Hillary Clinton Testifies Before House Committee on Epstein

17:30Hillary Clinton:Rumler was a Democratic lawyer. So there are some steps. And I guess the question is, what happens when or if our government is run by anyone who would take accountability on this? I mean, if you had a Republican president, Massey, or a Democratic president, Kana, I would think we'd have a very different DOJ right now. Yeah.

17:52Ari Melber:And I think that one of the other huge problems right now for President Trump is that three of these files that are missing are directly related to him. Right. And the potential allegations of a 13 year old girl who says she was sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein and alleged that she might have been sexually abused by Donald Trump. Those three files are missing in the Epstein files. And so, you know, look, if you're instructing, let's just say, hypothetically, you're instructing the DOJ to keep things out. That only now raises suspicions. We don't know if he's instructed anyone to do that. But you would think that people in his inner circle would be calling the DOJ and saying, we better release these files right away.

18:34Ari Melber:Right. Because the suspicion just keeps mounting and mounting.

18:38Hillary Clinton:Yeah, these are numbered files. What are the chances?

18:40Ari Melber:Those are the only ones that are missing.

18:41Hillary Clinton:Yeah. If the priority was get your top people on this, that could take more than a day, but it wouldn't take more than a week. At one point, there was 50 number points missing out of millions of files that, as you say, relate to Trump. You could have someone look at them and release them. They're not doing that. And yet Blanche seems to want to argue in public that he is complying. He doesn't admit if there's a cover up, he's not admitting it.

19:04Ari Melber:Well, it's also Blanche doing the arguing and not Pam Bondi. I mean, where is Pam Bondi, the attorney general, in all of this? I think the majority of Americans right now, if you did a poll, would say that they don't trust the information that's been released. And I think the more that this goes on, that we're going to have more and more calls for more transparency. I mean, it can't just be that there are only going to be three or four Republicans who believe that young girls should not be assaulted and that men should be held accountable. I mean, at some point, these people are going to go up for reelection and an average voter is going to say to themselves, Raise your hand if you're in favor of letting people who assault young girls get off scot-free.

19:53Hillary Clinton:Well, and if you're going to be tough on crime and say no welfare fraud, no stealing, those are real crimes. In our criminal code, short of murder, the next most serious thing are crimes against minors and children.

20:05Ari Melber:Of course. And I always like to bring it back to these young girls who are now women. It's because of them that we're having this conversation. Yeah. Yeah. Right. And they they continue to ask for justice. And I hearken back to Pam Bondi when she testified and she didn't even acknowledge them.

20:24Hillary Clinton:Right. Nor did the president given the opportunity to say the union. When, as you know, he had time to acknowledge a lot of folks. Gretchen, in two of our reported segments, we appreciate you as always. Coming up, Republicans facing midterm panic. Mom Donnie getting ready to meet with the president and elections. Who needs them? The American people. Gene Robinson returns.

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21:49Hillary Clinton:Avoiding your unfinished home projects because you're not sure where to start? Thumbtack knows homes, so you don't have to. Don't know the difference between matte paint finish and satin? Or what that clunking sound from your dryer is? With Thumbtack, you don't have to be a home pro. You just have to hire one. You can hire top-rated pros, see price estimates, and read reviews all on the app. Download today. We have news crossing the wire right now in the ongoing debates over who should own media. This is something that Donald Trump wanted, a Trump-allied billionaire family. The Ellisons, who own Paramount overseeing CBS, now we're learning moments ago has won a bid for Warner Brothers Discovery, including CNN.

22:31Hillary Clinton:They're beating out Netflix, which had all but tried to close this deal, but they have dropped out after Paramount raised its bid. This is a huge media story from the Wall Street Journal to the Washington Post on the politics of it to how you will watch Warner movies or HBO and who will own CNN. The Netflix CEO was at the White House today discussing their interest in closing their deal. They'd put up many billions, but they've been beat out. This is an outcome that Donald Trump and many MAGA allies view as favorable. It continues on the clashes over Colbert and CBS. The folks who own CBS now are winning and gearing up to take control of Warner Media empire, including CNN.

23:14Hillary Clinton:Back with us is someone who knows all about a free press, Eugene Robinson, the Pulitzer Prize winning longtime Washington Post veteran. Gene, I want to put this in plain English, then we can always get into the weeds. the folks that Colbert has been fighting with, the folks who've been gutting, according to many long time independent journalists, what CBS and 60 Minutes means tonight knew as of the last five minutes, they're going to get control of the Warner Brothers media empire, including CNN. Your view of this big development.

23:45Eugene Robinson:Well, I think many of us who are in the news business, who are journalists, are worried and are concerned about what might happen to CNN and whether they get the CBS treatment, essentially, a clear tilt in a rightward direction. I think that's one big question. The other big question is just the larger story about consolidation, Hollywood consolidation. And I think this is a huge story for Hollywood in general. These were like two huge independent movie studios, movie and television studios. First, Paramount, and now Warner. These are huge Hollywood institutions that now have been swallowed by the Ellisons.

24:46Hillary Clinton:They've been swallowed by the Ellisons. Larry Ellison's one of the richest people in the world and has been close to Trump. You mentioned what's happened at CBS. Defenders of these kind of deals say this is what the quote market wanted, that there was going to be consolidation and not every product will be treated the same. That's sort of the defenders. And I want to quote that. And that's been discussed at length, including in D.C. and on Wall Street. Critics, and we've hosted both sides on here, we've had experts about this story last several weeks. Critics say, look, there's a reason why monopolies and duopolies are disfavored, whether that comes to freedom of thought and speech or the actual politics.

25:26Hillary Clinton:And they say that you should expect CNN to get the CBS treatment. Do you have a view on that or is it too early to tell?

25:34Eugene Robinson:Well, of course, it's it's too early to tell for sure. But I think in general, this sort of extreme consolidation is a bad thing. I think it's a bad thing for the country. It is good to have, you know, let a thousand lights shine. Let a thousand voices be heard. You lose a sort of diversity of voices. Inevitably, there's going to be cost-cutting and consolidation. because, you know, recall what happened. David Ellison, Larry Ellison's son, started with a small company called Skydance. It made a much larger company in Paramount. And now, you know, Paramount is eating this huge company, Warner Brothers, and the first order of business is going to be cutting everything.

26:29Eugene Robinson:There are going to be huge cuts, just as there are cuts coming at CBS News that will be serious. And again, I think that is not good for the public in terms of what it does to the journalism. I think it's not good for the public in terms of what it does to the variety of entertainment offerings that we get. I think this sort of consolidation tends to deaden the whole media space in a way that is harmful. Right.

27:09Hillary Clinton:And it comes with a backdrop of a lot of government pressure. It's a complex story. There were folks who said, hey, the Netflix side might not get through European regulators and other things. It's not all about us in America. But it comes on a day when, as reported, you had Netflix leadership at the White House. You had Trump and some of his allies saying, you know, they like the changes to CBS. They wanted more change. Trump has posted about that very blatantly, and they want that change at CNN. Here we go. Gene Robinson, you're good at breaking news. Add that to your list of accolades. Thank you, sir.

27:44Eugene Robinson:A little bit of it, a little bit of it over the years. You've done more than a little.

27:49Hillary Clinton:You know, to let the viewers in, the proof is in the pudding. You know Gene didn't prepare for this exact segment, although he's well read. because this news broke in this hour. So thanks for rolling with us on that. Gene, I'm going to fit in a break when we come back. A popular mayor and an unpopular president. That's next.

28:14Hillary Clinton:If a picture is worth a thousand words, take a look at New York City Mayor Mondani in the Oval Office with Trump, a meeting that had not been on the schedule. Mondani shared this image. and is pushing Trump to support housing in the city. You can see the two newspapers, a mock-up with the headline, Trump to City, Let's Build, contrasting with something New Yorkers remember all too well, Ford to City, Drop Dead. Mom Donnie invoking his own signature style to try to lobby a very different presidential leadership. He also says he spoke to Trump about a Columbia University student, I should say, who was detained by ICE, and they released the student.

28:56Hillary Clinton:call that a personal diplomacy. And again, a reminder that sometimes you got to get in the room and do straight up politicking. There were protests this morning. Federal agents entered the university housing, detaining the student. Columbia says they misrepresented themselves to get inside. The Mom Donnie Trump talks build on the last time they were together when we actually got to see how Donald Trump acts when, I guess without any capacity for reflection or shame, he thinks somebody else has the hot hand. We're going to be helping him to make everybody's dream come true, having a strong and very safe New York.

29:35Hillary Clinton:And congratulations, Mr. Mayor.

29:37Gretchen Carlson:I appreciated the time with the president. I appreciated the conversation. I look forward to working together to deliver that affordability for New Yorkers.

29:46Hillary Clinton:Trump may also be looking for anything, visual, political, or otherwise, to change how things are going. Because if things keep going this way, the Republicans around him, the chair of the party, and a lot of other folks, even on their side, say they're bracing for a midterm route. Or take Republican strategist Karl Rove, who says the State of the Union approach Trump used was a bust for swing voters. The president's speech almost certainly didn't sound based in reality, Rove wrote diplomatically in the Wall Street Journal, a favorite of many conservatives. He went on, quote, almost everything the president said energized his MAGA hardcore, but they aren't enough to stave off a shellacking this fall.

30:29Hillary Clinton:Now, if Trump sees the problems ahead, he's not exactly just trying to meet people in the middle or hear out the independents who now overwhelmingly reject his second term. Instead, we're seeing reports about Trump wanting to do something that he's not allowed to do, to try to require different rules for how people vote, which I can show you here. But it's not going to work because it's unconstitutional. We will continue to follow these stories and a time when you have your government looking at your preference. Donald Trump is as unpopular now as he was after Jan 6th. And some of the reactions reportedly are, well, what if we can just rig and cheat the elections instead of listening to the people?

31:14Hillary Clinton:Now, up next, we're seeing some Republicans under fire for violating their own secrecy in that hearing today. Alicia Menendez joins me.

31:29Hillary Clinton:There is so much going on. I have good news for you. It is time right now to fall back. Joining us for her sixth fallback, Alicia Mendez is co-host of The Weeknight, which is on in about 15 minutes. She also hosts the Latina to Latina podcast and is the author of The Likeability Trap, something she knows all about because she is... So unlikable.

31:52Eugene Robinson:I was going to say well-liked.

31:53Hillary Clinton:And a comedian who I have watched on YouTube for many late night hours, Gianmarco Sareci. Sareci, host of the podcast The Downside with Gianmarco Sareci. Very funny guy you're about to see. His new special thief of joy has racked over 3 million views up on YouTube.

32:14Gretchen Carlson:Look, I have no fan of Donald Trump, but I would love to get him on the$1 bill. Because no matter how big you are, he'd be like huge.

32:26Gretchen Carlson:That joke will be funny when he's not president in 12 years. Believe you me. You have my word. I tell my Democrat friends, like, you know, get ready because it's January 6th. It's your turn. And you know they're going to do it. They're not going to storm the Capitol dressed like Vikings. They're going to not dress like they're in the musical cast.

32:48Hillary Clinton:Drama King, his tour is out now.

32:51Gretchen Carlson:Welcome to both of you. Hello. Hello. Yeah. I hope those bits made sense. You know, you take a little bit. Was it clear what I was measuring with that dollar bill? explain your joke if you want. I don't know if I can.

33:02Ari Melber:It's a family program, sir.

33:04Hillary Clinton:Yeah, but we cut it accordingly. Yeah, watch the special so the joke makes sense. But the Jan 6 joke speaks to your audience gets the joke. They think, oh yeah, maybe liberals are a little whatever. Yeah, yeah, a little, you know,

33:19Gretchen Carlson:but we're getting there. Yeah, we're getting there. I just love the idea of like

33:22Ari Melber:a performance of magical Mr. Mistoffelees on the stairs of the U.S. Capitol.

33:27Gretchen Carlson:Yeah, I mean, it'll be that. It'll be, who knows, I think if my mom might get in there. You know, these Pilates moms, they're going to climb the wall a lot faster. Is your mom engaged? Is she following our civic life? I thought you meant engaged. I was going to say no, divorced several times. Yeah, to a degree. Yeah. You know, she was mad when Jimmy Kimmel was off the air for two days. Yeah, well, that struck a nerve with a lot of people.

33:50Hillary Clinton:Speaking of comics and free speech, because Alicia's hometown, I'm going to let you go first. What's on your fallback list?

33:56Ari Melber:So today, big news. We're all following the deposition that former Secretary Clinton was giving in Chappaqua. It's a big deal for a lot of reasons. The fact that I think the Oversight Committee is trying to set a precedent with it by virtue of having a former president, Bill Clinton, in a depo tomorrow. the first big news that we got out of this deposition was that they had to take a 30-minute pause because one Congresswoman, Lauren Boebert, decided to not only take a photo inside the deposition, which was against the rules that were laid out very clearly. Their rules. Their rules. The rules of the committee that she is on.

34:40Ari Melber:But also she seems to have leaked it to, you know, a right wing propagandist, Benny Johnson, who then shares it broadly, which is not only improper, but also like Hillary Clinton had said the entire time, let's just do this in public. Like, if you guys want to ask me these questions, let's let Americans hear it for themselves instead of having it characterized by you. And then they didn't want video in there. They didn't want cameras in there, except for Lauren Boeber.

35:08Hillary Clinton:It's so unserious. If you ever have a friend who's like overly secretive and then you find out they're the one sharing everything, you ever know anybody like that? We've all known someone like that.

35:20Gretchen Carlson:Lauren Boebert doesn't know how to be an appropriate audience member. We all know this. She's always doing inappropriate things with her hands. And then Benny Johnson, the picture, he put his watermark all, I mean, his name was more on that picture than Clinton's name in the Epstein emails. it was it's just like do you it's just so clear it's not caring about the thing yeah it's just using every step to build a fan base and so it's you wish people would go why aren't you taking this

35:49Hillary Clinton:seriously and can you recognize that quickly that oh this person's just trying to be a performer and they're not that good at it as a performer yes totally i watermark all my videos but just

36:00Gretchen Carlson:go into my field. It's okay to want to get a fan base, but at least be in the field that's appropriate for what you're doing. There it is, by the way. Yeah.

36:10Ari Melber:Well, that's the zoomed in version.

36:12Gretchen Carlson:There's another one where it's like 20 Benny Johnsons.

36:15Ari Melber:With salutes to the editor who cropped it for us.

36:19Hillary Clinton:And if I may, Benny Johnson does sound a little bit like a vaudeville performer. Yes.

36:24Gretchen Carlson:Top hat on Benny Johnson, you know. Listen, there's a lot of theater kids, and because they didn't express themselves, they are now destroying the country. Wow. Do you feel like DC is full of theater kids? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, go ahead. Absolutely. Theater kids that just didn't, you know, not quite, Ted Cruz did the crucible in college. There's footage of it and it's not great. I think the bar for being an actor is just lower as a politician and that's why a lot of them gravitate towards it. And I do think that if we gave them more acting opportunities, they might leave.

36:55Hillary Clinton:It's a deep thought. But it's true. And then you look at Ted Cruz regularly takes time out of being a senator to do a podcast. I don't mean just like doing interviews. He has his own podcast. So you're like, we would usually see that after the government job. But for him, he's like, well, let me just get this going. I want to give you time for your fallbacks.

37:17Gretchen Carlson:Yes, it's getting in the middle of a snowball fight and then being upset that you were hit by a snowball. I you saw there was a snowball fight in New York City and and the NYPD came in and they were very upset about getting hit by these snowballs, which was confusing because I thought they were OK working with ice. And I just think if you're going to go into a snowball fight. Yeah. And you're dressed as a cop. You're going to get hit by a snowball. That's like joining a food fight in an all white suit and then being like upset. Like you entered that space. This is fun. Can we have fun?

37:56Hillary Clinton:Yeah, and then throwing this, I mean, it is, I don't want to be too intellectual about it. You shouldn't about a snowball fight. But. But. Uh-huh. But. Uh-huh. A snowball is inherently. Oh, no. A playful object. Yes. If I threw something of the same weight, but it was like metal, let's say, then I could very much see people being like, well, that's a type of, you're trying to hurt someone. Yeah. But when it's a snowball, is it not then playful?

38:28Gretchen Carlson:I agree. And listen, if you get hit by a snowball, you might get a little hurt. I know there were two officers that went to the hospital. I don't know what, I assume. Yeah, I don't want anyone hurt. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, but it's a snowball fight.

38:39Hillary Clinton:It happens sometimes in a snowball fight. You were emoting through your face.

38:44Ari Melber:Well, you know, I like the rules. So I understand that sometimes fun gets a little too fun. Okay. But I thought what was interesting about the story that you're referencing was the fact that it sort of put the mayor in a sticky spot. Because initially he came out and he said, we need to be respectful towards our police officers. And then there were so many videos, of course, because there had been so many people who partook in this really fun thing. That as the video circulated, he almost seemed to walk back what he had been saying and sort of took more of the approach that you're saying, which is like, it's a snowball ficus.

39:20And snow is just cold water.

39:24Gretchen Carlson:Yes. And we're probably not going to have much left in the coming years. Can we please enjoy the snow before it's gone?

39:32Hillary Clinton:I watch a lot of your YouTubes. How do you decide, oh, what's going to land if it touches on this crazy political world we're in? What's going to land versus I'll leave it out? Because you're a general comic. You'd make a lot of funny observations. And then you do a little bit of politics.

39:47Gretchen Carlson:Yeah, I think, I mean, listen, I test it out on stage, and if it doesn't land, it doesn't get uploaded. So, you know, I just take whatever's happening, and I gotta have, you know, you gotta have an angle about it. You have to fight that urge, especially when you cultivate a fan base that's very politically aligned with you, to not just pander. So you gotta try to have some kind of twist.

40:09Ari Melber:Do you ever have anybody show up who's not aligned with you?

40:12Gretchen Carlson:it can happen now and then but it's increasingly rarer and that's just like a result of this this

40:21Hillary Clinton:algorithmic fan base that's cultivated is there anything in politics that just cracks you up

40:26Gretchen Carlson:where you look at it you're like i i can't even believe them i i think i i think there's just a lot of like being able to say the truth in an inappropriate way that people won't talk about Like, you know, there's there's a degree where, you know, everyone talks about Epstein or whatnot. And then and then, you know, Trump will will do something. You know, he'll talk inappropriately about the women's Olympic hockey team. And it's like, I can't believe he said I'm like, OK, but we should stay the course on the fact that the DOJ tried to hide this accusation against like there. There's a thing where I think like the media can leave behind, just doesn't have a long attention span.

41:11Gretchen Carlson:Yeah, or the simple gaffe gets hyped for that reason. And I think Trump—

41:15Ari Melber:I don't think that was a gaffe, though, but go ahead.

41:17Gretchen Carlson:Yes. Respect. I think a lot of politicians, like people like Trump, they saw kind of the politeness of the world and they subverted it. And now a lot of politicians are subverting it in a way that someday we're going to be like, you know what? I like a politician who doesn't curse all the time. But that's a tool.

41:33Hillary Clinton:We have to run because Alicia has a show. We'll be right back.

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42:59Hillary Clinton:you can always catch up with the beat and our favorite guests on our podcast we put it out every night you can go to the beat on apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts on your phone search the beat with ari melber we drop it every night you will never miss an episode and we have extras on there too all right that's our show

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