NY AG James on Verdict Against Ticketmaster and Live Nation

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0:35That means any prospective driver goes through a multi-step screening process, checking for any impaired driving or criminal offenses. But the checks don't stop there. Every year, every Uber driver is background checked again, so the person picking you up today meets the same standards as the day they started. Hey, how's it going? Yeah, good. Thanks. Annual driver screenings from Uber. One more way Uber is putting safety at every turn. Learn more at uber.com slash safety. Welcome to The Beat. I'm Ari Melbert. We are following major developments tonight, including some good news for American consumers.

1:06Democratic attorneys generals have won this key antitrust case against monopoly markets today. It is the Ticketmaster Live Nation controversy that's actually been going for many years. New York Attorney General Letitia James is a key leader in this effort. And we have the exclusive interview on the night of this victory of hers. And that's coming up. So we're excited to talk to her. We're also, of course, going to have to ask and learn about her views on clashing with the Trump DOJ on several matters. So that's one of those interviews that, well, I personally think it's interesting. I think it's legally important, but I invite you to stick around for it.

1:39As for our top story now, we begin with Trump's cascading problems from the war to a growing MAGA backlash. Americans are shouldering the financial fallout in what is Trump's war of choice. He's floated differing, sometimes obviously contradictory estimates for when the Iran war may end, as well as what defines victory. He said four to five weeks. He said as long as necessary. Now he's saying it can end very soon. So if you look at this list, you don't have to memorize it all. It's just obviously all over the place. Four to five weeks was a kind of opening salvo. Perhaps he thought it sounded tough on Iran.

2:17Now he's saying very soon, suggesting he wants out. Cost is massive. $740 annually for households paying gas alone, more for people with jobs and lives that involve, of course, extra driving. A lot of parts of the country, people drive more than the average. And they have to. Trump is also raising future debt and taxes with war spending. The war is costing billions. Every week, we have a record-breaking Pentagon budget proposal from this administration, of course, relating to war spending. Now, facing those kind of costs, House Republicans have vowed lower gas prices soon. And when you're a politician, you are allowed to say things that might sound unlikely.

2:56Gas prices are up, not down. And if we ended the entire war today, we'd still have a lot of new problems that we didn't have economically before the war began. But you're allowed as a Republican to go around and say, hey, that's what you hope. That's your plan. They've been saying that it'll be down by the midterms. It's a message that Trump can't even stick to, though. For your edification tonight, we have pulled his comments from Sunday to now on this issue with the same Fox host. So do you so do you believe the price of oil and gas will be lower before the midterm elections? I hope so. I mean, I think so.

3:32It could be. It could be the same or maybe a little bit higher. Somehow they misquoted me. I think oil will be down to the levels it was. You know, said, I expect oil to be high at the midterms. I don't expect that. I think that we will be somewhere around where we were, maybe even lower. Point number one, he's lying. You heard him there saying it could be higher. He gets to go out, he's the president, and give interviews and be heard and quoted. But in a kind of sad, self-complaining, feckless type of lie, when quoted accurately, he accuses others of misquoting him. That's how he handles a gaffe.

4:11That's number one. Number two, on the substance, he is now back to the GOP message because admitting that it's actually going to be high or higher undercuts everything that he ran on in 24, lower prices and inflation, and that current Republicans are running on fighting for their jobs and seats. That's the dynamic. Our reporters just hit the field seeking Trump supporters who are willing to talk. Some were eager to talk. Some quite clearly angry, not buying Trump's messaging on the war, the prices, or his Jesus post. I personally don't think we should be fighting wars in the Middle East. I think it's us paying on point in the war, us paying on point to not let Iran get a nuclear weapon.

4:52And that's the way I look at it. I mean, it is bad for a lot of people. Gas up 50, 60 cents a gallon. That hurts. The posting of the AI photo of Jesus that was later deleted. Is that something that concerns you or frustrates you? The photo hit me in the gut. I'd tell him to go to church, go to church and get saved. It's inappropriate. He shouldn't be posting that. That's people in the field. You can hear just naturally talking in their own voice and language about what they're seeing. That's what's really out there. For example, it's anecdotal. Then there's the influencers. Take podcaster Joe Rogan, who hosted and backed Trump in 24.

5:31He has had a growing list of critiques against Trump lately. You can interpret that as an important kind of semi-conservative figure who's against a lot of what Trump's doing, or you can interpret it as an influencer who is digitally connected to a growing set of former Trump fans who are mad like the people I just showed you. But either way, he's added blasphemy to the list. I can mention for context, Rogan is Catholic. He talks about that part of his faith and his life publicly. That's part of his show sometimes. And here he's using his signature style to deflate Trump with mockery and some scorn for the absurd other lie that Trump offered.

6:08When under attack for this post, the president falsely claimed that he thought this was the image of him as a doctor. AI God has to come alive and take over the system. AI God, the one that created that Jesus meme that Trump just posted, that's AI God. Joe, I told you, explained it. He was a doctor. That's what they call them. That's what AI God calls Jesus. Jesus is a doctor. That's Rogan's style. That is not the type of reaction the Trump administration wants, but he is at a point where doing dishonorable things, according to many of his own supporters, a lot of religious people offended by that, and then lying to his supporters about it is not just getting the usual brush off.

6:53We're joined by Reverend Al Sharpton, host of Politics Nation on MSNOW, the president and founder of the National Action Network, where he just hosted many top officials, including aspiring 2028 Democrats. And Michelle Goldberg, New York Times columnist, MSNOW analyst. Welcome to both of you. Michelle, you do see something changing out there. We have long heard the narrative of he's bulletproof and they'll put up with anything. Doesn't seem to be true right now. Well, I think for two reasons. I mean, one, because people are obviously feeling the effects of this war and they also don't understand it.

7:26He never set about explaining why he went into this war. He has given shifting rationales for it. He's given shifting rationales for when it might end. But also, I think that people are starting to feel the effect of his erraticism in their own life. Even some of the people who loved the fact that he terrified, you know, liberals like me. Well, now it's not just kind of liberals like me who are riding on this bus with an out of control drunk driver at the helm. And every time he kind of keeps escalating this post, I mean, this wasn't the, I don't know if this was the most outrageous thing he's ever posted, but this was a direct attack coupled with his picking a fight with the Pope.

8:08This was a direct attack, I think, on many of his Christian supporters. And it's been fascinating to see some of them online. Some people who originally were kind of all in on Trump. It's not just that they are now skeptical of Trump. They are now asking themselves whether or not Trump is the Antichrist. Antichrist, yeah. And Tucker has been out there saying, oh, did you notice Trump didn't have his hand on the Bible? These type of attacks when he was sworn in. These are attacks you're used to against an Obama figure. Now they're catching up. Rev, you are a reverend. You've mixed faith and advocacy and politics.

8:42And you look at something like this, on the one hand, there's nothing new about this. Trump ran on banning Muslims, right? Banning people based on religion is bigotry. It's wrong. That was a big part of anti-Semitism in Europe, banning, expelling or killing. We've seen that type of Islamophobia and hate against people because they're Muslim. He fomented it. But our history includes that against Catholics as well. And so what we're seeing now is other individuals waking up to the fact that these kind of attacks on the pope or this kind of what they view as blasphemy, disrespect to people based on religion.

9:15They don't like it that it's happening to these religions. But isn't this what Trump's been doing all along? He has definitely been doing it all along. But what he has not read correctly is that people can afford and try to justify what is happening to them, the Jews, the whoever, the Catholics. but now you're talking about my Jesus and you're denigrating it. This is my, cause I was raised to believe Jesus was Lord. And then you're going to insult my intelligence by saying, Oh, I thought it was a doctor. Well, a doctor doesn't put his hand on somebody to heal them and hold a light of the world in another hand.

9:55I mean, where was the thesoscope or something that a doctor? So how did you get confused? So you're not only saying that you don't believe in my Jesus, you're also saying that I'm stupid and that you can tell me anything and that I'm supposed to go along with it. That's why he's getting such a backlash here, because there's no rational way to explain it. And there's no acceptable way to accept it. Yeah. You mentioned how erratic he sounds. This is a big part of this. And the fact that he's operated with a low bar or Maureen Dowd memorably likened him to the cartoons and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

10:31And they're not judged by human scale. He's benefited like that for some time, and yet the erraticism is a different level now. Here's just some recent examples.

10:45You think Tom Tillis is going to give you a vote? Well, we're going to have to find out. He might not, but that's why Tom Tillis is no longer a senator. Okay. Tom Tillis is no longer a senator, right? Well, he's on his way out. Well, no, he quit, but he quit. Nobody's ever ended one war. Who's ended one? Nobody. Lately, the question often when he's wrong is, is he lying or is he confused? There, he looked confused. We had this question around the last presidency as well. Are you watching someone in decline who's not up to the job? You know, I think it's much more difficult to tell with Donald Trump than it was with Joe Biden, because, first of all, because the bar was so low and it's not as if Donald Trump has ever made a lot of sense.

11:26But yes, I think that he is more erratic than he was in the past and just kind of get things, is more confused. I mean, you can never tell when Donald Trump says something that's not true, whether it's deliberate or not. But I also think Donald Trump has always, he's less in control of himself. Right. You know, he's always had this instinct for defilement that I don't know where it comes from. He wants to kind of lower the tone in the White House, not just by covering it with tacky guilt, you know, by having a UFC fight there. I don't know if you remember during one of the No Kings protests when he posted that image of himself dumping excrement on American citizens.

12:05And now that instinct for defilement is extending to the things that are sacred to his own followers. But he just can't stop himself. You know, the dynamic rev also is Republicans basically thinking that the only way they can sound rational is to pick what they're against Trump on and admit Republican losses. There's no pride here. I want to show something that folks might not have seen yet. This is one of those kind of fairly conservative podcasts. And this is Senator Tuberville. And here's his message. Hell, we ain't done anything in the majority. Why should we keep majority? We've gotten one bill passed, and that was President Trump pushing and pushing and pushing, and what took us 18 hours to get Republicans to vote for it, 18 hours straight on the Senate floor.

12:53And it's embarrassing. So you've got some elected Republicans whose message is, we get it, we suck, we're embarrassing, we should lose. And saying it openly. But I think that one of the things that we have to deal with, I've been wrestling back and forth for 40 years with Donald Trump. Donald Trump is not smart. He's slick. There's a difference. He knows how to play the word game. You know, you mentioned Joe Biden. Joe Biden looked up to people like John Kennedy and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He looked up to Roy Cohen, who was a lawyer for the gangsters. He is becoming what he was meant to become.

13:36It's just that for the life of me, I don't understand how we let him get in the White House. It wasn't like he was pretending. He was that. And now it's unraveling in front of everybody, including the Republicans that would not put the speed bumps out there and slow him down or stop him or stand up to him. Because if you stand up to him now, he's not going to really get in a real fight because he knows that better than anybody that the wizard has no clothes. Right. And that we saw that in several of the stories we touched on when he says, oh, it wasn't Jesus. And I didn't say higher prices and I didn't do that.

14:11That's just him saying over and over everything I stand for is bad. I realize that. Let me back away. Yeah, it's not tough, but he's still in office for now. Michelle Goldberg, thanks for being here. The Rev comes back for something special. Tonight we have an exclusive with New York Attorney General Leticia James coming off that big win in court. Plus, we're obviously going to get into her dealings with the Trump administration. Hollywood heavy hitters are now coming out against one of these big MAGA allies' bids to control CNN, CBS, and a giant movie studio. That's a story we've been following, and there's new developments.

14:45But first, Trump losing. A big case in the Epstein scandal, and we're back in 90 seconds.

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16:52Donald Trump has clashed with the media in many ways. Sometimes he tries to use lawsuits that he would clearly lose to change the narrative, to seem more innocent of something that's been reported about him, or to shake down people who at times we've seen settle suits. And so it's really important that we follow up on this story, a federal judge tossing Trump's Epstein defamation case against the Wall Street Journal. You may recall the journal was the outlet that first reported on this drawing and Trump was so upset that it showed that he had made this kind of birthday greeting for Jeffrey Epstein, which is a far more direct way to show at least kinship with this individual than just showing up at a party.

17:35Later, the House Oversight Committee got the same drawing from the Epstein estate. So in a chain of custody, this seemed very much like a verified story. Trump claimed it was false and sued. The judge, though, wrote that President Trump has not even plausibly alleged the defendants published the article with malice, and the president has been unable to sow any real questions about the authenticity of that letter. Remember, this is what Trump was saying at the time, filing what is now a loser lawsuit. I don't do drawings. I'm not a drawing person. I don't do drawings. I'm not a drawing person. I don't do drawings of women, that I can tell you.

18:16They say there's a drawing of a woman and I don't do drawings of women. He kept repeating, I don't do drawings, which maybe he thought was a way to deny it without literally actually saying, I didn't send or sign that birthday card. But the case was making that point that somehow this was false. He's lost. And remember, the world can be complicated. Rupert Murdoch owns Fox News and all of the MAGA support they're giving, but he also owns the Journal. And unlike some other major company heads, he stood by that reporting and defended it in court. So chalk that up as a big Epstein loss for Trump.

18:53Meanwhile, some other corporate executives who have also been cozy with Trump are making moves. David Ellison is the billionaire who owns CBS and is in the process of this big media merger, and he's now hosting a special private dinner to honor Trump. This comes as, of course, Trump's administration reviews his merger aspiration, taking on CNN and Warner Brothers Studios. There is a big blowback for that in Hollywood. We're seeing artists and stars like Brian Kanssen and Ben Stiller joining in a public alliance saying that this merger is bad for creativity and independence. They say there will also be fewer opportunities for creators, fewer jobs, higher costs and less choice for the viewing audience.

19:32So that's some of the developments in Trump media land. We do have a break, but coming up is the big interview I mentioned. New York Attorney General Letitia James is here. It's an exclusive Clashing with Trump and on her new big win in court today. Next.

19:54So there's plenty of bad news these days. There's bad news in the economy. Americans pay more for gas and groceries. But right now we turn to some good economic news and legal news because Democratic attorneys general, have now bested a giant corporation in a case over monopoly practices that hurt consumers. If the topic rings a bell, there has been outrage over Ticketmaster and Live Nation gouging consumers on big concerts. This was a big deal around Taylor Swift, you might recall. And it's been a bipartisan concern because music fans come in all ideologies, something we talk about sometimes here on The Beat.

20:29Even MAGA favorite Kid Rock testified against this same company's monopoly tactics in Congress. And today marks a huge legal victory in this fight. New York Attorney General James has won. As a New York jury determined that this Live Nation Ticketmaster conglomerate was running an illegal monopoly. That's against the law. There was evidence of abusing market power to overcharge people, to shake down different venues. Lawmakers have been calling out Ticketmaster's illegal practices for many years. And this is the throwback I mentioned in some of the hearings. people were quoting lyrics. Imagine that.

21:05That's something that happens sometimes. These were not hip-hop. They were usually Taylor lyrics. What Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation are doing looks like an illegal monopoly. As an ode to Taylor Swift, I will say we know all too well. This merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster will absolutely have and continue to have a detrimental effect on their prices. Ticketmaster ought to look in the mirror and say, I'm the problem. It's me. I think it's a nightmare dressed like a daydream. I don't think we ought to go there. But this is about more than aging political nerds quoting Taylor Swift, although that is, of course, a wonderful thing and you're free to do it.

21:55Antitrust prosecutors all the way back in the Biden DOJ were pushing this case. It has huge economic and cultural impact. So back in 2019, they were going at the antitrust issues. Now, the Trump DOJ continued this case for a while, unlike some of the other things where Trump kind of does the opposite of whatever Biden did. They kept it going. One, there was a valid legal argument, and two, immediately surrendering would have been very unpopular. I just showed how that montage had Republicans as well going at a ticketmaster. But as it got to trial, Trump prosecutors settled. And we reported that at the time, over 30 states which had joined this case vowed to keep fighting.

22:33That brings us up to today. DOJ had gone easy on the big company. They weren't requiring a breakup. But now the states with this win have more leverage. The judge will decide remedies in another proceeding building off of this. That could include possible divestments or separation to break up this very unpopular conglomerate that is found to be monopolistic. There could even be monetary damages. This is one of those things that when you see that it started all the way back as early as 2019 across two administrations, the feds in and out, then states, you say, God, what a hassle. And that's the thing about some very important matters of justice or economic fairness.

23:11They are a hassle. And these big companies actually spend a lot on lawyers and lobbyists and the rest to try to drag it out and grind it out and slowly, hopefully win. Well, tonight, the news is they lost. And we are joined by an exclusive guest who is part of the reason they lost. New York Attorney General Letitia James won the trial against Live Nation at Ticketmaster. She is our exclusive guest. We should also mention in context, she's the subject of another Trump administration probe after an indictment that was bought by the DOJ was tossed over a range of problems. James is not alone or special in that regard.