Kris Mayes
Appearances
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Arizona AG Kris Mayes Exclusive Interview on Legal Battle Against Trump and Musk’s 'Coup'
We have multiple federal judges who are saying to Donald Trump and Elon Musk, stop this now, and yet we believe they're violating those orders.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Arizona AG Kris Mayes Exclusive Interview on Legal Battle Against Trump and Musk’s 'Coup'
Yeah, I mean, it's a great question. It's something that the AGs, I'll tell you, are discussing. I mean, first of all, let's just take a step back, Ben, and think about just how unprecedented this is. This is a territory and waters we have never been in before as a country. And I think we've never been in a more dangerous place. than we are today, at least since the Civil War.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Arizona AG Kris Mayes Exclusive Interview on Legal Battle Against Trump and Musk’s 'Coup'
And I truly believe that. And that's why I'm using language like this is a coup. You know, we're going to see where this goes. We're going to continue to prosecute these cases. I think it's going to be up to federal judges to take the next step if they believe that their orders are being violated. There's civil contempt. There's criminal contempt potentially.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Arizona AG Kris Mayes Exclusive Interview on Legal Battle Against Trump and Musk’s 'Coup'
And as you know, a lot of these cases are going to win their way, find their way all the way to the United States Supreme Court. And the United States Supreme Court is going to have to decide whether they are in favor of America or not. Do they believe in the separation of powers or not? Are they gonna stand up for our constitution or not?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Arizona AG Kris Mayes Exclusive Interview on Legal Battle Against Trump and Musk’s 'Coup'
But I'll tell your listeners that the AGs of this country, the democratic AGs of the country have every intention of continuing to stand up for our constitution and for America. And we will not stop fighting until we make sure that that happens. And I think we have a duty to all the previous generations who fought and died for this very Constitution to stand up for it. And we're going to do that.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Arizona AG Kris Mayes Exclusive Interview on Legal Battle Against Trump and Musk’s 'Coup'
And we also have as a duty as the top law enforcement officers of each of our states, we each took an oath of office that said we will protect the Constitution of Arizona or Michigan or California, and we will protect the Constitution of the United States.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Arizona AG Kris Mayes Exclusive Interview on Legal Battle Against Trump and Musk’s 'Coup'
Yeah, thanks for having me. The state AGs have filed multiple lawsuits against the Trump administration and Doge and Elon Musk for a number of different reasons. We filed against his executive order on birthright citizenship, which is obviously unconstitutional and violates the 14th Amendment. We now have two lawsuits against Doge, essentially. One when Doge infiltrated the Treasury Department.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Arizona AG Kris Mayes Exclusive Interview on Legal Battle Against Trump and Musk’s 'Coup'
Yeah, great question. And I'm going to answer your question directly. But can I just also pause and let's talk about that visual of Elon Musk with the ridiculous chainsaw. You know, I don't think Elon Musk has probably ever actually used a chainsaw in his life. I don't know what that was, some lame attempt to make himself look manly.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Arizona AG Kris Mayes Exclusive Interview on Legal Battle Against Trump and Musk’s 'Coup'
But at the same time, what he is doing is devastating people's lives. I mean, here in Arizona, we now have firefighters who are being laid off, you know, hot shot crews that are being laid off right before wildfire season. The federal funding freeze for a moment right before we got the TRO against it.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Arizona AG Kris Mayes Exclusive Interview on Legal Battle Against Trump and Musk’s 'Coup'
meant that we were not able to continue with our efforts to go after the Mexican drug cartels and fight the fentanyl crisis. I mean, it's insane. Our rural hospitals were put at risk, our Head Start programs, Meals on Wheels, and yet there goes Elon Musk bragging about it with his chainsaw at CPAC or wherever he was. It's just nonsense. But to answer your question directly,
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Arizona AG Kris Mayes Exclusive Interview on Legal Battle Against Trump and Musk’s 'Coup'
um we'll see where we get with that i mean the case uh where we will be asking for uh documents we'll be asking for documents likely and information and testimony and witness testimony in a lot of these cases the case where this may come
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Arizona AG Kris Mayes Exclusive Interview on Legal Battle Against Trump and Musk’s 'Coup'
to fruition the soonest is the appointments clause case that i brought along with i think 12 other state ags and um look i mean elon musk was bragging about being the guy who was gonna put usaid in the wood chipper and and you know eliminate entire agencies you know see uh you know um CFPB, RIP, these are all things that he said.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Arizona AG Kris Mayes Exclusive Interview on Legal Battle Against Trump and Musk’s 'Coup'
So we're going to want to find out what Elon Musk knows, what he did, and how he did it. And I'm not going to probably reveal all of our strategy here on the show, but clearly he's been involved in all of this.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Arizona AG Kris Mayes Exclusive Interview on Legal Battle Against Trump and Musk’s 'Coup'
I mean, you can make that argument. Absolutely. I mean, yesterday I did a press conference with the DEA, Phoenix Police Department and other federal partners in which we announced that we had seized more than, I think, a million and a half fentanyl pills, a whole bunch of methamphetamine, a lot of guns and a lot of cash. under what's called the high impact drug trafficking area programs.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Arizona AG Kris Mayes Exclusive Interview on Legal Battle Against Trump and Musk’s 'Coup'
If Elon Musk and Donald Trump had gotten their way, that entire program, those efforts to go after the Mexican drug cartels would have been eliminated, defunded. And it just goes to the sort of you know, ham-handed, you know, and completely incompetent way that they're going about this. Number one, as I said, it's unconstitutional. If the president wants to do this, he needs to go to Congress.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Arizona AG Kris Mayes Exclusive Interview on Legal Battle Against Trump and Musk’s 'Coup'
to get Congress, which has the power of the purse, to do it. Number two, the way they're doing it is harming even their own stated objectives. Donald Trump campaigned on securing our border. I agree with him on that. We need to secure the border. But the way you do that is not by defunding the very law enforcement officers that are out there putting their lives on the line.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Arizona AG Kris Mayes Exclusive Interview on Legal Battle Against Trump and Musk’s 'Coup'
We have one alleging that Elon Musk and President Trump are violating the Appointments Clause of the Constitution. We've fought back and filed a lawsuit to stop the federal funding freeze that would have devastated basically all of our states. By freezing federal funding, we got a TRO against Trump in essentially all of these cases. Almost all of these cases, we have gotten a TRO to stop him.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Arizona AG Kris Mayes Exclusive Interview on Legal Battle Against Trump and Musk’s 'Coup'
You do not improve public safety by firing firefighters in the middle of fire season in Arizona. And now we have a budget that's been put forward by the Republicans that potentially will slash Medicaid and maybe even elements of Social Security.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Arizona AG Kris Mayes Exclusive Interview on Legal Battle Against Trump and Musk’s 'Coup'
And then of course, as you know, Americans and a lot of Arizonans are really upset about the intrusion into their personal information that is happening by Doge. I can't tell you how many phone calls, well I probably could because we've been quantifying it, how many phone calls we have gotten into this office from Republicans, Democrats, and Independents who are really mad
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Arizona AG Kris Mayes Exclusive Interview on Legal Battle Against Trump and Musk’s 'Coup'
about the fact that their personal data has apparently been accessed by Doge and some teenage hackers that Elon Musk hired.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Arizona AG Kris Mayes Exclusive Interview on Legal Battle Against Trump and Musk’s 'Coup'
Well, it's a great question. And the first thing I'll tell you, and I'm kind of breaking news here on your show, but the Democratic AGs are going to do a series of town halls all over the country to gather up information to allow people to tell us what they think about this and how these cuts are impacting their lives, what they're worried about with regard to their data. And
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Arizona AG Kris Mayes Exclusive Interview on Legal Battle Against Trump and Musk’s 'Coup'
What I would say to people is that's what these lawsuits that we are filing are all about. It is unacceptable that these teenage hackers inside of Doge are being allowed this access to people's personal data. It's unacceptable there's even the possibility that Elon Musk and Doge could be hoovering up this data. We really don't know what's going on inside these agencies.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Arizona AG Kris Mayes Exclusive Interview on Legal Battle Against Trump and Musk’s 'Coup'
But we also, in addition to the AGs doing these lawsuits, we need people to help us by speaking out, come to our town halls, to our listening sessions. Get out there and talk to your members of Congress if they're having town halls. If they're not having town halls, demand that they have a town hall and make your voice heard. Call their offices. Let them know that you're not okay.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Arizona AG Kris Mayes Exclusive Interview on Legal Battle Against Trump and Musk’s 'Coup'
with what's going on right now in Washington, D.C., that you're not okay with the federal government and especially this unelected billionaire, weirdo billionaire having access to your personal information, that all makes a difference. And yeah, you're absolutely right. Here in Arizona, we have a very strong libertarian streak in our state, and people are not okay with what's happening.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Arizona AG Kris Mayes Exclusive Interview on Legal Battle Against Trump and Musk’s 'Coup'
Yeah, no, absolutely. And Ben, as you know, your experience in Arizona, our state is a third, a third, a third. I mean, we couldn't be more evenly divided as a state. One third Democratic, one third Republican and one third independent. And across the board, we're getting phone calls into my office and I'm talking to constituents from people who are saying, hell no, I don't want this.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Arizona AG Kris Mayes Exclusive Interview on Legal Battle Against Trump and Musk’s 'Coup'
This is not what I signed up for. As you know, Arizona did narrowly vote for Donald Trump. But I believe Arizonans voted for a better economy and a secure border. They didn't vote for a dictator and they didn't vote for a coup. And Americans and Arizonans still believe in America and we still believe in our Constitution. And it's time for all of us to fight for it.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Arizona AG Kris Mayes Exclusive Interview on Legal Battle Against Trump and Musk’s 'Coup'
We need to fight for it before it's gone.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Arizona AG Kris Mayes Exclusive Interview on Legal Battle Against Trump and Musk’s 'Coup'
And essentially what's going on, and I've said this before, I'll say it again, this is a coup. This is a coup by Donald Trump against our Constitution, against our way of governing ourselves. because they are violating over and over and over again, not only the separation of powers, but also violating the court orders that we are getting.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Arizona AG Kris Mayes Exclusive Interview on Legal Battle Against Trump and Musk’s 'Coup'
Thanks for having me. Appreciate you.