At the end of her interview with
President Donald J. Trump, recorded on October 31 at Mar-a-Lago and aired
last night, heavily edited, on 60 Minutes, Norah O’Donnell of CBS News asked if she could ask two
more questions. Trump suggested previous questions had been precleared when
he mused aloud that if he said yes, “That means they’ll treat me more fairly
if I do—I want to get—It’s very nice, yeah. Now is good. Okay. Uh, oh. These
might be the ones I didn’t want. I don’t know. Okay, go ahead.” O’Donnell noted that the Trump
family has thrown itself into cryptocurrency ventures, forming World Liberty
Financial with the family of Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the
Middle East. In that context, she asked about billionaire Changpeng Zhao, the
co-founder and former chief executive officer of Binance. Zhao is
cryptocurrency’s richest man. He pleaded guilty in 2023 to money laundering,
resigned from Binance, paid a $50 million fine, and was sentenced to four
months in prison. Trump pardoned him on October 23. O’Donnell noted that the U.S.
government said Zhao “had caused ‘significant harm to U.S. national
security,’ essentially by allowing terrorist groups like Hamas to move
millions of dollars around.” She asked the president, “Why did you pardon
him?” “Okay, are you ready?” Trump
answered. “I don’t know who he is. I know he got a four-month sentence or
something like that. And I heard it was a Biden witch hunt. And what I wanna
do is see crypto, ‘cause if we don’t do it it’s gonna go to China, it’s gonna
go to—this is no different to me than AI. “My sons are involved in crypto much
more than I—me. I—I know very little about it, other than one thing. It’s a
huge industry. And if we’re not gonna be the head of it, China, Japan, or
someplace else is. So I am behind it 100%. This man was, in my opinion, from
what I was told, this is, you know, a four-month sentence.” After he went on with complaints
about the Biden administration—he would mention Biden 42 times in the
released transcript—O’Donnell noted, “Binance helped facilitate a $2 billion
purchase of the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial’s stablecoin. And then
you pardoned [Zhao].” She asked him: “How do you address the appearance of
pay for play?” Trump answered: “Well, here’s the
thing. I know nothing about it because I’m too busy doing the other….”
O’Donnell interrupted: “But he got a pardon….” Trump responded: “I can only
tell you this. My sons are into it. I’m glad they are, because it’s probably
a great industry, crypto. I think it’s good. You know, they’re running a
business, they’re not in government. And they’re good—my one son is a number
one bestseller now. “My wife just had a number one
bestseller. I’m proud of them for doing that. I’m focused on this. I know
nothing about the guy, other than I hear he was a victim of weaponization by
government. When you say the government, you’re talking about the Biden government.”
And then he was off again, complaining about the former president and
boasting that he would “make crypto great for America.” “So not concerned about the
appearance of corruption with this?” O’Donnell asked. Trump answered: “I can’t say,
because—I can’t say—I’m not concerned. I don’t—I’d rather not have you ask
the question. But I let you ask it. You just came to me and you said, ‘Can I
ask another question?’ And I said, yeah. This is the question….” “And you answered…” O’Donnell put
in. “I don’t mind,” Trump said. “Did I
let you do it? I coulda walked away. I didn’t have to answer this question.
I’m proud to answer the question. You know why? We’ve taken crypto….” After
another string of complaints about Biden, he said: “We are number one in
crypto and that’s the only thing I care about.” If, among all the disinformation and
repetition Trump spouted in that interview, he did not know who he was
pardoning, who’s running the Oval Office? It appears House speaker Mike
Johnson (R-LA) doesn’t want to know. At a news conference today, journalist
Manu Raju noted: “Last week…you were very critical of Joe Biden’s use of the
autopen…[you said] he didn’t even know who he was pardoning. Last night,
on 60 Minutes…Trump admitted not knowing he pardoned a crypto
billionaire who pleaded guilty to money laundering. Is that also concerning?” Johnson answered: “I don’t know
anything about that. I didn’t see the interview. You have to ask the
president about that. I’m not sure.” Pleading ignorance of an outrage or
that a question is “out of his lane” has become so frequent for Johnson that
journalist Aaron Rupar of Public Notice, who is very well informed about the news indeed,
suggested today that journalists should consider asking Johnson: “Do you ever
read the news, and do you agree it’s problematic for the Speaker to be so
woefully uninformed?” Johnson continues to keep the House
from conducting business as the government shutdown hit its 34th day today.
Tomorrow the shutdown will tie the 35-day shutdown record set during Trump’s
first term. Representative Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ), whom voters elected on
September 23, is still not sworn in. She has said she will be the 218th—and
final—vote on a discharge petition to force a vote requiring the Department
of Justice to release the Epstein files. Trump and Johnson continue to try to
jam Democratic senators into signing on to the Republicans’ continuing
resolution without addressing the end of premium tax credits that is sending
healthcare premiums on the Affordable Healthcare Act marketplace soaring.
They continue to refuse to negotiate with Democrats, although negotiations
have always been the key to ending shutdowns. To increase pressure, they are
hurting the American people. The shutdown meant that funding for
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits on which 42 million
Americans depend to put food on the table ran out on October 31. Although
previous administrations—including Trump’s—have always turned to contingency
funds Congress set aside to make sure people can eat, and although the Trump
administration initially said it would do so this time as usual, it abruptly
announced in October that it did not believe tapping into that reserve was
legal. SNAP benefits would not go out. On Friday, U.S. District Judge John
McConnell of the District of Rhode Island ordered the administration to fund
payments for SNAP benefits using the reserve Congress set up for emergencies.
Since that money—$4.65 billion—will not be enough to fund the entire $8
billion required for November payments, McConnell suggested the
administration could make the full payments by tapping into money from the
Child Nutrition Program and other funds, but he left discretion up to the
administration. Today the administration announced
it would tap only the first reserve, funding just 50% of SNAP benefits. It
added that those payments will be delayed for “a few weeks to up to several
months.” The disbursement of the reserve, it continued, “means that no funds
will remain for new SNAP applicants certified in November, disaster
assistance, or as a cushion against the potential catastrophic consequences
of shutting down SNAP entirely.” “Big ‘you can’t make me’
energy,” Talking Points Memo’s Josh Marshall noted. It’s also an astonishing act of
cruelty, especially as grocery prices are going up—Trump lied that they are
stable in the 60 Minutes interview—hiring has slowed, and the nation is
about to celebrate Thanksgiving. The shutdown also threatens the $4.1
billion Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) that helps
families cover the cost of utilities or heating oil. Susan Haigh and Marc
Levy of the Associated Press note that this program started in 1981 and has
enjoyed bipartisan support in Congress ever since. Trump’s budget proposal
for next year calls for cutting the program altogether, but states expected
to have funding for this winter. Almost 6 million households use the program,
and as cold weather sets in, the government has not funded it. When the Republicans shredded the
nation’s social safety net in their budget reconciliation bill of July, the
one they call the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” they timed most of the cuts
to take effect after the 2026 midterm elections. But the shutdown is making
clear now, rather than after the midterms, what the nation will look like
without that safety net. In the 60 Minutes interview,
O’Donnell noted an aspect of Trump’s America that is getting funded during
the shutdown. She said, “Americans have been watching videos of ICE tackling
a young mother, tear gas being used in a Chicago residential neighborhood,
and the smashing of car windows. Have some of these raids gone too far?” “No,” Trump answered. “I think they
haven’t gone far enough because we’ve been held back by the—by the judges,
the liberal judges that were put in by Biden and by Obama.” (In fact, a
review by Kyle Cheney of Politico on Friday showed that more than 100 federal judges
have ruled at least 200 times against Trump administration immigration
policies. Those judges were appointed by every president since Ronald Reagan,
and 12 were appointed by Trump himself.) It appears that the administration
did indeed ignore today’s deadline for congressional approval of the ongoing
strikes against Venezuela, required under the 1973 War Powers Act. It is
taking the position that no approval is necessary since, in its formulation,
U.S. military personnel are not at risk in the strikes that have, so far,
killed 65 people. |
