Astead Herndon

Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

This isn't about quarterly earnings or about tech reviews.

The idea of like a post-Trump or not exactly Trump-focused show can exist because he's not really driving any agenda items.

It really does feel like so reactive.

So here's the thing about Donald Trump's blatant, sometimes open corruption.

If it's happening out in front of us, if it's largely been accepted by the public and seemingly the courts, is it even fair to call it corruption at all?

That was my first question to Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy at a recent forum about corporate monopolies and corruption held by the American Economic Liberties Project in Washington, D.C.

That's this week on Today Explained Saturday.

Let's dig in.

Thank you to the American Economic Liberties Project.

Obviously, thank you to Senator Murphy for being here.

And thank you to you all, too, for being interested in this topic.

When I think about corruption, particularly this bending the knee kind of framework, one thing that immediately jumps to mind for me is that when we think about the Trump administration, this isn't happening in backroom deals.

This isn't happening in some secret basement.

A lot of these things are happening right in front of us.

So I guess my first question was, is corruption the right word to even use when

It's been broadly sanctioned by legal and governmental entities.