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The Last Word with Lawrence ODonnell Season 2025 Episode 247 br Episode 247
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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
00:33new york times magazine congresswoman marjorie taylor green who's been one of donald trump's
00:38most loyal of supporters in congress said that the epstein files are what caused her to break from
00:43donald trump robert draper writing for the new york times magazine reports quote most significant she
00:49defied the president and compliant house republican leaders as she argued that all investigative
00:55material pertaining to jeffrey epstein should be released the epstein files represents everything
01:00wrong with the administration green told me in december rich powerful elites doing horrible things
01:06and getting away with it and the women are the victims end quote congresswoman green is resigning
01:11from her seat next monday january 5th she believes donald trump turned on her after she became an advocate
01:17for the release of the epstein files along with our next guest congressman ro kanna the white house
01:22gave this response 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 identify
01:50some of the men who had abused the women green says she didn't know those names herself but that
01:56she could have gotten them from the victims trump called green to voice his her displeasure green
02:01trump called green to voice his displeasure green was in her capitol hill office and according to a
02:06staff member everyone in the suite of rooms could hear him yelling at her as she listened to him on
02:11speakerphone green says she expect expressed her perplexity over his intransigence according to green
02:17trump replied my friends will get hurt my friends will get hurt that was allegedly donald trump's
02:26main concern according 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 i think
03:49there's a very big message here new reporting in the wall street journal in the last hour reveals new
03:54details 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 four hundred and twenty seven to one in the house a hundred to nothing in the senate uh remarkable
07:33frustration i mean we're using marjorie taylor green as an example but she's just one example
07:37there are lots and lots and lots of republicans as you predicted there would be who who are saying
07:42to themselves i can't hold off against this tidal wave with my constituents what what's going on here
07:48well they're protecting the epstein class i mean the president says it out loud he says this is going to
07:55hurt a lot of people this is going to hurt a lot of people who he knew prominent bankers prominent
08:01lawyers prominent politicians many of them in new york and while the survivors haven't given me specific
08:07names they've described the type of people in these files then people get come on and say well
08:12are khan and massey exaggerating there's one way to find out just release the files release them but
08:19that's what's going on here is they want to protect the reputation of these rich and powerful men who
08:24showed up in epstein's rape island and not have them take accountability some remarkable reporting
08:30uh from the 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 um 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 bondi 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
11:59the chief justice john roberts and trump appointed justices amy coney barrett and brett kavanaugh
12:05joined with the liberal justices to smack down one of donald trump's signature power grabs i'll talk
12:11about that on the other side of the break
12:12tonight more than 300 national guard troops are in new orleans and what donald trump claims is a security
12:21measure ahead of new year's eve the move comes one year after a deadly terror attack on bourbon
12:27street that killed 14 people and it's part of a broader push from the trump administration to put
12:32u.s military patrols on the streets of american cities amid his crackdown on mass deportations
12:38of undocumented immigrants donald trump has been met with resistance from democratic leaders in
12:43california and texas and illinois and now from the conservative supreme court last week in a 6-3
12:49preliminary order the supreme court rejected trump's attempts to deploy troops to the chicago area
12:54siding with democrats who argued that trump was overstepping his authority quote at this
13:00preliminary 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 argument may not
14:15survive 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
15:00use every single tool available to me to protect all of chicago whether that's executive orders with
15:05which we've done legislation which we've done including taking it to the to the court and so we've said
15:11from the very beginning that this president was working outside the bounds of his executive
15:15authority he has trampled on this constitution uh working with our law department including the state of
15:21illinois it's proof positive that when we stand firm on our values the people who are united around those
15:27values will always prevail
15:28joining us now is the mayor of chicago brandon johnson mayor thank you for joining us
15:36uh you're welcome thanks for having me and happy new year thank you sir what's the practical effect
15:42of uh this decision by the supreme court what are we seeing the effects of it in the streets of chicago yet
15:47well we certainly are as i've said repeatedly that this president has um certainly worked outside of
15:55the confines of the constitution and i've maintained that position and you know thankfully um the supreme
16:02court sees it our way and what we've said from the very beginning if this president was actually
16:07sincere about addressing violence in the city of chicago and cities across america he would work
16:14with mayors like myself um to do the things that actually work and so again we've always maintained that
16:20this 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
16:29but it's really a win for for for cities across america in in very practical terms what what what
16:37difference does it make what has happened as a result of this decision has the has the trump
16:41administration acknowledged or done anything about it well they have not acknowledged um that this is
16:48you know a real check and balance to the trump administration but what has happened practically is
16:53that we don't have to sit under the threat of of our city in cities across america being occupied
16:59by federal troops and quite frankly um they don't have policing power or policing authority so what
17:05they would actually do was never even uh satisfied or determined we saw what happened in washington dc
17:11uh where they you know the the you know the national guard participated in streets and sanitation
17:19um they help people with their groceries um if that's what the president is committed to doing
17:24then he should restore funding that goes towards the snap benefits restoring health care right so in a
17:29very practical way we don't have to deal with the ongoing threat of cities being occupied and that we
17:35can actually ensure that our constitution is not being eroded by uh an authoritarian quite frankly that
17:43has demonstrated that he's more committed to instituting terror than he is providing comfort for
17:48working people across this country so in fact when you use the dc example we've got new orleans
17:52obviously um one would argue that given that they don't have any policing powers that the deployments of
17:58the national guard are meant largely to either intimidate or prepare americans for other instances in which
18:05the president is federalizing 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 national guard
18:15can also do donald trump's bidding look i think your analysis is spot on i mean we saw the largest upward
18:23transfer of wealth into the hands of the ultra rich uh with his big nasty ugly bill at the same time
18:30um he created funding for ice that essentially has behaved as uh the trump administration's personal
18:38privatized police force in fact the only other entities that are funded higher than ice
18:44are 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 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
19:10that 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
19:34need to 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
19:48legal 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
19:59this is just not sound in the eyes of the law the idea that donald trump was using the national
20:05guard 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 engage 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 getting
20:44the job done therefore we need to supplement them with uh members of the national guard what the court
20:50said here is no no no regular forces that means regular military forces that really ups the ante here
20:57it 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 the
21:14military from executing the laws and engaging in law enforcement activities that requires an invocation of the
21:20insurrection act which is a much higher standard the president has to find that there is some rebellion
21:26against 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 activity
21:51uh that that police answer to uh civilian authorities not military authorities i think a lot of people
21:58don'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
22:10their homes it's why the third amendment says that people can't be required to quarter soldiers in their
22:15homes they'd show up they'd want a place to stay they were engaging in policing on the streets
22:21and harassment on the streets and so this idea this distinction between police which serves domestic
22:27purposes and the military which fights foreign enemies was to be drawn very distinctly the exception
22:35for this is very very limited and it is when there is the president has made this very high level
22:41declaration of a rebellion or some other combinations that are threatening the security of the
22:51the united states barbara as always thank you we're clear uh after we hear from you on these things
22:56barbara moquade we appreciate your time thanks ellie all right coming up jobs are down stocks are up
23:01and the vibes are off even economists can't seem to figure out what's coming in the american economy
23:06and that's not counting what could be the nail in the coffin of trump's tariff chaos that's next
23:11the 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 hanging
23:45over the american economy the dow jones crossed 48 000 for the first time ever recently a large
23:52largely powered by the way by tech and ai bullishness but the unemployment rate is the highest it's been in
23:59four years with black unemployment now over eight percent that's as high as it was at the height of
24:05covid the all-important holiday shopping season was a mixed bag by the way the associated press reports
24:10quote that from november 1st through sunday december 21st cash and credit card sales rose 4.2 percent
24:18which is less than the 4.8 percent increase during the same period a year ago according to visas
24:24consulting and analytics division when adjusted for inflation retail sales rose a more modest 2.2 percent
24:32for the first seven weeks of the holiday period according to visa's u.s principal economist michael brown
24:37that compares with the inflation adjusted three percent in the same year ago time frame
24:43it'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
24:56even economists at the federal reserve can't seem to agree about what's really going on in the economy
25:01the new york times reports today officials at the central bank have splintered over whether whether
25:05rising unemployment or elevated inflation poses the bigger economic risk
25:11as recline focused on financial on this during his final 2025 podcast
25:16the economy economic data he says has also become completely divorced from how people actually perceive the economy
25:23if you look at consumer sentiment people feel like the economy is as bad as it was in the depths of the previous recessions
25:29and yet the economic data the job market wages inflation all kind of look okay
25:36it is the strangest year in the economy that i have ever covered end quote
25:41but the best expression of the economic uncertainty undoubtedly comes not just from economic reporters
25:46or from fed board members but from regular people
25:49like this mailbag question economist jared bernstein received and posted on his sub stack
25:54america'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
26:05well here to explain is jared bernstein he's the former chair of the white house council of economic advisors
26:10in the biden administration and a policy fellow at the stanford institute for economic policy research
26:15jared thank you for being with us that was such a great question that you got in the mailbag
26:19because it's such a great opportunity now for us to explain that while gdp is the the largest measure
26:26we have of all economic activity in our economy it doesn't tell you who's winning and it doesn't tell you
26:33who's losing it just tells you this is happening absolutely it's a three it's a 30 trillion dollar
26:40aggregate which explains how folks at the bottom middle and the top uh are uh are doing uh only in the
26:48sense that it reaches them and if we have gdp growth that is largely just uh helping to elevate
26:56the yachts and leaving the rowboats behind well we're going to have a situation where the economy
27:02looks good by some of these aggregate numbers and yet feels pretty bad to a lot of people
27:08uh 90 percent of stock market wealth is held by the top 10 percent the bottom 50 percent almost
27:14owns almost nothing in terms of the stock market so again uh we we have to look not simply at the
27:21aggregate indicators if we want to understand that gap but how different groups are faring
27:26so let's let's talk about this because 20 25 years ago if you saw the stock market performing the way it
27:32is now you would assume whether you called it trickle down or the fact that people benefit from it
27:37you would assume that that meant wealth was being spread around as you point out uh a little bit more than
27:4350 percent of people hold stock but you you you just gave me that statistic 90 percent of stock
27:48market wealth goes to the wealthiest the stock market is just not a great barometer of of broad-based
27:55wealth creation yeah you're right that if you look at the share of people who own even a share of stock
28:02sure you can get above 50 percent pretty quickly but if you look at the value and now we're talking
28:08about the for example uh tech shares we know that the valuation of the mag 7 these big tech companies
28:15is over 20 trillion dollars that's over two-thirds of gdp if you want to just give it some context but
28:22the folks who are uh making off uh the most from uh those uh equity shares are the wealthiest and it and
28:30and the way that works in terms of the kinds of indicators we've been talking about if you actually
28:35go around and see how big businesses are doing relative to small businesses well small businesses
28:40have been shedding jobs now for a while big businesses continue to plow ahead if you ask uh
28:46uh folks who are uh tracking these consumer spending numbers that you just said a minute ago retail trade
28:52and so you'll find that in zip codes that are pretty wealthy these stores are holding up pretty pretty
28:57pretty fine but then if you look at some of the poor zip codes you'll see a different result so i do
29:03think that whether we're talking about consumer sales affordability health care which is about to
29:08get a lot more expensive for a lot of people you start to see this divide jared you're talking about
29:13the mag 7 the magnificent 7 stocks um these are mainly ai they're tech stocks mainly ai driven uh tech
29:20stocks whether it's it's chips or companies that employ ai in their work uh so if you take those out of
29:26the s&p 500 and you call it the s&p 493 the performance has been a lot less uh fancy these
29:33are the mag 7 stocks why does that matter because people who own stocks generally speaking will own
29:39an index like the s&p 500 so they're also gaining from the benefit in these companies why is it
29:45dangerous that seven companies are so outperforming the entire rest of the stock market i'm glad you
29:51asked me that because it really feeds into everything we're talking about i don't think
29:55it's particularly dangerous from the perspective of individual portfolios i think it's dangerous
30:00from the perspective of the overall economy one of the things that's been driving growth is called
30:06the wealth effect and this is the idea that for every dollar of stock market wealth uh something like
30:12two to three cents extra gets spend in the economy now i did some calculations for the piece you showed
30:18me a minute ago uh the piece i wrote the other day uh the valuation of the s&p 500 is up almost 10
30:24trillion so if you take a couple percent of that that's uh you know north of 200 billion so that
30:30explains a little almost a quarter of the increase in consumer spending so that kind of concentration
30:38and the wealth effect that's helping to drive consumer spending forward it's more fragile than i'd like
30:44it to be because if those firms start to stumble uh start to stumble that wealth effect could could
30:49shift in reverse yeah it's worth paying attention to for all of us to see how big a role whether or
30:55not you like ai or you're fearful ai or you're hopeful for it it is a massive piece of our economy
31:00right now for better for worse and we need to pay attention to it jared thanks as always we
31:04appreciate it the economist jared bernstein all right coming up donald trump lied repeatedly about
31:08hurricane relief in north carolina in 2024 but this time the buck does stop with him the
31:14former north carolina governor roy cooper now the democratic candidate for senate joins me next
31:18on 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 a 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
32:08presidential 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 lies
32:20about 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
32:37to disaster response and that it's giving hurricane victims just 750 in support none of these claims
32:43are true after those lies trump went on to win north carolina by three points now a new york new
32:49washington post report is detailing how donald trump is not quite the savior he claims to be in november
32:552024 elizabeth clark was among the first storm victims in her county to apply for a voluntary
33:00program funded by the federal emergency management agency that would enable the government to buy out
33:06her property more than 800 storm victims around helene battered western north carolina have applied under
33:12fema's hazard mitigation grant program state officials vetted applications and began sending them up the
33:18chain to fema as far back as february as of december 15th they had sent nearly 600 buyout requests to
33:25washington washington was more likely to follow so far they say not a single approval has come through
33:31in 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 on why end quote it is of
33:50course donald trump and his chainsaw pal elon musk who've wreaked havoc on fema staffing and financing
33:55but in rocky mount on december 19th donald trump told voters it was all going great and of course he did
34:01it all i did it all with your congressman and with a couple of republicans from your state
34:10that put their lives on the line to make sure this got done
34:14joining me now is the former governor roy cooper he's a candidate for the u.s senate in north
34:20carolina governor thank you for being with us i appreciate it i i'm i'm a little surprised as they
34:24say in the south that this dog actually hunts uh north carolinians i think have a pretty clear view
34:30of what happened after that hurricane and and what donald trump was saying about it and the fact that
34:35those two things are not the same you're right that dog doesn't hurt a hunt alley uh in fact this
34:42was a big blow to western north carolina the largest natural disaster ever and that miss of
34:48information and those lies that had been stirred up demoralized people who were working so hard
34:54uh state and local government and volunteers were putting in the time uh it also discouraged people
35:02from applying for help uh then donald trump gets elected as president and comes in to north carolina
35:08and says that we're going to slash through every bureaucratic barrier to make sure we rebuild western
35:16north carolina better than it ever was and what does he do he appoints the consummate washington dc insider
35:25my opponent michael whatley in the senate race to be the western north carolina recovery czar
35:31it's been a failure at every turn in fact local governments are waiting to be reimbursed all of
35:40them operating on tight budgets you just heard about the 800 applications that are waiting for
35:46approval it's it's hard to handle these buyouts at the state and local level and they have to do
35:53most of the work all the federal government has to do is approve it and send a check they can't even
35:59do that it's gotten so bad that there have been bipartisan calls and signing a petition to ask
36:07michael whatley to resign from his position look we need people in the united states senate who need to
36:15work on cutting red tape for real uh michael whatley is is on a council appointed by the president
36:23to reform fema uh they haven't even come up with the report much less have they done anything and
36:31people in western north carolina are still hurting they're doing an amazing job on their own but only
36:3711 percent of the recovery has been funded by the federal government and storms like katrina and sandy
36:46had 70 percent of right from the federal government it's time for the federal government to step up and help
36:51western north carolina and if you want a senator who's going to work on that you can go to roycooper.com
36:57and learn about what we're going to do and help us out i remember in your years as governor you and i
37:03talked several times right after hurricanes or during natural disasters as i did with many of your
37:08uh fellow governors in the south and it was kind of interesting to me that that was the moment in which
37:14partisan nonsense was generally suspended for a couple of reasons one is these are human tragedies and two
37:19you have to work with everybody in your state when when something like that happens you you you can
37:23dig into why things went wrong but fundamentally it is not a partisan activity donald trump was was
37:30making this a partisan problem as it happened no question and in fact uh this hurricane occurred at the end
37:37of september obviously the november elections were right around the corner and i think the president took
37:43advantage of that to lay into the previous administration and really he was criticizing
37:49everybody who was involved in this and promised that he would do better fact of the matter is they have
37:56not done better and in fact things are much worse washington is broken we need problem solvers to be
38:04elected to go to the united states senate to put the checks and balances back into the constitution
38:10to make sure this executive is doing its job right and those of us who've served as governor who've
38:18been through these natural disasters know how complicated it can be the last thing you need
38:23is an unresponsive unresponsive federal government and that's what we have right now i uh you and i talked
38:30on the night of december 19th when donald trump had his rally in rocky mount i didn't know at the time
38:35that he said this about you uh but he did he said your previous governor referring to you
38:39was a disaster he was a radical left person by the way he's radical left you don't want him he doesn't
38:45represent you i've known you for a lot of years i don't recall anybody calling you radical left
38:49no that's that's the first i think he's coined that phrase uh what i'm going to be is the kind
38:55of senator who's going to be a strong independent senator who's going to work with this president
38:59whenever i can i'm going to stand up to him when i need to my opponent will be the president's yes
39:06man my opponent is the anointed pick of donald trump and he knows that michael wiley will do
39:14whatever he tells him to do i don't think the people of north carolina want that uh they know
39:19me serving as the chief law enforcement officer of our state as attorney general and as governor and
39:24i'm going to work on bringing their costs down protecting the health care that we've gotten in
39:30north carolina we were able to get a bipartisan agreement in our state to get 700 000 more people
39:35health insurance now all of that is in danger because of the big beautiful bill that they just
39:41passed it's another reason why i knew i needed to step up and run for this u.s senate seat to fix those
39:48problems and protect the success that we've made in north carolina so until 2025 when i wanted to
39:54describe to people how how perverse some of those party partisan gerrymandering would be i would use
40:00north carolina as an example because we pointed out donald trump won by three points republicans often
40:04win uh at that level but you were governor and you were the attorney general the current governor was
40:10also the attorney general and in all of those instances you won statewide elections in which uh both
40:16your legislatures uh your legislatures are overwhelmingly um in fact veto proof republican so
40:23there's sort of proof of how why why gerrymandering is a problem extreme partisan gerrymandering hurts our
40:30democracy it hurts public policy for the brief period of time that we had fair congressional maps in north
40:37carolina court-ordered fair maps we sent seven democrats and seven republicans to washington now that
40:45that opinion has been struck back down uh the republicans have taken over it is likely to be
40:52eleven republicans and three democrats that's not north carolina we are a purple state uh when you
41:00have these gerrymandered districts you have representatives who spend more time uh catering
41:06to the extremes of their party rather than trying to work together to solve problems we need a
41:12constitutional amendment to outlaw extreme partisan gerrymandering i wish we'd won this the supreme
41:17court case that was up there at the time that was a close loss but i think that would be one of the
41:23best 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
41:34you
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