“A myriad of vanity projects”

This isn't the end of a fight. It's the start of one. Lioness, the critically acclaimed original series from Taylor Sheridan, returns August 2nd only on Paramount Plus. In the new season, hidden networks, foreign operatives, and personal betrayals collide while Joe walks the line between duty and family. Don't Miss Lioness. Starring Zoe Saldana, Michael Kelly, with Morgan Freeman and Nicole Kidman, streaming August 2nd only on Paramount Plus. Watch Disclosure Day at Home Now with exclusive bonus features. If you found out we weren't alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you? Would that frighten you? Well, now the truth belongs to 7 billion people in an original event film directed by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay by David Kep starring Emily Blunt, Josh O'Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, and Coleman Domingo. Find Disclosure Day on major digital platforms now with no subscription required, also in theaters. That's your size compared. So those are compared to, those are among the tallest buildings in the world, including the Empire State Building, World Trade Center, Sears Tower, Chicago. So if you lay it on its side, you'd take two or three of them to fill it in, because the width is almost 200 feet wide. And actually much more than 2,000, close to, including everything. It's about 2,500 feet in length to the end. And it's going to be beautiful. We have entered that my pond is bigger than your house part of the Trump presidency. I don't even know why those things are on the same piece of paper. Someone should have told him one was a body of water or the other three are buildings. All the same. He's obsessed with the size of things shaped like that. Hi again, everybody. It's now five o'clock in New York. That was real. It was another and a growing chronicle of things. I asked my team to vet to make sure it wasn't AI. That that was actually the president, not some stunt guy, that that was actually from the Oval Office, not a Jimmy Kimmel, you know, skit, that that was the president, that that was actually what he was holding, that it wasn't actually a map of something, and that he actually had a board with a body of water next to three buildings and was. bragging that the body of water was bigger than the buildings. That happened today. It's part of his obsession with home decorating and renovations of Washington, D.C. This is a reflecting pool. He's for some reason measuring it against the length of the pool against the height of skyscrapers. Makes no sense at all. I'm embarrassed even reading this to you, especially at a moment when Americans are screaming from the rooftops about the price of gas, cost of childcare, cost of health care.

and the economy, as well as unhappy about the war with Iran. But Trump is obsessed with this stuff. He's done a redo of the South on. That is a live picture of what he's done to what was the once beautiful, beautiful grounds of the White House. This is his cage match thing. It looks like something at a, I don't know, amusement park or something. It's a place where they're going to have a fight. He's demolished large swaths of the people's house. to build a ballroom. He's paved the Rose Garden. He put his name on the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Center, which the Washington Post Today reports will have to take it down. They have to remove it by Friday. He's done all of these things, not on a wave of the public loving his agenda, but he's done them instead of helping even his own voters with the cost of living and the things they're stressed about. It's for the war that he began. That war is deeply unpopular, but it's also causing gas prices to surge. On that, he says he's, quote, bored. When it comes to the deeply unpopular, quite possibly illegal, $1.8 billion slush fund to aid his allies, it's a slush fund that even members of his own party object to. He's now contradicted his own acting attorney general and will not assert whether or not it is alive or dead. He calls it, quote, beautiful. The fund's future is so unclear that Congress is now trying to formally kill it. The Senate today voted on a motion that were permanently banned the fund's existence. Republicans killed that legislation, not because they want to save the fund, but because of other procedural things. Meanwhile, Trump's approval rating has reached a new low amid all this. The latest UGov economist poll finds Trump's approval rating at 35%. His disapproval is at a whopping 61%. This is the lowest approval rating of any president since the survey... existed, started to exist in 2009. Trump focusing more on himself than the American people is where we begin the hour with Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan. She's a member of both the Homeland Security and Armed Services Committees. Senator, I'm embarrassed that that was the news that we had to contend with today, but we don't make up the news. What do you make of where we are? I mean, yeah, that was quite an intro. I mean, I think, look, I mean, I think. What's been interesting is to watch my Republican colleagues, I think, start to get the message a little bit that aligning yourself every moment of every day with Donald Trump is not a path to victory for you, for your legacy, for the country. And I think this weaponization fund vote, you alluded to it.

where the president was trying to put $1.8 billion of taxpayer dollars in a special fund that he controlled to decide who should listen to the courts, who has been aggrieved. I think it hit this wall with the Republicans that I think is important. And I think, but it fits into a bigger narrative of the president just feeling like, He doesn't have to follow the rules. His people don't have to follow the rules. He can do whatever he wants, regardless of our tradition and our democracy. And I think, you know, you get absurd introductions, no offense, like that, when you hit kind of a new low with this level. of activity coming from the White House. I mean, no offense taken, but I do feel like I participated in the samewashing, right? I said, grab them in the bleep for years. If we'd say what he really said, I don't know that as many women would have voted for him in 16, and I'll never know. I... was one of the first people to stop platforming his live events. I still have a very hard time taking his live events because he lies the whole time. I mean, where do you stand in terms of how much you think people need to know about let's just take the corruption? I mean, it started with the Katari jet. It sort of was ushered in formally with the crypto grift. There is now, as you just articulated, a plan to take $1.8 billion taxpayer dollars and give them to people up to and including violent insurrectionists. Yeah, I mean, I think, look, we've seen around the world that, you know, corruption eventually, when it seeps down into the meat and people feel it in their own lives, they respond. That was the narrative on what happened in Hungary, where they over, you know, they got rid of their president who had been corrupt for 12 years. You know, and I was interesting. Hungary is an interesting example for us to look at because, you know, the deal that Viktor Orban offered the Hungarian people was, look, Leave alone my corruption at the high levels. Leave alone my threats to democracy. If I fire a university leader here or curb the media there, leave it alone because I'm going to make your economy better. I'm going to put more money in your pocket. That was the trade. And it worked for a while. And then it didn't. And it didn't because the corruption seeped so deep that you couldn't build a bridge in rural Hungary without paying someone off. It didn't work when the best friends, the eccentric billionaire best friends of the president of Hungary started doing whatever they wanted and treating Hungary as like the cow that they could milk. And it didn't work when he precipitated false threats and tried to bring in the security forces at the end.

the very end to prevent him from losing. I think that's a very interesting example. And you see certainly whispers of that same thing going on here in the United States. Yeah. I mean, that same poll that has his approval rating at a record low has his approval on the economy even lower. Americans' views on the economy, 76% say it's poor or fair, just 20% say it's good or excellent. What are you hearing from your constituents in terms of their economic concerns? Yeah. I mean, look, a year ago, you know, the president said, I'm going to come in. I'm going to change your life. And he ran on that. And look, I'll give it to him. He shall lack Democrats in 2024 with the very simple message that his priority was putting more money in your pocket. Whether he was ever truthful about that or not. That's what he ran on. And Democrats had too many priorities. We had every priority. And so no one knew what we'd really go to the mats on. And so Trump won my state and he won the country. Fast forward a year later. And frankly, before the war, I would say the only cost in a family's life that had gone down under President Trump had been gas, price of gas, right? Not housing, not health care, not groceries, not trips, services. And now... Every single American is paying the price of this war, of his war, and particularly of feeling that, you know, they see the price of gas 20 times when they drive the work. So it could not be more clear that people are suffering. especially in my state. And they're feeling like that being in the middle class is like a dream that their parents got to accomplish, but not them. So I think that even if people are sometimes reluctant to say that they regret their vote or they're switching sides or whatever, that they, in their hearts, they can't say with a straight face that they're better off under Donald Trump. I have to ask you because of your years of service, your reaction to Bill Pulte being given a third job in the Trump administration, he will, I think at the end of this month, become the acting director of national intelligence. Yeah, I have pretty fundamental problems with Bill Pulte becoming the Director of National Intelligence or acting Director of National Intelligence. As someone who helped start that office, I was one of the first 10 employees when, frankly, under the Bush administration, it was set up. And number one, he has no national security experience. We can't even figure out if he's ever handled classified information if he has a security clearance whatsoever. So he's never dealt with sensitive issues of national security. But number two, much more importantly, is that he has shown in his current job that he has zero qualms taking an order from Trump to go into the personal records of American citizens and dig up false claims, let's say in this case on mortgage fraud. He's done it against Adam Schiff, Letitia James, Lisa Cook. So he has shown not only an interest, but a willingness to actually use his job to manipulate information to do the bidding of Donald Trump, to weaponize the government against Trump.

people. So if you take that example, proven, and you overlay that, you take that to the DNI's office with all the access to classified information, our most sensitive tools, it should send a shiver down the spine of anyone who gives a crap about national security and about the personal privacy of American citizens. And as someone who, you know, the president tried to criminally indict over a 90-second video, you know, I've had the government weaponized against me. The idea of someone like that in charge of all of our, you know, 17 different intelligence agencies is just disturbing. I heard the president backtracking on this because even my Republican colleagues are not on board. Well, he said he might just be there for a short period, but he said, quote, he might. I think he said something like he might discover some things about rigged elections. I mean, he's clearly being sent there with a mission. And let me just follow up because I was going to ask you about that. I mean, you are one of... I'd say it's more than a handful now, you and five of your colleagues, as well as James Comey, Letitia James, Lisa Cook. I mean, there are people who are perceived political enemies that don't even know if you view yourself in that way, who he has sought to weaponize the federal government against because he doesn't like what you've said and how people have responded to it. Imagine. All of the intelligence agents, I mean, the thing about the DNI is it isn't just the CIA. It's the NSA. It's signal intelligence. It's the entire, it's the whole soup to nuts under the purview of Bill Pulte. I mean, what do people need to understand about even a short stint for Mr. Bill Pulte? Well, yeah, I mean, certainly the president, you're right, said it out of his mouth today that, you know, maybe we won't keep him there a long time, but I want him to, quote, look into the 2020 elections. That's what he's there for. Tulsi Gabbard was doing that for a while. Maybe she didn't do it well enough and she's out. And now he's found the next person who will do his bidding. And I think the thing that people don't understand is that since Watergate, right, where the intelligence community screwed up. There has been just a hard and fast, clear understanding from anyone. I was trained as a young CIA officer. You do not collect intelligence on American citizens. We focus on foreign threats abroad that are trying to threaten the homeland. The idea that someone who believes in kind of just saluting the president, no rules, no understanding of the intelligence community, that they could ever potentially use those tools to focus on domestic missions, domestic issues. actual Americans, private information, again, it is a real threat. And the president said it aloud. That guy's over there to look into the elections, not to protect us from a terrorist attack or a nation state.

I mean, it is sort of the hallmark of this presidency that it's all out loud. We don't have to go digging. Some digging has happened since I've been on the air about a Democratic candidate in Maine, Graham Platner. I wonder if you have any thoughts, just given the stakes of the midterm elections. Yeah, as I was walking over here, someone flagged it. I have not read the whole thing. I look forward to the day where I am not answering every single week a question about bad behavior. by another dude. I just, I look forward to that day. On camera, live. I look forward to that. And I haven't read, like, the piece, but what my team told me, like, look, first of all, I think about the women who are coming forward. Second of all, I think if there are allegations of violence, I got a real problem with that. And it doesn't matter if you're a Democrat or Republican. If there's violence, that's not okay. So I haven't gotten into the details. I'm sure I'll have to get the, just like every week, the same briefing from my team on what happened and what, but frankly, I'm sick of it. We got a lot of bigger issues to, you know, fry here. And so that's a dream I have for some day. Yeah, it broke since I've been on the air. I'm in the same boat. I've been reading it in the breaks. But it is a lot of questions that I pose as a host to a lot of people about bad behavior alleged on the part of men. Senator Elissa Slotkin, thank you very much for joining us. I want to apologize for the intro, but I can defend it. I mean, that was the news. That was Donald Trump and his own words. That was his chart. That's what's happening. Thank you for. We're always showing up for it. We really appreciate you. When we come back, we will get through that breaking news. We just asked the senator about breaking in the New York Times about Graham Platner. He is the Democratic frontrunner and a must win. Senate race in the state of Maine. We'll bring in our friends Tim Miller and Molly Zhang Fast. Next, also ahead massive protests in the streets of the capital city of Albania. People there are demonstrating against a mega resort project being developed by Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. Ivanka Trump was talking about it, about walking barefoot to the top of the mountain to swim and look around. We'll tell you about the reporting and the growing questions about... Whether this project is being fast-tracked as a way to curry favor with Donald Trump. We'll have the reporting on that story later in the hour. Deadlin White House continues after quick break, so don't go anywhere.

This isn't the end of a fight. It's the start of one. Lioness, the critically acclaimed original series from Taylor Sheridan, returns August 2nd only on Paramount Plus. In the new season, hidden networks, foreign operatives, and personal betrayals collide while Joe walks the line between duty and family. Don't miss Lioness. Starring Zoe Saldana, Michael Kelly, with Morgan Freeman and Nicole Kidman, streaming August 2nd only on Paramount Plus. Watch Disclosure Day at Home Now with exclusive bonus features. If you found out we weren't alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you? Would that frighten you? Well, now the truth belongs to 7 billion people in an original event film directed by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay by David Kep starring Emily Blunt, Josh O'Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, and Coleman Domingo. Find Disclosure Day on major digital platforms now with no subscription required, also in theaters. Everyone's talking about protein lately, but how do you actually get enough of it? Muscle milk. Muscle milk has a great-tasting new formula with no artificial sweeteners, flavors, or added colors. It's high-quality, complete protein designed to support healthy muscles with fewer ingredients than the previous formula and 206 to 42 grams of protein. For when you're stuck in meetings or need a post-work recovery, available in chocolate, vanilla cream, cookies and cream, and strawberries and cream. Try the new great-tasting muscle milk today. Available in stores nationwide, muscle milk, protein for... all. As we just asked Senator Elissa Slotkin, there is brand new reporting. It has broken since I've been on the air. It's in the New York Times, and it is about Maine's Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner. He's currently the frontrunner to become the Democratic challenger to Republican Senator Susan Collins in that pivotal midterm race in Maine. After news reports surfaced that he had sent explicit messages to women while he was married, several women came forward to the New York Times about their experiences with Graham Platner. From that new New York Times reporting, quote, in interviews with the New York Times on Wednesday, several women described Mr. Graham Platner as a fun and caring partner and said they felt safe with him. Some remain friends with him to this day, years after their relationships ended. But in extensive conversations over the past two months, three other women who had been romantically involved with Mr. Graham Platner offered a far more complicated assessment, describing volatile and toxic relationships that were unsettling and at times emotionally wrenching. Mr. Graham Platner could be charming and charismatic, they recalled in interviews, but also demeaning to women and, in at least one case, even physically threatening. He drank heavily and was regularly unfaithful. End quote. It's important to tell you, our viewers, that one of the three is a conservative activist who has worked on Republican campaigns, but she says that she would have spoken out even if Graham Platner was a Republican candidate. She disputes Graham Platner's claim that he did not know that the tattoo on his chest was a Nazi symbol. From that part of this new reporting, quote, Mr. Graham Platner, she said, knew when they were dating years ago that the tattoo was a Nazi symbol.

and that he called it my toten cop. The Graham Platner campaign, quote, strongly disputes that claim that he knew about the tattoo and that he told her about it. Graham Platner will be Chris Hayes' guest in his first national interview since his story broke this afternoon. That happens tonight at 8 o'clock on All In. For our coverage, I want to bring in political analysts and host of the bulwark podcast, Tim Miller, with me at the table. As I've been going through this story and this reporting, is my friend and colleague, our political analyst, Molly Zhang Fast. She's the host of Fast Politics and a New York Times contributing opinion writer. Tim Miller, I start with you. You look, Nicole, this is a complicated one. It's ongoing, and so there's some elements to it. So I just kind of walk through what I think of the key parts. Number one, I think Senator Slocke and said, look, any accusations of any type of inappropriate behavior around women should be taken seriously. And the Democrats have shown that they've taken it seriously in the past, whether that be Andrew Cuomo or Al Franken and I think that the Democrats have. credibility on this issue for a reason. In this story, it is only the one woman that was the Republican activist that makes any accusations of him putting his hands on her. The other women don't say that. It's more just about kind of drinking and volatile behavior. And so, you know, I think that the question is, like, what else could possibly come up? And I think that takes us to the political part of this. Just to do rank politics here, like, this is an extremely important Senate race for our democracy. The Democrats need to pick up four Senate seats to take over the Senate and to control Supreme Court nominations, to be able to control the floor for any nominations that Donald Trump wants put forward for Attorney General or DNI or any important roles in his administration. Like they have to, you know, those cabinet officials ostensibly will have to be confirmed by the Senate. So taking over the Senate is very important. And winning the Senate, it's pretty hard to do without Maine. And you just look at the map. And North Carolina, Roy Cooper looks very good, a good poll in Ohio for Sherrod Brown. That's two. Then you get into some pretty big red states. Iowa, the Democrats have a good candidate. Texas, James Talarico, Alaska, they have a good candidate. But those are all states Democrats have won in a long time. Democrats have won in the last three cycles. And all Democrats seem to do to win Maine is nominate somebody that gets all of the Hillary, Clinton, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris voters. And so it seems like kind of a silly place to take a big risk. And I think that is the strongest case against Graham Platner, whether you're a huge Graham Platner fan or a Graham Platner opponent. I think there's a prudential question of, like, is this Senate race the...

place to take this type of risk. I do think the last thing I'd say is I get a little bit frustrated with this and I'm sure some Graham Platner fans do as well with like all the focus on this, these things that he's done in the past as compared to what Susan Collins has done as an actual senator. And the tattoo thing in particular, I just feel it's incumbent to mention that Regardless of what you think about his tattoo, which he covered up, he's not proposing any Nazi like policies. And Susan Collins was the chair of the Appropriations Committee when we sent people to a foreign gulag based on their race and based on the tattoos they have. So I'm not here to say that that was a Nazi policy, but it's certainly a heck of a lot closer than anything the Graham Platner is proposing. And so I just do think that is also important to having the discussion here. Like Susan Collins controlled the power of the purse, allegedly at the Senate. If she was such a moderate, she could have stopped that. And she could have said, we're not going to fund this administration as long as they're sending innocent people to a foreign torture prison based on their tattoo. She didn't do that. And so I do get a little bit frustrated when these conversations, kind of frankly. her up as some moderate when she's been totally complicit in some very fascistic behavior, tattoo-related behavior by this administration. I just, I want to thank you for your clarity and your courage and sort of seeing this and being able to shove it through a sieve of the substance of what is accused and the stakes of the election. I mean, I think that's the whole thing. And I guess all I would, I would add is we are not the arbiters of anything, right? It is our job to bring forth the reporting main Democrats will decide, I think, on Tuesday night, do they want to represent them. And then. The broader population of Maine will decide do they want to represent them in Congress. But I think Tim just framed up the choices on both those fronts pretty well. Yeah. I mean, I think it's really important to talk about this is about what the person will do in the Senate. I did think what Elissa Slotkin said was also really important, you know, violence is a no-go. And remember, this is a person who will, you know, ultimately be in the Senate making judgment calls. And if it's a person who... drinks heavily and has personality changes. You know, I'm sober 28 and a half years. And I think that this, if there's a substance issue here, that's a big deal. And, you know, we have seen Democrats, you know, I just think releasing the moral high ground. And again, obviously, this is up to the voters of Maine. And this election is so important. And this. But I do think also what has been good about Democrats is that they've had, you know, they haven't said, well, like, this guy's really popular. So we're going to let, you know, like what Republicans are with Trump. And so I do think it's, you know, it's such a, it's a tough moment. And but I do agree. Like the Senate map is critical and Donald Trump is a president who is totally out of control. And Republicans have shown they have no interest in checking his power.

Tim, what do you say to people who look at all of the attention we have justifiably and perhaps belatedly given to the Epstein accusers and want to understand how this story fits into that frame? Well, look, and obviously there's a material difference, which is the FCD accusers were children. And I guess not in every single case. He also abused adult women. But, you know, that, you know, I think adds a level of gravity to it. But I think that one part of, one way to contextualize that that I do think is relevant is, look. You know, as a former Republican, am I the best person to say this? But I think a lot of Democrats would say this, particularly Democratic women. Like, you look back at maybe the Bill Clinton era of the presidency. You look back at how Democrats dealt with Epstein prior to, you know, the latest revelations when Trump came in. I think some of them look back and say, hey, maybe we should have taken these accusations more seriously than we did. So that's not to lump Graham Platner in with any of those. Like I said, I think that this New York Times article. You know, there are some serious accusations from one person, and then the rest, you know, depending on kind of your definition of serious, but nothing related to violence or nothing related to sexual assault or anything like that. And so, you know, I think that Graham Platner, obviously tonight will have a chance to, you know, kind of explain himself with Chris Hayes, and I think people should hear him out. This is not the... Say he should be thrown out. But I do think in the context of the Epstein story, you know, a lot of Democrats can maybe learn from lessons and say we should take the accusation seriously. We should look at them. We should consider them and do what's right by people that are victims. And we should also, you know, not throw the baby out with the bathwater because they're bad faith attacks against people. Like that's a challenging tightrope to walk. And I think that's kind of the tightrope that Graham Platner's on right now, but which kind of side of that he falls on. I want to read a little bit from this New York Times story, which I've read carefully through twice, and this feels like it gets at both the allegations and his sort of political position. New York Times reports this, quote. Graham Platner, 41, a combat veteran, has spoken openly about grappling with his post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and drinking that he so resulted from his time in the military. As revelations about him have surfaced, including his dismissive remarks online about rape. and derogatory comments about women, as well as a tattoo he had that is widely recognized as a Nazi symbol, he has said his past behavior does not reflect who he is today. Mainers, he has urged, should not judge him for, quote, the worst thing I said on the internet on my worst day 14 years ago. Obviously, some of these allegations are more recent than 14 years if I'm doing my bad on live TV math.

But some of this will be how voters and people who cover him largely in Maine assess the credibility of his response to this crisis. For sure. And, you know, I got over when I was 19 and there were things I did as a teenager that were not. good. And, you know, that is why I got sober. So I do think people can absolutely change. And, you know, he was in a very traumatic experience. What's so complicated about this moment in American life is we have come so far as feminists in this country. And then we've had a lot of backlashes, including the second election of someone who has all these allegations. All sorts of... Just trying to criminally investigate E. Jean Carroll. Right, exactly. And so, and, you know, we've seen, like, Roe v. Wade, which was the law of the land for 50 years, was overturned. So it's a very confusing moment to be... feminist. And it's a very complicated moment with how we as a culture grapple with this kind of thing. And so we've, you know, we've both gotten it right sometimes and we've gotten it wrong other times. And so it's very, it's hard. But the good news is that it's really not for any of us to decide it's for the people of Maine. And for Democratic leaders, like Alyssa Sluckin, are going to have to decide what to say and what to do. Both of you stick around. And again, I guess importantly, we'll share the reporting, but you will all decide for yourselves. And to help you do that, Graham Platner will appear on this network with my friend and colleague Chris Hayes at 8 p.m. on All In. When we come back, we'll turn to huge protests in Albania. I think that's the first time I've ever said that. They are protesting Javanka over a mega resort being developed by them. Trump's son-in-law of Jared Kushner, and his wife, Ivanka. There are even bigger questions, though, about the deal and whether the government of Albania is using it to curry favor with Donald Trump. It's our next story. Don't go anywhere.

Everyone's talking about protein lately, but how do you actually get enough of it? Muscle milk. Muscle milk has a great-tasting new formula with no artificial sweeteners, flavors, or added colors. It's high-quality, complete protein designed to support healthy muscles with fewer ingredients than the previous formula and 206 to 42 grams of protein. For when you're stuck in meetings or need a post-work recovery, available in chocolate, vanilla cream, cookies and cream, and strawberries and cream. Try the new great-tasting muscle milk today. Available in stores nationwide, muscle milk. protein for all. Hey everyone, it's Chris Hayes. This week on my podcast, Wise is happening. What really happened with the border during the Biden administration? Asylum at the border needs to be changed. And that was part of the legislation supported by President Biden. And that's what got killed by Donald Trump because he wanted the crisis to live for political benefit. So what has happened is there are many fewer migrants presenting themselves of the border. The Supreme Court has basically shut that down and allowed the administration to do what it wants. That's this week on Wise. is happening. Search for Wise is happening wherever you're listening right now and follow. When a foreign government puts a Jared and Ivanka backed luxury resort on the fast track over the objection of what looks like the popular opinion of all of its own citizens. It looks like a development project to attract, not like a project to attract tourists and juice the economy, but more like an attempt to curry favor with Donald Trump and Jared Ivanka. And that is exactly what appears to be happening in Albania right now. Thousands of Albanians have taken to the streets to protest Jared Kushner's plans to develop luxury properties on an island that is part of a protected landscape on that country's coast. The protests have been dubbed the Flamingo Revolution due to the fact that the proposed resort would potentially destroy the wetland habitat of flamingos. And it's not just the everyday citizens wondering how the hell this project was approved. Politico reports this, quote, Albania's special anti-corruption prosecution office confirmed Monday that it had opened an investigation into controversial changes in the area's protected status and land ownership in 2024, which opened the door to tourism development. According to a statement from a PR agency working with Jared Kushner's investment firm, which is largely funded by $2 billion. From the Middle East, they are, quote, excited about the opportunity to create a world-class destination and make one of the largest private investments in the region's history. We're back with Tim and Molly. So I first saw this story, and I'm going to sound like a broken record, thought it was a fake AI video of Ivanka. But let me saw you. You will not call me 100 years old for thinking this is AI. This is Ivanka.

It's an unbelievable, beautiful 1,400 hectare private island in the middle of the Mediterranean. We were on a friend's boat and we stopped for a swim. Effectively, that's how we found it. We swam to the islands. We went on a hike barefoot all the way up to the top and we were just captivated. And it stayed with us ever since. And over the course of many years, we developed the... opportunity to help realize its potential and transform it, but with a lot of restraint and care, because the land is so beautiful. First, what's a hector? Do you have to be a billionaire who boats barefoot to know what a hector is? Do you know what she's talking about, Tim? I, you know, I use the American system of yards and acres. I assume that's a foreign thing. Now that they're making all their money from foreign governments in Saudi Arabia, maybe she has to start speaking in metric system. I don't know. It doesn't feel very America first. The whole thing to me, you said AI, I guess, to me, I felt like an updated like Varuka Salt. You remember her from Charlie and the Chauvin Factory? Of course I do. Daddy, I saw this island and I had to have it. I just had to have it. I love the island so much. Yeah, the gluttony. But I don't know. It's depressed. It's so crazy the extent of their corruption, I guess is the important thing that I would say. It's hard to keep track of everything. And there's a whole Albania protest movement happening about the Trump family, you know. going and pillaging one of their islands in a corrupt deal, you know, with their government and with a bunch of other oligarchs throughout the world. And I don't think that people at all understand the scale of this. And there are Trump operations like being built in Southeast Asia. Like they're doing deals in Venezuela, the rare earths in Greenland that they were looking into. And we're going to make Greenland the 51st state. They are. Just trying to take as much money as possible from people while they can while they're in charge. And I'm good on the people of Albania for protesting there. And it's pretty sick that this is what the president's family is doing while they're also negotiating our failed deal in Iran, by the way. Yeah, I mean, Tim used the word pillage. They are literally pillaging. The natural habitat of Albania. I mean, they're protesting not just against the corruption, but against the destruction of pristine wildlife. It's called the Flamingo Revolution for that reason. It's also, I mean... They're not even hiding. I mean, this is, this is Ivanka and her own telling. It took us a while to develop this. Basically, it took us a while to buy them off. Yeah. Well, and it's also, it's one of the poorest countries in Europe, which I think is important to realize. Donald Trump, this doesn't happen in a vacuum. Remember, Donald Trump has had all these designs on Greenland in an hope of sort of breaking up NATO. We know the Europeans are so mad at us, at Donald Trump, at all of it.

For them to be protesting is not a huge stretch. And then, you know, this island, which is an animal sanctuary, is going to be developed by the president's son-in-law who has money from the Middle East and is negotiating or negotiating, right, sure, in negotiating a peace deal with the Iranians. I mean, like, could he focus on the peace deal and not developing this and, you know, killing off this habitat. It's a flamingo sanctuary, Molly. It's a flamingo sanctuary. It's completely, it's completely insane. I mean, I think the other thing, Tim, is. There is this body of reporting. I think a lot of us in the Wall Street Journal about these really eccentric things rich people are doing that I find just fascinating. They're building moats. We wonder why they don't care about measles vaccines. It's because they want to go live on islands and build moats. I mean, this is absolute insanity. And it also, I mean, just in the last segment, to the conversation of Graham Platner, like, it's also why anti-billionaire left populists are popular right now and succeeding, just as an analytical matter. It's like, no wonder people are mad. No wonder people are mad and are turning to more anti-capitalist type politicians. Like, it's not hard to understand why, you know, when you look at what Elon Musk is doing with the SpaceX IPO, when you look at, you know, the president's family enriching themselves hand over fist. I mean, I think that it's giving. the Democrats a big political opportunity. Yeah. But I think that even, I think even mainstream Democrats should, should figure out, like, the pitchforks are out for a reason. And there's got to be a way to claw something back from, you know, this kind of international cabal of right-wing oligarchs that are doing insane things like taking over islands in Albania while their father-in-law is the president. Yeah, and then doing interviews to brag about walking barefoot around the pillaged island. There are Democrats that are working on this. Elissa Slotkin's one of them, but so is our next guest. We'll bring in a leading Democratic voice on how to hold accountable all of this corruption in public and full view. That's on the other side of a short break.

Joining our coverage, Democratic Congressman Dan Goldman of New York. He's a member of the House Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees. You join a conversation about corruption underway, and we could sort of close our eyes and play pin the tail on the donkey. In this case, we're talking about Jared and Ivanka in Albania. Your thoughts. Yeah, look, I think you could trace corruption investigations all over the Middle East and Eastern Europe as it relates to Jared Kushner. When he leaves the White House as the senior most Middle East policy advisor, and very shortly after, it gets $2 billion for an investment fund. Obviously, it doesn't take a 10-year prosecutor to question whether there's something there. And now with the Albania thing, part of the problem that he is running into is that once you're tainted with something that looks very fishy, then everything looks fishy. And if something is out of the ordinary whatsoever as it is with this Albanian project, then the question becomes why. But I do think... as you say, pin the tail on the donkey, that there are, there's such a litany of corruption that, especially just from those who are actually in the White House and those who are directly benefiting from businesses, doing business with Donald Trump, you know, there are so, so many avenues to pursue here. One of them is the $1.8 billion slush fund. And I think we've been covering your efforts as a staffer on the first committee to impeach and investigate Donald Trump through your time and your tenures as a member of Congress. But the idea that something finally has such a stench of corruption that Republicans have said, thank you, no. I mean, where do you put the $1.8 billion slush fund in the continuum? It is at the bottom. It's the worst that we've seen, I believe. Right. Exactly. And you know that only because we finally seem to have hit at least some low spot. I wouldn't say bottom, but some low spot where the Republicans are jumping. And I don't know if they're jumping as much because. John Cornyn and Bill Cassidy were removed by Donald Trump endorsed candidates around the same time that the slush fund happened, or if it is actually just too much, or perhaps it is a critical mass of Thom Tillis, of Bill Cassidy, of John Cornyn, as well as the others who have Lisa Murkowski, et cetera, who have generally been skeptical. But I'm very concerned about Todd Blanche's testimony yesterday. and his refusal to put something in writing that was gratuitously put in writing to begin with. There was no case here. That is a bruise. Just ignore whatever the case was. They created an agreement, a written agreement, out of whole cloth.

that they tried to ram through the American people and the Congress. Then the next day, Todd Blanche adds an addendum to this to absolve Donald Trump, his family and his businesses of all tax liability from here out infinitum. Now, the fact that he says, no, no, no, we're not going to go forward with it now, but I'm not going to put it in writing is highly, highly suspicious. And it's also very concerning because there are other ways that they could do this. through the False Claims Tort Act as one example, that they might just be able to do this through the side door what they were unable to do through the front door. And the fact that there's no discussion about this. IRS tax immunity is very disconcerting with whatever it is that's going on over in the Senate, that needs to be included in whatever is the Republican senators are going to insist remain in the reconciliation bill whenever it's finished that will put and essentially rescind this slush fund. Do not forget that tax immunity. Well, it's funny. I mean, even Enrique Taria was saying, oh, they'll find a workaround. I mean, they'll figure this out to give us our money. Congressman Dan Goldman, thank you for joining us today. Tim Miller, Molly Jong-Fast. I'm always grateful to have you two here, especially today. Thank you so much for being with us. Quick break. We'll be right back.

If you are looking for some Nick's adjacent news to sustain your buzz from last night's win, I want to invite you to listen to the newest episode of The Best People podcast. My guest this week is the legendary sports broadcaster Bob Costas. He has called so many important and iconic moments in sports history. I had a chance to talk to him about the current state of sports and how sports can be intertwined with our politics, whether we like it or not. You also told me about moments in sports that still make him feel nostalgic. To listen, scan the QR code on your screen right now or download the best people wherever you get your podcast. You can also watch the entire conversation on YouTube. To do that, you scan the QR code on your screen right now. As always, let me know what you think on Blue Sky or Instagram. Thank you so much for letting us into your homes tonight. We are grateful. Everyone's talking about protein lately, but how do you actually get enough of it? Muscle milk. Muscle milk has a great-tasting new formula with no artificial sweeteners, flavors, or added colors. It's high-quality, complete protein designed to support healthy muscles with fewer ingredients than the previous formula and 206 to 42 grams of protein. For when you're stuck in meetings or need a post-work recovery, available in chocolate, vanilla cream, cookies and cream, and strawberries and cream. Try the new great-tasting muscle milk today. Available in stores nationwide, muscle milk. protein for all.