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00:00Twenty nine billion dollars. That's how much Donald Trump's war in Iran have has cost so far at the very
00:07least.
00:07There are very reasonable reasons to not think that that's an accurate rendition of the cost of this war.
00:13Certainly not the cost of the war to the populations, the cost of munitions and the actual things that have
00:20gone into this war.
00:21But the Pentagon's latest estimate, this twenty nine billion dollars, is already four billion dollars higher than the twenty five
00:29billion dollar estimate that was provided to Congress just two weeks ago,
00:33which makes sense because this war is costing a lot of money every single day.
00:37And plenty of lawmakers are questioning whether either of those numbers, twenty five billion or twenty nine billion, come close
00:43to actually reflecting reality.
00:44So tonight, after 11 weeks into Donald Trump's war of choice in Iran, the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, returned to
00:53Capitol Hill today to defend the Pentagon's one and a half trillion dollar budget request
00:58before the defense committees, defense subcommittees of both the House House and the Senate Appropriations Committees.
01:05Unsurprisingly, Pete Hegseth faced plenty of pointed questions on the rising costs and strategy of Trump's ongoing war of choice.
01:12This is reporting from The New York Times underscores a growing disconnect between what Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth are
01:19saying about the war in Iran
01:20and actual U.S. assessments, the kind that are put together by actual experts.
01:28According to the classified assessments from earlier this month, The New York Times reports, quote,
01:33Iran has regained access to most of its missile sites, launchers and underground facilities.
01:39Most alarming to some senior officials is evidence that Iran has restored operational access to 30 of the 33 missile
01:46sites it maintains along the Strait of Hormuz, 30 of the 33.
01:51The Times reports that when they asked the White House for comment, a spokesperson repeated Mr. Trump's previous assertion that
01:58Iran's military had been crushed.
02:01At the same time, all across this country, people are feeling the impact of this war and this out-of
02:07-control conflict because it's feeding an economy that's also starting to look out of control.
02:12Consumer prices, that's inflation, rose 3.8 percent last month.
02:19Okay, that's 3.8 percent.
02:21That's the fastest rate of inflation since May of 2023.
02:24The price of gas, slightly lower today by about 1.6 percent, is now on average $4.50 per gallon,
02:31according to AAA.
02:33Before the war started, it was $2.98 a gallon.
02:37And for many Americans already dealing with inflation and rising debt, the debate over whether the economy is technically in
02:44a recession or going into a recession misses what's actually happening in practice.
02:50Economic indicators fluctuate, but household budgets don't experience the economy in theory or as an abstraction.
02:59They experience it in weekly grocery bills, in rent increases, in the cost of getting to and from work, in
03:06the gas that they pay, in their car, in the fuel charges that they pay.
03:09And all of that stuff is getting more expensive.
03:13And it's happening really fast.
03:15And Donald Trump's war is a huge reason why.
03:18By the way, Donald Trump's tariffs are also another big reason why.
03:21But here today was his response to a question about inflation.
03:27You promised to bring inflation down.
03:29It's now at its highest level in three years.
03:31Are your policies not working?
03:33What's happening?
03:34My policies are working incredibly.
03:35If you go back to just before the war, for the last three months, inflation was at 1.7 percent.
03:42Now, we had a choice.
03:44Let these lunatics have a nuclear weapon.
03:46If you want to do that, then you're a stupid person.
03:49And you happen to be.
03:50I mean, I know you very well.
03:52Well, that's a wartime president, certainly in a war of choice launched partially at the behest of a foreign prime
04:01minister.
04:01But a wartime president, nonetheless, answering a question about the high cost of living in this country by calling the
04:07reporter a stupid person.
04:10He did that while inventing the false choice between Iran having a nuclear weapon, gas, the price of groceries, and
04:18other things going up.
04:20Iran has nukes or things cost more.
04:23That binary choice simply does not exist.
04:26Donald Trump invented it while calling a reporter, quote, a stupid person.
04:29Can you imagine FDR, Harry Truman, or literally any other wartime president, or for that matter, any president, any time
04:36doing that?
04:36Do you think Donald Trump is worried about how much more life in this country is costing?
04:42Moments after he said that, he said this.
04:46When you're negotiating with Iran, Mr. President, to what extent are American financial situations motivating you to make it feel?
04:54Not even a little bit.
04:56The only thing that matters when I'm talking about Iran, they can't have a nuclear weapon.
05:00I don't think about American financial situation.
05:04I don't think about anybody.
05:05But I think about one thing.
05:07We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.
05:10That's all.
05:11That's the only thing that motivates me.
05:14I don't think about it even a little bit.
05:17That's the only thing that motivates me.
05:19It's just not his problem.
05:21He doesn't think about it.
05:22This is one of those, you know, we can hear you moments.
05:26Donald Trump said that even as new polling shows that 77 percent of Americans believe that Donald Trump's policies have
05:35affected their cost of living.
05:36I'm unclear as to why that's not 100 percent, but it's 77 percent, which is quite something in America.
05:42I don't think 77 percent of people agree that today is Tuesday.
05:46This tension between defense spending on a war of choice with seemingly no end and the economic pressures at home.
05:52You could see it playing out in hearings today with Pete Hegseth on the Hill.
05:55Today, the Democratic Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro said this.
05:59I am extraordinarily grateful, as my other colleagues have pointed out, to the men and women of our armed services
06:07who sacrifice everything to keep us safe.
06:11Their devotion to duty is exemplary.
06:14And it must be matched by the seriousness and the sobriety of those at the very top of the chain
06:22of command.
06:24Interesting choice of words, seriousness and sobriety.
06:28It's a conversation for a different time.
06:31That call for seriousness and sobriety was aimed directly at the decisions being made by Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth.
06:37And the decisions that the cost of those decisions have had in dollars, in troop injuries, in troop deaths, and
06:46importantly, most importantly, in the deaths of innocent civilians who have had nothing to do with this war.
06:53And it set the tone for what followed in the Senate.
06:58The president has called Medicaid, Medicare and child care little scams and said, quote, we're fighting wars.
07:05We cannot take care of daycare.
07:08I'm just trying to understand that.
07:10Is it your position, since you're asking taxpayers for another half a trillion dollars for the war, that American families
07:17should be forced to give up child care and health coverage so that you can have one and a half
07:22trillion dollars for this budget?
07:25Senator, that's that's not my department.
07:27I certainly support this.
07:28And I also support the president's efforts to find and remove fraud wherever possible.
07:33Well, I'm not.
07:34And we do that in our department as well.
07:35I'm not.
07:36I'm not talking about fraud.
07:38I actually asked whether an American family should lose their health care or their child care to pay for this
07:44budget.
07:45That is literally what the president suggested.
07:49The president has proposed a historic one point five trillion dollar budget that will defend the nation and confront threats
07:56like Iran, which previous presidents allowed to happen, as Senator Graham pointed out.
08:00Well, the previous administration said they wanted to take care of this problem.
08:03The question did not do this committee.
08:06The question in front of the American people is what are they being asked to give up for this one
08:11and a half trillion dollars?
08:14The fact that the Strait of Hormuz remains closed is, of course, driving up prices on all kinds of things.
08:20Today, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Dan Kane, could not explain how Iran is still capable
08:27of keeping that straight closed.
08:30Could you explain to the American people why, with the fast investment we've made in national defense and military, how
08:39Iran, after they've been attacked by us, is still capable of stopping the traffic in the Straits of Hormuz?
08:46Well, sir, it's a it's a complex situation out there with a lot of different small boats that are out
08:52there and other capabilities.
08:56You know, I some of this is on the commercial traffickers.
09:01Some of this is on, again, back to the main problem, and that's Iran holding the global economy hostage through
09:08the Straits.
09:09I would encourage them to think wisely about their next moves and to take the opportunity to open the Straits.
09:16They have that choice to make.
09:18They certainly do.
09:19I guess the question in my mind is, as we talk about trillion dollar plus budgets for our military,
09:25it appears that a very small budget is holding us hostage in the Straits of Hormuz.
09:31The Democratic Senator Chris Coons tried to get an answer out of Pete Hegseth after asking,
09:36what was the Trump administration's plan for reopening the waterway to commercial shipping?
09:41Pete Hegseth treated the question the same way a child treats a vegetable on their dinner plate that they don't
09:47want to eat.
09:50What's the plan for reopening the Straits of Hormuz to commercial traffic?
09:54Shared broadly, but never executed, because previous administration didn't have the willingness to actually do what it would take.
10:03And when Iran was at its weakest moments following the 12-day war, but still wanted the pursuit of a
10:08nuclear capability,
10:10President Trump made the courageous decision to go at their conventional umbrella and shield,
10:15which they were using to protect their nuclear program, which we knew came with threats and branches and sequels.
10:21My concern, Mr. Secretary, is that you've achieved a series of tactical successes,
10:26but are on the verge of a strategic loss, because we are now negotiating.
10:31Just to get so foolish, here we are in a committee in the United States Senate, 74 days in,
10:35and you're talking about strategic loss.
10:37We have the ability to defeat a 47-year threat of a pursuit of a nuclear weapon.
10:42We have more leverage than we've ever had.
10:44We've had incredible battlefield successes.
10:46And you're talking about a strategic loss, cloaking disingenuous questions.
10:51Mr. Secretary.
10:52This is how you undercut efforts that could otherwise and are otherwise being very effective.
10:55I am not your enemy, sir.
10:56I am not your adversary.
11:00Tonight, Donald Trump is beginning a two-day summit with President Xi Jinping as the United States,
11:05Chinese President Xi Jinping, as the United States is engaged in a widening and costly war,
11:10one with significant economic consequences, and no clearly articulated path to resolution.
11:15Before boarding Marine One, Donald Trump said this.
11:20What is your message to President Xi as it relates to the Iran war?
11:25Well, I think, number one, we're going to have a long talk about it.
11:29I think he's been relatively good, to be honest with you.
11:33You look at the blockade, no problem.
11:36They get a lot of their oil from that area.
11:38We've had no problem, and he's been a friend of mine.
11:41He's been somebody that we get along with.
11:44And I think you're going to see that good things are going to happen.
11:48This is going to be a very exciting trip.
11:49A lot of good things are going to happen.
11:51Do you think he needs to intervene at all with the Iranians?
11:55I don't think he does.
11:56Do you think he can help in any way?
11:57No, I don't think we need any help with Iran.
11:59We'll win it one way or the other.
12:02He doesn't need any help with Iran.
12:04He's been chastising the Europeans and everybody else about not dealing with this.
12:08Leading off our discussion tonight is the Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin.
12:12She's a member of the Appropriations Committee and the Department of Defense Subcommittee.
12:16Congress, Senator, good to see you.
12:18Nice to see you on the show tonight.
12:19See you.
12:21I don't know where to start.
12:23This Pete Hanks' continuous answer about prior administrations have not been able to tackle this.
12:29There was a prior administration in 2015 that actually tackled this,
12:34that actually dealt with the ability to monitor and police Iran's nuclear ambitions.
12:40And it succeeded until I'm trying to think,
12:43what was the thing that made the Iran nuclear deal fall apart?
12:47Oh, Donald Trump.
12:48Maybe when Donald Trump ripped it up, right?
12:51Yes.
12:51I mean, this is just so absurd to hear what this war has cost, this war of choice.
12:59We weren't under any imminent threat of attack.
13:01And not only do we find ourselves in a worse situation with regard to Iran's nuclear program because Donald Trump
13:13ripped up that 2015 agreement
13:16that included intrusive international inspections into their nuclear program.
13:22But all these days into this conflict, we see the Straits of Hormuz remaining closed, gas prices here going from
13:33$3 to $5 across this country.
13:37And we see a more hard line regime in Iran that still possesses their nuclear material.
13:48So we've gone backwards, not forwards, with this war of choice.
13:53It's strange because Donald Trump said we obliterated their nuclear capability last June in a 12-day attack.
14:01Tulsi Gabbard, whether one believes she knows what she's talking about or not, said that Iran did not do anything
14:07about that.
14:07They did not increase their nuclear ability, nor were they intending to.
14:12So not only is this sort of a war of choice in which we were not facing an imminent attack,
14:16but there isn't even consensus in the intelligence.
14:19Well, there's a lot of consensus in the intelligence community that none of this was true,
14:22that none of the things they continue to say to us about what happened are true.
14:27So I don't know how you're supposed to believe a $25 billion budget or a $29 billion budget
14:32or the justification for $1.5 trillion, which I believe is more money than the next 44 countries on Earth
14:39spend on their military.
14:41That is the case.
14:43And right now we are seeing this administration ask for an astronomical increase in defense spending
14:52after a war of choice that has resulted in our taking steps backwards, not forward.
14:59You outlined so eloquently at the beginning of the show some of the consequences
15:04and how this war is being paid for and how it would be moving forward.
15:10You know, we last year had Trump's, what he called his big, beautiful bill that gave tax breaks
15:18to profitable corporations and billionaires while cutting SNAP and cutting Medicaid.
15:27Yeah.
15:27We heard my colleague, Senator Patty Murray, talk about his pledge to do away with child care.
15:34He is cutting services to the American people at the same time he is proposing to add greatly to our
15:45deficit.
15:46This will be the largest deficit increase in history if it's allowed to move forward.
15:53The American people don't support this war and they are paying for it, whether it's the loss of life of
16:01our service members,
16:02the many who are injured, whether it is the price of gas.
16:07My farmers are struggling so mightily right now because their fertilizer prices have skyrocketed.
16:14It's planting season and most of them can't afford all the fertilizer they need to start their planting.
16:22Diesel fuel is at a record high in Wisconsin.
16:26And so the American people are paying the price for this war.
16:31So whether or not you drive a car or I've had people telling me they bought an electric car,
16:35it doesn't matter because you buy food.
16:37You need diesel for the food, you need diesel for the agriculture, and then you need the ability to transport
16:42that food.
16:43And yet when Patty Murray did ask Pete Hegseth about child care and things like that, he answered with fraud.
16:51He said, we're going to cut fraud.
16:53It's like they just don't answer the question that's being asked of them.
16:57They don't want to admit the facts, but we can see the facts.
17:01We can see it when we go to the gas pump.
17:03We can see it when we go to the grocery store.
17:05And we know that they have in the works massive cuts to health care and massive increases in health care
17:17costs for the American people.
17:19They fail to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits.
17:23They're cutting Medicaid.
17:25And we see so many fewer people enrolling in health care this year over last because of this president's recklessness
17:35and including and in many ways because of this war of choice in Iran.
17:44Senator, good to talk to you.
17:45Thank you for being with us tonight.
17:47The Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin is a member of the Appropriations Committee.
17:51All right.
17:51Coming up, polls are now closed on primary night in Nebraska, where Democrats are hoping to flip a congressional district
17:56from red to blue and maybe even a Senate seat.
18:00But there's a twist.
18:01We're going to break that down when we talk about those races at the board next.
18:08All right.
18:09Breaking news.
18:10It's primary night in a state where Democrats see a big opportunity in November, Nebraska.
18:16In fact, this is so unusual that I'm wearing a suit and tie and not a vest.
18:19Nebraska is a state that Donald Trump won with 59 percent of the vote in 2024.
18:25But right now, Democrats believe they've got a pickup opportunity in Nebraska's second district.
18:31This is the district that contains Omaha.
18:34Don Bacon, you'll know his name.
18:36He's retiring from Congress after representing Nebraska's second district, which includes Omaha, for eight years.
18:42But the congressional district, the second district, voted for Kamala Harris in 2024 by almost five points.
18:49Kamala Harris won and Don Bacon won.
18:51Now, let's look at the Democrats who are running to flip this seat blue.
18:55It hasn't been called right now.
18:57We got 78 percent of the vote in John Kavanaugh is marginally in the lead right now.
19:03He's a state senator whose father held this very seat in the 1970s.
19:08But his opponents, his Democratic opponents are arguing that if Kavanaugh gets the nomination, it could doom Democrats in the
19:15long run in that state.
19:17Not because he might lose the election in November, but because if he wins the election in November, Kavanaugh has
19:24got to leave the Nebraska legislature and the Republican governor would appoint his replacement.
19:30Now, Republicans do have a very narrow supermajority in the Nebraska statehouse.
19:35And his opponents have said that if Kavanaugh were to win in November and leave his state seat, it would
19:42give the Republicans more power in the state.
19:45Kavanaugh says Democrats can flip the seat this year.
19:48Now, this is an unusually tight race.
19:51As I said, with 78 percent of the vote, Denise Powell is running just about less than a thousand votes
19:58behind Kavanaugh right now.
20:00We've still got a lot of vote to come in.
20:01And the day of vote is disproportionately favoring Denise Powell right now.
20:07So this one's going to go down to the wire.
20:08She's clawing back after after an early evening.
20:12So we don't know where this is going to end, whether it's going to be Denise Powell or John Kavanaugh.
20:16Crystal Rhodes is running far behind.
20:18So she's not going to be a determinant.
20:20OK, now that's interesting enough.
20:22Let's now go to the the Senate race in in Nebraska.
20:30This has this has been called.
20:31Cindy Burbank is the nominee with it's not even close.
20:35Two thirds of the votes in.
20:36She's got almost 90 percent of the vote.
20:38But this is interesting because not pictured here is Dan Osborne, who ran for the Nebraska Senate in 2024.
20:46Dan Osborne is on the ballot again as an independent.
20:51Now, many Democrats intend to support Dan Osborne as they did last time.
20:56So here's the interesting thing.
20:58Cindy Burbank wins the election tonight.
21:00She wins the primary.
21:01She said she's going to drop out after being nominated so that Democrats unite around Dan Osborne, who could win.
21:11As I said, the Associated Press has called this race in her favor.
21:15Her opponent was Williams.
21:16William Ford.
21:17He only got 10 percent of the vote.
21:18He's a 79 year old pastor.
21:21Here's where this gets even more interesting.
21:23He's a registered Democrat, but he voted for Donald Trump in the last three elections.
21:29State Democrats have accused Forbes of being a plant whose goal is to be on the ballot in November to
21:34siphon votes from Osborne.
21:37That is clearly not going to work.
21:40All right.
21:40Coming up today's House Oversight Committee put the spotlight back on the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein at a shadow hearing
21:46in Palm Beach County, Florida,
21:48where Epstein's crimes were first investigated and then buried.
21:51Congressman Maxwell Frost, who was there, joins us next.
22:00All right.
22:00Today, the House Oversight Committee Democrats took the Jeffrey Epstein investigation back to what they call the scene of the
22:07crimes.
22:08Palm Beach County, Florida, where Epstein recruited, trafficked and abused underage girls and young women for years.
22:15It's also the place where prosecutors had the opportunity nearly 20 years ago to put Epstein away for good.
22:22Instead, the former federal prosecutor, Alex Acosta, who later became a member of Donald Trump's cabinet,
22:29oversaw the sweetheart deal that Epstein got that outrageously allows him allowed him to serve just 13 months in jail,
22:36most of which was on work release after pleading guilty to state charges of solicitation of prostitution and of procuring
22:44a minor for prostitution.
22:46For nearly three hours today, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee held what they called a shadow hearing in West
22:53Palm Beach,
22:54allowing survivors of Epstein's abuse to tell their stories in a formal hearing setting for the first time.
23:03When I was 14 years old, I was abused by Jeffrey Epstein.
23:07He abused me until I was 17 years old.
23:10What happened to me was terrible, but what happened after that by our own government changed my life just as
23:17much.
23:18I came here today to ask for one simple thing, to make sure this never happens again.
23:23I filed a case under the Crime Victims Rights Act because government secretly made a deal with Jeffrey Epstein.
23:30They signed a non-prosecution agreement.
23:33They made the deal behind closed doors.
23:36They never told me, and they never told any of us.
23:40Instead, they sent letters telling me to be patient, even though they knew the case was already over.
23:46For years, I believed there was an investigation happening.
23:49There wasn't.
23:51When I found out the truth, I went to my lawyer, Brad Edwards.
23:55He took my case in 2008, and he fought for me against the government for over a decade.
24:02We wanted to do the right thing for all victims.
24:05Together, we wanted answers to a simple question.
24:09How could this happen?
24:10I was abused by Jeffrey Epstein in 2004 and 2005.
24:15That was eight years after Maria Farmer first reported Jeffrey to the FBI.
24:22Although discussing my abuse is far from easy, I live with diagnosed PTSD from that experience.
24:30My story is actually one of the safest stories to tell.
24:34The key abuser who caused me physical harm is dead.
24:38Instead, it's imperative to understand that the stories you are hearing today are a tiny fraction of the whole.
24:45I am one of more than 1,200 girls and women.
24:52Joining us now is Democratic Congressman Maxwell Frost of Florida.
24:55He's a member of the House Oversight Committee.
24:58Congressman, thanks for being here today.
25:00I'm fascinated that we have to tell people that this was a shadow hearing.
25:05Why did it have to be a shadow hearing?
25:07We have hearings in Congress for all sorts of things all the time.
25:11Why couldn't these women's voices have been heard by the Congress of the United States?
25:19Because James Comer, the chair of the Oversight Committee, is engaged in obstructing this investigation and completely doing everything he
25:26can to help the White House cover this up.
25:29And, you know, I wouldn't have said that maybe five or six months ago.
25:33We still would come up to brick walls.
25:35He still, of course, was always giving the president the benefit of the doubt.
25:38But what we've seen over the last few months is despicable.
25:41And for people who don't know, a shadow hearing is where we, as the minority party, right, are unable to
25:47get the majority to call a hearing with us so we can do it here in the Capitol, right, here
25:53in Washington, D.C., and have a legitimate actual hearing.
25:56And so we take it upon ourselves to host what we call a shadow hearing.
25:59But everyone should know it was all Democrats today.
26:02We want to host this year in D.C., but James Comer doesn't want to call any more hearings because
26:07he knows that we would be able to successfully issue more subpoenas to move this investigation forward.
26:12If and when Democrats win in November, and I know that there are other issues that people are concerned about
26:17and things like affordability and health care and immigration, all valid, valid issues.
26:22But will one of the things that changes be that the United States Congress will actually give these women a
26:29voice?
26:31A hundred and ten percent, because in the majority, we will be able to call all the hearings we want.
26:36We'll be able to put forth all the subpoenas we want, and we won't have to sit here and essentially
26:40demand and beg of the chair to do his damn job.
26:45And people should know we haven't had a hearing in several weeks.
26:48Why? Because when we have a hearing, we have the ability to put motions forward to issue subpoenas, which we
26:54believe we have enough Republicans on the other side that would actually join us for it.
26:58So he's done this despicable thing where we haven't had a hearing in a long time.
27:02And he's hosting what he calls roundtables, which are unofficial hearings that are actually off the record, not under oath.
27:09And he's only calling those because he doesn't want us to move the Epstein investigation forward.
27:15There was a so-called new survivor, Rosa, who had emotional testimony today, in large part because she was one
27:24of these people who feels who says her name was only brought forward in the documents that were exposed.
27:31I want to I want to listen to a little bit of what she said today.
27:36I stepped forward along other survivors, hoping those who allow this to happen will be held accountable.
27:44I kept my identity protected as Jane Doe.
27:48I woke up one day with my name mentioned over 500 times.
28:02While the rich and powerful remain protected by redaction, my name was exposed to the world.
28:07Now reporters for across the globe contact me.
28:10I cannot live without looking over my shoulder.
28:15Now, the woman sitting on her right, our left, had said her testimony is the safest because her abuser is
28:24dead.
28:25There is a real concern that these women have, that their their abusers are rich and powerful people.
28:32They're not.
28:33They have virtually no voice.
28:35They couldn't get a hearing from the Department of Justice.
28:37They couldn't get a hearing from Congress.
28:39And then their name's out there.
28:42That's exactly what happened.
28:43She woke up one morning and she's all over the obscene files and and everyone should know that they took
28:49care.
28:50The Department of Justice did everything they could to redact the name of billionaires, elites and people who Donald Trump
28:56wanted to protect.
28:58This is public knowledge.
28:59And this is part of the reason why she was breaking down there.
29:01She didn't make the decision to do this really all by herself.
29:06She was forced into this, which is despicable and disgusting, especially when you have a Department of Justice and the
29:11Republicans on the other side of the aisle who've said every time we care about the survivors.
29:15We care about this no matter who you are.
29:17B.S.
29:18You don't.
29:19And it's the reason why Rosa had her name public out in the public over 500 times.
29:24And, you know, I want to say one thing, too.
29:25I had a back and forth with her.
29:27We spoke a little bit about her situation, the fact that she came here as an immigrant and her immigration
29:33status was taken advantage of.
29:36And we know that people who are victims of human trafficking are disproportionately immigrants.
29:41So maybe if we spent even a modicum of the amount of money and resources that this administration is using
29:46to terrorize immigrants across the country through ICE to actually investigate the Epstein files and prosecuting billionaire pedophiles and human
29:53traffickers, maybe we'd have some justice on this.
29:56Carson, good to talk to you tonight.
29:58Not a good topic, but I'm glad you guys are on it.
30:00Thank you for being with us.
30:01Florida Congressman Maxwell Frost, who's a member of the House Oversight Committee.
30:04All right, coming up, surprise, surprise, Donald Trump's vanity projects from his ballroom to his repairs to the reflecting pool
30:11are costing the American taxpayer far more than Donald Trump ever said they would.
30:15David Fahrenthold and Tim O'Brien join us after the break.
30:21While hosting Indiana University's national championship football team at the White House yesterday, Donald Trump gloated about his latest grift.
30:31We're doing now the reflective pond and we saved about six hundred million dollars or something.
30:37It's going to be beautiful.
30:38It'll open about two weeks and it's going to be incredible.
30:43OK, we didn't save anything.
30:45Let's just be clear about this.
30:46Secondly, he called it the reflective pond.
30:49He was talking about the renovations on the reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial, which now includes a totally unnecessary
30:56blue paint job.
30:57Donald Trump was also confused when he said six hundred million dollars or something.
31:02But because, in fact, American taxpayers are paying seven times what Donald Trump claimed his no bid contractor would charge
31:10them to make an American landmark look like a swimming pool.
31:14A report from The New York Times, co-authored by our next guest, David Fahrenthold, notes that Donald Trump, quote,
31:21said that his handpicked contractor would charge only one point eight million dollars to repair the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool
31:28and painted blue.
31:30The actual cost is now more than seven times that after the Interior Department nearly doubled the size of the
31:36contract late last week.
31:37Federal records show the final cost, according to The Times, 13.1 million dollars, not one point eight million dollars.
31:46The deal went to a company called Atlantic Industrial Coatings.
31:51Why them?
31:52Well, it helps when you know the right guy.
31:54Trump says they're the same people who worked on the swimming pools at his golf club in Sterling, Virginia.
31:59The White House told The Times it was all done to get the job finished before July 4th.
32:05Joining us now is David Fahrenthold, an investigative reporter at The New York Times, who co-wrote that article.
32:11David, you and I have talked for many years and been a journalist for a long time.
32:14I'm not even sure what the first question to you should be about this.
32:19WTF comes to mind.
32:21But why did any of this happen?
32:26Well, so the reflecting pool does have problems.
32:28It's leaked and it's had problems with algae for many years.
32:31And so President Trump has said he's trying to fix that.
32:34But he went about it in an odd way.
32:36Instead of sort of seeking bids from lots of different competitors, letting capitalism solve this problem and the best competitor
32:43emerge,
32:43instead he hands a contract to this company that he said had done work on his swimming pool, as you
32:48said, at his golf club.
32:50And the consequence of that is we don't really know if other people could do it better or for cheaper.
32:55He's also said many things about this contract that look, in hindsight, not to be true.
33:00The biggest one being the one you just mentioned that he said for many times that this was going to
33:04cost one point eight million dollars.
33:06It's now 13.1 million dollars.
33:08And I don't think we've seen the end of that.
33:09It may actually climb higher than that.
33:11Yeah. I mean, we've all done renovations and we know they come out being more than you want.
33:14But like here here at MSNOW, if there's something that needs something that's leaking, we have a facilities department.
33:21And if it needs fixing and they can't fix it in house, I assume there's some sort of process by
33:25which they get contractors to do it in the government.
33:28I don't know if this is the General Services Administration, but like at what point does it fall to the
33:32president to be getting a contractor to fix the reflecting policy?
33:37Never. And it's important to say that it is the law.
33:39It's not just good practice. It's the law that government agencies should seek multiple bids.
33:44It helps protect taxpayers because it gets the cheapest price, but it also helps you find the person who can
33:49do the job best.
33:50And so the Trump going around in this case and saying, look, I found my golf course contractor.
33:54By the way, he's now said he doesn't know these contractors, but he said for a long time they were
33:58his golf course contractor.
33:59Finding these people and saying, yeah, don't worry about it. My friend's going to do it.
34:03That you run a couple of risks. One is that you're not going to get a good price.
34:05And number two is you're going to get somebody who's not going to do the job well or that they
34:09won't, you know, you won't get the person who decided to do the job best.
34:12So that's the risk he's running by disregarding or by evading at least this law.
34:19What a weird story. You and I have talked about a lot of stories over the year.
34:22This definitely qualifies as one of the more unusual ones.
34:24David, good to see you. Thank you. As always, David Farenthold is a New York Times investigative reporter.
34:28Donald Trump's reflecting pond, as he calls it, pales in comparison to the ballroom that he also now wants the
34:35American taxpayer to buy for him.
34:37Politico reports that the Secret Service director, Sean Curran, met with GOP senators at a closed door lunch on Tuesday
34:43and walked them through a one billion dollar funding request.
34:47One billion dollars for this agency, providing a handout to GOP senators breaking down the funding.
34:54I don't know if you remember, wasn't that long ago when donors were going to pay for this, when Donald
34:58Trump kept telling you that there wasn't going to be a single taxpayer dollar involved in this.
35:02Trump was asked about all of this today by our reporter, my colleague, MSNOW White House correspondent, Akayla Gardner.
35:12So what happened is we have a ballroom that's under budget.
35:16It's going up right here. I've doubled the size of it because we obviously need that.
35:21And we're right now on budget, under budget and ahead of schedule.
35:27I doubled the size of it, you dumb person.
35:31You are you are not a smart person.
35:36Akayla Gardner is an excellent reporter, as she just demonstrated.
35:39She had her facts. He doubled the price of this thing.
35:43She stuck to them, despite Trump's infantile insults.
35:45The always presidential Trump said this last night about the White House.
35:51It's exciting because this place was not properly taken care of.
35:57I was told by my wife, you have to act presidential.
36:00So don't use foul language. I won't.
36:03Therefore, normally I would have said it was a shithouse.
36:06But I don't want to say that.
36:08The columns were falling down.
36:11The plaster was falling off.
36:13You made a speech and I was saying, couldn't you fix up the paint job up there?
36:17You know, it looked a little. And this place is tippy top now.
36:23Tippy top.
36:24Trump is also plowing ahead with his plan for a 250 foot tall arch.
36:28Despite a lawsuit, the Associated Press confirms that preliminary work began on that arch today.
36:34And the spending plan for it for it released last month confirmed that the White House plans to use, again,
36:3915 million dollars of your taxpayer money to partially pay for this latest Trump vanity project.
36:46Joining us now is Tim O'Brien, senior executive editor for Bloomberg Opinion, author of Trump Nation.
36:51He's an MSNOW political analyst.
36:52It is very developing world dictator-y, right?
36:57The face on the National Park passes and the signing of checks and the Trump, the Kennedy Center and the
37:05Triumphal Arch and, you know, all this kind of stuff.
37:08But what do you make of this?
37:10It's both ridiculous, but it actually costs you and me money.
37:15Right. It would be dictator-y in any part of the world, not just in the developing world.
37:20That's a good point. Yes.
37:21And the thing that's, you know, missing here, Ali, is just transparent public accounting around all these projects.
37:28We've had a number of them, you know, the Trump Library in Florida, the Ballroom, now the Reflecting Pool,
37:38all of which have started with a low ball number that has escalated in front of the public.
37:43The burden of paying for it has transited away from private individuals, as Trump claimed when he begins these projects.
37:50And then it gets laid off on the taxpayer.
37:52So that's the first problem.
37:54The second problem is we don't know where the money is ultimately going.
37:58Is it going into the hands of friends of Trump in every single case?
38:03Is any of it getting kicked back to the White House?
38:05Is it going to be kept?
38:06Is it a cost overrun?
38:08Or is it coming in under budget and Trump keeps the excess?
38:11We don't know any of it.
38:13The common thread around the ballroom and the Reflecting Pond and his library in Florida and possibly the Triumphal Arch
38:24is all of them are grips.
38:27Yeah, because the Reflecting Pond and the White House, I mean, his argument for the Reflecting Pond and the White
38:32House condition is that they needed repair.
38:36And he might be right on that.
38:37He might be right.
38:38But the point is there are governmental structures to deal with that.
38:42And he can fight with them.
38:42He can say to the facilities people, this is not moving fast enough.
38:45This place looks like a dump.
38:46You need to deal with it.
38:47But there's a there's a public accountability process that one would go through to get these things fixed or improved.
38:54That's nonpartisan.
38:55You know, this isn't an ideological issue.
38:57It is about good government.
38:59If Barack Obama had picked up five dollars on a sidewalk, the Republicans would be going nuts over that.
39:05You have a president and his family who are harvesting billions of dollars that they only have access to because
39:12he's sitting in the Oval Office.
39:13It's a betrayal of the public trust.
39:15It is it is smearing the dignity of the office.
39:20And Trump, as he has in so many different paths in his presidency, keeps finding these holes in the Constitution
39:28or in ethics codes or in the law that allow him to do whatever he wants to do.
39:33You know, and in the ballroom case, the reason they're making a national security claim for it now, I think,
39:39is simply so he can act unilaterally in spending any amount of money he wants on it without congressional oversight.
39:46Yet another moment in which he's taking the power of the purse away from the Congress.
39:50And when he takes the power of the purse away from the Congress, he's using it to fill his own
39:55wallet, it would appear.
39:56Right. But but but but on every level, every time he does it, it strengthens his argument to do it
40:02the next time again, which the AP is reporting.
40:06We've got to watch out because we're we're basically setting this up for future presidents to be able to look
40:10at this thing as a as an ATM.
40:12Tim, good to see you as always. Thank you for joining us.
40:14Political analyst Tim O'Brien. We'll be right back.
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