No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen - Trump dealt brutal blow by his OWN party

Episode Date: March 17, 2024

There are major implications of most of Trump’s own cabinet refusing to endorse him. Brian interviews Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett about the disastrous Robert Hur testimony that proved his lies about Joe Biden, whether the Biden impeachment effort is officially dead, and her thoughts on Katie Britt’s disastrous State of the Union response.Donate to the "Don't Be A Mitch" fund: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/dontbeamitchShop merch: https://briantylercohen.com/shopYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/briantylercohenTwitter: https://twitter.com/briantylercohenFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/briantylercohenInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/briantylercohenPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/briantylercohenNewsletter: https://www.briantylercohen.com/sign-upWritten by Brian Tyler CohenProduced by Sam GraberRecorded in Los Angeles, CASee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today we're going to talk about the implications of Trump's own cabinet refusing to endorse him. And I interview Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett about the disastrous Robert, her testimony that proved his lies about Joe Biden, whether the Biden impeachment effort is officially dead, and her thoughts on Katie Brits' disastrous state of the union response. I'm Brian Tyler Cohen, and you're listening to No Lie. All right, so just days ago, Mike Pence was asked whether he would endorse Donald Trump, and this is what he said. Will you be endorsing your former president? You were on the ticket with them last time around. Well, Martha, I appreciate the question. And it should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year.

Look, I'm incredibly proud of the record of our administration. It was a conservative record that made America more prosperous, more secure, and saw conservatives appointed to our course in a more peaceful world. But that being said, during my presidential campaign, I made it clear that there were profound differences between me and President Trump on a range of issues. And not just our difference on my constitutional duties that I exercised on January the 6th. I mean, as I have watched his candidacy unfold, I've seen him walking away from our commitment to confronting the national debt.

I've seen him starting to shy away from a commitment to the sanctity of human life. And this last week is his reversal on getting tough on China and supporting our administration's effort to force a sale of bite dance TikTok application. Why do you think he did that? Why do you think he had that reversal on that before we go, sir? Well, I can't speculate on it. What I can tell you is that in each of these cases, Donald Trump is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years. And that's why I cannot, in good conscience, endorse Donald Trump in this campaign.

And so I know it might not be shocking that the guy who Trump tried to have hanged on January 6th would ultimately choose not to endorse him. But I'd argue that it is quite significant for two reasons. First, virtually all of Trump's cabinet members and aides and officials have come out against him. I'm talking Mike Pence, John Kelly, John Bolton, Bill Barr, Mark Millie, Rex Tilley, and Mitch Mulvaney, Chris Christie, H.R. McMaster, Anthony Scaramucci, Stephanie Grisham, Richard Spencer, Tom Bossert, Michael Cohen, Ty Cob, Alyssa Farah Griffin, Sarah Matthews, Cassidy Hutchinson, James Mattis, and Mark Esper. Esper just came out this week and said that Trump wanted the U.S. military to kill Americans. And so if these people, the people who knew him best, who worked most closely with him, if they've come out against Donald Trump, then maybe that's something worth listening to and something that a number of Republican voters will listen to, which is not.

not to say that Mike Pence is some electoral juggernaut, but the fact that Trump's own vice president won't endorse him will have an impact on the margins, in the same way that Nikki Haley's refusal to endorse him so far will have an impact on the margins. And not for nothing, but the margins are how these elections are won. It's not a game of miles, it is a game of inches. Remember, Biden beat Trump in Georgia by only 12,000 votes, in Wisconsin by only 20,000 votes. These are razor-thin margins, all less than a point.

And so for Trump to lose these influential figures, That's not going to help him retain even those Republicans, much less expand his base out to independents and Democrats, who he would need to win. That's the first reason. The second and more broadly, Donald Trump derives his strength from the optics that he's got total control over his party. That's how autocrats derive power. But when the dam starts to break and suddenly becomes clear that not only does Trump not

have total control, he doesn't even have control of the people who worked the closest with him or his own Republican base, then the appeal of Donald Trump as like, this is. invincible force wears off. Not only does the reality begin to dawn on the GOP that Trump isn't some unbeatable Goliath when he comes to Joe Biden, which, by the way, should already be debunked, considering Biden beat him in 2020, but it gets that much worse for him and you realize he's not even able to get his own party support. He's losing his own officials and aides.

He lost his own vice president. Talk about piercing the bubble. Now, with that said, the usual caveat applies. It doesn't matter if Donald Trump loses the endorsement of every rule. Republican official in the entire country, our job doesn't change. We still organize, we still stay engaged, we still work on our circles of people. Like, don't look at the polls, or

the primary results, or the endorsements, or the rallies. None of it matters. It's noise. And mostly, uh, it's used to be cherry-pecked by the media to sell whatever narrative they want to sell, which is usually one that'll you know, convey the most drama. Because for them, it's just a big game. It's just sports. They don't seem to realize

that we all fail if democracy fails. We're all on this plane together. If it goes down, we all die. So, ignore the horse race coverage and just do the work, work on your people, work on your circles, because we know what Donald Trump's own officials have now made abundantly clear, that he shouldn't be anywhere near the Oval Office again. Next up is my interview with Jasmine Crockett. Now we've got Texas Congresswoman, Jasmine Crockett.

Thanks for taking the time. Absolutely. It's great to see you. You too. So I know that there are two discharge petitions in play right now to circumvent Republicans Speaker Mike Johnson's refusal to bring foreign aid up for a vote by himself in the House. So what's the status of those discharge petitions and which one is looking more likely to get taken up? Well, considering the fact that Democrats are in the minority, I would anticipate, if anything, the Republicans may be able to get the signatures. But a big part of me says that

they won't. You know, I don't know. I don't know what type of grip the Republicans currently have over their conference. Obviously, it's been a little out of control. always saw Ken Buck, who decided to buck the system this week and let them know that he was on his way out. You know, I invite Kim Buck to go ahead and sign the discharge petition that was started by McGovern. We only need two signatures, and his signature will count, even though he's gone. So, you know, on his way off the door, another good F you would be to go ahead and sign the discharge petition that McGovern brought, which just so that everybody is clear on the difference of the two, the discharge petition that was brought by the Democrats is the most recent version of what the

Senate has passed as it relates to foreign aid. The one that was brought by the Republicans includes what Donald Trump told them not to do, which was a, I don't even want to say an immigration bill, but it's foreign aid plus quote unquote border security. To that point then, have no Republicans signed on to either discharge petition thus far? Not that I'm aware of. Okay. Changing topics a little bit, Robert Herr was the U.S. attorney appointed to investigate Joe Biden over his retention of classified documents, which, by the way, for those watching and listening right now, is not the equivalent of Trump's because Joe Biden cooperated with the National Archives, whereas Donald Trump ignored a request and ignored a subpoena and ultimately forced a magistrate judge

to approve a search warrant that was executed by the FBI at Maratago. What was your reaction to the revelation that he lied about Biden's memory, even suggesting that he didn't remember the date that his own son died, which the transcript now shows that he remembered perfectly. I mean, I wasn't surprised. You know, I think the American people had a great opportunity to assess whether or not we have a senile, old feeble man in the White House when he gave his state of the union address. I think that the president reminded the American people that he is the strong guy that made sure that he course corrected as Trump was basically leading us into a death trap as it relates to COVID-19.

For whatever reason, people forget how many people were dying before Joe Biden came into office and made sure that we could get shots in arms and save lives. Instead, that party continues to push disinformation around things such as the vaccine. We were able to finally get our economy back on track. In fact, we have reeled back in a way that no other country has been able to recover since COVID-19? Is there still more work to do? Absolutely. But are we leading the world we are? And that's who we're supposed to be. You know, watching her testify was quite skin-crawling to me personally. I did not care for his report on the day that his report came out. We were

actually at our Dem Issues conference. And I got an alert that the report came out and then the president came on stage and gave some remarks to us. And then he laid out that this report came out, and it was made clear that he disagreed with some of the things in the report. And so, you know, we went out as Democrats, and I felt like we were on the defense trying to say he's not senile and old and feeble. Yeah. And so ultimately, I think the people saw for themselves, though. Yeah, I think that's a great, great point.

I mean, even, you know, this is the second state of the union now where that has been put on full display. And I think Republicans really revel in Americans not seeing him as frequently, because every day that we're not seeing him make some, you know, make some big speech like the state of the union was, that vacuum is then filled with the same narrative that he doesn't know what day it is. He doesn't know how to tie his shoes. But then it's completely undermined the second that we see this guy come out and do what he did at the state of the union, which was, you know, to not only deliver, you know, a home run of a speech, but then even challenge Republicans in numerous occasions and at least, you know, to their, to their mild credit, learns their lesson from last year in terms of not

trying to, not trying to heckle him too hard because they got embarrassed the first time. Everyone except for Marjorie Taylor Green, of course. She will never learn. She will never learn. And I just want to say, you know, to the point about the vacuum, this isn't a president who will be known for his speaking ability. This is not President Obama. People forget that the president actually has a stutter. You know, I think it was so beautiful that this week, it was kind of a reminder as he was talking to another kiddo that stutters. And there is no magic pill that you take for stuttering.

So as he makes gaffs, as they're frequently called, I don't look at them as gaffs. I look at it as this man has a speaking impediment that he has worked his entire life to overcome, and people forget that. And so speaking isn't necessarily what he will be known for, but getting things done for the American people, now that is what he'll go down in the history books for being able to do. Yeah, well said. Also, I would rather have a president who has a stutter than one who thinks that World War II hasn't happened yet, or that the current president is Barack Obama, or that you need ID to buy bread. Or you don't remember who your ex-wife is. What is happening? Or that you could stop a hurricane with a Sharpie or that like the list goes on and. on. Yes, or just inject yourself with bleach and you won't have COVID anymore. You won't have

a lot of stuff such as a life, but nevertheless. Nevertheless, do you think it was a mistake for Merrick Garland to allow a partisan Republican U.S. attorney to oversee an investigation into Joe Biden that would ultimately give him a platform to land a really damaging attack against him? You know, I think that there are those of us of my political generation. And then there are those of us say of Merrick Garland's and President Biden's political generation. The people that believe that certain things are black and white. And those of us in my generation understand that it's just a bunch of games that are being played nowadays. And so I think that Merrick Garland leans leans into the old school frame of thought, like, hey, this is clear. Like he can do this.

he'll be fair. And ultimately, he was fair. Now, did he add a little extra? Absolutely. But did he go so far as to charge the president? No. And ultimately, while he landed the jabs that he landed, I think that it is going to be very helpful, not that it really matters to the MAGA crowd, that this was another Republican. This wasn't a Democrat. So you can't say the fix was in. This was one of your guys, right? But they always say the fixes in. Even when you look at the prosecution in Georgia, they say the fix is in in Georgia, forgetting that the people that have pled guilty thus far are Trump's people. They're Republicans. These aren't Democrats making up stuff. So, I mean, you know, trying to do something that will make sense to a cult-like mind is problematic to me. Like, just forget it. Just make sure you get someone

who's going to do right. And I think a Democratic appointee probably would have been better under the circumstances. Yeah, I feel like we do have to get better at recognizing, like, the dangerous situations we put ourselves in by constantly offering up goodwill to partisan Republicans who will then, you know, use that as a cudgel to wield against Democrats. And we don't learn our, we don't learn our lesson. And we do this a lot. And so I think that, like, recognizing what the dangers could be beforehand by, oh, I don't know, appointing a partisan Republican U.S. attorney to be a be able to release a report unvetted about Joe Biden might not be such a great idea, especially in an election year, especially knowing the disinformation media machine that operates

on the right and how anything in that report could be kind of twisted on its face and used against Democrats. And we've seen them manipulate these reports in the past. The Bill Barr summary of the Mueller report was the exact same thing. Where in certain instances, it said the polar opposite of what the Mueller report actually said. Absolutely. And even And what was so interesting when he testified and while he's a lawyer, he knew the questions that were being asked of him. And so I remember there was an exchange between he and Swalwell. And at some point in time, Swalwell is asking him questions about, well, did you say? And he's like, well, it says on the transcript, sir, that's technically not answering the

question, right? Like, you're trying to act like it's in the, no, did you say it or not? Like, he was being very evasive. You know, there are people that, they're like, oh, he did everything that he was supposed to do because Democrats weren't happy and Republicans weren't happy. This wasn't about being happy. This was about getting to the bottom of why did you need hundreds of pages to say very simply that the president of the United States, while yes, he did actually physically possess classified documents, there wasn't enough to charge him. And one of the distinctions that still fails to be brought out that I thought was really interesting when I read the report is that the president kept diaries. He actually

took notes. So some of that classified information was information that he technically created himself. That can be a little bit more confusing than say someone like Trump taking other classified documents because, see, Biden was listening in when he was having classified briefings. Trump was not, right? And so he would actually take copious notes. And historically, we've had presidents that have had diaries and they've said, Mr. President, you weren't supposed to have that information and they take their diaries. That is a big difference, at least in my mind. Yeah, I mean, it's crazy to think that you have one president who immediately cooperated with authorities while retaining classified documents. And you have another president who ignored multiple requests to give back

those documents. And yet somehow Joe Biden is the villain in all of this, even though he did what he was supposed to do, he did what all the other presidents and vice presidents who retained classified documents have done. And yet somehow Donald Trump is completely absolved. But that's- Well, it's not even just that, though. Because what he also did was he specifically tried to cover up. That's the other part. That's the criminality, right? Like, it's not just, oh, I ignored it. I was busy. I was golfing. No, this guy was like, yo, where are the tapes and Marilago? How hard did they go back? Talking about flooding the tape room. Like, what do we do here? Let's delete it all. Like, all the things.

Like, sir, like, that is next level. Please find me what other president also. I mean, lying to his own lawyers. Like, let's get rid of this box before our lawyers get here to look for DOJ. Yeah. Like, this guy absolutely showed his culpability in his actions after he was asked to do the right thing. Switching gears a little bit, do you feel like finally, at long last, we've seen the end of this Republican effort to impeach Joe Biden based on, on zero evidence whatsoever, despite their smoking gun witness being indicted for lying about the

claims which served as the basis for this impeachment inquiry, and despite zero forward movement. I mean, we've learned nothing over the last few months. And I feel, by the way, like I've asked this question to a million different people, a million different times, and everybody with half a brain always says, of course, it's over, and then here we are, you know? I know better. I mean, the fact that we got started tells you everything that we need to know about these clowns, Right? Like, there was nothing to start with in the first place. So nothing from nothing begins nothing, right? And so, like, if you started it, why would you stop it when it's all the same, right? Like, this is about embarrassment. This is about, you know, showing their loyalty to Trump. This is about literally bending the knee and saying, hey, master, look what we're doing for you. We're going after Joe Biden in an impeachment because they went after you two times. Never mind the fact that the

two times they went after you, it led to 91 counts of indictments. Never mind the fact that when they went after you, it led to you being found liable in so many civil courts for various things. Never mind the time that they went after you, they didn't even go after you for all your China money. And y'all are worried about $5 million that never existed that you supposedly got word of from someone who may be a Russian spy. Oh, yeah. Okay. That's cool. Like, I mean, it's just insanity. But they literally don't want to govern, and they'd rather do this clown side show. So instead of making sure that we've got a budget, we focused on playing with the president and his family. Well, speaking of the clown show, the ringleader of all of this, Mike Johnson, came out in opposition to federal protections for IVF. So how does that square with a position that your House Republican colleagues are kind of desperately trying to convey that somehow they're fine with IBF?

I mean, listen, the Republicans refuse to listen to a little known thing as science or experts. We learn that in the midst of COVID. And, you know, their failure to educate themselves or rely upon those that are experts in the field. field is leading them down this very narrow rabbit hole. I mean, when they decided to go after our repro rights in general, when we start talking about abortion and wanting to define it, you can't define it based on what you to learn in your Bible. I'm just saying, that's not what you need to do. We have this thing called separation of state and church, and you need to understand what that is before you enter governments, right? So do whatever you want to do.

at church, pray to whoever you want to pray to, go and consult with whatever pastor, rabbi, whoever you want to holler at. But when it comes to governing in a country that does not have an official religion, when it comes to governing in a country that is built upon immigrants and is diverse as any other country that you can find in this world, we've got to be smarter than that and we've got to say people have a right to do what they need to do. And that's not to infringe upon people's religious rights. If some woman says, because of my religious beliefs, I cannot engage in IVF, that's cool. Nobody's going to force you to.

But what if somebody else doesn't believe what you believe? Are you telling her that she shouldn't have an opportunity to have a family? That's not what freedom looks like. And we allegedly live in the land of the free. This is where the problem comes in because they want to dictate. that everybody's life has to be this random Christo-fascist situation. And that's just not who we are as Americans unless they want to amend the Constitution and add that we are Cristro-fascist.

Right. It's complete freedom so long as it's the freedom to live your life the way that they live their lives. Otherwise, it's no freedom whatsoever. Absolutely. You had mentioned Ken Buck just prior. Obviously, he timed his retirement in such a way that would force Lauren Bober to either decide to resign from Congress to run in the special election for Colorado's fourth

congressional district or to stay in Congress and then have to basically go up against a new incumbent in Colorado's fourth. What's happening behind the scenes? Like, I mean, by the way, Ken Buck, I know, is no, is no, like, moderate Republican. He's no liberal. So what's happening behind the scenes there that that kind of is surrounding this inter-party feud? Yeah, I mean, it's just the continual implosion. You know, I will say this for Kim Buck. We probably won't ever agree on much in life, but I can appreciate someone that has a principle based upon something, right? Like, I may not agree with your principle, but it's based upon something. And this is a guy who is what the Freedom Caucus used to look like, right? This guy absolutely

believes that Joe Biden won the election. He does not believe in this BS that has been spewed about about the fact that the election was stolen. Number one, he also used to not believe in the fact that there was enough evidence for an impeachment inquiry on the president. He also refused to support Jim Jordan because he absolutely felt like he was not the one that should be the Speaker of the House. So he has taken some stance, some stances that have been opposite to a lot of the Freedom Caucus, which has caused him some problems. And, you know, I think that it's just so poetic because I don't believe that Kim Buck, when he started in the 118th, had any inclination that he would end up resigning, let alone leaving early. But it's like they continued to push buttons, like when

they were going through the speaker vote, what happened is he ended up being kicked out of his office by a MAGA landlord because he wouldn't support Jim Jordan and he was receiving all types of threats. That is beyond the pale. Like this is where they go. We don't do this. We don't send threats to our members. We don't do any of that kind of stuff on our side of the aisle. And, And, you know, the day that he announced that he was retiring was the day of the her hearing, or that he was leaving early. And in that hearing, because he sits on judiciary, Jim Jordan specifically ignored him. So he is like the third senior most person on that committee. And Jim Jordan wouldn't call on him. And I guess Kent said, you know what, to hell with all of y'all. I'm a leave and put y'all in a bind because I don't have to stay here. Yeah. Well, to your point, he should sign that discharge petition before he leaves. If he's looking to get one last, one last jab in there, that would be a good way to do it. Yeah. What's sad especially about that is that, you know, you do have these people who, granted, are not, you know, may not be moderate, may not be some resistance heroes, but like who have at least the courage to stand up and speak out against their own party on certain issues.

And those people, while it's great that they're willing to do that, when those people leave, they're inevitably going to be replaced by somebody. who is willing to tow the party line because that's how it works. That's how you get out of a Republican primary. And so while it's good for the moment that we have the Ken Bucks of the party, like the Mitt Romney's of the party who are willing to speak out, they'll inevitably get replaced by somebody who's far, far worse. Absolutely. The fact that Lauren Bobard has not done well in any poll in Kenbuck's district, the fact that, like, and they're not picking someone who's more moderate than her, in my opinion. They are most likely picking someone who's worse than her. Now, will this person be able to garner the attention and all that kind of stuff?

Who knows? We'll find out. But that is a really bad sign. Yeah. Well, good news is for Bobert, if she doesn't land in Congress next cycle, she can give more of her time to her true passion in life, which is attending musicals. So one more question here, and that is while we're on the topic of getting some behind the scenes insight. I need to know what your Republican colleagues were saying about Katie Britt's big acting debut in her Republican response to the state of the union. They actually have been really quiet about it, at least to us. I mean, no one said anything. Well, that checks out. I probably wouldn't be too vocal about that either if I was giving the choice. I'm sure if it was

like a really great performance. Like they would have been talking about it. They would have been repeating different parts of it, things like that. Instead, they've kind of been real quiet about it. Kind of like Fox News, Fox News just wanted it to go away. And, you know, it's interesting because I was just watching where she did the podcast with my junior senator, Ted Cruz, and she was really laughing it up. And supposedly she's been raising money off of this poor performance. It's crazy. She's talking about how she's been attacked by the left. And I'm like, if you consider facts and attack, okay. But lady, you went out there and lied, right?

And it wasn't even like other members or other electates that like went and researched you. A man got on TikTok and did a few Google searches and blew up the whole spot. And basically like all the journalists are like, wait a minute, let's back check with the, what the TikTok said. My lady, do better. Do better. Everybody needs to do better. You, your team, everybody needs to do better. You know what? Take a page out of Melania's book and try to be best, Katie Britt, I think is the message that's coming out of this. With that said, Congressman, thank you so much for taking the time. I appreciate it. Have a good one.

Thanks again to Congresswoman Crockett. That's it for this episode. Talk to you next week. You've been listening to No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen. Produced by Sam Graber, Music by Wellesie, and interviews edited for YouTube by Nicholas Nicotera. If you want to support the show, please subscribe on your preferred podcast app and leave a five-star rating in a review. And as always, you can find me at Brian Tyler Cohen on all of my other channels, or you can go to Brian Tyler Cohen.com to learn more.