Rep. Eric Swalwell on Leading Efforts to Hold Trump Accountable

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3:06Here's MAGA Republican Congress member Pete Sessions. The president's probably worked through this a long time ago. So they had the knowledge. They had the data. They had the information. He can draw a conclusion after six months. I've not drawn that conclusion yet. Does it look like his signature to you on the bottom of that letter? You know, we're looking at that. We're also looking at people who are gathering together his signature at the time. And that's what we need to pay attention to. We've been provided the information. now what we need to do is draw our own conclusion. So to you, it's an open question about whether that's his signature on this document.

3:52Well, evidently the president who was not under oath stated it was not his. The White House has stated that. So we will start from that perspective. We will start from the perspective of a convicted felon and someone found civilly liable for sexual abuse and someone who lies about everything his entire life. We'll start with that perspective. Let's bring in Democratic Congress member Eric Swalwell, just appointed as the ranking member of the January 6th subcommittee, which I definitely want to talk about. But I just want to start here because it's more than even the Epstein files at this point.

4:27It is this, which is important. But like, what the hell are we even watching there? It's embarrassing to just embarrassing for our country. they think they need a handwriting expert really you need a handwriting expert for the guy with like the most obnoxious signature in the world we need to bring in an expert no i have fucking eyes i can tell what donald trump's signature looks like and by the way this didn't just fall out of the sky this was provided by the epstein estate so now they for whatever reason are in on it it It doesn't make any sense. And it shouldn't surprise you that the guy who said, you know, you're allowed to grab to grab him by the pussy.

5:11And the guy who's been found and judged liable for sexual assault would write that letter. I mean, what are we doing here? Wasting our time bringing in handwriting experts. I mean, what they're trying to do is to tell us to not believe our own eyes. And it's not just on Epstein. It's on the prices that we were told would plummet and they're going up, the jobs that would be pouring in and they're being sucked out, the wars that were supposed to end. And instead, we have a conflict and conflicts being added to the map. We are not the Department of Defense or the Department of War. I mean, he's just telling us not to believe our own eyes.

5:54And what we have to do is make sure that we always put the truth over Trump. Because then they try to replace the truth with these really dangerous and bizarre facts. I mean, you mentioned prices and tariffs, which have been a complete, absolute disaster. So what does Trump do? He says inflation is zero, which is which it's not. And he says that he brought in$17 trillion already, unclear than why we need to raise the debt ceiling by$5 trillion or why there's any issues at all with this budget. I mean, if you got$17 trillion, like it's making it rain on the country, we should all be great. But he makes up$17 trillion, and that's where we're – and then it's just – believe it.

6:34And it's like – and then it gets reported by like financial news as though he said$17 trillion. It's like he did – it's a lie. It's not$1 trillion. We have to make it clear that he has broken every promise. As I said, wars are supposed to end on day one. Prices are supposed to plummet. Jobs are supposed to soar. Instead, Ukraine has never been weaker. When it comes to jobs, we've never seen more job losses since the last time he was president. You know, the cost of beef has never been higher. And by the way, as it relates to his own health, Joe Biden looks like an Olympic athlete compared to this guy right now.

7:13So he's a broken man who has made a lot of broken promises. And if he's not checked, we're going to be a broken country. That's the hard truth right now. Well, he did put out a powerful response moments ago to Russia sending drones into eastern Poland, which would be a violation also of it would trigger Article five. And it's the first time a NATO nation's been attacked by by Russia really at all. But here's his response. This is the formal response. What's with Russia violating Poland's airspace with the drones? here we go here we go how does this appeal to that's the response from the president of the united states into a barstool a barstool hot take right like a guy looking up at the fucking tv at a bar and like oh what's with russia putting drones in poland's airspace not the guy who's sitting uh you know at the resolute desk who's supposed to uh be leading us and and by the way this is the first time in American history that a president has presided when a NATO country has been attacked by a nation state.

8:25That has never happened before. So this guy, again, who was going to end all these conflicts on day one, who was going to flex with his department of war has made us look quite weak. Let's talk about something else that Donald Trump says is one big hoax. It's kind of like, where do we start? What we all saw on January 6th, the day that will live in infamy, part of a handful of days that were probably the most shameful day in the United States. But MAGA, Trump, Republicans, your colleagues, Republican colleagues have made, tried to erase everything about January 6th. They've now even created a subcommittee in order to try to recreate the history around it.

9:06You've been appointed as the ranking member by Hakeem Jeffries and Democrats in Congress to push back. Tell us why this is such a big deal. We have to put the truth over Trump. This is just another example of Trump telling us not to believe our own eyes. And if you think about it, there's three days in American history that are the three most important. December 6, 1941, when Pearl Harbor was bombed, September 11 and January 6. And the last two, by the way, I don't even have to tell you the years that they happened because they're seared in our memory and we saw them with our own eyes. And Donald Trump is now going the way of the 9-11 truthers who would tell you that missiles and holograms took down those buildings and wants us to erase what we saw with some other conspiracy theory as to what happened on January 6th.

9:57He's doing this, I think, for two reasons. One, this is the final act to wash his hands of his own culpability for January 6th, but also to normalize for the country political violence. And so what myself and Jamie Raskin and Jasmine Crockett and Jared Moskowitz are going to do is we're going to make sure that we honor the heroes that day. And they are not Ashley Babbitt and the protesters. It's Mike Fanone, Sergeant Gunnell, Danny Hodges, Harry Dunn, and the hundreds of other officers. We're going to make sure that they're compensated as far as their health needs, because many of them still have outstanding needs.

10:32We're going to put the plaque that is supposed to be displayed in the Capitol in every hearing and make sure that it's displayed in the Capitol as was passed into law that honors what they did. And we're going to make sure that the unfinished business of the January 6th committee, like the subpoenas that Kevin McCarthy and Jim Jordan did honor, that they are front and center. So if they want to bring this back up, we're happy to talk about it. But we are going, as I said earlier, to put the truth over Trump in every way. It's also very telling that this is what Republicans want to be focused on right now.

11:05Like of all of the issues out there, they want to re-litigate and lie about January 6th versus doing oversight of any other issue imaginable or talk about affordability or talk about the issues that are, this is where they're going. Americans, our closing argument before we head into, you know, a 2026 season is January 6th, everybody. That's right. That's right. And people, as I said, we have our own eyes. We're not going to be fooled. We know that most of the things we buy are costing too much, that homes are unaffordable, that health care has been taken away from us, that our neighbors are being deported, and we're not going to be fooled.

11:47And you have, you know, three fighters in me, Crockett and Moskowitz who are going to be on that committee. And we're committed every day to make sure that the truth always prevails. You know, I'm from we're both from California. I'm from Southern California. Van Nuys is not too far away. from where I live, where my wife's family live is right where a lot of these roving ICE patrols take place, primarily a Latino community. When we see images that I'm about to show you right here and you have, you know, Trump and his regime saying this is what they want to bring across the country right now, invasion like attacks on states and cities.

12:31And then Donald Trump's response to Putin is, whoa, nice drone attack, big guy. I mean, it's just the wild. Just like take a look at this video. This is ICE going into people with like apparently lawful papers and maybe a pregnant woman even pointing guns at them. Watch this. Playing out today, one day after the Supreme Court lifted the ban on so-called roving immigration patrols, This video of federal agents swarming a car and detaining people at gunpoint was captured in a Van Nuys parking lot this morning. With weapons drawn, federal agents walk toward the driver's side of this red vehicle in a Van Nuys parking lot.

13:11Luis tells us he was in the area when he saw what was happening and began to film. I saw this chaos, guns drawn, everything. The girl was there screaming like, oh, like, why are you guys pointing guns at us? We're not doing anything. That's when they got closed. They break the window, they drag the guys out. And then the female, she said she was pregnant, but they were just, all these guys gang up on her. A man who identified himself as a friend of some of the people in the car did not want to go on camera, but said the two men are lawful permanent residents and that the woman is a U.S. citizen.

13:42There you are! I'm suing you! I'm suing you! Get behind the wall! On the passenger side, an agent points his gun at a woman who said, if you touch me, I'm suing you. She then steps out of the car. This comes one day after the Supreme Court lifted a federal judge's temporary ban on the Department of Homeland Security's so-called roving patrols, which have been denounced as unconstitutional and carried out through racial profiling. Yeah, I mean, what are we doing here in the United States of America? I mean, what a I mean, truthfully, a shameful time period. and who signed up for this, right? Who, who wanted this?

14:17We were told MS-13 is who they would be targeting and they're going after our friends and neighbors. People are running through Home Depot parking lots and farm fields and car washes. And we're not seeing the most violent people deported. I do want to tell you that, you know, Democrats have to make clear what we're going to do when we have the majority and we have oversight and we have the power of the purse. And one issue that I promise you is going to be addressed is we are going to unmask ICE. If they are so sure about what they're doing, they can show their faces. But these days of going into communities and terrorizing people in a masked way, like bank robber bandits of the 19th century, that's going to come to an end.

15:02No other law enforcement agency does this. It's terrorizing the people. And if you're so sure that you have the right people and you're standing on the law and the facts, you shouldn't be afraid to show your face. Congressman, before we go, any final message or any other areas you wanted to cover or talk to our 6 million subscribers about here? I want to thank them for staying in the fight. And I want to tell them that the fight that's right in front of us is Prop 50 in California. And that's on November 4. Texas is trying to steal, has already stolen five congressional seeks through their rigged districting process.

15:36Donald Trump is not going in the midterms trying to sell you on the big, brutal bill or on his deportation policies of our neighbors or on what he's doing globally to reduce conflicts. He's not trying to convince you that there should be more of that. He's just trying to make it harder for Democrats to win and check his abuses of power. He did that in Texas. And the only way to counter that is by passing Prop 50. You'll soon receive ballots in California to vote yes on Prop 50 to counter what Texas is doing and to flex back in California. Congressman Eric Swalwell, look forward to seeing you as the ranking member on that Jan 6 subcommittee.

16:15Keep us posted on any other developments. All in. All right. Thanks, man. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our sub stack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad-free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com.

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