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The Last Word with Lawrence ODonnell - Season 13 - Episode 22
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00:01All right. That's going to do it for me tonight. Now it's time for the last word with the great
00:05Lawrence O'Donnell. Good evening, Lawrence. Good evening, Rachel. I'm so glad you had Georgia
00:09Fort on tonight. I've been wanting to hear from her since Friday, since we learned about this.
00:15We heard from some comments from Don Lemon already, but that's the first time I've heard
00:19her speak about it. And I'm also very, very glad you asked her about how does she handle this
00:25financially? How does she handle the legal challenges and everything she's facing? And
00:30she did mention that her website, georgiafort.com, has been getting a lot of support,
00:35a lot of contributions that she is absolutely going to need. Yeah, this is one of those moments
00:42where a lot of people who have said pretty things about defending the free press and about defending
00:48the pillars of our democracy now have a very practical way to do that. The free press isn't
00:52an abstraction. It's working journalists like Georgia Fort, who have just been charged with
00:59federal crimes for covering a protest. And as ridiculous as that indictment is, and it
01:04is effectively written in crayon, it is insane and will get laughed out of court. She's going
01:09to have to go through that process, which is an expensive process and a traumatizing process
01:13because of the way the Justice Department has been turned into essentially a torture tool
01:18by this president. And that's what Donald Trump knows about legal processes, that it's expensive
01:23for people to be dragged into. And for him, the whole point is the arrest. If he can get
01:29beyond the arrest, great. But if all he could do and looks like that's all he's going to be
01:34able to do is charge James Comey and never get beyond those charges, that's good enough for
01:41Donald Trump. And but what what Georgia Fort's going to have to contend with is is a lot.
01:47Yeah. And so people supporting her, it's a it's a money where your mouth is kind of moment.
01:51That's right. Rachel, we have Taylor Remitt joining us tonight from Texas, where he won that big win
01:58for the Democrats, the district that Donald Trump won by 17 points. He just won by 14 as a Democrat.
02:06And I have to say, with some really special help from his mother, which will will show in just one
02:13of the great TV commercials I've seen in campaigns lately. Oh, fantastic. I'm looking forward to that
02:18interview. I wrote in my notes to self before the election happened, I wrote like Trump plus 17
02:24district, like Democrats weirdly hopeful about this one, question mark, question mark. And then my next
02:29line in my notes to self was holy guacamole did one and by 14 plus points. It's an incredible story.
02:37I'm so glad you got him. He he's going to tell us how he did it. Great. Thanks, Lawrence. Looking
02:42forward to it. Thanks, Rachel. Thank you. Delete my name, please. I'm begging you to delete my name.
02:56Those are the words of a woman who was a victim of Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking and rape
03:01conspiracy when she was a teenager, when she was legally under age in the state of Florida.
03:08She is one of the survivors who has never come forward publicly. Never. We've seen dozens of
03:16survivors speaking publicly outside of the Capitol last year, urging Congress to pass a law forcing the
03:23release of the Epstein files, a law that Congress passed and Donald Trump signed into law, surely
03:27expecting that his Justice Department that he controls would violate that law as the Trump Justice
03:36Department has done. The Trump Justice Department keeps finding new ways to violate the law. They
03:42violated the deadline in the law by more than a month. And then they violated the requirement to
03:46deliver all of the Epstein files to Congress, not just a portion. And they violated the law requiring
03:52them to redact the names of the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's
03:59co-conspirators, including the convicted co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell. The Trump controlled Justice
04:06Department redacted the names of the three co-defendants of Jeffrey Epstein in a draft federal indictment
04:18that was dropped by Alex Acosta, who then became, who was then the U.S. attorney for the Southern
04:26District of Florida, and then later became Donald Trump's secretary of labor during the first Trump
04:32administration. The indictment that Republican U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta decided not to pursue is 56 pages
04:39long and describes the sex trafficking crimes of Jeffrey Epstein beginning in 2002. That indictment
04:45was part of the Epstein files release that we got over the weekend last Friday. The first page of that
04:54indictment has three redactions and those three redactions right here on the first page of this
05:03indictment. Let me get it into the camera. Those three redactions are the three names of Jeffrey
05:11Epstein's co-conspirators in this draft indictment, who the indictment says were employed by Jeffrey
05:19Epstein, quote, to perform, among other things, services as personal assistance.
05:24So the indictment describes those co-defendants literally leading children upstairs
05:34in Jeffrey Epstein's home for their first encounter with Jeffrey Epstein.
05:39Quote, quote, in or around May 2004, defendant redacted, led Jane Doe number six from the kitchen
05:49at 356 El Brio Way, upstairs to the master bedroom area at 358 El Brio Way. In or around May
05:592004,
06:01defendant Jeffrey Epstein redacted Jane Doe six, who was then a 16 year old girl.
06:10Jeffrey Epstein's co-conspirator and co-defendants in this indictment. The one who led that girl
06:18upstairs to Jeffrey Epstein is one of the people whose identity Donald Trump's Justice Department
06:27doesn't want you to know and was very, very careful to protect.
06:33But that same Trump Justice Department did not protect many of those girls who were led upstairs
06:42by Jeffrey Epstein's criminal co-conspirators, including Ghislaine Maxwell. Attorney Bradley
06:47Edwards represents hundreds of the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and has told us on this program
06:54that only a very small number of the total number of survivors have ever come forward publicly.
07:02Bradley Edwards is now asking federal judges to intervene and force the Trump Justice
07:06Department to, as one of his clients pleads, delete my name.
07:13In a filing to the federal judges, Bradley Edwards revealed some of the violations of the Epstein
07:18Transparency Act that the Trump Justice Department has committed. One, documents in which minor victim
07:25one had her name revealed 20 times in a single document. After reporting the violation, Department
07:30of Justice redacted her name three additional times, leaving 17 instances still unredacted as of this
07:37filing. Two, an email listing 32 minor child victims with only one name redacted and 31 left
07:44visible despite Department of Justice's possession of those names. Three, FBI 302 victim statements
07:51with full first and last names unredacted, including for minor victims. Four, handwritten FBI interview
07:57notes with minor victims, full names unredacted at the top and throughout. Five, documents containing
08:04victims names alongside dates of birth, bank information, driver's license numbers, email addresses,
08:10or home addresses. Six, documents where victims names are redacted in some places but not others
08:16within the same document. Seven, documents where redactions are pencil thin, revealing the complete
08:23name and email address beneath. Eight, documents where photographs are properly redacted in one instance
08:30and appear fully unredacted nearby. Nine, hundreds of documents exposing the names of four women who have
08:37been in near constant communication with the Department of Justice since December requesting protection.
08:45Donald Trump's Justice Department did not give them that protection.
08:49Bradley Edwards told the judges Department of Justice cannot plausibly characterize this as error, negligence
08:56or bureaucratic failure. But that is exactly what Donald Trump's Justice Department claimed human error.
09:03Today, the Trump Justice Department said in a letter to the judges, quote,
09:06the department now has taken down several thousands of documents and media that may have inadvertently
09:12included victim identifying information due to various factors, including technical or human error.
09:20This is the same Trump Justice Department that for the first time in history raided a county office to
09:26seize voting records last week, not copies of voting records, the actual voting records.
09:32How many human errors do they plan to make with those voting records? This is the same Trump
09:38Justice Department that now claims it is going to conduct an investigation of what video shows clearly
09:44to be the murder of registered nurse Alex Preddy in Minneapolis by federal border patrol agents sent there by
09:50Donald Trump. How many human errors does Donald Trump's Justice Department plan to make
09:56in that investigation that they first said was completely unnecessary? Republican Senator Rand Paul,
10:03who is chairman of the committee with jurisdiction over the Homeland Security Department,
10:07said he doesn't trust the FBI to investigate the murder of Alex Preddy.
10:15Could the FBI have a credible investigation?
10:20Um, that's, that's a question. I don't know. I don't know the answer to that.
10:26Maybe not is what you're saying.
10:29Well, there were some pretty immediate conclusions on whether or not you're allowed to carry a gun at
10:33a rally, which were incorrect and not really reflective of the Second Amendment or the law.
10:38So I don't know who should do this. I think really, if it were an independent group outside
10:43of the federal government would be better, actually.
10:47Attorney Bradley Edwards is pleading to the judges included direct statements from some of his clients
10:53whose identities have been revealed. One of the Epstein survivors in Bradley Edwards filing,
10:59identified as Jane Doe number five, wrote this to the judges.
11:06I have never come forward. I am now being harassed by the media and others. This is devastating to my
11:14life. Please pull my name down immediately as every minute that these document with my names are up.
11:22It causes more harm to me. Please, I'm begging you to delete my name. I can only imagine the devastation
11:30your errors are causing to so many other victims of Jeffrey Epstein wasn't the only job to redact victims'
11:38names. Hasn't every person with authority promised repeatedly that victims have nothing to worry about
11:44because our names will be redacted? Hasn't the entire delay of producing documents been allegedly
11:50because you have been redacting names? Judge Richard Berman of the Southern District of New York
11:56has scheduled a hearing on the issues raised by Bradley Edwards for Wednesday at 1130 AM.
12:02It's not just names. Epstein survivor Annie Farmer, who testified convincingly to a jury in
12:10Ghislaine Maxwell's criminal trial that resulted in a unanimous verdict of guilty by that jury,
12:16told the New York Times, quote,
12:18It's hard to imagine a more egregious way of not protecting victims than having full nude images
12:26of them available for the world to download. Yes, Donald Trump's Justice Department did that
12:35in direct violation of the law passed by our first guest tonight that forced the Trump Justice
12:41Department to deliver the Epstein files to Congress. Congressman Ro Khanna, along with his original
12:46co-sponsor of the legislation, Republican Thomas Massey, gained the support and confidence of
12:51Epstein survivors by showing them the language in the law that they were proposing that made it
12:57impossible for Donald Trump's Justice Department to release photographs of them, any kind of
13:03photographs of them. The law made it impossible for Donald Trump's Justice Department to release
13:08their names, their addresses, their email addresses. The law made it impossible for Donald Trump's
13:12Justice Department to release any information about the survivors. But the Trump Justice Department
13:17refused to follow the law. The last president presidential election meant that the Justice Department
13:27would abandon the mission of upholding the law and simply break the law at will with impunity
13:36and Donald Trump's approval. The name that appears in the Epstein files, second only to the name Epstein
13:44is the name Trump. The New York Times, using its own search software, revealed this count of Trump
13:52mentions. Using a proprietary search tool, the New York Times identified more than 5,300 files containing more
13:59than 38,000 references to Mr. Trump, his wife, his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida and other related words
14:06and
14:06phrases in the latest batch of emails, government files, videos and other records released by the Justice
14:13Department. Previous installments of the Epstein files, which the department released late last year,
14:19included another 130 files with Trump related references. None of those files include any direct
14:26communication between Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein. Mr. Trump is one of half a dozen prominent men
14:32about whom the agency's files include salacious information, according to an email an FBI official
14:38wrote to a colleague last year. The newly released files also include notes and transcripts of interviews
14:45that federal investigators conducted with Mr. Epstein's victims, some of whom describe interactions with Mr.
14:52Trump. For instance, handwritten notes from one interview in September 2019, about a month after
14:58Mr. Epstein died by suicide in a Manhattan jail, say that a victim whose name has been redacted recalled
15:05being transported in a dark green car to Mar-a-Lago to meet Mr. Trump. This is a good one,
15:12huh? The victim
15:13recalls Mr. Epstein saying to Mr. Trump, the notes do not suggest misconduct by Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump has
15:22denied any wrongdoing in connection to Mr. Epstein. Leading off for discussion tonight is Democratic
15:28Congressman Ro Khanna of California. He's a member of the House Oversight Committee. Congressman Khanna,
15:33the Trump Justice Department says they're finished. They said their release of the Epstein files is now
15:40everything that you asked for. They're wrong. Here's what people should think. As disgusting as it is
15:50what they have released, imagine what they are concealing. And the survivors are furious for the reasons you
15:58outlined, Lawrence. Bradley Edwards, the survivor's lawyer, is furious. They took more care to protect the rich and
16:08powerful men who raped or abused these underage girls than they did for the actual victims of the
16:15crimes. And this is why people think they're two tiers of justice under Donald Trump. So what are the
16:23remedies at this point to try to obtain more of the Epstein files that are currently being withheld?
16:31Three things. First, Thomas Massey and I have requested a meeting with Deputy Attorney General Blanche.
16:39Now, he has been so callous and flippant going on TV saying this is just about men partying with Epstein,
16:46leaving out that people went to the island to rape underage girls. But he has said that he's open to
16:52meeting Raskin. So we plan to look for the unredacted documents and see what else needs to be released.
17:03Second, the survivors can bring lawsuits with Judge Berman and Judge Engelmeyer. I expect that they will.
17:10And third, Massey and I retain the ability to file lawsuits in the Southern District of New York. But we
17:17are going to push for the rest of the files to be released while protecting the survivors.
17:22We discovered in the Epstein files that Donald Trump's completely incompetent
17:27Commerce Secretary Howard Letnick is also as much of a liar about this as Donald Trump.
17:33He had claimed publicly that he met Epstein once, who was his next door neighbor in Manhattan,
17:38stepped into his house in Manhattan, his townhouse for five minutes and left never to have anything to
17:45do with him again. The Epstein files reveal that he in fact scheduled a rendezvous with Epstein on
17:52Epstein's island. Well, I don't understand how people can just get away with blatant lies.
17:59I mean, the only thing saving Letnick is that there are more egregious scandals and we don't know
18:05where the media should focus. But you basically have someone who's a Commerce Secretary who lied to the
18:11American people. He said he had nothing to do with Epstein. Emails come out showing that he actually
18:17visited Epstein, that he brought his family to Epstein. And he needs to be asked, why did he lie?
18:24What is he trying to hide? Who is he trying to protect?
18:29I know you worked very carefully to include the Epstein survivors in what you were doing,
18:36and you sought their approval for what you were doing. How does it feel to you tonight that what
18:43you promised them in the release of the Epstein files did not happen for all of them, that some of
18:50them, in fact, were exposed in these files? I'm so angry, Lawrence. It's become personal for me. As
18:59you know, you're the one who connected me to Bradley Edwards, who then connected Thomas Massey and I
19:05were the one who connected me to the survivors. These survivors have been in my office. They've
19:09talked about being abused and how it's like being, having a box and pushing that box away,
19:14but it never goes away. I've seen these people break down in tears in my office. This isn't
19:20politics. It's really become personal. And to see them betrayed when it all could have been avoided,
19:26that's why Thomas Massey and I asked the court for a special master. That's why we've been offering to
19:31meet with the Justice Department. That's why Bradley Edwards every day was saying to the Justice
19:36Department, consult us. And they did none of this. They've just been callous to these survivors.
19:43And they've been obsessed about protecting rich and powerful people who abuse them. And it's really a
19:50symptom of how our system has been co-opted by rich and powerful people and how ordinary people don't
19:56feel like they have justice in Donald Trump's America. So these files should be kept permanently
20:05at the Justice Department if they're destroyed during the Trump years. Of course, Donald Trump can
20:10pardon anyone in the Justice Department who destroys these files and completely get away with it and get
20:16away with issuing the pardon. But if they're not criminally destroyed in the Trump Justice Department,
20:22the next Justice Department, controlled by a Democratic appointed attorney general, could release
20:29everything else that is in the Epstein files. They could release it and they must release it. And they must
20:37investigate what happened. When you have all these people who have gone to Epstein's Island, someone should
20:44ask them under oath, who did you see being abused there? Who did you see raping people there? Who did
20:51you see
20:51being paraded naked at parties? There needs to be not only the release, there needs to be an investigation
20:59about what happened. None of that has happened for decades. And it is the obligation of the next
21:05president to do that, to make the survivors whole, but also to show that the justice system actually works in
21:11this
21:12country. Carson Ro Khanna, thank you very much for starting off our discussions tonight. Thank you, Lawrence.
21:19Thank you. And coming up, Republican Senator Rand Paul doesn't trust the FBI to investigate the
21:25killing of Alex Petty. And a Democratic senator is demanding an investigation of Donald Trump's so-called
21:29border czar, Tom Homan, for accepting $50,000 in cash from FBI undercover agents. That and more is next with
21:39Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. Today, the Minnesota Star Tribune reports the Hennepin County Medical Examiner has
21:48classified Alex Petty's death as a homicide. That is not news. A homicide is simply a death caused by
21:55another person, as we have reported on this program. Not all homicides are crimes. The Star Tribune also
22:02reports, though, that the autopsy report, which has not yet been released, reveals that Alex Petty suffered, quote,
22:10multiple gunshot wounds. Most of those multiple gunshot wounds were fired at Alex Petty and they were fired while
22:21all of the federal agents were walking backwards in the video away from the body of Alex Petty, who was
22:30lying face down on the
22:31pavement, not moving for most of the shots that were fired at him. Most of the federal agents present
22:39saw absolutely no threat from Alex Petty whatsoever at any time, which is why most of the federal agents
22:44did not fire their guns. Only two of the agents made the decision to shoot and continue shooting at Alex
22:51Petty. And the Republican senator, who's chairman of the committee with jurisdiction over those agents,
22:58said this. I saw no evidence. I saw a man that was retreating. I mean, he went to the middle
23:06of the
23:06street. He didn't even obstruct traffic. He let a car go through. As the agents advanced on him, he
23:12retreated to the side of the street. A woman is violently pushed to the ground and he turns to Alper
23:17and that's when he is grabbed from behind. I said no evidence of him assaulting the police. I think we
23:25have to get through our hearing February 12th. And I think we have to see what the people who work
23:29for
23:29her say. But my advice to them, if they're watching and they come to testify is, if you come in
23:36and
23:37you're going to justify that this man was aggressively assaulting your police officers,
23:42that cannot be acceptable. And that's why they're lacking in trust.
23:48The man who says he is now in charge of drawing down Donald Trump's invasion of Minneapolis was recorded
23:53by FBI undercover agents on video receiving $50,000 in a cash payoff during the last Trump presidential
23:59campaign. Democratic Senator Jackie Rosen of Nevada is now demanding that the Trump Justice
24:04Department inspector general investigate the $50,000 undercover payoff to Donald Trump's so-called border
24:10czar, Tom Holman, who says he did nothing wrong. In a letter to the deputy inspector general of the
24:18Trump Justice Department, Senator Rosen says, I request that you conduct a robust investigation
24:23into Mr. Holman's acceptance of the $50,000 cash payment from undercover FBI agents and DOJ's handling
24:29of the case. Furthermore, given that it is unclear what happened to the $50,000 provided to Mr. Holman and
24:35the sting operation, it is critical for your office to determine how Mr. Holman later used this money,
24:43particularly if the payment was funded by taxpayer dollars. And today in an indirect admission of
24:52mission failure in Minneapolis, Donald Trump's Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem issued a statement
24:58saying effective immediately. We are deploying body cameras to every officer in the field in Minneapolis.
25:06Joining us now is Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. He's a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee,
25:11also a member of the Senate Finance Committee and the Budget Committee. He is the top Democrat on the Senate
25:16Environment and Public Works Committee. Senator, the $50,000 question about Tom Holman has never been
25:25fully explored and Tom Holman certainly has not fully responded to it. No, I asked Attorney General
25:34Bondi about that in her hearing in the Judiciary Committee and I didn't get an answer. We followed
25:41up with questions for the record. I went to Chairman Grassley to ask him to tell Attorney General Bondi that
25:49she should answer the question for the record truthfully the way we expect all witnesses to answer.
25:54And then we followed up with a Freedom of Information Act request because we haven't had very good luck
26:00getting answers, let alone truthful ones, out of the Trump Department of Justice. So the step now
26:08to ask the Inspector General to examine this, I think, is merited. And it's kind of stunning
26:18that they aren't able to answer this question. And particularly when you have the Republican
26:24Chairman of the Homeland Services Committee that oversees ICE and CBP saying that there's a problem
26:34of trust, that they are lacking in trust. What could be more lacking in trust than to send in as
26:40the
26:40replacement for that little person Bovino who behaves badly that even in the Trump administration,
26:48he was too incompetent and dangerous to stay. This guy, this is the guy they chose to send in.
26:55This is the guy who's supposed to be the one who would restore trust. And he can't even tell
27:00the truth about what he did with $50,000 in bribe money received from FBI agents.
27:06We just heard Rand Paul say he doesn't trust the FBI to do the investigation and he doesn't trust
27:12the federal government to do the investigation of federal agents shooting and killing Alex
27:18Preddy in Minneapolis. Well, there's the local county attorney. They don't call them district
27:25attorneys. They call them county attorneys. They're Mary Moriarty, who is investigating this,
27:30wants to investigate this and just needs more cooperation from the federal, the FBI that has
27:37custody of so much of the evidence. Yeah, at this point, it seems that the federal government is not
27:42cooperating with local officials, not sharing evidence. And that is extremely, extremely unusual.
27:51When I was the U.S. Attorney, the only reason that we would not cooperate with local officials
27:56in an investigation that they were interested in was because there was some problem with that local
28:03group. If we were looking into corruption in the city of Providence, which I did, then we would carve
28:10out the city of Providence police department because they would have to report up to the subject of our
28:17investigation. But in the ordinary course, it is rule one elementary law enforcement practice
28:25that you put a task force together, you put a working group together, you bring in the local police
28:30because they can add resources, they can add value, they have their own evidence that they can support.
28:36So the fact that they're not doing this is almost an admission of culpability in itself. It is a
28:42flashing alarm that something is very wrong in the Trump DHS. And before Donald Trump moved him out of
28:52Minneapolis, his commander of the invasion forces, Gregory Bovino, was on a phone call in which he voiced his
29:02his own anti-Semitic feelings about the U.S. Attorney there who's Orthodox Jew and observes the Sabbath.
29:10And that was something that bothered Bovino greatly. This in the administration where they're going
29:16after institutions like Harvard University claiming that Harvard is anti-Semitic and needs to be fixed
29:23by Donald Trump, who has probably employed more anti-Semites in the federal government than any other
29:28president. Yeah, it makes it seem that that is pretty pretextual. And you see anti-Semitism sort
29:37of riddled throughout this administration, but nothing more visually telling than little Mr. Bovino,
29:46who looked like sort of a miniature version of an extra in a World War II Nazi movie.
29:54We're going to squeeze in a commercial break here, Senator. And as you know,
29:57Tulsi Gabbard has gone where no previous intelligence official has gone to seize voting
30:03records. That's next with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse.
30:08Tonight, Donald Trump's fully incompetent director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard,
30:12responded to questions from intelligence community committee Democrats about her participation
30:19in the FBI raid, seizing voting records in Fulton County, Georgia. Tulsi Gabbard said,
30:24my presence was requested by the president and executed under broad statutory authority to coordinate,
30:32integrate and analyze intelligence related to election security, including counterintelligence,
30:37foreign and other malign influence in cybersecurity. The FBI's intelligence,
30:41counterintelligence divisions are one of the 18 elements that I oversee. And the Wall Street Journal is
30:46reporting a U.S. intelligence official has alleged wrongdoing by director of national intelligence,
30:53Tulsi Gabbard, in a whistleblower complaint that is so highly classified it has sparked months of
30:59wrangling over how to share it with Congress, according to U.S. officials and others familiar
31:05with the matter. The filing of the complaint has prompted a continuing behind the scenes struggle
31:11about how to assess and handle it with the whistleblower's lawyer accusing Gabbard of stonewalling
31:17the complaint. Gabbard's office rejects that characterization contending. It is navigating
31:22a unique set of circumstances and working to resolve the issue. Back with us, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
31:29and Senator, as you know, Tulsi Gabbard also placed a cell phone call to Donald Trump with the FBI agents
31:39involved in the raid in Fulton County, Georgia, to have some kind of, I guess, discussion with the coach
31:46about how they ran the play. Everything about this is highly suspicious. First of all, the search warrant
31:59that they were executing in Fulton County, Georgia, came out of a U.S. attorney's office and a magistrate
32:06judge in Missouri. And the local FBI office in Georgia was not involved. Now, I was a U.S. attorney,
32:16and sometimes your case in your district requires you to get evidence from another district. And what
32:23you do then is you have the local U.S. attorney get a warrant in the local area. So that
32:30would make sense,
32:30Georgia and Georgia. And then you would have the FBI agent be the affiant on the affidavit.
32:41And that would be from your home state, because you don't want to have to walk another FBI agent
32:47through the whole case. So you're in your state. The investigation is in your state. The FBI agent in
32:54your state provides the affidavit. And then in the state where you're going to get the warrant,
33:02an AUSA from that state gets the warrant. Very standard practice here. None of that happened.
33:09And worse than that, the special agent in charge in that district in Georgia seems to have been fired.
33:17They said he was resigned. We don't know yet. But anyway, spontaneously disappeared
33:22in the days before the execution of this warrant. He's the person who would have been looking over
33:30this and seeing if that was legitimate behavior. The Missouri U.S. attorney who did this is not even
33:38a confirmed U.S. attorney. What he is is an election denier with a paper record of election denial
33:46from his service in Missouri as an assistant attorney general, which creates a huge record
33:53for defendants to go after to allege, you know, vindictive and unfair prosecution. And political
34:00pals with Ken Martin, the creepy guy who just got moved out of the Department of Justice and ran the
34:08weaponization working group for the Department of Justice. And that takes you back to Tulsi Gabbard,
34:15who says she stood up the weaponization working group, which is this bizarre group of Trumpy people
34:22across multiple federal agencies who basically conspired together across the agencies without
34:28necessarily going up the chain of command to their cabinet officials. They're running their own
34:33operation. And the purpose of that operation is to try to run political errands for Donald Trump using
34:40the offices of the United States government. And if all that's not enough, of course, he has to call
34:46in just like that Raffensperger call. You think you'd have the good sense to know, wait a minute,
34:52if this is election mischief and it's Georgia, maybe I shouldn't be making stupid phone calls.
34:57But every single piece of this is bad Department of Justice practice because it opens up avenues of
35:06inquiry for defendants. So the final question here is, will there ever be a defendant to ask questions
35:12about this? Or was the purpose of the seizure of those documents just to get them in the hands of
35:19Trump's
35:20election monkey wrenchers to try to rig elections in the future? And there's no plan to bring charges that
35:28would allow any of these inquiries to proceed. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, your guidance on this
35:34one invaluable as usual. Thank you very much for joining us tonight. Thank you. Coming up, a big,
35:42big win for Democrats in Texas in a district. Donald Trump won by 17 points. The Democratic candidate for
35:50Texas state Senate in a special election on Saturday, Taylor Emmett, won by 14 points. He'll join us
35:58next and tell us how he did it. And so once again, we face the question, is Donald Trump lying
36:06or is he
36:06losing cognitive ability or is he just too old to remember what he did yesterday? Donald Trump was on
36:12the losing side of a special election in Texas on Saturday. On election day Saturday, Donald Trump
36:17posted a social media post telling people to get out and vote for the Republican candidate for state
36:23Senate, who he called a true mega warrior, who has my complete and total endorsement. The next day,
36:29Donald Trump claimed he had no memory of telling anyone to vote for a true mega warrior just the day
36:38before.
36:39The president of Texas, a Democrat won in a special election in an area that you had won by 17
36:46points.
36:46What is your reaction to that? I don't know. I didn't hear about it. Somebody ran where?
36:50In Texas, a special election for a legislative seat. The ninth state Senate seat. I'm not involved in that.
36:55That's a local Texas race. You mean I won by 17 and this person lost? Things like that happen.
37:06Our next guest is the winner of that election, Taylor Emmett, a former Air Force B-52 mechanic who
37:13is now a unionized factory worker for Lockheed Martin building fighter jets. In a district,
37:18Donald Trump won by 17 points. Taylor Emmett, who has never run for office before, won by 14 points. And
37:25here is how he did it. Growing up, my mom always told me not to talk about money at the
37:33dinner table.
37:34Well, sorry, Mom. Because this campaign is all about money. It's about how much we get in our
37:41paychecks, how much we spend on groceries and health insurance, how much we pay in property taxes. So
37:46while my opponent helps billionaires get richer, I'm fighting for you. I'm Taylor Emmett and I'm
37:51running for Texas Senate District 9 to make Texas work for you. Cut. I'm Taylor Emmett's mom,
37:57and I approve this message. And joining us now is Texas State Senator-elect Taylor Emmett. Thank you
38:05very much for joining us tonight. Thank you so much, Lawrence. And I gotta say, for me, I have no
38:13more
38:13questions about how you did it. Your mom put you over the top. Shout out to my mom.
38:22I read today that the reason you got involved, the reason you decided to run, was frustration
38:28you experienced in your one attempt, your one interest in the state Senate just trying to do
38:35something about veterans benefits, alerting people to veterans benefits that wouldn't have cost anyone a
38:41penny. Yes, it was that. There was stuff before that. That was really the straw that broke the camel's
38:48back. I was tired of seeing working folks get left behind in this state. We have a ton of folks
38:54that
38:55clock in early, leave late, and keep this state running. And we need to focus legislation around
39:01them. And as you go forward now, you're going to have to, this is a special election, so it only
39:07gets
39:07you to the next election. You're pretty much starting to run for re-election almost immediately.
39:14How will you make that case to Texas voters going forward?
39:20The hard work we put in has won us two elections so far in a very short amount of time.
39:26But we know
39:27listening and engaging the community is the best way to earn their trust. And when you earn their trust,
39:33you can be outspent, like me, 10 to 1, and still come ahead with a really powerful victory.
39:40This is not about part of the politics. That's what I want to make clear, is that we did the
39:45work.
39:45We focused on voters, no matter what side of the political aisle. And we just stuck to the major
39:52issues here that we've been hearing on knocking these doors and making these phone calls.
39:56How much did you learn from voters? I know when you go into a race like this, you go in
40:02as a voter.
40:02So you know what you think. You know what you think matters. And I'm sure a lot of that is
40:07in
40:07the campaign. But how much of it did you learn from voters by campaigning?
40:13So what I learned was that it's not just about working folks. We do need to work on that. But
40:21we also have a big problem with public schools here. And people are struggling in this economy. So
40:26just with that, we need to find a way to lower costs. I had a woman come up to me
40:32at one of my
40:32campaign events. And she was shook. She was the director of a cancer center here in district. And she
40:39said the people that come to get cancer treatment are choosing between their treatment and rent
40:46and their food. This is a major problem. This is a fire alarm fire we have to address.
40:51But going back to the public schools, we have a voucher scan that's now being implemented here
40:56in our great state. And it's going to affect our public schools, which to me, we should hold sacred.
41:02They're not supposed to be partisan. We have to really invest in the next future of Texans.
41:10Texas state senator-elect Taylor Emmett, thank you very much for joining us tonight. And please
41:15come back as the campaign continues. Thank you. Sounds good. We'll be right back.
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