Trump AG Pick Under Pressure for Crime Fund, Epstein

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0:51Find Disclosure Day on major digital platforms now with no subscription required. also in theaters. Welcome to The Beat. I'm Ari Melber, and we begin with Donald Trump's Justice Department under strain. And not just from what you might say is the legal community, which has clashed with the COJ, or Democrats who are the opposition party. We're talking about very conservative Republican senators who are saying if they don't change gears, Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general won't get confirmed. This is, of course, the acting AG, Todd Blanche. And this is pushback at a time that actually matters, where senators have leverage.

1:31Now, this is following a meeting with Blanche. Epstein survivors have said that even though he had to be forced in that meeting as one of the terms from one of these senators, a Republican, by the way, to even get the nomination vote, they still don't think he's up to the job. And they are urging the Senate to oppose and block his nomination. Now, the Republicans who are, of course, key here are the names you might have heard because they lost their primaries when Donald Trump intervened, Cornyn and Tillis. Now, the letter to them says survivors received an hour of deflection, interruption, and gaslighting.

2:05Blanche showed no remorse, and that it felt like a box-checking exercise and a vote to confirm, they argue, would at this point feel to them like a vote against sexual assault survivors. Now, that is just one of the lines of pressure. There is also both of these Republican senators trying to get a commitment, something real or in writing, to get Blanche to fully end, once and for all, this controversial, currently frozen MAGA crime fund. Now, we have more on that tonight as well, but the bottom line is we hear this narrative about how Republicans never stand up. And I would tell you that narrative is true on most issues most of the time, but not all the time.

2:47But neither of these two Republicans, as of this hour, as of right now when I'm telling you the news, have committed to voting for Blanche, and they could end him, end his nomination. Now, here was Senator Cornyn speaking out about all this today. The problem is, if you're going to serve on President Trump's cabinet, he's going to try to bend you to his will as much as he possibly can. And the attorney general needs to maintain some level of independence because he represents the entire country and the chief law enforcement officer. So we've still got some work to do, but the markup isn't until the 30th.

3:27So we have some time. Fact check, true. Maybe late true, maybe partial true, because these senators, including Senator Cornyn, have not exactly been paragons of independence of doing the standing up to Trump that he just described as necessary. He didn't do it. In fact, it was only his only infraction in Trump's view was years ago being critical of him. But as a voting MAGA Republican, he has been in lockstep with many, many things that Trump has demanded of this party lately. Now, Blanche faces court losses and the other big issue I mentioned, which is his effort to set up something that best we can tell is unprecedented, illegal, and a terrible idea.

4:10The billion dollar crime fund on Trump's behalf. That's money that would go to handpicked Trump allies, maybe Jan 6 people, maybe not. They were so kind of suspicious and guilty about that they wouldn't really say. And that thing has been blocked in the courts. It is probably illegal. I say that was unprecedented, so it's not like we have a Supreme Court ruling on anyone ever trying this in the past. What's interesting and important tonight is these two Republican senators are saying that thing's got to be fully dropped for good to get their votes. Democrats on the Hill convened several witnesses to discuss why Blanche, in their view, should not get this promotion.

4:49Senator Booker also discussing the stakes at DOJ. We have witnessed over the last 17 months a systematic dismantling of that ideal of integrity, not through a single act, but through a pattern, bending the department away from the Constitution and toward the personal and political interests of one man facilitated by the subservience of another. That's the concern as laid out by Democrats A couple notes here One is we often hear about how Democrats aren't doing enough What else can they do? They are in the minority Today is an example where you're seeing them doing extra It's summer, this is a period where often they might even be on recess And above and beyond the original hearings They are trying to use their powers and their platform The way they use the Jan 6 Committee to speak to the nation on these issues of import Even without being in the majority The second point that is a little obscure, but if you've been watching the news or MSNOW, formerly MSNBC, for years, you might remember all of that period in the Mueller coverage, which is relevant to my upcoming guest.

5:58And I can tell you that when we used to call down and check facts or double check a question or ask something that we were hearing about the Mueller probe, the person we often spoke to was a guy named Peter Carr, one of these behind-the-scenes people you hear about at DOJ. And I can just tell you as a legal reporter, I always found him to be straightforward, above board, and never leaky, even though we might have preferred otherwise. And so this is one of many people who served inside the Justice Department and served with people of distinction. Mueller, who I mentioned, and later Jack Smith, who tapped him for a similar role.

6:34Now, we know that Blanche removed him last year. Only Blanche can say the reasons. But he discussed Blanche's conduct at DOJ. And again, with the background of years of service, someone tapped by Bob Mueller to do the job. Bob Mueller, of course, was a Republican appointee at one point and comes from that tradition, at least in D.C., but considered very independent and nonpartisan. And then, of course, tapped by Jack Smith. We've all seen his courage and credibility lately. I give you that background for someone who isn't usually on camera because they're behind the scenes discussing Blanche undercutting the credibility of the DOJ.

7:20Blanche has fired or overseen the firings of hundreds of DOJ employees, usually without notice and for improper and lawful reasons. But these firings aren't just unlawful. They're also incredibly damaging to the department and its law enforcement mission. with all that in mind we turn to someone who also helped lead the muller probe who served alongside mr carr is andrew weissman also former fbi general counsel uh welcome back nice to be here uh i'm not a fan in in these circles where it's like oh i know somebody so that's like cozy dc i don't mean it like that what i mean is mr carr is among many many other non-partisan public servants who we don't hear about.

8:06I don't think most people have ever seen him on TV. Who Mueller trusted, who I believe you trusted, who I believe lately. Smith trusted. And these are the people coming out to say, wait a minute, this isn't ideological. You know, there have been conservative attorneys general. Fine. But there's something more rotten here. Can you give us your view and context on this? Sure. Well, let's just take Peter Carr as an example, though. So he did serve as the press person, as you noted, for Jack Smith and for Robert Mueller, but he's a career person. He served in for many, many people of both parties.

8:41So the reason he was doing that was just because he's really good at his job. And the Peter Carr, the clip that you just played, in case people, that's not him being nervous. That's not sort of him acting out of the ordinary. He is a quiet, soft-spoken, but diligent and incredibly capable person. Now, the joke was always in the Mueller team was like he had the easiest job in the world because, you know, the issue was you answer the phone and you say no comment. He never said much to me when we talked. Right. I mean, he was a by-the-book person. And this is the kind of person who when you are in the Department of Justice, you are trying to keep the best people.

9:31These are people who usually have a lot of other options. They can make a lot more money. They have pressures if they have families to put them through school. And there are lots of reasons people leave unrelated to the love of the job. And you're trying to keep these people in the department because they're so valued and they're so good at their job. Peter Carr would be like the number one person in that position you would want to keep. And so of all of the many, many sins of Todd Blanche, this is so performative in terms of, as he boasted at a conference, which is, you know, what he got rid of.

10:10And the department's gotten rid of people who worked for Jack Smith. Isn't that great? That is just so anathema to how you should run the department. And it fits in with what Senator Cornyn was saying, which is you need to be independent. Remember, it was Senator Sessions when he became the attorney general. His sin was being independent. And that's why he was gone. And that is something that you see Todd Blanche saying he is not planning on being independent. There is no sign to that. Blanche's partisanship is clear. It's confessed. A little more of that exchange. This is Senator Schiff talking to the gentleman that we're describing for viewers who you worked with.

10:57Mr. Carr, let's take a look. He fired you, right? He signed my termination notice, yes. He signed your termination notice. So he signed the termination of someone who worked on the prosecution of his former client and arguably his current client, Donald Trump. Correct. I mean, it seems to me that was a pretty direct lie he told to our committee. Andrew? So what the senator there is getting at is the idea of a conflict of interest. And if you remember, going back to Attorney General Sessions, Attorney General Sessions had recused himself. And you remember Donald Trump's reaction to that was he was furious.

11:47But the attorney general was like, it would be inappropriate for me to rule on things that are part of what I was doing as part of your campaign. And so he's like, I am not doing that. Here, you have every single sign that Todd Blanche is not going to be in that mold. One of the things I would have liked to have seen was questioning him about Watergate and to say, you know, let's just look at what Elliot Richardson did when President Nixon ordered Elliot Richardson, the then attorney general, to fire the special counsel, Archibald Cox. And Elliot Richardson was like, I'm not doing it. I'd rather resign.

12:32And to me, this is Todd Lange saying that whole post-Watergate norm that Republicans and Democrats adhere to is out the window. And I think he's very, very sort of direct about it, that that is not the model that he sees. That sort of post-Watergate period will be gone. Yeah. And then putting that all back in, even if you get through this period, becomes tougher. And all this is happening now. Now, there's a big irony in these two Republican senators being the ones that Trump ousted. The concessions they want strike me as bare bones. I mean, the MAGA fund is frozen. I don't think it would ultimately be blessed in court.

13:10We don't know yet fully. And briefly, as I'm over on time, their view is, well, just commit to not doing the bad thing that you probably wouldn't be allowed to do. Yeah, and I would say there is a plan B, which is that even if they don't do it through this so-called weaponization fund, whether they're going to use some other part of money to sort of trickle it out and get accomplished the same thing, but using other funds. Yeah, to seize taxpayer money and give it out to their allied convicts, criminals, ex-convicts, however you want to put it. It's striking. Andrew, you're the perfect expert on this tonight.

13:44Thank you for being here. Coming up, flags on this nuke deal with the Saudis. Congressman Garcia joins us in the backlash to ICE. We'll hit that later. But first, the gas freakout when we're back in 90 seconds.

14:06Republicans have a lot of problems going into these midterms, and that includes the war in Iran and the related rising prices at home. GOP operatives on the political effects of the war spoke to the outlet Politico and said, we're preparing for the bottom to fall out. Republicans running out of runway to improve their political fortunes. A Trump White House ally described as close to the administration said this has been badly mismanaged and driven increasingly by the president's refusal to acknowledge a loss. The L word we know bothers Donald Trump in general, but definitely on a war that technically isn't over, but many people say he's lost key parts of, quote, nobody can really defend it.

14:51Polling shows MAGA voters are over it. Support for the war underwater, down 13 points from May to an abysmal 37 percent. Those are MAGA people. A vast majority of Americans say this isn't worth it. They've seen enough. That reality is stark compared to Trump's claims. Well, Americans aren't against the war. A poll just came out. Americans don't want to have gasoline prices, but they're not against the war. One study shows that to actually cost everyone over$1 ,000 per household when you look at the direct short-term increases to fuel costs, the supply chain, the effects on food and groceries and other goods.

15:35And again, that's short-term. Trump has not delivered on the end the timeline he promised or the ceasefire working, so that bill could go up. Now, how does the president respond? What does he do about the economy that he promise to address in his famous high prices 24 campaign? Well, apparently the opposite of help. He is mulling new tariffs on other countries on top of a 50 percent tariff that's hitting many goods from Canada, which is, of course, our second largest trading partner, our neighbor to the north. Here's the reaction on Fox Business. I worry about tariffs. You know, we got, you know, everybody's so worried.

16:15talking about the 10-year before. I mean, everything, this is not a time to be screwing around here. And yet, this is the time that he is doing it. Now, there's a longtime foe of the president, at least in the second term, someone who's bothered him since probably day one, Republican congressman and sort of Epstein warrior Thomas Massey. He says high prices will further damage not only Trump's hopes for the midterms, but really break trust with the base. Still, there's a base, there's Fox News that's on TV every day trying to glorify this war and show this great thing. Eventually, I think people's pocketbooks are going to impose reality on them and they're going to quit watching Fox and pay more attention to the gas prices.

17:03And that's a Republican talking. So, after all the talk about PR and fake news and reality shows and spin on social media, there's a theme here that we've been reporting on. Substance and reality seem to matter, and they are creating a lot of gravity for Republicans in the midterms. Obama vet Che Comanduri will speak on this exact issue next.

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19:05Now, obviously, it's very frustrating to be back in this trade war again. But if you're worried that this is another case of Trump abusing his power, relax. These tariffs are legal under the Smoot-Hawley Act, which has been around since 1930 when it helped prolong and worsen the Great Depression. So cheer up.

19:28The Daily Show, having laughs about the tariffs. We are going to turn to someone who can laugh through the tears, as they say in Russia. It's a very special day when we have a Che Day. The music, the Americana, the political expertise of Che Comandori, the strategist veteran of three presidential campaigns, including Obama's. Welcome back, Che. It's good to be back, Ari. I mentioned in the setup, Tom Massey says reality and gas prices beat Fox Spin. substance on the war and people's awareness of what's happening over there seems to be trampling Donald Trump's efforts to spin or lie to people and tell them the war is basically over or the ceasefire basically worked.

20:10It didn't. What do you see as the reality index here? I mean, the reality is that MAGA and Trump have gotten everything they've wanted and they have virtually nothing to show for it. Donald Trump has dominated our politics and our culture for a decade. Twice he has had full control of the government. He has had both houses of Congress. He has had a Supreme Court that is a conservative court that is very tilted towards him. He has had the full power of the presidency. And even this time, he had even more power, even more of a perceived mandate going into the second term. And they have nothing to show for any of this.

20:53And the reason is, is because Trump and MAGA, this movement, this party is simply based on grievance, on grievance politics, white grievance, male grievance. And I think that also explains why during this whole period, just last week, we had Trump giving an address about how he should have won the 2020 election, because the only thing they have to go to is grievance. And you can't govern by grievance. And I think the American people are seeing that. You put it so clearly, which is why we like talking to you. There's a lot of different ways to put it. But I haven't heard anyone recently just sort of lay it out as you did.

21:30They have the levers of government. They have a friendly court. Even a friendly court has had to stop him where he overstepped on issues like rigging the midterm ballots or some of the tariffs being used as emergency powers he didn't have. But your point is, you know, Reagan had two terms and they passed laws and they changed the budget and they really did some things that involve the long term governance of the nation. And here that hasn't happened. Now, I'll tell you who has ideas about the other problem that Trump's facing. And it's it's a guy who used to sometimes go by the name Papa Bear.

22:04Do you know what I'm talking about? No, Papa Bear. Who is Papa Bear? Stephen Colbert would call this former Fox News host Papa Bear. I feel like we're doing Jeopardy. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's Bill O 'Reilly, right? Yeah. Bill O 'Reilly. And whether Colbert meant it as damning by faint praise or something else, people can decide. But Papa Bear O 'Reilly, he still makes videos. He still speaks. And he says, and again, this is Bill O 'Reilly, says that Trump is off his game, that he's old, that he needs to rest. Take a look. So my advice to Donald Trump is to take the next month off if you can.

22:49Get into an environment where you like golf and relax a little bit. You got to deal with Iran. I understand that. Everybody understands it. But you can do that on the phone and you can do that with your people coming. But you need a breather.

23:10You know what? I'll give Bill O 'Reilly some credit. That's actually good advice. The problem is we all know Trump won't take it because Trump needs to be in front of that camera. He needs to be the center of attention. I mean, just look at what happened the last month. You know, we had that great American fair that was a complete bomb. It was a complete bust. Nobody showed up. MAGA was unenthused about it. You know, the America 250 celebration just completely fizzled. Trump wanted it to be about himself and a celebration of himself. No one was interested in that. So then what does Trump do? Well, he notices that the World Cup is going really well.

23:47Really good ratings. The U.S. team is doing well. Hey, let me insert myself into that. Let me make that about me. Let me call up the head of FIFA and have the rules changed just for me and then take credit for all the victories. Right. Then, of course, we have a defeat in the World Cup and he has to move on to something else. He goes, well, let me I need to make this more about me. Let me talk about my 2020 stolen election. That's the new play. So Trump does not have the discipline to step away. He doesn't have the ability to say, hey, you know, this isn't about me. Maybe people would benefit.

24:22Maybe I would benefit by just taking a break from the limelight. He can't do that. As the old song goes, Jay, you're so vain. I bet you think this World Cup is about you. Yes, I'm sure Carly Simon can update it with those lyrics. Absolutely. And it wasn't. And the Republicans, we know in the midterms, they would most like him to step out of you in the same way that we've seen unpopular Democratic presidents sometimes being asked not to campaign because there was some sort of dialogue. Well, there's no dialogue here. He's staying in the headlines. And what you're saying brings us back, of course, to where O 'Reilly started.

24:59O 'Reilly is pro-Republican, and he's offering golf and sort of pleading with him to go do something else to try to get him out of the headlines, which sort of tells you where the trend lines are. Che, I'm going to tell you something. Having you show up on Che Day is vital. It's not the same when we don't have you booked on a Che Day. Yeah, considering it's named after me, it would be very awkward and weird. Be tough. Yeah, be tough. Thank you for joining us. Continue to have a good summer. We're going to fit in a break. When we come back, we do have an update on another Trump problem, which is the Saudi Arabia deal and pay to play corruption allegations.

25:37Congressman Robert Garcia, newsworthy guest. He's big on this. He will be here by the end of the hour. But next, scrutiny on ICE as the immigration crackdown heats up and draws many Americans ire.