Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Legal AF RESPONDS to Trump 48 HOUR CHAOS

Episode Date: January 23, 2025

Karen Friedman Agnifilo is joined by MeidasTouch Legal Commentator, Dina Doll (sitting in for Popok) for the Midweek Edition of the top-rated Legal AF podcast. On this episode? 1) The first days of the Trump Presidency… 2) Trump’s first executive orders are met with lawsuits 3) J6 Judges turn on Trump over Pardons 5) Trump begins to shake up DOJ: plus so much more at the intersection of law and politics. Support Our Sponsors: VIIA: Try VIIA Hemp! https://viia.co/legalaf and use code LEGALAF! Sundays for Dogs: Get 40% off your first order of Sundays. Go to https://sundaysfordogs.com/LEGALAF or use code LEGALAF at checkout. Fatty15: Get an additional 15% off their 90-day subscription Starter Kit by going to https://fatty15.com/LEGALAF and using code LEGALAF at checkout. Miracle Made: Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to https://TryMiracle.com/LEGALAF and use the code LEGALAF to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF. Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total fund savings adventure, maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. Welcome to the midweek edition of Legal AF joined by friend and colleague, Dina Dahl. So great to have you here. And so happy that you were able to step in for Michael Popok, who is normally the co-host on Wednesdays along with me. Thank you so much for stepping in. It's so fun we can have a girl version of Legal AF

this week and talk about the things that interest us. And I'm just so happy to be here with you today. Also, because it's the first Legal AF since the change in administration And I'm just so happy to be here with you today. Also, because it's the first legal AF since the change in administration and since Donald Trump was inaugurated as president of the United States. So there's a lot to talk about,

a lot that's already happened. He's doing a lot of things. But before we jump into it, I have to point out something. I wanna talk about the inauguration. They moved it indoors. It is freezing on the East Coast. I mean, it's the inauguration. They moved it indoors. It is freezing on the East Coast. I mean, it's so cold, but they moved it indoors,

which meant not as many people could attend. But there were certain things about it that I thought were interesting. And one of them I thought was really strange was the outfit that Melania Trump decided to wear, very different than what she wore last year. She wore sort of this light blue jacket with matching gloves, etc. This one, she seems to have this big hat on her head. And it

just seemed strange, especially for an indoor event, right? I wouldn't expect a hat like that indoors. It was just a strange looking hat. And then it became kind of obvious why she was wearing this hat. And for people who are listening and not watching, let's just see the following pictures that you can kind of see. Really kind of keeps Donald Trump away from being able to kiss her. I think there's one more picture after this that really highlights that. I mean, he's really trying to get in there to kiss her, but that hat, the brim of that hat is keeping him away.

So I don't know if this is true or not, but this is, that's why I decided why she's, I'm still in the save Melania. She's trying to get out of the situation camp. I'll never accept that she's all in, but anyway, I just thought that was a fun way to start the show today. I'll just jump in. I definitely think she was trying to Trump-proof herself for sure. I mean, there's no doubt. I mean, did you see the awkward kiss that they attempted at

the RNC? Yeah, exactly. It was obvious that they had not interacted like that in years. And yeah, I mean, she's obviously willing to stay married to him, but she does not want him to kiss her, certainly in public. And that's what all the young kids on TikTok were saying too. They all read that hat the same way. It was pretty obvious. Hilarious. Well, that's good to know because I'm not on TikTok. So I got to get on it, but I just haven't been. So it's good to know that they saw the same thing that I saw. I've seen her, you've seen her swipe,

it's kind of hit his hand away when he tries to hold her hand too. So anyway, I get a chuckle out of that. A lot of stuff coming out though in the news. I mean, when we were talking about what to talk about today, it was hard to curate today's show because so much is coming out. I mean, did you see the new allegation against Pete Hegseth?

There's an allegation from his former sister-in-law. So I guess his second wife, I don't know how many wives and families he's had, but his second wife apparently feared for her safety. And so the former sister-in-law, the sister of the second wife submitted a response to a letter, a request from a Democratic senator, head of the Armed Services Committee, basically asking her what she knew. And she said he was volatile and threatening and his second wife had to hide in a closet and she had to develop an escape plan. The wife came forward and said she didn't want to talk about her marriage, but she did say there was no physical abuse. And that's all she would say. She wouldn't say anything about the about the other abuse.

I just it's just appalling to me that this is somebody who is going to likely be confirmed as the national defense secretary. I mean, it's just crazy to me that he is going to be aside from the the armed force. You know, the the aside from the fact that he has that white suprem going to be, aside from the armed forces, you know, aside from the fact that he has that white supremacist tattoo, there's all sorts of allegations. His own mother came forward and said, basically called him out that he's not fit for this job, and he's going to be in charge of our entire military and our entire armed forces. It's just shocking to me. I can't even believe it.

So I don't know. That sworn statement that she submitted, she also said that she saw him drunk, even in his military uniform. These senators keep trying to act as if he's going to stop drinking. The fact that she's talking about her needing to hide in the closet and seeing him drunk at all times of day, even in uniform, should have red flag alarm bells in every Senator and that Senator Jodie Ernst, who said that she was going to vote for him because of some simple conversation, like, AKA, Senator Collins. People tell you what they want to hear

when they want to get these, you know, nominations, but unfortunately, I don't know if it's gonna, this new evidence is gonna sway enough people, but you know, it's really disturbing. It's really disturbing. It's just crazy. It's, these aren't people who have, who have any interest other than just protecting our,

and his own mother came forward against him, right? I mean That takes a lot To do she must have really been concerned. So anyway a lot to talk about uh, and so much that we can go into but i'm really happy that we Curated our list and we're going to talk about these crazy flurry of executive orders And we're going to talk about these crazy flurry of executive orders that Trump has signed with great fanfare like he does everything right? He absolutely does things with ceremony and drama, whether it has substance or not, who knows, but they he absolutely likes to do them in public and with big drama and big ceremony. And so he signed a bunch of executive orders that we'll talk about a few of. There's also already lawsuits against them and several of them.

So that'll be very interesting to dive into with you. We also are going to start talking about pardons that were issued and the ones that weren't because that was another thing that he also very Ceremoniously did in a big flashy splashy way on his first day in office also very unique and I want to also talk about how dangerous his his revenge and retribution his revenge and retribution already is through his words and actions and some of the personnel choices and decisions he's making and changes. It's just shocking all that he's doing on the very first couple of days. It's actually reckless what he's doing frankly. So we're going to talk about that and also what happened in church the day he went to church,

the day of the inauguration. There was a bishop that called him out in front of everybody, including his family. She's my new hero. So we're going to talk a lot about that. Clearly got under his skin because he started tweeting or truthing about it or whatever it is you do now. You always know when something gets under your skin because he starts to do that. So why don't we start with these executive orders and these new lawsuits that are coming out? I mean, first of all, let's talk a little bit about what is an executive order, right? Because Congress is the one who passes laws and Congress has to, you have to have a majority in the House, majority in the Senate, and then it comes

up to the president who signs the bill. Because the framers of the Constitution did not want there to be a king, you have separation of power. The Congress will pass laws. The president will either veto it or vote for it. Once he votes for it, it becomes the law of the land. And then judges will interpret it. So what exactly is an executive order if it's not a law?

An executive order is something that essentially he has the power to order his own branch, the executive branch, to do certain things. So long as they don't violate other laws or violate the Constitution. He can't, for example, pass an executive order that forces private citizens to do anything or that forces other branches of government to do anything.

So executive orders, although they're extremely, extremely powerful, they, you know, some of them, they can also, they also have some limits and guard rails also subject to the courts, right, if they're challenged. And so usually what will be interesting with these executive orders, and we'll talk about them specifically, but what I find really interesting

is how will the courts interpret these executive orders because some of them seem just wildly unconstitutional in my opinion. And also typically what courts do is when there's a challenge to an executive order, they will typically preserve the status quo during the pendency of the litigation, meaning the executive order will not go into effect, right?

Because the status quo, meaning what it was before, stays in, usually stays in effect until a judge or a court can determine what an executive order, whether or not it's appropriate. And you know, examples of executive orders that Biden tried to do, but were challenged in the courts, and the courts shot them down, had to do with student loans, if you remember, right? So you might want to try to do certain things,

but they don't always work because the executive power is not limitless. So let's talk about a few of these executive orders. And, you know, frankly, I was thinking when I wrote this down and I was looking at it, I was like, oh, let's talk about some highlights but I actually think we should call them lowlights because these are these are really just shocking and terrible and Upsetting frankly and one of them, you know, I want I thought we could start with one Having to do a gender an executive order that was signed by Trump on Monday basically says there's only two genders, right, females and males,

they will be defined at conception, okay, at conception. And the way it's defined, this is the strangest language I've ever seen, someone who eventually produces the large reproductive cell would be deemed female. A male would be defined as the person who eventually produces the small reproductive cell. I mean, why can't they use the words egg and sperm even? Like, it's like they, it's so weird. It also says that the federal government would no longer recognize gender identity and only sex as defined by an individual's immutable biological classification as either male or female.

It also prohibits the use of federal funds for any promotion of gender ideology through grants or other government programming, as well as the use of public funding for transition-related medical procedures in prison. And it basically writes transgender Americans out of existence. I mean, it's just unbelievable to me that executive order. So many of his executive orders are like, completely unnecessary, just attacks on people. I think we're going to talk about the bishop later, but I felt like that's really what she was calling to is like, why are you unnecessarily hurting people? Because what does it really harm? He basically saying when you apply for a passport or other federal documents, right now you can check a box female, male or X, and you can no longer check the box X. What does it harm people to check the box X? It's not harming me if

somebody else checks the box X. Mind your own business. And instead, it's just putting so much more trauma on people who have had it. It's so difficult for somebody to come to terms with not identifying with the gender that they were at birth. So difficult to go through the process of transition. So difficult for parents, so difficult for the child. I mean, a friend of mine's child has gone through this and she was saying like, that matters to the child. To be able to have a document

that matches their identification. What does it hurt somebody? To me, it's just, it's like unnecessarily mean. And yeah, so that's how I feel about that particular one. Yeah, I agree with you. It's vicious and cruel, and really takes a huge step backwards. I mean, I can't first of all, I can't imagine what it must be like to be born into the wrong

body, the wrong biological body, right? That's got to be traumatizing and difficult and confusing. And I would I would argue probably not the easiest path and the easiest life. And if someone has the wherewithal and the courage to be able to be their true self, why wouldn't we celebrate that? Why would we instead do what he's doing, which is making it not exist anymore in the world? It's just so upsetting, it's so horrible. And it's just shocking to me

that we are moving so far backwards. And I agree with you, it's not hurting anyone else, but yet they feel so threatened by this. That Nancy Mace, the Congresswoman, 300 times in one day, she went after the transgender Congresswoman, I am forgetting her name right now, who, and she said she can't use the bathroom. It was all about using the bathroom and they passed a resolution that she can't use the bathroom.

I mean, like, I don't understand what's the threat, you know? Do members of Congress get naked in the bathroom? I mean, what is it, you know, you go into a stall, what difference does it make what somebody looks like when they have to use the toilet, like every single person has to use? Like, I just don't get what the issue is and why they're so upset by it and why this is so,

why this really triggers them so much. You know, they're just, they're threatened by this in some really strange way. And they always go to the, you know, when you have these discussions with people, they always go to the, well, the sports analogy. Well, is it fair in sports? You know, men are just biologically different.

And of course some men are biologically different, right? But, you know, they're stronger, they just are, they're bigger, you know, all that stuff. You hear that argument. And it's all about this thing about sports. And I had this discussion with a very, very, very close person to me recently. And I tried not to have these discussions because it can be very upsetting, especially with people that you love and that you're close to.

But this is how it came out, was this sports thing. And they were talking about, well, why is it fair that if my daughter worked her whole life to be great at a particular sport, and if this is what was her dream, why should some guy who suddenly decides he wants to be a girl walk on and crush her dreams because she's,

because, you know, blah, blah, blah. And so I started with the premise that, first of all, it's not a thing, okay? Let's look up the number of transgender athletes in the country who this happens, you know, blah, blah, blah, whatever. And the number is so minuscule, first of all, in sports. Like, I think it was, I can't remember what criteria we used, but I think it was in college.

We used that criteria. And the number was 40 throughout the whole country. And then I said, okay, so now let's Google how many people get struck by lightning a year. And the number is much higher. We're not talking about lightning. But they make this boogeyman thing. It's some huge problem. So first of all, it's not a thing. this boogeyman thing like it's some huge problem. So first of all, it's not a thing. It's not a problem. You know that but they

make it a problem. They make this fictitious issue. Number one, number two, what about people who are just biologically born different? Like, okay, I want to be a basketball player, but I was born five foot one. It's not fair. You know, how come you because you're six foot eight get to have an advantage over me like but we were OK with that in that regard. But I don't know. It's just this weird thing that people just freak out about. I don't understand it.

And what upset me about it the most is this is a close person to me who's who considers himself liberal and somehow this insidious false narrative that is not just not just false it's cruel mean and and does not have any basis in what should be in my opinion. How did that seep into their vocabulary? That was just really upsetting to me. I mean the end of the day it's because it's winning for them. You know I was a poll observer in a swing location, polling location in Clark County, like two weeks before the election. And there was campaigning right

before the line where you can't campaign anymore. Somebody on the school board, every voter she was talking about, keep the girls, the girls, the boys, the boys in school. They're changing their gender in the school. And I thought like, this stuff is crazy. I cannot tell you the number of people, the voters who agreed with her. It was so disturbing. But the Republicans have realized this is fear mongering. Misinformation is a winning issue for them. It's not going away. It's why he did that executive order. And in terms of trans children and sports, Utah, who you would not consider liberal state, was able to have a very common sense rule where

they said, we will decide on a case by case basis. Because to your point, there's so few athletes where this applies to. You actually can apply a case by case basis. And sure, maybe when you transition will matter whether or not you play on a boy's team or a girl's team. It's such a common sense thing that solves all the issues. But the problem is, is this is not about common sense. It's not really about protecting girls

and boys sports. It's about they want to use fear to win elections. And the problem with it is that the most vulnerable community, they are so small, they're already hurting, gets hurt more. And that's why as disgusted as I am by the news and the executive orders, I'm not going anywhere because people like that need help. And if we can continue to talk about it and hopefully at some point change who's in charge to make this change, I feel like we have a responsibility to do that. I just realized listening to you, I missed a really good argument that I should have used in this discussion. Because you're right, they use it as a tool to, like they think they're protecting children

and they think they're protecting children in schools. And that's why people think it's so important. Well, what if they go into the girls bathroom or girls sports or you're protecting these young children in schools, okay, what about guns? If you really care about protecting children in schools, what about the number of school shootings there are and those number of deaths and that kind of violence and kids who are affected by that and who are traumatized

by that? I guarantee you ask any child who goes in a bathroom with a trans person who uses their own stall and just privately goes in there. You ask, I guarantee you talk to those kids and then you talk to the kids who were at a school shooting. The kids at a school shooting will say much more traumatized than the trans child. I mean, it's just awful, but they don't really care about that. I mean, look at those numbers. Look at what happens.

And instead, you know what they do? They all go out and buy more guns because it's just crazy. Their answer to guns is to have more guns. And it's all about tough being tough. And I don't know, it just seems so crazy to me. We could talk about this forever. Let's talk about, let's move on to the executive order on ICE and deportations, right?

Now this one was just unbelievable. There are a couple executive orders that I think reference and taking together are really defining what's going to happen at the borders. First of all, he's declared a national emergency at the southern border. That way he can deploy the military to go help local authorities. He told the Secretary of Defense to seal the southern border and maintain the sovereignty and territorial integrity and security of the United States by repelling forms of invasion, including mass migration, narcotics, trafficking, humans smuggling, etc.

et cetera. I mean, that's these that the language they're using is just shocking to describe people, right? Really nice, wonderful people, the people who we all know and love who work in our restaurants, who clean our homes, who are caregivers. I mean, these aren't drug cartels, you know, whatever, it's just unbelievable to me when when you look at kind of who are the people who are migrating here, people who want a better life, people like my grandparents, right? People like my husband's grandparents. I mean, it's all the same people who just want a better life from where they are, and they paint them out. This is a national emergency. Anyway, they also, in another executive order, tasks the Secretary of Defense to send as many units or members of the armed forces as appropriate to support

homeland security. They also, in one of them, say, you can now, in enforcing these border protection, these border laws, if you will, you can now make arrests at schools and places of worship. I mean, are you kidding me? And he's ordered attorneys around the country to investigate and prosecute the attorneys, meaning Department of Justice attorneys, the Assistant United States Attorneys, to investigate and prosecute law enforcement officials in the states and cities if they refuse to enforce Trump

administration's these new immigration policies. So it's just crazy to me. Absolutely crazy. One of the executive orders was titled, Guaranteeing the State's Protection Against Invasion. I mean, it's just crazy. And that particular executive order is really lengthy and it's it reads more like a legal brief than an executive order I don't know if he's trying to give permission to Governor Greg Abbott or someone else to kind of say I was relying on this this legal theory of the president I I don't really know but all I know is Greg Abbott's already putting those buoys back up in the water Right that he ordered to be taken down. And using the word invasion along with the executive order really kind of sounds like

they're trying to make this out to be like almost like a terror, terrorist organization. I don't know, I can't, I can't help but, I can't help but think that he's planning to do something, invade Mexico. I don't know what he's planning. There's something up his sleeve using this rhetoric and this language of things like invasion. He's so in love with Putin, right? And it's like he wants to do everything Putin does, have all these oligarchs, these billionaires, kind of in charge of everything. And Putin, what does he do? He wants to do everything Putin does, have all these oligarchs, these billionaires kind of in charge of everything.

And Putin, what does he do? He goes to where he tries to annex Crimea and the Ukraine and take over territories. Well, what's Trump doing? He's talking about things like Mexico and Canada and Panama and Greenland, right? It's just anything Putin does, Trump wants to do. So I don't know if that's why he's doing this, if he's using language like that because he has plans for Mexico. I don't know. I don't speak Trump, but it's just shocking to me. What do you think about all of that? I mean, I think he wants to invade our cities. I think he's going to use that's his way of,

you know, the next step is having the military start marching down the streets of the sanctuary cities and pulling people, as you said, out of schools and religious people and hospitals also. I can't imagine being undocumented in this country right now, how scary of a time it is. And to your point, you know, him making immigrants out to be this horrible group of people. I mean, my dad is an immigrant. This used to be the Statue of Liberty. He is taking us so far from this. He also in an executive, different executive order, stopped the amnesty program. So there's thousands of refugees in Afghanistan that were still planning on coming. They're like nowhere to go.

There were people on the border of Mexico who had waited for a year for their appointment and they were almost finally being called and it got canceled. He did an executive order canceling the task force that was meant to reunite parents and children from his family separation policy in his first administration. You don't do something so sick as that unless you are just a cruel person. What is possibly

wrong with reuniting children, some of them babies with their parents? It's such a disgusting act that we did. But I think in that whole thing, the scary part, as we know, California, a lot of states are pushing back. California approved $50 million, not only to sue the Trump administration, but to give nonprofit legal associations in California money so that way people who are on threat of deportation can get a lawyer. But the fact that he now has had this memo telling the Department of Justice to go after state and local officials who he says are stopping this for criminal prosecution. So you're setting up the mayor of Los Angeles for criminal prosecution. You're setting up maybe a police officer in Los Angeles who is standing there and not helping.

I mean, this is getting really scary. This is starting to get really scary stuff. And of course, we're grateful that California Attorney General Rob Bonte are on top of it. But I think that he is setting up the military going in. This is why he calls it an invasion. And we have Attorney General Pam Bondi most likely going to be confirmed and she will probably go after. And so they're going to have to deal with two fronts. They're going to have to deal with getting investigated criminally, at the same time making their communities safe from what is going to be racial profiling,

what is going to be really, really scary times. California, as you know, has the largest undocumented population in the country. And right now, after these fires, we desperately need our undocumented immigrants who work in our construction. A large part of them work in our construction, and we had to rebuild houses. You can't even... This mix of things all coming together for states like, for states like California, city, Los Angeles, it's going to be unprecedented. And we'll see how it all kind of unravels. Yeah, the states are already fighting back and filing lawsuits against these executive orders because of what they're doing. This

has this one has to do with birthright citizenship. 22 states sued to stop Trump's birthright citizenship order. Essentially, what he's trying to do in this executive order is he's trying to take away the birthright citizenship that people get that's frankly guaranteed by the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. But if we go into this without going to commercial first, salty is gonna kill me. So let's go quickly to a commercial

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is not only the perfect time for us humans to make healthy changes, but for your pup as well. Get 40% off a two-week trial of Sundays. Go to Sundays for Dogs dot com slash Legal AF or use code Legal AF at checkout. Okay, we're back. 22 states and two cities, including San Francisco and DC, are suing because of this birthright citizenship issue is one of the executive orders that Trump has signed. Really, this is the one that's really kind of appalling. And apparently, this executive order essentially says he's refusing to recognize that children born in the United States, if they are

born to unauthorized immigrants, they are not citizens. And he basically says that he can do this, and he has the authority to do this. And so there's two lawsuits. Now I wanna read the 14th Amendment because the 14th Amendment has several sections, but the section one of the 14th Amendment, the very first words read,

all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law,

nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." I just love this entire 14th Amendment section, which is why I read the whole thing. But what really applies here is the all persons born or now I just love this entire 14th Amendment section, which is why I read the whole thing. But the one that really applies here is the all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof

are citizens of the United States. Okay? So what he's saying is the and subject to the jurisdiction thereof. That's what he's hanging his hat on, saying that because you, your parents were not here legally, you're not subject. Your parents were not subject or you're not subject to the jurisdiction thereof

because clearly you were born here. Well, first of all, there's what? 200 years or 150 years of precedent that basically says, no, that's not what it means. You're wrong. But there is an exception to, there is an exception. There are a few people who, if you're born here, you are not a US citizen. And that's what they're hanging their hat on. So for example, diplomats. Diplomats have diplomatic immunity

and are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, right? So they fall in that exception. I remember when I was a prosecutor, we had the United Nations here in New York, there would sometimes, every once in a while, a diplomat or someone with diplomatic community would commit a crime,

whether it was domestic violence or drunk driving or a few other more serious ones. We couldn't prosecute that case because we did not have jurisdiction over that person. And so normally we would just send them back and their home country would have to handle it. But the issue is if they had children born in the United States, they would not be considered United States citizens because their parents are not subject to the jurisdiction thereof. But if you're here, anyone else who is here,

even if you're here illegally, undocumented, whatever your status is, you're not, let's just make it somebody who sneaks in over the border, shouldn't be here and has a baby, that individual who came here and is not here lawfully is still subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. That is why people who are undocumented are in prison and jail because some of them will commit crimes and not most of them actually, you know, most of them are peaceful, law-abiding, productive citizens, but a few

will commit some crimes just like United States citizens. A few will commit crimes and will commit some crimes, just like United States citizens, a few will commit crimes, and they are prosecuted just like anybody else. So they are absolutely subject to the jurisdiction thereof. So this does not fall in that category. I think this is going to be struck down in two seconds. This one is clearly unconstitutional and the president can't just undo that. He'd have to actually ratify the... Congress can't even pass a law that does this. You actually have to ratify the constitution, which is a whole procedure, much harder than passing a law.

That's what they wanna do. But that's the process. So this one, I think, is gonna fail. What do you think, Neha? Now, I agree that Supreme Court has looked at this issue. Although our Supreme Court is not so tied to precedent, but I don't see them being that willing to change it outright. Possibly they put a dent in it.

That's possible, but definitely not going to just reverse their precedent outright. And Congress has also spoken in this, even though they can't change it, but they have also clarified it over the years. So the interesting thing is that this executive order, he gave it 30 days before going into effect and how they were practically going to carry it out is exactly what he said he was going to do. I mean, I've talked about this on this channel before, so none of his

stuff was a surprise, but unfortunately he still got elected. But what he's going to do is instructing basically his federal employees not to issue documents that they need to prove their citizenship, passports, et cetera. So what is going to happen once that 30 days. As we know, the court system can be very slow. So that timing, you might have, they say thousands and thousands of babies are going to be affected, not only because they can't get the password, they will essentially be a citizen of nowhere. Imagine that, like in limbo, these children in limbo. And also the states aren't allowed to give them benefits because they're no longer citizens. So you also are going to have this issue of the foster care system, the healthcare system, all these benefits that would normally flow their way.

He's creating havoc. That's the whole point. He wants to make it as difficult as possible for an immigrant family in this country. He's punishing the parents and then he's punishing their children. It's not a mistake. He may not get, you know, the Supreme Court might not uphold it, but in the meantime, those families are going to have a hard time getting benefits, proving their citizenship. This is a situation we're going to want to have this be decided as quickly as possible through the courts. Because do we

trust that the federal employees are going to ignore his executive order and go ahead and issue passports? That's going to be the thing to watch is will they listen to his executive order or not? And I know that it's going to kind of tie to one of the they listen to his executive order or not. And I know that it's going to kind of tie to one of the other things we're going to talk about with the Schedule F employees. But that will be the interesting thing is if any federal employees say, hey, this is being litigated, we're going to continue to issue passports unless the court tells us otherwise or do the reverse. Yeah. No, I read somewhere that it's going to affect around 150 to 200,000 children a year

that are born in this country. One good thing is it doesn't appear to be retroactive, meaning it's not people, because there's a lot of people who are like, wait a minute, I was, you know, someone who's like in their 40s is like, well, my mom and dad at the time when I was born, you know, weren't citizens. Does that mean I'm not a citizen? I've never lived anywhere else, you know, someone who's like in their 40s is like, well, my mom and dad at the time when I was born, you know, weren't citizens.

Does that mean I'm not a citizen? I've never lived anywhere else, you know? I don't think it goes backwards, which is I guess one good thing, one saving grace in this, but yeah. So a couple, just a couple other, before we move on and talk about something else, just a couple others that really, really bothered me.

One of them is with the death penalty. And he is basically wants to enforce it much more, restore the death penalty and protecting public safety. Again, I'm a former prosecutor. So of course, this is something whenever I see anything involving crime and punishment, it definitely peaks my interest. Apparently, he said, the attorney general shall evaluate the places of imprisonment and conditions of confinement for each of the 37 murderers whose federal death sentences

were commuted by President Biden, and the Attorney General shall take all lawful and appropriate action to ensure that those offenders are imprisoned in conditions consistent with the monstrosity of their crimes and the threats they pose. Okay, so and then they also want the Attorney General to further evaluate whether they can be prosecuted in states for capital crimes and will recommend appropriate action to state and local authorities. Essentially, what he's saying is there are 40 people who are on death row and Biden commuted 37 of their sentences to life imprisonment and decided they shouldn't be executed.

And so he's referring to those 37 individuals basically saying, okay, well, if we can't kill them, let's see if the states can kill them. And if they can't kill them, let's make sure they're housed in the worst prison under the worst conditions. I mean, tell me that's not a violation of the Eighth Amendment, you know, the cruel and unusual, the protection against cruel and unusual punishment. I mean, he's just he's he's just sanctioning things that are lawless and unconstitutional. And he even tells the attorney general Pam Bondi to pursue,

well, assuming it's going to be Pam Bondi to pursue overruling any Supreme Court decision that makes it harder to execute people, whether or not the decision is correct. But what struck me about that is the Department of Justice was never an advocate. The Department of Justice is always supposed to be neutral. And they follow the facts and apply the law without fear or favor. They shouldn't pursue overruling the Supreme Court of the United States. Like that's that just seems like a really weird and new new place for the Department of Justice to be.

It really hurts their credibility with the courts, I think. Anyway, that one really kind of stuck in my craw, as they said in the Brady Bunch many years ago. But the other thing that he also, just closing out the parade of horribles, another one that really bothered me was he instructed all federal health agencies to pause all external communications such as scientific reports. So they're not allowed to tell us anything.

If they know of a new pandemic, if they know of new scientific breakthroughs, not allowed to externally communicate. I mean, it's just unbelievable to me. He's politicizing everything, including health and science. And it's just terrible. It's just absolutely terrible. Yeah, I mean, withdrawing from the World Health Organization is deeply disturbing.

The appointment likely of RFK Jr. Yeah, I mean, these are dark times. We have to, the information is going to be very hard. It's going to take harder to find the information, but there are all of these groups who, thankfully, there are guardrails and there are disclosure rules and we're going to just have to get really creative to get information out. And in terms of him trying to go after people whose sentences were commuted, I think they would have a great due process violation argument too.

It sounds like they're getting punished for president exercising his valid power. That's how I would argue that because the Supreme Court just gave a whole heck of a lot of power to the president. And it sounds like Trump just doesn't like the exercise of that power. So if I were them, it sounds like not even about them. That's how I would argue it. It definitely sounds like retribution, that they're being punished because he didn't like the acts of Biden. So yeah, we're going to have to be a lot more diligent about getting information because yeah, he wants to get out of the Paris climate.

There were so many things he did that were pretty bad. I mean, horrific, really. Yeah, no, you're right. And thank God, though, as you pointed out, these organizations that are lining up to protect us and basically sue him and sue these policies on our behalf. And it's amazing, right? It's absolutely amazing. It's the ACLU, it's the State Democracy Defenders

led by our friend Norm Eisen. All federal employees or union are suing Trump over workers protections. You've got a lawsuit already about Doge. Tell us about Elon Musk and Doge, the Department of Governmental Efficiency and those lawsuits. I love how quickly these lawsuits were filed. It goes to show this time around, people, they were ready, right? You don't write briefs like that in one day.

People were ready, people were prepared. So what's happening with DOGE is they were trying to make it this outside agency and skirt the rules, because as we know, Elon Musk has a ton of federal grants, so many ethical violations. He probably couldn't be an inside department head or top official in a department, so they tried to do outside. Well, sure enough, being a private outside group advising the government still requires certain disclosures, certain disclosures like those meetings have to be public.

Okay. They have to file a charter. They have to take minutes. They have to, you know, they are kind of considered almost a quasi-government and that they have certain responsibilities. Like, thankfully we have these kind of rules purposely so there wouldn't be this private group that's operating in the dark and we don't know anything about

it. These are the guardrails. These are the guardrails that exist. We don't have to come up with it. And so all these groups suing, it's called a federal advisory committee, FACA for short, and saying, this sounds like what you are doing, but you haven't done any of these things. One way to get around it is to make it an inside agency, but then if it's an inside agency, they're going to have to have all these, they have rules there too, including ethics. And most likely, Elon Musk would never be willing to be a federal actual appointed

official because of all of his ethics. So it's going to be difficult for them to operate completely unchecked, which is what they want. So good on those groups for filing those lawsuits. Yeah. Well, I hope it works. I really hope it works because otherwise, otherwise we're kind of screwed.

So anyway, so on that note, let's go to our final ad break. And then I want to talk about the pardons and because a lot's going on there. The holiday season mess with your routine. Are you looking to take charge of your life with full mental clarity this new year? because a lot's going on there. The holiday season mess with your routine? Are you looking to take charge of your life with full mental clarity this new year? Enhance your sober January

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And he is issued sweeping pardons of the January six defendants, including the violent ones, which nobody thought he was going to do, including his own vice president. And he just hardened or commuted the sentence of all of them. But before we talk about that, let's talk about what Biden did in his last days in office. It's common and customary for presidents on the way out to issue pardons. And so there's no surprise that he was going to do that. But what surprised me wasn't who Biden pardoned was who he didn't pardon.

Right. He, he pardoned his family members. He pardoned the January 6th, uh, select committee members and staff like Liz Cheney, et cetera. But he, but he, and that was, that was, I think, expected. committee members and staff like Liz Cheney, et cetera. That was, I think, expected. There was a lot of chatter about people who said they didn't want pardons because there's several court cases that have interpreted the acceptance of a pardon as an admission

of guilt or acceptance of responsibility. Therefore, they don't want to have to of responsibility. And so therefore they don't wanna have to admit that they did anything because they didn't do anything wrong. And so that to me is just way too convoluted. I don't know why you wouldn't take a pardon when you've got Cash Patel and Donald Trump talking about using literally weaponizing the Department of Justice

that was not weaponized and revenge prosecutions which have nothing to do with the law or the facts or unbiased administration of blind justice. And even if you ultimately get acquitted in investigation, whether it's a criminal investigation, a civil investigation, a tax audit, whatever it is, they can really mess up your life, right? So I get why I'd want to pardon, I mean, if I were most of the people that we're about to talk about, but apparently either they weren't offered or they weren't accepted. I have no idea if there were any discussions behind the scenes.

But one of the things that surprised me the most was that Jack Smith, the special counsel and his staff didn't get pardons. And it surprised me because I would have thought he would have, right? Because that's clearly on the top of Trump's hit list of revenge. But then I was talking to a friend of mine who, we used to work with Jack Smith. We know Jack Smith from back in the day.

We all came up as baby assistant DAs together. Haven't talked to him in probably, I don't know, 10 years or more. But we know the kind of person he is. And my friend was saying, I bet he didn't even want a pardon. And we were recalling a case that he prosecuted when he was a federal prosecutor, where he, where two undercover police officers were killed and he was getting all sorts of death threats. And somebody, his boss said, you know, you should get off the case because, you know, you're getting death threats. And he basically was like, no way, I'm not getting off the case.

Otherwise they win. You don't get to pick your prosecutor. And he's kind of a badass. And so I bet he's kind of like, bring it on, right? And go ahead, do whatever you're going to do. And all of the bad facts that I was unable to release in a report about you will come out. And so I kind of think, I don't know, in my fantasy world, and of course, I've made all this up about Jack Smith of what I think he's doing. But part of me wonders, is that part of the calculus

that A, he knows he can defend himself and B, then he'll put all the ugly facts out there. So he's kind of like, really? Come on, Mr. Tough Guy. You really think you're tough? Bring it on. I don't know. What do you think? I thought he didn't pardon, because Attorney General Letitia James was getting a lot of

threats too. I thought he didn't pardon any of the attorneys or the judges because the whole time he maintained that he was independent from the criminal prosecutions and investigations into Trump. And I think that just maintained his independence. I think if he had weighed in with a pardon, that was him getting involved, frankly, and he didn't wanna get involved.

This was him being Biden and keeping the DOJ completely separate. And I do think there's the realization that every single one of those attorneys and judges are more than capable of defending themselves. And we're probably welcome, hey, if they actually take them to court, you have to have evidence. And I don't know if the Trump folks really want to go up against them and Corp, but I do think it was about Biden keeping that separation from the DOJ. That's how I took it.

You know, you're probably right. I like my Jack Smith is a badass better. But who knows? Who knows? You know, another interesting thing I was reading, there was a great op-ed in the time in New York Times by Jeffrey Toobin, who actually said that Trump actually pardoned himself. He said he was asked, Trump was asked at a Univision town hall about the riot and the pardons.

And he said, quote, there were no guns down there. We didn't have guns. We didn't have guns. We didn't have guns. And I thought that was an interesting Freudian slip and this was what Jeffrey Toobin pointed out that because it was a, that he was pardoning himself with this sweeping, you know, we didn't have guns. First of all, he also pointed out it's false.

180 people were charged with a deadly weapon in these cases, including guns. But I thought that was sort of fascinating. But you know, look, he pardoned all of the January six people, including those who were already convicted, those who had pending cases, including he pardoned Stuart Rhodes and Enrique Theriot, heads of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.

And, I mean, I don't think anyone thought those guys were going to be pardoned the the shaman, whatever that guy is, the, you know, the guy all dressed up, he was also, he was also pardoned. It was just shocking to me. And, you know, I couldn't believe it. I want to just I want to read a couple of judges have even weighed in because in these, there are a lot of pending cases that have to be dismissed, right? And all these cases, these trials, these over a thousand cases were brought in Washington, DC, because that's where the riot and the insurrection occurred.

And several federal judges, they were spread out over the various judges. And so they're writing decisions in these dismissals and they're weighing in. So Judge Tanya Chetkin said, for example, quote, "'Trump's mass pardons cannot whitewash the blood, feces and terror that the mob left in its wake. It cannot repair the jagged breach in America's sacred tradition of peacefully transitioning

power. In hundreds of cases like this one over the past four years, judges in this district have administered justice without fear or favor. The historical record established by those proceedings must stand unmoved by political winds as a testament and as a warning. I mean, that gave me the chills. Judge Beryl Howell wrote in an eight page order in a different case of two of the January 6th defendants

who had pled guilty to felonies, quote, no process of national reconciliation can begin when poor losers whose preferred candidate loses an election are glorified for disrupting a Constitutionally mandated proceeding in Congress and doing so with impunity Trump's decision merely raises a dangerous specter of future lawless conduct by other poor losers and undermines the rule of law and then finally judge Colleen Kohler Kotelli said Trump's pardoning can never change the immutable record of violence

and heroism of law enforcement, which will remain enshrined in court records. Dismissal of charges, pardons after convictions and commutations of sentences will not change the truth of what happened on January 6th, 2021. What occurred that day is preserved for the future through thousands of contemporaneous videos, transcripts of trials, jury verdicts, and judicial opinions analyzing and recounting the evidence through a neutral lens. And he said, the heroism of each officer who responded could also not be erased. They were grossly outnumbered. Those law enforcement officers acted valiantly to protect the members of Congress, their staff, the vice president and his family. The integrity of the

Capitol grounds and the Capitol building are symbol of liberty and a symbol of democratic rule On that note, salty play, there was a, what's his name? The Michael, what was his name? Fennon? Yes, thank you. Michael Fennon, the police officer who testified in many different of the cases. He also testified before the January 6th select committee. He was on CNN today and they, his voice was cracking, you know, of what this means that,

of what this means for him and what this means, you know, for his future. Salty, will you play the clip? Any regrets? No, I don't. Cause we did the right thing. We were there to protect the Trump supporters from Antifa. We were there to protect and secure two committed events on Capitol grounds. We're members of Congress, we're going to speak.

The guys that went inside, they're not committing the crimes. We've got to help the police and help the people out. He says he has no regrets. What do you say, Michael? Yeah, I mean, this is what I would say to Stuart Rhodes. Go fuck yourself. Okay. You're a liar.

We didn't obviously get to beat that word out, but obviously you, this is personal to you, Michael. This is very personal to you. Yeah, I mean, it's just horrendous. I actually listened to the whole interview and he sounds, it's just he was a, he's a hero, right? He he's a former DC Metro police officer who was there that day trying to protect people. He testified at trials against people who were actively violent. Over 140 police officers were injured that day. People lost their lives that day.

We all saw it with our own eyes. It was on video. Of course, there was violence. It's like Trump whitewashes it all. But then you take a step back and you wonder why. Why is he doing it? It's because he was their leader. He's the one who incited them to do it all.

He's the one who told them to do it. He pulled the trigger. He pulled the trigger that was that crowd and pointed them at the Capitol. And he's not, not only is he not facing a minute in jail for it or a prosecution for it, he got away with it. So he's gonna let all of them get away with it too.

Of course, this is what he's going to do. It makes all the sense in the world. It's completely on brand and we elected him. It's just shocking to me. And that was Stuart Rhodes, the oath keeper who claimed that he was there to help the police and he has no regrets, which is just lying, right? It's absolutely lying and

You know, it's and and there was a there's a There was a reporter that asked trump and there's a you can put this up. It's the aaron ruper I think it's from ex salty. I sent it to you It says the reporter says is there now a place for the proud boys Boys and the Oath Keepers in the political conversation following your pardons? And Trump said, well, we'll have to see. I mean, talk about stand back or stand by, right? This was on Fox and he was taking questions. He basically said, the reporter said, is there a place for the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers

following your pardons? He's like, we'll have to see. If that's not exactly what he said during those debates, I don't know what else, what it is. Look, Marike Tario went on Infowars afterward, of course, on Alex Jones' show and said it was worth it. Also, essentially essentially basically endorsed

Pam Bondi and Cash Patel. So that should tell you about them. And you've just got people who Trump is putting into office that is just shocking, right? The interim US attorney for DC, Ed Martin, previously had given an award to a Jan six rioter who's a Nazi sympathizer who went to work with a Hitler mustache, blamed COVID on the Jews and told co-workers that Hitler should have finished the job.

So it's just crazy what they're doing. And before we move on to this next section of the revenge overhaul of the Department of Justice, I want to just mention one more retired Capitol Police Sergeant. His name is Aquilino Gonnell, who testified against so many defendants in January 6 trials and proceedings. He spoke at the DNC. He's an immigrant from the Dominican Republic. He defended our capital on January 6th. He signed up for text alerts for people who he testified against at trial. You get these text alerts like any crime victim would about people who are incarcerated and if they're going to be released. This is literally text messages that

he gets a picture of each call he was getting from a justice notification saying that a defendant he testified against is being released from the Department of Corrections. I mean, I can't imagine what that must feel like. So, you know, it's just crazy. And one last person he pardoned, which I also thought was pretty telling, was this guy Ross Ulbricht, who was the founder of the Silk Road dark web marketplace serving a life sentence. I remember when I was a prosecutor, the Silk Road was where people bought drugs and guns. It's this completely undetectable anonymous using cryptocurrency black market essentially of lawlessness. I mean, you might as well just go out and sell guns and drugs and human trafficking

and anything else you want just on the street. Because what's the difference, right? If it's on the street or if it's on the internet, if you can just do it with impunity. He was prosecuted and he's already served 11 years and he's essentially, he's being released. So it's just shocking to me. The rule of law means nothing anymore. Harry Dunn, one of the police officers who also was so brave that day, gave an interview and he said

that he was just so upset that anybody was caught off guard by this because Trump said all along he was going to do this. And it is true, Trump all along said he was going to pardon the January 6 people. He never once said he was going to do it differently for the violent people and not the violent people. And I'm so tired of people not listening to him because he tells us who he is. And everybody wants to whitewash it. But this was always his plan. He told us that plan. People wanted to ignore it when they decided to vote for him in the ballot. I mean, I could not imagine being a Capitol Police officer from this day forward. I mean, if I were in Congress or frankly, the Supreme Court or any place else where

I'm going to do something that Trump and his army doesn't like, I am so much more now at risk. Do you think the next Capitol police officer is gonna spend five hours hand to hand combat to protect that Capitol when they know this is what happens? Like, absolutely not. There's no way people will protect our institutions

in a way they did on that day because they see what happens. I mean, five police officers died that day. All those injuries, the convictions showed the evidence they had and it all meant nothing. It meant nothing because Trump called his army there that day. He paid for some of the people to come there that day. This was his army. This is why he pardoned them.

He was happy that they were violent because they liked the fact that they were doing it for him. He's the most narcissist person ever. And he does want them to hang around because he might need them again. And he was willing to do this day one. He didn't think it tainted the rest of his presidency. So I think that goes to show what he's willing to do for them the next four years while he has his pardon power. It's scary. And in terms of not only is it maybe going to be less safe for government people,

but to your point about the judges, Judge Chuckin, who spoke out so eloquently and forcefully about the fact that the thing, what happened that day cannot be erased, including the feces. She went into detail so we could all imagine, because she presided over so many January 6 trials, she heard all the evidence of the guilt. There was no question the sentences she had to impose because of the evidence. She sees the injustice.

And my only last thing about this is the fact that the Department of Justice could prosecute hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of January 6th people, but failed to start a prosecution of Trump until what? Almost a year, like not even a year before the election, way too late. It was way too late. That's on you, Merrick Garland.

When you started rounding up the January 6 people, you should have rounded up the leader, and we may not be in this situation. Yeah, no, that's going to go down in history as one of the big unfortunate, unfortunate errors, unforced error for sure. Yeah, let's move on to Trump firing and reassignment and retribution, frankly, at the Department of Justice.

I mean, first of all, he starts with John Bolton, who was his national security advisor. He starts with removing his security clearance and his secret service protection, I mean, and saying terrible things about him, unbelievable. And he removed and reassigned many top career officials in the national security and criminal divisions of the Department of Justice. Now, normally there's like a 120 day waiting period before you can make assignments when there's a new head of an agency. Because no one's been confirmed yet there's a new head of an agency. He's because because no one's been confirmed yet. There's no head of an agency.

He's kind of swooping these in ahead of time. The whole spirit of that pause or delay is so that you can't do these kinds of shakeups like this in the beginning. You got to get you're supposed to really get the get your sea legs, get the lay of the land, understand what's happening in your agency, institutional knowledge. I mean, these are people who are career prosecutors and career intelligence officers who have been keeping us safe and have really important jobs and have institutional knowledge and relationships with other agencies, etc. that could be really important jobs and have institutional knowledge and relationships with other agencies, etc. that could be really important to whoever's coming next. And he's just reassigning them. I heard somewhere that he's sending some to Alaska because you can't really fire them because they

have certain protections. So instead, he's just reassigning them to Timbuktu, if you will, just reassigning them to Timbuktu, if you will, and demoting them and putting them into, taking them away from things like counterintelligence. One guy was instrumental in the Mar-a-Lago search warrant that was done because he's a counterintelligence guy, highly, highly respected terrorist prosecutor, and he's been reassigned. They're putting him in places like this new national border security, whatever division that they're creating, knowing that people are going to resign or hoping that

they'll resign because these assignments are demotions, frankly, and they're terrible. But it's just shocking to me. I don't know. What do you think about all that? It's really similar to what he's trying to do with the civil employees with Schedule F. I mean, we heard again, Project 2025 previewed a lot of this, that they wanted to replace the non-political employees that carry out the day-to-day acts that keep our federal government running, right? Keep our air clean, our education working, all of that kind of stuff. And they want to replace it with political hacks, basically, who will do Trump's bidding.

So his executive order with Schedule basically is reassigned, his attempt is to reassign those class thousands and thousands of employees, maybe like 50,000 employees to non-competitive review. Basically, instead of them making them at will employees, so to have allow them to be fired for no reason at all, even though right now they're classified to not be at will employees specifically for the purpose for them not to be get fired from president to president. And there's a law from Congress that actually lays this all out. He's trying to undo this with executive order because he wants to just fire thousands of

people and have them do his bidding. Kind of to my point earlier about will the federal employees issue the passports or not? Well, you might have somebody who's been working there for 40 years who's like, I'm going to issue this passport until the court tells me, you know, basically not to, but if you have a political employee by Trump, they're going to just do anything they want. So to your point of him trying to remake the prosecutors and the judiciary and him also trying to remake the civil employees, this is what you do when you want to become an odd, to take away democracy, take it away from the hands of the people and condense the power in one person, Trump, who doesn't want to follow the law. Thankfully, the union for the federal employees has already filed a lawsuit for this saying

based on that congressional act I mentioned, he can't just go ahead and change their status. So that's going to the courts. He tried to be his dictator on day one. I think that's my takeaway. He said I was going to be dictator on day one. Okay, he tried. We thankfully have rules, some of them not well-known landmark type decisions,

but we have rules on the books that are being utilized to try to stop him from being a dictator. And frankly, I think we're gonna see in these next four years, you know, how strong our guardrails are, what else needs to be done. We're going to be states' rights. It's going to be flipped on the head and Democrats are going to be all about states' rights,

right? Instead of the federal rights like the Republicans used to be. But you know, the groups are not messing around with trying to stop a lot of the actions he took on day one. Yeah, that's true. You're absolutely right. It's crazy. You're absolutely right. It's crazy.

All right, we are running long on time. So let's end with one of my favorite stories of the week is Bishop Mary Ann Edgar Buddy. I think I pronounced her last name correctly. She apparently directly appealed to Trump to have mercy on immigrants and gay children in her inaugural prayer at the National Cathedral and clearly got under Trump's skin and called on her and her church to apologize for these inappropriate statements. She basically, her words were,

I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. She says she's the leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. Then she goes on to say, there are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and independent families, some who fear for their lives. The vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands

to find compassion and welcome here. They were the most beautiful words. I loved it. And I thought it was incredible that she said those words. Apparently, if you watch, there's a lot of people who have commented, if you watched the clip of Trump and his family at the church during this,

there was all this grimacing and facial stuff and people looking around. And I guess Usha Vance was just looking straight ahead when looking at her husband. And then Trump said something. He came out and said, he said some things. You could tell what Trump wrote, and you can tell what someone else wrote for him.

So this is what I would argue someone else wrote for him. She brought her church into the world of politics in a very ungracious way. It's clearly not written by Trump. Then he writes, this is clearly what he wrote. She was nasty and not compelling or smart. Right? And then he says, a large number of immigrants

had come to the United States illegally and killed people. I mean, so you can always tell someone else writes it for him and he then takes over and is like, I'm gonna use the same words that I use. He always calls women nasty. Yeah. It's a female term for him for sure. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, this is how I think about it. We need resistance from every corner. And she yesterday was maybe day one resistance in the most eloquent way. She had him a captive audience. And then today with Michael Fanon and his CNN, I would say that's resistance number two,

because sometimes simple to the point, you know, wasn't bleeped out on CNN. So let's see who's gonna be here tomorrow. I love seeing these acts of courage and bravery and speaking the truth. I do too, you're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. And there's, you know, it's funny when

Trump won the election, I started wondering, what are we going to, what's going to happen to Legal AF? What are we going to talk about? Is there going to be a lot to talk about? There's so much more to talk about now that I, you know, because all

the cases went away, right? All his legal cases. But there is so much more to talk about now, now that I, you know, because because all the cases went away, right? All his legal cases. But there's so much more to talk about now. Now that he has won the election that it's crazy. I mean, just curating these topics today was difficult because there's so many lawless things that he's doing and things that will have an implication in the law. And so I look forward to covering this every week. And sometimes in between with Ben Mycelis with Michael Popok and with you, Dina Dahl. It's wonderful to be here. Thank you for coming in. And Popok always gives me the last word to close

out the Wednesday Legal AF. And I'd love to hand that honor to you. And you can talk about anything you want. What are the last words you want to leave us with? Goodness, I think democracy dies in darkness. And as much as it's hard to hear some of these things that he did, we have to be informed and inform. And we can only make change if we know what's going on. So as you said, this was hard to talk, there was a lot more stuff even that we didn't get to, there's gonna be a lot of lawsuits, a lot of change, but we'll keep on top of it because that's how you get through democracy. If you don't know what's going on, it's not a democracy

anymore. Yeah, you're absolutely right. On that don't know what's going on, it's not a democracy anymore. Yeah, you're absolutely right. On that note, we've reached the end of another episode of Legal AF, the midweek edition. Please support us by subscribing to the Midas Touch YouTube channel. You can support us by subscribing to the Legal AF YouTube channel. We have a merch store you can go to on the Midas Touch website. And there's some t-shirts you can buy. I know my dad and my stepmom wear their t-shirts every Wednesday when they, when they watch Legal AF, they're huge super fans.

And, and just shout out to all the people who have stuck with us through all of this and are going to continue to do this with us together because we are all together in this and we have to fight back this authoritarianism and this and get our democracy back and keep our rights and don't let them being taken away from us. So Dina, thank you for stepping in. It's always a pleasure to see you and spend

this time with you.