UVA's Larry Sabato, AFT's Randi Weingarten and Michael Fanone.

Summary

Summary of "The Jim Acosta Show" Episode Featuring Larry Sabato, Randi Weingarten, and Michael Fanone

Release Date: March 20, 2025

Hosts: Jim Acosta

Guests: Larry Sabato (University of Virginia), Randi Weingarten (American Federation of Teachers), Michael Fanone

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Introduction

In this episode of The Jim Acosta Show, host Jim Acosta engages in a robust discussion with three prominent guests: Larry Sabato, a renowned political scientist from the University of Virginia; Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT); and Michael Fanone, a former Capitol Police officer and advocate for law enforcement integrity. The conversation centers around recent political maneuvers by the Trump administration, including the potential dismantling of the Department of Education, the release of JFK assassination files, and the broader implications for American democracy and federal institutions.

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Trump's Executive Order and the Department of Education

Jim Acosta opens the discussion by addressing the anticipated executive order from former President Donald Trump aimed at dismantling the Department of Education. While Acosta clarifies that an executive order alone cannot eliminate the department without Congressional approval, the debate centers on the administrative actions Trump can take to weaken its influence.

Larry Sabato expresses deep concern over the haphazard and indiscriminate approach Trump is employing. Sabato criticizes the manner in which cuts are being implemented, noting, “They are so haphazard and sloppy. You know, we all have to let people go in organizations for one reason or another. There's a right way to do it and there's a wrong way to do it” (02:45). He emphasizes the detrimental impact on public services and the potential long-term harm to governmental efficiency.

Randi Weingarten and Michael Fanone join the conversation to highlight the real-world consequences of these cuts. Fanone underscores the symbolic nature of attacking educational institutions, stating, “What has happened is snuffing out innovation and knowledge in America” (30:18). Weingarten elaborates on how federal funds are crucial for various educational programs, particularly in red states that rely heavily on federal aid. She notes, “This is going to just hurt kids” (29:54), stressing that the most vulnerable populations will bear the brunt of these administrative dismantling efforts.

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Impact on Federal Agencies and Public Services

The discussion shifts to the broader implications of weakening federal agencies. Jim Acosta points out that states like Mississippi, South Dakota, and others would suffer significantly without federal support, especially in areas like K-12 education, Pell Grants, and support for students with disabilities.

Larry Sabato warns of the cascading effects on government operations, mentioning, “Without promises that their seniority will carry over, who would want to go through this again?” (08:53). He argues that the administration’s reckless cuts could lead to the downfall of essential services and the loss of valuable government employees.

Michael Fanone adds that these actions are not just administrative but part of a broader authoritarian strategy to control and suppress knowledge. He asserts, “What any president has ever done is snuff out innovation and knowledge in America” (35:26).

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Release of JFK Assassination Files

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to the recent release of JFK assassination files by the Trump administration. Larry Sabato provides an insightful analysis of the documents, highlighting their disorganized and incomplete nature. He remarks, “They were incredibly sloppy” (13:35), criticizing the lack of redactions and proper indexing, which hampers effective analysis.

Sabato delves into the revelations about CIA operations from the 1970s, including domestic surveillance and mail tampering, drawing parallels to contemporary issues of government overreach. He states, “We've learned a lot about the context of the times and about how the Cold War was so divisive” (15:14).

Jim Acosta refers to Larry Sabato's skepticism about conspiracy theories surrounding the JFK assassination, with Sabato affirming his belief that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. However, he acknowledges the complexities introduced by Jack Ruby's swift actions, which have left many questions unanswered.

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Assault on Educational Institutions and Democratic Values

The conversation intensifies around the assault on educational institutions. Randi Weingarten and Michael Fanone argue that these attacks are not merely political but are attempts to undermine critical thinking and problem-solving skills among the populace. Fanone articulates, “This is about spreading fear, saying we're in charge” (37:30), suggesting that the administration aims to create an obedient populace by destabilizing educational foundations.

Weingarten highlights the direct impact on students and educators, emphasizing that federal funds are essential for programs that support disadvantaged and special needs students. She warns, “This is going to just hurt kids” (29:54), reinforcing the notion that the administration's policies are detrimental to future generations.

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Use of Law Enforcement and Threats to Democracy

Michael Fanone discusses the alarming trends in law enforcement's role under the Trump administration. He criticizes the politicization of law enforcement agencies, noting that they have become extensions of Trump's authoritarian efforts. Fanone states, “Donald Trump does become America's top law enforcement officer” (46:44), highlighting the dangerous conflation of political power with policing.

Randi Weingarten echoes these concerns, detailing how Trump's aggressive tactics have emboldened extremist actions against judicial figures and institutions. She points out, “They're going after you if you defy them” (53:58), underscoring the threats faced by judges like Judge Boasberg and the broader implications for the judicial system's independence.

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Pentagon's DEI Purge and Preservation of History

In a closing segment, Jim Acosta touches upon the Pentagon's controversial attempt to purge Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) content from its websites, which led to the inadvertent deletion of historical content honoring African American war heroes like Jackie Robinson. This misstep garnered public backlash and necessitated the restoration of the content, reflecting poorly on the Department of Defense's management.

Jim Acosta criticizes the Pentagon's actions as “a waste of time” and labels the responsible individuals as “ass hats,” emphasizing the absurdity and disrespect of removing significant historical records. This incident serves as a microcosm of the broader administrative chaos and disregard for institutional integrity discussed throughout the episode.

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Conclusion

The episode concludes with Jim Acosta expressing frustration over the administration's relentless attacks on educational institutions and federal agencies. He lauds his guests for their unwavering stance against these destructive policies and underscores the importance of fighting for democracy and institutional integrity. The conversation leaves listeners with a clear portrayal of the challenges facing American institutions and the urgent need for resistance against authoritarian tendencies.

Notable Quotes:

• Larry Sabato: “They are so haphazard and sloppy. You know, we all have to let people go in organizations for one reason or another. There's a right way to do it and there's a wrong way to do it” (02:45).

• Michael Fanone: “This is about spreading fear, saying we're in charge” (37:30).

• Randi Weingarten: “This is going to just hurt kids” (29:54).

• Larry Sabato: “We've learned a lot about the context of the times and about how the Cold War was so divisive” (15:14).

• Randi Weingarten: “They're going after you if you defy them” (53:58).

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Final Thoughts

This episode of The Jim Acosta Show provides a comprehensive examination of the Trump administration's recent policies targeting educational and federal institutions. Through incisive dialogue with experts like Larry Sabato, Randi Weingarten, and Michael Fanone, the show elucidates the profound implications of these actions on democracy, public services, and the future of American society.

Transcript

[Jim Acosta]

This is Jim Acosta. Welcome to the Jim Acosta Show. Sorry for a little bit of a late start on this program. Having some technical issues. Trying to get Larry Sabato with the University of Virginia. He's going to be joining me hopefully in just a few moments. Larry is going to weigh in on a lot of things that have been happening this week. In particular, Larry has been digging into the release of the JFK assassination files. You saw JFK's own grandson has said, hey, don't follow this bright, shiny object. This is, you know, there's not a whole lot of new news here, but scholars like Larry Sabato have been going through all of this, and so we're going to dive into that. It's obviously not the most important story that's out there right now. I'm going to try to bring Larry in right now because the other thing that's happening is there is some breaking news, and we expect that to happen at any moment where Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order seeking the elimination of the Department of Education. Now, I couch that in those kinds of terms because only Congress can close the Department of Education. Donald Trump can send an executive order that says, hey, I'm going to do this. Doesn't necessarily mean it's going to happen. And there's Larry Sabato. Hey, Larry, how are you? The eagle has landed.

[Larry Sabato]

The eagle has landed. The moon landing went smoother than this. I apologize. Yeah, no, no, we apparently don't have the technology. But I'm glad to see you.

[Jim Acosta]

No, it's no problem at all. We were like those stranded astronauts trying to get home there for a few moments there.

[Larry Sabato]

But not nine months. But not nine months.

[Jim Acosta]

No, no. But the spaceship has arrived. And here we are, Larry, a lot to talk about. I was just telling the viewers a few moments ago that you've been digging into the JFK assassination files that were released by the Trump administration. I do want to talk about that in a moment. But I guess, first of all, there's so much news in the political realm that you and I haven't talked about since the last time we spoke. And, I mean, this administration is off to a flying start, for lack of a better way of putting it. Lots of different ways of putting it. But, you know, one of the things that I wanted to get into is, is just this afternoon, Trump is expected, I guess, at any moment to sign this executive order to start closing down the Education Department. As I was just explaining a few moments ago, he cannot just do that by fiat. He may think he can. Like, he thinks he can do all these other things, but Congress created the Department of Education. They have to be the ones who vote to shut it down. What do you think about all this, Larry? You're in higher education, and this has been one of Trump's favorite targets so far.

[Larry Sabato]

It has. Thank goodness he's busy with Columbia and Penn.

[Jim Acosta]

Yeah.

[Larry Sabato]

I hope he doesn't get around to the V, the V letters until close to the end of his term.

[Jim Acosta]

Exactly.

[Larry Sabato]

Look, Jim, you know what I think and what? Almost everybody here, right to left, and there are plenty of conservatives at the university, they're not real happy. I mean, it's not that they don't want to have cuts. Well, nobody likes cuts, but they will take cuts. They will. They will tighten the belt. It's the way it's being done. It is so haphazard and sloppy. You know, we've all had to let people go in organizations for one reason or another. There's a right way to do it and there's a wrong way to do it. And Musk and Trump are writing a whole new set of volumes on the wrong way to do it. Yeah, I just think it's pitiful for the United States to look like this around the world, and it's pitiful for the people in the country who are not going to be well served by what's left. Can you listen? You know how difficult it is already to reach many people in certain sectors of the government after all these firings. You're going to have to have somebody hired full time just to keep redialing.

[Jim Acosta]

Yeah, well. And, Larry, I mean, you and I know there's going to be a political price to pay for this. We've seen this in these GOP town halls. A lot of the questions have been about Social Security, and people are rightly freaked out right now. Senior citizens are wondering if they're going to cut, you know, hundreds or thousands of people at the Social Security Administration, and they're going to make people get on the phone or get online to access their benefits or ask questions about their benefits. I mean, you're going to have pitchforks and torches in D.C. at any day now. And, I mean, just last night, this congresswoman in Wyoming who beat Liz Cheney, Harriet Hageman, faced a torrent of heckles and booze, according to NBC, during a town hall in Deep red Wyoming, as she repeatedly tried to downplay these concerns with the administration's actions and the Department of Government Efficiency, which is not really a department. What do you think of these town halls and the way that this is boomerang back in the faces of a lot of these Republican lawmakers.

[Larry Sabato]

I've watched as many segments as I could. No doubt there are some Democrats in there. I don't know about paid attendees, but I'll tell you something, it's obvious that a lot of them are Republicans, especially in the Republican districts that are showing up and explaining why they're so unhappy. And the stories are completely sympathetic, the veterans in particular. I'm just amazed that Trump has gotten so much support from veterans and veterans groups. And yet what is it up to now? 70,000 veterans are going to be let go from their jobs in the Veterans Administration. And they say, oh, well, there won't be any change in service. Get real. You can't let tens of thousands of people go and have the same level of service. And people aren't stupid. They don't know exactly how the system works, but they know if you let 70,000 people go, they're not going to be able to get the same level of service.

[Jim Acosta]

That's right. And I'm curious what you think, Larry, about what's going on between Trump and the courts, because there's this showdown that's going on right now between the Trump administration and this federal judge over these Venezuelan migrants who were deported. They were sent to El Salvador, even though the judge said, you need to hold off on these flights, you can't use this, what, 1800 era law to deport these Venezuelan migrants. And you know, this is according to Aaron Blake of the Washington Post, it says from the start of his second term, Trump and his administration signaled a willingness, even a desire to flout the law in their quest to overhaul the federal government. And while the wheels of justice turn slowly, Aaron writes, less than two months later, a procession of judges have already ruled. The administration has done exactly that in more than a dozen cases. And in three major rulings this week alone, a federal judge has ruled that the administration either has violated the law or has probably done so. That's About 1 every 4 days so far in this administration. It's unreal. Have you ever seen a clash between the branches of government like this before?

[Larry Sabato]

Oh, well, between the president and Congress, sure, but never a judiciary and a president. And you know, half of them are Republicans, half or more Republicans, because so many Republican presidents have appointed such a large percentage of the of the judiciary. They're all we have left as a check on Donald Trump. And he and his people know very well they can string this out and string this out, just like Trump has done all of his life in business as well as in politics. So by the time they get these things sorted out, a lot of these organizations will be destroyed. They're already at the point of death, or they're certainly on life support. And the people who've been fired, the good ones, will have gotten other jobs. They're not come back to this kind of instability. Why would anybody do that? And without promises that their seniority will carry over, who would want to go through this again? So really, he and Musk have taken sledgehammers to almost every part of government, and they're taking out the good with the bad. There are plenty that can be eliminated or reduced. Everybody knows that. That's fine, but there are going to be costs even to that. But doing this in a wholesale fashion and with so little thought and planning, I am amazed that so many in the MAGA base will stick with him during this, because many of them are going to suffer more than anybody.

[Jim Acosta]

That's right. I mean, and just the Department of Education alone. I mean, I'm going to talk to Randy Weingarten a little bit. She's the head of the American Federation of Teachers. But according to the Pew Research center, you know, the red states are going to be affected if the Department of Education is eliminate which states and school systems rely the most on Federal K through 12 aid. Mississippi, number one, at 23%. South Dakota at 21, almost 22%. Montana, Alaska, Arkansas, North Carolina, Kentucky, Arizona. I'm just going down the list.

[Larry Sabato]

They rely on almost all, all red.

[Jim Acosta]

All relying on Department of Education funding. So again, you know, this is MAGA sort of doing itself in here almost.

[Larry Sabato]

Well, you know what they say, particularly about a state like Mississippi and if this would apply to other poor states, well, the white kids are already taken care of. They're in private schools. And we all know this, Jim. I know, because we, we educate a lot of people here, I hope from every class. But the white kids are taken care of. The people are really going to suffer are poor whites and poor blacks and probably very disproportionately minority. 30% of Mississippi is. Is black. So I guess in a sense, they're not punishing their own, they're punishing other people. But inevitably, many of their own will be punished, too. And will they ever speak out or will they just say that damn Joe Biden.

[Jim Acosta]

Right.

[Larry Sabato]

You know, people are hopeless. They don't even know who's done what to them.

[Jim Acosta]

Well, that's a great point, Larry, and I Kind of wonder if something is starting to change. And I'm a foolish optimist, so maybe I just, you know, I always see the glass half full, which, you know, for me, why would I think that way? But, you know, go with me on this here, Larry. I mean, the way that this backlash that we've seen against Elon Musk, I mean, his poll numbers are, Are heading south, just like the Tesla stock price. And folks are starting to figure it out. I think even though, you know, a lot of the Republicans are watching Fox News, they're trapped in these information ecosystems where they're hooked on X and other social media platforms that cater to conservatives, it just seems to me that the message is starting to get through. You're seeing this rowdiness at these town halls. I just kind of wonder, are we seeing something emerge here? I've been wondering if it's sort of like the Tea Party movement that we saw back around 2010. Folks are just hopping mad.

[Larry Sabato]

It could be. Of course, this is a full year and 3/4 prior to the midterms, whereas the tea party in 2010, they could keep the emotions going, they could keep the anger stoked for the months remaining before the election. So that's an advantage Republicans have. But I do think from watching these things, and I did look closely because you can tell to a certain degree what party somebody is in by what they say and maybe look, and absolutely, there were a lot of Republicans in there. There are not a lot of older white male veterans in conservative red districts who vote Democratic and they're speaking out.

[Jim Acosta]

Yeah. Larry, you and I have covered this a long time. You longer than me. But to think that a lot of. I mean that in the best possible way. I just, I'm referring to your experience.

[Larry Sabato]

I know. Yeah, right, right.

[Jim Acosta]

No, but, but, but, you know, the fact that you have an unelected billionaire, the richest man in the world, presiding over cuts to veterans and various federal agencies, cuts to potentially Social Security, which may affect elderly and senior citizen folks. It just seems to me that, you know, that that is something that typically Republicans by and large would rebel against having somebody like that involved. But, you know, maybe not. I don't know.

[Larry Sabato]

You would think so. You would think so. But look, logic has.

[Jim Acosta]

We're through the looking glass here a little bit, I guess, but.

[Larry Sabato]

Yes, well, they're not logical anymore because they have given their, Their trust, their love, their hope over to one man, or really now two. Musk and Trump. Although Musk, I think, is being hurt even with that group. But you would think that over time it will have an impact. But we've been wrong about Trump at every stage.

[Jim Acosta]

That's. You're right. You're right. And you have rightly called it a culture. You have said this for a very long time, that this is very much like a cult and it may just take some time for folks to get deprogrammed. There's just no question about it. Larry, let's talk about the JFK assassination files. You've been digging into these files ever since they got released. I do want to point out, I mean, this is a document dump in more ways than one, I guess you could say. The Washington Post says the Social Security numbers and other private information of more than 200 former congressional staffers and others were made public in the unredacted files related to the assassination. Trump campaign lawyer Joseph Degener had his private information released. Larry, what do you make of all this?

[Larry Sabato]

It. I used the word sloppiness earlier. Let's. Let's reuse it. They were incredibly sloppy. And it's not just that. First of all, there are tons of redactions still in the documents. Remember when Trump said no redactions, I told him no redactions. Well, there are tons of redactions. But what's more, more significant is this was thrown together. And it is so obvious. Not just the reports about the White House lawyers having to stay up all night to try and cover all the materials before they were released. And they missed some key things. And they know they missed some key things. We're already hearing about it. But also it's the fact that there's no index, there's no table of contents. There's no way to search these documents. They're in a jumble. They have no order, even chronologically. So you have to piece them together. In my team. And you know, Tyler, he's one of our team here, my team has been killing themselves 24 hours a day to find out what is really in there and how we can speed up this process. But, Jim, you have to look at every page separately and then go back and find the document that it came from. If it had been released earlier. If it had been released earlier.

[Randy Weingarten]

Wow.

[Larry Sabato]

And then go down the page to see if any redactions have been removed. Do you know how time consuming that is?

[Jim Acosta]

That's extremely time consuming. Yeah.

[Larry Sabato]

20%. And the others who are coming up with this and that and the other, I guarantee you they have not looked at all these pages. They are looking for hot topics as they flip through it.

[Jim Acosta]

Right.

[Larry Sabato]

And they found things because there are some important nuggets in here. In fact, it's a whole gold mine about the CIA. Just wait until all this stuff comes out.

[Jim Acosta]

Well, yeah, talk about that a little bit, Larry, because the stuff about the CIA that has been warned about for years, years, that if you open up these files, you release them out to the public unredacted in this fashion, you could expose sources, methods, agent names, potentially. It could be very dangerous for the intelligence community.

[Larry Sabato]

Well, we already know. We've known really since the Church committee in the 1970s. Frank Church, he was before your time, Jim, but he was a senator from Idaho. I don't know if he was before your time or not.

[Jim Acosta]

I was gonna say I've heard that name before.

[Larry Sabato]

You heard the name before?

[Jim Acosta]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Larry Sabato]

But the Church committee looked into the CIA, came up with a lot of stuff. This was under Gerald Ford's presidency in the Senate. And we have known that the CIA was completely out of control since then. Probably could have guessed before then, but we knew it for sure from the 70s on. And it's only gotten worse. Every time we have a document dump of any sort or a court case involving the CIA, we learn all kinds of seeming behavior that they have participated in. One that I was fascinated with and I found it abhorrent. But they had a massive mail tampering operation just for the US and USSR. They had 200 to 300 full time employees up in New York doing nothing but examining every letter and package sent from the USSR to the US and from the US to the ussr and each month there would be thousands of them that they would go into great detail on and do surveillance on and look for spies connected to them. I don't know how the CIA had time to do anything else.

[Jim Acosta]

That's incredible. And it also gets into, I mean this sounds like domestic surveillance to some extent as well.

[Larry Sabato]

So it's worse, it's worse. They actually had calligraphers. They had people manufacturing phony stamps and stationery that look like a friend stationary and putting incorrect things in the letter delivering to the person to see how they responded. They wanted people caught with letters sent from the People's Republic of China or North Vietnam or Russia. And so they had proof that they were, they were somehow doing something that was un American. Today you would like to think this could never happen. Think about it. Think about who's in charge now in Washington and many of those cabinet officers. And look at the White House staff. I, I'll bet you I won't live long enough. You will. But if we can, say, 25 years into the future, 25 or 30 years, I'll bet you they can't count the number of scandals we'll learn about.

[Jim Acosta]

That's amazing.

[Larry Sabato]

Will be kept under the COVID for the Trump administration.

[Jim Acosta]

It sounds like it's a CIA dirt file almost as much as a JFK assassination. And do we have any more clarity as to. I mean, what happened? I figured you would have already been shouting from the rooftops of Thomas Jefferson's university had you had said, aha, we found the smoking gun, we found the silver bullet, and we just don't have anything.

[Larry Sabato]

I'm careful not to be conclusive because we haven't been through all the pages. We've got lots to go through. But I can tell you, so far, we have learned. We've learned a little bit, but we've learned very little that directly relates to the assassination. But we are learning a lot more about the context of The Times, about U.S. relations with allies as well as adversaries, rooting out spies and other nations, secret services and executive offices and CIA. They're forming the CIA and we're putting spies into allies operations to see who is spying from Russia or China in their operation. I mean, it was Spy versus Spy. James Bond had nothing on the CIA that existed in those times.

[Jim Acosta]

It's incredible. And it sounds like, you know, one of those George Clooney movies. Is it Burn After Reading or one of those kind of capers where, you know, it's. It's very much Spy versus Spot. And what I guess you probably saw. I know you've been very busy going through all these files. Jack Schlossberg, Kennedy's grandson, has come out and said, oh, give me a break with this stuff. Basically saying, this is like a bright, shiny object. There are more important things to cover. What did you think of that? I think he kind of had a point. You know, Trump has this ability to sort of, you know, you know, wave the red laser pointer around and get everybody to look in different directions.

[Michael Fanone]

Right.

[Larry Sabato]

And there'll be more documents, you know, that will come out in little dribbles, not just on jfk, but on RFK and mlk. Remember, those are supposed to be included. We haven't found anything for them yet, so you'll have more of it. And of course, it's a shiny object. Yeah, I think, Jack, I understand what he's saying. And of course, who was, as a grandson of President Kennedy, would want to see all of these horrible Little videos and photos again, constantly, whenever you turn on the news. I get it. Mrs. Kennedy went through this for. For decades and told friends how awful it was. But you know what? It's. It's really important to have as much transparency as we can get, though. We need to remember they destroyed tons of things. Not Trump. I'm talking about the CIA of that time, the FBI of that time, the Secret Service, the really embarrassing stuff, if it existed, no longer exists. And they're telltale signs in their own records of large groups of documents that relate to this being ripped to shreds or destroyed in some fashion. We'll never know the whole truth, so we need to keep this in context. But we are learning a lot about the times and about how the Cold War was so divisive between leaders as well as countries and just average citizens.

[Jim Acosta]

Yeah. And there was also the suspicion inside the CIA that JFK was not strong enough of a president to lead the country through the Cold War. And there were all of those tensions as well. I sort of. I doubt very much you would see any insights into that, but. Well, I don't know. Maybe so. Yeah, go ahead.

[Larry Sabato]

That we found. There may be more, but Arthur Schlesinger, who was the court historian and was assistant to the President and wrote A thousand days after the. The assassination. He wrote a lengthy memo to JFK in June of 1961, just a couple of months after the disaster of the Bay of Pigs, which was caused in good part by misinformation given to the.

[Jim Acosta]

President by the CIA, by the CIA.

[Larry Sabato]

And Kennedy said on a number of occasions, I want to smash the CIA into a thousand pieces. So Kennedy did not have high regard for some of what the CIA did. And there were a lot of people in the CIA who hated Kennedy and thought he was weak. Same with the Joint Chiefs of Staff. There's so much fodder for people who do believe in conspiracy theories. I don't. I think Lee Harvey Oswald did it. I'm never going to say that no one encouraged him. We'll never know because that idiot Jack Ruby killed him in 48 hours.

[Jim Acosta]

Exactly.

[Larry Sabato]

If he did, we would have found out the full truth.

[Jim Acosta]

This is absolutely fascinating, Larry, and please. And on the subject of Lee Harvey Oswald, I will say, when I was a young reporter back in the late 90s, I had a stint at a local station in Dallas at ktvt. To my friends in Texas who are watching. Hello. And during that time, I mean, I will tell you, there was such a fascination with the 6th Floor Museum, the Texas Book Depository. I would go down there and I remember looking out the window that Lee Harvey Oswald looked out of when he shot Kennedy or allegedly shot Kennedy, however you want to put it. And for all the conspiracy theories and everything out there, when I looked out that window and looked at the line of, of fire, if you will, the, the trajectory that the bullet would have had to have taken to, to kill Kennedy and so on, I thought that is a shot that somebody could take. And unless you have looked out that window and seen it from that perspective, you don't know the full picture. And I, I thought that was chilling when I saw it.

[Larry Sabato]

That was exactly my reaction when I first saw it back in the early 1980s. I've been there many, many, many times. It's a great museum. I encourage everybody. Great museum, six floor museums. But you know, there's a lot still to learn there. And we got to remember you had 200,000 Dallasites on the streets and there was tremendous noise and of course, all the motorcycles and everything that comes with the President. So even for Oswald, or even for a very good shot, nerves would have taken over. There's a reason why Oswald, assuming he was the one who made the shots. I happen to believe that the first shot missed entirely. It went wild. Some say it hit a branch. I think it was his nerves. But unfortunately got his nerves under control. Unfortunately, he made a couple of, of, of shots that really mattered.

[Jim Acosta]

Yeah. Well, Larry, keep us posted. I, I, this was going to be the part of the discussion where I geeked out. I really wanted to geek out on this. So thank you for helping me scratch that itch. But Larry, great to see, as always.

[Larry Sabato]

Anytime you want to talk about it, I can go on for a week without sleep talking.

[Jim Acosta]

I know you can. I know. And I'll see you next week. We're going to be doing sort of a town hall or discussion there at the University of Virginia with Tara Settmeier. It's going to be great.

[Larry Sabato]

We're going to have a very good time. And you are our newest center for Politics scholar. Yes, and we are delighted about that. So you, you crossed the line between journalism and scholarship, and I appreciate that. I would get back over that line if I were, you know, pays better.

[Jim Acosta]

I, I hear you. I think this makes me a gentleman and a scholar, as they say. Well, maybe not.

[Larry Sabato]

You're a gentleman. A scholar. Right on my way to put it.

[Jim Acosta]

At least a scholar. But thanks, Larry. Appreciate it.

[Larry Sabato]

Enjoy.

[Jim Acosta]

Good to see you. All right, take care. All right. That was the great Larry Sabato, University of Virginia. I'm a Virginian myself, so I am partial. I want to go back to and, and I want to also mention before I move on to our next guest, Michael Fanone, up in just a short while from now. So I'm going to be going to Michael in just a few moments, but I want to get to Randy Winegarden. So I hope I do this correctly. Randy, if you're out there, just know that I'm trying to get, get you on the horn now. Randy is the head of the teachers union, the American Federation of Teachers, and has been fighting the good fight on behalf of public education, higher education teachers, you name it, for many, many years. And Randy obviously is well versed on this subject. Hey, Randy, it's Jim. Can you hear me?

[Michael Fanone]

I can hear you, Jim. How are you?

[Jim Acosta]

I'm doing great. Great to see you. You're on the move as always, as I can see.

[Michael Fanone]

We are. I just left a whole bunch of people in Chicago.

[Jim Acosta]

Wonderful.

[Michael Fanone]

You know, and so, you know, it's just, I mean, this is an amazing town, and they are literally within inches of getting to a collective bargaining contract. And could you imagine what it would mean today if the city of Chicago and our union, without a strike, could get to a contract on the day that Trump attempted to not only dismantle education, but really, truly divest from children's futures and from family's futures? So the symbolism would be great. And that's what we're pushing for right now.

[Jim Acosta]

Yeah, I mean, that's what I wanted to ask you about. Randy, what's your reaction? I saw that you put out a statement saying, I'll see you in court. Yeah. To Trump apparently is going to sign this executive order. It seems like a toothless executive order in some sense in that he can't completely abolish the Department of Education, but he can do things administratively to weaken it between now and when Congress may take a theoretical vote on that. What are your thoughts?

[Michael Fanone]

Well, look, this has been the EO that's been promised for, I don't know, two months now.

[Larry Sabato]

Right.

[Michael Fanone]

So clearly there is a political imperative for him to do this in some way, form or manner. It's hard to know what. I mean, you know, as you and I are students of Donald Trump, but it's really, truly hard to know what the, what has pushed this one so hard. Because what this is is simply hurting children and hurting young people. I mean, the. So there's a symbolic issue here which is hard to understand. But I do think that there is a more venal issue, which is the attack on knowledge, which is what I think is really going on. I mean, that is what authoritarians do. But on the face of it. But what this basically does is say to parents around the country and to students around the country that your future doesn't matter to him because the Department of Education doesn't control schools. I mean, the federal government hasn't controlled schools since the Republic started. So what the federal government does is it creates opportunity. And since the 60s, since the 50s and 60s, since Brown versus Board, the federal government has had a role in filling the opportunity gaps. And it's now a substantial role. And ironically, more of those opportunity gaps are seen in red states. So the big losers if you got rid of this hundred billion dollars would be the states that elected him.

[Jim Acosta]

That's right.

[Michael Fanone]

The poor people in Mississippi and Alabama.

[Jim Acosta]

That's right.

[Michael Fanone]

And kids with disabilities and kids who, poorer kids who in rural areas, kids with limited English proficiency that want to learn English, kids in Head Start, kids with Pell Grants. So it basically is a whole bunch of people whose parents voted for him that he's hurting.

[Jim Acosta]

That's right.

[Michael Fanone]

So the question really becomes why, like, why would you do this? Like, what, what's the political imperative that's so great that this becomes one of the most important eos that you're going to do? And, and I have to say it, it other than this is what authoritarians do. And even though they say, you know, education, not indoctrination.

[Jim Acosta]

Right.

[Michael Fanone]

See, they go after knowledge. And I'll say one more thing, which is that, you know, that, that if you take this and the assault on universities and the assault on libraries and the assault on, you know, the research that universities do, what it's basically saying is he does not want kids to have a future. And what president has ever done that? I mean, you can play the culture wars all you want, but why would you actually touch the money and the vehicle by which to help kids learn, whether they're, you know, three years old or. That's right, 30 years old.

[Jim Acosta]

Well, and Randy, we should note, as you were speaking there, Donald Trump did sign the executive order to instruct Linda McMahon to begin dismantling the Department of Education. He can't eliminate it without Congress. We should point that out. The other thing, too is this has been a, a target of the far right going back decades. It was part of Project 2025. And to your point, what you were just saying a few moments ago, which states, states rely the most on Federal K through 12AID, MS, South Dakota, Montana, Alaska, Arkansas, North Carolina, Kentucky, Arizona, Oklahoma, Tennessee. There was one battleground state in there, Arizona, I guess North Carolina sort of as well. The rest are red states. They're MAGA states.

[Michael Fanone]

They're all, I mean, it is when you look at the, when you look at the list of who the winners are, who get the money that is targeted for kids. And look, we have fought really hard to get that money targeted for kids. We fought really hard that, you know, that schools, that school boards, I'm sorry, state school systems or the federal government can't take it for bureaucracy. They have to spend it on young people. So it is, but it is, Jim, you just said it far right. There is a control feature that we saw in Project 2025 and that we see with the far right. And I think that's where we get the answers here. Because at the end of the day, billionaires do not need this funding. Kids with disabilities do. Kids who are poor do. If your parents, if, you know, if you don't have a summer plan and you can have a summer experience through school, that gets paid for by title one. If you don't have an after school program and your parents have to work, that gets paid for by title one. So this is going to just hurt kids. And that's why we've tried to put the face on the cuts instead of it being the bureaucracy. But this is really going to hurt kids. And there's 45 million kids, young people who get their student loans through the Department of Education. The whole system is broke. Like, they have stopped operating, servicing any of these student loans. So two days ago we went into court to basically say start the system again, stop breaking it. Let people actually pay for their student loans. Like, like somebody who has like one or two more payments left for public service loan forgiveness. They, they can't pay it. And, and, and if they try, they don't get a receipt that says it's paid. I mean, they just broke the system that finances young people to go to college.

[Jim Acosta]

And I, I got through college on student loans. I mean, so many people got through college on student loans. It's, it's sort of what we do in this country and we have some of the finest higher education institutions in the world. It's basically the envy of the world. And what have been your thoughts, Randy, on the way Trump has gone after universities? Because we can't leave that out of the discussion. The way he's gone after educational, higher institutions that, in that, like Johns Hopkins, I mean if you take money from places like Johns Hopkins, what happens to all that scientific research? I mean, there's just the, the, the casualties here are limitless.

[Michael Fanone]

Exactly. That's why I'm saying if you pair.

[Jim Acosta]

Yeah.

[Michael Fanone]

This, you know, this, this sense of dark, dystopian cruelty for young people. I mean, from pre K, from early childhood to graduate work, what it's doing is snuffing out innovation and knowledge in America. I've never actually seen a president who has seen knowledge as such an enemy. And what you see is.

[Jim Acosta]

And for somebody who got everything handed to him in life, I mean, everything handed. Come on, let's just call it out. Let's just say it as it is.

[Michael Fanone]

That's why, that's why I'm saying, I think it is. There's a venalness here that is beyond what we see. And I suspect what it is, is. It's about power and control. I suspect it is. Because why would you consign not only an entire generation, but, you know, Republicans go to Johns Hopkins, you know, Republicans go to Columbia Presbyterian.

[Jim Acosta]

Yeah.

[Larry Sabato]

I mean, you know, Columbia University.

[Michael Fanone]

You know, Columbia University. There's, there is the, the hospitals that are attached to these universities.

[Jim Acosta]

That's true.

[Michael Fanone]

Research that is attached to these universities. Look, Alabama, the University of Alabama is the biggest employer in that state. So there, there's just something under this that I think we don't understand yet. And I think it is about control and power. And I think it is essentially.

[Jim Acosta]

And I think it's about scaring the crap out of people. I think it's just correct. I think it's about spreading fear, saying we're in charge. If you don't come up on your hands and knees and make concessions, that we want you to make ideological changes, then guess what? You're not getting your money.

[Michael Fanone]

Exactly.

[Jim Acosta]

And we don't care what kind of pain is caused in the process. That's what I think is going.

[Michael Fanone]

You know, I think that that's, I think that that's part of it. I think erasing the 21st century is part of it. And I think it's also about critical thinking and problem solving. I mean, in a period of time that we're in right now, probably the most important skill that we can give to kids is how to critically think and how to problem solve. It's kind of like, remember that button? Question authority.

[Jim Acosta]

Yeah.

[Michael Fanone]

You know, it's kind of. And, and I think that there's something about being.

[Jim Acosta]

They want to remove that from the hard drive. Yeah, exactly.

[Michael Fanone]

So. And so it is to try to consign a population to basically be obedient. And that's what's really scary. And that's the connection to the democracy.

[Jim Acosta]

Yeah. Well, Randy, I appreciate you fighting the good fight out there and coming on and laying this out for us. It's always great to talk to you. Thanks for doing it. Really appreciate it. It. I see in the car. So I'll let you get going and say hi to the folks in Chicago. Love that city. But take care. Thanks a lot.

[Michael Fanone]

Thank you, Jim.

[Randy Weingarten]

All right.

[Michael Fanone]

Thank you. All right.

[Jim Acosta]

Appreciate it. You too.

[Michael Fanone]

Bye.

[Jim Acosta]

Randy Weingarten, I mean, you know, she's with the American Federation of Teachers. She represents teachers. And we can all remember a favorite teacher that we had growing up. I can recall so many, you know, that took time out from their schedules from when I was a little kid all the way up until high school. And I, I often think about what teachers are going through when they hear all of this going after the Department of Education. Can you imagine being a teacher in Mississippi, a public school teacher in Mississippi, and you're hearing about these funding cuts and you're probably thinking, what, I'm already going out there and buying supplies for my student. How do we all know teachers out there? How many times have you talked to a public school teacher who has said, I go out there and I buy supplies for my kids or I do this for my kids, I do that for my kids because the school system can't afford to do this or that. And you have school systems that are cutting arts programs and music programs because they don't have enough money. You know, what are we doing in this country when we're not taking care of kids, when we're not taking care of schools? We've all seen schools, public schools, and in at risk communities in your life. Like, you're like, holy crap. You know, can we just do something to fix up some of these schools around here? Like this is, these are the, the laboratories where we're growing our kids and preparing them for the future. And, you know, he's going after these schools like Al Capone with a baseball bat. It's just unbelievable. I want to bring in, I, I saw some folks earlier, were noticing that Michael Fanone was tuning in. I want to bring in Michael Fanon because there's an aspect of all of this that I want to get to with Fanon. And one of the great things about this show today with Larry Sabau, Randy Weingarten, they don't mince words. They're Just going to call it out. Fanon is the master of that. He has a PhD in calling out the mike. Good to see you.

[Randy Weingarten]

Good to see you. Thanks for having me on, man.

[Jim Acosta]

There's a lot of going on, and that's why I thought I'd bring in here at the end. You know, one of the reasons why I wanted to talk to you is because, you know, there was this whole thing where Trump was trying to undo the pardons, Biden's pardons, earlier in the week. And, you know, it feels like three weeks ago, but it was, I think, Monday when this happened. And I think you took to. To. To substack and said, you know, screw that and screw all these people who keep coming after me. What, what have you been thinking? What's going on with you?

[Randy Weingarten]

Yeah, no, I mean that. The unpardoning thing I just thought was ridiculous. It's another Trump rant middle of the night, whatever his social media site, Truth Social rant. But I think it's important that in these moments that are meant to, just like Randy was talking about your earlier guest, scare us, to put fear into us. Hopefully, in Trump's thoughts, it's a paralyzing fear that prevents us from speaking out and from standing up to him. And I just wanted to. To let him know that I don't care and that if he's gonna do something, do it.

[Jim Acosta]

Yeah.

[Randy Weingarten]

And, you know, I will fight back. Just like, you know, the same thing with these threats that are leveled against me, against members of my family, it only encourage me, encourages me to speak out louder. It only makes me more angry and outraged. And so do your worst. Yeah, that's my message to, to these people.

[Jim Acosta]

Yeah. No, you're absolutely right. And I like the way you tied it together, because, you know, you talk about the Doge Cut, you talk about cutting Department of Education. The conversation Randy and I were having, I do a lot. I think a lot of this does boil down to Trump just wanting to spread fear. And, and, and it just puffs him up and makes him think he's the dictator, he's the strongman in all of this. And I, I absolutely. I think it's terrific that you're calling out people who are coming after you. I mean, I, I got a threat. I got a threat earlier this week, and, you know, I hadn't seen one in a while, and I thought, you know what? I didn't have to deal with this shit until he came on the scene and ran for president. I didn't have to deal with that. And now I have to deal with it, and you have to deal with it, and enough is enough.

[Randy Weingarten]

Yeah, I, I think it, you know, it's. And that's why I talk about it as often as I possibly can, is because Americans need to understand that there's a method to, you know, this madness. Take, for instance, you know, Donald Trump goes to the Department of Justice and gives one of the most despicable, disgusting speeches that's ever occurred within the halls of the Department of Justice in which he calls out American citizens by name, lawyers, judges, law firms, you name it. And he knows exactly what he's doing. Because if it's not a directive to the Department of Justice to pursue these people in his now weaponized Department of Justice and law enforcement agencies across this country. It's funny how he accused the Biden administration of doing that, when in reality, no one has done it. It more so than Donald Trump. And he's done it so quickly, it makes your head spin.

[Jim Acosta]

That's right.

[Randy Weingarten]

But that, that being said, even if these institutions, which he's perverted don't go after these individuals, he knows the Magaverse will. He knows that all he has to do is say the name, you know, Judge Boasberg, or all he has to do is say the name Norm Eisen. And immediately after that, what happens? These people get bomb threats, they get harassing phone calls, they get disgusting emails, they get harassed, threatened. And there's a lot of people, unfortunately, in this country who've succumbed to it and said, fuck this, it's just not worth it. I'm not going to go against maga, I'm not going to go against Trump, even though what he's doing is unconstitutional and illegal in many cases. I'm just going to sit here, be quiet, and hope that in four years, we still have a democracy. And that, to me, is just not enough. If we're not fighting for our democracy, we're fighting against it.

[Jim Acosta]

Yeah, no, that, that scares me, too. I mean, and I mean, I'm sure you saw this in the news. The US Institute of Peace has essentially said that when Doge came over to shut it down the other day, that they tried it, they tried to do it by force. They tried to do a, quote, take over, over by force. And the judge handling all of this questioned the decision to, quote, have armed law enforcement at the ready to resolve a dispute. This, I mean, I've driven past this place before. It's on the side of, I think, Constitution Avenue as you're about to leave D.C. and go into Virginia. It's a very small agency, but it does a lot of good around the world. There's no question about it. But, you know, the fact that the. The Doge people were trying to take it over by force, to me, it's like, like, what the hell's going on here? That just sounds like something out of. I'm just going to say it. Out of Nazi Germany or something, where you send the Stormtroopers in to take over federal agencies.

[Randy Weingarten]

I mean, I wouldn't hesitate at all. That's exactly what it is. I mean, we're seeing Donald Trump take from the 1930s playbook of the Nazi party in Germany. But, you know, I was familiar with the agency. I used to work in the First District. I've driven past it a few times. Didn't know a whole lot about their work, but I looked into it. I read an NPR article today after you and I talked earlier, and came and found that, you know, this is a private institution. It's not a government agency. And Doge decided to, you know, bulldoze their way into it because they wanted to take it over to, you know, fire the existing president and replace it with some Trump appointed, you know, individual. And the employees of this institution, private institution, tried to prevent them from doing so. And what did they do? They used the Metropolitan Police Department, my former employer, to force their way in to this, again, private institution. And I think that that, to me, presents another problem in which we're seeing law enforcement being used by the Trump administration to do things that law enforcement has never been put in this position previously.

[Jim Acosta]

Yeah.

[Randy Weingarten]

But again, we have to remember police officers, despite what a lot of your followers saw take place on January 6th and the Hero cops rushing to the defense of the Capitol, law enforcement is not the steward of our Constitution. Law enforcement agencies are paramilitary organizations that ultimately now answer to Donald Trump, because Donald Trump has assumed the role of the top law enforcement officer in this country. And so when you're interacting with a police department, make no bones about it, you're interacting with Donald Trump's police department.

[Jim Acosta]

Well, and, Mike, it must make you sick to hear Trump refer to himself and the administration, to refer to him as the top law enforcement official in this country. That's. It's bullshit. He's not.

[Randy Weingarten]

No, he's absolutely not. But unfortunately, you know, institutions are only as strong as the people that are leading them. And with Cash Patel, Pam Bondi, and individuals like that who are just Trump sycophants, they're there to say yes to Trump's Every whim, and that's it. And so by default, Donald Trump does become America's top law enforcement officer. And people call me all the time and they're like, well, as a police officer, don't you have the right to say no to an unlawful order? I'm like, listen, you know, those cops that got called to that scene, I, I, trust me, from my 20 years of experience, I even, I had a limited understanding of the Constitution as applied to these types of things. These cops don't know they're gonna terrible position. They're gonna do what they're told to do. And, you know, unfortunately, oftentimes, especially when they're being puppeteered by Donald Trump and his sycophants, it's going to end up causing harm, and most likely it's going to be a violation of people's constitutional rights.

[Jim Acosta]

Well, I will say one of the things that does worry me a little bit when you mentioned that, Mike, is the fact that Trump has talked about, and Republicans have talked about a federal takeover of the District and, and, you know, doing things to kind of screw with DC as much as they possibly they scared Muriel Bowser enough where she took down the Black Lives Matter mural there up over by the White House. I'm not trying to get into that, but, you know, I would assume if you're the DC if you're the Metropolitan Police Department and you're the police chief over there, you're a little worried about this pressure that Trump and the administration is in the White House is putting on the District for the point, for the point you just made.

[Randy Weingarten]

I mean, listen, I understand the position that these politicians have been placed in. I understand where city leadership had been placed. That being said, this idea that you can somehow appease Donald Trump, that by tearing down Black Lives Matter Plaza or by, you know, I don't know, somehow other ingratiating him in one of his, you know, wins, that he's going to, you know, treat you better in the end.

[Jim Acosta]

It's never going to work.

[Randy Weingarten]

It's the same, it's the same thing with, you know, Putin. How many presidents have tried to, you know, reset our relationship with Vladimir Putin only to have it bite him in the ass in the end?

[Jim Acosta]

Yeah, and Trump put in this Ed Martin in as the U.S. attorney in D.C. election denier January. He was up there at the Capitol on January 6th. Apparently he was not in good legal standing with the local bar. I mean, you know, this is, it's nuts. And so the fix is already in. I mean, that's the thing that for folks to think, oh, well, if you just kiss up to him, he'll show mercy. That's just not going to happen when he's already put these people in place.

[Randy Weingarten]

Yeah, no, I mean, many people much smarter than me have said it many times over that we really are in a period of lawlessness when it comes to this administration. You know, there is those of us who are being oppressed by the American legal system, and those are the, you know, the Americans who are in opposition to Donald Trump and his MAGA extremist movement.

[Jim Acosta]

Yeah. And, you know, what do you think is going to happen moving forward? Because, I mean, one of the things that I think is really interesting, Mike, is, and you and I were talking about this on the phone earlier today is these town halls. And I talked about it with Larry Sabato a little bit. He was a little suspicious as to whether or not there's going to be a real price to pay for the Republicans. But, man, you know, these town halls are something else that people are going a little wild at these town halls, getting pissed off at these members of Congress. And I think there could be a price to pay. May not happen overnight, but it just, it does seem like something is built, Building. Yeah.

[Randy Weingarten]

I mean, listen, I really don't think that any of these town halls inspire any of these Republicans to go against Donald Trump. I think the only thing that they're going to do is end up costing them their jobs because ultimately they're going to continue to bend a knee to Donald Trump. And if their constituents decide that enough is enough, that Donald Trump and everything he's done in the first month, years of his, you know, administration have caused us so much harm that ultimately they'll, they'll make a change. And, you know, but at the end of the day, I don't think that Donald Trump cares.

[Jim Acosta]

No, no.

[Randy Weingarten]

And I, I think that what you're going to, like, in my opinion, my humble opinion.

[Jim Acosta]

Yeah.

[Randy Weingarten]

From what I've seen from Donald Trump over the past, you know, how many years, however many years, especially in the past several months, I think that if, if Donald Trump is met with resistance in Congress, you know, let's say there's a blue wave or, you know, you get a bunch of Republicans elected that are anti, you know, Trump and, and go against what his, you know, everything that he's been doing, he's just going to defy them. Yeah, he's going to defy them the same way that he is defying the courts. And, you know, I know there's People are hesitant to say that he's directly defying him. I know Judge Boasberg. If you saw what Judge Boasberg said, then you know that the Trump administration defied that. Now, they absolutely play semantics. And, you know, we could talk about, you know, go through it word for word and whatnot. But those of us, you know, Americans know when they see it and they know that what, what Trump did was he said, you, I'm taking these people out of the country. I don't give a. What some judge says. And then they do exactly what they do. Every single time somebody defies. Oh, he's a liberal. He's a liberal plant. Judge Vber is not a liberal.

[Jim Acosta]

No, give me a break. But, but that, but that, that just goes to show you what we're, we're dealing with right now is, you know, he put out an order that said, you can't do this, and then they went ahead and did it. And it's going to come down on this judge to, you know, apparently there's a hearing tomorrow on this, and the judge is going to have to call them out what he ultimately does to punish the administration. I don't know what he's going to do. There's not, there's not a whole lot judges can do. I mean, people say, oh, you can send the U.S. marshals, and they're not going to go over and arrest Donald Trump because of this kind of a situation. But they did defy a court order. There's just no question about it. And they may say, oh, no, well, we didn't think that, you know, that we did do it, or he said it orally, so, you know, that didn't count. I mean, it was just like making up excuses.

[Randy Weingarten]

Yeah. I mean, I'm interested to see what, if anything, you know, Judge Boasberg can do.

[Jim Acosta]

Yeah.

[Randy Weingarten]

But I mean, at the end of the day, you know, the judicial community should be up in arms. And I know Judge Roberts said something which is, I guess, great, considering Judge Roberts usually doesn't say shit. But, you know, it's not just the fact that the administration. Well, I guess it's huge that they would just defy a court order.

[Jim Acosta]

Yeah.

[Randy Weingarten]

The fact that he's, he's called out Judge Bozberg again, going back to what we were talking about at the beginning of this conversation. And now Judge Boseberg has received a bomb threat at his home, all types of threats, and calling him out by name and then calling him a radical leftist lunatic.

[Jim Acosta]

Yeah. It's all part of a pattern it's all part, it's all part of a pattern. They will come after you if you defy them. And, you know, Judge ROBERT I'm sorry, Chief Justice Roberts, I mean, I was talking about this on my show the other day. You had to expect some of this when Trump came into office and how they could hand him that immunity decision when they did and not think, well, if he gets back into the White House, he's going to feel emboldened and want to push the boundaries. Of course that's what's going to happen. What did you think would happen?

[Randy Weingarten]

Right.

[Jim Acosta]

Yeah.

[Randy Weingarten]

I don't know. You know, anyone that thought that, that Trump would somehow exercise, you know, cool.

[Jim Acosta]

As jets air frightened? No frigging way. Mike, great to see you, man, as always. Love it. Always good to talk to you, man.

[Randy Weingarten]

Take care of yourself. All right.

[Jim Acosta]

Good to see you. And that was, that was Mike Fanon. And I, I do want to say, whenever I want to hear somebody just tell it like it is, I always think Mike Fanon is right there at the top of the list. He's absolutely right. And I, I do want to close out the show by giving a little update on something that we talked about earlier this week from the recurring segments entitled have you no shame? You might recall me asking Secretary Pete Hexseth, have you no shame? When it came to the Pentagon deleting from certain websites references to war heroes when they're African American or of other different ethnicities, simply for the fact, you know, that, that the, the Pentagon wants to go about on some, on some DEI purge, as they were calling it, which is absolutely ridiculous. Well, I don't know if you were aware of this. They're starting to restore some of those sites back on the, on the DoD websites. But apparently one of those websites that they had to restore, an article on a website that they had to restore pertained to Jackie Robinson, the baseball legend Jackie Robinson, who helped integrate Major League Baseball. This is from CBS Sports. United States Department of Defense has restored an article on its website honoring Jackie Robinson after having removed it in an effort to purge dei, quote, unquote, DEI content as explained on the now restored page. Robinson served in the military during World War II. He later broke the color line in Major League Baseball, becoming the first black player in Major League Baseball in 1947. The DoD page honoring Robinson was taken down recently in its removal, caused backlash online. All of this from CBS Sports. Apparently it's gone back up there and the DOD issued a statement restoring the page. And it says everyone in The Defense Department loves Jackie Robinson as well as the Navajo Code Talkers, the Code Talkers, the Tuskegee Airmen, the Marines at Iwo Jima and so many others. We salute them for their strong and in many cases heroic service to our country.

[Randy Weingarten]

Full stop.

[Jim Acosta]

Okay, so the Pentagon obviously realized they stepped in it and they did this to themselves. An embarrassment that the Department of Defense. That the Pentagon. Why they would even have the time to do this kind of crap. Talk about eliminating waste, fraud and abuse. Talk about Doge. Somebody just wrote on the comments, what asshats? Yes, send the Doge team after the asshats who deleted Jackie Robinson from the Department of Defense website. An absolute American hero who served in World War II and broke the color line in Major League Baseball, became the first black player in Major League baseball in 1947. Those are the ass hats that need to have their asses handed to them and. And given their walking papers and leave government service. Get the F out. Get out. We don't want you there. Why you would go. Somebody's saying, yes, they use algorithms, but somebody had to hit start and initiate that program. Yes, that asset. Get rid of them. Why anybody would think it's a good idea to remove Jackie Robinson's information from the Department. Department of Defense website. Is an asshat. You're an asshat. Hit the showers. As they would say in baseball. Hand me the ball. I'm calling in a reliever. I had to end the show on that because earlier this week I brought it up and it just infuriates me to no end. You want to talk about waste, fraud and abuse? This is a waste of time. This is a waste of time over at the Pentagon to be doing anything along these lines. Cut it out. Your ass hats, stop doing it. Anyway, thanks everybody for joining me on this Friday Eve. I heard another broadcaster use the term Friday Eve. I don't want to call mention any names. I thought I was the one who was calling it that previously, but I, you know, I just want to say. Anyway, it's Friday evening. It's Thursday evening. Hope you have a good night. Thanks everybody for watching. Went a little over today. My thanks to Larry Sabato. What a great conversation about the Kennedy assassination files. Can't wait to hear what Larry uncovers there. Randy Weingarten and the great Mike Fanone, as always, take care, everybody. Still reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. Have a good night.