Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Tensions flare at court hearing on Trump’s golf course renovation

Transcript

Tensions flare at court hearing on Trump’s golf course renovation · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: One of President Trump's projects in Washington is facing more
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: pushback and became the focus of a contentious hearing in
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: federal court today. This comes after the president released plans
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: over the weekend to transform a public golf course into
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: a championship-level venue. As after hundreds of trees were removed
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: from the course, a move the judge said she was
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: furious about at a previous hearing. With more on the controversy,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: here's Sunland Sirfati.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: We're going to basically build a better golf course.
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: In open defiance of a federal judge, President Trump is
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: escalating the fight over this 300-acre D.C. golf course managed
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: by the federal government.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: You could call it a renovation.
• 0:37
  Speaker 4: It should be very simple, and it's something that the
• 0:40
  Speaker 4: Department of Interior is.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Allowed to do, absolutely. All they want to do is fix.
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: Up their property. Abruptly announcing he is officially closing the
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: public course, starting construction to turn it into a championship-style
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: course instead, and going after the judge overseeing a court
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: battle over his plan. calling the judge, U.S. District Judge
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: Anna Reyes, in the case a crazed lunatic. All this
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: as government lawyers filed a formal motion to disqualify her
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: from the case, saying she could not serve as an
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: impartial arbiter of the issues, calling her behavior egregious. After
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: the judge said she was furious that the administration may
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: have defied her orders.
• 1:19
  Speaker 5: This is not the White House, it is not behind
• 1:22
  Speaker 5: locked doors, and we can fight for this land and
• 1:24
  Speaker 5: we are going to.
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: A federal lawsuit brought by the D.C. Preservation League and
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: local golfers is seeking to halt the renovations, arguing it
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: would take away a public and affordable place to play
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: golf in the nation's capital. The president has argued the
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: course is dilapidated and unsafe.
• 1:42
  Speaker 6: It's been allowed to get run down, bad, dangerous, dirty, lousy,
• 1:46
  Speaker 6: and it's going to be one of the great ones.
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: The president's quest to take over the course is keeping
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: with his efforts to remake D.C. in his style and liking.
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: Washington was one of the worst places in this country.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: Now it's one of the best.
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: However, Judge Reyes has been adamant that no work should
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: go forward until the legal battle plays out. The government
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: has continually assured the federal judge that any plans are
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: still conceptual and nothing has been finalized. Even while the
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: president and his entourage visited the site in June and
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: the interior secretary released preliminary plans for the course makeover.
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: Then with very little warning this month, the Trump administration
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: cut down nearly 500 trees at the site in a
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: single weekend, saying it was part of a maintenance plan.
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: Over the weekend, a picture on social media posted by
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: Trump's outgoing press secretary showed a blurred out map of
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: the golf course on the president's desk, sparking speculation the
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: plan was further along than they said. And on Sunday,
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: the president formally released the plan himself. The federal judge
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: saying today she doesn't know who to believe. And it
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: was a marathon hearing today going for over seven hours long.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: And it really illuminated these two separate narratives coming from
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: a part of the Trump administration. On one hand, you
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: have Department of Justice lawyers who argued that cutting down
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: these trees essentially was just routine. Maintenance had nothing to
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: do with the broader plans to renovate this golf course. which,
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: of course, is blocked by a court order. And then
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: you have President Trump, on the other hand, saying that
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: this golf course will be closed next month and plans
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: to renovate it will start, in his words, immediately. And
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: we saw the judge in this case really openly struggle
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: with that, essentially trying to square that circle. She said
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: at one point there is no universe in which all
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: of this coincidentally happened at the same time.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Judge Ana Reyes said in court, quote, I don't know
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: what to do when I keep getting different stories. Ellie
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: Honig is my legal source tonight. I'm trying to imagine,
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: as I'm sure you are with the experience that I
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: don't have, what goes through a lawyer's mind when you're
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: representing the president and you wake up and you see
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: this post from the president attacking the judge that you're
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: about to go have a hearing before?
• 4:11
  Speaker 6: Well, Dan, I think what went through these lawyers' mind is, oh, great,
• 4:14
  Speaker 6: our client, the president of the United States, just flatly
• 4:17
  Speaker 6: contradicted us because the legal team has been saying in
• 4:21
  Speaker 6: court for the last several appearances... There are no imminent
• 4:24
  Speaker 6: plans to completely renovate that golf course. Instead, this is
• 4:28
  Speaker 6: just sort of standard maintenance. And here comes the president
• 4:30
  Speaker 6: multiple times over the weekend saying, no, no, no, we
• 4:33
  Speaker 6: are about to renovate this all caps immediately. And that's
• 4:36
  Speaker 6: exactly why this whole situation has escalated so quickly. And
• 4:40
  Speaker 6: today in court, Judge Reyes tried to put the government
• 4:43
  Speaker 6: lawyer's to that very question. She said, hang on a second,
• 4:47
  Speaker 6: is there a plan to do a renovation here or not?
• 4:50
  Speaker 6: And the government really struggled to answer that. And I
• 4:52
  Speaker 6: think that's largely why Judge Reyes has expressed such frustration
• 4:57
  Speaker 6: and at times anger with the government lawyers, rightly so.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and obviously, you know, we're talking about a golf course,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: which is very important, but it also speaks to what
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: we have seen the president do the East Wing, for example,
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: what he's trying to do with the Kennedy Center, but
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: specifically in this courthouse. It was probably one of the
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: tensest situations between the Trump administration and a judge, really,
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: in recent memory. It lasted like seven hours, right?
• 5:30
  Speaker 6: Yeah, Judge Reyes and other lawyers for the plaintiffs here
• 5:33
  Speaker 6: grilled several high-ranking officials from the Interior Department, from the
• 5:37
  Speaker 6: Justice Department. And you're right, this started as just a
• 5:40
  Speaker 6: dispute over trees and a golf course. But it's really
• 5:42
  Speaker 6: become a showdown of sorts between the courts and the
• 5:45
  Speaker 6: executive branch because Judge Reyes, who has this case, initially said,
• 5:50
  Speaker 6: I'm not going to issue a formal order blocking the
• 5:52
  Speaker 6: president or anyone else from undertaking plans at this golf course.
• 5:56
  Speaker 6: I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt.
• 5:58
  Speaker 6: I'm not going to take extreme action. I'm just going
• 6:00
  Speaker 6: to say to the government, if you're going to do
• 6:03
  Speaker 6: something that's serious and irreversible here, you need to notify
• 6:07
  Speaker 6: us first. On Friday, October 9th, the Friday before the
• 6:10
  Speaker 6: long Columbus Day weekend at 4.55 p.m., five minutes before
• 6:14
  Speaker 6: the end of the day, the government said, oh, Judge,
• 6:16
  Speaker 6: we might be doing something soon. And by the next day,
• 6:18
  Speaker 6: 400 trees had been removed. And Judge Reyes said, essentially,
• 6:22
  Speaker 6: I extended you this trust and you violated it. So
• 6:25
  Speaker 6: that was another issue that was animating Judge Reyes today.
• 6:28
  Speaker 6: She said, basically, I gave you a chance. I assumed
• 6:31
  Speaker 6: you would act in good faith and you've not done that.
• 6:33
  Speaker 7: 24 hours ago, the president said construction would begin next month. Today,
• 6:37
  Speaker 7: he changed his tune and said this, quote, they do
• 6:39
  Speaker 7: not need an approval. Work is scheduled to begin immediately.
• 6:43
  Speaker 7: Skye Perryman, the president of Democracy Forward, one of the
• 6:46
  Speaker 7: groups representing the plaintiffs who are challenging this project, shared
• 6:49
  Speaker 7: her concerns with CNN earlier.
• 6:51
  Speaker 5: It's harmful. It's unlawful. It will take away a valuable
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: public land that's available for all people. And there's a
• 6:59
  Speaker 5: number of laws that they're breaking in the process and
• 7:01
  Speaker 5: harming people. The president wants to build something that is
• 7:04
  Speaker 5: not for everyone.
• 7:06
  Speaker 6: All right.
• 7:09
  Speaker 7: David Axelrod, does this simply go into the category of
• 7:12
  Speaker 7: like the president's worried about?
• 7:14
  Speaker 6: Yes.
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: Don't even finish your sentence.
• 7:17
  Speaker 6: Golfing.
• 7:18
  Speaker 8: I know.
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: Gas. Part of why he has a problem is because
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: people think that he is not focused on them. You know,
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: there was this AP poll earlier in the week with
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: the NORC. And this is more on the corruption side,
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: but it's instructive here. Few see Trump as prioritizing the
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: country or people like themselves since taking office. And they
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: feel like he's focused on his business interests. He's focused
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: on the business interests of his friends and family. But
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: when you ask, is he focused on the country overall, 42%?
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: Is he focused on people like me, 29%? And part
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: of that is a function of that. A lot of
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: the news he makes is around ballrooms and golf courses
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: and not around healthcare and not, at least in a
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: positive way, or the fight against inflation, which he says
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: doesn't exist, which he says has been solved. He calls
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: it the golden age. And I think people think he's
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: completely disconnected from their experience. So they'll look at this
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: and say, this is what he's spending his time on?
• 8:20
  Speaker 7: Is that how this is going to.
• 8:21
  Speaker 9: Go over in Iowa, Chris?
• 8:22
  Speaker 8: I mean, David hit the nail on the head. Every
• 8:24
  Speaker 8: single piece of available data, publicly and privately, says All
• 8:28
  Speaker 8: people want are for their elected officials to be focused
• 8:32
  Speaker 8: on them. All Donald Trump does is focus on construction
• 8:35
  Speaker 8: projects throughout the Washington, D.C., DMV area. You know, like
• 8:40
  Speaker 8: time after time, he has shown that he doesn't have
• 8:42
  Speaker 8: the interests of the American people in mind. And thank
• 8:47
  Speaker 8: God that we have the justice system, these judges keeping
• 8:51
  Speaker 8: him in check. But Politically, he's just off on another
• 8:55
  Speaker 8: fool's errand while people in rural states like Iowa and
• 8:59
  Speaker 8: Kansas and Texas and Alaska and Ohio are all saying
• 9:03
  Speaker 8: enough is enough. We're going to the polls and we're
• 9:05
  Speaker 8: voting against this because it's not working for me.
• 9:08
  Speaker 7: And so one thing that has come up as we
• 9:12
  Speaker 7: have been covering the president's various projects of interest here
• 9:16
  Speaker 7: in Washington, Howard Lutnick, this was around the Kennedy Center. But,
• 9:21
  Speaker 7: you know, golf is, of course, something that the president
• 9:23
  Speaker 7: does for fun. Lutnick underscored that in a press conference
• 9:27
  Speaker 7: in August.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: The president works all day, every day.
• 9:33
  Speaker 6: And there are two things that he does for enjoyment.
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: He plays golf on the weekends And he builds.
• 9:39
  Speaker 6: He loves to build. So this, like, why are we
• 9:42
  Speaker 6: talking about this?
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: This is what he enjoys.
• 9:46
  Speaker 7: Brad Todd, we're talking about what the president enjoys doing
• 9:49
  Speaker 7: for fun while Americans basically can't pay to fill up
• 9:52
  Speaker 7: their cars and trucks.
• 9:54
  Speaker 9: Well, I don't know that Secretary Lutnick was exactly on
• 9:56
  Speaker 9: message in that point.
• 9:58
  Speaker 8: But I would trust.
• 9:59
  Speaker 9: Donald Trump to build golf courses and ballrooms more than
• 10:03
  Speaker 9: I would trust any American president to do that. He
• 10:05
  Speaker 9: has more experience doing those two things than anyone to
• 10:07
  Speaker 9: ever hold the office.
• 10:08
  Speaker 7: Right, but is that the point? Is that what people
• 10:11
  Speaker 7: want him to be doing with his time?
• 10:12
  Speaker 6: Well, some of those things need to be done.
• 10:14
  Speaker 9: And if you played Haynes Point, you know it really
• 10:16
  Speaker 9: is not much of a great course and it could
• 10:17
  Speaker 9: use a lot of improvement. But I think the problem
• 10:20
  Speaker 9: is that the president then relishes the legal fights he
• 10:24
  Speaker 9: gets into involving these things. And this judge in this case,
• 10:27
  Speaker 9: Judge Reyes, actually threw the book at the whistleblower who
• 10:31
  Speaker 9: illegally leaked his taxes. And now he's saying she's a lunatic, whatever.
• 10:34
  Speaker 7: Yeah, today he said the judge on the case is
• 10:36
  Speaker 7: a crazed lunatic whose courthouse tapes will reveal may be insane.
• 10:38
  Speaker 7: That was the quote from the president.
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 10:40
  Speaker 9: But the details are a little bit different on that.
• 10:43
  Speaker 9: But I think His urgency to do things is what's
• 10:47
  Speaker 9: driving a lot of this. And that's because Congress itself
• 10:49
  Speaker 9: has become an unworkable institution. And so he's using every
• 10:52
  Speaker 9: executive lever he can to do things. And I think
• 10:56
  Speaker 9: his pace is a problem. That's what David's getting at
• 11:00
  Speaker 9: is some of what the American people think is that
• 11:02
  Speaker 9: Maybe he's doing too much, too fast, too many different things.
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: Well, that's not exactly what I was saying. What I
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: was saying is maybe he's doing stuff that has nothing
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: to do with their lives.
• 11:10
  Speaker 9: I'm mad at him.
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: I appreciate what you said, except I thought you were
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: going to go to, I trust him to build golf courses.
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: I trust him to build ballrooms. I just don't trust
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: him to wage war or manage the economy because those
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: are the things people are focused on right now. I
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: think they'd be perfectly happy to hire him if they
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: wanted to build a golf course. Most people aren't in
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: the market for that.
• 11:36
  Speaker 8: It's also his personal relentless focus. You know, he has
• 11:40
  Speaker 8: at his disposal some of the greatest talent in the world.
• 11:43
  Speaker 8: He could hire somebody to put the golf course together.
• 11:45
  Speaker 8: He could hire somebody to.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Do the reflective.
• 11:47
  Speaker 7: He has to do it.
• 11:48
  Speaker 8: He has to do it.