Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Loyal Trump donor alleges Trump admin corruption
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Corruption, Trump and his team facing mounting questions tonight about
- 0:03Speaker 1: a growing list of corruption allegations, which now include Trump's
- 0:07Speaker 1: ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle, who just before her Senate
- 0:11Speaker 1: confirmation is accused of begging a top MAGA donor for $ 100, 000
- 0:15Speaker 1: to pay off her American Express bill.
- 0:21Speaker 2: Do you have any reaction to a U.S. government official,
- 0:25Speaker 2: in this case a U.S. ambassador, asking someone to pay
- 0:29Speaker 2: off debt in exchange to access to other government officials.
- 0:34Speaker 3: Well, so with that hypothetical, Jen, obviously, I don't love that.
- 0:40Speaker 3: But I, you know, I don't know exactly who you're
- 0:43Speaker 3: talking about. I don't know the full details.
- 0:45Speaker 4: Sir, do you have anything new on the reporting from
- 0:47Speaker 4: the Wall Street Journal that Ambassador Guilfoyle had sought finance?
- 0:50Speaker 3: Guys, let me tell you something.
- 0:51Speaker 2: I'm not going to comment on a story that literally posted.
- 0:53Speaker 4: A few hours ago.
- 0:56Speaker 1: Rubio, of course, was in Greece when he said that,
- 0:58Speaker 1: so that's quite ironic. The vice president saying he hadn't
- 1:01Speaker 1: heard anything of the story. Generally speaking, he is quite
- 1:04Speaker 1: up to date on what's all over social media and
- 1:07Speaker 1: all over the newspapers and all over the press. So
- 1:09Speaker 1: that seems a little hard to imagine. But while the
- 1:11Speaker 1: administration claims to not know the details, the man at
- 1:14Speaker 1: the center of the story is speaking out. Eric Dieters
- 1:17Speaker 1: is sharing text messages from Guilfoyle with the Wall Street
- 1:20Speaker 1: Journal and messages on other apps, which read, quote, honey, please,
- 1:24Speaker 1: I need you to get this done for me today.
- 1:26Speaker 1: And you could just send it here. It won't show
- 1:27Speaker 1: up anywhere if you wire money to American Express.
- 1:30Speaker 5: That's all that will show.
- 1:32Speaker 1: And just moments ago, Dieter spoke to Jake Tapper, and
- 1:35Speaker 1: he did not hold back when it comes to his
- 1:36Speaker 1: true feelings about Guilfoyle and the Trump family.
- 1:41Speaker 3: Right before her Senate confirmation, she says to me, I
- 1:45Speaker 3: need $ 100, 000 to pay off my American Express card or
- 1:49Speaker 3: I'm not going to become Greek ambassador. I said, Kimberly,
- 1:52Speaker 3: why should I do this for you? And she told me,
- 1:54Speaker 3: and it's in the text messages, I'll be your ride
- 1:57Speaker 3: or die forever to Trump administration. There was no question
- 2:01Speaker 3: it was a quid pro quo. I bashed the Bidens
- 2:04Speaker 3: all the time for what I saw as shadow criminality
- 2:07Speaker 3: with Hunter and the family. Well, what the Trumps are
- 2:10Speaker 3: doing is just totally different. They're adding to their wealth
- 2:13Speaker 3: just out in the open.
- 2:16Speaker 1: Of course, to the tunes of hundreds of millions of
- 2:18Speaker 1: dollars wealthier, at least, for Trump's children since he took
- 2:22Speaker 1: office for the second time. Guilfoyle, in her case, wanted $ 100, 000,
- 2:25Speaker 1: which is pocket change in the context of what I said.
- 2:28Speaker 5: I mean, they've made at least, the Trump family, $ 2.
- 2:29Speaker 1: 2 billion during Trump's first year back in office. Let
- 2:34Speaker 1: me just say that again, $ 2. 2 billion in Trump's first
- 2:37Speaker 1: year back in office. It's impossible to grasp that. Now,
- 2:41Speaker 1: much of it has come from crypto and these coins.
- 2:44Speaker 1: You know, Trump has a coin. The first lady has
- 2:46Speaker 1: a coin. His family and the son of Special Envoy
- 2:50Speaker 1: Steve Witkoff announced a $ 2 billion crypto deal in Dubai.
- 2:53Speaker 1: And then there's the questionable investments. And I can't go
- 2:56Speaker 1: through all of them because it would take too long.
- 2:58Speaker 1: But just in August 18th, Trump purchased up to $ 5
- 3:01Speaker 1: million of SpaceX bonds. Two days later, an announcement came
- 3:04Speaker 1: from the administration saying, President Donald J. Trump launches the
- 3:07Speaker 1: golden age of space transportation, from which SpaceX, of course,
- 3:11Speaker 1: is going to make a lot of money because they're
- 3:13Speaker 1: trying to get more.
- 3:14Speaker 5: Than 1,000 launches by 2030.
- 3:15Speaker 1: And I also will mention just today, Trump gave Elon Musk,
- 3:19Speaker 1: the CEO of SpaceX, the Medal of Science. Trump's son-in-law,
- 3:22Speaker 1: Jared Kushner, also today responded to reports that he's profiting
- 3:25Speaker 1: from Trump's presidency, including CNN's reporting that while he takes
- 3:29Speaker 1: the lead in negotiating Mideast peace deals, his company has
- 3:32Speaker 1: a major stake in a firm linked to Israel's military. Now, Kushner,
- 3:36Speaker 1: of course, received millions of dollars from Middle Eastern countries
- 3:38Speaker 1: after dealing with them in Trump's first administration. Kushner responded,
- 3:41Speaker 1: linking to this site where he responds to that claim
- 3:44Speaker 1: and more, denying conflicts. But the known corruption and cronyism
- 3:48Speaker 1: of Trump's inner circle is now spreading wider. There's the
- 3:52Speaker 1: reports that two of Trump's top political advisors, Chris LaCivita
- 3:55Speaker 1: and James Blair, were making six figures helping a pro-Putin
- 3:58Speaker 1: party keep its grip on power in the Balkans. Those
- 4:01Speaker 1: are the two men who are supposed to be overseeing
- 4:03Speaker 1: the midterm strategy for Republicans to win. And the American public, frankly,
- 4:07Speaker 1: are being confronted with this and seeing more and more
- 4:10Speaker 1: of it. According to Gallup's latest poll, 89% of Americans
- 4:13Speaker 1: say corruption is widespread throughout the U.S. government.
- 4:15Speaker 5: That is the highest in 20 years.
- 4:17Speaker 1: And I think it's just worth saying in this divided
- 4:19Speaker 1: world we live in that I don't think you can
- 4:20Speaker 1: find 89% of Americans who agree on anything in U.S.
- 4:24Speaker 5: Politics, but they agree on corruption in the U.S. government.
- 4:27Speaker 1: And of course, there's also the irony with Trump. which
- 4:30Speaker 1: is that corruption is something he went after when it
- 4:32Speaker 1: came to Obama, Clinton, Biden and Harris.
- 4:36Speaker 6: She's corrupt.
- 4:37Speaker 4: She's a corrupt person.
- 4:39Speaker 2: I'm running against a totally corrupt person. We will evict
- 4:42Speaker 2: Joe Biden, the most corrupt president we've ever had in history.
- 4:47Speaker 7: Hillary Clinton is the most corrupt person ever to seek.
- 4:50Speaker 6: The office of the presidency of the United States.
- 4:55Speaker 1: And online, the Obama administration, he wrote, is turning out
- 4:58Speaker 1: to be one of the most corrupt and incompetent in U.S.
- 5:00Speaker 4: History.
- 5:01Speaker 1: Well, now Americans see the wealth accumulation of the Trump family,
- 5:05Speaker 1: which is astounding.
- 5:07Speaker 5: Again, $ 2.
- 5:07Speaker 1: 2 billion in the first year since Trump came back
- 5:10Speaker 1: in office. And they don't like it. Kristen Holmes is
- 5:13Speaker 1: out front live outside the White House. And Kristen, what
- 5:16Speaker 1: are you learning from your sources there? about the thinking
- 5:20Speaker 1: that corruption is more and more a focus. It's something
- 5:24Speaker 1: that almost 90% of Americans have a real problem with.
- 5:28Speaker 1: And now you have these allegations against Ambassador Guilfoyle, which
- 5:31Speaker 1: really seem to be breaking through in all sorts of
- 5:35Speaker 1: different types of publications.
- 5:37Speaker 6: Well, when it comes to Guilfoyle, I do think that's
- 5:39Speaker 6: a separate note than the rest of what you're seeing.
- 5:42Speaker 5: In terms of Guilfoyle, I've.
- 5:44Speaker 6: Heard almost nothing from this administration. You saw Marco Rubio's
- 5:49Speaker 6: public response to that. That's kind of been the response
- 5:51Speaker 6: I've seen behind closed doors as well. This idea that,
- 5:55Speaker 6: you know, this is just a story.
- 5:57Speaker 5: I've heard a lot of defenses.
- 5:58Speaker 6: And there is kind of an understanding among Trump's inner
- 6:02Speaker 6: circle that Kimberly Guilfoyle was once a member of Trump's
- 6:06Speaker 6: inner circle, somebody who was engaged to Don Jr., somebody
- 6:10Speaker 6: who might know a lot about the Trump family and
- 6:13Speaker 6: about the Trump presidency. And there's been a hesitancy to
- 6:17Speaker 6: speak out against her. But I do want to note
- 6:20Speaker 6: the larger picture here, which is that As you noted,
- 6:23Speaker 6: 89 percent of people believe that there is corruption in
- 6:27Speaker 6: the U.S.
- 6:27Speaker 5: Government.
- 6:28Speaker 6: And one of those people is Eric Dieter, somebody who
- 6:30Speaker 6: is a loyal Trump supporter, somebody who donated a huge
- 6:34Speaker 6: swath of money to Donald Trump and, by the way,
- 6:37Speaker 6: still considers himself a Trump supporter. But one thing he
- 6:41Speaker 6: has a problem with is this idea of corruption. So
- 6:44Speaker 6: even though we are hearing almost nothing from the administration,
- 6:48Speaker 6: there is going to eventually have to be an answer
- 6:51Speaker 6: for this and some kind of reckoning because you're seeing
- 6:54Speaker 6: actual Trump voters look at this and say, hey, this
- 6:58Speaker 6: is not something that's okay with me. And I have
- 7:00Speaker 6: had people speculate, Americans across the country, that maybe if
- 7:03Speaker 6: the economy was doing better, if they were doing better,
- 7:06Speaker 6: they wouldn't be looking at this. But it does certainly
- 7:08Speaker 6: feel to the average American, even the average Trump supporter,
- 7:12Speaker 6: that they're having a hard time paying for groceries and
- 7:14Speaker 6: gas and just surviving. And yet all of these people
- 7:18Speaker 6: are making millions upon billions of dollars. Yeah.
- 7:21Speaker 7: All right.
- 7:22Speaker 1: Thank you very much, Kristen, at the White House. And
- 7:24Speaker 1: everyone's here with me now. And Ambassador Flake, let me
- 7:27Speaker 1: just ask you, because you served as ambassador to Turkey,
- 7:29Speaker 1: so you know the importance of the ambassador to Greece, right?
- 7:32Speaker 5: This is an important position.
- 7:33Speaker 1: Marco Rubio was just over there giving that big speech
- 7:35Speaker 1: about Western civilization in front of the Acropolis. So what's
- 7:39Speaker 1: your reaction to these allegations against Ambassador Guilfoyle?
- 7:41Speaker 7: Well, if this was the first thing, it would be
- 7:44Speaker 7: something for officials here to say, well, we don't know
- 7:46Speaker 7: what's going on.
- 7:47Speaker 2: Let us.
- 7:48Speaker 7: let us look into it. But, uh, this has been
- 7:50Speaker 7: going on for a while. There were allegations that she
- 7:53Speaker 7: told a Greek official that we can take out any government, uh,
- 7:56Speaker 7: we want, um, allegations that, uh, you know, she's treating
- 8:00Speaker 7: her staff horribly and firing them if they don't bring
- 8:03Speaker 7: her ice cubes at 4 a.m. Um, traveling around with, uh,
- 8:07Speaker 7: energy executive, uh, from the United States doing, uh, deals
- 8:11Speaker 7: in neighboring countries that, uh, might benefit them or others.
- 8:16Speaker 7: It just, uh, This is the latest in a long string,
- 8:19Speaker 7: and I can tell you that's an important part of
- 8:21Speaker 7: the world. We need a serious ambassador there, and we
- 8:25Speaker 7: don't have one.
- 8:26Speaker 1: And, Essie, you know Kimberly Guilfoyle, Ambassador Guilfoyle, very well.
- 8:33Speaker 1: And this is as bald-faced awful as it gets, but
- 8:36Speaker 1: Ambassador Flake's laying out all the layers of the onion
- 8:39Speaker 1: beneath it that now are being discussed in the context
- 8:42Speaker 1: of what's being described as $ 100, 000 or else payoff to
- 8:46Speaker 1: American Express.
- 8:47Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 8:48Speaker 4: I think some of the other characters that are being
- 8:51Speaker 4: discussed in the corruption net are not household names. Everyone
- 8:56Speaker 4: knows Kim Guilfoyle, either from her Fox days or her
- 9:00Speaker 4: days in the White House or her days engaged to
- 9:03Speaker 4: Don Jr. I don't think a lot of people would
- 9:05Speaker 4: be surprised to learn all of this.
- 9:07Speaker 5: I'm not.
- 9:09Speaker 4: I'll save my personal feelings about Kim for another day
- 9:13Speaker 4: because it's not relevant. This is bad. This is really,
- 9:17Speaker 4: really bad. She should have to answer for this. And
- 9:21Speaker 4: it paints a picture of an administration that is.
- 9:25Speaker 5: full in.
- 9:26Speaker 4: To the corruption and the cronyism and the nepotism and
- 9:31Speaker 4: the self-dealing and pocket lining. And I think Kristen said it.
- 9:35Speaker 4: Another time, things are great. The economy is swinging. You
- 9:39Speaker 4: might not care as much. I know everyone says they
- 9:42Speaker 4: care about corruption, like they say they care about democracy.
- 9:45Speaker 4: But things are not good. And they are almost rubbing
- 9:48Speaker 4: it in our faces.
- 9:49Speaker 5: That's how it feels.
- 9:50Speaker 4: The largesse, the we're doing great, sorry you're not.