‘He’s committed SO MANY CRIMES’: Nicolle and Jack Schlossberg talk Trump corruption, path for Dems

[0:00] Never before have we seen so little effort to hide so much corruption. [0:14] The Mar-a-Lago mafia has taken American corruption to spectacular new heights. [0:22] That's Georgia Senator John Ossoff. [0:24] On Saturday, he laid bare the priorities of the Trump administration, [0:28] and those priorities are reflected in that new NBC News polling we showed you earlier in the hour. [0:33] The poll shows 8 out of 10 Gen Z voters believe that our country is on the wrong track, 8 out of 10. [0:38] And Donald Trump's disapproval rating among voters who are age 18 to 29 is 76 percent. [0:46] Gen Z voters and their disapproval of the Trump administration have generated a fresh spark of energy into the Democratic Party, [0:54] which has elevated leaders like Senator John Ossoff, James Tallarico in Texas, our mayor, Mayor Mondami here in New York. [1:01] They represent an important demographic for Democrats as they try to win back power in November. [1:06] Joining me at the table, Jack Schlossberg. [1:09] He's a candidate for Congress running in New York's 12th District. [1:12] He's also the grandson of President John F. Kennedy. [1:14] Also joining us, political analyst, former Senator Claire McCaskill. [1:18] So this is a conversation you've been having on social media, with journalists, and now with the voters of New York. [1:26] That, to me, is so interesting because it's not this sort of which part of the Democratic coalition are you from, the far right, the far left, the center. [1:35] This is about generational thinking and communicating and ideas. [1:40] Talk about that. [1:41] Well, thank you, first of all, so much for having me. [1:42] Of course. [1:43] And it's great to see Senator McCaskill over there on the other side of the camera. [1:47] I would say this. [1:48] Our campaign, I'm running for Congress, and our campaign slogan is believe in something again. [1:53] Believe in something again because politics is a noble profession, and people want to be engaged and want to be involved. [1:59] We're in a crisis as a country. [2:01] As you heard Senator Ossoff say, it's a corruption crisis. [2:04] It's also a cost crisis and a constitutional crisis. [2:06] And people want a new generation, not just because we're young, but because we speak to the young at heart who still believe in politics and because our campaign is doing great and the folks you mentioned are doing such a great job because we're speaking in language people can understand, advocating for real policies that people want, like deduct your rent from your taxes, something our campaign is talking about, or making Trump pay for the permanent perimeter around Trump Tower here in New York City, which costs the city $300 million a year. [2:34] And blocks traffic. [2:35] And blocks traffic. [2:36] I've got a plan to make President Trump pay for it and give those funds that we save to cops, teachers, and transit. [2:42] I mean, the old politics seem to force Democrats to choose between affordability and protecting, as you said, everything that people used to love about politics. [2:53] Fight Trump or fight for costs. [2:55] Your campaign is decidedly about those two things. [2:58] People ask you. [2:59] I've seen your content. [3:01] We've talked about it. [3:02] People want you to stand up to Trump, to fight for Trump. [3:05] And they also want you to deal with the affordability in the city. [3:08] Absolutely. [3:08] And I think our campaign stands for the proposition that you can do both at the same time and that that's what Democrats have to do. [3:14] We've got to hold Trump accountable. [3:16] He's committed so many crimes in broad daylight. [3:19] The president and his family have made more than $4 billion since they got into office. [3:23] This cannot become the new normal. [3:24] Democrats need to win back the House and win back control of Congress so we can do something about that. [3:28] But that doesn't mean we can forget the people that we're supposed to serve, our constituents, who need help, who need help with affordability, who need health care, and who need to have something to believe in again. [3:38] Claire, the results in Hungary, I've tried to be really careful not to overlay in my wish-casting too much onto our politics. [3:47] But in the final weeks of that campaign, there was a focus, a relentless focus on personal economics and corruption. [3:57] And the first thing the new government is going to do, one of them, is to investigate the flow of Hungarian taxpayer dollars to CPAC. [4:06] This idea that a candidate in any party has to walk in Chugum seems to have been sort of metabolized by the Democrats that are doing well this cycle. [4:17] Yeah. [4:17] And listen, I am—first of all, I'm thrilled that I'm on here with Jack. [4:21] And I'm thrilled that we have this new generation of people who say things like, being in politics is noble. [4:29] That's the way I was brought up. [4:30] I think that's the way he was brought up. [4:33] And I think there's a lot of Americans that feel the same way. [4:36] I also think it's important for us not to forget that we are competitive in the Senate, [4:41] because we have a couple of older statewide elected officials that are battling it out in North Carolina and Ohio. [4:48] And I also think it's important that no matter what, we focus on staying unified, [4:54] because we have some primaries that are going to be tough. [4:57] And I think Tallarico has done a great job in Texas focusing on unity. [5:03] And that's very, very important. [5:05] And by the way, don't you think it's a little ironic that this labor secretary was forced out [5:10] because she called her staff to buy wine? [5:12] And meanwhile, Trump's kids are shaking down foreign governments for billions of dollars. [5:19] I mean, give me a break. [5:21] I mean, it's terrible what she did. [5:22] I'm glad she's going to be gone. [5:24] But the irony of this White House saying, hey, you're out of here because your husband's acted badly [5:31] and you're doing things with your staff and they are abusing staff and enriching themselves [5:37] with corrupt acts every day. [5:39] I mean, Claire, talk a little bit more about how Democrats go about promising to investigate corruption [5:46] wherever it lies, because corruption is something that has historically animated and agitated voters. [5:52] And I think there's this false belief that Trump gets away with it because everyone does it. [5:57] I don't think that's right. [5:58] I think we kind of fail as a media to stay laser focused on it. [6:01] But I think all voters are very angry about sort of the grab and grift. [6:07] Yeah, he's taken advantage of the cynicism Americans have about people in elected office. [6:12] And I'm not by any means saying that every Democrat who's held office has been pure or good or moral [6:18] or hasn't stolen money they shouldn't have taken from various places. [6:23] But what I am saying is never before in the history of our country have we had such brazen corruption. [6:30] I mean, as Ossoff says in Georgia, the corruption is spectacular. [6:35] It is, you know, if there's one thing Donald Trump can brag about being huge and better than ever [6:41] and never ever before even considered by anyone, that would be the corruption that he and his family are engaged in. [6:48] And I think most Americans get that. [6:50] I even think the MAGA base kind of senses it. [6:53] And they may rationalize it away saying everybody does it, but everybody doesn't. [6:58] And if you do it, you should be held accountable no matter your party. [7:02] But the idea that the Democrats are going to take Congress and not investigate the corruption, [7:07] I think would be a slap in the face to the people who are supporting them. [7:10] What do you hear most and how much of sort of being a Kennedy attaches to what voters want to hear you weigh in on? [7:19] Like, do you feel like there's an expectation that you'll weigh in on every national issue [7:22] as well as the local issues you'd be focused on if you went to Congress? [7:26] Well, I think voters in New York 12, we know that this is the center of the universe. [7:31] We all think, I think if you live here, you know that if all the decisions were left up to us, [7:36] we wouldn't be in the mess that we're in. [7:37] But short of that, people here want a representative who is laser-focused on delivering for the local community. [7:44] That's the job of a representative, to get dollars to fund infrastructure projects here, [7:48] to build new housing here. And they also want someone to do something about what we're talking [7:52] about, the corruption, the level of criminality from this president and his cabinet. [7:57] And they want to make sure that all of this doesn't go unanswered. So they want to make sure. [8:01] And I think the reason why we are doing so well and leading in so many polls is because people [8:05] want someone who can be heard loud and clear in Washington and someone who's not going to back [8:09] down from a fight and who understands this moment to stop Trump for the last time is not going to come again. [8:15] You and your mom both weighed in and tried to sort of warn the country about the Secretary [8:21] of Health and Human Services. Hard to even say that in a sentence, Bobby Kennedy. [8:25] How much damage do you feel like he's doing to the country in terms of the disinformation he's [8:29] serving? [8:29] Well, before he took office, it was a warning that me and my mother and others in our family [8:34] gave. Now we have the facts to go on. Measles cases are at record high for 40 years. [8:39] He has gotten rid of key scientists at the CDC. He is implementing an anti-vax crusade. [8:45] All I have seen is a food pyramid that's been flipped upside down and doesn't really make [8:49] any sense, telling us that junk food's bad for us. Well, I already knew that. And not doing [8:54] anything about the critical public health issues facing our country, which New York 12 is very [8:59] vulnerable to those things. So I think, you know, something I would look forward to if elected [9:03] to Congress would be to investigate the criminality in HHS. Because I want to know. [9:09] You want to be overseeing him? [9:11] I want to know why he chose Tylenol and not Advil as a cause for autism. I want to know who [9:16] is paying for the words that come out of his mouth. Because to me, it seems like everyone [9:19] in this administration is making a lot of money when people, Americans, working families [9:23] are struggling. [9:25] This is a duel I'd love to see play out. Thank you very much for being here. Thank you so [9:30] much. Claire, thank you for joining us as well.