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00:00Out front next, breaking news. Trump claims he has a deal. Did anyone tell Iran? Plus, Trump fails to get
00:06an unqualified DNI pick in the seat. But who is his new choice tonight? And the UFC extravaganza. Are storm
00:15clouds literally already gathering? Let's go out front.
00:21And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett on this Thursday. And out front tonight, the breaking news. Trump claims there's a
00:27deal. Iran says not so fast.
00:29President Trump in the span of about seven hours careening today from threatening Iran with a land invasion to saying
00:37it's all resolved.
00:40We just made a great settlement of the war with Iran. And we're going to be subject to finalization of
00:49documents.
00:50We should get done over the next few days. Probably have a signing maybe in Europe. And it's a great
00:58thing.
00:59I won't be able to be there, but J.D. will be their vice president and some of the people.
01:06Steve Whitcoff did a great job. Jared.
01:12Wanted to play that out so you could hear all three names, Vance, Whitcoff and Jared.
01:16Remember back in April, Trump claimed that that very same trio, Vance, Whitcoff and Kushner, were on their way back
01:22to Islamabad for peace talks?
01:23He told the New York Post, in fact, this is the quote, they're heading over now. They'll be there tonight.
01:29They were not on their way that night and they have not been there since.
01:32But this is the 39th time, at least, that Trump has said a deal is close.
01:39They're begging to make a deal. I think they want to make a deal very badly.
01:43Iran is dying to make a deal. They want to make a deal so badly.
01:46We're close to a very good deal. We're in the final throes of what will be a very, very good
01:51deal.
01:54So how solid is this alleged deal? Well, here's Trump again today.
02:00You said this was just a concept of that agreement.
02:02So is this just essentially setting the stage for deeper talks on nuclear?
02:06It's a very strong memorandum of understanding.
02:11So a translation basically something like a deal to talk about a possible deal.
02:16So that's one part of this. Then there's the big question of who is the deal with?
02:23Has the Supreme Leader approved this deal, sir?
02:25I understand the answer is yes.
02:29Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson tonight, though, said that reports of a finalized agreement were merely speculation,
02:35saying Tehran has not made a final decision on a deal.
02:38And then the Iranian doubted, quote, U.S. actions are affecting the diplomatic process.
02:41The Americans kept changing their positions.
02:45Now, you can never trust what you're hearing out of Tehran.
02:49But there is a problem here.
02:51I mean, if you look at Trump's wild swings today alone, this morning he posted on social media and I
02:56quote,
02:57the United States will be hitting Iran, all caps, very hard tonight.
03:00He said that this morning.
03:02He said then that we will be taking Karg Island.
03:05OK, so that's all was said today.
03:07And then and then, right, there was a deal and it's all over.
03:09He took it all back.
03:10The wild swings from blowing a civilization off the map to a deal 39 times have, to put it bluntly,
03:16hurt Trump's credibility in a major way.
03:17Just listen to the reporting and commentating on Fox News.
03:22That's nine weeks if we're close to a deal.
03:25I mean, at some point you've got to acknowledge it's not happening.
03:27And he keeps saying we're very close.
03:29We're days away.
03:30And I don't know what that means.
03:32We've heard that for a very long time.
03:36But if Trump is not listening to Fox News, he is listening to the markets.
03:41And the impact of the Strait of Hormuz closure is becoming simply too big for Trump to avoid.
03:45Energy executives warning the White House that key oil reserves are running dangerously low and that high gas prices are
03:51not going away.
03:52And financial markets top analyst Jim Cramer said this today.
03:57He's a highly emotional man that's running in the military.
04:00He is the opposite of General Marshall.
04:05General Marshall, of course, won the war and the peace that followed in World War II.
04:08And by the way, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
04:12Kristen Holmes is out front at the White House to begin our coverage.
04:15And Kristen, what is the latest you're learning there?
04:17Erin, we still don't know if this is going to get across the finish line.
04:20I mean, President Trump was very clear in that meeting in the Oval Office when he was talking to reporters
04:24that it's not a done deal.
04:26Even though he's stopped these strikes, he said he was stepping down because it was imminent.
04:30He also said that it was in pretty final shape.
04:33He also talked a lot about this idea of the conceptual version of this.
04:38He was asked specifically about Enriched Uranium, which I will remind you has been a sticking point for both sides
04:44throughout this entire negotiations.
04:45And he said, conceptually, they have agreed to something.
04:49Now, I do think we need to continue to stress that this is not a peace deal.
04:52This is a memorandum of understanding.
04:55This is the seeds that a peace deal could hopefully grow from.
04:58We are still in the initial steps.
05:00And again, we still do not know if this is going to get across the finish line.
05:04Now, interestingly, President Trump has had a number of phone calls with various leaders of other nations, including Prime Minister
05:10Benjamin Netanyahu.
05:11The reason why that is so fascinating is that we were learning that Netanyahu was taken aback by President Trump's
05:17announcement on social media that this agreement had been approved to.
05:22He was actually in a meeting about Iran and security in Iran and had no idea about any kind of
05:27impending agreement with Iran.
05:30But now he has spoken to President Trump.
05:32I will say we are getting good signs from mediators who say that they think that there's been a breakthrough.
05:37They are cautiously optimistic, although we have heard that before, Erin.
05:43Yes, we have.
05:44All right, Kristen, thank you very much.
05:46And everyone's here with me.
05:47Seth, can I just start with what you're hearing?
05:52Obviously, there's a deal and there's a deal, right?
05:56There's conceptual memorandums of understanding.
05:59And those are very different than an actual deal that ends the war, opens up the Strait of Hormuz, deals
06:03with Iran as a nuclear power and all of the other things.
06:07And at this point, Erin, there is no credible evidence that we have a deal.
06:12And even if there was a deal, it is still unclear if that deal would stick.
06:17So the administration looks like it is deprioritized, eliminating the Iranian missile program and drone program.
06:26They've backed off on that, as well as support to proxies.
06:30And what they're focusing on right now is the enriched uranium.
06:33Kristen mentioned that.
06:34And then also opening up the Strait.
06:35But, I mean, the reality is the Strait is not open.
06:38There have been, according to U.S. Central Command, something like 120 ships that have passed through since May, maybe
06:46up to 200.
06:47There were 120 per day before this war began.
06:51So the reality is the Strait isn't open.
06:53There is no deal.
06:54And Iran, even after a deal, could conduct strikes at any time after that.
06:59Yeah, I mean, you know, Colonel Leighton, even on Fox News, Mark Levin, he's obviously been a very big supporter
07:07of Trump, is questioning it.
07:08He posted on social media this in the aftermath of Trump saying this conceptual situation.
07:14If all these governments have agreed on this deal, it's amazing how all these governments signed up so fast while
07:19we were announcing we'd be bombing ASAP.
07:21Since it's done, can we see it?
07:23And what's in the deal?
07:24Can we see it?
07:25Yeah.
07:26I mean, you know, it's interesting where this criticism is now coming from, where people are calling it out, saying,
07:31well, look, sometimes, you know, the word is means is.
07:35Yeah, well, that's the case.
07:36The word does mean is.
07:37And the key thing is this.
07:39This isn't the Battleship Missouri at the end of, you know, World War II where everybody knew what was happening.
07:45The surrender documents were prepared very carefully.
07:47The ceremony was, you know, quite, you know, well choreographed.
07:52None of that is happening.
07:53And so this isn't, you know, whatever is happening now, this memorandum of understanding or whatever it is, is not
07:59at the same level as any type of peace agreement that we've had in the past.
08:03And that's going to be a problem because when you look at the types of things that are going on,
08:08both militarily as well as economically and certainly diplomatically, you're going to find that this is something that may not
08:16last.
08:16And that's a real danger.
08:17And the fact that, you know, Fox News and others are calling this out, that is a significant sign that
08:23I think what we're seeing here is an effort by the administration to reach some kind of an agreement, probably
08:29for political purposes.
08:30But the military reality on the ground is something that, you know, will basically be there forever and unless we
08:37have some kind of an agreement.
08:38Right, which I want to get to you in a moment, Seth, on the military situation on the ground.
08:42But Farnaz, I want to ask you first, when the president of the United States posts the United States will
08:46be hitting Iran very hard tonight, threatening to take Khark Island, which brings us back to the earliest days of
08:52the war when all of the, you know, they were considering a massive ground invasion of that island.
08:57That was this morning. And then all of a sudden he calls it off. Everything's fine.
09:01There's a deal. We're all done here. What are you hearing inside Iran about the wild swings that come from
09:10Trump?
09:12Well, Aaron, in Iran, everybody is perplexed and confused as to what exactly is going on.
09:19Is there at night some Iranians I spoke to in Tehran said we go to bed at night thinking hearing
09:26explosions
09:26and hearing about American attacks. We wake up and the U.S. is talking about an imminent peace deal, you
09:33know, within the same hour.
09:34There's talks about taking over our oil infrastructure and damaging our power plants.
09:40So I think that sort of the chaos messaging that we've seen has really caused, is causing a lot of
09:47anxiety for ordinary Iranians.
09:49You know, they feel kind of paralyzed in this state of limbo, not knowing if they're going to be at
09:55war or if they're going to be at peace.
09:58And I think for the Iranian government, sources that I was able to reach today said, look, you know, there's
10:05been a lot of frantic diplomacy going on.
10:08A delegation from Qatar and a delegation from Pakistan were in Tehran this week trying to mediate and bring Washington
10:15and Tehran closer to a deal.
10:17But there were some very serious sticking points remaining and no diplomatic breakthrough on the issue of Iran's frozen funds
10:25being released in the memorandum of understanding
10:28and also whether Iran is going to say anything about giving up the stockpile of enriched uranium.
10:36It's pretty incredible. I'm not laughing because it's funny, Seth.
10:40I'm just saying from what she's saying, yeah, there's a deal except for nothing to do with the highly enriched
10:45uranium.
10:46I mean, the same sticking points of the deal. Right. I just, you know, here we are again.
10:50OK, Seth, on that front, I want to ask you something about Iran's situation, because you had done and had
10:56all of this reporting prior to when The New York Times saw a CIA assessment about what Iran's military still
11:01had.
11:01So we were talking yesterday about how many times Trump has said that the Iranian military has destroyed the overall
11:07military.
11:07He said it many times. It is not true. And you had said up to 70 percent of the missiles
11:13were still were still there.
11:15CIA assessment backed that up. But that was weeks ago. So if anything, that that number would have gone up,
11:19possibly.
11:20Who knows? But but where are we right now with Iran's military capabilities?
11:26Well, I mean, there's no question right now that Iran's capabilities are degraded.
11:30They didn't start off with a lot of conventional capabilities.
11:34They didn't really have much of a navy. What they had is sunk.
11:38They they have their defense industrial base has been hit pretty hard.
11:42But the reality is, if you're trying to impact and coerce these negotiations and to strike ships or aircraft, helicopters
11:52going through the Strait of Hormuz,
11:54the Iranians still have massive capabilities to do that.
11:58They've got their anti-ship cruise missiles.
12:00They've got drones. They can strike targets still throughout the Gulf.
12:03They can hit U.S. bases, including Bahrain within the last 24 hours, U.S. base in Bahrain.
12:08So the reality is, and this goes back to the discussions about the deal, the Iranians, if they are unhappy
12:15after a deal,
12:16they will have the capabilities to conduct strike at any time that they want.
12:21So, Colonel Layton, I mean, that's a that's a stunning thing to say, too.
12:24Right. That's a shift in the balance of power.
12:27The most obvious one is that the Strait of Hormuz is still closed.
12:30It wasn't closed before the war. Iran had never closed it.
12:32Right. So that's the most fundamental shift of power we can all see.
12:35What Jim Cramer said today, though, when he sitting there on the market floor on CNBC,
12:40Trump watches CNBC, Trump cares about the markets.
12:43Trump listens to Jim Cramer. Jim Cramer called Trump a highly emotional man running the military.
12:49What's the significance of a statement like that?
12:51And I guess when you think about that, a highly emotional man running the military,
12:55maybe that's a definition of fact. But how dangerous is such a statement?
12:58It could be quite dangerous. And it's interesting that Jim Cramer juxtaposed Trump with General Marshall.
13:03And General Marshall was known for his very cool demeanor and his ability to basically get through things very quickly,
13:12very efficiently and very calmly, even though he might have been seething inside.
13:16He never let that show. And that's very different from President Trump's behavior and, quite frankly,
13:22everybody else's behavior on the civilian side of the chain of command.
13:25So that becomes a real issue because in the military, you want people who have, in essence, a calm understanding
13:33of what's going on.
13:34You also want them to provide calm advice to the civilian leadership.
13:38And you want that civilian leadership to also be calm in response to what the military is telling them.
13:44There might be some frightening facts out there, but you have to, in essence, lead our country through those frightening
13:50facts.
13:51And that's something that I think Cramer was pointing out to you.
13:53Right, right, right. The bombastic threats of annihilation, you know, then the swings to everything is fine, right?
13:59Both are disturbing in their own way.
14:02Farnas, Trump says that he believed the Supreme Leader signed off on the deal.
14:05I played that clip a little bit earlier, I believe, when he was answering a question today.
14:10But, Aron, then he also said this. Let me play it.
14:15I really believe it's a regime change because I find these people to be much more rational than the people
14:22that are no longer with us.
14:26Farnas, you've done incredible reporting on the new Supreme Leader, who's around him, who's talking to him, who's calling the
14:31shots.
14:32So when you hear the President of the United States say that he believes that what we're looking at in
14:36Iran is regime change,
14:38which, of course, was one of the initial goals of the war, and that these people are more rational than
14:42those who are no longer with us, what do you say?
14:45I think that if you ask the Iranian citizens who are living under the Islamic Republic's rule and oppression,
14:55who are waking up to news of executions of young protesters every day,
15:00who our lives and, you know, purchasing powers are deteriorating because they were living under the rules of, you know,
15:09erratic, hardline generals,
15:12there certainly isn't regime change. I mean, regime change usually refers to a wholesale change of power structure in a
15:20country,
15:20the way that the U.S. changed the regime of Saddam Hussein, per se, or the Taliban post-9-11,
15:26or Syria's Bashar Assad.
15:29Like, that's regime change, right? But to sort of just have the son succeed the father as the supreme leader
15:36and have another round of generals take over running the military, that's just a changing of guards and personnel.
15:45It's not called regime change.
15:47Yeah, interesting, as you say, a changing of the guard and personnel.
15:51Thank you all very much. I appreciate you.
15:53And next, breaking news just in from The Wall Street Journal.
15:55They are reporting that Trump and his allies are pushing a resolution aimed at voiding his first-term impeachments.
16:01We have much more on that breaking story from The Journal Ahead and the White House giving a preview of
16:06Trump's UFC fights on the South Lawn.
16:08Trump promising they'll feature the roughest people, as Todd Blanche dodges questions about a federal ruling that could halt the
16:15whole thing before Saturday.
16:16And the president nominating U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton for the DNI job.
16:20The same Jay Clayton who stoked Trump's baseless claims of election fraud in California.
16:25S.E. Cup, Sean Patrick Maloney.
16:28Breaking news, President Trump nominating U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton to be Director of National Intelligence after a bipartisan outrage
16:34on Capitol Hill
16:35forced his hand to name someone other than Loyalist and Mortgage Chief Bill Pulte to serve in that role.
16:41Clayton is the current U.S. Attorney for the influential Southern District of New York.
16:45It's a big job.
16:46He's the person Trump tapped to lead a federal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein's ties to prominent Democrats.
16:51And he's also someone who days ago was pushing Trump's baseless claims about voter fraud in California elections,
16:58where mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day are eligible to be counted if they arrive up to a week
17:03later.
17:05On the integrity side, we're doing an absolutely terrible job and the American people are right to question it.
17:13You can argue whether the law makes sense, but that doesn't sound like a fraudulent situation.
17:17No, there's a great there's a great phrase opportunity for fraud.
17:23Out front now, Devlin Barrett.
17:25He is a New York Times reporter covering the Justice Department and the FBI and the author of the new
17:29book,
17:29The Department of Revenge, How Trump Took Control of American Justice.
17:33Also with us tonight, Sean Patrick Maloney, former Democratic congressman and ambassador under Biden.
17:38And S.E. Cup, host of Off the Cup and former Republican strategist.
17:42OK, thanks to all.
17:43Devlin, let me just start with you, because you've done a lot of reporting on all the people involved.
17:47And you reported today that California, quote, appears to be an early testing ground for Trump and the DOJ to
17:55push voter fraud claims with no evidence.
17:57And we just heard that clip there from Clayton.
17:59How does he fit in with this?
18:01So I think that clip you played of Jay Clayton talking about his concerns about about voting was very important
18:09because he's echoing things that Trump has said.
18:12But I think you can think of that as a sort of soft audition for the job he has just
18:16been nominated for because the president feels very strongly that he wants his DNI to pursue voter fraud claims.
18:25And, you know, he did that with his last DNI.
18:27And now he seems poised to do it again with this one.
18:31I know plenty of law enforcement intelligence officials that feel like that's that's a stretch for what the DNI is
18:37normally supposed to be doing.
18:38But that's what Trump wants them to do. And I think Jay Clayton is signaling he's willing to do that.
18:43So you write specifically about Clayton in your book and how at the time Trump named him to lead an
18:49investigation into Jeffrey Epstein's ties to Democrats, right, just to Democrats late last year.
18:55And in it you write in December, about a month after taking the Trump assignment, Clayton golfed with the president
18:59in Florida, according to people familiar with the matter.
19:02What more do you know about their relationship?
19:04Well, they're very close. And the president likes and trusts Jay Clayton.
19:08Jay Clayton's background is he's really a Wall Street lawyer, essentially a corporate lawyer.
19:13He's not really an intelligence guy, per se, but the president likes him and the president golfs with him fairly
19:19often.
19:19And he's come back from the first administration. Jay Clayton served in the first administration as well.
19:25And I think what you what Trump sees in Jay Clayton is a guy he trusts and a guy he
19:30believes will speak out for him and back him up.
19:33Speak out for him and back him up, S.E.
19:35And when it comes to the issue that you heard Clayton talking about just there with Becky Quick and she
19:39made a great point.
19:41Right. Which is just because you don't like the rules there doesn't mean there's fraud.
19:44Right. Back in April.
19:47OK, so this is he's been saying this for a while.
19:49It wasn't just now, but this election fraud question here is back in April.
19:55We have great uncertainty in this country about election integrity.
20:00And the reason is because we don't have a good audit trail for many of our elections.
20:08I think Georgia Republicans would beg to differ.
20:10Right.
20:11Many others would beg to differ. We do have audit trails.
20:13We do. And actually, you know, contrary to what he's saying, contrary to what Speaker of the House Mike Johnson
20:19has said, election fraud is very easy to prove.
20:22And we've proven it before. It's exceedingly rare.
20:25It generally happens in local elections, not at the federal level, but it does happen.
20:29And we've proven it where you can't prove it is where it doesn't exist.
20:33And it thus far has not existed in the California mayoral race.
20:37It didn't exist in 2020. It didn't.
20:39I mean. But I think the important thing, as as Devlin said, is that Clayton has signaled that he's willing
20:48to do what Trump wants him to do.
20:51And we know from the Bill Pulte pick, Trump's not interested in anyone with intelligence experience going to D&I.
20:58That's not the that's not the point. Right.
21:00So I don't think we should be looking at Clayton as someone who is right for that job either.
21:06He's right for some job, but it's not the job that that post is expecting.
21:12And given what he said about elections now more than once, right, that he has put the air in that
21:16balloon.
21:17Sean, what I'm curious about is in you served on House Intelligence, right?
21:21So you've seen this yesterday.
21:22John Seifer, who wrote that op ed saying Bill Pulte was a danger to America as D&I.
21:26He talked about what D&I could do for elections.
21:29And it basically was take classified information and weaponize it and take it out of context and breathe life into
21:37very bad conspiracy theories.
21:39What does that really mean in terms of the damage that can be done on elections in that role?
21:43Well, what it means is that Jay Clayton has a decision to make, which is whether he's going to follow
21:47his oath, do his job or try to keep the president happy.
21:50And that is the dilemma every one of these senior officials face.
21:54I mean, what he said is exactly right about the absence of voter fraud.
21:58But, of course, the other screaming issue here is what the heck does the director of national intelligence have to
22:03do with who's voting in the Los Angeles mayor's race or whatever Trump is upset about on any given day?
22:09That is not that job.
22:11It is actually a serious job to coordinate the intelligence of all the different agencies created after 9-11.
22:16And the last thing you need the D&I to do is what Tulsi Gabbard ended up doing, which is,
22:21you know, roaming around some warehouse in Georgia looking at ballots, which has nothing to do with that job.
22:27And it is only to feed the president's fever conspiracy theories about what's going on in elections.
22:33But it's dangerous when you take the national security apparatus and you weaponize it for domestic political reason.
22:38Right, which is, I know, what John Seifer was also saying he was deeply concerned about.
22:41Devlin, in this context, when we talk about the importance of what Trump wants with the election, right, when he
22:47talked about Bill Pulte, he explicitly said he's going to be looking in the rigged elections as D&I, right?
22:52And Tulsi Gabbard was down in that warehouse in Georgia, right?
22:54He's, Trump views this as core to the D&I job.
22:57Now that we've heard what Jay Clayton has to say about this, I'm curious what you make of the fact
23:01that Democrats are very clearly getting behind Clayton.
23:04Senator Mark Warner is the top Democrat on intelligence.
23:07He said, I have great respect for Jay Clayton today.
23:09Jim Himes is the top Democrat on House Intel.
23:11He was on the show last night.
23:12He said, I've known and respected Jay Clayton for decades.
23:16His intelligence, temperament, and deep commitment to public service will make him a terrific D&I.
23:21What do you make, Devlin, of this very strong Democratic support?
23:25Look, I think it's very simple for a lot of these lawmakers, which is that Jay Clayton is, to them,
23:31a far better option than Bill Pulte.
23:33Bill Pulte has, I think most Democrats would argue, horribly misused his position to try to gin up criminal cases
23:42that should not be brought against the president's perceived enemies.
23:47I think Jay Clayton is a serious person who has done serious things in his life, perhaps not in the
23:52intelligence space.
23:53And there are certainly reasons to wonder why is the New York U.S. attorney opining on California election law?
24:00That is not a great indicator for someone who's about to take a job that the president wants to sick
24:04onto the election systems of this country.
24:07But I think, compared to Bill Pulte, I think a lot of Democrats would breathe a sigh of relief.
24:14Yeah.
24:14And there's one other reason, which is that there's a critical intelligence authority called Section 702, and we're in the
24:19middle of a war, and they don't have the votes to reauthorize it.
24:22And without that, we can't do important surveillance work on our foreign adversaries.
24:27And Pulte was in the way.
24:28So I think those Democrats see this because they're both Intelligence Committee ranking members.
24:32They see this as a critical step in corralling the votes to keep the country safe by reauthorizing that authority.
24:40But, of course, they're playing political triage because they don't know whether this just ends up being, you know, the
24:47lesser of two evils.
24:48Which I guess is how American voters feel pretty much every time they go to the polls.
24:51So that's what they say.
24:52All right, Essie, okay, Wall Street Journal just had this new story coming out, and I was just looking at
24:56it here.
24:56All right, got it.
24:57Printed in.
24:57I haven't had a chance to read it all.
24:58Okay, here we are.
24:59Trump and allies working on a plan to expunge impeachments.
25:02That's the headline.
25:03So basically a resolution that would void the two impeachments from his first term.
25:08Now, it's symbolic, right?
25:09It's symbolic if it happens.
25:10It's not like it suddenly goes away, but that they would do that.
25:14What's your reaction to that, that they could possibly have the votes to do that symbolically?
25:19I'll let Sean handle the logistics of that and whether that's going to happen,
25:23but I'll just speak to sort of the politics of it.
25:27This is what Trump cares about.
25:28I have been saying this for months.
25:30He doesn't give a crap about the midterms.
25:32He doesn't care about the health of the Republican Party.
25:34He doesn't care about the majority.
25:36He doesn't care at all.
25:37It's obvious.
25:38He cares about this.
25:39He cares about putting his face on the money, his name on the buildings, his legacy.
25:44And if that means pretending he wasn't impeached twice, I guess that will satisfy him in his old age.
25:50But this is not what Americans care about.
25:53Right.
25:53It's a shiny object.
25:55But what Democrats would do well to remember is that, you know, it costs 100 bucks to fill up the
25:59pickup truck at the gas station.
26:01That, you know, health care and housing and gas and groceries are killing people.
26:05And that is what matters to people.
26:08And we need to talk about that.
26:09And this is, Essie's right.
26:10This is what the president's doing.
26:12But he's doing it while you're getting killed out there in your wallet and trying to make ends meet as
26:19a working family.
26:20And so I think Democrats should not take the bait on all of this stuff.
26:24It's also meaningless.
26:26It's a meaningless vote in the House of Representatives.
26:28The historical record is clear why he was impeached.
26:31Both were justified and important.
26:33And they ran their course.
26:34But it's interesting that this is how he's taking the time.
26:36But he doesn't.
26:37He's being briefed on this.
26:38He's taking the time.
26:39The time is going into this.
26:40But he's also not thinking ahead.
26:41Because if he really wants to pursue this, all the reasons he was impeached get dredged up again.
26:47And we're all talking about it around a midterm election.
26:51Like, what are you thinking?
26:54All right.
26:54I guess we'll leave it there.
26:56Nobody can answer.
26:56Don't know.
26:58All right.
26:59Thank you all very much.
27:00I appreciate it, both of you, Devlin.
27:02Thank you.
27:02And next, Trump facing angry voters over high gas prices issued an executive order to drill off California's coast.
27:10And California is tonight responding.
27:13This only benefits the executives in the oil industry who are friends with the Trump administration.
27:20And it puts everybody else in harm's way.
27:23A special report ahead.
27:25And Trump quick to tout the upcoming UFC fights at the White House happening on his birthday this weekend.
27:31So, do Americans want this event?
27:33Harry Enten here to tell us a whole bunch of things we don't know.
27:40Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche repeatedly dodging questions about whether Trump's UFC fights on the White House lawn on Sunday,
27:47which is Trump's birthday, are in jeopardy due to a lawsuit seeking to shut the fights down.
27:54On the UFC fight.
27:55I'm not going to talk about the UFC fight.
27:57We're just here to talk about this.
27:59If he does order, did it be blocked?
28:02I'm not going to talk about the UFC fight.
28:07Blanche's refusal to talk about the UFC fight came after the White House invited reporters to get an up-and
28:11-close look at the eight-sided cage called the Octagon that's going to be home to the fights.
28:17This is on the same day that UFC's head, Dana White, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed a deal.
28:23Not the Iran deal.
28:24It's a different sort of deal.
28:25But they're going to use the UFC for diplomacy.
28:27And Sunlin Serfati is out front.
28:31The Octagon built, chairs in place, and fight bell ready to be rung.
28:36The South Lawn of the White House now transformed into a massive UFC fighting arena.
28:41This will be the greatest show on earth.
28:43The live televised event, coinciding with Trump's 80th birthday on Sunday, has drawn an unprecedented effort to make it happen,
28:51just steps away from the People's House.
28:53Court documents submitted as part of a lawsuit attempting to delay the event, revealing eye-popping details, how the logistics,
29:01size, scope, and price tag have all swelled.
29:04Including the help of now seven federal agencies, a cost of more than $60 million paid for by the UFC,
29:12including the grandiose over 100-foot arched lighting grid dubbed The Claw, a substantial volume of perishable food, and 494
29:22porta-potties brought in for the crowd.
29:24Hundreds of staff and more than 700 subcontractors, and roughly 4,000 people coming to the lawn, with more than
29:32125,000 guests overall, much larger than the president originally predicted.
29:38We're going to have a UFC fight, think of this, on the grounds of the White House.
29:43We have a lot of land.
29:44UFC frontman Dana White
29:46The great Dana White, he's building a, literally a stadium, a 5,000-seat arena, right outside the front door
29:54of the White House.
29:55has been a close ally and friend to President Trump for over 25 years.
29:59This guy has been a really good friend to me, and that's the bottom line.
30:03Donald Trump and I, who happens to be the president of the United States, is one of my very good
30:08friends.
30:08Appearing at the last three GOP conventions to help Trump target young male voters.
30:13My fellow Americans, it is my honor to introduce the 45th and soon-to-be 47th president of the United
30:21States, Donald J. Trump.
30:24White getting a high-profile and laudatory audience today with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
30:30President Kennedy announced that we were going to put a man on the moon and return him safely to the
30:33earth.
30:34No one thought that was possible, and we did it.
30:35We are a nation founded on doing what no one else dared to do, and at some level, that's what
30:40this whole company, what UFC has been.
30:42Amid scrutiny of his unprecedented access to some of the nation's most sacred landmarks.
30:48Let's get back to work to actually helping hardworking people in this country.
30:52And the UFC's private game.
30:54There's no pushback by the Republican majority.
30:58We have nothing to say about a UFC ring being built on the lawn of the White House. Really?
31:04After a series of hostile greetings at sporting events, including the NBA Finals in New York this week.
31:12It may be the one sport left where President Trump receives a welcome audience.
31:17He should stick to the UFC.
31:19They're going to boo him everywhere else.
31:22And tomorrow will really be the kickoff of all of this.
31:25There will be a face-off on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, also a press conference by the UFC
31:30on Saturday.
31:31That will be the ceremonial weigh-in.
31:34And then the main event on Sunday, the big fight.
31:36There will also be concerts, a flyover, Clydesdale horses, and a finale with fireworks.
31:42Certainly a massive and complex undertaking on the part of the UFC and the White House.
31:48All right, Sunlin, thank you very much.
31:50And Harry Enten's here to tell us something we don't know.
31:53I mean, Marco Rubio said something I don't know, which is that what they're doing with the UFC is akin
31:58to putting a man on the moon.
32:00Yes, yes.
32:00I wasn't aware of that.
32:01I was, yeah.
32:03That was an interesting—
32:04We're all learning new things together, Erin Burnett.
32:07Yeah.
32:08Yeah.
32:08You can't lose the power to be stunned.
32:11No.
32:11Okay?
32:11No.
32:12All right.
32:12So Trump and his allies are saying how great it is to have the UFC at the White House, right?
32:16And you just heard Sunlin laying out the big pomp and circumstance that's going to come with this.
32:20Great bash.
32:21That's what they say.
32:22How do Americans see it?
32:23Yeah, they don't see it in any such way.
32:26They, you know, you talk about putting a man on the moon.
32:28Putting a man on the moon, quite popular.
32:30The appropriateness for this fight, UFC fight at the White House.
32:33I mean, what are we talking about in terms of the American public?
32:35We are talking less than 20% of Americans say that, in fact, this event—look at this—16% say these
32:41U.S. White House fights are appropriate.
32:43And just 31% of Republicans say they're appropriate.
32:46Donald Trump's approval rating with Republicans is north of 80% in the average of polls.
32:51So we're talking about 50 points lower among Republicans.
32:53Even Republicans are quite—
32:54So this is basically as bad as it gets.
32:56This is about as bad as it gets.
32:58It's the exact opposite of putting a man on the moon.
33:00Okay, so you heard Joe Rogan say Trump should go to the UFC.
33:03He'll get cheered there.
33:05That's what he—you know, don't go to other sporting events.
33:08He was, I guess, referring to the Madison Square Garden situation, which was this, at the NBA Finals.
33:23You can—somehow in the background there, there was an anthem playing.
33:26Okay, so that's—that was the New York Knicks.
33:30Yeah.
33:30That was in Madison Square Garden, then the center of Midtown Manhattan.
33:33I guess you would expect that sort of a reception.
33:35But how does the UFC fan base view Trump compared to other professional sports?
33:40Yeah, he's going home when he's going to, you know, hosting a UFC fight, especially on the White House lawn.
33:45Because what are we talking about?
33:46We're talking about UFC fans lean significantly more Republican than the nation as a whole.
33:52They lean Republican over Democratic by, get this, 14 points, MMA, for example, the UFC.
33:57Compare that to the NBA, which obviously Donald Trump was booed at.
34:00Those fans are 28 points more likely to be Democrat than Republican.
34:04And if Trump decides to attend some World Cup matches, well, that might not be too friendly a territory either,
34:08because they're leaning Democratic by about 12 points.
34:12Dana White has said he does not like having UFC fights outside, okay?
34:16Which obviously is the whole point of Trump's thing.
34:17But Dana White does not like that idea ever.
34:19Yes.
34:20Okay, here's what he said.
34:22There's two things I hate.
34:24I hate stadiums, and I hate even worse at a stadium is fighting outside.
34:28There's just so many different variables you have to deal with, you know, the weather and, you know, the worst,
34:33obviously, being rain and lightning.
34:37I think he was talking there to Steve Inskeep.
34:38All right, tell me something I don't know.
34:40I'll tell you two things you don't know, Aaron Burnett.
34:42I got this shirt.
34:43My mother got me this shirt over 20 years ago.
34:45It's actually a Donald J. Trump collection shirt.
34:48My mother got it from me long before he was in politics.
34:50Wow.
34:50And it's still there.
34:51It still works.
34:53It still works.
34:53And 20 years ago, I went to weather cams.
34:55So I'll give you the weather forecast for Sunday.
34:57It could be quite an interesting phenomenon indeed, because it's going to be really hot.
35:02The heat index forecast to be 88 degrees.
35:04And the rain chance, 50%.
35:06Hot and humid for a UFC fight, not exactly.
35:09Which does not necessarily even mean it's just rain.
35:11It means it's lightning.
35:12And I'm going back here to Dana White.
35:13The weather and the worst being rain and lightning.
35:16It could be quite the thing.
35:18Thunder and UFC fighting.
35:20Not a good combination.
35:21Hmm.
35:22All right.
35:22Thank you very much, Harry.
35:23Thank you.
35:24And next, Goldman Sachs facing major questions tonight about why its top lawyer, Kathleen Rundler,
35:29Will,
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