Maine Democratic lawmaker Troy Jackson is raising questions about President Donald Trump’s role in the end of an investigation involving Senator Susan Collins and alleged potential campaign finance violations. Jackson claims Trump helped bring the investigation to an end, sparking questions about political influence, campaign finance oversight, and accountability in Washington.
Watch Jackson’s remarks and the latest developments surrounding Donald Trump, Susan Collins, and the campaign finance investigation.
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Watch Jackson’s remarks and the latest developments surrounding Donald Trump, Susan Collins, and the campaign finance investigation.
#DonaldTrump #SusanCollins #TroyJackson #CampaignFinance #USPolitics #TrumpNews #PoliticalInvestigation #Republicans #Democrats #PoliticalNews #WashingtonPolitics #BreakingNews
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NewsTranscript
00:00The FBI was circling around, Senator Collins and her team had a canceled check, they had emails, meetings, I mean,
00:09everything was there. I mean, it was one of the most detailed stories I've ever seen about something like this.
00:14And when Donald Trump came back into office, he got rid of the investigation. And now she votes with him
00:2196% of the time. I mean, if there's anyone that thinks that, you know, Collins used to be good
00:26and wonders what happened, I think that's what happened.
00:29We're going to hop right into Q&A. I have some questions for the senator and the soon to be
00:34senator. And then we're going to open it up to some audience questions, too, because we want to hear what
00:41you all are thinking. So, Senator, I'm going to start with you.
00:44You have shown better than anyone, I think, how big money in politics impacts every single issue we care about.
00:52Climate change, prescription drugs, grocery costs, housing prices, right? Can you walk us through, can you break it down for
01:00us, how billionaires and corporate interests use our broken campaign finance system to rig the political system and dictate policy
01:10outcomes and how it's hurting people?
01:12Oh, golly. Oh, see, now you.
01:18Thank you. Thank you, Tiffany. So, look, we could do this over and over a bit. Here's kind of the
01:25heart of it. We have the most expensive health care system in the world. Most expensive in the world. And
01:33we have the only health care system among the 37 wealthiest nations in the world that doesn't guarantee that you
01:41get to see a doctor.
01:42That doesn't guarantee that if your doctor says this is what you need, that you can actually get it. And
01:49it doesn't guarantee that you won't go bankrupt over your part of what you have to pay for health care.
01:58Why? Is it because Americans woke up and said, you know, what I really want is I really want a
02:04country where I not only have to worry about whether one bad medical diagnosis could upend me financially, I have
02:13to worry about whether my kids are going to be covered, I have to worry about my neighbors.
02:16No, it's not because that's what Americans woke up. It's because folks learned how to make money out of this
02:24system. Literally, right now, your insurance company, anybody in here has UnitedHealth, for example, $20 billion in profits.
02:32And you know how they get those profits from saying no to you on your health care. That is the
02:39basic model. Take in as much money as you can and give out as little as you can in the
02:45payment for health care.
02:45So how does a system like that survive? And the answer is, it survives because they give money to the
02:54right people. And they give so much money to the right people that the right people, meaning the people with
03:02power, just keep that system going.
03:05Oh, yeah, they stand up, they say nice things. Oh, I'm very concerned. But at the end of the day,
03:11have I heard that somewhere? But at the end of the day, you don't make big change. You nibble a
03:21little here, you ask for a little there, but you make sure that the wealthy
03:27and the wealthy and the well-connected keep doing what they want. They keep getting their part, and they keep
03:33expanding those profits. And every time they expand those profits, here's the part that gets me, they buy more political
03:39influence with it.
03:40They buy more yachts. Oh, yeah. Yeah. They buy more airplanes. Yep. More houses. Right. But they also buy more
03:48political influence. And so, to me, every area, why do we not have child care? Right?
03:55Why do we struggle on infrastructure? Why do we have an unemployment system that acts like everybody still works like
04:03they worked in 1934 at a full-time job? Right?
04:06Why is it that unions have just been stepped on over and over? And the answer is, because there's money
04:14to be made, and as they make the money, they keep buying the political influence.
04:18I am here today, because I feel like this is a moment. It is a moment when we actually have
04:26the power to change that. And no pressure, but people of Maine, we're looking at you to change that and
04:32elect Troy Jackson.
04:33That's it for me. Yep.
04:41I think I stole this from you once, Senator, but it's, uh, we have to keep fighting, we have to
04:47keep fighting, we have to keep pushing until that door has just a crack in it.
04:50Correct.
04:51And then, we've got to give it everything we've got, right? That's how you got CFPB passed, and that is
04:58how we are going to get these kind of reforms done, as well.
05:05And, you know, to build, if I can, on your example for a moment, I always think about Big Pharma,
05:11right, who also has tens of billions of dollars in profits every year, and they invest, they have 1,500
05:19lobbyists on Capitol Hill on any given day.
05:22Three lobbyists for every member of Congress. Three. I know, right?
05:26And I don't even use mine.
05:30Someone's getting extra.
05:32Someone's getting extra.
05:32Uh, and then they invest about two to three hundred million dollars in, in the elections and in lobbying every
05:40single cycle.
05:41That sounds like a lot of money. It is a lot of money.
05:44But that is pennies on the dollars for the kind of returns that they're getting in the profits and in
05:49the tax cuts.
05:51That 2017 tax cut had 42 billion dollars of tax cuts for Big Pharma alone.
05:5742 billion dollars.
05:59It's a hell of a return on investment, I think, right?
06:01Yeah.
06:02So, uh, that is how that cycle keeps going.
06:05And when Congress abdicates their responsibility so that they can just continue to cash a campaign check, this is the
06:12system we have.
06:13All right, but let's talk about Maine.
06:18Let's talk about a ProPublica story that recently came out.
06:21I'm gonna switch gears just a minute.
06:23Uh, that I think was like one of the biggest bombshells of this election cycle.
06:27And I'm guessing most folks in here have heard about it.
06:30But it exposed, I think, a really troublesome, um, corruption story from Susan Collins.
06:38And she was under investigation for a pay to play scheme that involved exchanging campaign contributions for federal contracts.
06:46What do you want Mainers to know about this, uh, as we are here in these final days?
06:52Well, I mean, I think that's what the problem is with our government.
06:55Uh, you know, Navitech was the tip of the iceberg.
06:58I mean, since then we've seen AM General, we've seen Lockheed.
07:01Uh, it is a pay for play system that, um, is just incredible.
07:07I mean, you know, what we know about that is that the FBI was circling around, uh, Senator Collins and
07:12her team.
07:13Uh, they had, uh, canceled check.
07:16They had emails, meetings.
07:18I mean, everything was there.
07:20I mean, it was one of the most detailed, uh, stories I've ever seen about something like this.
07:24And, um, when Donald Trump came back into office, um, he got rid of the investigation.
07:29And now she votes with him 96% of the time.
07:32I mean, if there's anyone that thinks that, you know, Collins used to be good and wonders what happened,
07:37I think that's what happened.
07:39I mean, he helped her out and now he owns her.
07:41Uh, and that, that is what's wrong with our government.
07:43I mean, people shouldn't be selling government contracts for campaign contributions.
07:48Uh, that is legal.
07:49I mean, they set up a shell company to do it.
07:52And, you know, that, that's why everything's all messed up.
07:56I mean, Senator Warren just talked about it.
07:57I mean, the, in this race, you know, Elon Musk wants his AI, his data centers.
08:03He got a great big tax cut like the rest of the billionaires did.
08:07And, and now he's pumping that money back in this race.
08:09I mean, you know, talking about a hotel that the legislature, I guess, under, under me, put together.
08:17I, I, I don't even know what the stories come from.
08:20But, you know, they're putting all this stuff out there, uh, to try and confuse people,
08:24try and make sure that they keep their puppet.
08:27And, and that's what this race has really come down to.
08:29I mean, uh, we can change government, but it's gonna happen from people like this in this room.
08:35It's not gonna happen from Elon Musk.
08:37It's not gonna happen from Donald Trump.
08:38And, sure as hell, it's not gonna happen from Susan Collins.
08:41Yep.
08:45I love Maine.
08:47I mean, I think that my, my favorite takeaway out of that answer was,
08:51you shouldn't trade campaign contributions for federal contracts.
08:54Yeah!
08:55Absolutely!
08:57I mean, duh!
08:59Right?
08:59So common sense.
09:00Okay.
09:01I have a couple of questions for both of you.
09:04Um, we're gonna turn a little bit to,
09:07cause it's easy to talk about the mountains of problems that we have.
09:11Right?
09:12And the way that money is causing harm to everyday people's lives.
09:16I think we don't always talk about what we can do about it.
09:19And the proactive pieces.
09:21So, for both of you, you both are part of a Unrig Washington program that we've been running.
09:27But, really, I want to talk about what's under it.
09:30It's three simple things.
09:31It is a congressional stock trading ban.
09:33Mm-hmm.
09:34Uh, anyone here for that?
09:39It is, don't take any corporate PAC money.
09:42Nah.
09:42Nah.
09:43Mm-hmm.
09:44And it is, get the dark money out of our politics.
09:47Yeah.
09:49Pretty common sense, right?
09:51Yeah.
09:5290% of Americans agree on these things.
09:55Why did you both make these commitments?
09:58Why do you think it's really important that, um,
10:02eh, that folks actually sign up to voluntarily do these things?
10:06Do you want to go first?
10:07No.
10:09This is what public service is all about for me.
10:13I'm not in this, so I get to wear the fancy outfit of a senator.
10:19laughter
10:22I thought it was for the yacht.
10:24Yeah.
10:24I'm not in this for the yacht.
10:26Yeah.
10:26I'm not in this for the plane.
10:29I'm in this because I really believe in what we can do as a nation.
10:33I believe that we can be a country that builds opportunity for our children, that makes those investments, those patient
10:44investments, that we can be the kind of country of our best dreams.
10:50And that's not going to happen as long as everybody is a puppet at the end of the strings of
10:58the guys who've got all the money.
11:00And I'll tell you, I first ran for Senate back in 2012.
11:04I never run for public office before.
11:06I was grateful for the help I got.
11:09But it is even worse now than it was then.
11:14Back then, Wall Street said they would give my Republican opponent whatever money he needed.
11:22But compared with where it is now, it has just gotten obscene.
11:29And it's obscene in multiple senses, the amount of money, but also the kind of arrogance that you can tell
11:42any lie and you can afford enough ads to run it again and again and again and again and again
11:48and again until people think, well, maybe there is or maybe there's something there.
11:54It's gotten to the point that just a handful at the top.
12:00It's not even the kind of better off and not so better off.
12:03It's a handful at the very top.
12:06People who can literally throw $100 million into a campaign.
12:12Who can afford to set a sack of money on fire in the middle of Main Street.
12:18And if they think it will get them one more vote or, and here's the other half, scare off somebody
12:26like Troy Jackson, then they've got so much money.
12:29This is like loose change to them.
12:33So, for me, we're really down to all the marbles.
12:39And either we go back, look what we're asking for here.
12:44We're not asking we win every time.
12:46We're just asking for a democracy where it's a fair fight.
12:50That's all we're looking for here.
12:55You've got a different point of view from me, fine.
12:57But let's have a fair fight here.
13:01And I think this is the tipping point.
13:04Either folks in Maine and in other places around the country are going to say, oh, I heard all those
13:09ads and all that.
13:11It sounds like, sounds like, sounds like.
13:13Or they're going to say, nope, I'm going for a guy who doesn't know nothing to the corporations and only
13:20wants to work for the people of my state.
13:22That's why I'm here.
13:30So, I mean, I'm into this because, you know, growing up I've watched, you know, people struggle.
13:39I mean, it wasn't just my family.
13:40It was everyone that I knew.
13:42I mean, back in the days that you'd get relief food, back in the days when you had to get
13:46a ride to get to this office to get unemployment.
13:49I mean, that's what I remember growing up.
13:53And now, you know, I mean, I know how to bleed a furnace.
13:58I figured that out when I was 11 years old because we were constantly running out of fuel.
14:03And now, you know, people are going to have an unbelievable hard time this winter for just greed.
14:11I mean, just basic greed is all it is.
14:14And I don't know how many people we talk about Social Security.
14:17We talk about removing the cap on Social Security so that we can make sure that wealthy people pay their
14:23fair share and that the Social Security system is solvent.
14:26But it's also about raising benefits on Social Security because I don't know how many people that I've come across
14:37across the state that get like $1,100 or $1,200 a month Social Security.
14:43And that's not going to fill your tank this winter.
14:46And, you know, people are going to be in a tough spot.
14:48And, like, that stuff I remember so well.
14:53You know, I've known people that didn't have health insurance that aren't with us today.
14:57I mean, I talk about this a lot.
14:58I mean, I got lucky enough to get elected and then have health insurance for the first time in my
15:05life.
15:05And then, you know, something happened in my heart that's totally random.
15:10If it wouldn't have been for health insurance, I probably wouldn't be sitting here today.
15:14But I know other people that aren't.
15:19And it bothers me that, you know, people that have elected me before, you know, I'm basically looking at them
15:26in the face knowing they helped me, but I can't help them.
15:29And, you know, we are debating this issue in state legislatures.
15:34We're debating this issue, obviously, in the federal government.
15:37It's basically come down to who else in this country is worthy of health insurance.
15:42I believe we all are.
15:44But I think what's troubling about it for me is how angry I get that everyone that debates this issue,
15:56everyone that talks about this issue is debating while they have government-sponsored health care.
16:02And it's just so hypocritical and disingenuous for people to do that.
16:07And that's what I just see.
16:09I mean, you know, I'm probably not supposed to say this, but I'm angry.
16:13I mean, I'm angry at the system that is broken and so many people I care about have lost hope.
16:19I mean, I've certainly done that myself.
16:22I keep coming back to the only way we can fix this is if we do it ourselves.
16:27And that's what keeps me going is that there's more people that need help.
16:32There's more of us than there are of them.
16:34And if we come together, we can do this.
16:40That was a perfect segue.
16:42We're going to do this last quick question to both of you, and then we're going to open it up
16:45to audience questions.
16:46So get your questions ready.
16:47I'm going to need some runners out there.
16:52But that's absolutely what's going to be my next question.
16:55This is, I think, my 50th town hall across the country.
16:58Tens of thousands of voters.
17:00Red states, blue states, urban areas, rural areas.
17:02It doesn't matter.
17:03Battleground areas.
17:04And what I hear the most from people is that they feel invisible, left behind, like their struggles and their
17:14voice doesn't matter.
17:16I know that is how I grew up in a very rural area in Missouri.
17:21I know that is how my family feels.
17:24And there are a lot of people who just think that no matter what they do, nothing's really going to
17:30change.
17:31Right?
17:31And that the system's too broken and too corrupt to fix.
17:35And obviously, we're sitting here saying, no, you all have the power to change it.
17:40So how do you convince voters to keep faith and hope?
17:45And what brings you faith and hope during this time?
17:48Sure.
17:50So there's a number of legislators, a number of people that are running here.
17:54Would you just hold your hands up?
17:57Woo!
18:07So this is what gives me hope.
18:09I mean, because, you know, they tell us sometimes that, like tribal rights, well, you've got to do that on
18:16the state level.
18:17And then when we do it on the state level, well, you have to do it on the federal level.
18:21Big Pharma, you know, the members that held their hands up, we've taken them on in the state of Maine.
18:26I mean, you know, we could pass laws.
18:28Even with the Republicans, we could pass laws.
18:30And then they'd turn around and say, well, you know, you can't do that on the state level.
18:33You have to do it on the federal level.
18:34Well, all right.
18:35Then I'm going to go to the federal level, and I'm going to get those laws passed there, too.
18:42But I think what gives me hope is, you know, like with Medicare and all, I mean, you hear people
18:48all the time say that you can't do this.
18:51But those are the ones that are benefiting.
18:52And when I'm out on the campaign and listen to people talk, I mean, people are coming out right now
18:58like incredible numbers.
18:59And this wasn't, you all know, this campaign wasn't about Troy Jackson.
19:03I mean, it was about a whole idea before this.
19:06I mean, you know, this is bigger than any one person.
19:09People know the government's broken.
19:11And I know that we can pass laws like this.
19:14You know, we just have to get the right people in those positions to pass them.
19:17And that's what this race is about.
19:19It's not about getting back to where Donald Trump was or where the government was before Donald Trump.
19:24It's about pushing way further than we ever have before.
19:27I mean, Senator Warren's been doing that.
19:32Because we should be able to have a Medicare for all system.
19:35We should be able to have prescription drugs, you know, childcare.
19:38I mean, and people say, well, how do you pay for that?
19:40Well, you pay for it by not giving tax cuts to the wealthiest people in this country.
19:44And it's pretty damn simple to me.
19:47But anyways, I'm excited, you know, to be a part of this with you.
19:52And you probably will never really understand how much I actually mean that.
19:57But to be in this position to possibly go to Washington and work with her,
20:02work with other people that actually want to do this.
20:05I mean, I really do see an opportunity right now.
20:07And that's what gives me hope.