Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 8/5/26: Bari Weiss Epstein Coverup, Max Miller Flails On CNN, Trump Attacks Jeanine Pirro

Episode Date: August 5, 2026

Krystal and Emily discuss Bari Weiss Epstein coverup, accused MAGA abuser flails on CNN, Trump lashes out against Jeanine Pirro.   To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: www.breakingpoints.com    Merch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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every morning in your inbox. We need your help to build the future of independent news media, and we hope to see you at breaking points.com. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden released an investigation exclusively to Bloomberg News. We can throw this first tar sheet up on the screen. He's obviously been investigating Epstein's finances for a very long time. The Bloomberg headline here is Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, Bank of America, enabled Epstein, Wyden, Report. says. Now, of course, we basically already knew this, but it's a report from investigative reporter Jason Leopold over at Bloomberg, who says that Deutsche Bank failed to promptly report to U.S. authorities more than $250 million, a quarter of a billion dollars, in suspicious transactions

tied to Jeffrey Epstein, including funds used to pay women in Russia and other Eastern European countries, according to a new report from Ron Wyden. Now, that report itself is really long. and really dense. In fact, this is the last element. We can toss this up on the screen. This is going to be D3. Wyden, after giving this to Jason Leopold, released this full, nearly 100-page report going through exactly what they discovered. And Wyden's team writes, the investigation revealed how major compliance failures at several Wall Street banks enabled Epstein for years by failing to report or choosing not to report his suspicious financial transactions to federal law enforcement. These banks allowed Epstein to send cash payments and wire transfers to

his victims, friends, and collaborators around the world. The bankers who needed to be asking questions didn't ask them. Jeffrey Epstein's crimes were hiding in plain sight. Widing goes on to say they found, quote, significant evidence that J.P. Morgan Chase, Deutsche Bank of America, violated federal anti-money laundering laws by failing to screen and report Epstein's suspicious financial transactions in a timely manner. They went through records that were at the Treasury Department. You may actually remember widened very publicly going through some of those records, I think it was last year, and internal bank records that showed top executives at major banks were aware of Epstein's suspicious financial activity for years, but withheld information from the government and protected Epstein from federal scrutiny. So there are a couple of things going on there.

First of all, not properly screening Crystal. And second of all, then withholding information from the government failing to report. information to the government. And Wyden points out they failed to conduct appropriate due diligence on more than $170 million in payments to Epstein from Leon Black. They say the documents show that even after J.P. Morgan formally terminated Epstein as a client, which people may remember is like a story involved in exactly this conversation. Due to human trafficking concerns, the bank still waited years to report his activity to regulators and top bankers eagerly continue to work with him informally. through other channels where he could continue to be a source of referrals for other ultra wealthy clients. So, Crystal, I think the big picture here was already known that essentially a lot of these banks were in bed with Jeffrey Epstein,

and we're looking the other way, failing to report information to the government failing to do their due diligence as required by law and by decent human beings, of course, with some of these transactions. But what Wyden's doing here, I think, is really putting some meat on the bones of what was already broadly known. This is a very big deal. Yeah, no, I mean, this is this follow the money piece is extremely important because it gives us a glimpse into how this whole network operated and how it was able to persist for so long. Yeah, Bank of America, they reported their $170 million in Epstein-related transactions connected to Leon Black, but they did so five to seven years after they took place.

The bank said some of those transactions had, quote, no apparent economic. economic business or lawful purpose. You know, the other question here is whether there should be criminal charges or some sort of charges filed against those who were involved in these decisions because banks are under a legal obligation to report this type of suspicious financial activity. So they appear to have failed in meeting those legal obligations. So someone should look into if something could be done there after the fact. And so you see the way the network operated, though. I mean, number one, all of these banks, they're making too much money with Epstein. So, and he's not only from his own transactions, but also he would bring in Elon Musk for a meeting.

He would bring in Israeli officials for meetings. He would try to bring in high net worth individuals to these various banks. So he was a golden goose in terms of client development and relationships. So they were making too much money. And then some of these people had direct personal entanglements. You know, there's all kinds of very disturbing emails between Leon Black and Jeffrey Epstein that would are highly suggestive of some quite disturbing activity that they may have been partaking in. So that's the way that this whole thing would operate. And if he got a couple people in high places at these institutions who were, you know, who he had some sort of blackmail material, some sort of a personal relationship with, then he could get his way and he could encourage them to turn the other

cheek and they were highly incentivized to do so anyway because of the money that was being made. Right. And remember, Jess Daly is all over the Epstein files, and particularly in his capacity at J.P. Morgan. Obviously, he was the CEO of Barclays, resigned over Epstein problems back in 2021. But he was at JP Morgan for like, what, three decades refers to his friendship with Epstein as quote unquote profound, calls him family in the emails that were released recently. Melanie Stansbury, Democrat from New Mexico, said, we have email documentation that in 2010, Staley was requesting and interacting with Jeffrey Epstein to procure women that he had sexual encounters with. And when he was asked in the committee hearing that they had at the time, what happened.

And to describe those encounters, he could not recall. So Staley is, like I said, all over the Epstein files. Some of these other guys are all over the Epstein files. Remember, J.P. Morgan did settle, what, $300 million, some $300 million, $300 million back in 2012. with Epstein's victims. But that $200 million lawsuit, interestingly enough, isn't that the number that's the number of, that's the Deutsche Bank in Jason Leopold's report based on the Wyden report. That's just the suspicious transactions that Deutsche failed to promptly report to U.S. authorities. Just a cool quarter of a billion dollars.

Yeah, no big. There's nothing in that world, Crystal. There's nothing to worry about it all, a quarter of a billion dollars. Yeah, well, we've also, we've not only got a high five. story here. We've also got a media story. We can put this next piece up on the screen. So Wyden apparently was interviewed about this whole investigation back in March by then 60 Minutes correspondent Sharon Alfonzi for a segment the news program was reporting about Wall Street Banks and the U.S. Virgin Islands government's relationship with Epstein. Two months later, CBS News fired Alfonzi after she publicly criticized their leadership and Barry Weiss's editorial decisions

involving a different segment she reported, neither the Wyden interview nor that broader Epstein's story has aired. Spokesperson for CBS News confirmed that Alfonzi had interviewed Wyden for potential segment in March, but said the story did not come together for airing during the 60-minute season that concluded in May, the spokesperson would not comment on any plans for the program's next season. So just to put that all together for you, 60 Minutes had recorded an interview with Wyden, on exactly these financial potential crimes and certainly cover up of the Epstein relationship and suspicious transactions. Not only did they spike the segment, but they fired the correspondent who conducted the

interview. So pretty extraordinary revelations here about what is going on behind the scenes at CBS News, because, you know, if you're interested in doing real journalism, if you're interested in also a topic that the public has great. interest in. This seems like a prime opportunity for you to dig in and, you know, show, show what was going on here. But they decided that this was not worth their time. Interesting. Yeah, we'll see. I mean, I went and checked the archives on CBS News, not 60 Minutes yesterday because my understanding is that 60 Minutes kind of operates as its own premier product

within CBS News. And CBS does have one of the best reporters on the Epstein beat, Rutnik, who published that great report. This was before Barry Weiss took over the network, analyzing the security footage from the cell. And he's continued to do excellent, I think really challenging reporting on Epstein. But this is a sign obviously now that 60 Minutes is a place to be watched. I did go back and look at the 60 Minutes archives recently. Not a ton of Epstein coverage. Obviously, they're once a week. But just in the last year or so, they haven't done a ton over at minutes on Epstein, but CBS at least does have a reporter that seems to still be on the beat, a lot to be doing what they're doing. Crystal, it's a sign, though, to keep an eye on what's

happening. No question about that, because there are a lot of people who have convinced themselves that can get away with. I mean, it was ABC News, right? It was Amy Roboc at ABC News, who, I think was James O'Keefe got video of her saying that the network squashed her Epstein reporting, and I think she said, I had it. She was like, I had all of this. years before, some of it blew up into public media. So it's definitely not beyond these networks to come in and try to put their thumb on the scale for people in their orbit. Yeah. No, they didn't want to compromise their access to the royal family in advance of wedding or whatever was going on at the time.

Yeah, I can't have that. So sorry. Sorry, victims. Sorry, World, who doesn't want to continue to have a pedophile, Kambal, have. massive power in our system. We got to cover the royal wedding. So that's more going to take precedence. Yeah, it would hardly be surprising if a network was putting its thumb on the scale to downplay or suppress any of this reporting. But we'll continue obviously to keep an eye on CBS News, as we have been doing. So, Krista, unfortunately, we have another abuse scandal to talk about today in the case of

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have been tracking the political fallout and alleged abuse allegations against Republican representative Max Miller, who gave a, I guess, fiery speech rebuttal against these allegations on Sunday, doubling down, staying in the race. Today is actually the deadline to place him on the ballot. So it doesn't look like that's happening. The only Republican who has said that he should no longer be in Congress is his own father-in-law, Senator Bernie Moreno. Max Miller went on Jake Tapper's show yesterday for a combative interview. We'll show you some of those highlights. But Emily, you got a glimpse into some of the local political valence here and how Republican voters in his district in Ohio are processing these allegations.

Yeah, you know, so I host a show right after Megan Kelly on Sirius XM every day where we just take callers who have reaction to news of the day. And a guy from Max Miller's district in Ohio who said he was from the district called in yesterday, Trump voter. And gave us a little bit of reaction how he's personally thinking about, how the community is thinking about whether or not they'll go and actually vote for Miller amidst these very, very ugly allegations. And they continue to mount, by the way, just the way that his campaign and potentially his house office, that's another scandal in the making, have handled these allegations. It's stacking up. So we can take a listen here. I believe his name was George in Ohio, how he described his reaction in the district yesterday.

on Sirius XM. I'm calling because Max Miller is actually my congressman. And I don't think that I can actually vote for this guy. Yeah, he's a strange dude. A lot of stuff comes out in the local media that doesn't make the national news. He's had troubles before like this. And he really hasn't been a great congressman. He's basically just been a rubber stamp for whatever Trump wants.

I mean, I've been a Trump voter, but I'm not too enamored with him. at this point. But I hope the Republican Party finds someone new within a day to put up because I don't think this guy will win. His opponent is pretty strong. I don't know exactly that I would have voted for his opponent either. I mean, just sit this race out home because Ohio's in deep trouble with the Republican party here.

But that was my point. I don't think I can vote for this Max Miller guy. Pretty interesting. And, you know, his comments not only about Max Miller, like, listen, even before this, we had some issues with the studies just not doing a great job. But also saying that the Ohio, Ohio as a whole is having some issues with Republican leadership and, you know, him being a Trump voter and being dissatisfied with that. And I do think Ohio is one of the states. Iowa has really been screwed by the Trump agenda. But I do think Ohio is a state that has really suffered from some of the choices that Trump has made both

economically and obviously in terms of the war, et cetera. Yeah, I had another woman from Ohio calling a couple of weeks ago and say she thinks Republicans are cooked in Ohio, that it's actually looking like Sherry Brown is going to win and that Ohio is going to go Democrat in the fall because of the economy and the Iran War in particular. So there's something happening on the ground. There's no question about it. And Max Miller is right now, apparently even the president, according to an Axios report that leaked somehow. Maybe this is Trump world trying to undermine Max Miller without publicly saying he should step down because Trump doesn't want to do that. If you're a loyal Trump guy like Max Miller is, which the caller also mentioned, by the way, a Trump voter saying he's been a rubber stamp for Trump and not pushed back enough. Kind of interesting.

But on a call, Trump told Miller that, quote, things aren't looking good and said his reelection would be tough according to three sources on this. story in Axios from Alex Eisenzat and Mark Caputo about a conversation Trump had with Max Miller on Monday night. And, Chris, we have video of Max Miller going on CNN to defend himself in front of Jake Tapper just yesterday. He's doubling, tripling down on all of this. Yeah, quite defiant. And just as a reminder here to set up this exchange, you know, most of many of the allegations have come from his ex-wife, including she claims. that he threw scalding water at her, that he held a gun to her head, that there was other physical violence and threats. She suspects that he may have broken their young daughter's collarbone.

So really very serious allegations here. But there are two other women who have also alleged that he abused them. One is Stephanie Grisham, who was in the first Trump White House who said, you know, she was constantly afraid of him, that he threw her up against the wall and slapped her when he, you know, when she, suspected him of cheating on her. And then there was a girl at the time in high school who alleges that he threw her down the stairs and what she described as being, you know, one of the darkest days of her life. So in any case, Tapper confronts Max Miller with these allegations effectively saying, like, don't you realize how hard it is for us to, uh, to accept all of your dismissals when you have three separate women who are telling very similar stories about your

behavior towards them? Let's go ahead and take a listen. into how he handled that exchange. There are now three women, three women, who have accused you of violent behavior. Politico published a report in 2021 that says, when you were in high school, you, quote, pushed a girl out of the dorm of his room, and she fell down some stairs after he became enraged

when she resisted his attempts to touch her, according to three people who were there, and many more who heard about the incident in the aftermath. Now, you deny that, but the woman in question told Mother Jones reporter Abby Vassoulis just days ago that it happened and was, quote, one of the more traumatic nights of her life. I would love for that individual to go on the record because that, Jake, I was 13 years.

Hold on, because I'm not done with the list of women that have accused you of violence. Then there is former White House Press Secretary. Okay, you were young. Then there's a former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham, who was your ex-girlfriend. She accused you of being abusive and having a violent streak. She wrote in her book, quote, I could do nothing right by him. I would wake up every morning, shaking with anxiety about his mood that day. I had seen his temper before and it had scared me, unquote.

She has recently filed a temporary restraining. order against you in a defamation case. And now there are these claims from your ex-wife, Emily Marino. And I guess the question is, are all three of these women who don't know each other? Are all three of them lying? Yes, it's very easy, and I can tell you why. Every single time, and people have asked me, you know, what are you going to do? Are you going to drop out of this race? Are you going to resign? You know, are you going to get out before the deadline? And my answer to you, Jake, is no. And I can tell you why. In 2016, when President Donald J. Trump faced the most extreme allegations in the world that hit him day after day after day. And people in the media

very much like yourself and others said that he would have no shot at winning, that he should not be the president of the United States. But guess what? He stayed in and he was resilient. And what the American people can see is that they can see that somebody is fighting who is resilient, and that is a quality that the American people cherish. And so for no second am I going to sit here and continue to be debased by false and baseless allegations, and be pushed out of the seat, I have worked so hard to represent and done a terrific job for our community. You know, my record in Congress on the ways and means

and House Foreign Affairs and bringing back money for our district and standing up for the Ukrainian people and also voting to protect Obamacare during this entire time, this is why no one's attacking me on my policy, Jake, because they can't. I've been a good legislator. All they're trying to do is create rumor mills without evidence. It's all hearsay. All hearsay.

Kind of interesting the issues he chooses to highlight there, which are all sort of like Democratic-coded issues, standing up for the people of Ukraine and protecting Obamacare. It gives you a sense of the kind of populist area in Ohio that he represents. But Emily, what did you make of his appeal there to, unlike Trump, you know, Trump had all these allegations against him and what people love about him is that he stood strong. And this is a quality that the American people admire because it seems to me that that is very much pitched at Trump himself. I was just going to say, yeah, my reaction is that is directly to the audience of one Donald J. Trump. He obviously was coming off of a conversation he had with Trump over the phone the night before, at least according to Axios. And Trump was telling him it's going to be tough. So now you have Max Miller making a pitch that sounds just directly tailored to the one person, Donald Trump. But actually tying this back to that call, what's interesting is I'm not sure that's really enough to have. have just the Trump stamp of approval, I'm not sure that's really enough right now for Max Miller. I don't know that that can carry you anymore where you have a weak economy, a war that

continues to rage on. Trump is not on the ballot itself. So I don't actually even know that maintaining Trump support. I mean, obviously that allows him to maintain the support of kind of the official party apparatus for now, because Trump is the leader of the Republican Party. so it all comes downstream of that. But I just, I'm not sure that it's as big as a dub as he thinks it is. And Crystal, just in the kind of subjective sense, he's being accused of emotional instability, like at the very, very least. We have tapes that are coming out and all of that sort of.

Like, you can kind of hear it. And obviously his family's situation is deeply unstable. He sounds emotionally unstable in his own defenses of himself. It plays into exactly what, you know, the big picture accusation is that he's not well. Yeah. And he gets caught in some kind of some lies. Like, for example, he had said in that long video, you know, my ex-wife is the only one who's made any of these allegations. I was like, well, that's not true.

It's just not true at all. Because he wants to be able to just attack her and say, well, she's the one who is diagnosed with mental health issues. And so it's very sad. but she's got all these problems and that's what's going on. It's very much more difficult to dismiss three separate women who have all come out and said very similar things. There's also this dynamic playing out with his father-in-law. So his ex-wife is Emily Moreno.

Her dad is Bernie Marino, who is a Republican senator from Ohio, who wait a very long time before he came out and said anything. And look, we don't know what's going on behind the scenes. But Miller sort of obliquely threatens Moreno. with revelation of some embarrassing matter in this interview with Tapper. And he had made some similar threats previously, some sort of like blackmail-esque threats against Moreno. Previously, this could be the reason why he waited so long to come out

against Max Miller in spite of the horrifying abuse allegations involving Miller against his daughter. So let's go ahead and take a listen to this part of the exchange with Tapper. With your former father-in-law's story today about your daughter and the little blue bunny doll, that she cannot sleep without. If it's true, that sounds like emotionally abusive behavior toward a toddler to refuse to give it to her when she can't sleep without it. Jake, I would agree that if that were true,

that would be incredibly disturbing and that the senator would be right. However, he has taken two years to publicly acknowledge for me to resign from my seat. Why is that, Jake? If he truly believed, like, I'm a father to a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, I believe that you're also a father to children. And I don't know if you're actually a father.

father to a daughter. But what I can tell you is, Jake, then what I can tell you is, is that if my daughter came to me and she said, my ex-husband did X, Y, and Z, and then I waited because I was nervous that a political live stream was going to expose a deeply impersonal, embarrassing matter to the senator for him to take that action. Sadly, this has nothing to do with my daughter, Jake, and that's what this entire thing is about. This is nothing more than an individual who's being politically vindictive in talking about a blue bunny, when I have text messages I can show you from our parent coordinator who is a mandatory court reporter who said that Mr. Moreno would be coming over my home. And then another individual came who I don't know. So one of the, we mentioned this

before, but one of the theories here is there had been a report in the, during Moreno's campaign, that his work email had been used to set up a profile on a, gay dating website. Stafford came out and said, oh, that was me. I was just playing a joke. But, Emily, this is kind of the theory of what Miller may have on Moreno and why Moreno did not come forward before this moment. Right. And why Max Miller seems to think he can survive going forward now, it's like he's holding this potentially as some sort of last minute, last ditch shield that he'll be able to whip out and stay in the race. Obviously, today is the deadline. It looks like Republicans have no plans. It looks like Max Miller is going to

remain on the ballot. Now, I guess it's possible that they could finally push them to drop out and organize some sort of write-in campaign before the fall. But right now, it just doesn't look like there's any sign of that whatsoever. We can go now to E2. I'm going to set this clip up. This is Bernie Moreno yesterday in the hallway on Capitol Hill getting asked some questions about it. Take a listen. What did you think of Miller telling Trump he could still win the election? Look, I don't care about the politics of this. I hope that you guys understand.

Maybe I hope you never have to understand what my daughter's been through, what my daughter is going through, what my wife is going through, my two boys and my other daughter are going through. This is truly the seventh level of hell. This has been a horrific experience for my name. entire family. My daughter specifically did not want this to be out in the public. That's why she asked me to say lower the temperature. And believe it or not, it actually gets even uglier. We can put E3 on the screen now. This is a letter that Annie Carney at the New York Times reported to Bernie, I'm sorry, to Max Miller's lawyer from Emily Moreno's legal team that said, yesterday you enabled your client, Congressman Max Miller, to share and disseminate to the public and electronic dropbox

folder of materials. This was in conjunction with a video rant about our client, Emily Marino that Miller posted on X. The first time Miller shared the folder, it contained private images of Miller and Ms. Marino's daughter and left her name unredacted. At least one of those images could be considered child sexual abuse material because the daughter's genitals appear to be visible. It garnered, according to this letter, over 204,000 views from the time it was posted, until this afternoon. So also, Crystal Max Miller's legal defense, the Dropbox folder, I think it was, was also uploaded with metadata that showed it was from his congressional office, which he blamed this attorney on. That would obviously be in violation of House rules about campaign purposes.

Blaming the attorney for that, the attorney said the metadata had been changed. But, oh, my goodness, it does get worse. Believe it or not, it does get worse. We have not. yet reached rock bottom, although if this isn't it, potentially sharing sexual abuse material of your own daughter that 200,000 people see, you can never erase that from the internet. I don't know what could possibly be even lower than this. Yeah. And Miller's lawyer came out and took the blame for this, said this was all my fault. Max Miller had nothing to do with it.

I deeply regret it, et cetera. But, you know, again, to your point about what is the character of this man, at the end of the day, certainly this material came from him, how do you even, you know, how do you put out all of these intimate conversations, which again, he was secretly recording, which is kind of psychotic behavior, even though it's technically apparently legal in the state of Ohio. Like, if you're secretly recording your loved ones, I think that also speaks to a certain behavior in state of mind here as well. But, you know, it speaks to a recklessness at the very least, a lack of regard, a recklessness when it comes to his family, his own daughter.

And, you know, you and I were talking yesterday, you were like, why does anyone even want a congressional seat this much? But you got to think about it for him. His whole career is because of this political trajectory. You know, he ends up as an intern on Rubio's campaign. And then once Rubio's down it, he jumps over to Trump. He ends up as part of the, you know, head of the part of the Trump's advance team, ends up as an aide.

like everything he has is because of Trump and the MAGA movement. So if he drops down on in this race, what's he going to do? Who's going to hire me? Outside of these abuse allegations, he's got, you know, some charges on his record, too. His rap sheet is not clean in terms of past interactions with law enforcement again, including alleged violent behavior, etc., driving under the influence. That was another piece that came up in the Tapper interview that was, you know, he didn't exactly handle terribly well with regard to allegations of use of elite.

legal drugs. So, you know, I think for him is kind of, he feels like he's got no other choice. So even though you are likely doing Republicans in this seat, he's going to go for it in the off chance that he can hold on because what else are you going to do with his life? You know, whatever the truth is, he decided to put his family through this by releasing the drop box. I get that he was, you know, say, let's even grant him. Let's say he was potentially being falsely accused. To put the dropbacks out there with images of your child to just drag your child through the mud one day in a way they're actually going to be able to see when they're old enough. It is so, so disgusting. I mean, I hope that there's a swift conclusion to this and he drops out, but it's not looking like that's going to be the case at all, Crystal.

No. Today's the last day. John Thune got asked about it. He said it's a family matter. Don't have any observations beyond that. I saw Mike Johnson got asked by a congressional reporter this morning. He's standing by him. He had Jim Jordan his colleague saying he's a great guy. You know, Trump could have pulled the plug on him, but instead he just decided to have this behind the scenes conversation, which was apparently not persuasive. So there you go. Republicans publicly outside of Bernie Moreno, Republicans standing by their man. Gross after, well, we covered this last week. week, but gross after exactly what just went down with Grand Platner and how eager Republicans were to revel in the Platner. Dem problems, you know, Casey Hunt nailed Jim Jordan on that one.

It was pretty impossible for him to squirm out of it. It's, you're right. Trump could endless in a second, but choosing not to. Yep, there you go. More drama, though, at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Let's go to our next segment on Trump's really brutal infighting with Janine Piro. Get Bell, Pure Fiber Internet with Crave, Netflix, and Disney Plus from $94 a month.

Price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. I'm Nick Turturro. You probably know me from NYPD Blue, the longest yard,

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Trump is in a major fight with his own U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. One Janine Piro, a longtime friend and allies of Donald Trump, by the way, one of the most vocal defenders of Donald Trump for the last decade on Fox News, one of the most vocal defenders of him in the media. And obviously, of course, now his U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia in a pretty high profile. position, powerful position, as he makes cleaning up D.C. as centerpiece of his second administration, or at least his efforts to clean up D.C., a centerpiece of his administration. Now, before they had a meeting, Donald Trump had some harsh words for Janine Piro who dropped charges against someone alleged to have damaged the liner of the reflecting pool

here in Washington, D.C. The president is obviously furious with Janine Piro about that. Let's take a listen to him in the Oval Office. I think this was Monday, F1. I won't say what was on the sidewalk, but horrible, horrible, horrible disgusting. And not only did we fix it, we have military standing there watching it. And if anybody touches it, that was the one mistake with the reflecting part. They hadn't put up the cameras yet. They had enough up because you see what's happening.

But if they would have had them up, we would have had a lot of, it would have been a lot easier. And I was disappointed with Gene. really disappointed with Janine Piro. She, uh, she folded like an umbrella and people get away with things. It's a disgrace. Okay, really disappointed. Now, if we tossed the... Folded like an umbrella. Yeah, folded like an umbrella. That's the quote. Now, she choked, I think is the other thing that he said. Now, we can put this NPR tear sheet up on the screen. They're reporting the federal government dropped charges against three individuals in connection with damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool further awakening Trump's argument.

It was the work of vandals. Federal prosecutors moved to drop the vandalism case against former Olympic canoeist David Hearn on Friday abruptly changing course after arguing four months that he had taken a piece of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Poole's new $14 million lining. A judge could rule on that motion at a hearing schedule for Thursday, according to Hearn's lawyers.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, Puro's office wrote, given newly released evidence from the Department of the Interior, quote, is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the reflecting pool. to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt, Piro's office is blaming a quote-a-quote botched installation by President Trump's hand-picked contractor. So Doug Bergam and Donald Trump are absolutely insistent that this was vandalism. First and foremost, the problem with a reflecting pool is vandalism.

Piro's office, who actually had to make this stick in a court of law, is saying, we can't prove that, certainly can't prove that beyond a reasonable doubt, dropping the charges. Trump is clearly very upset about that. Now, if we put the CNN tear sheet up on the screen, CNN is reporting that she did not offer her resignation in a meeting they had at the White House. I believe this was yesterday. And then Trump also declined to outright fire her. So this was, I'm sorry, this was actually Monday. They're reporting that he had been considering removing her after the Justice Department concluded that the problems of the pool stemmed from a flawed renovation rather than vandalism. That's according to two people familiar

with his thinking. Also, according to the soundbite, you all just heard of him openly laying into one of his closest longtime allies in the Oval Office, saying she folded like an umbrella shortly after actually that soundbite. Trump met at the White House with both Piro and Doug Bergam, according to the CNN report. And they had a kind of a, kind of a it came to a head, let's just put it that way, a blow up over what the actual truth was. And Trump is saying that the filing, quote, blindsided him. He didn't know beforehand that Piro was going to drop those charges and was very upset about that. But Crystal, he is obsessed with a reflecting pull to the point where one of his longest allies,

one of his most intense allies the last decade. He's furious with her. And Janine Piro is loyal to Trump beyond almost anything else. She's loyal to Trump. They have been pleased with her, except for maybe the sandwich case, the Subway Sandwich case.

They've been pleased with her here in D.C. But, man, she couldn't make the charge of stick, and that's not good enough. Yeah, I mean, if, like, Janine Piro is probably the closest thing that you're going to get to like a female Trump. I met her before I've been on her show. Like the vibes are very similar.

They're both these like brash New Yorkers. I mean, one major difference is Trump is a teetotally, he doesn't drink at all. And that's definitely not the case for Jean-Pierro. But they have a lot of very similar personality traits. And she has been completely loyal to him. And she also, you know, she's another way. She doesn't have all that much of like a rock-solid ideology.

So it makes it easier for her to just, go in whatever direction he wants to go in at the time. You also could be forgiven for her thinking that it would be no big deal if after pressing these charges, she then turned around and dropped it because that has been the story of this Trump administration. You brought it to the Subway Sandwich case. Just as a reminder for people was a guy who threw his sub at what was like an ICE agent and they said he's, you know, felony assault charges.

That ends up. I actually think a grand jury wouldn't indict him is what happened there. New York Times had a whole analysis of all of the charges that have been filed against people who are alleged you have assaulted ICE agents or other immigration officers. Out of the 500 plus instances of charges, only four have been found guilty. In most instances, in many instances, the charges are just completely dropped because when they dig into the substance, they realize, I can't make this case in a court of law. It is one thing to tweet something out and have a press conference.

It is another thing to actually establish a fact pattern that is going to lead to a guilty verdict or at least a plea deal. And so clearly she looked at this. It's like, okay, the truth of the matter is this is ridiculous. We're not going to be able to make this stick. Let's just quietly walk away from it. But Trump wants her to invent a totally different reality, which is not something she's capable of. So it's very easy for Doug Bergam, who doesn't have to go and present a case in. court to say, oh, yes, sir, of course. It was vandals. It wasn't the fact that it was rushed and the whole

thing was botched and you gave it to a contractor who's a buddy of yours through some corrupt deal. It was definitely these left-wing radical vandals that caused the problem. It's just such a perfect like story of the Trump administration. It really has all of the levels here. Because to your point, Emily, about the loyalty, like, is even the most loyal person if you aren't able to, you know, invent a do something that's completely insane, sacrifice yourself on the altar of Trumpism. Like, eventually it comes a point where you just can't give him what he wants because reality is in conflict with it. Yeah, and on a serious note, there's been a lot of speculation that one of the reasons Trump launched the Iran war, one of the many reasons. But one of them is that when you get frustrated on a domestic policy front, just psychologically as a leader and politically as a leader, it becomes tempting to sort of lean in.

into the things that you have almost total control of, rightfully or wrongfully, meaning foreign policy in particular. And that sounds like maybe an odd connection, but it's just to say that he's really clearly very frustrated on the domestic front. And he feels like he can exercise almost total control here in Washington, D.C., still moving ahead with the arch plans, moving ahead with basically everything

that he wants to do at the White House. If you've seen pictures of the helipad, that's in progress right now, changing what the South Lawn looks like. And even here in D.C., if he's not able to kind of exert his will, you see his frustrations bubble up with somebody who's been a longtime friend and ally to the point where he considers firing his pick for U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Janine Piero, and lashing out really brutally from the Oval Office.

So it is all to say that you do sense with him genuine frustration, not this kind of nonsense palace intrigue that we used to get during the first Trump administration about, oh, how he's frustrated with this person and this person. And it was a new person every day. And it was a fresh cycle every day. But now I think there's palpably a deep and obvious frustration he has with even his loyalists not being able to kind of exert his own will when he thinks it's most possible. Yeah. And it's a tell if you want to get at him. Like this is something he actually cares about as stupid as it is, which is why he's. made a big deal out of it to begin with and talking about the ballroom all the time.

Like these are the things that he actually cares about. So, um, you know, one of the right wing pushbacks on the reflecting pool coverage, which, you know, in general would be fair is like, well, why do we care about this? There's so many more important things. True. But Trump is the one who did a whole thing about the reflecting pool and like drove his convoy through it and you had all these right wing influencers going and talking, oh my God, it's so amazing.

It's so beautiful. The new paint job, et cetera, et cetera. So then when it doesn't go well, you don't get to turn around and be like, why are you guys even talking about this? It's, you know, it shows you this is a path to get under his skin, which many people in the country would like to do. There was one more element that you added to this, Emily, that is kind of shocking to me, actually. Let's put this last piece up on the screen from the BBC. Apparently the UFC lost like $30 million on their White House lawn cage match situation, the Freedom 250 event at the White House. It says they lost 30 million staging this despite the one-off events losses, which UFC expected.

They still saw an increase of revenue for the second quarter, an estimated 4,300 people, including President Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance, were present for the invite-only event on the South Lawn. Tickets were not sold to the general public and initial costs were predicted to be more than 60 million. However, they were able to recoup some of that money through sponsorships, media exposure, and other partnerships. So I guess they saw this as kind of number one, a loss leader in that they could attract attention, bring more people into the brand overall through how highly publicized this was. But more importantly, Dana White and Trump are obviously longtime friends predating Trump's latest political era.

And it's good for any company in America to be on the good side of the king. So when they think that will in order to their benefit, and so that's part of the calculus here to you. Well, yeah, they say their revenue is up for the second quarter, despite that $30 million loss at the UFC White House event. So I guess maybe branding and exposure did its job in that case. But the entire thing, I mean, never worth leaving out was, you know, World Liberty Financial was one of the sponsors, which is Trump's son's company, which has benefited Trump himself.

So it turned into a massive grift, not particularly surprising, but worth mentioning on that front. And by the way, I should mention about their reflecting, pool, I think on a Friday show, I was bullish about the reflecting pool. Really? Oh, I'm more than happy I had taken out on it, but it is true that there's a better way to do the reflecting pool and that it was so bad and gross. Now it's even worse and more gross, and it's fenced off.

So you were, Emily was reflecting pool curious. I was. I was open-minded. She was open-minded, and yet Trump has devastated her. and just deeply disappointed her with this shoddy, corrupt job that was done. Here I am. Like Janine Piro forced to admit that Emperor Trump could not repair the reflecting pool. But yeah, I was cautiously optimistic that they might be able to do something slightly better.

And in fact, it seems like it got significantly worse. Union Station looks great-ish. It's not as good as they say it is, but it's better. It shouldn't be that hard, though, to be honest. It really shouldn't be that hard when you're Trump and you're just like bulldozing shit. So apparently... I mean, if he was going to be able to do anything well, you would think it would be renovation. That's, yes.

Yep, that's right. And here we are. So I'm happy taking L on it. But we will continue to monitor the reflecting pool situation. Have no fear. We will be watching and reporting back to you on the progress or lack thereof. Indeed. All right.

We'll be Ryan and Sager. tomorrow. I've done enough for now. I couldn't believe how late you stayed up last night, more caffeine. I'm not a late night person. It's really brutal for me. I know everybody feels very sorry for me. Detroit, you need to get your act together with this vote counting situation. That was ridiculous. But anyway, you'll have a brochure to look forward to and then we got a great Friday show. I'm sure we'll have some fun things cooked up for then. So Emily and I will see you guys then. Everybody have a great day. Hey, Portlandia fans. Carrie Brownstein and Fred.

Armason here. The Dream of the 90s is alive in podcast form. We're launching Podlandia, AEO rewatch, our brand new podcast where we revisit every episode of Portlandia together, breaking down sketches, going deep on our iconic characters, and pulling back the curtain on how it all got made. And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life, guest stars, collaborators and friends, including director Jonathan Chrysall, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more. Kyle is going for it here. You have a lot. You fully improvised, not just words, but a song about it. Well, I thought you were all going to write a song.

I remember you thinking that. Listen to Podlandia. A.O. Rewatch on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam? I'm sports journalist Ari Chambers. Hey, what's up, y'all? It's your girl, Sam J. And we're the host of everyone watches women's sports, a new podcast from Together and IHart Women's Sports. We're breaking down the biggest headlines. Naomi Osaka, show it out.

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