Speaker 1: Welcome to the Political Beatdown. What's Up Brigade. This has
Ben Macellaz here with the one and only Michael Cohen.
Let me give you just some of the topics we
will be talking about on today's Political Beatdown. Special counsel
Jack Smith, subpoenad Jared Kushner, and Ivanka Trump. I want
to get Cohen's reaction to that. I want to talk
about the MAGA Republican disinformation machine in overdrive in East Palestine,
Ohio regarding the trained derailment there. Steve Bannon was just
sued by his former lawyer for hundreds of thousands of
dollars in unpaid legal bills. Fox is now platforming this
idea that's being spread by the MAGA Republicans of secession
and a national divorce. And I want to talk about
the Fulton County grand jury four person speaking to the
media and what is going on there. But as we
just started live, there's some breaking news to report. A
federal judge has agreed to permit former FBI officials Peter
Strock and Lisa Page to take sworn testimony from former
President Donald Trump for two hours as part of their
long running lawsuit related to Strock's firing in twenty eighteen
after Trump repeatedly and publicly pilloried the pair of this
according to Political Politico and its US District Court Judge
Amy Berman Jackson made that ruling, and for those watching
Midas touched network consistently, you know that she's been a
very staunch ally of democracy and the rule of law
and has not been forgiving to Donald Trump's fascism and
these insurrectionists at their sentencing and during their trials. But
Michael Cohen, welcome. And the first thing I want to
ask you is, how are you doing? Cohen? What's up
in Cohen world?
Speaker 2: Boy? It does stop. It doesn't stop. It doesn't stop,
and in all fairers, we don't want it to stop
because if it stops, that means that Alvin Bragg has
decided not to proceed forward. Let me be very clear
to our brigade, that is not what's happening. I am
heading back again this upcoming week to the District Attorney's
office and let me just say the following, because I
don't want to do what the four person did, not
that I could, because I am not the four person
of the grand jury. I will just be testifying eventually
before the grand jury. Let me just say that we
are in prep for that date, and that preparation date
is coming up this week. Then I will find out
when I will be presented to the grand jury, which
everybody has expected and has already been put out there
excited to finally have that opportunity, you know, to provide
the information that the seventeen previous interviews have finally now
culminated in. And again this is all moving very quickly.
I have always said, and you have always heard me
say the same thing. I am not changing my tune.
I believe that the New York District Attorney's case is
the one that is keeping Donald Trump up at night
more than any other. And I also believe that it
is the simplest within which to prove because it's based
upon documentary evidence, as opposed to having to rely upon
whether or not Donald Trump had men's rea, whether or
not he had the intent to cause the illegal action,
even though you know, sometimes there is an illegal act,
but if there's no men's rea or intent, it kind
of negates out the charge. Not in this case. And
I do believe that this is going to be the
first which would also be the first in US history.
We have never had a president or are former president
of the United States indicted. So this is extremely big news.
There's your experience here. You're hearing it here for the
first time with smiling benmcellas well.
Speaker 1: That's what I love about the political beatdown. You know,
sometimes our producer Salty asks, hey, you know, do we
have the graphic for that or do we've got the
video for it? And I joke, I say, Salty, we
are the graphic, we are the video. Cohen's breaking the
news right here. And when you had your last meeting
before the Manhattan District Attorney's office, you talk to us
about the fact that you left it you believed you
would go before the grand jury in the next thirty
days when we had our Tuesday political beatdown, and now
you're letting us know that next week you're going to
be going to this one final prep session and then
you expect to go before the grand jury. That's big
news that we are breaking right here again on the
political beatdown. And so when I we asked Cohen Cohen
any news on your end at the beginning of the show.
It's why you all need to be here early for
the live and I want to get your next reaction
to the breaking news Cohen about this federal case that,
of course we've been talking about on the Might's Touched network,
the lawsuit filed by Peter Strock and Lisa Page in
the DC District Court based on Strock's firing in twenty
eighteen after Trump harassed and threatened him and continues to
do so publicly. And Trump says that he trusts Vladimir
Putin more than Stock in a recent speech. And Amy
Berman Jackson, the federal judge presiding over it, has just
ordered Donald Trump's deposition. And what's interesting here is, you know,
we saw how horrible Trump is during depositions, now one
where he pled the fifth four hundred plus times in
the New York Attorney General Letitia James case. Then we saw,
of course where he actually did answer questions in e.
Gene Carroll. He was just horrific, like the worst possible
witness for every single reason.
Speaker 2: You would almost think that his lawyers didn't properly prepare
him based upon the answers. But then again, how many
times been have I turned around and told you that
Donald Trump is actually dumb. He's so fucking dumb he
couldn't pass the urine test. And that's the problem. So
when you have a guy who is historically a liar,
who is now being recorded in terms of every single
word that comes out of his mouth, what do you
think happens? He can't remember the lie that he told
five minutes ago, or fifteen minutes ago, or a half hour,
an hour or two hours of what have you, And
so he keeps this circular, ridiculous commentary going on on
and on and on, and we get to read it
on paper so that there is no confusion based upon
what he's saying. I got to give Peter Struck a
lot of credit, and I give the judge a lot
of credit because it's not easy to get Donald Trump
to the table to be deposed. I can tell you
this from personal experience. I have a lawsuit pending against
Trump and the Trump organization. He was supposed to testify,
He don Junior, Alan Weiselberg, and none of them. They've
all evaded the dates that they were supposed to And
ultimately what happened is they had made a motion to
dismiss the case based upon the fact that the judge
made a determination that the case that I had brought
against them for the legal fees was not done for
the benefit of Donald Trump, but not done for the
benefit of the Trump organization, but rather for Donald and
therefore I shouldn't be able to continue with the lawsuit. That,
of course was overturned, and now we're looking for the
depositions of Donald Don Junior and Alan Weisselberg. But their lawyer,
and this is one of the few times I think
that their lawyers, even though it's going to sound crazy,
did the smart thing. He turned around and he told
the judge that if they lose the motion, that they
do not want to continue with depositions. They just want
to go straight to trial based upon the damages. In
that way that Donald don Junior and Allen will never
have to testify because again they lie during during the deposition.
So that's somewhat of a problem. But then again, he's
such a terrible witness that nothing that comes out of
his mouth could be beneficial, not just hurt him in
the case that I have pending against him, but in
other cases as well.
Speaker 1: We talked on the last episode of our podcast about
the subpoena you were served with by Donald Trump. By
the way, I think one of your arguments forgetting Donald
Trump's deposition. This is my I'm just giving legal advice
right now. One of the ways that you can get
his deposition more easily is to say, look, he deposed me,
so he's deposing me. I'm deposing him. But have you
given any more thought to the idea that we floated
on the last episode about calling Alena Habb. I'm happy
to call her or your other lawyer can call her.
I won't be offended and saying to Alena Habba, look,
Cohen will do it, but we are broadcasting it live
on the Political Beatdown. We want the camera feed to
be streamed publicly everywhere. Have you given that more thought?
And do you think that you think that's going to happen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I can't do this date no matter what,
because I have a conflict that's more important in my
life than sitting for Donald Trump's deposition. But let me
be very clear that again, I will probably move to
quash the subpoena in the fact that it does not
comport with a whole slew of issues that right now
is confronting Donald in this specific case. So I will
probably I'm still waiting for you know, I'm taking it
under advisement from Council, and I'm still waiting.
Speaker 1: Okay, you can take it under advisement from council instead
of your podcast co host. It's okay, exactly. I see
that being a more savvy move than listening to me here.
But you know, we'll put an asterisk there and we'll
talk off the record about that more. Let's talk though,
also about Special Counsel Jack Smith's most recent move subpoenaing
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. Look, we've seen some of
their testimony in the clips during the public January sixth
committee hearings. You can actually read their full depositions that
the January sixth Committee took if you want to read
the full version of that. But I think Jack Smith
is not just focused on the areas that the January
sixth Committee was. He seems a lot more focused on
the financial crimes as well that that Trump has committed
relating to the insurrection, the campaign finance violations. You know,
one of the things that Trump did, it's not really
getting a lot of attention, but he created this pass
through entity that's basically run by all of his people,
and this is the first time the entity was created.
It takes no outside political action committee or committee money
in general from any other source other than Trump's committees.
And about seven hundred and sixty nine million dollars went
to this kind of straw man or straw person entity.
And the reason that they do that is kind of
classic money laundering in the sense that once it goes
to that entity that has some you know, just sick
name that that that just kind of blends in, you
don't know then because you don't have to report where
the money goes from that entity to all of these
other sources. So the way you kind of hide its
by putting it in this entity. And one area that
we know that Jack Smith's focused on is there. I
wonder if Jack Smith's also going to focus on Kushner's
you know, relationship here with the Saudis and and the
family's relationship with various foreign entities. Remember, Kushner flew back
on January sixth from his meetings in the Middle East.
Shortly thereafter, after Trump was ejected from the White House
after losing by seven million votes, Kushner and the Saudi
Sovereign Fund announced a two billion dollar bribe. Essentially is
what it was to Kushner. You know, Kushner previously turned
over classified lists to the Saudis of like enemies of
the Saudi government and a bunch of whole other horrific things.
But I wonder if Jack Smith goes there, because that
also relates to the case involving Trump's theft of government
records regarding why did Trump steal certain documents perhaps related
to foreign countries to use for transactional purposes? So what
do you make of this subpoena generally cooling?
Speaker 2: So it's the way I see it is we have
to start with what Jack Smith's what his rights actually are.
I don't believe that he has broad subpoena power over
any specific issue that comes up. I think that he
was brought on for a specific issue by Merrick Garland
and sort of has to stay in that lane of traffic.
So using that as my thought, we really do have
to dissect what is it about Ivanka and Jared that
sort of play into what the scope and purpose of
Jack Smith being brought on as special council are. The
way I was reading it, I mean to me, it
almost looks like he may even be looking sort of
towards a Rico type of a statute, where Donald had
used so many people in the Commission of the illegality,
that this could be one of the things that he's
looking at. On top of that, Jared and Ivanka were
senior advisors. They were there for a slew of things,
not just the January sixth committee, but also the movement
of these documents from the White House to the mar
A Lago storage facility, as well as other things. Again
that for within his scope and purview, so specifically what
it is. Obviously, neither of us have that requisite knowledge
to talk further, but I can tell you it's not
a good thing for either Jared or Ivanka. And again,
if you look, as Ben was saying at the testimony
that they both gave, one of the problems for them
is that they think they're going to be able to
escape this subpoena based upon executive privilege. And the mistake
that's constantly being made, whether it's on television or by reporters,
is the fact that Donald Trump does not have the
executive privilege. He is not the president except to this
MAGA group of people and to most of his Mara
Lago members, he is not the president so therefore he
does not possess the executive privilege within which to turn
around and tell them not to. That would be Joe
Biden's decision, as he is the President of the United States.
And so what ends up happening. Could they end up
holding them in contempt to the same extent that they
held and they are holding Steve and inaccountable. I believe
the answer is yes. Now again, both of them will
be prepared enough in order to give these sort of
answer non answers, very similar to the way that Ivanka
and Jared's answers were given during the January sixth hearings
in order to protect themselves from perjury what's called one
thousand and one violation. So all I can do is,
like so many of you, keep our fingers crossed and
ensure that they do end up responding to the subpoena,
appearing for the subpoena, and providing honest and truthful testimony,
because it certainly will help in terms of the transparency
issue of what was going on during all of these activities.
Speaker 1: Before we go on to the next topic, Cohen, I
like to intersperse a little bit of fun on the
show as we go through some of these sometimes very
very heavy matters and dissect him coed, what do you
like to do for fun? I'm just curious, Like, when
you're not when you're not at the Manhattan District Attorney's office,
when you're not seeking justice, what does Michael Cohen like
to do for fun? I'm just interested.
Speaker 2: You know. One of the problems that this scenario has
caused for me is obviously, you know, I lost my
law license. I will ultimately get it back. On top
of that, I had lost my business. I still I'm
somewhat busy with Crisis X, that's the crisis management company. Obviously,
Maya Culpa takes up quite a bit of time this podcast.
Now Political beat Down taking up some time. I like
to take walks, you know, through Central Park here in
the upper east side of Manhattan. I just like to
go outside, spend time with you know, friends, with my son,
my daughter, you know, my wife. But you know, this,
this has really changed my entire life. You know, obviously,
as I had said once before, dealing with some health issues,
and so you know, I unfortunately spend just way too
much time. I used to make fun of my parents,
you know, when it came to this sort of stuff,
you know, when your parents are oh what are you
doing today? Oh I'm going to see this doctor or
that doctor. Well, I feel like I'm becoming my parents,
and I never thought that that day was going to happen.
So just dealing with a lot of issues. But for fun,
I just truly enjoy Central Park. I really enjoy walking
through the park and just listening to music as I
you know, as I walk and I get my steps in.
Speaker 1: Do you have a favorite band or a favorite song recently?
Speaker 2: No, I kind of like The Top, you know. I
like Flowers like everybody else by my Lee Cyrus. I
like Ed Sheeran's entire collection of songs. I like to
go back to some of the eighties and you know,
the eighty oldies and the nineties. Every now and then,
you know, send me I like, uh, you know, earth
Wind and Fire. Yeah. I like obviously Billy Joel. So
it's sort of that medley of you know, of music
that you know goes on the shuffle. I use the
Amazon Music Shuffle, so you know, you put in for example,
and Sheering and it'll give you all sorts of uh
music that's on par and similar.
Speaker 1: You know, the feedback I get about political beatdown. Cohen
is less of you, Ben, more of Michael, and we
want to and we want to know more. We like
when Michael opens up. And there was a moment on
the last show where, or it could have been two
shows ago, where you opened up very candidly just about
what it's like as you prepare for going into the
Manhattan District Attorney's office. Of course you can't tell us
specifically what you say, but just even your preparation, what
it was like when you spoke before Congress, and your
preparation there, and members of Congress coming up to you
and you know, and and and saying, look, what you're
doing is so important, and and all of that gives
this inside look. I'm gonna go hit the other topics now,
of course, but I really like this aspect of the
show too, where people get to to get to really
know what a great person you are and someone who
over these past years has become a very very close
and dear friend to me. Where you and I were
just like, look, let's share these conversations that we have
at night or during the day, you know, with the public,
and that became political beatdown.
Speaker 2: But I you know, Ben let me be let me
be clear to you know, to our you know, political
beatdown brigade, none of this is fun. Uh, this isn't
financially beneficial. What it is is it's the protection of democracy.
And you know, there are the folks that are the
trolls that join to watch what we're doing so that
they could throw in and make them extremely happy to
sit there and to say, you know, things that are
denigrating towards me. And I want to be very clear
that I don't really care what they have to say.
I know the purpose. You know, there's an expression right
that God puts on the shoulder of man what man
can and when I say man, i'm talking about man
woman just as human beings can you know, can handle.
And so many times when I was at Otisville, it
was actually a priest. There was a pastor that used
to say this to me. We used to sit and
have these lengthy, lengthy conversations, and to be very honest
with you, I used to say the same thing that
I'm going to say to you all right now. I
wish it was on the shoulders of someone else. This
is not something that I go to sleep and say, Yeah,
this is great. I have a hard time sleep being
anyway because my brain never shuts off. There's always something
going on, and it's whether it's the podcast, whether it's
a potential next book, whether it's having to go back
to the DA, whether it's to have to find documents
where those documents can be the preparation, the potential for
going before a grand jury. And if I go before
a grand jury, there's no doubt that they'll end up
being the key witness in that case, a case of
first precedent, considering we've never had a president or former
president ever ever indicted. But this is all about democracy.
This is all about the future of America. This is
all about standing up truth to power and ensuring that
that adage to something that democrats constantly say, and I
say it as well, that no man is above the law.
If we're going to allow Donald and his acolytes and
his sickopans to get away with this, what do you
think ends up happening to our democracy? We lose more
and more of our constitutional rights time and look, one
thing I say all the time is that democracy is
an experiment. It is not a right. It is not
ingrained in the Constitution. It is something that we all
have to fight for every single day. And I'm going
to go on to my fight for speech again, which
is why this brigade is the single most important thing
that It's why you know, I enjoy doing this as
much as I do, to build the brigade so that
our voices must be heard, Our voices must be acknowledged
and adhere to, because we stand for truth, we stand
for right. And to these individuals you know who want
to comment and say things, well, what you know, Michael
Cohen is now a true teller. What was he doing
before when he was working for Donald Trump? I need
to be clear about this. The Donald Trump that I
worked for was a real estate development company. What was
I doing. I was the co president of Trump Productions,
dealing with stupid shit like The Apprentice, all right, as
well as some reality shows. We were building buildings around
you know, the country and looking for opportunities around the world.
Nothing that Donald Trump did. Yeah, and we fucked over
you know, contractors and so on. So what how does
that affect you or your life? It doesn't. But when
it starts to affect America and American democracy and our children,
our God willing one day grandchildren and great grandchildren. That's
when we have to start to say enough is enough.
And that's why it was my decision when I said
to George Stephanopolos on ABC that you know, my wife,
my daughter, my son, and my country have my first,
you know, priority, they have my first loyalty and that
they always will and that happens to be the truth.
And I will continue to speak truth to power regardless
of how painful it is. And it's not just painful
to me. It breaks my heart. It rips my soul
to pieces when I see how my family suffers as
a direct result of all of this. This is not easy,
all right, And I don't want people to think for
a second that there's enjoyment in watching or being a
part of any of this. It is not. I feel
it is my duty, and I am willing to sacrifice myself.
I don't want to sacrifice my family, but you know,
we sacrifice so much of our own lives in order
to ensure that justice will ultimately prevail. And here's my
promise to you, the Brigade, Justice will prevail. That's a
promise because.
Speaker 1: The truth will prevail. And being someone who is a
truth teller against all the death threats, against all the
disinformation out there is one of the most important things.
As large media networks have let us all down, it's
time that we got to reinvent what the media should
be what it once was. And that brings me to
the next topic, which is train derailments. I want to
give everybody some stats though, because as the MAGA Republican
disinformation echo Chamber has gone into overdrive to attack Secretary
of Transportation Pete Footages and President Biden about the train
derailment that took place in East Palestine, I want to
look at some of the facts here regarding Trump and
Trump's Transportation Secretary Elaying Chow's time in office. So when
people start saying thing to all of you brigaders listening
to this and watching this, I want you to be
armed with the facts. During the Trump administration, there were
five thousand, one hundred and three train derailments in the
United States. Neither Trump nor Transportation Secretary Elaine Chow went
to a single one of these derailments five thousand, one
hundred and three. During the Trump administration, there were forty
four thousand, three hundred and sixty train accidents, with many
resulting in fatalities. Again, neither Trump nor Transportation Secretary Elaine
Chow went to a single one of these or talked
with any of these victims. During the Trump administration, there
were fifty eight thousand, nine hundred and twenty transportation related
hazardous hazardous waste leaks and spills, resulting in twenty six
deaths and dozens of additional injuries. Again, neither Trump nor
Elaine Chow went to a single one of these accident
after mats iSER either, nor does it appear that FEMA
was called in for any of these disasters. Now, I
want you to compare that to the effort of President Biden,
who immediately immediately reached out to the governor of Ohio,
Governor DeWine, a Republican governor in a state of Ohio
that is controlled by a Republican Senate, a Republican House,
It's a Republican county, it has a Republican the company,
the train company is a Republican CEO. And by the way,
Donald Trump took efforts to undo critical Obama era regulations
that would have mandated certain breaking features on trains carrying
toxic substances. It's the arsonist in Trump going to visit
the fire that they created. They've also destroyed the fire
department and chucking, and I kid you not. Here's the
number about a dozen pallets of water. Does everybody know
how much water is in a palette? Two thousand, eight
hundred and eighty bottles of water are in a palette.
And does there anybody know how much a pallet costs
a palette of water? It's about five hundred bucks there
it is. I looked it up before the show, about
five hundred bucks. So Donald Trump, grifting off of people,
gave about fifty five hundred dollars worth of water. Maybe
everybody in the town gets two bottles of water. By
the way, he said it was Trump water and then
spread the disinformation that it is Biden and boodhag Edge
who didn't want to help. But look, here's the clip
of Ohio Governor Mike DeWine talking as soon after the
train derailment in East Palestine that Biden reached out right away.
Play the clip.
Speaker 3: Look, the President called me and said anything nude. I
have not called him back after that conversation. I will
not hesitate to do that if we were seeing a
problem or anything.
Speaker 4: But I'm not seeing it.
Speaker 1: There you have it. I've not called him back. I'm
not seeing it. Here's what I want to talk about. Also,
here's a Trump tweet from August third, twenty seventeen, where
he says, I'm continuing to get rid of call costly
and unnecessary regulations. Much work left to do, but effect
will be great business and jobs will grow. And then
Fortune magazine reported on September twenty fourth of twenty eighteen,
Trump rolls back train breaking rule meant to keep oil
tankers from exploding near communities. And there's a video for
all of this. So here's the things. I just referenced
the headline in Trump's post, But there's videos for all
of this. So here's a video of Trump's ribbon cutting
where he celebrated undoing the Obama era regulations that would
have stopped the train derailment in East Palestine. Play this clip.
Speaker 3: When Americans are free to thrive, innovate, and prosper, there
is no challenge too great, no task too large, and
no goal beyond their reach. We are a nation of
explorers and pioneers and innovators and inventors, and regulations have
been hurting that and hurting it badly. We are a
nation of people who work hard, dream big, and who
never ever give up. We are Americans, and the future
belongs to us. So together, let's cut the red tape.
Let's set free our dreams. And yes, let's make America
great again. And one of the ways we're going to
do that is by getting rid of a lot of
unnecessary regulation.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much, thank you.
Speaker 2: Come on, oh here, come on, Oh what do we
all gather around?
Speaker 3: Come on, you will set a big part of this.
Come on, we'll make it.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 5: This is what we have now, this is where we
were in nineteen sixty and when we're finished, which won't
be in too long a period of time, we will
be less than where we were in nineteen sixty and
we will have a great regulatory climate day.
Speaker 3: Come on up here, Chris, come on, he works so hard.
On Helene, are you okay?
Speaker 4: Come on?
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2: She has a lot to do with it. She has
things called roads that's a big and bridges.
Speaker 5: Right, okay, one two three?
Speaker 2: I mean I think maybe they should go to Chris
right one two three, at least cognitively he's there, right,
I mean, you know, man, woman Child Camera TV. I
mean one, two, three, at least he still knows his numbers.
I mean, I like to see Donald sing the ABC song.
The guy is so fucking stupid it's scary. He doesn't
understand the necessity of regulation because he also is a
guy who doesn't believe in science, and he doesn't believe
in climate change. And again, I don't want people to
think that, you know, anytime that Donald says something that
I'm going to find a reason within which to bash him.
I am using his own words. These are things that
he said. He does not believe in science, he does
not believe in climate change. Well, really, look at what
we're experiencing day in and day out. Oh my god,
the stupid ass cut a ribbon showing what a whole
slew of documents and then showing it compared to nineteen
sixty regulation. That's because our technology and because our humanity
has improved so much over the years that we need
regulation to stop big business, to stop companies from destroying
our environment, from destroying our water, from destroying our air
that we breathe. It's so stupid. It's the same thing
here to roll back on breaks. I mean, this thing
is all lay, Yeah, she knows a lot about roads.
What the hell is he talking about? That's the whole thing.
And nobody called them out. They sit there and they
just scratch their head in wonder, saying, what is this
orange crusted mandarin Mussolini even talking about? And the answer
is nobody knows because he doesn't say anything. It's just
a series of words with no end to it. It's
just it's a roll on and a roll on and
a roll on and nothing that nothing comes out of it.
It's just nonsense. Donald knows how to tear things apart.
He has no idea how to build something or how
to do something. Compare that to what we see with
Joe Biden today. In his twenty four plus months, Joe
Biden has passed twenty three meaningful acts, mostly or bipartisan,
hard to believe, from infrastructure to the reduction of medical
expenses including pharmataceuticals and so on, or the extrication of
people from the United States military from Afghanistan got from
the infrastructure built. I mean, for God's sakes, these things
that will improve the lives of Americans. Name one thing
that Donald did that improved the lives of anyone other
than is mar A Lago members and to his close friends.
The answer is to no one. So look, folks, this
is really out of control. And I'll tell you something.
I am speaking with Malcolm Nance about this the other day.
One of the things that I'm a little disappointed about
is the speed to which things are happening in East Palestine, Ohio.
If I was in charge, let me be very clear
what I would do right now, not send people udages
down a week or so after with a hard hat
asking questions. There's no question that needs to be asked.
There is a fucking train that derailed carrying hazardous material period,
end of story. So here's what we do. Right off
the bat. I would have fifty or one hundred super
trailers onto it. Pick up the fucking trains that are
all burnt out, some may be still smoldering, put them
on top of these these what do you call it,
these machines, these carts, and ship them off to a facility,
a Butler building that we build to store it so
that it could be evaluated down in the future. And
then what you do is you start to rip into
the ground, take all of the rails down and start
checking the samples of the dirt. More importantly, if you
want to make the people of is Palestine comfortable, especially
those that are closer to the accident site, the first
thing you do is you bring down scientists. We used
to do this in Otisville when I was at the
FCI Federal Correctional Institute of Otisville. I would accumulate from
three different areas water and they would be tested every
day in order to see what the pH is, the
sulfur and so on. Do the same test to ensure
and show the people. Do it in front of them,
each and every one of you. Bring me water from
your sints, bring me waters from your bathtubs, bring me
water from wherever the hell you want, and let's test
it to see what's going on with the water. I mean,
we have the capability to do that. That's the first
thing I would have sent down. And again, grab these trailers,
take these trains, pick them up. Don't leave them there
sitting there, so that everybody, every day for a week
can drive past it and be reminded it's time to act.
There's no time to sit there and to pontificate about it.
There's nothing to pontificate about. Get the shit off the ground,
rip up the tracks, test the water, all right, and
make people feel comfortable that the ground is not polluted
with these with these contaminants. It's plain and simple. That's
what they need to do. And the whole thing would
cost you know what, ten twenty thirty million dollars not
to end. Then, by the way, build that shit to
the to the rail company. They're responsible for it. Send
them the goddamn bill. I mean, that's how simple that
it is. Instead, everybody wants to sit there and you know,
throw out their idea as well, we should maybe talk
about doing this and that bullshit. It's a natural, it's
a catastrophe, disaster. Time to move on it and make
the people of East Palestine comfortable because they deserve that.
Speaker 1: So I obviously agree with the point that you're trying
to make. But let me give you a thought, and
that is that Biden wanted to do all of those things.
And Biden tried to do all of those things. And
in our system of federalism, everything that you just described
inherently relies on a decision of states as well and
the leadership of the governor. And it is a perplexing
and disastrous state of the state where you have a
governor like Dewan, who is supposed to be the person
with the boots on the ground coordinating action by the
federal government. But the federal government's response to disasters under
our federalism system, given states rights as well as the
rights of the federal government, is such that if the
state government says it's not an emergency, stay out, the
federal government in a situation like that would generally not say, well,
we are taking over your state. That's just the practical reality.
I do have a criticism though, of the Biden administration here,
which is to your point Cohen as well. When you
said no one is actually calling out Trump and all
of the disinformation. It took you and me Cohen, approximately
what three minutes and thirty seconds to give the facts.
So it's not hard to give the facts appropriately and
to call out the disinformation. But what Biden has to
realize now is that the climate here and the media
is very much akin to Russian propaganda, and it is
not a media that is doing its job. And you
do not have two good faith political parties. You've got
a pro democracy party in the Democrats, and you've got
a party that wants fascism, and that wants the Trump
that the Donald Trump colt. So what you have to do,
as I gave you the other stat and the Trump administration,
there was five one hundred and three trained derailments with
twenty two fatalities, and he showed up to none of them.
The media doesn't hold that accountable. Democrats didn't call that
out at that time, and perhaps they should have. But
what Biden needs to do is exactly what Ukraine did
with Putin before or the invasion and during the early
stages of the invasion. To your point also about Trump,
he's an idiot. That's the saving grace here. A lot
of these MAGA Republicans are idiots. They're not playing chess,
they're playing checkers, fascist checkers. But what you have to
do now, as people upholding and fighting for our democracy,
you have to predict the move that they are going
to take. The plan that is the craziest plan inherently
designed to set you up. So you have to just
be like, look, here's what they're going to do. Even
if the steps that we would take seem unreasonable and irrational,
you have to go and you have to say, here
is what Vladimir Putin is about to do. Before he
does it, and a Buddha j edge and the communications
arm of what's taking place and the action, they have
to go out and say, look, we've offered DeWine, you know,
hold the press conference. We've offered the wine, everything, all
of the things that Michael Cohen said, we've offered. We
are a bit perplexed that they are not accepting it.
We stand ready, and we are deeply disappointed in that
you have to do that today to get ahead of
it because of these bad faith actors. And speaking about
these bad faith actors, one of the purveyors of all
of the disinformation plan is Steve Bannon. We talked about.
Speaker 2: If I can before we get onto Steve Bannon, because
that's a couple of minutes here. You know, one of
the things that Biden can do is he could always
invoke interstate commerce and that he can make it into
a federal issue. On top of that, the second that
there was allegations that these toxins were leaking into the
waterways or polluting the grounds and so on, it becomes
environmental protection. And you know what, at the end end
of the day, yes, I totally agree with you that
most mayors, governors do not want the federal government coming
in and handling issues. But if we can make this
into a federal issue, which I believe that we can
based upon it happened on the rails, which are you know,
controlled by the Department of Transportation, it is a federal issue,
and I think that based upon interstate commerce rules, there
is always a way. See this is what Donald did.
Why this twenty eight percent of the Republican Party, these maggots,
why they love him so much because he didn't give
a shit. If he was the president, he thought that
there was a way for this disaster to benefit him.
He would be out there right now doing something. He's
not talking to a governor. Fuck him, I could care less.
He's not going to speak to a mayor. Mayor, mayor
who mayor go scratch your ass. I'm sending in the
you know, the Fedans and we're going to handle this.
And so now, unfortunately, right Donald's not smart enough in
order to handle anything. But if you take some concept
like that whereby it is a federal issue, regardless of
whatever the mayor or the governor, you don't want to
say about it because they're playing politics with the lives,
the daily lives of these residents of East Palestine. That's unacceptable.
And as far as I'm concerned, I hope that every
single resident of East Palestine remembers today, remember yesterday and
the week before. Remember the response by Joe Biden, Remember
what his Remember what guys like the Wine you know,
are doing, which are interfering with their community getting back
on its feet. Shame on, Shame on them, and remember
that when they go to the polls Now. I apologize that.
Let's go back to one of my favorite topics of
all time, the lunatic himself, Steve Bannon.
Speaker 1: So you know Robert Costello, right, I mean, unfortunately I do,
And so about two weeks or so ago, obviously Costello
or his law firm had leaked to the press that
Bannon wasn't paying his bills, and they and the strategy
there Cohen just for everybody, is like they were telling Bannon, look,
we're gonna sue you. This is a move that they
believed would embarrass Bannon into paying to avoid the lawsuit.
But you know, these these these maggots as you call,
they also don't pay their bills, and so Costello has
to know when he's representing someone like a Bannon. Good
luck collecting and you and I talked about one of
the lawyers for Trump who was like, look, you gotta
just just just write me the three million dollar check
up front. That lawyer also happens to be a foreign
agent for the government of Venezuela. And that was the
lawyer who said, give me the three million dollars up front.
And here this lawyer didn't get the money upfront. They
the lawyer worked with Bann and on the part in
that Donald Trump gave. I don't even know if you
have to really work for that at that point, I mean,
it was just asking it. And after assisting and aiding
and and betting the insurrection, Donald Trump wanted to make
sure that he could cover for all of the fascist
in his inner orbit. But this lawyer did a lot
of work on that case, on the obstruction of the Congress,
not showing up to the testimony of Congress where Bannon
was convicted on two counts. There about eight hundred and
fifty five thousand dollars in legal fees and the firm
wasn't paid about half a million dollars of that, and
they filed the lawsuit against Bannon today. And you know,
I mean, you know, when you go down this it's
not a rabbit hole. When when you just you don't
have to go down that far, when you.
Speaker 2: Just simply fit down the rabbit hole, do you totally don't.
I've got it'd be one big ass rabbit hole you
get to it.
Speaker 1: Bannon's being funded though, by a Chinese billionaire who Bannon
told the plot that regardless of what the results of
the twenty twenty election would be, that they would that
here was the plan that Donald Trump was going to contested.
He told that to a billionaire from China who funds
all of the disinformation operations of Bannon, Like, you can't
make this stuff up. In fact, when Bannon was arrested
the first time for the we Build the Wall scam
where he grifted and stole hundreds of thousands or millions
of dollars for people on gofund me to the wall
that they lied and said Mexico was going to build,
he was arrested on the Chinese billionaire's yacht, like off
the coast of Connecticut. What do you make of this?
Speaker 2: Coch So look, let me be very clear, Bannon very
similar to Donald they have one ideology. They have one philosophy,
which is, once that money HiT's my pocket, it's mine,
regardless of what the reason that they've collected the money.
For example, Steve Bannon build the wall, go fund me
to second that hit the account, he declared it his own,
and they're not giving that up. So legal fees to
guys like Bob Costello, who's not worth two cents in
my opinion anyway, he's not going to pay him a dime.
The fact is they also believe that they are above
having to pay legal fees. It is an honor and
a privilege to work for them free of charge. And
that's you know, that's part of like, for example, the
lawsuit that I have against Donald, whereby he had me,
you know, doing things on his behalf and never ended
up paying for it, which of course I had to
pay for and so you know, now I'm going to
get my money back, there's no doubt in my mind.
And exposed, well, look what can I do? Expose Donald
for being you know, a cheap skate, for being a
you know, a grifter. Everybody already knows that Steve Bannon
is identical to Donald when it comes to this and
so if anybody thinks, especially Costello, thought for a second
that he was going to get paid, he's as stupid
as his former boss, Rudy Calludy drunken Giuliani, who thought
that he was going to get Donald to pay him
like one hundred and fifty thousand dollars a day because
they were raising so much money from uh, you know,
from these unsuspecting maggots, these maga fools that just keep
sending their money in. Rudy actually wanted his pay, He
wanted his piece like the mob. He wanted his taste.
Donald basically gave him not one, not two. Donald grew
two extra limbs. He can give him four few fingers
and say, you're not getting a damn dollar from this money.
You didn't, you know, even if you accomplished what you
were tasked to do, I'm still not giving you a
dollar because I want the money in my pocket, and
it's better in my pocket then in yours.
Speaker 1: I can't top that, Coen, So I'm moving on to
the next topic. I completely agree the truth.
Speaker 2: If the truth hurts, sorry, but this.
Speaker 1: Facts, facts, facts, facts, all right. Fulton County, the grand
jury four person who basically serves as the leader in
essence of the Special grand Jury. We know that portions
of the report were released last week. We talked about
it here on the Political Beatdown. My overall thought, though,
just so everybody knows the process. The special grand Jury
does not make indictments. They make recommendations. There's a separate
grand jury that is or will be impaneled very shortly
that's going to make the ultimate charging decision, and the
report is going to be presented there. So ultimately, to me,
the process of a special grand jury and a grand
jury from a legal perspective, does it now give Trump
and other individuals who may be criminally indicted? Does it
give them an argument that they shouldn't have been given
that this four persons out there speaking to the media. Yes,
it gives them an argument. Do I feel that legally
that argument is going to prevail? No? And Donald Trump's
out there talking publicly about all of these things. Also
so in terms of any prejudice that's being created from publicity,
when Donald Trump calls out the Fulton County District Attorney
and says these heinous and horrific things about her and
threatens people's lives in Georgia, If there's prejudice being created.
It's from Donald Trump, not from the Fulton County process.
But I do want to say this for all of
the people out there though, who have been very critical
of Merrick Garland for not moving fast enough, and many
times I'm with you and I agree there or Special
Counsel Jack Smith not moving quick enough, or even Alvin Bragg,
what are you doing not moving quick enough? One of
the most important things here from my legal perspective, is
moving very very carefully. And I think if I have
a critique of what's gone in Fulton County, Georgia, it
was a failure to coordinate between when the special grand
jury ended, when the new grand jury would begin, and
knowing that the report would ultimately be public in some
shape or form, and making sure you time it so
the indictments happened shortly after the special grand jury reports released,
and that timing needed to certainly be tighter than it was,
because the reality is is that it's hard to expect
a special grand jury comprised of twenty six individuals three
alternates after more than a month of being relieved to
not be baited. And you may recall those who watched
the political beatdown. Cohen and I talked very specifically about
the psychological tactic that Donald Trump was utilizing when he
posted total exoneration, Total exoneration, And what we said is
he was trying to bait somebody in the Special grand
Jury to speak publicly so he could whine and play
the victim card and then say, oh, my due process
rights have been violated. And for Fawnie Willis, the Fulton
County District Jorney, my criticism is, you got to time
that better. Special grand jury ends. The grand jury almost
runs parallel, indictments happen. You got to figure out on
your calendar how to make that work. I mean, look,
to me, the four person did no favors, and perhaps
that's an understatement, but I'm not here the sky is
falling down. This is gonna stop prosecution from taking place.
But to me, it also reflects, though the diligent work
that you've never heard a thing about what's going on. Usually,
you know, you haven't even heard Special Counsel Jack Smith talk.
And you know, there's that point. I wanted to point
out Cohen as someone who's involved in these high profile situations,
including one right now, you have to walk that fine line,
and you're a pro, so you know how to walk it.
Speaker 2: So so let me say this first of all, I
don't see it as being damaging to the case. Should
Fanny Willis end up filing an indictment, it would make
no difference. Donald Trump's legal team will find any argument
that they can, or make one up in order to
try to have the case dismissed, or, as you said,
to exonerate him completely. I don't believe he meant the
word exonerate. I think when he was completely exonerate, I
think in exonerate you have to put you know, constipated,
because he's completely constipated, not just you know, in his bowels,
but in his brain. Nothing seems to be working right
with this guy. And at the end of the day,
the case should only be brought if in fact the
prosecutor has the legal has the legal justification to do so,
and you have the evidence within which to prove it.
If not, they should just walk away from it. Now.
Do I think that they have it? Sure? They have it.
Do I think it's going to be an easy case?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: I don't. I think the District Attorney of New York's
case is a whole lot easier. But there is a
notion and I am one hundred percent against it, and
I say it to many many people, including people who
I represent when in my crisis X practice, when they
have a legal issue. Well, the first thing that lawyers
will tell their clients to say nothing. Judges don't like
if you say anything, you know, don't talk to the media,
don't bullshit because what happens there is that only one
side and it's never to your benefit. Only one side
is ever heard. As far as I'm concerned, the four
women wanted to turn around and she wanted to make
a statement. Good. You know why, I say it's good
because you ben because I because the brigade, Because everybody,
we're entitled to transparency. We're entitled to know what's going
on inside the grand jury. As far as I'm concerned,
I think that all grand juries should actually be televised,
all right, especially ones that involved the former president of
the United States, a guy, a guy who is a racist, sexist, misogynistic, xenophobic, homophobic,
Islamophobic antisemite who wants to destroy democracy and to create
an autocracy out of our country. How could this not
be televised? It? And if it was you wouldn't have
to worry about what she says because we'd already have
watched it very much like we watch the hearings. The
problem is that there is not There is no real transparency,
and everybody who calls for transparency, they say, well, you know,
it's our process and our method. Screw that. The same
bullshit is going on with Foyer. You cannot get a
document out of Foyer because they constantly fight you on it.
And I'm going through this right now with Foyer, they
keep turning around and telling you, oh, well, it interferes
with our process and method in accumulating information. Really, I'm
not asking for the name of the detective or the
name of the informant or anything like that. I just
want to see what that person said. I want to
be able to use that information the same way that
we're using information in this drip drip drip by Like
my complaint, my bar complaint against Jeffrey Berman, the former
head of the Southern District of New York, that was
colluding with Main Justice in order to go after me
for what because Bill Barr and Donald Trump told them
to do it. This is not transparency. If we are
going to be a country of laws and justice, then
we need transparency. Otherwise what we are is we're a
country of laws with no justice. And as far as
whatever I can do and as far as I can
go in as much as I can tell not just
the brigade, but the entire country about what's going on
at the DA's case or the AG's case, if I
get called to testify, I am going to be out there.
I am not prohibited, and neither was this four person.
The fact that they don't like it, you know, as
we like to say here in New York, tough shit.
Speaker 1: I couldn't agree more with the Coen And it seems
like the message now that's coming out from the MAGA
cam though, is Trump can't win in America. So basically,
let's make a new country, right, that's basically the new country.
Speaker 2: Let's not just try it in Saudi Arabia, and we'll
ask Mohammed ben Salmon and his royal relatives to be
the judge and the jury. I mean, that's what they
basically want. They want to destroy this democracy, make it
into an autocracy. That even though that Trump knows he
can't win, and he knows he can't win because what
he's done is illegal, and there's thousands and thousands, if
not hundreds of thousands of documents proving it. He doesn't
care about that. He wants what's good for him and
only him. I'm sorry, Ben, you were saying.
Speaker 1: To close out the show though, I want you to react,
and I think we have this clip of Marjorie Taylor
Green calling for secession now being platformed on Fox. Like
I think when the Fox text messages and emails were
released in terms of the same depths of depravity, there
are no depths to the depravity of the Maga Republican
Party at this point too. And it was before, but
at this point, like there's no even pretending anymore right
from Fox or the Maga Republicans. It's just like fascism.
We wanted secession. I want to show you this clip
for Marjorie Taylor Green, and then I want you to
close out the show by reacting.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: Play this clip and do.
Speaker 2: You expect it will happen?
Speaker 4: Last question, Well, I think it's something that we should
work towards because you know, it's kind of the vision
that our founding fathers had for America, and I think
it's a great when it worked in the beginning. We
just got it completely out of control. So I hope
we can get there all right.
Speaker 1: Marjorie Taylor Green, thanks for explaining it all to us.
We appreciate it as always when we come back like
the dumbest stuff ever. Cohen, what's your.
Speaker 2: You know what, I'll tell you that. I'm really more disappointed.
It is Sean Hannity. Again. I had a chance to
get to know him for many, many years, and the
fact that he was able to keep a straight face.
Is this buffoon sat there talking about the secession of
states and divorcing red and blue states, including this genius
came up with an idea and you can't make this
shit up. I mean, this is this is not This
would be great if it was on South Park or
a Family Guy episode, or you know, one of these
you know cartoons. Marjorie Taylor Green wanted that if you
are a Democrat and you move into a Republican state,
you're not permitted to vote for five years. I mean
talk about democracy. Yeah, that sounds like democracy to me.
I don't know what country she thinks she's living in,
this idiot. I mean, it's so infuriating and I don't
understand how she is still a member of Congress, the
fact that she that she has an office in the
People's House, that she wears a pin as a member
of Congress, the fact that you and I will be
paying for that idiot's Healthcaren, and and she's gonna end
up with a pension for the rest of her life
simply because she won an election. She is a traitorous,
ignorant buffoon. And the fact that we have to put
up with this, this sort of stupidity and nonsense, to
me is just it's overwhelming, and I don't understand it,
and something has to happen. And the something is she
needs to be voted out of office, which is why,
once again, before I close the show, I'm telling you
to our political Beatdown Brigade. It's so important your sponsorship,
your continuation to watch and to be a part of
this show too. And I'm gonna let Ben just tell
where to go ahead and to help to keep these
type of shows you know, out there, so that we
could keep informing you of the truth, that our voices
cumulatively can be heard and that we can make a difference.
And that difference has to ensure that people like the
Marjorie Taylor Greens, Josh Holsey's The Pull Ghost Stars. These
people have no place in our house and they need
to be removed and removed immediately.
Speaker 1: Look, with all the disinformation echo chambers out there, we
need to combat it with the truth. That's why we
created the Midas Touch Network, and that's why we created
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