GOP Rebuffs WH on 'Crazy' Fund for Criminals

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1:06Andrew's a great guest on this. As you can see, he's joining me tonight. And later, we have a very special guest making his beat debut to talk about Jon Stewart, the role of critics and music and dissent. As we look at what free speech means in America today, very excited for that. I'll tell you more about it later. Later, we begin with the top story, the strain that Trump is putting on his own party with what Republican senators call selfishness. The sound you hear is, of course, Election Day in America. We'll keep following these primaries and voters in Texas are coming out in the Republican primary.

1:38And they are looking down the barrel of what some view as a magal civil war, where Donald Trump has picked the anti-Republican re-election side. That's what Senate Republicans even are saying. So kind of an unusual headline if you think about it that way. This is the runoff you might have heard about if you follow the news. You have an embattled incumbent, Republican John Cornyn, and the very controversial, once impeached, scandal-plagued Ken Paxton, who netted a Trump endorsement. And that's got Republican senators and strategists mad. They say it makes it less likely that they'll hold the Senate.

2:11Some have called this a brutal primary that reads Republicans in tatters. Of course, it all depends on whether the eventual nominee can win. But it paves the way for a rising star in the Democratic Party to have what, again, even Republicans say is potentially a better shot at turning this seat blue. Now, if you're watching the news going, I feel like I've heard about this before. It is true. We have heard many times about efforts to turn Texas blue that have not actually won, or as the kids would say, manifest. Why is this time different? Well, Paxton has more than your usual amount of MAGA baggage.

2:48He had to settle a federal corruption indictment. He was impeached for alleged fraud and obstruction of justice. His wife filed for divorce amid these allegations. And those are allegations. Of course, a divorce proceeding can go on in court. But it is a matter of public record for voters to be aware of that there are allegations of multiple affairs. I will note that he was acquitted in his impeachment and he has asserted that he is innocent of all corruption charges. But this is politics, not a court of law. The Republican senators were basically unanimous at wanting the non-impeached, non-scandal plagued incumbent Republican to be their choice.

3:28The candidacy has divided many, including even some couples in Texas. It's not a great choice, either one, really. But I think I lean towards Paxton for sure. He's local. Cornyn hasn't always been with the Republicans the way I would like. but it was a tough choice but I did vote for Paxton on the runoff. What are your thoughts about Paxton? A crook. Yeah, that's it, period. He's just a crook. That's an independent talking. You know, we could all learn something about being able to disagree agreeably. They go home together. They vote differently. Huzzah. Molly Dongfast and Michelle Goldberg are here on The Politics of This and a couple other stories including Colbert, but I want to bring in our live reporting from Texas, Jake Traylor, in Plano, Texas, right outside what is the Paxton headquarters party or the election night party.

4:27What are you seeing on the ground? Yeah, Ari, look, the theme that would come from talking with many voters in the Plano area all throughout the day is there's not a lot of Texans excited about the candidate they're supporting. A lot of their votes are being cast to counter the challenger. Let me explain. For those that are supporting Paxton today. A lot of the conversation from voters that we talked to as they exit the polls is that they are really supportive of term limits. They don't like the idea that John Cornyn's been in office for 20-something years, had four terms to do this. They want fresh blood in D.C.

4:59When it comes to those, though, that are supporting Cornyn, they view Paxton as a deeply embattled candidate. Some things you mentioned at the top there, someone who's been impeached by a Republican House of Representatives here in Texas, someone actively facing allegations amidst a messy public divorce. This, of course, though, is all underpinned by President Trump's 11th hour endorsement of Paxton. This is as Cornyn, who has tried to be incredibly loyal to Trump, has apparently not been loyal enough. Despite Cornyn on his campaign website posting a picture of himself and Trump and touting a 99.2 % similarity voting score with Trump, Trump says that's still not quite enough.

5:39He's been poaching off Republicans in his own party over the past couple of months, and he's honestly done it pretty successfully. We've seen him do that now in Louisiana with Bill Cassidy and Kentucky with Thomas Massey. But tonight, Trump has a Texas-sized challenge in picking off John Cornyn and supporting Ken Paxton. Yeah, really interesting to hear that, including what you guys are hearing from voters, Jake. Thank you. I want to tell everyone that Trump, of course, is going into this primary with political headaches that are well beyond this scheduled Texas vote. when the economy is taken into account in the summer, people plan their trips, they think about gas prices, they think about what they can afford, and it's less under Trump.

6:18Here was a White House official, though, today. The thing that I've seen when I look at credit card data and other things that I can get for the private sector is that while people have been spending more money at gas stations, they've been spending more money on everything else, which means that they're still very, very optimistic about the state of the economy. You can ask yourself whether transferring your planning and your budgeting to your credit card reflects, quote, optimism or just the crunch of the fact that things are more expensive and people go into credit spending to say, all right, well, we'll do the July 4th trip on the card and we'll figure the rest out later.

6:57It's more of reality than optimism. And it's a rising price problem that Trump promised and has now failed to fix. 59 % meanwhile say Trump lacks mental sharpness. Many people skeptical of his health problems. He says he got a clean bill of health after a third in-person doctor visit in just over the years. Skeptics, though, have been raising questions about everything from the appearance of his hands to recent events where he has his eyes closed in meetings, whether you call that a nap or something else, is the eye or the closed eye of the beholder. I want to bring in from the New York Times, Molly Dongfass and Michelle Goldberg from the New York Times, also both analysts for us at MS Now.

7:34Michelle, we start with Texas, where I want to be objective. If Paxton gets the nomination with Trump's help and ultimately holds the seat, then it may have cost them a little more, but it will feel like noise. If they blow a seat, though, in a red state because Trump just didn't care about holding the Senate, that would really be something. Yeah, I mean, it would be astonishing. This has been the white whale for Democrats for as long as I've been covering politics. The idea of a Democratic senator from Texas, and I think most people who follow Texas think that that Tallarico has a better chance against Paxton because he is so plagued by, you know, scandal, both in terms of kind of bribery and corruption, but also just in terms of this very ugly and messy divorce.

8:18At the same time, the amount of Republican, the way that these Republican senators are showing so much kind of angst and sense of betrayal over Donald Trump stabbing John Cornyn in the back, it's like, this is the line for you. I mean, to me, that's what's astonishing is that you see them all say, well, now that now we're going to stand against the ballroom right now, we're going to stand against the slush fund. Now we're going to vote for a war powers resolution because how dare you take out our friend John or potentially to help take out our friend John Cornyn. And I think it just goes to show how utterly insular they are, right?

8:54That this is the line that Trump can cross that will finally make them say, you know, this man is out of control. Yeah, I mean, your criticism makes a deep point. If you remember in The Dark Knight where the Joker says, and this is his cynical view, he says people are only as good as they're allowed to be. And whatever the cowardice or narrowness, or you called it insularity of these Republican senators, apparently they are only as independent as they think they're allowed to be. and having watched a move that in the narrow math of the Senate, they perceive, let's put aside whether it happens, as I said, we don't know.

9:30They perceive it as materially making it more likely they lose the Senate. And that, as you say, unloads them to say, well, maybe we will stand up against your ballroom. Yeah, exactly. I mean, and what's so bizarre, too, is that it's actually only by kind of standing up against Trump in these very small ways that they might have a chance, I think, or have a better chance of holding the Senate. You know, so actually Trump should not be just out of kind of pure self-interest. It does not serve Trump to be making all of these kind of insane loyalty tests. But Donald Trump has always been somebody who puts his lust for revenge and his, you know, sort of personal impulses above long-term planning.

10:13Yeah. And Molly, it speaks to something different in the current tectonic plates underpinning the political parties, which is Democrats have compromised. The cliche criticism about extreme woke radical left Democrats is out there. That's one of the attack points. But in the reality of candidate selection, they will support a Joe Manchin or someone that they think is more palatable in these states. That's happened. And the Trump version of MAGA says it's not enough to have what our reporter pointed out, 99 percent voting with MAGA priorities. By any stretch, Cornyn is full MAGA in the voting. But the atmospherics, the energy, a slightly more MAGA-fied figure is what Trump will take, even at the risk to the party, because he's never been about the party.

11:01Yes. But I think I think none of this happens in a vacuum. Right. We saw another incumbent, Bill Cassidy, lose his seat, too. So this is not happening. This is not some, you know, these people want to keep their jobs. Right. These Senate Republicans want to keep their jobs. And what they're seeing is one of their own losing his job. Again, it's important to remember, like before Trump, you would never have a president endorse, you know, endorse a challenger over a sitting incumbent. That would never happen. I mean, this is sort of new stuff. And remember, this primary is now the Times just had an article that it's one hundred and thirty million dollars spent on a GOP primary.

11:43And it's going to be more. And look, Paxton may not in may in the end win, but they're going to have to spend a lot more money on him, money that could be spent in North Carolina, in Maine. It opens up the map in a way that it wouldn't in Alaska. It opens up the map for Republicans in a way that it wouldn't otherwise with Cornyn. And you lose incumbency, which is a real advantage. And affordability and populism were already surging. Donald Trump ran on lowering prices the same way he ran on releasing the Epstein files. He was just lying about something that he perceived to be popular. And I want to play Jeff Bezos not because people interpret everything he says as gospel or on the level.

12:28But like the president, he can market. Amazon sells what they think people want. And so I'm curious, Michelle, what you think of the fact that Bezos wants to present the idea that maybe we should have AOC-style federal tax cuts for people who make less. Take a look. I started thinking about this and doing some research. A nurse in Queens who makes$75 ,000 a year pays more than$12 ,000 a year in taxes. Does that really make sense? If people want me to pay more billions, then let's have that debate. But don't pretend that that's going to solve the problem. You could double the taxes I pay, and it's not going to help that teacher in Queens.

13:18I promise you. Putting aside his defense of his tax record, which is sort of what he's answering the question on, he advocates eliminating the entire federal tax burden of those lower-income people. And so my question to you on the politics is, why do you think he views that as popular right now? I mean, that would have been lefty radical 10 years ago. Well, I'm not sure if he does really advocate for it. I mean, he throws it out in an interview as a way to deflect from the question of whether his own taxes should be raised. Right. But if you support the Republican Party, as Jeff Bezos does, you are kind of de facto not supporting lowering taxes.

13:56Agreed. That's what I'm saying. I mean, he's with the president, so we know where he is on policy, but there's something that he thinks is popular. I think that a lot of these, especially in the technology industry, right, they know that artificial intelligence, or at least they suspect that artificial intelligence is going to be terrible for a lot of people's jobs. And they know that there's going to be, you know, sort of metaphorical pitchfork wielding mobs coming for them. Right. They're already fantastically unpopular. And so you see them kind of paying lip service to things like eliminating their tax burden, a universal basic income.

14:30They throw all these ideas around, but they never actually then kind of support redistribution when it actually counts. So you see it as really much more of just like a distraction from the rising tide against them. I mean, I see it as a, yes, as a smokescreen for their own defense of their kind of plutocratic privileges. Interesting. I want to talk about something that we went into the holiday weekend with, which was the remarkable, at times poignant goodbye from Colbert. While we're in this free speech era, we have a very short break, 90 seconds, and then we're back with our panel.

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16:20we'll see you next time crack down on comedians, which the president has admitted he wants to do. We have a little bit of this last show that I thought was so striking. This was going into the holiday weekend. The ratings came in. It was widely watched live and furthermore online. But it's also marks the end of a moment. And Colbert, like Kimmel, was seen as one of the people reaching millions and telling what he views as his truth of criticism about this government. So for your reaction, I want to look at this. on night one of the colbert rapport back in the day i said anyone can read the news to you i promise to feel the news at you and i don't know about you but i sure have felt it steven i'm here on behalf of paramount they wanted me to read this statement paramount strongly believes in covering both sides of any black hole that is swallowing everything we know and love that's what we thought america was just the land of the free the greatest democracy See, that was what it was.

17:21Yep, yep. That was it, yeah. It still is, hopefully.

17:37Thoughts? I mean, that's what it was. I think that, I mean, look, there's no question that this show was taken off the air for political reasons. And I think even in Trump one, it would have been unthinkable that these kind of TV networks and that these media oligarchs would be, you know, kind of listening to Donald Trump about programming decisions, both because I think maybe they thought that Donald Trump was a transient phenomenon and they would be ashamed to have done that. And now we've seen this mass capitulation, not by the American people, but by these, you know, kind of ostensible elites.

18:18It is so shameful and it's so short sighted unless they really think that they are just going to, you know, that there's going to be some sort of authoritarian consolidation and they're never going to have to answer to an opposition party. If there ever are Democrats back in power, I hope that there will be a lot of hearings about the sort of decisions that these various owners have made to kind of curry favor with this administration. And Molly? Sherry Redstone. You say goodbye. And I say Sherry Redstone agreed to cancel Colbert so that she could get regulatory approval. It was pretty craven.

18:59And, you know, she set a date so she could sell Paramount to the Ellisons and was able to do it. It was pretty transparent, very craven. And also, it's worth realizing that people who watch these shows don't like it, right? We've seen the CBS takeover. Barry Weiss has gone to CBS. She has made some decisions, editorial decisions, and their numbers just, you know, their evening news numbers just keep going down. So there is we really do see that viewers don't like these kind of ideological decisions being made at news channels that never used to be like that. And you think people they see Colbert end and then where do they go?

19:46I mean, I think they follow Colbert. We'll see what Colbert does next. But like, you know, what's replacing Colbert is is not something similar. It's a it's a comedy hour. Yeah. Molly and Michelle on more than one topic, thanks to both of you. Donald Trump is continuing this crackdown. We bring in, making his beat debut, the media heavyweight. We'll launch MTV and the stars we know, including Stuart and Colbert, on The Daily Show. Trump just sits there, let's get to it. Speak your mind, there's nothing to it. Boom! But first, the Trump corruption. Rogan now says the thug fund to pay January 6th convicts is not okay.

20:30Andrew Weissman, as promised, is here next.

20:42We started the newscast tonight with an eye on this Texas primary. Donald Trump not helping his midterm chances either. With the thug fund, we are seeing now bipartisan outrage. outrage if you tuned out of the news over the long weekend. It has only been building since a contentious meeting at the end of the week. Republicans are upset and other Trump loyalists, including longtime MAGA allied podcaster Joe Rogan, also speaking out. That is so crazy. Imagine like somebody accused you of murder. Yeah. And it turns out you weren't guilty of that murder. And then you sue them. You go, you can never prosecute me for murder again.

21:18And then you just go straight. Yeah. And they're like, it's cool. This is crazy. Crazy. Rogan is not feeling it. The fund is offered for Jan 6 and MAGA allies and convicts, but others are trying to get in on potentially taking some of the money. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has been trying to convince Republicans unsuccessfully that this is a good idea. Prosecutors, meanwhile, feeling pressure to push what are called weak cases through grand juries leading to an erosion in the faith of the DOJ by grand jurors themselves and the judges. The Times reporting on this. This is normally backroom stuff that doesn't make the national news, but the Trump folks are abusing power so much and failing so often before grand juries, which is, of course, the early ham sandwich step, that they're running into all these problems.

22:10In one case, prosecutors reportedly spoke to grand jurors outside the room, which breaks the rules, improperly coaching them that the evidence they had presented was particularly strong. In other words, it was so weak in the room that they broke the rules to try to make up for it out of the room. A remarkable list of grand jury errors that a judge found shocking. Now, in normal times, the grand jury isn't even a tough step. I mentioned the ham sandwich standard because people joke that you could get a ham sandwich indicted by any grand jury because that's how pliant they tend to be, but that's when the DOJ has credible, serious people presenting to the grand jury.

22:52They don't have that. A lot of the serious people were fired or have left. A lot of the remainders are temps and others who are basically stretching beyond the legal evidence required at that early stage to get revenge and other indictments. Some of these people may ultimately be sanctioned, disbarred, or even wind up in jail, as we saw in the Nixon era. For now, though, we're just seeing the reporting on which guardrails hold. And unlike some of the CEOs and other elites who surrendered in advance, apparently citizen grand jurors are still standing up. It is that interesting angle that we bring to DOJ vet Andrew Weissman on this when we return.

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24:35Like all Americans, I am outraged by the violence, lawlessness, and mayhem. To those who engage in the acts of violence and destruction, you do not represent our country. and to those who broke the law, you will pay. Donald Trump betraying police and his past claims there. I'm joined by Andrew Weissman, long-time DOJ vet. His new book is Liar's Kingdom, How to Stop Trump's Deceit and Save America. One quick measure, I'll show you Google searches for this fund for criminals and thugs, sometimes described as a slush fund because of how they hand it out, have really spiked. It's captured a lot of interest.

25:15Joe Rogan is an indicator, and he's not down with it. Your views of how this has quickly become quite a scandal for the administration, even by these low standards today. So let's just start with the clip that you just played of the president saying that he deplores this and that you shall pay. No, this fund is we shall pay the people who were convicted of those crimes. It's the complete opposite of what the president said on that day about what happened. And one thing that I think people should focus on that's not gotten enough attention is that we have not heard from the Department of Justice why it is paying this money.