Veterans Protest Trump’s Iran War at Capitol

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0:41Rated A-plus by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of five-star trust pilot reviews, On Deck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes at ondeck.com. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by On Deck or Celtic Bank. On Deck does not lend in North Dakota, all loans and amounts subject to lender approval. Welcome to The Beat. I'm Antonia Hilton in tonight for Ari Melber. Tonight, one of Trump's big lie lawyers tapped for his revenge push at the DOJ. And Bill Nye on new stunning footage of the Earth setting behind the moon in the fight for NASA's future.

1:14Plus, the video of Obama and Mamdani that's going viral for all the right reasons. But we start with the political and economic fallout from Trump's war with Iran. This afternoon, dozens of American veterans were arrested on Capitol Hill during a protest of the war.

1:43Congressional staffers telling MSNOW that the cost of the war has now hit$50 billion. The Pentagon says that there have been 415 U.S. service members wounded. More than a dozen are dead. And from one moment to the next, the administration seesaws from talk of diplomacy to rapid escalation, with U.S. Marines seizing an Iranian cargo ship over the weekend and a fragile ceasefire set to expire this week. All the while, Americans are paying the price of war at the pump. Trump's energy secretary offering a bleak message on when voters might see relief. When do you think it's realistic for Americans to expect that gas will go back to under$3 a gallon?

2:29I don't know. That could happen later this year. That might not happen until next year. Next year. So, you know, after the midterm elections. That could be a problem, especially since 65 percent of voters blame Trump for those higher gas prices. And Trump's overall approval rating is sinking fast. Just 37 percent of Americans now approve of the job he's doing as president. That is a new low for the second term. And it means that even many people who voted for Trump are now expressing some buyer's remorse. And while many are hurting here at home, the Trump administration is now reportedly considering some sort of bailout for the UAE, which has also seen its economy hit hard by this war.

3:12This story in the Wall Street Journal about the UAE contacting Scott Besson about potentially the United States providing some kind of currency swap or bailout if the strait remains closed and it continues to injure their economy. What do you make of that and what do you know about that? Right. Well, I haven't talked directly with Secretary Bessett about this, but as you know, the UAE has been an incredibly valuable ally throughout this effort. And I'm sure the Treasury Secretary will make every effort to help them out should that be necessary. Add to all of this that late today we got word of yet another shakeup in the Trump cabinet.

3:54The Secretary of Labor, Lori Chavez de Remmer, is out, according to the White House. She is the third member of the cabinet to leave in recent weeks, along with, of course, Pam Bondi and Kristi Noem. We now go live to MSNOW congressional correspondent Michael Schnell. She's there on Capitol Hill. Michael, it is good to see you. Walk me through what's behind this latest departure. Yeah, well, Antonia, this news just a few minutes fresh that former Labor Secretary Lori Chavez de Remer has resigned from her post. I will note the White House confirmed she's no longer serving. But notably, they did not say if she was fired or had resigned from her job.

4:31As I mentioned, a source familiar with the matter telling me that she had indeed resigned. The big question, what exactly led to this? Because Chavez de Remer, her tenure at the Labor Department had been shrouded in controversy and a number of investigations. More on that in a moment. But first off, we're told that Chavez de Remer was actually at the White House in the few minutes that led up to this news of her resignation. Now, we don't yet know who she met with, what they discussed, but she was at the White House. And another interesting tidbit that we're just learning, again, I'm just told from a source familiar with the matter, is that in the coming days, Lori Chavez-Deremmer was scheduled to sit down with the Office of Inspector General at the Labor Department as part of their investigation into allegations of a toxic workplace and sexual misconduct by both her and her husband, Dr.

5:18Shonda Remmer. So this resignation comes as she was preparing to sit down for that interview for that investigation, which has been going on for weeks and first started with a formal complaint being filed about the secretary's conduct. Now, again, this comes after weeks of controversy and more shoes being dropped in terms of these misconduct allegations against the former secretary. There was most recently discrimination complaints filed by two young female staffers with the Equal Opportunity Commission when they had alleged that there was misconduct, sexual touching by Lori Chavez de Remmer's husband.

5:56They also allege a toxic workplace and threats of retaliation for reporting the husband to various authorities. Again, there had also been that Office of Inspector General investigation. There have been all these questions and whispers about if Chavez de Remmer would be on the chopping block next in terms of secretaries in the president's cabinet because of all these poor headlines and these misconduct allegations against her. But today we are learning that the secretary jumped ahead and would resign on her own volition. Again, we're going to dig into more details on what actually led to this.

6:28But notably, it comes just before she was scheduled to sit down for that high stakes Office of Inspector General interview. Very interesting timing there, Michael Schnell. Thank you, as always, for your incredible reporting. Now we're going to bring in Michelle Goldberg, columnist for The New York Times and Mark Leibovitch, staff writer for The Atlantic and MS Now political contributor. It's great to have all of you guys here. I guess I'll start with what you hopefully just heard me talking about with Michael Schnell there. Just another piece in this incredibly chaotic story around the president, around the war, around our domestic conditions, the basic functioning of our federal government right now.

7:06Mark, what do you make of this? Well, I mean, this is just sort of another, you know, another chapter in the chaotic narrative. I mean, I think to some degree, I mean, the cabinet chaos is something that probably, you know, was certainly foreshadowed in the first term. To some degree, this latest one is overshadowed a bit by the Bondi and the Nome resignations, firing, whatever you want to call them, just because they were in such high profile positions that the president seemed to care deeply about much more than he probably does the Labor Department. I do think, though, that the larger issue here is not so much the larger chaos, but I think just the war, the tariffs, the economy.

7:45There's a sense that the administration is really spinning in a direction that is just out of control, and it's obviously not popular. So this is probably of a piece to that, but I think it's probably derivative at some point. And I think the main thing is obviously the ongoing war. Michelle, how do you read the extent to which the war is responsible for the polling numbers, the poor feedback this president is receiving right now? Because while his numbers are historically weak, it seems that his grip on the party is still incredibly firm. You see some signs at times of pushback. But at the end of the day, they are still incredibly loyal to this president, even though he is technically a lame duck president and technically not even on the ballot right now in the midterms.

8:30Right. Well, so his numbers were already pretty low before the war. The war has sent them even lower and I think really created a situation that highlights to people the limits of his ability to create his own reality and also highlights just the kind of blatant contradiction between his campaign rhetoric and the way he's governing. It's, you know, I don't think it's much of a surprise if he followed Trump that he often has very hawkish instincts. But he certainly told people very specifically that he did not plan to start new wars in the Middle East and, in fact, said that if Kamala Harris was elected, that's what she would do.

9:08And so you're right that the voters are loyal to him. But there are some cracks, you know, when he's losing the kind of influencer class that, again, there's not that many of them. But they were very important, I think, in creating this sense of momentum and inevitability around this campaign. There was a sense at the beginning of Donald Trump's presidency that he had captured, you know, not just the White House, but like the cultural zeitgeist. And that is absolutely gone. Right. He's kind of flailing with nothing but the hardcore dead enders still behind him. Well, to your point, figures like Alex Jones, even, you know, he's an interesting figure.

9:51Because on the one hand, when you look at someone like Alex Jones, you kind of don't even want to listen to anything they have to say, any of their cultural analysis, because he's a huckster who kind of will go where the wind blows. But that's sort of the point of what makes him interesting, because then that tells you, well, maybe that is where the wind is, in fact, blowing. I want you to take a listen, Mark, to some of his recent comments about the president. And we're supposed to sit here and love this crap. It's just poll numbers go straight down. All the polls show the Republicans are going to lose the midterms in seven months by a landslide, a disaster, a total and complete disaster.

10:29So is Alex Jones, in your view, someone we should just write off or do you think he tells us something about where culture is heading? Well, I guarantee you the White House is not writing this off. And look, I mean, whether we like Alex Jones or not, I mean, this is a big this is a big center of influence within the world that voted for Donald Trump. And I think it's worth pointing out a couple of things. I mean, Donald Trump's popularity or lack of popularity, the loyalty of his base and so forth. I mean, what does it even mean these days? I mean, it's not like he's going to be on the ballot again.

10:59And I mean, he's already had trouble in the past, you know, getting people to vote for Republicans when he's not on the ballot. I think enthusiasm writ large for Republicans, which is, you know, how it's what's going to be influential in the midterms is really, really low. And I do think that the way the president has led and the way the Republican Party has continued to follow pretty blindly is going to be a real, real damper on the party in the midterms. But, yeah, I mean, but Alex Jones and Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly and the whole group, I mean, they're not going anywhere. I mean, Donald Trump is term limited.

11:32So I do think maybe they're looking at maybe taking a longer view and maybe feel a little bit freer to tell a truth that they might have hesitated to do before. Michelle, you know, Trump has beaten the odds, come back from the dead before. Is there a risk here of us underestimating the president's ability to snap back, especially if with these peace talks that are supposed to continue, you know, things shift in the war soon? Could he make a comeback? Depends what you mean by a comeback, right? Because he's not up for election again. I don't think anybody is expecting him to be removed from office.

12:09I think that there was maybe a fantasy some of us had in the first term that some of his, you know, kind of corruption and misbehavior and mismanagement was so egregious that at some point there would be political consequences for him or legal consequences. I don't think anybody thinks that that is true anymore, but I don't see a possibility for him to kind of regain the American people because he's not going to change. I suppose there could be a miraculous outcome where the Iranians decide to basically drop all of their demands and Donald Trump can declare victory in this war. I mean, obviously, anything in this universe is possible.

12:51Right now, we're not even sure if the Iranians are going to agree to talk to the administration, although it looks like they're open to some sort of negotiations. But, you know, right now, I think it's pretty clear that the United States or Donald Trump, at least, is desperate to wrap this up and has no idea how to do that. And so is veering wildly between threatening widespread war crimes and declaring that the war is already actually over. You know, whether again, I think we've seen again and again that he has been able to solve crises that he himself creates. Right. So he declares these tariffs.

13:30Everybody freaks out. The market tanks. Then he backs off and kind of people say that, oh, how silly you were to take him seriously. This is not a crisis that he can unilaterally extricate himself from. And even if it somehow resolves itself, I don't think that the whatever momentum he's always been unpopular. And I think that I don't see even the kind of bare majority support that he had at the beginning of this administration coming back. Mark, so given the fact that the president doesn't have a whole lot of cards, as Michelle just spelled out there to play right now, and this is this has got to be the best possible midterms environment that Democratic strategists could have possibly dreamed up hope for.

14:14You had a piece, though, just a couple months back saying that Democrats aren't built for this. And it was a really interesting one. And it's something that I've heard from Democratic strategists worried that they'll miss a really easy layup here. Do you still feel that way now? Yeah, I mean, that was a few months ago. Things have changed a little bit. I mean, I would say that piece was predicated on basically, are they built to take on the fascists? Were they built to take on what this administration, the second administration, has shown itself to be capable of? And this was written largely, mostly the end of last year when the Democrats seemed to be really feckless, really disorganized, really not to have a voice.

14:56And I think what often happens is the other side overreached and messed up so badly and became so unpopular. Both parties have done it over the years. That sort of gave a lifeline to the Democratic Party. But I do think that there is some real optimism, bullishness, you know, enthusiasm among Democrats. I would put a little bit of a break on that just because, I don't know, it feels almost giddy. And I don't think Democrats are in any position to be giddy given the degree to which, one, they're in such a hole to begin with. that they dug in 2024. And two, I mean, the Democratic Party has not fixed their problems at all.

15:32I mean, the only way that they have the opening they have now is because Trump has become so unpopular. He's overreached. He's, you know, he's done his whatever he's done. So anyway, we'll see. But certainly there's optimism on the Democratic side. And this wasn't true six months ago. Mark Leibovich, Michelle Goldberg, great to see both of you. and thank you. Coming up, why the Trump DOJ has tapped a notorious lawyer from his big lie push to spearhead his retribution campaign. Also, Bill Nye on the fight to protect NASA's future. And what happens when a president and a mayor go back to school?

16:09I know your name. You know my name? Yeah, I know your name.

16:16What's his first name?

16:29I want to turn now to chaos at Donald Trump's DOJ. Officials are ramping up revenge probes in the wake of Attorney General Pam Bondi's firing. The Washington Post reporting, quote, uncertainty at DOJ as top officials vie to replace Bondi, prompting, quote, concern from some over the lengths to which they may go to impress Trump. MAGA favorites Harmeet Dillon and former Fox News host Janine Pirro have both made moves that are, quote, viewed by insiders as efforts to raise their profile and jockey for the president's attention. Like this one, initiated by Dillon, who currently oversees the DOJ's civil rights division, demanding all Detroit area ballots from the 2024 election.

17:12She wrote, DOJ wants the 2024 ballots so it can determine whether election laws were followed. Fact check, there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in any recent presidential election that includes 2024, which Trump ended up winning, by the way. In fact, while he lost Detroit in 24, he made gains with voters there over his performance from 2020. So this all part of Trump's sweeping effort to probe past elections as he doubles down on his, quote, big lie. FBI Director Cash Patel, making the unusual announcement that arrests related to the 2020 election are now imminent. We've got all the information we need.

17:56We're working with our prosecutors at Department of Justice and their Attorney General Todd Blanche. And we are going to be making arrests. And it's coming. And I promise you, it's coming soon. And now one of the lawyers involved with trying to overturn the 2020 election, Joe DiGenova, is leading a, quote, grand conspiracy probe into former federal officials who investigated Trump, reaching all the way back to the Russia probe in 2016. DiGenova sworn in just hours ago as counselor to the attorney general. Trump's retribution probes have been largely unsuccessful, drawing scrutiny from both legal experts and career officials rejected by grand juries.

18:36A senior federal prosecutor in Miami withdrawing from an investigation into former CIA director John Brennan, reportedly due to concerns over the legal viability of the, quote, politically charged case pushed by Trump loyalists. All of this escalating ahead of what's sure to be a contentious midterm election cycle as Trump works to erode faith in our electoral system. Former federal prosecutor Barbara McQuaid is here to get into all of this after the break. OnDeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, OnDeck's loans up to$400 ,000 make it happen fast.

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20:52And joining me now is Barbara McQuaid, former federal prosecutor. Barbara, it's always good to see you. what is your response to Trump's DOJ now escalating their probes into past elections? And I particularly want your thoughts on the figure that is Joe DiGenova, what that signals to you, a person who's been so deeply invested in the big lie, leading an investigation where he has already publicly concluded that there was a conspiracy. Yeah, I mean, right out of the gate, he's got a conflict of interest. He represented President Trump in his personal capacity when he was challenging the results of the 2020 election.

21:30And now here he is after having made some really outrageous statements at that time leading the charge into this investigation. There's not even a pretense of credibility here. I mean, we know that there have been a number of investigations into Russia's connections with the election in 2016 that began the Russia investigation. There was Robert Mueller's report. There was a Senate Intelligence Committee report. There was one by our own intelligence committee. There was an inspector general report. And finally, there was John Durham, who was the special counsel appointed by William Barr. None of them found that there was any conspiracy, that there was anything wrong with looking into this.

22:10In fact, having read and studied the Mueller report, I assign it to my students in my national security class, it would have been a dereliction of duty for the FBI not to have investigated Russia's ties with the election in 2016. So, Barbara, when you look at all of the chaos that is coming out of this DOJ and the FBI right now, do you read the moves that these different people are making as being sort of desperate attempts to stay in the president's circle at a time when he is starting to release people from his cabinet? We hear the reporting that they're that he's interested in firing more people.

22:46Kash Patel is one of the people who's come up at times in that reporting, for example. And so are they just kind of trying to make Trump happy because they know this is sort of part of his list of greatest hits? Or do you think there's a real project building here from the retribution campaign to what we're seeing on the election front? Well, it's always dangerous, I think, to try to speculate in what's in the minds of either Donald Trump or any of the people that he has appointed to office, because I don't know that they think like the rest of us. But it is certainly a pattern that we saw the firing of Pam Bondi.

23:16Some of the reports indicated that President Trump was frustrated with her inability to charge his political enemies criminally. And so as soon as she leaves and now there's this vacuum and a need to find a replacement, suddenly we see Todd Blanche issuing a weaponization report that to me seems baseless about prosecutions under the FACE Act involving abortion clinics. We see Harmeet Dillon launching an inquiry into Michigan about fraudulent ballots when there are none. It's been dispositively considered by courts here in Michigan. And so this, too, seems like an effort to sort of curry favor.

23:53And then, of course, the so-called grand conspiracy in Florida, where there's an effort to subpoena people and perhaps charge people and installing Joe DiGenova after we see the departure from this case of a career prosecutor amid reports that she didn't see that the case was strong enough to bring. So I don't know the motivations, but we do seem, I think, to see an intensification of these efforts to file criminal charges or make some hay. And even if these cases don't see the light of day, if there are no criminal prosecutions, people are talking about it. It's in the news. And so it just advances that false narrative that our elections are rife with fraud and cannot be trusted.