Trump DHS chief grips stress ball as hearing turns tense

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The work was shoddy. And here's the proof of federal court filing by the National Park Service first obtained today by journalist Scott McFarlane. Quote, the National Park Service plans to begin draining the reflecting pool following the Independence Day celebration to conduct repairs. repairs to fix the work done by two companies that the Trump administration hired under no bid contracts worth at least $16 million. One deal was with a company that Trump himself once claimed had fixed a pool for one of his golf resorts. And another with green water services, I am not making that up. The company controlled by this guy also not making this up. He is a longtime Trump donor and neighbor. The work of these no-bid contractors is under new scrutiny tonight from top Democrats on Capitol Hill. Congressman Robert Garcia, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, has sent letters to both companies demanding answers about their contracts and their work on the reflecting pool by July 8th. He was joined by two top Democrats on Senate committees who are making similar demands of Trump's Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum. They're right to do so because as easy as it is to point and laugh at the whole situation, at the end of the day, this is a corruption scandal, one that could sink any other administration. It's also a signature Donald Trump's corruption scandal and a real clue to what we're in for as the midterm elections near. So you're asking yourself, how did these guys get these contracts without a competitive process anyway? Well, the government sidestepped the rules by choosing a rarely used mechanism designed for desperate cases where work must start immediately to protect lives or property, according to the New York Times. What was that life or death emergency? Trump wanted the pool done in time for his Fourth of July celebrations. Even conservative watchdogs think that that's a little ridiculous. One told the New York Times, we've known that this is going to be America's 250th anniversary for 250 years. It's not like we didn't have time to plan. Now we're getting a new set of repairs after the fourth to fix that emergency work. But the bigger problem is that this is Trump's ammo. He uses emergencies all the time as an excuse for every imaginable violation of laws and norms. He wanted to deport people with no due process. So he declared an immigration emergency. He wanted to tariff everything you buy and give handouts to big oil and coal. So he declared an economic emergency. He wanted to invade Venezuela, so he declared a drug emergency, knocking down the East Wing, handing out no-bid contracts to cronies, putting soldiers on the streets of U.S. cities. Any time Trump wants something done that requires a vote of Congress or scrutiny from regulators, he just declares another emergency.

So as elections grow closer and voters grow even more frustrated with a president who obsesses over the trappings of his office as they get squeezed by his policies, what emergency powers might he claim next? And Congressman Robert Garcia, Democrat of California, joins me now, Congressman Garcia, given everything else that this administration is doing, why should the reflecting poll story be more than just a laughing matter for Americans? Well, the reflecting pool, this is just all about corruption. It's about Donald Trump's obsession with vanity projects. And it's important for folks to realize that while most Americans are focused on the price of groceries, gas, the rent, Donald Trump is obsessed with the reflecting pool. And he's turned it into a total... disaster, whether it's a reflecting pool, the ballroom, the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Center, the arch he's building to himself. Donald Trump is all about projects that will essentially for himself. be about him, about his administration, and he's ruining national monuments. It is outrageous that Donald Trump right now is lying. I mean, look, we've known that he has a problem with the truth. But this is now the single largest liar in the history of American politics, looking straight into the camera and telling people that it was vandalized by someone using a box cutter. I mean, give me... A break. Everyone has eyes. We can see what is happening. This was a shoddy, horrific job done by a Trump donor in a process that, quite frankly, was not legal, and now Donald Trump is trying to fix it. Well, we're going to investigate this. We're investigating this, the ballroom, the arch, all of these projects. And in this one in particular, those two businesses have a lot of questions that they need to answer, and we're demanding those answers immediately. In fairness, it's not clear that this was ever going to be an easy job. In fact, earlier today, CNN reports that two employees from a company that did earlier work on the reflecting pool 15 years ago say that the company passed on Trump's renovation because they found it unfeasible. What's your reaction to that? And that's exactly why you go through a bidding process, is to bring in a variety of companies, businesses, you can compare them. That's the whole part of the bidding process. But to just go ahead and pick your friend and your neighbor or your donor, that's not the way to actually do business from apparently America's greatest businessman who wrote books about his business acumen. I mean, give me a break. Donald Trump is destroying... these monuments. And I think what's really outrageous is one of these companies had only worked on one other federal project in their entire business career. These people that did this project had no business gaining these contracts. Millions and millions of American tax dollars are being spent on a project that now has to be redone. And so millions more now will be spent on the reflecting pool. And we have no answer from the White House, who's going to do the repairs?

The same companies? How much will it cost? No one knows. And the other piece is the safety issue. How safe is this going to be? How safe is the ballroom where thousands of Americans are going to go into? Is that also shoddy work? These are serious broad questions. And we as oversight need to be engaged, get answers, and have accountability. Well, you have your work cut out for you. The Trump administration has used emergency powers to give out a lot of these no-bid contracts, including billions of dollars in ICE contracts, millions in PR contracts to a company that organized Trump's January 6th rally. What can you do as a lawmaker besides just writing stern letters to rein this in? Well, we're going to be hosting a variety, by the way, of hearings, and we have been doing this, even without Republicans. And you can certainly expect there's going to be a lot of attention on all of these monuments and the destruction, whether it's been of the White House, whether it's been what they're trying to do to the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Center, the ballroom. All of these are going to have an opportunity to have hearings in public. In addition, we have partners that are going into the courts. There are lawsuits being filed. I mean, on the ballroom alone, it's outrageous the way they have essentially ignored an architect. textual reviews, the way they've ignored the public process. And as it relates to the pool, this is the broader issue of corruption. This is a corrupt administration. You can't just be giving out no bid contracts to your friends and to your donors. And we have to tell the American public and ensure that people know that this is not the way to do business. This is not the way a government should operate. And so we're going to stay on this. There's no question this is corruption. And we're demanding answers from both of those companies as soon as we can. At the end of the day, they've got just a few days, a few weeks left to get to those answers. Well, let's talk about Trump's use of emergency powers more broadly. What about when he claims those powers in elections? And I ask because earlier this month, he was basically baselessly accusing your state, California, of election fraud in the primaries. Are Democrats really prepared, if he tries, for example, to seize voting machines? Well, one, I think we should all be very clear out about this. There is no question that Donald Trump is going to interfere with our elections. He's already done it. He's already tried to steal a presidential election. He's already tried to interfere with local registrars of voters. So we should just look at his history of actions, look at what he's going to do in the future. So we have been preparing with partners across the country. There are organizations already mobilized on the ground. We've been working with legal teams across the country to ensure that we are ready. He is going to. target districts. that perhaps have close elections. He's in a target district where he can send in, perhaps whether it's a National Guard or whether it's ICE or whether it's local law enforcement to intimidate voters. And he's going to use everything he can, every lever he has, whether it's trying to go after mail-in voting, whether it's going to try to go after not giving people a chance to vote, for example, like the SAVE Act, where, of course, we now would make it so much more difficult for women who get married, who change their names to actually vote. And so there will be an all-out assault on our election process.

it's already starting, but we're also preparing, and in support of the American public, are prepared for it as well. In the remaining time we have left, I want to ask you about another Trump corruption case. Your colleague Jamie Raskin of Maryland announced that he is seeking a discharge petition to permanently block Trump's proposed $1.8 billion weaponization slush fund. You helped pass a rare successful discharge petition forcing the release of the Epstein files. How likely do you think it is that this one gets through? I think there's a good chance. Look, there have been, I've talked to some Republicans as well. This slush fund, again, what a joke. I mean, complete corruption. There are a growing number of Republicans that are just sick and tired of Donald Trump and what he's doing, just the corruption, the way he's not listening to survivors, the way he's spending money on whatever project he wants. And so I'm hopeful that the same group of Republicans that have been with us on issues around the Epstein files and others will join us on this discharge petition. Obviously, Jamie Raskin, who is a hero in the Congress, is doing the right thing. We support this action. And as you know, there's been judges in the courts, there is no guarantee, even though there has been, of course, court action that Donald Trump is not going to try to revisit the slush. So this is a way, hopefully, of putting additional pressure, getting some Republicans on board and passing good legislation. Congressman Robert Garcia, thanks for your time tonight. Coming up, the latest Supreme Court decision allowing Trump to kick out thousands of legal immigrants. That's up next.

Today we had two huge decisions on immigration by the Supreme Court aimed at making America look more like the vision or maybe the fever dreams of Donald Trump and Stephen Miller. In two back-to-back six to three rulings, the court's conservatives handed Trump and Miller the power to expel hundreds of thousands of migrants from Haiti and thousands from Syria by ending humanitarian protections that have permitted them to live and work legally. in the United States for more than a decade. They also allowed the Trump administration to turn away migrants seeking asylum along the U.S.-Mexico border by physically preventing them from crossing into the United States as they sought protection from persecution. Also today, one of the key people in charge of executing Stephen Miller's vision for America appeared before Congress. This guy. Markwayne Mullin, who narrowly won confirmation as Homeland Security Secretary over the objections of one key Republican Rand Paul, who has said that Mullen has, quote, anger issues, which sounds pretty plausible when you remember how a few years ago then Markwayne Mullin challenged a witness to a fight on the Senate floor. We can be to consenting adults. We can finish it here. Okay, that's fine. Perfect. You want to do it now? I'd love to do it right now. Well, stain your butt up then. You stand your butt up. Oh, hold on. Stop it. Today, Markwayne Mullin, in his new capacity as Secretary of DHS, had to appear before Congress, clutching a stress ball, really, to apparently keep his anger in check as he clashed with Democratic members and the Republican Committee Chairman. Secretary Mullen, does DHS have any official specific internal goals or policies to reduce deaths in custody? Ma'am, your numbers just aren't accurate. We've had 0.009 percent. I didn't, Mr. Secretary, I'm asking about this. It's 0.009 percent of deaths. And we've had 54 total in the president's presence of time. Those are dangerous accusations you're making. Mr. Secretary. Those are dangerous accusations that she's making. Because in the state of Illinois, they're twice as high to die in the state penitentiary in Illinois. Then they aren't in attention. You are invited to this committee. This is my time. Let me just say this to you, sir. Again, it is my time. 3,900 children were separated from their family. 450,000 kids were lost. Mr. Secretary, you didn't say a word about it. interrupt. Don't you point your finger at me. I will point my finger at you. Don't you be a hypocrite then. Did you be as upset? You should be as upset about the 450,000 kids that were lost. You didn't say a word about it. For four years, you never said a word. Mr. Secretary. Could you put him in his place for, for? Don't yell at me. You should be putting your place. Mr. Secretary. If you would like four minutes for a closing statement when everybody's done, I'll give you that. But while members are on their eight minutes, I need them to have their eight. I started my comments. I appreciate that. My issue is that they say this for sound bites, and I'm not going to let them say something like that. What did you do just recently for sound bites? I sympathize with the 400,000. We are going to have something resembling order here. The time is the ranking members.

If you would like to respond later on, there are methods to do that, but it's not a who can talk louder into the mic. It's not. So you are recognized. Thank you very much. I will not let her sit there and lie and accuse something this ridiculous. This is the legislative branch, and it's my hearing, and so I'm going to try to some extent to control it moderately. And do not accuse me of lying. Do not. As a reminder, that man was supposed to be the upgrade from Kristi Noem. But ultimately, Secretary Markwayne Mullin is just an enforcer, one of the many figures executing the draconian blueprint for America being put in place by Donald Trump's Supreme Court. Leah Littman is a professor at the University of Michigan Law School and co-host of the podcast, Strict Scrutiny. She is the author of Lawless, How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe theories, and Bad Vives. And she joins me now. So, Leah, first, I just want to get your take on that Markwayne Mullin hearing in Congress today. Do you have any thoughts? I mean, where to even begin. The idea that he is in charge of a law enforcement agency that conducts border control immigration enforcement proceedings is appalling when we think about the culture of lawlessness at DHS and the excessive enforcement practices we have seen. I don't think it's a coincidence that the person in charge of that agency has such apparent anger management issues. Yeah, it doesn't bode well for reining in any of the agents at ICE or CBP, but be that as it may. Can you lay out these two immigration rulings that we got today from the Supreme Court, what they mean for the country, for immigrants, for Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, like how many people will get deducmented from TPS, that sort of thing? Yeah. So I think that these decisions basically give whitewingers in the administration everything they want. They are basically given a whole pass from having to comply with various federal statutes or the federal constitution. So in the temporary protective status cases, the Supreme Court essentially greenlighted what could be the largest delegalization in this country's history, stripping more than 300,000 Haitian nationals 6,000. Syrian nationals, and then potentially all of the other individuals from countries for whom this administration has attempted to cancel TPS of their legal status to remain in the United States. All of those individuals are potentially now eligible to be arrested, detained, and deported, even though they may have lived in this country for more than 15 years. And then you add to that the asylum case, where the Supreme Court essentially told the Trump administration, you'd need not respect. any of the legal protections for asylum seekers or respect the procedures for individuals to claim asylum, as long as you physically block individuals from entering the United States. Both of those decisions penalize non-citizens who attempted to comply with the law to physically present themselves at the border to claim asylum formally.

In 1939, over 900 Jewish refugees attempted to flee persecution in Nazi Germany by setting sail, but the U.S. government turned them away. Can you lay out the connection that Sotomayor was making to today's ruling? Yes, absolutely. So these asylum protections, and more broadly, international humanitarian law, were enacted to prevent another Holocaust, enacted to prevent countries from turning away refugees who were saying they would face risks of violence, persecution, and death in their home countries. And under these protections, when an individual arrives in the United States, they are entitled to claim. asylum. The majority engaged in some verbal juditsu saying, well, an individual hasn't arrived in the United States so long as the United States is able to physically stop them from entering the border. But that just describes the circumstances of the Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. They too were blocked from actually entering a port. The United States just stopped them from entering the country. And as a result, many of them were killed in their home countries. And the same could happen to the asylum applicants who the United States now turns away. Yeah, if you read some of the memories from the people who were on that ship, they talk about being able to see the lights from Miami while they were floating around Florida. Leah Lippman, thanks so much for your time tonight. Be sure to check out Leah on Crooked on MS Now, Saturdays at 9 p.m. Eastern. Still up ahead, the Stephen Miller memo that exposes the plan to make life miserable for millions of Americans with disabilities. That's up next.

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Last week, the Department of Justice released a controversial memo. It authorizes states to send Americans with disabilities to institutions, nursing homes, psych wards, segregated schools, rather than funding the community-based services that allow them to remain at home. This would undo decades of community integration reforms, including longtime Supreme Court precedent that was designed to allow those with disabilities to live independent, productive lives. This week, we learned that White House Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller was behind that memo, according to Bloomberg Law, who spoke to people who were briefed. And while spokespeople for both the White House and the DOJ denied that Miller played a role in the memo, this attempt to remove folks with disabilities from their communities. tracks with his exclusionary vision for this country. Miller is infamously obsessed with demographics crowing just today about deporting Haitian migrants and refugees. Under his watch, DHS has produced a trove of state propaganda, which experts say promotes white nationalist slogans and iconography. He is also, of course, the architect of Trump's draconian immigration policies. And as the New York Times reports, During a private meeting during the last presidential campaign, Trump reportedly told staff that Miller wants to deport more than two-thirds of this country's population, leaving behind only those who look like him. For its part, the White House denies that reporting, but it certainly seems consistent with an ethos that says, if you can't deport your undesirables, at least hide them away. Alison Barkoff led disability enforcement work at the Department of Justice. She is currently the director of the Hirsch Health Law and Policy Program at George Washington University, and she joins me now. Alison, walk us through what this memo would mean in practice. So this memo is shocking in its reversal of 50 years of policy by the United States government that states should provide services to people with disabilities in their own homes and in their own communities instead of locking them away in institutions, hiding them away from society. And what this means in this reversal is that the main enforcer. of disability rights laws has now said, we are not going to continue with that work. That's going to mean settlement agreements, being undone, new positions in court, and the memo talks about undoing decades-long regulations that have been in place. So why have there been these regulations that mandate community integration where possible? What are the benefits of that for the individuals who are affected for economic outcomes? Why has this been such an important fight for the disability community?

The disability rights laws and these integration mandate regulations come from a very ugly history in our country when people with disabilities were segregated away in institutions. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s own father went and visited one of these infamous institutions in New York, calling it a snake pit. And that is what led to really a push to create community services. The fast majority of people can... and want to live in the community. It's cost effective, and it leads to better outcomes. Think about it. It is community services that allow families to keep children with disabilities in their own homes. It's what allows children to go to school with their peers in their neighborhood. Because of these community services, we have disabled coworkers. We have people with disabilities that are part of all of our community. And that's why these laws are so critical. And people in the disability community have fought for decades. These are hard-won rights that are at risk with this memo. This is also not the first time that this administration has gone after Americans with disabilities in some way. HHS floated in autism registry. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. has made repeated ugly comments about Americans on the autism spectrum, never being able to lead productive lives. You have the president and his top civil rights official using... a slur for people with intellectual disabilities. Can you put this decision in the broader context of the administration's approach to this community? It's been a pretty astounding last year for people with disabilities. Just in the same week as the Department of Justice memo came out, the Trump administration announced moving all of the programs that support students with disabilities out of the Department of Education. into the Department of Health and Human Services, segregating programs for students with disabilities from programs for students without disabilities. This is on top of a trillion dollar cut to the Medicaid program, which funds the very services that we're talking about that help people live in their own homes and in their own communities. And so people with disabilities are now across the country navigating. threats and cuts to the very services that help them stay in their own homes and in their own communities. The president's budget proposes eliminating very important programs that support people with disabilities and their families, and that is just a handful of the long list of policies that are incredibly harmful to people with disabilities and their families. In the brief time that we have left, I want to drill down on something you said earlier about it being cost effective for people to get these services while they are still living in their own homes. You have been tracking the huge cuts to home and community-based services that states have been undergoing in an effort to save money because the one big beautiful bill cut Medicaid spending. Why are states...

doing this, won't it cost them more money in the end if they kick people off of these programs and ultimately have to institutionalize a larger share of the population? Well, it is true that it is cost effective. We can serve three people for every one person in an institution. The reason states are cutting these important community services is they know people will do anything to stay out of institutions. We are already starting to see with the states, almost half of states, already starting to cut services in response to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, HR1. We are seeing people trying to find ways to manage. Families having to leave their jobs to fill in and provide those services and supports. We see people who will do anything not to go into a nursing home, people who are making choices about maybe I won't get a shower this week. Maybe I won't be able to get out of bed. People who are willing. to even die in their own homes, to avoid going into an institution. It is an existential threat for the disability community right now. Alison Barkoff, thanks so much for your time tonight. Thank you for having me. Still to come with less than five months until the midterms, Donald Trump realizes that gas prices might, in fact, be too high. That's up next.

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Despite his very cozy relationship with the fossil fuel industry, Donald Trump suddenly has some tough talk for big oil companies. So it's Exxon Mobil, it's Chevron, it's Shell, it's BP, it's a lot of them. The gasoline or the oil prices have come down so much, and we are not seeing anything at the pump by comparison to what it should be. We should be, in my opinion, at $2.25 right now at the pump. And we're higher than that. And we are doing a big investigation on it. Yeah. They're not reducing the prices commensurate with what's happening. It would appear that the president is not always a fan of big oil. And after causing oil prices to spike due to his war of choice with Iran, he is now more than a bit concerned heading into November's midterms. Max Rose is a former congressman from here in New York. Nikki McCann Ramirez is a political reporter at Rolling Stone. And Philip Bump is a senior data analyst and columnist at CT Insider. They join me now. So, Max, I want to start with you. I think that a lot of Republicans were hoping that this would be in the rearview mirror now, that the Iran War would be, you know, done and dusted, and gas prices would have a commensurate decrease. But that doesn't seem to be happening. Well, they also were hoping this Iran war never happened in the first place. Well, not all of them. Look, I, well, it's a political nightmare. And politics is really all they care about. In the end, oil prices are a lagging indicator when you're talking about the price at the pump, right? And this is not going to change for quite some time, but I'll tell you what is going to be permanent. The American people's memory of this absolutely frightening economic moment and the economic pain that they experienced during this crisis is something they surely aren't going to forget. The Republicans are going to hear about it on election time. Yeah, especially if prices continue to stay high. Pretty much every few years when gas prices go up, the president of either party will rail against the oil companies in the gas companies and like shake their fist and then threaten some sort of antitrust investigation. Usually they go with the FTC rather than the DOJ, but whatever. But Biden tried this. Didn't work out so well for him. And I guess the question is like, won't this just make Trump also look kind of feckless if he can't actually bring gas prices down? Oh, 100%. He says he's launching an investigation. Put him in a hot dog costume. We're all looking for the guy who did this. I think to Max's point, the reality is that the situation in Iran is not resolved. The straight is nowhere near open. And even if it is open, the way the agreement currently stands, you are giving Iran basically toll authority. over the Strait of Hormuz. So it's not... It's a service fee. It's a service fee, like on Uber Eats. Yeah, exactly. It doesn't make anything cheaper. So the idea that prices are going to go back down to the fantastic $1 a gallon that Trump was touting early in his administration, it is exactly that of fantasy. And Trump is in many ways running into those same obstacles that, as you said, Biden ran into.

He wants to continue claiming that he is ushering in an economic golden age. For some corporations, he absolutely is. But the reality is that there are material realities, sorry for repeating the world, there are material realities that he can't deny, that the economy can't deny. And I challenge someone to tell me when the last time Donald Trump actually swiped his credit card at a gas pump was. Yeah, that's a fair point. It's like the equivalent of, what was it, George H.W. Bush being asked a gallon of milk. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, Philip, this, as Nikki notes, is kind of a problem of Trump's own making. How effective can Trump be at deflecting blame here? Nots. Okay. Okay, fair. No, I mean. I want viewers to notice in that shot that you just had of him sitting in front of this gold-covered fireplace. He used to be a marble. He just coated with gold. He has no concept of affordability. He never has had a concept of affordability. On the campaign trail, he'd say it, because obviously there it is. Obviously, he was supposed to talk about it and so on and so forth. Marquette Law did a poll in December 2026. They found about 4 and 10 Americans thought that he knew how to reduce prices. Now, it's 2 in 10. As of May. I mean, 4 and 10 wasn't great to start with. Now it's soon 10, but only 4 and 10 Republicans think he knows how to reduce prices. That's polling that came out less than a month ago, right? Like, no one believes that he can do this. He doesn't really care about it because it's not in his wheelhouse. He just, like, this is not the, the mode in which he operates. And all of the Republicans in his party, they're the ones that are going to be on the hook. Yeah. This, well, there are a number of things that could have been an easy win for Trump. Like, it is legitimately difficult to get. prices down. I want to talk to those 20% of Republicans who think he can get prices down. People generally cannot get prices down. But the one area, Max, where there was some hope where Trump could deliver something on affordability was this housing bill, this bipartisan housing bill that just passed, that was the first housing bill, I think, in like 30 years or something like that. And Trump stepped on it or stepped in it. Let's take a listen. Look, the housing bill is, I made billions of dollars with housing. I know housing better than anybody may be anywhere. It's all about the interest rate. Lower the interest rates, you can have all the housing you want. But you have to understand, I don't want to hurt people that own houses, too. These people, for the first time in their lives, they have valuable houses. They become rich. I don't want to hurt them either. What you want to do is, what, good for everyone, get the interest rates down. So he wants prices to stay high for some people. He wants them to be low for some people. I don't know how you reconcile these things. I guess my bigger takeaway is that Donald Trump can't seem to figure out what is in his own narrow political interest here. Like he could have delivered a win, a win on affordability, a win on bipartisanship. And he couldn't somehow.

There's a reason why the MAGA movement for the last decade every time it actually has had power, the American people have rejected it. The only political space in which this man has ever been even mildly effective is when he can sit there in a powerless position and practice fear-mongering about something else. When it actually comes to exacting real change. to improve the lives of people. It's not just that he doesn't know how to do it. It's that he's allergic to it. In this very moment, all he had to do is sign something. And he refuses to, because at this point, you almost have to feel like he's enjoying the pain. that the American people are going to. I think there's an important bit of context here, which is he's saying he's not going to sign it because he wants the SAVE Act passed. He knows the housing bill helps Republicans win the midterms, but he believes the SAVE Act, which is going to put all these new restrictions on people's ability to vote, is going to secure Republican power. And so he is sacrificing the Republicans, or at least trying to leverage that, that bill that is popular and the Republicans want before November because he wants this thing. And that's the trade he's making. So you said it's not as a political best interest. He thinks it is because he thinks this is the way to have Republicans seize power over the long term. And he's not worried about that. That's interesting because I thought of it as mostly being about revenge for 2020, which he thinks was stolen from him. Oh, that's absolutely part of the Save Act. Yes, 100%. But he also is doing that because he sincerely believes this is a mechanism by which he and his party can retain power. Nikki, Speaker Johnson is sort of calling Donald Trump's bluff. And. sent him the bill, which starts this 10-day clock before the bill automatically becomes law. I was actually surprised that Johnson did this. I didn't think he was going to stand up to Trump, were you? A little bit. And I think it's a very cowardly way to do it because it does kind of... let Johnson wash his hands if nothing happens here. So he didn't sign it. But I think the bigger thing here is Johnson also recognizes that this move by the president hands the housing affordability issue to Democrats. When this was really a bipartisan bill that passed with veto-proof majorities, who is Trump talking about in relation to this bill? Not to him, Scott, Elizabeth Warren. So he has essentially given Democrats the playbook because one of the questions I had was, all right, things are looking really bad for the Republicans. Does Congress want to hand them this legislative victory? And now Democrats get to say, we passed this bill, Republicans blocked it. Yeah, yeah. That's another good talking point for the Max Rose, Nikki McCann Ramirez, and Philip Bump. Thank you all for joining me. Stay tuned. In just a few minutes, Michigan Senator Gary Peters will be on the briefing. We will be right back.

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