Lawrence: Trump’s ‘stupidity is utterly flawless at exposing his own lies’ on Iran war

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The last word with Lawrence O'Donnell starts right now.

Hey Lawrence.

Hey Jen, another election night. We're going to go back to Ali Veltchi whenever there's a result in the Senate primary in Illinois.

So we'll be following up on that.

Yeah, absolutely. We're going to know these spaces.

Lawrence, these are people who are going to be in the House and the Senate, and that's exciting.

Yeah, and we have so much else to cover tonight also.

Great. I'll look forward to watching.

Thanks Jen.

Thank you.

He actually said he's not afraid of anything.

Those are his exact words, not afraid of anything.

The man who has spent years afraid of the Epstein files and is still blocking the full release of the complete Epstein files.

The man who wears silly hats because he's afraid his hair might be blown out of place.

The man who's afraid of letting anyone see his natural skin color or his college transcript or his SAT scores.

The man who's afraid of falling down the steps of Air Force One and the man who was very, very afraid of being drafted into the United States Army during the Vietnam War.

That man today said he's not afraid of anything and it could not be more perfect.

But the question that provoked Donald Trump to tell the lie that he's not afraid of anything including included a reference to Vietnam.

Uranian regime has filled sky news.

If you put boots on the ground in Iran, it will be another Vietnam. Are you afraid of that?

No, I'm not afraid of anything.

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister was asked by Sky News today what would happen if US troops invaded Iran and he said, quote, just read what happened in Vietnam.

Donald Trump was so afraid of being drafted and sent to Vietnam in 1968 that he got a note from a doctor saying that his feet just couldn't take it.

Those same feet that have covered miles and miles and miles of golf courses and continue to just couldn't take it.

And in those days, rich kids like Donald Trump had an easy time escaping the draft with notes from doctors but as the American quagg buyer and Vietnam deepened as the death toll increased.

The war dragged on into the 1970s. The rules of the draft became stricter and the army became harder to avoid but Donald Trump was already safe.

He'd already skipped the draft. His boots were never going to hit the ground in Vietnam.

Donald Trump wasn't the only guy his age who was terrified of going to Vietnam. Most young American men subject to the draft were afraid of going to Vietnam and did everything they could to avoid it but now Donald Trump.

The most cowardly human being ever to have the title of President of the United States says, I'm really not afraid of anything.

He's lying, of course, as he is in response to almost every question he has asked. Donald Trump lied today in response to an intelligence official he appointed resigning in protest of Donald Trump's war.

In true Trump administration style Joseph Kent Donald Trump's director of the National Counterterrorism Center announced his resignation on social media saying in his social media post and his resignation letter to Donald Trump I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation.

To which Donald Trump said this.

Well, I read his statement. I always thought he was a nice guy but I always thought he was weak on security very weak on security.

Always? Always? Really? I always thought he was weak on security.

Here's what Donald Trump said on social media when he appointed Joe Kent to be the director of the National Counterterrorism Center a soldier green beret and CIA officer Joe has hunted down terrorists and criminals since entire adult life Joe will help us keep America safe by eradicating all terrorism.

And now that same Donald Trump says I always always said I always thought he was weak on security very weak on security and no one proves Donald Trump to be a liar more effectively than Donald Trump and so tonight I suggest you take your pick about when Donald Trump was lying about Joe Kent when he appointed him or today when Joe Kent quit of course.

When we're dealing with a pathological liar like Donald Trump he could be lying both times but Donald Trump has definitely caught himself and at least one lie about Joe Kent.

Donald Trump's director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard refused refused to rush to the defense of Donald Trump and his war and that's exactly what she was supposed to do in this situation.

But she also refused to condemn Joe Kent which was the other things she was supposed to do. Joe Kent who was a member of the intelligence community that Tulsi Gabbard theoretically commands.

Now I'm going to read Tulsi Gabbard's statement in full and I ask you to listen for what I could not find in her statement.

A defense of Donald Trump's choice to go to war or a clear statement that Joe Kent is wrong.

Donald Trump's director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard did not say either one of those things instead she said this Donald Trump was overwhelmingly elected by the American people to be our president and commander in chief as our commander in chief he is responsible for determining what is and is not an imminent threat.

And whether or not to take action he deems necessary to protect the safety and security of our troops the American people in our country.

The office of the director of national intelligence is responsible for helping coordinate and integrate all intelligence to provide the president and commander in chief with the best information available to inform his decisions after carefully reviewing all the information before him.

President Trump concluded that the terrorist Islamist regime in Iran posed an imminent threat and he took action based on that conclusion.

Now notice Tulsi Gabbard did not say an imminent threat to the United States just an imminent threat but she also didn't agree with it.

Tulsi Gabbard refused to say the simple words at the end of that statement I agree with Donald Trump's conclusion.

That's what she was supposed to say and what she did instead was give us a public display of insubordination as much as you could possibly expect.

From a director of national intelligence just a direct defiance of Donald Trump in that statement if Tulsi Gabbard was going to say there was an imminent threat to the United States from Iran.

That was the place to say it right there and she refused to say it she refused to say it today.

And in a situation like this Tulsi Gabbard's silence on the imminent threat question what she thinks of it is obviously deliberate and it leaves open the question of whether she agrees with Joe Kent that quote Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation.

It is inconceivable that Tulsi Gabbard agrees with Donald Trump and refuses to say publicly that she agrees with Donald Trump.

It is possible that Donald Trump is incapable of reading the implications of Tulsi Gabbard's statement and no one in the White House would dare probably bring it to his attention.

It is also possible that Donald Trump is just incapable of just reading a statement by anyone about anything.

Any other president would read such a statement as a public disagreement with their director of national intelligence and that person's resignation would be demanded instantly.

But Donald Trump maybe too distracted too busy juggling his lies and not might not be able to keep up with everyone who is disagreeing with him or implicitly in Tulsi Gabbard's case calling him a liar.

No president in history has ever claimed to drop bombs just for fun.

That would of course brand that president as a sociopath and so of course Donald Trump said exactly that.

On Saturday in a telephone interview with NBC News Donald Trump said that he might continue to bomb an oil facility on Carg Island in Iran quote just for fun.

That phrase will live in infamy with Donald Trump's name for hundreds of years as historians are able to isolate those words just for fun.

As the conclusive proof they will need to make the case that Donald Trump is a sociopath that Donald Trump was a mad bomber in every sense every historian will be able to see that he was a madman who thought bombing was fun.

So on Saturday Donald Trump said quote the countries of the world that receive oil through the Hormuz straight must take care of that passage and we will help a lot exclamation point the US will also coordinate with those countries so that everything goes quickly smoothly and well this should have always been a team effort and now it will be it will bring the world together toward harmony security and everlasting peace exclamation point.

And today Donald Trump said all of that was a lie.

Donald Trump said in effect I was lying when I said other countries should figure out a way to open up the straight of Hormuz to shipping so that 20% of the world's oil supply can move through the straight today at 1118 am Donald Trump wrote the United States has been informed by most of our NATO allies that they don't want to get involved with our military operation against the EU.

The terrorist regime of Iran in the Middle East I am not surprised by their action we no longer need or desire the NATO countries assistance we never did exclamation point likewise Japan Australia or South Korea we do not need the help of anyone exclamation point no president of the United States has ever been stupid enough to say we don't need the help of.

The United States of America has never won a war including the revolutionary war without the help of other countries but there's Donald Trump saying I was lying on Saturday when I said we wanted those other countries to open the straight of Hormuz today he said we no longer need or desire the NATO countries assistance and this is the important part.

We never did exclamation point Donald Trump wrote in all capital letters we never did exclamation point that we never did is Donald Trump saying I was lying on Saturday when I said we did want their help.

Of course we never did is lie Donald Trump has locked in a proof right there of Donald Trump lying about his war of course he wanted their help and of course he's lying again when he says we never did want their help.

I mean you choose was he lying on Saturday or is he lying today of course it's impossible to say that there isn't a lie there there has to be at least one lie there exposed by Donald Trump himself whose stupidity is utterly flawless at exposing his own lies think of the level of stupidity it takes to expose your own lies that way.

Think of how lost you have to be to expose your own lies that way the president of the United States has started a war and is now trying to lie his way through what he has now lost in that war he has no idea what to say at least from one day to the next.

And so what he says is meaningless because the likelihood of him saying the opposite thing within hours or days is very high.

But on the day that Donald Trump says he's not afraid of anything.

We get another demonstration of the person Donald Trump fears the most in this world Vladimir Putin.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting tonight a confirmation of some previous reporting that Russia is helping around target US military forces.

That means Russia may be responsible for the Iranian attack that killed the first six American military personnel killed in Donald Trump's war the Wall Street Journal reports.

Russia has been expanding its intelligence sharing and military cooperation with Iran providing satellite imagery and improved drone technology to aid to Iran's targeting of US forces in the region people familiar with the batter said.

Russia is trying to keep its closest Middle Eastern partner in the fight against United States and Israel military might and prolong a war that is benefiting Russia militarily and economically.

Russia has been providing Iran with the locations of US military forces in the Middle East that cooperation has deepened in early days of the war with Russia recently providing satellite imagery directly to Iran.

And what has Donald Trump done about that what has Donald Trump done about Vladimir Putin helping Iran target US military personnel and perhaps having helped Iran kill US military personnel.

What is Donald Trump doing about that Donald Trump has of course done absolutely nothing because it's Vladimir Putin we're talking about here.

And that's what Donald Trump does whenever Vladimir Putin attacks the United States in any way Donald Trump does nothing there has never been a more cowardly American president in confrontation with a Russian dictator.

And there has never been an American president other than Donald Trump who was ever stupid enough to say I'm really not afraid of anything.

And today Donald Trump's owned and operated speaker of the house reached a new low even for him when he said this.

President Trump recently accepted that in war Iran will be over when he will feel it in my bones. What does he mean by that?

Well, I think his bones are informed by the intelligence. His bones are informed by intelligence.

That is the single stupidest thing the speaker of the house has ever said any speaker of the house in the history of the house representatives.

The only competition for anything that stupid all comes from Mike Johnson the only speaker of the house willing to tell any lie say any stupid thing that the stupidest president of the United States in history wants him to say.

Like Johnson proved once again that no lie is ever too stupid for Donald Trump and his enablers today.

Leading off our discussion tonight is Democratic Senator Chris van Holland of Maryland. He's a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Appropriations Committee.

Senator, what is your assessment of the state of Donald Trump's war tonight?

Well, Lawrence, you're right about the speaker in the world class lies and it's always bad, of course, to have a president who is a chronic liar.

But it's especially dangerous when we're in a war. And of course the big lie Donald Trump told the country was that he would keep us out of these foreign wars.

He wouldn't drag us into a war in the Middle East and here we're in a war where our country is becoming less safe.

We've already lost 13 of our service members, hundreds wounded, over 2,000 civilians killed in this war in that region, including as you know 150 Uranian school girls.

Prices are going up and it's costing us a billion dollars a day. This is a big stupid war.

We should get out of it as soon as possible. It's making the world and the United States less safe, not more safe.

So this, as you say, was a world class stupid move by Donald Trump, but here we are.

So costing us a billion dollars a day. And of course we won't know for a while, probably until Democrats get control of the House of Senate to really do a financial autopsy on what this war is costing.

But at a billion dollars a day, that's roughly what Vladimir Putin is making in oil revenue now.

According to President Zelensky of Ukraine, he estimates that Vladimir Putin has already taken in at least 10 billion dollars in oil revenue because of Donald Trump's war.

While we're getting reporting that Vladimir Putin is helping target American military personnel in that war.

Well, you're exactly right. I mean, now we know that Putin is helping Iran target and maybe kill American troops and not only is Donald Trump helping to drive up the price of oil and enriching Putin.

But he also the other day relaxed the US sanctions on Russian oil exports, right?

So Putin is getting it both ways. He's benefiting both ways. Price is going up and Donald Trump, even after we find out that Putin's helping the Iranians with their targeting, relaxing the sanctions on Putin and Russian oil.

Which is why Zelensky and our European allies are going, what the hell?

And then Donald Trump turns around and says, well, we're going to help the Russians.

But you know, you guys should come help us in this war that we started against Iran.

And they're like, are you kidding me?

You have called for the Defense Secretary's resignation. Why?

Well, he was unqualified to start and I opposed his nomination, but he's proven every day that he doesn't belong in this job. And most recently, he was dismantling Lawrence some of the safeguards that we put in place over the years to make sure that when the United States military goes to war, that we don't target or kill civilians unnecessarily.

And Pete Hexath said that those were, quote, stupid rules of engagement. Those rules of engagement are designed to prevent civilian harm.

And so Pete Hexath decided to dismantle many of those, which is why Senator Elizabeth Warren and I and others said that he's got to go and we've got to hold him and anybody else involved accountable.

Senator Chris Fennall, and thank you very much for starting off our coverage tonight.

Good to be with you. Thank you.

Coming up, while Donald Trump is waging war in the Middle East, his son-in-law is trying to make more money there.

The New York Times has new reporting on Jared Kushner's Middle East Get Rich Quick Scheme. And one of the reporters on that New York Times story, Maureen Farrell, will join us next.

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While Donald Trump wages war in the Middle East, his son-in-law Jared Kushner went from trying or at least pretending to try to negotiate a deal with Iran.

To trying to raise billions of dollars for his personal business from other countries in the region, the New York Times reports Jared Kushner is trying to raise billions of dollars from Middle Eastern countries for his business called Affinity Partners.

The New York Times says Jared Kushner has spoken with potential investors in recent weeks about raising $5 billion or more for affinity partners according to five people with knowledge of the talks.

Who were not permitted to speak publicly about the discussions.

As part of the fundraising effort, Affinity's representatives have already met with Saudi Arabia's public investment fund which invests the proceeds of the Kingdom's vast oil reserves.

Two of the people briefed on the discussions said other Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds that invested earlier in infinity including those in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar are also expected to be asked for more.

The people said four years ago Jared Kushner quickly picked up $2 billion from Saudi Arabia as a first investment in Affinity Partners at the time.

Former Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said this on this program.

Unfortunately it's not surprising but it is disgusting and its corruption on a massive scale.

I think what you have to understand here and I think a lot of us felt this at the time with the Saudis often the payoff for doing their bidding is on the back end.

And if you look at the Trump record in which Jared was running point in the Mohammed bin Salman relationship, you saw the Trump administration cover for the Saudis after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in his dismemberment in a consulate in Turkey.

You saw them do their bidding and pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal, a clearly a mistake of historic proportions.

And you saw them basically have a foreign policy that was 100% in line with the wishes of Saudi Arabia.

Now, having done their bidding, Jared is going to collect on the back end from a murderous autocrat in Saudi Arabia that he can personally enrich himself.

And if that wasn't bad enough, we know Donald Trump is the front-runner for the Republican nomination in 2024 and the Saudis are both rewarding somebody for a job well done from their perspective at this goes forward and making a down payment on what they might expect from a future Trump presidency.

Jerry has now is New York Times finance reporter Maureen Farrell. Maureen, thank you very much for joining us tonight with your new reporting on this.

So here's why does Jared Kushner need five billion more dollars after already establishing a five billion dollar fund?

I'll explain what we understand and what we've been told is that he's close to having invested this fund that he raised a couple of years ago and he's invested roughly three quarters of it.

So he's back out fundraising for the next one to keep on investing. That's what we've been told by people around the situation.

And so where so Saudi Arabia he's basically going back to all those countries that he already hit up the first time, isn't he?

That's our understanding the plan is to raise five billion dollars or more over the course of this year.

And as we know the first fund this five billion dollars was raised from Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern sovereign nations.

So it sounds like he's going back he's clearly as we reported has met with Saudi Arabia and it sounds like he's planning to talk to other Middle Eastern nations to their sovereign wall funds about reinvesting in him.

And at the same time he's been in and out of discussions with these countries involving Gaza involving the situation in Iran prior to the war.

There seems to be no border at all here between his private business and the errands Donald Trump assigns to him in the region.

I mean it was pretty shocking for us to learn that he was back out fundraising again. I mean as we all are watching right now there's a war going on.

He's been very involved as we know as and he's an unpaid volunteer this time in this administration, but we've seen or heard of him being involved in so many fronts on diplomatic efforts on behalf of the United States.

So yes to hear I guess at the same time that he's out also fundraising. I mean at the very least it raises questions who has time to do all of this.

And he had promised that he wouldn't do this. This is something he said he would not do in the next Trump presidential term.

He raised the issue. I mean we recorded him on a podcast that he said he it seemed like it could he was unlikely to do so.

And he may have hedged it a bit but yeah and this was in the prior administration this was a few years ago, but it did seem say I probably won't have to raise money for a while.

So again that was all surprised us.

And what did he say when he jumped on the phone to explain all this to you.

We will not we will not discuss sourcing at all. We're not talking about who we heard this from any of it, but we talked to people around the whole situation.

Thank you very much for joining us tonight.

But thanks so much for having me.

Thank you. Thank you.

And coming up today the Republican Chair of the House Oversight Committee subpoena Donald Trump's Attorney General to explain how she has mishandled the Epstein files that's next with Congressman Rokana.

And tonight the Attorney General of the United States is under subpoena the Washington Post reports the House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed Attorney General Pam Bundy as part of its probe of the Justice Department's investigation into deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein ordering her to testify before the panel on April 14th.

If Bundy honors the subpoena she would face committee members questions in a closed door session that could turn contentious given the volatile nature of the Epstein case and Bondy's demonstrated willingness to engage lawmakers in verbal combat.

A Justice Department official however quickly dismissed the subpoena as pointless declining to say whether the Attorney General would comply.

In his letter today to panel of Bondy Republican House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer wrote the Committee has questions regarding the Department of Justice's handling of the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and his associates and its compliance with the Epstein files transparency act as Attorney General you are directly responsible for overseeing the Department's collection review and determinations regarding the release of files pursuant to the Epstein files transparency act.

And the Committee therefore believes that you possess valuable insight into these efforts.

Joining us now is Democratic Congressman Rokana of California. He's a member of the House Oversight Committee.

Congressman Kana it is your law the bill that you got passed the Epstein files transparency act that the Attorney General seems to have violated repeatedly.

That presumably would be the center of your questioning if she shows up for this for the for this questioning.

Absolutely and Lawrence the important thing here is it's not Thomas Massie and I writing to Pam Bondy or subpoenaing Pam Bondy it is Jim Comer the Republican chair issuing this subpoena and there were many Republicans who joined in the vote to subpoena Bondy that means they are losing confidence in her in a complying with the law.

Now she's scrambled she is coming in apparently to our committee tomorrow at 5.30 p.m. behind closed doors to suddenly brief our committee she hasn't been willing to answer any questions.

Now her and Blanche are going to come to brief the committee so it'll be interesting to see what she says at that briefing.

So was that arranged just because this subpoena was issued?

Certainly seems coincidental the day the subpoena goes out we are informed today that Pam Bondy wants to come tomorrow to meet with us.

I mean Thomas Massie and I have been requesting a meeting for months with her and Blanche to be able to protect the survivors with the committee has been requesting a meeting for months.

But suddenly now that she has a threat of a subpoena she's coming to meet us because she knows that the theatrics won't work at closed doors under deposition.

The reality is that she would be asked questions under oath by lawyers that she would be subject to the penalty of perjury and that will haunt her long after she's attorney general.

So my sense is she's coming tomorrow to try to defuse the subpoena but I doubt that she's going to be able to convince Republicans to have her not comply.

So this is breaking news about her reaction to this to get a subpoena and then say oh let me talk.

I mean that is really the equivalent of getting indicted or something and trying to plea bargain right away.

So is the full committee invited into this discussion with her tomorrow?

That's my understanding and yes it is quite a breaking news because I just learned about this a few hours ago.

My understanding is she's coming closed doors behind the full committee with Blanche and she wants to brief our committee.

We've been asking for this briefing for months and she has not been willing to give it.

And my hope is that the calmer is going to pursue her subpoena with the same relentless list that he pursued the Clintons.

The reality is she needs to answer basic questions under oath.

Questions such as why were three of the witness interviews about the woman who accused President Trump of rape when she was 13?

Why were they withheld?

Why have so many of the documents been scrubbed back in March and concealed the identity of rich and powerful men who survivors have named in the 302 forms?

Why did you refuse to meet with the survivors or their lawyers when you were releasing these files?

Why did you refuse to take a meaning to protect their identity?

There are a lot of questions that we have for her and that she's going to have to answer in her oath and my sense is she doesn't want to do that.

Karsha Rokana, thank you very much for joining us tonight.

Thank you.

And we have breaking news. It's primary night in Illinois.

Ali Valshi, what's the latest?

We've got a call in the Illinois Senate races of the race to replace Dick Durbin after 30 years in the Senate.

Roger Krishnamorthy has been defeated the lieutenant governor Julianne Stratton is now going to be the winner of this with 40% of the vote right now compared to 33 for Roger Krishnamorthy, 82% of the vote in the polls had been sketchy in this one for a while.

And mostly showed Krishnamorthy either in the lead or in a tighter race with Julianne Stratton, but right now she's ahead by almost 65,000 votes.

The other race that's just been called is in the ninth district, the house district in Illinois.

90% of the vote is in Daniel Biss, who is the mayor of Evanston, Illinois, has won that race.

It's a 4,000-point, 4,000-vote lead over Kat Abu Ghazala, the Democratic activist.

This was a very, very big, big race. You can see the number of people in this race.

So this was expected to be close between the two, but Daniel Biss will be the candidate in Illinois district nine.

Ali Valshi, thank you very much.

And coming up like most Republican legislation, the title is a lie.

What Republicans are calling the Save Act is actually the Prevent Act, prevent you from voting.

The Senator leading the fight against that bill on the Senate floor where the Republicans lost the first round of voting today.

Senator Alex Padilla of California will join us next.

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Safe Guard American Voter Eligibility is the phrase that allows Republicans to title their bill the Save Act when it is really about preventing voter eligibility.

The bill requires voters to present passports or birth certificates to register to vote.

Around 50% of American voters do not have passports.

And most people don't have their birth certificates handy.

And so Democrats are opposing the bill as a voter suppression bill.

Republican majority leader of the Senate brought the bill to a preliminary vote today on the Senate floor

where all Democrats opposed the bill and one Republican joined the Democrats in opposing the bill

while another Republican who also opposes the bill was absent from the vote.

Republicans got 51 votes for the bill, but it requires 60 votes to win passage in the Senate.

Leading the Senate floor fight against the bill is California's senior senator, Alex Padilla.

Donald Trump and our Republican colleagues know all too well.

That unless they change the rules for November, they're going to have a poor showing in the mid-term elections.

That's what this is about.

And that's exactly what the bill aims to do.

To share voter data with DHS that has nothing to do with administering elections,

they're only responsible to support cybersecurity of elections, and they're going backwards even on that responsibility.

To make it harder for eligible Americans to register to vote, to stay registered to vote, and to cast their ballot,

it's un-American, but they see it as their only chance of staying in power after the mid-term.

Joining us now is Democratic Senator Alex Padilla of California.

He's the top Democrat on the Senate Rules Committee, and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate Budget Committee.

Senator, thank you very much for joining us tonight.

Now, normally in the United States Senate, when you get to that vote today, and they fail to get 60 votes on that first procedural vote, that's the end of it.

Everyone just walks off the floor and says, well, that can't pass.

We go on to the next thing. What is happening now?

Well, they know the vote's aren't there.

Senate Leader John Thune knows the vote's aren't there.

I think he's been telling Donald Trump that for some time now, but yet again, Republicans in Congress and Republicans in the Senate will bend to Trump's will.

Donald Trump is demanding. He's insisting that they try to pass the stay back for all the reasons we've begun to articulate.

So, number one, they're going to keep trying. And number two, I'm on guard because of the stakes of this bill for any parliamentary trickery or shenanigans that they could try to use to force this through.

That's why we've been organizing the entire Democratic Caucus to be on alert, and will be there all day, every day, all week, multiple weeks, whatever it takes to kill this bill.

So, Donald Trump has demanded that the United States Senate do nothing else. He's told John Thune you're not allowed to do anything else in the Senate except pass this bill.

And so that apparently is why John Thune has to come back at it.

So, on the one hand, there's the content of the bill, which is horrible. It's a voter suppression bill to be honest. If you're a married woman, you may be turned away at the polls if you chose to change your name.

If you enjoy registering the vote at the DMV, sorry, that's not going to be an option anymore. If you like to vote by mail, that's going to be gone as an option for you as well.

But why are we discussing this if the votes aren't there? That's the bigger question. It's because Republicans are scared of the political consequences of their horrible record.

Donald Trump ran to lower prices. Prices keep going up on everything from housing to healthcare. Certainly, the price of gas got up significantly since this unauthorized war in Iran.

So, they can't run their records. They're only chance of holding on to power this November is to change the rules of the game and that's where the save act comes in.

So, if you're at home and you think, well, I have a passport, I have nothing worry about this bill doesn't affect me. It affects every voter in California because it bans mail-in voting.

And now, as it stands now, every voter in California has the option of mailing in their vote as they do in other states have that option.

This would ban that. And then it could also create problems, as you say, for anyone who's had a name change for marriage or any other reason.

If your birth certificate is not from the state you're currently living in, how do you get that birth certificate?

But there's another very strange provision of this, which is that the Donald Trump's government would somehow obtain the right to the voting records of every state.

Right. And that's written into the bill. So, there's the voter ID provision, which is really a bait and switch because most people think, well, what's wrong with that? I have an idea. I have a driver's license.

Most common IDs, including driver's license, don't qualify you to get into the polling place under this bill.

Number one, the registration opportunities that I talked about, those are out the window. And third, to your point, this DHS having access to the personal information of every voter in America.

We don't have to speculate what they could do with that. They're already doing it. There's 12 states that have agreed to give their data to DHS.

Maybe it was voluntarily, maybe it was under political pressure, but these political appointees, these hacks at DHS are now running those names through a faulty database and sending names back to the state saying, hey, this person not eligible, take them off your list.

And you know what the result is? They're not finding non-citizens that have been registered to vote. They're sending the names of US citizens and telling states to take them off the rolls.

This is voter purging. It's voter disenfranchisement. And if Republicans were to push the save back through, then they would do this on steroids with congressional authorization.

It's high stakes. It's dangerous. All the more reason for us to do what it takes to keep it from happening.

So describing it as a voter ID bill does not begin to describe what this thing is really about.

No, it's a voter suppression, voter purging, plain and simple. When a military ID doesn't get you into the polling place, a college student, you know, public university student ID doesn't get you into the polling place.

Only passport, which as you said, half of Americans don't even have or an original birth certificate. So you're going to have people looking at their garages, looking at their addicts, maybe calling their parents hoping they still have that.

And sure to that, you're probably going to be out of luck just like Donald Trump wants it.

Senator Alex Padilla, thank you very much for joining us tonight.

Thank you, Lawrence.

We'll be right back.

Senator Alex Padilla gets tonight's last word.

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