The Rachel Maddow Show 5/18/2026 | MSNBC Breaking News Today May 18
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Transcript
Follow along using the transcript.
Michael,
much appreciated. Thanks you guys. Uh, and thanks to home for joining
us here this hour. Really happy to have you here. I've got two quick
announcements for you right at the top
7 seconds
of the hour here. Uh, the first is I have a new book which I have not told you about at all. Um, haven't told16 seconds
anybody
about it yet, but I just got the cover from my publisher. So, for the
first time ever, I can show you what it looks like. Ready? Ready? Ready?
Ready?26 seconds
Tada. It is called Department of Fate: The Promise, the Power, and the Collapse of America's Most Consequential34 seconds
Institution.
Uh, this is my new book. It does not come out until November. Uh, so I
will tell you more about it when we're closer to the date it comes out.
Comes42 seconds
out
November 10th, which is, uh, right after the midterms. I wanted to tell
you about it, though, as soon as I got the cover because if you would
like to49 seconds
pre-order it, so you don't have to put it on your to-do list. So, you will get the book literally the day it comes out.55 seconds
Um,
you can do that as of today. You can pre-order it by just opening up
the camera on your phone and scanning that QR code on the screen. Uh, or
you can just go to matt blog.com.1 minute, 7 seconds
But
again, it's called Department of Fate. It comes out November 10th. I
have been working on this thing without talking about it for a very long
time. I1 minute, 14 seconds
think this is going to be a particularly useful book um, right after the midterms. It's sort of a what do we do1 minute, 22 seconds
now
kind of thing. Anyway, you can pre-order it. You can pre-order it now
and then I will tell you more about it as we get closer to the pub date.
I'm going to do a book tour for it as well.1 minute, 31 seconds
I'll have a whole bunch of live events all around the country. So, that's it.1 minute, 35 seconds
Department of Fate, my new book comes out November. That's the first announcement.1 minute, 40 seconds
Second
announcement uh is for something that happens much sooner in June next
month. We're going to do a live event next month in one of my favorite
cities1 minute, 48 seconds
on Earth. uh a place that I lived in in a very very happy time in my life. Has a very soft spot. I have a very soft spot1 minute, 57 seconds
for it. Um I think of it as a city where everybody's always glad to see you even if they go out of their way to not show2 minutes, 4 seconds
it. [laughter] Um the event is called We the People, America 250, Country at a Crossroads. Um2 minutes, 13 seconds
but
it's going to be in Philly. It's going to be in one of my favorite
places in the world, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Thursday, June 25th,
I'm going to be interviewing the legendary2 minutes, 22 seconds
civil rights lawyer and political oracle, Cherylyn Eiffel, live on stage at Philadelphia's historic Metropolitan2 minutes, 30 seconds
Opera House. What are you doing for America 250? This is what I'm doing. Um, this is going to be a big MS Now event.2 minutes, 36 seconds
There's
a bunch of us from MS Now who are going to be doing a bunch of
different things. I'll be doing this big event with Cherylyn Eiffel. And
yes, you can buy tickets through that QR code2 minutes, 45 seconds
that's on your screen right now or you can go to ms.now.2 minutes, 50 seconds
ms.now/amea250 ms.nowame250.2 minutes, 56 seconds
All
right, so those are my two big announcements. Uh, tonight we are
continuing to follow the news out of San Diego. Still developing story.
Three3 minutes, 5 seconds
people have been shot and killed at the largest mosque in that city. It's the Islamic Center of San Diego.3 minutes, 12 seconds
And
you know, it is um often the case right after a mass shooting that
there are initial reports that there were multiple gunmen. You learn to
expect in3 minutes, 22 seconds
this
business that those initial reports are almost always wrong. It's
almost always a single gunman. And people only think there was more than
one person3 minutes, 29 seconds
shooting because of the chaos at the scene and because of, frankly, the astounding carnage that just one person3 minutes, 36 seconds
can cause with a cheap modern semi-automatic weapon.3 minutes, 41 seconds
Um but in in this case today, unusually the early reports that there were two3 minutes, 48 seconds
shooters at the San Diego mosque, uh those reports appear to be true.3 minutes, 54 seconds
Authorities say it was a 17-year-old and an 18-year-old who were both found dead near the scene, having apparently died4 minutes, 1 second
of self-inflicted gunshot wounds after the two of them apparently mounted the attack on this mosque. The three people4 minutes, 9 seconds
they
killed include a security guard at the Islamic Center who is being
credited with stopping what could have been an even worse and more
deadly attack. But4 minutes, 17 seconds
this does appear to have been an attack carried out by two people, two teenagers acting together. Um now the authorities4 minutes, 25 seconds
including
the local sheriff have been briefing people this evening. We're going
to bring you more from that San Diego scene and that San Diego story as
we learn more.4 minutes, 34 seconds
We're
also watching uh the fast developing news on the new Ebola outbreak in
the Democratic Republic of Congo. Democratic Republic of Congo, in4 minutes, 42 seconds
case
you have a hard time picturing it, it is a a huge country in Central
Africa. Democratic Republic of Congo, I think it's the second largest
country in all of Africa. It's bigger than Mexico.4 minutes, 51 seconds
It's about twothirds the size of Western Europe. Um DRC, Democratic Republic of Congo, is just is huge. Ebola, of4 minutes, 59 seconds
course, as you know, is a very deadly hemorrhagic fever. You might remember the Ebola epidemic that happened in 20145 minutes, 7 seconds
that
ended up killing over 11,000 people. [snorts] It would have been many,
many more than that. And it would have affected a much5 minutes, 15 seconds
wider swath of the world had in 2014 the the worldclass infectious disease experts at CDC and the World Health5 minutes, 22 seconds
Organization not sprung into action to respond so effectively to that Ebola disaster to identify cases to test to5 minutes, 32 seconds
trace people's contacts to make sure that that sick people and and ultimately even dead bodies were treated in such a5 minutes, 40 seconds
way that wouldn't further the spread of the disease. Responding to Ebola is a really specialist thing where time is of5 minutes, 47 seconds
the essence and specialized expertise is just at the core of everything that needs to happen. We led those efforts in5 minutes, 56 seconds
2014 and those of course are some of the worldclass irreplaceable capabilities of the United States government that6 minutes, 3 seconds
President Donald Trump decided to kill off immediately when he got back into office for his second term.6 minutes, 11 seconds
And
it's not like that stuff's gotten better since the initial rush to make
sure those capabilities of the US government were eliminated for some6 minutes, 18 seconds
reason. I mean, currently, right now, as I speak, there is no director of the CDC. There was also no deputy director6 minutes, 25 seconds
of the CDC. The person they put in charge of infectious disease policy for the whole US government turns out to be6 minutes, 32 seconds
a penile implant specialist. CNN reports now that his his job before Trump put him in charge of infectious disease6 minutes, 40 seconds
policy for the United States, his previous job included hosting a YouTube show called Erection Connection.6 minutes, 48 seconds
It's
not clear whether the Erection Connection guy has any public health
experience, but he certainly has a lot of experience making online
content6 minutes, 57 seconds
about erections. And so that is who Donald Trump trotted out to brief the country recently on how great he's doing7 minutes, 4 seconds
leading
America's response to the hunter virus threat that grounded that cruise
ship this month. You feel better about that one, too? Does the hunter
virus7 minutes, 12 seconds
response really need a penile implant guy? It's the best we can do. We used to be the gold standard for this stuff7 minutes, 19 seconds
worldwide. Now it's the erection connection guy.7 minutes, 25 seconds
I mean, there's there's no surgeon general of the United States right now.7 minutes, 28 seconds
Trump has nominated most recently for that job. Somebody who sells online aphrodisiac tinctures. Okay. Trump's new7 minutes, 38 seconds
acting
head of the FDA, for what it's worth, is a guy who has no public health
background whatsoever, not even a doctor, but he is a um a guy who goes7 minutes, 46 seconds
turkey hunting with Donald Trump Jr. So, okay.7 minutes, 52 seconds
after Donald Trump and his top campaign donor Elon Musk put US global health agencies into the wood chipper and made7 minutes, 59 seconds
sure
to pull us out of the World Health Organization for some reason.
Wouldn't you know it, now we have this new Ebola outbreak in the
Democratic Republic of8 minutes, 7 seconds
Congo.
And it has already accelerated to the point of dozens of people already
dead, hundreds of people known to be infected, at least two countries
already8 minutes, 16 seconds
involved before anyone got any sort of word or alert out that it was happening.8 minutes, 21 seconds
I
mean, the way things used to go with this, a a nent Ebola outbreak
announcement would be like a case discovered somewhere or two suspected8 minutes, 29 seconds
cases somewhere. This was 65 dead by the time anyone heard anything and at least a hundred people dead already today.8 minutes, 40 seconds
And
and the race now to try to contain this thing is weeks and weeks and
weeks behind. And the US president has fundamentally disabled our
ability to8 minutes, 49 seconds
protect
ourselves and to protect everyone from what now could be a massive
outbreak of one of the scariest diseases in the world. Great job. And8 minutes, 57 seconds
it's about to get worse. Uh you know how the State Department has become become kind of a um a junkyard in this administration?9 minutes, 7 seconds
Honestly,
anytime anybody gets fired from the Trump administration, they make
them an an ambassador, right? You know, you want to get rid of the US
attorney9 minutes, 15 seconds
in
New Jersey so Trump's favorite parking garage lawyer can take that job
instead. Okay, take the existing US attorney to New Jersey and make that9 minutes, 22 seconds
person
ambassador to Namibia for some reason. Or Carrie Lake, the election
denier from Arizona who Trump put in charge of Voice of America,
basically to9 minutes, 31 seconds
shut
down Voice of America. A judge ruled that Carrie Lakes's whole reign
there, her whole appointment there was basically illegal. The judge
effectively9 minutes, 40 seconds
nullified everything Carrie Lake had tried to do. I mean, think about that.9 minutes, 44 seconds
Her job assignment at Voice of America was achieve total failure. But Carrie Lake even failed at that. So what do you9 minutes, 53 seconds
do
if you fail out in the Trump administration? Well, they've just made
her ambassador to Jamaica. Remember the auctioneer who had a side hustle10 minutes, 1 second
advising people on a tax scam? Trump tried to put former Republican Congressman Billy Long in charge of the IRS.10 minutes, 8 seconds
where again the job assignment for him was basically to dismantle the IRS. But even when ordered to make that agency10 minutes, 16 seconds
fail, Billy Long failed at that. And so then they named Billy Long ambassador to Iceland.10 minutes, 25 seconds
Confirmed him today. Sorry, Iceland.10 minutes, 29 seconds
I mean, it's it's never a good sign for any part of the government when it becomes the place you get dumped when you fail.10 minutes, 36 seconds
But that's what the State Department under Marco Rubio has become. It's the garbage disposal of the Trump administration.10 minutes, 45 seconds
But did you ever wonder why there's so many ambassador jobs open and available for these failures to take as their next10 minutes, 53 seconds
job? Like why didn't we already have an ambassador to Namibia or Jamaica or Iceland?10 minutes, 58 seconds
We
don't really have ambassadors to anywhere. The Wall Street Journal just
reported that of the the 195 total ambassador jobs that the State11 minutes, 8 seconds
Department is supposed to fill all over the world, the number of ambassador jobs that are vacant is 115.11 minutes, 15 seconds
There's 195 of these jobs. They have left 115 of them vacant because that's11 minutes, 23 seconds
what the State Department is now. That's how much we care about diplomacy and our our reputation around the world.11 minutes, 32 seconds
the few ambassadorships they have filled, right? If if they're not for people who have who have failed out of other jobs,11 minutes, 40 seconds
they've
been make work jobs for discarded or otherwise embarrassing members of
the Trump family like like Jared Kushner's dad who went to prison11 minutes, 48 seconds
who's
now ambassador to France or Donald Trump Jr.'s girlfriend who got
ambassador to Greece as a consolation prize when she and Junior broke
up. I11 minutes, 57 seconds
mean,
the State Department is a junk drawer now. It is a It's like a It's one
of those scrapyards where they smush down cars into little cubes.12 minutes, 7 seconds
Under Marco Rubio, the State Department is where broken things go.12 minutes, 12 seconds
I
mean, it's it's it's yet another sign that the State Department is not
much of a priority, that Marco Rubio is supposed to be working full-time
as Secretary of12 minutes, 20 seconds
State
there, but they have nevertheless also found found ways to to keep him
busy with other jobs, including being the national archavist and being
the12 minutes, 27 seconds
head
of USAD and being the national security adviser and being the vice roy
of Venezuela and all these other jobs they have been making up for him.
while12 minutes, 35 seconds
Trump's
son-in-law Jared and the president's real estate friend Steve fly
around the world instead of the Secretary of State during what sure12 minutes, 43 seconds
looks like a we accept Venmo version of private for-profit diplomacy.12 minutes, 50 seconds
And now on top of all of these layers of failure um they have just made another change so that what remains of the CDC's13 minutes, 1 second
capabilities in global health what remains of CDC's capacity to do good stuff around the world to protect people13 minutes, 8 seconds
from things like infectious disease outbreaks for for programs like PEPFAR for example the HIV program started by George W.13 minutes, 16 seconds
Bush that has saved more than 25 million lives.13 minutes, 20 seconds
The remaining CDC capacity to do good global public health work, a very very necessary thing that nobody else in the13 minutes, 29 seconds
world
can pick up because we have led it for so long. That is all now later
this year going to be taken over by Marco Rubio State Department. They
are going13 minutes, 38 seconds
to further drastically reduce what remains of the CDC presence overseas to replace it with the department of13 minutes, 47 seconds
failure, the junk jaw department, Marco Rubio's Department of State. And this is happening right as we're learning that13 minutes, 54 seconds
we've already cut our global health capability so much that we have just been blindsided by surprise the biggest14 minutes, 1 second
Ebola outbreak in more than a decade which already appears to be rapidly expanding in multiple countries before14 minutes, 9 seconds
anybody got any sort of start on trying to contain it.14 minutes, 14 seconds
It's
the kind of thing you might want to ask the Health and Human Services
Department chief spokesman for a comment on, except, oh yeah, he just
quit, so14 minutes, 22 seconds
there's nobody in that job. He quit last week, apparently in protest of Trump's demand that the FDA should approve fruit14 minutes, 30 seconds
flavored nicotine vapes that appeal to children. Make America healthy again, right?14 minutes, 38 seconds
Don't
worry though, the president himself can handle a lot of this health
stuff himself. He does appear really focused on it in a very specific
way.14 minutes, 48 seconds
Headline, Trump bought stock in drug maker as his government boosted its obesity drugs.14 minutes, 56 seconds
Just before taking unprecedented action to boost the flagship obesity drug of the drug company Eli Liy, Trump bought15 minutes, 6 seconds
hundreds of thousands of dollars of stock in Eli Liy.15 minutes, 11 seconds
This
happened while he's president. Joe Biden didn't trade stocks while he
was in office. Barack Obama didn't trade stocks while he was in office.
But Trump15 minutes, 19 seconds
is
apparently trading stocks while he is in office. And since we got his
financial disclosure about those stock trades late last week, right,
detailing15 minutes, 27 seconds
this bizarre and incredibly energetic stock trading that the president has been doing while he has been president.15 minutes, 35 seconds
Now,
with each passing hour, we're getting more and more reporting coming
out about how his stock buying as president tracks with things he's
doing15 minutes, 43 seconds
as president to boost the value of those stocks.15 minutes, 48 seconds
I mean, it's just incredible. So, in January, Trump buys hundreds of thousands of dollars of stock in Nvidia.15 minutes, 56 seconds
Then
a week later, his commerce department approves the sale of Nvidia trips
to to China. Also in January, Trump buys between 50,000 and $100,00016 minutes, 6 seconds
worth
of stock in AMD, which is another chipmaker. One week after he buys it,
his commerce department approves AMD doing business in China as well.16 minutes, 16 seconds
Following month in February, Trump buys millions of dollars worth of stock in Dell. Dell computers, right? Dell technologies.16 minutes, 25 seconds
Nine
days after he buys millions of dollars worth of stock in Dell, Trump
veers off script in a speech in Georgia to tell the crowd literally
quote, "Go16 minutes, 34 seconds
out and buy a Dell computer." Then in March, he buys up a whole bunch of stock in a company called Thermo16 minutes, 41 seconds
Fisher. Repeated purchases of Thermoffisher. Jud Leam at Popular Information reports that Trump16 minutes, 47 seconds
repeatedly buys up Thermoffisher stock and then he goes and visits Thermoffisher on a presidential visit.16 minutes, 55 seconds
And
on this presidential visit to Thermoffisher, he praises the company
repeatedly as an incredible company. He says as president that he wants
other17 minutes, 4 seconds
pharmaceutical
companies to start working with Thermoffisher. He buys their stock and
then he goes out and boosts the company as president. Jud17 minutes, 12 seconds
Leum
also notes that that same day, March 11th, same day as the
thermoffisher visit, that same day, Trump bought hundreds of thousands
of17 minutes, 20 seconds
dollars
of stock in Apple. And then that same day he bought the stock, he did
another event where he singled out Apple and Apple CEO Tim Cook for
praise.17 minutes, 30 seconds
Apple, a great company.17 minutes, 34 seconds
Then after that, Trump buys between 50 and $100,000 of Micron stock.17 minutes, 41 seconds
Okay, between 50 and $100,000 in Micron stock. The very next day, he calls into the Fox News Channel and tells them,17 minutes, 50 seconds
"Micron, it's one of the hottest companies." Then it's Palunteer, CNBC reporting.17 minutes, 57 seconds
Trump makes seven separate purchases of Palunteer stock. Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of Palunteer stock.18 minutes, 4 seconds
Then he gets on Truth Social and praises Palunteer. Palanteer Technologies, great capabilities and equipment. He literally18 minutes, 12 seconds
even
posted the stock ticker abbreviation for Palunteer right after he
bought hundreds of thousands of dollars of their stock and18 minutes, 21 seconds
got online to boost it, giving people the stock ticker abbreviation to make it easier for them to go buy some Palunteer18 minutes, 29 seconds
to boost the value of the stock he just bought before he said this online.18 minutes, 35 seconds
I mean, this just appears to be just fantastically kaleidoscopically corrupt.18 minutes, 45 seconds
Congressman Jamie Rascin is here tonight to talk about it and also about the $1.8 billion that Trump says he's taking out18 minutes, 52 seconds
of the US Treasury so it can be doled out as like rewards or something to people who are Trump allies.19 minutes
Everybody's
expecting that will include people who violently stormed the US capital
on his behalf to try to keep him in power after he lost the election at19 minutes, 7 seconds
the end of his first term. Jamie Raskin is coming up on that in just a moment.19 minutes, 13 seconds
After
thousands of people turned out in Selma, Alabama and Montgomery,
Alabama this weekend to walk across the Edund Pettis Bridge to rally and
reflect on19 minutes, 23 seconds
the Supreme Court effectively overturning the Civil Rights Act of 1965.19 minutes, 29 seconds
As
Republicans in every state of the former Confederacy move to eliminate
every or almost every black congressional district in the South, as19 minutes, 37 seconds
Republicans
consider not just new congressional maps, but now new state legislature
maps that could eliminate nearly half the majority black legislative
districts in the South.19 minutes, 49 seconds
We're also going to be watching primaries tomorrow in states including Alabama and Kentucky and Georgia in19 minutes, 57 seconds
particular.
There's a sleeper race in Georgia that has not had a lot of attention,
but is really firing people up in Georgia. Georgia Democratic20 minutes, 5 seconds
turnout
in early voting is reportedly spiking a ahead of Republican turnout in
advance of that sleeper race and others in Georgia tomorrow. We're going
to have more on that coming up for you tonight.20 minutes, 15 seconds
Plus, tonight we're going to talk with the the DA, the Henipin County DA from Minnesota who has just brought assault20 minutes, 22 seconds
charges under state law against a federal ICE agent. the ICE agent who fired gunshots through a door into an20 minutes, 31 seconds
occupied house during Trump's attack on Minneapolis earlier this year. There's now a nationwide arrest warrant out for20 minutes, 38 seconds
that ICE agent after the DA in Henipin County brought charges against him. We're going to be talking with that DA.20 minutes, 45 seconds
That comes as Indiana this weekend saw protests and rallies in 28 different communities all across Indiana. all20 minutes, 52 seconds
protesting
ICE operations in Indiana and ICE holding people in an Indiana state
prison that's called the Miami Correctional Facility. This pe this21 minutes, 1 second
weekend people rallied in Roxbury, New Jersey as well where locals there are are celebrating a settlement agreement21 minutes, 8 seconds
last
week in which ICE promised to not do any construction at the warehouse
in Roxbury, New Jersey that they bought to become a Trump prison camp.
This is a21 minutes, 16 seconds
very
red part of New Jersey, but locals there have been fighting that thing
tooth and nail. They have been from the very beginning. And even with
this new agreement that they are celebrating,21 minutes, 24 seconds
this
new agreement they have obtained to to effectively stall out any prison
construction there for months if not years, locals in Roxbury, New
Jersey are21 minutes, 33 seconds
still
out there protesting, still pushing it, showing they are not going
anywhere. They are not backing down until this thing is dead for good.
In21 minutes, 40 seconds
Social
Circle, Georgia, that little town has now filed its own lawsuit against
the Trump administration to stop a Trump prison camp from going in
there. We've21 minutes, 48 seconds
seen state lawsuits in New Jersey and in Michigan and in Arizona. Now we've got a city lawsuit from Social Circle Georgia.21 minutes, 58 seconds
These
folks a few days ago in New York City protested loudly hoping to
embarrass and shame a parking garage company in New York City that has
been22 minutes, 6 seconds
leasing space to ICE just to park their vehicles. You see the signs and the banners there.22 minutes, 11 seconds
Ice parks here and ICE parks kidnap vans here. trying to shame that company out of doing it, trying to raise awareness22 minutes, 20 seconds
about
collaborating with ICE and the companies that do it. There's so much
going on right now. There's so many developing stories we're following
tonight. We got a lot to get to tonight.22 minutes, 29 seconds
Going to be a busy night.22 minutes, 34 seconds
Quote,
"Corruption unparalleled in American history." Quote, "The most brazen
theft and abuse of taxpayer dollars by any president in American22 minutes, 42 seconds
history." quote, "The largest single act of grand lararseny in American history.22 minutes, 48 seconds
Five stars, most corrupt thing ever." Uh, people are grasping for words to adequately describe the unprecedented22 minutes, 56 seconds
nature
and magnitude of what President Donald Trump is attempting to do right
now. And and this isn't even about the whole stocks fiasco we just
talked about23 minutes, 5 seconds
a
couple minutes ago, which has also been revealed over the last few days
in which the president appears to have been buying stocks in companies
right before23 minutes, 14 seconds
he actively took steps as president to boost those companies multiple times, millions of dollars. I I23 minutes, 22 seconds
mean
that that might be the biggest presidential corruption ca scandal in
American history were it not for this other thing breaking at the same
time about the same US president.23 minutes, 33 seconds
This this $1.8 billion taxpayer dollars $1.8 billion in taxpayer funds that23 minutes, 41 seconds
Donald Trump is liberating from the US Treasury to pay out to his friends and allies.23 minutes, 48 seconds
And look, I I know there's a lot of coverage today that has described this fund.23 minutes, 54 seconds
First
of all, they're describing it as $1.7 billion. It's $1.8 billion. Um,
but you're also seeing a lot of descriptions, a lot of headlines about24 minutes, 1 second
this thing, describing this fund as some kind of settlement of Trump's ridiculous lawsuit against the IRS.24 minutes, 8 seconds
For
with all due respect to my my friends in the bleaker mainstream US
media, I got to say that coverage and those headlines need to be
refreshed. Uh24 minutes, 17 seconds
because
while Trump might have, you know, talked about his grievance against
the IRS as a pretext to explain what he wanted to do here, the way this
has24 minutes, 24 seconds
worked out, it's basically totally unrelated. This pot of money, this $1.8 billion is not actually meaningfully24 minutes, 33 seconds
connected to Trump's supposed grievance against the IRS. His lawsuit against the IRS is gone. Trump dropped it. So this24 minutes, 41 seconds
$1.8
8 billion. This is not like a settlement that's being overseen by a
judge or something. It is just something that Donald Trump told the
government he24 minutes, 49 seconds
controls to give him. And so now the government he controls is going to put almost $2 billion into a fund for him at24 minutes, 56 seconds
the Justice Department and Trump's attorney general will control the money.25 minutes, 1 second
There is no judge involved. Neither the courts nor Congress is approving any settlement or overseeing any part of25 minutes, 8 seconds
this. This is just Trump getting a bunch a ton of taxpayer money to dole out.25 minutes, 17 seconds
Maryland Congressman Jamie Rascin today called it quote nothing but a racket designed to take taxpayer dollars out of25 minutes, 24 seconds
the
treasury and pour it into a huge slush fund for Trump at DOJ to hand
out to his private militia of insurrectionists, rioters, and white25 minutes, 33 seconds
supremacists,
including those who brutally beat police officers on January 6. Joining
us now is Congressman Jamie Rascin of Maryland. He's the top25 minutes, 41 seconds
Democrat
on the House Judiciary Committee and a constitutional law professor.
Um, Congressman Raskin, it's really nice to see you. Thank you for
making time.25 minutes, 50 seconds
Great to see you, Rachel.25 minutes, 52 seconds
Is there anything else like this in US history?25 minutes, 57 seconds
Nothing like it. It's uh thoroughly illegal and unconstitutional. Of course, Congress never voted to set up a $1.77626 minutes, 7 seconds
billion
political slush fund for the president, and we never would pass such a
thing. So, it's a complete violation of congressional appropriations
powers.26 minutes, 17 seconds
Uh,
moreover, even if Congress wanted to do such a thing, which we never
would, it would be unconstitutional because the 14th Amendment says that
money cannot be26 minutes, 25 seconds
spent out of the federal Fisk for the purposes of repaying people for insurrection or rebellion against the26 minutes, 33 seconds
United States. And look, but this is what this is his MO now with all of these political slush funds. That's what26 minutes, 40 seconds
the
board of peace is. They took $1.5 billion dollars from the State
Department. That was money that was supposed to be for disaster relief.
Then26 minutes, 48 seconds
he
sets up this board of peace. He gets a billion from the Qataris, a
billion from the Saudis and so on. We don't know anything about it. Is
it public,26 minutes, 55 seconds
private,
profit, not for profofit, registered in America, registered in Qatar?
We don't know anything about it other than Donald Trump is chairman for27 minutes, 3 seconds
life.
He controls all that money. So that in itself is a violation of the
foreign government emaluments clause because all those foreign states
and27 minutes, 11 seconds
kings
and princes are giving money and the domestic emalments clause which
says the president is limited to his salary in office and cannot derive
any other27 minutes, 19 seconds
money from the US treasury. But the whole administration now is just corruption, highway robbery every day.27 minutes, 28 seconds
The
way that you are describing it, including your reference to the
imalments clause and other means by which this seems pretty illegal,
even to somebody who's not a lawyer, makes me27 minutes, 36 seconds
think
that these things ought to be stoppable in court. I mean, who has
standing to challenge the board of peacef fund that you were just
describing or indeed this new one that they're trying to set up at DOJ?27 minutes, 48 seconds
Well,
it won't surprise you to learn that the Roberts court has made it
extremely difficult by uh erecting the standing doctrine, political
question27 minutes, 57 seconds
doctrine,
sovereign immunity, you name it. Making it extremely difficult in
addition to the fact of course that they've said that the president is
not28 minutes, 5 seconds
subject to criminal prosecution for actual crimes he commits under the opaces of his office. But at this point,28 minutes, 12 seconds
everything must be tried in order to try to restore the rule of law in the country. We can't leave any potential28 minutes, 19 seconds
tool
uh just sitting on the table. We've got to try to attempt everything.
But we must start by trying to get our at least four or five Republican
colleagues to28 minutes, 28 seconds
come
over to our side to say this is utterly lawless and authoritarian and
it cannot stand. And a couple have made noises like that, but those are
people28 minutes, 36 seconds
who
are in tough re-election races and they might be trying to send the
signal they've got a problem with it. If you've got a Republican running
in your28 minutes, 44 seconds
district who's saying yes, this is problematic, ask them, will they sign their name to co-sponsor a bill to block28 minutes, 52 seconds
this outrageous expropriation of the tax dollars of the people for completely political purposes to give to Proud28 minutes, 59 seconds
Boys, Oathkeepers, riers, and insurrectionists. people who beat up police officers. That's what this is29 minutes, 5 seconds
about. It's about funding or preunding Donald Trump's private militia.29 minutes, 12 seconds
It strikes me that um regardless of who they ultimately try to give this money to. It is interesting that they have29 minutes, 20 seconds
chosen
a vehicle at the Justice Department um to to use for this. And you've I
thought I think made some very good points about the fact that that29 minutes, 28 seconds
that it's a real thing and we should understand uh what the judgment fund is at the at the DOJ. This is a a fund29 minutes, 35 seconds
that's
created by Congress for a specific purpose, right? It's not not
supposed to be a pool of money available to be stolen by anybody who
feels like29 minutes, 44 seconds
taking it. What what is that fund for um that Trump is essentially going to be plundering uh for this other project?29 minutes, 53 seconds
Well,
it used to be that if someone successfully sued the federal government
that Congress had to vote to appropriate money to pay for the damages,
to pay for30 minutes, 1 second
their
verdict. And then Congress said, "We're spending half of our time just
on litigation against the federal government. We'll turn it over to the30 minutes, 9 seconds
Department of Justice. will set up this ongoing appropriation that's open um called uh the judgment fund and that is30 minutes, 18 seconds
for
actual judgments, verdicts, damages levied by a court against the
United States or an honest goodfaith settlement of claims that would
have won in court.30 minutes, 29 seconds
Okay?
And of course, like everything else, we've never had a problem with
this up until Donald Trump because he sees a pot of money and the dollar
signs30 minutes, 38 seconds
go
off in his eyes and he sees it as a political slush fund. And so now
they want to convert this fund that has always been used honestly in
Democratic30 minutes, 46 seconds
and
Republican administrations for the settlement of lawsuits or just the
payment of verdicts to create this uh anti-weaponization30 minutes, 55 seconds
fund
which is the most Orwellian title you can imagine. It's all about
weaponizing the tax dollars of the American people to support Donald31 minutes, 3 seconds
Trump's private militia. If these people had real viable causes of action against anybody, they would go to federal court.31 minutes, 11 seconds
And
the ones who have gone to federal court have lost their cases
overwhelmingly. And you can't find a single case of somebody whose
criminal31 minutes, 18 seconds
conviction
was reversed on appeal after they assaulted a police officer on January
6 or were convicted for sedicious conspiracy, which means31 minutes, 27 seconds
conspiracy
to overthrow the government of the United States. If they had a real
valid cause of action, they'd be in court getting it. But of course,
Trump31 minutes, 34 seconds
wants to take it out of the courts and put it under this little committee of mysterious appointees uh he has who are31 minutes, 41 seconds
going
to be exclusively responsible to him. Again, it's just a complete
ripoff of the taxpayers and everybody can see what's going on.31 minutes, 51 seconds
It's
such a good point that if there was any sort of legitimate case that
somebody had been victimized by some wrongdoing of the government, there
are31 minutes, 59 seconds
means
by which that gets adjudicated, testable, constitutional means,
transparent means that we have we have ways of doing that. This is not
this is32 minutes, 8 seconds
not
the way that is not the way that you do it. Um, Congressman Jamie
Raskin of Maryland, you are always uh very welcome here on on this show
anytime, but32 minutes, 16 seconds
particularly
when we are dealing with something of this magnitude, with this many
constitutional implications, nobody better to be here but you. Thank
you, sir.32 minutes, 24 seconds
Thank you, Rachel.32 minutes, 26 seconds
All right, we got much more news ahead tonight. Stay with us.
Morning _ joe
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