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- [00:01]
Jim Acosta
And you saw all the J.D. vance stuff. Talk about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Thanks for doing this. Are you back in Illinois?
- [00:11]
Joe Walsh
Are you in D.C. or D.C. for another maybe half this year? So we should get to go.
- [00:15]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, we definitely need to do that.
- [00:17]
James Carville
All right. Good deal.
- [00:18]
Jim Acosta
Good deal. All right. All right. Welcome to the Jim Acosta Show. It is Monday, February 10th. I am doing this show as a special edition of the Jim Acosta Show. I'm calling it America Under Siege. That is because what we've been seeing here in Washington over the last couple weeks, the federal government currently dealing with a barrage of aggressive and potentially illegal actions, it seems from the Trump administration. The courts are now weighing in as judges are warning the president and his team they are, in some cases, flat out violating the law. And in just a few moments, I'm gonna hear from a Democratic strategist, James Carville, about what the Democratic Party can do to stand up to Donald Trump. And you can see at the bottom of the screen or however you're looking at this, the other guy on the screen here is former Republican Congressman Joe Walsh, a friend of the program, and always great to see Joe again. Thanks, as always, for doing this. I do want to just tick off a couple of headlines, walk folks through what we're dealing with today, but I am calling this America Under Siege. A constitutional crisis may be brewing in this first month of. Of the second Trump administration. Hope you saw my post on Substack earlier today, primarily focused on Vice President J.D. vance's notion on X. He put a post on X saying, quote, judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power. Now, Vance, who went to Yale Law School, appears to be teeing up the idea that presidents can violate rulings from the courts. Mr. Vice President, I'd like to introduce you to something. It's called the Constitution. Perhaps you heard about this at Yale, but perhaps not. I've heard Yale is a good law school, so I'm guessing they do teach the Constitution there. And speaking of Trump versus the courts, think about this. This just came out earlier today, the courts versus Trump. The New York Times reporting this. A federal judge today said the White House has defied his order to release billions of dollars in federal grants, marking the first time a judge has expressly declared that the Trump White House was disobeying a judicial mandate. And we've also been talking about this. And, Joe, I'll ask for your take on this in just a second. This plan that has been underway by the Trump White House to have Elon Musk going through various agencies and departments of the federal government. And obviously the Treasury Department and its federal payment system has been a very big issue since the beginning of the Trump administration. Listen to this. Five former treasury secretaries. I'm going to ask you, Joe, about this in just a second. Five former treasury secretaries penned this op ed in the New York Times. The title of the op ed Five former Treasury secretaries say our democracy is under siege. Perhaps they got this idea from me. Perhaps great minds think alike. But five former treasury secretaries said this. The nation's payment system has historically been operated by a very small group of nonpartisan career civil servants. In recent days, that norm has been upended and. And the roles of these nonpartisan officials have been compromised by political actors from Doge. One has been appointed fiscal assistant secretary, a post that for the prior eight decades, prior eight decades, has been reserved exclusively for civil servants to ensure impartiality and public confidence in the handling and payment of federal funds. Joe, let me go to you on this, because I don't know which one steams my shorts more today on this Monday, it's what's been happening over the Treasury Department and the federal payment system and Elon Musk and his crew hoovering up all this data or what JD Vance said over the weekend. I think let's start with what JD Vance said over the weekend. His floating this idea that the president can just, you know, disregard what the courts say. If the court comes down with an order, we're just gonna disregard it. Your thoughts?
- [04:07]
Joe Walsh
First of all, Jim Acosta, it's so damn good to be with you. I am a huge fan of what you do. I'm not gonna say anything about CNN or anything. I, I just love to see you out here doing what you do, preaching your truth, doing good, objective journalism. Jim, I want to scream. Because we don't do a good enough job of explaining to the folks exactly what's happening. And here's exactly what's happening. And I love your America under siege. This is a constitutional crisis. We were supposed to have three independent branches of government. Forget about my former employer. Congress is gone. They're completely subservient to Trump. I mean, Jim, think about it. A healthy legislative branch would have hauled Elon Musk in front of them under oath two weeks ago just to ask what he's doing. So forget about that. And then over the weekend, J.D. vance basically signals that, you know what? We're going to ignore the courts. That's what they're doing, Jim, laying the groundwork for the President, United States, to give his middle finger to court rulings. I mean, I don't know what else you can call that, but a constitutional crisis.
- [05:24]
Jim Acosta
And they're daring the courts on multiple fronts. They're trying to shut down usaid. Trump wants to do away with birthright citizenship. Hello, the Constitution, again, it establishes what birthright citizenship is. And so what do you think Trump is up to? Is this one of those things where it's. And we've heard this before, Steve Bannon has talked about this, flood the zone with bullshit and hope that somebody isn't looking when they're trying to do something else behind door number three? Or are they trying to tee up a constitutional crisis that will go through the courts, maybe get to the Supreme Court where he has a MAGA majority, and perhaps, you know, he can realize this dream of a sort of maximalist executive branch where the checks and balances are sort of thrown out the window.
- [06:11]
Joe Walsh
I think, Jim, we got to imagine the worst. If you and I were having a beer nine, ten years ago, we would have never imagined that a president would lose an election and then commit crimes trying to overturn that election. I think Donald Trump now, since he's been reelected, Jim, he thinks he's untouchable. He thinks he can do whatever he wants. So he's gonna push the limits. He told us he was gonna try to be a king and a dictator from day one. He's going to push the limits. He believes he can get away with it. And, Jim, when you think about it, who can blame him for thinking that way? I mean, my former Republicans in Congress, my former colleagues, none of them, none of them will stand up to him. So if I'm him, Jim Acosta, I think I'm a king. I think I'm a tyrant. I think I can tell any federal judge to go jump, and that's what he'll do.
- [07:05]
Jim Acosta
And, you know, I thought it was curious that J.D. vance, I mean, talk about somebody who's been overshadowed since the beginning of this Trump administration. I mean, Elon Musk has basically become a co president, which, in a situation where you have a co president, what is the vice president in all of this? But he throws this out there like we're just going to disregard this stuff. I mean, it seems to me that, you know, we are. I mean, I. I don't like to throw words around like America under siege, but if. If the White House can just do away with, you know, rulings with the judicial branch, what they throw at them, that explain that for the folks at home. Why that is so serious? Why is that so damn important?
- [07:51]
Joe Walsh
And it's. Jim, it's so funny, but I, I did this on my show earlier today, just.
- [07:56]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [07:56]
Joe Walsh
Reminding my listeners about the basic founding principles in the Constitution. Separations of powers, checks and balances. I mean, our founders did all of this. Jim Acosta, as you know, because they feared a king. They feared what we have right now. And I got a bunch of people saying, oh, Joe. That these judges don't give a damn about government spending. That's not the point. The point is the judiciary is supposed to determine whether what Congress or the president does is constitutional, Period. And if they declare his birthright citizenship executive order unconstitutional, which it is, Trump's, Trump's got recourse. He can, he can exact another executive order. He can try to pass a law, he can appeal the decision. But it's this, it's this check, these checks and balances that make certain America is not ruled by a king. And I wanna wake this country up, Jim, because this guy wants to be a king. And plenty of his supporters, by the way, Jim, want that.
- [09:07]
Jim Acosta
And what's been your sense of how Democrats have handled this? Because in the beginning there was this sense of, well, let's just see how it goes. Perhaps he's sh. I mean, I just thought that that was a fool's errand from the get go. I mean, anybody who thought that Trump was gonna be different this time around, or he's learned his lesson, or any of those old wishcasting items, it's never going to work. It's just never going to work out with him. He's always going to push the envelope and then he's going to burn the envelope. He's going to set it on fire. Your sense of how Democrats have been handling this.
- [09:41]
Joe Walsh
There is zero opposition party, Jim Acosta. Zero. And look, you knew, you knew from day one what Trump was going to do. I knew from day one what Trump was going to do. Why were the Democrats caught flat footed? It just amazes me. And some of them wanted to go down and meet with him in Mar a Lago and make good with him and break bed with him and coddle him. You can't do that with him. This is not what we've ever had in America. And Jim, for the life of me, Democrats do not recognize this moment. And they're playing defense constantly when they got to fight, fight, fight and go on the offense.
- [10:19]
James Carville
Yeah.
- [10:20]
Jim Acosta
And there are some Democratic officials who are taking the administration to court. Letitia James in New York. I mean, that is happening at the state level. There's no question about it. But there's a problem. Elections have consequences. If you don't have the numbers in Congress, you don't have. And the other thing, Joe, I wanted to ask you about, because I always enjoy when you do this, when you relay these stories from your conversations with Trump supporters. I think you put one on Twitter the other night, you posted about one of these interactions.
- [10:45]
Joe Walsh
Yeah.
- [10:45]
Jim Acosta
Talk about that. And what's been your takeaway when you talk to Trump supporters these days and when they're seeing what's happening? Because I know you used to be a Tea Party conservative. I mean, can you imagine if Obama said to Bill Gates or some other tech guy, go through the federal government, do whatever you want, take everybody's data, it would be pitchfork and torch time in Washington, D.C. and it just seems, it's amazing to me how Trump supporters can say, oh, well, you know, I still believe in this guy, even though he's doing stuff that it should be completely diametrically opposed to their belief system.
- [11:21]
Joe Walsh
Well, and Jim, even all of my former Freedom Caucus colleagues in the House, who. Right, right, right. We all screamed. I mean, when Obama looked at a pen, like he was gonna pick up the pen, we screamed. Jim Jordan and I called a press conference every time Barack Obama looked at a pen. Yeah, they've all folded to this. And I think the scariest, most difficult thing for America to understand is this. And it goes to the conversation I had Sunday with a longtime friend who is a die hard Trumper. And he and I went back and forth on what Elon Musk was doing. Come on. I said, this is wrong. Nobody should have this much power. I said what you said. Could you imagine if Barack Obama had George Soros do that? And eventually we went back and forth, but eventually, Jim, he said what almost every Trump supporter has told me, Joe, I don't give a damn. He's my guy. He's on my team. The other side is bad. He's going after the bad guys. And then he said, I don't care, Joe, if he's acting like a king, I don't care. Now that just saddens me profoundly.
- [12:32]
James Carville
Yeah, yeah.
- [12:33]
Jim Acosta
It's like Ride or Die. It's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It's Thelma and Louise. What's happening in the convertible? Let's drive off.
- [12:40]
Joe Walsh
The Constitution be damned. It's Constitution be damned. I mean, I was a Tea Party guy, Jim, because I revered the Constitution. And they've thrown that out to the window to pledge fealty to this guy. But America needs to know that that's why Trump believes he can get away with a lot of this. Jim, I think I saw an Approval Number of 53% for Trump today.
- [13:05]
James Carville
Yeah.
- [13:05]
Joe Walsh
Oh, my God. He's got to be bathing in glory right now.
- [13:09]
James Carville
Yeah. Yeah.
- [13:10]
Jim Acosta
Well, and, you know, these polls, they can be kind of all over the place. I always like to see we can see a group of polls, compare them with one another, see how the questions are asked, see what the various data points are. But you're absolutely right. When that CBS poll came out, it is rather alarming. And, you know, this goes back to conversations I was having with folks right before the election, people like Timothy Snyder, people like Anne Applebaum, people who think very seriously about the issue of autocracy and fascism coming into the United States. And, you know, one of the lessons that can be learned in all of this is that the sad, the sad state of affairs about autocracy, authoritarianism, fascism is it just works with some people. Some people are attracted to it.
- [13:56]
Joe Walsh
And I have to confess, Jim Acosta, I come from the right. I believe that my side of the right is more susceptible to it. Because, Jim, I've heard for years, even back in the Tea Party days, a lot of my supporters on the right would say, hey, Joe, I want my America back, and I don't care if. I don't care what has to be done to get it back. So they're perfectly willing to break rules and go and defy the Constitution to get this notion of their America back. Trump's doing that. And what do we have? And you speak so well to this every day. And I'm so. God damn. Damn it, Jim Acosta, I'm so glad you're doing what you're doing because you are raising the alarm. I mean it, my friend. If the courts don't hold, we're screwed. But, but, but then we got to take to the streets and we've got to. That's where we need help from our Democrats to really describe for us what is going on.
- [14:55]
James Carville
Yeah.
- [14:55]
Jim Acosta
And you got to, you got to talk to people, you know where they live. You got to use real talk. You can't dance around this. You can't tiptoe through the tulips. The tiptoe, tiptoeing through the tulips days are behind us right now. If I could get a red siren and mounted in the studio here, I would, because that's where we are right now. Joe, thanks for joining us. Appreciate it great to talk to you as always. It always feels like we've only been talking for, like, five minutes, but we've been talking for almost 15 minutes. Great to talk. And check out Joe's.
- [15:24]
Joe Walsh
I love you. Thank you, brother.
- [15:27]
Jim Acosta
Love you, too. And check out Joe's substack as well. It's terrific. Thank you. Joe. Great to see you.
- [15:32]
Joe Walsh
Thanks, Jim. Thanks, man.
- [15:32]
Jim Acosta
Really appreciate it.
- [15:33]
James Carville
All right.
- [15:33]
Jim Acosta
All right.
- [15:34]
Joe Walsh
So that's.