- 15 hours ago
The Last Word with Lawrence ODonnell - Season 13 - Episode 20
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00:00With 278 days until the next election, protesters are winning tonight, and Donald Trump continued
00:10his retreat today with new polls, including a Fox poll, showing the country has completely
00:17turned against Donald Trump's invasion of Minneapolis.
00:20The biggest change in the polls is the number of Republicans who have dramatically increased
00:26in opposing Donald Trump's invasion of Minneapolis.
00:31The polls show Donald Trump has gone too far in his cruelty all over the country, including
00:36in Maine, where the state's Republican senator publicly announced Donald Trump's retreat
00:42today because she needs Donald Trump to retreat for her to have any hope of winning re-election
00:48in the state of Maine this year.
00:51Here is the sound of Donald Trump himself in retreat today.
00:59Hopefully, we won't have a shutdown.
01:02We're working on that right now.
01:03I think we're getting close.
01:05The Democrats, I don't believe, want to see it either.
01:07So we'll work in a very bipartisan way.
01:10I believe not to have a shutdown.
01:13When has Donald Trump ever sounded like that at the threat of a shutdown?
01:18Now, Senate Democrats were ready to shut down the government over the funding of Donald
01:24Trump's invasion forces, and Donald Trump caved.
01:29Donald Trump caved to Chuck Schumer.
01:31Chuck Schumer announced that the Senate Democrats would shut down the government over this, and
01:38Donald Trump said, oh, let's talk.
01:40How can we avoid this?
01:43The Republican Senate leader caved right along with Donald Trump.
01:46They are in retreat.
01:48And so Democrats in the Senate will allow other funding bills to go forward, but not the funding
01:54for Donald Trump's invasion forces in Minneapolis who murdered Renee Goode and Alex Preddy.
01:59And we are all witnesses now.
02:02We have all seen the video.
02:03We're all witnesses to that video that showed what happened to those people at the hands of
02:11those federal agents, and we can all see as witnesses that it was murder.
02:18When the United States government retreats, it never uses the word retreat.
02:22In Vietnam, the generals and the Republican president called it de-escalation.
02:26That's the word that Donald Trump used this week about Minneapolis.
02:30De-escalate.
02:31Donald Trump learned that word during the end of the Vietnam War.
02:35Donald Trump's so-called border czar used the language of the American Vietnam retreat today
02:41when he talked about what the generals in Vietnam used to call the drawdown.
02:49We are not surrendering our mission at all.
02:53We're just doing it smarter.
02:54We can draw down those resources.
02:56But based on the discussions I've had with the governor and the AG, we can start drawing
03:02down those resources, so the drawdown is going to happen based on these agreements.
03:07The agreements to have a loan is going to cause a significant drawdown.
03:10So you're going to see a drawdown.
03:12My main focus now is drawdown.
03:16Sounds like an American general in Vietnam.
03:19The American government never uses the word retreat, never uses the word surrender, except
03:24to deny that they're doing it when they are doing it.
03:28That is how de-escalate entered our military language in Vietnam.
03:33That is how drawdown entered our military language in Vietnam.
03:36When we were on our way to mounting a full retreat and a total surrender in the first
03:43war, the United States of America lost outright and never admitted losing.
03:48The anti-war protesters won.
03:51The protesters against the war in Vietnam won, and they forced America to leave Vietnam.
04:00That is the story of that de-escalation and that drawdown.
04:06And the protesters are winning tonight.
04:10For Tom Homan, of all people, to be able to stand in front of reporters for 15 minutes
04:18today without a single question being asked about the undercover FBI video of him accepting
04:27$50,000 in cash from undercover FBI agents in 2024, two people had to die.
04:39Tom Homan is the only person in the history of federal government employment to be offered
04:45a job in the federal government by the president after FBI undercover agents recorded him on
04:50video accepting $50,000 in cash in an undercover investigation of Tom Homan, who, of course,
04:56says he did nothing wrong.
04:57Those reporters today have never before in their lives been in the presence of a federal government
05:03employee who was caught on an FBI undercover video by FBI undercover agents accepting $50,000
05:10in cash from those agents.
05:13And those reporters, understandably, within the time they had, did not ask him a single question
05:20about the $50,000.
05:24Because the more important issue of murder of American citizens by the American government
05:31on the streets of Minneapolis was what brought Tom Homan to Minneapolis, where he was welcomed
05:36by the governor and the mayor as a relief from the deadly, dangerous, and incompetent people
05:42who have been in charge of Donald Trump's invasion forces in Minneapolis.
05:46Yes, Tom Homan is a more reasonable person to deal with than the unalterably evil, lying
05:55Stephen Miller, because anyone is better than Stephen Miller.
06:01Yes, Tom Homan is a better person to deal with than the incompetent, clownish, and lying
06:05Kristi Noem, who was silenced by Donald Trump in his phony TV cabinet meeting today.
06:11She was not allowed to speak.
06:14She was humiliated and silenced in that room.
06:17Attorney General Penelope Bondi was also not allowed to speak in that room today after she
06:24had just returned from Minneapolis, where she was also not allowed to speak publicly when
06:29she was in Minneapolis.
06:31All of this is happening because Donald Trump knows he has to retreat.
06:37It's happening because the protesters are winning.
06:41Donald Trump knows every day he keeps his invasion forces in the state of Maine, makes it impossible
06:47for Republican Senator Susan Collins to get reelected there.
06:49And so Donald Trump is retreating from Maine.
06:52He's getting the troops out of there.
06:55Donald Trump knows that he is losing Republican voter support now on an issue where he always
07:01had their support because he has turned his invasion forces into masked, cowardly agents
07:07of death.
07:08And so Donald Trump is doing and Tom Homan is doing what the protesters in Minneapolis have
07:15been telling them to do, deescalate, draw down, retreat, get out of Minneapolis.
07:24The protesters are winning.
07:26Donald Trump is losing.
07:27And Tom Homan has been sent to Minneapolis to manage the retreat while never calling it
07:32a retreat.
07:32And Donald Trump is very easily and quickly reaching bipartisan agreements with Senate Democrats
07:38to avoid a government shutdown over the funding of Donald Trump's murderous invasion forces.
07:44The protesters did all of that.
07:47The protesters have already achieved more than it seemed possible they could achieve just
07:53last week.
07:53And they have achieved it faster than it seemed possible.
07:57And the protesters have even won the hearts and minds of some Republicans who are turning
08:02against Donald Trump in the polls on this issue.
08:06Donald Trump is losing and the protesters are winning.
08:11The protesters have silenced Stephen Miller's poison and hatred.
08:16That's not Stephen Miller's choice.
08:18You know he wants to be on social media calling the protesters terrorists.
08:22You know he wants to be on TV screaming and continuing to call all of the protesters domestic terrorists.
08:29He wants to call the people who were murdered domestic terrorists.
08:33But Donald Trump will not let him do that.
08:35Donald Trump allowed none of his pretend tough talkers to go on social media or go on TV to continue
08:43to lie about the two people Donald Trump's invasion forces murdered in Minneapolis.
08:49Renee Goode and Alex Preddy.
08:52Donald Trump took away the social media privileges of the now disgraced commander of his invasion
08:57forces in Minneapolis, Gregory Bovino, who is now lost in America somewhere.
09:02He used to be on television every day making sure he wasn't wearing his mask in Minneapolis
09:07as he was throwing gas at protesters, peaceful protesters, so his face would be recognizable,
09:12so he could cash in on a nice right-wing media contract after he left federal employment.
09:18But now Donald Trump doesn't want the invasion force commander who said to Alex Preddy,
09:23quote, wanted to massacre law enforcement to be seen by anyone, anywhere.
09:31When Donald Trump decided to pull Agent Bovino out of Minneapolis, he called him, quote,
09:37quote, kind of out there guy, a kind of out there guy.
09:42And that's the last thing Donald Trump said about Bovino.
09:47Imagine what it's like to be the viciously reflexive, hateful Stephen Miller or Greg Bovino
09:54ordered by Donald Trump not to touch their little social media toys to spew poison and lying hatred
10:01about the people murdered by federal agents in Minneapolis.
10:04Imagine how their fingers twitch as they look at their phones craving a chance to spew more poison
10:09and hatred on their social media accounts about those victims, those murdered victims.
10:16But Donald Trump is in retreat, and they have been ordered to not say a word about those victims, not
10:26another word.
10:27Stephen Miller knows tonight that he has dug Donald Trump the deepest disapproval hole
10:32that Donald Trump has been in in his second term in the White House.
10:36The Pew poll shows a 61% disapproval of Donald Trump tonight.
10:41The Fox poll has Donald Trump at a 56% disapproval tonight.
10:46And Donald Trump now seems to believe that it's Stephen Miller who got him those disapproval numbers.
10:51It's the murders committed under Gregory Bovino's command in Minneapolis that got Donald Trump those disapproval numbers.
10:57The Wall Street Journal is owned by one of the country's richest immigrants, the right-wing Trump-supporting Rupert Murdoch.
11:04The Wall Street Journal reports in frigid Minneapolis, Bovino was seen wearing a long olive overcoat
11:09with an oversized collar that looked to some a bit too much, like it came from Herman Goring's closet.
11:15It's as if he literally went on eBay and purchased SS garb, said California Governor Gavin Newsom.
11:22Bovino's approach, however, rankled many career officials at DHS, and especially inside ICE.
11:27According to people familiar with the matter, they complained Bovino's tactics were unnecessarily aggressive.
11:32Some also pointed out Bovino's agents were doing sloppy work, arresting numerous people in street sweeps who would later be
11:39released
11:39because they had some sort of legal status or were even U.S. citizens.
11:43Chief among those critics was White House border czar Tom Homan.
11:47Trump decided to change course.
11:49By Monday, Homan was on his way to Minneapolis.
11:52Commander Bovino was out.
11:55And so the Trump team can now play the blame Bovino game, but it was Donald Trump who did this.
12:02People are dead on the streets of Minneapolis because of Donald Trump.
12:06And no one is going to be killed by Donald Trump's agents in Maine because there's a Republican senator running
12:13for re-election there.
12:14And so Donald Trump's agents are going to leave.
12:18That Senator Susan Collins announced today, while the Department of Homeland Security does not confirm law enforcement operations,
12:24I can report that Secretary Noem has informed me that ICE has ended its enhanced activities in the state of
12:31Maine.
12:31There are currently no ongoing or planned large-scale ICE operations here.
12:37That is a political party in retreat.
12:40The party that championed ICE enforcement now wants it out of their states.
12:45In the cabinet room today, the president, whose policies and decisions led to the murder in the streets of Minneapolis,
12:51hallucinated about phone conversations that never happened with leaders of foreign countries,
12:56in which he told them that they will have to increase the price of prescription drugs in their countries
13:00so that the price of prescription drugs in the United States can come down.
13:05That formulation is obviously insane on its face.
13:10The price of prescription drugs in foreign countries is lower than in the United States
13:15because the governments of those countries set the price of prescription drugs.
13:20They have price controls.
13:21They use the same kind of price controls that this country used in World War II.
13:27Democrats have been trying to get that kind of price control on prescription drugs for decades in this country.
13:33But Republicans, very much including Donald Trump, oppose the government controlling the price of prescription drugs.
13:42And so we don't have price controls.
13:44And that's why our drugs are more expensive.
13:47None of that was apparently understood by a single person in the Trump cabinet room today.
13:53And their reaction to Donald Trump completely inventing conversations that never happened in an apparent hallucination was to laugh.
14:06I spoke with Macron.
14:07He was the first one.
14:09He was not at that time wearing sunglasses.
14:12And he said,
14:13he says,
14:14no, no, Donald, I will not do this.
14:16I will not.
14:17I won't even consider you're asking me to double the price.
14:20I said, you have no choice.
14:21You have to do it because you guys have been ripping this off.
14:23In other words, the whole world,
14:24we've been subsidizing the whole world on drug costs.
14:28That's why they were $10 and we'd be at $130.
14:31As an example, there were many examples.
14:33I could give you examples even worse.
14:35He said, no, no, no, I will not do that.
14:38And I said, yes, you will.
14:39100% you'll do it.
14:40He said, no, I won't do that, Donald.
14:42You're asking me to double the cost of our prescription.
14:45We will not do that.
14:46I mean, look, you've been ripping this off now for decades.
14:49We're not going to do it anymore.
14:53The French president doesn't control the price of drugs in France.
14:58Pure hallucination from start to finish.
14:59He went on and on about this hallucination,
15:03pretending that he had this conversation with several other unnamed heads of state.
15:07He didn't have this conversation with anyone.
15:11And every one of those laughing people in that room
15:16know that he did not have that conversation with anyone.
15:22And he doesn't understand that France does not set the price of prescription drugs
15:28in the United States.
15:31Donald Trump actually said in his hallucination to the president of France,
15:36you've been ripping us off now for decades.
15:41He's blaming France for the price of a product made in the United States and sold in the United
15:50States of America.
15:52For a president of the United States, that, that alone is as close as you could ask for
15:59publicly for proof of dementia.
16:01A president is supposed to understand just how demented that insane formulation is that he just
16:07offered.
16:08It is absolute proof that the person has no idea what he's talking about in any way.
16:15And the long, detailed nuttiness of this hallucination that went on and on and on got more and more laughs.
16:24And it was happening right in front of the group that has the power, as they sit there even,
16:34to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove the president from his office because of mental incompetence,
16:42which is what they were watching.
16:45But worse than the mental incompetence of not just Donald Trump in that room is the moral vacancy
16:52of everyone in that room.
16:55That's the required ticket to enter that room.
16:59Utter moral vacancy.
17:03Washington used to have something known as the principal's resignation.
17:06People resigned their positions in the government because of something the administration did that
17:11they considered morally beyond the pale.
17:15Three officials actually resigned in the Clinton administration.
17:19When Bill Clinton agreed to support Newt Gingrich's Republican welfare repeal bill,
17:25in pre-Trump Washington,
17:27there would be resignations in a presidential administration that shot and murdered people
17:32in the streets of Minneapolis.
17:36Not one.
17:38Not one.
17:39Not one of the Trump faithful servants in the Trump cabinet room today would ever consider
17:46resigning over murder.
17:48And so they sit and they laugh at the hallucinations of a madman and speak only when Donald Trump allows
17:57them to.
17:57And the laughter of the Trump quizlings is the sound of the moral rot that surrounds and supports
18:06the retreating Donald Trump tonight.
18:13Senator Amy Klobuchar, 278 days from now, will be asking for the votes of the people of Minnesota
18:20to become the governor of Minnesota, to continue defending that state against Donald Trump.
18:30Senator Klobuchar joins us next.
18:37Today, Minnesota's senior senator, Amy Klobuchar, announced that she has decided it's time for her to go home.
18:45Minnesota, we've been through a lot.
18:47A beloved leader and her husband murdered in their home.
18:51Little kids gunned down in a church.
18:54The killings of Renee Good, a mom of three.
18:57And Alex Preddy, a nurse who took care of our veterans.
19:023,000 ICE agents on our streets and in our towns, sent by an administration that relishes division.
19:10We cannot sugarcoat how hard this is.
19:13But in these moments of enormous difficulty, we find strength in our Minnesota values of hard work,
19:21freedom, and simple decency and goodwill.
19:24Minnesota built this nation.
19:26We are bold about doing big things.
19:28We mined the ore that won World War II.
19:31We invented everything from the pacemaker to the post-it note.
19:35We feed the world.
19:36I believe we must stand up for what's right and fix what's wrong.
19:41That's why today I'm announcing my candidacy for governor of the state of Minnesota.
19:47Minnesota.
19:48I am running for this job for every person who wants their work recognized and rewarded.
19:54For every Minnesotan who wants to buy their first home.
19:57For every parent who wants a better world for their kids.
20:01I'm running for everyone who wants more affordable health care.
20:05For every student, farmer, dreamer, and builder.
20:09And I'm running for every Minnesotan who wants ice and its abusive tactics out of the state we love.
20:19Joining us now is Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, the now candidate for governor of Minnesota.
20:25Senator, thank you very much for joining us tonight.
20:27Thanks, Brian.
20:28You know, a decision like this couldn't be easy, especially for someone with your seniority in the Senate.
20:35The Senate power is a game of patience, to put it mildly.
20:38It takes years and years and years to build it.
20:40You have built it.
20:42You have all those years.
20:44And so this is not, I'm sure, an easy decision.
20:49Tell us how you came to this decision.
20:52It wasn't, Lawrence.
20:53I love my job, and I actually think we're going to take back the Senate with these incredible candidates that
20:59we have running right now.
21:01So I love my job, but I love my state more.
21:04And our state has been the center of America's heartbreak, but we've also been the center of America's hope and
21:11courage.
21:11So inspired by those 50,000 people marching in freezing weather or the people delivering food to their neighbors and
21:20looking out for strangers that they've never even met,
21:24the decision came to me as something I had to do.
21:28And I think one of the things that I've asked is for Democrats, Republicans and independents to join me,
21:35because I have eight Republican opponents, but we do not need a rubber stamp of Donald Trump right now in
21:43any state.
21:44And I think this is such an important piece of this.
21:47But the other piece of it is that I think you know this.
21:50I brought people together.
21:51I need to do that in our state right now.
21:54I'm someone that goes to all 87 counties in Minnesota every single year.
21:59I believe in getting stuff done, and that's going to mean more housing.
22:03That's going to mean more affordable child care and health care, and then really standing up for what's right and
22:09fixing what's wrong.
22:10And so I'm excited about this.
22:12It is born out of a most difficult time that I can remember for a year for our state.
22:18But that doesn't mean that we just look away and look down and say, I've had it.
22:23I think it means the opposite.
22:24That's what the people of Minnesota are telling the nation right now, is that you stand your ground, you get
22:30involved,
22:30and you never give up on this democracy or each other.
22:34Yeah, I have to say, I've never seen a senator with your level of seniority decide that this is the
22:41time to go back to a governorship in a state that is under siege.
22:47This seems like it's going to be a campaign and a situation like we've never seen before, a campaign for
22:53governor of a state that is under siege in which the issue will be who can best protect this state
23:00from the president of the United States.
23:03That piece of it couldn't be more important right now, but I really feel like I've got the people with
23:09me, and I'm going to need their help.
23:11I'm going to need their volunteer help.
23:12We only have nine months, so I ask people to go to amyklobuchar.com.
23:17We're going to need people there for us.
23:19But we also, like all states across the country, are struggling with affordability because of Donald Trump's tariffs, something you've
23:27talked a lot about,
23:28and just this standing up to make sure that the people say in this coming election that we don't like
23:35what's going on.
23:36This is a guy that promised that he was going to bring costs down.
23:39It's been the opposite.
23:41He's given us costs, chaos, and corruption.
23:44So that's a big part of it, but I also think the other part is to get us to a
23:48higher ground in our state.
23:50And I think one of the things that I love about our state is we have, as you know, highest
23:55voter turnout almost every election, highest rate of volunteerism.
24:00We are people that look at each other and says, we're going to get this.
24:04We're going to win this.
24:05We're going to move forward.
24:06And that's what I love, and that's what I want to do with our state.
24:09I want to make sure that we expand business, that we look at what's in place that's working in state
24:15government and eliminate what's not working.
24:17And so that's what I'm into.
24:19I want to be a transformative governor.
24:21You know, I just heard you use the word affordability, and that's interesting because today Donald Trump said you don't
24:28talk about that anymore.
24:29Let's listen to what he said about that word today.
24:34You don't hear the word affordability issued by the Democrats anymore.
24:38Now they're going into other things because they're getting beaten badly on affordability.
24:45What's your response to that?
24:46Maybe he wants to meet Abigail Spanberger and Mikey Sherrill and all of these state candidates across the country, whether
24:56it's legislative races, whether it's mayor's races, who have stood up and said, this matters to people.
25:03And Donald Trump is taking us in the wrong direction, manufacturing jobs down every month since he got sworn in.
25:11And I want to increase those manufacturing jobs.
25:14And the only way they're going to do this is, yes, by taking this on in the elections in the
25:19fall.
25:20But it's also getting strong governors in place that can stand up for the people of their state.
25:26In your announcement video, you said you're running for every Minnesotan who wants to buy their first home.
25:32Let's listen to what Donald Trump said today to Minnesotans who want to buy their first home or anyone who
25:39wants to buy their first home about what he wants to do to the price of homes.
25:45Let's watch this.
25:47There's so much talk about, oh, we're going to drive housing prices down.
25:51I don't want to drive housing prices down.
25:53I want to drive housing prices up.
25:54For people that own their homes.
25:58Senator, you let me know if this debate with Donald Trump is getting too easy.
26:02He wants to drive the prices of homes up.
26:09It's unbelievable to me because it's getting more and more out of reach for people to afford their homes, to
26:15get their health care.
26:17And what does he do?
26:18He won't even listen to the House of Representatives where 17 Republicans crossed over on saying, hey, we don't want
26:27to double, triple premiums for people on Affordable Care Act plans or do anything to help them.
26:34He doesn't listen when it comes to housing that what we need is some innovative things in place to get
26:39more housing built or to look at public private partnerships when it comes to child care.
26:44That's what matters to people.
26:46And the other thing we know coming out of Minnesota right now and really all over the country is that
26:51they want places that are safe.
26:54And he is making them less safe.
26:57The three first fatalities in the city of Minneapolis, three so far this year, two have been committed by federal
27:06agents.
27:07So if you ask people around our state, whether it's city, whether it's suburbs, whether it's rural areas, because ICE
27:13is out there as well.
27:14And tonight he, bizarrely, despite what his borders are, said this morning in Minneapolis, Trump claimed again that he wasn't
27:23going to withdraw agents at a movie screening.
27:26And whether he meant it or not, I don't know.
27:29But people want to have safe communities.
27:32And instead of putting this funding into local law enforcement this summer with that big, beautiful bill, the Republicans put
27:39$75 billion into ICE.
27:42That funding could have gone to local law enforcement to help keep people safe.
27:47And that's one of the things that I think you see the Minneapolis police chief and a lot of our
27:51other police chiefs actually throughout our state have said.
27:55Senator, we're going to be joined at the end of this hour by a Minnesotan, a doctor who worked with
28:02Alex Preddy.
28:03He's going to tell us about his view of just how much Alex Preddy contributed to their work.
28:10And as you as you speak to people in Minnesota about what they're feeling, obviously, this this is a state
28:19that is in mourning.
28:20This is it's not just a city.
28:23What is what is happening to the the larger community of Minnesotans now who have been dealing with this emotional
28:34burden, this this grief, this mourning that has come to the state?
28:38It's really hard, Lawrence, but they have such resilience and they are still standing tall.
28:44I'm sure you'll hear from the doctor is there's a lot of people who are exhausted by this.
28:49There are kids that are hiding in homes.
28:51There are people out there in freezing weather just trying to make sure that someone's able to get to school
28:58or that someone's able to get their groceries.
29:01And I got to speak to Alex Preddy's parents just about 24 hours after he was killed.
29:09And I can tell you the hardest thing is they told me we want a story told.
29:14And you're doing that tonight, Lawrence, which we appreciate.
29:17We want a story told of all the people he helped and the veterans he loved and their families.
29:21And they described him as the kind hearted man that he was.
29:25But they also said the hardest thing for them 24 hours later was what the officials in the administration, the
29:32Trump administration had said about their son calling him a would be assassin, calling him as Steve Miller did in
29:40exchange with me.
29:42When I just simply said, watch this video, he wrote and said, called him a domestic terrorist shortly after he
29:50had been killed.
29:51So the parents told me that that was the hardest thing for them and they wanted to set the record
29:56straight.
29:56And I'm glad you're doing this with one of the doctors in Minnesota.
30:01Yeah, I saw that in the parents' statement that they wanted their son's story told.
30:05And this physician is a friend of Alex Preddy's.
30:09They used to hike together, bike together and work together.
30:12He's going to he's going to tell us the truth about who this person was.
30:16Senator Amy Klobuchar, thank you very much for joining us tonight on your first day as a candidate for governor
30:22of Minnesota.
30:23Thank you. It was great to be on. Thanks, Lawrence.
30:25Thank you. Coming up after the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis, James David Vance lied that federal agents have
30:33absolute immunity.
30:35That was his phrase. Absolute immunity in situations like this.
30:38Congressman Eric Swalwell disagrees and he's going to clarify this for J.D. Vance.
30:44That's next.
30:49After the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the Democratic-led United States House of Representatives at the time passed
30:55the George Floyd in Policing Act,
30:57which would have ended what's called qualified immunity for police officers and federal law enforcement agents, including ICE.
31:05The Republican-led Senate at the time blocked that legislation from becoming law twice.
31:11And six years later, after the death of Renee Good in Minneapolis, the vice president, James David Vance, told this
31:21lie.
31:24The precedent here is very simple. You have a federal law enforcement official engaging in federal law enforcement action.
31:29That's a federal issue. That guy is protected by absolute immunity.
31:33And I told you that was a lie when he said it. Federal agents do not have absolute immunity from
31:39prosecution,
31:40but they may claim what's called qualified immunity, which is a limited legal protection for officers only if they did
31:49not violate clearly established constitutional rights.
31:52Federal agents are not above the law. A full two weeks after Yale Law School graduate J.D. Vance was
32:00corrected about that lie on this program.
32:03He lied about lying.
32:06I didn't say and I don't think any other official within the Trump administration said that officers who engaged in
32:12wrongdoing would enjoy immunity.
32:13That's absurd. What I did say is that when federal law enforcement officers violate the law, that is typically something
32:19that federal officials would look into.
32:21We don't want these guys to have kangaroo courts. We want them to actually have real due process, real investigation,
32:26because, again, sometimes they're accused of wrongdoing, and it turns out when you learn the context, they didn't actually do
32:32anything wrong.
32:32But of course, we're going to investigate these things. Of course, we're investigating the Renee Good shooting,
32:37but we're investigating them in a way that respects people's rights and then ensures that if somebody did something wrong,
32:43yes, they're going to face disciplinary action, but we're not going to judge them in the court of public opinion.
32:49There is no evidence that they are investigating any of their murders in Minneapolis.
32:55As of tonight, there are no federal investigations of those murders.
33:00Our next guest wants to clarify the immunity issue in a new law so that even J.D. Vance can
33:08understand it.
33:09Joining us now is Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell of California.
33:11He's a member of the House Judiciary Committee and the Homeland Security Committee.
33:16Congressman Swalwell, what should we be clarifying on immunity issues involving law enforcement?
33:24These guys are not invincible. They think they're invincible.
33:27They drag women by their hair through the streets. They deported a six-year-old child battling stage four cancer,
33:33and they chase our neighbors through their fields and factories where they work.
33:37But they're not invincible, and they have a president and a vice president who makes them think they are.
33:42So Dan Goldman and I, he's also on the Judiciary Committee from New York,
33:46we wrote this legislation that says that ICE agents lose their qualified immunity
33:51when they commit acts of excessive force, of course, up to murder.
33:55And so it's to, again, take away what they think is a liability protection,
34:00get their attention that we don't even consider what you're doing as law enforcement actions.
34:04No one asks you to go out and terrorize the community and people exercising their Constitution rights.
34:09And the best thing we can do, Lawrence, is to be on offense,
34:13because the American people are certainly with us on this.
34:18This is long overdue, and you tried it before, and again, there was a Republican Senate at the time.
34:25That's obviously a problem now.
34:26But we are 278 days from possibly sitting here on an election night,
34:32seeing what could be a solid win for Democrats.
34:37I'm not even sure what adjective to apply to it when I look at these polls today.
34:40The Fox poll says that the Democrats have an advantage in the congressional elections
34:46that is the single biggest party advantage the Fox poll has ever recorded for either party in a congressional election.
34:58We're running on costs being too high.
35:01The literal costs from a president who said lower costs on day one
35:05to the figurative cost of losing our rights in the streets.
35:09And so we can't do enough right now.
35:11The Senate should not vote to give ICE another penny.
35:14I did not vote for that.
35:16I voted against it last week in the House.
35:17I also believe in the majority, you should make sure that the masks come off
35:21and the identifications come out.
35:22And governors, governors can do so much.
35:25That's why I'm running for governor in California, Lawrence,
35:26and I have said to protect the people.
35:28And you can't focus on anything else if people don't feel protected,
35:31that if you operate in our state unmasked, that you will lose your driver's license.
35:36I'll use the power of the office of governor to do that.
35:39If you have worked for ICE in the past, you're unhirable for the 250,000 jobs in the state.
35:45Governors can do that.
35:46You have to send a signal to these guys that we're going to protect the most vulnerable.
35:49And, Lawrence, the way the Trump administration works is either they make you react
35:53and the most vulnerable are on their heels,
35:55or we make them react and we protect the most vulnerable.
35:59Congressman Eric Swalwell, thank you very much for joining us tonight.
36:02My pleasure.
36:04And up next, Alex Preddy's parents made one request, just one request of the news media.
36:09They said, quote, in their statement,
36:11please get the truth out about our son.
36:14He was a good man.
36:16We are going to do exactly that with a friend and colleague of Alex Preddy's,
36:21Dr. Dimitri Draconia.
36:24That's next.
36:28In the statement written by Alex Preddy's parents, Susan and Michael Preddy,
36:33and in a separate statement written earlier this week by his younger sister, Michaela,
36:38the Preddy family talked about Alex's impact
36:41and how they wish he could see the impact that he is now having.
36:46Michaela Preddy put it this way,
36:49Alex always wanted to make a difference in this world,
36:51and it's devastating that he won't be here to witness the impact he was making.
36:56The last line of Alex Preddy's parents' statement is,
37:01please get the truth out about our son.
37:04He was a good man.
37:07Following Michael and Susan Preddy's wishes to get the truth out about their son,
37:12we are joined now by Dr. Dimitri Draconia,
37:16a friend and colleague of Alex Preddy
37:18and a professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School.
37:22Doctor, thank you very much for joining us tonight.
37:25I first of all want to say I am sorry for your loss and the loss of your friend,
37:30and I know this is difficult to join us and talk about this,
37:34but we are really just trying to follow Alex's parents' wishes.
37:39And I'd like to begin.
37:42We've all seen the impact now publicly that Alex is having right now and has had,
37:48but I want to go to his sister's statement about Alex always wanting to make a difference in this world.
37:55Tell us about the difference in this world that he already made,
37:59that he was making in his work.
38:03Yeah, thanks for letting me have the chance to speak about my friend.
38:06And there's a lot of people who are really sad and really miss him.
38:11And I think the difference he did make is that he was an incredibly caring man.
38:18He took excellent care of patients, and he was a great co-worker.
38:21He was someone who did whatever he could to help, and he did it with a smile and a laugh.
38:27And he did his best every day, which is what you want in someone that you know.
38:32And I got to know him well, and I wish I knew him better.
38:35And I'm learning more about him and really miss him every day.
38:40There is, in my observation as a patient a couple of times, such a heroism in nurses.
38:49Patients are so fully dependent on nurses at certain stages of our care.
38:55And I'm sure you saw that relationship that he had.
39:00Yeah, I mean, I will just speak in general terms of nurses.
39:04They are the ones who are with patients far more than physicians.
39:07They are at the bedside.
39:09I think this became abundantly clear through the COVID pandemic when,
39:14especially in the pre-vaccination time when it was, you know, it was a horrible illness.
39:19And, you know, yes, I saw patients with COVID.
39:23Other people did as well, but nurses were in the rooms day in and day out before we knew a
39:28lot about how the virus was transmitted.
39:31And, you know, that was the most stark example, but it's the same thing before and afterwards.
39:36Nurses are at the bedside every day.
39:38They're the eyes and ears.
39:39They're the ones who tell you that something is not right, that something is, that we need to look into
39:43things.
39:44And he was really good at that.
39:46Where were you when you learned of his death?
39:52Actually, I had a kid's ski race.
39:54Heard first of a just a that someone had been shot.
39:59And then we heard it was a fatality.
40:01And there was a sort of a pall that fell over the crowd that was there.
40:05Some friends, a lot of them from Minneapolis and then got back to the hotel.
40:09And a friend texted a group of us that it was it was Alex that he was executed.
40:16Do you remember the last text you got from Alex?
40:23I didn't until a few days ago.
40:25And then I was reminded when someone resurfaced it, it was a a string of three of us.
40:31We were planning a mountain bike ride and a couple of us have kids and and Alex did not.
40:39And he was basically saying, like, hey, we'll work around your guys a schedule.
40:44I know you guys are like have more constraints, but it would be great to go for a ride with
40:48with you guys.
40:51I wish that ride could have happened.
40:53Dr. Dimitri Dracogna, thank you very, very much for joining us tonight.
40:56And again, I am sorry for your loss.
40:58Yeah, appreciate it.
40:59Thank you for telling the story.
41:01Dr. Dimitri Dracogna, thank you.
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