We all know that this You agree with the leak. You agree with the leak. This is a MAGA victimization fund that is sanctioned by Donald Trump.
How dare he? Far-right MAGA commentator Scott Jennings was back on Abby Phillips show doing what he usually does and acting smug and aggressive. We are going to look at another heated debate on Abby Phillips show about the ongoing corruption claims surrounding the Trump administration and Scott Jennings strongly defending it in a loyal way.
I also share my own thoughts along the way. So, let's dive in and break it all down together. The DOJ's $ 1.
8 billion/ fund deal with Donald Trump bans the IRS from pursuing claims it may have made against him forever. According to new terms released by the DOJ today, the federal government is quote forever barred and precluded from prosecuting or pursuing claims or examinations arising from any pending IRS matters. And the deal includes tax returns filed by Trump before the agreement was reached.
The deal language applies not only to Trump, but his family members, trusts, companies, and other affiliates. It was signed by acting attorney general Todd Blanch. was Trump's former personal attorney who is now uh the acting AG.
Congressman, I'm going to start with you. Thanks for starting with me. I appreciate You are welcome.
Uh because we had a little discussion about this yesterday and and I'll let Scott go first. So, it is your turn. What do you make of this?
This is this is an addendum, something new added to it, saying they cannot look back at anything that the Trump have done, family members included, um when it comes to how they dealt with their taxes. You know, I was trying to think of a technical term for this. It's like criminal financial masturbation, right?
So, what you're looking at is this right here. Okay. Right.
This is this is the issue that I have. This is the biggest selfdealing in presidential history. You're talking about protecting his family and himself from any type of IRS investigation.
Not only did he sue his own um IRS for $10 billion, then he settled with himself for, by the way, it's 1. 776 billion 1776, which is simply a dog whistle to QA on. That's all that is for his base.
That's exactly what it is. And by the way, I'm an expert on it. So if people want to argue with me, I am ready to rock.
The other issue that you have this when you're talking about this type of self-deing is that to say in perpetuity just think about how unbelievably corny that whole 1776 thing really is. All of this would honestly be funny if it wasn't happening in real life and if this toxic administration wasn't causing such serious damage to so many people, not only across the United States, but all around the world. That you can't go after somebody for criminal.
Does that mean they're cringing? And this is a guy who's already, you know, he's been adjudicated on 34 felonies. This is a guy who's been adjudicated for sexual abuse.
We were talking about all this today. It seems like it's getting worse and worse and worse and he's it's like he's burning the crops after he's stealing the corn because he's a lame duck president. Everything he's doing right now is about self-deing, right?
You're looking at the Trump boys, they're sitting there getting contracts on drone warfare. You see all that happening right now. You see, you know, Kushner in the Middle East, all this is self-deing.
You see the stock trades, all this is him trying to enrich himself and his family as fast as he can. It's the most disgusting thing that I've seen, especially with somebody who's took the oath as a military member and as a congressman. And right now, when we're looking at this as sort of overarching, I can't imagine, right, I can't imagine anybody, and I'm not trying to stage this argument, I can't imagine anybody saying that this is right.
It's so egregiously awful and corrupt. I don't know why right now there's not people Republicans and Democrats saying there's no way this type of self-deing can happen. I wish more Republicans would speak like this when they're actually in office instead of waiting until they're out of power.
I mean, everything he's saying here is true, but I wish they had the courage to say it while they're still inside the system and actually try to push back against some of this. If there were at least a few decent Republicans, and there are obviously almost none left in Congress, willing to stand up and challenge these things, a lot of it could be stopped. And I've got to say, I love the expression on Lydia Moahan's face here, looking like she's about to break down just from hearing the truth.
Right. It's so egregiously awful and corrupt. I don't know why right now there's not people, Republicans and Democrats, saying there's no way this type of self-deing can happen.
Not to tell you that it's right. Go ahead. Is it wrong or is it right?
Well, first of all, why Scott's going to tell you that it's right? That's a great line from Anna Navaro. Why did he sue the IRS?
Because it was a leak. Because they leaked his tax returns illegally. No, no, the IRS didn't leak.
The Let's be clear. The IRS didn't leak. An independent contractor did.
So therefore, it doesn't apply. That's a nice hair splitting. But no, no, it's frivolous.
That matters while Trump was president. This happened during Trump's administration. Facts matter.
He himself was the victim of the federal government being weaponized against him for political purposes. That's number one. Number number two, I believe this deal on the looking back it doesn't it doesn't apply forward looking.
It has to do with this period of time. Now number number three on the on the fund, you know, we talked about this a little bit last night. I think that you know the idea that someone who attacked a police officer, they should not get money.
That's not right. However, if someone does does have a legitimate claim that they were overprosecuted or targeted unfairly or was on the periphery of some issue and had no reason to be targeted and they have a legitimate claim against the government, I have no problem with that. I think people I think the government makes mistakes all the time and people should be able to to if we were talking about legitimate go that little nice hair spplitting comment from Scott Jennings aimed at Tara Setm is pretty rich considering hairsplitting is basically all Scott Jennings does every single time he appears on Abby Phillips show twisting himself into knots to defend the administration but then he turns around and talks about how terrible this leak was and calls calls it weaponization against Donald Trump, even though around 450,000 Americans were caught up in that same leak.
So, was the government weaponizing against all 450,000 of those people, too? And would Scott Jennings support setting up another massive fund worth billions of dollars to compensate all of them? I seriously doubt it.
It would be transparent. It wouldn't be hidden, right, and secretive. That's the same thing that they do all the They hide behind this executive privilege on non-appropriated funds.
When you have something secret, it's not about transparency. Everything we've talked about is transparency. And my my question, Scott, is do you actually believe he should sue the IRS for $10 billion on an independent contractor leak?
Do I think that people should have tax returns leaked by the federal government for political reasons weaponized against them? It wasn't just it was other people. It was Ken Griffin also.
And Ken Griffin just asked for an apology because he knows it's egregiously. Well, and Trump got Trump got an apology and he's not getting any money out of it. Two years 1.
776 billion and two years after the state statute of limitations on this. It was not the federal government who did this. It was an individual contractor.
The Supreme Court has ruled on his own. The Supreme Court three times in president since 1911 that you cannot be the judge of yourself on anything. And so Donald Trump is sued himself to get a fund now settled with himself to get a fund where he's going to write a check for himself.
We all know that this This is a ma victimization fund that is sanctioned by Donald Trump. How dare he? How dare he?
You look in the face and you justify this to the families of the police officers who were beaten, who were almost killed, to the people who were killed, to the people whose careers are ruined. I don't know about you, Scott, but I've spent time with those officers and their families and their lives have been ruined. American tax dollars should not go to this.
This is dishonorable. It's grotesque. And anyone who tries to hide behind some kind of patriotism behind this should be ashamed of themselves.
Look in the eyes of the families of the people who suffered on January 6th. You know who the victim is here? Them and our democracy.
And shame on anyone who tries to justify this. And it's our dollars that they're robbing to do this. It's grotesque and despicable and it's also unconstitutional.
Absolutely. And I'm glad to see Jamie Raskin and the Democrats are challenging. Yeah.
It is the uh it is Congress who gets the power of the purse. They cannot adjudicate this amount of money like that. It's also I think there's a question on that.
And I think I think it is not no coincidence that they posted this addendum that the DOJ posted this addendum after Todd Blanch had his uh hearing today in front of Congress because he didn't want to answer questions on this because it just it stinks to holy hell. And this is again, this is coming at a time when Americans can't afford gas, can't afford groceries, are cancelling summer vacations. Farmers are going bankrupt.
But we are settling with Donald Trump to the tunes of billions that we're saying you are about. He's not getting any of the money. I'm glad that everyone all of us, all of us around this table, all of us around this table could be audited by the IRS.
All of us. Sure. That was a solid point from Tara Mayor.
At this stage, there really isn't a way to justify this unless you are fully aligned with the MAGA movement like Scott Jennings. And when Scott Jennings says, "Well, it doesn't look like Trump is going to get any of this money," you would have to be either extremely naive or willfully ignoring reality to believe that Donald Trump wouldn't benefit in some way from this setup. And then there's a third category that Scott Jennings falls into, which is simply propaganda.
He's there to push talking points, shape narratives, and defend the administration at all costs, no matter what the facts are. Donald Trump, but Donald Trump can protect himself is absolutely Well, it's not it's not yet, right? But his family all of his and all of the dividends of his business.
Um Lydia, go ahead. No, I'm I'm glad that everyone's up in arms about slush funds. I mean, Biden had $350 in a co fund that he appointed to $350 billion.
There were about 20 billion that went to blinded NOS's. I mean, I I'm not a fan of I'm glad that you're I'm glad you're outraged about a billion. I was also outraged about billion.
They can't stay on topic. In MAGA arguments, it's always but Biden or what about Obama or what about the Democrats? That's all they ever fall back on.
Constant what aboutism because they know their own position is hard to defend. People like Lydia Moahan and Scott Jennings keep doing the same thing, shifting the conversation away from the actual issue. And if the roles were reversed and Biden had done the exact same thing, they would be completely outraged and talking about it nonstop for years.
Stay on topic. Justify this. You're okay with this?
You think this is an honorable use of taxpayer dollars? I don't answer to you. No, you can answer to the American people.
Go ahead. I'm asking you a simple question. The millions of people watching right now, answer to them.
What is this? I I do not. Okay.
The fact you can't say yes or no. Answer the question. What what do you think is this?
Is this I think I think the I think it's important to acknowledge the lawfare that Trump and hundreds of hundreds of people experienced. Oh Jesus Christ. The biggest criminal we've ever seen in the White House, right?
And this whole law and order narrative they push. These people should actually have names if that story was real. you know, some random Joe Blow just walking down the street near the Capitol, not involved in anything, not even aware there was a protest going on, and somehow he gets thrown in jail.
So, where are the names of all these supposedly innocent, nonviolent people? Because when you actually look for them, they don't really seem to exist in the way they describe. What you mostly find are people who are involved, not random bystanders.
the last administration staffers, people who were blacklisted. Trump spent tens of millions of so the law fair is a serious issue and I think it makes sense that there would be some sort of restitution given that this ruined people's lives. I am not sure that this is the best vehicle to make that happen.
Do we all agree that we we are against the slush fund in Congress that pays out uh taxpayer money to people who make uh claims on sexual assault, sexual harassment and claim and we have no transparency. We don't know who it goes to. Right.
That is horrific. Okay, it is horrific. It is also equally horrific.
It is equally horrific that there will be no transparency to this alleged fund. That it is being done unconstitutionally because Congress has the power of the purse. That it is given uh Donald Trump a cart blanch to do whatever and his family to do whatever the hell he wants and that it is being negotiated by his personal lawyer with his personal lawyer who is now the acting secret attorney general.
It is disgusting. I think it is English and spot on from Anna Navaro. And this should be an easy thing that the MAGA, Scott Jennings, Lydia Moahan, and others on this panel and the ones who will be on here in the coming nights on Abby Phillips show and other CNN shows and shows in general should be able to acknowledge when defending this.
This should be a bipartisan issue where they can simply say, "Yeah, you are right. This is corrupt and we cannot allow this kind of thing. " Because what happens if a Democrat gets in there and does the exact same thing?
They can say whatever they want about what has happened in the past, but Biden did not do things like this. Obama did not do things like this. Clinton did not do things like this.
We have not seen this kind of corruption before. It is unprecedented in modern United States politics. But you are never going to hear that from MAGA because in their view it is a cult-like mindset.
Let me know what you think about all this. Do you agree with Tara Setm, Anna Navaro, and the former Republican guest on this Abby Phillip panel? Or are you on the side of Scott Jennings and Lydia Moahan where it is always what about this or what about Democrats and Donald Trump was mistreated?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
