Murphy: Six Weeks In, This White House Is On Its Way To Being The Most Corrupt In U.S. History
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hycoCYenXls
Transcript
uh Mr President I'm a big Boston Red Sox
fan uh and one of the most famous
players in Red Sox recent history is
Manny Ramirez uh Manny Ramirez was a
good baseball player um but he had a
habit of doing some pretty ridiculous
things on the field and off the field um
that um were really detrimental to the
team some really bizarre onfield
behavior cutting off throws from other
outfielders before they got to the
infield bizarre off the- field behavior
um that disrupted the team um it became
so regular that a phrase was adopted
amongst the Red Sox fans that's just
Manny being
Manny and over the years it just was
accepted that every year Manny Ramirez
was going to do a whole bunch of stuff
that was really detrimental to the team
and over time it just kind of became
accepted that that was a fact of life a
way of life with Manny Ramirez and as
time went on people reacted less hosti
it barely got noticed in some cases when
he was engaged in
these detrimental forms of conduct and I
tell that story because it stands for
you know a kind of universal concept
when bad behavior gets normalized it no
longer feels like bad behavior even if
that behavior is hurting
people today the world is littered with
corrupt governments governments where
the leaders and the really rich men who
surround the leaders the oligarchs they
steal from people that's what they do
the leaders and the leaders friends just
keep a hand constantly in the government
Treasury and they steal taxpayer dollars
they rig the rules of the economy in
order to make themselves fabulously Rich
they hurt the citizens of those
countries Vladimir Putin for instance um
has never had a job outside of
government but he's reportedly worth
$200 billion doar one of his many houses
cost $1.4 billion to build supposedly
the Landscaping costs on an annual basis
for that house are $2 million
alone that $1.4 billion house was paid
for by money he stole from the Russian
treasury in other words he stole it from
the Russian people Putin and his friends
have been doing it for so long and doing
it so openly and brazenly Putin for
instance wears a watch that retails for
a half a million dollars excuse
me for half a million dollars even
though his official salary is only 140
,000 they've been doing this so openly
and bracingly they're so public in their
corruption in Russia that it's just
accepted it's just
mainstream the fact that Putin and his
cronies
steal from the Russian
people that's what's happening in
America today and it's heartbreaking for
me to say this but in the first six
months of the Trump presidency Trump and
Elon Musk and their billion their
friends have engaged in a stunning
Rampage of open public
corruption it's not fundamentally
different than what happened in
Russia these are efforts to steal from
the American people to enrich
themselves and their strategy is to do
it all out in the open to do it at such
a dizzying pace
that the country just gets overwhelmed
or
anesthetized or dulled into a sense that
we just all have to accept the
corruption or maybe more charitably that
this is just how government works that
government is just corrupt and so the
fact that it's happening out in the open
instead of happening secretly well it's
really nothing
new but this is not how government works
the things that have happened over the
last 6 weeks are
unprecedented the president and his
billionaire friends are not supposed to
steal from us they are not supposed to
use their power and their
access to power their access to
government levers to rig the rules to
enrich themselves that has always been
wrong it is still wrong and we do not
have to accept
this and so in the next few minutes I
want to try out an
exercise I want to try to lay out for
you as quickly as I
can just some of the most significant
instances of blatantly corrupt activity
that's happened in just the first six
weeks of Trump's presidency when you see
it all together there is no way to avoid
a simple conclusion this White House is
on its way to being the most corrupt in
the history of the country and just
because they are doing it out in the
open for everybody to see doesn't mean
that it's not
corrupt and my hope is that if you see
it all in one place the gravity of this
moment may hit you my hope is that my
colleagues and the public choose not to
normalize a president or his
advisers using the Oval Office as a
blunt mechanism to make themselves even
wealthier it is our DEC decision our
decision to have zero tolerance for
corruption it's also our decision to
just decide to become a place like
Russia where our leaders are allowed to
routinely steal from
us so this is a heartbreakingly long
list this is just 20 or so
examples of corrupt behavior in the
first six weeks of the Trump
presidency so here it go
we're going to start on January 17th on
January 17th Trump launches the meme
coin this is maybe the most corrupt of
all the acts because what is the mem
coin the mem coin is essentially a
mechanism by which Russian oligarchs or
corporate CEOs can literally send money
privately directly to Donald Trump
nobody knows who buys the meme coin but
Trump makes money when people buy it and
so it is just an open sewer valve that
allows for anybody who is trying to
influence the Trump Administration to be
able to secretly funnel money to Donald
Trump he reserves 80% of the coin he
waits to release that coin until the
price jumps back up again which
essentially means he's waiting for
people who want favors from him to buy a
bunch of the coin to inflate the value
so that he releases more and makes more
money it's it's a disgusting kind of
corruption because this is a essentially
Trump just posting his venmo for anybody
secretly to wire him as much money as
they want we've never seen something
like this before where anybody who has
anything to gain from the Trump
Administration through a manipulation of
the value of Trump's meme coin can
funnel money directly to the president
whisper in his ear that was me that was
me that purchased all that coin that
jumped up the value that allowed you to
release new coin
take care of me on the back end on
January 20th when he sworn
in he institutes his new energy agenda
now open reporting suggested that during
the campaign he met with the oil and gas
industry and they cut a deal in which
the oil and gas industry would give him
a billion dollars of campaign
contributions in order to receive
favorable treatment when Trump was sworn
in and guess what happens on January
20th Trump unveils his energy strategy
and what does it do it preferences oil
and gas and it punishes oil and gas's
competitors it for instance freezes all
permits on wind projects both for the
land and the Sea it undercuts permitting
processes not for oil and gas but for
oil and gas's competitors oil and gas
got exactly what they asked for they
gave a campaign contribution and they
got the favorable
treatment 5 days later Trump fires 17
inspectors general what do inspectors
General do they look for corruption
inside of these agencies what do you do
if you are trying to engage in
corruption if you are trying to steal
from the American people you fire the
inspector's General two days later on
January 27th Trump
fires Gwyn Wilcox from the nlrb this is
the National Labor Relations Board when
she's fired the National Labor Relations
Board cannot function any longer why
does this matter because the person that
has been put in
charge of reviewing the hirings and
firings of these agencies is Elon Musk
who by the way has lots of cases before
the nlrb so do the people that are
standing behind Trump during the
inauguration almost all of them have
Active cases before the nlrb the
billionaires supporting Donald Trump now
don't have to worry about the nlrb
because on January 27th the nlrb is
rendered powerlessness 3 days later on
January
30th uh Trump Awards more than
$800,000 worth of stock to several of
the board members of the Trump media and
Technology Group this is the publicly
traded company behind his social media
platform so now his cabinet members
people like cash Patel and Linda McMahon
are owning uh equity in Trump's media
platform Equity that can be cashed out
sold to people who want to buy them out
of their interest at any time those
people who might want to buy them out
cabinet members could be individuals
with issues before the Department of
Education before the FBI yet another
Avenue in which people who have
influence who want to gain influence
inside the Trump Administration have a
conduit to be able to move cash from
their pocketbooks from their treasury
from their bank accounts into the bank
accounts of trump cabinet
members shortly thereafter we start to
see the weaponization of the doj on
February 23rd a civil complaint from
doj that had been pending against SpaceX
Elon musk's signature company is dropped
8 Days Later the doj drops a case
against a republican
Congressman on February 19th two or 3
weeks later the doj opens up something
called operation world wind which seeks
to Target anyone who dares try to
obstruct or criticize the work of Elon
Musk and Doge over the course of the
first few weeks the
doj is turned into an entity that drops
cases against those who are loyal to
Donald Trump and pursues aggressively
investigations against those who are
trying to criticize Donald Trump on
February 1st Trump fires the director of
the cfpb and announc ounces plans to
shut down to shutter the Consumer
Financial Protection board again very
much like the nlrb this is an agency
that was at the moment that it was
rendered powerless investigating Elon
Musk and many of the biggest Financial
backers of Donald Trump so once again
those that have access to Donald Trump
the billionaires that are close to him
now don't have to worry about Labor
violations being investigated by the
nlrb now they don't have to worry about
consumer protection uh actions being
taken against them by the
cfpb on February 4th there is the first
of two extraordinary meetings in the
White House in which Donald Trump
convenes his business partners his
business partners the Saudi golf league
and the PGA to try to negotiate a
solution to the dispute between those
two golf leagues why because Trump has a
business interest in that dispute being
resolved the Saudi Golf League plays
tournaments at Trump's course courses in
the United States and so if the White
House using its official power can try
to negotiate a settlement between those
two groups Trump stands to make money on
February 6th something absolutely
stunning happens Pam Bondi the AG issues
a
memorandum uh in which uh she proposes
to dull
uh the criminal enforcement of the
foreign agents registration act if you
are representing a foreign government
before the United States you have to
register so that we know if you are
acting on behalf of American interests
or you are acting on behalf of foreign
interests in the prior Trump
Administration Trump officials got in
big trouble for secretly working for and
getting paid by Foreign governments
without registering well what does Trump
announce that they are going to limit
the applicability of the enforcement of
that statute making it much easier for
Trump's friends from for his Maga crowd
for the people who show up to Mara Lago
to get paid quietly by Foreign
governments in order to influence Donald
Trump on February
10th maybe aside from the mean coin the
most stunning Act of corruption the Eric
Adams quid proquo in which Eric Adams
indicted for corruption is let off the
hook his charges are dismissed in
exchange for the mayor's pledge of
political loyalty to Donald Trump they
literally went on TV and announced the
deal that we're getting rid of the
charges against Eric Adams as long as
the mayor pledges political loyalty to
the president that was so corrupt that
six or seven doj officials resigned
because they refused to to withdraw
those charges but the deal went through
because the seventh or the eth or the
ninth official finally filed the
withdrawal and now in America it is 100%
clear that if you want to get away with
corruption if you want to steal from
your constituents and you an elected
official in this country all you have to
do is just sign up for political loyalty
with Donald Trump and he will instruct
the Department of Justice to let you get
away with it on February 10th Donald
Trump directs the doj to cause
enforcement of us laws that prohibit
companies from paying bribes overseas
come
on like come
on he instructs the doj to pause
enforcement of us laws that prohibit
companies to pay bribes overseas here's
an example Goldman Sachs was engaged in
outright bribery they were paying bribes
to Malaysian officials so that they
could get a contract to manage the
resources of the Malaysian Sovereign
wealth
fund American companies should be
overseas bribing foreign governments
that compromises America's reputation
and America's national security but now
we are going to pause enforcement of the
laws that stop American companies from
bribing foreign governments because
corruption is now being normalized this
is what you do if you want to normalize
corruption is that you make it legal for
American companies to engage in
corruption overseas that makes it easier
for Trump to get away with corruption
here two days later on February 12th the
announcement comes out that the state
department is going to buy $400 million
of armored Teslas okay so now it's
getting even more blatant it's getting
even more Brazen the state department is
just going to buy a whole bunch of
product from Elon Musk product that they
were not previously scheduled to buy it
is true that the Biden administration
had a blueprint that was going to buy
some electric vehicles but it was around
$483,000 worth of vehicles Trump revises
that blueprint of spending so that now
the federal government is going to spend
$400 million on Armored Teslas from Elon
Musk let's see that's February 12th that
same day uh Elon musk's people
infiltrate the Department of Labor and
Reporting suggests that during that
infiltration Elon musk's personal
Representatives get access to
enforcement information at OSHA not only
against Elon musk's companies and by the
way SpaceX has an employee injury rate
that is nine times higher than the
industry average but
also workplace safety violations against
Elon musk's competitors here's the
message if you are close to Donald Trump
personally if you support him
politically you can get secret access to
enforcement data against your country
against your companies and your
company's competitors that's what
happens on February 12th 3 days later
there's some suspicious firings at the
FDA again related to Elon musk's
personal financial interests Elon Musk
owns a medical device company called
neuralink it is currently being reviewed
by the FDA and guess what on February
15th and 16th all over a weekend there
are 20 people fired from the fda's
office of neurological and Physical
Medicine devices fired by Doge run by
Elon Musk clear message you're going to
get fired if you aren't on the right
side of Elon musk's application now
whether that was explicit or not if the
guy who was firing you has a pending
application before your department
aren't you going to think twice aren't
you going to think twice about ruling
against his interest this is why this is
all
unprecedented again this feels normal
because it's been happening every day
but never before in American history
have we allowed someone who has a
pending application for for approval of
a medicine or a medical device to be
able to personally decide who gets hired
and who gets fired at the regulatory
agency making the decision over that
medical device but now this stuff is
happening every day because on February
15th as well that same weekend there's
an announcement that the FDA cuts are
going to be even deeper perhaps as big
as
50% that means that
hundreds of drugs and devices won't get
approved at the FDA and you know who
benefits from that the folks that are
selling the snake oil products and guess
who's selling the skate the snake oil
products the people who work for Donald
Trump selling V gummy scams the director
of the FBI is selling vaccine reversal
pills when the FDA gets gutted it's the
people who sell those unregulated
products who stand to gain on February
19
4 days later we find out that the IRS is
going to be cut by
7,000 people and the biggest chunk of
the folks who are going to be laid off
are the people who do the audits of the
billionaires and the Millionaires and
the
corporations and so once again Elon Musk
and the people standing behind Donald
Trump on inauguration day are gonna get
off because the IRS
just had its enforcement Powers its
audit Powers absolutely gutted that same
day on February 19th you start to
receive word that advertising on Elon
musk's platform is starting to grow
again and the reporting on February 19th
indicates that American companies have
come to the collective decision that
they need to keep Aver iing on Elon
musk's platform because Elon Musk has so
much regulatory power inside the federal
government that they need to make sure
that they're paying musk through Twitter
and through X so that if they ultimately
need something from the federal
government they can get it this again is
why we have never ever in the history of
this country allowed for the richest man
in the world somebody who controls major
compan to also have an official position
inside the government because of course
of course it opens up these clear
Avenues where people are going to do
business with him privately to try to
Curry favor with him
publicly I'm not done it just keeps
going the next day on February
20th the cdc's advisory committee on
immunization
practices monthly meeting is cancelled
and not
rescheduled and so we were very worried
that Robert F Kennedy Jr who makes
money off of his attacks on vaccines
would continue those attacks when he
took over
HHS because if faith in vaccines
continues to plummet it is very likely
that RFK Jr will make money why because
the not for-profit that he will likely
return to the company that he will
return turn to after he leaves makes
money as vaccine misinformation spreads
and he also continues to collect fees
for referring cases to a company uh that
handles claims of personal injury uh due
to vaccines and so when the cdc's
advisory committee on immunization
practices is cancelled it is a clear
indication that yes this campaign of
assault on vaccines is going to continue
which
not surprisingly is likely to make RFK
Jr even more money on February
26th we see Trump's Maga hats that are
for sale on his website displayed in the
Oval Office and it's just a reminder
that so many people inside Trump's
Universe continue to sell merchandise on
the side in order to make money Donald
Trump is always has done this and we've
just kind of accepted it even though it
is a kind of corruption in and of itself
but cash Patel the director of the FBI
is still s selling cash branded
merchandise even while he's going to run
the FBI Elon Musk and others are selling
Doge merchandise so as they trumpet
their brand inside the government
they're making money off their brand
outside of the government on February 26
May maybe the third most significant of
brazen corruption happens news breaks
that Elon Musk is just going to have the
FAA cancel a contract with Verizon that
has been in the works for years and
instead just substitute in starlink for
Verizon just extraordinary that this is
happening in plain view of everybody
Elon Musk takes his private company uses
his access to government to just shove
out of the way his comp editors and
instead insert himself and his company
again we've never seen this ever before
in American history and now it's
happening on a daily
basis and now we get to this week this
week wired reports that guests are
paying millions of dollars to dine with
Donald Trump at Mara Lago and Business
Leaders are being targeted with
advertisements that sell access to a
one-on-one meeting with the president of
the United States for $5 million
come
on like
seriously there's advertisements that
say if you're a business CEO and you pay
$5 million to Donald Trump you can get a
meeting with
him like this isn't
okay and yet because it happens every
single day every single day they're
asking for us to pretend that this is
normal
this is just six
weeks it's just six
weeks and the last thing on the list is
an offer to meet with the president for
a million doar or $5
million if any previous president had
sent out an advertisement suggesting
that you could meet with them for a
payment to them of a million to $5
million in and of itself we would deem
that to be
unacceptable but Donald Trump and Elon
Musk believe that
because they have arranged this dizzying
pace of corruption in which not a day
goes by in which something doesn't
happen inside our government in which
Elon Musk or Donald Trump use their
power in order to rig the rules to
enrich
themselves that we are all going to feel
that it's normal
this is how democracies
die democracies
die when the very powerful people steal
from us
so
regularly so openly so
unapologetically that we come to believe
that it's normal and listen I understand
that many Americans may think that all
of this stuff just used to happen
quietly and the only difference is that
Trump and musk are just putting it all
out in the
open and I'm not saying that there
haven't been instances of corruption
Democrats and Republicans in this body
have been accused of and convicted of
Acts of corruption it has been a fact of
life in American politics for a long
time but never before has the corruption
happened this openly
or this
frequently and so I lay it all out for
you this
afternoon in the hopes that it is not
too late for us to decide to stand up as
a
body and as a nation to say that this
isn't okay the Trump mem coin is not
okay it's not okay
for people who have interests before the
federal government to be able to
anonymously funnel money to the
president of the United States it's not
okay for Elon Musk to have access
to Department of Labor enforcement data
against him or his competitors that
nobody else gets access
to it's not okay to just cancel
contracts that were going to musk's
competitors and substitute in his own
business just because he has the ability
to do it as a friend of Donald Trump
like the rule rule of law matters doing
things by the rules matter this level of
corruption was not occurring behind the
scenes prior it is not just that the
cover got pulled off of it all and it's
our decision as a body and is a country
to decide not to normalize this scale of
corruption i y the floor
