← The Jim Acosta Show
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- [00:00]
Jim Acosta
All right, welcome, everybody, to the Jim Acosta show. It is Thursday, and I guess the expression of the day or the phrase of the day is two weeks. You've heard Trump push things off before for two weeks, usually for things like the infrastructure bill that didn't happen during his first term. This time he is saying he will decide on whether to go to war with Iran in two weeks. But by then, who knows what the world will look like? That's because the Israelis and Iranians are already at war, and a hot war at that. My big guest today is Connecticut Democratic Congressman Jim. Jim Himes. He is the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. Congressman, good to see you.
- [00:38]
Jim Himes
Jim, thanks for having me back.
- [00:39]
Jim Acosta
Hey, no problem. And we should just get right into this here because, I mean, what do you make of Trump hitting the pause button here? I mean, it sounds like it's an infrastructure bill or a health care bill that he wants to wait two weeks on. This time, it's war. Your thoughts?
- [00:56]
Jim Himes
Yeah, Well, I guess I'm not surprised. Right. And the fact that we're not reading about a US Attack on Iran right now actually gives me a little bit of comfort. I was asked this morning, you know, if you're advising the president, what do you do? And the advice I would give the president is, you know, you are in a point of maximum leverage right now. Right. And awful. You know, the regime has been badly hurt, badly embarrassed. They're probably worried about what's going to happen inside Iran with the Iranian people. So now's the time to call them up and say you give up any enrichment, which, by the way, is the deal from the old jcpoa. And, yes, that had a fuse on it. But, you know, you give up any enrichment, and this stops today. Point of maximum leverage. So, you know, the fact that we're not talking about a US Attack leads me to believe that maybe that's what's happening, which I think is good. Because, Jim, I mean, I'll try to make this quick, but war in the Middle east is a hell of a roll of the dice, right? Oh, yeah. There's some chance you could have the best case scenario, setting aside right and wrong and justice and injustice and all that, there's some chance you could get the dream scenario right, which is that the Iranian people finally decide they've had enough and they overthrow this regime. And you get a situation where this incredibly educated, very capable people decides that we're going to rejoin the company of decent nations. But war in the Middle east, there are 50 other scenarios that range from our naval base in Bahrain and our air base in Qatar being attacked to the fall of the King of Jordan. The king of Jordan is hanging on by his fingernails for a whole bunch of reasons. I mean, I could just go on for an hour about the different scenarios that if you are knowledgeable on the Middle east, you would say, hey, there's some chance of that too. So long winded way of saying if, you know, we can sort of joke about Taco and, you know, everything is two weeks or four weeks or never. But I think when you're talking about war in the Middle east, going slower than rather than faster is not a bad thing.
- [02:53]
Jim Acosta
No, there's no question about it. And keep in mind, this time around, I mean, I also covered the run up to the war in Iraq. And that time around, you had people like Don Rumsfeld and Colin Powell and Sirius. I mean, you might not like the policies that they pursued in the Middle east. And you might think that the Iraq war was a total disaster. I think it was a total disaster. I mean, look at what the ramifications were. Iran was emboldened, it created a power vacuum that created ISIS and so on. But at the same time, you don't have that same kind of intellectual firepower, if you want to put it that way, this time around. I mean, you know, in the Washington Post, it was just written in the last 24 hours that Trump is not even relying on people like Pete Hegseth, his defense secretary, and his Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gappert. And so it makes you wonder, where is he getting the information from? Where is he getting the intelligence and the guidance from? What do you think about that?
- [03:48]
Jim Himes
You know, this is sort of a, you know, gallows humor that I'm chuckling about. I mean, I think it was four weeks ago that I was saying, you know, all right, Peter Hegseth, he of Signal Gate and you know, getting so testosterone up over, you know, F18s launching from the deck target, oh, 600. You know, I kept saying, well, what happens, you know, what happens when the North Koreans are fueling a missile or there's war in the Middle East? Well, you know, now we know the answer to that question. And I'm not sure how I feel about it, you know, if the reporting is, is correct. You know, the president is not listening to Pete Hegseth. Now, I'm glad about that because, you know, Pete Hegseth, you know, I guess he's, he does well on camera, but, you know, this is about as serious as it comes. So, I mean, it does raise the question of who the President is listening to. And let's be humble about this. As you pointed out, you know, the Iraq war going into that. I remember it, I remember it. And, you know, an awful lot of very smart people were saying, we're, you know, the Iraqi people, when liberated, will stand up and form a democracy. This is right. You know, they'll be liberators. Exactly. So, you know, let's be humble about what, you know, the experts will tell the president because, oops, it didn't work out that way. But, you know, look, I just, you know, apparently he's listening to top military brass, which I think is good. There's other perspectives, non military perspectives that I hope he's getting. You know, I've been worried about the, let's call it a poker game between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Donald Trump. You know, I don't think you need to be a master negotiator to figure out the ways that you would get Donald Trump to do what you want him to do. And, you know, Prime Minister Netanyahu is one hell of a chess player. Poker player. Pick your, pick your metaphor.
- [05:26]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [05:27]
Jim Himes
So anyway, back to the original question. Taking this slow and careful is better than going fast and stupid in the Middle East.
- [05:36]
Jim Acosta
Well, there's no question about it. And meanwhile, Caroline Levitt, the press secretary, who in my view is one of the biggest liars in the world, which is an impressive feat given that she is so young and inexperienced, is in charge of giving information to the public. You know, when she says something, it would be wise to assume that the opposite is true. Having said that, she said today that Iran could produce a weapon within weeks. And apparently that's according to the New York Times. And that contradicts what American and Israeli intelligence officials have said in public and what outside experts have concluded. Do we think Iran has nuclear weapons right now? Are they within weeks of producing that kind of a weapon? What do we know?
- [06:17]
Jim Himes
So let me start by saying this, which is, you know, until this time last week when the Israelis launched the attack, there was no indication from our intelligence community that there was a decision to break out. You know, that they were suddenly rolling a weapon into a test bay or whatever, nothing like that. The timing of this thing is very much the timing of the Prime Minister's choosing. And by the way, there's a lot of reasons why you would time it the way that he has if you wanted to accomplish what he's gonna do. But no, and here's where it gets a little bit more complicated. Jim, I don't believe that the Iranians were a week away, you know, weeks away from having usable. We no evidence to suggest that's the case. Now what we do believe that if they did take a decision to sprint for a weapon now and remember, that involves a little bit of refining of uranium because they don't probably have enough for a bomb right now, but that could happen quickly. That it involves actually putting together the mechanism, you know, the actual bomb itself, which, you know, doesn't happen in a matter of days or weeks. It takes some time and then you've got a much larger problem, which is delivery. Right. And this is where there's a lot. You know, look, you could jury rig a weapon and float it on a barge somewhere, but if you're going to actually try to deliver that weapon by a missile, you're a long way away from being there. So, you know, again, there's a lot of fuzziness here, but we shouldn't try to kid ourselves or promulgate the dishonesty that the Iranians were days or weeks away from having a deliverable weapon. That's simply inconsistent with anything I've seen.
- [07:52]
Jim Acosta
Interesting. So when Caroline Levitt is suggesting that or basically saying that, I mean, this is what concerns me because I remember the run up to the war in Iraq and talk of mushroom clouds. We don't want the smoking gun to come in the form of a mushroom cloud. There was that line and so on. And when the drumbeats of war are sounding out of the White House, it is hard to slow things down. It is hard to slow down Washington, D.C. when those drumbeats get going, Fox News gets revved up and the media get revved up and so on. And that's the thing that concerns me. And to hammer home that point, I mean, just in the last 24 hours, 240 people were wounded at a hospital in Tel Aviv from Iranian missiles crashing into a hospital there in southern Israel. That seems to suggest that the Iron Dome, obviously, I mean, people might be under the impression that it's foolproof, that it's bulletproof. That's just not the case. Correct.
- [08:53]
Jim Himes
Yeah, yeah. And again, this gets a little technical, but the Iron Dome is a very specific thing. It's designed to stop rockets coming from Gaza or from Lebanon. Very short range stuff, not very sophisticated stuff. It's not designed and it can't stop intercontinental ballistic missiles. You know, these are the missiles that Iran is launching that hit that hospital. They go into space and they come in at, you know, ungodly speed. And, you know, here's where you've got a calculation that I think, you know, the Prime Minister needs to make, you know, staying away from numbers, if for no other reason than we don't actually know numbers. You know, the Israelis made short work of a lot of Iranian ballistic missiles. It's almost certainly true that between Iran and Hezbollah, whatever they've got left and whatever the Houthis have, it's almost certainly true that those three combined have substantially more ballistic missile capability than Israel has the ability, even working with the US Military, as they have been doing, to defeat. And so you've got a math challenge there. Right? And, you know, I know. I know that my colleagues, some of my colleagues right now are thinking about, you know, how can we make sure that Israel doesn't get put in the position of having to just see ballistic missile after ballistic missile careen into Tel Aviv. But that's a thing. And that may also be part of what caused Donald Trump to pause this thing, right? Yeah, could be.
- [10:15]
Jim Acosta
No, there's no question about it. Because, I mean, if, you know, the US Decides to get in and the Iranians say, well, we're going to just sort of unleash what we can unleash. I mean, it has been written, and I'm sure, you know, this, US Soldiers are in harm's way. The Washington Post says Tehran has warned of swift retaliation if the U.S. attacks. The Iranian defense minister warned this month, All U.S. bases are within our reach and we will boldly target them. And, of course, a lot of this is, you know, who knows how much of this is Baghdad Bob type stuff. They're puffing out their chest, but they seem to have the capability to fire rockets at the Israelis, fire missiles at the Israelis with some success. There aren't Iron Domes protecting all of our soldiers in the region. Far from it.
- [11:00]
Jim Himes
Yeah, yeah, no, that's right. I mean, you know, again, a major air base in Qatar, a major naval base in Bahrain. Bahrain, by the way, is, you know, has an awful lot of Shiite citizens who feel oppressed by the leadership there. Uh, we've got military assets in the United Arab Emirates. I mean. Yeah, right there. And I, you know, I've been in both Qatar and Bahrain, and I'll tell you, when you're there, you know, you can't really see Iran, you know, but you almost can. Right? You know, that little glow on the horizon is, you know, and so, you know, my hope is that that caused the President to slow his role a little bit, too, because the military there would have told him, you know, sir, our people are very good. We've got some defensive capability, but if the Iranians decide to really go to town, there is a meaningful probability of dead Americans. Right. And again, I'm obviously speculating here because I have not been in those conversations, but I know enough about the postures in the region to know that if Iran really put the pedal to the metal, they could cause a lot of damage to US Military assets in the region.
- [11:59]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And Congressman, the other thing I have to ask you is, I mean, have you been briefed on this recently? I see your counterpart in the Senate, Mark Warner, the Democratic ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, basically saying they have not really been briefed as to what the policy is, what the latest is. It sounds as though they haven't really done that. And I know Tim Kaine has also said, you know, we need to have a vote on this. Where are you on all of that?
- [12:27]
Jim Himes
Yeah. So 48 hours ago, I did receive a classified briefing, you know, that I received in virtue of my role on the Intelligence Committee that was pretty tactical. You know, it wasn't about, because remember, our intelligence community is not about decisions of war or peace. It's really about, here's what's happening on the ground. But you raise a really good point. You know, the Constitution isn't too ambiguous about this Congress, and we can have a long argument about war powers and all of that stuff, but it would be a terrible mistake, I think, for the president. And again, maybe this is a factor in slowing his role a little bit. If nothing else, if he's going to roll those dice, he definitely wants the Congress at least apprised. Right. Because if it goes horribly wrong and things have a way of doing that, the Middle east, if it goes horribly wrong and he doesn't even brief the Congress or involve the Congress in any way, it's all his. It is all his. And so, you know, I would hope we go back into session on Monday. I would hope at that point the administration would start, if for no other reason. I mean, I know this administration doesn't care a lot about the Constitution of the United States, which says pretty clearly that we get to make these decisions. But if for no other reasons for cya, they ought to be here saying, here's what we're thinking, you know, we may ask for your, you know, for an authorization to use military force, etc. If for no other reason, CYA would suggest that that's not a bad idea for this Administration.
- [13:48]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And I mean, you know, Mark Warner said I have no idea what our policy is right now towards Iran other than chaos. And I'm the vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee. I mean, it sounds as though that's a fairly, you know, accurate assessment in terms of how folks feel about this. We just don't know what's going on.
- [14:05]
Jim Himes
Yeah, Well, I mean, as you know, I'm Mark's counterpart in the House as ranking member of the Intelligence Committee. And I'm no more, you know, other than this very tactical briefing, which I did appreciate. But again, it was a tactical briefing. Yeah. Nobody's reached out to say, look, here's, here's what we're weighing, here's what we're thinking. And that.
- [14:19]
Jim Acosta
Interesting.
- [14:20]
Jim Himes
That strikes me, you know, let's. Before we get to unconstitutional. That strikes me as politically not very smart.
- [14:26]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And I guess on the constitutional front, I mean, I. Where are you on this? Because, you know, obviously presidents have to have flexibility. And this has been batted back and forth as a constitutional argument for years and years. You know, how far can a president go without the consent of Congress? But it seems in recent administrations from both parties, presidents have basically said, well, we can carry out military strikes and then advise the Congress later. Does that need to be tightened up a little bit in light of who's in the Oval Office right now?
- [14:59]
Jim Himes
I really think it does. And you're right that since Vietnam, the White House has claimed authority in virtue of the commander Chief. Congress, frankly, has not demanded that power because too many Congresses have been, you know, squirrely about actually exercising that power. But here's the way I think about it. We can have a long argument, the constitutional argument about it, but here's what I think. If you're going to take offensive action against a country that does not pose an imminent, and I do mean imminent threat.
- [15:29]
Jim Acosta
Right.
- [15:29]
Jim Himes
Like, you know, if the North Korean bombers are on their way to Northern California, I'm okay with the President acting. Right. Because no, you don't want to call us back. Back in. So an imminent threat. I'm willing to concede that the President has a lot of scope there, but this is not an imminent threat. It's an ugly threat, but it's a long term threat that we've been worrying about for decades. And by the way, we actually stopped with the jcpoa. So this is an instant where an attack on another country without any authorization on the part of the Congress would be pretty clearly unconstitutional.
- [16:03]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And some of this is because Prime Minister Netanyahu is Convinced that the Iranians, or he says he's convinced that the Iranians are this close, you know, from, from basically being at a point where they could pose a nuclear threat to Israel. But I mean, we've heard Netanyahu say that for years. I remember covering this during the Obama administration, during Obama's second term. I was talking about this with Jen Rubin yesterday. I've never seen the Obama people as furious as when Bibi Netanyahu spoke before a joint session of Congress and made these allegations and criticized the Iran nuclear deal. Are we essentially dealing with the consequences of that Iran nuclear deal getting blown up by Donald Trump?
- [16:43]
Jim Himes
Absolutely no. I mean, that in some ways is the really painful thing here. Look, you don't need to have loved the Iran nuclear deal under Barack Obama to acknowledge the fact, the absolute fact that it is the one thing that has slowed Iran's role. They sent all their uranium to Russia. They sent it to Russia. They were abiding by the limitations on centrifuges. And I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that it was the, the perfect agreement, right? I was uncomfortable with the fact that there were, you know, as, as time went by, an opportunity for them to spend more centrifuges. But you know what you do, you deal with that when that time arrives, right? And so here's the one thing that has actually succeeded in slowing the Iranians role. And Donald Trump in his first term is like, goodbye, goodbye. And so, yeah, Donald Trump's decision, urged on constantly by the Israeli Prime Minister, who by the way, it's not been years that he's been saying Iran is very close to having a nuclear weapon. It's been decades that he's been saying, let me not come off wrong. You know, I don't want to underplay the danger of an Iranian nuke, but you were right in pointing out that this is not a new story and.
- [17:48]
Jim Acosta
No, exactly.
- [17:49]
Jim Himes
Donald Trump stopped the one thing, the one thing that was actually holding the Iranians back. And I'll tell you, if you know, there are dead U.S. navy soldiers, you know, four weeks from now, or, you know, American airmen captured by the Iranians in that moment. I mean, he won't need, he'll blame somebody else because this is what he does, of course, but you know, that'll be a moment of real reckoning.
- [18:13]
Jim Acosta
No, there's no question about it. I mean, and you know, for the younger viewers out there, I mean, they just need to understand the American people were lied to in the run up to the war in Iraq. The Public was just absolutely sold a bill of goods. The intelligence was hyped, it was cherry picked. And it is to me, having lived through that experience and covered it, I went to Baghdad, I covered it for a month. I mean, I remember covering Barack Obama out on the campaign trail. This is in part why he won the presidency in 2008, because the American people were so exhausted by the war in Iraq, it postponed and delayed the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the capture of Osama bin Laden. I mean, there were so many just awful consequences from how the aftermath of 911 was handled. It just strikes me as incredible that Donald Trump would be on the edge of this, particularly because out on the campaign trail himself, he savaged George W. Bush. And so he understands these lessons all too well himself.
- [19:12]
Jim Himes
Yeah, that's what's amazing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look, I mean, you know, take a big step back here and, you know, I remember the run up to the Iraq war and yeah, you had, you know, Dick Cheney and Dick and Rumsfeld and all those guys. Yeah, maybe they thought they were weapons of mass destruction, but they made a mistake that this country makes too often, which is. And I, I'm convinced that behind the weapons of mass destruction was the belief that Saddam was. Was a very bad guy and that if we just got him out of the way, we would have a democracy in the Middle east, this remarkable possibility. And Jim, we've been making this mistake since I was a baby. Right? Vietnam, we really believed that if we could just beat the Viet Cong that you'd have a thriving, friendly democracy there. We made that terrible mistake in Afghanistan. I mean, in our lifetime, there's been three, four, five examples of believing. And it's really a mistake of idealism. Right. It's a belief that if we just get the bad guy out of the way, a democracy will flourish. Sadly, as Libya, as Vietnam, as Iraq, as Afghanistan shows you get the bad guy out of the way, more often than not, you're getting a worse guy.
- [20:19]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, no, there's no question about it. And we're not even hearing that idealism being bandied about this time around. I mean, Donald Trump isn't exactly Mr. Democracy, you know, he's not. Well done.
- [20:32]
Jim Himes
Why? I know why. You know, first of all, I don't think he feels it. I think Donald Trump feels a real aversion to nation building. And good for him, by the way, because again, our record is not good. Very little doubt in my mind. And, you know, I think the intelligence community might. Parts of it might disagree with me on that, but very little doubt in my mind that, that, that the Prime Minister's objective is regime change. I mean, look, he's smart enough to understand that if this regime is in place for all the reasons that we talked about at the back end of this thing, they're going to build Obama eventually. And so, yeah, look, I'll, I'll give. I'll. I'll pay Donald Trump that compliment, which is that he's not burdened with the, you know, the belief that the United States can build democracies around the world. I think, I think he's being pushed, you know, and I think he loves the military, and I think he loves the idea of, you know, I think when. I think when the initial attack happened six days ago, I frankly believe that the President was out of the loop. I mean, I know he got told, you know, the way around, but I think, you know, when he saw it going pretty well for the Israelis, I think he decided that he was going to own it. So now all of a sudden, we, you know, we controlled the skies over Tehran.
- [21:34]
Jim Acosta
So, yeah, when he says that kind of stuff, I mean, how do you put any stock in it? You know, this is already a public that. I mean, most of us recognize that the government can lie to you about threats posed by foreign countries after the Iraq experience. And Trump lies. He's the biggest liar in the world. So, I mean, why would. How could he possibly imagine that anybody would have confidence or that the public would by and large have confidence in his ability to prosecute this war? I mean, I don't know. I just. To me, it's almost as though you couldn't write a potential tragedy better than this as somebody who is just tragically unprepared for the presidency, like Donald Trump, who was put back in the White House by some, you know, fluke yet again. And here we are dealing with these kinds of matters. I mean, it's pretty. It's kind of terrifying. Honestly, it worries me.
- [22:29]
Jim Himes
Yeah. Back a million years ago in Signalgate, what was that? Two months ago? And when Signalgate was going down, I found myself thinking like, oh, my God, maybe we'll get through these three and a half remaining years without major crises abroad. And here we are.
- [22:44]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, here we are. Here we are. I mean, 100 to 200 days in, it's just unreal. Well, I appreciate the time. I did notice that last or Tuesday night, two nights ago, Obama was in your home state making one of his rare comments that he does about the political scene. And he was saying that what we're seeing right now is not consistent with American democracy. It's consistent with autocracies. Talking about America right now, it's pretty heavy stuff. And this is what I've been talking about on my show, this backsliding the ice, agents out on the streets, rounding up people, not giving due process, tackling senators. Just a last word from you. What, what the hell's going on right now in your view. You're, you're a serious lawmaker, you're regarded as such. You gotta be worried. I know you, we both like to, you know, we like our dose of gallows humor from time to time.
- [23:39]
Jim Himes
But yeah, look, I mean, this is obviously a very dark place. And you know, you had said that the guy got reelected on a quirk. I'm not willing to accept that this guy got reelected with a majority of the popular vote. And any Democrat who doesn't absorb that look at our approval ratings, which are below 30% and ask themselves some pretty soul searching question is making a real mistake with respect to the next couple of elections. But assuming there are next couple of elections. And look, I've tried very hard not to be alarmist about this. The President has utter disdain for the Constitution. But by and large though he has dragged his feet, by and large, he has abided by the decisions of the courts. I mean, look, look, rewind. Six weeks ago and all we were talking about was Kilmar Albergo Garcia, this guy who got shipped off to an El Salvador in prison. And Donald Trump and all of his people were swearing up and down that he will never, their words never, ever come back to the United States. They brought him back to the United States. Okay, so that may be a thin read, but when you're talking about whether this country remains a democratic republic or becomes an autocracy, I'm grabbing onto all the reads that I can and so far the President is still abiding by court orders. Now what Obama said is right and I wish he would say a lot more of it. Look, I understand that Obama is abiding by the norms that ex presidents don't criticize, you know, current presidents, but guess what? This is different. This is different. You've never seen a president like Donald Trump. And you know, like it or not, it's not going to be Chuck Schumer, it's not going to be the head of the dnc. Barack Obama can play a unique role in galvanizing and aligning and motivating and bucking up Democrats who are in a pretty tough place right now.
- [25:22]
Jim Acosta
Does your party need new leadership? Is that basically what you're saying, Like a new era of leadership, a new kind of leadership, new brand of leadership?
- [25:30]
Jim Himes
Well, remember, where I work, we have a new leader, right? I mean, Hakeem Jeffries is a young guy. He's younger than I am, and he's in the minority. So there's limits to what he can do. What we really need, and this is as much a timing problem as anything else. You know, no party has a truly galvanizing leader until you have a presidential candidate. Right. That's part of our problem right now. We've got a terrific stable of potential presidential candidates. And in the meantime, just to drive this point home, I really do wish that former President Obama would do more of what he did in Connecticut and just say, guys, this is this, you know, be ready. This is not normal. Right. Because there is always a risk of either complacency, like, oh, that's just Donald Trump being Donald Trump when his people throw a senator to the floor and handcuff him. Or there's also a risk of just being overwhelmed. I mean, part of the strategy of these people is to just make sure that the zone is so flooded that you have a hard time focusing on. Like, when was the last time we talked about Medicaid? In the last six weeks, six days, I should say.
- [26:30]
Jim Acosta
Well, he was on the verge of war with Los Angeles last week. Now he was on the verge of war with Iran. Who knows what it'll be next week?
- [26:36]
Jim Himes
But. But. Right.
- [26:38]
Jim Acosta
Congressman Jim Himes, thank you so much. I held you a little longer than maybe I promised to, but we were having a great discussion, so I milked it. So thanks a lot for the time.
- [26:46]
Jim Himes
Thanks so much for having me, Jim.
- [26:47]
Jim Acosta
All right. Good to see you. Thanks again. All right, some interesting comments there from Congressman Jim Himes of Connecticut there at the end of that discussion. And I find it very interesting what Barack Obama said the other day. And I want to talk about it a little bit more. Want to talk about other stuff. I think we've done Iran in a pretty healthy fashion. So let's talk about some other stuff. And I want to pick up on this conversation with my friend Tara Settmeyer, because, first of all, I love her to death. She's a friend of mine, and I think she has a. Just a terrific political mind when it comes to a lot of this stuff. And to me, we're just sort of in a. We're in a weird spot as a country in that the Republicans are in charge, but it's not really the Republican Party, it's the Trump Party. And it's part cult, part hostage crisis. Part of them are true believers. Part of them are they're just being held hostage by Donald Trump. The Democratic Party just seems to not know where to go. It's sort of like when you and a few relatives are in the car and you're trying to decide which way to get to the airport, and instead of putting ways in, you just argue for half an hour over which freeway to take. That's sort of where the Democratic Party is right now. And the congressman's absolutely right. There is a bench, There are some good people who are coming up. And I think we'll make fine candidates. There's no question about it here in the next couple of years. But there is sort of a leadership void right now to some extent, a messaging void. And I don't mean that as a slight against anybody. As the congressman was saying he likes Hakeem Jeffries and so on. But Barack Obama, I think, has picked up on something. And I think the way he talks about it, he just talks about things in such a compelling way. I remember covering Barack Obama when he was president second term. He just knows how to boil this stuff down. And there's my friend Tara. How are you, Tara?
- [28:51]
Tara Setmayer
Hi, Jim.
- [28:53]
Jim Acosta
Good to see you. Thanks for doing this. Happy. Is it one year for the Seneca Project? Is that where we are right now?
- [28:59]
Tara Setmayer
It is, yes. One year. Actually. Yesterday we debuted on Nicole Walls show a year ago. She gave us two full segments. We debuted our time for Choosing ad and the world was introduced to the Seneca Project. Michelle Kinney and I just, you know, trying to do what we can do to help save democracy and protect women's rights. And, and it's just been a year. It has been a year. Holy shit.
- [29:26]
Jim Acosta
What a century this year has been. I was talking to Jim Himes about Obama in Connecticut on Tuesday night. And I guess, yeah, it's a couple days later, but whatever, I'm still thinking about it. And it's, you know, as Jim Himes was saying, you know, presidents typically observe the, you know, unwritten policy that you don't criticize the guy who's in office. And Obama's kind of abided by that. But, you know, for him to go out there and say what we're seeing right now is not consistent with American democracy. It's consistent with autocracies. It is consistent with Hungary under Orban. It is consistent with places that hold elections but do not otherwise observe what we think of as A fair system in which everybody's voice matters. I mean, he went on and on, and he also said that people in government need to do more. It's not just the people taking to the streets like on no Kings Day. He says there also has to be people in government in both parties who say, well, no, you. You can't do that. I. I thought it was important.
- [30:21]
Tara Setmayer
Yeah. I mean, look, I talked about this last night on msnbc and I had a little bit of a different take on it. I mean, I'm glad to see. Well, first of all, for, you know, I like Congressman Himes. He's a good guy. I've interviewed him before. But I also need to just point out that we cannot use terms like typical, normal. What usually happens, like, those things are out the window. I think that's part of the problem with some of the Democrats that are still wishing for the days of yesteryear because the rules don't apply like they used to be. It's not the same. I actually said last night, talking about President Obama's recent comments, I was like, look, he was kind of beating around the bush on some things. Yes, he talked about autocracy. Yes, he talked about, like some people need to. But. But he was very obtuse on who are those people? You know, it was.
- [31:19]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, I hear what you're saying.
- [31:20]
Tara Setmayer
You know what I mean? They were vague critiques. And I said, Listen, 2012 called and wants their campaign tactics back because this is not 2012. It's not 2008. You've gotta be more forceful and speak plain language. This is no time for platitudes anymore. I mean, I'm glad that he's out there now. He's got a huge platform. He's someone that can rally Democrats, I think, who desperately need it, because there's a failure in the leadership of the main Democratic establishment, you know, with Hakeem Jeffries and, And Chuck Schumer and their strongly worded letters and things going on, and. And some of these Democrats are still operating by this. The rules of yesteryear and that we don't have time for that. This is not a time to be cautious.
- [32:04]
Jim Acosta
And I kind of wonder if Obama, deep down thinks, you know, he doesn't want to be a crutch for the Democratic Party, that he thinks, you know, it would be healthier for the Democratic Party to kind of organically find that voice on its own rather than going back to Obama, Obama, save us, and so on.
- [32:24]
Tara Setmayer
Right.
- [32:24]
Jim Acosta
You know, Superman, what the new Superman movie's about. To come out in a couple of weeks. You know, I don't think Obama. I think Obama wants to hang up the cape. You know what I mean?
- [32:34]
Tara Setmayer
You know what, though? We have luxury. You know what I'm saying? Like, I get it if we were in normal times, but we're not. You don't get to hang up the cape now. I'm sorry. If you feel as though that we're losing our democracy to a fascist regime relatively quickly, then I'm sorry. And then the same applies to George W. Bush. Same applies to Bill Clinton. I mean, Clinton has been out there. He hasn't, you know, I mean, he's older now, but like, it applies to all of these guys. Like, I frankly was wondering, where the hell have they all been? They should be out together.
- [33:07]
Jim Acosta
Well, and I wish we had seen that. I wish we had seen that before the end of the last campaign. If we had seen all the presidents get together and say, you guys, we cannot let this lunatic back in the White House. I mean, I was at the center of 20, 2020. I know. And I was at the center for American Progress the other day. And I said, you know, Trump's a danger to this country, full stop.
- [33:29]
Tara Setmayer
Yes.
- [33:30]
Jim Acosta
I don't. It's not hard to say. I know. You say it.
- [33:33]
Jim Himes
It.
- [33:33]
Jim Acosta
We say it. And I guess people say, oh, you've got Trump derangement syndrome. No, you're deranged if you don't see it.
- [33:41]
Tara Setmayer
Correct. I mean, it's like what I mean either. Here's the problem, that there's a disconnect between the sense of urgency and the warnings that are coming from Democrats and then their actual behavior. If you believe that this is a five alarm fire, that we are in DEFCON 1, which I firmly believe we are, then your actions have to match the rhetoric. It can't be. You can't qualify your terms anymore. There are no mincing of freaking words. And frankly, I don't think we're expecting President Obama to be the savior. But the Democrats have not been able to get out of their own way for the last six months. They've been turning in circles. And so if someone, someone's gotta right this ship or maybe shake them into like, like, get your shit together. And I think people were hoping that maybe it would be President Obama. If he's gonna come out a little bit. You can't just come out a little bit. There is no lukewarm defense of democracy now. Like, you don't have the luxury of just hanging out. Simone Sanders, who's A friend of mine, you know, we had a spirited back and forth about this because she made the argument, well, you know, it's not. He did his part. He came out and campaigned. It's not up to him to save America. You know, he put his family out there. And I said, listen, I'm not saying that it's up to him or that he should. Should save anybody, but if he's going. She's like, you know, he didn't have to say anything. I'm like, no, he didn't. But damn it, he should have. And if you're going to say something, don't be fricking milquetoast about it.
- [35:06]
Jim Acosta
Don't. Yeah, don't be. So. Yeah, I mean, and he was. He was really strong out on the campaign trail in both campaigns in 20 and 24. I mean, he did it in 16, too, for Hillary. And, you know, he. You know, I think I remember when I was. I was at the White House covering the transition from Obama to Trump, and I remember how traumatized the Obama people were. They were absolutely traumatized. They could not believe that they were turning the White House over to this. This. I mean, SOB and I, and, and they just saw him as a terrible, terrible person. But the Obamas put on a brave face and they said, listen, this is what America chose. We're going to do this. And they were just as gracious as they could be on Inauguration Day. I was there on Inauguration Day, and Barack and Michelle Obama were just as gracious as they could be. And look at the way Donald Trump has just treated the White House and the presidency since then. I mean, he's on. He is so needy. He's on Truth Social, like in the last 24 hours, going after Fox, his own propaganda network, because they won't give him polls because he can't fix their polls. He basically produces their newscasts, but he's pissed at them about the polls, at the polls for immigration. Now, a new Fox News poll comes out this morning, giving me a little more than 50% at the border. And yet the border is miraculously perfect. It just goes to show you, maybe he is his own worst enemy. And maybe we're gonna be okay because he's gonna do himself in. But, I mean, my God, how needy can you be?
- [36:43]
Tara Setmayer
I mean, the guy is deranged. He's a maladjusted man child whose mother and father didn't love him enough, and he never got proper trauma therapy to deal with it. And now we're all paying the price. He's Got daddy issues and you know, J.D. vance has mommy issues. And so same thing with, with, with Elon Musk. Like they all have mommy and daddy issues. And, and we as, as a society are collectively paying the price because these guys can't get their shit together. And it's like they're, they're like self medicating through their, their intoxication with power. And in the meantime, our democracy is slipping away from us because there are so many people that are enabling it and they've moved from enablers to collaborators. And it's like at this point, this guy, like just on a day to day basis, this normalization, this hyper normalization of Donald Trump's behavior is also partially why we're here. The guy talks like a lunatic, like a special needs lunatic.
- [37:49]
Jim Acosta
Well, sometimes he doesn't sound like, he just sounds like he's not all there. He sounds like he's kind of falling apart at the seams. I mean, there's sometimes when they ask him questions and the stuff that comes out doesn't make any sense. You know, it's like he needs a cookie.
- [38:08]
Tara Setmayer
That's true. He needs a cookie. He needs, you know, he needs to be told everything's gonna be okay, Donnie, you know what I mean? It's like I said, he's a man child, he's maladjusted and, but unfortunately he's also got a certain bloodlust and a thirst for power where the malignant narcissism is so overbearing that he's incapable of doing anything humane or having a cogent thought that involves any type of empathy. And that's very dangerous when you have the power of the nuclear arsenal and the full power of the military and the guys with guns in this country, which is what he's doing now. I mean, it's crazy. And there's no guardrails. I don't know what it's gonna take for people to fully understand and appreciate the fact that there is no one inside his administration to tell him no. Which is why we're where we are. There's no one. And while you've got that and to his mental capacity, like his father had dementia and Donald Trump is scared to death of, of getting, you know, of that happening. And we're seeing, we're seeing the cognitive decline every day. But I don't know, Jake Tapper hasn't written a book yet on that.
- [39:16]
Jim Acosta
Well, I mean, you know, there you can write books about all kinds of stuff Donald Trump is doing these days. I mean, one of them is the civil war in the Republican party and MAGA world, I should say over this Tehran issue, you've got Tucker versus Ted Cruz. You've got Steve Bannon out there. First, Steve Bannon is saying, you know, America does not want a repeat of the Iraq war. He says we can't have another Iraq. He said this yesterday, but he also says MAGA will get on board if Trump attacks Iran. Tara, we heard this during the 2024 campaign. Trump is saying he's the candidate to end the endless wars. I mean, and he had Steve Bannon basically writing this script for him. I mean, this has been the Bannon Trump script since 2016. Sort of this anti war, isolationist, unilateral idea of what this country should be all about. And it creates a lot of foreign policy dangers, quite frankly. But to hear them, just to hear Steve Bannon and Donald Trump kind of reverse course on all of that and toy with the notion that we could go into have an Iran war that would probably last a decade. Are you kidding me? Steve Bannon, do you not have principles? I thought you were somebody who claimed to have principles. Doesn't he call his show the War Room because he fights and battles for his principles, his crazy ass MAGA principles. And he's just willing to sell them out for Donald Trump just for a little access and a phone call every now and then.
- [40:46]
Tara Setmayer
I mean, add him to the list. Yeah, he's never had more relevance in his entire career. And so he's gonna stay and do whatever he needs to to stay in that power circle. You know, he fell in, he fell out of it. He was in it. He was out of it. In it. You know, he self avowed Leninist, this guy. I mean, Steve Bannon, say what you want, he's a horrible, wretched person, but he's very smart and he's very calculating. Way smarter than Donald Trump could ever be. And so it's important to pay attention to what Steve Bannon is saying and doing. Because while there's always something else, they're always telegraphing something else going on. I mean, Steve Bannon was telegraphing January 6th months ahead of time. Months ahead of time.
- [41:27]
Jim Acosta
That's right. Remember he was saying, strap in. You know, all of that stuff. That's.
- [41:30]
Tara Setmayer
You're exactly right. Months and so. But this internecine warfare that's going on between all of them is fascinating because I remember and I know you do too, Jim, when the term forever wars used to be considered a like lefty, progressive, you know, anti military term and tulsi Gabbard was one of those people who was considered far to the left on that. And so she was using the term forever wars to describe what was happening in Iraq and Afghanistan. And Republicans used to get apoplectic about that. How dare you disrespect our troops and our, you know, it's important for soft power for the United States and blah, blah, blah. Well, all that's out the window. And didn't John Bolton lose his job because he was considered too much of a warhawk on Iran?
- [42:12]
Jim Acosta
Exactly.
- [42:13]
Tara Setmayer
What is it? And then we got back to the. It's gonna happen in two weeks. We got the two weeks.
- [42:20]
Jim Acosta
Oh my gosh, it's like the infrastructure bill, it's coming back. It's health care, his healthcare plan. Two weeks.
- [42:25]
Tara Setmayer
It's like the Money Pit. Two weeks.
- [42:27]
Jim Acosta
It is. It really is. It's. It, there's the, it's the, it's the Money Pit in more ways. It's the MAGA pit, perhaps.
- [42:33]
Tara Setmayer
Yeah, that's for sure.
- [42:35]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. But I mean, when, when Bannon says if Donald Trump decides to do that, I know, and particularly his skills as a communicator, that he will come and walk people through it. And the MAGA movement, look, there'll be some. But the vast majority of the MAGA movement will say, look, we trust your judgment. You walked us through this. Maybe we hate it, but, you know, we'll get on board. Steve Bannon, and you were absolutely right in saying that he kind of. He's like the weatherman in MAGA world. He's gonna show you which way the wind is blowing. And that should concern a lot of people out there. If Steve Bannon is trying to normalize and rationalize the idea that we should go to war in Iran and that Donald Trump should lead it, I mean, that sounds like a recipe for disaster. A recipe for disaster, Yes.
- [43:18]
Tara Setmayer
A bigger disaster than we were already living through every day. I mean, this is already a disaster. Now we're gonna add a Middle Eastern conflict with, you know, with Iran.
- [43:28]
Jim Acosta
As Jim Heinz was saying, they're not even a, they're not a threat to the United States. You know, they. In what way do they pose an existential threat to the United States?
- [43:36]
Tara Setmayer
Well, not directly. Right. I mean, I don't wanna get into the whole Iran, you know, the Middle east, foreign policy part of it, but I mean, they are the number the world state sponsored terror through their proxies, you know, with Hamas and Hezbollah and the Houthis and everything. I mean, they're a problem but they haven't been threatening, Right. They haven't been a direct threat to the United States in a very long time, although they did finance a lot of killing of American soldiers overseas, particularly in Iraq.
- [44:01]
Jim Himes
So I think, well, they're bad dudes.
- [44:02]
Jim Acosta
There's no question. They're terrible.
- [44:03]
Tara Setmayer
They're terrible. But why now? The question is, why now? Is it really necessary to do this now? I mean, no one wants Iran to get a nuclear bomb. I mean, I thought that the JPCLA was not strong enough. It didn't, it didn't require inspections in military facilities. And of course, so Iran doesn't really need, you know, residential nuclear power. Get the fuck out of here. We all know that was a ruse, but it was, you know, we still had some semblance of order and maintaining what was going on there. But I don't know. How far are they from breaking out? We don't know. We can't trust the intelligence community on our side now. And we, and Netanyahu has his own domestic ambitions for doing this as well. And it's. So, it's a complicated situation, and these are the most inept people possible to be at the helm.
- [44:48]
Jim Acosta
There's no question about, I mean, there's the Washington Post story that says that, you know, Trump's not even relying on Pete Hegseth. I mean, maybe it's the, the camo skinny ties that he wears, you know, does that perhaps Trump, Trump is all about central casting and costuming and who looks the part and stuff like that. How can you. I mean, he's got, he wears these camo skinny ties that look, he looks like he gets them at the Gap or, I don't know, those, those stores at the mall that cater to, like, teenagers and 20 something. I mean, I'm like, dude, dude, go to Nordstrom or Brooks Brothers. Like, get, I mean, you could get red, white and blue stuff. I got red, white and blue ties. I can lend them, I guess. But please stop looking like you're 23 years old. My God, this is not a frat party. This is not a frat social that we're going to.
- [45:30]
Tara Setmayer
I mean, that's all he knows. So tell me you're not qualified to be the Secretary of Defense without telling me you're not qualified to be Secretary of Defense. I mean, I mean, pick, pick, your pick, your poison there.
- [45:40]
Jim Acosta
Terrible. Yeah, I know, it's, it's, it's unbelievable. The other thing you mentioned, that Netanyahu doing this for domestic political considerations, that's what worries me about Donald Trump is that. And I've been saying this on my show, I said it over the weekend during the no Kings coverage and so on. He has no wins. He has no wins. And when you have no wins and you're Donald Trump, you go looking for wins. This is why he's so pissed off about the Fox poll and his truth Social. He doesn't like the Fox poll because he sees immigration as a win. And he's wondering why. I don't get when people are getting abducted from the streets by, you know, uniformless, you know, ICE agents. Apparently they were showing up at Dodgers Stadium today.
- [46:25]
Tara Setmayer
I saw.
- [46:26]
Jim Acosta
And the LA Dodgers said, no, you're out.
- [46:29]
Tara Setmayer
And they had protesters that blocked the entryway. They got turned away. Turned away. It's pretty remarkable.
- [46:34]
Jim Acosta
So Trump's looking for wins. And that's what worries me about Iran is that he, he thinks he. That maybe he can get a win there and BB Netanyahu can get him a win there and he can glom onto that.
- [46:44]
Tara Setmayer
Yeah, that's the danger of ruling by reality show episode. What's the reality show plot this week? And that's the way he governs. And this is the presidency of the United States. This is not a reality show in real life. There's really serious consequences here, worldwide consequences. While this guy is scripting a reality show.
- [47:08]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, I don't know. American troops in the region. American troops in the region, I mean, that's. You've got to be. And maybe that's the reason why they are pushing this off for two weeks. Let's hope there's some forethought going on in this, because if you have American forces vulnerable in the region. I mean, I covered the Iraq war. I remember, you know, being, you know, very much immersed in a lot of that coverage back in those days, the multiple deployments that American soldiers and their families went through, it was just, just. It was crushing for this country for a decade. And, yes, we're still dealing with that.
- [47:43]
Tara Setmayer
There's no easy solution, and there's just no easy solution here. So it. Does it become another protracted war there? What happens in the Strait of Hormuz? What happens to oil prices? What happens to the economy? I mean, what happens a year from now when Jerome Powell is no longer the Fed chair? I mean, there are so many parts to this that, yeah, I don't want to be in a war with Donald Trump at the helm.
- [48:08]
Jim Acosta
Right. Yeah. Maybe. Maybe attacking Iran at some point might be the only option that we have. Do we really want to do it, though? With Donald Trump, J.D. vance, Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard. I mean, really.
- [48:23]
Tara Setmayer
I know. Well, I know.
- [48:26]
Jim Acosta
I mean, ain't exactly Bush, Cheney, and Colin Powell.
- [48:31]
Tara Setmayer
No, no. I mean, even if you had a difference of opinion on the policy, you knew they were competent.
- [48:36]
Jim Acosta
Can we get Colin. Can we get Condoleezza Rice? Can we get. Can we get her on the phone? Hello?
- [48:42]
Tara Setmayer
Where's she, by the way? She been?
- [48:45]
Jim Acosta
That's a good point. I think she's laying low, too. Shit, a lot of people laying low these days. But, Terry, you and I are not laying low. We. We refuse to lay low. We lay in high.
- [48:55]
Tara Setmayer
That's right. We're out here fighting the good fight because somebody has to, damn it. And bring lots of people with us. Bring lots of people with us. I mean, we were out there on Friday, on Saturday in Philadelphia at the no Kings rally and saw you out there. Well, I was on the show briefly. I was in the car, and it was really. It was just invigorating to see all those Americans out there standing up and doing what we do and saying no King. So it gives me hope. It gives me hope.
- [49:22]
Jim Acosta
No, I agree. I agree 100%. And anybody who's looking for sort of like, like a way to poo, poo, what happened during the no Kings thing, you were just not dealing with the real world. That was, without a doubt, one of the most successful turnouts of just, you know, get to the streets, people getting their voices out there. Activism that I've seen in this country in a very long time. It was. It was wild.
- [49:46]
Tara Setmayer
They say it's the largest protest, national protest in history. Five million plus people. That's pretty unbelievable. So that, like I said, we the people, are gonna be the only ones who save us. So it gives me hope. It gives me hope.
- [49:58]
Jim Acosta
And maybe that's. And that's what's needed in the end. Not Superman. We'll be the Avengers. How about that? We'll be the Avengers any day.
- [50:08]
Tara Setmayer
I'll fight alongside you any day, Acosta.
- [50:10]
Jim Acosta
All right, back at you. All right, Tara, great to see you. Thanks so much. Appreciate the time. Thank you.
- [50:15]
Tara Setmayer
Of course. Anytime.
- [50:16]
Jim Acosta
All right. Good to see you. All right, take care. Okay. I always enjoy talking with Tara. She doesn't hold back. Back. And that's what I like about Tara, you know, she, she just goes for it and, and lays it out there and, and, and not afraid to, you know, criticize stuff that maybe folks don't want to hear. You know, I mean, I, I, I didn't Think about it that way. The way she was talking about how Obama handled things the other night, maybe Obama should have been more pointed. I don't know. I thought the fact that he was out there was very interesting and that the country needed to hear it. But, you know, terror doesn't hold back and that's what I appreciate. I did want to a couple of things, a couple of quick things. One is I wasn't sure I was going to be on with you today because I had to take my dad to get eye surgery and he's got to go back for a follow up tomorrow. So there is a very strong likelihood I will not be with you tomorrow in part because I got to get him all taken care of and squared away. And if he's watching this right now, Dad, I know you did not want to go back to the doctor's office tomorrow, but you are going back to the doctor's office tomorrow. Apparently we don't have a choice. So I'm going to be coming over to pick you up to make that happen. Sometimes when I call him, he doesn't answer the phone and so I have to go personally and deliver these messages. The other thing is that next week I am taking a vacation. And I'm not going to say where I'm taking the vacation, but I'm taking a vacation because I need a vacation. I'm kind of running on fumes. And you know, I just appreciate the heck out of everybody who, you know, all of the folks who've been tuning in over these last. Oh my goodness, it's been almost five months since I started this program here on the Substack machine, as I like to call it. We also play on the YouTube machine and on the Apple podcast machine and Spotify and other places. But substack, you know, they pulled me into this. They said, jim, give it a shot. Maybe they threw me into the deep end. Maybe that was more. More like it. And it just is continues to be an absolute pleasure and delight and a joy to me that everybody tunes in to the extent that they do. You know, some days the viewership is here, some days it's down here. Either way, I really don't care because the conversations are wonderful. I get to catch up with a lot of friends. I get to catch up with a lot of people whose opinions I care about and who I respect and trust. And one of the things that I try to do with this show is I try not to put people on who. And nobody's perfect. And whenever we say things, it's not always perfect, but I try not to put folks on who are just going to come out here and lie to you. I just, I'm kind of over that. I don't want to do that anymore. And I think that if I'm going to spend this time with you and you're going to invest your time and energy and some of you, you know, paid subscribers and so on, which I appreciate, why put a, why put liars on who are just going to you, you know what I mean? And let's, you know, I did put out a request to Donald Trump for an interview through Caroline Lovett. You know, as I said earlier, is one of the biggest liars in the world. I don't, I don't suspect that that is ever going to pay dividends and come to fruition. I don't foresee an interview with Donald Trump happening anytime soon. He is a liar. So if I did interview him, that would be something to behold, something to watch. But I don't foresee that happening. So barring things like that, it's just something that I just haven't been wanting to do. The other thing I did want to mention, and I touched on this with Tara a little bit and I want to talk about this before I go. The LA Dodgers announced that they blocked federal immigration agents from entering its stadium as dozens of anti ICE protesters gathered outside of the sports venue. On social media, the Dodgers said this, according to NBC News. The Dodgers said that federal agents working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrived at the stadium and requested permission to access the parking lots. That's right. ICE contacted the Los Angeles Dodgers and requested permission to access the parking lots. The Dodgers went on to say, quote, they were denied entry to the grounds by the organization, the team said, adding that the game against the Padres will go on at the schedule or at the scheduled time at the stadium. I bring this up because again, and I, I know I've talked about this before, but I'm going to talk about it again. Again, Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, all of the anti immigrant extremists inside MAGA world said repeatedly, Tom Homan, they said repeatedly that they were targeting the criminals and the gang members. They said repeatedly. Again, I will say I said it once, I'll say it again. This was one of the biggest lies, if not the biggest lie of the 2024 campaign. Campaign. They said they were targeting the criminals and the gang members. And today the Los Angeles Dodgers kicked ICE the hell out of Dodger Stadium and the parking lots around Dodger Stadium. And I'm A Washington Nationals fan, but today I'm a Los Angeles Dodgers fan. Thank you for standing up for this country. Thank you for standing up for the national pastime. Our national pastime should not become the hunting grounds for ice, Full stop. The national pastime, baseball stadiums around this country should not become the hunting grounds of ICE and Stephen Miller because they've set these unrealistic and, quite frankly, sadistic quotas for rounding up immigrants in this country. It is absolutely horrific and shameful what they're doing. And to think that ICE was staging to conduct operations at a baseball stadium in the United States of America, to me, that should be major national news. And that's why I'm ending this program potentially for the week in the next week or so, although we're going to try to run some best of stuff next week. You'll want to stay tuned for that.
- [56:40]
Jim Himes
That.
- [56:41]
Jim Acosta
But I want to end this program with an appeal to you, my viewers, and the folks who are watching this later on in social media and so on. Ask yourselves this question. If mass deportations are such a great idea, if mass deportations are the way to go in this country, why on earth earth are they conducting ICE raids at baseball stadiums? Isn't that in and of itself an indictment of the policy laid out by Donald Trump? Isn't that in and of itself an indictment of people like Stephen Miller to think that they would have to go to Dodger Stadium to round up some immigrants as the president, as Stephen Miller looked around at Major League Baseball and see how many of these teams are stocked with immigrants. They're some of the best players in this country. People who came to this country with the dream of playing baseball. My God, I grew up with the dream of playing baseball wasn't good enough. I wish I had been good enough. And to think that the United States government, our government paid for with our tax dollars, would be conducting ICE raids at a baseball stadium tells you very much where we are as a country right now. That Donald Trump would attack the national pastime to carry out his horrific, inhumane policy to me speaks volumes. Take me out to the ICE raid. That's not how the song goes. It's our national pastime. Lay the hell off. Leave our national pastime alone. Donald Trump. We ain't got much these days, but we ought to have baseball. My thanks to Congressman Jim Himes. My thanks, Tara Set Meyer, everybody. I. I really appreciate you tuning in day in and day out. It means the world to me. I'll try to. I'll try to chime in where I can, how I can, when I can over these next several days. But I'm going to try to take a break and cool off and refuel and recharge and come back stronger than ever and more fun in store. We're working on some town halls in the coming weeks, possibly out in la. Maybe we should not. We I don't think we can fill Dodger Stadium, but maybe we can talk baseball when I come out there and get into that, because la, I think, sorely needs a boost right now. It doesn't need an ice rate at Dodger Stadium. But in the meantime, thanks, everybody for watching. Really appreciate it. Still reporting from Washington. And I'm Jim Acosta. Have a good evening, everybody, and take care. I'll see you soon.
- [59:28]
Tara Setmayer
Bye.
- [59:28]
Jim Acosta
Bye.