Lawrence: Musk says he 'went too far' attacking Trump, but not killing the world's poorest children

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell Episode: Lawrence: Musk says he 'went too far' attacking Trump, but not killing the world's poorest children
Release Date: June 12, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, host Lawrence O'Donnell delves into a series of pressing political issues, primarily focusing on Elon Musk's controversial actions affecting global humanitarian efforts, President Donald Trump's immigration and deportation policies, and significant healthcare policy debates in New York. The discussion includes insights from prominent figures such as Democratic Senator Adam Schiff of California and Representative Jason Crow of Colorado.

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Elon Musk's Controversial Actions

[03:12] - [25:12]

Lawrence O'Donnell spearheads a vehement critique of Elon Musk, alleging that Musk has caused severe humanitarian crises by halting the delivery of essential food and medicine to impoverished populations. O'Donnell asserts that Musk’s decisions have led to the deaths of approximately 300,000 individuals worldwide.

Notable Quotes:

• O'Donnell: “Elon Musk went so far as to kill 300,000 people because there's nothing else you can call it when you take food away from starving people.” [03:12]
• O'Donnell: “There is no one else in American history who is personally responsible for the death of 300,000 people except Elon Musk by one decision.” [03:42]

O'Donnell contrasts Musk's actions with Bill Gates' philanthropic efforts, highlighting a stark divide in their approaches to global welfare. He accuses Musk of prioritizing corporate interests over human lives and questions Musk's credibility and integrity, especially regarding his public apologies and handling of accusations related to Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein.

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Deployment of National Guard in Los Angeles

[25:12] - [32:28]

The discussion shifts to the deployment of 4,000 California National Guard soldiers into Los Angeles under President Trump's orders. O'Donnell criticizes the lack of official activation orders, resulting in unpaid personnel and operational chaos. The National Guard's involvement has led to public unrest and confusion, with O'Donnell highlighting instances of guardsmen being unprepared and lacking proper directives.

Notable Quotes:

• Jen Psaki: “...4000 California National Guard soldiers... remain unpaid due to delays in issuing official activation orders.” [01:05]
• O'Donnell: “They are serving our country and they're being put in an untenable situation.” [03:02]

The conversation underscores the administrative shortcomings and the broader implications of deploying military forces domestically without adequate planning or authorization. The National Guard's actions, including detentions and arrests, are examined for their legality and effectiveness.

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Senator Adam Schiff's Commentary

[27:59] - [32:28]

Democratic Senator Adam Schiff of California joins the discussion to address President Trump's immigration policies and the resulting federal interventions in Los Angeles. Schiff condemns the indiscriminate raids and the misrepresentation of immigrants, emphasizing that the majority of immigrants are law-abiding individuals seeking better lives.

Notable Quotes:

• Schiff: “Immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people that are born in America.” [28:21]
• Schiff: “This is an arsonist trying to set fire to things and with predictable results.” [29:54]

Schiff emphasizes the failure of Trump's promises to deport millions, highlighting the disproportionate impact on hardworking communities and the subsequent misuse of federal military resources. He advocates for peaceful protest and criticizes the administration's reliance on force to enforce its policies.

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Critique of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth

[32:27] - [37:17]

The podcast transitions to a critique of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s performance in a Senate subcommittee hearing. Hegseth is labeled as the "most unqualified and incompetent Secretary of Defense in history," particularly after failing to articulate a clear stance on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Notable Quotes:

• O'Donnell: “There is no dispute that Pete Hegseth is the most unqualified and incompetent Secretary of Defense in history.” [33:43]
• Jason Crow: “He was hired by Donald Trump to play a Secretary of Defense on TV.” [35:19]

Representative Jason Crow criticizes Hegseth’s lack of substantive answers and views his appointment as a political stunt rather than a strategic leadership choice. The discussion highlights concerns over the Department of Defense's leadership and strategic direction under the current administration.

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Medicaid Cuts and Impact on New York

[37:17] - [46:26]

The conversation shifts to the Republican-led efforts to implement massive Medicaid cuts, with a particular focus on their devastating effects on New York's healthcare system. Representative Paul Tonko of New York articulates the catastrophic consequences these cuts would have on rural hospitals and vulnerable populations.

Notable Quotes:

• Tonko: “This budget is cruel. The numbers are staggering and the human impact is certainly dreadful.” [44:23]
• Psaki: “Republicans will be forcing increases in state taxes and in the state tax burden... making it a devastating outcome.” [39:28]

Jen Psaki further elaborates on the specifics, highlighting how these cuts would lead to hospital closures, increased mortality rates, and the burden of higher taxes on local communities. The discussion critiques Congresswoman Elise Stefanik’s role in supporting these measures, emphasizing the broader implications for healthcare access and economic stability in upstate New York.

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Representative Paul Tonko's Response

[44:23] - [46:26]

Representative Paul Tonko passionately responds to the proposed Medicaid cuts, outlining the immediate and long-term negative impacts on New York's healthcare infrastructure. He underscores the contradiction between Republican promises and their actual policy outcomes, arguing that the cuts amount to a "death sentence" for many communities.

Notable Quotes:

• Tonko: “When you take $800 billion out of Medicaid and cause $500 billion to be bled out of Medicare, you're destroying the two revenue streams that are most prominent for these hospitals.” [44:23]
• Tonko: “This is a dreadful time for state governments and wanting to carry that forth in a way that follows the Trump agenda.” [46:22]

Tonko calls for legislative action to salvage the healthcare system and protect vulnerable populations, advocating for policies that support, rather than undermine, essential medical services. His remarks highlight the urgent need for bipartisan cooperation to address the impending healthcare crisis.

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Conclusion

In this episode, Lawrence O'Donnell provides a critical examination of the intersection between corporate actions, federal policies, and their humanitarian impacts. Through incisive discussions with Senator Adam Schiff and Representative Jason Crow, as well as commentary on Medicaid policy debates involving Representative Paul Tonko, the episode underscores the profound consequences of political decisions on both national and global scales. The episode calls for accountability, compassionate leadership, and strategic policy-making to address the complex challenges facing society today.

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Note:

• Advertisements, promotional segments, and non-content sections have been excluded from this summary per the specified instructions.
• Timestamps correspond to the original transcript provided and are included with notable quotes for reference.

Transcript

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

Building a business may feel like a big jump, but on deck small business loans can help keep you afloat. With lines of credit up to $100,000 and term loans up to $250,000, OnDeck lets you choose the loan that's right for your business. As a top rated online small business lender, OnDeck's team of loan advisors can help you find the right business loan to fit your needs. Visit ondeck.com for more information. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by Ondeck or Celtic Bank. Ondeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans in amount subject to lender approval.

[Jen Psaki]

We all belong outside. We're drawn to nature. Whether it's the recorded sounds of the ocean we doze off to or the succulents that adorn our homes, nature makes all of our lives, well, better. Despite all this, we often go about our busy lives removed from it, but the outdoors is closer than we realize. With alltrails, you can discover trails nearby and explore confidently with offline maps and on trail navigation. Download the free app today.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

The Last Word with Lawrence o' Donnell starts right now. Hey Lawrence.

[Jen Psaki]

Hey Jen. We have some breaking news here that I'm going to have to read to you straight from military.com which is very good at covering this, saying the 4000 California National Guard soldiers who President Donald Trump surged into Los Angeles remain unpaid due to delays in issuing official activation orders, leaving compensation and benefits in limbo. According to more than a dozen guardsmen across four units who spoke to Military.com, none has received formal activation orders, the critical paperwork that not only authorizes their duty status but also unlocks pay, Tricare health benefits and eligibility for Department of Veterans affairs services. Troops remain in legal and administrative limbo. And Jen, as someone who worked in a White House where things were done with the utmost care, you knew then that there are a thousand reasons to do it carefully and no one there knows all of the reasons. But this is one of those things that happens when you decide to deploy the National Guard in a way that.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

Hasn'T been done before, when there's absolutely no planning. We spoke with a San Francisco Chronicle reporter last night, Lawrence, who reported on with photos the National Guardsmen sleeping on the floor because there was no preparation. There wasn't preparation done because the governor didn't ask for them to come. I mean, I was speaking with Congressman Jake Auchincloss about this earlier. I know you've had him on before. He's a Marine veteran himself about how these men and Women are being asked to do things. They're delivering on orders. They're being asked to do things they shouldn't be asked to do. Obviously not getting pay, obviously potentially violating the law. They are serving our country and they're being put in an untenable, untenable situation.

[Jen Psaki]

There's a reason why we have procedures for these sort of things. And this is what happens when you don't follow them. And there's so much more to report. Thanks, Jen. Thank you.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

Thank you, Lawrence.

[Jen Psaki]

Thanks. Elon Musk is sorry. Elon Musk is sorry. Elon Musk, for the first time in his life of public derangement, is publicly saying he went too far. We've been reporting to you for months now that Elon Musk went too far. And the very first thing he did in government, which was to take food away from starving babies from starving families in the middle of a famine in Sudan and take food away from starving people around the world who could always count on getting some food and in many cases, enough food, in most cases, actually enough food to survive and getting that food from us, from the United States of America, from the United States Agency for International Development. And we were always proud to deliver that food. Starving people usually didn't know where the food was coming from, but we did. And we were proud to be able to feed the starving people of the world with the surplus of food that this country has produced, been producing for more than 100 years. The great Plains became the breadbasket of the world when this country started producing more food than we could consume in the 20th century. And the United States proudly sent its first food relief shipment across an Ocean in 1847, bound for Ireland to deliver famine relief there. And it wasn't enough, but it was something. Millions of Irish children and adults still starved to death. But the United States tried. The United States tried to help, and did help. We sent food. We allowed Irish immigrants to come to this country where they could find work and food and. And never risk starvation again. And Elon Musk knew none of that history. Elon Musk never asked how many starving children were waiting for that food when he personally ordered a complete shutdown of the delivery of that food, which is now rotting in warehouses around the world. Elon Musk wanted the food to rot instead of delivering it to starving children and starving people. Elon Musk went way too far in shutting down the delivery of food to the starving around the world. The delivery of medicine, life saving medicine, to AIDS patients in Africa who have no other source of life Saving medicine. And so, yes, Elon Musk went too far. He went so far as to kill 300,000 people because there's nothing else you can call it when you take food, food away from starving people. The latest estimate is 300,000 deaths. And there is no one else in American history who is personally responsible for the death of 300,000 people. No one person is personally responsible for 300,000 people dying in American history except Elon Musk by one decision. But Elon Musk is not sorry about that. He's sorry, but he's not sorry about that. Elon Musk is not sorry about one death of one starving baby or the death of thousands of starving babies. Elon Musk doesn't think that that was going too far. Elon Musk invaded the Social Security Administration and may have obtained personal data on you and 300 million Americans. And he may be in possession of that personal data tonight as a private citizen, but he's not sorry about that. Elon Musk doesn't think his invasion of Social Security was going too far. In the middle of the night last night, when everyone in America not working a night shift was in bed at 3:04am, Elon Musk tweeted, I regret some of my posts about President Donald Trump last week. They went too far. They went too far. Elon Musk thinks that that was going too far. When Bill Gates, the former richest person in the world, said that Elon Musk was the richest man in the world killing the world's poorest children, Elon Musk did not tweet, I regret killing the poorest children in the world. I went too far. And Elon Musk did not sue Bill Gates for saying that. Elon Musk did not say Bill Gates was wrong. The only person who Elon Musk regrets harming, the only person in the world he regrets harming now is Donald Trump. After killing hundreds of thousands of people, that's what Elon Musk regrets. He regrets his tweets. And I know just how unbelievable this sounds, that the richest person in the world spent his time killing the poorest people in the world. But Bill Gates is an expert at saving lives in Africa. Bill Gates has devoted his life after stepping down from Microsoft to try to save lives in Africa, trying to stop the spread of malaria, trying to deliver clean water supplies and health care and mosquito nets and medical services, and every single detail that supports public health among the most deprived people in the world. And the best estimates by the experts who Bill Gates knows, who know exactly what USAID was doing in Africa and around the world now say that 300,000 people have died or will soon die because of what Elon Musk did to them by taking food away and taking medicine away. And the Washington news media does not care. Not one reporter in or around the White House or anywhere else who has had a chance to question Elon Musk has asked him about what it feels like to be the richest person in the world killing the world's poorest children. They do not care. And because they don't care, because that news media does not care, they have added to this sensation of unbelievability about the behavior of the richest person in the world being far worse than the worst James Bond movie villain that has ever been imagined. There is no way to get through a Washington press corps more concerned today with last year's presidential campaign than they are with Donald Trump and Elon Musk killing children in Africa. There's no way to get through to them. And so when you hear just one person talking about it, you have a right to find it hard to believe. You have a right to wonder about it. You have a right to think that at some basic level, there are limits to human cruelty. But we know that there are not. We have learned that time and again throughout history. Most of us grew up with an eye on unlimited human cruelty occurring somewhere else. When we learned about Hitler's death camps and the Mechanized extermination of 6 million Jews, we could think that unlimited human cruelty is not American and could never be American. But it is now. And Elon Musk doesn't regret it. Elon Musk doesn't think he went too far. He regrets some of his posts, some of his tweets about Donald Trump, but he doesn't say which ones. And so we're left to wonder, does he only regret the posts he deleted, like the ones saying that Donald Trump is in the Epstein files, thereby associating the President of the United States with a convicted pedophile who killed himself in federal prison. It's not the first time Elon Musk has played around with accusations about pedophilia. When some kids were trapped in a flooded cave In Thailand in 2018, Elon Musk leapt forward with suggestions about how to save them. That turned out to be impossible, and people who were experts about it knew they were impossible. And then Elon Musk decided to attack the person who actually knew how to save those kids and eventually did come up with a successful plan to save those kids. Elon Musk decided to call that man, whose name I will keep out of this discussion right now, the pedo guy. And when he was sued for that lie, Elon Musk's defense was. It was a joke. And to save himself from a legal judgment against him, Elon Musk publicly said, I apologize. Elon Musk said that word, apologize to save what could truly have been a massive legal judgment against him. And so Elon Musk leaves us to wonder, has he now admitted to being a pathological liar who will throw around pedophilia as part of his pathological lying about anyone? As someone whose public statements can never be trusted, Is that what he's telling us? Or is Elon Musk telling us that he really does know something about Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein and he is now going to cover up that truth for Donald Trump? Those are our only choices here. That's it. It's one or the other. And either way, it means that Elon Musk is willing to lie whenever it is convenient for him. And all future statements by Elon Musk should be evaluated as state statements made by a now publicly admitted liar. And they are statements made by the person who Bill Gates says is the world's richest man, killing the world's poorest children. And in Elon Musk's now desperate knee bent subservience to Donald Trump, he has decided to side with Donald Trump on what's happening in Los Angeles. Elon Musk retweeted a post that said without Twitter, a majority of Americans would think Los Angeles was Peter and public support would be against President Trump. Twitter is where the truth lives. That is a lie. Los Angeles is peaceful. Los Angeles has been peaceful every single day since the TV cameras were turned on a driverless electric car that was set on fire by a small group of protesters in a downtown section of Los Angeles where no one goes on weekends. Los Angeles was completely peaceful that day, except for that one little fire. And a fire is not a riot and does not disrupt a city. More than 99% of Los Angeles has been peaceful every single minute since protests began in Los Angeles on Friday. Rupert Murdoch's pathologically lying propaganda channel has a banner up there tonight saying that Los Angeles is in its sixth day of rioting. Los Angeles has not had one day of rioting. Not one hour of rioting, not one moment of rioting. One burning car is not a riot. We've seen more than that after big championship games in Los Angeles and elsewhere around the country. So Elon Musk is now back lying to benefit Donald Trump and lying about Los Angeles. The drivers of Los Angeles made Elon Musk rich. Tesla sales took off when wealthy Los Angeles liberals started buying the car before anyone else did. And then other wealthy California liberals all over the state started buying Teslas. And the money from California liberals made Elon Musk the richest person in the world. And he took that money and he gave that money to Donald Trump to make him president. And last week, Elon Musk tweeted, taking credit for electing Donald Trump by providing the money that Donald Trump needed to win. And that is as legitimate a claim of credit for how that election was decided as any other that you will hear. How an election was won or lost is always actually a theory. There is never a single proof. But Elon Musk has a good case to make. And so what you're seeing in Los Angeles, the Trump attempted invasion of Los Angeles was in effect paid for by Tesla money paid for by Elon Musk. Getting Donald Trump elected to be the first President of the United States to order Marines to deploy against the law in America. We haven't seen the Marines yet in Los Angeles because someone seems to know it's against the law for them to try to patrol the streets of Los Angeles in any way and in any capacity. It is also against the law for the federalized National Guard, which makes them federal troops, not state National Guard troops. It is against the law for those federalized troops to participate in arrests, and they are now admitting to doing that, not realizing, apparently, that it is against the law. The commander in charge, Major General Scott Sherman, told the Associated Press today that National Guard troops already have temporarily detained civilians in the Los Angeles protests over immigration raids, but they quickly turned them over to law enforcement. He said those temporary detentions were in the past few days, and there haven't been many recently as things have calmed down in the city. The troops do not participate in the actual arrests or law enforcement activities and instead immediately let go of the person once police get them under control or put them in handcuffs. That means the troops actually do participate in the arrests. If you detain a person for another law enforcement official, you have indeed participated in the arrest. That makes it very likely that all of those arrests in which a member of the National Guard put hands on a person will be thrown out of court. If those National Guard troops are activated by a governor, that changes their capacity to participate in law enforcement exercises within that state. It also, as we've learned tonight, gets them paid. But that's not what happened here. What you're seeing in Los Angeles is the failure of Donald Trump's mass deportation promise to his followers. We have not had mass deportations. We have not had mass arrests. We have had small scale deportations and small scale arrests. For a president who promised to deport 15 million people, that's 4 million people a year that Donald Trump would have to deport in his presidency. Donald Trump would need to have deported at least a million people by now. And he's not close to being on schedule. Donald Trump has to deport hundreds of thousands of people to be on schedule for deporting 15 million people, Donald Trump needs to deport 11,000 people a day. And he hasn't done that on a single day. Donald Trump is arresting dozens of people a day in this country. Dozens. On Friday at a garment factory and a warehouse in Los Angeles, he got 46. That was his big day. 46. And now he sent the National Guard and the Marines to deal with just the reaction to him rounding up 46 people when he's supposed to be rounding up 11,000 a day. So Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign has failed completely, and he knows it. And so he has put on this reality TV show using troops to try to convince his uninformed followers, who are being lied to by Fox, that the Trump deportation scheme is underway. 46. He got 46 on Friday. He's supposed to get 10,000 every day. And he's failing to do it every single day. And that is why Stephen Miller and Donald Trump told ICE agents to just go out where it's easiest to find people. And that is where you find the hardest working people in America. The people who are picking our vegetables in California, they're now being threatened by ICE agents. The people who are making our garments in garment factories, These are hard working people. None of them are gang members. None of them are putting together drug deals at their sewing machines. They're the people who Donald Trump is getting because the mass deportation promise was always a lie. And the idea that the country is filled with easily findable, deportable criminals was always a lie. And Donald Trump is not finding and deporting criminals. If Donald Trump could deport a single dangerous criminal, he would parade that person in front of all of us and tell us exactly what crimes that person committed. And he hasn't done that once, not with one person. This is Donald Trump's hatred at work. And no American politician has wider ranging hatreds than Donald Trump. And no American politician has ever, ever had wider ranging hatreds than Donald Trump. Because Donald Trump's hatreds include every single American who did not vote for him, and that means most Californians. Jim Newton, the former editor of Los Angeles Times, explains in Politico that what Donald Trump is doing is, quote, not just to be a bully, but to force a showdown of values to bring California to heel, or at least to score points by trying. He authorized aggressive immigration raids in Los Angeles. Predictably, those neighborhoods where the raids occurred were shocked and frightened, and in many, many cases, angry residents protested, legally and peacefully at first. Then, with mounting fury, LAPD dispersed the crowd. On Friday night, It was akin to a championship celebration that got out of hand. On Saturday morning, the same streets that had been tense the night before woke up to calm. Diners lined up at the Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles for breakfast. The March of Dimes held a rally across from City Hall. LAPD officers had a booth. One joined the line, dancing children played cornhole and munched on crushed ice. That felt like life returning to normal. But Trump could not allow Los Angeles and California to right itself, because to allow California to persevere is to risk allowing its values to prevail. Instead, Trump rallied, railed at Newsom and Bass, and directed the National Guard to deploy in the city. That gave protesters another reason to be angry. And by Sunday afternoon, a much larger demonstration erupted and then cascaded into the night with scattered acts of violence. Still not satisfied, Trump sent active duty Marines. And so this government induced unrest continues. If the goal is to calm Los Angeles, the solution would be simple. Withdraw federal forces and let the LAPD and Sheriff's Department do their jobs. But that's not the goal. The unrest goes on because Trump needs it to. He's not just fighting for deportations, he's fighting for his values in a state that rejects them. Jim Newton also described the California values this In California, reverence for the coastline, redwoods and interior forests was a bipartisan commitment. But as Republicans increasingly came to represent business over stewardship, in corporations over consumers, Californians who identified with environmental concerns gravitated to the Democratic Party. By 2020, Trump and other Republicans were calling climate change a hoax, and California rejected them. Joe Biden beat Trump here by almost 30 points. Meanwhile, the state's demographics were changing. Once part of Mexico, California has always been closely connected to its southern neighbor, with whom it shares ties of culture, trade and family. The percentage of the state whose residents are of Mexican or Latino origin has steadily grown since the 1950s, to the point that Latinos are now the state's largest ethnic group, having surpassed whites and of course, when California was still Mexico, Spanish speakers were the only people of European origin in California, Jim Newton explains. Although California is a powerful donor state to the federal government, taxpayers here pay about $80 billion a year more than the state receives in federal services. Trump withheld support for homeowners devastated by January wildfires, demanding that federal aid be contingent on the state adopting voter ID laws to curb fictional voter abuse that Trump believes cost him the state in his Los Losing campaigns here. That was an attempt at bribery. It failed. Now comes force. Donald Trump's force will not work. California will defeat Trumpism in the streets of Los Angeles. Just as California defeated Donald Trump on every California ballot where his name has appeared in California, Donald Trump has gone too far. After this break, California Senator Adam Schiff will join us.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

Building a business may feel like a big jump, but On Deck small business loans can help keep you afloat. With lines of credit up to $100,000 and term loans up to $250,000, on deck lets you choose the loan that's right for for your business. As a top rated online small business lender, OnDeck's team of loan advisors can help you find the right business loan to fit your needs. Visit ondeck.com for more information. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by Ondeck or Celtibank. Ondeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

[Jen Psaki]

We all belong outside. We're drawn to nature. Whether it's the recorded sounds of the ocean we doze off to or the succulents that adorn our homes, nature makes all of our lives, well, better. Despite all this, we often go about our busy lives removed from it. But the outdoors is closer than we realize. With alltrails, you can discover trails nearby and explore confidently with offline maps and on trail navigation. Download the free app today.

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[Lawrence O'Donnell]

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[Jen Psaki]

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Today the mayor of Los Angeles Karen Bass said this.

[Karen Bass]

So we started off by hearing the administration wanted to go after violent felons, gang members, drug dealers. But when you raid home depots and workplaces, when you tear parents and children apart, and when you run armored caravans through our streets, you're not trying to keep anyone safe. You're trying to cause fear and panic. And when you start deploying federalized troops on the heels of these raids, it is a drastic and chaotic escalation and completely unnecessary. These aren't the criminals the administration is allegedly targeting. These are mothers and fathers, restaurant workers, seamstress, home care workers, everyday Angelenos trying to make a living. We've heard stories of unmarked federal vans parked near LAUSD school graduations, a US Citizen nine months pregnant who was hospitalized after being detained by federal agents, and an apparel business in downtown LA raided, where many Korean and Latino workers work long hours to support their families.

[Jen Psaki]

Leading off our discussion tonight is Democratic Senator Adam Schiff of California. He's a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a former member of the House January 6th Committee. Senator Schiff, thank you very much for being here tonight. As the senator representing California, what is it that you want people to know about tonight, about what's happening there?

[Adam Schiff]

Well, I think it really all comes back to the original lie of the Trump campaign, his first campaign, right when he came down that golden escalator and tried to tell the American people that everyone coming to this country as an immigrant or a migrant was some kind of a murderer or rapist or people who meant to do Americans harmless. When the vast, vast majority of people coming here want to work, they want to try to provide for themselves and their family, and this is what they've done. In fact, immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people that are born in America. But having told that lie to the American people, he then told another lie, that he was going to focus on those violent criminals and, of course, not finding enough of those violent criminals to go after. He's now engaging in these indiscriminate raids. They're chasing farm workers through fields, they're showing up at schools, they're showing up at outside of a Home Depot. They're just grabbing people at traffic stops. They say they're looking for one person, but they're grabbing anybody they can get. And yes, people are going to protest that. And yes, people are going to be angry and they're going to be fearful. And then, you know, for Donald Trump to add fuel to the fire by federalizing the guard over the Objection of the governor by calling in the Marines. Effectively, this is an arsonist trying to set fire to things and with predictable results. But I think the mayor was right to impose a curfew to make sure that we maintain the calm. We've been making constant calls, all of us, to remain peaceful, not take the bait that Donald Trump is offering. But, you know, I think things are improving in Los Angeles. Each day seems to be more quiet than the day before. And I can tell you this, working very closely with the immigrant community and the stakeholders, they are very well organized. They get out the message, we don't want violence. The people using violence are people like, you know, moth to a flame who just like to seize any opportunity for mayhem. And there are going to be people like that in any city. And those people should be arrested and prosecuted if they're using violence of any kind. But people need to protest and express themselves as indeed we can expect this coming weekend. Over Trump's other abuse of the military to provide him a birthday party.

[Jen Psaki]

The Attorney General today was asked by Garrett Hake about, if you're so upset about Los Angeles, what about January 6th? And, you know, the Attorney General said, well, what's going on in Los Angeles is ongoing. First of all, it was just gibberish. She didn't answer the question at all, but she pretended that it's an ongoing thing, when in fact it is not. There is nothing happening in Los Angeles day to day that requires a massive intervention. What would you want the Attorney General to know about January 6th that apparently she doesn't know?

[Adam Schiff]

On January 6th, there were hundreds of police officers that were beaten and gouged and bear sprayed. And among the very first acts of this president on his first day in office was to give pardons to those violent criminals. So when we hear the president say that he backs law enforcement, when we hear the Attorney General say it, when we hear people like Kash Patel say all comes across as a big fat lie. Because the very first day in office, they did exactly the opposite. And this cannot be situational. You're either supportive of law enforcement or you're not. I'm supportive of law enforcement whether it's on January 6th or today. It doesn't matter the context. Violence against law enforcement is never justified. But for them, if you're using violence against law enforcement in the service of Donald Trump, then anything goes.

[Jen Psaki]

California Senator Adam Schiff, thank you very much for joining us tonight.

[Adam Schiff]

Thanks, Lawrence.

[Jen Psaki]

Coming up, the most unqualified and incompetent Secretary of defense in history appeared in A Senate subcommittee hearing today, and he got exactly one answer right. You'll see that next. There is no dispute that Pete Hegseth is the most unqualified and incompetent Secretary of defense in history. And he is the first secretary of defense in history who promised he would quit drinking if he got the job. As of tonight, no one has any idea if he is living by that promise. In a Senate subcommittee hearing today chaired by Senator Mitch McConnell, Pete Hegseth actually got the first question right. And after that, even though he appeared to be completely sober, his words were pure gibberish. Number one, who's the aggressor and who's the victim in the conflict? Russia is the aggressor. Which side do you want to win? As we've said time and time again.

[Jason Crow]

This president is committed to peace in that conflict.

[Jen Psaki]

Ultimately, peace serves our national interests, and we think the interest of both parties, even if that outcome will not be preferable to many in this room and many in our country. Simple question. Which side do you want to win? Is the question Pete Hegseth couldn't answer. The United States had an answer when Hitler was on the march in Europe. Before Hitler declared war on the United States, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt made it very that he wanted Hitler to lose, and he wanted France and England to win. He wanted Poland to survive. And if you think that example that I'm using is strained, in this case, it turned out to be exactly the example that Republican Senator Lindsey Graham used today when he compared the situation with Russia and Ukraine to the 1930s. Is Putin going to stop in Ukraine?

[Jason Crow]

I don't. I don't believe he is, sir.

[Jen Psaki]

I think he'll. What do you think? What do you think, Secretary? Is he going to stop? Remains to be seen, Senator. Well, he says he's not. You know, this is the 30s all over. It doesn't remain to be seen. He tells everybody around what he wants to do. Joining us now is Democratic Congressman Jason Crow of Colorado. He's a member of the House Armed Services committee, a former U.S. army Ranger. Thank you very much for joining us tonight. Congressman Crow, what was your reaction to Pete Hegseth not knowing who he wants to win in Russia's war against Ukraine?

[Jason Crow]

Pete Hegseth is exactly the failed leader that we knew he would be from day one. The man cannot answer basic questions about the department and the men and women that he leads. The man's entire senior leadership team has essentially resigned in the last few weeks. His response to that is that they're disgruntled he literally just hired these people weeks ago. He is disgruntling people at a record breaking pace. But listen, he wasn't hired to run this department. He was hired by Donald Trump to play a Secretary of defense on tv. And that's what we see happening this week. He's talking in sound bites. He's not answering questions. He's combative. This is exactly what Donald Trump hired him to do. Unfortunately, the DoD is rudderless and without a competent leader at the top.

[Jen Psaki]

And we saw him contradicted by Donald Trump's new favorite general right beside him, who said, yeah, he thinks Putin would keep going.

[Jason Crow]

Right? That's because anybody who's actually paying attention to what's going on that actually knows Vladimir Putin, which is a lot of people, actually. Vladimir Putin has been around for 30 years. We know a lot, lot about Vladimir Putin. People that are paying attention to what's going on, that understand how he works, know his playbook really well. Vladimir Putin is not doing anything new.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

Right?

[Jason Crow]

He is following the same playbook that he has followed for decades. He is playing Donald Trump and this administration for fools. He's waiting them out. He's pretending to engage, but he has no interest in engaging. There is nothing that Donald Trump in this administration have done in the last six months to put any pressure on Vladimir Putin to come to the negotiating table. Nothing. In fact, the opposite is. Their rhetoric has emboldened him, has made Putin think that he can continue to wait this out. There's been no additional pressure, and Vladimir Putin only responds to pressure.

[Jen Psaki]

Congressman Jason Crow, thank you very much for joining us tonight.

[Jason Crow]

Thank you.

[Jen Psaki]

Thank you. And coming up today, the in over his head, Republican speaker of the House made House Republicans vote once again on the biggest Medicaid cuts in history. Medicaid cuts that will hurt people around the country, especially in upstate New York, where hospitals could close. In rural districts, that means Congresswoman Elise Stefanik's district, the place where she's hoping to launch her campaign for Governor of the State of New York. That's next.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

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[Paul Tonko]

The GOP tax scam represents the largest assault on health care in American history. More than 16 million Americans will lose access to health care in the United States of America as a result of the one big ugly bill. Hospitals will close, nursing homes will shut down and people will die because they'll lose access to the medical care that they need.

[Jen Psaki]

The Republican members of the House of Representatives from the State of New York have voted for that bill. Today. House Republicans had to quickly pass corrections to the Trump budget bill that would allow the bill to conform to parliamentary rules of the Senate, something that House leaders in both parties usually got right the first time before the operating currency of Trump world became stupidity and incompetence. So today the in over his head Republican speaker of the House made House Republicans vote once again for the biggest Medicaid cuts in history which will hurt the state of New York and its hospital system, especially upstate New York where Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik will hope to launch her campaign for Governor if she believes she can get away with lies like this.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

What we believe as Republicans in Washington is that we should strengthen Medicaid, get rid of the waste, fraud and abuse. We are not taking away Medicaid benefits. We are getting rid of Medicaid benefits for illegal specifically to improve them for New Yorkers who qualify.

[Jen Psaki]

The federal Medicaid program does not provide benefits for undocumented immigrants, but the state of New York does provide some health care services for undocumented immigrants, especially the five year olds who are brought to hospitals in emergencies. And that is a tiny amount actually of the people who receive any health care benefits from Medicaid. The let immigrants bleed to death on the sidewalks of hospitals spirit of the Republican Party if it prevails would take health care services away from a maximum of 1.4 million people in this country who are undocumented immigrants. That's it. So when the people who harvest our food for us in this country are injured on the job and are rushed to rural hospitals, Elise Stefanik has voted to make sure that they are turned away. And Elise Stefanik will go on happily eating salads without ever thinking about the people who pulled that lettuce out of the ground. Elise Stefanik's upstate New York congressional district bordering Canada will suffer mightily thanks to her vote. The Clifton Fein Hospital is in Star Lake, New York, population 809. It's an area of upstate New York that reliably votes Republican. The Adirondack Explorer reports Clifton Fein Hospital CEO warns that cuts to Medicaid could leave thousands without care and push small facilities to the brink. Quote Rural hospitals already operate on razor thin margins and have been losing money for years. We certainly aren't in a financial position to backfill these massive cuts. It'll give you a sicker population. Your mortality rates will probably be higher and I think you'll see a lot of little hospitals closing that just won't be able to afford to cover that self pay. But that's not all. The Trump Republican Stefanik budget bill will raise taxes. Quote Essex County Manager Mike Mascarenas told supervisors the proposed cuts to Medicaid would also raise property taxes in New York. Counties are additionally required to fund Medicaid with money mostly obtained from property taxes. With decreased funding at the federal level, county governments may raise taxes in order to make up the cost. They call it a tax cut bill. But Republicans will be forcing increases in state taxes and in the state tax burden as they did the last time they cut the federal tax. If Elise Stefanik decides to run for governor against Democrat Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul least of will have to justify massive Medicaid cuts for hospitals in New York City and throughout the state. Joining us now is Democratic Representative Paul Tonko of New York. His congressional district borders the Stefanik congressional district. Congressman Tonko, thank you very much for joining us tonight. It seems that if this bill goes through there could be hospital closings especially north of you that could send people down to your district if they can afford it, trying to get health care there.

[Paul Tonko]

Yeah. Well, thank you, Lawrence. This budget is cruel. There's no mistaking it. The numbers are staggering and the human impact is certainly dreadful. And you know, many have. But many of our hospitals have been really functioning in a very marginal situation. And when you take $800 billion out of Medicaid and when you cause $500 billion to be bled out of Medicare, you're destroying the two revenue streams that are most prominent for these hospitals. And so this monstrosity of a bill is a death sentence. It is going to cause our rural hospitals and our hospitals in general and the people they serve to be in a crisis situation. And you know, what's troublesome is my colleagues know, my Republican colleagues know that this is devastating for New York. They wrote the leadership of the Senate saying, fix it. Well, why would you vote for a bill that hurts your constituents and move forward with it? Look, a lot of this pain and suffering and anguish is going to be passed over to legislative bodies and governors across the country and that will be the final execution of this death sentence. And so, you know, leading a state of New York, that's going to be a traumatic experience because we are also facing, you know, an opportunity here or demand a challenge to have states pay into the food assistance programs that they have never paid into before. We're asking them to pay more with epa, there's talk of FEMA and passing over that responsibility with no pay or no dollars attached to it. So this is a dreadful time for state governments and wanting to carry that forth in a way that follows the Trump agenda. This is just a devastating outcome and we're going to continue to put battle here to make this big beautiful that has turned big ugly. A workable document, one that is satisfactory, satisfactorily responding to the needs of states.

[Jen Psaki]

Carson, Paul Tonko, thank you very much for joining us.

[Lawrence O'Donnell]

My pleasure.

[Jen Psaki]

Thank you.

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