones for his involvement in that scheme. And now that guy I just described thinks he can be governor. He's long thought he could be governor because he's been running and he's been running against Rick Jackson, a MAGA billionaire and Trump donor who has spent $80 million of his own money on ads comparing himself to Donald Trump. And right now, Burr Jones is trailing Rick Jackson by about seven points. But with a lot of votes still to be counted. We're going to be following the results from that race throughout the night. But before we get there, and we're going to talk to Ali Velshi in a moment, before we get there, if we just zoom out here for a second, Trump has made these primary races a contest over who is most loyal to him. And because Trump is still popular among most of the base, even the Republicans he didn't endorse in those races have still effusively praised and embraced him and his agenda in an effort to court MAGA primary voters. But while embracing Trump might be central to winning Republican primaries, where there is a small, die hard electorate voting, their embrace of Trump could doom them in a general election when they're competing for votes among a far broader electorate. Because right now, Donald Trump's agenda is toxic. Literally. I mean, I was just talking to Chris about this. This is a recent shot of Washington DC's reflecting pool on the Lincoln Memorial. You know, the one Donald Trump has been bragging about renovating for the past two months. Trump said he was going to make the pool American flag blue. Does it look American flag blue to you? But after he gave a no bid contract to a swimming pool company to carry out the massive renovation, the pool has suddenly filled with algae and turned a noxious shade of green. Now, the drain the swamp jokes basically write themselves at this point. There's so many to do here. But yesterday a spokesperson for the Interior Department told the New York Times that the Trump administration has this whole situation under control. She said, quote, due to deploying the advanced nanobubbler technology, the algae is dead and being vacuumed up as we speak. But despite that so called advanced nanobubbler technology workers were seen dumping gallons and gallons of hydrogen peroxide into the reflecting pool just this morning. And as if that giant on the nose visual metaphor for for Trump's corruption and incompetence wasn't enough, today we also got the news that Trump has been funneling hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money into his big, unpopular ballroom project. Trump has repeatedly claimed that the ballroom would be completely paid for by private donations. But according to the Washington Post, Trump has been getting detailed invoices since he first announced the project. And those records show that his project costs considerably more than he has publicly admitted and that more than half of it is coming from taxpayers. Republicans were already desperate to distance themselves from this project and reassure voters that their tax money was not being spent to build Trump a party room in his honor. Now we're learning that taxpayer money has been paying for most of the project, and Trump has known about it the entire time. He has made himself a huge liability in this election. Every unpopular decision he makes somehow ends up being more outrageous and more unpopular by the day. And nowhere is that more true than in his disastrous war with Iran. I mean, Trump already angered voters everywhere by driving up gas prices and wasting billions of taxpayer dollars and costing the lives of 13 service members, all for a war we didn't need to get into. But now, in a desperate attempt to get out of that war, Trump appears to have just given up conceding to Iran without accomplishing any of his stated objectives. He basically announced an agreement to keep talking with Iran. It's not a deal. That's what it is. It's an agreement to keep talking with Iran. Let's hope that keeps happening. And so far, the only real concession that we can confirm Iran has made is reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which was only closed because Trump started this war in the first place. And Iran's Foreign Ministry says that under the deal, Iran may get to earn fees on the vessels passing through the state straight. And Iran may also get a $300 billion recovery fund out of the deal, too. Doesn't seem like Trump's winning the art of the deal there, does it? I mean, his war was already deeply unpopular. Now Republicans are going to have to try to justify the immense cost of that war without anything to show for it. They're going to have to run with a deeply unpopular president at the head of their party. A president who promised to end stupid wars and then within two years launched one of the stupidest wars the country has ever seen. The Republican candidates in tonight's primary races have just spent months and some of them a lot of money sucking up to Trump, tying themselves to his agenda, even comparing themselves to Trump himself. But after tonight, the general election starts and Donald Trump is, is about to become their biggest liability. We've got so much to get to tonight, but let's get straight to msnow chief data reporter Ali Velshi, who is at the big board for us and also doing his show at 11pm because he is a freaking amazing machine. Okay, Ali, what are we seeing in Georgia already? One of the races has been called. How'd that happen? What else should we know?
- [08:50]
B
Well, good night for Jon Ossoff because it sort of suits him for all the reasons you stated to be up against Mike Collins, who got Donald Trump's endorsement, 71% of the vote. Mike Collins 12 points ahead of Derek Dooley. And we're pretty comfortable that that's, that lead is going to stay similar. So Mike Collins is going to go up against Jon Ossoff. Remember, there was a time when Republicans thought that Ossoff was vulnerable. We've got Georgia as lean Democrat, not likely Democrat. It's not a sure thing. But think if you're Jon Ossoff's team because of that quote you read by a Republican strategist, an anonymous Republican strategist said if you, you know, if you had to put together the least likely candidate to win here, Mike Collins would be him. So he's going to take that race with about the same percentage of the vote in on the gubernatorial primary. We're not able to call this one yet. Bert Jones, who has the endorsement of Donald Trump and the endorsement of Brian Kemp, is in is way behind. But this gap is narrowing. 71% of the vote in. Rick Jackson is still in the lead. As you said, he spent about 80 million of his own dollars on this campaign. This is going to be one of the most expensive campaigns. He's in the lead and he's been in the lead all night. But the lead is narrowing, which is why we're not able to call this. I do wanna go back to the primary in May. You saw Brad Raffensperger, who's the guy who didn't agree to find those 11,000 votes for Donald Trump, came out, came with 15% of the votes. If you're not a Trumpy guy right now in the Republican Party in Georgia, you don't do too well. So he's out of the race. Bert Jones was at 38% in May. Obviously without 50%, you have to go to a runoff. And you can see that he has not made up all of that difference. Seem to be stuck here. All right, well, he has not been able to make up all of that difference. And so we're waiting to see what happens there. You're gonna be talking to Keisha Lance. Bottom so it'll be interesting to see who of these two candidates she would rather be running against. She said that they're both maga. And the issue is that Bert Jones is an election denier. As you pointed out, he's been pardoned. They're gonna have to make, they're gonna have to make a big decision in, in Georgia about what Republicans are gonna do. But that's where called who the gubernatorial candidate is going to be in Georgia with 75% of the vote in. As I said, the vote is narrowing. Rick Jackson's in the lead. But I would watch this very carefully, and I will watch it very carefully with you over the next hour to see where this goes.
- [11:18]
A
It's a fascinating one. I'm about to talk to Jim Messina and Tim Miller about it. I'm so interested in, I mean, rick Jackson spent $80 million of his own money basically comparing himself to Trump. But in some ways he's more of the outsider, and I'm interested in how that plays.
- [11:32]
B
Well, that's true. And Bert Jones is the lieutenant governor, and that's his argument. He's been in government. He's recognizable. But if you spend $80 million. If I spend $80 million, my name would also be more recognizable in a campaign. So this is an interesting battle. And again, is being the Trumpier guy the more MAGA guy, is that helpful? It may be in a primary in Georgia, it may not be in the general for all the reasons that you stated.
- [11:54]
A
Ali Vilshi, I donate to your campaign, but we need you here, too. We'll come back and we'll check in with you a little bit later. Thank you so much as always. And joining me now as I just referenced two of my absolute favorite people to talk to on an election night. Jim Messina is the former campaign manager for President Barack Obama's 2012 reelection campaign. And Tim Miller is the host of the Bulwark Podcast. Okay. Lots to talk about tonight. I want to start because we know that Senator Jon Ossoff is going to face Mike Collins in November. And, I mean, we were looking up just how people were projecting this race six months ago, nine months ago, a year ago. I mean, this was the race Republicans were licking their chops about for a long time. Where do you think that sits now? What are your other takeaways from what we know so far?
- [12:40]
C
Couple things. One, Georgia is now the swingiest state in America. So both parties look at this and say, this is a bellwether for the 2028 presidential. But the Republicans decided to nominate Matt Collins, who has more baggage than Donald Trump's reflection pool, green algae thing. I mean, it is ridiculous how much baggage this guy has. So, to the general, I think Ossoff got exactly who he wanted. Ossoff has $32 million cash on hand. The Republicans are going to come into the general election with almost no money, and they nominated the wrong candidate. Donald Trump continues to want to nominate the people that are most loyal to him, who are usually the worst people in a general election. Being loyal to Donald Trump can get you killed in the general election. And I think that's what we're likely to see in November.
- [13:27]
A
So, Tim, I mean, Georgia is very swingy, as Jim just said. Every time I've talked to Jon Ossoff a lot, and every time he comes on, he's like, they're gonna throw everything at me. And they will.
- [13:38]
D
Right?
- [13:38]
A
He's still the most targeted Democrat. Maybe we'll see what happens in Michigan. Give us your take on what you know about the race. And also, Mike Collins, I mean, this anonymous quote I read from a Republican was like, he'll have trouble raising money. He will be killed in the suburbs. What do you make of his candidacy and where the Ossoff race sits right now?
- [13:57]
E
Yeah, I actually might quibble with that. I'm not sure if they end up throwing everything that they can at Jon Ossoff after all this. And it's kind of crazy that we would be in this position where a state like Georgia would be kind of teetering on the edge of the map for Republicans. And I think that depending on how things shake out with the economy and how things look in the fall, nominating Mike Collins might put Republicans in a position where they decide they want to spend money that they were going to spend in Georgia to solidify some of the other red states that might be added to the map. Maybe in Iowa, where the Democrats nominated a strong candidate, Josh Turek, or Alaska, where they nominated Mary, or where Mary Patola is the likely nominee there. So the Mike Collins pick is a disaster. You laid it all out at the top. It's crazy. When you think about Georgia, you can imagine an alternate universe where Donald Trump was not the president was not petty. Brian Kemp is the sitting governor of Georgia, popular governor. I mean, that would have been a real challenge for Jon Ossoff. That would have been throwing everything at Jon Ossoff. And Brian Kent would have had a really a puncher's chance of knocking him off. He can't even get through a Republican primary because he stood up to Donald Trump. And so he decides not to run. And instead that Brad Raffensperger ran, as Ali mentioned, it ended up getting 15% of the vote. Well, that was in the governor's race. But even still, the same thing would have been true in the Senate race. So I think the governor's race could end up being a lot more interesting. But man, I mean, Jon Ossoff would never say this. You know, he's gotta run to win, but he's sitting pretty right now.
- [15:24]
A
Yeah, I mean, I know he'll never say that. Cuz no candidate should ever say that.
- [15:28]
D
Right.
- [15:28]
A
We've all worked for candidates. They should always say, I'm about to be crushed. He will keep saying that. Let's talk about the governor's race because Tim just brought that up. There's been so much attention paid to the Senate race. But Keisha Lance Bottoms is. She's. I'm gonna talk to her in a minute, but she's neck and neck with both of these candidates in the polls. And I just went through this, but just to remind people. So Brian Kemp and Donald Trump both endorsed the lieutenant governor, which is pretty interesting. Bert Jones, who's an election denier and was an election like he was involved in the 2020 effort himself personally, had to get pardoned. He had to get pardoned. Still thinks he can be governor. I guess there's that for chutzpah. But his opponent, Rick Jackson, who is ahead, currently spent $80 million in ads. More than that, I think overall he's running as an outsider trying to. He's still maga. Where do you think that race sits?
- [16:21]
C
Look, I think if you look at that with, and I totally agree with Tim, Mike Collins allows the Democrats to have a shot in both races. I think he's going to be an anvil on the ticket for the Republicans. And when you look at the governor's race, it's interesting. Apparently $80 million can buy you love in Georgia. And you know, if he wins tonight, he has a really interesting perspective as the outsider still has all the MAGA baggage. And so I think it'll be really interesting to see in this kind of potentially a wave year, does the baggage count more or does the outsider count more? And it's really interesting that in a state that both parties have to have in the 2028 election, Donald Trump backed a candidate who may be losing tonight, his second loss in three weeks in major race.
- [17:06]
A
Yeah, I mean, it's MAGA billionaire versus maga. I mean, you know, they're all, even Rick Jackson ran maga. I mean, he's just a MAGA billionaire. He just wasn't in elected office. Let me ask you, Tim. I mean, you mentioned Brian Kemp. He is somebody who, I mean, not that long ago, I think most of us would have said was still a rising star in the Republican Party. Was this an alternate direction and future of the Republican Party? It doesn't feel that way now. I mean, what do you think it says about Republicans in Georgia or just the future of an alternative to Trump? We've talked about this before, but what's your take on that?
- [17:46]
E
And I remember being on a panel with Karl Rove a couple of years ago where he was talking about how Brian Kemp could be a future Republican nominee. And I was at the time I was like, Carl, you've been right about a lot, but I don't think you're right about this. And we see it now. Who knows what the future holds, right? Donald Trump's presidency ends in tatters in two years, God willing, and he's at 19% in the polls or something. Maybe Republicans decide they need to go a whole new direction, but anything in our field of vision, the party just isn't welcoming to somebody like Brian Kemp who is willing to stand up for democracy. That's pretty sad. And I think that that is a big reason why Georgia is moving off the map for Republicans. High college educated state, obviously a lot of black voters. Demographically, it's not a good state. Can we, can I throw you one different 2028 thing? Just nerd out on a politics panel for one second. The importance of the governor's race for Keisha Lance Bottoms, for her winning against Rick Jackson. Here's something. If into the crystal ball, if Jon Ossoff or Raphael Warnock want to be on the top or number two on the ticket for the Democrats in 2028, they need Keisha Lance Bottoms to win that governor race this year. Because if it's a Republican on the top of the ticket, they would be taking a Democratic seat out of the Senate. And that would be challenging to do and not something a lot of people would want to do. So anyway, I bet you that Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff are campaigning hard for Keisha Land's Bottoms this fall. That's all I got to say about that.
- [19:09]
A
We're going to talk about that. They've said they're going to run together. I'm sure there's much than that. But yeah, because the governor would, of course name the replacement. And in addition, given all the shenanigans the Republicans may be up to in 2028, certainly if either of them run, they'd love to have Keisha Lance Bottoms and not the alternative in the governor's mansion. Jim Messina and Tim Miller, thank you as always for joining me. Appreciate it.
- [19:33]
D
Okay.
- [19:33]
A
We're keeping a very close eye on that Republican gubernatorial runoff in Georgia right now. Again, it's a literal fake elector taking on a billionaire, both of them maga. That doesn't tell you where Donald Trump's Republican Party is right now. I really don't know what does. And I'm about to talk to the person one of them is going to face in November. Keisha Lance Bottoms is the Democratic nominee for governor and she joins me. Well, Republicans have been duking it out for the past several weeks in Georgia as we've been talking about through the course of the show. We have known since last month that incumbent Jon Ossoff would be the Democratic candidate for Senate and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms will be the Democratic candidate for governor. And now Jon Ossoff knows he'll face Mike Collins. But we are still awaiting results in the Republican runoff for governor. And I just want to reiterate that the choice for Georgia Republicans in that race today is quite telling. I mean, they will elect or nominate, I should say either a billionaire health care executive, Rick Jackson, who is MAGA for sure, or current Lieutenant Governor Bert Jones, who has the backing of both President Trump and Governor Brian Kemp and was a fake elector in 2020. On the slate Trump ally sent in an effort to get Congress to certify Trump as the winner of a state Joe Biden legitimately won. Again, keep having to restate that. Jones was even caught on camera in the room at the Georgia state Capitol in 2020. There you can see him activ actively engaged in trying to undermine the will of the people he now hopes to serve. An election denier versus a billionaire, both maga. I can't think of anything that sums up the state of the Republican Party in 2026. Much better than that. And I'm pretty sure my next guest is relishing the prospect of facing either one of them. Joining me now is Keisha Lance, bottom's Democratic nominee for governor of Georgia. It's great to see you. Thanks for being with us tonight.
- [21:35]
D
Great to see you and thank you for having me.
- [21:38]
A
So right now, as you are closely watching, as we are closely watching, we don't know who the nominee is going to be yet. It's either a MAGA fake elector or a MAGA billionaire. Do you have a preference? Does your campaign team have a preference on who you face?
- [21:52]
D
They're both equally awful. You've got Bert Jones, as you mentioned, who is an election denier. And then you've got Rick Jackson who said that if he's elected, he will be Donald Trump's favorite governor. They both want to be Donald Trump. And that's not what the people of Georgia want. The people of Georgia want a leader who's going to help expand Medicaid in this state. We've had 500,000 people who've dropped their health care coverage since the big ugly bill. They want a leader who's going to help address this cost of living issue that we have in this state, who's going to help improve literacy, support our small businesses. And the list goes on. These guys don't have a clue. Rick Jackson got a $1 billion no bid contract from the state of Georgia, made a billion dollars from a no bid contract during the pandemic. And then you've got Bert Jones who has made millions upon millions of dollars through his leadership at the state. So pick an awful candidate and it's one of them.
- [22:59]
A
We were just talking about this, I was talking about this with Tim Miller and Jim Messina, how much it matters who wins the governor's race in Georgia and for a range of reasons. But one of them I mentioned is we already have seen the funny business that they have tried in Fulton County. We know they're going to try it again in 2028. It matters who's sitting in that governor's mansion. So you're running to be in that seat for people who think elections, they matter, they don't matter. Why does it matter? What will you do if they try to do that leading up to the 2028 election?
- [23:29]
D
Yeah, it absolutely matters. I mean, the governor of Georgia is a pretty powerful position and to have the ability to make a decision regarding whether or not we have free and fair elections in this state. We actually saw Brian Kemp and Raffensperger stand up to Donald Trump in 2020. That actually made a difference in the state. So you've got to have reasonable people in leadership, otherwise you make a mockery of our democracy. At the end of the day, it's about electing leaders who care about the needs of the people. I've moved all around this state, Jen. It's the reason we won 158 out of 159 counties during the primary, because not only did I get an opportunity to talk to people, but I had a great opportunity to listen to people about the issues that they want to see addressed. Young people share concerns about lack of access to mental health care. Teachers talked about being underpaid. We've heard issues regarding affordable housing. Now we've got astronomical gas prices in this state. These guys aren't talking about those issues. They're talking about pleasing Donald Trump, and that's not gonna work in Georgia.
- [24:51]
A
They're trying to hug him harder. They're competing for that. You've campaigned with Senator Jon Ossoff, who's of course up for reelection at the same time. And we'll learn who. We know who his opponent is gonna be at this point in time. How closely are you two planning to work together to campaign in parts of the state, to campaign as a ticket, to campaign for other down ballot races? What is that gonna look like moving forward?
- [25:17]
D
We've been in lockstep and it's been great to campaign with John. We had a great rally in Georgia. We have one coming up in Savannah next week, I believe, and you'll see us together quite a bit. Our teens are talking on a daily basis. Senator Ossoff is a friend. He's been a tremendous leader. And it's another reason that Georgia is in either political storm. We know that his seat is, has been a number one target for Republicans. They've already poured millions of dollars into his race. On my side, Rick Jackson, who looks like may be the nominee, has already spent more than $120 million of his own money on a primary. He's attempting to buy this election with his unlimited resources. It's the reason that Senator Ossoff and I need support from across this country. If you want to support our campaign, you can do that, by the way, by going to keisha4Governor.com but leadership matters. Georgia matters this election cycle. It's going to help determine possibly the balance of the Senate and certainly the direction that the state goes in for many, many years to come.
- [26:36]
A
Keisha, Lance Bottoms, thank you. And you may want to keep the TV on because the results are still coming in. Allie Velshy is still at the big board and he's going to tell us where things stand when we come back. Okay. Results are still coming in from some high stakes primary races in Georgia as well as other states across the country. Ms. Now senior data reporter and tireless vest wearer Ali Velshi is still at the big board tracking all of the numbers. Okay, Ali, what's the latest?
- [27:13]
B
Well, you had a great conversation with Keisha Lance Bottoms as you discussed, the Senate primary settled. Right now it's going to be Mike Collins against Jon Ossoff With 82% of the vote in. We can pretty comfortably call that. But here's the thing. If you look at the gubernatorial GOP primary, same 82% of the vote is in. Exactly the same people have voted. But we haven't called that race yet. It is narrowing between rick Jackson, who spent 80 million doll his campaign and Bert Jones, the lieutenant governor who is an election denier. He's a 47%. Here's why we haven't called that. First of all, we got three counties where we don't have vote, but these are not very populous counties. So that's not going to be the main issue. But if you look around the Atlanta area, Atlanta, Athens, Georgia, University of Georgia, Columbus, the population center, Savannah, they're all in but around Atlanta. And the most populous county in Atlanta is Fulton County. Only 43% of the vote is in in Fulton County. In Cobb county, only 54% of the vote. Cobb county, the bottom half of Cobb county, sort of the southeast part is usually very overwhelmingly Democratic. The northwest part is a little more Republican. This all the northwest part falls into this, which used to be Marjorie Taylor Greene's old constituency, which was the most reliably Republican district in in the state. So what we're looking for is to see overall as these come in, whether Burke Jones can actually make up ground. There is actually a possibility that Burke Jones can make up ground. He's got. Well, in these Atlanta area counties, 43% is still in Fulton County. If you look over at Douglas county right next door, we got 99% of the vote in. So that's why this is not called yet. We do not know who Keisha Lance Bottoms is going to be up against in that gubernatorial campaign. But as she said, this is a funny internecine fight in the party. As you said, a MAGA billionaire and an election denier. This isn't necessarily going to resonate with some Republicans in the state. It may not resonate with independents and moderates in the state as well. So while I think this is a pretty good night for Jon Ossoff because he knows how to define himself against who he's running against, this is also going to sit well for Keisha Lance Bottoms because she's got a way to define herself against these guys who are busy fighting for what a Republican in Georgia actually is. You'll remember Brad Raffensperger, the one who stood up to Donald Trump, blown out of this race. In fact, how many times have you and I been here on Tuesday night where someone who has stood up to Donald Trump on something, including Nancy Mace in, in South Carolina, out of the race entirely. So we shall see many times.
- [29:50]
A
We will keep watching closely. Ally Velchi, thank you so much. As always, we're going to keep an eye on those, close those results very closely. And insane news night. But up next, I'm going to tell you how and why Cash Patel reportedly set up a slush fund of his own and why the Secret Service is also so mad at him today. Senator Adam Schiff is standing by and he joins me here at the table. When we come back, Here's a sentence I never thought I'd say. The Secret Service is pissed off at the FBI. Specifically, three people familiar with the incident tell msnow that Secret Service officials, officials are mad that this morning Trump's FBI director, Kash Patel, prematurely announced the details of a sealed and ongoing criminal investigation into a plot to attack Sunday's UFC match at the White House. Now, the sources say that roughly 10 suspects had not yet been arrested and placed in custody when Patel made his announcement. The sources say that the Secret Service and the FBI had been partnered on the investigation and had planned to make a joint announcement about it later. But the sources say Patel jumped the gun. This morning, the deputy director of the Secret Service responded to a question about the FBI revealing their investigation. And while he never said Patel's name explicitly, just listen. It's kind of obvious who he was talking about.
- [31:19]
F
I'll tell you a phrase I learned early in my career in the New York field office, and that's don't choke on your own smoke. Anyone that believes that case was worked in a bubble is naive. I'll tell you, the Secret Service led that investigation from the beginning. I'll tell you that it's ongoing. In order to maintain the integrity of the investigation and the security plan, we chose not to leak it.
- [31:43]
A
That's quite the subtweet. There isn't it. Well, the Secret Service chose not to leak the details of this criminal investigation prematurely because that would be dangerous and stupid. People familiar with the incident are now leaking like a sieve about Kash Patel and how dangerous and stupid it was for him to leak those details. And that fits a larger pattern. We have seen over Patel's entire tenure as the director of the FBI. Over and over again, we have learned about one scandal after another because people inside Patel's own FBI are so alarmed, they leak to the press. Remember when the New York Times reported that Cash Patel had assigned a SWAT team to escort his girlfriend around? The FBI actually ended up confirming that was true, saying the extra protection was needed because of threats. But we only learned about that scandal because an FBI official briefed on the matter chose to tell the New York Times, remember the Atlantic's reporting on allegations of Patel's excessive drinking? We talked about it on the show that night with the reporter who wrote it. Patel sued the Atlantic over that reporting, denying all of it. But that reporting relied on more than two dozen sources, including then current FBI officials. Cash Patel has had so many scandals. And now the Democratic Chair of the House Oversight Committee, Jamie Raskin, is alleging that there might be more scandals that have never come out because he alleges that Patel may be buying people silence with your tax dollars. By the way, in a letter to the FBI, Raskin alleges that Patel has given FBI employees more than a million taxpayer dollars from a slush fund. Raskin alleges that payments of nearly $8,000 each have been made to multiple individuals every two week pay period, despite those individuals already maxing out their federal salaries. Raskin alleges that the payments are being made to a, quote, curated group of agents who are willing to carry out Patel's unlawful, partisan and personal orders, as well as to Patel's security detail. As Raskin puts it, it's not clear whether these bonus payments have simply been a corrupt attempt to slide cash to friends or whether they are also meant to ensure the silence of the agents who witness your inebriation and accompanying professional negligence and misconduct. Hard to know. Joining me now is Senator Adam Schiff, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which of course oversees the FBI. Okay, where to begin? What's your thoughts on those Cash Patel stories?
- [34:07]
F
This is what happens when you take someone who is completely incompetent and you put them in charge of what had been the premier law enforcement agency in the country. He was so unqualified for this position. His only real qualification is that he was willing to do anything Trump wanted. But that doesn't substitute for being competent at your job. So we've had embarrassment after embarrassment after embarrassment. If these latest allegations are true, it goes beyond embarrassing to potential violations of the law. If he is misappropriating federal funds to pay off people in the bureau or elsewhere, that is a very serious matter. He could find himself under investigation. So you wonder how many embarrassments to the president is he willing to take before he does something? The president, I think, values Patel and his just dogged determination to do anything the president wants. But right now, he's doing something the president doesn't want, which is continually drawing attention to himself with embarrassing activity that compromises investigations.
- [35:15]
A
Mine goes to some very dark places when I think about this question, but why do you think the president keeps him around?
- [35:22]
F
Well, he doesn't want anyone of stature in these positions, nobody that can stand up to him. He certainly doesn't want a Mueller or a Comey or someone of that kind of gravitas. He wants someone who will do his bidding. He wants someone that he can manipulate that won't challenge him in any way. And that's Patel. That's why he was chosen. He was the guy when he was on a staffer on House intel that would do Devin Nunes dirty work. And now he's willing to do dirty work for the president. That's why he's kept around. But he's been embarrassment on the Epstein files and created problems there, promising that the FBI director had the black book on his desk and then he becomes the FBI director and suddenly there's no black book.
- [36:03]
C
So.
- [36:04]
F
So it is just a continual embarrassment to the country, to the president. But more important, our public safety is sacrificed by this, by his premature announcements in the assassination of Charlie Kirk and now the premature, you know, credit claiming but investigation potentially compromising statements about this latest plot on the UFC fight.
- [36:27]
A
It is, there's a lot to work with should the Senate beshould the Democrats be in the majority and decide to investigate or look into Patel? I mean, you are one of the many people who have been targeted by Trump's Justice Department under Trump's direction, as we've all seen it. One another person who announced yesterday that he was being targeted is, of course, Governor Gavin Newsom. I know you spoke with some of my colleagues about that last night. But I wonder as we're thinking about, because we've been talking about the Georgia races tonight, we've been talking about politics as we think about if Democrats have the majority next Year you're on the Judiciary Committee, Trump is still going to target his political enemies. He's not going to stop. He's going to have people in the Department of Justice, justice that does that. What changes? What can a Senate majority do to kind of hold them to account or even stop that?
- [37:14]
F
Well, we will, of course, do oversight of the administration, but judging from his first term, when we subpoenaed, for example, administration officials in the Russia or Ukraine investigations, they basically stonewalled the subpoenas. In fact, Trump was impeached in that first impeachment, not just for trying to extort Zelensky to get him to help cheat in the election, but also because he was stonewalling congressional subpoenas. So I don't think we can expect a whole lot from the administration, but we can subpoena the private sector, and they will need to comply. So all of the crypto deals and meme coin dinners, the UFC fight, all the back channeling on the Paramount, Skydance and Warner Brothers mergers, where there are promises made of changing editorial content and all of that kind of corruption, potential corruption we will be able to look into.
- [38:06]
A
Iran is such a big topic, but I got to ask you about it because we were just talking about this and I saw the same quote where a White House official told CNN that people shouldn't read too much into the language of the MoU. This was an anonymous quote to CNN about the agreement that the administration now describing it as a political document. I thought that was so telling. What should people understand about what is and isn't actually happening here?
- [38:34]
F
Well, you know, when the administration's best line about their own deal is don't read too much into it.
- [38:41]
A
Yeah.
- [38:41]
F
Don't expect too much out of it. What we're gonna show you whenever we deem you worthy of seeing it, is a political document. So don't pay attention to it. What you should really pay attention to is not anything the Iranians are willing to sign, but it is some kind of private commitments we've gotten. But we've seen the administration, the president's representations about how eager the Iranians are for this or how much the Iranians want that. It's all turned out to be bs. So what can we really conclude from what we're about to see, this vague document, this political document? Well, it appears they're not willing to stand behind it. It doesn't say very much. It is basically an agreement to agree at some later point in time. And it shouldn't give really any confidence that there's any of the difficult diplomacy that's been done or that is likely to be done in the next 60 days. Hard to see how this ends. Well, it sounds like it will either end in a face saving non agreement 60 days from now or resumption of war.
- [39:47]
A
Senator Adam Schiff, thank you as always. We spanned the gamut there. We covered a lot. Thank you for being here. And before we go to break, we do have to call a call to make in the hotly contested Republican runoff for Georgia governor. We've been following all night. The Associated Press is now projecting that Rick Jackson, again, who spent $100 million of his own money, 80 million of which he did in ads to compare himself to Trump, has won the race and will face Democratic nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms in November. Again, this is a MAGA billionaire. I just mentioned how much he spent comparing himself to Trump. We know exactly who he is. It's going to be quite a race. And once again, Trump endorsed his oppone. That all tells you a whole lot about the Republican Party, doesn't it? Okay, up next, we also have got a very exciting announcement about some things we've got planned for the rest of the week. We'll be right back. Okay. Tomorrow I'm headed to Chicago because this week the Obama Presidential center is officially opening. And we're going to be doing the show live from Chicago tomorrow night with some very special guests, including House Speaker Emerito Nancy Pelosi. And then on Thursday, we'll be doing the show live from the Obama Presidential center, capping off a full day of coverage here on Ms. Now. And then on Friday, the day the center opens to the public, we're going to have a two hour special hosted by my colleague Michelle Norris, who got an early look inside the center and also spoke with President Obama and Michelle Obama. That starts at 9pm Eastern on Friday night. That does it for me tonight. You can catch the show Tuesday through Friday at 9pm Eastern on Ms. Now. And don't forget to follow the show on Blue sky, Instagram and TikTok.