“He Has the Authority”: Trump Aides Say Trump Can Invoke Insurrection Act as Protesters, ICE Clash (Video Transcript)

VIDEO BROADCAST #1: “He Has the Authority”: Trump Aides Say Trump Can Invoke Insurrection Act as Protesters, ICE Clash

“He Has the Authority”: Trump Aides Say Trump Can Invoke Insurrection Act As Protesters, ICE Clash

Good evening everyone. Mark Halpern, here 2 Way Tonight. Thank you for joining. We’ll spend about an hour together this evening with 2 great guests. Lots of news that developed since the morning program And, as always, the opportunity for you to ask questions, make comments, weigh in. If you’re here on the platform, want to get in a question, please raise your hand.

If you’re watching on X or YouTube, just don’t put smack in the chat, Please don’t. It upsets so many, including myself. So no, smack in the chat and don’t raise your hand either. Think about peace, love, understanding, extending the presumption of grace to all. If you look on paper, our 2 guests tonight should claw each other’s eyes out, But instead they’re just going to say: oh, that’s such an interesting point. I’m glad to hear that. They’re 2 new guests to the 2way platform and I couldn’t be happier to have them here.

They’ll be here in just a moment: Jessica, Jessica Anderson and Doug Friedash. So stand by for them. Our main stories will be hauntingly familiar to you, those who’ve watched the program all week. We’re going to be talking about a lot about Minnesota. We’re going to be talking about Iran. We’re going to be talking about, not about hockey. This show is not about hockey. We’re going to talk a lot about those 2 stories, So we could spend the whole. I could spend the whole night showing you Minnesota video. We’re going to talk about Venezuela and some odds and ends from the White House briefing. And of course, we’re going to talk about Penny, the dog who’s Polly’s roommate, which will all make sense to you in just a moment. 2 main things I want to tell you before we get going and all the ways we need to get going. first of all, this is a. this is some reporting that I’m developing. I don’t have it fully baked. I’ve fully baked enough to share with you, but I want to do more on it. You know, in normally, in a second term of a president, A lot of people leave because they’re tired and they want to spend time with their family. legitimately, and new people come in, But a lot of people stay and they’re exhausted. And in this administration, one of the many advantages Trump, second term, had over his 3 of the 3 previous 2 term presidents.

And we had 3 straight 2 term presidents, from Clinton to Bush to Obama, for the first time since the founding of the Republic, 3 straight 2 term presidents And people thought: well, there’ll be less burnout, because people were away for 4 years and they were doing other things, not goofing around, but let’s work. And that was true in the beginning and, and i think part of why president trump got off to such a strong start, first during the transition, uh uh, over a year ago, and then in the first part of the second term, is people were energized. a lot of new people, i mean there’s plenty of new people in the cabinet and senior jobs. there’s some people returning, returning champions, like stephen miller. um, but here’s what i’m here to report. what a wind-up. what a, maybe, a waste of time. i could have done that more compactly. people are tired now, the pace of this thing.

I’m trying to, as I think about writing a book about this whole thing, trying to figure out how to quantify just how different this is, just how much activity there is. It’s not necessarily bills passed because there’s a lot of executive action, but this thing is intense. And what I’ve noticed in the last, let’s see, since mid-November, since right after the off-year elections, the people in this administration are not all of them, but a lot of them are really tired, Some of the most senior people in the administration who have fantastic jobs and great colleagues and staff who help them. they’re tired. It’s been compacted into a shorter period of time, causing the fatigue. but people are exhausted And typically you can leave in first term, second term, a good time when the chief of staff can be convinced to let you retire or leave government. It’s right after the midterms, right? So a lot of people say: well, I just got to get through the midterms and then And then I can go.

r. So when you go to your boss and you say I’m ready to leave this job, I no longer want to be a treasury secretary, You just say, Susie, I don’t want to be Treasury Secretary anymore. but here’s Jessica Anderson. She’s ready to be Treasury Secretary and I already asked her privately and she wants the job. Okay, that’s a pro tip for all of you. It has served me well in my career. Always have a successor lined up. But these people are too tired to even do that and to make it to the midterms. There have been very few high-level departures. I don’t know again quantitatively how different that is from previous second terms, but very few. But what I’m here to tell you- I haven’t seen this report anywhere else- is people are exhausted, exhausted to the point of potentially impacting their ability to do their jobs, Very common in government. The days are long and even the people with cabinet jobs, their staffs, are not huge. They’re not like Jamie Dimon, where it’s like someone to mop this part of his brow and someone to mop this part of his brow and this part. Only one brow mopper per cabinet secretary, because it’s not the private sector. So watch this space and I’m going to do more reporting on it. And I predict part of the magic of 2 way. I predict I’ll get some calls and texts from folks who said: yeah, I saw what you said And in fact, yes, I’m exhausted, or my colleague or my boss is exhausted. So that’s number one. Number 2: last night, when we convened, I said: why is the Washington Post, in paragraphs twenty six, twenty seven and twenty eight, the only news organization in the world that seems to be reporting that the Iranian protests have stopped? How could that be? How could the Post have that? And how could they not be leading with it? And so I said I went t

o sleep. I got my two and a half hours sleep and I woke up and I said: well, surely other people will either be reporting the same thing or saying: the Washington Post is off, Nothing, nothing. So when we convened this morning for the morning meeting, I said that I said I don’t, I don’t get it. well, thank goodness, ladies and gentlemen, the wall street journal has finally said the same thing. um, and not good news that the protests have stopped, obviously, but just from a like, a news understanding point of view and and and a understanding the universe point of view. the journal says the same thing. now that the protest seems to have stopped. uh, lots of debate about what that means. we’ll talk about it. um, There you go. Those are the 2 things I wanted to tell you right off the top, because they’re the ones pressing on my mind. So quick word from a sponsor, then our guests, then our topics and then to your questions. So please raise your hand if you want to get in on the conversation. first, sponsor tonight, our friends at Upside. Upside is a magical app.

It just gives you free money. There’s no catch here, Free app. and then you go to restaurants and buy gas and supermarket, where you’d normally go, and if they’re participating, and there’s over a hundred thousand merchants participating. you just get free money you get to keep all the other benefits you get from. however, you buy your stuff, but go to your app store now. download the free upside app. use the promo code mark and a bonus. here you’ll get- uh, you’ll get, uh, 25 cents off a gallon on your first full full up of your tank. using the upside app, use the promo code 2way. um, You can make all the financial resolutions you want. You can try to use coupons, save pennies, et cetera. This is just a free way to get money. It’s frictionless to use. There’s no complexity to it. You just download the app. over a hundred thousand participants. They’ve given away over a billion dollars cash back to people who use the app. So I downloaded it as soon as I heard about it, and you should too. Thank you for your attention to that matter. Here we go, ladies and gentlemen, Jessica Anderson joins us now and I’m delighted to have her here for the first time. Jessica, welcome in. Thank you for joining. Unmute if you would. I’m sorry, you gotta unmute yourself if you would. There you go, Jessica, there’s so much I’ve read about you today to brush up. Tell people the 3 things they should know about you in the context of your appearing here on the program. Awesome. Well, it’s so great to be here and I really appreciate you having me. I run Sentinel Action Fund, which is a Senate get-out-the-vote operation, But before that I was one of those exhausted federal employees that you were just talking about. I served in the first Trump administration at the Office of Management and Budget and put together all of the late-night budget docs and regs that kept us up all hours of night, And before that I was on the Hill and have been adjacent to the Hill really the last 15 years.

So it’s great to be with you and to talk about the news of the day and how it’s going to all impact voters as they turn out this coming November. All right, Well, Jessica, grateful to you being here Was Congressman Mulvaney, the OMB director, when you worked there. Yeah, that’s right. Mick Mulvaney and Russ Vogt hired me. I was associate director and worked at the pleasure of the president and both those guys that are, as you know, wicked smart. Yeah, wicked smart. And one of them is hilarious. I won’t say which, but one of them is hilarious. The other one’s mildly funny, but one of them is wicked, hilarious as well as wicked, smart. Jessica, thank you for being here. All right, Doug is here, Doug. interesting last name. I’m not making fun of it. I’m asking: what’s the derivation of Fried Nash? Well, it was Friedenreich. When my family came from Germany, they wanted to shorten it. How they got to Friedenreich is a mystery to me. Okay, What generation American are you? third? Who’s the best Republican president of your lifetime? Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan, And you worked on the Hill also, John Hickenlooper. Did you work for him when he was the governor, or just as a senator? When he was governor, I was his chief of staff. Okay, So, have you ever worked on the Hill? i have not. okay, you’re a lucky american, that’s right, i’m sure. our good relations group i spend quite a bit of. okay, you’ve never worked. you’ve never worked for a member of congress. uh, jessica and others will glorify it as a wonderful place to work. it’s a plantation. it’s a horrible place. um, doug, are you from colorado? i am born and raised, yeah, and you live in the washington area. now i spend half my time in dc, half my time in denver. okay, see, all week and just came back this morning. okay, and who’s the best democratic president of your lifetime? uh, probably bill clinton. yeah, colorado democrats love bill clinton. uh, you know mike stratton. do you know him? i work with mike stratton. okay, well, mike stratton. mike stratton is a big clinton booster. i met him when he worked for the clinton campaign in and he always, just uh, seemed to have a great appreciation for the, the, uh, the changes brought about by the Clinton administration. Yeah, he’s a great guy. All right, Grateful to you both for being here And we’ll take some questions from the community in just a minute. Raise your hand if you want in on the conversation. I generally want to lead with Iran because I think it’s a historic moment for the world. But not much has happened. as compared to what’s happened in minnesota so we’re going to do that and an extraordinary amount has happened uh today in minnesota uh kicking off this morning with the president’s post on true social number one getting a lot of attention uh that he may uh decide to send federal troops to Minnesota. The president, this is from the Minnesota Star Tribune, the president threatens to send troops to Minnesota after a federal agent shoots man over alleged attack. This is another story where I think any fair-minded American can see both sides, but there’s a lot of red-blue reaction to this. The governor of Minnesota put out another statement today after addressing his state last night in a more formal address. Here’s Governor Walz reacting to the president. Number 2, please. Minnesotans believe in the rule of law, and Minnesotans believe in the dignity of all people. We’re a place where there’s room for everybody, no matter who you are, or who you love, or where you came from. A place where we feed our kids. We take care of our kids. It’s very similar to what we saw this morning. So now, a lot of debate about the Insurrection Act. There’s no doubt the president can invoke it. The question is, is it appropriate? Last time, in after the LA riots. Here is Secretary Noem on Fox making the case that the president is legally entitled to do this if he wishes. Number 4, please. Presidents threatening the Insurrection Act. Just a quick definition for our viewers, authorizes the president to deploy military forces inside the US to suppress rebellion or domestic violence or to enforce law in a certain situation. How serious is that threat right now? Will that happen, Madam Secretary? You know, I spoke to the president this morning about several different things, but we did discuss that. And that certainly is within the president’s constitutional authority to use that if he thinks he needs to to keep people safe. What I love about this president is the very first question that he asks me is, how are you doing and how are people doing in this country? How are the people doing and our law enforcement officers? What can we do to keep them safe, but to also make sure we’re bringing dangerous criminals to justice? Well, there’s a lot of work to be done. OK, Caroline Leavitt also defended the prospect. No word from the White House whether this is actually going to happen or not. Here’s some scenes from the ground today. It’s supposed to get very cold there, as it is in a lot of the United States. And so some people are wondering whether this will limit both the law enforcement activity as well as the protests. But you can see it’s not so cold now to have produced these 2 moments. Here’s a this is number 10. this is from turning point usa minnesota protesters pouring water on the driveway and yelling profanities at ice agents uh before you play it some of you don’t like when we play profanity on the show and i respect that i understand just turn your sound down if you don’t want to hear profanity but it’s part of what’s happening uh and it certainly impacts uh the the narrative so go ahead and play number uh ten please Now, this video will upset people in blue America, I think. officers, you’ll see how they’re dressed and how they’re behaving and just a formidable, formidable picture. Trying to push people back on the sidewalks. Resting someone on the ground here. Some pepper pellets were fired. OK, last night I raised the issue of whether the administration might look at some of the public opinion polls, some of the commentary from some Republicans on this platform and say, you know what, this operation is unpopular, not just because of the shooting a week ago, but in general, people are not rating this as a as a operation. that’s making the country safer uh no indication of that today in fact uh what’s happened from uh the president and his team is what some people here had advocated which is frame the issue more on favorable terrain including uh something that the white house is absolutely right about if you go read uh dominant media accounts of the shooting last night where someone was shot in the leg uh who’s here in the country illegally according to the government um almost none of those accounts say that the the ice agent was being attacked He was being attacked and that people write about it as if it was they say it was a scuffle or they don’t even mention it at all. Here is and then our guests will weigh in. Here’s Caroline Levitt today speaking to a columnist from The Hill about about the whole situation. And you watch how Caroline reacts. Which number? Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t tell you which number it is, did I? This would be number 7, please. Thank you. You were just defending ICE agents generally. And earlier on, Secretary Noem spoke to the media, and she said, among other things, that they are doing everything correctly. 32 people died in ICE custody last year. One hundred and seventy U.S. citizens were detained by ICE. And Renee Good was shot in the head and killed by an ICE agent. How does that equate to them doing everything correctly? Why was Renee Good unfortunately and tragically killed? Are you asking me my opinion? Because an ICE agent acted recklessly and killed an unjustifier. Oh, okay. So you’re a biased reporter with a left-wing opinion. What do you want me to do? Yeah, because you’re a left-wing hack. You’re not a reporter. You’re posing in this room as a journalist. And it’s so clear by the premise of your question. And you and the people in the media who have such biases but fake, like you’re a journalist, you shouldn’t even be sitting in that seat. but you’re pretending like you’re a journalist, but you’re a left-wing activist. And the question that you just raised and your answer proves your bias. You should be reporting on the facts. You should be reporting on the cases. Do you have the numbers of how many American citizens were killed at the hands of illegal aliens who ICE is trying to remove from this country? I bet you don’t. I bet you didn’t even read up on those stories. I bet you never even read about Lake and Riley or Jocelyn Nongre or all of the innocent Americans who were killed at the hands of illegal aliens in this country. And the brave men and women of ICE are doing everything in their power to remove those heinous individuals and make our communities safer. And shame on people like you in the media who have a crooked view and have a biased view and pretend like you’re a real honest journalist. Okay, I want to ask you both the same question. If you were to explain to a group of high school students, Jessica, you first, and they said, why is what’s going on in Minnesota so dividing the country? Why is it inflaming so much tension? How would you explain why that’s happened? Well, I’m probably going to be asked that question tonight by my 12yearold who hits us with questions like that often. Look, I think part of this problem is that there is a misunderstanding of the role of law enforcement. and how to enforce laws that are on the books or if there need if there is righteous indignation to change the laws on the books so in this case we have a situation where ice is protecting and trying to provide safety and security and law and order and he is they are enforcing the laws on the books whereas there are plenty of people that are out there in these ice anti-ice demonstrations and pro sanctuary city demonstrations that they want to change the laws on the books and therefore they they basically think it doesn’t apply to them i mean when you look at how these how quickly these protests have escalated into violence It’s not without an understanding that law and order should be applied. And I think it’s a shame that we’re even having to see pictures and images like this, especially coming after the holidays when everyone seemed like they were in a good mood to then, you know, succumb to this in our cities. And it seems to have a pattern that it’s our blue cities. led by weak democratic governors like waltz’s who by the way i think he’s losing weight when you just showed that video it felt like he the stress is like getting to him both from the left and the right and i kind of don’t blame him i i feel like when he announced that he was not gonna run again he probably should have just resigned and let someone else new come in and work would be willing to work with federal law enforcement there are plenty of democratic blue major cities like we saw with the mayor out of Chicago saying, yes, I will work with the feds, with federal law enforcement to quell this. that’s probably how I would explain it. Okay. Doug, how would you critique Jessica’s response? Well, I appreciate her view. first of all, I think Minnesota’s last thing they need is more gasoline thrown on this fire. And I’m a former city attorney in Denver. I’m a former prosecutor. I think at the crux of the issue today is the way ICE is enforcing the laws. Look, I’m a strong supporter of law enforcement. And I think what the public doesn’t like is the way they’re operating, the way they’re using their use of force, and how they’re using it, and determining what kind of use of force. And I think the powder keg has come in large part because of the way they are trying to effectively use it. large part because of the way they are trying to effectively use it. And I think if the president, who I think is chopping up the bit to use the Insurrection Act of 18 oh 7, I think he has been for a long time, goes that route. I think things are going to get way more dangerous. And I think what we need now is folks to know have the embers cool and our leaders to um lower their temperature um and lead and try to solve this in a reasonable way all right i’m going to try something i’ve tried before it’s never succeeded let’s try tonight uh jessica doug doug’s view is a big part of this is the way ice is carrying out its mission he’s not against law enforcement he’s not against deporting people who are criminals but he he seems to be suggesting that that’s That’s at the heart of why this is a controversial moment for the country. Do you see that point of view at all? Do you credit that? Is there anything ISIS doing to conduct their mission that you’d say, well, yeah, I could see why that would bother people? if doug and others would be going willing to go the sentence before that which is to recognize the huge increases in threats and assaults on law enforcement in the first place that escalate the situation where they then are not only protecting their own self but they’re protecting law and order so if we’re able to concede first that it’s gotten so hot and intense that regular everyday people are now turning their anger towards law enforcement officials. It’s a thirteen hundred percent increase in assaults, over eight hundred percent increase in death threats. I mean, these are this is this is a cultural change that we’ve seen the last decade of law enforcement. So if that’s one and then it’s an understanding of, well, then what do they do? How do they protect themselves for self-defense and provide law and order? And if there’s a conversation about how best to do that, I think a lot of reasonable people, including myself, would be willing to have that conversation. Okay. I want to go to Doug on your first point and see what he says, but just to ask you again. In that context, it’s stipulating that what you say is absolutely true about the initial threats to law enforcement and all the implications of that. Have you seen anything, an individual moment or general policy about the way ICE is conducting itself that you say the way that some have said uh even some republicans even uh some conservative commentators that’s not the right way to do this mission is a single moment or any policy not one not one okay um doug will just you can either comment on jessica’s initial answer or what you just said do you see uh the the the see this from the point of view of law enforcement and and and how particularly because the media only covers that one side of it that that we have an assault on American law enforcement conducting a legitimate mission, something the president ran on, and that they’re under physical threat. Do you see the reason why so many in the country are bothered by that? Yeah, a hundred percent. And I’m bothered by that. um i don’t want to see law enforcement attacked but i also think law enforcement you know their set of standards and training that they use to avoid these situations and you don’t see that with police generally across the country in major cities but you do with ice and you see yanking some woman out of a car the way they do it aggressively um i think christine holmes nomenclature about, you know, we’re going to ask people for their papers of citizenship, which is unconstitutional. There’s no obligation for people to have their citizenship with them. I mean, I think it just raises the conflict. It raises it makes people angry. um and that’s the last thing we need and and you know candidly i think americans support the idea largely and i think this is a big reason why president trump got elected he brought in immigration and crime i think americans want to see the criminals deported but they don’t want to see the indiscriminate use they don’t want to have a sense that there’s profiling they don’t need to see you know these excessive actions that make people uncomfortable and elicit these responses from people. I think people are scared. I actually think the way they are effectuating their enforcement is making that city less safe. I appreciate the tone both of you brought to it, and you both made great points. So thank you for that. I’m going to try to get quickly through some really important topics. We spent longer on this than I had intended. And then to your question. So again, if you want in on the conversation, whether you’ve raised your hand in the past or not, please do. Let me run through headlines on Iran. As I said, the Wall Street Journal reporting what the Washington Post reported yesterday. This would be number Sam, Iran’s heavy crackdown quells protests. Internet shutdown makes it difficult to determine scale of demonstrations with some Iranians saying they are afraid to go outside. There clearly are assets being moved to the Middle East. OK, it’s clearly happening and there’s different estimates about how long it will take. Some of these things will take will take a couple of weeks to build up what’s needed. The aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and its escort ships are headed from the South China Sea to the region. That’s a two week trip. More warplanes are going. Okay, so there is a buildup, there’s no doubt. Now, what’s delaying any action by the president? Here’s some reporting on that. Number 13, Israel and Arabs urged Trump to delay strike on Iran. this is from the new york times uh fear that there’d be retaliation uh i can tell you this there’s a lot more israeli u.s consultation about what’s going on the israelis have great human intelligence and other intelligence about what’s going on on the ground uh but obviously it’s not anybody’s interest in the west and for israel to share the fact that the 2 great satans are So that’s happening at a fairly high level and a fairly frequent cadence. Here’s another thing that’s being reported by the Wall Street Journal and others. Number 14, please. Trump was told that attack on Iran wouldn’t guarantee the collapse of the regime. President was advised U.S. military would need more firepower in Middle East to launch large strike attack and protect American forces. So the buildup of assets is 2 prong. 1, to be prepared to make the kind of strike if the president chooses to do it. that’s big enough that that would have whatever the the preferred outcome is and if there’s retaliation from the Iranians which is widely forecast to take place it was widely forecast after the attack the U.S Israeli attack on the nuclear capability uh but we saw that that was kind of a joke in terms of the response people are worried that this would be more serious Let’s polymarket the question of whether the Supreme Leader will be out by the end of the year. This is from our partners at Polymarket, number 17. And as you can see, it’s plummeted. It was it’s 48 percent. Now it was let’s see how high was it Michael how high was it I forget it was up to 65 percent so 60 almost 65 percent uh not that long ago and it’s gone down to 48 percent and of course that tracks with uh the news flow here that suggests some are reporting that the regime will stay at least for a while David Ignatius a column published just a while ago David is as well sourced on these matters as anyone uh david says it’s just a matter of time and that the us can do certain things to encourage uh regime change but it may not happen uh you know in the short in the short term so doug overall uh how are you feeling about where things are going based on what we know are you hopeful here or you are to what extent are you concerned that after the largest protest we’ve seen probably since the fall of the shah that the regime may in fact still stay in power you know we have a president who wants to get involved in Greenland and Venezuela and this is the place we really need regime change um I woke up thinking this would be the day I’d read about attacks um and thought we had the capability and assets in place obviously we didn’t um but I think it I’m not hopeful I think there was a real missed opportunity here um and I think this was it I think Iranians are desperate, and the government will take whatever action necessary to suppress them, including genocide of their own people. And it’s very disturbing. To me, I think you have to meet the moment, and I hope we didn’t miss it. Jessica, do you share the concern of your colleague that Doug is pessimistic? I definitely think Doug’s sentiment here is right, which is we need to meet the moment and the people of Iran are struggling and hurting and dying. I saw a stat today that even just uh president trump coming out and saying that he would do something leaving all options on the table scared enough of of of what was going on in the country to delay close to eight hundred executions so if we can move from talk to action and quick enough where it can bring peace i think we’d find a lot of support from the american people for that um i think doug’s opening comments though are are are pretty fair the the focus that this administration has had on foreign policy you know it it we’re back in the middle east like we we we went south to venezuela we still have our eye on greenland like it does seem that this administration, 2.0 versus 1.0, has much stronger interests in kind of the shock and awe. And Iran might have been something that have caught their eye. And it’s interesting that they haven’t moved yet. But I don’t know that that window has closed. And I certainly hope for the people on the ground there that are suffering that it hasn’t. And I think the president said today or the press secretary said today You know, all options are on the table and the president’s monitoring it closely. So no one wants an endless war. No one wants to be dragged into that. but we certainly want peace in that region of the world and peace peace across the globe okay i don’t want i don’t mean to give short shift to this or the other stories we’re going to run through now but i want to make sure we get a lot of time for community questions for these 2 uh an opportunity for you all to ask them so we’re going to move on from iran but we could talk about it for the remainder of the time uh today at the White House number 18 Sam Wall Street Journal headline uh the opposition leader uh who the president has said nice things about uh from Venezuela but not endorsed her or new elections uh she leaves the White House according to the Wall Street Journal Machado with little to show Venezuelans opposition leader had hoped to shore up support while Trump has shown a willingness to work with the regime and of course as we talked about last night the president had a very friendly phone call by all accounts including his own with the current leader of the country uh and uh so let’s probably market this question well actually first let’s look at machado here’s some video of her as she’s leaving the white house fox news is reporting she did give the president her nobel peace prize uh let’s see what she had to say about that as she left number 19 please is your meeting with the president did you give him the nobel peace prize no response for some of her supporters including some members of congress who would like to see the president embrace her more strongly and uh there you see with dick durbin and some other members of congress jean jean uh uh we’re disappointed that uh there was no public event with her and the president and um not clear where things stand there here’s what polymarket better say about a regime in venezuela who will be the leader of venezuela at the end of the year number 20 here you go uh delce rodriguez the woman who’s currently leading the government who was maduro’s deputy uh 54 percent has been pretty stable uh since the polymarket uh event went up machado only 19 percent uh gonzalez who actually was the winner of the previous election a couple years ago and then maduro 5.7 um uh jessica who do you think will be the leader of venezuela at the end of this year I don’t know. I think it’s interesting that 5.7 people think Maduro’s going back. That feels wild to me. Honestly, I don’t know because I’m not certain that we know exactly how much Delcy is going to do in response to the Secretary of State’s big 3 point plan that he’s outlined for the country. I think we have to know. if rodriguez is going to commit to working with the united states commit to no more drugs coming to the united states commit to stabilizing the economy opening it up for u.s and western business and trade um to have some sort of national reconciliation and rebuilt if delcey’s able to do that and there’s a path for it then sure i think that makes a lot of sense but we just it just feels so early to know that answer um and i don’t think it’s clear so i think i’d actually have a hard time placing a bet uh if i was logged into my polymarket account tonight i probably would wait a few days to see what happens or maybe just put 5 bucks on maduro and yeah yeah like the 92 euro judge could fall asleep and maduro could could escape head on back yeah uh doug i uh Jessica’s going to pass on a bit wagering. How about you? You know, I’d put my money on Delcy Rodriguez. I do think, look, she walked out after giving a Pulitzer Prize and didn’t even get a public appearance. That’s not a good day for her, you know, candidly. And Delcy Rodriguez is a bad person. And the one thing I’ve noticed, I saw The Economist polling. I mean, Trump’s actions in Venezuela are very popular there, not popular. fair but yeah people want democracy they want an election on a by the end of the year which is much faster i think than what um we’re hearing what we’ve heard from the trump administration but um i do think he’s giving her a chance to prove herself and collaborate and deal with these issues and if she doesn’t my sense is he’ll push the envelope but if she does um she’ll stay Okay. Interesting. All right. 2 more topics into your questions. Please raise your hand if you want in on the conversation. A quiz for you 2. Both will have some insight into this. And if you already know the answer, say you already know the answer. Chuck Schumer met with the president today. Rare. What was the topic of their meeting? Jessica, what’s your guess? I’ll give you a hint. It’s OMB-ish. It’s OMB-ish. I don’t know. What did they talk about? All right, Doug, you know? I want to guest health care. Yeah. No, all politics are local. The Gateway Tunnel project between New Jersey and New York. He has wanted that money. He does want that money. He wants that money. He put them going in there and lobbying. Yeah. Now, also, Reuters has just reported governors from states seeking rapid expansion in data center construction will visit the White House tomorrow to sign an agreement with the administration intended to curb rising electricity costs, according to 2 sources. Amongst the governors going are 2 Democrats who might run for president, Wes Moore and Governor Shapiro, also Governor DeWine of Ohio. Lastly, on health care, the range of opinions, you both know this issue well and know how complicated it is for both parties. Such a wide difference of opinion in the White House, within the administration, and then on the Hill about what Republicans should do or can do about health care this year. Huge issue in the minds of the voters. Some people want to do reconciliation bill that includes health care. Some do not. Some want to try to make a compromise with the Democrats on the extension of the affordable care act subsidies some do not the president said in his speech on tuesday 2 days ago the detroit economic club that he was going to release a health care plan and with all due respect the president he regularly says he’ll announce things and then he doesn’t well he did today sort of he put out a 5minute video that um that laid out some ideas i think all of which maybe not all but almost all of which he’s talked about before the white house did not put out any legislation whatever a lot of people on the hill are still skeptical that this means anything uh noah do we have a clip from that from that Here we go. This is the president explaining the I think he calls it the great health care plan. That’s what I’m thrilled to announce my plan to lower health care prices for all Americans and truly make health care affordable. Again, we’re doing things that nobody’s ever been able to do. We’re calling it the great health care plan. Instead of putting the needs of big corporations and special interests first, our plan finally puts you first and puts more money in your pocket. The government is going to pay the money directly to you. It goes to you, and then you take the money and buy your own health care. Nobody’s ever heard of that before, and that’s the way it is. The big insurance companies lose, and the people of our country win. Again, it’s about 5 different proposals that we’ve heard from the president before. And I’m curious, Doug, you first. Will the Republicans, you think, do anything on health care this year? Listen, if this was the great health care plan, I’d hate to see the bad one. This thing was a joke. I mean, it was rolled out for political reasons. It is just a political exercise, not a serious proposal. And I think it gives them a talking point. But this was a few paragraphs on a web page, a fact sheet, and a proposal Dr. Oz couldn’t even explain. So no, I’m not high on. I think it’s a key issue on affordability. I think they’d be wise to do that. And I think that’s why you saw so many House members who are worried about losing their seats vote for an ACA extension. People want to have this issue addressed. Premiums are doubling. Healthcare is a question of affordability, a key question. Families either can afford it or they can’t, and they’re deciding not to have it. So I sure hope it gets solved. I think it’d be in the best interest of the Republican Party to find a path. Jessica, I’m warning you now before you weigh in on the president’s health care plan that if you say something different than what Doug said, you will be outvoted 2 to one. Because I agree with everything Doug said. But go ahead. Tell us 3 unanimous ruling from the bench or a bitterly divided 2 to one decision. No, I’m halfway there. Look, I think that the challenge here is that I think Republicans are actually missing, to Doug’s point earlier, missing the moment because why are we having a conversation about premiums up going through the roof? Why are we having a conversation that no one has choice over their health care? And then we can’t lower drug price because Obamacare has failed. Well, where did Obamacare come from in the first place? Former Democratic President Obama. So, you know, I think there’s no love loss on my side of the aisle that we need to make a change. We’ve been saying that for 16 years. Many people campaigned on it, but we have brand new members of Congress that were not there during the twenty twelve and twenty fourteen fights. They were not there for the Lucy in the football fight of, you know, quarter one, 2017, when Republicans tried to repeal Obamacare. and we’re unable to do it. So there’s this weird tactical mix where I think the White House wants to show something. They want to push Congress, right? I think that’s why you actually saw legislative framework and not text go to the Hill today, because they want Congress to come and provide something, write something that attaches these 5 goals. But the reality is, is we’re going to need more to tackle the issue of affordability and healthcare is part of it. If we don’t get the prices down and choice for everyday Americans, it’s going to continue to be a major, major problem, and it’s just not going away. Doug, in the spirit of peace, love and understanding, I’m going to call that a concurring opinion. Sounds good. She wrote she wrote separately. Right. But it’s concurrence. All right. I always write my own. Come on. Understood. If I were a justice, I would always do that, too. All right. Quick word from another sponsor. And then to your questions again, please raise your hand if you want in on the conversation. Cozy Earth, our sponsor. They’ve been our sponsor for a long time. 20 percent off everything on the site right now at the promo code 2 way. This morning we showed you a little puppy who had swiped the owner’s bubble cuddle blanket. I’ve warned all of you. You got to buy 2. Well, here’s a household that needs to buy 3 because here’s another puppy. Same household. This is Penny, Polly’s roommate. and and and she also likes the bubble cuddle blanket Penny and Polly uh both uh and uh told by the owner she also likes the striped sheets so buy yourself 3 if you got 2 dogs you’re gonna have to buy 3 the bubble cuddle blanket favorite of animals and small children Jessica your your 12yearold would love this I guarantee it very soft towel sheets everything now 20 percent off on cozyearth.com use the promo code uh Mark for 20 or 2way rather for 20 percent i’ll start the new year off right and give your home the luxury it deserves and make your home the best part of life head to cozyearth.com promo code 2way thank you for your attention to that matter jen welcome in jen is from oklahoma and she’s going to unmute and have her question for jessica and doug and thank you for being here I guess I wanted to talk about the state of the immigration thing. I’ve been starting to feel emotional like we’ve kind of, we’re back in the sixties with all the disruption you know the way people feel about it all the protesting and starting to have violence in the streets etc um and it’s a you know it’s such a complicated issue and i really do see a lot from both sides but kind of from i mean we knew that this was what was going to happen in terms of the policy and trump and he won the election and we were going to start deporting i mean that that was a given but from this it feels like from the onset um the blue states and sanctuary cities said it doesn’t matter how it’s done we’re not going to cooperate And when you’re not going to cooperate, you basically create a scenario for the best options of how it can be done are not in the picture. Yeah. So I guess that’s what I’d like you all to talk about is, you know, is there a path to a better option? where there is some maybe police protection for the ICE agents or willingness when these, if a person is in court because they’ve committed a crime and they’re being arraigned or whatever, to have ICE come to the courthouse and pick them up. Great framing. Thank you for that. Doug, let me ask you to address what Jen asked by asking you a question because you’re an attorney that I’ve heard from so many people. Why is it legal to have a sanctuary city? Why is that something that is permissible when it’s basically saying we’re not going to enforce the law? Well, they don’t have to cooperate, and I think that’s where they’re drawing the line. They’re trying to limit their ability to work together. And I think, listen, a number of governors and states have taken action, all in blue states, to the limit. to limit um cooperation i think that is a mistake i think there are opportunities in trying to find the most dangerous criminals and have them deported and we should work together and i think that’s in the best interest i think it got a lot harder because the way this enforcement has taken place and i would point out that governor stitt in oklahoma was one of the few governors who spoke out about having national guards um being a state um and he did speak out about it and saying that he talked about state sovereignty so there’s at least one governor who who shared some concerns about that yeah but i do think you know there’s there’s questions i think about enforcement and how it’s enforced and um i think fear among uh a lot of democrats that cooperation is political suicide for them. Yeah. Jessica, we get asked all the time here by folks around the country, you know, why can’t the voices be lowered? Clearly, there’s blame on both sides for the lack of coordination. If the president and Secretary Noem said, let’s start over, let’s try to reach an accommodation, is there a way to do that? Maybe Minnesota and Governor Walz is a bridge too far, but is there a way to try to get cooperation from Democratic elected officials? Or you think that’s just not possible no matter what kind of dialogue is pursued? I think it’s possible. I just think it has to be done in private because I think the second that this is a public conversation, it is a Republican versus Democrat conversation. Right. That’s really where I think a lot of the state and local law enforcement that is so good, by the way, but has political left leaning leadership over them will shut it down and say no. And Mark, I think a good example that is actually worth remembering is what what happened. I mean, it was only like 3 months ago where where The president sent the National Guard and additional FBI agents to Memphis. Well, he did that in concert with a blue city mayor and political leadership there that was very Democrat. But everything that went up to that point was all done in private. And so I think the only way the temperature comes down is if these conversations are behind the scenes. It brings state and local and feds to the table together. It talks about what’s best for returning safety and security into these neighborhoods. And it does it away from the cameras. And that’s the only way I think we move forward because otherwise it’s just, I hate Trump. I don’t, you know, and you just, and that’s what it is. That’s where we are. That’s just where we are, unfortunately, as a country right now. yeah jen thank you uh great question rex welcome in tell folks who don’t know where you are what’s on your mind for doug and for jessica uh i’m in colorado and my question is for doug last year governor polis signed in senate bill 25276 which basically prohibited state agencies from cooperating with immigration Did you support that? And if you did or didn’t, whichever way, do you think that helps ICE in removing illegal aliens from Colorado? I wasn’t involved in that whatsoever, and I have some mixed feelings about that. Candidly, I do think it’s not in the best interest to take such a hard line position. I do agree with what Jessica said in terms of trying to cooperate and find paths where we can work together. I mean, law enforcement is typically aligned in dealing with the criminal element. And I’m concerned about that, too. So I appreciate that. I thought it probably was not something I would support. But, you know, that’s Colorado law. Yeah. Rex, thank you. Grateful to you. Policy here, Jessica, you may not be familiar with it because it’s your first time, but you bring on a cute kid or a dog and you’re automatically called on. So well done, Ryan. Unmute. uh we’ll need to know that young hi hi how old are you garla is 4 years old and i’m on a i’m on a headset so unfortunately say hi charlotte there’s one and my one she’s got her own mic that’s right it’s like lennon and mccartney well adorable ryan well done i grabbed the mic And Flores, both of yours, you can ask about Peppa Pig or whatever is on your mind. Oh, Peppa Pig is popular in this house for sure. So I wanted to talk a little bit regarding immigration. The comparison between the current way that the administration has been messaging between Iran protesters and the protesters here in our own country. If one Iran protesters killed, that’s too many. And yet we are labeling the protesters here in America as, quote unquote, domestic terrorists. Also, I’m surprised as far as entertaining politicians that, Mark, that you haven’t brought up the Jesse Ventura interview that was recently had in the state of Minnesota. I thought he had some really good points and it was entertaining as well. Yes, he is a great entertainer. I saw it. It happened in a part of the news cycle where it didn’t sustain. Ryan, thank you for that question. Jessica, it’s one I get a lot. We get a lot here. How do you differentiate the seeming encouragement of protests in Iran versus the labeling of people protesting in this country as domestic terrorists and comparable things? I think it goes back to the heart of all of this, which is the law. So the protesters in Iran are trying to change the law, right? They think it’s fundamentally not reflective of free civil society, and the United States generally supports that. Here in America, I think a lot of Americans want to see law and order and safety and security. and so they’re concerned when there’s protests against that or there’s protests against the people that are trying to provide that and protect it so for me I think it comes down it comes down to that and there is a difference in America that is trying in our neighborhoods to provide that safety and security which is something that you know unfortunately when you look at a country like Iran it doesn’t have those same standards it doesn’t have a constitution It does have a law enforcement, law and order perspective. So I think that I think honestly, that becomes the difference in my mind, at least between the 2. Doug, I’m going to let you ask Jessica a follow up question on that because I read your poker face. what would you like to ask jessica about her answer just now i mean i i i would say this i mean the the one problem i’m not to go off too much on a side note but i mean the president encouraged the protests in iran and and also said if people started to get injured or killed he’d step in and take action those red lines were passed and he didn’t take action and i think in america we understand how important the right to protest is and i think um we have to be careful not to let those situations um escalate and gasoline thrown on them and i think you know in the u.s and iran we’ve had some of that clearly in iran but here in the u.s i think through some of these protests i think government has done some things to instigate folks I’m curious if you agree with that or if it’s different. Jessica? I think it’s interesting, the instigation question. And there was, I think earlier when we were talking about this at the top of the show, Doug, you mentioned the example we saw at the video where the ICE agent grabbed the woman out of the car. But I just What was happening 30 seconds before that? Like, when you look at the rest of the camera, the law enforcement guys are in front of her car telling her to move over, telling her to get out. Like, they’re not following the law. Like, if a police officer is in front of me giving me a command, I should be doing that. Otherwise, I’m breaking, like, there’s going to be some sort of response. There’s going to be some sort of retaliation that’s taken. And that’s exactly what happened. You only then see the sliver, though, of the ICE agent grabbing the woman. And then, you know, she’s saying, oh, I’m on my way to the doctors. I’m not part of this protest. And I think it’s just really confusing for the American people because we just see that. But if you saw the to answer what they wanted and so I do think we have to be careful with generalizations and take things case by case because there’s a lot of sensitivities that are going on and the pressure and someone’s mentioned training and you know in the chat stream on the side here I think that’s obviously critically important when you look at the training that’s needed all across our law enforcement we should not be cutting budgets cutting resources cutting training hours for both on the street to things that can be de-escalated with mental health. All of that needs to be part of the package for our law enforcement. And we have seen cuts. Both sides of the aisle have cut before. And we saw a lot of it under Biden. And we saw a lot of it under Obama’s budget. So I just want to be careful about too big of generalizations here and look at the specifics and then really see the full picture to understand how we get ourselves out of this mess. Doug, do you want to go one more beat on this or move on? We can move on. Okay. Ryan, thank you for the question. We’re going to get at least one more person in, but I got one more sponsor to get in before we go. Our folks at TakeLean.com will give you 20 percent off the whole site with the promo code 2 way. Give up the fad diets, the juice cleanses, the cabbage soup diets and the raw food diets and the injections. Some of you love them. I’ve seen too many people not do well with them. TakeLean.com allows you to lose weight with a product that’s not an injectable. It’s an oral supplement. Science is impressive. It allows you to maintain healthy blood sugar. control appetite and cravings and help burn fat by converting it to energy all in service of not losing weight the wrong way with his weight cycling where you lose ten pounds and then you gain it back take lean.com offering you 20 percent off now the entire site enter 2way at take lean.com to get uh 20 percent off everything on the site it’s an opportunity to start the year off right with an attempt after years of trying worked for so many again doctor generated doctor invented TakeLean.com, promo code TWOWAY right now for an opportunity to save 20 percent off. My friend Ray is here. Ray lives in Ohio. Ray, unmute. The floor is yours for Jessica and for Doug. Excuse me. The protesters are not protesting against the law. They are not protesting against safety and security. In their mind, they are protesting against what they see as the tyranny of a government that is conflating ICE’s roles and responsibility. ICE is not a safety and security agency. If you go back and look at its charter, ICE is an agency that’s supposed to carry out the orders of the DHS when it comes to terrorists, and immigration. So what we have done today is the same thing that we’ve done in the forties, fifties, and sixties when it came to Southern Democrats in the South, when they use the same sort of language to make sure that they could keep Black people in their place and stop civil rights. It is the same exact nonsense. And I think we need to call out anytime somebody claims that ICE is a safety and security agency, it flat out is not. Just look at its charter. Ray, you’re saying it’s not the execution, but you think the actual mission is not about safety and security? The actual mission is about safety and security when it comes to terrorism and immigration. When you say safety and security, what we see then on a number of the cable news shows is people automatically go to local safety and security, and that is not ICE’s job. Well, let’s say they arrest someone who came to the country illegally and has been convicted of drunk driving. If they seize them and deport them, is that local safety and security? No, I don’t see it as local safety and security. I see local safety and security as somebody who is dumb enough to break into a gas station or someone who’s dumb enough to commit a holdup in their community. I see it as a completely different thing. And I think that we’ve conflated the 2 enough so that everybody sees it as the same thing. I don’t see it as the same thing. Jessica, comment to what Ray’s saying or question for Ray, please. Well, what if the individual that busted into the gas station or broke a window, what if that person was here illegally? Whose responsibility is it then to detain them? Well, that’s pretty easy, right? Because if they’re committing the crime, you don’t know if they’re here illegally until you arrest them. So if they’re illegally or illegally and they get arrested, you call DHS because that’s their charter. You say, come on and get this person. Then DHS has to deal with them because that’s their charter. So what you just described is actually what Nome and others at DHS have been banging on their hair, you know, banging on the door to try to do to have cooperation. with state and local law enforcement. So that way they can go to the jails, that they can go to the police headquarters and they can do their other part of the job. So what you just described is actually the perfect from i mean we never want to see this right so maybe i shouldn’t use the word perfect like we never want to see a criminal actually take doing crime in the first place but when it happens that you have the proper responses and a cooperation between the state between the state and local and ice or the federal agents you know it’s not just ice there could be other things that are flagged along the way right it’s not just illegal immigration there’s a whole host of other crimes that the feds care about that sort of cooperation and partnership is what is broken right now and i think that’s actually the heart of the problem that maybe we all agree on right i absolutely agree should be cooperation all my only point is you don’t know who’s illegal you don’t know who’s committed a crime and what people are upset about at least in minneapolis and other cities including what’s going to happen here in springfield ohio shortly is that agents are coming in and just making arrests and taking actions without knowing who is who that’s the issue Ray, thank you. Grateful to you. Okay. Almost at time, so I don’t want to cut short. Jessica and Doug, so grateful to you both for coming. I hope you didn’t have an unpleasant hour and I hope you’ll both come back regularly. Loved having you on. Thank you very much. Jessica, where are you from originally? I’m from South Florida. South Florida. What’s the best single tourist attraction in Florida? Oh, the beaches. Come on. And then Disney World. But Disney World’s like mid-floor. Doug, what are the top 2 in Colorado? Red Rocks, Aspen. The mountains are amazing. And we have a number of Broncos. Yeah. I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never been to Red Rocks. Jessica, you been there? Yeah, I have. I haven’t been there. One of the places I haven’t been. Anyway, grateful to you both for being on. Right now on 2Way, Michael Moynihan hosting Immigration Attorney David Leopold and former U.S. Border Patrol Chief Chris Clem. Turn over now, participate in that conversation. Michael Moynihan, The Moynihan Report. Tomorrow, 9 a.m. Eastern time, I’ll be back with the morning meeting. It’s Friday, so we’ll have our winners and losers of the week and what to look for over the weekend and We’ll close out the week talking about what I suspect will be some big overnight developments. I believe the president has an interview at ten p.m. Eastern time tonight, or at least airing at ten p.m. Eastern time. Remind me who’s on tomorrow. Larry’s back, right? Who’s on? Who’s on tomorrow? Who’s on the morning meeting? somebody’s going to tell me larry and jaima larry and jaima moore okay so uh join us for that uh and uh we are very grateful for all of you being part of the 2way community lastly my new episode of next up just dropped you can listen to it as a podcast watch it on youtube uh my reported monologue on what’s really going on with greenland i did a ton of research on uh facts about greenland 0 walmart’s 0 uh zeroed McDonald’s uh uh fifty eight thousand people same number of people who live in Burlington Vermont same number of people fit in Dodger Stadium on and on and on I will paint a portrait for you of Greenland that uh opened my eyes and and I think you’ll find interesting talk about the politics of it as well and what the president seems to be up to listen to it now thank you for watching again thanks to Jessica and Doug I’ll see you tomorrow at 9 a.m eastern time have a good night