The Briefing with Jen Psaki
As Trump's parade of failure marches on, his distraction trick loses potency
Fri, 9 May 2025
Jen Psaki reports on the failure of yet another Donald Trump nominee, Ed Martin, Trump's nominee to be D.C. U.S. attorney, and looks at the broader pattern of Trump trying to make publicity stunt distractions when he's on a losing streak.
Chapter 1: What is Trump's 'flood the zone' strategy?
At this point, we are all pretty familiar with Trump's flood the zone strategy. I mean, we've all seen it. This is what he does all the time. Move fast, try to bend as many things as possible. Throw so much at us at all times, including some completely bizarre obsessions with renaming things, like lots of things, like the Gulf of Mexico, for example.
It's all kind of hard to keep up with sometimes. I mean, that's the point, though. He wants to make it harder for us to figure out what's real and what's just Trumpian bluster. But one way to cut through some of that, I think, to figure out what's real, what he really cares about, what's going on in his head a little bit, is to go back to January 20th.
And what did Trump prioritize when he was sworn into office a second time? What did he care about? Enough to do immediately. Well, one of the first things he did, really pretty much the very first thing he did after taking the oath of office on January 20th, is he installed this guy as the top federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., Now, the U.S.
Attorney's Office in Washington, as you probably know, is one of the most important, most powerful prosecutor's offices in the country. And for the last few years, it has been in charge of literally the largest criminal probe in American history, the investigation into the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.
And the moment Donald Trump took office again, he put a guy named Ed Martin in charge of that office. Now, Ed Martin has zero experience as a prosecutor. And he was also literally at the Capitol on January 6th. And he described it this way. He said it was great compared to Mardi Gras, of all things.
Now, after that, he then later went on to serve as a defense lawyer for several Trump supporters who were charged with attacking police officers during the insurrection. He was defending them. Once Trump named him a U.S.
attorney in Washington, the first thing that Ed Martin did was dismiss the cases of about 1,600 Capitol rioters pardoned by Trump, including at least one whom Ed Martin still represented as a defense lawyer. One person he was defending. He helped pardon him. Then he set about demoting and firing federal prosecutors who had worked on those January 6th cases. That's what he did next.
He also tried to indict Chuck Schumer, an effort so weird and outlandish, he apparently couldn't even get Trump Justice Department officials to sign off on that one. Ed Martin also sent out sloppy, poorly worded, vaguely threatening letters aimed at members of Congress, protesters, journalists, even medical journals he decided he needed to target.
In other words, Trump seemed to be getting, I guess, I mean, exactly what he wanted out of one of his very first hires. Someone who would use the power Trump had bestowed on him to gleefully go after Trump's enemies and reward his friends. And Trump clearly really, really wanted Ed Martin in that top prosecutor job. And he seemed to really, really like having him there.
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Chapter 2: Who is Ed Martin and why is his nomination significant?
When Trump tried to gut funding to help low-income K-12 students, a court stopped that because of a lawsuit filed by, yes, guess who, I think you know at this point, state attorneys general. And these state AGs have also been spending time actually listening to people who are freaked out by Trump's agenda.
I mean, tonight, New York Attorney General Letitia James hosted four other state attorneys general for a town hall event at SUNY Westchester Community College. Watch this.
As a coalition of attorneys general, we've been busy. We've filed lawsuits and amicus briefs to stand up for Social Security, child care providers, veterans, members of the LGBTQ community, Meals on Wheels, Head Start, immigrants, health care services, 9-11 first responders, teachers, students, universities, scientists, and reproductive rights.
And joining me now is the quite fearless New York Attorney General Letitia James. It is great to see you. We played that clip of the town hall where you talked about all of the work you're doing. There's so much that you're doing and so much you're coordinating. And one of the things that you're trying to address and to stop is Trump's effort to get rid of birthright citizenship.
You've been leading this effort that's going to the Supreme Court next week because the Trump administration is trying to overturn the injunction. Getting rid of, I mean, obviously, getting rid of birthright citizenship is pretty clearly not constitutional. I'm not a lawyer, but I think I can say that. But there's still a 6-3 court.
I mean, as you're looking to next week, how confident are you that they are going to protect birthright citizenship, something you've been fighting to protect?
So, first, Jen Psaki, let me just congratulate you on day three. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Really, it's an honor and a privilege to be here this evening. We held a community impact hearing this evening to talk about all of the cases that we have been involved in, and we have been winning. And I want all of you and your viewers to know that we've been preparing for this moment.
We've analyzed Project 2025. We've analyzed jurisdiction and venue. We've analyzed its causes and claims. And we've distributed information. number of cases to all of the Democratic attorneys general. So we were ready on day one. And within 24 hours after his unlawful executive order, we decided to respond to birthright citizenship.
And the United States Supreme Court, for the most part, is primarily reviewing a narrow issue, and that is whether or not the courts, lower courts, have the authority to issue nationwide injunctions. And that really is the issue. And we believe birthright citizenship, as you know, is grounded in the 14th Amendment.
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