Kimmel Returns to TV

21:02I think the first step is public education. People should understand that it was really the Supreme Court's immunity decision that has enabled some of these abusive prosecutions because it was in that case where the Supreme Court said the president has exclusive powers over investigations and prosecutions, including sham investigations and prosecutions not based in law. So the first step is public education and building a base and coalition that understands addressing the Supreme Court has to be part of democracy reform. There are many things you can do to democratize an institution like the Supreme Court.

21:35You can limit its jurisdiction. You can limit its ability to grant these emergency applications with unreasoned decisions to an administration like Donald Trump. You can impose term limits. You can impose Essex guidance so that they are not to moneyed interests and corporate interests. You can expand the size of the Supreme Court. There are so many things that can be done, and we just need to educate the people and get people invested in changing our democracy for the better, including the Supreme Court.

22:01Jason Johnson:Professor Leah Lippman, thank you so much for joining us tonight. Thank you. Ahead, Trump's border czar caught with$50 ,000 in FBI cash. His explanation is raising even more questions. Also later, why experts are calling Trump's debunked claims on vaccines, quote, dangerously irresponsible. But first, Ambassador Michael McFaul on Trump's UN speech, as critics argue Putin is humiliating Trump on the world stage.

22:38Jason Johnson:Today, Donald Trump speaking to the United Nations for the first time since 2019. Trump's nearly hour-long speech was riddled with false claims and grievances. But then he said this afterwards. You got to hand it to the Ukrainian soldiers and everybody involved. It's still going on. And that's not a good thing for Russia. This was supposed to be quick. And so, you know, Russia doesn't look very distinguished having taken three and a half years now, right? Three and a half years of very hard fighting. And it looks like it's not going to end for a long time. For a very long time. That's a far cry from ending the war on day one, as Trump has claimed he would do in the past.

23:25Jason Johnson:It's now been five weeks since President Trump rolled out the red carpet for Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska. Despite the lavish treatment for Putin, Trump secured no concessions and not even a timeline for negotiations. Meanwhile, Putin continues to hammer Ukraine with drone and missile attacks and worryingly violate NATO airspace, putting the alliance on edge. Trump's critics now saying it out loud, Putin is making Trump and the United States look weak. We need to send a strong message to Vladimir Putin that he is done. He needs to end this conflict. He needs to end it now. And why President Trump has allowed him to embarrass not only the president, but the United States, why he welcomed him with open arms in Alaska and got nothing for it, has allowed him to cross seven red lines that the president drew and has not taken action is not a way to end this conflict.

24:27Jason Johnson:Joining me now is Ambassador Michael McFaul, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia and MSNBC International Affairs Analyst. Ambassador, thank you so much. It's always good to have a conversation with you. So I'm going to start with this. I, like I think most Americans, never believed that President Trump was going to end the war between Ukraine and Russia on day one. But what does it mean now that, again, three and a half years into this conflict, no end in sight? It appears to be a standstill by most accounts. You have the Ukrainians who have developed more long-range attacks. They're starting to attack more infrastructure.

25:01Jason Johnson:The Russians seem to be holding land, but they're not necessarily advancing. What's the impact of the fact that this war is still dragging on? Well, it's a horrible, barbaric, tragic war that continues to drag on. Putin not only attacks Ukrainian soldiers, but he attacks Ukrainian civilians every single day. That's why he's been indicted as a war criminal, kidnapping Ukrainian children. And to the point that you were just raising, and with those clips, the president, I applaud the president when he said he was going to end the war. Of course, he wasn't going to do it in day one. But I actually think he's made things worse.

25:38It's not only has he not ended the war, he's made things worse because he's emboldened Putin by embracing him, literally rolling out the red carpet in Alaska, getting nothing in return. Instead, Putin just ups the ante. And now we've seen over the last several days threats to airspace, to NATO airspace. That's happening on Trump's watch. Trump likes to say that this is Biden's war. It would have never happened had I been president. This is happening now on President Trump's watch. And as the leader of NATO, as the leader of the free world, we have to act like it and just kind of observing it as he occasionally does today.

26:20Sometimes he says some tough things, as he did today. But it's as if he's an observer to all this when he needs to remind himself that he's the leader of the president of the United States. He's the leader of NATO and he needs to act like it.

26:34Jason Johnson:Ambassador, you know, today in a huge reversal, the president said Ukraine should get all of its land back. Now, I'm I'm I'm shocked by this. I'm sure a lot of international analysts are shocked by this. Is this something that can be taken seriously? The president Trump says a lot of things that he doesn't mean, that he doesn't think about, that he can't back up, that he can't justify. Do you think this is an actual change in U.S. policy or is it just something that he was randomly babbling? I don't know. I, too, was shocked. He has never said anything of the type before. Obviously, he said it sitting next to President Zelensky.

27:14So that proves the theory that whoever speaks to him last has a big influence on him. I hope it means a change in policy. see. But we've heard a lot of words. Intimate, you just suggested. He says a lot of things that when he finally imposes one new sanction on Russia, he hasn't done that since he's been president, then it'll look like he's serious about backing up his words with action. When he asked the U.S. Congress for a new assistance package to Ukraine, not just selling weapons to the Europeans, not just America making money out of the war in Ukraine, but says to Congress and the American people, I want to help Ukraine achieve that end, then we'll know he's serious.

27:57Until then, I think we should just wait and see if he changes his mind tomorrow.

28:01Jason Johnson:I want to play this quick sound from the president talking about basically how NATO countries should respond to Russia and get your thoughts on the other side. Do you think that NATO countries should shoot down Russian aircraft if they enter their airspace? Yes, I do. Mr. President, any update on your talk to President Putin? And do you still trust him? I'll let you know about a month from now. Again, we feel like we're a record player on repeat here. Is this something that the president will actually back? Because J.D. Vance and this administration has consistently told NATO and previous sort of post-Cold War allies, hey, you're on your own.

28:44Jason Johnson:But if a NATO ally were to shoot down a Russian warplane, is there any reason for any of our allies to believe that the United States would have their back at this point? You know, it's a great question. I don't know the answer. The words are one thing and the actions and the policies are another. So the actions and policies that we hear about is that we're pulling back from our NATO allies, especially those frontline states. And now the president said exactly the opposite, or at least suggested that we're going to be there with them. I hope the words are followed up by actions. And same with what he just said about Putin.

29:21I don't know why in a month from now we need to hear from him. It always seems like it's going to be in two weeks' time that there are going to be new sanctions and then two more weeks. I just think the president doesn't fundamentally understand that his words don't have meaning unless they are backed up with actions. And I think he's got to get those two in alignment. Right now, they are not.

29:44Jason Johnson:Yeah, basically the U.S. saying, we've got your back until the fighting starts. Ambassador McFaul, thank you so much for joining us this evening on The Beat. Still ahead, Donald Trump and RFK Jr. rebuked by some Republicans as they spread medical disinformation about pregnant women and children. But first, Trump's so-called border czar at the center of an ethics scandal. He's not exactly denying it. More on that when we're back on The Beat.

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31:47Jason Johnson:We're back with the corruption scandal engulfing Trump's so-called border czar, Tom Homan. MSNBC broke the bombshell story that he'd accepted a bag filled with$50 ,000 in cash from what he thought were business executives, but were actually undercover FBI agents. And it was all caught on tape. The story, according to multiple people familiar with the probe and internal documents reviewed by MSNBC. It happened before he was back in government. Holman indicating that he could help the agents win contracts under Trump. The Trump DOJ later shut down that probe, claiming it was politically motivated.

32:26Jason Johnson:Holman is now fighting for his political life. He claims he did nothing wrong, but did not deny that he took a bag of cash. Look, I did nothing criminal. I did nothing illegal. And this hit piece after hit piece after hit piece. And I'm glad the FBI and DOJ came out and said, and, you know, said that nothing illegal happened and nothing, you know, no criminal activity. I'm also making comments about working on a government paycheck and making sacrifices. You're talking about guys spent 34 years enforcing the law. I mean, I left a very successful business that I ran to come back and work for a government again.

33:05I'm back on a government paycheck. Not only did I sacrifice my family sacrifices, I make sacrifices every day.

33:14Jason Johnson:The FBI sting happened last summer. At the time, Homan was very publicly advertising his role in any second Trump term. You got my word. Trump comes back in January. I'll be on his heels coming back. And I will run the biggest deportation operation this country has ever seen. We learned later that Homan was consulting for a company that ran immigration detention facilities, the head of that company telling investors that they were about to make a lot of money from their friends in the Trump administration. We're looking at a theoretical potential doubling of all of our services. This is, to us, an unprecedented opportunity to assist the federal government and the incoming Trump administration towards achieving a much more aggressive immigration policy.

34:12Jason Johnson:Now, Democrats in both the House and Senate have launched formal inquiries demanding answers about why the DOJ shut down Homan's bribery investigation, also calling it a brazen cover up to protect Donald Trump's allies. And many are now urging the FBI to release the tapes recording the moment when Homan took that bag of cash. I mean, now is Richard Painter, former chief White House ethics lawyer. Richard, thank you so much for joining us this evening. I have to put this in context. I caught The Untouchables last week. It was running on cable. I was like, I haven't seen this movie in years. And the idea of respectable government agents, the idea that we had a bunch of people who were untouchable, who couldn't be corrupted by the mob, who couldn't be corrupted by alcohol, who couldn't be corrupt.

34:58Jason Johnson:I know that's an old fashioned way of thinking. But in your experience with government, is there any way we could justify having a powerful elected, a powerful government official who's been caught taking$50 ,000 from undercover FBI agents? Is there any world where we could say that's OK? Bags of cash. I haven't seen stories with that kind of bribery for a long time. It's amazing that we could have a federal government official in a high ranking position who took bags of cash,$50 ,000, promising that he could get contracts from people. That's what we're told was on the tape. Now, I know that this was before the election and before he was actually selected to be the Bordazar and all of that.

35:46But he anticipated going into the Trump administration. This clearly meets the definition of bribery for the purposes of the Constitution. The word bribery is in the impeachment clause of the Constitution. and the founders' concept of bribery was significant broader than the current criminal statute. The criminal statute only allows you to prosecute someone who has been selected to be a government official or is a government official. So maybe he can skirt around the current criminal statute if he didn't take any action in return for the money or accept any more money after he was notified he would become the border czar.

36:25But this is clearly within the definition of bribery that's used for impeachment. A federal official could be impeached for this. That's what the framers intended when bribery was included in the impeachment clause. But am I surprised? No. I mean, look what Donald Trump did with Ukraine back in 2019, extracting a bribe, an investigation of Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, in return for the official action of releasing the military aid, and he gets impeached, but the Senate acquits him. And we've had so many examples of quid pro quo in the first Trump administration and even more in the second Trump administration.

37:04The message is clear that this administration is open for business. And that includes the president's crypto business. We see countries from around the world, particularly in the Arab world, are investing in Liberty, his crypto firm. Some of that may be unconstitutional, is unconstitutional under the emoluments clause of the Constitution. He doesn't care. He's got a 747 from Qatar, the same country that funds a Hamas organization, is giving him a 747. I guess that's OK. Anything goes in this administration.

37:36Jason Johnson:They have clearly shown that they don't care, that they are open for business. They don't care if you're, you know, keeping down information on criminal conspiracy. I want to play a soundbite from White House Press Secretary Carolyn Levitt today as she's talking about the Holman scandal. Get your thoughts on the other side. This was another example of the weaponization of the Biden Department of Justice against one of President Trump's strongest and most vocal supporters in the midst of a presidential campaign. You had FBI agents going undercover to try and entrap one of the president's top allies and supporters, someone who they knew very well would be taking a government position months later.

38:16Jason Johnson:So I have to say this, Richard, there is no circumstance under which you can't say that someone who would take this kind of money is compromised. But the larger, more problematic thing is the way in which corruption is now being absolutely integrated into the functioning of this government. Whether or not it's potentially paying off Ghislaine Maxwell by putting her in another court place so that she doesn't say anything about Epstein or using the FCC to bully different organizations. And now this, we're seeing that everything about this new administration is not just a quid pro quo, but it's making corruption essentially the law.

38:52Jason Johnson:What does that do long term for how any of our agencies will function if everything is a matter of if you give me this under the table, I'll ignore the law? What we are watching is the destruction of the rule of law. There, the White House press secretary said that they, the FBI, the Biden administration, knew that he was going to go into the Trump administration. Well, if they knew, then he knew. And that's exactly what the definition of bribery is. When you know you're going to assume a position of power in the United States government, and you take cash from anybody, including an undercover sting operation, and we have many of those undercover sting operations that have been conducted by the FBI.

39:36And you take cash and return for official action, and now the White House is saying they knew that he was going to go in the Trump administration. That's an admission that there was a bribe here. And this is a serious problem that we have had that time after time, when people get caught red-handed, violating the law, whether it's bribery or other laws, they simply turn around and say, this is weaponization of the justice system. This is we're being persecuted by who? By the law. And we have laws and people need to obey the law, including the people in the highest positions in the executive branch.

40:15Jason Johnson:You know, it's it's fine if cash rules everything around you in the rap game, but not when you're supposed to be protecting the law and following the Constitution. Thank you, Richard Painter, so much for joining us this evening on The Beat. Up next, Donald Trump rebuked for making bogus medical claims. After this, on The Beat.

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42:06Jason Johnson:Today, broad backlash, including from some top Republicans who have found their spines, to Donald Trump's unsubstantiated medical claims. On Monday, Trump falsely warned that Tylenol use during pregnancy increases the risk of autism in children. Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, an actual medical doctor, saying it is simply, quote, not the case. Researchers say there is no proven relationship between Tylenol and autism. That's context for Trump's claims. First, effective immediately, the FDA will be notifying physicians that the use of acetaminophen, which is basically commonly known as Tylenol, during pregnancy can be associated with a very increased, risk of autism.

43:08So taking Tylenol is not good. All right. I'll say it. It's not good.

43:18Jason Johnson:Tylenol maker Kinview disputed Trump, saying the drug remains the safest pain reliever for pregnant women. Trump also pushed unfounded claims that childhood vaccine timing contributes to Autism, saying it's based on how he, quote, feels. The MMR, I think, should be taken separately. This is based on what I feel, the mumps, measles, and the three should be taken separately. Just break it up. Break it up. Because it's too much liquid. Too many different things are going into that baby at too big a number. The size of this thing. The Associated Press calling those claims, quote, long debunked. A top vaccine researcher summarizing the quote, and this has to be read, that was the most dangerously irresponsible press conference in the realm of public health and American history.

44:23Jason Johnson:We will stay on this. Up next, Rachel's big interview, Vice President Kamala Harris.

44:37Jason Johnson:Kamala Harris is blasting Trump as a, quote, tyrant with a fragile ego. The former vice president making those remarks to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow last night in her first news interview since leaving office. Right now we are dealing with, as I called him at my speech on the ellipse, a tyrant and these titans of industry are not speaking up. At some point, they've got to stand up for the sake of the people who rely on all of these institutions to have integrity and to at some point be the guardrails against a tyrant who is using the federal government to execute his whim and fancy. because of a fragile ego.

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