- 2 days ago
If you love my videos and want to support me, please follow me. thanks for watching.!!!
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:01Tonight on All In.
00:03It's like watching The Sopranos and waking up and what is the scam of the day?
00:08This is corruption versus democracy.
00:11From the ballroom to the Trump phone to the arc to Trump.
00:16They're breaking ground.
00:17Look, this is the East Wing ballroom all over again.
00:20Tonight, the growing alarm over what looks like a taxpayer slush fund for Trump.
00:26The outrage about this exceeds all the normal outrages.
00:30This is like another stage of craziness.
00:33And just what exactly did Donald Trump accomplish in China?
00:38What's the most significant, specific thing you walk away from here for the U.S.?
00:44I think the most important thing is relationship.
00:48And meet the Alabama urologist running point for the Trump administration on the antivirus?
00:55But All In starts right now.
01:02Good evening from New York.
01:03I'm Chris Hayes.
01:03Donald Trump has made a long, long career and a whole bunch of money selling crap to people
01:08unfortunate enough to believe that Trump is some sort of premium made in America kind of brand.
01:12I mean, that, you know, before the reality show, before politics, like that was a big part of it.
01:18Right.
01:18And so they buy up his made in China hats and his made in China ties and now his made
01:23in America.
01:23But we're not really sure where they are made or even if they exist.
01:26Gold colored Trump cell phones.
01:29Have you heard about this one?
01:30After a week of stories of how Trump mobile took deposits from hundreds of thousands of people and never delivered
01:38their phones.
01:39Today, the company released a video saying they're on their way.
01:43Right. And yeah, we're not sure that's made in America.
01:47We're not even sure that's not AI.
01:49More on that in a minute because the much bigger Trump scheme, the one where he moves from hawking cheap
01:54goods to raiding the U.S.
01:55Treasury.
01:56Well, we've got a new big development on that one today.
01:58As we have been covering here on this program, Donald Trump is attempting to pull off a slow motion heist
02:05in broad daylight of billions of dollars.
02:09And now a group of court appointed legal experts are saying it stinks to high heaven.
02:14But it all goes back to that 10 billion dollar lawsuit Trump filed against the IRS, which he controls, claiming
02:21they should not.
02:22They should have done more to prevent a leak of his tax returns in 2020.
02:25Earlier this week, we told you how reporting indicated that Trump's DOJ was reportedly preparing to settle Trump's 10 billion
02:33dollar lawsuit.
02:34How Trump said whatever money his government gave him would go to charity.
02:38Then yesterday, sources told ABC News that, no, there's no money for charity.
02:43Surprise.
02:44Instead, Trump would drop his lawsuit in exchange for, and I quote here, total authority to hand out approximately one
02:51point seven billion dollars in taxpayer funds to settle claims brought by anyone who alleges they were harmed by Biden's
02:58administration's weaponization legal system.
03:01That sure sounds like a slush fund filled with almost two billion dollars of your taxpayer money to pay out
03:07his MAGA buddies, including, God, I don't know, the ones that beat up the cops and concussed them.
03:14All along, the judge who has been assigned this lawsuit has expressed deep, and I would even say warranted skepticism
03:22about the constitutionality of all this.
03:25I mean, think about it for a second.
03:26The constitution requires cases to be cases or controversies, right?
03:31Some adversarial dispute, some conflict.
03:34But think about what this is.
03:36It's Donald Trump on one side demanding your money and Donald Trump on the other side in charge of your
03:41money.
03:42Is that adversarial?
03:44And so the judge ordered lawyers to brief her by next week, independent of the two parties, on how the
03:50two parties could truly be adversarial.
03:52She did something that's fairly rare.
03:54She actually recruited six outside attorneys to weigh in on the legal issues because she can't depend on the Department
03:59of Justice or on the plaintiff here, Donald Trump, because, again, one in the same entity, effectively.
04:03MS now obtained the brief that those, again, outside experts put together.
04:07These are not people with some sort of axe to grind.
04:10It's a scorcher.
04:12Quote, this case is unprecedented.
04:14Well, yes.
04:15A sitting president seeks monetary damages for alleged harm to his personal interests from an executive agency that he controls.
04:21They went on to cast many, many doubts on how adversarial the two parties in the suit can actually be.
04:28Adversity is obviously absent where one party is, in fact, on both sides of the suit.
04:35With respect to these defendants specifically, the president's capacity for control is extraordinary.
04:39President Trump's own statements suggest he believes he has control over the defendants and the DOJ lawyers charged with defending
04:47this case.
04:48If the circumstances raise the specter, the defendants and their attorney may instead be operating at the president's direction.
04:55In other words, boy, it sure looks like a shakedown.
04:58This is just Exhibit A in the daily dispatch of the Trump corruption.
05:02The president's return to Washington, where Republicans in Congress are preparing to push through, on a party-line vote in
05:09a rare reconciliation bill, his billion-dollar ballroom request.
05:13We're going to be talking with the congressman who's leading the fight against that in just a moment.
05:17But just think about this.
05:19One of Trump's big takeaways from his summit with the Chinese premier, amid dozens, hundreds of pressing issues between the
05:26two largest economies on Earth, two nations in a fraught, tense, complicated relationship.
05:32What's his big takeaway?
05:33His big takeaway was that they have a ballroom.
05:37So naturally, he should get a ballroom.
05:39I'm not making that up.
05:40He literally posted about it, quote, China has a ballroom, and so should the USA.
05:45The man I am walking with is President Xi of China, one of the world's great leaders.
05:51Learned a lot from the summit.
05:53Great cultural exchange.
05:54The big, beautiful ballroom.
05:56It's not the only taxpayer money vanity project.
05:58Just to be clear, he's already starting on the next one, which is, of course, the Arc de Trump, a
06:04250-foot victory arch.
06:06Victory for what?
06:07God knows.
06:07Planned in Washington, just across from Arlington National Cemetery.
06:11He likes to play with the little models like a little boy.
06:14Earlier this week, the man who oversees that site, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, appeared to testify to Congress that,
06:21everyone slow down, don't listen to fake news, the Arch was still just an idea in its formative stage.
06:31Who is the Arch being built for?
06:36The frame of your question is that there has been an approved proposal and something is actually being built.
06:44There is a proposal to build this Arch.
06:47Who is it for?
06:50There's a discussion about it.
06:51I wouldn't say there's not a proposal.
06:53Who is it for?
06:54Well, for the American people.
06:56Well, obviously.
06:57I mean, if it gets built, it would be for the American people.
07:00It's not a vanity project for the guy who put his name on it.
07:03And it's a discussion, a brainstorming session.
07:06Run it up the flagpole and see if it catches wind.
07:08It's being noodled around, sir.
07:11The congressman in that exchange, Jared Huffman of California, traveled to that site yesterday.
07:17And he found the ground had already been broken.
07:22They're breaking ground.
07:23In furtherance of this Arch to Trump monument that the president is stubbornly pushing ahead with,
07:33without congressional approval, without following the law, without a public notice,
07:37without doing the things they promised Judge Chutkin they would do.
07:40So, look, this is the East Wing ballroom all over again.
07:44And the American people are fed up with this kind of stuff.
07:48Do you believe that Secretary Burgum perjured himself in front of the committee yesterday about the status of this?
07:53He came pretty damn close to it.
07:56Just like the East Wing, remember when Trump said there would be some renovations and then it was gone, like,
08:0136 hours later?
08:03All this comes as Trump's family continues to grift as aggressively as possible off their name, including Eric Trump,
08:09the guy who runs a family business who was also inexplicably on the presidential official state trip to China,
08:15who is also helping to oversee Trump Mobile.
08:17A year ago, Trump Mobile took $100 deposits for a gold Trump phone, nearly $60 million in total of MAGA
08:26diehard's money.
08:28Now they're supposedly getting around to shipping something out to customers.
08:34Introducing the new T1 phone from Trump Mobile, a powerful device designed for performance, reliability, and real American value.
08:43Unlike many modern flagship devices, the T1 includes a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack,
08:49allowing users to utilize their existing audio equipment.
08:53Just what you need on your latest phone, a jack for your old-timey wired headphones.
08:57As CNN reports, the $499 Trump phone, officially known as the Trump Mobile T1,
09:03and strongly resembling a Chinese phone that retails for less than $200 at Walmart,
09:08is not quite what the Trump organization initially promised.
09:12The smartphone will have a smaller screen and less memory storage,
09:15but the crucial Trump brand and golden hue appear to remain in place.
09:19You never get what you pay for, but you will pay.
09:23It's the Trump guarantee.
09:25Lisa Rubin is MSNOW's senior legal reporter.
09:27She's been following all the latest in Trump's IRS lawsuit, and she joins me now.
09:31It's great to have you here.
09:32Thanks for having me.
09:33So, just explain this, because it is strange, right?
09:35So you've got two parties, right?
09:36The president is suing the government, the IRS,
09:39and then the IRS has lawyers through the Department of Justice.
09:41Those are the two parties.
09:42And the judge is like, wait a second.
09:44Seems like you guys are kind of the same party.
09:45I need to get someone else outside of this little duo.
09:49Yeah, and, you know, I want to say, that in and of itself is not that unusual.
09:52We see the Supreme Court do that sometimes.
09:54A new administration comes in.
09:56The administration decides that it's no longer adverse to the people who are bringing the lawsuit.
10:00And then the court will say, hey, we're going to bring in X other lawyer here
10:04who's an experienced Supreme Court advocate to defend that other position.
10:07What's particularly unusual here is what the case is fundamentally about.
10:12It's a $10 billion case for damages brought by President Trump and his sons and certain of his companies
10:18saying that the leak of taxpayer-related information from him caused him $10 billion in damages.
10:25And the idea that there is adversity in that lawsuit, given, again, what the amici here,
10:32the friends of the court appointed by the judge, have said, you know, given the Trump family control over the
10:41government right now,
10:42given what they have said about that, the idea that this lawsuit should stand is kind of preposterous.
10:47I mean, they cite, I mean, it's, again, this isn't theoretical.
10:50Trump has talked about it and has made comments like, it's kind of crazy, I'm paying myself.
10:54Like, literally has said verbatim, almost sort of shrugging, winking, like, boy, kind of wild that I'm on both sides
11:00of it.
11:01Yeah.
11:02And, you know, the other thing about this that's really bizarre, I mean, there are multiple bizarre things about this,
11:07but there are federal regulations that say you cannot, as a public official, request the IRS to either conduct an
11:15audit of a particular person
11:16or desist an audit of a particular person.
11:18And so the very terms of the settlement here, put aside the fact that the lawsuit is not a case
11:24or controversy,
11:24the very terms of the settlement that they're discussing are themselves seem to be a violation of existing federal regulation.
11:31That's a great point.
11:32I mean, the people, these were sort of a cross-section of extremely credentialed lawyers, right?
11:36Yes.
11:36It's not like, this is just like, hey, here's some people who are experts, really know what they're doing, respected,
11:42long careers.
11:43No, six-plus people, all of whom have different experiences coming to the table.
11:48Former federal judge.
11:49Former experienced federal prosecutor here in the city of New York.
11:52And they're all kind of like, yeah, I've never seen anything like this, which I think is true.
11:54There's just no precedent here.
11:56There is no precedent for it, but I want to say something about the courts.
11:58You know, we spend a lot of time talking about how this institution is failing, that institution is failing,
12:03and typically we say that about the executive branch and the legislative branch.
12:07But the judiciary is holding, right?
12:08That's a theme that we hear a lot here.
12:10The judiciary can only hold to the extent that the executive branch and Congress are not being effuscatory
12:16or, like, actually trying to circumvent them.
12:19And that's what's happening here.
12:20Because even if Judge Kathleen Williams, who has this lawsuit, decides she has no jurisdiction,
12:25there is nothing stopping Trump and the Department of Justice from reaching this so-called settlement
12:32using the judgment fund operated by the Treasury Department.
12:35Okay.
12:35But couldn't she say this does not, this is not a case for controversy, I'm kicking out,
12:40I'm getting rid of, I'm dismissing the lawsuit, right?
12:43You're saying that even if she were to dismiss the lawsuit, they could do a settlement?
12:46Sure, because people, I mean, one thing that I think our viewers don't always understand.
12:50People settle without lawsuits all the time.
12:51Correct.
12:52And the judgment fund that exists here, which is the pool of money that the New York Times
12:57has reported that Trump would use for this $1.7 billion slush fund, it can be used not
13:03only to settle existing lawsuits, but imminent lawsuits as well.
13:07He has zeroed in to a degree that you almost have to kind of tip your cap.
13:12Yes.
13:13On the settlement as a colorably legal vector for any kind of wild convoluted interest, payment,
13:26policy, corruption, bribes, whatever you want to call it, the settlement can be anything.
13:30You threaten a lawsuit and then someone says, I'm going to do this, I'm going to change my policy,
13:33I'm going to fire this person, I'm going to give you money.
13:35Executive order.
13:36Right.
13:36And the settlement is you owe the federal government your legal services and a variety
13:41of different causes that he thinks are important.
13:43I'm going to lose my mind if this happens.
13:45I'm just saying it right now.
13:46Like, it is, I just find it to be the most astonishingly brazen thing I think I've seen
13:52from him, which is saying something.
13:53Yeah.
13:54But, you know, the other thing about this is that's really astonishingly brazen is who it's
13:58going to reward.
13:59You were talking about the fact that the people who stormed the Capitol are going to be the beneficiaries
14:02here, and the New York Times describes them as, in MAGA world, they're thought of as survivors.
14:07Right.
14:08What about the Epstein survivors who want a private right of action to sue the Department
14:11of Justice for the damage they've done?
14:13Great point.
14:13Lisa Rubin, thank you.
14:15Congressman Brendan Boyle, Democrat of Pennsylvania, serves as a ranking member of the House Budget
14:18Committee, and he joins me now.
14:19Let me just start on that, Congressman, because my colleague just pointed out that the money
14:24this would be paid out to is sort of pre-appropriated because basically the government has a settlement
14:30fund, and that makes a certain kind of sense because you wouldn't want to go to Congress
14:33to appropriate every settlement.
14:35In this case, though, my God.
14:37I mean, if they're really going to do this, is there a means to block it, I guess, for
14:42the Article I branch that has power of the purse?
14:46Well, my first reaction after listening to the last very frustrating and angering segment,
14:52because the idea of anyone who was an insurrectionist on January 6th getting one dime of taxpayer
14:59money is utterly disgusting.
15:01But my reaction was, in terms of who should be getting money, what about the 140 U.S.
15:06Capitol Police officers who sustained injuries, many of whom sustained very serious injuries,
15:12and, of course, a few died later, died by suicide right after the insurrection?
15:17How about they and their families get some sort of compensation and not the criminals who
15:23actually perform those violent acts?
15:25In terms of what Congress can do to prevent this, I actually think we do need to look at
15:30legislation to prevent any further settlement by the Justice Department.
15:35Maybe we really do need congressional approval for any future settlements, because if this becomes
15:41a precedent, why wouldn't any future president drive really a big hole through that precedent
15:48and just use it as a legal way to do corruption?
15:51Yes.
15:52Although I doubt, well, you know what, I was going to say something, and I won't even say
15:55it, because I jinxed myself, that we won't have anyone ever as corrupt as Donald Trump in
15:59office again.
16:00Let's talk about the ballroom.
16:02You know, this is an ultimate, I mean, this is like watching three-card money, but a very
16:06slow, almost drunken version of it.
16:08It's not like particularly swift, it's not particularly deft, we all see it.
16:14Oh, it's this new thing, we're going to renovate, oh, it's a ballroom, oh, it's private donors,
16:19oh, it's not going to be that big, oh, it's much bigger, oh, now we need a billion dollars
16:22of private money.
16:23Republicans say that, oh, it's the billion dollars is not for the private money, but we
16:27have the line item, you know, for the budget line items.
16:30It's hardening, it's security screening facility, enhancements or Secret Service, I mean, it's
16:35all stuff around the ballroom, correct?
16:39Yeah, that's right, and I had an amendment on the House floor I offered that Republicans
16:43unfortunately defeated that would have prevented any taxpayer money going toward this ridiculous
16:49vanity project of a ballroom.
16:51I mean, it's absolutely remarkable the Republican priorities right now.
16:54You have a president who just a few days ago openly admitted repeatedly that he doesn't
16:59think about or care about the financial lives and the hardships of the American people, and
17:05then has turned around and asked for one billion dollars of our taxpayer money for his ballroom.
17:11Part of me thinks he might be a secret double agent of the DCCC, because I can tell you right
17:16now, a ton of ads this fall will be showing the president's comments from this week, admitting
17:22he just doesn't care.
17:24I walked, the data suggests that we've seen the largest spike in grocery prices since that
17:30sort of worst spike that we saw in 21-22, right, post-COVID, over the last month.
17:36Huge spike.
17:36I walked past a food pantry today with a line around the block, right?
17:41Like, it's real.
17:43People are squeezed.
17:44We've seen the first time that inflation has eaten away all of people's wage gains.
17:51Are they really going to pass a billion dollars for his freaking gilded ballroom on a party line vote?
17:58Like, you know, there's been some rumblings that there's some people who are not so happy.
18:03Steve Scalise asked about alarm from some of his GOP members, said there's a lot of meetings going on.
18:08Like, are they really going to do this?
18:11Well, I have to say, every time to this point that I've asked that question about other sort
18:17of egregious and absurd things, sadly, the answer has been yes.
18:21Yes.
18:21Because so many of my Republican colleagues, more than 99 percent of them in Congress,
18:26frankly, are so afraid about a mean tweet coming from this president that they're willing to go
18:32along with pretty much anything and everything.
18:35I will say they shouldn't vote for this if they were politically smart, especially the two dozen
18:40that are in close races this November.
18:42You know, one thing I will say is, you know, the president has his priority.
18:47They also understand this is priority.
18:48I mean, it could not be clearer.
18:50The thing that he is laser focused on above all else.
18:54I mean, he comes back from China like there's a lot of stuff to work out in China.
18:58It's like his takeaway is the ballroom.
19:00You get him talking for five minutes.
19:02He can't stay away from the ballroom.
19:04All he wants to do is talk about the ballroom.
19:07So I also think part of it is members of Congress understand that, like, the president
19:11has one legislative priority right now, and that's to build his gilded ballroom bunker,
19:15I think.
19:17That's exactly right.
19:18I mean, Donald Trump, by his own admission, doesn't care about you, doesn't care about
19:23your finances.
19:24He just cares about his big, beautiful ballroom.
19:26Meanwhile, you have the biggest jump in gas prices in a month-over-month period since
19:31the 1960s, and the lowest consumer confidence ever recorded in a survey that goes back to
19:371952.
19:38People are really hurting right now, and we have a president and congressional Republicans
19:42who admit they just don't care.
19:45Congressman Brendan Boyle is on the Budget Committee.
19:48Thank you very much.
19:49Coming up, can you really solve the world's problem without a single woman in the room?
19:54Not one.
19:54Not a single one.
19:55Again, look, more on this absolutely stunning image from China next.
20:06So you may or may not have seen this picture from yesterday from the big summit in China.
20:12Donald Trump and his delegation of American officials meeting yesterday in Beijing with
20:16Xi Jinping and the Chinese delegation.
20:17This is the big one.
20:18And I came across this picture today.
20:21Again, I don't know how widely this circulated, but look at it for a second, okay?
20:27Unremarkable in some ways about what you would imagine, like formal room.
20:30You can see about 25 people from the two largest economies in the world, two of the most powerful
20:35nations on Earth, sitting in on one of the most consequential diplomatic meeting of decades,
20:40representing between them like one and a half billion people.
20:43Well, let's look a little closer.
20:46What you do not see is a single woman, not one, not one.
20:51In the year of our Lord, 2026, in the 21st century, a quarter of the way through,
20:56as these two nations encounter each other, there isn't a woman in the room, not one at the table.
21:0211 men on the American side, 13 men on the Chinese side.
21:06Obviously, we cannot control who gets sent to the Chinese delegation, but take a look at our side again.
21:11What else don't you see on the American side?
21:13Almost no one who is not white, not a single black person.
21:19Of course, that is not an accident for Trump.
21:22That's the whole project.
21:24We see it nearly every single day.
21:26The attacks on the Voting Rights Act that seek to essentially purge all black members of Congress
21:31from the old Confederacy, to the firings and demotions happening in the Department of Justice
21:35and the Department of Defense.
21:36Look at that chart.
21:37Look at that chart.
21:39To the latest round of attacks on schools this administration has launched
21:43that have committed the sin of having too many black students.
21:49Laura Bassett's an award-winning journalist and author of the Nightcap newsletter.
21:52On Substack, Nicole Hannah-Jones, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist,
21:55a staff writer in New York Times Magazine, where she, of course, created the 1619 Project.
21:58She also holds a night share in race and journalism at Howard University, and they join me now.
22:03I just want to take a beat with the photo.
22:05I really, I got wound up when I saw it today.
22:07Same.
22:09Really, like, I think I was partly wound up because I saw it and I didn't, it took me a
22:13second, you know?
22:14And then I was like, wow, that's so messed up that it didn't register at first,
22:18and then it registered five seconds later.
22:20But what's your reaction to looking at that?
22:21I mean, it just feels like they're not even trying to pretend anymore.
22:26You know, like, at the beginning, he kind of appointed a couple of women to cabinet positions,
22:30women who he saw defending him on Fox News.
22:33Maybe he liked their look.
22:34He liked how loyal they were.
22:35They were the first to go when things started going awry.
22:38It's also, yes, that is also notable, right?
22:40Like, who's gotten the ax?
22:41Right.
22:42Pam Bondi's.
22:43Pam Bondi.
22:44Christy Noem, the Labor Secretary, who a few people have heard of.
22:47Laurie Chauvet around.
22:48Yes.
22:49But now, now it's just gloves off.
22:52We are a party for white men, by white men.
22:56That's how we want to run the country.
22:57That's what we want to project.
22:59They equate strength with masculinity, which is interesting because it's not really working, right?
23:04We're losing a war.
23:05The economy's in free fall.
23:06Yes.
23:06Things are going very, very badly despite this impressive display of white men at the table.
23:11You know, Nicole, I mean, there's been this very fraught and, I think, sort of squishy
23:17conversation about, like, merit and meritocracy and affirmative action and all that stuff.
23:22You just can't tell me when I look at that photo that, like, the side on the American
23:27delegation is, like, the best American I can offer.
23:31I'm sorry.
23:32It's like, and, you know, what it means for this country that that's who represents us
23:38and literally is at the table.
23:40Yeah, I mean, I know we're kind of joking, but I also know you know that this is very
23:46serious.
23:46I really want to, like, emphasize what you said, is that this is not a mistake.
23:51It's not an oversight.
23:53It's not incidental.
23:54They are projecting onto the world stage their worldview.
23:58And that's one where the racial and gender and class hierarchies have been set upright, right?
24:05It's essential that we're, like, absolutely clear about that, that this is what Make America Great is about.
24:11It's about repealing the 60s.
24:13It's about returning us to a United States that's a pre-civil rights, pre-women's rights, pre-gay rights, pre
24:19-immigration rights America.
24:21And that this is a white man's country where every position of leadership and authority is going to be held
24:28by white men and where white men only have to compete with other white men for power.
24:34So what they want, Chris, is an antithesis of a meritocracy, but they're not, you know, they're not ashamed of
24:41that.
24:41They're projecting the new, old American world order that they're trying to reinstate through law and policy and war and
24:49diplomacy.
24:49And so we have to be really clear about that so that we can be clear about the struggle ahead,
24:54because that America was not a fair society.
24:56It wasn't a free society. It certainly wasn't a democratic society.
24:59It was a violent and vastly unequal society that required kind of constant repression of oppressed groups and minority rule.
25:09And that's the America that they want the world to see us as and that they're frankly trying to take
25:13us back to.
25:14Which also, I got to say, also lit enormous, incomprehensible amounts of human talent on the bonfire of essentially prejudice,
25:24right?
25:24Like, that's the other thing is, like, there's lots of, like, smart people out there.
25:29Yeah.
25:29There are a lot of smart women. There's a lot of smart black people.
25:31There's a lot of smart and talented people from every single last, you know, background.
25:39And what you get is you get Pete Hegseth at the Department of Defense, right?
25:43Right.
25:43And there's also just, like, the vibe of it, too, which I keep thinking about.
25:47He does these. It's not just that room.
25:49It's he does these.
25:51Every day he does some event in the West Wing.
25:54And you look and it's just all these dudes.
25:56It feels like Tony and the boys in the back of Bada Bing.
26:00Yeah.
26:01Like, that is the vibe of what's going on.
26:04You have to look at the optics.
26:05And when there are women, they're standing behind Trump.
26:08There was a conference, a press conference on fertility the other day.
26:12Trump calls himself now the father of fertility.
26:14He had a couple of white women standing behind him.
26:17And before they were allowed to speak, he said, by the way, y'all, y'all talk fast.
26:21Make this basically make this go quick.
26:23I have better places to be.
26:25He doesn't want women speaking at all unless it's absolutely necessary for the topic at hand.
26:30And they're standing behind him.
26:31And Nicole, there's just two headlines just in the last two days.
26:34Right.
26:34So, again, to your point, like this is that, you know, there's there's optics.
26:37There's the actual people that are put in power and who's at the table.
26:40Then there's the policy.
26:41So just the last two days.
26:43This happened today.
26:44Federal civil rights watchdog.
26:45The EEOC is going to stop tracking data on race and sex.
26:48Right.
26:49So just collecting the data to find out the degree of diversity in workplaces, the degree
26:55of of of racial integration, the degree of gender equity.
26:59And then the Department of Justice has now launched a, you know, an investigation.
27:04They've launched a bunch of these against Yale Med School, saying it's determined against
27:07Asian white applicants, basically saying they had too many black and Latino, you know,
27:12folks at Yale Med School.
27:14And this has become kind of what the civil rights tools of enforcement in this department
27:19have been sort of inverted and turned on their head in the same way the jurisprudence of the
27:23Voting Rights Act has been.
27:26Yes.
27:27I mean, again, that's why it's way more than the optics.
27:31The optics are just affirming for us what the policies and the legal landscape is going
27:37to look like.
27:38And they are projecting into the future of the America that they are trying to create.
27:43So you're absolutely right that, one, this was the problem with racism and sexism, is
27:49it you didn't get the most qualified people.
27:51You can't tell me in the whole history of the United States.
27:54There's never been a woman qualified for president.
27:56There's only been one black man.
27:58You know, the Supreme Court, which has only ever had, what, three women on or four women
28:03on the entire history of the Supreme Court and two black justices.
28:06So it's never been about meritocracy.
28:09It's just that language is comforting to us.
28:11That language is hard to challenge.
28:13They are trying to build a country of exclusion that we have already lived in.
28:18They are trying to drag us back to that time.
28:20And so it's important to point out the optics, but it's much, much more important to point
28:24out the policies that are undergirding the optics and that we don't accept either.
28:29Yeah, I agree.
28:31It's something about the perfect sort of expression of where we are in this summit today.
28:36Again, a summit that, to go back to the point of meritocracy, appeared to have accomplished
28:42nothing.
28:43So, like, you know, all the brilliant minds there cogitating on this.
28:48It's not like there's some amazing takeaways from it.
28:50Laura Bassett, Nicole Hannah-Jones, thank you both.
28:54Still to come, meet the Alabama urologist leading the Trump response to Hantavirus.
29:00I wish that sentence were made up, but it's not.
29:02What's next?
29:09So you may have heard a little bit about the Hantavirus outbreak linked to a cruise ship
29:13that some other networks have been covering wall to wall.
29:15As far as we can tell, as of now, the risk seems pretty low.
29:18But it is certainly fair for people to be concerned, especially considering what happened the last
29:23time Donald Trump was president when he completely botched the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
29:28This time around, though, the Trump administration says we can rest easy.
29:32The virus does not seem contagious.
29:34And they've got their top people on the case, including Donald Trump's assistant secretary
29:40for health at HHS.
29:42That's him in the white naval uniform, Dr. Brian Christine.
29:44Now, prior to joining the administration, he did have some public health experience,
29:50but he was probably better known for his other job.
29:55We are back for another episode of the Erection Connection.
29:58This is number 44.
30:00Does a penile implant make a man's penis shorter?
30:05Well, welcome to another live stream event on Facebook and YouTube.
30:10OK, yes.
30:12Before being plucked to help run RFK Jr.'s department, Brian Christine was a urologist specializing
30:17in penal implants, host of the Erection Connection.
30:20Tip the cap to journalist Andrew Kaczynski for digging that up.
30:23Top credentials, to be sure.
30:25I don't think that's how he got the plum job, however.
30:27It seems it had more to do with his appearances on his other podcast, where he'd share his thoughts
30:32about the COVID vaccine and 2020 election conspiracies.
30:37The government and the left have used the pandemic to control people.
30:42And so when I say that, what I mean is, is that we have been forced as a society to
30:49take
30:49a vaccination that ultimately was proved not to prevent the disease and not to prevent
30:55the spread of the disease.
30:56There is no question that the pandemic was used to influence the outcome of the 2020 elections.
31:02All of this was done to scare people and to make them believe that voting in person was
31:07danger during the pandemic.
31:08And this allows ballot harvesting and the use of illegal ballots.
31:13And there's no question this influenced the outcome of the 2020 election.
31:17And so like so many other weird podcasters, he's been giving a very important job in the
31:24Trump administration.
31:26This is what strong public health system looks like.
31:29Experienced professionals, seamless coordination and a shared commitment to protecting the
31:34American people.
31:36We'll continue to follow the science.
31:38We will stay vigilant and we will keep the public informed every step of the way.
31:43Experienced professionals.
31:45What could possibly go wrong?
31:52Donald Trump is back in Washington after his trip to China and the war with Iran is basically
31:57exactly where it was when he left for his latest excursion.
32:00So what did two days in Beijing sucking up to China's leader Xi Jinping get him?
32:04Nothing, it seems.
32:05I mean, the impasse in Iran continues.
32:07They still control the strait.
32:08We are blockading their blockade.
32:10On Wednesday, Iran did let a Chinese supertanker through.
32:13On Thursday, the very same day Trump was meeting with Xi, Iran a news agency said the country
32:18made a deal to allow more Chinese tankers through.
32:21So Trump is back in the White House after looking like a supplicant in front of Xi.
32:25The national average for gas prices is nearly $5 a gallon.
32:30Diesel fuel is at its all-time high or almost.
32:33And no real end in sight for Americans.
32:36Robert Papes, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, author of the
32:39forthcoming book, Our Own Worst Enemies, America in the Age of Violent Populism.
32:43And he joins me now.
32:45I think these two sort of issues are on, and China are obviously interlinked in many ways.
32:50Let's just start on the China aspect of this, and particularly Taiwan.
32:53You know, this is one of the kind of horniest and strangest parts of American diplomacy.
32:59We have this posture of strategic ambiguity.
33:01We don't say that we'll come to Taiwan's defense if China were to attack, but we sort of
33:06imply it, and we hope they don't, and we sell Taiwan weapons.
33:09What did you think about how Trump handled that core, central part of things?
33:16I think that what happened is Trump spread the strategic disaster that is the Iran war
33:22that already has been spreading in the region to our Gulf allies, into Europe, to Asia.
33:29So what happened is, it's not just that there was no agreement.
33:33It's that given the language, given that Xi is directly talking to Trump about, what do
33:41you think?
33:42Will you defend Taiwan if who attacks it?
33:45We, China, attack.
33:47And Trump is not giving much of an answer.
33:50His silence is speaking volumes.
33:52And then he comes out, and what is the rhetoric?
33:55He, there was an arms transfer deal for Taiwan.
33:59Now that is in limbo.
34:01What this means, Chris, is that the Iran war that's a strategic disaster, because Iran is
34:09gaining power, is causing our allies to shake.
34:13It's causing our rivals and opponents to become emboldened.
34:18And both of those are happening on display in this just 48 hours in Beijing.
34:24It really could not have gone worse in security terms.
34:28So Xi was sort of clear on this.
34:31You said there's an arms sale that's sort of teed up for Congress.
34:34I think they've either approved or are going to approve.
34:37Trump now saying he'll take a look at it.
34:39She was, you know, obviously, this is something he's extremely focused on and has been even
34:42more, let's say, bellicose, both in words and in actions, in terms of what they've done
34:47around the South China Sea and how they've sort of prepared themselves than other leaders.
34:51Here's what he said.
34:51He said the Taiwan issue is the most critical issue in China-U.S. relations, according to
34:55official summary of his remarks to Trump issued by Xinhua, China's state news agency.
35:00If handled poorly, the two countries will collide or even clash, putting the entire U.S.-China
35:04relationship in an extremely dangerous situation.
35:06The U.S. must exercise the utmost caution in handling the Taiwan issue.
35:10What was striking to me was how Trump seemed to be the kind of the passive and conciliatory
35:18party in all the pronouncements, both sort of public and staged and then to U.S. press
35:26on the plane back.
35:28That's right, Chris.
35:29What you're now seeing is Iran is becoming the first war in the post-liberal order.
35:37For 75 years, since World War II, the United States has famously been developing alliances,
35:44institutions to bring stability to where?
35:48Europe and Asia above all else, and also other parts of the world to some extent.
35:54What you're seeing with the Iran war is the liberal order that was starting to come unglued
36:00a year before with President Trump basically attacking the liberal order at every stretch.
36:04Now it's truly coming unglued.
36:07It's not just Trump having some terrorists, which you could put on or off.
36:10It's causing real fear and change in the regions.
36:15And the one region that was more stable than the others was actually Asia.
36:21And I hope that will still be true a few months from now.
36:24But President Trump has just put a gigantic question mark on the island of Taiwan.
36:30Let me play you an exchange you had with Hannity about, you know, there's been reports that
36:36China has been helping Iran in various ways.
36:38Obviously, they have a bilateral relationship.
36:39They have, you know, they have a friendly bilateral relationship with all the sort of complications
36:44that might come from that.
36:45Here's Sean Hannity talking to Trump about that.
36:48Take a listen.
36:50China's support of Iran.
36:53How big a discussion was that today?
36:55We discussed it.
36:57I mean, when you say support, they're not fighting a war with us or anything.
37:02No.
37:02He said he's not going to give military equipment.
37:05That's a big statement.
37:06He said that today.
37:06That's a big statement.
37:08He said that strongly.
37:10But at the same time, he said, you know, they buy a lot of their oil there and they'd like
37:13to keep doing that.
37:14He'd like to see Hormos straight opened.
37:17And I said, well, we didn't stop it.
37:18They did it.
37:19Then we stopped them.
37:22One of the postures here that they have tried to adopt, which I think is a kind of negotiating
37:26posture, but seems transparently absurd, is like, we don't care about the Strait of Hormos.
37:30Right.
37:30This is the official line.
37:32Like, all that goes to Asia.
37:34We got plenty of oil here.
37:36I just like how tenable is that?
37:38I mean, I guess it's like trying to kind of psych everyone into thinking this is real.
37:42But like, it's not the way the world works.
37:44Well, well, well, yeah.
37:46So, Chris, what it is, is it's tenable to about 36 percent, 35 percent of Americans and
37:52increasingly fewer of those.
37:54And that is one of the reasons Trump continues to persist with his victory rhetoric over and
38:02over, because he doesn't want to lose that core part of the MAGA base.
38:06He's actually lost some of it, but that's the part he really doesn't want to lose.
38:11And so when he tries to diminish his fit, the problem of Hormuz, that's a way of saying
38:17my defeat wasn't so bad.
38:19But as you just reported here, right every day when we go to fill up our cars, we're seeing
38:25front and center the cost of gas.
38:28And what's also going to happen pretty soon, Chris, is we're going to start to see inflation
38:33hitting in all kinds of other ways, as you've undoubtedly been showing here as well.
38:39So these costs are going to become smack in the face of every American.
38:44And there is no sign that Iran is surrendering control of the Strait of Hormuz for months.
38:51Imagine, Chris, we go for two years and Iran has not surrendered the Strait of Hormuz.
38:57What's President Trump going to say?
38:59We just need a little more time to break their back?
39:01Well, so here's the chart that I've been looking at, because I think for all there's all this
39:05kind of jawboning that happens, and we watch Trump every Monday before the markets open
39:10being like, we're right on the verge of a deal.
39:12And we've sort of monitored the price of Brent crude and futures.
39:16But here's the physical reality.
39:18This is the Strait of Hormuz crossing since the start of the war, right?
39:22So there used to be like, if you see up there in the upper left hand, there used to be
39:25like
39:25150 a day, basically.
39:27And now on a good day, there's maybe 10 or 15.
39:29So again, that's the reality.
39:31And I guess the question I have for you is, because you have done all this work on the
39:37sort of the kind of trap, right, the escalation trap of air wars, that the thing that you predicted
39:41would happen here, the air war wouldn't achieve the aims.
39:44Now you're stuck.
39:45Now what do you do next?
39:46There's been some reporting.
39:48Zeteo said that the president's thinking about restarting bombing.
39:51He said on the plane today, something like, we just got to more finish up the job.
39:57Do you think that's one likely scenario here is they look at this and they're like,
40:01okay, more military power is necessary?
40:05Chris, I do.
40:06And here's the reason why is it's become quite clear.
40:10All these off ramps President Trump talked about on the first few days of the war are gone.
40:16Iran is not taking a sucker deal.
40:18He's not getting Putin to bail him out.
40:21He just went to meet with Xi basically on bended knee and Xi took advantage of him, not the other
40:27way around.
40:28And so what are you left with?
40:30You're back to the fork in the road that I've been talking to you about now.
40:33And I realize people want to just imagine off ramps.
40:37But either we allow Iran to become the fourth center of world power over the next couple
40:43of years, meaning they control Hormuz and they're going to develop nuclear weapons, or America
40:49has to use military force.
40:51And I think Trump is not wanting to do that.
40:55Now, maybe over time, Chris, we could develop some sort of a third option, but I don't see
41:00that with President Trump and the administration right now.
41:03He's barely able to have a policy week to week, much less a six-month, eight-month policy
41:11to actually try to dig out of the hole.
41:13That's what you would need as a real alternative to what I'm saying.
41:18Well, I vote for a third option if we can come out with one.
41:20Robert Pape, always a pleasure.
41:21Thank you, sir.
41:21I hope so, too.
41:23Stay tuned in just a few minutes.
41:24Jen Psaki will speak to Congressman Jamie Raskin about Trump's out-of-control corruption.
Comments