Ari: Trump WH Resurrecting Parts of Failed Jan. 6 Coup

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0:45And where colleagues meet to explore the waterfront views in our 72-acre downtown urban oasis. And where in 2028, a modern streetcar will take you to even more entertainment options. Go to visitomaha.com slash meetings to learn more. Welcome to The Beat, everyone. I'm Ari Melberg. Great to be with you tonight. And we are tracking a lot of developments. President Trump and the assorted members of his Republican Party who wish someone else was president going into these midterms are panicked. If you're counting, it's summer. People are busy living lives. We are now 85 days out from the midterms.

1:18The old saying goes, campaigns are won or lost in the summer. If you believe that, it is a bad summer for these Republicans. Trump is now eyeing a concession in a war that he can't control at home. The breakaway figures from the Epstein history are still revolting against the Trump MAGA movement. So people like Tucker Carlson, who said Epstein was unacceptable, the war is a problem, are now kind of full-time agitators against Trump and what Tucker calls Trump's corruption. That is a wedge that matters when you look at the enthusiasm gap in these midterms. The new polls reinforce why Republicans are panicked.

1:55And then you have the blinking economic warning signals for regular people. I'm not talking about Wall Street stocks, although you could keep an eye on that. I'm talking about the job losses in the Trump economy. On that important story, we actually have Dylan Rattigan, a veteran of this network, as well as CNBC and a pretty prominent Wall Street critic these days, to help us understand how this matters for people, not just profits. But the big story is Iran. Trump might just want to abandon the whole thing without getting any further concessions. We've gone from the art of the deal to the art of the surrender.

2:28The journal reporting that Trump floats the idea privately to AIDS that he's willing to walk away without any nuclear deal at all, according to U.S. officials. I'm paraphrasing that new journal reporting. That would be more than humiliating. It would really undercut the entire second term foreign policy claims that he's made. The war is already unpopular. People know what's wrong with it and the gas prices. But what's left of Trump's support are people who say, well, even if they concede it's going poorly, you've got to stand up to regimes like Iran. Well, this would not be standing up. This would be cutting and running.

3:03We know what Trump has said. Take a look. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. We're not going to give them a nuclear weapon. They will not have a nuclear weapon. I'm talking about Iran. They can't have a nuclear weapon. that's what we heard to what we're now hearing then you have the pressure from people who said they supported aspects of trumpism said they liked things that he was doing and that makes them very credible again as i said in a time where summer is where people often see the breaking in campaigns and you have people like tucker carlson and mtg they've actually talked recently to each other, and they are trying to tap not a liberal or woke or Democratic response to Trump.

3:49They're just saying there needs to be change. And there are those in Trump's orbit who theorize that this effort could actually become a vehicle for attacking the president to damage Republicans writ large in November. Remember, Trump has sowed a lot of chaos and civil war among Republicans by attacking so many of them. So what's good for the goose is good for the gander. Politico reporting that another ally close to Trump says, get just enough folks to stay home so we lose the House and the president gets destroyed. And then I want to show you something else that kind of is cross-cutting several of these issues that we've been reporting on.

4:21I mentioned Tucker, MTG. We've seen how the Republican senators who lost primaries over Trump have made the second term more difficult. That's before you get to the midterms. And then you think about the way that Trump's kind of backup plan when he knows he's unpopular and things are going poorly is to try to rig the system, a word, of course, he famously used, but he does it when he tries to cheat or overthrow elections. He does it when he tries to shake down the press from comedians to the news industry. And we've all covered that a lot. I want to show you something that's pretty interesting, because the Trump theory is if you get enough of government power and your allies to control the media, maybe you can stem the other things I just mentioned, a poor economy, an endless war, and even Republicans criticizing you.

5:01But what happens if even your MAGA allies change, say, let's pick an example, 60 Minutes and hire new people. And then the people you get are also pointing out realities in the real world that are negative for Trump and Republicans. That's my introduction to the farewell column from Ross Douthat at the New York Times. He's considered a sort of independent conservative voice there. And in his last column at the Times, which he knew would be noticed, he says, Trumpism has flailed and failed. That means not just one policy or criticizing on Epstein. That is Trumpism has failed its leadership, its role for America and on the world stage.

5:43I mentioned the wider context because Douthat is only leaving that plum perch of being a New York Times columnist to head for what he views as a promotion to 60 Minutes. You see him there. He's not as recognizable TV face, but that's Ross. In the middle, you have Barry Weiss, who is the MAGA allied leader of that effort to change CBS in maybe 60 minutes. She got rid of Scott Pelley, a face you probably do know if you watch the news. And having ousted vets like Pelley and having been accused credibly by journalists and longtime independent, you know, nonpartisan journalists there of meddling, she's hired someone like Ross.

6:20And that raises the question, if your replacement to Scott Pelley is more anti-Trump or at least more clearly quoting reality to say Trump is failing than Pelley, then what exactly is going on over there? And are you going to be able to pull off the political makeover that you claim to want? And when I say pull it off, I don't mean for accurate news. I mean for the stated allegation by many people at 60 Minutes that it's supposed to become more Trump friendly. And that's a merger we've been covering that may or may not ultimately happen. The Trump folks say they want certain kind of coverage to help get them the rest of that deal, which would mean taking on CNN as well.

6:59So that's an aside amid these problems that Trump is facing, because it reminds you that trying to change the channel isn't working for them either. And the polling is the wider crash. Pew's polling approval rating of every president in the summer going into the key midterms, all the way back to Reagan, Trump is at the lowest. Republicans face broader headwinds. Four polls show Democrats ahead when you look at the generic ballot. That doesn't tell you everything because there's no generic election, but these are the headwinds. And that's where we begin with Gene Robinson, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist, MSNOW analyst, and Michelle Goldberg, columnist with The New York Times.

7:33Gene, your view on what looks like a kind of a perfect storm against Republicans and Trump saying maybe they don't need to win anything in Iran. Right, well, look, Donald Trump doesn't really care about the Republican Party very much. I mean, loyalty flows one way as far as he's concerned. That's always been the case. And so I don't think anyone should be surprised that he's not really thinking about the midterm election politically in a lot of the things that he's doing. Even if he were to think about it right now, it's unclear exactly what he would do. He has made no gestures toward affordability, which is perhaps the biggest issue.

8:20The war continues after he promised that we would not have these kinds of wars. So clearly, it is a bad political situation for Republicans to be going into these elections. On the other hand, Democrats would obviously be foolish to start doing victory dances at this point. You know, there are 80 some days left. And so I think they'd better keep the pedal to the metal as best they can. Michelle, your view on all of that, as well as what normally would be a kind of insider story. I mentioned people might not know what Ross looks like. He's more of a print journalist. And yet if this is the new voice that that was promised to replace Scott Pelley at CBS and it still says, hey, look.

9:12The reality is a lot of what Trump's doing is failing. I wonder what that tells you about the state of conservative commentary as well. Well, look, I'm not going to speak about kind of internal New York Times things. You know, Ross and I co-hosted a podcast together. I think he's somebody who has a lot of integrity and has always been quite critical of Trump, but more open to conservative views. And so I think, you know, what it seems to me that what Barry Weiss is doing is in some ways making 60 Minutes more Trump friendly, but also embedding a set of conservative conservative assumptions into kind of the operating system of the broadcast, into the kinds of questions that they ask and the kind of stories that they think is worth covering.

9:55And I think that what we've seen with David Ellison, who now runs CBS and who wants to run CNN, is that he was sort of pushing on an open door going into this year because there was this sense that the vibe had shifted and the opposition to Trump and his kind of authoritarian attempts at consolidating the media behind his cronies was a big deal. was almost unchecked, you're starting to see more and more opposition as Donald Trump becomes more unpopular. And now his attempt to take over CNN is somewhat in doubt because, you know, even though you can, the president has power to rig a lot of things, but some of that power depends on popular legitimacy and it, or at least on popular acquiescence.

10:49And that is what Donald Trump is losing day by day. Yeah, I think that's really fairly put. And it's a reminder of how much things can shift. Here we are about 10 minutes into the hour. We've largely been on the Republican side of the ledger and they do control the White House and the Congress. I did want to turn while we're in this politics discussion to AOC, a congresswoman who is very much seen as a potential future face of this party. And she has gone public very deliberately as a working woman with the fertility journey that she's on and also a range of other issues. Some people think she's considering a bid for higher office.

11:29Let's take a look.

11:35That wasn't so bad. I have decided to start the process of freezing my eggs. And in this political environment where this administration is denying reproductive care to women across the country. Was it? I mean, did the movement go too far with some of those positions? I mean, you briefly supported the idea of defunding the police. Well, you know, I think that during this time and during, especially during COVID, there was a huge opening of the Overton window. We were shut down. There was some of the highest unemployment rates that we have seen because of those shutdowns. And I think that the doors were really open in trying to entertain any and every policy that was going to get us to a better place.

12:20And I actually think that the discussions that were had in that time were quite fruitful. And when you're ready to make that decision about 2020, come back and talk. AOC leads in a different, very bold style. She's a proud progressive. And then she's also saying, hey, not everything ever said in the service of what you might call the progressive wing or sometimes, quote, woke politics got it right. What do you see happening here? Well, I think that it's not just AOC, right? There's a lot of progressive candidates who are now being haunted by things that they said in 2020 or 2021, including Abdul El-Sayed and Francesca Hong, the gubernatorial candidate in Wisconsin.

13:08And, you know, on the one hand, I think it's healthy that Democrats and including progressive Democrats are sort of disavowing some of the more outray and unpopular positions that they took then. I do think that there has to be maybe a little bit more of an explanation by people. I mean, I think that there's grace for people who've changed, but there has to be some sort of explanation of how that change occurred. you know, some sort of statement that we, you know, we made a mistake by putting, by taking a lot of kind of common sense policies about criminal justice reform and, you know, talking about them in maximalist or hyperbolic terms.

13:46It didn't do us any favors. I think that you can, you know, they don't need to disavow the sort of underlying values, but they maybe do need to explain away a

14:01Mm hmm. All makes sense. Michelle Goldberg. Thank you. I want to thank Eugene Robinson, who was with us at the top of the show as well. Next, we turn to the new attorney general, Todd Blanche, sworn in today. And I have a special breakdown on what really matters here, what it reveals about Trump's lawlessness and anti-police agenda. We're back with that in 90 seconds. Welcome to Omaha, where work and play meet, where productivity meets the after party. where downtown convention space and hotels are within walking distance of 90 restaurants, pubs, and unique shops. Where locally made morning lattes meet five o 'clock craft cocktails, and where colleagues meet to explore the waterfront views in our 72-acre downtown urban oasis.

14:45And where in 2028, a modern streetcar will take you to even more entertainment options. Go to visitomaha.com slash meetings to learn more. Support for this podcast comes from Progressive, America's number one boat insurer. We've all made mistakes on the water, but there's one mistake you shouldn't make, being uninsured. With Progressive Boat Insurance, you can choose coverage for most mistakes you or other boaters could make, helping you float carefree all season long. Quote today, Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates, number one rating based on 2024 filings with state departments of insurance.

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16:17President Trump's former defense lawyer, Todd Blanch, sworn in today, a normally celebratory step, that was actually closed to the press, which is one of a few signs that the DOJ clash here didn't go well for Blanche and Trump. Another unusual, albeit minor, clue was that there's reporting the DOJ team asked people to clap Blanche in when he arrived this morning. You see him there, MS Now reporting. We don't know why that special request was made, but we do know that there's many indications that Blanche's credibility has been low in the department, even if they got some people to come out to the hallway for this spectacle.

16:56Indeed, unlike most of Trump's cabinet nominees, Blanche barely got confirmed at all. He struggled to get that original nomination out of committee. You may remember there was a lot of reporting on that. That first vote canceled because he was going to lose it had it been held then. He also ultimately lost the votes of some Republican senators leading to last week's nail-biter, where he got through by a single vote because he lost some Republicans. And he wouldn't even have gotten through by that vote had he not had to compromise under pressure, ruling out that already frozen MAGA crime front.

17:28That's what it took to win back two of what turned out to be needed Republican votes. So that is actually, I think, the most important development here legally. And it underscores two points. The first, pressure works. Donald Trump made a lot of noise about a lot of things that he could have done. Maybe he would skip the whole vote and just keep Blanche in there on an acting basis, try again next year if maybe they still held the Senate. It was bluster as usual. It was a bluff. Because the Republican senators did get Blanche to formally end that fund after Trump made all those big, cocky-sounding threats.

18:07That's one. Pressure works. Two, Donald Trump still wants to fund and reward MAGA convicts. He wanted to do that up to the end, meaning he still wants to do it right now, even if his hands are more tied legally. He was at one point musing about risking the whole nomination for that goal. He was undercutting Blanche and the others who had publicly claimed the fund was already over because it wasn't over because he wants it. it's Trump's priority, even depending on how you look at it, his possible obsession. As president, Donald Trump already infamously used more of his authority to act against police, against their well-being, against their safety, against punishing those who attack police, be they federal or other types of police.

18:53He did that on the side of convicts more than any other president. He might like you to forget that. He has a lot of aides who do a lot of rhetorical backflips trying to disappear that. And then he has a propaganda machine that lies about that. But on this network and on this program, we will always remind you of that very recent history that they are trying to memory hole because we don't want to relive it. This new clash, of course, was about seizing your tax dollars to pay MAGA convicts, including possibly those from January 6th. And that's where those key Republican senators drew their line.

19:27And when Blanche's confirmation looked doomed, he then relented and compromised and submitted this written and signed memo stating that that MAGA fund is dead, that those funds will not be used, I should say abused if it was actually tried, to fund convicts and other violent people just because they're aligned with the president. the fund, which I will not call by its propaganda name, although you can read it off the screen if you choose, the MAGA crime fund was rescinded, signed by Mr. Blanche. The Times reports that there could be loopholes there, and that could be by design, because that's the whole reveal here.

20:07Blanche may have been willing to write that up under the pressure, and others in the DOJ have tried to walk away from that, because by the way, it was already frozen in court, probably illegal, a lot of things, but Donald Trump wants to take your money and use it that way. This would be a reimbursement for the pain that they suffer. A lot of people like it. If they don't approve that, I put it back on the table. A lot of people like it. A lot of big supporters of Trump like it. Kind of a nonsensical, corrupt statement there. He wants to take your money without any act of Congress or under any legal authority and give it out to convicts.

20:50And then when he tries to defend it, this is why a lot of people say Trump is not the communicator he might have once been, he says the convicts getting the money like it. Yeah, most people like free money. Convicts might like it extra in the case of these folks who in any other normal time would still be incarcerated, but that's hardly a defense. Trump prioritized this on his first full day in office, pardoning on his first day in office, pardoning over a thousand of those convicts. The Trump DOJ also abandoned the seditious conspiracy case against the very militias who were part of that effort to overthrow democracy.

21:27Trump signaled it's okay to do this as long as it's on his behalf. And so this is the whole story. On the one hand, they were stopped and it took leverage and pressure. That's why I told you step one, pressure works. On the other hand, not only Donald Trump, and Blanche and those enablers, but a heck of a lot of other people in our country who would rather just look the other way or not deal with this or try to give Trump the benefit of the doubt or just hope they don't have to deal with this the next time there's a coup attempt in our Capitol are looking away from the fact that Trump does want this kind of paid militia.

22:06He has not changed. He has actually only gotten more anti-police and more direct in this. It's the warning we heard from Congressman Raskin. It's all about weaponizing the tax dollars of the American people to support Donald Trump's private militia. If these people had real viable causes of action against anybody, they would go to federal court. And the ones who have gone to federal court have lost their cases overwhelmingly. Fact check. True. That was kind of going into the beginning of the summer. Here we are in the heart of the summer, nearing the end, if you look at it that way in August. And we've gone from that idea of floating to being blocked in court to being fought back in Congress to, with the leverage of this confirmation fight, perhaps the one thing about it that upholds the rule of law, to the thing being signed and sealed as dead under the law of the new attorney general, under his hand.

22:59Now, if Trump does still get Blanche to try to reverse that, you can try to rescind a memo, just as you rescinded the fund, right? They will end up back in court. And they will have a problem, which is everything I've just told you that's happened up to now. This thing was already paused by a judge, but it's now rescinded, signed by Blanche. And so trying to revive that would be very hard. And this isn't something that the president can just do alone. That's why he's run into so much trouble. When you actually need to move money out of the treasury and you need to make bank transfers and you need all these different government officials involved, a judicial order blocking it blocks it.

23:40Now, when you look at this and you say, okay, I guess it's kind of over, but we should be vigilant. What is the final takeaway? I will tell you in plain English. He wanted a coup. He supported a violent sedition as adjudicated in our courts of law. He got back into power and he released every last one of those violent thugs. And as if that weren't enough, he wanted to take your money to fund them. Why? Donald Trump doesn't pay back his own contractors and lawyers and other staff. We've heard that for decades. Why is he suddenly so interested in getting money to these people, even though now it's been stopped?

24:14Apparently, he wants them on call and ready to act again in the next election or two. And we take that seriously. We're going to fit in a break. That's my special report on what we learned from the Blanche issues. But by the end of the hour, we will lighten up a little bit with Obama teaming up with Larry David for this big show that now is taking on RFK Jr. If I was in charge, I'd make sure that no kids took that vaccine. That goes for measles, too. Oh, if you were in charge. That's right. Oh, God help us all. It's some idiot. Some moron I never put you in charge. That would be the dark day for humanity.

24:56Do you want to know what's going on in that scene? Do you want more? We have that by the end of the hour. But first, we look at this economy. We look at the job losses, which are rattling the Trump midterms. And then you try to make sense of what you should be ready for. We have the great Dylan Radigan, a Wall Street expert and critic. Next.