Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / ‘Trickle down corruption’ Adam Mockler reacts to latest Trump official’s revealing texts

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‘Trickle down corruption’ Adam Mockler reacts to latest Trump official’s revealing texts · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: New reaction now after the Wall Street Journal this week
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: revealed text messages from U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: to a Trump donor begging for $ 100, 000 to pay off
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: an American Express bill. I want to play some of
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: what that donor told MSNOW about this offer.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: In your view, was this a quid pro quo?
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: Oh, it absolutely was a quid pro quo.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Kimberly Guilfoyle is a grifter. Kimberly Guilfoyle, I have no doubt,
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: has done this to more than me. She's doing it
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: right now in Greece.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: In a statement, a U.S. embassy official said, quote, Guilfoyle's
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: career in and out of public service is guided by
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: deep and abiding values. They went on to add that
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: she remains committed to representing the American people with dedication
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: and integrity. The assignment desk is still here with me.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: All right, Jake Conley, I'm going to start with you.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: So so which one is I'll ask you for the
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: perspective of a reporter. How do you figure out if
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: somebody is living out their deep and abiding values or
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: they're grifting?
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: You look where the money's coming from, where it's going.
• 1:10
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: That's what we always say as reporters. First principle, follow
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: the money. And the problem they're going to face is
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: when you see stuff like this, when you see any
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: of the any evidence of corruption like we've seen from Congress,
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: when you see stuff like with Kimberly Guilfoyle, which is
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: kind of beyond the pale of what we'd even normally
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: expect from Congress. Right. Look at what the economy is doing.
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: It's fracturing. People see the upper tier of the upper
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: tier of the upper tier getting richer, getting favors, asking
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: for things and getting them that other people can't get
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: access to. Where does that go? It goes into anger
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: for the populace of, look, why are you undercutting what
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: should have been a fair process? Why are you getting
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: this money and we are all not? Why do you
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: get to go and run up the Amex bill, take
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: the trips, and the rest of us do not? That's
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: a real question that... A, the ambassador is going to
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: have to answer, but B, anyone running on the platform
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: alongside the ambassador, anyone running for the party is going
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: to have to say, look, how do you guys excuse this?
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: How do you let this go? How do you appoint someone?
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: How do you how do you explain this away?
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Well, other Jake, how do you think the administration is
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: going to explain this away? Because we now have another
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: another Kimberly Guilfoyle story coming in from The Wall Street
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Journal at Davos. Kimberly Guilfoyle boasted of private jet trips,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: luxury stays. This is just published today. It explains that
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: at Davos, she boasted about her close ties to two
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Greek tycoons and said they were bankrolling her high rolling
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: trips around the world. So we have days ago, the honey,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: please text messages and ask for one hundred thousand dollars
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: to pay off an Amex bill. Now we have this
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: this piece in The Wall Street Journal. They have an
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: audio recording. Apparently, we don't have access to it. It's
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: not released, at least at this time. But they include
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: quotes like, you know, I can deliver the world to you,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: which you deserve, she said, according to this recording. I'm
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: going to make you a lot of effing money, she
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: said at another point in exchange with the businessman at Davos.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: Oof.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: If you're Marco Rubio, who the other day was sort
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: of basically saying, like, I don't know, you guys take
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: these things as gospel and you run.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to play the game.
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, what are you going to do?
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: As if Marco Rubio can't read something on a phone
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: on a plane. But I think the really the Trump
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: people are pushing to its logical limit this core campaign
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: theme going back to 2016 of like, well. All politicians
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: are corrupt. So what's the big deal with Trump? Like,
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: why are you guys all getting on your high horses
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: when every politician is doing this? Well, not every politician
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: is doing this. This is so much more brazen, to
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: your point. And not only that, the amount of conversations
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: I've had with sources who have said some version of like, oh,
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: my God, when I was in X, Y, Z governor's
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: office or other office on the hill, we went to
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: such painstaking lengths to avoid any corruption. remote image of impropriety. And,
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: you know, they they're like, you can just take some
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: cash or Bitcoin in a bag in this administration. And
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: I think that that frustration is compounding and it is
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: so much more visible to the public. The other thing is,
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: in the Trump era, so many of us know who
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: people like Kimberly Guilfoyle are, where I doubt any of
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: us can name the last ambassador to Greece in a
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: previous administration, you know, or people like Jared Kushner or
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: Steve Witkoff going down the line to Don Jr., Steve
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: Witkoff's son. The sons of Trump's children and just like
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: that orbit are really, really crucial for getting business. I mean,
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: time after time, people say, got to talk to Jared,
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: got to talk to, you know, Zach Witkoff. So Kimberly
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Guilfoyle is going through it right now. I think that
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: there are other people in this administration who are going
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: to be going through that ringer either shortly before the
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: midterms or sometime in 2027.
• 4:39
  Speaker 5: I want to.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Reread for you, Adam, what the spokesman for the U.S.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: Embassy in Athens told The Wall Street Journal. The ambassador's
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: career in and out of public service is guided by
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: deep and abiding values. And that she had faithfully followed
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: State Department ethics and gift reporting guidelines. And I'll add
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: to that from their statement that I had a conversation
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: with one of our expert attorneys, James Sample, just about
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: like an hour or so ago. And he was saying
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: that while this whole thing doesn't look good, she might
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: not actually be in any legal peril.
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: Here's the problem, and both of the Jakes touched on
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: this perfectly. There is a deep skepticism and nihilism among
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: Americans of all ages, but especially young Americans that I
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: talk to, that the institutions that exist will ever even
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: work for us or work to benefit us. Many young
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: Americans are mired in student debt, medical debt, credit card debt,
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: and then we see the richer getting richer and richer
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: and richer. We see Donald Trump and his administration and
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: his family members, as you said, continuing to enrich themselves.
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: And it's like, It's not trickle-down economy. It's trickle-down corruption
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: at this point. Donald Trump sets the tone. He is
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: uniquely corrupt. And then everybody from Ivanka to Jared Kushner
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: to Don Jr. are able to leverage that corruption. And
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: this is just another example of that, every individual of
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: the administration being uniquely corrupt in their own way.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: I do have to say, I mean, it's just exhausting
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: to hear someone who knows people who would love if
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: someone sent them $ 100, 000 to pay off their student loans
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: right now, to be told that people who were asking
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: for relief in that— Aspect of their lives were kind
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: of told that they were like being lazy and you're
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: asking a lot of voters to foot that bill for you.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: And I went to this and then to see this.
• 6:14
  Speaker 6: To see this and everyone here, the two Jakes and Adam,
• 6:17
  Speaker 6: you've all touched on this, is that this is the
• 6:20
  Speaker 6: modus operandi of the Trump administration. They are the personification
• 6:24
  Speaker 6: of the top of the K-shaped economy. And Americans now
• 6:27
  Speaker 6: see this, and I think this is a compelling message
• 6:29
  Speaker 6: that Democrats should push, that corruption is a tax. Corruption
• 6:33
  Speaker 6: is a tax. And when you look at this new
• 6:34
  Speaker 6: Navigator research poll that says 81% of Americans tie corruption
• 6:39
  Speaker 6: to their increasing personal costs, you now see that this
• 6:43
  Speaker 6: is all coming down on them right ahead of the midterms.
• 6:45
  Speaker 6: They can't hide it. They're doing it in the open.
• 6:48
  Speaker 6: And I really think it's going to backfire spectacular.
• 6:50
  Speaker 5: Hey, it's Rachel. I am so glad to see you
• 6:53
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• 6:54
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• 6:56
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• 6:59
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• 7:02
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• 7:06
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• 7:08
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• 7:11
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• 7:16
  Speaker 4: Thanks.