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NewsTranscript
00:00Governor, since we've been on the air tonight, a story has broken in The New York Times,
00:04and it has broken since I have been on the air, and so I have not—I'm not fully read
00:08in on this.
00:09But I know that you've at least seen the headline, and I want to ask you just for your
00:12reaction to this.
00:13It's a pretty shocking story.
00:14The headline is, Musk, meaning Elon Musk, set to get access to top-secret U.S. plan
00:21for potential war with China.
00:24The lead is this.
00:25The Pentagon is scheduled tomorrow—Friday—to brief Elon Musk on the U.S. military's plan
00:30for any war that might break out with China.
00:33One official confirming to The Times that Musk is to be at the Pentagon on Friday but
00:37offering no details.
00:38Mr. Musk, of course, has extensive financial interests in China, and so this, I think,
00:43is raising lots of alarm bells for a lot of different people.
00:46The Pentagon's war plans, known in military jargon as O-plans or operational plans, are
00:51among the military's most closely guarded secrets.
00:54If a foreign country was to learn how the U.S. planned to fight a war against them,
00:57it could reinforce its defenses and address its weaknesses, making the plans far less
01:01likely to succeed.
01:03The top-secret briefing for the China war plan has 20 to 30 slides that lay out how
01:07the U.S. would fight such a conflict.
01:10It covers various options on what Chinese targets the U.S. could hit over what time
01:16period.
01:17And these would be the options that would be presented to Mr. Trump for decisions.
01:20For some reason, they've decided to show Elon Musk this level of detail about a potential
01:26war with China while he operates the largest Tesla—largest car factory, I believe, in
01:33China and has immense financial interests in that country and contacts with that country's
01:38government that he has not disclosed to the U.S. as part of maintaining his security clearance.
01:42I just got to get your reaction to that, sir.
01:47Well, speechless would be the word.
01:51I don't know how to convey—I don't possess the language ability to convey how far out
01:55of the norm this is, like nothing that people listening—like, look, this is—those of
02:01us who served, the background checks from the FBI, just to receive clearance as an artillery
02:08enlisted soldier was extensive to get that background.
02:11And then the level of information that you can get, or as a member of Congress, to be
02:16able to have access to this type of information.
02:18These are closely guarded secrets, because our national and our global defense depends
02:23upon them.
02:24And once again, we have this—I don't know, the character, the world's richest man with
02:30the world's most fragile ego.
02:33And I don't understand where the Republicans, where are Lindsey Graham, where are these
02:39people who know how this works, to not be terrified of where this is at.
02:44And again, seeing the Commerce Secretary today tell people to go buy a specific stock,
02:51and not jesting, not in that.
02:52And look, I have to be very careful, because I'll be candid.
02:55I think this guy is deeply damaged, a buffoon, but I also don't want to elevate him.
03:02He is unelected.
03:04He does not know how this stuff works.
03:06And Donald Trump is being reckless with the most sensitive data.
03:11So I want to try and provide some assurance to the American people.
03:17But I also think our leadership needs to be very clear about not sugarcoating this.
03:22And Donald Trump obviously disrespects the American public.
03:25He thinks they're not smart enough to understand this, and doesn't care.
03:29I do believe the American public knows.
03:31And I do believe, when they see stories like this, that this is why these town halls are
03:36growing so big.
03:37This is why folks are starting to question.
03:40And what I truly worry that I get sucked into, too, is they throw so much at it.
03:46This is the stuff that you should watch.
03:49This is the disappearing people sharing our most guarded secrets on global conflict with
03:56a truly unstable private citizen who has no authority, and appears to not care.
04:05So yeah, I would just say this is chilling.
04:09I'm hoping that the resistance, and right now the resistance has to be in the Senate.
04:14Republican senators need to put a stop to this, and pull this back.
04:20Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, sir, thank you for making time to be here tonight.
04:22I appreciate it.
04:25Thank you, Rachel.
04:27And here is America right now.
04:31The Democrats, more outspoken leaders, Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, leading a Nevada rally
04:36today dubbed Fighting the Oligarchy, pushing a more aggressive approach to the other side
04:41of America.
04:42You also see on your screen President Trump promoting an executive action, rather than
04:47working with Congress on passing actual legislation or long-term policy.
04:53He claims that what you see him signing there will start a process to close the Education
04:58Department.
04:59We have more on that coming up.
05:00But the rally, as you can see in the line here, drew over 50,000 RSVPs, the Democratic
05:06rally, per organizers.
05:08Here's more of that line.
05:11We're all here together because we share in the frustration and the heartache that comes
05:19from watching those in power actively tear down or refuse to fight for everyday working
05:28Americans like us.
05:31And we are here together because an extreme concentration of power and corruption is taking
05:39over this country like never before.
05:44But we are also here today because we know that a better world is possible.
05:54This country faces enormous crises.
05:59And how we respond to these crises today will impact not only our lives, but the lives of
06:08our kids, future generations, and in terms of climate change, the very well-being of
06:16the planet.
06:20We are witnessing an oligarchy in America.
06:27And that is when those with the most economic, political, and technological power destroy
06:35the public good to enrich themselves while millions of Americans pay the price.
06:42Today we are here to say very loudly and clearly, no, we will not accept an oligarchic
06:54form of society where a handful of billionaires run the government.
07:02No, we will not accept an authoritarian form of society with a president who undermines
07:16the Constitution every day.
07:20Lying to and screwing over working people so that they can steal from our health care
07:27and social security and veterans care to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest and bailouts
07:33for their crypto-billionaire friends.
07:37There's a word for this, corruption.
07:41No we will not accept a society of massive economic inequalities where the very rich
07:50are becoming much richer while working families across the country struggle to put food on
07:58the table.
07:59This isn't just about Republicans.
08:02We need a Democratic Party that fights harder for us too.
08:10Community is the most powerful building block we have to defeat authoritarianism and root
08:16out the corruption in the White House.
08:19Let's do something really radical, you ready?
08:23Let's tell the truth.
08:26Tell the truth.
08:27That is some of what we heard today and you can see at the large gathering there was enthusiasm
08:32even amidst what has been a depressing period for many on the Democratic left and the opposition
08:39party.
08:40These are leaders associated with the more progressive wing.
08:43That's one dimension, but they also, separate from say ideology or how to regulate capitalism,
08:49these are two leaders who want to confront Trump in a way that's more assertive than
08:54many other figures like Senators Schumer or Durbin.
09:00We are living in a dangerous and unprecedented moment in American history.
09:04I don't think we're witnessing the start of an oligarchy.
09:07I think we are fully here.
09:11These billionaires are not looking out for us.
09:15They are grinding us to a pulp and they are eating us for breakfast.
09:20If you are a fan of Donald Trump and you like to punish yourself by watching my live streams,
09:27welcome.
09:28I'm still fighting for your health care anyway.
09:31We've got to be smart.
09:32We've got to be organized and we've got to fight back.
09:36This is not a time for wallowing in despair and hiding under the covers.
09:40The stakes are just too high.
09:43The stakes are high and we are showing you there how both of those two individuals who
09:47are separated by many decades in age have been doing something that Trump and MAGA leaders
09:53have used in communications technology, which is part of how we live politics today.
09:57They're using those online tools to speak directly.
10:01Sanders there citing a more upbeat, energetic approach.
10:05And then there are sneakers.
10:09Donald Trump has tapped into all kinds of trends, sometimes nonsensically, but Democrats
10:14like AOC and Sanders are increasingly aware that you still have to find ways to connect
10:19with people's passions, even show that you can have some fun, that that's part of what
10:25I just showed you online today and cultural politics today.
10:29And the sneakers are in the news.
10:31Bernie Sanders has actually led on that authentically with his own style and campaigning the online
10:36communication.
10:37And then out in the real world, what you see here is Sanders pulling up, as they say, to
10:42a sneaker drop in Vermont, a gathering that brings people together well beyond politics.
10:46It's more popular among many young people.
10:49And Sanders was game.
10:50But also, you'll notice he was himself marveling at the high cost of some sneakers.
10:56Oh, my God.
10:59What is the story with these sneakers?
11:02They're more than I would pay.
11:05$225 for sneakers.
11:10Now, this, by the way, is when real Bernie almost melts into the Larry David Bernie parody
11:16so memorably done on Saturday Night Live.
11:18They're nice, but it's more than I would pay.
11:21We hear you, Bernie.
11:22And Bernie is in the news because he is out there fighting the fight, teaming up with
11:27AOC, trying online tools, going to sneaker drops while also making the serious arguments
11:34for universal health care and against capitalist insurance companies and against a lot of Trump
11:39and Musk's attempt to break down the federal government as we know it.
11:43Democrats are clearly seeking a strong and authentic way to confront the Trump agenda
11:49in this sequel that looks at times so much more extreme than the first term.
11:55And then we see the headlines about who is going to lead the Democratic Party while its
11:58approval sinks to a 30 year low.
12:03Well, this rally is just one thing, but it is one thing more than sitting around D.C.
12:11doing the same old debates or using the same old communications tools or only going out
12:17into the field close to the elections, which is something that Howard Dean and others have
12:21mentioned on this broadcast and other places that the Democrats have struggled with historically.
12:27Meanwhile, some Republicans don't want to be out in the field answering for the Trump-Musk agenda.
12:32I mentioned Trump is attacking the Education Department.
12:35He has this executive order.
12:36I'll just remind you, although that's in the news, only Congress may legally abolish that agency.
12:43And if Trump got any further with what looked mostly like a PR effort, well, it's not like
12:48Republicans want to sell that in the next election by huge margins.
12:53Two in three Americans just oppose eliminating the Education Department.
12:59And out in the field, as I mentioned, that's kind of the theme here today.
13:03Republicans are getting an earful from voters in red districts opposing a lot of the Trump-Musk agenda.
13:10Doge is not dismantling Social Security.
13:22And even with reconciliation, we are not allowed to touch Social Security.
13:29The work that I have specifically been doing, I am on the judiciary.
13:35It's so bizarre to me how obsessed you are with federal government.
13:39But here's the thing.
13:44That's some of the back and forth.
13:46And you can see in a kind of a less perhaps aggressive manner the Republican trolling that passes for argument these days.
13:54Telling citizens, your constituents, that they seem, quote, obsessed with the federal government,
13:59like it's some sort of Twitter or X fight where you can dunk on them,
14:03isn't a good explanation of just how large or small you want the federal government to be
14:07and whether people still want Social Security checks on time or an Education Department,
14:11as I just showed you, that most people in places red and blue think has a role to play.
14:17And that's just when Republicans are there.
14:19That's when the officials actually go out in the field.
14:22When they don't, well, voters are trying to draw attention to that.
14:25Here's a Colorado activist showing a kind of a cardboard cutout of a very conservative Congresswoman, Laura Boebert,
14:31Lauren, who hasn't held town hall.
14:34So she hasn't been held accountable in that way.
14:36Meanwhile, Donald Trump is trumping, saying America has become something of a, quote, fat, dumb, foolish country in a Fox interview.
14:49A kind of rhetoric that is striking because it doesn't seem very appealing.
14:54It violates many laws of politics. But here we are.
14:57So you take it all together today and you can see that what the politicians are trying to do in Washington is only one part of the story,
15:06because out in the country they're supposed to represent out in the districts they're supposed to represent.
15:11There is a broad and diverse set of views.
15:14It does not mean the Democratic Party is a popular alternative right now.
15:18It's actually, as I showed you, crashing, just like the stocks under Donald Trump's leadership and a lot of the approval of Donald Trump,
15:26his economic agenda, his plans to shatter the Education Department.
15:29We had an election, but it doesn't seem to have resolved the deeper questions about what it means for working people in this environment
15:37with all of these wealthy people and all of the tariffs and all of the market gyrations and the talk of cutting the federal government
15:45and maybe going after Social Security, as Elon Musk has promised.
15:48All of that affecting real people's lives. The anger is actually building.
15:53So we're going to bring in Sherrod Brown, longtime populist senator and Reverend Al Sharpton for where we go from here.
16:01And that is the kind of dictatorial power that's driving people to the streets.
16:05It's bringing new acts of defiance and more ordinary Americans saying no every day.
16:10Right now, the focal point for that energy is Las Vegas, where tonight Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
16:16joined local Democrats for a rally that garnered so much interest from so many people they had to move the whole thing to a larger venue.
16:24We are here to say very loudly and clearly, no, we will not accept an oligarchic form of society
16:37where a handful of billionaires run the government.
16:41I know what it feels like to feel left behind. And I know that we don't have to live like this anymore, Las Vegas.
16:50We deserve better than this, Las Vegas. And despite the chaos that surrounds us at the moment,
16:59I want you to know that we are closer to that world than we think.
17:06This isn't just about Republicans. We need a Democratic Party that fights harder for us to.
17:19Seems like that are replicating themselves all over the country every day.
17:22Americans on the streets showing up in force at federal buildings and state capitals
17:26to protest Trump's lawless slashing of government services.
17:30People are gathering at Tesla dealerships to protest Trump's unelected co-president Elon Musk
17:35and his efforts to take your federal benefits.
17:38Most of all, regular citizens are confronting their members of Congress.
17:42Like in the state of Wyoming, a state that Trump won last year with nearly three quarters of all the votes cast.
17:47But the state's sole member of Congress, Republican Harriet Hageman, faced an incredibly frustrated crowd.
17:54This person would like to know how I am going to help protect the rights of trans and non-binary people.
18:08I don't even know what that means.
18:16Yes, I know what Doge is doing, and no, I'm not scared.
18:20Next question.
18:23Thank you. Here's the only thing that Doge has done, which is, it's so bizarre to me
18:28how obsessed you are with federal government, but here's the thing.
18:42I'm down. I'm down.
18:46She is the sole Congresswoman from the state who represents them in the federal government.
18:50So that's a little bit of a weird thing to say.
18:52Particularly standing in the town, of course, where Matthew Shepard was murdered for being gay,
18:56vis-a-vis that first question.
18:58Confrontations like that are why party leadership has told House Republicans
19:03to avoid town hall meetings with voters altogether, just ignore them.
19:06And as a result, activists in multiple states like North Carolina and Maine and Pennsylvania and Arkansas
19:11held town halls, invited their House and Senate Republicans who no-showed,
19:15but the town halls went on anyway.
19:17In central Pennsylvania, constituents of Republican Scott Perry blasted him for his absence,
19:22shared their own frustrations, like this woman who says her son was fired unjustly from his federal job.
19:47His evaluation was the top.
19:50Then I turned on the TV the next day, and there is Trump saying they were scum,
19:55no good people, what they got rid of.
19:57I am furious, furious.
20:00Where is Scott Perry?
20:02Where is Scott Perry?
20:15As Republicans are avoiding their own voters at all costs,
20:17it looks like Democrats might actually be capitalizing on the vacuum left for them.
20:22We've got, of course, Sanders and AOC attracting thousands across the country.
20:25Then there's Minnesota Governor Tim Walz going on his own speaking and listening tour.
20:30We'd like to be with our grandkids. We'd like to do this.
20:32You know this on the iPhone. They've got that little stock app.
20:35I added Tesla to it to give me a little boost during the day.
20:40225 and dropping.
20:43So.
20:48And if you own one, if you own one, we're not blaming you.
20:52You can you can take dental floss and pull the Tesla thing off, you know, and take out just telling you.
20:58Democrats, too, are finding that when they show up for town halls,
21:01they're taking a punishing amount of rage from their constituents, too, for not doing enough.
21:06Much of that anger stems from the decision last week by Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer
21:10and nine other Senate Democrats to pass Trump's funding bill and avert a government shutdown.
21:16Colorado Senator Michael Bennett was not one of them.
21:18And last night he suggested it might be time for new Democratic leadership.
21:23I do think on the leadership question, it's always better to, you know, examine whether folks are in the right place.
21:30And we're certainly going to have that conversation.
21:33It's important for people to know, you know, when it's time to to go.
21:39There are a lot of people out there who are starving for real resistance, so much so that even the normally quite moderate
21:45reserved Delaware Senator Chris Coons drew a line in the sand in his virtual town hall.
21:52Look, we need your voices. We need your engagement. We need your support.
21:56And bluntly, if President Trump takes the next step and just blatantly violates, ignores the orders of the court,
22:05we're going to need folks to come out to the streets.
22:09It's impossible to deny what millions upon millions of Americans run that right now.
22:12Right. A hardened opposition against the Trump takeover, unfurling day by day.
22:18And for all the feelings you may have gone through in recent weeks, there's no real resistance to Trump.
22:22There's no real hope. The vibes are shifting.
22:24They really are. People are speaking up and standing up.
22:28You are not alone. There's a movement afoot to save democracy and is rapidly gaining steam.
22:35On Monday this week, President Donald Trump went to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.,
22:40where he has recently fired the entire board and appointed himself as the new chairman.
22:45While skulking around that national cultural treasure on Monday, where he now personally intends to choose awardees.
22:54So get ready for a lot of, you know, kid rock and children's choirs who sing songs about the greatness of Donald Trump.
23:02While he was skulking around the halls of the Kennedy Center on Monday,
23:07President Trump on Monday announced, surprise,
23:13that the very next day he would be releasing all files related to the investigation of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
23:23All files on this subject with no redactions would be released the next day on Tuesday.
23:32And so because he said so, and what else is government other than just whatever Donald Trump says?
23:38Because he said so, the National Archives on Tuesday, in fact, posted online over 60,000 pages of government documents on this subject.
23:50So he says it on Monday. They posted this stuff on Tuesday.
23:54Now, it's Friday eve now, right? It's Thursday night.
23:59For all the conspiracy theories and drama that we as a country have built up around the JFK assassination in the past 60 plus years, ask yourself this.
24:09Over the last couple of days, have you like heard anything in the news?
24:14Have you seen any big headlines about the amazing revelations in these documents?
24:20Have you seen news stories about how, wow, these new documents finally shed new light on the assassination or that some previously unknown fact about it has been revealed and this changes everything?
24:33Have you seen any news stories like that? No, no, no, you have not.
24:36And that is because the documents that genius Donald Trump insisted on Monday had to be released on Tuesday.
24:43Those documents were almost entirely documents that had been previously released to the public under President Joe Biden when he released a bunch of them under previous under other presidents who had released other stuff.
24:54Almost all of this stuff had previously been released anyway.
25:01But this was a little different, right? Because Donald Trump, genius, insisted that the documents he was ordering to be released, these documents would have to be unredacted.
25:13He made that explicit in his order, totally unredacted, nothing crossed out.
25:18And so on his orders, they released all of these documents that had been previously released, except this time they had nothing crossed out, nothing redacted.
25:30And it turns out, you know what had been redacted the other times they had released these documents?
25:35You know what had been under those black boxes and previous releases of these same documents?
25:40You know what was under the Sharpie scratchouts on all these pages?
25:45Turns out what had been redacted was the social security numbers and birthdates of tons and tons of random people who worked for the government around the time that the Kennedy assassination was being investigated.
25:59Ta-da! So that is what he has ordered released.
26:03That's the big revelation from Donald Trump.
26:07Headline, White House seeks to contain damage from personal data in Kennedy files.
26:12Headline, social security numbers and other private information unmasked in JFK files.
26:18These geniuses, these big brains.
26:23Among the people who Donald Trump has just doxed by publishing his full and unredacted social security number for no reason at all,
26:35is his own lawyer, Joe DeGeneva, who worked for the Trump campaign and who represented Trump on some of the weirdest Russia and Ukraine stuff.
26:44In the Washington Post, quote, former Trump campaign lawyer Joseph DeGeneva, age 80, whose private information was included in the release, said, quote,
26:52It's absolutely outrageous. It's sloppy, unprofessional.
26:57DeGeneva continued, quote,
26:59It's like a first grade elementary level rule of security to redact things like that.
27:05First time in my life I've ever knowingly agreed with Joseph DeGeneva.
27:10But that's just the start.
27:12The Washington Post further discovered that Donald Trump, in his infinite wisdom, has just published the full, accurate and complete, quote,
27:19social security numbers, birthplaces and birthdates of not just random people, including his own lawyer, but, quote,
27:26more than 100 staff members of the Senate Church Committee and more than 100 social security numbers of staff members of the House Select Committee on Assassinations,
27:36which investigated the killing of John F. Kennedy.
27:41Now, awkwardly for Trump in terms of what he has wrought here and awkwardly for the rest of us because of the grammar involved,
27:47the Post also has to sort of gingerly note that many of these staff members of the Assassinations Committee are themselves still alive.
28:00I mean, just because they were on the Assassinations Committee doesn't mean they're not still alive and kicking.
28:08And now Donald Trump has ordered all of them to be very thoroughly doxed, which, among other things, appears to be quite illegal.
28:17Both The Washington Post and The New York Times spoke with experts who told them that this very well looks illegal.
28:23What Trump just did here appears to pretty bluntly violate U.S. privacy law.
28:27At least one person who had his or her social security number published by Trump has started discussing bringing a lawsuit against the government for having done this.
28:36Probably pretty good grounds to do that. It's also helpful to keep in mind who exactly we're talking about here.
28:44Right. If these people were Senate staff members and House Select Committee staff members in the 1960s and 70s,
28:53on committees that were doing intelligence investigations and the investigation of the Kennedy assassination and the investigation of the investigation.
29:00I mean, people doing that kind of work in government in the 60s and 70s.
29:05Well, a lot of those people stayed in government or in public service, and that was one step in what turned into a very impressive career in public service.
29:14Right. A lot of these people ended up later on in their life with very impressive, very important jobs.
29:21The people who Trump just doxed include include this list.
29:26This is from the Washington Post again, quote, many whose social security numbers were exposed had become high ranking officials in Washington.
29:33They include a former assistant secretary of state, former U.S. ambassador, researchers in the intelligence world, State Department workers and prominent lawyers.
29:45The Post was first to report that this is what Trump did.
29:49The New York Times adds this tonight, quote, White House officials acknowledge today that it was only after the papers were made public that they began combing through them for exposed details.
30:01Only after they were made public. So Trump was bumbling around in the halls of the Kennedy Center being a genius when he announced what he blurted out Monday,
30:13apparently with no planning anywhere else in the government, when he just blurted out that the Kennedy assassination records will be released tomorrow because he said it.
30:23And that's how the government works now. They then released the documents the next day, Tuesday, and then, quote, on Wednesday, the day after that,
30:33that's when the White House ordered that the pages be combed first exposed social security numbers, which, of course, had all already been published by the hundreds.
30:44Now, after that ready fire aim routine, they're now trying to fix it.
30:51The White House has now, quote, directed the Social Security Administration to issue new social security numbers to the affected people in an extraordinary response to mitigate the potential harm of the disclosures.
31:03They will also be offered free credit monitoring. So, yeah, good luck, ambassadors and assistant secretaries of state and high end Washington lawyers, including some who worked for Trump.
31:14Good luck in your 70s and 80s now working with the hugely diminished and unbelievably chaotic Social Security Administration to restart in your 70s and 80s.
31:28Everything in your official and financial life with your brand new Social Security number that Donald Trump is having to issue you today as an old person, as if you were a brand new baby.
31:39And he has to do that because Donald Trump just published your full name, your birthday, your place of birth and your unredacted Social Security number on a government website.
31:48Because what? Who's going to tell him no? Who's going to tell him that's not a good idea?
31:57And that actually is the most amazing part of all of this, because it does not actually appear to have been a mistake.
32:04It's not like they didn't see it coming, and so they were surprised when it happened.
32:11Look at this from The Times reporting tonight, quote, Administration officials knew before the documents went out that releasing them without redactions would expose some personal information.
32:24They knew before the documents went out, but they did it anyway because he's the king.
32:32And what? You're going to tell him the genius brain fart he had about Kennedy while he was walking around the Kennedy Center is somehow not the world's greatest and well thought out idea?
32:46Who around him is going to be like, um, sir?
32:52It's not how the government works in an autocratic system.
32:57Right. Asked about the debacle, White House press, the White House press secretary gave reporters this statement, quote, President Trump delivered on his promise of maximum transparency.
33:11Yes, yes, yes, he did.
33:15And the maximum transparency here is like if jeans came in clear and nobody had underwear anymore.
33:20Yes, it's maximum transparency. I'm not sure that's good.
33:25He definitely delivered. Yeah.
33:26And who were you or anyone else to question the inherent genius of every impulsive blurt of the 70 whatever year old god king who rules without restraint and without any checks and balances and without anyone anywhere near him who ever suggests the word no, let alone pronounces it.
33:50Geniuses.
33:53Looking to meddle in national security and foreign affairs, and he can't do it.
33:58What he's done is an intrusion on the president's authority.
34:02You know, this one federal judge, again, thinks he can control foreign policy for the entire country and he cannot.
34:10And right now we're evaluating our options.
34:12OK, so you may the administration may continue doing these flights.
34:18Absolutely. OK, listen, I again, I'm going to say this again, OK, because they keep saying things that they just know aren't true.
34:29In 2007. One federal judge stopped George W. Bush's.
34:36Warrantless wiretapping program, the NSA program, you can't get any deeper into national security in the middle of a war on terror than telling the NSA you can't continue that program.
34:51One judge did that. It got appealed.
34:56And guess what? He got to continue the program.
35:00The same thing happened with Barack Obama, a judge out of Texas on an immigration issue.
35:06One federal judge out of Texas stops the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans program.
35:15One federal judge out of Texas stopped a Title nine program about gender identity in the Obama administration.
35:26One federal judge out of Texas stopped Joe Biden's vaccine mandates for federal contractors.
35:37It happens. One federal judge stops president's programs.
35:43And it is it is shocking to me. I will say it is shocking to me.
35:47They know this. And you actually have people coming out every day saying things they know are wrong.
35:58And I didn't hear them complaining.
36:00Well, in that case, it was the attorney general talking to a judge.
36:03Just FYI.
36:04And they know this is what happened.
36:06Now, listen, if we want to have a debate and you want to go to Congress and say maybe one federal judge shouldn't be able to do this, have the debate and go ahead and have a judicial reform package.
36:21Because I know a lot of people think one federal judge shouldn't be able to do that.
36:26But that is how our system works.
36:28And it is how it has worked for decades.
36:31And that's why it was so significant when Chief Justice John Roberts came out earlier this week and threw a baseball metaphor, a brushback pitch, right, saying, OK, boys, hold off.
36:41You know, you're stepping into our territory now.
36:44And I think it was a significant development that Roberts was the one.
36:47So, Mike Bartle is still with us.
36:49And join the conversation.
36:50We have the host of Way Too Early, Ali Vitale with us.
36:54And as you can see, political strategist and former adviser to Senator John McCain and president.
37:00Thank God I didn't wear that this morning, Will.
37:02I had the hat on.
37:05I said, wait a second.
37:07McKinnon's coming.
37:08No, I'd already put the tie on.
37:09I had everything on.
37:11I put the hat on.
37:12I go, you know what?
37:13McKinnon's coming today.
37:14I don't want to be too close.
37:16We always risk being matchy-matchy.
37:18We do risk this, yes.
37:19Yeah.
37:20You have to have my clothes.
37:21High stakes right now.
37:22I did not put them on before my suit.
37:24Yeah, yeah.
37:26That is your suit.
37:27Actually, I have a couple more.
37:29So, Republican Congresswoman Harriet Hageman in deep red Wyoming faced a rowdy crowd during a town hall last night.
37:37Almost 500 constituents packed the room and aired their frustrations with some of the loudest reaction coming when she spoke about her support for Doge.
37:59Doge is not dismantling Social Security.
38:05And even with reconciliation, we are not allowed to touch Social Security.
38:12The work that I have specifically been doing, I am on the Judiciary Committee and the Natural Resources Committee.
38:20I worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture helping Wyoming family farmers deal with drought until I was fired a month ago in the mass firings.
38:28And despite only having the highest marks in my performance review, in a state where so many farmers rely on government programs for drought and disaster relief,
38:36Trump's plans to cut these programs and the people who administer them, coupled with the tariffs, will decimate Wyoming farms and rural communities.
38:44What are you doing about that?
38:51I disagree.
38:57I come from the ag community.
39:00I'm well aware of what kind of programs are out there.
39:03It's so bizarre to me how obsessed you are with federal government.
39:07But here's the thing.
39:09Calm down.
39:21Calm down.
39:31All that Doge is doing is, you guys are going to have a heart attack if you don't calm down.
39:38I'm sorry.
39:43I can tell you, I held about 100 town hall meetings a year.
39:48I never once talked down to my audience.
39:51In fact, if they got upset, I got off the stage.
39:54I went down and I sat down and I started talking to them.
39:58You don't do it that way.
39:59I will tell you something else that these Republican congressmen and congresswomen are learning.
40:05Like the federal government in red state America, for a lot of these people, it ain't way off in Washington, D.C.
40:13It's the doctor that takes care of their child.
40:17It's the nursing home that protects their parents in their final years of life, because that's funded by Medicaid.
40:27That's funded by the federal government.
40:29I mean, it's a Social Security check that comes in every month that allows them to continue living their lives the way they deserve to live their lives.
40:42And when Elon Musk calls Social Security the greatest Ponzi scheme, I mean, that is somebody that doesn't understand that red state America gets more tax dollars proportionally than blue state America.
41:03This is so significant.
41:04As Stephen Stills said, something's happening here.
41:07But this time it is really clear.
41:09I expect that there might be town halls happening a year from now in maybe Republican districts north of the Mason-Dixon line.
41:15But to see that kind of organic eruption in Wyoming, I mean, that wasn't a bunch of Democrats bust into Wyoming, I don't think.
41:23I think this is an organic thing happening 57 days in.
41:27Those are Republicans, not Democrats.
41:29So, Hallie, how much pressure are these congressmen and women that you talked to on Capitol Hill actually feeling?
41:36I mean, when you watch that town hall and you watch the others we've seen, you just see fear on the part of the congressmen and women of Donald Trump and now of Elon Musk.
41:45They know if they say something, they're going to get a true social post or a threat from Elon Musk that they're going to be primaried.
41:51That's fear and sometimes explicitly choosing Elon Musk over their constituents.
41:56Well, we were talking about this during the commercial.
41:58It's an audience of one, not an audience of the several hundred that are sitting there in front of them voicing valid concerns at these town halls.
42:04And I know that Speaker Johnson and other Republicans like to explain this as it's paid protesters, people who aren't from here.
42:10Our NBC producer who was at that event asked everyone who was there, protesters outside and people inside, are you from here?
42:17Are you a Democrat? Are you a Republican?
42:19They were from all political stripes, but none of them said they were paid.
42:22All of them said that they were from that area.
42:24It's a small community, they said.
42:25They recognize their friends and neighbors there.
42:27That's what politics are.
42:29And even if it's not a constituent that comes from around the corner, if they live in the state, if they live in the district, they are still a constituent.
42:35So Congresswoman Hageman there, who herself, and you were talking about this, was the result of a primary challenge within her own party.
42:41Clearly, they're ignoring the concerns of her constituents and frankly, the concerns of leadership who said, please don't hold town halls like this.
42:48The optics are bad. That's why they don't want them being held.
42:51But nevertheless, we're seeing them stick to the audience of one and hold the line for Musk and Trump.
42:56You know, Joe, about a month before he died, I called our old pal Al Simpson out in Wyoming, in Cody, Wyoming, just having a conversation with him about how things were going.
43:08And he raised the possibility that all of his neighbors who he knew voted for Donald Trump twice, they voted for him in 2016 and they certainly voted for him last fall,
43:18that they would not know what to do when they went down to the local Social Security office.
43:24And he said in the spring or the early summer and the office was no longer there, he said, and then there's going to be hell to pay.
43:31Well, hell has already arrived, I think. Yeah. Yeah.
43:34And again, and you know this, Mark, you don't you don't you don't run away.
43:42You don't run away from unpopular issues. You run into them.
43:47I remember in 1995, we had to slow down the rate of Medicare.
43:55Medicare trustees said that it was going bankrupt in seven years.
44:00So we had to slow down the rate of Medicare. Right.
44:04And and Republicans ran away from it. They lost.
44:09I think it was one of the only Republicans who ran straight into it.
44:12And when somebody tried to demagogue it, I said, this is all I'm going to talk about the entire campaign.
44:16And this is all I talked about the entire campaign. And I I said, ask me a question about education.
44:21I'm going to talk about why we had to slow down the rate of Medicare.
44:25Well, you had to cut Medicare to save Medicare.
44:30And Mika certainly say this before. At the end of the campaign, Glenn Bolger, public opinion strategy saying we've done 130 districts.
44:38I got asked, what did you do with seniors? And I was like, oh, God, why?
44:41So because you had the highest approval rating by far of anybody that any Republican out of the hundred plus we did with seniors.
44:52What did you do? I said, I told him the truth. I told him why we had to cut Medicare.
44:56And he was like, oh, my God, voters can take the truth.
44:59They can take the truth. And these people aren't giving it to them.
45:05It's interesting, too, Joe, is that, you know, for years, sort of the Republican mantra, particularly as backbenchers, has been government sucks.
45:11We're going to shut it down. Government's just unpopular. So they ran against it.
45:15Well, now they've caught the car and they're now they're shutting down stuff.
45:19And 80 percent of these jobs are not in Washington. They're out in red states.
45:22And just as a just one example, think about the national parks where they basically cut out all the Rangers.
45:28Those are the guys that clean the toilets. So wait till everybody goes to the national parks this summer and tries to go to the restroom.