← The Jim Acosta Show
The Jim Acosta Show
Fmr. Sen. Jon Tester and Maritsa Georgiou of "Grounded Podcast," Steve Schmidt, and Journalist Nick Valencia live from protest site in LA.
01:06:08
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- [00:00]
Jim Acosta
Hey, we're on. Welcome, everybody, to the Jim Acosta Show. It is Wednesday, and as you can see, you might have already picked up on this. Former Senator John Tester of Montana is with me, Maritza Giorgio, also with me. They are the hosts of the Grounded podcast, which is just on Substack now. Right? You started up on Substack, is that correct?
- [00:22]
Maritza Giorgio
Yeah, we did. And oh, my goodness, the substack community is so lovely. Like, it's so. I think they're just so welcoming and wow, it's so different from some other.
- [00:32]
Jim Acosta
Platforms I've been on, no question, and some other networks for that matter. You know, it's. Yeah, it's a, It's a friendly place and lots of friendly faces and a lot of folks who are just deeply engaged and care about the news and care about what's happening in this country. And Senator, I don't have to tell you what we're going through right now in America. You know this all too well. And just in the last several minutes, the Associated Press put out a news alert and I asked the question, are we already crossing some constitutional red lines? And Trump using military force and local law enforcement. The AP reporting that the National Guard troops there in LA have already temporarily detained civilians in the LA protest over the immigration raids. That's according to the commander in charge there. And he said about 500 of the national Guard troops have been trained so far to accompany agents on, on immigration operations. Senator, your response to that? Let's just jump right into it. I always thought you're not supposed to do this, you know, posse Comitatus and so on.
- [01:31]
John Tester
Yeah, well, you're right. I mean, if you look, Jim, if you look back, the people Republicans were said, were told, don't go out and do town hall meetings. So you're going to cut off your constituents so the constituents don't hear their voices heard. So they're standing up and there may be a knucklehead or two in the bunch and they may be put in by the folks who are the immigration people too, by the way. But the truth is the vast, vast, vast majority of these people just want to hear their voice, have their voices be heard. And now they're going to use the military to arrest them. Like, God, I'm going to tell you. Have we crossed the line? I guess we've crossed the line. I mean, if you take a look, Jim, at the first term of Trump and we had all these protests all over the country and then they quit and because people were being heard, I believe that's the reason why. And now they're back, you know, and it's just, it's crazy. And I'm going to tell you, everybody I talk to just, they just shake their head and say what the hell is going on and how do we stop it? Because it's just out of control. It's just, just, I don't know, I don't know where to stop actually. You know, the immigration thing, most people I know want the elite, I want the folks that are undocumented, that have committed crimes out, kick them out of the country, no questions asked.
- [02:44]
Jim Acosta
Sure.
- [02:45]
John Tester
But this has gone way beyond that. And you know, the, the Miller dude in the White House, the bald headed guy, he said, you know, we want to kick out more people. We want to kick out more people than Biden did. You know, as they stop, as they stop an immigration bill. About a year ago, right now, they stopped an immigration bill that would have fixed this problem. They wanted it for political purposes. So people ought to apply that back. This is about politics and it's about trying to take over this country and take away our Constitution, take over a declaration of independence and the list goes on.
- [03:15]
Jim Acosta
Well, and they started this whole thing out in la, Senator, it seems to me right around the time that Donald Trump and Elon Musk were going at one another and you know how Trump likes to play the distraction game. And lo and behold, we get this crisis out, this self manufactured crisis out in la. And Marita, I'm wondering what you're hearing from folks in Montana, because what the Senator said there is absolutely right. People, they don't want gang members, they don't want criminals in this country. If they're here illegally and they're, and they're committing crimes and so on, that's a whole different situation. But what we've seen with these ICE raids, they're going after families, they're going after kids, they're targeting schools and workplaces. Marita, what are people saying in Montana?
- [03:53]
Maritza Giorgio
Yeah, well, you know, I haven't, I haven't talked to a ton of folks in the last day or two, but I, you know, the people in my bubble certainly are saying, what is happening? I thought they were going after the criminals. These are not criminals. You see these videos, these horrific videos of mothers, you know, throwing up, vomiting on the street because they realize they're about to be separated from their children. As a mom, I just like your heart, your heart just breaks. You can't imagine, I cannot imagine the pain of that. And because of smartphones, we get to see these things. And even though they're painful, I think we need to watch this. We can't look away. We have to watch what's happening. But, you know, I was really frustrated the other night, Jim, because I was watching, I don't know, one of the local stations in LA that took over the national broadcast and I was watching kind of the updates and there was one, one reporter by the Waymo cars on fire, right? And a couple of Waymo cars on fire. And nobody's saying that's okay. I don't think we should light cars on fire. I don't think that's right. But, you know, I was explaining this the other day, like when we get to a scene with a camera as journalists and we see a car on fire, we go get the video, right, because it's dramatic. But this other report, you know, this, this reporter was talking about how, oh, you know, nobody's listening to the calls for peace but her counterpar town, you know, a few blocks away where there were blocks and blocks of peaceful protesters sitting down, and she's like, this is not what I'm seeing. You might be seeing that in that one intersection where a couple cars are on fire, but what I'm seeing is completely peaceful. We've seen the videos of the people dancing and singing and, and just having, you know, trying to inject some positivity and, and light into these protests. And so I just think that's so important in this conversation. We are going to see, see the destruction and those are the sexy videos. But there's a lot more when you look at the whole scope that we are not seeing. LA is massive. And I just talked to a friend, you know, the other day in Santa Monica. They said, you can be in Santa Monica and you don't even know this is happening. It's just like downtown la. So these are important things that we need to keep highlighting because people see one clip and say, oh, all of LA's on fire.
- [06:06]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And Senator, I think you hit on something that was just exactly right on the money a few moments ago when you talked about how they're trying to meet these quotas. Apparently the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Division has ordered its 30 regional offices to meet quotas on inspections of employers documentation. They've been trying to hit these quota numbers and it seems like that's what's driving a lot of this. Stephen Miller's looking at the numbers and he's saying, we want more, more, more.
- [06:32]
John Tester
Yeah, no, that's 100% correct. We wanna make sure. That we're tougher than the previous administration because don't forget, those birds are woke. You know what I mean? So, I mean, that's what. It doesn't have to be like this. The truth is. The truth is, is when I served in the United States Senate and bureaucrats were making decisions for Montana, those weren't the best people making the decisions. We tried to give them input of what it's like. Now you got Newsom saying, the governor of California saying, you know what, guys, let me handle this. And the president's coming in saying, you don't know California. I know California. We're bigfooting your ass out of the way, and I'm gonna do what I wanna do. That's not how it should operate.
- [07:10]
Jim Acosta
And I'm trying to. And Senator, I'm trying to think what would the reaction be in Montana if a Democratic. Joe Biden, President. Joe Biden were to say, we're going to send the military into Montana to do law enforcement there? What would the reaction be in Montana?
- [07:23]
John Tester
It would be the same as if Joe Biden said, I'm going to do anything to Montana. They would be up in arms, they would be going crazy. And they should be. By the way, the governor has certain powers and we should respect them. And the president doesn't respect anybody. It's pretty obvious on this issue.
- [07:40]
Maritza Giorgio
I do remember, Jim, during, during COVID You know, I, I covered Covid extensively in Montana, and that was my beat. And we did something every single day. I mean, that's all I did all day long. And I remember there were these rumors going around that then Governor C. Bullock was going to declare martial law. And people, I mean, this was, this was a huge rumor. And there, there were posts like, go to the grocery store, stock up. He's going to have tanks in the streets. But look what's happening, by the way.
- [08:11]
Jim Acosta
That never martial law is okay as long as it's not in my state, you know.
- [08:14]
Maritza Giorgio
Yeah. Let me just say that never happened in Montana.
- [08:18]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. No.
- [08:19]
John Tester
And literally in a couple days in Washington, D.C. there will be tanks in the streets.
- [08:23]
Jim Acosta
Well, there. And I want to get to that. But you mentioned Gavin Newsom. Senator, I do want to ask you what you think of Governor Newsom, how he's been handling this. He accused Trump of a power grab and saying that democracy is under assault. What's your assessment?
- [08:38]
John Tester
Well, I think he's correct. And I think that it's a prime example of the President not knowing the Constitution, not knowing states rights, not knowing how, you know, if you work with people, you can get some stuff done. If you go in and stay in my way or the highway, things tend to go to hell. And that's the way it's going. I think Newsom has done as good a work as he can do. The problem is the president doesn't, doesn't respect states rights in this case. Maybe he will in some other case, but not in this case. And I will tell you, I don't think that flies in any state of the union if people think about it.
- [09:12]
Jim Acosta
Right, exactly. And I mean the other issue in all of this is the human element, as you mentioned, Maritza. And yesterday on our program I had the journalist Jorge Ramos on and he did a fantastic job on the program. He brought in this woman who was there with him on the scene. She's a pregnant woman, US citizen who was arrested at her home when she was trying to say, listen, you can't come in here on my private property and start arresting people saying this to the ICE and the border patrol agents who were there. And she's pregnant, she's about to deliver in a week. And they roughed her up and almost body slammed her to the ground and arrested her. And she's telling this whole story live on my show yesterday. I just want to tell the viewers out there who are asking how she's doing. I'm trying to figure that out myself. It sounds like she's going to be okay, but my God, this is what, this is the human component of all of this. What do we do? As Senator Tester said at the top of this, bad guys, criminals, gang members, Sure, I get that. But they're not going to meet these numbers. They're not going to meet these quotas with those characters. They only can do it if they round up everybody with brown skin and an Hispanic last name. That's the problem here.
- [10:21]
Maritza Giorgio
Well, it's like putting in a targeted cut for budgets and saying we're not going to touch Medicaid when you can't make that cut without touching Medicaid. You know, I think that I just keep thinking back to this. Of course, you know, it's the 10th anniversary of Hamilton and the OG cast assembled for the Tonys this week and sang a medley. And I keep coming back to that song. History has its eyes on you and how will we look back on this? And you think about a pregnant woman and it's coming back to the humanity. I've had a few conversations recent days with people who are very, very strong in their faith and saying to me, this is not what I learned growing up, you know, as a Christian, growing up as a Catholic, growing up as a Mormon. I've had all three of those conversations this week. This is not what I learned from my religion and my faith about how we should treat not only immigrants, but human beings. And so I just, I think that this is a moment and I always think about, you know, there's a park by my house called Fort Missoula, and I bring my son down there. I walk my dog down there. And that was an internment camp after Pearl Harbor. And it's hard for me to not think about that in this moment. Like, what are we going to look back on in 10, 20, 30, 40 years in this moment and what we did to actual human beings and just have no regard for them as human beings.
- [11:50]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [11:51]
John Tester
The other thing, Jim, is, and I don't need to tell you this is this is a country of immigrants. I mean, unless you're Native American, you came here. It's what Ronald Reagan said made this the greatest country in the world. That's what Ronald Reagan said. Okay.
- [12:03]
Jim Acosta
That's right.
- [12:04]
John Tester
And now we're pushing out folks. I mean, I don't know how food is going to get processed in places where they have vegetables and fruits. I don't know. I don't know how maintenance is going to be done on buildings. I really don't know. And then to top that off, he's directed Rubio, the Secretary of State, to get rid of all the folks of Chinese descent. You know, if we'd have done this During World War II, you know, the Manhattan Project would not have happened. I mean, you know what I mean?
- [12:32]
Jim Acosta
Correct.
- [12:32]
John Tester
It just doesn't make any sense, short term or long term. Get rid of criminals, get rid of the crooks, but damn it, let the folks that are here trying to do and make an honest living be here and do that. They're important for our economy.
- [12:46]
Jim Acosta
Well, speaking of getting rid of the criminals and the crooks, not to make a hard segue here, but you know, the president is going to try to have this military style birthday bash in Washington this weekend. And the tanks were rolling into Washington the other day. Senator, I'm sure you saw that the military style vehicles were rolling into Washington. And you know, I just have to ask, I hate to make the same kind of analogy and the same kind of counter argument every time raising this question, but can you imagine if Barack Obama had the tanks rolling down Constitution avenue in Washington, D.C. for a birthday party? I mean, come on.
- [13:23]
John Tester
Yeah, absolutely. I will tell you that not only would the Republicans have been pissed, the Democrats would be pissed, too, by the way, they wouldn't have put up with it. And, you know, from the very beginning, and it's happened in the first term, and it's happening this one, this guy has incredible admiration for Putin and Xi Jinping and every, every dictator there is out there. And that's what this is about. This is about, you know, showing that he has control and power, and that's, that's not how this country set up. The people have the power. That's who has the power here. And he's given the power for a temporary basis, and he shouldn't be abusing it. And unfortunately, that's not been the case.
- [14:02]
Jim Acosta
And I think, Senator, one of the big issues here, and you know this from your days up on Capitol Hill, and is that Donald Trump coming into a second term in office, he ought to have more wins on the scoreboard than he has right now. Where are the wins? He has no wins on the scoreboard. The big beautiful bill is still waiting to get through Congress. There are House, obviously House Republicans have rallied around it and gotten the pass. It's over in the Senate now. But Senate Republicans, this is according to the New York Times, they've made it clear they want to make major changes to the legislation before it's gone through the Congress. They want to pare back the cuts to Medicaid. Obviously, that's an issue that's going to hit people in Montana. But your thoughts on this bill, and I think a lot, some of this is driving what we're seeing out there in la. He can't get wins in Washington, so he's looking for, he's looking to score points where he can on the immigration issue.
- [14:51]
John Tester
Yeah, that's probably true. I mean, the truth is that the big beautiful bill is a piece of shit, quite frankly, and they need to take it back and they need to rework it, not only in Medicaid, but in snap. They need job corps, trio, public lands, national debt, all the above. Go in there and rework it. And you know what? It'd be great. And people long for this. Do it in a bipartisan way and then go back to the president, say, president, you're the executive, but we're Congress and we're going to do our job here. And their job is to make sure that that bill works for every state in the union, because it doesn't right now. It's not a good piece of legislation. And I think most of the people that I served with that are still in the Senate, know that it's not a good piece of legislation and they're being bullied to sign it. Unfortunately for Trump, the biggest bully left the Elon Musk, you know, he took his checkbook and said, I'm, I'm out of here. Because I think this is a piece of garbage, too.
- [15:41]
Jim Acosta
So, you know, well, and I'm noticing, Senator, you got a T shirt there that says keeping it rural. And when you call a bill in Washington a piece of shit, that's keeping it rural. Should we call it the big boulder of bullshit? What should we call it here that.
- [15:56]
John Tester
You got to get a lot of the same letters going. I like that. I like.
- [15:59]
Maritza Giorgio
Yeah, yeah, we like alliteration when we're right. Well. Or spelling out names like Pelosi. Right. Also, I think you can't ignore this, like, you know, Elon Musk and Doge, their whole goal is waste, fraud and abuse. We're going to get rid of all the waste, fraud and abuse. Some of the Republican senators issues with the big, beautiful bill, like, it's about the fact that it actually raises our debt ceiling, it actually adds to the deficit. And then we're going to spend 45 million dollars on a parade. And not just a parade. 16 million of that, 16 million for the road repairs after the parade. Like, how is that not 100 million in L. A?
- [16:42]
Jim Acosta
Apparently, apparently it's 100 over 100 billion for what they're doing in LA.
- [16:46]
Maritza Giorgio
So how do you, how can you, how do you reconcile that? We're getting rid of waste, fraud and abuse, but we're going to have a parade that' going to tear our roads up to the point that they'll need $16 million in repair.
- [16:58]
Jim Acosta
Well, and I'm going to talk about some of this with Steve Schmidt in just a little bit here. I do want to. Since you mentioned Elon, we've talked about Elon a couple of times. Elon Musk, bending the knee, Senator. Apparently he phoned. According to the New York Times, he phoned Trump before publicly expressing regret for the attacks that he said went too far on X overnight when he said that Trump was on the Epstein files and so on. I mean, it's pretty, pretty wild what's happening when you've got Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, bending the knee. He's bending the knee.
- [17:30]
John Tester
Yeah. Well, he must have something on him. You know, Epstein was enough. I don't know what to say. It was like a game of chess. One upsmanship and all that stuff. It's what happens when you get two people with huge ecos, two people with big wallets that, you know, are having a, having a public, which would have never, ever, ever happened 10 years ago, but it happened now. I don't think it was good for the country, quite honestly. And quite honestly, everything that, that, that Elon did during Doge and all the money he was going to save, it showed that it didn't happen. I mean, he got the information, probably a lot of classified information he shouldn't have because there was no oversight whatsoever on what he was doing. So, you know, I can't, I can't relate with those folks because, quite frankly, I've had to work my whole life. And so I don't, I don't, I don't relate with folks that have, you know, that many damn zeros in their checking account. I can't, I can't do it. So they're going to do what they're going to do, and they're still going to continue, I guess, to be friends now for a while until one of them pisses the other one off, and then they'll go back at it, I guess.
- [18:32]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, well, but also, Elon Musk, I mean, he relies heavily on the federal government for all kinds of government contracts, and Trump was threatening those contracts. So one has to think, you know, Elon saw the, the money in the trough perhaps being hauled away. And, you know, that, that, that doesn't work for him, I guess.
- [18:51]
John Tester
The number I heard was $38 billion, which, by the way, is a hell of a lot more than he cut with his dosing. He could have, he could have been a hero and just give back all the money he was getting then. He could have saved a hell of a lot more money, you know.
- [19:01]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, yeah. And I guess, Senator, I don't want to hold you up all day, but one of the questions that I mentioned this to Maritza before we got started here that I wanted to talk about is what are we missing? What are we not talking about? What are folks in Montana talking about that we're missing here? I'm in, actually, I'm in San Francisco right now on a work trip. But what are folks in Washington not thinking about, not talking about? What are we missing in the heartland?
- [19:26]
John Tester
Well, I mean, I'm going to tell you on the big, beautiful bill, everybody thinks that the custom Medicaid only affect the people in Medicaid when it affects everybody, because you're going to have a lot. We're a lot of Frontier hospitals. Close the doors, maybe all of them, in fact, because they're hanging on by their fingernails now. I think when you talk about doing things like doing away with Job Corps, which may. People may. That's a small thing. You know, those are small things in the overall picture. They are small things, but they're damn important things because they take people who need help and give them help and make them producers in our economy and they're incredibly, incredibly successful programs. But they are throwing the baby out with the bath water. If we listen to Senator Lee and the public lands, if these guys sell off our public lands to the, to the uber rich in this country. Yeah, I'm going to tell you what, our economy in the state of Montana and I think throughout the west in particular, but the whole country will take a giant nosedive. And then we haven't seen, and we've talked about this a lot, but people are talking about it on the ground. We haven't seen the impacts of the tariffs yet. I think a few more months we're going to see those tariffs. We haven't had ships being unloaded in LA or Seattle or God knows where else in this country for some time to speak of. And that's going to start having some effect on the economic chains of goods in this country.
- [20:46]
Jim Acosta
And you're a farmer. Farmers are going to get hurt in all this, too.
- [20:49]
John Tester
Oh, yeah, man. They're going to be the tip of the spear. We've got to have markets to sell into. Foreign markets are critically important. Some of those foreign markets may be gone now and then from the input side, especially with Canada, man, most of the inputs we get in a state like Montana, but I think it's the same throughout the country. Most of those come out of Canada and you just don't replace those with domestic production. There'll be a lot of people broke by the time they get replaced, let's just put it that way.
- [21:19]
Jim Acosta
And Marita, I have to say to you, and to both of you, congrats on the podcast getting launched. You had Tim Walls on recently. A lot of great guests. Maritza, what's this experience been like? You were also in a corporate media world, in a cable news world, national news world, and it's so much fun doing this. It's freeing. You get to spend a lot of time with Jon Tester. That's an added bonus. But what's it been like? How you doing?
- [21:45]
Maritza Giorgio
Well, I did make a joke with him yesterday. He said something about I had an appointment. He's like, oh, that's not gonna be pleasant. And I said, well, I have to host a podcast with you. So I think. But I've been joking. It's been really fun. No, it's. Honestly, we kind of went out on this. We've been building the plane as we fly it. I mean, it's literally the two of us. And my neighbor John helps with some audio and we just kind of said, let's try it and see how it goes. And I think that it's important to fill. There's a void right now and people, you know, people want to hear from Jon Tester and people want to hear some of these candid conversations. What I love about our format is that we can have long form conversations. It's not just a three minute package, Jim, as you know, like, get everything. I mean, any editor who ever worked with me would just probably curse me all the time because I always wanted to put more in and more in and more in. And I was always told to cut it. And so to be able to have really authentic conversations for Senator Tester, to be able to say the F word, you know, these are all, these are all.
- [22:50]
Jim Acosta
Wait a minute. I haven't heard that you're holding back on me, Senator. What's going on here?
- [22:54]
John Tester
I'm trying to be a good boy today, Jim.
- [22:58]
Jim Acosta
Don't do that on my account, that's for damn sure.
- [23:01]
Maritza Giorgio
But I think it's, you know, it's just one of those things, like people are craving these authentic conversations. They don't want to see a Stafford news anchor getting up and just reading. Like, they want to hear us talking about these real things. And I've always tried to do that throughout my career. And you know, our industry, Jim, like, it's a, it's a scary place. And I was a, you know, I was one of the casualties in a mass layoff event at, at my former network. And you know, it was devastating. I loved my job, I loved what I, what I did. But this, you know, this is a bright spot, certainly. And we were on with Heather Cox Richardson, gosh, two, two days ago now.
- [23:38]
Jim Acosta
And I saw that. That's great.
- [23:40]
Maritza Giorgio
Yeah. And, and like, she was right. I said, do you think this is the answer and this is the future moving forward as, as, you know, legacy journalism seems to be crumbling. And she said, well, yeah, look how many people are on with us right now. So that gives me a lot of hope. And to work with Senator Tester in this capacity has been just, you know, so much fun for me. He probably would say differently but no.
- [24:04]
John Tester
No, no, it's just been thrilling. No, I'm going to tell you that the truth is, you know, part of this, at least what I'm trying to do, and I think Maurice is, too, is give some backbone to some public officials to go out there and start fighting and talking about, you know, make America great again. I mean, you take a look at what this president's done over the last five months, we're going to need to make America great again. That is a fact. Pushed away our allies, screwed up trade, our bond markets upside down. I mean, everything you want to take a look at, the immigration stuff, is nothing like it should be done. Because the truth is, is that all this stuff is what makes America great. And I think it's really unfortunate. And Heather Crocs Richardson said something that I think is really important, and that is, she says, if you're out there and you got a concern, grab your phone, cut a video and put it online so people know what you're concerned about. I think that's really important. And if your elected reps won't listen to you, maybe they'll look at you on, you know, on, on online.
- [25:06]
Jim Acosta
No, you're absolutely right about that. And I mean, I keep hearing make America great Again. You know, I rather see some hats that say we are better than this because I, you know, I think as a country, we are better than what we're getting right now. And, you know, when you're using the National Guard to do law enforcement, to conduct immigration raids, when you're threatening protesters the way Trump has been doing the last couple of days, you know, because they might show up at his biggest birthday bash in D.C. his military dictator birthday bash in D.C. that's not America. That's not, that's not the America we grew up in, Senator. I'm sorry. It's just not. And we are, I think we're better than this. That's, that's what it is. At the end of the day, I think that's why people are coming to platforms like Substack and other independent media routes.
- [25:49]
John Tester
I, I, I, I hope that's the case, and I hope they continue to, and I hope they can continue to get good information, because if you get good information, you can make good decisions. And that's what it's all about.
- [25:57]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, absolutely. Well, guys, thank you so much for doing this. Really appreciate it. Senator. I'm sure you got some farm stuff to get to. You got to keep it rural as always and appreciate your time. And Maritza, really appreciate Your time and best of luck. It looks like you're off to a fantastic start. So my hat's off to both of you.
- [26:15]
John Tester
Thanks for having us on, Jim. Thank you.
- [26:17]
Jim Acosta
You bet. Good to see both of you. Thanks a lot.
- [26:19]
Nick Valencia
Really appreciate it.
- [26:20]
Jim Acosta
Thank you. And this is the part where we as Senator and Ritza know, we have to touch the equipment and make the bells and whistles of the substack machine work. I'm going to try to get Steve Schmidt in here. Steve's been standing by, I believe, and going to get his take on everything that's been happening. Steve is always very passionate and gets me fired up when I listen to him because, I mean, we got some stuff happening right now, folks, that frankly, you know, and I, I don't. I'm not shocked easily, but what's been taking place in Los Angeles the last few days, it certainly shocks the consciousness. There's Steve Schmidt right there. Good to see you, Steve.
- [27:00]
Steve Schmidt
Good to see you, Jim. How are you?
- [27:02]
Jim Acosta
Good. I mean, I sort of want to start in la, but there's a part of me that wants to start with Elon Musk bending the knee to Trump, because it was a pretty stunning development last week, and maybe we should have all taken it with a giant grain of salt. When Elon Musk was saying, oh, Donald Trump's in the Epstein files, and so on, we thought, oh, boy, we're off to the races now. And it didn't even take a week for the richest man in the world to bend the knee.
- [27:30]
Steve Schmidt
Well, he is Donald Trump's indispensable partner as a actor in all of this. I think it was naive for anybody. Well, Steve, people who go ahead, there are a few people who have done more damage more quickly to the fabric of the country than Elon Musk. And, you know, this idea that, hey, I'm back in Texas, I just want to talk about space, that's all over with. It's the defining chapter of his life and he's a star player in it all the way to the end. And really, the questions for the country are quite existential. And that is what we'll be deciding over the next couple of years as we get a glimpse of Donald Trump's version of what it means to make America great again.
- [28:37]
Jim Acosta
And I mean, just today I was saying this at the top, that the AP is reporting that the National Guard, they're already detaining civilians in la. They're being trained to company agents on immigration operations. This is way outside the norm. And I think it's the beginning. It's the beginning.
- [28:58]
Steve Schmidt
So let's, I think it's really important to be precise about a couple of things and for people to understand what's legal, what's unprecedented, what's not, and so on and so forth. So these troops are there operating under a Title 10 authority. So they are National Guard troops. National Guard troops report to the state's governor. That's who their commander in chief is. They can be activated. They can be activated, for example, when we go to Iraq. They can be activated by the governor when there's an emergency, a hurricane, earthquake, whatever, and they can be federalized, as they have here now. These are no longer National Guard troops. These are U.S. army forces. These are federal troops. They've been federalized, and the Marine Corps, the active duty troops. And so there is a law called Posse comitatus, and that, that, that prevents these troops from engaging in civilian law enforcement functions. What the Trump administration has posited is, well, there may be 10 illegal immigrants at the Home Depot, and therefore we're going to send in the Marine Corps into said town to surround it so ICE can operate safely to get said 10 illegal immigrants, day laborers at the Home Depot. And it's all madness, and it's an abuse of the military. What you saw yesterday was very disturbing at Fort Bragg. A complete and absolute breakdown of discipline in some of America's most disciplined light infantry combat troops. Paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne who are cheering like they are young Republicans, riled up by their commander in chief and their defense secretary, the commanding General of the 82nd Airborne, the Brigade commanders, the sergeant major of the division, the regiment, the battalions, they all ought to be ashamed of that themselves, that their troopers conducted themselves in such a manner as the President is slandering Americans by name states by name, communities by name.
- [31:37]
Jim Acosta
They called the protesters in LA animals and a foreign enemy.
- [31:42]
Steve Schmidt
And so we have to remind our young soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, guardians and coast guardsmen of their oath. It's not to Trump, it's to the Constitution and to remind them of illegal orders and that all of this will be tested before the courts. Trump's assertion of power, his obvious coming declaration of the Insurrection act, absent any evidence whatsoever, but the notion that as president, he can use power in this manner, unrestrained, unchecked. And this is a question that the country is going to have to settle.
- [32:30]
Jim Acosta
And Steve, why do you. I mean, I'm asking a question I think I know the answer to, but why do you suspect that the Insurrection act is coming? I mean, We've heard Trump time and again, you know, twist himself into a pretzel to use the word insurrectionist just about every day over the course of this self manufactured crisis.
- [32:49]
Steve Schmidt
Well, he wants, he wants to be able to deploy the military as a tool of his power and to use it as an instrument of force to achieve his agenda. And that's, that's quite clear. 10 years of threats, 10 years of bluster, nobody should be surprised about this. This was the most undercovered. This is one of the great failures of the media, right, over the last 10 years, over the last election cycle is this is a stop the presses moment and it always has been. When you start talking about we're going to lock up our political opponents, we're going to start punishing our political opponents, we're going to start punishing dissent. So there's a range of follow ons to that about what do you mean, what your intentions are? And sadly right, we are now in the experiential side of the MAGA presidency. We see what this means and nobody wants to live in a country I don't think, where the military is the instrument of the President's wrath inflicted at the people. We are a government of the people, by the people, for the people. And what we're seeing right now is a terrible abuse. And elections have consequences.
- [34:17]
Jim Acosta
That's right.
- [34:18]
Steve Schmidt
And what we gotta, what we gotta tee up, right, is the question that we gotta put forward, which is what do we have to do so this never ever happens again? And it's happening now and we have to do everything we can to oppose it, to speak out against it, to demand that these federal acts of thuggery that we're seeing fall under the umbrella of the rule of law, right, the faceless or the masked federal agents, all of it is unacceptable. It's unacceptable.
- [34:58]
Jim Acosta
No, and you're right, I mean I have been saying this is going to be a common lived experience for all of us. I mean what he, what we experienced with the first Trump term was definitely aspirational. As you said, this is experiential. And I mean speaking of crushing, trying to crush dissent, Trump has been talking about going after protesters in the coming days. If they show up at his dictator military parade in Washington, they could get pummeled by the police. He has talked about if you spit, we hit in Los Angeles, talking about those protesters. And then after the firing of Terry Moran over at ABC News, Stephen Chung, the comical White House communications director says quote, talk, shit, get hit. That was his response. That was the response from a White House official about the firing of Terry Moran. So they are not only warning protesters, warning people about exercising the right to free speech, they are celebrating it when it's crushed.
- [35:59]
Steve Schmidt
Yeah, no doubt about it, right? It's thuggery. You know, Stephen Chong, he's like Odd Job from Goldfinger, a preposterous character. The threats never stop. They never cease. But listen, the First Amendment isn't discretionary. You have a right to speak out, to denounce Trump, to burn him in effigy, to do whatever you want to Donald Trump with regard to speaking out about him, insulting him, drawing pictures of him. You know, today, Homeland Security issued a piece of propaganda that called for the turning in of invaders. And it's a fascist piece of propaganda. And that's what we're seeing. This is what fascism is turning your neighbors.
- [36:51]
Jim Acosta
I mean, this is where.
- [36:52]
Steve Schmidt
This is my dad in your turn.
- [36:54]
Jim Acosta
My dad, the neighborhood minders and so on. My, my dad fled Cuba. I mean, if you go to Cuba today, that is the experience that you have.
- [37:01]
Steve Schmidt
They have, here's the number for you to be dialed into by the federal government so mask agents can, can come and maybe snatch you off of the street. And so when we see all of this, right, there was, there was a, there was a reporter who in 2020, 2016, you know, talked very, you know, got a lot of attention for saying, you know, this, this quote, right, is that some people take Trump literally but not seriously, and others take them seriously but not literally. And I've been someone who's always taken them literally and seriously. And if you take them literally and seriously, you shouldn't be surprised by anything that's happened, which is to differentiate the shock of witnessing it happen. But surprise, no. And the question for a rubber stamp Congress for people who are running for office is to appreciate that we're really in a new era. And where we go from here directionally is not back to anything, right? We have to move forward into this new era with some real discipline and some real courage around putting together the contours of an agenda that says this can never happen again. We don't want to live in this country. The officiousness, the arrogance, the abuse of power, the bluster by the Fox News cabinet. And I think the country's looking at it. And I also have to say this, that it's important to appreciate that Trump, in this moment, right, when you, when you see the fundamental misreporting of what's happening on the ground in LA by the media, which makes it look like this is Gaza, that there's a war in la. There's not. Disturbances were contained into small geographies talking hundreds of people, not thousands of people, and it has been inflamed. But the images of the Mexican flag waving, mass protests, throwing rocks, the national correspondents and Democrats saying, no, that's it's a peaceful protester once again.
- [39:22]
Jim Acosta
But the images are catnip.
- [39:23]
Steve Schmidt
For the Fox News crowd, it's catnip, it's cabnip. It's for the, you know, it's an accelerant for Fox News. For Trump, it proves his point that, hey, the country's invaded. Look, they're waving Mexican flags here, you know, down on the corner and we're going to go get them and it's being cheered on. But, you know, as this, as this builds, as it spreads, I think a liberty loving people will not like this in their community. And you saw some of that in Omaha today.
- [39:58]
Jim Acosta
Well, yeah. And I mean, on the Mexican flags that are being, you know, carried in Los Angeles, you know, I have friends in la, they have an expression out there, we didn't cross the border, the border crossed us. There is a deep history of pride in LA among Mexican Americans, people who have roots that go back, I mean, longer than a lot of people with white skin in this country because, you know, their family's just been there for generations. And if you're going to get fired up about flags that aren't the American flag, how about the MAGA flags? How about the Donald Trump flags that were draped on the Capitol on January 6th? If you want to talk about not disloyalty to country, the disloyalty to country was exhibited by the MAGA terrorists and extremists who stormed the Capitol on January 6th. And if Donald Trump wants to talk about how he can puff out his chest and send the National Guard wherever he wants to, the question has to be asked, where was it on January 6? Why was he waiting on Nancy Pelosi, as he likes to say falsely all the time? Why was he waiting on Nancy Pelosi to do it on January 6th if he's the one who could deploy them wherever he wants, willy nilly? Where the fuck were they on January 6th? I mean, I'm sorry, it's a serious question.
- [41:23]
Steve Schmidt
Well, so I have a, I have a couple of answers to this and I'll work backwards.
- [41:29]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [41:31]
Steve Schmidt
Donald Trump wanted to overthrow the government on January six.
- [41:37]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [41:38]
Steve Schmidt
He would have been happy if they killed Mike Pence. He would have been happy if Nancy Pelosi was killed and he wanted to take power illegitimately. And it's the most under discussed subject in American life. Right. Is that what if question. So what would have happened if the guy who lost the election was installed through violence as President of the United States?
- [42:08]
Jim Acosta
Right.
- [42:08]
Steve Schmidt
And so, and so here we are a couple of years later, and Donald Trump is trying to obliterate memory of that event by taking command of a power to tell us what's real, what's not, and demand obedience, no matter how absurd the lie is to it. And he has no shortage of sycophants and acolytes that are enforcers of this. And he has created an authoritarian movement, an authoritarian system. He has smashed every norm. He has eviscerated the checks and balances. He has consumed the Republican Party, steamrolled the Democratic Party and capitulated the media that's down on their knees at his feet, the corporate media, the universities, the big law firms. And so it's in the hands of the American people, people to draw a line. And, and what I'm, what I'm saying, and I want to say this about the flags. I understand the history, I get the pride. I lived in California for a long time.
- [43:27]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [43:27]
Steve Schmidt
Leave your Mexican flags at home. You bring an American flag to these protests. Right. You wave the American flag. Donald Trump thrives on a lack of discipline in his opposition. That's true time and time and time and time again. And so we're out of Runway.
- [43:52]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. If you get violent at this protest, you're giving him fuel. Yeah, that's right.
- [43:57]
Steve Schmidt
We're out of space to indulge the stupidity.
- [44:02]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [44:03]
Steve Schmidt
And so the reality is the majority of the country is called now to evaluate this with their heads, with their eyes, with their hearts, looking at their kids and say, does this seem right?
- [44:24]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [44:24]
Steve Schmidt
Do we want this? This is unimaginable. The scenes we're seeing, the barging in by mass federal agents on the orders of a little Eichmann, Stephen Miller, Christy Noem, Pam Bondi, these are all disordered people psychologically. And you see that plainly with your eyes. And I want to say something. This is why the Biden story is important.
- [44:54]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [44:55]
Steve Schmidt
Okay. People who saw something plainly were shouted down by power over the President's condition. Bad, big consequence for it. But the idea that it's not possible to see things plainly and clearly only helps one person, and that's Donald Trump. So Terry Moran was fired not for opining, but for accurately observing. Is David Duke hateful? And is it fair to say David Duke is a hate merchant. Because ABC News has long described David Duke as a hate merchant. And applying that standard to Stephen Miller, then it's fair to apply the hatreds that define David Duke to Stephen Miller. Because we can observe what Stephen Miller says, what he does, his malice, in the same way that it could be observed when Bull Connor did it, when George Wallace did it.
- [46:10]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. If you're roughing up mothers, and I mean, we had a pregnant mother on yesterday who said she was roughed up by federal agents. She was on with me and Jorge Ramos. When you're, when you're taking kids out of schools, when you're doing these smashing in people's windshields and car windows to pull people out of cars who are not criminals. I mean, that's not law enforcement. It's thuggery. And are these acts of hatred? They appear to be acts of hatred. And I don't know why, you know, Terry may have crossed the line in terms of tweeting something that he shouldn't have tweeted late at night while working for a corporate media outlet, I suppose, you know, in the eyes of like corporate HR folks. But he told the truth. And I said this on my show the other day. How is Stephen Miller not a hateful person? I mean, draw me that picture.
- [47:04]
Steve Schmidt
He was, he was, he was fairly inaccurately described. And Terry Moran didn't act in any way with regard to his social media that he doesn't typically act. So it's another act of capitulance by the CEO, in this case, Bob Iger again. And so these CEOs who have collaborated, Bob Iger is a person who was talked about for years in the elite set as God. Bob Iger might run. Can you imagine? Right. This is a soft handed, fancy manicure guy with no pain tolerance whatsoever who keeps getting on his knees for Donald Trump, like they all do, like your.
- [47:52]
Jim Acosta
Former employers and Steve, Disney has enough money.
- [47:57]
Steve Schmidt
My God, they do.
- [48:00]
Jim Acosta
What money are you losing in this proposition? You know, like, give me a break, you know, how much? It's like the Mary Trump book. Too much and never enough. You know, when is it enough? When is enough money enough? You know, there's, that's the problem I have with these guys.
- [48:16]
Steve Schmidt
There's nothing that matters more than the integrity of the country or liberty, our freedoms. And so people really have to stand up, speak out, be engaged, and understand that everything that everyone does this weekend matters. Go out and protest, do so peacefully.
- [48:38]
Jim Acosta
Yes.
- [48:38]
Steve Schmidt
They can't arrest or shoot all of us.
- [48:42]
Jim Acosta
And I've Been saying. I've been saying, Steve, the best response to free speech being under attack is more free speech 100%. They can't stop us. So please speak out. Steve, thank you so much for coming on. I appreciate it. I'm going to jump, and I want to get to my buddy Nick Valencia. He's reporting out in LA on the situation. I'm going to get out to him, but always great to talk to you, Steve. Thank you.
- [49:07]
Steve Schmidt
Good to see you. Take care.
- [49:09]
Jim Acosta
Thanks. My man. Appreciate it. All right. I don't want to lose Nick because I know Nick might be in a. In a, you know, in a situation where he's. He's might have to move. So I don't want to lose him. I'm going to try to get my. My old pal Nick Valencia, longtime journalist, and he is on the scene, apparently outside the Metropolitan Detention center in Alameda. And I just want to get to Nick as quickly as I can and not lose him. I'm spelling his name wrong in the thing. Stand by, everybody. Doing my best, pushing the buttons, but Nick is a terrific journalist. I've known Nick a long time. He and I have done lots of live shots together over the years, and he's out there reporting on all of this. Apparently in the last several minutes, he's seen several trucks of federal agents and military showing up clearly doing a show of force. And I want to get out to Nick Valencia to see what that's all about. Hopefully I didn't take too damn long getting out to him. And we can somehow get the wheels of the. Of the sub stack machine spinning furiously enough where we can get them on, obviously with cell phones and cell signals and WI fi signals. Everything's a crapshoot these days. But Nick's been out there for a while and just like Jorge Ramos was yesterday. And I just want to say I have been seeing your comments during the show for the folks who have been making the comments about what has taken place with that very nice pregnant lady who was on the show yesterday talking with me and Jorge Ramos about how she was roughed up and arrested by federal agents outside of Los Angeles. Obviously an intolerable situation trying to get the latest on her. But there's Nick Valencia right there. Nick, great to see you again, my friend. It's been too long. We'll have to do this often, but let's jump right to it. What are you seeing out there? You're just outside of la, Is that right? What's going on?
- [51:07]
Nick Valencia
Well, we're actually right outside one of the sites that have been one of the most active sites for demonstrations against anti immigration policies by the Trump administration. And you see here behind me, this is the back entrance of the Metropolitan Detention Center. And this has been a very active area of a protest. It was in fact, just a short time ago that we saw a caravan of federal vehicles make their way in. And that was probably the most tense that we saw. Things get, you know, it animated the crowd. This is exactly why they hear it. They saw people coming in who they believed had been detained wrongfully and they were expressing their frustrations. Let me set the scene for you here because as you have seen in the last several days, things have been very, very active at night. And so this is one of those places that has been active. And you see the presence of the army, you see federal agents here, Customs and Border Protection on the front entrance of this Metropolitan Detention Center. It's a strong presence of California National Guard. But I want to talk to some people who have been here, so can you follow me? One of the critiques that we've seen here is waving of the Mexican flag. But today we've seen a lot more American flags. We've seen flags that have been sort of, you know, amidst the California Republic flag here. Let me talk to somebody. Hey, they're live on social media. We'd love to hear from you and why you shut up here. Do you have a personal connection to what's happening or what brought you out?
- [52:24]
F
Yeah, my parents were immigrants at one point too. And I know a lot of people that are literally at work. I hear them, there were people crying because they were having people getting deported. I have co workers that are in their process of getting their paperwork. All people, all that. And she's scared. And I'm here for people that can't be here because it's not fair that they're getting deported.
- [52:51]
John Tester
Basically.
- [52:51]
F
The criminals that are getting deported. Why are all the people that are getting deported? The ones that are from work, from the field and stuff like that.
- [53:00]
Steve Schmidt
You know, I'm really interested.
- [53:02]
Nick Valencia
I'm a native Angeleno and it was in the 90s that we had what was seen as anti immigration legislation. In Prop 187, that was a piece of legislation proposed by then Governor Pete Wilson that was seen as anti immigrant. It would allow teachers to have basically handed over their students based on their documented status. Do you remember that? Has that inspired any people? Because I've talked to a lot of native Angelenos and they remember that from their childhood. And that's you know, reoccurring trauma for them being out here again and that's really inspired them to be out.
- [53:30]
F
Well, I didn't hear about that. I'm here because I'm here that are getting supported in the families that are getting like torn apart from this. Like their parents that are looking for like a better future for their kids and they're getting taken away from them and it's not fair. It's not. It's a land made of immigrants and where the criminals. Is not fair. And I'm here for that because they can't stand the fears. They can't defend themselves.
- [54:00]
John Tester
Unfair.
- [54:01]
Steve Schmidt
Help me.
- [54:01]
F
Trying to.
- [54:03]
Nick Valencia
Yeah, talk to me about your sign. No human is illegal. Because that's something that we also hear people push back on is saying this is common sense policies. Right, Jim? That this is law and order. But this is really a dehumanizing statement to call somebody illegal. And I want you to speak on that.
- [54:25]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [54:31]
Nick Valencia
Right, right. Great. Thank you, Jim. I know we're having a little audio problems.
- [54:35]
Jim Acosta
No, you're doing great. Nick. I was just going to say I think maybe she was kind of holding an American flag there a little bit too.
- [54:40]
Steve Schmidt
Right.
- [54:41]
Jim Acosta
Is that.
- [54:41]
G
She is.
- [54:42]
Nick Valencia
That's right. Do you have an American flag with you as well?
- [54:44]
Jim Acosta
Is that.
- [54:44]
Nick Valencia
Or is that someone. Your sister's flag?
- [54:46]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, sister's flag.
- [54:48]
Nick Valencia
Okay, let me. We'd love to talk to you. You're the sister. Yeah.
- [54:52]
F
And I feel like that's important because it's all about we the people and.
- [54:57]
Steve Schmidt
To other people.
- [55:00]
John Tester
All things together and.
- [55:01]
Jim Acosta
Going to each other.
- [55:04]
Nick Valencia
Did you hear what Governor Gavin Newsom said yesterday? I mean, he gave. Do you think that it was a full throated endorsement of the demonstration? Do you feel like he has your back?
- [55:12]
John Tester
Yes, I do.
- [55:13]
Jim Acosta
I do.
- [55:14]
F
He's upset with it.
- [55:15]
Nick Valencia
Guys, I want to spin away here because this is some of the activity that has caused some frustration. You see what's happening? Homeland Security vehicles, Federal Protection Service vehicles. And when that happens, you see these Homeland Security agents that come out to create a phalanx for protection. Because their fear, of course, is that they say, they believe that some of these demonstrators may storm the back end of this detention center. Let's be clear, it has been an animated crowd, but no signs of violence whatsoever. I mean, people are here, feel like they're doing their civic duty. They feel they have a right to protest.
- [55:47]
Jim Acosta
And Nick, Nick, I was going to ask you, I mean, a couple of things. One is when folks say stuff about Mexican flags, they need to understand there's a. There's a long history of. Of ethnic pride in Southern California, in Los Angeles. I grew up in the Washington, D.C. area. My dad came from Cuba. He liked to have the Cuban flag in the house from time to time. Not because he was a communist, not because he was a Fidel Castro guy. He fled Castro, he fled Cuba. It's because people have ethnic pride. It's the same reason why people put St. Pat. You know, they put Irish flags out on St. Patrick's Day and so on. Like, it's, you know, if someone carries a Mexican flag, doesn't mean that they want the US to be part of Mexico. It's such an ignorant point of view. The other thing is, Nick. The other thing, Nick, is have you seen a lot of rioting and violence there? You're in la.
- [56:34]
G
Yeah.
- [56:35]
Jim Acosta
What are you seeing?
- [56:36]
Nick Valencia
You know, let's be clear. The city is not on fire. There are pockets of demonstrations that are happening, and this is one of those pockets of demonstration. I was just in Hollywood yesterday. It was a normal day on the streets. There are areas throughout Los Angeles which are seeing an activity of demonstrations, of civil protests, people marching in the streets. Yesterday, when I was marching along downtown Los Angeles, people were getting in the streets and, you know, some had, you know, some were watching on social media and they were frustrating that, you know, individuals were walking in the middle of the street, but there was no looting. You know, I did see some graffiti. Some people that were taking advantage of what was, you know, would be an otherwise unstable, not really chaotic situation, but, you know, sort of one that is very animated and one that causes people to get riled up from time to time. I didn't see any violence. You know, what I saw was a lot of people that were like, as you mentioned, proud of being from here. You know, I'm from here. Born and raised, native Los Angeleno. And I grew up with that flag being waved next to me alongside the American flag. There was never any sense of somebody being ungrateful of being here. It was just a sense of pride. Now, I can't speak for everyone. We can't make sweeping generalizations about everyone, just can't make sweeping generalizations about this crowd. There are people who are taking advantage of a situation here. Others, though, that are in good faith and moving in good faith to use their voices and make them heard, and they feel like their moment is now because Los Angeles is the backdrop and the epicenter of that resistance movement against the Trump administration.
- [58:01]
Jim Acosta
And, Nick, does it feel different that, I mean, given the fact that you grew up in LA and you know the area? Well, yeah, I mean, what does it feel like for you to see soldiers in the streets?
- [58:13]
Nick Valencia
You know, I grew up here and I was here for Rodney King. I was here for the National Guard on the streets. You know, I covered countless demonstrations in the network that I was at before and saw the National Guard in Baltimore. It's a different thing, though, when you see these, you know, military S type law enforcement officers that are head to toe in tactical gear and long guns. You know, people feel as though that escalated the situation when the Guard got here. I talked to countless. Excuse, I'm so sorry. I talked to countless demonstrators who feel as though that was antagonizing to them and that they were using their voices in a peaceful way only to be met with, you know, aggression. Look, you know, it's. To be clear and rigorously honest, there are people here that are looting. I talked to somebody yesterday who said that they were just waiting for nightfall to take advantage and go looting. Yeah, the majority of the people that I talked to, Jim, they're out here because their families have been taken. They've seen people, you know, taken and swept up without due process. I've heard another criticism that they say this is just over 40 people. It's well beyond that. This is a ripple wave. It's not just 40 people that were detained in a nice raid on Friday that caused this. It is the countless people that have been sent to El Salvador to black sites to have been basically disappeared that has led to this animation and this passion of voices that are out here. This is one of the people that I want to talk to. Carrying an American flag. Hey, we're live on social media. I told you I wanted to talk to you. You came out here a short time ago and you are very, very passion, passionate about being here. Talk to me about why you're out here and tell me your name.
- [59:38]
G
My name? You know, I was born and raised in Los Angeles, you know, and I'm right here to stand for people that, that are afraid of immigration. You know, I stand is. I stand for all international people, you know, hard workers and students only, that come right here for a better life. I don't support criminals. I don't support crime or violent protest. I support peaceful protest and I support every, every human being that comes here for a better life.
- [60:00]
Nick Valencia
This is personal for you.
- [60:01]
G
It's personal. It's personal, you know, because that staple was right. I feel like this is right, you know, people, not just Mexico, not just. I do it for everybody, all human race.
- [60:11]
Maritza Giorgio
And that's what I'm hearing.
- [60:12]
Nick Valencia
You know, I hear people talk about this man made construct of laws, Jim, you know, that this is, they're, they're legal or they're illegal because someone says, but you know, you're talking about a spiritual construct, you're talking about morality here and doing what's right morally for you.
- [60:24]
G
Yeah, of course, you know, and honestly, I'm right here standing against hate, against evil, which is Trump, you know, against racism, which is Trump. And he supporters, he's evil supporters, not all his supporters. Evil supporters that support racism and hate and create all this division in our country. That's what I'm against.
- [60:42]
Nick Valencia
Jim, do you have any questions for folks here? Would you like to ask anything?
- [60:45]
Jim Acosta
No, I guess my question would be why carry the flag? Why carry the American flag? Because.
- [60:52]
Nick Valencia
Why carry the American flag? He wants to know.
- [60:54]
G
Because I was born and raised today. This is my country. You know, I was born right here. You know, my roots are Mexican, but this is my country. You know, I'm not against my country. I'm against Trump, I'm against evil, I'm against racism in our country. This is the United States. You know, we influential to a lot of countries around the world. And what we're showing you right now, it's not, it doesn't, it's almost like.
- [61:17]
Nick Valencia
You'Re telling me you feel as though the right has co opted this and you're taking the flag back.
- [61:21]
John Tester
Yes, of course, of course.
- [61:22]
G
You know, like this is not what America is about. It's not what America is about.
- [61:25]
Jim Acosta
America is, damn straight.
- [61:32]
G
For a better life. You know, that's what we're about. You know, I'm not, I'm not against, I'm not against nothing. I'm against, I'm against racism. Yes.
- [61:42]
Nick Valencia
Thank you so much for your voice. We really appreciate you and you. You know, he is just a microcosm and just one small example of the passion that we're seeing out here. And as people drive by, you're hearing them scream and shout and support, you know, you're seeing countless numbers of cars come through and cop it, honking the horns, you know, very spirited people throwing their thumbs up right now. You know, this car that I'm looking at has an upside down American flag hanging outside of its window. And then you have this crowd here that plans on being here for as long as it takes for things to change. Jim.
- [62:14]
Jim Acosta
Nick, great job out there. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Thank you for showing that you have Patriotic people protesting. The last time I checked, protesting is patriotic in America. But Nick Valencia, great to see you again. Thank you so much, Jim.
- [62:28]
Nick Valencia
Journalism at its best is an active service. And that's why right here, we're giving a voice to the people and using our platform to help.
- [62:34]
Jim Acosta
Love it. Thank you, Nick. Keep doing it. We'll do it again. Good to see you, my man. I appreciate it.
- [62:39]
Nick Valencia
Thank you.
- [62:39]
Jim Acosta
All right, that's my pal, Nick Valencia is doing a great job out there covering things. And I'm so glad that he found a gentleman there carrying the American flag because, you know, listen, what was the flag they were carrying? I think I recall there was a Confederate flag or two being flown around the Capitol on January 6th. If we're going to get into flags, we talk about those flags that were being carried around on January 6th. Confederate flags, MAGA flags, Trump flags, not the American flag on January 6th. They were using flag poles to beat police officers on January 6. They were using the American flag as a weapon on January 6th. And so, yes, you might see from time to time a Mexican flag on the streets of LA Donald Trump. But I hope somebody will. Steve Chung is paying attention to this. If Stephen Miller is paying attention, if any of the Stevens over there at the White House are paying attention to this, perhaps they can show Donald Trump that the American flag is also being flown at these protests in Los Angeles. Because the last time I checked, protesting is an act of patriotism. The exercise of free speech is an act of patriotism. And that's what I want to see on the streets all over this country on no Kings Day. Coming up this Saturday, this weekend, carry the American flag, show Donald Trump what this country is all about, that you can both protest and be patriotic at the same time. They are one and the same. It is our God given right as American citizens to make our voices heard. And the President of the United States may think he's a dictator, he may think he's a strong man, he may think he's a wannamy Vladimir Putin, but at the end of the day, he works for the American people. And when the American people want to rise up and speak out and make their voices heard, that's as American as it gets, folks. That is America. And so I want to end on that thought. And my thanks to Senator John Tester, Maritza, Giorgio, the great Steve Schmidt, who is terrific. My friend Nick Valencia out there reporting live from the scene. This is a country of the people, by the people and for the people. And if we want to get into flags. If we want to get into flags, we can have that conversation. We can have that conversation. Because the flag I just saw out there on the streets of Los Angeles, care of our Nick Valencia, was the American flag. It was the red, white and blue. And that flag should be flying at every protest across America this weekend. Show Donald Trump your true colors. When you're out there on the streets this weekend at these no Kings rallies, show Donald Trump what you're all about. That it is as American as baseball and apple pie to make your voices heard. The answer to free speech being under attack in America is more free speech. Ladies and gentlemen. I'm not in D.C. so I'll just say still reporting. I'm Jim Acosta. Have a good night, everybody. Take care. Thanks.