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The Last Word with Lawrence ODonnell - Season 13 - Episode 11
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00:00Weaponizing his Justice Department against his political enemies.
00:03This time he's targeting officials in Minnesota.
00:05MSNOW has confirmed that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry
00:11are under federal investigation by the Trump Justice Department.
00:15The Washington Post adds this,
00:17the Justice Department has issued subpoenas for Minnesota Governor Tim Walz
00:21and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry as part of an investigation
00:24alleging that the two Democratic leaders are impeding federal law enforcement's abilities
00:30to do their jobs in the state.
00:33Two people familiar with the matter confirmed Friday.
00:35Governor Tim Walz responded in a statement saying,
00:38Two days ago, it was Alyssa Slotkin.
00:41Last week, it was Jerome Powell.
00:43Before that, Mark Kelly.
00:44Weaponizing the justice system and threatening political opponents
00:47is a dangerous authoritarian tactic.
00:50The only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renee Good
00:54is the federal agent who shot her.
00:57Mayor Jacob Fry's office released this statement,
01:00quote,
01:00This is an obvious attempt to intimidate me for standing up for Minneapolis,
01:04our local law enforcement, and our residents
01:06against the chaos and the danger this administration has brought to our streets.
01:10I will not be intimidated.
01:13My focus will remain where it has always been,
01:16keeping our city safe.
01:18America depends on leaders that use integrity and the rule of law
01:21as the guideposts for governance.
01:22Governance.
01:23Neither our city nor our country will succumb to this fear.
01:27We stand rock solid, end quote.
01:30Now, this all comes after Donald Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act
01:35to deploy troops to Minneapolis,
01:37an act that can potentially inflame the situation on the ground even more.
01:41ICE agents are using increasingly aggressive tactics
01:44when dealing with members of the community there,
01:47regardless of their immigration status.
01:49The Minnesota Star Tribune's editorial board described it as a military occupation.
01:55State Representative Michael Howard said it feels like our community is under siege.
02:00Elliot Payne, president of the Minneapolis City Council, called it a war zone.
02:05The county attorney in Minneapolis, Mary Moriarty, told MSNOW that ICE is causing chaos
02:10and that people are frightened.
02:11Here's more of what she had to say.
02:15I think what people are asking here is, who is here to protect us?
02:20We are under attack by our own federal government, which is unprecedented.
02:25We're peaceful, and we're trying to exercise our First Amendment rights.
02:30And even when we're doing that, you've seen video where we've had peaceful protesters
02:36doing what they're allowed to do.
02:38We've had ICE officers come up to them and make threats, like, aren't you aware?
02:43Didn't you learn from what happened with Renee Good's killing?
02:46That's what they're saying to peaceful protesters.
02:49People are frightened to go out into the community.
02:52And I'll tell you, every parent I know has had to figure out how to have a conversation
02:57with their child about that child's fear that ICE is going to come and take the child away,
03:05or their parent away, or their friends away.
03:07There's no assurances to what's going to happen to anybody who doesn't have white skin
03:13who is out in the public.
03:15Who is here to protect us, she asks.
03:18The Democratic Congresswoman Kelly Morrison, who represents suburbs around Minneapolis,
03:23shared a report with the Minneapolis Star Tribune about how ICE enforcement has resulted
03:28in children getting hurt.
03:29Quote, it's abhorrent to hear the many stories that have emerged, Morrison said, describing
03:33an incident where a Minnesota family allegedly had three of their six children hospitalized
03:38after ICE agents threw flashbang grenades and tear gas.
03:43Their six-month-old infant stopped breathing and lost consciousness, Morrison said.
03:48Morrison, by the way, is a physician.
03:50The Star Tribune also reports on ICE agents who dined at a family-owned Mexican restaurant
03:55before detaining three of the workers who served them.
03:58Quote, staff at the restaurant were frightened, said the eyewitness.
04:01Agents followed the workers after they closed up for the night.
04:03A handful of bystanders blew whistles and shouted at agents as they detained people.
04:08Would your mama be proud of you right now?
04:10One of the bystanders asked.
04:12We're also learning more about the chaotic moments after Renee Good was shot and killed
04:16by the ICE agent Jonathan Ross.
04:18According to newly released documents by the Minneapolis Fire Department and the Minneapolis
04:23Police Department, Renee Good died after suffering four wounds from gunshots.
04:29The Star Tribune reports, quote,
04:31Good had two apparent gunshot wounds to the right side of her chest, one to her left forearm,
04:37and one to the left side of her head.
04:40According to the report, Renee Good was still alive when paramedics arrived on the scene at
04:45942 a.m., five minutes after the shooting, which makes the video that we've seen of a physician
04:52immediately offering to help but being denied by ICE on the scene that much more disturbing.
04:59The Star Tribune reports that starting at 938 a.m., 911 calls from residents are laced with
05:06shouts in the intensity of the moment.
05:09They just shot a lady point-blank range in her car, a caller says.
05:13She's expletive dead.
05:14They, expletive, shot her.
05:16There's 15 ICE agents, and they shot her like because she wouldn't open her car door.
05:21Send an ambulance, please.
05:23The Star Tribune reports, quote,
05:25The Department of Homeland Security told Fox News this week that Ross suffered internal
05:29bleeding from being hit by Good's car, but there's no documentation in the incident report
05:35that he required any medical attention after killing Good.
05:39Here is new visual analysis with additional video compiled by the New York Times.
05:47This moment is when Agent Ross fires.
05:50We see the other agent pull back from the SUV.
05:53Both of them stumble, apparently slipping on the ice.
05:57This is also the moment many have said looks like Agent Ross getting run over.
06:02And it does when watched at full speed.
06:06But looking more closely, we can see in multiple angles that there's a visible gap between the
06:11vehicle and his legs, indicating his feet are positioned outside the SUV's path.
06:20The agent's left hand is still against the vehicle and gripping his phone.
06:24We see as he fires, it's recording the clouds and the trees overhead.
06:29It's not because the agent is knocked to the ground.
06:32The other angle shows he's still standing, continuing to maintain his grip on his phone and his gun.
06:38And we see a clear and growing gap between his body and the SUV as he fires a second shot
06:44and a third.
06:49In a potential sign of accountability, MS now obtained a letter from a law firm representing
06:54Renee Good's family to multiple federal agencies and to the ICE agent Jonathan Ross,
06:58who shot and killed Renee Good, demanding evidence relating to Renee Good's death be preserved.
07:04The letter, which also outlines potential legal claims her surviving family might bring, says,
07:10quote, you are hereby notified that they anticipate bringing legal action against the United States
07:15of America, Jonathan Ross, U.S. Customs and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection,
07:21and the Department of Homeland Security, the United States of America, and or others arising from the
07:27incident, including for the excessive use of force against and the battery of Renee Good,
07:32negligence, intelligence, sorry, negligence, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional
07:39distress, wrongful imprisonment, and other similar wrongful acts. The letter includes a long list of
07:45the documents and electronic information that must be preserved, including Renee Good's autopsy and her
07:51car and Jonathan Ross's prior uses of force. They are also demanding information about, quote,
07:56ICE, DHS and DOJ policies and practices related to the use of force approaching of vehicles and or
08:04recording of activity. MS Now's David Noriega reports that according to his review of court records and
08:10media reports, federal immigration agents, some working for ICE, others for Border Patrol, have fired
08:16their guns at people in their cars at least 14 times since July. So leading off our discussion tonight
08:24is MS Now national reporter, David Noriega. David, good to see you. Thank you for being with us.
08:30Let's start with this conversation because we've seen anecdotal reports of it, and every time we see
08:36a video of an officer shooting into someone's car, it's usually followed by a response from customs or
08:42from DHS that they were somehow doing something or being provocative. In some of these cases, that's
08:47been debunked. Yeah, that's exactly right, Ali. Look, what my reporting found is the top line is
08:55sort of on two levels. First, it's what happens in the field, these shootings themselves, these at least
09:0114 incidents in which either Border Patrol or ICE agents have fired their weapons either into vehicles
09:07or at vehicles. And nearly all of those cases that I've been able to document, these were people who were
09:11trying to drive away in one way or another. The difference primarily between those incidents and
09:17the Renee Good incident is the fact that Agent Ross was standing in front of the vehicle when she
09:23started moving. Now, I also want to point out, Ali, that, you know, one of the categories of people
09:27that I spoke to for this story are policing experts, including a couple of former chiefs of major urban
09:34departments in the United States who were unanimous in telling me that best practices in American law
09:39enforcement says not only that you do not shoot at moving vehicles, but that you do not put yourself
09:43in front of vehicles that could potentially be moving at any given moment. One former police chief
09:48actually told me, Ali, that he, if he were, you know, if Ross were one of his officers and he
09:54were tasked
09:54with assessing accountability in this particular incident, even if Ross authentically believed that
09:59Renee Good was driving his vehicle at him, the explanation would still not be justified because he put himself
10:04in the term of art is a situation of officer created jeopardy. Now, Ali, in, you know, many of these
10:12cases,
10:12people were injured but not killed. There is one other fatal shooting of a person in a vehicle. The case
10:17of
10:17Silverio Villegas Gonzalez happened in Chicago last year, 38 year old father of two. You know, as in all of
10:23these
10:23cases, DHS claimed that he tried to run over agents with his vehicle, a claim that was later directly
10:29contravened by video evidence. In many other cases, what happened to, you know, we're just finding out
10:35about the exact injuries that Renee Good suffered. These, you know, at least three, possibly an
10:41additional gunshot wound from the, what we know are three bullets, Agent Ross fired at her. I have
10:46been documenting now many instances in which that came extremely close to happening. I talked to a guy in
10:51D.C., U.S. citizen, black guy from Brooklyn, has lived in D.C. for several years, also a father
10:56who was shot
10:57at by an ICE agent during a, you know, what he described as a stop that felt more like a
11:01carjacking
11:01than a law enforcement stop. One of the bullets went through the collar of his jacket. And I just,
11:06I want to read you a quote of something that he told me on the phone. He said,
11:11those three bullets that they let off at her, at Renee Good, are the same bullets that they let
11:15off at me. I just so happen to be the survivor. And there are many more cases very similar to
11:20that.
11:20So there's two things here. One is, and you know, this is the reporting on this, where you,
11:24you talk to these experts and say that it's been a long time. A police officer doesn't walk in front,
11:30should not be walking in front of a running car in any situation. And this, it's been in place for
11:36decades, this thinking that once somebody has, has passed you in a car, whether you think they're
11:42guilty of something or not, you generally don't shoot at them because if you shoot at them and you
11:47incapacitate them, their car is likely to hit somebody else or something else, which is exactly what
11:51happened in the case of Renee Good. But part of it is the speed with which the administration,
11:56Kristi Noem, then Donald Trump, then J.D. Vance, came out with interpretations of video that are
12:02relatively easily countered by what we've seen, by the work you've done, by the work that I put on TV,
12:07by what the New York Times has done. There's your own eyes. You can, you can look at this stuff
12:11and
12:11come to at least some conclusion. We're not forensic experts, but we can come to some conclusions.
12:16Yeah, Ali, you know, the way that the Department of Homeland Security and its spokespersons handles
12:22the facts of these incidents in the media and also handles the legal process, the facts in the legal
12:28process in some of the criminal cases that they've brought against some of the individuals who were
12:33shot at, four of which, by the way, have either been dropped by prosecutors or dismissed by judges.
12:37Only, I should just say quickly, only four of the 14 cases that I analyzed actually led to criminal
12:42proceedings that are ongoing, that have stuck, right? The rest either didn't lead to proceedings
12:45at all or were thrown out or stopped by the DOJ themselves. But the way that DHS handles facts in
12:54these incidents is that there's a telling detail here. When I reached out to them for general comment
12:59on this story, I also asked about a few individual incidents that I'd done sort of deep dives on,
13:04knew all the video, understood the facts. And in all of those incidents, they came back to me with
13:08the exact same statements that they had made before when these incidents originally happened,
13:13accusing these people of trying to run over agents with their cars, which, again,
13:16is directly and amply contravened in the video. So that is the situation that we're in, Ali,
13:22is that these are the, this is the handling of facts that we need to contend with.
13:26David, thank you for your great reporting. We appreciate it. In times like this,
13:29we actually need this kind of thing. Just look at the actual video, talk to the people involved,
13:33try to get an explanation on it. David Noriega, MS Now's national reporter.
13:37Joining us now is Barbara McQuaid, former United States attorney and law professor at the University
13:41of Michigan Law School. She is an MS Now legal analyst. Barbara, thank you for being with us.
13:46I want to go back to the beginning of this story, and that is that there's been a new development
13:51in
13:51which the Department of Justice is now going after the governor of Minnesota and the mayor of
13:58Minneapolis. I need you to help me understand this, because there are clearly always jurisdictional
14:04issues, disagreements, arguments between different levels of government. What does this mean,
14:10that the Department of Justice is pursuing legal action against these two men?
14:15Well, your inability to understand what's happening here, Ali, is well-placed, because
14:20this is not like anything we have seen before. Certainly, different leaders in government can have
14:27different views on things. They can even squabble about things. President Trump has been famous
14:32for doing that. But this idea that the Justice Department is investigating Governor Walz and Mayor
14:40Fry criminally for their statements against ICE is absolutely absurd. There is a federal statute that
14:48makes it a crime to impede the work of a federal agent. But that statute requires physical force.
14:56If you as much as touch someone when they're trying to do their job, that could be seen as impeding
15:02or
15:03obstructing. And we've seen some cases charged for that with very minimal physical contact. But the idea
15:09that words alone, by saying we don't want ICE in our community, get them out of here, by suggesting that
15:15people should be applauded for peacefully protesting, is absolutely not a violation of any federal statute
15:22statute. And it's most certainly an infringement of First Amendment rights, perhaps designed to intimidate or
15:27chill the exercise of those rights. Right. Because if you go if you go for people like governors and mayors,
15:32then
15:32what have the rest of us got to stand up on this business of impeding? It is used very commonly
15:38by DHS and ICE and
15:40customs enforcement. It is, in fact, for the people who whistle, who say that they're warning their
15:47neighbors that ICE is coming. There are some people in ICE who would who consider that impeding and
15:52obstructing justice. We're bumping up against First Amendment stuff here. And I kind of want to remind
15:58people the First Amendment is not sort of a throwaway. It's not really an extra. It's not a it's not
16:02a little
16:02thing that's a favor to people. It is a it is a right and in some cases an obligation. Absolutely
16:09right. And, you know, the law is careful to try to draft statutes that avoid infringing upon people's
16:18First Amendment rights or Fifth Amendment rights of due process to provide fair notice of what the law
16:24prohibits to prevent discriminatory enforcement. And so this law of impeding federal agents,
16:32requires that there be this physical force. And I think Congress drew the line there to prevent this sort of
16:39thing. If people are merely shouting or in this instance, taking videos with their phone, that's not enough to be
16:47impeding. Now, if you get in their way, if you block their ability to get from point A to point
16:52B, now we're
16:53talking about potential violation, but simply peacefully standing on the sidelines, even blowing a whistle, even
17:00mouthing off, even saying disrespectful things is not enough to amount to a criminal offense.
17:06I do want to ask you because Donald Trump continues to raise the specter of the Insurrection Act. For most
17:13Americans, we've blown so far beyond what we think is reasonable here. What's the significance of whether
17:19or not the Insurrection Act is is invoked? Yes, it really does raise the stakes even higher than we've already
17:26seen, Ali. We've seen in some jurisdictions, the president calling up the National Guard. The Supreme
17:33Court last month hinted that it appeared at least preliminarily that those invocations were not lawful
17:40because it didn't arise to the level of being unable to control the situation with the use of regular
17:48forces and concluding that regular forces means military forces. To now say he's going to invoke the
17:55Insurrection Act would be to use military forces. So two main differences from what we've seen before.
18:02Instead of just the National Guard, it is active military forces that could be used on the streets
18:08of American cities. And in contrast to what we've seen to date, it is an exception to the Posse Comitatus
18:16Act. That is that statute that goes way back hundreds of years that prohibits the military from enforcing
18:23criminal laws against U.S. citizens. So we could see military members conducting arrests and seizures
18:30and searches on the streets in huge numbers. So you want to talk about a police state? This would be
18:35a
18:36military state. Barbara, as always, thank you for your analysis. Barbara McQuaid. All right, coming up,
18:41the Trump administration apologized for an ICE action. This is not a joke. Even more extraordinarily,
18:48but perhaps not surprising, is how the wrong party, the party that was wronged, responded. I'll tell you
18:54about that next. As we learned tonight, Donald Trump's retribution campaign in Minneapolis
19:02is escalating. But earlier this week, someone in Donald Trump's administration actually struck a very
19:07different note. It was an actual apology that came two months after a college freshman was wrongfully
19:14detained and deported. Let's go back to November now. November 20th, college freshman, this woman,
19:20Annie Lucia Lopez-Beloza, was headed home from Boston to Texas to surprise her parents for Thanksgiving.
19:27At Boston's Logan International Airport, immigration officers took her into custody. And despite an
19:34emergency court order to keep her in the United States for at least 72 hours, she was deported to
19:40Honduras, the country she left when she was seven years old. The Associated Press reports that the
19:46Trump administration acknowledged that it violated the judge's order. Quote, government lawyers said an
19:52immigration and customs enforcement deportation officer failed to activate a system that alerts
19:57other ICE officers that a case is subject to judicial review and that removal should be halted.
20:04At a federal court hearing in Boston, assistant U.S. attorney Mark Sauter said, quote,
20:08On behalf of the government, we want to sincerely apologize, Mark Sauter told the judge,
20:13saying the employee understands he made a mistake. Today, Judge Richard Stearns has asked
20:19the Trump administration to consider issuing a visa to Annie Lucia Lopez-Beloza. The New York Times
20:25reports, quote, in an order on Friday, Judge Stearns described Ms. Lopez as an innocent and unsuspecting
20:31college student and said there were several legal options the government could take to facilitate
20:35her return to the United States. The judge wrote that he preferred to give the government an
20:40opportunity to rectify the mistake it acknowledges having made in Annie's case before contemplating the
20:45issuance of any further order. As such, Judge Stearns directed the Justice Department to relay his
20:51decision to the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, with a recommendation that the government issue a
20:56student visa or other comparable visa to Ms. Lopez. The judge said he expected the government to respond
21:03within 21 days. Yesterday, Annie Lucia Lopez-Beloza said this.
21:11I accept our apologies, and I hope that based on this apology, I'm able to return back to my studies
21:17and also to be home with my parents.
21:22Our next guest, the Congressman Greg Kassar, represents Austin, Texas, where Annie's family
21:27lives. On social media, Congressman Kassar wrote, quote, horrified by mass deportation policies?
21:32While Trump is president, we use every tool available to reduce the harm. But when Democrats win back the
21:37White House, true immigration reform must be a top priority so that hardworking families can finally
21:44apply for legal status. That's the only way to end this horror once and for all. Joining us now is
21:50the Democratic Congressman Greg Kassar of Texas. He's the chair of the Congressional Progressive
21:54Caucus. He's also a member of the House Oversight and Education and Workforce Committees. Congressman,
21:59good to see you. Thank you for being with us. Thanks so much for covering this really important
22:03story. I'm fascinated because this government doesn't ever apologize for anything. They usually
22:09double down. Someone has said that they made a mistake. There was a systems error. But she's still
22:15in Honduras. She's still not back in the United States of America. And, you know, prior examples
22:20in the last year have led me to believe that this administration can can slow walk things.
22:26Well, look, the Trump administration has kind of lost the benefit of the doubt on this one.
22:32They deported Annie, a college student. She grew up here in my district, working class,
22:38got into one of the top business schools in the country. Her only crime was trying to surprise
22:41her family for Thanksgiving. She was deported. We said it was illegal to deport her. And the
22:47Trump administration doubled down. They left her there. A judge now got the Trump administration
22:51to admit their mistake, quote unquote, but they haven't brought her back. And so what they need
22:56to do is bring her back and stop deporting U.S. citizens and veterans and shooting people in the
23:02street. This isn't just one case. This is really a deeply troubling pattern.
23:06So on our side, on the non-member of Congress side, we have the fact that we vote. And frankly,
23:13voting every two years is not going to be sufficient here. It's important, but it's not
23:19sufficient. It's necessary. On your side, what are your options right now? For the moment,
23:26the House is not controlled by Democrats and the Senate is not controlled by Democrats. And while you
23:30hear rumblings from some Republicans about how some of this ICE stuff has gone too far,
23:34you don't really see action. We need to go on offense on the issue of immigration. Too often as
23:41Democrats, we try to avoid talking about the issue. But the fact is here in Texas, a state where
23:48Republicans have held statewide office basically since I was born. When I go talk to people that
23:52voted for Donald Trump, they said they didn't vote for this. They didn't vote for a college student
23:57to be deported and then not brought back. They didn't vote for Brene Good to be killed needlessly
24:04in Minneapolis. They didn't vote for a Justice Department weaponized against people speaking
24:09out, whether they be the governor of Minnesota or in this case, Annie's parents have faced threats
24:15from ICE who broke into their backyard after Annie spoke out about this case. They didn't vote for this.
24:20We need to step up and say, you know what? Democrats can go on offense on this. Stop
24:26and restrain this recklessness from ICE and then fight for real immigration reform because this
24:32just isn't working right now. So Stephen Miller wants 3,000 arrests a day and a million people
24:37deported. Seems a lot of investment for Annie and her family. But I want to get your sense of what
24:43this is really all about. You just mentioned about what happened to her family. So I want to read from
24:47the Boston Globe. After she and her father spoke out about her deportation, her family in Austin was
24:52targeted by ICE. In December, agents staked out her family home, even bolting toward her father when he
24:58was outside and going into the family's backyard, according to her attorney. Now her family in Austin
25:03is hunkered down at home in fear of being arrested if they step outside. Community members helped bring
25:08her sister, who is five years old, to school. So again, it's a lot of investment and energy in one
25:14person who happens to be a student, a university student, which is kind of exactly what we all
25:18think we'd like immigrants in America to be, right? What's the point here? It's a lot for one
25:25person. Is the point to scare everybody who sees this story into saying, we'll come for you too?
25:32The lawlessness and the intimidation is the point. Donald Trump and Stephen Miller want to be able to do
25:38whatever they want to anybody that they want in this country. And they don't want folks to speak
25:44out. And so when Annie was brave enough to go on national news, and I appreciate this network
25:51bringing her on from Central America to speak out about being deported against a judge's orders,
25:58the Trump administration didn't want to have that. Just like they've gone after Kilmar Abrego Garcia,
26:02just like they've gone after Renee Good's widow. They don't want anyone to be able to speak out.
26:08There are wannabe authoritarians, but the reason that there are wannabes is that in America,
26:12the vast majority of the American people won't stand for that. And democracy will live on as
26:17long as people keep on speaking up despite the threats. As long as people keep on speaking up
26:23despite the threats. This is the important thing about this moment. You don't want to have to tell
26:27your kids in 25 years when they said, what did you do when this was happening? You don't want to
26:31say
26:31nothing. Congressman, good to see you. Thank you as always. Good to see you, too.
26:34All right. Coming up, Donald Trump is threatening to raise taxes on us if he doesn't get his way on
26:41Greenland. You heard that right. In 2024, Donald Trump won the state of Wisconsin with 49 percent
26:49of the vote. So coming up next, I'm going to ask a waitress who's running for Congress
26:52if that's what she thinks that people in Wisconsin voted for.
27:00Today at the White House, Donald Trump further proved that his tariff policy makes
27:03zero sense by threatening 25 percent tariffs on countries who support
27:09Denmark's longstanding control of Greenland.
27:15I may put a tariff on countries if they don't go along with Greenland because we need Greenland
27:19for national security. So I may do that.
27:21Right. Donald Trump wants you to pay more in taxes because that's what a tariff is. It's a
27:27tax on American consumers simply because he's got some weird obsession with taking over Greenland
27:33and an attempt to save face after following Obamacare subsidies after allowing Obamacare
27:38subsidies to expire, which has resulted in about one point four million Americans dropping their
27:42health care coverage so far this year. Donald Trump this week released something he's calling
27:47the health care proposal. He's calling it that the New York Times described it like this.
27:52The plan was short on specific details and left much of the direction for how to finalize it up to
27:57Congress. It amounted to a few paragraphs on a Web page released with a video of Mr.
28:03Trump promoting what he called the great health care plan. So consumer goods are more expensive.
28:10Housing is more expensive. Health care. You see the trend here, right? It's more expensive.
28:14And neither Donald Trump, the guy who campaigned on lower prices on day one,
28:18nor the Republicans on Capitol Hill seem to have any solutions to offer. So it's no wonder
28:23Donald Trump continues to say things like this.
28:28In the coming weeks, I will be laying out even more plans to help bring back
28:34affordability. And again, remember, that's a fake word by Democrats.
28:39Democrats plan to make that very real word affordability the focus of their efforts to
28:45regain control of Congress in 2026. Former Biden Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was in
28:50La Crosse, Wisconsin tonight preaching that very message.
28:55And then when you come home from work and go to your home, it ought to be safe and it
28:59ought to be
29:00affordable. And you want to have that hope of owning a home. And if you do, when you sit down
29:05to do the
29:05bills, you shouldn't feel like you've got to choose between your health insurance premium and your
29:10mortgage. And when you do those bills, you should still be able to picture how you're going to have
29:14a vacation. That's not too much to ask in the United States of America.
29:22All right. Joining us now on her way home from that event, literally from a gas station,
29:28is Rebecca Cook, Democratic congressional candidate for Wisconsin's third district.
29:32Rebecca, you shame us all because sometimes I'll get a call from my boss and say,
29:36there's some news. Can you come on TV? And I'll say, I'm on my way somewhere or I'm at work
29:39or
29:39whatever. You have joined me from your work as a waitress. You've now joined me from a gas station.
29:44So first of all, I just have to thank you for your commitment to continuing to have these
29:47conversations with us. It's it's it's it's important.
29:51No, well, absolutely. I think it's about, you know, showing up and meeting people where they're
29:57at. And you're catching me when I'm getting off of work. You're catching me tonight on my way home
30:02in a blizzard and Arcadia, Wisconsin at a quick trip. But it's great to be here with you. I'm
30:09excited to connect about what we heard here tonight. And thanks to the thanks to the quick
30:14trip for for hosting you there. Let's talk a little about this nonsense that Donald Trump keeps
30:20on talking about. He claims to go down these roads of wanting to help people with affordability.
30:24And yet everything he does seems to work against it, including now we're apparently going to have
30:28a Greenland tax. But but this health care thing, right, you've been talking about it for months.
30:34You understand why this is a real issue, particularly from farming communities like the one you come
30:39from. It's not it's not a plan at all. Republicans have had 15 years to come up with a plan.
30:45There's
30:45no plan. A year ago, Donald Trump said he had a concept of a plan a year and a half
30:49ago.
30:49It's still nothing but a couple of paragraphs on a Web page.
30:53That's exactly right. You know, I think people in where I live are really struggling to get the
30:59help, not just the health care access that they need, but to be able to afford it in general.
31:04And so I think, you know, what we saw from the House this past week in expanding ACA tax credits,
31:10hopefully for another three years, if the Senate passed it, passes it, it's still another Band-Aid.
31:16But with Trump's suggestion just to put some money into an HSA account, I think is totally out of
31:21touch of what it actually costs for health care in this country. I'm on the Affordable Care Act.
31:26I've seen my monthly premium increase by $200 a month. I have an HSA. Throwing $1,000 into that
31:34is not going to make a really big difference. And I think what is important here to remember is that
31:40Republicans have a supermajority. So they have an opportunity. If you don't like the ACA or you
31:46don't like Obamacare, you have an opportunity to do something different. But they don't have a plan.
31:50They don't have a concrete plan. I'm running against someone who's on his website has a
31:55one-sentence health care policy, which is to repeal and replace Obamacare. But with what?
32:01Yeah, I've been hearing that for 15 years.
32:04Exactly. Exactly.
32:06Give me a suggestion. Give me a plan. We can debate it. I'd be happy to take it apart and
32:10debate it and look at its merits. Derek Van Orden, let's talk about this for a second. He voted with
32:17Democrats on something. He was one of 17 Republicans who voted with Democrats the other day. Now,
32:21he was a guy who wasn't showing up at his own town hall meetings some time ago. What do you
32:27make of
32:27this?
32:29I think that he is concerned about re-election. He is not concerned about a thoughtful path for
32:36having long-term health care solutions. He hasn't. He's voted for this to expand the ACA tax credits when
32:44it was convenient. But on the other side of his mouth, he's talking about how he wants to repeal
32:50Obamacare. And that's, again, he has a one-sentence health care policy. And we need more than that. We
32:56expect more from our elected leaders. And I think somebody like Derek Van Orden has failed to host any
33:02sort of in-person town hall to be accountable for any of the votes that he's taken, including his vote
33:08for the
33:08reconciliation bill. I've been talking to a lot of rural hospital CEOs across my district. I'm
33:15obviously not their elected representative now, but what do you need? What do you need to keep
33:18your doors open? How can we change Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement rates so it's easier for
33:24you to provide access to our rural communities? And he's not having those conversations. And
33:29people right now are looking for folks that want to show up and not just tell people what they're
33:34about, but to listen. And I think we saw that tonight and having Mayor Pete in town in La Crosse.
33:41It was a whole heck of a lot of people that turned out primarily because we don't have a
33:46representative that is showing up to listen to them. And people want answers.
33:51Rebecca, good to see you again. I can't wait to see where it is going to be that you and
33:54I
33:54next talk. I like to keep you guessing. No, I love it. It's a lot of fun. Rebecca Cook is
34:00a
34:00Democrat from Wisconsin. Yeah. And you're at a gas station. I love it. She's a candidate for the
34:05United States House of Representatives. Again, thank you for joining us tonight.
34:08All right. Coming up, Iran's murderous crackdown on people protesting the regime
34:13appears to be working. We'll talk about that on the other side.
34:20Today, Donald Trump thanked Iran's murderous leaders for supposedly canceling the executions
34:24of hundreds of people who are protesting the Iranian regime.
34:29Did Arab and Israeli officials convince you to not strike Iran?
34:34Nobody convinced me. I convinced myself. You had yesterday scheduled over 800 hangings.
34:39They didn't hang anyone. They canceled the hangings. That had a big impact.
34:45So with a nationwide Internet blackout imposed by Iran's government since next week,
34:50there's no independent way to verify what Donald Trump just said is true.
34:53Independent reporting inside Iran is now nearly impossible. As a result, estimates of the death
35:00toll vary wildly. A U.S.-based group, the Human Rights Activist News Agency, says it's verified at
35:06least 2,571 protester deaths. But other death toll estimates are much higher, claiming as many as 12,000
35:15people have been killed. Online, disinformation is spreading rapidly. The New York Times reports
35:20Iran's shutdown of the Internet and cellular communications since January 8th appears to be an
35:25effort to shield Iranians from such content and suppress accurate reporting of what appears to be
35:31intensifying bloodshed that by some accounts has resulted in thousands of deaths. Filling the void has been a
35:39deluge of propaganda, disinformation and influence campaigns from countries or parties trying to shape
35:45the outcome of the conflict. End quote. The Times reports that many of those bought accounts are
35:50amplifying Iran's opposition figures like Reza Pahlavi, who is the exiled son of Iran's last Shah,
35:57who was deposed in 1979. Others have echoed Iran's claim that the unrest was orchestrated by its enemies,
36:03especially the United States and Israel, a view that allies like Russia have amplified in their own state
36:11media. End quote. Several dissidents, several residents of Tehran reached by Reuters said the
36:16capital had now been comparatively quiet for four days. Drones were flying over the city, but there had
36:22been no signs of major protests on Thursday or Friday. Now, against that backdrop, the Trump
36:27administration announced new sanctions on Iran today, targeting the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen and
36:32the transfer of oil products, weapons and other so-called dual-use equipment that it said helped fund the
36:39group. Polling shows that most Americans believe Trump has gone too far with overseas military
36:44intervention, with 70 percent opposing military strikes in Iran, even if protesters are killed
36:52there. Joining us now is Michael McFaul, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Russia under President
36:57Obama. He's now an MSNOW international affairs analyst. He's the author of Autocrats vs. Democrats,
37:02China, Russia, America and the New Global Disorder. Ambassador, good to see you here.
37:06Um, the problem with Iran is the last time they had something that resembled democracy and fairness
37:12was 1953, and that was taken away from them actually by America. Then they had a monarchy
37:17for many years, and now they've had this theocracy for many years. So it's very hard to understand what
37:22right looks like in Iran and what a policy looks like that centers the Iranian people.
37:34Oh, you're muted, uh, Ambassador.
37:39Let me try that again. Uh, there we go. I don't know how that happened. It must have been the
37:44Russians
37:44or the Iranians, because I was just talking to your producer. Um, a couple of things. So first,
37:50incredibly inspirational what these Iranians have done. They want freedom. They've been fighting for it,
37:55and, and anybody has to be moved by that. Second, the horrific slaughter by this illegitimate
38:01terrorist regime. These are, you know, I think when we get the full count, they'll even be bigger than
38:07what you just reported. This is a horrific moment for the Iranian people, and this regime has lost
38:13all of its legitimacy forever. Uh, that's the good news. The bad news is we don't know what we're
38:21doing in terms of trying to help the small D Democrats, the small people, uh, fighting for
38:29human rights inside Iran. And when the president of the United States amidst these protests gets on and
38:35say, go out to the streets, take these buildings and we'll have your back. I'm paraphrasing, but he
38:42said something to that effect. And then they are inspired by that. And help is on the way and things
38:51often loaded. He used that metaphor, I believe. And then we do nothing. That is so irresponsible
38:57by the president of the United States. Because they're actually going to get hanged for it. Like
39:01that's the, that's the thing that, that we, we had a 10 year process. The United States was involved
39:08in the last two years from 2013 to 2015. And we got the Iran nuclear deal that was believed by,
39:16by international organizations and the United States to actually be working was not a, a, a silver
39:22bullet, but it was, it was directionally in a way that empowered moderates in Iran over, over
39:29hardliners. We're now back to hardliners. The hardest of the hardliners, because they, they have
39:35no other way to rule, but through brute force, they even need help from the Iraqi militias right now to
39:41do so. But, but the problem, I mean, this, and this goes to Venezuela, it goes to Greenland.
39:46It goes to almost every Trump foreign policy right now. He takes an action. And he, you know,
39:52he says he's the only one that matters, right? You just played a clip of that. Evidently those calls
39:57from our Arab allies in Israel made, didn't matter to him. He's the only one that matters. He puts out
40:02a tweet. And then what's the plan after that? President Trump, what's the strategy? And, you know,
40:09we could go on. There's many things they could do if they really wanted to help the democratic
40:14movement in Iran. They could, they could sanction more people. They could freeze more assets. They
40:19could even do an oil blockade. They could provide more communications. There are all kinds of things
40:24if they actually had a strategy to help democratization in Iran. But I got to tell you,
40:32I don't think the president actually cares about that. Right. In the same way that, yes,
40:36he removed Maduro, but does he have a plan for democratic restoration in Venezuela?
40:42No, he's got a plan for oil in Venezuela.
40:44He doesn't, he doesn't have that because he doesn't really care.
40:49Yeah. Iran, imagine welcoming Iran into the international community supported by
40:53the people who want democracy there. What a thing. All right. Ambassador,
40:57good to see you as always. Ambassador Michael McFaul.
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