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Hello everyone, Happy Tuesday. Welcome home. This is another edition of a solo pod with me your host, Angela Rai for Native lamppod. I am excited to be with you all today to get into a very very pressing question, which is are we in a constitutional crisis? And is Donald Trump stage and a coup? So I'm going to point to a couple of things that i think are important as we consider this very important question. A lot of people are asking, a lot of folks are panicking
about it. Hi, I'm people, And one of the things that has been really pressing for me is the fact that on Sunday I was at church. I should have been just panished to discernment, but I'm being very honest with y'all.
I was at church.
And there's a tweet that comes across from jd Vance, who of course is y'all's vice president, and jd Vance tweeted impertinent part.
I'm just going to reflect on this one portion.
Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate powers. Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate powers. Now, some of you might be saying, Okay, that's his opinion, find whatever, But he goes on to tweet things to share information that supports this very asinine point that judges aren't allowed to control.
The executive's legitimate powers.
Now, what is really in question here is not that, because we know we talk about every single solopod basically there are three co equal branches of government, at least right now, there's the legislative, the executive, and the judicial branch. Now, we have always talked about a system of checks and balances and that is entrined in the Constitution. And what the Trump administration is essentially trying to do. You would say, hey, actually,
there's this idea that we have. This says the executive actually has a little more power and surprise, that is in Project twenty twenty five.
We'll get into that in a little bit.
But first I want to use as a basis for my question for my reason for panic, this court case that is before the United States District Court of Rhode Island. That case, as many of you all may know, I'm gonna hold this up so you can see I believe
in documents. So this court case was brought by twenty three different states attorneys general where they sued because they sued the Trump administration, the treasurer, the treasurer, the Secretary of the Department of Treasury, the acting Secretary of Health and Human Services, the acting Secretary of Education, etc.
FEMA, and so on and so forth.
In this case, they've alleged that the federal government is exceeding the executive brings, exceeding its powers by freezing federal funding. A judge by the name of John J. McConnell, Junior, agreed with these twenty three states, including the District of Columbia attorney's general, saying, you know what, let's have a temporary restraining order on what the Trump administration is doing.
Let's temporarily stop this funding freeze, allow this funding to go forward so that we don't have these issues in the country putting a lot of people in harm's way. So the judge issued this temporary restraining order after the attorneys general filed their case filed their suit. On January twenty eighth, the Trump administration comes out and many of you all remember the Press secretary says, well, we are rescinding the O ANDB memo that issued this funding freeze.
But we're not going to freeze what we're actually doing, causing a little bit of confusion, given people reason for pause. And then what you saw after that was that funds were frozen. You heard about it in community health centers. You've seen it now with farmers, including the guy that voted for Donald Trump and saying you had time to do his research. You're starting to see this stuff come out where they actually did freeze funds, which means they
did not comply with the core order. So on Monday, sorry, on Friday, these attorneys general come back and say, hey, we're flagging for y'all. We need emergency relief. They are not complying with this core order. The judge rules on Monday. That's what this is, that they in fact are accurate and that the federal government is not complying with the order. So let me read to y'all what is supposed to happen when the federal government, visa be the executive branch,
does not comply with a federal court order. Again three quote equal branches of government judicial, legislative, and executive. So the executive branch is not complying with this order from judicial rimps.
That's what he says.
It is a basic proposition that all orders and judgments of courts must be complied with promptly.
This is on page two of the order.
Persons who make private determinations of the law and refuse to obey an order generally risk criminal contempt criminal contempt even if the order is ultimately ruled incorrect. There's several other pieces that we can point out to the defendants who, in this instance are is the Trump administration argues that they're just trying to root out fraud. The judge throws that argument out and says, that is way you guys are operating way far beyond the scope of ruling out and rooting out fraud.
So alas here we are. So, now, what makes this a constitutional crisis?
You're saying, Ah, you know, Donald Trump is gone Trump, He's you know, of course he's gonna say he's not gonna comply. What makes this a constitutional crisis? So glad you asked so again, there is a temporary restraining order. The judge has ruled once after the case was filed on the twenty eighth rule twice Monday saying no, not so much. You're not doing what you're supposed to do, and failure to comply means you're held in criminal contempt
of court. So what happens if they still don't unfreeze the funds, Well, that means that the executive branch is deciding that they don't have to listen to what the judicial branch is saying. Now, the Trump administration is said that they are appealing this order to the First Circuit Circuit Court of Appeals, and right now, I'm gonna tell you it's not going to go in their favor. There is not a single conservative judge on the First Circuit Court of Appeals. And then after that their next stop.
And this is what I think makes this a constitutional crisis. It is the Supreme Court. Now what makes this the constitutional crisis? Article one, section nine, clause seven of the United States Constitution gives the power of the purse.
To the legislative branch.
That means the legislature decides how money is spent, how money is let out the door, whether or not resources are spent at all. They determine if there's a freeze. Right, So when we talk about government shutdowns, that's two sides not agreeing. Until we can agree, nothing's moving. That's a federal funding freeze in effect. Right here is the primary issue. Donald Trump has decided that sure, and the Trump administration
has decided sure. The power of the purse to spend money, and we talked about this a couple of weeks ago, belongs with the legislature. But the power of the purse to save money, to stop spending money belongs with the executive branch. That is not true, but that is how they're reading this. And what I think is scary about this is that this was all addressed in Project twenty twenty five, along with more than two two thirds of the executive orders and actions that Donald Trump's administration has
taken on so far. Two thirds of those can be found in Project twenty twenty five. So now when you take in a consideration that they're through Jdvans on Sunday saying you ain't the boss of me, and then you know the judge had to come out and say, not once, but twice, there's a federal federal funding freeze, bro. Or you're unfreezing this federal funding freeze, bro, We're not doing this. The fact that they're not listening to that.
JD.
Bans told y'all that they weren't going to listen to that. And then so that means there's this blatant disregard for what the constitution says. And then there's a violation of a core order that we just talked about. And then when you consider that the Trump administration has fired several inspectors General, which are the internal watchdogs for all of
these government agencies. And then you take in a consideration where he initially froze federal funding and how, and then you take into consideration the number of civil service protections that have always existed across multiple administrations for federal government employees, and that there's been this blanket, blanket attempt to fire
to have them kind of be bought out. A judge's ruled against that, but again, if they're not going to comply with court orders, America, you in danger, girl, You in danger. And so this is what we have to wrestle with. There are five or six things happening simultaneously that signal that we're in a constitutional crisis. And I don't and and I want to just stop here for a moment to acknowledge.
I'm trying to.
Figure out what we thought was going to happen with a lawless president. This man has several convictions. This man has run his companies at least allegedly if you believe the cause of actions that weren't even allowed to go forth, and some of the ones that were in a very fraudulent manner. Even with Tis James's successful suit against Donald Trump Civilly for fraud.
I'm trying to figure.
Out why any of us, I'll say us to be nice today would have thought he would do anything different. Like a criminal gone crime, a lawless man is gonna be lawless. And so it's so interesting that these are the folks who call people illegal when they in fact.
Are the illegals.
So, in the most simple terms, what I can tell you is, when one branch of the government chooses to blatantly ignore and disregard another coequal branch of government, you have a constitutional crisis. So we're not upon a constitutional crisis, We're not around the corner from a constitutional crisis. We are in the midst of a constitutional crisis. So what
are my fears now? So again I talked about already that the First Circuit Court of Appeals is governed by most part judges who were not There's no conservative judge on that bench there and I don't want to call them liberal, but they are left leaning. There's not a conservative bench. So Donald Trump and his administration are most certainly going to appeal to the Supreme Court. And this
is what has me worried. Too many members of the Supreme Court are supporters of, either proactively or indirectly of the Heritage Foundation, the same Heritage Foundation whose president said that their role now will be to institutionalize trump Ism. He didn't say democracy, he didn't say preservation of American liberty and freedom, he didn't say any of that. What he said was that their role now is to institutionalize
trump Ism. And that is a direct quote. So the Supreme Court is upholding that same standard when you go to whether or not they would find that Donald Trump could be criminally responsible for any of his actions taken as a president. Even the fact that it was limited, The fact that that question had to go before the Supreme Court and that there was any discussion of that demonstrates to you where this court really falls. So before the Supreme Court before including in the case where they
determined if the upsitting president can have criminal immunity. They dealt with this doctrine called the unitary executive theory. Unitary executive theory essentially vests all power, all executive powers, into the hands of the president. So the entire executive branch, the only person that can make decisions be held responsible all of that is the president. Now, that would be great if they held him accountable at the times where he breaks the law because he's an illegal, but they're not.
They're talking about vesting more power in the president, that the president should have more authority. They didn't think that when Barack Obama was in office, now did they. So this to me is dangerous because what that essentially means is that the independents that have traditionally been in spaces like finance, in media, in elections, like we have some commissions that have been set up and they are bipartisan by design to be another very important phrase here today,
y'all check and balance for the administration. Those things are gone. Donald Trump just appointed himself to be the chair of the Kennedy Center. Like right, Like, I mean, there's no neutral arbiter of facts and neutral arbiter of what is right and what is wrong if Donald Trump can just
insert himself and as king over all these things. So it also will impact prosecutions, and we saw that just recently with Donald Trump saying, you know what, as a matter of fact, we're just gonna throw out all these charges against Eric Adams.
There's no more neutrality in any of that.
Now. It is just up to this president because of the unitary executive theory, which I think is very harmful and I think puts America in a tremendously compromising position. So I know y'all are like, Okay, well, now that you spread all this great doom and gloom, where do
we go from here? Well, what I think we have to be mindful of is this the time is now to fight, The time is now to spread correct information, to let people know that if you upset Donald Trump, if you hurt his feelings, if you insult him, that your livelihood is on the line. And not just your livelihood, but your freedom is on the line. We have to treat a dictator like he's a dictator. And I think that what we have to acknowledge is that at some
point some articles of impeachment need to be drafted. I would say that point is now at some point the challenges around unitary executive being made into the arguments by these twenty three Attorneys general before the Court of Appeals,
before the Supreme Court have to be addressed. I'm concerned because if John Roberts is even on this nonsense, like, I don't know who our fourth and fifth votes would be on the Supreme Court, but you would think that there would be some desire, some willingness to preserve democracy.
I'll tell you all if you all are thinking about this in any similar way, what has been jarring for me is knowing democracy is fragile, knowing that it's compromised, knowing that it is so far from perfect, but seeing how easily it can be destroyed. It's something that I'm really wrestling with, and I think, if we're honest, institutionalists, even in the House of Representatives, even in the United States Senate.
Are struggling with this.
I built my career on underunderstanding how the law works and strategizing politically to advance causes that would impact people who look like me for the most part, and now most of that playbook doesn't work. And so what I think you're seeing, I know people are like, well, why aren't people fighting back, why aren't our members responding wires? It is because folks are flabbergasted, like we all knew Project twenty twenty five was going to become a thing,
like nobody ever. Well, some people believe that Donald Trump when he said this isn't my plan, I don't have anything to do with this, despite many of the people who wrote it having been associated with the Trumpet administration of twenty sixteen and then now many of them going back into the administration. Many of us knew that, but I don't know that we knew we were going to be overwhelmed by so much information so quickly. And I don't know that many people believe that he would just
blatantly ignore a court. But to this, I would say to the Department of Justice under the Biden administration, under the leadership of Merit Garland, this is your fault, bro, straight up, Like you didn't have the courage to challenge Donald Trump, to prosecute him when you could have, and now we got to deal with this dictator.
That blood is on your hands, seriously, and so you.
Know Special Proxecutor Jacksmith saying he would have likely been convicted all of these things, these afterthoughts, James comey coming back around.
Like to hell with all y'all, like this is all you're doing.
And I think ultimately what really has to happen is white folks have to have a conversation with themselves about how badly they want to cling to power, even when it is toxic, even when it is abusive, and even when it means that you very well may not be safe.
That is the day and age we're living in now.
When you look at this court order from Judge McConnell from Rhode Island, he talks about the consistency of his ruling with the United States Constitution statutes, the Supreme Court precedent. The Supreme Court may very well take out their precedent. They may say it's time for a new day, you know,
and I think that that'll be really unfortunate. So this temporary restraining order that Donald Trump continues to violate, let's see how many instances I think there are twenty something court cases now, how many instances where they blatantly disregard the court. That is what puts us squarely in a constitutional crisis. And that is where the people have to cry out. I keep telling you how to call your members.
You have no idea how important that is. They might just need to know that there are people standing behind them who want them engaged in the fight, and that you're not going to leave them hanging, because ultimately, even though they're sworn in, they took a oath, they're still human beings, and human beings.
Have blind spots. I know I have mine. We got to hold each other accountable. We have to fight together.
That is what That is our least reasonable service, and that means not fighting each other. That means fighting along side one another to preserve our freedoms, even if we know that it means that we deserve much more freedom.
So that is my.
Podcast for today. I'm gonna see if there are any questions. There are some questions. So one question from wear of many hats, I like this name, what can the average American do when the checks and balances aren't checking or balancing? Call your members. You got to let them know what your expectations are. Be like when y'all drafting these articles of impeachment, though, you know, when are y'all going to the White House and telling them what really is about
to go down. The questions are what legislation are you going to prevent from passing? Because it shouldn't be no business happening when I can't even give my government check. Those are the things that we have to do, Like your business is my business. And if I can't get my business done because the federal government ain't doing what I'm paying the federal government to do, y'all, don't let another point of business happen on the House floor or
the Senate floor. Another question, and from Queen Bee of Swords, I just don't see how even with court orders and contempt charges, once they don't comply, who was going to enforce the law? Yeah, that is exactly what makes this a constitutional crisis. Percy Miracle says Trump is doing what Eddie Murphy did and distinguished gentleman movie Trump exposing how politicians spend our money.
And get and get kickbacks. For sure, they just.
Got rid of some provision today that would prevent government officials from bribing foreign countries because of business reasons. So absolutely, what do we do about elon looks? Listen to the podcast from last week, please, and senators and congressmen are powerless right now. I don't see how a phone call would change with that. Again, I think that what we have to remember is that there are power in numbers.
And if there was ever a place where you can make a difference by short sheer people power, it is within the United States Congress. What do I mean by that?
This can all change with math?
Once there is a majority agreeing on an issue, even if it's not all Democrats, some of those Republicans where in vulnerable districts come over. I know that we have a graphic that we're putting up shortly that tells you where all of those vulnerable Republican members are from, what districts they're from. When those folks start coming over, because their constituents are like, nah, we didn't sign up for this. We didn't vote you in for this. We voted you
in for common sense solutions. We didn't vote you in to support a dictator. That math starts moving on to the other side. And so it is imperative, especially now because I think our window of time is short. We have to start getting those folks over quickly. Here's what I know doesn't work. You sitting around in dread definitely
doesn't work. You sitting around frustrated that they're not doing anything and it's not the will of the people, but the will of the people hasn't been communicated to them. Definitely doesn't work. So what my idea would be with my members is, you make sure not another bill passes until Donald Trump complies with these core orders. You make sure that there is a crew working on articles of impeachment because this man isn't illegal and he shouldn't be president.
You make sure that every nomination now on the Senate side is held up because why are we going to continue to appoint more people that are trying to work for a king and not for the American people. Those are the kinds of calls we can make and must make, and the numbers easy. It's two zero two two, two four three one two one. You don't just have don't have to just call the member who over who's over your particular congressional district. You can call others and say,
I expect more from Congress. I'm calling out to Congress. I'm calling out to Maxine Waters and Jasmine Crockett and Andre Carson and how King Jeffreys and Stephen Horsford and Evett Clark. Who's the new chair of the CBC and Joyce Baty and all these other folks who might be like minded, but they might just need a word of encouragement. And so I would tell you the most important place to call, even if you want to courage your members but they're mostly aligned with what we're talking about today.
Call the members who are undecided, who think their constituents might want to see this air of change that Donald Trump is bringing in, but when they realize what all is at stake and how many people are being harmed, even if they weren't the direct target, but they're suffering no less, those are the people I would call. So again we'll put that graphic up. I thank you all so much for your time today. We will be on
our podcast this Thursday. It'll be the three hosts, Native lampod Angela Raie, Tiffany Cross and Andrew Gillum and of course you all are always welcome. Please submit your questions to us on Instagram with a video. Let us know
your name and where you're from. Check us out every single Thursday wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube, and of course I'm here every Tuesday answering questions and talking about the things that are keeping me up at night, and hopefully, very soon we will get some rest because justice will be served.
All powers to the people, y'all.
Welcome home. Native Lampard is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with Reason Choice Media. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.