IHIP News - WTF?! Trump/Elon's DOJ is TARGETING Dem. Congressman

Episode Date: February 20, 2025

The DOJ is trying to silence members of congress who disagree with Trump. Pre-order our new book, join our Patreon Cult, and more by clicking here: https://linktr.ee/ivehaditpodcast.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Last week, Congressman Robert Garcia called Elon Musk a dick because actually I think he is a dick. And this week, the Department of Justice is a petty Justice Department. And now they are going after Congressman Robert Garcia. And lucky for you guys, we have with us today, Congressman Robert Garcia. How are you? I'm doing okay. Thanks. Thanks for having me on. Yes. So it's our understanding after the CNN interview, you received a call from the Washington Post asking you about this letter that you had not received from the U.S. DOJ and the United States Attorney is Edward R. Martin. Absolutely right. I mean, this is really just incredibly disturbing. It should be disturbing

for any American. Obviously, we as members of Congress should have the right to oppose an administration that we disagree with. Earlier that day, I had been in the very first Doge subcommittee meeting with calling it like it is. It's important for folks to be able to know that Democrats need to be in a fight. This is a fight that we are in for a very democracy. And the fact that the Trump department's DOJ now wants to silence members of Congress because we actually are willing to take on Elon Musk is quite dangerous. And I think that's something that we're really, really concerned about, that the Department of Justice now has essentially said that we cannot use metaphors, that we cannot use figures of speech, that we cannot talk about actually fighting the policies of the Trump administration. And if we do so, we're going to face prosecution.

So incredibly disturbing. But we're not going to be silenced. We've going to face prosecution. So incredibly disturbing. But we're not going to be silenced. We've got to push back. This is a moment for us to, I think, be really tough and aggressive. Okay. This U.S. attorney, Edward R. Martin Jr., I did a little light Google search on him, and I was very not surprised to find out that he was one of the lead organizers of the Stop the Steal January 6th movement. He posted just earlier this week that he wants to open an investigation into Jack Smith. He was a defense attorney for a January 6th defendant.

And then he gets appointed to this position and he signs a motion to dismiss and the judge said, you can't, you're conflicted. And also Ed Martin appears to be an Elon Musk sycophant. He wrote a letter to Elon basically offering the DOJ's office to be his personal attorney. And the press described it as a very fawning message, very inappropriate for a U.S. attorney. So this is the guy that's writing you a letter that supports breaking the rule of law by releasing violent criminals. One of the guy's names was Jose Padilla. These are cop beaters. And he writes basically love letters to Elon Musk. And what's so jarring about this, Congressman, is this is the United States of America. And within 30 days, we are a laughingstock. And I feel like Elon Musk is setting up a shadow government right now. And they just pop, pop, pop Trump out from time to time to ramble about Hannibal Lecter. And I feel like a lot more nefarious things are going on. And I

wanted to get your take on that. I think you're absolutely correct. I mean, let's be crystal clear about this moment. What we essentially have is the Department of Justice threatening members of Congress to be prosecuted for being in opposition to what the administration is trying to do. And what I think is really important is we know that right now, Elon Musk is working to dismantle what we know as the social safety net. Social Security, Medicare, the Department of Education that provides so much support for families, climate policies. And at this moment, Democrats need to be in this fight for democracy. We actually need to be aggressive in the way we take on this dismantling of our federal institutions. And now what Donald Trump and Elon Musk are saying is

actually, Democrats, you shouldn't say anything. And in fact, you should police your language. And in fact, you can't even use figures of speech to actually say things like we should be fighting with everything that we've got. And so I think that this is all incredibly concerning. But I want to also be clear, we're not going to stand down. We've got to continue to push back and to move forward. And I think that it's really, I think what you said is really quite shameful that this person who has defended January Sixers, he has defended the insurrection, is now targeting members of Congress. What my biggest concern is right now, I mean, there are several. I mean, J.D. Vance spouting Putin talking points on the world stage. That's a big one.

But here at home, I am so concerned that Elon Musk is single-handedly just demolishing agencies, cutting waste, which is really not waste, with zero transparency. The numbers he has given us that he's cut all of this money have been immediately found to be fabricated. There's zero transparency. There seems to be no accountability. Where do we move from here on getting transparency from this person that is just dismantling the U.S. government? I think first, it's completely crazy what is happening right now. And I think what's really important is Democrats in Congress, we need to match the energy that's on the ground, right? We need to match the anger that people feel out across this country. And

we are starting to see that. The protests that we're seeing that people are out there saying, hell no. The actions that are're seeing that people are out there saying, hell no. The actions that are being taken place in front of our federal agencies trying to stop folks from coming in and disrupt and stop our programs. These are actually having an impact. The court cases, we're now winning more cases in court in stopping some of these federal funding freezes. All of this matters. What also matters is that members of Congress speak out forcefully in committees, on the floor, in hearings, at rallies. And the efforts that are happening right now is simply trying to silence that. And so we've got

to double down on being tough, on being aggressive, and on matching the energy on the ground. And remember, Republicans traditionally, especially in the Trump era, they fight with everything that they've got. They're aggressive and they're tough. We've got to match that toughness to ensure that we don't destroy what we love so much about this country. And I think you're hitting on something that is there's a void right now. And in our message boards and our comment section and on social media, people want to know that the Democrats give a damn, that they see what we're seeing, that they see J.D. Vance with a full eyeliner on the stage of Munich.

Basically giving a pro-Putin speech. And our allies are now meeting behind our back and who can blame them? And they are saying, why are Americans not in the streets? So I want to ask you, what can we do? Because there are millions of Americans watching this. And after Trump won the first time,

we all put on our pink hats and marched and he didn't know what the hell he was doing. And he still had some, you know, government there that kept it going, and we were able to have some guardrails. Well, he learned. And then he surrounded himself with far more dangerous people. And the people that he surrounds himself with are on the record saying they want to dismantle democracy. They are not fans of democracy. Donald Trump, I think he just wants

to play golf and avoid prison. But I feel like we need this very direct instruction from you guys, how to best support you. Like, do you think it's a good idea for you guys to even consider funding any of the budget that they want to, or should it just be across the board? No, we're not giving an inch. You guys are handing the country over to Putin. Yeah, I mean, look, I think Project 2025 is here, right? Everything they said that they wanted to do, that Project 2025 said they wanted to do, we thought it was so extreme and so crazy. They are doing it. They are implementing that handbook to essentially turn us away from being an actual democracy.

Now, look, there's going to be a lot of debate about the right approach. I'll tell you what I think is the right approach. I think there's a growing consensus that this is the way to move forward. I think one is we cannot assume or expect this to be an era of bipartisanship. We're going to hold hands with Republicans and work to make the country better. That is not going to work. They will steamroll over us every single chance they can. What've got to be in all sorts of different online spaces and let folks know that what they're trying to do is going to harm their families. It's going to redistribute working class, middle class wealth back to the richest people in this country,

billionaires and large corporations. Then we've got to, besides just being opposing the bills that are in Congress, we also have to take action. I'll give you one example. When the federal funding freeze proposal came in to basically fund grants across the country, what happened? People rose up. congressional airwaves that went on media programs that talked about the impacts of those nonprofits. And what happens? The Trump administration then has to essentially, they revoke their decision and they said, okay, fine, we're not going to do this at this moment because they heard actual public pressure. And that public pressure came also to Republican senators and Republican members of Congress. And so the public has actually stopped some really horrific things from happening, but they've got to be vocal out there and engage with members of Congress and representatives. And I also think that peaceful demonstrations, protests, when people are out there, marches, that actually does make an impact. The actual demonstrations,

the actions that have taken place in Washington, D.C. in front of federal agencies have literally stopped meetings of the Doge Committee that were going to happen inside some of these federal agencies. And so those things matter, and they're going to continue to grow. And I'll say right now our biggest tool is also through the courts. What's happening in the courts and what Democratic attorney generals are doing is making a huge impact we're winning more cases right now than we're actually losing so that is actually stopping some of the chaos um that is happening and finally i'll say this the single most important thing that we as a collective country that we need to do is to fight fire with fire and that Republicans are going to try everything they can as aggressively as they can to ram, rod, and basically destroy institutions. Members of Congress, governors, the public, grassroots organizers, folks in the media, we also have to match that energy and be

aggressive. We can't just sit back and allow them to roll over us. And so all of that is going to matter in the weeks ahead and immediately the Republicans had a meltdown because they don't want transparency or accountability. What is your level of confidence that you can get Elon Musk and or some of his Doge associates, a.k.a. big balls, in to discuss what they are doing to our institutions? I mean, unfortunately, I don't have a high level of confidence. We Democrats voted unanimously to bring Elon Musk in front of our oversight committee. The Republicans voted unanimously to oppose it. They have the majority. And so Elon Musk has, he has no desire to come and answer questions. He has no desire to actually be accountable for what he's doing.

We have the richest man on the planet who is only getting richer by the day, who's only gotten more wealthy since Donald Trump got elected, essentially serving as co-president alongside Donald Trump. And I agree that he's creating and trying to reform and change our government in his image the way he wants it to be so that he can continue to get big tax cuts and tax breaks and win more contracts for himself and for his companies. And so Elon Musk and his and his Doge team are not accountable to the public because the House majority has no interest in actually taking him on or taking on Donald Trump. And so that's why we've got to continue to be loud and do what we can. We have a reality we face.

We don't have the White House. We don't control the Senate. We don't control the House of Representatives. That's just the facts. But what we do have is governorships. We have courageous members of Congress, and we have organizing on the ground that's happening to try to take some of these issues on. We've got to continue to be loud. Okay. One final question.

How wild is it that growing up our whole lives, Republicans were like, we're all about national security. We are so, you know, rah, rah, sis, boom, bah, national security to see them be so weak to a very weakly positioned Vladimir Putin, and to see how compromised they are or what shapeshifters they are and how terrifying it is. And I just have this feeling, a really bad feeling, that it came out during the Biden administration that Elon Musk was having private conversations with Vladimir Putin. J.D. Vance is BFFs with Peter Thiel. All of these people are on the permanent record saying they want to dismantle democracy. The person who benefits from that most is Vladimir Putin.

And do you remember the stage five? I mean, stage five hysterical meltdown that they had when Kamala Harris did an interview with Tim Walls. Oh, she has to have a babysitter, yak, yak, blah, blah. I think that Elon Musk is Donald Trump's full-time nanny. He is a full-time babysitter. That Oval Office thing where he brought his kid in, could you imagine if a woman brought her kid into an office, the meltdown that Fox News would have? I feel like we're all sitting here watching this and we can talk about these little things that are going on and these little breakings that are happening in our institutions. But I really am terrified of this larger thing

and why these Republicans, these national security Republicans and dipshits like this Edward R. Martin that wrote you this letter trying to scare you. Why are they all so compromised of Vladimir Putin? I mean, I wish we knew. And I think we all have our suspicions. But look, Putin is a dictator. He has caused enormous, enormous harm, as you all know, to his own country, to his own people. He has and should be taking incredibly seriously as a national threat to the United States. And the fact that Donald Trump is cozying up to him and the fact that he's turned language support against Ukraine, calling essentially Ukraine somehow, saying that they started when they

were actually attacked by Putin. This conflict is crazy. And yet no national security Republicans are actually standing up and pushing back on Elon Musk and Donald Trump. So it's very concerning. We're very concerned about what J.D. Vance is doing. And we have to stand up for Ukraine. And Europe understands this. And I hope to stand up for Ukraine. And Europe understands this. And I hope that the American public and all the folks that are watching and listening to this understand that our reputation around the world is diminishing every single day. We are a laughingstock. People are concerned. They're viewing us saying, what happened to the United States of America, where they can't even stand by an ally, stand against Putin. It is insanity,

and we've got to continue to call it out. Congressman, I am glad to hear that you're not backing down. I'm glad to hear that you are not going to be intimidated by this clearly corrupt DOJ. And what's so sad about it is I want to shout out all of the hardworking U.S. attorneys that have worked very hard for the Department of Justice for all of these years to see these morally compromised people like this Edward R. Martin Jr. come in and just fawn over Trump, January 6th, cop beaters, and Elon Musk. It is so sad, but we're so happy, Congressman, that you're standing up to him. And all of our listeners support you, and you're welcome to come on here anytime. And we cannot surrender. We have to exercise our free speech every single day.

That, I believe, with everything single day. That I believe with everything in me. That's right. Thank you so much. I agree a hundred percent. Thank you for being here.