LIVE: Katie Phang Gives UPDATES on BREAKING NEWS - 5/26/2026

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-30

[00:00:01]Hey everybody, it's time for Sidebar Live with Katie Fang. Hey, that's me. As you know, I always start off by saying thank you. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Thanks for joining me and getting caught up on some of the absolute latest in the headlines and some things that frankly isn't getting the coverage that it deserves. But we're going to start with what I'm calling the racism roundup um with our special guest for today's sidebar live. But just going to kind of show you the big headlines today concerning the racist redistricting efforts after Calala versus Louisiana with the Supreme Court of the United States. The conservative six deciding that they wanted to gut the Voting Rights Act. We got some good news if you can believe it. Good news. First and foremost, out of Alabama, an 11th circuit uh well, a panel of three judges, let me be very clear. One of whom is an 11th Circuit Court of Appeals judge and two other federal judges have decided in Alabama that they're not going to allow a very shitty map to move forward in those elections. Now, the attorney general of Alabama swearing like Robert E. I'm sure that the South will not go down in flames, saying that they were going to take it up to the Supreme Court of the United States.

[00:01:26]We'll get into the issues and the specifics of that in a minute. But we also got some good news out of South Carolina, if you can believe it. Their Trumpbacked redistricting plan has failed at the state senate level amid GOP opposition. We have some politicians there that found Jesus maybe on a temporary basis, but it worked for now.

[00:01:50]Gonna bring in our special guest, my good friend and a man who knows no bounds when it comes to honesty and transparency, and that's uh Ellie Ying Mistal. I always make sure that I honor your mom, Ellie, by making sure I drop that ying.

[00:02:07]>> I appreciate that. And so does my mother.

[00:02:09]>> Yes, I know. Big fan of your mom's.

[00:02:11]Ellie, man, let's talk about Alabama.

[00:02:14]And the reason why is obviously South Carolina did its political thing, right?

[00:02:19]So, they decided smartly not to move forward with their racism um at least today. But let's talk about this Alabama decision because I think it's very interesting. You know, I hate talking about judicial appointments, but this one's worth noting. I think this was a three judge panel. Senior judge from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, Stanley Marcus, who is a legend in and of himself on the 11th Circuit. But then we had Judge Anna and Judge Terry Moore.

[00:02:50]Anna Manasco from the Northern District of Alabama and Terry Moore from the Southern District of Alabama. And you know, Ellie, they're both Trump appointees.

[00:02:58]>> So, I want to underscore how I was really surprised. And I just want to read a couple of lines from this opinion.

[00:03:06]Um they say here uh we conclude that a preliminary injunction must issue meaning they want to put a block against moving forward with a particularly racist gerrymandered map. We cannot see our way clear to requiring Alamians to cast their votes in the 2026 elections under a districtricting plan tainted by intentional race-based discrimination.

[00:03:30]We cannot understand the 2023 plan as anything other than intentionally discriminatory. When the legislature enacted this 2023 plan, it made a calculated purposeful decision to refuse to provide the remedy for discriminatory vote dilution that our order which had been affirmed by the Supreme Court required. I particularly liked Ellie that throughout this 70 well it's 102 page order here but it it cites to the record I want to underscore this for the people that are tuning in and listening there was a full-blown trial that happened in this particular Alabama case it was 51 witnesses and more than 800 exhibits and that is the reason I think that we actually got this decision today but you're kind of straight out of the eight thoughts about this decision.

[00:04:18]>> Yeah. Um, again, thanks for having me, Katie. What I want your viewers to understand is that the reason why this is happening over and above the racism inherent and and and whether or not these Trump judges kind of came to Jesus for a moment, what's really happening here is that Alabama, white Republicans in Alabama were trying to be shitless and lazy. It was an amazingly lazy attempt by Alabama to push forward racism. Why was it lazy? Because this map they wanted to push forward after Louisiana versus Cala is functionally the same map that they tried to push forward and used in 2021 and 2022 after the 2020 census. This map has one majority black district out of the seven uh congressional districts in Alabama.

[00:05:06]Alabama happened to be 26 27% black, 56 7% Latino. So mathematically it should have two uh majority minority districts.

[00:05:17]Two divided by 7, two out of seven is 28% that more matches its population.

[00:05:23]Moreover, this particular racist map basically uh chopped up the black belt which kind of runs ver horizontally across Alabama and chops up black communities living along the Gulf Coast of Alabama. Right? So kind of surgically and precisely breaks up black communities to achieve only one majority minority district. Right? This map was already ruled racially unconstitutional by the Supreme Court by this Supreme by this Republican controlled Supreme Court. It was ruled racist by the Alabama District Court. It was ruled racist by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. It was ruled racist by the Supreme Court. And after Louisiana Cal versus Cala, Alabama was like, "No, how about the same map, bro? How about we just do the same map?" Like, what? It's lazy. It's lazy. And what the district court essentially says, uh uh what Stephen Marcus essentially says is you can't do this. We already ruled that this map was unconstitutionally racist.

[00:06:27]Can Alabama draw a map that only has one majority minority district and have it pass muster in front of two Trump judges? Yeah, I think they probably can.

[00:06:40]They just have to put the work in. And they're not willing to put the work in right now. They just want to use their old racist map. And that's what this court rejected soundly in a unanimous opinion um this morning. Whether or not that's going to hold up in front of the Supreme Court, I'm sure we're about to talk about.

[00:06:58]>> This is my I'm shocked that white Republicans in Alabama wanted to be lazy. That's my shock face about that.

[00:07:05]But I, you know, obviously this this is a couple things. I mentioned it a minute ago. There was a full-blown trial. Okay, so this is not one of these kind of off-the- cuff I'm just going to look at it. maybe take, you know, some look at the legislative history on this, maybe listen to a couple of map drawers and say this is where it is. This was a fullblown trial wherein these judges and not only on the trial court level, but the appellet court level and then the Supreme Court said that the evidence supported intentional discrimination.

[00:07:42]Which is why when I look at the disscent by justice Sotomayor in the Cala case that you know basically like I said the majority decided that they thought section two of the voting rights act was some superfluous appendage that just kind of dropped out of the sky. So mayayor said that the lower courts when they got these cases back. For example, this particular Alabama case was free on remand to decide for itself whether Cala has any bearing on its 14th amendment analysis or if its prior reasoning is unaffected by that decision which you got here right. I mean they said we did the analysis we gave it a very you know very exacting review and we still think it fails because it's intentionally discriminatory. One of the fun things about Klay is that right when you when you are when that case was presented there were two different claims right there was basically a 14th amendment claim um for racial discrimination and a 15th amendment claim for racial discrimination. The 15th amendment for those who don't know is the one that specifically addresses voting rights.

[00:08:44]You cannot deny the vote on the basis of race. Right? That's the 15th amendment.

[00:08:49]The 14th amendment is just equal protection for everybody. Right? So you can think of it that way. In Klay, in destroying the voting rights act, Sam Alo only refers to the 15th amendment argument. He doesn't actually address the 14th amendment equal protection problem that Louisiana, I believe, should have in its case. It's not a miss. It's it's it's not that he forgot about it. He just didn't want to deal with it. He only wanted to deal with the 15th amendment issue. which is why in descent sonore cinema is able to truthfully say there are still 14th amendment claims that states can and lower courts can consider and yes that's exactly what happened here in this case Katie the the the Alabama district court went back looked over its entire transcript and when you say there's a whole trial like your listeners need to understand they had testimony >> from the people who drew the maps >> yep >> from the people who drew the maps one of the things that Louisiana versus Cala leaves open is this idea that okay well intentional racism is still unconstitutional. Well, Samita, how do I prove intent? It's he doesn't give us any way to prove intentional racism happens unless the mapmaker says, "You know what? I was just trying to be racist today." But in the Alabama case, they had testimony from the map makers who were basically like, I I just didn't need no black people in the Gulf Coast.

[00:10:13]They just had to be broken up.

[00:10:15]They had the testimony. They had the evidence of intentional racism. Not off-the-cuff racism, not oops, I fell into some racism racism, but like intentional surgical racism. And and and and that is why they failed at the district court level. They're looking at this and they're like, "We we've literally already decided this case.

[00:10:36]We've gone back through the entire transcript as we were ordered to do by the Supreme Court and our ruling is the same as it was 5 years ago. It was racist five years ago. It was racist four years ago. It's racist today. Try again, Alabama. And they're too lazy to do it right now.

[00:10:54]>> Which is why I think to myself, Ellie, it's all in the timing. Isn't that what the saying is, right? It's all about the timing, right? Or whatever. Because this work was done, this trial, this testimony, this record, this evidentiary record was created pre-cala versus Louisiana being decided.

[00:11:16]Postcala versus Louisiana, you would think that the racist politicians are going to be smarter and they're going to be a lot more covert about the racism, right? In this instance though, they were so blatant about it that the record is replete with it. And that's the reason why I actually believe that the uber conservatives on the Supreme Court are going to be hardpressed to kick this one back to reinstate and allow them to use this racist map in Alabama because they'd have to ignore an entire evidentiary record, which is really big.

[00:11:56]In fact, the judges in this case called it a quote enormous record with no evidence of a partisan motive. Meaning, it's okay to be politically partisan.

[00:12:06]You can't be racist, right?

[00:12:09]>> What it's going to turn on when it gets to the Supreme Court and and I I'm not as hopeful as you are uh um um that it will survive Supreme Court review, but what it's going to turn on to me is whether or not John Roberts is offended essentially, right? Because again, this case was decided. Roberts was in the majority saying this Alabama map was too racist. Now the same map is coming at him again with the same record. Is he going to be just offended that Alabama is trying to pull this crap? It's trying to pull a fast one, right? Um to and the district court in its opinion makes this point clearly. If this map is allowed to stand, what the district court says is that it will encourage other states to essentially ignore Supreme Court rulings and rule and and and basically act as if the Supreme Court opinions are just advisory opinions that are temporary and they don't really have to pay attention to them, right? Because if the Supreme Court can say in 2023, no, this map is racist, and then the same map can come back for 2026, then what did the Supreme Court 20 what did the Supreme Court's 2023 decision mean at all? Nothing is what it meant, right? And Roberts would have to essentially admit that he was either wrong in 2023 when he ruled against exactly this map or that his ruling in 2023 was purely advisory and Alabama was right to ignore him. Either way, it makes Roberts look bad and it makes the Supreme Court look bad if they uphold the map. So, in the post that I that I'm writing for the nation, which should be published tomorrow in the nation, I say that we already know that John Roberts hates the concept of black people having political power. He spent his entire career arguing against and taking away black political power. But we also know that John Roberts likes his own power, right? And so what it's really going to come down to is whether or not John Roberts is willing to sacrifice the latter, sacrifice his power in order to accomplish the former, in order to accomplish his lifelong crusade against the idea of black equality. And I think I mean and if we're gonna have hope, the hope is that he's not willing to sacrifice his own power. That he feels like he's done enough this year to black folks and that he'll come back around and and and continue his crusade against black people a little bit later on without having to sacrifice his own personal power and his court's power.

[00:14:42]Well, he he knows that his tenure as the chief justice has a pretty big asterisk next to it already because of the criminal immunity decision that happened on his watch and other major decisions.

[00:14:55]And so I do think that he might save some of the racism for another term. But I will say these judges in this order have set this up beautifully for the Supreme Court. They actually say, and this is very early on in the opinion, in any event, after reviewing the extensive evidence regarding the plaintiff's section two claims, meaning section two of the voting rights act, we find that the plaintiffs have likely established their section two claims when measured even against the cal standard. So they have already said to the Supreme Court, you found it racist before, right? And now you tried to eliminate the opportunity to find it to be racist because you had to only show intentional discrimination. And we're telling you right now that our record shows clearly intentional racial discrimination here.

[00:15:44]And so it's a huge gauntlet that has been laid down by these three judges, which is why I go back to the beginning of a conversation, Ellie, which is to have two Trumpappointed judges come in and all three of them agree on this. I think it's a BFD. I really do.

[00:16:00]>> Yeah. Look, the there's also the issue, Katie, if this record doesn't support racism, what does?

[00:16:06]>> Amen.

[00:16:07]>> I mean, like, if you can't prove intentional racism with what Alabama has done in this case, then you can't prove that it's then it becomes an impossibility to to approve. Even Sam Alto in Clay said that there was still the option of showing intentional racism. Well, Sam, this is what intentional racism looks like. And if this doesn't pass your muster, then what you're really saying is that there is no evidence of racism that you, Samo, that you Clarence Thomas, that you John Roberts will accept.

[00:16:36]Are they willing to say that? Maybe, maybe. But we don't know yet. Um, what's going to happen though is that this is going to be on the shadow docket and Alabama's already filed its emergency emergency appeal and we should know very soon whether or not the Supreme Court stays the district court ruling and allows Alabama to go forward with it, which we haven't even talked about the fact that the primaries in Alabama start in August. They were supposed to they were already in the process of having primaries of people campaigning for office based on the non-racist map they used in 2024. So to if the Supreme Court stays this order, that means Alabama is allowed to completely restructure its primary process, the process that is already underway ahead of August to go from two majority black districts to one majority black districts. It is a violation of this other thing that the Supreme Court trots out at its own convenience named the PCEL principle which is the idea that we shouldn't change elections too close to elections um to avoid confusion um and conrnation among the voters. What Alabama is trying to do directly flies in the face of that PCEL principle. But again, so so the Supreme Court has multiple avenues with which to uh reject Alabama's racist plan. But will they do it is always the big question. And consistently, when the chips are down and the choice is black people have voting rights or black people don't have voting rights, the conservatives consistently say black people should not have voting rights.

[00:18:11]>> Well, they were never going to be invited to the barbecue anyway.

[00:18:16]>> No, they were not. especially Clarence >> cuz he would bring Jinny and tow and who wants that is >> he would doll. Um, thank you so much for getting us started tonight on Sidebar. You know, the these these decisions can be >> can be verbose and big and whatever, but I always want to make sure that everybody who's tuning in understands what's going on because I do think um some of us we get understandably very excited about it and I want people to understand why. And it may not be excited as enjoy joy, but it's just these are momentous because ultimately if you can't vote, then you're not going to be able to influence the outcome of your life, right? We need people that are in office that are passing laws and legislation that help humans and help people. And if we don't get them there in the first instance because we are disenfranchised of our vote, then it's a really, really bad cycle that we can't break. which is why paying attention to these voting cases, albeit they are convoluted and hard to follow, but somebody like you always makes them so much easier to digest and for that I am incredibly grateful. Tomorrow folks, you hear there will be a new piece from Ellie Yingmall on this decision at the nation. Make sure you are following him.

[00:19:35]Make sure you're subscribing to the nation to be able to get his latest.

[00:19:40]Ellie Ying Mustall, thanks for getting us started, my friend. It's good to see you. Thank you so much. Have a great rest of your evening.

[00:19:46]>> Talk to you soon, folks. Again, uh that was the racism redistricting roundup with Yelli Ellie Yelli Yelli. Ellie Ying Mistal. I don't know if you guys know that, but that's actually his name.

[00:19:58]Ellie Ying Mistal. And so, uh once he told me that, it stuck with me even for my time at MSNBC. And I always wanted to make sure that I use it. But just letting you know, we will be watching this Alabama decision carefully here at Katie Fang News because as you hear, it is a pretty momentous one. And just to let you know, if you're tuning in now to the channel, um South Carolina also decided on its own, its politician decided on its own not to go forward with the Trumpbacked redistricting plan.

[00:20:28]And so I call them wins. You guys know that and I celebrate them when we get them. South Carolina and Alabama. We're going to move on now to the latest in the illegal war against Iran. May 24th, just 2 days ago, Trump posts this on Truth Social talking about a deal, but if you look at the second sentence, it says, "Nobody's seen the deal or knows what it is. It isn't even fully negotiated yet. Not quite sure how he can now say that it is a better deal than the one that Obama had with Iran.

[00:21:00]However, we all know that as Trump hasn't seen [ __ ] because he doesn't really know what is happening. He has no idea what's going on. Then today, May 26, he posts this screed on Truth Social. I don't want to read it to you because God, what a waste of time, but I want you to see that this was posted on May 26, 2026 at 3:32 p.m. Eastern. And it starts with if Iran surrenders admits their navy is gone and resting at the bottom of the sea and their air force is no longer with us. Dot dot dot dot dot dot. But then I want to show you what he posted on May 18th. Well gosh, look at that. If Iran surrenders and Mr. Navy is gone and resting at the bottom of the sea and their air force is no longer with us. Dot dot dot. Folks, it's identical. May 18th, May 26, this ass hat post the exact same [ __ ] on Truth Social. So, I'd like to know in the chat, did he himself just cut and paste thinking, "God, that message on May 18th was so powerful, it's worth repeating today on May 26th, or did somebody on his social team screw up and post the same damn post from May 18th on May 26th?" We all know that he's incredibly unoriginal and is running out of material. And yet, this I think is a pretty notable error on his part.

[00:22:23]Putting that aside, let's look at what Trump had to post about the Abraham Accords.

[00:22:31]Not going to have y'all read this either, but this came out yesterday. And the short of it is he's making it mandatory that several countries join and sign on to the Abraham Accords recognizing recognizing Israel and having a relationship with Israel. And he basically says in this post, if you don't sign on to the Abraham Accords, you can't have a seat at the table. You will be disinvited to the party that he's trying to have.

[00:23:03]Now, that is a problem. I personally think, and I could be wrong, but that's the luxury of the First Amendment opinion that I have. I personally think that this is yet another example of convicted felon Donald Trump being a useful idiot py for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. because this is the first that we're hearing that in order to land the plane on this deal with Iran that people not even involved in this [ __ ] war have to sign off on this Abraham Accords issue.

[00:23:39]Why? Why? when Israel is already doing its very best at trying to disrupt everything by just indiscriminately doing [ __ ] with Lebanon right now, right? While we're in the midst of some ceasefire in the region, Israel is able to do whatever the hell it wants to do.

[00:23:59]And now Trump is adding on this requirement of the Abraham Accords.

[00:24:03]makes me think makes me think that somebody gave a holler to Donald Trump like BB did and said, "Hey, you got to add this on." So, I don't know about you all, but when I have negotiated on behalf of clients, several of them in my career, number one, you don't bid against yourself. Number one. Okay? And that's exactly what's happening now with this deal that we are allegedly in the midst of reaching with Iran. It's worse than what we had before this war started in February and before 13 active service members are dead.

[00:24:42]We've bid against ourselves as Americans.

[00:24:45]Americans are now suffering at the pump at our grocery stores. We are all We are all economically suffering as a result of this. And yet, who's benefiting from any of this right now? The industrial war complex, of course. But that was to be expected. The people in poly market and prediction betting markets that are making money off of this. And I'm sure Steve Wickoff and Jared Kushner are benefiting off of this in some way when you think about it, right? I'm sure there's some exceptional real estate deal that's going to be had that's going to benefit them. But I'm not sure what we're getting out of this, let alone why this war started in the first place. And I do think part of the reason why you have Witoff, Kushner, and others that are negotiating this and you don't have Trump himself really on top of this deal is because Trump himself is really not here. I don't know how many of you follow me on threads, but on that social media platform, I noticed that after I posted this morning about Donald Trump going to Walter Reed for the third time in a year that the bots/maga lovers came out in full effect and they are really [ __ ] pissed off. And if you look at my post, I didn't say anything crazy. I just said it's his third visit in a year. Thinks that's I think that's a little bit weird, right?

[00:26:11]I mean, three times in one year sounds a little odd to me. Well, Donald Trump, after spending more than three hours at Walter Reed today, three hours at Walter Reed, he posts this on Truth Social. I just finished my six-month physical.

[00:26:31]Everything checked out perfectly. Thank you to the great doctors and staff.

[00:26:36]Okay. Well, the White House said it was his annual. Why is he saying it's his sixth month and again three times in one year seems a little bit much to me. Take a listen to what this physician Dr. Jonathan Reiner. He had some thoughts on CNN about Trump's health. Take a listen.

[00:26:57]>> Well, we've seen the president uh appear uh to rest his eyes when someone is talking directly to him. And that is uh distinctly abnormal. It's unusual to be surrounded by people in the Oval Office and you fall asleep and you know he's almost 80 years old and even more reason for the president to get some rest.

[00:27:18]Insomnia is a dangerous thing for an older person. It it increases the risk of cardiac events. It increases hyper hypertension. Uh it increases the it increases the risk of dementia and depression.

[00:27:37]Yeah. I mean, the guy is visibly falling asleep. He has visible bruising. The White House says it's a result of him shaking hands with people. Sorry. I mean, I do know that old people can have really thin skin and sometimes that can happen if you're taking anti- clotting medication. But here's the problem. We don't have any transparency on this, right? No transparency. So, we don't even really know what in the hell is going on with this man's health. Now, here's the thing. There is no legal requirement for presidents to release their physical exam results. But Trump is turning 80 next month. He's turning 80 in June.

[00:28:22]He's the oldest person to assume the presidency and the second oldest to have held office. Right now, if you think about it, he really should be releasing some information. But here's the thing, right? Is anybody going to believe what gets released? I personally won't. After spending three hours at Walter Reed, you think he's going to give us any indication as to what the hell is happening there? No. By the way, other administrations have released selected results from presidential physicals.

[00:28:50]We're not getting [ __ ] from Donald Trump. And here's the thing. A Washington Post ABC News Ipsos poll conducted in April found that less than half of United States adults think Trump has the mental sharpness or physical health to serve effectively as the president.

[00:29:09]I actually think that number should be even lower. So here's why I'm even more concerned though. Because if Donald Trump, our commanderin-chief, doesn't have the mental acuity or the physical rigor to do the job, and if we're not getting transparency about his mental and physical health, when I'm reading that we had American quote self-defense attacks against Iran, sinking Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps speedboats that we are now launching self-defense strikes against targets in southern Iran. When I read these headlines and then Iran Supreme Leader Mojaba Moaba Kamani says that American military bases in the Middle East are not safe and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps will respond forcefully. You have to ask yourself who's in charge because it's not Trump.

[00:30:11]And I'm not heartened by DUI kegs breath. And even raising Kane, General Dan Kaine doesn't give me any type of reassurance that things are going to go right for Americans.

[00:30:25]Then you find out that this deal is going to be worse than what we started with, as I mentioned at the beginning of this block about the Iran war. And then I find that I have bizarre [ __ ] company because politics makes strange bed fellows. Check out this headline.

[00:30:44]Ted Cruz, Tom Tillis, and other Republicans are criticizing Trump's emerging Iran deal. And again, nobody knows what the deal terms are, right?

[00:30:55]But for what we could tell, this is what they want to do. They want a 60-day ceasefire. Wait, I thought we were in the middle of one. And that's the reason why Trump thinks he doesn't have to go to Congress and ask for more time.

[00:31:06]justify why we're there. 60-day ceasefire while talks on Iran's nuclear program continue. And hey, Tyrron would not have to immediately give up nuclear material already inside.

[00:31:22]And so now we have people like Ted Cruz actually speaking logic and reason. Ted Cruz saying that the Iranian regime would receive billions of dollars, be able to enrich uranium and develop nuclear weapons and have control over the Strait of Hormuz. You know, the thing that is making everything so damn expensive globally. Cruz says that outcome would be a disastrous mistake.

[00:31:46]The details are still coming out. I pray the early reports are wrong. Senator Tom Tillis says, "We were told 11 weeks ago by Hexath and the Department of Defense that they had obliterated Iran's defenses and it was just a matter of time before we had the nuclear material.

[00:32:01]Now we're talking about a posture where we may accept the nuclear material remaining in Iran. How does that make sense at all? Any agreement with Iran that isn't subject to ratification by Congress is going to be doomed to fail?"

[00:32:14]Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Roger Wicker of Mississippi. Wicker saying the rumored 60-day ceasefire with the belief that Iran will ever engage in good faith would be a disaster. Everything accomplished by Operation Epic Fury would be for not. Lindsey Graham also saying an early deal could shift the balance of power in the Middle East in Iran's favor and become a nightmare for Israel. Less of a concern for me, but yes, I agree about the shift in power in the Middle East. Lindsey Graham going on to say on X, "It makes one wonder why the war started to begin with if these perceptions are accurate." People, these are public comments that are being made by Republicans in the Senate right now about this war. And do we get anything from the administration in response?

[00:33:05]Nah. We just hear that it's a better deal than what Obama brokered. But we all know that Trump is just [ __ ] on that deal because it was brokered by a guy named Barack Obama, not because it was actually a pretty decent deal that kept Iran in check. But I want you to look at the price of gas because I know we all are looking at it carefully. This is just from today, folks. AAA says today's national average is $4449.

[00:33:36]But I want you to check out this map, right? Because the national retail prices are insane. For those of you that are on the West Coast, is this accurate?

[00:33:45]I'm looking on the West.

[00:33:48]$611 to $464.

[00:33:54]That is crazy to me, especially coming off of a holiday weekend. I'm sure people didn't travel as much because of that. I mean, this is outrageous. So now I want you guys to see what convicted felon Donald Trump had to say. And this was at a ceremony over Memorial Day weekend. Take a listen.

[00:34:17]>> Beside him are more than 18,000 other young men named William. Over 20,000 named John, over 13,000 named James.

[00:34:28]joined over time by Isaac, Elijah, Earls, Hanks, Helens, Wanss, Margaret's, Marius, Donald's, not too many, and others whose names tell the true story of American greatness. And greatness it is.

[00:34:54]That's the type of messaging that we get from the president of the United States on Memorial Day weekend mentioning that there aren't a lot of Donalds that are at Arlington Cemetery buried there. Um, those that died in service to our great country. Why? Because you got one right there, a cadet bones, Donald Trump, draft dodger extraordinaire, didn't go and serve, but wants to sit there and joke about the loss of life. people. We have already lost 13 active service members as a result of this illegal and unconstitutional war with Iran. I am not an Iran apologist. I am not a terrorist sympathizer. But you know what? If we are going to go to war, then we should know what we're fighting for. And we certainly should not be going to war to benefit one person or his family members or his friends. We should know and it should be done with congressional authorization by the people that were elected to represent us in DC. And the absence of respect for the system and the absence of respect for the Constitution, I think is an impeachable offense. But more importantly, when you think about the loss of life and you think about the fact that this man is spending hours at [ __ ] Walter Reed and we all see him babbling and we see him falling asleep and we know he's not capable of doing anything competently and yet we're in the midst of a war and I'll footnote this. I said this earlier today on social media. How is it that people are not in Congress right now? If you are serving in Congress, you're going home for the holiday. I don't begrudge you taking a break, but come on. We're in a war.

[00:36:36]It's just this surreal disconnect between the realities of everyday Americans and the people that are in DC.

[00:36:46]My lord, find a spine and do something about it. We're going to take a quick break.

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[00:36:56]We're going to take a quick break to listen to them. Take a listen. Y'all know I keep it real here at Katy Fang News and I am here to talk about bras.

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[00:39:56]You got to love our sponsors. They truly are amazing products and that is why I have them here at Katy Fang News. We're going to move on now to a topic that is not getting the coverage it deserves and it's about the Ebola outbreak that is happening right now. Our health and human services secretary instead of you know buckling down and being serious and making sure that Americans are going to be protected from Ebola is instead doing this.

[00:40:28]>> Hey So, what are they?

[00:40:43]>> Well, they're having sex.

[00:40:46]So, what were they?

[00:40:52]>> Huh? They're >> not.

[00:41:00]Okay. Okay.

[00:41:01]>> Are they fighting? Yeah.

[00:41:04]So, that was taken in Dr. Oz's home in Florida. He thought it was funny that the snakes were having sex. You've got Cheryl Hines, uh, you know, RFK Jr.'s wife, just screeching and he, as an RFK Jr., our secretary of HSS, is getting bitten by snakes. Now, that that is apparently the priority for this man right now. Even though our Trump administration dismantling US aid has contributed significantly to the fact that we have an Ebola outbreak that's going on. Did you know? Because again, this is not getting the coverage that it deserves, people. And I am not trying to be an alarmist, but I would like to not have this be a problem for us in the United States. Did you know that the CDC right now is asking staff to volunteer for Ebola screening as a part of its outbreak response.

[00:42:07]The agency activated a level two emergency response on May 18th as a result of the outbreak of Ebola and specifically the Bundi Bugio strain of the virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. The CDC looking for volunteers for urgent deployment to support Ebola screening at the country's entry points.

[00:42:31]Do you want to know where they've already put one up? Atlanta at Hartsville Jackson. They've actually put enhanced Ebola screenings at Atlanta International, the busiest airport in the United States. Those enhanced screenings went into effect on Friday, May 22nd. People, I am showing you that is a headline from People magazine. At least People magazine is letting people know what the hell is happening about Ebola. Have any of you heard about it? I invite you to respond in the chat. Have any of you been paying attention to it?

[00:43:08]Not that it's your fault, but I don't think it's getting the coverage that it merits. Now, this outbreak has a specific strain, and I'm not going to pronounce it correctly, but I will try. And I tried it a few minutes ago. We'll try it again. The Bundi Bugio, B U N D I B U G Yo, strain.

[00:43:32]The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak of this rare strain of Ebola. It is the third largest outbreak on record and is a public health emergency of international concern. That is why we are talking about it here. Katie Fang News. You have competent scientists that are still doing their jobs at the World Health Organization because we don't have [ __ ] here in America, right? And they're saying that this is a public health emergency of international concern. We have Americans that have been diagnosed in the Congo, not here in the United States yet, but Americans that have been diagnosed and that have been exposed, that have been transferred to Germany now to be able to be assessed and to get treatment. Now, I want you to actually hear from a real professional about why we should be concerned about this outbreak. Take a listen.

[00:44:37]We need to surge. Not just because we're worried that there'll be more Americans infected or that it'll get on a plane, but because this outbreak is already big. Over the last year, anti-American sentiment has surged because of the way that we pulled out our support overnight. We need to fully engage our CDC. We need to get back on the ground, make sure that US support, financial, logistical, and medical support can help end this outbreak before it gets worse.

[00:45:04]Otherwise, it's going to be a problem not just for the region, but for the rest of the world.

[00:45:08]>> Okay. So, you would hope that the Trump administration is actually responding to this outbreak in ways that either helps those that are affected because that is part of what we do as one of the most powerful nations in the world, but you'd also hope that they were doing something to help protect us here in the United States, right? because this is a highly contagious virus that can be spread very easily.

[00:45:38]But look what the Trump administration is doing. It is restricting leading US scientists from being evolved involved at all in the global Ebola response. Senior officials tasked with leading US research on infectious disease threats have now been banned from speaking directly with the World Health Organization.

[00:46:04]I'm going to say it again. Senior officials with leading US research on infectious disease threats at places like the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases that was led by Dr. Anthony Fouchy for decades. That agency has now been told that they cannot directly communicate with the World Health Organization while we are in the midst of this Ebola outbreak that is the third largest on record and is a international public health concern.

[00:46:39]Now, this original order banning communication came when during the hivirus outbreak that several Americans were exposed to recently. What is that all about? We're not allowed, our US scientists and researchers are not allowed to speak to the World Health Organization, even over virus. Listen, hivirus can be deadly, too. But [ __ ] you look at Ebola and I'm like, y'all are, this is not an applesto apples comparison of what we're talking about now. They are saying, reporting that communication limits have been slightly relaxed. But you want to know how they've been slightly relaxed? Here we go. Some National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease doctors officials can now attend virtual World Health Organization meetings, but only in small groups and only in a quote listening capacity. They can't actually interact or engage with the World Health Organization members.

[00:47:40]One source saying it is unheard of during a US response to emerging public health emergencies to not allow for quick collaboration with international counterparts.

[00:47:52]That's logical, right? You would think you'd want to have quick collaboration with our international counterparts when we're dealing with these types of global pandemics. And yet, nah. The Trump administration is too busy doing nothing to be able to protect Americans. Now, do you guys remember do you remember this woman? Her name is Dr. Deborah Burks.

[00:48:16]She was the scarf lady during the Ebola um excuse me, during the Corona virus um response. She used to work in Trump's first term, right? So, she actually said that she thinks the US is equipped to handle I want to make sure you understand. She thinks the United States is equipped to handle an Ebola outbreak here in America. However, however, I'm going to note something for you. We don't have a confirmed director right now of the CDC, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We don't have a confirmed head of our FDA, our Food and Drug Administration, and we don't have a confirmed surgeon general, but we have a secretary of the HHS who can [ __ ] around with snakes and get bit.

[00:49:11]And I'm sure those ended up being on the dinner plate later on.

[00:49:16]This is why I'm talking about this with all of you. Like, this is not a serious administration.

[00:49:23]And again, we have an obligation as well to step up internationally to assist.

[00:49:28]Why? Because if we can help, what could happen? We could actually help help Americans, right? But do you want to know what has contributed to this Ebola outbreak? It has been the dismantling of USID again during this Trump administration. In fact, in fact, the House Committee on Appropriations, and I want to give credit to Congresswoman Rosa Delaro, says this.

[00:49:57]Trump created the perfect storm to allow for rapid spread of Ebola. She says, "Ebola doesn't wait for bureaucratic reorganizations. It spreads when surveillance systems are weakened, health workers are laid off, clinics lack protective equipment, and communities lose the trusted partners who help detect and contain outbreaks before they become public health emergencies. This is the perfect storm President Trump created. He recklessly dismantled the US Agency for International Development, withheld and slashed other United States assistants to the region, fired critical staff, and created global health chaos. This is not efficiency. It is dangerous neglect. The United States spent years building the relationships, supply chains, laboratories, and community health networks that help stop deadly diseases at their source. The Trump administration tore into that capacity and now wants to pretend the consequences were unforeseeable.

[00:50:52]With more than 600 suspected cases and more than 130 suspected deaths now reported, this moment demands speed, coordination, and experienced partners on the ground. Global health security is national security.

[00:51:08]I mean, we have a national security crisis right now as a result of the Trump administration's dismantling of USID and as a result of having a cabinet secretary who is an idiot and as a result of this administration failing to confirm critical heads and directors of agencies that are here to literally protect Americans from death. And I'm not talking our Department of Defense.

[00:51:39]That's not the national security concern that I have. I have a concern about things like Ebola.

[00:51:46]That's what I have a concern about.

[00:51:49]People started with some good news today on Sidebar, ending with some not so good news in the last two blocks. But again, the urgency of bringing this information to you is why I have these conversations. It's why I do these sidebar lives. These are some of the headlines that we got to dive deep into because you're not going to get this level of depth in legacy media. They are too quick to move on. That's why we spend the time that we do here at Sidebar. So, you are a higher information American for it. Subscribe if you're not subscribing. Like if you can. Spread the word. We're again trying to get a push hopefully to hit 600,000 subscribers by the end of May. It would be amazing for us not just to have the milestone people, but to know that folks are coming to me as a trusted deliverer of the news and information.

[00:52:48]My thanks to you always for the privilege of your time. I know it's tough out there. I am grateful always for you to join me and tune in tomorrow for some new episodes at Katie Fang News. I'm looking forward to spending the time with you again next Tuesday. In the meantime, have a great evening. Be mad. Be outraged. Demand accountability.

[00:53:09]I'm off to rattle cages.