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TRUMP GROWING PUSH-BACK Voice Of Miru: The Rachel Maddow Show 2/6/2025 \| MSNBC BREAKING NEWS TRUMP February 6, 2025 PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWQ-aBpQe04 Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess
The Rachel Maddow Show 2/6/2025 \| MSNBC BREAKING NEWS TRUMP February 6, 2025 Voice Of Miru 26.7K subscribers Feb 5, 2025 UNITED STATES Transcript 0:00 and thanks to you at home for joining us this hour all right uh this was Austin Texas today thousands of people marching through downtown Austin Texas ultimately converging on the state capital today the Austin American statesman reports that it was so loud outside that it was loud inside the Capitol building in the Senate chamber and in Capitol offices they said it was loud enough to be heard despite the fact that all these folks were Outdoors um people who participated in this protest today in Austin Texas said as the March wound its way around the capital and through downtown um people in Austin just started flooding out of the buildings along the route of the March and and joining the March that was Austin this was Olympia Washington today this was Richmond Virginia today this was Trenton New Jersey today this was Columbia South Carolina today 1:01 this was Sacramento look at this this was Sacramento California today look at that this was Phoenix in Arizona which is of course the site of the state capital but Arizona was one of many states today where people didn't only demonstrate at the state capital Arizona also for example had a had a pretty significant protest turnout in in Tucson uh similarly Pennsylvania is a state where where yes people protested at the state capital today in Harrisburg but people also turned out protest in today in Pittsburgh and in Philadelphia in large numbers as well in New York there were protesters today at the state capital in Albany but in New York there were also protesters today in Syracuse and there were also protesters today in large numbers in New York City there were protests today in Lancing Michigan and in Columbus Ohio protests today in Springfield Illinois protests today large protest today in Chicago Illinois people turned turned out to protest today in the snow and bitter cold at the 2:03 state capital in the great state of Maine and people turned out in icy freezing rain at the state capital in Indianapolis there were protests today in Little Rock Arkansas there were protests today in Carson City Nevada protest today in conquered New Hampshire protests today in Salt Lake City Utah protests today in Rhode Island at the Rhode Island state capital building there were protests today at Hartford Connecticut protest today in Baton Rouge Louisiana protest today in mtpar Vermont protest today at Tallahassee the state capital in Florida protests also in Tampa large protests in Tampa protest today in Salem Oregon and protests today in Atlanta Georgia and I could go on but you know what I I I know I missed a bunch but I think you're getting the flavor here there were protests absolutely all over the country today two and a half 3:01 weeks into this new Administration protests against the drr the destruction of the federal government protests against what appears to be the illegal Mass firing of government officials and shutdown of government agencies that they are not by law allowed to shut down RedHot anger at these protests today about the president allowing his top campaign donor to access the sensitive personal and financial and apparently now health related about all American citizens that is held in government computer systems him handing that information over to his top campaign donor apparently without restriction and without regard to law I mean forgive me but whatever genius strategists are telling people who are opposed to Trump oh hold your fire nobody's going to be upset yet you know nobody's going to be upset yet about what they're doing to immigrants and what they're doing to trans people and shutting off foreign aid none of these are popular popular issues 4:02 nobody's going to care about giving the president's top donor all your private information without your consent nobody's going to care about these kinds of things so don't complain yet we'll complain later yeah any any genius armchair strategists giving that kind of advice to the country right now allow me to suggest that they are not in touch with how real people really do feel about what really is just a lawless Blitz Creek in these first two and a half weeks of this new Trump term the protests all over the country in red States and blue States Coast to Coast today these aren't even the first these protests today follow the big protests against immigration arrests and deportations that happened this weekend including protests that shut down a major freeway in Los Angeles they follow this really quite large and quite dramatic no notice impromptu dramatic protest at the US Treasury building uh 5:03 in Washington last night like all these protests were covering in the past few days this came together on on very very short notice I say it was effectively impromptu this protest at treasury was not announced until Sunday night for it to happen less than 48 hours later in Washington at the treasury building by the time it came together last night they're literally were thousands of people and and there were dozens of members of Congress as well shut down theut down theut down theut down the shut down the Senate shut down the Senate crowd shouting there shut down the Senate meaning democrats should use the power that they have in the Senate to shut that down as a means of trying to stop or slow down or at least complicate the worst of what Trump is trying to do and you know maybe that sounds like 6:01 an extreme tactic but even our usually shy major news outlets are starting to run little headlines here and there raising a teeny tiny flag or two that um everything they're doing appears to be quite illegal I mean this was the New York Times And The Washington Post simultaneously today in the times Trump brazenly defies laws in escalating executive power grab in the post US government officials privately warn musk's Blitz appears illegal yeah I don't know how private and and quiet these supposed warnings are at this point they're not even warnings they're just descriptions of what's happening I mean this that same article from The Washington Post quotes an expert saying quote so many of these things are so wildly illegal that I think they're playing a quantity game and assuming the system can't react to all this illegality at once that's not a private warning that there might be some 7:01 illegality coming down the road that's a red alarm that is a red alarm Screaming in the Night everything they're doing is illegal well you know one way to react to that is for the opposition to start shutting down everything they can to try to stop it that has been the message to elected Democrats from many of their constituents this week now tonight Chuck Schumer the Democratic leader in the Senate says that he does want all Democrats to now start doing everything they can to block all Trump nominees he had not previously said that as of today that's what he's saying and he is the leader of the Senate Democrats Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut a progressive who had nevertheless previously voted for a couple of Trump's nominees now Senator Murphy says tonight that that's over telling the times quote it would not help us to be working with Republicans at the very moment the Constitution is being lit on fire this 8:02 moment demands some extraordinary tactics he will not support anybody else who is being nominated to join this Administration the extraordinary tactics he's talking about tonight include this um this is happening right now on the US senate floor and this is going to be a scene that you're going to see all night long because Democrats plan to hold the senate floor all night long tonight to protest the pending confirmation of a trump nominee named Russell vote um that's him he's the guy who wrote project 2025 he's the Trump nominee who masterminded the whole idea of just cutting off Government funding for things that Congress funded even though that's illegal um that of course set the stage for Trump's top donor Elon Musk to personally assert that he has the right to illegally stop payments going out of the US Treasury because he doesn't like them that whole idea came from Russell vote saying the president doesn't have to follow the law about government money 9:06 Senator B Brian Shotz of of Hawaii is is leading this all night long filibuster in the Senate right now and overnight tonight against the confirmation of russle vote Brian Shotz is going to step off the senate floor and join us live here in just a few minutes you will want to see that interview I should tell you the the Senate is already in a Ruckus As Americans are flooding it with calls demanding answers about what Trump is doing and I don't just say that as like a term of I don't just mean that as like the idiomatic way people are you know making calls I mean we've got really specific metrics that show that people really really are making calls look at this from Republican senator Lisa marowski today who said the usual call volume coming into the US Senate is about 40 calls a minute wow sounds like a lot 40 calls a minute H right now it's 1,600 calls a minute she said that in a post apologizing to her constituents that her staff is 10:04 having a hard time getting back to everybody the Associated Press reported today that basically no one's getting through as they are calling Senate offices because the call volume of complaints is so massive the AP further reporting that Republican senators in particular have just had their systems their phone systems completely swamped that's on the Senate side over on the house side it's dramatic there too I don't know if you saw this headline today but the drama on the house side today included this look at this quote two Democratic lawmakers congresswoman Judy Chu of California and Gwen Moore of Wisconsin barged into house Speaker Mike Johnson's office unscheduled today and challenged him about Elon musk's team gaining access to a sensitive payment system at the treasury Department their intrusion comes amid an escalation of democratic backlash against against musks sweep through the Federal government these congresswoman barged in 11:03 quote shortly after treasury secretary Scott bessent arrived at the speaker's office bessent gave members of musk's so-called Department of government efficiency access to the treasury payment system last weekend that system controls trillions of dollars in payments for social security tax refunds and and and Myriad other government functions congresswoman Judy Chu told reporters about how it happened today she said quote Gwen Moore for her way in there and then I got to go in right behind her she said quote and she was already confronting speaker Johnson about treasury secretary bent and the treasury secretary bessent and the stealing of Americans private information tax information that should never be stolen and given to this billionaire Elon Musk Gwen Moore forced her way in there that I got to go in right behind her how rude it's terrible and the push back uh continues to take 12:03 many forms um including some unexpected ones um today we did get a new lawsuit filed by one of the National Labor Relations board members who Trump illegally fired this past week it looks like we're about to get another lawsuit filed by somebody else who Trump illegally fired from the EEOC today another federal judge blocked this sort of wildly brazenly unconstitutional Gambit from Trump's first today to declare the 14th Amendment to the Constitution to be null and void saying it's no longer true that if you're born here you're an American at the end of a a court hearing on this matter this morning this federal judge just ruled right then and there in her Maryland courtroom she said quote Trump's executive order conflicts with the plain language of the 14th Amendment it contradicts 125-year-old binding Supreme Court president and it runs counter to our nation's 250-year history of citizenship by birth the judge said quote no court in 13:02 the country has ever endorsed the president's interpretation this court will not be the first and see tomorrow is the deadline tomorrow midnight for extra drama um is the deadline issued by Trump and his top donor Elon Musk telling millions of federal workers they need to resign their jobs by tomorrow midnight or else there's been pretty incredible organizing around this federal workers essentially warning each other in detail and with receipts that what musk and Trump are offering people to try to get them to resign is actually something it's illegal for them to offer there's now been a major federal lawsuit filed as of today to stop the resign or else threats from being AFF effectuated tomorrow at midnight so that is worth watching over the course of tomorrow to see whether um that essentially is enjoined to stop Trump and Musk from 14:02 from from going through with those resign or else threats to federal workers but I said some of the the push back is happening in in unexpected ways I will say one of the things that happened today happened at the general Services Administration GSA one of musk's guys held a video meeting with um a whole division of employees at the GSA and must guy was telling them at this video meeting this video conference that they really ought to consider this this fork in the road offer that's what they're calling it this fork in the road offer that demands their resignations and threatens them if they don't do it um in this video conference with musk guy the employees there at GSA responded um I don't know am I am I allowed to say they responded beautifully is that okay quote his assurances did not appear to work employees in the division then rained down spoon emojis spoon emojis in 15:06 the chat that accompanied the video meeting which was watched by more than 600 people according to photos of the chat screen provided to the times and three people familiar with the reaction some employees then added spoon emojis to their statuses on slack oh you want us to take your your fork in the road oh you do you think we should take this fork in the road how about Fork you here's a million spoon emojis they think people are just going to roll over and go along with them while they destroyed the government really people weren't going to get mad and also get creative and also Laugh In Your Face fork in the road the one place um that they really have done everything they can to just destroy a part of the government even though it's illegal for them to do so is of course at usaid which does foreign 16:02 aid and there's different arguments about this I think presumably they started there and they went for their most radical action there because they figured that Americans wouldn't care because they figured that this was not going to be an issue that Americans thought was an important thing this is something that you know only only Beltway Elites would care about and and their voters people in the Heartland they definitely wouldn't care because obviously it has nothing to do with them huh how's that working out here's news Channel 12 KWCH in witch talk Kansas the Kansas Farmers Union warns that disruptions to this program could eliminate an entire market for Kansas farmers the initiative sends excess crops like wheat and Sor gum to food insecure regions worldwide it'll certainly be an economic hit uh to Kansas farmers usaid purchases about $2 billion worth of Commodities that are grown not just here in Kansas but across the country every 17:01 year Kansas farmers uh freaking out about this because where do you think American food Aid comes from does it come from Mars no we do not occupy Mars no American food Aid largely comes from a place called America where Americans live the Associated Press has been all over this this week reporting that what Trump and Rubio and musk have done already with this foreign aid Gambit has already stuck literally hundreds of millions of dollars worth of food and medicine that has already been delivered to Ports abroad but it's sitting stuck in ports and it can't be unloaded because nobody knows what these clowns are doing and they tried to do this with a stroke of a pen and no planning that includes American grown food sold to the program by American farmers Kansas Republican senator Jerry Moran among those freaking out about the perishable American grown food that is now sitting there to rot with all the American farmers and contractors who Supply these programs being told how great it is that 18:03 elon's feeding this part of the US government to the wood shipper and shouldn't we all be cheering that at one just one trade Association in the DC area contractors have reportedly racked up $350 million in unpaid bills already just since they stopped the foreign aid the estimated job losses in the United States just to contractors who Supply these specific programs the job loss in the United States is thought to be about 52,000 jobs these are people who are not government employees these are people who work in the private sector right they keep saying oh private sector jobs are the only ones that count if you work for the federal government that's a low productivity job you ought to resign you ought to get out or else well here's 52,000 people who work in the private sector who Trump has just thrown out of a job 52,000 Americans who have contract jobs related to this one agency and its programs which they tried to blow up again just by saying so even 19:06 though it's illegal and even though they rolled it out with zero planning I mean please even if you even if you don't consider like even if you don't consider stuff like this capital city of Uganda right this is not like Back Country this is not like this is a big Cosmopolitan City lots of traffic in and out of it's the capital city of a large country capital city of Uganda kalala is having its first Ebola epidemic in years right now and there is a US team there that is would be leading the response to Ebola so it doesn't spread and among other things come here that Ebola team in Uganda has just been acted with no warning as Uganda is having a brand new Ebola epidemic 20:00 does that seem smart even if you don't consider the fact that one of the teams just asked by Trump and Rubio and musk with no warning is the US team that designs really highly specialized treatment regimes for individual patients who have multi-drug resistant tuberculosis why do you need to do that you need to do that because you don't want multi-drug resistant tuberculosis to overrun the globe right the people who are designing specialized treatment regimes for people with potentially the most dangerous pathogen in the world asked with no warning stop work and by the way you can't even access your email or any of your files do you think that makes the people who actively have multi-drug resistant tuberculosis right now somehow magically stop work on that too I mean even if you don't consider just the deep deep stupidity of cutting 21:01 people in programs like that there's also plainly a political miscalculation here a miscalculation that we the people are also stupid and and we're also mean and we won't get it right and we won't care that's why they went after usaid and foreign aid first they were clearly wrong about that I mean this was the huge basically spontaneous protest that broke out at the usaid building on Monday when Trump ordered the building shut overnight on Sunday night and look at this this was today this was today in the shadow of the US capital in the cold again on zero notice as Americans protested simultaneously in 50 state capitals and cities all over the country yet more people look at this thousands of people turned up today in Washington on zero notice to try to save usaid to stand up for foreign aid and tons of Democratic officials showed up as well make no mistake about it Elon 22:04 musk's effort to dismantle the agency for International Development is a gift to China it's a gift to Russia it's a gift to our adversaries around the world who the hell does musk think he is he has absolutely no right in shutting down us Aid we cannot allow that we've got a take to the streets we've got to take to the rallies we've got to fight back and we must resist every motion every action by musk and Trump to shut down this government in the Congress we must equally resist what is happening we cannot let it go on we must resist we must be in the streets we must take every possible action to stop what is happening don't just show up here they're not choose I with Community Health Center today in Virginia they're 23:01 getting shut down in red parts of the state and blue parts of the state we're only going to break this when we have Republicans willing to stand up as well put the pressure not just on us but on everyone every elected official level that's the only way we're going to win this this is a big day today I mean that was Washington after what I just showed you at the top of what was happening in all 50 states in the country simultaneously oh yeah don't protest now s you know keep your powder dry I think people are plenty mad already they're taking as much ground as they can as fast as they can they're seeing what gets them pushed back you know what gets them pushed back all the things they thought would be easy there's another protest tomorrow against their attack on foreign aid specifically in the HIV programs tomorrow at the state department building at 11:00 a.m. it's all happening at once Samantha power who ran USA ID under President 24:01 Biden she's here next stay with [Music] us this is from the Boston Globe uh 1995 July 1995 quote Serb forces in the conquered un safe area of shanit yesterday completed one of the largest ethnic cleansing operations in the bloody 39-month long War Serbian television showed the genocidal military leader handing out chocolate to children and cigarettes to adults you don't have to be afraid of anything he said as he guided refugees onto buses most of them did not return that reporting was special to the Boston Globe from Bosnia it was filed by a woman named Samantha power reporter at the time she was quite fresh out of college Samantha power got her start as a very young War correspondent in Bosnia witnessing genocide up close ultimately her work in the field included a book called a problem from Hell America in the age of genocide it won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003 Samantha power went on to 25:07 become a foreign policy adviser to a young freshman Senator named Barack Obama when he became president she became his special assistant on human rights and then his ambassador to the United Nations most recently in fact up until just a few weeks ago Samantha power was the head of usaid the agency of the US government that is in charge of overseeing all of the aid and assistance the United States does around the world and that is what the Trump Administration thought would be its loow hanging fruit the first agency they try to just outright destroy even though they have no power under the law to do so I think they thought there would be no push back as Trump put uh all federal flen a and almost all us Aid workers on Ice putting them on leave if not firing them outright as of last night what remained of usaid website has been replaced with just this just a giant Furlow notice for all staff 26:04 at the agency joining us now is Samantha power she is former administrator of usaid uh Madam Ambassador thank you very much for being with us tonight I doubt this is where you want to be spending this evening I really appreciate you making the choice to be here of course thank you for caring about this I know that you're still in touch with a lot of your former colleagues and employees at USA um beyond what we're seeing in the headlines can what else can you tell us to help us understand what's actually happening here um well you can imagine when you suddenly in your inbox find a termination notice or a leave of absence notice that you didn't expect to get on a flawed predicate that you're doing radical leftist insubordination it's pretty jarring and because there's so many lies and falsehood circulating um and so many claims that people are sort of not with the program 27:04 I think people are just completely dislocated there's no stable ground on which to to walk and then of course most of them have been laid off so they're worried about how they're going to pay the bills and how they're going to make rent but maybe the part that is the most striking and for me inspiring if not surprising having worked there for four years is that you know the people who work at USA did not come to work at usaid for the money the civil servants the foreign servants the contractors they came to usaid because they wanted to make a difference in the world because they saw America's interests as tied up with the interests of people vulnerable people uh around the world and so even as they're struggling to figure out how to make rent all of a sudden they're most struggling with the fear that so many millions of people who relied on us as a country on us Aid as an a but on them as 28:00 individuals that those individuals out in the world have no place to turn and indeed they're showing up and finding health clinics shuttered and soup kitchens closed and advisors who were helping governments renegotiate debt with China uh those advisers uh you know now taken off the books so just the wreckage in the world is what the US Aid staff that I'm in touch with are caring with them that's what's keeping them up at night as much as the question of what am I going to do tomorrow and you know how do I take care of my family let me ask you about um that sort of outward-looking um part of this calculation that I think you just alluded to a little bit there even as even as we're focusing on you know the human cost and what's happened to all these careers and what's happened to these individual programs even just trying to because I mean usaid Works in 120 countries it does so many different things I think it's hard to get one picture in your head of what it's done 29:00 but we do when looking outward from the program have a very clear picture that is summed up uh in a New York Times headline tonight um foreign strong men cheer as musk dismantles us Aid agency leaders in Russia Hungary and El Salvador welcome the Trump administration's assault on usaid which many authoritarians have seen as a threat uh We've also of course seen the the the Kremlin cheering Elon Musk at destroying this agency why do authoritarian leaders hate us Aid so much well I think for a couple reasons they don't like democracy they want the United States ultimately to fail and our model to fail and they recognize something that clearly some in the US don't yet recognize which is how vital us Aid is to advancing us interests and American strength resides in the Goodwill we buy but also so our security resides in our ability to squash that Ebola outbreak in Uganda to make sure 30:04 that those flights that come from kalala uh don't contain people with Ebola who bring that disease elsewhere so they root against America they root against democracy therefore they root against USA and are thrilled that it's the United States government itself that is taking this agency uh off the field but the other reason they're cheering is that USA does really important democracy work really important anti-corruption work supporting independent journalists training them to make sure that they can go out and about and cast sunlight on what is going on uh in those countries so a lot of the elections for example that Maduro stole or that Putin rigged the documentation of that happens because Brave Venezuelans or Russians are out there willing to document that and and some of that training you know over the years has come uh from the United States and specifically from USA so democracy programming is a small part of the overall Enterprise of development and 31:06 humanitarian response but it's one that definitely gets under the skin of the dictators it does feel like um the firings and putting people in a in on leave in a mass way um does appear to be um pretty blatantly illegal um and in violation of all sorts of legal protections that people have who work for agencies like usaid and other parts of the US government um it also seems like the overall effort to shutter the agency to fundamentally um turn it into something else to move it independ to Move It from being an independent agency inside the state department to get rid of it just appears to be pretty pretty blatantly against the law we know that a new lawsuit has been filed um essentially to challenge that element of what the administration is trying to do as those legal fights get under way though for the individual people in the agency and for the efforts to attack the agency itself are you heartened at all do you think it matters that people are 32:05 standing up for usaid and foreign aid and turning up at demonstrations um and and making a thinkk about it not only in Washington but all around the country I think it matters ma massively I mean as you said I think in your introduction you know the calculated bet here was that this was for foreigners um and again the people who are trying to destroy the agency aren't people who know anything about what USA does they don't know that we deliver magical peanut paste made in rural Georgia that Georgian Farmers care passionately about being part of providing this paste to severely malnourished kids in subsaharan Africa that they take pride in bringing those kids basically Back to Life by virtue of of providing the so-call ready to use therapeutic food um they don't know these people who are trying to 33:00 destroy us Aid how essential uh the investments in the economies overseas have been to us companies ability to find markets they don't know that American farmers that USA buys about2 billion dollar worth of farm Commodities from American farmers they're starting to learn about it uh because you're seeing even red state senators speaking up on behalf of their Farmers so uh there is a lot of of misinformation it's all misinformation about what USA does about the line share of the Investments that we make overseas about who we're helping um and so it's not just about the activation that we're seeing happening uh in the Congress and all around the country is about bringing forward these truths about who we are who we are as a nation and why from the American people these Investments are made because that is USA's slogan it's not USA the government that these Investments come from uh the people and they make that difference and that's hearts and Minds when we go and seek to 34:06 open up a market for us company it matters that we have bought that kind of Goodwill by virtue of the lives that have been saved and affected but it also matters for US security and I think there's just not a fundamental uh appreciation of that it matters in the strategic competition with the PRC with China there's not an appreciation of that again by the individuals who are taking out this agency but the truth is on the side of the agency the facts for the American people for the American economy for those jobs that are going to be lost and can now uh be saved if people activate and particularly if Republicans join with Democrats in speaking up on behalf of efforts that have had so much bipartisan support for so many decades Ambassador Samantha power um who until recently was the administrator of usad um really really appreciate you being here thank you for your time tonight I know is a profoundly difficult time thanks for being here thank you Rachel all right much 35:03 more news ahead stay with us this is the ability for the executive branch to literally seize power Storm Into the offices of an agency that they hate and shut it down operationally that's not our system of government and that's why we're going to be fighting all night about this issue Democrats have been holding the floor on the US Senate all day today they started at 2:17 p.m. eastern time uh this is a live look at the senate floor right now where Virginia senator Tim Kane is taking his term at the podium but it has been all day they have not given up the floor you heard Senator Brian shots of Hawaii say there at the top that they're going to be fighting all night about this issue the issue is they defining it is a guy named Russell vote who's Trump's nominee for White House budget director vote is the uh chief propos opponent of the theory that Donald Trump can essentially eliminate congress's role in the US government and defund 36:04 anything they say to do on his own say so even though that's not how the US government works well tonight Democrats are using the rules of the Senate they're using the rights of the Senate minority to take up as much time as they humanly can to slow down votes nomination as much as they possibly can the other point of what they're doing here of course is to draw the American people's attention to how radical this nominee is and why he should not be confirmed and why what he proposes as our new form of US government would not be the democracy and the and the tripartite split system of government that makes us who we are the first Democratic senator to announce he would really throw his body into the gears of the government like this was Senator Brian Shotz of Hawaii earlier this week he said he would block all state department nominations until Trump reversed his act on reversed his attack on us humanitarian Aid um now tonight right now individual other 37:03 Senate Democrats have followed that strategy Senator Chuck Schumer is suggesting to Democrats that they should be taking that strategy broadly with all Trump nominees and tonight holding the senate floor uh they're really taking this strategy with shots first announced and and and running with it as far as they possibly can joining us now from the Senate is Senator Brian Shotz Democrat of Hawaii Senator Shotz I appreciate you stepping off the the floor and being with us I know it's been a long day and it's going to be a long night thanks Rachel for covering this I appreciate it let me ask how you and your colleagues are are holding up and and um what what ultimately you think will be the the result of holding this floor all evening tonight well we're fine there's going to be 37 of us talking we will not relinquish the floor for 30 hours uh until the final vote on uh Mr Russ vote and you've said it exactly right Russ vote is an unusual Office of Management and budget nominee this is a job you shouldn't know the name of the person running the OM but he is the he is actually one of the authors 38:03 of a project 2025 and he has a very specific view of om he basically thinks the OM director should be the king's hand and uh represent the president in all things throughout the government legislative executive branch wherever he was the architect of the federal funding freeze that happened last week where Medicaid portals were shut down where Head Start was shut down where construction projects uh were shut down and he's got a lot more ideas for the American people and none of them are good he also basically views laws as optional we pass an Appropriations Bill and then he thinks that he gets to just say well Donald Trump doesn't like it so we're going to shut shutter that agency look if you don't like a a particular part of the federal government there is a way to change the federal government and it's through your elected representatives in Congress and I don't mean to be so fussy about these kinds of things but this is the American system of democracy so there's two problems with Russ vote one is that what he proposes to do and what they have already done is illegal uh and 39:06 the other is that what they are doing is already harming people across the country the first part of that the illegal part of that I think is sticking in everybody's craw because it used to be when credible people who know the law pointed out that something is illegal it was part of a sentence in which you were saying you can't do that because it's illegal what we're seeing over and over again in this second Trump term particularly from ideas that sprung from the brain of people like Russ f is that they are doing things that seem plainly illegal and yet they are still doing them um I think the frustration and the exasperation of the American people on that front is that I think we all thought that the law would stop them would sort of enjoin them from doing things that are against the law how should we understand that that tension that that lack of um what's allowed them to do this stuff that feels so Lawless 40:02 be angry uh but don't give up because what they want you to believe is that the law doesn't apply to them now it's true that if they flood the zone and and um and violate the law in multiple areas it actually takes time for the court system to stop them but last week there was a uh an injunction that was made final this week against the spending freeze they also rejected the um United States government's stupid argument about Birthright citizenship so one of the things that we need to do is not concede that this President and this president only is unconstrained by the law he's going to try to violate the law in multiple places but we have to not concede the point that when he writes an EO saying for instance I'm going to get rid of the Department of Education or the Bureau of Indian education or the usaid department like he can't do that he may be able to do tons of damage in the meantime but event uh most if not all of these things will be overturned in a court of law and they've got to follow it it's also true and you know this Rachel that the courts 41:05 are tilted in Donald Trump's favor but that's when it's a relatively close call when there is a clear statute that they're violating uh even conservative judges and justices have um batted them down so we need to be furious we need to be alarmed but we need not to be despondent and act as if this person has already been installed as a monarch uh we've got a fight we've got to be vigilant we've got to understand what happened in places like bellus and elsewhere uh and Turkey um but we cannot give up it's way too early to give up and one of the things that gives me the most hope over the last week is that people are starting to show up in three dimensions at the treasury building across uh the state of Hawaii across the country um it's not the resistance it's not going to be pink hats again it's not going to be the same Vibe but there is a citizen movement now to take our country back and once we're starting to see each other were starting to think okay it's going to take people in the legislative branch fighting it's going to take smarter political operatives it's going to take people in the media it's going 42:05 to take people in the Civil Service refusing to obey illegal orders and it's going to take citizens everywhere supporting all of those efforts well your Fury and your alarm on this uh LED you um to say that Democrats needed to be doing more than they were already doing they need to be taking more Extreme Measures you have been pushing your own party to take the kind of steps that you're taking tonight with leading this effort in the Senate um and for that you unfortunately are going to be cursed with lots more invitations to be on cable news so um say yes more often Senator we need you at times like this thank you for being here tonight thank you all right Senator Brian Shotz Democrat of Hawaii again Democrats holding the floor tonight as we speak they're planning on doing so around the clock overnight to try to fight back as hard as they can to try to make it as annoying as possible and as slow as possible to Russell vote confirmed as the budget director this is happening 43:00 right now live in the senate in Washington DC stay with us one of the neat things Donald Trump did to kick off his second term as president is he named an interim us attorney a leite prosecutor in Washington who had been a defense attorney for January 6th riers well we now know that one of the first things he did in his first full day on the job is that he told a US federal court to drop charges against a January 6th ryer who had been his client from Reuters today quote lawyers generally are prohibited from taking both sides in the same case and Us justice department regulations require lawyers to step aside from cases involving their former clients for at least a year that did not stop Ed Martin the interim us attorney for DC from attaching his name to the federal government's request to end its case against one of his own clients who took part in the January 6th attack lawyers are generally prohibited from taking both sides in the same case yeah you think this is like have you heard the phrase conflict of interest this is like 44:03 this is not even the children's Brook definition this is one of those super early reader board books the kind you can also chew on right I mean oh conflict of interest right I know we're not paying attention to things being totally illegal anymore but literally a kindergartener could understand what is wrong with this a lawyer can't take both sides of the same case if you were involved as the defense lawyer in a case and now work for the justice department that is a case you're not allowed to work on Ed Reuters notes that state rules in Missouri where Ed Martin is licensed ban government lawyers from handling cases involving their clients without written consent nevertheless a quote private spokesperson for Ed Martin said he's in complete compliance with the requirements for his position oh I'm sure I'm sure I'm sure that clears it up anyway congratulations Pam Bondi on your F first full day as Attorney General of the United States how about this as a little problem to clean up how about 45:06 this is a little problem right there at home right there in DC I'll be right back did cash Patel have prior knowledge of FBI firings his response not that I recall as cash Patel moves closer to potentially becoming the next FBI director scrutiny over his past statements and his stance on recent high-profile FBI firings has intensified during his confirmation hearing last week senators from both parties questioned Patel extensively particularly regarding his views on the 2020 election the events of January 6 and perhaps most crucially his awareness of the wave of personnel dismissals within the FBI since president Donald Trump's return to office following the hearing Patel received a series of follow-up questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee known as questions for the record qfs these written inquiries obtained by 46:04 MSNBC span a staggering 174 pages and reflect concerns from at least a dozen committee members according to a source familiar with the nomination process Patel submitted His official responses on Monday Patel denies involvement in FBI dismissals a recurring theme throughout Patel's responses is his repeated denial of any involvement in or for knowledge of the recent terminations within the FBI in multiple instances when asked whether he had any discussions about the removal of FBI officials either before or after Trump's inauguration Patel consistently responded with a variation of not that I recall for example when asked whether he had spoken with anyone from the Trump transition team or the current Administration about demotions or dismissals of officials who remain in the FBI after Trump took office Patel 47:00 maintained that he had no recollection of such conversations similarly he claimed he had no prior knowledge that scores of senior FBI officials and rank and file agents working on cases related to Trump and January 6th had been told to resign or face termination his response was the same when questioned about potential Personnel changes related to investigations into Trump's actions despite Patel's denials Democratic senators remain skeptical Senator Dick Durban the Judiciary committee's ranking Democrat has press Patel for more concrete answers in a letter sent to Patel on February 3rd Durban and other committee Democrats urged him to provide documentation of any Communications he had with the Trump transition team the White House or Department of Justice officials regarding FBI Personnel changes this request specifically sought records on the remov removal resignation or reassignment of career civil servants within the doj including those working on politically sensitive cases like the 48:04 January 6 prosecutions and the marago classified documents investigation pattern of vague responses throughout the qfs Patel continued to rely on vague non-committal language his repeated use of not that I recall extended to a variety of critical topics including whether Trump or any senior White House official had suggested or implied that Patel the FBI or the doj should initiate investigations into specific individuals including those labeled as part of the executive branch deep state in Patel's 2023 book government gangsters Patel insisted that President Trump would not do that or whether he had recommended revoking security clearances for any government officials whether he had discussed utilizing the FBI to investigate members of the Biden Administration Congress or journalists while Patel remained vague on most matters his responses were more direct 49:01 on certain issues when asked if he was aware of any plans to remove FBI agents involved in Trump related investigations Patel outright denied such knowledge however he did acknowledge discussing the recent firing of at least six senior FBI officials with members of the Trump transition team but only he claimed for the purpose of formulating responses to the qfs connections to to Trump media and questions about financial ties another area of concern for lawmakers is Patel's Financial relationship with Trump media and Technology Group tmtg the parent company of Truth social Patel asserted that he had never accepted compensation for serving on tmg's board and therefore had no Financial stake in the company from which he could devest however he did reveal that last month the tmtg board offered him an other members a monetary award and shares as compensation for 50:01 past Services Patel claimed he rejected this offer to avoid any perception of a conflict of interest the maralago investigation and Patel's role one of the most pressing topics of Patel's confirmation hearing was his involvement in Trump's handling of classified documents at maralago in November 2022 Patel testified before a grand jury as part of special Council Jack Smith's investigation into the matter however during his confirmation hearing he largely refused to discuss the substance of his testimony citing legal constraints in his written responses Patel acknowledged that grand jury Witnesses are generally free to disclose their own testimony however he argued that the testimony remains under a court sealing order and that given ongoing litigation regarding the maralago case he did not believe I have unilateral authority to authorize release of or 51:01 share any underlying testimony Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee have since asked acting Attorney General James McKenry to provide them with any portions of Smith's final report that referenced Patel's testimony the deadline for mchenry's response was February 10th but as of now no reply has been provided what happens next under Senate rules the Judiciary Committee cannot hold a vote on Patel's nomination until February 13th however the nomination has already been listed on the agenda for an executive business meeting scheduled for February 6th suggesting that discussions about Patel's future are already underway while Patel's responses to Senator questions provide little in the way of definitive answers they have only fueled further skepticism about his role in recent FBI firings his ties to Trump's Inner Circle and his stance on politically charged investigations whether his confirmation will move forward remains uncertain but one is clear his nomination continues to be a major point of contention on Capitol Hill

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