← The Jim Acosta Show
The Jim Acosta Show
Another Trump Political Enemy NY AG Letitia James charged with fraud in Trump with Steve Schmidt plus Rep. Jason Crow and Tiffany Muller on Citizens United.
01:01:27
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- [00:00]
A
Foreign.
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B
Welcome to the Jim Acosta show. And the MAGA shutdown is grinding on. Donald Trump just threatened to start cutting what he called Democrat programs permanently if Democratic lawmakers don't buckle to GOP demands to end the shutdown. Meanwhile, the shutdown is about to hurt Americans in the military. My big guest this hour is Democratic Congressman Jason Crow of Colorado. He's joined by Tiffany Mueller with the group and Citizens United. They're both working together on an effort to get big money out of politics. And Congressman and Tiffany, thanks for joining me. And just as an aside before we jump into this, I was doing some, some research on the polling on getting money out of politics and this, I guess this hostility towards ends, towards Citizens United, I should say it's pretty bipartisan. So I do want to talk about that in just a moment. But Congressman, let me start with you first, because we have to start. Donald Trump just a short while ago is threatening to go after what he called Democrat programs. I guess he, he considers certain programs to be backed more by Democrats than Republicans, although we can talk about how they're, some of these programs are very popular in red states and MAGA areas and so on. But I, yeah, let's, let's play a little bit of what Trump was saying just a short while ago and then we'll jump right into this.
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A
Because it's early, but it gets a little bit.
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B
Worse as it goes along.
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A
And we'll be making cuts that will be permanent and we're only going to cut Democrat programs.
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B
I hate to tell you.
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A
I guess that makes sense. But we're only cutting Democrat programs.
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B
But we're going to start that. And we have Russell who can talk to you about it if you he wants to.
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A
But we're, we'll be cutting some very.
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B
Popular Democrat programs that aren't popular with.
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A
Republicans, frankly, because that's the way it works. They wanted to do this, so we'll.
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B
Give them a little taste of their own medicine. Congressman, first of all, thanks for being on the program and your reaction to what Trump just said there.
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C
Well, listen, all you have to do is pay attention to the man. He is. He says the quiet part out loud. He's politicized our government. This is all about greed, corruption, patting the pockets and the wallets of his billionaire donors. They decided to shut down the United States government so that they could get anything they want. They can cram through these massive, massive windfall tax breaks for billionaires and the wealthiest of Americans on the backs of health care for working Americans. That's what this is about and what this is also about is, is a presidency that in the last 10 months has shown their willingness to send military into our cities and, quote, unquote, go to war with our cities, in Donald Trump's words, to run away from our alliances and our partners around the world, to weaponize the DOJ against his political enemies, to chill freedom of speech and use the FCC commissioner to bully major media organizations to do what he wants to do. And if he doesn't like a joke that somebody says, and if Donald Trump and House Republicans think that we are about to write them a blank check to ignore Congress and do with that money whatever they want to do, they have lost their damn minds.
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B
And so it sounds as though this shutdown may drag on a bit. And I guess I'm just wondering what you think of about the fact that I start, I guess starting on Wednesday or next week, members of the military will start going without pay. I was looking at a story in the Associated Press about this, and they were profiling a family. And you know this Congressman all too well. A lot of people in the military live paycheck to paycheck. They're not making a lot of money. And so when those paychecks stop coming in, yes, they get reimbursed. Later on, they get the back pay. But it becomes quite the squeeze for members of our armed, armed forces.
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A
Yeah.
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C
There is nothing sacred to Donald Trump and Mike Johnson and congressional Republicans. Nothing. There's nothing they won't do to roll people, to roll Congress and to give enormous windfall tax breaks to billionaires, including cut pay for our military. It is beyond the pale, frankly, what they're willing to do here. And this is their decision. We remain ready and willing to come up with a bipartisan compromise to open this government. But first of all, they have to call us back into session. So let's remember, we haven't been in session for two weeks because Mike Johnson literally shut the doors. The doors are locked to the House floor. Like, we can't get in there. They've canceled votes. He said that the House has done its job, quote, unquote. That's what he said. How can you say we've done our job? The government's shut down.
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A
Right.
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C
So that's their decision. They have to open up Congress. They have to start debate. They have to start negotiation. We are ready to get it done.
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B
And they won't swear in Representative Elect Grialva of Arizona. She just won a special congressional race. If she is sworn in, she would become the decisive vote on a discharge petition to force the release of the Epstein files. Something that a lot of Americans, even MAGA Republicans want, want to see released. I mean, that's being held up, too.
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A
Yeah.
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C
They're willing to withhold pay, shut down our government, do all the things that Americans are starting to see that are the basic services our government provides, how their lives are already being impacted. To protect sexual predators and to protect Donald Trump and to prevent justice for the victims of one of the largest sex abuse scandals in American history. Adelita Gralva will be the 218th vote on a bipartisan discharge petition to force a vote to release the files, which I want to do, because there has to be justice for these victims that were abused by this huge sexual abuse scandal. They are literally covering it up and using the federal government in the shutdown to do so.
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B
And, Tiffany, let me go to you because, I mean, a big part of this and one of the reasons why I wanted to do this show is because I think that Citizens United. I'll just say this. I know I'm supposed to, you know, I'm not to have opinions on anything, really, but I do think Citizens United has had a corrosive effect on our politics. The Pew Research center did a poll on big money and politics in 2023. They found 8 in 10 Republicans and Republican leaning independents. 83% say people who donate a lot of money to campaigns have too much influence on decisions made by members of Congress. It's about the same among Democrats. Tell us about this effort to end Citizens United, the big Supreme Court decision that just opened the floodgates of dark money into our politics, corporate money, you name it, into our politics. And. And is it even feasible? Because a lot of folks might say, oh, that's never going to happen. We're never going to end Citizens United. The Supreme Court's never going to overturn that ruling. Your thoughts?
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D
Well, first of all, I think you're absolutely right that it's one of the worst decisions of all time. And we've now been living under that decision for 15 years. And this government shutdown is just one snippet of what we are seeing. The corrosive effect of that money in politics. Again, going back to what the congressman said, we're in this shutdown because the Republicans wanted to hand more tax breaks out to billionaires and big corporate special interests. Instead of helping everyday working families, they were willing to fight to make sure that those billionaires got big tax breaks. But they're going to take Medicaid and Affordable Care act away from millions and millions of Americans. And that whether it is prescription drug prices or gun safety or an economy that works for everyone, the gridlock and dysfunction in our system. And you're right, Jim, this is not a partisan issue anywhere except for the halls of Congress. Republican voters, independent voters, Democratic voters, all think there's too much money in our politics, and all think we need to get rid of it. And look, overturning Citizens United is hard. It's a big mountain. We need to either have the Supreme Court overturn it or get a constitutional amendment passed. But we can actually do a whole lot to curb the effects of big money in politics with the right members in office, more members like Congressman Crow who say, look, I am going to stand up to the big money. I'm going to get the dark money out of politics. And that's why we're so proud. We just launched a new campaign called the Unrig Washington Campaign. We have more than 100 members and candidates on it already. And it does three simple things. It says members of Congress shouldn't trade stocks. It says that they're not going to take corporate PAC money and they're going to get rid of the dark money in our politics. Those three simple things would begin to restore faith and trust in our system, Jim.
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B
Yeah, and Congressman, this Unrig Washington effort, I mean, it sounds like this is what a lot of Americans want. No matter which side of the aisle that you're from, a lot of Americans are just outraged over this idea of congressional, you know, members of Congress engaging in stock trading based on the information they get in hearings and the legislation that's being crafted on the Hill and so on.
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A
How.
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B
What kind of effect would that have on Congress on the legislation that is passed in Congress? If you could get a handle on.
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C
This problem, it would have a huge impact. Jim, there's kind of three major dynamics that are playing out here that are creating perverse results that are not serving the American people. One is gerrymandering. When you have gerrymandering that basically has resulted in fewer than 40 competitive seats in the House of Representatives, that's less than 10% of the house of Representatives is really competitive anymore. And you have deep, deep blue and deep red seats, right? When you have that, what you do is you remove all incentive to compromise and collaboration, and it just becomes everybody, you know, catering to the base, everybody doubling down on their own politics instead of trying to find the compromise that our system is based upon. So if we want to overnight change the face of politics. I would get rid of gerrymandering, but you have to do that nationwide because we see Republicans are now trying to cram down midterm. Redistricting has to be a nationwide effort. That's number one. Number two is like Tiffany just said, and she's the leader on this nationally, is getting rid of the corporate PAC money and all the dark money that floods our system. There's a reason why, you know, 90% of Americans believe in common sense, gun violence prevention, like universal background checks, and yet we can't pass it. The vast majority of Americans believe in common sense, climate crisis response and infrastructure and renewable energy, and yet we can't pass it. Right. There are these things that have widespread incredible support, but because of the lobbyists and the impact of dark money, but these mega donors were not passing those things. And then the third is the apathy that grips our politics. Right. When I first ran in 2017, I was going door to door, knocking on doors, introducing myself to people. And I still remember this incident. There was this lady who I talked to and she gave me like 10 minutes of her time and she said, listen, you seem like a nice guy, you seem very earnest, like you're in this for all the right reasons, but you're never going to make a difference. It doesn't matter whether you're Republican or Democrat. It just doesn't matter anymore. And that just struck me like a dagger through the heart that this woman had given up. It didn't matter who I was, she'd given up on the system. And frankly, that's what Donald Trump, that's what the dark money donors, that's what they want, right? They want people to give up. They want people to disengage and step back so they can run the show however they want to run it. So we have to combat that loyalty, that apathy.
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B
Yeah. And Tiffany, I mean, one image that sticks in my mind as sort of the epitome of money in politics is Donald Trump paving over the Rose Garden and installing the Olive Garden or Mar a Lago looking patio where they now have donors, big donors, corporate titans, tech, you know, tech bros. And they all gather around and who the hell knows what's going on there? But it doesn't sound like it's the people's interest being served. And I just think about, you know, the way that Trump and his family members have been lining their pockets with this bitcoin stuff. I mean, these crypto scams that they've been engaging in and so on. And it just seems like Our politics is just so awash in money right now. I suppose this is a good first start, but my goodness, sounds like a tremendous mountain to climb to get a handle on this problem.
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D
Well, I think that one of the things that we are seeing right now is a brazenness around the corruption than the pay to play politics that we have never seen in our, in our history as a country. And one of the things that Trump kind of counts on is, look, I'm going to do it all out in the open so that you can't say that I'm trying to hide it. That doesn't mean it's not corrupt. He is still auctioning off access to him and to our government to the highest bidder, whether that's through his crypto schemes or through foreign, you know, jets coming from foreign governments. All of the tens of millions of dollars going into the presidential libra. Yes, the, the auctioning off basically of donor dinners at the White House. I mean, this is kind of unprecedented levels of corruption. And look, here is one of the things I think Trump is very good at. He, he does all the corrupt stuff and then calls everyone else corrupt. And frankly though, don't know who to trust on this issue right now. This is one of the things that's a little shocking, not just from our polling, but some other recent polling that's come out, is that voters are like pox on all your houses. I don't trust any of you. Which is one of the reasons it's so important that we don't just call out the other side's corruption and kind of brazenness on it. But we have to have a plan. How are we actually going to change the system? What common sense reforms are we going to have and why it's so important that we have members of Congress like Congressman Crowd who are leading the way and actually governing differently every single day. And then we have to talk about it, Jim. We actually have to get out there and talk about the real life impact that this is having on people's day to day lives. And if we do that, we can actually win back some of those skeptical voters, the independent voters. We can actually win them back and win back some of that. And more important, we can give back a little bit of hope that we can do something about it.
- [15:01]
B
Yeah. And Congressman, I mean, I think part of the issue is, I mean the Trump and his cabinet members, they seem to come right out of the world of oligarchs and dark money and so on. His own Treasury Secretary today, Scott Besant was Talking about how he wants to get rid of Dodd Frank, which I think I believe was put in place after the financial crisis to make sure we don't have another financial cr. And when Trump is talking about getting rid of Democrat programs, that sounds like it would be music to the ears of tech Bros. And corporate titans and that sort of a thing. And I understand what Tiffany's saying about, well, we don't want, you know, when I, you know, look at one side or the other, you know, this is something that's government wide. But I, I have, I've covered politics a long time, covered Washington a while. I've never seen what looks like levels of corruption inside this administration like we're seeing right now. It's, it's, yeah, it's pretty unreal. It's pretty staggering.
- [16:00]
C
Yeah, they don't hide it. I mean, Tiffany is absolutely right. They're doing it out in the open with the hope that it will, it will be normalized, that people will get to be okay with it or just ignore it after a certain amount of time. I'm not going to ignore it. That's why we're pushing hard. That's why we're running around the country telling the story about the just gratuitous corruption that we're seeing. You know, and you know, his comments about rolling back these regulations in these quote unquote Democratic programs. Let's talk about what these programs actually are. Right. These regulations and these guardrails that have been put in place almost across the board were put in place after major financial disasters or major corruption scandals or periods of corruption in our history. This isn't theoretical stuff. This isn't some bureaucrat in Washington saying.
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A
You know what I want to do.
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C
I want to make it harder to bank. I'm going to make it harder to do business and I'm just going to arbitrarily create this new regulation that I think would do that. Now, you know, we don't have a history in America of like being proactive and having foresight to prevent disasters, but we do actually respond to them after the fact. So let's talk about the regulations that were put in place after the financial meltdown in the 1920s that led to the Great Depression and then the social programs that we put in place during the Great Depression and afterwards under Franklin Roosevelt. Let's talk about the anti corruption measures that were put in place after Watergate. Right. The Watergate scandal led to a bunch of anti corruption reforms. You just mentioned the financial reforms after the collapse in 2009 that led to millions of Americans losing their homes and hundreds of thousands of businesses going under in our last big recession. Right. These are reforms that were based on those crises that said this was awful and terrible, people suffered. Let's try to prevent the suffering again by passing comments and stuff. And they're trying to roll back all of it.
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B
Yeah.
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D
Well, if I could add one, the other thing that they're doing is they're also gutting the watchdogs that we've had in place.
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B
Right.
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D
The inspectors generals, whether it is the Federal Election Commission, whether it's the ftc. They are. And whether it's weaponizing the doj. Right. They are taking away all of the guardrails that have held government corruption in ch because they want to run wild. And the congressman's absolutely right. We are not going to stop calling it out and making sure voters really understand the contrast and what is at stake. But we also have to tell them how every single day this corruption is hurting their life and helping keep costs high and helping drive up costs and not. Not addressing the real world issues that they, that people are sitting at their kitchen tables and being worried about every night.
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B
Yeah. And I think part of this too goes back to the Supreme Court, which of course handed down the Citizens United decision. Congressman. And when you have justices like Clarence Thomas going on these expensive junket trips and. And so on, I mean, it just makes you wonder, is there a way to reform the Supreme Court? Because you have to wonder, you know, what the motivation is to hand down these kinds of Citizens United citizens. If you have people like Clarence Thomas going on expensive trips with big donors and, you know, all of the shenanigans that came out in those ProPublica stories. I mean, part of, part of me thinks, and I would, I would assume that a lot of our audience thinks that, that the Supreme Court needs some reforming as part of this.
- [19:33]
C
Yeah, no, I mean, how can you look at what's happening and not. And not say that. Right. I mean, look at the results. Right. Like this is these are supposedly conservative justices. And one of the things about conservative jurisprudence is you believe in precedent, you know, stare decisis, this, this, you know, age old illegal theory that, you know, the decision stands. Right. You're supposed to resort to precedent. This is a supposedly conservative court that's throwing out all the precedent. It's just doing whatever they want to do. And it is very much an activist court. And they're going through incredible mental gymnastics to justify their decisions or not even justifying their decisions at all. Right. They're using the secret, the so called secret docket to hand down decisions in the middle of the night. One justice will do it. Not even the whole panel will hear these arguments. And they are letting many of the administration's decisions and activities stamp and overturning lower courts without a decision, without a full panel hearing, many times actually in the middle of the night and with no transparency. So, yeah, there needs to be ethics rules, because this Supreme Court, actually, our Supreme Court has no ethics rules. There are no rules that this court has to abide.
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B
They just govern themselves.
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C
They govern themselves. So there have to be ethics rules. And that's something that Congress should force. And I think we have to look very closely at term limits as well. Right. We have to. We are in a moment where the guardrails of our democracy and our government are being tested and some of them are failing right now. Right. So what this moment requires is us to look holistically and honestly what massive reforms are necessary to stop this and to prevent it from ever happening again.
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B
And I know you guys have to go, but Congressman, just to follow up on that, I mean, I kind of wonder whether the Supreme Court is just going to let Trump get away with invoking the Insurrection Act. I mean, the lower courts have been kind of the salvation through all of this and that they have been pumping the brakes on what Donald Trump has been doing. But when some of these matters get up to the Supreme Court, as you said, with the shadow docket and so on, they're sort of just saying, yep, check, check, whatever you want to do. And I kind of wonder whether this Supreme Court will allow Trump to use the Insurrection act if he takes it that route. I wonder what you think.
- [21:55]
C
Yeah, I am worried about that. I mean, this president, this Supreme Court seems to believe in the so called unitary executive theory, which is the executive, the president has tremendous powers. I mean, already I think the presidency is at the height of executive power for our nation. And I believe that we have to rebalance that now. The Congress needs to retake its power. And that's war powers, that's immigration authority, that's treaties and alliances, that's tariffs. All these things that our founders put under the purview of the United States Congress, that either the Congress has given, has ceded to the executive, or the executive has taken. This is not the system that was envisioned, a check and balance. It needs to be rebalanced tremendously. And of course, this Supreme Court is not going to be helpful in that regard.
- [22:46]
B
Yeah. Well, Congressman Tiffany Mueller, this, this effort that you guys have embarked on to end Citizens United, to reform the money in our politics. I mean, to me, that's kind of the whole ball game. So I'm really glad that you both came on. Really appreciate the time. I know your time is tight, but thanks for spending some time with us.
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D
Thanks so much for having us on.
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B
All right, you guys take care. Good luck. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it. And I, you know, and we've talked about this before on the show, by the way, in case you've noticed, folks, for our perceptive viewers at home, I am not in the home studio. I am on the road. Got a speaking engagement in my home state of Virginia. So not, not near the Washington, D.C. area, but outside of it. So you'll forgive me for the bit more sparse surroundings, but my next guest doesn't mind that at all. Let's bring in Steve Schmidt, the great Steve Schmidt, as always, doesn't hold back. Steve, you know, this, I, this, this idea of the Insurrection act being invoked, I, you know, to me that is, that it's kind of, it's not game over, but it feels like we're getting close to it.
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A
Well, good to see you, Jim. Game over for what? What do you mean?
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B
I mean, I, I think if Trump is allowed to invoke the Insurrection act and send the National Guard into just about wherever he wants and the Supreme Court says, okay, we'll let you do that outside the wishes, against the wishes of people like J.B. pritzker, the governor of Illinois, Gavin Newsom, and so on. That, that gives me great pause. That gives me, that makes me worry a great deal. I'm just wondering what you think.
- [24:25]
A
Yeah, it makes me, it makes me worry. Look at the, at the end of the day, I think the focus on the Supreme Court with our, with your last guest, when you said that if the Supreme Court permits this. Yeah. And I don't, I don't think that's the right place, the right, the right line. I think the Supreme Court is likely to permit it. The question is, will the American people abide it? I certainly won't abide it. And they can't shoot everybody. And I, and I mean that dead serious. The American people will have to take a stand on the, on the streets in peaceful protest. Now, that decision will break the United States army as an institution. The admiration the people feel for the American military and the consequence of the military being deployed against its own. I think it's very important to appreciate. 17% of the, of the military is black. And a lot of the Black service members come from America's cities. And the truth of the matter is Trump's delusions are delusions. There is no war in Portland or in any of these places. And the pretext that there is is refuted by plain video evidence. And the idea that on the basis of the pretext and the delusion, I'll deploy the 82nd Airborne while the Deputy Chief of Staff, who apparently functions as the prime minister and in the MAGA chain of command. And we will know in detail through every email, every aspect of this. We will know who shot the priest in the head with the pepper ball.
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B
Unreal.
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A
Behind the mask on the roof. We'll know the entire chain of events, the chain of command, and what it will show in time was that Stephen Miller, the architect of all of this, is functionally atop the chain of command of the Attorney General of the United States. Stephen Miller is Pam Bondi's boss. She's an actress and a bad one. Stephen Miller is Kristi Noem's boss. Stephen Miller is the corrupt crook, Tom Homan's boss. And Stephen Miller said something on television, and the words matter here. He said, Donald Trump has plenary power.
- [27:31]
B
Plenary, Yep.
- [27:32]
A
And what that word means is absolute. And an example of someone who had plenary power was Hitler and Stalin. And no, as a matter of American law, the Constitution, history, precedent, everything that you wish to consider in the pot of consideration, President United States has limited power. He has temporary power. He functions as the head of a constitutional branch and a constitutional republic for a set term under the Constitution. And so that is not true. And he's saying it is while pointing a gun at the head of the country. And so it's a dangerous moment. But the military in America, while terrifying when considering that it could be turned against the civilian population labeled terrorist for not loving Trump enough that. That having had the experience of spending some time In Iraq in 2005, two years after the invasion, the US army wasn't able to secure the road between the airport and the Green Zone, Route Irish, the highway of death. And. And so the notion that there'll be a military occupation of the United States in the name of Trump and Stephen Miller, using the American army against the American people is delusional. And if there is a wish to test the proposition, I think that what the administration, or more rightly, the regime will discover is that the appeasers, the people that led them to believe that there would be an indifference to all of this, that those people were outside of the main. Yeah, those people were representatives of a rotten elite that lost to Donald Trump. And that in the main, the American people won't abide by it. Who are the anger, but fierce when provoked.
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B
Yeah. And I, you know, these images of ice and what they've been doing since they were unleashed by Stephen Miller, I mean, they just get more God awful by the day. You mentioned the, the pastor in Chicago who was hit with a pepper ball shot at by an ICE officer. There's video that we can show and talk about this. And this just took place at a, which is a neighborhood in Chicago elementary school. I showed up and they were pulling a mother out of the car as she was picking up her kids from school. I'm old enough to remember when Donald Trump said he's going after the criminals and the gang members. I, I've said on my show repeatedly, that's probably the biggest lie of the 2024 campaign. I mean, that was, that was all horseshit. And they're just going after anybody. Moms, abuelas, car wash owners who are legal U.S. citizens. They're, you know, you name it. And I mean, you talk about retribution and accountability and, and, and maybe some of these ICE officers who are masked might be unmasked someday. There's a lot of these masked ICE officers just all over Chicago just doing ungodly, unbelievable things. I mean, it's shocking to me. And I, and I've seen a lot of this is shocking.
- [31:27]
A
These acts are indecent.
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B
Yeah.
- [31:33]
A
They are immoral. And in time, they will be held to be unlawful. They are tremendous abuses of power. And as Congressman Crow suggested, never ever again must be the response to this. And there must be a resolve amongst people who aspire to the presidency. This agency is a threat to the liberty of every American. It is a national obscenity, and it must be abolished. And there will come a time where every one of these jackbooted thugs will sit in a conference room and be asked with a pen in one hand and a pad in front of them to detail their involvements and operations where they were masked and to account for every instance where they drew a weapon and pointed one at an American civilian.
- [32:38]
B
Yeah.
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A
Drawing a weapon and pointing it at someone from the very first time you ever set foot on a firing range, a rifle range, first time you ever, you ever pick up a gun. You're taught you don't point a weapon at somebody or anything unless you're prepared to fire the weapon. And so the act of a law enforcement officer even drawing their weapon is a big fucking deal.
- [33:15]
B
Yep.
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A
And routinely pointing submachine guns, M4s at American civilians who point iPhones back is not acceptable in a free society.
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B
No question.
- [33:31]
A
And what is happening will be long remembered. And this shameful period and those who allowed it will occupy a place of ignominy and infamy in the American story. And the American people should reject this. This is not right. And, and what it means to be an American is to be faithful to the ideas of the republic and the Constitution. This is American Gestapo. This is not something that happens in a free society. And so what that means is America under Trump is not, in fact, a free society. And unless that trend is arrested, unless an opposition can say this must stop, and the American people embrace that, then things will get worse.
- [34:58]
B
Yeah. And Steve, I should note, I mean, we're just getting some, some breaking news coming in in the last couple of minutes. A different way in which our democratic norms are just being obliterated. Apparently. Letitia James, the New York Attorney General, has been charged with bank fraud in New York. The Trump appointed prosecutor there has been seeking an indictment there. This is according to ABC News. A Trump appointed prosecutor presented evidence to a federal grand jury seeking an indictment on charges of mortgage fraud against Letitia James. It's not apparently altogether clear, even though a Chiron says she's been charged. Not altogether clear that she, that the grand jury has approved the indictment. I want to see if there's some more reports coming in that indicate that she has in fact been charged. But it looks as though we're on the verge of seeing that happen, which means that Donald Trump has seen to it that the Justice Department of the United States of America has basically brought an indictment. Okay. Now we're seeing the Associated Press is now saying that Letitia James has been indicted on a fraud charge in New York. So we. The Chiron is fine. But Steve, your thoughts on this? It's breaking news. It's happening right now. We saw James Comey being arraigned in court in Alexandria, Virginia yesterday. Now we have Letitia James, the New York State Attorney general, being indicted. And this was another case where it's been in the news for several weeks that they've been wanting to do this. And it sounds as though that perhaps there was some pushback within the Justice Department among the career prosecutors and so on, the professionals. And it, but it sounds as though Trump finally got his way in going after one of his perceived political enemies, somebody who had brought charges against him in the past.
- [36:43]
A
This is a political act and it's an un American act. And it's an obvious act. He said he would do it and then he did it. So there's zero mystery about it, though it's appropriate to think about what to call it. And what we should call it is Soviet justice. Because what it approximates most closely, philosophically is the phrase used by the head of the Soviet secret police barrier that said, show me the man and I'll find the crime.
- [37:25]
B
Right.
- [37:26]
A
And so this is arbitrary justice. You do your duty, you do something that I don't like. Right. I'll lock you up.
- [37:43]
B
Yeah.
- [37:44]
A
And so he has destroyed the integrity of the Department of Justice. And I think it's very important. And we're figuring out how to do this at the Save America movement. But yeah, we'll, we'll be advertising and talking about the concept of nullification and to say to the jurors, it's a political act. Not guilty, nullify the prosecutions. When you go into a grand jury room, you're about to be lied to by a corrupt federal prosecutor. No, bill the indictment. And you have an absolute right to do that under the First Amendment. And now I want to speak though to the corruption of Pam Bondi, who's a singular figure.
- [38:35]
B
What did you think of that hearing that we saw the other day? I mean, that was, that was wild.
- [38:40]
A
Yeah, Shameful, shameful, terrible. The Democrats are terribly ineffective. Right. In, in the show. It's all this, it's all this sick theater. But when you, when you peel it all back, her corruption is staggering. This is a person with zero integrity, who's trashed her oath, who is unfit to be Attorney General because she was a registered foreign agent for Qatar, the host country for Hamas. So what she was, was a grubby C list Florida lobbyist. And Pam Bondi is covering up the release of information that she said she saw.
- [39:44]
B
Right.
- [39:45]
A
Concerning the biggest child sex trafficker of the 21st century. And she is directly involved in that cover up, including the movement of his accomplice, the convicted sex trafficker, child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, from a maximum security penitentiary to a club Fed where they breed puppies. So this corruption, indecent, dishonest, disloyal American, when you think about this, think about the 12 year old little girl, 13 year old little girl being taken by this posh British woman into this mansion, into this room with the massage table where they're raped by some of the most powerful men in the world. And she is covering that up.
- [41:00]
B
Yeah, we saw Sheldon Whitehouse Trump. Yeah, we saw Sheldon Whitehouse ask Ask Pam Bondi about whether there are these photographs. I mean, that, that's a, that's a potential bombshell right there.
- [41:12]
A
Lawless.
- [41:14]
B
Yeah.
- [41:14]
A
Indecent, dishonest and corrupt and she should be disbarred. That's where Pam Bondi's destiny is. What a travesty and a disgrace this woman is. No words.
- [41:33]
B
Yeah.
- [41:34]
A
No words.
- [41:36]
B
Yeah. I mean, we saw Sheldon Whitehouse ask whether there are pictures of, of Trump with underage, half naked girls and she wouldn't answer the question. I mean, she just, it was, she just exchanged, she just traded insults with these senators and showed contempt for, for a co. Equal branch of government.
- [41:55]
A
It, it was the total, absolute contempt. And I, I just, I'll be honest. Right. I don't, I hope I'm not like crossing like a middle age life barrier. Right. You know, like when I remember when, if these guys are right, the nostalgia line. Right. Becoming your dad. But like I have never in, in, in the era since he died. Wish that John McCain was back in the Senate. I, I can't imagine her doing that to John McCain. Agreed, Daniel. In a way to Ted Kennedy and that and that. It's depressing to me. On the Democratic. Nobody has the wherewithal to be like the. Out of here.
- [42:44]
B
Yeah.
- [42:45]
A
Are you, are you, are you on drugs?
- [42:48]
B
Right.
- [42:49]
A
Hearing before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee. Do you need to step outside and compose yourself?
- [42:59]
B
Yeah, but I mean, the problem is, is that the Republicans have the gavel. I mean, I thought, I thought Adam Schiff handled himself pretty well during that hearing. But I, I will say I agree with you that these were not, this was not an A list, you know, performance here. And, and, but, but putting that to the side, just the willingness of Republicans to play ball with this and not really attempt to hold Pam Bonnie's feet to the fire over a, a pedophile sex trafficking ring. And whether we're going to get to the bottom of that, I just, I find that just unreal. And Tom Homan taking bags of cash. I mean, here they are indicting Jim Comey and now Letitia James on bullshit trumped up charges, and Pam Bondi and that gang of gangsters are totally fine with letting Tom Homan, who took a bag of $50,000 in cash off the hook. I mean, that's very Soviet to your point, very Russia style.
- [44:02]
A
They're, they're criminal scumbags. And I have no expectations whatsoever. The, the Democrats have to operate at a higher standard. And, and the standard is at this point, when we start off the Conversation with what we started off talking about, you have to say, honestly, what you all are doing, Democratic senators as a team, is not working. You as the senators on the Judiciary Committee, don't, Don't come looking a praise from me. You suck. Right. It's an abomination. It was a failure. And, and what she did was deliver her, her lines, her script, there's photographs of it, and it was chopped up and sent out there as propaganda, really, as democracy. Snuff film porn. Right. For the, for the rage machine of the, of the MAGA base.
- [45:13]
B
Yeah.
- [45:14]
A
And, and so if, if, if her lines are already written, what that would suggest to me with the, with the analogy being she's the batter and they're the pitcher. She has a pretty good idea of what the pitch is.
- [45:31]
B
Yeah.
- [45:32]
A
So maybe the thing to do is to have a lawyer who's one of the best trial lawyers in the country, be committee counsel and ask questions.
- [45:41]
B
Yeah. That's not a bad idea.
- [45:43]
A
Have a team approach.
- [45:45]
B
Yeah.
- [45:45]
A
Or to spend some time, put in some preparation, act like you give a. And there's no sense of urgency to try to expose.
- [45:58]
B
Yeah.
- [45:59]
A
This corrupt, indecent woman who is in the chain of command for the guys who fired the shot that hit the priest in the head.
- [46:09]
B
Yeah. Steve, let's. Let me just pause on, Hit the pause button on this, because there's some new information coming in on this indictment of Letitia James that we should talk about. It's very important. This indictment on bank fraud makes Letitia James the second of Donald Trump's political foes to be charged in the Eastern District of Virginia. So this case is being, this case is being charged in the Eastern District of Virginia, which is where James Comey was charged with Lindsey Halligan, who is this ridiculous insurance lawyer, I guess, that was working in the, in the White House, and they were looking around to find somebody who could replace the, The US Attorney who was there in the Eastern District, who said, I'm not going to bring these charges against James Comey. And they said, okay, Lindsey Halligan, you're going in there. Apparently, she's just com. She's completely unqualified for anything like this, anything approaching this level. Apparently, she presented the case against Letitia James to a grand jury. And so I, I think that that's highly. I mean, that's. We're in a charged environment right now. Right now, Steve, where you have the Eastern District of Virginia becoming, for all intents and purposes, the venue of choice for Trump and his posse to go off and try to Bring about these political prosecutions. This is not America.
- [47:31]
A
Well, it is now.
- [47:33]
B
It is now. It is now not who we are. It's not who we should be.
- [47:38]
A
It is not.
- [47:39]
B
Yeah.
- [47:40]
A
And so, you know, it takes one person on the jury to say, get the fuck out of here.
- [47:47]
B
Yeah.
- [47:48]
A
Right. And. And this is a political prosecution, and there ought to be a political campaign around Letitia James. Political prosecution. You know, I. I'm involved in. I'm the chair of the advertising committee of the Save America movement. Right. I promise you we'll weigh in on this right into those. You know, Into. Into the areas where this is done. Right. And if you're. If you're a person who's. Who's called to be on a grand jury and, and you're presented evidence, and that evidence is. Is. Is against one of the president's foes, you. You appreciate that it can't be trusted that it's not on the level. The. The integrity of the Department of Justice has been wrecked. The integrity of CBS News has been wrecked. The integrity of the FBI has been wrecked. The integrity of the Office of Secretary of Defense has been destroyed. The integrity of the office of the Homeland Secretary has been destroyed.
- [48:55]
B
Yeah.
- [48:55]
A
People have no credibility. They have no integrity. Their word cannot be trusted. And their assertions that they're acting to preserve the rule of law while lighting it on fire should be scoffed at, laughed at, and fiercely opposed.
- [49:14]
B
Yeah. And, Steve, we should point out that the reason why Donald Trump is so pissed about Letitia James is because there was a New York state lawsuit against him and his business, accusing him of exaggerating his wealth earlier this year. This was just in August, an appeals court in New York threw out that case. So he. He was not on the hook to pay this. This big fine he was gonna have to pay was like a half billion dollars. And remember, Judge Engoron presided over the case. And so we all remember watching that trial and so on. And this is. But this is. This is part of a pattern. Jim Comey. Donald Trump, for years, held this grudge against Jim Comey, even though you could argue Jim Comey helped Donald Trump become president, because he released the Comey letter 11 days before the 2016 election. And Trump has hang. He's hanging onto these weird kind of delusional grudges that are banging around in his head. And it's. It just seems. It looks like he's just ordering these stooges like Lindsey Halligan to go into a federal courthouse and bring indictments against these. These people who are living Rent free in his head. It's a dis. It's disturbing.
- [50:29]
A
Let me. Yeah, there's a linear, straight, straight line pattern. The, the same guy. There's. There's no question that he's ordering his stooges to do that. There's. There's no question about it. This is, this is an abuse of power, a corrupt act. It is not on the level. Leticia James, James Comey are being prosecuted by the government of the United States because the government has submitted to the whims of a tyrant who hates these people. And what he's trying to say to everybody is that this could be you, and you best be scared shitless of the President of the United States in the, in the new America. And, and that's what Donald Trump is, is, Is trying to say here. Right. So there, there should be no ambiguity about, about that whatsoever. About, about what this is. The people that are carrying it out, the people that are doing this need to be called out for doing it. Yeah. And we should be perfectly clear about what it is. The same guy who's making the fruitless allegation is the same guy who's pointing a finger at any random speedboat, apparently in the southern Caribbean and saying it's a terror target. Who's the same guy who's saying that anybody who disagrees with me is a terrorist, who's the same guy who keeps telling the American people he won an election that he lost. Right. Who is fundamentally detached from reality on issue after issue. I can demonstrate that he's incapable of either objectively assessing reality because there's something wrong with him, or he's a pathological, sociopathic liar, or he's a combination of the two.
- [52:52]
B
Yeah.
- [52:53]
A
Right. And so everything is connected through the fulcrum of everything that these people say is a lie. And the lies are growing more audacious, literally by the hour, banking on the indifference of a lemming society.
- [53:19]
B
Yeah. There's no question about it. And it's getting more dangerous by the day as, as Trump. I mean, these are, like, notches on his belt at this point. Steve Schmidt, great to see you, man. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. I wish we had. There's Letitia James right there. The New York State Attorney General, apparently now indicted on a charge of bank fraud in the Eastern District of Virginia. Steve, great to see you, man. Thanks a lot.
- [53:45]
A
You. See you, Jim. All right.
- [53:48]
B
And. And we are following this breaking news right now. Letitia James, New York State Attorney General, one of Donald Trump's perceived political enemies. Because she brought a business fraud case against him in the state of New York, which he doesn't even have to pay the fine on that anymore. But he's still out to get her, and it looks as though he got her, at least for now, his hand picked. U. S Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, which is where James Comey appeared in court just yesterday. She apparently argued this case, she brought this case before the grand jury, and she was able to secure this indictment against Letitia James. And so, as I was just talking about with Steve Schmidt, this is a very important moment in our country. This is a very disturbing moment in our country, the Eastern District of Virginia, in Alexandria, Virginia, right outside Washington, D.C. which is typically a very important part of the U.S. attorney chain because historically it's been where terrorists have been tried, where high profile national security defendants have been tried in this country. It is now the venue, this is what's happened in America, folks. It is now the venue, the Eastern District of Virginia, for Donald Trump's political enemies, his perceived political enemies, to be charged in federal court. And I just wonder, at some point, is somebody in the Republican Party, I don't know, is somebody on the Supreme Court going to stop this out of control? President, you cannot have a civilized society, you cannot have a properly functioning democracy when the President of the United States can haul his political enemies into court and have them charged on bullshit, trumped up charges. Remember, James Comey, the former FBI director, the U.S. attorney in that district, before Lindsey Halligan came on board, did not want to indict James Comey, did not want to bring charges against James Comey because that individual, Eric Siebert, believed that there weren't, there were not enough facts, there wasn't enough evidence to charge James Comey. There was, there were similar conversations going on inside the Department of Justice about this case against Letitia James. And apparently, because Lindsey Halligan is now the U.S. attorney, she is doing Donald Trump's bidding is what it looks like. This is what is apparently happening now in our system of justice in the United States of America. The President of the United States now has a venue for prosecuting, for targeting, for political prosecution, his perceived political enemies. And we've now seen it with James Comey, we're now seeing it again with Letitia James. And the question becomes, who's next? Who's next on Donald Trump's hit list? Who's the next notch on his belt? Who's the next scalp that he wants to put on his wall with all the gold crap that's been hung in the Oval Office. That's what's happening right now. President of the United States is being allowed to go after and target his political enemies in federal court. And the New York State Attorney General is just the latest example of that. And the question, of course, course, at this hour is, are we going to be a country where Donald Trump gets away with this? Are we going to be a country where the President of the United States is allowed to get away with this? And I think at some point the question has to be raised, and it has to be raised with Republicans. How are you going to feel if a Democratic president gets into the White House, if we permit those elections to happen and a Democratic president gets into the White House and starts targeting his political enemies and putting them in jail? Is that the kind of country that we want? Now? Donald Trump will say, oh, well, they came after me and my people. Well, yes, of course, you tried to over overturn a free and fair election with some kind of crazy cockamamie criminal scheme. Of course the Department of Justice is going to go after you. And, and I'll remind everybody, Merrick Garland appointed a special prosecutor, Jack Smith, to conduct that investigation. It was a special prosecutor who handled that case. Of course, Donald Trump has it out for Jack Smith. Who knows what's going to happen to Jack Smith, ladies and gentlemen, Is this the kind of country that we're becoming? It sounds like Putin's Russia, where you just find the individual that you want targeted and then find the bullshit, trumped up case to go after that person. And it's the question that I ask all Americans tonight. Is this the kind of country that we want to become? Is this who we are as a country? Steve Schmidt just a few moments ago said, apparently that is who we are as a country. But I don't think the American people are going to stand for this. I don't think. I don't think the vast majority of Americans are going to stand for this. I think there are still some folks who, even on the Republican side who care about this Constitution, and they are probably thinking in their private thoughts, well, what happens if a Democrat gets in there and starts pursuing prosecutions against us? The, the case against Donald Trump, the case against the people who attacked the Capitol on January 6, the case against the people who tried to come up with this crazy scheme to overturn the 2020 election. That was not some targeted political prosecution. That was based on an event that happened. Donald Trump is going after James Comey. Donald Trump is going after Letitia James for the sake of going after them, and he's having his Department of Justice do it. And the question for everybody tonight is, is that America? Does that sound like America to you? My thanks to Congressman Jason Crow, my thanks to Tiffany Muller of End Citizens United. And, of course, my thanks to Steve Schmidt, who always gives us plenty to think about. And thanks to all of you for watching. Still reporting not in Washington. I'm out in my home state of Virginia, but still reporting. I'm Jim Acosta. Have a good evening. I'll see you next time.
- [60:30]
A
Sam SA.