Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics. Well, we discussed the top political headlines with some of today's best minds.
Matt and Meg is now hashtagging fifty first state when referring to Canada. We have such a great show for you today. The Washington Post Dana Millbank stops by to talk the obvious turmoil beginning as Trump takes office. Then we'll talk to Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell about how ags can protect citizens from Trump's aggressions. But first the news. So, Mali, I don't know how mister Trump does it, but somehow I'm feeling sympathy for Liz Cheney, and I don't like
feeling sympathy for Liz Cheney. What are you seeing happening here?
What's about to happen is really quite scary and terrible. Trump has set up a situation where his people, and this is Barry Laudermilk, who you may remember from the in s Embomama January sixth, represented Laudermil is trying to set up a retribution trial for Liz Cheney for her trying to.
Keep the rule of law going. What this is is it will be a show trial if it's allowed to happen, which it very well might, it will be the beginning of undermining all of a rule of law. It will flout democratic norms. It will be truly terrifying, and it will be the beginning. It is appalling. We have had other times in our country that have been this dark. But it is just a shocking development. And it's shocking
but is not surprising. Like so many things we're going to see in Trump world, he has people who are willing to do the unthinkable to protect him, change the rule of law around create fake You know, Liz Chaney's crime would be holding Donald Trump accountable for January sixth, That would be the crime she would be standing trial for. And if you think about this, it is truly terrifying circumstance.
Now again, it's Trump, so nobody knows if any of this will actually happen, and it's Loud or Milk who again, you know, none of these people are known as people who have their word being their bond. But it still is truly just terrifying development. Last night, Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy who did about XD about how it's just you know, this is the thing we want to protect norms and institutions, right, we want them to survive the four years of Trump.
If we start the Trump's second administration, which showed childs of his political enemies, that is setting us up to go someplace really dark. So look, there are still people who know right from wrong in that administration. The question is will they stop him? And the answer is none of us.
Now, Yeah, I'm hoping that this is about as serious as the imagery I get when I say mister Louderbook's last name. So, the curvy couch of Fox and Friends hosted Speaker of the House Mike Johnson today, and there's this big fight over the cr and the budget. Mally, I want you to react to the ininsanity that when they discussed it with mister Johnson.
Well, and this is breaking you news you do not know. You know who also does not like this. Elon musk the world's sitches man, just tweeted this bill should not pass. The only way you're going to be able to pass it now, mister Speaker, it is with Democrats if you could. What's your message to Elon Musk?
Well?
I was communicated with Elon last night. Elon and Vivek and I are on a text chain together and I was explaining to them the background of this, and the Veke and I talked last night about almost midnight and he said, look, I get it. He said, we understand you're in an impossible position. Everybody knows that. Remember, guys, we still have just a razor thin margin of Republicans, so any bill has to have Democrat votes. They understand
the situation. They said, it's not directed to you, mister speaker, but we don't like the spending. I said, guess what, Fellas, I don't either. We got to get this done, because here's the key. By doing this, we are clearing the decks, and we are setting up for Trump to come in rowing back with the America First agenda. That's what we're going to run with Gusto beginning January third.
So later on during the day, we've seen Elon just endlessly tweeting against this, saying it should not pass a vague two. Look, Mike Johnson is not some gifted politician. He's not Paul Ryan tape. Not that Paul Ryan was so great, but Paul Ryan at least sort of knew how to do stuff. Johnson is really not so good at this He just became speaker in the middle of the last Congress. He is he was like the tenth choice,
you know, when nobody else would do it. So he has a very small majority, and he has Elon going around tweeting about how it shouldn't be passed and how they should keep the government shut down till January twentieth. This would mean that the government would not be funded for Trump's inauguration. That would mean that the government would
not be funded for the whole month of January. That would mean disability checks, that would mean welfare, that would mean everything from all not probably all non essential government funding would be shut down. It would be bad for Trump, it would be bad for the United States economy, and also it would just be an insane way to do things. I mean, this is the thing. Elon is threatening all of these members and trying to get them not to
go for this bill. By the way, Mike Johnson hasn't passed anything without Democratic votes this entire time, So I don't know how they think that this is going to work. And it's just a totally insane thing to do. And they don't even have control of the government and they're trying to shut it down already, so I think it's untenable. But it does not portend for good things.
Yeah, just to give people the idea of the things that Elon's tweeting, He's writing yes to a tweet that says, this, just close down the government until January twentieth, defund everything. We'll be fine for thirty three days. And it just really shows the ignorance of all the people that are around. But yet everybody's calling this guy co president.
Now, well, I don't know how much power Trump has, right, because Elon is the richest man in the world, and he can primarily anyone, and he can do anything, and he has sixty percent of the satellites over this country. He owns eggs, he owns this, he owns that. So but it's setting up Elon and the federal government on a collision course, which you know, maybe again we don't. We're not used to the reality of Trump LUs Elon. Right, We've always sart of Trump as the really irrational actor.
Now we have someone who is even louder and even more irrational acting and even more powerful, right because Trump just is president. Elon is now ational security actor, owns the biggest media platform in a way and is also just you know, a rational in a way that even Donald Trump is not. And then of course everyone is addicted to social media. So I mean, what's interesting about it.
It's all bad and scary, but what's interesting about it is, you know, it will show us a little bit of how this is going to go when Trump gets in all of this.
SAMAI I have a unexpected pot twist for you here. Usually those are terrible, but the House is going to release the ethics report on Matt Gates as soon as Thursday, which, uh, well, can't wait to read that one.
Yeah, I mean, I'm surprised that they were going to release it, especially because I just didn't think they would. But it sounds like they are going to Matt Gates is not going to be happy. Remember mac Gates left Congress to prevent this from being released, so I don't, you know, I guess that we'll read it. I'm sure it's pretty gory because he did leave Congress to keep it from being released, and I'm shocked that the House
is doing that. But you know, I guess if it's not Donald Trump, then people get to read about it that we'll say. I mean, Look, you know, it's worth remembering that the reason that Magat's is in this situation is because he made a lot of people in the United States Congress very very angry. And it's a good example of how even though Congress is supposedly a governing body, it really does still you know, if people are your friends,
you do nice things for them. Would by the way, I think that's a terrible way to run the government. But I'm just saying that's clearly what we're watching here.
It sounds like the theme of the week here when we've been doing this has been it pays to be popular in Congress.
Yeah.
Dana Millbank is a columnist the Washington Post and the author of Fools on the Hill, The Hooligan, Salvator's Conspiracy Theorists, and Dunsays who burned Down the House.
Welcome back to Fast Politics, Stay in a Millbank.
Thank you, Molly. It's boys a joy.
I'm such a fan of yours.
I really am, and I don't even I sometimes say that and I'm not about the person, but I really actually am.
Well, I appreciate that.
Can you tell me some of the people you've said about that you.
Don't Yes, let's do that. We'll do that in the show notes.
I'm excited about Mike Johnson and the CR because, my man, guy, he's got some problems discuss.
Yeah, I mean, you want to almost say, poor guy.
But of course he.
Does this to himself. But like this was the this was the easy one, This was the left of just like this was just sort of incrementally punting things into March, when he's going to have an even slimmer majority and when they actually want to do unpopular things. So this is him doing a short term punt full of things that you know are actually politically popular to do, you know, disaster relief and whatever else. And it looks like, I mean, okay, they'll get it through, but you know, with a lot
of Democratic votes. So not only has he pissed off the Freedom Caucus, he's pissed off sort of ordinary you know, to the extent there are such things as mainstream republic ends. It's not clear whether he can get it through the House with a rule or if he has to suspend the rules or if he has to break his own rule for the seventy two hour thing. And I think all of this gets at like Democrats are down and out. At the moment, the left is feeling sort of thoroughly defeated.
But I don't think people appreciate the extent to which Trump is going to be inaugurated and then go through a series of pratfalls.
It's like he did in season one.
Yeah, I think so.
And you can say, well, he's more prepared this time, but I don't know. I mean, he's used that preparation to be like more vindictive this time, or he's going to, you know, try to do more ambitious things. But I just like, look at these guys, you know, and this is with a more size I said, a more sizable majority.
They just can't walk and chew gum. And I you know, just the expectations are absurd that you know, they've set this up like, oh, the doge is going to come in and cut two trillion dollars you will spending.
It's not going to happen.
You know, he's and he's already sort of walked away from I don't know, everything from like trans bathrooms. Oh, I don't care about that stuff.
It's not that many people.
You know, they're rounding up twenty million people. Oh wow, you know, we're not going to have any major police actions, you know. I mean it's you can already see all the backtracking beginning, and then I think he's gonna, you know, be whip sawed by the incompetent House of Representatives.
I mean, they really are sort of staggeringly incompetent, and I want to take a moment to talk about that, but I also want to talk about this tension. So you had Elon very mad about the CR.
You had vague.
You have a group here that's learning how the federal government works in real time discuss.
Yeah, I mean, you know, as I think we've discussed before, You've got Elon, or more accurately, Elon's mother out there saying it's actually going to be easy. Got two trillion dollars of federal spending. But what Elon and Vivek are seeing, as you point out, is a real time education. On Tuesday, I guess it was the Doge Caucus in the House.
You know what, do they have sixty people get together and talk about how much they really want to cut government spending and then a few hours later the CR comes out, which buss government spending in all kinds of ways. Put out there by Mike Johnson and the Republican leadership, And yeah, it has democratic priorities in it. That's because the Republicans can't pass anything. If they could pass it with their own votes, they don't have to listen to
the Democrats at all, but they can't pass anything. So and this is at a point when Trump is at sort of his maximum power in the sense that you know, he's claiming a mandate, a mandate that doesn't actually exist. But this is the moment when he's theoretically at his strongest. And I just think you're saying, you know, it's not the doze that captures political reality, it's this fiasco with the cr Nothing has change.
I mean, that's a really good point.
I also think there are so many different promises that are made to so many different people because in the end, none of this, Like he got elected on this idea that he was going to make things cheaper. There's no way to make things cheaper except price caps, which you know, people don't want to do because they feel like or at least Republicans don't want to do it because they feel it's anti capitalized.
Yeah, but this whole notion that we're going to make prices go down, like okay, you know, gasoline prices go up and down and that sort of thing are for isolated food products. But the whole thing is you don't want prices to go down. You don't want defla because then you're in the nineteen thirties. You know, that's a much bigger problem than inflation. People don't even realize what they're asking for in this case. I mean, what you want after about of inflation is to calm inflation down,
but have wages continue to go up. That would be ideal, so that you know, earning's power goes up. It's not about you know, you know, decreasing the nominal prices. That doesn't, That doesn't. That's not going to help anything. It's going to set us into an even worse cycle.
Yeah, and they're really it does really feel like we are in peak stupid.
Talk to me about the we have.
You know, it's still going to be once after the holidays, Trump will still not be inaugurated for another or you know, practically three weeks, and then he will have these cabinet fights, which are going to really set up Republicans because it's not like there's one objectionable candidate for the cabinet. There's like about four that are really norms crushers.
Yeah, I think you're being conservative in math, but yeah, I could. I think the four you're probably talking about, Yeah, I mean, you know, my bet is that most, if not all of them go through because I think the Senate Republicans will buckle under the pressure. And you've seen
a lot of that already. That doesn't mean though, that it won't be embarrassing because you know, all these things that have been you know, people are blaming the press for bringing up it's you know, people will actually see it on their TV screens to the extent anybody's you know, following the news or watching things. But you know, some of that's going to bubble up and it's you know, it's a lot about drinking and the sexual abuse and a lot of crazy stuff. So I don't know how
much of that filters out there. I think what the Democrats need to do is pick one or two to really make their case, not that they're necessarily going to stop them, but to really you know, try to focus to the extent they can.
Who would you pick if it were you, well.
I mean, heg Seth is the most egregious, I suppose in terms of his personal behavior and his extravagant lack of experience of competence in the required field, although his mother says that being a Fox News post is excellent preparation a three million person organization. But then, you know, I mean Tulci Gabbard, I mean, do people actually appreciate just how zany she is? And you know, and a lot of Republicans are going to squirm about her on Russia and Syria and everything else. So I mean that
would be mine, you know. And then you know, RFK Junior, that's just that's just nutty heck. But I don't know that one's confusing because I'm glad he doesn't want it. He wants us to get rid of pesticides. I mean, he's not ole nuts.
Right now, some of this stuff makes sense, which is probably even more worrying, right I guess.
So it's bizarre that we have to say this, but Trump comes out in favor of the polio.
Scene, which is a huge victory.
For raises the fine work Jonah Salk has been doing, getting recognized more and more of these days.
We laugh to keep from crying.
But so this passes for news But okay, the polio vaccine is safe. But okay, if he wants to reduce the standards for fluoride and war, if that might not be such a bad idea. Definitely good to get rid of pesticides, eliminating childhood vaccines, which would fill thousands or millions of kids less attractive.
I mean, there is this question about just how much you could do to the American people before they notice.
Right, Yeah, But Molly, I wonder do you really think any of this is going to happen. I mean, yes, certainly he's going to do some things. They're going to be outrageous and bad. But you know, as we were discussing him all and ago, I'm just not sure how much of this he's going to be able to do and how much of it is just noise. Like my thinking with Trump is what I worry about is why he's going to do that he hasn't said. I'm not so much worried.
You know.
It's like, oh, he said he's going to deport twenty million people. I'm not really worried about that because I don't think that's even possible to do. He's going to start a trade war with Tarris. Well, our experience on that is the only thing Donald Trump cares about more than Donald Trump is the stock market. So I don't, you know, yeah, I could, you know, could be wrong and surprise, but I don't think he's going to start a trade war. My worry about Trump is he even
he doesn't know what he's going to do. So it's sort of the impulse and the chaos that I think the country has to fear more than like there's some explicit agenda that he's going to push through Congress, because I don't think he's pushing any agenda through Congress.
This is the big question, right And remember when Trump ran, one of the big problems was that voters were like, he's not going to actually do any of this stuff.
He's just saying it.
And there was a real disconnection between you know, a normal candidate people take literally and again it runs back to this idea that you should take Trump theoretically and not literally or spiritually and not teutonically. I mean, but the reality is we're still giving a person who is at best very nutty the nuclear codes.
No, right, absolutely, And I'm not saying that he doesn't want to do or he's not even going to try to do the things that he talked about doing, So I think we should take him seriously, and we should take him literally. What I'm saying is he's not going to be able to do.
This stuff right right, And that's the big question is will he.
Yeah, I think he's just going to run into one buzzsaw after another.
And that is basically the hope.
That would be ideal, Or he'd recognize that he's going to run into a buzzsaw and he'd just pull back from it, which I think is what they're already doing on the mass deportation. You see them tiptoeing back from that, tiptoeing back on you know, what's he going to do with prices? For a guy who does like to exercise. He's doing a whole lot of walking back.
For a guy who doesn't like to exercise. There are some new members of the Senate coming in. Some of them are really, like Doug Mastriano, pretty wacky.
Can we talk about that?
I think my real question with the Senate is are they going to toss the filibuster? And I still kind of suspect that they will if it's in their interest, Like if they can actually get something through the House. You know that they couldn't get through reconciliation when you only need fifty votes in the Senate. So I think they will do it if it serves their interests. But you know, I don't think you're going to see much
of a change in the nature of the Senate. You know. Yes, you've got a few more Maga type who have come in and built up sort of the Rick Scott, Cruz Holly wing of the party. But John Thune is as mainstream as they come, you know, a solid guy. You've got Curtis and Utah. I mean there will there will be others coming in, you know, who can take the place of the Romneys. You know, who knows what's going
to happen with Mitch McConnell. Maybe he'll finally grow a pair now that you know he doesn't have anything to lose. I'm not betting on it, but it's possible, you know. I don't think the Senate is going to go a wholesale maga. I think the action is going to continue to be in the House, and if somehow, with his one vote majority, Mike Johnson can get a major legislation
through the House. Well, then maybe the Senate scraps the filibuster and things change, But I think the place to watch is the House still.
Yeah, I mean, they're just going to have a tough time legislating. They're already having a tough time legislating. It strikes me that the play here is not so much legislation but trying to neecap the federal government as much as possible through executive orders, yes.
Or disapproving of regulations, that sort of thing. So yeah, I mean, and that we saw a lot of that during the first Trump term.
Yeah.
I mean, I don't want any of what I'm saying here to sound like, oh, everything's going to be fine. I don't think everything's going to be I don't think everything's going to be fine at all. I just think this is probably the high water mark for.
Trump approval wise for sure.
Well. Yeah, and in terms of his power, I just don't think he has the ability. Okay, we're talking legislatively, Yes, of course, he's going to have four years of naming judges. They're going to have four years of taking wax at all kinds of regulations. Regulations change depending on the administration. So I mean legislation is where you know fundamental long term change will take place. So what can be done by executive order can be undone by executive order, right.
And that is a really good point, and that is for sure, definitely true. That's the real case of what we're going to see here. People are mad about incumbents. They were headwinds that were real. I mean part of what happened to this election. I mean, any number of things happened, but some of it was this reade towards incumbent. In the UK, what happened was the Conservative government was
finally voted out. They voted in a Liberal and they became immediately furious with him for any number of reasons, real and imagined. Do you think that's what happens here.
Well, maybe not exactly the same thing, but look, I think what you're seeing happening all over the place. Now look the government's teetering in Germany, in France, and now in Canada. For anybody who thinks there's something exceptional that had happened here, that this is some widespread endorsement of MAGA policies, you've got to understand that this is in a high inflation environment. Voters are unhappy and have turned
against whoever is in power. And yes, they are going to continue to turn against whoever is in power because nobody's actually addressing, you know, sort of the fundamental root of the problem, and that is, you know, as I think we've discussed before that you know, the workers are losing ground. Trump exploited that, and now he's going to reward those who voted for him by seeking, you know, bigger tax cuts for billionaires.
It seems like the tax cuts are likely going to be the first thing that he does.
Yeah, it seems to be. I mean, they have to take action on them before they lapse. I mean that's probably the area where you can get the most agreement on. But I don't know Art you know so, I mean, so the very first thing they're going to do is blow blow another a couple of trillion dollar hole in the budget and add that to the federal debt. So extra work for Doge.
In the new year. Dana Melbank, will you come back and talk to me.
I am very happy to talk to you. It sure beats work on Molly.
Andrea Campbell is the attorney general in Massachusetts from Too Fast Politics.
Andrea, thank you for having me. I'm delighted to be on.
You are the attorney general of the state of Massachusetts. Probably we are about to head into one of the most important moments in American life or Democratic attorneys general.
Yes, I would agree, And you know the last time.
It's not lost to me that the last time we connected, we were talking about gun violence. And of course we've had our horrific our school based shooting in Wisconsin, so we still have work to do in that space, along with an administration that is already speaking to some horrific
things and actions they may do come January. And I want folks to know that we're prepared and we're going to continue to fight not just in Massachusetts but across state lines for the civil rights, our rule of law to protect them.
Yeah, how can you do that? How will you do that?
A whole host of ways.
One is I feel blessed to work in an office where I have institutional knowledge of lawyers and staff who were here for Trump one point zero and then new lawyers and staff were ready to roll up their sleeves and get creative and think outside the box. And that means going into court and using our litigation tools to file lawsuits at times against the federal government if they're pushing forward policies that would threaten with civil liberties and
civil rights of our constituents. It also may mean that we have to fill devoid for actions that they decide not to take any more, including in the consumer protection context or on issues of gun violence or reproductive justice, where many of these issues may be pushed to the states to address because the federal government chooses.
Not to step up. So it's twofold, but I cannot discount that our litigation tools are effective and powerful.
This office has used them in the past to protect access to student loan relief, access to reproductive rights, to protect folks from.
An immoral Muslim ban.
And we do this working in partnership with other ags and other states, namely Democratic ags, who are about the same values but most importantly protecting the rights of our constituents.
Let's talk about what that looks like. You just brought up the Muslim ban. A lot of Trump's at least in one point zero. I think he thinks in two point zero it'll be different. But at one point oh a lot of the things that he tried to do were stopped in the court.
That's exactly right. And I think you know, folks still to this day, the average person, they don't know who their AG is usually or what the office does. I think in this moment in time, they will suddenly realize that the role of an Attorney General is really important to their daily life, protecting their very humanity, protecting their communities, their environment, the air that they breathe, the water that
they drink, protecting their children. So the list is long, and we are expected not only to be the chief law enforcement office and officer of our states and enforcing the rule of law, enforcing our laws to protect our residents, but also we're a policy shop. We put forth policy and legislation and sometimes grants and fund programming to help folks.
So we have a lot of tools.
In our toolkit that can protect folks, including going to court to ask for injunctions or various remedies that will stop a federal government from taking action that we know will harm people. And so these tools are significant, should not be discounted.
And obviously we don't know.
Exactly what they're going to do just yet, but we're prepared and have been preparing in case he won. And so we're ready to go, and I want folks to take that as a bright spot on during a very trying time to say the least.
Yeah, for sure.
So just talk to us about what sort of different plans can be. I mean, they're stopping legislation and then there's legislating, right, explain to us.
In our office we actually have I've asked my team, We've done this, I think quite well to really define what are our tools? And I view them as four tools. One is litigation, so being able to go into court, for example, and file a lawsuit against a corporation, for example, that might be doing something illegally to harm our constituents. And we see this in the context of scams towards our elders or towards poor communities, so corporate accountability. Our
litigation tools allow us to hold folks accountable. We of course can sue the federal government if we need to, including a president that is going to harm our constituents. So that litigation enforcement tool is significant and important, but
it's not the only tool an AG office has. We also have the ability to file legislation, to go into our court courts, I should say, into our statehouse and protect our people so I'll give you an example in the context of reproductive rights and access to reproductive healthcare. Our shield laws are important. Chooses was the first state to pass the shield law to protect patients and providers who are providing access to critical reproductive healthcare, and other states.
We just saw that the Texas AG sued New York for their shield law. That's a legislative tool, the legislative solution. And then our two other tools is our grant tools. We have the ability to put out money to fund programming and individuals. We've done that including immigrant legal organizations.
And we have our.
Community engagement tool, so being able to do trainings with our people so they know what their rights are. So a lot of know your Rights trainings and other ways we're showing up. But this robust set of tools is significant in an AG's office. Many offices across the country have them, and they will be not only useful, but as we are in the front lines, they will be essential to being able to protect our residents going forward.
Yeah, Republican ags have really been on the front line of pushing things that they are you know, partisan craziness, and I minded of how they overturned row with SBA a year before Roe was actually overturned. Do you think Democrats have the same stomach to fight back that way.
I can't speak for all Democrats, but I can tell you I do. You know I have reminding folks, I know why I do this work where I come from. I'm very faith driven to whose I am, and it allows me not only to fight for people, especially those that have ever felt left out, left behind, or pressed, marginalized invisible. I you know, sit here with loved ones who are still incarcerated. As you know, a twin brother who died while on the custody of the Department of Correction,
and my family never got any accountability for that. So I understand what it means to hold people accountable and to truly deliver on that.
So I see this as.
A moment in time to not only step up my own personal leadership, but to also model what this courageous
leadership means. In this moment in time, we have nothing to lose, only frank an opportunity to demonstrate the power of our offices to protect our people, to really do it in such a way that everyone feels not only protected, but seen and heard that folks in our LGBTQ plus community, even in our elder community, in our veteran community, those who are poor, those who are incarcerated, anyone who has ever just felt like government was not delivering for them,
to say, government can deliver for you, and who's in these offices matter.
So we will do.
Just that, And I'll work with my colleagues, mainly Democratic ags across the country as a collective with the hopes that we all will exercise that courageous leadership. And based on my conversations with colleagues, I think and I think I actually know they're up for the task, and if we do it as a collective, we really can win.
And I think the Matt Gates nomination, and frankly that going away was because of our collective advocacy in pushing back on this nomination of someone that was not only not qualified for the job but at a very problematic record. That collective advocacy I think helped. And so we just have to continue to step up because we have no time to waste.
Yeah, I think that's really important.
Are there other ways in which people can push back people listening to this, what would be something you would say they should be doing?
One is get to know your AG.
I even said that before the election, you know who is your AG? It matters are they pushing forth the policies that you would want to see for yourself.
For your family, for your community. Start there.
If it is an AG that you align with, well, how can you join their efforts? Every AG I know has a website and ways in which to get involved and to plug into the work in different ways. And if you have an AG that is not actually being responsive to what you think that offers should be doing to serve you and you and your peers in the constituents,
you can also hold them accountable in different ways. And if you in addition to that gathering of information and getting to know who your AG is, each of us either works or we're part of something, whether in a formal employment context somewhere where we are expected. I hope to exercise some type of leadership. This is a moment in time to push our respective organizations to also step up, so we think about the attacks for example on DEI.
I have been in a lot of conversations right now pushing corporate leaders and business leaders to use their platforms to be able to push back on Policyes, that would threaten DEI efforts because I know they work not just to make a more diverse space and if you have that you'll get better solutions, but even to increase a company's bottom line.
We don't need another.
Report on that. So in our own rights, we're attached to organizations where we can also push these organizations that may not pee ads courageous to be able to do that courageous work. And then, lastly, as individual can we
treat each other with respect and dignity and kindness. I can't understate how important that is in this moment in time, as there are folks out there wanting to vilify immigrants and make it seem like every immigrant who is here is somehow perpetuating crime in the communities, which is total nonsense. We have the ability to push back on that narrative in our homes, with our children, with our friends, our peers.
Which is powerful as well.
Yeah, you know, throughout history, the American people have way more power than they think.
That's exactly right.
I just feel like there's so many documentaries right now on World War two and Nazism, and even our lawsuit against the Neo Nazi group here in Massachusetts reflecting on leadership, and it's not just the leaders, and I'll put some quotes at the top, because we are all leaders in our own right. The question is do you want to exercise leadership? But bystanders right, you had Nazism or even
those who were enslaved in this country. All of this happening because either folks did not exercise leadership or they did nothing, which is just as harmful. And so this is an opportunity to step up, as you have said, to figure out ways in which to push back. And there are numerous ways, and I think many AG offices right now are defining some of what that looks like through various ways in which to do it.
As a collective, can you explain to our listeners about what the case is with the Nazis that you guys are working on.
So we have a neo Nazi group n SC one thirty one that sadly was started right here in Massachusetts and they have since moved to other neighboring states where we're not going after them because of their beliefs and their viewpoints, which is that New England should be for white people, and even a specific type of white person we follow a lawsuit against them because these beliefs have now turned into certain action and conduct where they are
violating the civil rights of constituency here in Massachusetts and other neighboring states, blocking folks access to public libraries, for example, because they don't like what's happening in those libraries, or going around in various communities and patrolling folks communities in a very aggressive type of way, which also is conduct that violates the civil rights of folks, and not just some folks that they're targeting, but it violates the civil rights of all of us. So we have sued them.
My New Hampshire counterpart was actually, who's a Republican ag also sued this group for similar conduct in New Hampshire. So there's collective work happening, and I will say at times even across the political divide, where we are doing meaningful work to protect our folks against hatred and bias in anything that would threaten their very existence in being in the world, which for me, I think is even more important than the tangible things we could provide.
Folks.
Are you shocked at how regressive everything has gone to.
A certain extent? I also have been engaging with so many folks, and I have in my entire personal and professional life, folks that have really been in the trenches of combating oppression and pushing for truth and reconciliation, really asking this country that we love. And I know I would not be the first black woman ag in Massachusetts if I didn't have significant resources and a great education, all the things you would need to be successful. This
Commonwealth of Massachusetts didn't provide that. At the same time, I'm mindful of a history in this country that we often don't want to talk about, that our kids won't
learn about. I'm a mom of two young boys, a five year old and seven year old, concerned about what they're learning or not learning, and at some point, in order to be able to move past a dark history, including where folks were enslaved in this country, the lack of accountability for the lives that were lost, that at some point you have to face that if you're going to get to the other side and to be able to create a world in which everyone is only valued
but can contribute and truly does equal access to opportunity, and where the law is applicable to everyone equitably.
And we know at moments, there.
Are folks who refuse to either address that history, to not only address it, but to even acknowledge the truth
about that history in this country. And so in this dark moment that people are experiencing, I also sees an opportunity for us to roll up our sleeves to be honest about that history, but at the same time to lift up the positive advocacy of so many unnamed folks who would make it possible for me and you right to be on this podcast enjoying time together, conversing with one another without anyone coming to track us down, because we are crossing lines in terms of our engagement right
the women, the people of color, black people who fought and died for us, to take our rightful places, to give our gifts of service to the world and of course to our peers. That also gives me significant hope in this moment in time, and we have work to do, but I'm excited also at the same time about the possibilit is what we can do if we bring truth to it. Healing and also action.
Yeah, exactly. Thank you so much at Campbell.
Thank you and thank you for always having me. Thank you for the space you create look forward to continue to engage together and onward and upward. We have work to do, and I'm excited about what lizahead in terms of our collaboration.
A moment exactly Jesse Canon, So.
Molly, this brings me no joy to discuss whatsoever. South Carolina has just introduced one of the most extreme and disgusting abortion bills we've seen in this country where you see gear.
So this is a maga bill in South Carolina. You know the state bills tend to be where a lot of these Republican elected experiment with different legislation, and this is no different. This is a bill that would mandate
the death penalty for women who seek an abortion. And South Carolina ranks the eighth highest in the nation in maternal mortality, and this would mean it's the bill called sc H three five three seven, and it's known as the South Carolina Prenatal Equal Protection app And it is one of the extreme, most extreme pieces of legislation, and it would again this is again this idea of fetal personhood. The word person would now be applied to an unborn fetus. Right.
This means that a woman who gets an abortion could be charged with a homicide, and a homicide in South Carolina can be punished with the death penalty, so it would mean that if you had an abortion, you could be executed.
Dark Times, Dark Times.
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