← The Briefing with Jen Psaki
The Briefing with Jen Psaki
Trump lawyer flops defending slush fund at Senate hearing
00:41:13
Acting Attorney General and former Donald Trump criminal defense attorney Todd Blanche tried to convince the Senate Appropriations Committee that giving Donald Trump $1.8 billion to distribute to his legally aggrieved political allies is a reasonable thing to do. Senator Chris Van Hollen talks with Jen Psaki about why he wasn't fooled.
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Commercial Announcer
America is an idea. For 250 years, that idea has helped expand our rights and our freedoms. But progress isn't guaranteed. Today. Those founding principles are being challenged by efforts to mix religion and government. The Freedom From Religion foundation is working to protect the Constitution and keep power where it belongs, with we the people. Visit FFRF US MSNOW or text MSNOW to 511511. Text MSNOW to 511511 and keep state and church separate. Text fees may apply.
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Janine Aaron
As you all know, because you just maybe you were watching, maybe you've been clicking on Blue sky or wherever you're looking. It is a big election night in six states where voters cast their ballots in a bunch, a bunch of key primary races. We're following all of them. Polls have now closed in most of those states. Results are coming in. They've been coming in. They're going to keep coming in. We're going to keep bringing you updates. And there are a lot of important races that we're following tonight. I'm going to go through a bunch of them here so you know what we're tracking. In Georgia, three Republicans have been locked in a bit primary battle to see who will run against incumbent Senator Jon Ossoff. And remember Jon Ossoff. He, he is one of the most, if not the most heavily targeted Democratic incumbents on the ballot this year. And we're gonna learn at least more tonight about who he may face in November. We're also following the results from both the Democratic and Republican primaries in Georgia's crucial race for governor. Also in Georgia, we're getting results from the two hotly contested races for seats on the state Supreme Court after two candidates received very big endorsements from former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Kamala Harris. But the most closely watched race tonight was probably the Republican primary for Kentucky's 4th congressional district, where Donald Trump and his billionaire allies waged a quite a retribution campaign to unseat conservative incumbent Congressman Thomas Massie. And tonight, the Associated Press projects that Trump backed challenger Ed Galrain has defeated Thomas Massie in that primary, nearly $33 million. I should note was spent in that race, making it the most expensive congressional primary race in history. Donald Trump was so determined to oust Massie, he personally attacked him multiple times on Truth Social just in the last few days at events and on X, calling him things like the worst congressman and a rhino and urging voters repeatedly to replace him. He even dispatched his Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, to campaign for Massie's opponent. Of course, while the country is in the middle of a war, the point is this. It's clear that Trump really, really, really wanted Thomas Massie out of office. And tonight, after his backers spent millions and he had his used his own bully pulpit over and over again to attack Massie, he succeeded. So why did Trump spend so much energy to defeat a conservative congressman in this Republican primary? Well, I think Thomas Massie actually said it best himself.
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News Anchor
I vote with Republicans 91% of the time and the 9% I don't. They're taken up for pedophiles starting another war or bankrupting our country.
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Janine Aaron
That about says it all. Thomas Mazzi is one of the most conservative members of Congress, but he has refused to stick by Donald Trump on two fundamental issues, very big ones this year where Trump has betrayed his own MAGA base. I mean, Massie co sponsored the resolution that forced the release of the Epstein files and he's been a vocal critic of the administration's efforts to cover them up. You see him there on the screen with a bunch of survivors. And he's also opposed Trump's war with Iran and even co sponsored the War Powers Resolution to end that war tonight. In his concession speech, Massie touted his work on exposing Epstein's enablers and co conspirators and hinted that there may be more to come.
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Senator Chris Van Hollen
We need basic decency.
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News Anchor
That's what the Epstein Files Transparency act was all about. By the way, today is the six month anniversary of the Epstein Files Transparency act. We've taken out two dozen CEOs, an
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Senator Chris Van Hollen
ambassador,
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News Anchor
a prince, a prime minister,
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Jim Messina
a
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Janine Aaron
minister of culture,
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Senator Chris Van Hollen
and that was just six months. I got seven months left in Congress.
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Janine Aaron
That guy does not seem to be slinking away. He almost seemed gleeful about the seven months he has left in Congress to do a lot more on that particular issue. So yeah, I mean, the guy has been a very loyal conservative on nearly every issue. I probably disagree with him on a lot of policy issues, a whole host of them, maybe the majority. He's also been a huge thorn in the side of Trump and that is why Trump wanted Massey out of office. So for Donald Trump, tonight's primary is supposed to be all about loyalty. I mean, he wants to show that Republicans who are not unflinchingly loyal to him and his administration will pay a price. That's what it's about. He's already ousted Republican Senator Bill Cassidy for his heretical vote to convict Trump over January 6th. And he did the same to several Indiana state lawmakers who bucked his agenda on redistricting. The message is supposed to be that the only way to stay in Trump's good graces is by showering him with praise, supporting whatever he does, and telling him he's just amazing all around. But here's the thing. It doesn't actually always work like that with Trump. Now, don't get me wrong. Republicans who oppose Trump will probably wind up facing some mean tweets and a Trump endorsed primary opponent, and maybe millions spent against them. Just ask Thomas Massie. But Republicans who stay loyal to Trump don't always get rewarded for their so called good behavior either. I mean, just consider the case of Texas Senator John Cornyn, who has embarrassed himself over and over again trying to stay in Trump's good graces in the Senate. Cornyn votes with Trump, Donald Trump, 99% of the time, even more than his fellow Texas Senator, Ted Cruz. He posts cringy photos of himself on social media. You see there, there's the one on your screen. That's him reading Trump's book, just hoping that Trump will notice him and tell him he's a good boy. Now, this year, Cornyn even introduced a bill to rename a highway after Donald Trump. But none of that, none of that seemed to matter to Donald Trump, because despite all of that, Trump announced just today that he will endorse John Cornyn's primary opponent, Ken Paxton, in the Texas Republican Senate runoff next week. And Trump made that decision despite all of Cornyn's humiliating attempts to suck up to him, and despite the fact that Ken Paxton is a deeply flawed candidate. I mean, this guy has spent years under a massive cloud of indictments, impeachment, whistleblower allegations, repeated allegations of misconduct and abuse of office. And that doesn't even touch on the allegations of adultery from his former wife who filed for divorce and what she called biblical grounds. So, yeah, that guy Trump just endorsed, well, he might have a harder time holding onto that seat. And that's why Senate Republicans spent months trying to convince Trump to back Cornyn and why they're now reportedly livid about Trump's decision. I mean, after Trump's endorsement, Senator Lindsey Graham told reporters that he thinks the Texas Senate race will cost Republicans three times as much money with Ken Paxton as their nominee. And that's money that Republicans won't be able to spend in other races, like, say, defending Ohio Senator and Trump loyalist John Husted in his race against former Senator Sherrod Brown, or defending Alaska senator and Trump loyalist Dan Sullivan in his race against Mary Peltola. Trump isn't just betraying John Cornyn. He seems to be betraying all of his loyal, spineless supporters in the Senate. What Trump has demonstrated tonight is that no amount of loyalty can save you from Trump's impetuous decisions. Republicans can choose to stand up to Trump or worship the ground he walks on, but nothing will save them from the chaotic whims of a mad king. All right, let's get straight to msnow chief data reporter Ali Velshi, who's at the big board. He's been there all night. Okay, Ali, we know Thomas Massie lost, but tell us what happened in Kentucky tonight.
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News Anchor
Yeah, lots of stories. We're covering very closely in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, Idaho and Oregon. But let's go to Kentucky. Very interesting night. This is the first district in Kentucky. That's James Comer. He's an incumb, as you'd expect. He's been called with 81%, 62% of the votes in, but he's got 88% of the vote over there. But that's Kentucky 1. Let's go to Kentucky 4, which is the one you've been talking about. We now have 96% of the vote in. And Thomas Massey's losing by about 10% in this district. In fact, if you go down to the county level, you see the three most populous counties, which are in the Cincinnati area counties. Boone county, which is where Pete Hegseth went on behalf of Donald Trump. They say that he went on behalf of himself, but Pete Hegseth went to campaign for Ed Gal Ryan, who is the Trump endorsed candidate. 10% gain with 99% of the vote in. Gal Ryan's ahead by 10% in Kenton county, again, 52 to 47. It's a little bit closer there in Campbell county, the third most populous county, again within five points. But Gal Rhein winning over there. And then one of the other more populous counties on the western side of the state, near Louisville, 89% of the vote in, again, 15. So it's pretty decisive. That's done. Ed Gal Rhein is the winner in there, but there are a number of other places that are kind of Interesting to watch. If you look at Georgia, there's an interesting vote going on in Georgia. It is a state Supreme Court vote. Take a look at this. There are two of them. In one of them, this is nonpartisan, but the person in blue, purple here is the liberal. The person in the orange color is the conservative. The conservative being called Sarah Warren in one of the two seats. But take a look at the other seat, which is much closer. 43% of the vote is in Miracle Rankin, the more liberal candidate, is behind by 80,000 votes. But take a look at this. Fulton county, which is the most populous county. It splits Atlanta. No votes in in Fulton county yet. We've just found out that Fulton will come in probably no earlier than 11%. If you look at all the races in Georgia right now, you'll see that Fulton is not in. So we're gonna see how that changes. And what you might see in Supreme Court race is the liberal pulling ahead. Again. If I go to the whole state and I look at the GOP primary, Bert Jones, who is the Trump endorsed candidate, is advancing to the primary against Rick Jackson. None of them getting 50% of the vote. Take a look at Brad Raffensperger. He's way behind, coming in a very, very distant third. On the Democratic side, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, again, 41% of the vote is in. Not enough to call it. Keisha Lance Bottoms is well ahead of all her other competitor. Her lead is 230,000. She's a former mayor of Atlanta. She's at 60%. Her closest competitor's at 14.4%. Again, the associated Press has made a decision based on information they're getting that it's too early to call that. But take a look at this once again, like everywhere else in Georgia, there are zero votes in from Fulton County. There was a shooting in the county earlier today, so they delayed voting by four hours. As a result, we will not start getting numbers there until 11pm but that'll make a couple of the races pretty decisive. One final thing I wanted going out to Pennsylvania, where there was elections as well tonight, the gubernatorial race there, the GOP primary, has been won by Stacey Garrity. She was uncontested, but there was this movement to write Doug Mastriano in. You remember Doug Mastriano ran for Senate, lost by more than 20 points, but he's as MAGA as they get. Remember, he went to Arizona to try and figure out how those Ninjas people were figuring out their election. So interesting case here. Josh Shapiro obviously is the Democratic candidate. Not Only very popular. But Josh Shapiro gets a lot of Republican support in that state as well. But there was some little movement on the Republican side to see if Mastriano would run. Republicans in Pennsylvania have decided to run still a MAGA candidate, but a slightly more moderate version of one. I don't think it's going to change the math in Pennsylvania all that much.
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Janine Aaron
In the end, though, so many races we're watching. We're coming back to Ali in a little bit to check in and see where some of these races are developing. The Georgia State Supreme Court race are really interesting, if I'm correct here. I think one hasn't. One of those hasn't flipped in like a. But it would be a very big deal if one did. So we'll keep watching that. But thank you for everything you do. We'll be back to check in on your data. We love some data. Okay. Joining me now are two of my favorite people to talk to on a big election night about politics and all the things. Tim Miller is, of course, the host of the Bulwark Podcast. Jim Messina was campaign manager for Barack Obama's 2012 reelection campaign. Okay, so obviously there are a ton of primaries going on. We're gonna track them all as we get results. If we get them while we're talking, we'll talk about those, too. But let's just start with contest. Jim, let me go to you first. What do you make of Massie's defeat? What should people take away from that? Oh, Jim, you may be unmuted. Let's see if you can. Oh, go ahead. There we go. Technology. Go ahead.
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Jim Messina
Donald Trump runs the modern Republican Party, Jim, for better or for worse. You know, here's a guy who has a 99% voting record with Donald Trump, and yet they still take him out because of the Epstein stuff and because he fought with him on war powers. You know, the problem is when you own the party, the party then owns you. And in these swing races that Tim and I are looking at so closely, Donald Trump's numbers have just fallen through the floor. He carried non college white voters by 36 points. He's now 8 points underwater. You just don't see movement like that. So coming into November, these candidates are Republican candidates are just in a terrible place because they have to continue to show the field to you talked about so eloquently earlier and yet try to reach out to these independent voters that are walking away from Donald Trump in almost historic numbers. That is a. That is a dance on a knife's edge. That they are unlikely to be able to do in November.
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Janine Aaron
Yeah, I mean, the electorate, I was talking to Chris a little bit about this. The electorate is very different from that district, from what the electorate will be in November. It still does show Trump has power among his core base. Let me ask you, Tim, just about the money aspect of this, because, I mean, this was the most expensive House race in history. $33 million was spent a lot by outside group. You mean AIPAC? There's a lot of different groups that were spending money here. I should say it's in one on one sense. If you're a billionaire, I guess it could tell you, well, we could spend a lot of money and we can buy races on Trump's behalf, but resources aren't unlimited. What do you think kind of this means for the rest of the field? Or as we look at the big map leading up to November?
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Tim Miller
Yeah, well, look, I think it's pretty telling. I agree with Jim about his assessment of what this augurs for the general election, which is not great for the party. But I kind of have a slightly different take about what we learned from the Massey result tonight. I mean, the last I looked, it was 83% of the vote was in. He had about 45%. That's pretty good for somebody that bucked Trump directly and consistently and unapologetically on a couple of core issues being Epstein and Iran. We don't really have another example of something like this in the last 10 years with Trump. And you have Liz Cheney that votes to impeach Trump and then becomes a major Trump critic, and then she kind of runs a quixotic campaign in Wyoming where she gets absolutely slaughtered. Most of the people that step out from Trump then resign from Congress or the Senate and don't go back in front of the voters. You have people like Cassidy who will buck Trump and then pretend like they loved him all along and go back into his good graces. Massie was kind of a unique case where he bucked Trump, held the line on his position on him, ran a real race and he loses by 10%, which isn't, you know, it's not that close, but it's not nothing with, with the most money ever spent in a pr, in a congressional primary going against him. And you mentioned a lot of that was from aipac. There are other groups as well, other MAGA groups. To me, that shows Trump with a, like a little bit of a weakening grasp on the party. Not that it's over, not that the party's no longer a Trump cult. But I think it's a meaningful step in a direction away from Trump's control of the party and that maybe his grasp is weakening a little bit.
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Janine Aaron
Yeah, that's an interesting. Thank you for giving us a little uplift there. But, I mean, it's true. They spent. So that's a huge amount of money in a House district to have spent against him, and we shouldn't minimize that. I wanted to. I've been dying to talk to you both about Texas because obviously the primary is not coming up in Texas until next week. But today, I mean, this could have been a day where Trump, where the guy Trump wanted to win defeated Thomas Massie, and that would have been the political news, I guess. And instead he endorsed Ken Paxton, and the Senate is basically pissed off at him. Jim, what do you. Wait, why did he endorse Paxton? What is this all about? What's your take on it?
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Jim Messina
I think two things. One, he thinks Paxton's gonna win the primary and he wants to be on the right side. And two, you know, he's been long criticizing John Cornyn for being a rhino and for being too close to the Democrats. That would be a very big surprise to any Democrat who's dealt with John Cornyn. John Cornyn's voting percentage with Donald Trump was 99.2, Jen. So, you know, I don't think he's exactly a rhin. But what I think it means back to your money point is this race is going to be another hundred million dollars. The Republicans are going to have to put in to try to help Ken Paxton in the general election. And I know they have a lot of money, but when you spend $32 million to beat Massie and now you're going to have to spend $100 million to protect a state where the Republicans haven't lost a statewide election since 1994, at some point, this just becomes math and it becomes really hard to protect all these incumbents. Some of, as you talked about earlier in Alaska, in Ohio, there's seat in Iowa, there's seat in North Carolina. There's just not enough money. If you're gonna spend $100 million in the great state of Texas, Tim, I
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Janine Aaron
mean, we heard from Lindsey Graham and a bunch of people in the Senate who seem pretty irritated about this endorsement and the money that would be spent and how much money would have to be spent to get Ken Paxton over the finish line, if even they can do it. There's been this theory that it's easier for Telorico to run against Paxton than to run against Cornyn. Now, Cornyn is also a creature of D.C. which is very unpopular. Paxton is hugely flawed and has many, many ethical problems. Where do you come down on it, and what do you think this all means for, I mean, the general election?
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Tim Miller
Yeah, I think Paxton is a slightly easier opponent than Cornyn, maybe not quite as much as the conventional wisdom is, kind of for the reasons that you lay out there. You know, if you're a Republican in Texas, you really want to turn out the MAGA base. You know, number of kind of suburban Dallas and Houston. Mitt Romney Republicans is withering. Some of them still exist, but a lot of them have started to vote for Democrats at this point. I think a lot of those will already be telorico voters. And so I think that maybe you lose more with Paxton, but this is kind of on the margins. Maybe 1% difference, maybe 2% at the most between Paxton and Cornyn. But, look, I think given how unpopular Trump is, I think his numbers have to get lower. A lot depends on what the economic situation is, what kind of campaign Talarico runs. But I think that Texas is potentially in play this year, and the Republicans, as Jim said, are gonna have to waste a bunch of money in this race. And by the way, they've already wasted a bunch of money. And that's another reason they're all mad at Trump. They spent, I think, 70 million. I'm going from memory to try to boost Cornyn during this primary. So all of that money was just flushed down the toilet for no reason. And we should just add for fun. What a humiliator. End of a career for John Cornyn, who came into the Senate running an ad campaign where he called himself Big Bad John and he had a big old cowboy hat on. And instead, he ends groveling for Trump's endorsement and doesn't get it anyway.
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Janine Aaron
And even after he didn't get the endorsement, his post was like, I still love you. I still love you was basically my summary of it. Okay, Tim, Jim, stay right where you are. There's more results coming in. We're gonna talk about that a little bit. Also about what Thomas Massie had to say in his concession speech, which I thought was pretty interesting. We'll be right back.
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Commercial Announcer
America is an idea. For 250 years, that idea has helped expand our rights and our freedoms, but progress isn't guaranteed. Today, those founding principles are being challenged by efforts to mix religion and government. The Freedom From Religion foundation is working to protect the Constitution and keep power where it belongs, with we the people. Visit FFRF US MSNOW or text MSNOW to 511-511-Text MSNOW to 511-51-511 and keep state and church separate. Text fees may apply. I'm Serena Williams and I'm healthier on ROE. I've lost 34 pounds in a year with GLP1's diet and exercise. On RO you can access GLP1 options including the first FDA approved GLP1 pill for weight loss. Go to ROURNEY to see if you qualify. 14 to 20% average weight loss in one year in non diabetics with obesity or overweight with a weight related medical condition versus 2.2% to 3.1% in placebo arm RX only. To stay informed about serious side effects, go to ro co safety in the
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Janine Aaron
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Tim Miller
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Janine Aaron
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Janine Aaron
Tonight, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie's concession speech fit the mold of neither typical Republican or Democratic candidates concession speech. He touted his work on the Epstein files and railed against Fox News and Trump's war with Iran and Trump's ballroom while in the same speech railing against vaccines and making trans jokes and toasting with a glass of raw milk. It was quite a mad lib, this whole speech. Now Massey's lost tonight in the most expensive primary in American history, in a race where the President himself used everything at his disposal to try to force Massie out of office. Well, I'm sure this race will be picked apart by pundits in a lot of ways for a very long time. But tonight Massie had a message he wanted to send about all the people who did come out to support him despite Trump and despite all the money spent to oust him.
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Senator Chris Van Hollen
Listen, if you always vote with the President, if the if the legislative branch always votes with the President, we do have a king. If the legislative branch always vote, which
- [24:27]
News Anchor
votes whichever way the wind is blowing, then we have mob rule.
- [24:33]
Senator Chris Van Hollen
But if the legislative branch and the representatives and the senators that serve with it, always follow the Constitution.
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News Anchor
We have a republic.
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Senator Chris Van Hollen
There is a yearning in this country
- [24:47]
News Anchor
for somebody who will vote for principles over Parliament party.
- [24:55]
Janine Aaron
We're back with Tim Miller and Jim Messina. I don't know about the chugging raw milk and anti vaccine, but there were some good moments in that speech. So one of the things that struck me about that and we just played part of it always. And Jim, let me start with you is, I mean, Thomas Massie isn't going away. Bill Cassidy has made clear he isn't going away. I mean, after losing over the weekend, Cassidy came out against the ballroom funding and then voted with Democrats, Democrats on a war powers resolution. I remember we worked together when you were part of whipping votes for health care and you're trying to get Republicans on board, you're trying to get coalitions together. That's true when you were Senate Chief of staff too. How much does that matter that you have a couple of these members, maybe more than just them, who are pretty pissed off and just they're gonna do whatever they wanna do right now.
- [25:40]
Jim Messina
Oh, it matters a lot. And there's a saying in D.C. beware of elected officials with political vendettas. And I think Donald Trump is about to find out that is very true. You know, you have two members who just got defeated for seats they care very deeply about by the President of the United States, and they still have some time to make it very clear what they think. And your Kennedy example of him voting in the War Powers act is a great example. I think it's very unlikely that we're not going to hear a whole bunch from both of these people. And they're going to spend the rest of their term being very clear their displeasure with the President of the United States. And it's especially a big deal for Massie because Republicans barely have control of the House. They have, you know, they can't even get people together on some of the tightest votes they have. And so if Massie starts to walk away from them, it gets even harder to do anything here. So I think we're going to be in for a whole bunch of theater. Kennedy's the same. He could start voting against all Trump's nominees. Object to unanimous consent. For those of us geeks who understand what that is in the United States Senate means, they can't do anything if Kennedy decides to stop them. So about to have a whole bunch of fun with a couple members who don't have anything to lose and a bunch of free time.
- [26:58]
Janine Aaron
Free. Free. Massey, I suppose, is where we're at here. Let me ask you, Tim. I mean, you hear these concession speeches, and it's like there is a future of the Republican Party or there is a future party that it just doesn't look like this. I mean, some of the things I think we've learned over the past couple days is if you go against Trump like Massie did, you'll face his ire. But Trump abandoning Cornyn also goes to show that no amount of loyalty or walking up to him will actually guarantee your safety in his coalition. So if you're a Republican looking to hold onto power or have power, I mean, what do you do here?
- [27:34]
Tim Miller
Well, you're in a pickle. I think that if you're a Republican in a red state right now, you continue to stick with Trump because that's where the party members are. Even if it's narrowing, as we saw in Kentucky, I think it's a tougher call if you're in a swing state, though I noticed Trump's going to campaign for Mike Lawler, who's an ultimate swing state, or swing district, rather, candidate in New York. And so I guess he's making the bet to stick with Trump. I think that's pretty telling that he's still doing that. But look, things change in politics. And one other thing that you didn't play that happened in Massie's speech is some of the crowd started chanting at him, 2028 President, 2028. And I'm not going to be on here right now predicting that Thomas Massie is going to be the Republican nominee in 2028. But depending on how bad things go for Donald Trump the next two years, things can change dramatically. And like I mentioned in the first segment, I don't think 45% of the I think people are very upset with him about the war in the Epstein files, just not enough to get to a majority yet. And Donald Trump ran in 2016. I would know better than anybody as a direct assault on the Bush legacy in the party. Barack Obama, as Jim would know, ran in 2008, maybe not as a direct assault, but a critique of the Clinton establishment of the party. And both of them won two terms, not consecutive for Trump. And so I don't know. I think that there are some interesting lessons from Massie's result tonight, even in defeat.
- [29:00]
Janine Aaron
We'll keep talking about it, I'm sure. Tim Miller, Jim Messina, thank you both for being here and chewing on all these results with us. Okay, we've got Ali Velshi. We told you we'd come back to him. He's still standing by at the big board, still vested up. And when we come back, we're going to talk about Georgia, whereas he kind of talked to us a little bit about earlier before. Democrats are coalescing around their candidates while Republicans keep duking it out amongst themselves. Some really interesting races to watch there will be. Be right back.
- [29:33]
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America is an idea. For 250 years that idea has helped expand our rights and our freedoms, but progress isn't guaranteed. Today. Those founding principles are being challenged by efforts to mix religion and government. The Freedom From Religion foundation is working to protect the Constitution and keep power where it belongs. With weakness, the people visit FFRF US MSNOW or text Ms. Now to 511-511-Text Ms. Now to 511-51-511 and keep state and church separate. Text fees may apply.
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Janine Aaron
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Tim Miller
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Janine Aaron
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- [31:08]
Janine Aaron
At this point, polls are closed in virtually every state with elections tonight except except for Georgia. Technically the deadline was 7pm Eastern, but currently one polling location in Fulton county will remain open until just after 11. And the polling place and Ali mentioned this a little bit earlier in the show, is it at an elementary school and it was locked down earlier today for four hours following reports of possible gunshots in the area. Now as a result, Fulton county election officials are not releasing any vote counts until that polling location close. So far, Democrats have turned out in higher numbers than Republicans in Georgia's elections, even as Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff runs unopposed in his primary. Meanwhile, as I mentioned earlier, Republicans are battling it out in their Senate primary, which may end up in a runoff, but still interesting to see where that all ends. And now for the race to be Georgia's next governor. Former Atlanta Governor Keisha Lance Bottoms holds a wide lead in the Democratic primary as Trump backed Republican Bert Jones leads the GOP primary with a very narrow margin. And tonight, the AP projects that this RA has officially headed to a runoff. So lots of developments. Let's just get right back to Ali Velshi at the Big board. Ali, you told us a little bit about Georgia earlier. I just reiterated what you mentioned about the polling place, which is important for people watching to understand.
- [32:24]
News Anchor
Big deal.
- [32:25]
Janine Aaron
Yeah, yeah. Tell us more about what's happening on the Republican side in these Georgia races and what people should know about those.
- [32:31]
News Anchor
So first of all, Fulton county is, is, is, is Atlanta. So it's, it's a very, very big deal. This is the race that not everybody's thinking about, but should be thinking about. There are two SU election races in the state, one of them, and they're nonpartisan technically. So the person in the blue color is the sort of the liberal. The person in the lighter color is the conservative. They've been able to call one of them with a 248,000 vote lead, Sarah Warren. She's the incumbent. She will remain in the state Supreme Court. But take a look at the other one, which is 49% of the vote in the lead's much narrower. It's 80,000 votes. And Miracle Rankin the liberal is behind by 80,000 votes. However, the AP is not calling this race yet because of exactly what you just said, because of Fulton County. Fulton county is the most populous county in the state and it'll be heavily influential. And what you'll see is Miracle Rankin's numbers go up dramatically at that point. With most of the state in, except for those yellow areas, many of which are more rural, this looks like this could flip and this could be a very big deal in that race. Now, let's take a look at some of the other races you're talking about in the race for governor for the Democrats. Keisha Lance Bott, former mayor of Atlanta. Her lead's weakening a little bit, but she's at 59% to her closest opponent, who's 15%. That's a lead of 255,000 votes with only 47% of the vote in. Why is this interesting? Fulton county, she was the mayor of Atlanta. Atlanta has sort of eight or nine counties around it, very heavily populated. Keisha Lance Bottoms is very popular there. So while we are not making a call on this yet, this is leaning toward Keisha Lance Bottoms. Take a look at the governor, the Republican governor race there. This is going to a runoff. Bur Jones, who is the Trump endorsed candidate. Rick Jackson, who's a billionaire. Brad Raffensperger, the former Secretary of state. Again, somebody who stood up to Donald Trump. They called him and asked him for 11,700 votes. He's coming in with 14.4% of the vote. So all across this state there are just interesting races where interesting things are happening. I wanna just point you to Georgia 14. We covered Georgia 14 a lot because this was Marjorie Taylor Greene's election. There was a primary for that. Nobody got 50%. So then there was a special election. Clay Fuller won that Trump endorsed. He has won again tonight. This is now. So he's already the member of Congress. This is now for the election in November. He will be the Republican candidate there. The Democratic candidate will be Sean Harris who ran unopposed. Remember Sean Harris went from getting 37% in the last election to 44% in this election that was just run. So this is an example example of Democrats over performing, winning by more or losing by less. So Georgia is becoming a very, very interesting story tonight.
- [35:24]
Janine Aaron
So interesting. And again, Sean Harris, we've talked to him a couple times. Military veteran, also a farmer. It's the most conservative district in Georgia. But he overperformed. It's still. That's all interesting to watch. Ali Velshi, thank you as always. Thanks for doing what you do at that big board.
- [35:39]
News Anchor
My pleasure.
- [35:41]
Janine Aaron
Okay, coming up, Senator Chris Van Hollen grilled Acting Attorney General Todd Planche today on Donald Trump's 1 billion slush fund. I can't. It's just an unbelievable thing that's happening. Let me just show you how that grilling ended.
- [35:56]
Senator Chris Van Hollen
I have a last question for you. Do you know that it is a criminal offense to lie to Congress?
- [36:05]
Tim Miller
I am very well aware of that.
- [36:07]
Senator Chris Van Hollen
I'm glad to hear that.
- [36:10]
Janine Aaron
We'll show you what led up to that moment and tuck all the way about it with Senator Van Hollen himself. After a very quick break. Today, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche struggled to defend the administration's unparalleled $1.8 billion taxpayer funded apparent payout scheme, slush fund. Whatever you want to call it when he was questioned by senators. Just, just watch this.
- [36:44]
Senator Chris Van Hollen
This is an outrageous, unprecedented slush fund that you set up. Simple question. Will elig will individuals who assaulted Capitol Hill police officers be eligible for this fund?
- [36:56]
News Anchor
Well, as it explained, anybody is just
- [36:59]
Senator Chris Van Hollen
let me know if they're eligible for the fund.
- [37:01]
News Anchor
As, as, as was made plain yesterday, anybody in this country is eligible to apply if they believe they were a victim weapons.
- [37:09]
Senator Chris Van Hollen
Mr. You're not going to submit this proposal to any or independent. There is no judge, any independent authority that.
- [37:17]
News Anchor
An independent, what does that mean, an independent authority?
- [37:19]
Senator Chris Van Hollen
It means not somebody who's getting to pick five of the members. Who is the president's former personal attorney. That would be somebody who would be independent.
- [37:26]
Janine Aaron
I'm the acting attorney general.
- [37:28]
News Anchor
Okay.
- [37:28]
Janine Aaron
The fact that I used to be
- [37:30]
News Anchor
President Trump's lawyer is just a fact, but I'm the acting attorney general. So don't say the president's former personal lawyer will do something the acting attorney general will do.
- [37:38]
Senator Chris Van Hollen
So, Mr. Attorney General, you are acting today like the president's personal attorney.
- [37:44]
Janine Aaron
Now, Todd Blynch can scowl and demand and melt down as he just did, and tell everybody that they have to call him the acting attorney general. But as Senator Van Hollen pointed out there, his actions certainly appear to be those of a personal attorney. Blanche basically did his best there to defend what amounts to a payout fund for MAGA allies, which Trump himself began to tease as a possibility last year. But I guess there was some good news for Blanche today. His appearance, or shall I say profoundly performance before a very skeptical Senate subcommittee came hours after and not before the release of his signed one page addendum, making the whole payout fund thing look even worse. The addendum, of course, broadens the deal between the government and Trump, including forever barring and precluding the IRS from pursuing past tax investigations or audits of Trump, his family or his businesses. Joining me now is Democratic Senator Chris Van Halen of Maryland. He's a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He is one of my favorite people to watch question people. I almost get nervous for them when I'm watching. But you did a heck of a job today questioning him. Let me ask you, I mean, it is quite the timing that this Blanche signed addendum came out hours after he testified before the Senate. And you and others asked him some very good questions. What was your reaction when you found out about that? And what would you have asked Todd Blanche, if you had this information before today's hearing?
- [39:11]
Senator Chris Van Hollen
Well, Jan, he clearly had trouble defending the slush fund that they announced just last night. So they clearly intentionally did not disclose this other part of the deal, which is essentially to give Trump and the Trump Organization a get out of free card for any back taxes they may owe because they cheated on their taxes in the past. So clearly, I would have drilled in on this piece of it as well. And, and what it just exposes is, is, is what I said, that everything Todd Blanche is doing as acting Attorney General is acting like the President's personal attorney. This is exactly what the President's personal attorney would be pushing for. And that's, of course, the job that Todd Blanche used to have. And he's still essentially doing that job now.
- [40:02]
Janine Aaron
I mean, his personal attorney would also be pushing for him to have a slush fund to pay out to his political allies, which is where we're at. Let me ask you, I mean, going back to this 1.8 billion fund, he seemed to also get quite flustered when you were asking him about who was evaluating who would be getting these payouts. And there is also, there's so many details here that are so problematic and should be shocking to anyone. There is a panel of five people. Trump can fire anyone at any point in time. The other question is, is there any mechanism to your understanding of how we will even know who gets these payouts and how much the payout doubts are?
- [40:41]
Senator Chris Van Hollen
So, no, we won't know. He gave a lot of sort of gobbledygook answers when he was questioned about whether or not they would make all this transparent. The bottom line was that they are not going to promise that they will do that. And, you know, from their perspective, it makes sense because part of the purpose of this fund, Jan, is to pay off people who committed crimes at Donald Trump, Trump's urging that were rioters at the Capitol that beat up Capitol Police. Those are the people who've been advocating for these payouts. And they want to set up a system where they can make those payouts without the public knowing. And they want a system where it will be a rubber stamp. So four of the five members will be picked by, guess who, Todd Blanch, the President's former personal attorney, and the other one will be picked by the Republican majority in the Congress since. And so it's a complete rubber stamp to do what they want to do. And I think the American people are going to see this for the corrupt pay to play scheme that it really is.
- [41:48]
Janine Aaron
It's hard to imagine, the more people hear about it, that they wouldn't see it. That way. I mean, we spent the show talking a lot about the elections today. Obviously, there was an endorsement of Ken Paxton in Texas. That seems potentially good for James Talarico's chances. In Georgia, there's a runoff on the Republican side. My point is this. Democrats could very well be in the majority after November's midterm elections. There's a long way to go here. It seems hard to imagine that there wouldn't be efforts to claw back this deal. I mean, if Democrats are in control of the House and Senate, what could they do? And I don't know how much you've been able to think about this to, say, prevent the IRS from saying we'll never audit the Trump family or allowing this slush fund to have no transparency. What, what is possible
- [42:34]
Senator Chris Van Hollen
so we can claw it back. Obviously, we need the votes to do it. I will be offering an amendment in the coming days in the Senate to at least say that people who have committed violent crimes, including people who assaulted Capitol Police officers, including the person the president pardoned, who went on to be convicted of child molestation, that these people will not be eligible for this fund. And we'll see what Republican senators say about whether they want taxpayers or money to be going to people who beat up police officers and molested kids.
- [43:15]
Janine Aaron
That seems like a no brainer to me. But I'm not surprised anymore by where people vote. Let me ask you one more thing about your questioning today. I mean, before the break, I played that piece of your questioning when you asked Todd Blanch today if he knew it was a criminal offense to lie to Congress. What were you getting at with that question with him?
- [43:36]
Senator Chris Van Hollen
So, Jen, he had suggested that one of the questions I asked him was based on a lie, untrue information, and it wasn't. And so I wanted him to understand that he was getting very close to crossing the line because I was asking him about this affidavit that I had from a sheriff's department in Florida, Florida, where the person who was ultimately convicted of child molestation was saying to the kids that he abused that he would provide them with some of the payout that he was expecting if they shut up. In other words, hush money. And when I posed that question to Todd Blanche, he said, well, that can't be true. But in the affidavit signed by a sheriff, it's very clear, clear that this person who Trump pardoned was expecting to get this payout and was going to use it for hush money. So I was warning the attorney general that he was very close to crossing a line and lying to Congress when he implied that this affidavit that I ultimately told him about was, was, was untrue, essentially.
- [44:53]
Janine Aaron
Senator Chris Van Hollen, never a dull moment. Thank you so much for being here with us tonight.
- [44:58]
Tim Miller
Night.
- [44:58]
Janine Aaron
We have to take a quick, quick break. Lawrence has Senator Gary Peters standing by. We'll be right back. 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.
- [45:15]
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