>> Do you remember when the
right wing freaked out about Bud Light and they really freaked out
about that like they were shooting budlight cans. The
right was very, very, very upset about. But like they were
so mad in Florida, Republican Governor
Ron DeSantis got so excited about it. He ordered an
official Florida state investigation into Bud Light in Congress. House Republicans
started their own several congressional investigation of
but like they have spent the better part of the past year on
this no longer what everyone in the country see but light as
the beer. That is slightly more flavorful than Coors Light, but
not quite as flavorful as Miller Lite. But the bud light blue is kind
of a pretty color and sometimes it's on sale. So sometimes you
buy it even if you're not in love with it because no one's
really in love with that. If you're drinking light beer,
no one expects to be in love with that stuff anyway. I mean,
that's how we all used to think of Buzz light admit it. But after nearly a year of
right-wing culture war, no-holds-barred demagoguery
against budlight no longer what any
self-respecting right winger, what any self-respecting
Republican by Bud Light because it was on the end cap and came
with a free cousy know over the course of just under a year
Budlight was transformed from a normal American thing. You
don't think much about into something very, very bad.
Something they would shoot on sight. Former President Donald Trump,
of course, jumped on board money does talk. Anheuser Busch
now understands that he said in a post promoting
right-wing boycotts of companies that were seen to be
liberal or liberal seeming are maybe if you squinted they
might feel a little liberal. But you're not sure why. But like over the course of
this past year became a conservative target become a
Trump world bogeyman until Donald Trump today total
one 80 out of the blue. He decided
unilaterally to call off the right wing. Jarome I had again
spotlight. He told all his followers to start drinking Bud
Light again, quote, Anheuser Busch is a great American brand
that deserves a second chance. Now what caused this radical
U-turn? What caused the former president to turn on a dime
like this? The word I'm is a help in this
question because if you put that Trump
post back up there, the one where he says everybody should
go back to drinking Bud Light, look at the the time and date
stamp on that one. We actually make that part of it a little
bigger. It's a the step that area. All right. So keep that in
mind. 03:30PM, on February 6th. Why is that when trumpeted his
180 degree U-turn on Bud Light? Look what happened that same
day lobbyist for Anheuser Bush
announces $10,000 a plate fund-raiser for Donald Trump. So at 09:47AM, the lobbyist for
Anheuser. Bush announces a $10,000 a plate fund-raiser for
Trump 09:47AM. that same day at 03:30PM.
Trump announces that he has changed his mind on Bud Light
and conservatives should all drink Bud Light. Again. That fundraiser was announced
on February 6th. It was actually held last week
Wednesday last week. But, you know, all Anheuser Busch
had to do was announced that we're going to the fundraiser
to get Trump to do what they want it to get Trump to call
off what had been a years long. Conservative culture war, top line issue. Would you like the head of the
Republican Party and the Republican Party's next nominee
to be president of the United States to do something for you, which is there something you
would like him to do for you or your company perhaps should
consider opening your checkbook and swiveling your wrist? Because that's apparently what
it took to end. The great right-wing Budlight freak out
of 2023 2024 one fundraiser. That's about one sort of that
ended in fiasco. But now the hold here comes the
same process again last week and last week,
something happened in Washington. That almost never
happens anymore. There was a vote in Congress. This was and
actual policy and it's even on a somewhat controversial issue. Nevertheless, the vote on this
bill last week in Congress was 15 to nothing. Now this bill is
on the issue of TikTok social media and whatever you
think of TikTok or whether you think of TikTok in all, there
have been bipartisan concerns that have
been expressed for a long time that this very popular social
media app could pose a national security threat in the United
States because of links between the company that owns TikTok and the Chinese government. I say there are widespread
concerns about this. These have been manifest already in policy
at lots of different levels already. If you are a federal
government employee or contractor, if for work, you
have a phone or another device that belongs to the federal
government. The federal government says you
are not allowed to install TikTok on that device in more
than 30 states. There are similar bans on installing
TikTok on any device that belongs to the state
government. This bill that's racing through Congress would
require app stores to remove TikTok so you can download the
app anymore. The contingent the the only
contingency would be if the company was sold to affirm that
didn't have links to the Chinese government didn't have
links to Beijing barring the company that runs TikTok being
sold TikTok would effectively be off the mark. When Trump was president in the
summer of 2020 he tried to ban TikTok unilaterally himself.
He tried to force the company to be sold. He issued an
executive order banning any American citizen from having
any transaction with the company that owns TikTok which
effectively would have banned the use of TikTok by anyone in
the United States. He tried that he did that in the summer
of 2020. That executive order was eventually struck down by
the courts, which is why TikTok is not banned right now. But Trump was very clear on
this team, a huge issue out of TikTok being evil and bad and
dangerous had to be stopped. He was going to stop it.
That was his stance until until something happened.
And do we have that? We have the cash register
sound. Suddenly he's just made a total
U-turn. I wonder why after after personally trying
to ban TikTok after railing against it and playing Mister
tough guy against TikTok for years now trying to shut down
this app in the United States. Trump has just come out and said we shouldn't get rid of TikTok.
That would be terrible. Actually got a lot going for
it. He said so online on Thursday
and now today he said it in an interview on CNBC. >> There are a lot of people on
TikTok that love it. There are a lot of young kids and checked
out to who will go crazy without it. There are a lot of
users, as you know, a lot of good. >> A lot of good. All of a sudden why the change. Quote, some have noted that
Trump recently hosted Jeff Yass at his Mar-A-Lago club in
Florida. Yes is a billionaire investor in Bytedance. The
parent company of TikTok and Trump is seeking his support in
the presidential race. So follow the bouncing coin.
If you will step one. Take very aggressive, very public
position against foreign company. Step to notice nearby,
ma'am, he has a 33 billion dollar.
15 1% stake in that company. Step 3 needed money desperately
step 4 announced new stance very much in favor of the same
foreign company used to oppose while blinking ones eyelashes
at the man. You just noticed step 5, if you would like the head of
the Republican Party and the Republican Party's next nominee
to be president of the United States to do something for you
or your company open checkbook, swivel wrist, anything is possible. And if you don't believe me,
take it from Trump's own folks. This is the headline in
Newsweek right now. Quote, Steve Bannon suggests Donald
Trump has been bought. Steve Bannon, former adviser to
Donald Trump suggested on Saturday that the former
president was paid off after a shift in his stance on TikTok when even Steve Bannon is like,
wow, this guy appears to be for sale. >> Steve Bannon right now has
been sentenced to prison for a massive and state man has been
sentenced to prison and is out of prison while his appeal is pending.
Steve Bannon has been put upon charge had to be pardoned by
Trump for an alleged massive fraud scheme. Steve Bannon is
going to be charged for that mass alleged massive fraud
scheme in New York State court and Steve Bannon this like so it'll transactional. I
don't. This guy appears to be for sale. If Steve Bannon is
saying you appear to be a little froggy a little for
sale. Well transactional. That means
you have ceased to be subtle about it. >> There is a lot that is going
on in Republican politics right now, which is not the way
things usually go in politics. There's a lot of overlap
between like and politics, prison and politics. But as Politico dot com reports
tonight on the quote, bloodbath at the RNC with Trump's people
finally taking over as of this weekend. And now as of today,
they are firing dozens of people who work with Republican
National Committee with confirmation that there is
no longer even an effort to stop the national the
Republican National Committee from paying Trump's personal
legal expenses out of the Republican Party coffers. We are in a place where the
entire Republican Party apparatus is merging with
Trump's personal legal defense apparatus and the way he has been
behaving when it comes to being transactional. His time of the most desperate
financial need puts us. >> No matter how you think of
Trump, no matter whether you support it or not, no matter
where you care about politics or not. >> It puts us the American
people in a radically fragile place when it comes to what
exactly is for sale and our country and from our government in the Bud Light and TikTok
seemed to have figured out very early on where exactly you
insert the coins to receive your prize, but it. But if anything is for
sale, if if everything's for sale,
what makes you think it's going to stop within beer and Chinese
social media apps, everything must go everythings for sale. Anybody who can pay you get
what they want and you wonder why guys like
this always want to undermine the rule of law. On Friday, Donald Trump had to
put up cash and collateral for a 91 million dollar bond in the
New York case in which he was found liable for repeatedly
defaming Eg, Carol, by making with the court concluded were
false claims that he had not sexually assaulted her 2 weeks
from today, he will have to put up cash and collateral for a
bond that is closer to half a billion dollars in the case
where his real estate business was found to have engaged in
years and years of fraud. And we've been looking at that.
I think the frame on that has been that this is a difficult
and dangerous time for Donald Trump right now. But because of the position that
he's in, that makes this a difficult and
dangerous thing for us as a country right now because he's
got to put a bonds for over 500 million dollars worth of
court judgments right now within the next 2 weeks. He's put up already just under
100 million dollars of that. Still another 400 plus million
to go very soon. He does not appear to have the cash and assets and
collateral to pay for those bots to put up what he needs to
put up for those bonds without considerable strain, if he even
can cobble anything together to bolster those bonds in total desperately needs money.
I mean, right now that bond, the half billion
dollar bond, that's 2 weeks from today. And he needs that
money so urgently right now, while he is openly changing his
publicly held long-held, supposedly heartfelt policy
position, positions in ways that appear to be just
straight-up responsiveness to financial incentives on the bond he paid already.
And the huge one he's got to put up for within the next 2
weeks. There is no public transparency
into who might be co-signing with him or otherwise
underwriting these spots. Somebody helping him put up the
cash and collateral for the spots. If so, what are they
getting in exchange for their generosity to him? I mean, we know the name of the
bonding company that put up the 91 million dollars bond for the
E Jean Carroll case. But we don't know if it was Trump
alone or Trump and some helpers who put up the cash and
collateral necessary to obtain that van from that company. We have asked Mister Trump this
evening if he will tell us if there were a co-signer, sir,
anyone otherwise assisting him and obtaining that bond.
We have not yet heard back from him. We will let you know if we
do. >> But a national security
terms. This is a profoundly dangerous thing regardless of
what it means for him personally and politically,
it's a dangerous for thing for us as a country. We think about
what if you need to get a security clearance for work, right? Want to get a
security clearance. When you applied for that,
Clarence, the FBI did their background check on you.
And they became aware that you were in this much need of this
much money this urgently. If you are applying for
security clearance right now and the FBI found that 2 weeks
from today, you need to put up cash and collateral collateral
to secure almost a half billion dollars of a bond to pay your
court judgments. Do you think he would get a security
clearance? There is no chance you would
ever be approved for even the lowest level security clearance
because the risk is just too obvious that you would be
tempted to sell American secrets for this money that you
so desperately need. Whether or not you are known to
be a particularly transactional kind of person. There's no way
that wouldn't be seen as a massive national security risk. Last week Politico was first to
report that Trump is about to start receiving classified
intelligence briefings. Again, presidential candidates, major
party nominees always get these at least have historically. But no one's ever received a
classified briefing as a presidential candidate while he
or she was awaiting trial in federal court on multiple
felony charges of violating the Espionage Act by deliberately
mishandling classified material. And now no one's ever
received those kinds of briefings while they quick need
to come up with a half billion dollars worth of cash and
collateral to put out bonds to pay their
court judgments in the days after Russian
opposition leader Alexei Navalny was killed in an Arctic
prison in Russia. A Russian Web site that was
made to look like a news outlet posted what it claimed was a
leaked audio recording of 2 high-level U.S. State
Department officials discussing who should replace Navalny as
leader of the Russian opposition. The implication, of
course, was that there's no real Russian opposition to
Vladimir Putin that anybody in Russia has opposed to Putin
must be part of an American front. Must be part of what is
in effect a U.S. government creation like Navalny wasn't a
real resistance leader. He wasn't a real opposition
figure. He was just a tool of the American government and
they pick a new one to replace him. Now this supposedly leaked audio
was so obviously fake it would fall. Exactly. No one. A State
Department official told The Daily Beast which broke the
story quote in the kit in case the thick Russian accidents
pretending to be U.S.. Officials were not clear.
Yes, we can confirm this. Audio is fake. Doesn't have to appear to be
all that real to launder it. You say it's been cited.
Hear you describe it here. You moving into another fake
news site here when the Russians successfully got this
idea into circulation for a time. If you search the names
of the people in this story, the U.S. government officials
who were named as the supposedly in a source of this
leaked audio in the story, the hopes audio came up as
results. Number 2 and number 3 on goal. And if you click through to the
quote, unquote, news story, you would be taken to this
site. The Miami Chronicle, which at first glance might
appear to be an actual Florida news site. At one point, it
featured the tagline, Florida News since 1937, Chronicle has existed for less
than a month and it's created by Russians. So is this very similar looking
one, not the famous New York Daily News, but instead the New
York News Daily. Also, here's another one.
The Chicago Chronicle that sounds like it could be a real
paper. It's not for this one. The DC Weekly, all of these different sites
have the same mix of ai-generated stories on
right-wing hot button issues like crime and immigration.
Plus, a whole slew of stories advancing the Kremlin line on
the war in Ukraine. Not long ago. The DC weekly
site posted an entirely made up story about Ukraine's
President, Volodymyr Zelensky spending tens of millions of
dollars on a pair of yachts. Yeah, that's for himself. The story was Total Bowl party,
but it's perfectly designed to spread on social media as if it
were from some real news site, which is not at least one Republican member
of Congress and one Republican Sen then cited the fake yachts
as a reason to a pro oppose approving anymore funding for
Ukraine. Republican Senator JD Vance, Republican Congresswoman
Marjorie Taylor Greene. And while that's hilarious
about them in all seriousness, Ukraine
funding is still being blocked by Republicans in Congress. These very obvious Russian fake
news sites are proliferating right now. And again, they are
not sophisticated. You spend just a few seconds on one of
these sites and you quickly realize this is not say a
newspaper that has been bringing you Florida news since
1937. But these efforts to not have to be sophisticate ID to
spread disinformation effectively. You just launder it. Just
spread it around. You say you've seen it somewhere else. Just get you get the government
to comment on it. If you can just get into the bloodstream,
if you can just lend to sort of aura of credibility to post
flying by any social media feed, mission accomplished
