Trump goes FULL PANIC as Epstein news bears down

[0:00] I'm joined now by the anchor of The Beat with Ari Melber. Ari Melber. Ari, thanks for joining me. [0:04] Great to see you. How are you doing? [0:07] So Ari, we have seen very recently Donald Trump's effort to kind of skirt his involvement in the [0:14] Epstein files by, of course, firing Pam Bondi and replacing her with Todd Blanch, who just got his [0:20] big promotion as he was nominated for attorney general in a permanent capacity. So can you talk [0:25] a little bit about what you think in terms of Trump being able to kind of insulate himself from [0:31] any accountability as it relates to Epstein by putting in place somebody who has shown that he [0:36] is shameless, if nothing else, when it comes to burying any of Trump's involvement or running [0:41] cover for Trump as it relates to Epstein. I think Epstein is a huge piece of this, [0:47] and we've both covered it. Blanche was running the exact program that everyone has criticized, [0:54] including many conservatives and Republicans, because they weren't transparent. They weren't [0:59] honest. They buried and hid a lot of stuff in any normal environment. You don't promote that person [1:05] because it looks like you're rewarding Epstein secrecy, which you are. But here, Donald Trump [1:10] is shown again and again. I think it's interesting to see his approval numbers crash because more [1:14] of his supporters either realize it or just over it that he's not he's not into public interest. [1:20] And so someone who actually went that far against the political wins, including on the right to just [1:26] save him, protect him and do Epstein secrecy, whatever it is they're hiding that to him to Trump [1:31] is a win. And so, again, I think it's the type of thing that has legs because plenty of his supporters [1:37] have have woken up to this. And Blanche's signature was on the initial misleading documents. He was on [1:44] the letters to Congress that oversaw materials that had redaction errors that cared more about hiding [1:50] Trump than hiding the the real victims and others who Trump had claimed he cared about. So I think all [1:56] of that hangs over this and it's documented. Do you think that this has an impact? And I ask that [2:03] because there are, I mean, countless issues every month. There's another kind of discourse du jour or [2:09] story du jour where we were like, OK, there's no way he can wriggle out of this one. And then, [2:14] of course, lo and behold, he does. Obviously, the Epstein thing has a lot of legs because this was [2:19] an issue that was championed by Trump and his acolytes themselves. And so this obviously has more [2:24] potency than just, you know, kind of an issue where both sides can retreat to their partisan corners. [2:30] This one was really elevated by by the right. But with that said, like we had watched as Trump kind [2:37] of has been able to kind of keep a floor in place. Granted, it's been chipped away at recently. But in [2:43] terms of the the potency of Epstein as a persuasion issue, do you think that it's going to make an [2:49] impact one way or the other? I think it already has made a huge impact because it broke the dam in [2:55] the in the votes and was the first big revolt that was a veto proof revolt. So you had a super [3:02] majority on that issue. And then after that, you had pushed back on other things, not all as important, [3:06] but it was only ever after the Republican revolt at Epstein that you got pushed back on the budget. [3:13] You got bigger ice cutbacks. You got pushed back on the ballroom even by some Republicans. [3:19] And now just this week you had a war powers vote, which, yes, was mostly Democrats, [3:22] but Republicans joined. Massey led that. So the Epstein tormentor to to Donald Trump [3:29] has now beat him more than once on the House floor. That's not a usual thing. So, yes, [3:34] I think there's a cascade. Then there's the other point you made, which I think is smart. [3:37] And I think people online who follow this stuff independently get it better. Sometimes call it [3:42] better than than in D.C., because D.C. bounces between the two parties. That's kind of its thing. [3:47] And when it comes to Trump, I think both parties have have made mistakes. [3:51] The Democrats have run repeated campaigns just on saying you don't like him as if that's a winning [3:57] message. You need to sell when more often than not, I could show you the charts. The country's [4:02] already there. They don't like him. But whether they bring him back in compared to the alternative [4:07] is a different question. Right. Just like you could dislike a teacher a lot and then they bring in a [4:13] substitute is so bad that you say, I still don't like that teacher. But, man, we prefer him to this new [4:18] one. And so that's that's the Democrats mistake. The Republicans mistake is that they've constantly [4:23] tried to say, oh, you counted him out and he connects with real America because he had these [4:26] surprising comebacks. That's not real math. He got fewer votes in 16. He got wiped out in the blue [4:32] wave in 18 and he lost in 20 with fewer votes. Right. We all know that they underperformed in 22, [4:38] including after the big Supreme Court abortion decision. So the only time he ever got more votes [4:43] was was 24. That's that's a one off, actually. And we'll see how he does in 26. I think Senate [4:49] Republicans are reminded or waking up to how hard he is to run with. So the comeback narrative is a [4:54] D.C. narrative. It's not really a comeback if you were never liked. Yeah, he won once. And unlike [5:00] some other people, call it fair and square. I covered that election. There was a big high participation. [5:06] He won 24 once. You know, I think what's interesting about all of this is like he is quietly [5:13] doing his work behind the scenes where he just rids the party, excommunicates the party [5:18] of anybody who was willing to come forward and support the discharge petition for the Epstein [5:23] Files Transparency Act. Like it might not seem so overt because this is kind of the the the [5:29] the slow running machinations of of the electoral process. But like Thomas Massey is out. He signed [5:36] the he co-sponsored the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Lauren Boebert was forced to run in the fourth [5:41] congressional district in Colorado because she wasn't going to be able to win in the third, [5:45] certainly without the support of Trump, who'd been busy calling her dumb and low IQ. Meanwhile, [5:51] you have Marjorie Taylor Greene, who left Congress outright. And when she even approached the White [5:55] House because she and her family were getting death threats, Trump basically doubled down and said, [6:00] you know, you had what's coming to you. And then Nancy Mace, Trump decided to endorse her primary [6:06] opponent in the South Carolina gubernatorial race. And so one by one, like this is again, [6:10] this is like a slow plotting process. But he was able to be successful in excommunicating the people [6:17] who put him in this situation situation in the first place where the Epstein Files Transparency Act [6:22] was even advanced because of those people who were willing to buck the party line. And so [6:27] that's like the one piece of doubt I have in terms of whether whether it's still going to be [6:33] as easy for these Republicans to buck Trump, recognizing that every time it happens, [6:39] whether it's on Epstein with those four that I just mentioned, whether it's Bill Cassidy, who, [6:44] who, of course, had voted in favor of of of his impeachment, John Cornyn. I mean, the guy was so [6:49] far up Trump's ass, he could touch the back of his teeth, posting pictures of Trump of of himself [6:54] reading the art of the deal. Even he wasn't loyal enough to get the endorsement over Ken Paxton. [6:59] So there is that there is that backdrop of, OK, you can you can speak out for something that [7:05] you agree with, you know, that that isn't that flies in the face of what the White House's stance [7:10] is. But your job is going to be on the line. Yeah. And I mean, that makes me think of two things, [7:15] one on Epstein and one on this type of politics. For Epstein, given how much has come out that [7:20] already makes Trump look bad. And I'm always careful to say as a legal journalist that I'm an attorney, [7:26] we have not seen criminal level evidence. We've seen stuff that is embarrassing, [7:32] many people would say disqualifying. But unlike some other individuals, the material that's become [7:37] public about Trump and Epstein doesn't currently implicate Trump as a criminal. So that makes you [7:42] say, OK, but that's already out there. And he already took the lumps. What else is he hiding? Right. [7:47] And I'm not the type, you know me, I'm not the type to say, well, if it looks that bad, it must be [7:52] that sometimes I've covered stories like this that look one way and they change. But it doesn't look [7:57] good. It doesn't make sense logically, basically to have this much come out and then have Trump [8:04] still be acting like there's something else to hide. Now, does that mean that it's the worst thing [8:08] that someone could think of? No, it could be malfeasance in how Epstein was dealt with as a [8:13] prisoner foul play in the jail cell, which is something the whole Congress has now legitimated. [8:18] It started out. People said, oh, is that a conspiracy? If you read the files legislation, [8:23] as I'm sure you have, and I'm sure some of your viewers have, one of the enumerated items is all [8:29] the additional information about the treatment of Epstein under the control of who? Trump DOJ and [8:33] the Bureau of Prisons. Now, by the way, would that alone be a huge scandal if there were foul play? [8:38] I think so. Which is, again, what I'm saying is a different explanation than if you were hiding, [8:42] say, some earlier illicit conduct. But whatever it is, he is acting like someone who is going [8:48] all that way to have something to hide. That's on Epstein. Then on the politics, look, on the one [8:54] hand, what everything you said is true and explains why even when Trump could be polling in the 30s, [8:59] the power he has in Republican primaries and over that base, which is not even the whole Republican [9:06] Party, let alone the whole country in the electorate. Right. That's our gerrymandered system, [9:10] which a partisan Supreme Court has made worse helping Republicans. That still gives him power, [9:15] even when he's basically lame duck DOA politically. Yeah. And then on top of that, [9:20] he's willing to do something other presidents have. It's still a type of weakness, I think, [9:24] Brian, that he spent with his allies more on a single House primary of the Epstein proponent [9:33] for transparency, Massey, than any other House primary in American history. That comes from a point [9:40] of weakness. Right. It's like if you you get into a dispute with someone and you come back and you [9:46] bring twenty hundred security. Right. One of these billionaires, you say, oh, what do they do? Yeah, [9:50] they could hire a lot of off duty cops with guns. And on the one hand, you say, well, you're not going [9:53] to beat them up today. Right. Literally. On the other hand, wow, they must be really scared. And that is [10:00] a lot of firepower that they bought more on that race than any in American history. I mean, [10:07] that tells you a lot about the fear and the power that Massey built up, which then, yes, [10:12] House member versus president. You know, that's usually not a fair fight. I think that that's a [10:18] really good segue into another topic that I wanted to talk about, because as far as Trump operating [10:22] from a place of fear is concerned, he wouldn't need to move to consolidate so much support in [10:27] the media space if he was able to, you know, convey his message by virtue of how he was governing. [10:35] Like if he was doing a good enough job, he wouldn't need to to level all these attacks [10:40] and buy up all of these media outlets. We've seen him either sue or have his allies kind of [10:47] seek to be as heavy handed as they can within the media, you know, whether it's whether it's CBS or, [10:54] you know, imminently CNN. We've also seen him sue ABC, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, [11:00] Meta. I mean, you name it. We just recently saw Scott Pelley get fired at 60 minutes. And, [11:08] you know, the the fate of that institution obviously is in doubt. I think what you guys do [11:15] at MS now is is really important because it's one of the few, if not the only legacy media outlet left [11:22] that's willing to actually buck Trump and criticize him when it's necessary to do so. And so, [11:27] you know, from your vantage, recognizing that Trump has gone after everyone, really, [11:33] I mean, he seems to be just taking his way down the list. How does that make you feel about about [11:40] your your obligation, your responsibility to speak out? And and also beyond that, like, [11:47] you know, it's it feels almost inevitable that once he's done with CBS and CNN, [11:53] attacking MS now is going to be next up on the list. And so just it's it's it's not gonna [11:59] it's not gonna be easy when the person with the biggest megaphone in the entire country [12:03] sets his sights on either your network or on you individually. And so just kind of planning out [12:10] for something like that. How have you thought about that? Yeah, I mean, it's it's a fair question. [12:14] What's going on with CBS, which remains the highest rated news program, we can all talk about how the [12:20] internet's changed a lot and some for the good. But 60 minutes competes with NFL football. Yeah, [12:27] for the largest audience, highest ad rate. And does it with as we've seen, because you just saw [12:32] them stand up to this incredible internal corporate magnet of pressure doesn't with independence. I [12:38] firmly believe based on what I know, and being in this business, that if a radical socialist went after [12:44] 60 minutes with somehow and you got to really do a lot of legwork here, but got a hold of the [12:49] state control of the company, I think they would go up against leftist intervention just as much [12:54] as MAGA intervention. Those are serious people. Yeah, the problem for Trump is those serious [13:00] people nonpartisan are calling him out. And that's because of the plays they're trying to run [13:05] to abuse their oversight of the media merger system in order to get favorable coverage. And if you could [13:12] prove it out enough, if you had an independent investigation, which you're not going to get from [13:15] this DOJ, you'd have to investigate whether they've crossed the line into quid pro quo bribery [13:21] and other crimes, because it is illegal for government officials to say, I need X from you to [13:27] do Y in the government. And usually it's softer, right? We have all the campaign donations, it's [13:32] softer, it's hard to prove. If that happened, that's already that. Second to your question, [13:37] we're going to continue to stay in our business and be independent. And you know, sometimes it's like, [13:42] I'm posting about my show, or I'm promoting myself here, I'm not really about me. I'm really [13:47] fortunate to work with people like Rachel, and Nicole and Lawrence, who stood up by the way, [13:52] Lawrence's class with Donald Trump for 15 years, stayed on the air face the threat. Now it's heavier [13:58] for the reason you say, though, we're led by those people and, and, and a team were more independent [14:03] than we were before, because we're now fully independent company versus we trade as our own [14:08] company. Most people aren't interested in all the details. But the bottom line is we're more [14:11] independent than we were a few years ago. So that's what we're doing. We're standing up. [14:15] The wider point, though, that you made is really important. When you're up 20 in the fourth quarter, [14:22] you're not really doing a lot of cheating, even if you sometimes cheat, right, it makes no sense. [14:29] He is sliding and crashing. And yes, he has a probably an emotional vendetta against media. And I think [14:35] all in all honesty, if he were doing better, he might still be complaining and attacking Kimmel and [14:40] that type of stuff. But the extreme way that they are trying to censor mute and control the press [14:48] going into these midterms, and presumably they're not going to stop going into the big, the big [14:52] presidential election shows how weak they think they are without that kind of of pressure or cheating. [14:59] As we watch the DOJ and the FCC be so heavy handed in what they're trying to do, like, [15:06] obviously, Brendan Carr has a huge hand in all of this. And of course, we were just talking about [15:11] Todd Blanche, how he is basically, I mean, look, the guy's violating the law because we still have [15:15] 3 million Epstein files that haven't been released. He's made it clear that he has no intention of [15:20] releasing anything else. And so he's participating in this government cover up at the same time, [15:25] violating, violating existing law. You know, as we move forward, I think we looked at what [15:31] happened in the aftermath of Joe Biden winning in 2020 and installing Merrick Garland as attorney [15:37] general. And I think there was this sense, in retrospect, misguided, I think, where it was more [15:44] important to protect the, you know, to prevent against the optics of politicization and to get back to [15:51] normal politics and just calm everything down. And obviously, that didn't work. And in fact, [15:59] the unwillingness to hold these people to account for what they'd done, Trump specifically, kind of [16:04] emboldened him to recognize that he could do it 10 times to 100 times faster and harder than he had [16:11] done it before. And now we're in a situation where the corruption is so egregious, like people are selling, [16:17] you know, shorting stocks and buying buying stocks that just make them turn them into millionaires 10, [16:23] 10, you know, 10 times over. We're watching this massive pay to play scheme. You know, [16:29] we just had this report come out, I believe, in The Washington Post like a day ago, [16:33] that showed that a number of the companies that had donated money to Trump's ballroom were then [16:38] granted government contracts that were worth far more than what they had had had donated. And so, [16:44] like we have reached full banana republic levels of corruption. How do you think that the next [16:51] Democratic attorney general should take this stuff into account, recognizing that there are going to [16:56] be those people who say, you know, let's put the politics of retribution behind us. But then there's [17:02] also going to be people who say an unwillingness to actually uphold the law is the exact thing that [17:07] emboldens criminal behavior in the future. And so what do you think, you know, what do you think [17:13] should be the move moving forward, especially from somebody who has a lot of experience in the [17:18] legal realm? I think you describe it accurately. I think any honest future Justice Department must deal [17:26] with the corruption, the looting, the revenge prosecutions that have basically infected multiple [17:32] parts of the government. I mean, we have the housing partisan warrior in Pulte, who was based on what [17:39] we can tell, misusing access to information there to go after opponents. That's like secret police [17:45] stuff. And now he's going to run the intelligence services for a little little temporary stint is [17:50] what Trump said. So it's at at DOJ. It's at housing. It's at FBI. They were visiting the Georgia voting [17:57] voting station. And now it's at Intel. He oversees CIA. I mean, this sounds like a movie when you say, [18:02] wait, CIA director is going to meet with the guy who's already been caught misusing information to go [18:07] after domestic opponents. Right. This is bad. So you have to completely go in after all of that [18:13] without fear of favor. And I say that and people will say, oh, I'm sounding potentially naive. But [18:19] that's any honest non MAGA administration. Obviously, that would hopefully include the Democrats. [18:25] That's what they're telegraphing. But if you had an honest John McCain style Republican, I don't know [18:31] that they're going to win the nomination. But I would expect the McCain style administration to also do [18:35] this. I've seen it's very fast. Well, now to say everyone's the worst, but it's I've seen and covered [18:41] Republican administrations with a DOJ was much more independent. Yeah. And nonpartisan than this one. [18:48] So we should not. We just want we watched Joe Biden's DOJ prosecute his son, like prosecute the [18:54] president's son. The notion that that investigation would even be allowed to be open, much less go to [18:59] prosecution, go to and go to go to a conviction would be just I mean, it's it's laughable at this [19:05] point. The notion said Don Jr. get prosecuted. And and Reagan Bush, according to legal experts [19:10] of law schools, the Reagan Bush DOJs are not held up as some high watermark. But again, if we're just [19:15] going to be proportionate, they had open probes into their own administration, including Iran Contra. [19:21] And by the end, there were deals and pardons. I just want to be clear, this administration doesn't [19:26] allow anything like that. And they didn't have the level of revenge prosecutions we have right [19:31] now. So history is helpful that way. So I would say any non-MAGA honest DOJ has an obligation to [19:37] do this first and do it strongly. And that means looking at what's always hardest in Washington, [19:42] which is, you know, you have all this this pro wrestling and then you have a hell of a lot of [19:46] people who they go in and out of office and you say, why does it seem like the Democrats are giving [19:50] in and they're not fighting that hard? And then you look up at two years later, the guys who were [19:54] fake fighting on the Senate floor in the same lobbying shop and other crap like that. And so [19:59] the DOJ has to really look fully at what they sometimes see as their contemporaries, which is, [20:05] oh, well, I knew that guy when we were at DOJ 10 years ago. Yeah, well, we don't care [20:09] if he was covering up the Epstein files or helping Todd Blanche make up stories or going into grand [20:17] juries to help make it a slightly less severe revenge prosecute. I don't care if they broke the [20:23] rules of the law. They should be disbarred, investigated. And if they if they committed [20:27] a crime like anyone else, I don't care that you knew them back when they were different and worked [20:30] in a different DOJ. So we have to deal with that. And if we don't, you know, there was a writer I [20:35] quoted when I did a piece about January six who said a failed coup without accountability becomes [20:41] a training exercise. Yeah. Well, boy, have we seen that and we're going to see more of that. [20:46] And then the corruption, they're looting. The last one I would make is, you know, I when I'm trying to [20:50] report and get people's attention, I use analogies because I feel like you're only talking about the [20:54] thing. We only know what you think about the thing. So let me compare it to another thing. [20:58] OK, a heck of a lot of conservative minded people and some people were sympathetic to Trump or maybe [21:03] they voted for him once and they regret it. They look at that looting that you see sometimes where [21:08] a city has a blackout or burned down buildings and people go in and they say, God, these people, [21:14] they got the opportunity. And in one hour they started taking TVs. You say, that's wrong. [21:18] What about the local store owner? OK, insurance pays for it. But it's still it's still stealing. [21:22] Right. And those type of folks say, gosh, you know, that looting is wrong. And then you got to [21:27] you got to turn around those people up. OK, that's less than one percent of the scale of the premeditated [21:34] first degree, long acting looting, including of the Pentagon and places where we would care [21:41] about national security. So, yeah, if you cared about that looting, you should care about this looting. [21:45] It's Trump family looting. It's allied companies. And I don't predict the future, man. I would tell [21:51] you if we don't deal with it as a society, it will get worse, not better, even if even if the politics [21:55] change a little bit. Well, you know, the ultimate irony of that is like that was a message that [22:00] resonated with Trump's voters from Trump himself. And the first thing he did was install Elon Musk, [22:05] who promised to, like, eliminate waste, fraud and abuse. And what does he do with his power? [22:10] Fires all of the people who serve as as, you know, the the watchmen of all of their respective [22:17] departments and agencies. And then Elon went on after all of the all of the inspectors general [22:24] were fired and basically eliminated any barriers to the to the companies, the agencies that regulate [22:30] his companies and then awarded himself a bunch of government contracts. And so right there, [22:34] all of that that trust was just completely decimated. But the extent to which we're seeing it now [22:39] has become so overt and so egregious and and almost like I mean, they're almost like proud of it to [22:45] to come out and say, I'm going to sue my own federal government for ten billion dollars [22:49] and then think that it's some gift to us to say, you know what, let's just compromise with a two [22:54] billion dollar slush fund to turn each one of the fifteen hundred insurrectionists into millionaires, [22:59] but also will give me tax amnesty for myself and my family forever. That could also cost the [23:04] government a hundred million dollars in in funding that that would get paid to the federal government [23:11] and now won't. I mean, the the corruption in that sense, it's almost like the administration [23:17] is kind of poking poking its finger in the eye of the American people because this is the exact kind [23:21] of stuff that, you know, that Trump and Fox would have had a field day with. [23:25] Well, I think you're making a subtle point about, if I may, the the culture of their degradation of [23:34] our system. Yeah, they think it's a flex to say, see what I can get away with, see what I can steal. [23:40] I mean, the fund that is in so much trouble now, I'll remind folks, it is already paused in court. [23:46] It was paused, which is a procedural step under review. But if you have a fully obviously legal thing, [23:52] they don't pause it. OK, there's plenty of stuff the government does that doesn't get paused in this [23:57] early stage. So a judge already paused it. A separate judge is looking at whether the whole [24:01] deal is a fraud, as you mentioned. So that's how controversial the fund is. But if you're watching [24:07] this in America, it's your money. They're seizing and stealing your money. They don't claim that it [24:11] was appropriated by Congress. They don't claim that there's any reason. They think that's a flex. Now, [24:17] on some of these issues, more and more Republicans don't. And a lot of people, when they learn the [24:21] details, don't. But they think it's a flex in the same way that autocrats take a kind of pride [24:29] in getting other people. Even you'll see this in senior cabinet meetings in Russia, whatever, [24:34] to say that up is down and red is blue because it shows, oh, look, this person will embarrass and [24:39] debase themselves, their sense of reality for our power. That's how much power we have. I would observe [24:45] that there are other people who have power in a way that I think is better long term leadership. [24:50] I can list off other leaders who are different. But yes, it's a type of cynical. They think it's [24:56] cynical. I think it's cynical. They think it's a kind of flex to say, look what we can get away with. [25:01] Ari, last question here. Nick's in how many? [25:06] Five. Is that a good answer? That's a good answer. [25:11] I'm in New York. I've lived in New York more than any other place. I can just tell you, [25:15] I live in Brooklyn, walk around. Everyone's going crazy. Everyone's into it. So I want to support. [25:20] I don't want to say seven. And then it sounds like it's going to be too tough. [25:24] Yeah. Just on that level, as someone who's been in New York this long, the energy, I mean, [25:30] you walk near Fort Greene where there's the Spike Lee's, there's a bar he likes to go to. And it's [25:34] really community because people know each other and it's like people are going nuts. So it's definitely [25:38] a fun time to be in New York in the summer. [25:40] Well, it's cool because like, look, I'm I'm from born in New York, grew up in New Jersey [25:46] originally. So all of my sports teams are New York sports teams. I'm a diehard Giants fan. [25:50] I've been a Yankees fan since I was five years old. Living out in L.A., I've been out here for 15 [25:56] years. And like we have, first of all, the city is so sprawling. So there's never a ton of people [26:00] like you can walk down the street in New York and you're just there is a there is a mob of people [26:03] wherever you go. Right. L.A. just isn't like that. So you never feel like you're immersed in like [26:08] a mob of people in the same way. And we also have, you know, the Dodgers are in L.A., [26:14] we have the Anaheim Angels like that are that are just an hour outside of L.A. [26:17] like it doesn't have the same feel within the city. We have a lot of sports teams, too. [26:23] There's a lot going on and and it just doesn't it doesn't take over the city like we don't have, [26:29] you know, even when the Kings I mean, the Rams are Super Bowl champions [26:33] champions the previous year. The the our hockey team was was NHL champions. [26:39] You can you you can walk through the city and not know that that happened. [26:42] I feel like the same thing isn't isn't going on in New York, which is which is really cool. [26:47] And so, you know, I'm not a you know, I got a hundred. [26:50] I mean, and not not to make it political, but, you know, a lot of times around America, [26:56] it's the places where there's very little diversity and not many immigrants. [27:00] And that's where people are like, oh, my God, the immigrants. Right. [27:03] Yeah. And you walk around New York and it is for folks who sometimes feel like, [27:08] oh, is this whole American experiment? Is this thing breaking down? [27:10] A lot of places, it's not you walk around. [27:12] And first of all, they got a new mayor in they got new stuff they're trying. [27:15] But also you walk around and you got such diversity. [27:19] And when they're rooting for the Knicks, if you want to make it an American thing, [27:21] but great, they're rooting for America. [27:23] It's in English, yada, yada, if that's your cup of tea. [27:26] But also you see people who moved here, came here and are sharing something [27:29] geographically, culturally. I love that. [27:32] Yeah, that's awesome. [27:34] I highly recommend for anybody who is watching right now. [27:37] First of all, check out Ari on The Beat on MSNOW at weekdays at 6 p.m. Eastern. [27:43] But also I'm going to put a link to Ari's YouTube channel right here on the screen [27:47] and also in the post description. [27:48] If you're listening on the podcast, I'm going to throw it into the show notes. [27:51] This is the kind of thing where we all have to come together and support [27:54] and support any media that is willing to tell the truth about what's happening right now. [27:59] And that takes the form of folks who are doing good work and pushing back on legacy media, [28:06] which has been Donald Trump's focus in censoring since the beginning of this administration, [28:11] all the way down to independent media folks and creators. [28:15] But it's a group effort here to make sure that we elevate these voices who are willing to do the work. [28:21] So I'm going to put that link right here on the screen and also in the post description. [28:25] If you're not yet subscribed, please go ahead and hit the subscribe button. [28:27] Ari, thank you so much for taking the time, man. I appreciate it. [28:30] Thank you. Thanks to all your viewers and listeners. [28:32] Stay informed. Stay hydrated. Stay at it. [28:35] Peace, everyone.