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The Big Weekend Show 10/4/25 FULL END SHOW | BREAKING NEWS TRUMP October 4, 2025
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00:00Along with Kevin Quick, Alicia Cunha, and Joe Concha, and welcome to the first hour of the
00:04Big Weekend Show. The big story tonight is a Fox News alert. We are monitoring for more anti-ice
00:11riots in Chicago as protests continue for nearly 100 consecutive days in Portland.
00:17Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker says President Trump intends to federalize 300 Illinois National
00:22Guard members at any moment now. Tensions are escalating in the Windy City after a female
00:27driver, allegedly armed with a semi-automatic weapon, tried to ram into a law enforcement
00:32vehicle. DHS says officers were boxed in by 10 cars and forced to exit their vehicle while firing
00:38defensive shots. Now, officials have now reportedly restricted the airspace over Chicago, but in the
00:43nearby suburb Broadview, the police chief is threatening to tear down defensive fencing that's
00:49holding back protesters from the ICE facility there. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem even paid a visit to
00:54Broadview and was barred from using the bathroom.
00:59Can we use the restroom?
01:00You cannot.
01:02We can?
01:02F***.
01:04Okay.
01:06Great. Thank you.
01:08Interesting.
01:10That's why Governor Pritzker says this cooperation in keeping people safe.
01:14Unbelievable. We have complete coverage with Chief Border Riptual Agent Greg Bovino, but first
01:20we go to Christina Coleman. Christina.
01:23Hi, Tommy. The DOJ is launching an investigation into this latest attack on law enforcement. DHS
01:30Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin says it happened this morning when officers were boxed in
01:35by 10 cars in Broadview, Illinois, the same area where anti-ice crowds have been gathering for days.
01:42McLaughlin said, quote, agents were unable to move their vehicle and exited the car. One of the drivers
01:47who rammed the law enforcement vehicle was armed with a semi-automatic weapon. McLaughlin says law
01:53enforcement fired defensive shots at an armed U.S. citizen who drove herself to the hospital to get
01:58care for her wounds. McLaughlin also said the armed woman was named in a CBP intelligence bulletin last
02:04week for doxing agents and posting online, hey to all my gang, let's F them up. Don't let them take
02:11anyone. Things also got violent outside of the ice facility in Broadview, Illinois again early
02:17yesterday morning. Just take a look at that. There you have it. Anti-ice protesters clashing with law
02:22enforcement. Approximately 250 anti-ice protesters gathered there. Federal agents fired pepper balls
02:29and tear gas to break up the crowd that was blocking federal operations. Today, Illinois Governor
02:35J.B. Pritzker put out a statement saying the Trump administration intends to federalize 300 members
02:41of the Illinois National Guard in the coming hours. Pritzker said, quote, this morning the Trump
02:46administration's Department of War gave me an ultimatum. Call up your troops or we will. It is
02:52absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a governor send military troops within our borders
02:58and against our will. Now, Pritzker maintains that there's no need for military troops on the ground
03:02in Illinois, and he says he won't call up the National Guard. He's doing everything he can to
03:10foment hostility towards these ICE agents to undermine federal law enforcement, to undermine
03:15federal law. Didn't want the National Guard to come in. He should support the law enforcement
03:21agents of ICE, protect his citizens, but instead he's putting politics first.
03:26Yeah, many Democratic lawmakers are against the Trump administration's large crackdown on illegal
03:33immigration. Take a listen. This is not about deportation. This is not about community safety.
03:41This president has declared war on poor people, and it's going to be working people that are going
03:46to lead the charge to transform this country and to push back against tyranny. This is the time now.
03:51But again, many conservatives, many on the right, do not agree with that assessment. Now,
03:58last month, DHS ICE and Border Patrol started Operation Midway Blitz in the Chicago area to crack down
04:03on illegal immigration, and since then they've arrested more than 800 illegal aliens, including
04:09many who they refer to as the worst of the worst. Tommy? Christina Coleman, thank you so much.
04:16All right, joining us now is Chief Border Agent Greg Bovino. Greg, first of all,
04:20thank you so much for everything that you and your agents do. We are so grateful. It cannot be an
04:26easy job, but we know that you guys are the best of the best. I think as America watches what's
04:31happening in Chicago and in Portland, and we've seen it across the country, but those seem to be
04:36the hot spots right now. We wonder, National Guard, you know, they're telling us that they're not
04:42needed, but your agents on the ground, your facilities, would the National Guard certainly help your
04:48agents do their job and do it safely? Well, Tommy, thanks for having me. Absolutely,
04:56the National Guard is going to help. When you have large, unruly crowds like that, folks that are
05:02carrying firearms mere feet away from Border Patrol agents and ICE officers, folks that want to hurt,
05:09maim, and kill law enforcement officers, and that's where we're at right now, Tommy. Absolutely,
05:14we do need those National Guard members. Right. Well, when it looks like a war zone,
05:19you need to protect your agents and you need to protect those federal facilities. I'm wishing the
05:25best and I'm hoping it doesn't come to that, but President Trump has made it very clear he will
05:29defend the agents and he will defend the facilities. So I think now is the time, if not any moment now.
05:35Kevin? Yeah, let me dive in on this. I love what you said there, Tommy, and I think this is super
05:41important as we take a look at these pictures of ongoing protests. I just want to ask you this,
05:47agent, from your perspective, are you getting the kind of help that you would expect from leadership
05:52in places like Portland in particular, but also in Chicago? Because what I've noticed as a resident
05:57of Washington, D.C., they weren't necessarily thrilled about it, but the truth is the National
06:04Guard has made things demonstratively better for the citizens, and that's the point here, is it not?
06:09That is indeed the point. This started in Los Angeles, if you remember, with the deployment of
06:16several thousand troops to Los Angeles to protect those federal buildings, to protect
06:21ICE and Border Patrol agents. We're seeing that same thing now in Portland and in Chicago. If locals
06:28won't step in to help do that job, then we will. And that's what's happening right now is we're going
06:35to conduct this mission. This is going to be a successful mission, and we won't be deterred from
06:40that mission. Those National Guard troops are going to be integral for that mission.
06:45Greg, it's Alicia Acuna here. Quick question, because I understand that you're in Portland
06:51overseeing the operations there, but you also oversee Chicago. So considering those two cities right now and
06:57what's going on there, it appears that these protesters are more and more emboldened because
07:03they are realizing they're not getting much pushback from, well, in Portland's case, from local police,
07:09but also from local leaders. How concerned are you that in other areas, other cities in the United
07:14States, that ICE officers could be targeted if there are leaders there who refuse to stand
07:20behind federal law enforcement? Alicia, it's very concerned because not only are our law enforcement
07:28officers being targeted, death threats, and actually every day on the street, they're being
07:33attacked. Just in Chicago yesterday, we had several assaults on federal officers. And then again today
07:39with the shooting this morning, assaults on federal officers. When we have elected leadership
07:44that continually says things like we're jackbooted thugs or Nazis or whatever they say, it appeals to
07:52those weaker-minded constituents, and they end up paying the price yet again. And something else I
07:58think that bears mentioning here is Border Patrol has been around for 101 years. We've operated in
08:04non-permissive environments for those 101 years, and we're very adept at carrying out a mission in a
08:11tough, difficult environment. Same thing with our fellow law enforcement partners and some of those
08:16constituents that are falling victim to that crazy talk by politicians are finding out the hard way
08:22what not to do. That young suspect this morning found out very quickly what not to do. So I would
08:30implore those elected officials and those so-called community leaders to knock it off. Greg, it's Joe
08:36Concha. As far as Mayor Johnson, who currently sits at six percent approval in Chicago, which is really
08:43hard to do, J.B. Pritzker, who really wants to be president, is the non-appreciation from these elected
08:48leaders that you speak of, is that having a negative effect on Border Patrol, ICE agents, or are they emboldened
08:55to do their job even tougher as a result of not being appreciated the way they should in terms of
09:01expelling violent criminals from this country, from the state of Illinois, from the city of Chicago?
09:10Joe, no effect on law enforcement. We see it as a difficult situation, but absolutely no effect.
09:18We're going to conduct that mission in Chicago and anywhere else we need to do. Those individuals are
09:25so out of touch with some of the folks in their community. I'm seeing a very subtle change there
09:31in their communities. A lot of those inner city American citizen residents are actually coming up
09:36to Border Patrol agents and ICE agents and saying, thank you for being here. Now, they're telling us
09:42that, but those elected leaders don't seem to be getting the message. But they're going to get the
09:49message because we're seeing an upwelling of support that we've never seen before.
09:54Wow. Greg, that's great to hear. And I think it's underreported also. But there's also chaos in
10:00Portland right now as Antifa continues to target the ICE facility there. The National Guard is
10:05expected to arrive any day. What are you seeing on the ground in Portland, Greg? But also, how is the
10:11coordination with local law enforcement? We assume that local law enforcement would want to help their
10:17federal partners. But in some cities around this country, unfortunately, it doesn't look like that's
10:21the case. Can you give us a little bit more detail on what you're seeing as far as that coordination?
10:27Sure. Coordination in Portland and other cities is, especially Portland, is almost nil. Oftentimes,
10:35the Border Patrol agents, ICE agents, and then our federal allied partners, they're out there alone
10:40dealing with this. And they have been in some situations for several months now. So we would like
10:45to see that coordination. But when there's not that coordination, that's when National Guard troops
10:51and additional Border Patrol agents and ICE agents come into the situation to take care of it. If they
10:57can't take care of that community and deal with that criminal element, we will. Greg, it's Kevin again.
11:03I just want to ask you about the Windy City. That's an operation that you know very, very well. And yet,
11:09I think from an outsider's point of view, when you hear what the governor, J.B. Pritzker,
11:14has to say, when you see the recalcitrance of the local leadership like Mayor Johnson,
11:18I'm just curious, what's your message to them as they continue with their behavior and their
11:23non-support to put the people that they are charged with protecting at great risk?
11:33Those individuals like the governor or the mayor, they feed violence. They foment this violence.
11:40And I kind of scratch my head as to why they would do that. But they are actually feeding
11:45this violence and trying to get people hurt. I wonder if they actually want Border Patrol agents
11:51and ICE officers hurt. At this point, I've almost came to that conclusion. It's a sad fact. But they
11:57continually, they continually banter that rhetoric around. And I've not heard anything on the suspects
12:05that we've arrested the bad people and bad things that we've arrested by the thousands. I know they
12:10said it was 800. It's over a thousand arrests now in Chicago. Just yesterday, I was with Secretary Noem.
12:17We arrested an aggravated felon who had spent three years in prison for a firearms offense,
12:23walking the streets with immunity. What does the governor have to say about that? You never hear
12:28them say anything about that. That's awfully concerning to me. You know, Greg, it's Alicia
12:33again. I think that there are probably a lot of people out there watching what's happening,
12:38watching what's happening in Chicago. They've seen what's been going on in Portland. And they're just
12:42sort of struck by seeing the fact that there are actual Democratic leaders in this country
12:48who are not showing concern for the safety of actually they're also their own constituents.
12:54Sometimes you have ICE officers. They live in this community and then they go into this area,
12:59especially in Portland, which there's kind of this bubble around it where the local police won't
13:03protect them. And I'm picking up on Kevin's point a little bit to that effect. But also,
13:08Camilla Walmsley, the director of the ICE office out there in Portland, told our Bill Malusian that a
13:14lot of times you'll have these protest groups of about 50 people. It can turn into a thousand very
13:19quickly and there are only 20 people protecting the building. And that's almost impossible when
13:25you're just talking from a number standpoint. How concerned are you right now?
13:31We're always concerned about that with the advent of social media and the ability for
13:36rapid communication. These crowds do form and they form very rapidly. So there's another reason why
13:43we have National Guard troops being deployed to various cities, whether it's Chicago or Portland,
13:49is to deal with that very situation, that very situation that is caused by a politician that says
13:55on one hand, they don't want us wearing a mask and then on the other hand, not saying anything
14:00about agents being doxxed. So we're taking action when they won't. And I think that's the bottom line here
14:07is we're taking action when they won't. Luckily, we do have good leadership, whether it's President
14:13Trump, Secretary Noem, good, strong leadership that's restoring law and order to America's cities,
14:19whether it's Portland, Chicago, Los Angeles or nationwide. The mission continues. We're going
14:25to make this nation a safer place. Chief Patrol Agent Greg Bovino, thank you so much for joining us
14:30tonight. And we're praying for you and all of the agents out there working so hard to protect and
14:35defend our country and communities. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks, Greg.
14:40Joe, I want to go to you on this first. I tell you what, this is so gosh darn infuriating to me
14:47that these leaders don't look at our men and women of ICE and Border Patrol, our federal agents,
14:52they don't look at them as people, really. In an attempt to just dunk and flex on President
14:58Trump and his immigration policy that the American people overwhelmingly voted for about a year ago,
15:03by the way. They're putting these people in danger. And to Alicia's point about it starts
15:08with a small group, but then pretty soon it's a thousand people. And they expect these board
15:13patrol agents, these federal agents who are out there doing their job, they just want to leave
15:16them to the wolves. I find that so upsetting. Especially, Tommy, after what we saw in Dallas,
15:22when ICE agents were targeted to be murdered, executed, right? And we saw it several times,
15:29actually, in Texas and other places. And we don't hear thank yous like we should. Because think about
15:35the job that they are doing right now. They are removing violent criminals in terms of murderers
15:41and rapists and child molesters out of this country who are here illegally. That's like being against a
15:47cancer cure. Like, why wouldn't you want these tumors removed from society? So yeah, the president and
15:53Trump should be thanked. Instead, I don't get the flex at all. And then they have the audacity to say
15:58that Antifa actually isn't real. It's just a theory. It's an idea. Pretty sure they're real,
16:04right? Pretty sure. You're just like the protests were mostly peaceful in 2020, by the way,
16:09as things were burning in the background. Mostly peaceful fiery protests. That's right.
16:12Exactly right. Thank you, CNN. Listen, let me just add this. I think the biggest problem
16:16with what you said, which is I couldn't agree more. The biggest problem here is they are pretending as if
16:21their own constituents. Don't forget, these agents, they live in Chicagoland. They live in
16:28Portland. They live in Multnomah County. They are your constituents. I heard Tom Holman mentioned
16:34earlier, if you're a secretary, if you're somebody who's working in support staff and you're working
16:39for ICE or you're working for the Guard, these are your residents. These are your citizens. You owe them
16:46a debt. And that is the safety and the protection of your taxpayers and your community members. And so
16:53when they play politics with people's safety, it's reprehensible. It is. And Alicia, I can't help
16:59but point out Democrats after they were beaten so badly last November, a few of them were willing
17:05to acknowledge that they got immigration wrong and willing to acknowledge that the American people were
17:10fed up with open borders and they were fed up with the willy nilly. But it doesn't seem to me that
17:15they're implementing any of that whatsoever, any acknowledgement of what happened last November.
17:22In fact, it seems that they're tripling down on what they did under the Biden years
17:25and expecting to curry favor with the people who overwhelmingly voted for exactly what we're
17:30seeing right now. Yeah. And they have no interest in coming forward and protecting the safety
17:35of the people who live in their communities, which is they're making the people who are under attack
17:41the bad guys, which is striking. And then you also think about, especially important,
17:45Portland, there's this six block radius around the ice facility where the police will not go.
17:50So think about it. You have an ice officer in there who will not get protection from the police. But if
17:55that officer takes off their uniform, goes six blocks out, the police will protect them if they're
18:00under attack. What is that? How is that happening here in the United States? It's so ridiculous.
18:04Let's also mention that there are businesses in these communities that whether they support immigration
18:09policy or not, they would like to operate their business and they can't do it when you have 100
18:13consecutive nights of this. No. And there are there are residents because I work on the western
18:17part of the United States. So we've had crews there this whole time. And there are residents who go down
18:22and beg the protesters to shut up because they just want to go to sleep. They're not talking about
18:28politics. They're talking about noise. They're like, somebody stop this. I got to go to bed.
18:32And remember, if they wanted to shut this down, this is the thing, what the president proved in
18:36Washington and has proved around the country, if they want to shut this down,
18:40they can shut this down. They need to act and act now and act strongly. Otherwise,
18:44you're disregarding, again, the safety of your own people. And if you want to change immigration
18:49policy, lighting things on fire isn't going to do it. You got to win an election. Maybe try doing it
18:53that way. Oh, we're fired up. And we've got three hours of being fired up to go. Coming up on this
18:58jam packed big weekend show, President Trump is demanding Hamas accept every condition of his peace deal
19:05as the horrific October 7th attack nears the two-year mark. But first, Trump is getting the
19:10upper hand in the shutdown battle on Capitol Hill as mass firings are expected to start, well,
19:15any minute now.
19:17Last 23 minutes after the hour now, mass firings in the federal workforce could happen as soon as
19:21tonight as a result of the Schumer shutdown. Democrats think they're slowing down the MAGA agenda,
19:27but they're actually doing the opposite. President Trump says he's going to use this
19:31unprecedented opportunity to consolidate control in the Oval Office and make doge-like cuts to federal
19:38agencies. The Office of Management and Budget, as we've said repeatedly, is working with the agencies
19:45and our cabinet secretaries to identify where cuts, unfortunately, can and have to be made.
19:51We're not going to tolerate waste, fraud, and abuse in our government. We're having to do a massive
19:55review of the bureaucracy to be good stewards of the American taxpayer dollar. And it's the Democrats
20:00who have forced the White House and the president into this position by voting to shut the government
20:05down.
20:05Caroline Levitt there, senior national correspondent Rich Edson, joining us from the North Lawn
20:11with the very latest on this story. Hey, Rich.
20:12Hey, good evening, Kevin. Well, Congress has left Washington largely as the partial government shutdown
20:19is just about to set into its second week. The administration and the White House are warning
20:24of an additional round of government worker cuts, though the target this round are unclear.
20:30The administration has halted federal funding to more than a dozen states, all run by Democrats.
20:35Democrats in Congress say they are fighting to reverse Republican cuts to health care.
20:39Republicans say they're fighting for illegal aliens.
20:43By the CBO's estimate, about 1.4 million illegal aliens were receiving Medicaid benefits. They were
20:51cheating the system. And what that means is that less resources were available for the people,
20:55the Americans who actually needed it most. So we did the common sense thing, the right thing, the
21:00just thing, and we put it in the law. And the president signed that, gladly signed it into law.
21:06They want to repeal it. They want to give those resources back to illegal aliens.
21:12Democrats say federal law largely blocks illegal immigrants from federal health programs and that
21:16there's no provision in their plan that would fund their health care. Democrats say their proposal
21:22would extend expiring Obamacare subsidies and reverse the Republican Medicaid cuts in this
21:27year's tax and spending law. The House Republican partisan spending bill is a dirty piece of
21:36legislation that continues to gut the health care of the American people. And it's riddled with toxic
21:42right wing Republican priorities. Much of this fight also hinges on who Democrats and Republicans
21:49consider an illegal immigrant. You have Democrats who argue that those who are paroled into the
21:54country, those who are part of temporary programs to come into the country, into the Biden administration,
21:58are here legally. Republicans say they are not and therefore should not get health care. Kevin.
22:04Rich Edson for us on the North Lawn. Rich, as always, thank you. Over to you, Joe. I kind of feel like
22:10this is a leverage play. What do you think? I think that almost no one is feeling this government shutdown.
22:15I think when you go out and just talk to regular folks. I'm in a blue state of New Jersey. So
22:19they're Democrats. They're Republicans. It's becoming more of a purple state, if anything else.
22:22That's right. But they're not feeling this in any way, shape or form because 70 percent of the
22:27government is still operating. Our garbage is still being picked up. Our police and fire departments
22:32are still on duty. Our military is still working. Our postal service is still working. So as far as like
22:39the government shut down, this is horrible. Well, if I'm not going to Yosemite, if I'm not going to
22:43a national park and I live in almost every other part of the country, I'm not feeling this. And the
22:48problem for Democrats from a messaging perspective for Kevin, they have the two worst salespeople
22:54to actually make this argument in Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries. They're just not good in
23:00interviews. And obviously the whole sombrero, you know, mariachi band thing clearly is impacting
23:07them in terms of not being able to handle that from an emotional perspective. So,
23:10yeah, I think at this point, Republicans have the leverage and even a Washington Post poll
23:15shows that Chuck Schumer is being blamed for this more than Republicans, which is rare in polling
23:19during government shutdowns because the media always blames Republicans, Kevin.
23:22Sombreros for everybody, Tommy.
23:24Yeah. Well, I will also say this to your point. Hakeem Jeffries just has no riz,
23:29as the young people say. He's hard to watch in interviews. And that's just from,
23:33you know, a viewer perspective. It's not necessarily consequential. But I will say this. I think
23:37what's going to be so important here is the messaging as this creeps on longer and longer.
23:42I get your point and I agree with you that most Americans aren't necessarily feeling this,
23:46but as it lingers on, it will maybe be felt more. So the messaging is what's going to be so important
23:52here. And if Republicans can clearly and concisely say Democrats are trying to kind of find all kinds
23:58of loopholes and runarounds to fund illegal aliens or people that Biden let in in mass and then called,
24:04you know, residents or parolees. Right. If Republicans can frame that argument effectively,
24:10they will win on this in the court of public opinion. Alicia, is there any way out of this
24:15without looking terrible if you're the Democrats? I don't know. That remains to be seen. I feel like
24:20it's going to be a long and ugly week. I can for sure say that much at least. But in the meantime,
24:25if everyone's watching, the president and the OMB director are also getting some stuff done.
24:29In the meantime, they're like, okay, fine. You're going to hold all this up. We're going to do some
24:33waste, fraud and abuse cutting, like clean energy projects in 16 states that voted for Kamala Harris.
24:39That's $18 billion worth of, oh, I'm sorry, $8 billion worth of savings. And then in New York,
24:46$18 billion in infrastructure funding has been frozen. So you have to imagine Schumer and Hakeem
24:52Drafese are getting some phone calls from some local area codes.
24:55In this and in this now is what they're saying, because they know if the doge-like cuts are
25:01permanent, they're going to be really hurting down the line. Still ahead, as we continue here on the
25:05Big Weekend Show, Democrats playing the race card to justify the Schumer shutdown. My old buddy
25:12Tucker used to say racist. In the meantime, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, he's going to join us
25:17coming out for tonight's big close-up. Plus, Justice Brett Kavanaugh's would-be trans assassin just got
25:24sentenced to prison, and the woke judge is now facing some pretty intense scrutiny.
25:32Volvo recalls more than 450,000 vehicles over backup camera issue. Recall includes a range of vehicles
25:41from model years 2021 to 2025. Swedish automaker Volvo cars is recalling more than 450,000 cars in
25:48the US and Canada due to the backup camera issue that raises the risk of a crash. The rear view camera
25:54image may not show up when the affected cars are placed in reverse, increasing the possibility of
26:00an accident, a Volvo car spokesperson told Fox Business. Volvo is recalling over 400,000 vehicles in
26:08the US. 40,000 in Canada. These include certain model year 2021 to 2025 cars.
26:19Yeah, it's gonna be a fun one. Let's try, let's try, let's...
26:26Nah, nah, that's not happening, mate.
26:27Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah. We're just going to say cars. We're just going to say cars.
26:36And R-models, R-models, yeah. We're just going to say vehicles, vehicles.
26:41So, this part, you just say the car models. Okay. Various car models, a Volvo. Various...
26:48Various vehicles, Volvo vehicles. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
26:51Volvo is recalling more than 400,000 vehicles in the US and over 40,000 in Canada.
27:19These are a ton of different vehicles by Volvo. It's an insane amount,
27:25ranging from the year 2021 to 2025, the spokesperson said.
27:30To fix the issue, the automaker will perform a software upgrade on the vehicles. The software
27:36can be updated free of charge by a Volvo dealer or through an over-the-air update.
27:42A remote update service in which software can be downloaded directly to your car,
27:47according to the Volvo website. Volvo has not received any reports of incidents occurring while
27:53driving or crashes related to the backup camera issue, according to a May 1st recall notice from
27:59the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. We encourage customers to contact their
28:05authorised Volvo retailer and have this recall repair completed as soon as possible. Volvo car
28:12said in the notice notification letters are expected to be mailed to Volvo owners on June 24th. Impacted
28:20Volvo owners can also contact Volvo car customer service or reach out to the National Highway Traffic
28:27Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline. The recall comes a week after electric vehicle
28:34maker Polestar recalled more than 27,000 Polestar 2 vehicles in the US because of a similar issue.
28:40Health minority whips Catherine Clark. Trump's attack on Harvard is just the beginning.
28:56Trump and his allies don't just want to reshape our political system, they want to corrupt and
29:01seize control of our institutions. In 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt warned Americans to be aware of that
29:09small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of American Eagle in order to feather their own nests.
29:18It was a warning that reflected what he saw playing out across the Atlantic, the fascists of Europe
29:24disempowering their people and corrupting their national institutions in order to enrich and empower themselves.
29:32Nearly a century after the rise of Hitler, Mussolini and Franco, Donald Trump is using their
29:37same tried and true tactics to corrupt America's institutions and silent dissonance. Since returning
29:45to office, he has claimed the right to evaluate universities' viewpoint diversity, demanding that
29:50private institutions subject students and faculty to government audits of their personal beliefs.
29:58We can't treat this rising authoritarianism as a personal quirk or just another feature of our
30:04politics. Our republic, the very idea that we should live in a democracy, is facing a grave, grave threat.
30:13Harvard's president has rightly refused, making clear that the university will not surrender
30:18its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights. That insistence on academic freedom
30:25has been met with swift government retaliation.
30:29Trump withheld congressionally approved research funding. His administration openly threatened Harvard's
30:37student visas and he directed the IRS to revoke Harvard's tax-exempt status.
30:44These attacks will disrupt a major economic engine, not just for Massachusetts, but for the entire
30:51country.
30:52Harvard is not an unrivalled leader in life-saving medical research. Our public investments in those
30:58breakthroughs have fuelled America's innovation economy, allowing us to lead the world in bringing
31:04academic research to the marketplace. This retaliation will cost lives and roll our competitive advantage
31:11and prompt a disastrous brain drain, a self-inflicted injury on which our rivals are more than happy to
31:17capitalise on. None of that matters to Trump, obviously. It's collateral damage in his larger
31:25wall to centralise power, enrich himself and cultivate his ideas as fact under law. That's his first goal.
31:33Centralising power is nothing new for Trump. He has long sought to expand his power at the expense of our
31:40political institutions, attacking his legitimacy of our elections and politicising our courts.
31:45The second self-enrichment has defiled his first 100 days in office. Whether he's hawking cars at the
32:01White House, selling scammy crypto coins or openly manipulating the stock market, he's enriching himself,
32:07his family and his wealthy donors. All this while the American people and small business face skyrocketing
32:15costs due to Trump's tariffs. But the third goal, using government's authority to enforce his
32:21version of the truth. That's what these attacks on Harvard are about. That's what should scare any
32:28American who believes in the objective truth, freedom of speech and the rule of law. Trump and his allies
32:35don't just want to reshape our political system. They don't just want to pocket
32:39combat.
32:44Latinx
32:49эти
32:50parlance
32:54ivere
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