Return to Transcripts main page
CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip
Gabbard Put Trump On Phone With FBI During Elections Office Raid; Celebrities Protest ICE At Grammy Awards Amid Crackdown; Democrat Flips Texas Senate Seat In District Trump Won By 17 Points; "NewsNight" Tackles ICE Conduct In Minneapolis; Another Deal Involves Crypto Stable Coin. Aired 10-11p ET
Aired February 02, 2026 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[22:00:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN HOST (voice over): Tonight, a mysterious complaint, an unusual call during a raid, and a public effort from the party of state's rights --
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.
PHILLIP: -- to MAGAfy democracy.
Plus --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are not savage. We're not animals. We are humans.
PHILLIP: -- the anti-ICE chorus gets louder, as Republicans get a wakeup call in Texas.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This time, if you don't get the message, enjoy Speaker Hakeem Jeffries.
PHILLIP: Also, is America's foreign policy for sale? A secret Trump deal that could make Hunter Biden blush.
And can't book it? Hook it. Why the President may be shutting the Kennedy Center to avoid shame.
Live at the table, Keith Boykin, Joe Borelli, Christine Quinn, Chris Madel, Stacy Schneider and Sheila Kolhatkar.
Americans with different perspectives aren't talking to each other, but here, they do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP (on camera): Good evening. I'm Abby Phillip in New York.
Let's get right to what America's talking about. Are the nation's elections now at risk? The president of the United States keeps pushing disproven conspiracies. He lies about the states that he won and lost. He regrets not seizing voting machines. And now Donald Trump is directly involved in FBI raids of election offices. We are learning tonight that he directed the director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, to take part in the search of the Fulton County Elections offices. A former FBI official says there is zero reason why Gabbard should have been involved in that anyway. We're learning that she put Trump on speaker phone during the raid to talk to FBI agents.
Now, suffice to say, that is highly, highly unusual. And on top of all of this, Trump said today that he wants the federal government to take over America's elections.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The Republicans should say, we want to take over -- we should take over the voting in at least many, 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting, and that we have states that are so crooked and they're counting votes. We have states that I won that show I didn't win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Now, remember, states run their own elections. That's not according to liberals, the deep state, RINOs or the media. That is according to the Constitution. And it is notable that a Republican president is saying this given that Trump and Republicans have long accused Democrats of wanting to nationalize elections, and they have said that most policies should be up to the states.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They want to federalize the elections and make all the elections run like California. That's a huge problem.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a lot harder to hack 50 states than it is one computer system here in Washington, D.C., but that's what we're talking about. And you can't sugar coat it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My Democratic colleagues have tried multiple times to force through an election takeover bill that would federalize voting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Federalizing elections in doting in all sorts of progressive wish list items.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The founding fathers were clear that states are the primary managers of elections.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I urge my colleagues to vote against this federal takeover of our state's constitutional right to manage their own elections.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's why top-down federal mandates usually do more harm than good.
We've shown America what's possible when the federal government gets out of the way and allowed states to lead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: And, Stacy, if any of these things were happening in isolation, it would be one thing, but taken together, is this reason to believe that Trump should really be taken very seriously here with what he's saying?
STACY SCHNEIDER, CRIMINAL DEFENSE TRIAL ATTORNEY: Well, Trump should always be taken seriously, but the problem with his position on this is having at least 15 states nationalize the elections, as he calls it, having the federal government run those 15 states' election apparatus, is it's unconstitutional.
[22:05:01]
There is an election clause in the Constitution that mandates and directs the states to set the time, place, and manner of federal election. So, this can't even really be done by an executive order. He can't executive order his way around the Constitution, and even that, they're still debating this shouldn't be an issue.
PHILLIP: You know, you heard him there in that interview talking about how there are states that he won that, where it says that he didn't win. Well, here is one specific state that he has repeatedly falsely said that he won. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Now Minnesota, if we, if they allowed us to do the job, it's a mess. There's something in the water up there. And I love the state. I won the state three times, but I got no credit for it. I won that state three times but it's a rigged state, really rigged badly with the Somalians.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Now, Chris, I should let the audience know you were running for governor in that state, left the race in part because of what's been happening with ICE in the state. But when you hear the president say something that's obviously very false, he's never won Minnesota, and then he says it in the context of other states where he falsely claims that he's won but it's recorded otherwise, does that concern you about what's going on in his mind and perhaps what now is going on in the rest of the administration?
CHRIS MADEL (R), FORMER GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE, MINNESOTA: Of course it does and it should for any reasonable person. The only thing he has right is that there is something odd going on in Minnesota. We've been a national embarrassment here for quite some time now, and I wish that it would stop. But when he is repeatedly saying over and over again that like that he won in Minnesota, I just don't think it's true.
And if you look at -- we've certainly had our problems with the voter register. I wish that they would open that up. I wish that they would just -- if you don't have anything to hide, let it be out there. PHILLIP: So, you want -- do you want -- you remember that Pam Bondi sent out a letter saying, we'll withdraw ICE troops if you give us access to your voter rolls. Are you good with that?
MADEL: That -- no. That sort of quid pro quo is exactly what I'm talking about. That is absolutely un-American. I mean, you have to actually divorce the two things from one another. There's no quid pro quo for having federal enforcement on your streets with a voter roll. That's ridiculous. But the idea of just making the voter roll publicly available and having the federal government take a look at it, if you don't have anything to hide, make it available. Why not? But the idea of having -- using that as using immigration enforcement or federal agents on your streets as a means in order to get that, it's wrong.
PHILLIP: This Georgia raid is deeply concerning because there's only one reason why Trump would be trying to get into Fulton County's elections offices, and that's to try to find the votes that he was looking for when he was trying to steal the 2020 election. So, what now? He's president. It seems like he's able to do the things that he wants to do when it comes to Georgia.
KEITH BOYKIN, FORMER CLINTON WHITE HOUSE AIDE: In 2020, Trump notoriously was caught on tape saying, I just need to find 11,780 votes in Georgia. And he lost Georgia. He lost Fulton County. He's been targeting it ever since. And now he's sending in Tulsi Gabbard, the director of National Intelligence, that has absolutely nothing to do with domestic law enforcement, sending her into Fulton County, Georgia, on the FBI raid with the mistaken belief that somehow he was going to find evidence that he lost the -- that he actually won the 2020 election.
That's preposterous, and in my opinion, this is worse than Watergate. In Watergate, we had the president of the United States who ordered his thug to go into the Democratic National Committee Headquarters and break into it and then covered it up. Here, we have the president of the United States ordering his FBI to go into the Fulton County Elections Office and seize their ballots and data, seize their ballots and data and take it back to his people, to investigate something six years ago.
JOE BORELLI, FORMER REPUBLICAN LEADER, NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL: He is leaving out an important step, an important step, all right. We have a U.S. attorney from St. Louis who was appointed to oversee election integrity cases around the country, right, appointed legally, no problem. He got a judge to sign off on a warrant for Fulton County to seize 700 boxes. That is our legal process paying out. This is not a Donald Trump fiat. You could say it is and you could be upset about it, but there was a court-appointed -- a court warrant issued for this case. And the response to it by Fulton County has been to sue the administration to prevent the handing over of these boxes.
To go back to Chris' point, to go back to Chris' point, if there's nothing to hide, why do it? In a YouGov poll that came out last year, 30 percent of Americans, only 30 percent of Americans believe that there is little to no fraud in our elections, right? Whether it's true or not, my point is that Americans do believe -- PHILLIP: Whether it's true or not? It's not true.
BORELLI: The point is the poll, the poll of how Americans feel.
PHILLIP: Sure. But why?
BORELLI: And when you have counties, like when you have counties like Fulton County saying, no federal government under legal authority, you still can't see 700 ballots, then, I'm sorry, it just seeds discontent and distrust.
PHILLIP: But let me just ask you straight up, do you think that Trump is right, that he, in fact, won Fulton County and won the State of Georgia?
BORELLI: I don't think so. But what's the harm in seeing it?
[22:10:00]
(CROSSTALKS)
PHILLIP: So, you think that Trump is --
BORELLI: Well, what is the harm in seeing that?
PHILLIP: Well, Trump has made up out of whole cloth an accusation that --
BORELLI: Why is this judicial warrant wrong in your opinion?
PHILLIP: Joe, I just asked you a simple question. Do you think he won the state?
BORELLI: I said I don't think so.
PHILLIP: Okay. So, then what is he looking for other than what he's already told us that he wants, which is more votes that he actually wants.
BORELLI: The U.S. attorney went to a judge that was not appointed by Donald Trump and gave evidence and got a warrant from a judge.
(CROSSTALKS)
PHILLIP: Did you think this has anything to do at all with Trump's false claims that he won that state?
(CROSSTALKS)
PHILLIP: Hold on. Let him answer.
BORELLI: How do you know definitively there is no --
PHILLIP: I'm asking you a question.
BORELLI: So, you're saying this from -- PHILLIP: Joe, I asked you question.
BORELLI: You're saying this from a high horse.
PHILLIP: I'm just asking you a common sense --
BORELLI: How do you know there's no evidence --
BOYKIN: This is how I know, Joe, because this has been litigated and re-litigated. There were 60 different cases in 2020. Trump lost all of them. And now you're coming back six years later and you want to say, let's look at the 2020 election? I think this is ridiculous. And if Trump wants -- and let me just say.
BORELLI: Is the judge corrupt?
BOYKIN: No, but I saw that. I read that five-page warrant today, and that warrant relies on an FBI agent who testified that there was evidence of illegal, of a criminal activity that took place in those files. There's no evidence to prove that. That FBI agent --
(CROSSTALKS)
BORELLI: Wait, hold on. His opinion, his opinion was that the FBI who, under, you know, penalty of perjury, said he saw evidence or she saw evidence, his opinion is that it doesn't matter.
BOYKIN: No. My opinion is that it's already been litigated six years ago.
BORELLI: The judge's opinion was that there's merit to it, and that's why they issued a warrant, which now Fulton County is now --
SCHNEIDER: But there's no question this is led by Donald Trump.
CHRISTINE QUINN (D), FORMER SPEAKER, NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL: Correct.
SCHNEIDER: This is to solve his grievances. So, now we spend our taxpayer dollars to do this all over again from re-litigate 2020, which was litigated over.
MADEL: But I don't think that that's --
SCHNEIDER: Wait, can I just finish this one point? We are going to re- litigate what was already looked at by 60 different federal courts, more than 60. They did not find evidence of this fraud.
Now, Donald Trump has decided years later that it exists.
QUINN: And many of those were Republicans.
MADEL: But Joe's point -- one second.
SCHNEIDER: Wait, I didn't get to finish my point. Sorry, one second. The warrant issue, you are right on. But they can go --
(CROSSTALKS)
SCHNEIDER: I just told you, you were right on one point, only one. They are allowed to go in. If they have probable cause, they submit it to a federal magistrate, and the magistrate agrees that they have cause, I'm not saying proof beyond a reasonable doubt, because you are right, they can get a warrant and that is appropriate. But what are we really looking at here? What are we spending our taxpayer dollars? And then why did Trump, as Abby said, on the top of the show, Trump got on a phone call with the investigators, the FBI -- wait --
(CROSSTALKS)
MADEL: One second. So, in Minnesota, there was an indictment from a Nevada couple that was harvesting ballots in Minnesota. To say that voter fraud does not exist is wrong.
BOYKIN: Nobody said that.
MADEL: It's absolutely wrong. Hold on. To this point, there was a judicial finding of probable cause in order to make this search. That's what makes it entirely different.
BOYKIN: You're making it than Watergate.
MADEL: That was the president breaking into Watergate. Let me finish. That was the president breaking into Watergate without any judicial determination. Joe's 100 percent right, there was a neutral magistrate finding that. If you don't have a problem with -- if you do not think that Joe fraud doesn't exist, then why not just make this available? Why not take a look at it? Prove everybody wrong. It hadn't been done.
BOYKIN: Why six years later are you going down this rabbit hole without --
(CROSSTALKS)
BORELLI: I can't prove to you the negative until there's some evidence to --
BOYKIN: And then what? Then why are you wasting our time and taxpayer dollars on this policy?
BORELLI: You have an opinion. I have an opinion. The important thing is the judge had the opinion,
QUINN: But why did it even get to the judge? Why is it even there? Because President Trump has said --
BORELLI: Because an FBI agent has said they saw evidence of some --
QUINN: No, because it starts with the president. It starts with the president.
SCHNEIDER: It was directed by the president.
QUINN: It was directed by the president, and speaker phoned by the president.
BORELLI: So, are you -- you're positive this FBI agent lied?
QUINN: I never said he was lying. I'm saying --
(CROSSTALKS)
PHILLIP: We do have to go, but I just want to play one thing. This is what Trump said about what might come out of this raid and then compare that to what the DOJ is saying about Trump's involvement in the raid. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Now, you're going to see something in Georgia where they were able to get with a court order the ballots. You're going to see some interesting things come out.
DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: What interesting things is he talking about and why was he so involved in an FBI and DOJ raid?
TODD BLANCHE, DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, just because he said that doesn't mean that he's involved. I don't believe he was involved.
BASH: He said interesting things are happening. So, it sounds like he was briefed on it.
BLANCHE: I mean, I don't know.
[22:15:00]
I'm not around when the president's briefed or not briefed. What I've said is that this is a criminal investigation, so it's a tightly held, as it must be under the law.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUINN: You know, the other part --
PHILLIP: Let me just make one quick point. So, he said that despite what Trump has said, and also Tulsi Gabbard seemed to double down on this. She said that she was down there at the site of the raid because her presence was requested by the president. So, you can't take Trump out of this because he's put himself right in the middle of it.
QUINN: Right. And it's interesting, when she was first seen there, there were other administration officials who just said she happened to be in town, but we know now that that wasn't true, that she was instructed by the president to be there. So, it starts with him because he's trying desperately to prove something that has been disproved dozens of times, in many cases, disproved by Republican- appointed --
BORELLI: And when Fulton County complies and turns over the evidence, if nothing arises from it, I will come back here, as I'm sure I will, and say, you know what, there was nothing.
QUINN: Joe, why are we even doing it? Why are we wasting taxpayer dollars and also --
BORELLI: The judge saw probable cause.
PHILLIP: 60 court cases later, Donald Trump is still not satisfied with the conclusion that he lost the last election.
MADEL: It sounds like we should fired this judge. It sounds like this judge isn't doing his job.
SCHNEIDER: You know the judge is doing the job.
MADEL: The judge found probable cause in order to issue a warrant,
PHILLIP: All right. We got to go. We do have to go, guys. We really do have to go.
Next for us, new reaction tonight as celebrities protest ICE at the Grammy Awards last night, and Republicans suffer a shocking defeat in Texas, of all places.
Plus, one ethics expert calls it beyond unprecedented and unimaginable, a secret deal involving Trump's company from overseas. So, is American foreign policy for sale?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:20:00]
PHILLIP: Tonight, on the music industry's biggest night, some of the world's most popular artists joined a chorus against ICE.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OLIVIA DEAN, GRAMMY WINNER, BEST NEW ARTIST 2026: I'm up here as a granddaughter of an immigrant.
I'm a product of bravery and I think those people deserve to be celebrated.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No one is illegal on stolen land. I feel like we just need to keep fighting and speaking up and protesting and our voices really do matter.
BAD BUNNY, GRAMMY WINNER, ALBUM OF THE YEAR2026: I'm going to say ICE out.
We are not savage. We're not animals. We're not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Now, in addition to condemning the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration in their acceptance speeches, several stars were seen sporting pins that read, ICE out. The White House mimicked the phrase in a tweet this morning with the caption, ICEd out.
It's not unusual to see celebrities jumping into the fray here but it does seem to speak to a kind of cultural permeance of this situation where people are very aware of what happened in Minnesota and what is happening, and particularly January seems to have crossed a line. Do you feel like that's what's happened?
MADEL: I do. I also get a little tired of Hollywood jackasses coming out and telling us what to think. And --
QUINN: That's a bit -- I mean --
MADEL: Billie Eilish telling me that, you know, with that it's stolen land, and I'd love to see her turn her keys back to her multimillion dollar mansion to whomever's going to come over.
QUINN: But if you don't like it, don't listen.
(CROSSTALKS)
MADEL: We're sitting here listening to all this and these sorts of people, nobody cares what Hollywood thinks.
QUINN: What sorts of people are they?
(CROSSTALKS)
MADEL: And I don't like Jennifer Lawrence talking about -- finally, she said, I'm not going to speak politically because nobody listens to us.
QUINN: You know that's not true.
MADEL: And I think she's 100 percent right.
QUINN: That is not true. Many people do care what celebrity --
MADEL: They carry their parties.
QUINN: I'm talking. I'm talking.
PHILLIP: Christine, you did interrupt him, so --
QUINN: That is fair.
PHILLIP: Let's try not to do that in general so we can all be heard. Go ahead.
QUINN: Many people do care what celebrities say. If they didn't care what celebrities said, why would both Republicans and Democrats often try to get celebrity endorsements? Bad Bunny is somebody who speaks very in a really organic way to many parts of the American population, and people do care.
I actually think it was quite brave of Bad Bunny to do that because he has no idea how the Super Bowl might have reacted to him saying that. Bruce Springsteen's song is trending number -- The Streets of Minneapolis, is trending number one in the country. People do care.
PHILLIP: I also -- you know, just to note, I mean, to your point, it's a lot of conservatives will say that about the Grammys, but then when Nicki Minaj goes to the White House, it's like the biggest story on the planet. Suddenly, she is the most popular person in MAGA world.
BORELLI: I don't give a fiddler's fart about celebrities and (INAUDIBLE). Honestly, I don't. Like -- and we've just, this is like year number, you know, 55 in Grammy history and, you know, a Tony Award history, where people have made political points at these things. I think it's white noise.
I respect more -- I respect celebrities who take their fame in whatever they did, singing, acting, dancing, sports, whatever, and then actually enter the arena. Like whether you're, you know, Ronald Reagan or Schwarzenegger, or Burgess Owens. I'm trying -- Mark Teixeira is running this year, a former New York Yankee, right? Enter the arena.
Billie Eilish, I looked it up, the city of Glendale is having city council elections in June. You want to talk about stolen land, you want to have an opinion, enter the arena. Get out there on a debate. Do a town hall.
SCHNEIDER: You know, they're given a platform.
[22:25:01]
And it's really nice to see the First Amendment being exercised. It's been a very many months of oppressed speech. And I actually like that they went back and used their platform to speak out. There was a lot --
PHILLIP: But, Stacy, let me let get your take on this, because, as you may have seen, President Trump this morning issued a threat that he would sue Trevor Noah. I'll just play what Trevor Noah said about Trump and why he's so upset about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TREVOR NOAH, HOST, GRAMMY AWARDS 2026: Song of the Year, congratulations, Billie Eilish. Wow. That is a Grammy that every artist wants almost as much as Trump wants Greenland, which makes sense. I mean, because Epstein's Island is gone. He needs a new one to hang out with Bill Clinton. So -- oh, I told you it's my last year. What are you going to do about it?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Real threat or no?
SCHNEIDER: Not at all. You know, the president now says he's going to sue Trevor Noah. He's going to go after him. That's not defamation. First of all, it was a joke. To have defamation, there needs to be damage to someone's reputation. I mean, Trump's had enough trouble with the Epstein situation and his reputation from that fallout. That was a joke during an award show, against a public figure, not, and then when I say against as to a public figure, directed at a public figure, thank you. There's nothing defamatory about that statement under the law. And to have the president of the United States who obviously watches all these shows and watch that one now threatening to sue a comedian again. We're, you know, we're kind of back to the Jimmy Kimmel situation.
BORELLI: I agree with you, and I think SNL became better over the last year or two when they started making fun of both parties, like they made fun of Joe Biden. Donald Trump's funny. We all know that, right? He's a character. He is someone that you could point to and laugh at, but so is Joe Biden, right? And when they started being cognizant that this wasn't a one-sided show, that you could make fun of both parties and more people will watch, I think it's better for everyone.
BOYKIN: I still want to say something you said a minute ago, you talked about people should get into the arena, and you were talking about how you don't care about what celebrities have to say, but the reality is the biggest celebrity in the country is Donald Trump. Donald -- but before he entered the arena, he led a five and a half year campaign lying about President Obama's birth certificate before he even entered the arena. Don't tell me that you don't care about what celebrities said. Donald Trump was a celebrity. He ran Celebrity Apprentice, for God's sake. That was his television show.
I think it's courageous when people speak up and articulate their beliefs, and especially now when we have a government that is arresting journalists, that's locking five-year-old kids and putting them in detention centers that is killing American citizens. That is -- this is not -- let me speak, Joe. If this is not a time to speak up, then when should we?
PHILLIP: So, let me just -- on the political front, I mean, over the weekend there was a major upset in the state of Texas, a state -- a district that Trump won by 17 points, flipped to a Democrat by 14 points, and now Republicans are ringing the alarm, Ron DeSantis among them, saying, special elections are quirky, not necessarily projectable regarding a general election. That said, a swing of this magnitude is not something that can be dismissed. Republicans should be clear-eyed about the political environment heading into the midterms.
PHILLIP: There are economic issues, but there's also the State of Texas. One in five voters in that district is Hispanic. Trump has cratered in support among that demographic, potentially losing support in suburban areas as well. Are you worried for Republicans?
MADEL: Oh, immeasurably, yes. I mean, it is inconceivable to me how you can turn immigration into a Democrat issue literally in a couple months. In my home state of Minnesota, where fraud was the number one issue to get out the governor, they front and loaded fraud, made the governor resign, came on the tail end of that with immigration and turned it into a Democrat issue. It's almost as if the Republicans from D.C. were doing this by design in order to help the Democrats in my state. And I think that it's going throughout that the country right now.
PHILLIP: I'm curious, why do you think it's happening? Why do you think that they couldn't have enough discipline to sort of go after the criminals, incredibly popular issue, and they're conducting these mass raids, street stops, why do you think they're doing that?
MADEL: If I knew that answer, I would still be in the Minnesota gubernatorial race running as a Republican. I do not know. It is inconceivable to me why they would do this. And when you go honestly in the streets of Minneapolis right now and, frankly, throughout the Twin Cities area, there are numerous families right now, United States citizens that are living in fear, continuing to live in fear right now. There are people that are driving around right now with their passports that are United States citizens.
And I personally have talked to law enforcement officers who have been pulled over by ICE on pre-textual stops be, and they have told me these were pre-textual stops because of the color of their skin.
[22:30:08]
And I have no choice other than to believe these officers.
PHILLIP: But for the last year, and sorry to stick with you for just a second, because I'm really curious. For the last year, this has been going on all across the country -- in Chicago, in North Carolina, in Los Angeles. Why didn't it bother you then?
MADEL: First of all, the evidence of that was incredibly sporadic and it didn't hit home with respect to law enforcement in my community.
PHILLIP: So, you didn't see it until it was in your backyard, so to speak.
MADEL: And plus, if you look at it in the national attention, you know that Minneapolis has been number one here on the front line with respect to immigration here throughout the entire country. We were the ones that got Operation Metro Surge.
We were the ones that got the 3000 agents. We were the ones that got the governor basically saying that we're not going to back up law enforcement with law enforcement. We had the mayor of Minneapolis not back up law enforcement with law enforcement.
We had the mayor of Minneapolis not back up law enforcement with law enforcement. Both sides, in my view, acted like children, going back and forth trying to one up each other over and over again in Minnesota. And it led to a point now, where there was a breaking point.
PHILLIP: Last word.
KEITH BOYKIN, FORMER CLINTON WHITE HOUSE AIDE: I just want to say that, you said the mayor and the governor are now backing up law enforcement. Law enforcement -- the purpose of the police and law enforcement in local communities in the states is to protect public safety. What ICE is doing is antithetical to public safety. They're creating chaos in the streets of America.
MADEL: That's false. That's absolutely false. That's false.
BOYKIN: And the police officers have to be the ones that --
(CROSSTALK)
MADEL: That is not fair to ICE. That is fair to ICE's mission. They are the number one transnational drug enforcement agency.
BOYKIN: Who?
MADEL: ICE. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Look it up. This is what they do.
(CROSSTALK)
MADEL: Have you heard of Operation Casablanca?
BOYKIN: Wait. You're talking ancient history. You're talking ancient history. I'm talking about ICE today. ICE today is the number one terrorist --
(CROSSTALK)
BOYKIN: -- attacking American citizens. They killed Keith Porter. They killed Renee Good. They killed Alex Pretti.
(CROSSTALK)
MADEL: You don't know the first thing that's happening in the streets of Minneapolis. Trust me. You don't.
BOYKIN: Don't tell me I don't know what I'm talking about. They killed three American citizens.
(CROSSTALK)
MADEL: You think that the people that they're taking right now, they had somebody with an order of detention that was ordered to remove in 2000 the first time that he was taken in 2025.
(CROSSTALK)
BOYKIN: Get out of here with that nonsense. Give me a break. Give me a break.
MADEL: 2025.
BOYKIN: You can talk all you want. That's not true. That's still not true.
(CROSSTALK)
MADEL: So, don't tell me that you know that everything that's happening in Minneapolis. You don't. (CROSSTALK)
BOYKIN: ICE is out of control.
PHILLIP: Hold on, hold on. It seems like, I mean know you're going back and forth about the nature of the organization, but I mean correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem to agree that their conduct in Minneapolis has been at the very least over the top.
MADEL: A hundred percent. If I -- I agreed with the aims of Operation Metro Surge while going after the worst of the worst, and that's one of the things that I'm saying. With respect to some of the people that they arrested in the front end of the stuff, I don't want them in my state. You don't want in the country These were really bad people that were deported.
Now, hold on. And I think it's very wrong to be painting all of the immigrations and customs enforcement with this brush that they are somehow un-American, and that they're doing the wrong thing. I don't think that that's fair.
BOYKIN: Take off the mask. Wear body cameras. Start to actually go after the criminals, not the ordinary American citizens. Stop killing ordinary Americans, locking up five-year-olds. Stop all that nonsense and then come back and talk to everybody.
PHILLIP: We have to leave it here.
CHRISTINE QUINN (D) FORMER SPEAKER, NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL: Abby, you asked -- but you asked why? I believe they're anti-Latino. I believe that's why this is happening.
PHILLIP: We've got to leave it there. Stacy Schneider, thank you very much for joining us. Next for us, we didn't know about it until now. So, is a secret deal involving Trump's company putting America at risk to help him make him richer? Another special guest is going to be with us at the table.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:38:23]
PHILLIP: It's remained under wraps for more than a year. But tonight, a new report begs the question about whether America's foreign policy is for sale. Just four days before Donald Trump was inaugurated, his family signed a crypto deal with Abu Dhabi royalty for half a billion dollars. Now, that deal between Trump's company, World Liberty Financial and an Abu Dhabi royal sometimes called the Spy Shake was signed by Eric Trump who relinquished a 49 percent stake in the company.
The shake had been pushing the U.S. for Emirati access to advanced A.I. chips. And in May, just months after the transaction, the Trump administration greenlit the sale of 500,000 of those chips per year to the UAE that Trump -- and Trump is now denying involvement in all of that. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: My sons are handling that. My family is handling it. And I guess they get investments from different people, but I'm not. I have -- all I can handle right now with Iran and with Russia and Ukraine and with all the things we're doing. So, I don't know -- I don't know exactly other than, you know, I'm a big crypto person. I'm the one that probably helped crypto more than anybody.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Sheelah Kolhatkar joins us in our fifth seat now. Sheila, this is extraordinary. I really haven't heard of anything quite like this, especially in terms of the magnitude because this is just one deal. There was another deal involving their crypto stable coin, and it amounts to the President's family doing, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars in deals while the United States is actively engaged in foreign policy with those same entities.
[22:40:04]
What -- where is the limit of this stuff?
SHEELAH KOLHATKAR, "THE NEW YORKER" STAFF WRITER: Well, it's true. We haven't seen anything on this scale. Before, you'd have to look to an authoritarian country like Russia to really see this level of sort of side deal making, what one might call corruption. It doesn't compare to anything that's happened in American history.
And honestly, when you look at world Liberty financial and just what it is and when it was created and what it does, it seems, you know, you could argue that it was created expressly for the purpose of accepting almost like dark money contributions from anyone who wants a favor. And the fact is we don't have any visibility into who's investing.
They have stable coins and they also have, they have meme coins. They have tokens, and then they have investment in the management company itself. So this, I think, is the tip of the iceberg. I think we're going to be seeing headlines like this for years to come.
QUINN: You know, it's also important to note it was signed, as it was said by Eric Trump but also a very significant amount of money went to a company that is the President which is Steve Witkoff's son. Tens and tens of millions of dollars.
PHILLIP: Steve Witkoff is the president's Middle East special envoy. So, he says he wasn't involved in this particular chip deal but he's involved in virtually everything else going on on the planet, not just in the Middle East but everywhere in the world.
QUINN: Everywhere in the world. And you know, if you look at all of the opponents of this just days before he was sworn in, his son, the special envoy who he trusts clearly, tremendously, his son, you add all of that up and it equals corruption. There's clearly -- (CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: I have to ask the question to our conservatives at the table. How does -- how do you justify this? Not you personally, but how does one justify this? After all these years of claiming that, you know, Hunter Biden was corrupt and President Biden benefited from it when Trump is due, even if that's true, let's say it's all true. Trump -- we're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars -- hundreds of millions of dollars.
JOE BORELLI, MANAGING DIRECTOR, CHARTWELL STRATEGY: Look, I mean, let's start here. All I heard there was it could be argued, it seems, right? There's no proof. There's no proof that Donald Trump ever did anything specifically with the intent of making his children richer. Everything's just supposition, an innuendo for clickbait. That's what we have all the time when it's Donald Trump.
PHILLIP: Well, there's no -- look. I think it's fair to say there's no proof of an explicit bribe. However, you can acknowledge that a secret deal that -- look, if it were all on the up and up we would have known about it when it happened.
(CROSSTALK)
BORELLI: Why is it secret? It's secret because the President's sons run a business --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: No. It's a secret because -- hold on a second. It's a secret because it was not disclosed until reporters found it out. So, they did --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: But Joe, hold on. Let me just finish asking you the question. They did a deal with the UAE and then months later, they did a massive deal with the UAE. Then months later, the President allows the UAE to have access to sensitive chips that previous administrations would not allow them access to because of national security concerns. That doesn't bother you even a little bit?
BORELLI: If there was some proof that there was a quid pro quo done, yes. Right now --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: So now, you need a proof for a quid pro quo even though innuendo was enough for House Republicans to launch investigations into Hunter Biden and President Biden?
(CROSSTALK)
BORELLI: The President's children do not have to disclose anything. That said --
PHILLIP: Oh, really?
BORELLI: -- you can go on their Twitter feeds. You can go on their Instagrams. You could see that they've been engaged in the crypto market and the A.I. space for almost a decade. They're doing deals in the mid-East. We know that, if not the biggest secret in world.
PHILLIP: Let me just play what Republicans had been saying about the Biden family for all these many years. Listen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JAMES COMER (R) KENTUCKY: This Committee is investigating President Biden and his family's shady business deals that capitalize on Joe Biden's public office and risked our country's national security.
REP. ELISE STEFANIK (R) NEW YORK: They have found over $10 million from China, Russia, Ukraine, and Romania funneled through the corrupt influence peddling schemes to line the pockets of the Biden crime family.
JIM JORDAN (R-OH) HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: Millions of dollars from foreign entities flow through 20 different companies to benefit the Bidens. And what were they selling? What were they offering? Access to the brand. And the brand was Joe Biden.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
PHILLIP: So, just to close the circle here, Joe, Jim Jordan, Elise Stefanik, James Comer, all wrong. Correct?
BORELLI: No, actually, the President pardoned his own son for crimes.
PHILLIP: Hold on. No, no.
BORELLI: Not even --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: But they're wrong for delving into the private business dealings of the President's family member and then making innuendo about what the President did or not.
(CROSSTALK)
BORELLI: They were onto something because the President on his way out pardoned his own family for crimes.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Oh, so they were on -- they were on to something when it comes to Hunter Biden and Joe Biden, but they're not -- but there's no basis for there to be questions about what President Trump and his family --
[22:45:00] (CROSSTALK)
BORELLI: You might be right, but I know that President Biden -- all of his family on the way out for crimes that they actually committed.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: So, you realize that that's completely inconsistent, right?
(CROSSTALK)
BORELLI: You call it inconsistent but I'm just telling you, the last President pardoned his own family for crimes that they did.
PHILLIP: It's inconsistent.
BOYKIN: I mean, they don't care about consistency. Joe Biden and Donald Trump are two worlds apart, but the truth is that Donald Trump has made a career out of grifting the presidency -- $4 billion, $1.4 billion, two estimates of how much money he's made off of the presidency so far in the past year alone. At the time -- this is what struck me most about this whole deal with the Abu Dhabi family in UAE.
At the time when they made their 49 percent investment in World Liberty Financial, the company had no products. It was a few days before Trump came into office. What else were they selling other than access to Donald Trump? There were no products that they could possibly buy other than access to Donald Trump. It's clear as sky.
QUINN: And they got exactly what they wanted. Very, very quickly.
BOYKIN: And they got the chips.
QUINN: Absolutely.
BOYKIN: Nobody else would sell them.
PHILLIP: Next for us, could the lack of people willing to perform at the Kennedy Center be why is Trump is suddenly shutting it down for two years? We'll discuss.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:50:51]
PHILLIP: Tonight, if you're trying to catch a show at the Kennedy Center, you better do it quick. As President Trump announced that it's going to be shutting its doors for two years starting this July, he's citing renovations. But the reality is, cancellations have been piling up since his name was added to the building.
And a source tells CNN's Dana Bash that the Kennedy Center does not have a 2026-2027 season, and there would not have been any programming to announce. The President also saying, he's not going to tear it down, but he's going to use some of the steel and some of the marble. I'm just wondering what's your reaction to this, Chris? MADEL: Well, I was there in 1994, 1995, and it was kind of dumpy then.
So I mean, if anybody wants to renovate it, I think it's a good idea. I don't particularly like the idea of the President putting his name on it. I think it should be the Kennedy Center, and I wish that it would just stay that way. But I really see all the cancellations that are occurring right now as being kind of one of the driving forces for this renovation. But again, I think the renovation is actually needed.
PHILLIP: So Sheelah, the President also wants to build a 250-foot triumphal arc in D.C. It's rivaled only by the U.S. Capitol, which is 288 feet. The Arc de Triomphe is a measly 160 feet. This is a President that wants to reshape, physically, Washington, put his name on things, all kinds of stuff. And also, by the way, the money -- there's a lot of money at stake here. He's raising it from private donors. That's also a factor, as well.
KOLHATKAR: He seems to have a little trouble distinguishing between what belongs to the U.S. government, the American citizens, the taxpayers, the people who live in Washington, and what is his personal property to do with it what he wishes. That seems to be just sort of an issue he has. I also just find it odd, the amount of time he is spending obsessing about these little baubles that he wants to build for himself.
And again, what does this do for the people who voted for him because they thought that he was going to help bring down the cost of living and make education, housing, groceries, healthcare better and more affordable. You know, that's what his voters voted for. They did not vote for him to build a bunch of arches and monuments to himself and turn everything gold. How is this helping any Americans?
PHILLIP: The time factor is a big thing. mean, he's already got the East Room. He's now going to personally oversee God knows what because we've -- nobody has seen any information about what he's going to do to the Kennedy Center. This is a critical political time and he's spending his time on this.
BORELLI: Yes, I mean, I don't think he -- looking at a drawing and saying, build that is really spending too much time. I just think this is one of those things that we're going to get all worked up over because Trump is doing it. At the end of the day, if they build this arch, it'll be a beautiful thing. There's one down the block here in Washington Square Park, people go, they take pictures in front of it. It'll be a nice thing.
And by the way, let's just correct the record about the Kennedy Center. You can go to kennedyscenter.org and there are plays every single night in the month of February. There are plays, performances, screenings.
PHILLIP: Yes, I know.
BORELLI: Every single night. I'm just saying.
PHILLIP: There are plans. Hold on. There are plays, right? There are plays and there are performances right now. Many of those were locked in and put in place prior to Trump's takeover of the Kennedy Center. This source was talking to Dana about the 2026-2027 season, which has not -- had not yet been booked. And that's a serious problem. They can't get people to want to put their time and their effort and their money into this thing that is now politically fraught.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Okay, all right -- and the lowest ratings, okay?
BORELLI: Double the amount. Double the amount.
PHILLIP: So, that's also a problem. All right. We got to go, though, because next, the panel is going to give us their night caps, "Freebie" edition. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:59:23]
PHILLIP: Today for the first time, tourists in Rome were greeted with a two euro charge for their chance to toss a coin in the Trevi Fountain. So, for tonight's news nightcap, what do you think should remain forever free of charge? Keith, you're up first.
BOYKIN: Health care. Last month, I was in Brazil. I got sick, got the flu. I passed out at a restaurant. Blood on the floor everywhere. Cracked my head. Had to go to hospital and get stitches. And cost me nothing, zero, in Brazil. Health care should remain free in Brazil and should be free in the United States.
[23:00:00]
PHILLIP: Oh, we are glad you were with us today. Okay, after all that's revealed. Joe.
BORELLI: That's pretty deep. I just said free bathrooms, you know. You go to Europe, you have to dig around your pocket for a (inaudible) to take a pee. Ridiculous. It's horrible.
(LAUGHTER)
PHILLIP: All right, Chris.
MADEL: Yes, the Minnehaha Falls in Minnesota. It's beautiful and they're getting closer and closer to paying for parking they're getting closer and closer to giving admission.
PHILLIP: All right.
QUINN: It should always be free to run up the iconic steps in Philadelphia like you are Rocky and jump around on top with your hands up in the air.
PHILLIP: With that everyone, thank you very, very much for watching "NewsNight". "Laura Coates Live" starts right now.
