Alex Wagner & Salman Rushdie

Molly Jong-Fast (0:00)

Hi, I'm Molly Jong-Fast, and this is Fast Politics, where we discuss the top political headlines with some of today's best minds. And Palindale co-founder, Joe Lonsdale, says that Trump's $5,000 dividend is a bribe. We have such a great show for you today. Runaway Country's Alex Wagner stops by to talk about her new book, The Steal, four right-wing heartliners, one Republican presidency, and the raid on America's courts. Then we'll talk to author, Salman Rushdie, about his new documentary, Knife, The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie. But first, the news.

SPEAKER_2 (0:37)

Molly, Joe DiGenova has quit the DOJ, and many people are saying, who are familiar with this fellow, that this is really a sign that Trump must have really wanted some bad stuff, because this guy is apparently king sick of him.

Molly Jong-Fast (0:52)

When I saw this, I was surprised, because this guy comes from real, like John Salman, kind of Clinton Cash era of writing. And basically, he had gone to get the evidence to prove the crimes that Trump had alleged. Usually, you don't look for evidence to prove your crimes. You see where the evidence takes you. This is a sort of stark reversal from that. Anyway, the point is he decided that he had to leave. He resigned and he actually said something to the effect of...

SPEAKER_2 (1:35)

Yeah, he said this crazy thing. If you want indictments where there's no evidence, you have an ethical problem.

Molly Jong-Fast (1:40)

I think this is a big deal. If you want indictments where there's no evidence, you have an ethical problem. And this makes me think that Donald Trump wants indictments where there's no evidence. And Joe DiGenova, the fact that he's leaving means that the Trump world wants those indictments and doesn't want to wait for evidence and doesn't really care if it's true or not. And this guy who is very Trumpy resigned because he thought it was morally incorrect. And this makes me think this is probably not good.

SPEAKER_2 (2:15)

Yeah, so in line with things that are not good, Trump had the audience do this little pledge last night that many people say this was one of the most staring into the abyss moments in a long time that we've had at this embarrassing, embarrassing convention. Swearing to cheat for him in the midterms really is something.

Molly Jong-Fast (2:35)

So raise your right hand. This is the pledge, OK? He had them swear. Raise your right hand. I pledge the greatest president in the history of the United States that loves us so much, he can't even breathe, that I will go out with my family, my friends. I'll do it anyway. I don't care if I'm registered or not. I'm going to try and cheat like hell, like they do.

There's never been bigger cheaters. They don't care. I'm going to go out and I'm going to get my friends and family and we're going to vote on November 3rd or we were going to vote before that. Trump has the crowd repeating. So he wanted them to cheat and he wants them to bring their friends and family to cheat too. Even for Trump, this seems pretty bad. Luckily, no one was watching the second night. No, I mean, people are watching. Look, there's going to be bad stuff that's going to happen. Trump is hoping so and he's encouraging it and that's really dark.

SPEAKER_2 (3:33)

I mean, the real thing here being is that we've all been worried about bad stuff happening and when he encourages it, we know it's a foregone conclusion and that you're going to have people like Tracy Peters that do these things and because he pushed it now and these people are going to end up in jail for doing these things when they get prosecuted later.

Molly Jong-Fast (3:54)

Yeah. It's like he's hoping that one or two people or more will keep them in office by cheating and that is really, it's funny, it's like we talk a lot about Trump and the difference between norms, what's illegal and what's something that people just would never do.

And this is, it's not illegal to tell people to do this, to cheat. It's not illegal, but it probably should be.

I mean, it's protected speech, but like he is the leader of the Republican Party. He is the president of the country. Like this is pretty bad.

SPEAKER_2 (4:33)

Yeah, and I hate to say it, but like, you know, the final season of secession kind of rings in your brain when you think of these things. And like every election, I like have an ambient anxiety about that plot line coming true.