00:00...tap a guy from the mortgage business with zero intel experience
00:03to be the crucial Director of National Intelligence.
00:07And we're going to have much more on that in a moment.
00:09They're also, though, extremely frustrated about his $1.8 billion defense fund for his allies.
00:13So much so that they stood up on that and they got it killed.
00:16And they thought that it was dead.
00:18They thought that they had gotten that one to go away.
00:21But today Trump says it could be back in this disturbing exchange with our Caitlin Collins.
00:27Mr. President, can you explain why you decided to drop the Anti-Weaponization Fund?
00:33So, I love it.
00:34I think it's so important.
00:36People were, this is a victim right here, but not only a victim, he was also a student of it.
00:42What happened to great people, great American people, the way they were victimized, the way they were savaged,
00:50you're not even going to believe, some of you will believe it, like CNN will believe it
00:54because they knew what was going on.
00:55They're crooked as hell.
00:58CNN's a very corrupt organization, but with a corrupt reporter standing right there.
01:04Never smiles.
01:05You never see a young, beautiful woman.
01:07Never smiles.
01:08I never see a smile off her face.
01:10Just to clarify on what you were asked earlier, is the $1.8 billion DOJ fund dead, or is it
01:15on hold?
01:17It's, I'd have to ask the lawyers.
01:19I don't know.
01:19I know one thing, the weaponization, are you talking about the weaponization fund?
01:23Yeah, what's your decision?
01:24The weaponization fund, as far as I'm concerned, was a beautiful thing.
01:32A beautiful thing.
01:33Well, that beautiful thing almost derailed his entire domestic agenda because Republicans did
01:37not think it was beautiful.
01:38They called it, in fact, these are Republican quotes, utterly stupid, morally wrong, a slush fund,
01:42and they vowed to, quote, kill it.
01:44And they thought that they had, but now you just heard that exchange.
01:46It's unsure if the fund is dead, despite what Trump's acting attorney general said under oath.
01:54We are not moving forward with the fund.
01:56Not moving forward ever.
01:58Correct.
02:01Well, maybe that's news to the president, right?
02:03Not moving forward ever.
02:03He was definitive there, but the president now says it's a beautiful thing, and he loves it.
02:07He's got to see what the lawyers say.
02:09So in the midst of all of that, right, and that derogatory exchange, the combative nature of that press conference,
02:14I did want to point out something, which is that even with all of that happening,
02:18and even with the blow that Trump took from Congress today from his own Republican Party
02:22on the Iran war, Trump did have something he really did want to talk about today, and it was this.
02:29Well, these are, they just had this done.
02:33You're getting a first glimpse.
02:35A first glimpse.
02:36So what is he talking about?
02:37Let me just show you.
02:39It's a poster of the reflecting pool, and you can see on a nice, big, fancy poster board,
02:45comparing it to skyscrapers, the Empire State Building, One World Trade, and what was known
02:49as the Sears Tower in Chicago.
02:51That is what he wanted to present today.
02:54Kristen Holmes is out front, live outside the White House.
02:57And Kristen, I know you're learning new information tonight about how some inside Trump world are
03:02viewing this rebuke from the House tonight, where Trump failed on the Iran war in terms
03:08of what he wanted from his own party.
03:11Yeah, Erin, I mean, when I'm talking to these various White House officials and Trump allies,
03:15there is a huge amount of concern that this is just the beginning, the beginning of the
03:19pushback from the Republican Party.
03:20When you look at that vote, you see four Republicans voting with Democrats.
03:24Can you imagine a time six months ago when you would see four Republicans siding with Democrats?
03:29No, you can't, because you see the frustration that is mounting within the Republican Party,
03:33and they're getting more and more pushback.
03:35And the other thing to keep in mind here is when we've been talking to the Trump administration,
03:39to various officials, they always believed that if, in fact, Democrats were going to win
03:45in November, everything would be grinded to a halt.
03:48So they were going to try to squeeze in as much legislation as they possibly could before
03:54January, before that new Congress is sworn in.
03:56But now you're starting to see pushback on all of these various things,
03:59all part of Trump's agenda from his own party.
04:03And that's where the real concern is.
04:04Can they even govern now when he controls both the House and the Senate?
04:09And as you noted, this isn't happening in a vacuum.
04:11It's not just about Iran, although I will tell you from the sources I talked to,
04:14they are so angry about this war.
04:16They are so angry that it is not over.
04:18Even people who supported him, voted for him, who still stand by him publicly,
04:23have told me they can't believe this is still happening.
04:26They feel like it was a self-inflicted wound.
04:28But as I said, it's not a vacuum.
04:30We also saw what happened with that $1.8 billion, million dollar fund,
04:34the weaponization fund, this idea that Republicans were livid about this, pushing back.
04:40Again, not something you would have seen six or eight months ago.
04:43So,
04:44So,
04:44So,
04:44So,
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