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- [00:00]
Jim Acosta
All right, welcome everybody, to the Jim Acosta show. It is Thursday, it's Friday Eve, as I like to call it. And apparently you can divulge classified attack plans in this country and not worry about prosecution if you work for Donald Trump. In other words, laws for thee, but not for he and he and she and that other guy over there. Joining us on the program, as you can see right now, is Connecticut Democrat Jim Himes. He is the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee. And Congressman, you've had a busy week. This was very much in your wheelhouse, this entire scandal. A little later on, I'll check in with Harry Dunn, who has flown to Wisconsin, the former Capitol Hill police officer, to campaign for Democrats ahead of that all important state Supreme Court race next week. So we'll talk to Harry in just a moment. But Congressman, let's jump right into this. The Attorney General, Pam Bondi, signaling no investigation, no criminal investigation into Signal Gate. The AP reporting even as Trump insisted it's not really an FBI thing. The reality is that the FBI and the Justice Department for decades have been responsible for enforcing Espionage act statutes governing the mishandling of national defense information. Kind of like the stuff that was shared on SIGNAL by these top Trump administration officials. Congressman, your response to all this and the fact that Pam Bondi may not be enforcing this.
- [01:23]
Jim Himes
Yeah, well, I mean, no surprise, right? I mean, you said it exactly right right up front. You can work for Donald Trump and be pretty well assured that no matter what you do, you will not be prosecuted. We say this because they're attacking judges and suggesting impeachment of judges that are going against their policies. So, you know, zero respect for the judicial system. As I reminded my Republican colleagues yesterday. Can you imagine what you guys would have been saying and doing if this had happened under the Biden administration? I'll tell you, no surprise there. It's sad that the Justice Department doesn't feel they need to investigate you, the espionage. And remember, there's a records retention thing here. Right. A lot of us like Signal because the records go away. Well, it turns out that's illegal under federal law. What really bothered me about Bondi and this is this gets to what we should be really worried about is that she then gratuitously added stuff attacking Hillary Clinton and the Bidens and stuff. And I got to tell you, that language coming out of DOJ is unprecedented.
- [02:23]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, you're very much right about that. But also the hypocrisy factor there is just through the roof. And what we are seeing over in the Senate is a little bit more bipartisanship. The bipartisan leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee requested an inspector general investigation into Signal Gate. And I'm just wondering, what about in the House? Are you seeing that same kind of bipartisanship there? We know things are a little bit more wild and woolly over in the House, particularly among House Republicans. Might we see any kind of bipartisan investigation or call for an investigation where you are.
- [02:55]
Jim Himes
You know, sadly, Jim, I think the answer to that question is no. I mean, this story wasn't two hours old, but Speaker Johnson said, there ain't gonna be anything over here. And as you saw, anybody who watched the House open hearing yesterday knew that we were very focused on this issue and that it was of zero interest to any of the Republicans on that side. By the way, it's also, I mean, sort of fascinating to the point of impunity. You know, watching the witnesses, you know, Tulsi and John and then the two uniformed officers, the generals, you know, you could just tell that they were trying to do, certainly the generals do the best they could without, you know, detonating their career, because they said something that was not in the obvious interests of. Of Donald Trump.
- [03:37]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And I know that you were, you know, putting them on full blast at this hearing yesterday into all of this. You went after Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, the Director of the CIA. And what's shocking to me, Congressman, is that. And I brought this up yesterday on the program I had yesterday with Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader in the House. At no point did any of these other folks on this signal chat, like the dni, like the Director of the CIA, say, hey, guys, maybe we shouldn't be doing this. I mean, to me, that's astounding.
- [04:10]
Jim Himes
Yeah.
- [04:15]
Jim Acosta
Do you think they have a problem with that?
- [04:17]
Jim Himes
Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, what. They've got a bazillion arguments for exact locations where the bombs were going to drop. Yeah. We told you about the aircraft and the timing and everything, but we didn't give you the exact locations, which is an insane argument right up to, like, well, what about Joe Biden with the Afghanistan Abigail thing? I mean, their arguments are pathetic and belie the seriousness that national security requires. But even, you know. Yeah, you're absolutely right. They should have instantly said, hey, guys, we can't talk about this stuff on this channel. We have a thing called the Situation Room, which is guarded by, you know, men and women with guns, where we're supposed to have these conversations or incredibly expensive communications systems that are precisely for this purpose. You know, you saw a little bit of this. Jim, here's another thing that worried me a little bit. You would have thought, you know, particularly prior to the Senate hearing, that, you know, Tulsi and John Radcliffe would have talked. Right. And gotten their stories together and said, you know, above all else, we're not going to put ourselves at risk of perjury. Above all else, we've got to tell a similar story. And question number one from Mark Warner is, hey, Tulsa, or you know, Dni Gabbard, are you on the signal chat? And she says, well, for dabba dabba da da, I can't comment. And John, Director of CIA is like, I was, I was. You're like, what in the world? You know, can you guys at least talk before the hearing?
- [05:40]
Jim Acosta
You know, yeah, it was a little bit of who's on first, what's on second. And I, I know you brought up the fact that Steve Witkoff, the special envoy, participated in the chat while in Russia, which, I mean, and I was talking about this yesterday with Pete Buttigieg, you know, when I was covering the Trump White House the first time around, we did a trip to Beijing and we had to give up our cell phones, we had to give up our laptops. The assumption was you go into a place like China or, I understand it's the same way with Russia. You have to assume they're inside your devices. And so we just have no idea whether or not they were. The Russians may have been monitoring this conversation for all we know.
- [06:21]
Jim Himes
Yeah, I mean, given the targets that the Vice President, the Secretary of Defense, Steve Witkoff, I mean, these are the targets. And I know a little something about this and I can't talk a lot about it, but we also have the targets and the stuff that we can put around the target, especially when they're here, little harder when they're in Damascus or wherever they might be. But when they're here, oh my God, we can surround them with stuff that you would not believe. So I would actually be stunned if the Russians and the Chinese didn't have some of this stuff. And I'm also, I feel like America is blessed that if they had it, they didn't pass it on to the Houthis, they could have done it. And at which point, you know what? You don't need to know the exact village that is getting bombed. You know, an anti aircraft battery, if it's looking for a plane, it's taking it down. And so anyway, we both I think we got enormously, enormously lucky here.
- [07:14]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [07:15]
Harry Dunn
And.
- [07:15]
Jim Acosta
And just. I mean, the White House has said, well, these weren't war plans. Or, you know, the. Pete Hexatha said, these weren't war plans. Okay, that's. You're dancing on the. On the head of a pin there. There's. There's been the argument that this isn't classified information that was on there. I mean, if you have. You're talking about, you know, targets and what time those targets are going to be hit and so on. It sounds pretty darn classified to me. You're in this realm. You've been in this realm for a long time. This is classified information. I mean, just, you know, no question. Right.
- [07:45]
Jim Himes
No, no. I mean, I know they want to have that argument, and they're. And you put it exactly right. It's angels on the head of the pin. I don't know, maybe when Pete Hegseth took it off of a document and put it onto his phone or whatever he did, maybe in that moment, because he's a declassifying authority, maybe he could make an argument. It's insane, by the way, but maybe he can make an argument that that was declassified. That's not the point. The point is that we are really lucky that pilots are not dead, because if the Houthis had gotten the information that was in that signal thread, you know, and these, sadly, they're pretty good at what they do. If they'd gotten that information, we'd have dead servicemen right now. So don't argue. Look, the lawyers can figure out whether there was an espionage violation, but the Secretary of Defense put his own people at lethal risk. And here's the kicker. You know this, Jim. Inside the Pentagon, inside the military, accountability and taking ownership of your mistakes is not optional. In fact, it is a core value. When you screw something up, when you drop a grenade on the ground, everything stops. You take responsibility, you learn from your mistakes, and you make sure it never happens again. How did the Secretary of Defense, to whom all those people report, react? Oh, Jeffrey Goldberg's a bad guy and I know what I'm doing. I mean, imagine what young. What. What young military people are seeing when their boss is behaving like a petulant 4 year old instead of taking the responsibility that the military culture demands.
- [09:06]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, I mean, my bullshit detector was going off. You know, it was. It was. It was hitting the red, I think, a couple of times. Which brings me to a non signal gate question. I mean, I get the sense that a lot of Americans out There are feeling the same thing. There's a poll that just came out, I think today that indicated that Americans are very uncomfortable with how the White House and how the top officials handled Signalgate. And it sounds as though they're starting to worry about what is taking place out in the country, some of these potentially vulnerable House seats if there's a special election. Just today, Trump pulled Elise Stefanik, one of your, I guess, former but now current colleagues in the House, or soon to be former but now current, a colleague in the House of Representatives.
- [09:51]
Jim Himes
Once in future. Colleague.
- [09:52]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, once in future what? However you want to put it, she was going to go to the United nations and be the UN Ambassador. Trump has pulled her. And according to the New York Times, it is amid concerns among people in Trump world that perhaps her seat might not have been safe had she left. And even if she does stay, it may not be safe. And the same goes for Mike Waltz down in Florida that perhaps, lo and behold, that seat may not be safe. What's your sense of it?
- [10:20]
Jim Himes
Yeah, I think you have it exactly right. And I see this everywhere. You know, America is now shifting from woohoo, we're gonna upset the apple cart to holy criminy, my 401k is down 10%. Automobiles are going to be $1500 more expensive in two months because of tariffs on automobiles and oh my God, really? You're going to cut Medicaid and grandma's not going to be able to stay in the nursing home. So all over this country people are saying what the hell just happened? And this is not what I voted for. And so as a result, you're seeing, you know, I think there was a Pennsylvania local race that we'd never won and the Democrats won and yeah, absolutely. Look, I'm not sure we're going to win these races, but when a seat, Mike Walter seat in Florida, I guess it is, you know, deep ruby red when they're like, oh my God, the Democrats within five points, that is the American electorate and a very red portion of the American electorate saying, are you kidding me? I did not vote for this. And you know what's going to happen as the effects of these policies or as they become real? You can lie to the American for people for a long time and say there's $2 trillion in waste, fraud and abuse in the federal budget. Total lie. Right. But at some point you got to explain yourself. And when you explain yourself, you are going to be the least popular person on the planet.
- [11:35]
Jim Acosta
Well, and just today, I mean, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Who? I mean, I'm still a little flabbergasted that he's the secretary of hhs, but he announced that HHS is going to lay off 10,000 workers, shut down entire agencies. The director of food policy at Consumer Reports said to the Associated Press, these staff cuts endanger public health and food safety. And so I guess, Congressman, it's just going to take time for a lot of this to sink in and for people to think, oh, yeah, they're not just these random bureaucrats in Washington that I have no idea what they do. In a lot of cases, they work on stuff that matters to me and my. My general health and well being.
- [12:15]
Jim Himes
Yeah, that's exactly right, Jim. I wish we were in a world where I could be politically persuasive. That, you know, wanton firing of everybody, by the way, including the people who look after our nuclear weapons, is a bad idea. But very sadly, very sadly, you know, America needs to learn that what they think of as faceless, lazy bureaucrats are, in fact, the meat inspectors who are keeping salmonella out of your steak. Because, you know what? Guess what? There's going to be some salmonella in the steak going forward. Or the faceless bureaucrats are, in fact, the people who predict tornadoes so the Kansans can get out of the way. Well, guess what? A bunch of Kansans are not going to get out of the way. So I'm sorry we're here, but we're in a world where America needs to learn the. The costs of upsetting the apple cart. And. And unfortunately, those costs are going to be pretty. Pretty extreme.
- [13:03]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And forgive me for doing the asking something out of left field. What's going on with the detentions of these college students? I feel like it may drift into your realm of intelligence to some extent. NBC reporting. Federal authorities detained a Tufts University graduate student. This was on Tuesday while she was on her way to break her Ramadan fast with friends. The moment was caught on video. Perhaps you've seen some of this video. DHS agents apprehended, and I may be getting her name wrong. Ramesa Oz Turk, a Turkish national. Her attorneys, you know, saying this should shake everyone to their core, were horrified at the way that she was spirited away in broad daylight. There's video that shows that they were ICE agents or DHS agents in masks and whatnot. What can you say about this? Because I know a lot of people are very concerned about this.
- [13:59]
Jim Himes
Yeah, Jim, in some ways, what we were just talking about food safety, the health and safety of our nuclear weapons that stuff's very real. It's very tangible. But I think in some ways, the most appalling reversal of what we celebrate in America, incorporated into the First Amendment, which is that whatever you believe, no matter how appalling it is in this country, we don't prosecute you for what you believe. In most of the world, in China and Iran and North Korea, if you believe something wrong, you see the. Exactly the video that you're referring to. Bunch of men come up to you, handcuff you, and you're never heard of again. So, you know, again, are people going to go hungry or die of salmonella or get killed in a tornado because of that? No. But when we look back on this era, the fact that we joined countries like North Korea and Iran and Russia and China in pulling people off the street simply for what they believed, that will be one of the uglier stains on our history. And look, I don't happen to probably agree with these pieces. Mahmoud Khalil, this guy at Columbia, I'm sure I don't agree with what he says or what he did, but he didn't commit a crime. And so this is going to be one of the uglier stains on our history when. When the country finally sobers up and.
- [15:10]
Jim Acosta
And I know I got to let you go, but, I mean, it's essentially for her pro Palestinian activism. So are we. Are we really talking about. Because they're not US Citizens, the administration is positing that they don't have the rights of US Citizens and that they can just be snatched up off the street. I mean, help me make sense of this. I mean, it is. It's a little scary.
- [15:32]
Jim Himes
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And by the way, here's where there's a little bit of a mea culpa. You know, it turns out that there are laws like the Enemy Aliens Law, which Aliens, enemy, whatever it is. 1798.
- [15:44]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [15:44]
Jim Himes
We can say, oh, it's a bad law, but it's a law. Shame on us, that it's still a law. Right. That you can, you know, deport a green card holder simply because the Secretary of State says that they're a risk to our national security or that you can arrest something. Now, fortunately, the judges are saying, guess what? The Enemy Aliens act doesn't apply. You can't just pile a bunch of people into a plane and send them to El Salvador. So the courts are standing up. But there is a little element here, Jim, apart from how appalling the administration is to use tools that should never be Used because they're so contravening of our values. Congress has a role here in taking some of these, you know, 220 year old or McCarthy era laws and say no president will ever use these laws again.
- [16:25]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And you mentioned the Venezuelan migrants. We saw the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posing in front of inmates in this prison. You know, it looked like something out of a gulag. You know, she's trying to say, okay, look at us, we're tough on migration. We can scoop people up and put them in this gulag in El Salvador. It's a little terrifying. And I guess that's the point. They want to scare people. This is about instilling fear in the migrant community.
- [16:56]
Jim Himes
It's. Yeah, and everywhere else. Right. I mean, these appalling photo ops. And by the way, there's a reason they're doing it with alleged gang members trend and everything else. But here's what's going to happen. Because they can't do anything, right? Because they fire people who look after our nuclear weapons and have to rehire them and you know, just, you know, do classified chats on signal because they can't do anything right. Here's what I know. Eventually it is going to become apparent that some of these people who are now suffering in a God awful gulag in El Salvador are not members of that gang. Now, you know, for pointing that out, my Republican friends are like, oh, you're pro gang, you pro trend.
- [17:32]
Jim Acosta
No, no, nobody's saying that.
- [17:34]
Jim Himes
I'm pro due process to make sure we're not sending innocent people to some God awful prison. Right. And you know what bothers me, Jim? Now that you got me going? It used to work to say, hey, what if the next Democratic president has these authorities and all of a sudden they're handcuffing green card holders who don't believe in the green New Deal or whatever it is. There was a moment when they would think like, yeah, I wonder if I want government to have that power. That moment is long gone because there is no power that they will deny to their dear leader, Donald Trump.
- [18:05]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, Congressman, thank you for doing this. Really appreciate it. Good to talk to you as always.
- [18:10]
Jim Himes
Thanks a lot, Jim.
- [18:11]
Jim Acosta
All right, see you Next. Sorry about UConn, by the way. I feel, you know. Yeah, I'm in March.
- [18:18]
Jim Himes
I did.
- [18:19]
Jim Acosta
I wasn't gloating. I was just saying they're a hell of a basketball team, hell of a coach. But we'll see. Thanks. Thanks a lot.
- [18:26]
Jim Himes
That's right. Good night. Thanks a lot. Jim, take care. All right.
- [18:29]
Jim Acosta
Appreciate it.
- [18:29]
Jim Himes
All right.
- [18:30]
Jim Acosta
That was Congressman Jim Himes. I'm going to jump right out over to Harry Dunn. Hopefully Harry's ready to go. Harry Dunn is, you know, speaking of these, these special election races that are very important right now. There's one coming up next week in Wisconsin for an open seat on the state Supreme Court there. And there's Harry Dunn. Harry, good to see you, buddy.
- [18:51]
Harry Dunn
Jim, what's up, my friend? How are you doing?
- [18:54]
Jim Acosta
Great. Great to see, as always. So you're there in Wisconsin. Yeah. And, and, you know, you're just, you're just traveling. This is the Harry Dunn tour, man. You're just traveling around, getting in good trouble. What's going on out there, man?
- [19:08]
Harry Dunn
It's, it's work to do. So I, you know, a lot of people, you know, talk about it. A lot of people say, hey there, what can we do? You know, I roll up my sleeves and just let's get to work. There's an opportunity. There's an opportunity here in Wisconsin, April 1st, and this is a big GOTV week. Get out the vote GOTV. And I'm actually in the building, the SEIU building in Milwaukee, and we're heading up to a rally a little bit later in a few, in an hour or so. And actually tomorrow I'll be in Racine with former Senator Sherrod Brown doing another rally tomorrow. We got to win this election, man. And I say we, we is people who actually believe in our country, believe in our democracy, and don't believe that billionaires should be out there buying elections. And that's what's happening.
- [20:00]
Jim Acosta
Well, and you took the words right out of my mouth. I mean, Elon Musk, apparently today, this is, according to the AP, said, A Wisconsin voter has been awarded $1 million before this, this election takes. He's pumped in like, what, $17 million into that race. First of all, I mean, isn't it kind of sketchy that we're paying voters to vote? I. Is that legal? I. I don't know. I know you were a Capitol Police officer. Maybe you don't have jurisdiction and election irregularities, but yeah, sure. Sure as hell sounds fishy to me.
- [20:34]
Harry Dunn
What they do is the same thing what he did in Pennsylvania with, during Kamala Harris race. But it circumvents the laws. And honestly, to be, let's be clear, even if it was illegal and if he was circumvented, who's going to prosecute him? Pam Bondi? I mean, let's be for real. It's not going to happen. Just like everybody's saying, you know, Trump needs to go to jail, Elon needs to go to who, who's going to do it? No, that's not going to happen.
- [20:56]
Jim Acosta
But what they're doing, they're signing names there, but anyway.
- [21:00]
Harry Dunn
Correct? Exactly, Exactly. So they're signing names to a petition, which isn't necessarily signing up to pledge a vote. And, you know, money makes people do weird things. I mean, you know, here we are. And that's exactly what he. He's trying to get people's names. And this is like creating your own email list where people actually have to get out there and hard work and target voters and find out, identify who supporters and people who will be on the ground to do the work. Elon Musk just throws a hundred dollars at him, and that's how he targets army, so to speak, to get people to help him.
- [21:39]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And Harry, I mean, I gotta say, you're in a very different place than I think the last time we spoke with one another. You were pretty upse about the way the election went down. You were pretty pissed, obviously, after Trump pardoned all those insurrectionists and rioters and criminals on January 6. But I'm looking at a different Harry Dunn right now. I'm looking at a Harry Dunn who kind of has a sense of purpose and mission and looks like you got a lot of sleep or a lot more sleep and you're feeling energized. What's going on? Am I right about this?
- [22:12]
Harry Dunn
Well, kinda. Or I'm just doing a good job with this facade that I have. Look, man, I'm miserable. Listen, I'm still miserable. I've been miserable since January 7th. And, you know, and that has. That hasn't gone away, but it's turned into action. This anger is fueled into action. Like, we got work to do. And even after this, after, after April 1st, all right, what's the next mission? Like, these town halls are still going to go across or going on across the country. I had the opportunity to talk to newly elected DNC chairman Ken Martin and told him, hey, I want to be helpful. I want to be involved. Let me know where I'm needed and what I can do. And we got a lot of things that will be coming up soon. I look forward to sharing with the world out there, with the community, the Substack subscribers, everything. But look, there's. There's work to do. And I don't just want to just rage, tweet like our, like Donald Trump does. I actually want to get some work done. So, you know, you, like, you had Jim Hines on there. I was in Connecticut two weeks ago in his district, and I gave a keynote address at an event that he was at. I'll be headed to Tulsa, Oklahoma, shortly, in a couple weeks, doing the keynote address out there, rallying Democrats in Oklahoma and even in Nevada. And next week or so, I'll be headed out to the state capitol where they'll be doing a resolution condemning January 6th. And it seems like that's happening in a lot of state capitals across. They recently did it in Minnesota and I think in Maryland, they did it. I was on the state floor with Danny, Hodges, Fanon and Sergeant Goodnell on this, on the Senate floor in Maryland. So you know what? Like, it's, it's. Let's. We got work to do. Like, yes, everybody who's up, you're so pissed.
- [23:54]
Jim Acosta
I get it.
- [23:54]
Harry Dunn
Yes. Very, very pissed. Very pissed. But just got work to do.
- [24:01]
Jim Acosta
You're taking action. And I gotta ask you about this, and I don't mean to piss you off even more, but I'm sure you saw Trump talking about this financial compensation for people who were prosecuted as part of the January 6th. I'm sorry, but it's not Friday yet. But I gotta say what the.
- [24:21]
Harry Dunn
Yeah, you know, and a lot of people do. And listen, let's be 100 clear. I want everybody listening and watching to understand this. Everybody said, well, he's not going to do it. No way. Just like he wasn't going to pardon them. Listen, this is entirely real. This is entirely real. This is entirely feasible. And it's entirely like you said, wtf? A WTF moment right now. And listen, he can do this. He can't propose it. And he has enough leverage over the spineless Republicans in Congress who refuse to stand up to him and say, hey, this is total BS right now. So listen, let's be real threat. And on the other hand, you have people like myself. Listen, Jim, people realize, like, everybody just hit me doing this work. I quit. I quit Capitol Police four years short of being able to collect a full pension, a full retirement pension. Me, 20 years of service. I retired just short of doing 16. I didn't retire. Excuse me, I quit. You have people like Michael Fanon to continue fighting to make a difference. You have people, Michael Fanon, who can't find a job. He's struggling to find work. You know, Sergeant Ganelle, thank God for his military service, he's able to collect the full pension, but people that actually are victims and people that actually Are doing work and dessert. What do we have? I don't have my hand out. Like, Donald Trump is grifting off of everything. And another thing. This. I just keep going another thing. Every time we talk about January 6th, Jim, it's us reacting to something that they know. It's not us bringing it up. It's not us bringing it up. So people say, hey, let's get over January 6th. They'll see this and be like, oh, they're still talking about January 6th. No, I'm responsible. Donald Trump. Exactly. Donald Trump can't get hold of the one doing it.
- [26:05]
Jim Himes
It.
- [26:05]
Jim Acosta
That's right. He does it. He can't get over it. Because he can't. That's. Keep going. You go ahead.
- [26:11]
Harry Dunn
He. He can't get over it. Yeah, sorry. I'm on fire. He can't get over it. He understands that. He knows that he was wrong that day. And listen, he didn't run for president to. To help people, to. To lower costs, to deport. He ran for president to escape accountability. And that's all that he cared about. That's all that he cared about. And you. I watched the last segment about the due process. With Jim. With Jim. The only reason Donald Trump is president now is because of due process.
- [26:39]
Jim Acosta
Exactly.
- [26:40]
Harry Dunn
Donald Trump had his day in court. He had his day in court.
- [26:43]
Jim Acosta
He had his due process on steroids. I mean, he had due process and delays and, you know, let's file another appeal and let's get it to a judge we like and, you know, the whole nine yards. It's unbelievable. You know, but the thing that bugs me, and I kind of tie it back to signal gate a little bit, because yesterday he was saying, oh, well, maybe signal's defective. And that's why signal gate happened. I mean, it's always deflecting.
- [27:11]
Harry Dunn
It's deflecting gaslighting. And it's just everybody is wrong except for him. I mean, Jesus. So sick of him and his rhetoric. But listen, he's the president. He'll be there for four years. Congress does not have the spine or the backbone to impeach him. So he's there for the next four years. So we have to do whatever we can do in the meantime. And the biggest thing we could do. Everybody's talking. Yes, the midterms. Us winning the House is the single greatest thing that we can do to stop Donald Trump from doing whatever he wants to do right now. And listen, we're not going to stop Donald Trump in 2020 until 2028 at the presidential level. But in 20, 26, we have an opportunity to flip Congress, which he can't do anything without, which is why he. Stefanic. Which is why she put at least that phonic back in the.
- [28:02]
Jim Acosta
You're exactly right. And I was just about to bring that up. You have the Pennsylvania State Senate race that just happened where a Democrat won in a district that Trump just won by 15 points. Last November, that race went to a Democrat. You have Trump pulling Elise Stefanik off of that nomination for UN Ambassador because they're worried about her seat, they're worried about Mike Waltz's seat, and apparently they're starting to float out. Oh, Trump's pissed at Mike Waltz over the signal gate thing. I'd be a little worried if I were Mike Waltz. They might want to send him back to Florida to defend that congressional seat. It sounds like. You know, it's funny how the tide can turn.
- [28:39]
Harry Dunn
Yeah, it definitely can. It definitely can. And listen, that's what we need to realize. And also on that note, listen, listen, I love the Democrats, like, you know, the whole long time ago, Michelle Obama, when they go low, we go high. And this moral high ground, like, no, they are not playing fair. They're not playing with morals. We have to do whatever we can do. We have to fight scrap scrape, get our way to the playing table because they are not making it fair. And listen, it's not enough for me. Let's not win as Democrats because Republicans suck. Let's win because we are actually better than them. We're better human beings than them. We're better people than them. We're better on policy. We treat people better. We treat people with respect. And we believe in a government for everybody, not just people who can afford to pay their way there with the billionaires and, and Donald Trump selling gold memberships to the country. Get the. Come on, man. We need to be better than Republicans because we're better human beings than they are.
- [29:40]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, well, Harry, I, I think you said it best right there. And I love the scrappy fighting spirit that you have right now. Harry, great to see, as always. I got. I know I have to let you go so you can get to that rally this evening, but Harry's going to be rallying tonight in Wisconsin. He's going to be rallying tomorrow with former Senator Sherrod Brown in Wisconsin ahead of this big race taking place next week. It's on, it's on Tuesday, right? The election's on Tuesday, April 1st.
- [30:05]
Harry Dunn
April Fool's Day. It's not a joke. It's April Fool's day, but it ain't a joke.
- [30:08]
Jim Acosta
So there's a full handing out money to voters. But we will. We already talked about that.
- [30:15]
Harry Dunn
You, too, my friend. Talk to you soon.
- [30:18]
Jim Acosta
All right, let's do it again soon. Appreciate it. That's great.
- [30:20]
Harry Dunn
All right, later, buddy. Great, Harry.
- [30:22]
Jim Acosta
Done. Good to see you. As always, the great Harry Dunner. And you know, I think this race in Wisconsin, I think the whole world's gonna be watching that race for Elon Musk to pump $17 million into a Wisconsin state Supreme Court race. It shows you what they're worried about right now. When Donald Trump is pulling Elise Stefanik off of that nomination for UN Ambassador, it shows you what they're worried about right now. They're worried about a backlash coming from the voters right now. They're worried about the way these Doge cuts have come across to the voters. They're worried about the way signal gate has come across to the voters. Donald Trump was talking about signal being defective. I don't. It sounds like something else is defective right now. There's a lot of. There's some defects that they need to work on inside this administration right now. If you're talking about attack plans on a messaging app, you know, there are a couple of defective things that they might want to tighten up. Want to thank everybody for joining me today. Slightly abbreviated version of the Jim Acosta show, but my thanks to Congressman Jim Himes, my thanks to Harry Dunn, and really appreciate everybody watching yesterday. That was a big show. Everybody. Yesterday was. I mean, this. Every show is great. I love having people like Harry. I love having Congressman Himes on. But yesterday, to be able to get the House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, I'm tremendously grateful to him and very grateful to Pete Buttigieg for making time for us. You know, things are changing out here in media land. A lot of folks are gravitating towards independent media, places like Substack, where you're going around corporate media, where you're going around traditional legacy media, and you're getting the news, you're getting information. Hey, I gave you the headlines from places like Politico and AP and New York Times, Washington Post. Sometimes incorporate my own reporting. And, you know, you can go to places like this to get the information. And I'm really, really excited about it. Really proud of what we've been able to build here on this program and looking forward to talking to you next time. In the meantime, still reporting. I'm not on Washington. You might have noticed with the backdrop, and Duke isn't trying to grab me right now. Not in Washington. I may disclose where I'm at tomorrow, but it's another fun place as well. Thanks everybody for watching. Have a great evening. I'll see you next time. Take care.
- [32:44]
Harry Dunn
Bye.