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The Jim Acosta Show
Breaking News: Don Lemon Arrested, Epstein Files Released and more with Senator Mark Kelly, Norm Eisen, Tara Palmeri and Denver Riggleman
00:56:18
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- [00:01]
A
Foreign. Welcome to the Jim Acosta Show. It's another day that ends in Y and Donald Trump's assault on American democracy. The latest case in point, the arrest of Don Lemon on trumped up charges, pun intended, there. Joining us now is Senator Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona. Senator, this administration has come after you in recent months. Now they're going after Don Lemon, they're going after people they don't like, and they're trying to criminalize free speech in this country, it seems. What do you think? What's your reaction?
- [00:36]
B
Well, Jim, I mean, what they're trying to do, I mean, their strategy here is if they can go after me or Don Lemon and get us to, you know, shut up and not do our jobs, that'll send a chilling effect to other people. What is it gonna. What is it gonna do to these other. Let's say you're a young journalist, you know, right out of school, and you don't have a lot of experience at this, and you decide to write a story that's somewhat critical of the administration. Do you maybe dial it back? Or maybe you decide not to say what you're going to say? Maybe you don't write the story at all. This is right out of the playbook, the authoritarian playbook. This is what they do. And for me, sort of the same thing. If they can intimidate me, I'm a sitting U.S. senator. I flew combat missions in the Navy. I was an astronaut. If they can get me to shut up and not do my job, which, by the way, is accountability of the Department of Defense. If Donald Trump can shut me up, he will automatically silence so many people across this country. There are 2 million retired veterans. I mean, it sends a horrible message.
- [01:51]
A
No, I think you're right. I think this is about crushing dissent in this country and going after independent journalists. We've seen the way Trump and the administration, they've gone after mainstream media, legacy media, and going after Don, make no mistake, that's going after independent media. Now by arresting him. I mean, your thoughts on the way that the Justice Department is going after Don in this fashion? I mean, he. He went into a church. He was. I mean, we have video we can show of this. There were some protesters going into this church. Don is clearly on video saying, I'm a journalist. I'm just trying to cover what's happening here. And here's some video right here.
- [02:31]
C
I'm not part of.
- [02:32]
D
I'm not part of the group.
- [02:33]
A
I'm just here photographing. I'm a journalist right there. Senator Don saying, I'm not part of the group. I'm just photographing. I'm a journalist. Your thoughts?
- [02:45]
B
Well, we have freedom of the press in this country. Part of the First Amendment. They're going after all the parts of it. Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and they're even putting, you know, picking religions on the Homeland security website and DHS's website. You know, obviously, you know, leaning in one direction over another.
- [03:06]
A
Right.
- [03:07]
B
That's not supposed to happen. And I. I read a little bit of the indictment. I haven't had an opportunity to read the entire thing, but one of accusations against Don Lemon as he was standing in the main aisle of the church. He was standing there. I mean, this is outrageous. And all the other freedoms we have in this country kind of flow out of the First Amendment to the Constitution. The freedom of speech, the freedom of press, the freedom to assembly, you know, to assemble, the freedom to talk against the government. I mean. And you call it dissent. I mean. I mean, it is part of our process to have differences of opinion in this country and be able to speak freely. And Donald Trump doesn't like it. He views everybody. Well, first of all, he oddly, weirdly talks about himself in the third person. You're with Trump or you're not with Trump. If you're not with him, he thinks you're the enemy and you should be arrested like Don Lennon. Or in my case, he said I should be hanged because I said something he didn't like. I mean, this is. You know, and by the way, Jim, what happened to my Republican colleagues, you know, these freedom of speech absolutists, you know, who in the last administration, they were upset because somebody didn't like their Twitter account. They felt, oh, more people are liking somebody else's Twitter post and not theirs, and this is a violation of their First Amendment rights. Okay, well, sure, if you had a complaint about that, I get it. But this is so much more egregious. It's outrageous, and it's clearly a constitutional right. When you started and you started talking about the Department of Justice, you know, Jim, I actually think we need a new name for.
- [05:09]
A
And what would that be?
- [05:11]
B
I don't know. It's not justice.
- [05:13]
A
It's not just injustice. No, I.
- [05:16]
B
That. That other independent journalist, I mean, that's not justice.
- [05:20]
A
Yeah, well. And, Senator, you mentioned authoritarianism. I mean, just in the last week, we've had a man in Minnesota basically executed on the street in Alex Preddy by the government. By the government, by ICE or CBP officers, federal agents, you have the FBI raiding and election center in Fulton County, Georgia, which I'm sure is concerning people like yourself who are running for people in Congress running for reelection, wondering, are these elections going to be free and fair in this country? And then this Don Lemon arrest. I mean, there are multiple fronts here that tell me that paint the picture of not the United States of America that you and I grew up in.
- [06:04]
B
Well, it's not the United States of America that has existed for 250 years. I mean, we should be celebrating the fact that we survived 250 years, but are we going to make it to, you know, 256 or beyond January of 2029? I mean, who knows at this point? And Jimmy also left out some stuff. I mean, they raided a home of a Washington Post journalist.
- [06:32]
A
Yep, absolutely.
- [06:34]
B
And with regards to the Fulton county election office, why is the Director of National Intelligence there? She doesn't have a function that has to do with internal. Anything internal to the. This country. That's the FBI. You know, that's not her.
- [06:56]
A
That's the kind of stuff that happens in. In. In authoritarian countries and autocratic countries. I mean, the. The intelligence official that is in charge of our intelligence community is. Is that an fb? There's the picture right there. She's kind of hiding behind a corner there. That doesn't look suspicious.
- [07:13]
E
Yeah.
- [07:13]
B
Well, you take the intelligence agency that's supposed to be focused on. On gathering intelligence from our adversaries from foreign nationals, and you turn it inward on the American people. I mean, we've seen that in the Soviet Union. It's something that happens in China and East Germany. It should never happen here. So we've got serious questions, and we've got to get to the bottom of this. Why is she there? And I think it's all part of what we're talking about here, and it's to ultimately chill free speech, get anybody who Donald Trump perceives as an adversary, get them to change what they're doing, to not speak out against the government, to not show up at a protest, to not write the story, to not broadcast, you know, any kind of negative information about this administration. And then in the case of what happened, you know, just yesterday in Georgia, you know, start to, you know, eat away at our free and fair elections.
- [08:29]
A
Yeah, And I was, you know, I had a conversation with James Carville about this, and he was saying that, you know, the. The way Trump and his people operate, it's kinetic warfare. They bombard you. It's just a constant barrage of, on our. On our freedoms, on our liberties, on our rights as Americans. How do you stop it? I guess that starts with the midterm elections this fall. And I. And, you know, one thing that James said was they've got a lot of great Democratic candidates out there. I said, you're probably going to need a great field of lawyers out there, it seems to me.
- [09:01]
B
Well, one thing, you know, that could stop it before the midterm elections. And certainly we need some levers of power. But those levers of power do exist. They exist with the Republicans here in the Senate, in the House. They have the ability to put a huge check on this president, but they're afraid of him. They're cowards. They care so much about their position and their next election and job preservation. It's embarrassing. You know, I just think about some of them now. Recently, a few of them started to speak up, but it's few and far between and it's not enough. They need to grow a spine and come to work and stand up to this guy. Because if they don't, I mean, we. What's this country going to look like, you know, over the next three years?
- [09:58]
A
And what's your sense, I mean, going back to ICE? I mean, there are some protests in D.C. today. They're happening all around the country, obviously. And I'm just curious what you think about this DHS funding bill. I guess Democrats in the Senate successfully were able to separate that DHS funding bill from the other bills to fund the government. What do you think should be done about DHS funding? Because it seems to me ICE is. It's not about funding ICE or defunding ICE or abolishing. Trump has basically a secret police force in this country, and they're operating as such, it seems to me.
- [10:31]
B
Yeah, he's got his force and he funded it out of his big crappy bill. He did that cut health care for millions of Americans, cut the subsidies on the aca so people are losing their health care. And he's kicking people off of Medicaid to give a big tax cut to billionaires and to build this giant force that is accountable only to him. It's got $75 billion it can spend. Typically, the ICE budget is about 10, $11 billion a year. And now he's got a slush fund to throw around. It's why they just bought a giant warehouse in Arizona to house people that they apprehend. I mean, they've got facilities there to do this, but they're scaling up these operations and they're intimidating people. And I Mean, what do we do about it? We're demanding a serious overhaul of this agency. You know, it needs. Kristi Noem needs to be fired. The Bovino guy needs to be fired. The leadership of ICE needs to go. You need to put in some professionals that will require that they follow the rule of law, that they respect the Constitution, that they stop shooting people in the streets and beating people up. And in my state, just the other day, I mean, they maced a woman from a car and she was standing on the sidewalk. I mean, that's in violation of her right to assemble and protest. Just standing there, no threat to anybody, got maced in the face. So we need to see some serious overhauls. That's why we stripped it out from the, you know, from the other agencies. And, you know, the Republicans are going to have to work with us to make some serious changes to this, to this organization.
- [12:24]
A
I mean, should they have masks on, do you think? I mean, it seems to me that's.
- [12:28]
B
No, you know, on the wall right over there in my office is my dad's police uniform. My mother was also a police officer. You know, cops, you know, they were a blue uniform. They wear a name tag, they have a badge. It's, it's not an intimidating uniform. These guys are in desert camouflage. They're not in the desert, right? They're wearing their, a flak jacket on the outside. You know, they're loaded up with a bunch of gear. Then they've got a tactical helmet on and then they cover their faces. I was talking to an LA police officer about this the other day and he, he talked to me about how the, how you dress and when you put that uniform on, what ICE is currently wearing compared to the regular police uniform, it makes you act differently and feel differently as a police officer. And they're putting these uniforms on these guys to intimidate the public. They don't need to be camouflage. They're not in the desert. You know, there's not a full or an enemy that's trying to kill them. It's all to make them look scary and intimidate the public. They got to get masks, they got to get rid of those uniforms. They need to be wearing name tags. But more than all of that, they need to be trained well and they need to be accountable for their actions. And they need leadership there that will hold them accountable. It can't always be, you know, it can't always be on us here that has to react after somebody gets shot in the streets.
- [14:08]
A
Yeah, well, Senator, I mean, I really Appreciate you coming on. I know that you feel strongly about this, and having been targeted yourself for exercising your right to free speech, you know, it's really great to catch up with you. Any final thoughts? Because it seems to me, you know, I guess Don might be making a court appearance here soon. We'll have to cover that and see how that plays out. It's just, it's very disturbing that Don Lemon, somebody that we all know and love, and he just does a great job as a journalist, gets thrown in jail, gets arrested, like, you know, my.
- [14:44]
B
Final thought on this is folks at the DOJ should be embarrassed about how they're doing their jobs right now, and I think more of them should leave. I mean, there's got to be folks over there that are professionals that, you know, understand that this isn't right, and they need to stand up and say something or do something about it. Yeah, I mean, this, this isn't the doj. I mean, it was such a respect, well respected, you know, government agency that people trust it. The American people can't trust it anymore.
- [15:16]
A
Yeah.
- [15:17]
B
I mean, so this, this, this is a sad turn we've taken. You know, I wish Don Lemon the best. I, I, I find it unfortunate for him that he's now in the same club with me, that this administration went after him with the full force of the US Government, just like they're going after me. But you know what? The thing I would say to Don is, Don, do not back down. Do not give in. Because if you give in, that has an effect, a chilling effect on millions of Americans.
- [15:47]
A
Yeah, well, I suspect he's not going to do that. He's going to take your advice, and he's going to do exactly what you're doing, which is standing up to this stuff. But, Senator Kelly, great to see you. Thank you very much. Really appreciate it.
- [15:59]
B
All right, thank you for having me on.
- [16:00]
A
All right, good to see you again. Thank you. Thank you, sir. I want to quickly turn to Norm Eisen, our friend, Norm Eisen, democracy defender, democracy warrior, contrarian Norm Eisen. I believe he's going to be jumping here in the studio. There's Ambassador Norm Eisen right there. You're already back home. How many cities have you been in in the last week, Norm?
- [16:20]
E
I have crisscrossed the United States working on all of our 249 legal cases and matters at the Democracy Defenders Fund and Democracy Defenders Action. Jim, you were the first person I called when I got the news, before it was public this morning, of what had happened to Don it was unbelievable. And I know you've been working all day long. I heard what Senator Kelly said, and that's your. And my philosophy. And even as we speak, Don is getting ready to be arraigned to have his initial hearing to appear in court in Los Angeles. The country has risen up in unison to defend him. I was on with my contrarian colleagues April Ryan and Jen Rubin. And April tells me that she called Mayor Karen Bass, also a client of mine. She called me. We represent the city of Los Angeles and the mayor is engaged making sure Don is. Don is safe and protected. So good. So we're, we're fighting for him. And I know he's a fighter and he's got an excellent case here, Jim. I mean, there's no legal basis for this. Right?
- [17:49]
A
I mean, that's the thing. You know, journalists are supposed to be cover. Able to cover everything under the sun. And, you know, if, if I happen to be there on the scene when somebody's robbing a bank and I get footage of it and I report on it, that doesn't mean I'm robbing the bank. I mean, I, you know, you know, and so Don is saying he's in this video saying, I'm not part of the group. I'm a journalist. I'm just covering this. You know, it's on videotape. And I, I suspect the DOJ doesn't even know this. They're not even aware of that. You know, it's a stupid case, it seems to me. It's just dumb.
- [18:20]
E
They do a lot of stupid things and they lose a lot.
- [18:26]
A
Right.
- [18:27]
E
They've lost in court over 200 times. And Jim, the extremely conservative chief judge of the federal courts in Minnesota, Judge Schlitz, he was Antonin Scalia clerk. Jim, you know, the icon of conservatism. I've been talking to people who know him well.
- [18:56]
A
Yeah.
- [18:57]
E
The judge said there's no evidence of crime here with respect to Don. In rejecting, as part of the aftermath of rejecting the prior attempt to charge Don that was refused. So they went and they got a grand jury proving that you can even indict a ham sandwich. You know, Jim, there's nothing more unkosher than this indictment that the grand jury is even less kosher than a ham sandwich.
- [19:31]
A
It's definitely not kosher, that's for sure.
- [19:33]
E
And it's going to be this, some rancid ham here that's going to be thrown out. When it's got to go back before those same judges, they're going to hear the Motion to dismiss. So it's outrageous. We're in a period that the great Ruth Ben Gu, scholar of democracy, who we rely upon. I often talk to Ruth for her insights, historical political science insights, how to fight authoritarian authoritarianism. She refers to it as democracy backlash. When an authoritarian comes on and does things like baselessly arresting Don Lemon, a journalist who was simply reporting on the scene. Right, Jim, what next? Are they going to arrest the journalists in LA who were reporting on the forest fire there, on the terrible fires?
- [20:33]
A
Right, yeah, well, we, and we report. And, Norm, I mean, not to, not to take too easy of a shot here, but we report on Donald Trump and his corruption every day. That doesn't implicate the journalists and Donald Trump's corrupt activities. I mean, if I may make that, If I can make that observation, if that's okay for me to make that observation. But I do want to ask you, Norm, just. The Attorney General of the United States, Pam Bondi, has put out a video describing, you know, what, what she thinks happened and what's going on here and the basis for the case. I want you to listen to it and then give us your legal expertise here. There's a little video here. We'll play it.
- [21:16]
D
Make no mistake, under President Trump's leadership and this administration, you have the right to worship freely and safely. And if I haven't been clear already, if you violate that sacred right, we are coming after you.
- [21:32]
A
What is that all about? So they're trying to make it a religious thing where they're saying that they went into a church and they violated the religious rights of the parishioners. I don't understand what's happening.
- [21:44]
E
There is a statute, criminal statute, that protects the right to worship. It is intended, for example, if you have, if you, if you had a terror attack, as we've sometimes seen on Jewish synagogues, and you go in and you disrupted something, you can be charged, you can have a debate about, you know, whether whether that statute, which is intended to apply a completely different set of circumstances.
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A
Right.
- [22:22]
E
Is even consistent with the First Amendment. You know, the Supreme Court has ruled, for example, that those who disrupted funerals in the time they did as a form of political protest in the time of the Iraq war, whether even disrupting a funeral is First Amendment protected. It is.
- [22:45]
A
There were those, There were those nutty people that would show up at military funerals and have signs and everything. And you. I don't want to say what was on the signs, but it was heinous, heinous stuff.
- [22:55]
E
But, Jim, what we're talking about here is people who entered a public space, who had a demonstration. That's one thing. But then you have a journalist.
- [23:09]
A
Yes. He's just there covering it now.
- [23:13]
E
He. How does that in a reporter.
- [23:16]
A
Right place, right time and something's happening. You want to go cover it.
- [23:19]
E
You cover it because of First Amendment considerations. It's a very, very. There you can see the church. It's open to all people came. Some came to the church in that open accommodation. They chose to exercise their First Amendment right. Don covered it. It's a very high standard for First Amendment reasons to apply this statute. So that's not going to work. Don was there doing journalism, but then you. They're also, apparently we, you know, we're still learning the details. They're also saying it was a conspiracy to deprive of civil rights. Well, you know, should be charged for that, Jim. The ICE agents who've been invading churches all over the country.
- [24:08]
A
Yes.
- [24:09]
E
And arresting people, including illegally.
- [24:13]
A
Or how about. How about arresting ICE agents who, who blow somebody away on the streets of Minneapolis?
- [24:20]
E
So the right to live, the entire, the entire ICE operation in Minneapolis is an intrusion on civil and human rights.
- [24:30]
A
That's right.
- [24:31]
E
So to target. And there, and there's another journalist, Georgia Fort, who I met when I was in Minneapolis. Independent journalists like us. She also covered the protest. I met her when I was there this week. I mean, it's outrageous. And Jim, they're not going to get away with it because there's, there's outstanding attorneys that are going to defend, work for and protect these people. And this is terribly wrong. It will not stand.
- [25:05]
A
Does Don have a, a lawsuit? Maybe here. I kind of wonder if he could file a lawsuit and say that his civil rights are now being violated.
- [25:16]
E
You know, there's a couple different, there's a couple different avenues for legal action. There is the malicious prosecution type of cases you can file. There's also the Hyde Amendment, which is another vehicle to have recovery, some redress when you've been unfairly targeted by the government. So there's, there's different forms of, different forms of legal action right now. The most important thing, though, and we know Don, he's not going to roll over for this. He is going to push back. He has one of the greatest lawyers in the country, Abby Lowell. And the hearing should be going on in just a few minutes at 1:30 Pacific Time. Don will be in court to, to get released. He will be released and then the battle, legal battle will begin. And it's in the court of Law, but it's in the court of public opinion. We're already seeing demonstrations supporting Don. It's been a universal outcry. Members of Congress, journalistic outlets, your and my. In his former home where I'm met, the two of you. CNN has spoken out, other media outlets. This is not right.
- [26:46]
A
That's right. And all of these outlets need to band together and create an alliance. And, Norm, you and I have been talking about creating an alliance of independent journalists, sort of a NATO alliance for the truth. So we, too, have some. Some combined power. And, you know, I think that this is a test case that Trump is trying here to go after independent media. They've figured out a way to crack the code to hurt the legacy in corporate media. And they. And Trump knows and his people know that we're not under his thumb. And so you go out and you rush somebody like Don Lemon, maybe you can hurt independent media. I think there's that, too.
- [27:25]
E
And we're. Jim, I'll go. We've been living that alliance. Today, I alerted as friends.
- [27:32]
A
You did.
- [27:33]
E
As soon as I heard, like, what.
- [27:36]
A
I woke up to a. I woke up to a text from Norm Eisen saying.
- [27:39]
E
Texted Jim and Katie, two of my closest colleagues in independent media. We went on the air from the airport. Jim, did I have a clear signal or was it broken up?
- [27:50]
A
You were terrific. You were terrific. You're always terrific. And I don't know what we would do without you. And I think you should be the next Solicitor General or Attorney General of the United States of America. Nobody in hell would vote for me, but I wish I could run and win, and then you would be in my cabinet. Number one, numero uno.
- [28:11]
E
You should be the White House press secretary when.
- [28:16]
A
Don't torture me like that.
- [28:18]
E
When democracy is restored. It is a terrible moment, the latest in the terrible moments that have shocking horror that have come out of Minneapolis. But, Jim, look at the response. That's what I'm going to write about this weekend in my contrarian, my Saturday column, weekly column. The response has been massive, peaceful, vigorous. When I went to that Alex Pretty memorial site, it was freezing. It was eight degrees below zero. But the people were there. Woman was there. She brought coffee. She came over, said, would you like some coffee, sir? Contrarian reader was there, came over and said, oh, thank you for being here. Pizza boxes. Somebody had brought 15 pizzas, Jim. So people came to. And we stood there together in solidarity. And that's what you've seen from the people of Minneapolis. It's a wave of peaceful lawful protests like 1963 or 65 in Birmingham or Selma, and the civil rights movement, and it's spreading across the country. And now it's going to embrace Don and Don's cause. So thank you. Thanks for being such a good friend to me. Thanks for being a fighter yourself. And we've lived it. We've been attacked and investigated and litigated against, and here we stand to continue fighting. And I know Don will do the same.
- [29:50]
A
And the fight has to continue. And. And, Norm, not to bother you for one last second, but just to never. Is it our understanding that Don did spend the night in. In federal custody?
- [30:00]
E
Yes, he did. But the wonderful April Ryan, to make sure he was fine, the wonderful April Ryan called Mayor Bass. I wish I'd have thought of it. I represent the city of Los Angeles, called Mayor Bass, and Mayor Best said, yes, we'll make sure he's fine, and we'll hear from Don what the experience was like. Friends, you do have to be ready for this. And Jim and I are ready for. If they can come for Don, they could come for any of us.
- [30:34]
A
That's right.
- [30:34]
E
So be ready. Be of good cheer. And remember, Trump is losing. Don't be frightened.
- [30:42]
A
That's right.
- [30:42]
E
He's lost in court over 200 times, and he's losing in the court of public opinion. Most unpopular president in modern history. Nobody hired him to do this shit. If I may.
- [30:55]
A
And. And that's exactly right. I mean, he was. He was. Trump was put back in office to do some other shit, not this shit. And it's just totally out of control. But, Norm, you're the. You're the guy who is keeping us from allowing the barbarians through the gate. As always, thank you, Norm. Really appreciate it. The best.
- [31:13]
E
All right, Jim, have a good weekend.
- [31:15]
A
All right, you too. Take care. Thanks a lot. Good to see you. And There are these ICE protests happening in D.C. right now. Our producer, Sam, is on the scene bringing us this video. I want to quickly go to Tara Palmeri. I think Tara is standing by. And I'm going to bring in Denver Riggleman in just a moment, too. But Tara is with us. And Tara, I mean, we've been talking about all the Don Lemon stuff, and it really has, to some extent, and maybe this is, by design, overshadowed, which is some pretty big Epstein news today. And this. This release of all of these files, one of the files or one of the documents that came out today, I guess, shows Elon Musk was asking about flying to Epstein's island or something like that. I I mean, you see this. What? Day, night will be the wildest party on our island. I don't know what Elon Musk is talking about there, but, Terry, your thoughts on. On the news that came out today about the Epstein files? Because, I mean, they were supposed to comply with the law, what, weeks ago?
- [32:13]
D
Yeah, more than a month ago. December 19th was the deadline. And, you know, Elon Musk was potentially on the manifest. It's not really surprising. Well, not for me, at least in the others who have been paying really close attention to the files, that he actually was. Actually was quite close to Epstein himself, which makes it kind of ironic that he said to Trump, oh, you're going to. You're gonna get blown up in the Epstein files. Right, right. When he himself had this close association. You know, I've got to say, the timing is. Is uncanny, as they say. Right?
- [32:48]
A
Interesting.
- [32:49]
D
Yeah, exactly. And then also, and you know, this, having been a journalist for a long time, that sometimes administrations are strategic with their leaks. Not. They don't necessarily give. To give the public the full Epstein files.
- [33:04]
B
They.
- [33:04]
D
They sometimes stagger them and give reporters something in advance that they want to highlight from a packet of. Of damaging information, something that does. That either makes them look good or makes someone else look bad. Right. When. Especially when they know they've got to take out the trash on a Friday, which is what normally happens across administrations, but in this case, it seemed to me very clear that the administration leaked that Bill Gates news about the std and. And, you know, trying to give Melinda a antibiotic. It just seems like they. They know it's viral. It's.
- [33:42]
A
Wait, I missed that one. I didn't see that. That come out today.
- [33:45]
D
Yeah, and it came out, like, literally as the Epstein vials were dropping. How did the Daily Mail figure out how to pull that one out? You know, give me a break. Yeah, exactly. It's kind of the same way where it was just a little too obvious last time when they dropped the Epstein files, when all of it was right. Clinton, right from the top.
- [34:02]
A
We were talking about that.
- [34:04]
D
Yeah, exactly. It was just a little. Because this is all a narrative for them. This isn't about actually getting down to the truth. This is about, you know, pinning President Trump's enemies to make them look bad, protecting him and obfuscating the truth and just trying to get people to pay attention, to not pay attention to the truth of the matter, which is they are being haphazard with these files. They have revealed the identities of victims, which is something that these victims have already been sexually abused, are now going through another round of abuse. Maybe they don't want to be publicly, you know, they don't want to be known publicly for what happened to them. They don't want to be known as Epstein survivors. There's only two or three dozen of them that actually have come forward out of a thousand. It's because there's a reason why people that are abused want to be Jane Does. They don't want it to define the rest of their lives. You know, they don't want to go to the coffee shop and be known as the Epstein seen victim. And so for the Department of Justice to be so sloppy with their identity, their IDs, one of them, an actual license is, Is really disturbing. Then there's the fact that these are only half of the files.
- [35:11]
A
Right. Know.
- [35:12]
D
He said there's only. This is 3 million, but we collected 6 million. But we decided that we're going to put these 3 million out. Well, why are the other 3 million not being released? What's in them?
- [35:20]
B
We.
- [35:20]
A
So I was going to say, so do we not have all of them still? Is that still not the case or.
- [35:25]
D
Well, Todd says, Todd, excuse me. Attorney General Blanche says this is the final dump, but he acknowledges that they had 6 million files and they are giving us 3 million. So, yeah, I think it's safe to assume that this is all we're going to see.
- [35:40]
A
Yeah. Well, key part of that final dump, and, and I use the word dump in, in multiple ways here.
- [35:45]
D
Yeah.
- [35:46]
A
Is whether or not Donald Trump has been scrubbed and his name has been scrubbed in these final files. If 3 million files have been released and we don't see Donald Trump's name in here, I'm going to be damn suspicious. But we're showing some of the, the names that have popped out just today, Tara. Kevin Warsh is. I believe he is. If this is the same Kevin Warsh who's been nominated to be the new.
- [36:06]
E
Chairman of the Federal Reserve, it's also.
- [36:09]
D
Insular at the top. That's the other crazy thing.
- [36:12]
A
Yeah. And Brett Ratner, I don't know if it's the same Brett Ratner that I believe. He's the director of the Melania documentary. I don't.
- [36:20]
D
I mean, who else would it be?
- [36:21]
A
It's just like, feel free to, you know, if I'm wrong, please forgive me, everybody, but I'm just pointing out the names that are showing up in some of these files. But if we're not seeing Donald Trump's name in 3 million Epstein files that are getting released. Come on.
- [36:36]
D
Well, his name has come up, actually.
- [36:38]
A
Yeah, no, that's true. But one would think in this, and one would think in this tranche there would be at least one mention.
- [36:44]
D
No, there are thousands of mentions of him in this. In fact, Epstein is asking President Obama's White House counsel, I think her name is, her name is Kathy Rimler, I believe.
- [36:54]
A
Kathy Rumler. Yes, that's right. Yeah.
- [36:56]
D
Yeah. He's asking Epstein, is asking her for advice on how to deal with a 13 year old who's accusing Donald Trump of sexual assault or abuse. And also this relationship that Epstein had with Kathy Rumler is really, really disturbing to me.
- [37:13]
A
Right. She became his personal attorney and all in, in some of those. Correct. Yeah.
- [37:17]
D
She's a former White House counsel. And like, I think that's just indicative of the levels, like the reason why for so many years we haven't gotten down to the bottom of this why for decades and administrations. Because he was able to buy people at every single level.
- [37:32]
A
Right.
- [37:33]
D
You know, and, and that, that really, that disturbed me. I mean, there's also some tips in there that the FBI fielded about President Trump that are really disturbing and graphic and I'm not going to go into them. And they are tips. But what, but has the FBI actually followed up on them and done investigations into them?
- [37:50]
A
Yeah, we still don't know. We still don't know the full story of the relationship between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. We just don't. We don't have all of the information. And to me, it is the big looming question hanging over everything. And when they put this dump out, as you put it, on the same day that they arrest Don Lemon, that makes my Spidey sense go off, I have to say. It makes, and, and, you know, I, I just think that at the end of the day, he can't outrun this. He can't. He can't. It. He's just going to have to face the music eventually in all of this, whatever that music might be. And the way that they try to throw Bill Gates out there and, and it looks like Elon Musk maybe today and so on, is a way to try to throw MAGA off the scent. And that makes it even more damning for Trump, it seems to me. That's just my read on it.
- [38:48]
D
Yeah, no, I agree. Yeah, I'm with you on this. I think it's all, it's a narrative and Todd Blanch was pretty explicit that President Trump is in no way connected to Jeffrey Epstein. The other thing that was was really shocking to me was that he said, he said during the press conference this morning that. I just want to quote it, Jim, please. I don't know if there are men that abuse women. You are the deputy attorney general. Okay.
- [39:21]
A
Gosh.
- [39:23]
D
There are numerous survivors who have filed civil litigation against men for abusing them, often because the statute of limitation had passed and they couldn't file criminal, you know, complaints. We know the N. Maxwell in her Habus petition said that 25 men had signed settlements with a one plaintiff, one, one victim and. But that all thousand women were abused by just Jeffrey Epstein alone.
- [39:53]
A
Exactly.
- [39:53]
D
What have you been doing? What has the Justice Department been doing?
- [39:56]
A
That's right. And Tara, doesn't it sound though, when Todd Blanche is saying that, and let's remember he's Donald Trump's former personal defense attorney who has now has a senior level position in the Justice Department. It sounds to me he's performing for the audience of one when he says that because it's very, it echoes what Trump has said, apparently to Marjorie Taylor Greene, which is, well, a lot of people's names might get dragged through the mud or whatever Trump said. To Marjorie Taylor Greenhouse, she relayed to 60 Minutes about her conversations with Trump about the Epstein files. And when Top Lane says something like that, it makes me say, I wonder if he, who he's talking to when he says that doesn't sound like he's talking to the American people.
- [40:33]
D
You know, and sometimes the thing about Trump, too, when he told Marjorie Taylor Greene, it's going to hurt my friends. Right.
- [40:38]
A
It's going to hurt my friends. That's what he said.
- [40:40]
D
And you and I know this from having covered him for a while. Sometimes he uses the word friend when he's talking about himself, too.
- [40:46]
A
And he has no friends. I mean, I'm sorry, he doesn't really. Does he really have friends? I don't, you know, maybe a few guys around Mar A Lago, I don't know. Jeffrey Epstein certainly was his friend for many, many years.
- [40:56]
D
Yeah. I mean, going back to 1993, if you look at some of the Epstein files, some of the allegations go all the way back to 1993 and President Trump. So, like the height of Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking operation, he was very much a pal of his, you could say, for about 10 years. And I don't know how you could be friends with a guy who ran one of the biggest sex trafficking operations in the world and not know about it.
- [41:21]
A
I completely agree. It's. And the birthday letter, this wonderful secret that he talked about and it's on and on. And it just seems to me that, I mean, that's it right there. Does anybody doubt that this is authentic? I mean, come on, this is. Give me a break.
- [41:38]
D
Yeah, no, I know. And it's also, here's the thing, like Virginia Robert Shuffre, who I obviously work to with very closely on the Broken Jeffrey Epstein podcast, she told me when you walked into that house, there was no doubt that something was off. There were young girls naked by the pool. Plus he had pictures of girls, Polaroids and all types of pictures of young girls all over the house. Even if you just wanted to look inside that Palm beach house. So even if Trump never went to the island or he never went to his townhouse and in Upper east side, just going into the Palm beach house, which he has admitted that he's been to, you would know just walking in there that there's something up. A 50 something year old man with all of these young girls, these girls from high school. I mean, it's disturbing. It's really disturbing.
- [42:25]
A
Yeah. Well, Tara, thank you as always for your great reporting on it. And anytime you want to talk about it, let me know. I'm determined to not let this die. I don't care what distractions they put out there, we will continue to report on it. And I know you will too. So thank you so much.
- [42:40]
D
Okay, thank you. Bye, Jim.
- [42:42]
A
Good to see you there. Thanks so much. And I, and I want to quickly go to a friend of mine who I haven't spoken to in quite some time who is on a hell of a trip these days and I want to hear all about it. Our friend, Denver Riggleman, former Republican congressman, he is in Denmark right now. And you know, Denver, it's great to see you. By the way, thanks for coming on.
- [43:02]
C
Love being here, buddy. Thanks for having me.
- [43:04]
A
Yeah. And, and I, you and I have been texting over the last week because you went to Greenland to check on the situation there after Trump was basically threatening to invade Greenland, although he thought it was Iceland at one point. So it's possible you might have gone to the wrong island. He might have, he might have invaded Iceland by mistake. But then you ended up in Denmark and participated in protest there and a demonstration there and just fill us in on how folks are feeling on that side of the pond. And I do want to ask you about some, some batshit crazy stuff that's been happening here with Tulsi Gabbard showing up at Election center in Atlanta. But anyway, you're tell Us. Tell us how Denmark's doing. How are our allies doing? What's going through their minds?
- [43:45]
C
Well, there's definitely no shortage of news.
- [43:47]
A
Yeah, I know.
- [43:49]
C
It's all over the world, you know. So I was in Greenland for the last four days, and I just want to tell everybody tomorrow is going to be an incredible day. I was invited by the Save America movement to go to Greenland and then to here, to Denmark. I started in Iceland, so that was weird. I had to cover all my bases, Jim. So I went to Iceland, to Greenland, then to Denmark just to make sure I was in the right spot. But Greenland, I was in Nook. And, you know, it's just incredible what I experienced there. But tomorrow I'm very humbled. I was invited by the organizer of the march, the silent march for NATO but for Danish troops that were disrespected by Donald Trump. And it's been one of the most incredible trips for me. As you know. I've been to Ukraine a few times, but this has been very touching. Greenland first. So Save America movement asked me to go to Greenland to talk to individuals and how they felt their gym, by the way, I want people to know. I don't know if you know this, Jim. Greenland has 35,000 long guns. And I was. I was invited by a very incredible person named Orla Joelison. He is sort of the. I would say the in ambassador of Greenland pretty much. You know, the.
- [44:58]
A
I've seen him on social media. He's great.
- [45:00]
C
Yeah, he's great. Orla got me into private homes. Think about this, Jim. I was invited into homes to talk to people about exactly what they did, how they feel, and there's one of them right there. My God, Jim, you're on. Johnny on the spot. What a pro.
- [45:15]
A
My buddy Matt's on it. My. My dude. You guys, right?
- [45:19]
B
Yeah.
- [45:19]
C
So that there is a vet.
- [45:20]
E
He.
- [45:20]
C
It's all volunteer. Everything there is just amazing what I got. And I want you to ask me questions and pepper me with them if you want. What I got was this. They used one word over and over again about Donald Trump. It was madness. The other thing that they talked about was how do we ever trust the American government again? We could like Americans, but how do we trust the American government? And the thing that's very touching. They said, why did our best friend of decades turn on us? What have we done? The fourth thing, and I want Americans to know this, we talk about this performative gun culture we have here in the United States. It's not performative there. These Guys, all of them have long guns. All of them hunt. And they said even if we died, if Americans were to come into our streets, we would fight. That was Greenland, my friend.
- [46:05]
A
Good. Well, I mean, to me, you know, and I've spoken to some Danes over the last several weeks and it's exactly what you say. They're all absolutely mortified. And, and these are folks who are, I mean, you know, please go to Scandinavia to my fellow Americans. Please go to Scandinavia and meet some of the great people who live in that part of the world. Just wonderful people. And they love America as bad as we can be sometimes. They love us and they look up to us and they see us as like their big brothers and their protectors and we help liberate them and so on during World War II. And they just, they're, they're, they're baffled. Their, their minds have been blown over this stuff. And so it's, to me, it's good, Demrel, that you would go over there and that I know Schmidt and the Save America movement would, you know, help get you over there and other folks like Malcolm Nance and so on so people can get the message over there that America is more than Donald Trump.
- [46:59]
C
Well, it, you know, I remember Ken Harbaugh called me. Jim.
- [47:02]
E
Right.
- [47:02]
C
And Ken called me and he said Malcolm was going to be there. You know, Steve Schmidt's part of it. Mary Corcoran, an incredible individual. Dean Blundell from Canada. I mean, we have a, we have an international contingent here, Jim. But you know what's incredible too here, as you talk about madness, the thing that we've noticed is that Donald Trump is a cancer. It's a cancer of lies that sort of metastasized across our globe. And that's what he utilizes. And I think if you support Greenland and you support Denmark, you're saving America. America is much bigger than one person who castigates their allies. America's America is this ideal of self determination. And we talk about, you know, taking the sovereignty of people like Greenland and Denmark. We talk about troops that weren't with us. I mean, Denmark, what was it per Capitol lost the most troops.
- [47:51]
E
Right.
- [47:51]
C
Per capita.
- [47:52]
A
That's right.
- [47:53]
C
I'm in Denmark.
- [47:54]
A
War on terror. That's right.
- [47:55]
C
And war on terror. I mean, we're. And I get goosebumps when I talk to the people. Last night we came in last night, we went to a bar called Heidi's. I know it's story a surprise that I would go to a bar gym, but we went to a bar called Heidi's here, right? In Copenhagen. And as soon as they found out a former Republican congressman was here supporting Denmark, we had three hours of discussions with people throughout this bar, spontaneously. And you're right. They love America. And I'm so sick of us apologizing for this hyperbolic, insane, mad individual who's going against the very people that looked up to us because we were supposed to be the moral code, encompass, the freedom, the thing that people thought could be there for them. And now we are looked at as this crazy, mad, doddering fool with a bazooka walking through, you know, schoolyards. And that's pretty much how they. They sort of categorize us now.
- [48:44]
A
Yeah. And I. I mean, to me, it's like, you know, what. What more can we do to piss them off? You know, It's. It's just. It's just a crying shame. And I. I, you know, I just. I would really like to see some Republicans say something. And the other thing, we've got to talk about Denver, because I know you did all that phenomenal work on the January 6th committee. I mean, this. This idea that Tulsi Gabbard would be at an FBI raid of an election center in Fulton County, Georgia, it's outrageous. It's totally outrageous that this would be going on. And I just wanted to get your thoughts on it.
- [49:26]
C
But you know my thoughts. I mean, I think Tulsi Gabard is one piece of wood shy of a cord. You know what I mean, buddy? And so. And I also think, you know, when you're looking downstream of this, this is somebody who's insane, who's been part of cults. And now we have a national foreign intelligence agency outside of their authorities going into Fulton County. And let me tell you why. In 2020, they wanted to use Executive Order 13848 to actually take control of machines. That was Sidney Powell to take control of the election machines. Like Dominion, like smartmatic. What you're seeing is a replay. And we've always said, Jim, and I know you've said it right, it was really. January 6th was a test run. Everything that they were trying to do with the conspiracy theories, from Italian satellites to Dominion or Chinese servers to Chinese bamboo ballots to NSA Hammer and Scorecard, all the stuff they were making out was about foreign interference. And I think that's the issue that you have, right, is some of the insanity that's going on right there. So that's really what's going on. And by the way, Jim, I didn't even care that you left Because I was so into talking about foreign interference. Man, it was fantastic. Yeah, but it really is about the. They're going to try to do the same thing in 2026. They're going to try to use conspiracy theories on foreign interference. They're going to, to try to instigate violence. You're going to have a combination, maybe the Insurrection act, but also trying to actually seize machines or ballots based on made up stories of foreign interference that's coming. I want people to know it's forecast. Past performance is indicative of future performance. And the only people to carry out those type of missions are the sycophants and the crazies that are in the administration like Tulsi Gabbard.
- [51:01]
A
Yeah, it should worry every, every American, it seems to me. And it makes me think that our elections are on a course right now to be not safe and secure. And, and I think that's part of what Donald Trump wants. He wants to throw sand in the gears. He wants to cast doubt on whether or not these elections are going to be on the up and up. And that will sow more chaos. It will create more chaos. And I think it's something every American needs to worry about, it just seems to me. But.
- [51:33]
C
Well, the cancer is not only here overseas. The cancer is domestically. And we talk about what's happening with this metastasization of insanity. And today I was listening to your show, Jim, all the people you're talking to. Do you know how many different topics you covered today that were crazy? Yeah, but you've covered Greenland, Denmark, Tulsi Gabbard, DNI ballots, Don Lemon.
- [51:56]
B
Right.
- [51:57]
C
The Epstein files. I mean, you haven't even covered what happened, you know, with the, the shooter, the CEO, the Mangione today.
- [52:05]
B
Like.
- [52:05]
C
Yeah, I don't even know if you were there yet.
- [52:06]
A
I mean, we can't cover it all, but we do our best. Yeah.
- [52:09]
C
And.
- [52:09]
A
No, I know. And, but Denver, I mean, it means a lot to me that you, that you've come on and please keep us posted on how things are going over there and if it gets a little chippy, let me know. We'll do a special report. But really appreciate it.
- [52:22]
C
I'm in the front tomorrow with the American flag, so it's going to be interesting. And so I can't wait to let you know.
- [52:28]
E
Everything.
- [52:28]
A
Okay, buddy, send some pics, I'll repost them for you. But thanks a lot, Denver. Really great to see you.
- [52:33]
C
Thanks, Jim.
- [52:33]
A
Thanks, guys. And I want to thank everybody for tuning in. I just, just a final thought here Before I go apologize for some of the video quality here. And, and I'm on the road. And so much happened today that we wanted to jump on it. We jumped on it earlier this morning when our friend Don was arrested and sending him our best. We're all thinking about Don, all thinking about what he's going through right now. The great Norm Eisen was telling us just a few moments ago that Don, Don spent the night in jail. Don Lemon spent the night in jail because Donald Trump has, has, is carrying a grudge, a childish grudge against Don Lemon. And they are, they're going after Don to suppress his, not only his free speech, but all of our free speech. And so, you know, heading into this weekend, we've got to think about, and I say it every day on my show, it's another day that ends in y and the assault on American democracy. That's not a throwaway line, folks. I, I'm trying to keep this, this idea in, in everybody's mind that, that this is ongoing. This is not stopping. This is something that is going to be with us for a while, while. And, and you have to understand that, you know, as we were talking about earlier with Norm and Senator Kelly and, and Denver and so on, I mean, these, these are threats against our way of life. These are threats against the way of life that we all grew up with, that you ought to be able to have the right to free speech. You ought to be able to have the right to freedom of the press. You ought to be able to have free and fair elections without interference from people in the, in the intelligence community, in our government. These are things that we've all taken for granted for a very long time, but we can't take them for granted anymore because they're, they're, they're being threatened. They're under attack right now. And that is why, you know, we can't just wait for the, the cavalry anymore, folks. We are the cavalry. We are the cavalry. And we have to all do this together, safeguard our democracy so it's there for future generations. And so there are other journalists that come in behind Don and I. The reinforcements. We're going to need some reinforcements in order to keep this democracy strong, keep it in, in place. But I want to thank Senator Mark Kelly for joining us, thank Tara Palmeri, thank the great Norm Eisen and Denver Riggleman joining us live from Denmark. A lot of coverage today. Really appreciate everybody tuning in still reporting from, not from Washington, from a different location. I'll just say that heading into the weekend I'm Jim Acosta. Thanks again for tuning in. I'll see you next time.