Don LIVE From Washington, D.C.

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1:03If you like YouTube, you'll love YouTube Premium. Hi, I'm Sean Evans from Hot Ones and I want to tell you about YouTube Premium. It has offline downloads, so you can watch without Wi-Fi. Background play, so you can lock your phone and it still plays, baby. Oh, and it is completely ad-free. I said it, ad-free. Try YouTube Premium for two months free at youtube.com slash premium. Trial eligibility varies, terms apply, cancel anytime. All right. All right. All right. Well, everybody, thank you for joining us. We're trying to catch. We're here in Capitol Hill. We're trying to catch up with some of the folks before they leave. This is Senator Thomas Mass, who you want to get and talk to him. Let's see if we can get in front and talk to the Senator.

2:05Hi, Senator. Good morning. How you doing? Good to see you again. Yeah, how you doing, John? How do you feel about them, you know, adjourning everything so that you don't, they don't have to vote on what you want? Hey, this is, I call this the Hegseth holiday today. And the next two weeks is the Epstein recess. You know, I introduced the articles of impeachment. They had 48 hours to vote on it. And so 24 hours later, Mike Johnson adjourned Congress to avoid the vote. I think they did a quick whip check. Yeah. And found out it wasn't good news. Yeah. Otherwise, they would have had the vote and tabled it. Yeah. But you think it was on purpose? Well, I know it was on purpose. Because if they had adjourned a day early for any other reason, except for the Hegseth articles, they would have had the vote yesterday on Hegseth articles. Yeah. Like, he has to have a vote within 48 hours, but he could have it in 12 hours or 24 hours. So that, and there's no benefit to Pete Hegseth to have this hanging over his head until the election day.

3:07If the whip count had been good, they would have disposed with this, with my motion, with the motion to table. And then the Epstein, on the Epstein bill, I got to 218 signatures last night. I got the fourth Republican that I need. It's only because there are two Democrats that are absent, probably for good reason, maybe health or family. But they would be here next week, and I would be, we would be having a vote on the Epstein files transparency act, too. What are they worried about? Transparency. They're worried about accountability. They're in advance of the election. But we should be here today, like I'm here today. I'm going over to the DOJ today, look at more of the Epstein files. They should be here today working on things like the price of fuel, the price of groceries, there's things we could be doing. There's a National Defense Authorization Act that's not been done. There's a Farm Bill that's not been conference between the House and the Senate. There's a funding bill that runs out in December.

4:07There's a lot of stuff that's piling up into the lame duck session. Did you see the report that came out on the cost of the war? You know what? I don't need to see that report. I buy fuel for my tractor and I buy gas for my car. That's the real price of the war. It's been over $100 billion of cost to consumers, not the cost of the military. People don't see that because that's hidden in our debt. But when you go to fill up your tank, you see it. Look, we all wish everyone well. But Senator Mitch McConnell was missing in action for 92 days. And now he's back. I mean, I look at the pictures after, be honest. It doesn't look good. Yesterday the vote. Were you present for the vote yesterday with him? I mean, they vote separately than us. So he had a point. I haven't, but to your point. I've seen a video. He had a bunch of people around him and he's supposed to vote I. And he voted nay. And then they corrected him and told them and then he voted. Yeah, it makes me wonder what Scott Jennings, 20-minute conversation with McConnell was like.

5:07Yeah. What do you think? You think he's like, I just, I wish him the best. Honestly, they're not going to do much of anything up here. Between now and January 3rd, there's going to be some nefarious stuff during the lame duck session. That would happen without McConnell, with or without a replacement to McConnell. And so at this point, since Mike Johnson has canceled the rest of Congress, I don't know which is worse. A senator that doesn't show up or 435 members who can't even be in here doing our job. Who actually show up and don't do anything? Yeah, I'm here today. Yeah. But is he able to represent the people of his state well in this? That's up to the people and the senator and the governor. That's not my choice. How are you feeling about the midterms? Are you concerned, Donald Trump is doing everything he can to try to take over the election, restrict the voting, get people not to vote by mail, which he does? No, I'm not worried. You're not? No. People complain about the integrity of the election or election interference.

6:09I just had $30 million spent against me by foreign lobby and nobody cares about that. That's the real problem we have here is the money and the foreign money that's in our elections. And a lot of it's on social media and not even tracked. Yesterday, the vice president said, hey, we just need a second chance. We need four more years, I don't know, I guess he's running, I don't know, to get the country in order. And so they need to a second term or maybe a third in order to do it. Maybe it's like an abuse of husband who asked for a second chance and the constituents want to divorce. I said that yesterday on my show. Are you serious? I swear I didn't steal your joke. I said he didn't, you've already broken my heart. You already broke my heart, I'm not giving you a second chance. Is that how you feel? Well, it's your party too. No, in all seriousness, who's he asking for a second chance from? The president to his credit created a coalition.

7:09It's never been created before. It gave us a majority in both chambers and the White House. And we were able able to get on most days a conservative outcome in the Supreme Court. And he's alienated the various factions of that coalition. He told the people who wanted transparency that you're no longer a supporter of mine. If you want the Epstein files exposed, he told the people that didn't want another war. There were a lot of us in that category. Here's your next war. And then he told the people, the doge, the fiscal conservatives, you know what? Screw it. We don't care about the debt. We're going to lower taxes and increase spending. We're going to raise the debt more than it's ever been raised before. So he's fractured the coalition that he built. And it's really up to the president. I don't think you're going to see people in tough districts asking the president to come campaign for them. Well, speaking of, and I know you guys, I need you to go. Your time is very valuable. But do you wish? Well, and I realize I'm the only member of Congress you could find up here on this day.

8:11We're supposed to be working. Now, let me ask you, no, no, let me ask you. So take this question. You wish time is unique. It could be five hours before you find another Congress. We were scrambling and I said, Senator Congressmen, thank you. But let me ask you this. You mentioned people in their districts, right? You don't think that they're going to be scrambling to write to vote for them or to campaign with. A lot of them are dissolution. I don't think you're going to see Republicans and independents go vote for socialists. What you will see is they'll stay home. Okay. Do you wish because you're getting a lot of love from both Democrats and Republicans right now, independence for speaking out for speaking the truth? Do you wish you had been more vocal sooner earlier? You think it would have made a difference? Most people ask the question differently. They say, do you wish you hadn't voted against a big, beautiful bill? Do you wish you hadn't been against this war? Do you wish you had voted for Mike Johnson? Look, I've never been a shrinking violet. I'm not coming back because I was too vocal.

9:11And so I have no regrets. Who's it going to be? Is it going to be Rubio or is it going to be Vance? Neither. Thank you. Thank you. Congressman Thomas Massey. So we're here. Thank you guys for being so accommodating. We're here scrambling. We're just, we're supposed to interview a senator before this. So I had a senator in my head. But that's Congressman Thomas Massey. And we're here on Capitol Hill. We're going this way, right? Do we have a, we've got a, we've got a meeting this way? Oh, okay. So Congressman, we're going to interview Congressman Boyle and we have to go through security. But look, here's the thing. Let me just stand here for a second. Let me just do this. Because look at the Capitol building, right? You see tourists, you see people walking. You saw Congressman Massey. Although they have a journey for the, you see, we've seen some lawmakers. They had the entire summer off. So that they could do whatever they want. Speak to their constituents. Most of the Republicans did not speak to their constituents. Then they came back. And then they decided they needed another week to fundraise for the midterms.

10:13And then so they could have their stupid midterm convention. And then they came back for a week. And now they have six weeks off. I should be here applying for a job here. Because this is a schedule that every single person would want. Imagine having the summer off and then another week. And then six more weeks. And then you can raise money. And you can charge the taxpayers. You guys should see, let me just show this. Because we're going to interview in a second. I just want to see if that's anyone I want to interview here. So guys, go with us. This is live. We are just in real life. Live. I just want to show you if we can before we walk over to interview Senator Conley. The failings of black SUVs and security and secret service and staff and lunches and everything.

11:13Right? Check it out. Guess who's paying for all of that? You're paying for all of that. And they are at home now as we say, Lala gagging, doing whatever they want. They want to raise money. They can go raise money. They want to go to the beach. They can go to the beach. They want to take a vacation in Europe. They can take a vacation in Europe. When was the last vacation you got to take? And so, look, this is a capital. Should be working. They should be working. Check it out. Look at that. You see now. Hey, how are you? Oh, hey, thank you. Thank you. You're wonderful. Thank you. Hi, how are you? Talk to Chiara. Hi. Don't let what? Don't let anybody. Hi. Don't let what? Don't let anybody. Bit or bit and monitor your hand. falan and także and our Mr.

12:15就是六 six days. What is your search,店? Just demo the moment you're here. Well don't ask me what I think about it. Don't ask me about it. Okay, and I think Wanan was doing two hundred times extra. It's been an inspiration to us all. That's why we're here. I shake to the floor. Thank you. We're very welcome. Thank you. That's why we're here. I needed to say that to you. I need to say that. I appreciate it. You may want to take a look. And all of it, we're live. You're live. Oh my God. The elimination appreciation. You guys are live right now. Thank you. I'll be right around with you in Minnesota. Oh, yeah. How are you doing? I'm doing good. I like the movement. And how is it? You know, we can't be in communication with each other. Yeah, I know. I know. He's doing well. That was just like how you went through it. But him and I met because I was leading the New York City Frontlines for George Floyd's life in 2020. So when I saw him on the line with you, I knew you were going to be in good hands because he's a good man. So yeah, keep doing your work. Thank you.

13:15Kiara. I'm sorry. Nicole, nice to meet you. Hi, Deanna Salad. Hi, Deanna. Nice to meet you. Every Ellis Salad. Nice to meet you. You guys all wonderful work. I'm sorry. Keep up the wonderful work. You're my greatest inspiration. I started my official political polls because I could not get over how you navigated journalism as like both a person and a platform. It was just, yeah, spent years doing radio because I was trying to be the local version of someone cool like Don Leman. But thank you. Oh my god. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Let's just real quick. We're going over there. Thank you. I appreciate you. OK. I just want to signal for a moment because it's a hint. OK. Oh, the camera is hot. You know what? Wait, wait. No, this is what you need to do. Leave it like that. And so I just want to show you this. So there they are. All of the SUVs, all of that stuff, all of them. And usually there are more of them. And you are paying for that as they go on vacation. How are you? How are you? I'm great. Good to see you. You too. My name's Christine. I'm with the Sierra Club. And we're such a huge chance of your work as a big fan of the Sierra Club.

14:17I'm Steve here, both right. Thank you. And I'm a legislative director with Sierra Club. And we're up here doing yes to win because administration has spent $4 billion of taxpayers' money to take clean energy off the grid at a time when energy rates and affordability is soaring. Well, thank you. You had Senator Markey out there. Senator Markey. We're going to talk to Senator Markey in just a little bit. We have an interview schedule. Thank you. You keep up the great work. And yes. So nice to meet you. Thank you. Nice to meet you. OK. Let's go over. Are we back on the heat? Got us a little bit. It's OK. Oh. We got to go. We got to go. I think we're off. Hi, Congresswoman. How are you? How's the going? Do you think of getting another vacation? What do you mean? Oh, it's not a vacation, y'all. This is them running away because they don't want to impeach headsec. Also, you know, they canceled last two weeks. As soon as Massey put that bill out, the clerk's desk, regarding, you know, again, Epstein 2.0 trying to release the 3 million records with Department of Justice. All of a sudden, everybody wants to run away. Because they don't want to be held accountable to the things.

15:19I mean, people have been demanding this for a long time. And I think if the headsecure impeachment vote could happen today, which should have happened today, I think it would have passed. Because I think some Republicans have folks in their own district that want him out too. You think Mitch McConnell is in shape to serve his state? I don't. Do you think he is? Because everybody sees it. Look, this is not about ageism. This is about the fact that we want people to be of mind and understanding what is happening around them. And it doesn't look like he's it. And actually, I think it's inhumane. And it's wrong. And I wish his family would help him. Again, he needs to be home and make sure that he takes care of himself. Because right now, I don't even know if he's fully aware of where he's at. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. It's so good to see you. We met. We met. We didn't meet the dawn. Nice to see you. We have a meeting schedule. Thank you so much. All right. This is our congresswoman here. We'll be late. OK. So that's what happens when you're here. You just run into people. I'm going to have to take this jacket off soon. But if I take the jacket off, I'm going to have pits. You know what? Let's air them out now.

16:22Let's just air them out. How are you? How are you doing? How's America doing? Not the way I wanted to be. I wish I could say something better, but. Thank you. Hi. How are you? Good to see you. Hello, hello. Hi. OK. We're going to, long worth two, represented for a Brendan Boyle we're going to. So this is what we're going to continue to show you live. I do this because there should be more transparency in government. And as we walk to the building to go interview our next guest, our Washington DC correspondent is here. He's working. I'm working. We're here. But they're not. At least they don't have to be here because they got another. I said vacation you heard with Congressman Tileef said, no. This is not a vacation. They're afraid of a vote on the Epstein files. Daniel, how is your working day going?

17:22And what do you have for us? Well, listen, Don, I agree with you. I think I'm going to put it in an application to become a law maker because that summer off, come back work a week, then go back, not a bad schedule at all. OK, so I've been here. There's actually been more people in the hallways than expected. OK. That's in part because they were anticipating on being in today, right? This schedule had them here in Washington today. But then we saw Thomas Massey, who you got a chance to talk to, introduced not only those articles of impeachment against Pete Hegset, but also he introduced the Epstein transparency files and he's trying to get 218 signatures. Well, a health speaker, Mike Johnson, did not want either of those things to happen. So he said, you know what? You get to go home a day early. But I do expect at least, as we have seen, a few more members of Congress than we would typically see if the session didn't call for today. Because again, they were planning on already being here. One of the reasons why I'm inside, which

18:24happy I got this assignment today, Don, because it's a hot one out there. It just showcased the empty hallways. Now again, it's been relatively empty this hour. You see some people there that I think there's just people maybe meeting with their member. Then over here, what I wanted to show you, this is a cool behind the scenes, is this is the area where all of the press. So typically, on a very busy day, you would see this area filled with press waiting to talk to lawmakers. And I just want to give you that shot, because you see, I mean, this is really empty all. That's because they're not here. So we should be here talking about anything from the affordability, because we've seen the inflation report. We saw the fact that the Fed yesterday had to hike interest rates, because they're trying to get inflation under control.

19:24So I mean, people are filling the pain. And as you have seen, they've been dismissed back to the districts to campaign. I will say, when Don asked lawmakers about, like, hey, is it a vacation? A lot of lawmakers get offended by that question, because some of them will say, listen, it's not a vacation. We are hardworking. We're raising money or campaigning. We're talking to constituents. We're holding town halls in our districts. But sadly, a lot of us just look at it as, you're not here working on legislation that can actually impact people's lives. What are you in effect doing? If you were just being paid to campaign, maybe your campaign should be paying you not the American people, because we're paying you to be here in Washington to work. So yeah, you see some people here waiting in the halls. I've seen some editorial staff helping to clean the place, because in addition to members being out, this is actually Congressional Black Caucus Foundation week. So there's going to be a lot of parties not just here on Capitol Hill, but around Washington. So I was talking to the member of the editorial staff here

20:28as I said, listen, how has it been? He said, brother, who? Last night was just night one. And he is a lot of audience. So I expect the party to continue through the weekend. I know Don has plans to attend some stuff. I, too, have registered for some stuff. You all know how it is. At the end of your work day, sometimes you are just too tired to go to anything. That's what happened to me last night. I was too tired to go. And we'll see what happens tonight. But Andy, is Don free? What's their status? I can keep chatting. I just want to check in with him. They are in root to their next location. So if you want to go a little bit longer, I have some of your thoughts, too, or we could go to a break eventually. So it's up to you. Oh, yeah. All right, how about this? How about this? I know we wanted to play the thoughts back to back. Let's toss your break. And then I'll talk about some of the thoughts on the other side of the break. This episode is sponsored by Better Health. If I could get better at one thing, I think it would be turning work off when the work day is actually over. It's actually over. I spend all day reading, talking, thinking, reacting.

21:29And then the cameras go off, and my brain doesn't always get the memo. I'm still thinking about the show. Tomorrow, something, somebody said, something I need to fix and on and on. And I know a lot of people live like that. Don't tell me you don't. Sometimes getting better is learning how to give your mind somewhere else to go. Better is a feeling, and it's defined by you. And for Better Health, it is a Better Health therapist who really gets you. It is a focus on global, emotional well-being, with thousands of therapists and millions of members in over 100 countries, it's progress. So for me, better would be being more present when the work is done. Sign up and get 10% off at BetterHelp.com slash Don Lemon. That's BetterHELP.com slash Don Lemon. All right, welcome back. And thank you to the Don Lemon Show sponsors. You keep. All right, so we're going to now toss to yesterday. I had a chance to chat with some lawmakers before they left town.

22:29And they talked to me about their frustration, generally, that the House Republican leadership didn't want to tackle some of those tough issues. But I also talked to Tim Birchit, who is a Republican from Tennessee. And he actually said, listen, Nancy Pelosi has done this before. So we're going to play all of those. And I'll talk about them on the back. So the remainder of the session to focus on the election. I think that it's a political body. And that's what we do. But I always say that thing that just ran by us was a glacier. We don't either under Pelosi or McCarty or Mike Johnson. We don't know very fast on anything. We've moved the heck a lot of legislation. I wish they could have moved a few more of my bills. But I don't raise enough money. And I don't get enough ASS up here to do that. Do you think it has anything to do? Do you think it has anything to do with the Pete Hague South vote and that representative, Nancy, sponsored?

23:30No, I don't think so. There's a lot of other bills that are important, that need to be heard too. But again, it's just the nature of the beast. And ultimately, they say, oh, you're playing politics. Well, that and you're more in Congress. That's what they do. Pelosi would call us up here, remember, in the middle of August one time for a crazy messaging vote. And nobody say anything about that. And there we are, spinning all the taxpayer money, flying up here and spinning just one day for a messaging vote that was never ever even addressed in the US Senate. So I think it's everybody does it. Well, I think the political world and that's what we're in. Lastly, what's your message to the voters who say, listen, you'll just got back from your recess and you're already going back out again. I work more when I'm home than I do up here. A lot more up here. It's Washington DC's show. You go back home to try to undo some of the harm that years of lackluster leadership

24:35have done on America. Thanks so much, Representative. One question about the House leadership canceled the rest of the session to avoid an embarrassing vote against Secretary Hegg's death. I mean, impeachment that Thomas Massey brought to the floor. Well, I mean, that certainly seems to be one of the main reasons. I mean, there's no question. Pete Hegg's death is unfit to be the Secretary of Defense. Why were we canceling recession? We should be focused on AI. We should be focused on the war in Iran that nobody wants. We should be focused on justice for the survivors of Jeff Rehabstein. I think all of that is obviously a huge issue. And so, of course, Mike Johnson continues to cancel votes. We were going to be in session for two more weeks and he canceled those as well. So I think that's really unfortunate. Is President Trump's impeachment and we have the impeachment of Hegg's death. We know that Republican leadership canceled the rest of the month and today's the last day you're in session until after the midterms. What are your thoughts on that? They've been canceling a lot of days around here instead of addressing issues that are impacting people's lives back in my district issues like affordability issues like health care access.

25:36You know, I represent a district man right now. 13 counties, I got 10 of them that either do not have a hospital or have one that is potentially at risk of closing. And we could be addressing those issues. But instead of doing that, we consistently get sent home. And consistently, see the leader use this as an opportunity to dodge them having to deal with tough issues. Like the Epstein files, like what's going on now. So, need to do better. Do you support the Republican's decision to leave town? No, I don't support it. I think we should be staying here. I think we've got a lot of critical issues we need to address. And you can. This podcast is supported by your Southern California Kia dealers. Living in Southern California, your SUV needs to do a little bit of everything. From the daily commute to weekends at the beach, road trips to Palm Springs and family adventures in Big Bear. That's why having the right SUV matters. Kia has an SUV built to fit just about every lifestyle with traditional gas, hybrid, and all electric models. Across the lineup, you'll find sophisticated design,

26:37rugged capability, generous cargo space, available seating for up to seven, and on select models, driving range of more than 600 miles. One model that really stands out is the all-new 2027 Kia Celto's. It's a small SUV with big SUV capability, featuring class leading interior space, an available turbocharged engine, and available multi-terrain all-wheel drive. Whether you're navigating city streets or heading out for a weekend in the mountains or along the coast, it's ready for wherever life takes you. Whatever your lifestyle, Kia has an SUV designed to fit your needs. Learn more at Kia.com or visit your Southern California Kia dealer. Start besides the cost of groceries, gasoline, housing, people who need health care. AI is an issue we should be working on together front and center. And do you think their decision to cancel is because of the impeachment vote, again, Secretary Hexha? I think that is probably one of them.

27:38I just wish we could like stay here and work and get some of the issues that require all of our attention done. OK, we're back now. We're in the long-worth building, and we're going to Brendan Boyle's office. We're going to go to a bunch of people, and we're going to talk to them. While they are still here, because we think it's important that we get this information. Let's see what's going on. Hi, how are you? Hi. Hey, good to see you. We're fine. Can we talk to them? Yeah. Do you guys have some water? Oh, you have water for us. I see that. I see that. We're broke. I want to see you. Good to see you. Good to see you. Not too bad. Not too bad. Yeah. Thank you for doing great. I'm going to see you here. I want to get right to it. I just ran into Thomas Massey. And he said, oh, that was interesting. And he said, they're afraid of a vote on Epstein. They're afraid to talk about the war. They're afraid to make decisions.

28:39What do you feel like you're having? I know it's not a vacation. You guys get offended when I say that. Yeah, I'm still sitting here in my office. The advantage of having session canceled is I don't have to wear a tie and I can wear jeans. But this is crazy. This whole term in Congress done to last what year and eight months. We have had session day after session day canceled. And I think Massey even talked about this yesterday that we missed something like six weeks of session this time last year because they didn't want to, the majority didn't want to vote on releasing the Epstein files. Then we had more session canceled over the summer because they couldn't get their act together and pass what's called a rule. And now here we are. We were supposed to be in today. We're not in session today. Oh, I'm obviously still here in my office doing work. And then we were supposed to be in for another two weeks after that doing the people's business. We have a lot of stuff we still have to pass. And now suddenly we're gone. So a couple of years ago, there was that trend quiet quitting. This is like Mike Johnson's version in 2026 of quiet quitting.

29:42Well, he appears to be a disaster, Mike Johnson. I mean, this has been a remarkably ineffective, which I actually can't complain too much about because with the Republican trifecta, if they were more effective, that means they'd be passing a lot of things that, frankly, I don't agree with. But they have been just completely riddled with internal dissension. And the way that they've handled it, instead of just pushing through it and getting the strength to get a majority, they've decided to just cancel session days even session weeks. When is it embarrassing? Let me tell you what he did. We're going to talk about Pete Hague's ethnic department of whatever that is. But you ordered a report on the war. So I wear a few hats in Congress. Obviously, I represent my district, which isn't Philly. Actually, the first time I was on the air with you was about 10 years ago talking about the Eagles. It was when Donald Trump canceled the Eagles coming. I remember that. I thought you were going to say like 20, 30 years ago when I worked there at I worked at Channel 5. Oh, I didn't.

30:42I had forgotten that. Yeah, no, this was after they won the Super Bowl in 2017. But anyway, no, I wear a few different hats. Primarily as the representative from the Second Congressional District of Pennsylvania, which is entirely within the city of Philadelphia. But the other hat that I wear is I'm the ranking member or top Democrat on the budget committee. So I have the ability to request certain information from the Congressional Budget Office, which is the official authority, Congress's independent agency, that assesses basically how much legislation costs. These are filled with about 270 nonpartisan, just good government folks who just tell you basically the balls and strikes what the dollars and cents are. And it's a lot more than the government is letting on. They not let on really at all. So we now have something official for the first time ever that the Iran war has cost indirect costs at least $40 billion. And I say at least because the Department of Defense,

31:43which it legally said, $40 billion at least, which means it's probably more than that. Correct. Because this was the part I was getting to that the Department of Defense did not fully cooperate with the Congressional Budget Office and withheld some information. So just based on what the CBO included that and their report. So just based on what we know and can document, it's at least $40 billion. And I want to put that into context, because these are such big unimaginable numbers. Most people can't understand really the difference between one billion, let alone $100 billion. It all seems like funny money. When we're saying $40 billion, it would have taken about $30 billion to extend all of the Obamacare tax credits that expired this past year and caused millions of people to lose their health care. They could have been fully funded for under $40 billion. So when I say this administration essentially chose war with Iran over the health care of the American people,

32:46that's not hyperbole. That's a fact. I'm listening to you. This is how I'm producing. My producer's a... You know what to... You're a multi-task man. Look, this is a new world. This is a new world we're live. Look, we're live inside of your office. It's from the... It's pretty amazing, but the technology now, and I think that there should be more transparency in government, which is the reason I'm doing it. That's your job. I open my... I can step out of it. So $40 million... Or $40 billion. $40 billion, excuse me, $1 billion. And you have Pete Hexha, who is outlifting weights and grunting and testing testosterone. Tastosterone shots. You can't make this up. I mean, he seems like a character from South Park. Really. You know, the push-up contests, the whole... I mean, you know, I theory, maybe I shouldn't say this, but anyone who has to like prove how machismo they are and how macho they are and they keep talking about it, there's probably some underlying insecurity there. Well, you remember Barack Obama at the convention when he said,

33:48I don't know why Donald Trump is obsessed with numbers. But... I was... Obama is always so prim and proper. I was actually surprised that he even... But he did it in a very subtle way, so it was well done. Can we talk about Mitch McConnell? Yeah, you know... Is he serving the people of his state well? I mean, the videos we saw this week are sad and disturbing. And this has been a... Let's face it, a bipartisan issue. We've, remember Diane Feinstein, who really had a legendary career and, you know, Mitch McConnell, I don't agree with him on much. But obviously from the Republican side of the aisle, he had a legendary career. And it's sad to see these people go out this way. It doesn't serve the public interest. But, Don, I think this is not just a congress issue, it's a societal issue. And we are now at the point in human history, in which we are basically, as human beings, physically able to keep going,

34:49even though we're maybe out living other mental capacities that we have. So we do have to come up with some sort of rules of the road. And this is, again, a problem that previous generations didn't have to worry about. Isn't that crazy? Oh my goodness. That is amazing. That's amazing, right? Yeah. Very different from... I mean, I get the sense we're probably around the same age. And I'm young for this place. I've been here for over a decade. And I'm still a decade younger than the average age of a member of Congress. But if you think about how much the media has changed, your business has changed. Just in the time I've been in politics. Like, when I was first starting out, your industry was basically cable news and broadcasts and newspapers. And now, look what we're doing. I mean, it's... Have I known what this was? I would have left on my own five years before, at least, so that I could have a bigger foothold. I feel that it gives you more independence and freedom to do things like this. I guess that's yes. That's my...

35:50I'm going to ask you a question. When I was at CNN, how many times did I walk into your office with a live camera? Oh, zero. Zero point. How many times did I run into Thomas Massey as he's walking back? That's really interesting. Without... Oh, we got to go to this. We got to do that. Oh, no, no. Before we get to you, we have to do this. No, this is what we want. We want this sound by specifically. And I don't have to do that. I can talk to you about the cost of war, which I want to talk to you to go back to that, because I think what you're doing is extremely important, transparency. What should the American people know? You said at least $40 billion that we're paying for. And I see, look, I know you guys need security, I know you have any car services. You have to... You know, a failing of black cars out there are going to take people to wherever they do the airport or wherever they live. And they're going to go either vacation or fundraise. Many of the Republicans probably won't go do town halls, because they don't want to hear, you know, I'll see, that the folks are going to tell them about what they're doing, the American taxpayers are paying for this. Yeah. I mean, to be fair, there is a misconception that when we're not here, we're off. Sometimes I'm actually busier because I've been the district

36:51running to meetings and meeting with constituents who have wanted to meet with me and haven't been able to when I'm down here for session. We know for a fact that Republicans are not... Most of them are not meeting with their constituents. Yeah, I mean, it depends on the member, right? I mean, some are more conscientious than others. Some are really driven, do a lot of that sort of work and some do very little. I've always taken the job seriously. I think the fact that I tend to overperform in elections is evidence of that. In Northeast Philly, a pretty blue collar area where I live, Donald Trump won by a point and I won by 11. And I say that not... I hope that doesn't come off as bragging. My point is that that's a lot of people who might not agree with how I vote on certain issues, but then see me in the neighborhood, see me at events, know that I have a great staff who does a lot of constituent service. We do events like senior affairs, help people with their mail, help people with IRS issues. That part actually, I will say this, that is the most undercover part of what we do. We're inviting them. We'll come.

37:52We'll come and pick them. We'll come to one of my senior affairs. We get four to 500 people. So actually, there's the part of the job that's right here in the capital, policy, legislation, what I'm doing, exposing the full cost of the Iran War. But then there's this whole other part of the job in the district that we should probably talk about more because a lot of, especially coming from a pretty working class area like my district, I represent one of the lowest income districts in the country. Those constituent services really matter in my district in a way that maybe they don't matter quite as much in a very affluent area where people just need fewer services. You and Walk Me to the Door, now I want to ask you something. Yesterday, the Vice President said that they need a second chance. They need a second term, another term in order to take the job. I should pay to air that as an ad. I can take this right. Yeah, that's serious. There you go. Thank you. It is so ridiculous.

38:52You know, two years ago, Donald Trump and JD Vance were running around my state of Pennsylvania saying, now vote for us, we'll lower costs on day one. Here we are gas prices are 50% higher than they were six months ago, specifically because of their Iran war. tariffs on 90 plus countries have made the cost of food higher than ever before. Their policy, this is not just a normal business cycle. Their policies are the reason why we have inflation now that's out of control, which through 2024 had been coming down month after month. So if they want to say, hey, vote for us more of the same. Great. I hope JD Vance is out there saying that. Do you have a prediction is that JD Vance or Marco Rubio? I think it'll be JD Vance. I always do. Yeah, I do. I, whether it's sports or politics, I always go back to the fundamentals. I think, I think Trump will love making both of them perform and he will make them dance and they'll dance for him.

39:53Trump will hate the fact that they'll start getting attention, but ultimately Trump will choose JD Vance. You heard it here first. Thank you. Can we come back and talk to you? Yeah, I loved it. This was fun. Thank you. Really appreciate it, guys. Thank you for being so accommodating. I got to, I do everything. Multi. I know. I know. Our assistant is out, which is me. All right. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Very nice. So we off to wherever. Okay. So we are doing our thing here. Again, only a few folks. Hi, because you mind if we get in with you guys? Thank you very much. There are only a few folks who are still here. Hopefully we'll stay up and we won't show that anybody who's in the elevator, are we going? Are you guys going down or up? Oh, we thought we were going down. We're going for a ride. We're going for a ride. Just one for you. We love you, Jordan. Thank you.

40:53Yeah, I looked, that was good. I love talking to him. I thought he was a great person to talk to. And he sort of laid it out. And I actually think what he is doing, is it relates to the war and bringing transparency? Look, that's, it's very important, because you don't know. You have no idea how much money they're spending in there lying to you. They're not telling you exactly what it is. I don't know if we are even still on, but we are in the elevator. I don't know if we're still on, but I can't get any service in the elevator. But now we're going off to another. First thing we're going to talk to. So anyways, I don't think they hold on one second. I'm not sure what to produce. We're saying I'm good. Hi, everyone. We're, yeah, thank you. Yeah, we're filming. Good to see you. Good to see you. Can we put your comps on? I know about this. I know about the trouble. It was in North Carolina. Oh, yes, yes, yes. So he wants me to talk to this is

41:54a good thing. Hammer man. Everybody. Donald Trump was in North Carolina last night. Attacking everyone. Democrats, Roy Cooper, anyone who could attack. Hey, how are you guys doing? Good to see you. Good to see you. Attacking anybody he could attack. But he specifically attacked the governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper. He said the state was the worst. Donald Trump should also worry about the state where he lives in which is Florida and the crime rate there. And what's going on. But anyway, I think we have more pressing issues than him. Calling out governors and calling people names and whatever. Here's Donald Trump in North Carolina. So nobody used to think of North Carolina as a dangerous state, criminally dangerous. It was like North Carolina. It was beautiful. It was apple pie, right? And now it's one of the most violent and one of the worst in the whole nation. And it all started with Cooper. And you have a lousy governor right now, too. But it started with Cooper.

42:56He's lying about $5,000. No, to check. Thank you. OK, so that was him. Now, why would he attack the governor like that? Because he's nervous. He's nervous about winning. He has to win all of these states. You heard what Thomas Massey said. Thomas Massey said, not many people are going to want to campaign with whether it is Donald Trump or JD Vance or anybody who may be out stomping for the maggot folks or anyone who's in office right now for Republicans, which are this way or that way. You're on this way back over. All right. So we're walking again live. So look, he's desperate. It's a sign of desperation. And then remember what he said about, if you please, please, he's so desperate. If you please, please vote for us or vote for me. I'm going to give you money. I'm going to give you $5,000. Watch this. So nobody used to think of North Carolina as a dangerous state, criminally dangerous. It was like North Carolina. It was beautiful. It was apopied, right? And now it's one of the most violent and one

43:57of the worst in the whole nation. And it all started with Cooper. And you have a lousy governor right now too, but it started with Cooper. He's on the end of the CUME in the chat. OK, CUME. We're talking and getting Andy, if you can, CUME in the chat. So I know exactly how long it is as I'm not. I can't be a communication with you. So look, I said the other day when this thing came in about male invalidating, that I felt like it was the beginning of the end, because this is one of the pillars. It also took out one of the pillars in the same week, another bill of his immigration policy. Now people are going to be able to vote by male. If the states don't try to pull something, pull a fast one to allow people to restrict people from male invalid, I think it's people are going to show up. And you even heard, oh my gosh, come here. Get over here. What's happening? What's happening in Congressman Jackson?

44:58We're going to see you. What's going on? Oh, we're going to be over here in the triangle with having a part two of our introduction of our legislation against this administration. Congressman Jonathan Jackson, go ahead. That is taking, that's trying to change the narrative of the African American History Museum. This museum is now settling its 10th year anniversary. And the Trump administration has forced the resignation, if you will, the retirement of Dr. Lonnie Bunch. And now they want to get in there and have JD Vance to tell African American story in history and is shameful. Once they rewrite that history, there's no basis for any past issues of discrimination, things that have to be rectified. So that's where we're out here today with Congressman Mel and Stan's Burr, Congressman Kuisie and Fumig. You're going to be right over here. Let's walk. Boy, so are they trying to erase Black history? Because of Black history is American history. American history made whole. You cannot erase history. But you can propagandize it.

45:59You can lie on it. You can delete it. You can attempt to destroy it. The truth crushes to the earth will rise back up again. But we've already been there. As we get ready to start, the third wave of reconstruction, what needs to be fixed to make America whole finally is where we are right now. And this is a huge central point of being able to tell the American story. Who has the right to curate? Who has the right to document? Who has the right to share the story? Who has the right to show all the accuracies? And there's some painful truths in American history. RAP and bondage and abduction and kidnapping. But it's also resilient. It says, hope, where people have overcome tremendous odds is to give people inspiration. But the bottom line is history should be known as an example. What not to do again and where people have been at their best in the height of people being at their worst. What do you look for? I'm going to talk to you about voting rights in a second. But since you mentioned that, the grapes and the killings and all of that, these hangings that

47:02are happening around the country. Well, since 2000, there have been 70 lynchings documented across the United States. And that's a very conservative number, Don. And this administration ought to say something. It took over 100 years to get the anti-linching bill passed for African-Americans. Soldiers coming out of the Civil War and World War I were to had repeatedly asked for anti-linching legislation. But unfortunately, the administration is setting a tone where this is permissible. Not to say this administration is doing it, but they have certainly not challenged the corrosive ill will of certain of our fellow countrymen that have been Christian radicals, clansmen, that have had this as a part of their culture. And let's not forget. As we said right here, looking at the Capitol, it's that on January 6, that wasn't attempted coup. Call it for what it was. Generals on January 4, we're telling other generals

48:03stand down. Don't go against the Constitution. If you break the law, saying that you are falling orders you still have broken the law. That was an attempted coup on January 6, January 4, the generals were telling internal memo, stand down. Don't follow this man. And our vice president of the United States and Mr. Pint, they had built a new wanting to lynch him as well. That was an ancient history. That was just four years ago. Yeah, that was, that's, I mean, if you erect a gallows, that means you want to lynch someone. You want to hang in there? That also means that someone's family, their ancestry, had the blueprint, had the skills to know what pickup truck to have, what two by fours, what, what a board that you needed to build a steps to build the news. Like that's a skill. Who knows how to build a gallow with a, a hangman's news? That was built and erected right here on the moral of the United States Capitol. You've been sounding the call about the Voting Rights Act

49:05forever before it got, you know, stripped, right? Basically gutted. With this decision about at least mail and ballots, is that offer you some hope going into November? Very little. I do anticipate there to be violence at the polls with the, with the president of the United States has done as he has normalized having federal troops on our land, just less than a mile from here. You have the National Guard right out here on the federal grounds. They've been out here for over a year. They go to the Washington Nationals games or all around Washington DC. They had dropped a year ago, almost to the date, in South Shore neighborhood in the city of Chicago. They brought in the United States military with tear gas and flash bombs and dropped in the city of Chicago in urban America, saying that there were illegal migrants and other things. They ended up arresting 35 people that they had

50:05to subsequently release. And there was no violation of any laws that had gone into that building and now that building sits abandoned. I'm very much concerned about what the president's doing. You got 48 days until the election, the FBI director and cash foretell will not say that he will not put military troops on the ground. He would not say clearly just two days ago on the hill that he would not commit to not sending troops. So they could be going for ballot boxes. Look at what happened in Georgia in 2020 that they had fake electorates. People actually signed documents that they had lied on. They were found guilty. They had confessed to it. So they said they're willing to lie stealing and cheat at the ballot box. That's the election fraud and they're doing it. They're the ones. And so his projection is his confession. If he says it, that's what he's going to do. So when he says this fake news, that means he's going to not tell the truth and that he's going to lie. When he says that, no, people are going to steal the election, that's what he's going to do. So he's already signaling all the missions that he wants to.

51:07When he says the African American History Museum is divisive, that's because he is divisive. How much time do we have? Are we good? We're not going. Where am I going? I love it. OK, OK, so let me ask you. Are you going right here? Yeah, I want to ask you. I don't want to be able to maybe say for the press or rep stands. We're going to, we're going to be out here doing it. Thank you. She works with you. From Ben Rouge. You're from Ben Rouge. Yeah, from Ben Rouge. I used to work for a Congressman Cleo Field. Oh my god. Yes, yes. Yes, yes. Congressman Cleo's. Look how this Ben Rouge is. Congressman Cleo's went just to high school with my sister. Yeah, they graduated same class. Yeah, yeah. You need to meet Cindy Broome. Cindy Broome, I'm so honored is the first district of communications director and Congressman Cleo Field says Jonathan, I'm leaving the Congress. But I want you to take one of Ben Rouge's greatest. And so that's how you met me. Ah! Wait, let me ask you this. I don't know if we, I can't remember because it's all mushed in my head. But if we've spoken, since I'm going to talk to you about the First Amendment 3 of the press, if we've spoken since the King Dinner,

52:10the last King Dinner that, you know, for when your dad was alive, he wasn't there. He couldn't make it. And there was this talk about arresting me going around. And everybody's like, we got you, we got you, we got you. What you guys did, you're supporting me. But can you talk to us about the assault on the First Amendment and on freedom of the press that's happening right now? Well, you're going to go down in history as one of those seminal flashpoints. You went into a church to observe peacefully that you were invited into. Welcome to be a part of the congregations activities. And other people were in their demonstrate. You had nothing to do with that. You were simply sharing the story of the people and the activities that were going on. Came in there peacefully. For this United States government to weaponize itself and to say that a member of the press has now done something seditious. Everything they're projecting is what they're doing. So they've done that to try to silence you. And I admire you so much for being a man of courage and conviction and standing up, speaking out.

53:11When they did that to our Latino brother, when Trump made him step out of the, when he was running for President Iowa and the press turned their back when he says that these are other American people. They smear, they chuckled, and they ran a Hispanic person out. I think it was on the vision, on the broadcast. Like, what are you doing? So they're doing this in a very methodical fashion. They're going to try to make us hate each other. It's the LGBTQ, it's the black, it's the Asian, it's the Hispanic. It's the other. It's the female that are getting promotions at the United States military. And so they're trying to make us hate each other. That is the game plan. They are forecasting it. Let's be smarter than that. Let's not go back. We have more in common. What we have in common is too hot in the world today. Glaciers are melting in the Arctic. The rain is pouring down too much in the Midwest. There are droughts out there in Colorado going towards the river.

54:12Children cannot afford student loans. People cannot afford housing. The war has gasped too high. We're murdering people with money from our military. There's so many other things to do. You can make me cry. No, I know. That's why I'm here today. I'm here today, John, with you because I came here made a commitment run for Congress. OK, and I wanted to do something. But since July 31 of 2026 until today, we have only had six voting days. Up until November 3, we will only have six voting days. Here's my Congresswoman, the Arnold Congresswoman, Melanie Stansbury. Melanie, I'm talking to my good friend from Wayback, the Honorable Brother, the Honorable. There are limits. There's no need for you guys. This is administration. Let me tell you, this is my sister. OK, Melanie, this is a spider coming from the great state of New Mexico. She has been relentless in attacking this administration for their corruption. But she's not against it. She's for justice. And that's what makes me endearing to my sister. So that is that is that's quite an introduction, right?

55:13You know what I just realized? I saw you remember we saw each other at the CBC. Yeah, Congresswoman. That's all you down there. Mrs. Slythongus, Mrs. Melanie. I know she is. I know she is. I know she is. Let me get this hands off, son. You keep talking to Melanie. I got her. It's been Jonathan Jackson. Listen, what are you guys doing here? So we are actually introducing a bill called the Smithsonian Integrity Act today to tell this administration to get their dirty hands off the Smithsonian. Because as you know, they're trying to rewrite history. They're trying to erase history. They're trying to basically change the story of America and erase the stories of the people all across this country. They're trying to defund the Smithsonian's. We're concerned they're going to try to dismantle, for example, the African-American Culture and History Museum. And we know that this week, he has ordered Park Service to put up signs outside of Smithsonian's to reinterpret history. Like this is dark stuff that's going on right now. So we are fighting back. We are pushing back and we're telling them, get your hands off of our Smithsonian. Yeah.

56:14They also said that you're no longer from New Mexico. Oh, yeah. You're from where? We're from New Mexico, Mr. President. Oh, well, New America. Yeah. You guys want to call it Lake Ontario. You want to call it Lake America. Like something is wrong with this man. Well, I'm surprised he doesn't want to call it Lake Trump or New Trump. Oh, yeah. And that's the strength of Trump. And like the way it's seen of Trump. So the straight of Trump is the straight of Harmo. OK. And anything that goes over here, try to redo the museum. I mean, this is the Kennedy Center. This is the Kennedy Center, right? I mean, come on. Yeah. But we got warriors like Representative Jonathan Jackson, who's been fighting back. He's been convening faith leaders down at the museum. We got fighters like Representative Joyce Beatty, who gave the president the business. Where's Representative Beatty? She here sees that the humidity is in there. Yeah. Is she calling back? I'm true. I was at the CDC earlier. We have to hear her. You've got to hear this story. The story is loyal. Love her dance when she did the Trump dance. No, but you got to hear this story. I mean, when she got on the Zoom with Donald Trump,

57:17literally 10 minutes before they got on their board meeting, where he said, you want to get, we got Congressman Mifumi Merlin right here in the house. You got this one in Fumio. So tell us. Good to see you. It's great. So what happened? What happened? Dancing, Congressman Baby? Oh, yeah. I'm really enjoying the story of what happened in the board meeting. Oh, we may. She went at him. Yeah. So what happened? She called him incompetent. So apparently, this is the story that we heard on the floor from Rep. Baby. She gets on the Zoom. And Donald Trump is informed at the beginning of this meeting that in the lawsuit of Baby versus Trump, they just won on every count in the courts. And apparently Donald Trump went berserk. He starts yelling at Brady, belittling, calling, represented Baby names, and she was having none of it. So she shot back. And according to her, it went on for like 10 minutes on the Zoom. So we're like watching a go back and forth. And she was like, no, I'm shutting you down. Are those recorded? Zoom's recorded. So it was not recorded because he does not want this.

58:21But she says there will be a transcription. And she says, I can't wait till it comes out. Oh, I can't. How long does it take the transcription to come out? 100 times. So how are you doing? Doing great. Good to see you, Doc. What's going on? Where are you out here? You guys are supposed to be gone. Yeah, well, Mike Johnson said you could, you're not needed. No, you're no longer needed here. There's always trying to find a way to get out of town and not do any work. I'm here with Melanie and with Jonathan for this very important bill that they allow me to be a part of. With this fight with the Smithsonian, been going on for a while since the 4th of July when Donald Trump's Goons put forward a recommendation. And he's increased the pressure every day. Now he's putting up signs around the museum saying everything in there is a lie. So they're messing with the funding. They're messing with the history. It's 21 museums here that have to be protected. So we're here to do that, even though the speak of the house and the Republican party is not. Yeah. Well, the photographers are all here getting your pictures. And we don't want to keep you away. We're going to walk over there. We thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We're going to go to there with the hands off. Can you guys get that transcript to me as soon as possible?

59:22Yeah. For sure. We'll make sure. Oh, yeah. You were just asking about women in the military. How are you? You were just talking about that? No, I was going to go. No, not me. That's how are you? Great. It's good to see you. But overall, sorry, I won't let you interrupt that. No, are you going to be here for a bit? OK. So anyway, this is the press conference that they're giving here. And with the hands off the Smithsonian. But look, I just want to tell people, this is your government at work. Who do we have here? I want to make sure that we, if there's a Congresswoman or someone who's taking you behind the scenes a little bit, just for a second. The great state of New Mexico. In New Mexico's first congressional district, it is not New America, hands off our state, hands off the Smithsonian, and Mr. Trump hands off America, our history, our story, and our people. We are here today to announce the introduction of our Smithsonian Integrity Act. I'm here with Jonathan Jackson, represented

1:00:24the great state of Illinois, as well as my amazing colleague, Quasimifume from Maryland. And we are here to say to Donald Trump, hands off Smithsonian, hands off our museum. I want to start with a simple fact. There you go, a little bit behind the scenes. I'm going to take you to show you, again, who's here, as we walk around. Hey, how are you? How are you doing? There's another group. Not sure where this group is from, but there are lots of visitors here. Hi, guys, where are you from? Charleston's health. Hi. I'm a fan. Thank you very much. I'm a fan of yours. How are you? Hi. I'm Judy. Hi. Nice to meet you. Oh, you do. Where is he? He's on his way to take a picture. Is he going to come? We're going to get him. We'll talk to him. Oh my gosh. How are you? What is going on? Why are you guys? I thought they let you go. They said the annual legislative conference. No, but I mean, you're still here because of CBC. But like Johnson said, there's no need for you to be here. Well, there's lots of reasons for us to be here. I mean, we should be adjusting the class of living crisis.

1:01:26We should be calling these AI company CEOs here, testify to the incidents that we've seen. We should be working to regulate AI. There's so much to do. But this is least productive congress in my lifetime. And Johnson knows that. Johnson said it was the most productive. And Donald Trump said it was the best two years, first two years, any president has ever had. Well, Donald Trump is delusional. So that's just either a lie or his delusions of rancher. But they've been, they've been producing and destroying all of our safety nets and ripping health care away from millions of Americans and food off the tables for millions more. They've been productive raising the cost of everything from health care to housing and gas to technology. So yeah, I guess if that's your measure, sure, they've been productive and ruining everyone's lives

1:02:26and raising costs of everything. Do you think that Mitch McConnell has been productive since he's been back the last two days? I don't know. I've been focused on what's happening in the house. You've seen pictures, I know. Do you think he's serving the people of this state? I mean, I think he probably needs to go focus on his health. But I haven't paid close attention to what's going on in the Senate because we got a lot of a mess over here on the house side. What are you guys going to do? When are you back in November? November, November. Not just about weeks. Yeah. November. Yes. Can you imagine having, because people think I know that you're working in your districts, right? Some of you. Not everybody. I wish someone had said, hey, six weeks, you get to go do whatever you want to do. So I haven't actually. It's this is basically work from home. Yeah, it kind of is. Now, I have been busy and Democrats, we've been talking to our constituents. We have been. I want to get James Clive in place. Yeah.

1:03:27Actually, going to get James Clive and maybe they'll say. Yeah, I will. I will. Hey, Congressman, how you doing? Don Lennon, we're live. How you doing? I'm doing great. Mike Johnson said that you guys didn't need to be here. Why are you here? Well, I'm here because in addition to doing my constituents business, this is our annual Let's Live conference week. And I was going to be here anyway, which we were doing more business. I know you do this. I told him I was going to steal you for a second. They said it was fine. So what do you have you paid attention to? Mitch McConnell? Have you seen the video of them? No, I saw a picture of it. What do you think? Well, that's sick. He's lost some weight. Do you think he is serving the people of this state? Oh, I don't know. I'll let you just consider this side of that. I'm not going to talk about the Kentucky. I'm worried about South Carolina. You were? Yes. South Carolina, the primary is there. Yeah. I was just in your state with Gavin Newsom. And he's there. Oh, yeah. Oh, great. He said that, oh, I'm here just to get rally people

1:04:29to vote. Do you think that there is some ambition beyond that? Oh, no. He must keep the vote for you. Does this change the trajectory of how we do primaries in the election and even electing a president starting in South Carolina with an enormous black population? Well, I think it gives a much better test to our candidates. I think if you look back over the history, you will see that we have a history of candidates building momentum early on and failing in the end results. And thanks because there's not been the kind of diversity in the during the primary period that allows candidate to become a shopper, just to say, presenter about values and about platform.

1:05:29And this gives a candidate better. Are you confident about 2026 and 2028? Well, I'm confident about 2026. And I think what happens in 2026 it will help me reach some level of comfort or discomfort in 2028. The vice president yesterday said they need a second chance, second or third term in order to complete the great work that they're doing for America. Who said that? J.D. Vance. Hey, J.D. is a joke. A joke. Maybe you've got to be joking about that. We'll just see that in other constitutes. By the way, I would note that while South Carolina has the first primary day, voters in Virginia will begin voting before South Carolina. This is a battle. Hey, listen, are there my way? They're doing the hands-off of Smithsonian. Is that what Trump trying to erase black history? Oh, yeah, absolutely.

1:06:30He's made that very clear by his actions and his deeds, his words, nothing even a doubt in my mind. I hope they don't even a doubt the yours. Thank you. It's not the first time. Thank you. It's good to talk to you. It's good to see you. Remember, I don't think enough people is paying attention to this. I think you all look at Project 2025 and Google something called the HVL Plan. And you see what 2025 came from. Do you do Democrats have a 2028? Well, no, we don't do it. Or 2029. No, you have a 2026. That's dangerous. All right, thank you. You want to share what it is? 2026. That's the plan. Win. Thank you. Hi, guys. Hi. Yeah. Well, this is transparency in government. And that's Congressman Clyburn from South Carolina. Look, they're going to be choosing first.

1:07:31But she said Virginia is going to vote first. Hey, how are you? What's going on? How are you? How you been? You worked really for my jacket. If you could film me, at least for my jacket on. I said look appropriate. Why are you here? Why am I here? Just remember, I represent in clients. I have to go see people. We're here for the CBC. And so I mean, I support what Jonathan's doing. Yeah, but no, I'm going to pick up my tickets to the clock. Tell the folks who you do. OK, I'm David Brand. I lobby for a bunch of HBCUs across the country. And including Grandling State University in your home. We call him White Chocolate. But anyway. Yeah. Am I lying? Sorry, I'm sorry. We call him a man. You're supposed to be from Louisiana. I am from Louisiana, I'm not. Yeah, I know. I know what your southern fan. You're not a Grandling fan. Oh, I mean, Grandma. I can have Grandma in my family. You have Grandma in your family? Yeah, my sister went to Grandling. My uncle went to Grandling. But everybody else in my family went to southern. OK, well then, you know, that's unfortunate for them. Because you know, we're with the Grand Fam.

1:08:34Thank you. It's so good to see you. Good to see you. Thank you. Transparency in government. Yes. Oh, you want to go this way? Heading towards Coy. Oh, shoot. Sorry. Want a walk and talk? No, just for OK. If I can give you, you want to talk about women in the middle. No, yeah. So my name is Major Kerakorker. I'm an infantry officer in the United States Army. And I just want to say thank you for your continues for an advocacy across the world for just helping tell the stories that are out there. But I'm an infantry officer. I'm also a trans woman being kicked out of the military due to the Trump fan that's going on. And just so you know that when you're looking at what the standards are and looking at what we're supposed to be doing, I along with so many thousands of transgender service members are still fighting and still continuing to do our job. Now I'm in charge. Anyway, but no, I mean, we're still doing our jobs. We're still able to fight. And we've been deployable. We've been doing it for nearly a decade. So I organizations called Sparta Pride

1:09:34were up here with family members who have trans kids, whose health care is now being denied in the military. And there's even thousands more of them. And so bringing that awareness is why I wanted to just say hello. Why do you think he's attacking trans people? Putting trans people at the top of their strategy for winning elections and their PR, attacking concerned about bathrooms and all the things. Well, technically, I'm still in. I'm still fighting for my right to continue to serve. I've been in for 18 years. So I can't talk exactly to what someone's opinion is. But to the policy itself, why are they doing it? It's a score points. It's political points. It's scapegoating an entire community nationwide. When we're serving our country, we got people who are down range serving their country. And then for women, women who meet the standard, women who actually have a Ranger tab, who continue to show that they have the ability to fight. And now we're trying to attack them with surveys and try to say that they're not as adequate.

1:10:37Women have always been able to show that they can serve just like African-American people. It's just like transgender service members. And don't ask don't tell. It's always scapegoating population of people who are qualified Americans who love this country. Thank you for your service. No, thank you for your time. Thank you. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. So we're going to go to Daniel and Higgs. I know we're going to head towards the book. OK. So I can't we head now. Yeah, we can. Yeah, we can, yeah, we can walk and talk. We're here to show the folks. I had to take this off. I had to take my jacket off because it's hard to tell. They're waiting for someone. We should probably should be over there just waiting. But anyways, there's another group of folks here. I'm not sure where they're from. Here again, a lot of folks here visiting this summer. No. I would love a ride. How are you? I would love a ride. Right across there, you see the Supreme Court of the United States and some other, some of the other office

1:11:37buildings. But this is this is what I'm talking about right here when I tell you and look at that right. Look at the SUVs and stuff right here. Look at it. Look at it. Turn to the left. Turn to the left. Go all the way back. It starts here. Then they line up and they go into the tunnel or whatever. Yeah, nice, nice, nice air condition SUVs escorted everywhere. How you doing? Good to see you. Nice job if you can get it. And then you get six weeks off. And then, but guess what? Guess what's going to happen after that? They get these six weeks off. They come back in November. I guess what happens in November? Thanksgiving. It's the beginning of the holiday season. And then in December, Christmas, and then New Years. And they're off. Damn, I want that sketch. Here I am, busting my ass every day up at three in the morning, editing newsletters, doing all the shit on airplanes at 5.45, 6.00 a.m.

1:12:42flights, working seven days a week. I don't mind it, but I'm saying maybe I should just run for office. And then I would get a schedule like this. And you know, elimination. Let me know if you would like me to show. I'm sounding like I'm doing this on. I feel like I'm sounding like Obama. I need this job to be better. You want to do a P-hex. Why don't we talk P-hex. Because you look, let me just tell you this. So on one side of the Capitol is Congress. And then you got obviously the dome and everything in the middle. And they have their novels or whatever. And then on the other side is a Senate. So remember, it's supposed to be three co-equal branches of government. But Donald Trump seems to have forgotten that in the lawmakers seem to as well that they have just as much power, if not more because they have the money, they control the money, then Donald Trump. But they have somehow ceded their power to a man who

1:13:48has held bent on being a racist dictator. And this is on racist and dick-tater. I'm just saying. So what do we go over here? Let's check out. Can we go see what's happening over here? We're just going to, we're just walking. Look, there's another big group here of folks. Not sure where they're from. Man, if you guys only knew how freaking hot it is out here, I don't know how they deal with this in Washington, D.C. So we're just going to go take a peek. Just to see if there's anything happening over here. What's going on? Who it is? Anywhere we see some lights, some cameras. You never know who you're going to run into. It may not be anybody that we're interested in. We're just going to go see. How are you? Who's over here? I'm not sure. OK. Is that a pretty devilish thing?

1:14:51It makes the whole thing three percent higher than one cancer. It's a pretty terrible thing. Yeah. OK. Anyway, come on, boy. Oh, look, look at this. This is a beautiful shot. Look behind this. Do you see the monument? Isn't that nice? I think this, look at this whole thing. No, I'll pan this way. You got the, the Washington monument there. And then you got, look, you got the capital, American government in action. And then you got the, look at the office buildings here. And if we were standing in the middle over there, you turn around and you see the Supreme Court, this is the seat of government. This is capital, not CAPITAL. That's capital city. But this is the capital, CAPITAL, CAPITAL, O-L. And this is where government works. And I'm a journalist. You guys know I strongly, strongly believe in the first amendment, and that is freedom of the press. And I think we need way more transparency in our government.

1:15:53And I also think that if I were in office, I would bring, I would sponsor bills that said we need more transparency, more press in here. People should be allowed. This is an American house. American taxpayers pay for this. Cameras should be allowed to roll in here. Now, look, if you're in someone's office, OK, that's fine. But the halls of Congress, the halls of the Senate, the halls of government, it's owned by the American people. And the American people deserve transparency. Which way do we go now? They're coming to us. They're coming to us. OK, they know where we are. OK, so let's, as we do this, can we get the beautiful, let's get the monument behind us if we don't get hit by a truck? So as we are here at the Capitol and the beautiful monument, and you know what, the Pentagon is somewhere around here. And at the Pentagon, there's Pete Hexath. And Pete Hexath is a joke.

1:16:57He's what? He's close? You keep going on Hexath. We have it on time. Oh, we don't have to end it. So we have to have the sound from Hexath? No? We have sound from Hexath? I should be looking at my notes. We have the sound from Hexath yesterday. Huh? Where you go to a break? Oh, we haven't run the other break? Oh, Andy, run the break. We're right back. We've been a lot of time on this show talking about numbers. We talk about bold numbers. We talk about prices, interest rates. Everybody has a number that they want you to pay attention to. But there is one number that actually belongs to you. And that is your blood pressure. The tricky part is high blood pressure often doesn't make you feel any different. You can feel perfectly fine and still not know your numbers. That's why I like the idea behind 120 life. They want you to actually measure. So try their 14 day experiment. Check your blood pressure. Drink 120 life once a day. Keep checking and see what happens. Don't guess. Measure. Go to 120life.com. That's 120LIFI.com and use my code Don for 20% off.

1:18:01You can try it at risk-free for two weeks. If your blood pressure doesn't come down, you get a full refund. These statements have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure, or prevent any disease. Always check with your doctor. So. Oh, well, it's also to avoid mass use. All right, are we on? OK, live. We're talking. You see, again, full transparency. We're here at the Capitol. I was talking about Pete Hexeth before. Do you want to determine me around? Because that sun is right behind me. Is that good? Are we OK? Why don't we go this way? So we get the sun. There we go. We're not staring right into the sun. So we're talking about Pete Hexeth. One of the reasons that Congress is not in session today is because of Pete Hexeth. And we have that. Oh, OK. I need an earpiece. One of the reasons is because of Pete Hexeth. They didn't want to vote on his impeachment. They also did not want to vote on, obviously, Thomas Massey had that and the Epstein vials. And a bunch of stuff they did not want to vote on. And so that's why we're not here. Pete Hexeth is, come on, he's a joke.

1:19:04You heard Congressman Clyburn saying that JD Vance is a joke. So Pete Hexeth, so is everybody who works in this administration. Our Washington DC correspondent is Daniel Grimes. He is somewhere in the Capitol where some folks are working most are not except Daniel and I are. OK. Can I just say, I love the fact that Don gave me the better of the two assignments. I got to be inside with the air conditioning. And again, no one's here. Look on it. I see one member, not a member. I see staff looks like they are taking something off of a tray. So thank you, Don, for being the best boss ever and giving me an amazing assignment. It seems like everyone who is here, at least on the house side, is outside today. They're in what's called the house triangle. And on the steps, that's an area where members of the press and representatives can have just certain things that they are passionate about.

1:20:06Obviously, we heard today's discussion is about the Smithsonian Institution, which we know has been under attack by this administration. I mean, when we're thinking about Smithsonian, something that has gone under reported just announced, the president is planning on spending $7,000 per plaque to put in about a dozen or so plaques outside of the Smithsonian Institution museums to say, oh, these places are basically filled with bias. So that's $7,000 times 12 of your tax dollars that's going to be going to work to basically say the Smithsonian Institution is filled with bias, even though we know it's not true. Now, as for Pete Hegseth, I'll start with the latest news. He is set to give the state of the Defense Department address at the end of this month. And we've seen this before, just like we saw when the president had the fight at the UFC at the White House, they invited members of the military. Pete Hegseth said that only fit members are able to go

1:21:10to his state of the Defense Department address on September 30. So they're going to actually institute grooming standards. You have to be clean, shave, and you've got to fit a certain weight requirement. I have to imagine the president would not fit that weight requirement. I'm not sure if he's sure Pete Hegseth would. And you have to be at a certain level of groomed in order to attend. And usually that's based on where your ranking is in the military, but not right now. Speaking of ranking, the other big thing about Pete Hegseth is that he, also, don't better turn off that camera. They are going through security. And, woo, let me just tell you, as a person who is here, day in and day out in Washington, if you are filming certain locations here in the Capitol, they will be quick. Listen, the members know they saw me on Monday get yelled at by a member of the Capitol Hill staff because there are certain areas where you are not allowed to film. So I hope he turns off that camera here in a second. So he doesn't get yelled at. Then again, he is done, one man.

1:22:11I'm only doing a grime. So maybe he'll get some special access. All right, so back to Pete Hegseth. He is going to give that state of the state address. The biggest thing that also just came out is that there was a new report that said, he has been firing members of the military and top staff at an unprecedented rate purging the military and is disproportionately targeting women and members of color. And so I'm glad that Don got a chance to talk to that transgender military member because I mean, the fact that Pete Hegseth has been targeting trans people in the military and women and people of color. It's not surprising, but it is happening at an alarming rate. He is denying them promotions saying, yes, it, that they got this promotion based on DEI, not on merit. Now, he has provided no evidence for that, but has just said that top members of the military

1:23:13have gotten their promotions based on DEI, not merit. So he's denied a lot of women and people of color have their promotions. Yeah, just wild. All right, so let's go back to Don or we're going to go back and we'll see what we're done is entering right now. He is about to enter the main capital building. I believe he's going to talk to a very important senator, friend of the show, who we have heard from before. I'm not sure if Don is ready, but if he's not, I can keep just chatting about him. First, I'm very excited to let me know too. All right, let's toss it back to Don. But again, make sure he's aware that you technically can't be filming that part of the capital. So I have four words. I think told us to get to check in. How are you? We're here for your bookers here. That's a staff member. And that's a one. Yeah. Yeah. Are you checking to check this? So we're going to take him down to some of the people's high-ranking. And that's a hangover just to export and do. I know we're on. I know we're on, which we're doing our business. We're safe.

1:24:1348, 48, 48. Yeah. I think it's a good credential. We just need to take a look and go down to the title. And we're going to take off the schedule. Please. OK. Yes. 48, 48. Thank you. Do we wait until you get OK? So we're, look, obviously there is major security here. Is there should be, even if we have credentials. I'd like to give you credentials just to make sure that everyone is safe. And I 100% agree with them. I saw someone that Chad said, oh, why do we need Bravo reality TV when you have you, Don. Look, obviously I don't believe in the wig pulling and the wine tossing and flipping the tables over. But I do think that people should be able to see what's happening in their government. I mean, if you really want to talk about what the first amendment is about, that's what the first amendment is about. All it's about seeing pretty much everything.

1:25:14And I think that the sort of, when there is no transparency, are they, I think they try to restrict the transparency. And obviously you see what they're doing with journalists right at the Pentagon and at the White House are trying to restrict people from reporting on things and giving them rules and making them science shit. That should be less on that. Because if you're actually doing your job and you're doing a good job, you're not doing anything wrong. Am I sweating? If you're not doing anything wrong, then why would you care? Why does it matter? If you have your shit together, why does it matter? And I think in this day and time with what's happening in our government, we need to make sure that people have more shit together and that they're actually working for the American people. That's what we need to do. Thank you. Oh, we're getting OK. You need this, we're going to. OK. Thank you. Good all day. Thank you. All righty. So now we're going to. I have one for the time because we still have before.

1:26:14If you want to walk through, do you want to get on the computer? What can we do? Tell us where we can go. Tell us. Do we want to go? Yeah, we can go everywhere. We can go on. Of course, we live sometimes. How long have you been here at the Capitol? I've been at the Capitol for, since 2001, right after the craziness was jambouricist. Are you still in awe of working in this building? I love working here. I love Senator Booker. I am still in awe. Although this is one of the most perilous times I think we've ever faced. And I'm having work for a good guy. Is there a, sorry, is there a place where we can go? Because he's giving his four speech now. He's speaking right now. Or we can watch him. Let's just show it. We can watch him. She's watching. I don't know if there's a inside. This is what he's on the floor. We're going to talk to Senator Booker. But he's on the floor giving his speech right now. So we can walk that. That's wait. Yeah. Yeah. We're going to have signal. It is. What's here? What's this way? So this goes out to the rotunda. Yeah. People see how beautiful the rotunda is. I know that you guys probably have seen it in a moment. Just, and I'm being very quiet.

1:27:16Because there's something really solemn about this place. And I don't mean sad sound that I think you, you know, should be respectful in here. It makes you want to lower your voice as if you're in a library. Right? Look at this. Here we are. This is my new set. I'm going to set up a news desk right here so that whenever they come and leave, they have to walk right by my news desk. And they've got to give an interview. And it's going to be 360. Now, I know Anderson already has AC 360, but maybe it can be DL 360. Let's see. Can you go just show? Let's go. Which way do you want to go? Let's go this way. Let's turn this way. It'll be our DL 360. That's going to be really funny. So anyways, there we go. OK, hit say. There's some security officers, some folks who are walking this way. There are tours that are going through the capital right now.

1:28:23Oh, one second. There are tours that are going through the capital right now. Yeah. Presidents come in this area and they walk straight down and they'll have all the stuff in the operation. This is where the presidents come before they go down the steps for the official, like the inauguration. Yeah, but we see them walk in. They walk in from this way, right? OK, so this is what happens. If you get in front of me and they walk that way. So they come in through here, right? Right out front. But yeah, they come in through here. And then this is what they do. Go in front of me. Go in front of me. That was the stuff. Yeah. And so when you see in the beginning, when they're about to go that way, when they're about to have an inauguration, I'll go this way. Back this way, this way. There you go. Back there we go. And you see them, like you saw Barack Obama walking in from Trump, and you see them. And they're walking. You saw Hillary and Bill Clinton. You saw Kamala walking in. And you see them, they're walking this way.

1:29:24And they go all the way out there. And then they give inauguration over there. Some smells good in here. You saw French fries. Is that French fries? Oh, it's for your own. Do you smell the food? Where are you from? Florida. Are you on a tour? We are. We are. We're with this. Oh, cool. Are you touring? Do you love it? It's amazing, right? Thank you guys. Are we ready? Yeah. OK. So now, is he almost done? He's almost. You know, he could be out there for 25 hours. So we're just going to have to get him back. He can be out there for a long time. I love the statues too. Billy Graham. Look at this. Let's go. Congressman Calhoun from South Carolina. Check this out. Billy Graham here. General Sherman here.

1:30:25Charles Carroll. Carrollton here. That tells you about the crypt. Tribute to Crawford W. Long. Indeed. George's tribute. Barbara Johns here. Green. Margaret Livingston. I'm on we're on live. Yeah. Do you want to say, and this is Richard Stockton. I will thank you. Nice to see. I just wanted to warn you before you met and said something that we were on live. And then there's Stark from New Hampshire, Abraham Lincoln, right here, the bus. Caesar Rodney here. And then on and on. My god, I'm dizzy. I don't know where I am. Anyway, it's nice to meet you. Take it easy. OK. All right.

1:31:26Huh? Into a little bit of a back and forth with. So basically, he's been asked to, he's asking the house to come back to work on AI policy right now. I wish we could go in there. I know. All right. Should we just go down or is there somewhere else for us to go? He's probably going to come up the phone just a couple of minutes. So I don't know which source is going to be mounted up. Can you, you can't find out what story he's going to come out of? I'm not. I love these rotundas. It's so cool. And I can take you to other places whenever. Yeah. I will. Is that the floor? Yeah. I want a third floor. Oh, God. He can find. We can find him. To go up? We can find him. OK. I don't want to get in about the enjoyable. I want to get rid of all of our hood. Like they'll make us check our homes and everything.

1:32:27It can't take anything up to the hood. Oh, did you all feel that? Yes, but they haven't even do it tomorrow. See, there's a major air conditioning right there. This is so, I love this building. It's so dark, though. It is. They need a little bit of brightness. I've just a test. Democrats take back. What? We need the Democrats to take back. Look, I'm all about demos. I'm all about demos. I guarantee. Hang me down. Because it reads from heaven. Oh, my God. I'm all about demos. Because that dimmer's in my house. But this is a little dark every day at night. I might feel a certain kind of way. Maybe a little bit depressing to come. It is. So we're walking. We're going to see. So we're going to have to get rid of the stuff. We can't get rid of our camera. I know. That's the issue. That's the issue. OK. So. Yes. Yes. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. Party. So you guys. We just waiting for. Just. Center of Booker. There's no. 40. And you want to park pretty pretty.

1:33:27Yes. OK. Let's take you to the. Set. Or like the down to. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Thank you. We have like, look. We can go in on to the Senate door. First, but like, I would take. So. We're going to honor. You have to 12 10. If you come back. You have to. Yeah. You have to. We can go in. On to the Senate door. First, but like, I would take you like to the area outside. We're. Inside. And it's like right downstairs. Once he's done. He's. I'm still. We're going to honor. You have to 12 10. If you come back. You have to. Yeah. We have to. Yeah. Oh, right. Right. Right. I'm going to. Yeah. I'm going to. I'm going to. Okay. Let's see what happens. What would you get? Anything good? I don't know. I don't know. You can. Oh my gosh.

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1:35:32If you're ready to make the move to electric, Kia has an EV designed to fit your needs. Learn more at Kia.com or visit your Southern California Kia dealer. Okay. Okay. Sorry. Hey, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't kill me. The Senate. Didn't that way. Just pointing it to the Senate. Unfortunately. Yeah. Oh, that's a little bit. I don't know that that may be the security reasons you never know. I wouldn't have security, but I, you know me. I like transparency. Should we just have a seat here? We can. I don't know which cycle comes from, but we could also put on the inside of it. And you can sit, like, on the inside of it. I've done my show from, from it. It's pretty, it's pretty start. It is. How y'all doing? So I think why we should sit right here. What do you think he's going to come out?

1:36:34Are we going to get to ride the train? No. Oh, man. I'm really, really, so. So, I did. Oh, wow. I let her hang out in the show. So we're waiting. Here's what happens. So we had an interview schedule with Senator Cory Booker. And, um. He's on the Senate floor. His speech is going wrong. He is, you know, there are folks who have been debating whether the Congress should come back. They think that the Congress should be ordered to come back. And so they're going back and forth about that. But, um, as I have been always saying, I think this will be transparent. I think every single day, like, this is what I believe. I can let independent journalists do it. And we'll do a great job with it. But I think every single day that should have a poor fee of people just running out of it. I mean, to share it with everybody. And I don't mean just like, you know, we're going to meet them there. We're going to do that. That should be someone's job. That is, like, in the halls of Congress and the Senate every single day. Doing stuff. That's what I believe. Just like we're doing now.

1:37:35The more folks should be doing it. Um, yeah. And so we, uh, we also have another interview at 1210. So we'll see. And we'll see. And we'll see. And we'll see. And we'll see. And we'll see. And we'll also have another interview at 1210. So we'll see. What happens? Um, I wish I could talk to, I can't talk to Daniel. Because we have a seven second delay. And I had this earpiece in my ear and it's worth less than there's nothing in there. It's beautiful. Oh, yeah. We have to be really low key because we get, we get escorted around it. We get access. That even some of the reporters don't have just because we, what we. We went through the proper channels. If you're with a member, you get to do these things, but not everybody does. This is special. Yeah. And in the chat, let us know. Perhaps the producers can. Do you have any questions for Cory Booker? What would you like to know from the senator? Um, I want to know a lot of things.

1:38:37But I want to know to the day to day what's happening now. It's really, really, really important. And why the Congress is getting six weeks off. That's crazy. When does the Senate go off? October. They're in October. Yeah. So they're working. Yeah. We need the help speed network. And we need that, we need both branches of the Congress. It's so here's the thing I guess she goes. I've explained this to you guys every single time we do this. The entire thing is called the Congress. But actually there's Congress and the Senate and together it's called the Congress. But we need both branches of the Congress to be working in tandem with each other. So maybe we're getting close. We're going to see if we get what we need. But there's lots of suits here. How what? So every time I'm here,

1:39:37I'm always pleasantly surprised that maybe it's because of the access that we get. I don't know that we just sort of bump into people and can talk to them. And rather than, you know, I think that's great that there should be individual journalists on beat, on beats covering parts of our government and et cetera, et cetera. But I also think that there should just be someone who is, whose job it is, it's just to run into these folks. And that's it. Now I know that some people do versions of that and then they work on stories or whatever. But I think that should just be it every, every couple of minutes. I'd be going back to that person saying, what's happening now? Nothing, whatever. Did you talk to such and such? Oh, by the way, I just ran into blah, blah, blah. What we're doing now. And look, if we have the resources, we're independent journalists. We don't have the big network contracts. So we don't necessarily have the budgets.

1:40:38But yeah, if I was here, maybe we should move here. Would you move here? We should move here for the midterms. You would do it. It's a lot of fun interesting. So Congressman Kleber, right, he's the oldest congressman. And I'm going to turn it. What were you saying? The my way's been so good holding everything. So Congressman Kleber, who's the oldest congressman currently, who's interesting that he didn't want to comment on Mitch McConnell. What did you think of that? Well, I think it's difficult for people to, a couple of people did. The congresswoman didn't want to as well before him from Virginia. I think that, look, I think the congressman is an older person and he wants to be respectful. And I think maybe he just didn't want to comment on Mitch McConnell. Some of them said that they're not paying attention to it. It feels so human. Well, didn't they say that it was inhumane? That's what Rashida Tileve said. Congressman Rashida Tileve said it was inhumane.

1:41:40But here's the thing. Mitch McConnell is a grown-ass man, obviously grown like an older than most people in this country. So I don't think he knows where he is. I don't. And he's relying on people to what he wanted to do, how do he want me to vote. So it's obvious to everybody that he is incapacitated in certain ways. And I think severely incapacitated. And I'm not saying that as a bad thing. I'm just looking at him. He's basically nonverbal. After 41 years, it is pretty crazy that the lasting memory that we're going to have of Mitch McConnell, his legacy, his image of the wheelchair, looking completely... Yeah, it's going to be him in the back of the car looking at the thing, looking completely out of it, or the images of him falling.

1:42:41And then getting up and giving the thumbs up or whatever it is that he's doing. That's really sad that those are going to be the images of him. How are you doing? But he's choosing to do this. And guess what? His party is propping him up. So this is, you know, people... Our government in many ways is outmoded. It's long past, it's expiration date. And we like to hang on to things for far too long many times. And I think that is also indicative of that. That happens in both parties. But the Republicans have a certain way of, hey, how are you? Good to see you. Is he okay? I know he's got... Oh, Cory Booker is long-winded. A shocking... I'm thoroughly shocked. Like Cory Booker, are we ready?

1:43:41So where are we going? Oh, let's go. I was going to walk with him and do it. But that's okay. Oh, we can't do it. Yeah, we can't. Let's go. We're going. What was I saying? This particularly Republicans have a particular way of using people and making them props. And I think that is really sad. But they say it's inhumane. It is inhumane. But he's an active participant. I mean... This is McConnell. You know, people get upset when you tell people about who they... about who they really are. People get upset. Like with Charlie Kerr. Hey, guys, sorry. I hope you're not getting that sweaty back there. What's going on? Hey, how are you? There's Daniel. How are we going up?

1:44:41Are we going down? Yeah. We're going down. We're not lying. Of course, I'm lying. This is all. So... Excuse me. Okay. Thank you. Hi, how are you? I'm good. It's Don Lemon. How's it going? Oh, hi. It's good to see you. Nice to see you. We're all just plugging away here. Yeah, good to see you. Okay. No, that's all right. We're going to get the shoes. She seems like I surprised when she's like, I love that. Yeah. So what was I saying? Oh, but Republicans have a particular way of propping people up in... in using them and they're doing that to Mitch McConnell, but he's an active participant. So, uh, honestly... It's apologies because you're behind the scenes. But I don't... I don't feel sorry for him because he's an active participant.

1:45:43I feel... I mean, like, I don't wish bad. I don't want him. Hey, how are you? Thank you. I'll try to push it. Do you mind trying to find a place on her? Sure. Thank you so much, Senator. Senator, how are you? I'm a lot of your... I'm great. Go say hi to us. Hey, how does your question... Can you ask her question? How do you feel? Do you think Mitch McConnell's up to the job? I had a chance to say hello to him yesterday, but it was a very brief conversation. Yeah. That's the only thing. Do you think that he should just go rest? You know, I'm... Look, I'm glad he's well enough to be back, and I wish him good health. Do you think the Congress should be in session? You're going to leave it at that. Do you think Congress should be in session right now? We are in session on the set. I don't think the house should have lived out. Thank you. All right, what's where are we going? This is great stuff. That's how you do it, people. That's how you do it. Yeah, I told you. It's because of someone to help. I get it. They don't want to look like they are...

1:46:48...shitting on an old person, because everybody gets old. It's the same thing when someone dies. People want to be respectful. He's almost dead. So I understand why. Do you understand why they don't want to talk about it? Senator will talk to you about it. He was in the room yesterday. It's good for both, right? I don't know if he said he said I got to speak to him briefly yesterday. It's what he said. I think Senator Walker was in the room yesterday, in the home. Was he in during the vote? Yes. Yes. We're in the home. Yes. Oh my God. I don't think you see him actually. I don't know if they were there at the same time. I don't think he was obviously working for the vote. I don't think he's officially seeing him. Yeah. Can you vote for the presidential vote in the lead yesterday during the vote? The clip of Mitch McConnell in the room yesterday during the vote, please, Andy. The question is on recording the Agriculture Act of 2026, as amended,

1:47:48as in Ridgeville, the clerk will call the roll. Senator Clobuchar. No. Senator Bennett. No. Senator Smith. No. Senator Durbin. No. Senator Booker. No. Senator Luhan. No. No. Senator Marnock. No. Senator Marnock. Anybody come back? Come back. Senator Welch. No. Can you come back? Senator Federman. No. Senator Schiff. No. Senator Federman. No. Senator Schiff. No. No. No by proxy. Senator Satbin. No by proxy. Senator McConnell. No. Aye. quedicks. Senator McConnell. Aye. Senator H thin. Aye. Senator Taeim. Today you are talking first. I'm here with a team you got to love. across the Capitol, we're literally ran into Don

1:48:51as they were, I was coming off the elevator, and I'm like, all right, let's go in. This is access, by the way, that even I don't get as a correspondent here in Washington. So it's so cool to kind of be behind the scenes that Don and get extra special access that I don't get every day, but all right, y'all, let's talk about Mitch McConnell, because we, you all saw me in front of his house on day two when he returned to work, and he has primarily just been working half days, still making his $174,000 salary. In fact, his staff during the 92-day period that he was not here at work made nearly a million dollars. Yeah, that's right. A million dollars was still paid out to his staff. Well, he was sitting at home, and they were paid by the Kentucky taxpayer. So really, they should be a rate, but now that he's, back to work, I mean, you all saw that video. The Republicans had to instruct him

1:49:53on how to vote appropriately. I mean, this is elder abuse, and it is quite frankly sad. I saw a few of the comments of people when he was rolled in, and all the comments are just like, it's awful. It's elder abuse. It's sad. He should be able to sit at home, rest, and not have to be rolled in here for votes. And that's really all that's happening. He's being rolled in for certain votes. And so we saw him get rolled in for the farm vote. He had rolled in to help make sure that district court judges could be passed along and actually get in. All right, Don is back, but that's what's happening. And as you talked about, his legacy is now being relegated to a man who's been rolled in to pass votes. Don is back now. Oh, so I'm going to pass him back. I have to go use the restroom. Thank you. I'm on the Senate guest, and I can't get the witty. So everyone's loving the behind the scenes.

1:50:54Can we just? Yeah, this is it. We don't get to hear. Where are we going to put Senator Booker down? We're going to put, yeah, I'm just going to put him next to me. And yeah, I think we should put him there and me here. Him right there and me here. And then you're getting profiles. Both of us. All right, we'll get him here. People are loving them. What were you saying about come here? I'll say right here. So this is, by the way, I've been reporting here in Washington for over three years now. And I've never gotten in this room. This is not access that we get. Oh, I've done my show from here several times. So I actually ran into one of my former colleagues. And she goes, yeah, they just let Don go right by the floor where they don't let anybody go because I got up. I said, wait, is Don back there? They're not going to let me back there. And she goes, yeah, they let them go by there. And I was like, well, I'm hoping I see you. And then I saw you all come by where they let us common reporters. You go, you know what they say? This is so cool to see.

1:51:54Here's what they say. Closed mouths. Don't get bit. Oh, I say that interaction you had with, with Senator ship would not happen. I mean, once they get into the elevator, you will have seen it. They closed those doors on me. I've chased senators into their cars or into their elevators. They will close those doors to the fact that they said, oh, what's, how's it going, Don? And still talk to you and held up the elevator. Well, the reason I went because I wasn't going to bother him. But then when the guy, there was a reporter there. And the reporter said to him, may I get on the elevator with you? Have to ask. They have to invite you on the elevator. And so when he invited him onto the elevator, I'm like, well, he invited someone on the elevator. I can go over and ask a question. He was the door was going to close. And then he recognized me and said, hey, oh, look, get out. Goodbye. I'm going to get out. Oh, how are you doing? You're here. You're here. What do you want me? Right there. OK. What's up? You look good, man. You like toning up, getting fit. You're like, you're in this situation. I've been eating so much. Are you serious? Yeah.

1:52:54But I work and I work in my ass off. And so, you know, I should take better care of myself. Are you like, how so? Because I work too much. OK. I just had all my blood work done. And so I know some areas I got to work on. I don't get to come back for a week and then get six weeks off. Neither do you. Neither do I. You were just on the floor. Were you demanding that Congress come back and do then handle business? I think you said vote on AI. What was it? No. Look, there's been about 50 times in American history where a president has seen something issue, whether with the economy and international affairs, so grave and so urgent that they call Congress back into a special session. We have a chorus of people talking about the potential catastrophic threats of AI, even if it's a 3% chance. Nobody would get on an airplane and know that every 100 airplane flights, there'd be three crashes. Whatever it is, we need to deal with those future catastrophic offence. We could go on recess for a month, but AI and AI development will not go on recess.

1:53:55Number two. You're making me feel short. But go on. No worries. But number two, there are current harms that are affecting Americans. Cost surveillance systems that are going along, giving you different prices than me, there are serious scams that are starting to increase at an alarming rate because of the sophistication of AI. There are things we should be doing right now to protect a population in our country that's feeling so beleaguered by rising costs. And then three, there's so much upside for this technology. If it's done in a governed in a dramatic fashion, in a democratic fashion rather, not just making a few handful of people extraordinarily wealthy, but what about empowering Americans economically, health and well-being? So why aren't we coming back for one of the biggest technological, consequential things in the history of humanity, not just America? This is a time for leadership, not to run away on recess and be campaigning about the midterms. Well, you're going, but we were waiting for you. Why don't you go back and forth with someone about whether they should come and force us? Yeah. Can you explain what happened? So there is an NIL bill being pushed

1:54:57by very wealthy donors, by the NCA and others. And every single college athletes group has come out against it. Because just after years of college athlete exploitation, remember, I saw this when I played. My image and likeness was being used in Madden sports. And people were selling a jersey in their, in the student bookstore for more money than their parents make in a day's labor. Did you get in there? I definitely did not get in there. But my point is, is just when athletes start winning in the courts, Congress is going to sweep in and do what the NCA wants, give it permanent antitrust exemptions, put red tape all over the college athletes. And by the way, there needs to be reformed to the Wawa Wess system. But first of all, they're not putting the same curtailment on coaches. Coaches can transfer anytime they want. They get a better deal. They jump from this even though they lowered players there. They're putting restrictions on players that they're not putting on coaches. If this is about creating a system that's fair, why are you enshrining unfairness?

1:55:59And why are you hurting the long term strength of Olympic sports and women's sports? Because that portion of the bill, section 125, expires after four and nine years. But the permanent antitrust exemption goes on in perpetuity. Wow. This is not about player protections. Players are winning those in court case after court case. This is why A.A.J., the organization that represents the trialers is saying, what are you doing here? We're finally getting rights for players. Even in the Supreme Court, you have conservative justices agreeing with more moderate justices and this is the way to go. So I'm very frustrated. This is a bipartisan bill, 48 days before your election being rammed through as opposed to letting athletes at the table to discuss what a really sensible bill will be. They don't want to hear it from the athletes, because it's obvious. Obviously, they don't want to hear it from them. Because they don't want to hear what they have to say. There's a reason why civil rights groups are against it. The NAACP, Derek is running around telling people, are you crazy letting this bill go through? Remember, the revenue sports have a disproportionate

1:57:01representative of black and brown people. So for years, this $15 billion industry, there are people out there in the fields on the courts making a lot of money for a lot of people. Never got any just compensation, any fair share. And just when they start getting powers in the courts, you're rushing in to say, stop, stop, stop. We're going to put restrictions on you. They were not putting on coaches. We're not putting on schools. You see coaches, salaries going up and up and up. There are 15 major college coaches. Is the buy-up provision alone is almost a quarter of a billion dollars. Don't I know? I'm an LSU. I'm going to tell you. Speaking of, did you, LSU, they want to bring, let professional athletes come back and play? Do you, how do you feel about that? Do you have any? I have strong feelings. Like, I play ball. I don't know if I would want to go up against a pro player. There's got to be sensible restrictions. It is the Y-Wall West right now. There are a lot of athletes being taken advantage of right now. But the way they're doing this is a bill written

1:58:01by rich, powerful institutions and people without the voice of athletes' organizations in any way being factored in. So they'd be kicked out of the SEC. That was part of it. You're asking me to dip into that? No. Come on, sir. Wait. I'm just trying to protect college athletes. It's too much money. I don't think it's ever going to happen. It would kick LSU. That would be huge. The South, the Earth would shake if that happened. I mean, football is religion. It's gospel. I would not be sitting here if it wasn't for college sports. I owe so much to it. I'm not banging this. This is one of the institutions that pulls us all together. It's culturally forming. We love our teams. Let's make it fair for the health and safety of players in all sports. I want to be respectful. You're telling me, staff is there. You were late. But we're watching. You're doing good stuff. You're doing good stuff. And you should be doing your job and what you were. I'm wondering about Congress. You're in the Senate, I know. But we just talked about this. Why aren't they here, you think?

1:59:03I think they ran away because they were afraid to take a vote on the competence of Hegseth. And if there's a vote about his competence for that office, he would lose. He would lose Republican votes. He's a disaster. He's brought us into a war with no strategic competence, whatsoever. And as a result of that, it's hard to believe, but we're in another forever war that's costing taxpayers tens of billions of dollars, injured soldiers. Too many have been lost already in this war. Has upended global markets. But most importantly, to me, when I go back to New Jersey, is everybody is paying so much more for everything. Can you just say, jurors, like most people I know, when I go back to jurors? Don't get my jurors. I say, hey, where do you live, jurors? I'm from jurors. That's the new thing. The kids call it jurors. I want to talk to you. What did I want to talk to you? Oh, were you in the vote yesterday with Mitch McConnell? I was. Tell us about it. Look, I'm not going to pile on a guy.

2:00:03I'm not going to do that. I'm praying anybody, you know this. I'm a person of faith. I want to pray for everybody's health and safety. There was something wrong right now. I see in the Supreme Court, there should be term limits on Supreme Court members. I see it here. I said a wise senator who left here said, leave the Senate when you have a third act still in your life. Yes. Do not be carried off here. You don't want that. That's the last images that will. Those images will be lasting. And that's how they will remember him or you if you were in that. So the way we're going to do this is we need to need new leadership in America. We need new voices, more people coming to the table. So again, I know there's a there's a pile on a Mitch McConnell right now. I that's that's only indicative of the larger issues that are going on in American leadership. Right. Do you think he is fit to serve? I can I'm not a doctor. I know being there. What did you observe? I observed a man being wheeled in in a wheelchair who looked physically. I don't know anything about his cognitive abilities. Physically diminished in a way that I'm praying for his well-being. And I heard him vote.

2:01:05At the end of the day, we we must have major. It's time for a generational change in American leadership. I hope this is the I have no the baby boomers. I hope there's still baby boomers in Congress still be it. But but this should be the last baby boomer president. We should the leaders of that of of house in the Senate. We should see new leadership emerging. I just I just we have these new technological challenges new issues coming at us. We need vibrancy. We need a renewal of American democracy. Thank you. Maybe we'll get a gen X president. Maybe so. You're trying to trap me. You're trying to trap me here. Are we are we are we ending the feed or we live? Yeah, I mean, why? Why? Everyone's what? 40% battery. I know. We've got other batteries there. We got more. No, no, no, no, we're going to continue. Put that other battery in there. I know. Thank you. Thank you, Senator. That's a pleasure. Thank you so much. All right. So there we go. We're going to walk out of here. OK, I'm going to walk out. Thank you. I'm going to be very.

2:02:05Thank you very much. I don't know. You said you're not doing it. I can't say it. I don't want to say it. Come on. He's looking great. I'll take that, Senator. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you. So that was good. We love that. Are you guys ready? Do you want more? Should we tell me in the chat? Should we end it or should we have more? You have 14%. There's another battery. Hold on. Let me show you how easy this is. Hold on, guys. We're going to change a battery. I'm going to show you how easy this is. No, no, no, no. Listen to all the black. Can we go up? There's no red. Andy? No, it's no red. The difference between a HELOC and an HEI is more than spelling. A HELOC means monthly payments. A splottero HEI doesn't. A HELOC has strict requirements. A splottero HEI only requires a 500 minimum credit score with no income requirement. Visit SPL ITRO.com today and access your home's equity.

2:03:33Thanks for watching. Bye. Okay, and we're back. See, no, we didn't even go out that long. It was like literally five seconds between battery changes. But, you know, we know L who is very anal about everything. It wants everything to be perfect, which is good. Right? A pyotony. So, you said you haven't gotten this access. This is the Congress's out of session attire. When they're not here, you're allowed to dress down.

2:04:33Because you experienced the heat outside. Oh, my God. The heat outside. This is an oasis in here. But I kept praising you for giving me the better assignment. You gave me the air condition and you were outside of the heat. I'm like, oh, my goodness. But tell us about the access that we're getting. Oh, okay. So, typically this is not an area where you can film. You also saw me. The members got to see me on Monday, where we had someone from the Capitol Hill staff walk over to you. And they said, you can't film here. If it was just me filming here, they would have somebody would have stopped me by now. It's a reporter, sir. You can't do that. So, I think that that room is a room that I've never been in. Right off the stage. Let's go. You get behind this. Let's go. You get behind this. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. All right. We're walking. He's talking. He's saying all these things they don't get. This is it. We're not going to the subway. No. That's the subway. Can we show them that? That's a cool area to see.

2:05:33We can't really see them. We'll talk about it. We can't. We gotta go. You only can get the camera. So, if we get this access, I'm going to show that. That's really cool area. That's where I'll make a take the subway. Sorry. They'll take the subway right down there. And it goes to the different buildings where they actually have their office. Oh, over here. Almost. That's one down here. There's one right here. That's the next stop. Thank you, sir. So. All right. We're getting in here. So, so, so, so, don't you really want to make the other reporters angry? We should have gone down there. Any check for courting. And if you saw a senator hop off the subway. Are you. Are you in trouble? No, no, no, no. We're you're getting access. So. I think we're good. All right. Hold on. All right. We're going right outside. There's a scooter. Hey, how are you? How are you? How are you? How are you?

2:06:33How are you? How are you? How are you? How are you? How are you? I'm asking you a question. This is really serious. How are you feeling about Mr. Kong? Oh, I'm good. I'm glad he's back. I'm glad he's back. Do you think he can handle this to see look okay to you? I know that he's had some health issues. But again, all I can say is I am glad that he is back and has rejoined us. It's really important, especially as we were working on the farm bill yesterday to be able to get the farm built on and take care of that. It's incredibly important. You know, there's a big concern about him. People are wondering if he can serve the people of Kentucky in the condition that he's in. Well, he is here. And we know that we've had a number of other members that have had health problems in the past. I, we only have a few more weeks, actually, in sessions. So I think he's going to be fine. Do you think Congress, do you think Congress should be in session? I do. Actually, I do.

2:07:33I do think we should be in session. We've got a lot of work to get done. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Yes. Can I ask about the most painful? Yes. We are actually going to the house. Yes, sir. So there would be a little trouble. Yes. Nice to meet you. You're the whole great. You guys are the whole great. Yes, sir. Okay. Because we got action on the side. Okay. So we have to exit on another side. Oh, okay. Is everybody standing? No. Okay. You have to sit on the side. Okay. We got it. Do you want me to? We are. So I should be able to have the work there. Okay. Okay. I'm sorry. Anyways, there's a, when they're, they have a boat going on. There's certain doors that you can exit from. And that's what we're trying to, to figure out. And we want to follow the rules. And there is security. Yeah. It's, yes. I'm going to get to that in a second.

2:08:34Okay. You got it? All right. So we're going to have to go to the house. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. I'm sorry. Anyways. All right. So, which way are we going? I don't, I don't understand. We were outside. So there's some confusion. I don't know. What was the steps of right here? Yeah. Yeah. How are they? All right. So. I'm trying to have steps. And they just need a ladder. They're trying to figure out what we need to do. Or should we let us out? We want to get out of this joint. Let us out. Let us out. I think the air is on lockdown. We're on to go out here. Yeah, we can. We'll see. Thanks. Thank you. You're welcome. You're welcome. So we may be trapped inside.

2:09:35What did they say? Did you ask them? Yeah. We can go out this way. I think we can go out here. All right. Confusion. Confusion. Confusion. Confusion. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What district? Just get lower. Just. Anyways. Wow. All right. Here. So. Now I wanted to get to. Tony Burns. It was interesting. It was interesting to see Senator. Tony Ernst. Actually, she commented on Mitch McConnell. Obviously she's going to be more favorable to his condition. We can just exit here. Thank you. She's going to be more favorable to his condition because. She is a Republican. He's a Republican. And look, even Democrats didn't really want to say anything. Said they didn't want to pile on. We came to Mitch McConnell. And I certainly understand that my British friend here did not. Understand that. I didn't. Yeah. Okay. Senator.

2:10:37All right. And then we go this way because it's a voting because they're voting. We can't stay in this area. Yeah. And so then the there are the rise right there. But we can go this way, right? Well, go outside the bar. Oh, and then go all the way around. No, no, just can stand outside the bar. This is typically where I live. So I usually stay to. Can we go. Oh, Oh, yeah. So we have to try to do something. Yeah. So here's the thing. Okay. I got it. Thank you. Thank you very much. So we have to go outside of the gates and then come back in. We just walk through this way. Yeah, we can walk around. Thank you, officer. You got it? Okay. So we can go, you can go, you can go right here. Okay. So we're going to have to go out and see. Okay.

2:11:37What's going on? It's going to be a lot of things. We're going to have to go out and see. We can go out and see. Yeah. You can't be in the middle here and walk. Cause there are some reason when there's a vote, those are the rules. I would love someone to explain to me why. Because some things are good. Some things are not, some things they do just out of tradition. Some things need to be changed, some things don't. But I would, I don't really know. And I should be more steeped in that. But I don't know why I'm not here in a capital. Thank you so much. Yes, thank you. Thank you. So more often, we're going to continue to do this. You know what just happened there? Yeah. All right. So basically what happened is that if they are going to be coming out to their cars, whether it's senators or house lawmakers, they shut the gates and only let people with this pass through. So I was trying to explain, listen, I'm credentialed with this man who is by boss. We are as a credentialed as a team. Let us through. But the man was saying, well, but Dawn is an individually credentialed. So you could be over here. So I can be over here. And I could be credentialed. But I'd have to live here to be credentialed. But they do give exceptions. By the way, if I can, if I do want me to tell you the truth,

2:12:37because I know this, all right, this part I do know about the credentials. So usually you have to live in DC or have a DC address, your bureau, whatever that's to be. So all the reporters for the networks are here and they're credentialed. When CNN wanted to get Anderson access to the capital, they came up here with the Anderson exception. And so when someone like me wants to get credentials, if I really wanted them to them, I would say to them, you've made an exception for Anderson. Therefore, I want a credential. And that works many times. But I'm not here enough. I'm not in DC. But maybe for the midterms. And then I'll get my credential where I can walk through when they're voting. Here's the weird thing though. If they have security and somebody is a member of the press or whatever, why are they worried about them going over there to interview them about a vote they just took?

2:13:37Americans need to know that. Yeah, it is. It's said there's capital police. That is a big ass band. And it's heavy. That looks heavy. So, Joni Ernst, Iowa. She was obviously very cautious about what she said. And you can see her wanting to get away. They always want to get away, right? They always want to get away. And she's like, OK, Don, thank you. And then I said, do you think Congress should be in session? And she said, I do. I do. And that's the thing. Well, yeah, it was surprising. Yeah. But I mean, she is. The thing is, though, is that I can't be here for any story. As I said yesterday, we were doing the story on Chris Brown and Jasmine Crackett. We can't, like, regardless of our relationship with people, we have to report on them. I have to ask Joni Ernst her questions about Ms. McConnell. She's a senator. He's a senator. People are concerned about his health. The man was missing for 92 days.

2:14:39And so to think, yeah, we can go to his house. But to think that people aren't going to question him, question them about it is ridiculous. And I don't think she didn't think, I don't think she thought that I wasn't going to question him, but she was ready to get away. And I understand her thing. But anyways, and so I think that's pretty darn important. Maybe I should move here and start doing this shit every day. Yeah, we're going to hold tight for a hot second to show you. I've got, oh, I can put this back. So this is the steps. Hold on. Can you do me a favor? I know it's weird. I can't. Can you grab that out of my? I got too many things in my hand. Is it going to come in? Oh, yes. It's my mic. Another, and it's quite a role. But did they stop you from a? They stopped me. Yeah. I had to do quite that role. OK, hold on. You hold this. You do this. OK. You do this. Where are we still live? Yeah, we're still live. Oh, my God. OK. So another antiquated rule that I can explain to you all. The mic stand, Don, is about to pull out of his hand. The mic flag. Yeah, the Don's about to pull out.

2:15:41You cannot have this on when you're here reporting at the Capitol. And the idea is that they don't want it to be just a number of mic flags and NBC News, CNN, Don, Lemon Network. They don't want a bunch of these mic flags here. I don't know. It doesn't make any sense. It's so weird. I think it's like logos for advertising or something. But we're not advertising, right? Of, let's say it again. Yeah, that's right. Oh, wait. Oh. How are you? What's going on? I will. Well, Congressman Governe, McCoverne, Massachusetts, a Massachusetts, at some people say, why are you still here? Johnson said, you're not needed. Well, I actually have appointments that can't be changed because we were planning to be in session this week. In fact, we were planning to be in session for an additional two weeks. But they adjourned early because he didn't want to take a vote on the impeachment of Pete Hexeth.

2:16:43And again, notwithstanding the fact that grocery prices are through the roof, gas prices are through the roof, rent is through the roof, health care costs are through the roof. They decided to go home. And it's ridiculous. We're fighting the summer's turn this way so that we're, yeah, there we go. Now it's beautiful. Why? Do you really think it was about Hexeth? I do. I think they're afraid that some Republicans might join Democrats and saying that he should be ousted. I mean, he's for the, OK, we're having good. What was that? I don't know. Did I water? Oh, sorry. Woo! You never know, right? I never know. No, but I. Someone dropped a bottle. I think it was Daniel. Yeah, I mean, I think they're concerned that even some Republicans might join Democrats and voting to impeach Hexeth because he's presiding over in illegal war in Iran. You know, and he's nuts. So I mean, we want him to show me he goes to better for the country.

2:17:43You think he should be impeached? I do. I'll vote for impeachment for him. I think he's a disgrace. I think, you know, both he and Trump are a disgrace. I mean, people around them shouldn't get the medical attention. This is not normal. This cannot be normal. What's up with the machismo and the wearing the religion on the sleeve thing that Hexeth is doing? What is that all about? Yeah. He's like Trump. I mean, I think he thinks he's God's gift to the world. I mean, I think he thinks that, you know, he's got this unique power and that he could do whatever the hell he wants to do. The reality is he's disgracing our country all over the world. I mean, again, illegal war in Iran is costing tens of billions of dollars. Gas prices are through the roof. I mean, the stuff they did in Venezuela, they got rid of Maduro, put his vice president in charge and made a deal on oil and didn't do anything about political prisoners in Venezuela. I mean, and all this stuff about, I only want the best looking troops, you know, at

2:18:46my speeches and stuff like that. It's like, it's crazy. I mean, it's just not normal. And it reflects badly on our country. How are you feeling about November? I am hopeful. I feel good about it. I think people are sick and tired of the Republicans. I think they're disgusted with Trump. I'm not sure people are necessarily in love with the Democrats yet, which means that we have to, if we're fortunate enough to win control. I mean, we have to have an agenda about what we're going to do the first 100 hours, the first 100 days, the first year. We have to be bold. We have to do things that actually make a difference in people's lives. I mean, people are tired of a Congress where we debate trivial issues passionately and important ones, not at all. They want us to be bringing those to the floor to make life more affordable, not talking about socialism and all these other cultural issues the Republicans want to bring to the floor. And I can ask people this, when you are with your Republican colleagues and there's not a camera there and you're in a safe space, so to speak, what do they say to you?

2:19:47They said to me that they think Trump's nuts. I think these policies are hurting their own constituents. And I used to take some comfort in that, but now it makes me mad because they know better. And they then go and they vote in ways that hurt their own constituents. And they do press conferences in which they say that Trump's face should be etched on Mount Rushmore. And they know better. Look, I have more respect for the true believers who vote with Trump. I pray that their wisdom be enlarged. But if you really believe that this stuff is awful and bad and harmful to your constituents, then have the courage to vote your conscience. Don't throw your conscience away just because you're afraid that he may do a mean tweet against you. People of this country are hurting and they're counting on us to do something. Did you see Miss McConnell, the video of Miss McConnell? I did not see the video. I mean, I know he's back, but I didn't see the video. You think he is capable of serving the people of Kentucky right now?

2:20:47Well, he hasn't been serving them for a while, but here's the deal. I mean, you know, he's retiring in December. I mean, I think the Republicans are going to, you know, keep him there just so that they can, you know, get things across the finish line of the thing in the next vote. But look, people who can no longer function should really not be here. And it's not even about age. I mean, there are people in their 80s and 90s who probably should retire because they've kind of lost their steam. There are people in their 30s who are here who should be what? Who should leave because they're lazy? I mean, we need people here who want to do work and who can function. And you know, I'm sad that Miss McConnell is going through all of this, but the bottom line is he's really not serving his constituents. Should there be term lines? I mean, it's not even a question to term limits because again, there are people who are here in their 30s who really don't even have no interest in being here.

2:21:49They just want the title. I think if you cannot function, if you cannot serve your community, then you ought to leave. It's that simple. And, you know, I mean, elections kind of have been the term of us for people, but, you know, it's just kind of sad to see people, you know, kind of not be able to function and still be in the public eye. Number one on your agenda. What is the number one issue? Affordability, affordability, affordability. I mean, everything's too dim-high. I want this war in Iraq. I mean, war in Iran ended. It's illegal. And I think if we take control, we ought to vote every week to try to stop funding for that war, to bring gas prices down and kind of restore some of our credibility in the world. But we have to figure out how to overturn some of these tariffs, which are screwing people over left and right. I mean, I go to a supermarket. There are people with calculators trying to figure out, you know, how they can afford their groceries. I have older people putting stuff back on the shelf because their budget no longer, it goes as far as it used to. What does the Democrats fall? Yeah. I mean, he has the deal.

2:22:50Inflation was like a 3% when Trump took office. It's not like 3.4% and I think that's probably higher than that because they lie so much. Gas prices were significantly lower when he became president and now they're through the roof. I mean, our farmers in this country have collectively paid like $1.3 trillion in additional costs just for diesel fuel. And so everything is going up. Look, a Trump lives in a fantasy world. He and his cabinet are lifestyles of the rich and famous. They don't worry about, you know, filling up there. Carrying with gas. They don't have to worry about cost of groceries or anything else. They have millionaires and billionaires and they're ripping people off and they're making millions and billions off of everybody else's hardships. But Pete Hicks, that's sorry. Sadie Vance said yesterday that they needed a second chance. They need another term in order to get this country, you know, in order for the great things that they're doing for Americans to continue. You had your chance, your blue, get the hell out of the way. I mean, we're going to take over and we're going to start, you know, having a agenda that

2:23:53addresses the issues of affordability. But I mean, I'm sorry. These guys, look at, I mean, we're debating bills on socialism on the House floor when we should be debating bills about how to reverse these tariffs, how to lower the cost of living for people. We ought to be debating a bill on forcing them to release the Epstein files. I mean, these guys have lied about everything and they think we're all fools. And I got to tell you, I'm encountering more and more people, people who voted for Trump who were saying they made enough. I'm done with this. Time for a change. Good to see you. Good to see you. Thank you. Good to see you. I was in your state the other day. I'll be back. I'm going to be there. I'm doing Jennifer Welch. I'm going to be there in a couple of weeks. He has a book. I don't know if you know Jennifer Welch is, but we'll be there in Boston. There's a book thing. And Dale Hugel and I are also going to play Boston there. The comedian Dale Hugel. We have a nationwide tour we're doing. Thanks for keeping up the fight. I appreciate it. No, I mean, I worry about journalism in this country and this guy and I worry about. Don't you think I do? No, I know you know more than anybody else, but I really do worry that this reminds me

2:24:57of like Germany post-World War I. I mean, they're going after the media and too many people in our media are frightened. To do their job because they're afraid to come after them. And this is a time for courage. Not a time for people to retreat or just cave. So I appreciate that. Thank you, sir. Thanks. I'll see you later. Okay. That's a wrap now. Okay. That's a great thing to end on right there. Hello. We've been going for a long time. And so you should expect more of this here on the Don Lemon show on the Don Lemon channel. Because we are, again, I've been saying it the entire time. I believe in transparency and everything, but especially around our government, we need to know what they're doing, how they're doing it, what it's costing, all of the things, right? And so I appreciate the access that I've been given here. We're going to try to get more and we're back at live at five. Live at five. Don't forget to tune in live at five. And tell us if you like this. Tell us if you want more. Tell us how you feel about it in the comments.

2:25:58Okay. The engagement has been great. So you guys have been paying attention. So we've been like our own little cable news station all morning and into the afternoon, right? No? No? Okay. I think we should do more of this. I think we should have Daniel walking around doing this all the time instead of, you know, being all cozy standing in front of the White House in the capital. So I'm going to see you back at five p.m. If you want to know anything about the Don Lemon show, you can go to Don Lemon.com, Don Lemon.com. Make sure you get the tickets for DL and DL. It's right there at the top of the site. As I was just telling the Congressman, we are going to be in Boston or whatever, but go at Massachusetts. Go check out the schedule, okay? And then get your tickets. Make sure that we're not missing someone good. And once you do that, go back out and then go to Don Lemon.com and then check out our YouTube page. Become a member. Become a subscriber. Also our Lucky Lemon 7 newsletter as well over on the substack and check out our merch store.

2:26:58Make sure you're live at five p.m. on the Don Lemon show and the Don Lemon channel. So be informed without being inundated until I see you back here live at five. Turn the TV off. Thanks for watching everybody. I appreciate you. Make sure you like, subscribe and turn on notifications so you don't miss anything. We're live weekdays at 10 a.m. and five p.m. Eastern with new content at two p.m. Eastern sometimes at 8 p.m. So follow the Don Lemon show wherever you are. YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitch, Substacks, Spotify, IHard Radio, Apple Podcasts, we are everywhere and we're there every day. And if you want a little more, join the Lemon community. Exclusive posts behind the scenes, live chats, just hit join or check the channel pages. All right, I'll see you next time. Real value shows up in reliability. You don't have to second guess. Like a set of firestone all season tires. Fire design to deliver confidence, inspiring wet weather traction and a quieter ride.

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