← The Jim Acosta Show
The Jim Acosta Show
ACOSTA, TROYE, FANONE EPIC TOWN HALL WITH ROSIE O'DONNELL AND JASMINE CROCKETT, AARON PARNAS, HARRY DUNN AND MANY MORE
01:49:12
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:04]
Jim Acosta
Hey, guys. How you doing? I was sort of wandering around the stage. What am I doing? It's like, you know, Donald Trump going into the Oval Office. Something along those lines. All right. Hey, I did say this earlier. I did want to say it once again. How about those Kennedy center musicians, huh? Thank you, guys. Are they in the audience? Is this something I could have them do? Can they stand up or anything like that, or. They're backstage. Okay. Well, thanks. Thanks to the Kennedy center musicians. It beats the Village People, doesn't it? Don't you think? You know, you heard about this? Trump wanting to take over the Kennedy Center. Apparently, he wants to do to the Kennedy center what he did to Atlantic City. I don't know if you heard about this. Man, oh, man. All right. It's great to be in D.C. i don't know if you guys know this. I've mentioned this before on my show. I'm a D.C. native. I'm a huge Washington Commanders fan. Any fans in the audience here? If you're from Philadelphia, we have security here. We're prepared to remove you from the audience. Not sure if you saw this the other day, but Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington, she was with Trump as they announced a new Commander Stadium. Did you notice this? They're going to build it right where the old RFK Stadium used to be. It's a great thing for dc, right? Unfortunately, the Trump Hotel, Anacostia is going to be right next to it. I don't know if you saw that. It's a very sad thing. You know the Anacostia River? It's one of RFK Jr. S favorite swimming holes, right after Rock Creek Park. And you guys saw this, right? RFK Jr. Took his kids, his grandkids swimming in Rock Creek park the other day. All that nasty stuff and that sewage, it was, like, foaming and everything. It was disgusting. So let me get this straight about Rock Creek park and RFK Jr. He's anti vax, but he's pro swimming in sewage. Is that correct? Do I have this correct? You guys told RFK that they don't have bears in Rock Creek park, right? You guys brain worms, yes. Bears, no. All right. Speaking of brain worms, how about that Marjorie Taylor Greene, Am I right? Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. Isn't she something? She was going to heckle here tonight, but she heard that Jasmine Crockett is coming. Let's give it up for Jasmine Crockett. She's going to be out here soon. What was that thing that Jasmine Crockett came up with? Bleach Blonde, bad built. I thought she was talking about RFK Jr. You know, RFK Jr. Wants to take the fluoride out of the water. You heard about that? Unfortunately, he wants to replace it with ivermectin, you know? And you heard what? Did you guys hear this? This just happened the other day. You heard what Joni Ernst said, right? This last 48 hours? She's a senator from Iowa, at least for now. She said it's okay to cut Medicaid because eventually we're all going to die. Wasn't that nice of her to say that? And she tried to clean that up at a cemetery. Did you notice this? She did this over the weekend. She went to a cemetery, recorded a video to try to clean it up. I don't have a joke for that. I just wanted to say. My God. What the hell was that? All right. So glad so many of you could make it tonight. I did want to ask for those of you who paid with Trump Meme coin. I need to know how to cash that. Oh, that's right. At the Trump Hotel, Anacostia. Of course. Course. All right, and one last thing. I don't know if you guys know this, but it's taco night here at the Lincoln theater in Washington, D.C. there's a taco right there. This. This gentleman's wearing a taco on his head. What is going on? My God. The tacos only come in one flavor. That would be chicken. Chicken. That's right. Some of you are paying, paying attention. All right, folks, let's get started. Thank you for coming tonight. That was my monologue, in case you didn't notice as viewers of the Jim Acosta show, you know, sometimes there are dad jokes. All right, let's bring out our partners in crime. My partners in crime. They are Olivia Troy and Michael Fanone. Come on out, guys. Let's do it. Give it up for Olivia. Give it up for Mike Fanone. Look, notice the Mexican theme. Olivia wearing a taco hat. Mike Fanon has a Corona, which is perfectly acceptable. And we got both of those in before the tariffs went up, so that's totally fine. All right, guys, thank you for coming here. I think you have some microphones, unlike the one they hid from me. You guys have microphones right there. All right, Mike, great to see you here tonight, buddy. Tell me, you got anything on your mind, man? Like, what do you. What's going through your mind? What's. What's Mike Fanone thinking today? Well, that's kind of a general question, Jim, man, we're In a. We're in a tough spot. Yeah, we are in a tough spot. We are. We are. But, you know, you're a D.C. native. You're. You're. You're a native of this area, Mike. And. And. And I was born in Greater Southeast Hospital. Yeah. My mother is sitting in the front row. Oh, my goodness. She said that. Mike's mom. Stand up. Stand up. Come on. Giving birth to me was the easiest thing she ever did. We love Mike's mom. She said it was miraculous. Man, oh, man. No, you're absolutely right. And, Mike, I was going to say this. I'm glad you brought it up. You and I are both from this area, and one of the things. One of the reasons why we wanted to do this, and, Olivia, I'll direct this to you as well, is because, I mean, we know from growing up in this area how much the federal workforce means to this area. When the federal workers in this area are hurting, that means all of us are hurting. And, Mike, you know this. I mean, this is your hometown. This is your home area. You used to be one of those public servants in this area. And one of the reasons why I wanted to do this tonight is show some appreciation to folks like yourself, police officers, federal workers, all of the folks who make D.C. what it is. Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, I still keep in touch with a lot of my former colleagues. And as many of you may know, there's a. Well, the House is sitting on a bill that would essentially allow DC to spend its own money that it's called collected itself. Not through, you know, outside contributions, but tax dollars that it collected. And the House is refusing to allow that to. To take place. And so it's affecting my former friends, co workers at the D.C. police, their ability to make overtime. Yeah. To protect the city, to keep the city safe, to. To have the resources that it needs to. To protect all of us. And we talked about this on the show. On the show. That's not the only thing that the House of Representatives is sitting on right now. There is a plaque honoring January 6th police officers. That's still in a frigging broom closet. The basement of the Capitol. It's insane. Yeah. No, and you had a thought about this the other day. I don't know. For folks who missed. I think he had some strong words, actually. Listen, like, I've always felt that I've never really been one for awards or accolades, and I'll tell you why. And it's because in the entire time that I was a D.C. police officer, I don't think I was ever presented with an award from any person who I felt that was worthy of presence presenting me with that award. And I think if there's a lot of, like, working police officers out there, they probably know exactly what I'm talking about. And so, like, my thoughts on the plaque was like, listen, if Mike Johnson wants to be a petty and he wants to withhold presenting me with a plaque, then, you know, Mike Johnson could take the plaque and show. Shove it up his ass. There you go. Okay. And I think that the vast majority of police officers that I talked to, vast majority officers that were there on January 6th that fought to preserve democracy, that fought to protect the Capitol, that fought to protect polls, like Mike Johnson and his Republican colleagues. Can I get a detail? They will tell you that. The exact same thing. They don't want the plaque. They don't care about the plaque. They know what they did. They would do it again, but they don't need to be honored or recognized by some piece of shit like Mike Johnson. Yeah. All right. And Olivia Troy, I want to get your thoughts on some of this, because I know, you know, in your community in Northern Virginia, you have a lot of federal workers who live in your neighborhood. I mean, you've brought some of them here tonight, and hopefully we'll hear from some of them as well. You helped us line up these Kennedy center. Musicians who came were just so. They were amazing. They were incredible. They just were so incredible. But, I mean, this. This region's hurting right now. It's hurting. It is. And I would say these communities have been targeted for a few years now. It happened during the first Trump administration, and my heart is really heartbroken with what's happening to public servants. I spent a long time as a career intelligence officer. There's career intel officers in the room right now. I'm super proud of you for hanging in there. And for those of you across the government who have been riffed or doge, and all of that gets super upsetting. And I just have to say to you that the American people, they may not realize it right now, but they will realize it in time. The incredible treasure that they've lost by losing all of you, that will become apparent. And Olivia is going to give us some of her insights when we get into the town hall Q and a portion of the show. But I just want to ask some of the folks backstage if you can could whisper in my ear. I think. I think I see on my laptop here, this is going to feel like. Like it's right out of the Jim Acosta show on Substack, we're bringing in a live guest, my friend. Your friend. It is the wonderful and talented Rosie o' Donnell. There she is. How you doing, Jim? I'm doing great, Rosie. How are you? I'm well. Everybody showed up. How did, how's the crowd? Not too bad. It's looking good. And Rosie, you're coming to us live from Dublin, is that correct? That's right. It's almost one in the morning, but I'll stay up for you any night. Oh, my goodness. Thank you so much. Likewise. Likewise. I'm so pleased that you're here and so is the audience. And you know, there's one person in Washington who's probably not pleased that Rosie o' Donnell is being beamed into the Lincoln Theater just down the street from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. I can't imagine what's going through his mind right now if he was to hear that Rosie o' Donnell is live in Washington right now. My goodness. Well, he, he seems to hear a lot about me. I don't know if I'm on his Google alerts, but, you know, I was listening to the reading the post that he made on his Truth Social where he said that Biden was murdered and then he was replaced by a robot. I saw. This is a man we can't get out of the White House. I don't understand, understand what's happening. It's crazy. And I know. And there's all of this focus and attention on this other president and his mental, you know, faculties and so on. And you have Donald Trump posting on Truth Social that Joe Biden has been replaced by a robotic clone. I mean, I think something is wrong here. But, Rosie, one of the things that I always love talking to you about, many years ago, you got his goat so bad. He has not been able to get over this. And I think just the other day it was like right after you got into office, the Irish prime minister here was something. And they brought you up, one of the reporters and he. And he couldn't help himself. He still thinks about you. I know. I gotta tell you, he does not like to be ridiculed. And that's why I think every comedian in America should be working overtime to ridicule him because believe me, he's ripe for ridicule. And it is absolutely, absolutely mind boggling to me every day when he goes further and further into his mental illness. He is unfit to lead. He is a criminal. He is blatantly stealing things in front of our very eyes. And then, you know, Mr. Compassion says that he does not feel bad for Joe Biden who has cancer because he was a mean and nasty guy. Every single thing he said says is an indictment against himself and he's not even mentally aware enough to know what he's doing. Yeah, no, you're absolutely right. And I, you know, the reason why you're coming to us from Ireland is you said, you know, the heck with it, I'm out of here. I'm going to go live in Ireland. And how's it going over there? When I see clips of you, I just, you look like you're having the time of your life. You know, the Irish have taken you in. They're top of the morning to Rosie. How about the. The Irish people are loving and they have always been on the right side of history. And I have only met two people, both cab drivers who support Donald Trump. Every other person I've met in Ireland comes over to me and says, darling, you came here because you hate Trump. I said, yes, I did, sir. He's like, have a pint and he buys me a pint of beer. People here get him and see him for who he is and why Americans are still under his cult like control. It is unbelievable to me. It really boggles my mind. And with his selling us things every five minutes and now he's going to have this military parade on his birthday. Oh my God, Obama Day. For everyone on the Internet watching this, it's Obama day where you put post nothing but Obama pictures. And that's what I think we need to do. Okay, very interesting. Yeah. What do you think about that, Rosie? He's going to throw himself this big military birthday party like Kim Jong Un. I think he thinks the ICBMs are going to be rolling down Pennsylvania Avenue or something like that. And he'll salute, you know something, I don't know what, but what's with this guy? He is honestly psychotic. I think the man is mentally delusion living in his own reality. He has no, no understanding of the world of empathy, of compassion, of basic humanity. He is really a mentally ill person. And it, it was, you know, there were so many doctors who came out when he was in, in the first go round with this insanity when he wasn't even on hyperdrive like he is now older and less wise. He is, is now. They made a book that said had the duty to warn where psychiatrists, leading psychiatrists in the country in his last first term were saying he is so narcissistic and mentally unfit that they Felt it was their duty to warn the American public. Yeah, but the American public, you know, I don't know. Some of his people are under that spell of him. But he took that mental. That what? The Mental Competency Test or what? Or whatever. He says that he aced the cognitive test. He always says, I aced the cognitive test where they did. Man, person, camera, dog, brush, man, north, south. I mean, the fact that he doesn't have the intellectual capacity to understand what a moron he is. He's a moron. He really is. And this isn't, you know, to try to get laughs. The man has the vocabulary of a third grader. Yeah. He can't answer a question. Did you hear when they asked him, what does the Declaration of Independence mean to you? Did you hear his answer, Jim? No. Tell us what was. I think I missed that. Oh, dear God. He's like, well, it means independence and it means, you know, lots of great, great things that it means. And it's a very good. A very good. It's better than most of the other Declarations. And I mean, he is totally inept. And why our nation is being hoodwinked and put through this trauma. Why all these federal workers, why the people at the Kennedy center who have dedicated their lives to the arts have to go under his control and domain and thank God those people walked out. Thank God. God people are resigning. Thank God. Musicians are saying, no, we won't do it. And. And that's what people need to do, to stand up to him, in his face, get in his face. He can't take it. He can't take it. And Rosie, I mean, this is why I love you, because you have cracked the code. You cracked the code on this a long time ago that the way to get under his skin is to stand up to him. He can't. He's like a typical bully. And tell the truth, Facts. Tell the truth. Get a fact about something he said and say it back to him. And don't let these reporters. Jim, it makes me insane when he's going through his. His thing about it's a declaration and it's full of independence. And the reporter, I think it was Leslie Holt, I don't know who it was. Was looking at him with incredulous looks on their face and they don't say anything. Yeah. It's like, what's wrong with your voice? Why can't you say, you're making no sense? Mr. President, do you not know what the Declaration of Independence is? That's a good point. Well, maybe because they saw that I used to do that and then you saw what happened to me. So. Yeah, but thank God that you did it, Jim. And thank God that you walked away from corporate controlled media, which has let us down as the forces state in this country. I'm not going to argue with that. I got to tell you, there's something going on there. There's a reason why this independent media thing is taking off. There's a reason why things like substack, YouTube are taking off and why you are taking off, Rosie. Well, you know, all people want now after all the lies we've been told from Trump four years ago, and we just were getting out of the depression of that. And then back he comes. I believe unfairly. I believe Elon Musk did something. I believe no one has ever won every swing state. I believe the down ballot proof. I believe that he did not win this election because I was looking at how many people Kamala Harris had and I just don't believe it. And my friends say you have to believe it. Well, I don't. Something tells me if we were to have that election today, we would have a very different result. There's no question about Rosie o' Donnell. You are the best. Thank you so much. You're not a national treasure, you're an international treasure. So thank you so much. Thank you very much. And hi, Mike. Good to see you, buddy. Rosie says, hi, Mike. Mike's looking up at you. He loves you. We had a breakfast at dinner at Kathy Griffin's house honoring him. And I'm just very proud to know him. And what an amazing man he is. And thank God he's using his hands. Absolutely. And standing up for all those police, police officers that were harmed by those lunatics who should never have been pardoned. Yeah, that, that was a wild experience. I remember vividly. I was at. I was at Sean Penn's house, and I get a phone call from Kathy Griffith, who I only knew as being the lady that took a picture with a severed Trump head. And she was like, hey, you want to come to dinner? And I was like, d dinner at severed Trump head lady's house? Yeah. She's like, I live on Zuma Road. It's right up the street from Sean's. I was like, yeah, I can walk. So I went over there and I get inside and there's Kathy Griffith and there is Rosie o' Donnell. And I was like, holy. That's Rosie o' Donnell. Yeah, that's what I say every time I see her. And we had a fabulous Dinner. There she is. On my computer. There was wine pairings. That's the new greeting I get. Holy. It's Rosie O's. Rosie, great to see you. Thank you so much. You're the best. Thank you. Thank you. Good luck. We love you. Thanks. We love you. Top of the morning to you. All right, take care. We'll have a pint. Don't worry. Thank you, love. Okay. All right, we have another. It's a star studded lineup here tonight, folks. We're just going to keep going. I want to bring out, and I mentioned this earlier tonight, I mean, talk about people who know how to get under Trump's skin. The next guest that we're bringing out tonight here at this live town hall is congresswoman from Texas, Jasmine Crockett. Come on out, Congresswoman. Great to see you. Oh, my God, you look amazing. You look amazing. Come on out. All right. And there's your mic right there, Congresswoman. I love this. I love this T shirt. There's your. There's your mic right there. That's for you right there. Yeah, that's it. And so good to see you. Thank you for coming tonight. Good to see you, too. This is amazing. And for the folks who are maybe in the back there, they don't quite see what's on that T shirt. This was something that you made go viral. To say it mildly. Yes, yes, yes. So I have a B6T shirt on, but these are our pride colors and I didn't have anything else to rep. Pride, so I put on my B6 shirt. Let's hear for pride. Let's hear for pride. Absolutely. And there's a certain expression on there, too, that I think you made famous too, not just the colors. Yes, Bleach, blind, bad built, butch body. And I was saying this earlier, Congressman, and thank you so much for doing this. We really appreciate it that you don't need a memo, you don't need talking points. They don't need to shoot you an email that says don't back down. And that message, your approach, has resonated with the American people. I mean, it has resonated all over the country. I was in New York when you won a webby and they were going crazy there. Why did you decide to do it this way? Is it just, just something that's coming out of you? How do you explain it? Yeah, so for me, it's just being me. I don't really know how to be anybody else. And I think at some point in time I was kind of wanting to be fired. But it didn't quite work out that way. But no, the reason that I got into politics in the first place is because I was frustrated. And I think the frustration that I feel is the same frustration that most Americans feel. And in spite of, instead of trying to kind of do what the playbook says I'm supposed to do, I am letting out those frustrations. And I think the American people really relate to that. Yeah, absolutely. So true. And Olivia and Mike, if you guys have questions, feel free to chime in. I just want to thank you because I'm from Texas and I don't know what's happening down there, but you are a gem in that state. So thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah. And, and I mean, you know, there's a lot going on right now. There's the so called big beautiful bill, which obviously is, you know, a crock of and you know, this issue with Medicaid. I was, you know, just astounded that Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa was saying over the weekend late last week, oh, we don't have to worry about cutting Medicaid, we're all going to die anyway. And I'm thinking to myself, isn't the point where of health care to postpone that as long as possible? Like we don't want that to happen. Isn't that the point? Sorry, Mom. Yeah, she's. I think that is the point. I think that, you know, Republicans want poor people to die as quickly as humanly possible. Yeah, yeah. Listen, I agree. I don't think that that is a glitch, but that's actually part of the design. The idea that you've got someone who has the audacity to say to people that sent her into D.C. to work on their behalves that you're going to die. I mean, I think we all know that, but the reality is that you've decided that you want to be a grave digger. And I don't think that that is who they elected you to be. They elected you to actually breathe life into them. Yes. I thought they were pro life. I don't know. I heard that too. They call themselves pro life, but it sounds kind of pro death when you say we're all going to die. Yeah, it's usually pro death. And you know, the other thing that I wanted to talk to you about is because we have these wonderful federal workers who are here tonight, we're going to have a town hall portion of this program coming up in just a few moments. Let's hear it for the federal workers who are in the audience tonight from all kinds of agencies. I met a nice lady from USAID earlier, a gentleman from the va. People are hurting right now, and they're wondering, Congresswoman, what can be done? It's a hard question to answer. It really is. But first, let me just say thank you. Our federal workers, they have called y' all anything but a child of God. And it has been so frustrating for me because, again, my mom has worked for the federal government for almost 40 years. And so, yeah, no, thank God, good job, mom. Because I don't have 40 in me. But, no, it has been so hurtful to me as a member of the Oversight Committee, to hear them talk so badly about our federal workers and act as if they are lazy and if they're a drain on our system instead of igniting, acknowledging that they are public servants who could be getting paid a lot more money doing something else, but choose to serve the American people. And so, you know, for me, I want to make sure that we are lauding the heroic work of our federal workers. I actually had a constituent that passed away who had also almost done 40 years of federal service to the post office. It is time for us to protect those that are going out and serving on the front lines and. And stop all of the hate that they have been dispersing. And so much of that came at the hands of Elon. But honestly, it was before Elon. Elon just came in, saw that the hate was going on, and decided, you know what? The best way to make sure that we can cut some of our bills is to cut off those that are providing the resources. So while it may not be on any budget line item that VA resources technically are cut or that Social Security is cut, when you're cutting out the Social Security worker or you're cutting out those that work at the va, then ultimately you won't be able to render those services. And so I will continue to speak out, and I will continue to uplift your amazing stories and messages in your work. That's wonderful. And you mentioned Elon Musk. I think I just saw him riding out of town in a cyber truck. He's kind of been showing the door here in D.C. and one of the things that struck me the other day when we had this conversation on my show is you were telling me some of your Republican colleagues come up to you when the mics aren't hot, when the cameras aren't around, and they say, you know, Congresswoman Jasmine, we know this is crazy, too. Yeah, they're aware. Yeah. No, absolutely. And A lot of them didn't like Elon either. I can't imagine why. You know, there were definitely some conversations before they started having all of those town halls, and there were definitely some Republicans that were wanting us to do all that we could to take Elon down. And I'm like, find a backbone. Find a backbone. We can do it together. But of course, we, as Democrats, we did the heavy lifting, and, you know, here's the deal. It's all a game, right? So they understand that Elon was becoming a drag for them, and so they're like, oh, let's just cut kind of that dead weight. But the reality is that Elon will still be looming, as well as the terrible impact that he's had thus far. We still don't know the extent of the damage that he's done. And that's a really big concern of mine, is what have you done with our data? What data did you gain access to? And who all had access in other eyes? And how. How secure was that data? Like, I have real questions. Yeah, Who's Big Balls? I mean, who's this Big Balls guy? I mean, did you hear about the Big Balls guy? I guess he's gone too. He's in the cyber truck, too. Something tells me that his balls are tiny, but nevertheless. Nevertheless. Yeah, if you have to say it. If you have to say it. If you have to say it. Exactly. You know, it's usually a good sign, but, no, the American people deserve answers. And I think that once we start to recognize that these things are not partisan things, these things are things that are impacting all of us. I think the better we will be. Right now. We are so divided as a country, and I just want us to come back together. I get that we may not agree on everything, but we should at least see the humanity in one another and say, you know what? I care if your personal information was out there. I care if you're going to lose your health care. I care if your family member is going to be deported. I care if your LGBTQIA brother or sister is being discriminated against. Like, we just need to get back to the basics of literally having a little bit of humanity for one another. And if we do that, I think that we can come together and say, people like the Elon Musk of the world or the other billionaires that have decided that we don't really care about what happens to everybody else so long as we have our lifeboat, I think there's more of us than there are of them. And if we can just come together, we'll do a lot better. I love that. That's absolutely right. And I think. I think the people at home want you guys to fight. I think they want the Dems to fight. And I think that's why you've struck a chord. I do. I think. I think they do. And I think you want to see a little bit more of that, too. Listen, I am a trial lawyer, so I know how to fight. Like, that's one thing that I know how to do. So for me, you know where I can find agreement. I always have and always will. But I'm not going to let you do the things that we see them doing, the heartless things, and then just sit there and say, well, let's find a middle ground. There is no middle ground when people are dying. There is no. Yeah, no. Or how about our Constitution when Stephen Miller goes out there and says, maybe we won't have due process. Yeah, no, give me a break. There's no middle ground. In fact, it was funny in judiciary because there was someone who thought he was going to challenge me because I laid out that they have now become the party that absolutely has no respect for the Constitution. And he was like the gentle lady from Texas, you know, really said something that was basically rude. And so he's like, can you explain? Oh, yep, I can. Right. And so he wanted to debate with me about due process. And I was like, bro, this is not one of the complicated ones. It's kind of clear. And so I made sure that I educated him on what due process looks like in various realms, whether you're talking about the civil realm or the criminal realm, and how we have different kind of levels to it, but everybody gets it, no matter where they're from, so long as they are here. And. And then he wanted to quote this terrible Supreme Court to me, and I was like, honey, you gotta be misquoting them. And so we went and got the opinion, and I entered that opinion into the record and quoted this terrible Supreme Court, who at least still understands the basics of due process. So, no, whether it's due process or birthright citizenship, or trying to roll back women's access to the ballot box by passing the stupid Save act out of the house that would definitely disproportionately impact married women, or whether we're talking about, really our civil rights, you know, they're trying to roll back our civil rights as well. Or whether we're talking about if he is going to violate the emoluments clause, which we have Argued that in his first administration he was in violation of the emoluments clause. But, like, there's a whole list of constitutional rights. Yeah. He wants a free plane from Qatar and mean coins. And I appreciate the Qataris because they. They want to clarify on the record. Who asked who? I saw that. Did you guys see this the other day? Apparently the Qatari said, oh, by the way, it was Trump who asked us for the plane. Yeah, yeah. And. And talk about being inefficient. I have been on Air Force One. It is nice. It is nicer than a lot of people's homes. I mean, the carpet is quite plush. I mean, you don't feel anything. It is a really nice ride. Okay, but have you seen Donald Trump's apartment in New York, though? Doesn't have all the gold plating, you know? No, but I can. But I know that his other plane is pretty raggedy, so I don't even know. He got upgraded, so I don't even know why he complaining. But beyond that, there are, I want to say, maybe two Air Force One one planes that actually are already on order and are supposed to be available in 2027. And one of the members that's on another committee, he told me that no one is talking about the fact that it's going to cost all this money to retrofit the Qatari plane and the amount of time they're saying that by the time they retrofitted to actually be up to snuff, which I just assumed. Assume he didn't care about all the security concerns. Yeah, There might be some bugs in there. You might want to go through that. You know, the other two planes would be ready by then. Yeah. So I'm just like, what, what is. What is. What is the point? Math has never been his strong point. No, no. But everything has been your strong point. Jasmine Crockett. Congresswoman, thank you so much for doing this. We appreciate it. The rising star, Jasmine Crockett. Let's hear it. Let's hear it, folks. Thank you so much, Congresswoman. We appreciate it. Thank you. That was terrific. I need one of those T shirts. We need to get one of those T shirts. Okay. All right, so now is. We're moving right along here. This is moving fast, folks. We might need some lights here in the theater because now is the time when I think we're going to try to do some audience Q and A. Correct. Yeah. All right, let's. Okay, the lights are on. There we go. That's a lot of eyeballs. Okay, we have some Great people in the audience tonight. First, I want to recognize Liz Oyer. If Liz. If you could come up to the microphone here. For folks who don't know Liz at home. Liz was the pardon attorney at the Department of Justice until. Until she was fired, basically. Is that accurate? And Liz, I mean, you've been sort of marveling. I don't know if that's the right word. I mean, dumbfounded like the rest of us as to how sleazy and sketchy these Trump pardons have been over the last several weeks. But your thoughts on everything. Thanks for coming tonight, and thanks for what you do. Thanks for having me. Is this on? It's on. Yeah. Yeah. So Trump has pardoned a lot, a lot of people who haven't actually applied through the ordinary process for pardons. There are a lot of ordinary people who have earned and deserved second chances through clemency who are waiting for that opportunity. But Trump is bypassing that ordinary process, and he is pardoning primarily people who have done him a favor or made him a donation. I have done some research, pretty deep dive, actually, on these pardon response recipients, and Trump has actually wiped out over a billion dollars in debts that these pardon recipients owe to people who are victims of crimes and to the taxpayers. Could have paid for that plane, by the way. But anyway. Yeah, yeah. No, I don't know if people understand that a pardon actually has the effect of wiping out all of the penalties that flow from a criminal conviction. And so many of those penalties are financial. And they. There are people like a sheriff in Culpepper County, Virginia, who was selling badges. Oh, yeah, that was in the news. Yeah. There's a elected official in Nevada who embezzled money from a police memorial fund and spent it on plastic surgery. Lovely. These people are getting pardons from this president who I think sees something of himself in them. They're selling their. Their. I wonder why that is. Yeah. That's so, so mysterious why he would do that. Yeah. There are people who are actually selling the benefits of their public office in similar ways to what's happening in the White House now. Everything that's not bolted down seems to be for sale. Yeah. Olivia, there was a guy the other day that got a pardon because his mother went to a candlelight dinner at Mar a Lago and donated. Come on. I mean, you can't make this stuff up. It's just unreal. And, and Liz is on for folks who are following the substack on the substack machine. Liz, you're there. Tell the folks who are watching if they want to sign up. I'm tracking all these pardons and I'm also talking about my firing from the Department of Justice and on my substack, which is lawyer Oyer and I'm also lawyer Oyer on Tik Tok and Instagram. Great. Well, thank you, Liz. Really appreciate it. That's wonderful. How about Glenn Kirschner? Is Glenn Kirschner in the audience? Where is Glenn? Out? Is he here? Glenn, come on. As they say, come on down. You're the next contestant. Glenn, I bet you have some thoughts for folks who, I mean, everybody knows Glenn, justice matters is what you do. It's on substack. It's on YouTube. It's everywhere. Your thoughts, Glenn, on everything we've been hearing tonight and what's been happening here in dark DC Because I know it means a lot to you, too. Yeah, Jim. So hello, everybody. How y' all doing? So one thing I want to focus on because it's fairly new reporting. Yeah. The Wall Street Journal published an article about how a whole bunch of law firms, right, the masters of the universe, titans of, you know, the legal world, they got together for a dinner in New York and what they decided was that the law firms that are bending in knee to Donald Trump, the ones that are laying down, the ones that are like giving Donald Trump their lunch money. Yeah. Rather than standing up to them. Here is what was being said by this gathering of some of the biggest law firms in the country. Quote, we like working with lawyers who don't run from a fight. So listen to this. The reporting from the Wall Street Journal is that companies like Oracle, Oracle, Morgan Stanley, McDonald's are pulling work from the law firms that bent the knee to Donald Trump and they're going to give their business to law firms that are standing up to Donald Trump. Now, I don't understand how my fellow lawyers, and I'm not fond of lawyers, I'm really not. But how some are. Okay. You're okay. Yeah. My how my fellow lawyers think that if they give their lunch money to a bully, they're going to be protected. No. They're going to further endanger themselves. And they're all learning that the hard way because they're loing they're, they're losing big clients like top dollar clients like McDonald's. Right. Lot of money when you're the law firm representing McDonald's. So I for one, am going to support, support McDonald's by on the way home, I'm gonna get a big ass chocolate shake because you know, that's how I can best support Happy Meal. So. But the other thing, Jim, is, you know, there's so much bad news on the legal front. Yeah. But there are two things that I want to focus on. One, there's, there was some reporting actually on Marcolias's democracy doc docket. I read. That's a great one. Yeah. There's a hero right there. I read that over the last month, the Department of Justice in TR Trump related cases in litigation has been losing 96% of the time. That is a dramatic, that's a dramatic number for a Department of justice that ordinarily boasts and brags endlessly about winning 99% of its case. He wins the best cases. He's always winning. So the court, the federal courts are holding strong. The Trump appointed judges are ruling against him one after another at after another. So he's got to attack Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society and blame his nominations on them, which is pretty transparent. The buck never stops with Donald Trump. Right. But here's the thing that I want to leave people with. On the legal front, the last three immigration cases to come before the Supreme Court on the due process front, 90 in favor of due process, 72 in favor of due process and 72 in favor of due process. Now we know, yeah, we know we can write off Clarence Thomas and you know, Sammy the Bull Alito because they only care if, you know, rich white men are being hurt or aggrieved. Otherwise we can't count on them to remain loyal to the Constitution. But just think about that and hold fast to that. 907272 I think the courts are going to hold and I think Donald Trump will continue to lose power, not gain it. And he's getting more scared, not more confident. And that's showing every day. And what he's doing I don't believe is sustainable in the long run. And that's why we are going to win this. That's very important. That's very important. Thank you, Glenn. Thank you very much. That was excellent. That was excellent. I want to hear from some of the federal workers who have really been just put through the meat grinder. Shirnice Mundell, I believe is here tonight. First of all, the American Federation of Government Employees. I hope I have that correct. Many of their members are here tonight. Thank you all of you for coming tonight. Really appreciate it. You guys have been going through a lot, but I believe there's a Shirnice Bundell here. Shirnice, Hi. Hi, Shirnice. How are you folks? You got to listen to what Shirnice has been going through because I understand Shurnice. I understand you and your family have been really dealing with a lot. Tell us about that. Yeah. So I was one of the probationary employees that was fired in February over teams call. It was pre recorded message I had. It was at 2:30. At 3:00, all of our access was terminated, locked out of the system. In April, I was brought back on administrative leave through one of the court orders. I received one paycheck. I received a paycheck for $16.85 and I have since been put on leave without pay. Wow. No one in HR is responding to my emails. I was, when I was initially fired, I didn't get the proper paperwork to file unemployment. I have it now, which is $400 a week. I have. I'm a single mom. My son, he did just graduate high school last week. Wow, that's great. Congratulations. Thank you. Kids can, they can survive a lot. Thank you. Yeah. So I mean, right now on just my union, AFGE 30, Local 32, they've been helping me with, you know, trying to contact hr, but no one has contacted me yet. Wow. And you've had to, from my understanding, you've had to basically to make ends meet and put food on the table. You've had to use snap. You've had to use snap, had to get apply for SNAP benefits. My daughter is helping me. She just graduated with her master's in accounting. Incredible. Wow, that's wonderful helping me out. But I mean, it's been really hard and once I was fired in February, I decided I wanted to run for office, but. Oh, wow, okay, that's great. But now that I am on administrative leave, I'm kind of in limbo and due to the Hatch Act, I have to put everything on hold. But I'm going to stay in the fight. I have faith in God and I am going to keep getting our stories out there. Thank you so much, Ruiz. That's wonderful. Yeah, thank you. If there's anything we can do to help, please let us know. We really appreciate it you're doing this and getting and letting the American people know that, you know, federal workers are not lazy. That's right. We just want to be public servants and live our lives like everybody else and that's it. So this is helping a lot. Thank you so much, Shirdi. It's really appreciated. How about, how about Shirnice, give her a round of applause. I am also a veteran. Say that again? I'm a veteran. As well. A veteran. Air Force veteran. Wow. Air Force veteran as well. You deserve better than what you got, but we're going to make sure it gets better. Thank you. Thank you. Really appreciate it. I mean, Olivia, when you hear these stories. Thank you, Shise. Thank you. There are so many stories like that that we've heard from, from people and I, it breaks my heart. Like, it's so frustrating too, because there's so many people in limbo who end up in this situation and that they can't even apply for new jobs because they're in a certain status that prevents them from applying for the new job. And that's what kind of gets lost in the process here. And I know many people, I know a few people in the audience that have been in that situation and it's super frustrating. And also she didn't even get into the fact that the amount of time that it takes to apply for the job when she finally got that job as a probationary employee. And then it was gone in an instant after waiting for it for so long. And that is what is happening here every day to people. And, you know, they'll see it. You'll see it in the economy, you'll see it in the benefits when it starts to impact people. And hopefully it's a wake up call across the country to really take a stand against what's happening here in the next election. Absolutely. Yeah. And Mike, I mean, these folks do a public service, folks like Shirnice, they're here for all of us. That's what federal workers, that's what they do. Yeah. I mean, no doubt. I think for me, as somebody who is watching this happen, you know, having left the public service realm and no longer a police officer, more in the advocacy realm, but like watching people lose their jobs, lose their livelihoods, people who have worked for the government for decades was bad enough, but then to sit back and see them be dehumanized by this clown, Elon Musk and his doge, whatever the fuck that is. But not only that. Yeah. The President of the United States, Donald Trump, calling these people leftist lunatics and inviting. Because we all know what happens when Donald Trump says things like that about you. Donald Trump has said similar things like that about me. He said similar things like that about a lot of people that are in the audience today that have spoken out against Donald Trump. He calls you those things because he knows that his keyboard warriors and worse, you know, the proud boys, the oath keepers, the 3 percenters, these lunatic right wing, fringe, anti government organizations will target you, they will target you with harassment. They will target you with violence. They will do things like throw at your mother. Yeah. Which is what happened to me. You guys have heard about this. Yeah, it's horrible. Talk about this on the show. Absolutely disgusting. Yeah. So several months ago, I guess it was probably four or five months at this point. You know, my mother previously lived in Alexandria, Virginia. She lived there for more than 30 years. She no longer lives there because she had to move because of harassment and threats from Trump supporters. The only thing that my mother is guilty of is giving birth to me. And you know, that's probably about the worst fucking thing that she's ever done in her life. She did a pretty good job. I mean, she. I mean, so well done, mom. She was out committing the incredibly egregious act of raking leaves in her front yard, and she noticed a black pickup truck drive by and make a U turn and then drive back park. And some Trump sucking clown gets out of the car and he says, traitor. Wow. And throws a bag at her. And if I would imagine this was premeditated because I don't know too many people that drive around with a bag of shit in their car, but you can imagine what that's like. I mean it. Yeah. And I'll say this like, people wonder why I hate these mother as much as I do. Yeah. They wonder why. I don't think, you know, I take this absolutist approach. You know, consider me the John Brown of this moment. Like there is. There's no ground to be given to maga. There's no ground to be given to Trump supporters. The only thing to do with a Trump supporter is defeat them. That's it. When people ask me for what's the plan? Defeat them. That's it. I don't want to live in a country where doing something like that or holding a viewpoint in which you would dehumanize someone like a 76 year old woman who worked as a public servant, someone who served her community for decades, deserves that kind of treatment. Mom deserves better. Mom deserves better. Olivia, you wanted to call on somebody in the audience, I believe, is that right? Thank you, Mike, for telling us that story, by the way. Thank you, Mike. Thank you. So I write about, obviously I come from national security, but I write about a lot of different topics on my substack. And one of the things that I am very passionate about is arts. And I think it's the creative outlet. It's how you reach people. And I think music is a universal language. I grew up in the arts, playing instruments and being involved in it. And so I was so grateful for the musicians that came here tonight. And I believe the head of the D.C. musicians Union is here, Ed Malaga. And we just wanted to hear from you a little bit, just in terms of Kennedy center and just everything that's being impacted in this world. And I also think it's educational for people to hear. You know, I was just at the Kennedy Center. I went to the Opera House. I saw a performance. Porgy and Bessett was incredible. And some of the musicians that played in that performance were here earlier. And, you know, I think we have a tendency to say, I'm not going to go to Kennedy center because I'm so pissed off. Trust me, the guy who's running it sued me. So if anybody does not want to go there, it's me, because I have Rick Renell and I have a really tense relationship. But it is important to support the people that are in the pit that are playing those musical instruments, because it's their world, too, and they're being impacted. And so if Ed is here, we just wanted to hear a couple of words, if you're still out there. And I don't know, is Ed here? Is Ed here? Did he walk out? Is he hiding? Maybe not. Okay, well, is there another one of the musicians that wants to stand up? If any of the musicians would like to speak, you can. If not. Oh, they're scared. That's okay. I did want to recognize. I did want to recognize Steve Herman, who is here from Voice of America. Steve, if you want to say a couple things real quick, real quick, they've been going through a lot there. If you can tell the audience just a little bit. Steve. Thank you, Jim, for doing this. I'm Steve Herman. I'm the chief national correspondent of the Voice of America. Thank you. Thank you. Give it up for Steve. And since the middle of March, 1,350 of my colleagues have been silenced who are broadcasting in 49 languages to 360 million people. The best bang for the buck of public diplomacy that the United States has ever had operated continuously for 83 years. Jim, there were people, listeners in West Africa, who contacted our reporters when VOA went silent. And you know what they asked? Wow. Had there been a coup in the United States? Wow. Wow. They have never been given any explanation as to why they have been silenced. We have lost more than half of our workers now, our contractors, who, as of yesterday, lost their jobs, and we are fighting back. We're in court. Good. The Lead plaintiff is my successor as VOA's White House Bureau chief. Path Patsy Widock. Guswada, who is here. Patsy, nice to see you. My old colleague in the White House press corps. Yeah. And they've got Carrie Lake running things over there. Whoo. My goodness. Wow. That's a decision. But thank you, Steve, for what you do. Thank you, Patsy, for what you do. I mean, the Voice of America. I traveled all over the world covering the White House, and just about every place you go around the world, the Voice of America is bringing the voice of the United States of America to people that need to hear it. And I'm a son of a Cuban refugee. Part of the mission of Radio Marti is to make sure that some kind of truth gets into the island of Cuba from time to time. And they also have been coming under the axe of DOGE as well. It's just been unreal. I mean, I thought we were supposed to be against authoritarianism in the United States that has been turned on its head in recent weeks. I do want to recognize Rashab Sanghvi. He is the AFGE general counsel. And just very quickly, Rashab, I want to just ask you what can be done for all these federal employees who have been going through this? Because I know that there have been a lot of fights in the courts. There have been some successes there. That certainly helps. But, I mean, this just really requires a lot of intestinal fortitude, a lot of strength on the part of these federal workers. When you hear about folks like Shirnice, it just breaks your heart. Thanks, Jim. I think what can be done is things like this. I mean, it's an honor to work for federal employees who. The heroes we've heard about today and how they're being attacked. And just being part of a union, supporting a union, highlighting the cause of federal employees is really important. I think one thing that should be said about everyone here, all of our members, when you hear about a union or something else, you know, someone else litigating, the union is part of all of its members. And so federal employees are not backing down. Federal employees are fighting, and they're not fighting. They're fighting for their jobs, but they're fighting for more. They're fighting for what they do in their jobs, which is help Americans. Right? And so, you know, I'm so honored to be able to work for them. Them to fight for Americans like myself and just, you know, so just highlighting their stories, highlighting how important they are to Americans and supporting federal employees and unions is just what can be done. Well, thank you for the work you do. We appreciate it. Thank you. Can I ask a question? All right, now can I ask a question? Oh, yeah, please, go ahead. Because we're all about inspiring people and like to affect change. What can people do, like average Americans do, to support the employees union, like, anything like that that would be supportive to you all across the country and communities because we're all about. While we're looking at the problems currently, we're all about proactive action and moving forward. So what can. What can the average American do to have your back? I think they can just, you know, find out which ones. Which of their neighbors are federal employees, support them, talk to them, tell them how much they support them, support, you know, candidates who support federal workers and join their own unions. Right. It's. So AFGE is. Has been fighting these battles, but we've been. Had so much support from other unions like AFSCME and SEIU and aft. So just support unions, support federal employees. I think that's what an average American can do. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Thank you for the work that you do. All right, well, we're running a little out of time here with the town hall portion of the program. Does anybody. Would anybody like to make your voice heard? Hey, Mike. Good to see you. Yes, ma' am. Come on up. Come on up. This nice lady in the blue shirt. There's somebody else coming up. Oh, I did not. But if you would like to say something, please go right ahead. Hi. Thank you so much. So my name is Arielle Cain, and I'm a fired federal worker. I wasn't doing anything, like, in the front lines. Like, I was a GS13 working at CMS and I sent a mean tweet and I accidentally went viral. And so since then, I have talked to probably more than 50 outlets about federal workers and the importance of the work that we do. And the reason I did that is because it felt like I was fighting again, not for my job in particular, but for the importance of public service and public servants. However, in the long chain of events that has happened, my entire team was brought back, except for me, because I speaking out and fighting, and I was permanently let go and, you know, rid of the purgatory. The day before, my one year was up. And I just think that, like, it's. I don't know, something that I want to highlight is that now my whole team is terrified of saying anything. They all now know that if they speak out, they could end up in my shoes. And that's the point that's the point, is to shut down any kind of dissent. Yeah. However, that being said, like, I am still. And Charice back there, we are still braver than, like, Perkins Coy. Like, we are braver than Paramount. We are braver than all of these people who are cowtowing to this administration and they are not standing up for our Constitution. But me and Cherise are. So I just think that more people, people like. All I'm asking is that that be seen and that be acknowledged. Because it's a lonely fight out there. And if we're not taking advantage or thanking the people who are doing the fight, then it's hard to keep on doing it. Thank you very much. Thank you. Go to the right one. All right. This nice lady over here who I think I recognize. First of all, Mike, I want to say I'm born and raised in a Alexandria, and I'm embarrassed that your mother was treated that way by fellow people in Alexandria. So thank you very much for being there in Alexandria. I also would like to say all politics is local. So, Jim and Harry. Go Dukes. Yes. Go Dukes. Given the influence of AI, is there a strategy or an effective tool to battle disinformation that's being spread on social media platforms, particularly to people in the younger demographics? Good question. I think that's why we're here. I think this is why you're seeing an independent media revolution in this country right now. The nice lady who just spoke a few moments ago noted the cowardice of Paramount, which is considering paying a bribe to Donald Trump in order to do away with this lawsuit, this ridiculous bullshit lawsuit that Trump filed against 60 Minutes. And, you know, that is why people more and more. I mean, look at this crowd here tonight, guys. Look at this crowd here tonight. You are. You are. I mean, we're not just going out there on social media and going out on places like substack into a void. You guys are coming to us, and we're so grateful for it. And I think it's because people have said we're fed up. Yeah. And I think it's important to understand a lot of this dis and misinformation that's online is being actually funded by the right wing propaganda machine. And they're the ones funding a lot of the influencers. And unfortunately, they own a lot of the air in the space. And I think it's important. I think I see some younger people in the audience. We had some wonderful interns here tonight that I know that are doing an amazing job. It's. You all we need you to propel others and varied voices in the independent space as well to support them for the future going forward. Because that's what it's going to take. So it's going to take supporting independent voices that are pushing back on this, that are not in these echo chambers and reaching across the aisle so we can reach some of those people. And that is what it's going to take because we don't have an organized machine that's funding some of these other voices. There's groups out there like Midas Touch, like other entities that are working hard. And now you've got Jim Acosta and all of us on substack trying to make a difference. I mean, look, we are losing the information world. That is just where we are today. It is fact. But I think the more that we have voices out there who are educating, substantive, having these conversations, pushing out real time news and facts because really it's about making truth great again. That's really what it is. Right? It's making factual things, supporting each other and getting that information out there. And it also means taking that information and talking to your neighbors about it and like pointing it out. And actually across the country, you know, I always say to Jim, I'm like, we need to go bowling again. I'm going to the bowling hall. We need to go bowling again and drink some beer and have some conversations and get to know each other again outside of that space and support these things. And we're gonna have to start. I don't want to get folks disappointed here, but we don't have time, I don't think, for everybody to get their question. But if we could do kind of rapid fire as fast as you can make your point or say your question, that'd be great. Yes, ma' am. I think that one of the things that people need to be saying to their Congress people, their senators and all, all around the country, Republican and Democrat, the Republicans are not talking because they're afraid of Trump primarying them. That's right. They need to realize that they don't need to be afraid of Trump's primary. They need to worry about what we're going to do. That's right. We're going to be primary. And that needs to be said. And that needs to be said everywhere. And if they get, if the Republicans hear that, that it's going to come from the ranks of the citizens of usa, they might say, hey, ho. That's right. People power. It's about people power. That's exactly right. Yes, ma' am if you can, very quickly. Yes. My name is Frankie. I work with the National Archives and Record Administration, which is the agency that houses the Declaration of Independence with all of its independence. And I just want to remind everyone in this audience as well as you all that our entire nation's libraries, museums and archives are under attack. The nea, the neh, the imlis have all been under attack and defunded. This includes everything from your local library all the way up to the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian. Efforts like this and conversations like this have been a part of American history since day one, and they want us to forget about it. And I just want to remind everyone here to. To support your local heritage institutions to ensure that their funding is not lost, their viewership is not lost, and our collective history of compassion and organizing is not lost. Thank you so much. That's wonderful. Yes, ma' am. You. My name is Ellie Leonard. I'm a fellow substacker and independent journalist by day. Hi, Mike. Thank you. Thank you for doing that. Yeah. My question is, is hypothetical, hypothetically, in four years, if we all take a nap, if Pete and Chasten are in the White House and we're relaxed and we're happy again, could happen. What happens to independent journalism? Because it is booming. It's booming. I think it's here to stay. No, I absolutely think it's here to stay. There's no question about it, because people have said, you know what, what's going on here with these lawsuits that are being paid by these big media companies, these bull lawsuits that should never have been paid in the first place. It has really damaged, I think, a lot of these institutions. And, and I think the folks who have gravitated over towards independent media, they're not going to give that up. I think they're going to say we're here for the long haul. But thank you so much. I would implore you to stay. Just to be clear, because that right wing machine was funded over many, many years, built over several decades, and we're building that still. We cannot let what is being built up now go away, because the far right and what they've been able to weaponize in the media space, that is not going to go away. And it is well funded and they are determined to keep fighting in that, in that battle space. So please keep doing what you're doing. Thank you. Yes, ma' am. I've been on administratively for two months. Speaking of the mic. Yeah, I've been on administratively for two months and that means they're paying me and they're telling me not to work. Where? At a small federal agency. Small federal agency? Yeah. And we're paying out about a million dollars on month to our people on admin leave. And in my mind, I just. It hurts because those are taxpayer dollars that could be taking care of health issues or. I mean, I could go on and on, but I think that we hear so much about the people that are losing their jobs, but there's a lot of us that still have jobs but we can't do them. So it's scary. Yeah. I've been able to spend a lot of time with my family, though, so that's been amazing. That's great. I can't believe the communities that have come together, like, well fed is a place that I went and they lifted me up so much. And I think that's one of the most beautiful things that's coming out of this is as much ugly as being put out by everyone else. There's a lot of beauty in community. No, people are definitely coming together. Thank you, ma' am. I appreciate it. Yes, ma' am. If you can, I. Hello. I now have to cut it down. DOD employee and veteran. And let me tell you something. Two days ago I got an email with the new employee standards for federal workers. And it includes not only a loyalty page, but a two page essay on how you support the Trump administration or the current administration for federal workers. So our upcoming Federal Employees Take an Oath to the Constitution, but we also have to do a two page essay on why we support the new administration, what the literal is going on. And I think that that needs to be addressed by our unions more than anything. All right, thank you so much. Thanks, everybody for your one, maybe one last, real quick one. I'm so sorry. Our loyalty is to the United States of America, ma' am. Thank you for bringing that up. I. I have to make that. We're running a little late, but I have to say you're absolutely right. Yes, ma' am. Very quickly. Hello, my name is Aisha. Can you hear me? I'm Aisha and I'm representing fda. I'm in their office of Communications. I'm also in admin, Leave purgatory, limbo, whatever you want to call it, for the last two months. However, if they thought that by getting rid of all the comms and PRs people, it would get us to shut the hell up, obviously they've been wrong. That was a bad bet. I understand that Representative Crockett is gone, but my whole thing, thing that I've been pondering And I've heard from many other people. The literal thousands of people I've talked to now since this has happened is that Project 2025 is a plan. It was planned. It is working. The plan, for the love of God on the Democrat side and for the help of all of us. Where the hell is our plan? We need a plan, and we are here. It's time for a Project 2026, I think is what we need. Whatever you want to call it. Federal workers are here to help and advise however we can. We are the ones in the system, so we know how to build it back. All right? But we need to get the support. Thank you so much. How about that? How about we have a Project 2026 in this country? What do you guys think about that? Does that sound like a good idea? I think that sounds like a great idea. I want to write a letter of apology to each and every one of you who are left still standing. I'm so sorry. You can go on my substack and you can say all kinds of mean things about me, but I have to keep the program moving. But thank you very much. Yes. We love the Midas touch, guys. Thank you. Yes, thank you. Okay. All right. Now we have moved to a very special portion of the program. And if folks are very disappointed because they didn't get the chance to speak, you can come up to me afterwards and I will listen to you. So you'll have your very own personal town hall with. All right. One of the things that I wanted to do here this evening, guys, is to recognize some of the people who are on the front lines in this battle for hearts and minds in this country, in this battle for the truth, in this battle for democracy in this country. And these individuals that me and my team that I and my team have selected to receive these awards have, I think, exemplify bravery, courage, dedication to this country, dedication to the wonderful folks who are here tonight. The federal employees, some of them were literally fighting for their lives on the front lines of democracy on January 6. Some of them were trying to warn the public about this president the first time around, and now are being targeted because of that work. And so I want to start recognizing some of the work that they've done over the years. And the first person I want to recognize this evening is Miles Taylor. I might need my glasses, Olivia, if you want to come up, you can come up, too. Let me get my glasses, because I want to say this right. Miles Taylor is known for an op ed he wrote anonymously in the New York Times during the first Trump administration, warning the public about what was going on inside the White House. Then Miles published a book anonymously doing much of the same thing. He eventually revealed he was the author of those items. And now Trump is coming after him, recently announcing that he is having the Department of Justice go after him, which, of course, is downright un American. I want to recognize Miles tonight with our Defending Freedom Award and have Miles say a few words. Miles, come on up. Miles, thank you so much. Which one is Miles? Miles? Ah, there it is right here. It's the first one. Miles. There you go. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, Jim. Thank you, everyone. Really appreciate this. I'm also losing my voice right now, so just bear with me for a second here. And I suppose that's fitting. If you speak out too much, you just lose your voice. But it's also fitting because just a few blocks from here, there is someone who wants to try and silence us right now. And that's hit very close to home for us. As Jim noted, I came forward a couple years ago to try to warn people about Donald Trump and a second term, and that it would be a revenge machine, were my words. And we've seen that now. We have seen the federal government weaponized against the media, against law firms, against educational institutions, against the immigrant community. And then, as Jim noted, On April 9th, me and a former colleague of mine, Chris Krebs, were hit with an executive order to target individuals with investigations. Those EOs set into motion federal investigations into us. The President said we were national security threats. He called me a traitor in the Oval Office, a crime punishable by death. And I just want to say one thing. Legal scholars have told me that this is the first time in American history that a President of the United States has targeted a critic by executive order for investigation, merely for First Amendment protected speech. Now, I wish I'd come with some lighthearted jokes tonight, but I wanted to impart upon you all the very seriousness of this, because it would be easy to see these types of orders go out and say, it sucks for Miles today. It'll blow over. These are just symbolic. But. But this type of blacklisting isn't because Chris or I broke the law. It's not because they even had evidence of a crime into either of us. It's because we criticized the President and spoke the truth. And I want to tell you tonight just what the implications are of something like that. Not so that you play the violin for me, but so you understand how serious it's getting out there on April 9th. After that order dropped, I was forced to leave my job. My wife, who's here tonight with our 8 month old baby, give Hannah a round of applause, please. She's been through a lot. My wife, who's a stay at home mother, had to return to work so that we could financially support the family. We had to start a legal defense fund so that we could protect our family. We had friends that were fired from the executive branch because they were at our wedding in the White House, found photographs of it. Unfortunately, we even had family members separate from us because they were worried about being in the crosshairs. We've had stalkers dox and violently threaten our family. And recently Hannah and I went and updated our last week will and testament because we were advised to do so and to name a legal guardian for our daughter in case the worst happened because we don't know what's going to happen. This is not the country that we want to live in. So the thing that I want to tell you tonight is that this is much bigger than Miles or Chris because they're using these orders to justify the rollback of protections for journalists. They're using them to persecute the president's enemies. They're using them to muzzle critics. They're using them to steamroll the opposition. And I want to tell you tonight that we are not going to back. They're going to walk me off here soon. Tomorrow morning we will take a first step in fighting back against these revenge eos. So thank you to my friends at Substack. If you want to follow what we're doing in this case, you can go to treason.substack.com True story. Spicy. And tomorrow morning you can see what we're doing to fight back. This is really, really important because next year we will mark the 250th anniversary of this country, the 250th birthday of this country. And for 249 of those years, we have been a nation of laws. We have been a nation that upholds freedom of speech. But I want to tell you tonight that the biggest threat to those things on that 250th birthday is not Donald Trump. And it's ironic for me to say this, but the biggest threat is anonymity. It's people not speaking up. It's people being afraid to speak up, people being afraid of being canceled. I even had that fear when I used the device of anonymity to try to sound the alarm. Anonymity is the biggest threat to Freedom and free speech in this country. We need to help people take the mask off. And so I want to ask you just three questions tonight in that vein. The first question being, do you still believe in the power of free speech? Yes or no? Yes. Will you in this audience defend your right to free speech, even if it's uncomfortable, even if it's frustrating, even if it's dangerous? Yes or no? Yes. And will you stand with each other when that fight gets hard and protect the rights to speech of people you disagree with? Yes or no? Yes. All right. They're trying to silence me. They want to silence you. And they're not going to succeed because they won't get the last word. You will. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. All right, let's bring out Tara Settmeier. Tara Settmeier, come on out. Tara and I have been friends for years. She comes from a Republican background. You've seen her on television, making her views on the current occupant of the Oval Office crystal clear. Who? Here's Tara right here. But in recent months, Tara has been expanding her portfolio, focusing on the rights of women, and that's why I want to recognize her tonight with our Defending Women award. I'm very proud of Tara and the work she's been doing at the Seneca Project. She just won a webby for her web app, the American Girl. Tara, congratulations. Thank you for coming. Have you say a few words? Oh, my goodness. I had no idea this was happening. This was a total surprise. And I just cannot even begin to express the gratitude that I have, not only for all of you who are here supporting this, but to Jim and to Olivia and to everyone who has not compromised who they are and what they believe to stand up for what's right. And it is really my honor and humbled privilege to be a part of a movement like that because it requires those of us to take a stand when others won't. And it's something that I live my life by. It's something that, when I started the Seneca Project on behalf of women, to make sure that we stood in the breach for women who may not have been able to have a voice or who may have felt that they were losing it. And, you know, is there someone out there that speaks for me? Yes, there are. And it's important that every single one of us, when we have that opportunity that you use your voice, they will never stop. Silence me. They won't silence Jim. They're not going to silence Miles. They're not going to Silence our officers. They're not going to silence you because silence is the fuel for fascism and we're not going to give that to them. Amen. You know, I come from a law enforcement family. And many of you who follow me know that I speak often about my family roots. I'm from Jersey. Any Jersey people in the house? Yes, yes. I speak very, very fondly of my time growing up in New Jersey and my grandfather, who was a World War II veteran and captain of my hometown police department. And my husband is a federal officer. And, you know, my mom always raised me, who is here tonight as well. Thanks. Shout out to my mom. Your mom. You know, my mom was a single parent, had me at 21 and raised me to never be afraid to speak up and do what's right, even if it was difficult. And I always carried that with me. And when it came down to speaking up and doing what's right against what we are facing right now with the ilk of MAGA and. And what they have done to our law enforcement officers, there was no question whatsoever that I would be there to stand up for them and to stand up for what's right. And so for me, I just want people to understand that every single one of us plays a role. Every single one of us. When you look at an injustice, speak up. Don't wait for the next person to do it. Don't wait for the person behind you to do it. Don't say, well, who am I? What can I do? You are a citizen of this country. You are in America. And Abraham Lincoln said, when he was addressing the Union soldiers who gave their life for this democracy, he said, what we are of, for and by the people, that is what the government is supposed to be for. To protect our democracy so it shall not perish from the earth. That is our responsibility as citizens. That is our responsibility as Americans. We, while we still have that opportunity, we do that to stand up for those who have their. Who give their lives in service of this country, for those officers who did everything they could to protect our democracy, even when our democracy didn't love them back. And that is the same for women in this country. And what we have had to go through in this country, women have shouldered the burden of a lot, particularly women of color in this country, even when the country country didn't love us back. But yet here we are. And we still stand for what's right. So I leave you with this. Stay loud. Yeah. Stand up. And American girls never back down. There you go. Thank you, Tara. Thank you. Thank you so much. Much. Okay, Aaron Parnas, come out of here, buddy. Much was said about the Gen Z vote in the last election, and Aaron has his finger on the pulse of his generation. His news updates and video commentaries have racked up millions of views. You think I get a lot of views? I mean, Aaron is blowing me out of the water. I have to say this. He's on an array of social media platforms, but it's because of Aaron that I have a lot of faith in Gen Z. And so I want to give Aaron this award tonight for defending Gen Z. There he is right there. Aaron, if you want to say a couple words, thank you so much for what you do. Thank you, Jim. Thank you, Olivia. Thank you, Mike. I'm truly honored. I mean, this is truly my first ever award for doing this work. Oh, wow. That's great. You've been crushing it, man. Honestly, thank you. I mean, it's one that I'll never forget. I mean, I mean, right now we really are living through truly unprecedented times. A lot of folks tell me, well, Aaron, things are going to get back to normal. And I tell them, listen, I'm 26 years old. The first presidential election I remembered was 2016. Many people my age don't remember Obama, don't remember Bush. We don't remember what everyone tells us was once normal. And so we are living in this new normal, but it is an un. Unprecedented normal. Our very institutions that I grew up learning about that were supposed to protect us, like law firms, like the media, like even the Department of Justice, which is supposed to be independent, have completely and utterly changed. And especially the media. The media is more focused on selling books about a former president, about. About making sure that they had. About making sure that they have approval from this president for a major merger than they are about telling the truth. And that's why I wanted to talk to you all tonight and why I'm so excited to be here tonight is because the truth really does matter. And everyone asks me every single day, what can I do? I don't have millions of followers. I don't have a giant audience. My answer to that is simple. All of you in this audience and everyone watching has influence. It doesn't matter if you have one follower or 10 or 10 million. You have a voice and your voice is powerful. And if we use our collective voices, then the truth will succeed and the truth will win. And ultimately, truth matters. And so thank you so much for this award. I'm so excited to be here. And you guys are amazing. So thank You. Thank you. Aaron, great job. Congratulations. You got it. Can I just highlight what Aaron just said? That the first presidential election he remembers is 2016. Ladies and gentlemen, we can do better than this. Okay? I just want to say, can we give him some variety perhaps? All right. Last but not least, I don't have to remind everyone that we are standing here, sitting here in the nation's capital tonight with our democracy stood standing, at least for now, thanks in large part to the bravery of the men and women who defended the Capitol on January 6th. I think it's safe to say that some of these officers were disappointed in the outcome of the last election I just referenced. Some of them I know for a fact have been wondering why, after what happened to them and how they put their lives on the line, would the country make the change choice that it did. But rather than feel defeated by that outcome, these four men have made it their mission to continue fighting for our democracy. So I want to honor these men tonight for their bravery, their courage, and their determination to defend American democracy. I thought about calling this the DAD Award. Defend American democracy. Michael thought maybe Daddy was better a Daddy Award. You know, why not? But. But let's bring out Harry Dunn, Aquilino Ganiel Hodges, and of course, my buddy, Michael Fanone. Come on out, guys. Harry. Thank you. Oh, Aino. There you go. Thank you. Daniel. Good to see you. Good to see you. Good to see you. Yep. Stand up for these guys. Stand up. It's the least we can do. It's the least we can do. Take it away. Take it away. Harry. Thank you. Please, have a seat. Please sit down. Please, stop, stop, stop. Thank you. Thank you. Hold on. Thank you. I'm going to be a buzzkill for a minute. All right. A lot of y' all know who we are because we suffered the worst day of our lives on national tv. The world knows who we are because we went through the worst day of our lives in front of the whole world. Only for it to be attempted to be erased by this administration, members of Congress and a whole bunch of other bullshit people that got pardoned. They're being celebrated as the good guys. Jim, this is a really nice award. And I would chuck this shit if it meant that none of y' all know knew who any of us were up here. Think about that for a second. Y' all know who we are because of the worst day of our lives. And imagine us having to live with that shit. A lot of people see us and see these great, fine, strapping men. Right? Right. Maybe a little Bit. Especially Mike. Especially Mike. Maybe just a little bit. But I guarantee you. I know he's not talking about me, but I'm sorry. All of us would trade every single accolade award, honor that we got, that we received for that day to have never have happened. Listen. We had an opportunity on November 5th to show that this country, America, was above fascism. We had the opportunity to show that we were above wanting to live under a dictatorship. We had the opportunity to show that we were above misogyny. And in Pride Month, lgbtq, they. That's okay, keep going. We love you, I guess, man. Shit, are y' all as mad as I am? The reason why I ask you that is because we have to turn anger into action. Don't just sit there and type on your fucking keyboards about how upset you are. I dedicate my award to all these federal workers here. I dedicate this to you all. You all are the people that keep this country going. Not that ass orange asshole at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. I had a million things I wanted to say, but I come to two right now. And I'll use cliches, I don't like to use cliches, but two of them really stick out to me right now. I don't want to tell everybody that. What's one of the things that when you're going through something tough, everybody says, what? It's going to be okay. It's going to be okay. You know what? I'm not going to gaslight everybody in the fucking audience and say it's going to be okay. Because we don't know if it is. I do know if we don't do anything, it will not be okay. So sitting on your ass doing nothing is not an option. The second one. Thank you. The second one. Saturday night, I got back from a seven day trip in Ukraine to deliver humanitarian aid to help people of Ukraine win this war, to save Ukrainian lives. The reason. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Harry. Listen, listen. I don't bring that up for applause or recognition. I bring that up to address it. Everybody always says it could be worse. And I hate that because it's bad as shit right now. It's really bad. But those people in Ukraine are fighting for their existence. Their existence, their right to live. While we were over there, air raid sirens are going off left and right. And you know what the people of Ukraine were doing? Going about their fucking business, living their lives. Fuck you, Russia. That's how I feel. Fuck you, Donald. Listen, Jim, thank you so much for doing this. Thank you, everybody, for Being here, you have already accomplished the first step being here, showing up. But let's not wait until 2026 to be educated about what's going on right now. Make a plan right now. Get a friend. Get somebody you fucking hate. I'm sure there's a lot of them out there, right? I'm sure there's somebody in your family that you hate right now. Yeah, I'm talking to you. Get out there. Get involved. Let's not wait until it's too late. And to say what happened. Do everything you can do. And to use a football cliche, leave it all on the field. Thank you. Thank you, Harry. Thanks guys. Appreciate it. Anybody else want to say a word? Mike, you want to say something? No, you're good. Daniel A, go ahead. Mike Fanon, everybody. So one I, I, I didn't know that Jim was going to give us this award. Award. It was probably pre planned, it was probably part of the run of show that I didn't pay any attention to. But now I feel like an because I got here earlier and I said that no one's ever given me an award that I thought was worthy of giving me an award. We set you up. Jim Acosta gave me an award. But I want to say something about Jim before I get to my, my other point. And so like I've always had a great deal of admiration for Jim post 2016 because I supported Donald Trump in 2016 and yeah, I was an asshole for doing it, but you know, Jim was like the anti Trump CNN guy that I love to hate on and now like have come to be like one of my closest friends and somebody who supported me when I couldn't find a job and couldn't get hired after I left the police department and someone who has supported me unequivocally and you know, just a good friend and I'm honored to share a stage with him which I think is absolutely ridiculous that I would be up here with Olivia Troy who's like national security professional and, and, and Jim Acosta who's like a real honest to goodness like journalist and, and I thought he was gonna say something else there but like he's like the, you know, the TV journalist that everybody is like this is what journalists capitalism is all about in this country and it's yeah, I, and I'm just some asshole high school dropout that was a cop and got the shit kicked out of on January 6th and now here I am. Somehow that allows me a platform. But yeah, no, it's, I'm honored, I Truly am honored. And I wouldn't just say that, trust me. I think anybody that knows me knows that Jim is a. An amazing fucking guy. Thank you, bud. So there. There's some. Another point that I wanted to make. And, you know, a lot of people ask me all the time, like, you know, what do you draw inspiration from? Like, how do you keep saying in these moments? And I don't really have heroes, but there are people that are, you know, incredibly influential in my life. And it seems as though, like, sometimes they. They come about earlier in my life when it may not be as meaningful, and then I'm able to, like, go back to that, and anyways, I'll just get to it. And it's so somebody that I draw inspiration from is Henry Rollins. I don't know if any of you guys are familiar with. With Henry, but when I. When I was a kid, I listened to Black Flag. I was really into punk rock and Henry Rollins, I think at least what I've come to know him as, is a, you know, an advocate for. For humanity. And so I always listen to one of his spoken word. I don't know what you call it, whatever, but he talks a lot about, or he talks about this moment specifically. He talks about his reaction to Donald Trump being elected president and finding a silver lining in that. And I'm inspired by his words. And he talks about this idea that right now, in this moment, your advocacy and your words mean more than they ever did because of the contrast that we experience from people like Trump and from maga, your advocacy on behalf of, you know, whatever the cause, whether it's women's rights or LGBTQ or, I mean, just human decency means so much more in this moment because the forces that are fighting against it have become normalized. And then the other thing that resonates with me is, you know, Henry is asked by somebody in the crowd, know what? What can I do? Or what? What can you do? And then we get asked this question all the fucking time, and I don't have a plan or an answer. I'm just some guy that reacts in the moment and. And tries to do everything that I can do. And I guess that's part of it. But, you know, one of the things that resonated for me is, like, he's like, listen, there's people that are going to inspire you. There are people out there that are speaking up. So stand up next to them and let them know that you support them. Let them know that you have their back. You know, there are federal workers Many of them got up here and stood in front of a microphone and talked about their experience in your communities that have lost their jobs, that have been adversely affected. You know who they are. Let them know that you support them. Time that we build a community to resist what Donald Trump is trying to destroy and what MAGA more important than Donald Trump, what MAGA is trying to destroy. And that's all I got for you. Thank you, Mike. Thank you. All right, well, real quick, Aquilino, say a couple words for us and then we got to wrap it up because I think there's going to kick me out of here. So, you know, I doubt it. We have. And Daniel, too, of course. Daniel here. Yeah. Just want to say thank you for having us here. This group of people are one of the few, some of them in the crowd as well, have been in my corner since January 6th. These are the, especially the officers on that horrible day. I, you know, unwillingly, I came across each one of them and it was not a good time for me to have a conversation with them. But over the time, I had come to know them, their family, and stood up with me to tell you guys our stories. And one thing I wanted you guys to all know is that it shouldn't have happened to you in order for you to care. And that's why I think a lot of people here in this country had forgotten that we, the officers, stood the ground to say your elected officials, regardless of whether we're elected from. And a lot of people remain quiet in silence while the few of us stood up and say, hey, this happened to us. There's a lot of indifference from that support. I know that you guys are here because you support us. But there are many people who turned their back on us, literally elected officials, people who we risked our lives on January 6th to save them. They were running in fear for their lives, and yet they turned their back on us. And every single time they have a chance to be on camera or Police Week, like a couple of weeks ago, they support us. And the next day after Police Week, then they give a retitution, reparation and settlement to the same people who attack us, you know. Yeah. But that's why we're here tonight. We're here to support you. I do want to say thank you. I do also want to say something about the immigration port part. I'm an immigrant myself, unlike these fellows here. They were born here. I wasn't. And yet I had done 25 years of public service to this country, and I was not Even born here, I'm literally the sample that Republican used to say that the type of immigrant they want here, but now they want us, everyone out. And it shouldn't have happened this way. It was my hope that January 6th would put open the eyes on people and these policies against immigrants about our community. People who come here work really hard to sustain not only themselves here in the US but also their family back home. These are the type of people, people that they are expelling and deporting. And it shouldn't we going to feel the ramification of that. And we all need to speak up about that as well. Thank you. Thank you very much. Daniel, please. Yeah, please. Hi. So don't get too carried away with Jim. The only reason he's given me this is because he feels guilty. This is a true story. The last week I heard you were a strapping lad that Harry talked about. That's obviously true. But the last week Jim was on cnn. I was actually scheduled to be on his show. And then like two days before I was gonna go on, he like, came out and said, I'm done with cnn. Nevermore. So I was like, all right, I guess I'm not doing that anymore. He retired. But seriously, on January 6th, I had a bad day at the office, but I made it home in one piece. And largely it just had an effect of people being really nice to me from now on. But there have been so many people, so many organizations that have been fighting every day since, for the past years who do not get the recognition that they deserve because they have not been in a viral video. Groups of lawyers fighting back, groups of journalists speaking out. These federal workers who are not going quietly. Anyone and everyone who is doing what they can in their lives to fight for what makes this country great. I just want to say thank you to them. You guys and what you're doing means the world to me. Thank you. Thank you, Daniel. Appreciate it. All right, guys, our heroes right here. These are our guys right here. Give them a round of applause. Give them a round of applause. All right, folks, one last thing before you go. One last. I know everybody has a phone here because I saw some of you guys looking at your phones during this. I want you to pull out your phone. I want you to turn the light on. Pull out the phone. Turn the light on. You guys, too. It may feel like we are surrounded in darkness right now. There's no question about it. It's been hard to get through. We're only, what, a hundred and some odd days in. But I Think what you just heard here from these gentlemen up here, from Tara, from Aaron, from Miles, is that there's still a lot of light left in all of us. And it would mean something to me if you carry that message with you as we leave this theater here tonight, that this is not a country that is being plunged into darkness. This is a country that can find its way back to the light. And I want to thank everybody for being here tonight. I. I appreciate all of you so much. This is just a tremendous outpouring of support and patriotism and love for country that, you know, it's going to be with me for a very long time. So I just want to thank you personally for being here tonight and thank my partners in crime, Mike Fanon and Olivia Troy. Great job, guys. Daniel, Harry Aquilino and Tara Sarah. Everybody else, Miles, all the federal workers who came here tonight, thank you so much. You guys hang in there, stand strong and keep watching us. In independent media, we're going to give you the truth, no matter what that guy down the street thinks about it. Have a good night, everybody. Thanks a lot. Thanks for coming, interns. Oh, Olivia, please. We're all about thanking our crew and our staff and future generations. Where are our interns? Oh, the interns. Yeah, show the interns. Sorry, I forgot to recognize interns. Take a taco hat. We're going to pay it forward. Interns. Taco hat. Taco hat. Here we go. We're going to recognize them and thank them. Take a taco hat. You get to talk. I'm like Oprah. You get a taco hat and you get a taco hat. Good call, Olivia. Good call. Yeah. And look, it takes great courage to actually show up. So I just want to acknowledge it because you have the courage to actually show up and attend this event. And in a world like today, that really matters. And you're inspiring others across the country. And so, Jim, thank you for bringing us together. Just to be clear, I know for a fact that there are people across party lines in the audience. I know that they're here. There are conservatives, liberals, Republicans, Democrats in one room together who are standing by each other. And I think that's why events like this matters, because they are here in the trenches with you tonight and with us. And that's what it's going to take. That's how we move forward. So to all of you, Jim, for having my back, for these boys, for having my back, the best guys, having my back. And to all of you, thank you all. Thank you so much. And to Matt. Where's Matt, our producer? Oh, our fearless leader, Matt. Hoy. Come on out, Matt. Yes. This is the guy that made the whole thing happen. I had nothing to do with it. If we're in trouble, blame him. He's the one who should be in trouble. No, but seriously, I want to give and I want to give a shout out to my dad, who's here, here tonight. A.J. is here. You hear me talking about him all the time. He's wearing a crazy Donald Trump shirt, and it's in Russian. I don't know. My dad has a very good sense of humor, which somehow I think I got. White House for sale. I think it says something like that in Russian, but wanted to give him a shout out, too. And for all my family and friends and everybody coming here tonight, thank you for being here. And all of Olivia's family and friends and everybody else's family and friends, thank you, everybody, for. For coming. Really appreciate it. Thank you, everybody. Oh, should we do a group photo? Okay. For the folks who haven't left, should we do one of those little, like, Ellen DeGeneres things where we do the group photo? Can we do that? Is that possible? How do we do this?