Greg Sargent: This is The Daily Blast from The New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network. I’m your host, Greg Sargent.
Norm Eisen: Thank you for having me, Greg. Honored to be here.
Eisen: Greg, we haven’t seen anything like this in modern American history. It violates the Constitution. It is an invitation to the Putins and Xis of the world to do the same thing in their backyards. It puts our service members potentially at risk. And as Marjorie Taylor Greene shockingly noted, it’s a betrayal of Donald Trump’s commitments to the American people: less foreign adventurism, more helping them at home. He’s doing the opposite.
“If prosecuting narco-terrorists is a high priority, then why did President Trump pardon the former Honduran president?”
She also said this: “Americans disgusted with our own government’s never-ending military aggression and support of foreign wars is justified because both parties always keep the Washington military machine funded and going. This is what many in MAGA thought they voted to end. Boy, were we wrong.”
Eisen: No, she’s not. First of all, she notes that Donald Trump has admitted that he’s doing this to benefit Big Oil. And Greg, she’s hitting a note here where the right and the left actually have some common ground—the genuine right and the left, not Trump’s party, which is all about the greatness of Trump, including supporting his corruption. We should not be invading foreign countries to seize their oil. I mean, the guy is such an unsophisticated dictator. Trump is setting up a payback loop to the big oil companies. He said as much during the campaign. It was reported that he openly said, You should vote for me. You should financially support me. Because, in essence, I’ll make it worth your while if I get into office.
Eisen: And he did it at a fundraising event. And that fundraising has not stopped, Greg, because he’s done political fundraising from the oil companies. But then he’s done quasi-official fundraising for his whims, like the ballroom that he’s going to erect over the destroyed East Wing. That ballroom is like—remember how in the Popeye cartoon, Popeye would have one giant arm, the rest of him scrawny? That ballroom is symbolic; it’s like a corruption tumor on the White House grounds.
Part of our gripe with Maduro is that he did not follow the laws, including in running his own country or drug trading. Well, can we break the laws then to go and grab Maduro?
Eisen: That’s right. It’s one of the most outrageous examples of the corruption of government that we’ve seen in American history—probably the most outrageous. And that brings me to the third betrayal that Marjorie Taylor Greene writes about in her long tweet, her social media posting. If you’re primarily focused on grabbing as much cash as you can to stuff into your own pockets and that of your allies so they can pay you back by supporting your political and personal self-aggrandizement, then you’re not focusing on the reason you got elected, which is to help the American people.
Sargent: Well, Norm, I want to try to get at what Trump actually intends with the oil in Venezuela. He’s saying that U.S. oil companies are going to go into Venezuela now and revive the oil industry. You’ll be shocked to hear that we get some of the money. Listen to this.
Sargent: So it’s a little unclear how real all this is. Some of the oil companies themselves seem to be very reluctant to go in now, but it sure looks like pillage or plunder. What’s your take on Trump’s actual designs here? What do you think he’s going to actually try to do and what will it look like?
There’s hostile sentiments being expressed by the Venezuelan government at the moment. What we should look for, though, is whether—even as they continue to make noises, because this is unpopular to say the least with Maduro supporters in Venezuela—Trump may have actually done one of the few things that could give ordinary Venezuelans more sympathy for Maduro by making him into a kidnap victim and by violating international law, violating American law to snatch the guy out of the country. Look for, though, the loosening of those restrictions, American oil companies going back in there.
Sargent: Yes, I think that’s very reasonable to assume it’s going to be really, really ugly. I want to stress something else for a second. It’s good that Marjorie Taylor Greene is calling out Trump for breaking his anti-war promises, but it’s just not true that Trump and MAGA are anti-war or anti-interventionist or anything like that. That whole thought is based on a confused reading of Trump and MAGA’s hatred of multilateralism and international law and institutions. Right here, we see Trump saying almost explicitly that they’re basically using the military abroad to pillage and plunder. I think this just breaks MAGA. You have people like Tucker Carlson who are criticizing Trump adventurism, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Laura Loomer criticizing this latest action. But broadly speaking, what we’re seeing now just wrecks whatever lingering sense there was that MAGA actually stands for anything, right?
I’m not saying it was perfect. I think you agree with me that we made mistakes in the trade policies of the 1980s, unduly sacrificed the American heartland. There’s things we can do better. But it’s been an extraordinary generation after generation of peace and prosperity for America. When we can avoid adventurism like the Venezuelan adventure—Vietnam was an example of a needless fight that we picked that cost tens of thousands of American lives. Look at Vietnam today, Greg. They want to be a capitalist nation. They want to do business with us. That’s the global system anchored by America that Donald Trump is tearing to pieces.
Eisen: Well, at Democracy Defenders Action and our parallel 501(c)(3), Democracy Defenders Fund, we’ve embarked on a series of over 235 legal actions and matters to push back on Donald Trump’s illegality. And Greg, I think it’s very important not to take the illegality of the Venezuelan adventure... it’s unconstitutional. Donald Trump can’t do this without the permission of Congress. It’s an act of war to grab the leader of another country. Not to take that in isolation, but look at the many cases that we have litigated where the courts have said what Donald Trump is doing is illegal. We and others have secured more than 200 court orders to that effect. The Supreme Court just most recently said Donald Trump’s domestic abuse of the military, his National Guard deployments, are illegal. Many, many other examples.
Sargent: Norm, let me ask you, what do you expect if Democrats control the House? I think this is clearly impeachable. There’s going to be a long list of things Trump could be impeached for. But that aside for the moment, what do you expect a Democratic House to do about this kind of thing?
We’ve got an epidemic of corruption. This invasion to benefit oil companies so they can pay Donald Trump back is an example of that corruption, and it harms the American people, puts our service members in harm’s way. And these are profits that are being grabbed to benefit Trump and continue his corruption. This is not in the interests of Americans. And they hate corruption. They hate it. So expect consequences if the Democrats return to power in Congress.
Eisen: Thank you, Greg. Love being here.
Hence then, the article about transcript marjorie taylor greene wrecks trump in harsh maduro tirade was published today ( ) and is available on The New Republic ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Transcript: Marjorie Taylor Greene Wrecks Trump in Harsh Maduro Tirade )
Also on site :