- 11 minutes ago
The Last Word with Lawrence ODonnell - Season 13 - Episode 43
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00All four of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's sons served in the American military while their father was serving as commander
00:11-in-chief, leading this country to victory in World War II.
00:16It was unthinkable then that a wartime president could have sons who would not serve in the military, like Donald
00:26Trump and his sons and daughters.
00:28Abraham Lincoln's son enlisted during the Civil War.
00:32No one expected President Lyndon Johnson's daughters to serve in the Vietnam War in the 1960s before women were allowed
00:40full participation in military service.
00:42But President Johnson's son-in-law served in Vietnam.
00:48The Trump family's flawless record of avoiding military service would be unremarkable if Donald Trump never started a war.
00:58But when your father starts a war, an illegal and unconstitutional war, and you are of the age that is
01:06eligible to fight and die in your father's war, what do you do?
01:13There is no suspense tonight about what Baron Trump will do.
01:19He will do nothing.
01:21In two weeks, he will have his 20th birthday party.
01:25It will surely be a lavish affair.
01:29None of his friends will show up in military uniforms.
01:33No one who Baron Trump has ever been in a classroom with is likely to have joined the military.
01:40Donald Trump has been quoted by his former White House chief of staff saying that soldiers killed in combat are
01:46suckers and losers.
01:48What does that make a soldier who wasn't in combat and is killed?
01:56What does that make a soldier who was an IT specialist, who was never supposed to be exposed to anything
02:02more dangerous than a computer screen, who got killed in action, sitting in what was the safety of his office
02:09until Donald Trump started a war?
02:12Baron Trump will not be attending Declan Cody's funeral.
02:18Baron Trump, like every member of the Trump family, has never attended the military funeral of someone that they know
02:25who was killed in action.
02:28Like Baron Trump, Declan Cody was a college student, a sophomore at Drake University, and an Army reservist from West
02:37Des Moines, Iowa.
02:38He was an IT guy, an Army IT specialist.
02:42He graduated from Valley High School in West Des Moines in 2023, and he was one of the first American
02:49military personnel killed in Donald Trump's war.
02:52The others in the first group of names released were Captain Cody Cork, 35 years old, from Winterhaven, Florida, Sergeant
03:01First Class Noah Tejens, age 42, from Bellevue, Nebraska, and Sergeant First Class Nicole Amor from White Bear Lake, Minnesota,
03:10who was 39 years old.
03:13Tiffany Trump is 32 years old and eligible for military service in her father's war.
03:19No one in the Trump family will ever have any idea what it's like when they come and ring your
03:27doorbell.
03:28Declan Cody's father, Andrew, said that the family began to get worried on Sunday when Declan stopped responding to messages
03:35from his duty station in Kuwait.
03:39I will say most of us started to wonder, and your gut starts to get a feeling.
03:47And then we go to bed fairly early, so we got ready Sunday night to go to bed, and we
03:54had just turned the lights off and went into the bedroom, and the doorbell rang at 8 p.m.
04:01Kira Cody is two years older than Declan, and still thinks of him as my little brother.
04:11I still don't fully think it's real, and I didn't think it was real when they told us, because I
04:18just remember all of our conversations about what he was going to do when he came back.
04:22I just really wish I got to tell my love one more time, because he was just so amazing, and
04:28he always, in front of everybody, just was, like, really strong.
04:32He, like, he never let his emotions really show, but I just, I don't know.
04:39I can't help but think, because he was my little brother, and he was probably really scared, even if he
04:44didn't want people to know.
04:47And so I just wish he got to know one more time that we all loved him, because he was
04:52so amazing and kind.
04:56And, and, and, like, my dad said, like, he didn't, he didn't, like, speak, like, that much, but, like, every
05:03little thing he did was just so, I know I'm just saying he was kind, but, I don't know.
05:09He was just, like, a small brother you could have.
05:17Killed in the line of duty is always agonizingly tragic for the families.
05:21But when those doorbells were ringing in World War II, at least the families knew what the soldiers were fighting
05:29for when they died.
05:31During the Vietnam War, the doorbell rang for 58,000 American families, and they were told how the soldiers they
05:38loved were killed.
05:40But they still have never been told why.
05:44Donald Trump's reason for starting his unconstitutional and illegal war changes by the hour, just like everything else Donald Trump
05:53has ever tried to explain.
05:56And on this, the fifth day of Donald Trump's war, 47, United States senators, including one Republican, Rand Paul, voted
06:04to end his war, while 53 senators, including one Democrat, John Fetterman, voted to let Donald Trump continue to do
06:10whatever he wants to do with the American military.
06:13Those senators did not specifically vote to authorize what Donald Trump is doing.
06:18They simply refused to vote to stop it.
06:23Even though Donald Trump has not been able to explain to any one of those senators why he launched this
06:31war.
06:31You couldn't ask for more exhibitions of the vacancy and confusion of Donald Trump's mind during this war of his
06:40choosing, the mind that launched this war.
06:44Yesterday, Donald Trump said that his father, who was born in New York City, was born in Germany.
06:51Now, now think about that.
06:53Think about how lost that mind is.
06:57That mind that is supposed to be the mastermind of this illegal and unconstitutional war.
07:07That country, UK, and I love that country.
07:10I love it.
07:11My mother was born there.
07:12I love it.
07:13My mother was born there.
07:15My father was born.
07:16He knows all about my father.
07:18My father was born there.
07:23At least he knows where his mother was born.
07:26And we're giving Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt here because he never actually said the word Germany about
07:32his father.
07:33He said his mother was born in the United Kingdom, and she was in Scotland.
07:37And then he said his father was born there, which could also mean the United Kingdom.
07:42But since he was pointing to the chancellor of Germany, we assume he meant Germany because the Trump family is
07:49German.
07:49They are from Germany.
07:51And they fled Europe before Donald Trump's father was born to evade military service.
07:56That is the Trump family heritage.
08:00That is why Donald Trump is an American citizen.
08:03That is why his father was born in America, because Donald Trump's grandfather, Friedrich Drumpf, fled Europe to avoid military
08:11service.
08:13Another soldier killed in Donald Trump's war was identified tonight, 45-year-old Army Major Jeffrey O'Brien from Waukee,
08:22Iowa.
08:22The question tonight is, how many more?
08:26How many more Iranian civilians, noncombatants will be killed?
08:32How many more Iranian protesters against the regime will be killed?
08:36How many more of those brave women in Iran who stood up to the dictatorship devoted to crushing them will
08:42now be crushed and killed by Donald Trump's war?
08:46How many more American soldiers will be killed in Donald Trump's war?
08:51How many more doorbells will ring?
08:55And why?
08:58Leading off our discussion tonight is Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia.
09:02He's the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
09:04Senator, thank you very much for joining us tonight.
09:07No one in the Senate has better information about what has been happening and why than you do.
09:14What is your understanding, as of now, if you have one, about why Donald Trump started this war?
09:25Well, Lawrence, first of all, thank you for paying tribute to the fallen heroes.
09:32There are now six American soldiers who've died.
09:36And Donald Trump and his folks have said there will be many more.
09:40Expect more casualties.
09:42And I, you know, it's heartbreaking to hear you lay it out this way.
09:49And the unfortunate thing is I can't rebut what you've said.
09:52This was a war of choice.
09:56I'm on the Intelligence Committee.
09:59I'm part of the Gang of Eight.
10:01If there was any imminent threat to America, I would know about it.
10:07There was no imminent threat.
10:11And as you pointed out, Lawrence, we have had now four different answers from this administration
10:17about why Donald Trump chose to go to war.
10:21First, it was going to be about eradicating the nuclear activities, which he said had been obliterated
10:27seven months ago.
10:28Obviously not.
10:30Then it was about the ballistic missiles, which would ultimately pose a threat at some point
10:35to America and as a strong supporter of Israel, would pose a threat to Israel, but not imminently
10:40at a level of existentialist.
10:43Third, we heard recently just it was to get rid of the Iranian Navy.
10:48We'd never heard of that until the last couple of days.
10:50And then he said regime change, or his people said regime change.
10:54And you raise the point.
10:56You know, if Donald Trump called the Iranian people to go to the streets and there's 100,000
11:02Iranian protesters on the streets of Tehran, and the IRGC, the Iranian military that is
11:09still left, kills 5,000, 10,000, 15,000, what is our obligation to help those protesters?
11:17We have no answers.
11:19We had a chance today to draw a line in the sand for Congress to use its constitutional power.
11:26And unfortunately, we didn't get a majority.
11:30And where we head from now is uncharted.
11:35And I beg and implore my Republican friends who I know, I believe in our country, but stand up to
11:45this man.
11:46Exert your rights.
11:48You know, call him to make the case.
11:51I was, Lawrence, I was on Sunday in Virginia Beach and Norfolk where most of the sailors who
11:57were on the carrier, the Ford that's been deployed in the region, I saw many of their
12:02families saying, why are my sons and daughters there?
12:07What is their duty?
12:08They will protect our country.
12:09They will do their duty.
12:11But what is our goal here?
12:14And I couldn't give them an answer.
12:16And I'm a senior in the United States senator.
12:17I was embarrassed that I couldn't give them an answer.
12:20And I voted obviously yes to say stop this until you make the case.
12:25And unfortunately today, the United States Senate failed that basic constitutional duty to
12:31require the commander in chief to make the case to the American public and to Congress
12:35before he declares war.
12:36This is not a military action.
12:38This is a war.
12:41When you see the 53 Senate votes to basically they voted to do nothing.
12:47You voted to stop it.
12:48They voted to do nothing in terms of what the vote actually was.
12:52What about why isn't that majority of 53 writing a legal authorization or a declaration of war
13:01for Donald Trump to do this and trying to pass that?
13:05Do they are there 53 votes in the Senate to vote in favor of Donald Trump's war and to give
13:11him actual legal authorization to do it?
13:15I do not believe so.
13:16And thank God for my dear friend Tim Kaine, who has had the courage to raise this issue time and
13:22again.
13:22And for your viewers, Tim Kaine raised this issue, even against Barack Obama, that you have to have congressional authorization.
13:31And when Congress cedes power to an executive that knows no boundaries, it is not only in terms of this
13:39question of war.
13:40Remember, you know, remember, you know, in January, when the streets were filled with millions of Iranians protesting and the
13:49regime was brutal.
13:50I share shed no tears over the awful leaders of Iran who've been eliminated.
13:56But when there was a chance maybe to help move forward, Trump couldn't move forward because the aircraft carrier that
14:04would have helped was deployed on another one of his missions off the coast of Venezuela.
14:09When our European allies who could have helped with both knowledge and pressure against this brutal regime, they couldn't focus
14:17in January because Trump was obsessed with his crazy notion about Greenland.
14:21And this president, this president who tries to say not America first, but America alone, leaves us less safe and
14:30then takes these actions, frankly, without any imminent threat to America.
14:36And we see these stories of these brave soldiers who gave their lives and and their their parents and the
14:44sister.
14:45I don't know how I would explain, you know, why her brother was was lost in this conflict.
14:54And unfortunately, the president has said repeatedly and his his advisers have said there will be many more casualties.
15:02And for what? You know, is this making America safer?
15:06You know, again, I'm a strong supporter of Israel, but there was not even an imminent threat to Israel.
15:13So where will this lead us and will this lead us to be less safe when our allies can't depend
15:22upon us?
15:23And God forbid, if hundreds of thousands of people go to the streets against the remnants of this brutal regime
15:30and then are brutally murdered by the Iranian military forces,
15:36do we not owe some obligation then to them because of Donald Trump's choice to go to war?
15:43Senator, with all your experience in the Intelligence Committee and now as a co-chair of the Intelligence Committee,
15:48in the scenario you just described, massive mass murder, basically, in Iran.
15:57If there is any kind of uprising, what will we actually be able to know about it?
16:02That they've kind of closed off any possibility of getting real news out of Iran.
16:08How will we know if thousands of Iranians are are killed by the regime?
16:16How will we know if thousands more are killed by the American military?
16:20How will we really know what's happening inside Iran?
16:25Well, Lawrence, we have still exquisite abilities in terms of, you know, overhead, satellite and others.
16:34And, you know, and our Israeli allies have visibility.
16:37But we also have a number of other nations who are traditionally our allies, like our European friends,
16:42who have much deeper contacts because they have maintained relations with Iran.
16:48But they are suspect of us now because, you know, Donald Trump does not appear to be a dependable ally
16:56when we should be united against fighting against true tyrants like Putin.
17:01Or when we hear, unfortunately, you know, the Canadian prime minister say that maybe China is a more dependable partner
17:08than America.
17:09None of this makes America or Americans safer.
17:14And that that is heartbreaking.
17:17And to see this, you know, the images, I mean, it hit me in a way I didn't expect to
17:23see the images of these families
17:25who their sons were doing what their duty was.
17:31And I think about the literally thousands of sailors who were on the Gerald Ford,
17:35the biggest aircraft carrier in the world, a great vessel that had been deployed now nine months.
17:43You know, the toilets are starting to back up.
17:45These sailors were supposed to be back home.
17:48Once ago, I talked to a mom who's got four, a Navy mom who's got four kids explaining why her
17:54dad,
17:55the dad was not going to come home in February.
17:56She will do her duty.
17:59But how does she explain to her kids how much longer her dad's going to be there?
18:04And for what purpose is this making America safer?
18:09Again, Iran was awful.
18:11The regime, I shed no tears.
18:13But if there's not a plan and if there's not an imminent threat to America,
18:19why would we put our troops in harm's way?
18:23Senator Mark Warner, thank you very much for starting off our coverage tonight.
18:29Thank you, Lawrence.
18:31And coming up, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse asked Kristi Noem about her bedroom in the sky paid for by the same
18:38Trump budget that cut health care for 20 million Americans.
18:42Senator Whitehouse joins us next.
18:49Donald Trump's incompetent Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has now faced two days of hearings unlike anything any member of
18:58the cabinet has ever experienced,
19:00including relentless questioning about accusations that she is having an affair with Donald Trump's incompetent former campaign operative Corey Lewandowski,
19:08who now works in the Homeland Security Department without an actual job title.
19:13But it was Republican Senator Tom Tillis who used his question time to focus on something that Kristi Noem proudly
19:21admitted in the book that she wrote that she hoped could launch a presidential campaign titled
19:27No Going Back.
19:29Well, there's no going back for Kristi Noem now.
19:32In that book, Kristi Noem happily told the story of killing her dog.
19:41I read your book last week.
19:44And honestly, some of the parts of it impress me, but some of it distresses me.
19:50And I'll give you a good example of one that does.
19:52The passage where you talk about killing a dog that was 14 months old.
19:57I train dogs, all right?
20:00And you are a farmer.
20:01You should know better.
20:03You should know that if you're going out to a hunting lodge and you're putting pheasants out and you're putting
20:07dogs out, you don't take a puppy out there.
20:09A 14-month-old dog is basically a teenager in dog years.
20:14You decided to kill that dog because you had not invested the appropriate time and training.
20:18And then you have the audacity to go into a book and say it's a leadership lesson about tough choices.
20:25It's in your book.
20:26We could play it if we had time.
20:28At that same lunch hour, you killed a goat.
20:30And you killed the goat because you said it was behaving badly.
20:33You are a farmer.
20:35You don't castrate a goat.
20:36They behave badly.
20:37You should have probably done that before.
20:39But my point is those are bad decisions made in the heat of the moment, not unlike what happened up
20:48in Minneapolis.
20:49I expect we're an exceptional nation.
20:52And one of the reasons we're exceptional is we expect exceptional leadership.
20:56And you've demonstrated anything but that in the time that I've seen you responding to the emergency in North Carolina
21:03and across the southeast and acknowledging when mistakes are made and speaking too soon for the expedient of social media
21:11or whatever it is.
21:15Our next guest, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, focused on what has become the most famous flying bedroom since Jeffrey Epstein's plane
21:22was grounded.
21:24Could you explain this?
21:30Sir, I'm looking at a picture of an interior.
21:34It looks like a bedroom.
21:35Of an airplane?
21:37Mm-hmm.
21:38Yes, sir.
21:38You're not familiar with that?
21:40These photos are not accurate.
21:41If you're referring to the airplanes that the Department of Homeland Security has purchased and are purchasing, we're using them
21:49for long-range command and control aircraft.
21:52That is dictated in statute by Congress for the Department of Homeland Security to have a plane.
21:58But you did not use a luxury jet with a bedroom in it?
22:00Yeah.
22:00We used a 737.
22:02I've been on it once, but it is being used by other administration officials, and it is used for command
22:08and control flights for the department.
22:10The department has found that in purchasing our aircraft that we will save the taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
22:17Does it have a bedroom in it?
22:17In fact, we spent $1.42 billion on ICE deportation flights last year.
22:24Does it have a bedroom in it?
22:25I believe it's being refurbished and not having a bedroom in it.
22:29So it is being refurbished.
22:31The other part of the room.
22:32What kind of deportee justifies being flown out of the country in a luxury jet with a bedroom and accommodations
22:42like this?
22:44There are aircraft being purchased that will be utilized for executive air travel and for deportations.
22:50If you remember in the past, we have used jets of this size and this configuration for deportations in the
22:58past.
22:58If you remember the—
22:59This configuration.
22:59By this configuration, you mean with a bedroom and luxury accommodations like this you've used for deportations.
23:05Is that true?
23:05Sir, we have 737s that are being purchased by the department to replace contracts that we have on ICE deportations.
23:14That's what they're going to be used for.
23:18Kristi Noem may have risked perjury when she testified in response to Senator Richard Blumenthal that Corey Lewandowski has no
23:25role in approving homeland security contracts.
23:29ProPublica reports, quote, internal DHS records reviewed by ProPublica contradict Noem's Senate testimony.
23:37The records show Lewandowski personally approved a multimillion-dollar equipment contract at the agency last summer.
23:43That was not a one-off.
23:45Lewandowski has approved numerous contracts at DHS and often needs to sign off on large ones before any money goes
23:52out the door,
23:53the current and former department employees said.
23:56Last year, Noem imposed a new policy that consolidated her and her top aides' power over all spending at DHS,
24:04requiring that she personally review and approve all contracts above $100,000.
24:08Before the contracts reach Noem, they must be approved by a series of political appointees
24:13who each sign or initial a checklist, sometimes referred to internally as a routing sheet,
24:20typically the last name on the checklist before Noem's is Lewandowski's, the DHS officials said.
24:29Joining us now is Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.
24:32He's a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, and the Senate Budget Committee.
24:36He's the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
24:40Senator, thank you very much for joining us tonight.
24:42And the plane is such an easy, vivid example of the madness that is running rampant at that department.
24:52But you revealed more, and the committee's revealed, much more corruption than just that.
24:59I mean, let's just take in that image of that, like, airplane bedroom.
25:09It's not enough to have a first-class lie-flat seat.
25:12They've got to have the whole bedroom set up.
25:16And the idea that that's a command and control center, it's not a command and control center.
25:22It's a bedroom.
25:24And the idea that it's going to be used for deportations, I don't know.
25:28Who are you deporting?
25:29The Shah of Iran?
25:31Some billionaire who can only travel in luxury jets?
25:36It makes no sense at all.
25:40And, you know, it's pretty instructive when you consider the penchant of this administration for not telling the truth,
25:48that right in front of those images, a secretary, a cabinet secretary,
25:54would say things that are just flagrantly obviously to the naked eye, not so.
26:00And with respect to Dick Blumenthal's question about Lewandowski, the article actually shows the routing sheet.
26:07It shows the signature of Lewandowski on the contract approval.
26:13So we got the paper that shows that he's in the process, and she just says no.
26:21And what's interesting about that is that you have to compare it to what the Department of Justice is doing
26:26with respect to supposed lies told by Jim Comey, which they tried to prosecute him for as a criminal, for
26:38perjury.
26:39And, of course, that blew up for a number of different reasons, including that he actually wasn't lying.
26:46But you think that an administration that set the bar that even nearly imaginary untruths on the part of Jim
26:57Comey
26:57are worth prosecuting as a criminal offense, you think that would raise the bar a little bit for them
27:02in terms of telling the truth in response to questions from Congress.
27:06But instead, you get Pam Bondi's histrionics and mad false accusations from the witness chair,
27:14and now you get these alternately preposterous and false statements from the Homeland Security Secretary.
27:23If the Democrats win the Senate in November, as becomes increasingly possible,
27:29what kind of investigation will you be able to conduct in the committee once you have that power of the
27:36majority?
27:39Well, we would have, obviously, the ability to pursue investigations and to set the agenda
27:44and to notice the hearings and to summon witnesses.
27:48If we needed to pursue subpoenas, as we've discovered, to enforce a subpoena,
27:56you need to go through the Senate floor where the subpoena enforcement measure is subject to filibuster.
28:03So you'd need 60 votes, or you'd need to be working in harmony with the House Judiciary Chairman,
28:13Jamie Raskin, where subpoenas can be enforced without danger of a filibuster.
28:19So we have considerable tools at our disposal,
28:23and I think it's pretty clear that should the Senate or the House shift in November,
28:29the lying will either end or at least be made a lot more difficult.
28:35Senator Whitehouse, your handoff to Jamie Raskin is perfect.
28:39He's going to be joining us next.
28:40Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, thank you very much for joining us tonight.
28:45And coming up in the House of Representatives today,
28:48Kristi Noem was asked under oath if she is having an affair with Corey Lewandowski,
28:53and she did not say no.
28:57That's next with Congressman Jamie Raskin.
29:02In today's House Judiciary Committee hearing,
29:04the top Democrat, Congressman Jamie Raskin,
29:07who will become chairman of the committee when the Democrats win back the House,
29:11gave Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem multiple opportunities to correct the record
29:17and apologize for publicly claiming that Rene Good and Alex Preddy were domestic terrorists
29:24immediately after they were shot and killed by Donald Trump's invasion forces in Minneapolis
29:30while they posed no threat to anyone.
29:33And of course, Kristi Noem refused to apologize.
29:39You stated the conclusion two hours after they were killed that they were domestic terrorists.
29:45I wanted to give you an opportunity to correct the record, not just for their family,
29:49but for everybody in America who believes in the truth and fairness and honesty.
29:53In every situation, as facts come out, we relate them.
29:56You know, your acting ICE director, Todd Lyons, came before Congress.
29:59He said he had no knowledge whatsoever that Alex Preddy and Rene Good were domestic terrorists.
30:05None. This is your guy. He said that.
30:08He admitted that that was wrong. Why won't you admit it?
30:11I will tell you the investigation is still ongoing.
30:13And we'll...
30:14So do you regret speaking before the investigation?
30:17I would say that in those situations...
30:19You regret that?
30:19...the chaotic scene on the ground, we relay information to the American people
30:23that they're asking for.
30:24And as things change, situations change...
30:27People were asking you whether they were domestic terrorists?
30:29And you decided that they were before the investigation?
30:32As we learn more, we...
30:34You don't want to say anything to their families?
30:36I did. I said condolences.
30:38For what?
30:39How about an apology for what you said about their loved ones?
30:43My heart is with them, and we will continue to stand with them
30:45as they get a complete investigation into these situations.
30:48All right.
30:50Kristi Noem was actually asked under oath repeatedly
30:53if she is having an affair with Corey Lewandowski,
30:56and she never came close to saying no.
31:02Secretary Noem, at any time during your tenure
31:05as Director of Department of Homeland Security,
31:09have you had sexual relations with Corey Lewandowski?
31:13Mr. Chairman, I am shocked that we're going down
31:16and peddling tabloid garbage in this committee today.
31:20Reclaiming my...
31:21And ma'am, one...
31:21You've called Corey Lewandowski a special government employee.
31:24I understand what government means.
31:25I understand what employee means, okay?
31:28But I don't know what makes him special.
31:30Now, I want to give you an opportunity
31:32to answer on the record to Ms. Kamlogger-Dove's question.
31:37I know you said it's garbage, and it may be,
31:38but I really think you need to say the word no into the record
31:41so that you can clear that up.
31:43I think the ridiculousness of this
31:45and the tabloids that you are quoting and referencing are insane.
31:48And this has been...
31:49So that's a no?
31:50...something that I've refuted for years,
31:51and I continue to do that.
31:53So it's a no.
31:53What I would tell you is...
31:54We can move on.
31:55Hold on.
31:55Back to the center.
31:56We can move on.
31:58Joining us now is Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland.
32:01He's the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.
32:04Congressman Raskin, thank you very much for joining us tonight.
32:07And to your point about rushing to judgment,
32:12claiming that they were domestic terrorists,
32:16Kristi Noem, as we know prior today,
32:19has never retracted that,
32:20and you couldn't have given her more opportunities to do it.
32:24And others in the administration
32:26have never even come forward
32:28to support that accusation of domestic terrorists.
32:32What did you take from that exchange with her?
32:36Look, I mean, a domestic terrorist, as you know, Lawrence,
32:39is somebody who blows up the Oklahoma Federal Building
32:42or mows down parishioners in Charleston
32:47while they're praying
32:49or goes to the Tree of Life synagogue
32:52and massacres Jews.
32:55That's what a domestic terrorist...
32:57So that's a very heavy thing
32:58for the Secretary of Homeland Security
33:01to say about American citizens
33:03who were doing nothing other than exercising
33:06their First Amendment rights.
33:07And it was obviously completely bogus,
33:09and it's defamatory.
33:11So her own ICE director, under questioning,
33:14disclaimed any knowledge of anything
33:16that would indicate that they were domestic terrorists,
33:19and I wanted to give her the opportunity to do that
33:21so she could come clean with that propaganda
33:24and that disinformation.
33:25It's very important,
33:26if there's going to be any trust or confidence
33:28in the Homeland Security Department,
33:30and she refused to do it.
33:32I suppose just following her boss, Donald Trump,
33:35and never apologizing,
33:36even when it's 100% clear you're lying.
33:40I hope you heard Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
33:43point out the difference in the subpoena power
33:45that you will have
33:46if you become chair of the House Judiciary Committee
33:49compared to the Senate Judiciary Committee,
33:52even if the Democrats control it.
33:53he's relying on you to be able to do
33:57the kinds of investigations of Kristi Noem and others
34:01under the jurisdiction of the Judiciary Committee.
34:04What would you first want to investigate
34:07about what Kristi Noem has been up to?
34:12Oh, geez.
34:13Well, you saw the hearing today.
34:15Obviously, the massive violation of the rights of the people
34:19all the way up to killing people
34:21simply for exercising their First Amendment
34:23or their Second Amendment rights
34:24has got to be front and center
34:26because we are here to represent the people.
34:29But there's also extraordinary corruption
34:31taking place in the Department of Homeland Security.
34:34I hope you have a chance to play the stuff
34:36that Congressman Neguse was asking about
34:39with this no-bid media contract
34:42for $220 million,
34:45which allowed her to create the TV ad
34:48with her out in front of Mount Rushmore
34:51on horseback and so on.
34:53And there's some very sketchy things
34:55about where that money went,
34:57who it went to.
34:58But we're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars
35:01that are just disappearing
35:03and being siphoned off
35:04through corruption and fraud and abuse
35:06at the same time
35:07that they're now trying to talk about corruption and fraud.
35:12I think they've made J.D. Vance the fraud czar,
35:16which is perfectly appropriate
35:17since his whole career has been a fraud.
35:20But Donald Trump, of course,
35:21has been convicted of fraud.
35:24But that's replete also,
35:26so we've got to look at that as well.
35:28But the other thing is
35:29the absolute pulling of the plug
35:31on the real functions
35:32of the Homeland Security Department.
35:34We're talking about thousands of people
35:36who before were working on cybersecurity,
35:40who were working on terrorist financing,
35:43who were working on domestic violent extremism,
35:46which means overwhelmingly
35:48right-wing neo-fascist extremism in America.
35:52And all those people,
35:53or vast numbers of those people,
35:55have been switched over
35:56to the ICE mass roundup deportation operation.
36:02Congressman Raskin,
36:03we have to squeeze in a commercial break here.
36:05When we come back,
36:06I want to ask you about this new subpoena
36:08for the testimony of Donald Trump's
36:10Attorney General, Pam Bondi,
36:11about the Epstein files.
36:12We're going to be right back
36:13with Congressman Jamie Raskin.
36:19After the Wall Street Journal reported
36:21that Donald Trump's Justice Department
36:23has withheld 47,635 files of the Epstein files.
36:29Today, the House Oversight Committee
36:31voted to subpoena Attorney General Pamela Bondi.
36:35And back with us is Democratic Congressman
36:37Jamie Raskin of Maryland.
36:39And Congressman, once again,
36:40there's a handful of Republicans on that committee
36:43who joined the Democrats in delivering this subpoena.
36:46What do you hope they'll be able to get
36:50in testimony from an attorney general
36:53who we have seen spends her time in hearings
36:56refusing to answer questions?
36:59Yeah, well, I mean,
37:00the frustration is really boiling over
37:02on the Oversight Committee.
37:04And, of course, it's a solid unanimous block
37:07of Democrats, plus more and more Republicans.
37:12And what are the key blocks of Republicans?
37:14Women Republicans, who maybe at one point
37:17flattered themselves to think that all of the misogyny
37:20and sexism in the Republican Party
37:21didn't apply to them.
37:23But, of course, it did, as Marjorie Taylor Greene
37:26discovered, and Lauren Boebert, and Nancy Mace,
37:29who led this particular rebellion.
37:31But you're also getting some mega-Republicans,
37:34including, like, a hardcore insurrectionist
37:37like Scott Perry from Pennsylvania,
37:39who are absolutely terrified
37:41of the big populist Democratic wave coming.
37:45And he's got a really strong opponent
37:46in Janelle Stelzen,
37:48who came within one point of defeating him last time,
37:51and she's got an incredibly powerful campaign going on.
37:53And so those people are running for the hills themselves.
37:57So we're able to create
37:59these provisional bipartisan majorities
38:01to make progress.
38:02Well, what's it all about?
38:04Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice
38:06are playing a game of hide-and-go-seek.
38:09I mean, it's like a board game of clue with these people.
38:12There is a federal law and a subpoena saying,
38:15turn the whole Epstein file over,
38:17except for the redacted names of the victims.
38:21Everything else, turn it over.
38:22And they've withheld half of the documents,
38:26millions of documents.
38:27They've redacted hundreds of thousands of pages,
38:31and they keep playing more games, obviously.
38:34So I think that that process issue
38:36is going to be very top of the list
38:39when she's subpoenaed to come over
38:42to the oversight committee.
38:45Some people think that her job won't last that long,
38:47that she'll be out before that.
38:49But maybe, you know, she impressed the president
38:52by changing the subject,
38:55evading all the questions,
38:57and aggressively insulting the members
38:59with ad hominem attacks
39:01when she came to the Judiciary Committee.
39:03I mean, I think the whole country
39:06recognizes what a pathetic performance that was,
39:08but maybe it pleased that audience of one.
39:11What you just said about the politics of this
39:13for someone like Scott Perry,
39:15it seems to be that what a candidate like that
39:18is worried about is in October
39:21being asked about the Epstein files
39:23and not being able to say,
39:25oh, I voted to release them,
39:27or I voted, not just voted to release them,
39:30because everybody did,
39:31but then I voted to subpoena Pam Bondi.
39:33I cast these other votes.
39:35It seems that they believe
39:36they're going to need to be able to say
39:38they did more than just vote for the release.
39:43Well, I mean, there are more and more revelations
39:46coming out with startling velocity,
39:48and there are undoubtedly
39:51some very heavy revelations to come
39:53about some super powerful people,
39:55both in America and in other countries.
39:59And that's why I'm saying
40:00there is a very strong progressive populist revolt
40:04that's stirring in the country,
40:06and you can see it in all of these elections
40:08that Democrats are winning by, you know,
40:11a 12- or 13-point switch on average,
40:15and in some cases,
40:16like in that Texas state Senate race recently,
40:19a 31-point switchover.
40:21That's what's going on.
40:23Congressman Jamie Raskin,
40:24thank you very much for joining us tonight.
40:27You bet.
40:29One of last night's big winners
40:31will get tonight's last word,
40:33and that's next.
Comments