 It's Trump week. And this week, like last week and the week before, is full of bumps and surprises. This week, the title of the show is Trump gets a Trini bar to drop charges against Michael Flynn. How about that? Winston, welcome. Stephanie, welcome. Welcome to Trump week. Aloha. Well, without further ado, let's jump right into it. The Department of Justice has dropped charges against Michael Flynn. I was taken back from that. Along with 2000 other prosecutors and DOJ employees that have signed a letter stating that William Barr should resign from his position. That's quite a feat. I think they tried it before when William Barr tried to intercede about the sentencing guidelines for Roger Stone. So here we go again. General Barr, Trump's dutiful lackey, taking the DOJ in a direction where it has probably no business going in that direction. Winston, your initial thoughts about this? You know, Robert Wright came out with something and he says, I cannot overstate the gravity of this gross miscarriage of justice and how dangerous this is for our democracy's future. Michael Flynn is getting zero jail time for lying to the FBI undermining prosecutors and betraying the country. Meanwhile, Attorney General Barr has turned the Justice Department into nothing more than a political tool for Trump to wield against his enemies and withdraw against his friends. This is how dictatorships are built. You know, the President has pardoned powers in the Constitution. We understand that his friends, if this is a federal crime, that he's going to get them pardoned or released with his powers. That part, I think, as bad as that might have been, we can take that. But when the Justice Department is being used like this is a tool, instead of the Justice Department as the head of Justice for the country, this is the head of Justice for Donald Trump. And it's a very different matter, a very dangerous precedent. And will we ever get back to Justice Department? When you have 2,000 former Department of Justice employees saying, what? My question was, why didn't every single one of them say, what? So it's not good, no matter how you slice it or dice it. Well, Judge Sullivan, he now is looking at allowing an amicus brief, which is to say a brief from the Friends of the Court, and allowing a group called the Watergate Prosecutors to submit a brief about why this isn't a great idea. So it'll be interesting to see what Judge Sullivan does with that upon review and whether that influences his decision. I know that Trump followers are not happy about it, and they say this is unusual and this shouldn't be allowed. So look at all the unusual things in the last three and a half years that have taken place that Donald Trump has instituted. And now they're getting upset because it's not proper protocol. My goodness. Stephanie, what do you think about all this business? It's just not proper protocol. Well, there we go. There you go. I think at all the levels of analysis that you can apply to this, I mean, at the first level is Donald, will you do your work? He's not doing any work. He hasn't done any work. Nothing has been done as the work on the plate before you in the timeline of now, and then anticipating other things. So right there, you've got a problem. That's not happened. Then the next sets of levels are his interference and distraction of himself and everybody else from the work of now. So I think that it's outrageous and all of those and certainly bringing in the Watergate prosecutors and people have stature and reputations and integrity to say these things. We've already done this a couple of times. I think it ought to go on the record. I think the record is the most important thing that needs to be maintained and continued and built. But I'm wondering if, you know, he's going to just have to be let run. He's going to let the police go because the Supreme Court's going to come in with that ruling. That'll be the next unprecedented if they come down and say no, he can't have any legal constraints on him during the presidency. I just think that'll be the last straw. I mean, but Stephanie, let's look at this, he's breaking the rule of law, if you will, in so many different areas. And if we always have to wait for a Supreme Court ruling, we're almost, you know, at the end of his presidency, the first term. So basically this president gets away with stretching the Constitution into a pretzel and breaking the rule of law all the while while we have to wait for a court decision. Where is our legislature? Where is the Senate? Where is the House of Representatives on this? The only thing is we can't, nothing is working. So the ruling from the Supreme Court is June evidently July. That's coming out then. But I think we really ought to put all of our energies, every, every attention into making the election happen, and making the election happen correctly and according to Democratic principles let, because there's nothing to do about all of the rest of this. He's going to continue this continual throwing things around and messing everything up and running from one pile to the next pile of catastrophe that he's created. I think maybe it's going to get to that. Let it go. I get that. I get that. But this is blatant cronyism. Look at Paul Manafort. He's just been released because of fears of COVID-19 infection might come his way. I don't know a whole lot of other prisoners are getting a free pass on this. Why Paul Manafort? I want to just say one more thing and that's that there's no limits on the time. I mean, we're after his, if he is tossed out of office. Then I think the Southern District of New York and all the other places where a lot of work is happening on building these cases. And then I think it'll close in on him. And that gets taken care of at all of these other layers of the government, the state, and maybe the feds are going to do the Justice Department. I don't know what'll happen. But that just needs to be pushed off. I mean, that is not going to happen now, no matter what or how good the work there. So let's just assume that he's going to get taken care of in the aftermath because he can't be taken care of. Big assumption, Stephanie. Big assumption. If there's no out of office. So the most important thing is to drop it and just get the election under control. Well, this is the first news topic in a long time that didn't deal with COVID-19. And so it was surprising and shocking to me to see this blatant attempt to show cronyism and favoritism and use the attorney general who is the top cop of this country as his personal fixer. Let's let's move on. Let's move on to the death toll of politics and recently Donald Trump said about six days ago about testing goes in a way by testing. This makes us look bad. So right now, our death toll is exceeding 85,000 Americans. He's using China as a scapegoat. And it's, let's get these businesses open faster than not, regardless of what the science is, regardless of how many more cases will develop and out of those cases, how many more deaths may entail. Winston, are you kind of shocked? I brought this up last week. Are you kind of shocked or surprised that the death toll really doesn't mean a whole lot? I mean, no matter what the number is, Donald Trump thinks he is successful with whatever his approach is, despite whatever the death toll is. Winston. I mean, they're doing a fabulous job. Everything's perfect and nothing to look at here, folks. There can be differences of opinion on how to open up this economy, on when to open up where to open up, how to close back down. There's no direction from the federal government. And when the CDC has effectively been muzzled or is sidelined or forced to maybe not be a scientific organization anymore, or inside of this COVID task force when you have the President and the Vice President refusing to wear masks even because I don't know, they're afraid of not looking manly or that there's an actual epidemic and they need to do that when they go to a hospital or a factory. There's no plan coming from the top. And Donald Trump has just scattered this to the states and said, okay, good luck with whatever it is you guys do because it's your responsibility. And you need to open up. But if you need respirators or masks or whatever, that's all on you. So don't come looking to me for advice, direction or anything except glory because I'm right. And we're making everything perfect. And if you have a problem with it, take it up with your Democratic governor. Yeah. Well, you know, the CDC has been muzzled. But guess what? Dr. Fauci has not. And as you know, he testified in front of the Senate yesterday. People thinking that, well, he's in safe grounds with the Senate because they're going to give him, you know, softball questions. But I don't think that was the case. I saw a lot of Republican senators really kind of throwing questions and getting answers and supporting those answers about the dangers of opening up too quick. And as you know, Donald Trump didn't want him to do any testimony in front of the House of Representatives. He thought the Senate was a better, safer bet. But Dr. Fauci directly opposed what Donald Trump is trying to push. And that is, let's take caution. Let's be careful before we open these businesses up without a lot of thinking about it. Did you happen to catch any of the testimony from Fauci yesterday? I did. And, you know, it's interesting because he never mentioned the word Donald Trump or the words Donald Trump once. He didn't say this administration. I don't believe it. I think he said things in a very general way from a scientific perspective. He's very adept at dancing around that. And we still are looking at him as the adult in the room to have some guidance and some sanity in all of this. So, you know, again, I think we have to look at our own governors who are hopefully sane and business leaders. But the problem is that we're getting then just flagrant violations of rule of law. You have, you know, Elon Musk starting up his factory when it is against the law. And he's been encouraged to do this by the head of the country that violate the law in your state, along with folks showing up with Uzzies and state houses. But the real problem is that when you have a president encouraging, you know, active dissent, even to the point of, you know, being very threatening, how do you have a country of rule of law then? How do we, when we're told you're making your own rules and do what you like, how does that work in a country of rule of law? And that's my basic question. There's not only a rule of law, Winston, but I must be having amnesia because I could have sworn about two or so weeks ago, it was Donald Trump and the administration's idea that before businesses would open, they quote unquote would follow the science first. And they're not even finishing the first protocol of that, which is to say that you would have consecutive number of days of falling cases. That's a science according to Chief Scientist Donald Trump. There you go. And that whatever it is of his recommendation, because he's got, you know, whatever it was, he said, really smart up there. Yeah, so the science is based on today it's injecting bleach tomorrow it's, you know, opening up whatever. Tomorrow it's Cora Quinn, tomorrow's Cora Quinn. Cora Quinn, yeah. Yeah. Hey, Stephanie, is Donald Trump starting to look a little ghoulish in his, his praise of what a great job is being done, yet the death count continues to rise. And again, like, like a great cheerleader that he professes himself to be, is he looking a little ghoulish saying that, you know, mission accomplished job well done. And those who support his, his blind rush to get the business is open. Are they also starting to look a little ghoulish and is that going to eventually impact them come election time. I appreciate you're saying that it is to that degree, Tim, I think it is there and people I certainly if we think it at some point the rest of the humans on the planet must be there too, with a few exceptions I'll admit can be there. But I think that's really a good point and this is maybe one of those places where it's going to turn around on him because of his, his already noted death lap lack of any empathy. I also thought Dr. Fauci Fauci was magnificent in his response to Dr. Ron Paul. That senator I was appalled again, we've been saying that over and over it's like a chance that that Ron Paul would criticize him and call him an ego maniac. Well, he said you are the the end degree or in so many ways you said you're the, we need to stop acting like you're the of the end authority or the end degree of, of how we approach this and I liked I did like Dr. Fauci's response. I didn't know what he said and maybe he meant the nth degree and the t yes the nth degree yes, like that but yeah and but Fauci Dr Fauci has such a stature and dignity and came back and said what he is. And that was exactly what he said he was that nobody else would be very few others would be asking him that question, but to hear someone as educated and knowledgeable as Ron Paul is at reveal that kind of an attitude towards Fauci. When what Fauci said is certainly true he doesn't. He's not contradicting to come up in and grandstand he just is repeating the fact that the day. Okay, so anyway, I, I think that he's dependable. Dr Fauci is in all the ways not Ron Paul thinks he's not right I mean he will get up there do his medical duty. You know, do not do no harm and and try to get the best to happen for. The winners of various states, particularly those some of those in the southern states by following Donald Trump's wishes and desires. Are they throwing themselves in political jeopardy I say that because I look at some polls right now and right now Governor of California Newsom has an 80% support on not rushing into the opening of business prematurely, where if you look at the governor of Georgia, I believe that name on Brian camp. I'm faltering around a 35% of approval for his attempts to get things opened up early. Is this going to follow those governors and maybe even other other politicians of that state that have attached themselves to Trump on this on his wish list here, you think that's going to happen. The star of that show which is that the one is she Michigan that she came to the White House to be with Trump and Pence and now they're all quarantine because it was positive, but she's the one that while she sat on the Diaz or in the over office with Trump and Pence her her cases were rising. Notably, back in the state because they have a meatpacking plant and some other places that she's been unwilling to address. And so I think she is. I'm apologizing for not having the name on the tip of my toe, but that that would be someone. It's going to be clearly impacted if they're going to be impacted at all things have gotten so crazy. That is why in my previous remarks, I'm not dropping my analysis of this as it goes along and in the unprecedented nature of all of it and the outrageousness of it. I'm just saying that it's going to culminate in him getting reelected. If we don't pay attention like to what's really important and that's one of his boys is get all these fires going. So we're all running around and they call them shiny objects right on the TV. Well, I say drop, you know, don't go with that. Let's just go with the one thing we want, which is a democratic, fair working election. We're over we've all got to get the votes. Good point, Stephie I'm going to throw a question here at Winston Winston we got a question coming over the line here. And that is, how many administrations has Dr. Fauci worked for this isn't a trivia question. Let's direct that towards you. Do you have a do you have a sense of how many administrations he's worked for in his role? He was right at the very start of the HIV crisis. And so that was let's say do Ronald Reagan, George Bush, senior Clinton, George Bush Jr. Who was after him of Obama. Thank you. And now Donald Trump. So bing bing bing bing bing winner. Okay, that's correct. You know, that's the thing I think what Stephanie was saying really deserves to be underscored because what is the end goal here is to confuse and dazzle and stun people on as many different fronts as possible. It's like a fire starter and you have okay there's one building burning okay you can take your one building burning. You can take care of a district burning but when you're starting fires throughout the entire city. And that's exactly what's happening here. We're going to be looking at challenges on voting on every single piece. We've already heard we're shutting down the post office or voting by mail is not secure or electronic voting. There will be things at the last second where certain governors say we're not accounting these votes because they happened on a, you know, Tuesday after 12. I don't know what whatever they're going to come up with but the end result will be this is not a valid election. I am there for the emperor for life, and I, I am calling on my people to defend freedom. And that's what the and I understand the concept of defending freedom and you're right with your earlier comment in the show was, there is a balance somewhere between opening businesses and being smart as it pertains to preventing the transmission of COVID-19. So there is a balance in there somewhere. The problem is, with all the bravado that Donald Trump has provided, and the governor's adopting the bravado and then the state health inspectors adopting the bravado, they're moving blindly forward. We're trying to see more cases more deaths in those states that are just moving ahead quickly and fast and opening up without a lot of forethought and to trying to prevent the transmission of the virus. So the question is, will this come back up when I mentioned this last week will this come back to bite them as the death tolls rise in those states. Yeah, you know, if they're, I think more important will it come back to bite Donald Trump and I would say no there's nothing that he can do his. Let's remember news. I think it was newsweek and CNN both did a poll today he is at all time high record 49% are proving of his job performance at this point, which is astounding to me this is a parallel universe that we're dealing with. There are the people that are saying, what are you talking about and then the other people that think that we're absolutely delusional. My question is how do we get beyond this in November assuming that there is a resemblance of an election, that is free and fair, where his opponent wins, wins clearly and plainly for observers from Guatemala and the Congo and, you know, Indonesia say this was a free and fair election. How do we get this then and say, what, how do we, how do we have a common truth as Americans going on. Winston I understand parallel universe is believing we've been in one for three and a half years. Let's throw out a hypothetical by me. Let's say I you know my family is in Georgia and they're moving ahead with opening things up. And my family goes into the malls or they go into the restaurants and their shoulder their shoulder, they may or may not have mask on. And we believe in Donald Trump and what he says and, and therefore we support him wholeheartedly. What if my parent my grandparent contracts the virus and dies. Am I still going to be flag waving for Donald Trump, or is that was that a justice justified sacrifice that the president states may continue his reign. Yes, in the end analysis, it won't be blamed on the restaurants opening it will be blamed on, I don't know the Democratic socialist Nazi Chinese conspiracy to unseat Donald Trump I mean, they won't see that as my my direct family member has has died and succumbed to this virus, and they will be no finger pointing at either the governor or Donald Trump. I don't see it when when you when you have had health care benefits cut in states where this directly affects the people and then they say, Oh, well, you know, Obamacare being cut lack of Medicaid expansion Medicare expansion, whatever it is, I'm not Medicare Medicaid. How do you and you can't pin that back on exactly who's doing that to you. With your stated policies that the the wrecking ball that this administration has been people are not there's a cognitive disconnect they are not connecting any of these actions with the government even if it's affecting them personally I just don't see it whether it goes through death or not. Wow. You realize that's quite a statement. It feels like it to me, you have people that are not connecting the fact that if they go out in these groups right now with a highly infectious disease, and they bring it home and one of their relative size that they are. They understand that they can read the newspapers they have they know that other states are wearing masks, but they're still going out and doing it. Because they're not making the connection that they will bring it home, even though they may have read that so there is just like so many other things it's such a cognitive disconnect I don't see. I don't see people making the connection and assigning any responsibility or blame. Okay. Thank you Winston switch gears here for a minute, Stephanie. Yesterday the Supreme Court was entertaining. The case of whether or not Donald Trump's tax returns should be should be released. This all goes into the point about subpoenas, and at least from the questions asked by the court, the Supreme Court justices. They seem to be buying the argument that Donald Trump is beyond approach and subpoenas, whatever they are or nothing more than a nuisance, and certainly not worth the time of the president or the administration to have to comply with. Is he going to win the day on that one. Now I know sometimes court, Supreme Court justices as they ask questions, just to ask the questions on the other side, and that doesn't necessarily indicate how they're going to vote. How do you think this one might go how do you think the Supreme Court is going to respond to, to what degree does the administration comply with subpoenas, and or if not through the House of Representatives, certain the southern district of Manhattan. Well, I think that the legal eagles that the experts, several of them are on and they, they don't see it as any clear win for Trump in fact that he's looking very weak, the argument is weak, and that they saw that was reflected in the kinds of questions that were asked by the justices. Your point is so good, Tim, because these things are, you know, tweaking the tiger and, you know, playing the devil's advocate, you don't know what their own and then of course afterwards they have to come around for to work the justices all work to try and get as much anonymity into their decisions that they possibly can, if it's possible at all so they do work hard. That's why they're such a long time before we hear their, their findings because they are trying to come up with a comprehensive response to that but according to those experts, and especially with those previous three cases, including one like in 1805, where they ruled against this too. So they have definitely a history that's not in their favor and and the case is looking weak. And if whatever that comes out, it will just, you know, start out with, you know, the the justice is not paying homage to Trump blah blah and all that. But and that's going to come from all of these people that you're questioning how it is that they understand what's going on and I continue to question that and I'm glad you brought it up. I'm coming to the conclusion that one of the answers to that question is that these people are finally in power. These people meaning the people and uneducated people by that I mean the non college group. These people who haven't really had a voice don't feel they've had a voice in the governing of the nation and have really kind of been considered stupid and you know not really on top of it. So they finally with this administration have a foot in the door. And I understand that and, and you know that's how Donald Trump got elected in the first place I think. So, you know a lot of people just hadn't voted for a long time and felt they were left out of the equation. And you know the Democrats had a part in that they, they for a certain degree forgot about middle America, and they were criticizing, you know, the, you know, the country music crowd and, and you know what, they're an important part of our nation and, and I think they've learned their lesson. So, let me move on to Winston we're almost out of time here Stephanie Winston. What do you think what do you think the Supreme Court is going to do are they going to find a metal ground, are they going to find a middle territory on what sub subpoenas the administration will and will not have to respond to. Why that's the question isn't it. There's been so much precedent that says that the sitting president is not immune to these types of cases, especially criminal case. Now we don't want a president to have these hit with frivolous lawsuits certainly, but when the president is tweeting out 100 over 100 tweets on Mother's Day, you can hardly say that he doesn't have the time to devote to a lawsuit and he has a fleet of lawyers or so. You know these are serious allegations, and you know should be stressed. No one takes joy that that Donald Trump is not representing the best interest of all Americans as seen by half the people. We want a president that unifies people that comforts people that brings gravitas and and respect to the Oval Office. Nobody wants that more I think that than the people who have been seeing him and not acting in those capacities. I would love to see him step up to the plate and say I represent all Americans I'm going to do the best by you rather than by me what's what's what's in it for the for Donald Trump. That's not what's important here. It's what's important for the nation and all these distractions are just that we have a very serious problem right now. The economy is collapsing. There's a major pandemic. There's basic issues of our constitutionality at play. We need Donald Trump to just say, let me be the president of the United States or what all of the people need, not just the people who voted for me and it's not going to happen but it would be something that I would love to see. Alrighty, you get the last word on that Winston. It's time is has come up. Thank you very much for joining us. Stephanie. Thank you so much for joining us on Trump week. I'm Tim Appichella, your host. Please join us next week, Wednesday, 11 o'clock for Trump week. Much a low hot to everyone.