← The Jim Acosta Show
The Jim Acosta Show
Special Musk/Trump catfight edition with Stacey Abrams, David Jolly, Dropkick Murphys singer/songwriter Ken Casey and Will Attig.
01:01:52
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- [00:00]
Jim Acosta
And welcome to the Jim Acosta show on this Thursday. My big guest today, Stacey Abrams. I am so excited to have you on today, Stacey. It is great to see you. And I guess I should also say welcome to Substack. You recently got on the platform. Very exciting.
- [00:15]
Stacey Abrams
Thank you. Well, it is always an honor. Your voice has been so incredibly important for so long, so it's a bit of a treat to be able. I spent most of my life trying to avoid ever having to be mentioned by you, but. But it's a delight to be with you in Substack and very excited to have launched Assembly Notes last week and just raring to go.
- [00:38]
Jim Acosta
Well, it's a great place for everybody to catch up on you and the work that you're doing, the important work that you're always doing. And, of course, you're a prolific writer. You have a book coming out very soon. We'll talk about that. But I have to start off with the big breaking news. And I was thinking about calling this a special edition of the Jim Acosta Show. The Trump Musk Catfight edition of the Jim Acosta Show. I don't want to start there, but I feel like I have to start there. It is a MAGA meltdown. The big question this afternoon, what has happened to Donald Trump and Elon Musk? This is not a bad breakup. This looks like the beginning of a GOP civil war, and they're doing everything but throwing the Chardonnay. But Elon Musk is definitely throwing something out there. He just tweeted minutes ago, time to drop the really big bomb. And again, I am reading an Elon Musk tweet on his site. X real Donald Trump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, djt. This was after Trump went after Elon Musk and said that he was wearing thin. This is what he said on Truth Social. I asked him to leave. I took away his EV mandate that forced everyone to buy electric cars that nobody else wanted, and he just went crazy in all caps. And now Congressman Eric Swalwell is tweeting that it's time to release the Epstein files. So, Stacey, forgive me for starting with all of this nonsense and craziness and just, I mean, drama. Hello. I don't know what's happening here, but what your impressions, because this. This looks like the beginnings of this, of a very big implosion inside the far right of the Republican Party.
- [02:12]
Stacey Abrams
Well, I think it will start on the far right, but let's understand that they've now consumed the entire party. We can identify and name the people who aren't a part of that, and it's only because they occasionally pop their heads up and say, I really don't like it. But then they return to the fold. But essentially we have a grifter and a con man who decided they could flummox each other, and now they're revealing themselves. But when you are caught, when you are engaged in taking away from others and someone knows your secrets, you can't trust your. You can't trust your fellow thief. And that's the problem that they have. And what they tried to do is steal democracy, steal access. We believe, I think many of us recognize that Trump allowed Elon Musk to steal our data, and Musk used Trump to get access to it. And so you had two conmen, I mean, use the term cat side, I wouldn't do such a disservice to cats. You had two con men who were circling each other and they're trying to see who blinks first. But neither of them comes to this with authenticity, with integrity, and with the best interest of anyone other than themselves. At heart, Elon Musk stands to lose billions. Donald Trump stands to lose power. And they are both so desperate because their identities are grounded in these facades they've created that they're going to go scorched earth. And my mission is to make sure that we can build something new on the land they leave behind.
- [03:39]
Jim Acosta
Absolutely. And I think it's tempting to have fun with this and to get out the popcorn and so on, but the level of damage that both of these men have done to American democracy is something to behold. Never mind the mushroom cloud that we're seeing between these two guys right now. I mean, starting with the fact that Elon Musk spent almost $300 million to help Donald Trump buy the election, then comes into the Oval Office and as you said, hoovers up people's personal data, which to me, it's astounding to me that more Republicans are not outraged over this. And then the way that they just treated federal employees and very important federal agencies like total garbage. And Trump, obviously, with this so called big beautiful bill, which is just turning out to be a political disaster for him, even Marjorie Taylor Greene is saying she may not vote for it. What they do to the poor, the working people of this country, the two of them are quite the demolition duo, it seems to me.
- [04:36]
Stacey Abrams
Not only are they the demolition duo, but they come from such a false narratives that they can't hold the facade too long, you've got, you know, Elon Musk, who at best would be described as a Curtis Yarvin, you know, acolyte, but he thinks he's smarter. But he believes in this technocracy. He believes that the fact that he has built a company makes him an expert on all things. And genius doesn't work that way. Then you have Donald Trump, who is a narcissist who appropriated ideal odds, you know, true beliefs. I mean, this is someone who couldn't find a true belief with two hands and a flashlight. And he is now glommed onto an entire political party and wrested control, but never understood its fundamental belief systems. But he is now being guided by Project 2025 and Russell Boat and True Believers. And when those two, when the ideologues actually conflict, that's where we are. Because the avatars they use. Trump and Musk never believed in what they were supposed to be creating. And when this fight happens, it's going to reveal, I think, to your point about how Republicans aren't upset about the hoovering up of their data. The party of privacy is giving power to Palantir. When that conflict starts to happen, the reality is we've gotta be ready to both understand what it means and then build on what we need. Because where I don't want us to get caught is with the popcorn watching, missing the opportunity to create and rescue our nation from what they will destroy.
- [06:11]
Jim Acosta
No, you're absolutely right. And you're referencing that very disturbing New York Times article that gets into that. Trump may be building a database on all Americans that can be weaponized in a way to come after people. That is terrifying. And it's, and it's Donald Trump and Elon Musk who did this together. At the very beginning of this new administration when everybody was shell shocked over what was going on, Elon Musk had his little tech teams, tech bros, people who call themselves big balls and crazy things like that. Going into all these federal agencies and just making a, just a mockery of our democracy. And I don't wanna spend too much time on this, but maybe today, and I'm always a foolish optimist, maybe today is a good day for democracy. And I know you've been a warrior for, maybe this is the beginning of something better. I don't know, I, maybe I'm trying to be, make something good out of this, but am I onto something there? Perhaps.
- [07:06]
Stacey Abrams
So I, I, I used to hear the phrase, you know, demography is destiny. Demography isn't destiny. It's opportunity. This is opportunity. Because the reality is the. The pure greed and avarice that drives both of these men will be satisfied if one of them gets to win. And so we cannot presume that left to their own devices, they're going to do the right thing. But the reason your substack is so important, the reason I joined this community, the reason I do my podcast Assembly Required, is that I've always believed, as someone who grew up in the south, you look for the places no one is or where carnage has happened, and you try to figure out what you can grow there. And what we can grow is the democracy we need. Because their joint endeavor was autocracy, a technocracy. It was to steal America from us. They are revealing to all and sundry that they don't care about Americans. And we can either point fingers and be angry and scoff at them. And I'm comfortable doing both of those things. But with the other hand, we've got to start building the thing we need. And so, yes, this is a moment where, if we are willing to seize it, we can start to build the democracy that we need and we can take what they've broken to show what should actually have been in place in the first place.
- [08:20]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And Stacy, you're so right. And there's a flip side to this. People cannot just sit back and sort of enjoy the Tesla car crash here. They have to still get off their couches and do the work. And you've been doing that. And one of the reasons why it's so important that you're in this fight, I mean, the Naval Academy, of all places, which, I mean, I've spent a lot of time in Annapolis over the years. The Naval Academy, of all places, tried to ban one of your books and the scope of everything that all the anti democratic shenanigans and outrages that they've been trying to pull off since coming back into office, it's really breathtaking. But when you take these things piece by piece, you have to call attention to it. And what they try to do to your book, to me, I mean, I want to get your thoughts on it because it's absolutely alarming. This should not be happening in America. Your book Our Time is Now, is one of the hundreds removed from the Naval Academy library. It's back on shelves, but come on, give me a break.
- [09:15]
Stacey Abrams
Well, the subtitle. So it's Our Time is Now Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America, I probably gave myself away and for a list that decided my book was Anathema to what we should be teaching our upcoming military leaders. But Mein Kampf was fine. I think that is a perfect juxtaposition of the leadership we have versus the kind of country we deserve. My book is about how do you use voter suppression as a way to grow political power? How do we leverage the US Census as a way to expand our imagination for what the country can be? How do we understand when economic populism is a facade for stealing our identity and stealing our data? But if we know what we're looking for, then we don't get surprised when it shows up, and we don't get overwhelmed when it takes effect. Because the most pernicious part of voter suppression of economic inequality is that it convinces you it's not worth fighting because you can't win. And we know we can win, but we've gotta keep reminding ourselves by being in the fight.
- [10:22]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, And I was thinking about this earlier today that, you know, if Trump is capable of taking this country over a cliff or, you know, down into a black hole, where we become something less than the constitutional democracy that we are, you know, you look at other societies in our history over the last couple hundred years, once you lose it, it's very difficult to get it back. It may take decades to get it back. I mean, the president was today with the German chancellor. And, you know, Trump made a wise crack about the Nazis and so on. And it's. But it's a reminder. I mean, look what Germany had to go through for 40 or 50 years. I mean, that all happened in my lifetime, where the Berlin Wall finally came down and reunification happened. But, my God, and we can't have that happen in this country. We cannot allow something like this to occur in the United States. And what you're laying out, the technocracy, the autocracy that Trump and Musk were trying to build, they were on the path to doing it. And who the heck knows? We don't know. Maybe Elon Musk gets replaced by another powerful tech bro. I don't know.
- [11:29]
Stacey Abrams
Yeah, well, and I think part of the reason I'm excited to join you today is that you're emblematic of. Of what we can do. Part of the rise of tyranny is the hauling out of media, making certain that only propaganda remains as a means of understanding the world. When that happened to you, when you saw that attack, you didn't bemoan your fate. You created your own. I was in Mississippi this past week helping with municipal elections, and we transformed in a number of cities, people who thought that there was no possibility of having their needs met. They won elections. In fact, the headline in one of the papers was democrats have a really big night. And it was said with both incredulity and shock. But the reality is, in this moment, when we're calling our senators, when we're calling our congressmen, they are changing their behavior. Yes, the no good, tyrannical, horrific bill passed, but passed by one vote. And over in the Senate, they need three. They can't lose more than three. We should not give up because it came out of the House. We should redouble our efforts to make certain it never makes it out of the Senate. But it's also about making sure that we prove that democracy can deliver. I like to remind people, before we had power, we had each other. And sometimes it's about the micro communities coming together. And it's why substack to me is so exciting. It's micro communities that are knitting together to say this is what should be that are imagining together. But we've got to take it offline and into community to make certain it becomes real. And we can do that. We've done it before.
- [13:02]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, no, you're so right. And everybody needs to check out Stacy's substack. It's going to be very important. Lots of wonderful thoughts like we're hearing right now. And you know, when we're talking about the GOP budget bill, whatever you want to call it. I hate calling it the big beautiful bill because it's not. I mean, it does take me into this conversation that you're sort of hinting at. And I wanted to sort of develop further, which is why people vote against their own self interests. And why can't the Democratic Party, and this is not to pick on anybody or pick on the party or anything like that, do a better job of harnessing people in those communities, those at risk communities, whether they be white, black, brown, whatever, and attract them over to the side of being for pro democracy. I call the American way of life. That's the way I describe it, the way of life you and I grew up with. Stacy, that. And it breaks my heart when there are young people who don't understand what that means, because it does mean something. And I guess your thoughts on how Democrats could make better hay out of all of that.
- [14:05]
Stacey Abrams
So I start with, and I think what you said is so important, but I want to pick it apart a little bit. We say people vote against their self interest. It's actually that they voted. They vote. It's how they give primacy to their interest. And if you come from a community where you've been told the only thing you have is your spirituality because you're getting nothing on earth, then you're going to give primacy to your religious beliefs over your economic beliefs. If you've lived in a community where no matter who gets elected, your neighbors are always going to have plumes of smoke over their house and you're always going to work smart three jobs, then neither party is reflective of your needs. So you're part of voting. Your self interest is staying home because no one cares about you. I've always rejected the narrative that people are apathetic, they're exhausted. And the way Democrats take leadership is by actually showing what it should be. That means one pointing out who's at fault when you don't have it. Here in Georgia, it's explaining that the reason we have one of the highest uninsured rates in the nation is, have lost nine hospitals is because we have a governor who has refused every year to accept billions of dollars in Medicaid expansion that would serve veterans. But it's also about being in a community where when they say they're going to get rid of dei, what they mean is that they're going to fire anyone who's disabled because they are in a DEI program. So part of our job as Democrats is to connect the dots. We tend to presume people know what the language means. Nobody knows what acronyms stand for, but we shouldn't abandon the acronym. We should do the job of explaining it and connecting the dots and then the second part. And I think that's why this substack universe is so important. We then have to start imagining what else we want. We spent so much time as Democrats trying to preserve what we did, we've forgotten to build new. And people need to see democracy delivering. No one's going to fight for a construction. They're going to fight for success. And we've got to show them what success can look like if we do.
- [16:05]
Jim Acosta
The work that is so. That is absolutely brilliant. And I, I really enjoy listening to the way you do connect the dots because I do think the way we talk about these things is important. You know, I was talking about this on my show the other day. You know, when you talk about something like Medicaid, people think, oh well, the program for the poor, I'm not poor, I don't need Medicaid, doesn't affect me. Baloney. If people, if tens of millions people lose Medicaid coverage, that makes Health insurance more expensive for the rest of us. Hello, uninsured people cost more money. We went through this whole exercise and this whole debate and discussion during the run up to Obamacare and a lot of those lessons have been forgotten. We just forgotten all that stuff. And people got to go out there and just do the work and explain, explain things. I mean, you know, I would love to hear people make that connection a bit more because to me, it means a lot. And you're absolutely right. When, when you talk about rural hospitals closing. Come on, like, what are we supposed to do here? Joni Ernst the other day is saying, well, we're all gonna die eventually anyway. What? How is that acceptable?
- [17:12]
Stacey Abrams
Well, and how is the snark acceptable? How is the refusal of embarrassment and shame acceptable? She made a mistake. She knew that she made a mistake. But we've created a tolerance for not simply being cold and hard, but for being dismissive of responsibility. And that's the other place, I think, where Democrats as a party and Americans as a people have to reassert ourselves. There has to be accountability. We have a 34 time convicted felon in the White House because we did not believe accountability was real and because we've become convinced, which is what strong men do. They not just rob us of our opportunities, they rob us of our values. We've got to return to our values. Fairness, dignity, opportunity, responsibility. And when Democrats, when we meet our values, we win elections. But if we're trying to win elections by figuring out the values we can't win, we might slide through. But our job is to live our values. That's how you get people to vote for you. Because when they see your values in operation, they want to be a part of that success.
- [18:23]
Jim Acosta
You're absolutely right. And we should note you have another book coming out later on this summer, Coded Justice. Penguin Random House says it's a thriller of the bestselling Avery Keane series and it involves the world of AI and to me, that is such an amazing subject right now to tackle because. And hats off to you for doing it because we literally have no idea where this technology is going in 10 years from now. And apparently one of the features of this big, beautiful blunder, Bill, is they're limiting regulations of AI which. Hello, everybody out there, please pay attention to that. It's pretty damn important.
- [19:06]
Stacey Abrams
Well, I mean, you said we don't know what's going to happen in 10 years. We don't know what's going to happen in 10 weeks.
- [19:11]
Jim Acosta
That's true.
- [19:11]
Stacey Abrams
Anthropic just had an AI model, Claude, that tried to blackmail its developers in order to avoid being retrained. We know that OpenAI had a model that basically tried to hide from the truth because it was afraid it would get shut down. How dare the Congress suggest to us that they don't plan to regulate it, but they won't let anyone else protect us. And so my book is about. Exactly. I wrote it before any of this happened, so.
- [19:40]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, but good for you.
- [19:42]
Stacey Abrams
Thank you. So it looks at AI, it looks at healthcare, and I try to write these books so that even if you don't think this is a topic you're interested in, I take the improbable, get it really close to the edge. But I try to make sure that when you're done, you're both, you know, thrilled, but you're also better informed. But it doesn't feel like broccoli. It feels like ice cream.
- [20:00]
Jim Acosta
Excellent. Well, I've been toying with a novel thing that might be kind of connected to the news and stuff. I don't. I should let the cat out of the bag, but what's that?
- [20:10]
Stacey Abrams
Let's talk.
- [20:11]
Jim Acosta
We should talk. We'll talk offline, because I don't think I'm quite ready to let the cat out of the bag. Speaking of cats, and you mentioned, you know, these felony convictions of the President. He's convicted felon, but if you listen to Elon Musk, I mean, you know, I don't know. I guess the Supreme Court says he's got a get out of jail free card for just about everything under the sun, but I don't know if that includes the Epstein files. I mean, I just. I find all this so fascinating. I. I have to ask you one last thing, Stacey, and that is what everybody else is probably wanting me to ask, which is, are you done with politics? Is there any chance you will run for some kind of elected office again?
- [20:47]
Stacey Abrams
Well, I appreciate the way you frame the question. No, I am not done with politics. Politics is a tool. But as I was saying about democracy, we can't be so focused on the tools we use that we forget what we're trying to build. And so, yes, running for office is a tool that's going to stay in my. In my kit. I don't know when I'm going to use it next, but my focus right now is doing what we can to build the country we deserve for the people who don't believe we're coming to help them.
- [21:13]
Jim Acosta
And is it true somebody just put in the comments that you were on Star Trek as the President of the Earth. Is that correct?
- [21:19]
Stacey Abrams
I was President of Night at Earth on Star Discovery. And we should do our best to live long and prosper.
- [21:26]
Jim Acosta
Live long and prosper. Oh, my goodness, Stacey. I mean, from your lips to God's ears. President of the Earth. That sounds pretty darn good. If we can make. How about President of the Galaxy? I don't know. We could go even bigger than that. Well, Stacey Abrams, everybody needs to take a look at your substack. I'm so thrilled that we were able to catch up and talk like this. All the best to you. Best of luck. Best of luck with the new book coming out. I'm very excited for you. Wonderful things happening in your world, so really appreciate the time.
- [21:52]
Stacey Abrams
Jim, thank you so much. And thanks for what you do. And let me know when you're ready to talk about that book.
- [21:56]
Jim Acosta
All right, I will. I probably shouldn't have mentioned it, but I was like, wait a minute, she's got a book. Maybe I should do one. All right, we'll talk. We'll talk.
- [22:02]
Stacey Abrams
It's just. You're just doing pre release. You're fine.
- [22:04]
Jim Acosta
Okay, sounds good. All right, see you, Stacy. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it. All right. Good to see you. The fabulous Stacey Abrams. Wow. How cool is that? That I had Stacey Abrams on the show And President of the Earth. What a cool role to have on Star Trek. I grew up, I mean, I have to say, I know people will think, how can you be a Star Trek nerd and a Star wars nerd at the same time? But that is kind of how I grew up. I was a big Star wars nerd. There's no question about it. I talk about it all the time, but I was very much a Trekkie in many ways, because, I mean, I love those. I mean, obviously the Original Star Trek TV show with Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock. Brilliant. Loved that. Watched that all the time when I was a kid, but also just fell in love with the movies. The Star Trek movies with William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy and then the reboot that they did with Chris Pine. I thought those movies were great, too. So anyway, the fact that Stacey Abrams has now been in Star wars, that's kind of like an egot. That's like. That should be attached to the egot if you were in Star Trek. So my hat's off to Stacey Abins for that. I'm going to try and see if David Jolly is ready to go. David Jolly is running to be governor of Florida. Our cup runneth over today. He's supposed to be on the show today as well. And, and hopefully I was walking some of this through his folks earlier today. As to how to get David Jolly on the show. My understanding is he may be doing another hit with a certain host who's on right around the same time. I won't mention who that is, although I have a lot of admiration for her. David. It might take a few more minutes for David to get on the horn with us. But I do want to mention, just because, you know, Stacey was obviously elevating the discussion, intellectualizing the discussion. But we have to mention, as I said at the top of all of this, I'm thinking of this as a special edition of the Jim Acosta show, the Trump Musk Catfight. It is MAGA meltdown Thursday. The big question this afternoon, as we were saying at the top of this program, what in the world has happened to Donald Trump and Elon Musk? This is not a bad breakup. This looks like the beginning of a GOP civil war somewhere. I think Taylor Swift has to be writing some lyrics down over this. I mean, this is just sort of trouble with a capital T. But I mean, just to reiterate, this is what Elon Musk and again, we are just saying what Elon Musk said on X earlier this afternoon. This was a tweet earlier this afternoon from Elon Musk, quote, time to drop the really big bomb. Real Donald Trump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day. DJT Holy Toledo. This came after Trump was on Truth Social. He was of course in the Oval Office earlier in the day, but he was on Truth Social saying Elon was wearing thin. I asked him to leave. I took away his EV mandate and he just went crazy. Now, in response to Elon Musk and his tweet about Donald Trump being in the Epstein files, Congressman Eric Swalwell, friend of the program, tweeted that it's time to release the Epstein files. Now that of course, is a reference to Jeffrey Epstein, the child sex offender who authorities say committed suicide back in 2019. Right wingers have been calling on the Trump administration to release the so called Epstein files to the public. Congressman Goldman, I believe he just said this to the Midas touch. He is accusing Pam Bonney, the Attorney General, of basically sweeping all of this under the rug and engaging in a cover up and not allowing these files to be released to the public. So, you know, I think it's probably time for the, I mean, for the Comment to be made. And I can do it right here, too. I mean, it is time for the Epstein files to be released. If Elon Musk has some sort of information about Donald Trump being in the Epstein files. And remember, we've all seen the video of Trump and Epstein. They're doing a little jig, they're dancing and acting creepy. That video has been out there for some time. And, you know, honestly, I guess I don't want to sound like I'm agreeing with some of these crazies on the far right, but what the hell is going on with the Epstein files? Why haven't they been made public? It seems to me that it is high time if the President of the United States is somehow mentioned in these files, I guess it makes perfect sense as to why they have not been released by the Trump administration. And now there have been top administration officials. I think it was just the other day Dan Bongino and I believe even Cash Patel have both said, oh, there's nothing to these files. Epstein did commit suicide. This is what administration officials have been insisting. But that doesn't answer all of our questions. We have other questions, and we need to find out exactly what is going on there. So, I mean, this is blowing up in ways that we did not fully anticipate. I'm going to talk to David Jolly in just a few moments about this. David Jolley is a former Republican congressman from the state of Florida. He is running for governor of Florida. Ron DeSantis is terminated, and David Jolly is running to be a Democratic governor for the state of Florida. And people might say, well, good luck, David. It's a long shot. We don't know what's going to happen. We don't know what the future holds for our politics. As Stacey Abrams and I were just talking about a few moments ago, if Democrats can get their groove back and figure out how to talk to people again, there's certainly, certainly lots of salient issues on the table. All right, let me pull up. There's maybe David Jolly is there. He is. David, good to see you.
- [27:43]
David Jolly
Hey, Jim, how you doing? Good to be with you.
- [27:46]
Jim Acosta
Hey, thanks so much for doing this. And do I have this right? You are running for governor of Florida?
- [27:51]
David Jolly
I am. But first of all, do I have it right that you have the Dropkick Murphy's on later?
- [27:55]
Jim Acosta
I do have. I have.
- [27:57]
David Jolly
That's why I'm here.
- [27:58]
Jim Acosta
That is why we're all here. I believe if all goes well and the substack machine can hang in there for the full hour, that Ken Casey of the Dropkick Murphy's will be here. He and Will Attig of the group United for Veterans. They're going to be doing a United for Veterans, I should say they're going to be doing a rally down on the Mall tomorrow for veterans, military families and their allies, of course, working for veteran jobs, healthcare, essential VA services, which have all been under attack. David, and this may be one of those salient issues that you might be dealing with as you're running for governor of Florida, because veterans are there. A lot of them are pissed off right now.
- [28:36]
David Jolly
Yeah, there are. Look at my background. I served on the Appropriations Committee, on the VA Committee, all those things. But you're right, it kind of dovetails into a run for a state governorship right now for this reason. You know, the Doge cuts are cutting communities, whether it's natural disaster in fema, whether it's services to our veterans, whatever the services are. I actually have a concern that governors, states, state taxpayers are going to have to fill the gap. Right. I mean, one of the things I'm thinking about as I'm running for governor is will Florida have to step in and provide new and additional services for veterans because the federal government has begun to draw down services? Look, I, I am running for governor of the state of Florida as a Democrat, and everybody knows that Florida seems to have slipped away. But Jim, I've probably been a consultant on about 30 races. I've only been a candidate in three or four. Here's what I know. Democrats have a way to win the governorship in Florida next November. We're in the midst of a generational change election cycle. Nationally, we're seeing that arguably it'll be the sixth year of Donald Trump. We've got an affordability crisis in Florida that's hitting everybody, regardless of where you live in the state, your walk of life, your finances, regardless if you're a Republican, a Democrat or an independent. And one of the things I talked with about for Democrats, I think the way back for Democrats, you know, if there was an autopsy report, might actually be through governorship races this next cycle where we just get to meet voters exactly where they're at on safe communities, schools, economy, crime, whatever it is, that's an opportunity for Democrats to apply our values to the real problems we're facing.
- [30:10]
Jim Acosta
Well, and you're absolutely right. And I mean, as I was talking about at the top of this program, there's a civil war that has erupted just this afternoon between Elon Musk and Donald Trump. And you Know, we can sit back with the popcorn and enjoy the show, but there are some real issues at work here. One of the things that Doge did was destabilize Social Security in this country. And so people on Social Security, I mean, that's right in your wheelhouse now, David. I mean, honestly, what has been, I mean, the kind of fear that has been sent into the elderly population in this country over what's going to happen to Social Security, it's pretty darn palpable right now.
- [30:47]
David Jolly
Yeah, Jim, I'm excited to be a Democrat right now because the Democratic values, I think, are pretty basic. We fight for an economy for all people, a government that actually works, right, that serves its seniors, serves its veterans, provides for a public education. And frankly, I think we need a party and a government that embraces everybody and lifts everybody up, regardless of where you were born, the color of skin, who you love, or who you worship. So let's go to what it means for Social Security, right? Maybe the benefits are not changing under, you know, that is something perhaps out of reach of Donald Trump. But the moment you start reducing access points, you have people like my mom in her 80s. I won't give her exact age, I suppose. But, you know, if you think about how a senior accesses the Social Security administration, a great way to ask this is, do you think Donald Trump would know how to get on the Internet and apply for Social Security benefits?
- [31:37]
Jim Acosta
That's a good point.
- [31:38]
David Jolly
He's gotta go find somebody to help him. And if that office was just shuttered down the street, that senior now can't get in the car and drive 40 or 50 miles. Look, government has a place in our lives. It's almost a Bill Clinton type message. It doesn't mean it has to be big. It doesn't have to be inefficient. It should be small and efficient. But government has a role to play in our lives and our communities.
- [32:00]
Jim Acosta
No, you're absolutely right about that. And. But, you know, but I have to get to. I have to. I'm a news guy, you know, me. I have to ask you about, I mean, this tweet from Elon Musk this afternoon. Time to drop the really big bomb. Donald Trump is in the Epstein files. This is the reason why they have not been made public, have I? State tjt. I mean, we, I guess, you know, this was being bound to happen. Maybe not in this kind of spectacular way, but my, I mean, what are your thoughts? I mean, obviously we need to see what's in these files. I guess If Elon Musk is saying this, am I wrong to ask that question? I mean, what do you think?
- [32:39]
David Jolly
No, no, of course. Release the files. And I'm gonna tie this to Florida. We've got a cover up in our Governor's mansion right now where the Governor and First Lady. It's been alleged by Republicans that they basically stole $10 million of the state Medicaid money to use for political purposes. And what I see there are Republican prosecutors trying to make it go away, just like I see in the Epstein files. Release the Epstein. Release the Hope Florida files. I mean, we deserve to know. But here are two things I saw today, Jim, and all of that back and forth. We knew the divorce was coming, the messy breakup was coming, but here's two things I saw that I think we should worry about from constitutional grounds. Elon Musk admitted that he bought the election, right? His first allegation is, if it wasn't for me, Donald Trump wouldn't have won. The Senate wouldn't be Republican and the House wouldn't. We need campaign finance reform in this country. We have the most disgusting campaign finance system in the free world. He admitted he bought the election. The second thing was Donald Trump promised to investigate a person and their company and revoke their contracts because he's mad at someone. You know, we often see him do that to liberals or progressives or Democrats, and we call it out. He did that today to Elon Musk. He basically said, maybe I should revoke the EV contracts and the government contracts that Musk has. He's not allowed to do that. That's not the way this works. And so I think those two things just affirm the abridgment, the violation of Constitution, institutional norms, and the powers of the presidency.
- [34:06]
Jim Acosta
No, you're so right. And there's no question about it, and I was talking about this with Stacey Abrams just a short while ago, is that Donald Trump and Elon Musk were pretty much partners in crime during the early months of this administration and trying to take this country into a place that I think many Americans, most Americans, the vast majority of Americans, don't want to go, which is this sort of autocracy, technocracy. You know, there's a story in the New York Times the other day that, you know, that Trump may be assembling a database of every American. I mean, that is un American. To think that his government would have our personal data and try to weaponize it against us as a way to have control over the people of this country. It's absolutely Outrageous.
- [34:48]
David Jolly
It is. You know, one of the fascinating things about the race for governor of Florida, the reason that I believe we can win, it starts because Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, frankly, have created an environment for change. Right? They are the scene setters to the chaos. People feel the anxiety. They want to go in a different direction. They're worried about their personal liberties, they're worried about their personal economies. But in a state governorship race, it's not my job to talk about Donald Trump. Right. This race isn't about Donald Trump. But we have this remarkable moment where there's this. There's this push for national change because there's this movement and response to it. And then Democrats have an opportunity to focus like a laser on the issues that matter. In my case of the state of Florida, an affordability crisis, public education, and just return us to some level of responsible administration of government, to abiding by the law, to sobriety, to lifting everybody up. That contrast is incredible. That contrast is incredible. You know, I used to joke when, when Joe Biden was running and he said build back better was the plan. I always thought it should be bring back boring, right? We're in one of those environments right now where if I can just talk about property insurance and property taxes and the stable administration of government, while every day we look at Donald Trump's administration of government and Ron DeSantis, boy, I love that contrast. I love that contrast.
- [36:04]
Jim Acosta
You're right. And these bread and butter issues matter. I was talking about this with Jared Polis, the governor of Colorado, the other day, and I was doing a little research on you, and I know you have a plan to deal with the fact that the Florida insurance market has been in a crisis for a decade. I mean, this is something that. This is a sneak preview of coming attractions for everybody who lives in a coastal area up and down the east coast and west coast in this country. You cannot have our insurance markets completely going, you know, up in smoke because of climate change and all these other forces that are out there.
- [36:37]
David Jolly
That's right. We've seen it in California, Texas. We're seeing it in Florida. When I was in Congress 10 years ago, I introduced a national catastrophic fund to take natural disaster risks out of the private market so that we can at least have a stable private insurance market. The insurance market in states prone to natural disasters has collapsed. It's collapsed. Republicans refuse to recognize that because the answer is the government has to step in. I'm not afraid to say the state should step in and set up a catastrophic Fund to cover natural disaster perils. You can cut private insurance by up to 60%. Republicans like to cry socialism. I just call it cheaper insurance. And, and that's where we have an opportunity to draw the contrast. But there are so many issues. Jim, look, obviously this is a national audience for you. I don't need to belabor Florida points, but this is a moment where we get to talk about issues differently. One of the things that's bothered me most is Republicans have gotten away with conflating immigration and crime. They conflate immigration and crime and what they do is they start by fighting the community and then they go look for crime. I want Democrats to be okay saying we're tough on crime, but we're going to fight crime but not communities. We are going to say if you were born here, if you immigrated here, if you're a politician who breaks the law, we're coming for you, we're going to investigate you, we're going to hold you accountable. But we're going to recognize data, we're going to recognize that violent crimes in native born communities occurs at a higher rate than immigrant communities. Property crimes do as well. So Republicans stop conflating the two. It could take us a year and a half to extract this issue of immigration away from Republicans. But if we do it, if we say, look, we're tough on crime, we'll fight crime wherever you come from. But we're also going to be a party that celebrates immigration and the contribution of everyone to our country and to our state, that isolates the real dark threads and dark themes of Republican immigration policy. I love those conversations. I think we've got to be Democrats that go into the faith community and talk about our values. Tell gun owners that gun owners aren't the problem. Sometimes that's hard to say, but they're not. The gun laws are. And if we change them, we'll protect your kids just like we'll protect ours. We gotta go places Democrats haven't gone before. And I think we also have to be unafraid to go into certain communities and say in South Florida, the Cuban American, Venezuelan American communities, we denounce communism and socialism, we denounce the dictators, but we lift up the people and we say we want fair capitalism for everybody. There's a lot to do this cycle that, that'll, that'll look and feel different, but it'll bring us back.
- [39:05]
Jim Acosta
No, and I'm, I'm glad you mentioned the Cuban American community. I'm. My dad is a Cuban refugee and one of the Things that's been on my mind, and I've just been just very, you know, torn over this is the way that the temporary protective status is being ripped away from Cubans, is being ripped away from Venezuelans. And this used to be a country that offered refuge, offered asylum to people who were leaving totalitarian governments, leaving communist dictatorship. My goodness. And I would have to think, David, when you go into these communities, they're going to be a bit more receptive. Receptive to a Democrat than they have been in the past.
- [39:41]
David Jolly
They are. Look, those numbers, though, have been trending towards Republicans, at least in South Florida. I mean, that's a big area. Democrats have lost a lot of ground. A lot of ground. And so this cycle, it's interesting because, you know, look, not every immigrant thinks that we should have more immigrants come in. I mean, that's just the reality. That's true. If you immigrated to Florida from Ohio, maybe you don't want more people from Ohio, but we have to wrestle with that. Some people recognize that if someone breaks the law, it needs to be enforced against them. But here's the main thing that we're seeing this cycle. People from all walks of life, whether you were born in Florida or immigrated from another country or another state, you recognize cruelty. And what I'm seeing among the Cuban American and Venezuelan American communities, they see the cruelty of the Trump and DeSantis immigration policy, and then they see the broken promises. And so if we have an opportunity to walk in and say, look, we're gonna restore trust within these communities, we're going to provide an economy for you. The affordability crisis is hitting every community, including yours. We want an economy for everybody. We want an education system that lifts you up. We're also going to welcome and celebrate immigrants in the state of Florida instead of Republicans who continue to attack the community. Look, Donald Trump. Donald Trump is making this easy for Democrats to come back in 26. I think we're going to see it across the country.
- [40:57]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. No, qu. I think you're absolutely right about that. I think maybe It's a project 2026 the Democrats need to be talking about. Accountability starts very soon. David Jolly, best of luck to you. Thanks for coming on the program. Great to see you. Good luck out there.
- [41:10]
David Jolly
Thank you, Jim. Appreciate it very much.
- [41:12]
Jim Acosta
Good to see you. All right, thanks a lot. That'll be something if we see a resurgent Democratic Party in the state of Florida. We have not seen that in some time, but I think David Jolly has the political skills to make that happen. Let me quickly Try to get down to Ken Case, singer, songwriter of the Dropkick Murphy's, the legendary punk band, and one of his colleagues, Will Adig, who is with Unite for Veterans. They're going to be holding a very important event down on the National Mall tomorrow to call attention to veterans issues. And I'm just really excited. I'm stoked. I'm hoping the substack machine will hold here as I call it the substack machine. I believe I have Ken's correct sub stack handle. So let's just. Let's just see what happens. Let's rub our lucky rabbit foot. Let's. Let's grab our four leaf clover and see if I could bring in Ken. I'll bring in Ken first and then I'll try to bring in Will adding. And there he is. There's Ken. What's up, Ken?
- [42:21]
Ken Casey
My first time on a sub stack live stream. Let's go.
- [42:24]
Jim Acosta
Let's do it, man. I love it. This is great. Hey, thank you so much for doing this. Okay, while I have you there, this is all, as I like to joke to my viewers, never let the correspondent or the anchor touch the equipment. But we're touching it, man. And I want to bring in your partner on this big event that you guys are having. Will, Attic. Stand by just a moment. But it's great to see you. And I want to dive into these. These are very important veteran. Veteran issues. But I also want to get into. I understand the band has a new album coming out, so we got to talk about that too. So stand by just a moment here. I think I've got Will's handle in there correctly. And let's see here if I could do this right. Let's see if we could do this correctly. This.
- [43:05]
Ken Casey
This will be.
- [43:06]
Jim Acosta
This will be cool stuff here. And while we're waiting for Will. Ken, how are you? How you been?
- [43:11]
Ken Casey
I've been great, thank you. There he is. There he is.
- [43:13]
Jim Acosta
And there's Will right there. How about it?
- [43:16]
Will Attig
Can you hear me, guys?
- [43:17]
Jim Acosta
Okay, I can hear you fine.
- [43:19]
Will Attig
Hey, great to be on Jim. Thanks so much for having us. And great to see you again, Ken. As you can see, we got a big stage for you tomorrow.
- [43:25]
Ken Casey
I was just down there. I must have just missed you.
- [43:28]
Jim Acosta
Excellent.
- [43:29]
Ken Casey
You must have been. Wait. I helped him set up the stage.
- [43:33]
Will Attig
You know, someone's got to do the work, right?
- [43:36]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, exactly. And. And don't I know it. And let me do a little work here and ask Will or Ken. Ken, let me have you chime in first. You're the rock star here. Why are you getting involved in this important issue? I know you haven't shied away from, you know, speaking your mind and getting your beliefs out there, but one of the things that we've seen since, you know, who got back in the White House is that veterans have really had a rough go of it. We've seen essential VA services come under attack, veterans healthcare come under attack, veteran jobs come under attack, especially as a result of these DOGE cuts. Your thoughts on all of that, Ken?
- [44:16]
Ken Casey
You know, we've always had tremendous support from the military community and veterans, and we've tried to always be there to have their backs right back, whether it be, you know, going to visit when we're on tour and making extra time when we have shows, or God forbid, in some instances, when people have paid the ultimate sacrifice being there for the family afterwards. And so when the veterans are under fire, as they are now, just like so many others, but, you know, you think of veteran services, this, this thing, like, come on, like, even, even maga, you're going to cut these guys and stuff. So, like, so, you know, we just felt like, you know, if, if anyone should have our support, it's Veterans first and, you know, D Day and everything. It's just, it's just something where we're thrilled to be, you know, a lot of times things we want to be involved in. We're away on tour, you know, so it's nice to have the free day to be able to be here and support these guys. And I'm looking forward to a great day with some good friends and hopefully, you know, doing some damage in terms of, you know, making a statement.
- [45:30]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And will tell us about the event. It's taking place tomorrow down on the National Mall. You're calling attention, your group, Unite for Veterans, is calling attention to what vets are going through right now. Lay it on us, man. What's going to be happening down there.
- [45:44]
Will Attig
Yeah, well, so for everybody who's listening, first of all, thanks so much and Ken, thanks for stepping up and being part of this. So at 2 o' clock tomorrow sharp, we're going to be kicking off a live event here called Unite for Veterans, Unite for America. And the idea behind this was that for the last hundred days, we've heard veterans with us, the veterans community have a sense of urgency right now, whether it's the attacks on, on the VA for the first time. You know, Elon Musk was talking about cutting actual earned benefits, retirement benefits. Doge has talked about a project 2025 has. So we were hearing the urgency, the need. Every town hall you see a veteran has stepped up and said, why are we doing this? Whether it's for the, the three major issues that we're focused on here for the, for the night for veterans, the massive potential of job loss. Already we're seeing, you know, tens of thousands of veterans being laid off from the federal government already.
- [46:34]
Jim Acosta
Right.
- [46:34]
Will Attig
One thing that we can all agree on, we should get veterans jobs. Right. And the merit of their service should be accounted for. And the federal government does that. That's why we see 1 in 3 federal workers or veterans. And the reality of it, if Donald Trump and Doge. But I don't know if they're talking anymore. If they got their way with what they said at the start, up to a quarter million veterans could be fine.
- [46:53]
Ken Casey
Right.
- [46:54]
Will Attig
This year, all in one year. And that, and that's, that's a legacy that Donald Trump and Elon Musk will.
- [46:58]
Jim Acosta
Have to live with.
- [46:59]
Will Attig
On top of that, you know, there's, you know, there's a goal to cut 70,000 to 83,000 jobs from the VA. That's the stated goal from the administration and from, from Donald Trump. Right. So, so we want, we want to have a conversation about math, how the heck that happens without cutting services, without making wait times get longer, without deteriorating our service when it comes to all these things. So that's the second point and the last one is Americans are proud. Right? Veterans are proud. Americans support our veterans. And what we want to do is we want to send a resounding message that the, the institutions.
- [47:31]
Jim Acosta
Right.
- [47:31]
Will Attig
I think Timothy Sear says that the first place they're coming after is institutions. The VA is one of the greatest institutions in this country, and it's under attack right now. And we're not going to stand by and say, what if? So we wanted to preempt this. We want to get out in front of Secretary Collins, in front of Donald Trump and say that if you're going to start talking about our services, you're going to talk about our future the rest of my life and the Vietnam veterans who are getting old, that we're going to make some noise and we're going to do it on the mall.
- [47:56]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And you mentioned this messy breakup between Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Right now, apparently Elon Musk is reposting posts that say that Donald Trump should be impeached. So things are not good between these two.
- [48:10]
Ken Casey
Hold on, I got to grab my popcorn.
- [48:12]
Jim Acosta
I was going to say, Ken, your thoughts on this because, you know, can you see the implosion from where you're sitting? I sure can.
- [48:21]
Ken Casey
I got asked in an interview today, do you think anything can break the MAGA fever? And I said, I don't think so. And then I walked out and read this news. They said, geez, maybe if anything could, you know, the Epstein files. Maybe. I don't know. But anyway, I'll just sit back and I'll just sit back and watch the chaos, you know, because they've caused enough chaos, you know.
- [48:42]
Jim Acosta
Go ahead, Will.
- [48:43]
Will Attig
I. I think, I think it's time for us to sit back from our, from, from the folks who actually care about our institutions, who care about democracy. It's time for us to sit back and watch, you know, hopefully throw a couple of pop thorns out there. But, you know, this brings me back to the last month of the election cycle. I was traveling all over rural America talking to veterans about these issues. We talked about the same three issues that we're talking about at this rally for the last six months. And we started seeing giant billboards pop up with just Elon Musk's face and some rockets saying, in Musk, we trust. That's not the America I went and fought for. That's somebody trying to be something else. And I'm just happy that the real light of this relationship is coming to, coming to bear right now.
- [49:23]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, well, and it's kind of incredible. I mean, as Elon Musk was bragging earlier today, he basically put Donald Trump back in the White House by spending almost $300 million on that campaign. And, and, and Elon Musk was given the keys to the castle. He was able to go through with his Doge Tech bros. They were able to go through and just wreak havoc. And it hurt a lot of veterans in this country. And that's why you're seeing Ken at these town halls. A lot of veterans are showing up and they're hopping mad. And I have to think because you're, you're popular with a lot of these guys, that they're coming up to you and saying, what the hell's going on here?
- [49:59]
Ken Casey
Yeah, I mean, we've, we've been, interestingly enough, we've been used as this sounding board and almost like, you know, if someone wants to, you know, is afraid of losing their job or speaking up might get him in trouble, they'll like, send us anonymous messages that we've been posting on our, you know, social media stories, which is just crazy that we're in America and someone saying you know, can you, can you get the word out about this? But I can't say it myself, you know, so we're like some de facto whistleblower, which is crazy. But, you know, I feel like the veterans, you know, you know, even though obviously, you know, there's a lot of veterans that, that lean. Right. And that's all well and good, but. But I feel like veterans tend to understand because. Right. They took that oath, you know, and what's happening to this country, you know. You know, and if, if he took that oath to defend this country, then like, maybe it's time to defend it from the inside. And that, you know, means showing up like I expecting 20,000, I don't know, more. But like, I think you need that kind of a crowd at least to start to like, open eyes to get people's attention that like, this is not acceptable, you know. So hopefully we'll have a really large crowd there tomorrow and start to really make some even more noise, you know.
- [51:25]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [51:27]
Ken Casey
Correct me if I'm wrong, but at first, you know, one that's veteran focused like this, you know, and hopefully that'll bring more attention, you know.
- [51:33]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And you're going to be playing down there and. And I do I have this correct. You have a. A new album coming out on July 4th for the people. It is very much in the vein of classic Dropkick Murphy's. I was watching some of the video a little bit earlier this afternoon. It's. It's great stuff. Tell us a little bit about it. What are we going to be hearing?
- [51:56]
Ken Casey
It's a 13th album, comes out 4th of July, which is kind of apropos. And, you know, there's songs about all, all things that are happening in our life, in our world, and the things we see around us. And some of that happens to be the state of America. And out of the 13 or so songs is, you know, the sum of both family, there's some of our friends, and there's three or four that are directly about what's going on in the country right now. And you know, we. If you're trying to write passionate punk rock music, like, you know, when you're feeling something, you can't hold back, that's what creates. That's when we're at our best, when, when we're writing about the stuff that's really burning in our heart, you know, so that's what that's burning in our heart right now. And, you know, hopefully, hopefully, you know, someday we'll be on the road back to Normalcy and treating people with civility and even Democrats and Republicans, you know, not being, you know, just as so divided is just crazy, man. You know, it's not, you know, make politics boring again, is what I say.
- [53:03]
Jim Acosta
You know, I agree. And you know, I, I. You and I are almost the same age, Ken. I'm just wondering, will there be a mosh pit down there and is it safe for guys like us? Because I remember back in the day, you know, it could get a little heated in there, get, get some elbows and stuff.
- [53:17]
Ken Casey
Yeah. Well, I'll tell you, we played last year at the Newport Folk Festival, and the first, it was the first mosh pit ever to break out there. So you never know.
- [53:27]
Jim Acosta
You never know. You never know.
- [53:29]
Ken Casey
Yeah.
- [53:30]
Will Attig
Hey, Jim, one last, real quick point about why I think Ken is so perfect and why we really wanted.
- [53:35]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [53:35]
Will Attig
We're not yelling and screaming at this rally. We are, we are being tactical and we're being direct and we're making Americans do the math. We want them to do the math. And I never in my life, while I drove around in a Humvee in Samar, Iraq, blasting drop kick Murphy's during, during some interesting times of my life as a kid, would think that I would be, you know, on stage with Ken. And I just want to make one last point, is that you're going to see people not on this stage tomorrow, Jim. You're going to see veteran organizations. You're going to see people who should be here, not here. And, and the question is, who's going to stand with us? And I know Ken Casey and the Drop Dick Murphy's are standing with veterans right now. They're making noise. This is going to be a loud conversation, but it's going to be a conversation. This is, we, we want to open as many ears and leave them open as long as we possibly can. And we got to get back to that, guys. And Ken's a great person to do that, and I'm looking forward to it. So thanks again for telling the, Telling the story.
- [54:26]
Jim Acosta
Absolutely. And it's the Unite for Veterans, Unite for America rally down on the National Mall, June 6th. That's tomorrow. And the Dropkick Murphy's are going to be there, so everybody's in for a treat. Guys, thank you very much. Really appreciate it. All the best. Best of luck tomorrow down on the mall. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some good weather. I'll rub my lucky rabbit's foot for you.
- [54:47]
Will Attig
Hey, the weather gods are looking good.
- [54:50]
Jim Acosta
All right. Good deal. Thanks, guys. Really Appreciate it. Good talking to both of you. All right. And I love those thoughts from both Ken and Will about how it's so important that we come back together as a country and be able to have these kinds of conversations. To think that some veterans groups might not be down there because of politics. I mean, my goodness, what they're doing down there tomorrow is so vitally important to the veterans community. You had a lot of veterans at my town hall in D.C. the other night. And people are very worried about what is happening in this country and specifically what Elon Musk has been up to with Doge. I mean, keep in mind what they did at a lot of these federal agencies, they just went through, like, with a chainsaw, like the chainsaw he was holding up at cpac. And they just fired people en masse. And many of those people in those very important agencies were veterans. I've spoken personally with, with military veterans on this program who lost their jobs because of Elon Musk and Doge. And now Elon Musk is having a day today. He's calling for Trump's impeachment. He is accusing Trump of being in the Epstein files. We're gonna have to see how all of that plays out. But my goodness, what a day in the news. As I was saying at the top of all of this, this has been a special edition of the Jim Acosta Show. The Trump Musk Catfight MAGA meltdown Thursday. The big question this afternoon, what is going on between Donald Trump and Elon Musk? This is not a bad breakup. This looks like the beginning of a GOP civil war. And when Elon Musk is out there reposting things on social media, saying that Donald Trump needs to be impeached and that JD Vance should be the President of the United States. Folks, as we've been saying with all of our guests today, start popping the popcorn, because I don't think this ends anytime soon. Not in the least bit. I have to think that something has gone on between these two men, and maybe this is something that everybody's been predicting all along. That's very true. It's sort of like two cockfighting roosters in the same potato sack. But at the same time, for Elon Musk to go 0 to 60 in a Cybertruck there and accuse Donald Trump of being in the Epstein files, especially after, let's face it, Elon Musk and his Doge team have been going through federal agencies and hoovering up people's data. Does that mean Elon Musk has Donald Trump's personal data. Does that mean Elon Musk has the Epstein files? I mean, I'm just, I'm just asking some questions here. I meant to bring in Mike Fanon. I might have screwed up there. I was supposed to bring in Mike Fanon. Let's see if he's still there right now. Because Mike, I did want to talk to Mike a little bit about the drop kick Murphy's, because he's a huge fan and he knows Ken. But I don't know, maybe Mike can get on, maybe he can't. But if not, we got to talk about this other stuff because. Holy Toledo. This might be worth going just a couple minutes longer here on this special edition of the Jim Acosta show, the Trump Musk cat fight. Where does it go from here? They're already throwing the Chardonnay, ladies and gentlemen. Elon Musk is definitely throwing something out there by tweeting what he did earlier this afternoon that Donald Trump is showing up in the Epstein file alert. Maybe Mike has dropped off and he can't do it. But, folks, this, this is, this is, this is a big day. Since Donald Trump came back into the White House. Think about this, think about this. Since Donald Trump came back into The White House January 20, earlier this year, and they had that monstrosity of an inauguration inside the arena here in Washington, D.C. and we saw Elon Musk do what looked like a Nazi salute, which he has denied ever since. Take it or leave it. I, I tend to not believe that, but those two have been partners in crime since the beginning of this year, just decimating the federal government, decimating the federal workforce, decimating important agencies like usaid. These two look very much joined at the hip in an effort to change America as we know it, to undermine American democracy as we know it, to turn the American way of life into something that we've never experienced before in this country in a very long time. And that is to see on this soil in a very long time. And that is to see what is basically a king, that Donald Trump was on the path, trying to become something like a king in this country. And Elon Musk was helping him get there. He was paying the bill. He paid nearly $300 billion to get Trump back into the White House. And he had said, beginning of this administration that he was prepared to pay even more. And, folks, this was all marching in a very bad direction to a very bad place. But perhaps, perhaps a ray of light, perhaps a little bit of hope to hold on to as we end this edition of the Jim Acosta show. Maybe just a little bit of hope to hold on to here if Elon Musk is turning against Donald Trump. Donald Trump, you must be thinking right now, my God, what must Elon Musk have on me right now? And Elon Musk being the richest man in the world with the social media platform like X that he has, what could he possibly reveal about Donald Trump? And what might that do to Donald Trump's grip on power here in Washington? Folks, as they say in my business, stay tuned. But for now, I do want to thank Stacey Abrams for coming. Wow, what a discussion with Stacey Abrams. I hope that was not just a one off and she was just being nice to me. I hope I get to do this again with Stacey Abrams because she is absolutely fantastic and I just love listening to her because the way she talks about the issues, it's so important. And of course, David Jolly, my goodness, if David Jolly can bring the Democratic Party back to life in the state of Florida, my goodness, somebody better, you know, send a message over to Pope Leo and the Vatican. I think that would qualify for sainthood if David Jolly can do that. And of course, my thanks to Ken Casey of the Dropkick Murphy's Will Adigard over at Unite for Veterans. Make sure to check out their rally down on the Mall tomorrow. But in the meantime, thanks everybody for watching. Stay tuned. The cat fight continues. The fur is flying. It's getting nasty down there between Donald Trump and Elon Musk. And we'll stay on top of it. But in the meantime, still reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. Have a good evening, everybody. This was a classic one. I'll be keeping a note on this one, a post it note on this particular episode to see what happens in the future after what happened today. Guys, thanks for watching. Have a good night, guys. Take care. Bye bye.