Jim Acosta (13:53)
All right, Congressman Joaquin Castro, Democrat of Texas, thank you very much for your time. Thanks for being the very first newsmaker on this program. We appreciate it. I, I stole a couple of extra minutes from your time, but thanks for that. Thanks for your time. All right. Good to be with you as well. All right, that was, that was Congressman Joaquin Castro of Texas joining us live. And of course, as I was saying at the top of this program, you can not only watch this live after this is over, I'll save a recording, it'll go on the podcast site, and you'll be able to watch it at your convenience. I've already heard from people who are saying they take it and listen to it later in their car on the drive home from work and so on. And so I do think the congressman there had some very interesting points there at the very end. And please understand, as we're having these conversations and while I'm talking to you on this program, I can see some of the chat messages at the bottom here. And I think one of the recurring messages that I've been seeing over and over again is, and this is just coming from people who I think care an awful lot about what's happening in this country right now. They're asking the question, what are Democrats doing about this? What can they do about this? You are starting to see some Democrats up on Capitol Hill hold press conferences. You saw a number of lawmakers outside of USAID yesterday. My understanding is that this evening outside the Treasury Department, there's going to be another protest. Obviously, people are concerned about Elon Musk and his aides having access to the federal payment system over at the Treasury Department. I mean, that, that is something that we haven't even contemplated at this point. The world's richest man, somebody who controls a website like X, which has essentially become a propaganda website for Donald Trump, having access to this payment system with everybody's Social Security information, presumably, everybody's Medicare information, presumably, tax refund information, presumably. Is that what Elon Musk was spending hundreds of billions of dollars on during the campaign to have access to our federal government? As I asked yesterday on this program, who elected Elon Musk? He's not been appointed to a cabinet position. He's not going through the nomination process, as the White House was saying earlier today. They are describing him as, and I'll just find this again, a special government employee. He's been given special government employee status, whatever that means. As a lot of folks are saying, not so special. But there were a number of Democratic senators up on Capitol Hill yesterday holding a press conference about this. Senator Patty Murray of Washington State saying that Democrats are pulling the fire alarm over Elon Musk and his recent action sounds like a five alarm fire to me. So we'll see where things go from here. But as I was talking about with the congressman a few moments ago, Democrats are in the minority in the Senate, Democrats are in the minority in the House. They can't really hold hearings on some of these actions. And so as the congressman was indicating a few moments ago, what some people are, what some of these Democrats are going to have to do, what governors in various states are going to have to do, is take the administration to court and see if the judicial system, one of the checks and balances, hello, we still have checks and balances in this country, decides it can take on one of these cases. Now, one of the other things I do want to talk about is this notion in Washington. I didn't get a chance to talk about this with Congressman Castro. This, this notion of investigate the investigators. This is something you have heard Donald Trump talk about. This is something you have heard Trump allies talking about out on the airwaves, on places like Fox News and so on. And Politico reporting today that FBI agents who worked on the investigation into January 6th and on the probes into allegations of criminal misconduct by Donald Trump have filed, the agents have, have filed a class action lawsuit to stop the Trump Justice Department, the leadership team there, from putting together lists of agents, the agents who worked on those cases. This, of course, stems, as I said a few moments ago, from those vows from Trump and his allies that they will, quote, investigate the investigators. Now, if there are top officials inside the Justice Department who are asking for lists of agents, then of course, eight lists of agents who have been working on these cases, then, of course, that is the beginning of Investigate the Investigators. Now, according to Politico, the agents who brought the federal suit anonymously included screenshots of a three page survey they say DOJ leadership intends to use to identify thousands of agents who worked on the politically sensitive cases. This is again, according to Politico, according to the lawsuit, the agents are fearful that the Trump led Justice Department will disseminate the lists publicly or use them to exact punishment against employees deemed disloyal. Now, again, and I've talked About this before, January 6th was an attack on our country. January 6th was an attack on our democracy. It was an attack on the chapel of our democracy, the US Capitol. How do you not investigate the attack on January 6th? And so these FBI agents were just doing their jobs. And to me, it boggles the mind how anybody inside the Trump administration with a straight Face can say, oh, well, we're going to try to root out these FBI agents who are just doing their jobs, investigating one of the biggest criminal cases, if not the biggest criminal case in American history, and that is the investigation into January 6th. So I think that one's on my mind as well. We're going to be talking about that in the coming days. I've some other guests lined up for later this week. We'll be talking about that subject. But again, a lot of stuff happening this week, and one of the things that Democrats have found themselves in the middle of right now is sort of a moment of impotence, sadly, I hate to put it that way, because they just don't have the votes to really do anything from a legislative standpoint up on Capitol Hill. And so they're going to have to get creative. They're going to have to do something other than just roll over. And I'm not saying that they are, but I think there are a lot of concerns among Democrats that Democrats just need to get going here, that Democratic elected officials need to get going and make sure that they're holding Trump's feet to the fire. I'm going to be doing that here on this program. A lot of the guests I'll be having on this program will be doing that as well. But the other thing that's on my mind while I have everybody here, and it's something I think everybody can relate to, is pandemic readiness. Remember what was going on in 2020, 2021, when we were all sitting at home binge watching a lot of TV shows, but also really freaked out about whether or not we were going to catch this deadly virus. And of course, we could go down the laundry list of things that Donald Trump did when he was president the first time around to make that pandemic all the more frightening for the American people. But this is, this is a moment that I think we have to think very deeply about, very critically about, and that is the fact that RFK Jr. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Appears to be on his way to becoming the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Now, that sounds like a headline out of the Twilight Zone, but it's reality. It's where we are right now. And earlier today, as I was talking about with Congressman Castro, RFK Jr. Cleared a critical vote before the Senate Finance Committee. Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who was reportedly torn over whether to vote for RFK Jr. Ended up giving Kennedy the green light in a committee vote that clears the way for a vote before the full Senate, barring some surprises, the anti vaccine activist is expected to be approved. Now, Kennedy has denied that he is anti vaccines. I'll mention that here. He says that. I'll say that fine. But what does the evidence say? He has repeatedly, repeatedly peddled bogus and sometimes even racist claims about vaccines. And a key question for the lawmakers up on Capitol Hill who are voting for RFK Jr is what happens if RFK Jr is confirmed as HHS secretary and there is another pandemic or public health crisis in this country? RFK Jr. Is going to be in charge of another vaccine rollout. RFK Jr. Is going to be in charge of telling the public what they need to know. If some virus start spreading around, what happens if bird flu becomes more of a concern than it already is? RFK Jr is going to be trusted to go out there in front of the cameras and talk about this. Give me a break. Give me a break about RFK Jr. I mean, I think the question to members of Congress on the Republican side, because Democrats, by and large are voting against these nominees. When I was watching the vote at the Senate Finance Committee hearing earlier today, Democrats voted against RFK junior Republicans voted for him. But the question to Republican lawmakers is this, and I think to Senator Cassidy before this final vote in the Senate, on the floor of the Senate, where do you stand on this? And I think the question is, will you take responsibility for voting for this man if he botches the response and people are hurt, if people are hurt as a result of another pandemic public health crisis that happens in this country and RFK Jr. Is out there spreading conspiracy theories, spreading misinformation. Will you take responsibility? Senator Cassidy, Senator Collins, Senator McConnell and the rest. And I think, you know, yes, Tulsi Gabbard, that's a vitally important role. And we can have this discussion on another occasion. I'm glad we had Congressman Castro on, who was on the Intelligence Committee. He's a key person to talk to about this. But what is something that affects all of us? What is something that affects our parents? What is something that affects our kids, our loved ones? Their health. Their health. That's, that's, that. That is what ties us all together and all. That's the common denominator for all of us. And you're telling me that if there's a public health crisis, that RFK Jr. Is going to roll out in front of the cameras and tell us how to protect ourselves? I mean, I just think that. I think that that's a key Question. And I don't think it's an outrageous question to ask, by the way. And you might say, oh, well, you know, Gosh, you're giving RFK Jr. A hard time. His own cousin, Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of jfk, came out and said he has no business being the secretary of the Health and Human Services Department. And think about where we came from and where we are now. I just saw the name Dr. Fauci flash across the screen in one of the chats. Dr. Anthony Fauci, a renowned public health expert, respected around the world and up until the Trump administration the first time around, respected within the government of the United States. He served Republican presidents, Democratic presidents, when, during the pandemic, when Dr. Fauci went out and spoke in front of the cameras, I was there in the White House briefing room. I was asking questions of Dr. Fauci and so on. Nobody at that time, of course, you didn't have any question whatsoever about what Dr. Fauci said, what Dr. Fauci recommended. And now, of course, what we're seeing is Dr. Fauci is having a security detail pulled. He is being subjected to intimidation once again. I talked to him once again on Inauguration Day. I spoke to him very briefly over the phone because he had been issued a pardon by Joe Biden. Think about that. Think about that. The kind of world that we're in right now when Dr. Anthony Fauci, who, by the way, helped develop the COVID vaccine during the first Trump administration, needs some kind of a pardon from Joe Biden in the 11th hour on his way out of office. Because. Because of what? Because of the threats and intimidation that are coming his way. And when I talked to Dr. Fauci about this, he was pleased that Biden had given him his pardon, but, my God, that shouldn't be necessary in the first place. What kind of world are we living in when that kind of thing has to happen to protect somebody like Dr. Fauci. It's just unbelievable. A preemptive pardon had to be done there. It's just a crying shame. And it just tells you where we are as a country right now. And I think it highlights something that we were talking about at the top of this program. As I like to say, what the musk. You know, one of the things that we're going to see in Washington this evening, and I'm about to go down there to go check it out, is there's going to be a protest, apparently outside the Treasury Department, and people are going to be making their voices heard about how Elon Musk and his acolytes. And we don't even know who these people are. Do they have security clearances? What's going on here? Going into the Treasury Department, having access to the federal payment system, apparently having some sort of sway over usaid, which by the way, funds a lot of the White House has been talking about this program, that program. They're like, okay, you can pick apart those things, fine, we'll give you that. But of course, they also serve a very necessary function around the world. And you have seasoned diplomats who work on behalf of the American people in all of these far flung places around the world. They don't know what's happening with them. Their jobs are up in the air. And so I think a lot of folks are asking some very hard questions. And I will say one of the things that's gratified me about doing this show, and we're just a couple of days in this is episode two is what you have done for me, the viewer at home, the people who are watching this on their phone. If you going to record this and look at the recording later, I'm looking at the questions that are coming across in my chats. I wish I could share them all. I, I shared some the other day in one of my posts on Substack. But what your posts have told me is that you are still very much engaged in what is taking place right now. You're paying attention, you are, you care, you care about what's happening in this country. And you may feel as though.
