Speaker 1: The heart of the nation's capital. This is a Jim
Speaker 1: Acosta Show special report. All right, welcome to the Jim
Speaker 1: Acosta Show. It's another day that ends. And why in
Speaker 1: Donald Trump alienating America's closest allies. Somebody who is not
Speaker 1: being alienated these days is Natalie Harp. Despite all of
Speaker 1: the negative attention that Trump's a strange relationship with Harp
Speaker 1: is receiving these days, she was very much in front
Speaker 1: of the cameras all weekend long during the DC Grand Prix.
Speaker 1: Let's discuss with our returning champions, Molly john Fast of
Speaker 1: Fast Politics and Rick Wilson of Lincoln Square. Guys, great
Speaker 1: to see both of you. Thanks, good to see you.
Speaker 1: And Molly, you were just asking me a few months ago. No,
Speaker 1: it's not nighttime in DC. This is just my set.
Speaker 1: It's just, you know, it's.
Speaker 2: Always nighttime on the FASTA.
Speaker 1: Show, but you know people watch this stuff at other
Speaker 1: times of day, so it's you know, it's an evergreen set.
Speaker 1: It works, it works, and apparently Natalie Harp works for
Speaker 1: Donald Trump. I don't know this is that's a terrible
Speaker 1: segue and we're going to get into this. But the
Speaker 1: other thing that I.
Speaker 3: Wanted to do.
Speaker 1: Correct, there we go. It's already lots of terking, lots
Speaker 1: of twerking, which I still don't know what that is,
Speaker 1: but we'll get to that later. The other thing that
Speaker 1: is talking these days, I guess is Scott Besson. I
Speaker 1: don't know if that's a segue, but uh, you know,
Speaker 1: he I don't even want to think about that visual,
Speaker 1: but you know, he came out today an unleashed economic
Speaker 1: D Day on the Iranians, which, as it turns out,
Speaker 1: is just more threats, which thank goodness, that's not what
Speaker 1: the original D Day was all about.
Speaker 3: Rick.
Speaker 1: If the original D Day had just been threats, we'd
Speaker 1: all be speaking German right now, but we would.
Speaker 4: And I gotta say I, I you know, I watched
Speaker 4: this sort of performative chest thumping stuff that these guys
Speaker 4: do all the time, and it just seems to be
Speaker 4: less and less effective as time goes by. The Iranians
Speaker 4: have been threatened with everything including nuclear weapons destroying their civilization,
Speaker 4: and now they're like, oh sanctions, we well, that'll hurt.
Speaker 4: You know, they just don't care anymore because they know
Speaker 4: Trump will either taco or it won't matter, or or
Speaker 4: they'll find other ways to get what they want, because
Speaker 4: you know, remember the day trump'as I'm going to impose terrible,
Speaker 4: terrible sanctions in any country that's helping Iran will pay
Speaker 4: a terrible price. Well, the two countries that are helping
Speaker 4: Iran the most right now are Russia and China, and
Speaker 4: I've heard nothing about it. Weirdly enough, Russia is not
Speaker 4: going to pay any terrible price. Oddly enough, I don't
Speaker 4: know why. It's crazy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Moley, they did the math and they figured out
Speaker 1: that well, to punish those countries that help Iran, they
Speaker 1: would have to punish the countries that Trump is the
Speaker 1: closest with the dictator.
Speaker 3: Of Korea, but Russia, China.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it shows what Trump is just there's no way
Speaker 2: out of this dumb self inflicted injury. And it's like
Speaker 2: this in higher administration is just self inflicted injury after
Speaker 2: self inflicted injury after self inflicted injury. So here's another one.
Speaker 2: You know, anyone who had read a book knew that
Speaker 2: if you went into Iran, a country of eighty million people,
Speaker 2: you would have a very big, expensive problem. And it
Speaker 2: would and it could even be as bad as them
Speaker 2: closing the straits, which is exactly what they did, which
Speaker 2: gave them proof of concept that they had a lot
Speaker 2: more power than a lot of us thought they did.
Speaker 2: And now Trump is nowhere, right, he just want really
Speaker 2: all he wants for the Straits to reopen. He doesn't
Speaker 2: even you know, nuclear dust, nuclear whatever. I think he
Speaker 2: just wants out before the midterms. And you know, he's
Speaker 2: done so much of these like we're closed to peace talks,
Speaker 2: things that the oil markets no longer react him, and
Speaker 2: even honestly, when they did, it was still proof that
Speaker 2: he was driving up the oil prices, which in itself
Speaker 2: is bad.
Speaker 1: Right, And then he also wants to have this trade
Speaker 1: war with Canada, and I guess Trump put out a
Speaker 1: truth social post today that said, well, if you don't
Speaker 1: do a bunch of things, I'm going to do something
Speaker 1: on January first of twenty twenty seven, which you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean this could all be costly, I suppose between
Speaker 1: now and then from a trade perspective.
Speaker 3: Rick.
Speaker 1: But also that's not really bringing D Day energy either.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: Look, Donald Trump going to war with Canada is embodied
Speaker 4: by a quote I saw someone say the day the
Speaker 4: guy who supposedly the master of negotiation blows a deal
Speaker 4: with the nicest country on Earth. And Trump's weird obsession
Speaker 4: with Canada comes down to one big thing, and that
Speaker 4: is that Mark Carney is so intellectually superior to Donald
Speaker 4: Trump in every dimension.
Speaker 3: Trump knows him, he hates.
Speaker 4: It, and he really has this sense that Canada owes
Speaker 4: him something that somehow. You know, when JD Vance today
Speaker 4: came out in Maine and said Canada could be invaded
Speaker 4: by any neighboring country, I'm like, who are you talking about, JD.
Speaker 3: What neighboring country would you be referring to?
Speaker 1: Right, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I would just ask that.
Speaker 4: Like.
Speaker 2: This is also another example of Trump doing stupid stuff
Speaker 2: right before the midterms. Right, yes, Canada trades with Michigan,
Speaker 2: trades with Maine, trades.
Speaker 3: With Alaska, Alaska, all.
Speaker 2: States that now Donald Trumps that have senators up that
Speaker 2: he needs Republicans to win in order to not you know,
Speaker 2: to be able to put judges on the courts and
Speaker 2: to do other things. And now he has once again
Speaker 2: reminded everyone about these dumb tariffs which have made everything
Speaker 2: more expensive.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, and speaking of dumb, the Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy,
Speaker 1: who spends a lot of time working on documentaries about
Speaker 1: his family reality TV shows about his family. He insulted
Speaker 1: the Canadians and said something really dumb, and I think
Speaker 1: we could play this. I don't want the benefit of
Speaker 1: trading with Canada.
Speaker 5: It's a country that doesn't have a military. It has
Speaker 5: a country that has a single pair of healthcare system
Speaker 5: that's failing. They have record high youth in Asia rates,
Speaker 5: and so to think that they're going to go to
Speaker 5: war with Donald Trump and actually win that war with
Speaker 5: the US, I think it's foolish on their part. Well,
Speaker 5: the president's calling them out. I think you're going to
Speaker 5: see Mark.
Speaker 1: Canada is just a maple infused hellscape up there, and
Speaker 1: they don't have a military. Apparently, you ask any you.
Speaker 4: Ask any American Marine, or any American Special operator, or
Speaker 4: most American Army units that served in Afghanistan in particular,
Speaker 4: if the Canadians have a military.
Speaker 3: Because they were right.
Speaker 4: Shoulder to shoulder with us in the worst possible fights
Speaker 4: during the long period of time we were in Afghanistan.
Speaker 4: They were absolutely some of the most courageous troops in
Speaker 4: the world. They flew air cover with their fighter aircraft
Speaker 4: in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The Canadians have been staunch
Speaker 4: allies of ours. It's a deep insult. But Sean Duffy
Speaker 4: is a reality TV moron, much like Donald Trump is
Speaker 4: a reality TV moron. And the malice that he's feeding
Speaker 4: the Fox News audience. It's like, the only fight they
Speaker 4: think they can win, We're gonna take on Canada because
Speaker 4: they've lost with Iran. They're on the wrong side of
Speaker 4: the war in Ukraine.
Speaker 3: Europe treats Trump now as a joke and a footnote.
Speaker 4: The rest of the world is laughing at us as
Speaker 4: we dismantle our military in this insane waste of weapons
Speaker 4: in the Iran war. And so they're one boogieyman now
Speaker 4: is Canada. What are they gonna do next, bring up
Speaker 4: freedom fries or something.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's just absurd.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't even understand how this works from a
Speaker 1: culture war perspective.
Speaker 2: Molly, Well, look, if you're in a war that was
Speaker 2: a South Park episode, you may be in a little
Speaker 2: bit of trouble, right. It's like, this is so clearly
Speaker 2: and last time they tried to go to war with
Speaker 2: Mexico and they tried to go to war with the cartels.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's two things. Right. It's a distraction from
Speaker 2: the other distractions, which is a distraction from a distraction,
Speaker 2: you know, like right, the war in Iran was a
Speaker 2: distraction from the Epstein files was a distraction. I mean,
Speaker 2: the Natalie Harp story is a distraction maybe from the
Speaker 2: higher prices. I mean, who even knows? The problem is?
Speaker 2: Like Trump is so focused on I mean in a
Speaker 2: weird way. He's really just focused on his decorating projects
Speaker 2: in Washington, d C. I don't think he's very focused
Speaker 2: on anything else at this point. But you know, there
Speaker 2: is this sense in which the administration is constantly trying
Speaker 2: to keep balls in the air to distract from other
Speaker 2: balls in the air. It's exhausting, and I don't think
Speaker 2: it's working.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, and I'd hate to use that as a
Speaker 1: segue to Natalie are but but yes, there are balls
Speaker 1: in the air. That's very true these days and over.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm sorry, literally, Rick Wilson is here.
Speaker 1: I am on my worst behavior. I think that's what
Speaker 1: it is. But I can always make the room less professional.
Speaker 3: I have a shirt now that says go ahead, call hr.
Speaker 1: No. But you know the thing, this this Natalie Harp thing.
Speaker 1: I haven't really had a chance to talk with you
Speaker 1: guys about this. It is kind of like a dumb
Speaker 1: distraction in a way, in that I don't know why
Speaker 1: we're spending time talking about Natalie Harp. She is. She's
Speaker 1: a failed an anchor who used to peddle January sixth
Speaker 1: conspiracy theories and now she's I guess, I don't know.
Speaker 1: She's not really a heartbeat away from the presidency, but
Speaker 1: you know, she's she's like a big mac bag away
Speaker 1: from the presidency. I don't know what it is, but
Speaker 1: you know, but Rick, you know, there she is at
Speaker 1: the Grand Prix in DC every the weekend. She's talking
Speaker 1: to Eric Trump. The camera's picked up on.
Speaker 3: That I'm your new mommy now Eric, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Eric's asking for tips on getting his dad to like
Speaker 1: him better. And then there's this other image of when
Speaker 1: Malania is sitting there next to Trump. She gets up
Speaker 1: in a hurry as soon as Natalie Harp arrives on this.
Speaker 1: This whole thing is so weird. I know we're probably
Speaker 1: reading into this way too much, but it's just weird.
Speaker 1: It's been weird, it's still weird. It's going to be weird.
Speaker 1: For a long time.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: Look, Donald Trump, notoriously throughout his life has not been
Speaker 4: the strictest adherent to his marriage vows. But now this
Speaker 4: story is being brought out into the light, not just
Speaker 4: because he has.
Speaker 3: Some unusual relationship with Natalie Harp.
Speaker 4: What it is None of us have been in the
Speaker 4: room with them, but we can all see enough of
Speaker 4: the display of what's going on to understand this isn't normal.
Speaker 4: This isn't making the other professionals in the White House
Speaker 4: feel like things are under control. And honestly, Jim and Molly,
Speaker 4: this is.
Speaker 3: This is a war being.
Speaker 4: Waged by people inside the White House, Susie Wiles and
Speaker 4: others who now know that Natalie Harp has more power
Speaker 4: because of her proximity, because, as we all know Donald Trump,
Speaker 4: one of his big rules is he listens to whoever
Speaker 4: the last person in the room is, and Natalie is
Speaker 4: now the last person in every room.
Speaker 1: Almost yeah, yeah, Mollie, what I mean, what have you
Speaker 1: made of this whole thing? I mean, I know that
Speaker 1: we're we've been told, you know, we shouldn't be supposing things.
Speaker 1: And is it.
Speaker 2: Thrice married adulterer who has had to pay off numerous
Speaker 2: women for various things.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there is that.
Speaker 2: Let's give him the benefit of the down I mean,
Speaker 2: I'm just saying that, like in a normal world, you
Speaker 2: would say, a guy like this, who has this kind
Speaker 2: of track record is maybe you would wonder about him
Speaker 2: hanging out with a gorgeous thirty five year old who
Speaker 2: has written him numerous letters about how he's saved her
Speaker 2: life life and how you might think he adores him.
Speaker 2: I would say, Look, if this were Barack Obama and
Speaker 2: he had a gorgeous thirty five year old who was
Speaker 2: with him all the time, that's true, and you would
Speaker 2: be every the daily mail every day.
Speaker 4: But want to get to the age difference, it would
Speaker 4: be if he had a gorgeous sixteen year old, right.
Speaker 2: But I mean even if he had, it would be
Speaker 2: his girl Friday. I mean even you know, Like so,
Speaker 2: I just wonder why Donald Trump gets the benefit of
Speaker 2: the doubt here. And I also would add, you know,
Speaker 2: the security clearance stuff, where she did not have a
Speaker 2: security did not want a security clearance. You know, this
Speaker 2: is in like this white house is so is so
Speaker 2: removed from what a normal white house is supposed to
Speaker 2: look like that this is a really good example of that.
Speaker 4: No, and I think particular I'm sorry, there's a particular
Speaker 4: clearance that White House staffers who work in immediate physical
Speaker 4: proximity to the President have to get. It's not about
Speaker 4: the usual secret, top secret sci clearances it used to
Speaker 4: be called. I think it's still as I don't know,
Speaker 4: a Yankee White clearance where you had to be really
Speaker 4: given a background check. And Natalie Harpon didn't get one,
Speaker 4: just didn't bother, just didn't bother, and she didn't have
Speaker 4: a clearance until the President ordered DISCA to give her
Speaker 4: a clear the clearance people to give her a clearance.
Speaker 4: So you know, do I think Natalie harp is a
Speaker 4: secret to Ronnie Assassin. No, But but the weirdness of
Speaker 4: it just keeps piling up and up and up and up,
Speaker 4: and the White House is reacting and mah, you've talked
Speaker 4: a lot about this. The White House reacted so badly
Speaker 4: to this, and MAGA inc. Reacted so badly to this
Speaker 4: that it keeps the story going. It's going for this
Speaker 4: is a second week of this now.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, the reaction was stry saying effect all over it.
Speaker 2: I mean, just the Stephen Sung being like, how dare
Speaker 2: John ass up imply anything. And look, had they just
Speaker 2: not said anything, it would have gone away. And I
Speaker 2: also think had she just laid low, it would have
Speaker 2: gone away. But neither thing that's happened, right. They was everywhere,
Speaker 2: She's everywhere, and I mean, I guess they don't care.
Speaker 2: I guess that they feel like evangelicals are so bought
Speaker 2: into them it doesn't matter what the optics are. But
Speaker 2: if you think about it, if you are cruising into
Speaker 2: a midterm and you want to win, you would be
Speaker 2: doing certain things that Donald Trump is not doing at all, right, and.
Speaker 1: You're so right in the way that they try to
Speaker 1: suppress the story and yell at the press for talking
Speaker 1: about it and blow their tops at people like John
Speaker 1: Assa for just bringing it up. You know, it is
Speaker 1: sort of like putting a giant red bullseye over the
Speaker 1: whole thing, I guess over the week. And the other
Speaker 1: thing that they did was they yelled at the press
Speaker 1: pool for getting video of the presidential suite. I don't know,
Speaker 1: at the Grand Prix race, I don't know, we have
Speaker 1: a little video of that. But they were just like
Speaker 1: told over and over again, guys, you know, no cameras
Speaker 1: on the presidential suite and they the press complied and
Speaker 1: this guy comes over from the ground.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know why they were yelling at them to
Speaker 1: get the cameras off the president. I don't But also.
Speaker 2: If you're an administration that's running in a midterm and
Speaker 2: you made gas more expensive, like about a dollar more expensive,
Speaker 2: do you really want to do a car race? Like
Speaker 2: is that?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 2: You have him driving the beast you have, you know,
Speaker 2: let's focus on car racing because cars don't run on gas. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you've made more expensive.
Speaker 1: Right, we're at the entertaining grandpa stage of the presidency
Speaker 1: right now. They're just as we're at. Yeah. But and
Speaker 1: today apparently he's he's taking kids on a tour of
Speaker 1: the helipad again, like he's just into like, look at
Speaker 1: this cool shit I got.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, look, I think I'm Alway's point at
Speaker 4: the about you know, putting on a car race in
Speaker 4: the time of a national gas crisis. We're not patrolling
Speaker 4: reserves are at their very you know, very bottom. Tone
Speaker 4: deafness is a part of Trump, It's a feature of Trump.
Speaker 4: But I think the tone deafness has gotten especially given
Speaker 4: the midterms, as Molly just mentioned given the midterms, we
Speaker 4: are increasingly watching even Trump's supporters roll their eyes and go, okay, stop,
Speaker 4: please just stop talking. It hurts the ball team, hurts
Speaker 4: the ball club. You know the famous line from Bull Durham.
Speaker 4: Don't think it hurts the ball club, right. They want
Speaker 4: him to shut up, they want him to go away,
Speaker 4: they want him to be quiet. They need a few
Speaker 4: uninterrupted days of being able to message what they're trying
Speaker 4: to message. And every Republican candidate running for Congress now out.
Speaker 4: They're empty town halls. They don't do public events. They
Speaker 4: run like a scolded dog away from from the White
Speaker 4: House or surrogates. I mean Susan Collins today, I think
Speaker 4: is in somewhere like in Mongolia, rather than to be
Speaker 4: in Maine while jd.
Speaker 3: Vance is campaigning for her in May.
Speaker 1: It is.
Speaker 4: It is really remarkable to me the candidates now know
Speaker 4: how bad he is for them. They get it now,
Speaker 4: they're they're they're avoiding him like the plague.
Speaker 1: And yeah, and Molly, there's a New York Times story
Speaker 1: that's talk talking about Alaska being in play, talking about
Speaker 1: the Iowa be in play, all of these states that
Speaker 1: I was like in Alaska. They've got Dan Sullivan running
Speaker 1: against Dan Sullivan against I don't that's like the Spider
Speaker 1: Man meme. I don't understand that.
Speaker 2: There are a lot of people in Alaska named Dan
Speaker 2: Sullivan apparently actually a very common name. So there is
Speaker 2: some method to this madness. But there is a liberal
Speaker 2: Dan Sullivan who is running as a sort of spoiler candidate.
Speaker 2: He says he's not, but he really is. There's uh,
Speaker 2: there's Mary Petola. There's this other Dan Sullivan who has
Speaker 2: the sendency. But here's what I would say about Alaska.
Speaker 2: If you're watching Alaska, you just saw a nonpartisan primary
Speaker 2: where Mary Petola won by four points or something. So
Speaker 2: that if you're the Republican senator, if you're the incumbent
Speaker 2: your and your name is Dan Sullivan, which it is,
Speaker 2: you're feeling a little bit nervous. And I think the
Speaker 2: fundamental problem with trump Ism, which has always been true,
Speaker 2: even in twenty eighteen, though in twenty eighteen he wasn't
Speaker 2: pulling under forty percent. Now he's pulling under forty percent.
Speaker 2: But the fundamental problem with trump Ism has always been
Speaker 2: if you want maga voters, you alienate the middle and
Speaker 2: it works if you can get the low frequency voters
Speaker 2: out there. But since Trump is not on the ticket
Speaker 2: and Trump is unpopular, and there's been a big split
Speaker 2: in MAGA with the Tucker and Megan crew saying like
Speaker 2: no more or foreign wars, I'm not sure you have
Speaker 2: you can get.
Speaker 1: That coalition back, right And Rick, I mean, I saw
Speaker 1: USA today was reporting and I think they were just
Speaker 1: picking up on a recent poll that found that Trump
Speaker 1: is underwater in forty seven states, including the disc well,
Speaker 1: I think, as well as the district of Columbia. And
Speaker 1: so that means like West Virginia, Idaho, and I don't know,
Speaker 1: Wyoming and Wyoming of course Wyoming. Yes, that those are
Speaker 1: the only places where he's above fifty percent. Look, he's eleven.
Speaker 4: Points underwater in Florida, He's fourteen points underwater in Alabama. Wow,
Speaker 4: I mean, this is this is a world that we've
Speaker 4: never been in before. As as Molly said, in twenty eighteen,
Speaker 4: he was Trump was still net positive on his approval nationally.
Speaker 4: He was net positive by I think about almost twenty
Speaker 4: points on the economy in twenty eighteen. Still, and now
Speaker 4: Trump is net negative almost everywhere he is.
Speaker 3: He is on the issues that Matt.
Speaker 4: You asked voters what they care about most prices and inflation,
Speaker 4: and he's the lowest underwater on prices and inflation by
Speaker 4: almost fifty points underwater in most surveys. This is a
Speaker 4: weird recipe that we don't we haven't really tracked this before.
Speaker 4: But with Republicans having basically glued themselves to Trump and
Speaker 4: in every policy, you know, they can't come out against
Speaker 4: the tariffs, even though the tariffs are causing a lot
Speaker 4: of this, because Trump will be mad. They can't come
Speaker 4: out against the war because Trump will be mad right now.
Speaker 1: But here's this is why if you're playing with that
Speaker 1: kind of hand as the Democrats, and I don't. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying this to get Ricked to pop off here,
Speaker 1: but I'm saying it to get Rick to pop off here.
Speaker 1: If you're Hakeem Jeffries, why do you meet with Jared Kushner.
Speaker 1: This was the most confounding thing of the weekend. They're
Speaker 1: playing with House money right now, Republicans, it's tough all over.
Speaker 1: I don't understand if you're the House minority leader, why
Speaker 1: you're doing anything other than Okay, which guy are we
Speaker 1: going to impeach? First? Like that would be well.
Speaker 2: I mean, and I have gained this out a couple
Speaker 2: of we have different theories. You go first with your theory.
Speaker 1: But I have another theory.
Speaker 4: I've come to be closer to your theory that you
Speaker 4: had yesterday when we and I were talking, that that
Speaker 4: this is a donor of some stature. It's close to
Speaker 4: both of them. I had a tumor theory for a while.
Speaker 4: I think yours is more accurate. I really thought about
Speaker 4: it last night. But Jim, the fundamental problem here is
Speaker 4: no matter who set up this dream date, jakeem Jeffrey
Speaker 4: should have absolutely never walked into that room. There is
Speaker 4: no world in which Jared Kushner is A is A
Speaker 4: is A is a legitimate interlocertor in any of these discussions.
Speaker 4: What they wanted was to go into him and say, hey,
Speaker 4: you know, you guys, maybe back down those crazy guys
Speaker 4: a little bit about impeaching Trump and we can do
Speaker 4: some bipartisan deals together. And no matter what Jeffries thinks
Speaker 4: he got in that room, you never have a deal
Speaker 4: with Trump. He can change it in the last possible minute,
Speaker 4: and he always does. This was foolish at a level.
Speaker 4: If a Keem's staff leaked the story.
Speaker 3: They should be fired.
Speaker 4: Yeah, if a Keem Steph let him go to this thing,
Speaker 4: they should be fired.
Speaker 1: I almost wonder if Jared people just make mischief, you know, they.
Speaker 2: Were even just to elevate Jared j Remember Jared has
Speaker 2: no elected position. He's serving at the present at the
Speaker 2: pleasure of his father in law. He's making money at
Speaker 2: every which way. So for him, the more elevated he seems,
Speaker 2: the more. And remember so much of this Trump why
Speaker 2: has about labbying. It's about getting out of the admin
Speaker 2: or being out of the admin and making money in
Speaker 2: every which way. So if you're Jared Kushner, you want
Speaker 2: people to think that you're gonna have influence in the
Speaker 2: next administration and in the next you know phase, and
Speaker 2: that may be a phase of his his father and
Speaker 2: getting impeached again and again and again. But I'm telling
Speaker 2: you this will I think ultimately hurt Jeffries because you're
Speaker 2: going to if Democrats flip the House, they're going to
Speaker 2: have this big vote and we're going to see I
Speaker 2: think Jeffrey's going to be in a lot of trouble.
Speaker 3: Molly, I could not agree more. I think he's gonna.
Speaker 4: I think, you know, the idea that that Jared was
Speaker 4: doing this to set up lobbying business is really smart
Speaker 4: because now I can go to this audience and go, hey,
Speaker 4: you know, we're good with this, We're good with the speaker.
Speaker 3: Keep keep giving me money.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but but there's no world this helps hocking Jeffries
Speaker 4: or Democratic candidates. The Democratic base wants. What Trump always
Speaker 4: promised is retribution for the harm he's caused with the war,
Speaker 4: for the harmony's cause, with with the tariffs, for the
Speaker 4: harmony's cost to our farmers, for the harmony's cost to
Speaker 4: people in the streets, Americans getting killed in the streets.
Speaker 3: People are angry.
Speaker 4: They want accountability and and and playing foot seat with
Speaker 4: Jared Kushner is not the way to start that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's no scenario in which this makes sense. And
Speaker 1: to me, you know, right now, the base of the
Speaker 1: Democratic Party they want a flamethrower. They don't want a
Speaker 1: time machine back to the days of Joe Biden and
Speaker 1: Merrick Carlan, where it's like, well maybe, well just let's
Speaker 1: see how this works out. Maybe if we don't cool.
Speaker 2: The only way this makes sense is if there's a
Speaker 2: high level donor who gives a lot of money to
Speaker 2: Democrats and gives money to Trump or you know, and
Speaker 2: there are a bunch in that Vanda and they say
Speaker 2: to Keem, you want to keep the donations from us,
Speaker 2: so you have to go and meet with Jared, and
Speaker 2: Jared has every reason to do it. And then they
Speaker 2: sit down and they meet and you know it's to
Speaker 2: do something like that or the appearance of that. That's
Speaker 2: the only world in which any of this makes sense,
Speaker 2: because otherwise Keem is there's just in my mind, this
Speaker 2: is the only way this makes sense. And ultimately I
Speaker 2: think a Keem ends up punished for it.
Speaker 6: Ye.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know if it's enough where he doesn't
Speaker 1: become the Speaker of the House, but he may get
Speaker 1: himself a challenge. Now, which if you know, if the Democrats,
Speaker 1: if and when the Democrats take over, that's not good
Speaker 1: for starting things off. You know, if and when we
Speaker 1: have actual elections in the fall, you know, if that
Speaker 1: goes through, but that, how does that help?
Speaker 2: Definitely getting a challenger.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'd put easy money on that for Rocanna, something
Speaker 4: like that time to.
Speaker 1: Go on market exactly right.
Speaker 2: There's also just not there's the incentive structure is such,
Speaker 2: especially where the bases right now, that that person will
Speaker 2: be rewarded and it will elevate them even if they
Speaker 2: don't win. So it just it's in my mind. I
Speaker 2: don't know, Rick, who you think it might be, but
Speaker 2: I think it's.
Speaker 4: You know, I look through the comments on the YouTube
Speaker 4: video I did about this this morning, and the name
Speaker 4: that came up more often than anybody else was Jamie Raskin.
Speaker 4: Because he's a frontline fighter. He goes out and gets
Speaker 4: mixes it up.
Speaker 2: Hard to see rask.
Speaker 4: I mean, he's not a backslapping fundraising machine like hakem Is.
Speaker 4: And while you want that, or you traditionally have wanted that,
Speaker 4: you know what, I what I what I think people
Speaker 4: would want more than anything else, is a time machining.
Speaker 4: But snatch Nancy Pelosi from twenty five years ago and
Speaker 4: bring her.
Speaker 3: Back to rayin Havoc.
Speaker 4: Even twenty sure, even twenty we're ten ten.
Speaker 1: I mean when she went toe to toe with Trump
Speaker 1: over at the White House and got him to accept
Speaker 1: responsibility for one of those government shutdowns. I mean, she
Speaker 1: put walking down, put the glasses on, you know. But
Speaker 1: we're not going back to those days. I must go ahead.
Speaker 2: Sorry, you'll see. I mean they're Hakeem has the CBC
Speaker 2: behind him, and that's a very powerful caucus film people
Speaker 2: who are really who know what they're doing. But I
Speaker 2: still think there'll be someone there'll be a challenger. I
Speaker 2: don't think it'll be someone like Uh. I don't think
Speaker 2: it'll be Asking because I think he's older and has
Speaker 2: sort of respect for the work it's going to need
Speaker 2: to be. If somebody does it, it will be someone young
Speaker 2: who's like an upstart. But I definitely could see it happening.
Speaker 4: He needs, Hakim needs to show between now an election
Speaker 4: day a much higher level of aggression against the Trump
Speaker 4: administration than he has so far. That will help him
Speaker 4: avoid a speaker fight and it will set the tone
Speaker 4: in the predicate for January of next year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, guys, I'm gonna wave the checkered flag on
Speaker 1: this conversation. But good to see both of you. Really
Speaker 1: appreciate Broom as always, my friend. Thanks so much for
Speaker 1: having guys take care guys. See, Yeah, thanks so much,
Speaker 1: you know, and we have to, you know, keep the
Speaker 1: conversation going. I think on Natalie Harp, I mean you
Speaker 1: as Molly and Rick were saying a few moments ago.
Speaker 1: You would have think after the week they had last
Speaker 1: week that maybe they would have said, hey, Natalie, maybe
Speaker 1: you should have the weekend off that did not take place.
Speaker 1: And I know our friend Tara palm Mary she's been
Speaker 1: reporting on this too.
Speaker 3: There.
Speaker 1: She is the host of The Red Letter and the
Speaker 1: Tara Palmery Show. Tara, great to see you.
Speaker 7: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 5: Jim.
Speaker 7: It's great to see you too.
Speaker 1: Always always great to see you. Great to be in touch.
Speaker 1: It's been far too long, and it looks great. I've
Speaker 1: got to do that. You've got to and yours has
Speaker 1: got a red theme going there. I like it.
Speaker 7: It is, it is the Red Letter.
Speaker 6: This is actually where I work, so it's both a
Speaker 6: set and my actual desk where I do reporting.
Speaker 7: But I figured i'd give it a shout out. Why
Speaker 7: not terrific?
Speaker 1: No, it looks great, and I mean it's just a
Speaker 1: sign of independent media. It's rising on all fronts here.
Speaker 1: And I guess you've got the red curtains there that
Speaker 1: Trump had the green flag over the weekend and we saw,
Speaker 1: you know, even in that shot. I don't know if
Speaker 1: we can show that again, but even in that shot,
Speaker 1: you see Milania and you see Natalie Harp. I mean it,
Speaker 1: it's just so weird that Natalie Harp was everywhere over
Speaker 1: the weekend, despite the fact that you know, she has
Speaker 1: been so controversial. I mean, there she is, you know,
Speaker 1: behind Milania at the very start of this race or whatever,
Speaker 1: and where I didn't go to it. No, I was
Speaker 1: out of town. I didn't want it. I didn't want
Speaker 1: to deal with all the hassle of all that traffic
Speaker 1: going down. Did you go to it? No?
Speaker 7: I didn't.
Speaker 6: But my reporter Abby Baker, she was going to go,
Speaker 6: and she just told me that it was completely debt
Speaker 6: that like no one showed up.
Speaker 7: It was kind of a pity wow.
Speaker 6: Really having all this money for freedom two fifty in
Speaker 6: America to fifty these you know, semi quincentennial events and
Speaker 6: again like the Great American State Fair, they're empty. I
Speaker 6: just think that's fascinating, Like what a waste of money.
Speaker 1: A massive waste of money. And you know what the
Speaker 1: problem is is that they made this all about Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: You know, I think if people saw in the I
Speaker 1: mean I because I thought it was cool that there
Speaker 1: was going to be a car race in DC, and
Speaker 1: I thought for Oh, maybe maybe I'll go down and
Speaker 1: grab a beer and check it out. That might be cool.
Speaker 1: But when they said, oh, he's going to take a
Speaker 1: lap in the Beast, or he's going to buzz the
Speaker 1: race and Air Force one and all this in the Katari,
Speaker 1: I was like, nobody wants to do Anybody from the
Speaker 1: DMV doesn't want to do that. They just's they don't
Speaker 1: like thinking about him as it is. So you're going
Speaker 1: to spend your weekend celebrating No, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 6: And if it's a tourist event too, I mean, you
Speaker 6: would want to get as many people as possible. You
Speaker 6: wouldn't want to just bring out Republicans like you'd want
Speaker 6: to bring out Democrats as well.
Speaker 7: But yeah, it's interesting to say the least.
Speaker 5: No.
Speaker 1: I know, and I know you've been doing some reporting
Speaker 1: on the Natalie Harp thing, and you talk to Mark Caputo,
Speaker 1: who's a really good reporter over at Axios covers a
Speaker 1: lot of this stuff, and you've been getting into why
Speaker 1: a lot of these aids are heading for the exits,
Speaker 1: people like Caroline Levitt And I guess Trump's what Legislative
Speaker 1: Affairs director.
Speaker 7: He's gone Warrington, he's the Council.
Speaker 1: He's the council.
Speaker 6: Yeah, but there was a legislative affairs guy who's also
Speaker 6: leaving as well. It's fifty percent of the people on
Speaker 6: his top team have left in the first year. Now,
Speaker 6: that's not like the that's not like the first term
Speaker 6: first year, which was ninety two percent according to Brookings.
Speaker 7: So you could say.
Speaker 6: He's doing a little bit better. But yeah, that's my
Speaker 6: latest piece in the Red Letter. Everybody go check it out.
Speaker 6: But it was interesting to think about it. So everyone's
Speaker 6: heading for the exits right now. They clearly think that
Speaker 6: it's not They're not gonna get much done in the
Speaker 6: next term. It's still time to cash out, as one
Speaker 6: does in Washington, DC, unfortunately. But Mark is always so
Speaker 6: interesting his perspective. He had a funny, funny nickname that
Speaker 6: so everyone calls Natalie Harp the human printer because she
Speaker 6: carries around a printer for Trump and she's constantly printing
Speaker 6: out these right, these tweets, these articles that make him
Speaker 6: feel good, right, that put him in a good mood.
Speaker 6: They're positive reinforcement. And I actually wrote about this back
Speaker 6: at Politico in twenty seventeen that they were doing this
Speaker 6: because they were trying to use pause reinforcement to get yes.
Speaker 6: Well it's still happening now, but they've given up on
Speaker 6: trying to stop him from tweeting. But she's the one
Speaker 6: who does it, so she's like the emotional support animal staffer,
Speaker 6: et cetera. But Trump actually has a nickname for her,
Speaker 6: and it's not the human printer. It's my conveyor belt.
Speaker 1: Okay, my conveyor belt.
Speaker 7: That's it's weird.
Speaker 6: And apparently, according to Mark, it's because she gives him
Speaker 6: everything he needs. What does that mean? I know, very weird.
Speaker 6: So he has his own nickname for her. Obviously, this
Speaker 6: relationship is that bizarre that no one can witness it
Speaker 6: without coming up with some bizarre equip about her and
Speaker 6: how she exists as a human being, which is kind
Speaker 6: of sad. And it just seems like everything inside of
Speaker 6: the White House is just.
Speaker 7: Weird right now.
Speaker 6: I mean, he was telling me, while we see that
Speaker 6: Americans are suffering right because it's so expensive. Inflation is up,
Speaker 6: there's cost of gas is insane, We've got a war
Speaker 6: rawn and there's just a feeling like that we're unsure
Speaker 6: of what's going on in the country. I mean, his
Speaker 6: whull numbers are sliding. It's it's he's in the thirties
Speaker 6: right now, brutal. And he just brings a bunch of
Speaker 6: reporters out onto the White House lawn like completely unprompted
Speaker 6: to show them the grass, to show them his new grass.
Speaker 1: It's like so strange, it's very weird.
Speaker 6: And then he shows up the ballroom, he shows them
Speaker 6: all the things he's working on. So he's clearly just
Speaker 6: thinking about his legacy and he's, you know, a real
Speaker 6: estate developer. What can he leave behind? And it just
Speaker 6: shows you how checked out he is. And according to Mark,
Speaker 6: Mark has told me this for months and which I
Speaker 6: didn't want to believe him, but now I am actually
Speaker 6: starting to believe him.
Speaker 7: Is that he's just having a great time.
Speaker 6: He's having a ball Trump And maybe he is having
Speaker 6: a ball because every time he has a sniff that
Speaker 6: things are not going well, his team of yes men, no,
Speaker 6: none of them are telling him the truth. And then
Speaker 6: Natalie's there printing off a tweet an X could just
Speaker 6: be a random commenter making him feel soothed, right.
Speaker 1: That's what she does. She her function, it seems to me,
Speaker 1: is that she kind of keeps him in his bubble.
Speaker 1: She's the one who keeps him insulated from the real world.
Speaker 1: She's the one who feeds him the steady stream of
Speaker 1: you know, positive tweets or this person said something nice
Speaker 1: about you, or look at this article over here about
Speaker 1: you know, the fountain is working again at such and
Speaker 1: such park. And I think that's that's her use to him,
Speaker 1: And I think that's why she he does refer to
Speaker 1: her as the human conveyor belt, because you know, she
Speaker 1: she'll tender you know, she'll tend to his every need.
Speaker 1: And I just find it to be the strangest thing.
Speaker 1: I don't remember. And Terry, you were there during the
Speaker 1: first term too. There were people like Hoe Picks and
Speaker 1: Michael Cohen. To some extent, there were aids like Johnny
Speaker 1: mcintee and that sort of thing, and Dan Scavino. But
Speaker 1: she really is kind of like the emotional what you said,
Speaker 1: emotional supporting. That's there wasn't anybody like that. She's like
Speaker 1: the super fan cult follower who will always make him
Speaker 1: feel good. Yeah, so strange.
Speaker 7: It is weird. I mean, this is to another level.
Speaker 6: He's always had these women that work for him, that
Speaker 6: are always around, like yeah, that he's like I wrote
Speaker 6: this actually back at Politico in twenty seventeen. It was like,
Speaker 6: get me Rona, and Rona grab this woman that worked
Speaker 6: for him for many, many years.
Speaker 7: And I remember when I was.
Speaker 6: A young reporter at the New York Post almost twenty
Speaker 6: years ago, I used to try to get to Trump
Speaker 6: through Rona. I'd call her and he would she would
Speaker 6: patch him in and like she was seemed to be
Speaker 6: around twenty four hours a day because he always wanted
Speaker 6: to talk to the press about anything.
Speaker 7: We called him a rental quote.
Speaker 6: But yeah, he he has always had sort of like
Speaker 6: a doting female aid around him at all times, and
Speaker 6: she was sort of like institutional level. I remember John
Speaker 6: Katzimatini told me if I wanted to get something in
Speaker 6: Trump's ear, I went through Rona, And I think that's
Speaker 6: how it is now with Natalie. If you want to
Speaker 6: get something in Trump's ear, got to go through Natalie. Now,
Speaker 6: what is a little concerning about Natalie is that Natalie
Speaker 6: apparently did not have security clearance for a full year.
Speaker 1: That's insane to me, that's.
Speaker 6: So crazydent, And she didn't even get basic security clearance.
Speaker 6: Not to mention she worked at the one America News Network,
Speaker 6: which is right, very pro Kremlin, it is.
Speaker 1: And also very pro insurrection and pro you know, election
Speaker 1: denialism and so on. And I was wondering, you know this,
Speaker 1: and maybe it's going to be reported out by somebody
Speaker 1: over the coming days, But you know, what was it
Speaker 1: that you know, Natalie Hart was concerned about in terms
Speaker 1: of not getting the security clearance? What was going on?
Speaker 1: Were they concerned that they would talk to her family
Speaker 1: because apparently that there's a brother, her brother has been
Speaker 1: saying that there's something wrong with her. Yeah, And you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know. It just seems to me that you
Speaker 1: don't get a security clearance or you try to avoid
Speaker 1: getting a security clearance when there's going to be a
Speaker 1: problem with your security clearance. I have known, and you've
Speaker 1: probably known people in Trump's orbit over the years who
Speaker 1: didn't go work in the White House during the first
Speaker 1: or the second administration because they probably couldn't pass a
Speaker 1: security clearance check. And so that's that's why they.
Speaker 6: For ten of them being escorted off the White House
Speaker 6: grounds year one.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, And so that's that's been my thought on
Speaker 1: all of this, is that maybe there's something going on
Speaker 1: with that I don't know.
Speaker 7: Well now it just seems like there are no rules
Speaker 7: at all.
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, no, it's true. And the other thing
Speaker 1: I want to get to and I don't love talking
Speaker 1: about him anymore because I don't want to give oxygen
Speaker 1: to people who I just I guess I've realized they're
Speaker 1: just grifters and the just who they are. Michael Cohen
Speaker 1: and I was talking to Steve Schmidt about this over
Speaker 1: the weekend or on Friday, and he was like, you
Speaker 1: have to talk to Terra Poal, Mary, you have to
Speaker 1: talk terror Pom. Mary. She did a great job on
Speaker 1: Michael Cohen and I guess you did a story the
Speaker 1: other day Michael asked me for President Trump's phone number.
Speaker 1: This is in June of last year, which, by the way,
Speaker 1: was was around the time I was still having him
Speaker 1: on the show from my show time to time, and
Speaker 1: I stopped having him on when we started to talking
Speaker 1: about Epstein and he wouldn't give me a straight answer
Speaker 1: on Epstein, and I was like, I can't have this guy.
Speaker 1: What is this ship and so? And I know you
Speaker 1: kind of interrogated him on this, but tell us about
Speaker 1: your thoughts on how this thing is turned back around again.
Speaker 1: I described Sieve Schmid as selling your soul to somebody,
Speaker 1: starting to get pieces of it back, and then selling
Speaker 1: them those pieces back to the same person.
Speaker 6: Again, I've never seen that doing a lot of recycling.
Speaker 6: I don't know what we're going right now. So yeah,
Speaker 6: Michael Cohen called me in June of twenty twenty five,
Speaker 6: that was fourteen months ago, and this was before Pamboni
Speaker 6: said case clothes on the Epstein Files. And he said
Speaker 6: to me, Tara, I know you have Trump's number because
Speaker 6: I had just done I just called him on my
Speaker 6: show and he's angry or something and he'said, can you
Speaker 6: give me his number? And I was like, you know,
Speaker 6: at this point, it was like everybody had number. And
Speaker 6: I was like, all right, you can have. What am
Speaker 6: I going to say? And so I was like fine?
Speaker 6: And he said to me, Tarror, and I was like, why,
Speaker 6: Like what do you think?
Speaker 7: Why do you want to talk to him?
Speaker 6: Like you've made your entire career in the past eight
Speaker 6: years basically you as.
Speaker 1: His crashing, crashing him.
Speaker 6: He's like number one en, I mean really yeah, and
Speaker 6: sold multiple books, substacks, podcast, all of it's a He's
Speaker 6: a Trump trashing machine.
Speaker 7: I mean, that's what he is.
Speaker 1: And I I thought he had a genuine change of heart.
Speaker 1: And I will tell you what a sucker I was.
Speaker 1: What a fool I was to believe that, and I
Speaker 1: should have and I feel awful about it.
Speaker 6: I feel My mom said to me one time when
Speaker 6: she saw me on his show, she goes, Tara, she
Speaker 6: wouldn't be on his show, and I said, yeah, you
Speaker 6: know what, You're probably right, mom, And this was like
Speaker 6: a few months earlier, and she's like, I don't know,
Speaker 6: I don't trust that guy. And you brought ladies from
Speaker 6: Jersey and so I always I held onto that. But
Speaker 6: then you know, I gave him the number and he
Speaker 6: said to me, he said to me, he said, I
Speaker 6: think I can get back with him. He said, really, Michael,
Speaker 6: he really think so after all that, and he goes, yeah,
Speaker 6: I just know what to say to him. I know
Speaker 6: him better than anyone else. And it was about a pardon.
Speaker 6: I mean, he trashed Biden for not giving up pardon.
Speaker 6: He said when he gave Hunter a pardon and he
Speaker 6: didn't get one, I'm someone's son too, And so I
Speaker 6: gave him the number. And I didn't really think much
Speaker 6: about it until I saw him on MS NOW because
Speaker 6: I didn't think. I thought maybe Michael tries Trump does
Speaker 6: an answer whatever. Yeah, I see him now two months
Speaker 6: later and he's talking about Epstein and he's saying, if
Speaker 6: Trump says he wasn't on the plane, he wasn't on
Speaker 6: the plane.
Speaker 7: I know Trump. He says it three or four times,
Speaker 7: he wasn't on the plane.
Speaker 6: And I'm like, wait a minute, something feels different here,
Speaker 6: and the host thought yeah. The host didn't push back,
Speaker 6: and like, I have been following this story at Epstein forever.
Speaker 6: And I knew that Michael Cohen was around during Katie
Speaker 6: Johnson case that came across his desk because he was
Speaker 6: the fixer. He handled Karen McDougall, he handled Stormy Daniels.
Speaker 6: When a woman says that she was raped by President
Speaker 6: Trump claims it in a court filing right before that date,
Speaker 6: right before the twenty sixteen election, that is something that
Speaker 6: Michael Cohen handles. So I texted Michael, I says, you know,
Speaker 6: I saw you, I saw you in MS AT Now.
Speaker 6: I want to come on the show, and he goes, yeah,
Speaker 6: and he sends me the link to the clip.
Speaker 7: He's like proud of it.
Speaker 6: So he's clearly thinking that he can use my platform
Speaker 6: to launder President Trump's name. On Epstein comes on the
Speaker 6: show and next thing you know, he's admitting that he
Speaker 6: handled an infant Jane Doe for Trump sent a he
Speaker 6: sent a private investigator to the Bronx to find the
Speaker 6: Jane Doe. I mean, the whole point of being a
Speaker 6: Jane Doe is to be anonymous. And he said he
Speaker 6: believed Trump because Trump said he was bullshit and to
Speaker 6: handle it.
Speaker 7: And I was just in shock.
Speaker 6: And so this story inside Trump's his you know, the
Speaker 6: story he tried to shut down.
Speaker 7: It sits on my YouTube page.
Speaker 6: It's the actually it's the story I feature because I
Speaker 6: really think it's important to understanding how this all went down. Obviously,
Speaker 6: Trump denies all of it, yea, and Michael Cohen says
Speaker 6: it wasn't the Katie Johnson case. But I have been
Speaker 6: searching and I haven't found any other case that's similar
Speaker 6: to it or like it, or that has been on
Speaker 6: the docket. Because he claimed that this case that the
Speaker 6: other one with the infant Jane Doe was also on
Speaker 6: the dock.
Speaker 7: It sounds very similar.
Speaker 6: So point I think he was already reconciling with Trump
Speaker 6: at that moment. According to the Times, he had gone
Speaker 6: to Bedminster and visited Trump in July, so like right
Speaker 6: before I interviewed him in August, he had seen Trump
Speaker 6: in July and they had reconciled. And you have to think, wow,
Speaker 6: if we wanted to go back and listen to all
Speaker 6: of you know, Michael's podcasts starting from July onward, was.
Speaker 1: He just he starts with change.
Speaker 6: He was, He's becoming Trump's fixer again, to the point
Speaker 6: where when you heard them on the show together, he said, hey, boss,
Speaker 6: I heard that.
Speaker 1: When I heard that, I almost wanted to like take
Speaker 1: my laptop and just smash it. I picked my phone
Speaker 1: and throw it across room. I was like, you got
Speaker 1: to be fucking kidding me. And then I just thought
Speaker 1: to myself, well, you know, it's sort of like when
Speaker 1: you go to Times Square back in the nineties or
Speaker 1: something and you get and somebody you know, says you
Speaker 1: want to play three card Monty, and you stand there
Speaker 1: and you do three card MONTI and you don't and
Speaker 1: the guy takes five bucks from you, and you realize, Okay,
Speaker 1: I just got scammed. Now I have to learn from
Speaker 1: this and never let myself get scammed again. But that's
Speaker 1: how I felt after that whole thing, and the thing
Speaker 1: and correct me if I'm wrong, if I have my
Speaker 1: facts wrong on this, and then God, please God, let's
Speaker 1: move on to something else. He was starting to say.
Speaker 1: And what made it sound completely incredulous to me was
Speaker 1: I never heard Jeffrey Epstein come up. He was trying
Speaker 1: to make that kind of case that it just didn't
Speaker 1: really come up when he was working for Donald That
Speaker 1: was he trying to pass that line of bs to
Speaker 1: you two, because I was sort of that and I'm like,
Speaker 1: how is that possible?
Speaker 6: Well, no, obviously he didn't say that to me, because
Speaker 6: he admitted that he handled the Jeffrey Epstein kate really okay.
Speaker 7: But he then went on to it keeps saying that.
Speaker 7: But here's the thing.
Speaker 6: There is actually an FBI document in the Epstein files
Speaker 6: in which Cohen asks to lighten his sentence in exchange
Speaker 6: for information on Jeffrey Epstein that he learned from Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: Yeah do you believe that? Yeah?
Speaker 6: And you know what that Bed said will pass because
Speaker 6: we don't trust him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well I know, and and and I feel like
Speaker 1: foolish just even talking about it and talking about him
Speaker 1: because it's just exactly what he wants, and he'll probably
Speaker 1: go and watch this be like, did Tara Jim talk
Speaker 1: about me? Would they say? Let me listen? And then
Speaker 1: I'll send a text later and say I can't believe
Speaker 1: you said that. Why won't you You should let me
Speaker 1: come on and talk about it. And then it's like, no,
Speaker 1: I don't want to do any of that.
Speaker 7: Ship well you always. He keeps texting me that I
Speaker 7: need to apologize to him.
Speaker 6: But the last I got to tell you the last
Speaker 6: text message from Michael because it's actually really hilarious.
Speaker 7: Oh god, let me do it really quick.
Speaker 1: I hope this doesn't I hope he doesn't text me
Speaker 1: because we're talking about this.
Speaker 7: It's just really funny. No, it's really funny. Let me
Speaker 7: read it.
Speaker 6: Please never call me again until you apologize for the
Speaker 6: lies you spread about me. Trump and Epstein with appreciation period.
Speaker 1: Oh boy, all right, well I tell you.
Speaker 7: Alan's spreading lies about Epstein. I didn't realize that.
Speaker 1: How could you Epstein like that? Tara?
Speaker 7: He's Doin's fixer. I mean, christ, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I know it's so bad, but it does say something
Speaker 1: about just to circle back to the Natalie Harp thing.
Speaker 3: It does.
Speaker 1: It does say something about Trump and who he is
Speaker 1: and how he somehow lets these people into his life
Speaker 1: who can kind of play him.
Speaker 6: And I don't think this is a playing thing. I
Speaker 6: think Trump sees the value of keeping Michael Cohen close.
Speaker 1: A interesting You can throw out.
Speaker 7: That hush money payment case.
Speaker 6: If Cohen says that's on appeal, If Cohen says he's
Speaker 6: being coerced, that's very value Trump right, he was the
Speaker 6: fixer around the Epstein Stone, very valuable.
Speaker 1: And better to have him on the inside pissing out
Speaker 1: the outside pissing and.
Speaker 6: Exactly, and Michael definitely has a few chips he's holding onto.
Speaker 6: And I think Michael may have been worried about retribution.
Speaker 6: I think he may have worried about like, you know,
Speaker 6: it's interesting that he never worried that Trump would come
Speaker 6: after him again. I don't, I don't know.
Speaker 7: I think he just really wanted the party.
Speaker 6: He put us to know that he has a few
Speaker 6: nuclear cards that he's been holding onto, and.
Speaker 1: That's and and he just kind of played us to
Speaker 1: stay relevant, stay out.
Speaker 6: There, and oh he's going to have a Fox News
Speaker 6: show soon. I'm sure now he already has.
Speaker 2: A wa people.
Speaker 1: He's just a small.
Speaker 6: Man, right, That's what they say. It's just no business.
Speaker 1: I guess, so, I guess. So it's all shown. It's
Speaker 1: all they don't call a showfriend. They call it show business.
Speaker 1: Is that the line or something like that.
Speaker 6: But it's like he think about the way that he
Speaker 6: used to talk to us as when we were like
Speaker 6: when I was covering the White House and he was
Speaker 6: still working for Trump, he was a monster.
Speaker 1: Like yeah, no, he pressed me out, I know. And
Speaker 1: and then he and then, you know, as it was
Speaker 1: getting really bad for him, you know, he would send
Speaker 1: me these messages when he was going to jail and so,
Speaker 1: and he would send me these messages about how he
Speaker 1: had had this change of heart and felt really bad.
Speaker 1: And I don't know. I again, I feel like I'm
Speaker 1: doing something bad just even talking about him and mentioning
Speaker 1: his name, because I just sort of said to myself,
Speaker 1: don't do this anymore. But then when Steve Schmidt mentioned
Speaker 1: you the other day, I thought, Okay, should have tea,
Speaker 1: we should talk about it.
Speaker 6: It's a crazy story that he would even think that,
Speaker 6: And I can't believe I was somehow a part of
Speaker 6: it because I.
Speaker 1: Was just like, yeah, when you but when I saw
Speaker 1: your story that he had asked for his number, I
Speaker 1: was like, You've got to be kidding me. Yeah, But
Speaker 1: then I thought this makes perfect sense.
Speaker 6: Yeah, because he's like it just happened in the past
Speaker 6: few months. I'm like, and then and then see him
Speaker 6: defending Trump. That's that's the thing, you.
Speaker 1: Know, Boss Buss.
Speaker 6: Hey, boss, I actually heard him. And when you said that,
Speaker 6: that sounds.
Speaker 7: Like that is you.
Speaker 1: That is exactly Yeah. Yeah, it's like an episode of
Speaker 1: The Sopranos. Tara great to see as always make sure
Speaker 1: everybody you got to check out Tara's substack or YouTube show.
Speaker 1: You're everywhere. You're on Apple podcasts everywhere. And you've got
Speaker 1: new red drapes, which are they look really cool? So
Speaker 1: great job.
Speaker 6: I think they look cool. I think the wood is
Speaker 6: cool too, you know. But it's also just like this
Speaker 6: is the desk. I mean, it's it's elevated.
Speaker 1: This is where the work is done.
Speaker 7: This is all happening here.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 7: Thanks, Jim. I hope you have a great summer and
Speaker 7: that you don't go to a drag race.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to do that. I'm going to stay
Speaker 1: right here where it's nice and air conditioned and there
Speaker 1: are no conveyor belts or anywhere nearby. Good to see it, Tarasanks.
Speaker 1: And now I am going to talk about something that
Speaker 1: is worthwhile and important. I guess a couple of things.
Speaker 1: One is, listen, there's an exciting new tool that we're
Speaker 1: using here on the gym Acosta Show. It's called Snapstream.
Speaker 1: You see all the clips that we're playing all the time.
Speaker 1: Snapstream allows us to record, watch, monitor, and clip the news.
Speaker 1: Check it out at snapstream dot com. They've they've they've
Speaker 1: really been terrific to work with putting together the clips
Speaker 1: for this show. And it's kind of all about the
Speaker 1: clips these days. So if it's all about the clips,
Speaker 1: you got to use great tools and snapstream is definitely
Speaker 1: one of those great tools out there, so check it
Speaker 1: out at snapstream dot com. One, I did want to
Speaker 1: talk about one extremely important story that popped up over
Speaker 1: the weekend that we need to talk about. And you
Speaker 1: guys have heard me talk about the sailors on the
Speaker 1: USS Abraham Lincoln. And there's the mother that I was
Speaker 1: texting back and forth with as a sailor who was
Speaker 1: on the USS Tripley. There have been multiple carriers and
Speaker 1: other military assets where our wonderful sailors and marines and
Speaker 1: so on up and serving and just getting the shaft. Well,
Speaker 1: get this. A sailor named Joshua Aviles, he was deployed.
Speaker 1: He put this on his Facebook page for over nine
Speaker 1: months out at sea in the Middle East board the
Speaker 1: USS Abraham Lincoln. He says, fighting for a country that
Speaker 1: has given me everything. He goes on to say this
Speaker 1: Facebook post, I just got a call that my dad
Speaker 1: was taken by Ice. If you know my dad, you
Speaker 1: know he is a hard working, humble man who is
Speaker 1: always willing to help anyone if he can. My dad
Speaker 1: has his driver's license, social Security card, and work permit.
Speaker 1: We have done everything through immigration to get his green
Speaker 1: card approved and we are just waiting. It's very sad stuff.
Speaker 1: This goes on and say, this is heartbreaking for me.
Speaker 1: I don't know how I can mentally continue working twelve
Speaker 1: plus hour days knowing that my dad is somewhere possibly
Speaker 1: being treated like a criminal. My dad's only crime was
Speaker 1: coming to this country to give my siblings and me
Speaker 1: a better life. Dad, I don't know where you are
Speaker 1: right now. But know that I am doing everything I
Speaker 1: can to bring you back home. I love you with
Speaker 1: all my heart. Please stay strong. I'm coming home, dad.
Speaker 1: This is one of our service members. This is a
Speaker 1: sailor who was on the USS Abraham Lincoln and during
Speaker 1: those conditions for nine long months, and then he finds
Speaker 1: out his father has been taken by ice. This is
Speaker 1: what's happening in America right now, folks. This is the
Speaker 1: level of cruelty that the Trump administration is showing towards
Speaker 1: immigrants Latino people in this country. It's something I've talked
Speaker 1: about time and again, and I talk about it all
Speaker 1: the time. My dad's a Cuban refugee my mom's side,
Speaker 1: immigrants who came to this country on my mom's side
Speaker 1: as well. But this is how the Associated Press talks
Speaker 1: about this case. It says, when Luis manuel A Viles
Speaker 1: was arrested by immigration authorities, his son was entering his
Speaker 1: ninth month on the USS Abraham Lincoln with the Navy,
Speaker 1: a vessel that set a US military record for uninterrupted
Speaker 1: time at seas. During concerns about supply shortages and deteriorating
Speaker 1: mental health among soldiers. Luis manuel A Viles was arrested
Speaker 1: after leaving his house to take his car to the mechanic.
Speaker 1: According to his wife, she said her husband, a handyman
Speaker 1: in Key West, has a permit to work in the
Speaker 1: United States. He's originally from Nicaragua, has lived in the
Speaker 1: US for nineteen years. She went on to say, he
Speaker 1: dedicates himself only to work so he can put food
Speaker 1: on the table at home. He has a good father,
Speaker 1: he loves his children with all his soul. And how
Speaker 1: is this happening? You might say, how in the world
Speaker 1: could this be happening? A service member, he's on the USS.
Speaker 1: Abraham Lincoln, his father gets picked up by ice. We'll
Speaker 1: get this. Vls's arrest is, according to the Associated Press,
Speaker 1: comes as the Trump administration rolls back immigration protections for
Speaker 1: military families to pursue its mass deportation agenda, detaining at
Speaker 1: least dozens of parents and spouses of active duty US troops.
Speaker 1: That's right, folks, you can serve your country for this
Speaker 1: administration in the United States military in the Armed services,
Speaker 1: and your parents. If there's a mixed status situation going
Speaker 1: out at home, one of your parents or one of
Speaker 1: your loved ones can get picked up by Ice. And
Speaker 1: go into a black hole in this country. Please, somebody
Speaker 1: tell me how this makes any sense. How is this
Speaker 1: not just the absolute epitome of cruelty, as we've seen
Speaker 1: time and again with Donald Trump and Stephen Miller's wretched, appalling,
Speaker 1: disgraceful on American immigration deportation program that we have in
Speaker 1: this country right now. And there was a time when
Speaker 1: you would have you would have some sort of, I
Speaker 1: don't know, insulation from this sort of thing, because the
Speaker 1: United States had a policy where maybe the parents and
Speaker 1: spouses of active US duty troops were not going to
Speaker 1: be picked up by immigration authorities, particularly when they don't
Speaker 1: have any kind of criminal background or any kind of
Speaker 1: run ins with the law. But this is Associated Press.
Speaker 1: This was back in August. This is just August fifth,
Speaker 1: few weeks ago. More than fifty parents, this is according
Speaker 1: the Associated Press. More than fifty parents and spouses of
Speaker 1: active duty service members have been detained since Trump took
Speaker 1: office for a second term. At least six have been deported,
Speaker 1: one self deported. This according the Associated Press, doing its
Speaker 1: own accounting of these detentions, which the government does not track.
Speaker 1: At least eight immediate family members of US service members
Speaker 1: remain in federal immigration custody. And I guess you can
Speaker 1: add this young man's father to that list. And you know,
Speaker 1: it just needs to be said. And I don't I
Speaker 1: don't see a lot of shows. I see shows touching
Speaker 1: on this kind of stuff and on the on the
Speaker 1: news networks and so on, and there's a little bit
Speaker 1: of coverage here and there. But folks, we're in independent media.
Speaker 1: We can call this stuff out. This is absolutely positively
Speaker 1: on American to do this to our own service members
Speaker 1: in this country. I mean, we thought that the bad
Speaker 1: food and being hold up on a ship for nine
Speaker 1: months was bad. Imagine after that entire ordeal, you get
Speaker 1: home and you find out your dad has been picked
Speaker 1: up by ice. What in God's name is happening in
Speaker 1: this country right now? And I think it speaks to
Speaker 1: the level of cruelty that this administration has brought to
Speaker 1: this immigration crackdown, this mass deportation crackdown. And this is why, gosh,
Speaker 1: we're what seventy two seventy one days until the midterms.
Speaker 1: This is why these upcoming elections matter. In these next
Speaker 1: couple of months, these next seventy or so days, we're
Speaker 1: gonna be dedicating each and every day talking about these
Speaker 1: kinds of issues to make sure the American people. We
Speaker 1: just do our level best to inform and keep the
Speaker 1: American people as up to speed as humanly possible on
Speaker 1: these kinds of issues. This goes right back to what
Speaker 1: Joe Biden used to talk about, what others have talked about,
Speaker 1: what I hope is a big center point of this campaign,
Speaker 1: and that is and I know and I know what
Speaker 1: it is using a phrase from the past, but it
Speaker 1: is about the soul of America. It is about the
Speaker 1: soul of our country. It is about the soul of
Speaker 1: who we want to be as a people. And I
Speaker 1: know I've talked about this before where I will say
Speaker 1: this is not who we are as a country, and
Speaker 1: then I'll see in the comments where people say, yes,
Speaker 1: it is who we are as a country. Donald Trump
Speaker 1: is the president of the United States and he is
Speaker 1: doing this to this country. And I will I will,
Speaker 1: I will concede the point that to some extent, this
Speaker 1: is who we've become as a country. We are now
Speaker 1: a country that will put people out at sea, that
Speaker 1: we will take the young people of this country put
Speaker 1: them out at sea, and showing absolutely no regard for
Speaker 1: their humanity, will go pick up their parents when they're
Speaker 1: out at sea and have no ability to deal with it,
Speaker 1: have no ability to help their parents out when they're
Speaker 1: going through something like this. And we know what is
Speaker 1: happening in these deportation detention centers. We know what's happening
Speaker 1: now because all of the stories have highlighted again and
Speaker 1: again with the bad food, the poor conditions, the lack
Speaker 1: of medical attention. A Congressman, Joaquin Castro was just at
Speaker 1: one of these detention centers the other day and said
Speaker 1: that there were one hundred men to a sell and
Speaker 1: in some cases fifty women to a sell. We know
Speaker 1: we're still detaining children in this country in places like Dilly.
Speaker 1: These are the black holes that these immigrants who have
Speaker 1: been living in this country for sometimes decades are being
Speaker 1: thrown into, all for the sake of Steve Miller hitting
Speaker 1: some goddamn quota with this monstrous deportation program, and even
Speaker 1: serving your country, putting on the uniform of this country
Speaker 1: is not enough to shield your family and your loved
Speaker 1: ones from this level of cruelty. And this is what's
Speaker 1: at stake. When you want to know what's at stake. Yes,
Speaker 1: the price of gas is high. Yes, it sucks going
Speaker 1: to the grocery store right now, because it's expensive to
Speaker 1: fill up the grocery bag with food to bring home
Speaker 1: to your family. There's and put food on the table.
Speaker 1: There's no question about it. It's very expensive to buy house.
Speaker 1: And I know we're all thinking about those pocketbook issues,
Speaker 1: and the Democrats are going to run on the affordability
Speaker 1: crisis and all of those things, and all of that
Speaker 1: is well and good, But my god, are we really
Speaker 1: going to be a country that grabs the parents of
Speaker 1: service members and puts them in a black fucking hole.
Speaker 1: Is that what we're going to do as a country.
Speaker 1: Is that what we're gonna do? A young man goes
Speaker 1: and signs up to be a sailor with the United
Speaker 1: States NAVIY and goes out at sea for nine months
Speaker 1: for this bullshit war of choice that Donald Trump can't
Speaker 1: get himself out of, and so everybody gets put to
Speaker 1: the ringer. And this sailor goes out there and he
Speaker 1: does his job, and he comes back and his father
Speaker 1: is picked up by ice and thrown into one of
Speaker 1: these black holes. That's what we're becoming as a country.
Speaker 1: I don't think so. And so, yes, you could make
Speaker 1: the argument that yes, we have become that country and
Speaker 1: that is who we are right now. But we have
Speaker 1: a chance to change course. We have a chance to
Speaker 1: reclaim some of what has been lost, to reclaim some
Speaker 1: of our soul that we've handed over to this madman
Speaker 1: and this crook and his corrupt court of siccaphans and
Speaker 1: cult we're worshiping followers. We can get some of that back.
Speaker 1: And he's going to try to rig this election. He
Speaker 1: is going to try it. He is going to try
Speaker 1: to by hook er, by crook, he is going to
Speaker 1: try to He is going to try to thwart the
Speaker 1: will of the American people. He is going to try
Speaker 1: to stop what is coming for him, this accountability that's
Speaker 1: coming from Because by God, there are people out there
Speaker 1: who are just like me, who are just as pissed
Speaker 1: off about this and just as furious about this. When
Speaker 1: you hear about a young man's father being grabbed by
Speaker 1: ice while he is serving this country in uniform, it
Speaker 1: doesn't get much worse than that. People, But we're doing it.
Speaker 1: We're doing it to human beings only because they have
Speaker 1: brown skin and because they have Spanish. Last names and
Speaker 1: they have a Spanish accent because they're Latino. That's why
Speaker 1: we're doing it, because for some reason, Donald Trump and
Speaker 1: Steven Miller are so racist. They're so racist that they
Speaker 1: won't even leave the family members of service members alone.
Speaker 1: But that's what this election is all about, and that's
Speaker 1: what I'm going to be talking about passionately each and
Speaker 1: every day, each and every even on this program. I'm
Speaker 1: going to break it down in absolutely basic human terms,
Speaker 1: that you have a chance, ladies and gentlemen, you have
Speaker 1: a chance to the American people to get some semblance
Speaker 1: of our soul back as a nation. And it's not corny,
Speaker 1: and it's not quaint, and it's not trying to go
Speaker 1: back to the Joe Biden days and talk about the
Speaker 1: soul of American allthough that shit, I'm not talking about that.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about something that's basic and human and decent.
Speaker 1: Are we going to be the country that inflicts cruelty
Speaker 1: on human beings just to make a quota? Is that
Speaker 1: who we're going to be? Because in seventy some odd
Speaker 1: days from now, we have a choice, we have an
Speaker 1: opportunity to change course, to not become that country, to
Speaker 1: somehow find out if there's a way we can get
Speaker 1: that young man's father home. And now that this has happened,
Speaker 1: I want to make sure that I'm doing my part
Speaker 1: to make sure that this young man's father gets home.
Speaker 1: I saw it, and it's just one of the most disturbing. Yes,
Speaker 1: we can talk about Natalie Hart, and we can talk
Speaker 1: about how ridiculous it is to see her at some
Speaker 1: goddamn car race over the weekend, But Joshua Aviles, who
Speaker 1: served aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln for nine months, got
Speaker 1: a call that his dad was taken by ice. And
Speaker 1: we've got to get this man's father home. We just
Speaker 1: got to do it. Something has to happen, Something has
Speaker 1: to happen. And one final thing before I leave you
Speaker 1: is I'm seeing that the Supreme Court has granted Trump
Speaker 1: this accord in NBC News has granted Trump an initial
Speaker 1: win in his effort to limit who can receive mail
Speaker 1: in ballots before the midterm elections. And so, folks, you
Speaker 1: have to understand what's at stake. You have to under now,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to be talking about this in the
Speaker 1: coming days. The organizational framework is already you know, I'm
Speaker 1: getting information that you know, folks are getting organized. Groups
Speaker 1: are getting organized to make sure voters come out and
Speaker 1: force this fall. We're going to be talking about that
Speaker 1: in the coming eight in the coming days. But this
Speaker 1: is according to NBC Supreme Court hands preliminary when to
Speaker 1: Trump on mail in ballots executive order, the Trump administration
Speaker 1: wants to exert a greater control over mail in ballots,
Speaker 1: and apparently the Supreme Court, surprise, surprise, the same Supreme
Speaker 1: Court that says it's okay for Donald Trump to knock
Speaker 1: down part of the White House, they're going to be
Speaker 1: okay with Donald Trump knocking down part of our elections too,
Speaker 1: I suppose. But you need to understand, folks, you still
Speaker 1: have the power of your vote. You just are. You're
Speaker 1: going to have to make it your job. You're going
Speaker 1: to have to think about people like Joshua whose father
Speaker 1: was taken by ice while he was at sea for
Speaker 1: this country you have. Those are the stories that you
Speaker 1: have to have in your mind as you go to
Speaker 1: the polls. This fault. You have to make it your job.
Speaker 1: Have a plan, have a plan for yourself to vote
Speaker 1: your loved ones. Make sure there's no family members staying
Speaker 1: at home that who isn't voting and two people who have,
Speaker 1: you know, Latino backgrounds like myself, We're gonna have to
Speaker 1: be brave. We're gonna have to be courageous. We're gonna
Speaker 1: we're gonna have to vote, even though they're going to
Speaker 1: make us afraid for our families and worried about our
Speaker 1: families if we go vote, that we that we may
Speaker 1: get harassed, that our family members may get harassed if
Speaker 1: we go vote there. That is what they're going to instill,
Speaker 1: that kind of fear in all of us. There's no
Speaker 1: question about it. They're going to do that. But we're
Speaker 1: gonna have to find a way. We're going to have
Speaker 1: to find a way for people like Joshua and his father.
Speaker 1: I want to thank Rick Wilson only John Fast for
Speaker 1: joining me today as well. Want to thank Tera Paul
Speaker 1: Mary check out her substack the Red Letter. Appreciate all
Speaker 1: of you tuning in. I really appreciate it. As always,
Speaker 1: Still recording from Washington. I'm Jim Acosta. I'll see you
Speaker 1: next time.
Speaker 3: Jo