Transcripts For MSNBCW Alex 20240704

America. Were going to have more on that in our show as well. Thank you atas home for joining me this hour. Today we got the news tat Donald Trumps one criminal case, the one criminal case that was likely Toe Go To Trial Before E November Election may be delayed. Manhattan District Attorney alvin braggs Hush Money Case was set tos go to trial on mar 25th, less than two weeks from today, but now that date is in question. Now,s trumps legal strategy i all his cases has been to push them off as long as possible, preferably to the month of neb ruary. Today d. A. s braggs off consented to another delay of the trial. The issue at hand is a new trove of records turned over by the feds in the Southern District of new york, Tens Of Thousands of records. Specifically 31,000 pages of records the u. S. Attorneys office just handed over to Braggs Office yesterday. Now, the d. A. Specifically pins this newest delay on trump, saying thaton trumps legal tea waited until two months ago to request this massive trove of records from the u. S. Attorneys office. And dont get me wrong, i am sure trumps legal team is using every opportunity that exists to create delays in this case. It is what they do. But d. A. Braggs office and the u. S. Ic Attorneys Office know th. And one of it reasons this appears to be happening so late in b the game is because the u. Attorneys office requested repeated extensions that trumps Side Consent D to according to alvin bragg. When the u. S. Attorneys office asked trump for a comment on the delay, the office declined to respond. The fact this latest delay might bow a responsibility of the arm of the Justice Department would be a big deal on its own, but this case is not alone. This delay would seem to fit a pattern. Just hours after Merrick Garland was sworn in as Attorney General, he heldsw a private briefing to get up to speed on what he called was his highest priority, bringing to justice the people responsible for january 6th. But then more than a year passed. Witnesses in the fake y elector scheme told the Washington Post that they assumed the casu was dead because no one at the doj was contacting them. Remember trumps infamous call to Georgia Secretary Of State brad raffensperger, the call where trump pressured raffensperger to find him 11,000 votes . Well, key witnesses to that call iny early 2021 told the Washington Post that no one at the fbigt contacted them until 2023, two years after the fact. What was happening at the Department Of Justice in that time . Well, thanks to great reporting from the Washington Post we know the answer too that questn is not much. There were internal debates and heated arguments over this choice,rg but for more than a yr the Justice Department policy was to go after the little guys and work their way up. As one former Justice Department official told the post, you couldnt use the t word. Meaning you couldnt mention trump. The way the Washington Post reports it, the Department Of Justice was so worried about looking like they were prosecuting donald trump forg political reasons, that they gave trump treatment no other defendant in america would get. They effectively ignored him despite the fact he was at the very center of this plot. It wasnt until intrepid reporting and the House January 6thho Committee started Unearthg Troves of evidence implicating trump and his top aides in the january 6th riot, which, duh, it wasnt until all of that started coming up publicly, that the Justice Department actually began investigating trump in earnest. Ultimately the fbi didnt open an investigation into bitrump. The guy at the beating heart of everything, until 15 months after the capitol attack. Key witnesses in the meantime may have forgotten specifics or deleted emails. And it also set the actual prosecution of this case back more than a year. And now the window of time in which that case could make it to trial before the november election is so small, it seems nearlyit impossible that the American Public will get ae ruling before they have to vote for president. We saw a similar delay coming from the Department Of Justice in the maralago classified documents case. Remembersi that form trumps lawyers signed on his behalf in the june of 2022 . It claimed trumps legal team had prepared a diligent search and turned over the documents in trumpss possession. Yet again thanks to extensive reporting in the Washington Post, it is almost that point, almost where the entire classified documents investigation ended. It turnssi out there was a monthslong fight between prosecutors who had evidence trump and his lawyers might not be telling the whole truth, prosecutors who wanted to search maralago and the fbi. Nd the fbi wanted to take trump and his lawyers at their word. They did not want to touch donald trump. The optics were too controversial. That infighting delayed the actual search of maralago for months. When maralago was ultimately searched fbi agents found 100 classified documents, 18 of them top18 secret. By the fall of 2022 prosecutors were reportedly ready to charge trump based on what theyd found. It looked like a fairly straightforward case, but they did not charge trump. Before they could, trump announced he was running for reelection and the calculations within the Department Of Justice changed. Once again the department deferred to trump and his political trrealities, to avoid anything that might even look like political prosecution, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed jack smith as Special Counsel. Now, smith worked really quite quickly. But q ultimately he didnt char trump until june of the following year. That setback the prosecution time line another eight months. Now, the classified documents case is currently scheduled scheduled to go on trial on may 20th, but that date is widely expected to be bumped back. Potentially delaying that trial just past the Novemberla Electi and missing that key date by a matter of months, after being delayed nearly a year by, yes, judge Aileen Cannon, but also indecision, infighting, and the passing of the case to a Special Counsel at the Department Of Justice. Do you looking back now dc you think the Department Took too long to bring these cases maybe . Specialse prosecutors follow the facts and the law. They brought cases when they thought they were ready. So we already know that one of the reasons trump might not face accountability before the election in either of his federal criminal cases is because the departmentl of justice dragged its feet and fought intermy and was cautious to a fault. But now tonight we learn even in a statelevel prosecution in d. A. Braggs New York State Hush Money Case, the most likely case to see trial before the november election, even in that case, it looks like the Justice Department may be playing a very real role in delaying justice. Joining me now are former fbi general counsel andrew weissmann, and Nyu Law Professor felica murray. Together theyre authors of the number one not bad, guys the New York Times bestseller. Congratulations on this. Its not the holidays, but its not too early to buy copies for every person in your family. Well talk about that in a second. I first have to get your opinion on whats happened in the new york Hush Money Case. Onus the outside i understand trumps doing everything he can toer delay, but whats going on with the Department Ofel Justic and their ability towi get the d. A. And the defendants, the documents they need in a timely fashion . So tselfinflicted wound. You know, it doesnt look good especially when were about to get a decision on d. A. Fani willis. Even if theres a decision not to disqualify her, the combination looks really poor. Atre the very least this is a massive screws up on the part the Southern District of new york prosecutors. I mean really poor judgment not toll have turned Everything Ovea Yeare Ago when the d. A. s offi asked for this information. If youve not inculpaatory information, you should turn that over. If youve got exculpatory information that could help the defendant, you should turn that over. This isnt going to be fatal to the case. T there will be a trial. One thing to note the d. A. Submission today said theres still more tobm come, so its worth knowing they do not yet know neither side, the d. A. Nor the defense knows what the full scope is. I thinksc there could be Additional Information thats additional bad asks by michael cohen. Remember Michaelha Cohen pled guilty icthere, and the Souther District of new york prosecutors had publicly said at the Employee Hearing how much they distrusted him. They were very much fighting with our office, the Special Counsels office. We were saying he should get credit, they were saying, no, he shouldnt. So thereng could be more information about that. There could be more information aboutfo allan weisselberg, becae reading the tea leaves it appears he may have given more information to them, mayay have testified in the grand jury, but may have lied. And he has already pled guilty to perjury so exactly. But there could be just more complications there there also could be more discussions about the theory of the case of the federal Campaign Violation case. Whyl do i say that . Because lets go back in the time machine to when bill barr was the Attorney General and was fighting with the acting u. S. Attorney saying you should essentially get rid of the case, and sheri pushed back. There could just be a whole mass of bmaterial, and thats what m sort of keeping my eye on is sort of like what is the information, and is it going to be something thats really meaningful, exactly. What i dont fundamentally understand and this is according to d. A. Bragg, he asked for a lot of this material last year and didnt get it, and then trump asks for it in january, and so far 103,000 i think is the count pages of documents have been turned over. I mean what might possibly account forha that. I think one thing you have to understand is although all of these u. S. Attorneys offices are part of the federal Department Of Justice, their prosecutorial offices working under the Department Of Justice, they all involve a fair amount of autonomy. They taketo that Sovereignty Que seriously. And so,gn yes, they dont alway play well t with other offices, state level prosecutions. Like theyre doing their own thing quite a lot of the time. And this may be one of those situations. I think the thing toof take fro all ofg this is that this dela is not necessarily alvin braggs fault. He definitely asked for this Information A Year D ago. It wasnt forthcoming. Now its been disclosed and apparently it is an avalanche of documents with more to come. And hes done the right thing which is to concede there should be a delay. Hes pushed back on the defendants request for a 90day delay. Hes requested a 30day delay. Thats sufficient to go through the documents. Hes prioritized the rights of thehe defendants to review the documents against him, review the documents about those information who might be testifying against him. Hes the one saying a 30day delay would be fine by me, i could do the delay today but also take it inod a month when ive got time to prepare for it. One of the things i dont understand, andrew, is he makes note of the fact that the feds effectively said we need another delay, mr. Trump, iner terms of getting you this material, repeatedly asking for extensions. All trump wantsfo to do is dela this thing. What would account for first of all, they were asked for this material last year, asked in january, andye theyre still saying we need more time, we need more time, and now its the eve of the trial beginning effectively, and theyre still not done giving documents. How does that process . Dauz that seem plausible to you . How does the process work that it might be so greatly slowed . Well, the one thing i dont think happened is i dont think main justice was involved. It could be, but i just dont think thats the case. I agree with melissa u. S. Attorneys offices can in a lot of circumstances particularly the Southern District of new york just decide this on their own. That doesnt answer your question. That sort ofsn deals with, you know, was Merrick Garland somehow part of this . As weve discussed, i have my issues in terms of like thepede or lack thereof with respect to the attorney lgeneral, but i dont think this is something i would immediately jump to him. Its hard to know how this could happen. I can tell you my reaction and friends who had worked in the d. A. s office or worked in the u. S. W Attorneys Office all ha the same reaction, which is not something i could say onair. On this family program. Because it is either just a colossal blunder or just such a wrong view in terms of the judgment call here, in terms of what needs to be done. And the idea it so clearly took alvin bragg by surprise meant this normally at the very least if you thought you had huge cache of documents youd call up the d. A. And say we just found its clear it didnt happen. That is notable, too. Donald trump has been saying throughout all these investigations and now these indictments that all of these various Law Enforcement officials are working in tandem, this Isin A Collusive effort to selectively prosecute him. This makes clear that is not the case. The Southern District ofot new york is not working with alvin bragg. Just wildly dysfunctional, not coordinating anything. Complete dysfunction but certainly not the collusion he has implied. He not a great defense, of course. Theyre so dysfunctional they cant be colluding. Andrew, ive got to psh back a little bit. Im notac suggesting alvin brag wasti the puppeteer but i do thk this was a week robert hur has gone to the hill with this highly controversial report that the white house said that i think a lot of folks not even just democrats say was filled with just, you know, out of School Commentary about President Bidens mental acuity. The mere appointment of robert hur was aoi subject of debate. And then when he came up with what seemed so political in nature and not to the support of the current occupant of the white house, it all serves to paint a picture of a Justice Department thatof seems sort of hopelessly concerned with how theyre going to be perceived on the right. So i agree with that. Im juste trying to be sort of judicious about sort of taking each set of circumstances at the same time and looking at them to give them sort of fair weight. I agree with you with rob hur. I think that is a small p political decision so you appoint someone whos a republican. If you appoint rob hur thats what you get. I think it is absolutely right to be critical of that decision, and i think its important because i think it deals with sort of what happens next, an important milestone to say, you know what, this is what you get if you dont actually back your people in thinking anybody, judges, prosecutors, jurors, witnesses will act, you know, out of principle. I just think in this situation i dont know what was motivating the Southern District of new york. I dont think they would have coordinated this. I do thinke w Merrick Garland, may make wrong decisions, but i do not d see him trying to slow this down by saying do not turn inculpatory information over to prosecutors and exculpatory. Hell feel hell need to turn over both of those thing tuesday defense. Merrick garland should have been writing all these prosecutors in the u. S. Attorneys offices below him like sea biscuit to get this done. It doesnt have to be nefarious to be problematic. Like hes in charge, and they report to him like this needsed to be done, the defendant had a right to information. I agree this may likely fall with the office, but the buck ultimately stops with Merrick Garland. Yaush i agreeh with that. And just think the chances Merrick Garland knew he may have been reading it the same way dee did, and of course youre right to be like ultimately he runs the office and hes responsible. The idea this wouldnt be turned over, im pretty sure the extent they didnt know at main justice their reaction was the same as all of ours, which is youve got to be kidding. Youve got to be kidding is my refrain from for this block of news tonight. Please stay with me. I have soy many more questions about so so many more top kz. I should note tomorrow night at 10 00 p. M. Eastern andrew and melissa will be cohosting a live msnbc special on their book the trump indictments. Tomorrow right here on msnbc. We have a lot more tonight including Vice President Kamala Harris andon her words of warni to blue states where abortion is still legal. Be very, very concerned. But first the judge in the former president s classified documents rulednt today. But does that mean the case is going to go to trial anytime soon . Thats coming up next. Go to tre soon thats coming up next. Scout is protected by Simparica Trio and hes in it to win it Simparica Trio is the first chew with triple protection. Whoa fleas and ticks Intestinal Worms whoa Heartworm Disease no problem with Simparica Trio this drug class has been associated with neurologic Adverse Reactions including seizures. Use with caution in dogs with a history of these disorders. For winning protection go with Simparica Trio. Ah, these bills are crazy. She has no idea shes sitting on a goldmine. Well she doesnt know that if she owns a Life Insurance policy of 100,000 or more she can sell all or part of it to coventry for cash. Even a term policy. Even a term policy . Even a term policy find out if youre sitting on a goldmine. Call Coventry Direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect. Com. While donald trump has managed to delay his d. C. Federal election interference case and quite likely his new york Hush Money Case, today down in florida trump was doing his best to do the same thing in his classified documents case. Thats where trumps lawyers have been arguing that the charges trump violated in the Espionage Act that the charges trump violated in the espn act are too vague, that trump as a former president cant be held to its standard, and that consequentially the charges should be tossed out. Judge Aileen Cannon responded a few hours later saying while trumps legal team had some arguments Warranting Serious consideration, she would not dismiss the charges in question. Cannon did, however, leave the door open for trump to raise the issue again in connection with Jury Instruction Briefing and or other appropriate motions. In other words, the proverbial can has been kicked down the proverbial road. Back with me now is andrew weissmann. Andrew, am i reading that right this is Aileen Cannon just punting on this call, and what does that practically mean . I think you have it absolutely right. And i think its really important people not read this is as, oh, she ruled for the government. This is the worst possible decision for the government that she made today, and youre going to be like why. This is why. So if she had said to the government, you know, you win, obviously thats great for the government. She thinks its right, and then what would happen is trump were convicted, he could appeal that legal issue. If she had said to the government you lose, the government gets to appeal that and go to the 11th circuit. Thats the 11th circuit where judge cannon has been reversed not once but twice. What she is trying to do is avoid at all costs doing anything that allows the government to go up to the 11th circuit. Because what can they do, they can remove her remove her from the case. So this is saying, oh, i think there are serious issues donald trump is raising. And i think this is really a matter of quite some concern, but you know what, im going to decide this later. And so its denied without prejudice to renewal. That just means theres no decision. Plus, shes putting a little you know, this little bon bon of like, oh, this is a serious issue. That the worst possible thing for the government because they have no recourse now, and she then can just push this off. They cannot appeal it at this point. And trump can continue to bring it back up and slow the case down, is that right . Yeah, hes by the way, its because theres so many motions he can do this. The other thing is i want to point out the irony this is a vague statute. There are scores of people scores of people including during the Trump Presidency who have been prosecuted for this. The indictment itself in paragraphs 23 and 24 point out Donald Trumps own statements about these laws saying that they need to be enforced more, not less. He wanted a higher penalty for them. Now that hes a defendant, suddenly these laws are vague and no one can understand whats going on. That argument has been denied by everyone who is sitting in jail has lost that. Right. So this is not a vague statute. So that puts in context how outrageous her decision is. Exactly. This is one it took all day and people are like why is this taking all day . This is something you deny outright. Maybe, yes, you want to hear somebody for half an hour, fine. This is one i really cant say is inexperience. Just over and over again she has shown that she is not being even handed. And hes making similarly meritless arguments on the president ial records act and saying this is theyre saying this is political persecution, and shes entertaining hearings on all of this, right . All of it including, you know, the favorite, which is immunity. Yes, president ial immunity. Which i love because thats when were, guess what, you were president when this happened. And i keep analogizing this is a bank robber going into a bank, robbing it with a gun, shooting the guard. Hes prosecuted, and he says, judge cannon, i cannot be prosecuted because i legally owned the gun. Right, exactly. Thats his argument. And shes entertaining the argument. I cant wait for her to say these are serious issues. Warranting serious consideration. Does it say anything to you that two weeks ago she held a hearing to decide on the trial date for this case . And before shes even said that shes going through this very tedious series of hearings on the puppy cot notions . I hope i am wrong but the chances shes going to set a trial before the general election are not even infinitesimal. I hope im wrong, i hope ive misjudged her, but i dont think thats the case. She still on the books has this main trial date. Theres not a Single Person in the world who thinks thats going to go forward, and she hasnt set a new date. You need a date because you need to block it on everyones calenders and everyone works to that deadline. This is real life where everyone says heres the deadline and she hasnt done that. The idea thats going to be before the general election, i hate to give everyone the bad news. No, its theater with a cowered in the seat. Andrew weissmann, thank you for your time, my friend. Mazel tov on the book. Thank you so much. Still ahead tonight how governor kristi noh, but first Vice President Kamala Harris visited planned parenthood today with an important message. You want to stop republicans for coming for abortion, ivf, and now contraception, you need to go to the ballot box in november. Ill talk about that next. N november ill talk about that next. My name is oluseyi and some of my favorite moments throughout my life are watching sports with my dad. Now, i work at comcast as part of the team that created our ai highlights technology, which uses ai to detect the major plays in a sports game. Giving millions of fans, like my dad and me, new ways of catching up on their favorite sport. How dare these elected leaders believe they are in a better position to tell women what they need, to tell women what is in their best interest. We have to be a nation that trusts women. Today Vice President Kamala Harris did something no other Vice President or president has ever done, she visited an abortion clinic. Harris traveled to a planned parenthood clinic in st. Paul, minnesota, to highlight the stakes of the 2024 election. Even in a blue state like minnesota where democrats control all the levers of state power and where reproductive freedoms are protected, a federal ban would nullify all of that. And the Presumptive Republican nominee for president who biden or harris are running against expressed support for a nationwide ban. Democrats bid to highlight the stakes here is only strengthened by whats happened elsewhere in the country. In texas basic access to contraception is now under attack. This week a panel of Appeals Court judges upheld a texas law requiring parental consent for minors to obtain contraception. While this case might be about teens at present, it could also signal a fight ahead. At least one Supreme Court justice has already documented his desire to overturn the right to contraception among the population at large. Joining me now is lea litman, one of the cohosts of the great podcast, district scrutiny. And back with me is melissa murray, one of the other cohosts and Nyu Law Professor. Melissa, thank you for staying. Just dont ever leave. Leah, first lets talk about this texas decision, right, because some people are saying this is just affirming a kind of general parental Consent Decree that exists in the state of texas, but if you read it sort of in the real world, it sure sounds like theyre coming from contraception here. Absolutely, because they could have said the exact same thing when they began their war on Abortion Access. Initially first they adopted laws that required parental consent and enacting a law and that was part of the longer process that led to court eventually overruling roe v. Wade and ruling protections in dobbs, and what were seeing now is the beginning of the same thing happening as Justice Thomas signaled to dobbs he wanted it to happen more quickly. It just feels like Clarence Thomas sends up a flare on like the crazy topic of his choice, and out there in the country conservatives follow suit. I mean, do you think this is ultimately going to be if not this case a case will head to the Supreme Court . This isnt about simply stalling abortion. If you wanted to end abortion, you would actually be in favor of stalling access to contraception. Its not about abortion, not about preventing unwanted pregnancies but about controlling sexuality and in particular enforcing a set of gender roles like women who rely on abortion and Birth Control as means of controlling their production capacity. Justice thomas is very much the intellectual genius behind this entire project. He often writes alone on the court. He did not get anyone to sign onto his concurrence in dobbs. It doesnt matter because he has an army of former law clerks sitting in places who hear these flares as they go up, listen to what hes saying, read the opinions, and then put them out in their own courts as part of the law in their circuits. Thats what were seeing in the Fifth Circuit, weve seen it before, and Justice Thomas has been shepherding this completely bogus narrative that abortion is linked to the Eugenics Movement and has been used as a tool to the african americantuant. No one else signed on in concurrence to his opinion saying that, but then it appeared in Lower Court Opinions and appeared in the footnote in dobbs. He is the sort of evil genius behind all of this. And when hes done for the night, he goes back to his office and strokes a hairless cat and prides himself on what hes done. The end of Bodily Autonomy as we know it in this country. Can you talk a bit about Leah Mitchell involved in this case. Talked about him a lot. Hes done a great and enormous amount of work in terms of forwarding the conservative agenda through the courts. Yes, hes a busy guy. He was a judge in the medical abortion case, the Mifepristone Case the judge is going to be hearing in a few weeks. Hes also the judge in the title 10 contraception case. Hes also the judge where theres a multimillion dollar lawsuit filed against planned parenthood in his court and theyre filing these cases against him, in particular his division because they know based on his track record he was essentially appointed to do all the things hes doing now, to make it more difficult to make medical Abortion Access more available, and just outlining all these theories and some judges on the Fifth Circuit pick up on and the Supreme Court is able to steadily move the law in a more conservative direction. Even if they dont do everything the judge does, even if they dont do everything they are still steadily moving the law away from access to contraception, access to reproductive freedom, access to Bodily Autonomy, and that is again what the judge is put on the bench to do and what hes doing. Mitchell is the guy who came up with the Bounty Hunter abortion law in texas. Sb 8 00 allowed today go into effect well before dobbs essentially ending Abortion Access in the second largest state in the union before dobbs did, a precusser of things to come, hes also a lawyer who argued before the United States Supreme Court the 14th amendment. Weve talked about this endlessly on our podcast. And we think hes auditioning to be our next Attorney General. He has basically made statements, right, to the press indicating he wants in the next Trump Administration to begin enforcing the concept act, a Victorian Era law from the 1870s more than 100 lpens have signed onto a brief that say allows him to ban abortion medication without having to pass a new law. This is a theory John Mitchell says lets not talk about until the end of the election. Hes great around these end runs around mujortorian preferences because they realize theres unlikely to be mujortorian support and even if theyre able to get control of congress and the presidency, there would be considerable push back. All they need to enforce is a republican president with a Department Of Justice willing to prioritize this as an enforcement priority, and theyre in business. They will resuscitate this zombie law and begin enforcing it, and any article that might be used for abortion, and that includes long acting forms of contraception. This is coming as theyre talking about litigating well, they are litigating ivf. Once you have allowed sort of Christian Nationalism to infuse your Party Platform to the degree all interference with contraception which is where the life begins is unlawful and unethical, that sort of dictates what your partys priorities are in terms of policy. They have opened the door to this, because once you start saying states have a legitimate interests in treating fetuses, unviable fetuses as potential human beings, that doesnt end with abortion. It extends to contraception and ivf and all manners of Reproductive Health care. Honestly this was happening even before dobbs. Melissa mentioned treating contraception. The Supreme Court essentially said some employers were entitled to believe and act on their belief some forms of contraception did not have to offer that form of Health Insurance coverage to their employees. So the seeds have already been planted and theyre just waiting again for the next republican president knowing the republican Supreme Court will let them get away with basically anything to test the limits of the law and try to bring a federal abortion ban to life without having to enact it into law. Thats why Kamala Harris is in minnesota today. You could be in a blue state with democrats controlling the state, have all the protections you think you need, but it matters whos sitting in the white house. Thank you so much for this chariot ride into darkness. I appreciate your time. Still ahead tonight, would you be interested in purchasing a trump nft . How about some gold sneakers, what about a brand new smile . Donald trump and kristi nome, sure hope youre interested. Ill discuss governor nomes new contributions to the Maga Grift Next. New contributions to the Maga Grift Next do you have a Life Insurance policy you no longer need . Now you can sell your policy even a term policy for an immediate cash payment. Call Coventry Direct to learn more. We thought we had planned carefully for our retirement. But we quickly realized we needed a way to supplement our income. Our friend sold their policy to help pay their medical bills, and that got me thinking. Maybe selling our policy could help with our retirement. Im skeptical, so i did some research and called Coventry Direct. They explained Life Insurance is a valuable asset that can be sold. We learned we could sell all of our policy, or keep part of it with no future payments. Who knew . We sold our policy. Now we can relax and enjoy our retirement as we had planned. If you have 100,000 or more of Life Insurance, you may qualify to sell your policy. Dont cancel or let your policy lapse without finding out what its worth. Visit coventrydirect. Com to find out if your policy qualifies. Or call the number on your screen. Coventry direct, redefining insurance. When donald trump became the republican nominee for president in to16 his daughter ivanka spoke at the Republican National convention. The next morning she tweeted this shop ivankas look from our rncspeech with a link to her clothing line. He sat down with an interview with 60 minutes. And then ivanka sent an email urging people to purchase the ivanka trump branded bracelet she wore in that interview. Shortly after she took office Kellyanne Conway, a senior white house advisor, went on fox news. Go buy ivankas stuff its a wonderful line. I own some of it. Im going to give a free commercial here. Go buy it today, everybody can find it online. That free commercial was actually a big scandal. The Office Of Government Ethics found that Kellyanne Conway violated federal standards of conduct. The chair of the House Oversight committee at the time, republican jason chaffetz, now a fox news personality, this is what he said about Kellyanne Conways commercial. When Kellyanne Conway said what she said about buying that particular product, that was wrong, wrong, wrong. I called it out. There are a lot of ways in which donald trump and his family have sought to profit off the presidency, but using ones candidacy and subsequent office to sell goods and services is a uniquely trumpian innovation. Now, trump has kept all of this up in his current candidacy by hawking everything from Digital Trading cards to really appalling trumpbranded gold sneakers. And now other republicans want in that on that game. Well, hi, im kristi noem, the governor of. I chose the team at smile texas because theyre the best. That was kristi noem, the current republican governor of South Carolina doing what might be best described as a 5minute infomercial for a texas based cosmetics company. That video may also have been illegal. Yesterday the Consumer Protection group, travelers united, sued governor noem for violating Consumer Protection law by failing to label the video as a paid advertisement. It is a remarkable thing for any politician to do, but especially for someone like governor noem, widely considered to be on trumps Vice President ial short list, but maybe thats the point. Ready to show youre ready to be part of team trump, than jumping on the grift. The Republican Partys Snake Oil Problem coming up next. Partysl problem coming up next or an unbearable itch. This painful blistering rash could also disrupt your work and time with family. Shingles could also lead to long term, debilitating nerve pain that can last for months or even years. If youre over 50, the virus that causes shingles is likely already inside of you. and as you age, your risk of developing shingles increases. dont wait. Ask your doctor or pharmacist about shingles today. Scout is protected by Simparica Trio and hes in it to win it Simparica Trio is the first chew with triple protection. Whoa fleas and ticks Intestinal Worms whoa Heartworm Disease no problem with Simparica Trio this drug class has been associated with neurologic Adverse Reactions including seizures. Use with caution in dogs with a history of these disorders. For winning protection go with Simparica Trio. My name is oluseyi use with caution in dogs with a histo and some of myorders. Favorite moments throughout my life are watching sports with my dad. Now, i work at comcast as part of the team that created our ai highlights technology, which uses ai to detect the major plays in a sports game. Giving millions of fans, like my dad and me, new ways of catching up on their favorite sport. South dakota governor kristi noem was one of the Many Republican officials who attended President Bidens inauguration back in 2021. She even congratulated biden in a post online. Congratulations to President Biden and Vice President harris on your inauguration today. And then she tried to sell some gloves. Thankful for my gloves. Use discount noem for 15 off. It was an unusual congratulations. Especially considering its not even from the governors home state. Its a montanabased company. We may never know why exactly governor noem chose to spotlight her gloves at a president ial nomination or why this week she posted a 5minute infomercial for a Cosmetic Dental Company Based in texas, but we sure have a good idea. The governor should feel right at home in a Republican Party that lovesed the grift and learned it best from their party leader, donald trump. Joining me now is Senior National political reporter at the daily beast. Thank you for being here. What did the smile texas video the governor posted say to you. Well, a democrat, legislature, and south dakota has introduced a motion i called an investigation to see if there were some ethical violations here on her part, right, using her office for personal gain. Using a promotive platform. Whats really fascinating about this is not that long ago kristi noem actually acted as a dentist in a psa i think it was last year. She took as part of a Workforce Recruitment sort of campaign to bring more dentists to south dakota, she passed legislation to make it easier to be a Dental Hygienist in south dakota. So in addition to ethics the ethical questions, you know, you have to wonder if this is sort of a confession that the programs have not really borne fruit yet. You would think there would be some fallout not just because of the ethical breaches but purely the Chamber Of Commerce level, shes advocating for the people of texas to get their smiles fixed. That is the thing i think is most staggering because theres no shame in the game quite literally in the age of trump. Yeah, no shame, and again it is all because theyre following the lead of donald trump since since the drop, right, since 2015. You know, it was a promotional campaign. I think now were seeing that in a sort of systemic way with the rnc sort of welding itself to the trump campaign. Just today, actually, they announced their not announced, they announced their joint fundraising apparatus for 2024. It allows megadonors to cut an 8,000 check to this one committee, and then through a series of trance actions, that money, 800,000 from each of those donations and all told millions of dollars can be routed back to the rnc through this setup. And into its legal account, right, which can then be used to pay Donald Trumps legal bills. They Just Launched that today. And if you want to read how that works, you can check out my newsletter in the daily beast. Well, i mean, the grift and the sort of collusion between Big Money Interest and the Republican Party in an official capacity is appalling. I would recommend everybody read your piece today. Thank you again for your time tonight. Really appreciate it. Thanks so much, alex. That is our show for this evening. Way too early with Jonathan Lemire is coming up next. Prime minister netanyahu has lost his way. By allowing