Trump STUNS with new ICE announcement

22:30So true. Yeah. Why not?

22:49Brian Tyler Cohen:Beyond proud to be partnered with both of you. Beyond proud to be able to call you guys my friends. And on behalf of everybody here and everybody in this country, thank you for the work that you do to protect this democracy. So thank you.

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24:12Brian Tyler Cohen:That's helixsleep.com slash BTC for 27 % off site wide. helixsleep.com slash BTC. Glenn is obviously busy these days with his excellent podcast, Justice Matters, and Mark Elias with Democracy Docket. I feel like Mark is going to be very busy, potentially on Thursday night. You heard about this prime time address to the country that he wants to give, which I'm sure will be completely factually accurate. As it always is. And the fact checker's brains will not explode. Yeah, poor Daniel Dale. Poor Daniel Dale, my gosh. I think my Lexapro dose is high. Crack open a cold one for him. Let's talk about that.

24:53Brian Tyler Cohen:We should talk about that. Don't give him time. Hey, he's not going to be running on my show or Brian's, that's for sure. But I mean, he wants to talk about election integrity, which is obviously election BS, conspiracy theories. So I think that Thursday is going to be the culmination of a lot of different exercises that Trump has been focused on. For example, we've seen the director of national intelligence now end up in Fulton County, Georgia, where they seize those ballots. The only reason for the ODNI to be there is if there is some international implications. Meanwhile, we know that Donald Trump is engaged in all of this scheming with Nicolas Maduro, who's now in the United States, and his replacement in Venezuela.

25:41Brian Tyler Cohen:And so there's some concern that maybe they cook up some deal, some agreement with Nicolas Maduro or some other world leader, and basically come out and say that there was election interference in 2020. Now, we all know that that's complete bullshit, but the merits of this stuff don't matter. Trump just needs some thin veneer of truth, some pretense to be able to say that this is what happened. Remember, in the aftermath of the 2020 election, we now found out, thanks to the January 6th subcommittee, that Donald Trump said, you know, just say the election was rigged and leave the rest to me and these Republican congressmen.

26:20Brian Tyler Cohen:So he doesn't need it to be true. He just needs a thin veneer of pretext to be able to say that it's true. And so there's some concern that he's going to do this by saying the 2020 election was, in fact, rigged. And as a result, we have to take extraordinary measures to prevent this from happening again. Again, this is not a real thing, but it doesn't matter. And so that could mean a number of things. I mean, we already know that he's trying to ban mail-in voting. Luckily, that was blocked in court. Something that he does. Something that he himself takes advantage of. We know that the administration refuses to rule out sending ICE to the polls.

26:59Brian Tyler Cohen:And of course, as we continue to watch these ICE agents kill Americans with impunity and kill people in the streets with impunity, that becomes an increasingly dangerous prospect. It just happened in Maine days ago. And I think that's in large part by design. I think that the administration actually benefits from having people feel afraid of what ICE can do. And the fact that we don't see any accountability for those folks also lends itself to this idea that, you know, if they're at the polls and shit goes sideways, then, you know, there's not going to be any accountability for that. We also know that they're trying to get the voter rolls.

27:40Brian Tyler Cohen:And, you know, again, a big thanks to the work that Mark Elias' law firm is doing. They're now 13-0, 15-0?

27:52Brian Tyler Cohen:15-0.

27:56Brian Tyler Cohen:15-0 in court preventing states from, preventing the federal government from being able to seize private voter data from the states. And this is 15 out of 31 cases so far. So, but that's not for lack of trying by this DOJ. And then, of course, the Save America Act is another effort by the administration to basically nationalize elections, which for the entirety of our history have been run by the states. And it would basically allow the federal government to be the one, to be the authority that offers up the documents that you need to vote. It would force the states to hand the voter rolls to the Department of Homeland Security.

28:39Brian Tyler Cohen:And they would be the arbiters of who gets to cast ballots. and then of course it would effectively eliminate mail-in voting except for a narrow list of exceptions. So not for lack of trying. I mean there are a lot of things that this administration is trying to do and I actually think just a few days ago Trump's refusal to sign the housing bill, a bill that he himself advocated for on the campaign trail, a bill that his own party passed, a bill that was so popular that they had planned a whole celebration in advance of its signing. I think that his unwillingness to sign that, because he was so hell-bent on instead using it as a hostage to pass the Save America Act, is really instructive.

29:24Brian Tyler Cohen:Because people saw that, and they said, you know, this guy is just giving up on the midterms. There's no way that you bail on your own housing bill if you care about the midterms. But I disagree. I don't think he's giving up on the midterms, I just don't think he's trying to win the midterms on the merits anymore. I think he's trying to win the midterms by, the Save America Act shows us, by just rigging the rules of the game before a single vote is even cast. And so that is his priority. He's so fucking ham-handed that he put it on full display. And so instead of the housing bill, which would have at least offered him some pretext of populism, he instead said, no, I just want to pass the Save America Act where I can rig good rules of the game in my favor.

30:06Brian Tyler Cohen:So I think that that's what they're looking to do. And again, none of his failures are for lack of trying. Yeah, you would think if he cared about housing that much, you know, he put Bill Pulte over at the director of national intelligence, you know, one would think he cares about housing a little bit. But I will say, as an aside on the primetime address, shame on the networks, shame on the news networks in this country. If they carry that for shit why. There is no way, and I assume what they're going to do, I assume what they're going to do heading into Thursday is they're going to say, oh, well, now he's going to talk about Iran a little bit.

30:45They'll put like a, you know, like a little sheen of something that resembles normalcy at the beginning of the speech, and then he'll just, you know, dovetail right into all of his crazy nonsense. But, you know, we talked about ICE for a little bit there. I did want to go back to it for a second because I don't see how you could have a future in the Democratic Party without talking about abolishing ICE, without ending ICE as you know it. I don't see how you get the nomination.

31:15Brian Tyler Cohen:No, you can't. And I think that having the courage of your convictions and being able to come right out and say it is going to be absolutely essential moving forward. I don't see how you are a Democrat who can waffle on the idea of abolishing an institution that is so broken, so beyond repair, which is not to say that you can't have immigration enforcement, but ICE ain't it. There is no way to salvage anything with that agency. Yeah. That's it. That's it. By the way, we were talking about the housing bill just a moment ago. What about the fact that Donald Trump decided to come forward and say that Lindsey Graham's last words were that he really wanted the Save America Act passed.

32:00Brian Tyler Cohen:He said, come closer, Donald. And I came closer to the phone, and he said a little bit closer, and I came and he said, I really want you to pass the Save America Act. That's my dying wish. Yeah, I mean, talk about a heartfelt note that he left for Lindsey Graham on all of these different network interviews. He made the rounds on all these network interviews, and each and every one of those he would chastise the anchor when they would try to go on to other topics, but yet he was bringing up the Save America Act. He's like, how dare you leverage exploit Lindsey Graham's death for your own partisan gain?

32:36Brian Tyler Cohen:That's my job. That's what I do. And I seem to recall one network where he went on one network and he said, you know, we're trying to move you in a normal direction. Did anybody see that where he said that about CNN? Did you see that? So not only did I see it, I was seated across from Jake Tapper. Oh, you were? You were there at that moment? It was the first time I've ever done Jake Tapper's show. So I'm out here. I'm based in Los Angeles, but came out here obviously for the book tour. And so I was on that panel and we're supposed to have our hit at 40 past the hour. I actually can't remember what hour it was, but 40 past the hour.

33:14Brian Tyler Cohen:And then all of a sudden they said, we have the president calling in and so obviously you get bumped for the president and I was kind of fascinated at the chit chat because that's what I was, the regular conversation was going to happen on air and everybody would be able to hear it but I was really interested to hear what he would say to Jake on the earpiece that everybody's wearing and it wasn't much, he was just basically like oh we have to get together one of these days Yeah Yeah he doesn't like those guys And I seem to recall some of that. So, but then, you know, it was funny because when he said that Lindsey Graham not only wanted to pass the Save America Act, but is starting to really think about abolishing the filibuster.

33:59Brian Tyler Cohen:Lindsey Graham is like the ultimate institutionalist. And he's like, you know what? Even abolishing the filibuster was something that he told me last night. Never said it publicly, but he told me last night. Everybody at the table just rolled their eyes to the back of our heads. But you're right. I mean, just like fully, fully exploited this dead man before his body was even cold to advance his political interests. Yeah. And it's because he has nothing to run on. I mean, this is what you were, I think, alluding to earlier, Brian, is that what is he supposed to run on heading into the fall? Of course, he's going to try to turn the midterm election cycle into a 52 car pile up.

34:34Yeah.

34:34Brian Tyler Cohen:And he's got the it's got the pedophile vote. Well, he's about as popular as Jeffrey Epstein these days, so that goes hand in hand. But to me, it does raise this question as to what do we do about him when this is all said and done. About Trump himself. About Trump himself. Look, so I actually dealt with this question a lot because while I was writing this book, and I wanted this to be a blueprint for what democratic governance looks like in a new era of democratic politics, there was kind of what felt like these conflicting ideals, one of which is like, we just have to look forward and have a proactive agenda.

35:13Brian Tyler Cohen:And there are a lot of people in this country who do not give a flying fuck what happens in the political arena. They just want to make sure that they can put food on their table and afford their medical bills and pay their rent and be able to stay in their house and just live their lives. And in large part, that's what fueled Trump and Republicans to victory in 2024. and I think that's important. And at the same time, we have all of this corruption that's happening right now and I think that there is a lot of risk in ignoring it and I just explained how Merrick Garland's unwillingness, his inability to confront these things is what set the stage for so much rampant corruption in Trump 2.0.

35:51Brian Tyler Cohen:But I think the answer, the only answer is that you can and must do both. You have to absolutely have a proactive agenda and be willing to deliver for people on all of the issues that we spend so much time talking about, on health care, on climate, on voting rights, on making life more affordable in this country, on making sure we have a minimum wage that's livable, and on and on. But at the same time, nobody can have faith in a government that is so steeped in corruption that you don't even know if they're acting on your behalf or on behalf of some foreign country or some billionaire or some donor or some PAC.

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37:33Brian Tyler Cohen:That's Z-O-C-D-O-C dot com slash BTC. What do we do with the Supreme Court? It's the Supreme Court that gave Trump this immunity decision that, you know, and you hear the experts will say, well, it's not total immunity. There's a little bit of this and a little. And it's like Donald Trump took that immunity decision and said, yes, I have absolute. and not only does he want absolute immunity from the Supreme Court, he tried to cut this crooked deal with the IRS when he was essentially suing himself. And he said, you know, Trump, you really screwed me on that IRS thing. You know, Trump, you're right.

38:06I did. So how about I just give you the whole bank? We just open up the bank and you just start loading gold bars into the back of a truck. I think that sounds really good. I think I should do that. I mean, you know, like the Supreme Court just totally opened the floodgates to this, it seems

38:20Brian Tyler Cohen:So the answer, in my opinion, is you absolutely must expand the Supreme Court. That is the only answer. Here's why. First of all, nine justices is not sacrosanct. Nine justices is not in the Constitution. Throughout the entirety of our history, the number of Supreme Court justices has comported with the number of federal court circuits. In the 1800s, I think 1837, there were six Supreme Court justices, and we had six federal court circuits. Eventually, that number went up to nine. Now we have nine Supreme Court justices, nine federal court circuits. Now we have 13, but we still have nine Supreme Court justices.

38:58Brian Tyler Cohen:So it would make sense. It would lend itself to reason that we can raise the number of Supreme Court justices up to 13. It's also so not sacrosanct that even in modern times, that number has changed. Mitch McConnell brought it from nine to eight when he was holding that seat open for an entire year to prevent Merrick Garland from getting his seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. So not only is there historical precedent, there's precedent just in the last few years in our lifetimes. But then there is a moral imperative to do so as well. And that is, if Democrats are able to win the House, which is difficult, win the Senate, which is difficult, win the White House, which is difficult, and actually pass progressive legislation, which is difficult, all of which, tough to do, then if we decide not to expand the Supreme Court, we are making a conscious decision to leave in place a veto on any and all legislation that makes it up to them.

39:53Brian Tyler Cohen:And mark my words, they will 100 % shut down or strip or gut any legislation that makes it in front of them. They did it with Roe, even after all of those people swore up and down that they respect precedent and stare decisis and Roe is precedent upon precedent and we wouldn't possibly, we couldn't possibly do that. How dare you even insist that we could do such a thing? And as soon as they had the opportunity to do so, gutted 50 years of precedent. They did it with the Voting Rights Act, another thing that was precedent upon precedent. And now we're at a point where Republicans immediately jumped off and started drawing black members of Congress out of these districts.

40:40Brian Tyler Cohen:And I wouldn't be surprised if in the next few years we see no black representation in Republican-led states in the South. In fact, not just the South. There are going to be any Republican-led states that benefit from opportunity districts who won't have any black representation or brown representation. So again, if we do this, if we allow this 6-3 conservative court to stand as it stands right now, then we're basically saying, you know what? We know everything is going to be struck down, but hey, at least we tried, right? At least we got caught trying. At least we have a symbolic victory. And that's not good enough.

41:18Brian Tyler Cohen:We have done symbolic victories. We've done messaging wins in the past. and in an era where people are already disillusioned with government and its ability to deliver, it ain't good enough for me to just say, hey, I tried. So if we want meaningful, lasting change, change that's going to persist even after a Supreme Court gets its hands on it, then the only option to do so is to expand the Supreme Court. Yeah. Yeah. And it takes me back to our earlier conversation about Mitch McConnell. I mean, I remember I was at the White House when Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away, and I had left for the evening, and I ran back so fast that I dropped my tie outside in Lafayette Park, and I was on the air that evening without my tie on.

42:06And it was Mitch McConnell who reportedly was the one who was really pushing the White House. Let's get Amy Coney Barrett in as fast as possible. The same Mitch McConnell who said, we can't do this during an election. So, I mean, to me, we're past the point of saying, you and I were talking about this backstage, giving the other side the benefit of the doubt.

42:26Brian Tyler Cohen:Right. And, you know, that is, I think, the most frustrating part is for so long it feels like Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown. Like this idea that if only this time we confer goodwill to the Republicans, if only we decide to compromise with these people, if only we offer up something, then they'll reciprocate the next time. and the reciprocation never comes. And we keep saying, let's just keep being good governance partners with the Republicans, but the Republicans never are good governance partners back. And we're just in a position where not only do we not get anything done, not only is there this massive asymmetry, but frankly, you lose the support of your own base who fails to view you as an effective vehicle to get anything done because only one side is compromising.

43:12Yeah. And I think part of the reason why they have packed the court themselves is because they are beholden to interests that are not in line with the Democratic Republic. They're beholden to corporate interests. You have people like Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court who, you know, he might as well have... Ooh, we have some fans. Yeah. But I mean, you know, the point I'm making though, that you can feel free to chime in on, is that, I mean, listen, you have a situation right now where the interests of the people are not being taken into consideration, it seems to me, over at the Supreme Court right now.

43:49And so how else are we supposed to accomplish this? How else? And when you have issues like dark money flowing through our politics, pack money. I mean, we mentioned Glenn and Mark. We have another hero here tonight. Harry Dunn is here tonight. Harry's here tonight.

44:09We love Harry. ran for Congress ran for Congress twice was, you know, met with an avalanche of dark PAC money that made it extremely difficult to win those races. And so how do we get folks like Harry into Congress when you have those kinds of forces aligned against him and you have a Supreme Court who will protect them?

44:32Brian Tyler Cohen:Right. And I think that, you know, it's going to require the courage of our convictions of a new class of Democratic politicians and the help of an activist base who has to demand it at this point. Because the reality is that we have seen the extent to which this flood of outside money, and it's only going to get worse with the... Mark, help me out here. What is the decision? The FEC decision.

45:02Brian Tyler Cohen:NRSC versus FEC. NRSC decision, yeah. That will basically open the floodgates for even more... And I always have Mark around just to... Yeah. Line. Yeah. We'll fly back to L.A. tomorrow and I just walk around the house and just Mark grabs court names, court case names for me. No, we've talked... Yes, exactly. And we've talked about legislative reform. We've talked about Supreme Court reform. The executive branch is kind of the whole ballgame. And, you know, the Republicans, MAGA, their allies on the Supreme Court, they really are pushing this notion of a unitary executive, an all-powerful executive branch of the government, contrary to what the founders envisioned, to the point where Trump thinks he can knock down part of the White House and do whatever he wants.

45:52And how does that get solved, do you think?

45:55Brian Tyler Cohen:What I think would be a very important place to start is reform of the pardon power. I think that we have seen the extent to which...

46:07Brian Tyler Cohen:Totally out of control. It is so abused. I mean, it is, you know, how can anybody have faith in what government does if you know that everybody can commit as much criminal behavior as they want, and there is a pardon waiting for them at the other side of this thing? And do you think that Trump is going to pardon everybody on his way out? Yeah, I think he is. I think he's going to try to imagine every possible person. I think he said something like whoever's within 150 feet of the White House, or is it 350 feet like the gash in the reflecting pool? I don't know. It's one of those numbers. My concern for those people is if he said anybody within 150 feet of the White House, it's come to our attention that he doesn't have a great grasp on measurements.

46:50Brian Tyler Cohen:Yeah, that's right. It's only going to be like three people at the end of the day. Yeah, but size matters. That's a different part of that whole conversation. Although I think Stormy Daniels put a Gabashto. She had something to say there. That's true. Had a couple things to say about that. But no, I think you're absolutely right. I think he's going to try to pardon himself. I think he's going to pardon his sons. I think he's going to pardon Stephen Miller, obviously. The question becomes whether or not... Yeah, exactly. Please. Should we just take a moment of silence to hiss at Stephen Miller?

47:27Yeah. they're not saying go Stephen. They're not saying that.

47:32Brian Tyler Cohen:They're saying boo Ernst. Go boo Ernst. But it does raise the question of whether states and state attorneys general should be conducting these kinds of investigations. I think there's one happening in Wisconsin. There was a news article that came out today that Wisconsin is looking at going at somebody in the Trump circle. So maybe that's where this heads. And they have to. And frankly, yeah. No, I mean, we should applaud for that because these state prosecutions are going to be really the only avenue that we have in the aftermath of this stuff. And frankly, the ways in which Trump benefited in the aftermath of the whole 2020 cycle, where he was able to run out the clock on the Georgia prosecution, for example, the New York prosecution, because he became president and OLC guidance suggests that you can indict a sitting president, that won't apply anymore because Trump will be term limited.

48:25Brian Tyler Cohen:And I think it's going to be incumbent upon these states to take aggressive action to, even if they've pardoned themselves at a federal level, for the states to step in in the absence of the federal government and actually seek some accountability for what they're doing right now. Yeah. And I do know that, by the way, I've spoken to Letitia James. And, you know, there is so much corruption in the stock market where, you know, we'll see this big pop of short sales or whatever it may be on the market. And then all of a sudden Trump comes out and makes some announcement that sends the market surging or crashing.

49:03Brian Tyler Cohen:You know, that is all under the jurisdiction of the New York Stock Exchange, which is under the jurisdiction of the New York Attorney General. So Letitia James, she's probably going to be pretty busy for the next few years after Trump leaves office. Yeah, because a lot of investors got hosed. I mean, if you weren't in on, you know, which stocks to buy and when, because, you know, Trump was limiting that to his the people around him, you probably lost some money and you got defrauded and all of this. There's no question about it. And the other thing that I think will take place in addition to what happens at the state level, we saw a glimmer of this is kind of out of Glenn Kirshner's wheelhouse where the judge down in, I think it was a federal judge just recently said, was it yesterday, that this so-called slush fund was just a crock of crap and that the attorney for Trump should refer to the local bar.

49:51Yes. And that, you know, that gets attorney's attention. You know, that's another one.

49:57Brian Tyler Cohen:It's an interesting point because Donald Trump really is where law licenses go to die. So true. I mean, John Eastman, Jenna Ellis, Rudy Giuliani. But, I mean, good on these judges. That has been one surprising bright spot. The lower court. The lower courts and the appellate courts. Not so much the Supreme Court. Not so much there. But the lower court judges. I mean, even Trump appointees are ruling against him in a raft of these cases. And so that has been the one pillar of government that's held up to a lot of the attacks that we're seeing right now. No question about it. Well, all right, so we've reached the portion of the program where we go into audience questions.

50:40And I have some questions that have been submitted in advance from the audience. And as the late John McCain once said, questions, comments, and insults. So they're all in here. No, just kidding. They're just questions that are in here. And I've got to get my glasses out or else this is going to be not good at all. This is a good one. and I thought this was a good one to get into. This is from Douglas. What messaging can sway people who voted for Trump, who were independents, MAGA Republicans, or the religious right, what message could sway them back to the real world, I guess?

51:11Brian Tyler Cohen:Yeah, I think that's a great question, and it's something that we're going to be contending with over the next couple of years because I think those people are going to be gettable. And the question is, just look at what you're contending with right now. Are your food bills cheaper? Is your electricity bills cheaper? Is healthcare more accessible or more affordable? Are your rent payments, your mortgage payments lower than they were before? And the answer to all of this stuff is no. There are no material conditions in this country that are better right now under Donald Trump than they were under the previous administration.

51:44Brian Tyler Cohen:And the previous administration was, according to Republicans, so disqualifying that it warranted voting for Republicans in the first place. So if that was bad and this is worse, what does that say about the Republicans' ability to be able to campaign here? So I think you don't have to talk about some theoretical ideas. All you have to do is ask people to look at what their own lives are like. And the reality is Donald Trump has been so singularly focused on himself, on his ballroom and his reflecting pool and his arch and encrusting the Oval Office in gold and making money for himself and World Liberty Financial and opening up real estate ventures overseas.

52:22Brian Tyler Cohen:He's done all of these things that he hasn't done a single thing for regular people. And even when it was delivered to him on a silver platter, as the housing bill was, he refused to sign it because he was so focused on consolidating power and consolidating control of government for himself. And that is all an easy story to tell people. And especially given the fact that we have been groomed, the American people have been groomed to recognize that that is the litmus test issue. Yeah, no, I agree with you. It's so true. And that leads me to this question, which I think is actually a very important question and something that is direly or very much needed.

52:58This is from Kelly. Are the Democrats coming up with an action plan that they can begin implementing in January, assuming they flip the House and or the Senate? Is there agreement on how they will convince the American public that they have solid plans to fix the affordability crisis? And this, I think this is a great question. I don't think we've heard enough of this from Democrats. And it sort of brings me back to, and the folks who are a little bit older in the audience will remember this, this was in the 90s when Newt Gingrich had his contract with America. Remember that whole thing? And it's, yeah, please.

53:29But I think they called it a contract on America, I think is what folks call it. But it sort of reminds me of this Project 2025 question that comes up from time to time. Why don't Democrats come up with an array of policy proposals that they can put out there? to the American people. And I don't think the Democrats have done that up until this point. There's talk of this here and this there, but not a, hey, we're doing, we want to do all of these things. Vote on this. Yeah.

53:57Brian Tyler Cohen:And I think, look, in large part, that's what I seek to do with the book by putting out into the zeitgeist a lot of the stuff that I think Democrats should run on. I understand why we haven't seen it yet, because I think in large part, it is so difficult to break through with a forward-leaning agenda, a proactive agenda, when everybody is just contending with the cavalcade of shit that is falling on us on a daily basis from this White House. But, you know, after midterms, I do think that Trump is so unpopular, and Republicans who let him do everything he's doing by offering no check on his power, all of these people are so unpopular that I think at least up until midterms, that will be enough.

54:42Brian Tyler Cohen:But I think after midterms, if there's no proactive agenda, it's not going to be enough for people for whom anti-Trump has been the prevailing theme. I think, well, I appreciate it, but I don't think so. I cover these people every day. They're out of their minds. I would never subject myself to that then I would have to deal with people like me. Yeah. And me. And you. Yeah. Nobody wants that. Yeah. But I think, you know, in large part, it's on every issue, there are things that Democrats can and must do. I think on the issues of democracy, I mean, I talked about expanding the court. I talk about passing a new iteration of the Freedom to Vote Act.

55:28Brian Tyler Cohen:We need Election Day to be a national holiday. We need to ban partisan gerrymandering nationwide. We need to make sure that we have automatic voter registration and we need to make sure we get this shit done because that is the foundation of our democracy. On issues of healthcare, I advocate in this book for Medicare for All. I think it is crazy that in the richest country in the world, we don't have universal healthcare, but we have$125 billion to go to war with Iran again in the aftermath of a campaign where they campaigned expressly on avoiding foreign wars, forever wars in the Middle East?

56:05Brian Tyler Cohen:I think just two days ago, Trump posted on True Social that we're going to be the guardians of the Hormuz Strait. That's what he said. Okay, so we're going to be the guardians of the Hormuz Strait. To be the guardians, that means you have to have a presence there permanently. And Iran is a hostile nation compared to the United States, which means we are basically, what he's saying is effectively that we need to be in a forever war. So it is just crazy that we have money for this stuff. It's crazy that we have money for a ballroom that, by the way, we were told we wouldn't have to pay for, and lo and behold, we're paying for it.

56:38Brian Tyler Cohen:It's crazy that we have money to pay for the retrofitting of a Qatari jet that Donald Trump gets to keep after he leaves office. That he can't even fly in because it's not safe. Yeah. We always have money for this bullshit, but we never have money to pay for the thing that actually impacts regular people. So I think we are so far past the point where we can say, how do we pay for it? When the reality is, how can we afford not to pay for something like that?

57:06Yeah, I'm with you. I don't know how anybody can argue that the healthcare system in this country is working. I mean, you get these bills from your doctor's office and it says, the insurance company took this part out and this one out over here, but now you owe$65.84. Does anybody know what that$65? None of it makes any sense. And so I think that's another one of those issues where Democrats are getting out there on the campaign trail and they're not talking about universal health care in this country. I mean, what are you doing?

57:37Brian Tyler Cohen:People are tired of the half loaf. A hundred percent. And I think Trump has been instructive in that sense, because again, when you have somebody who has shown zero deference to institutions, he's shown how easy it is to blow through this stuff. Now he does it again to get what he wants, but I think that there is less adherence to any of our institutions of which our healthcare system is one. So I was in favor of and appreciated this getting into the conversation, into the national discourse in the 2020 election. I think Medicare for all, I mean, look, also 2016 was another instance in which we were talking about it.

58:18Brian Tyler Cohen:But I think that's an idea whose time has come. And I think we are in a moment where we are going to see a major political realignment and the rebuilding of our government and our institutions. And I think health care is a major component of that. And so I do think that that is a moment, an idea whose moment has come. Yeah, no, I agree with you 100 percent. I think this is another great question. This is from Kay. This gets into what voters can do. other than standard things like campaign donations, voter registration, phone banking, door knocking, letter writing, what are other things citizens can do to elevate impact?

58:55I hear this question all the time. What do you think? You take this one. Well, I will tell you, and I was thinking about this during our 250th birthday in this country. I know people were down in the dumps because Donald Trump was the president during our 250th. Do we have to really have this guy for our 250th birthday and so on? And the thing that I came up with, and it really is just the bare minimum that we need to ask everybody. And I would love to see a commitment from everybody in this audience that you just say to yourself, I can outlast this moment. You just say to yourself, we can get through this.

59:32No more it's over. No more it's all going down the tubes. No more are we actually going to get to the other side. No, you just say to yourself, I can outlast this moment. I can get through this. I think that's a good place to start. We can worry about all the other stuff, bringing people to the polls and driving a bus, you know, to make sure everybody at the nursing home gets to the polls and so on and getting out on No King's Day and those kinds of things. But can you just at least, at the very least, not give up? Yeah. That's what I say. That's what I say.

1:00:07But maybe you have more to offer on that.

1:00:09Brian Tyler Cohen:I think another idea is, you know, when I was, during the pre-order period of this book, I made a decision along with Mark Elias that I would donate a portion of the proceeds to the Free Election Fund. The Free Election Fund is Mark's 501c3 that focuses on election litigation. We were just speaking about the fact that the courts have been the last bulwark for democracy. And in large part, these attorneys who are showing up every day and fighting these battles and winning are why we're still in a position where we can succeed. The work that Mark does, the work that somebody like Norm Eisen does, these are folks who are out there fighting these battles on the front line right now.

1:00:53Brian Tyler Cohen:So I think in terms of looking for places to offer up some contributions for those who are looking to help, the free election fund is something that I think is particularly important in this moment, especially as we get closer and closer to midterms where we see that the Republicans are throwing everything they have at these cases. Yeah, no, you're so right. Mark's group is terrific. And you mentioned Norm Eisen too. Norm Eisen defending the man who's been falsely accused of vandalizing the reflecting pool. I just went down there today. There is no gash in the middle of the reflecting. I just hope everybody understands.

1:01:32I know that comes as a surprise that Donald Trump was lying about this. But I went down. I was like, I should just go. The pool has been drained. First of all, I couldn't believe they drained the reflecting pool. Because I was like, if you drain the reflecting pool, we're all going to see that he's been lying this whole time. And as it turns out, he has been lying this whole time.

1:01:49Brian Tyler Cohen:I wonder if driving a 7 ,000-pound cavalcade of SUVs over the not-yet-dry reflecting pool had any impact on the reflecting pool's inability to dry properly. If they're looking for the elusive vandals, I think we found them. Yeah, but no, it raises a good point in that, I mean, we've seen up until this point the Justice Department being weaponized and going after people like Jim Comey and Letitia James and so on. But now they're just going after people like David Hearn. Now they're just going after an Olympic canoeist because they have to prove that the dear leader is right and that there have been people vandalizing the reflecting pool when that's not the case.

1:02:29Doesn't that piss you off? Doesn't that make you mad?

1:02:31Brian Tyler Cohen:It makes me so mad. I mean, even Kilmar Abrego Garcia, that whole situation where they knew they fucked up. They even had a DOJ lawyer come and say that this was done as the result of an administrative error. But because they needed to make an example of them, because they are fueled solely by ego, they continued to prosecute this guy and make this guy's life a living hell because it's not about the merits. It's just about making sure that the thin-skinned president has his win. And so, yeah, I mean, the extent to which the DOJ has been weaponized and this federal government has weaponized even regular people.

1:03:10Brian Tyler Cohen:I mean, hell, if you go on whitehouse.gov, you'll find my name under the media offenders list. Yeah, oh, boy.

1:03:21Brian Tyler Cohen:And I'll tell you what. Yeah. Welcome to being one of the enemy of the people. That's right. I'll tell you what. Once that happened, I promoted the everlasting shit out of that. Because I was like, I'm selling shirts that say media offender on my website. If anybody wants to buy them. I wanted to make it so that that would become such a backfire for this administration that it becomes so toxic. I use that to promote the hell out of myself because I wanted them to know that if you're going to try and chill content creators into silence in the same way that you've been effective at doing so with law firms and universities and tech CEOs and legacy media companies and all of these people who presumably have so much power and so much money and so much influence and yet they bend over backwards and capitually to Trump the second they have the opportunity to do so because they are leveraged by the federal government.

1:04:29Brian Tyler Cohen:We're not. Independent media doesn't answer to anybody. Like, I don't need anything from the White House. I know you don't need anything from the White House. And so the question is, what's the point of having fuck you money if you can't say fuck you to this administration? Good point. and the interesting thing is in the aftermath of of that moment um where i just you know wore it as a badge of honor publicly as much as i could and i know my friend david pacman did the exact same thing he was also on that list they didn't add anybody else to the list there was no there was no you know broader campaign to to create a whole faction of content creators who are they who they were going to target because they realized that all we're getting is free publicity.

1:05:18Brian Tyler Cohen:All they're doing is giving free publicity to the critics of this administration. So the list just stands at like three people right now. Yeah, as I used to say, where do I send the check? You know, where do I send the check? I mean, they're not taking it down because I think that would be an admission of defeat and the last thing this administration is going to do. So now I just have a living memorial to this administration's temporary effort to target independent media. Well, on that note, I just want to say, Brian, it's been an honor for me to be here with you this evening, with all of you this evening.

1:05:52And there has been an expression that courage is contagious. Brian, you bring so much passion to the table, to this subject, to rescuing our democracy, saving this country, saving this country from a very dark moment that we're in the middle of right now. I just hope that the passion you bring to this is infectious, is contagious, and that all of you have picked up on some of this tonight. Really appreciate it. Thank you. Best of luck. Thank you.

1:06:20Brian Tyler Cohen:I want to thank you, Jim, for being here and taking time out of your schedule to help me out tonight. And I know you have fans in every single person in this room. They're all paid. I pay them all. Not just for the work that you're doing right now, but also for being a voice for so many people throughout the entirety of this administration. It's an honor to be able to sit here with somebody who stood up to this administration when they were fighting against media figures in the early days, and you were chief among them. So thank you for the work that you've done. Thank you, man. Appreciate it.

1:06:54Brian Tyler Cohen. Buy his book, The Day After. Yes, there will be a day after. Don't worry. And Brian's going to show us how. Good to see you, man.

1:07:03Brian Tyler Cohen:I want to say one more thing, if I can. Yeah, one more thing. Thank you to the team at Six and I for making this happen. And thank you to you all for being here. I know that there are a million reasons to check out with the despair that I think is purposefully engineered to make us feel. So the fact that you all showed up, took time out of your busy schedules, and are staying engaged and involved in this stuff is the singular thing that gives me hope for the future of this country. So thank you to everybody for being here. Thank you. Well said. Well said. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Nice to see all of you.

1:07:35Nice to see all of you. Thank you.

1:07:37Brian Tyler Cohen:Thanks again to Jim Acosta. That's it for this episode. Talk to you on Wednesday.

1:08:07We'll be right back.