Lawrence: Only Trump thinks threatening war crimes and committing war crimes 'will be my honor'

[0:00] The longest running cabinet secretary in history was the first woman member of the cabinet, Francis Perkins, the pioneering social worker in New York who served in Franklin Delano Roosevelt's administration when he was governor of New York and then became his secretary of labor for every day of his presidency, which ended in his death in the 13th year of his presidency after winning reelection to a fourth term. [0:25] Donald Trump's labor secretary had a remarkably long run for someone who appears to be completely out of control on the job while inviting relatives into the workplace. [0:37] Former Republican Congresswoman Lori Chavez de Reamer was scheduled to be interviewed by the Labor Department's inspector general in an investigation of possible serious misconduct in her role as secretary of labor. [0:50] The White House announced that she resigned today, which just might be true because it will save her having to submit to an interview with the inspector general in a story titled Labor Department investigates texts among secretaries, family and staff. [1:06] The New York Times reported Ms. Chavez de Reamer's husband exchanged text messages with young female staff members, as did her father. [1:15] Some of the young women were instructed by Ms. Chavez de Reamer and the former deputy chief of staff to pay attention to the men. [1:23] According to people familiar with the investigation, the text messages have been reviewed by the New York Times. [1:27] The New York Times also reports that the secretary's husband, quote, [1:30] was barred from the department headquarters this year after several women told the inspector general's investigators that he was making unwanted advances at them. [1:42] One of the women filed a report with Washington's Metropolitan Police Department, which opened a sexual assault investigation. [1:49] The department and federal prosecutor's office later said they would not bring charges in the matter. [1:54] The original complaint to the inspector general accused Ms. Chavez de Reamer and her aides of drinking on the job and keeping a stash of liquor at the office, according to The New York Post, which first reported the complaint in January. [2:07] The New York Times also, quote, Mr. Chavez has not been accused of wrongdoing and a lawyer for the secretary's husband has denied the allegations against him. [2:18] And so three of Donald Trump's best people, three of Donald Trump's cabinet members, who all happen to be women, are gone. [2:28] His secretary of Homeland Security, his attorney general, and now his secretary of labor. [2:33] But Robert Kennedy Jr. is still there. [2:36] And no one in the Trump cabinet or anywhere in the Trump government in their drunkest moment has ever said anything as vicious, as racist, and as purely evil as what Robert Kennedy Jr. was exposed, having said last week in a House Ways and Means Committee hearing. [2:57] It is the single most racist thing spoken during our lifetimes by anyone in this country. [3:05] Congresswoman Terry Sewell found a statement that Robert Kennedy Jr. made two years ago when he was a presidential candidate that most of us had no idea he'd ever said, and that, of course, he immediately lied about and denied that he ever said that. [3:20] The statement proves that Robert Kennedy Jr. is obviously a deep and reflexive and casual racist. [3:30] And so it might have seemed especially effortless for him to call a black woman a liar during his testimony because that's, in effect, what he did. [3:41] Congresswoman Sewell read Robert Kennedy Jr.'s words to him from a podcast that was released on June 30, 2024, and Robert Kennedy Jr. simply denied saying those words. [3:54] We then obtained the tape of what Robert Kennedy Jr. said, and we proved last week that he was lying to Congress when he accused Congresswoman Sewell of lying. [4:05] What Congressman Sewell accurately quoted Robert Kennedy Jr. as saying was that every black kid, that was his phrase, every black kid needs to be re-parented. [4:20] That Nazi-sounding word, re-parented, meant that Robert Kennedy Jr. was promising that if elected president, he would remove every black kid from their homes, rip every black kid from the arms of that kid's mother or father, and bring them to some kind of federal institution that he would create so that those black kids could be re-parented. [4:42] That was his word. And so there you have the ravings of a racist madman, a racist, Nazi-minded madman falling on the deaf ears of the Washington press corps because the madness of Donald Trump and the madness of Donald Trump's war and the madness of Donald Trump's best people working for him, including an FBI director accused of drinking too much and a cabinet secretary being fired or quit so she can avoid an investigation of her conduct. [5:15] But I have a bit more to say about the virulent racism of Robert Kennedy Jr. tonight, and you'll hear what his cousin, the daughter of President Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy, had to say about Robert Kennedy Jr. [5:27] when she publicly begged Republicans in the United States Senate not to confirm her cousin and unleash him on the children of America as the single most destructive human force ever deliberately aimed at the public health of children in America, [5:47] who were saved during Robert Kennedy Jr.'s childhood from the scourge of polio by the stunning success of the polio vaccine, a success that Robert Kennedy Jr. now lies about and denies. [6:03] The cabinet secretary who did have to promise to stop drinking to be confirmed by the Republican Senate is the cabinet member who Donald Trump will probably be blaming the most at some point in the future for Donald Trump's war in Iran. [6:17] Marco Rubio, James David Vance and others will spend the rest of their lives insisting that they privately advise Donald Trump not to launch a war with Iran. [6:29] But Pete Hegseth will have a more difficult time with history for a couple of reasons. [6:35] The first being that when you illegally try to rename the Department of Defense, the Department of War and then illegally call yourself the secretary of war, you are by definition a warmonger. [6:45] The other problem for Pete Hegseth is, of course, that there's no evidence Donald Trump would under any circumstances ever solicit or listen to a word of advice from him about anything. [6:58] And it also seems apparent that Donald Trump is running this war himself, mostly by tweet. [7:04] At 2.11 p.m. today, Donald Trump announced I'm winning a war by a lot. Things are going very well. [7:11] That is Donald Trump's latest assessment of his war. I'm winning a war. [7:16] But as we know, that assessment is subject to change at any moment and is always false. [7:21] It was only yesterday that Donald Trump once again publicly threatened to commit war crimes in Iran, which is in and of itself a war crime, the public threatening of war crimes. [7:31] Donald Trump said we're offering a very fair and responsible deal, and I hope they take it because if they don't, the United States is going to knock out every single power plant and every single bridge in Iran. [7:41] No more Mr. Nice Guy exclamation point. It will be my honor to do what has to be done. [7:50] A couple of things. It will be my honor to commit war crimes is something that the worst American war criminals never said. [7:59] Lieutenant William J. Calley, who murdered more than 340 Vietnamese villagers at close range gunpoint execution style men, women, children, babies, grandparents, never said it will be my honor to murder Vietnamese babies. [8:14] It's only Donald Trump who thinks threatening war crimes and committing war crimes will be my honor. [8:21] And Donald Trump threatening no more Mr. Nice Guy in capital letters with an exclamation point really has no meaning for a person who has not spent one day of his life as a nice guy. [8:36] Donald Trump has gone from saying two weeks ago there was no need to negotiate anything with Iran because he had already won his war to now publicly and repeatedly sending his completely inexperienced negotiators who have never negotiated with Iran to come up with a peace deal. [8:54] And today at 1.35 p.m. Donald Trump made a simple promise about that deal. [8:59] The deal that we are making with Iran will be far better than the JCPOA commonly referred to as the Iran nuclear deal. [9:08] The Iran nuclear deal was negotiated by President Barack Obama through his State Department beginning with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and concluded successfully by Secretary of State John Kerry. [9:18] Donald Trump has never said one true thing about that deal, which was the single most important diplomatic achievement of our lifetimes. [9:25] And there isn't a close second. The United States negotiating partners in the deal were China, Russia, France, the United Kingdom and Germany, an unprecedented alliance brought together by President Obama. [9:39] Donald Trump has no negotiating partners with Iran, not one. [9:43] Not one. And Donald Trump told this lie about the deal that John Kerry negotiated. [9:49] It was a guaranteed road to a nuclear weapon which will not and cannot happen with the deal we're working on. [9:57] The deal that Donald Trump ripped up in the first year of his presidency, the deal John Kerry negotiated, the deal President Obama agreed to, the deal Iran agreed to, says on page three, [10:09] Iran reaffirms that under no circumstances will Iran ever seek, develop or acquire any nuclear weapons. [10:18] Iran put that in writing and signed that 11 years ago. [10:22] And one of the first things Donald Trump did as president was to rip that up. [10:25] And now he is begging Iran to agree to exactly those words once again. [10:32] Iran reaffirms that under no circumstances will Iran ever seek, develop or acquire any nuclear weapons. [10:41] President Obama did not threaten to commit war crimes in Iran to achieve that agreement. [10:47] President Obama sent the most experienced and expert negotiating team ever sent on a diplomatic mission for the United States of America. [10:55] The negotiating team included Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, a nuclear physicist and other nuclear experts. [11:04] There is not a single nuclear expert in Donald Trump's negotiating team. [11:08] Just a couple of real estate guys. [11:09] Donald Trump's negotiating team includes his son in law, a real estate operator and J.D. Vance. [11:16] And they are up against this. [11:19] At 5.12 p.m. today, the speaker of the Iranian parliament tweeted, quote, [11:24] Trump, by imposing a siege and violating the ceasefire, seeks to turn this negotiating table in his own imagination into a table of surrender or to justify renewed warmongering. [11:38] We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats. [11:42] And in the past two weeks, we have prepared to reveal new cards on the battlefield.