WEBVTT
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Day one of a post-impeachment world
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in which Donald Trump has been acquitted.
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Funny man Maz Jobrani and Sara Azari,
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author of "A Simple Guide to the Crimes
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"of the Trump Campaign," both on this edition
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of Politicking.
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(upbeat music)
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Welcome to Politicking, I'm Larry King.
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Donald Trump has been acquitted
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in his Senate impeachment trial,
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and now all eyes turn to 2020
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and the race for the White House.
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We'll get a legal read on the acquittal
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later in the program, but first, Maz Jobrani,
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actor, comedian, host of the podcast,
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"Back to School with Maz Jobrani",
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and costarring in a new movie, "A Simple Wedding."
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He joins me here in studio
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to talk about the post-impeachment era
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we are now living in.
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All right, Maz.
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What do you make of all this?
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Well, Larry, I just keep shaking,
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I've been shaking my head since he got elected.
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Nothing makes sense to me.
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I mean, the thing is, we know going into it
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that he was gonna be acquitted,
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but once you actually experience it, it hurts still.
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With all the evidence they entered.
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With all the evidence, and the fact
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that they wouldn't wanna hear evidence.
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I don't care if you're a Republican,
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Democrat, what have you.
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When John Bolton is saying, "Let me speak, let me speak,"
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let him speak!
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Forget your point, why would you not wanna hear?
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Why would you not wanna hear?
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It's so blatant, party above country,
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and it's heartbreaking, because you really hope,
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a lot of times you think that you are in good hands,
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that people with integrity are running things,
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and then when you're faced with it
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and you realize, oh no, it's as bad as,
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it's worse than the, remember the TV show House of Cards?
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Yeah.
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He was at least, you know, right there
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and it would tell you he was corrupt,
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and these guys, we all know there's a lot of,
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it's a power struggle, and at least Romney spoke up
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so that was one thing.
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Yeah.
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You said that Donald Trump is good for comedy,
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but bad for the world.
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(laughs)
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Why is he good for comedy,
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some people think he is comedy in and of itself.
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Larry, I tell you, I said that when he first won
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that he was good for comedy, because for comedians
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he was giving us a lot of material.
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Ever since then, I've changed my mind.
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I don't think he's good for comedy
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because as a standup comedian, we need time
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to develop our jokes.
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He says so much crazy stuff every day
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it's impossible to keep up with him.
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I need a staff of like 20 writers and a nightly show
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to keep up with Donald Trump.
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When you're a standup comedian and you're doing a bit
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about take your pick, take whatever you want, Pocahontas,
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Rocket Man, you know, chocolate cake.
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Remember chocolate cake?
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Yeah, who is?
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No, people don't, that's how crazy this is.
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He had just decided to drop some bombs on Syria
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early in his administration, and somebody
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was interviewing him, I think it was Lester Holt,
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or somebody was asking him about it, and he's telling
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the fact of how he came to the decision of dropping
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bombs in Syria--
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While eating chocolate cake.
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Starts talking about chocolate cake.
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And I don't know what happens, like is there a voice
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in his head that goes, "Tell them about the chocolate cake.
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"They're gonna love to hear about the chocolate cake."
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From a serious perspective, do you have a Democrat
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you like most of all?
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You know, Larry, I am ready to vote for any Dem,
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I'll vote for Donald Duck.
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I don't care who wins the nomination.
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There's a lot of them that have peaked my interest,
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at times Elizabeth Warren, I wanted a female president,
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Klobuchar I'm interested in now,
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even Andrew Yang, Bernie.
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I'm ready for any, Joe, I don't care who.
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I'm with them.
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And I think that's one thing the Democrats gotta do
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is really step up and say all right let's fight it out
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but let's keep our eyes on the prize.
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You know if it's Bernie or Warren
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the whole Trump campaign will be he's running
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against a socialist.
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Absolutely.
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I have friends of mine who are fiscal Republicans
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and they're smart people.
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They've already fallen into the whole thing of,
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one of them said, if Bernie wins in 2020
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we'll be broke by 2024.
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And I go, how can you say that?
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I mean, there's no logic, because if you look
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at the tax break that they gave,
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one point whatever trillion dollars further into deficit,
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that doesn't help our longterm economic standing
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in the world.
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And I say what about just Bernie has said
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he wants to tax billionaires, there's certain taxes
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that we can stand to give.
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I think I personally feel that we should have
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education that's free, we should have,
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you've been to Europe, you've been
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to some of these countries.
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This is the largest deficit ever.
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Yeah.
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But he didn't mention that in the State of the Union.
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Didn't mention that, didn't mention the fact that he goes
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I want to get us out of all our wars,
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however, currently under where we're at,
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we have more troops in the Middle East than we did
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when he first went into power.
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He declared that the state of our union
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is stronger than ever.
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What'd you make of that statement?
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You know, somebody was pointing out
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that he had his body language was all toward
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the Republicans the whole time.
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So if his State of the Union is just to Republicans,
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that tells you something.
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His base might feel that we're on the right path
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and the right course.
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I think the reason why a lot of these senators have not,
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that they decided to come and stand behind him
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was because he's given them their judges,
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he's given them their tax breaks, he's given them
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their deregulation, he's basically doing
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whatever they want him to do, so why would they
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want to get him out?
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So yes, for them it's great.
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For many people, you tell the kids in the cages,
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you tell the people driving Ubers and making $5 an hour.
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You tell these people the economy in the state is good.
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(upbeat rock music)
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15 years ago you were on the Axis of Evil comedy tour.
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Now it's the Peaceful Warrior comedy tour.
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How do you go from Axis of Evil to Peaceful Warrior?
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Well, you know they each had a genesis of the name.
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The name Axis of Evil comedy tour came
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as an Iranian-American, I was watching George Bush
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give his State of the Union address.
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This was after we'd been attacked by Al Qaeda with 9/11.
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A lot of the hijackers had come from Saudi Arabia,
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Egypt, other places, and we knew that they were harboring
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the terrorists in Afghanistan.
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So he gets up there, and he goes there's an axis of evil,
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and he goes it's Iraq, North Korea, and Iran.
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I go how did Iran end up in here
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when the hijackers are from somewhere else?
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So that was a play on words that we took
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and we put the word comedy on the back of it
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just to lampoon the whole term.
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Now, the Peaceful Warrior tour comes from,
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I'll be honest with you Larry, people are hypersensitive.
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In my shows, I've done Trump jokes and have audience members
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yell back at me, and they go--
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Really?
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Yeah, you shouldn't make fun of our president,
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and I go, that's the whole point of America.
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I was born in Iran.
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I live in this country, so I'm free to make fun
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of our president.
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And I couldn't make fun of the president of Iran in Iran.
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If I did that, he'd say hey when's your next show?
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But there are no more shows.
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The ministry of no shows showed up.
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So I decided rather than getting into arguments with people,
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I'm just gonna try and be peaceful about the way
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I present my act, and therefore it's called
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the Peaceful Warrior tour.
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Did you get your PhD from UCLA?
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Larry, I entered the PhD program at UCLA,
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dropped out the first year.
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Why?
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Because, I'd wanted to be an actor and a comedian
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since I saw Eddie Murphy when I was 10 years old as a kid,
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northern California, and my immigrant Iranian parents
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had no idea what that meant, and they wanted me
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to be a lawyer or a doctor, go down those paths.
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So I was battling them for the longest time,
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and I think I ended up in that PhD program
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to please my parents, but while I was there at UCLA
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getting my PhD I went over to the theater department,
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I auditioned, got in the play, and I said
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this is where I'm alive.
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I'm alive on stage.
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And it was the best thing I've ever done.
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All right, you're now co-starring in a new movie
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"A Simple Wedding."
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It's about, as I understand it, a young Iranian-American
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woman who goes to great lengths to appease her parents
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and their need to see her settle down.
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You play Uncle Saman, right?
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Yeah.
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So what it is it's basically a romantic comedy.
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An Iranian-American girl falls in love
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with an American guy, and in the process
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of trying to get married with each other,
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I play her uncle, and I fall in love with the mother
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of the American guy, who's played by Rita Wilson.
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So while they're getting their thing going,
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I'm getting our thing going with Rita.
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Let's take a look at a clip
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from "A Simple Wedding."
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(laughing)
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This is my fiance, Alex.
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(speaking foreign language)
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Oh, wow.
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It's nice to meet you, too.
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No.
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What was that?
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He said he's really happy to meet you.
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Alex, congratulation.
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I hear you're a doctor.
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He's actually an artist.
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Artist.
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Yeah, he makes art out of balloons.
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Oh.
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I didn't follow that.
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He's really excited to meet your family, he said.
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Oh, it's so exciting.
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Very excited.
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So excited.
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Very excited.
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So excited.
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So excited.
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Really exciting.
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What attracted you to do this?
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You know, I love the message of the movie.
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First of all, it's a comedy.
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It's fun, it's silly, it's light.
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But it's a message of bringing cultures together.
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I am all for that, you know my comedy special
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the Netflix special I had was called Immigrant.
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My tour is called Peaceful Warrior.
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I'm all about bringing people together.
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If you watch my comedy special,
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you'll see in the audience I've got Russians
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and I've got Chinese, and I've got Middle Eastern,
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I got white, I got black.
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Let's come together, let's laugh together,
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and I think this movie provides that.
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I don't care where you're from.
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The Iranian people have always been close
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to American people, right?
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In fact, maybe, next to Israel, our closest ally
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in the Middle East.
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Well, Iranian people love American culture.
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I remember, I left Iran when I was six years old,
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so this was 1978.
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And I remember as a kid even, being enthralled
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with American culture.
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I saw the first "Rocky" movie in Iran.
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I loved Zorro back then.
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Ah, Zorro.
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I used to have Spiderman comics. I had all that stuff.
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So I think Iranians love America, American culture.
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And I think unfortunately a lot of times
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the way you see us in the media, they show people
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chanting stuff, burning flags,
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but that's a minority of people,
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and doing it for politics reasons within the country.
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Do you get typecast?
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You know, Larry.
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Early on I was getting some typecasting.
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As a matter of fact, I wrote a book
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called "I'm Not a Terrorist But I've Played One on TV,"
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because it was making fun of that.
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And for the past 15, 20 years, I've been able to tell
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my agents, no more terrorist parts.
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So I haven't had one of those in a long time.
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What do you make of apparently
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sole white content of the Oscar nominees?
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The Oscar nominees, I think it goes beyond
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the nominees, obviously.
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It goes about trying to open our eyes to movies
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that are coming from other points of view.
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Every year when the Oscars come around,
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I go there must have been movies that these people
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did not see because the movie didn't have the budget
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to get in front of them.
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That's why, I don't know if you've seen
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the movie "Parasite"--
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I hear it's terrific.
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It's a great movie.
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It's out of South Korea, and I think that it
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just naturally caught people's attention.
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I think we need to look more for movies
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coming from minority communities to put into the mix
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when we're judging our films.
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What were you going through when there was a time
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recently when there might be a war with Iran?
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I tell you Larry, earlier in the year
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when we got really close to having a war with Iran,
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I think every Iranian-American I knew
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was just on edge.
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It was high anxiety.
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There's a lot of Iranians, I'll say right away,
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I think Iranians especially in the West
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criticize the Iranian government
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for being oppressive to its people,
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for being a violator of human rights.
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It's not a good government.
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However, we know that war would cause a lot
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of innocent deaths, and so I think a lot
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of Iranians around the world were very nervous about that,
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and I'm happy that for the time being,
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we've found an off ramp.
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His movie is "A Simple Wedding."
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Our guest is Maz Jobrani, and we'll be back with him
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right after this break.
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Beautiful.
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Kiss it.
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Cool.
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So am I a Muslim now?
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00:12:36.620 --> 00:12:37.630
No.
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00:12:37.630 --> 00:12:38.718
Sort of.
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00:12:38.718 --> 00:12:39.980
Can I have a Muslim name?
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00:12:39.980 --> 00:12:42.600
Sure, what would you like your Muslim name to be?
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00:12:42.600 --> 00:12:45.323
Uh, Mohammed?
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(laughing)
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Okay, sure.
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Mohammad.
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00:12:52.710 --> 00:12:54.888
(upbeat rock music)
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Nousha, are you okay?
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I can't marry him.
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She's okay, she's okay.
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Let's take her inside.
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No, no, no.
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The wedding machine cannot be stopped.
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The wedding must go on.
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We'll go inside for one tea, she'll relax.
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What do you mean, tea?
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The groom is waiting.
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I spent a lot of money.
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(all shouting)
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I don't want to end up like his mother!
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Alex.
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(all screaming)
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(splashing)
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Welcome back to Politicking.
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That was a clip from "A Simple Wedding,"
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that costars my guest Maz Jobrani, Iranian-American comedian
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who's also appearing in the Peaceful Warrior comedy tour.
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The White House recently unveiled its Middle East
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peace plan, rejected by one side, as always.
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What did you make to it?
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You know, when you don't include the people
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that are involved with the Palestinians as part of that
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I think that you are doomed for failure.
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I saw a quote from Mahmoud Abbas
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who represented the Palestinians
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00:14:17.593 --> 00:14:20.150
that just said, "No, no, no."
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So, I think he meant no.
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And the fact that Jared Kushner is running this,
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I mean I don't know what Jared Kushner knows
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about the Middle East.
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I'm assuming he grew up in New York, maybe.
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So maybe he's had a falafel at some point.
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But other than that, I don't think he's qualified
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to be helping with the Middle East peace plan.
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00:14:38.394 --> 00:14:41.562
But he said he studied the Middle East extensively.
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You gotta get them in there, and you gotta,
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it's a negotiation, you gotta have both sides involved.
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And we've seen, even the Arab league has said no.
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A lot of different countries from that part of the world
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who I think, listen, a peace between the Israelis
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and the Palestinians is beneficial to everybody.
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00:15:01.720 --> 00:15:04.140
I mean, can you imagine a peaceful Middle East?
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I mean, we can't.
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00:15:04.973 --> 00:15:06.100
We've never even thought about it.
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00:15:06.100 --> 00:15:08.150
We take it for granted that it's gonna be
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in constant conflict.
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00:15:10.423 --> 00:15:14.130
One thing we still have is the First Amendment.
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Free speech, which separates us from a lot of countries
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in the world.
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Amen.
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Do you think that's been troubling?
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Do you think it's in trouble?
Absolutely.
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00:15:22.688 --> 00:15:25.650
When I see people at my comedy shows sometimes
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00:15:25.650 --> 00:15:27.750
telling me that I can't make fun of our president,
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00:15:27.750 --> 00:15:30.290
that worries me because I think that they don't understand
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00:15:30.290 --> 00:15:33.570
what you just said, that we have the freedom of speech.
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00:15:33.570 --> 00:15:36.290
When I see the president attack the media
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00:15:36.290 --> 00:15:38.140
and he says everything they say is wrong,
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00:15:38.140 --> 00:15:40.950
well how can it be that everything they say is wrong,
403
00:15:40.950 --> 00:15:42.500
and everything you say is true?
404
00:15:44.006 --> 00:15:47.730
You're disqualifying journalists,
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00:15:47.730 --> 00:15:49.810
whether it's the New York Times, the Washington Post,
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00:15:49.810 --> 00:15:53.250
or whoever it is, whose job it is to call you out
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00:15:53.250 --> 00:15:56.680
on your falsehoods, and you're saying no, no.
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00:15:56.680 --> 00:15:58.370
Just listen to me.
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00:15:58.370 --> 00:15:59.770
There's no way anybody else could be right.
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00:15:59.770 --> 00:16:02.160
So I think you're quieting their First Amendment.
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00:16:02.160 --> 00:16:03.920
So definitely it's in trouble.
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00:16:03.920 --> 00:16:05.930
How proud you must be, invited to give
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00:16:05.930 --> 00:16:09.870
the Commencement Address at your alma mater, UC Berkeley.
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00:16:09.870 --> 00:16:11.020
What was that like for you?
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00:16:11.020 --> 00:16:13.220
I tell you, Larry, that was a carer highlight for me
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00:16:13.220 --> 00:16:14.490
to be able to go and do that.
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00:16:14.490 --> 00:16:16.970
They invited me to do the Commencement Speech
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00:16:16.970 --> 00:16:21.660
at UC Berkeley, and it was in 2017,
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00:16:21.660 --> 00:16:23.990
and it was interesting because when I first said yes,
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00:16:23.990 --> 00:16:27.122
I thought it was gonna be at the Greek theater up there
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00:16:27.122 --> 00:16:28.660
which seats about 5000 people.
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00:16:28.660 --> 00:16:31.310
Well I come to find out it was gonna be at Memorial Stadium
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00:16:31.310 --> 00:16:33.540
that seats 45,000 people.
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And so I was intimidated.
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00:16:34.970 --> 00:16:37.100
As somebody who loves being in front of people,
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00:16:37.100 --> 00:16:37.933
I was intimidated.
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00:16:37.933 --> 00:16:38.766
That's a big crowd.
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00:16:38.766 --> 00:16:39.599
Big crowd.
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And I tell you Larry, they listened, and I was
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00:16:41.140 --> 00:16:43.050
I also was happy and proud that I was able
431
00:16:43.050 --> 00:16:44.680
to give a message of saying listen,
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00:16:44.680 --> 00:16:46.160
exactly what you said about the freedom of speech,
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00:16:46.160 --> 00:16:48.450
I said look, you've got people like Ann Coulter
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00:16:48.450 --> 00:16:50.930
and some other people that are on the far right
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00:16:50.930 --> 00:16:52.680
who've wanted to come and speak here.
436
00:16:52.680 --> 00:16:54.530
I always say let them speak, because I think
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00:16:54.530 --> 00:16:56.203
their own words will sink them.
438
00:16:57.130 --> 00:17:00.530
And finally, who's gonna be sworn in
439
00:17:00.530 --> 00:17:03.090
on inauguration day 2020?
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00:17:03.090 --> 00:17:04.110
Oh, gosh.
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00:17:04.110 --> 00:17:06.873
Who's gonna be sworn in on inauguration day 2020?
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00:17:07.770 --> 00:17:09.660
Let's go Bernie Sanders or Pete Buttigieg,
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00:17:09.660 --> 00:17:12.220
just because they were the one and two in Iowa right now.
444
00:17:12.220 --> 00:17:13.053
I don't know.
445
00:17:13.053 --> 00:17:13.886
Okay.
446
00:17:13.886 --> 00:17:15.090
Just anyone but Trump.
447
00:17:15.090 --> 00:17:16.630
I got a feeling you'll vote
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00:17:16.630 --> 00:17:18.710
whoever that Democratic nominee is.
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00:17:18.710 --> 00:17:20.190
Absolutely.
450
00:17:20.190 --> 00:17:21.023
Thank you, man.
451
00:17:21.023 --> 00:17:21.856
Always good seeing you.
452
00:17:21.856 --> 00:17:22.689
Thanks, Larry.
453
00:17:22.689 --> 00:17:24.860
The new movie is "A Simple Wedding."
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00:17:24.860 --> 00:17:26.650
It'll be out February 14th.
455
00:17:26.650 --> 00:17:28.430
For more information, you can go
456
00:17:28.430 --> 00:17:31.483
to bluefoxentertainment.com.
457
00:17:33.386 --> 00:17:35.160
(upbeat rock music)
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00:17:35.160 --> 00:17:38.360
Now for my next guest, author and criminal defense
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00:17:38.360 --> 00:17:40.440
attorney, Sara Azari.
460
00:17:40.440 --> 00:17:44.187
Her book "Unprecedented: A Simple Guide to the Crimes
461
00:17:44.187 --> 00:17:46.340
"of the Trump Campaigns and Presidency"
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00:17:46.340 --> 00:17:47.980
will be out in March.
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00:17:47.980 --> 00:17:50.150
She joins me here,
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00:17:50.150 --> 00:17:53.460
and each chapter is devoted to someone
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00:17:53.460 --> 00:17:55.830
criminally indicted or in jail, right?
466
00:17:55.830 --> 00:17:56.680
Correct, Larry.
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00:17:56.680 --> 00:17:59.730
It actually starts with the stories of each
468
00:17:59.730 --> 00:18:03.030
of the president's henchmen, Michael Cohen,
469
00:18:03.030 --> 00:18:07.220
George Papadopoulos, Rick Gates, Manafort, et cetera,
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00:18:07.220 --> 00:18:10.400
and then what I did was I devoted a large part
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00:18:10.400 --> 00:18:12.810
of the book to summarizing the Mueller Report
472
00:18:12.810 --> 00:18:16.370
and the Russia investigation, frankly because Americans
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00:18:16.370 --> 00:18:20.710
won't read 480 pages of dense material,
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00:18:20.710 --> 00:18:25.240
so I felt that it was a very important piece
475
00:18:25.240 --> 00:18:27.300
of our history that should not be forgotten,
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00:18:27.300 --> 00:18:29.990
that the president has not been held accountable for
477
00:18:29.990 --> 00:18:32.293
even by Congress, as we sit here today,
478
00:18:33.150 --> 00:18:37.600
and yet it's terrible precedent for future presidents.
479
00:18:37.600 --> 00:18:39.749
As a lawyer, how would you assess the case
480
00:18:39.749 --> 00:18:44.460
made by the prosecution for the House in the trial?
481
00:18:44.460 --> 00:18:45.650
The House Democrats.
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00:18:45.650 --> 00:18:48.130
You know, I think there's a lot of should have's
483
00:18:48.130 --> 00:18:49.930
and could have's and didn'ts when it comes
484
00:18:49.930 --> 00:18:50.940
to the House Democrats.
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00:18:50.940 --> 00:18:54.510
The idea that, for example, they didn't charge
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00:18:54.510 --> 00:18:57.000
the president in a separate article for bribery,
487
00:18:57.000 --> 00:18:59.710
and that gave a lot of the Republicans leeway
488
00:18:59.710 --> 00:19:01.410
to argue, well where's the crime?
489
00:19:01.410 --> 00:19:04.090
Even Alan Dershowitz saying there's no crime.
490
00:19:04.090 --> 00:19:06.920
Well, article two of the Constitution does not require
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00:19:06.920 --> 00:19:08.950
crime to impeach a sitting president.
492
00:19:08.950 --> 00:19:10.800
It's about high crimes and misdemeanors,
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00:19:10.800 --> 00:19:12.420
which includes abuse of power.
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00:19:12.420 --> 00:19:14.780
So they had a strong case.
495
00:19:14.780 --> 00:19:16.230
There's also the other argument
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00:19:16.230 --> 00:19:17.930
that maybe they should have waited,
497
00:19:17.930 --> 00:19:19.510
maybe they should have subpoenaed people,
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00:19:19.510 --> 00:19:22.320
like Bolton, like McGahn, and then had a stronger case.
499
00:19:22.320 --> 00:19:25.010
The bottom line, Larry, is that there's nothing
500
00:19:25.010 --> 00:19:27.000
that would have changed the outcome
501
00:19:27.000 --> 00:19:28.265
of this sham Senate trial.
502
00:19:28.265 --> 00:19:29.172
It was over before it started?
503
00:19:29.172 --> 00:19:30.290
Exactly.
504
00:19:30.290 --> 00:19:32.830
We had an acquittal before we had the trial.
505
00:19:32.830 --> 00:19:35.250
Sham trial, sham acquittal.
506
00:19:35.250 --> 00:19:38.890
As a lawyer, are you disappointed in Alan Dershowitz?
507
00:19:38.890 --> 00:19:43.500
Listen, the cast of characters that are representing
508
00:19:43.500 --> 00:19:45.220
the legal team for Donald Trump
509
00:19:46.090 --> 00:19:48.010
is from a show called hypocrisy.
510
00:19:48.010 --> 00:19:51.160
You've got Alan Dershowitz, who in the Clinton impeachment
511
00:19:51.160 --> 00:19:56.160
was saying you absolutely don't need a crime.
512
00:19:56.230 --> 00:19:57.720
You can impeach a president without a crime.
513
00:19:57.720 --> 00:19:59.200
Now he says where's the crime?
514
00:19:59.200 --> 00:20:02.230
He also made a very dangerous statement last week
515
00:20:02.230 --> 00:20:05.900
that essentially that every president acts
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00:20:05.900 --> 00:20:08.070
in their own self-interest to be re-elected,
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00:20:08.070 --> 00:20:11.600
and to that extend, Donald Trump is not abusing his power.
518
00:20:11.600 --> 00:20:15.480
Then you have White House counsel Cipollone,
519
00:20:15.480 --> 00:20:16.820
who was a witness.
520
00:20:16.820 --> 00:20:20.400
Who was in the room when Donald Trump instructed Bolton
521
00:20:20.400 --> 00:20:23.360
to pressure Zelensky with respect to the withholding
522
00:20:23.360 --> 00:20:25.410
of the aid and the announcement of the fake investigation,
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00:20:25.410 --> 00:20:29.060
and he's up there lying to the senators about the fact
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00:20:29.060 --> 00:20:30.640
that that happened.
525
00:20:30.640 --> 00:20:33.780
And of course you have Jay Sekulow with his array of lies,
526
00:20:33.780 --> 00:20:37.310
and then lastly you have Ken Starr, who, again
527
00:20:37.310 --> 00:20:40.380
back in the Clinton days, believed that lying
528
00:20:40.380 --> 00:20:44.180
about a sex act was important enough to impeach a president,
529
00:20:44.180 --> 00:20:47.580
remove him, but abuse of power by Donald Trump is not.
530
00:20:47.580 --> 00:20:49.630
Explain your title, "Unprecedented."
531
00:20:49.630 --> 00:20:51.760
This never happened before, right?
532
00:20:51.760 --> 00:20:54.760
I don't believe we've ever had a president so corrupt
533
00:20:54.760 --> 00:20:59.160
in American history, and it's started with the solicitation
534
00:20:59.160 --> 00:21:01.920
of election interference back in 2016.
535
00:21:01.920 --> 00:21:06.160
I see Ukraine as a continuation of that same scheme.
536
00:21:06.160 --> 00:21:08.690
In fact, the day after Mueller testified on the hill
537
00:21:08.690 --> 00:21:12.410
he was emboldened, felt exonerated, picked up the phone,
538
00:21:12.410 --> 00:21:13.910
and began the scheme with Ukraine.
539
00:21:13.910 --> 00:21:17.210
So it's all the same criminal conduct
540
00:21:17.210 --> 00:21:19.990
that he's continued to engage in, and frankly
541
00:21:19.990 --> 00:21:21.270
I agree with Adam Schiff.
542
00:21:21.270 --> 00:21:23.471
I don't think it's going to stop.
543
00:21:23.471 --> 00:21:24.850
What would you give the Mueller Report
544
00:21:24.850 --> 00:21:26.923
in a scale of A B C D?
545
00:21:28.060 --> 00:21:32.790
I would say while from a legal perspective
546
00:21:32.790 --> 00:21:35.340
I understand his position and would give him an A,
547
00:21:35.340 --> 00:21:39.810
from a just general outcome perspective,
548
00:21:39.810 --> 00:21:41.610
I would give him a C or D.
549
00:21:41.610 --> 00:21:45.840
I felt that he adhered so strictly to that DOJ policy
550
00:21:45.840 --> 00:21:48.340
that prevented him from indicting a sitting president,
551
00:21:48.340 --> 00:21:50.280
and we have so many policies in the DOJ
552
00:21:50.280 --> 00:21:51.240
that are not followed.
553
00:21:51.240 --> 00:21:53.660
It's not law, it's a policy.
554
00:21:53.660 --> 00:21:56.850
And it was disappointing that he basically
555
00:21:56.850 --> 00:21:59.840
wrote up a memo, a prosecutorial memo,
556
00:21:59.840 --> 00:22:01.380
and left it to Congress,
557
00:22:01.380 --> 00:22:04.342
and to the separation of powers for impeachment.
558
00:22:04.342 --> 00:22:07.712
In doing your research, anything surprise you?
559
00:22:07.712 --> 00:22:10.020
You know what surprises me, and when I wrote this book
560
00:22:10.020 --> 00:22:12.230
it had a different meaning than it does today.
561
00:22:12.230 --> 00:22:13.950
It's more meaningful today than it was
562
00:22:13.950 --> 00:22:17.880
when I turned in my manuscript on June 1st of 2019.
563
00:22:17.880 --> 00:22:20.210
To me, when I wrote the book, I felt that there was a need
564
00:22:20.210 --> 00:22:22.551
for people to understand that Nancy Pelosi said
565
00:22:22.551 --> 00:22:26.140
it's too murky, we're not gonna go with the Mueller Report.
566
00:22:26.140 --> 00:22:27.270
People don't understand it.
567
00:22:27.270 --> 00:22:30.330
So there was a need to understand what happened.
568
00:22:30.330 --> 00:22:33.240
Today, I feel like there is even a greater need
569
00:22:33.240 --> 00:22:36.430
for a book like this, because President Trump
570
00:22:36.430 --> 00:22:38.640
has only been impeached on his conduct
571
00:22:38.640 --> 00:22:40.250
with respect to Ukraine.
572
00:22:40.250 --> 00:22:42.680
This conduct is not addressed, and yet he committed
573
00:22:42.680 --> 00:22:44.850
not only impeachable abuse of power,
574
00:22:44.850 --> 00:22:47.140
but 10 acts of obstruction of justice,
575
00:22:47.140 --> 00:22:49.430
which is a violation of the federal code.
576
00:22:49.430 --> 00:22:50.720
Do you favor a censure?
577
00:22:50.720 --> 00:22:52.680
The senators have done that in the past.
578
00:22:52.680 --> 00:22:55.180
Should they censure the president?
579
00:22:55.180 --> 00:22:58.060
Well, I think these senators,
580
00:22:58.060 --> 00:23:01.460
the majority in the Senate, Republicans,
581
00:23:01.460 --> 00:23:03.820
doesn't matter what this president does.
582
00:23:03.820 --> 00:23:07.070
They put the party over their oath of office.
583
00:23:07.070 --> 00:23:08.670
It's been very clear to us.
584
00:23:08.670 --> 00:23:12.290
But in a censure vote, you only need 51 votes,
585
00:23:12.290 --> 00:23:14.280
and based on what some Republicans said,
586
00:23:14.280 --> 00:23:16.605
wouldn't they have to vote for a censure?
587
00:23:16.605 --> 00:23:17.438
They would.
588
00:23:17.438 --> 00:23:18.271
They would.
589
00:23:18.271 --> 00:23:19.104
But would they?
590
00:23:20.370 --> 00:23:22.450
Boy, I'll bet you'd love to get Trump
591
00:23:22.450 --> 00:23:23.640
on the rope, wouldn't you?
592
00:23:23.640 --> 00:23:26.550
Remember, he offered he would come and be under oath.
593
00:23:26.550 --> 00:23:28.820
Remember when he said that.
594
00:23:28.820 --> 00:23:30.840
That's another lie.
595
00:23:30.840 --> 00:23:33.880
He also released the transcript of the Ukraine call
596
00:23:33.880 --> 00:23:35.170
thinking that it's gonna help him,
597
00:23:35.170 --> 00:23:37.700
and thinking that it's gonna have optics of transparency,
598
00:23:37.700 --> 00:23:39.730
but it was actually really bad for him.
599
00:23:39.730 --> 00:23:43.810
So he will never testify, not only he won't testify,
600
00:23:43.810 --> 00:23:46.270
he's blocked witnesses and documents
601
00:23:46.270 --> 00:23:48.377
from being brought forth in the Senate trial.
602
00:23:48.377 --> 00:23:51.030
He called that phone call a perfect call.
603
00:23:51.030 --> 00:23:52.134
Right.
604
00:23:52.134 --> 00:23:55.560
It is a perfect lie.
605
00:23:55.560 --> 00:23:57.610
There was nothing good about that phone call.
606
00:23:57.610 --> 00:23:59.740
There is nothing good about the evidence
607
00:23:59.740 --> 00:24:04.030
that was uncovered that corroborates that phone call
608
00:24:04.030 --> 00:24:06.170
was not a good call.
609
00:24:06.170 --> 00:24:08.180
And yet, here we are.
610
00:24:08.180 --> 00:24:11.910
We had a speedy Senate trial with no witnesses,
611
00:24:11.910 --> 00:24:14.710
with no documents, and then now he gets to say
612
00:24:14.710 --> 00:24:15.560
that he's exonerated.
613
00:24:15.560 --> 00:24:18.790
Would you make him a favor to be reelected?
614
00:24:18.790 --> 00:24:21.274
You know, when you look at some of the polling,
615
00:24:21.274 --> 00:24:24.620
I think that people are starting to realize that,
616
00:24:24.620 --> 00:24:28.710
people that voted for him in 2016, are starting to realize
617
00:24:28.710 --> 00:24:31.231
that he's corrupt.
618
00:24:31.231 --> 00:24:33.650
That some of the stuff that people have learned
619
00:24:33.650 --> 00:24:35.800
is actually going to impact their decision
620
00:24:35.800 --> 00:24:37.840
at the polls in November.
621
00:24:37.840 --> 00:24:40.160
But I'm not sure if we have enough of the country
622
00:24:40.160 --> 00:24:42.710
and his base convinced.
623
00:24:42.710 --> 00:24:43.570
Thank you, ma'am.
624
00:24:43.570 --> 00:24:44.403
Thank you, Larry.
625
00:24:44.403 --> 00:24:46.800
Sara, we thank her for time today.
626
00:24:46.800 --> 00:24:50.557
The book again is "Unprecedented: A Simple Guide
627
00:24:50.557 --> 00:24:54.290
"to the Crimes of the Trump Campaign and Presidency,"
628
00:24:54.290 --> 00:24:57.980
and you can pre-order it now on Amazon.
629
00:24:57.980 --> 00:25:00.670
It'll be out everywhere on March 1st.
630
00:25:00.670 --> 00:25:03.930
Thank you for joining me on this edition of Politicking.
631
00:25:03.930 --> 00:25:06.780
Remember, you can join the conversation on my Facebook page
632
00:25:06.780 --> 00:25:08.820
or Tweet me @kingsthings.
633
00:25:08.820 --> 00:25:11.400
And don't forget to use the Politicking hashtag,
634
00:25:11.400 --> 00:25:14.843
and that's all for this edition of Politicking.