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The Jim Acosta Show
The Jim Acosta Show Episode 3 - With Director of Center for Politics at UVA - Larry Sabato
00:37:33
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- [00:19]
Jim Acosta
Hey, everybody. Starting a couple minutes late, but welcome to the Jim ACOSTA SHOW. Episode 3 On this Wednesday afternoon, a little chilly in Washington. I don't know about you, but this is definitely not the weather we were having yesterday when it was about 20 degrees warmer. So good to be inside, good to be warm. Duke is curled up on the sofa a few feet away. Maybe I'll get him to come over a little bit later. I did tucker him out. I'll just admit right now, I did tucker him out a little bit before the show started, just to get things underway. Folks who are listening to episode one or watching episode one the other day might have heard a couple of whimpers in the background because Duke wanted to, you know, get in on the chat already. And I can see your comments already right now. But anyway, my goodness, where do we begin? It's Wednesday. Which reminds me of that meme from 30 Rock where Liz Lemon says, what a week. And Jack Donaghy says, lemon, it's only Wednesday. In just a few moments, I'll be joined by the director of the center for Politics at the University of Virginia, my old friend Larry Sabato. And we're getting him squared away as we speak. But in the meantime, let's, let's get started. Let's talk about what's happening in the news today. And I guess, first of all, I think the only place to start is clean up on 1600. Clean up on aisle 1600. The top story of the White House is already apparently walking back Trump's pledge to rebuild Gaza and turn it into the Riviera. I don't know if you've heard this, but he's pledged to turn Gaza into the Riviera. The Washington Post reporting that the White House press secretary, the brand new White House press secretary who is already off to a flying start, she's been very busy over the last several days. Caroline Levitt, she says the Trump administration does not intend to pay for the reconstruction of Gaza, nor has it made any commitment to sending US Troops there. Clarifying Trump's promise to rebuild the territory. That according to the Washington Post. Of course, we saw Trump's comments yesterday where he said the United States was going to take over Gaza and immediately just stirred up a hornet's nest all around the world. And speaking of that, Reuters reporting this, quote, trump's proposal for the US to take over war ruined Gaza and create a Riviera of the Middle east after resettling Palestinians elsewhere has shattered US Policy on the Israeli Palestinian conflict. That's according to Reuters, drawing global condemnation. Reuters going on to say that the shock move from Trump, a longtime New York property developer, drew rebukes from international powers including Russia, China and Germany, which said it would bring, quote, new suffering and new hatred. Reuters goes on to say that the regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia rejected the proposal outright. Now, I don't know about you guys, but this really feels like to me sort of what we were hearing earlier this week about the tariffs. Right? I mean, and that's what I want to talk about a little bit today. Does anybody else see a connection here between this walk back on Gaza, which already has happened this afternoon, less than 24 hours after Trump initially said this, and Trump walking back his threats of tariffs on Mexico and Canada earlier this week? I mean, again, going back to the 30 Rock meme, it's only Wednesday. This raises a key question. And to my friends over at the White House, please feel free to ask this question. Why should foreign leaders around the world take the president seriously when he makes threats of tariffs and walks them back and then vows to take over Gaza only to have the White House clean that up? What is going on here? Doesn't this all call into question all of his other comments about taking over Canada, making Canada the 51st rate state, taking over Greenland, taking over, taking over the Panama Canal? I mean, you know, is this just open mic night over at the White House or is, should Trump be taken seriously? I mean, honestly, when you go out there, you threaten tariffs, you don't follow through on them, you talk about taking over Gaza and then the next day the White House has to clean that up. It doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make any sense to you. Obviously the viewer, the folks who are watching this at home doesn't make sense across across America and doesn't make sense to foreign leaders around the world. And it, and I will tell you, having covered two presidential administrations, the Barack Obama administration second term and the Trump administration first term, what the president of the United States says matters. The commander in chief has to be in command. If you're not in command, it doesn't work. And if the rest of the world doesn't trust what you have to say, that doesn't work either. Now, I want to share something else that's been reported on this over at NBC. NBC News reporting that they got a comment from South Carolina Senator Republican Lindsey Graham, who is obviously a very good friend of Donald Trump, saying, quote, we'll see what the Arab world says. But you know, that'd be problematic at many, many levels. Problematic. Yeah, I think trying to take over Gaza and turn it into the Riviera of the Middle East. Yeah, that sounds problematic. It raises all sorts of questions. And that is why the White House came out to say just earlier this afternoon that, no, the United States is not going to be spending money to rebuild Gaza in the way that Donald Trump wants to rebuild Gaza and turn it into what, a casino and resort and golf course or whatever he's talking about. And B, we're not going to be putting boots on the ground in Gaza. My goodness. I mean, can you imagine if he had said that during the campaign and said, this is what we're going to do? I mean, my, my goodness, it would have been as, as nonsensical as the Haitian migrants eating the cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio? Just wouldn't have made any sense. But this is why presidential leadership matters. This is why when the president says something, it has to be taken seriously around the world. NBC News also says Thom Tillis, senator from North Carolina, Republican, telling reporters there are a few kinks in that slinky. You think so? Just a few kinks. And that Slinky, I would say maybe a couple of kinks at the very least. And Senator Tim Kaine, the Democrat of Virginia, slammed the proposal as, quote, deranged and nuts. So that's where we are right now. We're at deranged and nuts. And it's only Wednesday, Lemon. It's only Wednesday. As I was saying, referring to the 30 Rock theme earlier on in this program, some other headlines I want to talk to you about. And first of all, I'm just, I'm just going to double check here a couple of times here just to see if we've got Larry all squared away. Let's see here. Let's see. We're going to try and get Larry on to join us in just a minute. Anybody who's seen me in action before knows that I'm good friends with Larry Sabato. Always good to talk to him. I'm gonna try to get them on here in just a few moments. And because Larry's got some great comments on this and we'll get to that hopefully in just a few moments here. But, you know, one of the other things that I want to talk to you about because I do have some new reporting I can pass along here. Trump versus the CIA, that's the other big headline today. And there's a subheading here. What the musk. You heard me say this yesterday. You heard me ask this question the day before. What the Musk. The New York Times reporting this. The CIA sent the White House an unclassified email listing all employees hired by the spy agency over the last two years to comply with an executive order to shrink the federal workforce. The Times going on to say the list included first names and the first initial. The list included first names and the first initial of the last name of the new hires. This, according to the Times, included a large crop of young analysts and operatives who were hired specifically to focus on China. Again, that's according to the Times. Now the Times goes on to say some former officials say they're worried that the list could be passed on to a team of newly hired young software experts working with Elon Musk. Again, what the. Musk and his government efficiency team over at Doge. If that happened, the names of the employees might be more easily targeted by China, Russia or other foreign intelligence services. And I, I will tell you, just a few moments ago, I heard from a former agency officer. This former agency officer with decades of experience in the intelligence field said to me, this quote, this was an incredible mistake. This is a direct quote from this former senior intelligence officer with decades of experience. This was an incredible mistake. A counterintelligence nightmare. You can bet the Chinese will go to school on this and figure out the names. As security conscious as CIA normally is, I can't imagine them doing this. They are unnecessarily putting these people at risk. And, you know, one of the questions is, you know, why not just take the CIA and the Trump White House? Why not just take a billboard out in Times Square and say, we don't want any more young people coming into the CIA? Because if you're a young person thinking about coming to the CIA, my goodness, why on earth would you do that at this point in time? I mean, it just doesn't make any sense now. All right, I think we're going to get Larry Sabato on the line here. University of Virginia center for Politics. If you saw me reaching there to the screen, that is, that's me using the substack machine, as it were, and that's the technical term. You know, I was told the other day on Mediaite, wrote up a story the other day about the show. Just a non sequitur here, just to go off track just a little bit. Mediaite, my friends over at Mediaite did a story about the show yesterday, and they described the show as no frills. So I hope everybody, I hope everybody doesn't mind that, that we're going to call this no frills I'm going to try to get some more frills between now and next week, and I'll have more to say about that. But there's Larry Sabato. Larry has joined the chat. Larry is chiming in now from the University of Virginia center for Politics. Larry, how are you? Can you hear me?
- [11:17]
Larry Sabato
I'm doing just fine, Jim. And this is the first time I've ever seen you looking rested. It's.
- [11:23]
Jim Acosta
I am rested. What was it about they said about Nixon?
- [11:26]
Larry Sabato
Tan, rusted and ready, yet tanned, rusted and ready? That was after his death, though, Jim, I don't think you want to bring that up.
- [11:33]
Jim Acosta
Oh, my goodness. Yeah, let's, let's not do that. Although I, I would have to say after the week or so we've seen, Larry, even Richard Nixon might be rolling in his grave over what we see.
- [11:45]
Larry Sabato
Jim, let's remember he was one of the first to encourage Donald Trump to run for president.
- [11:51]
Jim Acosta
Oh, goodness.
- [11:52]
Larry Sabato
And Trump had that. You probably saw it, that letter that he posted in the White House someplace near the Oval Office. So we have Nixon to blame for that, too.
- [12:03]
Jim Acosta
It all goes back to Nixon. You know, it all goes. It all goes back to Richard Milhouse Nixon. Don't you know it? Well, Larry, I went over some of the headlines there at the top of this as we were getting going here, and I think a great place to start would be this cleanup on aisle 1600 that we saw earlier today. I don't know, Larry. The White House is already walking back Trump's pledge to rebuild Gaza and turn it into the Riviera of the Middle East. They're saying that the Trump administration does not intend to pay for the reconstruction of Gaza, nor has it made any commitment to sending US Troops there. Duh, duh. Can you believe this? He says this yesterday. The world goes nuts over him saying this, and now they're walking it back.
- [12:46]
Larry Sabato
Well, no one ever knows, Jim. You know this so well. No one ever knows whether to believe him or not or to recognize that maybe he means it today. But you add 12 hours and he won't mean it anymore. Or bring up, bring it up again at six months. But notice even the way it was phrased, it's still a big question mark. There's no commitment to bring US Troops to Gaza, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't do it under the right set of circumstances or probably if Netanyahu asked him to. So, look, it's just chaos. We knew this from term one, but number one, he didn't know what he was doing in term one, he still does it, but he knows more than he did in term one. And second, he's added four years. I mean, this is really eight years from 20, 2017, early 2017. So, you know, we better get used to this.
- [13:43]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, well, and Larry, I mean, the point that I was just making a few moments ago, and I'll have you weigh in on it, is, you know, what the president of the United States says should matter, it should mean something around the world. And earlier this week, he has these threats of tariffs against goods coming in from Mexico and Canada. And then the next day, after he sees what happens on Wall street, he walks that back. He says, okay, we're going to put that off for a month. And then he does this Gaza thing. And so, you know, you, you mentioned a few moments ago he didn't know what he was doing the first time around. What I heard going into this new administration was that Trump has learned the lessons from the last time around. Trump, this time around, he's not messing around because he's, he's learned so much. And he's going to have people around him who've learned so much. We're right back where we were.
- [14:30]
Larry Sabato
Yeah, of course he's learned the lessons, but people his age and my age forget lessons, too, very quickly, and then we have to re, relearn them, you know, so look, there's no explanation for him. There never has been any explanation for him. The amazing thing, and we all know the reasons why, and yet it's hard to accept it, 49.7% of the American electorate put him back in after they had four years of experience with this kind of chaos.
- [15:03]
Jim Acosta
And the other thing that I've been asking this week, Larry, is what the musk and you know, this, this whole idea that the world's richest man can just go into these various agencies and departments of the federal government, for example, over at the Treasury Department and say his people could say, give me access, give us access to the federal payment system that deals with tax refunds and Social Security and so on. I mean, I had a person chime in on the chat. I heard this yesterday down at the protest, down at the Treasury Department. People are worried about their Social Security checks. And if their Social Security information is going, going to the world's richest man, you can't make this stuff up.
- [15:43]
Larry Sabato
No, you can't make it up. And people say, oh, well, they worry about anything. Jim, I'm fairly well connected for an academic. Do you know, for years, my Social Security Checks were going to a guy in Indiana who had falsely filed. I didn't, I didn't retire at 65. This happens all the time and it's so easy for it to happen. Guaranteed fraud. Guaranteed fraud will come from this.
- [16:10]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And the question I ask is, and I'm going to talk about this later on on this show, is, you know, who gave Musk the permission to do this? It sounds as though the Treasury Secretary signed off on this. Did this come from the White House? Wouldn't you think something like this would be run by the President and that the president would have to sign off on this? I mean, it just seems like bedlam.
- [16:33]
Larry Sabato
Well, it is, Bevel. And it's a new level of chaos. It really is. There are levels of chaos and we're moving right up the ladder, unfortunately. And there are four more years of this at least. You know as well as I do how many people out there do not believe either there's going to be an election in 2028 or that Trump will step down if he's still healthy. Now, I don't necessarily subscribe to that, but I can see how people might think it was true.
- [17:02]
Jim Acosta
And that raises good question, Larry. And I want to ask you about this because Trump has been joking about, well, maybe I'll run again in 2028, and so on. Obviously the Constitution prevents that, but I suppose there's nothing stopping him from trying and just saying, hey, I'm running again in 2028. The Republican Party is going to, they're going to re nominate me in 2028, try to stop me. And I suppose you could take it to the Supreme Court. And then what? We roll the dice and see what they, you know, what this very conservative majority says at the supreme. What do you make of that later when you hear, I'm sure you've heard people ask questions about this.
- [17:40]
Larry Sabato
Oh, I've had loads ask me questions about this for years, even in the first term. But, and of course he tried to stay in. That's, that's the proof.
- [17:49]
Jim Acosta
That's right.
- [17:49]
Larry Sabato
That it could, that it could happen. And he now has four years to plan for it. Look, as I say, I'm not going to say it will or will not happen, but it's something that only a foolish person wouldn't make plans to prevent. That's what is up to all of us to work together to make sure it doesn't happen. Look, there are ways around it. By the way, for example, if you read the 22nd Amendment, which is the one that limits presidents to two terms or 10 years, if they succeed, then you can see how he could make whoever the nominee is, if it's Vance or if it's somebody else, he could tell them, make me your vice president, and agree publicly to resign on day one and he can succeed to the presidency. There's an argument about whether he could serve just up to two years or would it be four years? And there, there, there was an article in Politico, Politico magazine, I believe, last week, proposing the different ways that he could work around the 22nd Amendment. And normally I would laugh at that kind of thing. Not when it comes to Trump.
- [19:00]
Jim Acosta
Right. Because of what took place on January 6th. And, you know, I just wonder, Larry, what. I mean, the other question that's come up this week is what Democrats should do about it. Because what we had seen initially as this administration was getting going is his Democrats were saying, well, you know, in the Senate in particular, when it came to Trump's Cabinet nominees, you know, it's the tradition of the Senate by and large, to sign off on cabinet nominees and so on. Sure, there are going to be some, like Pete Hegseth, that are going to be highly controversial. RFK Jr. Highly controversial. But you've seen Democratic senators in some cases vote for some of these nominees. What we've heard in the last day or two is that maybe some of these Democratic senators are saying, hold on a second, perhaps we should just do a blanket. We're not going to vote for any of these nominees. Of course, they don't have the numbers. They can't stop people from getting confirmed, theoretically speaking. But what do Democrats, what can they do at this point? They're sort of in this situation, this, this position of maximum powerlessness.
- [20:04]
Larry Sabato
Yes. And that's the tragedy of it for Democrats. They, they should have been able to carry the House. That's obvious now, and maybe they will in 2026. Although I'm not putting any bets on Democrats to win anything the way things are going. What, what I do think they can do, and this is depressing, but they can throw sand in the gears. That is what the Republican Party did for years when they didn't have the White House or either House of Congress. Now, in early era, they actually worked with Democrats. They had bipartisan compromises and so on, but those were different parties. But for the Democrats, now they do have to put themselves out there in a way they don't like to. They're going to have to say, not this far and no further. They need to say, he's already gone way too far. Forget about no further. And they have to do what they have to do, which means staying up all night. No one likes to stay up all night except for my students.
- [21:01]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
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Larry Sabato
You know that it's just not ideal. But they have nothing else they can do and other than to work through the Democratic judges, the district and the appellate court judges that they can do.
- [21:14]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And I seem to recall Senator Tommy Tuberville, I think over his disagreement with abortion policy over the Pentagon. I think something along those lines, saying, I'm just going to put a hold on all of these national security nominees during the Biden administration. And it ended up being quite the drama. So I suppose procedurally here and there, there are things that they could do. But you're right, I think throwing sand in the gears is about the only option that they have at this point. But the question I have, Larry, is it just seemed as though, and I know you got to get going pretty soon here, but when we all came into this new administration with Donald Trump, there was this notion, well, let's give him another chance, let's see what happens and so on. But the very first thing that he does is to pardon all of the January 6th rioters and insurrectionists. To me, if you're in the Democratic Party, wouldn't you say right then and there. Okay, well, all bets are off. I mean, it just seems like there needed to be like several nutty things happening one after another for Democrats to sort of coalesce and say, okay, now we've got our act together here.
- [22:23]
Larry Sabato
Yeah. The fact that he, you could justify, if you're a Republican, at least the pardons of some of the non violent offenders, if you went through it case by case, I'm sure you could find some with some justification. But to pardon and commute the sentences of the most violent, the ones who went after over 140 police and caused the death of several of them. One of them had a brother I taught who committed and the officer committed suicide. His brother's the one. I know this is, this is a serious thing and to have that be the opening round of a presidency and they're still pretending there was massive fraud. Pam Bondi, who just took office as attorney general, is pretending there was massive fraud. I know the people watching you all believe this, as I do, but we've got, I've given up. I mean, I tell this to every group. There was no fraud. Okay?
- [23:23]
Jim Acosta
None.
- [23:24]
Larry Sabato
There was nothing that justified what Trump did. And yet millions, millions of people, I come across them all the time believe that there was massive fraud and Joe Biden was never president and all the rest. Look, we're at the point where we cannot survive as a republic if we don't come down to Earth and sanity is not restored to these millions who incredibly believe things that cannot be true and are not true. You know, 6% of Americans think we didn't land on the moon.
- [23:57]
Jim Acosta
Right.
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Larry Sabato
Six percent of Americans now. But you've got half of the Americans almost believing that there was massive fraud, which. And there wasn't in 2020. I really, at my age, I get. I do get depressed about it. I really wonder where this republic is headed or whether it's going to last.
- [24:17]
Jim Acosta
Well, Larry, that's why we need truth tellers like yourself to stay in the fight. That's why I'm doing this. You know, we have to make a stand, of course, for democracy. That. There's no question about that. But just something as basic as the truth, something as basic as facts. And, you know, you mentioned the 6% of the people who don't believe that man landed on the moon. It seems to be in this administration. Those would be the people put in touch in charge of NASA, you know, I mean, you know.
- [24:50]
Larry Sabato
Yeah.
- [24:51]
Jim Acosta
People who think that the moon is made of Swiss cheese would be the next NASA administrator under this administration.
- [24:56]
Larry Sabato
Don't rule it out, Jim. Don't rule it out.
- [24:58]
Jim Acosta
I probably should not rule that out. It's only Wednesday. As I was saying at the top of this program. Larry, great to see you as always. Thanks so much.
- [25:07]
Larry Sabato
Wonderful, Jim. Look forward to having you back down to Charlottesville. And thank you very much for becoming one of the center for Politics Scholars here at uva. We're very proud to have you.
- [25:17]
Jim Acosta
I'm. And let's announce it right now. That's right. I have accepted Larry's very gracious offer. I believe it includes some free meals here and there to come down to Charlottesville.
- [25:26]
Larry Sabato
Free meals. And we have free Politics is a Good Thing stickers because no one wants them anymore. They don't believe that politics is a good thing. But it will be again one day. I have to believe.
- [25:36]
Jim Acosta
I'm so excited about that. I love the folks at the University of Virginia. Love you, Larry, and. And love the city of Charlottesville. It's near and dear to my heart. I'm a Virginia native and so anytime I can get down to the Commonwealth is a good day. Thank you, Larry.
- [25:51]
Larry Sabato
Thank you so much, Jim. And good luck with the subs.
- [25:54]
Jim Acosta
Okay. Appreciate it. All right, bye bye.
- [26:00]
Larry Sabato
All right.
- [26:01]
Jim Acosta
So you heard, you heard from, you heard from Larry Sabato there. You know, and keep in mind, Larry is, you know, he's the director of center for Politics at the University of Virginia. He's a presidential scholar. He has followed this for decades. The reason why I talk to Larry as often as I do is because if somebody like Larry Sabato is sounding the alarm and saying, you know, we gotta be worried about the state of affairs in this country, if you have millions and millions of people who simply think that Joe Biden didn't win the 2020 election, we are in huge trouble. And Larry is absolutely right. When you, when you have Donald Trump coming into a new administration, the very first thing that he does is pardon the January, on the very first day of administration, pardon all the January 6th rioters and insurrectionists. That, to me, right then, and there was a signal, not just to people in Washington. I'm sure he wanted to rattle some cages and own the libs and all that stuff, nonsense that they talk about on Fox and so on. You send a message around the world that something very significant has happened in the United States, and that is that the president of the United States does not care about the rule of law, and that the rule of law only applies in certain situations, and that the rule of law doesn't matter when it comes to people attacking the Capitol of the United States of America and attacking police officers, that, to me, is highly disturbing. And I think it's going to stand out as one of the most shameful moments of this presidency. And it happened on the first day of this presidency. I do want to talk about a couple other things while I still have you. Birthright citizenship. There was news on that front today. ABC News reporting a federal judge in Maryland has issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against Trump's executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship. U.S. district Judge Deborah Boardman listened to arguments from five pregnant undocumented workers seeking to block Trump's attempt to redefined the 14th Amendment to exclude the children of undocumented immigrants from birthright citizenship. Here's what the judge said. According to abc, the denial of the precious right of citizenship will cause irreparable harm. She goes on to say, it has been said the right to US Citizenship is a right no less precious than life or liberty. Let me read that again from the judge. It has been said the right to US Citizenship is a right no less precious than life or liberty. If the court does not enjoin enforcement of the executive order, children subject to the order will be denied. The rights and benefits of US Citizenship and their parents will face instability. I think that's an incredible statement from that judge. And it's an incredible, I think, decision by the judge to say to the president of the United States. And this gets back to what Larry and I were talking about a few moments ago. The judge saying, no, Donald Trump, you cannot just, you know, tear up the Constitution or you can't take your Sharpie. Remember when he took the Sharpie and he tried to make the tornado look like or the hurricane was going to go here when it was going to go there? You can't take a Sharpie to the Constitution of the United States. It doesn't work that way. It's not your Constitution. Constitution belongs to we the people. You can't just take out that 14th Amendment willy nilly. And, you know, this gets to what Larry was talking about a few moments ago in that, you know, for opponents of the Trump agenda, what you have to think, be thinking about this point is not the legislative branch as much as the judicial branch. We have checks and balances in this country with three branches of government. And obviously the judicial branch of the United States government is going to be, I think, just monumentally important over the next couple of years until you see the midterms come around in 2026. It is going to be on the judicial branch, it is going to be on these judges, and it is going to be on the Supreme Court of the United States. I was talking to a high powered attorney here in Washington earlier today. He said the expectation in legal circles here in Washington is that both Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito will step down from the Supreme Court over this administration. Obviously, we don't know if that's going to happen, but that is an expectation in legal circles here in Washington. And then Trump will replace those two justices. The balance on the Supreme Court will stay the same. But what happens if one of the liberal justices steps down during the Trump presidency? It's feasible. It could happen. You could have a death, you could have any number of things occur that would require one of those justices to step down. And then the balance becomes even more tilted in the direction of Trump and Maga and the conservatives who have sought to take over the Supreme Court. And so the judicial branch of our government is going to be highly, highly interesting. And the other reason why I bring up birthright citizenship is because of this portrait, this tiny little portrait over my shoulder, the Statue of Liberty. There it is. Lady Liberty, if you followed my work, you've heard me talk about extol the virtues of Lady Liberty and the poem by Emma Lazarus that is affixed to Lady Liberty, Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. That is the tradition of the United States of America. We've always been a beacon of hope to the world. And to think that an immigrant could come to this country, have a child here in the United States and that child not be an American citizen just seems completely antithetical to what we are about as a country. For example, my father, Cuban refugee, came to this country, married my mother, an American, had me, I guess what would that make me? I guess I would be half of a citizen under this effort that Donald Trump has initiated to end birthright citizens. I mean, where does it end? Just take people's citizenship away. I mean, again, as I was saying at the top of this program, it's only Wednesday. You know, we haven't, we haven't even gotten to Thursday yet. So in the meantime, I think we've got a lot to talk about this week. The one last thing I did want to bring up, I went down to the Treasury Department yesterday, as I was saying earlier, and I looked at this protest that was taking place place down there, the big anti Musk protest. And you know, the most highly controversial move as we were talking about earlier was the Musk team seizure of the federal payment system inside the Treasury Department yesterday. A man named James Fishback, you might not know who he is. I didn't know he was. He claimed he worked with Ramaswamy, Vivek Ramaswamy when he was with Doge. Ramaswamy has left Doge to go run for governor of Ohio or something like that. Anyway, this James Fishback guy came up to me and approached me and he was trying to defend Musk's actions. And I posted this on my notes earlier. If you haven't seen it yet, go take a look at it. But again, this goes back to what Larry and I were talking about earlier. There has to be something like the truth. You know, there's something, there has to be something such as the truth, a common truth in this country, common set of facts in this country. I just tried to ask this guy who claimed he was a one time advisor to Ramaswamy and Doge and so on. He was trying to defend Elon Musk, who gave Elon Musk the authority to do this? What gives Elon Musk the right to go into these various agencies of the federal government and do this? It's unbelievable to me. And if you look at the video you could just see he didn't really have an answer for that. He kept claiming that, well, Donald Trump won the election. Okay, Donald Trump won the election. Elon Musk did not win the election. And again, I talked about this yesterday. I talked about it the day before. Key question that needs to be asked. Did Donald Trump know that Elon Musk was going to be given access to the federal payment system over at the Treasury Department? Did Elon Musk get permission from Donald Trump to do that? And as some of you have been saying in your comments, is it called Doge or is it called Dodge? Because they've been dodging these questions since the very beginning of all of this. And anyway, all right, coming up later on this week, tomorrow I'm going to be on with the Midas Touch Guys. Have you, have you heard of the Midas Touch Guys? These guys are famous. They do a great job. They have their own channel on YouTube. They have an account here with Substack. They have a presence here on Substack, which is terrific as well. I'm going to talk to the Maya's Touch guys tomorrow. We're going to have a whole discussion about everything that's been happening in politics and what you can do as a citizen to stay engaged. This idea, this notion that people should turn off their TV and not read the news anymore and just check out. That's not an option, folks. If you're seeing what's happening, right, it's just not an option. You have to stay engaged. You have to stay informed. So anyhow, I'll be on with my such guys tomorrow. Really looking forward to that. And then on Friday, I believe we have booked Congressman, Freshman Congressman Eugene Vindman, brother of Alex Vindman. Eugene Vindman is now a new freshman member of Congress. And for my home state of Virginia, not my home district, my home state of Virginia. And so I'm looking forward to talking to him as well. And I guess the last thing is. Duke. Duke, you want to come over here, buddy?
- [35:56]
Larry Sabato
Come here.
- [35:57]
Jim Acosta
Want to come over here? I don't know. I don't know if I can get Duke off the sofa right now. I, maybe I word I might have worn Duke out a little too much there. Duke, can you, can you come here? Where's the toy? Where's the toy? Duke, can you bring the toy? Folks, it's not happening. Duke's playing. Duke's playing hard to get. We'll. We'll see if we get Duke into the action tomorrow. It'll be a little tease for tomorrow, but in the meantime, thanks everybody for watching. Thanks to Larry Sabato for tuning in. Again. A reminder, I forgot to say this at the top. If you're tuning in live, you missed it at the beginning of the of the newscast and you want to watch this all over again. This all gets recorded, it goes back on the sub stack. You can watch it later on this evening and and you could be on the go, you could be working out, you could be, you know, doing whatever you do or you can just open a bottle of wine and be sitting on the sofa and check this out. Really appreciate all the support. Really appreciate all the viewers who have tuned in. So, so thank you so much. Thank you for being here for me. Really appreciate it. Until next time, reporting from Washington, still reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. Have a great day everybody. Thanks for tuning in. Bye bye. It.