DOJ Opens Inquiry into Fed Chair Powell

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Jerome Powell's adamant that that topic itself, the whole thing is a lie, is a fake pretext. He said as much in the statement in a different part. Trump's also used similar types of claims to go after another member of the Fed. In her case, just trying to say there was some sort of financial malfeasance and then oust her over that, which she doesn't really probably have the power to do, but it's all the way going up to the Supreme Court. Trump also happened to tour the renovations now being discussed. This was last summer. He toured them with Jerome Powell. It looks like it's about $3.1 billion. It went up a little bit or a lot. So the 2.7 is now 3.1. I'm not aware of that. Yeah, it just came out. Yeah, I haven't heard that from anybody. But you just added in a third building is what that is. That's a third building. It's a building that's being built. No, it's been, it was built five years ago. We finished Martin five years ago. Part of the overall. It's not new. You can see there the kind of fact-checking that the president's not accustomed to in person, maybe didn't like. But the issue here with Trump is he's now claiming he doesn't even know about this probe. He is denying it, which is a reminder that this probe is suspicious enough, bad enough, that the president doesn't want to be tied to it. But allies of Jerome Powell, independent experts, even some Republican members of Congress find that hard to believe. And remember, We have a system where sometimes the government is given a certain amount of deference in life, in law, in policy, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts out numbers. In normal times, we take those. We might analyze them. Sometimes fact-checked them, but there is some deference. Donald Trump has blown up. any such deference. And so it is not a ideological or political matter when someone lies this much this frequently about these topics that he is now finding that even Republicans, let alone the rest of the reality-based community, don't give him deference. They don't believe that this is the legitimate reason for the probe. And Trump's admitted abuse of federal probes against others adds to that picture. And how this probe may be tainted by Trump's political appointee, Janine Piro, former Fox host, overseeing it. There's another Trump loyalist also involved. Bill Pulte serves as the, quote, attack dog on Jerome Powell and other Trump targets like Letitia James. He is now under scrutiny for using his power to try to build the groundwork for four different probes that we know of. In fact, showing that he thinks he can weigh in on this, he has a different job. He's not at DOJ. He even posted about how I believe whoever the president and a chair will be excellent and Jerome Powell will soon be gone. Jerome Powell's Fed chairmanship does set to expire this year, but he has several more years on the Fed. And this individual, Bill Pulte seemed very comfortable posting about it. Now, again, this may be a tell in the same way that Trump guiltily doesn't want anything to do with this sort of... news today. Now, Bill Pulte says he can't discuss this even after discussing it before. Why is Trump's DOJ investigating Chairman Jerome Powell? Is this all politics? That's outside, this whole thing is outside of my purview, Maria, so I'd refer you to the DOJ on that matter.

If it's outside of his purview, he better tell his own Twitter. The DOJ does not have credibility under Trump and Pam Bondi. That may be a sad fact. It may complicate cases where we do want to look at what the government says and take it seriously. But these revenge cases, some of them dismissed, some of them dropped. Some of them awaiting trial, several of them involving subpoenas flying around, indicting a congressional candidate. They have hit already a ton of setbacks. We've added Jerome Powell today to the lower right corner. The abuse of legal powers here are not occurring in a vacuum either. I have to remind you tonight, as you may know, that Trump DOJ's attacks on these senior officials in a sort of orderly fashion, if you want to call it that, a kind of a bureaucratic... autocracy in Washington, run alongside something much more extreme, the sometimes lethal use of force by Trump administration agents on the streets, which is true those big protests this weekend, and we have more on that later tonight. Some Wall Street and Republican figures also see a redline cross today with Jerome Powell. which is why we can report within this quick span of time more pushback than on certain other matters, including, for example, how people are treated in the streets by ice. Now, that partly may be because he is so key to the economy, so he just touches a lot of other things, and they already know that. For many others in these elite circles, it may be that they see him as a more relatable or sympathetic target. a 72-year-old establishment figure who holds this job because he was first elevated to the Fed by President Trump in his first term. He is someone who has stated facts and disagreed with the president, but he is literally an early Trump appointee and was renewed by President Biden in that now decaying tradition where you hold over certain people because they are in the job, not necessarily because you've already vetted them politically. So if some on Wall Street or in these elite Republican circles see this tonight is a red line, there is a dark echo here for autocratic times if you know your history. When they came for the immigrants, I didn't stand up. I wasn't an immigrant. When they came for the protesters, I didn't stand up. I wasn't protesting. But when they came for the Trump appointee chair of the Federal Reserve and all the money coursing through Wall Street, well, now some elites are standing up. Republican Thom Tillis, using his key role on these issues because he has a banking rule, they're in oversight in the Senate to push back. He says it's clear now the Trump administration wants to end the independence of the Fed. He says in this statement that Trump and Pam Bondi's DOJ are actually the entity that faces questions over independence and credibility. And Thom Tillis is going beyond just typing. He has vowed now through his role to fight Trump on the whole plot and the effort to reshape the Fed saying, we'll see if he does this, but going farther than some Republicans, saying he will oppose any more nominees by Trump to the Fed resisting any effort to change the composition of the Fed until the DOJ resolves or backs down on this probe, which Thom Tillis says is purely an abuse of power.

So on the one hand, wow, so a Republican actually standing up and not just saying, hey, we got to put pressure and watch the courts and do all the things we hear from elites in D.C. He's actually using the power he has and saying, I get it. You want to control the Fed. Congress has a say, we're not going to let you put anybody on here if you keep up with this BS. That's what he's saying. We'll see if he lives up to it. But on the other hand, I just reminded you that they're shooting people in the face in the streets. And they've indicted all those people I showed you on that chart. So if it takes Jerome Powell to wake you up, okay. And if it takes the next one to wake you up, fine. And if it takes too long to wake up, well, you won't be awake to fight when they take all of it away. I want to bring in our guest tonight, Emily Bazelon from the New York Times Magazine to Molly Jong-Fast, contributing opinion writer from the New York Times. Emily, your thoughts both on what's happening and what is some fast pushback from unusual quarters on this one. Well, I kept thinking, what if we could go back a year and know what we know now that there would be two members of the Federal Board of Reserve under criminal investigation by the Trump administration? That would be completely shocking a year ago. But it's happened gradually, and it's happened in tandem with all the other things you were pointing to, especially these actions by ICE agents on the street. And so it's really important to just think about how shattering this is of our norms. of the credibility of the Justice Department and the administration without losing sight of that, right? Because you can sort of get caught up in following the ball every day and forget to take a step back and think about just how really this has not happened before. And the independence of the Fed has been so crucial to the American economy and the world economy. And Trump seems determined to try to shake all of that up. A couple quotes, Molly, from Republican Lisa Murkowski, nothing more than an attempt to coercion. Congress needs to investigate the DOJ. So that's an immediate statement of no, actually investigators are the problem. You see here, Republican Kramer, I don't believe Jerome Powell's a criminal. Another rep, it creates a distraction. That's mild. I say to you, Molly, because I wasn't a 72-year-old. banking ally, I didn't stand up. Does that apply here for people? Yeah, for sure. And I think you have a really good point about the sort of craziness we've seen with ICE and that this is the thing that gets Republicans immediately to stand up. I want to point out it is just also a very dumb thing of Trump to do, right? There are 12 people who vote on interest rates. So him going to war with the chairman of the Fed won't necessarily do anything. And you see already Thom Tillis saying he's not going to, you know, the Senate needs to. appoint the successor for Jerome Powell, and Jerome Powell can just stay on. And I think that this is just, and you know, Jerome Powell's also already lowered interest rates. And the case is just so thin, right? He's going after him because the renovations went over budget. I mean, this is just so preposterous. And that's what keeps happening with this administration is they keep cooking up these preposterous cases. Yeah, and they don't expect to win them all, Emily. We'll put the faces chart back up.

As Molly said, it's easy, you both have alluded to, it's easy to forget just how extreme the methods are and how many people have been ensnared. Many of them, like I said, Republican appointees. When you look at this pushback, here it is. I mean, James Comey dismissed. The lower Lerong on the right has a congressional candidate. You've got now Jerome Powell in there. This one is designed probably not to win. Anyone around Trump, including Piro, knows how thin this is, but to intimidate and to chill and to try to change the way the Fed does its work. Right. And until... Four Republicans at least refuse to vote for the next Fed candidate. Trump is succeeding in pushing and coercing and appearing strong. They have to stop him before he doesn't feel like he's gaining ground in all of this. And, you know, we haven't really seen that yet. So I think the... You could say that it's dumb and I take that point, but I also think over time he does have the power to change the composition, the majority, and he's willing always, it seems, to kind of take this extra outlandish step and see if somebody stops him. But the one thing I would say is that last week you had five Republicans break with him on the War Powers Act, including Republicans we don't often see break with him like Josh Hawley and Todd Young. So that's going to go, that's going to be discussed this week. And so. Donald Trump is not, he's sort of on a back foot. And then he's got the House that voted against him on this Obamacare tax credit expansion. So he's not in a great spot to go do insane legal maneuvering. Like he could, you could see already two he had broken. You could see more going along with this. Well, right. And that, Emily, who speaks to how he rolls. He could be down. three touchdowns, and they're still just airing it out. There's no defensive posture here until unless somebody makes him, the courts, midterms, those type of things. But in the meantime, what normal politics is where you say, oh, people need a week off or give it a break or whatever, no, there's none of that with him, even as Molly's right, I mean, from December to now. He lost the Epstein vote in historic fashion. He lost those two measures there. And tonight you say, oh, we're going to press Jerome Powell. And instead you get both Republicans in public and whatever they're hearing from Wall Street on the private lines saying, back off. Right. And we also have bombs in Venezuela and the extradition of Maduro. It seems like sometimes it's just about changing the subject, even if the particular action is not itself popular. And it also just seems like... Trump is taken with appearing strong and appearing powerful and daring people to stop him. And as yet, I, you know, we'll see if you're right. And I take your point about the vote on the War Powers Act or at least the discussion of the War Powers Act with five Republicans. But we just haven't seen them really come together in any kind of unified way and take him on. And he knows that. So he keeps daring them to do it.

And then you have him in that extraordinary freewheeling New York Times interview admitting that, you know, he would like to steal elections if he could get away with it, which itself should be, right? This is like itself should be its own story. I want to ask you both about the meaning of this and the confessional aspect of it. You're both staying with me. We'll get into that when we're back in 90 seconds. This is a Monday.com ad. The same Monday.com designed for every team. The same Monday.com with built-in AI, scaling your work from day one. The same Monday.com with an easy and intuitive setup. Go to Monday.com and try it for free. For me, being a part of this place has always been about the people, not about the politics. From the field to the studio, Jacob is finding the heart of the story. Connect with Jacob Soberoff. Weekends at 10 a.m. Eastern on MS. Now. We're back with Emily Bazelon and Molly Jong Fast. The president gave a big freewheeling interview to the New York Times because apparently he wasn't. that satisfied with how the week after Venezuela was going. And he took all kinds of questions. He discussed how there was this busted attempt that was caught, where he wanted at one point to have Sidney Jerome Powell oversee some sort of special counsel to get the military to seize voting machines. Unclear whether the troops would ever do that. But. He says in the interview, well, I regret it. I should have gone forward with it. From what we understand, Emily, he couldn't go forward with it. He always likes to speak in terms of being all-powerful. His own most fringe advisor said no. And not to sound naive here on the news, but there are things. particularly on the home front, that if you call up a general and say, do it, that they won't do. If you said to a general, go bomb all the headquarters for all these political parties with military bomb. I mean, there are things, although he's been pushing it. This one, he probably couldn't have gotten done. What does it tell you about his frame of mind or his sort of slipping? blunt confessional mode that he admits in public, this is a scandal, that he regrets not doing something that was probably in a legal order. I think he remains super fixated on the idea that the 2020 election was stolen from him. He's not letting go of that because it's crucial to his narrative that he never loses that he was the victim. And it's like, core and so it leads him to say things like this which seem against interest and would you know have been enormously

consequential for the country if he'd actually tried to do something like that. You're right. His own Justice Department stood up to him and said, no, the remaining leadership were resigning if you try to bring forward this fake fraud investigation into the election results. But he's still thinking about it because he wants to rewrite that history. Yeah, and Molly, in a scenario in 28 where, say, a Republican or an allies on the ballot, if they're losing and Trump stands to benefit a lot from keeping the party in control. You can imagine him going back to this playbook. And I've said it and I've written it. I've quoted it. There are. Deeper thinkers than myself who said a coup that goes unpunished becomes a training exercise. Right. And this is worse than that because it's a coup that's been rewarded with special treatment for the now freed convicts. How much does this way on planning to Trump proof 28? Yeah. And look, I mean, first of all, it's an insane thing for a president to say. And it shows a lot of lack of impulse control when it comes to Trump. you know not to say stuff like this. And one of the things that I think is so interesting about Trump is you do see him often telegraphing things he wants to do or might do. You know, he'll give you a heads up, which in itself is, I mean, we're just in upside down world either way. But I do think he is not on the ballot next time. And I do think it's sort of interesting that he's saying this, right? He is not on the ballot next time. Like, he may joke about it. He may. try to say he's on the ballot, but he's not. And he is a lame duck. And some of what's happening here is this, you know, he's sort of, he doesn't want to be a lame duck. He wants to make it seem like he has. Would you want to be a lame duck, Molly? Wouldn't you rather be a powerful duck? I wouldn't want to be the lamest duck. Yeah. Give it a choice. Yeah. Yeah. And you're reminding everyone how it works. And that's why there is, of course, this distinction between the real things. I mean, one of the Republicans defending the Jerome Powell probes said, oh, you know, he might be trolling. Well, that's a problem. You're not allowed to abuse power for false or joking, trolling motives. You are allowed to troll on the internet if that's how you want to spend your time in government. So you have some people that minimize it that way. But if he's doing that for PR, yes, that's him trying to be the main character at all times. When you're doing it over here and saying, no, I might actually try to steal another election. Yeah, we have a bigger problem. People have to take it seriously, even as we see... Above average pushback tonight. I want to thank Emily and Molly. Later in the show, there are other MAGA allies, including the so-called broadcasters turning on Trump. And we have a special guest and some special news that should be interesting. Thousands of rallies against ICE and on behalf of human rights around the country this weekend. That pushback continues. We have a special report on that, as well as the officials getting grilled about the dissent crackdown.

This is a Monday.com ad. The same Monday.com designed for every team. The same Monday.com with built-in AI, scaling your work from day one. The same Monday.com with an easy and intuitive setup. Go to Monday.com and try it for free. Now, you can watch Ali Valshi five nights a week in prime time on MS Now as he takes command of the 11th hour. The Justice Department is facing its own legal obstacles over this case. Putting today's stories in perspective. This one is perhaps one of the more interesting surprises. And tomorrow's headlines in focus. Economists are warning that American consumers are soon going to feel the hurt. The 11th hour with Ali Valshie, weeknights at 11 p.m. Eastern on MS Now. We're following several developments relating to the ice shooting of an American citizen, Renee Good. This is part of the Trump administration's policies of more ICE agents in the street and more aggressive tactics. That occurred in Minneapolis. And we can report the state of Minnesota formerly, as well as those twin cities, have this new... case. They are filing a federal lawsuit within their sovereign authority trying to stop the ongoing ICE enforcement surge. Meanwhile, there are protests for human rights and against these Trump ICE policies, and we've seen these in cities across the country. Many people, of course, catalyzed by that terrible shooting. This is an exercise of First Amendment rights, while the Trump administration continues to dial up the rhetoric and at times the tactics that are, again, why Donald Trump has turned out in the first year to be one of of the worst First Amendment presidents in American history. Here's some of how that's playing out.

enforcement was necessary after watching all the footage, a few days have passed. What's your assessment there? It was highly disrespectful of law enforcement. The woman and her friend were highly disrespectful of law enforcement. Is anyone who protests ICE a domestic terrorist in the eyes of the administration? I can't say that. You know, it's a case-by-case basis. Administration clearly on defense here talking about disrespect and case by case, but the legal question is whether the American government illegally killed an American citizen. And that's not going to be an easy one for this government to just try to wash away. I want to show you in Minnesota, Jesse Ventura, who has a big following not only in that state, but really around the country. He's one of the rare people to win as an independent. He was one-time governor, of course, has a big background in his whole interesting and colorful life. But take a listen to what he said while discussing the protests at his alma mater. Message for... Trump? Do you mean the draft dodging coward? I don't call him by name. Freedom is not arresting people without warrants. We have a system here. It's called a Constitution. And we have a party, the Republicans, who don't seem to want to abide by the Constitution. You know how I know we're a third world country? Because in third world countries, they have the military doing their police work in the city. Ventura, drawing on his experience around the world and he's been in government and discussing how bad it looks when you have leadership that wants as a first resort, not last, to have militarized policing. We also live in an era now where people can make their own videos and do their own style of observational reporting. And that matters a lot when you have your government lying to you. Government officials rushed to lie. on those individuals who were attacked and on Ms. Good, who was killed by the ICE agent. They lied about the conditions. They lied about a mob. None of that. resolves the ultimate legal questions, which take time. We can't tell you independently until there's been a full investigation, everything about what happened in that interaction, although the video, of course, made ICE look worse, and other people are sharing videos about the armed ICE agents and the potential escalation that they're seeing, where on video, most of the people on the other side of ICE appear to be unarmed individuals.

He's got his passport and his pocket. He carries it with him every day. Get out of money! Hey, go! Get out! Get out! They just got the random woman at the bus stop! I'm no resisting! I'm not resisting! I'm no resisting! I'm no resisting! The troops are in the streets. The people are pushing back, often peacefully, every case we can cover as we get it. But what we saw this weekend was a heck of a lot of people, many of the American citizens and other people who live in this country, saying they will stay on this. They are pushing back. Tonight we have a lot of other stories to share with you, including remembering the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir by the end of the hour. Up next, we turn to the policies that are rattling the MAGA base with a special guest.

As we approach the one-year mark of this Trump's second term, there is pushback. We've seen that in the protests and the streets, but we're also seeing it among a very influential group that has an audience. The podcasters adjacent to or in the sort of MAGA world, who often hosted Donald Trump, who found him to be digitally oriented during the 24 campaign, but some now have a kind of buyer's remorse. I voted for none of it. You're doing the exact opposite of everything I voted for. I heard there's no files. I heard it's a hoax. And then all of a sudden he's going to release the files. Well, I thought there was no files. You never met one Trump supporter in your life who went... Now we're going to get regime change in Venezuela. Yeah. That's why I'm excited that Donald Trump's here. I want him to stop the wars. He's funding them. I want him to shrink spending, reduce the money. He's increasing it. Oh my God. What the fuck are they doing? It's like that's not how you envision the government. The government made a hype video. Yeah. They would make like deportation hype videos with trapeats. And I was like, what are we doing? What are we doing? That was an exchange between Rogan and Theo Vaughn. They are both top 10 podcasts hosts in the country with audiences that rival many TV shows. So when they start to say, what is this? With the political credibility of having been very open-minded for Trump, if not outright endorsing him, it can matter. As for the controversial deportations or the Epstein controversy, Venezuela Forever Awards, these are not close calls. These are things that people remember Trump. saying he wouldn't do. And some of these folks are newer to the political conversation. So maybe they haven't been burned by enough politicians to realize this is how it goes. And your credibility is attached to this guy unless you speak up. So what's going on in this digital space, which might not be what everyone lives and breeds? Well, we turn to someone. who is in these digital streets, the kid Merrill, media personality out of the Bronx. Nice to see you again. My guys. How you doing? You know, just chilling. I'm coming to you as real talk. Yeah. Not a political obsessive, not team this or that. Guy on the street. But the folks who have done well in the podcast space have been authentic, the overused word. And it seems that some of them are authentically going, wait a minute. This guy was lying. So that's, that's what you, I feel like there's, there's a lot of, there's a lot of capping going on. Like, lying capping. Like lying. Lying. Like, just being like, you know, like, oh, I didn't vote for this. I didn't know about this, about this guy. Listen, man. Because Rich the kid said no cap in my rap. No cap in my rap. You know what you're saying? You see cap in this rap. I see a lot of cap in that raping. Explain. Because, listen, 2016, you knew the guy's attitude. You knew what he was about. You know what I'm saying? Like, people don't change in four years. And he didn't stop the whole rhetoric. Everything that he was doing, bro, he maintained it from 2016 on.

So to be like, yo, I don't know, this is wild. I didn't know that he was going to do this. Wow, that's crazy. That's like me going into a kennel covered in meat being like, yo, why are these dogs biting me? This is wild. I did not tell you how to do this. And that's what's happening right now. So now. To your point, the buyer's remorse is kicking in. Is it because part of their audience isn't feeling it? That part. You know what I mean? You come out, you campaign, yo, we're going to expose these PDFs. We're going to expose the Epstein files. We're going to expose everything out on the table. Then it's just like, no, you know what? That's cap. We're not doing that. We're not doing that. Then you go from that to it's real. Then we got files. We don't got files. You redacted the files very foolishly in the program, but you're not supposed to redact files in. So people unredacted them and read a whole bunch of stuff that was crazy. Yeah. So, you know, I mean, listen, this has been this guy forever. Like, I'm a New Yorker. So I know Trump is from Queens, bro. And I don't know anybody on this earth that can bankrupt the casino. You feel me? Yeah, I feel you. And a lot of this is happening in the real world. So sometimes if you have the luxury of politics being over there, it's over there. But what's happening with ICE and what's happening in communities is really hitting home. Rogan, again, I want to play because, again, popular show. His Trump interview did 40 million views online during the campaign. That's like if 60 minutes and 60 minutes. had a baby who was a media star like a Nepo 6, and it would still be triple the audience. Come on. So here's what Rogan's saying. This was in the fall. Take a look. But does that mean that you support everything that they're doing now? Were they kicking people out? No, no. This storming into Home Depot and arresting people? No, no, that's not cool either. The military in the street, I think, is a dangerous precedent. That's not cool. And but look, it was inevitably going to happen. You know what I'm saying? Like this dude. he just wants power. You know what I mean? Like I had a guy who was a friend of mine, a neighbor who was like, man, forget money. Like forget getting rich, getting money, get power, get access to power. That's better than any amount of money. And I was like, what do you mean by that? And this is what I mean by that. When you could just call up the National Guard and be like, yo, go run down on this state, go run down on these people. harass them, just have, you know, like my own private police force out there just harassing people, going crazy. Bro, you're hanging around Home Depot parking lots? Just to snatch up dudes that are just trying to put some shingles on some roofs? That's crazy. Money, power, respect, what you need in life. Come on. We talk about this gender stuff. Some of it gets overplayed. But it's interesting. If you ask young men, right, you say politically, like, who do you look up to? They pick men, maybe not a surprise.

You're going to see who's on top. Boom. Staying power. There it is. Obama still. Rogan on his heels, which is interesting. Trump lower than that. What do you make of this? You are a man. This is, this is, look, so, all right. This is a terrible comparison. But I was in the seventh grade when they read the OJ verdict. Okay. And they brought the TVs, you know, the TV on the TV stand, they rolled that join in, and we took social studies off and we watched the OJ verdict. And when it was like, not guilty, everyone was like, yeah, because it was a very racially charged moment. You know what I'm saying? I learned that racially charged is a very new term. But back in, even in 97, I was like, oh, this is racially charged. So. this is a result of Barry being the first black president. You know what I'm saying? It was like, it was a moment. I still have that newspaper. Right. You know what I mean? Like. Policy-wise, the things that he did, you know what I'm saying? The deportation is. And it's been a long time when I remember. But that's a very different type of strength, if you want to call it macho or not, than the other two on the chart. I want to go to local news. You've been on our program many times. Yes. You are taking up a big role. The headlines put it here. Hot 97 names. The Kid Mero as a new morning show host, succeeding Ero in the morning. We know them as well. Congratulations. Thank you. What does it mean to you to take on this big role in New York radio with also a national reach? Yo, Ari, as a child of hip-hop, which I know you are, this is, and also a child of New York. I'm a Bronx born and raised kid who drove around without a license at 15 years old, allegedly, listening to Funkmaster Flex. And now we're in the same building. Drop a bomb on it. And he's dropping a bomb on me talking about, yo, this is our new guy in the morning. Flex bomb. Flex bomb. So, listen, it's a legacy thing for me. You know what I mean? Respect. Yeah, you know, like, Hot 97 is the New York Knicks. It's the New York Yankees of hip-hop. You know what I mean? Radio stations are New York. So getting that, taking up that mantle. Huge. And I know this is about the future, but I got to ask you about the facts and the history. You feel anything about Ebro and the folks who left, big shoes to fill? Huge shoes to fill. You know what I mean? They were there for decades. You know what I mean? Consistent, delivering, doing what they had to do, and, you know, a model to follow. So, again, like you said, big shoes to fill, but... I'm a film. They already hit me up. Congratulations me, you know, showing love. So shout out to y'all. You know what I mean? And I'm going to keep it pushing, man. Like, I'm going to do this thing for New York. For New York. Yes. And also, I want to give you something, I argue. Because every time I come up here, some lighters, I take some pairs. I'm going to give you this right here. I know we are mourning.

What do we got here? The end of the Metro card, but I give it right there. The Merrill card. Does it work? It's unlimited, baby. Oh, wait. They're worse. Wait, and what Merrill face is this? Come on. Come on now. Come on now. Respect, man. This is unlimited everywhere. So, this is getting very New York. I'll tell everybody out in the country. They had the tokens. Then they went to the cards. They have discontinued the cards. Now you just use your own credit card Apple swap. So, you know. It's an iconic. Hoves said, and this is a serious one, but about the subway tokens. He said, they're going to keep choking brothers. We had to turn style. I ain't your token brother. I remember, ladies and gentlemen, tokens, to cards, Merro cards. Let's go. Congratulations. There it is. The new show, Mornings with Mero premieres tomorrow. The beat got you with the story tomorrow on Hot 97 in New York, and you can look it up on YouTube when we come back, remembering Bob Weir.

We chase the music just as hard and as fast as we possibly can. And if we do that well, then they're going to be set aside. We figure. Bob Weir, the rhythm guitarist singer and founding member of the Grateful Dead, died this weekend at 78 from lung issues after recently battling cancer, according to a statement from his family. And so now tonight, we reflect on Weir's life, which unfolded within a wider cultural revolution, which began in 1960, San Francisco, and ultimately wielded truly global influence for really 50 years. We are alongside the lead guitarist Jerry Garcia and that band whose members evolved over decades really established something that went beyond music itself. We were helped light the dead's flame and kept carrying the torch for what became really part of the hippie movements. soundtrack. This band was known for jamming and touring. Weir's particular contribution included fusing a kind of revolutionary counterculture vibe, which we all recognize from so much of the music of that era, with his own take on classic Americana. Weir's guitar had a reverent nod to blues and folk, rock, bluegrass, and even in times country. And while some 70s rock and jam bands seem to kind of draft on their own nostalgia or throwbacks, the Dead did that, but Weir was also key to the band's evolving energy, the large crowds of new and young fans you see here. He was the main member to lead the band after Garcia's death through decades more tours, music, and evolution, including other configurations that many young fans know as The Grateful Dead, like Dead and Co, with John Péter Magyar. And it showed that the hippie spirit is alive today, not merely for history lessons and throwbacks. The dead were always slyly known for being live. Iconic for the winding improv performances that change night after night. They actually hold the record for over 2,300 live shows, a record for any band. And their crowds were looking for those timeless songs, jams, and connecting with the community they called the Deadheads. We keep they dance and shake their bones and the politicians throwing stones singing ashes ashes all fall down. Chugging, club and chips gave shame. Keep chugging, life that you know man. So far's just a reason. Well, it's just a mind. I don't trust nothing, but I don't know to my life. Weir's legacy, of course, tied to his great friend and collaborator Jerry Garcia, They had their own kind of balance that everyone knows from so many of the old live recordings.

Garcia's mind-bending kind of exploratory runs would dance again swears approach to chords and a voice that would often ground or bring back the wild jams to a chorus or a rock and roll song. Garcia passed away in 1995 and we're told us right here on the beat about how he had visits from Jerry Garcia during his dreams. How does he appear to you in your dreams? Is it a specific memory you guys shared that comes up or he comes back and sort of is like a person's in your life now? Well, you know, like for instance, a while back, he came to me in a dream and introduced to me a song that we were going to work on together. It was a jazz ballad that we were going to do a duet on. And the song itself was a living critter, not unlike a great big, ethereal sheep dog. came up and stiffed me and I batted it around a little bit and I sort of nipped back at me and we got to be friends and we got to like each other and then and that sort of confirmed a notion that I've been harboring for a long time that the song is an actual living entity of some sort. The song's a living entity. The dead there grew up really before their generations and then as mentioned, recruited or found so many new fans born long after they began. They weren't about any particular defined written agenda, more of a big tent vibe. They did make a kind of exception in 2008 coming out for the Obama inaugural ball as a kind of special moment. We spoke to Weir before the 2020 election and got into a couple topics. Skull and Roses are Dancing Bears. Oh, it's calling roses for sure. I never was all that fond of the dancing bears. No? They're cuddly. This is kind of a tough one, but define box of rain. You're going to have to get Phil on the phone for that one. If you had to define this election, would it be hell in a bucket or dancing in the streets? Or a little of both. Everybody loves playing in the band. And you say, I don't trust to nothing, but I know it'll come out right. Do you still have that optimism today, sir? You know, my entire life has been an exercise in faith. An exercise in faith. I'll just mention the first time I saw Bob Weir play was in 1994 with the fully composed Grateful Dead at the time. Last time I got to see him play was this summer. with Dead and Go at the Sphere. And there's nothing particularly unique about that. I just happened to be the one talking about him. Like so many people were reflecting and talking about him, I know over this weekend with this news. A life well lived. Millions of other fans have this experience. Being a deadhead meant you could check in with this band anytime. Could be alone going through one of the great old recordings you happen to like of a particular night. Or you could go out and do a new five nights in a row. You could take a few years off and come back and tap into what was clearly an ongoing intergenerational and often ineffable experience which brought people together for live music and the genuine shared excitement of something new because the set list always changed, which is really different than most bands. And that new thing was of course famously marbled right over the rich traditions of something old. And as they say,

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