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good evening. tonight on crossing the line, victims of the baltimore bridge collapse are being used as political pawns by the right. we should be focusing on a fix. plus, the white house has responded to a joke with another joke. did james comer really think he'd get the president to testify? and we will talk to the president of julian assange as he appears closer than ever to being extradited to the u.s. let's do it. the u.s. let's do it. while republican are busy spreading conspiracy theories about the baltimore bridge collapse, the biden administration has taken action approving $60 million in emergency federal aid. next,it is expected to turn to congress to pass bipartisan

legislation to approve additional funds for that bridge. transportation secretary pete buttigieg made the rounds this morning on the sunday shows to make his pitch to the lawmakers about why we need that money, and here he is speaking to my colleague. >> there are many times over the years when there has been a dramatic event like this and federal assistance has been key to getting things back to normal. think about the minnesota bridge collapse in 2007. different in the sense that it wasn't caused by a collision, it was caused by a design flaw in the bridge, but the point is getting that bridge back up and running took about $260 million of federal funding. and there was strong, swift, bipartisan support to get that done. our hope is that will be the case this time too. >> mr. secretary, you make a good point, but it's not 2007 anymore, quite frankly. back then, we had a democratic majority in the house, in the senate, and it was nearly a decade before the maga movement would infuse the gop. it was a quaint time when

republicans weren't spouting conspiracy theories about a bridge collapse, somehow connecting it to a cyber attack, pope borders, and yes dei initiatives. congressman dan mouser of pennsylvania called the biden administration's plan to approve funds this week outrageous. here's what republican congressman buddy carter of georgia told fox news just this morning. >> what about funds that are already out there, particularly in the infrastructure bill? can they be diverted and used for this instead of using new money? i'm on the budget committee, and i'll tell you it's situations like this why we should be fiscally responsible. >> it is ironic to say the least that he is bringing up president biden's infrastructure bill when he voted against it back in 2021. in fact, only 13 house republicans voted in favor of it. while republicans are hyper focusing on baltimore, democratic maryland governor west moore is pointing out this

is an issue that will actually impact all of us. >> i want people to understand who this is impacting. we don't need favors. understand what this means to all the other workers and all the other small businesses all around the country. this is not just impacting maryland. >> the governor is right. this is not just about maryland. it is about us as an entire country. according to moore's office, the port of baltimore is the top handler in the u.s. of imports and exports of cars and light trucks. in 2023, the port handled 52.3 million-tons of international cargo. if we don't act quickly, this will put a crunch in our supply chain coast to coast. there's no doubt about it. we must act fast. but we may never get there if the republican party continues to focus less on solutions and more on scapegetting. the six workers who died were

from honduras, guatemala, mexico, and el salvador. they are, in fact, the ones keeping america going. as my colleague points out, the baltimore bridge, the one that will be rebuilt, is going to be rebuilt by immigrants when construction starts on it. starting us off tonight, jennifer ruben and maria, it's great to have both of you with us. jennifer, i'll start with you. the republican response to all of this, conspiracy theories, chaos is normal. rather than rally behind clean up efforts, they are blaming everything and everyone under the sun for this collapse. what do you make of their reaction here? >> why should this be different than anything else? this is what they do. they are not in the business of governing. they're not in the business of solving problems. they're in the business of performing, of dividing, of

being divisive, of creating racial tension. that is what they do. these are not serious people. the problem is, it's a serious threat to good governance, and this is what they do. when any totalitarian movement comes to power, they do so in many cases by creating havoc and bringing down functional democracy. this is what they do in order to justify bringing in a strong man like donald trump. >> maria, your thoughts of the gop's response here? some are blaming dei initiatives. you had phil lyman who's running for governor say this is what happens when you prioritize diversity over the well being of citizens. i have no idea what he's talking about or how he's connecting those dots. i wanted to give you a chance to respond to it. >> so what's happened in front of our entire country is what we've been saying for the longest time, immigrant workers, immigrants are no

threat to you. so now literally everybody is seeing this. i'm sure there are republicans who have a heart, who are just like wow, this is pretty terrible. these six men died doing this thankless work in the middle of the night fixing potholes on a bridge when it's freezing cold. my god, i kind of have a little bit of feeling for them. it has pulled the rug out from underneath the republican argument, the maga argument that immigrants are a threat. which one is it, right? so are we lazy, or are we doing the jobs that nobody else wants to do? are we criminals, or are we in fact invigorating communities in baltimore? it's a total contradiction, and i think the fact that this story has just literally pulled the rug out from underneath them means that they're scrambling, and they look ridiculous. and except for those diehards, i think there will be people who are just going to be like no, i'm not buying this.

this sounds ridiculous because it is. >> jennifer, if congress isn't able to come together and i suspect they will not be able to come together to approve additional funding to rebuild the baltimore bridge, are there any steps that the biden administration can do? they've already released $60 million in funding baked in year to year in the transportation budget. what could he, the president and the administration, do? >> there's not some magic pool of money that republicans seem to think the president can tap into it. whether it's this or ukraine because this is congress' job. they are supposed to be appropriating money. this is what congress does. the president can only do so much. so perhaps he can shake the seat cushions a little bit and come up with a few more bucks, but that is not going to do this. you heard this is going to cost well in excess of a couple hundred million dollars by most estimates. do we want to have a functional

government or not? and these people clearly don't. by the way, just to point out how ridiculous this is, this bridge was built a year before the current mayor of baltimore was born. >> yeah. certainly puts things in perspective about how old it is, and probably also the late time republicans and democrats agreed on anything. congress came together to approve $216 million in 2007. obviously, it's not a long time ago, but it is in political lives a long time ago, a very different climate in america back then. but based on what we have seen from republicans so far, do you see that as something feasible this time around, that they could actually come together, reach an agreement on how much they're going to spend on this bridge? >> i like that you're so hopeful all of a sudden. no, i don't. we're seeing it right in front of us. they're now talking about these

crazy conspiracy theories. you're not going to be surprised when i say my mantra for 2024, they are the second largest voting cohort in the united states. this is a perfect opportunity for the democratic campaign to make a connection to latino and latina voters outright, frontal, straightforward, the president communicating and making it clear that this entire narrative of, you know, immigrants and refugees storming the border is not true. that what is true is that these men gave their lives for this country, that these men gave their lives for that bridge, for the city of baltimore. that everybody single city and town in the united states should want these six men or men or women just like them to be employed in our cities. that should be the message. they are heroes, and this

narrative that we're a threat is not true. >> jennifer, i wanted to ask you the same question. what do you think of the secretary of transportation might be misunderstanding about the times we're in now? is he underestimating how fervently the gop are against approving more funds for the bridge repairs? what does he not see what the modern-day republican party has become operationally, even if it's not aspirationly? >> of course he does. he has to go out and at least ask. when they don't, he has to make clear that these people are ridiculous, dangerous, and the people who pose a threat are not the people who are fixing the bridge. it's the people who won't vote to repair the bridge. this is very simple. i think sometimes these people get away in the morass of language and the opaqueness of what we talk about. they will cost people's lives. they will cost people's jobs by

not funding a bridge, not giving aid to ukraine, not encouraging people to get inoculations. all of the things they do are dangerous. it's not merely that they're crazy and it's chaotic and it's a lie. it's that they are dangerous. so when we talk about danger to public safety, i think we should look to the congress, and i agree entirely. i think president biden should get out there and bang this trump as drum as loudly as he can. they do not deserve to hold any position of power from dogcatcher all the way up to president. >> not only are they dangerous and chaotic, they're also i would argue hypocritical. members voted against the infrastructure bill but have no problems showing up to the photo ops when checks are being cut for projects in their districts. it speaks volumes to what the

modern-day republican party has become. but i did want to, maria, turn the conversation to immigrants. they will likely be the ones who have to rebuild it as well. should there be more efforts to ensuring they also have safe working conditions in these types of projects? >> in fact, the investigative unit is about to drop our first investigation of 2024 that is looking into precisely the fact immigrants and latinos are the ones who are doing the repair work, whether it's environmental disasters, any kind of disasters, but that no one, not osha, not any federal institution or labor institution has actually tracked to see what the impact is in terms of their health. that's what futuro investigates along with cpi and columbia

university j school. because it's like our lives don't matter. our bodies are a threat, but we're so dehumanized that whether we're dying on the border or whether we're dying on a bridge, somehow we don't matter. we're simply perceived as a threat, and we need to get beyond that. that's why this is such a striking moment because it's in front of our very eyes what we're witnessing. as jennifer says, if you can't rebuild a bridge, even using immigrant workers, by the way many of them will be undocumented. we know this. but if you can't even rebuild the bridge, what are we talking about here in terms of functional government? >> seriously, what hope do we have if we can't agree on building a bridge in one of america's most important port cities? thank you for joining us. jennifer, stick around. we'll talk to you after the break. coming up next, congressman

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james comer is going for broke more than a year into his evidence-free impeachment probe into president biden. he has invited the president himself to come on down to the hill to testify before the committee on april 16th. because it is, one, the white house is treating this as a joke, responding with a meme from the movie love actually. and like always, chairman comer is always 10 steps away. >> garland is working with the deep state who's working with the liberal mainstream media to try to indoctrinate into people's minds that there's no evidence. >> yeah. >> yeah. um, joining us now is democratic congressman robert

garcia. what a bizarre, bizarre moment for james comer. he's pushing to get joe biden to come on down to testify. what does he think he's going to get from the president that he has not gotten from the witnesses who have testified before? >> i mean, look, the president is not going to come down and testify in front of jim comer and marjorie taylor green and lauren boebert. what a joke. this impeachment, we know there's no evidence linking the president to any business dealings of hunter biden. jim comer has invited, he had testimony from a prisoner in federal prisoner, he invited spies to testify, he's invited tinfoil hat conspiracy theorists, business people who have lost all credibility. the list goes on and on. and republicans themselves are now coming out strongly that there is no evidence, and so

james comer is basically now just focused on himself. he's hawking some book i guess out there, which obviously will be a fiction work, and he needs to just go away. at this point, it's shameful what he's doing. he's wasting our time, and the white house is treating this as it should be, a bad joke. >> we play that sound of blaming comer and the deep state for his failure of providing wrong doing. last i checked, the onus was on him to provide the evidence, not the other way around. is this comer just being desperate and a sore loser? >> i mean, i think james comer is just upset that he's about to lose all his fox news and news nation appearances. james comer, all he does is go on tv and pretend like he has evidence against president biden, and we know he's been able to produce absolutely nothing. at this point, he doesn't even have to listen to us democrats. he can listen to some of his

own republicans who have been very clear that there's nothing there. so the whole clown show of the house gop and the oversight committee is in full effect. james comer is driving the car. he needs to give it up. he is literally wasting our time week after week after week. we could be talking about real issues. we could be talking about real corruption like jarrod kushn.r and his $2 billion gift from the saudi government. he has no interest in following corruption or following any type of legislation or enacting legislation that could actually help people. let's remember, this is all about hurting president biden, and all about helping donald trump. >> let me play for you the sound of dan bacon telling my colleague kristen welker he thinks this impeachment case is nearing its conclusion. watch. >> when i talked to the lawyers on the committee staff, they say they're at this point there's not a specific crime that's been committed. i do think we're probably nearing the conclusion of this

investigation. >> so i do think we're probably nearing the conclusion of this investigation, as somebody who sits on the oversight committee, do you think we have gone well beyond the conclusion of this investigation, or will republicans continue to throw anything they can at the wall to see if anything sticks? like you said, they just need something politically to be able to campaign on until november. >> there's no legitimacy. there was never any evidence. this has all been about a way to try to damage the president, it's about donald trump, james comer trying to get on tv all the time. there is no investigation, that we're wasting everyone's time, so i think likely in the weeks ahead james comer will have to look in the mirror and realize he continues to lie to the public and finally put this thing to bed. now, we know what he's trying to do. he's trying to send some type of investigative report to the

doj in his hopes that a donald trump presidency in the future would revive some of these accusations, but it's time to move on. he needs to get the point that we have no interest in this wild goose chase anymore, and the american public are tired of it. the only person who thinks there's any sort of evidence at this point is james comer, so he needs to give it up. >> he's working on a book. i wanted to get your reaction to this. he's in discussions with at least one publicker on a book deal publisher entitled all the president's money. >> like i said earlier, this will be the best work of fiction ever seen. some political thriller that james comer is going to remake in his own image. he's going to be the star, and it's going to be a complete joke. i would be shocked if the he ends up with a book deal out of this because there is nothing there. i think james comer's time in the spotlight trying to drive

this kind of sham impeachment is about to end. i think he's grasping at straws at this point. his entire committee thinks he's a joke, so i think it's time to move on. >> thanks for coming back on the show, and we look forward to talking to you again in the near future. the new direct flight for anyone looking to influence donald j trump. we'll tell you how. trump. we'll tell you how. prescribed h-i-v treatment, biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in many people whether you're 18 or 80. with one small pill, biktarvy fights h-i-v to help you get to undetectable—and stay there whether you're just starting or replacing your current treatment. research shows that taking h-i-v treatment as prescribed and getting to and staying undetectable prevents transmitting h-i-v through sex. serious side effects can occur, including kidney problems and kidney failure. rare, life-threatening side effects include a buildup of lactic acid and liver problems. do not take biktarvy if you take

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we have talked a lot about how trump continues to expand his neverending grift from maga- style bibles to cologne and shoes and nfts. what about his knockoff twitter site where just today on easter he reposted an article claiming he is the chosen one sent by god? truth social went public last week, debuting at the stock market. in the first minutes of trading, shares of parent company trump media and technology groups shot up more than 50%. and now trades under the ticker

djt and is being closely watched in large part for its potential impact on trump's strained finances. also presents a new direct route for foreign leaders or special interests to actually influence him. former official jack goldsmith puts it, quote, this will be a very easy vehicle for foreign governments that want to curry favor with the president to throw money at him in a way that benefits his financial bottom line. jennifer ruben is back with us. also danny sovalis. jennifer, based on what we know about donald trump, how he's operated in the past, how wide open are the flood gates for foreign leaders to influence him after this company went public? >> well, the doors are wide open. and remember, this is a guy who doesn't reveal his taxes. he doesn't reveal who he does business with. we will not know if somebody, even a foreign government, gives him the money for the

reduced bond in new york in the civil case. there will be foreign investors who buy shares, pump up the value, making trump very happy, making him rich. these are all ways of foreigners and also domestic influencers, oil company executives, all sorts of people can curry influence. and this is why every president before him has put his holdings in a true blind trust, has not conducted business, has not made himself an open door for foreign and domestic corruption but donald trump doesn't play by those rules. i must say, when they had both houses of congress, democrats did not do anything to shore up the act, which is the part of the constitution that prevents you from taking foreign moneys, foreign tribute from another head of state. >> so to jennifer's point, danny, you have a number of presidents who have in the past

wanted to steer away from any appearance of profiteering from the job. they just kind of wanted to focus on the job by putting their businesses or whatever assets they had into some kind of blind trust. that is not the case with donald trump. he has not wanted to remove himself or create distance between him and his companies in a way that gives the american public the safety and the confidence he is not subject to influence by foreign governments. >> yes. but we may have never really had a president like donald trump. it's hard to compare jimmy carter's peanut empire with trump's business empire. donald trump isn't exactly the tycoon that he made himself out to be. a lot of that is puffery. you're right in that donald trump has opened himself up to foreign influence. i mean, as much with truth social as say the golden sneakers or anything else that both foreign and domestic companies, entities could buy

into and curry favor with donald trump. donald trump i don't think would be embarrassed they're quite differently worded. we don't really know what the contours are because the supreme court dismissed all those cases as moot after trump left off. >> jennifer, if i can get your thoughts on how trump responded when he was asked would he be able to manage his 60% stake if he were aelected. he did not offer any specifics. >> these are ethics guidelines like the supreme court has

ethics guidelines that allow clarence thomas to sit on a case involving his wife. this is a joke. let me also just bring it down to a very specific aspect of this. mr. yas, who is a major investor in truth social, also holds a 15% stake in tik tok. why do you think donald trump turned on a dime and had gone from wanting to ban tik tok to saying oh, no, tik tok is great, leave tik tok alone, we don't want to ban it. that's how corruption works. a people you are in business for, you change your positions, you sacrifice the public good in order to make them happy, which in turn makes you rich. >> so danny, how quickly do you think trump could get ahold of his money in this company, this truth social company that he's now gone public? i know he's under agreements to hold on to it for at least six months. are there ways around that? >> so the billions of dollars he's made so far are really

only on paper. there are rules six months until he can actually liquidate that. but any action that is taken with the board, if the board gives him permission, for example, to do it sooner, those board members would open themselves up to shareholder derivative suits by shareholders. it would expose them to legal liability. so board members at truth social would have an incentive to not necessarily give trump whatever he wants, unless he's incredibly influential and is able to convince them to let him liquidate this money. but i mean, it has to be cause for concern for that board that donald trump might do that. that's why you probably see that six-month requirement written in. so lots of opportunity for trump now after being hit with these massive judgments to now make some of that money back. after the election, whether he's a citizen or the president of the united states. >> if you were a lawyer for the scc and you were watching this kind of play out, would there

be something that would make you say hey, this looks, the timing of it, the structure of the deal, the way it's going down just makes me want to ask a few questions? >> are you asking me the scc now or a trump administration scc? because i think the answer would differ depending on. >> give us both. how would it be now in the climate of independence we like to think the scc operates in and one under the control of donald trump. >> i think the biggest problem for donald trump would come from somewhere like the scc. i don't know that the emollients clause, even though it is a constitutional bedrock set of clauses, two, i don't know there is a strong case to allege a clause violation on the domestic or the foreign emollients clause. it would come from places like the scc. if donald trump is elected, it would not come from places like

the scc. >> this was on trump's failed social media site, he reposted a youtube video involving e. jean carroll saying what kind of system is this? so unfair. couldn't present evidence. the judge was an out of control disaster, election interference, will win on appeal. why is he risking this? again, why is he talking about e. jean carroll after he had been found more or less liable for defaming her twice to the tune of, i think, combined tune of $85 million? >> when it comes to defamation, every word matters, and context matters. as i see them, you could argue that it really isn't a repeat of supposedly calling e. jean carroll a liar or a falsifier. that's something that would get him in immediate trouble because of what's called restitute account. calling e. jean carroll a liar gets you right back in court to

pay more damages. instead, if he's saying this was an unfair process, the judge had it out for me, that's probably not going to be defamation. when it comes to defamation, it's in the eye of the beholder. reasonable minds can differ on what is or what is not defamation because beyond the words, you have to look another the facts. so does trump get away with this statement? maybe. but he is playing with fire every time he talks about the e. jean carroll case. >> jen, your thoughts on this. we know he has no discipline, he has no message discipline, he has this vitriolic hate for people that go after him, especially women. there he is saying something again on truth social about e. jean carroll. >> one, he really does have no impulse control. he is a pathological narcissist among his other problems, and he cannot help but toot his own horn. that's why on easter he had something like 45 tweets or whatever truth social calls

them. the other is that donald trump is using his cases to get himself elected. he is making himself a martyr. the vast left wing conspiracy, the deep state is out to get me, see how i'm being persecuted, all these judges are out to get me, alvin bragg is out to get me. it's all a plot, and he uses the courtroom and the courtroom steps to chin up sympathy for him so he can get elected. he wants to get elected so he can get a get out of jail free card. this is a pollution of not only our political system but our legal system. >> all right, jennifer, danny, great to have both of you on this evening. thank you for your time and insights as always. julian assange's extradition is paused. his brother is our next guest. . jen x is planning a summer in portugal

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an unedited video taking in 2007 showing the u.s. targeting and killing two rueters journalists was posted on wiki- leaks. it was an unfiltered glimpse on what was happening in iraq but would become the focus of a debate as to whether it violated the espionage act here in the united states since 2010, since 2019, wikileaks founder julian assange has been fighting an extradition to the u.s. last week, a high court in the u.k. where assange is being held ruled that won't happen unless american officials provide more assurances to guarantee that he will not be denied his first amendment rights or even face the death penalty. humanitarian groups, activists, and journalists alike around the world have voiced concerns assange could face human rights violations if he were extradited and this would have

a chilling effect on press freedom. some argue assange is a publisher and it was well within his right to release those documents in the public interest. others say his actions were outside of journalistic bounds and that he coerced and aided people like the whistleblower in obtaining classified government material. gabriel shipton joining me now. we have spoken a few times over the past several years about this case. what do you make of these assurances that the u.k. high court is asking from the u.s.? and of course, you may recall when i spoke with assange's wife two years ago, here's what she had to say to me. >> they're not assurances at all. you have to read the letter from the u.s. government. basically, the u.s. government reserves the right to inflict the very torturous treatment that the u.k. courts say will kill julian. >> has anything changed from

the time she made that statement to where we are today? >> well, julian has done another year or so in prison on the 11th of april, it will be his fifth year in a maximum security prison. not serving a sentence, not charged with anything in the u.k. and really i think what the u.k. courts has done is batted this back to the united states and given the u.s. doj another opportunity to make these diplomatic assurances, assurances that amnesty has said are not worth the paper they're printed on. all bets are off if he's ever extradited. >> speaking of that, your brother's legal team tried to appeal his extradition, as i understand it, on nine separate grounds. ultimately, the u.k. high court granted him appeal rights on only three of those, meaning they largely dismissed his arguments that he had the

right to freedom of expression. am i getting that correct? what are the broader implications of that, especially when you think about the kind of material that he published via wikileaks? >> well, i was in the court when they were hearing this appeal, and the judge said to the prosecutor does this mean that any journalist who publishes this sort of information could potentially be extradited? and the prosecutors in the u.k. courts have to say yes, that this would establish a precedent that meant any journalist in the united kingdom could be extradited to the united states. and so i think what is really important in this case is it's establishing this global race to the bottom when it comes to press freedoms. we've seen similar activity just last week, evan

gurskovich, his year anniversary in russian jail, similar activities from the chinese government. so we're seeing really this kind of using espionage act and the secrecy laws to pursue journalists all over the world. and what's happening to julian is really the template for that. >> thoughts on how this might play out here in the american elections. we're in an election year. how does the possibility of, if you think it may have any impact, how do you think the likelihood of either a trump presidency or the continuation of a biden presidency have an impact on how america goes after julian assange? do you think there would be a difference between different administrations in their pursuit of trying to bring him here to the united states? >> well, this prosecution was from the trump administration back in 2017 in his first speech as cia director, mike

pompeo went off the deep end and made it his priority as cia director to go after wikileaks and to go after julian assange. we can watch the progression from that speech in 2017 to when julian was taken out of the embassy in 2019 and these unprecedented espionage act charges were brought from the attorney general at the time. we expected a little bit of change of policy when the biden administration came into power, you know, in 2021. but we didn't really see a change, and they've continued on with this unprecedented attack, something the new york times has even written to the biden administration calling on them to drop this because of the threat it poses to their publishing rights. so you know, we haven't really seen a change between either administration, and i don't really believe that we will into the future. but what is evident is this is becoming more and more of a

political hot potato for the biden administration. you've seen congressional support growing for the charges to be dropped. i think there's around now 20 congress people who have called on the biden administration to bring these charges to an end. there's a house resolution before the congress, so there is a growing constituency for these charges to be dropped in congress, and i don't think the biden administration really wants a journalist arriving in chains in the eastern district of virginia during an election season. >> yeah. for a whole host of reasons with all the other issues that they're dealing with right now. thank you for making time for us. i look forward to continuing this conversation with you in the weeks and months ahead. >> thanks, ayman. and coming up, if you need a class on ethics, should you

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form 1040 and limited credits only... see how at turbotax.com... that's me! texas attorney general ken paxton is being forced back to school to learn legal ethics. this is not a joke. we really can't say this enough, the state's chief legal officer, the top lawyer must also serve 100 hours of community service and pay nearly $300,000 in restitution to the people he's accused of defrauding. those are the conditions of a

pre-trial agreement reached by prosecutors last week in a securities fraud case that's been hanging over paxton for nearly a decade. indicted months into his first term as attorney general, accused of soliciting investors for a tax startup without disclosing he was being paid to promote it. if paxton completes the terms of his deal, prosecutors will dismiss the charges in 18 months. it does not require him to enter a plea deal. but this week, paxton said in a statement there will never be a conviction in this case, nor am i guilty. now, this decision cements another win for the embattled attorney general. last fall, he was acquitted of 16 impeachment charges relating to allegations he accepted bribes and abused the authority of his office to help a wealthy friend and campaign donor. he always seems to get away with it, his legal troubles are

not over thanks to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in four battleground states. he targeted georgia, pennsylvania, michigan, and wisconsin. he went as far as asking the supreme court to block those states from voting in the electoral college. the texas bar association is still investigating him for this. that case could actually result in his disbarment. paxton is facing a lawsuit brought by four of his deputies, it led to his impeachment trial last year, and caught the eye of the fbi, which is still investigating paxton. i know what you're thinking. how in the world is this person still texas' attorney general? isn't he wildly unpopular with the people in his state despite all these headlines and developments we read? the short answer is no. polling last month shows a 61%

approval rating among republican voters, up 15 points from august when he was in the throes of his impeachment fight. just like everything these days, paxton's power was made possible in part by donald trump who loves a loyal soldier. and he actually helped propel paxton through a crowded primary field for a third term in 2022 and vowed retribution for any republicans who turned against the attorney general during paxton's impeachment. that's how we got to where we are today. ken paxton has no fear of the law and is clearly feeling empowered, so much so that he is reportedly thinking about federal office, challenging senator john cornynen for his seat in 2026. much like the standard bear of the republican party, texas attorney general ken paxton doesn't believe the rules apply to him. so if the law fails to catch up to either trump or paxton, it is up to the voters to prove them wrong yet again.

a new hour of ayman after this.

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formic on this an hour of aymin, the rnc is in a cash crunch, can you guess why? plus, for democracy's sake we speak to one of the journalists whose exposing companies that have donated millions to election denying members of congress. and the white