Republicans get REVENGE on Trump amid primary ousters

23:28Brian Tyler Cohen:Renee Good and Alex Preddy, is there some concern that the federal government might try and Bigfoot you guys at the state level so that they can take over the prosecution and then, of course, just basically seek to dismiss it. Just basically. Yeah. I mean, they're very much in the same way that they did for for Eric Adams in New York, where they have I mean, they can you know, they wanted to be able to wield him as as a tool at the at the local level. But ultimately, their goal was never to prosecute him. Well, what you're saying, I mean, I had no role in the Kyle Rittenauer case. But when I watch it, I look at a prosecutor who doesn't seem very motivated to get a conviction.

24:06So, I mean, if you're thinking that, you know, we're going to take the case and then not really prosecute the case, you know, there is that that could happen. But the state has an independent and separate right to prosecute this case all on its own. So we would never do what Trump does and engage in vindictive prosecution. I think that's morally wrong. But we certainly would charge out a case where the facts of the matter violate the law and hold those people accountable. And they can't stop us from doing that. The reason that we haven't charged the case out isn't because they they can stop us.

24:44It's because they have withheld the file. And, you know, I tell you, Brian, I used to be a criminal defense lawyer for 16 years. And if I was a criminal defense lawyer, first thing I'd say is, where's the file? They didn't have the whole file. You know, so I think there's probable cause in both pretty and good to charge the case. I just think that we should try to do all we can to get the file. You may know we have filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security because they have a final agency action denying us access and there's no legal basis for them to do so. So that matter is being litigated in the civil context to make them give us the documents and materials that we're entitled to to complete our investigation.

25:36Brian Tyler Cohen:There was reports of some federal prosecutors who had left the DOJ as the result of how the DOJ was comporting itself with these ICE agents and so on. And are any of those folks working alongside you all at the state level, given the fact that, you know, if the DOJ isn't going to do it, at least there are prosecutors, good prosecutors who are willing to do this work at the Minnesota state level? Well, I'll tell you, man, I think I hired maybe about four or five of them. OK. You know, we have a bunch of feds who have former feds who are working here and are doing really good work. Yeah. And, you know, quite honestly, man, you know, as I told you, Brian, I used to be a criminal defense lawyer.

26:14Now I'm a prosecutor. I've done various roles in the criminal justice system. And what I learned over time is that a ethical, good, conscientious prosecutor is actually really a joy to work with because they'll dismiss cases that ought to be dismissed. They'll charge what they can prove. They'll ask for the proper amount of time or whatever the sentence should be. And you understand that you're going to have to argue with them because the defense counsel, you have a duty of zealous representation of your client. But you don't feel that there's something underhanded or bad going on. And the content, you know, so these these folks had they felt that a moral imperative.

26:59and they said, we cannot square working at this and under this justice department with our conscience. And so they quit. And I think that's what ethical people do.

27:09Brian Tyler Cohen:I mean, that's the reason that they're not in the DOJ because you can see by the way the DOJ has comported itself over the last year and a half, that their allegiance is to Donald Trump. It's not to the law, it's not to the constitution. Right, I mean, they're there expressly because they're gonna be loyal to him and do his bidding. That's why there are prosecutors like Lindsey Halligan and Alina Habba who can stay in these positions as long as long as they can before they're rightly thrown out. But like but these people, their allegiance is to is to Trump and his and, you know, his prosecuting his political opponents.

27:45Brian Tyler Cohen:And that's true. So let me say, Brian, you know, there were people in the Minnesota U.S. Attorney's Office who were told, no, you're not going to investigate and prosecute the people who killed Renee Good. You are going to investigate and potentially prosecute her wife who was on scene. Yeah. And they said, where do I where do I submit my resignation? Yeah, there were over 14 of them who fit in, fell into that category, maybe more now. I haven't been keeping track, but it began, you began to wonder who's there. Right. Well, for a while, they got a bunch of judge, judge, advocate general people to just try to fill in.

28:32But, you know, Jags have their own jobs to do, you know, so you want to drop them into here and use their obligation to follow your orders to do their do the work. But they've never done before and probably haven't done the same way. So that's what they were dealing with. That's why under Operation Metro Surge, you had all these habeas corpus petitions that were not being addressed. And there were cases that were actually dismissed because they got rid of all the good people. They brought in some replacements and then the real cases started piling up. And then you got up against the due process, the right to speedy trial right.

29:17And there had to be some cases dismissed. So they're actually Trump's making us less safe.

29:23Brian Tyler Cohen:Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm glad that y 'all are working, not only not allowing the federal government to dictate who gets to be above the law by allowing these ICE agents to commit criminal acts with impunity that you're taking this on, But also that you've got prosecutors who weren't willing to allow that, you know, to allow themselves to be run roughshod over by staying at the DOJ. With with the last couple of minutes that we have left, I wanted to ask one question on a different topic entirely, and that is the topic of redistricting. So can you give a lay of the land of and I should let folks know that that Minnesota's congressional map is for for Republican and Democrat.

29:59Brian Tyler Cohen:It's a pretty blue state. You know, I've been on a tear about redistricting since we've seen what the Republicans are doing in state after state after state across the country, be it from Texas to Ohio, Missouri, North Carolina, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama. And what Democrats have to show to push back is like California. And that's it. Right. And so can you talk about what the process would look like for redrawing the maps in Minnesota and the appetite for redrawing the maps in Minnesota? Obviously too late for 2026, but moving forward. Well, you know, there's a strong sense of basic fairness in Minnesota.

30:38There's a strong sense that if you want people to vote for you, you don't redraw the map. You go talk to them and sell them on the program that you're going to govern on. And so it's nothing that we want to rush into. But we have seriously considered it because of what Trump is doing in Texas and in other places.

31:00Brian Tyler Cohen:Yeah. And it's deeply, deeply disturbing. And so I think that we're going to pick up some some seats in Minnesota without changing the map at all. But, you know, to answer your question, it's something that we would entertain, but we're 50-50 in the statehouse and we have a slight majority in the Senate. So we're really not in a position to do it. But would we do it? I mean, as long as Trump is pushing Texas and Tennessee to cheat, what other choice do we have? My hope would be we would have independent redistricting every state of the union. We don't need an unfair advantage, but we're not going to sit by and let them have an unfair advantage.

31:47Brian Tyler Cohen:Yeah. So I think I think pushing back against this idea that the Republicans, that the Democrats will unilaterally disarm, I think, is the right. No way. No, I mean, but at the same time, Democrats want to play by the rules and be fair, but they don't. So what do we do? Just sit back and take it on the chin? Absolutely not. Perfectly put. We'll leave it there. Attorney General Ellison, thank you so much for taking the time. You have a good one, Brian. Stay in touch. No Lie is brought to you by Ethos. So I don't really talk about my personal life at all, but I lost a family member that I was particularly close with a couple of years back.

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32:57Brian Tyler Cohen:So take 10 minutes to get covered today with life insurance through Ethos. Go get your free quote at ethos.com slash BTC. That's E-T-H-O-S dot com slash BTC. Application times may vary. Rates may vary. I'm joined now by candidate for governor of California, Tom Steyer. Thanks so much for joining me. Brian, thank you for having me. So I want to start off with a little bit of national news before we get into California specific news. But we just found out that Donald Trump has been so gracious as to drop his$10 billion lawsuit against his own federal government and instead offer up a compromise, a generous compromise where he only pillaged U.S.

33:37Brian Tyler Cohen:taxpayers to the tune of$1.7 billion so that he could pay January 6th insurrectionists. So before we get into the California stuff, can I have your reaction to this latest move by Trump? I mean, Trump's a criminal. You know, I got 8 million signatures to impeach him in 2017 and 2018 because I've been in enough boardrooms to know a crook. He's a crook. This is a crooked, completely illegal thing to do. And it's completely consistent with his behavior throughout his first and second terms. But in the second terms, his grifting has moved to a completely different level. But it's consistent and it's completely illegal.

34:16And this is the idea of granting himself$1.7 billion of taxpayers' money. You know, it's a new level, but he's only going to get worse, honestly, Brian. And so, you know, yeah, this is completely wrong.

34:31Brian Tyler Cohen:So a lot of people are going to look at Trump and look at the fact that the way that he branded himself was as a wealthy businessman who would use the tricks that he learned to, I think his exact words, to be greedy for the nation instead of being greedy for himself. You know, a lot of your success is the fact that you are a wealthy businessman. And so for people who see that and say, well, that's a cautionary tale then, what would your reaction to those people be? Look, I started a business from scratch. He inherited$450 million from his poppy. I've said I started a business and walked away from it and left billions of dollars on the table.

35:09And my wife and I have said, we're giving the money away while we're alive. He keeps stealing money. He's not a business person. and he's a thief. That's a different thing, Brian. If you look at, he's one of the people who went, I think he went bankrupt four times in casinos. How do you do that? You're the house. It's like, that's a math problem. So to a very large extent, look, he is someone who has consistently been a crook. He continues to be a crook. I've never been a crook. I built a business and said, I care about other things much more and we're going to use the money to push progressive causes and protect working people and protect the natural world.

35:54You know, he also has two ears and two eyes, but that doesn't make us the same person either.

36:01Brian Tyler Cohen:Yeah. All right. So I want to go into a few of the priorities that I have in California. But before we do that, I want to give you the opportunity to let me know what your priorities are in California as you run this campaign. Look, I've been very clear about this. Biggest problem in California is people can't afford to live in California anymore. So it's about, you know, the buzzword is affordability, but it's really about costs at the end of the month. And that starts with housing. It goes to healthcare. It goes to electricity rates. It goes to how much we're paying at the pump. And it goes to food.

36:34And in every one of those, I have a specific policy solution. Many of them involve taking on corporate special interests that are driving up the costs and are feasting off Californians misery. And I've also said, I'm the person in this race and the only person who will admit to be wanting to tax billionaires like me more, tax close corporate tax loopholes and get the money to working people and basically have a system. We're, you know, we're the richest state and the richest country in the world and we have the highest poverty rate in the United States of America. That doesn't seem like success to me.

37:17Brian Tyler Cohen:So what does success look like at the end of your first four year term? Well, if you if you had some benchmarks that you could point to, and I've asked this question to mayoral candidates, for example, as it relates to homelessness. And I've heard Nithya Raman tell me that, you know, she wants to see 50 % reduction in homelessness in LA by the time the Olympics rolls around, 100 % reduction in those encampments by the end of her first term. And so she was able to offer up some concrete examples, viability notwithstanding. What would some metrics be for you that you would point to as success? Long term, the way we're going to drive down housing costs, both rent and homeownership, is by producing houses much more inexpensively.

38:00We have five points on this. I don't want to, I don't think we have enough time, but I'll say this. We're going to build a million houses. We're going to make it possible for people to buy a house and to afford rent. I've been saying we're going to create local competition for the electric monopolies that dominate this state and charge us twice as much as the rest of the United States. And we're going to drive down the cost by 25%. That's a metric. We are going to close a corporate tax loophole and use the money parked for healthcare to fill in the hole from HR1, Mr. Trump's throwing people off Medi-Cal and partly for education.

38:36And we're going to use that education money to hire, train and support fantastic teachers so that our kids get better outcomes. And we're going to go back to being a top 10 education state. You know, those are three things right off the bat that to me, I could keep going. Honestly, I'm for single payer healthcare. You should, you know, I'm sitting here, think of all the things like we're for single payer health care. We have by far, Brian, our campaign and our website has by far the most and the most detailed policy prescriptions of how to change California. And we're not shy about it. And many of them involve structural change and change to the control that corporate special interests have.

39:19And that's why corporate special interests are spending tens of millions of dollars against me. And that's why billionaires are supporting everybody in this race but me, because they know that I'm the only person here who's really for structural change, for working people to make this state affordable and, you know, to sort of rebuild, rejuvenate, make real the California dream, great public education, house you can afford to buy.

39:42Brian Tyler Cohen:In terms of building up housing and especially, you know, this metric hitting one million houses built. To what extent does, as we head toward the 2020, the 2030 census and the prospect of California losing electoral votes and not just losing them, but losing them to a state like Texas or Idaho, for example, to what extent is that important as well in all of this to make sure that California retains kind of its stature as a state that has 54 electoral votes and therefore has such an outsized impact in the presidential election? Well, what I'm really interested in, Brian, is for Californians' lives to be materially improved by their government.

40:28And I believe that if we create the society I'm describing, which is so much more positive for people that reinvigorates the idea of California and the California dream and that we have a different vision for the 21st century, everybody around the country and everybody around the world is going to go, you know what? I want that. I want a successful society that has free healthcare, great schools, you know, basically an incredibly beautiful place and as diverse as possibly could be imagined. I want that because that's the way you're supposed to be living in the 21st century. And I think that the job is to make sure that happens and everything else will follow.

41:11Brian Tyler Cohen:So one of the points of criticism that folks have of California is the fact that it's exceedingly difficult to build infrastructure here, not just housing. But we obviously have this train that was supposed to go from Los Angeles to San Francisco. What we ended up with was a train that went from the bustling metropolises of Merced to Bakersfield. And even then, we don't have anything running right now. And so can you diagnose the issue that prevents us from being able to build basic infrastructure? I mean, I don't know the exact statistic, but I mean, if you look at what China was able to build in the time and with the amount of money that we are trying to build a train from one city to another city, it would I mean, it just, you know, it's just the right.

42:00Brian Tyler Cohen:And so and so can you can you diagnose the issue here? And then how would something like that be solved so that we can actually build again? If you look at high-speed rail, which is the example you're using in which everybody feels so embarrassed and upset about, and me too, as you said, we started with the wrong strategy. A rail system needs to have uses. You need to have people who want to ride the rail system that can make it pay for itself. And so, as you said, we started in a place because that's where the federal government was willing to give us money. We knew it was a mistake, but we made the mistake because we thought, first, we'll get this done, and then we'll do the one we want to do.

42:42Huge mistake. Secondly, the perfect is the enemy of the good. You know, we are trying to do everything so perfectly, you know, that we can't get anything done. And so there's been massive overthinking and consultants and, you know, rethinking and all this stuff, spending billions of dollars, not on building a railroad, but on thinking about building a railroad. And so I think we, you know, I've talked to those guys and I'm a huge believer in public transportation is critical for California. But it's like, no, no, don't come to me with some plan that doesn't make sense. That just is not going to work.

43:18You know, we are going to have to be results oriented in this. And literally, you know, we're going to have to be hard knows that this has got to be done on a reasonable basis and we're going to have to do it fast. And the longer it takes, the worse it is. And if we're not going to be efficient about it, that's not going to happen. But there is clearly a gigantic need for public transportation in the state of California. And I'm a gigantic believer in that. And I'm also going to be really, you know, it's exactly like building houses. Like we have a five point plan on how to build houses in California, much cheaper.

43:52And it involves finance, how we do construction, how we get along with cities and counties, as well as what everybody else talks about, which is permitting and zoning.

44:03Brian Tyler Cohen:Yep. So in terms of another industry that obviously I have been following closely along with, and that is the entertainment industry, can you talk a little bit about what your plan would be to bring these jobs back to California? Because this was, you know, especially where I am in Los Angeles. This was, I mean, what this whole town was based off of. And in the 15 years that I've been here, I have watched the industry kind of crumble to the point where I have numerous friends who have not only left this state, but also this country in seeking work elsewhere. I have friends who've moved to the UK to follow the jobs.

44:40Brian Tyler Cohen:I have friends that moved to Canada to follow those jobs. Toronto and Vancouver have bustling film industries. And of course, everybody knows about the fact that we have Atlanta, New Jersey, New Orleans, New Mexico, New York, all of whom have taken jobs. New Zealand, Australia, England, Saudi Arabia. So what would the plan be to bring those jobs back to this state? So first, I want to start by echoing what you said, Brian. LA invented the film business and entertainment business. The greatest group of people to work on this industry exists in Los Angeles. It's the best ecosystem by far in the world.

45:20And so I'm on Team California. I'm 100 % behind this industry, the people in this industry. So let's start. I want to get to that, but I want to start by saying this. I'm completely opposed to the mergers in this industry. From an anti-competitive standpoint, basic antitrust law, not even close, not even close, huge job destroyer, obviously done so that Donald Trump could hand major information businesses, you know, CNN, to another right-wing crony so they could control the information in our industry. You know, the rule for a dictator is you have to do two things. You have to own the army and you have to own the TV station.

46:06He's in effect trying to own the TV station in the United States of America, controlling the information industry. It's a terrible decision. I think we should be fighting it every single way we can. I also believe that we cannot allow other people to buy our business. That's all they're really doing. They're giving tax credits at a much higher level so that they can buy our business with money so that we'll go to Canada. So we'll go to New Zealand or Australia. So we'll go to Hungary and we cannot allow them to do that. So that means we have to fight fire with fire. And let me say this, the way that I see those tax credits is they return$1.14 to California for every dollar that goes in.

46:49So I don't look at it as a cost. I look at it as an investment. And I said, I'm on Team California. And so I want to make sure that there are no regulations that stop us from shooting here, particularly small productions that are unnecessary and expensive. That's the other thing I definitely want to do. I want to make sure that we invest in apprenticeship programs so that we can continue to build the greatest ecosystem. I'm for public art funding. And I want to say the last thing is this. It's not fair that AI can take the creativity and the output of people in this industry, steal it and not compensate.

47:28That's absolutely wrong. So let me be clear. I will state again, I'm competitive. I don't know if you know that, Brian. I may seem like a low-key friendly guy. underneath that genial service, I'm really competitive. And I am on Team California. And I refuse to have the greatest industry in the world be looted by foreign countries with money, not talent, and take advantage of the people here, the tens of thousands of talented professionals in and around Los Angeles by their putting up tax credits. And the other thing I want to say is this. I'm talking about dropping the cost of housing. I'm talking about dropping the cost of healthcare.

48:10That is another critical long-term way to make sure that the film and entertainment business can compete around the world based on talent. And so to a very large extent, everything I'm talking about, I want to make sure in the short run, we keep this business, that we keep this ecosystem, that we keep your friends, incredibly talented friends from going to England or British Columbia. And I want to make sure in the long run, we drive down costs so that in fact, we're on even footing with those people. And if it's about the talent, we'd win. And we have to make sure it's about the talent.

48:41Brian Tyler Cohen:Recognizing that for every dollar spent, we get$1.14 back and that the more money we put into this, the more money we get out. And it's not just money. It's making sure that people's livelihoods are protected, making sure that our tourism industry is thriving. It's helping all of those people from transportation to craft services, to producers, editors, PAs, you name it. I mean, the whole industry isn't just Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and George Clooney. It is the millions of people who are who are doing work behind the camera, doing work in the offices, making sure that this whole industry can sustain itself, recognizing that all of those things exist and that we actually garner more money from investing more through these tax credits.

49:24Brian Tyler Cohen:Would you be in favor of an uncapped tax credit? So I don't have a limit on it, Brian, but I want to make sure that we are doing this in a careful way that we're controlling and not just going hog wild on. So I don't have a limit on it, but I do have a desire. Explain to me how, like, how does that work in practice? I think what it means is that people apply for tax credits and, you know, it's not just, you know, you say I'm a film producer, I need money. And so it's got to be a credible production. But I think that's completely the way it works now. You've got to be a credible production to get tax credits, and that should continue to be true.

50:08And we should have people from the industry who know what they're talking about opining on that to make sure that, in fact, we're pushing stuff that really can succeed. I know this is a hits business, and I know, if you can believe it, when I was at Fairlawn, we were the biggest financiers of independent films in the world. Yeah. So I'm I know sometimes these things happen and sometimes they don't happen. But I also know that there is something about understanding this business. It's not just the crapshoot. It's a lot more than that.

50:38Brian Tyler Cohen:Last question here. As folks are trying to figure out who to vote for, I'm sure there's a lot of people who are undecided between you and Javier Becerra. And so for folks who are Democrats who are looking to vote for one of the Democratic candidates, why should they vote for you over your opponent? Well, let me put it this way. The oil companies are spending millions of dollars against me. They have maxed out to Javier Becerra. He has said we need more oil drilling in the state. He has said they're not bad guys and that we need Chevron. He has no environmental policy to speak of. In terms of single payer, I've said we are going to push as hard as possible for single payer on day one, starting day one.

51:22No questions. And as a result, the nurses support me. he has said behind closed doors, we're not gonna go for single payer. And the biggest lobby against single payer maxed out to him and endorsed him the next day. And he got$120 ,000 yesterday from the health insurers, which is the opposite of single payer, yesterday. At the same time, he's saying, oh, I'm for single payer. So the truth is, it's not just what I say I'm gonna do. Follow the money and the endorsements. I say I'm gonna make the schools better and the teachers and the school employees and the educators are all endorsing me. I don't know what he's saying, but the big oil companies are supporting him.

52:05The health insurers are supporting him. The electric monopolies. Look, this is a question of I'm trying to change things that I'm willing to take on the corporate special interests. He's paid for by the corporate special interests. So to me, if you think everything's fine and you want more of the same, that's what he's offering. I'm offering a change. I'm the only person offering a real change. I'm the only person willing to take on the big money interest in the state of California to say, working people, this game is rigged against you. We need to unread.

52:39Brian Tyler Cohen:For folks who are looking to help your campaign, where can they go? Tomsteyer.com. Look, the biggest thing people can do at this point, if you support me, is to tell your friends, is to support me online, is to go out and spread the word. because really this is about people under, look, I always say to people, this is a simple campaign. Do you want the billionaire who's gonna work and fight tirelessly for working people? Or do you want a career politician who's gonna work and fight tirelessly for billionaires and big corporations? That is a strange choice. We'll leave it there. Tom Steyer, thank you so much for taking the time.

53:18Brian Tyler Cohen:Best of luck in the campaign trail. Thanks, Brian. Thanks for having me. I'm joined now by former Capitol Police officer and current candidate for Maryland's 5th Congressional District, Harry Dunn. Harry, thanks so much for joining me. You have some big news today about a brand new lawsuit against one of Donald Trump's biggest priorities. Can you explain what that is? Yeah, man, I'm happy to announce that myself and Officer Daniel Hodges, a hero from January 6th, and also one of the officers who testified before the January 6th Select Committee, and is one of the many familiar faces that people know from that day.

53:53We've announced that we are suing Donald Trump, Todd Blanch, and Scott Bessett. We believe that this is a continued attack on our democracy that started on January 6th, at least for us. And it's a continuation of that. We believe that this slush fund, if you will, this$1.776 billion. And let's be clear, Donald Trump is trolling us with that number, 1776. You know, everything is symbolic. And this isn't about, you know, so he's trolling us there. But we believe that, one, this fund is illegal and also that violates a lot of potential constitutional laws. We believe there's some 14th Amendment violations going on with there with being able to give aid and comfort to insurrectionists.

54:41If that money indeed goes to the people responsible for attacking me and my co-workers and responsible for one of the darkest days in American history.

54:51Brian Tyler Cohen:Harry, you know, if you do the math in terms of the people that were convicted for their participation in January 6th, these insurrectionists, and there were about 1 ,500 of them, if you divide$1.776 billion by the 1 ,500 insurrectionists, it's over a million dollars a person. So he's trying to basically make all of these people into millionaires. What does that say in terms of creating a financial incentive? I mean, forget about disincentivizing them by virtue of prosecuting them and upholding the law, but rather incentivizing them to commit violence on his behalf. I'm glad that you brought that up because we absolutely believe that this is an incentive right now.

55:33When Donald Trump got elected and inaugurated on January 20th, 2025, he pardoned all of them. And a pardon served as, hey, we forgive you guys. You guys are forgiven. Thank you for carrying out this brutal assault on people that are against me. And thank you for standing up for me, said Donald Trump. And they were always forgiven. Now he's rewarding them with the creation of this fund, a reward. And like you said, a reward turns into an incentive. Because now it's saying, wait, we could beat up cops. We could storm the Capitol. We can search through the building trying to hang Nancy Pelosi and hang Mike Pence.

56:13We can we can do that and we can get paid for it. Absolutely. It's it's an incentive. And also, I would describe it as a retainer. You know, a lot of people are familiar with retainers. And, you know, if you have a lawyer, you pay your retainer a little bit of money in advance. So when something does come up and you do need it, you're paid in full. I believe Donald Trump just put his own private militia on retainer. I don't believe that Donald Trump is going to leave the White House peacefully in 2029. I mean, he's already flirting with the idea of running for a third term. And unfortunately, we got some morons in Congress and also justices that refuse to say that's impossible.

56:56we believe in the constitution around here. So I believe it. I believe he's securing himself a militia who's already showed what they're capable of.

57:06Brian Tyler Cohen:Right. And, you know, you don't need my words. You don't need you. I mean, the American people saw it like, yes, we all got opinions about what happened, but you don't need you or me or any other political pundit to describe and tell us what happened on January 6th. The American people saw it. That's why so many hundreds of millions of people are opposed to this. And this is taxpayer money, too, Brian. This is taxpayer money. It's not a GoFundMe account. It's not people dropping their Cash App link in their bio and saying, support me. I mean, they have the right to do that. This is everyday working Americans who can't afford the price of gas right now, who inflation is through the roof, these illegal tariffs, all this money that Donald Trump says that he does not have.

57:51They don't have money for health care. They don't have money for child care. They don't have money for this, but they got money for ballrooms. They got money for illegal wars that are going on. They got$1.776 billion for terrorists to this country. It's just a slap in the face.

58:05Brian Tyler Cohen:Harry, what is the reaction, not just by you, but also of your former colleagues who were police officers at the Capitol to hear Republicans out of one side of their mouth claim to be the party of law and order, the party of the police, and on the other hand, basically turn into millionaires every single January 6th insurrectionist who is perfectly content to kick the shit out of police officers because they wanted to try and hang Nancy Pelosi. I'm glad you brought that up because I was very touched with the amount of people, my former co-workers that reached out to me literally with just the simple text.

58:45Thank you. Thank you for doing this. and so many of them have been quiet and, you know, for good reason. Like I still talk to a good amount of them and they say they just got their head down trying to finish their 20, 25 years so they can retire and get the hell out of there. So a lot of them are head down. Let's hurry up and finish up so I can retire and get out of here. But the amount of people that reached out and just said thank you, because and also let's be clear about what I'm asking for in this lawsuit. I'm not asking for damages. I'm not asking for, hey, give the money to me. I'm not saying give it to the coworker.

59:18I'm not doing that. I'm not applying for the fund. I'm not. I'm saying, one, it's illegal and it's wrong. And Donald Trump is supporting attackers. And I wouldn't want to share one red cent with anybody that was involved in an insurrection. We're not asking for that. We are asking for this judge to stop this and dissolve this illegal fund because we absolutely believe that it is.

59:44Brian Tyler Cohen:How confident are you in this case that what Donald Trump is trying to do by creating a$1.8 billion slush fund to just dole out to his political allies is not going to hold legal muster here? Well, the good thing about it is, you know, a lot of times when you do things, you do it because it's the right thing to do. And I feel like in this moment, especially in this country, we have a lot of cowards right now. I don't care what party you're in or nonpolitical people. There are a lot of people who just refuse to stand up and say this is where we are right now. I believe that this is wrong. And I believe we have a legal argument to it.

1:00:19Now, yes. Will it be challenging? Maybe. I mean, I see a lot of people in a lot of chatter online talking about the standing. Hey, yes, they're right. We agree this is wrong. But does the officers actually have standing this? We actually do believe it. And we wouldn't have brought the case forward if we don't believe if we didn't believe that we could win. We do believe that we can win. But most importantly, we believe that we have the pulse of the American people on our side, no matter who they are, Republicans, Democrats. And we're seeing a little bit of pushback starting to grow. Congressman Fitzpatrick said that they want to introduce legislation to stop it.

1:00:56That's great. People that are not OK with this. And that's what we want to do. So, you know, we hope we will be successful in our lawsuit. But what we are doing is we're putting people on notice that they need to take a stance and call this out as wrong. And we're seeing some of that as I mean, it's been referenced all over the news, even in the judiciary hearings. Congressman Raskin quoted us today in the hearing. So, you know, we're encouraged that we are on the right side of history. That's what it all comes down to for us. But we do believe we have a strong case and we can win this.

1:01:30Brian Tyler Cohen:Harry you know look there's going to be for every one Brian Fitzpatrick there are going to be like 250 other Republicans who don't say anything especially in the aftermath of Thomas Massey being ousted in his primary and Bill Cassidy being ousted in his primary all that's going to do is scare a bunch of people who are already fucking cowards anyway into refusing to speak out but have you heard from regular Americans while you've been on the campaign trail and we're going to talk about your run for Congress in just a moment here but you've been speaking regular Americans a hell of a lot more than I think these Republican members of Congress are.

1:02:04Brian Tyler Cohen:As it relates to, again, a$2 billion slush fund, they apparently found all the money in the world for this. No money to protect health care, no money to protect food assistance, no money to bring costs down, no money to offer some relief to families who are paying more because of the trade war, no money to offer relief to families who are paying more because of record high gas prices as a result of a war that Trump promised would never happen. No money for any of those priorities, but all the money in the world, Donald Trump wants to make every criminal insurrectionist into a millionaire. And so in your conversations with folks who have heard about this$1.8 billion slush fund, what have they been saying?

1:02:38Yeah, well, they're pissed off. And also, let's talk about talking to everyday Americans. Brian, I am an everyday American. I don't have, I'm not a political, I'm not an elected official. I'm running to be one, but I'm running to represent the people specifically of Maryland's 5th Congressional District, which also, and by the way, this district has probably the highest percentage of federal workers in the country. Over 20 % of the district is federal workers. And also, talk about wasteful spending. Doge fired the amount of people in this district, the amount of people that were fired, wrongfully terminated, illegally fired for waste, fraud, and abuse.

1:03:23Now let's talk about, want to talk about waste fraud and abuse? We could start at the top with this fund right here, this fund, this slush fund to reward insurrectionists. So people are pissed off. And this is me, and also, Brian, this is my second lawsuit, second active lawsuit against this Department of Justice. And I'm doing this as citizen Harry Dunn, somebody who's just pissed off, you know, and I'm running for Congress just to do more, to continue more of this because, you know, there's only so much that I can do. I alone can't fix it, contrary to what some other people say. But I do believe that this moment that we're in, it calls for people to do extraordinary things and take courageous action.

1:04:07Now, I don't believe that what I'm doing is courageous or anything. I think that it's right and it's necessary. And, you know, I appreciate all the kind words and everything to compliment. I appreciate that, but I couldn't live with myself not doing anything. And my initial reaction when this first came out was like, we're going to do something. I don't know what it is. But then actually getting my rational brain going and not my emotional one. We were able to formulate this lawsuit because people are pissed off and people around here are paying attention to the government, the unaffordability of life.

1:04:41But somehow Donald Trump can say on national television, he's not thinking about the day to day cost of Americans because of this war. He's not thinking about the billions of the gas prices. He doesn't care. He's never been in touch with the American people and has always been about himself. Meanwhile, everyday Americans are struggling, including myself.

1:05:02Brian Tyler Cohen:Well, look, Harry, I think I think pissed off citizen is as good a qualification right now as any to get in this race. And I know that you're, you know, that that that you'll be modest and say that it's not courageous to do this. But in light of the fact that we have seen so much capitulation from people all across the country, not just people, but these powerful institutions, these media companies, these law firms, people who have the resources and who should have the backbone, certainly who know better. when we see those people refuse to stand up to this administration. And yet we have a former police officer who's going to step up and do what so many of these other major institutions won't.

1:05:40Brian Tyler Cohen:Then I think that that that courageous does fit the bill there. So to that end. Well, thank you. I will say real quick, that's great. I really appreciate that. And you're right. So I think this election comes down to not not like, yes, we want to elect Democrats clear. But that's that's not enough. We need to make sure we're electing the right Democrats who actually understand the gravity of the situation that we're facing right now. We are in a constitutional crisis where this administration, while Donald Trump only one third of the way through his presidency, can still do so much harm without any guardrails that Congress right now has forfeited their responsibility as a co-equal body of government.

1:06:22It's a co-equal. The Supreme Court has just said done away with the Civil Rights Voting Act. They are refusing to hold Donald Trump account. There is nobody right now. And that's why we need to make sure we have the right Democrats, not just Democrats, but the right Democrats who understand that Republicans right now and this administration is using the Constitution as a suggestion manual and not the law of the land.

1:06:48Brian Tyler Cohen:So to that end, I want to talk a little bit about what you're going to focus on in your run for Congress. I should note that you just got the endorsement of the Working Families Party. So congratulations on that endorsement. And, you know, there are going to be people running for this seat. This is Steny Hoyer's old seat. Grateful that that I don't I don't know how old Steny Hoyer was, but but glad that we are finally at the moment where where we can recognize there is an issue with the gerontocracy in the Democratic Party and offer up a bridge to the next generation. But there's going to be a lot of candidates running in the seat.

1:07:21Brian Tyler Cohen:What sets what sets you apart? Yeah. And you know what? That's that's interesting when you talk about who's going to be the best fighter for this moment that we're in right now. And I think that's what we need to realize who's going to do the absolute. Who's going to be the most effective and the most efficient during the work? Like, sure, if people go to these forums and they'll ask questions, who supports Medicare for all? And you'll get, you know, everybody raises their hand and who supports, you know, defunding ICE and, you know, all this stuff. And who thinks Donald Trump is bad? We all agree on the surface of what these issues are.

1:07:52So I don't think the issue is about getting a vote in favor of one particular line item, if you will. We're all going to support the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. We're all going to support common sense gun reform. But who realizes right now that it's not time to play nice with these people? Like I said earlier, I have, as citizen Harry Dunn, filed two lawsuits in my personal capacity. Imagine what I can do with the subpoena power guaranteed to a member of Congress by the Constitution. I would love to serve on the Oversight Committee. The two main factors that I'm focusing on on my campaign are accountability and affordability.

1:08:34And yes, all roads lead back to Donald Trump when you're talking about affordability, which everybody in this country is struggling from. When the big, beautiful bill was passed, that enriched Donald Trump and his billionaire friends. These terrorists are enriching nobody. And they are Donald Trump's benefiting from them. But the American people, they are the ones that are suffering. It just blows my mind that so many people want to just a strongly worded letter or a strongly worded email. I really believe in the phrase of hope, like when President Obama ran on hope. And that was so inspirational.

1:09:11But we're not going to hope our way out of this situation right now. We need people that are going to stand. And everybody says they're going to fight. But I've literally done it. I've shed blood at the U.S. Capitol, defending the Capitol, defending the U.S. Capitol and still showing up. despite consistently, I mean, go to any right-wing influencer right now on social media, on any platform where they posted about this lawsuit. And just go look at the comments. I guarantee you could find five, ten, without even trying about suggesting death threats. So it's been a nonstop. And if they think they can scare me away or winning or losing an election is going to make me any less or powerful, I don't need a title in front of my name and I don't need initials after my name to realize that I'm in this fight and I am going to continue to stand up and fight for people because this sucks and it's not normal Harry that was perfectly put

1:10:05Brian Tyler Cohen:for those who are looking to help your campaign where can they go? Harry Dunn for F-O-R-M-D dot com Harry Dunn F-O-R-M-D dot com I'm on social media except for Twitter it's always going to be Twitter to me It's such a toxic place there. And I just don't go there. I'm not going to support Elon Musk and just the cesspool that he's created over at Twitter. So I'm on threads. I'm on Instagram, Blue Sky, Substack. Libra Dunn is my handle. Standing Our Ground is my Substack. And harrydunn4md.com. Excellent. I'm going to put the link to your website right here on the screen and also in the post description.

1:10:47Brian Tyler Cohen:For those who are listening on the podcast, I'm going to throw it in the show notes. highly recommend for anybody who's watching right now. Please support this campaign. Support the fighters that we have who are actually standing up in this moment. Harry, thank you for the work you're doing. Thank you for bringing this lawsuit forward. Thanks for standing up for the people who don't have a voice in the same way that you do and I appreciate you taking the time today. I appreciate your time, man. Thank you for all the work that you do. You're fantastic, brother. Thanks again to Jamie Raskin, Keith Ellison, Tom Steyer, and Harry Dunn.

1:11:13Brian Tyler Cohen:That's it for this episode. Talk to you on Sunday. You've been listening to No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen Produced by Sam Graber, music by Wellesley and interviews edited for YouTube by Nicholas Nicotera If you want to support the show, please subscribe on your preferred podcast app and leave a 5-star rating and a review And as always, you can find me at Brian Tyler Cohen on all of my other channels or you can go to briantylercohen.com to learn more

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