Fullständig transkription av MAGA's Final Meltdown: Ramaswamy, Trump, Corruption and the Coming Reckoning | Steve Schmidt, Jim Acosta & Miles Taylor

the mother as the sharp knife against her throat as they did more violence. 00:03:32 Speaker 4: Yep. 00:03:34 Speaker 1: And so you can look at the appalling Max Cleland ad. 00:03:40 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:03:41 Speaker 1: You can look at the appalling Jesse Helms ad with the white hands against Gant in 1994, if I recall that correctly. It is the most despicable ad. And there was a process that produced it. There's a group of people that said, let's do it. 00:04:06 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:04:07 Speaker 1: Let's make it. And then they made it. Then they watched it. And then they said, let's write a check to a television station to air this pornography. And then when it was aired and people physically became sick over it, they claimed that they were the victim. They were aggrieved. And The detestable vice president went out and talked about it was courageous. He doesn't like the whining of anybody who maintains some shred of vestigial decency. That this is wrong, this makes me uncomfortable, or at least has the pragmatism of we shouldn't film or political atrocities and shove them into people's faces, which is what this is. Totally. 00:05:18 Speaker 2: Totally. 00:05:18 Speaker 1: And, and so this is a pungent, perfect, disgusting way to end this era of MAGA with the defeat of this Ohio scumbag, Rama Swami. And by the way, Why was he ever on a presidential debate stage? 00:05:45 Speaker 2: Unbelievable. I agree with that. 00:05:47 Speaker 1: 100%. 00:05:47 Speaker 2: Yeah, and I interviewed him back during my days at CNN, and I thought, this guy is slimy as you know what. And Trump is, you know, defending him too. We should play that sound because he's saying he encouraged Ramis Wabi to keep running it. Let's play this. 00:06:03 Speaker 5: You should be so lucky. Why would you shield somebody from that? Why would we do that? So I told him, leave it up. and look upstairs and say, thank you, God, very much. I appreciate it. 00:06:18 Speaker 1: But that's a hot story. They want him to take down an ad. 00:06:23 Speaker 5: I only wish I could have had an ad like that against somebody. 00:06:26 Speaker 1: There's Epstein's best friend, right? 00:06:29 Speaker 2: Yeah, he always sides with the assaulters. 00:06:32 Speaker 1: He pulled out the Ukrainians. His son's wedding is paid for by a man implicated in the kidnapping of Ukrainians. their children. These are the worst Americans that have ever been across 250 years. And you know what? 11 days from now, and in fact today, we get a vote. Yeah. We get a vote. 00:07:01 Speaker 2: I mean, is there a rapist that Trump never liked? I mean, that's... Loves them all. Yeah. 00:07:07 Speaker 1: Well, as a federal judge pointed out, of course... in plain terms, he's a rapist. 00:07:15 Speaker 2: Yeah. You know, found liable for sexual abuse. That is what came out in the E. Jean Carroll case and credibly accused in lots of other cases, shows up in the Epstein files tens of thousands of times. It's unbelievable. But the other thing, Steve, that I think has been a hallmark of these Trump rallies in this really gutter stretch of him trying to cling to power is the way his health it just looks like he's coming unglued. He keeps making these weird noises on stage. And I know, I doubt my friends in the corporate media are showing it that much, but I'm going to show it because we should know if the president of the United States is about to, you know, perhaps leave the scene and his health is declining so much that I, you know, it, it warrants attention. So, I mean, he keeps doing this. We should play whichever. We've got a couple of moments here where he's just. 00:08:04 Speaker 4: And I'd say 90% of the reason I took the governor. 00:08:08 Speaker 2: Yeah. I took the governor. 00:08:10 Speaker 6: I put her over. 00:08:11 Speaker 4: You don't want communists controlling the U.S. 00:08:15 Speaker 1: Senate, which is between J. How about the gentleman from. 00:08:20 Speaker 2: I don't know what that was. He says, gee, I don't know what that was. He's he's Steve. He can't control his body movements. It seems at this point what's coming out of his mouth. Strange. 00:08:31 Speaker 1: No, he's decrepit. He's sick. Yeah, he's rotten. And only a. truly sick and rotten country as a man like this as president. And so we have a decision to make collectively as a people diffused across 50 states, 435 congressional districts about our tolerance for this. But only the sickest of societies would tolerate this abuse. Of the Constitution, of the law, of right and wrong, the theft, the corruption, the stealing, the license. And breaking yesterday, a story that appeared in Vanity Fair. 00:09:30 Speaker 2: Yep. 00:09:31 Speaker 1: That I've read 10 times. 00:09:35 Speaker 2: We've got the headline. 00:09:37 Speaker 1: This morning. And, frankly, I had a hard time getting through this story each of the 10 times that I've read it. Not because it's not an incredible excerpt, but because I'm reading it almost like a technical manual. I'm getting lost in it I don't have a brain for that stuff and so it's unfathomable what the accusation is but not only would it be an act of corruption it's an act of treason Unequaled since Benedict Arnold. And so the allegations against Kushner on the edge of a Democratic Congress contained in that story? 00:10:33 Speaker 2: It's unreal. 00:10:34 Speaker 1: Break my brain. 00:10:35 Speaker 2: And just to back up a little bit, just in case there are folks who haven't seen it, Vanity Fair reporting, and there's a book coming out about this, Forbes broke it down this morning because I guess Jared Kushner is coming out and saying, no, no, no, these are insane allegations. But the allegations include secret bank accounts he was a signatory on, hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign transfers, political arrangements with Middle Eastern leaders. The findings were sparked by Dutch investigators who gained access to Kushner's phone through an apprehended and

flipped Russian hacker who gave them access to a Russian remote server, including screenshots of his phone and data. This is according to a Vanity Fair report. And Kushner's phone was monitored by Dutch investigators as he used in 2018 with investigators finding Kushner accessed a UAE-linked bank account that had $ 750 million transferred into it by a UAE government-funded charity. And, Steve, this is part of a long line of stories of government corruption that have been coming out in just the last several days. Corey Lewandowski, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Alina Haba. I mean, Rick Grinnell. It's unreal. It's an avalanche of stories of alleged corruption. 00:11:45 Speaker 1: Sure is. 00:11:46 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:11:47 Speaker 1: Sure is. 00:11:48 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:11:49 Speaker 1: Hundreds of millions of dollars of airplane purchases, the contracts, the advertising contracts. Again, I am very, very serious when I say this and the expectation as somebody who is one of the leaders of the Save America movement, I was talking to Miles Taylor yesterday to some of our partner groups. I think the opening bid is 500 investigators. 00:12:23 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:12:24 Speaker 1: This isn't the first time I said this. I said this a couple weeks ago, but just in the last couple of weeks of what we've known, Alina Haba, Kimberly Guilfoyle, the... revelation on Midas Touch and through the Valor Media Network, Ken Harbaugh, of the extent of the damage shown to the American people for the first time, not on corporate media, on independent media, about the obliteration of our bases. All of this requires investigation. Jared Kushner is accused in this article of accepting an account of a billion dollars for his use while using an account as a White House official at the direction of and on behalf of the Israeli Prime Minister, the Saudi Crown Prince, and the Sheikh of the Emirates. 00:13:33 Speaker 2: Unreal. Unreal. 00:13:36 Speaker 1: It's not just illegal. It's not just corrupt. It's treasonous. 00:13:44 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:13:45 Speaker 1: Immolation of his constitutional oath. Making a mockery of it. So you have to. 00:13:50 Speaker 2: And the allegations go back to the first term. I mean, that's the other thing, Steve. So this has been going on for... Allegedly been going on for years. 00:13:58 Speaker 1: To every component manufacturer in a contracting chain. 00:14:05 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:14:06 Speaker 1: In the defense industrial complex. Up and down. Across the board, Interior is corrupt. The DOJ is corrupt. 00:14:18 Speaker 2: Correct. 00:14:18 Speaker 1: The entire government is rotten and corrupt. 500 investigators is the opening bid. 00:14:26 Speaker 2: That's right. 00:14:27 Speaker 1: And again, Hakeem Jeffrey's meeting is secret with Jared Kushner. It even stinks more. 00:14:32 Speaker 2: It's got to stop. That cannot continue. That cannot continue. And then the other thing we should mention, Steve, is, you know, what's happening at these rallies where, I

mean, the support in the cult following of Donald Trump, the Kool-Aid drinkers, you know, it seems to know no bounds. There was an event in Iowa last night. They're trying to hang on to Iowa. Rob Sand is going to win the governor's race there, and he may pull Josh Turek across the finish line in the Senate. Yeah. And there's this guy running for Congress out in Iowa who gave Trump a Man of the Century award. This is this is when Trump whines that he doesn't. I guess he was whining this week. He didn't win the Pulitzer when he meant to say he didn't win the Nobel Peace Prize. I mean, anyway, we should play this video of the man of the century. 00:15:22 Speaker 7: And they've never given you the Nobel Peace Prize, by the way, which is a disgrace. So what I came up with, Mr. President, is a new award. It's called the Man of the Century Award. OK, it's the Man of the Century Award. 00:15:37 Speaker 2: Look at this. 00:15:38 Speaker 7: And I'm going to hold this up for the artificial media to see. CNN, zoom in right here, CNN. 00:15:44 Speaker 1: Okay? 00:15:45 Speaker 7: Because this man has done more for humanity and for America than any other president ever. 00:15:52 Speaker 6: The guy made it at Kinko's. 00:15:53 Speaker 2: I assume they have a Kinko's in Sioux City, whatever the UPS store or whatever. Do they still have Kinko's? Am I dating myself? 00:16:03 Speaker 1: Go ahead. 00:16:03 Speaker 2: What's that? 00:16:04 Speaker 1: Life is an Ali G episode. It's unbelievable. It is. 00:16:10 Speaker 6: It is. 00:16:11 Speaker 2: It really is. But I mean, it's disturbing the enabling of Trump's insanity that still exists. And I guess it'll happen until the bitter end. Even though it looks, I mean, the Drudge Report has a headline up today. Are these the final days of MAGA? And they just might be, Steve. We might be watching them in real time. 00:16:34 Speaker 1: I think one of the things that I've said over and over and over again, right. Is that when you look at a movement, when you look at an organization, when you look at a cult, when you look at anything, how's it organized? 00:16:48 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:16:49 Speaker 1: And I've never been interested in this at a medical level, right? How is the cell structured? How does the mitochondria function? But, How is the political system organized? It's always been fascinating to me. And you look out for anyone who's ever observed a kid's soccer game with all the little kids running around. That's not MAGA. MAGA is a line. And every person in that line has a knife in their left hand for the back in front of them. And they all have two eyes in the back of their head, in addition to the ones in the front of their head, looking for that knife. 00:17:43 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:17:44 Speaker 1: And when you get knifed, creates an opening for there to be movement towards the front of the line at that old Mar-a-Lago predator patio table arrangement set up. Yeah. And so that's what this is. And the psychology of it

is wonderful. Any rational system would yield a result where people went in there and said, Mr. President, we got to hold the House and Senate. Everyone understands we're fucked because most of us are criminals if these people take over, right? And every time You go out and speak, sir, the chances of us losing and thus being fucked go up. 00:18:42 Speaker 2: It's true. 00:18:42 Speaker 6: Right? 00:18:44 Speaker 2: Even if he doesn't speak, he just burps and speaks incoherently. 00:18:47 Speaker 1: That cannot be said. And by the way, because of the structure of the line, there's no incentive for anybody to say it. There is no promotion. There is no meritocracy. There is nobody who's in the middle of that line who says, by the way, Mr. President, I don't think you should go anywhere and say anything. They get kicked out. What they say is the answer to this problem is more Trump, more speeches, more rallies, more lemming people behind you. Clap it. We got a guy. who's going to give you a man of the century award. You're the man of the century. It's going to be a big surprise. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. What a gift, right? So you're watching this man's narcissism, the fantasy, the weakness of all these people, the sycophancy, the need to be around power at the expense of every stated principle, the sheer idiocy of it all. And it's all, boom, collapsing in on itself now. And so we'll see the stories over 11 days, tightening race. mag is doing okay the trump effect it's all bullshit yeah right yeah it's not going to be an asteroid strike in the age of the dinosaurs. 00:20:21 Speaker 2: I i think you're absolutely right steve and um you know sometimes the death star you know it has to be blown up twice as we saw go back to a star wars reference i had to blow it up two times but uh Steve, my man, really great to have you on. Really appreciate it. And we'll talk again soon. I think we're going to do this again next week and hope we can rope you in on election night too. Thanks, my friend. 00:20:43 Speaker 1: Good to see you, Jim. 00:20:44 Speaker 2: Good to see you. Thanks so much. And, you know, as Steve and I were talking about near the beginning of all of this, the corruption stories that are coming out of Washington these days, there's one blockbuster corruption story after another coming out every day. Every day. Vanity Fair with its Jared Kushner story, which apparently is going to be a part of this book that is just going to knock everybody's socks off. Kimberly Guilfoyle, Rick Grinnell, Alina Haba, Corey Lewandowski, a Star Wars bar of highly corrupt people. They all say they're innocent. They haven't done anything wrong, as I do the Trump accordion thing. But somebody who's been digging into the corruption, the swamp that Donald Trump has created, reconstituted in the nation's capitals, our friend Miles Taylor. Let's bring Miles in now, the founder of Defiance.org. And Miles, it looks like you've got a fantastic documentary coming out and

we can play a clip of it as well. But just your reaction to these corruption headlines that we've been seeing lately. I don't know if it's because they all sense that they're near the end and they're all turning on each other at the last minute here. Or is it just coincidence that all these stories are coming out at the same time? I don't know what it is. I was at an event a week ago, and there was a Trump advisor who came up to me and said, Kimberly Guilfoyle has been calling around. She needs our help. She's trying to get out of all this hot water that she's gotten herself in. The stories are coming. 00:22:18 Speaker 6: Out, man. They are coming out. And I just got word this morning that that a White House aide says they're in a full panic about this documentary that we're releasing next week. 00:22:30 Speaker 2: Amazing. 00:22:31 Speaker 6: And they should be panicked about the corruption catching up to them. And, you know, there's a reason we're making this free for people to watch. We want folks to be reminded of everything that they've forgotten about this corruption because it's coming so fast. People can you know, pre-register for the thing at corruptionland.org. So the trailer's up there and they can get a sense of this. It'll drop on Tuesday. But to your point, Jim, it's like a Watergate a day. 00:23:05 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:23:05 Speaker 6: You just listed off a whole bunch of the names who just in the past seven days have been alleged victims to be engaged in corruption scandals. Jared Kushner was last night, and the day before that, it was Alina Haba, and the day before that, it was Rick Grinnell. Corey Lewandowski. Corey Lewandowski. I was just on CNN this morning talking about Corey's situation. I used to sit in the same desk as Corey. I was in that job. He was cosplaying as chief of staff of the Department of Homeland Security, and what he's alleged to have done is you know, used some of these DHS contracts to advance his own interests and potentially dangling these contracts. And I'll tell you how those arrived, Jim. They arrive in little green folders on the chief of staff's desk. I remember because I've got PTSD. If I walked into the office and that stack was this high, it was already going to be a day where there wasn't enough time to do the things we had to do. And then there would be a crisis. We had to put out a firefight. at the White House and the Oval Office. So the whole day would get canceled of things we needed to do. But then waiting for me on that desk was 50, 100 different decisions. Corey Lewandowski apparently changed the rules in the Department of Homeland Security so that any contract over $ 100, 000 had to receive his approval. Jim, I don't know if you understand. I know you do, but most people don't understand. The Department of Homeland Security has got a $ 60 billion budget with a B. You set a rule like that, that stack I was scared of. becomes a room of folders, I don't know, evidently, with Corey Lewandowski deciding whether there might be something to trade in those folders. Now, he's denying the allegations, but it's just an example. It is the tippy top of the iceberg of the corruption we are seeing in Donald Trump's Washington, from the Kennedy Center to the Arch and so on. We want to make sure that those three Watergates a day don't just get lost in the noise, that people have a way to think about it, before the midterms. And so that's what this documentary will end up doing, hopefully, in a quick and propulsive 35 minutes, is say, remember, this is what's happening, here are the implications, and here's how we reverse it. 00:25:23 Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it hasn't been a drip, drip, drip. It's been a gusher. It's been a fire hose in our faces of corruption. And Miles, we have a clip, a trailer for your documentary, which looks fantastic. Let's play it. 00:25:36 Speaker 3: We're all stripped away. Jaw-dropping charges. 00:25:39 Speaker 1: No anonymous. Headlined, I am a part. An anonymous editorial. 00:25:43 Speaker 6: That was me. 00:25:44 Speaker 3: My name is Miles Taylor. You were told to go update our last will and testament. 00:25:47 Speaker 1: If we weren't effective, we wouldn't be being threatened. 00:25:50 Speaker 3: We came to Washington, D.C. to ask a question. 00:25:53 Speaker 1: Drain the swamp. 00:25:54 Speaker 6: Did Donald Trump drain the swamp? People in Trump's inner circle are making millions of dollars. 00:25:59 Speaker 1: This is widespread rank corruption. Another teardown is under way. 00:26:03 Speaker 6: The entirety of Trump's argument is that he is above the law. 00:26:06 Speaker 3: National landmarks torn up to build monuments. 00:26:09 Speaker 6: The president saying, I am the code. 00:26:11 Speaker 3: Public institutions forced to pledge allegiance to the leader. Agents are at my door right now. And a hell of a lot of money changing hands. 00:26:19 Speaker 1: That's music to my ears. 00:26:20 Speaker 6: One of the companies that he backs landing a Defense Department contract. I would never turn down that kind of an offer. 00:26:27 Speaker 3: And Americans are angry. Trump should be removed from power. 00:26:30 Speaker 7: The most corrupt administration in American history. 00:26:33 Speaker 1: He views the. 00:26:33 Speaker 6: Presidency as a side hustle. 00:26:34 Speaker 3: The real question is not whether Trump refilled the swamp. It's whether there's anything left to stop him. 00:26:42 Speaker 2: Yeah, that is the question, Miles. Can it be stopped? Can he be stopped? 00:26:46 Speaker 6: Well, you know, and this is how we tried to attack the issue, Jim, is there are five layers of call it corruption filtration that have existed in Washington. Think about it as a super pool filter that catches all of the junk, whether it's a Democrat or Republican president. These five layers are basically supposed to stop a president from doing things with his power that you could characterize as wrongdoing or efforts to

enrich himself or for revenge. Those five filters, as we go through in the documentary, have been systematically and intentionally dismantled by the president. So it's not a question of whether Donald Trump, like we said in that trailer, refilled the swamp. 00:27:32 Speaker 2: He did. 00:27:33 Speaker 6: He absolutely refilled the swamp. It's why has he been allowed to engage in that gusher of corruption, as you call it. And it's because the filters that are supposed to stop it are gone. And that last filter in the system is really is the United States Congress. And that filter, of course, has been broken. We spoke to a number of members of Congress for this who said, even Republicans who said, have we held their feet to the fire on corruption? No, we've not really done that systematically. And we do have an opportunity here in two weeks to decide whether to change that or if we're going to leave the thing filters off until the next administration. And believe me, if we give him another two years without the filters, It will be vastly worse than what you have already seen. 00:28:20 Speaker 1: Right. 00:28:21 Speaker 2: And I like to make the comparison. I know others do as well to Vladimir Putin's Russia. He has turned that country into a kleptocracy. And that's what we're seeing Donald Trump do in real time right now. He is attempting to turn this country into a kleptocracy that works on behalf of the oligarchs. And, you know, I think that the Justice Department has become thoroughly corrupt under Todd Blanch. And speaking of Corey Lewandowski, there is a story that says that the Wall Street Journal is reporting the Justice Department is looking into these Corey Lewandowski allegations. But that makes me wonder, Miles, maybe there are the occasional sacrificial hands that Donald Trump will say, OK, yeah, we'll do that one. Because I've heard the expression this week, well, if Donald Trump's not cut in on the action, then that's what gets you in trouble. It's sort of like the Kimberly Guilfoyle thing with the American Express card, allegedly. Um, you know, if he's not a part of the grift that pisses him off, I think that's part of this too. 00:29:20 Speaker 6: We've all seen the Sopranos. 00:29:21 Speaker 2: Okay. 00:29:22 Speaker 6: The big boss is allowed to do these things, but the underlings can't do it without permission. Now he shouldn't be surprised that by setting the tone of corruption at the top, that his underlings would engage, but that's what this is with Donald Trump. You know, I want to give you an example, Jim, you mentioned Russia. It makes me think of the, the Russian doll, you know, these these little wooden dolls where one is nested inside the other, the other, the other. As an indication, this story around the Kennedy Center has like five converging Russian doll layers of corruption. And just bear with me for one second here, because when you lay it out, it's mind blowing. Donald Trump came in and he takes over the Kennedy Center for himself, hijacks it in a way no president has, wants to stick his name on there contrary to the consent of Congress, and wants to turn it into this little cultural corruption center in Washington, D.C., a MAGA entertainment center, a place for administration officials to hobnob. with rich people and influencers. Okay, he wants that. Very clearly, he wants that. That seemed corrupt. That was already a huge story and that a judge had to tell him no and take it down. You've covered it. You've been there at the protest. They won't take down the scaffolding. Massive corruption story. Well, it turns out it's just the beginning because then Rick Grinnell, as you note, his underling is alleged to have engaged in a pay-to-play scheme to take money in exchange for those people getting to rub shoulders with the president and other administration officials. Grinnell denies it. But then it doesn't stop there because then Alina Haba alleges that her husband gave millions to the Kennedy Center and then it was misappropriated by Rick Grinnell. So that is being looked into. But then it gets worse because then a day later, it's alleged that Alina Haba accepted a $ 50 million job with someone who two days later got their father a pardon from Donald Trump. So now there's allegations that Alina Haba is taking money into her household. that might be getting used to engage in other pay-to-play schemes. Again, she denies that as well. But it doesn't end there, Jim, because Donald Trump, when he got so upset about this, tasked the White House Counsel's Office with being the referee here and investigating this corruption. 00:31:33 Speaker 1: But guess what? 00:31:33 Speaker 6: The White House Counsel, Will Scharf, is a friend of Alina Haba, went to her wedding, and is the same guy who's rubber stamping Donald Trump's monuments and memorials and things like the Kennedy Center. This would be like if you're watching an NFL game and one team is alleged to have cheated and then another team is alleged to have cheated. And then the referee is alleged to be in on the grift and cheating. And then the NFL commissioner is cheating. I mean, that's that's the analogy here. If these allegations pan out and that's just one episode, that's just the tip tip of the iceberg of one episode. 00:32:05 Speaker 2: It's so true. It's a slime aroma. It's a slime a palooza. And it's all the reason why we cannot allow Donald Trump's name to be affixed to the Kennedy Center, because then that would be sort of like advertisement for the corruption. You know, bring your corruption here. This is the corruption headquarters. And we can't let a living memorial to a slain president be warped and prostituted in that fashion. I mean, that that to me is what is going on here with the Kennedy Center is that it has been it has been, you know, put out there. as a way to make money off of some slimy grift. I just think that it's astounding. 00:32:43 Speaker 6: Well, that and, you know, the other

monuments and memorials where the president is soliciting private money, I will. 00:32:50 Speaker 2: The ballroom, yeah. 00:32:51 Speaker 6: I'll take a phrase from our friend Liz Oyer, former Justice Department official. Liz, in the film, uses a term that I have been borrowing religiously since then. As she said, these different vanity projects have become... Deposit boxes for bribery. And it's very clear. It's like a flickering neon sign to corporations and individuals. If you want to curry favor with the United States government and the president of the United States, put your cash here. We haven't seen anything like that in our lifetimes. We just genuinely have not. You pick one of these. One of these would have led to a Barack Obama impeachment. Trust me, I was working in the House Republican majority at the time. We would have impeached Barack Obama over the arch. We would have impeached him over the ballroom. We would have impeached him over the Kennedy Center. We would have impeached him over the thing Donald Trump said two days ago at Camp Lejeune that if they don't vote for his candidates, soldiers won't get the money for being poisoned by toxins at that base. If they do vote for his candidates, they'll get the money. That would have been considered a high crime and misdemeanor 10 years ago, Jim. There would have been impeachment proceedings over those two sentences. Now Donald Trump gets away with it. It's not in any of the headlines today. 00:34:13 Speaker 2: It's so true. And, you know, to me, I mean, this is where the rubber is going to meet the road for the Democrats if and when they take power in the Congress in January. These investigations have to begin. And, you know, when there's a Fox News poll that comes out a week ago that says 88 percent of Americans say it's the number one issue, corruption in government. You know, Miles, I mean, you hit the jackpot here with this documentary because it's exactly where I think people are right now. This is what they want to get to the bottom of. And I don't think they want their government to stink to high heaven. They just don't want it that way. And they're gagging on Donald Trump. They're gagging on this ridiculous ocean of corruption issue. that he has unleashed in Washington, D.C. So check this out. It's Miles's documentary. Defiance.org presents Corruption Land, streaming one week before the midterms, October 27th, 2026. It looks great, Miles. I'm going to check it out. Everybody needs to check it out. Thanks for sharing it with us. And thanks for the work that you're doing, man. We couldn't do it without you. Honestly, when I saw that you and I had this conversation, I can't remember what it was, like a year and a half ago or something. And you were weighing whether you should just lay low and stay quiet and not get involved. And man, you hit the ground running and you have been in their face. And thank God, I'm so glad you're doing this. And Schmidt, all of our friends on the pro-democracy side of things, it's making a huge difference, man. I hope you feel good about it because the work's been great. 00:35:43 Speaker 6: Well, Much credit to you, my friend. You very much encouraged me to do it. I remember that phone conversation. I was over there in my kitchen making a peanut butter sandwich and saying, we're trying to figure out what comes next. And you said, go get them, man. Let's do this. I'll leave you with a note of optimism, Jim, though. This is not just about accountability. Accountability is really, really important here. But this is the first election, as you and I have talked about, It's the first election in American history, at least since polling began in the 1930s, that corruption is the number one voting issue for Americans. That's never happened before. And that doesn't just mean we're going to have a historic midterms like Steve Schmidt was saying. It also means we are very likely to see the conditions for reforms to our government and to our constitutional order. that are bigger than the reforms we saw after the Watergate era. With a population that pissed off, it doesn't go away after one election. We know, statistically, it lasts a generation. There's going to be very, very big reforms undertaken on the back end of this, and I think that's the light at the end of the tunnel. So thanks for everything that you're doing on this front, Jim, and I appreciate you featuring the doc. 00:36:55 Speaker 2: Anytime, man. You let me know what we can do, and I'm happy to amplify it and shout it from the rooftop, man. Really appreciate it. Good to see you, my man. 00:37:03 Speaker 3: Thanks, friend. 00:37:04 Speaker 2: Bye. Thank you, Miles. And, you know, just before we go, a couple of things. I'm in Boston, was up at UMass Boston talking to some journalism students and talking about what I'm doing. And there, you know, some of the questions are, gee, Jim, you're awfully opinionated these days. I am opinionated. It's very true. And I have a right to be. And I and I Um, I don't think I could do it any other way. I think I was, I was telling these kids last night, I don't think I would be, I couldn't live with myself. I couldn't look in the mirror unless, you know, I was out here saying what I've been saying each and every day, which is that this country is, it's on the precipice of, of, of disaster. If we don't reclaim this democracy. And there was a, there was a man there last night, the event was open to the public. There was a man there last night. Um, Somali immigrant lives in Boston now. And, uh, got very emotional talking about how upset he is and disturbed he is and sickened he is by Donald Trump's attacks on his community. And, you know, I told him, I said, you know, this is not the immigrant experience that my family had coming to this country. My dad came to this country 60 years ago as a Cuban immigrant, was not treated in the way that Somali immigrants are treated now. And so I just want to thank the

people at UMass Boston for having me out. It was a great conversation with all those folks. And, you know, I do it. I say yes to these things because I want to speak person to person and hear from people to see what they're up against. And doggone it, there wasn't a Somali immigrant there who's telling me how upset he was and how outraged he was over the way his community has been treated by the president of the United States. And, you know, getting back to what we were talking about with with Miles and Steve on this show, this is very much the hallmark of the Trump second term, corruption without competence. We talked about the corruption today. There's a lot of incompetence to talk about too. The story in the Washington Post, over at the Pentagon, the Pete Hegseth people, they wanted General Dwight Eisenhower's globe so badly for his office that they screwed up the relocation attempt. They broke the globe. There are pictures of the globe that used to belong to General Eisenhower. And there it is right there. They broke the darn thing. There's General Eisenhower with The Globe intact. And then the Pete Hegseth people broke the darn thing. And it's just an absolute disaster. It's a metaphor for where we are as a country right now. There's Pete Hegseth in better days when all he had to worry about was, is it one bottle or two that he should be chugging from a dunk tank. But, you know, this is a metaphor for where we are as a country right now. And this is what is at risk heading into these midterms. Donald Trump is breaking the damn world right now. He's breaking the damn world. And, you know, all you have to do is look at, and I know I've been talking about this all week long. I'm going to talk about it again. Look at what Donald Trump and Elon Musk did with the Ukrainians and Starlink. they're pointing fingers at each other over who turned off the Starshield, the militarized version of Starlink, and impacted the Ukrainian defenses in their war against Russian aggression. And I guess Trump was asked about this, you know, was it you? Was it Elon Musk? We should play this. Donald Trump doesn't want to answer the question. He does not want to answer the question as to who turned off the Starlink. All he does say is. 00:40:42 Speaker 6: Well, I don't want to say, but.... 00:40:48 Speaker 4: I know it was a very interesting situation, so I don't want to comment one way or the other, but my relationship with Elon is a very good one. 00:40:59 Speaker 2: Go ahead. 00:41:02 Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't want to comment on it. 00:41:04 Speaker 4: You know, whether I called or whether somebody else called doesn't make any difference. 00:41:08 Speaker 1: I guess the bottom line, he put it back. 00:41:11 Speaker 2: Yeah, he put it back. Donald Trump. What a slimy, slimy response to that question. I don't want to say. It sounds like you got caught red-handed, Donald Trump. Calling Elon Musk, that's what's been reported, and asking him to turn off the star shield to

screw over the Ukrainians while they're in the middle of a war against Russian aggression. How shameful is that? How shameful can that possibly be? How many Ukrainians are going to die because of Donald Trump's incompetence and allegiance to Vladimir Putin I think it's one of the big questions hanging over this election. I really do. I think it's one of the big, big questions hanging. I know that we're talking about corruption and the price of gas and, oh, by the way, oil prices are soaring again because of Donald Trump's stupid war in the Middle East. But the way he has acted in a thoroughly undemocratic, un-American way in helping and aiding and comforting the Russians in their war of aggression against the Ukrainians, absolutely unforgivable. absolutely unpardonable. And yes, we do think the Democrats should investigate corruption heading into 2027, but I think we should have hearings and find out exactly what happened. Did Donald Trump order star shield to be taken down? Did he, did he tell Elon Musk to take that down and to, to screw over the Ukrainians? I think we need to get to the bottom of it. I think that's a question that needs to be asked. I think that the intelligence committee and, the foreign affairs committees, all the armed services committees, all need to hold hearings to find and grill these Trump administration officials and bring in Pete Hexeth and find out what happened. Absolutely unconscionable, absolutely unpardonable, and totally un-American for Donald Trump to be the man of the century. They're calling him the man of the century. He's the man-child of the century. And every day he acts in service of Vladimir Putin and acts in service of his own self-interest. It's disgusting and it's deplorable. And that's why, you know, folks, these last 11 days are going to be critical. My conversation this week with Timothy Snyder, I'm going to be thinking about it all weekend. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, according to Timothy Snyder, the author of On Freedom and On Tyranny. Once in a lifetime opportunity for the American people to take back their country, to take back their democracy, to take back their constitution. to take back our liberties and our freedoms, and it's all on the line. And I cannot understand, and I was saying this to the kids at UMass Boston last, I cannot understand how anybody, anybody could sit on the sidelines heading into November 3rd. That's why it's critically important that everybody make a plan to vote, make it your job to vote. There are stories out there saying people don't trust the mail-in ballots, so they're going in and they're voting early. Kudos to you. Yes, keep on doing that. If you're going to go out on election day, You got to have a plan to vote. You got to make a plan to stay out there all day long. If you have to, stand in line. Do not get out of line. As the kids say, stay in line. And it's all on the line coming up on November 3rd. And if you tune in on November 3rd to our show, the Jim Acosta Show, we're going to provide live midterms election coverage from the University of Virginia Center for Politics. We're going to be on YouTube, Substack. If Elon Musk allows us, we'll be on X as well. Make it so pissed and he'll pull the plug on us on X between now and November 3rd. But we're going to be doing it with a great cast of terrific people. The great Larry Sabato from the Center for Politics will be there. He and his team have been doing amazing work on the maps. And we'll have our interactive battleground map there as well. Katie Couric is scheduled to be there. Tara Setmeyer, Olivia Troy, Miles Taylor, Steve Schmidt. We're going to have a lot of people there. It's going to be a terrific night. So join us on November 3rd for that live election coverage from the University of Virginia. I want to thank Steve Schmidt for coming on the show today for another edition of Oh Schmidt. It's Friday. I am not going to be able to get that image out of my head as Trump as Jabba the Hutt that Steve Schmidt conjured up at the beginning of the show. If you missed that, go back and watch that. And of course, Miles Taylor as well, his documentary coming out on corruption, in Washington, D.C. next week. Make sure you go to defiance.org to check that out as well. If you become a paid subscriber to The Jim Acosta Show, you get access to our daily newsletter, our daily jam updates. You are lifting up independent media when you become a paid subscriber each and every day to this program. And don't forget, if you have not hit the subscribe button yet, what are you waiting for? Hit the subscribe button. It makes a huge difference. Hit that like button. Why have you not hit the like button yet? Apparently it does something to the algorithm. I don't know how the algorithm works. I played with Atari as a kid. The algorithm is a strange and unusual thing to me, mysterious thing to me. But apparently if you hit the like button, it does help. You share this program, it does help. Make sure you share it with your friends, neighbors, family, and so on. It makes a difference each and every day. But in the meantime, I got to race to the airport. Thanks for tuning in. Still reporting this time from Boston. I'm Jim Acosta. I'll see you next time.