Aaron Parnas reports on a turbulent day in Washington, starting with Donald Trump's Truth Social posts ordering the Justice Department to investigate Democrats he accuses of extortion over impeachment talk. Parnas argues those lawmakers are simply pursuing oversight and subpoenas.
He also covers Republican anger at Stephen Miller's promotion, a former White House staffer's account of Suzy Wiles and a glyphosate executive order, a federal judge's appointment of a special prosecutor to examine whether Trump's lawyers lied, and Trump's reported offer of a press secretary role to Dana White. Listeners get a running account of the claims from each side.
In this episode Aaron Parnas
This episode's transcript on Trump's Justice Department orders and Republican revolt was made with the technology behind HappyScribe's AI meeting note taker.
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Four days after losing the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate, Donald Trump has decided to call for the people investigating him were calling for him to be investigated, to be imprisoned. I'm serious. That's what Vladimir Putin does in Russia, or Xi Jinping does in China, and now it's what the United States President does as well. Maybe that's why they're meeting on the sidelines of a conference later this year, potentially. Today Trump ordered the Justice Department to go after Democrats journalists and others like me for what he calls extortion. What they actually did, though, was promise to do their jobs: issue subpoenas, hold hearings, and investigate misconduct.
Meanwhile, his own party is revolting against his own new chief of staff. A former top adviser is accusing Suzy Wiles of selling out Americans' health for campaign cash, and a federal judge wants to know whether Trump's lawyers lied to her. As always, if you can support this work, subscribe today. Today the targets are Democratic lawmakers, but when a president turns the Justice Department on anyone who promises oversight and his new chief of staff tells reporters that they should be arrested, people like me are next in line. So your support helps fund this work, helps fuel this work. Like, comment, share, subscribe, and let's start with Trump's posts today, because they are extraordinary.
And it's not just a post to call for arrest, it's also his potential new press secretary, Dana White, the head of UFC. But first, Donald Trump, in a Truth Social post, twice, accused Democrats of threatening Republican donors and administration officials, including Attorney General Todd Blanch, with impeachment. He wrote, quote, "The imprisonment should be against these extortionists, and Republicans should get smart fast." He then wrote, at the end of this statement, quote, "By copy of this statement, I am ordering the Department of Justice to look into this criminal act immediately."
In a follow-up post, he told Republicans to report the so-called threats to him. He didn't name a single Democrat. DOJ didn't respond to questions about what he actually plans to do. Here's what Democratic lawmakers have actually done. Because what Trump's claim is, it actually misrepresents what lawmakers have said. At no point are lawmakers even urging the impeachment of the president. I think if you ask most lawmakers on Capitol Hill, they would say impeachment isn't our goal. They would say oversight is our goal, accountability is our goal, investigation is our goal.
Many people are calling for it, including Senator Richard Blumenthal, who is letting donors know that if they fund a Trump's White House ballroom, they're going to get hit with a subpoena. They're going to get hit with oversight. That's not extortion. That's Congress doing its job, and it's written in the Constitution. In this post, he also went after Senator Alyssa Slotkin, claiming she wants to, quote, "Go after all young people that believe in Republican values." What she actually said earlier this year is that the prospect of accountability might make young people think twice before joining the administration.
She has said she was talking about lawbreaking, not politics. And it's not the first time. Last year, Trump called a video Slotkin made with other Democrats urging troops to refuse illegal orders, quote, "Seditious behavior punishable by death." And I want to speak to you directly for a moment, because the targets that we're seeing out of this administration are serious. What's happening here is serious. A president is pointing the Justice Department at anyone who promises to hold him accountable. And this comes one day after he gave the West Wing to Stephen Miller, the aide that he has in the past supported arresting journalists, forcing them to give up their sources.
When it gets to this point, people like me and others are in line. And while all the while, he might have a new press secretary. He posted this, which many are saying is a post out of the movie or out of idiocracy, saying, quote, "I am pleased to announce, I am pleased to announce, that the great Dana White, that the great Dana White, a violent fighter and warrior, has been offered the job of press secretary of the United States. I have requested that he bring with him assistance, even though some are not from our country, of Islam, Makhachev, Khabib," and then he goes through various fighters.
So this is real. And he now is offering the press secretary job to the head of UFC. Now, behind closed doors, the party, the Republican Party, is furious. Fox News is reporting that multiple House Republicans said Stephen Miller should be fired in conversations just moments before Trump actually promoted him. Congressman Marlon Stutzman of Indiana called it a horrible decision. Another Republican said they were, in quote, "utter disbelief." When one lawmaker was asked about the promotion, they replied with nothing but a facepalm emoji.
Another Republican lawmaker called Miller a, quote, "megalomaniac who should have never been given the keys to the Ferrari." Here's what Republicans say happened behind closed doors. One lawmaker told Fox they repeatedly warned Miller in group meetings that his immigration crackdown was backfiring back at home. Our people are mad. Our businesses are mad, even in deep red districts. They said, "It looks to me like Stephen Miller was only after numbers. He would not listen to us." Retiring Republican Don Bacon put it this way: "Miller took an immigration policy that favored the president two to one in the public, overreached, and made it two to one unfavorable."
He said Miller cost us seats in Texas and Arizona. Now, Miller is doubling down, pledging utmost support to the president of the United States of America. And it all comes as one former White House staffer, someone within the MAHA movement, is calling out Suzy Wiles.
Called into a room, and Suzy's person, Walker Bear, is there, and he puts an executive order down on the desk, and he says, "Please review." And it was the glyphosate EO that says it's a national security issue. We need to have glyphosate and alluded to liability protection using national defense reasons.
National security.
Yeah, yeah, national security.
To make sure that we have glyphosate use.
And I will tell you, the Secretary of War, the major generals, they don't see our lack of glyphosate on U.S. farms as a national security issue. And the EO was all about farming, all about glyphosate. Nobody in military leadership sees this as a national security issue. So Walker put that on the table. I read it. I said, "This is a political disaster. You know, we need to talk about this." And he said, "This is final.
It's national security. It's coming out tomorrow," and all the people in the room. And he said, "Please inform Bobby, and this is not up for discussion." And Bobby should not be calling the president or calling anyone. This is not up for discussion. Suzy then called Bobby's office and said, "We're not discussing this." I went and informed Bobby, and it was announced the next day.
So he went through, essentially, this guy, former Trump official, went on a podcast and just called out Suzy Wiles, just spilled the beans of it all. Just spilled the beans of it all. Now, meanwhile, someone who's going to have to spill the beans is none other than Trump's own lawyers. Because in a lengthy, lengthy, lengthy order today, Judge Anna Reyes in Washington, DC, said, you know, "We got to appoint a former federal prosecutor to look into whether he lied, whether Trump and his lawyers lied." And so that former federal prosecutor is none other than Jesse Lu, who actually previously worked in the Trump administration, the first Trump administration.
Trump fired her, pushed her out because he didn't like her. It's funny. It's actually a small world. Jesse Lu is the wife of one of my law professors, which is crazy, someone I had in law school. In any event, she's a bulldog of a lawyer, and so she's going to go after folks. And I'm sure it's not going to go too well for anyone who may have lied to the court. So that's the news right now. I'm sure there'll be more news throughout the day and into the evening. Oh, and by the way, in Israel, bad news for Benjamin Netanyahu, because the Israeli president offered the opposition leader the opportunity to form a government, which is one step closer to removing Netanyahu from power in Israel.
So once again, if you can subscribe, support this work, like, comment, share. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart, and I'll see you soon with another update.
Aaron Parnas reports on the news of the day.
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