- 4 minutes ago
The Last Word with Lawrence ODonnell - Season 13 - Episode 24
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00It should have not happened.
00:04And with those exact words today, Donald Trump found himself in direct, sharp conflict with the man who wants to
00:12take his place.
00:13Vice President James David Vance, who was the frontrunner for the next Republican nomination for president, said in an interview
00:19today,
00:19I don't think it's smart to prejudge the investigation.
00:23When he was asked by the Daily Mail if he would apologize to Alex Petty's family for calling him an
00:30assassin who tried to murder federal agents.
00:33And of course, J.D. Vance did not apologize.
00:37Hours after Alex Petty was shot 10 times in what video proves was a murder by Donald Trump's Border Patrol
00:46agents,
00:47J.D. Vance judged the case when he endorsed a tweet by Stephen Miller that said an assassin tried to
00:57murder federal agents.
00:59J.D. Vance did at that moment what he now today says is not smart.
01:06He prejudged the case immediately hours after it happened.
01:10And he prejudged the case of Alex Petty when video was already available and being watched around the world that
01:20proved Alex Petty did absolutely nothing to provoke even a single gunshot being fired at him.
01:29We've all now seen the video of that gang of federal agents who had surrounded Alex Petty backing away from
01:37him and leaving him face down in the street with no one around him and him not moving.
01:45While two and only two of those agents continued to fire shots at Alex Petty's body, while most of those
01:54agents obviously and correctly felt completely unthreatened by Alex Petty's unmoving body and never fired a shot.
02:02The proof of how wrong it was to shoot at Alex Petty was that most of the agents surrounding him
02:07saw no reason to fire at him at any time.
02:11And today Donald Trump did what J.D. Vance now says is not smart.
02:18When Donald Trump said it should have not happened, Donald Trump said that in a taped pre-Super Bowl interview
02:27with NBC's Tom Yamas.
02:29And so Donald Trump has rendered his judgment on the murders of Renee Good and Alex Petty.
02:35He was referring to both of those cases when Donald Trump used the words should have not happened.
02:44That means those cases, if they should not have happened, are murder or manslaughter or negligent homicide.
02:54And they are both cases of wrongful death, which should be adjudicated in civil lawsuits in addition to any criminal
03:02procedure and a possible homicide prosecution.
03:06Donald Trump said it should have not happened in what could be his most watched interview of the year, because
03:14Donald Trump knows that that is what the people of the United States of America believe.
03:19Donald Trump has seen polls and he knows that the polls are crushing his invasion of American cities.
03:25And that's why Donald Trump is saying it should have not happened.
03:30The protesters forced him to say that.
03:32That's why Donald Trump told Tom Yamas that he ordered the removal of 700 of his invading agents from Minneapolis.
03:41Donald Trump said that that was his idea.
03:43That retreat was his idea.
03:46Donald Trump told Tom Yamas a poisonous lie, insulting the intelligence of anyone who will hear it.
03:52Polls show that Donald Trump's Super Bowl audience for this interview will not believe his poisonous lie about his ICE
04:02agents,
04:03because a new poll shows that 63 percent disapprove of how ICE is enforcing immigration laws.
04:11Sixty three percent disapprove of Donald Trump's invasion forces.
04:16Sixty one percent believe that Donald Trump's administration has not given an honest account of the shooting death of Alex
04:24Preddy by federal immigration agents.
04:27Donald Trump was speaking directly to those sixty one percent when he said it should have not happened.
04:34But Donald Trump is going to offend the 63 percent to disapprove of the way ICE is enforcing immigration laws
04:42when they hear.
04:44His sick and poisonous lie about ICE and the murders of Renee Good and Alex Preddy.
04:54I'm not happy with what happened there.
04:57Nobody could be happy and ICE wasn't happy either.
05:01ICE wasn't happy.
05:04I shouldn't be happy.
05:05Most law enforcement officers are not happy when they are forced to fire their guns in defense of their lives.
05:10Most law enforcement officers who kill in the line of duty are not happy to do it.
05:15It is the rarest thing a police officer in America can do.
05:20Almost all police officers in America never have occasion to shoot at anyone in their entire careers.
05:27You'd never know that from the trigger happy cops delivered to us in the fantasies of Hollywood screenwriters.
05:33But most police officers in a 30 year career never shoot at anyone.
05:38And the good police officers who are forced to shoot at someone never feel happy about it.
05:45But Donald Trump's invasion forces are different.
05:49If you have been given reason by what you've seen on video to suspect that they are enjoying the cruelty,
05:59you have been proven right.
06:02Donald Trump's Border Patrol agent Charles Exum tried to murder a 30 year old American citizen in Chicago, Miramar Martinez.
06:12She's a Montessori school teacher who suffered seven gunshot wounds fired at her by agent Charles Exum for absolutely no
06:22reason.
06:23And the legal proof that there was no reason is that the criminal charge filed against her was dropped.
06:32She was accused briefly before the charge was dropped of trying to ram her car into Charles Exum's massive SUV.
06:41Video shows that that never happened, according to Miramar Martinez's attorneys and Charles Exum drove that SUV from Chicago to
06:52Maine,
06:53apparently to remove the evidence, the crucial evidence, remove the proof that it never happened.
07:00Because surely, surely there would have been body damage on that SUV if she ever tried to ram that SUV.
07:09How did Charles Exum feel after he discovered that the person he was firing at was an American citizen born
07:18and raised in Chicago with no criminal record,
07:20who was a Montessori school teacher who had never committed a crime in her life
07:25and was on her way to her church that morning to deliver some clothes she was giving away?
07:32Did he say, I'm not happy with it?
07:35Did he say it should not have happened?
07:38No, he did not.
07:39We know what he said.
07:41After the shooting, he texted his Trump invasion force teammates.
07:46And what he said is the clearest window we have into the dark, ugly hearts of Donald Trump's invasion forces.
07:58Miramar Martinez testified to a joint House and Senate hearing yesterday where not a single Republican showed up.
08:04And the text immediately after she was shot by the man who tried to murder her were read by Congressman
08:14Robert Garcia.
08:17It's disgusting, shameful, and it gets worse.
08:23Ms. Martinez, these are images of texts sent by the agent who shot you.
08:28And they're actually disturbing to read, but I think it's important for the public to see this.
08:34The agent linked an article about your shooting and texted, read it.
08:38Five shots, seven holes.
08:41I fired five rounds and she had seven holes.
08:45Put that in your book, boys.
08:47Oh, well, it is what it is.
08:50S*** happens.
08:53This is someone that works for the United States government.
08:58I fired five rounds and she had seven holes.
09:02Now, he was talking about you.
09:04And it's our understanding that he was actually bragging about his aim,
09:09shooting an unarmed American citizen.
09:13Is that right?
09:15Correct.
09:18The exit, the entrance and exit wounds created those seven wounds from the five shots.
09:25The reply texts from his no doubt approving teammates were redacted when his texts were introduced in court
09:32before the case was dismissed.
09:34He texted to his friends a news report of the shooting.
09:41And his last entry in the text chain was,
09:46Sweet, my 15 minutes of fame.
09:50L-M-A-O.
09:55The deeply perverse and murderously dangerous Charles Exum,
10:02who should never be allowed to carry a gun for any reason for the rest of his life,
10:07could not have been happier after shooting the 30-year-old woman for no reason.
10:15Laugh.
10:16That's what the L means.
10:18And L-M-A-O.
10:20You know what the rest of it means.
10:23That is as deeply evil as American law enforcement can get.
10:30Charles Exum doesn't have a long career in federal service ahead of him
10:35because he will be fired within days after the next presidential inauguration
10:40when a Democrat is very likely going to be taking the oath of office.
10:4463% of America disapproves of Charles Exum.
10:4963% of America disapproves of the way ICE is enforcing immigration laws.
10:54And they reach that conclusion without ever seeing those texts from Charles Exum.
11:00And those 63% will be repulsed by Donald Trump's pathological lie about ICE agents feeling bad
11:11about the murders of Renee Good and Alex Preddy.
11:14Listen to how far Donald Trump was willing to go in telling this perverse lie.
11:24It should have not happened.
11:27It was a very sad, to me, it was a very sad incident, two incidents.
11:31And, you know, they mention the one now, they don't mention the other.
11:33Well, I think they were both sad.
11:35And you know who feels worse about it than anybody?
11:39The people of ICE.
11:43It's worse about it than anybody.
11:46It takes a pathological liar for whom words mean nothing to claim that the federal agents
11:52who murdered Renee Good and Alex Preddy feel worse about it than their families do.
12:00Let's see what they texted their friends after they committed those murders.
12:04Let's see that evidence.
12:06Hand over that evidence.
12:07If they feel badly about it, hand over the evidence of those texts to the local prosecutor
12:13in Minneapolis, County Attorney Mary Moriarty, who will join us in a moment.
12:19She needs those texts for her investigation.
12:23Think of how sick and unfeeling and inhuman you would have to be to say that those ICE agents
12:32feel worse about those murders than anybody.
12:37It's the kind of thing you can verbally stumble into.
12:40But as soon as you heard yourself say it, you'd correct it and say, of course, they don't
12:44feel as bad as the families of the dead, but they feel pretty bad about it.
12:48Donald Trump's an extremist in all things.
12:51And he's always an extremist in his language, in his pathological line.
12:55So he can't say his ICE agents feel bad.
12:59He has to say they feel worse than anybody.
13:04And because he was somehow condemned to a life without human feeling, he has no idea what
13:11it means to say a thing like that.
13:16No, Donald, your ICE agents do not feel worse than Rene Goodes' brothers who testified at
13:25that joint House-Senate hearing yesterday.
13:30Sunlight doesn't ask for recognition.
13:32It just gives.
13:33It warms.
13:34It nurtures.
13:35It helps things grow.
13:38Rene did that for us.
13:39She helped us grow.
13:41She helped us believe in ourselves.
13:44She helped us see the good, even when life felt heavy.
13:50Rene is not gone from us.
13:52She's in the light that finds us on hard days.
13:55She's in the resilience we didn't know we had until we needed it.
13:59She's in the laughter, the memories, the love that continues to grow.
14:03Like dandelions, like sunlight, and like Rene.
14:10Donald Trump, of course, didn't hear a word of that.
14:13He would never listen to that.
14:16And he would feel nothing if he heard it.
14:21Because he is, by all evidence, incapable of human feeling.
14:27303 former Justice Department prosecutors have signed a letter to Attorney General Pamela
14:31Bondi objecting to Donald Trump's Justice Department, refusing to cooperate with state
14:36and local prosecutors in Minneapolis who are investigating the deaths of Rene Good and
14:40Alex Petty.
14:40The letter says, blocking a state law enforcement agency from investigating potential violations of state law in its own jurisdiction
14:48would mark a severe departure from established DOJ norms and pose a serious threat to the rule of law.
14:55The letter, of course, can have no meaning in the Trump Justice Department that is devoted to the rule of
15:01Trump
15:02without the slightest regard to the rule of law.
15:06This week, Hennepin County Attorney
15:08Mary Moriarty, who has jurisdiction over homicide cases in Minneapolis, sent demand letters to the Justice Department
15:16and the Homeland Security Department for evidence needed in her investigation of the death of Rene Good specifically.
15:25Mary Moriarty issued a statement that said the federal government has been clear that they are not conducting an investigation
15:34into Rene Good's death.
15:35But we are.
15:37We require these records as part of our ongoing thorough investigation into her death at the hands of federal agent
15:45Jonathan Ross.
15:47Let's see Jonathan Ross's texts after he fired those shots, after he walked up to that car and saw Rene
15:58Good bleeding to death in the front seat of that car.
16:01Let's see his texts.
16:04Hand them over.
16:05Hand them over to the county attorney in Minnesota.
16:10Eight more assistant U.S. attorneys have resigned from the Minnesota U.S. Attorney's Office.
16:15That's in addition to six veteran prosecutors who resigned last month.
16:19One prosecutor appeared to be on the verge of resigning.
16:22Got fired after she told a federal judge that she was trying to comply with his orders but was completely
16:28overwhelmed
16:29and was hoping the judge would jail her for contempt so that she could actually get some sleep.
16:34Things never heard from a federal prosecutor before in history including her pronouncement, a convincing one, in which she said,
16:43This job sucks.
16:46And so tonight the prosecutors are resigning.
16:51The protesters in Minneapolis are winning.
16:53700 of Donald Trump's invasion forces are retreating from Minneapolis in a victory for the protesters.
17:00And in what might be the protesters' biggest victory yet, they have forced Donald Trump to admit to the world.
17:11It should have happened.
17:19It should have not happened.
17:43It should have happened.
17:46And I will say about Trump's statement today, words are really hollow.
17:50If he really means that that should not have happened, I think a couple of things should happen.
17:55He should end the occupation now in the Twin Cities.
17:59And he should give us all of the evidence in both of the Rene Good and Alex Preddy cases.
18:05In fact, as you mentioned, we issued a demand letter, as we are required to do to get federal records,
18:11demanding access to the information in the Rene Good case.
18:15We're about to do that in the Preddy case.
18:17So, you know, words don't matter.
18:20If he really means what he says, then give us that information that we need to do a thorough and
18:27complete investigation and end this occupation right now.
18:32Miramar Martinez's defense lawyer was able to obtain the texts from Charles Exum, the man who tried to murder her.
18:41Would you have the same power to obtain the texts of Jonathan Ross, who shot and killed Rene Good?
18:50So it's a little it's very complicated, the federal overlay here.
18:55So we could if we were talking about a state agent or somebody who is employed by the state, we
19:02could subpoena that.
19:03We could get a warrant actually for a cell phone, which law enforcement could analyze.
19:09We cannot do that with with federal employees.
19:12And there's a process called TUI with the letters that we submitted or the letters we submitted earlier this week
19:19were TUI demands.
19:21That is the process that we are required to go through by the United States Supreme Court when we want
19:27information from a federal agency.
19:29So we are asking for the phones, the text and so much more.
19:33But we have to get that from the federal agency, which is why I said, you know, we're waiting for
19:40a response from the federal agency.
19:42And once again, if this administration wants to be true to its word, then why not give us that information
19:48that we've already asked for?
19:50What is the legal significance of the president who sent those agents to Minneapolis saying it should not have happened?
20:03Probably more in a civil context, a civil lawsuit, not really in a criminal lawsuit or criminal charges or investigation.
20:11But once again, I you know, it's it's it's hard to believe anything that this administration says, you know, for
20:17instance, Holman had a press conference this morning.
20:20And at the beginning of it, he said they were going to withdraw 700 of the agents.
20:25And by the way, that leaves 2300 still here if they actually are withdrawing those 700, because by the end
20:32of the press conference, he actually said the withdrawal of agents is dependent on the cooperation of the state.
20:39And one thing that I wrote down because it struck me was the community must end the resistance.
20:46So essentially what Holman is saying and what this administration is saying is we will withdraw our occupation of Minnesota
20:54if you stop exercising your First Amendment rights.
20:58In other words, if you capitulate to our demands, that is when we will end this occupation, which, of course,
21:04is preposterous to say and the resistance, stop exercising your First Amendment rights.
21:11Mary Moriarty, thank you very much for starting off our discussions tonight.
21:16Of course. Thank you.
21:18And coming up, Steve Bannon says Donald Trump is going to have ICE agents surround polling places during the election
21:26this year and the next presidential election.
21:29Senator Adam Schiff joins us next.
21:36The only president in history who has never read or would be able to comprehend one word of the United
21:44States Constitution said this.
21:48If you think about it, a state is an agent for the federal government in elections.
21:52I don't know why the federal government doesn't do them anyway.
21:56The answer to his bewilderment, of course, is in the Constitution.
22:00Officials in Fulton County, Georgia, filed a motion in federal court seeking the return of the 2020 election ballots that
22:08were seized by Donald Trump's FBI last week in a domestic FBI raid supervised for the first time in history
22:17by a president's director of national intelligence.
22:22The reality challenged Tulsi Gabbard.
22:25Here is Fulton County Commissioner Chair Rob Pitts.
22:29We will use every resource at our disposal to fight for their vote.
22:36And that we will fight using all resources against those who seek to take over our elections.
22:48Our Constitution itself is at stake in this fight.
22:54Today, Donald Trump's confidant, Steve Bannon, announced the plan for voting in Donald Trump's America.
23:05We're going to have ICE surround the polls come November.
23:09We're not going to sit here and allow you to steal the country again.
23:13And you can you can whine and cry and throw your toys out of the pram all you want.
23:17But we will never again allow an election to be stolen.
23:21But let's put you on notice again.
23:23ICE is going to be around the polls in the 2026 midterm elections.
23:31Joining us now is Democratic Senator Adam Schiff of California.
23:35He's a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
23:37Senator, you have heard the plan.
23:40ICE surrounding the polls.
23:43What can be done about it?
23:46Well, this is Steve Bannon speaking the, you know, the plain truth about their intentions, which is Donald Trump will
23:53be your tinpot dictator if you let him.
23:56It is our plan to make sure there is not a free and fair election.
23:59We're going to resort to taking ballot boxes in Fulton County, Georgia, or the last election.
24:06We just learned that Tulsi Gabbard oversaw some kind of a law enforcement operation in Puerto Rico that seized voting
24:14machines and data.
24:16The DNI, the director of national intelligence, has no election remit in terms of domestic law enforcement.
24:22But we are seeing a concerted effort to try to overturn what they expect will be a very unfavorable election
24:30against them.
24:31So we are doing everything possible to prepare.
24:34Of course, we will litigate.
24:36Of course, we will do everything possible to prevent Trump from deploying essentially the palace guard to polling places.
24:43This is what tinpot dictators do.
24:46But in addition to litigation, we're developing legislative strategies.
24:49It will also, I think, most importantly, mean that we have to mobilize people to turn out in such high
24:57numbers to so overwhelm the elections in the sense of winning them overwhelmingly that they're not close, that there's no
25:05opportunity to contest them.
25:07That's really our best protection is just a massive turnout operation to make sure they lose and they lose handily
25:13because we can see and they are telling us they intend to try to cheat.
25:17So, Senate Democrats are currently in a negotiation with the Republican majority leader and with Donald Trump over future funding
25:27of ICE.
25:29Wouldn't it be demand number one in the Democratic Senate negotiating position, no ICE at polling places?
25:41I think, and we just got the list that the leadership put out that Senator Schumer sent to a leader,
25:49Thune, and the Speaker.
25:50Part of, I think, what we're demanding in this is that there be no ICE presence at sensitive locations like
25:58voting places, like schools, like churches.
26:01So, that certainly is a very important element in terms of the most important element, I would definitely rank protecting
26:08our elections, the ultimate safeguarding of constitutional democracy, as a very, very top priority.
26:14But we also have to end these deadly sweeps.
26:17We have to end the deadly use of force.
26:19We need independent investigations.
26:21We need ICE to be identified, not wearing masks, but wearing body cams and identification.
26:28There are a lot of high priorities.
26:30We don't want them battering people's doors down without a warrant.
26:33But I agree with you, Lawrence.
26:35Making sure that they're not there interfering on Election Day is also a really high priority.
26:42And this seems like the moment where the Democrats really do have the power to prevent this,
26:47since it will require 60 votes to get a funding bill for ICE through the United States Senate.
26:54Can't do that without Democratic votes.
26:56Can't do it without a negotiation.
26:57It's why the negotiation is happening.
26:59And if the Democrats' number one position in this is no ICE at polling places,
27:06then ICE will basically be the subject of a government shutdown,
27:10or Donald Trump will have to agree to that demand.
27:17Well, we're going to maximize the use of our bargaining position in every way.
27:21And we have to obviously look out for other contingencies, even if we are successful in banning ICE from being
27:27present at polling places.
27:29That won't necessarily stop Donald Trump from deploying the military or deploying other law enforcement agencies.
27:36We're going to have to do what we did, basically, in the run-up to the 2020 election,
27:40which is try to anticipate all of the illegality, all of the efforts to suppress the vote,
27:45all of the efforts to overturn the vote that may take place during, before, and after the midterms.
27:51This is something I discussed with leadership, again, just today on the Senate floor.
27:56So we are gearing up and we are preparing.
27:59But hearing Steve Bannon make these claims, hearing Speaker Johnson cast out on the elections,
28:05and what a shameful thing, Lawrence, we heard from him yesterday when he was saying that,
28:11well, in California, we have House Republican candidates who are ahead on Election Day and fall behind every time there's
28:18a new round of absentee ballots.
28:21Just shameful to suggest, well, that's inherently fraudulent.
28:25And he goes on to say, well, I can't prove any of this, but people are doubting our elections.
28:29Well, of course they're doubting them when people like the Speaker are pushing out lies,
28:33when the president is pushing out lies, when Steve Bannon is pushing out lies,
28:37and when they've got their media amplifiers to amplify those lies.
28:41And, of course, California is a pioneer in mail-in voting, has massive mail-in voting,
28:46which means that the mail-in votes are counted later than the votes that are cast on that day.
28:53Everybody in politics knows this.
28:55Everyone knows how to watch those election returns.
28:58Speaker Johnson, pure lying about that.
29:00Senator Adam Schiff, thank you very much for joining us tonight.
29:04Thanks, Lawrence.
29:05And coming up, New Jersey Governor Mikey Sherrill showed in her last election campaign
29:10how Donald Trump loses elections for Republicans and Donald Trump keeps doing it.
29:18That's next with Governor Mikey Sherrill when she joins us.
29:26Remember Infrastructure Week, the week that never happened during the first Trump presidency?
29:30Well, it's happening now when Donald Trump's version of Infrastructure Week is to kill the most important infrastructure project in
29:37the United States.
29:38Donald Trump is trying to stop the funding for construction for a new tunnel under the Hudson River,
29:43connecting the state of New York and the state of New Jersey,
29:46a project that already secured funding with bipartisan support during the Biden presidency.
29:51And now the Interstate Commission in charge of building the tunnel has filed a lawsuit in federal court
29:56against the Trump administration for withholding $205 million in payments for work on the tunnel.
30:03The last Republican mayor of New York City, billionaire Michael Bloomberg, writes,
30:07This is not some local pet project.
30:10It's of national economic importance.
30:12The new tunnel will allow passengers up and down the East Coast to move faster and more reliably,
30:19while also mitigating road congestion in numerous states and relieving air travel pressures.
30:25It will also expand the entire region's labor market, accelerate its housing growth,
30:30and increase its business activity and investment.
30:33From an economic perspective, the tunnel is an absolute no-brainer, and it's long overdue.
30:39New Jersey's Governor Mikey Sherrill won her election last year by the surprisingly large margin of 14 points,
30:46and fighting for the new tunnel was one of the ways she beat Donald Trump's chosen candidate for governor of
30:53New Jersey.
30:54Joining us now is New Jersey's Democratic Governor Mikey Sherrill.
30:58Governor, thank you very much for joining us tonight.
31:02There is Donald Trump, who doesn't understand anything about business and the economy the way Mike Bloomberg does,
31:08and you are going to have to fight for every penny now, it seems.
31:15That's exactly right.
31:16We are already at work on this tunnel.
31:20Millions have been spent on the high-end tunneling gear.
31:24It's at the site.
31:25We've employed about 1,000 people already.
31:27I was just over at Tunnelly Avenue the other day where concrete pads are being poured in anticipation of getting
31:34the tunneling gear ready to go.
31:37And all this could come to a stop Friday, which is why in New Jersey and New York our states
31:42are suing the president,
31:44because he's illegally withholding this money that could account for almost 100,000 jobs in the region
31:50and about $20 billion in economic output.
31:54Yeah, and this kind of funding is not easy to achieve.
31:58It took a bipartisan support group to get it done.
32:02People were working on it for years, many, many years, some over the course of decades from the conception of
32:09the first notion of it.
32:11And so you win this, you get it.
32:14And Donald Trump comes in and says, I'm just going to take it away.
32:19Yeah, fighting tooth and nail in the first Trump administration.
32:22I was called the tunnel-obsessed congresswoman.
32:24I am now the tunnel-obsessed governor because I am not going to quit.
32:27This is too important to the region.
32:29It's too important to the country.
32:31This is the most important infrastructure program in the nation.
32:36It is a rail tunnel from New Jersey into New York.
32:40About 200,000 people go through the current rail tunnel right now.
32:44It was damaged by Superstorm Sandy.
32:46As you heard from Mike Bloomberg, who talked a little bit about how important it is to business and commerce,
32:52not just for the region but for the country, it makes no sense.
32:55When you see a president who is harming jobs, harming the economy right here,
33:01especially when his jobs numbers are not looking so hot.
33:04But as we've seen across the country, every time Trump gets involved, costs go up and working people suffer.
33:11I mean, New York is the heartbeat of this economy and has been for a couple hundred years now in
33:18this country.
33:19Donald Trump doesn't seem to understand that you cannot attack it and then expect the economy to thrive,
33:27expect to see good economic numbers.
33:31And, Lawrence, if you'll forgive my state pride, I would say a lot of that heartbeat in New York is
33:37fueled by New Jersey workers.
33:39And in order for that to continue, this tunnel has to function.
33:43And as I said, the current Hudson River tunnel right now has been damaged.
33:47It's over 115 years old.
33:50We have got to keep at work on this.
33:52It is such a no-brainer.
33:55And so to take the money that has already been committed, $15 billion, $4 billion of it already ready to
34:01be put to work in an account,
34:02and to put a stop to it, which will end things on Friday if he has not stopped from this
34:08illegal action,
34:09it really is such a harm to the region and such a complete waste of money,
34:15given that we are already, we have already spent money, we are ready to go, and any delay will just
34:21raise costs.
34:21What did you learn in your campaign and in this story about Donald Trump's ability to lose elections for Republicans?
34:33He hurts working people.
34:35He hurts families.
34:36Because, you know, this tunnel isn't just about all of the people that could be employed with really good jobs
34:42in this region.
34:43It's also about those commuters that go back and forth every single day.
34:46My husband's one of them.
34:47It's the difference if, you know, you're having a delay between picking your kid up at daycare on time
34:53or making it home to eat with your family or your kid's soccer or basketball game.
34:58And Trump just doesn't seem to care about families and people across the country.
35:03He's been enriching himself now to the tune of billions of dollars
35:07and really ending the ability for other families to make it here,
35:11to create the opportunity that this country is so known for.
35:14And that's why I keep saying it makes no sense.
35:17I'm going to fight it tooth and nail.
35:19We're in court now, and we are going to see that the workers can continue,
35:23that commuters get the type of commute they deserve, and that the economy can flourish.
35:29New Jersey Governor Mikey Sherrill, thank you very much for joining us tonight.
35:34Thank you so much for having me.
35:36Coming up, Donald Trump's White House counsel says that Donald Trump has no involvement.
35:41That's the term.
35:42No involvement in his family business deals, including a huge payoff from the United Arab Emirates.
35:50So it must be true, right?
35:52He has no involvement.
35:54Tim O'Brien has literally written the book on Donald Trump's business dealings and his involvement,
35:59and will join us next.
36:07The Wall Street Journal reports, four days before Donald Trump's inauguration last year,
36:13lieutenants to an Abu Dhabi royal secretly signed a deal with the Trump family to purchase a 49% stake
36:21in their fledgling cryptocurrency venture for half a billion dollars.
36:27According to company documents and people familiar with the matter,
36:30the buyers would pay half up front, steering $187 million to Trump family entities.
36:37The deal with World Liberty Financial, which hasn't previously been reported,
36:43was signed by Eric Trump, the president's son.
36:48The investment was backed by Sheikh Tahun bin Zayed Al-Nayan and Abu Dhabi royal,
36:55who has been pushing the U.S. for access to tightly guarded artificial intelligence chips,
37:00according to people familiar with the matter.
37:02The Wall Street Journal reports, World Liberty Financial, the Trump company,
37:06says Trump was not involved in the deal.
37:09And White House counsel actually says Trump, quote,
37:14has no involvement in the business deals that would implicate his constitutional responsibilities, end quote.
37:23Once later, in May of last year, the Trump administration committed to give the tiny Gulf monarchy
37:29access to around 500,000 of the most advanced A.I. chips a year,
37:35enough to build one of the world's biggest A.I. data center clusters.
37:40Joining us now is senior executive editor of Bloomberg Opinion, Tim O'Brien.
37:44He is the author of Trump Nation and an author of a book,
37:47an earlier book on Donald Trump's business dealings.
37:50So, Tim, the White House counsel assures us Donald Trump, not involved, not involved in any way.
37:56So, I guess that answers that.
38:01Yeah, Lawrence, I have a bridge to sell you.
38:04You know, we've been talking about this topic for so long,
38:08and the core thing for everyone to remember is that the Trumps and the president himself
38:14have never put any kind of meaningful safeguards around their business dealings
38:18or the stewardship of any of their assets.
38:21It was an issue during his first term.
38:23It's even more of an issue now.
38:25He's done nothing that approximates what any of his predecessors in the Oval Office did
38:31to make sure the American public didn't have to worry that the president of the United States
38:35was getting bribed and was pursuing policies that were against their own interests
38:40as citizens and taxpayers.
38:43And what's extraordinary about the Trump administration, Lawrence,
38:46is that it isn't just one or two or three deals.
38:50It is happening almost on a weekly basis.
38:53And Trump's sons, for whatever they say about there being a firewall between them and their father,
39:00they wouldn't be able to do most of these deals but for their proximity to the White House.
39:04The reason people are transacting with them is because their father's the president for no other reason.
39:10They're making money in businesses they had no experience in,
39:13like crypto, cell phones, we could go on down the list.
39:17And so they're enriching themselves along the way.
39:19The extra wrinkle in this Emirati deal is it isn't just the Trumps lining their pockets.
39:25They're also compromising national security.
39:28The issue with advanced computer chips transiting through the UAE
39:33is that the UAE also has a lot of business with China.
39:36And during the Biden administration, these chips were sanctioned.
39:40They were not allowed to be exported to the UAE
39:42because the Biden administration worried they'd end up in Chinese hands.
39:46The implication of that is twofold.
39:48We're in a foot race with China around AI technology development and also militarily.
39:54And these chips are central to both of those endeavors.
39:57And within two months of being inaugurated,
40:00Donald Trump was already cutting a deal with the UAE to get those chips over there.
40:05And it wasn't for any other reason, it would appear,
40:10that ultimately they were going to get $187 million for doing that.
40:14And that story demonstrates Donald Trump's complete lack of concern for national security,
40:21his complete phony lying about, you know, how tough he is on China, all of this stuff.
40:28It is all just pure act.
40:31This is what he actually does.
40:33You know, forget about what he says.
40:35This is what he does.
40:38100%.
40:39Remember when we were talking years ago, the end of his first term,
40:43it was the end of, well, COVID was sort of in full thrall.
40:46And the lion's share of Trump's assets were tied up in about five or six skyscrapers
40:54on the West Coast and in New York, all of which COVID was compromising.
41:00The occupancy rates had plunged.
41:02Trump had a lot of debt on those buildings.
41:04There was a lot of speculation about whether or not he could keep them afloat.
41:07Fast forward to his second term, I can guarantee you one of the primary things on his mind
41:12after he got elected was to make sure he could pay down all that debt as quickly as he possibly
41:18could.
41:18And so that's another thing informing his motivations.
41:21He's lining his pocket.
41:23He's digging out from debt.
41:24And he doesn't care about the implications for national security or the American experiment.
41:30Tim O'Brien, thank you very much for joining us tonight.
41:33Thank you, Lawrence.
Comments