Loading summary
Transcript118 lines
- [00:00]
Jim Acosta
Foreign.
- [00:05]
Welcome to the Jim Acosta Show. It's another day that ends in why? With the question where is Mitch McConnell? Mitch, please. It's time to surface our guest. Our big guest this hour is Brian Tyler Cohen, the great baron Tyler Cohen. He's got a new book out. I've got it right here. It's called the Day after how to Wield Power in a Post Trump World. There it is on screen as well. Make sure you get a copy of this. It's going to be a great summary. And Brian, you and I are doing a book talk here in Washington, D.C. next Tuesday. If folks want to come out and say hello and get one of Brian's books, we'll be at 6th and I and welcome back to the show and congrats on the book.
- [00:45]
Brian Tyler Cohen
Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. I'm really excited for this book talk on, on Tuesday. And if folks are looking for an easy way to find it, you can just go to brianteller cohen.com book and scroll down to the, to the, to the DC event.
- [00:57]
Jim Acosta
Absolutely.
- [00:58]
Unknown Reporter/Contributor
Yeah.
- [00:58]
Jim Acosta
And it's gonna be a lot of fun. We'll talk about all kinds of stuff and, and, and maybe we'll have some fun, too. And yeah. And I'll tell some dad jokes and you'll be like, you'll be like, oh, Jim, you know, my goal, my goal
- [01:09]
Brian Tyler Cohen
because, you know, when, when you had, I, I asked you for a photo for the event and, and you sent me one with your dog. And so my goal here is going to be to publicly pressure you into bringing your dog on stage. I don't know how far I'm gonna
- [01:21]
Jim Acosta
get, but is there any hope if the venue's okay? But the problem is, is that he will harass the out of everybody for treats.
- [01:30]
Brian Tyler Cohen
That's fine. Yeah. Dogs can do no wrong. So as long as, as long as we can get the venue to say yes, then, then we'll, I'll circle back up with you on that.
- [01:37]
Jim Acosta
I love my little dog. I'll bring him anywhere he's wanted. But I have to warn people in advance he's still got a lot of puppy left in him. But yeah, Brian, it's good to see you. And you know, I, I do think that, and I've been posing this question this way and I'm curious what you think. Like if, if Mitch McConnell were in the Senate and it was another senator who was missing in mia, we know how he would be, he, he would be plotting as we speak how to fully capitalize on the situation and so now, I mean, to me, the, obviously the shoes on the other foot here, but I think the question has to be raised, you know, where is he? When is he going to surface? You know, can he still function as a senator? What the hell's going on?
- [02:17]
Brian Tyler Cohen
It's especially an interesting conversation in light of the fact that so much of the 2024 election was predicated on the idea that Joe Biden was not in a healthy enough physical state to be able to do his job. And that came from the same people who are now conspicuously silent, I should say deafeningly silent, on the idea of Mitch McConnell's health. I mean, this guy is in office to serve his constituents. We have no idea, forget where he is. But whether he's dead or alive, that should be a pretty big problem, a pretty big blinking red light for a party that predicated so much of its identity on making sure that people are in office and capable of representing their constituents. So, yeah, I mean, it's, you know, puts on full display the, the asymmetry between the two parties.
- [03:02]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And all these people have come out of the woodwork. Scott Jennings has claimed that he's had a 20 minute conversation with Mitch McConnell. All these other senators are saying, I
- [03:11]
Brian Tyler Cohen
saw Aaron Rupar quote, tweet Scott Jennings, where Scott Jennings was like, I spent 20 minutes talking to Mitch McConnell. And then Aaron Rupar said, did he talk back?
- [03:21]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And we've got a picture of. There it is right there. There's the meme. The Mitch memes are very good. I just had a 20 minute conversation with Mitch McConnell. And you know, and of course, you know, we hope he's okay and he services and all that stuff, but, I mean, he would totally be exploiting the situation right now. Apparently he was the one when, when Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away, he was the one who was immediately pressing Trump like, no, we've got to appoint Amy Coney Barrett right away. Like, he was the one who was pushing that immediately. I just want to point out, just everybody knows that he was very instrumental in making that happen as quickly as possible. And the governor of Kentucky, Andy Beshear, is saying, okay, we need some information too. But I mean, this is obviously a very important moment if, if he has to leave the scene and they have to have a special election in Kentucky.
- [04:09]
Brian Tyler Cohen
Right. And I think that there's some pushback to the prospect of a special election, meaning that somebody like Thomas Massie could ascend to that seat. So I get there would be a vested interest by these maga Republicans to prevent that from happening. But I think more broadly, I mean, you brought up a great point, this idea of Mitch McConnell being the one to push Donald Trump to very quickly fill that seat. I mean, like the subhead of my book is how to Wield Power In a post Trump World, there is no greater example of wielding power than Mitch McConnell and to do so shamelessly as he has A mean. The best example is the fact that he kept Mitch Mc Merrick Garland's seat open for a year on the Supreme Court. Because God forbid we fill the Supreme Court seat in an election year. And of course, when it came around to Amy Coney Barrett getting that seat, ballots were already being cast and he thought it was perfectly acceptable. So that shamelessness is on full display. And, and I think there's a lot for Democrats to learn in terms of wielding power effectively by just looking at what Mitch McConnell has done.
- [05:09]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, no, there's no question about it. I mean, Democrats have to find their inner Mitch. They have to be as ruthless as Mitch McConnell, or they might have a very thin majority in one or maybe both houses of Congress. And what is that going to get them? Not a whole lot for the last two years of a lame duck Trump term. And I do want to get into the book thing a little bit, but the other thing too is that Trump just came back from this disastrous NATO trip overseas. He's on Air Force One, and it turns out that his Air Force One, they couldn't use his Air Force One. That had to be parked elsewhere and they had to take a different Air Force One. Apparently he had to fly this, according to the Associated Press, had to fly partway home on an old baby blue Air Force One plane instead of the new Qatari gifted and retrofitted one that he was given in a surprise swap. And this is apparently because the, the, the, the new one from Qatar is not equipped with some of the same missile detection and countermeasure systems as the older jets, which, if anybody's seen Air Force One with Harrison Ford like this shit is important.
- [06:16]
Brian Tyler Cohen
It's important for us. But this was never important for him. The goal for retrofitting this Qatari jet to the tune of a billion dollars paid for by us, the taxpayer. So not necessarily a free airplane as Donald Trump had claimed. The point was never to make it compatible with, with our national security protocols. It was to retrofit a jet for Donald Trump to have personally. And by the way, this is something that was greenlit by the Republican Party, which refused to vote in favor of preventing Trump from taking this aircraft after he left office. So it doesn't matter if for a couple of years it doesn't have the necessary national security protocols, because the point was never to use it for that. The point was just to give Donald Trump a jet. It was to use the federal government as his way to consolidate wealth and riches and treasures for himself. I mean, this is just, we are so far past the idea of the emoluments clause even counting anymore. But the, the reason for the emoluments clause is so important. It's so that you don't, it's so that you don't use the United States and our taxpayer dollars and our military force, whatever it may be, as a negotiating tactic to enrich yourself personally. And we've seen exactly that, whether it's the UAE or Qatar or any other country investing in World Liberty Financial, buying his meme coins, his crypto coins, his stable coins, opening golf courses. I mean, corruption has become so legalized in the Trump era, which would be bad enough unto itself, but so much worse given the fact that this guy ran an entire campaign on this idea that, that we need to return to an era of law and order and that we have to end the, the, the era of the Biden crime family only for him to do. I mean, to claim that this is a thousand times worse is, is an understatement, like, to, to say the least.
- [08:00]
Jim Acosta
No question. I mean, I remember back during the 2016 campaign, all the chants of lock her up about Hillary Clinton, about her fucking emails. I mean, I mean, you know, and he ran on so called draining the swamp. And this is the slimiest, biggest, nastiest swamp you could possibly imagine, which I think brings us to your book, Brian, because it's, it's going to be an excellent book for everybody to pick up. And, and it talks about how to wield power in a post Trump world. And I think part of what needs, I think we need to see sort of a reformist era in Washington in that you, I mean, there's a lot that needs to be cleaned up. I mean, politics is just a, it's just a nasty business to begin with. But this is, I think there was a movie line at what I can't remember the name of the movie, but it was a, this is a whorehouse at low tide. I think this was the movie Johnny Daters, if I'm remembering correctly. But a whorehouse at low tide is the way Washington, D.C. is being run by Donald Trump.
- [08:53]
Brian Tyler Cohen
And I think what's important Here is we tried the approach, and I, and I use we like. I did not. I was not a fan of this approach. But Democrats tried the approach of Merrick Garland taking over the doj, doing anything he can to prevent the optics of politicization, and not going after Donald Trump amid the crimes that he so blatantly committed. And all that did was send a message to this guy that he could basically operate with impunity, and that's what he's been doing. Like, the reason that Trump 2.0 is so much more overtly corrupt is expressly because there was no deterrent effect. He never got in trouble for any of the things he did. And frankly, Merrick Garland waited so long even to deign to appoint a special counsel that Trump was able to run out the clock. So I think this approach of, you know what, let's just engage in Kumbaya, let's offer up some goodwill to the other side in hopes that it'll eventually be reciprocated. That doesn't work anymore. All it does is send a message to criminals that they can engage in criminality with no repercussions. So now that we're seeing all of this blatant, you know, insider trading and short sales where Donald Trump issues some announcement on Truth Social, but five minutes earlier, we found out that some wallet, some crypto wallet somewhere, sold a billion shares or something. You know, this, this self dealing, these, these tactics he's using with foreign countries, all of this is so overtly corrupt. But the reason that he does it is because we haven't given him a reason not to. And so I think as we head into this post Trump world, if we want to have any sense of, of confidence in our government or in the DOJ or in the very notion that this is a country of, of laws, something Republicans like to say, then that starts with holding people to account for the corruption that they're engaging in right now.
- [10:46]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, there's no question about it. I mean, and I think that, you know, there are a lot of Joe Biden stands on, on Substack, and we hear from them from time to time. Our viewers will pipe in and they'll talk about how much they love Joe Biden and, and we had Hunter Biden on earlier this week, and Hunter has a lot to say. He's very upset about the way his father was treated versus the way, you know, the press really treats Donald Trump with kid gloves these days. If I could have a reform that could come in, the post Trump era would be for the press to get its spine back. But I will say that I do think that one of the mistakes that Joe Biden made was appointing Merrick Garland Attorney general. And he just whiffed badly on the January 6 investigation. It shouldn't have taken almost two years to get an investigation going into all of that. It really put the country behind the eight ball. And a lot of people say, oh, it's, you know, Donald Trump, he, you know, manipulated all of these attacks on him in the legal system and so on, used it to his advantage. He also benefited from the clock. And because Garland started so late, the clock started late, and he was able to run out the clock. And, you know, I just, it bugs the shit. And I should say that the line that I was using earlier from the Untouchables is from the Untouchables, not Johnny, one of my favorite movies. I can't believe I got that wrong. But, Brian, I mean, the other thing that, you know, I'm kind of wondering about is what kind of political reforms we should be talking about in this new era, or what you would like to see in this new era. Because, I mean, one of the questions will be how do you go, how do you have a prosecution of a Donald Trump or anybody near a Donald Trump when he'll probably issue a thousand pardons before he leaves office? So I just, you know, is it, is it new laws? What do you, what do you, what do you have on your mind?
- [12:24]
Brian Tyler Cohen
Well, first of all, I mean, in terms of the corruption aspect of this, I think we have to codify a lot of the reforms that came in the aftermath of the Nixon era that really are just norms. At the end of the day, there's no, there's nothing mandating that Donald Trump or, or his corrupt acolytes get treated a certain way. It's just because that's how it's done, how it's been done in the past. I do think that you're right in the sense that he'll probably issue a thousand pardons, but we'll see what happens on that front. In any case, even if it's not retroactive, it has to be proactive so that we, we don't end up in a situation like we've, like we've been thrust into right now. But it's a great question in terms of the other stuff that we have to do, because there are going to be plenty of people who don't give a shit about what happens on the legal front to, to, to offer up some consequences for the people who are corrupt or engaging in criminality. Right now, they just care about what happens in their own lives. And I think you need to walk and chew gum at the same time. So there are a lot of things that I lay out in this book whose time, I think has come. And I think that the incrementalism that we've relied on in the past, I think that really frustrates people now, especially when we're seeing Trump barrel through, bulldoze the institutions of government, and get what he wants. So if he can do it for his corrupt edicts, why can't the left do it? Why can't Democrats do it to deliver Medicare for all so that in the richest country in the world, everybody has access to health care? Why can't we do it to, to properly combat climate change, which is the existential issue that we're contending with at the time? Why can't we do it to pass a major Voting Rights act or the Freedom to Vote act and make Election Day a federal holiday ban, partisan gerrymandering nationwide, do stuff that we need to do these big swing ticket items who, whose, whose time, I think has come? I mean, we, we have, we have been saddled for so long with this idea that we should be, that we should be perfectly content with crumbs because the gears of government move slowly. But if there's a will, there's a way. Trump has used it for his own personal enrichment. I think Democrats can wield that power in a virtuous way. And frankly, with so many people disillusioned with what the government can do, I think we have to. It's existential or we're going to lose people. And of course, if you lose people, it's that exact environment where autocracy. Autocracy thrives.
- [14:43]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, no, I, I totally agree with you on that. And I think that there was a subscriber that just chimed in a few moments ago and said, what about a Project 2029? You know, obviously, I think that's a terrific idea.
- [14:55]
Gretchen Carlson
Me, too.
- [14:55]
Jim Acosta
And, you know, the Bannon philosophy of flood the zone with Democrats can flood the zone with new policies, you know, that are people oriented. And I think Mamdani has really thrived in New York. People might not agree with which side of the political spectrum he's on, but he, he, he is, he's been wildly successful thus far, and it's, and he has been a progressive, very progressive mayor, and he's getting, but he's also doing things competently. He's getting stuff done. He's Filling potholes, taking care of snowstorms. He's doing things that, that mayors need to do. And that, I think that's what people like about Democrats is that when they come into office, there is, there is this feeling that, okay, the adults are in the room, there's competence has come back and so on. It's not the Donald Trump shit show anymore. But, you know, there has been a shit show this week on the Democratic side, and that is Graham Platner.
- [15:45]
Gretchen Carlson
Yeah.
- [15:46]
Jim Acosta
Brian, I'm curious what your thoughts are before you go, because to me, you know, I totally get where the progressive base of the party was coming from and wanting to fresh blood, fresh faces, new ideas, new people, sort of this rejection of the old establishment and so on. And I think when that happens, obviously the vetting is not always going to be good. And you're going to get some, some clunkers. There's no quite. You're going to get some people that should have never been nominated to begin with. And it seems like Graham Platner is, is exhibit A in that category to the extreme. And now the Democratic Party is in a real jam.
- [16:24]
Brian Tyler Cohen
Look, it was a failure of vetting for sure. And I do think as we get into an era where social media and a digital footprint exists for the entire life of a lot of these people who want to get into politics, it's certainly going to be a lot different than the old days where, you know, you basically have to take people's word for anything that happened. Like now all of our lives are online. And so I don't necessarily think that it's limited to especially progressive candidates. I think that even moderate candidates are going to have to contend with a digital footprint when we get into the millennials era of, of being able to see everything they said and did from the time that they were, you know, 16 years old on. So with that said, though, yes, absolutely, a failure of vetting, the apology that he just offered didn't, didn't really help things along. It wasn't particularly conciliatory, wasn't. I mean, it wasn't conciliatory at all. So I think the, the good news is there's, there's, there's good and bad. Obviously the good news is that there's still time to rectify this process. I think he has until the 13th to drop out formally. They have until the 27th to make a final decision in terms of who the nominee is going to be. I believe there's going to be a 600 person main Democratic nominating process. Through members of the main Democratic Party. So that that exists. There's still time. Luckily, we're not in a position where, you know, it's August and this is the baggage that we're saddled with going into what would otherwise be a really favorable environment for Democrats nationally, but especially in Maine because Susan Collins is vulnerable. With that said, we're also saddled with the, with the baggage of 2024 where it felt like a very anti or undemocratic process, small d Democratic process, where all of a sudden Kamala felt like it, she was anointed the nominee. Now we're in a position where the primary has passed, Graham Platner was nominated and now he's stepping aside. And so are we in a position again where even though voters spoke up in the primary, now there's going to be, you know, some sort of back room where he's nominated? Obviously, it's extenuating circumstances. Obviously everybody understands the situation that we're contending with. But it still is a shame that we're in a position yet again where it doesn't feel as, as Democratic as it should be.
- [18:40]
Jim Acosta
No, I, I totally, I'm totally with you on that. And hopefully at the end of this, they, they do get candidate who can take on Susan Collins because that, that's been a vulnerable seat for a long time. To have a Republican senator in Maine, it's sort of like having a Democratic senator in Texas. But, you know, it seems to me that, that, that that time has come as talk about things that have time, the time that has come. But Brian, I'm looking forward to having the book talk with you next week on Tuesday at 6th and I in Washington D.C. more details on Brian's website, briantyler cohen.com book there's the COVID right there. Pick it up. It's a great summer read. There's the statue of Trump being pulled down. I have a feeling that, that, that will not be the only thing that is pulled down after he leaves off.
- [19:25]
Brian Tyler Cohen
That's right.
- [19:27]
Jim Acosta
In Washington.
- [19:28]
Brian Tyler Cohen
Yeah. I'll tell you what, I'm, I'm excited for one thing, and that is to see who renames the, the ballroom and, and who it's renamed after. So I, I, for one would be, would be all for the Barack Obama Presidential Ballroom. But, you know, open to, open to suggestions.
- [19:45]
Jim Acosta
We'll put that in the suggestion box.
- [19:47]
Unknown Reporter/Contributor
Yeah.
- [19:48]
Jim Acosta
Brian, great to see you, man. Good luck with the book and I'll see you on Tuesday.
- [19:51]
Brian Tyler Cohen
Thanks, Jim. Thanks, everybody.
- [19:52]
Jim Acosta
All right, thanks a lot. Really appreciate it. The Great. Brian Tyler Cohen, he's kicking ass on all the platforms. Make sure you check out his book. Let's stay on this topic of Graham Platner because it has been a hot mess all week long trying to figure out how do we untangle this. Let's bring in two terrific voices on this. My good friend Gretchen Carlson, former colleague Gretchen Carlson, and Julie Rensky, and they're with the group Lift Our Voices, which has been a terrific group that both of you put together to raise awareness of this issue of sexual abuse. Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and being very much in the camp of lifting up survivors, lifting up those voices so that their hood heard and not drowned out. But Gretchen and Julie, great to see you both once again. Thanks for coming back.
- [20:45]
Julie Raginski
Thanks.
- [20:46]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And Gretchen, since you're next to me in the screen here, I'll start with you first and then I'll come to you. Julie. But I mean, I was just talking to Brian about Graham Platner. I mean, this has just been. I was saying it's just a show. I mean, I know I, I'm trying, I'm trying to keep it clean, folks, but it just has been a show, the whole thing. And the way he bowed out last night was horrendous.
- [21:07]
Gretchen Carlson
Horrendous. I, I was live on the air when it was happening and you know, I was, I was just like making faces to myself on the camera before I came out. I was like, we're gonna actually play this whole 11 minute thing. I mean, it was, it went from ridiculous to absurd to the most self serving, you know, denial and slap in the face to every woman and quite honestly, every man in this country. I thought it was despicable. I thought it was. I thought it was, like I said, selfish. And the one thing that really stuck out to me was he went on this big long tirade about how he was just a regular person and that's why he got into politics. Guess what? Regular people don't abuse women. So, you know, he was conflating the good side of his candidacy in being a regular person and why he was so popular and the people liked him because he wasn't a politician and all that. And he had good ideas. He was conflating that with, you know, the idea that, that women are liars. It was, it was just the most absurd thing. I was trying to wrap my head around it and then have to actually comment on it. I was very, very, very upset about it. And whoever's advice he took, it was really stupid.
- [22:23]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. Julie, what did you think?
- [22:25]
Julie Raginski
Well, we know who the advice he took and he's not a regular guy because he was recruited to run by a couple of people who decided that they want to blow up the Democratic Party and reinvent it in their image. And look, here's the problem. Last I checked, the job for Graham Platner was to defeat Susan Collins. Guess whose name he did not mention once on his way to trashing everybody else yesterday. Susan Collins. He spent more time trashing they, the Democrats, whoever it is. I don't know who he was talking about. Was he talking about the main Democratic Party or was he talking about Chuck Schumer? Was he talking about apac like I don't know who he was talking about the women, I don't know who he was blaming. But the one person he did not mention was the person who ostensibly he was in this race to defeat. He never said, hey everybody, despite the fact that I don't agree with these allegations and I dispute them, which is his right to do, I'm getting out for the good of this party so that I can get somebody in here who can defeat Susan Collins. I urge everybody who supported me to get behind the eventual nominee. Never said that. His entire speech was so self laudatory and so self pitying. And I just sat there and thought, my God, if he, and on the verge of tears and you know, like if I, if this were a woman, Jim.
- [23:42]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [23:43]
Julie Raginski
You know, never would you see that kind of speech. And this, this complete self pity for himself, for a man did this to himself. And by the way, the party that he's trashing is the party that has to come in and clean up this mess right now that he created. And to be very clear, nobody put that Totenkopf tattoo on his chest. Nobody told him to put out Reddit posts calling black people bad tippers. Nobody told him to disparage the LGBT community. Nobody told him to blame women for getting raped. Nobody told him to allegedly harass and rape women. He did that to himself.
- [24:20]
Gretchen Carlson
Right?
- [24:20]
Julie Raginski
Nobody did that for him. And yet he's sitting there blaming everybody else. And the part that just I couldn't get over is that he and I guess members of his movement are more concerned about blowing up the they in the Democratic Party who they blame for all the ills than actually defeating Republicans. And I say this as a Democrat, I know we're not supposed, you know, I'm hearing my lift our voices capacity, but my God, you have a job. You have one job. It is to defeat Susan Collins. Never mentioned a word about her and Julie.
- [24:48]
Gretchen Carlson
You and I were texting during all of this, and one other thing that hasn't been talked about a lot, but that you and I were agreeing on, was that it was almost sounding like he wanted people to write his name in. Like. Yeah. That he wanted people to stay in his camp and sort of blow up the whole process. I have no idea if that was the intention or not, but you and I both had that same thought. Yeah.
- [25:12]
Julie Raginski
Well, listen, it's interesting. He has still not gotten out, has he, Jim? Like, he's still not officially filed paperwork.
- [25:18]
Jim Acosta
I. As of this broadcast or stream cast or recording or whatever you want to call it. No, he, he has not. And I, Maybe it will happen, you know, you know, this goes up or whatever, but. No, and, and I, I. The other thing that is shocking to me is the fact that they, He. You know what the main Democratic Party was saying, Gretchen? That he was trying to put his thumb on the scale. He was, he had the audacity. This is what I knew he was cooked when, when they said that he was trying to influence who the next candidate would be, I was like, dude, you are gone. You're out. You know, it's sort of like the end of the movie Ferris Bueller, you're still here. Go home.
- [25:57]
Gretchen Carlson
The hubris to think that he still was holding some sort of power to be able to tell them what to do. Man, you were just accused of rape. Okay. Yeah, like, you have no power to tell anyone what to do. Well, I mean, I didn't expect him to. I didn't expect him to come out and admit to rape because then he may walk away in handcuffs.
- [26:21]
Unknown Reporter/Contributor
Right.
- [26:21]
Gretchen Carlson
But I expected a much more conciliatory tone. And you know what Julie and I always say is this is not about politics. We have seen men on both sides of the aisle and somewhere in between fall down for sexual misconduct. This is about power. And that was just so apparent again last night in his speech. He just can't get past the power and dominance and what his true feelings are, apparently about women.
- [26:49]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, well, go ahead, Julie.
- [26:51]
Julie Raginski
Sorry, I'm just gonna. I'm just gonna say something that I think is going to be a little depressing. He actually has all the power in the world right now because. Because he has. He has not gotten out. And if he wants to hold this party hostage, he just won't get out and he will take it down with him. And from. Based on the speech that I saw yesterday, I'm not convinced that that's not what he's planning on doing. I think he's so angry and I think he's so hurt. And that's why I keep saying, has he dropped out yet? Because he can go ahead and say, suspending his campaign, but his name is still on the ballot. And if he doesn't have a say in who his replacement is, and if he doesn't get a seat at the table, it's very well possible that he'll say, nope, sorry, I'm not dropping out. And there's nothing, and there's absolutely nothing that anybody can do to get him off the ballot. And that's the part that I think we should all go into this with our eyes open, because this is not somebody who clearly, based on the speech yesterday, gives a rats. You know, what about defeating Susan Collins? Otherwise he would have mentioned her name, but he didn't.
- [27:50]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, but, you know, Gretchen, what about, you know, Julie was trying to avoid the political aspect of this. But I mean, you know, the way that, you know, I think I saw Kevin McCarthy coming out saying, well, you know, in our party, we don't vote for people like that. I'm like, really? Are you? Please tell me you're not serious about this.
- [28:11]
Gretchen Carlson
Did you see that? Trump came out and said something and
- [28:14]
Jim Acosta
I, we have the video of Trump. I was going to play the Trump video. Let's play the Trump video. And we should talk about this because he's never on the side of the accuser. He's always on the side of the accused 100 of the time, including himself.
- [28:26]
Gretchen Carlson
This gave me PTSD, and I'll tell you,
- [28:31]
Jim Acosta
got the wrong thing up, guys.
- [28:32]
Democrats. Do you think that the Democrats should be able.
- [28:36]
Let's try that again.
- [28:37]
Take two allegations that have come out now. Democrats are talking about picking a replacement for him. Should they be able to do that?
- [28:43]
Unknown Reporter/Contributor
They're picking what?
- [28:44]
Jim Acosta
A replacement for Graham Platner if he steps out of the race.
- [28:47]
Unknown Reporter/Contributor
So he won the primary and now
- [28:49]
Jim Acosta
there's these new allegations.
- [28:50]
Unknown Reporter/Contributor
Very hard for them to do. And it's really a question of whether or not you believe the woman. A lot of people just say big falsehoods. It's. He's in a bind. He's in a bind, but should they be able to do it? Well, I guess he's going to lose. I would imagine he's going to lose. It's very interesting. When a Republican woman came out with the same charge, nobody believed. And when this woman came out, everybody believed. Right, Doug, did you get any pictures of it, though? You don't want it
- [29:25]
Jim Acosta
the way he plays just political games with this in the words that he chooses there, just awful.
- [29:32]
Gretchen Carlson
So this gave me a lot of PTSD actually, Jim, because 10 years. So Monday was my 10 year anniversary of suing Fox News and Roger Ailes. And shortly thereafter, as you recall, in 2016, that was when Trump was running for president the first time.
- [29:47]
Unknown Reporter/Contributor
Yeah.
- [29:48]
Gretchen Carlson
And he was asked about my lawsuit and Ailes, who he was tight with. And I know I had known Trump for 30 years, and he was asked, well, what do you think about, you know, this lawsuit? And he said, well, from everything I've read, which was the first problem because he doesn't read. But from everything I've read, I think I believe Ailes. And so real. What that question on the plane last night, I was like, he's not going to say that again, is he? And sure enough, you know, well, women make a lot of up. That was basically what he was implying because that's how, that's what he's told himself. He has like the O.J. simpson.
- [30:32]
Julie Raginski
But, but Gretchen, you may be the one woman that he didn't follow that up with. Have you seen a picture of her? Who'd ever want to harass her? Which is what he just did. I don't know which accuser he was talking about, whether it's Racicot or Fifield. He certainly said that about Eugene Carroll. He said that about every woman who's ever accused him. He immediately pivots to, oh, she's not my type. She's not attractive enough for me to harass.
- [30:54]
Jim Acosta
Right.
- [30:54]
Julie Raginski
As though if she were a supermodel, that'd be a different story. And look, first of all, I love the Boris Johnson look he's got going on with his hair. It's a new one for me, but
- [31:06]
Jim Acosta
I will substitute Air Force One that he had to fly.
- [31:08]
Julie Raginski
Yeah, yeah. Because NATO, I guess, wouldn't allow Qatar to put their playing on the ground. But I, I will also say that, you know, his default thing is he's, he's the one in a bind. It's not that Platner's in bind. He's in a bind for, for a number of reasons. One is, well, on the one hand, this is getting a Democrat out, so it hurts the Democrat. But on the other hand, you really hate women who come up forward with these kinds of accusations. So that puts him in a bind. The really big bind for him is he really hates Susan Collins.
- [31:37]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [31:37]
Julie Raginski
And, and, and so for him, like, he would love nothing more than for Susan Collins to lose. So that he can say she lost because she wasn't Trumpy enough. On the other hand, he needs Susan Collins in the Senate because in reality, she is quite Trumpy and votes for all of his nominees and so on and so forth. So for most of his nominees. So, look, the reality is he's the one in a bind. And as always, Trump always tells on himself. And as I think the dementia creeps in more and more. You know, what was the phrase in vino veritas like in this case? It's like in dementia veritas, he starts telling the truth more and more about what he thinks. That's the bind that he finds himself in right now.
- [32:11]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And the other thing is that, I mean, he's also in the Epstein files 38,000 times. But anyway, that, that's a whole other thing. But, you know, here's, but here's the question, you know, moving forward, you know, and I've heard this. I, you know, when the Platner, New Platner allegations immediately surface, people were making these kinds of comments, which is Eric Swalwell drops out pretty quickly, gets forced out by the party, Graham Platner, we'll see what happens. But essentially being forced out by the party pretty quickly. Republican sign does not happen as often. What is going on? What do you make of that, Gretchen? Why is that, Is it, is it just one side is more Machiavellian than the other? Is it that Donald Trump has gotten away with so much from the Access Hollywood tape and on Eugene Carroll and Epstein files and so on that they have learned just circle the wagons and don't, don't do anything?
- [33:03]
Gretchen Carlson
Well, Gonzalez did have to resign, remember, along the same timeline as Swalwell, and he was.
- [33:08]
Jim Acosta
That's true. Okay.
- [33:10]
Gretchen Carlson
Yeah. So I just want to make sure that I bring that up. Although he didn't go willingly. I mean, my goodness, the woman set herself on fire after she had a relationship with him and he was in the dominant position there because that was a bad case. It was a bad case. But he, he finally, I think the Swalwell situation made him finally have to say bye bye as well. What I would say is that Trump hopefully is an enigma. Trump is hopefully not going to be the future of candidates that do get away with everything under the sun. I think that's true. So I don't, I think Trump is such a dominant force in our society right now, and people are so upset at the stuff he does get away with that it makes it feel like it filters down to every Republican. I'm Pretty sure, Julie. And I don't know if you agree with me on this, but I think you do that if, if there was a case about a Republican like Swalwell or if there was, you know, a case about a senatorial candidate, well, I guess we could look at Ken Paxton. It's not really happening there, but, but he may lose to Talarico, but I would have to think that 10 years post all of our work, that there would be an uproar. But what do you think?
- [34:19]
Julie Raginski
I don't think so, because we have a Secretary of Defense who's been credibly accused of sexual misconduct, sexual assault, and he' confirmed by the United States Senate. We have Secretary of Health and Human Services who's been credibly accused of sexual misconduct. He's been confirmed by the United States Senate. We have a presidential candidate and now President, United States, who's been sexually accused of, of sexual assault and many other things over and over and over, more than two dozen times, including once when he's been an adjudicated sexual assailant. I, I hesitate to say rapist, because God knows, you know, apparently that's, that, that's a bridge too far for him. Although that's what the judge said he did. And so, look, the reality is you have a Republican Party, I think that just doesn't feel that it's answerable to women. And it's upsetting for me that there are women out there who continue to vote against their own interests. That's a whole separate, that's a whole separate subject. So I don't know that I agree with you on this. I mean, as you said, Ken Paxton's in London right now with his, with his other women. I guess he should be campaigning somewhere in Dallas, but he's in London or living his best life. So I, I, I don't know. I, I do know this. I think Trump is sui generous. And I think the reason that they can't throw somebody like a Paxton under the bus on this or a Hexa or a Kennedy or anybody else is because if they do that, it underscores that they find something wrong with this, which would lead them to, which would lead reporters like you, Jim, to say, well, wait a second. If Hexath is not acceptable to you, wise Trump, so, therefore, so therefore all of it has to be acceptable so that he does not become unacceptable once he's gone. I don't know if that's going to continue. I think Trump is a, again, a sui generous phenomenon in the Republican Party and hopefully in Two years. Although I have my doubts he will finally be gone, either because, you know, he'll be off, shuffled off his mortal coil, or because for whatever reason he decides he's going to leave the White House. I'm skeptical about that. But once he's gone, I hope the Republican Party comes to its census. About these issues. We have done a lot of work and I do want to say a lot of Republicans have supported us on this. We would not have passed the legislation that we did if Republicans did not support us on this issue. Ironically, the same Republicans that defend Trump on these issues also were at the forefront of helping us with our laws, which is a weird, incongruous, kind of mental gymnastics thing, I think, to play it is.
- [36:45]
Gretchen Carlson
And maybe I'm looking at this more through rose colored glasses because I always, Jim, want to make sure that we're not shitting on the movement, you know, because we have done so much work and quite honestly, we wouldn't be in this place talking about Platner or anyone else had it not been for the movement. We wouldn't be talking about the Epstein survivors. This is all positive because people actually believe women now. And you know, when you even look, we've made a massive progress. I mean, we've passed two federal laws, we have a third one in the works. We've passed state NDA bans. Like, we are pounding the pavement on a daily basis. I always say we wake up with blinders on and the glass is half full. We gotta look at every day like that. So I'm not naive enough to think that there aren't hiccups along the way. And Trump and his cadre of people are big hiccups, but when they're gone. And it's, it's actually exactly how the workplace works. Like, if you have somebody at the top who's a harasser or an assaulter, they hire people just like them, so it makes sense. But once they're gone, I, I really hope that it will be an enigma.
- [37:53]
Jim Acosta
And I will say that I think that the system, our judicial system, sucks though, still in many ways. I mean, you pass laws, but like, for example, with the E. Jean Carroll case, how many times has Donald Trump been told to pay her money?
- [38:04]
Gretchen Carlson
I know.
- [38:05]
Jim Acosta
And he still plays games.
- [38:06]
Julie Raginski
Yeah.
- [38:07]
Jim Acosta
And I guess, you know, you could just. In Donald Trump's case, the court system is like to infinity and beyond. You can just keep filing, filing after another and delay the inevitable and play games and try to wear people down and make them miserable and exhaust them, and it and, and I just, I do think that we do need some, some justice system, some legal system reforms and tort reform, some, some lawsuit reforms in this country where you can't do what he has done to Eugene Carroll. I just think that maybe there needs to be a law passed with that. Like, when it's done, it's done. You got to pay.
- [38:41]
Julie Raginski
Yeah. I think Trump also understands that there's no penalty to him. Not like, what are they going to do, put him in prison? Like, they're not going to do that. And he knows that.
- [38:48]
Jim Acosta
Even took his money and put it in like a, like a bank account, right?
- [38:51]
Gretchen Carlson
Yeah.
- [38:52]
Julie Raginski
I mean, but I think that, I think that's the impunity that he operates under, and that's thanks to our friends at the Supreme Court and Justice Roberts, specifically Chief Justice Roberts, because they have effectively said to him, you have carte blanche to do whatever you want. That's something that the rest of us don't get. I guarantee you that if one of us was told to pay up over and over and over again and we didn't pay up, we would not be sitting here, you know, years and years later, kind of laughing about the whole situation. You know, I don't know whether she'll ever get her money. But look, I, I don't want to speak for her because the money is, of course, very important. But what's more important from the larger movement perspective is that she got justice and she got vindication. And I will say this to echo what Gretchen said when Gretchen Carlson came forward in 2016, and I could be much less modest about her than she is about herself when she came forward in 2016, it created a watershed. Women were not believed until then. It was always a he said, she said situation. She came forward, pave the way for me and others to come forward. By the time the Harvey Weinstein survivors came forward 18 months later, they were believed because of the work that she had done. And I think that's a really important thing to note on this 10th anniversary of Gretchen's coming forward with Roger Ailes. Because all of these things, you know, said I was counseling one of the Swalwell survivors throughout this process. She said to me, she's a very young woman and, you know, was, was a child. Effectively 10 years ago, when Gretchen came forward, she has only known as an adult the fact that if you come forward, it's hard. I'm not suggesting that it's easy, but nobody's going to automatically assume that you're a money grubbing liar. That was not the case 10 years ago. And, and I think to that, to that point, it's all to the good. You know, Rasa, she was believed when she came forward. It's a crime and a shame. And I'll speak as a Democrat that Lindsey Fifield was not believed by Democrats because she's a Republican. I think that's disgusting. I said so at the time. When I came forward against Roger Ailes, he had already been gone and fired and on the verge of death. And yet still people said that I did this to bring down Fox News because I was a Democrat. And this was always a long term ploy by me to bring down the network. That is the stupidest talking point I've ever heard because believe me, fun coming forward. So I urge people on both sides of the aisle, take a breath if somebody's coming forward, especially if they're not. She was not the first. She was not the second. She was not the third five field.
- [41:26]
Jim Acosta
That's right.
- [41:27]
Julie Raginski
Believe women when they tell you what is going on because there is a pattern to this. And this man certainly established a pattern long before these accusations. He said that women who had a drink should blame themselves for getting raped. I mean, how much more does he have to tell you about who he is?
- [41:42]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [41:43]
Gretchen Carlson
Yeah.
- [41:44]
Jim Acosta
Well, Gretchen and Julie, you've both done amazing work. Congrats to both of you. And Gretchen, congrats on 10 years of so many achievements and accomplishments in this area. It's so true what Julia is saying. It really has been a sea change in the workplace. And you know, it's not you just the rules are different and thank God. I'm glad you know, I have a teenage son and when he enters the workforce, it'll be a healthier place because of the path that both of you have paved. So thank you very much. And I will say, just, finally, just before we go, apparently just on the, on the brighter side of things, in the, in the main Senate race, we will not get a Senator McDreamy Patrick Dempsey, apparently. I don't know if you saw this.
- [42:26]
Julie Raginski
I did. Yeah.
- [42:28]
Jim Acosta
He is not. He will not run for the Senate. I didn't even know he's remained. But he came out and said, and I don't have a dreamy picture to show you. But he, apparently he's not right.
- [42:36]
Unknown Reporter/Contributor
So.
- [42:36]
Julie Raginski
Well, Jim, congratulations to you on your big news recently too.
- [42:39]
Jim Acosta
Oh, well, thank you. That's so nice. I appreciate it.
- [42:43]
Gretchen Carlson
Thanks for having us.
- [42:43]
Julie Raginski
Thanks for having us, Jim.
- [42:45]
Gretchen Carlson
Yeah, appreciate it.
- [42:46]
Jim Acosta
Thanks, ladies. Good to see you.
- [42:47]
Julie Raginski
Take care.
- [42:48]
Jim Acosta
Good to see you. Thanks so much. And you know the other big news that has been happening here in Washington, not big news, but we have seen and, and perhaps it has been a slight fixation of mine. I, I will concede to you this, all of Trump's vanity projects around Washington, D.C. the Reflecting Pool, tearing down the White House, the crazy arch that he wants to build, this giant Disney World like arch that he wants to build over by Arlington National Cemetery that the veterans don't want. Apparently he took a look at the columns outside the White House one day and said that he would like to do something about the columns outside the. He's just doing, he's just doing random stuff. It's just, it's, as I've been saying, it's been a Saddam Hussein extreme makeover of the White House. And I went, and I went down to take a look at what they've been doing today. They dropped this giant drape or tarp over the front, the north side of the White House, I guess to conceal some of the work that they're doing. And here's, I did a quick report on this, so take a look out. Well, here we go again. Donald Trump making more changes over here at the White House. Earlier in the day, they lowered this giant tarp over the North Portico of the White House, indicating that they're about to start to make some physical changes to these columns on the North Portico, making them more ornate. This is what Trump has been posting about on his Truth Social account. And of course, Donald Trump has been obsessed with making these kinds of changes at the White House. He unilaterally tore down the East Wing. He's been putting gold stuff up everywhere. And besides the fact that, that this is a problem in that it's not his White House, he doesn't own it. There's also another question. Why isn't he focused on the big things like ending the war with Iran or making prices more affordable for people or even releasing the Epstein files? Yeah, yeah, what that guy said, exactly. And I should say that the White House, I guess, is putting out this statement. They're saying that, oh, this is just, these are just some maintenance issues that were taken care of with the columns and that there are some cracks and some things that we need to fix. I guess if they hadn't torn down the east wing of the White House unilaterally without checking in with anybody after Donald Trump said that his, his ballroom project would not touch the east wing of the White House, we, we might put some stock in anything that they have to say, but because they literally lie about everything. And because, you know, for example, you know, he says that this new Air Force One is going to be great that he got from the Qataris and he can't even fly at home because it's a Secret Service security nightmare. Maybe we might believe anything that they have to say at this point. But of course, we, and I do think we have a little bit of sound. I think Trump was asked about, speaking of this Air Force One thing. He was asked about this. I don't know if you guys saw
- [45:42]
this security concern that caused us to change planes. What was the security concern that caused us to change planes?
- [45:49]
Unknown Reporter/Contributor
We sent this one in so that the Air Force base here, it was in the same exact line. So you saw, did you see the picture with.
- [45:56]
Julie Raginski
We did, we did.
- [45:57]
Unknown Reporter/Contributor
Hundreds of pictures. Hundreds of people. Let me see the tire. You can't see it too well, but there are hundreds of people out there, so they want to see. So they came a little bit early and we switched plans.
- [46:08]
Jim Acosta
You're saying there wasn't a security concern?
- [46:10]
Unknown Reporter/Contributor
No, no.
- [46:11]
Julie Raginski
Why would there any other issue?
- [46:12]
Jim Acosta
No, no issue.
- [46:13]
Unknown Reporter/Contributor
No, no. Except. Except we sent it a little early. Same line going back. We sent it a little bit early so that we could let them see the base. The whole base came out and saw the plane and then we landed. Do you think, do you know why they had those window blind?
- [46:30]
Jim Acosta
Well, yeah, all the time, lies to the press. No, no surprise there. But you know, this, this is according to the Associated Press, the travel switch. They switched these planes. And you heard the reporter there, on every Air Force, they had to get on a different plane. So even the reporters do. They're getting off one plane, they're getting another plane. The travel switch raised fresh security concerns and questions about the new aircraft that the US spent $400 million to retrofit. Yes, The American taxpayers, it wasn't, as we were saying earlier with Brian Tyler Cohen, the American taxpayers did not just get a free gift here from the Qataris in the form of this plane that was given to Donald Trump that he, by the way, he's going to keep after he's done being president. So he says we had to pay $400 billion to retrofit. Apparently, that is not enough for him to fly home and be safe and have all the people in the press on the plane. Fly home and be safe. I guess they're going to have to put more security upgrades into this plane. But this is according to the Associated Press images of the Qatari gifted jet captured since its unveiling show it is not equipped with some of the same missile detection and countermeasure systems as the older jets. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we cannot have Air Force One getting blown out of the sky while, by the way, we're in the middle of a war with Iran and we're over in that part of the world. Trump was just leaving Turkey on his way home for all of this. And so, you know, again, this is another one of these situations where he has a vanity project getting a new Air Force One from the Qataris and it turns into a giant taxpayer funded boondoggle and fiasco on the part of Donald Trump and his administration. And he just flat out, I just, you know, I know he lies all the time and I know we get exhausted by them, but doggone it, I, I'm one of those old fashioned meat and potatoes, bread and butter kind of reporter. I feel like we ought to be able to call out the lies every time he tells them. And there again was another lie, just a flat out lie to the press on, on Air Force One. You had to take a different Air Force One home because the Qatari jet is not safe and secure and it's a Secret Service security nightmare. So all of that, on top of everything else that is going on in the world. I want to bring up one final thing. I don't know if we got the image here. Yes, we do. We have it. We have a new daily newsletter. I just want to make sure everybody is up to speed on this. We have a new daily newsletter. It is up on Substack. It is actually up on YouTube. We got that right, guys. We actually put this up on YouTube as well. Our, our buddy Tommy Christopher, you saw him on earlier this week when we did the Hunter Biden interview. Tommy and I are working on this new newsletter. We think of it as a bit of a reflection of the show that we do here every day at 4 o' clock where, you know, we give you the news, but we also give you some hot takes. And a little bit, a little bit of this is tongue in cheek at the same time. So make sure if you haven't signed up for it yet, sign up for our new daily newsletter. It's called the Jim Acosta Morning Memo. I was trying to be humble and not put my name on it, but Tommy said, no, no, you have to put your name on it, but it's Jim Acosta Morning Memo or jam. So it's your daily jam as you're getting your day started. And it's a lot of fun. This morning we were busting on JD Vance and Marsha Blackburn. And anyway, if you got to have this in your inbox every morning, it's a great way to start the day. I want to thank Brian Tyler Cohen once again. His book is coming out called the Day After. I'll be with him at a book event in Washington, D.C. next Tuesday. Come see Brian and I at 6th and I. It's a venue where you can watch these kinds of book talks. Brian and I will be there talking about his new book. And I also want to thank Julie Raginski and Gretchen Carlson with Lift Our Voices. They have done terrific work and really appreciate them coming on the program as well. And as always, thank you for all you do for supporting independent media. This has been a terrific week for the Jim Acosta Show. We've seen a lot of interest, a lot of people coming over and giving us their support. When you like, you share, you subscribe, all of that supports the show, supports the work that we do every day, whether it's the newsletter, putting the show on every day, doing things like our 12 hours of Kennedy center coverage, all of the things that we do. It's been a busy year for us. Your support means the world and makes this possible each and every day. So thank you for that, so, so much. But in the meantime, still reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. I'll see you next time, guys. With so much in the news these days, it's hard to figure out where to turn. Take for example, all of Trump's vanity projects, the reflecting pool and so on. You go to Fox News, you're going to hear about it a certain way, obviously. And if you go to a place like the Guardian, they'll report it a certain way. That's why I'm using this new news site called Ground News more and more every day. Not only do they tell you maybe the direction that particular news outlet is coming from, they will tell you the ownership of that news outlet. They will also offer factuality ratings on some of the stories that you're looking at. So you want to check this out. It's called Ground News. And if you go to groundnews.com acosta right now, you will get 40% off the unlimited access Vantage plan and unlock worldwide perspectives on the stories that are shaping our world. It's called Ground News. You want to check it out? It's something I'm using more and more every day.