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The Jim Acosta Show
SEN JACKIE ROSEN, SEN DOUG JONES, REP. ROBERT GARCIA AND WAR CORRESPONDENT BARBARA STARR
01:03:05
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- [00:00]
Senator Jackie Rosen
Foreign.
- [00:06]
Jim Acosta
Welcome to the Jim Acosta show. And it's another day that ends in Y and the affordability crisis in Trump's America. Meanwhile, the President was just presented with a golden crown by the leader of South Korea. We'll show you some of those pictures in just a moment. But my big guest at the top of the hour here is Senator Jackie Rosen of Nevada. Senator, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it.
- [00:28]
Senator Jackie Rosen
Well, thank you for having me. And, oh, you go from the gold plated dinners at the, what is he called the Club Rose Garden now and then. It's not a rose garden, it's just a clubhouse. I think he's calling it the Trump Club. And the gold plated ballroom and the gold plated everything. It's the people's house, not his house.
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Jim Acosta
But it's a lot of gold these days. I don't know if we can show the video. I mean, we just saw this earlier today. It just happened. You know, Trump being presented with this crown. I guess it's a replica crown, but it looks awfully pricey and, you know, it's just turning into a palace over there at the White House with the.
- [01:06]
Senator Jackie Rosen
Ballroom and everything, you know, this. So I think that there are many documents, Magna Carta, you can go throughout history and they say, I the king, by the power vested in me the royal we, whatever that is. But our founding fathers didn't say I the king, they said we the people. Yeah, we the people. It is not I the king, where they came from in England. He's not a king. He shouldn't have a crown. The gold plating, it's ridiculous. People are starving, people are going to lose their health care, people are hurting, the tariffs, tourism, our economy, housing, you name it. And it is, I feel like it's a little bit of, you know, like Marie Antoinette let them eat cake. He's off in a ballroom, he's off at a golden plated club and just eating dessert gluttony while people are suffering. And he doesn't seem to care.
- [01:57]
Jim Acosta
It's wild.
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Barbara Starr
Yeah.
- [01:59]
Jim Acosta
And we're going to show the crown in just a moment because it just typifies so much right now. But I did want to ask you, I mean, speaking of the economy, these SNAP benefits are running out this weekend. I know you have made some comments about that. I know that there are several Democratic attorneys general who are working on this, trying to sue the Agriculture Department from, you know, stopping them from cutting off these benefits, basically food stamp benefits to poor and working class people. But your thoughts on this, because, I mean, I. It just seems heartless. If the money has already been set aside for an emergency situation like this, which is the case in this circumstance, how can they just cut this off? I don't get it.
- [02:39]
Senator Jackie Rosen
Well, you know what? You have it exactly right. I think cruelty and heartlessness are the features of this administration. They're not a bug. And the Trump administration has the powers to release the SNAP funds so they can continue, all recipients can continue to receive their benefits. That people have the dignity of being able to go to the store and shop for food. So many of our SNAP recipients, well, they're children, they're disabled veterans, they're senior citizens, and they're folks who actually do go to work and don't make quite enough money to pay everything. Life is so very expensive. So many losing their health care, especially that's going to be coming up the end of this year because of the increased premiums and the reduced credits. And so Donald Trump is all about the pain. And I'm going to tell you why he actually showed his hand, because in September. And we'll send you the text of this, the USDA is where the SNAP comes from. On their website, they showed the statutes and all the, all the ways that they could use the money and be sure that SNAP was solvent to a particular date, how they could move the money around, what they could do so no one would lose their benefit. I believe that was up in September. All of a sudden, that just disappeared like this. Well, nothing dies on the Internet. We have that screenshot. We'll provide it for you. Trump is in full control. Control, and he is eating off gold plates while he's stealing your money from the Department of Justice.
- [04:09]
Jim Acosta
Well, I was going to ask you about that, too, because you introduced a resolution, and this was one reason why I wanted to have you on. Senator, you introduced a resolution to say, no, this is not all right, that Donald Trump wants to have the Justice Department. First of all, I've never heard of this before where the president says, I'd like one of the departments of the federal government to pay me $230 million. But he's saying because he feels he was wrongfully prosecuted, and he wasn't wrongfully prosecuted. He was just able to game the system and get out of hot water legally. But he's. Because of all of this, he says, I want to get paid $230 million. And then he floats out the idea that he's going to use that chunk of change, big chunk of change for the ballroom over at the White House. And your resolution didn't, I mean the Democrats are the minority. So your resolution did not pass as.
- [04:53]
Senator Jackie Rosen
I understand well, so I just want to tell you, so I put this resolution is to condemn Donald Trump. This is the fox guarding the hen house. First of all, it's not his Department of Justice. He wants to think this is his retribution, this is his pain, whatever that is. His feelings are hurt every five minutes. He is a baby in the White House and he's decided that I don't know how he came up with the 230 million. And he said, isn't this funny or cute? I'm not sure what word to use something like that, that I can write myself a check from the Department of Justice to me. Now, we've never seen his tax returns, but I bet if you look, he isn't that charitable of a guy. He's going to give it to a ballroom when he gets somebody else to pay for it. He sure isn't giving it to SNAP recipients or anybody else. He's taking the hard earned taxpayer dollars and paying his self.
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Jim Acosta
So it doesn't sound legal.
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Senator Jackie Rosen
It's not legal. And so I asked my Republicans just to say this is wrong. So who comes to the floor? Rick Scott. Only takes one senator to object to another senator. He marches to the floor, doesn't acknowledge it at all and he objects. Why? Because every damn one of them is afraid to be in Donald Trump's crosshairs because if they do anything to say what he doesn't do is just perfect and beautiful. And here's another gold crown and a gold star. This is not preschool where everybody every day needs a gold star. This United States government, they're so afraid of him. First from, from Speaker Johnson who's totally capitulated the House, to Leader Th, who isn't far behind. When will they stand up for their own self respect? Clearly, Rick Scott is not doing that. And whomever else, I guess they put him out there, maybe the sacrificial lamb. I'm not sure he was the lone objector there.
- [06:37]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, you mentioned Senator John Thune, who is the majority leader right now. He, he has stepped into the, the job that Mitch McConnell used to have. And I guess there were some hopes that he would be a bit of a moderating influence or he would maybe staying in Trump's way from time to time. I mean, it just hasn't happened that those expectations did not materialize. And Mitch McConnell's almost more of a maverick than John Thune is. It's what's been your observation. You're there in the Senate.
- [07:04]
Senator Jackie Rosen
I think you're right about that. And, you know, I think when everyone thought that leader, now Leader Thune, you know, he's just very much more accessible than Mitch McConnell was. Everyone had relationships with him. He's in the gym, he worked out.
- [07:17]
Barbara Starr
He.
- [07:18]
Senator Jackie Rosen
He is, I believe, a good person, and we all had good relationships with him. But at this time is capitulating his leadership. The Article 1 power that we have. He is afraid to stand up and do what he thinks is right. Sometimes you don't have to worry if something is left or if something is right. Right on either side. Let's just do the right thing. There's no president that should be writing themselves a $230 million check. And when this House is out of session, we can't even verif verify that check might have already been written. We can't even find out until the House is back in session, when they can call for those records. And so I'll be working with the House members to see how we do that. And so John Thune, I just hope that he finds his center of gravity to think about the oath he takes to the Constitution and the people he serves. We don't serve a king who gets a gold crown for wherever he goes. I don't bet those aren't even real gold. Honestly, I think he's happy with the spray paint. It's just the image for him.
- [08:18]
Jim Acosta
There's. It's just gold everywhere over there. Here's the gold crown. Here's the leader of South Korea presenting the golden crown. I mean, these foreign leaders, they know how to play them now, too. Isn't that something?
- [08:28]
Senator Jackie Rosen
It really is. So I find it incredibly sad because we are no longer respected on the world stage. I do think people are playing Donald Trump. They're laughing at us. They see many things. Illegal, destroying the White House, shooting, shooting ships out of the water with no oversight, with no pressure. Proof, clearly violations of international law. Writing himself check every day. Checks every day. He just wants to stick it to the American people. And I hope one day that my colleagues will stand up for the oath they took to the Constitution and to their constituents and find. I like to think of it this way, when their grandchildren talk about them or great grandchildren and they look back on this time. Well, you have a legacy to leave. You're in control of that. I know that I'm standing up for the dignity of individuals. I'm proud of that. And everyone's going to have to find Their own way. Leader through and included. He hasn't shown leadership so far.
- [09:32]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And one, one final question, Senator. What do you think of the strategy that Senate Democrats have been employing to hold firm on the Obamacare premiums, subsidies that. I mean, you hear this knock on, on Dems. Oh, you guys are the ones who are shutting down the government. Now, I, I've been saying, you know, listen, I don't know how Democrats are in charge of shutting down the government when Republicans are in charge of the government, but I, you know, that that's putting that to the side. What is your response to that? When there's. They're saying you guys are the ones holding the government hostage? What's, what's the response there?
- [10:07]
Senator Jackie Rosen
Well, they can open the government up tomorrow. And you see that Trump, he doesn't really care about the rules. He can do whatever the hell he wants. He's moving money here, kill. They're destroying buildings everywhere else. And so they control the White House. They've closed the House of Representatives. He's calling himself the speaker of the House. And I don't know where we're at with th and the Senate, but they can open this government up tomorrow with doing one reasonable thing. Well, actually, two reasonable things. One is to let us vote on extending those ACA tax credits so people don't fall off a cliff in March. We kept the government open. They said, we're going to work on that. We want the dignity of health care for people, people to expand access, availability, affordability. They didn't do that for the last six months. So we want to be able to vote, put them on the record. They don't want to give people help getting their insurance and let them just damn well say so, number one. And number two, if they do believe that, then let's put together a working group with benchmarks and timelines on things we can do to give people the dignity of purchasing a damn health insurance policy. That's what this is about. People just want the dignity of being able to afford a policy. Then go to the doctor, get their medication, and take that one bit of anxiety off the table. Because if you don't have your health, you don't have anything. And that's what this is about, and that's what we're fighting for. I think those are reasonable things. If they give us those things, then we'll open the government, but without forcing them to the table. They had six months. They did nothing. My phone's sitting here. I didn't see it ring. I'm saying Come talk to me about the ACA credits. Well, we had crickets for six months and we have to bring them to the table somehow.
- [11:50]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. Well, Senator Rosen, best of luck on that. Thanks so much for joining us. We appreciate it. And we'll. Maybe they can send you a gold crown too. Who knows?
- [11:59]
Senator Jackie Rosen
A tiara. A gold tiara.
- [12:01]
Jim Acosta
Tiara would be nice.
- [12:02]
Senator Jackie Rosen
Yes. Thank you. Always a pleasure to be on with you. Look forward to coming back anytime soon.
- [12:08]
Jim Acosta
Sounds great. Thanks, Senator. Really appreciate it. And I, I think I put this out in my note talking about today's show. It's, it's a power packed show today. I want to roll right into my next guest. He's the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, our frequent guest, Congressman Robert Garcia. You may be that you may have the all star status, Congressman. I mean, you've been on as about as much as anybody else has been on this program and it's always a big a win for us when we can get you on. So thank you so much for doing this, as always. And there's a lot of places to start. I was just talking with Senator Rosen about the government shutdown and so on. I mean, these SNAP benefits, to me it's just the height of heartlessness to see Donald Trump presented with a golden crown in South Korea and yet he's, he's just telling people who are on food stamps on SNAP benefits. Sorry, you, you're just going to have to go hungry. The kids are going to go hungry, elderly are going to have to go hungry. You're not getting your benefits.
- [13:09]
Congressman Robert Garcia
Well, that's right. I mean, he's more interested in building himself a ballroom, right. This enormous space so he can continue to eat with all the billionaires in this country and around the world while people go hungry. It is, it's so striking, the hypocrisy, the lies, the way that he has behaved around the world. I mean, just, he is the epitome in my opinion. What is wrong with this country with all of our resources as a country going to billionaires and those at the very top. And Donald Trump is right now ripping off the American public. He is stealing your hard earned wealth to enrich himself and his family as he travels around the globe and his family follows to essentially create more real estate deals for themselves in the long term. And with this ballroom situation, again is back to just only obsessed about himself. And so the SNAP benefits, the food assistance is real. It's going to harm a lot of people, millions of people here in California and across, across the country and Republicans completely are also complicit. Mike Johnson could care less. It's time to reopen the government. It's time to keep health care costs low, and it's certainly time to ensure that people get their food assistance.
- [14:26]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, and, Congressman, you mentioned the ballroom, and you're the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. We've talked to you a bunch about opening up the Epstein files. I know you've worked really hard on that. I did want to ask you about that in a second. But on the ballroom, it seems to me that's, that's right in your wheelhouse as ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. Who's paying for that? I mean, they released this whole list of all these corporations who are just going to pay for part of this government installation, this ballroom over at the White House. He knocks down the East Wing without checking in with anybody. Just totally crazy, obnoxious stuff. And he's asking for $230 million from the Justice Department. He floats out this idea, oh, well, I might use some of that to pay for the ballroom. Who's mining the store? I guess this is more work for you, Congressman. But what, what, what are your thoughts?
- [15:12]
Congressman Robert Garcia
I mean, look, I've said this before. I've got to repeat it. He's the most corrupt person ever to be president. This is the most corrupt administration ever in the history of the United States. I've been talking a lot to Jamie Raskin, who's my counterpart on Judiciary. We have a long list of questions, of subpoenas, of investigations that we have launched jointly and some through our own committees. On the ballroom, we have so little information first, besides destroying a national treasure, the People's House, which he's now doing. Everything about this ballroom has been a secret. You know, he keeps saying he's gonna release information he hasn't done. So he's, you know, sprinkled information about who some of these donors might be. We have no idea who is given what, how much, what they've been promised, the transparency process. Who's building this, what care are they taking to the sensitive facilities that are underneath the actual East Wing, which we're very concerned about. There's a lot of concerns about what's.
- [16:09]
Jim Acosta
Happening there, underground bunker and so on.
- [16:12]
Congressman Robert Garcia
Bunkers, There's a variety of tunnels. There is an enormous amount we don't know about this construction. And I can imagine that this ballroom is going to be as gaudy as he has made the Oval Office. And so it is really a disrespect to our country. Especially at a time when the government is shut down and so many people, especially his supporters, are suffering. Their costs are going up. They're seeing the cost of their groceries going up. And Donald Trump is building a $300 million ballroom on the grounds of the White House. It's really a shame. So it's that this insane, really completely insanity, that he wants to pay himself $230 million of our taxpayer dollars back to himself. And the people deciding that is essentially his own appointees, including his own former personal lawyer. I mean, this is extortion. He's stealing from the American public. I just don't understand how his supporters can continue to see what he's doing and not think that he's completely bamboozled the country. So we have a lot to invest. It's an endless amount, which is, again, why it's so important that we have fighters right now that Congress is pushing back. Anyone that I talked to in our caucus, I'm like, folks, we gotta get in this fight. This is not a time to be sitting around. We've gotta be aggressive.
- [17:35]
Jim Acosta
But, you know, one of the things that's happening right now, Congressman, is that the House Speaker, Mike Johnson, has just completely just shut down the House of Representatives. He won't swear in Adelita Grialva, who was elected over a month ago. I think it's been five weeks now since she was elected in a special election. If Republicans had this happen to them, they would be going nuts. But they're just doing it to Grialva. And it's, as you and I have discussed before, it's partly because, you know, she's the decisive vote on opening up the Epstein files. But I kind of wonder, is there something looming out there in the files that, you know, Trump does just. Is just desperate to not let the cat out of the bag. I mean, that to me, is. I keep coming back as that. That is the likely scenario that we're. We're talking about here. He just is. He's just so deathly afraid of those files becoming public.
- [18:24]
Congressman Robert Garcia
All signs point back to the White House. I personally believe, you know, obviously, I honestly believe that there is a major cover up happening right now being directed at the highest levels of government through the doj, through the White House, around the Epstein files. And clearly, Mike Johnson now is taking orders directly from Donald Trump. He's not seating someone that was, that, you know, was elected now, what, over a month ago, that has 800,000 people, constituents in Arizona that have no representation.
- [18:56]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
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Congressman Robert Garcia
And so I'm glad That, of course, the AG in her home state is involved and others are getting engaged. But Mike Johnson is making the choice to not see her because he does not want that vote.
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Jim Acosta
Yeah.
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Congressman Robert Garcia
And clearly he's been told by the president that that vote shouldn't happen. And I will tell you this, the truth is going to come out. There's no way that they're going to be able to hide the corruption and the lies and the abuse forever. And a lot of people are going to be held accountable for what they did. That's something that I honestly believe. I think our investigation, even during this shutdown, continues. He may have tried to shut down the government. We've been working hard, and our team, our researchers, our lawyers, our committee members every day are working on this case and others.
- [19:39]
Jim Acosta
They're still going through the documents that have been turned up.
- [19:42]
Congressman Robert Garcia
Yeah, absolutely. Every day. Not a day has gone by that you. That the American public or you shouldn't know that we're working on this stuff. And it's. And of course, it's not just Epstein, it's Chris, you know, him and dhs. It's Pam Bondi and the corruption of the payments. And it's a Trump family. It's Robert Kennedy trying to destroy Health and Human Services. All of these issues require real investigation, but they require it to be done aggressively, which is what we're trying to do.
- [20:10]
Jim Acosta
I have a subscriber asking right now. It's a great question. How can we be sure that the files have not been destroyed or rewritten or redacted or whatever already? Do we have any confidence? I mean, I guess if he just blows up part of the White House and knocks down the East Wing, I mean, all bets are off, I suppose. We have no. Are we flying blind here? Do we have some confidence that they're not being destroyed?
- [20:31]
Congressman Robert Garcia
What I'll say is this. We've talked to a lot of people, obviously. Obviously many conversations which we can't get into here. But I will tell you, there's a lot of folks that have been involved in the collection of the Epstein piles. It's not one person. It's not five people. It's not even 100 people. We're talking hundreds of people. And agents have been involved in different pieces. And we know that vast majority of these folks love their country. They're there at the FBI. They're the DOJ because they believe in truth. And there's just no way at this point of completely hiding the truth. And so it's going to come out. The DOJ has a responsibility to release the files. We know that the files exist across a variety of different organizations. The DOJ just happens to have them all compiled in one place. And so we're going to get to the truth whether Donald Trump or Pambani want us to or not.
- [21:27]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And the other thing I want to ask about, Congressman, because I saw you made an announcement on this and I thought it was fascinating, is that you on the Oversight Committee want to set up an ICE tracker or an ICE database to track all these horrendous incidents that we see. I'm sure that you're seeing them in your social media feeds. I'm seeing in my social media feeds. It just happens every day. There was one that I just saw this afternoon that we can show the viewers of a lady in Harrisonburg, Virginia, getting tackled by ICE people. Migrant insider. They do a great job. Just, they just tackle this lady, she's screaming. This plays out every day. I know you're very busy at the Oversight Committee, but can you tell us about what you're doing on ice? Because I think that's interesting.
- [22:10]
Congressman Robert Garcia
Yeah. And this, we're hard at work on this, on this project. Look, what we're, what we're doing is we're trying to essentially collect. Every time there is an instance that happens, whether it's someone's due process rights being taken away, or someone's being attacked in a way that is clearly inhumane, or someone is not following procedure, or there's an illegal kidnapping or are an American citizen is being detained. And this happened. Just someone here that I'm. That I've met here locally, back home. When those things happen, we need to put those all into one place. So we do our constitutional duty of oversight. It's interesting, you know, Pam Bondi and others have tried to make this into some sort of controversy where they have said, oh, we're gonna be tracking ICE agents, or that's not what we're doing.
- [22:55]
Jim Acosta
They think you're setting up one of those ICE block apps or something.
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Senator Jackie Rosen
I saw that.
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Jim Acosta
Yeah.
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Congressman Robert Garcia
This is an after the fact. If something actually happens and occurs, then we're gonna collect that information and put it into one place so that the public can go back and see these are all the things that have happened to people and the people can. And people can also send us that information. And so we are committed to this project. And all the intimidation tactics that Pam Bondi and Christine Elm and others have tried to get us to not do this project are just not going to work.
- [23:27]
Jim Acosta
It seems to me if they, and I think I've seen something, they've arrested or they've detained more than 100 US citizens, it's getting close to 200 US citizens. And so that just tells me they're grabbing people with, who look Hispanic, have Latino last names. That's just what they're doing. And then, and then they find out, whoops, oh, that's a U.S. citizen. Okay, you can go now. That's. It's unbelievable.
- [23:52]
Congressman Robert Garcia
It's unbelievable. And you know what's been really interesting, Jim? I've talked to a couple friends that voted for Trump. You know, it's hard to often, oftentimes, of course, to have conversations about where our country is and that they've shared recently that these are conservative people, that this is not what they voted for. They're like, this is not what I expected, particularly around the ICE raids, that they thought they were going to go after the hardened criminals, which, by the way, if you've committed serious crimes in this country and you are not here legally, nobody wants you here. Democrats, Republicans, no one wants you here. But what's happening is you're seeing hardworking folks at the car wash in front of hardware stores, you're seeing gardeners, you're seeing other folks being picked up. And that's not what even some of the most conservative in his party were expecting. And so I'm glad that some acknowledgement is happening, but we need folks to be louder.
- [24:47]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And I think Democrats have to figure out a way to pull those, especially in the Latino community, Latinos who voted for Donald Trump for economic reasons, for inflation reasons, people might say, well, why did you ever do that? You know, you shouldn't believe him in the first place. That's putting that to the side. That's what happened. People did that. And I have to think that the Democrats need to. They have to have a battle plan, a strategy for pulling those folks back to the Democratic Party instead of just losing them to the couch, you know, losing them to. To complacency.
- [25:20]
Congressman Robert Garcia
That's right. And I think, look, you're seeing in some of the polling and certainly in the conversations that I've had with people that a lot of those folks that went that way and they voted for Trump and regret it, they feel they were, you know, betrayed. They feel. They feel betrayed. They feel like they were lied to. And so that's naturally, I think, happening. It's a matter of how we get them to understand that if you want to make a change, then we need you to actually vote differently. And Democrats need to have a forward looking agenda. You know, we, we, yes, we need to be and oppose Donald Trump and yes, we need to take him on every time we can. But that, that is not in lieu of we, we have to have a forward looking agenda that actually talks about why an immigration policy would be a positive for the United States and for every community across this country. Why providing pathways to citizenship, why having a robust visa program to bring in the best and the brightest from across the world, why a guest worker program actually stops and really helps us at the border with migration. And why actually if we want to lessen impacts at the border, why, why is it we should be funding immigration attorneys and immigration judges? And strength.
- [26:25]
Barbara Starr
Right.
- [26:25]
Congressman Robert Garcia
So all of that we've got to also talk about. We just, we can't be on defense the entire time.
- [26:31]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And I think it goes back to what you were saying earlier. You need fighters, you need folks who are just going to get scrappy. And I know that's what you brought to the, to the table, Congressman, I'll let you go. And I do, I did want to say on the note that we were just talking about this just came in from ABC News that, that House candidate, Kat Abu Ghazala, I'm sure you've seen her before. She's, she's the one who's running in Illinois just outside of Chicago. She was thrown by an ICE officer a few weeks ago. Apparently she's been indicted for allegedly conspiring to injure officers during ICE protests. And you know, I, I mean, this just seems like more government harassment of people. They just want out of the way. She has every right to protest outside that facility and in Chicago, outside of Chicago. And it just keeps happening. It just seems like they have no regard for the rule of law at this point.
- [27:22]
Congressman Robert Garcia
No, I think, I think that's right. And look, I obviously haven't seen the full indictment. I heard about it, but I have seen some of the videos of her and others being involved in Chicago. Of course people have a right to protest and people have a right to peacefully ensure that folks know that they're opposed to the horrific actions that are happening across this country. And so I think the weaponization of government is real and it is happening. It's happening in this case. Look, look at what's happening in the attorney general in New York. Lt. James the things that Donald Trump is beginning to say about Adam Schiff recently, they're all, they're all really concerning. But we also have to be unafraid. And I think the Intimidation is exactly what he wants.
- [28:05]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, no, I think you're right. And there's, there's a video right there of Cat being thrown to the ground. And, you know, she's, she's allowed to be out there protesting. And, and this is, you know, what we all should be able to do as Americans if we want to show up outside an ice facility and say, this is wrong, you shouldn't be doing this. You know, as long as they're not breaking the law. It just seems to me that this is another abuse. But Congressman, as always, thank you so much. Really appreciate you coming on and keep us posted. You know, anytime you got an Epstein document you want to just send my way, you know, we'll be happy to present it to the public, present it to our viewers. But I know you're hard at work.
- [28:41]
Congressman Robert Garcia
Yeah, we'll do. Thanks.
- [28:42]
Jim Acosta
Thanks, Congressman. Thanks a lot. Really appreciate it. And Congressman Garcia, I think hit the nail on the head that, that Democrats need to have an agenda that works for working class people and has to be presented in a way that is scrappy, that is sort of, you know, no, no holds barred, take no prisoners, you know, kind of in the same style and vein that Trump and MAGA have been operating over the last several years. And so, you know, this is, this is, this is the task at hand for Democrats. Are they going to, we're all, we're about a year away from the midterms, the 20, 26 midterms. And the question is, are they going to now take the fight to the Republicans? And you're seeing what's taking place now. A Democratic candidate for congressman, Congress. Kat Abu Ghazala has been indicted, according to ABC News. And we'll, we'll obviously stay on top of that and see what happens next. I'm going to bring in former Senator Doug Jones in just a moment. He's my, my next guest. But I, I did want to, before we get to that, talk about something that obviously, you know, has been on my mind a lot of other people's minds. And that is, and you're seeing this in the social media feeds and that is, you know, what is going on with Donald Trump. You know, Trump has been lately saying that he's passed these cognitive tests. Have you seen this video of him talking about passing the cognitive test? He was on, on this trip to Asia. And we can show the video first of him with the Japanese prime minister. We should show this. And you know, he, there's, there's Donald Trump, there's the prime minister of Japan. Pan. She was just recently put in office there. And in this video, you see Donald Trump just sort of wandering around this room, and it's. It's a little hard to watch. I mean, this is the President of the United States, and he's just like, not really all there. And then on Air Force One, he's asked about his health because he had a recent trip to Walter Reed. This is. This is the. A comment where he says, oh, yes, I had an MRI recently. And folks are like, why did you have another mri? You know, this is the second one that he's had. And then he goes into how he took another cognitive test, apparently up a Walter. I don't know if I've ever heard of a president taking so many cognitive tests. He takes a lot of cognitive tests. Let's play this and talk about it on the other side. Jasmine Crockett, a low IQ person, they have AOC's low IQ. You give her an IQ test, have her pass. Like, the exams that I decided to take when I was at Walter Reed, I took.
- [31:30]
Former Senator Doug Jones
Those are very hard.
- [31:32]
Jim Acosta
They're really aptitude tests, I guess, in a certain way, but they're cognitive tests that AOC go against Trump. You know, let Jasmine go against Trump. I don't think. Jasmine. The first couple of questions are easy. A tiger, an elephant, a giraffe.
- [31:47]
Former Senator Doug Jones
You know, when you get up to.
- [31:49]
Jim Acosta
About 5 or 6, and then when.
- [31:50]
Former Senator Doug Jones
You get up to 10 and 20 and 25, they could come close to answering any of those questions.
- [31:59]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. So, I mean, you hear Trump there talking about the cognitive test, and. And then he mixes that up with IQ tests for AOC and Jasmine Crockett. First of all, it's a little strange that he is obsessed. He's so obsessed with going after women of color. But just so everybody is aware, this is what the cognitive test looks like. Because, I mean, we talked about this during the first Trump term. You know, he talked about the cognitive test, and this was in the news at the time. And this is the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test. There are things like, can you tell us what a lion is? Can you pick out the rhino? Can you pick out the camel? Can you draw lines between a one and a two? I mean, these are the things that are laid out in the cognitive test. Now, the reason why they do this, they also ask, you know, what your name is, where you are. I mean, these kinds of questions. Can you count back from 100 by sevens? And so on. That's a cognitive test. Now, IQ test is not the same thing. And I just have to say, you know, there's all this talk on the Republican side over in the House about Biden's auto pen, and there's trying to say that because Biden might have used an auto pen for pardons and certain things, that all of these things are legitimate now because Biden used an auto pen. First of all, that's bullshit. Presidents, both Republican and Democrat, have used auto pens before. It's just a sideshow in a circus. What they're trying to say, and they say it out loud, is that somehow Joe Biden was not there cognitively and that there were dark, sinister, and unseen forces who are running the Biden administration now. I mean, the same could be said of Donald Trump. The same can be said of Donald Trump. He's, you know, here he is wandering around this room with the Japanese prime minister. She appears to be kind of showing him around the room. You know, this, this is not the first time this has happened, folks. This is the president, who is 79 years old. And if we continue to let this video play, he just seems to kind of go off and do his thing in that video there. But more to the point, when he's talking about a cognitive test and then he's wondering, can AOC and Jasmine Crockett do as well on an IQ test? We just need to point out he is mixing up the cognitive test and the IQ test at the same time. And so I, I, I, you know, either you're talking about a cognitive test or you're talking about an IQ test. Donald Trump apparently does not know what the difference is. And I'm not sure he, at this stage in life, he wants to take an IQ test that wouldn't perhaps go so well. I mean, he might want to just, you know, take the win here. He could, he can pick out an elephant, he can pick out a rhino, he can pick out a lion. I don't know if we can show the Montreal cognitive test again. He can count down from 100 by sevens that I, I will say that I don't fully believe he can do. And, you know, he could draw a letter from or draw a line from A to 1. So way to go, Donald Trump. You passed a cognitive test, but you seem to be confusing a cognitive test from an IQ test. There's the camel, there's the rhino, there's the lion. I don't know why he's talking about a cognitive test that he keeps saying, I aced, I aced the cognitive test. I aced them. And then he's Mixing that up with the IQ test. But anyway, I digress. Let's go to Barbara Star, former Pentagon correspondent Barbara Star and my former colleague over at what does that play? I can't remember that place is called anymore.
- [35:44]
Barbara Starr
But we're much happier colleagues on Substack.
- [35:47]
Jim Acosta
We're now our colleagues on Subset and here in Independent media. And it's a lovely thing and it's lovely to see you and it's great as always to see you. And they're, I mean, Barbara, I was reaching out to you yesterday because there was this story in Reuters and we should just jump right into some of this stuff. I do want to talk about the Pentagon press stuff in a moment because that is still on my mind. I want to talk to you about that. But apparently the Reuters was reporting yesterday that the Trump administration, that the Pentagon is asking people, people over at the pentagon to sign NDAs in order to have them stay quiet about what is happening over at the Pentagon and that, you know, that they have to, they have to pledge this, this vow of, of staying silent, signing these non disclosure agreements when it comes to the military buildup that Venezuela fears may lead to some kind of invasion or war or whatever. I, I guess. What are your thoughts on that? Because first of all, I mean, they're not supposed to just blurt out classified information anyway. I don't understand the purpose of the n. It seems very strange. What did you make of that?
- [36:56]
Barbara Starr
Yeah, it is strange because, you know, if you work at the, in the defense departments of the intermilitary, you already have plenty of restrictions on what you are permitted to say and generally very sensible restrictions. You can't talk about classified information, though, as an aside, apparently Pete Hexseth did on signal some months back when he posted about upcoming airstrikes. We'll leave that aside for the minute. But you're not supposed to do that. So that is plenty of restriction. And there are real consequences for disclosing classified information for military and civilian personnel, including going to jail. So that's covered. So what are the motivations? It seems you could reach a reasonable conclusion. It is to dampen any public discussion to keep Congress from finding out more about what's going on. Already Hegseth has ordered that all congressional communications must come through his office first. And some members of Congress have pointed out they decide who they talk to, not Pete Hegseth. So it's more of this chilling freezing effect of non disclosure, not talking about what they're doing. But at some point does it catch up with them I think that's the real question.
- [38:19]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. Well. And what do you make of what's taking place with Venezuela? There were more of these boat strikes. There were more people killed. Could this just, I suppose this could continue on sort of at the same kind of low boil pattern and not necessarily lead to the United States invading Venezuela. But it does seem to be picking up and I wonder where that, where that might be heading.
- [38:47]
Barbara Starr
Yeah, I mean, we don't really know if Trump has, despite his, you know, various public remarks, I don't think we know for a fact whether he has decided to proceed with any kind of massive military operation or so called invasion plan. You know, the question is, and I think you pointed it out, what is the military strategy here? Right now you're sort of plinking away at these. Pardon me, let me get a glass of water here.
- [39:15]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [39:15]
Barbara Starr
At these little boats. Right, right.
- [39:18]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. I mean, go ahead. Yeah.
- [39:21]
Barbara Starr
No evidence show, sorry about that. No evidence shown about who the people are on board, the drugs they have, if they have drugs, where the boats are coming from, where they're headed to. People have pointed out, excuse me, that these small boats, you know, would have to be refueled. They can't go long distances. So what's really going on here? Let me toss it back to you for a second, Jim. You have seen this throughout your White House coverage. Presidents find it very easy to get into military situations. They have to have a strategy, they have to have a way out. I think you've seen that.
- [39:57]
Jim Acosta
No, I think mission creep is obviously a huge concern. And I covered the second Obama administration and Obama was, was criticized by folks because he wouldn't enforce the so called red line when it came to Syria, when he drew that red line with Syria. And, and, but the United States was coming out of the experience in the Iraq war, the, the George W. Bush's, you know, misadventure, some may call it in Iraq. And that really influenced the Obama military strategy. And I remember at that time they were, that was one of the things they were worried about. They were worried about Mission Creek. They're worried about if you start bombing the Syrians over chemical munitions, where does it go after that?
- [40:38]
Barbara Starr
That's right.
- [40:38]
Congressman Robert Garcia
That's right.
- [40:39]
Barbara Starr
And so you start plinking away at these little drug boats. Are you really making a difference in the war on drugs? Are you getting to the drug cartel leadership, decision makers, communications nodes, the money? Are you really getting to all of that? I think hitting these small boats, one could very reasonably conclude you're not getting to those centers of power within these cartels.
- [41:07]
Jim Acosta
Just a show.
- [41:08]
Barbara Starr
Yeah. How far do you want to go on it? And, you know, has the US Military not learned this lesson for decades? Now you can start something very tough to get out of it and very tough to have a victory. Trump has talked about, of course, that the US Military has achieved no victories. Well, you know, if I think you could debate that endlessly. But the fact is, you know, Vietnam, throughout Iraq, Afghanistan, all of these conflicts, they develop into insurgencies, they fracture into various opposition groups. Very difficult to have any kind of outright victory. So why would you go down this road yet again?
- [41:53]
Jim Acosta
Well, and if you're going to topple the Maduro regime, I mean, one would think that that's going to involve US Military troops, boots on the ground. You can't really overthrow a regime, one would think, without putting some kind of boots on the ground. And do, do the American people want to see men and women in uniform of the United States military sacrificed for that kind of a mission? I think if you were to talk to a lot of Americans, they would say no, why are we going and toppling a regime in, in Venezuela that is not worth seeing American soldiers coming home as casualties?
- [42:31]
Barbara Starr
Well, I think that's right. And that's the ultimate. And I think, you know, Trump is very sensitive to that question. Right. Set Pete Hegseth and his ongoing message points and bravado aside, Donald Trump is nobody's fool on this point. He has watched very carefully and he doesn't want to have, you know, the, the, the, the difficulties attached to him or his presidency. So he's going to have to be told by somebody in the Pentagon that this would be very tough going.
- [43:05]
Jim Acosta
And Barbara, finally, because you and I haven't had a chance to talk about it, I know it's, it's slightly old news, but the, the Pentagon press corps walking out the way that they did the other day, refusing to abide by these new restrictions that the Pentagon is putting on the press. I've never seen anything like that. I personally wish we would see something like that happen with the White House press corp. My personal opinion, because of the way they've gone after the Associated Press, because of the way that they've just, you know, decided they're going to unilaterally decide, you know, who gets to go in and ask the president questions in the Oval Office and so on. But this was being reported in Politico just a few days ago. In terms of the Pentagon press corps out or all the major networks, the Washington Post and The Associated Press in our Turning Point USA Red State in a streaming service run by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. These are the so called journalists that are now part of the Pentagon press corps that go to the Pentagon. It's. This is some Orwellian stuff.
- [44:09]
Barbara Starr
Well, you know, this is far from over, I would say. I'm not sure anything will change until there is a change in administration, possibly and a change in leadership. Hegseth wants this, but he still has yet to confront the real implications of what he's doing. Because I hold to the notion this is just making the Pentagon press corps work harder than ever before. Scoop after scoop, leak after leak, news story after news story is being written. And without the press corps there, they're blind at the Pentagon about what the press corps is up to. Reporters will call and formally ask for a comment on a story, and if there is a DoD comment, it'll be included in a story if it's worth it. But you know, the leadership in the Pentagon for decades knew that having the press corps around gave them a lead themselves on information. And I think that's the same at the White House. What's the press corps up to? What are they asking about? What are they complaining about? Oh, you know, what do we know about what stories they're working on? Well, helpful. Yeah. I mean, there's a reason defense secretaries used to late in the afternoon, come through the press area and, you know, have a chat. They wanted to know what was up. It was useful to them. Mr. Hegseth will find himself not knowing and the big stories will come to him in the morning or throughout the day, and he will have no idea they're coming. And he won't have any idea what he can do about it other than his usual message point, which is to attack the media.
- [45:59]
Jim Acosta
And, and, and just one last thing. They're not doing Pentagon briefings like any other administration has done. I mean, we're just not seeing Pentagon briefings really happening anymore.
- [46:10]
Barbara Starr
That's kind of, it's an interesting question. Hegseth is on a trip to Asia right now, and he did talk to some of the reporters he took on the plane. Those who he liked, he left some out that he didn't like. So that's a serious problem. And if we do have briefings in the Pentagon press room, what we don't know is whether they will allow in the news organizations that decline to sign the agreement. And you know, are they going to just have a television broadcast news conference of three or four people in the.
- [46:48]
Jim Acosta
Front row with Mike Lindell's TV outlet and so on. Yeah, that is something for the American people to absorb. It's just wild and just weird, surreal stuff. Barbara Star, great to see, as always. Thanks so much. And I'm so glad we got a chance to catch up. Good to see you.
- [47:07]
Barbara Starr
Good to see you, Jim. Thanks.
- [47:09]
Jim Acosta
Thanks, Barbara. And I, as I said, power pack lineup this afternoon. The very well respected and wonderful Barbara Star there. I want to go very quickly now to former senator Doug Jones. Senator Jones is there. Hey, Senator, good to see you, Jim.
- [47:24]
Former Senator Doug Jones
It's great to be with you again. It's good to see you.
- [47:27]
Jim Acosta
Hey, thank you so much for doing this. I, you know, I, there's, there was a big headline today that I wanted to talk to you about because you were once a U. S. Attorney, you were once a prosecutor, and obviously there's a lot we could talk about when it comes to that, you know, field of vision. But this is something that just came down in the last several hours, that this. According to the Washington Post, that the Justice Department has placed two federal prosecutors in Washington on leave a day after they filed a document in court that referred to the January 6 attack on the Capitol as a, quote, riot carried out by a, quote, mob. This is according to two people who spoke to the Washington Post. And these two attorneys were suspended just hours after they submitted a sentencing recommendation in a case against Taylor, Toronto, Taranto. I'm not sure how you say his name. Man accused of participating in the Capitol attack who's now facing sentencing for unrelated weapons charges, which is, it's just sort of a weird circumstance why you would suspend people, you know. But the gist of the story is because they accurately described what took place in the attack on the Capitol. They're getting hosed by the doj and it just, this is a weird, this is crazy stuff that's happening right now.
- [48:42]
Former Senator Doug Jones
It's unbelievable. Right now. I say it's unbelievable. At this point, I think anything is believable with this department. And I, and I just call it the department because I really, truly don't believe you can use the word justice there anymore. This is anything but justice. And we have seen similar type of retribution. We've seen firings, we've seen transfers of anybody that was associated with it. January 6th. And, and, you know, assuming all this is true, that it was for that reason, you know, Jim, describing what happened on January 6 as a riot and a mob is just pretty bland when it compared to what really happened. And what you could really call that and so my guess is that these guys were trying to portray. This is a sentencing. Remember, it's a sentencing. So.
- [49:33]
Jim Acosta
Right.
- [49:34]
Former Senator Doug Jones
They've got to get to the point to the court that says, judge, this was a serious matter. He was involved in a very serious matter. And you don't call that, you know, a walk in the park. You don't call that a group of tourists, or else he wouldn't be pleading guilty or being found guilty for some reason. It's really a sad state of affairs. I've talked to a lot of DOJ folks, former DOJ as well as some current, and everybody is dismayed. People that have questions worked across administrations, Republican and Democrat, are completely dismayed at what's going on with the department right now. And it is just no longer want anything but the Department of retribution, the Department of, you know, to try to, you know, gain favor for the president and what. And he is controlling it. I don't think it's anybody else, but he's controlling it.
- [50:25]
Jim Acosta
That's true. And the other thing that's happening is that they may get, you know, they may do themselves in. They may be digging their own graves to some extent with some of these cases. Because in the Comey case and in the Letitia James case, filings have been entered into the court to throw out those cases based on the installation of Lindsey Halligan as the interim U. S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, who. Somebody who has no business being there in the first place. But the fact that, I mean, it's being challenged on the grounds that it's just an illegitimate installation of a U.S. attorney who's handling this case. And so this may be an instance where perhaps their recklessness and. And their incompetence in trying to seek retribution blows up in their face.
- [51:10]
Former Senator Doug Jones
Yeah, I think that that may be true in this. In the James and the Comey case, not in the case of these two guys. Yeah, because she's confirmed. But there is. There are statutes that have clearly have not been followed by the administration in having someone in charge of the U.S. attorney's office. And it does raise legal issues. But, Jim, I gotta tell you, I don't think that they care. I don't think that convictions are. That would just be icing on the cake for these folks. I don't think that they care. This is more about making their lives miserable, putting them through the investigation the way Donald Trump felt like he was victimized. Remember, he said on two occasions his MO he said this to Zelensky in the telephone call that ultimately led to his first impeachment, that it doesn't matter that there's really an investigation. Just start or say that there's an investigation and I'll take it from there. About Biden and Hunter Biden, he said essentially the same thing to his attorney General, Bill Barr, about fraud in the 2020 election. Just say that there is some evidence of fraud and me and my friends in Congress will take it from there. It's all about making life miserable. And you know, Jim, there was a famous, very famous speech by then Attorney General Robert Jackson in which he warned US Attorneys, he cautioned US Attorneys from those types of investigations that they can do as much damage and that you should, you should investigate facts and crimes and not people that is completely thrown out the window with this department.
- [52:55]
Jim Acosta
Well, and I just, I mean, just to play off of what you just said there, it makes me wonder and I'm sure there are a lot of Democrats who are going to be tempted to want to go down this road, who are going to say the weaponization of the Justice Department, something that the conservatives accuse Democrats of having done, but it's actually happening, you know, as, as we speak, is a crime itself, it seems to me, and it may seem to a lot of people. And should, should those crimes be pursued and investigated in a, in a Democratic administration if we ever have one again, if we're allowed to have one again?
- [53:28]
Former Senator Doug Jones
Jim Look, I, I, I think we don't need to put the cart before the horse right now. I mean, there is a long way to go in this administration and there's a, and this country is going to go through a lot of between now and the next election. They're going to go through a lot between now and the midterm election, much less the 28 elections. I know there's a lot of people that would say that, but the one thing I would say too, is that if we ever get into a place in this country where it is nothing, every election is a nothing but tit for tat kind of thing, we are in deep trouble. We are in deep trouble and we will not last as a democracy. We will not last as a country, if that's the case. So not to say you turn your head to crimes, I don't think anybody should, should ever say that. But I think you have to be very careful about where you go and what you do and whether or not pursuing something like this under, you know, because there's a lot of, there's a lot of discretion that prosecutors have and there's A lot of ways to do that. So there's a lot of things to weigh here. But I think people, instead of focusing on that right now, candidly, I think they need to focus on the midterms and the 28 election and let's make sure that we have a democracy that we can count on.
- [54:44]
Jim Acosta
And on that, on that point, I mean, you were once in the Senate. What do you make of your, your former colleague's strategy here and digging in their heels on these Obamacare subsidies? You like that strategy? You think they should just open up the government, go along with the Republican demands to open up the government. I think that would be very deflating to a lot of people in the Democratic base. And to me, it seems that this, this Obamacare issue is a worthwhile. I mean, it's really going to hit people hard. I kind of wish they would go for more than just this. But your thoughts?
- [55:15]
Former Senator Doug Jones
You know, I agree with you. You know, the, the, the big shutdown in 2013 was over Obamacare and we survived that. In 2019, it was over immigration. And, and this one is especially interesting because, you know, the Democrats care a lot about federal workers. When I was in the Senate, I tried every way in the world to vote for every resolution that would open the government back because I have such a huge contingency of federal workers in Alabama. Yeah, but it was over immigration and building a wall. And I'll tell you, Jim, even though a lot of people may disagree, that was just not a hill I was going to die life on for the federal workers. This is different, though, because what Democrats are fighting for, not just federal workers, they're fighting for the millions of people out there who depend on those subsidies, whose health care premiums are going to go up, who will lose their health care. What's really interesting about this is just as the pain is really starting to hit federal workers, it's also going to come into for come November 1st when the insurance prices are starting to go up and you have to go out into the marketplace. So I think the Democratic strategy here is a good one. I think that, you know, the, the problem that we've, I've seen from afar is that Republicans never, ever intended to discuss this with Democrats. They just put something on the table and said, take it or leave it. And Democrats have left it. And now there's going to be whether it's snap with the government, shut down the federal workers, but also these substances. And pretty soon in the next couple of days, you're going to see the confluence of those People are going to understand more about why Democrats are fighting, why they're holding out for this must pass bill that we need to get done and we need to open this government. We need to do it the right way and we need to get folks some relief. And I, I think it's a good, I think it's a good strategy. We'll see. You, you're, you see cracks on both sides coming in. Pain is going to start getting a lot harder, I think, on a lot of people now. And there's going to be a lot more pressure on both sides. But I hope that Republicans will finally come to the table. The last thing I'd say on this, Jim, is I have a very, also have a very cynical view of why the government and why Donald Trump is not participating in these discussions while he is jetting around Asia somewhere, you know, you know, sipping with the communist leader of China, you know, sipping sake or whatever they drink over there. I think, I really believe that the administration has always wanted this government to shut down, that Russell Vod and OMB have had a plan with Project 2025 to slash more jobs, to fire more people. And when they get to a point where they felt like they've gone about as far as they can go, they will come to the table and this government will get back opened up and all of the firings will be left to the courts. And unfortunately, they feel like they've got the upper hand with the United States Supreme Court. So that's been my thought all along. Sooner or later, they'll come to the table, but they've got a, they're going to slice and dice the government more, just taking a bulldozer to it just like they did the East Wing of the White House.
- [58:43]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, yeah. Bulldoze first and ask questions later, get permission later. Senator, as always, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Always great to have you on. Let's do it again soon.
- [58:54]
Former Senator Doug Jones
You got it, Jim. Anytime. Thanks so much.
- [58:56]
Jim Acosta
Thank you. Great to talk to you. Great to talk to you. And he's right. And look who's in charge of all of this. Look who's calling the shots. Remember, Donald Trump thinks of himself as a king. He thinks of himself as the speaker of the House, too. But look at the images coming out of this Asia trip that Trump was just on. This is a debacle for him. This is a debacle for him. Donald Trump being presented a crown by the president of South Korea. A fucking crown. Can you imagine if Obama or Biden had gone overseas and had been presented with a crown. King Obama, King Biden. You know, all of the trolling that the Republicans like to do that Donald Trump is some kind of a king and they love the fact that people freak out that he wants to become a king and they present him in images in a crown and, and so on. I mean, think about that. If, if Obama had been presented a crown, a golden crown in some far flung country on the other side of the world, the outcry that we would hear in Washington, it would be deafening. It would be deafening. And Donald Trump the other day says, I'm no king. I'm not a king. Sure as hell looks like it. Every day he looks more and more like a king. Bulldozes part of the White House when he wants to build a golden ballroom for himself, name it. After himself shut down the government, sent federal workers out to food lines, let them eat cake. Sure as hell sounds like a monarchy. Doesn't sound like a democracy to me. Doesn't look like a democracy to me. And these foreign leaders know how to play him. They can play him every time by just giving him a golden trinket. Like, you know, just, just give him another goodie and the mad king will be happy. Let him pass another cognitive test. Does anybody, does anybody find any of this a little damn peculiar? He's, he's the president of the United States wandering around Asia, wandering around a room with the Japanese prime minister, talking about acing cognitive tests, mixing that up with IQ tests, and being presented a golden crown by the leader of South Korea. Does anybody, does anybody think that that's normal? That's normal presidential stuff. Sound like this guy over here, Abraham Lincoln. Sound like this guy over here. Joash. Doesn't sound like any of those guys to me. Sounds like a mad king who's out of control and high on his own fumes and addicted to gold. Strange stuff. My thanks to Senator Jackie Rosen. My thanks to Congressman Robert Garcia. My thanks to Barbara Starr and former Senator Doug Jones. Big show today. Lot packe in there. Hope you enjoyed it. Still reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. I'll be on with Katie Couric in just a few moments, so stay tuned for that. I'll see you guys later. Take care.