Draft Episode for Sep 05, 2025

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Joy Reid Show

Episode: Draft Episode for Sep 05, 2025
Air Date: September 6, 2025
Host: Joy-Ann Reid
Guests: Katie Fang, Robert Weissman, Fred Redmond, Ezra Levin

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Overview

This Friday’s episode of The Joy Reid Show is a potent, fast-paced deep dive into several interlinked topics dominating U.S. politics and culture: the right-wing QAnon conspiracy movement and its roots in evangelical churches; the continued fallout and cover-up surrounding the Jeffrey Epstein scandal; the MAGA movement's self-victimization; the occupation of D.C. under the Trump administration and the groundswell of public resistance; and the state of organized labor in 2025. Featuring legal expert Katie Fang, activist leaders, and labor heavyweights, the show unpacked the ways misinformation, conspiracy, and authoritarian overreach are being challenged—and what’s at stake.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. MAGA Outrage, QAnon Roots, and Trump’s Evasions

Timeframe: 00:00–13:00

• Joy opens by poking fun at MAGA outrage directed at her and fellow progressives, asking: “Maga for some reason just stays mad at me and Wajahat Ali and Mark Lamont Hill and Katie Fang. I’m really not sure why.” [00:50]
• A Trump audio is played, with him downplaying the Epstein files as a Democrat hoax and falsely claiming to have ended seven wars [01:25]. Joy fact-checks: “Number one, you've ended no wars, Donald. Number two, the big release of documents was because of the Democrats, not you.” [02:16]
• Joy unpacks the rise of QAnon in right-wing evangelical churches, highlighting Ipsos polls: “As many as 1 in 4 white evangelicals believe in core tenets of QAnon… 7% of Americans still believe that this is true. That's down from 17% last year. But it's still 22 million people.” [02:52–03:15]
• Overview of QAnon’s beliefs (global “Satanic pedophile cabal”) and the way these conspiracies have filled declining, mostly white churches with new recruits, especially during times of turmoil like the BLM protests after George Floyd’s murder. [04:12]
• Trump’s careful refusal to denounce QAnon is dissected through a compilation of interview clips where he repeatedly claims ignorance while basking in the cult’s appreciation:

  “I don't know much about the movement, other than I understand they like me very much, which I appreciate…” — Donald Trump [06:48]
  “…these are people that don't like seeing what's going on in places like Portland…” — Donald Trump [07:09]

• Joy: “He could have said, you know, my Justice Department was preparing to prosecute Jeffrey Epstein and we're going to get his co-conspirators too. But note that he never did say that for some reason. Just saying.” [10:18]

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2. Epstein, QAnon, and Conspiracies in Congress

Timeframe: 10:00–22:00

• Joy explores QAnon’s post-election evolution, helping fuel the “Stop the Steal” movement and the January 6th insurrection.
• Focus turns to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene as the unlikely “voice of reason” in the Epstein files release effort. Despite her history of promoting vile conspiracy theories, she’s highlighted for her speech at a bipartisan press conference demanding justice for Epstein’s victims:

  “This is an issue that doesn't have political boundaries. It's an issue that Republicans and Democrats should never fight about.” — Marjorie Taylor Greene [15:37]

• Victims speak at the Capitol:

  “Release the files and the secrecy and stand with us in declaring that no one, no billionaires, no politicians, not world leaders, is above the law… we will confidentially compile the names we all know were regularly in the Epstein world…” — Epstein survivor [17:49–18:38]

• Joy notes the tragic irony: “There actually really is a global conspiracy to cover up gangs of wealthy, powerful sexual predators who prey on children…someone in the QAnon faith is not going to be easily talked down from continuing to pursue the truth about a global pedophile conspiracy that is real.” [19:19]
• Discussion on the failed discharge petition to force the full release of the Epstein files, exposing gridlock and political cowardice even in the face of bipartisan victim advocacy.

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3. Deep Dive: Legal and Political Fallout from Epstein Case

Timeframe: 22:00–31:59
With: Katie Fang (legal analyst)

• Joy questions Katie on the press conference by Epstein/Maxwell victims and the failed discharge petition:

  "Are you—I'm not really surprised. Are you? I mean, the reality is, the ones that didn't sign off on the discharge petition, they didn't get permission from their cult leader to be able to do it." — Katie Fang [23:36]

• Fang urges naming and shaming non-signing Republicans: “We should name them and identify them as being pro child sex predation, child sex trafficking, and child sexual abuse, because that is literally what has happened.” [23:50]
• They discuss the incomplete DOJ document dump, the “missing minute” of surveillance during Epstein’s death, and the overwhelming lack of transparency:

  “This drip, drip, drip of information is only making it worse for this administration… 97% of the stuff that dropped from the DOJ was publicly available information. The minor amount that wasn't was just like flight logs, etc.” — Katie Fang [27:22]

• Joy: "The more we learn, the more we understand the entanglements Jeffrey Epstein had with foreign governments, foreign leaders… why do their names keep coming up?" [28:30]
• On re-victimizing survivors and the historic failure of prosecutors:

  “…the shame falls on every single person that coldly turned a blind eye to their abuse… The shame falls on the people in power over the past several decades that protected the monster Jeffrey Epstein and his cabal that continued a nightmare.” — Marjorie Taylor Greene [16:20–17:37, cited by Joy later]

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4. Grassroots Resistance: Indivisible, Public Citizen, No Kings

Timeframe: 31:59–41:00
With: Robert Weissman (Public Citizen), later Ezra Levin (Indivisible)

• Public Citizen and Indivisible announce a national mobilization against D.C.’s occupation by federal troops:

  “We’re having a mass mobilization to show that the District of Columbia does not want Trump's occupation...for everybody around the country, what's happening here is part of Trump's authoritarian play... Taking over the capital city is a classic move, and it's a prelude to other invasions.” — Robert Weissman [32:37]

• Mobilization set for October 18, under the banner “No Kings”; those interested directed to nokings.org. [36:41]
• Katie Fang on the unconstitutionality of using federal troops domestically:

  “Posse Comitatus is clear on its face. You cannot have federal forces doing civilian law enforcement. And that's exactly what they're doing….It’s political theater…but there's a very real impact.” [34:13–35:30]

• Grassroots protests are vital for courage and broader pushback:

  “The remedy for his effort to impose fear is to show courage, and it's not to do it on an individual basis. We don't have to stand up in front of any tanks. It's together we have this power.” — Robert Weissman [37:22]

• Recognition of special risks faced by Black and Brown protesters:

  “Black and brown people especially know what it's like to just be living while black living while brown… Trump is trying to normalize seeing people in camouflage carrying armed weapons…because when the midterms roll around next year, he wants people to be so scared that they don't show up to polling places.” — Katie Fang [40:57]

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5. Labor’s Role: AFL-CIO’s Perspective

Timeframe: 44:18–56:56
With: Fred Redmond (AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer)

• Redmond outlines organized labor’s participation in anti-occupation protests:

  “We participated in the last No Kings Day. And we're all in on this one… We have members who are afraid of going to work… So we're engaged. It's all hands on deck for us.” [44:56]

• Addresses Trump-era economic hardship, especially among Black workers:

  "Trump promised...he would protect black jobs...but the reality...the only thing he has delivered for us is unemployment, uncertainty, and financial insecurity...Black unemployment has now surged to 7.5%...nearly double the country's overall unemployment rate of 4.3%." [46:32]

• Labor's historic role in building the Black middle class and why union power is essential in the current crisis.

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6. Indivisible’s Strategy: No Kings Day 2.0

Timeframe: 51:38–56:56
With: Ezra Levin (Indivisible)

• Recap of No Kings Day 1:

  "...there would be 2,169 events in 27 countries. I didn't know that every single congressional district would be covered… Donald Trump wasn't going to stop just because of one protest." [52:07]

• No Kings Day 2 will focus on resisting the continued occupation of American cities and the normalization of secret police tactics.

  “No. King's Day is a day. It is also an era. It is not the Donald Trump era. This is how we show up and say, no, this is a democracy, this is a republic. And we are not going to put up with an authoritarian regime that is trampling our rights." [53:25]

• The strategic goal: drawing in new organizers who will remain active and build a sustained movement.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Joy Reid [02:16]: “First of all, a few problems. Number one, you've ended no wars, Donald. Number two, the big release of documents was because of the Democrats, not because of you.”
• QAnon beliefs described [03:02]: “QAnon followers believe that a cabal of Satan worshipping pedophiles run the government and media and that they traffic children for satanic rituals…”
• Marjorie Taylor Greene [15:37]: “This is an issue that doesn't have political boundaries. It's an issue that Republicans and Democrats should never fight about.”
• Epstein survivor [17:49]: “Release the files and the secrecy and stand with us in declaring that no one, no billionaires, no politicians, not world leaders, is above the law.”
• Katie Fang [23:36]: “I say name them and shame them. Each and every Republican that refused to sign off on this discharge petition, we should name them and identify them as being pro child sex predation...”
• Robert Weissman [37:22]: “The remedy for his effort to impose fear is to show courage, and it's not to do it on an individual basis. We don't have to stand up in front of any tanks. It's together we have this power.”
• Fred Redmond [46:32]: “Black unemployment has now surged to 7.5%. That's nearly double the country's overall unemployment rate of 4.3%.”
• Ezra Levin [53:25]: "No. King's Day is a day. It is also an era. It is not the Donald Trump era. This is how we show up and say, no, this is a democracy, this is a republic. And we are not going to put up with an authoritarian regime that is trampling our rights."

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Key Timestamps for Important Segments

| Time | Segment | |-----------|-------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:50 | Opening monologue: MAGA outrage, episode rundown | | 01:25 | Trump clip downplaying Epstein files | | 02:16 | Fact-checking Trump; QAnon & evangelicals surge | | 07:30 | Trump dodges QAnon question (“is that supposed to be a bad thing...”) | | 13:25 | Marjorie Taylor Greene Congressional altercations | | 15:37 | Marjorie Taylor Greene’s unexpected “voice of reason” on Epstein | | 17:49 | Epstein victims' press conference statements | | 22:48 | Katie Fang joins for legal analysis | | 23:36 | Discharge petition, congressional failures | | 27:22 | DOJ file dump; lack of transparency critique | | 32:37 | Robert Weissman: D.C. mobilization against federal occupation| | 34:13 | Katie Fang: legality of troops on American soil, Posse Comitatus | | 40:57 | Fang: Risks for Black & Brown people in protest | | 44:18 | Fred Redmond: Labor’s role in resistance | | 46:32 | Black unemployment figures and economic challenges | | 51:38 | Ezra Levin: Indivisible announces No Kings Day 2.0 | | 53:25 | The goal and symbolism of No Kings Day |

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Conclusion

This episode distilled the contemporary American crisis—a collision of conspiracy, cover-ups, and creeping authoritarianism—but remained grounded in the spirit of organized resistance. From Congressional inaction on sexual abuse transparency to the militarization of city streets, Joy-Ann Reid and her guests insisted on truth, accountability, and public courage. The call to action was unambiguous: “Go to nokings.org… Let’s show up together.”

Share, subscribe, and engage—this is a fight for democracy itself.

Transcript

[A]

Trip planner by Expedia. You were made to outdo your holiday, your hammocking and your pooling. We were made to help organize the competition. Expedia made to travel. Hello, hello, hello everyone, and welcome to the Joy Read Show. Happy Friday. A special hello by the way to the chat to all our team TJRS members as well as everybody listening on YouTube substack live as well as on Spotify. Now, we've got a big show for you on this first Friday in September, including an exclusive announcement from the folks at Indivisible Post Labor Day insights from an actual labor leader. And my girl Katie Fang will be here to unpack the many ways that she and I pissed off the right wingers yet again. So sorry. Just by being our little anti fascist selves. Plus we'll get her take on all the legal maneuvering around Occupy D.C. and of course, the Epstein files. You do not want to miss it. Maga for some reason just stays mad at me and Wajahat Ali and Mark Lamont Hill and Katie Fang. I'm really not sure why. I'm going to noodle on it and see if I can figure out why. You know who else is always mad despite constantly getting his way? Donald Trump. And it's becoming more and more ironic by the day, here was Trump just.

[B]

This week, all run by Democrats, or for the most part, run by Democrats. So what they're trying to do with the Epstein hoax is get people to talk about that instead of speaking about the tremendous success like ending seven wars. I ended seven wars. Nobody's going to talk about because they're going to talk about the Epstein whatever. I understand. So this is a Democrat hoax that never ends. You know, it reminds me a little of the Kennedy situation. We gave him everything over and over again, more and more and more, and nobody is ever satisfied, from what I understand. I could check, but from what I understand, thousands of pages of documents have been given. But it's really a Democrat hoax because they're trying to get people to talk about something that's totally irrelevant to the success that we've had as a nation since I've been president.

[A]

Yeah, okay. Well, first of all, a few problems. Number one, you've ended no wars, Donald. Number two, the big release of documents was because of the Democrats, not because of you. And here's the other problem. See, one of the big things that propelled Donald Trump to political power in the first place was his appeal to right wing evangelicals, particularly the subset of right wing evangelicals who were attracted to a Certain religious cult called QAnon, which was actually born during his first presidency. Since its emergence in 2017, QAnon has.

[B]

Used myriad channels to spread its wild.

[A]

Theories, most of them online.

[C]

Now, the movement has found other ways.

[A]

To radicalize new believers, notably evangelical churches. A recent study found that as many.

[D]

As 1 in 4 white evangelicals believe.

[A]

In core tenets of QAnon. QAnon followers believe that a cabal of Satan worshipping pedophiles run the government and media and that they traffic children for satanic rituals. They claim that a group of military officials, together with Donald Trump, are fighting back. A survey by the polling organization Ipsos, seen exclusively by the BBC, found that 7% of Americans still believe that this is true. That's down from 17% last year. But it's still 22 million people. The world goes under deep state illuminati possession. What next?

[B]

Shut your churches down?

[A]

The pedophiles?

[B]

The satanists?

[A]

Take your kids out of your home.

[E]

With their wicked plots?

[A]

Rape your wife?

[B]

You think we are on the losing side? Well, you better look at history. Put you in a concentration camp.

[A]

And anybody that believes what the left.

[D]

Believes is absolutely on the side of evil.

[A]

America may fall one day, but it will not fall to Joe Biden. Trump will be back. Whatever that looks like.

[E]

QAnon runs on the tracks that faith has laid.

[A]

And to make it even weirder, one theory for the original, for who the original Q poster was, was this white South African software engineer who was a moderator on these right wing sites called 4chan and 8chan. You really cannot make it up. But I digress and you have to understand that QAnon grew among white evangelical churches in the US that were losing members and steam as the country grew browner and more secular. And embracing the idea that the left is full of pedos and satanic evil worked really well to fill the pews and and the church bank accounts. The QAnon cult exploded in popularity during the pandemic when a lot of white evangelicals were freaked out by the Black Lives Matter protests and the lurch of corporate America and Hollywood and academia and even some of their own children and grandchildren to the left in response to the murder of George Floyd, Qanon was part of the right wing backlash that helped fuel anti COVID vaccine conspiracies and anti masking mania. Despite Trump being literally the president in office, and despite the fact that his government, through operation warp Speed, helped rush the COVID vaccines to market. And it didn't seem to matter that Trump was not actually Mass arresting Democrats and sending them to Gitmo Qan honors believed he was working at it behind the scenes. He just needed more time to root out the deep state. And then In July of 2019, the Trump Department of Justice actually arrested perhaps the most prolific pedophile child sex traffickers sex trafficker in US History, Jeffrey Epstein, and began preparing to put him on trial. And then just one month later, Epstein was found dead in his prison cell under the not so watchful eye of the Trump Justice Department, which happened to be led by the son of Epstein's former employer as a math teacher at an expensive Manhattan high school, a job from which he went on to become a major investment manager with. With no experience whatsoever. All totally normal, I'm sure. By the time he had to stand for reelection in 2020, with the pandemic raging and vaccine paranoia also raging, Donald Trump knew that the QAnon conspiracy was useful to him just as it was to those evangelical pastors, which is why he was very careful to never denounce the conspiracy theories.

[C]

During the pandemic. The QAnon movement has been appears to be gaining a lot of follow. Can you talk about what you think.

[A]

About that and what you have to.

[C]

Say to people who are following this movement right now?

[B]

Well, I don't know much about the movement other than I understand they like me very much, which I appreciate. But I don't know much about the movement. I have heard that it is gaining in popularity and from what I've hear, these are people that when they watch the streets of Portland, when they watch what happened in New York City in just the last six or seven months. But this was starting even four years ago when I came here, almost four years. Can you believe it? These are people that don't like seeing what's going on in places like Portland and places like Chicago and New York and other.

[C]

Well, at the crux of the theory is this belief that you are secretly saving the world from this side Titanic cult of pedophiles and cannibals. Does that sound like something you are behind or.

[B]

Well, I haven't, I haven't heard that. But is that supposed to be a bad thing or a good thing?

[C]

All we're denouncing. Let me ask you about QAnon.

[A]

It is this theory that Democrats are a satanic pedophile ring and that you are are the savior of that.

[C]

Now, can you just once and for.

[F]

All state that that is completely not.

[C]

True and disavow Q and on in its entirety?

[B]

I know nothing about Q And on.

[C]

I just.

[B]

I know very little. You told me. But what you tell me doesn't necessarily make it fact. I hate to say that I know nothing about it. I do know they are very much against pedophilia. They fight it very hard. But I know nothing about.

[C]

They believe it is a Titanic call.

[A]

Run by the DC Subject.

[B]

I'll tell you what I do know about. I know about antifa and I know about the radical left and I know how violent they are and how vicious they are.

[E]

You have the QAnon shirt and one of the things QAnon believes in is there's this conspiracy theory, satanic pedophilia. Do you believe in that?

[A]

Yes. Thank you.

[E]

Trump has not criticized the conspiracy QAnon. You say you believe in theories like this?

[C]

Oh, yes, sir, 100%.

[E]

You think he has your back by not criticizing it?

[C]

Yeah, I really do. Yes.

[E]

Do you think you should have denounced QAnon?

[A]

No.

[E]

Why?

[B]

Because.

[E]

Why shouldn't. Because they believe in crazy stuff.

[C]

You guys try to make us believe crazy stuff.

[E]

No, but do you believe that there are Democrats and celebrities who aren't a pedophile ring?

[G]

You do believe.

[E]

But why? Where does that come from, that belief?

[C]

Where does that come from? Why don't you ask little kids?

[E]

No, pedophilia is terrible in every normal.

[A]

Person in the world.

[E]

Against pedophilia. But to say that Hillary Clinton and Democrats involved in pedophile ring, there's no evidence of that.

[C]

Let me ask you, who do you work for? ABC or cnn?

[B]

Cnn.

[C]

No, I'm not talking cnn.

[G]

It's crazy.

[E]

It's ludicrous. Does that bother you that he wouldn't say it's wrong?

[C]

No, it's because I think he wants to put everything out there so you can judge for yourself. I've heard it before. Yeah, because.

[E]

But you've heard it. All due respect, man, hearing it is not meaning it's true.

[C]

I just believe whatever's wrong, he's going to fix.

[A]

Right.

[E]

Donald Trump.

[C]

Yes. Yeah. Yes.

[E]

Do you think the President should have denounced Q?

[C]

No, I don't think he has enough.

[F]

Information to denounce QAnon at this point.

[C]

He can read anything he wants because we love him, we trust him.

[A]

Now note that Trump could have said at any time that he was already doing what the QAnon want. There's no need for them. He could have said, you know, my Justice Department was preparing to prosecute Jeffrey Epstein and we're going to get his co conspirators too. But note that he never did say that for some reason. Just saying. Even so, after Trump lost to Joe Biden, QAnon helped to spread the belief that the election was in fact still stolen. It was part of the overall insane atmosphere around the January 6th insurrection, where believers saw the election as just another plot by the Deep State to try to stop Trump from completing his mission to root out the pedophiles and the satanic left. And among those who were drawn to the QAnon conspiracy with its promises of mass arrests of Democrats and show trials and the whole nine, was a Georgia CrossFit gym instructor named Marjorie Taylor Greene. She wrote for a conspiracy website that was associated with John Birch Society style right wing conspiracy theories and moderated a Facebook group for a right wing group called Family America Project, which featured things like violent threats against Democrats and racist stuff about the Obamas, as well as claims that the US government had been infiltrated by Communists. She became associated online with a lot of conspiracy theories, from QAnon and Pizzagate, where supposedly Democrats were trafficking children through the basement of a basementless D.C. pizzeria, to mass shootings being false flags, even one where Hillary Clinton and her top aide Huma Abedin were supposedly conspiring to rip the literal faces off of children to use in a blood sacrifice. You literally cannot make it up. Greene even took her trolling to Washington where she traveled from her native Georgia in 2017 to physically menace the at the time teenaged gun reform activist David Hogg in one of the weirdest moments of adult versus child public aggression that I personally can remember in a bid to oppose the gun compromise on Capitol Hill after the Massacre high school in Florida. Returning to D.C. in 2019, she low key stalked AOC at her congressional office. And then of course there was the infamous since deleted Facebook post alleging that the 2018 California wildfires were deliberately caused by space solar generators funded by powerful mysterious backers, namely the very Jewish Rothschild family. And on top. But despite all of that, despite all of that, Greene won a surprise Republican primary in Georgia in 2020 and she was on her way to Congress where she became one of the most prolific Trump and Insurrection supporters in January of 2021, as well as a prolific book bully, particularly targeting a trans freshman congresswoman named Sarah McBride. She and the equally right wing faux Christian gun fanatic Lauren Boebert of Colorado screamed at Joe Biden during A State of the Union. Then they kind of fell out and cat fought each other I guess, over who was more maga. And then of course there was the attack on Jasmine Crockett that earned her what might be the single greatest takedown of all time. Oh, you the one talking about.

[F]

I guess I think your fake eyelashes are messing up.

[A]

Hold on, hold on.

[G]

Order.

[E]

Mr. Chairman.

[A]

Order of your committee.

[C]

That is absolutely unacceptable. How dare you appearance of another person.

[F]

Are your feelings hurt?

[C]

Her words down. Oh, oh, girl. Baby girl. Oh, really? Don't even play baby girl. We are going to move and we're going to take your words down.

[A]

Thank you.

[E]

I second that motion that Ms. Green.

[G]

Agrees to strike her words.

[A]

I believe she apologize. Hold on.

[B]

Then after Mr. Perry's going to be recognized then. Ms.

[F]

I'm not apologizing. I am not apologizing.

[C]

I'm just curious just to better understand your ruling. If someone on this committee then starts talking about somebody's bleach blonde, bad built butch body, that would not be engaging in personalities. Correct.

[A]

A what now what?

[C]

Chairman.

[A]

So why am I reminding you of all this? Not just because that was absolutely hilarious and you know, there were actual T shirts and a song. King Maloney is big up. I'm reminding you of it. To drive home the point that there could not possibly be a more unexpected voice of reason on Capitol Hill than Marjorie Taylor freaking Greene. And yet she might also be the most emblematic illustration of why Donald Trump cannot get himself out from under the Epstein saga. Because you see, when equally right wing Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie teamed up with Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna to push for a discharge petition to try and force the Trump Justice Department, duh. To finally release everything that it has on the very real pedophile ring Jeffrey Epstein and his sicko partner Ghisan Maxwell ran for more than a decade. And a bipartisan group of lawmakers brought some of the Epstein and Maxwell survivors victims to Capitol Hill to tell their stories to the members and to the world. Marjorie Taylor Greene, even while doing her usual crazy trolling, including of Don Lemon for literally no reason at all, gave what I must admit were some actually quite poignant remarks. I know, I know. But go with me on this and listen.

[F]

Good morning. This is my fifth year in Congress and this is the largest press conference that I've seen since I've been here. And this is because this is an issue that matters so much to Americans. This is an issue that doesn't have political boundaries. It's an issue that Republicans and Democrats should never fight about. As a matter of fact, it's such an important issue that it should bring us all together. It's grieved me to watch the arguments and debates take place among my colleagues and even the administration. I think this is something that was worth fighting for.

[A]

And here's a little bit more.

[F]

You see, the women behind me are going to tell you stories that you've never heard before. These are unimaginable horrors that they've lived with for their entire lives since they were very, very young. But these are also similar stories that many children, teenagers, women, and even men are enduring nightmares right now as we speak. You see, these women have been fighting since the 1990s. I heard one woman tell us yesterday, since 1996. And they have carried with them shame. But I want to tell you something. The shame does not fall on these brave, courageous women. The shame falls on every single person that coldly turned a blind eye to their abuse. The shame falls on every single person that enabled it. The shame falls on every single person that took money to continue it. And the shame falls on the people in power over the past several decades that protected the monster Jeffrey Epstein and his cabal that continued a nightmare.

[A]

Now, usually I don't do this, but Marjorie, I agree. And this press conference was not just a show by members of Congress. It was an opportunity for some of Epstein and Maxwell's victims to be heard. Here's a little reminder of what they said.

[C]

Justice. Release the files and the secrecy and stand with us in declaring that no one, no billionaires, no politicians, not world leaders, is above the law. And let me announce now, several of us Epstein survivors have been discussing creating our own land of names. We know the names. Many of us were abused by them. Now, together as survivors, we will confidentially compile the names we all know were regularly in the Epstein world, and it will be done by survivors and for.

[F]

Survivors.

[C]

No one else is involved. Stay tuned for more details on that. Because history is washing and so are the women who will come after us.

[A]

We are the keys to this situation. We have the truth.

[D]

And the FBI knows the truth.

[A]

The government knows the truth.

[C]

You may pull this wool over the.

[A]

Sheep'S eyes, but we are the keys. We know who was involved. We know the game. We know the players. And we are sitting here for 20.

[D]

Years waiting for you to get up and do something.

[A]

And here's the problem for Donald Trump, while Marjorie Taylor Greene continues to fully support him. She even claimed, despite getting pushback from the White House about her remarks, that she thought Trump should invite the victims to meet with him and be their hero. As if putting sexual abuse victims in the room with an adjudicated sexual abuser makes any kind of sense. But what the Epstein case has unveiled is that there actually really is a global conspiracy to cover up gangs of wealthy, powerful sexual predators who prey on children. There really was a global pedophile pedophile ring reaching into the very powerful around the world and Jeffrey Epstein was in charge of it and he really was being protected by people in our government and possibly governments abroad while he was trafficking children here and around the world. This very real conspiracy seems to reach multiple foreign capitals from Washington to Palm beach to Great Britain to Israel. And someone who is already in the QAnon faith is not going to easily be talked down from continuing to pursue the truth about a global pedophile conspiracy that is real. Neither will the millions of people whose suspicions about a global pedophile ring have been confirmed. Not to mention every other decent minded person who believes that these victims don't deserve answers and some measure of justice so they can find peace. Massie and Khanna's discharge petition failed, of course, with only four of the six required Democrats signing on with all of the House Democrats. The four were Lauren Boebert, Nancy Mace herself a prolific right wing troll and bully, but also a sexual assault survivor herself. You'll recall she argued with George Stephanopoulos about Trump before the election, although after meeting the victim she emerged red faced and in tears, and of course Massie herself, and Marjorie Taylor Greene. Donald Trump can go on the attack and try to call the Epstein files a Democratic hoax all he wants, but his problem is going to be the millions of Americans who bought into QAnon and now have evidence that maybe everything they believed wasn't true, but that they stumbled onto at least one true thing. That there really has been an international pedophile conspiracy. Or as Representative Jasmine Crockett called it on this show on Monday, the ultimate RICO racketeering and corruption. Trump also has to deal with the tens of millions more who are not QAnon but who know a cover up when they see one. And at some point, some of them just might start asking why the brave victims in this case can't have what they're asking for and why Donald Trump, who was supposed to be taking down the pedophile, seems to be covering for them instead. I mean, after all, the leader of the international pedophile ring turns out to have been one of Donald Trump's best friends. Charming.

[B]

He is able to convince people so he tells everybody what they want to hear.

[A]

So how do you know this? That was close and straight. He has a sense of humor.

[E]

He can be funny.

[B]

His ability to sell, it's very Much like Clindane, both Bill and Donald have the ability to go over to a fat, ugly woman, say, you are the.

[A]

Most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

[B]

She probably thought he had a scalp reduction because he had the same male.

[A]

Pattern you all have.

[B]

There's not anything horrible. Human being was nasty things to his best friends, best friends, wives, anyone who first tries to gain your trust, then uses it to benefit. That's how it goes.

[A]

Joining me now is Katie Fang, legal eagle friend of mine and host of the eponymous Katie Fang show, right here in these YouTube streets. Hey, girl. How are you?

[C]

Hey, girl. Hey, girl. I'm okay. It's been. It's been a week. As they always are these days.

[A]

As they always are. As they always are. Well, I want to just get into this. Just, you know, use your legal. Your legal mind to our advantage here. I mean, we saw this really epic press conference by dozen, more than a dozen victims of Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein. They came forward, they gave heartfelt stories, they told their stories, some for the first time. They talked to Democratic members, Republican members, even Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote for them. And yet the discharge petition didn't pass. What did you make of that?

[C]

Are you. I'm not really surprised. Are you? I mean, the reality is they, as in the Republicans, the ones that didn't sign off on the discharge petition, they didn't get permission from their cult leader to be able to do it. I think the takeaway is not so much that it didn't pass. I think what we should do is we should really amplify joy that there. And we should name them. I. I say name them and shame them. Each and every Republican that refused to sign off on this discharge petition, we should name them and identify them as being pro child sex predation, child sex trafficking, and child sexual abuse, because that is literally what has happened. I think that when you don't sign off on this petition, you are adopting as your own the thing that Trump keeps on saying lately, which is it's all a hoax.

[A]

Mm.

[C]

And I think that that is what your legacy should be if you are a member of Congress and you haven't signed off on this.

[A]

Yeah. And see, the problem is, is that the hoax seems to be coming from inside the House. For instance, there was this big document dump that, by the way, we have to remind folks, only happened because Democrats forced it. Right. A Democratic subcommittee of Summer Lee, Summer Lee's committee subcommittee forced them to release at least something. So they dumped a lot of stuff that had been seen before. A lot of it was not new. But among the things that this very incompetent DOJ actually blessed us with is this notorious missing minute. Pam Bondi had claimed that, well, there's always a missing minute in the surveillance footage at that federal prison where Jeffrey Epstein was being housed. But it turned out maybe they weren't accurate about that. Let me Play. This is D3 for Jason, and this is. I sped it up because it's a long minute, and I wanted y' all to see that something happens in this missing minute. Here it is. And now while you're watching it, and we can even talk over it, but you can see that people are moving in the background because we were told and the story was. And now we can put up the slow version while I pull this question. D4 for. For Katie. We were told that the two guards who pleaded guilty to falsifying their reports that night falsified the reports because they were asleep. That doesn't look like a person that's asleep. Somebody is walking back there and going toward that back area where the cell where Jeffrey Epstein was is located. Does this missing minute tell you anything? And what about the fact that apparently the Trump regime lied about it?

[C]

I'm not surprised that they lied, but I do think that it just underscores the importance. Joy. Of the full release of the Epstein files. It actually took people back in July, if you'll recall, the Department of Justice, Pamela Joe, she stood there and she released this whole memorandum in conjunction with Cash Patel from the FBI, and she made this representation that there were, you know, all of these gigabytes of information and that, you know, they had gone through all of this extensive review and that no people were going to be charged additionally and that there was nothing there. And then she went on to say, but, yeah, you know what? Here's the quote, raw video footage. But we then found out, right, it wasn't. It wasn't them making the representation. That stuff had been spliced together. It took Internet sleuths that were tech experts to point out that there was something wrong. And then she was, you know, cornered with it. And then Pamela Joe's like, oh, yeah, oh, I'm sorry. Everything has that missing amount of time. Now when you see this, it just goes to show that you can't trust this administration for shit, and that if you release all of it, you allow those of us that are going to be taking the time to look at it to deduce on our own what's real and what's not. But if you're also looking at it for the truth. I think you then can make your own decisions as to people's levels of culpability in the information that's contained inside of it. I want to just underscore the reality here. Nobody is saying that we only get the Epstein files with protection for Democrats. We're saying put the Epstein files out in their entirety and let us make a decision as to what's going on here. But this drip, drip, drip of information is only making it worse for this administration. And when you have just the dogged pursuit by people like Summer Lee and by Robert Garcia and others on House oversight that are saying, look, we're calling you out for trying to completely fool and pull the wool over the eyes of the American people. 97% of the stuff that dropped from the DOJ was publicly available information. The minor amount that wasn't was just like flight logs, et cetera. Right. I mean, we are obviously seeing, in conjunction with the press conference that we saw from the victims and survivors of Epstein, there is a wealth of information out there about which we have not been privy and that we should know about. And that is the reason why you don't see us giving up. We are being relentless about getting this information out.

[A]

And by the way, and I think for folks who are like, maybe this is just a salacious attempt to get Donald Trump. No, the reality is the more we learn, the more we understand the entanglements Jeffrey Epstein had with foreign governments, foreign leaders. We've heard obviously the names of Ehud Barak in Israel. We've heard about the royal family, a member of the royal family in Great Britain, Prince Andrew. But also the idea that there might have been governmental cover up in order to protect this international child predation ring. But also now learning that there were emails going back and forth in which he was trying to have lunch with Peter Thiel, in which he's trying to get close to Bill Gates. The we're talking about the very tech overlords who are plotting to turn us into a technocracy with themselves in charge. Why do their names keep coming up? So the question is then how big and how deep this ring went and what kind of power they were trying to amass and are they still trying to do it just without Jeffrey Epstein around?

[C]

I think the real tragedy is not only are these women being re victimized and re traumatized over and over again, either through these false allegations that this is just a hoax on their end, but also with like this idea that, you know, they have to keep on proving themselves over and over again, even though you now have at least Ghislaine Maxwell sitting in a federal prison, although now it's really not. Right now she's in summer camp basically in Texas with minimal security. But I think what's important here too is this. People need to remember that the timeline for these crimes goes back to the 90s, if not earlier. And that is why there's a lot of frustration on the part of the victims and the survivors, that they're like, look, we've been telling this story for decades and people like Alex Acosta, who finally is going to have to sit for a deposition, although it's with House oversight and it's coming up, I think on the 19th of September, people who could have been the true advocates for victims. He was the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida back in 2006, there was a multi count indictment that was prepared to be presented to a grand jury in South Florida. That could have been a way to prosecute Jeffrey Epstein before something happened to him. Because I'm not even going to say whether it was at his own hand or not. There could have been justice for these people. And, and now we get a Department of justice, quote, unquote justice that says that Ghislaine Maxwell is a reliable narrator of the truth and that her spin, even though she's already been convicted of crimes, that her spin is supposed to be the truth. It's just the constant brow beating of victims and survivors of sexual abuse that we have to sit there and say enough is enough. Which is why again, politics makes strange bedfellows, Joy. And we know this. But, and I'm not saying that Marjorie Taylor Greene or Lauren Boebert or Tom Massey or any of them get a pass on, on the shit they've done and they continue to do. But I do say that, yes, this should be a bipartisan effort to be able to have transparency on the sexual abuse of children. And when you see the women standing there bearing it and putting it all out there, knowing that they're going to be judged internationally for what they are saying or why do they not get the support from this administration? Why is it the criminals, the criminals get the pass by this administration? I mean, it's because the felon is in the House, right? The felon is in the Oval. And that's the reason why it is.

[A]

It is, it is sad, but absolutely true. And it's the devaluing of women writ large that is, you know, it has to hurt because these are women who are as you said, not political at all. Okay, stay with me. Katie. I want to keep you around because I want to talk a little bit of resistance here. Let's bring in Robert Weissman. I want to bring him in because he is from the great group Indivisible. And I know that you all are planning to try to do something about not just Epstein Mess, but all the mess mess and the takeovers of our cities. We've seen a lot of abrogations of the rule of law. And I'd love to get Katie's legal take on it, but also wanted to talk to you as well, Robert. Welcome to the program. And talk to me a little bit about what Indivisible is looking to do next.

[E]

Well, I gotta say, I'm not with Indivisible. They're friends, but I'm a public citizen. But I can tell you. I can tell you what we're up to together. So here I'm talking from Washington, D.C. and on September 6th tomorrow, we're having a mass mobilization to show that the District of Columbia does not want Trump's occupation. And that's, I think, really central for those of us living in the District, but also for everybody around the country, because what's happening here is, is both part of Trump's authoritarian play. Taking over the capital city is a classic move, and it's a prelude to other invasions that he hopes to do, starting with Chicago, as he telegraphed moving forward. We're looking for a massive mobilization nationally on October 18, again under the banner of no Kings. So folks can go to nokings.org get connected to that. We're going to see millions of people on the street rejecting this president, rejecting his autocracy and rejecting his policy agenda, which is both a grift for himself and massive handouts for the corporate class and the super rich, at the expense of all of us.

[A]

I mean, I think that is so key. And, Katie, I do want to bring you back in here because, you know, it seems to me that Posse Comitatus, even for a layperson, seems pretty straightforward, that American troops are not supposed to operate on American streets, and they certainly aren't police, since a federal judge has ruled the occupation of Los Angeles to be illegal. How is it that troops are still in the streets of D.C. we understand they are different because they're essentially a colony and not a state.

[C]

Well, let's be clear. D.C. has also now sued the Trump administration yesterday, stating that it is a violation of the Constitution to have these troops and these federal armed forces and that's the other thing, too. I mean, they are armed as they're patrolling the streets. Posse Comitatus is clear on its face. You cannot have federal forces doing civilian law enforcement. And that's exactly what they're doing. They're affecting arrests, they're doing traffic control. They're doing the things that a federal judge in California, Judge Breyer, held in a 52 page ruling that was exceptionally detailed and thought out that says you can't do it, you violate Posse Comitatus when you have federal troops on soil in states that should not be there and that they're doing functions that they're not allowed to do. And this kind of fake constitutional exception that the Department of Defense was kind of dropping from up, down, trying to tell them they can do it. The actual thing that's wild is they used the Department of Defense's own training slides against them in as evidence the California AG's office did this. And so it's great because now we actually have precedent, Joy. We have a really thought out, great legal opinion that can be duplicated and used and relied upon when Trump tries to do this in other places. But it's always one of the things that came from that ruling in California that, Joy, that's really important to the DC stuff. And why I love the fact that Robert's talking about people going to the streets and taking back their own streets is Judge Breyer said that the MacArthur park thing was a total political show of force, that all of this is just political theater basically for Trump. And, and that's exactly what's happening here. It's political theater. But there's a re. But there's a very real impact. People are getting arrested, people are being intimidated, people are getting terrorized in their own streets. Which is why when we hear that there's days of action, when we hear that there's no Kings Day 2.0 coming up on October 18th, like, these are the things that we should be doing. It's our good trouble, our civil disobedience, and it's what we should be doing to send a message back. Because fear and intimidation can be more powerful than a weapon. And it's being weaponized by this administration to let people think that they're powerless and that they don't have a voice. And there is literal strength in numbers. And I don't care if it's just you in a town of 10 being out there on these days of action, that's what we have to do.

[A]

And Robert, when is the goal? So having A visibility, obviously, so that the regime can understand that the American people do not want our cities being occupied by the military. But what do you want folks to do?

[C]

What are.

[A]

What are people to do other than be in the streets? And are there other activations that are associated with it?

[E]

Yeah, there are tons of things. But I want to first say, though, how important it is that people turn out for a variety of reasons, including what Katie was just saying. One is just to, especially here in the district, to demonstrate, although the mayor has been kowtowing to the administration, that the people of the district absolutely reject Trump's occupation of our city. But beyond that, what he is trying to do, almost overtly, is exactly as Katie said, strike fear and intimidation in the hearts of the American people and make us recede and take authoritarian power. Now, there's some people in the country who are super vulnerable, primarily and most intensely the immigrant population. They have to do whatever they can to protect them. But I got to tell you, in the District, people are hiding. A local church near me just told me that attendance at a Latino church is down 50% because people are just staying home. But those of us who are not as vulnerable of that have to come out and show that we won't be deterred. The remedy for his effort to impose fear is to show courage, and it's not to do it on an individual basis. We don't have to stand up in front of any tanks. It's together we have this power, and we build our courage together, and that build it for those of us who turn out and those of us who don't, but are sympathetic for whatever reason. Don't make it so. To me, that is crucial. And I'll tell you what else it does. It doesn't just create courage for other citizens. It creates courage for the Democrats who are scared to stand up to this president, but do so more and more when they're pushed and when they can follow behind. Right, they're not leading us, but when they can follow behind the leadership on the streets, then they get more courage and they're more bold. So the demonstrations themselves are absolutely critical. Beyond that, we're very mindful of the need to have spinoff activities. We're going to have a whole series of actions calibrated for what people want to do, whether it's showing solidarity with immigrants, whether it's protesting some of these new detention centers like in Florida, whether it's lobbying your member of Congress, whether it's doing online actions, whatever. People who turn out are going to be activated in an ongoing way for the duration of the Trump regime and.

[A]

Tell folks how they can get involved. Where should they go online nokings.org easy to get, Easy to do it. I'm sure you guys are on all the social media, so we're gonna make sure we put the links down below, make sure that people can get activated. Said before I let you go, Robert, you mentioned the mayor in other cities and states, the governors and mayors are standing really strong. In Maryland, both the Baltimore mayor and the governor have been very clear that they are not going to allow this in that state. Same thing in Illinois, obviously, California. What are folks saying just, you know, about the situation in D.C. how do they feel about what does feel like a capitulation by the leadership in the District?

[E]

I think there's a lot of fury in the District or the mayor. There's a little bit of understanding because D.C. has special status. The District is uniquely vulnerable to pressure from the administration, particularly when it comes to funding, but in all kinds of ways that the federal government can mess with both the District government and the District itself. So it is a delicate thing. But that said, what Mayor Bowser has done, go overboard in celebrating the federal occupation of the District has been absolutely abominable. And I think people across the District are really unhappy with how she's handled it.

[A]

Yep. That is what I am hearing from my friends as well. Robert Weissman of Public Citizen, thank you so much. We really appreciate you stepping in. Thank you very much. Appreciate you.

[E]

Thank you.

[A]

Thank you. And Katie, I mean, I love what they're doing. And I think that he's made a point that is actually really important for those of us as women of color, is that a lot of people of color are afraid to do this because we're going to get there's a bigger chance of being harmed if you are a black or brown person that steps into those protests. If you're a black person in particular, you know what the police generally, how they generally treat you. And if you're a brown person, folks who are even citizens are being dragged off into detention for weeks because their citizenship is being challenged based on their color or based on their accent. I mean, this is a frightening moment. Yeah.

[C]

Listen, black and brown people especially know what it's like to just be living while black living while brown. I mean, their interactions with law enforcement unfortunately, is ingrained in the way that they are raised to know how to deal with law enforcement. But I want to underscore why these protests and these taking to the streets are so Important. Trump is trying to normalize seeing people in camouflage carrying armed weapons, big weapons of destruction and death on our streets. Why? Because when the midterms roll around next year, he wants people to be so scared that they don't show up to polling places. Trump wants people, especially our immigrants, to think if they show up and exercise, you know, their right to vote. And let me be clear, if you are not a US citizen, you're not voting. Okay? I mean, this is. There are already protections that are baked into our system to prevent the lies that Trump tries to say about voter fraud. But for the rest of us that don't want to have a problem with law enforcement, right? They get scared, Joy. It's just human nature. So they are trying to condition us to think if I show out and I try to be in opposition publicly, I, I'm going to get in trouble. And they're trying to normalize this so that next year when he uses the National Guard to go and start seizing voting machines and he goes and he institutes all of these bullshit voting, you know, we're not doing mail in voting anymore. So you got to show up in person. And you show up in person and they're like, your ID doesn't work. Get out of the line. And then they fix your ID problem a week later after the votes have already been tabulated and counted. Like it's a, it's a big scheme. I feel like we get, we underestimate the, the level of evil and we underestimate kind of the long ball that these people have been playing for a long ass time. And that is why we need to be very kind of. We gotta really look at the chessboard in front of us and realize that if we can go out and we can show that we're not intimidated by this, then it hopefully makes them have second thoughts about how they want to manage us.

[A]

Movies forward. Katie Fang, you are an invaluable voice. Our legal expert. Your legal expertise undiminished, undeterred. And you know, I can't even, I can't even say it. It cannot be. It cannot be matched. Unmatchable. And I appreciate you, my friend. Let everybody know where they can find you. Follow you, watch everything that you're doing.

[C]

Well, I am on YouTube atiefang news. I am on Substack and all other social media. Atiefang and, and you can always find me watching Joy Reid, wherever Joy Reid is. And Joy, just as a footnote, they're still talking about us on Fox News. We are just sitting there taking up all of that space and that real estate in their little dumb minds. So you know what, honey? Let's just keep on going. That's all we have to do. Listen here.

[A]

I'm going to propose that we do a little substack live, Katie, whenever you get a chance.

[C]

Amen.

[A]

Think about it. Let's do a substack live and let's go ahead and make them even angrier. Think we should do that.

[C]

They wouldn't have anything to talk about, sweetheart, if we didn't because they have nothing to talk about over there. None of the tariffs, none of the no jobs, none of that is making its way over to Fox News. But Katie Fang and Joy Reid talking apparently is what they want to talk about. So whatever.

[A]

Indeed. Well, we. Well, sorry, but we sorry, but we really not sorry. So sorry. Katie Fang.

[C]

Sorry.

[A]

Thank you, my friend. Thank you so much.

[C]

Good to see you guys.

[A]

Cheers. And I want to note on the screen you can see that I am now joined by Fred Redmond. He is the secretary treasurer of the AFL CIO again, he was unanimously elected in 2022 to the position as the highest ranking African American officer in the history of America's labor movement. Happy belated Labor Day, sir. Thank you so much for being here.

[G]

Thank you for having me, George. Glad to be here.

[A]

Talk about where we stand on this Labor Day. You just were hearing about these no Kings marches that are taking place around the country. We know that organized labor has been at the forefront of civil rights, you know, the civil rights struggle throughout our history. Is labor planning to participate?

[G]

Oh, absolutely. We participated in the last no Kings Day. And we're all in on this one. We've been attending planning meetings and we're participating with the overall community in Washington, D.C. and through the DMV and a series of actions that's going to be taking place against the occupation of D.C. you know, we represent 68 national unions and 65 of those 68 unions have headquarters that's based in the DMV. And you know, we have members who are afraid of going to work. We have people working in our offices who are fearful of being snatched up and separated from their families. So we're engaged. I mean, it's all hands on deck for us. And we're working diligently within the communities to make sure that labor play a key role in standing up and pushing back against the nonsense that we see going on throughout D.C. in addition to.

[A]

That, the other issue that we're dealing with in this country right now is a really economy that is slowing way, way down. Only 22,000 jobs created in August. Actually, the economy shed jobs in June. That was the first, first time that happened since the pandemic. And, you know, for African Americans, it's been even worse. Black women have been at the leading edge of the number of job cuts, particularly in the federal workforce. Where do we go from here? And how do you see this market looking, particularly for organized labor, but also for people of color?

[G]

Well, you know, Trump promised on the campaign that he would protect black jobs, whatever that means. But the reality of the situation, the only thing he has delivered for us is unemployment uncertainty and financial insecurity. And the economic data is what it is. It's starting to reflect that Black unemployment has now surged to 7.5%. That's nearly double the country's overall unemployment rate of 4.3%. Black unemployment is rising faster than any other group and is once again disproportionately higher than overall rate of 7.5%, with 6.7% of those numbers being black women and 7.1% for black men. And this is literally closing in on the levels resembling the height of the Great Depression, I'm sorry, the Great Recession. But those numbers are all the highest that they have been since 2021. And look, the consequences of these policies are real for our community. You know, Black workers are 1 in 5 of the federal workforce. They have been amongst those that Trump has been firing by the tens of thousands since taking office. And black women are more likely to work in health care and caregiving jobs. And Trump and his congressional Republicans have passed a law that will soon rip apart the healthcare industry, costing 17 million more people. You know, ripping away healthcare from 17 million people. And it has the potential of cutting more than a million care jobs in this economy. So, look, black workers are the last hired, the first fire. We're like the canaries in the coal mine for the economy as a whole. So with unemployment in our community, which has been steadily increasing, it's a signal that the entire country is headed toward a recession. And numbers like these underscore in our opinion why unions are so necessary and important. I mean, contracts, you know, labor agreements. It gives people jobs and security, at least a fair process of separation. And layoffs and collective bargaining can take on racial discrimination and pay, hiring and firing and how we're treated on the job and more. And, you know, that's why we are heavily engaged in this fight now, not only to hold Trump accountable for his anti worker and anti black policies, but to ensure that Every worker can organize with their co workers for a better life. I mean it was organized labor. It was organized labor collective bargaining that really built, helped build the black middle class in this country, particularly public service jobs in the public industries, you know, that hired thousands and thousands of black women over the years. And as we see the dismantling of those jobs then we see chaos in our communities.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Are you surprised then given all that's at stake, that organized labor other than the AFL CIO has not been more vocal? I mean we've seen the tariffs really decimate a lot of industries, make it very difficult. But is it because a lot of unions fundamentally support the idea of tariffs, thinking that it'll onshore jobs? Is that why they people other unions haven't been more vocal?

[G]

Well, yeah, look, coming from a manufacturing union, you know, I come from out of the steelworkers union joint and we have used section 201 of the Trade laws to invoke tariffs at times of overcapacity on dumping, you know, in order to level the playing field, you know. But they was targeted in their approach. They were implemented when we could get them implemented through a very, for very strategic reasons. But now this unilateral tariffs across the board is really causing havoc, you know, is raising calls to consumers throughout this country. Now look, I unions, you know, the AFL CIO, which we represent 68 national unions, 15 million members and you know, we've been very strategic in our approach, you know, how we approach these issues. We just completed and we're still in the process of completing a three month bus tour. Our bus tour was labeled Freedom, Fairness and Security. We went around and held town halls all over the country, talked to workers and really, really had workers gave workers the opportunity, opportunity to lend their voice to what's happening.

[A]

So you guys take a different approach. I mean I think every union takes its own approach. I do want to bring in Ezra Levin who is joining us from Indivisible. I want to thank you for being here. And we now know that according to our guest here, there is going to be strong union support for no Kings Day 2.0. Talk to us about what you all are planning to do. We did speak with your colleague, but tell us a little bit more about what we need to know about the October, no, Kings Day.

[D]

Yeah, Joy. Well, great to be on, Great to be talking. Look, we did no Kings Day 1 on June 14, Donald Trump's 79th birthday that day when he had that military parade. Do we remember that? It feels like eons ago now. But he threw himself this ridiculous military parade for himself. And look, our goal on that day was simple. We didn't want him to have the stage looking like an all powerful authoritarian leader. We wanted to make clear that, no, there are no Kings in America, that we do not support this, and that it is okay to stand up to this regime. And I got to be honest, I thought it was going to be a good protest. I thought we were going to have a good time. I thought it was going to bring a lot of people in. I did not guess that there would be 2,169 events in 27 countries. I didn't know that every single congressional district would be covered. I didn't know just how vast it would be. And I did not know that you would still be seeing in September no King signs all around the country with people who took them up on June 14th and continued to use them. What I did know was that Donald Trump wasn't going to stop just because of one protest. That was always clear. We were never going to win because of one protest. So we have to continue pulling new people in. And so if no Kings Day 1 was a response to that ridiculous birthday military celebration for himself, no Kings Day 2 is a response to the occupation of American cities. First la, then dc, now maybe Chicago or New Orleans and this secret police force that is roaming the country, terrorizing American communities. No. King's Day is a day. It is also an era. It is not the Donald Trump era. This is how we show up and say, no, this is a democracy, this is a republic. And we are not going to put up with an authoritarian regime that is trampling our rights. Because if we don't show up for those constitutional rights, if we don't exercise those rights, we don't have those rights. So this is why we are showing up on October 18th.

[A]

So Public Citizen is on board. AFL CIO Fred Redmond, I'm confirming, is on board. What do you all and tell me, Fred, I'm going to ask you, and then I will end with Ezra, what do you hope that you all can change using, you know, physical public action? What are you hoping to change? Because the administration is not going to change. Their attitudes are not going to change and Trump isn't going to change.

[G]

Well, look, first of all, it's going to take all of us and we're privileged to work with Ezra and work with the folks who's going to be leading the no Kings Day. And what we hope to do is, first of all to galvanize people to galvanize communities around this country. And it's going to take the people to say it don't have to be this way. And we want to be part of that organization. We want to be part of that grassroots effort in order to really bring people together from the labor community, civil rights, social justice, faith community. Because, look, you know, during our bus tour, you know, we heard constantly, people are just pissed off. They're fed up, okay? And people want to take action. So, you know, what we hope to accomplish working with no Kings and other groups around this country is to really, really engage people and communities around this country. And all of us saying together in unison, enough is enough. You know, we're not going to tolerate this because I really think it's going to take the people a grassroots efforts to turn this thing around.

[A]

Last word to you, Ezra Levin. What changes after this summer of real anger, real frustration, but also real action? What do you hope changes?

[D]

I hope that people rise up. I hope more people come out who were never out before. And this isn't just about being on the right side of history and feeling good about yourself. What we know about authoritarianism, whether you're talking about the Deep south or whether you're talking about internationally, there is one thing that works to push back an authoritarian regime. It is distributed, peaceful, grassroots, people power all over the country. That's what works. We're not just doing this for the optics. We're doing this strategically to bring new people in. So success for me is that more people who are never engaged before, who are not paying attention to politics or thought it was too dangerous or not useful to show up, come out and get plugged into productive online organizing in their own community. That's what changes.

[A]

And we are all with you. Ezra Levin, Fred Redmond, thank you both very much. We appreciate y'.

[C]

All.

[A]

And we'll be there. We'll make sure. Ezra, where do we. Where do we go to get more information so we can sign up?

[D]

Go to nokings.org and let me tell you, if you're in the DC area, come out with Free DC on Saturday to oppose the occupation. I'll be out there with a ton of other folks.

[A]

Sounds like a plan. Thank you all both very much. Thank you very much. Fred, thank you very much.

[G]

Thank you.

[A]

Thank you. All right, well, there you have it. That is your. Those are your marching orders for October and also for this weekend, trying to oppose what this regime is doing to change this country for the worse and make it more authoritarian. I want to thank all of our guests, Ezra Levin, Fred Redmond, Katie Fang, my girl and Robert Weissman. Thank you all for being here. We had a lot of jumbling around and moving around of guests this on this show. But we appreciate all of you for hanging with us and sticking with us. And we appreciate y' all for tuning in to the Joy Reid Show. Please be sure to hit like, hit subscribe, hit share. We wouldn't mind if you shared it. Shared it with a friend, share it with a foe. Share it with one of the people who are mad at me and Katie Fang because you know, that'll just make their day. And we've got a lot more coming up for you. We've got a special chat for our team, TJR as members coming up. We will make that announcement. I think we'll make it on Monday and tell y' all when that is going to be. But that is coming up. It's going to be really great. And in the meantime, we wish you guys a happy, peaceful, wonderful and productive weekend. And we will see you on the next the Joy Reid Show. Hit like and subscribe and see you. Bye. Bye.