MS NOW Exclusive: House GOP Privately Fears Midterm Doom

0:00ETLA Law Group California's injury law firm has taken on many types of cases from slips and falls, accidents, dog bites, and other negligence injury cases. We don't back down. We take the fight to court if needed. Have an accident or injury? Contact us now. Text Injury Help to 4022-22. That's Injury Help to 4022-22. Go to call downtown.com now. It reads and usage me apply. Addis Rottu by Ferid Jagupto S. Warg. 22476540 South Santa Fe Los Angeles prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. We've been the trusted experts since 1960 because nobody knows tires better than we do, and with over 90 tire brains we have an abundance of options in stock for your vehicle. Buy and drive today at americastire.com. Let's get you taken care of. Welcome to the beat. I'm Melissa Murray in for Ari Melbur. And we begin tonight with President Trump flailing after his White House press ban backfires. MSNOW, CNN, and Politico have already sued over the ban.

1:01The first hearing in that suit is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, and the judge has ordered the White House to respond to the media company's request for a temporary training order by today. His ban has also had immediate and perhaps unintended consequences. TV networks have united against the ban by refusing to cover the president. The Washington Post notes that Trump is now being deprived of quote, the thing he craves most, attention. While the New York Times wrote that he's facing quote the sting of cancellation. Here's the president today lashing out at CNN for covering him at the United Nations a location where the network is notably not banned. Take a listen. For surprise that CNN is here covering me you shouldn't be here you should not you should not be here covering me you said you weren't going to cover me you shouldn't be covering me. Quick fact check CNN never said that it wouldn't cover the president. Indeed CNN is a party to the

2:07lawsuit seeking access to the White House in order to cover the president. Trump's allies are however rushing in to defend him while Democrats call out this latest brazen attack on free speech. Take a listen. We're not closing CNN there aren't a bunch of police officers or soldiers kicking down the doors of MSNBC or MSN now whatever it's called and and arresting people and I'm plugging it from the grid. They're just not allowed to work from the workspace at the White House. I told the president that we're going to have all of the members of the press here on the lawn and that is something that I believe in is is everyone no matter the opinion or the critique that we engage. The Wall Street Journal reports that the president has reportedly floated the possibility of moving all of the press corps out of the White House and that's been something he thought about many times before including as recently as last month. Now a move like that may like this ban actually backfire on the White House. The president though is now launching a

3:11Trump TV channel on YouTube and that drew immediate criticism. Some called it a quote global embarrassment. New York magazine noted that quote no one is watching. So it's fair to say that the ban is garnering widespread backlash and late night host wasted no time getting in on the action. Listen up. The hottest spot in DC has just changed their door policy. Bad news is fake news to Donald Trump. Trump banned all three outlets and I thought this was out of even dress like Alan coming to tell him you're banished from my castle. You could ban the press or you couldn't be a better president. You realize how far south somebody has to go for Fox news to defend CNN. Speaking of Fox news defending CNN here's Fox news legal analyst Jonathan Turley criticizing the ban. These courts have emphasized even the ones that favored the White House that

4:18can't be done arbitrarily. You can't engage in viewpoint discrimination. Here that seems to be the case in space. You have the president saying I don't like this coverage. This runs against the grain of our traditions our values and frankly the First Amendment. The president himself already seems like he might be ready to back down from this. Earlier today he said he would probably let the ban media back into the White House if the court rules that he must. Joining me now to discuss all of this is Andrew Weissman, former FBI General Counsel and an MSNOW legal analyst as well as at the table, Jamil Jafer, executive director of the night First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and former deputy legal director for the ACLU. All right, Andrew let me go to you first. Even the Fox News legal analyst can't find a way to argue that this ban is legal. Do you agree with Fox news? You know this is a rare time for me to say yes I do Melissa, but you know there's there's

5:24like good news and bad news in this story. The good news as you noted is the idea that we are finally seeing people act in solidarity. We were looking for universities too that we were looking for law firms to do that. Here you are seeing the media across various spectrums of political ideology understanding this is a First Amendment issue and they can see that if it's going to be MSNOW today it could be Fox News tomorrow and so that's the good news. The bad news is this is so blatantly unconstitutional and while the president did it and we're sort of enured to the idea that the president did it we know of no person in the White House who objected to this and all of these people are public officials who took an oath of office and it tells you how they view the oath versus how they view the loyalty to the president with something that is just flat out unconstitutional.

6:27So Jimmy let's a great point there are a lot of people in this White House who went to law school who have taken an oath to defend the constitution and they are apparently on board with this. This is going to go before a Trump appointee tomorrow and this is someone who's already had a little bit of a taste of the president's efforts to limit access to the media. He also oversaw the case that was brought by CNN reporter Jim Acosta when he was ousted from the White House press corps. Do you think that is going to shape the way he views this case or is this just an open and shut situation and maybe the judge will even rule from the bench here? Yeah I think it's a very straightforward first amendment case. Normally there is a dispute over whether government action is viewpoint discriminatory if you're you know if you're litigating a first amendment suit you're always trying to prove that the government's action was based on your viewpoint that they retaliated against you because they didn't like what you had to say. But here the president said it multiple times he said you know I'm imposing this ban because I

7:27don't like the reporting of these news organizations. So there's no factual dispute. And the legal question there's a you know it's a fifth amendment question which you reference having to do with the procedural rights that the news organizations have. Judge Kelly has already decided in a different case. The Acosta case exactly. That kicking somebody out from the press corps without giving them notice and an opportunity to be heard is unconstitutional. So that's very straightforward. And then the DC Circuit since the Acosta decision has held that the press corps is a public forum which you know is a fancy first amendment way of saying that the government can't act on the basis of viewpoint in that space. So I think it's a pretty straightforward case. So if it is a straightforward case Andrew do you worry that if the president loses here because in part he's been a little too clear about what the intentions are could he go back and figure out a better way a protection way perhaps to

8:31ban the press he doesn't want but just to do it in a way that seems less obviously discriminatory. You know perhaps again this plan to move the entire press corps out of the White House is a way to limit access to make the coverage perhaps less obviously objectionable to him. You know that that's possible I mean the counter is exactly what you opened with Melissa which is that this is somebody who craves the limelight and you know moving the press away is you know he's like wait a second I'm going to follow that then because he wants that attention. Are there ways that he could try to sort of craft something that could withstand scrutiny based on what Jimiel talked about which is the DC circuit does have a two to one decision that gives some wiggle room for areas like the plane the Oval Office areas where they have said that the president can have

9:31some sort of viewpoint discrimination. It's taking basically the idea like you know he doesn't have to sit down with the Rachel Maddow and then sit down with Fox News he's able to make those kinds of decisions and they've they've sort of expanded that to certain locations that are more less private. He could try to do that but I think here if the news organizations band together that's like his that is their power that is what we were all talking about when when there was attack on universities and an attack on law firms and I feel like this is one where the news organizations are just so getting this correctly in terms of their power and how to insert it. So Jimiel you suggested that maybe the judge Judge Kelly actually rules from the bench tomorrow. This is such an open and shut case that a ruling maybe he should. He thinks and maybe he will. Are you worried though that this administration which already seems to you know get very close

10:32to scurrying legal pronouncements from courts may actually justify this entirely. Yeah I mean I think scurrying is a very generous way of putting it you know I think that they have been you know contemptuous in the colloquial sense at least of that of that term of judicial orders in so many different contexts. This is obviously part of a larger strategy. I mean this the expulsion of these particular news organizations is part of a larger strategy to restrict and intimidate the press. I mean we've seen it with the AP exclusion from the White House press pool. They're doing some you know similar shenanigans with the Pentagon press pool you know imposing restrictions on journalists access to the Pentagon. And I think it's you know partly about intimidating the press and partly about just putting a question mark in all of our minds every time there is a story published. You know by by a news organization now the reader can't help but wonder well would this be different if you know CNN weren't worried about losing access to the White

11:36House press pool. I think that's a really damaging thing and it's hard to even if these news organizations win this case tomorrow. I think that unfortunately President Trump has probably done some real damage to public trust in the media which was already I think yeah at a low point. So Andrew to that point this is not the first attack that this president has made on a free press and is this simply about whittling down the available accountability institutions that are available to critique and hold this administration to account because we've already seen the law firms that might be available to provide pro bono resources to challenge this government whittled down. We have seen the president use the power of government regulation to bring the media to heal. Is this simply another way to limit the kind of accountability that he faces at the end of this second term? Absolutely and also to mold what it is that the electorate sees and he's

12:36right now doing this in a different way which is having the FCC sort of attack and put pressure on media organizations sometimes with some fair success and yes I am talking about CBS and other news organizations. The paramount merger which the Department of Justice is not seeking to prevent is another way that there is sort of now is going to be a sort of damically is over CNN. And so there are various levers that the government has to sort of turn us into sort of an autocratic regime and this is this is straight out of the 1930s in Germany but you can't there are much more modern ways to see government to do this so that the public does not see information that political officials do not want the public to know. All right so bring news this just start us off this evening. Andrew Weissman, Jamil Jafer, thanks so much for kicking us off. Thank you.

13:40Coming up what experts say is a new war crime threat from Donald Trump on the world stage at the United Nations. Plus the latest on that ice shooting victim who was detained with a bullet still lodged in his back. But first what Republicans are privately saying about the midterms as the president's approval ratings sink to all time lows we are back in just 90 seconds. We now turn to exclusive MSNOW reporting that details that House Republicans are privately worried that they are doomed in the midterms. One House member says quote we're going to get crushed. The only question is by how much. Another GOP House member said if you're a Republican and you're not concerned quote you're stupid. Today Fox News shifted a whopping 17 congressional races to favor the Democrats. And the president is down to a 29% approval rating

14:47in a new poll with 68% of respondents disapproving of his performance. All of this as food and gas prices hammer voters and multiple Republican candidates who have long backed the president's war in Iran are now trying to change their tunes. Here's GOP Senate candidate in Michigan Congressman Mike Rogers. Michigan families are struggling with the price of everyday life. Rochery's cost too much. You have to bring prices down. The war with Iran needs to end and end quickly. But it's not just the Iran war. This week a powerful House Republican came out against allocating funding for the president's triumphal arch in the district of Columbia. And a GOP senator says that he wants to subpoena Donald Trump Jr. over Trump Jr.'s Russian funded wedding weekend celebration. Clear. Trump Jr. has said it was a gift from a friend.

15:48In Florida the GOP candidate for governor Byron Donald is quote stripping his campaign website of all references to the president. And this morning a conservative columnist in the Wall Street Journal ripped the president's actions in office as quote a necessarily cruel and indiscriminate fundamentally un-American grotesque self-enrichment buffoonish symbolic acts hubris vanity recklessness. Oh my. And today not to be outdone the president's agricultural secretary Brooke Rollins is making headlines for suggesting that Americans who are facing the rising cost of beef should simply make different choices. Take a listen. If it is too expensive unlike fuel binning you can eat chicken, pork, salmon, eggs, there are other sources of really good protein and all of those prices are coming down as well. Coming up I have two perfect guests to break all of this down including various protein options.

16:51All of that is up next after this short break. ETLA Law Group California's injury law firm has taken on many types of cases from slips and falls accidents, dog bites and other negligence injury cases. We don't back down. We take the fight to court if needed. Have an accident or injury? Contact us now. Text injury help to 402-22. That's injury help to 402-22. Go to CalmDowntown.com now. It reads and usage me a plot. Addis Barcubae for read Jagupto S.W.R.D. Count LA Law Group S.V. Number 28247-6-540 South Santa Fe Los Angeles prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. We've been the trusted experts since 1960 because nobody knows tires better than we do. And with over 90 tire brains we have an abundance of options in stock for your vehicle. Buy and drive today at americastire.com. Let's get you taken care of. Some say Odo Business Management software is like fertilizer because of the way it promotes growth. Some say Odo is like a magic bean stock, scaling with you while being magically affordable.

17:53And some say Odo's programs for manufacturing, accounting and more are like building blocks. For creating a custom software suite, but I say Odo is all of it. Fertilizer Magic Bean Stock Building Blocks for business. Yeah. Odo. Exactly what every business needs. Sign up at Odo.com. That's Odo.com. I was with the president last night and he talked about gas price and he talked about the need to make sure we get them down. But he used to do everything humanly possible and it does take some time. So that's what we need. We need more time right now. We need a longer runway. Joining me now is Molly Junkfast contributing writer with the New York Times and host of the Fast Politics podcast. Also with me at the table is David Litt, former Obama speech writer, best selling author and the author of the word salad sub-stack. Molly, we just heard the R&C chair say the gas is too expensive, but the solution is to give Republicans, quote, more runway. And last week we had JD Vance telling us to just give the Republicans one more chance.

18:57Sounds a lot like 90s R&B. Is it a winning message for the midterms? Look, what I think is really hurt Donald Trump more than anything is the fact that he has actually said, he actually said to voters like we're going to find peace, you know, we're going to go to peace with Iran and gas prices are going to go down and then the gas prices did go down and the market went up. So we've seen a couple of times over the course of the suhran war him do that and what it's demonstrated to voters is that actually the war did raise gas prices. And so even though that, you know, he thought that was helping him, it actually ultimately I think really voters saw just how tied the war on Iran was to gas prices. And so there was like no way to make any excuses about it. The other problem that has really been a problem for Trump is that he never tried to sell the war in the first place. And they had so many different sort of messages on it that there was never any clarity. So you would say, well, it's because of a nuke, well, it's because of this, because of

20:00that. And I think it's just sort of too late for them to be able to message it now. Also, David to that point, there has been a lot of mixed messaging certainly on the Iran war, but they all seem to be getting in line on this message, which is baby, give me one more chance. Like is this a winning message going into the midterms or are Americans over it? I think, you know, Melissa, it's a winning message with people who are already inclined to believe them. And that I think is what if I were a Republican strategist or a lot in my life would have gone differently than it's gone. But also, I think it's the same thing where the convention, the Trump of Paloza that they had earlier in some time. Yes, the midterm convection. Exactly. Yeah. It was, it was a lot of preaching to the choir and saying, give us another chance, works really well with people who said, yeah, I'd like to give you another chance. But a lot of those voters who said, I actually don't really like Donald Trump, his policy, the first term, I maybe didn't vote for him, but I'm going to give him a chance, even though part of me wonders if that's a bad idea. They don't want to give Trump another chance. They were worried about giving him the first

21:02second chance. Is this midterm elections going to be about turnout? And if it is about turnout, is that really going to be served by give us another chance? Or is that just for the Democrats to get out? I think that they give us another chance is a turnout mechanism for Democrats too. Right? The Democrats are looking at this saying, that's exactly what we don't want. But I think that every midterm election is about turnout. The big question that I'm asking myself is this huge red wave of money, right? The Democrats are going to get out spent a lot in this election. And a lot of that money has not arrived yet. Is that going to be able to push Republican turnout up a little bit? If they can get three, four percent more turnout than you would expect, that could take some of these races off the table. Right. So Molly, this is going to be a turnout game. And some of their Republicans who are running are trying to help themselves a little bit by distancing themselves from this president and a record that looks really uneven right now. Is this going to work with voters, especially for people like Mike Rogers from Michigan, who was for the war before he was against it? Yeah. And Byron Donalds and Florida, who has wiped his Trump off his website,

22:08look, especially when you're a candidate who exists only because you've been endorsed by Trump, or because you're a mega friendly like Ken Paxton, I think it's a, I think it's a real problem for them. The other thing that I would add is that in 2018, Democrats way overperformed and and and the and the economy was much better, right? People gave the economy much higher marks. Here we have a midterm election where even if the stock market is up, people voters are very sour on this economy. So you have a problem, which is you have like record ideal prices, high gas prices, voters who are upset about the economy. And the message we're seeing from the Republicans, and I think David has a good point about all the spending, you know, we're seeing the Magapack has really just, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars. And they're going to spend a lot of money. They're already buying these huge ad buys. But the message from them is a lot of culture war stuff, which I don't think moves the needle the same way if you can't

23:09afford to fill your car up with gas. And also just a lot of like, you know, kind of this kind of, you know, we are going to sort of get it together eventually, which again, I just think people don't go down that. So David Molley just mentioned the enormous campaign spending asymmetry that exists that favors the Republican. This is a situation where a lot of the wins are attacking in the Democrats favor, but not the money part. So the Republicans are sitting on a huge war chest. Is that going to make a big difference going into the short term of this race where it really is going to come down to the wire? I think it's an unknown, right? I think there's this question of the red wave of money is going to crash over all of these media markets. And then if Democrats have withstood that, I would be much more confident saying, okay, definitely a blue wave is coming. We don't really know yet. I think there's some reasons to think that Americans right now who are already looking at the economy and how unequal it is, how you have the richest people in

24:11history trying to get even more while ordinary Americans are struggling, you could also see this backfire where saying, hey, by the way, we're bankrolled by all the people rigging the system is also not a winning message. It's a mulley to that point. What about these coordinated spending packages? Like so like party ads that are being parceled out in some of these competitive districts. I know that there's a lot being pushed into North Carolina where Roy Cooper is on the ballot for Senate. A lot of this seems to be aimed at preventing the Democrats from taking over the upper chamber. Are those likely to be successful given the huge war chest that the Republicans are sitting on? Well, that's a real question. And you have like fair shake the cryptocurrency pack deciding to spend, spend spend, and they're going to go there and say, you know, what I have read. Recent reporting says that they are going to support Republicans and not Democrats because they're upset about this the pro cryptocurrency act that has just failed in the Senate. But the the kids

25:12call the clarity act. But I do think that that may backfire because remember there were these judicial races in 2025 in Wisconsin where Elon Musk came to Wisconsin, put on a cheese hat, danced around, and also poured millions of millions of dollars into it. And it actually ended up hurting the candidates and the Democrat ran away with it. So I do think that when voters see that, we've seen this with A-PAC spending too, when voters see that they're that a big group is pouring money into a race because of something else, it tends to undermine the candidates now. It depends, but like the Haley Stevens primary is a great example. She got a lot of money from A-PAC. And she didn't win. So it's not always a fact to complete. And I think we just have to see how it plays out. But there certainly is a huge, huge Republicans have just a ton more money this cycle. All right, David Litt and Molly Junkfast, we will watch this space. Thanks so much for helping us

26:15break all of that down. Still ahead. Donald Trump on the world stage insulting allies and threatening potential war crimes against Iran. But first, the latest on the inhumane treatment of that ice shooting victim in Texas with bullets still in his back. That's after this spring. Tonight, there are new developments in that story about a man shot and wounded by an ice agent in Austin, Texas. Just a warning, what we're about to show could be disturbing to those of you at home. Moments ago, the Austin Police Department released body camera footage from one of the officers at the scene. See here, the off-duty officer walk up to the scene after the shooting, pulling Wilbur Raphael Garcés Perez out of the car. Garcés Perez is then handcuffed and we get a closer look at his injury as his shirt is ripped off, exposing the wound. This new footage

27:16comes after a federal judge temporarily blocked Garcés Perez's deportion deportation, excuse me. That is according to his lawyer who said the judge ordered Garcés Perez to attend a hearing next week. The lawyer also is raising alarms about the government's alleged treatment of Garcés Perez while he was in ice custody. Last night, Garcés Perez, who is reportedly partially paralyzed after that shooting, was returned to the hospital with a bullet still lodged in his back. The move happened after the government appeared to have retaliated against Garcés Perez for speaking out by phone at a press conference. His lawyer spoke about that alleged retaliation and Garcés Perez's condition. Take a listen. He was visited by a staffer for Congressman Castro who was able to observe that he was losing mobility on the left side of his body, both in his arm and his leg, which would make sense because he has a bullet lodged near his spine. After Wilbur

28:23spoke out at the press conference, guards came in, took his tablet away, were rough with him, and chained him in handcuffs and leg braces and a waist chain, and took him away in a wheelchair. After receiving medical care last night, Garcés Perez is reportedly back in ice custody. His lawyer says he is receiving only Tylenol and ibuprofen for paying management and remains in isolation on a flat bed and without the electronic tablet he previously used to communicate. Members of Congress are now calling for accountability. Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro says he and fellow Congressman Greg Casar will visit Garcés Perez tomorrow and that they will quote, demand his release. The New York Times reports that witnesses observed Garcés Perez's car and an unmarked SUV stopped underneath a highway overpass facing in opposite directions.

29:26An officer exited the SUV and approached Garcés Perez's car. As the car inch forward, the officer remained standing to the side of the car, witnesses then reported that three gunshots rang out. Here is that moment according to a Times analysis. Again, we want to warn viewers that you may find this footage disturbing. Oh my god. Oh. That video appears to show shots being fired into Garcés Perez's car. Garcés Perez says he was attempting to comply with ice agents and that the car was not moving when they shot him. Joining me now to discuss all of this is Aaron Reiklin Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council. Aaron, what's your reaction to what we are now seeing unfold in Austin,

30:32especially when it comes to this new footage that the Austin Police Department has released and this apparent alleged treatment by the government to Garcés Perez here. What I think we're seeing is yet another shooting by an ICE officer of a person inside their vehicle. This is the third shooting that we had in the last few months. The last two left people dead, including Lorenzo Sagado-Lorajo and Houston, who was shot and killed by an ICE officer. Thankfully, Mr. Garcés Perez is alive and survives and is able to talk about what happened to him. But as we've already seen, when he did try to speak out, he was retaliated against according to his lawyer. And this is an unfortunate trend. We have seen in case after case, when people go to the media, they get their privileges taken away from them inside ICE detention centers. So, Aaron, is that something that the judge here can address? Like this judge is apparently blocked temporarily. Mr. Garcés Perez's deportation from the United States could he do more

31:37to compel the government to provide proper medical care and to make his condition a little more comfortable given his injuries? I wish, but unfortunately, federal judges have limited authority to order ICE to take specific actions in cases like this. And at its core, this lawsuit is a habeas corpus lawsuit is about his detention and his treatment inside the United States. So anything about how he is being cared for inside the detention center will have to come through other means. So, and there's been a lot going on with regard to conditions in ICE detention. What does this particular situation say about the broader conditions that detainees experience in those government facilities? Yeah, Mr. Garcés Perez is being held in the Pure Soul ICE detention center, which is about an hour south of San Antonio. This is a detention center that has been around for many decades and has long had complaints about how people are treated inside of them. Though it doesn't have the reputation as the worst in the country, there are many allegations that people don't receive

32:39adequate medical care that it's a times difficult to contact lawyers and that guards have retaliated against people for raising objections to their treatment. Medical care in particular is a common concern at ICE detention centers. And in this case, we have Mr. Garcés Perez saying he has only been given Tylenol in response to his pain of being shot and his broken clavicle. And that kind of treatment only getting Tylenol is common. So one of the things that was notable about this case is that Mr. Garcés Perez was slated to be deported. A judge obviously temporarily enjoying the government from deporting him. But his lawyer said that Mr. Garcés Perez could not actually be located in the ICE system after he was first released from the hospital, but they've now been able to to locate him. All of this comes on the heels of new AP reporting that alleges that ICE is now hiding the location of thousands of detainees with final removal orders, which could quote speed up their deportations by making last minute legal challenges harder to pursue because you can't

33:43actually locate the individual. Do you think this is a policy change that ICE is pursuing an order to speed up these deportations? And is this part of the new strategy to enhance the immigration enforcement efforts that we've already seen? Well, it would appear to be so. The policy is that as of last Tuesday, any person who is in ICE detention centers who has a final order of removal is wiped clean from the online ICE detainee locator. And according to the Washington post, individuals also will not be able to call ICE and find out where their loved one or their client is being held. Now, this is outrageous. At no point in the past has the government ever tried to hide large numbers of people, potentially thousands of people from the public knowing where they're being held. And I think people should understand this is going to interfere with the ability of people to contact their lawyers and for loved ones to know where their family members being held.

34:45Right, Erin Reiklin-Malnick, thanks so much for that update on this case on that broader picture. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Up next, Donald Trump gave a bizarre speech at the UN today. We'll have the latest on that after this break. ATLA Log Group California's injury law firm has taken on many types of cases from slips and falls, accidents, dog bites, and other negligence injury cases. We don't back down. We take the fight to court if needed. Have an accident or injury? Contact us now. Text injury help to 40222. That's injury help to 40222. Go to call downtown.com now. It reads and usage me apply. Addis Rarku by Ferid Jagupto S. Warg Downtown LA Log Group. S.B. Number 282476540 South Santa Fe Los Angeles. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. We've been the trust in experts since 1960 because nobody knows tires better than we do. And with over 90 tire brains, we have an abundance of options in stock for your vehicle. Buy and drive today at americastire.com. Let's get you taken care of.

35:48Running a business is hard enough, so why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other? Introducing ODO, the only business software you'll ever need. It's an all-in-one fully integrated platform that makes your work easier, from CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, and more. And the best part, ODO replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. That's why over thousands of businesses have made the switch. So why not you? Try ODO for free at ODO.com. That's ODOO.com. Donald Trump returned to the United Nations today, this time to make a speech in which he insulted allies, threatened war crimes against Iran, and suggested that he toppled a foreign government for profit. On Iran, the president bizarrely zig-zagged from claiming that he has been a great peacemaker to also using about, quote, annihilating the Iranians into hell. Take a listen.

36:50Given only a short time to make this world better, safer, and more prosperous for our children, for the people on earth, we have to take advantage of it. Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic, and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again? While others have spoken of peace, I have made peace. Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope? The president also bragged about seizing Venezuela's oil production after removing that country's leader, saying, quote, to the victor belong the spoils. And later, in a meeting with President Flotlilizolensky, Trump appeared to blame Ukraine for the high cost of diesel in the United States. Joining me now to discuss all of this is Elise Labet, global affairs journalist, host of the Cosmo-politics, Stubstack, and founder of Zivi News. Elise, what did you

37:51make of the president of these United States claiming to be a peacemaker while also threatening to annihilate Iran and send its people into hell? Well, Melissa, I think it depends if you want to look at it as good news or bad news, but I think at this point, the international community just kind of rolls off what the president says and kind of watches his actions. But certainly, I think what he says is an indicator of what he really thinks. And I think there was always this talk about how Maduro, for instance, was a war criminal and he did do terrible things to his people. But there was always a suspicion that this was about the oil. And the president was pretty clear about that the US is happy that it took the oil. And in Iran, I think the Iranians at this point just have heard this all before. I do think they kind of look at it and yon. They're ready for a deal. I think the Iranians, we saw that the Iranians met with US officials for about three hours today.

38:54My sources tell me that the Iranians are either for a deal, but let's be clear. The deal that they're looking for is pushing us back to that memorandum of understanding that we had in late spring, early summer, which was essentially giving Iran whatever it wants. It was certainly not any better than we were in fact, worse off them before the war started. And when the president says he has a choice here, Melissa, do I annihilate them or do I make a deal? I think the choice is do I want the straight of our moves open? Do I want those oil prices to go down? Or am I going to go forward and really eliminate that nuclear program? Because eliminating the nuclear program is going to take a lot of troops, a lot of manpower and those oil prices aren't going to go down. All right. New CNN polling shows that the president has hit his lowest approval ratings on foreign affairs, just 29%. Again, is that going to shape the way this administration responds? I mean, if it requires sending more troops in order to neutralize the nuclear threat in Iran,

39:58that seems like we're going to be here for a while. I don't think the president has the appetite for it. And more importantly, I don't think Congress has the appetite for it. And especially if the midterms go the way the polls are looking and that the Democrats take back the House at least and possibly the Senate, we really don't know about the Senate. It looks pretty much like they'll take the House. Congress is definitely not going to go for it. So I think the president isn't going to have as much runway to do what he wants in terms of military action because Congress has to appropriate those funds. But you saw today the president said, I don't really care about the midterms, which you kind of would expect the president to say that politics is not what I'm thinking when I go to war. But you know, he's been all over the place. So we really don't know if that's true. I would suspect he doesn't care about the midterms. And that's I think what Republicans are facing right now, which is why they don't want to campaign with him. Can I tack back to something that you

41:01said earlier about the global community effectively being ignored by all of this? Like they've already seen the president do so much that nothing is really shocking. But yet we've seen the global community realign itself in some very surprising way. Canada seeking entry to the EU becoming affiliated with the EU. What is the global stage going to look like? And what will these coalitions look like in the post Trump landscape because of this period? Yeah, I mean, that's what I think is the more important question. They may kind of roll their eyes. They know who this president is. They know that he's not going to change. But Melissa, they could say, oh, we could just hang on for two more years. I think that's what they did in the first term. But they saw that the American people voted him in again. So even if you have a president that comes and does some of this, they could elect another president that does this or or even worse. And I agree with you 100% and this is what concerns me that you see these realignments, whether it's Canada, whether it's people going to China, whether it's countries going to China, whether it's the Gulf states, the president

42:07met with the Gulf states to talk about what's going on that the president doesn't want to help Saudi Arabia with the Houthis. They had to go to the British who announced today that they were going to help them militarily. And so I think you're looking at possibly some of these Gulf countries making their own deals with Iran because they don't see the US as a reliable partner. And when you see this week that Xi Jinping is coming for a meeting with President Trump, this is the concern that countries are going more towards China. If you can't rely on the US and its dependability and its strength and its power and its values that it's had all of these years, then maybe China starts to look like a viable partner. And so everything that's going on, whether it's in the war in Iran or it's the political dysfunction and everything going on here, whether it's from the Kennedy Center to the ICE to the but just all of it. Who's benefiting the most from all this? It's China. All right, and World Truly Turned Up, say down. Elise Labet,

43:11thanks so much for joining us tonight. You bet. We will be right back with new comments from President Obama defending the free press. That's on the other side of this break. Tomorrow a federal judge will hear arguments in the lawsuit challenging the president's move to ban MSNOW, CNN, and Politico from the White House. Former President Barack Obama weighed in on that issue last night. Take a listen. This country's never agreed uniformly with everything. But there are some foundational creeds, some some some some bedrock trues that are you, makes us who we are that make us America. And free press is one of them. And the free press,

44:16the idea that the government cannot discriminate against or pick on or bully or exclude somebody because they don't like the criticism that's being leveled at them. That is a foundational issue. And so I am not surprised that the current president wants to ban newscast that are critical of him because he's that guy. That was president Barack Obama speaking about the free press under assault in the age of Donald Trump. That doesn't for me. Do you have a work injury? DTLA log group, California's injury law

45:19firm, we can get you compensation for your injuries. Pay zero upfront. Text injury help to 40222 or visit us online at call downtown dot com. Message and data rates and usage may apply.