February 11, 2025 • 24 mins
When one branch of the government chooses to blatantly ignore another co-equal branch of government, what you have, fam, is a constitutional crisis.
Trump’s Executive Branch is disregarding court orders that go against his far-reaching executive orders. What happens when the president disobeys the courts? Angela breaks down the legal process for what is SUPPOSED to happen next.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Native lamdpod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with
Reason Choice Media.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello everyone, Happy Tuesday. Welcome home. This is another edition
of a solo pod with me your host, Angela Rai
for Native lamppod. I am excited to be with you
all today to get into a very very pressing question,
which is are we in a constitutional crisis? And is
Donald Trump stage and a coup? So I'm going to
(00:31):
point to a couple of things that i think are
important as we consider this very important question. A lot
of people are asking, a lot of folks are panicking
about it. Hi, I'm people, And one of the things
that has been really pressing for me is the fact
that on Sunday I was at church. I should have
(00:52):
been just panished to discernment, but I'm being very honest
with y'all.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I was at church.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
And there's a tweet that comes across from jd Vance,
who of course is y'all's vice president, and jd Vance
tweeted impertinent part.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I'm just going to reflect on this one portion.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate powers. Judges
aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate powers. Now, some
of you might be saying, Okay, that's his opinion, find whatever,
But he goes on to tweet things to share information
that supports this very asinine point that judges aren't allowed
(01:31):
to control.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
The executive's legitimate powers.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Now, what is really in question here is not that,
because we know we talk about every single solopod basically
there are three co equal branches of government, at least
right now, there's the legislative, the executive, and the judicial branch. Now,
we have always talked about a system of checks and
balances and that is entrined in the Constitution. And what
(01:57):
the Trump administration is essentially trying to do. You would say, hey, actually,
there's this idea that we have. This says the executive
actually has a little more power and surprise, that is
in Project twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
We'll get into that in a little bit.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
But first I want to use as a basis for
my question for my reason for panic, this court case
that is before the United States District Court of Rhode Island.
That case, as many of you all may know, I'm
gonna hold this up so you can see I believe
in documents. So this court case was brought by twenty
three different states attorneys general where they sued because they
(02:37):
sued the Trump administration, the treasurer, the treasurer, the Secretary
of the Department of Treasury, the acting Secretary of Health
and Human Services, the acting Secretary of Education, etc.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
FEMA, and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
In this case, they've alleged that the federal government is
exceeding the executive brings, exceeding its powers by freezing federal funding.
A judge by the name of John J. McConnell, Junior,
agreed with these twenty three states, including the District of
Columbia attorney's general, saying, you know what, let's have a
temporary restraining order on what the Trump administration is doing.
(03:19):
Let's temporarily stop this funding freeze, allow this funding to
go forward so that we don't have these issues in
the country putting a lot of people in harm's way.
So the judge issued this temporary restraining order after the
attorneys general filed their case filed their suit. On January
(03:40):
twenty eighth, the Trump administration comes out and many of
you all remember the Press secretary says, well, we are
rescinding the O ANDB memo that issued this funding freeze.
But we're not going to freeze what we're actually doing,
causing a little bit of confusion, given people reason for pause.
And then what you saw after that was that funds
(04:03):
were frozen. You heard about it in community health centers.
You've seen it now with farmers, including the guy that
voted for Donald Trump and saying you had time to
do his research. You're starting to see this stuff come
out where they actually did freeze funds, which means they
did not comply with the core order. So on Monday, sorry,
on Friday, these attorneys general come back and say, hey,
(04:24):
we're flagging for y'all. We need emergency relief. They are
not complying with this core order. The judge rules on Monday.
That's what this is, that they in fact are accurate
and that the federal government is not complying with the order.
So let me read to y'all what is supposed to
happen when the federal government, visa be the executive branch,
(04:46):
does not comply with a federal court order. Again three
quote equal branches of government judicial, legislative, and executive. So
the executive branch is not complying with this order from
judicial rimps.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
That's what he says.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
It is a basic proposition that all orders and judgments
of courts must be complied with promptly.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
This is on page two of the order.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Persons who make private determinations of the law and refuse
to obey an order generally risk criminal contempt criminal contempt
even if the order is ultimately ruled incorrect. There's several
other pieces that we can point out to the defendants who,
in this instance are is the Trump administration argues that
(05:32):
they're just trying to root out fraud. The judge throws
that argument out and says, that is way you guys
are operating way far beyond the scope of ruling out
and rooting out fraud.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
So alas here we are. So, now, what makes this
a constitutional crisis?
Speaker 1 (05:48):
You're saying, Ah, you know, Donald Trump is gone Trump,
He's you know, of course he's gonna say he's not
gonna comply. What makes this a constitutional crisis? So glad
you asked so again, there is a temporary restraining order.
The judge has ruled once after the case was filed
on the twenty eighth rule twice Monday saying no, not
(06:10):
so much. You're not doing what you're supposed to do,
and failure to comply means you're held in criminal contempt
of court. So what happens if they still don't unfreeze
the funds, Well, that means that the executive branch is
deciding that they don't have to listen to what the
judicial branch is saying. Now, the Trump administration is said
(06:31):
that they are appealing this order to the First Circuit
Circuit Court of Appeals, and right now, I'm gonna tell
you it's not going to go in their favor. There
is not a single conservative judge on the First Circuit
Court of Appeals. And then after that their next stop.
And this is what I think makes this a constitutional crisis.
It is the Supreme Court. Now what makes this the
(06:52):
constitutional crisis? Article one, section nine, clause seven of the
United States Constitution gives the power of the purse.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
To the legislative branch.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
That means the legislature decides how money is spent, how
money is let out the door, whether or not resources
are spent at all. They determine if there's a freeze. Right,
So when we talk about government shutdowns, that's two sides
not agreeing. Until we can agree, nothing's moving. That's a
federal funding freeze in effect. Right here is the primary issue.
(07:28):
Donald Trump has decided that sure, and the Trump administration
has decided sure. The power of the purse to spend money,
and we talked about this a couple of weeks ago,
belongs with the legislature. But the power of the purse
to save money, to stop spending money belongs with the
executive branch. That is not true, but that is how
(07:49):
they're reading this. And what I think is scary about
this is that this was all addressed in Project twenty
twenty five, along with more than two two thirds of
the executive orders and actions that Donald Trump's administration has
taken on so far. Two thirds of those can be
found in Project twenty twenty five. So now when you
(08:11):
take in a consideration that they're through Jdvans on Sunday
saying you ain't the boss of me, and then you
know the judge had to come out and say, not once,
but twice, there's a federal federal funding freeze, bro. Or
you're unfreezing this federal funding freeze, bro, We're not doing this.
The fact that they're not listening to that.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
JD.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Bans told y'all that they weren't going to listen to that.
And then so that means there's this blatant disregard for
what the constitution says. And then there's a violation of
a core order that we just talked about. And then
when you consider that the Trump administration has fired several
inspectors General, which are the internal watchdogs for all of
these government agencies. And then you take in a consideration
(08:53):
where he initially froze federal funding and how, and then
you take into consideration the number of civil service protections
that have always existed across multiple administrations for federal government employees,
and that there's been this blanket, blanket attempt to fire
to have them kind of be bought out. A judge's
(09:14):
ruled against that, but again, if they're not going to
comply with court orders, America, you in danger, girl, You
in danger. And so this is what we have to
wrestle with. There are five or six things happening simultaneously
that signal that we're in a constitutional crisis. And I
don't and and I want to just stop here for
(09:34):
a moment to acknowledge.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
I'm trying to.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Figure out what we thought was going to happen with
a lawless president. This man has several convictions. This man
has run his companies at least allegedly if you believe
the cause of actions that weren't even allowed to go forth,
and some of the ones that were in a very
fraudulent manner. Even with Tis James's successful suit against Donald
(10:02):
Trump Civilly for fraud.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
I'm trying to figure.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Out why any of us, I'll say us to be
nice today would have thought he would do anything different.
Like a criminal gone crime, a lawless man is gonna
be lawless. And so it's so interesting that these are
the folks who call people illegal when they in fact.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Are the illegals.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
So, in the most simple terms, what I can tell
you is, when one branch of the government chooses to
blatantly ignore and disregard another coequal branch of government, you
have a constitutional crisis. So we're not upon a constitutional crisis,
We're not around the corner from a constitutional crisis. We
(10:46):
are in the midst of a constitutional crisis. So what
are my fears now? So again I talked about already
that the First Circuit Court of Appeals is governed by
most part judges who were not There's no conservative judge
on that bench there and I don't want to call
them liberal, but they are left leaning. There's not a
(11:08):
conservative bench. So Donald Trump and his administration are most
certainly going to appeal to the Supreme Court. And this
is what has me worried. Too many members of the
Supreme Court are supporters of, either proactively or indirectly of
the Heritage Foundation, the same Heritage Foundation whose president said
(11:28):
that their role now will be to institutionalize trump Ism.
He didn't say democracy, he didn't say preservation of American
liberty and freedom, he didn't say any of that. What
he said was that their role now is to institutionalize
trump Ism. And that is a direct quote. So the
Supreme Court is upholding that same standard when you go
(11:50):
to whether or not they would find that Donald Trump
could be criminally responsible for any of his actions taken
as a president. Even the fact that it was limited,
The fact that that question had to go before the
Supreme Court and that there was any discussion of that
demonstrates to you where this court really falls. So before
(12:11):
the Supreme Court before including in the case where they
determined if the upsitting president can have criminal immunity. They
dealt with this doctrine called the unitary executive theory. Unitary
executive theory essentially vests all power, all executive powers, into
(12:31):
the hands of the president. So the entire executive branch,
the only person that can make decisions be held responsible
all of that is the president. Now, that would be
great if they held him accountable at the times where
he breaks the law because he's an illegal, but they're not.
They're talking about vesting more power in the president, that
(12:51):
the president should have more authority. They didn't think that
when Barack Obama was in office, now did they. So
this to me is dangerous because what that essentially means
is that the independents that have traditionally been in spaces
like finance, in media, in elections, like we have some
(13:12):
commissions that have been set up and they are bipartisan
by design to be another very important phrase here today,
y'all check and balance for the administration. Those things are gone.
Donald Trump just appointed himself to be the chair of
the Kennedy Center. Like right, Like, I mean, there's no
neutral arbiter of facts and neutral arbiter of what is
(13:33):
right and what is wrong if Donald Trump can just
insert himself and as king over all these things. So
it also will impact prosecutions, and we saw that just
recently with Donald Trump saying, you know what, as a
matter of fact, we're just gonna throw out all these
charges against Eric Adams.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
There's no more neutrality in any of that.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Now. It is just up to this president because of
the unitary executive theory, which I think is very harmful
and I think puts America in a tremendously compromising position.
So I know y'all are like, Okay, well, now that
you spread all this great doom and gloom, where do
we go from here? Well, what I think we have
(14:24):
to be mindful of is this the time is now
to fight, The time is now to spread correct information,
to let people know that if you upset Donald Trump,
if you hurt his feelings, if you insult him, that
your livelihood is on the line. And not just your livelihood,
but your freedom is on the line. We have to
(14:46):
treat a dictator like he's a dictator. And I think
that what we have to acknowledge is that at some
point some articles of impeachment need to be drafted. I
would say that point is now at some point the
challenges around unitary executive being made into the arguments by
these twenty three Attorneys general before the Court of Appeals,
(15:07):
before the Supreme Court have to be addressed. I'm concerned
because if John Roberts is even on this nonsense, like,
I don't know who our fourth and fifth votes would
be on the Supreme Court, but you would think that
there would be some desire, some willingness to preserve democracy.
I'll tell you all if you all are thinking about
(15:27):
this in any similar way, what has been jarring for
me is knowing democracy is fragile, knowing that it's compromised,
knowing that it is so far from perfect, but seeing
how easily it can be destroyed. It's something that I'm
really wrestling with, and I think, if we're honest, institutionalists,
(15:51):
even in the House of Representatives, even in the United
States Senate.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Are struggling with this.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
I built my career on underunderstanding how the law works
and strategizing politically to advance causes that would impact people
who look like me for the most part, and now
most of that playbook doesn't work. And so what I
think you're seeing, I know people are like, well, why
aren't people fighting back, why aren't our members responding wires?
(16:18):
It is because folks are flabbergasted, like we all knew
Project twenty twenty five was going to become a thing,
like nobody ever. Well, some people believe that Donald Trump
when he said this isn't my plan, I don't have
anything to do with this, despite many of the people
who wrote it having been associated with the Trumpet administration
of twenty sixteen and then now many of them going
(16:40):
back into the administration. Many of us knew that, but
I don't know that we knew we were going to
be overwhelmed by so much information so quickly. And I
don't know that many people believe that he would just
blatantly ignore a court. But to this, I would say
to the Department of Justice under the Biden administration, under
(17:00):
the leadership of Merit Garland, this is your fault, bro,
straight up, Like you didn't have the courage to challenge
Donald Trump, to prosecute him when you could have, and
now we got to deal with this dictator.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
That blood is on your hands, seriously, and so you.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Know Special Proxecutor Jacksmith saying he would have likely been
convicted all of these things, these afterthoughts, James comey coming
back around.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Like to hell with all y'all, like this is all
you're doing.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
And I think ultimately what really has to happen is
white folks have to have a conversation with themselves about
how badly they want to cling to power, even when
it is toxic, even when it is abusive, and even
when it means that you very well may not be safe.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
That is the day and age we're living in now.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
When you look at this court order from Judge McConnell
from Rhode Island, he talks about the consistency of his
ruling with the United States Constitution statutes, the Supreme Court precedent.
The Supreme Court may very well take out their precedent.
They may say it's time for a new day, you know,
(18:06):
and I think that that'll be really unfortunate. So this
temporary restraining order that Donald Trump continues to violate, let's
see how many instances I think there are twenty something
court cases now, how many instances where they blatantly disregard
the court. That is what puts us squarely in a
constitutional crisis. And that is where the people have to
(18:26):
cry out. I keep telling you how to call your members.
You have no idea how important that is. They might
just need to know that there are people standing behind
them who want them engaged in the fight, and that
you're not going to leave them hanging, because ultimately, even
though they're sworn in, they took a oath, they're still
human beings, and human beings.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Have blind spots. I know I have mine. We got
to hold each other accountable. We have to fight together.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
That is what That is our least reasonable service, and
that means not fighting each other. That means fighting along
side one another to preserve our freedoms, even if we
know that it means that we deserve much more freedom.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
So that is my.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Podcast for today. I'm gonna see if there are any questions.
There are some questions. So one question from wear of
many hats, I like this name, what can the average
American do when the checks and balances aren't checking or balancing?
Call your members. You got to let them know what
your expectations are. Be like when y'all drafting these articles
(19:30):
of impeachment, though, you know, when are y'all going to
the White House and telling them what really is about
to go down. The questions are what legislation are you
going to prevent from passing? Because it shouldn't be no
business happening when I can't even give my government check.
Those are the things that we have to do, Like
your business is my business. And if I can't get
my business done because the federal government ain't doing what
(19:51):
I'm paying the federal government to do, y'all, don't let
another point of business happen on the House floor or
the Senate floor. Another question, and from Queen Bee of Swords,
I just don't see how even with court orders and
contempt charges, once they don't comply, who was going to
enforce the law? Yeah, that is exactly what makes this
a constitutional crisis. Percy Miracle says Trump is doing what
(20:15):
Eddie Murphy did and distinguished gentleman movie Trump exposing how
politicians spend our money.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
And get and get kickbacks. For sure, they just.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Got rid of some provision today that would prevent government
officials from bribing foreign countries because of business reasons. So absolutely,
what do we do about elon looks? Listen to the
podcast from last week, please, and senators and congressmen are
powerless right now. I don't see how a phone call
(20:46):
would change with that. Again, I think that what we
have to remember is that there are power in numbers.
And if there was ever a place where you can
make a difference by short sheer people power, it is
within the United States Congress. What do I mean by that?
Speaker 2 (21:03):
This can all change with math?
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Once there is a majority agreeing on an issue, even
if it's not all Democrats, some of those Republicans where
in vulnerable districts come over. I know that we have
a graphic that we're putting up shortly that tells you
where all of those vulnerable Republican members are from, what
districts they're from. When those folks start coming over, because
their constituents are like, nah, we didn't sign up for this.
(21:29):
We didn't vote you in for this. We voted you
in for common sense solutions. We didn't vote you in
to support a dictator. That math starts moving on to
the other side. And so it is imperative, especially now
because I think our window of time is short. We
have to start getting those folks over quickly. Here's what
I know doesn't work. You sitting around in dread definitely
(21:49):
doesn't work. You sitting around frustrated that they're not doing
anything and it's not the will of the people, but
the will of the people hasn't been communicated to them.
Definitely doesn't work. So what my idea would be with
my members is, you make sure not another bill passes
until Donald Trump complies with these core orders. You make
sure that there is a crew working on articles of
(22:11):
impeachment because this man isn't illegal and he shouldn't be president.
You make sure that every nomination now on the Senate
side is held up because why are we going to
continue to appoint more people that are trying to work
for a king and not for the American people. Those
are the kinds of calls we can make and must make,
and the numbers easy. It's two zero two two, two
four three one two one. You don't just have don't
(22:33):
have to just call the member who over who's over
your particular congressional district. You can call others and say,
I expect more from Congress. I'm calling out to Congress.
I'm calling out to Maxine Waters and Jasmine Crockett and
Andre Carson and how King Jeffreys and Stephen Horsford and
Evett Clark. Who's the new chair of the CBC and
Joyce Baty and all these other folks who might be
like minded, but they might just need a word of encouragement.
(22:56):
And so I would tell you the most important place
to call, even if you want to courage your members
but they're mostly aligned with what we're talking about today.
Call the members who are undecided, who think their constituents
might want to see this air of change that Donald
Trump is bringing in, but when they realize what all
is at stake and how many people are being harmed,
(23:18):
even if they weren't the direct target, but they're suffering
no less, those are the people I would call. So
again we'll put that graphic up. I thank you all
so much for your time today. We will be on
our podcast this Thursday. It'll be the three hosts, Native
lampod Angela Raie, Tiffany Cross and Andrew Gillum and of
course you all are always welcome. Please submit your questions
(23:41):
to us on Instagram with a video. Let us know
your name and where you're from. Check us out every
single Thursday wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube,
and of course I'm here every Tuesday answering questions and
talking about the things that are keeping me up at night,
and hopefully, very soon we will get some rest because
justice will be served.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
All powers to the people, y'all.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Welcome home. Native Lampard is a production of iHeartRadio in
partnership with Reason Choice Media. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
(24:25):
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Native lamdpod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with
Reason Choice Media.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello everyone, Happy Tuesday. Welcome home. This is another edition
of a solo pod with me your host, Angela Rai
for Native lamppod. I am excited to be with you
all today to get into a very very pressing question,
which is are we in a constitutional crisis? And is
Donald Trump stage and a coup? So I'm going to
(00:31):
point to a couple of things that i think are
important as we consider this very important question. A lot
of people are asking, a lot of folks are panicking
about it. Hi, I'm people, And one of the things
that has been really pressing for me is the fact
that on Sunday I was at church. I should have
(00:52):
been just panished to discernment, but I'm being very honest
with y'all.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I was at church.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
And there's a tweet that comes across from jd Vance,
who of course is y'all's vice president, and jd Vance
tweeted impertinent part.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I'm just going to reflect on this one portion.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate powers. Judges
aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate powers. Now, some
of you might be saying, Okay, that's his opinion, find whatever,
But he goes on to tweet things to share information
that supports this very asinine point that judges aren't allowed
(01:31):
to control.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
The executive's legitimate powers.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Now, what is really in question here is not that,
because we know we talk about every single solopod basically
there are three co equal branches of government, at least
right now, there's the legislative, the executive, and the judicial branch. Now,
we have always talked about a system of checks and
balances and that is entrined in the Constitution. And what
(01:57):
the Trump administration is essentially trying to do. You would say, hey, actually,
there's this idea that we have. This says the executive
actually has a little more power and surprise, that is
in Project twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
We'll get into that in a little bit.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
But first I want to use as a basis for
my question for my reason for panic, this court case
that is before the United States District Court of Rhode Island.
That case, as many of you all may know, I'm
gonna hold this up so you can see I believe
in documents. So this court case was brought by twenty
three different states attorneys general where they sued because they
(02:37):
sued the Trump administration, the treasurer, the treasurer, the Secretary
of the Department of Treasury, the acting Secretary of Health
and Human Services, the acting Secretary of Education, etc.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
FEMA, and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
In this case, they've alleged that the federal government is
exceeding the executive brings, exceeding its powers by freezing federal funding.
A judge by the name of John J. McConnell, Junior,
agreed with these twenty three states, including the District of
Columbia attorney's general, saying, you know what, let's have a
temporary restraining order on what the Trump administration is doing.
(03:19):
Let's temporarily stop this funding freeze, allow this funding to
go forward so that we don't have these issues in
the country putting a lot of people in harm's way.
So the judge issued this temporary restraining order after the
attorneys general filed their case filed their suit. On January
(03:40):
twenty eighth, the Trump administration comes out and many of
you all remember the Press secretary says, well, we are
rescinding the O ANDB memo that issued this funding freeze.
But we're not going to freeze what we're actually doing,
causing a little bit of confusion, given people reason for pause.
And then what you saw after that was that funds
(04:03):
were frozen. You heard about it in community health centers.
You've seen it now with farmers, including the guy that
voted for Donald Trump and saying you had time to
do his research. You're starting to see this stuff come
out where they actually did freeze funds, which means they
did not comply with the core order. So on Monday, sorry,
on Friday, these attorneys general come back and say, hey,
(04:24):
we're flagging for y'all. We need emergency relief. They are
not complying with this core order. The judge rules on Monday.
That's what this is, that they in fact are accurate
and that the federal government is not complying with the order.
So let me read to y'all what is supposed to
happen when the federal government, visa be the executive branch,
(04:46):
does not comply with a federal court order. Again three
quote equal branches of government judicial, legislative, and executive. So
the executive branch is not complying with this order from
judicial rimps.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
That's what he says.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
It is a basic proposition that all orders and judgments
of courts must be complied with promptly.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
This is on page two of the order.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Persons who make private determinations of the law and refuse
to obey an order generally risk criminal contempt criminal contempt
even if the order is ultimately ruled incorrect. There's several
other pieces that we can point out to the defendants who,
in this instance are is the Trump administration argues that
(05:32):
they're just trying to root out fraud. The judge throws
that argument out and says, that is way you guys
are operating way far beyond the scope of ruling out
and rooting out fraud.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
So alas here we are. So, now, what makes this
a constitutional crisis?
Speaker 1 (05:48):
You're saying, Ah, you know, Donald Trump is gone Trump,
He's you know, of course he's gonna say he's not
gonna comply. What makes this a constitutional crisis? So glad
you asked so again, there is a temporary restraining order.
The judge has ruled once after the case was filed
on the twenty eighth rule twice Monday saying no, not
(06:10):
so much. You're not doing what you're supposed to do,
and failure to comply means you're held in criminal contempt
of court. So what happens if they still don't unfreeze
the funds, Well, that means that the executive branch is
deciding that they don't have to listen to what the
judicial branch is saying. Now, the Trump administration is said
(06:31):
that they are appealing this order to the First Circuit
Circuit Court of Appeals, and right now, I'm gonna tell
you it's not going to go in their favor. There
is not a single conservative judge on the First Circuit
Court of Appeals. And then after that their next stop.
And this is what I think makes this a constitutional crisis.
It is the Supreme Court. Now what makes this the
(06:52):
constitutional crisis? Article one, section nine, clause seven of the
United States Constitution gives the power of the purse.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
To the legislative branch.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
That means the legislature decides how money is spent, how
money is let out the door, whether or not resources
are spent at all. They determine if there's a freeze. Right,
So when we talk about government shutdowns, that's two sides
not agreeing. Until we can agree, nothing's moving. That's a
federal funding freeze in effect. Right here is the primary issue.
(07:28):
Donald Trump has decided that sure, and the Trump administration
has decided sure. The power of the purse to spend money,
and we talked about this a couple of weeks ago,
belongs with the legislature. But the power of the purse
to save money, to stop spending money belongs with the
executive branch. That is not true, but that is how
(07:49):
they're reading this. And what I think is scary about
this is that this was all addressed in Project twenty
twenty five, along with more than two two thirds of
the executive orders and actions that Donald Trump's administration has
taken on so far. Two thirds of those can be
found in Project twenty twenty five. So now when you
(08:11):
take in a consideration that they're through Jdvans on Sunday
saying you ain't the boss of me, and then you
know the judge had to come out and say, not once,
but twice, there's a federal federal funding freeze, bro. Or
you're unfreezing this federal funding freeze, bro, We're not doing this.
The fact that they're not listening to that.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
JD.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Bans told y'all that they weren't going to listen to that.
And then so that means there's this blatant disregard for
what the constitution says. And then there's a violation of
a core order that we just talked about. And then
when you consider that the Trump administration has fired several
inspectors General, which are the internal watchdogs for all of
these government agencies. And then you take in a consideration
(08:53):
where he initially froze federal funding and how, and then
you take into consideration the number of civil service protections
that have always existed across multiple administrations for federal government employees,
and that there's been this blanket, blanket attempt to fire
to have them kind of be bought out. A judge's
(09:14):
ruled against that, but again, if they're not going to
comply with court orders, America, you in danger, girl, You
in danger. And so this is what we have to
wrestle with. There are five or six things happening simultaneously
that signal that we're in a constitutional crisis. And I
don't and and I want to just stop here for
(09:34):
a moment to acknowledge.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
I'm trying to.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Figure out what we thought was going to happen with
a lawless president. This man has several convictions. This man
has run his companies at least allegedly if you believe
the cause of actions that weren't even allowed to go forth,
and some of the ones that were in a very
fraudulent manner. Even with Tis James's successful suit against Donald
(10:02):
Trump Civilly for fraud.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
I'm trying to figure.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Out why any of us, I'll say us to be
nice today would have thought he would do anything different.
Like a criminal gone crime, a lawless man is gonna
be lawless. And so it's so interesting that these are
the folks who call people illegal when they in fact.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Are the illegals.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
So, in the most simple terms, what I can tell
you is, when one branch of the government chooses to
blatantly ignore and disregard another coequal branch of government, you
have a constitutional crisis. So we're not upon a constitutional crisis,
We're not around the corner from a constitutional crisis. We
(10:46):
are in the midst of a constitutional crisis. So what
are my fears now? So again I talked about already
that the First Circuit Court of Appeals is governed by
most part judges who were not There's no conservative judge
on that bench there and I don't want to call
them liberal, but they are left leaning. There's not a
(11:08):
conservative bench. So Donald Trump and his administration are most
certainly going to appeal to the Supreme Court. And this
is what has me worried. Too many members of the
Supreme Court are supporters of, either proactively or indirectly of
the Heritage Foundation, the same Heritage Foundation whose president said
(11:28):
that their role now will be to institutionalize trump Ism.
He didn't say democracy, he didn't say preservation of American
liberty and freedom, he didn't say any of that. What
he said was that their role now is to institutionalize
trump Ism. And that is a direct quote. So the
Supreme Court is upholding that same standard when you go
(11:50):
to whether or not they would find that Donald Trump
could be criminally responsible for any of his actions taken
as a president. Even the fact that it was limited,
The fact that that question had to go before the
Supreme Court and that there was any discussion of that
demonstrates to you where this court really falls. So before
(12:11):
the Supreme Court before including in the case where they
determined if the upsitting president can have criminal immunity. They
dealt with this doctrine called the unitary executive theory. Unitary
executive theory essentially vests all power, all executive powers, into
(12:31):
the hands of the president. So the entire executive branch,
the only person that can make decisions be held responsible
all of that is the president. Now, that would be
great if they held him accountable at the times where
he breaks the law because he's an illegal, but they're not.
They're talking about vesting more power in the president, that
(12:51):
the president should have more authority. They didn't think that
when Barack Obama was in office, now did they. So
this to me is dangerous because what that essentially means
is that the independents that have traditionally been in spaces
like finance, in media, in elections, like we have some
(13:12):
commissions that have been set up and they are bipartisan
by design to be another very important phrase here today,
y'all check and balance for the administration. Those things are gone.
Donald Trump just appointed himself to be the chair of
the Kennedy Center. Like right, Like, I mean, there's no
neutral arbiter of facts and neutral arbiter of what is
(13:33):
right and what is wrong if Donald Trump can just
insert himself and as king over all these things. So
it also will impact prosecutions, and we saw that just
recently with Donald Trump saying, you know what, as a
matter of fact, we're just gonna throw out all these
charges against Eric Adams.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
There's no more neutrality in any of that.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Now. It is just up to this president because of
the unitary executive theory, which I think is very harmful
and I think puts America in a tremendously compromising position.
So I know y'all are like, Okay, well, now that
you spread all this great doom and gloom, where do
we go from here? Well, what I think we have
(14:24):
to be mindful of is this the time is now
to fight, The time is now to spread correct information,
to let people know that if you upset Donald Trump,
if you hurt his feelings, if you insult him, that
your livelihood is on the line. And not just your livelihood,
but your freedom is on the line. We have to
(14:46):
treat a dictator like he's a dictator. And I think
that what we have to acknowledge is that at some
point some articles of impeachment need to be drafted. I
would say that point is now at some point the
challenges around unitary executive being made into the arguments by
these twenty three Attorneys general before the Court of Appeals,
(15:07):
before the Supreme Court have to be addressed. I'm concerned
because if John Roberts is even on this nonsense, like,
I don't know who our fourth and fifth votes would
be on the Supreme Court, but you would think that
there would be some desire, some willingness to preserve democracy.
I'll tell you all if you all are thinking about
(15:27):
this in any similar way, what has been jarring for
me is knowing democracy is fragile, knowing that it's compromised,
knowing that it is so far from perfect, but seeing
how easily it can be destroyed. It's something that I'm
really wrestling with, and I think, if we're honest, institutionalists,
(15:51):
even in the House of Representatives, even in the United
States Senate.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Are struggling with this.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
I built my career on underunderstanding how the law works
and strategizing politically to advance causes that would impact people
who look like me for the most part, and now
most of that playbook doesn't work. And so what I
think you're seeing, I know people are like, well, why
aren't people fighting back, why aren't our members responding wires?
(16:18):
It is because folks are flabbergasted, like we all knew
Project twenty twenty five was going to become a thing,
like nobody ever. Well, some people believe that Donald Trump
when he said this isn't my plan, I don't have
anything to do with this, despite many of the people
who wrote it having been associated with the Trumpet administration
of twenty sixteen and then now many of them going
(16:40):
back into the administration. Many of us knew that, but
I don't know that we knew we were going to
be overwhelmed by so much information so quickly. And I
don't know that many people believe that he would just
blatantly ignore a court. But to this, I would say
to the Department of Justice under the Biden administration, under
(17:00):
the leadership of Merit Garland, this is your fault, bro,
straight up, Like you didn't have the courage to challenge
Donald Trump, to prosecute him when you could have, and
now we got to deal with this dictator.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
That blood is on your hands, seriously, and so you.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Know Special Proxecutor Jacksmith saying he would have likely been
convicted all of these things, these afterthoughts, James comey coming
back around.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Like to hell with all y'all, like this is all
you're doing.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
And I think ultimately what really has to happen is
white folks have to have a conversation with themselves about
how badly they want to cling to power, even when
it is toxic, even when it is abusive, and even
when it means that you very well may not be safe.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
That is the day and age we're living in now.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
When you look at this court order from Judge McConnell
from Rhode Island, he talks about the consistency of his
ruling with the United States Constitution statutes, the Supreme Court precedent.
The Supreme Court may very well take out their precedent.
They may say it's time for a new day, you know,
(18:06):
and I think that that'll be really unfortunate. So this
temporary restraining order that Donald Trump continues to violate, let's
see how many instances I think there are twenty something
court cases now, how many instances where they blatantly disregard
the court. That is what puts us squarely in a
constitutional crisis. And that is where the people have to
(18:26):
cry out. I keep telling you how to call your members.
You have no idea how important that is. They might
just need to know that there are people standing behind
them who want them engaged in the fight, and that
you're not going to leave them hanging, because ultimately, even
though they're sworn in, they took a oath, they're still
human beings, and human beings.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Have blind spots. I know I have mine. We got
to hold each other accountable. We have to fight together.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
That is what That is our least reasonable service, and
that means not fighting each other. That means fighting along
side one another to preserve our freedoms, even if we
know that it means that we deserve much more freedom.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
So that is my.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Podcast for today. I'm gonna see if there are any questions.
There are some questions. So one question from wear of
many hats, I like this name, what can the average
American do when the checks and balances aren't checking or balancing?
Call your members. You got to let them know what
your expectations are. Be like when y'all drafting these articles
(19:30):
of impeachment, though, you know, when are y'all going to
the White House and telling them what really is about
to go down. The questions are what legislation are you
going to prevent from passing? Because it shouldn't be no
business happening when I can't even give my government check.
Those are the things that we have to do, Like
your business is my business. And if I can't get
my business done because the federal government ain't doing what
(19:51):
I'm paying the federal government to do, y'all, don't let
another point of business happen on the House floor or
the Senate floor. Another question, and from Queen Bee of Swords,
I just don't see how even with court orders and
contempt charges, once they don't comply, who was going to
enforce the law? Yeah, that is exactly what makes this
a constitutional crisis. Percy Miracle says Trump is doing what
(20:15):
Eddie Murphy did and distinguished gentleman movie Trump exposing how
politicians spend our money.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
And get and get kickbacks. For sure, they just.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Got rid of some provision today that would prevent government
officials from bribing foreign countries because of business reasons. So absolutely,
what do we do about elon looks? Listen to the
podcast from last week, please, and senators and congressmen are
powerless right now. I don't see how a phone call
(20:46):
would change with that. Again, I think that what we
have to remember is that there are power in numbers.
And if there was ever a place where you can
make a difference by short sheer people power, it is
within the United States Congress. What do I mean by that?
Speaker 2 (21:03):
This can all change with math?
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Once there is a majority agreeing on an issue, even
if it's not all Democrats, some of those Republicans where
in vulnerable districts come over. I know that we have
a graphic that we're putting up shortly that tells you
where all of those vulnerable Republican members are from, what
districts they're from. When those folks start coming over, because
their constituents are like, nah, we didn't sign up for this.
(21:29):
We didn't vote you in for this. We voted you
in for common sense solutions. We didn't vote you in
to support a dictator. That math starts moving on to
the other side. And so it is imperative, especially now
because I think our window of time is short. We
have to start getting those folks over quickly. Here's what
I know doesn't work. You sitting around in dread definitely
(21:49):
doesn't work. You sitting around frustrated that they're not doing
anything and it's not the will of the people, but
the will of the people hasn't been communicated to them.
Definitely doesn't work. So what my idea would be with
my members is, you make sure not another bill passes
until Donald Trump complies with these core orders. You make
sure that there is a crew working on articles of
(22:11):
impeachment because this man isn't illegal and he shouldn't be president.
You make sure that every nomination now on the Senate
side is held up because why are we going to
continue to appoint more people that are trying to work
for a king and not for the American people. Those
are the kinds of calls we can make and must make,
and the numbers easy. It's two zero two two, two
four three one two one. You don't just have don't
(22:33):
have to just call the member who over who's over
your particular congressional district. You can call others and say,
I expect more from Congress. I'm calling out to Congress.
I'm calling out to Maxine Waters and Jasmine Crockett and
Andre Carson and how King Jeffreys and Stephen Horsford and
Evett Clark. Who's the new chair of the CBC and
Joyce Baty and all these other folks who might be
like minded, but they might just need a word of encouragement.
(22:56):
And so I would tell you the most important place
to call, even if you want to courage your members
but they're mostly aligned with what we're talking about today.
Call the members who are undecided, who think their constituents
might want to see this air of change that Donald
Trump is bringing in, but when they realize what all
is at stake and how many people are being harmed,
(23:18):
even if they weren't the direct target, but they're suffering
no less, those are the people I would call. So
again we'll put that graphic up. I thank you all
so much for your time today. We will be on
our podcast this Thursday. It'll be the three hosts, Native
lampod Angela Raie, Tiffany Cross and Andrew Gillum and of
course you all are always welcome. Please submit your questions
(23:41):
to us on Instagram with a video. Let us know
your name and where you're from. Check us out every
single Thursday wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube,
and of course I'm here every Tuesday answering questions and
talking about the things that are keeping me up at night,
and hopefully, very soon we will get some rest because
justice will be served.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
All powers to the people, y'all.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Welcome home. Native Lampard is a production of iHeartRadio in
partnership with Reason Choice Media. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
(24:25):
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Hosts And Creators
Tiffany Cross
Andrew Gillum
Angela Rye
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