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The Last Word with Lawrence ODonnell - Season 13 - Episode 46
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00:00All right that's going to do it for me for now but now it's time for the last word with
00:03the great Lawrence O'Donnell. Good evening Lawrence. Good evening Rachel. This is one of those nights where some very hard
00:10decisions have to be made of what can actually be fit into this hour of television and this is what
00:17I'm so grateful that you're on for an hour before I am because I'm going to be able to cover
00:22some ground that wasn't in your hour as we try to sort out this avalanche of news coming out.
00:30us over the weekend. Yeah I have left at least one guest sitting in a lit well lit room wearing
00:37makeup and not getting on television in the past hour as we have been covering breaking news over the course
00:42of this hour. Yeah it's it's. Which I'm very sorry. Well but it's it's one of the things that that
00:48everyone knows we have to deal with on especially during war coverage as we're in now. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks Lawrence.
00:55Appreciate it. Thanks Richard. Thank you.
00:58Well Donald Trump is demanding something he has never seen. Donald Trump is demanding something no president in his lifetime
01:05has ever achieved. Unconditional surrender. On Friday morning at 8 50 a.m. Donald Trump demanded Iran's unconditional surrender in
01:16a social media post.
01:18The last time the United States of America accepted an unconditional surrender. It took an atomic bomb to get it.
01:28In fact two of them. After President Harry Truman became the first and only person in world history to use
01:35nuclear weapons against Japan first in Hiroshima and three days later in Nagasaki Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's unconditional surrender.
01:44Harry Truman had already accepted Germany's unconditional surrender in World War II three months earlier. No American president has demanded
01:54or accepted an unconditional surrender at the end of an American war since the year before Donald Trump was born.
02:03And that was.
02:04He.
02:0481.
02:0481 years ago at the end of World War II.
02:08Anyone who has witnessed a war during Donald Trump's lifetime knows that the unconditional surrender of Iran is impossible.
02:17Everyone on Wall Street knew that over the weekend when markets began to adjust negatively to a an anticipated long
02:25term Trump war in pursuit of the impossible.
02:31unconditional surrender. And so, of course, oil prices skyrocketed. The stock market crashed,
02:38and Donald Trump today offered his unconditional surrender. Donald Trump is the first American
02:45wartime president ruled by the stock market and the oil market. In a phone call with the CBS News
02:52reported today, Donald Trump said, I think the war is very complete. He said that during stock market
03:01trading in the hope of preventing a collapse. Donald Trump didn't mention unconditional surrender
03:08again today. And because it was Donald Trump who said unconditional surrender on Friday morning,
03:14we knew there was no chance of even Donald Trump holding on to the nonsensical demand
03:22of unconditional surrender. When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt announced publicly
03:29during World War II that the only peace terms that the United States of America would accept
03:35from Germany and Japan was unconditional surrender, the world knew that Franklin Roosevelt meant
03:43those two words. And everyone in the world, other than the German and Japanese regimes, knew
03:51that they could trust those presidential words as fact, as a prediction of what exactly was going to
04:01happen. The world knew from that moment on how World War II was going to end. They didn't know how
04:08long it was going to last. But they knew World War II was going to end in unconditional surrender
04:16because the president of the United States said so. And now the world knows the words of the current
04:22president of the United States have no meaning at all. 31 hours after Donald Trump demanded unconditional
04:30surrender. In another social media post, Donald Trump said, we've already won, exclamation point.
04:37Donald Trump doesn't even pay attention to the words of Donald Trump. Unconditional surrender Friday morning,
04:45we've already won Saturday afternoon. No unconditional surrender. As oil prices were skyrocketing over the weekend,
04:53Donald Trump said that higher oil prices were, quote, a very small price to pay for USA. Well, it is
05:01certainly a smaller price to pay
05:03than the lives of the members of the American military that have been lost in Donald Trump's first days of
05:11Donald Trump's war.
05:14Donald Trump made no attempt to look presidential, since he doesn't actually know what that looks like,
05:19when he attended the dignified transfer of the bodies of the first six soldiers killed in his war.
05:28And he didn't remember those soldiers the next day when he wrote about what he called,
05:34quote, a very small price to pay for USA. Donald Trump ended his public day today by stepping up to
05:43a microphone
05:44at one of his golf resorts in Florida, the kind of place where no other president has ever set foot
05:50on the 10th day of a war.
05:54From the start, Donald Trump has refused to say how long his war would last.
05:59Donald Trump had to do that because he knew he might have to surrender at any time.
06:05And now that his surrender has come, he can claim that it's because his war is going so well that
06:12he can just end it.
06:14And that is, of course, exactly what he did today.
06:19We're ahead of our initial timeline by a lot. It's going to be ended soon.
06:24Are you thinking this week it will be over? Are you talking about days?
06:27I think so.
06:28Okay. And with respect to...
06:29Very soon.
06:31Donald Trump's day began today with the news that Iran has a new supreme leader
06:36who was the son of the supreme leader who was killed on the first day of Donald Trump's war.
06:41So Donald Trump has traded an 86-year-old Ayatollah Khomeini for a 56-year-old Ayatollah Khomeini
06:48who is reported to be even more hardline than his father,
06:53which makes Donald Trump's Friday morning idea of unconditional surrender even more impossible.
06:59And when Donald Trump demanded unconditional surrender with an exclamation point on Friday morning,
07:05he also, in the same social media post,
07:07demanded the selection of a great and acceptable leader in Iran.
07:12Today, Donald Trump said he was disappointed in the choice of Iran's new supreme leader.
07:19That was his word. Disappointed.
07:22But Donald Trump did not dare to repeat his demand for unconditional surrender of that new supreme leader.
07:30Before stepping up to the microphone at his golf resort today,
07:33Donald Trump made phone calls to individual members of the media
07:36in a desperate attempt to communicate something positive to the stock market,
07:41the real bosses of Donald Trump's war.
07:44One of those calls was to Fox's Brian Kilmeade,
07:47who quoted Donald Trump on Fox & Friends this morning, telling him,
07:51quote,
07:52These ships should go through the Strait of Hormuz and show some guts.
07:57There's nothing to be afraid of.
08:00Show some guts.
08:0220% of the world's oil shipments pass through the Strait of Hormuz,
08:07which has now become far too dangerous for safe passage.
08:11Shipping traffic has dropped by at least 90% in the Strait or more.
08:16And Donald Trump's solution to that is for everyone on those oil tankers to just be brave.
08:23You know, like him.
08:25Donald Trump wants the captains and crews of those ships to be brave and put themselves in the line of
08:32fire,
08:32put themselves in harm's way, just call their families at home around the world and tell them,
08:38Wish me luck.
08:39We are bravely going through the Strait today because Donald Trump told us to show some guts.
08:45Donald Trump wants the noncombatants on commercial vessels to do something that no one in the Trump clan has ever
08:54done.
08:55Enter a war zone.
08:58Show some guts.
09:00How about 19-year-old Barron Trump, who is turning 20 in 11 days?
09:06As I reported on this program last week, all four of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's sons served in the military
09:12in World War II
09:13while their father served as commander-in-chief until his death in office weeks before Germany's unconditional surrender.
09:20It was unthinkable then for a president's son not to serve in that president's war.
09:27And World War II was not a war of Franklin Roosevelt's choosing.
09:31We entered World War II only after Japan declared war on the United States and then Germany declared war on
09:37the United States.
09:38But because World War II was already underway in Europe in 1939,
09:43John Kennedy decided not to go to Yale Law School after his Harvard graduation
09:49and instead joined the Navy months before the United States entered World War II.
09:57Jack Kennedy, the future brother, the future president's older brother, Joe Kennedy,
10:03dropped out of Harvard Law School to become a pilot in World War II.
10:09Joe Kennedy's plane went down and he was killed in action in Europe.
10:14Such was the call of duty in those days that the sons of presidents, the sons of cabinet members,
10:21the sons of ambassadors, the sons of generals, along with the sons of laborers and factory workers,
10:26all showed some guts, as Donald Trump would put it, and rushed toward the sound of the guns.
10:32In fact, almost all Harvard students dropped out during World War II to serve in the military.
10:38So what about Baron Trump?
10:40Why hasn't he left college, like almost every Harvard student did during World War II,
10:46to fight in his father Donald Trump's war?
10:49And I mention Harvard specifically because that is the institution of higher learning in America
10:54that Donald Trump seems to hate the most.
10:56It is the institution that seems to fill him with a raging jealousy for reasons known only to his pathologically
11:03insecure psyche.
11:04Of the 1,000 students, the 1,000 students admitted to the Harvard class of 1944 before World War II
11:13started,
11:15only 19 graduated in 1944.
11:18That's how much America's universities emptied out as students followed what they felt was their call of duty into war.
11:29No one, Donald Trump, no one in the Trump family has ever done anything like that in the entire history
11:38of the Klan.
11:39Not one Trump.
11:41Not one.
11:42No Trump has ever attended a military funeral of a family member.
11:47And now it's Baron Trump's turn to refuse to go to war while his father sends young men and women
11:54his age into that war.
11:57Why doesn't Baron Trump do what all those Harvard students did during World War II?
12:05Why doesn't he leave college now and go join his father's war?
12:09Why doesn't Baron Trump donate his services as a crew member on an oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz?
12:16He doesn't even have to join the military for that.
12:18His father said there's nothing to be afraid of.
12:20Does his mother agree with that?
12:22Does she think there's nothing to be afraid of for her son on one of those oil tankers?
12:27Donald Trump said these ships should go through the Strait of Hormuz and show some guts there's nothing to be
12:34afraid of.
12:34Well, let's prove there's nothing to be afraid of by putting Baron on the deck of one of those ships.
12:41Because we know the only place Donald Trump would allow Baron to go, the only place where Baron Trump's mother
12:47would ever allow him to go is a place where there's nothing to be afraid of.
12:52Donald Trump's other sons appear to be playing their part in their father's war by trying to become war profiteers.
13:01There was nothing more loathsome in the United States during World War II than war profiteering.
13:07Harry Truman became president of the United States because of his crusade against war profiteering.
13:15Senator Harry Truman studied war contracts more than any other senator searching for illegitimate profiteering.
13:22He eventually became the chairman of a special Senate committee to investigate war profiteering.
13:27Senator Truman's investigations were at first a minor irritant to President Franklin Roosevelt,
13:33who was worried about anything that might inhibit America's industrial giants like the auto industry,
13:39which was then converting their factories for the manufacture of aircraft and tanks.
13:44But soon President Roosevelt came to appreciate Senator Truman's policing of the war contracts
13:50and Senator Truman's condemnations of any war profiteers that his investigations exposed.
13:57Imagine Donald Trump appreciating congressional investigations of potential corruption
14:04in the war contracts that he awards, he personally awards, he personally interferes with
14:12and delivers to the companies he wants to deliver those awards to.
14:17Franklin Roosevelt actually appreciated Harry Truman's investigations and condemnations of war profiteering so much
14:27that President Roosevelt chose Harry Truman to run with him as his vice presidential nominee
14:33as President Roosevelt ran for his final re-election campaign during World War II.
14:40Harry Truman would hate what the Wall Street Journal is now reporting about Donald Trump and his sons.
14:55The Wall Street Journal reports Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., the president's sons,
14:59are backing a new drone company that is vying to meet fresh demand from the Pentagon
15:04and fill a hole left by the administration's ban on new Chinese drones in the U.S.
15:10Power Us, a drone roll-up company based in West Palm Beach, Florida,
15:13is merging with a publicly traded golf course holding company backed by the Trumps.
15:19Power Us executives said,
15:21Investors in the deal include one of the Trump's investment vehicles, American Ventures and Unusual Machines,
15:29a drone components company where Donald Trump Jr. is a shareholder and advisory board member.
15:34The deal brings deeper involvement by the Trump family into a multi-billion dollar sector
15:39that has new opportunities for growth following changes imposed by the Trump administration.
15:44Those include the Pentagon's emphasis on large-scale rapid adoption of small drones.
15:52When Donald Trump started his war, he called it a war.
15:55He called it a war multiple times, and that is what it is.
15:58Donald Trump's Secretary of Defense also called it a war when the war began,
16:03which he especially loved doing since he falsely calls himself the Secretary of War.
16:10But now that Donald Trump realizes that Americans don't like war,
16:14and maybe being reminded that he campaigned against war when he was running for president,
16:19Donald Trump is twisting the language to avoid the word war.
16:26I mean, this was an excursion that a lot of people wouldn't have done.
16:32An excursion.
16:34That's his latest description of his war today.
16:38An excursion.
16:41Donald Trump finds new ways to dishonor the war dead.
16:45A silly hat, and now an excursion.
16:51It's one thing to die in a war whose objective the president cannot explain.
16:55Americans have done that before and have done it since Vietnam.
17:00But to die in an excursion, to call it an excursion,
17:08before the families have even had the funerals.
17:13To struggle to find language that demeans those soldiers' sacrifice
17:18in service to his desperate political needs
17:23is a uniquely Trumpian moment in the American presidency.
17:28Tonight, there was another dignified transfer
17:31at Dover Air Force Base for Army Sergeant Benjamin Pennington,
17:3626 years old, of Glendale, Kentucky.
17:42Donald Trump wasn't there.
17:45Donald Trump did not attend.
17:48But he did attend a fundraiser for House Speaker Mike Johnson today
17:54in Florida at Donald Trump's golf resort there.
18:00And if you're paging through the history books trying to find the president
18:04who went to a political fundraiser at a golf club
18:07on the 10th day of a war, you can stop right now.
18:11Only the guy who said, show some guts there's nothing to be afraid of,
18:16would show his guts by going to a fundraiser
18:20instead of the second dignified transfer of his war of choosing.
18:31Senator Sheldon Whitehouse will join us after this break.
18:39Today, global oil prices continue to surge as Donald Trump's war with Iran
18:43continues to disrupt energy markets and the global economy.
18:47Oil briefly spiked to nearly $120 a barrel overnight
18:51before coming back down during the day.
18:54The world's largest economies held an emergency meeting of the G7 today
18:58to discuss whether they may need to release emergency reserves
19:01to stabilize the oil and gas markets.
19:03CNBC reports about 20% of the world's oil supply
19:07is being disrupted by Donald Trump's war
19:09with traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, just south of Iran, at a standstill.
19:15Joining us now is Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.
19:17He's a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee
19:19and the Senate Finance Committee.
19:21Senator, thank you very much for joining us tonight.
19:26The outcome with the oil markets
19:29was one of the predictable effects of this war.
19:34But Donald Trump seems to have been taken by surprise by it.
19:38Yeah.
19:39And the two big winners from this big surprise
19:43that he was the only person not to see
19:48are his big oil billionaire cronies
19:51who've seen the price of their product go through the roof.
19:54One of the things that's notable is that American oil producers
19:59who are selling oil to Americans
20:01raised their prices
20:03when foreign issues change the international oil market.
20:10Their cost of production hasn't changed,
20:12so they're going to make a fortune.
20:15And, of course, the other big winner is Vladimir Putin,
20:19who is winning not only because Trump released him from sanctions
20:24so that he can get more revenue.
20:26Oil prices are up,
20:27so the spigot of money to keep his war machine against Ukraine going
20:31is flipped wide open.
20:34And the arms that we have been providing to Ukraine
20:38are now being spent in Iran,
20:41and that lowers the overall supply,
20:45throw in other needs.
20:46And I'm sure we'll shortly see Hegseth and others saying,
20:50well, we'd love to help Ukraine,
20:52but we simply don't have the war material any longer.
20:55So Putin's number one goal
20:58has been to succeed at annexing Ukraine by violence.
21:04And he's also the one person in the world
21:08to whom President Trump insists on showing submission,
21:12submissiveness, you know,
21:14and not try to be the dominant person in the relationship.
21:18He's the submissive in this relationship.
21:22So there is pain all around economically
21:27from the decision Trump evidently didn't see the consequences of.
21:34Except in those two corners of Trump allies.
21:39So Donald Trump spent some time on the phone with Vladimir Putin today.
21:42What could that possibly have been about?
21:45Yeah.
21:46Nothing good for Ukraine, just to begin with.
21:51And as you know,
21:53there is a long connection between Trump and Russia.
21:57Trump likes to call it the Trump-Russia hoax.
22:00But as you know better than anyone, Lawrence,
22:02when Trump uses the word hoax,
22:04it's his verbal tell for something that is absolutely true.
22:10So Trump-Russia has been a long, long-standing thing.
22:14We do not fully understand it yet.
22:17There's also a Russia-Epstein connection
22:21that we don't fully understand yet,
22:22which makes Trump-Russia and Trump-Epstein
22:25more of a complicated triangle of Trump-Russia-Epstein.
22:29But I would be very interested to know what took place
22:32in that conversation between him and President Putin.
22:36Nothing good for Ukraine, I'm sure.
22:39So Donald Trump never announced either an objective
22:44or a timeline at the beginning of his war,
22:46which seems to leave it open to him to decide
22:51exactly when his war ends,
22:53which might mean that the stock market will tell him
22:56when his war ends.
22:58Yeah, you know, I think it's become his style
23:01to try to play things fast and loose
23:02and keep everybody guessing,
23:04which is fine if you are, you know,
23:07running a casino
23:08or selling yourself as a TV host
23:14on an entertainment show.
23:16But when you've got the reputation of the United States,
23:19when you've got the lives of American service members,
23:23and when you've got massive economic consequences
23:26for American families all on the line,
23:29you'd like to think that he would have put the effort in
23:33to thinking it through a little bit.
23:37And as we go forward,
23:40Donald Trump's notion of unconditional surrender,
23:43I'm sure he'll never bring it up again,
23:45and it'll just be forgotten.
23:48But he obviously has no idea what that even looks like.
23:51But we're certainly not any closer
23:55to that impossible dream
23:56after the new leadership choice in Iran.
23:59No, in fact, you know,
24:02Iran has had an enormous amount of destruction
24:06wreaked on its traditional military apparatus.
24:13There's no doubt about that.
24:14But clearly the spirit of the Iranian extremists
24:19has not been broken
24:19when they put the Ayatollahs'
24:22even more aggressive and conservative son
24:25in as his replacement.
24:27There's no sign of looking unconditionally surrendering there.
24:31And they have operatives all around the world.
24:35They have drone technology that is very inexpensive.
24:40And believe it or not,
24:43there's been news reporting by the Washington Post
24:45that Vladimir Putin, the Russians,
24:48have been helping the Iranians
24:50target American service members.
24:54I wonder if that came up
24:55in the conversation between Trump and Putin,
24:58that Putin is actually helping Iran
25:00kill our service members.
25:03Ordinarily, that would be the kind of thing
25:05that would irritate an American president,
25:07maybe even anger him,
25:09maybe even put some real pressure on Putin
25:10to knock it off.
25:12But whatever he has on Putin,
25:13that has not happened.
25:16Senator Sheldon Whitehouse,
25:17thank you very much for starting off
25:19our discussions tonight.
25:22Coming up,
25:23the Trump Justice Department
25:24has released more of the Epstein files
25:27as it's required to do under the law,
25:29passed by our next guest,
25:31Congressman Ro Khanna.
25:32That's next.
25:36Donald Trump's Justice Department
25:38released more of the Epstein files,
25:41including notes from FBI interviews
25:43with a woman who said
25:44she was sexually assaulted
25:46by Donald Trump
25:47when she was 13 years old.
25:50It is unclear, unclear
25:52how fully the FBI investigated her claims,
25:55and Donald Trump has denied
25:57any wrongdoing linked to Epstein.
25:59According to an MSNOW analysis
26:02of the 20 newly released documents,
26:05which comprise fewer than 1,000 pages,
26:08notwithstanding the small size
26:10of the production
26:11and the Justice Department's
26:12repeated assurances
26:13that it would protect
26:14victim safety and privacy,
26:16MSNOW found the first
26:19and or last names
26:20of at least 21 known
26:23or suspected survivors.
26:25Some of these names
26:26were left unredacted
26:27multiple times.
26:29Epstein survivor Danielle Bensky
26:32said this on this network
26:34earlier today.
26:37We've had so many conversations
26:38with the Democrats,
26:41the Republicans.
26:41We're in offices
26:42and we're constantly saying
26:44how important
26:45the redaction process is
26:47and getting it right is.
26:48And you would think
26:49that after twice already,
26:51especially after the last release
26:54where, you know,
26:55our lawyers talked to them,
26:56everybody's, you know,
26:58there's been so much conversation
26:59around this topic.
27:00And then to see it yet again
27:02on Friday or Thursday,
27:04I believe it was,
27:04is just, it's really beyond,
27:07I mean, frustrating
27:07puts it so mildly.
27:09It's gutting.
27:11In a statement,
27:12House Oversight Committee
27:13Democrats said,
27:15let's be clear,
27:16this White House cover-up
27:18is ongoing.
27:19Millions of pages
27:20still remain concealed
27:22from the public
27:22and our committee.
27:23We will get answers
27:24when Pam Bondi appears
27:26before our committee
27:27under oath.
27:29Joining us now
27:30is Democratic Congressman
27:31Rokano of California.
27:32He's a member
27:32of the House Oversight Committee.
27:34Let me begin
27:35with what we just heard
27:38from yet another survivor
27:40about the redactions problem.
27:42I don't even know
27:43what to call it,
27:43that this Trump Justice Department
27:46could continue
27:47to put out material
27:48that does not have
27:49their names redacted.
27:51It's heartless.
27:52And these survivors
27:54are reliving their trauma.
27:56They're being victimized
27:57a second time.
27:58And it's preventable.
28:00Bradley Edwards,
28:01who's been on your program,
28:02who you introduced,
28:03he has been offering
28:04to go to the DOJ
28:06to help set up
28:08the protocols.
28:09He said,
28:10let me get the other
28:11survivors' lawyers
28:12in there.
28:13And they are not
28:14involving them.
28:16I mean, yeah,
28:16they'll return an email,
28:17but it takes Bradley Edwards
28:19barraging the DOJ.
28:21And it just shows
28:22a total callousness.
28:23Meanwhile,
28:24they're covering up
28:25for the president.
28:26I mean,
28:27they're covering up
28:27in terms of at least
28:28his embarrassment
28:29and not releasing
28:30these three files
28:31that they were forced
28:31to release.
28:32And they're covering up
28:33for people who actually
28:34abused these girls.
28:36So millions of Epstein
28:38file documents
28:39still not released,
28:40which just,
28:41I assume,
28:42means your crusade
28:44on this continues.
28:45It continues
28:46because it's personal,
28:47because these survivors
28:48have sat in my office.
28:50They've sat in Thomas Massey's office.
28:51They were abused.
28:53They were raped.
28:53And they want justice.
28:55And the half of the files
28:56that are out
28:57proves to the country
28:59that what we were talking about
29:00was not a hoax,
29:01that some of the most powerful
29:02people were involved.
29:03And the worst stuff
29:04is still in these files,
29:05that the names
29:07of some of these people
29:08which have been scrubbed
29:09by Donald Trump's FBI.
29:11But, look,
29:12here's why people
29:12shouldn't give up hope,
29:13because when people cover it,
29:15when people,
29:16journalists,
29:17make a big deal of it,
29:18then suddenly
29:19Pam Badi relents
29:20and they would get
29:2110,000 more files,
29:2340,000 more files.
29:24So we need to just be on this
29:26until we can get a judge
29:28to order the release
29:29of the rest of the files.
29:30And, of course,
29:31Donald Trump launches wars
29:32in Venezuela or Iran
29:33to try to deflect from this,
29:35among other reasons.
29:38The Pam Badi testimony
29:40that I just referred to,
29:41I know people in the audience
29:42out there are thinking,
29:43oh, okay,
29:43so the attorney general
29:45is going to come to the committee
29:46and do her usual
29:48insult comedian bad act
29:50in front of your committee.
29:51Is that the way
29:52it's going to go?
29:52It won't.
29:53And it's so disrespectful
29:54seeing her do that
29:55when survivors are there.
29:56But this time,
29:57she's not going to be able
29:58to go just insult me
29:59or insult Robert Garcia.
30:01She's going to be deposed.
30:03And she's going to be...
30:03So a deposition
30:04is completely different
30:06from what people
30:07have grown accustomed to
30:08as a congressional hearing
30:10with the attorney general.
30:11Completely different,
30:12because the people
30:12asking her the questions
30:13are going to be
30:15qualified lawyers.
30:16They're going to get an hour,
30:17not five minutes.
30:18She's going to have to
30:19answer those questions
30:21under oath,
30:21not just respond
30:23with barbs
30:24at members of Congress.
30:25And this is why
30:26it was so important
30:26what Nancy Mace,
30:28myself,
30:28Robert Garcia did.
30:29I mean,
30:30we got 24 to 19.
30:32We won that vote
30:34to subpoena Pam Bondi
30:35to be under oath.
30:36And she's going to have to explain
30:38why were these three files
30:39covered up
30:40that involved Donald Trump?
30:41Why are half the files
30:42still redacted
30:43and not being shown
30:45to the American people?
30:46Why was there
30:47the prison transfer
30:48for Ghislaine Maxwell?
30:50There's a lot
30:51she has to explain.
30:52And by the way,
30:52the next president
30:53can prosecute her.
30:54Now, maybe Trump
30:55preemptively pardons her,
30:56but Trump is not known
30:58to stick around
30:59with people
30:59who are political liabilities.
31:01Yeah, there's real
31:02legal liability for her
31:03in under oath testimony
31:05on this matter.
31:07And it's finally going to be
31:08forcing her
31:09to answer the questions.
31:11They ask her,
31:12why is the file
31:13still redacted?
31:13She says,
31:14well, Thomas Massey,
31:15you don't know
31:17what you're talking about.
31:18Now she's going to have
31:18to answer yes or no
31:19under oath.
31:20It is one of the most
31:21significant moments
31:22when we're going to get
31:23her under oath.
31:24Congressman Ro Khanna,
31:25thank you very much
31:26for joining us tonight.
31:27And coming up,
31:28we'll take a look
31:29at Donald Trump's
31:30new choice
31:32for Secretary
31:33of Homeland Security
31:34after his first choice
31:37has gone
31:38wherever she's gone.
31:40That's next.
31:45Speaking of war profiteering,
31:47Donald Trump's choice
31:48to be the next Secretary
31:49of the Department
31:50of Homeland Security,
31:51Republican Senator
31:52Mark Wayne Mullen
31:52of Oklahoma,
31:53has made some interesting
31:55stock trades this year.
31:56The Daily Beast reports,
31:58five days before military
31:59action in Venezuela,
32:01Mullen purchased
32:01substantial positions
32:02in defense contractor
32:04RTX Corp
32:05and oil giants
32:07Chevron
32:08and ConocoPhillips,
32:09according to Capital Trades.
32:11Based on those
32:12federal disclosure filings
32:13and publicly available
32:15share price data,
32:16Mullen made up to $35,000
32:19from the trio of positions
32:21by Monday.
32:22Senator Mullen is a member
32:24of the Senate Armed Services
32:25Committee with access
32:26to non-public information
32:28about U.S. military operations.
32:31After buying Chevron,
32:33Mark Wayne Mullen
32:33then publicly urged others
32:35to buy the stock
32:37he already bought
32:38without publicly disclosing
32:40that he bought that stock.
32:43Senator Mullen said this
32:45on CNBC.
32:48I mean, look at Chevron.
32:50We've had relationships
32:51in Venezuela for years.
32:54The problem was,
32:55is under Maduro,
32:56it really became
32:57uninvestable.
32:59Once that stabilizes,
33:00every major company
33:02is going to be buying
33:03to get involved
33:04in that area
33:05because there's
33:06a tremendous amount
33:07of opportunity
33:08for the company
33:09and for their shareholders.
33:12Senator Mullen's
33:13confirmation hearing
33:14will be in the
33:15Senate Homeland Security Committee,
33:18which is chaired
33:18by Republican Senator
33:19Rand Paul of Kentucky.
33:21The Daily Beast reports,
33:22during a breakfast
33:23in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
33:24last month,
33:25Mullen voiced his frustration
33:26with Senator Rand Paul.
33:28Rand Paul's a freaking snake,
33:31Mullen said.
33:32Joining us now
33:33is Garrett Graff,
33:34journalist and historian
33:35who covers
33:36federal law enforcement.
33:37Garrett,
33:37thank you very much
33:38for joining us tonight.
33:40So, first of all,
33:43is Mark Wayne Mullen
33:44an upgrade
33:45from Kristi Noem?
33:48Not at all.
33:49And I think this is
33:50one of the things
33:51that it's easy
33:52to look past
33:53because I think
33:53the whole country
33:54is taking a deep breath
33:56of relief
33:57that Kristi Noem
33:59is out atop DHS.
34:01However,
34:02it's worth pointing out
34:03that Mark Wayne Mullen
34:04is not in any way
34:06qualified
34:08to actually be
34:10the secretary
34:11of the nation's
34:12third largest
34:13cabinet department.
34:14And in fact,
34:15not only is he unqualified,
34:18he is underqualified
34:20even in comparison
34:22to Kristi Noem
34:23or even Pete Hegseth
34:25at the Pentagon.
34:26That he is someone
34:27who has no
34:28government experience,
34:29he has no
34:30law enforcement experience,
34:32he has no military experience,
34:34he has no intelligence experience,
34:37and in fact,
34:38has never worked
34:39in the private sector
34:40outside of his own
34:42family businesses.
34:45And his government experience
34:47is just the United States Senate
34:48where he gets to manage
34:50a Senate staff,
34:52which for the state
34:53of Oklahoma
34:53is not that big.
34:54It's less than 50 people.
34:57Exactly.
34:58And that even in the House
35:01where he served several terms
35:02and then came to the Senate,
35:04he has never served
35:06on the Homeland Security
35:07Committee
35:08in either body.
35:10And I think,
35:11you know,
35:12in some ways
35:12it may seem old-fashioned
35:14even in the Trump administration
35:15to be talking about
35:19competency
35:20or management experience,
35:21but I think
35:22it should still matter
35:23to us
35:24whether the people
35:25who are being nominated
35:26for these jobs
35:27have even the most basic
35:28set of qualifications
35:30necessary to do them.
35:31There are a bunch of ways
35:34to go
35:34in the Senate
35:35confirmation hearing,
35:36including looking back
35:38at the Kristi Noem
35:40operation there
35:42and all the various
35:43conflicts of interest
35:44and all the favorable
35:46contract deals
35:47that were given.
35:48Democrats could focus
35:50on that
35:50in this confirmation hearing.
35:52But what is it?
35:53What is it?
35:54What are the range
35:55of ways to go
35:57in this confirmation hearing
35:58as you see it?
35:59Yeah, to me,
36:01I think there's obviously
36:02a lot of opportunity
36:04to look backward,
36:05but the thing
36:06that we should really
36:06try to stay focused on
36:08is what's still to come.
36:10And I think Americans
36:11are misunderstanding
36:14the scale
36:16of the immigration
36:18spending still to come
36:20that has come out
36:21of this Republican
36:22funding surge
36:23last summer.
36:24Um, I had a piece
36:27in the, uh, recently
36:29about the construction
36:30and procurement budget
36:32for customs
36:33and border protection.
36:34It is, uh, a number
36:37around 50 to 54 billion
36:41dollars for this year,
36:43which is a number
36:44so large
36:45that it is actually,
36:46uh, larger
36:48than the entire
36:49annual defense budgets
36:50of all but five
36:52European countries.
36:53And, uh, the money
36:55that is still available
36:57to be spent
36:58in that budget
36:59right now
37:00is equal
37:01to the entire
37:02GDP
37:02of the country
37:04of Estonia.
37:06And that's for
37:07the operation
37:09of these warehouses
37:11where they expect
37:12to store
37:13thousands of people?
37:15That's, that's
37:16an entirely
37:16other budget.
37:18Um, that, that is
37:19all in ICE's
37:20detention budget.
37:21Still tens of
37:22billions of dollars
37:23to spend there
37:24as well.
37:25And I think we should
37:26be paying real
37:27close attention
37:28and pushing, uh,
37:30Mark Wayne Mullen,
37:31uh, as the nominee
37:33about what oversight
37:35is going to be
37:36available and expected
37:37and what level
37:38of transparency
37:39about how that money
37:41is being spent
37:42is going to be
37:43available
37:44to members
37:45of Congress
37:46going forward.
37:46This is really,
37:48to me,
37:48one of the last
37:49major opportunities
37:50that Congress
37:51has to change
37:52the trajectory
37:53of our immigration
37:54spending.
37:55And we've seen,
37:56uh, committee chairman
37:57Rand Paul has said
37:58that he sees
37:59no legal justification,
38:02uh, for the
38:03shooting and killing
38:04of Rene Good
38:05or Alex Preddy
38:06in Minneapolis.
38:07So we can expect,
38:09uh, something
38:10from the chairman
38:10on that.
38:12Absolutely.
38:13And, and again,
38:14we're really just
38:16seeing the beginning
38:17of the effects
38:18of these new hires
38:20at ICE and CBP
38:21and the new
38:22construction budgets
38:23and the new
38:24detention facilities.
38:25To me,
38:26there's plenty
38:27more scandals
38:28still to come
38:29this year.
38:30And that's all
38:32going to end up
38:32on Mark Wayne
38:33Mullen's plate.
38:34Garrett Graff,
38:36thank you very much
38:36for joining us tonight.
38:38Anytime.
38:40Tonight's last word,
38:42a special last word,
38:43is next.
38:47In dramatic testimony,
38:49Alexander Butterfield
38:50revealed to the world
38:51that President
38:52Richard Nixon
38:53's criminal conspiracy
38:54inside the White House
38:56was all on tape.
39:01Butterfield,
39:01are you aware
39:02of the installation
39:03of any listening devices
39:04in the Oval Office
39:05of the President?
39:10I was aware
39:11of listening devices.
39:14Yes, sir.
39:15Mr. Butterfield,
39:16as far as you know
39:17from your own
39:18personal knowledge,
39:20from 1970 then
39:22and until the present
39:22time,
39:23all of the President's
39:24conversations
39:25in the offices
39:26mentioned
39:27and on the telephones
39:28mentioned
39:29were recorded.
39:32As far as you know.
39:34That's correct.
39:35And as far as you know,
39:36those tapes
39:36are still available.
39:39As far as I know,
39:40but I've been away
39:41for four months, sir.
39:42I have no further questions.
39:46Alexander Butterfield
39:47delivered that testimony
39:49in July 1973
39:50to the Watergate Committee
39:51and changed the course
39:52of history.
39:53The President
39:54was recorded
39:55in his own voice
39:57committing crimes
39:58in the Oval Office.
39:59Richard Nixon
40:00resigned the presidency
40:01in disgrace
40:02and received a pardon
40:03from his successor,
40:05President Gerald Ford.
40:06As a result
40:07of the investigation
40:08of the President,
40:1048 Nixon administration
40:11officials
40:12were found
40:13guilty of crimes.
40:15Alexander Butterfield
40:16joined this program
40:18in July 2022
40:19after he watched
40:21former White House
40:22staffer
40:23Cassidy Hutchinson's
40:24testimony
40:24about the Trump
40:26White House
40:26given to the
40:27January 6th Committee.
40:29Alexander Butterfield
40:30praised Cassidy Hutchinson
40:32and said this
40:34about his
40:35historic testimony.
40:39What nobody knew,
40:41I felt it was
40:42my responsibility
40:43and that I was
40:44the person
40:45who was told
40:46to put in
40:47this system.
40:51Alexander Butterfield
40:52died today
40:53at his home
40:54in San Diego.
40:55He leaves
40:55his wife Kim,
40:57his two daughters,
40:58eight grandchildren
40:59and 13 great-grandchildren.
41:01Alexander Butterfield
41:03was 99 years old.
41:07That is
41:09tonight's last word.
41:10The 11th Hour
41:11with Stephanie Ruhle
41:12starts now.
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