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The Jim Acosta Show
Liz Oyer on Trump DOJ Corruption and James Carville on "It's the Economy Stupid" for the Midterms
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Foreign.
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Welcome to the Jim Acosta Show. It's another day that ends in y in the epidemic of Trump corruption in America. It is plaguing America just about every day. Now. Trump wants the Internal Revenue Service to pay him billions of dollars, which sounds a lot like a bank heist of your tax dollars. Let's discuss with the former DOJ pardon attorney Liz Oyer, AKA Lawyer Oyer. Liz, great to see you again.
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Hey, Jim, good to see you.
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Yeah, I mean, I saw this story. I immediately thought of you because, you know, you and I have spoken so much about what's been happening over at the doj, and it just gets worse and worse every day. I can't, I can't believe that this is actually a conversation, but it's in the New York Times that the Justice Department is holding internal discussions about settling Trump's lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service in the coming days. This could happen soon. A move that could involve the government directly providing taxpayer funds or another public benefit to the President. It is, it is basically a situation where he could get a settlement of some $10 billion. And this is over his lawsuit over the leak of the Trump tax returns, which showed up in the New York Times about six years ago and showed that he basically wasn't paying any taxes. The other thing that could happen in all of this, Liz, is that these IRS audits could just be dropped, which could also come to his benefit. And I'm just curious what your take is on all of this. To me, it's just another example, another glaring example of Trump corruption in America.
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A
Yeah. So let me explain exactly what's going on here in Jim. Donald Trump filed what is a frivolous lawsuit. He filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department asking to hold them liable for a government contractors leaking of tax returns. These were not just Trump's taxes tax returns. The tax returns of many wealthy Americans were released improperly. That government contractor pleaded guilty to a crime and is serving a prison sentence. And now fast forward about six years after that happens. Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit asking for $10 billion. There's a couple of problems with this. One is there is a statute of limitations that applies here that says that if you have a claim that your tax returns have been improperly disclosed, you have two years to file that claim. And Donald Trump is way past that statute of limitations. So this case should be thrown out by a judge without any further consideration. But two is the fact that the law is very unclear that the federal government is even liable for these actions by a government contractor. And the sum of $10 billion that he is claiming is totally untethered to reality. If every person whose tax returns had been leaked in that disclosure were claiming $10 billion, I mean, we'd be paying out hundreds of billions of dollars. So it's really just a ludicrous sum of money that has no basis in law. And it's the type of case that should immediately be thrown out. But because this is Donald Trump, and Donald Trump has made it clear that he calls all of the shots at the Justice Department. The Justice Department is entertaining, entering into a settlement agreement with the president for a lawsuit that is completely frivolous. I want to call this a shakedown. But a shakedown implies that there's some level of resistance. His Justice Department is willingly making themselves complicit in what is really just a straight, flat out theft of taxpayer money, of your money, my money, our money. He is just dipping into taxpayer money and taking it for himself.
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Yeah, I mean, it seems like a bank heist. I mean, it's almost like a movie plot. Let's just steal, you know, money from the federal government. Let's steal it from the irs. I got a great idea here. You know, let's do it.
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Bank heist. If you don't, the teller. The bank teller's in on it. The security guard at the door is also in on it. Everybody is conspiring to. To steal the money from the bank. There's nobody who's actually putting up any resistance, which is just what is so problematic about the entire Justice Department under Donald Trump. He has installed his personal lawyers, people like Todd Blanche, to lead the department. And he signed an executive order that said that the Justice Department and all of its employees must agree with his interpretations of the law. It is prohibited to disagree with the president's interpretations of the law, which is absolutely nuts. But it leads to situations like this where the President says, I have a $10 billion claim. And the law says, no, you don't. This is completely frivolous. But Donald Trump says that it is. And everybody in the Justice Department has to pretend like they don't see that the emperor has no clothes. And maybe Donald Trump, in fact, should get $10 billion of our tax dollars.
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B
Yeah. And something that people don't understand is that, you know, and I think folks who watch the show probably are aware of this. But, I mean, I remember this going back to the 2016 campaign. We would. We reporters on the campaign trail would be with Donald Trump when he's running for president. Hey, you' release your taxes. And he came up with this excuse, oh, no, I'm under audit. I'm under audit Now. Maggie Haberman once did a book, you know, she's with the New York Times, once did a book that basically laid out that Trump just came up with his excuse on the fly, that it, you know, it wasn't something that was really, you know, processed very much by lawyers or advisors, or he just said, you know, if I just tell people I'm under audit, they'll buy it. And that's what he's been saying ever since. And the New York Times, they, you know, they got a hold of his tax information, I think it was in 2020, they reported that it basically looked like he wasn't paying very much in terms of taxes. And then a few Years later, in 2024, there was this whole investigative thing in the New York Times that said that, you know, basically, if Trump, you know, had to pay, if the. If the audit. Audit came to a, you know, a conclusion and he had to pay, it could be in the neighborhood of $100 million. And so the other part of this is that the DOJ could say, as part of this legal settlement with Trump, okay, well, the audience. The audits just get dropped, which means he also gets away with not paying his taxes.
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A
Right, Right. Even if they don't pay him cash, that would be a very valuable resolution that would have a cash value to him. And the fact that the Justice Department is even talking about a settlement of any of any sort is pretty shocking. And the judge who is overseeing this case is onto this. So she did something really interesting that I just want to talk about for a minute. This. This judge has ordered Trump and the Justice Department to submit briefs on the question of whether she actually even has jurisdiction over this case. What she has flagged is a constitutional doctrine. It's something known as the case or controversy doctrine, which says that courts can only hear disputes between parties that present legitimate disputes between adverse parties. Where there's actually an adverse party, you can't have a collusive dispute and have a court adjudicated. So she wants to know, is Donald Trump actually adverse to the Justice Department, which he has sued, given that he controls the Justice Department? So she has really strongly signaled that she thinks that this lawsuit is BS and that it's not something that a court should be able to hear. And she, in fact, has asked some very prominent lawyers, including Paul Clement, who was a former Solicitor general, and John Gleason, who's a former federal judge, to brief this issue to Give an independent perspective, because she doesn't trust the parties on whether this is the type of case that a court should be able to hear. And in the meantime, because that briefing is due in one week, the Justice Department is trying to pull the rug out from under the judge by reaching a settlement with Donald Trump, which would mean that the judge would not have the opportunity to throw this case out. A private settlement is something the court doesn't have jurisdiction over. So this judge is onto the fact that this is phony and she was trying to use legal process to address it. But the Justice Department is racing against the clock to beat her to the punch and make a payout to Donald Trump before she has the opportunity to throw out his case.
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Right. I mean, that's, that's the thing that's happening with this, is that the doj, I guess the people who are handling this, they're aware that the judge is reaching a conclusion on all of this very soon, a ruling on this all very soon. So they're racing to get ahead of her is essentially what's happening, you know, you know, the Todd Blanche Files. Maybe we should just come up with a recurring segment on the show called the Todd Blanche Files. But it is remarkable, ever since he became the acting Attorney general, how this is just playing out on almost a daily basis where there's just another example of how he's acting as Trump's personal lawyer. I mean, this was just something that Trump said just the other day that, you know, this was a couple of days ago. Trump was showering praise on his acting attorney general. This was on Monday. Said he had done a great job since he was elevated to the role of, of acting Attorney general. And, and, and this is what he said. He said, I knew it because he kept me out of jail for years. Donald Trump said he kept me out of jail. They would indict me left and right, the crooked Democrats. And I mean, it's, it's kind of incredible that that's, that's how he views the Attorney General of the United States.
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A
Yeah, he views Todd Blanche as his personal attorney because he was and still is operating as his personal attorney. And as far as Blanche goes, I mean, I, I don't say this to be funny, Jim, but he is behaving like a trained seal. He is who claps on commands. Donald Trump says clap, and Todd Blanche claps. And we have seen that time and time again. This is not Donald Trump's first lawsuit against the Justice Department, by the way. He filed a previous lawsuit for 230 million, alleging that he was improperly subjected to raids at Mar A Lago. He also has had Blanche orchestrate settlements of lawsuits filed by his allies. There was a recent lawsuit that was filed by Carter Page, who was a Trump ally during the Russia collusion investigation. He got a $1.25 million settlement from the Justice Department for a case that, like Donald Trump's, was thrown out by a court. A court said the statute of limitations had passed. Michael Flynn got a settlement from the Justice Department for a completely meritless case. So Donald Trump is essentially using Todd Blanche to pay his friends out of our money, which is very problematic. He is treating it like it is his money. He is treating Todd Blanche like he's his personal attorney. None of this is serving the American people in any way, shape or form.
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B
And I did want to just ask you very quickly. I mean, we're seeing the DOJ targeting journalists again. This was in the Wall Street Journal. This was a very disturbing story. Trump privately complained to Acting Attorney General Tom Blanche about media leaks in the wake of the Iran war last month, prompting an aggressive push at the Justice Department to pursue those investigations. It says Blanche vowed to secure subpoena specifically targeting the records of report who have worked on sensitive national security stories. In one meeting, Trump passed a stack of news articles he and other officials thought threatened national security to Blanche with a sticky note on it that said treason.
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Blanche apparently knew exactly what that meant. It meant investigate who's behind these stories and bring prosecutions for treason, if you can.
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Yeah, I mean, Liz, it's stunning how, you know, how Todd Blanche is behaving as the Attorney General, and I can't think of, for the life of me. I mean, we've had some pretty bad attorney attorneys General over the year. I mean, they haven't all been stellar, but. But Todd Blanche is. He's almost acting like a mob lawyer. A mob boss. An attorney for a mob boss is the way it looks. You know, Trump says, go after Jim. James Comey. Okay, well, let's find a case on James Comey. We want you to go after journalists. Here's a sticky note with treason on it. The Attorney General of the United States is supposed to push back on the President when he wants to violate the Constitution. That's how this is supposed to work.
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Yes. There's something very different about being the Attorney General than being a private lawyer in private practice. As Attorney General, your client is the Constitution and the American people, and you are supposed to make decisions that uphold the Constitution. In fact, you take an oath to do that, your decisions are supposed to serve the people of this country, not any one particular person. But Todd Blanch views Donald Trump as his client, not the people of the United States. And his decisions always have Trump first and foremost in mind, which is really just a very wrong approach to the position of Attorney General, who's supposed to be a public servant, protecting our interests as citizens.
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Yeah. And, you know, I wanted to ask you about one other thing, Liz, because I saw there was this story just a few days ago, and I know it was a few days ago, but this, this notion, and you and I have talked about this before, of pay to pardons. And apparently the Senate and House Democrats have launched an investigation, this, according to cbs, into whether pardons and commutations issued by Trump were driven by Pay to Play dynamics. This is according to letters obtained by cbs. I mean, that, you know, this is something that we've been talking about. It seems to me if the Democrats take control of the Congress, this is going to be another one of those avenues that they're going to have to pursue via congressional hearings.
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Yes, absolutely. The pardon process has, is normally somewhat secretive. It's not very transparent, but it's been especially secretive under Donald Trump. There's no ordinary process through the Justice Department, which has existed in the past. People are going straight to the White House with donations, offers, political favors, investments in Trump's companies. And we really need to unravel all of the corruption that is present. I hope that there will be a deep dive investigation into the corruption of these pardons. I don't think we've seen the last of the pardons. The Wall Street Journal reported today that Trump is in discussions about issuing 250 more pardons over the summer in connection with the 250th anniversary celebration that he is planning. I suspect that he also has pardons already drafted and stashed in a drawer somewhere for people in his inner circle, like his cabinet members and potentially his family members. So we certainly haven't seen the last of this. And we really need Congress to step up and demand more transparency in this area so that we can understand the corruption that is surrounding the pardon power under Donald Trump.
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B
Right. Because, I mean, the situation that appears to be happening in Washington right now is that if you have connections to the White House, to Trump's inner circle, you can come forward with clients who, I guess, are paying these individuals for, to get ahead of the line, to, to get a, you know, to get an audience with the mob boss in chief here. I mean, that That's. That's what it looks like. And, and people are making money off this.
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It's not only incredibly unfair to the people who don't have that access, the deserving people who are waiting their turn, but it also really just clears the way for criminal conduct. If you are a friend or donor or support supporter of Donald Trump, it frees you up to do whatever. We saw that in the case of Michael Flynn. I mean, I mentioned this settlement that he's getting paid. Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to a federal crime, and then he was pardoned by Donald Trump. And now Donald Trump has ordered the federal government essentially to pay him for his troubles for a crime that he pled guilty to in federal court. So it really just sends the message that as long as you back the president all the way, you can go out there and commit whatever crimes you need to do, and Donald Trump will make sure you don't. Consequences. That is an incredibly dangerous and destructive way to run a government.
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B
Yeah. No question about it. Well, Liz, as always, it's Lawyer Oyer. You're on all the socials on Instagram. I mean, you've completely exploded on Instagram. And I noticed the other day that your YouTube is terrific, too. Folks can watch you on YouTube. They can watch you on Substack, and people are just endlessly interested and intrigued by what you have to say on all these subjects. I hope you. I hope you know that.
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I really appreciate that. I hope have something happier to talk about next time.
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I hope so, too. Something tells me we'll have more of this to talk about next time.
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I mean, I think that's probably right.
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More corruption idea that. The idea that. That Donald Trump could go to the IRS and say, hey, here, I need $10 billion and we'll just make this whole problem go away. When he's the guy who has been refusing to release his taxes for years and years, of course somebody's going to leak it to the New York Times, which is exactly what happened. And presidents have been doing this, going all the way back to Richard Nixon and Donald Trump, when we find out what he's paying in his taxes, we find out he hasn't been paying them.
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Right.
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And so of course, he wants to cover it up, but the fact that he wants to get paid for all, it's just. It's kind of incredible how he thinks he can just stick it. He can just stick it to us and get away with it. It's unreal.
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Truly. Mind blowing.
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B
Yeah. All right. Great to see you, Liz, as always. Really appreciate It. You're the best. Thanks so much. And, you know, we're going to get James Carville on here in a moment here, because I got to ask the raging Cajun about some of this stuff. There are lots of connections here between, you know, the corruption that Donald Trump has brought to Washington, D.C. has brought to America, and we're seeing examples of it almost every day. And the way he is talking to the American people about things that are important, like the economy. And so, you know, James, of course, is the one who came up with the expression, it's the economy, stupid. So we're going to get James in here in just a second. My team is, is trying to get him on the line here. But I will tell you that one thing that you need to take a look at right now is we mentioned yesterday that we had visited the golden statue at the Doral Golf Club in Miami, Florida. I just want to show I've been having a lot of fun. I think folks at home have noticed this. All of these, you know, projects that have been launched in Donald Trump's name and honor by the people who work for him. He's redoing the reflecting pool. He's, he's trying to build an arch by the Lincoln Memorial. He's, he's trying to build his own ballroom. I guess somebody asked him about the ballroom and he got really pissed at a reporter. Let's play that, because this is, this is wild. He just got completely, completely flipped out on the.
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So what happened is we have a
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ballroom that's under budget. It's going up right here.
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I've doubled the size of it because we obviously need that, and we're right now on budget. Under budget and ahead of schedule. I doubled the size of it, you dumb person. Double the size. You are.
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You are not a smart person. Size of it. I mean, there he is again. He's, he's flipping out. He's raging out. He's, he's crashing out, as the kids say, on a reporter. They're asking about the ballroom and the fact that the price keeps going up and up and up. The other price tag that keeps going up and up is the reflecting pool project. I'm sure you guys have heard about the reflecting pool project. This is the New York Times. David Fahrenholt over there, he's really latched onto this, and he's done a terrific job. This is apparently now going up in price from where we were when we reported on this a couple weeks ago. Apparently, this started off at $1.8 million is according to the New York Times, the Interior Department last Friday added 6.2 million to the contract's previous cost and say, saying it now planned to pay $13.1 million to a Virginia firm called Atlantic Industrial Coatings to repaint the reflecting pool and paint it blue because Donald Trump wants it to look like American flag blue, if that makes any sense to you. I don't know how that's going to work out. He claims that it's going to look like an American flag. The other thing that we should point out is, of course, there's the no bid contract aspect of all of this. Apparently it was a no bid contract awarded to this, this group, but now some of the work apparently is not up to snuff. This is according to the New York Times that staff members at the Interior Department are now saying that bubbles and small holes are starting to appear in one of the layers meant to waterproof the reflecting pool. And it says this is according to New York Times, an uneven application of the tinted waterproofing left the pool mottled in varying shades of blue. The documents indicate this, according to documents that I guess are going back and forth about the reflecting pool project. And, you know, I guess that the memes are starting to come in fast and furious and all of this. I, there's, there was an astute viewer out there who, who put in one of the comments when I posted about this, this, this image of, of Bill Murray from Caddyshack, the reflecting pool project. Obviously that's a Photoshop. That's billboard Caddyshack standing in the reflecting pool, the empty reflecting pool. And it of course, evokes the scene from Caddyshack when he has to clean the swimming pool at the, at the country club when somebody drops a Baby Ruth bar in there. And I just have to share one other meme. Of course, you guys saw yesterday, we went down to the Doral Golf course, which they told me, they, they, it says on the Internet that it's open to the public. So I was like, I cannot believe how crazy this golden statue is of Donald Trump. And I have to go see it in person because I'm in Miami. And I'm like, well, you know, I could go to the beach. I can go have a mojito, I can go have a Cuban coffee, or I can go see the golden statue. So we saw the golden statue. But then there's some other folks who said, here are, here are our ideas of what the golden statue should actually look like at Doral. I think this would be a much better representation of the true Donald Trump as he lives and breathes today and snoozes today. This is Donald Trump in a, in an easy chair. Looks like some kind of lazy boy. Perhaps it's a recliner of some sort. I don't think it's the chair at the Resolute desk. But anyway, there's Donald Trump napping there, and somebody made a golden statue of Donald Trump napping there. We're trying to get James on. I'm, I'm hoping that this is going to work out. My team is saying we've texted the link to him. He's having some technical issues. We're going to get to him shortly. But let's go ahead and walk through now with all of that going on, with all of, you know, with Trump, you know, building all of these things in his honor. He, he has a statue at the Doral Golf Club. He's, he's building a ballroom. I don't know it. I flew over the ballroom when I was heading down to Florida, and it's still a hole in the ground. So I guess they're not technically building. They're trying to build a ballroom. And he's also repainting the reflecting of pool blue. But as he's doing all of these nutty things, he's not paying attention to the economy. And Axios, and I just will say Axios has been, they've been pretty nice to Donald Trump. The way they report on Donald Trump is. I mean, it's pretty positive about Donald Trump. It's, you know, it's Axios, but this is how Axios is describing the economy right now. The bottom is falling out on the Trump economy. And it goes like this. This is the Axio story. Trump flew to Beijing on Tuesday under some of the darkest economic clouds of his political career, leaving behind a country reeling from the cost of everyday life. And this is the way the Axios folks are describing it. The bottom is falling out on Trump's economic credibility. The central promise of his return to power, the inflation crisis that doomed his predecessor, suggests he may not recover. A new CNN poll found that 70% of Americans disapprove of Trump's handling of the economy, a benchmark that never crossed 50% in his first term. 70% of Americans don't like the way he's handling the economy. 77% of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, say Trump's policies have driven up the cost of living in their own community. A majority of Republicans now say that Trump's policies have driven up the cost of living in their own community. It sounds like maybe James got on there. Is James there? James, are you there?
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C
I'm here. Give me. I need 90 seconds.
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B
All right, you got it, man. All right. James needs 90 seconds. We can give him 90 seconds, but I just want to keep going through this economic data because, listen, I mean, this is. Again, this is the Axio story for now. Trump appears unconcerned, convinced that renewed inflation is temporary and that gas prices will plummet once the Iraq war ends. He was asked about how Americans are doing with the economy, and he gave this ridiculous response to reporters as he was getting ready to leave for China. Let's play this and talk about it on the other side. Let's play Donald Trump if we can. We have that sound bite. Let's play Donald Trump.
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C
American financial situation. I don't think about any. But I think about one thing.
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You cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.
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That's all. That's the only thing.
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B
So if you heard that there, he says Americans financial situation. I don't think about that. I'm thinking about Iran and whether or not they're going to have a nuclear weapon. First of all, they were not close to getting a nuclear weapon. We've talked about this show on the show ad nauseam. You talk to any expert on this issue, they will tell you that Iran was not on the verge of having a nuclear weapon. Did they have nuclear ambitions? Yes, but they did. They were not going to have a nuclear weapon anytime soon. And so Trump is parroting a lot of talking points there. But now the Democrats basically have the sound bite of the 2026 midterm cycle. There's James Carville. James, my man, how you doing? Gave you the gift of the year.
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C
Yes, I. I had to read it twice. Then he just. Then he said he didn't really care about the war on Iran.
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B
He said that, too. James, tilt the camera towards you just a touch, just so we can see the whole thing. This way, the other way, the other way. Okay. See more of your. There we go. Okay, perfect, my man.
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C
Okay.
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B
And I mean that. That, to me is that's got to be in every ad from here to November, right?
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C
I suspect it's going to be in about 75% of them. But the truth of the matter is he's telling you the truth. He does not care. All he cares about is going to China and making him and his friends money. Look at who's on the airplane. Look at who he's taking there.
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B
Elon Musk.
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C
Yeah, he does. And God knows who. If you go through the manifest when it lands. This is not about the people or price at the gas pump around. Of course it started the war and he got bored with it. It was unnecessary. It. And he's gone over there humiliated that he can't beat Iran in a war while Ukraine is beating the snot out of the Russians. I mean, the Chinese got to be looking at him almost in giggling.
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B
Yeah, it's a gift to China. No question about Xi Jinping has got to be grinning about this.
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C
Democrats are grinning, but the American consumer is not grinning.
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B
No, no. And when 70% of the American people say that, that the president is doing a poor job on the economy, that's not good. This is, this is exactly what you, this is how you coined the phrase. It's the economy, stupid.
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C
In this one. He doesn't care. And when the stupid Republicans in the Congress and the Senate, they're starting to dawn on him he doesn't care if to get reelected or not. It's the last thing that he cares about is the Republican Party and they've entered into a marriage where they want to keep it together. And the guy, another part in the marriage, doesn't give a crap. Yeah, he just doesn't.
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B
He doesn't. And Mike Johnson, Mike Johnson was asked about it. Let's play. He was asked about Trump making this comment and he did not know what to do with it. Let's. We should play this. Let's play it real quick. We got it. We should play it.
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C
Sure.
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B
Mike Johnson clip, if we got it.
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Was asked about whether American's financial concerns were motivating him to make a deal with Iran. His response was, I don't think about Americans financial situations. Do you think that's the right message?
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B
I don't know the context in which he made that comment, but I can tell you the President thinks about Americans financial situations. I talk to him on average twice a day, sometimes three or four times a day. And we talk about it constantly. He's laser focused on. Yeah, James, that's about, that's about the same as. I didn't read the tweet.
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C
I don't much care for Mike Johnson. We're both from the same state, different parts. Our politics are really different. At some point I feel sorry for the guy. He's in over his head. He knows he's going to be out in November. He's trying to just cobble together something and just keep himself from being humiliated in public. And he's not going to be able to stop it. He's kind of a tragic figure in all of this. I really believe that. I've attacked him on, numerous times before. I don't think it's what, what he would say the Christian thing to do here. I think we should give him a, a nice burial because he's dead.
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B
And, but you know, what do you think, James, about Trump? He's, he's got this reflecting pool project, he's got this ballroom project. They made a gold statue of him down at the Doral Golf Club. And I mean, this is some, this is some batshit Kim Jong Un's stuff.
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C
He does not not care, okay? He, he likes gold things, he likes gold toilets, he likes monuments. Maybe they ought to put a, a 80 foot gold statue him, under the condition that he leave office. I mean, in the reflecting pool. Then he says, well, it's not going, it's my pool guy now. He doesn't know the guy in. It's only getting worse. I mean, think of where it was 60 days ago and then try to think, oh, it's gonna be 60 days from now. I mean, he's deteriorating. Yeah, it really deteriorating.
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B
Yeah, no question, no question about it. And you know, my, my thought on all of this is that, you know, he almost acts as though he, like you said, he does not care, but I mean, really, he does not care. He does not, like, just doesn't.
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C
That's not an act.
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B
It's not an act.
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C
It's not that he doesn't care about the American people. He doesn't care about Iran, doesn't care about Republicans in Congress. He literally only cares about, about money and his ego. And I, I couldn't tell you which is 1 and which is 1A. Yeah, but that's all.
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B
Yeah.
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C
All of the people that thought otherwise are just sitting there feeling stupid right now. I mean, John Thom. Corn and Bill Cassidy, they're trying to do everything they can. He didn't care. That's the main message.
- [30:34]
B
Yeah. And James, how worried are you about this redistricting stuff? You're in Louisiana. You know, they're, they're, you know, you take a look at states across the south. You know, Tennessee, Louisiana, Florida. They are trying to redraw these congressional maps in ways. The Supreme Court is handing it to the Republicans in ways that could result in the Congressional Black caucus as maybe 19 fewer black members of Congress as a result of all of this. Virginia, they got slapped down by the Virginia Supreme Court, and yet these Republican states can do it. What's going On Well, I mean, what's
- [31:11]
C
going on is you have a Republican supreme court that expedited the rule and that waived a 30 day rule to do everything that they can to help the Republican party. The Supreme Court frankly is corrupt. It's a corrupt branch of government. And the Democrats are going to have to deal with that in 2029 when they take office. But in the meantime, they think they've created all these Republican districts. They're going to find out that they're going to lose some of these. In Virginia they could lose two, maybe three seats even under the old map. And in Louisiana, it's one of the most difficult states for Democrats. But I mean Troy is going to keep his seat in that old Cleo seat, that Baton Rouge seat. Be careful that, that thing. If the Democrats get the right candidate, they could pick up a congressional district in Louisiana. But they got to be very. We don't have a lot to choose from, but you got to be very careful. The same thing is, is true in a lot of other states. Texas, they may not gain anything from, from creating five more Republican districts because if you create a more Republican district, the only way you can do it is poach Republicans from another district.
- [32:20]
B
Right.
- [32:21]
C
And right now we run in eight to 11 points ahead of party ahead of the average. If that maintains itself, they might German themselves into oblivion. I mean there's a good piece in politico by Jonathan Martin on this.
- [32:36]
B
Right, exactly. That dummy mandering that they may make these Republican districts more competitive.
- [32:42]
C
Correct?
- [32:43]
B
Yes.
- [32:43]
C
And then, and it may create in a, in a big year which it looks like every indication is coming, it may, it may blow up in their face. Let's wait and see.
- [32:52]
B
So you don't lose a lot of sleep over this, James, or what do you think? Because you and I have talked about this before.
- [32:56]
C
I, I do lose sleepover. I lose sleep that. I mean we're going to win this year. But in future, by the way, the big thing we ought to cover are these state legislatures because they're going to be redrawing. All this stuff is coming up in 30, 31. I guess it is 32.
- [33:12]
B
Right.
- [33:12]
C
When they go with the new census number. So this is, you know, Jim, for all of my life in politics, voters would pick politicians. The thing that's changed now in the U. S of course, is that politicians are picking their voters.
- [33:25]
B
Yeah.
- [33:25]
C
And people don't like it. This is unpopular. Spamberger had to do it. But it hurt our popularity and the, the public is uncomfortable with this and the Story has to be told. No one ever thought of this until they did. Until Trump started doing it in Texas.
- [33:40]
B
Yeah. And could this enrage people enough where it actually backfires and it motivates people to go to the poll?
- [33:46]
C
It might. It might. I think these, I think, I've always thought in these voter suppression laws, we should tell people they're doing everything they can to keep you from voting. Anytime you tell people they can't do something, it makes them want to do it more.
- [34:00]
B
Yeah.
- [34:01]
C
And I would tell a story. And I was a high school head of sound system was installed and Monsignor came. I was all boys school. He said under no conditions is anybody to go to the Grand Theater in Washington. Sorry. Steamy sexy movie called Godzilla. Well, they had a stampede, which I led.
- [34:20]
B
Might as well take out a billboard, right?
- [34:22]
C
Yeah. Just assume. Couldn't get better ad in a Monsignor telling you not to go see it because it was brass ball. Yeah. Good idea.
- [34:28]
B
But I mean, there is something that's really undemocratic about this. There is something that feels like they're trying to steal this midterm cycle. I don't see how the numbers work out for them in the House. And I, and I, I still think the Senate is in play. And redistricting, it doesn't really affect Senate seats. Correct. So, I mean, so you know, the Senate is still very much in play.
- [34:49]
C
So let me give you some facts here about democratic and undemocratic. 18 of the United States elects 52 senators. All right. That's in the Constitution.
- [34:58]
B
Yeah.
- [34:58]
C
The two thirds, the Republicans have won a popular vote in president's election. Two out of the last seven.
- [35:05]
B
Right.
- [35:05]
C
They have three. Two thirds of the Supreme Court. Right. Right. Now, in order for the Democrats to take the House, according to G. Elliot Morris, who's pretty good at this kind of stuff, they need to win by 4%. I mean, you can call this a democracy in the Supreme Court is doing everything it can to make it even less Democratic. So we got a rigged Senate, a rigged house in a rigged court.
- [35:33]
B
Yeah.
- [35:33]
C
And we might. And when we win anyway, we need to de. Rig it.
- [35:39]
B
Yeah.
- [35:40]
C
That's my point. You, you can't go. Keep going under the system. It just. If people are not getting what they want in government.
- [35:49]
B
Well. And I think it's, it's also becoming a kleptocracy when you see headlines like Donald Trump wanting the IRS to pay him $10 billion and that the Department of Justice. Yeah.
- [35:59]
C
Yes. But what the amazing thing is they're doing right in front of our faces because he don't care. That's the main thing. You, you got to understand, he knows he's toast. He's like, at the end of any empire, there's massive corruption. I'll never forget the empire government in South Vietnam, it was standing on getting rescued. But bags of gold to go to Geneva, it's coming down. And the, the corruption is just, it's breathtaking. But hopefully we'll have an accountability here next year.
- [36:34]
B
Yeah. And James, how much do you worry about the Democrats fighting with one another, especially over Israel? A little bit.
- [36:44]
C
Okay, that's. That, that's an understatement.
- [36:48]
B
Yeah.
- [36:49]
C
And the reason that most people become a Democrat, at least the reason I did, I think it's true. We don't dislike anybody. We're not against anybody. I mean, when I'm, you know, at my age, it was all white and black growing up in the Jim Crow south. But I love Israel. I don't, I don't get it. And I don't have anything against, I like Palestinian people. That's some of the nicest people I know. If people spent as much time and it could have been reconciled. Bill Clinton and Ehud Barack had this thing totally under control. The neocons killed it. They want to go back to it. There's a way to do this. If we had a president that would lead us and this anti Semitic stuff is just, it's sickening, man. It's a real problem. It's not a made up problem. It's a real, real, real, definitely problem. And it's, it's getting worse. And the fact that there are some Democratic aligned people, most of them are not Democrats. All right, that, that's when it would drive me crazy. When they were protesting Joe Biden at Columbia and it was, or we thought they were saying, hey, hey, ho, ho, genocide, Joe must go. And the Democrats were getting blamed for that. A lot of these people are not Democrats. Understand that. And they're just, I think people are worried about it, they're sick about it. You know, the ravages of anti Semitism are all too recent to not pay serious attention to this and not think it's a, it's a, it's a real problem.
- [38:25]
B
Could have cost a Senate seat. Could have caught, maybe it could cost anything.
- [38:29]
C
Yeah, but, but I don't, I don't want to be part of a political party that, that tolerates hatred or sometimes encourages it. I don't think that's where a majority of Democrats are Mean, to be fair, certainly not where a majority of Democratic officeholders are, but these loudmouths are getting hurt above everybody else. And then this is not a good idea. This is a terrible idea.
- [38:54]
B
Yeah. And I think that, I think it's healthy to have a debate and, and have that debate, talk policy, talk about all of that. But we're just going at each other, you know, at their throats, going for their jugular and calling them names and that kind of thing and, you know,
- [39:10]
C
attack the government of Israel all you want to. I don't like it. I can't stand it. But I like to state Israel. You can't conflate the regime with the people.
- [39:20]
B
Yeah. And, but James, I mean, but at the end of the day, you know, and people get distracted that, you know, I think there are lots of these issues that folks will get distracted on or get caught up in and want to talk about it all day long. But to me, the bottom line is, is that you have a commander in chief. You have a president of the United States who is an autocrat. He is, he is an authoritarian, and he is trying to escape accountability. And I think that, you know, I know you and I have disagreed on this before, where you. I, I think he will try to meddle in these midterms.
- [39:56]
C
I don't know if I ever said he wouldn't try.
- [39:58]
B
Yeah.
- [39:59]
C
Because he, he knows what's coming.
- [40:02]
B
Yeah.
- [40:03]
C
But, but I do think it's good that we're all warned, keep talking about it so people. Well, when it happens, they're ready to react to it.
- [40:12]
B
Yeah.
- [40:12]
C
He's not going to have the element of surprise. That's one thing that's taken away. We know that's true.
- [40:17]
B
But the idea that National Guard troops could be waiting at polling places, that ICE officers could be waiting at polling places, you know,
- [40:26]
C
I mean, courts have, the courts have done pretty good. The lower courts have done pretty good. Trust me. They had Democratic lawyers on call all over the country.
- [40:37]
A
Country.
- [40:37]
C
And there's going to be all kinds of filings and injunctions and God knows what not. But before they're allowed to do this, I, I, but that, I'm pretty sure I'm positive now whether they let them get away with it. The Supreme Court does, of course, Supreme Court said you can sell pardons. There's nothing wrong with that. So if that's the case, which it is, it might be the. When the executive is allowed to sell services that are constitutionally granted to him. I don't know. That's not a good Sign I don't think.
- [41:08]
B
And what's the one race that you're looking at that, that everybody else is not looking at right now? I think the last time we did this you were talking about Lindsey Graham. You, you thought that Lindsey Graham could go down South Carolina.
- [41:17]
C
I think Annie Andrew is a strong candidate to rid the race. I'm really looking hard at and having a fundraiser in Washington. I'm trying to go to it is Scott column in Mississippi. I think no one really understands how close Mississippi is to electing a Democrat statewide. I helped Brandon in 2023. I think we came within 2.4 and Biden was president. Trump is not overly popular in Mississippi. It's a big delta's a lot of agriculture. There's a lot of port activity in south Mississippi. It is the blackest state by population and if Scott can get black contribution if it was accurately reflected population be about 38 and a half. If he'd get it to 34, he can win this stuff Interesting.
- [41:59]
B
What's, what's his, what's his name again? We'll have to get him on column.
- [42:02]
C
C O L O M. He's a district attorney in northeast Mississippi. He gets a black candidate gets elected a majority white district. He's a prosecutor. His dad was a very influential black Republican. A close, close friend of sense to Thad Cochran. But Scott's a good candidate. And Cindy Hyde Smith by the way, to say she's dumb in concrete is, is to overestimate concrete. I mean she, she's there to make Tommy Tuberville look smart. I mean she's really that dumb. She, she. No, I mean in all honesty one
- [42:36]
B
of you nicest way possible. Of course.
- [42:38]
C
Yes. Well just pull up a picture of her the Jefferson Davis house.
- [42:42]
B
Yeah.
- [42:42]
C
Okay. And tell me how, how dumb she is.
- [42:46]
B
Yeah. Yeah. Well James. And if it doesn't all work out, you can come to Washington. You can see the new arch, the new ballroom, the reflecting pool. I can't wait however else they change screw up this city.
- [42:58]
C
All right, Big Jim. All right.
- [43:00]
B
Thanks, James.
- [43:00]
C
All right. Thank you, man.
- [43:02]
B
I appreciate it.
- [43:03]
A
All right.
- [43:03]
B
That's James Carville, the raging Cajun. He was doing some raging today. Oh my goodness. Always appreciate James coming on the show and I think he probably made some, some clips out of that appearance. Folks, I, you know, I just have to tell you, you know I, and I, I thought about doing this as a, as a straight to camera vertical for, for Instagram and some of the socials but I'm just going to say it Here I, you know, I was down in West Palm beach yesterday and we covered pretty much gavel to gavel, this spotlight hearing, this shadow hearing, as they call it, that the Democrats and the House Oversight Committee were holding on Jeffrey Epstein hearing from the Epstein survivors. And it was being held in West Palm beach by the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee. If you missed it, the, the. I still have the hearing up on my sub stack on my YouTube. You can go and find it. I think it might be up on Apple podcasts and other places you can go listen to it. It was absolutely riveting. It was absolutely stunning. It was incredible to hear from these survivors what they've been through, how they were failed by multiple administrations, Republican and Democrat. I mean, they were saying some not so great things about Merrick Garland. I mean, let's just, you know, you know, when the Republicans say, why did Merrick Garland do anything about it? Democrats at this hearing saying. And the survivors were saying, yes, exactly. Why wasn't Merrick Garland doing anything about it? Why wasn't Merrick Garland doing a lot of things? Is another question that we could also bring up. But it was an incredible hearing in that we heard from these survivors themselves giving their testimony to members of Congress. And you know what? The Republican chairman of that Committee, James Comer, has not done that himself, has not held a hearing as part of his, his job as the chairman of the Oversight Committee to hear from survivors in the biggest sex trafficking ring in American history and possibly the history of the modern world. And it is a dereliction of his duty. And, and we talked about all of this yesterday, but that's not really what I wanted to get into. What I really wanted to get into. What I'm really pissed off about, I was pissed off about this last night. I posted about a little bit. I was pissed about it in the middle of the night when I woke up. I was thinking about it and I was pissed about it again this morning when I woke up and how little coverage it got from the mainstream press. Now, my friends over at Ms. Now were there. They covered it. Lisa Rubin was there. She did a fantastic job. The other networks were not there. The local media, they were there from South Florida. And that's all well and good, but I didn't see the national press, I didn't see the networks in, in the way that they should be covering this story. When you have survivors of Jeffrey Epstein about a mile or two from his, his compound, his former compound, it's been bulldozed. And there's a different House There now, when you have survivors of Jeffrey Epstein coming out and speaking out the way that they did in front of members of Congress to get their stories told into the Congressional Record Record and the major newspapers of this country, the major networks of this country and wire services of this country are just not doing their jobs and covering this stuff. What is going on in this country? Has Donald Trump so house trained the national news media that they're just not even going to cover legitimate news stories now? That they're not going to cover stuff that is unflattering about Donald Trump that raised all sorts of questions about Donald Trump, Trump in his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. The fact that we still have half of the Epstein files sitting under lock and key being held by Todd Blanche hostage because he knows that his client Donald Trump would be embarrassed probably if the rest of the Epstein files were released to the public. Where was the national media during this talk about dereliction of duty? It's an absolute travesty. It's an absolute violation of, of the, the code of journalism that we're supposed to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. That's what journalists are supposed to do in this country. And Donald Trump, he gets on that plane, he gets on Air Force One, Oligarch one and flies off to China with the head of Nvidia and the head of Apple and the head and, and Elon Musk Musk and all of these other yahoos. All of the other oligarchs are flying with Donald Trump to China. And the press is all covering that. The press is covering Donald Trump going out to the helicopter and saying he's not worried about Americans financial situation in this country. But we're not covering arguably the, the biggest sex trafficking scandal in, in the, in the history of the modern world. And so I was just deeply. It's not like West Palm beach is out in the hinterlands and you can't catch a flight there. There's a goddamn airport. They want to name it after Donald Trump five minutes away from where the hearing was being held. It's a major metropolitan area. And so I, you know, I, you know, I don't mean to go on and on about this, but that really pissed me off and I was, I was really heartened to see members of the independent media there. Friends like Katie Fang, friends like Tara Palmieri. Those folks were there. And you know, that is, that is why independent media is so important. That's why supporting independent media is so important. I know that I, I get on my soapbox and I talk about this now, but I, this is no joke. If you, if you didn't have the independent media that we had it out there, we covered it on, on all of our platforms. It was available to the public live. It was on, I even put it on X. I'm, I put stuff on X now because why should that just be, you know, a right wing cesspool? Let's, let's get the truth out there. Let's put it on that platform. Let's put it on all these platforms. Of course I had it here on, on substack and on YouTube as well. But it, it infuriates me to no end that it's up to the independent media now to give this the, the kind of coverage it deserves. And so I had to get that off my chest. I, I, it was one of those days where I was really disappointed in my, my corporate media, former colleagues, my former colleagues in the legacy media. Do better. Do better. My thanks to Liz Lawyer for coming on today. My thanks to James Carville. My thanks to all of you for watching. Really appreciate it. We're on the road. We, we showed you the golden statue, if only the golden statue was, was true to life and showed Donald Trump as he really is, taking a nap, by and large, on a regular basis. But no, it was, he was standing in all of his glory. We took that in. It was a fun trip down to Florida. Really appreciate everybody tuning in for all those twists and turns down there. We'll do it again tomorrow, but in the meantime, still reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. I'll see you next time.