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- [00:01]
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Host
I'm joined by California Senator Adam Schiff. Senator, we're about 156 days into this Trump regime. I just wanted to get your reaction. You and I haven't spoken in a while to all the mayhem and chaos that he's causing.
- [00:51]
Senator Adam Schiff
Well, this is far worse, I think, than any of us could have expected. And we expected this administration would be bad. I think we expected that they would have learned from the first administration and that is not had anyone of any independence or stature or gravitas in the cabinet or elsewhere that would stand up to him. And as a result, his enablers around him are enabling him to do all kinds of terrible things to people, to routinely violate the law, to violate court orders, to militarize law enforcement, to, over the objections of our governor in California, federalized the National Guard to create just chaos. And he may thrive on that, but the American people don't. And we've got a long time ahead of us. And the challenge will be keeping our democracy together until he finally leaves office.
- [01:49]
Host
Let's talk about this disastrous budget bill. It was a disaster in the House. It seems that the Senate Finance Committee and the MAGA Republicans in the Senate have made it worse, if that's even possible. Tell us the status. What's happening? What are you and Democrats doing to fight back?
- [02:06]
Senator Adam Schiff
Well, this, this is just an awful bill that will do grave harm. It will kick millions of people off their health care. It will literally take food from hungry people by cutting the SNAP program dramatically. For all their promises that this bill was going to help working families or average Americans, the only people really benefiting here are the very wealthy because they're going to take the so called savings from taking food away from hungry people and from closing hospitals and closing clinics and depriving people of access to health care. They're going to take those resources and put it into tax cuts for really wealthy people. And even then it won't pay for the magnitude of tax cuts they want for really rich people. So they're going to borrow Money from our kids and grandkids to pay for the tax cuts. That is just so horribly irresponsible. I completely understand why young people feel alienated, alienated from government, feel betrayed by the generations that went on before. My parents generation, my father's generation that was part of the greatest generation. You know, they. They fought a world war, that generation, to protect our freedom, to make this prosperity, the country, seem possible. Now this generation wants to basically borrow from their kids and grandkids to give themselves a tax cut. That is such a betrayal.
- [03:32]
Host
You look at the polling on this disastrous budget bill, and it is very low. Whether you're looking at a Fox poll or a Quinnipiac poll or an ap, it doesn't matter. I mean, this thing's either in the 20s or the 30s. Low 30s, very low. But it seems that Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans just think that they get to call it big beautiful bill. He waves his hands, he does the lie. They roll out the propaganda machine and they jam this down the throats of the American people. They do another scam. And then when it hurts people, they do what they usually do, blame it on somebody else, find a scapegoat, rinse and repeat. So how do we stop this cycle of destruction by Trump and MAGA and this propaganda machine that hoist it up?
- [04:18]
Senator Adam Schiff
We make them own it. Every day, we make them own it. And I think that is working. Number one, we're getting out the message about just how awful this bill is and who the real beneficiaries are. They're pushing out a counter narrative, but it is not gaining any traction because it's simply not true. And I think we're being effective in how we're communicating about this bill to the point where Republican senators, during, I think their last weekly meeting, their lunch meeting, several rose up and talked about just what harm this is going to do. Not to their constituents, that was only incidental, but what Harmon's going to do to them. The fact that they may lose the House, that they may lose the Senate, because the effect is going to be kicking millions of people off of health care. So, yes, you're right. When they do this, if they do this, then they will try to run away from it. They'll blame Biden or some other stuff because the buck always falls with someone else with them. But there will be no hiding the responsibility for this. And that's why staying on this message, being focused, you know, drumming it in, what a, what a giveaway this is to really wealthy people and what theft it is away from people's health care. They promised, Trump promised they weren't going to raid Medicaid. They're raiding Medicaid. And what's more, because this isn't paid for, they're going to be automatic cuts to Medicare. So they're going to break that promise, too. But we're going to stay focused on this. We expect to have probably at the end of this week one of those Votoramas where we're going to offer every amendment that will put them on the record through morning, noon and night and hold that floor as long as we can under the Senate rules and make the case. And we're going to hit the airwaves and continue to hit the airwaves and let people know how they're being betrayed by this big, ugly bill.
- [06:17]
Host
We see Trump cabinet officials, I would say, testifying. But what it appears to me they're doing is either showing up without testimony to give or, I believe, lying. Some may call that perjury, although that's a legal definition. They show up in front of the Senate committees, they're unprepared. They have these weird PowerPoint presentations that don't actually provide the data. They either say they don't know or they're outright lying. What have you made of, you know, it would be a comedy if it wasn't actually so dangerous to see, one by one these stooges show up, unqualified, inexperienced and frankly, lying. You see it firsthand. So what's your take on it, Senator?
- [06:59]
Senator Adam Schiff
Well, I think you're absolutely right. There is really no shame. The master of shamelessness is, of course, Donald Trump, who, you know, 15 times an hour says things are just provably, patently false. But we've come to expect that from him. We're going to have to, I guess, come to expect that for a lot of Republicans in Congress, they operate in very much the same fashion. They say up is down and left is right. And they just make stuff up. And they figure as long as they keep repeating it, people will buy it. I mean, after all, there are a lot of people that have bought the false narrative that January 6th was an ordinary tourist day. And I think their reasoning is, hey, if you can make people believe they can't believe their lying eyes, they can't believe what they all saw or witnessed, then maybe we can make them believe that this big, ugly bill is somehow good for them. But when people's hospital down the road closes, it won't matter whether they're on Medicaid or not. Their hospital is going to close because those Medicaid dollars aren't going to come to that hospital when their clinic closes. They're not going to be able to try to say, hey, the hospital is really open. You just can't see it. They will not run to the ribbon cutting like they did after the passage of the inflation Reduction act and build back better the infrastructure bill when they raised to ribbon cuttings that were made possible by a bill they voted against. But they will hide when it comes to the closures from their own bill and we nonetheless, we'll make them own it.
- [08:37]
Host
Donald Trump's personal attorney who became a top DOJ official who has now been nominated by Trump to be one of the highest judges in our land. A third Circuit Court of Appeals judge appeared before the Senate today and I think my characterization of both the non answers equivocating and lying all happened in once on very serious issues. Our audience will recall that there was a whistleblower letter from another top federal prosecutor saying Emil Bovet engaged in all of this unlawful conduct and then fired the whistleblower for calling out the conduct, including Emil Bovey, saying do not listen to federal judges F them, F the federal judges. Let me show this exchange that you had with Emile Bove at this confirmation hearing and let me get your take on everything. Let's play this clip.
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Senator
Turn to the meeting that Mr. Rouvaney, the whistleblower has written an extensive complaint about. The hearing started with the chairman reading a social media post by the deputy attorney General Blanch, who is present today but not under oath. Nor is that social media post under oath. So let me ask you, since you are under oath in the complaint, it says Beauvais stated that DOJ would need to consider telling the courts fuck you and ignoring any such court order. Did you say anything of that kind in the meeting?
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Emil Bovet
Senator? I have no recollection of saying anything of that kind. To the extent I don't.
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Senator
You recall, Mr. Bovet, if you said or suggested during a meeting with Justice Department lawyers maybe they should consider telling the court fuck you, it seems to me that would be something you'd remember. Unless that's the kind of thing you say frequently.
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Emil Bovet
Well, I've certainly said things encouraging litigators at the department to fight hard for valid positions that we have to take and defend.
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Senator
And if you frequently suggested that they say fuck you and ignore court orders, is that also something you frequently do such you might not remember doing it in this occasion?
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Emil Bovet
No. And as I explained, I have never.
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Senator
So did you or did you notice make those comments during that meeting?
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Emil Bovet
Which comment, Senator?
- [10:50]
Senator
You really need me to repeat it? Did you suggest, as Mr. Rouveni wrote, that DOJ would need to consider telling the courts you and ignore any such court order?
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Emil Bovet
I did not suggest that there would be any need to consider ignoring court orders. At the point of that meeting, there were no court orders to discuss.
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Senator
Well, did you suggest telling the courts fuck you in any manner?
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Emil Bovet
I don't recall.
- [11:16]
Senator
You just don't remember that?
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Host
I don't recall. Senator, your reaction to that interaction today?
- [11:23]
Senator Adam Schiff
He's simply not credible. And you have credible people who were in that meeting making that allegation, including this whistleblower who was promoted, was given a number of accolades by the Justice Department during Democratic administrations, during Republican administrations, he was promoted by the Trump administration. Mr. Bovet would have us believe that there's just some coincidence, some grand coincidence, that prosecutor after prosecutor after prosecutor has had to quit because they wouldn't follow unethical orders by Emile Beauvais or were fired because they wouldn't do unethical things or were, or in this case, were fired for making a truthful representation to the court that they had wrongly deported, rendered someone to a maximum security person outside the court, outside the country. So Mr. Bovet would have us believe that all those people are just making this stuff up, including the judge that presided over the Eric Adams case, who basically said, in contrast again to Emma Boss Bovet's testimony today, that everything smacked him as a bargain. It's essentially a quid pro quo that they would dismiss that case against the mayor of New York in exchange for the mayor's help on the president's immigration policy. So everybody apparently has got it wrong except Emil Beauvais. I just don't believe him. I don't think anyone believes him. And he made it abundantly clear today why no one should believe him.
- [12:58]
Host
Finally, Senator, in these dark times, with all of the distractions and waking up with another Trump post, is this gonna be a war? Is he gonna send troops into la? There's a lot going on. But do you see signs of hope in this chaos, in mayhem?
- [13:16]
Senator Adam Schiff
I really do. You see signs of hope every day because you have people like the whistleblower who filed that complaint and brought to the public attention the improper, immoral and unlawful conduct of Nemile Beauvais. You have others that are quitting because they won't engage in unethical conduct. You have Americans taking to the streets in record numbers by the millions to express their views. You see voters in some of the early elections, like in Wisconsin, demonstrating their dissatisfaction with what this regime is doing. So there are reasons every day a university finally stands up to Trump or a law firm finally stands up to Trump, you see people finding their voice, finding their courage. And that ought to give us the confidence to know we will get through this. We've been through other difficult times in our history. This, too, shall pass. Sometimes we're going to have to take it one day at a time, but we're going to get through this. But it's going to require all of us.
- [14:18]
Host
Senator Adam Schiff, thanks for joining us.
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Senator Adam Schiff
As always, great to be with you.
- [14:22]
Host
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