Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Trump admin admits cutting billions in grants to blue states

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Trump admin admits cutting billions in grants to blue states · DEEP INSIGHT

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  Speaker 1: A stunning admission from the Trump administration. Officials from the
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  Speaker 1: Department of Energy now acknowledge they cut billions in federal
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  Speaker 1: grants explicitly because those grants that money was supposed to
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  Speaker 1: go to states that didn't vote for President Trump in
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty four. When it announced the cuts in October,
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  Speaker 1: the Trump administration said that it had quote determined that
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  Speaker 1: these projects didn't adequately advance the nation's energy needs, weren't
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  Speaker 1: economically viable, and wouldn't provide a positive return on investment
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  Speaker 1: of taxpayer dollars. Now we know that was not true.
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  Speaker 1: In recent court documents first reported by The New York
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  Speaker 1: Times this afternoon, the Trump administration acknowledged that decisions around
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  Speaker 1: the grants were made quote based solely on the political
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  Speaker 1: identity of the grant recipient state, i e. Whether the
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  Speaker 1: recipient's location and or place of performance was in a
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  Speaker 1: blue state or a non blue state end quote. The
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  Speaker 1: White House. The Energy Department did not respond to The
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  Speaker 1: New York Times request for comment, but listen to how
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  Speaker 1: the Energy Secretary Chris Wright explained these cuts when he
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  Speaker 1: spoke to CNN the day after they were announced.
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  Speaker 2: All of the contracts that we're told that are being
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  Speaker 2: canceled that were listed by the Budget Director are states
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  Speaker 2: that Kamala Harris won. So are you punishing only blue states?
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  Speaker 1: Not at all.
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  Speaker 3: This is a partial list of an ongoing process.
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  Speaker 4: More project announcements will come.
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  Speaker 1: This is a remarkable state of affairs that the federal
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  Speaker 1: government would do something like this, Lulu, I was kind
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  Speaker 1: of watching you as we were walking through this. What
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  Speaker 1: does it say? I mean, there have been so many times,
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  Speaker 1: especially during the second Trump administration, when we look at
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  Speaker 1: the way things have historically been and we look at
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  Speaker 1: the way that Trump administration, particularly President Trump, is doing
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  Speaker 1: them now, and we note that a norm has been broken.
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  Speaker 1: This is certainly another thing on that list, but a
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  Speaker 1: really remarkable and stunning one. Even though it may seem
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  Speaker 1: like the contents are kind of dry, but the implications
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  Speaker 1: are enormous.
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  Speaker 5: The implications are enormous. First of all, they lied, so
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  Speaker 5: that's the first thing. And the difference is they lied
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  Speaker 5: to a journalist, but they can't lie in court, and
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  Speaker 5: so there it is in black and white. The second
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  Speaker 5: part of this is think about what this means. What
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  Speaker 5: has happened here is the Trump administration has taken away
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  Speaker 5: money to politically punish its enemies, and that means money,
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  Speaker 5: that is taxpayer money from the American people. It is
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  Speaker 5: deciding that because a state voted one way or the other,
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  Speaker 5: they are not getting those funds which they are legally
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  Speaker 5: entitled to have. This is unprecedented in modern American history
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  Speaker 5: to do this in such a calculated fashion, and I
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  Speaker 5: think it should be sobering to everyone.
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  Speaker 4: I have to imagine this is going to get challenged
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  Speaker 4: in the courts well, and it is at this point
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  Speaker 4: because my understanding is these are congressionally appropriated funds and
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  Speaker 4: it is incumbent on members of Congress to advocate for
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  Speaker 4: every grant that comes into their district that comes back
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  Speaker 4: to their state. And the fact that this is happening
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  Speaker 4: is honestly quite predictable. I suspect I have no idea.
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  Speaker 4: I Chris Ray even knew this was happening. But this
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  Speaker 4: has been a priority of O and B director Rust
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  Speaker 4: votes for some time, which is to clawback funds from
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  Speaker 4: blue states to increase funds on projects that the administration
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  Speaker 4: backs to red states. A lot of this was laid
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  Speaker 4: out in Project twenty twenty five. So in that regard,
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  Speaker 4: it's not a surprise, but to see it in plain
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  Speaker 4: language in English is a bit jarring.
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  Speaker 2: And it's actually something that that President Biden called out
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  Speaker 2: specifically during his time in office and said that he
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  Speaker 2: was intentionally, in part putting some of these clean energy
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  Speaker 2: projects in red states and exactly red districts to make
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  Speaker 2: it harder for a future Republican president, now Donald Trump
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  Speaker 2: to execute on exactly this kind of thing. So it's yeah,
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  Speaker 2: it's not a secret. It's something that Trump has been
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  Speaker 2: very clear. He has continuously used his power as president
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  Speaker 2: of the United States in a manner that is divisive
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  Speaker 2: and a break historically from what presidents used to do,
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  Speaker 2: which is view themselves as presidents for all Americans, regardless
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  Speaker 2: of who they voted for. And Donald Trump's break from
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  Speaker 2: that is a massive historical shift and one that has
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  Speaker 2: lasting consequences.
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  Speaker 5: But I just I just want to reiterate again, Yes,
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  Speaker 5: see it coming seen it in lots of different ways,
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  Speaker 5: in the way that this administration has behaved in the
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  Speaker 5: just in their language talking about people who vote a
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  Speaker 5: different way in incredibly derogatory and insulting language. But again,
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  Speaker 5: the fact that this is now laid out in black
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  Speaker 5: and white. The reason that this is now breaking news
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  Speaker 5: is because there was first of all, a very clear lie.
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  Speaker 5: And second of all, they have acknowledged something that they
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  Speaker 5: were trying to hide. They really were trying to hide it.
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  Speaker 5: They were trying to pretend it was something else, and
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  Speaker 5: now we know what it was.
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  Speaker 1: Michelle Goodwin, Can I liked it?
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  Speaker 5: Yeah?
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  Speaker 1: Can you weigh in? Please go ahead? Yes?
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  Speaker 6: Well, because we shouldn't see this in I either. What's
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  Speaker 6: ringing in my ears? Justice Alito scoffing and laughing during
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  Speaker 6: the Supreme Court hearing involving the immunity decision during oral
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  Speaker 6: arguments where the issue came up about whether this would
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  Speaker 6: be a retribution that would be at the forefront of
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  Speaker 6: Donald Trump, there was the scoffing about that that Justice
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  Speaker 6: Alito did. And what we've seen in the Trump administration
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  Speaker 6: through this and otherwise with regard to federal grants has
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  Speaker 6: been retribution has been to punish critics, punish enemies, and
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  Speaker 6: in this way, punish voters. In each of these blue
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  Speaker 6: states where there are the taking away of these funds,
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  Speaker 6: there are also Republicans who pay taxes in those states
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  Speaker 6: who will not receive and did not receive the benefit
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  Speaker 6: of this kind of the what was earmarked for energy
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  Speaker 6: in those states, And as Lulu was saying, this is
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  Speaker 6: it's outlandish in terms of what this means in terms
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  Speaker 6: of a breach of a rule of law, in terms
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  Speaker 6: of norms, in terms of ethics of this office. And
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  Speaker 6: I think one thing that actually marks the second administration,
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  Speaker 6: and one could see the signs of it in the
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  Speaker 6: first Trump administration, really is a kind of roguishness when
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  Speaker 6: it comes to matters of the rule of law. And
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  Speaker 6: in that regard we even see from the Supreme Court
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  Speaker 6: the conservative justices leaning in and expressing that when it's
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  Speaker 6: come to whether we're talking about tariffs and how this
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  Speaker 6: president has behaved or where we've talked about other issues
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  Speaker 6: involving finance in this administration.
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  Speaker 1: Kristen Sulta Sanderson, it's a good point that Michelle makes
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  Speaker 1: about the fact that Republicans live in these states, right,
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  Speaker 1: and they are impacted by this. Now we can put
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  Speaker 1: up what Russ Vote said about this at the time.
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  Speaker 1: This was back in October. He said, nearly eight billion
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  Speaker 1: dollars called the Green New scam, Green New Deal funding
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  Speaker 1: to fuel the left's climate agenda is being canceled, and
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  Speaker 1: then he lists out the states now, notably, there are
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  Speaker 1: a couple swing states that could be on here that
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  Speaker 1: don't seem to be on here that but maybe that's
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  Speaker 1: just a coincidence. What is your view of I mean,
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  Speaker 1: how Americans are going to look at this?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think Americans already are very cynical about the
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  Speaker 3: way Washington works, which is part of how Donald Trump
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  Speaker 3: got elected, but is also part of how in some
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  Speaker 3: ways I think he kind of gets away with things
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  Speaker 3: that that, you know, make people feel outraged, where sort
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  Speaker 3: of average voters are like, yeah, politicians are corrupt and
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  Speaker 3: they give projects to their friends. It is true that
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  Speaker 3: for a long time, politicians who develop significant seniority and
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  Speaker 3: influence in Washington have taken federal dollars and sent it
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  Speaker 3: back to their own districts and their own states in
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  Speaker 3: the form of pork barrel projects and so forth, and
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  Speaker 3: so in sort of it's essentially baked into the way
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  Speaker 3: that people think that these decisions are already being made,
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  Speaker 3: which is unfortunate because we know that that's not necessarily
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  Speaker 3: the case, that a lot of voter cynicism is not
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  Speaker 3: always necessarily justified. There are good public servants out there
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  Speaker 3: trying to do good things, and that in many cases,
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  Speaker 3: building America's energy infrastructure and state's red and blue is
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  Speaker 3: going to be important for our country's future. But I
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  Speaker 3: think that's politically how I actually am not sure that
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  Speaker 3: something like this is going to become like a blockbuster
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  Speaker 3: for voters because so many of them are like, oh,
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  Speaker 3: of course, politicians always just send money to their friends.
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  Speaker 4: I tend to agree. I don't think this breaks through
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  Speaker 4: with Republican voters. I find it stunning, But I worked
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  Speaker 4: in the federal government. I'm not the average lay Republican voter.
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  Speaker 4: I think for most people it does feel like, well,
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  Speaker 4: this is what Washington does, and Trump may even be
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  Speaker 4: rewarding Republicans over Democrats. But what I think people need
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  Speaker 4: to consider is green energy also probably not the sexiest
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  Speaker 4: topic among Republicans, but consider if it was something else.
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  Speaker 4: Think if it's disaster relief funds that they're withholding from
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  Speaker 4: blue states. We all have loved ones in blue states,
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  Speaker 4: even if we might Republican Like, that's where I think
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  Speaker 4: it might have more of an impact, and people are like, wait, wait, wait,
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  Speaker 4: my governments supposed to be responsive to all of us,
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  Speaker 4: But this I don't know that. I think it breaks.
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  Speaker 5: But that's about jobs. This is also about these money.
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  Speaker 5: This money had to do with investing in things that
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  Speaker 5: were going to create jobs. And so if you even
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  Speaker 5: if you absolutely don't care what happens to anyone in
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  Speaker 5: a blue state, you know, do not care about the
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  Speaker 5: economy of the country. Are we now what's seceding different
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  Speaker 5: places because of where they voted from. I mean, this
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  Speaker 5: is actually counterproductive, even from the president's own personal viewpoint.
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  Speaker 1: Well, it's also true.
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  Speaker 2: It's also true that there's a difference between you know,
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  Speaker 2: as you know, Kristen, there's a difference between a member
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  Speaker 2: of Congress or a senator bringing money back to his
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  Speaker 2: orhear state, which is really actually what they're elected to do.
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  Speaker 2: So you know, there's a difference between that and making
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  Speaker 2: a blatantly political decision about money, infrastructure, jobs and the
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  Speaker 2: way I think that while I certainly agree with both
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  Speaker 2: of your points that people think that Washington has broken
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  Speaker 2: and you know, corrupt, and but where I do think
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  Speaker 2: this hurts Trump is it underscores a big political problem
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  Speaker 2: that he has, which is that people don't think that
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  Speaker 2: he's focused on doing what's right for them. They think
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  Speaker 2: he's focused on doing what's right for him, and this
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  Speaker 2: is this is another very blatant example of that