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Deadline: White House - S2026 Ep 111 engsub fullmovie🍿
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00:01You insisted no new wars.
00:05I didn't guarantee no war.
00:07Why would I have built the strongest military in the world?
00:10I built our military.
00:11I inherited a terrible military.
00:13We had no equipment.
00:13We had nothing.
00:14I built a tremendous military.
00:17Biden gave a lot of it away, but it's still a relatively small portion compared to what I built.
00:21But you said it over and over again, Mr. President.
00:23Why would I build a military?
00:24When you say, I promised, I didn't promise anything.
00:27I don't like these endless wars.
00:30This is not an endless war.
00:32Hi again, everyone.
00:33It is five o'clock here in Washington, D.C.
00:35I'm Alicia Menendez in for Nicole Wallace, except he did promise no new wars.
00:40And he said it not just once, but many times on the campaign trail and even on election night.
00:46Let's just roll the tape.
00:49Under Trump, we will have no more wars, no more disruptions, and we will have prosperity and peace for all.
00:55No more wars, no more disruptions.
00:59We will have prosperity and we will have peace.
01:02With our victory in November, the years of war, weakness and chaos will be over.
01:10I don't have wars.
01:12If properly stated, it would never start.
01:15They said he will start a war.
01:17I'm not going to start a war.
01:17I'm going to stop wars.
01:19If Donald Trump is consistent about one thing, it is saying one thing and doing another.
01:25But this time, it is a massive campaign promise that he did not keep.
01:29The war in Iran is now over 100 days long.
01:31Its impact is being felt significantly here at home.
01:34Americans are seeing the prices at the pump continue to soar.
01:38Politico survey last month found that over a half, 53 percent of Americans,
01:42say the cost of living is the worst they can remember.
01:45Trump's niece, Mary Trump, weighed in on how this is all a disaster of his own making,
01:51and he has no way out.
01:54It's absolutely stunning what a debacle this is, and it is entirely his responsibility.
02:01He can't, I mean, he will blame other people, but nobody is going to fall for that
02:08because he didn't ask for the permission of Congress.
02:12He didn't ask for the permission of our allies.
02:13He didn't actually sell it to the American people.
02:16Iran is holding all the cards right now.
02:19So one of Donald's favorite myths about himself is being exposed for the nonsense it is.
02:26He is not a great dealmaker.
02:28In fact, he doesn't know what he's doing at all.
02:31That, his broken promises and a mess of his own making is where we begin this hour
02:35with Democratic Congressman Seth Moulton of Massachusetts.
02:38He is a Marine Corps combat veteran and now serves on the House Armed Services Committee.
02:43Also joining us, military analyst Lieutenant General Mark Hurtling.
02:46He served as the commanding general of the U.S. Army in Europe.
02:50Also joining us, Lieutenant Colonel Rachel Van Landingham.
02:53She served in the Air Force and as a JAG officer.
02:56She is now a professor at Southwestern Law School.
03:00Congressman, before we talk about the politics of this,
03:02because there are lots of promises made, promises broken.
03:06In this case, this seems like the promise where the stakes are the highest
03:10for the military men and women who have already lost their lives,
03:13for those whose parents feel that they are living on a knife's edge
03:18waiting for this administration to decide whether or not they're going to put boots on the ground.
03:23When you talk to your own constituents, how do you shape,
03:26how do you articulate the stakes of this war?
03:30Well, they're extraordinarily high.
03:32If you're a parent or a family member of one of the soldiers, sailors, airmen, or Marines
03:37over there in the Middle East right now.
03:40And I've talked to parents of Marines sitting on ships off the coast of Iran,
03:45just wondering if their sons will go into combat in a war that not only is going poorly,
03:54that clearly has had no plan from the very beginning,
03:57but a war that, frankly, we're losing.
03:59I mean, Trump said he wouldn't start wars.
04:01He also didn't say he would lose them.
04:04Well, he's doing both.
04:05He started wars, and right now he's losing a war, giving Iran more leverage.
04:10I mean, they're holding the global economy hostage, and Trump doesn't have a way out.
04:15Drew Hurley, I want to pick up on what the congressman said there,
04:18which is picking up on what Mary Trump had said earlier,
04:21which is that the president doesn't have a way out.
04:23The problem with that is that it's not just the president who doesn't have the way out.
04:27If he cannot find an off-ramp here, if he is not willing to take the loss,
04:32then it means that we all do not have a way out of this quagmire.
04:36Your sense, what an off-ramp would look like, who it is he should be listening to, and why he
04:41is not.
04:43Yeah, Alicia, that's the toughest question I get, is what's the off-ramp?
04:47It's too late to consider that.
04:49You have to consider what the off-ramp is before you start a war.
04:53And, again, I'd like to go back a little bit, if I could,
04:56and even talk about the premise of any presidential candidate saying,
05:01you know, I'm not going to have any wars.
05:03You can't predict that.
05:05I mean, the world is so complex right now,
05:08and the very fact that he even predicted that was a wrong approach to take.
05:13But then, to get into a war of his own making, I think, without a very good plan,
05:18without an objective or an end state, is where we are right now.
05:22The end state now, the off-ramp, if you will, is not dependent on his actions alone.
05:29He has to do some coordination with the one ally he has, Israel.
05:33We've seen that being faulty.
05:35And he also has to understand that the enemy always gets a vote.
05:39And in this case, the enemy, being Iran, has already cast their vote in terms of what they want from
05:46a peace negotiation or a ceasefire.
05:48And the president is not willing to give up money, not willing to give up sanctions that are already in
05:55place against Iran.
05:57He only wants one thing, and it's the one thing that Iran probably is not going to give him unless
06:03they get something of this, too.
06:05So, again, going back to talking about the great dealmaker that Mary Trump was talking about, he's not very good
06:11at making deals.
06:12And he also sets himself up for failure by making bad promises during the campaign,
06:18which no president can keep when it comes to the complexity of the global environment.
06:23Professor Van Landingham, I constantly remain struck by the fact that he claims it's not a war,
06:27but then he calls it a war, and, like, either he and his administration can't get their talking points together.
06:32So if we take the president's word, and this is, in fact, a war,
06:36then under what authority has he taken the nation to the brink?
06:41Well, we have to be at war.
06:43Otherwise, the United States would not be allowed to be engaged in a blockade of the entire Iranian coast.
06:48A blockade is a tool of war.
06:50So, of course, we're at war.
06:51And I don't think the American people nor anyone around the globe is fooled by his rhetoric that we're not
06:56at war.
06:58The American public sees it at the gas pumps.
07:00It sees it at the high cost of living.
07:02The Iranian civilians, remember, we're three months past a terrible strike that killed over 170 Iranian little girls and their
07:13teachers.
07:14And the Iranian civilians are still caught in the crosshairs,
07:17as are the Israeli civilians that were running to bomb shelters over the weekend, as are Lebanese civilians.
07:23And so the idea that we're not at war is ludicrous.
07:26Iran fired over 30 ballistic missiles at Israel over the weekend,
07:30and Israel retaliated, and Israel is engaged in armed conflict in Lebanon.
07:36So to say that we're not at war is really offensive to the rest of the world and to the
07:42American people.
07:43We know what's going on.
07:44And there absolutely, of course, there's an off-ramp.
07:46But it's going to be one that does not achieve the U.S. objectives here.
07:52Right.
07:53And I think, Congressman, part of what you see is that Republicans in your chamber are beginning to catch on
07:58to that.
07:58So we're in this war without congressional approval.
08:01Last week, the House passed with bipartisan support a War Powers Resolution.
08:06Help us understand what that does and what then happens next.
08:11Well, it just finally shows what Congress is saying privately behind the scenes, including many Republicans,
08:17which is that we're losing this war.
08:18And it's a really bad idea because gas prices are up, food prices are going up, the economy is getting
08:27strangled by Iran.
08:29We've got hundreds of civilians dead, including, as we just heard, little girls and their teachers.
08:36We've got 14 of America's finest who have died.
08:40And what's Iran got?
08:42Well, they still got their nuclear weapons program.
08:45They still they now have the Strait of Hormuz.
08:47So when you look at what's going on here, it's not only that we're stuck in this war.
08:52It's that an enemy of the United States is actually winning this war.
08:55But I do think there is one thing that Trump has achieved.
08:59And this is an objective that we don't talk about enough because it sounds political.
09:03But I think the one objective that really matters to Donald Trump is something he has achieved, which is, guess
09:10what?
09:10We're not talking about Jeffrey Epstein.
09:12You know, we'll talk about Todd Blanche.
09:14We'll talk about Iran today.
09:15We're not talking about the one thing that has hurt Trump with his base.
09:19So why would he break this promise that he has made for years that he will start no wars?
09:25That to me is the obvious answer.
09:26And Trump actually is getting that.
09:29I do want to say that here on Deadline, on the weeknight, which I am on most nights, we have
09:33continued to follow that story because I agree with you.
09:36We need to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time.
09:39And the problem is, as you know, if one thing becomes a distraction, everything is a distraction.
09:44He is actually able to pull off multiple things at the same time.
09:47But I think it also gets to this point, General Hurtling, about the necessity for clarity and how in the
09:52past, when presidents have taken us into war, they have at a minimum communicated.
09:56They have sold that war to the American people.
10:00That is not what this president is doing, and that is particularly harmful, as you write this week in the
10:05bulwark, to America's soldiers.
10:07This is what you write.
10:08Soldiers can absorb difficult news.
10:10They can endure hardship, separation, and danger far longer than most people imagine, as long as the mission is clear
10:15and they know all the sacrifice is worth it.
10:17That's why comments from senior leaders matter.
10:20The president spoke vaguely about a completion, but failed to answer the questions every soldier eventually asks.
10:27What are we trying to achieve?
10:28How will we know when we have achieved it?
10:31And when are we done?
10:32Without answers to those questions, deployments begin to feel indefinite.
10:36If you are a service member right now, day 100 of this war, what are you thinking?
10:43How is morale?
10:44Well, the one piece you didn't read in that article I wrote, Alicia, is the fact that when he was
10:49asked by Kristen Welker about if he would bring troops home from the Middle East, his answer was pretty striking
10:56to me.
10:57It says, it costs us very little to keep them there.
11:00But I think then he said, I think we'll keep them there until such time as we have a completion.
11:06Okay, that's great.
11:07From a soldier's perspective, that is cringeworthy.
11:11I've experienced this in Iraq when we were extended for a three-month tour beyond our 12 months in 2004,
11:17and it was very difficult to tell not only our soldiers who were expecting to go home, and in fact,
11:24a third of our soldiers were already home, and we had to bring them back when we were extended.
11:28But I had to go back to Germany and talk to family members and explain to them why they were
11:35being sent back and why the soldiers that were still there had to stay a little bit longer.
11:40This is very difficult for a commander in chief just to kind of wave this off as no big deal.
11:45I'm going to keep 50,000 forces in the Middle East, and we're not sure what we're going to do
11:50next.
11:51Again, I'll comment on what you said earlier about the campaign plan.
11:56We are losing this war, as Congressman Moulton just said.
11:59We are best going to get a draw out of it.
12:02It could have been so much different if the president had listened to his advisors, understood the application of kinetic
12:11activity as well as diplomatic and economic sources, but that didn't happen.
12:16He believes that the military can solve all problems, and unfortunately, if that's all you're using, it becomes a hammer,
12:24but every problem isn't a nail.
12:26Professor Van Lendingham, part of the reason I wanted to make sure that you were involved in this conversation is
12:31because thinking about the piece that General Hurtling wrote about what the lack of clarity means to members of the
12:38armed service,
12:38I also started thinking about all of the JAG officers, all of the people who are responsible for signing off
12:45on the action that we are seeing.
12:47I mean, how are the people whose names and faces we may never know, but who are instrumental to making
12:54sure that there are internal institutional checks on a president's power, what does this lack of clarity mean for them?
13:01How are they even able to do their jobs?
13:04Thank you for that.
13:05I do think that most service members have a laser focus, and they can put away cognitive dissonance when their
13:12own commander-in-chief is saying this isn't a war, and yet they have to sign off on targeting, on
13:17blockade action that is premised on the authority that comes from a state of armed conflict.
13:22So they have to put that aside and say, ignore what your president just said, this is a war, you
13:28do have a legal authority commander, you know, ma'am, sir, to engage in this kinetic strike, to engage in
13:34this blockade that is premised on war.
13:36But it does make it difficult when you have, when service members know that Congress just voted, as Congressman Moulton
13:43reminded us, and you did, that Congress does not want us to be in this war.
13:47Congress was never asked that they should have, as they should have been, whether or not they were going to
13:51authorize this war.
13:52And so service members understand that they don't have the support of the American people here.
13:59We saw those poll numbers up there.
14:01They have the support, but the war doesn't have the support, so that does make it harder.
14:05I do think there's some level of moral injury every time that the president gets up and says, oh, we're
14:10not at war, but we still have service members there, and he doesn't even thank them for being there in
14:15the same breath.
14:16I always appreciate that return to the consequence of moral injury.
14:20Congressman, let's talk about some of the poll numbers and the politics of this that Professor Van Landingham just evoked,
14:26because as we talk about off-ramps, that pressure to get to an off-ramp is going to be one
14:31of the greatest forces that we have here.
14:33This is what former Trump ally Chris Christie said just yesterday.
14:36Take a listen.
14:39That's what midterm elections are about.
14:41They are a report card on the president, and if he controls Congress, his party, on what they've done based
14:47upon what they promised in 2024.
14:50And let's remember the core promises.
14:51He was going to make the economy bigger and better.
14:53He was going to lower prices immediately.
14:56He was going to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours, and he was going to stop endless, useless
15:01wars.
15:02He's 0 for 4.
15:04Do you get the sense, Congressman, that the Republicans in your chamber are now aware that that's a report card
15:10they're going to want to hide from their parents?
15:14Yes, absolutely.
15:15That's right.
15:16I mean, Republicans are very nervous.
15:18You see a historic number of Republicans simply retiring before these midterms.
15:23So things are not looking good for them, and they recognize that, and that's why you start seeing more political
15:29courage to go up against the president, like taking this vote.
15:33And again, let's keep this in perspective.
15:36Congress voted for the War Powers Act to stop this war, but only four Republicans voted for it.
15:42That means that 98% of the Republican Party in the House of Representatives still rubber-stamped this war that
15:49the American people disagree with.
15:51But I'm telling you, privately, a lot more of those Republicans disagree with the war, think it's a bad idea,
15:58recognize that we're at a dead end, recognize that Iran now has more leverage over us than we have over
16:04them, and yet they don't have the courage to go up against Donald Trump.
16:08So going into these midterms, the secret to success for these Republicans will be whether they're actually willing to go
16:14against the president.
16:15That's going to take some political courage on their part that I'm not sure they have.
16:21General Hurtling, if you are our allies, if you are the rest of the world, and you are watching a
16:26president who claims deals are made, deals fall apart, who even claims that these are deals in the first place,
16:33as though this is some type of real estate transaction and not actually peace agreements that we are looking for,
16:39what are you thinking about the once great United States?
16:41Well, I don't want to talk to all of our allies and what they're thinking, Alicia, but I have talked
16:49to some of my former colleagues in military forces in Europe, and they are asking a very simple question.
16:56What is going on? Why is this so dysfunctional? Why do we have an administration that doesn't understand the importance
17:04of alliances, the importance of allies, the criticality of planning, the desire to coordinate and cooperate with those who might
17:14help,
17:14and who understands the world as most people know it here on Earth One, the pragmatic approach to conflict and
17:23what we want to do from the standpoint of sending forces to war?
17:27So, again, I don't want to talk to everyone, but the ones I have talked to in many European countries
17:32that I used to serve alongside are confused, because this is not the United States that they're used to,
17:38and they don't understand how these kind of actions can be supported by the majority of American people.
17:46And what I try and tell them is the majority, as Congressman Moulton just said, the majority are not supporting
17:51them.
17:51And the congressional representatives of those people who are not supporting them also are supporting.
17:58So it's really a dysfunction on the part of the way our American government was established and what we attempt
18:06to do in terms of checks and balances, the rule of law,
18:11the ability of the president to sell the American people and the Congress of the United States when he wants
18:17to take an action of international significance like the one he has taken.
18:23So that would be my answer to it. They are confused about who we are and what we've become.
18:30Congressman Seth Moulton, thank you so much for your time today. Professor Rachel Van Landingham, thank you so much for
18:35joining us.
18:36General Hurtling, you are sticking with me when we return.
18:38Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's incredibly inappropriate and distasteful comments marking the anniversary of D-Day.
18:45Hegseth went to France and compared arriving migrants to another invasion.
18:49The outrage those comments cause next.
18:52Also ahead, a lawsuit trying to put a stop to Donald Trump's cage-fighting match this weekend at, you know,
18:57the White House,
18:58the one he's not only staging but stands to benefit from financially.
19:02And Donald Trump is attending tonight's NBA Finals game between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs.
19:07And Knicks fans, they say his presence at the game tonight is both a major inconvenience and a total vibe
19:13killer.
19:14How Trump is ruining one of the few things bringing New Yorkers together later in the hour.
19:19Deadline White House continues after a quick break.
19:21Stay with us.
19:25Every June 6th, leaders from around the world gather in Normandy to commemorate D-Day, the largest seaborne invasion in
19:32history that led to the liberation of Europe from Nazi occupation.
19:35The memorial services are filled with speeches honoring the unity and sacrifice showed on that day.
19:42But here is the message Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth decided to send in his remarks.
19:47In the years since these beaches, much of the West, in some places, in some quarters, and in some capitals,
19:57grew comfortable.
19:58We forgot that freedom is not free.
20:04We forgot that peace is not wished into being.
20:07It is bought with purpose, with honor, and with strength.
20:12The men who landed on these beaches knew this.
20:16The question we ask ourselves is, do we?
20:20It's past time we remember what they knew.
20:24Their legacy demands far more than quiet reflection.
20:28It requires our active vigilance.
20:32Sadly, today, different European beaches are stormed by different dangerous ideologies.
20:41Beaches in Spain, in Italy, in Greece, in Bulgaria.
20:46Boats and men arrive.
20:50When will European capitals do something about that invasion?
20:56Or is it too late?
21:00Hegseth's comments went too far, even for members of the GOP.
21:04Here's what Republican Congressman Michael McCaul had to say about them.
21:08Look, there's a time and a place for these issues of immigration.
21:13That was not the day, not the anniversary of D-Day.
21:17I think out of respect to the veterans, myself being the son of a D-Day veteran,
21:23those remarks were out of place.
21:25I think it should have been about their sacrifice, their service to their country,
21:30and what they did to protect the free world at a time of great peril against Nazi Germany.
21:36We are back with General Hurtling.
21:37They weren't just out of place, General Hurtling.
21:39They were antithetical to what it is D-Day is meant to remember, to celebrate, to commend.
21:47I want your reaction to what we heard there from Pete Hegseth,
21:51but also what you think the 29 World War II veterans who were in the audience for that speech were
21:57thinking.
21:58Yeah, Alicia, I was talking to your producer during the break, and I asked her if she had ever been
22:03to Normandy.
22:04I've been to Normandy multiple times, and in fact, in 1968, I gave one of the speeches at the D
22:09-Day commemorations,
22:11which was one of the greatest honors of my life.
22:13One of the things I will tell you is I could pick apart Secretary Hegseth's speech,
22:17the opening that you just showed, he was dead wrong.
22:21The European capitals understand democracy and understand what is at stake.
22:26But I'm just going to go in the context of the speech itself.
22:30There are 94, about 9,400 soldiers buried at Normandy.
22:35This celebration is held every year, and each year, those who storm the beaches keep getting older.
22:42So as you just said, there were 27 this year.
22:44They were all over 100 years old, but they still keep coming back
22:49because they want to honor their brothers and sisters who fell there.
22:52This is hollow ground.
22:54It's one of 26 cemeteries around the world that the American Battle Monuments Commission oversees.
23:00So when you start talking politics and political influence
23:04and implying that there are some allies in all four countries that Secretary Hegseth named,
23:12Spain, Greece, Bulgaria, and Italy, are NATO allies.
23:18To insult them by saying they don't know what they're doing in terms of immigration,
23:23you can have discussions and debate about immigration policy,
23:27but this ain't the right time to do it, and it certainly ain't the right place.
23:31Those veterans are there to honor their fellow soldiers who were buried there.
23:36The people that come from all the countries of Europe to Normandy once a year on the 6th of June
23:41are there to remember how they pulled together, and they're still pulling together.
23:47And I'm sorry to give this long speech, but that place means a lot to me.
23:52And it is not someplace where you should suggest that there's no difference between allied troops
24:01that landed at Normandy to defeat Nazi Germany, those who depended on an Aryan nation,
24:07and insult those who are taking care of migrants crossing the Mediterranean, as Secretary Hegseth did.
24:15I will take your long speech.
24:17It is exactly the palate cleanse we need to whatever gibberish it was we heard from Hegseth,
24:22but there was more, and you invoked NATO.
24:24He took a swipe at NATO during that speech.
24:26I want to play quickly so you and I can talk about it.
24:29The men buried here fought in a warfighting alliance where every partner
24:34brought its full measure of industry, courage, and sacrifice.
24:39Not empty slogans, not lavish summits, not communiques.
24:47Real allies doing real things, taking real losses for a shared cause worth fighting and dying for.
24:57Each nation pulled its weight.
25:00Each nation bled.
25:03America will lead, and we must.
25:06But capable allies must be right there with us, shoulder to shoulder, in the breach, when it matters.
25:19Do you think that compelled anyone to want to be America's ally?
25:23No, it's unfortunate to me that the Secretary of Defense has such a poor understanding of what NATO is
25:30and what they have done over the last 20 years.
25:33We had a force in Afghanistan called ISAF.
25:36Two-thirds of that force was U.S.
25:39One-third of it were volunteers from various NATO countries that all came together.
25:45And some non-NATO countries, like Ukraine, you know, they were there as well.
25:50In fact, they were paired up with the Polish division in part of Afghanistan as part of the ISAF force.
25:57I have been to memorial services for NATO allied forces who have been killed in action in both Iraq and
26:04Afghanistan because they volunteered to be there.
26:07The Secretary of Defense has little understanding and very little knowledge of what NATO is all about.
26:14And some of the people on his staff are the same way.
26:17It is a strong alliance.
26:19It has some challenges, and whenever you get 32 nations together debating things, there are always going to be differences
26:27of opinion.
26:28But it's the strongest security alliance, I believe, in the history of the world, and it has been incredibly strong
26:35over the last 80 years of existence.
26:38Thank you so much, as always, Lieutenant General Mark Hurtling, for reorienting us toward reality.
26:43I appreciate your time.
26:44When we return, I'm going to tell you about the lawsuit that aims to knock out Donald Trump's 80th birthday
26:49cage-fighting match on the grounds of the White House,
26:52the one he is poised to benefit from financially.
26:55Stay with us.
27:01A new lawsuit is trying to put a stop to Donald Trump's UFC Freedom 250 event, scheduled for this weekend
27:07at the White House.
27:09The complaint calls the event on Trump's birthday, quote, deeply corrupt, says that it runs afoul of federal regulations that
27:15prohibit sporting events on federal parklands.
27:18The plaintiffs, two Virginia residents, say they brought the case to, quote,
27:22uphold the rule of law and protect our nation's most cherished monuments from corrupt exploitation.
27:28That corruption, they argue, is the fact that the head of UFC and close Trump ally Dana White, along with
27:33Donald Trump himself, stand to benefit from this event.
27:36Recent reporting revealed that Trump actually owns stock in UFC's parent company.
27:41The White House argues that the legal challenge is a baseless attempt to prevent Trump from hosting the fight.
27:47I want to bring in the Pulitzer Prize-winning host of the podcast, Pablo Torre, finds out.
27:51Contributor Pablo Torre and joining me at the table, former acting assistant attorney general for national security at the Justice
27:58Department, Mary McCord.
27:59I just want to say, Mary, I can't talk about this without feeling like it's an SNL script that has
28:04somehow been loaded in my prompter because the whole thing is so absurd.
28:07Talk to me, though, about this lawsuit on the merits.
28:09Yeah. So, you know, suits like this are tough to bring in one way because of standing, right?
28:17To be a plaintiff, to challenge any kind of executive action or bring any lawsuit in federal court,
28:22you have to show that you have actual injury that could be that is traceable to the conduct of the
28:28defendant and that would be redressed by your lawsuit.
28:30Now, the injuries here are injuries, some of which have been recognized by courts before, including the aesthetic injury, right?
28:38There are cases where parkland, for example, has been, you know, destroyed or demolished or harmed in some way where
28:45somebody saying, well, I can no longer enjoy this parkland.
28:48They've been held to have standing.
28:49And that's part of the injury that's asserted here, that these are people who regularly are on these grounds or
28:56outside these grounds.
28:57And one is an activist.
28:59Both are activists, protesters, but they also appreciate the beauty of the area and that that's being desecrated.
29:05And there are other injuries.
29:06One who's a veteran that says, you know, the real mistreatment of memorial places like the Lincoln Memorial,
29:14because it's not only this fight at the White House, there's going to be the weigh-in at the Lincoln
29:19Memorial.
29:19I have details on that.
29:20Let me let me read you some of that.
29:22This is from the lawsuit.
29:23The plan is for fighters to conduct the ceremonial weigh-ins and face-offs at the Lincoln Memorial,
29:29make pre-fight walkouts from the Oval Office and do combat in a massive structure now under construction,
29:35just steps from the executive residence.
29:37The president is giving White and his company what none have enjoyed before,
29:41unfettered access to the White House and Lincoln Memorial to stage a private, for-profit sports event
29:48with all the promotional and branding opportunities that accompany such access.
29:52Pablo Torre, what could go wrong?
29:55Yeah, just the American experiment, I guess.
29:58Not to be so grandiose about it.
30:00One of the funny things about the lawsuit, and I will leave the legal standing question, of course,
30:04to our esteemed legal expert, but one of the things that's so funny that they point out
30:08is just the basic logic of you say this thing is for the 250th birthday of America,
30:13but it's being held three weeks before Independence Day on the president's 80th birthday.
30:18And so the quote that I love is,
30:20the event is neither for the celebration of the 250th anniversary of American independence,
30:23nor crucially being planned, organized, and executed by the federal government.
30:27And so that's what the lawsuit is claiming.
30:29I don't know if that results in a legal victory.
30:32I just know that that is resonant with anybody who's thinking to themselves,
30:36what is this about?
30:37Is this about crony capitalism, in which the president owns stock in the company that he is partnering with
30:42to build this organism on the lawn of the White House?
30:47Is he profiting from this in the way that Dana White, the head of the UFC, is profiting from this?
30:51And are we being sold the idea that this is for some greater good?
30:55And I think that is a bit of a smelter, as opposed to a legal test.
31:00And they fail the first one, and the second one, I guess we'll see.
31:04Well, and I will defer, as Pablo said to you on that,
31:07this is the corruption they argue that Donald Trump is a part of.
31:11Quote, Trump too has plans to benefit financially.
31:13Reporting published in late May revealed that earlier this spring,
31:16he purchased up to $50,000 worth of stock in TKO, UFC's owner.
31:22Sure. So I think Pablo is getting it right, which is it's the question that you and I
31:26constantly come back to vis-a-vis a lot of the Trump suits that Donald Trump and his
31:29administration bring, which is they're not actually necessarily intended to win in a
31:33court of law. They are intended to move in a court of public opinion.
31:37The fact that this is narratively laying out for the public what is at stake here,
31:42both in terms of our national identity, but also in terms of what the president may have to gain
31:46from his economic investment in this, is all incredibly relevant and powerful.
31:53But talk to me about this specific piece, the fact that the president has money invested.
31:58So that's why I think what I really think is the importance of this lawsuit.
32:02Ultimately, whether they win or lose on standing and on their merits of their claims,
32:06it is pointing a spotlight at the corruption here.
32:10And, you know, Mr. White has gone on record saying this is like the biggest earned media
32:16event we could possibly have. Our exposure this day to, you know, people around the world
32:23is going to give us more and probably generate more revenue than we could get in a year just
32:28from the attention, the eyes that are going to be on this. Right.
32:31So he's clearly seeing this as a commercial endeavor. And we now know he also, by the way,
32:37you know, he's very close to Donald Trump. He introduced him at the 2024 convention. Right.
32:43There's all kinds of connections there. And now we learn that Donald Trump has an investment
32:47by Donald Trump's terms, not a huge investment. I think it's between 15 and $50,000.
32:52But nevertheless, an investment that that apparently, according to the allegations in the complaint,
32:57was made after, you know, the planning of this event. So and there are others who stand to benefit
33:04to there's advertisers, because the way these this octagon thing works, this cage fight is there's
33:10advertisements all over it. So it really does look like the corruption of the White House for both
33:15political and financial benefits and to to private companies and entities that Trump has a relationship
33:23with. So why do this, Pablo? What's the point? Who is this supposed to reach?
33:28Look, the power of sports are well documented. This administration, for all of its corruption,
33:33knows that power. And one of the great cons that people in charge of this government have sold to
33:41us is the idea that sports are this wonderful public good. And of course, they can be right. I am
33:47a
33:47sports fan. I come from that world. I believe in their redemptive power in the civic nature of them.
33:52But in this case, it is the public good for private gain. And so the notion of why? Well,
33:59it's because you can construct this ridiculous piece of architecture in a way that seems like it
34:05is something that the DNC would create with AI if it didn't exist already. Right. It's just like a
34:12campaign ad that writes itself. But because there are sports happening in there, because that is a
34:18sporting event, it feels like this is for all of you. You're welcome. And that is the con. It's the
34:24power of sports being used to line someone's pockets. And that needs to be called out. Because
34:29the one thing I'll be very I will be maudlin about this a bit is that sports are one of
34:35the few places
34:36where you walk into something and you're not voting the same way. You're not worshiping the same
34:39way. You're not listening to music or watching television the same way. But you get to occupy a space
34:45because you have some common interest. And what this White House has done repeatedly is pervert that
34:52they are wearing it like a skin suit. And the cost of it, we are still doing the accounting on
34:58in the
34:58way that we're doing it with every bit, Alicia, of of of crypto earnings and secret Middle Eastern
35:06stock transfers. It's all in the same bucket. It's reducing this special thing to the most base of
35:12things. Not my friends is why the man has a Pulitzer. You are staying with me, Pablo Torre,
35:16Mary McCord, as always. Thank you so much for being with us when we return. Why fans of the New
35:21York
35:21Knicks are up in arms about Donald Trump tonight. Tonight is game three of the NBA finals with
35:32Madison Square Garden set to host its first NBA finals game since 1999. The New York Knicks are just
35:38two wins away from their first NBA championship in over 50 years. So New Yorkers are rightfully
35:45excited, except perhaps for this. Donald Trump will attend the game, which is set to create a
35:51massive security and traffic logjam outside of Madison Square Garden and Midtown Manhattan.
35:56Because of Trump's presence, attendees of the game have been strongly encouraged to arrive at the
36:01Garden two hours before tip off and to be prepared for airport style security. Trump's attendance has
36:08also forced the cancellation of popular watch parties, which have taken place on the surrounding
36:13streets of Madison Square Garden, further angering fans. We are back with Pablo Torre. I'm thinking
36:18about that poetry you wove for me in the last block about how sports are fundamentally about the experience
36:25of community that is so hard to find these days and so hard to find in this moment. How does
36:33Donald
36:33Trump's presence at this game change not just the vibes, but the essence of why people are gathering?
36:41So the New York Knicks are a team that has been longing for the very thing that's happening right
36:47now. They've been longing for it since the 70s, haven't won a title since the 70s. And so to give
36:55you a sense of how much this means, I'm born and raised in New York City, blocks away from Madison
37:00Square Garden,
37:01one of the great things that have organically been happening during this whole run has been
37:06the outdoor celebrations. It has recalled, and this is not hyperbole, it has recalled a level of unification
37:15in the streets of the city that I have not seen since 9-11. Like that is the power of
37:21sports that I was
37:22trying to express earlier. And so what is happening now? What you're getting is instead of that wonderful long-awaited
37:30snow globe experience in which sports gets to exist on its own terms and unify a city on its own
37:36terms, you have this
37:38thing becoming instead, in a nutshell, the sports affordability crisis that has afflicted the industry for decades as well.
37:47Because Alicia, what's happening is that the owner of the Knicks is James Dolan, and he has a malignant presence
37:52for lots of reasons that are far too detailed and lengthy for me to go into with you on this
37:58program.
37:58But he invited his good friend, the President Donald Trump. And as a result, the fans who cannot afford to
38:04be
38:04inside can no longer legally be outside. And it's this insult. It's an insult to injury in which this is
38:12for the
38:13people. Taxpayer money funds Madison Square Garden's largesse. And yet here we have a billionaire favoring
38:20another billionaire at the expense of the people who want this, like it's a fairly, like it's a family
38:27heirloom. Fairly, fairly demanded. And yet they get nothing.
38:32So what type of reaction, what type of response do you think he gets tonight?
38:36One big difference between the UFC and MMA cage fights and the NBA is that Donald Trump sees the
38:43former as his own safe space. He can be a snowflake protected in that little snow globe. In this one,
38:51he will feel the power of, admittedly, a higher tax bracket of New York City, but one that will boo
38:58him,
38:58in my prediction, to an extent that will force him to regret this entire experiment. It's a bit of a
39:05heat check for him. It's a bit of a desperate move for him to think, this is my friend's team.
39:09I used
39:10to go to these games. I, too, can be a part of the coolest, most fun, most popular thing that's
39:16happening. He recognizes star power. The New York Knicks are the biggest stars in sports right now.
39:21And what he's going to get instead is a populist response that really sports can claim uniquely.
39:28At this point in Western civilization, which is the boo, the boo as a mechanism of accountability,
39:35of revolution, he will feel it. And I predict it is going to be the loudest noise you hear this
39:40evening.
39:43I am so taken by what you have said, especially in light of the president's response when he was
39:49asked about those who could not afford tickets. Can we just play it real fast?
39:54What do you think that the game you're going to, the cheapest price for the game three you're
39:59going to is $8,000? Everyday Americans can't afford these sports.
40:04Well, I know, but they can watch it on television. It's sort of semi-free to watch it on television,
40:10but that's the way life goes.
40:15The thing that strikes me, I'm so glad you played that, is that sports are meant to be communal.
40:22This is about sharing spaces with your fellow human beings. And the pandemic taught us that.
40:28They took fans out of the building. They said, you could watch this on television. There won't be
40:32fans there. And even through the screen, it was terrible. It was not the same. And so Donald Trump not
40:38getting that humanity is actually the upside of a sporting event is a metaphor on a level that,
40:44again, you can't write if you really tried. It's just remarkable.
40:49Pablo Torre, my brilliant Pulitzer Prize winning friend. Thank you so much for joining us on today
40:54of all days. We're going to sneak in a quick break and I'll be right back.
41:01Nicole's guest on this week's episode of the Best People podcast is a familiar face to viewers of
41:06this program. Former DOJ pardon attorney, Liz Oyer. She talks with Nicole about her experience
41:12leaving the department and what happened next. Take a listen.
41:16Most people who were fired from the Justice Department in the early days were fired quietly
41:20and they walked away from their jobs without speaking out. That was not my impulse. My impulse
41:25was this was an injustice and I need to speak about it publicly. So I did. I did a couple
41:31of interviews,
41:31including one with you. And that resulted in Todd Blanche issuing a statement saying I was lying.
41:37I then agreed to testify in Congress. And the Friday before I was scheduled to testify on a Monday,
41:44I got a call from a person who was still in the Justice Department on my cell phone telling me
41:50that
41:50the deputy attorney general had sent armed U.S. Marshals to my home to deliver me a warning letter
41:57about my testimony. And he told me that he was calling because he knew it was going to be really
42:02upsetting to my family if these men, these armed men showed up at my door at 10 o'clock on
42:07a Friday
42:08night. And this person was absolutely right. My son was home alone at the time and I was probably not
42:15going to be back at my house before these people arrived, which would have been terrifying for him.
42:19I mean, they were calling not because they were supposed to, but because they knew that it was the
42:23right thing to do to give me a heads up. And they were able to help me get that called
42:26off, but it
42:28didn't end there. To listen to the rest of Liz's story and what's happened to the department since
42:35she left, scan a QR code on your screen, or you can download the best people wherever you get your
42:40podcasts and take another break. Be right back.
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