Transcript: Trump’s Fury at Bruce Springsteen Takes a “Chilling” Turn
Now, that theory, if you can even call it that, is stupid. We don’t have time on this episode to describe exactly how stupid it is, but I think your listeners can figure it out—given that just saying it, I think we all got a little bit dumber on this podcast. But this is something that he “believes” or at least wants to pretend to believe so he can harness the weight of the federal government against certain high-profile enemies. And this is something that he has spoken about during the 2024 campaign and during his current administration with lawyers and political advisers who he’s very close to. According to our sources who are talking to us for this story at Rolling Stone, some of those people—those lawyers and those political lieutenants—are now working at very high levels in the second Trump administration. So this is not something where Donald Trump is just ranting and raving about it all alone out there on an island. This is something where heavy hitters in the MAGA elite and in the Republican elite, even if they don’t really believe it on an intellectual level, are willing to give Trump space to cook and to be like, Let’s see how far we can take this. Let’s threaten an investigations. Let’s maybe lay the groundwork for launching an actual formal investigation. And it’s not a good place we’re at right now.
Sargent: I’ll say. Let’s talk about Representative LaMonica McIver, who was just conducting oversight in an ICE detention facility in Jersey. DOJ is saying she assaulted federal agents in the course of trying to protect Newark’s mayor from getting arrested. She flatly denies any such assault. What’s your take on what happened there, Swin?
Suebsaeng: You have seen the video that they’re talking about, right? That DHS itself days ago put out publicly saying, This is our evidence for this so-called assault? I’m always leaving the door ajar to there being something I don’t know or a piece of footage or evidence that I’m not seeing, but based on the evidence—or so-called evidence—that the Trump administration has put out there saying, Here’s the video, here are the photos … You can watch it for yourself and judge it for yourself, but all I’m seeing is that it says almost the polar opposite of what they’re claiming. And yet, even with that, Trump’s Justice Department—his Department of Justice—and the Trump White House, which is controlling both of those supposedly independent entities, feel more than comfortable—more than comfortable—using our taxpayer dollars to launch what I am sure is a series of expensive investigations and criminal charges against this Democratic elected official. Even though the evidence they’re putting out there seems to cut against everything they’re saying, they feel emboldened enough to mount this crusade against this woman. And that is the thing that is, I think, objectively rather chilling.
