All in With Chris Hayes 5/23/26 | 🅼🆂🅽🅱️🅲 Breaking News Today May 23, 2026

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]right on all end.

[00:00:01]>> And I move that the committee now immediately subpoena those involved in the creation or execution of the nearly $1.8 billion slush fund.

[00:00:12]>> Some bipartisan consensus on bald-faced corruption.

[00:00:16]>> Bad news.

[00:00:17]>> We're going to try to kill it >> as a president declares his fund open for business.

[00:00:23]>> We think that anybody involved in that process should partake. Tonight, Joe Naguz on the congressional response and officer Daniel Hajes on his lawsuit to stop J6 criminals from getting paid.

[00:00:37]Then the growing concern Trump's trying to J6 the midterms.

[00:00:42]>> I said I'm going to be here in 28. Maybe I'll be here in 32, too. I don't know.

[00:00:48]Maybe I will.

[00:00:49]>> And as the White House lays the groundwork in Cuba, new reporting on who they wanted to run Iran. You said, "Is there any art more beautiful, more divine, more eternal than the art of the martyr's death?"

[00:01:05]When all ends starts right now.

[00:01:13]>> Good evening from New York. I'm Chris Hes. The outrage over Donald Trump's plan to just help himself to 1.776 billion of your money is building by the hour, by the day. 1.776 billion, right?

[00:01:26]1776. Get it? It is a settlement in scarce quotes of Trump's IRS lawsuit, although not approved by a judge. He just rescended the lawsuit, uh, offered to him by his own government, the one he controls in order to dole out to his insurrectionist friends. And really, just to be clear, if you read the text of the settlement to anyone uh anywhere as the commission sees fit, yesterday, both Vice President JD Vance and Todd Blanch, former Trump criminal defense attorney who now serves as acting attorney general, who's going to oversee this uh fund, worked hard to make the deal seem reasonable, and they failed abjectly. Today, you've got Republicans coming out against it on Capitol Hill.

[00:02:09]>> It doesn't look right. You can't do it that way when it's when it you're negotiating with yourself uh and for yourself.

[00:02:17]>> What do you make of this $ 1.7 billion fund for?

[00:02:21]>> We're going to try to kill it.

[00:02:21]>> You're going to try and kill it. Wow.

[00:02:23]>> It is um as if somebody sued themselves and agreed upon a settlement with themselves that's going to be funded by the rest of us. Now, if that's the case, what? Wait a second. I just came off the campaign trail. People are concerned about making their own ends meet, not about putting the slush fund together uh without a legal precedent.

[00:02:42]>> That's a Republican calling Trump's settlement a slush fund and another one threatening to kill it. Even the top Republican in the Senate, the one who sets the body's agenda, sounding skeptical.

[00:02:54]>> What are your thoughts about this representation fund from the president at this point?

[00:02:59]>> Yeah, not a big fan. Um, and uh, I'm not sure exactly how they intend to use it, but uh, my understanding is that was just announced and um, but yeah, I don't I don't see a purpose for I don't see a purpose for that.

[00:03:15]>> So, just, you know, in 24 hours, you have a significant number of Republicans in key positions that are turning against this brazenly corrupt act out of a brazenly corrupt administration. And it's just one development of many today showing the very quickly building backlash to this madness. I mean, you heard it from Senator Cassidy again, who's a bit untethered now, right? He he lost his primary. He's not going to be in the Senate. In fact, two police officers who were assaulted on January 6 filed suit today to stop it. We're going to talk to one of those officers in just a few minutes. But I think again, when this first came out, it was so strange that it was kind of shocking, but also I think a lot of people were like, "Wait, what could this?" So today, it's really sinking in for people what this is.

[00:03:58]Not only is Donald Trump stealing $1.8 billion of your money, of all of our money, that could go to any number of things to make people's lives better, just straight up withdrawing it from the Treasury. There will be a transfer from the Treasury draining the bank account that our money sits in. He is very likely to give it out to the people who violently stormed the capital on his behalf in an attempt to steal an election in an biggest gravest threat to the constitutional order since the Civil War. The people you remember who beat police officers. People who sought to harm elected officials. People who were convicted of sedicious conspiracy against the United States. One of the rarest and most serious crimes in the entire federal code, plotting to use violence to overthrow the government. As a New York Times reports, many convicted and part pardoned riers are, as you might imagine, elated at the possibility they're going to get some of that sweet moola, that a payout is going to be coming their way. In some cases, as we've been tracking, many of those riers that Trump pardoned have gone on to commit other crimes since January 6, including some really, really heinous ones. The most heinous, arguably, like child sexual assault. For instance, Kenny Brian Lazo before his conviction and pardon, got a pardon for raiding the capital. Lazo was arrested again in 2021 on multiple charges of sexually assaulting a child under 13. Details of that case were sealed to protect the victim. And like Andrew Taki, who was convicted of assaulting Capitol police with bear spray and a metal whip, last year he pleaded guilty to online solicitation of a minor in exchange for time served. And like Kyle Travis Colton, he pleaded guilty to disorderly and disruptive conduct for his role in the insurrection. You see him there in those shots storming the capital. Well, last year he was sentenced to 6 years in prison after police found what they called copious images and videos depicting graphic sexual abuse of young children. Like Daniel Tochi, who was sentenced to four years in March for possessing more than a 100,000 child sexual abuse images and videos. Before he pleaded guilty, Tochi's attorney tried to have the case thrown out by arguing, get this, that all the evidence stemmed from the January 6th case and was covered by his presidential pardon.

[00:06:18]And like Andrew Paul Johnson, Mr. Johnson was sentenced to life in prison in March on five charges, including molesting a child under 12 and another one under 16. Johnson reportedly tried to buy the silence of at least one of his victims by promising to pay them with, wait for it, money he thought he was going to be getting from the Trump Department of Justice as compensation or reparations for his January 6th prosecution.

[00:06:49]This is before the fund was even created. But it wasn't at all an unreasonable expectation. Trump has been telegraphing this from the beginning and today he just came out and said it.

[00:07:00]And I guess they made a settlement of some kind. I wasn't involved in the settlement. Uh I could have been involved, but I didn't choose to be. I mean, people were destroyed. They went to jail. They their families were ruined. They committed suicide. And we're getting we're reimbursing those pe people for their legal fees and for their costs. We think that anybody involved in that process should partake.

[00:07:22]And you're talking about peanuts compared to the value.

[00:07:26]>> I mean, anybody involved in the process, right? The process is convictions, charges for what happened on January 6.

[00:07:33]So that would include the people who have been convicted or pleaded to sexually assaulting children. It would include the people that have assaulted police officers, beating them to with an inch of their life. It would include the people convicted of sedicious conspiracy. That's what Trump's saying.

[00:07:48]And keep in mind here, the Department of Justice already paid off Trump's disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn more than a million of your dollars after the DOJ prosecuted him for lying to law enforcement. A crime, by the way, he plead guilty to. He was pardoned by Trump. That million dollars was peanuts next to the millions they paid to the family of Ashley Babbot, the capital rier, who was shot and killed by law enforcement after trying to storm the speaker lobby, the first one through the door while elected officials were still evacuating there with an enormous brain mob behind her. And now Trump has a $1.8 billion pool of money transferred from you to him by his own government. And so millions of dollars of taxpayer money will be flowing, it appears, as reparations, the country got reparations, would you look at that? But January 6 reparations to a group that includes child sex offenders.

[00:08:43]How do you feel about the money going to those people? Your money going to those people? How do you feel about that?

[00:08:52]Senator Chris Van Holland explicitly asked Todd Blanch to rule that specific scenario out yesterday and he did not.

[00:09:01]>> There's also an individual who after being pardoned by the president uh went on to molest two children. Can you commit to making the rule so that that person is not eligible for a payout under this fund? Well, you're obviously lying in your question because there's no way that this person committed to that. But the the slush fund, as you call it, which is not didn't exist.

[00:09:27]>> No, no, no, no. He wasn't lying. Blanch said the center was lying because he wasn't lying. It's true. The slush fund hadn't existed yet. But this guy, the one who's doing life for multiple rapes of children, that guy thought the money was coming because Donald Trump telegraphed it was. And guess what? He guessed correctly because the slush fund does exist. Now, so here's Senator Patty Murray simply stating the facts of that case.

[00:09:53]>> I just have to tell you this is corruption that has never been more blatant or more widespread. What is happening is you write the check, Trump and his cronies cash it. American taxpayers who are already being whacked with high prices are going to foot the bill. That's what we are seeing today.

[00:10:09]And that is what many of us are really really angry about.

[00:10:16]So, what can be done to stop it? Well, a Democratic effort to subpoena Blanch and the other officials behind Trump's settlement failed this evening. That's because Republicans voted against it.

[00:10:25]But even Republicans are grumbling a little bit about the president's abuse of power. And so, there's a chance that, as with the release of the Epstein files, Congress can file a discharge petition to block the slush fund. It is a legislative move that's incredibly rare, but before Donald Trump, so is impeachment.

[00:10:40]Congressman Joe Negus of Colorado co-chairs the House Democrats litigation task force and he joins me now. Um, Congressman, first let's turn on that subpoena vote. Uh, there was a vote to try to just get some more information. I mean, Trump says he wasn't involved. I find that a little hard to believe. Uh, information about how this came about.

[00:10:57]What went down there and how did that vote go?

[00:11:00]>> Yeah. Well, good to be with you, Chris.

[00:11:01]Thanks for having me on. As you noted, unfortunately, our Republican colleagues on the Judiciary Committee yet again capitulated to the whims of President Trump and ultimately our effort led by Ranking Member Rascin to subpoena acting attorney general Blanch as well as a number of other bevy of Trump administration officials to ultimately hold them accountable for this craven and brazen corruption as you described that that vote failed. But I will also say to you that I think a very clear red line has been drawn in the sand and you get the sense as you covered uh in the uh opening moments of your show that some Republicans, some not all but some are finally beginning to realize the depths of uh I think this administration's corruption which is just unprecedented unprecedented. Part of it I think by the way Chris is animated by the reality that many of us myself included were in the capital complex on January 6th. Many of us were on the House floor and to think that they are now going to proceed with this corrupt slush fund to essentially reward people who are convicted of attacking police officers and subverting the peaceful transfer of power. It's just beyond the pale. So, I think you're going to see a muscular response on behalf of House Democrats in the Congress, multiaceted. Of course, as you mentioned, one of those tools that we'll use in our arsenal is uh potentially a discharge petition on legislation that's been introduced by ranking member Rascin, as well as other potential bills that I think will be introduced in the days and the weeks ahead. But we're also going to continue to fight this in court, and I'm grateful, I will say, to the brave Capitol Police officers who've initiated a lawsuit of their own to try to stop this from moving forward.

[00:12:37]um the uh the discharge petition avenue which I again as I said in the open I was sort of skeptical of for the many years that I've covered Congress because it's always like oh we'll do a discharge petition never happens but you know we saw we've seen several successful discharge petitions in the Trump era specifically um you know you could already count a few votes it seems Bacon and Fitzpatrick that's two um you know uh Congressman Tom Keen is out right now uh with an unspecified illness he hasn't voted in months so the the numbers are very very thin do Do you see that as an avenue that that that might be fruitful?

[00:13:10]>> Short answer is yes. I mean, to your point about discharge petitions, not to get uh too into the legislative weeds, but to be clear, this Congress, the 119th Congress, uh since the beginning of the Trump administration, there have been more successful discharge petitions than in any point in the last century in the United States. So, uh it is unprecedented. And part of that of course is by virtue of the compelling case that House Democrats are making on the floor each and every day. But also it is just the reality of the again wholesale corruption that this administration is engaged in the connective tissue behind so much of what they're doing. So yeah, I anticipate that we're going to be able to move forward and make the case and hopefully build a coalition sufficient to stop this either during the appropriations process or through a discharge petition.

[00:13:53]And look, hope springs eternal that more Republicans will ultimately join us. you saw in the Senate, the Iran War Powers Resolution yesterday, which was successful by virtue of Senator Cassidy, now uh that he's been defeated in his primary nomination, deciding to join Democrats. I suspect you're going to see more of that both in the House and the Senate as uh the president wages his campaign against members of his own party. Yeah, there there's an ironic strange paradox at the moment, which is that his his power sort of over primary endorsements seems has never been stronger, but his power over the caucus is probably weaker. Uh partly because his his general approval is lower than it's ever been. Um, I want to ask on that note that it does seem that the ballroom funding, which uh has been, I think it's fair to say, the president's number one priority in this session of Congress, which is getting another billion dollars of taxpayer money for essentially the thing he wants, which is his ballroom. Um, there's some reporting today that it's been pulled from the Senate side of this. Um, Senator John Kennedy's uh said that it's it's been stripped out um that they don't you know that they didn't have the votes and the rec and the parliamentarian struck it out. Uh what do you think of that development?

[00:15:10]>> Yeah, I mean I you know open question as to whether or not ultimately uh the ballroom funding is included in the reconciliation bill. I would just say more broadly, it is clear that Republicans, rank and file Republicans, are beginning to understand the political peril uh that they and they alone have created for themselves and their party by virtue of capitulating to President Trump at every turn. And they are so deeply unpopular now with the American public to think that they proceed with funding these vanity projects or supporting the president's corruption uh by virtue of this slush fund, the satition fund as you I think so aptly described it. I I think they are beginning to realize uh that there will be electoral consequences come November. And so the hope uh will be that we might very well see some action both in the Senate and the House in terms of them deciding that their own political futures are perhaps more important than the president's. But time will tell.

[00:16:04]>> All right, Congressman Joe Nagus, thanks for your time tonight. Appreciate it.

[00:16:07]>> Thank you.

[00:16:09]>> Coming up, one of the officers injured on January 6 is suing to block Trump's slush fund. He joins me next.

[00:16:16]>> January 6, 2021 are suing to block Donald Trump's new $1.8 billion fund to pay out insurrectionists and other so-called lawfare victims. The suit filed in DC district court today begins, quote, "In the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century, President Donaldre Trump has created a $ 1.776 billion taxpayer funded slush fund to finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name." It continues, quote, "The fund styled the anti-weaponization fund is illegal. No statute or authorized its creation. and the settlement on which is premised is a corrupt sham and its design violates the constitution and federal law. Daniel Hodes is an officer with the Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department. He's suing the Trump administration along with former Capitol police officer Harry Dunn. And officer Hodgees joins me now in his personal capacity. Um, it's great to have you on, officer. First, I just your response when you, you know, there's news about this kind of telegraphing that this settlement would come about and it, at first it looked like maybe it would go to Trump himself. What was your reaction when you first started to see reports about what this fund would what its intended use was?

[00:17:26]>> I mean, it's obviously awful. It makes no sense. Um, why would we pay people who attacked the capital of the United States money for their trouble, right?

[00:17:36]But also, it wasn't surprising because Trump's been talking about how he wants to give these people money for a very long time now. And um you know, he controls all aspects of the government.

[00:17:48]Nobody is there. Not enough people in government are willing to stop him. So, he has no reason not to. So, it it seemed like an eventuality, but it's still, you know, horrific.

[00:17:58]>> What made you want to sue?

[00:18:01]>> Just because I don't want these people to be rewarded for their crimes. It's it's ter and if they are rewarded then it would just encourage them to commit more violence because for most of us you know the the things that stop us from fulfilling such dark violent fantasies are ethics and belief in nonviolence which these people have already proven that they lack. It's trust in the system which these people don't have. Um it's fear of reprisal by the government and Trump has pardoned them and made it clear that he has their backs no matter what they do. And it's a lack of resources which these people would have if they're given millions and millions of dollars each. So it's seems like we're just setting ourselves up for more further terrible political violence if we these payments actually go through.

[00:18:49]>> Yeah. You you work in the capital still, am I right?

[00:18:52]>> I am with the um Metropolitan Police Department, but I am here capacity.

[00:18:57]>> Yeah. You're you're an MPD. I mean, yeah. that that the idea of essentially incentivizing this kind of thing before I think does loom large. You know, you just said it before, but it has to hang over you as you watch this play out.

[00:19:11]>> Sure. Yeah. Especially those of us who have been vocal in, you know, describing our experiences on January 6th have received all kinds of threats. Um families members have received threats, family members have received harassment.

[00:19:24]Um, you know, people have sent me pictures of uh some a diagram of committing suicide with my face pasted on top of the head in the diagram. Um, you know, snuff films u people telling me that uh my time is up and a pale horse is coming for me, which is a reference to death from the four horsemen in the Bible.

[00:19:46]just things that may really make me feel like these people probably should not be given millions of dollars to enact their revenge fantasy.

[00:19:55]>> That seems a sensible conclusion. Uh officer, I want to play you something that Todd Blanch had to say in which he said that, "Hey, look, people harmed police officers get money all the time.

[00:20:03]What's what's the big deal here? Take a listen.

[00:20:08]>> People that hurt police get money all the time." Okay? There's a process where where if you are if you are if you believe you have your rights violated um you can you can apply for funds, you can sue, you can file a claim, you can go to court. In some of those cases, the state, the government, the federal government settles those cases. It's abhorrent to ever ever touch a law enforcement officer, which is why anytime anybody does that and it's a federal officer will prosecute them. But that's a completely different question with whether an individual is allowed to apply for a claim, whether they'll get a claim, who depends. I I can't it's not it would not be appropriate for me to to to talk about um absolutes.

[00:20:50]>> My interpretation of that is that sure, you know, people that physically assaulted you and other officers that day are absolutely welcome to apply.

[00:20:57]Maybe they'll they'll get many, maybe they won't, but it's not disqualifying.

[00:21:00]What how do you hear that?

[00:21:03]>> Yeah. I mean, I I'm not an expert on the details of the fund, but it sounds like it's just set up for very little oversight, very little judgment in the way of who's getting money except for if they're allies to the president. And I believe there's some line in there that says that that no one in the fund can be responsible for what happens with that money. So, it's um they're just trying to wash their hands of the whole thing while they're in the middle of doing it.

[00:21:28]And it's it's abhorentt to me. Um, there's going to be a likely an amendment tried to offer in the budget reconciliation bill from Senator Chris Van Holland, uh, who was was grilling Blanch about this yesterday to to bar violent criminals from those payouts just explicitly. Um, do you think that would make sense?

[00:21:48]>> I think that would make sense. I think that's a start, but I don't know why this, you know, I can't really call it a settlement because it's wasn't approved by the court. It's it's a slush fund. I don't know why anyone should get any money from this or why taxpayers should pay out almost $2 billion to people that Trump feels were victimized by Biden.

[00:22:07]>> Was there any sort of formal compensation fund set up for officers like yourself who went through that day?

[00:22:15]>> Not to my knowledge. No.

[00:22:18]>> So nothing.

[00:22:20]>> Nope.

[00:22:21]And we we got paid for our work that day. You know, we we did our jobs. Yeah.

[00:22:25]I haven't heard anyone, you know, saying that we should be getting millions of dollars. You know, we we did our jobs.

[00:22:31]We I'm I did my job. I got my paycheck for the day and that's that's what I signed up to do. Obviously, it's not exactly what I signed to do and I hope I never have to do it again, but it it was our job and we we did it well.

[00:22:45]>> Officer Daniel Hodgees, one of the two plaintiffs on a lawsuit to block that slush fund that was filed today. Thank you for making all the time for us tonight. I really do appreciate it.

[00:22:53]>> Thanks for having me on, Chris.

[00:22:55]Still ahead, the emerging reality. The president isn't really planning to win the midterms fairly, not even really trying. That's next.

[00:23:05]>> Paxton seems fairly flawed. I mean, his wife's calling him an adulterer all over the place. And, you know, I think I'm not quite sure if he's a felon, but it seems like at one point he was at risk of being convicted. So, it's just a problematic candidate.

[00:23:17]>> Yeah. I mean, that's an understatement.

[00:23:19]uh Trump and the people around him don't seem to like don't seem to be acting like they're attempting to win a Democratic election this fall, meaning like convince majority of people to vote for them. And and the moment, well, it's been pretty clear, but the sort of light bulb moment for me just in the last few days is his endorsement of Texas's scandal plagued Attorney General Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate race over incumbent Senator John Cornin. Right?

[00:23:43]This is kind of the crystallizing example. The goal of the Trump apparatus right now appears to be quite clear to use subtrifuge changes to election rules in including you know rigging the maps and states control and the threat of force if necessary to retain power against Democratic will. They're doing basically nothing to try to appeal the median voter. They don't think they need them. Trump gets in front of the microphone and says like I could care less basically more or less every day and everywhere you look from the endorsement of Ken Paxton to the insurrectionist slush fund which by the way what's that for to the ground swell of Republican gerrymandering across the country it just seems clear as day that that it's an allout effort to use every means of questionable legality possibly up to and including violent force intimidation as they did on January 6th to barricade themselves in power against the will of the majority Maurice Mitchell is the national director of the Working Families Party.

[00:24:40]Miles Taylor serves as the chief of staff of Department of Homeland Security and the first Trump administration. He's the founder of defiance.org and they both join me now. I mean I, you know, there's a lot of ways you can interpret the pack. I'll talk to go to you first as sort of internal Republican politics.

[00:24:53]>> There are a lot of ways that you can interpret the Paxton endorsement, personal peak and all this stuff.

[00:24:58]>> But to me, it was like if I'm if you really are like I don't want to lose a Senate and I don't want to lose a house.

[00:25:04]um that should weigh on you. And Trump is capable of making those sorts of decisions. We've seen him do it in all kinds of places. He can be kind of like weirdly disciplined like he was about abortion in his messaging right during the the campaign. That signal to me like nothing they're doing looks like a party that's trying to win a majority. It looks like getting ready to stay in power no matter what the voters have to say.

[00:25:25]>> Yeah. They say naive people wear, you know, rosecoled glasses. Well, Donald Trump wears blood red glasses and that's how he makes his decisions. I mean, the reason that he didn't endorse Cornin is so obvious. If Donald Trump is good at one thing, and I don't want to give him credit, but it's identifying people with a conscience and pushing them as far away as possible. And I also don't want to give Cornin mountains of credit, but look, it's known on Capitol Hill that John Cornin is a little bit more of a sober-minded Republican. He pushes back quietly against Trump stuff. I've traveled around the world with the guy.

[00:26:00]He doesn't buy into all of this craziness. He also doesn't stand up against all of it. But Trump knows that.

[00:26:05]He knows there's a little bit of a flicker of a conscience in there and he says, "Yeah, we're not going to have that. I don't care if it means I'm going to lose. I got to get rid of that guy."

[00:26:13]And that naive is going to cost his party this.

[00:26:15]>> Well, but part of it is, you know, there's a weird thing happening, Maurice, which is like the power over the Republican party is growing in some ways while they're losing more and more of the country. I want to show this Quinnipiac poll today, which is wild.

[00:26:27]Trump at 34% approval rating. Like we're starting to get into real real bottom of the barrel kind of stuff. How much do you blame Trump for the gas prices rise?

[00:26:36]One of the questions in there. A lot.

[00:26:38]55%. Some 17% not much. 11 not at all 16%. At the same time that this power is being exerted that they are losing the country at a level that we haven't seen since Bush late Bush too. You know, I actually see a relationship between, you know, his dismal approval ratings and the fact that he's acting out. Like I look, like a lot of authoritarians, when they're desperate, they go into their authoritarian bag and they drop politics. They no longer take politics seriously and they begin to, you know, change the rules. they begin to, you know, like start getting, you know, street money out there with their brown brown shirts, which is what they're doing. What exactly what he's doing.

[00:27:21]>> Street money. It is. That's what it is.

[00:27:22]>> Yeah. It's 100%. So, I'm I'm unsurprised. And here's the thing. The more he loses power, the scarier some of his actions will be. And so, we he might give this impression that he's gaining power, but what I tell people is keep going. every time he tries to do any overreach, we need to throw two more punches and go even harder. His attempts to, you know, steal voting rights from black folks, his attempts to now create this, and let's call it what it is, it is reparations for his handpicked insurrectionist. Some of them are white supremacist.

[00:27:55]>> Um, >> this to me is a moment where we have to go full throttle. Like Harry Dunn is one of the other uh police officers that are that's played on one of these cases. We just endorsed him today because he's one of those fighters who's going to the front and saying in this time we can't just kind of sit on our hands and allow this authoritarian to change the rules.

[00:28:16]We got to fight back.

[00:28:17]>> You know, one of the things that that is worrying I think about this sort of you're I think you're totally right like the worse it gets the more this attempt to sort of use strongman tactics. If you re if you go back and you rerun 2020, right? It really was the case that at a bunch of key points there really were Republicans in positions of power authority who did the right thing. Rusty Bowers in Arizona. Uh the the guy on the canvasing board in uh in Wayne County and then the Michigan canvas board.

[00:28:40]There were Republicanapp appointed judges who did the right thing. Like really in key moments there were a few um not a lot of profiles of courage in Washington, right? But at the same that going after them to me spells something ominous about what the plan is here for the midterms.

[00:28:57]>> But it also backfires. People want good news. That is the story of what Donald Trump it's. almost the same playbook in the midterms, in his first term. I was there in the administration. I watched him going after anti-maga people. But guess what? A lot of those people came back and opposed him in 2020. He fired cabinet members. He tried to punish people across the country. You know what they did? They persuaded Republicans to stay home or to vote for a Democrat for the first time in their lives. I mean, you just said you guys endorsed Harry Dunn tonight. Uh, you know, he tried to defeat Thomas Massie this week to silence conversations about the Epstein files. Well, at Defiance.org We just announced that we're putting the Epstein files on the road all summer all the way till the midterm.

[00:29:36]>> This is the physical reading room.

[00:29:38]>> The physical reading room. His revenge backfires. Every time he tries to do this, people come and punch back. If you act like a thug, you're going to get treated like a thug.

[00:29:48]>> I think part of it too is, you know, I was just the other night was at an event with some of the folks from Minnesota.

[00:29:53]Um, and >> you know, I really do think that when you look in sort of the the trajectory this last year, that was a real turning point. I think when they really started to lose the country, I really lose the country with with the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Prey and with what people saw there and with the organizing that happened there. And I think a lot about the folks that came out in South Korea when, you know, they ordered martial law to try to essentially hold on to power and people came out that night that there's going to have to be some civic infrastructure built.

[00:30:21]>> Yeah. I I >> to prepare for whatever happens this fall because I just do not trust that they want to have a free and fair election.

[00:30:27]>> I mean, I I have some good news. is happening. People are having those conversations and it's look, every plank of the struggle is, I think, being animated. Just yesterday in Philadelphia, we just came away from one of our best election days. And look, I do think the country no longer is embracing or feels like MAGA is anywhere near America first. I was in Allentown.

[00:30:51]Allentown, you know, this is like a a purple district. Um, >> and it's also like classic classic sort of 2016 Trump country, right? Like de-industrialized working working-class white population, multi-racial working-class population, but a place where Trump has had success.

[00:31:05]>> Yeah. And Bob Brooks won he's a look a workingclass firefighter. He ran on Medicare for all. He's a working families party candidate. He won his his primary and the same day in a very very blue district, Rep. Rabb won his primary. And they ran on similar issues, right? because people are definitely afraid of what's coming to them with AI disruptions in the job market, the fact that people can't afford gas prices.

[00:31:32]There is this simmering populist sense of anxiety that people are tapping into, and I don't think it's going to bode well for Trump or MAGA.

[00:31:40]>> The the the heavy-handedness backfiring is also interesting, both with the the populace, right? Like the I'm building my ballroom. I don't care. you peasants can go dig into the couch to buy more milk if you need, which is sort of his attitude. But also specifically like the Cassidy thing right now and Cornin, I mean Cassidy is now a complete free agent. We've saw him defect on the Iran war powers vote.

[00:32:02]>> I think Cornin is probably going to lose this primary and be in the exact same situation as Cassidy, which is, >> you know, that's two votes in the Senate. like so the the the the attempts to discipline I think are going to make his ability to just push his will through both bodies of the legislature harder >> and there's only a two or three vote margin in so you know Thomas Massie was still staying with the administration on a number of issues they can't count on that anymore I mean he was the first person when we talked who should we have sit behind this >> Oh that's a great point right I was like oh no he's gone but no he's not gone Thomas Massie driving the Trump Epstein mobile across the country. The revenge backfires for Donald Trump again and again. And we're also seeing it not just in Washington though, Chris. I mean, around the country. Prosecutors around this country in cities are saying if Donald Trump sends troops to the polls, ICE agents to the polls, they're going to sue those agents and put them in jail. Larry Kraner in Philadelphia, another Pennsylvania person, district attorney, said, "If they do that, I'm putting those ICE agents in jail."

[00:33:06]People aren't scared of the administration anymore. They're standing up. Mitchell, Miles Taylor. Great to have you both. Thanks a lot. Still to come, the new reporting on Trump's mindmelting plan to to put this guy back in charge or this one really I who what can you say anymore? That's next.

[00:33:27]For weeks now, the US has been stuck in this strange, very fraught uh holding pattern with Iran. Right? There's an indefinite ceasefire preferable to act of war, but also feels like it's constantly on the brink of collapse. In fact, there's been arms exchanges between the two sides. And crucially, the straight of Hormuz is still closed, still under Iranian control. Fertilizer uh crisis is approaching. Oil still very expensive. Donald Trump not in a rush to do anything to resolve the situation. In fact, has said repeated times that uh the financial situation Americans is the furthest thing from his mind.

[00:34:02]And then we just got this news uh that his chaotic handling of this war is even more insane than it's looked from the outside because the New York Times reports that the US and Israel apparently had an initial plan to enact regime change which would have put Iran back under the control of yes get this its former president Makmoud Ahmedad.

[00:34:25]Yes, the guy in the members only jacket who would lead death to America chance go off on ridiculous tangents on how Israel should be wiped off the map.

[00:34:31]Maybe the Holocaust didn't happen. That guy, that's the one that Trump and Netanyahu apparently supposedly wanted to take the reigns in Iran. And then get this, Times reports earlier this year that in the first days of the war, Israel struck Akmad Job's home where he's under house arrest. Apparently, in attempt to free him from what was house arrest, instead he was injured by the air strike and seemed to grow disillusioned with this plan, fled the wreckage and his whereabouts are unknown.

[00:35:05]Aemon Mulin is the co-host of Weekend Prime Time here on MS Now. He's covered conflicts in the Middle East for years.

[00:35:10]He's always reporting on the region and he joins me now.

[00:35:13]>> Hey, >> this one, where do we start? This one just took me out. I mean, first I would just say, you know, you you talk to people in the region. You you're a reporter and have been a great reporter for years.

[00:35:24]>> Thank you.

[00:35:26]>> Does this scam do you does that what do you make of it?

[00:35:28]>> You know, I spoke to a few people about this and people who know Iran a lot more intimately than I do, and some of the reaction that I got from them was kind of dismissing it on its uh face, saying like it's just not very plausible, right? Um, and for a few reasons. One, if this was in fact true, let let's let's say the reporting is true for a moment.

[00:35:46]>> Yeah. I mean, I don't want to I don't know.

[00:35:47]>> I don't want to discredit the reporting because amazing journalists and and I tend to to believe what they write, but let's just say it is true for a moment.

[00:35:54]What does that say about American and Israeli plans that the best chance of regime change was the guy under house arrest who says there were no gays in Iran wanted to wipe Israel off the map led Iran into the most isolationist period that that country has ever gone.

[00:36:09]Keep in mind that >> public enemy number one in the US at the time like the subject of and also >> really uh rebelled against by Iranians for the same reason.

[00:36:19]>> Exactly. The guy who made Iran the most isolated period of Iran's 47-year revolutionary period was under Ahmed's rule. It was the most sanctioned time in Iran's history. That's the guy they thought was going to lead Iran to a better future if in fact they were successful in causing regime change.

[00:36:35]Also like what is what was the plan that he was was this like Shashank Redemption? was going to escape from prison like house arrest and then like go somewhere get his like gang back together in like some like cell or somewhere and then like lead a counterinsurgency to topple the regime like what was the what was the thinking in this plan right >> here's the times they say to say I'm job was an usual choice would be a vast understatement he's increasing clash regime's leaders he had been placed under close watch by authorities uh he was known during his term from 2005 to 2013 to call to wipe Israel off the map strong supporter of Iran's nuclear program which you know >> exactly >> a fierce crit of the known for violently cracking down on internal uh descent.

[00:37:11]How he was recruited to take part remains uh unknown. I mean to me part of this also is just the I don't know you again I don't know if it's true or not.

[00:37:19]What has been evident from the beginning is whatever plan there was wasn't very good and wasn't actually a real plan.

[00:37:24]>> Yeah. And and I don't want to sound like silly and like have a light-hearted moment, but it's probably like Donald Trump spends a lot of time on Twitter and like Ahmed the last couple of years has been very active on Twitter.

[00:37:33]>> Completely. Yes. I don't think THAT'S SILLY. I I GENUINELY think that >> it's probably how Donald Trump learned about him. He's like, "Hey, what about this guy Ahmed?"

[00:37:39]>> 100%. It's like if you ask Donald Trump like, "Name an Iranian leader."

[00:37:45]>> He's probably that's the guy >> got one in the bank.

[00:37:47]>> Ahmed was like tweeting about the NBA and like George Floyd and Black Lives Matter. So, he's like very active on Twitter the last couple years. And so, I really think at some point maybe like Donald Trump was like, "Hey, what about this guy? I see him on Twitter and he's like his bio says that he was a former president of Iran. Could he be a guy?"

[00:38:00]We we um we were off I I didn't have a show on on Monday of course which is the day of this just horrific shooting uh at the mosque in San Diego. Um and um just more and more details about the heroism of the people there including one of the security guards who was who was killed uh who really I think >> very likely saved the lives of a lot of children who were who were in the mosque uh by engaging the the two gunmen. Um, and you you wrote a piece for this just about the sort of, you know, an environment in which you have really prominent members of the American political class, elected leaders, saying just the most vile possible things about Muslims.

[00:38:35]>> Yeah. I mean, I said in the piece, there's a few things at play here, right? There's the kind of like rhetoric that's coming out from elected officials like Randy Fine, who said, you know, if you had to make a choice between Muslims and dogs, the choice would be easy, implying it would be the dogs. Uh you've got Tommy Tuberville who, you know, has called Muslims the threat and the enemy within the gate and h has to have something happen to them. uh you know Andy Ogles, Chip Roy, but then you've got like the institutionalized part of it, not just the not the rhetoric, but you've got now, you know, the anti-sharia caucus in Congress, this growing, you know, body of elected officials who believe that like somehow Sharia is Sharia law is on the rise in America and they they need to like counter it and they need to have this like caucus to counter every uh turn of Sharia law in this country, which doesn't exist. No one called for I mean, in fact, in the primary between Ken Paxton and John Cornin, Ken Paxton's running ads. I don't know if it's him or his allied super PAC against Ken Paxton against John Cornin in which he he recorded a video sort of saying, you know, >> thanking our Muslim friends, you know, Muslims in Texas as anam as like that's the attack. Yes. this video >> and you've got Greg Abbott now who's like fighting this epic city what you know is this project that was you know started by Muslim developers to want to build homes for the Muslim community around a mosque which is you know something very common in America you have a church you build the subdivision nearby it's like the most American thing to do >> 20 churches in my neighborhood >> is literally to build a subdivision around a church and a school well he's now fighting that as an example of Sharia law and so like and he's also denied public funding to Muslim schools in that state you know again targeting the community there so what you're seeing is this institution utionalization of Islamophobia in a way that I think is very dangerous. Coupled with the rhetoric, plus you've got people like Lindsey Graham and Pete Hexith who are portraying the war against Iran as a civilizational war.

[00:40:24]It's like us, the good guys versus them, the bad guys, the Muslim uh countries.

[00:40:29]And all of that contributes to an atmosphere where you are going to get people who are self-radicalized and hear that as a call to action. And that action tends to be the violence that was >> Yeah. And we should also say, I mean, I just want to be clear that, you know, words are words and violence is violence. distinct and we also live in a country where like >> people shoot up all kinds of targets all the time.

[00:40:50]>> Also, but just to be clear, like you know, we had a radio uh host in this city call the first Muslim mayor a cockroach, a jihadist cockroach. What happened to him? Did he get did the FCC look at him? Did his company, you know, slap him on the wrist? Did they take him off the airwaves? No.

[00:41:06]>> Nothing.

[00:41:07]>> Amen. Madame, always good to have you here.

[00:41:08]>> Likewise. Stay tuned. In just a few minutes, Jensen Saki will be speaking with Congressman Dan Gman. We'll be right back.