Transcription
President Trump continuing to demand these prosecutions of his own opponents. The DOJ on this blatant tear, new charges against the New York Attorney General, Leticia James, former Director Comey, and other moves against officials who have crossed Trump. News of the DOJ pushing a grand jury to indict Trump's own former aid. John Bolton was a big deal going into the weekend. Trump also now pushing for new charges against Democratic Senator Adam Schiff, calling on the quote authorities that he controls to investigate the senator.
And this comes after Trump named Schiff among two other people who have since been indicted. Schiff was an especially prominent leader of Trump's first impeachment, which is of course a lawful process where Congress can discuss or seek removal of a sitting president. But Trump's admitting in public to an unlawful plot to try to get Schiff indicted for that and regardless of evidence. Now, abusing powers to charge and jail individuals to threaten, silence, or kneecap opponents is much more associated with foreign autocrats than American government. Trump has blatantly admitted his goals to go get critics without even claiming to name reasons or specific crimes. Systems that punish or disappear opponents are not considered very democratic, and elections don't mean much if the top rivals to a potential autocrat are just stuck in jail. An election in that format doesn't work very well. And that's what we've seen in Putin's Russia.
Donald Trump's moves don't come in isolation. They come as he tries to seize powers to keep troops and federal agents across US streets. Even as some judges are limiting those powers as we go. Now, this is serious. It is happening and it is not popular. While Trump has been bluntly pushing hard because the DOJ wouldn't do any of these cases under the traditional rules with many of the long-standing and nonpartisan staff up until very recently they weren't getting these charges remember. But his own team knows that this is unpopular and they are denying what is happening partly apparently because to admit it would make it even worse.
Take Vice President JD Vance. Remember, he's a Yale educated lawyer who said in 2016 he worried Trump was either cynical like Nixon or worse a quote morally reprehensible person who could be Vance infamously said quote America's Hitler unquote. Now Vance reversed himself once Trump came to power and unlike Donald Trump today who admits these revenge goals are based on the people. Go get these people. He names them. Not any type of evidence, not any type of legal process. To advance now claims against the evidence that it's all just normal law and facts.
>> Is the Department of Justice acting on orders from the president to prosecute his political opponents with the final 30 seconds we have left?
>> No. We're driven by the law and the facts of the case. I think if you look at the case, the fact that a far-left grand jury in a far-left area indicted Leticia James and James Comey, if you look at the fact that James Comey obviously lied under oath, Leticia James obviously committed mortgage fraud, what we're doing is letting the law drive the prosecution decisions in the Department of Justice. You know who we haven't prosecuted? Joe Biden or Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.
The Trump Vance DOJ of course is the source of contradicting Vance's claims. The law and the facts were what drove us up to this point and without any recent indictments for several months on these cases. I'm not talking in general, but on the Comey and James case, there was a process and the law and the facts did not result in charges even in a DOJ with a Trump attorney general and Pam Bondi's picks for who should be US attorney. And so, if you watch the news, you know what happened next and why Vance is wrong. The Trump DOJ swapped in this new, very inexperienced prosecutor who would do precisely what DOJ would not do before, what the facts and law had not deduced before.
So Trump's mindset is clear. He's agitated to indict opponents since his first campaign. It has taken this long, however, to distort and sort of restaff the DOJ to find people willing to risk their law licenses and maybe more to do what he wanted.
>> It's just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country.
>> Because you'd be in jail. Trump admitted that on the campaign's biggest stage, the debate, that was 16, of course. And while he may want a Putin-like DOJ approach to any and all of his opponents, whether they're running directly against him or the Republicans next term or wherever it leads, judges are limiting some of the related efforts he's making.
>> I appreciate you and I've got your back. [Applause] Yeah,
>> I love you more.
>> So, good evening everyone.
>> It is um so good to be here with all of you. Standing with my very good friend, my little brother and one of the boldest voices in the history of New York politics, Zoran Mandani. [Applause]
>> We are here tonight because we are ready to turn the page on the cynical, broken politics of the past. Yeah,
>> We are ready to build a city that works for the people who actually make it run. Working people, the teachers, the nurses, the drivers, the home health aids, the firefighters, the police. Not just for those at the top, but for working people who built this city from the ground up. And we are living through twin crises. A crisis of affordability and a crisis of wage stagnation.
>> Rent is up. And yes, it is too damn high. [Applause] Groceries cost more. And too many families are living from one paycheck to the next. And child care is too expensive. And too many New Yorkers are leaving the city because of failed policies of this city and state. [Applause]
And at the same time, we see powerful voices trying to silence truth and punish dissent and yes, weaponize justice for political gain. [Applause]
>> We are witnessing the fraying of our democracy, the erosion of our system of government. This, my friends, is a defining moment in our history. Let us stand together to defend our rights, to protect every safeguard, every institution, every immigrant,
>> every norm, and every rule of law. You see, I know what it feels like to be attacked for just doing your job. [Music]
>> But I also know what it feels like to overcome adversity.
>> And so I stand on solid rock and I will not bow. I will not break. I will not bend. I will not capitulate. I will not give in. I will not give up. [Applause] For me. You got to come to all of us. All of us. Every single one of us. We're all in this together. You see, I've learned to stand on the shoulders of my ancestors who've been before, who came before me and weathered the storm.
>> And despite being seared with scars, they survived. And if they can survive, so will we. [Music] [Applause]
So over the last few days, I've summoned their strength and their courage, and I will keep fighting for justice. I will keep fighting for New Yorkers. I will keep fighting the aggressive policies of Washington DC. And I will not stop. I won't give up and I won't give in.
>> So, we have no time to linger and focus on pettiness and revenge. We've got to press on, press forward, continue the journey, claim the victory. Triumph over fear and courage. Courage, my friend, is resistance to fear. [Music]
>> And so I fear no man. [Applause] I see the courage that is embodied in Zoron and that's why I am supporting him. He is a a leader fighting.
>> What we're witnessing here is a loss for Trump because again he doesn't view the courts as the actual venue in which a legal case is fought. He and he learned this the hard way with his civil cases and at least the one criminal case that he faced where his conduct affected the trial. He views the public arena as the real place where a trial happens. It doesn't matter that that leads to potential violence and threats, intimidation, outside narratives polluting the deliberation between the jurors or, you know, and the the the argument between the prosecution prosecution side and the defense side. All of that. He doesn't care. He sees that not as a bug, but as a feature. So, he would leak information about a judge's clerk to try and like ramp up his base and scare them. There's a reason why in Trump's cases the juries were made anonymous. There's a reason the judge at least in one of the cases said it that Trump's conduct and the cond conduct of his base has made this necessary. The judge effectively saying I don't trust you not to threaten these people and hurt them. This is a man that sees the court as a public opinion. So when he went after Comey and when he went after Leticia James, he wanted them to hide. He wanted them to be quiet. He wanted to silence his critics, thinking to himself, if I silence them, I win either way. Maybe I get them into court and I convict them and I get to lock up my enemies on BS, you know, charges and all of that. But even if I don't, you know, some of these cases can take a long time between ramping up the trial and everything, and if I can silence a high-profile enemy like Leticia James for weeks, months, maybe even years, depending on how how you know the trial schedule works out, it could be more than a year. Well, that's a win. Even if it gets thrown out on day one of the trial, if for the rest of 2025 into 2026, I scare her into silence. Well, then I've already won. I'm not actually trying to win a fair trial. I'm trying to use the courts to intimidate my enemies, and in that case, I win either way.
But James said no. Not only is she not pleading guilty to stay silent and all that and beg for mercy like like Eric Adams essentially did with Trump, she is going out there and speaking and saying, "No, I do not fear you, Donald. I'm going to fight this and I'm going to fight this in court, yes, but I'm not going to stay silent because I'm a public figure. I have the right and I have the responsibility to speak up against tyrants like you." And so she's doing it not just through her lawyers. She's getting up on stage and she knows Trump to Trump's face metaphorically saying, "Usob, I'm gonna take you down." And I'm very proud of