Trump Claims He Has "Much More Power" in Second Term

22:19You know, Trump's Trump's level of corruption, constitutional abuses is such that it's really unprecedented. Bondi is on record saying that they were going to root out anybody that didn't support Trump. She's done so and made the country substantially less safe in the areas of terrorism and violent crime. Patel said he was going to root out anybody that had been involved in investigations against Trump, even though the grand juries indicted him. Courts largely supported him with the exception of a corrupt judge in Florida. And what you've seen is we are no safer. We're much more exposed domestically and certainly internationally.

23:04Keep in mind, at the FBI, consistent with the phrase used in that lawsuit, which is accurate, that loyalty to Trump should not be a litmus test for employment. At the FBI, just before the war in Iran was initiated, Patel fired every Iranian counterterrorism expert. How safe does that make America? It is ridiculous what's going on, and it's not American, and ideally we'll reach a point where at some point Congress will step up or the Democrats will take control, and we can reverse course because the course we're on is leading us straight into an abyss that we'll never see America again.

23:55Ty Cobb:well uh you know i asked you about powell he fought uh some of these wall street folks some some of these universities they didn't um and then trump gets asked about it and he has the back and forth and again you've spoken about his mental state i'm old enough to remember where when a period three years ago where if a president misstated things everyone started to say well how's he doing is he is he got is he on it or not um but here i'll explain but here's trump on powell He's under investigation because he's building a building for hundreds of billions of dollars more than it's supposed to cost.

24:29Now, I know it's gross incompetent because I happen to think he's grossly incompetent. Today, certainly, you should be lowering interest rates. All right. Certainly, who would not lower them?

24:39Ty Cobb:But he's stubborn. Two points there. One, the president can weigh in on interest rates. He's welcome to use his free speech rights on his opinion. He just doesn't control interest rates. But when he says Powell is still under investigation, that's not the case. The start of the investigation was these subpoenas. They've been they've been quashed. And so maybe he doesn't follow the news. Maybe he forgot. Maybe, you know, you tell me how he sounds to you. But it does matter that the DOJ has to follow the judge's orders, not Donald Trump's memory or misunderstanding that this is alive and well as a probe.

25:20You would suspect that to be the case. But keep in mind, the DOJ has defied many court orders. You know, there's a piece out by a group led from by Ryan Goodman, a professor at Columbia. You know, it's 361 pages long of quotes from judicial opinions in the last year where courts have rejected representations and pleadings by the DOJ and other federal prosecutors where they just lied to the courts and they defied rulings. You know, that was part of, you know, Judge Bozberg's history before he issued the Powell decision. And the Powell decision clearly found that the government had not given a scintilla of evidence that justified mere grand jury subpoenas.

26:05And that's that is the lowest standard. Keep in mind, if you look at these cases, you know, as as part of a group, you know, in the Harvard case, there's already a ruling by a federal judge that Trump's claims of anti-Semitism at Harvard were used as a smokescreen to launch, you know, a targeted ideological attack, rejected the Trump administration's efforts to prevent two point five billion dollars going to go to Harvard for for research. In the Comey case, of course, his prosecution was dismissed. Now they're sending him a subpoena, which, of course, is a pointless exercise because he still has a Fifth Amendment privilege and he's not going to testify.

26:47It's silly. But it's just an interim effect. With regard to Powell, there was never any evidence. It was clear that it was only to intimidate Powell with regard to interest rates, which is illegal, improper, unconstitutional. And Bozberg said so. With regard to VOA and Carrie Lake, you know, she assumed powers that she didn't have, you know, ran roughshod over an agency. A thousand people are going to go back to work because of that. And that's just the tip of the iceberg in terms of these cases. You know, courts throughout the country are now rejecting, you know, Trump's illegal fascist attempts, you know, to assume all power.

27:28And they're rejecting it. They're making it very plain that the Constitution doesn't permit this kind of authoritarianism.

27:34Ty Cobb:Yeah, I mean, well, it's so interesting hearing you break it all down, Ty. And on the one hand, you say, OK, there's all of these lines being drawn and that matters. On the other hand, you can't help but feel like, gosh, what a what a travesty and what a waste of time and energy to say nothing of the other things that the U.S. government could be doing on behalf of the good of the American public when you see it this way. And you mentioned the folks who are acting without authority. And there was a big smackdown on that. I don't think we got enough attention in New Jersey federal court this week.

28:06Ty Cobb:I want to tell folks about that and get your take on that when we come back. Great. Thank you, Ari. What if you go to work but don't have a job? It was a great Seinfeld episode, but it's a lot more serious if you are a Trump prosecutor who actually can't prosecute anybody. This brings us to a courtroom clash where the DOJ is on defense. Remember Alina Hava. She was Trump's personal lawyer, and then she was appointed basically a temp prosecutor. But there are actual rules and laws on how long you can just be in a temp position because you're not confirmed by the Senate. And a judge found that she went beyond those rules over the 120-day legal limit.

28:45Ty Cobb:And she said she stepped down, which was another sign, as I was just discussing with Ty Cobb, that the rules can work and the line is held if people fight. Or it depends on who is doing the DOJ work, because there is now a suspicion by a federal judge that she might be trying to still wield authority in that office after having left. a judge this week asking another DOJ prosecutor whether Habba is still secretly or furtively trying to carry out that job, which would be illegal. Now, the prosecutor who works for the Trump DOJ said, none that I'm aware of. The judge said, well, so she could be operating in the office going down this line of questioning.

29:27Ty Cobb:Top prosecutor also defied the judge because, as you may know, if you've ever seen a courtroom drama, you have to be admitted to speak in court. The other people in the room are merely observers and you have a bailiff there. And if you break those rules as anyone who's not admitted, meaning you could be in the audience or you could just be from the government, well, you'll get kicked out. And that's what happened because this other Trump official kept trying to speak. The judge said, I will have the bailiff remove you if you don't remove yourself. Ultimately, that person left. It was quite an unusual heated clash.

30:02Ty Cobb:And there's another hearing set for May. Critics object that Habba has been a Trump loyalist, that she's not serious. And it is interesting that this judge, who is a serious person, has reason to at least question whether she is now still trying to break the law. She also got the SNL treatment. My name is Alina Habba. The judge has been very unfair from the beginning. And I want to make this perfectly clear. I am new at this and I am learning. Thank you, Alina. You're great on TV. Maybe the worst lawyer I've ever had, which is quite an accomplishment. Now, they had fun with the idea that this individual doesn't have a lot of experience, which is true, but this isn't a personal thing with just Habba.

30:50Ty Cobb:A separate judge tossed completely the indictments against Comey and James because the prosecutor didn't even have the authority to do the job. In other words, the thing I mentioned, the kind of Costanza-Seinfeld situation, this has happened throughout Trump's DOJ. Courts have also disqualified half a dozen of Trump's picks to lead U.S. attorneys' offices. I'm back with Ty Cobb and the problem here is one, our system tries to protect against radical or un confirmed temp lawyers by saying that they basically can't do it forever. You get a short amount of time. The DOJ under Trump is playing whack-a-mole and appears to think that they can just keep doing different people, move them in to get around this.

31:38Ty Cobb:One, will that work? And two, what did you think of a relatively unusual clash there with that federal judge? So I think that, let me go to 30 ,000 feet a little bit on this, because what you have is, the dumbing down of DOJ. We've got a bunch of Trump loyalists being appointed around the country, six of whom have been disqualified by the courts, including Habba and Lindsey Halligan. And what you have is Pam Bondi in her rabid, trashy way, as she demonstrates every time she testifies on the Hill, is just playing games with the courts. She doesn't allow the courts to appoint the U.S. attorneys when there is a vacancy, as they are allowed to do and supposed to do.

32:25And when they do appoint somebody, she immediately fires them. And then we have these leadership voids at the various offices, which is what we have in New Jersey now. And Haba has this sort of special floating role at the Department of Justice, which she's clearly unqualified for. As you point out in the Saturday Night Live skit, where they talked about where The Trump impersonator said that she may have been his worst lawyer. Well, we know that she's$83 million worse than the lawyer who tried the first E. Jean Carroll case and only lost$5 million, and she managed to lose$88. So I think there's a solid basis for that humor.

33:05But she was disqualified twice, including by the Third Circuit, first by the district court. It's clear that she's not entitled to that position. but that she visits there often and they have this triumvirate group rather than the court appointed U.S. attorney, which they deserve. And the courts are fed up. They've issued many rulings going, who's in charge here? What's going on? And, you know, I think the judge was probably arguably a little intemperate. He may have overstepped, but his frustration is understandable for those of us who, you know, have always approached the Department of Justice with a certain reverence and always, you know, when we were in court, respected the judge and gave them honest answers.

33:48You know, that's one of the shocking things about America now, which is Judge Friedman from in D.C. in August of last year, you know, warned that the Justice Department was on the verge of forfeiting what's called the presumption of regularity, where federal prosecutors are assumed to act consistent with their duties and their oaths. And he said that Trump was on the verge. Well, now we have, you know, we have 90 cases where courts have rejected representation.

34:20Ty Cobb:I got to jump in just because I got to jump in on time. But yeah, you broke it down clearly, Ty Cobb. Thank you so much, sir. Good to be with you, Ari. Take care. Have a great weekend. I'll tell you, folks, when we come back, What does Zorin Mamdani and LeBron have in common? That's next.

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36:41Ty Cobb:Even in tense times, music remains a unifying, universal language. From that Bad Bunny performance seen across the world, to the great bands that people can enjoy together or debate together, regardless of all the other things going on right now. The way we get music keeps changing, or a-changing, as Bob Dylan would say, from vinyl to CDs to streaming, and from famously radio to MTV to what comes after MTV. Well, there may be clues to the answer in one of the most viral music shows for our current digital era, Trackstar. It started with everyday people being quizzed on the street to identify songs, sometimes from just a few of the first notes, and has snowballed into a forum for really legendary artists like Mariah Carey and David Byrne to be put to the test.

37:32Before we start with the music, just introduce yourself.

37:35Ty Cobb:Hey, it's Mariah Carey. I'm going to play you some songs. If you can name the artist, you win five bucks. Okay. Hey, it's James Brown. I got four, you got two. Three, two. They don't teach how to count in Harlem. Nice and easy. That's Tina Turner. Proud Mary. Wait, who wrote that song? Why, young man, I wrote that song. Will you love me tomorrow? We're duetting right now. And I don't know Paul. He goes, I was talking to Snoop Dogg recently. And I said to Snoop Dogg, I don't know you, but I love you. Did you identify with punk rock? I identified with the do-it-yourself attitude. All I gotta say is, if you got that wrong.

38:19This is fun. I would do this every day. Okay, let's do it every day. Let's do that.

38:24Ty Cobb:Every day. The show's organic popularity with musicians led the New York Times to crown it your favorite musician's favorite game show. Traxar is a pop culture sensation that even draws now some politicians and people in the media, from The New Yorker magazine to MS Now. Jack Coyne put me to the test right before the presidential election, while New Yorker editor David Remnick says the series offers, in an ugly world, a relief and a pleasure to see people talking about what makes them feel something very deeply. Amen. Trackstar is now making some media news of its own. A new partnership with former Rolling Stone magazine CEO Gus Wenner, which, Axios reports, the deal pair is one of legacy media's most recognizable names with a startup aiming to be a modern MTV.

39:12Ty Cobb:Well, that very pair joins us now. Trackstar host Jack Coyne and public opinion executive chairman Gus Wenner, two music aficionados mixing up something in new media. Welcome, you guys. Thank you. Great to have you. Great to be here. Great to see you again. The show is pretty fun. How does it feel for you? I mean, it's been a blast since day one. We started the show talking to just regular New Yorkers on the street, which we still do all the time. And it kind of blew my mind the opportunity that we've had to speak with some of the biggest legends in music. Rolling Stone is an immaculate music journalism credential.

39:46Ty Cobb:What makes you with that expertise jump into this new world? What are you guys doing? Well, I saw that Jack and the team, they were building something really real and really influential. And in some ways kind of startup being small, but in other ways was having kind of as big of an impact in the music world as Rolling Stone was in a lot of ways, as MTV did. in a world where there's so much more that's fake yeah real authentic actually has higher value how much can you fake if you don't know what song is going to play and you can choose from any it's pretty hard to fake that at that point you have to be a person and engaging with that let's take a look at at young people and others on on your show don't know who this is there's color in the name pink floyd yeah we're back welcome way back i used to sing this song on youtube when i I was a kid.

40:35Who broke your heart? You're eight. Do you know choreography to this? No, we should.

40:43When I was a young boy,

40:46Ty Cobb:my father. Come on, man. This is like one of my favorite songs ever. Are you about to cry? I actually kind of was. I just paid for my groceries for the week. Groceries for the week? Let's go. That's an interesting dance. That's Bob and Molly. I don't... Choppa loves Bob. We know that. It's real. When you put headphones on and you hear a song that you love, a smile comes on your face. Yeah. That's a very real thing. That's the emotion I think that starts. That's the emotional hook of the show. So, artists talk back to politics. Who would have guessed? Did you think when you started this thing out that you'd have major politicians and presidential candidates stopping by to do the tunes with you?

41:28Obviously not. Obviously not. But what I did recognize was that it opened people up and the real version of the people that I was talking to came across. And I thought that that could translate to pretty much anyone. And you see that as nonpartisan? I see it as not necessarily. I think there's obviously an underlying sense of politics and anything. I have politics that aren't so forward facing, but I think it's clear when you see the types of people.

41:51Ty Cobb:Well, let's take a look. Here are some of the some of the top two you had on. OK. This is a more important test than running for mayor. This is the test of your music knowledge. About to lose the race. Stevie Wonder is one of the greatest musicians who has ever lived. We got to play some New York City centric songs. This is Jay-Z, Alicia Keys. Too short. Unexpected. Not for me. Not for you. Why? Because I'm from the back. I love him. You do. Sinatra, incredible. New Jersey guy. He's probably priced out of New York City. When do you listen to music? Well, this was probably the most musical I've listened to in a long time.

42:29You're busy? Kind of, yes. Oh. We're in Queens right now.

42:37I love what you do, too. I love what you do. Thank you so much. It's so good. Yeah, tell us about these. It was kind of my, it was a shock. Like, I didn't expect to see that coming. But of course, you get the chance to speak to someone on that stage. You're going to take it. And I spent a lot of time thinking about what songs I was going to play for her.

42:51Ty Cobb:Did you feel like they were pushing you? Like they wanted her to look good and all that type stuff. No, they didn't. They didn't look at the songs. They didn't preview them. They let me play whatever I wanted to play. What is it in the mind and the synapses when you're trying to identify a song? What's happening? Have you thought about that? That's a good question. Well, first of all, I think the first song we play for people, they're nervous. Right. Try and play something really easy to warm them up and say, like, this isn't a test. I don't want to throw you off. Like, let's just have fun with this.

43:16And then once they start smiling and getting into it, it's just that feeling of like, oh, my God, I forgot about the song. I love this song. It's like when you're in the car and you have the aux cord. That's how I feel for the internet. Tell the people about the aux cord. Okay, so an aux cord is an old technology we used to have where you'd have to plug in your phone before Bluetooth to play music. But whoever controlled the music in the car was kind of wanting to prove that they had good taste. It may be Jack's sort of a casual, chill new gatekeeper. It's a little bit like being a radio DJ, choosing the songs that you want to talk about and get people to talk about.

43:50I think people, I think between algorithms and AI, the value of a place that has some kind of curation and impact and human element and heart behind what it's putting out and can tell real stories. I think that's tremendously valuable now.

44:09Ty Cobb:The concept of a movie star, a lot of people say, is ending. I mean, we'll see. And yet music seems to be benefiting. It's everywhere. It's more accessible than ever. There's a whole separate debate about artists' rights. But why do you see that as such a difference, where music is flourishing in these economies and other things might be dying? Well, I think in film, movie theaters have struggled. And on the opposite end of the spectrum, live music has become a bigger business than it's ever been. So I think you have that one fact. Look, I think the most beautiful thing about music is how accessible it is.

44:52And you could be the most powerful person in the world or you could, you know, have nothing. And here, stand by me on the street corner coming out of a restaurant or, you know, in a big house, whatever, and you can have the same reaction. And that is so unifying. It's so universal. It doesn't cost money. I mean, it can in certain ways, concert tickets or subscribing to Spotify or whatever, but for the most part, it really doesn't. And that makes it such a powerful art form. And I think for that reason, it's kind of transcended the times. You know, I think film is a totally different subject with different constraints.

45:30Ty Cobb:Your dream guest that you haven't had. I'll just let you stall for time and think about it. Gus, you wouldn't think so, but that's what people are always asking. Well, I've gotten the same question. For the cover Rolling Stone. Yeah, sure. So it's got to be Paul McCartney's definitely up there. Ringo would be pretty cool. Maybe both of them together, head to head, test both of their music knowledge would be a fun one. Who else? Bruce Springsteen, Jay-Z. Oh yeah. On a personal note, Jack, you have your own new baby as of this week. Congratulations. Yep. Little John. All right. Not named after the rapper producer, but named after my dad, John.

46:10So, hey, hey, little John, good to see you.

46:13Ty Cobb:Congrats to you and your family. Thank you. Thanks for having us. All right, Jack Coyne and Gus Wenner. Thanks, you guys. Thank you, Ari. Thank you.

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