This is Not What Democracy Looks Like

and her name is Linda Yakarino. Linda Yakarino is a longtime ad sales executive top ad sales executive at NBC Universal, and she is making the transition to Twitter. D only knows why. I can only assume that the money was too hard to turn down, because why anyone, particularly a woman.

You know. I don't know anything about Yakarino's background, and I'm sure we will learn more and there will be profiles and stories and we will, you know, learn more about her ideology and whether or not she's going to have actual full control over what Twitter is doing. While Elon Musk says that he's going to concentrate on new

products and the engineering side of things. So you know, what I thought really interesting about this though, is that anytime there is disaster at a organization, and I've seen this in my own work, whether it's an organization or a Fortune five hundred company or what have you, anytime there is disaster, that's when they decide to bring in someone who is not a straight white man. And it

is absolutely wild. I've seen this happen in from LGBTQ organizations to you know, to Fortune five hundred companies, and it's like, for whatever reason, women and black people and people of color seem to be the fucking janitors, uh for white men, and they go in, they fuck up companies, they fuck up organizations, they bring everything down to you know, down to the studs, and then these people, right, the non traditional quote unquote CEOs come in and if they

don't turn things around in six months, then they are a failure. And then the board and the shareholders get to say to themselves, well, that's why we need a white man again. It's just so fucking nauseating, and I hope that this is not the cycle that we see here. And again, I don't know anything currently about Linda Yakarino. But you know, I'm certain by midweek we will have more details about her, her background, uh, and when she's

going to start and what she's going to do. Is she going to continue with the tanking of the app, with having a barrage of white supremacists, anti semites, homophobes, transphobes flooded into the space, or is she going to get a hold of things so that advertisers actually want to come back because it is returned to being the

world's town square. So that will you know, we will see what happens there next up, I gotta tell you, I interviewed the thatch Ramaswami be for my other podcast, The New Abnormal with The Daily Beast, and I did not like that men then and it's sure it's ell do not like any of the hot shit that he's been saying. So reportedly his interview with Don Lemon is the straw that broke the camel's back in terms of

the firing for Don Lemon. That it wasn't just uh, the misogyny and you know, his treatment of staff, that it was the very heated interview, which I thought, if you want to you know, rate things I thought that Don Lemon's interview with the vech Ramaswami was the best Don Lemon interview I've ever seen, And so it's laughable that that would be the straw that broke the camel's back.

But we know that CNN under Chris Lickt has become a Republican apologist, a white supremaist, you know, ideology just spreader, right, like they're that's what they're interested in. Uh, They're interested in the spreading of lies and making sure that Republicans feel comfortable on their network sharing those lies. But THEVEC recently has been making news, not for anything good, because what Republican does make news for anything good these days?

But he made making news because this fool wants to

raise the voting age to twenty five. Right, because, as we know, the Republican Party is at odds with Generation Z because Generation Z is inheriting all of their parents and grandparents bullshit, their grandparents and their parents negligence as it has come to reform on issues like policing, like the environment, like gun control, which they have grown up with being on the front lines up and so when you see the pushback in states like Tennessee where they

try to expel three members of the Tennessee Legislature, and that showed a just burst of protests that finally had those members reinstated and voted back in. Then you saw another Swatha protests that happened in Ohio, again led by Generation Z. And you're seeing this, You're seeing school walkouts, You're in Florida, You're seeing a lot of energy, and unfortunately all of it is not being covered by mainstream media because you know, why show people fighting back against

this fascist, authoritarian, white nationalist takeover of this country. Nonetheless, you know the VEC is not alone in his thinking. There are other GOP officials that are trying to upend voting on college campuses because God forbid you make it easy to vote. God forbid young people be able to use their student ID. Now you can use your student ID, by the way, to buy an AR fifteen in these places. But they don't want you to be able to use your student ID to be able to vote. So that

just tells you where their priorities are. So the idea that you would come out of your mouth, and this man is only I believe you know, he's not that old, he's none in his twenties, he's definitely of probably on the older side of the millennials. But to come out and say that you need we should raise the voting age from eighteen, which I believe that we should be lowering the voting age because it is those sixteen year old and I think that we should lower it to sixteen.

I think that if you're able to get a permit and drive a car right and work right, because they're trying to roll back trial labor laws so that you used to have to be sixteen to get a work permit, So if you can work and drive a car, then you should also be able to fucking vote, right. But they don't want high schoolers having the ability to vote

because they would be a lot more liberal minded. And now you would actually be beholden to people, young people whose lives you're putting at risk every single day by sending them to school and school shootings happening all the

time and you choosing to do nothing about it. Right, you would have you look at them as your constituents and actually answer their questions about why you're not doing anything to prevent climate change, and why why you're not looking into renewables, and why you're not talking the talk and walking the walk. Right. So the idea that the VAC as well as other GOP members would love to raise the voting age and then make a contingent upon military service isn't what a democracy looks like and is

absolute bullshit. How about you create policies that entice and engage the Generation Z and Gen Alpha that is going to be coming behind them, instead of eliminating their voice and their vote, maybe think about what is actually best for the country and isn't just what's best for you and your donors just an idea, and then you know, finally, before we head into our interview with our friend Gen Tobb, who is the expert on all things white collar crime,

E Gene Carroll was once again in the Trump town hall that has gotten all the worst coverage. Right, I don't care people say, you know, bad press is good press.

It really isn't. It really is not. And the way that Anderson Cooper found himself the following day after the CNN town hall direct to camera exclaiming and admonishing, not even exclaiming, admonishing the audience for daring to have pushback and be really disappointed and want to boycott CNN moving forward because of their decision to have Donald Trump on, not do any real time fact checking, not pushback at all, and just essentially give him a platform for ninety minutes

to air out his conspiracy theories, his hatred, and his lie And then Anderson Cooper has the audacity to tell us that, like, whether or not we want to see Donald Trump, donald Trump exists, so we should put it couch him in a situation where you know there is pushback and blah blah, and I'm like, so, basically, don lemon,

basically excuse me. That was a slip. Basically, Anderson Cooper, if the CNN town hall was such a success, you wouldn't have had to use your opening monologue the following day to give your own mini town hall to brate the audience for choosing not to provide your network with

the ratings that it wanted. Now, the ratings came in well above Fox and MSNBC in that time slot, but it wasn't at all as high as they were hoping, and it wasn't at all matching numbers back in twenty sixteen, when Donald Trump actually had some play and people didn't really know who he was as a politician, right, so they were tuning in And now I think that most people tuned in to that CNN town Hall one to see what he was going to say about being found

libel the day before for sexual abuse and defamation, on which he just continued to defame Egene Carol. And Egene Carroll has kind of said potentially that she may be looking to sue him for a fourth time because he continues to defame her and CNN gave him a platform to do it, and all the lawyers would have to show is that clip end of the audience laughing and

up again, CNN providing no pushback, no nothing. So I think that if Egene Carroll actually does decide, and God bless her, if she does decide to sue Donald Trump again, she needs to throw CNN in that lawsuit as well, because what they did was indefensible. I don't give a fuck what Anderson Cooper says, because anyone who isn't getting a check from CNN has said the same exact thing. All right, friends, coming up next, my interview and conversation

with our friend Jennifer Tobb. Folks, you know that I'm always excited when I get to bring my friend Jennifer Tobb, author, law professor, author of the book Big Dirty Money and Other People's Houses, and hosts of the Politicon podcast, booked

up with Jen Tobb onto OKF Daily. It is always a treat, and it is particularly a treat because Jen, I actually want to start with good news, like for once, I want to start with good news, and the good news being that Egene Carol, a friend of yours, a woman that I continue to applaud for her bravery, her persistence,

her courage, her case was finally decided. She finally got her day in court, and frankly, as the representative for twenty six other women, twenty five other women that would have accused Donald Trump of either sexual harassment or sexual assault, found in this civil case that Donald Trump was libel for sexual abuse, for defamation, and other charges. So first, before we dig into what that all means, I want to get your initial reaction.

through all of it. Like I was in my fighting mode, you know, I was in my like okay, just do do do And then I just felt so sad and so anxious. But then I woke up the you know, the next day, and was just so thrilled, but at the same time, at the same time, I already understood even an hour after the verdict, that the Trump town hall would be coming up the following day and that

he was going to trash her in public again. And in fact, I said I was right for the Washington Monthly, and my editor there sometimes just interviews me instead of having me write something because I'm busy, and he interviewed me after the verdicts, and I in fact did say that,

I said, you know, I'm quite worried about it. And yet some people's response is like, okay, And by the way, now that we're past the town hall, we know that he not only redefamed her, said the same Lise before that, he claiming he wasn't there and said bad things about her. He also enlisted the crowd to mock and laugh at her, and it just made me feel so sick. And you know, there are some folks who look at that and say, okay,

well then she can bring another case. And that was my whole reaction to the Washington Monthly is when does this end? N does this end? We know that she has that other case to move forward, but the only thing that I guess my other reaction is, you know, I'm half human, half lawyer, which is funny because my zodiac sign is Sagittarius. I guess that makes sense. But I'm half human, half lawyer. So I'm toggling between sort

of my human reactions. And then my brain starts acting and saying, oh, well, he's gonna have to post a bond, and you know, so like and then there's a lot

there's a lot of legal doctrines that get involved. So like, half of me again is thrilled for her and just grieving the process and so sickened that CNN gave him a platform for his defamation and his lies and his repeating insurrectionist language and everything it all gets tied together, right, and then this other part of me is pure strategy, thinking legal strategy and also thinking political strategy about what we need to do next. That was a long winded answer.

man is in his you know deposition. For millions of years, stars have been able to do this. Well, do you see yourself as a star? Yes, I do, right, And just you know, there was a time following the Access Hollywood tapes where there was a distance that was created and said, you know, this was locker room talk, this is not real behavior. Over the course since twenty sixteen ten, now that Donald Trump has evolved and has been like, oh no, this isn't locker room talk. Is this is

allowed this is who I am. He has doubled and tripled down on this, and you saw that in the deposition, and obviously the jury of his peers also saw that. And you know, I have to say that if you feel wrongly accused, I would think that one would show up in court, take the stand and be heard from directly, and not be golfing on a course in Scotland, right, that you would be there and say I am being defamed. I my name is being dragged through the mud. But

Donald Trump didn't bother to do that. I wanted to get your thoughts too on Tacopino, the lawyer for Donald Trump, and the way that he went after Egene Carroll, and then what she said most recently in the interview on Morning Joe, where she said very graciously that this guy is likable, right, that he you know, he has charisma, he has all of these things, but that she looked at him dead in his eye and said, you know,

he did it. So what do you make of the way that he tried to defame her again on the stand, and then her response to kind of his demeanor after the verdict.

because it's just a made up story. No, okay, So what does Joe you know, Joe, So what does that mean about being a lawyer like Joe Tacapina, Is he should he go out in public and say I never told my client that. Ethically, he you can't. If a client lies in public about you, you're not obligated to correct it, and in fact, it would hurt the client if you did. If a client's going to lie, you

have to resign. So that's I think the reason why Trump actually didn't testify, even though you know, he was claiming why I can't, and and then the judge kept extending, extending. I think he didn't testify because Joe said to him, and he said this I will quit if he does, because he will not. You're not if you know the truth of what your client did, you know the real story, and you think that they're going to lie on the stand,

you can't. You can't represent someone in that instance. And maybe he just didn't want him so that, but that's what I think went on there in terms of the lawyer in his demeanor. You know, doesn't matter whether you're likable or not. You know, he behaved like a thug. You have a courtroom. And this is why I will not take on a rape defense. Let I mean, let

me just be really clear. I take being a lawyer really seriously, and if if you are going to defend a client, you have to defend them aggressively within the bounds of what the law allows. And this is a guy who has chosen to represent some of the most awful people in the world, like he represented that guy who killed Natalie hallwell, right, he represented some of the

worst people in the world. And I do think some of the worst people or people who've done some of the worst things need a defense though, right, So I'm torn a little bit right about not the way he treated Egene, but about the fact that It's great that we can all say he did a really good job for his client, because that means Donald Trump got a

fair trial. And he threw everything at Egene, and it was you know, he got sanctioned by the judge quite a bit because at least when I was in the courtroom, what he was doing was often you go back to the same thing over and over again to try to be repetitive. In part, you can be attached to bore the jury, but it can be like insidious. Why you suggesting there's something more? Why you keep asking her this question?

And the judge shut that, shut that stuff down. You know what he did, I mean it made me sick, like what he was doing on god Cross. But what he said the other morning when I saw what you're talking about the other day with Egene, I'm trying to remember it, like he went around to shake everyone's hand after the case, and when he when he reached out his hand to eg she didn't she didn't shake it. She looked at him at first and said, Joe, he did it, and you know it, and you know it yep, yep,

I mean, and that he didn't. Of course, he said, what is he gonna do? He can't say that he you know, and I don't know if Donald Trump actually told him he did it or not. Remember Joe joined like Joe joined the case. Joe joined the case after what's her name, Alita Haba screwed up at that deposition or didn't prep him for the deposition or what have you.

You know exactly who the fuck he is, right, and exactly how he handles people, and just you know, just recently, you have Elisa Fara Griffin comes out and repeats the fact that during his administration, she experienced sexual harassment and watched Donald Trump, president of the United States, sexually harassed other women, not to the extent, she says, of what happened, not an assault, to the extent of what happened with Egene Caravell what she said was, you know, indefensible and

brought that so you know that this is a pattern of you know, of behavior. His home mode is dominating everybody, everybody, and the way you dominate women is in a particularly sexualized way. That's the most insulting way to dominate women. And he dominates men and he insults and so there's no reason of course he's you know, of course.

there are not that many statutes involved. Right, So the laws that he broke in this case, you know, it involved you know, fraud, like a federal fraud we called wire fraud because he used the phone or the internet. It's also the other charge is in those wire fraud.

By the way, there's several different counts of that. One was this political campaign contribution fraud where he was he had someone he was working with who I think flipped like an individual one type person who he was working with someone and he said, hey, I've set up this five oh one C four, which is the reference to the tax code, which is what you the structure you need to use for like these political for packs for example, And he claimed that he'd registered this corporation and he

was using it to get a donor to the campaign. I'm sorry, I should say, let's be carefully. He was soliciting contributions to what he claimed was a super pack. And thanks to Citizens United, this isn't so simple anymore. See under the law today, Still there are outright limits and I think it's like twenty seven hundred dollars. I might have them. I'm out wrong. How much you could actually give to a candidate or a campaign during an election cycle, whatever the number is, it's like under three

thousand dollars, so it's limited. However, there's a giant loophole you can drive a truck through, and that is these creating these these so called super packs, which is a political action committee dedicated to just one candidate. And those political action committees cannot only receive unlimited funds, but an individ but a donor can give unlimited amounts of money to a political action committee. So it really does. And the key thing though is that political action committee can't

coordinate with the candidate. It's supposed to be like separing it apart. And the thinking because of Citizens United. And a subsequent case was if you and Danielle could spend unlimited money putting up independent ads saying I love George Santos, vote for him. There's no reason why you and I couldn't get together with all of our friends and set up a corporation. We shouldn't be deprived of joining our money together and independently say we love George Santos. But

the independent thing is key. The other key thing is that it's actually this pack is has to be separate. It has to be registered properly. Okay, this pat so that you have this other guy who was soliciting campaign funds for George Santos, and George Santos was having that money put into a corporation. But the corporation wasn't a five to one c four that corporation. He was Santos was somehow like a main owner of that corporation and

not so. Not only was it a campaign finance violation because this guy gave above the limit because it was essentially just giving money to Santos, but the other, the other port to the campaign, the other problem is he was giving money, so it was fraud because the guy who was giving all this money, you know, Santos, was using it to pay his bills, to buy fancy clothes, you know, to support the lifestyle to which this grifter has become a customed. So that's that's part of it.

So yeah, I love this part. Use the funds to make personal purchases, including of designer clothing. I really need to see the designer clothing, because I don't really think he's dressing just so I'm.

fraud schemes. So during COVID, there was like special legislation to provide additional funding for out of work Americans during the pandemic, and so he applied for that, but he was actually fully employed at the time, and so he

you know, grifted in that way. The other thing he did was a kind of money laundering type violation involving moving some of the this money around, like money that you get from illicit from the purposes illicit activities like the wirefraud we were just talking about, So moving that money around the campaign So suppose the campaign money or moving any money around, maybe even the unemployment funds that gets into money laundering stuff. Okay. Then there's also the

other part was this thing called false statements. And this is you know, members of Congress have to file an annual financial report disclosure statement, and he did that in twenty twenty and in twenty twenty two. I think I'm not sure. Oh sorry, you did that in twenty yeah, in twenty twenty. I'm trying to see, which does that make sense? Was he did he get into office. He only got into office.

hundreds of years, but it would never be that. I would never give that but right, but I are five years, right, is what I'm thinking.

So even that line of bullshit doesn't match up. And you know what gets me jen about all of this is that I think that the four Fathers, you know, who are always looked at as being such geniuses in creating this idea of democracy, this democratic project, and yet you can have there is no law on the books that says if you are indicted, if you are found guilty, that you well your position.

But remember he never served his time because all Trump pardoned him, I mean Santos, because people Santos is probably waiting for his pardon, you know.