Transcription
Now, one of the visitors who was arrest is a guy by the name of David Carter Hea, a 67-year-old man in Bethesda, Maryland, who owned a company that made composite used to build watercraft.
Now, Hearn happens to be a former Olympic canoe racer. There he is. Look at him go. That was a while ago.
And he told the AP he briefly touched a peeling chunk of the pool bottom to inspect it and let go when told to by a park worker. This is something that we've seen lots of people do.
Hearn said he was detained by guard, soldiers, and park police for five hours before being given a summons for a court appearance next month.
"I'm a curious citizen," Hearn told the AP. "I reached down to see what it felt like. It was very rubbery."
Remember, this is also part of the recipe here. Just last week, okay? Again, we know this because they posted it online.
It was Trump's interior department, as we were covering this, the algae blue, right? And the peeling chunks of paint. The interior department was lying to us all, right? Like, what are you talking about, you psycho libs?
Posting photos of the reflecting pool from like the low angle. Did they get the reflection of the sky? Claiming the water, "THE POOL WAS CRYSTAL CLEAR WITH THE AMERICAN FLAG COATING SHINING BRIGHTLY ON THE BOTTOM OF THE." The pool is in worse shape of. They have to admit that's not true. The pool is in worse shape of before.
I mean, they pivoted in like a day or two. And then in classic authoritarian fashion, they pivoted from claiming the water's perfect and clear, there's no peeling paint, to, "Yes, it looks terrible because it was sabotaged by secret leftists like this Olympian and that journalist."
And also, we are now going to be bringing law enforcement authorities from around the nation as part of our summer service force to arrest people who are guilty of the non-existent crime of putting their hands in the water.
Doesn't matter whether it's an election he contests in law, LOST, or a war he started and LOST, or a reflecting pool renovation that he. He absolutely screwed up from start to finish in every conceivable way.
When Donald Trump screws up, as he always does, he needs scapegoats because Donald Trump is president, what it really means is he now wants arrests.
Norman Eisen is the co-founder and executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund, as well as the attorney for David Hearn, the U.S. Olympian who was arrested at the reflecting pool, and they both joined me now.
It's good to have you here, Mr. Hearn. I just, I saw some video of you out this weekend when you were at the reflecting pool. You were in biking gear, you were clearly out for a long cycling ride, a very active individual still. Can you just tell us how you ended up with the reflecting pool, why you went down there?
Yes, Chris. I was just out on about a 50-mile bike ride and I decided to swing back over by the reflecting pool on my way back as I THOUGHT IT WAS A CONCERNED CURIOUS CITIZEN.
And you checked out the pool, told the AP that you just put your hand in the water, and then, then what happened? I've seen National Guardsmen came up to you and parked police. How did that all go? And I wanted to take a little pool and I went back to my bike that was laid down on its side on the edge of the grass.
Three National Guard troops sort of materialized and started talking to me about, after I greeted them, they were talking to me about the park police wanting to talk to me.
And they arrested you? They put some sort of cuffs or zip ties on you behind your back?
I didn't think I'd done anything wrong, so I had no reason to think I was going to be arrested, but I suggested we walk over toward the park police rather than waiting for them to come to us, and went over and furnished my ID, and kind of before I knew it, I was being, "I WAS BEING HANDCUFFED AND REALIZED I WAS BEING ARRESTED. I REALIZED I WAS BEING ARRESTED."
Norm, you're his lawyer here. Is there, like, this seems so impossibly insane to me, but they're threatening ten years in prison. And I'll ask you, Mr. Hearn, about how you feel about the president threatening that, threatening that. But is there even, like, what, is there a, there was no crime when these accusations were made about the distinguished journalist, Jonathan Carl. There is certainly no, we have no wrongdoing as to Davy. This is a reflecting pool where people have for decades touched the water. How can it be a—
I think it is a crime to touch the water of the reflecting pool, Chris. What you see is a desperate effort to cast blame. I don't think it's a little bit of the pool in the height of the summer heat, a dark color in a body of water that when you issuing a no-bid contract, Chris, including involving one of the president's, that is going to lead to poor performance. This coding is coming up. Democrats, it's not a Democrat of its own volition. Obviously, Mr. Hearn did not dump algae or toxic chemicals or run a 250 or 300, a little bit of a 500-foot knife line down this pool. And it is one of the classic signs of an, make sure it is an authoritarian regime to abuse the criminal powers, just like we saw the A.G. Letitia James case thrown, thrown out, just like we saw the Jim Comey case thrown out. Case thrown out. So many other cases that have been rejected by judges, it is a sign of authoritarian behavior. Behavior. It is outrageous. Every American should. It is a sign of authoritarian behavior. As you know, we have over 300 legal cases in matters. This one is that is among the most important because we can't let the criminal justice system be abused this way. Because we can't let the criminal justice system. That's why we fight these cases.
Mr. Hearn, you were, am I right that you were detained for five hours during, after this arrest?
Yes, I was in the lockup at Haynes Point Park Police Jail and I didn't know how long I was going to be held. I was held, after an hour I was told that it was going to be a sight and release so that led me to believe that I might not be there that long, but, and it dragged on. I was photographed and they put me back in, fingerprinted, put me back in and had not been able to, allowed to make a phone call. Nobody really knew I was there. I was held incommunicado that whole time, was never read my rights.
What?
Well, did they tell, are you charged yet? Have they even furnished the charges?
We do have two misdemeanor citations, Chris. But there's no basis for this. We're going to contest it vigorously. It is not a federal crime to touch. There's no such water. If you look in the statutes, you'll see there's no such federal crime.
As someone who represented this country in the U.S. Olympics, we got to show that clip of you, which was incredibly cool, one of my favorite events to watch, actually. It seems completely impossible and defies the laws of physics. I mean, it's so surreal, but how does it feel to have the president and then the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia essentially, you know, threatening to throw the book and and talking about 10 years in prison?
Well, Chris, I'm concerned for our country. I'm, I'm cautious about the future, but I'm confident in my counsel and we will contest these charges.
All right, um, Norm, uh, you have, you have filed, uh, ethics complaints against Todd Blanche. There's, you're, you're litigating a bunch of active, uh, a bunch of sort of active lawsuits against this Department of Justice. It seems to me that it's gotten worse there somehow and almost improbably. Is that the trajectory it seems to you as well?
Well, Davy's case is a new low. They've hit bottom. They've hit bottom. They've hit bottom again here. And the courts are pushing back, Chris, as you know. We won the Kennedy Center case. We helped defeat the slush fund, the "WE ARE GOING TO FIGHT THIS CASE AS WELL. WE CAN'T HAVE THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE BULLYING AMERICAN CITIZENS FOR TOUCHING WATER. THAT CANNOT BE." We're going to be contesting, we're going to be contesting it. This is a very important matter because it's an effort to shift the blame and scapegoat for the consequences of the administration's corruption. We're going to be contesting it vigorously.
Well, I would just say to the folks that are tourists or residents of D.C. down there, based on what I've seen from reporters, our own, and social media, the block is hot down there. They got surveillance vehicles. There might be plainclothes officers waiting to snatch you up if you put your hand in the water. So just, you know, before Warren, this is the state that we find ourselves in. David Hearn, Norm Eisen, thank you both. Appreciate it. Coming up, Senator Elizabeth Warren on Trump's use of Department.