Trump flip flops as global plans IMPLODE

0:00The Bleacher Report app is your destination for sports. Right now, the NBA is heating up, March Madness is here, and MLB is almost back. Every day there's a new headline, a new highlight, a new moment you've got to see for yourself. That's why I stay locked in with the Bleacher Report app. For me, it's about staying connected to my sports. I can follow the teams I care about, get real-time scores, breaking news, and highlights all in one place. Download the Bleacher Report app today so you never miss a moment.

0:31Brian Tyler Cohen:Trump flip-flops hard as his global plans implode, and I've got two interviews, Ro Khanna and the organizers of No Kings, Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin. I'm Brian Tyler Cohen, and you're listening to No Lie. Donald Trump is finally starting to feel the heat because for days, he'd been defiantly claiming that Republicans should absolutely refuse to strike up a deal with the Democrats to fund TSA because he wanted Americans to feel the pain as much as possible. And so he could use that public pressure to first pass the Save America Act, which is what he wanted. Why? Because, as Trump says, that bill will ensure that Republicans don't lose another election for 15 years.

1:08Brian Tyler Cohen:And he may be right, considering it's just a massive voter suppression bill. But now it seems that the panic is finally starting to set in because whereas Trump had been bragging openly that he's responsible for refusing to take a deal on TSA, on those long lines at airports, now he's finally singing an entirely different tune. Most recently, he posted to True Social, Blame the Democrats for the airport's mess. They want our country to do badly. They want our country to fail. They broke the already signed bill because they want to take care of criminals who enter our country illegally rather than American citizens.

1:40Brian Tyler Cohen:Thank you to our great ICE patriots for helping. It makes a big difference. I may call up the National Guard for more help. President DJT. Quote, Blame the Democrats. In other words, Trump went from saying that he doesn't want a deal because he could use that pain to try and pass the SAVE Act to suddenly claiming that he's not responsible anymore for the airport delays at all, which suggests that he's starting to see that while Americans are angry, it's not something he can leverage for his own personal benefit because that anger is directed at him. And it comes at, frankly, a miserable time for Trump because it's not just the long lines at airports that fall into Trump's lap.

2:16Brian Tyler Cohen:It's the fact that he engaged in a war in the Middle East that is the least popular war at its outset in history and that no one knows why we're there or what the plan is or when we're going to get out. It's that said war is also causing gas prices to surge here at home, which raises the cost at the pump, of course, but also of literally everything else, air travel, consumer goods and on and on. And of course, that's on top of the already surging inflation, which is expected to exceed 5 % this year. Like for posterity, when Joe Biden left office, inflation was at 3%. And that's for Joe Biden. That's the guy who Republicans vilified for ushering in the highest prices in the history of the world.

2:55Brian Tyler Cohen:Trump's inflation rate will be nearly double what that guy's inflation rate was. In other words, Trump has ushered in high prices, expensive gas, endless war and insane travel delays in an election year. But the worst part isn't even for him. It's for the rest of his party that somehow has to make the case to Americans that they should be reelected, even though they've spent every waking minute shoving themselves as far up Trump's ass as they can. Like, for example, here's Mike Johnson. The president has done so much for the American people, and we want to honor him in some small way, some token of our appreciation for his leadership.

3:31And so tonight we have created a new award. We have we're going to do something we've never done before. We're going to honor him with a new award that we'll present annually from this point forward. But he is the suitable and fitting recipient of the first ever America First Award. We can think of no better title for what that is.

3:58That's this beautiful golden statue here, appropriate for the new golden era in America.

4:04Brian Tyler Cohen:A new award. Like Trump is a fucking nine-year-old. It's amazing to watch Trump offer himself up as an anchor around their necks. And then these groveling sycophants tie the knot even tighter, which is to say they're not unwitting victims of Trump's mismanagement. They're accomplices. They own it. They suck up to him. They embolden him. They give him fake trophies and statues. They want this. They are throwing parties for themselves. They're celebrating what they've ushered in. This is unflinching, unapologetic Republican governance. Expensive food, expensive clothing, expensive utilities, gutted health care, gutted food assistance, long lines, high inflation and endless war.

4:45Brian Tyler Cohen:Literally everything these people ran against is what they're ushering in right now. And then they're patting themselves on the back for it. It's no wonder that Democrats are running the table on Republicans in election after election. It's no wonder that they're winning these elections by double digit swings to the left. No wonder that Mar-a-Lago is now represented by a Democrat in the Florida legislature, thanks to a 13 point swing. You see, part of governing like an autocrat is that you don't think you're accountable to the public. You don't think that political gravity exists anymore. But to the dismay of today's Republican Party, it clearly does.

5:18Brian Tyler Cohen:And despite the best efforts by this MAGA GOP, democracy is still able to function in America and it's not working to their benefit. Next up are my interviews with Ro Khanna and the co-founders of Indivisible, Ezra and Leah. No Lie is brought to you by BetterHelp. It's March, which means International Women's Day is upon us. I want to take a moment to celebrate women and all that they carry out at work, in relationships, in families, and in the many roles they hold every day. Between caring for others and managing unseen responsibilities, their emotional well-being can easily be overlooked. I know that life really often moves too fast to reflect on anything, but try to take a moment to reflect on the role that women have in your life that they play, the expectations placed on them, and the pressures that they feel.

6:02Brian Tyler Cohen:Therapy can create balance, set healthy boundaries, and support overall well-being for everyone, which is why I'm an advocate for BetterHelp. So why BetterHelp? Because of their quality therapists. BetterHelp therapists work according to a strict code of conduct and are fully licensed in the US. Also because of their therapist match commitment. BetterHelp does the initial matching work for you so that you can focus on your therapy goals. A short questionnaire helps identify your needs and preferences, and their more than 12 years of experience and industry-leading match fulfillment rate means they typically get it right the first time.

6:31Brian Tyler Cohen:If you aren't happy with your match, switch to a different therapist at any time from their tailored recommendations. And finally, the client reviews prove it. With over 30 ,000 therapists, BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform, having served over 6 million people globally. And it works, with an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 for live sessions based on over 1.7 million client reviews. Your emotional well-being matters. Find support and feel lighter in therapy. Sign up and get 10 % off at BetterHelp.com slash nolie. That's BetterHelp.com slash nolie. I'm joined now by Congressman Ro Khanna.

7:05Brian Tyler Cohen:Congressman, thanks for joining me. Great to be back on. So we have some new news regarding the Epstein files, and that is that in the UK, the Metropolitan Police are now seeking information from the U.S. Department of Justice to assist in their investigation of formerly Prince Andrew. So can you give your reaction to the fact that other governments are now seeking the same files that the U.S. government refuses to release because they're actually willing, deigning to hold criminals to account?

7:34Ro Khanna:Is it an ironic, Brian? Two American congresspeople, Thomas Massey and me, forced the release of the files. And you would think then that the American government would lead the investigation and call for prosecutions. But it's actually other governments in other countries that are leading the calls for investigation and are demanding the full files, including the 50 percent that Pam Bondi has not released. This shows that law enforcement in Britain believes that the unreleased files has something to do with the former Prince Andrew's guilt or Lord Mendelsohn's guilt. And of course, Bondi should comply with that request, but she should also comply with the law here in the United States and release these files.

8:20Ro Khanna:And she should actually start to investigate some of these people, especially people like Les Wexner and Leon Black, who have incredibly outrageous allegations against them.

8:32Brian Tyler Cohen:Can you give an update in terms of another piece of news that we have from the Epstein files, which is the fact that the House Oversight Committee has dumped the Epstein accountant and lawyer's deposition videos? And of course, most of the media is distracted by what's going on in Iran to talk about it. But any update as far as those depositions are concerned?

8:52Ro Khanna:Well, here is what is most concerning about those videos, and people can see them for themselves. You had Tan answer one of my questions saying, yes, the estate paid a settlement to the woman who accused Donald Trump of rape when she was 13, that Epstein paid that settlement. Then four or five hours later, he reverses himself. No, no, no, no, no. I didn't mean that. I misspoke. Then the next day, he reverses his reversal. And he says, now we can't confirm or deny whether we did pay this woman who accused Donald Trump of raping her when she was 13. If you look at his body language, you can tell he is so afraid when the word Trump comes up.

9:35Ro Khanna:He can just be sitting there calculating, please don't say anything that's going to get me on the wrong side of Donald Trump. And he gave totally inconsistent testimony. It also shows that there may have been an actual settlement with this woman who accused Trump of raping her.

9:54Brian Tyler Cohen:Is there a way for the committee to haul Epstein's accountant, Richard Kahn, to answer some questions, given the fact that, you know, this deposition actually raised more questions than it did answer them?

10:06Ro Khanna:Well, he came in and he was deposed. But you're saying, can we pursue it further? I guess we could, but the real issue is that he may have perjured himself. He needs to be investigated by the Department of Justice. Look, Congress can only do so much. We can investigate. We can get the reports out. We can have accountability. But in terms of investigation and prosecution and law enforcement, we have a whole Justice Department for that. And that's what really needs to be doing the work. And if they're not going to do it, the next administration must do it.

10:38Brian Tyler Cohen:Is there any update here in terms of, you know, we are more than three months behind in terms of when the full Epstein files were supposed to be released. So far, we only have three million documents out of the six million that have been released. Any update in terms of why Pam Bondi hasn't deigned to allow us to see the rest of those documents?

10:57Ro Khanna:No, and we'll know more on April 14th when she's going to have a deposition, when she's going to have lawyers ask her detailed questions, when she can't just respond with a flip answer. And she's going to actually have to answer these questions under oath. But there's no excuse. I mean, they claim because we had a closed door briefing and I asked some of these questions, they claim that they were they're just protecting survivors. Really? Three million documents all redacted just to protect survivors when survivors are telling us they want those documents released?

11:28Brian Tyler Cohen:Do you are you confident that she will show up for the April 14th deposition, given the fact that she offered herself up for an off the record briefing with members of Congress just just a week or two ago. And and that, you know, there was some concern that her doing that would be, you know, her way of saying, well, look, I've already been I've already been transparent and here I'm here for an off the record briefing. And so now there's no need for me to show up under oath and do a deposition for for the Oversight Committee.

12:01Ro Khanna:I do believe she will show up. The reason I believe she will show up as there are Republicans on the committee who will not tolerate her avoiding it. But it's not 100 percent. She refused to give that 100 percent confirmation to me or Robert Garcia when asked about it. So we have to be vigilant. I just think it would be total political malpractice for her not to show up. And Comer himself has said that she must show up. Why? Because he sees the votes in the committee. I mean, there are Republicans who would be outraged.

12:32Brian Tyler Cohen:Right. Congressman, to what extent do you think that what we're seeing happen in Iran right now, even if not the principal reason, could have some tertiary benefit to Trump in that it serves as a distraction from the Epstein files, which were otherwise enveloping the news cycle for months leading up to this point?

12:55Ro Khanna:Well, Google searches are dramatically down when it comes to Epstein since the war started. Look, Trump promised not to get us into a war in the Middle East and to release the Epstein files and hold them accountable. Instead, he has gotten us into a war in the Middle East and he's covered up for the Epstein files. It's been a total betrayal of his voters. But one of the things it has done is taken that off the front page. And he is no longer having to answer both for his own appearance in those files, for his own allegations that are against him or for the cover up of the Justice Department.

13:36Brian Tyler Cohen:You know, we heard as far as the as far as the situation unfolding in our airports, we heard Donald Trump just a few days ago say, you know what, I was I was brought a deal by these Republicans and Democrats to fund the entirety of DHS except for ICE. I don't want it because, you know, I want I want the fighting to continue so that we can try and get the Save America Act passed. He was pretty forthright in saying that we had Senator Kennedy come out and said and say the same thing, that a deal was brought to Trump to fund TSA and that Trump denied it. Punchbowl News reported the same thing, that John Thune, you know, echoed the same sentiment.

14:12Brian Tyler Cohen:And now today, Donald Trump has come out and said that, in fact, the long lines and the situations unfolding at the airports are the Democrats fault. And so what do you attribute the flip flop to where Trump was initially perfectly content to take all the blame for what was happening with regard to TSA in the airports? And then suddenly today did a total about face where he decided that, you know what, it's not my fault anymore. Now it's the fault of the Democrats.

14:37Ro Khanna:He's got a real problem and he knows that gas is up over a dollar a gallon. California, almost seven dollars. He's got a problem in terms of the airline costs. if you have to buy an airline ticket, gone up because jet fuel has skyrocketed. Groceries are up because half the oil we get goes into food products and consumer products. There's really an energy crisis in America, the kind we haven't seen since 1973 and 1979. And then he's got long lines for anyone who's flown. And unfortunately, my job requires a lot of flying, so I fly all the time. But let me tell you, the lines are long at these airports.

15:15Ro Khanna:and people are upset and he's the president of the United States and he's caused a lot of this. This was not some like COVID, something that may have been unavoidable. He caused it by going into Iran and he caused it by rejecting democratic offer after offer to fund TSA. And why did he reject the democratic offer to fund TSA? Because he wants married women, 190 million American women to show their birth certificates and their marriage certificates before they can vote. It is absolutely absurd and people are seeing through it.

15:52Brian Tyler Cohen:In terms of the Republicans feeling the pressure from Trump, do you think that they're going to relent? He's either trying to get, you know, exacerbate this pain so that Democrats can come to the table and relinquish their conditions to fund ICE, which are pretty reasonable, not wearing masks, identifying themselves, making sure that any warrants are signed by a judge, not having ICE be present at the polls come midterms, all those pretty reasonable stuff. But he's clearly trying to exacerbate these problems to either pressure Democrats into relenting, which isn't looking like it's going to happen, or pressuring Republicans into nuking the filibuster to shoehorn this thing through.

16:29Brian Tyler Cohen:Do you think that the Republicans are going to kind of, you know, cater to him and nuke the filibuster so that he can get the Save America Act passed?

16:39Ro Khanna:No, maybe they would have about a year ago. Yeah, we I mean, he's a 40 percent approval under 40 percent. The laws of political gravity even apply to him. And there are more Republicans who are saying, I don't want to go down with the ship. I'm not going to lose my seat in the midterms. The reality is that he's going to quickly realize that he's on an increasing island. And I do think the Democrats are going to get our way. I mean, I'm for carrying down the entire ICE agency, given how abusive it is. But the reforms that we've put forth are such common sense. It's basically saying treat an ICE officer like a cop.

17:18Ro Khanna:Same standards. I mean, it's not even reform. It's just saying uphold the standards you have for any other law enforcement officer.

17:25Brian Tyler Cohen:Right. Well, you know, this I presume that some of the pressure is coming from the fact that even as Trump continues to engage in all of this stuff, pretending like political gravity doesn't exist for him. We're seeing the American people speak loud and clear at the ballot boxes and all of these special elections. In fact, just yesterday, the district, the legislative district that represents Mar-a-Lago was flipped and now it's under Democratic control. And that's a 13 point swing from what it was in 2024. 2024. So can I have your reaction to some of these more recent election wins that we're seeing right now happen in these special elections or off-year elections where there's 11, 13, 15, 20-point swings to the left?

18:09Ro Khanna:There's a new coalition forming in American politics. They're opposed to this war in the Middle East that is driving up costs and making life more expensive. They're opposed to elite impunity. They want the Epstein class held accountable, people who think the law doesn't apply to them and that they get to write the laws. They are opposed to Trump's policy of giving tax breaks to billionaires, and they want something done to lower their utility prices, to lower their grocery prices. And they're voting in that way, and they're appalled by ICE terrorizing American citizens. Yesterday I sat through a hearing where an American citizen, 16-year-old, said he was held in a chokehold by ICE agents.

18:56Ro Khanna:A mom said that she was threatened to have her head blown off, an American citizen. So people are finally reacting to this. And it's an anti-Trump sentiment in the American public because a country deep down is incredibly good and decent and kind. And yes, we need an affirmative agenda. Don't get me wrong, but let me tell you something. The anti-Trump sentiment is very strong in making sure that we will win the midterms.

19:26Brian Tyler Cohen:I also want to be clear not to just pin the blame entirely on Trump. Clearly, he's driving the ship, but the Republicans could serve as a check on him if they wanted to. They run a co-equal branch of government. They run every co-equal branch of government. And yet in the House, in the Senate, they have just decided to contract every ounce of their power to him. Is there any acknowledgement by your Republican colleagues in that conference about the extent to which he is serving as an anchor around their necks and that they are voluntarily ushering in their own demise by by constantly deferring to him 100 percent, by constantly kowtowing to him, regardless of how unpopular their behavior is?

20:08Ro Khanna:we've discussed this before brian that uh i do believe the epstein transparency act was a historic break from trump it was the first time the republicans said you know what uh i'm not just getting on uh his train that is going uh into a place that is going to lead to loss we're going to jump off uh and since then you do have republicans challenging him hundreds of discharge petitions now it's not as much as we would like but there are republicans upset about ground troops in Iran and said that that's a red line. The Republicans upset about the gas prices. The Republicans upset that they're still not being transparent about Epstein.