← The Jim Acosta Show
The Jim Acosta Show
Senator Elizabeth Warren launches Senate Banking Dems on Substack, calls for SEC investigation into Trump... plus we catch Molly Jong-Fast in a NYC taxi... also Duke makes a Friday cameo!
00:41:13
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- [00:00]
Jim Acosta
Okay, we are live. Welcome, everybody, to the Jim Acosta show. As you can see, I have a very special guest to end this week, tgif. Thank goodness it's Friday. Senator, I'm sure you would echo that sentiment after the week we have had. As you can see, everybody is very excited that you're here. You're seeing lots of comments come in, all the hearts coming in, and my goodness, what a week we have had. Senator, one of the reasons why I wanted to talk to you is that Senate Banking Democrats under your leadership have launched an account on Substack. This is where the cool kids are right now, as I like to tell people, but you're the ranking member on that committee. Tell us about the message from Democrats when it comes to what is happening right now. Because people, right now, I mean, yes, the Dow went up today. Whoop dee doo. People are freaking out over the markets, their 401ks, their retirement savings. And now the housing market might take another hit. Mortgage rates are climbing again. Trump has caused a great deal of economic turmoil this week. What are your thoughts?
- [00:59]
Elizabeth Warren
Look, Trump is driving this economy over a cliff. And we've had a lot of economic problems in the past, right? We had the crash in 2008. We had the problems we had following Covid. But this is the first time that I know of any time in US History where one single guy, all by himself in the brilliance of his own interior mind, managed to take a good, strong economy and do everything possible to blow it up. So now we're in a place where every one of the economic lights is flashing red. So we have this strong economy making good recovery. Things are, like, headed in the right direction, and now they're all in chaos. And it's because of Donald Trump. The latest, of course, is what's happened with these tariffs. And I just want to underscore, I know everybody's been hearing a lot about the tariffs, but I really want everybody to focus on the fact that what Donald Trump has done, look, it's possible to use tariffs in ways that could be very helpful. But you do it thoughtfully, quietly. You work it out over time. You have a real goal. Instead, it's everything everywhere all at once. So it's virtually every country on virtually every product. It goes into effect immediately. And it's like taking this giant five gallon bucket of paint and just throwing it across a big canvas and saying, painting. And the consequence is that it breaks the economy. It messes with the economy. So instead of getting more investment in the economy, an investor looks at that and says, wow. So one guy who is, shall we say, a little unreliable here. One guy can raise the tariffs, lower the tariffs, raise the tariffs, lower the tariffs. This on again, off again, on again, off again. One guy can do this. I'm not gonna build a factory not knowing what the rules are gonna look like in five years, much less in five minutes. I'm not gonna buy a bunch of tools and start gearing up and expanding. I'm not gonna try to bring in a. What investment does under these circumstances is they say yikes, and they start backing out of the economy. And then the thing is, that doesn't just affect business. It means that families get hurt because we not only don't get new hiring, we don't get the old hiring. We've got now companies that are starting to issue the pink slips. Jerome Powell, as you know, head of the Fed, said Donald Trump's tariffs gonna do two things. He's going to drive up prices and simultaneously drive up unemployment. And the consequence of that, 1, 2. We watch it on the stock market because that's where the numbers are. The truth is, Jim, and you know this, it's family by family by family by family.
- [04:21]
Jim Acosta
Well, and that's where people could get hurt. That's right. I mean, and not that we take everything that they say on Wall street seriously at all Times, but the BlackRock CEO Larry Fink told CNBC just today he thinks the U.S. economy has weakened to the point of possibly turning negative. I think we're very close, he says, if not in a recession now, he said earlier this morning on CNBC. And you know, China boosted tariffs on the U.S. to 125%. Canada's prime minister, Mark Carney said his government will counter unjustified US levies of 25% on steel, aluminum, cars, and inflict what he calls, quote, maximum pain. That's according to the Wall Street Journal. So you can just imagine all of these effects reverberating throughout our economy.
- [05:03]
Molly Jong-Fast
Yep.
- [05:03]
Elizabeth Warren
And again, I really want to hit. It's two effects. One effect of the tariffs themselves, which drive up costs, but the second effect is the uncertainty. And we've never, ever, ever seen uncertainty like this. The uncertainty of a mercurial guy who one minute is up, one minute is down. You tell me, how is it that we are suddenly in an emergency and in a tariff war with Canada, with France, with South Korea.
- [05:33]
Jim Acosta
Right.
- [05:34]
Elizabeth Warren
But I want to say on this one, the United States Congress is not helpless here. The authority that Donald Trump is using, the Congress actually right in that same authority it says Congress can say if the President has to declare an emergency to turn these powers on, Congress can come up and say, sorry, fellow, no emergency, and turn those powers right back off. And if you turn those powers off, not only does it take the tariffs back down, it takes away the keys to the car. And that means he can't turn them back on tomorrow or the next day or the next day. And that puts some stability back in the system.
- [06:16]
Jim Acosta
But, Senator, I mean, the House Speaker, Mike Johnson, was asked about this, and he says he wants to give Trump plenty of Runway to do what he wants to do on the economy. And you know, that. Let's not bring in Runway references here. But, you know, my concern is, is that it doesn't sound like the Republicans are in much of a mood in either the House or the Senate to challenge him on this. So you hear, like, Ted Cruz here or there kind of thing, which, I mean, that was sort of a shocking moment this week to hear Ted Cruz raise his voice. But your thoughts on that?
- [06:44]
Elizabeth Warren
That's right. And look, spinelessness has been the code word for the Republicans in both the House and the Senate on everything. Everything. But I think this is really a moment for the Republicans. The thing about this resolution, it's called, that Ron Wyden and I introduced yesterday, is that you have to have a vote. They don't just get to the leader, doesn't bring it to the floor. Ha, ha, ha. It's. You actually have to have a vote. So we're gonna have a vote at the Senate on this. And that means Senate Republicans are actually going to have to step up and say, hmm, is their job. Do they see their job as to bend a knee to Donald Trump, give him Runway as he's running this thing over a cliff?
- [07:29]
Jim Acosta
Right.
- [07:30]
Elizabeth Warren
Or is their job to actually stand up for the American people?
- [07:34]
Jim Acosta
And I know you have asked the securities and Exchange Commission, this, according to the New York Times, to investigate whether Trump violated securities laws while reversing course on these global tariffs. As you know, he put this post on social media, was at 9 o'clock yesterday morning. This is a great time to buy. And then hours later, he announced the pause. And, you know, or maybe this was on Wednesday. I'm losing track of what day it is. But, you know, the thing is, is that it was awfully suspicious. It just, something smelled fishy there. And, you know, you tell me what's going on.
- [08:07]
Elizabeth Warren
In fact, it's even worse than that. Yeah, that's. That's kind of the big picture. What happens is Just before the announcement, there's a spike in purchases and it drops down and then the announcement. And then zillions of dollars is made by people who bought. Right. The part that gets me. Have you seen the little video that somebody took where they're standing in the Oval Office?
- [08:33]
Jim Acosta
Yes. Is that the video? I think it was Margo Martin, one of his aides, posted this video and he's pointing is it to Charles Schwab or something like that and says, you made $2 billion over here and you made hundreds of millions over there.
- [08:44]
Elizabeth Warren
What was that million over there?
- [08:47]
Jim Acosta
Right.
- [08:49]
Elizabeth Warren
They're laughing about how whatever it is that Donald Trump has done has made so much money for them. So the question here becomes, there are two questions, I think, of this. The first one is how many people actually got a little advance notice about what was anybody.
- [09:09]
Jim Acosta
Maybe they put it on a signal text thread or something.
- [09:12]
Elizabeth Warren
What happened here? Exactly. Exactly. These guys are good at that. Or did their friends and family get the information? How did this work? And for that, we've called for an investigation. But the second half, Jim, is the step back, really. You're going to stand there and yuck it up, because Charles Schwab figured out how to make a billion dollars out of this or 2 billion, while families who depend on that 401k, they're just in the toilet over this. Or half of America that owns no shares of stock instead is just on the receiving end of the pink slips and the higher prices. I think for me, kind of the most shocking part is either the openness of what could be corruption or just the indifference to how this affects 100 million people around this country.
- [10:16]
Jim Acosta
Well, and a couple of things just to jump off of what you're saying. I mean, he came into office promising to lower prices and he inherited an economy according to everything that I understand. Goldman Sachs and all these places. J.P. morgan, they weren't saying 60% chance of a recession. Basically, everybody was saying 0% chance of a recession. Hello.
- [10:38]
Elizabeth Warren
You know, that's the thing he did. He said he would lower prices. Remember, he said on day one, on day one, on day one. Those were his words. Not my words, not your words, his words on day one. And by, what was it, six weeks later, when he's talking, remember he played the red light, green light game of tariffs before this latest craziness. While he's doing that, somebody raises the question, you know, that tariff that you're talking about here is going to likely raise prices on consumers. His comment couldn't care less.
- [11:11]
Jim Acosta
That's Right. That's right.
- [11:12]
Elizabeth Warren
Those were his words. Couldn't care less. And so we've gone from lower prices on day one to couldn't care less by month two. And that's where we are in this economy. Consumers, this is why, I don't know if you've seen it, but the consumer confidence has just basically collapsed because people are worried about their jobs, they're worried about the future, and they're worried that what you've got is you've got somebody in charge who's just causing more chaos. And that's why I want to go back where I was a minute ago. That's going to be the environment in which Republicans are going to have to vote in a couple of weeks on this resolution. And you know, while we're voting, voting and we're talking about this kind of corruption, I'm going to throw another one in there. It's time for us to vote on my long standing bill. Senators and representatives should not be allowed to trade individual stocks.
- [12:08]
Jim Acosta
Bingo.
- [12:09]
Elizabeth Warren
Anybody else trade in the stock market if they want, but if you want to be a senator or a representative or you've got to stay out of the stock market.
- [12:17]
Jim Acosta
Well, and we talked about Charles Schwab. I was wondering about investing genius Marjorie Taylor Greene because there are reports out there as stocks were tanking, Marjorie Taylor Greene showed her faith in Donald Trump, not just with words, but dollar bills. According to the ap, the Republican congresswoman scooped up some of the biggest losers. Lululemon, Dell Computer, Amazon, the parent of Restoration Hardware. I mean, apparently she cleaned up. And again, you know, I didn't know she, if I had known she was such a great picker of stocks, I would have, you know.
- [12:47]
Elizabeth Warren
Yeah. So is that what we need to do? Do we need to set up a Marjorie Greene Taylor GRE ghetto investment club?
- [12:58]
Jim Acosta
Yes, something like that. Yeah. It's true.
- [13:00]
Elizabeth Warren
That's what corruption does, is that it truly undermines everybody's confidence in government. Look, I get it. There are hard decisions that you have to make about trying to make the government work and people can get it wrong. But by damn, you ought to be able to count on the fact that the people who are making those decisions, who are voting in the United States Senate and the United States Senators, Congress, that they are doing their dead level best not for their own pocketbooks, but doing their dead level best for the American people.
- [13:36]
Jim Acosta
That's why they're supposed to be there, not to line their pockets. And this is something that makes everybody very, very angry. And I did want to ask you about the SAVE act because the House approved legislation on Thursday requiring documentary proof of U.S. citizenship is, according to AP, for anyone registering to vote. The bill, known as the SAVE act, now heads to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain because of the filibuster. And they don't have quite the majority over there in the Senate. But we should note it's already illegal under federal law for people who are not US Citizens to cast ballots. But there are a lot of concerns this is going to disenfranchise people. What do we think?
- [14:11]
Elizabeth Warren
That's exactly what it's designed to do. They want to give it a big headline that makes people say, whoa, that should be illegal. Well, yeah, no kidding. That's why it's already illegal. People are not U.S. citizens cannot vote in U.S. elections. That's the law. It's not fancy. You don't have to have a lawyer to point that one out to you. That is current law. But that's what they describe they're doing. But what they're really doing is all the little pieces. Oh, let's get rid of mail in voting. Let's make it harder to get registered. Let's make the documentation. Oh, here's a good one. You don't get to vote if your birth certificate does not match your driver's license.
- [14:56]
Jim Acosta
Right. Oh, boy.
- [14:57]
Elizabeth Warren
Excuse me, do you know any women who changed their names when they got married? It's just the whole idea is to try to disenfranchise as many people as possible, because what the Republicans are really trying to save is power for themselves, even when the majority of voters don't want them.
- [15:22]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And the other thing that I dislike about that legislation, and it is a lot like the one that they tried to pass in Georgia and these other places, these are pieces of legislation that are built on the foundation of lies from the 2020 election peddled by Donald Trump. So if he could have just accepted that he lost that. I mean, you just go in so many directions with this. But that, to me, the foundation of this is built on a lie. Our elections are just fine in this country.
- [15:50]
Elizabeth Warren
Yes, yes, exactly right. But again, it's to try to undermine confidence. So it creates an opening for them to try to make it harder and harder and harder for people to vote. You know, you want to talk about what are American values? I thought one of American values is that every American citizen gets a chance to vote and that we think that's a good thing and that we try to get all of our American citizens to vote and not the Republicans. They only want the people who are going to vote for them to get out there.
- [16:25]
Jim Acosta
And I wonder what you think. Not to jump around in too many places. But you know, when Trump was trying to sort of distract everybody's attention from his cave on tariffs, a couple of days ago, he announced these executive orders where he announced that the Department of Justice is going to investigate people like Chris Krebs and Miles Taylor. Chris Krebs, who run the CyberSecurity Agency at DHS and declared that the election was just fine back in 2020. That's why Trump doesn't like him. And Miles Taylor, who wrote that infamous anonymous op ed in that book warning about what was going on inside the Trump administration. How worried are you that the President of the United States can do something like this? It's very disturbing, it seems to me.
- [17:04]
Elizabeth Warren
Jim, these are all just signs of the king, right? The king, unlimited power. And all that matters is whatever bothers him or engages him. It's not about trying to make this country work better for everyone. Let me ask you, going after these guys, I get it. We can all talk about how this has a chilling effect. Who wants to do the investigations that need to be done? By the way, right now the SEC and the Department of Justice need to be investigating Donald Trump and all of his close in advisors over what happened on Wednesday. And was this stock manipulation and a violation of federal law? But who looks left and looks right and says what will Donald Trump do? And then it means we are no longer a nation of laws. We are just a kingdom. We are all just servants to the king, Donald Trump. And that's not what we are. I am not ready to give up on our Constitution. I am not ready. And by the way, on that particular one, let's just make the point out to the side. Yeah, I get it. I'm calling on the SEC to do their job. I'm calling on the Department of Justice to do their job. And if they don't do their job and do these investigations, yeah, I get why you're afraid to do it. But you're in the job. You're taking the paycheck. You step up and do your job. But that particular one, we got somebody else who can do the job. So I've sent out a letter today with some of my Republican colleagues calling on every single state attorney general to investigate those stock trades, that stock, whether or not it was stock manipulation, whether or not people got inside information and.
- [18:53]
Jim Acosta
Traded on that, and, and would they have jurisdiction in New York? I mean, it sounds like it sounds like New New York Attorney General Letitia James might, might get on that. I suppose that could, could happen. And I, and lastly, and I do want to let you go because you've been so generous with your time. NBC reporting. Federal judge said today that is extremely troubling that a government lawyer could not explain what, if anything, the Trump administration has done to arrange for the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who, as you know, was mistakenly deported to that notorious prison in El Salvador, even though he wasn't supposed to be sent there. And it's just got everybody, it's got a lot of people worried about this possibility that seems to have arisen in this country, that probability that the administration go out and just grab people off the street and racially profile. And so it's very troubling. And I just wonder what you think about that.
- [19:45]
Elizabeth Warren
This is why it is so important at this moment that everyone stay together. Lift your voices. You got to stay engaged. I get it. This is like a sandstorm. You know, every day is a month's worth of news in the previous world. And I think what the Trump administration is hoping is that people will just lose track, give up, cover your head with a blanket and say, I'm not going to pay any attention here. Nope, we still got to pay attention. And things like this are exactly the reason why we've got to make sure that our voices are still heard so that court orders are obeyed. We talk a lot about the three parts of government in the Constitution, what we do in Congress, what they do at the White House and what our courts do. But the power ultimately is with the people. And if the people say we're holding fast to our Constitution and if the court tells you to get that guy back here to the United States, we're with the court. Doesn't matter whether you're Democrat, Republican, independent, Libertarian. We are with our courts. We enforce court orders. They gotta bring that guy back.
- [20:56]
Jim Acosta
Well, I appreciate your time so much. And when you talk about this is something I've been talking about on my show here on Substack and that I've been calling it the Great American Pushback, because people are pushing back. And maybe it's not covered on the news every day, but, you know, there are marches, there are rallies, there are demonstrations happening. There's this democratizing of information and the free flow of information on this platform. And it's terrific that you're launching on this platform. You're getting your fellow Senate banking Democrats on this platform. I think this is a Healthy thing.
- [21:29]
Elizabeth Warren
I do, too. I think this is gonna be how we help strengthen our democracy. One of the things that I hope comes out of all this, all this conversation, for example, about cutting the Department of Education, getting rid of it. I keep using this as a moment to talk about why we have a Department of Education and how as a country, we've made the decision that we want to make an additional investment. Our schools are mostly run at the state and local level, but federally, we want to put some extra dollars in to help bring down those class sizes and give all of our kids, no matter where they are across the country, a real fighting chance. We decided as a country that we want to make an investment. So kids with special needs, some of them need an aid or an extra teacher, that there's money available to do that and we don't have to count on the locality to do it. We're going to do this nationwide for all our kids. We're building these after school programs. We're going to do this nationwide because we believe in opportunity for every single one of our children. There are a lot of people who weren't quite sure what the Department of Education does. Last week, I launched Save Our Schools. And part of what this is about is just to tell the stories about why our schools matter and that we are going to fight back against Donald Trump trying to shut them down. Launching this new substack out of the Banking Committee is a way to draw more people in to the work we do and the issues that we're wrestling with every day. So you are the very first person I've talked to.
- [23:09]
Jim Acosta
That's great.
- [23:11]
Elizabeth Warren
This is fabulous. We're only a few hours old, so amazing.
- [23:15]
Jim Acosta
This is. And it's fun. I saw the note that Alex put out on your staff and I said, you know what, we gotta try to get the Senator on here. And we made it happen. And it's fun, I think. I hope you're now hooked on it now. You could do your thing and have your guests on. And it's just a great way to bring people. And you see all the questions and comments coming from folks at home.
- [23:34]
Elizabeth Warren
I'm reading them as we go. They're fabulous.
- [23:37]
Jim Acosta
It's fabulous.
- [23:38]
Elizabeth Warren
Hi, Marianne.
- [23:39]
Jim Acosta
Yes. And people are energized. They're posting American flags and so on, and they just, they want people to fight. And I think that's why everybody is so, you know, excited about what you do because you're a fighter. And I just get that sense. No matter where you are on the political spectrum, people just want to fight to save this, this American way of life that we hold so dear, which includes this wonderful democracy that, yes, many of us take for granted, but it's there for us and it's still there. And we just got to make sure it holds as long as possible. This is it. But Senator Ward, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate. And thanks to Bailey. I know he was listening. And I appreciate his time, too.
- [24:18]
Elizabeth Warren
I'm afraid he was asleep through.
- [24:21]
Jim Acosta
So was Duke. So was Duke.
- [24:23]
Elizabeth Warren
Okay.
- [24:23]
Jim Acosta
But thanks, Senator. I appreciate it. Good to see you. Good luck on substack. All right. That was Senator Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts. And you know, listen, it's an embarrassment of riches here on the Jim Acosta show. I started the day not knowing that I would be talking to Senator Elizabeth Ward. But it just goes to show you, and perhaps this should be a lesson for all of us, you can't wake up down in the dumps and worried about how things are going to go in your day. Because who knows, by the end of the day, you might talk to Elizabeth Warren, which was terrific. So my thanks to her. That was absolutely fantastic. And you know, she has her work cut out for her. The ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, the other Democrats on that committee, they have their work cut out for them now because now they have a big fight on their hands. And she raised it. She talked about her call to the sec, to the Department of Justice, to state attorney generals around the country to investigate what took place earlier this week. I was mistakenly said yesterday at one point because I can't tell what day it is anymore. It's been that kind of a week. But on Wednesday, when Trump sends out this truth social post in the morning and says, hey, now would be a good time to buy some stocks, and then at 1 o'clock in the afternoon, he gets off of his tariffs ledge and all of a sudden the stock market shoots up. And Senator Warren, I mean, kudos to her and her staff for seizing on that piece of video. Because I was going to bring this up, this piece of video that I believe was shot by one of Trump's aides in the White House, showing Trump congratulating some of the titans of Wall street on how much money they made when the stock market shot back up on Wednesday afternoon. And it obviously, I mean, my goodness, I'm not against people making money in this world and making money in the stock market and so on, but we can't have our markets manipulated by the president of the United States to enrich his wealthy and powerful friends. That's not how it should work in this country. That is the definition of corruption if that's indeed what took place. And it should be investigated. You know, there should be hearings. And the Republicans who control the gavels on those committees that are at the heart of all of this, they should be launching investigations or bringing in administration officials to get some answers on all of this. Now, my good friend Molly Zhang fast, she's supposed to be on the program in just a moment. I am going to make a Jim Acosta show college try attempt here to bring in Molly Jong fast. She warned me she was doing some important Molly Jong Fast personal things, but that I should be able to bring her on. She may be in the back of a New York City taxi. I don't know. We're just going to give this a shot here. But, you know, sometimes we play things a little loosey goosey on the Jim Acosta show and we invite people in when, you know, they, they may be in the back of a taxi or at LaGuardia or wherever they. And there's Molly right there. Was I right? Are you in a taxi?
- [27:24]
Molly Jong-Fast
Yes, I'm in a taxi. I was like, I should get a car in Uber because it'll be better. But then I was like, oh, no.
- [27:32]
Jim Acosta
This is more the bad. This is the. I always take taxis as much as I can because it's, it's just the way to go when you're in Manhattan. I don't know if you heard any of Senator Warren and I talking there, but she was talking about calling on the SEC to investigate what Trump was up to on Wednesday.
- [27:48]
Molly Jong-Fast
Yeah.
- [27:49]
Jim Acosta
I mean, what do you think about that? That's some crazy stuff.
- [27:52]
Molly Jong-Fast
I mean, look, I think that for sure that's worth doing. And I am a big fan of Elizabeth Warren's for obvious reason.
- [28:00]
Jim Acosta
Reasons.
- [28:00]
Molly Jong-Fast
The only thing I would say is that it's worth just not throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Right. Like, what Trump did was incompetent and stupid and cost millions of dollars to, you know, people who are, have retirement accounts. And like, I wouldn't necessarily, like, perhaps there is insider trading, but I think the message should be that Trump is fucking up the public markets for no reason. Right?
- [28:31]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [28:32]
Molly Jong-Fast
And like, it doesn't have to be more complicated than that. It's never three dimensional chess. It's always him just eating the checkers.
- [28:40]
Jim Acosta
And, and he ate a lot of them this week. And it took a hit for all of us. We all felt like eating checkers at the end of one of those days this week when everything tanked. But I mean, you know the other thing in all of this that pisses me off and it's something that Senator Warren I talked about is that how is it possible that one guy can do this? That's dumb, that's fucked up.
- [29:03]
Molly Jong-Fast
That Congress should be, I mean they have an opportunity, right to, they should be able to take control back of the tariffs. By the way, also the Supreme Court, I mean the mechanism that he's giving himself to enact these tariffs is an emergency power which is technically pretty dicey legally. So he's the emergency. Right. And there is, and look there is a case going up to the Supreme Court right now that is funded by Leonard Leo and his crew and the Koch brothers that is an anti tariff case. We don't, I mean the Supreme Court could shut this down tomorrow just like they said that Trump has to return that immigrant who is in a detention center. So look, Congress and the Supreme Court have given away their power to Donald Trump cuz they're scared just like the law firms. This doesn't need to be happening. He is really out on a limb here doing things he's not supposed to be doing. And the question is, will the checks and balances work?
- [30:06]
Jim Acosta
That's right. And I mean I didn't even bring up, I wanted with Elizabeth Warren because she mentioned the Secretary of Education or she mentioned the effort to close down the Education Department. But have you seen this video of the Secretary of Education, McMahon, Linda McMahon. Apparently she confused AI with A1 steak sauce. Have you seen this? I just, I know I don't have.
- [30:27]
Molly Jong-Fast
Much time with you, but I mean, yes, it's stupid but like he put her in there because he thought he was gonna put take apart the division anyway. Right. Well, that's the dismantle the Department of Education. She is, you know, she was a big donor and she had wanted commerce Secretary and Lutnick had gotten Commerce Secretary. So she was, he was like, what can I give her that I don't care about? Oh, Department of Education. Because he really does, in fact. And this was written about in Project 2025, he does actually want to dismantle the Department of Education. So he didn't really care, you know, a 1 AI, whatever.
- [31:04]
Jim Acosta
I mean I just, you know, to me it's just, I needed that exclamation point at the end of this fucked up week. And it was Courtesy of Linda McMahon at the Department of Education. That's right, using AI with a one and as somebody who's used a one many times over the years. It is delicious. It is a tasty condiment.
- [31:23]
Molly Jong-Fast
It's very good.
- [31:24]
Jim Acosta
Try it on a hamburger. You can get it at five guys. I'll let you put the A1 on the five guys. And this is not sponsored by Five Guys, but I'm just saying.
- [31:32]
Molly Jong-Fast
Very serious here. It's very important.
- [31:34]
Jim Acosta
This is why I picked.
- [31:36]
Molly Jong-Fast
Yeah, no, I'm glad. Did Elizabeth Warren get this stuff? Because I feel like she didn't get the A1.
- [31:41]
Jim Acosta
I didn't ask her about the A1.
- [31:43]
Elizabeth Warren
No.
- [31:43]
Jim Acosta
I saved that for Molly.
- [31:45]
Molly Jong-Fast
Right. I get the good stuff. Yeah, I could Doubt. I could tell.
- [31:48]
Elizabeth Warren
Yeah.
- [31:49]
Molly Jong-Fast
Let's ask Elizabeth Warren about, you know, the serious financial stuff. Let's riff on A one Sauce with me. I'm getting the Ari Melber here.
- [31:58]
Jim Acosta
Right? No, this is not an Ari Melbourne thing. I'm sorry. Okay.
- [32:02]
Molly Jong-Fast
No, no, I. Listen, I love Ari Melber, but I love Ari. I'm just saying that I did ask her about.
- [32:09]
Jim Acosta
I did ask her about SAVE act, and I know you said to me, you should ask Elizabeth Warren.
- [32:14]
Molly Jong-Fast
What'd she say? So the SAVE act is a thing that makes it harder for women to vote. And if you've changed your name due to marriage, you need to prove it. And there's all sorts of. It's just another barrier, another kind of voter suppression tactic.
- [32:28]
Jim Acosta
It is.
- [32:28]
Molly Jong-Fast
What did she say?
- [32:29]
Jim Acosta
She brought that up. I mean, she said. I mean, I brought up the fact that obviously you're not supposed to vote in this country if you're not legally here. We already knew that. Thank you very much. But she absolutely brought that up. She said, lo and behold, hello, there are lots of women out there who changed their last name. Name because they got married. And that's going to cause a huge problem. And this, she said, is a part of just an effort to disenfranchise people. And I brought up the fact. And this is the thing I always bring up. And I brought it up after they tried to pass that bullshit law in Georgia, that when you pass these laws to address fictitious problems with the election process in this country, they're all built on the foundation of the lie. Of the big lie.
- [33:10]
Molly Jong-Fast
The big lie, of course.
- [33:12]
Jim Acosta
And that's what this is.
- [33:13]
Molly Jong-Fast
So I've heard different things because I'm very activated about this. I've heard that the Senate is saying it's dead on arrival. It made it through the House, got through the House. Worry when things make it through the House, a lot of times they can get through the Senate. Like that. Cr. So what's your take on that?
- [33:33]
Jim Acosta
My take was she did not seem so worried that it would pass. I mean, that was my take.
- [33:39]
Molly Jong-Fast
That's what I had heard from another. From Schumer, too.
- [33:43]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And the fate is uncertain because Republicans just don't have a large enough majority to avoid a filibuster. So one would think somebody's gonna filibuster that day.
- [33:50]
Molly Jong-Fast
Yeah. And put a hole in the shit. Yeah. I mean, it's so stupid. We are literally living in the dumbest, darkest timeline. And we, the American people, have elected this person not once, but twice.
- [34:04]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, well, and Warren and I were talking about this. I mean, he was. He was elected to lower prices, hasn't done right, and made it worse. And he was stationary, and he came into office with nobody predicting a recession. Now, Larry Fink was on CNBC this morning saying, recession likely now. And you know that that's. That's where we are. And what I. You mentioned timeline. I mean, it reminds me of all of the wonderful Instagram. By the way, your Instagram account is keeping me, I think, sane. I think it is keeping me sane. I hope everybody follows Molly's Instagram account, because she posted the best me. I don't know. Do you have a team that flags these movies?
- [34:42]
Molly Jong-Fast
No, I don't have a team. People are always like, your team. I'm like, what team?
- [34:46]
Jim Acosta
This is like my team.
- [34:48]
Molly Jong-Fast
My team is me. You know, occasionally we make poor producer Jesse do stuff, but, you know, that's it, man. That's.
- [34:55]
Jim Acosta
I know I have my producer Bat, who has been my hero this week, and in part because we're doing this great town hall on Tuesday night in New York, and I'm hoping you'll be there. It sounds like you'll be there.
- [35:05]
Molly Jong-Fast
I'm gonna try to come. Yes. Tuesday. And you have Harry. You have other people, too.
- [35:11]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. Michael Cohen. Yeah. We're working on, I think, Don Lemon. Am I allowed to say I believe so.
- [35:18]
Molly Jong-Fast
Oh, yes.
- [35:19]
Jim Acosta
Don't you know, it's very loosey goosey. This is not like, you know, Ticketmaster.
- [35:25]
Molly Jong-Fast
Don Lemon has a lot of dogs, and I have a lot of dogs. So we are connected to each other because. And you have Duke. That's right. We both have very dysfunctional relationships with pets. So.
- [35:40]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, we love our pets. I'm so excited that you're a possible maybe we think so kind of thing. Right now.
- [35:48]
Molly Jong-Fast
I have to. Well, the problem is I have to record my audiobook, and I only have one vocal cord, so if I'm okay. I'll do it. And if I'm hoarse, I won't do it. My whole life is about because one of my vocal cords is paralyzed because of just a freak thing that happened a couple years ago. Yeah. So that is why I just have to be when, for example, that's why I'm, like, so careful about going out to restaurants. And once I get hoarse, I just leave. So hopefully I'll be okay.
- [36:17]
Jim Acosta
That is a good time for us to let you get out of the taxi, the New York City taxi, and go about your way.
- [36:23]
Molly Jong-Fast
That's right.
- [36:23]
Jim Acosta
Maybe pick up some awards on the way home.
- [36:25]
Molly Jong-Fast
Yes, A one. I will talk. Yes, definitely. I love to be talked to about. Oh, five dogs. Good for Sherry. Yes. I only have three, but Jim only has one, so time to get more dogs. Jim Acosta.
- [36:40]
Jim Acosta
I know. I've thought about getting another beagle. So Duke would have, like, a little beagle buddy, and then we could. I. You know, because I. I thought I really could exploit his Instagram presence a lot more than I should.
- [36:51]
Molly Jong-Fast
You can.
- [36:53]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [36:53]
Molly Jong-Fast
And then they would.
- [36:54]
Jim Acosta
They would have little adventures and, you.
- [36:57]
Molly Jong-Fast
Know, it could be Acosta's beagles. All right, goodbye. Thank you, Jim.
- [37:01]
Elizabeth Warren
Love you.
- [37:02]
Molly Jong-Fast
I'll join you again. Love you.
- [37:03]
Jim Acosta
Okay, bye. Okay, I'll let you get out of the taxi. Okay. Wow. Well, so we go from Elizabeth Warren to Molly in a taxi. I mean, this is just. It just shows you. You just never know what to expect here on the Jim Acosta Show. And I always just. I'm just amazed by what we've been able to do. And when I say we, I'm not talking about myself in the royal we sense. I'm talking about you and me and all the other folks who are chiming in with your comments and so on. And it just means the world to me each and every week that everybody just tunes in for this. And, you know, they. Even after the show is over, they watch the recording. Later on, if it goes up on YouTube and Apple, Apple podcasts, they find it there as well. And it's just been an amazing experience for me. And that's part of the reason why I wanted to do this town hall, was to kind of get as many people together as possible. The great Michael Cohen is going to be there. You know, we're just going to have a good time. It's going to be fun. It's not going to be, you know, super high pressure. You know, it's the big production. There's no the Rockettes won't Be there. You know, Paul Schaefer and his band won't be there. You know, I'm a huge David Letterman fan, so I mean, I wish something like that could happen. But no, it's going to be just a bunch of us with some chairs. We're going to have an audience, we're going to take questions, and it's just going to be a lot of fun. And so I hope if you're in the New York area on Tuesday Evening at the 555 Theater, I think it might be called Theater 555 Tuesday evening, it's me. About 5:30, I think is when we're going to let the doors open and then folks can come in, take their seats, and hopefully around 6 o'clock we'll get started. And it's, it's. I have to also tip my hat to Katherine Valentine over at Substack, the great people at Substack for helping me get this off the ground. They've been very happy to sponsor this event on Tuesday that I'll be having with Michael Cohen. We've been saying, we've been kind of kicking around the idea of calling this the no Fear Town hall, which, you know, goes back to, you know, something I've been talking about a couple times this week. And that is, you know, we, we can't be afraid. I mean, we obviously, we can be afraid, we can be very worried about what's taking place right now, but we can't be afraid to push back, to speak out, to let our voices be heard. And that was a little bit of what you heard there at the end of Senator Warren's comments earlier on in this program that, you know, that's what, that's what this democracy is all about. That's what our American way of life is all about. And you're starting to see that happen. And I think that's part of the reason why so many people are gravitating over here to Substack is they want to get their. Their country back. They want to be engaged. And there's little Duke right now.
- [39:56]
Elizabeth Warren
Hello, Buddy.
- [39:57]
Jim Acosta
Hi. Hello. You want to come up here? What you doing? What you doing? You want to say hi? You got toy? Where's the toy? Go get it. Where'd it go? Go get it. He's down there. Can I just. We'll just, I'll break the rules of Substack for a moment. Are there rules to Substack? I don't know, but there's little Duke right there. Hi, Buddy. Hi. Hello. Yes. Yes, Duke's saying hi. This is the content we need on a Friday. You want some of my water? You can have some my water. Are you thirsty? You want to try it? Yeah. There he is, drinking my water. Go ahead, Duke, drink the water. Yeah, Duke. Drinking water out of the Duke mug. It tastes better out of a Duke mug. Am I holding this up correctly? There you go. Every. Oh, he is so sweet. Look at those eyes. I see everybody out there. You can see he's a handsome fellow. You can see. Oh, gosh. You can see where he gets. You can see where he gets his good looks. Or maybe where I get my good looks. But anyway, everybody, I hope I. I hope I've not broken the sub stack machine. I may have. I'm gonna just end it right there because we're not on camera anymore. Bye, everybody. Have a great weekend. Still reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. Have a great weekend. Bye.