Dangerous. Question, who were you speaking to when you said answer, trump, the audience. Question, so you were speaking to the audience when you said if they saw someone getting ready to throw a tomato, just knock the crap out of them, would you . Answer, trump, that was to the audience. It was said sort of in jest, but maybe, you know, a little truth to it. Its veryto dangerous stuff. You can get killed with those things. Question, so were you trying to incentivize people to engage in violence . Trumps lawyer, objection. Trumpp answers anyway. No, i wanted to have people be ready because we were put on alert that they were going to do fruit. And some fruit is a lot worse than, tomatoes are bad, by the way, but its very dangerous. Question, do you have any knowledge as to whether or not anybody was found to have tomatoes in their possession on that date . Answer, trump, i dont know. But it didnt happen. It worked out that nothing happened. It was, the speech was good. Question, you said you were talking to the audience. But is the same true of your security . Am do you expect your security to knock the crack out of someone if they see them about answer, i was talking about the audience. Question, mr. President , please let me finish the question so we can getle the whole record very clear. Is it your expectation that if your Security Guard seesxp somee about to throw a tomato, that they should knock the crap out of thatha person. Answer, trump, well, a tomato, a pineapple, a lot of other things they throw, yeah, i think that they have to be aggressive in stopping that from happening, because if that vehappens, you n beus killed if that happens. Question, and getting aggressive in your terms, that includes the use of physical force . Answer, trump, to stop somebody from throwing pineapples, tomatoes, bananas, stuff like that, yeah, its dangerous stuff. I am not smart enough to make Something Like thisi up. Im not smart enough to make up something this per septemberive about how a particular mans brain works. If itab was, i could write amazg textbookswa for political scien questions about what to look for whenat trying to identify a pern who shouldnt be trusted with a lot of power. You could imagine a pineapple and yes, you could be killed. This is a deposition that was justis released late last nighta deposition taken from former President Donald Trump, six months ago. In an ongoing civil case in new york about some protesters who were beaten up outside trump tower shortly after trump started his run for the presidency. Thesest protesters were beat upe trump Security Guards and the protesters havecu contended in part that trump is liable for them being beaten up that day because they contend that trump directed his Security Guards to beat up the protesters. And as part of them making their case, the protesters were trying to get at, trying to get at trumps, then putet it, trumps established pattern of him asking people to physicallybl attack others. Him asking people, particularly to physically attack other people who are protesting against him. That argument, that line of argument in the civil case, that trump directed those Security Guards to attack and physically beat up those protesters, that is a pattern that trump had established and has publicly displayed,ta that line of argumt from theye plaintiffs in the cil case against trump, thats why this video was actually played in that deposition ahead of the questioning that i just read. So if you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you . Seriously. Okay. Just knock the hell i promise you, i will pay for the legal fees. I promise. I promise. That was in 2016. February 2016. Which is actually after these plaintiffs were beaten up by trump Security Guards outside trump tower but these plaintiffs contend in court that, you know, trump publicly imploring other people to knock the bleep out of people protesting, people posing the terrifying threat of potentially throwing a tomato, that shows the pattern of trump ordering violence against protesters and perhaps violence out of keeping any perceived threat theng protesters might pose. Now if throwing a tomato is actually a lethal threat though, what wouldnt be justified. With the release of this deposition, in this past day, we now know a whole new thing we didnt know before about former President Trump is that he is apparently desperately afraid of a flyingap tomato. I dont know. If i were in his position, im not sure if i would let the world know that i had that kind ofwo phobia, just kind of exposg his weakness to the world, right . His fear of flying tomatoes is apparently so all consuming when confronted verbally with a discussion about the possibility of somebody throwing a tomato, he immediately extrapolates that from the tomato to the threat of a flying banana and the threat of a flying pineapple. A tomato, a pineapple, a lot of other things they throw. I think they have to be aggressive in stopping that from happening because if that happens, you can be killed if that happens. Question, and getting aggressive includes the use of physical force . Trump, to stop somebody from throwing pineapples, tomatoes, bananas, stuff like that, yeah, its dangerous. Dangerous stuff. Okay, sir, and how about we give you the Nuclear Codes for the United States of america . I mean we have to get real. If there is an incoming banana, somebodys going to have to make the hard call because we all might die. Did somebody throw a pineapple at this man as a baby . Does that explain everything since . In addition to the fruit pocalypse theory here, the newlyreleased deposition does alsone have one potentially ver salient exchange not about fruit about the ally criminalte case that the former president s business, the Trump Organization, is facing as soon as this summer, possibly this fall,n when it goes to trial. You will recall that the Trump Organizations longtime cfo and theor company itself have been criminally charged for an alleged pattern of tax fraud which among other things they are accused ofgeof compensating bunch of different employees at the Trump Organization effectively off the bookses as wayef of evading taxes. One of the employees about whom those concerns have been raised is somebody who hasnt been charged but unfortunately for our sort of story telling purposes, i have to warn you, this is a guy who happens to have another foodrelated name. Im sorry, hes also, it really didnt go together, his name, in case you have forgotten is mr. Matthew calamari, if you need a little aid here, it is okay to think of him as mr. Squeeze, his name is matthew calamari and the same transcript, the other part of the same transcript, in which talking aboutnger the lethal threat of tomatoes, in this case, hes talking about mr. Squibs, hes talking about how proud he is, effectively that be in else had anything to do with mr. Calamaris compensation, that it was trump himself personally who decided thathi alone, with nobody else involved. Question, do any other employees ofin the Trump Organization hav authority with respect to mr. Calamaris compensation . Answer, trump, it would be me. Question, has there ever been a time from the time mr. Calamari was hired, when any other employee of the Trump Organization had authority over mr. Calamaris compensation . A, trump, its a specific question, but you know, no, generally it would be me. Answer, trump, im the owner. Okay. Question, other than the children and you is there any other employee ofan the Trump Organization who had authority with respect to mr. Calamaris compensation. Answer, trump, no, compensation generally was handled by me. Hes just insisting, it is like the lawyer from the other side is trying to give him an out here and he will not take it. No, no, no, no its me, its all me. Cant you tell im the man in charge. Again, the problem here, the broad context shear that the compensation of mr. Squid, the compensation of mr. Calamari appears by some accounts to follow the same pattern as the compensation of other trump employees whose payment arrangements with umtrumps company have now been charged in new york as felony tax fraud. Mr. Calamari has not been charged. But his compensation arrangements appear to sort of dove tail with the kinds of compensation arrangements that have turned into felony charges in new york already. And heres trump insisting, im the owner, oh, yeah, thats me, nobody gets any say in how he is paying every bit of it except for me. The trump is giving options, to blame it on other people, you sure you dont want to drag in the kids here, anyone else, no im the man, impervious to all, tomatoes and pineapples and ba that nas,to it is i who robbed e bank, of course im in charge of that. Ba welcome to the expresidency of this guy. As i mentioned, the criminal case against the former president s company and its cfo, that trial is expected to go, that trial is expected in court later this i year, at the end o the summer, beginning of the fall. Now, we dont know if any additional charges will be brought in that case at all, particularly with the release af this deposition in which trump claimsio full personal responsibility formp the compensationon arrangement of another employee who appears to have been paid in a similar manner to the man who is here in handcuffs. We have suspected over the last few days and today it was reported by cnn that the special grand jurywa convened in new yo to hear evidence in that criminal case isin expiring. Its term is up as of this weekend andit the new York District attorneys office, its possible they may just go through with the Trump Organization criminal trial later this year, and they may not bring any additional charges. If they dot want to bring additional chcharges, they coul use another grand jury to hear more evidence and bring potentially more indictments. We just dont know. Then, in Fulton County, georgia, theres the criminal case there, too in Fulton County, georgia, tonight, the special grand jury considering potential criminal charges against trump there, that hasch resulted in a stark announcement this evening for atlanta commuters. The process of seeking a special grand jury that will consider special charges for the election insp 2020, the grand jury start on monday, amazing timing, the new york grand jury looking at Business Practices expires saturday, the Georgia Special grand jury considering criminal charges against trump on a totally different matter picks up two days later on monday. And uptonight, in georgia, the Fulton County Sheriffs Office has made an announcement to atlantaha commuters, telling atlantans theyre going to be closing down all of the roads around the courthouse and the whole Fulton County justice of that mplex because grand jury proceeding getting under way. The headline in the Atlanta Journal constitution, you can see i here tonight, trump electn meddling probe to cause downtown atlanta road closures. The Fulton County Sheriffs Office announced today that the department will close some roads downtown atlanta next week ahead of the major court proceedings. The agency plans to close four road, starting monday, which is when Fulton County District Attorney fani will is and her office will begin the selection of members of the special grand jury whether President Trump tried to illegally overturn georgias election am 2020. Expect blockades at the corners of Fulton County Justice Center complex. Transit f buses will have acces. Thetr public is advised to avoi the area, unless they must conduct business in the vicinity. So they are expecting this to be such a hula balaa, in addition to the road closure, they have canceled most of the proceedings in Magistrate Court at that justice complex. They canceled almost all of the proceedings in Magistrate Court and advising anyone who needs accesse to the Fulton County court system to skip downtown atlanta and go to any satellite facilities instead. This is all kind of coming together, i mean its all happening now. Theres the grand jury hearing evidence for this potential criminal case involvingev forme President Trump in georgia. Thats the one that is shutting down roads around the courthouse starting on monday. And theres the criminal case in new york involvingth former President Trump. That is going to trial this summer. That grand jury is coming to an end this weekend. And we dont know if that new York District attorney will be reconvening another grand jury to look at w further charges, b there does seem to be new information, at least in this civil case deposition, new information that we the public are seeing for the first time, about trumpor potentially implicating himself personally in some of the related matters to what has already been charged as felony alleged tax fraud against his company. Beyond that, criminal case, involving trumps company in new york,lv the civil case in new yk brought by the new yorkyo attory general. Ne shes investigating the former president s business and its financial practices. That one is hitting deadlines soonti as well. We heard from Court Testimony from a lawyer in, the new York Attorney Generals Office this week, that if there is going to be action taken concerning trump and his business, that theres going to be action taken by the new York Attorney general, we believe that will b be soon, que soon. Today, the judge in that case, ruled that the appraisers trump usedru for many of his business dealings, according to the judge, they had odd inconsistents in many of their related pronouncements to trump. In ruling that way, in ruling that there were odd inconsistencies that didnt appear to be explicable at least on paper the judge today effectively cleared the attorney general and her office to start looking into those american discrepancies involving the financial appraisals of the value of trumps properties. Will is also the other civil kate in new york involving the former president , the one thatk resulted in the pineapple banana tomatoap testimony. As well as him potentially implicating himself in a new way in the criminal case that already involves his business. I mean with all this going on, its w amazing he is having so much time to work on his president ial library. Oh, wait there is no trump president ial library. But the real tension i think at the heart of all of this for all of us is, let me, a little introspection probably in order why, do we make the decisions we recently made as to whom we are going toly give maximum power. Why do we make those decisions . But also perhaps in more practical and forwardlooking terms, how do we simultaneously manage the knowledge of how ridiculous his presidency and now hisri postpresidency are a have been. How do we manage the simultaneous knowledge of the ridiculous factor here, being turned up to 11 . How do we simultaneously understand that cuckoo for cocoa puffs factor, that bananas, and bizarre fact and buffoonishness from the very beginning, how do we reconcile that with the actual h danger that both his presidency and postpresidency posed and continue to pose . Around iid raise that tonight, d i raise that tonight, in particular reference to a stunning oped that has just been published by a conservative, very b conservati former u. S. Appeals court judge named michael ludek, he has this very scary opinion piece published at cnn and you might remember his name, as the very conservative sort of celebrated Appeals Court judge who has reportedly considered by previous republicans president s to for a seat on the Supreme Court, he is a very conservative judge for whom ted cruz clerked, for whom trump lawyer john eastman clerked and it was judge ludig who mike pence cited overtly lastce year, on january 6th when he said he wouldnt go along with this plan for him to throat out the Election Results and declare trump the winner even though biden had won. The judge warns that, as a country,th we are not fully appreciating the danger of whatsap happening here, what i still happening here. Just going to give you the lead to what he argued today. He said, quote, nearly a year and a half later, surprisingly few understand what january 6th was all about. Fewer still understand why former President Donald Trump and republicans persist in their longdisproven claim that the 2020pr president ial election wa stolen. Much less why they are obsessed about making the 2024 race a referendum on the stolen election of 2020, which even they know was not stolen. January 6 was never about a stolen election or even about actual votingst fraud. It was always and only about an election that trump lost fair and square. Thet republicans mystifying clm to this day that trump did or would have received more voteness that joe biden in 2020 werene it not for voting fraud the shiny object that republicans have disingenuously dangled before the American Public for more than a year to distract attacks for the more ambitious objective and not to rescind the 2020 election as they would have us believe. That is constitutionally impossible. Trumps and the republicans far more ambitious objective is to execute success fly in 2024 the very same plan they failed in executing in 2020. They seek to overturn the 2024 election if trump or his anointedti successor loses agai in the next president ial election. In other words, the last president ial election was a dry run for the next. Judge ludig goes on to warn that the Supreme Court, now with Amy Coney Barrett seated and voting on that court, he warns that the court, as it is currently constituted, with three trump appointees on it, it is actually poised, in his view, to give republicans most of what they would need to pull off a reversal of any untoward Election Resultsrs in 2024. And the court likely will go along with them, giving them the need, to throw out real Election Results, and instead, just have republican controlled state legislatures declare that trumps the winner. He says that the Supreme Court is going that direction, and will likely rule that way. He also says Congress Needs to change some laws right now, to clarify that at least inside congress, they cant pull off what they were trying to get mike pence to do on january 6th, which they will undoubtedly try to get somebody else to do in 2024. Now, whether they could constrain Vice President harris or whether they could do anything else with the electoral count to flip the results in their favor, the judge is basically sounding the alarm that this isnt just some sort of red herring, some wedge issue that republicans are pursuing because they like it, it is a culture war thing that upsets the liberals, hes saying that this is the plan they sought for 2024 andhe there really arent very many f hurdles in the way toward them achieving it. Now, that was in the Washington Post tonight, reporting that amonghe the things the january h investigation in congress is looking at is a number of different ways that trump and his administration and people around him tried to get limb to use the Emergency Powers of the president. Which technically at least are a very limited thing, but how he tried tove use them, or consided using them to overthrow the election. The post reporting tonight, that quote, three days before bidens inauguration, congresswoman Marjorie Taylor greene texted the white house chief of staff and told them that some republican members of congress believed that the only path for President Trump to stay in power waspr to declare martial law. The text revealed this week brought to the forthe chorus of republicans who are privately and publicly advocating for trump to try to use the military and defense apparatus of the u. S. Government to strong arm the defeat. And now discussions involving the Trump White House about using Emergency Powers have become an important but little known part of the january 6th investigation of the attack on the capitol. The post says quote, in subpoenas, document requests, and court filings, the panel has demandedur information about an Trump Administration plans to use president ial Emergency Powers to invoke martial law or take other steps to overturn the election. Interviews with Committee Members and a review of the panels information requests reveals a focus on Emergency Powers that were being considered by trump and his allies in several categories, invokingal the insurrection act declaringvo martial law, using president ial powers to justify seizing voting machines, and using the military to require a rerun of the election. Again, the post reporting that those efforts to use president ial Emergency Powers to overthrow the election is a new and largely sort of overlooked publicly, publicly overlooked part of the january 6th investigation. What does this new reporting mean . And is this a whole new level of seriousness we havent really consideredt before . Joining us now is elizabeth, codirector of the liberty and National Security program at the center for justice, and she is in fact one of the exercises on president ial Emergency Powers and in the reporting, she argues that the Emergency Powers quote, contain fundamental flaws that could lead to abuse, and she has said that the Emergency Powers should be a focus of the january 6th investigation. It is j a real pleasure to have you with us tonight, thank you. Thanks so much foryo having. So ive always sort of been led to believe that Emergency Powers, for a president and indeed thepo administration, particularly aroundt elections are quiteic limited, that it sounds like the january 6th investigators have got their teeth into a number of different ways that those powers wereto a least attempted to be tapped by trump and his b allies in 2020. I think the truth lies somewhere between, what you thought about emergency s powers and what, yo know, microle flynn and Sidney Powell and Marjorie Taylor greene were urging President Trump toor do. Emergency power does not give theem president limitless abili to do whatever he wants, seizing voting h machines and overturni the results of an election and in fact there are Emergency Powers that would allow a president to overturn the results of an election, after are in, there arent, however, there are Emergency Powers available to the president that are disturbingly broad and that lack checks and balances that are necessary to ensure that they cantth be used or they could undermine our democracy, in other ways. Think of it is as absolutely a legs mat cause for concern, something the january 6th committee should be looking at very closely. One of the key points of any congressional investigation, sort of appoint almost literally one of the key aims, one of the key reasons to justify creating congressional investigations, is to recommend legislative changes, since that, after all, is the main purview of congress. If the january 6th investigator are looking at this, obviously potentially reveal more to us about what the components were of the plot and who was trying to getlo away with what, but ist conceivable to you as an experts in this field that they could recommend practical changes that the congress itself could fix ahead of the 2024 election, to alleviate some of the concerns that youre just describing . Absolutely. Lets take the National Emergencies act which allows the president to declare a National Emergency pretty much within his discretion just by signing an executive order and then that declaration unlocks enhanced powers that are continuing more than 120 different laws, some of those powers are what keep me awake at night, including laws that would alout president aw to take over or shut down putting a case in facility, and laws that would alout president to freeze American Assets and prevent anyone from f doing any kind of Financial Transactions with them, and laws that even allow the president to suspend the prohibition on government testing of chemical and biological agents on the sector, there are Emergency Powers that allow these things, so lo absolutely, i think, thinking about ways to rein in some of these Emergency Powers but also the very basic check that congress should be able to shut down that abuse of Emergency Powers by the president , and right now, the only way congress could do that is to pass a law by a super majority, and there are better ways to do it, such as allowing the Emergency Declaration to stay in effect for 30 days but to terminate at that point, if congress hasnt approved the declaration, and thats part of some legislation thats being considered by congress now. One other law that ion think is important to look at is the insurrection act. And this is a law that allows the president , again, with a tremendous amount of discretion, to deploy federal troops to act as a Domestic Police force. And that is something that in general, our law, our constitution, really frown on because the founders knew that an army turned inward can quickly become an instrument of tyranny. But this law, the insurrection act is an exception, it gives thept president tremendous discretion to deploy troops and address not only insurrections as the name would suggest but also to address domestic violence, which isnt defined, toes address unlawful combinatis of conspiracy, again, not defined, so this very vague and frankly archaic language of the statute hasnt been updated in 150 years, it gives the president 15 a dangerous amount authority. Again what it needs is more specific definitions and checks and balances and some provision for the congress andsp courts t step in if the president overreaches. Elizabeth, codirector of the liberty andth National Security program at the Brennan Center for sjustice, that was both terrifying and incredibly clear, thank you very much for joining us,y its a pleasure to have y here. Thank you, my pleasure. We got much more to get here tonight. Stay with us. We got much more to get here tonight. Stay with us june last year, republicans in the Wisconsin State Legislature decided they needed to launch an investigation into the results of the president ial election in that state, wisconsin is a state that President Biden won by a pretty good margin to obviously that needed to be investigated so Wisconsin Republicans hired a top the steal conspiracy theorist to conduct the investigation and they gave him taxpayer dollars to do it, and blew through multiple deadlines before he eventually released a 136page report that did not prove any allegations of election fraud, but it did darkly mention facebooks Ceo Mark Zuckerberg more than 150 times. On average, more than once per page. So without any proof of any fraud, but, you know, saying zuckerberg a lot, Wisconsin Republicans decided that would be enough for them to try to decertify the Election Results and say President Biden didnt win there at all. Thats what they tried. It hasnt worked out for them so far. After about ten months of this, it was starting to look like Wisconsin Republicans might be ready to start winding down that exercise. Particularly given how much taxpayer money it was costing but then, the protrump who had been put in charge of the shenanigans wants to keep the job and keep the thing going, he started making regular appearances on the podcasts, the radio show, thing, of formal trump adviser steve bannon. Urging Trump Supporters that they needed to call Wisconsin Republican legislators to tell them that this important investigation must be kept going. Then earlier this week, trump himself weighed in with a statement, saying that Wisconsin Republicans needed to keep that investigation going or he would make sure they all face primary challenges. Well, that appears to have worked. Yesterday, the republican speaker of the state house, in wisconsin, announced that the investigation into the 2020 election will continue, even longer because donald trump willed it to be so and steve bannon insisted it must be. So and we are seeing this thing play out in state after state. Over the weekend republicans in michigan chose their candidates for statewide office in november, these will be the republican candidates in michigan for secretary of state and attorney general, one of those two candidates, on the left, spoke at a qanon experience theory conference late last year, she is now the official Republican Party nominee to be secretary of state in michigan which means she will be in charge of overseeing elections for the whole state if she wins in november. That prospect is especially frightening in a state like michigan, you might remember that during the last president ial election, michigans Republican Party came within centimeters of not certifying bidens election victory even though he clearly won in michigan and by a lot. In the end it came down with one republican member of a Michigan State canvassing board who resisted tons of pressure from his own party that he should agree to overturn the Election Results. He voted to certify joe bidens victory. Michigan republicans then decided to retaliate against him and refused to let him keep that job on the state canvassing board and replaced him with a new republican, a conservative activist named tony daunt. And today mr. Daunt that conservative activists who republicans in michigan specifically chose, he resigned from the position in the party and wrote a letter to Party Leaders obtained by the detroit news and wrote cowardly Party Leaders have made the election here in michigan a test of who is the most cravenly loyal to donald trump, and to relitigating the results of the 2020 cycle. Incredibly rather than distancing themselves from this undisciplined loser, far too Many Republican leaders have decided that encouraging his delusional lies, and even worse, cynically appeasing him despite knowing they are lies. Whether its misguided true belief, cynical cowardice or just plain old grift and afternoon ris, it is a losing strategy, and i cannot serve on the governing board of a party that is too stupid to see that. Trouble and turmoil in lots of republican parties in lots of swing states. We got more on that. Stay with us. G states we got more on that. Stay with us do you have a Life Insurance policy you no longer need . Now you can sell your policy even a term policy for an immediate cash payment. We thought we had planned carefully for our retirement. But we quickly realized we needed a way to supplement our income. If you have 100,000 or more of Life Insurance, you may qualify to sell your policy. Dont cancel or let your policy lapse without finding out what its worth. Visit coventrydirect. Com to find out if your policy qualifies. Or call the number on your screen. Coventry direct, redefining insurance. Quote, rather than assembling the courage to do the right thing at the right time and guide the activist base toward the truth, theyve repeatedly backed down and disassembled and hoping that one more act of cowardice will be what does the trick. All my best to you and the many other republicans who are doing their best to do the right thing despite a Leadership Class that refuses to help you. A high profile resignation in the Republican Party in michigan today following hot on the heels by the decision of michigan republicans this weekend to put two fire breathing conspiracy theorist election deniers forward as the Republican Partys official nominees this year for Michigan Attorney general and michigan secretary of state. Joining us now is craig, reporter for the detroit news, thank you very much for joining us tonight. I appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me. So you broke this story about this resignation in michigan Republican Party, and published this sort of scorching Resignation Letter from the official who stepped down, let me just ask you for a little context whether this was a surprise, whether this was the sort of person you kind of expected this from, and how its landing in michigan. Yeah, i mean i sort of expected it, having known tony for quite a while but this is a guy who has spent his life trying to elect republicans to office in michigan, and he has become increasingly frustrated with what is happening, with the Republican Party in this state, with whats happening with donald trump, and relitigating the 2020 election. And i think it essentially came to a head with him over the weekend from what i can tell, and he finally said that hes done with this position on state committee and hes moving on. This week was of course the michigan nominating convention, choosing candidates for down ballot state races through primaries and did it through the kind of convention that we saw this week, and it was remarkable choices by michigan republicans for those attorney general and secretary of state races. Both because theyre both the most firebreathing election deniers of anybody previously in those positions but also in the case of the secretary of state candidate, she has been a fullblown qanon promoter which sort of sounds light and sounds funny but gets dark very quickly. Do you think that, if michigan had run a primary, and michigan republicans as a whole had cast votes to pick nominees for those positions that they would have picked those same folks . Or is this something about the sort of core activists in the party that is different than how most people feel in the state . Its very difficult to tell. Of course, the people that participate in this convention are the most ardent donald Trump Supporters that you can find in michigan, but i dont think its necessarily a given that christina and matt would not have won a primary election. These are two individuals who donald trump has done a lot to help. He comes to michigan for rallies. Hes done telephone town halls. Sent out numerous statements to back them. And really, the people who were challenging christina, specifically within the party, did not really have a basis of support, they didnt have the financial ability to compete with her, and matt might have been a different story, but i think what is clear in michigan, after saturday, is the base of the party, the people that go door to door, and the people who volunteer, its a time when the election takes place, these people want to relitigate the 2020 election, they are not ready to move on, they want answers, and they really want accountability from officeholders and you know, theyre not going to give that up, as much as many of the elected Republican Leaders in this state want to move on, the base of the parrot the base of the party is not going to move on. It sounds like it is going to be bumpy with this kind of transition youre describing. We will staig stay on it. Craig mauger, a reporter for the detroit news, thank you for your time tonight, sir. Thank you very much for having me. Well be right back. Thanr thanr having check out angi. Com today. Angi. And done. Well be right back. Do you struggle to fall asleep and stay asleep . Qunol sleep formula combines 5 key nutrients that can help you fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and wake up refreshed. The brand i trust is qunol. Russia has huge supplies of oil and natural gas, and i read a book about it called blowout in case you wanted to do some homework but oil and gas constitute a huge, huge, huge proportion of russias Economic Life blood. They dont do much else besides oil and gas. Today, the statecontrolled russian Natural Gas Company today announced they are cutting off natural gas supplies to bulgaria and poland and what seems pretty clearly like retaliation for european support for ukraine as russia continues to wage their war there. Now, bulgaria gets about 90 of their natural gas from russia. Russia just cut them off. Despite that, the bulgarians were pretty unflinching today. Their Prime Minister responded today by saying, quote, we will not succumb to such a racket. Poland, the other country that got cut off today, they have been preparing for Something Like this from russia for a long time, among other things in recent years poland built itself a new liquefied natural gas terminal, shipping terminal, which means they can get ship loads of liquefied natural gas brought in from any other country in the world, instead of having to rely just on the pipeline from russia. So yes, russia just cut poland off, but poland was preparing for that anyway, and already trying to ween themselves off being dependent on russia. What russia did today is just speeded up a time line that was already in place for many European Countries to start getting themselves off russian gas, because how can you depend on russia for anything . Russia does have leverage in terms of cutting off Petroleum Products to countries that are dependent on them but there is also a problem here on russias side. Russia itself cant go very long without selling its oil and gas in large part because it has nothing else to sell and a lot has been written about the fact that china or india or other markets will step up and take Russian Energy supplies if russia stops selling it westward but thats not a practical from a purely logistics standpoint, as the Associated Press pints out, the russian Pipeline Network from western severa to europe dont connect with the pipelines running to china and russia has limited facilities to export super chilled liquefied natural gas by ship. And they dont have ships and pipelines to send it anywhere except into the pipelines. Russia is illequipped to send gas to these other countries. Theres also the most, more obvious point that youre dealing with a much lower volume when moving a product by ship as opposed to moving it by a pipeline. In any way, by picking this fight with poland, it is cutting off its nose despite its face and whether or not it makes such a move, a european embargo on russian gas and oil is in the works. The era of russian fossil fuel in europe is coming to an end. Europe has known for a long time that they need to get off of russian oil. Europe knows they should have realized that becoming dependent on russia for Energy Supplies was a bad idea. Russia during the cold war keeping up its supplies, despite all of the vague ris of the cold war, that gave europe a good reason to play see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil and pretend it is fine but those illusions are done, russia cutting off gas supplies to two nato countries to try to force the countries to change their behavior, theres nowhere to hide from it. It is proven, mafia is a state and dont be dependent and they will take any relationship they have with you and use it as power over you. Cutting to the chase here, part of putin turning russia into a fullblown authoritarian fascist state is theyre now a corporatist state and business interests and political interests in russia are merged, all economic power in russia is harnessed to serve the state. So you know, putin will use what normal countries might think of as a business relationship to go to war with you instead and nobody can avoid seeing it now. So yes, poland has been prepping to get out from under Russian Energy dependence, that will rush to completion and same thing for bulgaria and germany and in all of europe. What putin did today will force europe to cut the spigot from russia faster than they would for before and in the long run, i believe it for putin, the game is up. Stay with us. Putin, the game is up. Stay with us thats going to do it for us for tonight. I will see you again tomorrow night. Way too early with Jonathan Lemire is up next. A new push to shore up ukraine, now and in the months to come. As President Biden prepares to ask congress for a new aide package. And it goes beyond military support. Plus, a new video from a Ukrainian Military commander holed up inside that steel plant in mariupol. Pleading with the International Community to quote extract everyone as soon as possible. Well get a live report from ukraine. Plus, dr. Anthony fauci clarified comments he made that the United States is now quote out of the pandemic phase. Well tell you what hes saying now
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