Trump Admits Unconstitutional Desire to Seize Election Powers

22:14Andrew Weissmann:14 federal prosecutors in Minnesota alone, which does send a message and also delays at least what some of the efforts have been there. And you may see a hollowing out of the government as one of the last resorts a year into this term. Andrew, thank you very much and for reminding us that news. We wanted to hit that. We will show viewers what Don Lemon is saying, speaking out. I caught up with him this weekend and he's made his first interview there with Jimmy Kimmel. We're going to show you some of that. Conspiracy theories that dominate right wing media have taken on a life of their own. We have a special report tonight on fact checking Fox with a very special guest.

22:50Andrew Weissmann:But first, more from the Epstein files. Next.

23:00Andrew Weissmann:For all the things that aren't working, the DOJ has been forced to release far more Epstein files than they ever planned to. We got millions on Friday that shed light on Epstein's powerful circle, including individuals with close ties to both parties and the current president, Donald Trump. Thousands of messages with Steve Bannon. Two hours of new footage never before seen, although we'd reported on its existence. Bannon interviewing Epstein. They had become allies of sorts. Bannon trying to help rehab Epstein's reputation. This was shot in 2019.

23:32Ari Melber:Do you think you're the devil himself? no but i do have a good mirror it's a serious question do you think you're the devil itself i don't know why would you say that because you have all the attributes you're incredibly smart you remember the devil is somebody knows what the devil's brilliant you read melton's you read melton's paradise lost no the devil scares me video goes on like that bannon never actually put out

24:00Andrew Weissmann:what he said was going to be that project. Maybe obvious reasons why. A current Trump cabinet member, Howard Lutnick, appears in email exchanges that discuss a potential trip to Epstein's island. This was in 2012, along with his family on a vacation, but it was years after Lutnick has publicly claimed that he had cut all ties with Epstein. These files, which otherwise would never have come out, appearing to undercut what was a Lutnick strategy. Why? One would think he would remember this effort to be in contact with him. There are other names like Brett Ratner, who directed the Melania documentary that Amazon paid so much for and just came out.

24:37Andrew Weissmann:He's in a photograph with Epstein and an unidentified woman. Or a big, powerful law firm, Paul Weiss, has its chair, Brad Karp. They recently struck one of those big deals, giving millions to Trump last year through pro bono work. And he had what seemed to be friendly interactions with Epstein. Paul Weiss now says he regrets them. Trump also, of course, is in the files. The New York Times says over 5 ,000 times with references to Trump and Mar-a-Lago and there were other related words about their family. As for Trump, Bannon and Lutnick and Ratner, we should note these new disclosures don't involve any criminal wrongdoing, more just violations of their own statements or claims to have cut ties with Epstein.

25:22Andrew Weissmann:Republican lawmakers are also focused on the Clintons. There is now a deal afoot to have them give a deposition about all this. All eyes also on Maxwell, Epstein's convicted associate. She will be deposed on Monday. That comes after the DOJ held a very unusual and suspicious meeting between the deputy attorney general and her. The Trump DOJ also, under the same individual, Todd Blanche, had this to say.

25:50Ari Melber:We will always investigate any evidence of misconduct But as you know, it is not a crime to party with Mr. Epstein And so as horrible as it's not a crime to email with Mr. Epstein The American people need to understand that it isn't a crime to party with Mr. Epstein It isn't a crime to have bloodshed out

26:07Andrew Weissmann:Didn't look like that's all that was going on on some of those photos You could hear a little Fox News pushback on Todd Blanche's talking point It's true, there shouldn't be guilt by association Being in the emails or at a, quote, party is not itself a crime. But the problem is how this Trump DOJ seems to have avoided pursuing any leads. We now have a chart that we reported on Friday showing all the potential associates of Mr. Epstein. Only one, Maxwell, actually prosecuted. Here's Congressman Kanna. At the very least, every single person who went to Epstein's island should have an investigation.

26:46Andrew Weissmann:just to say, oh, these were just rich people who were playboys. That's just disrespectful to these survivors. We are still in the journalistic community going through what are millions of documents, files, photos, videos, and we will continue reporting out what we know in context. We will hear from Don Lemon tonight, as he has now spoken out since his arrest. But first, you know the HBO hit Succession. You know Fox News has settled a lot of defamation trouble. Tonight, we get into the real-life Murdoch succession next.

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28:47Andrew Weissmann:anyone who believes that i'm getting out please shove the bunting up your this is not the end i'm gonna build something better something faster lighter meaner wilder conservative mogul rupert murdoch has been metabally captured by hbo's hit Succession, a show that satirized politics, media, billionaire excess, with characters clearly based on the Murdochs and a cable news channel drawing on aspects of Fox News, including how even the so-called owners can sometimes lose control of the very passions they unleash in their audience. Murdoch built a media empire originally on newspapers and TV, then bought up some prestige outlets like the Wall Street Journal, fusing a business style with his own right-wing agenda.

29:42Ari Melber:You had the will to crush the unions I didn't have the will to crush the unions I might have had the desire But that took several years

29:56Andrew Weissmann:I didn't, I did, it just took a while Murdoch, of course, wrote the Global Business Playbook which many copy now Trotting into different countries, deploying media assets quite blatantly as political leverage not independent journalism. He overseed companies that break all kinds of rules, media outlets caught for illegally hacking into a child's phone. That proved too much even in the rough British tabloid world. Fox News has paid out for sexual harassment at the very top, and then the record$780 million punishment for lies about Trump's 2020 loss. Critics say those are terrible acts by powerful companies.

30:34Andrew Weissmann:Some capitalists say Fox paid a lot more for those lies than it ever made on them, at least in the short term. And politicos marvel at how Murdoch built an empire that doesn't just cover governments, but quite literally helps pick some of them. Beyond a conservative news empire, he erected a fourth branch of government, a propaganda machine monetizing outrage, spreading conspiracy theories, and shaping the minds of millions. He created the Trump presidency, writes Gabe Sherman, the author of a new book about the Mogul, which explores something else that we're about to get into. How all that power didn't enable Murdoch to really pump the brakes on Trump when Murdoch finally concluded that maybe things had gone too far, nor could he even maintain an orderly succession for his replacement in the empire, let alone family peace.

31:24Andrew Weissmann:A succession drama which spilled into court and forms the messy human side in this new book, Bonfire of the Murdochs, How the Epic Fight to Control, The Last Great Media Dynasty, Broke of Family and the World, by Vandy Ferris Gabe Sherman, a longtime media reporter. Welcome. Thanks, Ari. Good to be here. That point, all this money and planning, but it didn't ultimately work for his business succession, let alone family peace. Tell us about that.

31:54Ari Melber:Yeah. I mean, that's one of the themes of the book that Rupert, basically, Rupert Murdoch built this media machine that devoured itself. You know, famously back in 2015, he did not want Donald Trump to be the Republican nominee. The Fox News audience did. And he had no choice but to jump on the bandwagon because if they tuned out, if they went against Trump, the audience was going to defect. And so Rupert Murdoch became hostage not only to the Trump MAGA base, but also became hostage to his own children who were fighting each other for control of the empire. And it's sort of a tragic irony that a man so powerful as Rupert Murdoch is spending the

32:28Andrew Weissmann:final years of his life feeling powerless. Was that unavoidable, almost more Shakespearean? Yeah. Or did your reporting find that really was mistakes he made that had he just picked the right person earlier on and stuck with it in a different way, that his conniving almost seemed to be like he was either used to running the game, which they show in the HBO show, or couldn't unlearn that.

32:54Ari Melber:Yeah, I think it's really more the Shakespearean aspect. I mean, this is something that was rooted in his childhood. His own father was very dismissive of him. He had the same sort of judgmental attitude towards his own children. And I think the book shows how these patterns have just repeated through the generations. And again, I think it carries over to the politics as well. Rupert Murdoch loves to play the political game, but what he loves more is profits. and Fox News' profits were the engine of the whole empire. And once Fox News latched on to Trump, it was basically a bull that he had no choice but to ride.

33:28Andrew Weissmann:You also humanize him, which could be hard. But he is a human, but yes. He's fact check. He is a human. Yes. Yeah. And so, you know, you show a lot of things that are ripe for criticism, the greed, the law breaking, and I think informed Americans have that they know what Fox is. but then you show that this was a guy who was in allegedly a dispute with uh his wife um and she pushed him so hard he like fell down and breaks his oh wendy yeah they had a big yeah yeah breaks breaks a bone you show him fighting for his life on the side of a mega yacht most people would say all right well whatever you're mega yacht but but you show someone in the way you you report those stories uh a fighter who would not give up was there something yeah about that in him i mean of course.

34:15Ari Melber:I mean, people might play the world's tiniest violin when you talk about the struggles of these billionaires, but there is something deeply human about someone who has all this power, but in the moment feels like their life is on the line, whether it's with his children, whether it's his health crises. And again, I think there's something, it's just a riveting story. Again, if you can separate out the politics, I just find it from a, you know, the empire he built,

34:39Andrew Weissmann:whether you like it or hate it, you can't deny its power. How do you find that your reporting is being received in his circle or in Fox News, because in the same way that we're TV here, right, we're a competitor to them, but I'm trying to do this fairly. Yeah. You're doing your thing, but you're dealing with a lot of media people. Yeah. I mean, so far it's been quiet, so we'll see. I mean, I'd love to get feedback on the book, but I've not heard from them directly. So yeah, you don't feel like they're on the attack or anything, no. And is he really in the background now? I mean, he really has his son running the empire?

35:10Ari Melber:Yeah, so Rupert Murdoch turns 95 on March 11th, and his son Lachlan is now firmly entrenched as the CEO. And, you know, really was the passing of the torch. That said, he's not out of the game. I mean, Rupert Murak will never be out of the game. I mean, I think it will be on his way to the cemetery,

35:26Andrew Weissmann:still trying to make a phone call. Would you say, don't hate the player, hate the game? In what sense? Don't hate the mogul, hate the game. Or some people think the mogul did a lot of bad things. I mean, I think he also created the game. I mean, he was such a good player, he changed the rules of the game. Yeah. And game recognized game. Yeah. Gabe Sherman. Thank you. The book is Bonfire of the Murdochs. It's out now. If you want to learn more about what we just discussed, I finished the book. It's an interesting read. Coming up, we will show you what Don Lemon is saying, his first remarks since leaving court there on this arrest.

36:09Andrew Weissmann:journalist don lemon did his first interview since that trump arrest and he spoke to jimmy kimmel

36:17Ari Melber:i pressed the elevator button and these then all of a sudden i feel myself being jostled and and and they took people trying to grab me and put me in handcuffs and and i said what are you doing here and they said uh we came to arrest you and i didn't have a warrant so they had to wait for someone from outside, an FBI guy, to come in to show me a warrant on a cell phone. They took me outside. FBI guys were out there. I mean, it had to be maybe a dozen people, which is a waste, Jimmy, of resources. They want to embarrass you. They want to intimidate you. They want to instill fear. And so that's why they did it that way.

36:52Andrew Weissmann:It's a fair point. Mr. Lemon and his attorneys have mentioned they offered through standard process because they knew they were under investigation to go turn themselves in. And that's the standard approach. This was something closer to a so-called, quote, perp walk, or effort to create spectacle and content as they went to arrest him with that large number of agents. Now, these ICE protests have gotten a lot of traction and attention. How are they working? We answer that when we return.

37:26Andrew Weissmann:This national backlash to ICE continues. We see protesters and organizers pushing their activism on the ground, both in the cold areas of Minnesota and elsewhere. Over in Washington, we showed you earlier tonight, Democrats using their platform abilities to take testimony and seizing on the shutdown clash to try to curb some ICE powers. We also saw it at the Grammy Awards in California, which celebrated diversity, handing the first ever album of the year Grammy to a record in Spanish. Many artists seizing the moment to speak out from Bad Bunny and Billie Eilish protesting Trump administration violence against immigrants and the ice out pins that were seen throughout the hall.

38:07Andrew Weissmann:to the Best New Artist winner, 26-year-old Brit Olivia Dean, celebrating her heritage as a granddaughter of a Jamaican Guyanese immigrant and saying in her speech, she comes from that immigrant lineage. And then there were standouts like newcomer Leon Thomas taking home the prize award after his breakout year. Tonight we are joined by Leon Thomas, the artist, producer, and longtime actor. He got his start on Broadway and shows like The Lion King and The Color Purple, worked on Nickelodeon. He's taken the music industry by storm, especially over the past year. He has worked with many beloved artists like Babyface, SZA and Drake.

38:51Andrew Weissmann:But his album this year, Mutt, which went number one, has been a sensation.

39:07Ari Melber:But Leon, you are by far the greatest new male R &B singer doing it today. Every artist that's been up here has given all the praise and props and flowers to Leon Thomas. It's not fair. How you just gonna take off your clothes and sit right there? Vibes don't lie like the world do. Oh, yeah.

39:32Andrew Weissmann:Billboard credits Thomas with reinvigorating R &B today With his blend, his take on it of, quote, soul, funk, rock, and hip-hop He's also going to tour with Bruno Mars this year Welcome to The Beat How are you, man? How you feeling? How does this all feel? You, on the one hand, have been at it for a while You know how to express yourself artistically But you've got to admit, it's been a lot recently

39:57Ari Melber:Absolutely, man. It's been such a surreal moment. You know, I feel like everything is really coming into fruition. I've been manifesting moments like this, you know, my whole career. And I'm really just doing my best to stay present and, you know, really just give my best efforts out there.

40:13Andrew Weissmann:For a lot of people in music and people of a younger age, Mutt right now means your album. Of course, there's a pedigree, if you'll pardon the wordplay, a larger pedigree here. you say she said take your time what's the rush I said baby I'm a dog I'm a mutt and you've explained that is both poetic and literal because you got a dog in a breakup tell us about that

40:38Ari Melber:absolutely um you know for me it was my first time owning a dog and I fell in love with this guy but he's kind of rambunctious you know I had a bunch of things going on all at once between performing and and recording this album so I didn't really train him exactly how I was supposed Stu. And anytime he would get in trouble, I would, I would see a face that he would, he would make that really kind of reminded me of myself. And it was a cool way to kind of just kind of add, add a very classic energy into what I'm doing, you know, thinking back to George Clinton with Atomic Dog, Elvis Presley with the Hound Dog.

41:13Ari Melber:It's been a theme in the culture. And, you know, I just figured I'd, you know, do my take on it musically. And it's, it's been crazy to see how, you know, it's been spreading like wildfire. Yeah.

41:23Andrew Weissmann:I'll meet you on the references. You Elvis is, of course, a classic one. Snoop Dogg, doggy style. He literally turned into a very strong, you know, black, like German Shepherd looking dog in the video. DMX, all about the dogs. What is it about you looking at both, I guess, the potentially the positive and some of the negative when you talk about not being, you know, ready for everything or trained for everything?

41:46Ari Melber:I just think it's genuinely about vulnerability and, you know, finding ways to kind of just be honest with your listeners. I mean, the entire album is called Mutt because I was going through all of these changes and really learning how to be, you know, a man within relationships and taking accountability. And I think that was like a really beautiful process, a very therapeutic process during this album. And I knew for a fact that that was a term that could be used and be understood worldwide.

42:19Andrew Weissmann:You know, one of my favorite quotes is from Bukowski and he said, an intellectual takes a simple thing and makes it complicated. An artist takes a complicated thing and makes it simple.

42:31Ari Melber:Exactly.

42:32Andrew Weissmann:And that we can relate. And even one line from Dancing with Demons, you say, nobody said how dark the light be. Exactly. Very, very compact.

42:40Ari Melber:What are you saying there? It's just really talking about some of the negative aspects that come with fame. And being able to really deal with the spotlight in a way that's positive and healthy. So many artists go through a lot of twists and turns. And I was just genuinely speaking to a lot of the things that can kind of come with notoriety.

43:04Andrew Weissmann:A lot of folks get down with the Vibes Don't Lie song. I'm just going to read it. You say, you shouldn't have to try alone. Tell me if you're mine or no. We like Wheezy and Styrofoam. She got her own. vibes don't lie like the mouth do, vibes don't lie, and that's the hook. What does that mean to you, or when did you feel like, oh yeah, that's something in your life?

43:26Ari Melber:Well, I mean, I think it's an interesting landscape we're in when it comes to dating right now, and I think people tend to filter their life, filter the things that they say in order to be wanted. And what I was speaking to was just the energy that doesn't lie, you know, the actions that don't lie. Do people quote that back to you now? Absolutely, man. It's a nice, like, foundational piece, you know, when people, you know, meet me and, you know, they'll, like, say it and pass. And I think it's real fun that a lot of these songs are translating in such a real way that, you know, the culture is responding to it in a way that they can even use a lot of these terms and these song titles in everyday life.

44:11Andrew Weissmann:And vibes, of course, are a longstanding, not for me to overanalyze it, but vibes are a longstanding concept. And yet this song, right? But this song sort of became a way where you're like, yeah, vibes don't lie. And like, and what good is it? You could be in a place that's supposed to be something or supposed to be fancy or you name it. And if the vibe's off, you don't even want to stay. Exactly. Leon Thomas, thanks for joining us.

44:33Ari Melber:Thank you so much, man. This was actually really surreal. I watch the show all the time. So thank you for having me.

44:38Andrew Weissmann:Oh, respect. We love to hear that. Great. I hope to meet you in person as well. Leon Thomas, thank you, sir. Man, thanks. Peace. Our thanks, Leon Thomas, who we just learned is also a beat viewer. And as you can see, like some of the other new artists coming up, he had a great Sunday night at the Grammys. Congrats on those awards there. If you want to let me know what your favorite moment is from the Grammys or this week with a lot going on, You can follow me at Ari Melber on social media and tell me what was your favorite moment in the Grammys or in any of the music that we spoke about with Leon tonight.

45:11Andrew Weissmann:You can see he knows his predecessors and was quick to rattle off some of them all the way back to Elvis. Again, that's at Ari Melber on the platforms you see there. That does it for us.

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