Congressman Don Beyer
Appearances
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump is a repeat loser as his slash-and-burn rampage collides with U.S. law
Yeah, thank you, Rachel, very much. It was very concerning. And you laid out the case very well.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump is a repeat loser as his slash-and-burn rampage collides with U.S. law
When we got there, the D.C. police had already escorted all the staff out. The last person out was the president of the USIP, George Moose, a longtime U.S. ambassador. And he had locked himself in his office to protest the illegal firing of 11 of the USIP board members by Donald Trump. And the D.C. police actually picked the lock on his office to get him and take him to the outside.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump is a repeat loser as his slash-and-burn rampage collides with U.S. law
The real challenge is that there's something in the law, the congressional charter for USIP, that says a president can replace a board member with board consultation for committing a felony or some gross malfeasance. He didn't consult any board members, and certainly there were no felonies.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump is a repeat loser as his slash-and-burn rampage collides with U.S. law
It's very concerning. It's like, where does Doge get any legitimacy, any right to invade an independent nonprofit 501c3? Rachel, there are 232,000 501c3 nonprofits in the United States. By this measure, Donald Trump could send the police or the marshals into any one of them. and demand to see their books, throw out their people, replace their board members. It's really unprecedented. The poor D.C.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump is a repeat loser as his slash-and-burn rampage collides with U.S. law
police took their orders initially from the acting U.S. attorney, this guy Ed Martin, who's just a MAGA hatchet man with a lot of personal vendettas. And when they were also called by George Moose and the USIP leadership, they didn't know who to trust. I guess they looked at the FBI who said, well, you know, Trump fired the board members, therefore you got to stick with him.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump is a repeat loser as his slash-and-burn rampage collides with U.S. law
although that was clearly illegal.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump is a repeat loser as his slash-and-burn rampage collides with U.S. law
Oh, very much so. I think our busiest committee on Capitol Hill will be the Oversight Committee, led by my colleague, Jerry Connolly, and Jamie Raskin, AOC, others will be deeply involved in it. Because, you know, we don't have a lot of tools. We're a minority, but we have to use every tool that we have.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump is a repeat loser as his slash-and-burn rampage collides with U.S. law
And the oversight, the ability to investigate and then get the word out to the American people is really, really important.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump is a repeat loser as his slash-and-burn rampage collides with U.S. law
Yeah, I very much hope that in any other place than Washington, D.C., I'm hoping that the police will be much more independent. In D.C., they're going to look first at the U.S. attorney, sadly, and that's the wrong person in this case.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump is a repeat loser as his slash-and-burn rampage collides with U.S. law
I just wish I'd been able to make a difference.