Transcription
And it did not end well for the madman at the center of the plot, the president with an enemy's list. The big difference between disgraced Republican President Richard Nixon and disgraced Republican President Donald Trump is that Richard Nixon did not spend his life locked in a Trumpian prison of stupidity, a prison from which Donald Trump has never even tried to escape.
Donald Trump could have had a moment in high school when he decided, "You know what? I should really learn something here." He could have had a moment like that in college. He could have decided to stay home one night and read a book instead of partying with Jeffrey Epstein. But he didn't. He never did.
Richard Nixon grew up poor. He inherited nothing. He worked hard in high school. He worked hard all the way through Whittier College and Duke Law School. Worked his way through. Richard Nixon was constantly trying to learn, but he never learned enough to contain his darkest criminal impulses that destroyed him in the end, forcing him to resign the presidency in scandal.
One big difference between Republican Donald Trump and Republican Richard Nixon is that Richard Nixon did not make his enemies list public. We are learning in new reporting from the Wall Street Journal that Donald Trump intended to send a personal private text to his attorney general, Pam Bondi, demanding the criminal prosecution of former FBI director James Comey, New York State Attorney General Leticia James, and California Senator Adam Schiff. But what he actually composed instead of a text, and what he actually sent, was a social media post that became available to the entire world. The Wall Street Journal reports Trump believed he had sent Bondi the message directly, addressing it to Pam, and was surprised to learn it was public. According to US officials familiar with the matter, the misfire provided a window into how, through command and chaos, Trump has executed a wholesale transformation of the Justice Department.
Donald Trump is going to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center tomorrow for another physical, only six months after his last physical, and he very proudly told reporters today that he expects to do very well on another cognitive exam to detect evidence of dementia. Luckily for Donald Trump, texting is not on the cognitive function exam.
Most important thing to know about the enemies list is that it was a badge of honor. When the full version of the Nixon enemies list was unveiled by the Nixon White House Council, John Dean, at the Watergate hearings, by that time, everyone was hoping they were on it. The next is a document dated September 9th, 1971. It's from Charles Coulson to John Dean, in which Mr. Coulson has checked, uh, in blue, those that he would give top priority on the enemy's list, and a, uh, an attached series of lists that were prepared by Mr. Coulson's office of what were deemed opponents or political enemies.
In a secret memo written by John Dean in the Nixon White House two years before the Watergate investigation, John Dean outlined, quote, "How we can use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies." And it didn't work. Some people had their telephones tapped. They had their taxes audited. But for just about all of the 200 or so people in the full version of the Nixon enemies list, nothing happened. In fact, they didn't get screwed. They thrived. Gene Hackman won his first Oscar while he was secretly on the Nixon enemies list. Gregory Peck didn't have to give back his Oscar because he was on Nixon's enemies list, along with Paul Newman and Steve McQueen, and New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath, who was erroneously listed as the New York Giants quarterback. That's how crazy the Nixon enemies list was.
Dozens of members of the news media were on the list when it came out, including three from the Boston Globe, which the Globe then lorded over other newspapers with fewer entries on the enemy's list. Sander Vanocur made the list to make NBC News proud. Twelve senators were on the list, including one Republican. None of them got screwed by Richard Nixon and his White House thugs in any way. Every black member of Congress was on the Nixon enemies list because, of course, the list was also racist. In addition to being crazy, Harvard could not have been prouder of its most famous professor at the time, economist John Kenneth Galbraith, for making the Nixon enemies list. Yale's president was on the Nixon enemies list. Harvard Law School's dean was on the Nixon enemies list. And the most famous surgeon in America at the time, Texas heart surgeon Michael DeBakey, for some Nixonian reason, was on Nixon's enemies list. The most famous conductor and composer in America at the time, Leonard Bernstein, was no one's enemy except Richard Nixon's, and he could not have been prouder.
And so the badges of honor are being awarded once again, and it will end the same way. Donald Trump's enemies list is the badge of honor of our era. And today, New York State Attorney General Leticia James got one of those badges when the same possibly illegally appointed acting US attorney who indicted James Comey indicted Attorney General James.
Attorney General James is being indicted in a three-and-a-half-page, two-count indictment for one count of bank fraud and one count of false statement to a financial institution because in a mortgage application, Attorney General James indicated that she would use a second home she was buying as a second home. And then at some time after that, after she bought the home, she apparently, according to the indictment, that home "was not occupied or used by James as a secondary residence and was instead used as a rental investment property," renting the property to a family of three.
Now, millions of people in America have done exactly that. Millions of people in America have obtained mortgages for their primary home or their secondary home and then decided at some point to rent out that house. And none of them thought they had to then immediately refinance their homes because they didn't. They were just renting out their property. The key words in this indictment that the most incompetent acting US attorney in history offered absolutely no proof of. The key words are "as James then knew." This indictment presents as a fact that Attorney General James knew when she was filling out the application form that she would later rent out the house. And if she didn't know that at the time that she was filling out the form, or if she just hadn't decided at the time if she was going to rent out the house, there is no possible crime in this case. This is a state-of-mind crime, and the prosecution doesn't know her state of crime of mind. The prosecution will never be able to prove what they claim is a fact.
The indictment says James represented and affirmed in uniform residential loan applications and related documents that the property would be used as a secondary residence. This is the key part. "When in truth and fact, as James then knew." Those are the most important words here. "As James then knew, the property was intended and used as an investment property." So, this entire case comes down to the prosecution having to prove what it claims as a fact that Attorney General James then knew, and that she intended to rent out the property. This is state of mind. You have to be able to read her state of mind to do this prosecution.
If you fill out your application for your home mortgage and you say the property is for your own use, and then after you own the property, if you decide to rent out that property, you have every legal right in the world to rent out that property. And no one can come along and prosecute you because your mortgage application didn't say you were going to at some point rent out your property. We live in a place that we like to call a free country. And one of your freedoms is renting out your property. And you can decide to do that at any time after you buy that property. And so imagine this prosecutor has never prosecuted a case in her life trying to convince a trial jury that Attorney General James willfully lied on the application and always knew that she was going to rent out the property. That is simply not a provable state of mind, and the prosecutor cannot call Attorney General James as a witness to ask her what her state of mind was. And so there's a very strong chance that this case, if it makes it to trial, will get a directed verdict from the judge, finding that the prosecution was incapable of proving what it claims in writing in the indictment is a fact: Attorney General James' state of mind.
So, Attorney General James is probably on her way to take her place in history with former FBI Director James Comey at the top of the Trump enemies list, and as the people who beat the madman in the White House in court, because that is what is likely to happen here. You can listen to all sorts of lawyers talk about this case, but it comes down to the same elements as the James Comey case. The first motions are going to be to disqualify this, uh, new acting US attorney. Those motions will very probably succeed. The other motions will be to, uh, identify this as a selective and prejudicial prosecution. Those motions will likely succeed, and that'll be the end of the case.
Attorney General James has already beaten Donald Trump in court for business fraud practices in the state of New York. Donald Trump's appealing that case in the state of New York. James Comey and Leticia James have the best defense lawyers you can possibly have in these cases. They're going to win. Donald Trump is going to lose. Don't worry about them. You don't have to worry about them.
There is much to summon our outrage about in the madness of the Trump presidency. But the people who Donald Trump has so far dragged into court could not possibly be better equipped or better financed to fight Donald Trump in court and crush him. What Donald Trump is doing to other people in court, what he's doing to immigrants in this country who show up at federal courts for their appointments and then get thrown to the floor by masked men and beaten and dragged away from their families and shipped off to countries that they've never been to. They deserve the full force of your outrage. Those people have no resources. They have no voice. They've done nothing wrong. They've tried to do everything right. They went to that federal court to do everything right, and their lives are already ruined. They cannot wear their deportation as a badge of honor. But the attorney general of the state of New York can.
This is nothing more than a continuation of the president's desperate weaponization of our justice system. He is forcing federal law enforcement agencies to do his bidding. All because I did my job as the New York State Attorney General. These charges are baseless, and the president's own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution at any cost. The president's actions are a grave violation of our constitutional order and have drawn sharp criticism from members of both parties. His decision to fire a United States attorney who refused to bring charges against me and replace them with someone who is blindly loyal not to the law but to the president is antithetical to the bedrock principles of our country. This is the time for leaders on both sides of the aisle to speak out against this blatant perversion of our system of justice. I stand strongly behind my office's litigation against the Trump Organization. We conducted a two-year investigation based on the facts and evidence, not politics. Judges have upheld the trial court's finding that Donald Trump, his company, and his two sons are liable for fraud. I'm a proud woman of faith, and I know that faith and fear cannot share the same space. And so today, I'm not fearful. I'm fearless. And as my faith teaches me, no weapon formed against me shall prosper. We will fight these baseless charges aggressively, and my office will continue to fiercely protect New Yorkers and their rights, and I will continue to do my job.
This blatant perversion of our justice system, that is Donald Trump's perversion. She's right. She has nothing to fear. That smile is real. She knows she's going to win. She knows Donald Trump's going to lose, and she knows she can wear her place on the Trump enemies list as a badge of honor for the rest of her life.
Robert Kennedy, the younger brother of President John F. Kennedy, began his career in government working for the worst member of the United States Senate. In 1953, Robert Kennedy worked on the committee staff of Republican Senator Joe McCarthy, a raging, lying alcoholic who was falsely accusing hundreds of people of being communists, and he really was ruining lives. Robert Kennedy grew disgusted by Senator McCarthy's tactics, and Robert Kennedy quit after six months. And now Robert Kennedy's son, Robert Kennedy Jr., who owes everything he has in this life, including his current occupation, to his father's name, happily works for the 21st-century version of Joe McCarthy. Robert Kennedy is the first Secretary of Health and Human Services who specializes in delivering life-threatening advice on medical issues. And today he once again demonstrated the price we are all now paying for the two biggest addictions of his life, heroin and fame.
Robert Kennedy Jr. was a heroin addict in high school when he was supposed to be studying biology and couldn't. Robert Kennedy Jr. was a heroin addict in college and couldn't possibly take a single pre-med course. Wouldn't have understood a word in those courses. But you don't have to have finished high school to know how insanely wrong he was today about women's bodies. It happened during the Trump cabinet show. They used to be called cabinet meetings, but Donald Trump has simply turned them into a TV show where, like his previous NBC show, the game is who can praise Donald Trump the most. Every member of the cabinet always embarrasses themselves on the Trump cabinet show, but today Robert Kennedy Jr. managed to outdo them all with this public burst of insanity.
I'll say one other thing about Tylenol, only because of this. This morning, before I came in here, somebody showed me a TikTok video of a pregnant woman at eight-and-a-half months pregnant. She is an associate professor at the Columbia Medical School, and she is saying, "F Trump and gobling Tylenol with her baby in her placenta." With her baby in her what? Her baby in her placenta. Either he doesn't know what a placenta is, or he doesn't know what a baby is. He's the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and he has no idea what a placenta is. And he's speaking to a president of the United States who also has absolutely no idea what a placenta is. And between them are two men in that cabinet who show no hint of having the slightest idea of what a placenta is. Saying the fetus is in her placenta during pregnancy is like saying it's in her foot.
Robert Kennedy Jr.'s father turned against the senator with an enemy's list in 1953. Joe McCarthy and Robert Kennedy Jr.'s his father hated Richard Nixon and ran for president in 1968, right up until the day he was assassinated, in the hope of stopping Richard Nixon from being the next president of the United States, because Senator Robert Kennedy knew what kind of person Richard Nixon was. Senator Robert Kennedy was right about Richard Nixon. Senator Robert Kennedy would not have been even slightly surprised to discover that Richard Nixon had an enemy's list. But Senator Robert Kennedy didn't live long enough to make it onto the Nixon White House enemies list. But his younger brother, Ted, was on the Nixon enemies list. Something Senator Ted Kennedy carried as a badge of honor for the rest of his long life. And there's Robert Kennedy Jr. today, worshiping at the altar of the most ignorant man who has ever sat in the center chair in the cabinet room. The man with the enemy's list.
Up next, Donald Trump's enemies list is public, and Donald Trump's Justice Department still has not produced Jeffrey Epstein's client list that the Donald, that Trump's attorney general said was sitting on her desk. Congressman Ro Khanna will join us next. List public, but he's still hiding the Epstein client list that his attorney general said on it did not end well, was sitting on her desk at the center of the plot. This is something Donald Trump has talked about. The DOJ may be releasing the list of Jeffrey Epstein's clients. Will that really happen? It's sitting on my desk right now to review. Um, that's been a directive, um, by President Trump. How long does it take to review a list? And Donald Trump's attorney general now is in her third day of abject silence about the possibility that she personally has seen photographs in the Epstein files of Donald Trump that were in Jeffrey Epstein's possession. Photographs of Donald Trump with young women.
Let me ask you something else. There's been public reporting that Jeffrey Epstein showed people photos of President Trump with half-naked young women. Do you know if the FBI found those photographs in their search of Jeffrey Epstein's safe or premises or otherwise? Have you seen any such thing? You know, Senator Whitehouse, you sit here and make salacious remarks once again, trying to slander President Trump left and right, when you're the one who was taking money from one of Epstein's closest confidants, I believe. I could be wrong, correct me, Reid Hoffman, who was with Jeffrey Epstein on multiple occasions. And the senator sitting right next to you tried to block the flight logs from being released. Yeah, you're grilling me on President Trump and some photograph with Epstein. Come on. The question is, did the FBI find those photographs that have been discussed publicly by a witness who claimed Jeffrey Epstein showed them to him? You don't know anything about that? Okay. Didn't dare say a word. She was lying, of course, about the contributions. Senator Whitehouse, that never happened. That was the only question in her Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday that left her in fear of even saying a word about it.
Joining us now is Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna of California. He's a member of the House Oversight Committee. Uh, Congressman Khanna, when I see these, uh, you know, cross-campus hearings, I wonder what's the reaction in the House when you see this moment in the Senate? Uh, that moment about, uh, the photographs that Senator Whitehouse, uh, isolated was really quite stunning. Well, Lawrence, you know, Senator Whitehouse, he's not someone for drama or sensationalism. He was asking a simple factual question, and Pam Bondi basically didn't respond. She just started hurling accusations against Senator Whitehouse, baseless accusations, and everyone else because she didn't want to answer the question about whether there were pictures of Donald Trump with young girls. Obviously, there's a reason she didn't deny it. And then today, she has the gall to tweet out that she believes in one tier of justice for all Americans. What about the rich and powerful men in the Epstein files? Obviously, she doesn't believe in one tier of justice for them. Uh, as we go forward, uh, with, we are now, as I think people know, one vote away in the House of Representatives from, uh, the House voting to have the Justice Department turn over the Epstein files. And Marjorie Taylor Greene, who supports you on this, on on getting the Epstein files, uh, today talked about, "What's the delay?" Uh, is is is this part of why, uh, the speaker is not bringing Republicans back into the House? Let's listen to what she said. Uh, Congressman Khanna, we, I have to say, uh, Marjorie Taylor Greene making sense is a whole new experience for me. Uh, what was your reaction to that? Well, she's just telling the truth. You know, Lawrence, I've got to be honest. I'm a little nervous coming on your show because I think last week I came on and I said Marjorie Taylor Greene, myself, Thomas Massie are going to have a press conference on, uh, this week with the survivors, and the day that we get the 218 signatures, I'm convinced the speaker's staff is monitoring this show and others and they said, "Oh, we can't have that." And so we're just not going to have Congress come in to vote. And I think Marjorie Taylor Greene is upset about that. Look, the speaker was asked this morning by a mother, almost in tears, a Republican mother, saying, "The troops are not being paid. Can we at least get Congress in to pay the troops?" And they don't want to have Congress in to pay the troops because they're afraid of swearing in Adeline Grava, because they're afraid of a vote on the Epstein files. It is just so rotten, and it really raises the question, what is there to hide? Congressman Ro Khanna, thank you very much for joining us tonight. Thank you. And coming up today, the Republican speaker of the House, as you just heard, finally had to face people suffering in the government shutdown that he has created. That's next.
Today, the speaker of the House was finally forced to face the pain of his decision to shut down the government. "Hi, Mr. Johnson. Um, so my question or comments are, um, related to what you said yesterday about not being open to pass any legislation, um, to ensure that military gets paid. Um, I'm sure you can tell by my voice, I'm very shaky. Just want you to hear a little bit about my family. I have two medically fragile children. I have a husband who actively serves this country. He suffers from PTSD from his two tours in Afghanistan. If we see a lapse in pay come the 15th, my children do not get the medication that's needed for them to live their life because we live paycheck to paycheck. I heard you earlier say that you side with President Trump on anything that he says. Well, I just read an article this morning that said he absolutely wholeheartedly believes that there needs to be legislation put in so that we do not miss a paycheck. You have the power to do that. And as a Republican, I am very disappointed in my party and I'm very disappointed in you because you do have the power to call the House back. You did that or you refused to do that just for a show. I am begging you to pass this legislation. My kids could die. We don't have the credit because of the medical bills that I have to pay regularly. You could stop this, and you could be the one that could say military is getting paid. And I think that it is awful. And the audacity of someone who makes six figures a year to do this to military families is insane."
Today, Democratic Congressman Greg Casar of Texas went to Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn's office in San Antonio to deliver letters from Texans worried about their healthcare. "Dear Senator Cornyn, I am a Texan and a mom asking you to stop huge cuts to Medicaid. If the $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts goes through that you voted for, it could be devastating for my son and for people with disabilities across Texas. My name is Diane, and my son has severe physical disabilities that affect his ability to care for himself and live independently. He relies on Medicaid not just to see a doctor and stay healthy, but also for the services that allow him to live here in our community and not be put away in an institution. We cannot and will not let the progress that has been made over the last 35 years by disability rights activists like Justin Dart and Judy Heumann be destroyed by this Trump administration. Please help us fight and save Medicaid. Sincerely, D." [Applause]
Joining us now is Democratic Congressman Greg Casar of Texas. He is the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Thank you very much for joining us tonight, Congressman. Uh, did you manage to get those letters to Senator Cornyn? Look, it isn't normal. Uh, you don't normally see members of Congress trying to deliver letters to other members of Congress or having rallies outside of the offices of other members of Congress. But these aren't normal times. Senator Cornyn has been avoiding talking to his own constituents. So we tried to deliver these. They need their healthcare. And not only weren't we even allowed to the front desk, they wouldn't even accept the letters. They refused to hear from their own constituents. And so these clearly aren't normal times. So Democrats can't just act normally. We have to make this fight very clear to the American people that senators like John Cornyn are fighting hard right now to keep the government shut down, to take away your healthcare, and serve billionaires, while Democrats have to show that we're willing to fight to make sure everyday people are heard, whether you're Democrat or Republican. So, it's one thing for a Republican senator to kind of hide out, uh, from constituents if their next, uh, re-election campaign is five years away. Uh, but Senator Cornyn's running now, uh, for re-election next year. How long can he avoid his constituents on this with a Senate campaign going on?