Don Lemon on CBS in Distress and Ezra Levin on The Fight for Voting Rights in America

Summary

The Jim Acosta Show
Episode: Don Lemon on CBS in Distress and Ezra Levin on The Fight for Voting Rights in America
Air Date: May 15, 2026
Host: Jim Acosta
Guests: Don Lemon (journalist), Ezra Levin (Indivisible co-founder)

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EPISODE OVERVIEW

This episode tackles two urgent themes: the ongoing attacks on a free press and institutional journalism under Donald Trump’s presidency, and the escalating battle for voting rights across America, especially in the South. In an energetic conversation with Don Lemon, Acosta unpacks recent media blunders and political pressures—most notably the chaos at CBS News and the forced exit of Stephen Colbert from The Late Show. Later, Acosta is joined by activist Ezra Levin to discuss the latest assaults on voting rights, the powerful organizing response, and the importance of pushing back against cynicism and authoritarianism.

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KEY SEGMENTS & DISCUSSION POINTS

1. Donald Trump’s Attacks on the Press

Timestamps: 00:00–06:17

• Trump Accuses NYT Reporter of “Treasonous Journalism”
  • Trump labels David Sanger’s reporting on the Iran war as “treasonous” (01:41), prompting outrage from both Acosta and Lemon.
    • Don Lemon: “Someone needs to explain to Donald Trump the definition of treason. And he would be closer to that definition than Mr. Sanger…” (00:40)
  • Discussion of the pattern: When Trump can’t answer tough questions, he attacks the media personally.
    • Acosta: “You know, Don, when he’s doing that, it’s because he knows he’s fucked.” (02:36)
    • Lemon: “Every time you don’t have a good answer to something is not permission for you to insult a reporter.” (05:07)
• Concerns About Journalist Solidarity
  • Acosta laments the lack of support among journalists when colleagues are attacked.
    • “The other reporters aren’t really taking up for… their colleagues. At the very least, they should do what you just said…” (05:42)

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2. CBS News in Distress & The Colbert Fiasco

Timestamps: 06:17–18:14; 33:02–40:06

• CBS’ Bureaucratic Blunder in China
  • CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil is forced to cover Trump’s China trip from Taiwan due to visa mishaps under Barry Weiss’s leadership.
    • Lemon: “For CBS not to know that with their main anchor… is just embarrassing. And I cannot believe that they have this woman in that position when the ratings are cratering.” (09:13)
  • Satirical take from The Late Show mocks CBS for “reporting live from the wrong China” (07:45).
• Media’s Shift Right & Leadership Concerns
  • Lemon and Acosta critique CBS and CNN pushing out experienced journalists to curry favor with Trump and MAGA audiences.
    • Lemon: “They want to get rid of those people because they want a right wing perspective, because they’re trying to cozy up to Donald Trump. It makes no sense.” (09:29)
    • Acosta: “You can do that until the cows come home. It’s not going to make the viewers tune in… All these great people at CBS News who are there, they’re not going to want to do it.” (12:48)
• Stephen Colbert’s Forced Farewell
  • Under pressure from Trump’s FCC, CBS ends The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
    • Acosta: “We live in a country… where the president of the United States and his media henchman… can force a late night comedian off of the public airwaves… because Donald Trump is too thin-skinned to take a joke.” (37:32)
  • Colbert and Letterman’s on-air destruction of CBS property becomes a “going out in style” moment (38:09–39:00).
    • Acosta: “[Stephen Colbert] was a terrific host… bittersweet to see Colbert going out the way he’s going out, doing it his way and, and dishing it out to cbs.” (40:06)

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3. Cultural References and Generational Divide

Timestamps: 16:47–18:14

• Humorous exchange about cultural references that younger colleagues don’t get, such as “Schoolhouse Rock” and “Cheers,” highlighting generational changes in newsroom culture.

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4. Voting Rights Under Assault: Ezra Levin Interview

Timestamps: 18:18–32:48

• Overview of New Voting Restrictions
  • Outlines legislative and judicial efforts to roll back voting rights, particularly targeting minority voters in the South. Specific mention of Supreme Court decisions and aggressive redistricting (“dummy-mandering”).
• Mobilizing for a Day of Action
  • Thousands are expected at Montgomery, Alabama, organized in large part by Black Voters Matter and allied groups.
    • Ezra Levin: “…if you are in spitting distance… you should come on out at the State Capitol at 1pm…” (19:39)
• Historical Context and Message of Hope
  • Levin draws parallels to the 1960s civil rights movement, quoting John Lewis as inspiration.
    • “Our representative democracy is 61 years old. That’s when the Voting Rights act was passed. That’s when we actually offered voting rights to all Americans…” (22:20)
  • Asserts attacks on democracy stem from weakness, not strength—encourages organizing, not despair.
    • “These attacks on democracy do not come from a place of strength. They are anxious, they are worried. They understand they’re in the minority…” (24:49)
  • Message to listeners: “This is not just an attack on brown and black power. This is an attack on our democracy… Link arms with those who are directly under threat.” (23:15)
• Potential for Political Blowback
  • Dummy-mandering could swing competitive districts:
    • Acosta: “They may have dummy mandered it to a point where it’s slightly pink and your vote may actually make a difference.” (25:30)
• Trump’s Corruption and “Weaponization Fund”
  • Discussion of Trump’s proposal for a “$1.7 billion weaponization fund” as a slush fund for January 6th criminals.
    • Acosta: “This is sort of like Donald Trump paying for his own goon squad.” (28:59)
    • Levin: “Corruption is deeply unpopular and crosses ideological lines. This isn’t left versus right… It turns out we don’t want a guy with a golden statue building $1 billion Golden Ballroom while the rest of us have to pay more…” (29:08)
• Rejecting “Doomerism” and Reclaiming Patriotism
  • Acosta debuts his “Ruthless Patriots” shirt to reclaim patriotic language from the far right.
    • “No, if you’re trying to take voting rights away from people, if you’re trying to steal democracy, you are the opposite of patriots.” (24:06)
  • Levin: “Our enemy is cynicism and nihilism and fatalism… People need to understand that this is not a foregone conclusion, that actually if you organize, you can have power and if you fight back, we will win.” (31:16)

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5. News Satire, Mockery, and the State of American Media

Timestamps: 32:48–40:06

• Cash Patel’s “VIP Snorkeling Excursion”
  • Reports on FBI Director Cash Patel’s controversial snorkeling trip at Pearl Harbor. Acosta mocks the absurdity, highlighting the atmosphere of unchecked entitlement among Trump’s senior officials.
    • “Who does that? Who goes snorkeling around Pearl Harbor? And when you’re the FBI director, it’s just the goofiest, nuttiest stuff.” (39:00)
• Final Reflections on Media Decline
  • Acosta laments the loss of journalistic rigor and independence at American news networks, referencing the inability to cover major global summits and the forced exit of journalists and comedians.
    • “I’m old enough to remember… when my old anchor man, Dan Rather… was covering Tiananmen Square. You know, CBS News had the wherewithal… to get Dan Rather, the anchor… into China… And now… can’t even get to a damn Trump-Xi Jinping meeting.” (34:28)
  • "If there’s a time to be telling jokes about the people in power, it would be now." (37:32)
• Behind-the-Scenes Moment
  • Acosta closes with a behind-the-scenes memory of his appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

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NOTABLE QUOTES (with Timestamps & Attribution)

• Don Lemon

  • “Someone needs to explain to Donald Trump the definition of treason. And he would be closer to that definition than Mr. Sanger…” (00:40)
  • “Every time you don’t have a good answer to something is not permission for you to insult a reporter.” (05:07)
  • “They… want a right wing perspective, because they’re trying to cozy up to Donald Trump. It makes no sense. They are ruining their journalistic brand.” (09:29)
  • On CBS: “For CBS not to know that with their main anchor… is just embarrassing. And I cannot believe that they have this woman in that position when the ratings are cratering.” (09:13)

• Jim Acosta

  • “You know, Don, when he’s doing that, it’s because he knows he’s fucked.” (02:36)
  • “The other reporters aren’t really taking up for… their colleagues. At the very least, they should do what you just said…” (05:42)
  • “You can do that until the cows come home. It’s not going to make the viewers tune in... All these great people at CBS News who are there, they’re not going to want to do it.” (12:48)
  • “No, if you’re trying to take voting rights away from people, if you’re trying to steal democracy, you are the opposite of patriots.” (24:06)
  • "We live in a country… where the president of the United States and his media henchman… can force a late night comedian off of the public airwaves… because Donald Trump is too thin-skinned to take a joke." (37:32)

• Ezra Levin

  • “There is a deep history of folks coming down to the former Confederate states to fight for voting rights… I want to be clear, I’m the least of this… gotta give a shout-out to Black Voters Matter and many of the black-led voting rights groups…” (19:34)
  • “Our representative democracy is 61 years old. That’s when the Voting Rights Act was passed… What the Republican and right wing power structure has done is stripped away those rights systematically for the last several decades. That’s what they’ve been doing.” (22:20)
  • “These attacks on democracy do not come from a place of strength. They are anxious, they are worried. They understand they’re in the minority and they think they can bully us into submission. No, there are more pro-democracy Americans than there were right wing, white nationalist Americans.” (24:49)
  • “Corruption is deeply unpopular and crosses ideological lines. This isn’t left versus right… It turns out we don’t want a guy with a golden statue building $1 billion Golden Ballroom while the rest of us have to pay more…” (29:08)
  • “Our enemy is cynicism and nihilism and fatalism… People need to understand that this is not a foregone conclusion, that actually if you organize, you can have power and if you fight back, we will win.” (31:16)

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FINAL TAKEAWAYS

• Media Under Pressure:
  The press is facing unprecedented attacks and institutional changes that threaten journalistic independence—from White House intimidation to right-wing takeovers of storied news organizations.

• Voting Rights & Organizing:
  The fight for voting rights is both historical and ongoing, requiring resilience, activism, and cross-racial solidarity to protect American democracy.

• Call to Action & Hope:
  Both guests underscore that hope is not naïve; it is necessary. Organizing, showing up, and refusing cynicism are the keys to overcoming authoritarian erosions of democratic institutions.

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For more information on voting rights actions or to support independent journalism, visit jimacosta.substack.com.

Transcript

[A]

Talk. All right. Welcome to the Jim Acosta show. It's another day that ends in y and Donald Trump's attacks on the free press in America. Today, he accused a New York Times reporter of treasonous journalism, slamming the Times reporter David Sanger as a, quote, fake guy because he has chronicled how the war in Iran is not going as well as he has been saying. Let's discuss with my old pal Don Lemon, who's on the road. Don, how you doing?

[B]

I'm doing very well, Jim. And it's an honor to be back on with you, buddy.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

I'm so glad we're talking about that. I saw that this morning.

[C]

It's crazy.

[B]

I was incensed when I saw. And someone needs to explain to Donald Trump the definition of treason. And he would be closer to that definition than Mr. Sanger, especially with an unauthorized war and selling out the United States and American citizens so much. Not just over the past almost two years, a year and a half or whatever it's been, but even 10 years ago when he was put in office the first time. Is it, it's just outrageous, David. I do like that he fought back a little bit. He really.

[A]

Yes, I agree. And David Sanger, I mean, he's top notch. And if David Sanger says something is true, I believe him over Donald Trump every day of the week. No question about it.

[B]

But you heard the question, right? He said to Donald Trump, basically, you didn't get what you wanted to accomplish. You haven't gotten what you wanted to accomplish politically. Which is true.

[A]

It's true. Yeah. We have the clip. Let's play it. We'll play it. Let's do it.

[B]

We got it.

[A]

Let's play it.

[D]

You did it for 38 days. No, we did. And you did not get the political changes in Iran. Total military victory. Guys like you write incorrectly, you're a fake guy. And guys like you write about incorrectly. We had a total military victory. We knocked out their entire Navy, we knocked out their entire Air Force. We knocked out all of their anti aircraft weaponry. We knocked out all of their radar. We knocked out all of their leaders, number one. And then we knocked out all of their leaders and the second division and we knocked out numerous of their leaders in the third division. And they're very confused. We've had a total victory, except by people like you that don't write the truth. You know, you should write. I actually think it's sort of treasonous what you write. But you and the New York Times, cnn, I would say, are the worst.

[A]

You Know, Don, when he's doing that, it's because he knows He's. He's fucked.

[B]

Yeah, he knows that. He, he knows this. He knows that. Sanger's right. Yeah. And. And the question wasn't about a military victory. That wasn't what the question was about. He never, he actually said that he. David. Right, David Sanger. He said, but you didn't get what you accomplished politically. And then he goes, so we have a total military thing. And he goes, but not politically. And then he goes on to call him a fake person or a bad person, and it's treasonous because he doesn't have an answer for it. Because what David is saying is absolutely right and it's a perfectly legitimate question which most, I believe, leaders would answer by saying, no, we haven't gotten exactly what we wanted yet from them, but we're on the way or we're making progress or whatever it is. There's no need to insult the reporter. He's been doing that a lot lately, and something's going on. It's getting to him, or something's happening in his brain where he can't control his impulses because he, he did that to two women reporters earlier in the week. Very similar thing. And then to last week to what's her name from ABC News, Rachel Scott. Rachel Scott. I, I just, I don't. I don't really get how they allow him to get away with that. And I would have said, as he kept going on and on and on, Jim, and I know you probably would have done it, too. I would have kept saying, when he was going through all that, I had to say, but, sir, is the Strait of Hormuz open? Is the Strait open? When are we going to open the Strait of Hormuz? I understand that you bombing. But you keep saying you bombed them, but they haven't moved. They still have the political leverage. And the one thing that you want out of this has not happened. So it doesn't matter if we blow them to smithereens and we're not getting what you want out of this. That means that you have not gotten anything politically out of this. The Strait of Hormuz was open before you did this. I'm sorry. It just drives me crazy.

[A]

No, it's true. It's absolutely true. And the Times has been reporting, David's been reporting that they. We haven't even diminished their military capabilities to the extent that they've been claiming. It's all been. And, and the Iranians are now going to be able to hang in there longer than what we've all expected. And, you know, this is just par for the course. And he starts screaming. He's. I think he's. I think you're right about this, Don. I think he's cracking. And the way he's lashing out about every week now. He's lashing just about every day. Lashing out, lashing out every day.

[B]

I forget. What did he say? You're.

[C]

He's.

[B]

Look, he's a horrible person. He's. He did it to you, Jim. You know, you know the thing.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And sometimes you pick your moments, but sometimes you just have to put people in their place. Like, someone needs to say, you don't have to, like, insult me personally. Like, every time you don't have a good answer to something is not permission for you to insult a reporter. I'm here doing my job. This is my job to ask you questions. Some of them you may not like. But can you please just be a decent human being and answer the question and stop insulting people with ad hominem attacks? He would probably lose his mind. Maybe the reporter would lose their jobs in this environment.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

You work for cbs.

[A]

Well, in which case they would just kiss his ass. But, I mean, that's the thing I've been. I've been pissed off about, Don, is that the other reporters aren't really taking up for. For their colleagues. And at the very least, they should do what you just said, which is. Well, you didn't answer David's question. David's question was, you know, you haven't taken out the regime. They're still in charge of the Strait of Hormuz. You know, what's going on here. You said that you were going to do it by eight weeks. It's, you know, what's happening. It's. You're not even close. You know, I just think that that's it. But you mentioned cbs. We need to talk about this because Trump is coming back from China.

[B]

I gave you a transition, Jim. I don't know if you know that.

[D]

I was.

[A]

That was a nice segue in. I know. It's like we're the captain and Tenille here, it's Sunny and Cher here. We're just playing off each, riffing off each other. But no cbs. You know, Trump got to China, but CBS could not get to China. I don't know if you saw this, but Tony Decouple, the anchor of the CBS Evening News, I guess CBS did not because Barry Weiss has only run a website up until this point. She didn't understand that you have to get visas and all of this stuff, you know, fill out all these required, you know, documents to get your anchor and his team into the country. And they didn't do that. So Tony had to broadcast from Taiwan. And was it an hour away, something like that? Yeah, he was, he was saying, well we're 100 miles off the coast or he said something like that. He's not in the. Anyway, the Late show did a whole late show that, you know they're being kicked off the air because of Donald Trump. They did a funny send up on this. We should play a little bit of it. Hopefully Paramount doesn't get mad at us. China.

[B]

To cover the summit, CBS News was

[A]

forced to send Tony De Coppel to Taiwan after. After failing to get a Chinese visa in time for the president's visit, causing some insiders to call it very sloppy. Right now I'm just about 100 miles off the coast of mainland China. But that's not the only challenge that Tony faced. It's the CBS Evening News with Tony decouple reporting live from the wrong China

[B]

from the wrong.

[A]

We are live from.

[D]

There it is.

[A]

Tony. What's that on your head, pumpkin? Here comes the head of CBS News, Barry Weiss to help. She's hitting his head with a tiny mallet. Tony, what's happening there? Don, I, I don't care if Paramount, you know, gets pissed at us for

[B]

putting this on demonetizes.

[A]

I, I know they're gonna me somehow in this but that is hilarious.

[B]

I mean that is hilarious. I love Stephen. Stephen is done. He's just going for it. And you know what?

[A]

I love it.

[B]

Blame him. What is it? What does he have to lose? Which was the dumbest thing that they ever did was. You know what I mean? You don't do what you did. You don't treat someone especially like Stephen Colbert that because you know, he's got great writers, he's cunning, he's. You're going to get it. But it's kind of. It's true. Jim, we work. I worked for CNN for about almost two decades. You were there for. Yeah, probably just as long.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

There are people who do that. Jim, we're sending you to China. Such and such and such and such has is getting your visa, blah blah blah. Is going to be your minder. If you're in a war zone, you may, you may need to have someone on the ground that gives you cash. You need a someone, an escort to get this point to this point. Like all of that stuff is done by Someone by people who know what they're doing and have been and had done this before.

[A]

Right.

[B]

For CBS not to know that with their main anchor, this is the face of the network, is just embarrassing. And I cannot believe that they have this woman in that position when the ratings are cratering.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

People are leaving the networks in droves. The network in droves. The people they should be coddling, kissing up to, supporting are people like Sharon Alphonse and Anderson Cooper and people who have been in war zones and people who have credibility yet. And so they want to get rid of those people because they want a right wing perspective, because they're trying to cozy up to Donald Trump. It makes no sense. They are ruining their journalistic brand. And that rubs off on, that's going to rub off on the network itself, even their entertainment division because they get the credibility from their news division and the, all the entertainment stuff. Okay, that's, that's another thing. But they should be in love with all of the, the journalists who are there and have been doing it for years. And instead of working with them, they are either firing them or marginalizing them. And so I think, you know, I think CBS is going to go the way of headline news pretty soon if they continue with this.

[A]

I tend to agree with you. And I mean, how low can the ratings go? I mean, that's the question right now for Barry Weiss. I mean, she, you know, you can run a website, you can run a right wing website, A lot of people do that. But running a news division like CBS News, the House of Cronkite, that's a very different thing. And so Don, I mean, if they were, if some crazy thing were to happen and they were to come to you and say, don, we want you to be the anchor now, would you do it? Would you go to CBS right now?

[B]

If I could do, if I could do it without having to be the right wing guy, yeah. And I, and you know, Tony Decouple, God love him, he's a nice guy. This is no criticism of him.

[A]

True.

[B]

But I, considering the situation, what happened with Tony Decouple, I would say, do you have everything in place if I, let's just say I accepted this job, I would say, number one, I'm not going to kowtow. I'm not going to bend a knee to the White House. Number two, I'm going to hold people accountable, especially the people in power. Number three, I'm not going to be on pins and needles for everything that comes out of my mouth or me worrying about some False balance or false equivalence. And having to invite someone on who is going to lie to me and just get a sound bite from the other side when there is no other side. And so yes, under those conditions, I would do it. I don't think they would hire me under those conditions. And what, what did I want to say? I wanted to say something to you about, about working. Oh, and look, I don't, I know Barry Weiss just from coming on my show. I don't have anything against Barry Weiss.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I just think that she's unqualified for the job much the way Chris Lick was unqualified to run cnn. And we saw what happened to him. Bad decisions. He put me in a bad place. I should have never been on mornings. Look, we were killing it at night on cnn, as you were must see tv. And they went, oh, we're gonna do all this whole thing. And then, you know, they're like, well, let's. He doesn't want to lie to the public, Jim, as you know. He doesn't want to not challenge Republicans, Jim, as you know, let's figure out a way to get rid of him. And so they're, they're gonna, look, it's the same thing. The woman is not qualified to run that network. No.

[A]

And there's.

[B]

Everyone who is qualified to run that network is not going to do what the Ellisons want. And that is just to allow right wing MAGA people to run the joint.

[A]

And that's exactly what they want. And it doesn't make any sense because you can do that until the cows come home. It's not going to, it's not going to make the viewers tune in. The people who want to watch that kind of shit watch Fox where they watch Newsmax. They look at conservative media. They're not going to all of a sudden say, oh, they're there's, they're doing it the way I want to hear it. Let me turn it over to cbs. It's incredibly hard to change viewer habits like that. And you're just going to piss off the people who are there. All these great people at CBS News who are there, they're not going to want to do it just like at cnn. If they try to take over cnn, I guess they're going to take over cnn, Don. And you know, the late Ted Turner, I mean, my God, the way he would have responded to all this, he would have been mortified. But I assume they're going to try to do this to Cena. They've already started to do it at cnn, I think they'll, they'll keep, they'll try to do the whole thing the way they've done it at cbs.

[B]

The one thing that may see, that may save CNN and somewhat is that maybe they understand just how incompetent Barry Weiss is or unqualified she is to run a news organization. So they won't have her run cnn. So that may save them a little bit. And they're gonna. In order for CNN to continue to go to, to stay on the air, they're going to need institutional knowledge from people who have been working there for a while. So that may save them for a little bit of. Maybe they will have learned their lessons. But not only are you going to turn off the people who work there, Jim, as you know, how many different management teams did we go through at cnn? Walter Isaacson tried to hire me. I didn't go. Went to NBC. Then I came back and it was

[A]

John Klein at that. Yeah.

[B]

And then it was. I don't know. I don't think Janelle ran the network at one point, but it's like, it's a whole bunch of iterations of people, you know, competent enough like him. John Klein's a nice enough guy, but every time. How many times that we hear, yeah, we've got to start. Move to the right. Move to. It never works. They always like, why.

[A]

They always want to do it, and it doesn't work.

[B]

They always want to do it. It doesn't work because those people are never going to watch it. You're going to piss off your core audience, and they're going to go, I don't know what I'm watching. Do you know how many people. I'm sure you do, as a matter of fact, I shouldn't ask that question every day. Who tell me, I don't watch CNN anymore. I'm like, why? Like, I don't know what happened to them.

[A]

I know. I hear it all the time. I'm like, I hear it all the time. I know. And, and I, that's not to brag. It's just what I hear. You know, I'm at the airport. Oh, I miss seeing you. You know, I'm missing you. And Don. They'll mention Don to me many times. Don, and, and people miss the way CNN used to be when we were calling them out on January 6th, when we were calling out Trump. And now Trump's got a goddamn golden statue to himself at the Doral Golf Course. Why are you. Why are these people kissing up to him? You know, he put it on Truth Social. He's so proud of this golden statue at the Doral Golf Course. I mean, at this point, what.

[C]

He's.

[A]

He's like a. He's like a crazy Kim Jong Un guy now. He's just. He's lost it. He's just goofy. Painting the reflecting pool, building an arch, blowing up the. The White House.

[B]

The fact that you. The fact that you had to say the crazy part in front because he upped Kim Jong un.

[A]

No, that's. I said this the other day. I think he's crazier than Kim Jong Un now. I think Kim Jong un knows his place. He knows what lane he's in. You know, Trump does not. You know, he thinks. He thinks he's in command somehow when he's not. It's just nuts.

[B]

And you. You would think that the evangelical people who support Donald Trump would have something to say about a golden cap or a golden statue or.

[D]

Right.

[B]

The first. The first commandment, which is, thou shalt not have no other. I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other God or Lord before me. Yeah, I think the evangelicals would. Would have something to say about that, man.

[A]

Well, Don, thanks for coming on the show from the road. I love this on the road with Don Lemon. This should be a whole thing. Although I think that's. That's a CBS thing I just stole. But anyway, we'll call it something else.

[B]

Don Curalt. It was Charles. Charles.

[A]

That's what it.

[B]

Charles Carl John Curl. That's how old we are that we can remember that it was good stuff. I gotta ask you. Yeah. I gotta ask you something before we go. So we work in this medium. It's not really a new medium now. I think it's just like the current. This is what's happening. And it's a lot of young people who work in this medium. And so I have these, like, crazy dad joke or cultural references, and I'll. I'll say something and laugh. And then people are looking at me like, what are you talking about? Like, I mentioned Schoolhouse Rock. I said, we need Schoolhouse Yes. I'm just a Bill. Yes. I'm only a Bill. And the people on my team are like, what are you talking about?

[A]

It's so true. This happens to me all the time. I don. We're getting so old that I don't. Sometimes Star wars references don't work on these younger Gen Z kids. They're like, what's that? I didn't. I didn't watch that. I'm like, you didn't watch Star Wars. I know.

[B]

It's.

[A]

It's a sorry state of affairs, man. It's. It's so true.

[B]

President Bush, who is that? What are you talking about? Oh, God.

[A]

I know, I know. And we had great TV shows like Cheers and all that in Cosby show and, you know, like the A Team and, And. And these kids today, they have no idea what we're talking about if we mention any of those things. It's just incredible.

[B]

But what can you do if you say, norm, they have no army? So true.

[A]

Well, Don, thank you so much for coming on, man.

[B]

All right, Jim, I'll see you later.

[A]

Hi, buddy.

[B]

Thank you for having me on.

[A]

Good to see you. Thanks for a couple laughs there. We've had, you know, all this week, I think, a lot of just take it to a more serious direction. We've had some time to. To process and chew on what has been taking place. This. This assault on our democracy that's been taking place all across the country, in particular in the Deep south, where you're seeing Republican legislatures working cahoots with this White House and the Supreme Court. We should mention to roll back the. The voting rights of minority Americans in this country by virtue of this redistricting, you know, cavalcade that we've seen happening all across much of the South. And this weekend, I just want to tell everybody, this weekend there's a very important event happening. Our old friend Ezra Levin with Indivisible. He's organized. He's organizing something that is going to be extremely important. It's a day of action on Saturday for voting rights. And let's bring in Ezra now. There he is. Ezra, great to see you. Sorry, sorry. Don and I were having a little too much fun there, but great to see you.

[C]

I'm jealous. I was jealous. I feel like I should be in a car right now, just going somewhere. I actually, I am heading down to Montgomery to bed, but it's great to be with you, Jim.

[A]

Good to see you. I hope you're flying, because if you're driving, if you're on the road, that's not going to. I don't think that's going to work out.

[C]

But there, look, there are people coming in from all over. We know there are buses coming in from Georgia, from Florida, from. I was talking to one of our organizers coming down from Detroit. I mean, there is a deep history of folks coming down to the former Confederate states to fight for voting rights. And I think you gave me credit for organizing this. I want to be clear I'm the least of this. I'm not the organizer. We're doing our best to show up in solidarity, but got to give a shout out to black Voters Matter and many of the black led voting rights groups that are, that are putting their energy, their organizing capacity to make this big. But in Montgomery tomorrow at the statehouse, if you are in spitting distance, I'm talking to everybody out there, you should come on out at the State Capitol at 1pm there's going to be thousands of people out there showing up in force. I've seen the lineup, I've seen the speakers are going to be there. It's an impressive crew and it's not going to be we win democracy tomorrow. But this is an organizing event. This is where we going to find a spark that leads to a lot of what, what we're going to see over the course of the next several months as we, we build towards the midterms.

[A]

No, I think it's great. I'm seeing at 9am Faith leaders gathering at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the, the famous Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma and then one to five, as you're saying in Montgomery, the national mass rally at the Alabama State Capitol. And then they're going to be actions happening across the country in support of all of this.

[C]

Yep.

[A]

And it's so important, Ezra, because what we've seen over the last week is pretty breathtaking. The Supreme Court decision on Louisiana. You've seen the Tennessee legislature carve up I guess the lone black congressional district in Memphis. Steve Cohen, the congressman in that district, I think today announced he's retiring. He's just not going to fight this anymore. And there's been some talk that maybe this could backfire on the Republicans. It could end up being a dummy mandering where they, where they watered down the Democratic voters and it screws them over and competitive races. But at the same time, this is not good. And you have the U.S. you have the Virginia Supreme Court, excuse me, blocking what the folks in Virginia are trying to do. And yet Texas is allowed to do it. These other states are allowed to do it. That's right.

[C]

Look, let's not mince words here. We're looking at the great grandchildren of the Confederacy, the grandchildren of the Jim Crow south, who are now using their concentrated power in these former Confederate states to systematically strip political power from brown and black people in the South. That is what we're seeing. But I want to make two points about this. One is I'm seeing a fair amount of doomerism out There in online circles that democracy is dead. It's lost. Let's give up. Who do I got on my wall over here? This is, I've got John Lewis on my wall over here. 61 years ago, he was marching across Edmund Pettus Bridge. And I gotta say, if you think the conditions are bad now, there were thousands of organizers in the deep segregationist Jim Crow south who despite those conditions said, well, one foot in front of the other, we're going to organize for what's right. And they organized massive constituency of people in the south and all over the country. And what that won us was a representative democracy. Jim, our country is 250 years old. Our representative democracy is 61 years old. That's when the Voting Rights act was passed. That's when we actually offered voting rights to all Americans and not just some Americans. And what the Republican and right wing power structure has done is stripped away those rights systematically for the last several decades. That's what they've been doing. And you got to hand it, you got to hand it to the Supreme Court, to the right wingers on the Supreme Court. They did it. They did it. They finally, after decades upon decades, they were able to strip away the Voting Rights Act. That does not mean democracy is lost. If you look out across all the gerrymandering that has been done by these Republicans, we're gonna lose somewhere around 10 seats. That's real, that's painful, that's bad. There's more damage that's gonna be done. But we are building a blue wave. We are building a blue wave for November. We are going to win dozens of seats. We are potentially going to win the US Senate as well. But that's not just gonna happen because they've overreached in some places. That's gonna be happen because we organize. So the other thing I wanna tell people is, is if you are watching this, I'm speaking to my, to, to white folks who are watching this now too. This is not just an attack on brown and black power. This is an attack on our democracy. And if you treat this an attack on brown and black power is something that does not affect you, you're going to lose your democracy too. So this is the time to link arms with those who are directly under threat. Treat an attack on one like an attack on all and get to organizing. That's how we win.

[A]

I think that's a great message. It's why I'm wearing this Ruthless Patriots T shirt today. It's a show shirt. We put this out when we did our January 6th town hall. But I'm sort of trying to steal back the language of the MAGA folks in the far right where they think they're the ruthless ones and they're the patriotic ones. No, if you're trying to take voting rights away from people, if you're trying to steal democracy, you are the opposite of patriots. You are the opposite of good Americans, good citizens. And what are they afraid of? What they're afraid of is they're afraid that Donald Trump is going to get his ass kicked in these upcoming midterms and that real accountability is going to come. And it's going to come in the form of hearings, it's going to come in form of subpoenas, and it's, it's, it's in the investigations and maybe impeachments, and they're afraid of all of that.

[C]

News flash, the Confederacy lost. They got their asses handed to them. News flash, Jim Crow lost. We passed the Voting Rights Act. News plus, Donald Trump was defeated and lost the 2020 election. I'm sorry. These attacks on democracy do not come from a place of strength. They are anxious, they are worried. They understand they're in the minority and they think they can bully us into submission. No, there are more pro democracy Americans than there were right wing, white nationalist Americans. That's just true. I'm not saying that there aren't white nationalist Americans. I'm not saying they're unfascist Americans. I'm saying in number, their political power is minuscule and our power is dominant. But we got to organize.

[A]

Yeah. And there's the real potential that in some of these districts that they are trying to throw together here on a map that in some of these states, they're going to make these races more competitive. So you may think, oh, I live in a district that's, you know, pretty safely red. They may have dummy mandered it to a point where it's slightly pink and your vote may actually make a difference. And so people need to kind of wake up. They may actually, they may have the ability to swing some districts that the Republicans were not really taking all that seriously. And that may happen in Texas, could happen in Florida, and could end up being the difference when it comes to the balance of power. I think it'll be, the wave will be so big that Democrats are going to take the majority back in the House in a pretty decisive fashion. But, you know, this, this does sort of throw it, you know, into the mix in terms of just being very unpredictable. I think that's why people have to make this their. Make voting your job.

[C]

That's right. Look, I'm taking inspiration right now from, from Hungary. Orban, who, who is the, the inspiration for the current right wing regime is Hungary is what the right wingers over at the Heritage foundation, they said that Hungary is not a model for right wing statecraft. It is the model for right wing Statecraft. Project 2025 was largely built on the Orban model of authoritarianism in that country. And what did we See in Hungary? 16 years of authoritarian rule, 16 years of attacks on civil society, on voting rights act, on voting rights, on free and independent media. And he went down in flames. Didn't just lose in that election, but was crushed so much that the opposition won a super majority. Why they went a super majority, Jim? It's not because they got 70% of the vote or 80% of the vote. No, it's because of the way Orban had structured the elections. And getting just a little bit over 50% was enough to get a super majority. We are seeing a dummy mander equivalent, like you said in Texas and elsewhere, where I think they bit off more than they can chew. And I can think that all I want, but we got to organize to make it true. And so that's why if you're in Texas, do not look at the fact that your district has been red for the past several years or past several decades and say, ah, there's no winner. No, we can win it. The, the, this president is less popular than any president in modern American history. He is less trusted on the economy than any president in American history. The blowback here is real. We got to harness it and put it to getting the vote out so we can take back power and start exercising some accountability.

[A]

Absolutely. And you said that, you know, you're worried about some doom and gloom out there. I'll give you a cure for some of that doom and gloom. People need to get pissed off and get a little piss and vinegar in them. Look at what Donald Trump is trying to do with the irs. We can show this headline to the, to the folks out there. There's an update on, we talked about this earlier in the week how he wanted $10 billion from the IRS because of this lawsuit, because the IRS, somebody leaked his taxes to show he wasn't paying any, any taxes. Well, good. I'm glad they leaked that. But anyway, the new proposal from Donald Trump is he wants to drop the lawsuit in exchange for a 1.7 billion dollar weaponization fund. And this would fund, you know, compensate allies who claim they were targeted under Joe Biden. Folks, for the folks who have not seen this story yet, this would actually set up a kind of slush fund, a payment fund for the January 6th criminals who stormed the Capitol on January 6th. Some of those folks could be eligible for some of this money. This is sort of like Donald Trump paying for his own goon squad.

[C]

That's right, yes.

[A]

As we're to keep them sort of, you know, stand by, stand back and stand by. What was that expression?

[C]

That's right.

[A]

For the next time around.

[C]

Look, every one of the proud boys who is not qualified enough to get hired into the ICE goon squads is now going to maybe be able to get a check directly from the White House through this slush fund. Look, I do think another lesson from Hungary is that corruption is deeply unpopular and crosses ideological lines. This isn't left versus right. This isn't the south versus the North. This is whether we have a functioning democracy or a kleptocratic authoritarian ruler. And it turns out we don't have to agree on what that best immigration policy is or tax policies or a health care policy is to understand that we don't want a guy with a golden statue building $1 billion Golden Ballroom while the rest of us have to pay more for health care and for drugs and for eggs and for bread. We don't want that. But we've got to tap into that anger and make clear to everybody that we, we do indeed have power if we organize. This is why I come back and back and back to this idea that the authoritarians want you to be alone. He wants you to feel powerless. He wants you to feel hopeless. You don't have to give that to him. Refuse to be alone. Reach out to your community. Organize where you are, and figure out how you can do some good right now. Because if you do that and if the rest of us do that, these midterm margins are going to be historic. We're going to have numbers that we have not seen before. And on January 3rd next year, we. We're going to have a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate, and the subpoenas are going to fly. And not only are we going to stop the damage that he's currently doing, we're going to investigate him and the rest of the goons that are implementing his illegal and unconstitutional agenda.

[A]

Yeah, no question about it. And it seems to me, you know, you almost need stories like this. We need example after example after example of Donald Trump acting like an autocrat in an authoritarian. And in order to keep people focused on their eyes on the prize, to borrow a phrase from the civil rights era.

[C]

Indeed.

[A]

Because, you know, folks, I totally agree with you, Ezra. I tell this to people all the time that I'm, you know, I get accused of Trump derangement syndrome. The thing I'm worried about is Trump Depression syndrome. And it is easy to feel kind of pummeled day after day after day by this guy. You can't let it happen. You just, you just have to understand this. Like you said, this is their strategy.

[C]

Well, let me tell you something. So I think that is right. I think some people think that our enemy is Trump or our enemy is Republicans or our enemy is do nothing elected leaders who decide not to fight back. I don't think that's right. Our enemy is cynicism and nihilism and fatalism. A sense that we are mere victims of world events. There's nothing that we can do that matters, so might as well just sit back and what will be will be. That is dangerous. People need to understand that this is not a foregone conclusion, that actually if you organize, you can have power and if you fight back, we will win. Look no further than Tennessee you were just talking about. The representative there announced his retirement in Tennessee two days after the new gerrymandered map was bulldozed through. We saw indivisible Memphis and others put together an immediate rally saying, we're not going to stand for this. We're going to fight back. You know who spoke at that rally? Justin J. Pearson, one of the Tennessee three who was expelled from the state assembly because he was fighting back against gun violence prevention. Back in 2023, he immediately ran again, one reelection back to the Assembly. You know what? He announced he's running in that Tennessee ninth seat. It's a Republican lean seat. It's not a Republican dominated seat. So yes, we can win seats like that, but we got to organize to win.

[A]

Wow. Wouldn't that be something if after all of this, that the Democrats could snatch one of those seats away and give it to somebody like Justin Pearson. That would be phenomenal. Ezra Levin, I'll let you get on the road to Alabama or to, to an airport, I hope, because you're going airport, you ain't going to make it. The Greyhound ain't gonna get there in time. But Ezra, always good to see you.

[C]

Great to see you, Jim.

[A]

Thanks so much. Really appreciate it. I, I love the feistiness that Ezra brings to the table, that the indivisible folks bring to the table. And we always appreciate it, Ezra. Really, really appreciate it. Thank you so, so much. Just terrific. And it's the energy that I brought to the table with this shirt today. And I know it seems like this is like one of those podcasters on the right would wear a T shirt like this. No, this, this goes back to our January 6th town hall that we had earlier, earlier this year when. And I can't believe I haven't worn this while Harry Dunn came up with this expression on the fly when we were promoting that we're going to have this thing. We made some T shirts out of it. And I don't know, maybe we'll give some away at some point, but there's the show logo there on the side. Just so you know, it's not one of those goofy right wing podcaster T shirts. I thought, let's steal that language back. And part of the reason why is because, I mean, as Ezra was saying, look at the goofy wannabe dictator stuff that's happening right now. Just, just in the last 24 hours. The associated Press reporting this, that emails show that the FBI director, Cash Patel, you know, he recently went to Hawaii, that his trip to Hawaii included a VIP snorkel trip. He did a VIP snorkeling session at the Pearl Harbor Memorial. Can you believe that? Unbelievable stuff here from Kash Patel. And you know, there's. He's, he gets really pissed off. He gets, he gets a lot of steam in his shorts. If you, if you accuse him of, of, you know, imbibing too much. If, if you accuse him of, of maybe having a couple of extra drinks that he maybe should have as the FBI director. But this is how it's being reported. This is by ABC FBI Director Cash Patel facing new controversy over a snorkeling excursion he took to one of the most hallowed places in the United States. He took a rare VIP snorkeling tour of Pearl Harbor. This is what the Associated Press reported first earlier this week. I mean, you know, the list just goes on and on. These guys find they're creative. They find new ways to outrage and piss off the American people. But we can mock them, we can have a little fun with their goofy authoritarianism. And the. I think it's the Homeland Security Democrats. They tweeted this image out and got picked up. It's making the rounds of Cash Patel going scuba diving. There he is right there. He's got the, he's got the, the bug eyes going, but he's got the snorkel mask on. And it looks like maybe A little kids snorkel in mask. Very cute with the little fish on it. So hopefully he, he had a good time snorkeling there. But my God, who does that? Who goes snorkeling around Pearl Harbor? And when you're the FBI director, it's just the goofiest, nuttiest stuff. And I don't know, maybe it's the kind of story that we're only going to cover here on the Jim Acosta show. Of course, thanks to the Associated Press and others. But is it something that would make the CBS Evening News? Is it something that would make it to cbs? I don't know. These days. You know, I'm just going to go back to the conversation I was having with Don Lemon earlier. What is happening to the House of Cronkite? What is happening to the House of Murrow when the CBS Evening News can't even get their anchor to China for a big summit? I'm old enough to remember. Don and I were talking about things, you remember. I'm old enough to remember when my old anchor man, Dan Rather, somebody I worked for many years ago at CBS News, was covering Tiananmen Square. You know, CBS News had the wherewithal and the tenacity and the know how to get Dan Rather, the anchor of the CBS Evening News into China to cover Tiananmen Square. And now they have, they have an anchor of the CBC evening. They can't even get to it to a damn Trump Xi Jinping meeting. I mean, that, that just goes to show you how far the House of Cronkite has fallen these days. But it's one of the reasons why, you know, they just can't take it over at the White House. Donald Trump can't handle any criticism over there. That's why he forced, you know, the folks over at CBS to unload Stephen Colbert. Stephen Colbert is almost down to his final shows as the host of the Late show with Stephen Colbert. And apparently CBS has released a lineup for Colbert's final week of shows. He's going to be having Jon Stewart, Steven Steelberg, David Byrne, the musician and Bruce Springsteen. They're all set to appear on the Late show next week. And that's going to be the final shows of the Late show with Stephen Colbert. Yes, we live in a country, ladies and gentlemen, where the Trump administration, where the president of the United States and his media henchman Brendan Carver at the FCC can force a late night comedian off of the public airwaves, off of the airwaves of cbs because Donald Trump is too Thin skinned to take a joke. And so that's what's happening now. But fortunately, they haven't lost their sense of humor over at the Late Show. And I just want to, you know, show a little bit of what Stephen Colbert and David Letterman, the former host of the Late show, who's, I mean, he's a national treasure in and of himself. What they were doing to bid Stephen, uh, Colbert farewell. Let's just show a little bit. They were, they were actually taking the opportunity to destroy some CBS property which is going out in style. He brought a spare. Okay, gentlemen, now let's think about what happened last last time. Yeah.

[C]

What's your advice?

[A]

I say just look out for the wind and keep it closer to the building. Watch the wind. Yeah. Here we go. There it goes. Yes. There you go. Logo there outside the A.B. sullivan Theater in Manhattan. And so good for Dave and good for Stephen for going out in style there. That's the way you do it, folks. And hats off to Stephen Colbert for a great run as the host of the Late Show. I got to do a show one time, actually. My partner in crime, Matt Hoy, was with me for that. My executive producer, Matt was with me for that appearance. It was a lot of fun and I wish Colbert well. But I also have to say, my God, what are we doing here in this country when the government of the United States can force comedians off of television, where they can force networks to be sold to right wing oligarchs like the Ellisons, to be run by right wing hacks like Barry Weiss? I mean, that's what's happening in our country right now. That's what's happening with our media right now. And it's not right. And I mean, you know, if there's a time to be telling jokes about the people in power, it would be now. I mean, Cash Patel, you know, is going snorkeling around Pearl harbor. And, you know, we've got memes out there of him and a little kid snorkel and mask. I mean, you got Donald Trump building a golden statue to himself at his golf course. I mean, these are times to be mocking these leaders. These are some mock worthy leaders and they deserve everything that they get in terms of the jokes from Stephen Colbert. So next week will be great to watch. And there it is. Oh, my gosh, Matt, you did that on the fly. I don't know why I'm making that face there. But that's us behind the scenes at the Late show with Stephen Colbert. And I remember.

[C]

Oh, that's Right.

[A]

They had a wall where you took your picture and you put it up on the wall. And I just remember sitting in the makeup chair, getting ready to go on that night. And Colbert poked his head in the maker room and he goes, acosta, I'm going to rip you a new one. And fortunately, he did not. He was a terrific host, but just, you know, bittersweet to see Colbert going out the way he's going out, doing it his way and, and dishing it out to cbs. Richly deserved on their part, but also really in awe of the talent and everything that he brings to the table every night. Maybe we'll see him here on Substack. Maybe we'll see him on YouTube. Who knows? But we wish him well. And in the meantime, really appreciate Don Lemon for joining me on the show today. Join me from the road on the road with Don Lemon and of course, indivisibles, Ezra Levin. If you're somewhere near one of these events to support the, the folks who are marching for voting rights in Alabama this weekend, make sure you do that. And of course, we'll be watching that unfold as well tomorrow. And if anything happens, of course, we'll, we'll bring that to you. But in the meantime, a very eventful week. Appreciate everybody tuning in. Of course, I, I like to say this at the end of the show, I'm going to say it again. Supporting Independent Media Matters. Make sure you, you like, you subscribe. You hit the share button. Share this episode with your friends. Tell them, hey, you know, did you know that Jim's doing this podcasting? Every once in a while I'll talk to people and they'll be like, so what are you doing now? I'm like, do I not self promote enough? I think I self promote quite a bit. But yes, we're doing this little show on Substack and it's going great. It's also on YouTube. It's also an Apple podcast. It's everywhere. And it's doing, it's doing terrific, but we can't do it without folks like you. So when you support this program, you subscribe. If you become a paid subscriber, like many of you on Substack, it helps us do the work that we're doing and it supports the team that I have right here. I mentioned my executive producer, Matt and Stephen Colbert, and he found that picture very quickly and loaded it in there. I can't do that crap by myself. I could barely get up in the morning and brush my teeth. It's, it's, I need a team here to do this, and we have a terrific team because of the support that you guys give us each and every day. So we appreciate that very much. But in the meantime, still reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. Have a great weekend. I'll see you next time.