Republicans pull stunt in DARK OF NIGHT

0:01Brian Tyler Cohen:Republicans pull a stunt in the dark of night, and I've got two interviews, ranking member of the Oversight Committee Robert Garcia and the Bulwark Sam Stein. I'm Brian Tyler Cohen, and you're listening to No Lie. Of course, Republicans opted to pull one of the most shameful acts of this Congress in the dead of night. On Saturday at four o 'clock in the morning, Todd Blanche was confirmed as permanent attorney general. Importantly, that vote was 50 to 49. Only Mitch McConnell didn't vote because, you know, he's rock climbing or windsurfing somewhere, according to the latest statement from his office, insisting that he's not dead.

0:35Brian Tyler Cohen:You don't confirm someone at four o 'clock in the morning if this is something that you are in any way proud of doing. And yet doesn't surprise me at all that these are the depths that Republicans needed to stoop to to get this guy over the finish line. This is a man who, as deputy AG, personally flew to Tallahassee, spent nine hours over two days privately interviewing Ghislaine Maxwell, who is herself a convicted child sex trafficker and Jeffrey Epstein's closest accomplice. And what came out of those nine hours was a quote about how Ghislaine Maxwell never witnessed the president in any inappropriate setting in any way, end quote.

1:11Brian Tyler Cohen:And then once Maxwell offered up what I'm sure the White House views as exculpatory evidence, she was moved to a low security prison in Texas. And there was never a single excuse given why. This is also the guy at the center of the one point seven, seven, six billion dollar anti-weaponization fund. This is a fund created as part of the illegal settlement that Trump struck with himself over his own leaked tax returns, a fund that would have compensated him, his family, meaning his sons and his businesses for supposedly being targeted by federal tax enforcement. Now, Cornyn and Tillis held up this nomination for weeks, demanding written proof that the fund was dead.

1:48Brian Tyler Cohen:And what did they get? They got a rescission of the specific order that stood that fund up, but not the underlying settlement agreement itself, which remains fully legally intact, sitting there and waiting for a future version of the exact same fund to be created all over again, but whenever it's more politically convenient. Blanche himself already admitted under oath that Trump's lawyers could still try to enforce that settlement. So Republicans confirmed a guy who oversaw a scheme to funnel potentially billions of taxpayer dollars into Trump's own pocket, accepted a half measure that leaves the door wide open for them to do it again, and called that accountability.

2:24Brian Tyler Cohen:And look, none of this is unexpected as far as Trump and Blanche are concerned. Like, we know full well how corrupt these people are. But just as bad are the 50 Republican senators who voted to confirm them, especially those who knew better. As I mentioned, Corden and Tillis pretended that their red line was the slush fund. And when Blanche offered up a rescission of that fund, but kept in place the settlement agreement that will let him create a brand new fund tomorrow if he wants, they allowed themselves to be rolled. They knew better, but God forbid they show a spine. Or how about Bill Cassidy, the physician who voted to confirm RFK Jr., who is an anti-science quack, now overseeing a record number of measles cases and a cyclospora outbreak.

3:04Brian Tyler Cohen:Apparently, that wasn't enough for Cassidy to learn that him trying to curry favor with the lunatics in his party has consequences for hundreds of millions of people. Because here he is doing it again, all over again, and in service of a guy who literally ended his career. There is no floor to how much these people will debase themselves for Trump. And then, of course, there's Susan Collins, who came out and heroically announced that she would be voting against Todd Blanch. Only she did it because she knew she had cover. She knew that there would be just enough Republican votes to get him through.

3:37Brian Tyler Cohen:And she was right. 51 to 49. Who could have possibly seen that coming? Meaning this wasn't some courageous stand by Susan Collins. It was a manufactured decision between her and her party to make her seem courageous when in reality it was the polar opposite. This is a senator facing a brutal re-election fight in a state that is trending against her party, casting a vote that costs her absolutely nothing because the outcome is already locked in before she opened her mouth. Like, this is the purest, most distilled form of consequence-free performance art you could possibly conjure up. This is Susan Collins cosplaying as some maverick while in reality serving as the most shameless MAGA sycophant that you could find.

4:16Brian Tyler Cohen:Abject contempt for her own voters, who she clearly thinks are too stupid to be able to tell the difference. And look, I could go on, but the point here is clear. Whether it is, you know, the majority of the Republican conference, the sheep who voted for this and yet would be apoplectic if the tables returned, to the quote-unquote moderates who orchestrated some pretend opposition. You know, these people are all responsible for empowering a guy who spent his career as Trump's personal criminal defense attorney, who ran secretive interference on the Epstein investigation to protect his boss, and who left a$1.8 billion self-enrichment scheme structurally intact.

4:51Brian Tyler Cohen:Todd Blanche won't oversee a Justice Department that answers to the American people. He's overseeing a DOJ that serves Donald Trump, all of which passed by one vote. That's how little it took to secure just enough cowardice to get this over the finish line. Next up are my interviews with Robert Garcia and Sam Stein. But one quick request. As you know, all of my content is free. It's never paywalled. But I'm going to ask for a bit of financial support this once. If you haven't yet grabbed a copy of my new book, The Day After, It's available right now. I'm going to put a link to order it in the show notes of this episode.

5:24Brian Tyler Cohen:If you enjoy this podcast, if you enjoy my video content, I ask that you please grab a copy. I'm going to try this week to see if I can land at the top of the New York Times best seller list. So any help you're able to give is really appreciated. Thanks so much. OK, here are my interviews with Robert Garcia and Sam Stein. No Lie is brought to you by Factor. Now, I know we've all been there where you're exhausted and starving and probably hangry. You go into the fridge and you can and probably should cook a healthy meal, but you don't have it in you, so you opt for the quick junk food instead. For me, eating healthy isn't a willpower problem.

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7:38Brian Tyler Cohen:I'm joined now by the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, Robert Garcia. Congressman, can you speak to me about, because this is someone who you've dealt with, and especially as it relates to the Epstein files, this is an office that you deal with quite often, your reaction to the fact that not only Todd Blanche will be likely confirmed as the next attorney general, but also your reaction to the fact that there just so happened to be enough Republican senators who are willing to get him over the finish line? Yeah, I mean, look, this is, first of all, it's not surprising, but still very disappointing.

8:10I mean, it's shameful that they're going to vote to confirm Donald Trump's former personal lawyer as the next AG, the person that docks survivors, the person that all of the Epstein survivors have come out, as you know, in a big way to oppose. So many of them have been out so vocal about this. I mean, the person that's been in charge of the weaponization fund and the corruption that's been happening to the DOJ and the White House. I mean, Todd Blanche has been at the center of that. And for him to get confirmed, I mean, again, it's just they're just doing what Donald Trump wants. And they really don't care about any checks and balances.

8:45And I think it's very, of course, convenient that it basically essentially passes with the exact number needed to get the confirmation through. I mean, give me a break. Susan Collins should get zero credit for opposing Todd Blanche. I mean, come on. She could have tried to stop Todd Blanche many times. She's not chosen to do so. She's not been someone that's fought for transparency for the Epstein survivors. And so the sad day for the country. And now we have Todd Blanche, who's basically his job is to protect Donald Trump as the attorney general.

9:15Brian Tyler Cohen:I also want to dig into Bill Cassidy a little bit here because it's not like this is somebody who hasn't already been rolled. I mean, he offered a vote for RFK Jr. The guy is a physician and paved the way for the nomination of an anti-science quack to be in charge of health and human services to the point where now we have a cyclospora outbreak in this country. We have a measles outbreak in this country. And all the while, Bill Cassidy knows what the consequences are of putting somebody who is abjectly disqualified for his position into office and yet didn't learn anything from his past mistakes, didn't even learn anything at the hands of a guy who ended his own political career and yet voted again to to to to confirm Todd Blanche.

9:59Brian Tyler Cohen:So why do you presume it's so important here that Bill Cassidy stay in the good graces of MAGA, even on his way out the door and even with all the consequences of his past votes along these same lines, kind of showing the consequences in full light of day? Yeah, it's a real shame. I was kind of holding out that somehow Bill Cassidy would do the right thing. I mean, come on. You just talked about RFK Jr. I mean, truly a tinfoil hat conspiracy theorist who's destroying HHS. And the fact that, you know, that Cassidy has been largely also just absent from doing the right thing on so many issues. And on this one, it started to seem when Trump turned on him that he was actually gaining a little bit of independence.

10:36And it's shameful. I mean, he probably wants something else. Who knows if he's cut some sort of deal with Donald Trump or what he's going to do after he's out of the Senate. But there should have been this should have been easy for a Cassidy or a Tillis to do. They should have voted to not confirm Todd Blanchett and done the right thing and help actually save the country and put in checks and balances. And I think that these center at the end of the day, all of these guys are beholden to Donald Trump. And for being as unpopular and as big of a disaster as Donald Trump is currently, he can barely crack, what, 30, 33, 34 percent.

11:14And a lot of these a lot of these polls are coming out. They still they still do at the end of the day, whatever he wants. That's a real shame.

11:20Brian Tyler Cohen:Talk about what it looks like for these politicians in the aftermath of their careers. Why is it important to stay in the good graces of MAGA? Would a truly courageous stand by Bill Cassidy or some of these other Republicans mean that they would lose job prospects, lobbying prospects in the aftermath of their Senate careers? Well, look, I mean, look, Donald Trump is probably the most like spiteful, petty, vengeful person to ever serve in public office. And so it would not surprise me that Donald Trump's wrath and the wrath of all those he's put in across the government and the private sector would haunt some of these guys.

11:59And so they're probably feeling some of that. But I mean, I don't know. You're someone like Bill Cassidy, who's had a long career. Don't you want to be able to sleep at night? I mean, don't you want to be able to, after your career, be able to know that you did the right thing for your family and your state and your country? And so the fact that all of these guys sell their souls to Donald Trump and to who's going to be viewed, whether they want it or not, as the worst president to ever serve in the country, period. The man will have no legacy. It will be a legacy of destruction, of death, of grift, of enriching himself.

12:34That is going to be how he will be remembered. And the fact that they're all kind of hitching their wagon to this, I just I think it just hurts their legacy as well.

12:41Brian Tyler Cohen:I think the only variable in terms of someone like Bill Cassidy being able to sleep at night is him being able to afford sheets with a high enough thread count. And so that's the only thing that he's focused on here. I want to move over to a little bit of a different topic, still in the ballpark of Todd Blanche as attorney general, but more about the Epstein files here. Can you speak about the spate of interviews and depositions that are going to be taking place in the course of the next couple of weeks? Yeah, I mean, look, one, I think it's important to note that Chairman Comer has held no public hearings on the Epstein files still.

13:17And they're talking about closing the investigation. And I'm like, what investigation are you talking about? You don't put people under oath. You don't, we had half of the evidence of the Epstein files have not been released to the public. You won't actually do interviews and collect information from the survivors.

13:32Brian Tyler Cohen:It's 3 million files outstanding and no actual subpoenas issued for people that could give you any information. And James Comer is like, job well done. We did it, folks. Exactly. So all of these things we're doing, you know, with knowing that we're going to have to really get this investigation started in a big way, obviously, in the majority. But you have someone like Alan Dershowitz who's going to be coming in front of us pretty soon. I mean, give me a break. I mean, the man has been with the fingers and pointed at him by survivors and some of the horrors that he knew about or participated in.

14:02And so we're going to ask him the tough questions. But the issue with these interviews, whether it's going to be Dershowitz coming up, whether it's going to be our conversation with with Leon Black and others, is they're not putting them under oath. Right. They're bringing them in and allowing them to basically lie and divert. We had all of these people to interview that were in Epstein's orbit, like former personal secretaries, assistants, people with credible accusations of knowing some really serious crimes. And none of them were being put under oath. And I think the question has to come back as to why.

14:38Why aren't we putting these witnesses under oath? Well, it's because they don't want the real truth.

14:44Brian Tyler Cohen:Right. And so we're not going to allow that when we win the majority and are running this investigation. And a lot of the folks that have already been to see us, they're going to be asked and brought back in under subpoena again because they're going to be asked the tough questions under oath and in some cases in a public hearing for the public to see themselves. So is it basically that that James Comer wants to do the bare minimum to kind of notch these these symbolic victories, these talking points, just get caught trying so that he has plausible deniability? If somebody were to come and say, you haven't done anything on the Epstein files and say, no, no, no.

15:19Brian Tyler Cohen:How dare you say that? We had Alan Dershowitz come in without saying that this is just a transcribed interview. There's no obligation to be able to tell the truth. This was not under subpoena. It's not a sworn deposition. And so, again, this is just the bare minimum to be able to claim credit for something that you don't actually care about getting to the bottom of. That's exactly right. And I think that's a big part of it. And also, I think their goal from day one has been to protect Donald Trump. Like their whole goal in the Epstein investigation has been to exonerate Donald Trump, which that, of course, is the furthest from the truth.

15:52I mean, you have let's I think I try to remind people Donald Trump was basically Jeffrey Jeffrey Epstein's best friend for 10 years. They were pals. They hung out. Women were recruited for Mar-a-Lago. There's clearly a relationship there. There was a relationship with the first lady. What exactly was? We're going to find out. I mean, there's a lot of questions. I mean, Donald Trump is in the files almost more than any single person. The president is, Donald Trump. And yet there's no relationship. He tried to kill the investigation. He called it a hoax. I mean, no one believes i mean you no one maybe except for like republicans in congress uh believes that there isn't more to the donald trump jeffrey epstein story we're gonna get to the truth he and

16:34Brian Tyler Cohen:by the way those people know full well they just decided to put their political careers ahead of getting to the truth and so whatever they have to do or say to stay in the good graces of the god king is what they're gonna do when these people are not dumb they know full well the implications for Trump's name being listed in there 38 ,000 times. They're just putting their own political survival over accountability for the victims. That's right. I want your reaction to the fact that while James Comer and these oversight Republicans may be doing nothing to get to the bottom of the truth as far as the Epstein files are concerned, that Judge Sullivan, who's presiding over the Katie Fang case against Todd Blanch and the DOJ, is actually allowing this process to move forward.

17:16Brian Tyler Cohen:your general reaction to that whole process taking place kind of in tandem with the lack of action happening at the hands of James Comer? Look, I've been a huge fan of Katie's for a long time, and she's just doing such a great job. I mean, look, this is the kind of actions that are necessary so that those in Congress are doing what they need to do and that the courts also have their own process. One thing that a lot of people don't know is that when you're in the minority, you can't directly sue on behalf of the House. Only the majority can do that. And so we're limited even to what we can do and what we can actually sue for within the judiciary.

17:54And so we have outside groups or people like Katie taking these cases to court on principle and doing the right thing. They're incredibly helpful. And so I'm really hopeful that the courts in this case really move forward and get all these documents released. And so if we're successful there, a huge amount of credit is going to go to Katie. But I think that more importantly, survivors are going to get a lot of justice here. So very supportive of her efforts. We're going to continue to push that.

18:22Brian Tyler Cohen:If Democrats retake the majority and you have the gavel in the oversight committee, is that something that you would join on behalf of House Democrats? Join Katie's fight to get full release of these files? Yeah, I mean, look, when we're the majority, I mean, there's going to be numerous, numerous efforts that we're going to take to the courts. because we will have the authority as the majority to bring certain cases in front of the courts. And so that 100 percent, I mean, there's a there's a stack of things that we want to do with the Epson investigation that we only have the power to do in the majority.

18:49And so I think it's going to be a brand new day. And for us, it's a real focus on justice for the survivors.

18:56Brian Tyler Cohen:Last question here. We have a new topic of there is now known to the public a whole list of banks that saw a bunch of red flags as it related to Epstein's activities and yet didn't stop those activities from occurring, didn't investigate any of these activities, which we now know were linked to this pedophile ring and all of these, you know, all of this illegal behavior. Can you speak a little bit about what you would like to see in terms of the relationship that these banks had with the Epstein estate? Yeah, I mean, first I want to thank, I mean, And Senator Wyden has been working on this for years.

19:35And so he has been locked in on the financial banks piece. The Senate's been taking the lead on the financial piece on Epstein. And so what they what they put out was just really important and just making it very clear that the banks are part of the cover up. And there's a lot of questions that we now have, including on the Senate side for these banks, for the executives who directed this cover up. Why did this happen the way it did? And so what that report that just came out really does is it opens up a series of questions for us that begins to piece a lot more of the puzzles together. You know, there's a lot that we're investigating that for the sake of the investigation, let's say, is not public.

20:16Right.

20:16Brian Tyler Cohen:Yeah. And so what we are doing is putting together the financial web of who paid who, where the money is coming from. How did Epson get his money? And that report the Senate put out is a big piece of art. The staff of the Senate on that committee and Senator Wyden and our team on oversight have been talking extensively for over the last year. So there's a lot good happening there and more to come. Awesome. Well, thank you for taking the time today. Thanks for the work that you continue to do, even in the face of all of these suppression efforts by Todd Blanche, Donald Trump and the rest of the Republicans in the House and Senate.