Trump’s WH Demolition, DOJ Demands & Crypto Pardon Outrage Rock Admin

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0:42Jason Johnson:Welcome to The Beat. I'm Jason Johnson, and for Ari Melber. Tonight, Jack Smith calling the Republicans bluff on their conspiracy theories. Plus, our live interview with the Democratic lawmaker who is suing Speaker Johnson for refusing to let her get to work. And then that moment in the New York City debate when Mamdani calling out Cuomo on his sexual harassment allegations. One of those women, Charlotte Bennett, is here in the audience this evening. She cannot speak up for herself because you lodged a defamation case against her. I, however, can speak. But we begin tonight with Trump demolishing part of the great symbol of American democracy.

1:27Jason Johnson:The East Wing of the White House now reduced to rubble so Donald Trump can build himself a playroom. Earlier today, Secret Service reportedly closed access to the ellipse to block journalists from capturing footage of the wreckage. The AP managed to get this photo. Trump promised his ballroom project would not impact the East Wing at all. And now he's made an abrupt about face. With the current building, I won't be. It'll be near it, but not touching it. and pays total respect to the existing building, which I'm the biggest fan of. It's my favorite. It's my favorite place. I love it. We determined that after really a tremendous amount of study with some of the best architects in the world, we determined that really knocking it down, trying to use a little section, you know, the East Wing was not much.

2:19In order to do it properly, we had to take down the existing structure.

2:25Jason Johnson:The American people are overwhelmingly opposed to this destruction. Only 24 % are behind the idea. And it's going to be even more expensive than previously known. Trump upping the price tag to$300 million. That money allegedly being raised from private companies and individuals, including Comcast, MSNBC's current parent company. The move even has some Republicans on it. It looks like, you know, people are saying, oh, the government's being destroyed. Now it looks like the White House is physically being destroyed. The optics are not good. Yeah, they're not good at all. Meanwhile, late night hosts pointing out that Trump's demolition is the kind of thing that movie villains do in the first act.

3:18This is the first thing aliens do in movies to announce they're evil. They blow up the White House. Trump is just cutting out the middleman of invading aliens. We used to need the aliens to come, but not anymore. We're doing it ourselves.

3:50Jason Johnson:If this were the movie script for the final season of America, reviewers would be calling it riddled with cliches. I mean, come on, we've all seen the villain destroy the White House. Oh, wait, Trump is physically destroying part of the White House. Well, we've seen the part where the villain pardons all of his cronies and friends. Oh, wait, Trump just pardoned a crypto billionaire who does business with his family. And wasn't it Dr. Evil and Austin Powers who demanded$1 million in ransom? Now Trump is demanding the Justice Department pay him$230 million. Joining me now to discuss Maya Wiley, former SDNY civil prosecutor and president and CEO for the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and Douglas Brinkley, presidential historian and professor at Rice University.

4:38Jason Johnson:Maya, I'll start with you. You know, it's cliche to say, OK, Trump is a dictator and engaging dictatorial acts. But I think what's important here is we have a president who's already been in bed with so many different businesses, so many different things that appear to be corrupt. What does it say that a new wing of the White House where government business is conducted is being built by private donors? Where does that become a problem down the road for this country? I don't even know what to say about that, Jason. I mean, look, the imagery alone is, I think, speaks volumes about exactly the message Donald Trump has said in his presidency, which I will destroy in order to do what I want to do, whatever that is, and no matter the cost.

5:26And in this case, this kind of sense of quid pro quo, you know, you do for me and I'll do for you, is exactly the optics that this creates, because we've already saw this with the fundraising that he did for his inaugural committee, for example. We saw an incredible rush of people to make sure that they were writing checks to get within his good graces. And when you look at his pardon history, I mean, there's no question most presidents who look at pardons are looking at what is the policy decision I am making and what message does it send to the people of this country? And the one that Donald Trump sends repeatedly is that I'm trying to get done what I want to get done for me and whoever will pay for it.

6:14Good. And then I will help with the power that I have been given to do what I need to do for them. I mean, because let's remember this Binance, very wealthy Binance businessman. Let's also remember what he was accused of allowing sex trafficking, drug trafficking, child sex abuse to happen. Like this is like the fact that Donald Trump is sending the signal that this is OK by pardoning should also speak volumes at a time when we're talking about the Jeffrey Epstein files being made public.

6:52Jason Johnson:You know, Douglas, I think it's it's it's something of note here. We have popular culture examples of villains becoming the president. Lex Luthor was president of the United States for years. Superman was going crazy. But it's something else when it's happening in reality. And we have polling that says that literally the majority of the public now feels that Donald Trump is acting like a dictator. The view of Trump as a dangerous dictator, source PRRI survey, increasing numbers of Americans view Trump as a dangerous dictator rather than a strong leader. A majority of Americans, 56 percent, agree that President Trump is a dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy.

7:31Jason Johnson:Douglas, that's not subtle. That's the American people saying, I think this guy is going to write the end of the script for this country. What do the American people do about this? Well, I'll have to register and vote and get involved with local politics. But there's a lot going on, I think, right now. First off, with the East Wing demolition, it's horrendous. I do history preservation for a living. I think Senator Lisa Murkowski spot on right, but I was wondering where these other Republicans, since when is it okay to bulldoze the East Wing and lie? Like you just played the clip. Oh, just be a little, it won't touch the building.

8:10And now have these videos and photographs. This is going to live forever, the images that we've seen. just like January 6th, a protest riot for Donald Trump. This will be a symbol of his destroying a part of the White House that's going to live on with photographic imagery long time to come because many people aren't paying attention. Everybody's worried about the, rightfully so, the prices of the grocery, the shutdown, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, on down. But one thing people can understand, And that only an ass would go in and blow up the east wing in front of cameras in such a gratuitous and vulgar, just completely unsensitive to what any concept of what Washington, D.C.

9:00is and why our National Mall is so special and why we fix things incrementally and renovate in proper ways and consult with the right architects. President Trump has a right to do a lot as a builder or bulldozer in his life as a business person. But I don't feel he has a right. I'm not talking legal rights. I'm talking an American citizen right to go in and fire, bomb, and blow up iconic structures like the White House in such a willy-nilly and arrogant fashion. I don't see how it puts points on the board for him politically. And I think the MAGA movement that he created is starting to see this is a president more interested in legacy for himself, international affairs, and is forgetting the working people in his MAGA base that brought him to the White House for this second term.

9:53Jason Johnson:So, Doug, I want to follow up with this because you're a historian. What I see here is not just destroying something, but like I said, rebuilding it. I mean, the idea of a wing of the White House being brought to you by McDonald's and FanDuel and Geico is just is insane to me. It's being built by sort of private investors. But what I often hear from people saying is these look like the actions of someone who's not planning to move. And the White House has generally been a place where people only make subtle changes because they know they're supposed to be gone in four to eight years. Do you think that people who have that kind of concern, who think the reason this president is making these kinds of moves is because he has no plan to leave in 2028, you think that's a realistic concern for people to have when you see something this aggressive about something that's been an American institution, the White House?

10:42I'm not sure about that, whether he the idea that he'll push for a third term. I mean, this is just quintessential Donald Trump. If you study his career in the 1980s in New York, he despised historic preservation. He fought them every sense of the way. He has no interest in the public lands or lakes or rivers. He thinks that a builder building, building, blowing up. And then I hear commentators, Trump supporters saying, well, Theodore Roosevelt changed the White House. Theodore Roosevelt hated noise. He had pockets full of nuts to feed the squirrels. While Theodore Roosevelt was president, he wrote a book on the birds of Washington, D.C., and he didn't like to have the automobile because it made a racket.

11:26This is not Theodore Roosevelt coming in and smashing a hunk of American heritage. You do restoration with finesse and open public forum and talk about it. This, to me, is just more grandiosity. He wants a Mar-a-Lago in Washington. He likes things gold. He has certain kinds of taste, and he's going to impose them on the American people. But to build an auditorium, that's going to dwarf the White House. What the hell? Washington, D.C. is filled with ballrooms. You can't turn a corner in Washington without a ballroom. I mean, if you're going to do it, do it modestly. But of course, he doesn't do that because he thinks it makes him look big time because he thinks something bitter.

12:10But, Jason, he does bulldoze voting rights. Let's be honest. He bulldozes maps of districts, even when Republicans are concerned about changing. So I do think your point and the metaphor here, which is he's willing to blow up and bulldoze even the most basic guardrails that ensure that people get to say who leads this country, who leads in the House or the Senate, is absolutely a big part of his agenda. And he doesn't mind lying to get there.

12:38Jason Johnson:Maya Wiley and Douglas Brinkley, thank you so much for starting us off today on some disturbing news. coming up how jack smith is calling the republicans bluff seeking to testify in an open hearing plus outrage after speaker johnson refuses to swear in a democratic lawmaker but then has the gall to tell her to get to work she needs to get to work she needs to stop doing tiktok videos and serve her constituents she should be taking her constituent calls should respond live on the beat tonight also we'll talk live to the chairman of the dnc about why maga world is rattled by the no kings protest we're back in just 90 seconds on the beat

13:27Jason Johnson:former special counsel jack smith who indicted trump twice wants the public to hear his story Today, Smith's lawyers requesting he testify in open hearings, citing the, quote, many mischaracterizations of Smith's criminal probes and to Trump. Smith's team also requesting assurance from the DOJ that he will not be punished for answering questions under oath. During his time as special counsel, Jack Smith only made public appearances when necessary. Now the famously tight-lipped Smith speaking up, and he is in a rare interview right here at MSNBC with Andrew Weissman talking about his experience.

14:05Once we get in a position where we start talking about maybe not following court opinions we don't like, we are lost. The attacks on public servants, it has a cost for our country that is incalculable. A political people who wanted to do the right thing and do public service. Everybody who worked on my team was fired. The idea that politics played a role and who worked on that case or who got chosen is ludicrous.

14:30Jason Johnson:The GOP-led House Judiciary Committee now going after Smith. Surprise! Smith facing accusations that a subpoena of lawmaker phone records was illegal spying. Smith's team rebuking this claim, writing, quote, the subpoena for toll records was entirely proper, lawful and consistent with established Department of Justice policy. certain people are claiming that there was either electronic intercepts or some kind of improper spying. We're talking about telephone records. It's completely disclosed in the indictment and or the report, and that you would have to get approval to do that if it involved a member of Congress.

15:15That is fair.

15:15Jason Johnson:That is correct. Joining me now is Tara Setmeyer, co-founder and CEO of the Seneca Project and author of Uncompromised on Subsac. Tara, thank you so much for joining us this evening. So I'll start with this. I think it's really important to draw lines between the behavior that we're seeing from this administration. We've seen Tish James. We've seen John Bolton. We've seen James Comey. We have seen the president of the United States threaten to go after people he considers to be enemies. and then go after them using the government. What do you think Jack Smith's strategy is here by saying, all right, pull up, I'll go first.

15:54Jason Johnson:Is it because he's seen what's happened to these other people or is it because he really thinks there's something the public needs to hear? I think it's a combination of both because sunlight is the best disinfectant here. And the fact that Donald Trump is trying to whitewash and rewrite history about what happened, He's still going on and on about the 2020 election, despite the fact that he we all know that he lost. He's now in power again. He can't let it go. So he you know, The New York Times had an explosive front page story about all these election deniers who are now in positions of power inside the Department of Homeland Security, who are actively toying with things that could potentially harm our elections going into the midterms, all because that is the mandate coming from Donald Trump.

16:43And Jack Smith is at the center of this retribution tour because Jack Smith is a patriot. He was an honorable public servant who's given his entire adult life to the law and serving the public. and if he speaks publicly, it's very difficult to deny the investigative prowess, the facts. He can lay it out in a way he's articulate. He can lay it out in a way that the American people have actually never heard before because he handled that investigation with such integrity. He wasn't out there in front of the cameras all the time and sullying the process. He did his work and so did his team. So this would be an opportunity to shed some light on what actually happened here.

17:29And I'm sorry, I'm putting my money on Jack Smith and his team and the truth versus what Donald Trump and his henchmen have to say about the 2020 election.

17:38Jason Johnson:I want to play you some sound from Jack Smith. It's in a video from The Bulwark where he's talking about the rule of law being eroded. And get your thoughts on the other side.

17:50What I see happening is after the day, the family and everything, where the rule of law is eroded, friends of the president do not have a word about following the same laws of the government's column. Am I concerned? If they believe that the rule of law functions for the country for so long that any other have come to date with that.

18:17Jason Johnson:When you have Jack Smith saying, hey, look, the rule of law is being eroded, and we see day after day after day after day, this administration pulling back from investigation to be going two, three, five years, offering pardons to people who are in business with Trump or his family or his cronies one way or another. Is Jack Smith sounding the alarm on something that's happening or has this pretty much already happened and we should be thinking about how to resist it? Well, he wasn't the only one sounding the alarm before the election in 2024. There were many of us out there, including people who worked for Donald Trump previously, who said you cannot elect this guy.

18:53Do you understand what he's going to do to our democracy and what he's going to do to our institutional norms? He's telling us. They wrote it down in Project 2025, for goodness sakes. So, you know, it's no surprise that Jack Smith, knowing what he knows and what he saw Donald Trump tried to do and the people around him, what they tried to do, the level of corruption, the illegality, the disregard for the rule of law. Jack Smith knows firsthand. So I think that it doesn't take someone like Jack Smith to show us or tell us. We see what's happening in front of our very eyes. The absolute abject corruption and disregard for our constitution and rule of law and our institutional norms is happening day by day to the point now where we're literally seeing the demolition of our democracy right in front of us.

19:42The American people should not be okay with this. Absolutely should not be OK with this. And the fact that our elected officials on the Republican side who also privately are not OK with this and haven't been, but are too cowardice to speak up and say, stop, this is just another reason why the No Kings rallies and the ground from the ground up grassroots anger of the American people has to maintain because, you know, you elect matters. Elections have consequences. And when you have military families standing in food bank lines and families struggling because of a government shutdown and the president of the United States bragging about a freaking ballroom that's going to cost$300 million from donors who are actually just buying influence, there is something very fundamentally wrong with that.

20:34And I think MAGAs need to start asking themselves, is this really what you voted for because this is what you're getting. He doesn't give a damn about you or anybody else. And I hope hopefully that message starts to resonate because it's pretty obvious.

20:47Jason Johnson:Tara Setmeyer, thank you for taking us to church this evening, non-denominationally, but still clear for our American public. Thank you so much for joining us. My pleasure. Still ahead, Speaker Mike Johnson refusing to swear in a newly elected Democrat. Her vote could release the Epstein files. She's suing Johnson. She's live on the beat. But first, revelations on Trump installing election deniers in key posts. We're back on The Beat.

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22:52Jason Johnson:Chilly new revelations about the rise of election deniers in Trump's government, including a right-wing activist at Homeland Security now running point on election integrity. The Times reporting on comments she made earlier this year before entering government in which she, quote, suggested that the new administration could declare a national emergency and justify dictating new rules to state and local governments. It's a red flag and runs parallel to Trump's push to gerrymander while attacking the Voting Rights Act. These are not the actions of a man who believes the voters are on his side. And in fact, Trump's approval now is now at a second term low of 60 percent.

23:31Jason Johnson:After the massive No Kings protest, Ted Cruz warned of political peril for MAGA. We should take political peril seriously. It's dangerous. There is a lot of energy. There is a lot of anger on the left and elections can be dangerous when one side is mobilized, is angry, angry, energized voters show up to vote. There's no doubt if one side shows up and the other doesn't, that that leads to a bad election. Joining me now is Ken Martin, chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Thank you so much for joining us this evening on The Beat. I'll start right here. I've had conversations with activists for the last couple of weeks, even heading into No Kings.

24:15Jason Johnson:What is the Democratic Party's plan for infrastructure on the ground? We have seen in eight months of this, a new administration suing institutions, threatening local organizers, threatening local activists. The places that in the past the Democratic Party could go for NGO assistance have now been decimated by lawsuits and approaches by the DOJ. What's the DNC's plan to replace that infrastructure? Well, let me just say, we've been on the ground throughout the country in these last eight months. I've been chairing. Frankly, in these last nine months, you're seeing energy out there. Let me just respond on this No Kings rally because you saw 7 million people come out.