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Chapter 1: What chaos is surrounding Donald Trump and the MAGA movement?
Boy, oh boy, good morning, good morning. How is everyone? Rise and shine, stretch, stretch, stretch. Happy that you are here with us on this, what is it, Wednesday morning? So we had a time last night, such a time. I didn't get a chance to get any pictures, any videos. By the way, if you were there last night and
in atlanta uh city winery send us go to uh the don lemon show at gmail.com the don lemon show gmail.com and send us uh your photographs or video whatever it is that you have i don't know why the venue is like don't take pictures don't take video we want you to spread it we want folks to see it so good morning everybody first order of business hit the like and the thumbs up it affects the algorithm more people become aware of our channel and our conversation
You can see I'm still in Atlanta. We have another show tonight, another sold-out show tonight, by the way, which we're very happy about. I feel like this mic is taking up the entire thing. Anyway, so we have another sold-out show tonight, and we are grateful for all of the interest. Now, let me tell you, if you were there last night, you know. We went on a bit late because...
there were so many people who showed up and because of security and all that, so security is very, very, very tight last night, but it was sold out to capacity. Actually, some people could, there was a couple of folks who were on the waiting list who said that they could not get in because it was,
capacity and you know we can't we got to do what the fire marshal says fire marshal bill whoever it is and we've got to do it we have to do it so anyway it was a great time dl was funny the lemon heads and the lemon legends were there so for all of you folks if you were at the meet and greet and you took some pictures you have some videos send them to us and it nikki check the the email throughout the show and see if we can get them but it was really really really a great time um andy who's this is this from oh this is last night this is with tim though by the way too yeah tim is famous
So do we know who this is? Yeah, this is Tanya. Hi, Tanya. So Tim was manning the merch store. So I was doing the show yesterday. Right before I was doing the show, and Tim's like, I got to go. I'm like, wait, where do you have to go? It's early. He goes, I got to do the merch. Merch, I'm going to go. I'm like, OK.
And Tim, also, we looked like twins yesterday when we were traveling because we both had on our Jesse Jackson sweatshirts. Rest in power, sir. So there was Tim last night manning the table, getting love. People now are calling him by his name in public in the airport. And so, you know, hey, the new Kevin Costner.
is uh oh and look this is last night tanya with you guys tanya thank you it's such a beautiful i remember tanya it's gorgeous when i saw tanya i was like is this tanya because she kind of reminds me of sunny i was like tanya sunny austin So that's us last night. I wore a white suit. Not the white suit. This isn't the detained white suit, the arrest white suit. This is a different white suit.
I have a bunch of them. But D.L. Hughley was all dressed in Valentino, looking great and just funny. It was a really, really great night, and the audience could not have been warmer. Thank you very much for showing last night. As they say, we had a time last night. Virginia's in the house this morning. I see a lot of Virginia in the house. I see Arizona is here this morning. Let's see.
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Chapter 2: How is public support for ICE changing in the current climate?
Welcome Donna Rogers 3039. Welcome to elimination. Guys. Welcome, everyone. Thank you. Did we put them up? I think that you guys put them up there new members Donna and Tori 203 and Donna Rogers. Welcome to the elimination. Also, giggles. Thank you so much for that. And you know, I had to do the herpes comparison when you said what you said, but it's true. And aloha, Smitty.
Welcome to the Lemon Nation. So grateful for your support and for you becoming a member. And remember, if you are a member, you can also donate our gift memberships to other members. OK, so thank you for that. And thank you for your support. But look, that's the that is the good, the bad part.
and the ugly and the worst of it and thank you see what maureen marfell did thank you maureen because of maureen's generosity 10 people get to become members of the lemon nation now i just want to play this because this is um on for i'm setting you up here because i have a great panel for you and i'll tell you who it is in just moments Keep that a secret. That's a little tease.
But I want to set it up for you and for them, because this is David from he's on the TV and he's talking about he also writes as well. But he writes and speaks about Donald Trump not knowing how bad things are. Now, you know, I've told you, like, when Donald Trump says some things, when he gets in front of the microphone and people ask him about issues, he goes, I never heard that. I don't know.
Sometimes it's a lie, but sometimes he really doesn't know. And I believe that he has people around him who are taking advantage of wherever he is mentally or whatever, cognitively, wherever he is in decline or whatever, whatever it might be, whatever stage it is. I'm not a doctor. I don't know. But doctors have I've seen them saying it appears something's going on.
I think they take advantage of him. They don't tell him the whole story. They give him information. He goes off half-cocked. Remember that word back in the day? Thank you, Brenda Holden. Because of Brenda's generosity, 10 people get to become members of the Lemon Nation. Thank you so much. So he goes off and he says things and he doesn't know. This is David Frum. Listen closely.
Setting up the panel. Here we go. One of the ways that authoritarian regimes get themselves in trouble is they cut themselves off from knowing bad news in time. Because they demand endless flattery of the leader, the leader does not know that there aren't sausages in the shops. And so what Brendan Carr is doing here is actually among the people this is no favor for is Donald Trump.
One of the things that was distinctive about Donald Trump 11 years ago was he knew no one's talking about immigration, but I think people care about it. So I'm going to have the sixth sense about what's on people's minds that most people don't want to talk about, and I'm going to make that my issue. Donald Trump of 2026 thinks the economy is good. He doesn't just say it. He really believes it.
And Brendan Carr's job, and that of others too, is to make sure that Donald Trump never finds out that there's a lot of discontent. Pause. Context. Okay, pause. So he's talking about Brendan Carr because Brendan Carr is the head of the FCC and the whole thing about James Tallarico from Texas, a Senate candidate, being on Colbert on CBS. And then they're saying they can't have him on.
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Chapter 3: What criticisms did Pam Bondi face regarding the Epstein files?
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check out there thank you to our sponsors okay bring in the madness lucy corbett is here a political commentator best-selling author and the host on on siriusxm's urban view clay kane also a host on siriusxm urban view and he is the author of the new york times bestseller burn down master's house or as we say massa Burn down NASA's house. So go buy the book.
So I want to say hello to both of you. I want to thank both of you for your support. Recy, look, it was such a crazy day. Now, I'm not sure if you were on earlier in our last week when we, the court, but Recy, you were on and I didn't get to say hello to you. And I don't know if you got to participate, but I wanted to thank you. And I was like, I want to talk to Recy.
And then you clicked off as soon as I got on the thing and ready to introduce you and talk to you. How are you? And thank you.
Well, I'm good. Listen, it was Valentine's Day weekend, honey. So your girl had a plan. But I told I told Peter and Nikki that I had actually just picked you up on News Nation because, of course, you had just gotten out. You gave your your statement. So, you know, I support you no matter what. And congratulations, USA Today bestseller, Clay Kane.
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Chapter 4: How does Donald Trump's polling compare to previous elections?
That has always been the case. But I do think, and they've kind of already previewed some of this stuff. Like, oh, we might send ICE or National Guard to the polling places. They had Toasty Gabbert. Down there in Fulton County, like she was some sort of spy or some shit, you know, collecting voter data in Georgia and Fulton County. You've had them requesting this data from around the country.
Even Republicans in some states are balking at.
and so i don't think that they do all of that just for shits and giggles i think that they do have a plan um but i think that their plan still probably assumes that as always the voter turnout drops during the midterms it all probably assumes that they only have to cheat by x so our our charge is to make sure that that x number is way too low if we can do that i think that we'll end up getting the results that we need but certainly they're going to cheat
And they're going to intimidate. That's the other part that we have to worry about.
How do you feel about election integrity, Clay? Oh, I'm deeply concerned because the history rhymes. You know, they've done their 19th century research. They've done their 1960s research on how they can overturn an election, how they can rig an election. So I'm very concerned. So I agree with Recy that it has to be out of cheating distance. They're not playing. And the Project 2025 team
They their plan was to make sure that Trump stays and stays in office regardless of of of who votes or not. So that was part of the end game. But I do want to say this, though. Early voting began in Texas yesterday and I was in Texas for a burned down master's house. I was in Houston and Dallas. And this is just my I drove and I drove from Houston to Dallas.
I was I was in that part of the that part of the that part of the state. What was interesting to me is when Recy and I were there, we were there, what, in October for Beyond the Mic?
Yeah.
I saw a lot of Trump signs. I saw a lot of Trump this, Trump that. I did not see that this time around. when I was in Texas. Even driving from Houston to Dallas, there was a momentum that I felt on the ground. And Colin Allred, who's running in District 33, made a surprise appearance in Dallas.
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Chapter 5: What are the implications of Trump's declining approval ratings?
That includes other folks that are making news at HBO. And so there's all sorts of reasons, be it the corruption, be it the foreign influence. be it the domination of American news, that someone like Attorney General Rob Bonta could come in. And let me, if I could, just throw one last thing in here.
I don't understand why ambitious 2028 presidential hopefuls aren't drawing a line in the sand and saying, hey guys, good luck with that merger of yours. Because the moment I'm in office, Apparently, I'm in charge now of the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, or we can pass in Congress a law that says any corrupt merger will be undone on day one of this new administration.
I think Senator Gallego has said something to this effect to his great credit. I just simply don't get why more Democrats aren't coming out and saying this kind of thing.
I'm so glad you mentioned that because I thought about it and I said, you know, whoever is going to be in office, if it's a Democrat, I would say we're going to break this up. So don't even you don't if you want to do it, do it. But we're going to I'm going to get rid of all of this.
We're going to 50 50 chance it goes away. You just spent billions of dollars for nothing.
Thank you. Yes. Thank you. May I ask a question? May I ask a question? Yeah, go ahead. I'm really curious. I love how you brought up what the guy can do in Cali. And I know Lemonheads, they're an active audience. Are these networks, are they invincible? I mean, 60 Minutes, their ratings are tanking. I mean, every time they make these moves, I see the ratings tank.
If they're losing all these ratings by doing all these ridiculous things, are they invincible? It's just like, well, the rich guy is happy, even though we're losing millions and millions of people from watching. Let me jump in first with it. They don't care. And they've said as much. They can sell it for parts. They're buying assets on the way down because they think that they're cheaper.
There's far more here that I'm sure that Mr. Bedoya can add. But I don't think that they care. They're still making money off of cable networks, broadcast networks, even after losing viewership. And also, they're so rich. I don't know if they care, Clay. I don't think they care.
I just think they want their ideologies reflected back to them when they're watching or reading these assets that they believe that they own. So I'm sorry. Go ahead, Mr. Bedoya.
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Chapter 6: How do political commentators view the upcoming elections?
And so I just... I just think that as long as we don't pay attention to the bigger structural forces of like every one of these mergers and acquisitions, giving people like Brendan Carr an opportunity to jump in and do this, it's just going to keep on happening. That's the big thing for me is people need to wake up like,
Rob Bonta, but also we need to go in and repeal the law, the 1996 Telecommunications Act, that lets these companies gobble each other up. 50 years ago, the media ecosystem was much more diverse. And yeah, you had the big three, but you had all these little stations locally owned. Now you've got Sinclair Broadcasting literally telling local folks what to say verbatim.
We need to turn back the clock, not just on these specific mergers, but on the law that lets these massive conglomerates get born in the first place outside.
All right. Thank you, Alvaro Bedoya. Am I saying it right? Yes.
I usually say Alvaro, but honestly, I stopped caring a long time ago.
Alvaro Bedoya is an attorney and was a former commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission. Thank you. We appreciate you joining and hope that you come back.
uh reese and clay i want you to stay right there because i want to talk about this we talked about you know who this is all about money right the the consolidation of this media companies and especially conservative media companies um but people are hurting out there and it's showing in the polling as we as we uh laid out to you in the the top of the show
The economy is not what the administration is making it out to be. People are not feeling it. And when they said that about Joe Biden's economy, when he said, all the metrics are in place, but people are not feeling it, conservatives said, oh, the economy is bad, the economy is bad. But even a similar sentiment with Donald Trump, and now they're pretending that it's good, and it is not.
People are not feeling it. But guess who has made more money, I believe, than anyone in the United States? And that is President Donald Trump. According to the reports, Donald Trump has made $4 billion off of the presidency. Now, here's the thing. The American people aren't making the money. People are hurting right now.
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Chapter 7: What strategies are being discussed for voter turnout in Texas?
Just if he's watching, I'm not saying that you would be doing me a favor.
Oh, I would interview him. I know.
I would love for you to interview him. I'm just saying that somebody, if you're going to have a conversation about a presidential campaign, then somebody should ask him anything that gets to the aptitude you should have. as a presidential candidate. Katie Couric went back to the basics. That was an iconic interview with Sarah Palin.
And it wasn't hard. I didn't think it was a gotcha. Those were not hard questions. But they were like, it's a gotcha. And it's like, no, it's not.
But if you think, and everybody wants to be fucking president now. Oh, you know, I was a senator for 20 years and that was good enough. Like everybody thinks I should be president. Somebody gives a speech on the floor and they're like, I'm going to be president next. Like there are a lot of delusional people. Be very, very clear about that.
I don't think Stephen A. Smith is the only delusional person. I think there are probably 20 delusional people in the party right now who think they're going to be president and they're not. OK, but my whole point is that at least those at least 18 of those 20 people are probably doing something substantive.
And those people could probably answer basic questions about what the executive branch does versus the judicial branch versus the legislative branch. I don't know that he can do any of those things. And I mean, he was in a he was in a town hall. I think it was News Nation. And he like stormed off because somebody gave a story. And he's he's he's not he doesn't have any political depth.
And that is the whole point. But you have the audacity to think that you're going to run for president against governors and senators and congresspeople and, you know, whoever else. I think that's absolutely unserious.
Yeah.
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Chapter 8: How does the episode conclude regarding the future of the MAGA movement?
No African American leader or journalist has a prime time show. They get our ideas out.
And so if I go to Syria or Iraq or Cuba or Yugoslavia to bring Americans back home, I didn't chase the ambulance.
The ambulance chased me. People would say, well, what is his job? Does Jesse Jackson have a job? Has he gotten a job yet? And your answer is?
It's an attempt to demean our work. Rainbow Push Coalition is a human rights organization. People who speak of that way of speaking in pejorative, demeaning terms, you have to dismiss it and consider the source.
Jesse Jackson is a reverend, yet he had an affair and he's got a kid.
We all sin and fall short of the glory of God. But if we are honest and open, God will forgive and redeem and allow us to move on and get back up again.
Even one of the largest black-owned publications, Ebony Magazine, recently asked the question, does the Reverend Jesse Jackson still matter? Does Jesse Jackson still matter? They didn't say that, they asked that question. That's the question. And the people asked it. Answered, and many came to his defense.
Of course he still matters. He has always mattered. You cannot eradicate all the wonderful work that he has done throughout his career. That's obvious. I mean, he is teaching us in everything he does and says he can still take the kind of risks to say things that a lot of us can't. He's in a position to use his leverage and he does it every single time.
I mean, we wouldn't be here if it weren't for Jesse Jackson. That's just a no-brainer.
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