Speaker 1: Live from the heart of the nation's capital, this is
Speaker 1: a Jim Acosta Show special report.
Speaker 2: All right, welcome to the Jim Acosta Show. It's another
Speaker 2: day that ends in Y in Donald Trump's assault on
Speaker 2: American democracy. Here we are, roughly 68 days before the midterms.
Speaker 2: And as I've been saying on this show, Trump has
Speaker 2: started this deal when it comes to rigging and intervening
Speaker 2: in the upcoming midterm election cycle. Big guest this hour.
Speaker 2: Mike Fanone, former police officer, of course, legend, the man,
Speaker 2: the myth, the legend. Mike, good to see you, man.
Speaker 1: It's good to see you, man.
Speaker 2: Hey, thanks for doing this. And, you know, I think
Speaker 2: we should, there's a lot of stuff I want to
Speaker 2: get to. I want to talk about ICE and their
Speaker 2: tactics and what we've been seeing. They're ramping back up again, obviously,
Speaker 2: but we've got to jump into, you know, some of
Speaker 2: this very much in your wheelhouse. Obviously, everybody knows you
Speaker 2: were there to defend the Capitol on January 6th. And
Speaker 2: here we are coming up on, on, the biggest national
Speaker 2: elections we've had in this country since Trump, you know,
Speaker 2: one reelection got put back in the white house and
Speaker 2: he's trying to do everything possible to avoid any accountability
Speaker 2: from the voters. He's already trying to rig the mail-in
Speaker 2: voting system in this country. That is well underway. And I,
Speaker 2: you know, just curious what your thoughts are as we're
Speaker 2: getting into this midterm cycle. Cause it seems to me
Speaker 2: it's on like he's, it's the mainstream media is reporting
Speaker 2: it as sort of like, well, he might do this. And, He's,
Speaker 2: he's warning. He will do it to me. It's happening.
Speaker 2: He's already meddling with the midterms. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's one of the shortcomings of, uh, of
Speaker 1: legacy media is their inability to believe Donald Trump when
Speaker 1: he says that he's going to do something, despite, you know,
Speaker 1: at this point, a proven track record of his willingness to, um, bend,
Speaker 1: if not break the, uh, the constitution in this country. Um,
Speaker 1: You and I and many others in this space have
Speaker 1: been talking about the midterm elections and the fact that
Speaker 1: Donald Trump and this administration are gonna throw every obstacle
Speaker 1: that they can. We saw them gut through the Supreme
Speaker 1: Court ruling, the Voting Rights Act, and now they're targeting
Speaker 1: mail-in ballot. Again, these are obstacles. Americans still have the
Speaker 1: ability to cast their votes Mail-in balloting, at least at
Speaker 1: this point, is still available. But what I would suggest
Speaker 1: to everybody, we're 70 days out roughly from the midterm elections,
Speaker 1: is to plan on voting in person and to do
Speaker 1: so at the first available opportunity that you have in
Speaker 1: your jurisdiction. These are all obstacles that can be overcome.
Speaker 1: Americans just need to be cognizant of it. Civil engagement
Speaker 1: should be forefront in everybody's mind if you want to
Speaker 1: get rid of this white supremacist, Christian nationalist regime that
Speaker 1: currently occupies the White House and the federal government.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the Postal Service, they're saying as of Thursday,
Speaker 2: new requirements for mail-in voting are now in effect. This
Speaker 2: is according to The Guardian. As Donald Trump seeks to
Speaker 2: crack down on the practice, the move is expected to
Speaker 2: trigger a new round of legal challenges. And, you know,
Speaker 2: what they're trying to do is require state election leaders
Speaker 2: to submit their voter rolls for inspection, which is nutty
Speaker 2: because the Postal Service has no role in this. And
Speaker 2: the federal government is not supposed to have any role
Speaker 2: in this. States are supposed to run their elections. And obviously,
Speaker 2: all of this is because of Trump's, you know, so-called
Speaker 2: executive order on this earlier this year. But, you know, Mike,
Speaker 2: I mean, to me, the issue is, is that he's
Speaker 2: trying to grab power where it doesn't exist. He's trying
Speaker 2: to take over the elections in this country. What, like 70,
Speaker 2: like you said, 70 some odd days or less before
Speaker 2: the election. And I don't understand why the courts just
Speaker 2: don't step in. I mean, the Supreme Court's already allowing
Speaker 2: this thing to go down the legal process. And we
Speaker 2: know how he plays the court system like a fiddle.
Speaker 2: And he, you know, my concern is he's just going
Speaker 2: to try to turn this entire midterm into like a
Speaker 2: 52 car pileup. And it's not going to, it's something
Speaker 2: that we can't sort out. And they'll just say, well,
Speaker 2: we can't see the new Congress next year. I mean,
Speaker 2: these are the kinds of scenarios we have to start
Speaker 2: thinking about, seems to me.
Speaker 1: I completely agree with you. And I mean, ever since
Speaker 1: Donald Trump took office, I've been thinking about the next
Speaker 1: election cycle and what goes beyond that, because, you know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people who are willing to say
Speaker 1: that we've, you know, we've, we are currently in a
Speaker 1: constitutional crisis, because we still have an election to be held.
Speaker 1: And we still have an opportunity as American citizens to
Speaker 1: hold this administration accountable with our vote. And I believe
Speaker 1: that and I believe that Americans should avail themselves of that.
Speaker 1: But I agree with you, people need to be thinking
Speaker 1: about what will happen on November, what happens on November 6.
Speaker 1: What happens after they cast their vote, And the way
Speaker 1: that this administration, how are they going to address this election,
Speaker 1: which clearly is not, you know, the trajectory of the
Speaker 1: American public is not in their favor. It doesn't look
Speaker 1: good for Republicans and it shouldn't look good for Republicans
Speaker 1: in the way that they've handled governing since Donald Trump
Speaker 1: took office.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And somebody who I guess is at his side day
Speaker 2: and night is Natalie Harp. She's been in the news
Speaker 2: quite a bit. She's the staffer that prints out, I guess,
Speaker 2: glowing articles about him to keep him puffed up and happy.
Speaker 2: And she's been called the human binky and so on.
Speaker 2: And there's been a lot of discussion online that, oh,
Speaker 2: you shouldn't pick on Natalie Harp. She's just this woman
Speaker 2: who works for him and that's so misogynistic and so on.
Speaker 2: People need to understand. And we've been covering this on
Speaker 2: the show. Natalie Harp used to be an anchor on OAN,
Speaker 2: the far-right TV station OAN, doing propaganda for Donald Trump.
Speaker 2: This was around the time of the 2020 election, and
Speaker 2: she was an election denier. She just was. And she
Speaker 2: even mentioned you one time on one of her shows,
Speaker 2: and I just think maybe we should get your response
Speaker 2: to it. It's kind of a weird thing.
Speaker 4: Don Lemon brought on air Michael Fanone, a Metropolitan Police
Speaker 4: officer who testified before the January 6th Committee on to
Speaker 4: play on air a profanity-laced voicemail left allegedly by a
Speaker 4: Trump supporter, with Don Lemon asking for his reaction. Can
Speaker 4: you imagine if we just had a show and we
Speaker 4: had you come on and you could play all your voicemails,
Speaker 4: read all your tweets, all your hate mail? This is
Speaker 4: what happens in a society. And for them to do
Speaker 4: this and say, this is Trump's America.
Speaker 1: You know what?
Speaker 4: When I look at these guys, the thought that comes
Speaker 4: into my mind is defund the police.
Speaker 1: I mean, defund the Capitol.
Speaker 2: Yeah, anyway, there's that joker talking to Natalie Hart. And
Speaker 2: we should thank Decoding Fox News. She does a great
Speaker 2: job finding these clips. And she's done a terrific job
Speaker 2: unearthing all of this Natalie Hart material. She's been an
Speaker 2: election denier for a long time. But your thoughts on
Speaker 2: the fact that she brought you up on one of
Speaker 2: her kooky shows.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, listen, first of all, I think you
Speaker 1: take into consideration like who she was speaking to there.
Speaker 1: She was talking to Dinesh D'Souza. This is the guy who,
Speaker 1: you know, in 2022 put out a movie or a
Speaker 1: documentary in his mind, 2000 Mules, which was completely debunked.
Speaker 1: And he actually had to issue numerous retractions. I think
Speaker 1: he ended up getting sued over that, but I'm not
Speaker 1: exactly sure. And he also was found guilty in federal
Speaker 1: court for donating $ 20, 000 to a U.S. Senate campaign, which,
Speaker 1: you know, was deemed to be an illegal campaign contribution.
Speaker 1: So he's a convicted felon to boot. I mean, listen,
Speaker 1: I've seen that she has been involved in pushing a
Speaker 1: lot of propaganda surrounding the 2020 election and saying that
Speaker 1: the election had been stolen. OAN is not a credible
Speaker 1: news outlet. It is a propaganda network designed to push
Speaker 1: MAGA extremism at every turn. And so it doesn't surprise
Speaker 1: me that she has found her way into the inner
Speaker 1: circle of MAGA and of Trump. In preparation for this,
Speaker 1: I read the letters that she wrote to Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: I got to be honest with you, Jim, my reaction
Speaker 1: was that this is not a person who should be uh,
Speaker 1: occupying a, um, an important role within a white house administration, uh,
Speaker 1: reading those letters. Um, I mean, if, if those were
Speaker 1: written to me, uh, by a woman, uh, I'd be
Speaker 1: applying for a restraining order, not, uh, not hiring her.
Speaker 1: And so, but you know, those are the type of
Speaker 1: people that Donald Trump surrounds himself with. Um, he loves
Speaker 1: the people that, uh, that love him unconditionally. Uh, he just,
Speaker 1: you know, can't get it. Yeah.
Speaker 2: She's yeah. She's sort of like a cult follower on,
Speaker 2: on the staff, on the payroll, uh, paid for with
Speaker 2: our tax dollars. Uh, yeah, I mean, but I, you know,
Speaker 2: this is what they do and, and, and he loves
Speaker 2: this stuff. And it, when I, as soon as I
Speaker 2: saw that she had been doing all this election denialism,
Speaker 2: I thought to myself, well, that's why she has the job.
Speaker 2: I mean, people have speculated about all these other kinds
Speaker 2: of reasons. I don't know. I have no idea if
Speaker 2: that's the case or not. But if somebody talks about
Speaker 2: how he won the 2020 election over and over again,
Speaker 2: Donald Trump's going to like that person. Because because most
Speaker 2: normal people, rational people don't think that way. No.
Speaker 1: And I, I mean, I, I always question, you know,
Speaker 1: and I guess I should probably stop at this point. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, it's like, what, what do you think is
Speaker 1: going to happen after, you know, your daddy Trump is gone?
Speaker 1: What are you going to, what do you think is
Speaker 1: going to happen? I mean, you know, the Republican party, um,
Speaker 1: is eventually going to rebuild, I think, because we live
Speaker 1: in a two-party system and they are eventually going to
Speaker 1: purge themselves, maybe not of all the extremist ideology, but
Speaker 1: they're certainly going to get rid of problematic people that
Speaker 1: think that the 2020 election was stolen because it's just
Speaker 1: not good for the branding because everybody has accepted the fact,
Speaker 1: at least rational people in this country, have accepted the
Speaker 1: fact that the 2020 election was not stolen Donald Trump lost.
Speaker 1: You know, where where are people like her going to
Speaker 1: end up? Because he doesn't have very many years left.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And, you know, one of the other defining issues
Speaker 2: heading into the midterms, I think, is going to be ice.
Speaker 2: You know, Trump thinks that's that's been one of his
Speaker 2: bread and butter issues. I think it's probably one of
Speaker 2: his most toxic issues. He let Stephen Miller go apeshit
Speaker 2: with ICE and immigration in this country. And it's burned
Speaker 2: him politically. And they've been ramping up their operations. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's not covered as much in the news. It should
Speaker 2: be covered a lot more in the news. I mean,
Speaker 2: there's this one story that my team flagged for me that,
Speaker 2: and this was in the Connecticut, let's see, it's in
Speaker 2: one of the Connecticut newspapers. And it says that ICE
Speaker 2: officers have been following school busses It says for more
Speaker 2: than a year, activists in Danbury have mobilized to support
Speaker 2: the local immigrant community as ICE activity is ramped up.
Speaker 2: And it says members of immigrant rights groups and their
Speaker 2: families have helped people compile custodial paperwork to prepare for
Speaker 2: the possibility that parents could be separated from their children.
Speaker 2: This week, activists say they're facing the nightmare scenario they
Speaker 2: hoped they would never see. Massive raids have resulted in
Speaker 2: parents detained in front of their children at school bus stops.
Speaker 2: And apparently Senator Blumenthal of Connecticut has said he wants
Speaker 2: to see an investigation into this. But I mean, this
Speaker 2: is this is the kind of sick stuff that we've
Speaker 2: seen on display by ICE. I mean, they will even
Speaker 2: go to school bus stops to pick up people that
Speaker 2: they think are in the country illegally, which, you know,
Speaker 2: they're just taking their kids to school. It's pretty sick.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I've said all along, ever since this,
Speaker 1: you know, immigration enforcement effort began. that ICE is unaccountable
Speaker 1: to the American people, that they carry out this enforcement
Speaker 1: inhumanely and in many cases in direct violation of the
Speaker 1: courts and of the American constitution. This agency needs to
Speaker 1: be disbanded and there needs to be a full scale
Speaker 1: investigation as to the conduct of the individual agents involved
Speaker 1: in the immigration enforcement and also the supervisors and the
Speaker 1: individuals that sent them to these places to carry out
Speaker 1: that type of enforcement. It literally goes against everything that
Speaker 1: American law enforcement officers are taught to protect and to
Speaker 1: serve their communities This is not protecting their community. You know,
Speaker 1: we've seen so many times in American streets, violent confrontation
Speaker 1: between American citizens who are appalled at the behavior of
Speaker 1: these agents who are there filming them, protesting them, trying
Speaker 1: to hold them accountable. And the reaction from these agents,
Speaker 1: I mean, to say it's aggressive is the understatement of
Speaker 1: the year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think you and I have talked
Speaker 2: about this before, and it's still an issue. They still
Speaker 2: haven't cleaned up their act. They're still hiring these jackasses
Speaker 2: to be ICE agents, people with virtually no training. They
Speaker 2: seem like they have anger management issues, and they can't
Speaker 2: even do their jobs without flying off the handle. There
Speaker 2: was a case just in the last couple of weeks,
Speaker 2: I think it was in northern Virginia, where you and
Speaker 2: I are from, Mike, where the ICE agents were putting
Speaker 2: their gun, they're pointing their gun in the face of
Speaker 2: this lady in her car, and she's in a parking lot,
Speaker 2: and they're saying that she was trying to run them
Speaker 2: over with her car. She says, I got dash cam, bro.
Speaker 2: I got dash cam. And they had to totally back off.
Speaker 2: I'm sure you saw that case. I did.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's insane to me that, you know, and again,
Speaker 1: like no accountability, you know, no discipline, but pointing a
Speaker 1: gun at a citizen your firearm as a law enforcement
Speaker 1: officer is not a de-escalation tool. This is something that
Speaker 1: is used only in the rarest of occasions in which
Speaker 1: deadly force is authorized. And obviously, because some woman pissed
Speaker 1: you off does not necessitate using, but apparently this guy
Speaker 1: thought it was, um, you know, and I, you know,
Speaker 1: we were talking offline. I think it's worth noting, um,
Speaker 1: you know, back in January of this past of this
Speaker 1: year in Minneapolis, there was an incident involving, uh, an
Speaker 1: ice agent, um, Christian Castro.
Speaker 2: Oh, I was going to ask you about that.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Who pursued a Venezuelan national, uh, this Mr. Sosa Solis. Uh,
Speaker 1: and during, uh, that pursuit, The agent shot Sosa Solis
Speaker 1: through a closed door and then later lied about the
Speaker 1: encounter in official documents and in court in which he
Speaker 1: said that Sosa Solis charged him with a shovel. That
Speaker 1: was completely debunked with with camera footage, I think, from
Speaker 1: a surveillance camera or ring camera that captured the entire encounter. Now,
Speaker 1: he was indicted. And again, like right. Go back to
Speaker 1: No Kings 1, No Kings 2, all of these protests
Speaker 1: that came about because of the conduct of these ICE
Speaker 1: and CBP agents, American citizens demanding accountability. And we finally
Speaker 1: see that. This was the first ICE agent to be
Speaker 1: indicted for their conduct involved in this immigration sweep in Minneapolis.
Speaker 1: And he's arrested in Texas. He had been transferred to
Speaker 1: Texas after this incident. And Greg Abbott intervened and refused
Speaker 1: to allow him to be extradited.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: So, you know, that fugitive warrant expired in Texas after
Speaker 1: 90 days. And today is my understanding he was released
Speaker 1: without any other pending charges. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And this is according to PBS. Christian Castro was released
Speaker 2: at the break of dawn from a detention center in Brownsville.
Speaker 2: He motioned his hand toward a few camera operators and
Speaker 2: a reporter crowding around him. quickly got a new SUV
Speaker 2: and drove off a few days earlier, a.
Speaker 3: U.S.
Speaker 2: District judge wrote in an order that said he couldn't
Speaker 2: prevent a county sheriff from releasing Castro or order Texas
Speaker 2: Governor Greg Abbott to sign the extradition warrant. And he's
Speaker 2: been charged with assault, falsely reporting a crime in the
Speaker 2: January 14th shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa Celis. And he's
Speaker 2: accused of firing a gun through the door of a home.
Speaker 2: And Mike, I mean, what makes this such an important story,
Speaker 2: it's sort of like the killings of Rene Good and
Speaker 2: Alex Preddy. There's a sense that there's no accountability with
Speaker 2: these ICE officers and what they do, that they can
Speaker 2: violate people's constitutional rights. They can kill people. And there's
Speaker 2: no accountability. There's no investigation. I mean, just the other day,
Speaker 2: Alex Preddy's family was speaking to, I think, ABC and
Speaker 2: talking about this. And I think this has a lot
Speaker 2: of people around this country really pissed off. That ICE
Speaker 2: is getting away with this. I guess Stephen Miller is
Speaker 2: saying these guys aren't to be touched. It's crazy stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, they are immune from criminal prosecution under
Speaker 1: this administration. You know, you talk about the party of
Speaker 1: law and order and you have a political party that
Speaker 1: is intervening in criminal matters because they support the conduct
Speaker 1: of of those particular individuals because they're acting, you know, it, it,
Speaker 1: to me, it really harkens back to the pardoning of
Speaker 1: the January 6th insurrectionists.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: If you commit crimes on our behalf, on the administration's behalf,
Speaker 1: we will absolve you of all criminal culpability. And so
Speaker 1: now there's, you know, there is a, there's a plan
Speaker 1: that if, ICE agents commit a crime in a jurisdiction
Speaker 1: where they're willing to hold that agent accountable. They'll simply
Speaker 1: transfer them to another jurisdiction that's not willing to hold
Speaker 1: them accountable, wait till the warrant expires, and then they're
Speaker 1: free to go. And ICE can you know, transfer them
Speaker 1: around and keep them out of, you know, the long
Speaker 1: arm of the law as long as they want. And
Speaker 1: now the agents know. And so, you know, to the
Speaker 1: American people, you have a, and I use this term loosely,
Speaker 1: a law enforcement agency that's acting under the authority of
Speaker 1: the federal government in which its agents can behave however
Speaker 1: they want and they are immune from any type of
Speaker 1: accountability or criminal prosecution. And there's nothing that you can
Speaker 1: do about it. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And I will say, and I think this is a
Speaker 2: challenge to the media in this country. We've got to
Speaker 2: start covering ICE a whole lot more than we are
Speaker 2: right now. People seem to have backed off in their coverage.
Speaker 2: And I think it's going to ramp up again. If
Speaker 2: somehow Trump you know, gets a straight flush, gets four
Speaker 2: aces here in the midterms, and they somehow retain the
Speaker 2: House and the Senate. And there's no accountability again. There's
Speaker 2: no oversight from the Republicans once again. I think ICE
Speaker 2: is going to go wild in this country. And even
Speaker 2: if the Democrats control the House and maybe not the Senate,
Speaker 2: with Todd Blanch as the Attorney General, I think ICE
Speaker 2: will run wild in this country. And people need to understand,
Speaker 2: when Donald Trump says he wants to be on the ballot,
Speaker 2: he's been saying this lately, you know, make sure I
Speaker 2: People think of me as on the ballot. People should
Speaker 2: think of him as on the ballot. And Stephen Miller
Speaker 2: and Tom Homan and people like Greg Bovino who got
Speaker 2: the boot. But I mean, basically, it's still the same operation.
Speaker 2: ICE is on the ballot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, 100 percent. I mean, you know, listen, law enforcement,
Speaker 1: the credibility of law enforcement in this country is on
Speaker 1: the ballot. We've seen we have literally seen I mean,
Speaker 1: you talk about like every accusation is is an admission
Speaker 1: with this administration. And the fact that they have they
Speaker 1: accused the Biden administration of weaponizing law enforcement to go
Speaker 1: after American citizens. And what have they done? They have
Speaker 1: literally weaponized federal law enforcement to go after American citizens,
Speaker 1: the enemies of this administration. And they are doing it
Speaker 1: in real time and right before our very eyes. you know,
Speaker 1: that the credibility of law and order, you know, the
Speaker 1: rule of law is on the ballot, whether we are
Speaker 1: going to have, you know, real laws that everyone is
Speaker 1: accountable to, or we are just simply going to have
Speaker 1: this two tiered system of justice where people who commit
Speaker 1: crimes on behalf of this administration or who are deemed
Speaker 1: to be, you know, potentially beneficial to this administration, like
Speaker 1: we've seen with, crypto guys and all these white collar
Speaker 1: criminals that Donald Trump has pardoned and who have now
Speaker 1: found themselves in business dealings with the Trump family or
Speaker 1: whether we're going to allow law enforcement agencies to act
Speaker 1: with impunity outside of any level of accountability. The rule
Speaker 1: of law, which is the founding, that is the foundation
Speaker 1: of this country. is what's on the ballot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no question. And Mike, just to kind of start
Speaker 2: wrapping things up, I've known you for a long time.
Speaker 2: I know that after January 6th, you and I got
Speaker 2: to know each other a bit more. You were deeply disappointed, obviously,
Speaker 2: when Trump got reelected, put back in the White House.
Speaker 2: I know for a while there, you kind of lost
Speaker 2: faith in democracy. And feel free to attack anything I'm saying.
Speaker 2: I'm screwing it up. But we're heading towards the midterms.
Speaker 2: We're heading towards another presidential election cycle. Your thoughts on
Speaker 2: can this country pull itself out of the ditch that
Speaker 2: it's in right now, pull itself out of the mess
Speaker 2: that it's in right now, or is it kind of
Speaker 2: uncertain in your mind? And I don't know. Is that
Speaker 2: something that you've been kicking around thinking about?
Speaker 1: I mean, that's a complicated question to ask me when
Speaker 1: we're trying to wrap it up here.
Speaker 2: Well, take as much time as you need.
Speaker 1: I mean, listen, like, do I believe that the American
Speaker 1: people have the ability at this particular moment? Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think that elections will take place. I feel relatively
Speaker 1: confident that they will actually take place. Do I think
Speaker 1: that there's the possibility that Donald Trump froze some 11th
Speaker 1: hour Hail Mary and tries to declare, I don't know,
Speaker 1: martial law or some insanity? Yeah, I don't think anything
Speaker 1: is off the table when it comes to him. I
Speaker 1: think my concern is that if he does meddle in
Speaker 1: the election, what are the American people willing to do
Speaker 1: to push back against that? I mean, we've seen protests
Speaker 1: that have played out and they have been, you know,
Speaker 1: we've seen massive participation, um, but we haven't seen anything sustained.
Speaker 1: You know, we, we haven't seen, um, you know, we've
Speaker 1: seen Americans, you know, react like in the, the firing of, uh,
Speaker 1: of Jimmy Kimmel, uh, and, and the reaction that we
Speaker 1: saw to, to that, but, um, we didn't see the
Speaker 1: same reaction. I mean, I know you, you had, um,
Speaker 1: her on the other day, the Washington Post reporter that
Speaker 1: was fired. To me, that, you know, listen, I love
Speaker 1: Jimmy Kimmel. He makes me laugh. You know, he plays
Speaker 1: an important role in society, but he's a satirist and
Speaker 1: she's an actual journalist. I wish it would have been
Speaker 1: in reverse. I wish that, you know, millions and millions
Speaker 1: of people would have dropped their subscription to Washington Post.
Speaker 1: I know a lot did, but it should have been everybody.
Speaker 1: And there should have been massive protests protecting free speech
Speaker 1: in this country and journalists. So it's just, I mean, listen,
Speaker 1: the American people still have the ability. It's just whether
Speaker 1: or not they're going to, you know, stand up and
Speaker 1: fight for democracy.
Speaker 2: I agree with you. I think that's where we're at
Speaker 2: right now. I really think that if he does try
Speaker 2: to screw with the election, And, you know, says he
Speaker 2: won't honor it, tries to talk to Republicans and not
Speaker 2: swearing a new Congress, any of those kinds of scenarios.
Speaker 2: I think people will take to the streets. And I
Speaker 2: think there will be I think you have thousands of
Speaker 2: people gathered outside the White House. And I think they'll
Speaker 2: demonstrate peacefully and maybe they just won't go home. I
Speaker 2: don't know. There are lots of things that can happen.
Speaker 2: But I think that I think people are getting to
Speaker 2: the point now where they they're now awake to what
Speaker 2: has happened in this country. And they've seen the way
Speaker 2: he has been totally corrupt. And the way he and
Speaker 2: his family have made all of this money while just
Speaker 2: screwing over everybody else. And ICE and everything else, I
Speaker 2: think it's all gotten people really fired up and they're
Speaker 2: ready to go and vote. The big question here is
Speaker 2: whether or not they're going to allow the results to
Speaker 2: take effect and be implemented. And we have a new
Speaker 2: Congress and that there is some kind of check on him.
Speaker 2: But I guess it all remains to be seen. But Mike, man,
Speaker 2: great to see you. Good stuff. Good talking to you.
Speaker 2: Good catching up.
Speaker 1: Likewise. Let's do it again.
Speaker 2: Let's do it again. All right. Sounds good. Thanks, Mike.
Speaker 2: Really appreciate it. And Mike is so right. It is
Speaker 2: kind of like a jump ball. We don't know what
Speaker 2: we don't know, right? We're on the dark side of
Speaker 2: the moon right now. The question is, can we get back?
Speaker 2: And a lot of that just depends on you and me.
Speaker 2: And there's lots of examples abound as to why Donald
Speaker 2: Trump should have some checks put on him as commander
Speaker 2: in chief, that there should be some oversight here in
Speaker 2: Washington that there needs to be, I mean, some kind
Speaker 2: of guardrails, some, some sort of rules of the road,
Speaker 2: somebody minding the store. He is, he is sounding more
Speaker 2: and more like an absentee landlord every day. I mean,
Speaker 2: the way that they are trying to, you know, rename
Speaker 2: Lake Ontario, this whole thing is just this, it's just
Speaker 2: the dumbest thing, but I feel like I should talk
Speaker 2: about it before we go. Because it, to me, it's, Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's bullying and it's being a pig and thumbing your
Speaker 2: nose at our friends, the Canadians and so on. All
Speaker 2: that is obnoxious and gross. But also, it's just dumb.
Speaker 2: And it's almost like he's running out of ammunition. He's
Speaker 2: running out of brain cells. He's running out of that
Speaker 2: which sort of put him and catapulted him onto the
Speaker 2: political stage, his ability to go after and make insults.
Speaker 2: And it's almost as though when he makes the insult,
Speaker 2: the response... is better than what he could have ever
Speaker 2: come up with. So for example, the Canadians are already starting,
Speaker 2: they've had enough with this. He wants to rename Lake Ontario,
Speaker 2: Lake America. And I just thought before we go, we
Speaker 2: have a little bit of fun. I guess there's some
Speaker 2: snarky Canadians who have come up with Lake Epstein. Can
Speaker 2: we show this? They're claiming, they're saying like, listen, if
Speaker 2: you want to rename Lake Ontario, we'll call it Lake Epstein.
Speaker 2: And there it is right there. There's Donald Trump. He
Speaker 2: thought he was having a good time by, you know,
Speaker 2: holding up a map with Lake Ontario crossed out and
Speaker 2: he put in Lake America, but the Canadians have crossed
Speaker 2: that out and they put Lake Epstein. And there's talk,
Speaker 2: you know, now he's saying, well, maybe we'll rename an ocean,
Speaker 2: one of the oceans, the American ocean. I mean, this stuff,
Speaker 2: it just goes to how dumb he is. And, you know,
Speaker 2: I will say that despite that, the sycophancy, The fanboy
Speaker 2: atmosphere around Donald Trump these days is totally, totally ridiculous. ridiculous.
Speaker 2: We'd like to do this thing called the Dear Leader
Speaker 2: Files every once in a while on the show. And,
Speaker 2: you know, I think it's a hoot. You know, every
Speaker 2: day there's a cabinet member beclowning himself or herself, making
Speaker 2: a fool out of himself, sucking up Donald Trump in
Speaker 2: ways that are just like they would make Kim Jong-un blush. Well, apparently,
Speaker 2: you know, Donald Trump is dead serious about putting his
Speaker 2: name back on the Kennedy Center. They're going to court,
Speaker 2: trying to get his name back on the Kennedy Center.
Speaker 2: And they're saying that if Donald Trump's name is not
Speaker 2: put back on the Kennedy Center, that they're going to
Speaker 2: demolish the building, which is totally stupid and outrageous. And
Speaker 2: and yet, I guess they had the cabinet, the commerce
Speaker 2: secretary go down to the courthouse and. and make the
Speaker 2: case about why Donald Trump's plan for renovating the Kennedy Center,
Speaker 2: and it's going to be this amazing Kennedy Center because
Speaker 2: Donald Trump's involved in it, and that justifies putting his
Speaker 2: name on the Kennedy Center right now. We should put
Speaker 2: his name up now and then renovate the Kennedy Center.
Speaker 2: There was a reporter down there saying, well, shouldn't we
Speaker 2: renovate the Kennedy Center and then maybe think about putting
Speaker 2: his name up? He's like, no, no, no, no. We
Speaker 2: will put his name on the Kennedy Center first, and
Speaker 2: then we'll renovate it. It'll be totally great. But anyway,
Speaker 2: we just listened to Howard Lutnick. Before we go, just
Speaker 2: listen to him sucking up to Donald Trump. This is
Speaker 2: unbelievable shit. It is as goofy as you could possibly imagine.
Speaker 1: And help Donald J.
Speaker 3: Trump make this the greatest building in the world because
Speaker 3: only he has the power and the expertise to renovate
Speaker 3: this building in a spectacular fashion during the next two-year
Speaker 3: period and then have a grand, grand opening and really
Speaker 3: make this building rock.
Speaker 1: All right?
Speaker 2: So that's the objective.
Speaker 1: We all agree it needs to be done.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: I don't understand why we're here.
Speaker 3: So I figured I'd come and explain my baffled thing
Speaker 3: of really this is what we're using the courtroom board
Speaker 3: to say it.
Speaker 2: But that's yes. Yes. We don't understand why you're at
Speaker 2: the courthouse. You're the commerce secretary. I think he's a
Speaker 2: billionaire or something like that. He's a really successful rich guy.
Speaker 2: And he has reduced himself to being one of these lapdogs.
Speaker 2: And I think the Canadians have, I think I saw
Speaker 2: the other day, instead of Lutnick, they're calling him Nutlick.
Speaker 2: I'm just quoting what other people are saying. Anyway, yes,
Speaker 2: they're calling Howard Lutnick, Howard Nutlick. I'm just pointing out that.
Speaker 2: I think that's what Doug Ford, the Ontario premier, has
Speaker 2: been saying. Just pointing out that Donald Trump used to
Speaker 2: think of himself, fashioned himself as the king of the
Speaker 2: put down, king of the insult, and rode that wave
Speaker 2: of bullshit into the White House, that obnoxiousness into the
Speaker 2: White House. Kind of getting outdone these days by our
Speaker 2: friends up north. Bravo, Canada. I hope all of our
Speaker 2: Canadian friends and our American friends have a terrific weekend.
Speaker 2: But in the meantime, still reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta.
Speaker 2: I'll see you next time.