No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen - Trump misses golden opportunity to cut bait on least popular policy

Episode Date: June 1, 2025

Trump misses a golden opportunity to cut bait on the least popular policy of his entire presidency. Brian interviews Texas state representative James Talarico about the Republican power grab in Texas and how to stop the GOP from co-opting Christianity and Congressman Daniel Goldman about his confrontation with ICE agents.Shop 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 Trump missing a golden opportunity to cut bait on the least popular policy of his entire presidency. And I've got two interviews this week. I speak with Texas State Representative James Tolericoe about the Republican power grab in Texas and how to stop the GOP from co-opting Christianity. And Congressman Daniel Goldman joins to discuss his confrontation with ICE agents. I'm Brian Taylor-Cohen, and you're listening to No Lie. Trump's latest court loss was the biggest win that he's gotten during his presidency. Let me explain. So we all know that his tariffs have been an abject disaster. They've sent cost surging and there's no relief on the horizon. Our credit's been downgraded. Our stock market entered correction territory. Trump has spent the last two months insisting that every country in

the world is knocking down our door to get to the negotiating table. And yet, all we have to show for it is one single deal with the UK, a country we have a trade surplus with. In the meantime, we have traffic at our ports that slowed to a crawl with L.A. County ports seeing a 40 to 50% drop, which means supply goes down, demand goes up, and prices rise. And prices rising is disqualifying enough unto itself, on its own. But remember, Trump was elected specifically under the pretense that he would lower costs. So it's not just that everything is more expensive because of him, but it's more expensive in spite of the fact that the one thing he promised was to bring down costs,

and yet instead he sent them surging. And Americans aren't blind to that reality. The guy is 22 points underwater on trade, according to the latest UGov poll. A normal human being would see this disaster unfolding, would see cost rising, would see that his allies are turning against him, would see that his poll numbers are cratering, and cut bait. But Trump doesn't work that way, because his priority is not good policy, it's his ego. He has planted his flag as the tariff sky, so he's going to see this thing through because he views any reset, any responsible reset as a capitulation.

And capitulation means weakness. And he's big and tough and strong, so capitulation is a non-starter, meaning we have to suffer the consequences of Donald Trump's insecurity. Enter the Court of International Trade. That court rules that the emergency law that Trump invoked to impose his tariffs doesn't actually give him unilateral authority. Instead, the court ruled that that power resides with Congress, and so the tariffs were blocked. You could not get a bigger gift if it was flown in from Qatar. Finally, Trump has the pretext that he needs to be able to cut bait on the absolute cluster fuck that is his tariffs. He's got the perfect scapegoat, those evil communist, Marxist,

activist judges blame them and move on. It is the perfect way to never have to bail on your own policy while still deriving all of the benefits of bailing on your own policy. But that would all be too logical because instead Trump appeals the decision. And a federal appeals court stays the lower court's ruling, which means they leave it in place. To explain here, this isn't a win for Trump. It's not the appeals court ruling on the merits. It's simply the appeals court allowing the tariffs to stay in place while they litigate the merits of this issue. So it's pretty standard procedural stuff. In fact, many of the rulings that Trump ultimately lost were initially stayed by the same courts. And the appeals panel that Trump drew was composed of seven

Democrats and four Republicans, meaning it's likely that Trump is going to also lose when their final ruling on the merits is handed down. But we know by now, given the fact that he appealed this once, that even though he is being gifted a political victory second to none, he's not going to take it. He's going to appeal this thing all the way up to the Supreme Court. And then even if the Supreme Court rules against him, dude's going to think up. five different ways to make this thing happen regardless, because he is incapable of cutting bait on bad policy. Again, if he wasn't so blinded by his delicate ego, he would see when he's being gifted a win. His grand tariffs have been nothing short of a disaster for his

administration and for America. They've literally forced Trump to come out and say that little girls are going to have to get fewer dolls. Like, I don't know, when you're telling kids that they have to endure austerity measures, it doesn't exactly feel like you're winning, right? But he He couldn't do it. He couldn't take the win because even as his economic policy is cratering our economy, he is too focused on protecting his fragile ego. And so instead, we all get to sit idly by and watch everything crash and burn. I mean, we've got the only economy in the industrialized world that is contracting. You'd think that changing course away from economic disaster would be a given, but he can't do it, which means that we will descend deeper into economic chaos. We're one quarter away from officially being in a recession. And with these tariffs remaining in effect, that's all but guaranteed at this point. This is the consequence of having somebody in office who has the opportunity to act in the best interest of 350 million people and instead defers only to protecting himself and his thin skin. Donald Trump is being taught a lesson in real time about political gravity.

Unfortunately, he isn't willing to learn it. Next up are my interviews with James Tullerico and Daniel Goldman. No lie is brought to you by Uplift Desk. So if you work in front of a desk like I do, I really often find myself discouraged that I spent yet another day sitting for long periods of time, often hours and hours and hours at a time. I seriously thought that this would be a lasting problem until I was able to find uplift desk.

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and an industry-leading 15-year warranty that covers your entire desk, and an extra discount off your entire order. That's U-P-L-I-F-T-D-E-S-K dot com slash BTC for a special offer, and it's only available at our link. Stand, Move, Thrive with Uplift Desk. I'm joined now by Texas State Representative James Telerico. Thank you so much for checking the time. Yeah, thanks for having me. You are right now working your way through the end of the session, the state legislative session in Texas.

The legislature just passed a bill regarding the Ten Commandments that's making national headlines right now. Can you explain where that bill stands? and what the implications of having a bill that mandates the presence of the Ten Commandments in Classrooms is? Yeah, this bill would force every single teacher in the state of Texas to post the Ten Commandments in their classroom. This is in every public school across the state. And it just passed both chambers of the Texas legislature,

and now it goes to the governor's desk. Greg Abbott has already promised that he'll sign this bill. And if it's signed, it will go into effect this upcoming school. Now, I anticipate there will be court challenges because this is blatantly unconstitutional. You know, as you know, we have a separation of church and state in this country, or at least we did. I like to think we still do. In the First Amendment of our Constitution, both the Establishment Clause, which prohibits the government from establishing a state religion and the free exercise clause. And obviously, the government, the legislature in this case, elevating one religious tradition over all the others.

and putting a religious document on the walls of public buildings, public schools in this case, is a clear violation of that establishment clause. So we'll see how those court challenges go, but, you know, this is certainly a serious and grave attack on our First Amendment in this country. Well, not only is it unconstitutional, but what benefit are these legislators who are passing this bill suggesting that students are going to derive from having this overt display of religion in the classroom. Like, notwithstanding the fact that this is what they're spending their limited bandwidth on, that you're limited resources on in the legislature, but how are they selling this to the people

of Texas as in any way some good use of time? Well, you know, they've got to be careful because they can't admit that this has a religious purpose, which is a little absurd because we're talking about a religious document the Ten Commandment. And so they couched this in terms of a historical heritage, meaning the Ten Commandments were somehow essential for our founding fathers and the creation of our founding documents. And that's why they should be put in our public schools, essentially as a piece of history, not a piece of theology. Now, I think most folks who hear that argument can kind of see right through it. And in fact, I asked the bill author in the Public Education Committee,

that if she wants to post a foundational document on the walls of every classroom, why not post the U.S. Constitution on the walls of every classroom in the state of Texas? And the video that's on TikTok and Instagram, you'll see that she's kind of stunned into silence and can't even answer that basic question because it does go right to the heart of her argument. If we're talking about a foundational influence in this country on our educational system, our judicial system, our governmental systems, obviously the Constitution fits that bill much better than the Ten Commandments. And again, I'm a person of faith. I love the Ten Commandments. I've tried to build my life on the Ten Commandments. But as a Christian, I know that the separation of church

and state doesn't just protect the state, but it also protects the church. And we always get in trouble as believers when we ally ourselves to governmental power. And that's what I'm trying to avoid in the Texas legislature. By the way, let's put that clip of your exchange right here. You know how important the Ten Commandments are to me and how important my faith is to me and we have an honest disagreement about the role of the government in this kind of policy.

So I just want to have a conversation about that. I think you answered this in the first sentence of your layout, but why do you want to require the Ten Commandments in every classroom? Because they are foundational to our American, in both educational and judicial systems. Do you think the constitutional, the constitution is foundational to our country? I do.

And I'm so proud that in the Declaration of Independence, that God is mentioned in the first two, the two opening paragraphs and the two closing paragraph. So it was really foundational to our forefathers, even in the Declaration of Independence. Why doesn't your bill mandate teachers post the Constitution in every classroom instead of the Ten Commandments? That might be a great bill.

It's just not this bill. Would you accept an amendment? If you want to write that bill, I would JA it with you, but that is not this bill. We may have the opportunity. Would you accept an amendment to require the Constitution be posted next to the Ten Commandments in every classroom? It actually would blow up the bill because that does not fit under the caption of this bill. I've already checked it would be Jermaine because the bill is regarding Ten Commandments being displayed in classrooms. Your amendment would be a very different thing, and no, I would not accept that.

We would require. But you know what, next session, if you want to do that, I would be happy to help you with that. We would require that the display of the Ten Commandments just happened next to the Constitution, so certainly germane to the bill. No, it is not. Do you think that the Constitution should be posted next to the Ten Commandments? That has nothing to do with this particular bill. Not about your legislation, but do you think those two documents should be posted together?

I'm going to stick with the talking points on my bill if you don't mind. I don't believe that that is part of this bill. You know, what I think is interesting about this moment right now and also couching it in this idea that this is a historical document and not a religious document is, of course, the pushback to this would be, okay, if we're putting religious documents in the classroom, why not put the Quran up in the classroom or something like that? And of course, they have to figure out a way preemptively

to make sure that that's not abused in that way and that there's just only one avenue for one. one specific religion's document to be presented in the classroom. But speaking of classroom, you have been on the front lines of the fight against the Republican effort to pass private school vouchers. Now, unfortunately, that has passed the legislature and been signed into law by Greg Abbott. And so what are the practical implications of the fact that now you'll have public funds going to support private schools?

Well, again, things that happen in Texas don't stay in Texas. We tend to be the canary in the coal mine for bad public policy. What starts here usually starts to go to other states and eventually goes to the national level. In fact, Donald Trump and Elon Musk have both been pushing for our national private school voucher program. This would essentially take money that could go to our underfunded public schools and give those tax dollars to unaccountable private schools that don't have to accept the same students, don't have to take the same standardized tests, don't have to follow the same. rules. And what ends up happening in states that have tried these voucher scams is that most of the taxpayer funds go to wealthier families who already had their kids in private school to begin with. So you're taking money out of our underfunded public schools, giving them to wealthy

parents who already have their kids in private school. It's a transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top. It's reverse Robin Hood. It's welfare for the wealthy. And it's a travesty that this scam has passed into law here in Texas, but we should do everything we can to stop this from happening at the federal level. And of course, none of that is surprising that we're seeing a reverse Robin Hood scheme on display because right now we're seeing national Republicans gut Medicaid, gut food assistance programs so that they can offset a tax cut for the wealthiest Americans, where we'll see after tax income rise, according to the Penn Wharton analysis, after tax income rise for the top one-tenth of one percent of Americans by something like

$389,000, whereas the after-tax income actually decreases by $700 to $1,000 for the poorest Americans. And so, you know, we're seeing this at the federal level and also the state level. And that's what makes the Christian nationalist movement even more ironic or hypocritical because there is nothing more unchristian than stealing from the poor, to give to the rich. You know, the Christians in Congress should be feeding the hungry, but they're cutting food stamps.

They should be healing the sick, but they are cutting Medicaid. You know, they should be, you know, standing up to the billionaire class, but instead they're cutting their taxes. So this movement has no basis in the teachings of Jesus or in any of the major world religions. There is no major faith tradition around the world,

that says when someone gets sick, you see how much money you can make off of them, right? There is remarkable consistency and overlap between the major world of religions about how to treat our neighbors, how to treat the needy and the vulnerable. And so the current Republican majority, both here in Texas and in Washington, have gone far astray from the teachings of our faith. And can we dig into that for just a beat here? because, like, I'm coming to this, you know, conversation, obviously from a place of of some considerable degree of ignorance as, as a secular Jew from, from, you know, originally

from New Jersey. But what I'm having trouble kind of wrapping my head around is how this is, it is such a clear and obvious perversion of Christianity. I mean, it's the polar opposite of what Christianity calls for. And so how do its adherence kind of allow this to happen, see such a gross perversion of the religion, and it be deemed acceptable by so many people? Well, people empower using religion to benefit themselves is nothing new. We've seen this throughout world history, and it usually ends pretty badly. And so this is just the latest iteration of folks claiming to belong to a tradition, but it's,

In fact, they are worshipping power, whether that's social power, economic power, or political power. You know, I think this Ten Commandments bill is such a great example. In my faith, in the Christian faith, the Apostle Paul says that the Ten Commandments are actually summed up in one command. Love thy neighbor as thyself. That is the summation of the Ten Commandments. Love does no harm to a neighbor. Love is the fulfillment of the law.

That's from Romans 13. And so when I think about that, I try to figure out, is this bill loving? I'm a former middle school teacher. So I always, you know, evaluate these policy proposals through my experience as a teacher. And I remember students who didn't fit in, students who were different. If you're a Hindu student in a Texas public school, you stick out. If you're a Jewish student, a Muslim student, a Buddhist student, a Sikh student, an atheist student, in a Texas public school, you're a little different. And that's hard enough as a kid. Now a bunch of politicians at the state

capital are going to force their teacher to put a poster on the wall that says, Thou shall not worship any gods before me. We're forcing their teachers to put up a poster that says their faith is inferior. Their religious tradition is not welcome here. That's going to make their lives harder, not easier. And so I don't think forcing our religion down the throats of those students is love. I don't think forcing teachers to put up a poster against their will is love. And that's why I say that these policies

and that Christian nationalism more broadly is antithetical to the teachings of Jesus. Have there been folks who you've spoken with who may share your religion, share your values, and who may be Republican, who may be Trump supporters, who may have voted for Greg Abbott in that state, who are recognizing the gross perversion

of their religion at the hands of this Republican majority who basically wants to perpetuate this wealth transfer from the poor to the rich. I can't tell you how many conservative Christians have called and emailed my office over the last few weeks and months and thanked me for not only standing up for public education, standing up for local control, standing up for the Constitution, but also standing up for true Christian values. And of course, you know, I am an imperfect Christian and I fail all the time, but I am at least trying to stand up to those in the legislature who are using my faith tradition to hurt other people, to hurt our neighbors. And I think that's resonating with folks regardless

of their political party. I think we need more of that, not less of that. And for too long, Democrats in particular have ceded religion to the other side. And we have failed to talk about our tradition and how it influences our decision-making and our public policy proposals. We have to grasp for moral language when we are talking about politics. If we try to sanitize our politics and try to rid it of all religious influence, then it's going to be this kind of sterile 12-point policy plan that doesn't resonate with anyone. Yeah. We've got to get back to a place where we feel comfortable drawing upon these ancient

traditions to be able to talk about our politics in a moral way. Well, look, the reality is that very few Democrats have the tools to be able to do that, and certainly not as well as you have. You have really emerged as a major leader in this space, and you've done it with more, you know, integrity and dignity and empathy in class than I think every single one of these Republicans combined, especially as it relates to Christianity. And so I guess that raises the question. Look, we have a deep bench of really talented folks in Texas. And so what's next for you? Do you have a plan? I know that you're obviously a member of the state legislature right now,

but do you have a plan moving forward? Well, I am totally focused on the legislative session. You just mentioned it's kind of an all-encompassing experience. We only for five months every other year and consider thousands of bills, many of them, very dangerous bills that could do a lot of harm to my constituents. So my entire focus has to be here. But once this session ends in a week, I'm going to take some time to one, sleep, and then two, think about how I can make an impact going forward, and if that includes a run for statewide office. Well, looking forward to hearing what's next for you and to continue following your career. For those who are watching, I've, I've known and been friends with James here for for a few years now. And so I'm really grateful for

all the work that you're doing. Grateful for your voice in this space, again, a space where Democrats aren't often found. And again, really looking forward to seeing what the future holds. Well, and I just want to thank you for your work. You mentioned being secular, but you are certainly a voice of moral clarity in our politics right now. And I want to thank you for the work that you're doing. No Lie is brought to by Armour Colostrum. So we live in an environment that our biology was never designed for. EMFs, artificial light, seed oils, microplastics, endocrine disruptors, chronic stress. These modern assaults disrupt cellular signaling, negatively impacting our health and accelerate aging.

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15% off your first order. That's T-R-Y-A-R-M-R-A.com slash B-T-C. I'm joined now by Congressman Daniel Goldman. Thanks so much for joining me. Thanks for having me again, Brian. So you had recently had an instance where you confronted a bunch of plain-closed ice agents who were at your district office in New York. Here's a quick clip of that exchange. So what was said between you and these ice agents and what's your reason? reaction more broadly to these people showing up. We've had numerous instances on the news of, for example, ice agents showing up in court where, you know, these immigrants will show up for

their regularly scheduled hearings. The hearings will be dismissed only for those ice agents to then go ahead and arrest the immigrants anyway. Yeah. I mean, I was really focused at the time on asking these plainclothes ice agents why they were wearing masks. when they were making arrests, which is something that we've seen over and over again. And nothing that I've ever seen when I was a federal prosecutor working with ICE agents and other law enforcement agents ever before. And so I got some interesting responses. One guy looked at me and said, oh, because it's cold.

We were, of course, in a temperature controlled building. It was not cold. I said to him, well, we testified to that under oath. and he walked away from me. Another guy said to hide my face, so in case there are videos, which begs the question, what are you concerned about if you are doing a legitimate law enforcement operation, which arrests are done all the time by law enforcement agents and they're not done with masks.

So why are these plainclothes officers doing it? And it's just consistent with the policy of, and terror that this administration is trying to use against immigrants. Now, these are immigrants who are doing everything right, Ryan. They are coming through. They go to court and they are nonviolent. They are not criminals. They wouldn't have a lengthy court proceeding.

And their asylum applications would not be heard if that were the case. Many of them have filed asylum claims, which is a lawful pathway to come into this country. And the way that Christy Nome, the secretary, and Donald Trump and Stephen Miller are trying to get around this asylum process, which is too long, I certainly agree with that, is that they are maneuvering to dismiss deportation proceedings,

which then gets rid of the underlying asylum claim. And then they walk out and the ICE agents arrest them and initiate new deportation proceedings under this expedited removal process, which gives immigrants far fewer rights and due process than they would otherwise have in that court hearing. And so we hear so much about Stephen Miller talking about, we're getting all these murderers and child rapists and deporting them, and we're going to focus on convicted criminals who shouldn't be here, her terrorizing our cities, well, these people are the exact opposite. They're the ones who are doing it

right. And of course, it creates perverse incentives because the ones who are doing things the right way should not be the ones who ultimately get snookered and deported. That, of course, incentivizes people not to do it the right way, to go further underground, not to get work visas, not to pay taxes, and generally makes all of us less safe. You know, there's this whole genre of Trump supporters who are, for example, who own construction companies that are watching these ice raids take place where they just basically round up everybody who works there. And these are not violent, hardened criminals, the ones who Trump during the campaign promised to deport, these are regular hardworking folks who are coming here and making sure

that our economy actually functions. And so can I have your reaction to these folks who thought they were voting for one thing and are getting something completely different now that Trump's actually. actually in office? Well, I mean, that's true in immigration. It's true across the board. Trump lies, lies, lies. We've seen that, we've known that for a long time. And essentially, everything that he promised was all BS. He's doing in many respects the exact opposite, including in terms of his immigration policy. This is driven by a new directive. There's been reporting on this that Stephen Miller and Donald Trump and their research.

shuffling the heads of some of the immigration agencies to make 3,000 arrests per day, which more than triples generally the highest numbers that you see. And so this is now a numbers game for them. They're not focused on the bad ones. They're just focused on getting as many as they can. Even people who are doing things the right way, who may very well have legitimate asylum claims, and fear persecution if they go home. And they may stay, they may not legally, but these people often have work visas. They have families, they have lives,

and they're literally being grabbed as they walk out of a courtroom and detained and in some cases potentially removed from the country in less than a week. Right. Well, one other promise that Donald Trump made during the campaign was this idea that he was going to lower costs for everybody.

And of course, he's engaged in this practice where, you know, obviously costs are going up as the result of his misguided trade war, but we're also seeing deep cuts to programs that Americans rely on that are inevitably going to make life more expensive for those folks, including Medicaid cuts and food assistance cuts. Senator Joni Ernst from Iowa was asked today about those deep cuts to Medicaid and SNAP. And the impact that that's going to have, specifically the fact that, you know, when this happens,

there are folks in this country who are going to die as the result of that. Here's her response. So, we're, people are not, well, we all are going to die. So, Joni Ernst saying, we're all going to die. Can I get your reaction to that? Is that what they teach, is that what they teach you guys at politics school? Just, you know, when somebody has concerns about deep cuts to Medicaid and food assistance, that your response should be to shrug it off and just say that everybody's going to die.

anyway? That should be the Republican mantra. That's effectively what they believe. They don't think that our safety net programs are worthwhile. They think tax cuts for billionaires are far more important than making sure children can eat. That's where their priorities lie. That's what this reconciliation bill did. And in combination, as you point out, with the tariff tax, which is just going to increase prices, it's going to increase inflation, and so many more millions of Americans not getting health care, not getting food assistance, it is going to result in people dying because of Republican policies. And you see how much they care from Joni Ernst, which is not at all. Right. Because we're all going to die. So who cares if you die

sooner rather than later, you aren't worthy of being in this country and seeking the American dream. And that in combination with this immigration policy, which is basically just a xenophobic attack on foreigners, that's who the Republican Party is today. It is people who no longer believe that the American dream exists, no longer believe that we are a country of immigrants where people come for freedom. for liberty to pursue the American dream, that's not what they're looking for. They are just looking to give the halves even more and to try to go back to the 1950s in where the world of

white supremacy. And that's the Republican Party. What she just said encapsulates how the Republican Party acts. She just said it out loud. Most of them don't. But their actions fully support what she just said. There was another provision in this bill that would actually limit the course to enforce contempt proceedings or contempt charges against those who defy court rulings. And obviously, we have seen the Trump administration make a traffic completely in defying what the court actually rules. We saw that all the way with that unanimous ruling about Kilmara Brago-Garcia. And we've had numerous other instances where the courts have ruled something. The Trump administration decides not to comply. And then we have to engage in this whole

potential contempt process as the result of that. And so this would basically be taking the courts the court's one recourse from the Trump administration away. Can I have you reaction to the fact that really the Republican Party more broadly is attempting to neuter every branch of government, whether it's the judicial branch by virtue of this provision or the legislative branch. I mean, they're self-neutering in a way. But even with these tariffs, I mean, the Trump administration is trying to unilaterally impose these tariffs, even after we're getting rulings from the international trade court saying that that's illegal. But, it's not like the, it's not like the Republicans in Congress are going to do anything to protect

their own autonomy. So in a way, the only branch that the Trump administration views as legitimate is the executive branch, and they're proving it with actions like this. Brian, you hit the nail on the head. And this is actually what I said during our judiciary committee markup on this particular bill. The Republicans in Congress have handed over all of their own independent authority as a separate and equal branch of government. with the power of the purse and with oversight responsibilities to ensure that appropriations that Congress has passed are adhered to and followed by the executive branch as just one example. So they come to Washington every week just to give their own power to Donald Trump.

But that's not enough for them. It's not enough for them to just concede all of their power to their orange master. No, they need to go after the courts as well because the courts are the third independent branch of government, separate and equal branch. And the courts cannot be swayed by Donald Trump's threats in the same way because these judges have life tenure.

They don't have an election coming up. And so in order to help Donald Trump implement and execute his lawlessness the Republicans in Congress snuck in a provision in this reconciliation bill that makes it much harder for a court to hold a party in contempt. And contempt is the way that courts enforce their orders. If they are not adhered to, if they're defied, as you pointed out, Donald Trump and his administration have been doing, then a court can escalate their enforcement of it through

contempt proceedings all the way up to and including potential jail time. Well, in order to neuter, as you say, the authority of the courts to enforce their orders, the Republicans put a provision in that makes it harder for courts to enforce their orders and therefore makes it easier for Donald Trump to continue his lawlessness. They are facilitating, aiding, and abetting, and they are accomplices to Donald Trump's complete lawlessness. One more question here on judges, and that is that we're even seeing judges who Trump himself appointed rule against this administration. We're seeing Supreme Court justices that Donald Trump himself appointed, these far-right Supreme Court justices, even recognizing that

Trump is often going too far and acting in a matter that's so extrajudicial, so illegal, so unconstitutional, that they have to push back on it. And that's obviously, garnering a lot of ill will and push back from the administration itself. And so there is this push now that it seems that even, you know, that the only judges who Trump is going to bother appointing are ones who are so aggressively unqualified, but who are perfectly content to barrel ahead with whatever policies Trump wants. And so would you be in favor of some type of legislation if and when the Democrats are able to regain control of Congress to make it so that there is some low, that there's some minimum threshold that a judge has to, that a judge

nominee has to abide by to be able to be nominated and, and confirms. Like, for example, some type of minimal rating by the ABA as opposed to, I mean, we've seen unqualified judges that are nominated and confirmed by Trump, but, but I presume we're going to get to a point where, you know, we'll have people who, who maybe aren't judges at all, but who are just so aggressively pro-Trump, so sycophantic for Trump, that so long as they're willing to do his bidding, no questions asked, those are the folks now who are going to get the jobs. Yeah. I mean, look at Emil Beauvais, who was the acting deputy attorney general, was the one

who implemented the completely absurd and lawless doesn't begin to describe it, really unethical prosecution and dismissal agreement with Eric Adams, where he admitted that it had nothing to do with the facts of the law. It was just purely political, which of course is not how our criminal justice system should be enforced. The ABA that you mentioned, I saw a letter today that Pam Bondi released saying that the ABA will no longer be allowed to weigh in on judicial appointments because I guess the administration doesn't like the fact that the ABA is an independent legal organization of esteemed lawyers who's reputable. goes back decades. And sometimes they rule, they recommend, as you point out, that judges are

unqualified. So rather than actually nominate qualified judges, well, let's just kill the messenger and take that away. Right. I think it would be hard to put a minimum rating in along the lines of you say. I could imagine a scenario where you put a minimum amount of experience as a lawyer, you know, 10 years or something where you would say that something a little bit more objective and easily quantifiable. But there is the advice and consent responsibility in the Senate. And so there is a check on this if the Senate Republicans wanted to actually do their jobs and make sure that baseline qualified people are put into lifetime tenure appointments on the court.

And Donald Trump is furious that the judges that he appoints, that he appointed are not lock, stock, and barrel going along with everything that he says. And that includes the three justices on the Supreme Court. Even today, he attacked, or yesterday, he attacked Leonard Leo, who was the head of the Federalist Society and is the architect of so much of this right-wing swing in the Supreme Court. But Donald Trump's upset because the judges that Leonard Leo recommended that he took aren't as extreme. as political, really, as Donald Trump wants them to be. And finally, Congressman, let's finish off with this.

I'm going to put a clip on the screen of you at Game 3 of the Nick's Pacers series. This was their first win in the series. I'm sure that, you know, you heard from everybody you've ever known when you were put on the screen here. How do you feel about the rest of this series here? It's 3-2 right now. Yeah, look, that was an incredible game, an incredible comeback. There were a few of us Knicks fans all around in one area behind the Knicks bench. Really enjoying, including my 10-year-old and 8-year-old kids.

We had a terrific trip, and it was really great to be there to support them. And last night, I was in the garden again when the Knicks actually had a really dominating performance. So game six, tomorrow back in Indianapolis, you can expect the Pacers to be ready and much better on their home court. it is going to be very hard to beat them. But if the Knicks can play defense like they did last night, they've got a good shot. And if it comes back to the garden for game seven on Monday, you better bring earplugs.

That place is going to be going crazy. If it goes back to the garden, you're going to be there? I'm definitely going to do everything I can to be there. All right. Well, from your lips to God's ears in terms of how the Knicks do, I come from a long line of New Yorkers. So we're pulling for this here. The city is fired up.

We're fired up right now. Congressman, appreciate your time. Thanks so much. Thank you, Ryan. Thanks again to James Tolariko and Dan Goldman. 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.

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