Sheldon Whitehouse Breaks Down The Two Sides In The 'Internal Food Fight' Within The 'Far-Right'

Forbes Breaking News

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) spoke about a 'food fight' within the 'far-right' in the United States.

Transcript

00:00Senator Whitehouse.

00:01Thank you very much.

00:04Welcome.

00:06We are here in the Senate Judiciary Committee in interesting times,

00:13given the food fight that has erupted in the far right

00:22between what I would call the Leonard Leo big polluter faction

00:31of the court capture effort

00:35and the Trump mega election denial faction of the far right.

00:46And it's going to be interesting to watch as different candidates come forward,

00:52whether they look more like Leonard Leo big polluter faction sorts

00:58or whether they look more like mega election denial sorts.

01:04But clearly, when you've got the president blowing up Leonard Leo

01:10as somebody who hates America, something is going on.

01:16What we do know is that probably $600 million was spent

01:21in the dark money court capture scheme that has been operating now

01:27for well over a decade, well over two decades, actually, in this country.

01:36And that still funds front groups that come before the Supreme Court

01:41on a regular basis and little orchestrated flotillas

01:44to give the justices the message as to what it is that the big donors

01:50behind that whole enterprise want.

01:55And it may be that what President Trump is beginning to notice

02:00is that the justices that he put on the Supreme Court

02:05are actually more responsive to the Leo polluter operation

02:13than they are to Trump and his MAGA allies.

02:19If you look at the record, the fossil fuel industry essentially wins

02:24every time something important to them gets before the Supreme Court.

02:30And Trump is not winning every time.

02:34And it may have come to his notice that there's a bit of a difference

02:37between who's winning all the time and who isn't.

02:43And there's every reason to believe that during Trump won,

02:49Leonard Leo and Don McGahn, who was his White House legal counsel,

02:55were actually operating for the benefit of the Koch brothers

03:01and the big polluters, that side of the operation,

03:05and that that's where the loyalty and the policy fell.

03:12There doesn't seem to be any doubt any longer

03:14that this, in fact, was a political operation.

03:20Just recently, the Wall Street Journal,

03:23which has long been the mouthpiece of the Leo polluter side

03:26of this current squabble,

03:30published an interview

03:32declaiming that those judges have achieved goals

03:36for the conservative movement

03:37that have been on the agenda since the 1970s.

03:40They're trying to make Trump happy

03:42with the decisions that he made

03:45and to reassure him that this is a really big Trump achievement,

03:51whereas Trump and some of his allies

03:53are starting to recognize

03:54maybe this wasn't such a Trump achievement after all.

03:58Maybe he's the one who got played in this game.

04:02Maybe all those front groups

04:04that are appearing before the Supreme Court

04:06in those little flatillas

04:08and are getting those wins

04:10are actually reporting to somebody completely else

04:14than Trump and Trump world.

04:18So this is indeed a very interesting times.

04:26You are affiliated with the Teneo Group,

04:30which is a Leonard Leo group.

04:32Interestingly, in the recent hearing

04:35that my colleague just referred to

04:37about the newly discovered shock, shock,

04:44that there are national injunctions going on here,

04:47the two Republican witnesses,

04:49one was sat in a chair paid for by Leonard Leo

04:52and his marble trust operation that he ran,

04:56runs, billion-dollar slush fund for him

04:59from a billionaire, pretty sweet deal.

05:01And the other one wouldn't answer

05:05where his chair money came from.

05:06It got laundered through donors' trust,

05:08the so-called ATM of the far right,

05:10and he wouldn't even answer

05:11whether he knew or not

05:13where the money for his chair was coming from.

05:17So my default proposition is that

05:19if he won't say,

05:20it probably is also Leonard Leo

05:23and the marble trust operation.

05:25So even in our hearings right here,

05:27we have this very potent internal food fight

05:32between the Leo polluter faction

05:35and the MAGA election denial faction.

05:39And I just wanted to take my time

05:41and point this out

05:41because I think it's highly revelatory

05:44about what has been done

05:45to the judicial branch of government

05:47by the far right.

05:48Thank you, Chairman.

05:50Senator Schmidt.

05:52I want to first say

05:53I want to first say

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