- 5/23/2025
Top Democrats demand that President Trump release the guest list for the 'Crypto Dinner' at the White House.
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00:00Well, I good afternoon everybody. We will start quickly. I apologize for being late
00:05I know we have votes pending in the United States Senate right now
00:08Thanks to our house colleague representative Ricardo for joining us here today
00:14This is the most corrupt White House in the history of the country
00:19Just because the corruption is playing out in public where everybody can see it doesn't mean that it isn't rampant rapacious
00:27Corruption and what is happening tonight?
00:30this
00:32private secret dinner in which individuals who have put money in Donald Trump's pocket get access to him is
00:40Maybe the most corrupt of all the corruption
00:44Tonight Donald Trump will have a secret dinner and meeting with the
00:51200 individuals who have spent the most money buying up his meme coin
00:56Donald Trump's mean coin has no value in and of itself
01:00It's only value is based upon how much demand exists for the meme coin
01:05And it's not hard to inflate
01:07demand for a product that doesn't have any value when you're president the United States and you have command of
01:15nearly infinite resources given to you by the taxpayers
01:19he creates demand by
01:22Essentially opening a channel for bribery if you buy his coin
01:28The price goes up and he makes more money if you buy his coin
01:33You get secret access to the president to be able to plead your case to be able to ask for
01:40preferential treatment and the extra benefit is no one will ever know that you bought the coin or the you got the
01:48private access and
01:49So it provides cover for the most corrupt for the most compromised for the worst of the worst
01:58To channel money to Donald Trump in order to get their private audience with him
02:03in order to plead their case for favorable treatment from the federal government or
02:09for investment from the u.s. Taxpayer
02:14Reportedly there's gonna be a guy there tonight
02:17called ogle
02:19That's it. That's all we know about this guy. He wears a mask all the time
02:25He says he'll take the mask off when he meets with Donald Trump, but he has supposedly spent
02:32millions of dollars getting access to the president today and an
02:38Anonymous individual who is who is going to make an ask of the president tonight that we don't know about
02:43the most
02:45Worrisome aspect of this dinner tonight and then I'll turn it over to my colleagues is the fact that it is likely to be loaded
02:51with non-american citizens
02:54It would be bad enough if you could pay as an American citizen to get secret access to the president
03:00But from what we understand
03:01Most of the attendees tonight will be foreigners
03:04These could be individuals with ties to terrorist groups. These could be representatives of Vladimir Putin
03:11These could be sanctioned
03:13Individuals they could be Gulf princes they could be
03:19Oligarchs
03:21They were able to pay their way in to get an audience with the president United States to ask for favorable national security
03:29Concessions the Secretary of State won't be there. He claimed he didn't even know about this meeting the other day
03:35and
03:37It's an opportunity not just for
03:40Domestic corruption, but for foreign policy corruption as well. And so we're here today
03:45You know first to just make sure that people know this is happening amidst all the dizzying news in the world
03:51a lot of people may have missed this
03:54Celebration of corruption that's happening today at one of Trump's properties
03:58But to call on the president and the people who serve him to do something really simple
04:02Release the names of the people who are going to be there. Even if you release the names, it's still corrupt
04:07But at least let us see who's gonna be there at least let the American people know
04:13Who has bought access to the president?
04:16Release the names if if you if there's nothing wrong if you think that this is all above board, then what are you hiding?
04:25This shouldn't be happening
04:26The president should be held accountable for this kind of corruption our Republican colleagues should join with us to end it
04:32But at the very least between now and when that dinner happens
04:35The president could decide to show us who has bought access to him who is trying to convince him
04:44through
04:45Donations to his business to try to get favorable treatment from the government. That is not his
04:51That is ours with that. Let me turn it over to a
04:56Crusader against corruption every single day Elizabeth Warren
04:59Thank you. Thank you. So thank you all good to be here
05:04Donald Trump's dinner is a
05:09Is a an orgy of corruption
05:14That's what this is all about. We are here today to talk about exactly one topic
05:19corruption corruption in its ugliest form
05:23Donald Trump is using the presidency of the United States to make himself richer
05:30Through crypto and he's doing it right out there in plain sight
05:34He is signaling to anyone who wants to ask for a special favor and is willing to pay for it
05:43Exactly how to do that. So let us count the ways just before his inauguration
05:49Donald Trump launched a crypto meme coin and he has since
05:54signed executive orders to boost the value of that coin in just
05:58Three months he has already made
06:02hundreds of millions of dollars off that launch
06:06Then Trump appointed a cast of industry insiders to run crypto policy
06:13Howard Ludnick Paul Atkins and David Sachs each of whom has
06:18extensive personal and financial ties to the industry and
06:22Each of whom is in a position in a government position to boost crypto fortunes and
06:31Donald Trump's personal fortunes even more
06:35Trump number three disbanded the DOJ's crypto enforcement
06:42Excuse me effectively crippling
06:44enforcement of the current laws the timing on this was
06:49Particularly juicy the unit was shut down
06:53Just as Binance a giant foreign crypto exchange that had pleaded guilty to criminal
07:00violations related to money laundering was exploring a deal with the Trump family crypto venture and
07:09one more
07:10Trump's SEC
07:13quietly backed off enforcement actions and
07:16investigations
07:17against the crypto firm firms that poured millions into Donald Trump's
07:24inauguration
07:25Tonight though is the topper tonight is the orgy of corruption
07:31Tonight Donald Trump will host a private
07:34Intimate dinner and a White House tour for the top buyers of his meme coin
07:41Many of whom remain anonymous
07:43The American people have no idea who is buying access to the president and no idea
07:51What they are getting in return
07:54Last month Donald Trump and his family launched yet another crypto venture this time
08:01He issued a stable coin
08:03he calls
08:05USD 1 and
08:07Already that venture is a wash in corruption as well an
08:12Abu Dhabi investment firm with ties to the United Arab Emirates and to China has already
08:19invested two billion dollars in Trump stable coin
08:24making millions and millions more for Trump and the Trump family and
08:29The corruption is already paying off handsomely for the criminals
08:35Justin's son the top buyer of Trump's meme coin and a major investor in his family's crypto venture
08:42Will be having an especially good time at tonight's dinner
08:47He just received word that the SEC has paused its fraud
08:53enforcement actions
08:55against son and his company
08:59Americans sent us to Congress to unrig
09:03The economy for them not to help the president turn the White House into a crypto cash machine
09:11the Genius Act should be written to prohibit the president and his family from directly or
09:19indirectly profiting from any stable coin venture
09:23period
09:24Without this fix. We're not regulating stable coins. We are
09:30Turbocharging the same corruption that we are witnessing tonight as
09:35Donald Trump
09:36Opens the White House doors and sells favors to his wealthy crypto allies
09:43we need to put a stop to this and
09:46With that I turn it over to
09:49Jeff Merkley senator Merkley
09:52Thank you
09:54There was a big for sale sign on the White House lawn u.s. Policy for sale
10:00anyone who thinks those
10:02220 people who are attending the dinner tonight who paid about a hundred and fifty million dollars for those seats
10:08Just really crave to have a digital equivalent of a baseball trading card
10:14Well, you're a little off the mark they absolutely want to buy influence over u.s. Policy
10:22The head of the freight technology company said they wanted to buy 20 million dollars
10:27Not sure if they actually purchased all 20 million or not
10:31But he said because we want to influence the freight trade policy between Mexico and the United States of America
10:39Everybody knows what this is about
10:42President Trump is saying open your wallet. Hand me your money and we'll consider the request that you have
10:50That is
10:53astounding it's a type of corruption a
10:56magnitude of corruption it is a Mount Everest of
11:00corruption and
11:02Here we are
11:04business as usual a
11:07Bill coming to the floor that we will be coming to when we come back from recess
11:12to so-called regulate cryptocurrency that bill as senator Warren has pointed out has a
11:18Series of holes in it that actually means it doesn't really regulate
11:24Cryptocurrency, but what it does do is give legitimacy to that cryptocurrency world the stable coin
11:31Side of that world in which it will really put a powerful impulse behind
11:39International companies saying if we're going to do a transaction in digital coins, we might as well use USD one the Trump
11:45coin because that will
11:48Take and put millions of dollars in
11:51President Trump's pocket and the pocket of his family
11:55Company digital company and so will not only have the digital coins will also buy influence with the United States of America
12:01You know, our founders were profoundly worried about foreign players buying influence in the United States of America
12:09There had been a whole series of incidents with with different
12:13Governments trying to bribe other governments in the years before our country was founded
12:20This led to Hamilton describing in the Federalist Papers Federalist 22
12:25He was explaining why we have this clause in our Constitution that forbids
12:31members who are elected and that includes Congress and includes the president the vice president from taking any form of
12:38gift or money from a foreign power a foreign government
12:42He said and I quote many mortifying examples of the prevalency of foreign corruption in Republican governments
12:49That's why and you might recall that just ten years after we're founded
12:53We had the XYZ affair where the French tried to extract bribes from the United States of America in order to start
13:01Negotiations. This was a real threat today. It isn't just a threat from foreign governments. It's a threat from foreign
13:08Corporations it is a threat from foreign individuals
13:12And one of those individuals who is going to be present tonight is an individual named
13:18Jason son a crypto billionaire. What could he possibly want?
13:24When we're in the moment of deciding what are the sideboards for crypto trading?
13:30we have to put an end to this and
13:33We have a crypto bill on the floor and we will be coming back to it
13:37And it's why we are absolutely going to insist on voting on an amendment that will put an end to all electeds
13:45congressional vice president president members of the cabinet
13:49from having a financial stake in this business, so
13:55it's a moment where the vision of
13:59Government by for the for the people is being corroded
14:04Massively
14:06It's like a car in the East Coast after salts been put on the winter road and the whole underbelly is being corroded out
14:12That's what this isn't government buying for this is government buy-in for people
14:18overseas buying the policies they want
14:22We took an oath to defend the Constitution and that's what we're going to strive to do and that's why we're going to strive
14:28To do everything we can to stop this corrupt practice and now it's my pleasure to turn this over to
14:34representative Sam Liccardo from California
14:40Thank you
14:41Senator thank you for your work
14:43Thank you to all my colleagues in the Senate for their very important work on this and thank you in particular senator Chris Murphy
14:50for his leadership and partnership
14:52on the MIMAC here in the Senate side
14:56And I appreciate that they let me over here the Senate side without a visa
15:00We are all here today because it is time to make corruption criminal again
15:07we have endured a hundred and twenty days or so or what seems like a hundred and twenty years of
15:14Chaos cruelty and corruption under the reign of Donald Trump. We've seen plenty of evidence of the cruelty just last night as we
15:22Myself and my house Democratic colleagues voted against perhaps the cruelest budget in the history of this country
15:29We've seen ample evidence of the chaos whether it's around
15:32force
15:34Deportations in violation of the due process or whatever may come of these horrible tariffs now
15:40Of course, we get a focus today on corruption today at the Trump National Golf Club
15:45We have the opportunity to see corruption at its finest
15:49We have all long suspected but now we know for certain
15:53That this president is coin operated both literally and figuratively. I
16:00Was not invited to dine with Donald Trump today. I'm not disappointed. I suspect my Senate colleagues were also not invited
16:09They're not disappointed, but you know who should be disappointed
16:12Seven hundred forty six
16:14Thousand people probably many of them Americans who bought small amounts of that Trump coin
16:19Maybe some bought a little bit more who didn't get invited
16:23Because at the time that we introduced our bill in the house in late February those seven hundred and forty six thousand folks had lost
16:30collectively two billion dollars on a pump-and-dump scheme that
16:34Benefited Donald Trump to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars along with his family members while they lost big
16:42It was then that I introduced the meme act in the house because to borrow from Richard Nixon those
16:49764 thousand Americans needed to know that their president was a correct
16:54Excuse me that their president was a crook
17:00Now a
17:01criminally indicted
17:03Excuse me a charged I should say by the SEC Justin son paid 75 million dollars
17:11Senator Warren discussed this
17:13To World Liberty Financial, we know 56 million of that went directly to Donald Trump
17:19Into his pocket weeks later
17:21the investigation of ACC and their
17:25Action halts a week's later Justin son purchased millions more of the Trump meme coin
17:32Subsequently he gets invited to the White House. This is all very predictable
17:38Donald Trump has created a grift machine and every American is the victim where every American can reasonably hope or expect
17:47the honest services of their public officials
17:50Now earlier today Carolyn Leavitt over at the White House
17:54characterized this activity is not something she was aware of her kept track of because
17:59She said that Donald Trump is doing it on his personal time
18:03Now I'm a recovering federal prosecutor and what that tells me for somebody who might otherwise see community of offices his personal time
18:12Well, congratulations. We just made him indictable. So let's indict him. I
18:17Want to thank all of my colleagues here in the Senate and the house who are pushing together and hopefully we're going to find some
18:24Republicans who have the courage and the spine to say this is corruption regardless of which party is committing it and
18:31On that day, perhaps we'll finally restore some faith in the White House and the American public
18:37Thank you. It's my great honor to introduce
18:40Senator Richard Blumenthal
18:42from Great State Connecticut
18:46Let me begin where the congressman ended
18:51This story is about Donald Trump, but it's also about Republicans
18:54It's about Republicans having no backbone or spine
18:58It's about Republicans
19:00complicit in Donald Trump's
19:03Corruption they are aiding and abetting
19:08corruption by their silence by their
19:11complicity and
19:12They're doing it. For example, just yesterday when I went to the floor the United States Senate and I asked for votes on
19:22These payments and benefits that Donald Trump is receiving I
19:27Submitted for resolution
19:30Every one of them was blocked from unanimous consent
19:37Republicans are
19:39aiding and abetting this
19:42unprecedented and unimaginable
19:44corruption by Donald Trump and
19:47What I asked the United States Senate to do was simply have a vote
19:52To permit him as the emoluments clause says
19:58He can do if he receives payments or benefits. All he has to do is come to the Senate and say
20:04Here it is
20:06Will you approve it?
20:08the plane
20:10That is a gift of four hundred million dollars in effect the fight fight fight meme
20:17Transactions that put already 300 million bucks in his pocket
20:22the World Liberty Financial
20:25which is also a
20:28Corporation that benefits him and his family the private real estate
20:35Investments all around the world
20:37including the Middle East which he just visited and
20:40of course
20:42live golf
20:43the Saudi owned
20:46Network or tour which has tournaments at his golf courses and produces revenue for him
20:52They are just the beginning of a list of corrupt
20:57Enterprises that provide him payments or benefits in violation of a specific provision of the Constitution
21:03That says he has to come to Congress
21:07If he takes these payments or benefits
21:11Republicans are blocking
21:13At every turn efforts to uncover the truth
21:17not to mention
21:19Stop him from doing it
21:22The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation, which I
21:27Was chairman of and now ranking member of
21:31Has written the minority staff. I have written to
21:36both
21:38the meme coin operation
21:40Fight fight fight and World Liberty
21:44financial
21:45Asking for precisely what we are demanding today. We've written to them saying give us lists who's attending
21:53when a
21:56visiting
21:57head of state or a
22:01Representative of a foreign government comes to the United States and there is a state dinner
22:07the list is made public when
22:10They visit the Oval Office. It is completely disclosed
22:15Donald Trump is having
22:18220 of the biggest investors
22:22some more than a hundred million dollars in his meme coin come to his private golf club without any
22:30disclosure and
22:32apparently hiding purposefully concealing who they are and some are
22:38From foreign powers and
22:42Governments
22:44potentially
22:45disguised or anonymously here, so
22:49We've asked for this information
22:52the list not only of the attendees of investors, but also
22:58Representatives or anyone from the administration who is attending both lists. Who are the investors?
23:05Who from the administration is going to be there
23:08mixing it up with
23:10these
23:11individuals who want access
23:14Donald Trump is selling access he is
23:17Selling out America. He is selling it to foreign powers. He is putting our national security at risk
23:23He is becoming beholden to foreign powers that provide two
23:30Billion dollars
23:32To World Liberty Financial as the Emiratis have done
23:36who provide him with a plane as the Qataris have done who invest in his meme coin operation as
23:44We don't know who it is
23:45have done
23:48This is a threat to our national security
23:51It's not just about corruption. It is about corruption that endangers our national security by putting the president
24:00In a compromised position in
24:03relation to
24:05foreign powers
24:06so my hope is that
24:09they'll give us the list that the permanent subcommittee on investigation has asked them to provide and
24:16That we will move forward on a conflict of interest addition to the stable act
24:21That will prohibit the president from engaging in exactly these kinds of transactions right now
24:27it has no such prohibition it must and
24:32One of the reasons I have opposed it is
24:35That it has a gaping
24:39exception that threatens to swallow the rule I
24:43think we need to
24:45reassure the American people that we
24:50Republicans as well as Democrats will stop this kind of corruption, but it is on Republicans
24:55It is on Republicans to step forward to grow a spine to say
25:02that
25:03They will protect our national security join us in stopping
25:08Donald Trump from putting a for sale sign on the White House and with that let me introduce
25:15Lisa Gilbert of public citizen, and I want to thank all of the
25:19Groups that are here today public citizens crew and citizens United
25:25These advocates have really been so important and courageous in carrying this fight and
25:32Disclosing information that is so important Lisa
25:39Thanks so much for that senator
25:41I'm Lisa Gilbert co-president of public citizen a public citizen our mission is to take on corporate power to fight corruption
25:49And it is way past time to end Trump's crypto corruption
25:53the president of the United States simply should not have the ability to make money off purchases of his
26:00Cryptocurrency so-called cryptocurrency while sitting in the Oval Office
26:04His crypto corruption has been brazen since returning to office
26:08President Trump has used the power of the presidency to shamelessly promote and profit from a series of crypto ventures tied to both
26:16Himself and his family this of course includes his personal meme coin
26:20But also Melania's meme coin and as Senator Warren mentioned the launch of his new backed stable coin
26:27Crypto holdings now account for nearly 40% of Trump's overall net worth 2.9 billion dollars
26:34back in February public citizen filed a complaint with the Department of Justice and the Office of Government Ethics to
26:41Investigate whether Trump is violating the law which bars the president from soliciting gifts by advertising his meme coin
26:49Absent predictably any action from these agencies as we know Trump has escalated his advertisements
26:55soliciting for personal gifts through full-color
26:58advertisements on his website and of course
27:00Culminating with tonight's offer of special access to the president's a dinner that he has called the most exclusive invitation in the world
27:08the consequences of the president profiting off his office in this manner is a White House that is clearly and
27:15Publicly for sale to the highest bidder and that includes as has been mentioned foreign nations
27:20We know that 19 of the 25 top purchasers of the coin
27:25Bought them on international exchanges which exclude u.s. Customers
27:29That means they're likely foreign the Constitution explicitly prohibits this kind of behavior because American foreign policy
27:37Simply should not be for sale
27:39This week as others have mentioned the Senate has been debating the genius act to regulate stable coins
27:45We've lots of issues with this bill
27:46but one of them is that it doesn't include real provisions to prohibit President Trump and his family from lining their pockets through
27:54corrupt crypto schemes and
27:56Accepting these payouts from governments. In fact, the bill turbo charges that type of corruption
28:01So we want Congress to pass different legislation from champions like those standing behind me
28:07Who will first hopefully effectively regulate crypto to actually protect consumers
28:12But second banning elected officials, including our corrupt president from profiting profiting from the crypto industry
28:19At the end of the day what we deserve is a president who is responsive to the needs of the American people
28:25Not his own greed not the greed of his tech bro friends or billionaires
28:30And beyond this outrageous crypto grift that we've been seeing we can't forget that
28:35This is part of a huge pattern. He's done plenty of other regular order corruption as well
28:40You know his Tesla car show on the White House lawn to benefit his buddy Elon
28:45His recently accepted jumbo jet gift from Qatar the fact that he never issued an executive order on ethics
28:52Breaking a precedent of the last 30 years the firing of the head of the Office of Government Ethics numerous
28:59Inspectors general and unfortunately the list just goes on and on and on
29:03While Trump is truly pocketing the money for his meme coin and schmoozing with crypto crooks
29:09He is neglecting millions of Americans who are just struggling to meet their basic needs to get by
29:15We can't accept this from our president's America is not and should not be for sale
29:22So with that I'll hand it over to newer book binder my great colleague from crew
29:26Yes
29:28Thanks so much Lisa and thanks to
29:31Senator Murphy and to this really a terrific all-star team of leaders in Congress and in civil society on the fight
29:39To limit hopefully end corruption in Washington and beyond. I'm Noah book binder
29:45I'm the president of citizens for responsibility and ethics in Washington or crew
29:49Crews a nonpartisan watchdog that works to promote democracy
29:53Hold government accountable and ensure that it's working on behalf of the people not special interests
30:01Earlier in my career. I served as a federal corruption prosecutor and then in my years at crew
30:07over the course of Donald Trump's first term crew tracked more than
30:113,700
30:13Conflicts of interest all of which stemmed from Donald Trump's failure to meaningfully divest from his business holding
30:21So I've seen a lot of corruption throughout my career and even having seen all that this meme coin dinner
30:28Happening tonight is unbelievable
30:30this is as blatant an
30:33example of selling
30:35Access to the presidency as I have ever seen and I think maybe as the country has ever seen it's over-the-top even for Trump
30:43the practice of wealthy individuals putting money in in this president's pocket and
30:49Subsequently gaining access to him is far from new. We've seen a lot of that over the past nine years
30:55But in this instance, it is more shameless than it has ever been and it's on a much much larger scale
31:02During Donald Trump's first term we didn't know everyone who was spending money at his properties
31:09But you generally had to go in person to the hotel in DC or to Mar-a-Lago in Florida that limited how many people could do it
31:17Limited how much money they could spend this time through Trump media
31:22Which is the parent company for truth social in which Donald Trump holds the majority of the stock and through Donald Trump's cryptocurrency
31:29Assets there's an opportunity for putting
31:33Massively more money millions and millions of dollars in his pocket very easily without the public finding out
31:41Who's paying?
31:43And because the buyers behind cryptocurrency transactions are generally not disclosed
31:49Anyone could be buying these coins and trying to influence the president with any kind of motivations
31:56That could include foreign state or federal government
32:00Officials who could be buying these coins meaning that Donald Trump would be violating the emoluments clauses of the Constitution
32:07Without any of us without the public ever finding out now
32:11There are a lot of ethics laws that don't apply to the president
32:14And even those like the emoluments clauses that do are hard to enforce
32:19We accrue spent four years bringing litigation against the president for violations of the emoluments clauses and he ran out the clock on that
32:27then
32:28And the reason why this is a problem is that a president is supposed to be serving the public
32:34Not his own interests or the interests of a wealthy few with this meme coin dinner
32:39Donald Trump is giving the highest bidders access to the president
32:44Possibly to influence decisions that affect all of us and all Americans while lining his own pockets
32:50It's past time for Congress to step up and pass
32:54legislation to make it simpler to enforce the emoluments clause to prevent
32:59officials from holding
33:01Interests in cryptocurrency and in industries that they're regulating as as the the terrific members here today are trying to do
33:10It's time for Congress to do real oversight demand a list of who's there tonight
33:14And as these members are trying to do and it's time for Americans to make clear that this corruption is not okay
33:20We appreciate all of the members of Congress who have called out this historically corrupt situation at
33:27Today's press conference and beyond and the public needs to do the same. We cannot allow this to become the new normal
33:35And with that I will pass it on to my great colleague Justin on guidance. It's United
33:40Thank
33:43You know
33:44Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Justin Unga. I'm a vice president at end citizens United
33:49we are an organization that fights for transparency around big money in politics and fights the corrosive impact of
33:58Unlimited and undisclosed money. We are four million members strong in every part of the country and growing every day
34:04Thank you to the senators and representatives who are here today leading this fight for transparency
34:09thank you to Senator Murphy and representative Ricardo for introducing recent legislation to fight corruption and
34:16for ensuring
34:18Americans are clear-eyed
34:20About the escalating danger that's right in front of us to be very clear
34:24That danger is mr. Trump's disgraceful actions to monetize the American presidency
34:31To enrich himself and his rich friends at the same time
34:36This is the president who lectures hard-working Americans that they should prepare to do more with less
34:42That they should tighten their belts and they should restrict themselves to two dolls
34:47to be more clear
34:49This is a president who is using the most powerful seat in the world to get richer by the minute
34:57That is exactly what is happening tonight at Trump National Golf Club
35:02Where the president will sit down with a group of anonymous?
35:05Foreign actors who are shelling out to the tune of a hundred and fifty million dollars for seats at the table
35:11We don't know who most of these people are as we've heard many paid through foreign links crypto wallets. The transactions are
35:19Untraceable and the press and the public are shut out
35:24Unknown foreign actors
35:26Opening their wallets for President Trump
35:30Some say this is a backdoor to corruption. I would argue it's the front door
35:36it's the front door with valet parking and
35:40It's got a red carpet for any anonymous force
35:45Who wants to participate in the president's auction for access?
35:50And it's a slap in the face for hard-working
35:52Americans who have been forced to strap in and ride the roller coaster of chaos that mr
35:58Trump has brought to this economy
36:00It is not without irony that at the same time that mr
36:04Trump and his rich friends are getting richer by the minute raking in millions
36:09That the president is working with the Republican Congress to pass a cruel budget
36:14that forces hard-working families to choose between
36:17The medicine they need the food and or putting food on the table
36:23This corruption of the Trump era isn't some distant notion
36:27It's billionaires buying influence to line their pockets while everyday Americans struggle to afford groceries and pay rent. It's the commander-in-chief
36:35Who spends more time soliciting for a multi-million dollar luxury jet from a foreign government?
36:41Than fighting to protect the health care for veterans seniors and children, it's shameful it is
36:48Urgently, it urgently deserves the scrutiny and attention of the American people and I am grateful to be standing next to strong leaders
36:56Who are holding the president to account? Thank you
37:02Thank you for the work that you do every single day to protect the taxpayers
37:06I just want to underscore one last point that you made Justin
37:10this is
37:11Particularly offensive what the president is doing tonight in light of what happened in the House of Representatives last night
37:17In a 24 period of 24 hour period of time. The president is stealing health care from 15 million
37:24Americans making the poorest 10% of Americans even poorer
37:30Well, he dines lavishly
37:32With foreign oligarchs who are patting his pockets corruptly
37:37One set of rules for Donald Trump and his billionaire friends another set of rules for ordinary Americans
37:44That's the story of the first 100 days and it'll be
37:47Unfortunately, unless we get some cooperation from our Republicans the story of the rest of this term
37:53Sam thanks for sticking around if there's any questions, so I'll be happy to have you take them
38:07Trump White House related protections
38:11Senators like Ruben Gallego and Kyrsten Children has been look what the president is doing is already illegal under the law
38:16So why we need to force this issue?
38:20Well, it's certainly illegal under the emoluments clause. But as Noah pointed out
38:26It is often difficult to enforce the emoluments clause the quickest way to end Trump's
38:33Crypto corruption would be to build it into the piece of legislation that is pending right now before the United States Senate because that's black
38:41And white right the ethics prohibitions in the pending stable coin bill are really simple
38:47It says members of Congress or senior executive officials cannot issue a stable coin
38:52All you have to do is add the president to that list
38:55and it is an open and shut case that could be enforced in the courts very quickly as
39:01To whether the president can issue a stable coin now we could
39:05We're gonna offer an amendment that would fix the problem for stable coin. You could obviously also
39:10add meme coin and other types of cryptocurrencies into the mix, but
39:15Yes, I mean obviously what he's doing is illegal and unconstitutional, but we want to be able to unwind that
39:22that corruption as easily and as quickly as possible and the addition of
39:25The president to the list of prohibited individuals to issue the coin would be the fastest and most expedient way to do that
39:56I
40:01Mean I can only speak for myself. I mean, I think we are at risk of losing our democracy
40:09Very soon if we don't put an end to this corruption
40:12And so I think fighting the corruption and putting an end to the corruption has to be the priority. I
40:18Want to regulate stable coin? It's a good thing to regulate stable coin
40:22But if you do that in a way that
40:25supersizes the presidential corruption
40:29We may not have a democracy
40:31It a year two years from now that can implement the provisions of this bill. So, you know to me
40:40Fighting and shutting down the corruption needs to be the priority and we still have an opportunity to get that done
40:46I know there are a number of Democrats who voted to
40:51Proceed on this bill who are contemplating voting against final cloture unless at the very least
40:58We have an opportunity to offer an amendment
41:00That would hold the president accountable for his corruption
41:04So we're going to continue discussions all next week with our Democratic and Republican colleagues
41:10To see if we can, you know, come to a consensus and decide that we are
41:15Not going to proceed with this bill unless we have made it clear that the president cannot be
41:22Regulating a business in which he is the primary player
41:44I
42:11Can tell you all the conversations
42:12I have are usually in the elevator at the gym or at some quiet place and quietly
42:17Several of my Republican colleagues are quite willing to acknowledge that this is horrific
42:23whether they're willing to do so publicly is entirely a different question and
42:27I see it's my job to do all I can to encourage them to step up
42:30I feel a little bit like back in the criminal prosecutor days and you're trying to get the victim to actually identify a
42:38Corporate they're afraid to identify. It's a it's a similar process, you know, there there are there are several Senate Republicans on record
42:46expressing real
42:48Reservations and outright opposition to what the president is doing with the meme coin
42:53That's why it's important for us to force a vote. I mean the only power you have in the minority
42:59On many days is to demand
43:03Amendment votes in order to move to a final vote on legislation
43:07So I think it'll be interesting to see what some of these Senate Republicans do if presented with a really simple amendment
43:13Should the ethics provisions in this bill that already apply to members of Congress and to everybody that works for Donald Trump
43:20Also apply to Donald Trump
43:32I
43:54Think reasonable minds can disagree about this. I strongly support
43:58A
44:00Bill that
44:02Senator Murphy's introduced and that I've introduced on the house side. Obviously, I would strongly support its inclusion and stable coin legislation
44:10I'm not eager to hold up
44:12regulation of an industry that
44:14desperately needs regulation if we can't get that over the goal line, so I
44:20Happen to believe whatever we can do
44:22We need to do because we have both a problem with an industry and I think senator Murphy put it very well
44:26We have a very serious
44:28challenge with our democracy
44:30Thanks, everybody. Appreciate it