going to sort of sit and spin over the area. and we will see debris flows in some spots and even some localized flooding because of those burn scars. this is what it looks like on radar right now. you can see the green. that's where the rain is falling. this is really going to fill in over the next several hours, especially into the evening hours and last all the way through monday. so as a result, we do have a flood watch for places like malibu, los angeles, santa clarita, pasadena, where you see the green. that's where we're concerned about some flooding. and this is why we're looking at a lot of rain in some spots, those darker colors, meaning the higher amounts of rain. so the reds, the oranges, the yellows looking where we're expecting the highest amounts of rain, places from santa barbara all the way to san diego. alex. >> okay, thank you for the heads up on all that. i will be heading out to my hometown to check things out this next week, so i'll let you know how it looks that's going to do it for me on this edition of alex witt reports. i'll see you again tomorrow at 1 p.m. eastern. up next, the beat weekend.

>> immigration has been. >> a challenge for. decades in this country. donald trump's first term faced high. >> migration. >> as did biden's recently completed term, which is why president. biden deported over 270,000. migrants in one year. that was one of the highest. >> which surpassed. >> recent records by not only trump but other presidents. so that's a lawful deportation power, which the most recent president. >> used, in which donald trump. >> used and is. >> using. >> deporting people even at pretty high numbers, is not to say the obvious, not specific to this week of this new administration and doing that alone, to be clear factually, is not a, quote, power grab. i'm saying that. >> as a fact. >> if people who agree with or like the new president. >> find that to be a positive. >> thing, that's fine. >> in politics, we're well aware.

>> of all the. >> different reactions people have, but that's. >> just a fact. >> and again. >> the recent. >> biden administration. >> did a lot of deportations. >> and we're now seeing promises to do that many or more. >> that's over here. >> over here, vowing. >> to potentially deploy the united states military. in this. >> country or. >> flatly breaking the. constitution or abusing federal powers. >> to investigate. >> prosecute, arrest. >> or even. >> jail local elected officials. well, that's something else. >> those are as. >> described and would be, if enacted, abuses of power. and those could also be. halted in court, just like what you see on your screen. if you remember the moments of the past. first term trump immigration plan, some which overreached not in a sense of an opinion or in a policy sense, but overreached past what was legally allowed. and so they were ultimately changed, narrowed, and sometimes halted on an emergency basis in the

courts. so right now, with that in mind, the distinction i'm reminding you of donald trump, the new president is pushing the line the most in two areas freeing those violent maga convicts, which is our top story last night. we have more on that tonight. it's an extraordinary. and many police veterans say dangerous action. and in immigration, which has more direct opposition now coming to the forefront tonight on the ground. connecticut has never quit on people. we're never going. >> to. >> surrender and i. >> am never going to. >> back down. >> we are here. >> to fight. >> fight, fight. >> you come. >> for my people. you come through me. >> our five member delegation. >> is. >> planning to. >> push back, fight. >> back. >> presidents in. >> this country have broad powers, but they are. >> not kings. >> we will now. >> do ice's. >> job for them on a. >> whole number of fronts. we're not going to do federal. >> immigration enforcement. >> if. >> there is any attack on the

garden. >> state or on. >> any of. >> its communities. >> from washington, i will fight back with every fiber of my being. >> i have one message for president trump. >> i'll see you in court. >> those are just some of the local officials who are speaking out, acting, and some of them democrats there as well, vowing to deploy their lawful powers and protect their jurisdictions. we're seeing local hearings on lawful ways to deal with this new administration, police chiefs reaffirming their roles and disclaiming any involvement with separate federal immigration plans coming out of the trump administration. and california officials are working on how to manage what is now a federal government headed by an individual who is publicly vowing to deny much needed emergency fire aid to victims in that state. if the local politicians in that state don't join all aspects of the president's immigration plans. >> are you saying. >> that you that california, if they continue to aid and abet lawbreaking and harbor illegal

immigrants, money. >> from dc. >> gets cut off? yeah, we're we're talking about conditions to this disaster aid. look. >> that's the speaker echoing what the president has demanded, conditions, which is very different from how this country has dealt with many other disasters, wherever they may be. but we can say since it's getting political, including in red states now, then there is the constitution. and i'm going to again be as clear as possible. presidents must follow the constitution. the oath president trump took on monday, as other past presidents have taken it. you see, there is, to quote, preserve, protect and defend the constitution that's required that is binding. yet on the same day that trump took this oath monday, he also issued an order flatly contradicting the constitution. so let me go old school and read to you from a very old document, because it's back in the news tonight. i'm reading to you from the

constitution, which says all persons born in the united states are citizens of the united states. the privileges or immunities of citizens shall not be abridged. pretty clear. it's the final word. persons born here are citizens. and the supreme court ruled those words mean what they say. if you're born here, you're a citizen. that case was settled law all the way back in 1898. no politician can just change that in our system. not congress, not the president. and so if a president sort of rights on paper themselves, or has their aides and lawyers write on paper if they disagree with the constitution or that they even want to cancel part of it? that has no legal meaning. and anyone around government and law knows that. it's not expected that all citizens have to remember all this stuff or keep track of it. but that's how it works. that's our system, and that's just standard. a president could

write down on paper or write an executive order which claims the first amendment speech protection will now only apply to your supporters, not their opponents. basically, trying to cancel or change the first amendment right. and legally, that means nothing. that legally is basically what trump did on monday in one of his immigration orders, because he wrote down on paper he doesn't like the constitution's citizenship definition, the one i just read you in the 14th amendment. but you can go check in the constitution. it's still there. you can go to the supreme court and check current law in the united states or any courtroom in america. citizenship law has not changed since monday. it's still what's in the constitution. what i read you, it is not what trump wrote down on monday. if you're really curious, the case upholding that citizenship definition, quoting

the 14th amendment that i just read to you is from 1898 us versus wong kim ark. it has not changed. not in law, not in a time machine. now trump is vowing to start breaking that supreme court precedent and the constitution next month. so this order is his way of laying down his plan, that he's then going to break it and make some sort of federal effort to violate citizenship, and that will be tested in court. the constitution says the privileges or immunities of those citizens shall not be abridged. so if the united states government, under this new administration abridges those privileges and immunities with some of what trump plans to do, denying people their paperwork or the citizenship benefits and treatment they would otherwise get. well, there we are. that's the conflict. trump's announced a plan to violate that. and then the courts will decide. and so i told you i'd keep this clear. this is all how it works. donald trump writing that down on paper

on monday does not change the constitution on tuesday. now, if you hear all that and you say, okay, i guess that's pretty straightforward. and you've heard about different administrations having policies go to court before, whether they're new, like an obamacare law or old, like a government taking a different position or disagreeing with the constitution. it gets worked out in court. but if you're saying, i hear all that news anchor, i hear that, ari. but things seem to be changing. and what about this current supreme court? well, fair. you'd be on to something when it comes to changes. the supreme court has seen changed some long standing precedents from presidential immunity relating to the coup, and that benefited trump to abortion rights, where they reversed 49 years of precedent so they could do that. again. i told you about in 1898 law, they could hear this case and change things. but again, this is still where we're at. and if they do that, that will be the supreme

court. and there are many issues with the current supreme court, many questions about its nonpartisanship, its grifting, its potential corruption. we can report on all that we have. but some people are describing all of this differently in these first few days for a range of reasons. law can be confusing. some forget the constitution limits politicians power. so a politician saying i disagree with that part of the constitution is meaningless. also, there are people rushing to give trump some sort of extra benefit of the doubt for almost anything he says or does right now that they don't give to other presidents. our job here in the facts and evidence community is not to go any harder at this president than any other, but it's also not to somehow pull back from facts or evidence because of other external reasons, a sense that he is popular, or that he has a lot of billionaire allies or any number of reasons. when a president drops an executive order that says the opposite of what the constitution holds, anyone who's not just a total

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is that love island? against police officers. and for violent convicts deploying his executive powers to undercut the police, law enforcement and law

and order policies which traditionally punish and deter what you see on your screen. these kind of attacks on police. the news is that president trump is freeing. all the convicts who stormed the capitol on january 6th. that was a crime spree decried by both parties at the time, then convicted by jury after jury after jury. and so what you see on your screen is quite deliberate. we're showing you what the new president is doing. those are the facts and we will cover them. that's what he's signing there. but we're showing it to you with the horrific images, many of which were seen in real time, some which only emerged later as more police body camera and surveillance video and other video evidence came out. he's freeing them all and embraced the violent convicts. and sedition is not seen since the post-civil war era. trump making it a priority. this is one of his first acts in office. in the second term, he's effectively dissolving what was the largest federal prosecution in history. so what you see here, we're leaving up quite deliberately,

because what he's doing in the seat of government there is for the people, you see from about four years ago now, donald trump has also set in place new policies on immigration, climate, federal staffing. many of those will be reversible because presidents from different parties often change policy. but the aid and comfort and legal immunity that he is conferring to these people, you see, clashing with police officers, these new pardons that you see him signing here. these are not reversible. they end these roughly 1500 cases, which is about 95% of all january 6th cases, including many of the most violent. president trump's unusual but lawful use of power here has judges now dismissing active cases. the new york times covering that reality and freeing convicted seditionists that includes militia leaders who were slated to serve up to 22 years, law enforcement experts, prosecutors, legal experts say all of this quite clearly endangers law

enforcement going forward. it suggests that under this administration, for these next four years, there will be a type of future immunity for even violent criminal acts. >> i saw the horror and the terror of these insurrectionists. this is textbook authoritarian takeover. >> 101 tactics. >> what message does this send to law enforcement? >> the message it sends to law enforcement is clear. it is that convicted violence against police and sedition against the united states is right now, okay, in this new trump administration, if it is waged for trump. and while trump allies once denied the facts of january 6th because it was so horrific and opposed, you might recall some falsely blamed it on liberal trump critics groups like antifa because they saw

what you see on your screen. they knew how bad it was, how unpalatable it was, and they said, that can't be us. so it must be someone else. we have gone in four years from that to the new project you're seeing today, which turns to trying to redeem those crimes, is somehow a positive. with homemade videos and other efforts to show these convicts as they exit prison to some groups welcoming them. police and law enforcement veterans say these blatant acts against law, which is what they are. us law makes convicts finish their sentence. so trump is acting against law and they say acting against order because these new pardons endanger federal law enforcement, as his fans will view and do view federal crimes against, say, capitol police or fbi as something that can be immunized, that is okay, that is even sometimes celebrated on parts of the right. now, let me tell you very clearly, this is a new administration lawfully elected

by the public. this new administration can pursue all kinds of policies that might be very debatable or even, quote, controversial. what's the right amount of immigration or regulation? what's the right size of government? all of that is part of expected debate. and because that side won, they're going to try to pursue their answers to those questions. in a democracy governed by the rule of law, that's supposed to be done through law. but freeing violent criminals and convicted seditionists against the united states has not been part of the legitimate debate, not even recently. inside the republican party, republican leaders decried how police officers with riot gear were getting spit on and attacked by maga rioters. those are the outraged words of republican marco rubio, who, along with the party's senate leader and other trump allies like, say, lindsey graham, said

those words with those kind of very clear condemnations of those later convicted attackers and seditionists, they said that the night of the insurrection. >> this failed insurrection only underscores how crucial the task before us is for our republic. >> we have. >> police officers, the men. >> and women that we walk by every single day, that guard the doors and we say hello to out there with riot gear getting spit on and attacked. >> all i can say is count me out. enough is enough. >> that was four years ago this month. if anyone is lying to you or trying to claim that this is a red blue thing, everyone you just heard from were not only republican leaders, but people who at the time had supported donald trump's attempt to lawfully win that election, which he lost. and many of them had given a lot of comfort to his post loss efforts. they drew

the line there at that violence against police. and you could hear in some of their voices the fear they understandably felt. and i'm not don't mishear me. i'm not judging that any normal human being would be afraid of those convicted seditionists and attackers you saw chanting for violence or murder of politicians. today, marco rubio works for donald trump as he pardons those attackers. he's part of the administration, and we do not need to speculate on his view of the january 6th convicts. he may view his current role as one where he doesn't criticize his boss, but we know his view of the those those convicts. we know the view of the january 6th convicts held by trump official marco rubio because he already shared it, freeing these violent attackers, which is one of the first things donald trump is doing in office, is so extreme. again, if you're trying to keep track and you end up hearing from someone that this is just business as usual, or there was a reason for this, or this is a blue red partizan

thing, or the many other assorted defenses people are making. again, our job here is to follow the facts and give them to you as a factual matter. this thing is so extreme that even after trump's recent 2024 election victory, his own vice president was ruling out the pardons for the very violent attackers, even apart from the other group. when asked about that, which is, of course, now what you know, tonight, donald trump did. when asked about that, his incoming vice president was ruling out that kind of pardon for a violent attacker. >> if you protested. >> peacefully on january the 6th and you had merrick garland's department of justice treat you like a gang member, you should be pardoned. >> if you committed. >> violence on that day. obviously, you shouldn't be pardoned. >> if you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn't be pardoned. those are the words of the vice president, selected by donald trump to be a heartbeat from the presidency,

who has spent his time supporting everything donald trump does, and that he might do. and as recently as that interview, then vice president elect mike pence, now the vice president, was saying what he apparently thought that obviously the line would be at violence against police. he hadn't caught up to the program. he later walked that back. but again, i'm showing you these facts. he said that on fox news. so viewers of fox news with a memory know it was that extreme. it suggests j.d. vance's recent, unvarnished, perhaps view of at least the bare minimum. at that moment, you wouldn't surely obviously, as he put it, quote, obviously you wouldn't pardon people convicted of violently attacking the police who were bravely defending the capitol, which is as much an embodiment of us democracy as you can find. the capitol and the people inside the capitol, which include at the time then senator jd vance and then senator marco

rubio and the others i showed you remember, the public overwhelmingly opposes these type of pardons when they've been asked about it. only 1 in 5, 20% of americans think it was a good idea. there's a gulf between what trump is doing and the public, including some of the republican voters. so today we have republican politicians know this. they know they've never previously backed pardoning seditionists against the united states. they know they publicly rebuked these attackers after january 6th. they know what you see on your screen. this is opposed by most of the nation, which speaks to the dodging we saw today. >> what about those. >> who assaulted police officers and. >> then. >> were pardoned by the president? >> i haven't seen any. i haven't haven't gone. >> to the detail. >> but there. >> are. >> those. >> pardons that exist. >> i'd have to read it. >> of those. >> pardons for. >> violent offenders. are you comfortable. >> with that? >> i haven't. >> seen. >> the details. >> but i think. >> a lot of those crimes were definitely well deserved. >> are you. >> comfortable with these

pardons. >> for january 6th? >> well, as. i said, sorry. >> sorry. >> as i've said before. >> we're looking. >> forward to the next four years. >> the last. >> four. >> that is the top republican leader, senator thune. the point here isn't to get in some sort of quick passing, cheap shot about his ability to answer the question in that form. the point is, even right now, at the apex of donald trump's incoming power, fresh off seeing him yesterday at the inauguration, even the republican leader does not want to say yes. that's how unpopular this is, because most people don't think that pardoning people who attack police and were convicted by a jury of their peers is a good idea. it's not fair to the police. it's not fair to the victims of those crimes. it's not fair to the history. and it's also not a good idea for public safety. anybody can reason through that. that's why if you watch campaigns throughout the ages in both parties, and you find violent criminals and people doing violence and crime in different neighborhoods, and it was an issue in this campaign, most voters well, across partizan

lines say, well, yeah, no, if you caught a violent criminal, they should be prosecuted and they should serve their sentence, not the other way around. not an exception for just, quote, political violence on your side. and so i'm showing you that senate majority leader thune today doesn't want to say trump was right or this was a good idea or even it was debatable. he said, i want to talk about anything else, the future, but what's happening right now is the future. this is the new president. this is how he's acted on his first day in office, and it affects the future we are all going to share because we all still share this country. i can tell you there were some republican lawmakers, not in leadership who did speak against the pardons today, but the leadership, the prominent voices did not. one congresswoman even saying she'll invite those convicts back, the people who attacked the capitol police, she's saying they'll come back as her guest. when the january 6th attack unfolded, many trump allies were aghast. some spoke out in public. i just showed you some of that. others

had a type of access that the vast majority of people don't have. so now take yourself inside that sort of elite, in this case, right wing elite position, you actually can get to the top of the top of the white house even in a crisis. and i mean this quite seriously. if you look back what they did with that access, some of them was use it to plead with the trump white house to make the insurrection and the violence stop. fox host laura ingraham privately reached out using her access. this is something that people build up over time if you know people in power. and she texted trump's chief of staff she didn't ask for an interview. she wasn't arranging something for the next day, she said, mark, the president needs to tell the people in the capitol to go home. ingram's text only became public later because fox was taken to court for alleged falsehoods about trump losing that election. what's she saying today? what's she saying this week? you can witness her

reversal, embracing the pardon of the convicts that we know in the moment. she wanted to stop because she thought she was trying to do a good thing. and so now her viewers, the white house, anyone can fact check what she actually thought and did to what she says now. but a project embracing election lies may not care much about enduring facts. >> what was. >> your highlight. >> of your. >> executive order? the j6 pardons. >> what did. >> he. >> do there? >> 1600 pardons for j. >> sixers who. >> were arrested. >> those who. >> breached the. >> capitol hill. security today, whoever they. >> were. they were criminals. >> yes they were. they were criminals. back when she tried to use whatever influence she had to stop them. they were criminals. when she said it on air in our system, they were criminals. when they were convicted of crimes. we all can see what's changed. and to quote

one great poet, what's understood doesn't have to be explained. but we have to make sure we all understand what's happening as we go forward together. we have two people who've led both respective who've led both respective parties, michael steele and what's up, you seem kinda sluggish today. things aren't really movin'. you could use some metamucil. metamucil's psyllium fiber helps keep your digestive system moving. so you can feel lighter and more energetic. metamucil keeps you movin'. and try the 2 week challenge at metamucil.com from our kitchen to our bathroom, all our laundry. you just pick a date, pick a cleaner, and enjoy a spotless house for $19. >> hi. >> it's. >> joanne and i. >> am finally. >> at silverbell. >> i work out, i eat right. but there are just some. >> areas i. >> just need to have tweaked. >> that's why this celebrity

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are decent. people regardless. >> of. >> who they supported. >> but the. >> fraternal order of police. endorsed donald. trump. and. >> 140 cops were injured. >> six later. >> died. >> a couple of suicide. and the fraternal order of police apparently thought. >> that was just fine for trump. >> to pardon these people. >> so i. >> think they do a terrible disservice. >> to law enforcement. law enforcement. >> is a. >> really tough job, and the. >> fact of the. >> matter is we need police. and if their own people are going to do this to them, i don't care what the politicians. >> say, they have the spine of a jellyfish and they don't dare stand up to trump. >> but cops. >> ought to stick together on this one. and they didn't in that election. and that is an incredible disappointment. and i would say the fraternal order of police, who endorsed donald trump, sold out their fellow police officers as they were mowed down, and six of them died as a result of what happened. >> michael.

>> yeah. >> i agree. >> with howard. >> look, the bottom. >> line is. >> i just. want to. >> know where. >> you. draw the line. >> so now. if there's some other event that is not on government property. >> let's say there's a protest. >> somewhere in the country. >> and the. >> people who are. >> protesting start going. >> after the police. >> what? that's perfectly okay. >> are you going. >> to, you know, sit there and. >> say, hey, let's. >> pardon these. those who've. >> attacked police officers in that instance. donald trump has not only loosened the guardrails, he's completely obliterated them. >> and to howard's. >> point, it is shocking to me that today we've heard nothing from police unions and police officers and police chiefs. nothing. the silence has been deafening. and that's because they endorse this. they endorse this. they wanted to play the political short game thinking that, you know, oh, this whole back the blue actually meant something from republicans. and

it doesn't i mean, you had one senator out of how many republican? 53. you had one say, this is wrong. i don't support it. right. and so that tells you where we are on all of this and on a host of other things yet to come, yet to come. >> i showed you early on how elon musk was already caught using his trump access to line his own pockets. now we have donald trump with a multi-billion dollar crypto scheme. it's one of the stories they don't want you to know about that they're not pushing through their publicists on the front pages. and it's our front pages. and it's our investigative prilosec knows, for a fire... one fire extinguisher beats 10 buckets of water, and for zero heartburn 1 prilosec a day... beats taking up to 10 antacids a day. it's that simple, for 24 hour heartburn relief... one beats ten. prilosec otc.

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>> each week on my podcast. >> i'm joined by uniquely qualified guests who help me take a big picture, look at the issues like. >> representative jasmine crockett, late. night host seth meyers, former attorney general eric holder, and many more. >> why is this happening? listen now. >> this new trump administration is pushing many policies, different messages, some important, some distracting, and some of them are designed to get you focused on one thing when they're doing other things that may be familiar from following donald trump's past campaigns. but there are many things behind the scenes. we recently reported on government adviser elon musk exploiting his role to promote the crypto he owns. what you're looking at is part of our coverage on that. previously, he named his government group after his cryptocurrency coin, which is named after a dog, which is why you see that image on screen when we reported on it, which is really no different than trying

to rename a government department after coke or tesla. i mentioned that because now musk taxpayer funded.gov website for his trump policy group promotes the same crypto coin. again, you see a different version of that dog. so day one donald trump's chosen advisor, elon musk, is taking your taxpayer dollars and promoting his crypto businesses. stuff that he owns. he owns some of that. and the product, which is a crypto coin with this dog here, has nothing to do with cutting government spending or anything related. he's not even pretending. it's just a blatant grift. and we documented that. then trump is clearly now echoing this approach. he's just launched a new digital currency, which may show where some of his focus has been, even as he begins the big job of president. and this is a big deal. this is not just some sort of side concern or like selling, you know, t shirts and merchandise. we are in kind of the trump

honeymoon period. here we are on, you know, the first full day. and yet the conservative, murdoch owned wall street journal already blowing the whistle, noting trump benefits directly from the sale of these new crypto tokens. wall setting the very federal policies that affect how these crypto markets are valued and regulated. so for a financial publication and its readers and wall street, that's an obvious conflict of interest. even if you like other policies of the incoming president. as for donald trump, before i tell you more about this coin and how it affects you and how they're using taxpayer dollars to line their own pockets, remember, donald trump has been a long time critic of these digital currency operations. he's dubbed them scams. >> bitcoin i it just seems like a scam. i don't like it because it's another currency competing against the dollar. it's potentially a disaster waiting to happen. they may be fake, who knows what they are. i'm a big fan of the dollar. i'm a big fan of our currency, and i don't

want to have other currencies coming out and hurting or demeaning the dollar. i think it's a very dangerous thing. >> again, quoting donald trump. it's dangerous. it's a scam and it hurts or competes with the united states dollar. on that last point, there are many people involved with traditional currency and the us treasury who agree with that concern. and now he's president where he's supposed to be focused on helping you. the country, as he said in the address yesterday. and, of course, the united states treasury and the dollar. and yet he has just launched, coming into this weekend, this unregulated trump digital coin. it is his own cryptocurrency. they're selling it as kind of the official one, although there's more than one trump related coin. i can get to that. this is a cryptocurrency product that people can buy and sell. and again, if you buy at one price and sell it at another, a lot of the money, the value is coming from people investing in this, whether they're trump fans or people who want to curry favor with them, with him and

his team. and people could lose a lot of money on this as well. it's a big story. >> the profit president. >> donald trump. >> cashes in on his. >> own crypto coin. >> trump profiting from all these schemes. >> in office. from the middle east, apartment towers. >> to. >> the trash. >> coin ponzi. >> like schemes that he's launching. >> i literally bought $1 million worth. >> of. >> trump like. >> 30 minutes ago. >> we're already up $195,000. >> the coin reached. >> $9 billion. >> in market. >> value over the. >> weekend. >> but faces scrutiny over a lack of investor transparency. >> trump, launching his very own meme coin wasn't crazy enough. four hours ago. melania trump just did the same. >> it'll go up. >> and. >> it'll go down. but also it. is a central clearing station for bribery. >> the trump coin is worth $38 with a valuation of about $7 billion today. that is essentially cut in half from

yesterday's peak $75 and $14 billion valuation. volatile and risky. >> very volatile. it is illegal for politicians to take too much money in campaign contributions, or to ever take direct gifts in exchange for what they do in office. you heard a former trump aide there refer to the risk of bribery when you look at the price trump dropped the coin friday. it went up very high to 75. it's now dropped to 41. at one point, trump's crypto holdings were roughly maybe up to 89% of his net worth, although it's hard to get exact figures from him on that. trump was also asked about this currency. take a listen. >> well, i don't know if it benefited. i don't know where it is. i don't know much about it other than i launched it. i heard it was very successful. i haven't checked it. where is it today? >> you made a lot of money, sir. >> how much? >> several billion dollars. it

seems like in the last several days. >> several billion. that's peanuts for these guys. >> that's donald trump. you'll notice someone who often takes a lot of credit for a lot of things, including business activities. you're getting a different answer there. he sounds like he doesn't want to get into it. he wants to joke it off. he wants to minimize it. he's not read in. but when you read his books and you listen to his past interviews and other witness testimony, he's been very involved in even smaller transactions than that. i mean, he signs his own checks at the tune of 50 and $100,000, which many billionaires don't. so that's his current answer in defense, kind of pretending or saying that he's not involved that much. he doesn't know what's going on. but trump also oversees the entire federal regulatory system, which regulates, investigates and prosecutes misconduct in these areas, which include cyber and digital currency. note that trump's company says this new

coin is not intended to be an investment opportunity. mark cuban, who is generally been receptive to the prospect of crypto in some forms being positive, says this one is a matter of time until people lose money. this is not crypto any more than madoff was buying and selling shares of stock. he's alleging that basically, this is far from the benefits of possible independent international crypto, and is much more like a ponzi scheme. that's cuban's view now. by the 2024 campaign, donald trump had shifted from what i showed you before. he went from saying crypto was a, quote, scam to promising to be the crypto president, and the u.s. would become the crypto capital of the planet. and so the question here is not what is the perfect crypto policy, which you would want your government to figure out to defend you? because we've seen a lot of financial malfeasance out there. everyone remembers the mortgage induced crash of oh nine, which affected

a heck of a lot of people who had nothing to do with those initial investments. but that's not even where we are tonight. we have to ask, as elon musk and donald trump launch personal products related to their government power to enrich themselves, whether huge federal policies that affect you and your livelihood could be completely rewritten or thrown out the window to benefit the private interests of some people who are already very, very rich. we have a special guest, sarah matthews, right after this. >> you who? >> no. >> no, no, that is. >> against the hoa bylaws. >> bylaws, bylaws. we're showing where consumer cellular gets great coverage. >> you're making everything orange. >> i know, right? >> we use the. >> same powers as big wireless, so you get the same coverage. >> difference is our plan. >> starts at just $20. >> no. >> that can't. >> be true. >> but it is. >> wow. well. >> i hope. >> you're using primer. >> do we use a primer for unlimited talk and text with reliable coverage? and your

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>> it's important to remember that for all the statistics and square mileage and square footage and number of people displaced, they're all individual people with their homes, with their. >> lives driving. >> around, there's. >> almost nothing left standing. occasionally you'll see a house that's okay or a street that's okay, but that's occasional. >> i continue to see. and i. >> want to shout out one more. >> time, the. first responders who are responding in this mutual aid effort from. >> all over. >> southern california. it really. >> has brought out the best and most inspiring part about. >> human beings. >> trump launched. >> the thriftiest grift. >> he has ever grifted. >> a trump. >> brand crypto meme coin. now. >> if you don't know. >> what that. >> is. >> ask your brother in law and. get ready. >> to take a pretend phone call. >> stephen colbert on the new coin launched by donald trump, which has fluctuated in value, but on paper potentially reaped him billions in the last several days. sarah matthews served in

the trump white house and ultimately testified before the january 6th committee and opposed his election last year. welcome back. >> thank you so much for having me. >> i thought of you because you've been around all this. as i mentioned, there are rich, even complicated debates over digital currency versus the regulation of other asset classes. but here it seems like donald trump and some of the people around him are most interested in their personal profits from from digital currency, and not what's best for the united states or the people who might end up losing money or holding the bag. what do you see happening here? >> i thought. >> it. >> was really telling when you played. >> the clips earlier. >> in your program, of. >> him talking. about how. >> he. thought that cryptocurrency was all a scam. >> and a fraud. >> and clearly then someone got in his ear and told him, hey, there's a way to make money. off of this. and he knew that he could manipulate his supporters to pour money into something like this meme coin and. >> to profit. >> off of it. i mean, and he was playing dumb earlier when he was

asked about it, and he knows that his net worth has gone up billions as a result of this scheme. and it's really sad because he is taking advantage of those that support him, who don't know any better and are being told to buy this coin, and then there is a possibility that it will all come crashing down and these people will lose their money. >> yeah. here's some of the headlines. just i mentioned to viewers trump wanted to get the crypto in front of enough people to make him money, but they certainly i mean, as you mentioned, he certainly was playing it down in the white house. so there does seem to be a bit of a strategy there. the new york magazine says he's lining his own pockets. 22 governments, meanwhile, in a different story, spending money at trump properties, the dc hotel, continue to make that kind of money. secret service agents being sort of maybe potentially overcharged, according to one one government report, none of that comes anywhere near the sticker price of this. and so i'm curious if

you think that these billions of dollars unregulated, much of it's secret, not transparent, could affect how donald trump governs, is it is it, as scaramucci suggested, a risk for potential bribery? >> i think so there's definitely a risk for potential bribery because, look, it is hard to see who is pouring money into the meme coin and to regulate that and have any idea of a footprint on it. and so there's a possibility that foreign governments could take advantage of that and secretly pour this money into it and help enrich him. and so that's definitely a concern ethically. and then two, i think just regulating the industry itself. so he's going to be in charge of setting the policy and what that looks like. and his two sons have also they're dabbling in the crypto industry. so it's a whole family affair. and it just definitely raises a lot of concerns about what is going to happen and how much they could profit off of this. >> what do you see in sort of the world around donald trump right now? he returns to the

white house with a thin house margin, but having won more votes in the popular vote than he did during the term when you were there. i'm just curious. big picture, what strikes you right now? >> i think that most of these republican elected officials are going to fall in line and carry out his agenda and what he wants, even though it is this razor thin margin. so it might look difficult to try to push things through. i think that republicans know that they really, even though he's going to be in office for four years, there's a possibility in two years that they might not have the majority. so they're going to try to cram through as much of his agenda items as possible in the next two years. and i don't think you're going to see a lot of pushback from them. i mean, look at the executive orders that he issued, for example, with the pardons of the january 6th convicts that came down, not many republicans are speaking out and pushing back against it. and so that's what i think the next two years is going to look like. it's going to be donald trump setting the tone. and all these republican

elected officials falling in line. >> interesting to get your perspective, especially given your history. sarah mathews, thank you. thanks for watching the beat weekend. and you can always join us weeknights at 6 always join us weeknights at 6 p.m. eastern for the ♪♪ herbal essences is a force of nature. our shampoos and conditioners are made with supercharged botanicals. ♪♪ these sulfate-free formulas deeply penetrate and replenish nutrients. ♪♪ to boost hair health in just one wash. ♪♪ all without the salon naturals price tag. ♪♪ ♪♪ it's supercharged herbal essences. ♪♪ yakura makes effective urinary tract health products. it truly. >> works miracles. >> the peace of mind i've been looking for.

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