- 6 hours ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00And thanks for at home for joining us this hour. Really, really happy to have you here.
00:03All right. I have some stuff to show you guys. Less than two weeks ago, a week ago, Wednesday,
00:08that was January 21st, the Department of Homeland Security wrote to Hanover County, Virginia.
00:16Hanover County, Virginia is just outside Richmond, Virginia. It's Republican territory. Trump beat
00:23Kamala Harris in Hanover County by 26 points, just for context in terms of the local politics there.
00:30But on the 21st of January, Homeland Security sends a letter to Hanover County saying we are going to
00:38build a Trump prison camp in Hanover County, specifically in Ashland, Virginia. We,
00:46Homeland Security, are going to build an ICE prison camp here. Just wanted to let you know that letter
00:52was sent to the county Wednesday, a week and a half ago. People locally learn about that.
01:00Two days later, last Friday, with reports like this in the local press, the Trump administration
01:06wants to build one of their camps, wants to build a prison camp for immigrants in a Hanover County
01:13warehouse. Specifically, they want to build it out on the site of a former cattle farm in Hanover County.
01:20In total, it's about 15 miles north of Richmond. Right now, there is a half million square foot
01:25warehouse on that site that ICE wants to use to convert into a prison camp. That warehouse was built by
01:31a company owned by a Canadian billionaire, a guy based in Vancouver, British Columbia. His company
01:40is apparently going to sell that warehouse in Virginia to ICE so ICE can build a prison camp there.
01:45So that news comes to the county on Wednesday. The news gets out locally that this is happening two
01:53days later on Friday. Then over that weekend, the Canadians get going on this. The head of the
02:00Green Party in British Columbia announces a boycott of that billionaire, of all the companies owned or
02:06operated by that Canadian billionaire, if he goes through with selling this warehouse to become an ICE
02:12prison camp in Virginia. That happens over the weekend. Then on Monday, the union that represents
02:19workers at one of his grocery stores, they say basically, yeah, we're with her. You better not
02:25sell that warehouse for a Trump prison camp for ICE. By the way, we're your workers at your grocery
02:31store. You better listen to us. The day after that, Tuesday, the billionaire's company puts out a kind of
02:37milk toast, everybody calm down statement that basically just says, you know, we understand that
02:44this is something people feel really strongly about. Thanks for your concern. But basically, the upshot
02:50of it is we're still moving ahead with this thing. That's Tuesday. Following day, Wednesday, a big outdoor
02:58advertising company that does tons of business with that billionaire's company, advertising company
03:04called Point Blank. They send the billionaire a letter saying, hey, you know, if you help ICE build a
03:11freaking prison camp in America, in Virginia, we're never doing any business with any of your companies
03:17ever again. Well, that night, back in Virginia, back in Hanover County, there's a board of supervisors
03:25meeting. When they first got those local news reports that this prison camp was coming to town, that ICE wanted
03:31to
03:31build a prison camp there. Those local news reports had mentioned that the local board of supervisors
03:37was, quote, set to consider the proposal and potential next steps at its next regularly scheduled
03:44meeting on Wednesday, January 28th, weather permitting. Well, as of Wednesday, January 28th, weather was not
03:51permitting. It was absolutely freezing, snow everywhere. The roads were completely covered in ice.
03:58Nevertheless, the local board of supervisors in Hanover County, Virginia, met that night,
04:04Wednesday, and the place was absolutely packed with locals. The public comment period at the board
04:11of supervisors meeting went on and on and on for hours. And nobody was allowed to speak at that public
04:17comment period unless they were from Hanover County. And again, this is a Trump plus 26 county.
04:25But basically, the whole community turned up on this icy, cold, snowy, dangerous night to tell
04:31the board of supervisors there exactly what they thought. There were so many people there in the cold
04:37and the snow that once the room was full, people queued up outside despite the weather. They knew they
04:43wouldn't get in. They were told they wouldn't get in. They said they weren't leaving. They were
04:47staying. They had to say their peace. And then this happened.
04:53Hey there, Indivisible, Virginia. We're here outside the Hanover Board of Supervisors meeting.
04:59You can see people turned out hugely. They are cheering and excited right now because the rumor
05:06is that they just voted it down. I'm going to see if I can get confirmation if that is what
05:12has
05:12actually happened. People have been chanting. This is what democracy looks like. This looks awesome.
05:23Do you know why people are excited? They just announced proposal rejected and everyone screamed.
05:29So that is it. So these wonderful patriots have defeated the concentration camp.
05:36We're not leaving. We're not leaving. We're not leaving.
05:45He's saying we're not leaving. We're not leaving. You hear the cheers that go up when they hear
05:51the result of what happened inside. The Board of Supervisors in deep, deep red,
05:56Hannaford County, Virginia, said no. That night, with all those people packing the meeting,
06:01with all those people outside, they said, we do not want a Trump prison camp here.
06:05In the statement that the board put out saying that they oppose
06:09this prison camp being cited in their county, they called on their state representatives
06:14in state government. They called on their federal delegation in Congress to please help them to please
06:19make this not happen, to tell ICE and to tell the Trump administration that they were not going to have
06:25one of these prison camps in their county. So that was Wednesday night. Then less than 48 hours later,
06:35on Friday, this past Friday, the Canadian billionaire, the guy who owns that half million square foot
06:42warehouse in Ashland and in Hanover County, Virginia, his company put out a very simple one-line statement.
06:48It says, quote, the transaction to sell our industrial building in Ashland, Virginia,
06:54will not be proceeding. Will not be proceeding. Done.
07:01Let's go to another red part of the country. Let's go to Utah. We covered over the past couple of
07:08weeks local organizing in Utah to stop yet another huge warehouse from being bought by the Trump
07:15administration and turned into a huge immigrant prison camp there. Local organizers in Utah
07:20focused their attention on the real estate company that was trying to broker the sale of that Salt Lake
07:25City warehouse to ICE. So organizing like this one, contact the real estate company today. Let them know
07:32what you think of their plan to profit off the suffering of countless human beings. Call their offices,
07:37email them, review them on Google, Yelp, and Facebook. There was a big protest at the offices of that
07:43local real estate company. The mayor of Salt Lake County got involved. She says publicly that the
07:49size of this prison camp that Trump wants to put there, it would hold more people than the entire
07:54Utah Department of Corrections. It would hold more people in that one facility than all Utah state
08:00prisons combined. And that community is not willing to bear that cost. She said she will use, quote,
08:06all available legal and policy avenues, including land use authority, regulatory review,
08:11and coordination with local partners to oppose this thing. Then we get the Salt Lake City mayor
08:16involved. She's contacting the local real estate group that's been getting all these calls and these
08:22emails that's having protests at its offices. It's getting the most pressure and the worst press of
08:26its life over its choice to do business with ICE to put a prison camp in their hometown. Salt Lake
08:33City mayor
08:34tells them, do not do it. And this Saturday, this weekend, that local real estate company, the one
08:43that owns the warehouse, they put out their own brief to the point statement. We quote, have no plans to
08:49sell or lease the building to ICE or any other federal government agency. Done in Salt Lake City. Let's go
08:58to
08:58another red part of the country. Let's go to Oklahoma. We've previously covered how Trump wants to put a
09:03prison camp in Durant, Oklahoma. We covered how the local government there passed a resolution insisting
09:09that they will not allow it. Now look at Oklahoma City, a 27-acre warehouse facility there where ICE
09:16say they want to put a Trump prison camp in Oklahoma City. People in Oklahoma City immediately started
09:22organizing against it when word of that got out. They packed into an Oklahoma City council meeting
09:27on Tuesday to say no, to say they will not abide it. No way. The public comment period again went
09:33on for
09:33hours and hours and hours. Oklahoma City's mayor gets involved. He directly contacts the owner of that
09:41facility, owner of the warehouse, to talk them out of selling it to ICE to turn it into a Trump
09:47prison camp.
09:49This past Thursday, the mayor of Oklahoma City announces they are not going to sell. They are
09:55not going to sell that facility to ICE. There is not going to be a Trump prison camp in Oklahoma
09:59City.
10:00Meanwhile, the local press reports that there are almost no other facilities like that in the Oklahoma
10:06City area. So if that one's out, the one ICE wanted, then it's not likely that ICE is going to
10:10find any
10:11place else like that anywhere near there besides that one. In other words, it seems like it's pretty
10:18much done there, no matter how badly they want it. On Sunday this weekend, there was a planned protest
10:27at the site of that warehouse where ICE was going to put their prison camp in Oklahoma City. But the
10:31organizers instead turned it into a celebration of the fact that local residents turned that around,
10:37and it's not going to happen. People's voices are important. Oklahoma City residents celebrate victory
10:43over proposed ICE facility. A planned site visit for contractors to eyeball a site in San Antonio.
10:54That could be a Trump prison camp. That site visit was canceled when the date rolled around and the site
11:00was filled with protesters just waiting for ICE and the proposed contractors to arrive.
11:06In Merrimack, New Hampshire, 1,200 people showed up at a planning meeting in their town to tell their
11:11local government no way they will not allow a Trump prison camp there either. Social Circle,
11:16Georgia. We talked about this last week. Social Circle, Georgia, has a population of 5,000 people.
11:22Trump wants to put a prison camp there that would hold 10,000 people, twice the size of the town.
11:30The town is protesting. Their local government has told the press and the Trump administration
11:34that their sewer and water capacity is maxed out already in town. And so not only is one of these
11:42prison camps not wanted, it is literally impossible to site it there. And that matters because even if
11:49the federal government can legally try to force a local community into accepting a federal facility,
11:55it can't force them to build new sewers or water sources or roads to handle that kind of facility.
12:03That same kind of argument is now operative in Roxbury, New Jersey, where, as we have reported in
12:09previous weeks, the all Republican local government in Roxbury passed a resolution saying, no, do not put
12:15one of your Trump prison camps here. Local residents are worried that that resolution isn't enough,
12:21that the Trump administration will still try to put a prison camp in Roxbury, New Jersey anyway.
12:26They are still fighting tooth and nail to stop it, even as the local government says that just in
12:31terms of things like sewer and water, it is not possible for it to be there.
12:37In Kansas City, Missouri, we're going to talk with the mayor of Kansas City tonight here on this show.
12:41In Kansas City, they passed a five-year moratorium on any non-municipal detention facility of any kind
12:48being built in Kansas City. That moratorium is designed specifically to stop Trump from putting
12:52a prison camp in Kansas City. They say they're ready to defend that in court.
12:58And meanwhile, the local real estate company in Kansas City that has reported they've been working
13:03with ICE to try to site this prison camp in Kansas City. Well, the local port district in Kansas City
13:10is considering cutting off all business with that company in response to their work with ICE.
13:16I should also say that local company is just getting dragged through it in the local press.
13:22Headline the Kansas City Star quote, the brothers behind platform ventures could choose not to sell
13:27out Kansas City to ICE. From that op-ed quote, drop the deal, eat the embarrassment, find another buyer,
13:35make a clean break and say plainly that you don't want your legacy tied to masked men hauling people
13:41out of their homes and into warehouses on the edge of town. The alternative is a lifetime of being
13:46whispered about behind your backs everywhere from church fundraisers to the crown seats at the Royals
13:52game. People remember, you aren't breaking the law, but you also could choose not to be the villain in
13:59this story. You could decide not to treat this moment as just another business transaction.
14:04People would remember that too. That's Kansas City. Again, the mayor will be here in just a moment
14:11tonight's show. Surprise, Arizona. ICE has already bought a warehouse in Surprise, Arizona to develop,
14:18apparently, into a huge prison camp there. But more than 1,000 people turned out in Surprise,
14:24Arizona this weekend to say, don't do it. We don't want it here. In Tucson, Arizona,
14:29the local press says 6,000 people packed the downtown protesting against ICE this weekend.
14:36But hey, Tucson, just a half hour outside Tucson in Marana, Arizona, M-A-R-A-N-A,
14:42just northwest of Tucson. Locals there are protesting. This is Pima County. There's a group
14:47that's formed there against a planned Trump prison camp in Marana, Arizona. It's called Price for Pima
14:53Resists ICE. They've got a petition going. They're doing everything they can to try to stop
14:58a Trump prison camp from going in there as well. Again, that's just a half an hour from Tucson.
15:03Near Hagerstown, Maryland, in a place called Williamsport, ICE has already bought the warehouse
15:09there that they want to turn into a huge Trump prison camp. We have seen U.S. senators and members
15:14of Congress and locals protesting to try to stop that just outside Hagerstown, Maryland.
15:20But it's not the only place in Maryland. An hour and a half away from there in Howard County,
15:25Maryland, a place called Elkridge. ICE apparently wants to build another Trump prison camp there.
15:31Well, today, look at this. The Howard County, Maryland county executive, his name is Calvin Ball.
15:38Tonight, he announced that as of this evening, he is revoking the building permit
15:44for the facility where they were doing the build out to try to form a Trump prison camp there as
15:51well.
15:51Watch. As we continue to witness the devastating consequences of federal enforcement actions
15:59across our nation, including loss of life and civil unrest, it is more important than ever that local
16:08government acts with clarity, restraint, and compassion. It is our responsibility as local
16:16leaders to act before harm occurs and not after. Today, my director of inspections, licenses, and
16:23permits revoked the building permit for this detention center. Together, we will stand united,
16:32work collaboratively together, and safeguard our community and stand up for dignity.
16:40That concludes my remarks. That concludes my remarks. That is the county executive of Howard County,
16:47Maryland, his name is Calvin Ball, announcing tonight that the county government is revoking the
16:53building permit for Trump's prison camp that they were trying to build in Elkridge, Maryland.
17:02If they build them, they will fill them, and there's different forms of leverage available for
17:13various facilities of these kinds, right? If they want to build them on military bases or in other facilities
17:19they've already got federal control of, there's little leverage to be able to stop them from building those
17:25facilities. Once they've built them or they got those facilities open, people absolutely can still
17:31show up and protest the heck out of those facilities, which you have seen even just over the last few
17:35days. For example, at the gates of the prison camp in Dilley, Texas. In Dilley, Texas, they're holding
17:41men, women, and children there. Dilley, Texas is where the prisoners themselves revolted inside the
17:48facility in peaceful protests last week, reportedly when they heard about the protests nationwide over what had
17:54happened in Minneapolis. Dilley, Texas is where five-year-old Liam Ramos was sent from Minneapolis
18:01before a judge this weekend ordered him and his father freed and sent home. But Dilley is where
18:06hundreds of other kids are still being held. And where there is now, the government admits, a measles
18:14outbreak. Oh, good. People have been protesting regularly at the gates of Dilley now in Texas. People have
18:23also been protesting regularly at Fort Bliss, at Camp East Montana, where at least three people have died
18:30in just the past two months, including one man whose death has been ruled a homicide by the local medical
18:35examiner. I mean, in the existing prison camps they've got, Trump is already holding more than 73,000
18:44people right now, which is a record. They want to build 16 new processing facilities and seven new
18:52huge warehouse facility camps. If they build those, if they can build those 23 new facilities that they've
19:00said they want to build in these communities that I've been describing all over the country,
19:04if they can build those 23 new facilities, that'll give them the space to more than double the number of
19:09people they're holding in the camps. The biggest one they've got right now holds about 3,000 people.
19:16That's the one at Fort Bliss, where three people have died in the past eight weeks. Again, about 3,000
19:22people are there now. There's already people regularly dying there. 3,000 people there now. They want their
19:29new prison camps to be closer to 10,000 people. How do you think those facilities are going to be
19:36run?
19:38If they build them, they will fill them up. And yes, maybe they will use them for immigration detention.
19:47Now, whatever that is, they're prison camps. But if history tells us anything, it tells us that once
19:55facilities like this are built in these kinds of numbers, once you get an archipelago of facilities
20:02like this built in numbers like this, yeah, they may start as immigration detention, but they're
20:08available to them indefinitely for whatever they want to do with those camps.
20:14And so you see something that has been mostly flying under the radar of the national media,
20:19but may absolutely be key to our destiny as a nation. Everywhere they are trying to build these
20:25things, including in the reddest states in the country. Everywhere people are pulling out all
20:31the stops to prevent these camps from being built. And I have to tell you, if the country stops them
20:37from building them, they will never again have this kind of momentum to try to build a constellation of
20:42prison camps this large outside the reach of the law. I mean, why would we give this government
20:49that kind of power, that kind of tool to use indefinitely? We are seeing continued, rolling,
21:00huge anti-ice protests everywhere now. And it's not just old folks, and it's not just young folks,
21:08it's old folks and young folks and everybody in between. I mean, just in Los Angeles, three straight
21:13days of three really big days of anti-ice, anti-Trump protests in that city. Also outside the sheriff's
21:21office in Lafayette, Louisiana. Also Indianapolis, Indiana in the snow and Westerville, Ohio in the
21:27snow. We saw bike rides to honor Alex Preddy, who was killed by Trump's agents in the streets of
21:32Minneapolis. Bike rides for Alex Preddy in Minneapolis and in New York City and in Austin and in Boise and
21:38in Denver and in Tulsa, Oklahoma and many, many, many more. Protests inside the Target stores in
21:45Minneapolis. Target is headquartered in Minneapolis. Locals there want that company to keep ice out of
21:51its stores and out of its parking lots. They want Target to use its influence as a corporation to push
21:57back against Trump on what Trump's agents are trying to do to people and are doing to people in Target's
22:03home
22:03city. You see ongoing protests in Mount Kisco, New York and Portland, Oregon and New York City and
22:10Belleville, Illinois and on the beach in Ocean Beach, California. We have eyes. No more lies. Abolish ice.
22:17High schools all over the country walked out on Friday. Abolish ice. Rolling anti-ice protests
22:25everywhere now. And the national media has now caught up to the fact that this is happening and this is
22:33very much the temperature of the country right now. The national media has now caught up to the fact
22:38that Americans everywhere are fiercely resolute and dedicated in their opposition to what Trump is
22:45doing and their willingness to show it. The next big nationwide No Kings Day protest is planned for
22:52March 28th. You may want to put that on your calendar now, March 28th, which is a Saturday.
22:58At the earlier No Kings Day protests, literally millions of Americans protested. There were some
23:04of the largest protest days in American history. This next one, given what we're seeing in the
23:08streets right now, could end up being a very big deal, March 28th.
23:14But I mean, just speaking strategically, I think anybody who studies movements like this in any country,
23:21anywhere in the modern world, will tell you that keeping the pressure
23:23on a would-be authoritarian state is never more important than when they're wobbling,
23:31when they are on the defensive, when they're losing their will,
23:36when they're falling apart, which right now they are.
23:40I mean, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announcing tonight that as of now,
23:45immediately, Homeland Security agents will start wearing body cameras. They say that starting in
23:50Minneapolis and then everywhere. OK, we shall see. A federal judge today brushing Kristi Noem back
23:56and saying your new policy is illegal and unconstitutional. And actually, members of
24:02Congress have every right to inspect immigration prisons, the Trump prison camps, whenever they
24:08want to. And you cannot keep them out. They have been trying to keep members of Congress
24:11out of these prison camps. They cannot do so. Another federal judge just tonight brushing Kristi
24:17Noem back and saying that the plan to revoke legal status from 330,000 people at midnight tomorrow,
24:26people from Haiti, instantly rendering them all subject to arrest and deportation. That is not
24:32going to happen. It is a blistering ruling. It's just come out tonight. We're going to have
24:36more on that in just a moment. Trump's bizarre weaponization guy at DOJ,
24:43Ed Martin, who calls himself Eagle Ed. OK. He's the guy who's been in the lead on freeing all the
24:49January 6 prisoners and bringing these doomed, harebrained cases against people like Tish James
24:55and James Comey. Today, Ed Martin got stripped of his job titles and they moved his office out of
25:00main justice. You like your new broom closet, Eagle Ed? With that Texas special election this weekend,
25:10to place Trump won by 17 points, instead going to the Democrat by more than 14 points. A swing of
25:16over 30 points in the Democrats' direction in Texas. With Americans now telling pollsters by a
25:22two-to-one margin that Trump being back in office has made their life worse, not better.
25:30Trump has today told a right-wing podcaster, a guy he previously installed at the FBI for some reason,
25:36but who's now back to podcasting. Trump today told him that he wants Republicans to,
25:40quote, take over elections, meaning literally seizing the elections infrastructure all over the country.
25:48OK. And his bizarro world seizure of ballots from Fulton County, Georgia,
25:55maybe about to get nuked in court as Fulton County today sued to stop him from doing anything with what
26:01they took. The Minnesota U.S. Attorney's Office tonight is reportedly shutting another eight
26:07federal prosecutors who are walking because they apparently cannot abide what the Trump administration
26:13is telling them to do in that city with these bizarre and untenable attempts to investigate and
26:19prosecute the people Trump's agents killed there and their families and protesters there and journalists
26:27there. Georgia Fort, one of the Twin Cities journalists who they are trying to prosecute there,
26:33is going to join us here live tonight in just a moment.
26:38Tonight, the Trump administration has reportedly stood down the Alaska and North Carolina active
26:45duty troops they had previously told to prepare to deploy to Minnesota. Tonight, the New York Times
26:51reports that the Trump administration has even backed down on its demand to make Harvard University pay
26:57them millions of dollars. Just take a look around at where we are one year into this.
27:07Are they going to be able to build a huge permanent archipelago of camps, of lawless prison camps?
27:16There's pushback everywhere, including in red states, red counties and red cities that says no.
27:22Are they going to be able to keep up their military style invasion of U.S. cities? Minneapolis says no.
27:30And the whole country says no with them. Are they going to be able to arrest their way through
27:35their enemies and through the journalists they single out? No, they're not. They're going to try,
27:40but no, they're not. But it is the pushback against them right now that is going to prove
27:46all of that out. What we do right now determines the fate of this country. Georgia Fort is here next.
27:53Stay with us.
28:00She grew up in St. Paul. She went to college there at the University of St. Thomas. Since then,
28:05she's had a long and accomplished and interesting career as a journalist. She's been a radio morning
28:11show host, a TV news anchor. Over the last several years, she's built up a really large online following
28:17and a formidable reputation as an independent reporter in Minnesota. She covered the protests
28:24following the murder of George Floyd. She was in the courtroom when that former Minneapolis police
28:29officer was sentenced for Floyd's murder. She founded the nonprofit Center for Broadcast Journalism
28:36to train up the next generation of Minnesota journalists. And she's done something that,
28:43trust me, I can tell you, is almost impossible to pull off. She launched her own independent
28:49TV news program in the Twin Cities. She got grants and donations to fund it. She got the local airtime
28:55to
28:55put it on TV. Her name is Georgia Fort. And in less than three years, she and her show,
29:03Here's the Truth with Georgia Fort, have won three Emmy Awards and were nominated for 11 other Emmy Awards.
29:15And then a few days ago, federal agents descended on her home in the middle of the night and they
29:20arrested her. Attorney General Pam Bondi bragged that she personally ordered Georgia Fort to be
29:26arrested. She alleged that Ms. Fort's reporting on an anti-ice protest last month at a St. Paul church
29:33was an attack that she somehow participated in by reporting on it. Eight other people, including
29:40former CNN anchor Don Lemon, have also been arrested for participating in that protest or indeed for
29:46covering it as journalists. When a judge ordered Ms. Fort released from custody, a crowd gathered
29:53at the federal courthouse in Minneapolis to greet her upon her release. Her lawyer calls the charges,
29:59quote, a transparent and unconstitutional attempt by our federal government to intimidate journalists
30:04and chill their protected speech. The legal reporter Quinta Jurassic wrote about the case this way
30:13in the Atlantic, wrote about the the the indictment in this case this way. She said, quote,
30:18the indictment itself makes for a strange read. No attorneys other than the political appointees
30:23appear on the filing, a hint that career Justice Department employees might not have wanted to be
30:27involved. The government treats Lemon and Fort as co-conspirators of the protesters without
30:32acknowledging any protections afforded by their role as journalists. Quote, on the basis of the record
30:38available so far, the case against them appears factually weak, legally shoddy and marred by a
30:45baffling series of procedural irregularities that raise serious questions about the Justice Department's
30:50ability to win in court. Jurassic says this prosecution is best understood not as law enforcement but as
30:57propaganda, as junk intended purely to get attention. But, quote, that doesn't mean it isn't dangerous.
31:07Dangerous. Dangerous in a broad sense to journalism and democracy, yes. Dangerous very specifically
31:13to journalist Georgia Fort, who now will have to fight off these charges as plainly bogus as they appear
31:20to everyone who has looked at them. Georgia Fort is going to join us here live next. Stay with us.
31:29I've talked to my attorney and I'm being advised to go with them, I guess, down to Whipple. And
31:41my children are here. They're impacted by this. This is all stemming from the fact that I filmed a protest
31:51as a member of the media. Trump's Justice Department has brought criminal charges against nine people
31:58after an anti-ice protest at St. Paul Church last month. People charged included former CNN anchor
32:05Don Lemon and longtime multiple Emmy award-winning Minnesota journalist Georgia Fort. Both Lemon and
32:11Fort were just there covering the protest. Ms. Fort joins us live now. Ms. Fort, thank you so much for
32:17being here. I really appreciate your time. Good evening. Thank you so much for having me.
32:24I was struck by those videos that you filmed during the course of your arrest as agents came to your
32:31home and the sort of very serious calm with which you told your viewers on Facebook Live that your kids
32:38were in the house when that happened. I just want to ask how you're doing and how your kids are
32:43doing.
32:45We're recovering. It was extremely traumatic to have nearly two dozen agents come to our home.
32:53My 17-year-old daughter, you could hear crying in the background. She woke up after she heard the
32:59knocking on the door. My younger two daughters, who are seven and eight years old, they slept through most
33:04of it. However, I did find out at some point my eight-year-old woke up, but she was so
33:10terrified.
33:11She just laid in the bed and cried. Now what we're seeing from them, they're afraid to be alone.
33:19They're having issues going through their normal routines. And so we're just, we're trying to recover
33:26from this. In terms of the legal process here, I know you have a good lawyer. Do you have any
33:33help
33:33with your legal fees? One of the things that I think sort of zoomed around the journalistic community,
33:38and particularly as soon as we heard about your arrest, was about how those of us who work at big
33:44companies think about our legal defense very differently than somebody who's been an independent
33:48operator the way you have, even with your very successful show and journalistic career in Minnesota.
33:52Are you bearing these costs on your own, or do you have help?
33:58My legal team has been extremely supportive, and the community has also been supportive. Folks have
34:04been going to my website and making contributions there, but not just to the legal fund. Folks are
34:12wanting to support my ability to continue telling the stories. This is something I think that definitely
34:20would probably silence a lot of journalists, and I'm committed to continuing to tell the story. So
34:27I'm grateful that there has been an outpouring of support directly to my website, and not just for
34:33legal fees, but just for my continued work as an independent journalist. A lot of legal observers have said
34:42that the indictment kind of reads like it was written in Comic Sans, forgive me, that it doesn't
34:50seem like it's very well thought out, and that it doesn't actually seem like it's even designed to
34:55survive much testing in the courts. That doesn't mean that it's any less traumatic what's happened to
35:00you or how difficult it is to bear these charges. But given the flimsiness and novelty of the charges
35:08that have been laid against you, do you have any sense, any understanding, or even any theories as to
35:14why you've been singled out in this way? Well, I would say that it is not new in America to
35:24see
35:24attack on black journalists. I think in the last few years, we've seen an exodus of not just black
35:31journalists, but journalists in general from mainstream media. There's been a series of things
35:37that have happened, like the Pentagon reporters who were not going to comply with the new policies
35:45that were put in place, Kimmel being pulled off air, the segment on 60 Minutes not running when it was
35:53supposed to, and probably only running because of the outcry from the public, right? And so there's been
35:59a strategic attack on the free press for quite some time. But recently it is intensifying. And I would
36:08say that the arrest of myself and Don Lemon is a new level to threaten taking someone's freedom away
36:17for them simply doing their job to try and criminalize journalism. Journalism is not a crime.
36:26And for me, when I think about the attack that we're currently seeing on the press,
36:33I really want American people to understand, attacking the press is not simply just attacking
36:40journalists. It's attacking the public's right to know. So often there are things that have happened
36:48with government agencies, people in power, big institutions, and they sometimes,
36:57may cover up their misdeeds. It is the act of journalists and journalism that oftentimes reveals
37:05those truths. And so if we are going to attack this pillar of our democracy, I'm concerned that
37:13the misinformation war that we've been experiencing is going to escalate to another level. And the last
37:21thing I'll say is to just kind of expound on that. We saw AI images being published by the White
37:30House
37:31that misportrayed the reaction of one of the protesters being arrested, right? The only way that we knew it
37:40was fake was because someone was there to document what really happened. And so we're entering a time
37:47where I do believe that this is an information war. And so the people who are standing up for truth,
37:52the people who are not afraid to document what's happening, I think that we're going to continue to
38:27be attacked.
38:28back as this as this moves forward. Thank you so much, Rachel. All right. Much more news ahead
38:35here tonight. Stay with us.
38:40The warehouse was built originally as an Amazon distribution center. But then a couple of weeks
38:46ago on a Thursday morning, people spotted what appeared to be ICE agents at that facility. Local
38:51news outlets got footage of these agents roaming around the vacant building. A county legislator
38:56confronted them about what they were doing there. Eventually, it became clear that the reason ICE agents
39:02were there is because their agency was planning to buy that former Amazon warehouse to turn it into
39:08a Trump prison camp for immigrants. By that afternoon, just hours later, the city's mayor had
39:15asked the city council to vote on a new ordinance that would effectively ban any such ICE facility,
39:21that would ban any facility like that in that city for five years, a five-year moratorium.
39:28The ordinance passed that same day. Overwhelmingly, it passed 12 to one.
39:34Like any of the cities or counties around the country right now that are trying to rain in ICE,
39:39Kansas City, Missouri will likely need to defend this new ordinance in court. They will need to make it
39:44stick. But I'll tell you, KC sounds ready for this fight. The mayor of Kansas City in particular has
39:49been vocal in his opposition to this proposed prison camp. He says, quote,
39:54Kansas City made it clear we do not want a human being detention warehouse slash camp holding between
40:01five and ten thousand people. We will proudly enforce our moratorium ordinance. We believe we are on
40:06solid legal ground. Joining us now is Kansas City Mayor Quentin Lucas. Mr. Mayor, thank you very much for
40:13being here. It's nice to see you again. It's good to be back with you. We are monitoring all over
40:19the
40:19country. There's a few dozen places that are fighting off ICE detention facilities, ICE prison
40:26camps, ICE processing facilities that they want to build, often in former warehouse facilities like
40:31this. Let me just ask you about how you came to understand that this sort of threat was coming to
40:36your city and how you decided what your options were for confronting it.
40:41You know, no matter the person you talk to, it's always somewhat astonishing how we learn about
40:45these things now, it is usually a mix of rumors, somebody who actually just saw something,
40:51and then occasionally you're mentioned in a newspaper piece somewhere on the other side of
40:57the country. And so for us, we started hearing these rumors. In some ways, we didn't actually believe
41:02it. We thought, why would they pick us? Why would they even pick a distribution facility to put humans
41:08in a jail? There's actually a lot that goes into jails. And so we thought it wasn't something that was
41:13real
41:13until it became all too real. You looked at lists and federal records. We talked to some of our
41:19federal delegation folks, and we saw that it was necessary for us to act.
41:25In terms of the local press coverage about what's been happening, one of the things I've been
41:29interested in is the pressure on a local real estate company that seems to have been involved in
41:35potentially brokering this sale. Do you have any information about how far along that sale process
41:40might be? Is there pressure on that local company? Is that likely to make a difference in terms of
41:45whether or not this comes to pass? Well, you know, if you look at what's
41:48happening around the country, there are other deals that have collapsed. You've heard about
41:51it in Oklahoma City. You've seen it in other parts of the country. I think that is a big part
41:56of the pressure campaign that you're getting on this local firm, and it actually is local owners
42:00who are involved in it. I think what has been clear from Kansas City is just this.
42:05This is inhumane. It is not right. It's the sort of thing that we don't want more of.
42:1110,000 people. I mean, let's just think about that. 10,000 people in a gigantic warehouse that
42:17has cages inside next to the train tracks. And I keep mentioning that because I think it conjures up
42:23terrible imagery and historical precedent. That is the sort of thing that I think a lot of people have
42:29said, whether it's through the legal process, whether it's through pressure campaigns, it is vital that we
42:34stand up for the sense of this community, and I think all decent Americans in doing that. So you're
42:38seeing that in the press, and you're certainly seeing that in everyday conversations in Kansas
42:43City as well. Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas. Sir, it's been really interesting to watch your
42:50city respond as you learned about this, to build yourself a menu of options and start taking them
42:57whenever you can. I'd love to stay in touch with you as this fight goes on. I know that a
43:02lot of
43:02cities around the country are watching you right now to see what they can do to build up their own
43:06resistance to something like this. Thank you, sir. Hey, thank you. Keep fighting the good fight,
43:10everybody. All right. We'll be right back. Stay with us.
Comments