The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell Season 2025 Episode 247

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Transcript

00:00rant on social media so much that he wrote more than a hundred posts that included many of his

00:05greatest hits attacking his so-called enemies lying about election results and try to say

00:09anything to take away from his epstein problem donald trump capped off his rant the next day

00:15raging on social media that doj should say no more of the epstein files and concentrate on

00:22other things like his 2020 election fantasia but the epstein files will never be no more and even

00:28some of donald trump's closest allies know that it'll never be no more in an interview in the new

00:33york times magazine congresswoman marjorie taylor green who's been one of donald trump's most loyal

00:39of supporters in congress said that the epstein files are what caused her to break from donald

00:44trump robert draper writing for the new york times magazine reports quote most significant she defied

00:50the president and compliant house republican leaders as she argued that all investigative material

00:55pertaining to jeffrey epstein should be released the epstein files represents everything wrong with

01:01the administration green told me in december rich powerful elites doing horrible things and getting

01:06away with it and the women are the victims end quote congresswoman green is resigning from her seat

01:11next monday january 5th she believes donald trump turned on her after she became an advocate for the

01:17release of the epstein files along with our next guest congressman roe kanna the white house gave this

01:23response to the new york times magazine over congresswoman green's interview quote congresswoman

01:27green is quitting on her constituents in the middle of her term and abandoning the consequential fight

01:32we're in we don't have time for her petty bitterness end quote green told the new york times magazine that

01:39she spoke to some epstein survivors at a closed door oversight committee hearing and that's when everything

01:45changed for her quote after the hearing green held a news conference at which she threatened to

01:50identify some of the men who had abused the women green says she didn't know those names herself but

01:56that she could have gotten them from the victims trump called green to voice his her displeasure

02:01green trump called green to voice his displeasure green was in her capitol hill office and according

02:06to a staff member everyone in the suite of rooms could hear him yelling at her as she listened to him

02:11on speakerphone green says she expressed her perplexity over his intransigence according to green trump

02:18replied my friends will get hurt my friends will get hurt that was allegedly donald trump's main concern

02:26according to green for why the files should not be released not a concern for the victims

02:30but rather donald trump's concern for his friends green revealed this about her last phone call with

02:37donald trump quote when she urged trump to invite some of epstein's female victims to the oval office

02:42she says he angrily informed her that they had done nothing to merit the honor it would be the last

02:47conversation green and trump would ever have nothing to merit the honor congresswoman green continued to

02:54fight for justice for the epstein survivors and did not cave to donald trump's pressure she gave the

02:59new york times this account of trump's attempt to sway other republican women quote green's sudden

03:04isolation became evident on the afternoon of november 18 when the epstein files transparency act

03:09finally made it to the house floor after trump abandoned the fight in the face of pressure

03:14brought by green massey and two more republicans nancy mace and lauren bobert they brought lauren

03:21bobert into the situation room that was so weird green recalled of the white house attempts to persuade

03:26the holdouts to cave and cast their votes against bringing the bill to the floor and they were calling

03:31nancy mace non-stop she's running for governor she has an endorsement on the line i gave both of them a lot

03:37of credit that massey was the only male republican to side with epstein's victims on the vote was notable

03:42green added there's a significant reason why women overwhelmingly don't vote republican she said

03:48i think there's a very big message here new reporting in the wall street journal in the last hour reveals

03:54new details about jeffrey epstein during the late 1990s and early 2000 when he frequently visited mar-a-lago

04:00the journal reports that employees at the mar-a-lago club warned each other that epstein sometimes exposed

04:06himself during in-home spa appointments the journal also reports that donald trump's ex-wife marla

04:12maples voiced her concerns about epstein's behavior quote some of the former club employees said that

04:17maples communicated her concerns to timothy mcdaniel who worked as a bodyguard for the trump family and

04:23oversaw security at their florida properties mcdaniel didn't respond to requests for comments maples told

04:29trump that she was uneasy about epstein's presence and that she didn't want to spend time with him

04:34and didn't want trump to either according to former employees and people close to maples but epstein

04:39continued to attend parties and events at mar-a-lago representatives from marla marla maples didn't

04:45respond to the journal's request for comment the white house told the journal that donald trump quote

04:49did nothing wrong donald trump has tried to distract from the epstein files and is attempting to use the

04:55justice department to make it no more but he's facing challenges at every turn in just four days

05:01the trump justice department faces a new deadline on christmas eve the doj announced that they had

05:06millions more epstein related documents in their possession now the doj must answer to the house and

05:12senate judiciary committees as to why they're still hiding documents from the public the bipartisan epstein

05:18files transparency act also says the doj must give congress a summary of all redactions the doj is of course

05:26trying to push back against the law which demanded all documents be released by december the 19th but

05:31members of congress won't stop pushing for the full story on the epstein files today democrats on the

05:37senate judiciary committee sent a letter to donald trump's chief of staff susie wiles inquiring as to how

05:42she had read the epstein files and confirmed that donald's trump donald trump's name appears in them

05:48and our next guest the congressman roe connor has confirmed that he will be filing inherent contempt

05:54proceedings against pam bondy once congress returns to session and will seek a special magistrate appointment

06:01from sdny to review the doj's reaction redactions in the epstein files leading off our discussion tonight is the

06:08democratic congressman roe connor of california he's a member of the oversight committee

06:12congressman great to see you thank you for being with us tonight thank you ali congressman a number

06:17of people have been sort of posting and asking uh what happens to members of the administration who

06:24seem to be working against the the uh the bill that requires them to uh release these files you have one

06:31answer to that and that is these this filing of of uh inherent contempt proceedings tell me about that

06:35well the inherent contempt that massey and i will be filing would make pam bondy personally liable for

06:44five to ten thousand dollars a day for every day that she does not release the files and comply and it

06:51just requires a simple majority in the house but the bigger point ali is that uh when massey and i when

06:57we passed the bill four hundred and twenty seven to one in the house a hundred to zero in the senate the

07:01president signed it you can't just ignore the law it's obstruction of justice it can be criminally

07:08prosecuted if not by this administration then a future administration so there is a lot of outrage

07:14not just with survivors but with republicans at what is happening with the selective epstein disclosure

07:21and when we get back we're going to push for full transparency what what do you think motivates

07:28them 427 to one in the house 100 to nothing in the senate uh remarkable frustration i mean we're

07:34using marjorie taylor green as an example but she's just one example there are lots and lots and lots

07:39of republicans as you predicted there would be who who are saying to themselves i can't hold off against

07:44this tidal wave with my constituents what what's going on here well they're protecting the epstein class

07:52i mean the president says it out loud he says this is going to hurt a lot of people

07:56this is going to hurt a lot of people who he knew prominent bankers prominent lawyers prominent

08:02politicians many of them in new york and while the survivors haven't given me specific names they've

08:08described the type of people in these files then people get come on and say well are khan and massey

08:13exaggerating there's one way to find out just release the files release them but that's what's going

08:20on here is they want to protect the reputation of these rich and powerful men who showed up in

08:24epstein's rape island and not have them take accountability some remarkable reporting uh from

08:30the wall street journal tonight uh in which it says the club meaning mar-a-lago was also sending

08:36spa employees usually young women to epstein's nearby mansion for massages manicures and other spa services

08:41according to former mar-a-lago mar-a-lago and epstein employees the house calls went on for years

08:46even as spa employees warned each other about epstein who was known among staff for being sexually

08:52suggestive and exposing himself during the appointments according to the former mar-a-lago

08:56employees uh so this continues to be i mean obviously in these releases of files we see

09:02photographs of mar-a-lago um this continues to be an issue the ties between donald trump

09:07and and jeffrey epstein i haven't seen anything that that suggests culpability on donald trump's part

09:13but there's a whole lot of pushback and secrecy going on

09:16there is and i haven't seen anything that suggests any culpability but there's obviously evidence

09:23that there was a tie between mar-a-lago a place that trump reveres as his uh home as his headquarters

09:30and epstein and those documents need to come out i mean the wall street journal reporting

09:36is just scratching the surface all of this stuff is in the florida criminal case there was discovery

09:43there are documents all of it needs to come out here first pan body says it's all out there's

09:49nothing more to see then there's christmas eve a release say well we've got a million more documents

09:53in new york well there are millions of documents in this file cash patella said that and it all needs

09:59to come out in the new year uh by the way i was mentioning the photographs those are of jeffrey epstein's

10:04uh island in his estate not of mar-a-lago uh let's talk about this million pages that the

10:11department of justice says it still has have you heard anything that that resembles an argument as

10:17to uh as to justify the delay of these files that were all supposed to be released by december 19th

10:23because as you said pam bondy bragged that she had the files she said they were on her desk she said

10:27this in a in a public uh interview uh what so they've known for many many months that this this

10:33reckoning would come what's the basis for continuing to delay some of it is incompetence i think

10:39they didn't know where all these files were i mean with the whole investigation they never thought to

10:44get the documents from the epstein estate it was becoming on this program and talking to bradley

10:49edwards that we had actually sent a letter to the epstein estate so some of it is incompetence

10:53some of it is they claim they're protecting the identities and the uh survivors that the reason

11:00that's not believable is they're not releasing what the survivors want which is their statements to

11:05the fbi where they named these other men so my my concern is less the timeline and if they came back

11:11and said you know roe we're releasing documents it's taking us a little longer but if they were

11:16actually giving us the witness statements if they were actually being transparent i'd have a less of a

11:22problem the problem is they're hiding things uh and every time there's pushback they suddenly find

11:27new documents and they have the same strategy they've had the same strategy since july

11:31let's just get this over with say we're done and everyone will forget and then they find out that

11:36when they do that there's more outrage and the scandal just grows and you know if i had any free

11:41advice for them i'd say just get it all out there in january and let the truth come out congressman good

11:47to see you as always thank you for being with us congressman roe connor of california all right

11:51coming up the conservative supreme court ruling against him might have been one of the reasons that

11:54donald trump spent christmas raging on the internet you may have missed it over the holiday but the chief

11:59justice john roberts and trump appointed justices amy coney barrett and brett kavanaugh joined with

12:06the liberal justices to smack down one of donald trump's signature power grabs i'll talk about that

12:11on the other side of the break tonight more than 300 national guard troops are in new orleans and what

12:19donald trump claims is a security measure ahead of new year's eve the move comes one year after a deadly

12:25terror attack on bourbon street that killed 14 people and it's part of a broader push from the

12:30trump administration to put u.s military patrols on the streets of american cities amid his crackdown

12:36on mass deportations of undocumented immigrants donald trump has been met with resistance from

12:42democratic leaders in california and texas and illinois and now from the conservative supreme court

12:48last week in a 6-3 preliminary order the supreme court rejected trump's attempts to deploy troops to

12:53the chicago area siding with democrats who argued that trump was overstepping his authority quote

12:59at this preliminary stage the government has failed to identify a source of authority that would allow

13:04the military to execute the laws in illinois the president has not invoked a statute that provides

13:10an exception to the posse comitatus act that's the supreme court saying quite plainly you don't get to

13:16do this just because you want to politico reports quote three conservative justices clarence thomas

13:22samuel alito and neil gorsuch dissented while another conservative brett kavanaugh voted to deny

13:28trump's request but declined to join the majority's explanation of the ruling kavanaugh indicated he had

13:34had enough doubts about the administration's legal arguments that he agreed with denying the emergency

13:39stay at the federal government sought in a concurring opinion justice kavanaugh wrote quote to federalize

13:45the national guard the president must first determine that he is unable with the regular forces to

13:51execute the laws of the united states in my view the statutory term regular forces likely refers to

13:58the u.s military not to federal civilian law enforcement officers end quote so when the trump

14:04administration argues that national guard troops are needed to protect federal personnel and property

14:09from violent resistance against ice agents the supreme court is signaling that that that argument may

14:15not survive serious scrutiny so far more than 4 500 people have been arrested by federal immigration

14:21agents in the chicago area as part of trump's immigration raids this year in response to this

14:27the illinois governor jb pritzker has enacted a new state law allowing residents to sue federal immigration

14:32agents if they believe their civil rights have been violated the trump justice department has filed a

14:38lawsuit to nullify that state law chicago mayor brandon johnson who will join us in a moment

14:43said this about his fight to defend chicago residents

14:46every single um law suit that we put up against the trump administration we prevailed and everything

14:56that they brought against us we were also to beat back i said from the very beginning i was going to use

15:00every single tool available to me to protect all of chicago whether that's executive orders with which

15:05we've done legislation which we've done including taking it to the to the court and so we've said from

15:11the very beginning that this president was working outside the bounds of his executive authority he has

15:16trampled on this constitution uh working with our law department including the state of illinois

15:21it's proof positive that when we stand firm on our values the people who are united around those

15:27values will always prevail joining us now is the mayor of chicago brandon johnson mayor thank you for

15:35joining us uh you're welcome thanks for having me and happy new year thank you what's the practical

15:41effect of uh this decision by the supreme court what are we seeing the effects of it in the streets of

15:47chicago yet well we certainly are as i've said repeatedly that this president has um certainly worked

15:55outside of the confines of the constitution and i've maintained that position and you know thankfully

16:01um the supreme court sees it our way and what we've said from the very beginning if this president was

16:07actually sincere about addressing violence in the city of chicago and cities across america he would

16:14work with mayors like myself um to do the things that actually work and so again we've always maintained

16:19that this president was working outside of the confines of the constitution and we are certainly grateful

16:24that the supreme court sees it our way as well so this is not just a benefit for the people of chicago but

16:30it's really a win for for cities across america in in very practical terms what what what difference

16:37does it make what has happened as a result of this decision has the has the trump administration

16:42acknowledged or done anything about it well they have not acknowledged um that this is you know a real

16:49check and balance to the trump administration but what has happened practically is that we don't have to

16:54sit under the threat of of our city in cities across america being occupied by federal troops and quite

17:01frankly um they don't have policing power or policing authority so what they would actually do um was never

17:07even uh satisfied or determined we saw what happened in washington dc uh where they you know the the the you

17:14know the national guard participated in streets and sanitation um they help people with their groceries

17:21um if that's what the president is committed to doing then he should restore funding that goes towards

17:26the snap benefits restoring health care right so in a very practical way we don't have to deal with the

17:32ongoing threat of cities being occupied and that we can actually ensure that our constitution

17:38is not being eroded by uh an authoritarian quite frankly that has demonstrated that he's more

17:44committed to instituting terror than he is providing comfort for working people across this country

17:49country so in fact you use the dc example we've got new orleans obviously um one would argue that

17:55given that they don't have any policing powers that the deployments of the national guard are meant

18:00largely to either intimidate or prepare americans for other instances in which the president is

18:06federalizing troops and again i think the distinction is unclear for some people because

18:10ice seems to be doing donald trump's bidding and he's trying to create a situation in which the

18:14national guard can also do donald trump's bidding look i think your analysis is spot on i mean we saw

18:22the largest upward transfer of wealth into the hands of the ultra rich with his big nasty ugly bill

18:29at the same time he created funding for ice that essentially has behaved as the trump administration's

18:38personal privatized police force in fact the only other entities that are funded higher than

18:44ice are the united states military and china's military we know that this president has failed in every

18:51single aspect to provide real opportunities and hope for working people you know whether it's you know

18:58groceries whether it's health care whether it's jobs uh this president has been a failure and so what

19:04this certainly signals is that you know that there is at least another branch of government that recognizes

19:11that the overreach by the president is a real threat to our democracy but it's also a threat to our

19:18humanity so um you know it's why we've been very clear that we're going to use every single tool

19:23available to us whether it's you know litigation or legislation or executive orders to protect the

19:29interests of working people and that's what we've done in chicago and that's what of course that we need

19:34to see happen across this country mayor good to talk to you again thank you again for being with us

19:38thank you thank you chicago mayor brandon johnson all right joining me now is barbara mcquade former

19:44united states attorney and law professor at the university of michigan law school she's now an ms now

19:49legal analyst barbara thank you for joining us um this is a i want to go back to the supreme court

19:54decision for a moment this is important because a number of conservative justices pointed out that

20:00this is just not sound in the eyes of the law the idea that donald trump was using the national guard

20:06or wanted to use the national guard in chicago to carry out responsibilities that he did not

20:10demonstrate either the need for or the fact that the national guard is statutorily allowed to to

20:17undertake yes you know they engaged in some statutory interpretation the key language here is that before

20:26the national guard may come into a city the president has to determine that he's unable to execute the law

20:33with quote regular forces and the trump administration has been interpreting that as

20:39meaning regular police forces uh you know the ordinary police officers on the street aren't

20:44getting the job done therefore we need to supplement them with uh members of the national guard what the

20:50court said here is no no no regular forces that means regular military forces that really ups the ante

20:56here it says that you know we're just not even on the same it's not the same page we're not the same

21:01chapter we're not the same book here because before you can ever call up the military to execute the

21:08laws that means you have to find some legal exception to the posse comitatus act the law that prohibits

21:14the military from executing the laws and engaging in law enforcement activities that requires an invocation of

21:20the insurrection act which is a much higher standard the president has to find that there is some

21:25rebellion against the authority of the united states before he can invoke that power this is an important

21:32distinction the concept of posse comitatus it exists in many democracies around the world the idea that

21:39the military is for protection of the country and for use against forces generally speaking out there

21:45unless they invade your border or something come across your border and that policing is a civilian

21:50activity uh that that police answer to uh civilian authorities not military authorities i think a lot

21:57of people don't lose sleep over this but it's an important distinction yes and you know the founders were very

22:03concerned with this issue and that's because during the colonial period british soldiers would show up in their

22:10homes it's why the third amendment says that people can't be required to quarter soldiers in their homes

22:16they'd show up they'd want a place to stay they were engaging in policing on the streets and harassment on

22:22the streets and so this idea this distinction between police which serves domestic purposes and the military

22:29which fights foreign enemies was to be drawn very distinctly the exception for this is very very limited

22:37and it is when there is the president has made this very high level declaration of a rebellion or some

22:45other um combinations that are threatening the security of the united states barbara as always

22:53thank you we're clear uh after we hear from you on these things barbara moquade we appreciate your time

22:57thanks ellie all right coming up jobs are down stocks are up and the vibes are off even economists

23:04can't seem to figure out what's coming in the american economy and that's not counting

23:07what could be the nail in the coffin of trump's tear tariff chaos that's next

23:15the biggest economic jump ball in 2026 could be the coming supreme court decision on donald trump's

23:20tariffs that decision could have a major effect on prices if trump's tariffs remain some businesses

23:26that have been holding back on passing the import taxes onto consumers could relent and raise prices

23:32or if the tariffs are scrapped it could spark a surge of business and consumer confidence but one thing is

23:38for sure as we head into 2026 the fate of the trump tariffs are just one cloud of uncertainty

23:44hanging over the american economy the dow jones crossed 48 000 for the first time ever recently

23:51a large largely powered by the way by tech and ai bullishness but the unemployment rate is the

23:58highest it's been in four years with black unemployment now over eight percent that's as high

24:03as it was at the height of covid the all-important holiday shopping season was a mixed bag by the way

24:09the associated press reports quote that from november 1st through sunday december 21st cash and credit

24:16card sales rose 4.2 percent which is less than the 4.8 percent increase during the same period a year ago

24:23according to visa's consulting and analytics division when adjusted for inflation retail sales rose a more

24:30modest 2.2 percent for the first seven weeks of the holiday period according to visa's u.s principal

24:36economist michael brown that compares with the inflation adjusted three percent in the same

24:42year ago time frame it's certainly not a spectacular season brown told the associated press

24:47it's sort of an average holiday season given concerns about macroeconomic growth and inflation

24:52there's still a lot of uncertainty among the consumer population even economists at the federal

24:57reserve can't seem to agree about what's really going on in the economy the new york times reports

25:02today officials at the central bank have splintered over whether whether rising unemployment or elevated

25:08inflation poses the bigger economic risk as recline focused on financial on this during his final 2025

25:16podcast the economy economic data he says has also become completely divorced from how people actually

25:22perceive the economy if you look at consumer sentiment people feel like the economy is as bad as it was in

25:27the depths of the previous recessions and yet the economic data the job market wages inflation all

25:34kind of look okay it is the strangest year in the economy that i have ever covered end quote but the best

25:42expression of the economic uncertainty undoubtedly comes not just from economic reporters or from fed

25:47board members but from regular people like this mailbag question economist jared bernstein received

25:52and posted on his sub stack america's economic vibes are awful hiring is way down prices are high and sticky

25:59and the guy in the white house is certifiable yet gdp is banging please explain well here to explain is

26:07jared bernstein he's the former chair of the white house council of economic advisors in the biden administration

26:12and a policy fellow at the stanford institute for economic policy research jared thank you for being with us

26:17that was such a great question that you got in the mailbag because it's such a great opportunity now for

26:22us to explain that while gdp is the the largest measure we have of all economic activity in our economy

26:30it doesn't tell you who's winning and it doesn't tell you who's losing it just tells you this is happening

26:37absolutely it's a three it's a 30 trillion dollar aggregate which explains how folks at the bottom middle

26:44in the top uh are uh are doing uh only in the sense that it reaches them and if we have gdp growth

26:52that is largely just uh helping to elevate the yachts and leaving the rowboats behind well we're going to

27:00have a situation where the economy looks good by some of these aggregate numbers and yet feels pretty bad to

27:07a lot of people uh 90 percent of stock market wealth is held by the top 10 percent the bottom 50

27:14percent almost owns almost nothing in terms of the stock market so again uh we we have to look not

27:20simply at the aggregate indicators if we want to understand that gap but how different groups are

27:25faring so let's let's talk about this because 20 25 years ago if you saw the stock market performing

27:31the way it is now you would assume whether you called it trickle down or the fact that people

27:36benefit from it you would assume that that meant wealth was being spread around as you point out

27:41uh a little bit more than 50 percent of people hold stock but you you you just gave me that statistic

27:4790 of stock market wealth goes to the wealthiest the stock market is just not a great barometer of

27:54of broad-based wealth creation yeah you're right that if you look at the share of people who own

28:00even a share of stock sure you can get above 50 percent pretty quickly but if you look at the

28:06value and now we're talking about the for example uh tech shares we know that the valuation of the mag 7

28:14these big tech companies is over 20 trillion dollars that's over two-thirds of gdp if you want to

28:20just give it some context but the folks who are uh making off uh the most from uh those equity shares

28:28are the wealthiest and it and and the way that works in terms of the kinds of indicators we've

28:33been talking about if you actually go around and see how big businesses are doing relative to small

28:38businesses well small businesses have been shedding jobs now for a while big businesses continue to plow

28:44ahead if you ask uh uh folks who are uh tracking these consumer spending numbers that you just said a

28:51minute ago retail trade so you'll find that in zip codes that are pretty wealthy these stores are holding up

28:57pretty pretty pretty fine but then if you look at some of the poor zip codes you'll see a different

29:02result so i do think that whether we're talking about consumer sales affordability health care which

29:08is about to get a lot more expensive for a lot of people you start to see this divide

29:12jared you're talking about the mag 7 the magnificent seven stocks um these are mainly ai uh their tech

29:18stocks mainly ai driven uh tech stocks whether it's it's chips or companies that employ ai in their work

29:24uh so if you take those out of the s&p 500 and you call it the s&p 493 the performance has been a lot

29:31less uh fancy these are the mag 7 stocks why does that matter because people who own stocks generally

29:38speaking will own an index like the s&p 500 so they're also gaining from the benefit in these

29:44companies why is it dangerous that seven companies are so outperforming the entire rest of the stock

29:49market i'm glad you asked me that because it really feeds into everything we're talking about

29:54i don't think it's particularly dangerous from the perspective of individual portfolios

29:59i think it's dangerous from the perspective of the overall economy one of the things that's been

30:04driving growth is called the wealth effect and this is the idea that for every dollar of stock market

30:10wealth uh something like two to three cents extra gets spend in the economy now i did some calculations

30:17for the piece you showed me a minute ago uh the piece i wrote the other day uh the valuation of

30:22the s&p 500 is up almost 10 trillion so if you take a couple percent of that that's uh you know north

30:28of 200 billion so that explains a little almost a quarter of the increase in consumer spending so

30:36that kind of concentration and the wealth effect that's helping to drive consumer spending forward

30:42it's more fragile than i'd like it to be because if those firms start to stumble uh start to stumble

30:48that wealth effect could could shift in reverse yeah it's worth paying attention to for all of us to

30:53see how big a role whether or not you like ai or you're fearful ai or you're hopeful for it it is a

30:59massive piece of our economy right now for better for worse and we need to pay attention to it jared

31:03thanks as always we appreciate it the economist jared bernstein all right coming up donald trump

31:07lied repeatedly about hurricane relief in north carolina in 2024 but this time the buck does

31:13stop with him the former north carolina governor roy cooper now the democratic candidate for senate

31:17joins me next

31:22on his way from dc to florida for christmas donald trump stopped in north carolina to kick the tires

31:26on his 2026 midterm messaging in that state the message was blame the democrats even though trump

31:32is president and republicans control the house and the senate and after your horrible hurricane which

31:39produced more water damage than any hurricane in history the democrats let you down they really did

31:46remember they wouldn't do anything remember they wouldn't go to your community they wouldn't do

31:51anything you had to wait till january 20th when i took office you'd still be sitting in the mud if i

31:57didn't get elected you would be people were sitting in the mud lying about hurricane response in north

32:03carolina is familiar territory for donald trump who did it repeatedly in the final weeks of the

32:07presidential campaign vox reported back in october of 2024 since hurricane helene decimated parts of

32:14western north carolina last week former president donald trump has seized on the tragedy to perpetuate

32:19lies about the federal response so in chaos and confusion as officials scramble to help those affected

32:25in recent days trump has repeatedly and falsely suggested that the federal government is purposely

32:31neglecting areas with republican voters that it is funneling emergency aid to migrants instead of

32:36to disaster response and that it's giving hurricane victims just 750 in support none of these claims are

32:44true after those lies trump went on to win north carolina by three points now a new new washington post

32:50report is detailing how donald trump is not quite the savior he claims to be in november 2024 elizabeth

32:56clark was among the first storm victims in her county to apply for a voluntary program funded by the

33:02federal emergency management agency that would enable the government to buy out her property more than

33:07800 storm victims around helene battered western north carolina have applied under fema's hazard mitigation

33:13grant program state officials vetted applications and began sending them up the chain to fema

33:19as far back as february as of december 15th they had sent nearly 600 buyout requests to washington

33:25with more likely to follow so far they say not a single approval has come through

33:32in a response to the post fema said quote it had provided 16.3 million dollars in hazard mitigation

33:37but when it came to the hundreds of pending applications from homeowners hoping for buyouts

33:42the agency said they had not met federal requirements the agency did not elaborate

33:47on why end quote it is of course donald trump and his chainsaw pal elon musk who wreaked havoc on fema

33:53staffing and financing but in rocky mount on december 19th donald trump told voters it was all going great

34:00and of course he did it all i did it all with your congressman and with a couple of republicans from

34:09your state that put their lives on the line to make sure this got done

34:15joining me now is the former governor roy cooper he's a candidate for the u.s senate in north carolina

34:20governor thank you for being with us i appreciate it i i'm i'm a little surprised as they say in the south

34:25that this dog actually hunts uh north carolinians i think have a pretty clear view of what happened

34:31after that hurricane and and what donald trump was saying about it and the fact that those two things

34:36are not the same you're right that dog doesn't hurt a hunt ally uh in fact this was a big blow to

34:43western north carolina the largest natural disaster ever and that miss of information and those lies

34:49that had been stirred up demoralized people who were working so hard uh state and local government

34:56and volunteers were putting in the time uh it also discouraged people from applying for help

35:04then donald trump gets elected as president and comes in to north carolina and says that we're going

35:10to slash through every bureaucratic barrier to make sure we rebuild western north carolina better than

35:18it ever it was and what does he do he appoints the consummate washington dc insider my opponent

35:26michael whatley in the senate race to be the western north carolina recovery czar it's been a failure at

35:34every turn in fact local governments are waiting to be reimbursed all of them operating on tight budgets

35:42you just heard about the 800 applications that are waiting for approval it's it's hard to handle

35:49these buyouts at the state and local level and they have to do most of the work all the federal government

35:55has to do is approve it and send a check they can't even do that it's gotten so bad that there have been

36:03bipartisan calls and signing a petition to ask michael whatley to resign from his position look we need

36:12people in the united states senate who need to work on cutting red tape for real uh michael whatley is

36:20is on a council appointed by the president to reform fema uh they haven't even come up with a report much

36:29less have they done anything and people in western north carolina are still hurting they're doing an

36:35amazing job on their own but only 11 percent of the recovery has been funded by the federal government

36:43and storms like katrina and sandy had 70 percent of right from the federal government it's time for

36:50the federal government to step up and help western north carolina and if you want a senator who's going

36:55to work on that you can go to roycooper.com and learn about what we're going to do and help us out

37:00i remember in your years as governor you and i talked several times right after hurricanes or

37:05during natural disasters as i did with many of your uh fellow governors in the south and it was

37:11kind of interesting to me that that was the moment in which partisan nonsense was generally suspended

37:16for a couple of reasons one is these are human tragedies and two you have to work with everybody

37:20in your state when when something like that happens you you can dig into why things went wrong

37:25but fundamentally it is not a partisan activity donald trump was was making this a partisan problem

37:32as it happened no question and in fact uh this hurricane occurred at the end of september

37:38obviously the november elections were right around the corner and i think the president took advantage of

37:44that to lay into the previous administration and really he was criticizing everybody who was involved

37:51in this and promised that he would do better fact of the matter is they have not done better and in

37:57fact things are much worse washington is broken we need problem solvers to be elected to go to the

38:05united states senate to put the checks and balances back into the constitution to make sure this executive

38:12is doing its job right and those of us who've served as governor who've been through these natural

38:19disasters know how complicated it can be the last thing you need is an unrest up unresponsive

38:25federal government and that's what we have right now i uh you and i talked on the night of december

38:3119th when donald trump had his rally in rocky mount i didn't know at the time that he said this about you

38:36uh but he did he said your previous governor referring to you was a disaster he was a radical left

38:42person by the way he's radical left you don't want him he doesn't represent you i've known you for a lot

38:46of years i don't recall anybody calling you radical left no that's that's the first i think he's coined

38:52that phrase uh what i'm going to be is the kind of senator who's going to be a strong independent

38:58senator who's going to work with this president whenever i can i'm going to stand up to him when

39:03i need to my opponent will be the president's yes man my opponent is the anointed pick of donald trump

39:11and he knows that michael wiley will do whatever he tells him to do i don't think the people of north

39:16carolina want that uh they know me serving as the chief law enforcement officer of our state as

39:22attorney general and as governor and i'm going to work on bringing their costs down protecting the

39:28health care that we've gotten in north carolina we were able to get a bipartisan agreement in our state

39:33to get 700 000 more people health insurance now all of that is in danger because of the big

39:39beautiful bill that they just passed it's another reason why i knew i needed to step up and run for

39:45this u.s senate seat to fix those problems and protect the success that we've made in north carolina

39:52so until 2025 when i wanted to describe to people how how perverse some of this party

39:57partisan gerrymandering would be i would use north carolina as an example because we pointed out

40:02donald trump won by three points republicans often win uh at that level but you were governor and you

40:08were the attorney general the current governor was also the attorney general and in all of those

40:12instances you won statewide elections in which uh both your legislatures uh your legislatures are

40:18overwhelmingly um in fact veto proof republican so there's sort of proof of of how why why gerrymandering is a

40:26problem extreme partisan gerrymandering hurts our democracy it hurts public policy for the brief period

40:34of time that we had fair congressional maps in north carolina court ordered fair maps we sent seven

40:41democrats and seven republicans to washington now that that opinion has been struck back down

40:48the republicans have taken over it is likely to be 11 republicans and three democrats that's not north

40:56carolina we are a purple state uh when you have these gerrymandered districts you have representatives who spend

41:04more time uh catering to the extremes of their party rather than trying to work together to solve

41:10problems we need a constitutional amendment to outlaw extreme partisan gerrymandering i wish we'd won this

41:17the supreme court case that was up there at the time that was a close loss but i think that would be one of

41:23the best things we could do to protect our democracy governor good to see you as always thank you for

41:27being with us the north carolina democratic senate senate candidate and the former governor of north

41:31north carolina roy cooper all right we'll be right back

41:42you

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