joining me now is democratic congressman jamie raskin of maryland. he's the ranking democrat on the house judiciary committee. he knows a lot about a lot of things. is my summary, too. i have so many things i want to ask you about, but i just want to start with this purge of fbi officials and january 6th prosecutors. you said in a statement, if allowed to proceed, trump's purge of our federal law enforcement workforce will expose america to authoritarianism and dictatorship. i mean, you are a constitutional law expert. you choose your words carefully. talk to me more about your concern here and where you think this could land. >> well, the. >> dictators always try to move in against the. police to seize that function. if you look at what's happened. trump pardoned 1500 violent insurrectionists, proud boys, oath keepers, seditious conspiracists. people who attack cops, violently assaulted officers. then they appointed. as the u.s. attorney for. >> the district of. >> columbia, a guy who organized the january 6th violent festivities and assault and pro

jamie raskin, democratic congressman and professor of constitutional law, told the washington post tonight. this he said, quote, if allowed to proceed, trump's purge of our federal law enforcement workforce will expose america to authoritarianism and dictatorship. joining us now is carol leonnig, pulitzer prize winning washington post investigative reporter who is really, really well sourced on justice matters and law enforcement. she's covering this story tonight. carol, thanks for being here tonight. i really appreciate you taking the time. i know you're in the midst of a lot of reporting. glad to be here. rachel, let me ask you if i've said anything that strikes you as wrong or that's been overtaken by subsequent reporting since. since i started talking. no. >> unfortunately. >> i think everything. >> you've relayed is very factual. what we're seeing is a series of people who are being told they'll be terminated, likely by monday. if they don't move along quickly. they are very much the senior senior cadre of leadership of the fbi, all of them career, not one political. and we are also

those are the relevant questions that were asked by the governor of illinois, congressman jamie raskin, the ranking member on the judiciary committee, noted, quote, donald trump should recall that on the day of this tragic accident, the first commercial airline crash since 2009, the united states had no faa administrator. in fact, the faa was left left rudderless for ten days leading up to the deadly crash because apparently co-president elon musk aggressively demanded the ouster of the faa chief who previously had the temerity to hold spacex to account for safety violations. trump and the first oligarch billionaire drove the faa director out of his job on inauguration day. this gross mismanagement comes as trump and musk wage a relentless attack on federal workers and, end quote, do not hold your breath for donald trump to come back to the briefing room to talk about that. it seems undeniable that america, under this administration, took a step away from confident democracy this week. just get on the plane and fly. it's going to be okay. the confirmation of pete hegseth as the defense

jamie. >> raskin. >> and as you know, congressman. >> raskin asked. >> why. >> do you. >> need access? >> i mean. >> here it is. i'm a. >> wholly fully. >> elected member of congress. i don't have that kind of access. >> so when you start. talking about who. >> should have access. >> to literally the system that controls approximately. $6 trillion. of our dollars, i. >> don't really understand because the people. >> that worked in those positions. >> could only distribute. >> money per the law. so why is it that the doj's committee. >> would have. >> to have access. >> and that's not the place that you go to look for cuts. you look at. >> our budget. >> which it. >> is congress. >> that has the power of the purse. >> you look at our. >> budget, you help the president come up with his proposed budget, and then the house and the senate will decide what we send to his desk. and he gets to decide whether or not he signs it into law. he should not have access to this. and with people already having angst about elon musk and the things that he does as it relates to technology, this is not in