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Date: 2025-08-20 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00027961

TRUMP COUP ... WHILE AMERICA SLEEPS! Brian Tyler Cohen: COUP! Jamie Raskin issues TAKEDOWN of Elon Musk PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-zLhQ0zoBI Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess
COUP! Jamie Raskin issues TAKEDOWN of Elon Musk Brian Tyler Cohen 3.67M subscribers Feb 4, 2025 Interviews with Brian Tyler Cohen INTERVIEW - Brian interviews Jamie Raskin about his feud with Elon Musk, Trump's government overreach, and what Americans can do to fight back. For more from Brian Tyler Cohen: Order my #1 NYT bestselling book: https://www.harpercollins.com/pages/s... YouTube (español): / @briantylercohenespanol Twitch: / briantylercohen Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/36UvEHs Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0066rKC... Twitter: / briantylercohen Instagram: / briantylercohen Facebook: / briantylercohen TikTok: / briantylercohen Newsletter: https://plus.briantylercohen.com Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/briantylerco... Threads: https://www.threads.net/@briantylercohen Transcript 0:00 I'm joined Now by Congressman Jamie Raskin Congressman thank you for joining me you bet I'm delighted to be with you Brian all right so we are in a constitutional crisis right now where the executive branch led by the unelected richest man in the world is basically usurping all power in government and unilaterally accessing sensitive information has access to the treasury he's shutting down agencies deciding where congressionally allocated funding can go and whe whether it can go so I I I want to start off by channeling The Voice of millions of people out there who want to know really what the hell is going on right now and and what Democrats are doing to push back against this well thank you Brian for putting the question so clearly I do believe that as um despondent as it is uh we need to be very clear about what's going on and I think the easiest way to wrap your head around it is that this is a coup which is a a seizure of state power 1:02 by unelected actors by taking control over the central um institutions and functions of government so Elon Musk um has essentially seize control over the financial payment systems of the US government much of the communications systems of the United States the data infrastructure and of course he's got um his clause also into the military uh infrastructure as well so um you know in addition to everything that Donald Trump is doing to dismantle every part of government that doesn't profit him personally and his friends personally we have this additional problem of Elon Musk uh essentially trying to consolidate state power under him and transform the nature of our 2:00 constitutional order so as it relates to Elon I I know that the answer is that he can't do the things that he's doing but the reality is the the Practical reality is that he is doing them so given that we're beyond the point where he and Trump are respecting the law what is our recourse then here well we're going to have to fight them um in every channel and uh social context and governmental Arena that we can uh we're going to fight them in subcommittees and in the Committees of the house and of the Senate we're going to fight them in court um there have already been several setbacks dealt to the administration in court as you know Donald Trump tried to impose a new Birthright citizenship rule basically taking millions of people who are United States citizens in the country and then making them into undocumented immigrants based on who their parents were uh that was shut down by a Reagan appointed judge 3:00 uh they're appealing it but that's a win uh as you know they froze uh federal spending um at the end of last week and over uh the weekend completely nullifying congressional power over Appropriations that's a central power of the legislative branch of government the power of the purse um and um again a United States district court judge in the District of Columbia shut that down and enjoined it and there were oral arguments on that uh yesterday that went very well uh for our side so uh we are going to assert the Constitution the rule of law the Civil Service rules as a blockade against what they're doing at every turn and public pressure public uh vigilance about what's happening um are going to be essential in this process Congressman among your Republican colleagues is there any red line for them I mean to to see an unelected 4:02 bureaucrat basically on this on the pretense of trying to block other unelected bureaucrats even though that's what he is at this point to see him going in there and putting his his Clause into everything getting access to sensitive information putting high school graduates in charge of payment processing systems that that include Social Security numbers is there any Red Line in in public or private among your Republican colleagues well we'll see Brian I mean we weren't in session last week and we weren't in session the last couple days I think that they sent us out of session early actually because there was such popular and political rejection of their Mass pardons of The Proud boys and the oathkeepers and the insurrectionists they wanted to change the subject that's what I think gave a lot of people the impression that our leadership wasn't doing anything and people were beating up on the Democrats we weren't here I mean for someone like me whose district is right next door to Washington it's easy enough for me to go down to usaid 5:00 and to protest and to object and we had a bunch of the Maryland and Virginia people there uh but in any event uh we have gotten our fight back people are ready to fight this now as for the Republicans we don't know there are one or two who have been uttering uh some of their reservations and their objections to what's going on but I've been absolutely shocked and really devastated at the way that they've fallen into line for these completely um corrupt and unqualified cabinet nominees that Trump has put through including cash Patel an election denier a j6 uh Enthusiast and supporter um and uh you know an avatar of Mega lawlessness um who is just about to become the director of the FBI I mean it's just dumbfounding to me this is taking place and Lincoln's party of Liberty and Union 6:03 has become a Trump's party of chaos and dysfunction you you'd mentioned that that there were all of one or two who have been you know issuing some Rumblings behind the scenes what do you think that these same people these Republicans would say if George Soros all of a sudden was anointed some special government uh adviser and got access to every sensitive agency every sensitive piece of information all of Americans private data Social Security numbers what do you think those same Republicans all of whom are falling in line right now would say about that well Brian I used to perform that mental experiment all the time including during the impeachment crisis where I said imagine if Bill Clinton or Barack Obama had incited a mob of tens of thousands of people to go and fight and fight like hell and if you don't you're not going to have a country anymore and sat back and watched it eating hamburgers uh outside of the Oval Office and not saying anything other than my vice president didn't have the courage to do 7:00 what need to be done and I would always flip it over and I would POS it to them and then I realized that that represents an obsolete mode of thinking which is that uh the GOP members will act according to principles and to principled reasons for Action they have dissolved in into complete tribalism they believe including the ones they've stuck on the Supreme Court that Donald Trump can do no wrong oras Trump you know so vividly put it you I could uh shoot somebody um in the middle of Fifth Avenue and I wouldn't lose their support he was right about that he understood the cultish dimensions of their support so I try to flip these over in the mental thought experiment that you propos but it's meaningless to them they don't understand it for them whatever Donald Trump does goes they will defend it no matter what and whatever he says about the foes or the 8:01 enemies of Donald Trump uh they will believe and they will follow that too right is a complete moving Target gone are the days where there's any long-standing principles that you can pin them to at this point to your exact point it's just complete difference to whatever Trump says and does and if that changes by by the week the day the hour the minute so be it they they're just along for the ride it's a completely humiliating thing to them I mean you have members over there like Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz whom uh Trump has personally insulted he's called their lives uh ugly said Ted Cruz's father uh assassinated John F Kennedy or was in on the plot to do it I mean just outrageous things and they all come and uh uh they kiss his ring and that's not all um and so it's utterly abasing and humiliating and denigrating for them um but they do it so ours in addition to being the party of democracy and freedom now is the party of self-respect yeah you know you 9:01 got into a public argument with Elon Musk over the last couple of days where you know you were standing up along with some colleagues to protect us usaid Elon came out he called it a coup because of course he's trying to to draw some false equivalency between January 6th and rightfully standing up for an agency that that Elon Musk has no power to dissolve um while you were standing up for USA ID uh Elon Musk wrote back and I'll put the Tweet right here on the screen what Rasin actually means is that he wants his Kickbacks and bribes to continue so that was obviously a defamatory statement by Elon because Elon and Trump and Republicans now clearly have their marching orders and that is to destroy everything that really doesn't serve the ultra wealthy doesn't serve these Republican donors and so they're on this scorched Earth mission to just denigrate every agency that doesn't help them first off can you very briefly explain what USA ID is and why it's important well it was created originally by President Kennedy uh and by Congress to um engage in what today 10:04 we call soft power or the projection of American influence and American foreign policy objectives by rendering Aid to people and that could be anything from helping people uh build effective water projects to fighting HIV AIDS to malaria Nets and antimalaria uh campaigns to building up uh development projects democracy were all over the world with Aid uh it's less than 1% of the overall budget um it's uh the whole foreign aid budget's around $40 billion a year compar compared to 900 billion that goes to the Department of Defense alone without getting into other national security agencies and departments so it's a a tiny fraction but that money means something has help to buy lots of Goodwill for America and also help to prevent diseases that come back can haunt us and also prevent the 11:01 disease of authoritarianism and autocracy uh which is one of the key reasons that Elon Musk and Donald Trump want to dismantle it right now at the risk of getting too wonky here on that exact point this is a really important point I think about usaid China has what's called the belt and Road initiative so why is usaid important to combat Chinese soft power and what are the implications going to be if we seed that ground to the Chinese but we're already hearing now with them having pulled the plug on all foreign aid projects on usit all over the world that China is moving in to say well they don't want to help you but we're happy to help you I mean one of the things people love about America is the compassion of America the Democratic solidarity of America the fact that we're a country with a big heart made up of people who come from all over the world and we stand with people and then suddenly we're sending the message that we are going to stop uh programs to help 12:01 pregnant women and uh infants all over the world we're going to stop programs to bring food uh raised by farmers in Iowa and Louisiana and California to starving people in Asia and in Africa um it just makes no sense but it it is coherent from a political philosophy which is that America can only get its way by being a bully and and we're seeing that same strategy play out right now with these tariffs and these trade Wars in in in your estimation Trump basically pushing all of our allies away showing them that America's word is no good anymore that if we negotiate a trade deal by the way a trade deal like the usmca which Trump himself signed into law that those are only as good as you know the person in power in the term that he's in it and maybe not even beyond that and so can you just speak on what that is what the implications are 13:00 going to be what the impacts are going to be more broadly on America's standing in the world and our ability to even have alliances when even among our own closest friends we are instantly picking fights from Canada to Mexico to Panama to Greenland and on and on I mean I've seen tv ads that the Canadian government and Ontario government um are running in America just saying remember we are allies we are closest trading partners we are friends we go back and forth we were together in World War II fighting the Nazis and so good for Canada reminding the American people of the relationship that we actually have and that's something that obviously people who live in Michigan and Minnesota and the northern states understand better than people who live you know in the the South and so on but um you know the Wall Street Journal itself called this the dumbest trade war in American history nobody can even understand why Donald Trump is doing it it just makes no sense 14:01 it's incoherent more chaos more dysfunction can you speak on the fact that really at the end of the day what he was able to extract from the Canadians was border security that they had announced back in December and so it would seem to me that what Trump is trying to do is just create a crisis manufacture a crisis out of nowhere look for whatever vague excuse of a of a concession he can he can cast out as PR win and then and then beat his chest as some master negotiator and that that none of this is really amounting to anything they're building ill will all over the world inclus including from our closest allies and you know it may be that you're right Brian that he knew all along he was going to have to give nothing essentially or rather get nothing because right what was given by Canon and Mexico was already given I think they pulled the wool over his eyes I mean uh Mexico said they're going to put 10,000 Troop troops on the border they already had 15,000 troops on the 15:01 border that been negotiated I think a year or two ago so you know he just likes a lot of rasle Dazzle and noise but the leaders of the world are laughing at him um and we can recognize what like fraudulent pretense this whole thing was and at the same time you've got Mexico and Canada's leaders who recognize that Trump really just is looking for some PR win that he's looking for anything he can slap his name on and say look I've averted crisis that by the way I created but then you look at the Chinese for example they have placed retaliatory tariffs on the US and so now this trade war is is happening we're in it because they're not they're not playing playing into his gamesmanship and so his his effort basically to Stave away uh again a crisis of his own making at least as it relates to Canada and Mexico is not going to work with the Chinese that's right that's right well in fact uh you know Elon Musk who's obviously pulling Donald Trump's strings now is completely in bed with the CCP and the Chinese 16:02 government so they're not going to do anything to help people in Taiwan or Hong Kong or the Tibetans they're not going to do anything to challenge the authoritarian autocrats who they emulate they think that there might be some political mileage in having a fake trade war with China but everybody understands the game that's being played this is like uh Orwells 1984 they basically want to seed a sphere of influence to China so China can uh just stomp on the human rights of anybody uh under them and they want to be able to do the same thing here I mean to the to the point of ridiculousness of saying they're going to take over Panama and Greenland uh is States we do need two new states in America but it's not Panama and Greenland it's Puerto Rico and Washington DC that's what we're fighting for all the while by the way with this trade war in effect that means prices are going to go up on Americans because China China China it we import Goods 17:00 ranging from clothing to electronics to to shoes to toys and everything in between from from China and so that's going to have absolutely adverse impacts on everybody in this country thanks to a president by the way whose entire election campaign was predicated on this idea that grocery prices were too high and that's something that he himself admitted that the cost of groceries is why he won this election and his first act uh a as president is to launch a trade War for no reason at all where the consequence of that is that Americans going to be paying more money for all Goods Under the Sun the price of eggs by the way have never been higher in US history yeah I want to end with this uh what can Americans be doing right now I I I get a lot of emails from people saying look I I I understand this is what Democrats are doing in Congress this is what Democrats are doing in the Senate this is what our elected officials are doing but what can we do out here you know we we may not be having women's marches with you know millions of people taking to the streets but there are people agitating at home they're looking for some way to help 18:01 what can they do well first of all we're not having marches of millions of people right now because uh Trump would undoubtedly deploy his private militia of uh pardoned oathkeepers and proud boys and 3centers and violent insurrectionist to come and clash with protesters to claim antifas there and to create Street violence so as to give Trump an excuse for imposing martial law so so uh I think that the forces of opposition which represent a majority of the American people are being far more Nimble and clever than that and there are lots of rallies and demonstrations breaking out all over the country in different ways um in different places but not allowing one to be the focus that they can uh try to go and crack down on but we need to be expressing solidarity that's the watch word solidarity with everybody who's under attack whether it's you know high school kids in the lgbtq uh Community whether it's refugees and 19:02 immigrants who are under attack whether it's federal civil service workers um people who just did their jobs as FBI agents and prosecutors we are defending the whole American constitutional order so um when people say what do we need to do I say what day and what hour are you talking about because we need everybody to be vigilant uh to be awake uh to everything that's taking place because we are witnessing an attempt to replace the American constitutional order but they don't know what they're messing with on their side because every time they attack another institution another Community another person that's one more Ally for us and our forces are growing we get stronger every day well Congressman I appreciate you being in this fight and for taking some time out to talk to me today thanks for everything that you're doing Brian [Music] @charlottesills3723 ... Why is everyone saying democrats need to stop this Elon/Trump shit? All of congress is responsible to stop this! Republicans are responsible for this mess. @Knittwist ... South Korea arrested their guy that tried to do this @arthurscott8583 ... From the UK: You guys are absolute heroes. You and your buddies like AOC and Jasmine Crockett are the only ones standing toe to toe with Trump / Musk defending democracy against these wannabe authoritarian dictators. The next few weeks will be crucial and if the dictators are defeated the victory will be down to you guys. Thank you for your courage, Thank you for your commitment to the Truth. Thank you for your commitment to democracy. We owe you big time.

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