 This is Think Tech Hawaii, Community Matters here. Good morning, I'm Tim Appachella. It's Friday, it's 11 o'clock and that can mean only one thing. It's Trump week. Jay Fidel's not in today, so I'm filling in for Jay Fidel and with me is Cynthia Lisa and Claire. Welcome back Cynthia. It's been a long time since you've been at this table. Thank you so much too. Happy that you're here again. Glad to be back. Thank you. Like every week we have nothing but more and more news and outrage and as we use in the analogy a fire hose of information and we have to try to drink from it, but it's difficult. It is. As Jay Fidel always says, the machinations of Trump. I like that. So what kind of schemes have we seen this week from Trump and the news and obviously the one that comes to our mind right away is the BuzzFeed story. Last night, oh my gosh, it broke and it blew every news station wide open. Everyone? Every new station you think? Well, yes, because Fox was talking about it too, trying to talk about how it wasn't real and how Cohen's just a liar and all they really did every time it would come up because I have to watch it every once in a while just to see what we're talking about, right? We have to. I know I can only handle it for about 10 minutes so when I'm just like, ah, I have to turn it off. There's no time to nap. Do you? See, you have more stamina than I do. A lot of fortitude. I'll tell you, you know, I took three weeks off and when I was gone on the mainland and so I didn't really watch any news for a while and I got to say it was really kind of nice to take that little bit of break from it and so I kind of suggested people that maybe are watching a little too much news to kind of step back for it for a minute, but don't go too far because there are so many important things that are just daily coming to the front. Well, and that's the firehose analogy. That's drinking from the firehose analogy. Right. It is almost too much. It is, in a way. So let's talk about what's too much and what's too much is the new story from BuzzFeed that allegedly, we'll say it allegedly at this time, Donald Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie before Congress. Right. That's huge. It's very huge. It's an impeachable offense. It is. You know, while you were gone, you know, Jay and I talked about, you know, this talk of impeachment that he directed, payments to Stormy Daniels and things like that. And I said, let's hold off on that discussion about impeachment because is that really high crimes in Mr. Meener? Maybe. Maybe not. Is it enough to impeach a president? Most likely not. Misappropriation of campaign funds? Most likely not. Yeah. So maybe. So maybe. Yeah, but that's... Debatable, too. Okay, but... It's also debatable. But now, we're talking about an allegation, and by the way, this did not come from Michael Cohen. No. These two reporters got other sources. What talk about that? Lots of them. But when you talk about a president of the United States directing someone to lie before Congress, okay, so what possible crimes are involved here? Possible was considered a perjury. Sobonding perjury is the thing, yeah. Right. Asking someone else to perjure themselves. That's correct. Right. What is it when two people conspire, they get together and they talk about breaking a law? My gosh. Conspiracy. That's a conspiracy. It is. So that's involved. So we have some very, in fact, as you said, these are things that Richard Nixon was facing as being presented to him, and the impeachment didn't move forward because he resigned. Right. Okay. So... Clinton, same thing, though. Nixon, it was all about perjury. He was telling people to lie also, so he suborned perjury also, although they never actually proved the suborning perjury part, but they did prove the perjury part. Right. So... Yeah. And the impeachment did occur. And the impeachment did occur. It did occur. Didn't result in... Bipartisanly. Yes, it did. Occurred. And so what was the story all about? It was about Trump Tower being built in Russia or in those negotiations. Right. And we know from Donald Trump that he has denied repeatedly there was no business deals in Russia. I mean, throughout the campaign, while president. No money from Russia. No money. No nothing from Russia. Over and over and over. And now that this story has broken, he's saying things like, well, not that I knew about anyway, or at least Giuliani's thing for him. That's correct. But we know that Donald Trump's real estate empire is run by a handful of people. The children. Right. The in-law. And Donald Trump. Everyone... I mean, this isn't a big corporation. This is... They're being compared to a mom-and-pop shop. Right. Absolutely. And it's going to be difficult to acknowledge or prove that he didn't know what was going on in Russia with a Trump Tower. Now, Colin is quoted as saying, nothing happens without Trump knowing about it and approving it. And that was in an interview, right? With Mike Wallace. He had an interview. Right. And he said that point blank, that nothing happens without Trump's knowing about it. Well, the fact that these two reporters, and I've got to get their names here correct, Anthony, believe Jason and Anthony Comer and Jason Cuphold, I think. Cuphold. Yeah, I think you're right. I don't know how to pronounce it exactly. The two reporters from BuzzFeed, they're claiming that their evidence or where they got their information is from witnesses other than Colin. Emails. Emails. Right. Phone calls, tweets, and it's all been flipped together that way. What would make me feel better is some other news services actually are able to verify their information, and that gives me a little bit more comfort. Right. Well, they're all on it because I was watching CNN last night and this morning and even watching Fox, who's trying to discredit it. So as soon as they go silent, we'll know if they weren't able to. Right. Or change the story. Or they'll change the story, which is kind of what Giuliani is trying to do now to try to change all this story around. Well, it's the distraction of the distraction. Right. Well, Giuliani just came forward and said, what was it that he said about if he did obstruct justice or if there was collusion, then it's not illegal or it's not wrong. It's not a crime. That's what it was. Well, he said, I never said it. I never said the campaign didn't involve collusion. Oh, yeah, right. Well, actually, yes, you did. He did. He did. And so, again, I think we now have two years of seeing these outrageous statements be it from Donald Trump's attorneys or surrogates. What you see is basically a pyramid of distractions built upon distractions. And I think the American public is starting to see through the distractions finally. It's taken two years, but they're starting to see through it. I would hope so. And I would think that this shutdown, which maybe is the next thing we're going to talk about, right? I would hope that this shutdown would be the thing that would take the blinders off their eyes because it is so apparent that he cares not one iota about the people that are suffering because of his, you know, I'm going to muscle my way into getting my way. And I think it's really evident for people now. Well, that might be part of something where I remember distinctly going, you know what? He's a CEO of a corporation. We need someone to run government like a business, okay? Right? But government was designed not to be like a business. It was designed to operate very slowly, turn like a tanker versus a speedboat. And so sometimes when you're a CEO and you're used to snapping your fingers and getting things done, that doesn't work so well when you have equal branches of the government called Congress and the judicial system. Right. You can't just snap your fingers and say, make it so. Right. And well, not just to mention that, but to mention the fact that he wasn't the best businessman. He's had so many lawsuits against him, so many bankruptcies that count him as a good businessman. Well, I'm going to use the comment that many that voted for him said he's a CEO of a business, okay? Right. Well, I think we're finding out after two years that maybe a CEO of a business isn't always the best mix for a president of the United States. Right. We'll see. We'll see. But I think people are starting to realize, oh, he can't just snap his fingers and run this place like a business because it's a government. Right. And our founding fathers made sure that there were checks and balances so that anyone this can't march off and make a, you know, a snap decision, although the executive branch does have a lot of executive powers, so that can still happen. Oh, yeah. But I think what you're saying people are paying attention to the BuzzFeed story, specifically Adam Schiff, who's the chairman of the Intelligence Committee. Oh my, did you get his quote for his tweet? Because I've got it. Go ahead, please. Exactly. Word for word. Adam Schiff tweeted, the allegation that the president of the United States may have suborned perjury before our committee in an effort to curtail the investigation and cover up his business dealings with Russia is among the most serious to date. We will do what's necessary to find out if it's true. Now this BuzzFeed story obviously didn't come from Cohen. In fact, Cohen's attorney, Lanny Davis, said, we have no comment. So what does that mean? That means this is directly tied into what Mueller's looking at, too, because they can't talk about it. They can't compromise the Mueller investigation, therefore no comment. So somehow this story has leaked out from other sources. And the bottom line is this is maybe at part of the heart of the matter with the Mueller investigation. We're finally seeing this. Where this might be going. Yeah. And they're saying where they're smoked is fire. This might be a thick cloud of smoke. So that's an interesting quote from him. Also Gerald Nather, who is, you know, he's in charge of the other committee, and he's the Democrat from New Jersey. They're both going to immediately jump on this information and get to the bottom of it. So more to come. Well, you know, yeah, they've just added 17 new lawyers, right? Just last week to the White House legal counsel. That's a lot of lawyers. They must know something's coming. Yeah. Granted, they had, you know, lost a few lawyers in the process, people that refused to do his bidding and quit like Don McGahn and a couple other people, right, that walked away rather than do his bidding. And so now they've got all these other lawyers and, and who are these guys that are willing to come in when they know what they're walking into? You know, Don McGahn was already there and stuck, right, but these guys are walking in with their eyes wide open. So what does that say about their ethics? And that worries me. Well, an attorney has the right to do their, their, their duty. Right. By their client. And I understand that. I get that. And that is their function. And so they will do that which they're paid to do, and that is represent their client. Right. But there were also, we've got to remember, there were lots and lots of Washington lawyers that refused. Well, they refused to work. They said, I'm not coming on there. Forget it. No way. They could, they could read the writing on the wall, so to speak. Not to denigrate the attorneys that took this work, but it says something for the attorneys that didn't take the work. Yeah. Okay. There you go. I shouldn't have put them down right here. That's all right. You know, you're not the first one to make an attorney joke. So you won't be the last. Let's talk very briefly about the New York's time article about the secret meetings back in the day with Trump that had with Vladimir Putin. Oh, my God. This is the Russian tie-ins. Yes. You know, you can't just look at this in the microcosm and say, well, this story from BuzzFeed's in the microcosm, these points are all going to connect. They are. And, you know, that's the challenge of Mueller's team is to make those points connect so that people understand it. Not just the American public, because we may not even see it, but to make sure the Republicans, yeah, the Republican, yeah, we'll get to that hearing later, but, you know, we, you know, it's imperative that Republicans in the House and the Senate understand these points as they're going to be presented. Right. I think the Democrats will also be part of that solution, but you've got to have a bipartisan look at the evidence and it has to be put together in such a way that it's simple enough for everyone to get their arms around it. Right. It's very complex. I agree. It is. And I'm not quite sure why the Senate Republicans are staying so fiercely attached to Trump and his way of doing it. You know, I was a kid, I admit, I was a kid around 12, 13 years old when the hearings took place for Richard Nixon. I remember them. Very well. I remember them. And I distinctly remember that the wagons circled around President Nixon. They did until that day they didn't. And we're not there yet. No. We're not there yet. And I think once they see more from Mueller's investigation, this Buzzfeed story, I'm sure, is rattling them. I would think so, yes. You know, how could it not? Yeah. I'm sure it's rattling in their cages. And I'm sure they're thinking the same thing you just said. How can I stay with this guy and be a loyal Republican, which they're not Republicans anymore. They're party of Trump. They are. But how can I be loyal to the president and get our agenda done when all this stuff, when Rome is burning around me, basically? A guy, Ron, I can't remember his last name right now. But he was a former RNC champion. I'm... Chairman? Thank you. And he is now staunchly against what's happening to his party. And he's watching it. And there's nothing he can do about it. And he says that he is afraid that this is going to be the end of the Republican party. Well, I think you saw a minor indication of that when you had 40 seats flipped in the House of Representatives. And they needed 23, 22, whatever it was. So that was... Was that a mandate? And that kind of overtake hadn't taken place since the Watergate after Watergate? Right. So, I mean, that... I think that was a clear indication to all Republicans we have something going on here. Right. That people are not too happy with what's going on. Yeah. So... Well, and here we have just recently this whole stuff with Daripaska since we're talking about Russia and all the connections from Cohen to Daripaska to Putin, it's a really easy chain to follow. You've got Trump, you've got Cohen, you've got Daripaska, you've got Putin. There isn't a whole lot of stuff in between. There's another oligarch in there somewhere. But it's a pretty easy trail to follow. Now, Trump is pushing to lift the sanctions from Daripaska. Well, let's talk about that after the break because I think this is an important point. Again, it's one of the connection points of the big puzzle here. Yeah. So we're going to take a break. Okay. I'm Tim Apachella. I'm here with Cynthia Lisa and Claire. This is Trump Week. We'll be right back. Hi, I'm Lisa Kimura. I'm the host of Family Affairs on Think Tech Hawaii. Join us every Tuesday at 11 a.m. to talk about the issues that really matter. Everything from policies that need to be changed in Hawaii to the fact that we need better gender equality so that we can all have a better shot. Again, join us every Tuesday at 11 on Think Tech Hawaii for Family Affairs. Aloha. And Aloha. My name is Calvin Griffin, the host of Hawaii in Uniform. And every Friday at 11 o'clock here on Think Tech Hawaii, we bring you the latest in what's happening within the military community. And we also invite all of your response to things that's happening here. For those of you who haven't seen the program before, again, we invite your participation. We're here to give information, not disinformation, and we always enjoy response from the public. But join us here at Hawaii in Uniform, Fridays, 11 a.m. here on Think Tech Hawaii. Aloha. Hi, this is Trump Week. I'm Tim Apachella. I'm here with Cynthia Lisa and Claire. We're filling in for Jay Fidel. And this is Trump Week, and here we go. So Cynthia, let's talk about the government shutdown. I think, obviously, the BuzzFeed story has kind of temporarily set that aside. Can I finish one thing that I started before the break about Daripaska stuff? I just want to point out that those sanctions that Trump has been pushing and pushing to be lifted from Daripaska in the House, it was overwhelmingly voted down, got to the Senate, it passed. Now, it didn't pass by a big margin, granted. It was just a few votes, and I don't remember the exact numbers. But the fact that it passed to me is just unbelievable. And it says a lot about what's happening in the Republican Party, and one reporter on MSNBC said, yep, you can thank Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham for those two votes that made it pass. And I think, wow, it's hard to call somebody out, because we don't know. But it seems like they're his biggest supporters right now. And I don't understand why, because they used to be really... Well, I think when you've been given a front seat to the front row of the show, and this is a show, and I won't say what kind of show it is, but it's a show, you kind of start acting like you're in the front seat, in the front row, and you start behaving, and your words and your actions start to play along with that. Right, and reflect. Absolute power, corrupts absolutely. I don't know what John Cain would think if he were alive today to see, you know... Oh, my gosh. You know, I could only guess. John McCain would roll over in his grave to think that Lindsey Graham is doing this. I would suspect he would have some difficulty with it. I'm sure he would. Okay. So, yes, it was a very close vote. And... Now we can go back to the shutdown, sorry. But I just wanted to point it out, because I thought it was really an important... I thought that was a really important thing. Well, it is an important thing, and certainly it's important that, you know, again, with this information being fed of fake polls, and buying poll information that's clearly not accurate poll information, alleged payments from Donald to these pollsters, I mean, it's almost comical. It's almost comical. I agree. So, I mean, again, it's the firehose of information, it's going to be tough to kind of digest all this stuff. It is. But it will. So, as long as Americans stay involved, and, you know, for me, I walk away with the very best thing that can come from all this is that Americans are back involved in government. And for a while, we were pretty apathetic, and I'm happy to see that people are standing up again. People are getting involved. I'm happy to see it on both sides. And having the discussions that people are having in the coffee shops now, right? Right. Again, people are starting to go, well, maybe I do need to listen to this guy across the aisle. Maybe I do. They won't, but I can see that that's wrong. So maybe I should. And that's what I see happening. So, I've been allowed the conversation is pertaining to all the federal employees. But not just the federal employees, all the small coffee shops, all the, you know, all the ancillary services and businesses that are mom and pop businesses that are feeling the impact, not just in Washington, D.C., but around the country that are hit, you know, really feeling the impact of their customers being laid off or being furloughed and not spending the money that they normally would spend. Right. And the contractors that are attached to it that have already come out and said on record, they're losing $200,000 a month because of this shutdown. And, you know, the Washington Post had a headline that I thought was really great. It says the essence of involuntary servitude. And that's just what this is kind of for all of those federal workers. It's like they've got, it's like they're slaves in a way. They have to go to work, but they don't get paid. They, what do you call that? Slate worry, shoots. Involuntary servitude is what you call it. Yeah. And the federal unions are suing the Trump administration to get paid for shutdown work. Yeah. And I think, go for it. Now, we had an economic advisor, and I was looking for his name, and I apologize for not finding it, was that he said, actually, the federal employees don't realize they're just getting a free vacation because they're, this is actually, is that Mulvaney who said it? No, I apologize. I don't have a name here. But the bottom line is he said, the employees don't realize they're just getting a free vacation and they'll get their money later. And he's dead on serious. Yeah. So it's this obtuse, desensitized viewpoint of these federal employees. But they didn't calculate the many Republicans that are also, you know, working as a federal employee, they didn't calculate all the Republican mom-and-pop shops that depend on federal workers to support their businesses, goods and services. They didn't count on that. And it's leached out and crossed the entire nation. And that's, I suspect, is why the who's assigning blame per the polls to President Trump versus what they thought would be the case. Right. Because he's trying to say, oh, it's the Democrats, but he's on camera saying, I'll take that mantle of responsibility. I'll shut it down proudly. I'll proudly, yeah, proudly shut it down. It was like, oh. Well, I said in the last week's show, I mean, if you look at Chuck Schumer, when Donald Trump was saying that, you can see, you know, the corners of his mouth up, but he was trying to bite his lips down. So he doesn't stop him, right? He doesn't want him to know how happy that makes him. He doesn't want to stop him from saying what he said. So good point, a very good point. So we have the shutdown. It continues, but as an aspect of this shutdown, we have this spit and spat between Nancy Pelosi and President Trump. Oh, my gosh. Well, I don't think that was really a spit and spat exactly. I think she wasn't trying to be petty. I think she was trying to make a point that there's a lot of security involved in all of this, and it's not going to be, we are going to be half-staffed with all that, right? Well, I'll look back up one second because the first action was, you know, first off, the first action is we're trying to pass these bills to open up the government. Oh, my gosh. We're not getting anywhere. But Mitch McConnell won't, they've already passed bipartisan in both houses in the Senate and the House, and still all because of Mitch McConnell. So now I believe Mitch McConnell has responsibility in this too. Oh, of course, just almost as much as Trump at this point. But what I'm saying is, okay, so that's, that's the background. And then Nancy Pelosi said, you know, when it comes to the state of the union speech, we'd like to put defer this, right? We're not canceling it. Right. We just like to put it off until we have all the proper facilities open or a majority of them open. Right. And then, of course, what appears to be retaliation to that. And this is where petty comes in, right? Is that, you know, we're minutes away from getting on the plane. All the logistics have been set. All the security. They're on the bus already, and then they come back off the bus. And her trip has been canceled, which he has the right to do. He's President of the United States, Commander-in-Chief. He has the right to tell a military airline or flight, you're not taking off the tarmac. No, not to take Pelosi or anyone else where they're supposed to go. But you can take my wife down to Mar-a-Lago for the weekend. That's what happened. Which is what happened? Well, that's bad optics. That's crazy to me. That's bad optics. And I think everyone will see that the optics hand in hand don't look well. So I don't think it was Trump's idea to cancel that trip. To be honest, if we look, I think there are maybe more deeper meanings involved. She was going to talk to the people from NATO. She was going to Brussels first. It wasn't just going to see troops. She was going to Brussels. So to cancel that. And how much good could she have done, you know, diplomatically and everything else wise when everybody else is so scared because of Trump saying, I want to get out of NATO so many times. So are you saying he would like to see a further erosion between the relationship to the United States and NATO? Absolutely. I think he would like that. He has stated so in the past. That's why I think he would still like that. And then maybe at the last minute it occurred to him or maybe somebody told him, you know, it wouldn't be so bad if she doesn't get to go talk to NATO because. Well, in doing so that they compromise the flight plan. And that from a security breach. So they couldn't go then. That was unconscionable. I mean, you don't do that. You don't exactly. You don't say, oh, enemies, look, half the cabinet's coming over. You'll know where they are. You try your best not to do that. I for whatever reason, I was thinking of Valerie Plame when she was outed by in the Bush administration because she was a CIA agent. Oh, wait, wait, wait, I remember that. Oh, my gosh, that was a long time ago. Yeah, it was a long time ago. Wow. But you don't out somebody. And particularly they're, you know, they're travel plans. Oh, you jeopardize their lives and all of the people that are involved in their traveling party or anyone around them like that, that lady, it was her and her family were all at risk after he outed her. Yeah. So, you know, Chris A's made a joke yesterday that I thought was just really great. He says, you know what we need is we need Nick Mulvaney to go out and take a picture of a wall, right? Photoshop it in, bring it in for the morning briefing, throw it on the desk and say, okay, it's done. We built it last night. Let's open the government up again. Check mark. I thought, oh, from your mouth. Well, you know, satirical political cartoonists have had the run of the world. I mean, they've really put together some great cartoons. I think the one that caught my attention was a brick wall in a circle going up, you know, and Donald Trump has encapsulated with the wall to keep America safe. Like I said, I'm not a political cartoonist, but I think they've done, they've hit the mark. Right. Well, we don't have much time left. And so let's just really quickly hit the William Barr hearings. Oh my gosh. He admitted to being good friends with Robert Mueller. Okay, then he took it a step further and said, I am good friends with the Mullers and the bars. We have been good friends before and we will be good friends after. So it's not just a professional relationship they have. They have families that are friends. I was, I listened to the testimony live. I was having some sleep issues. So I listened to it live and I was encouraged by that. I was a little bit put off by some of the non-clarity that he spoke about making sure the public would be getting this report. Oh yeah, no, he did not get clear about that. But you know, that's a typical attorney trying to hedge his bets. And so I'm not trying to read too much into that. I think he actually may be a good pick for a trade-down. Compared to who could have been selected. Oh my gosh, yeah, Whitaker, who could have gone all the way through. That would have been a scary thought. But you know, I like that Amy Kovachar really nailed him down on things he has said about how he defines obstruction and how obstruction is defined very specifically. And I thought that was really good. He tried to hedge around it and she's like, yes or no, she really nailed him down. And I really liked that he did that. And he came to the table to answer the question. And he did come and say yes, yes, you're right. And I think that by looking at the questions and kind of the responses from the Democrat sides that were asking him questions, from what I got from non-verbal communication from them is they seem fairly satisfied with the responses and they know they don't have the votes. So it's a done deal. Right, but at least they got him on records. They got him on records, yeah. And I think that's what was important. You know, before we go too far away from the shutdown, because I know we're almost out of time. We are out of time. And I want, we are out of time. We are out of time. But I want to tell people how they can help. Okay. How you can help with this shutdown. You can donate to food banks. You can donate at, you can donate your time at food banks. You can volunteer at the national parks helping clean up and helping keep things right. You can call your senators and your representatives. Please call your representatives and your senators. All of them, not just, because we're sort of removed from that here in Hawaii. Call them anyway, because they're connected to Washington. Call them easy, come on. You know she'll listen. You can find businesses that are supporting federal workers and patronize them, telling them you're there because of that. And on Stephen Colbert, he had a mug that he was making as a joke, a coffee mug, that says I don't talk to me until I get my paycheck. Oh, okay. So now he's selling them. It was night before last he brought them on camera and now after last night, they're actually- We'll see how sales goes for them. Selling them so that they can help to fund this, help to support the workers, because really that's what we need to do more than anything, right? We're out of time. Thanks Tim. Great advice. This is Tim Apachele with Cynthia, Cynthia, Lisa and Claire. This is Trump week and we'll see you next week. Aloha.