The Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell 6/21/26 | 🅼🆂🅽️🅲 Breaking News Today June 21, 2026

[00:00:00]10 p.m. time slot tomorrow night. Have Have fun with it.

[00:00:04]I'm in California where I'll be covering what's happening in the California elections tomorrow go going around to polling places. And Rachel, this really is, in my experience, the single most suspenseful election day in California in as long as I can remember. Uh >> Yeah.

[00:00:27]>> Including Including because of the fact it is so suspenseful that I don't even know how I'm going to vote tomorrow.

[00:00:37]>> Really? Wow.

[00:00:38]>> It's one of the It well, they they've they've turned us into strategists, right? It's become so complex because it's all about who are the top two finishers for governor, who are the top two finishers for mayor of Los Angeles, and the top two finishers for every office. And so, as a voter, you you you end up having to make strategic decisions. You might have You have your favorite candidate. Let's assume you do.

[00:01:01]It might be that the strategically helpful thing to do for your favorite candidate is vote for the person who you want that candidate to face in November to make sure that person is in the November race. You know, it's just It just turns you into a political strategist, and this one has been more difficult. And Then there's the issue >> really going to make Are you really going to make like a bank shot decision like that about who to vote for rather than just voting for who you like?

[00:01:31]>> You know, I resist it. I resist as a voter being turned into a politician, and this is one of those times where I I do believe tomorrow I'm just going to cast my vote for the candidate who I think is the best candidate. I think I'm going to go with the simplest possible approach. And And I've actually when people have been asking me about it, and they've been telling me about all these complex strategies they're bringing to to this calculation, I I kind of I end up saying, you know, it actually sounds too complicated. What about just voting for the candidate you want?

[00:02:05]Uh and but this is the way it's happening and and I've never heard it like this before and I've never waited this long and including because the developments have been, you know, so surprising. The shifts in the polls, some big surges in the polls, some big drops in the polls and so you don't know, you know, 10 days ago you didn't know if your candidate was necessarily even viable tomorrow, you know, and [laughter] so you know, yet this was one of those times you had to wait.

[00:02:33]>> They call it a jungle primary, but in this case it actually kind of feels like it's literally a jungle fight. Like you just like all you can hear is like shrieking noises and seeing things rustling, but you can't quite tell who's going to come out of who's going to come out at the end of it. It's going to be fascinating to cover. I've got like about 700 pages of stuff to read tomorrow to prep for our coverage tomorrow night just because everything that I previously prepped on this is obsolete. So.

[00:02:57]>> Yes, it that that's the way it's going.

[00:03:00]Uh the most suspenseful California election that I've ever witnessed, especially about my own vote.

[00:03:07]>> Well, a baited breath. See you tomorrow night. See you tomorrow night. Good luck.

[00:03:12]>> Thank you.

[00:03:13]Thank you.

[00:03:15]Dead for now.

[00:03:17]Dead for now was the first report today about Donald Trump's slush fund of 1.776 billion dollars that he was planning to give to people who were convicted of crimes against the United States of America in their attack on the capital on January 6th, 2021 to try to overturn a presidential election for Donald Trump, to try to kill police officers on the way to doing that and to try to kill the vice president of the United States while they were at it.

[00:03:46]Donald Trump wanted those people to get money from the federal government. And now, dead for now, dead for now, through Donald Trump's criminal insurgency group that attacked the capital on January 6th.

[00:04:04]Dead for now are the words of an unnamed White House source who told Mark Caputo at Axios, "It's dead for now."

[00:04:15]But for the Democrats in Congress opposing the Trump slush fund, it is not dead enough.

[00:04:21]And very [clears throat] much to Donald Trump's surprise, I'm sure. In fact, I'm sure he doesn't realize this even now.

[00:04:27]It is not dead enough for Donald Trump, either. It's still alive enough to cause Donald Trump serious legal problems now of his own.

[00:04:40]Because the incompetent buffoons around Donald Trump who call themselves lawyers in the Trump Justice Department and in the White House and the lawyers who represent Donald Trump personally, they because they have appeared to have wildly outsmarted themselves in putting Donald Trump in serious legal trouble now with a federal judge, the kind of legal trouble that Donald Trump's Supreme Court did not spare him from in their decision granting Donald Trump criminal immunity for possible crimes that he might commit as president.

[00:05:11]Supreme Court didn't foresee this situation and couldn't protect him from it.

[00:05:16]The Trump slush fund accompanied by a Justice Department promise that the IRS would never be allowed to investigate any possible Trump tax crimes that Donald Trump and his family may have committed up to now was the single most preposterous development in Donald Trump's litigation history, which is full of preposterous developments.

[00:05:41]And now it looks like the Trump lawyers on all sides of that one went way too far.

[00:05:48]Donald Trump pushed it so far that Republicans turned against him in the House and in the Senate and the Republican Speaker of the House reportedly told Donald Trump today that the Republican House would vote against Donald Trump's slush fund settlement if it comes to a vote in the House. And so it's dead for now. Which means that Donald Trump's political power in the House of Representatives is also dead for now. Donald Trump's political power in the Senate on this issue was already known to be dead. The Senate Republican Leader John Thune had said all along that the Trump slush fund was not a good idea. And as time went on, John Thune became more and more clear that he personally was against it. And then Chuck Schumer, promising to bring up votes in the Senate on Donald Trump's slush fund last week, Republicans in the Senate in a private meeting attacked Donald Trump's acting Attorney General who used to be Donald Trump's criminal defense lawyer, Todd Blanche, who created the Trump slush fund.

[00:06:50]Those Republicans in the room, some of them said that it was the harshest questioning of an administration official that they have ever seen in any closed meeting in the Senate.

[00:07:02]But it's already too late for Donald Trump to easily kill the $1.776 billion political monster that he created. It's too late.

[00:07:15]Senate Majority Leader John Thune was not satisfied today with unnamed White House staffers saying it's dead for now.

[00:07:25]>> Does the administration need to be clear that if they drop this that it's not coming back so then those Republicans who were skeptical during that briefing feel okay?

[00:07:34]>> We're going to proceed. That would be That would be the ideal outcome.

[00:07:40]>> The ideal outcome is dead forever.

[00:07:44]There is these Republican Senate leader John Thune saying the ideal outcome is for Donald Trump to come out and officially say it is dead, not just for now, it is dead and never coming back.

[00:07:54]And while he was at it, John Thune said the other thing that is dead in the Republican United States Senate is the Trump Ballroom, what Senator John Ossoff this weekend called the Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Ballroom.

[00:08:11]>> Does that mean also dropping the ballroom?

[00:08:13]>> Well, again, I think that the confining the bill to its original intent, which was a very narrowly focused reconciliation bill that just addresses the funny for those two agencies, is the clearest path to ultimately getting a bill on the president's desk.

[00:08:35]>> So, no, the Trump Ballroom will not be in the Republican reconciliation bill.

[00:08:40]John Thune saying the Republican Senate will not be voting for the billion dollars Donald Trump wants from them.

[00:08:49]For what Senator Ossoff will be calling the Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Ballroom if a vote on the Trump Ballroom occurs on the floor of the Senate.

[00:08:59]Donald Trump is politically radioactive now and Republicans in the House and Senate know it. The Republicans in the House and the Senate know that their worst enemy in the coming elections in November is Donald Trump.

[00:09:14]And Democrats in the Senate and the House have reason to believe that the enormity of Donald Trump's corruption and the corruption in his administration is getting through to voters and could build be a decisive issue in November.

[00:09:30]And the problem for Donald Trump and the Republicans is that even if Donald Trump comes out right now and says the magic words that John Thune wants him to say that the Trump slush fund is dead and dead forever and the ballroom is dead with it. It is now beyond Donald Trump's powers to stop the investigation of his slush fund that two federal judges have undertaken with one judge ordering a hearing on the subject next week on June 12th.

[00:10:03]That is the federal judge in Virginia who last week ordered a complete stop to any and all activity involving the establishment or operating of the Trump slush fund.

[00:10:14]But the possibly more difficult legal problem for Donald Trump now is that Judge Kathleen Williams in the Southern District of Florida is using her unique power as a federal judge to investigate not just Donald Trump's lawyers at the Justice Department and Donald Trump's personal lawyers but also Donald Trump himself.

[00:10:37]Donald Trump filed his case against the Internal Revenue Service in federal court in the Southern District of Florida in the hope of getting one of those Trump-friendly Florida federal judges down there which can happen because judges are randomly assigned.

[00:10:54]Instead, Donald Trump got Judge Kathleen Williams who was appointed to the federal court by President Barack Obama.

[00:11:01]And last week in response to a motion by a group of former federal judges to reopen the Trump case against the IRS to investigate the legitimacy of the so-called settlement of that lawsuit the judge decided to do exactly that saying that something extremely threatening to Donald Trump's acting Attorney General and to Donald Trump was possible here.

[00:11:29]The judge wrote, "The court is empowered to investigate serious misconduct as a collateral issue within the purview of rule 11 and determine whether an attorney has abused the judicial process. It is very clear that attorneys abused the judicial process in this case and so all of those attorneys are in serious trouble tonight. The judge said, "Under rule 11, a court may impose sanctions on a lawyer for advocating a frivolous position, pursuing an unfounded claim, or filing a lawsuit for some improper purpose."

[00:12:08]The Trump lawyers know that a White House source simply telling Axios that it's dead for now does not get them out of trouble with this federal judge.

[00:12:19]But the next line of the judge's order on Friday is a direct threat to Donald Trump himself.

[00:12:28]Donald Trump is not a lawyer in the case who can be disciplined as a lawyer, but Donald Trump is a party to the case. He is the party in the case. He is the party who actually brought the case against the Internal Revenue Service, giving the case the title Donald J. Trump versus Internal Revenue Service.

[00:12:51]And about Donald J. Trump, the judge wrote this.

[00:12:56]"A party's decision to file a frivolous lawsuit for the sole purpose of forcing a settlement may qualify as such an improper abuse if a party files a lawsuit for an improper purpose. The court may impose an appropriate sanction on the responsible party."

[00:13:21]So, here is a federal judge who now has the power, depending on the outcome of her investigation to impose a penalty on Donald Trump for doing all of this.

[00:13:33]The judge gave Donald Trump until June 12th, next week, to answer this question in writing, quote, of whether the case should be reopened because the court was the victim of a fraud.

[00:13:51]Former federal prosecutor Barbara McQuade will join us later in this hour to consider what's coming for Donald Trump in court because of the legally perverse and obviously indefensible so-called settlement Donald Trump's former criminal defense lawyer forced the Justice Department to make with his former criminal client, Donald Trump.

[00:14:11]The stink of it all has reached the point where Senator Jon Ossoff this weekend could refer to the whole complex of Trump corruption as the Mar-a-Lago mafia.

[00:14:24]And it is too late for someone in the White House to simply declare Donald Trump's slush fund dead for now. It's too late for Donald Trump to reverse the overwhelming image of corruption on a previously unimaginable scale in the presidency.

[00:14:40]And Senator Jon Ossoff, who is running for re-election in Georgia, has clearly decided that American voters have heard enough about what Donald Trump is up to and what Republicans in Congress have been allowing him to do that when Senator Ossoff says, "He's been trying to rob us."

[00:14:59]Voters know exactly what that means.

[00:15:04]>> And now Atlanta, these crowds, they keep growing.

[00:15:08]>> [cheering] >> Something is happening in Georgia.

[00:15:14]Every backyard, every living room is full.

[00:15:18]And crowds like this leave have doubt that Georgia is ready to do our part again to save our republic. Now, many of you are here because you recognize the urgency of opposition to this unprecedented corruption and incompetence.

[00:15:32]>> [cheering] >> And you recognize the stakes of these midterm elections when Georgia's voice will be decisive once again.

[00:15:45]His presidency crumbling.

[00:15:50]Donald spent Saturday complaining on the internet.

[00:15:55]>> [cheering] >> Listen to this.

[00:16:00]6 hours, 52 posts.

[00:16:05]The president attacked the Pope.

[00:16:08]He posted his own face on Mount Rushmore and a made-up Trump peace prize. He announced three times America's back and he assured an increasingly concerned public he's in excellent health.

[00:16:24]And when not posting, he's been trying to rob us. Have you seen it?

[00:16:29]>> [cheering] >> He sued the US government he commands for 10 billion dollars.

[00:16:39]>> [cheering] >> Then he settled the suit with himself to create a 1.8 billion dollar slush fund so he can cut checks to cronies and Jan 6 foot soldiers.

[00:16:53]>> [cheering] >> The same men who sacked the capital to seize the presidency for Donald Trump who beat police officers with flag poles, built a gallows on the Capitol lawn, and hunted the vice president to lynch him.

[00:17:12]Donald Trump's brown shirts.

[00:17:15]He pardoned them and now he wants you to pay them.

[00:17:19]>> [cheering] >> He's trying to put his face on the money. Did you see that?

[00:17:32]>> [cheering] >> He's building a monument to himself.

[00:17:40]But see, Atlanta, he's doing these things now because no one will honor him when he's gone.

[00:17:46]>> [cheering] [cheering] >> Because he's a failed president and a national disgrace.

[00:17:59]>> [cheering] >> And while you pay more for everything, Donald Trump wants your tax dollars for what many are calling the Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Ballroom.

[00:18:19]>> [cheering] >> Jon Ossoff showed Democrats how to campaign against Donald Trump's failed economic policies and Donald Trump's war, as Jon Ossoff said, built on lies.

[00:18:36]>> This president promised a golden age.

[00:18:40]Instead, the economy's lost tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs since the big illegal tariffs. And more Americans are falling behind on their credit cards than any time since the Great Recession.

[00:18:53]Inflation's higher than when Trump took office. Unemployment's higher than when Trump took office. And consumer sentiment's at its worst in 70 years.

[00:19:04]The president promised to fight for the working class and end foreign wars.

[00:19:13]Instead, he cut your health care to give the rich another tax break, and last week yet more Americans were wounded in a war no one voted for and no one can explain.

[00:19:23]>> [cheering] >> This war in Iran is the worst foreign policy blunder since Iraq.

[00:19:35]And just like the Iraq war, it's a war built on lies.

[00:19:42]Let's just update the record.

[00:19:46]On day one of the war, day one, the president said it was running ahead of schedule.

[00:19:56]On day 10, he said it was very complete.

[00:20:01]Day 21, getting very close.

[00:20:04]Day 32, leaving very soon.

[00:20:08]On day 39, the president of the United States said a whole civilization will die tonight.

[00:20:17]And on the next day, day 40, he declared total and complete victory.

[00:20:22]Day 67, great progress. Day 79, the clock is ticking. Today is day 92.

[00:20:30]And on day 92, Iran's ballistic missiles and drones have not been destroyed.

[00:20:36]The Strait of Hormuz, which was open before the war, is still closed. The regime is intact along with its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

[00:20:45]A stockpile Iran only built after President Trump shredded President Obama's Iran deal. You remember that?

[00:20:53]>> [cheering] >> Just weeks into this war, they said they'd need $200 billion to fund it.

[00:21:07]Let me put that in perspective for you.

[00:21:08]$200 billion would fund a decade, 10 would fund a decade, 10 full years of nationwide universal pre-kindergarten.

[00:21:19]>> [cheering] [applause] >> The America First president who said he would end foreign wars to put America first and focus on America's working class, instead now he says, "Quote, it's not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, or Medicare. Now he says all we can afford is war."

[00:21:44]Now he demands we cut cancer and Alzheimer's research to throw even more money at Pete Hegseth's Pentagon.

[00:21:52]>> [cheering] >> While the Financial Times reports, "Quote, Pete Hegseth's broker looked to buy defense fund before Iran attack."

[00:22:06]You remember they promised to drain the swamp?

[00:22:10]Instead, this is the most corrupt administration of all time and everybody knows it.

[00:22:16]Everybody knows it. The Mar-a-Lago mafia has taken American corruption to spectacular new heights. Donald Trump's rise is a symptom of this deeper disease.

[00:22:33]And I suspect many of you are here because you recognize that our task is not just to contain his wickedness, but to cure the rot that gave rise to it.

[00:22:45]>> [cheering] >> That's how you do it.

[00:22:56]We'll be right back.

[00:22:59]This way.

[00:23:02]>> I suspect many of you are here today because you're deeply troubled by the pain so many of our fellow Georgians and fellow Americans and fellow human beings are enduring right now.

[00:23:14]The terror of a child watching ICE take away his mother.

[00:23:19]The despair of a cancer patient losing coverage mid-treatment.

[00:23:26]Maybe they don't care in the White House or in the governor's mansion, but that ache in your heart, that pit in your stomach, that's what reminds us we're all in this together.

[00:23:39]That we're not just one United States, we're one united people. E pluribus unum, out of many, one.

[00:23:46]>> [cheering] >> And see, this is what small men like Donald Trump and J.D. Vance and Stephen Miller will never understand.

[00:23:58]That our national greatness flows not through our blood or our genes, but through our ideas.

[00:24:07]>> [cheering] >> Let's save THE COUNTRY AGAIN.

[00:24:14]>> [cheering] >> LET'S MAKE SURE THEY HEAR IT ALL THE WAY DOWN at Mar-a-Lago that Georgia will bow to no king.

[00:24:24]Thank you.

[00:24:25]God bless you.

[00:24:27]Let's get to work. Thank you so much.

[00:24:30]Thank you. Thank you.

[00:24:31]>> [cheering] >> Joining us now is Senator Gary Peters of Michigan. He's the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Committee and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Appropriations Committees.

[00:24:46]Uh, Senator Peters, thank you very much for joining us tonight. And one of the reasons I I've decided to show so much of what Senator Ossoff had to say yesterday is we it's very common to hear and I'm sure you've heard it, that uh, that that the Democrats need to find their voice in this campaign season that is not just an anti-Trump voice, but that both joins the anti-corruption statements that the campaign has to make with the actual governing policy positions of Democrats, which is what the senator seemed to do yesterday. And for for viewers out there who I know are looking for this kind of speech. They're They're looking for this kind of statement that they can understand as a candidacy going forward.

[00:25:31]This seemed to be the best one recently that I could present. And you have more experience than anybody in the Senate right now electing Democrats having run the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee a couple of times. Usually people only have to do that once. You did it more than once cuz you did it so well.

[00:25:49]What is your view of the way Senator Ossoff is approaching this campaign? Is that the kind of framing that you think is going to work for Democrats?

[00:25:59]>> Yeah, absolutely Lawrence. And I'm glad you showed so much of that speech.

[00:26:03]Senator Ossoff certainly knows what he's talking about. He knows how to frame the issues. And ultimately, you know, what campaigns are about. It's about a contrast. When you go into vote, you're going to choose between two candidates, their vision for the future. You also look at their record in the past and what they have done or not done and make a decision. And so as Democrats as we're campaigning around the country, certainly we have a lot to talk about in terms of the disaster that the Trump administration has been and the fact that Republicans basically rubber stamp all of these horrible things that happened daily in the Trump administration. But it's also about a forward mission vision of what we stand for to make sure that people can afford themselves not just to get by, but actually have an ability to live a fulfilling life, to be able to afford basic things like groceries, fuel, to be able to make sure your children have a quality education, affordable health care. And when it's all said and done, that you can retire with dignity. You know, that has always been the the Democratic message. We're going to double down on what we stand for. And it's going to be very easy to paint that that contrast of where Donald Trump is.

[00:27:17]You know, we've talked about this slush fund, this this horrible abomination. It is absolute corruption.

[00:27:24]I used I know you started the program saying that some person said, "Well, it's dead for now." As Democrats, we're going to make sure it's dead forever, not just now. We have to kill that. And we also have to do things like make sure that what is what they haven't said is dead is the fact that Donald Trump negotiated with himself to make sure the IRS can't audit him. And here's a a president who we know has paid little or no income tax when everyday Americans pay their taxes. So, they pay it as good citizens that understand how important that is for a strong country. And yet, you have a guy like Donald Trump that doesn't pay anything while he leads us into war that cost everyday Americans right now. It's been estimated just in energy cost nearly 500 extra dollars to them. That is putting a severe strain on Americans. That's why they they want to change. You know, the Federal Reserve did a study and it showed that about 37% of Americans would have a hard time coming up with $400 in cash to pay for some sort of emergency bill. And already in the last 90 days, they're paying nearly $500 in energy cost. That puts people in a terrible situation. They want somebody in Washington that's looking out for them, who's going to fight for them to bring down health care cost, to make sure housing costs are down. That's what Democrats are focused on. And we're going to be offering a very clear contrast. And when you offer a clear contrast like that, you win elections. And more importantly right now, you put the checks and balances that are absolutely essential to rein in a corrupt administration like we're seeing in the Trump administration. That has to be reined in. Our founders expected Congress to stand up and hold the president accountable. That's not happening. But when you vote for Democrats and you send Democrats to Washington and put us in the majority, we will finally have accountability here in Washington and lean into the things that people care about each and every day.

[00:29:19]>> Senator Gary Peters, thank you very much for joining us tonight.

[00:29:23]>> Thank you.

[00:29:25]>> And coming up, it's all Todd Blanches fault. That's what Donald Trump's fired attorney general told the congressional committee. That's next with Congressman Ro Khanna.

[00:29:36]Now, fired attorney general Pam Bondi participated in what the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee called a committee interview.

[00:29:45]So, she was not formally put under oath.

[00:29:49]Chairman James Comer was challenged on that before the hearing by a group of women who survived the abuse of sex trafficker and rapist Jeffrey Epstein, who was Donald Trump's closest friend for 10 years.

[00:30:05]>> Can you ensure that they would please be brought in under oath?

[00:30:08]>> Well, if you lie to Congress, it's a felony. So, it's it's you know, there We're bringing them in.

[00:30:14]>> We're bringing people in that have never been brought in before.

[00:30:18]>> The transcript of the committee's interview with Bondi has not yet been released, but her written statement is public and her key line, really the only thing she wanted to say about the Epstein files, could not be more clear.

[00:30:35]Quote, I delegated oversight over this process to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blach. So, there's Donald Trump's first attorney general putting all the blame for every delay, every mistake, and every attempt to block the release of the Epstein files on Donald Trump's current acting attorney general Todd Blanche, who was Donald Trump's criminal defense lawyer. Todd Blanche is also the author of the most insane document ever issued by the Justice Department saying on one piece of paper on May 19th signed only by Todd Blanche that the Department of Justice is hereby forever barred and precluded from prosecuting or pursuing any cases against Donald Trump and his family that might be pending as of May 19th including tax returns filed before the effective date of May 19th.

[00:31:32]Todd Blanche's depraved use of his position in the Justice Department has done more to expose presidential corruption than even Richard Nixon's two indicted attorneys general did during the Nixon presidency.

[00:31:45]And now Todd Blanche is being publicly blamed for everything Donald Trump's Justice Department has done with the Epstein files. Joining us now is Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna of California. He is a member of the Oversight Committee. Congressman Khanna, to Chairman Comer's point there about he seemed to be saying doesn't matter if Bondi was under oath because lying to Congress is a crime. What what's your reaction to that?

[00:32:15]>> Well, it's so sad that the survivors said they felt that they didn't matter.

[00:32:19]And this was of course the cardinal sin of Epstein, treating the survivors as dispensable. And now they're made to feel that way again. But look, Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, they were videotaped. They were under oath. Comer made a whole spectacle of this. And now Pam Bondi, who's responsible for the whole investigation, you're not putting her under oath, you're not having her videotape. I mean, it is totally covering up for Bondi.

[00:32:47]>> We know that she had a meeting in the White House about the Epstein files with Donald Trump.

[00:32:54]What did she say about that?

[00:32:57]>> She refused to answer a single question about her interaction with Donald Trump.

[00:33:03]Army Dylan, the Assistant Attorney General, instructed her not to answer anything with Donald Trump. It's obvious at this point it's a total cover-up with Trump. And Lawrence, look, Orban fell in Hungary because of a sex abuse scandal, covering up a sex abuse scandal. And you see Trump now being exposed for the same kind of cover-up, and he's going to have the same fate.

[00:33:26]>> So, Donald Trump is now discovering that that not only did Todd Blanche not come up with a genius plan for this Trump slush fund and for Trump's so-called immunity with the IRS, but he's actually caused Donald Trump a tremendous amount of political problems with this slush fund, and he's causing Donald Trump what could be serious legal problems in the future with these federal judges because of their investigations of this settlement. And now here's Bondi saying, "The Epstein files, 100% 100% Todd Blanche's fault."

[00:34:03]>> Well, she basically came in and she blamed Todd Blanche for everything. She blamed Cash Patel because she said that he already got redacted documents. And then she had the audacity to blame Jay Clayton, the US Attorney, saying that's why we don't have any investigations and prosecutions. She knows it's a sinking ship. The slush fund basically exposed that this is a mafia-like government.

[00:34:25]It's totally corrupt. Senator Ossoff called it out in his brilliant speech.

[00:34:30]And the reality is the cards are folding. Senators are re- rebelling now, and Trump is seeing that, and they want to make Todd Blanche the fall guy.

[00:34:39]That's what Pam Bondi was trying to do.

[00:34:42]>> Carson Row Cano, thank you very much for joining us tonight.

[00:34:45]Appreciate it.

[00:34:47]And coming up, with Senator Jon Ossoff now campaigning against what he calls the Mar-a-Lago Mafia, our next guest, Barbara McQuade, has published a new book titled "The Fix: Saving America from the Corruption of a Mob-Style Government." Barbara McQuade joins us next.

[00:35:12]Donald Trump is now the employer of the most incompetent government lawyers in history, led by his deputy, his acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, who was his criminal defense lawyer. And now, the New York Times is reporting on the loss of legal talent by the Trump administration. Quote, "Roughly one in five lawyers who worked in the government at the end of 2024 had left by March of this year, according to a New York Times analysis of federal employment data. Their departures show how rapidly the president has eroded the image of the federal government as the gold standard for lawyers seeking public service roles. Instead, many of those looking for such work are flocking to the offices of Democratic state attorneys general and nonprofits that are challenging administration policies in the courts."

[00:36:08]Donald Trump responded to the New York Times story on social media by saying, "The New York Times wrote a story today entitled 'Trump Administration Sees Striking Exodus of Legal Talent' as though that's a bad thing, when actually, it's very good."

[00:36:26]Donald Trump's extremely untalented lawyers at the Justice Department and the White House have left him lost tonight with his Trump slush fund now declared dead for now by one unnamed White House staffer.

[00:36:40]Joining us now is former federal prosecutor Barbara McQuade whose perfectly timed new book is titled The Fix: Saving America from the corruption of a mob-style government. Barbara McQuade, thank you very much for joining us tonight. Uh let's go this this uh fits in nicely with uh John Ossoff's speech about what he's now calling the Mar-a-Lago Mafia, but let's go straight to the fix and apply to what we're seeing for example in some of these news stories today.

[00:37:11]What are the fixes that we need?

[00:37:15]>> Well, clearly some of the things we need is to improve the guardrails with regards to the Department of Justice.

[00:37:20]Donald Trump has transformed what was once the crown jewel of the US government into his own personal law firm. He has used it as you have described in great detail to create this slush fund. He has used it to go after his enemies and he's used it to reward through pardons people who have served him in violating the law. There are guardrails we can put into place. There are things we can do like codifying some of the policies that are there at the Justice Department like the principles of federal prosecution and the FBI's domestic investigations operations guide. These things have safeguards like avoiding partisan politics and protecting first amendment activities and I think that we can put those guardrails in place, but of course the the the humans who occupy those positions are awful also very important and so selecting people for those positions who are looking to the best interest of the United States and not themselves is also a very important part of the fix and so that's where our own roles come into play Lawrence. We all have to take a role in who we elect, who we campaign for, and working together to make sure we put in office people who understand that they're there to serve the people and not themselves.

[00:38:36]>> Barbara, I cannot imagine what it was like to be writing this book because normally you sit down to write a book and you get you get it outlined and you're ready to go and the world stays in place while you're typing.

[00:38:51]But I I had to be every other day that you were writing this there was something new to fit in here as an example and then you know as soon as your book is coming out we have the slush fund.

[00:39:05]>> Yes, you know it's almost like you're writing with a race against time and President Trump almost every day brings a new windfall of examples to illustrate what we're talking about. But the parallels just as we heard from Senator Ossoff between the Trump administration and corrupt political regimes, corrupt public officials, organized crime enterprises are so stark and they were from the beginning of Trump's second administration. The way he shook down law firms, the media, universities and even allies by forcing them to pay tariffs. All of those things reminded me of the kind of tactics that I saw when I was working as a federal prosecutor. And now that those tactics are being exposed, I think the public is beginning to catch on to some of these tactics and one hopes that with some of the tactics we talk about in the fix, we can remedy what ails our country and take back our government for the people.

[00:40:00]>> What do you make of the New York Times point that a lot of these valuable federal government lawyers have moved to the states and to state attorneys general offices?

[00:40:13]>> It doesn't surprise me. I see it in my own students. Students who in the past would apply for the very competitive Department of Justice Honors Program because it was a place where top lawyers wanted to work to serve their country.

[00:40:25]If they are seeing the Justice Department weaponized and being used in a way that lacks integrity, an obvious place for them to go is the state counterparts. And in those state attorney general offices, what we are seeing is an effort not only to serve the people but to even push back against some of the misconduct that we're seeing currently at the Department of Justice.

[00:40:46]So, I think it's no surprise that people who want to serve their country as lawyers are now seeking out opportunities in the states.

[00:40:54]>> Barbara McQuade, thank you very much for joining us tonight. The new book out tomorrow, available everywhere, is called The Fix: Saving America from the corruption of a mob-style government.

[00:41:07]We'll be right back.