SCOTUS Hears Case on Race-Based Redistricting; FBI Says 50 Percent Increase in China Spy Arrests

Good evening and welcome to the capital report on entity television. I'm Steve Lance. Coming up, the Supreme Court revisiting what role race plays in drawing district lines. We'll dive into the case surrounding Louisiana's congressional district map and are the ICE raids constitutional? And what about due process for illegal immigrants? We'll break it all down with former federal prosecutor Jim Trusty and President Trump working to ensure the FBI and military get paid amid the prolonged government shutdown while highlighting the results of Operation Summer Heat. Meantime, a federal judge temporarily blocking firing federal workers. And the Hamas terrorist group handing over the bodies of two more hostages. This comes after Israel says that one recently returned body was not that of a hostage. [Music] This is Capital Report live from our global headquarters in our nation's capital. Here's Steve Lance. [Music] Supreme Court justices are weighing race-based redistricting. Oral arguments today in the case focusing on the state of Louisiana. The ruling could have ripple effects for several other states that plan to redraw their districtricting lines or have already done so. Entities Molina Wiseub tells us what could be on the line. >> While this is a Louisiana focused case, its implications stretch much further than Louisiana. If the justices rule on the side of Louisiana, it could enable more red states to redraw their maps and give Republicans an edge in the midterms. Now, the crux of the question before the justices today was whether the popular interpretation of section two of the Voting Rights Act is constitutional or not. Let's listen to what both sides of the aisle had to say. >> That race is playing an outsiz role in the electoral process in Louisiana. There are always racial considerations and even race consciousness in the districtricting process. >> Embedded within these expressed targets are racial stereotypes that this court has long criticized. They assume, for example, that a black voter, simply because he is black, must think like other black voters. >> As for the details of this specific case, well, Louisiana initially had one black majority district. Then a lower court ordered the state to redraw their map and create a second black majority district. Then a group of non-black voters tried to sue to get this to be reversed. Now, there have been a large group of protesters gathered out here since this morning as the oral arguments took place. Emotions are high and for good reason. This argument is very important. The fact that justices asked for a second argument in the same case is very rare and indicates that justices might be preparing to make a major change to the law. After the oral arguments were over, I asked both sides, both the attorney general of Louisiana as well as the president of the NAACP, what they hope the broader implications of the court's ruling will be. They told me they're eager for the justices to make the law crystal clear to prevent these types of cases in the future. Watch. You know, we think the court needs to clarify its own rulings and make some sense of them. And what we heard today is that that's really hard even for them. My hope is that this will put to bed the constant efforts to undermine section two of the Voting Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act as a whole. >> Now, if Louisiana is forced to redraw their map, it could endanger incumbent Democrat Cleo Fields. But it could also be troublesome for the Democrats who are in the other more than 20 black majority districts across the nation. Now, with Republicans holding such a slim majority in Congress, any of these slight changes could lead to Republicans being able to hold on to and even expand their majority in Congress for the midterms. Court experts predict that justices will rule that race-based redistricting is unconstitutional, but might write a narrow ruling to limit the decision's effect. Reporting from Washington DC, Molina Weissub, NTD News. >> Joining us now to break it all down is Jim Trusty. He's a former federal prosecutor and former attorney for President Trump. Jim, great to have you back with us. So, uh, the Supreme Court is hearing this case. Uh, it's about Louisiana's congressional map. Louisiana actually arguing against its own map, saying it's too race-based, especially uh, what they're looking at, a second black majority district. A key issue is how to interpret the Voting Rights Act, Jim, of 1965. Section two of that act does say that a jurisdiction's political processes must be equally open to all races. So, if you could help us unpack this and how do we get from the initial intent to black majority districts and was this just ultimately organic? >> Yeah, great questions. I mean, look, it's there's there's kind of a greater context that's really in play here, and that is, is it ever appropriate for racial discrimination to be used to fix racial discrimination? And if you go back Supreme Court juristprudence, go back to the Baky case, reverse discrimination case. That's when Justice Okconor announced the principle which was essentially, you know, there are times where we need to do something extraordinary to stop racism, to stop the effects of racism in the political process. And Louisiana could certainly say with one out of six districts uh reliably voting for an African-American candidate, that that doesn't track the overall population. uh which is much higher than that of African-Americans in Louisiana. So the idea last administration in Louisiana was let's gerrymander. Now gerrymandering is is a kind of a horrific process for most of us. You look at it and you say how is this a district that fits together and in this case the district that's carved out has been described as a snake. So you can imagine it it spans a lot of territory. But the bottom line is the court is really struggling with the idea of when is racial discrimination overtly used, when is that going to be something we can't tolerate? And and again, Justice Okconor set this up many years ago. I think that's exactly what they're struggling with. It's not so much the the notion of what equal protection means. It's not the ideas behind the Voting Rights Act, but they're saying, "Are we forever going to let these types of remedies kick in where a district is created out of thin air to fulfill some sort of proportional racebased representation. So, these are complex, difficult cases. It's second time they've heard argument on it. But I think we're gonna I think we're looking at the maybe the brink of something quite historic, quite important when it comes to the overt use of race in political calculations by the states. >> To your point, Jim, uh the districtricting wars have been going on for decades. When you look at the Northeast, a lot of the blue states in New England, if you really take a close look at some of those maps and analyze how did these districts wind up the way they are, certainly curious. That could be a whole different discussion for a whole different segment. What are the national implications for this case? And what would it look like if our understanding of the Voting Rights Act changes? >> Yeah. Again, new territory, hard to predict with any sort of certainty, but but there's another aspect of this that kind of affects my answer there. And that is the Supreme Court has this doctrine they call the political question doctrine. And it basically means if the states are creating some sort of litigation, some sort of issue, and it's not overtly part of our responsibilities or our federal limits to handle in the Supreme Court, we throw them back to the state. And so the very twisted reality of that concept here is that if politicians will admit that what they're doing is nakedly partisan, that we are trying to create another Democratic district, for instance, at the expense of a Republican. This is something that happened in Maryland uh years ago where a longtime moderate Republican was replaced by gerrymandering. the the then governor Martin Martin Ali testified in a hearing about this that oh no we were entirely trying to be partisan like they admitted the game that actually could be the the new law of the land which is essentially as long as you admit openly that you're doing it for nakedly partisan reasons and not for racial reasons state courts are going to decide this state by state and so we may get to a point where the federal where the Supreme Court essentially bows out of the analysis they kind of announce that we're not going to let racial discrimination fix racial discrimination. But then they uh they absent themselves from the battlegrounds to come with individual states redistricting. >> You mentioned Maryland. Maryland does have one uh conservative Republican seat left and the governor there, Wes Moore, says that he does plan on taking a look at redistricting that one. Um, but Justice Brett Kavanaaugh did comment that the Supreme Court has ruled multiple times that racebased remedies should not be indefinite and should have an end point. How might that factor into this case? Yeah, that's really that Okconor principle that we're talking about, you know, saying essentially, you know, do we really think our country is so inherently racist that we have to employ this very much disliked remedy of using racial headcounts? And so, Kavanagh is kind of paring what we heard from Justice Okconor a long time ago. It doesn't, you know, oral argument is a tough one to kind of assess with any certainty where this is going to end up. There's a lot of rhetorical questions. There's a lot of devil's advocate questions. And so Kavanaaugh there, I think, is probably genuinely telegraphing that he's wondering, you know, do we put a fuse on racial discrimination and say it's now finally burnt out or it's close to burning out. Uh I think that's what he's struggling with is the idea of whether we're going to keep letting this happen for a generation or for just this case. Uh but to predict where they end up as a as a majority or a plurality decision based on those questions is really hard. Jim, I want to read you something that liberal justice Sonia Sodtomayor said. She said, quote, "Race is a part of redistricting always. My colleagues are trying to tease it out in this intellectual way that doesn't deal with the fact that race is used to help people." She goes on to say that she gives the examples of ethnic communities and predicting what uh issues concern voters when drawing districts. Is there merit to uh Justice Sodtomayor's argument? >> I mean, I suppose it depends on your internal politics, but but I think Sodomayor uh has a very different vision for the altruism of state governments than I have. I mean, I I I am not at all of the camp that every time that the state decides they want to weigh in and fix something that has to do with race, that that leads to an equitable result for everybody. So, you know, again, she has maybe more faith in government state houses than I would have. I I think that the idea of of fixing racism with racism is one that's, you know, starting to lose traction with the Supreme Court. You look at some of the college admissions type cases that have made their way up there. Harvard complaining that they have too many uh high achieving Asians for their population and therefore discriminating against Asian applicants. I I think we're starting to move into a world or a country in which we're not going to tolerate overt racism again in the guise of supposedly fixing something we all recognize as evil, which is racism. >> Jim, I want to switch gears a bit here and get your thoughts. Uh the president earlier today in the Oval Office with the FBI director and the attorney general and others uh talking about a variety of issues that they're working to crack down on crime. One of which is um the ramped up ICE operations. Some people are saying that this is unconstitutional uh because the illegal immigrants have are not receiving due process. There's a lot of nuance here. Is this a concern or help us understand this? Yeah, I mean I think that a lot of people throw around the word d the phrase due process without really any understanding of some of the complexity of it. And I guess the short version in terms of uh you know what I would tell my classes in in criminal justice you know due process is actually a contextual concept. Due process for me when I am being prosecuted in a death penalty case, right, for a murder is an extremely extensive protective notion to make sure I don't get executed someday wrongly. Due process for your parking ticket, Steve, out front of the studio is very different. You are not going to get the same types of robust trial protections. And so when you talk about illegal aliens, the context matters. If somebody has literally just came ac come across the border and is insisting that they need to, you know, have litigation to determine whether or not they can stay, well, that's kind of laughable. And that there's Supreme Court jurist prudence that says this. It's like, look, your the extent of your ties to the country helps us define what due process looks like. So for a lot of illegal aliens, it would be kind of a crazy result that you you stumble across the border, you immediately get arrested, and you say, "I want to be tied up in litigation for two years before you send me back." Supreme courts recognize that practical reality. Uh but what due process means when you're talking about illegal aliens generally is still within the executive branch primarily. It's immigration courts led by immigration officers. And so I don't assume for a moment the people that are getting scooped up on immigration raids across this country have no sorts of protections. If they're the wrong person that the warrant was trying to identify, they're not going to be deported. If they are someone that has a plausible claim that's never been raised, they can file a habius motion. So yeah, there are variety of legal protections, but it's inherently an administrative type of hearing. It's not something where you have 12 jurors determine whether you're allowed to stay in the country or not. And I think that's um you know, I think there's some kind of willful ignorance of people when it comes to exactly what types of rights attached to being an illegal alien in the US. >> Former federal prosecutor Jim Trusty, really appreciate the insight. Thank you. >> President Trump and FBI Director Cash Patel touting the accomplishments of the crime crackdown we just spoke of. President also ensuring US troops will be getting paid while a judge blocks the administration from firing federal workers. We go now live to ENTD's Washington correspondent Mario who's live at the White House. Good evening, Mari. So, what is the latest uh from the press conference earlier today with the president and the FBI director, >> Steve? Good evening. President Trump is touting his FBI's efforts to crack down on crime throughout the country. Take a look. You have taken the handcuffs off them and let them do their jobs and you let cops be cops. >> Director Cash Patel announces that since January, more than 28,000 violent criminals have been arrested, nearly double last year. Over 5,000 children rescued and nearly 2,000 kilos of fentinel seized, enough to kill 127 million Americans. And Patel says the Trump administration's efforts extend to transnational organized crime. We have gone after espionage activities against our main counterparts in China, Russia, and Iran. In China alone, we've had over a 50% increase in espionage and arrests alone and prosecution. >> This coming as the FBI director says that the Chinese Communist Party engages in the greatest level of espionage against the United States by penetrating our telecommunications infrastructure, water, energy, and electrical grids. And on China, when asked if we're in for a sustained trade war, >> well, you're in one now. Look, we have 100% tariff. If we didn't have tariffs, we would be exposed as being a nothing. We would have no defense. You know, they've used tariffs on us. If we don't have tariffs, we're not going to have national security. >> And the president breaking some news on India, saying he spoke to Prime Minister Modi today >> and he assured me today that they will not be buying oil from Russia. That's a big stop. Now I got to get China to do the same thing. >> China is Russia's number one oil buyer with India being number two. Uh President Trump says that Russia losing its economic support could help end the war in Ukraine faster. He also emphasizes the importance of his tariff strategy uh in ensuring national security and floats the idea of attending the Supreme Court arguments against his tariff case, something that he's never done before. Steve, >> some big developments coming out of that Oval Office press uh conference earlier. This comes after President Trump is threatening now 100% new tariffs against China last week. A lot to look out uh for there before his possible upcoming meeting with Xiinping in just over a week. Um Mari, on another topic, what is the White House saying about these potential layoffs? Sure, Steve. So, we're now on day 15 of the government shutdown, and today OM director Russ Vote is saying that layoffs will likely be uh north of 10,000. Uh this is coming as a federal judge blocks the Trump administration's uh capacity to fire federal workers during the government shutdown. But President Trump is pushing back, saying that he vows to cut programs and personnel that he says his administration never wanted to begin with. Watch. But Russell vote is is really terminating tremendous numbers of Democrat projects. There's there's not only jobs. I mean, the project in Manhattan, the project in New York, it's billions and billions of dollars that Schumer has worked 20 years to get, it's terminated. >> And President Trump today is signing a memo ensuring that the US troops get paid during the government shutdown. He also says that FBI agents will continue to get paid at this time. Steve, back to you >> and Marotzu live from the north lawn of the White House. Thank you, Mari. And in the Middle East, the Hamas terror group continuing to hand over the bodies of deceased hostages from the Gaza Strip. But after lab testing, an Israeli official says one of those bodies is not that of a hostage. Entities Jason Perry has the details. On Wednesday, Israel's chief of the general staff met with newly released hostages whom Hamas had held in captivity for almost two years, and the former hostages continue to be monitored at hospitals in Israel. An executive at one of the hospitals said their road to recovery will be a very long one. >> Every one of them has endured untold adversity and horrors. They will probably need weeks, months, and maybe years to heal, but they're f finally taking the first steps to return to life here at the Sheba Medical Center. >> And he added that some of the former hostages may soon be discharged to outpatient care next week. On the same day, people filled the streets during a funeral procession for deceased hostage Guy Illus. Hamas returned his body from the Gaza Strip on Monday, and his dad spoke at his funeral after seeing his son's body at the Forensic Institute. >> I kissed your forehead and saw your beauty even in the state you came back to us in. I saw that beauty, my guy. I love you so much. Love you so much. You will be missing from my life every second and minute. Meanwhile, the head of the Israeli Forensic Institute said that one of the bodies Hamas recently handed over is not the body of any of the deceased hostages. The father of one hostage, who some believe is deceased, is still waiting for news about his son, and he shared his feelings. >> You uh start the day uh anticipating to get the worst phone call that you will in your lifetime. and then feel disappointed when you do not get that phone call, which is a very, you know, complex thing to process. >> The Israel Defense Forces said that two more bodies of deceased hostages had been returned to Israel on Wednesday. Meanwhile, in the Gaza Strip, residents were seen moving about as the ceasefire continues to hold. However, the United States military has now called on the Hamas terrorist group to stop shooting at innocent civilians in the territory. The US also said they expressed their concerns to mediators who have agreed to work with the US to enforce the peace and protect innocent civilians in Gaza. This comes as Turkish rescue teams are expected to soon depart Gaza as part of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas and will reportedly take part in a joint task force to help locate the bodies of deceased hostages in the territory. Jason Perry, NTD News. Coming up, as the government shutdown drags into its third week, what exactly is in the Affordable Care Act tax credits that Democrats are demanding in the stalemate? Georgia Republican Congressman Austin Scott breaks it down. And President Trump considering invoking the Insurrection Act to combat violent crime in Chicago. Can he do it? And would it be effective in quelling the violence? Mississippi Republican Congressman Michael Guest joins us to weigh in that more when we return. And welcome back to the Capital Report. I'm Steve Lance. President Trump hosting a fundraising dinner this evening at the White House for the new $200 million White House ballroom. We'll take you there if he speaks. Continue to monitor. And after the Senate vote on the GOP bill to end the government shutdown failing today for the ninth straight time, how are voters feeling? And what does the fight over the Affordable Care Act tax credit mean for Americans? Joining me now to discuss these developments is Georgia Republican Congressman Austin Scott. Georgia Congressman Austin Scott. Really appreciate you joining us. >> Thanks for having us. Congressman, obviously we're entering um another week uh of the shutdown. I believe we're in week three. Um talk to us about what you're hearing from the folks back in your district with regard to the shutdown. Are they understanding it? Who do they think is at fault? And with regard to paying our troops, can the president um find money and allocate money to make sure that the troops are paid without Congress? Well, f first of all, he's just done that and I commend him for trying to uh ease the pain of this shutdown on on the military and for others as well. I mean, the president is trying to be professional with this. He's doing a pretty good job of making sure that it is u painless isn't the right word, but he he's trying to ease the burden on the American citizens. Obviously, the troops um getting their paycheck uh is is is a big deal. I I represent the state of Georgia. We have nine major military installations in the state of Georgia. I represent Robins Air Force Base, the largest industrial complex in the state of Georgia. And so when people go without a paycheck, that has a tremendous impact on um on their households. It also has a tremendous impact on every small business in the community. If you're the small business owner with a restaurant and and people didn't get a paycheck, they're they're not coming out to eat. Uh if you're selling cars, they're not buying cars. And so there's a lot of concern about, you know, when things are going to get back to some sense of normaly. And in in the state of Georgia, just, you know, the actual numbers on the subsidy that the Democrats are demanding, it's about $44 a month per person is what the enhanced affordable care act subsidies uh average out to uh per person for the state of Georgia. So there's a lot of misrepresentation in the numbers that the Democrats are giving with regard to how big this actual subsidy is and who the subsidy goes to. It it is actually a check that goes to the insurance company uh not to the insureds. And so as we get more of the facts out there about the size of the subsidy and the subsidy actually going to the insurance company and the reason we believe there's fraud in the subsidies and that uh about 40% of the contracts never even had a claim over the last 12 months. The Pentagon is tightening press security. Uh this to match other military installations. Uh namely, press members uh need to have badges, stay in approved areas, can't attempt to solicit illegal news leaks. President Trump spoke about it. Here's a look. >> When it comes to war, and now our great Department of War, we have some great people over there. I think it's sort of it bothers me to have soldiers and uh even you know high ranking generals walking around with uh you guys on their sleeve asking because they can make a mistake and a mistake can be tragic. >> First thing that comes to mind I'm sure there are other examples uh former general uh David Petraeus former director of the CIA um certain things can happen and and information can get out when uh barriers aren't put in place. Uh some news media are pushing back from the left and the right uh saying this is a first amendment issue. What do you think this ultimately boils down to? >> Yeah. Well, our democracy is contingent upon the citizens knowing the truth uh before they go to the polls. And so as long as the public knows the truth before they go to the polls, then our democracy is going to be just fine. So I'm a I'm I'm very much a supporter of the free press. I will tell you when it comes to the deals that we're trying to resolve and the president is trying to resolve, I I'll use, you know, the situation with Hamas and Israel with um, you know, the hostages and having them returned. Those things can't be negotiated in public. Those things have to be uh done in secret. I do think the public has a right to know um what the decision was that was made, how we got to the decision that was made. Uh but there's got to be a delay on on the complex issues between when it is actually publicly reported and when the action takes place. And and obviously if you report something today, uh it's not just the American citizens that are hearing it. It's also the Russians and the Chinese and others. And so our concern is making sure that uh the public has the facts. And and I would I would say the public has the facts, but those facts don't come out in a timeline in which they create a problem for the actual mission and other things that we're we're going to do. >> Congressman Austin Scott, really appreciate your perspective. >> Thank you. >> President Trump is floating the idea of invoking the Insurrection Act to fight violent crime in Chicago. Will this approach be effective in quelling the violence? Earlier, I spoke with Mississippi Republican Congressman Michael Guest, who also serves as the chairman of the Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement. Congressman Michael Guest, thank you so much for joining. >> Steve, thank you for having me on today. >> It's great to have you with us, Congressman. President Trump said that he could legally invoke what's called the Insurrection Act to address violent crime in Chicago. Do you think that crime has become normalized in major cities like Chicago, like Portland, and is the president taking the right approach to restore law and order? You know, I think that what we've seen particularly uh in major urban areas, often under Democrat control, is you have seen a rise in crime, particularly violent crime. Uh we've seen some of that because of the flood of immigrants uh that have poured across our borders. Uh we've seen a lot because we have progressive prosecutors who refuse to prosecute. Uh we have court systems that now allow cashless bail systems. individuals are allowed to commit one crime after the other and be continually let out uh to continue their reign on t terror. Uh and so I think the president is right. People want to be safe. Public safety is one of the most important uh aspects of individuals when you look at quality of life, the president understands that. And if local law enforcement is not going to step up and do the job, the president has come forward and said that he intends uh to surge federal resources. We saw that happen in DC. be very successful. We've seen that happening in Memphis, also successful in Memphis, and the president is prepared to replicate that model across the country. Critics say ICE is operating too broadly to maximize their arrests regardless of criminal record. What do you say to those who are uh concerned with that aspect? You know, again, uh we are enforcing the rule of law. If Republicans are truly the pol the party that we claim to be, a a party that believes in law and order, uh then we must enforce a law. And those individuals who are allowed to come across the border, uh those individuals who are not here legally, they have no legal status. Uh those individuals should be returned to their country of origin. Uh we know some of those individuals are people who have been charged with crime. We've seen that ICE has been very aggressive returning those. We have others uh that have been through the the process. There are orders of removal uh where they an immigration judge has reviewed their claims for asylum found those claims to be lacking. Uh ICE is very aggressive in removing those individuals. Uh and so look, I think ICE is doing what the American people voted for when they elected President Trump. They wanted someone who was going to one secure the border and the president has been able to do that and then two who was going to be look at deporting those individuals who had entered the country illegally under the Biden Harris administration. Uh and so I applaud the administration for what they're doing and I hope that they will continue their aggressive enforcement. So, speaking of law enforcement, uh, with the government still, uh, shut down, President Trump is repurposing looks like 8 billion uh, from the Department of War to ensure that troops, our active duty military are paid. Is, uh, there any concern that our federal officers that are protecting federal buildings uh, in Portland, ICE, Homeland Security agents, uh, might run out of funds to get paid? And is there something that Congress could do or something in the line to make sure that that doesn't happen? >> That is a concern of this administration. That is a concern definitely of myself and fellow Republicans. Uh we know that last Friday uh employees of Department of Homeland Security roughly 250,000 uh they received only a partial paycheck about 70% of what they would normally be paid. The next pay cycle which would be a week from this Friday. uh if Congress does not intervene or if the president does not stop in uh those officers, those men and women who protecting us will receive none of the pay that they are entitled to. Uh we do know that the president, just as he did with the military, is looking for ways where he can repurpose money temporarily uh to make sure that they're paid. Uh I have been a strong advocate of making sure that we are paying not only our military uh but our federal law enforcement and our air traffic controllers. Uh I'm prepared to return to Congress and vote on legislation to that extent if that is something that our leadership chooses to do. Uh but it is important that we make sure that we are paying those individuals who are placing themselves in harm's way to protect us. And you're right, you mentioned ICE agents, what we've seen in Chicago, we mentioned what we've seen in Portland. Uh again, but uh outside of those, we know that our federal law enforcement agencies that they perform a very difficult job each and every day to protect us and keep us safe. uh and we must make sure that we are prioritize paying them the salary that they have earned. >> What are you hearing about the shutdown, Congressman? There's been, you know, some reports that the Democrats are waiting out at least for this weekend because they're scheduled to have what they call the no kings protests across the country. Um which is ex also going to put a very big drain on law enforcement uh amplifying the protests that are already underway in Chicago and Portland. uh hearing the same thing that is very unlikely uh that the shutdown will end between now and this weekend. Uh that the earliest that anyone expects there to be really any movement uh will be sometime next week. You know what I'll say about the shutdown is clearly this shutdown is about politics, not about policy. Uh the Democrats want to try to make this out to be over healthc care. Uh but they've offered no real plan even uh when there have been ideas floated about a temporary extension. We've seen that Jeff has said he's not uh looking at a one-year extension. Uh that he wants a permanent extension. And so uh there's really been no movement as far as any negotiations. Uh I will say this, I think the president has done his job to try to minimize the pain during this shutdown. Uh he's looking at paying our military. He's looking at paying our federal law enforcement agencies. He's looking at funding wick. uh he is looking to try to find funds to keep the government open uh to try to minimize the harm to the American people, which is really the complete opposite of what we've seen with Chuck Schumer uh and leader Jeff. Uh and so I'm optimistic uh that maybe after this no Kings rally uh that there will be uh some conversation uh and that there will be Democrats who are willing to come to the table and reopen the government for that brief seven-week window so that we can finish the appropriations bills. Chairman of the Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement, Mississippi Congressman Michael Guest. Really appreciate it. >> Thank you, Steve. >> Coming up, the FBI raising concerns about growing numbers of espionage cases involving China, Iran, and Russia. Do everyday Americans grasp the seriousness of these threats? We'll discuss with our panel, Dan Tarantine and Will Pierce, just after the break. [Music] And welcome back to the Capital Report. I'm Steve Lans. President Trump at the moment hosting a fundraising dinner right now at the White House with high dollar donors for the new White House ballroom. It's being buil as the legacy dinner for the $200 million project. Let's tune in. >> People thought that was something and it really was incredible. We had tremendous uh tremendous friendships and we've developed some friendships even over the last few days and it's going very well. And we got the hostages back which was a big deal. [Applause] I know that things are happening even today. Things are happening in a very positive. Everyone wants to see it happen. Countries that didn't get along with each other are now seemingly in love with each other. Now look at that change perhaps, but the deal will still be there. And it's going to be I think it's going to be something to remember. We have uh we've settled now eight wars if you think seven [Applause] one of the easier ones I thought was going to be Russia. I thought the Russian Ukraine would be easy. Would have never happened. It should have never happened. But a lot of people are being killed in that war. That was it's the bloodiest war since the Second World War. Uh I think that we'll get that one too. We'll stop. You know, it's not from the US. These soldiers that are dying all over the place. 7,212. They say last week that think of that 7,000 212 soldiers for for no reason. Should have never happened. Should have, if the right person were here, it wouldn't have happened. I can guarantee you that. But it did happen. And uh we've made some good progress. Interestingly, made a lot of progress today because of what took place in the Middle East. Only the cheapthinking business people would understand that. Of which we have a lot of them. We have a lot of legends in the room tonight. And that's why we're here to celebrate you because you've given tremendous amounts of money to see a ballroom built for the first time at the White House. the White House uh for 150 years plus they've wanted to have a ballroom and it never happened because they never had a real estate person. For me, I like it. For me, it's like uh I love it in between China, Russia, and everything else that we deal with. Uh it's going to be a great ballroom. It's going to be a great ballroom. as an example. This has really been the ballroom for many years and it holds 100 people of which we have 125 today I'll tell you. But uh you know we have 128 and I've never seen it with 128. And by the way you're going to have a little good entertainment from the military band right after this. You'll see some really talented musicians. They're going to do a few songs and you're going to love them. They're very talented people. But uh so for years they've wanted to have it and when they have the head of China, the head of any country we have many many of the countries came and uh they'd always put the tent out on the lawn and it was not raining you get away with it a little bit but it's still a tent and uh the biggest dignitaries in the world not only political in many way many other ways too and so I always said that If I pull it off again, we are going to build the ballroom, but I'm going to start right at the beginning. And we had a design by one of the top architects in Washington who's very very respected and very very respected actually. And we started the process and uh we have it concluded and it's actually starting right behind us. And if you look, this is really a knockout. I'll just show you. I guess maybe So, we don't really want you to walk on there, but you can take a look at the one because we took out all the strength from underneath that collapse. We collapse it at over the next few days. It's going to be demolished. Everything out there is coming down and we're replacing it with one of the most beautiful ballrooms that you've ever seen. And you have some pictures. And basically, it's right here. Here's your White House. use the west wing. And here's the east side, which has been tinkered with for years and years and years. And they had a originally a very beautiful building to call it the east one, but it was sort of semi knocked out about five times and changed and redone. Everything else was originally done by the kidney and white. And uh so that came down and mostly it's taken down already. And we We've started excavation. I'm very good at building things on time on budget and I can tell you're not going to see like the Fed where they're up to $4 million or something to paint some walls. It's the craziest thing I've ever seen. This guy, he's too late. He should have been too late with that one, not done it. It would have it didn't need to be done. He could have painted the ceilings. They ripped down a gorgeous ceiling like this. And then they said, "We have a problem now. We have to put one up. How do you do a ceiling like this?" And they're way over budget. They decided they wanted to do a basement, but unfortunately the basement is right next, you know, you're right next to the PTOAC. And when they went down, they should have stopped immediately because that they should have known, but they have a little thing called the Ptoic River where the basement is, but they said, "We're going to get it done anyway." So, you build what's called a reverse bathtub, and it's not that uncommon, but it is actually a reverse. You you seal it. The problem is nature always wins. I know a lot about reverse bathtubs. I've done it and it's something you only do in emergency. You don't there was no reason to do it. They could have actually, if you think about it, they could have added three floors on top and it would have cost about $2 billion less. So they ended up in this disaster of building a basement in the Ptoac River and keeping the water out. It's very hard to do as you're pouring your concrete which has to be dry. And it's been a disaster. And this is the same guy that keeps the air rates too high. We should be much lower in interest. We're doing so well, but we would have been uh as good as that is, even better. I don't think it's affected us much. You can't. We have an all-time high stock market. Everybody in this room is extremely happy with Trump. If you weren't, I would have postponed it. I would have said, "Let's do it. Let's do it some other time." But the stock market hits records almost almost all the time. Every once in a while, we'll have a little uh situation come up that drives it down, but it comes right back. We're doing really well on trade. We're taking in hundreds of billions of dollars on the tariffs. The tariffs are making this country so rich and they're making it powerful. Uh we stopped a lot of these wars using trade. We had uh as an example, India and Pakistan were going at it really hard. Seven planes were shot down. It was going to happen. Bad things were happening. And I was talking to both of them about trade and I said, "How we doing with those?" Sir, we're doing very well. Great. Well, we're not going to do well. We're not going to do a trade deal unless they stop the war. And uh I got him on the phone and I said, "Listen, we're going to put a 200% tariff on your country for any product you sell into the United States, unless you stop this war because I'm not going to be a party to it. You have two nuclear nations, by the way." No, no, no, you can't do that. I say, "I can do that. Very easily I can. We're not going to have to lose millions of people from the planet." And frankly, that dust can blow over here, too. Affects everything. It's a powerful, powerful weapon. Too powerful. So powerful, you don't want to talk about it. So they said, "No, no." I said, "Yes, yes. Here's the story. If you're going to go and do it, we're cutting off all negotiations. There'll be no trade with the United States of America." Both nations. I spoke to them both. I like both the leaders. I like them both a lot. But I said, "That's the way it is." And I get a call the next day. we have decided to deescalate. They said, I thought you would actually have uh decided that we will not fight. I said, have you come to a conclusion? Yes, we're not going to do anymore. They stop. It's just like that. This could have been a nuclear war. Probably would have been. In fact the uh prime minister of Pakistan came and saw me and he was emotional about it and in front of a group of people he said this man saved 3 million 5 million maybe an untold number of lives and it was just recently that this happened. So and we did numerous of them like that and part of the reason we did it was trade. I think of the eight I would say five were because of trade. you know, the power of trade, but the power of tariffs. Tariffs have made us a a very kind nation because a lot of people aren't dying. I use it for purposes of stopping wars. I love stopping wars. And uh sort of interesting. I'll be the only president. I don't think any president stopped one war. I stopped eight wars in eight months. Did I get a Nobel Prize? No. Can you believe it? Even I said, "Yeah, that's an impossible one." But uh it's all right. I suspect I think next year will be better, but I I don't think you know what I care about. I saved maybe hundreds of millions of lives, but certainly I saved. So now we're getting back to the point on hand. And uh that's you're really here because you've contributed to this incredible building that people have wanted for so many years. And we show another building. It's an arc. It's the ark. So that circle that's Arlington Memorial Bridge as you know it's sort of the most important one a very important structure and at the end of it you have a circle that was built 150 years ago. Nobody knows really when. And in fact they put a couple of columns on each side. So you have two columns on one side, two columns on the other but in the middle just a circle. And everyone that passes said something was supposed to be built there. That's true. But a thing called the civil war interfered. That's a good reason. I would say Ike, that would be a good reason, right? The great Ike promo. Uh the Civil War, if you said you're having a war, I think they have a good reason not to build again. You know, they were building the Washington Monument and they stopped and you could see where they stopped because the stone is a little different color when you get up to the middle. But anyway, they stopped here and then they were in 1902, they were going to put a statue of Roberty Lee up. Would have been okay with me. A lot of people wouldn't have liked it. Would have been okay with me. Would have been okay with a lot of the people in this room, but they didn't do that. And so for years and years it sat and every time somebody rides over that beautiful bridge going right to the Lincoln Memorial, it's so beautiful, right? It's uh they literally uh say something's supposed to be here and so we have versions of it, sizes of it, and it's going to be it's going to be really beautiful. I think it's going to be fantastic. There's a rendering of what it will look like. You have three sizes. That would be the largest one. This is just a model of what it would look like in either of the three any of the three sizes, which is right here. I don't know if you can see it. So, That's Lady Liberty. Lady, did you ever hear of Liberty? Lady Liberty on top. But uh so the sizes would be very different. Here's Ling. And this is so line. They did this. They didn't do that. So this would be I go small, medium, and large. and love and uh which you want to look good. I happen to think the large one's quite why why are you shocked to hear that? So, we're going to, you know, just do something for the city. I'm so proud of what we've done with crime. This is a very safe city now. This went from a very unsafe city where you were afraid to go out to dinner to a city that's extremely safe. the uh people that we have working on this. It's been a miracle almost. It took 12 days. We took out 1,700 people, brought them back to their countries from where they came. Many many of them were let in through the Biden open border. Brilliant thing where they let people in from jails from from prisons and mental institutions in that's a mental institution on steroids. And I mean they were literally emptying out insane sounds into our country. This is Venezuela, but other countries also, not only Venezuela. And speaking of Venezuela, we've uh, you know, we have a lot of drugs. We had a lot of drugs coming in by water. That stopped. In fact, nobody wants to go fishing in. Nobody wants to do anywhere anything near the water. They might have a beautiful boat and they might as well get rid of their boat because they are very nervous about going on the water. It's been amazing. So now we were having literally subway train of people of and drugs. A lot of them coming from Venezuela. A lot of them come from Mexico and Columbia. But we we wanted to knock out one track and I can tell you we cannot find anybody anymore. We're looking down. They're looking down. president. There's not a boat on the entire ocean that we can see outside of the ocean liners and even they're a little bit concerned about. But it shows you the power and the strength and the technology of of our great military. We have, you know, I rebuilt the military in my first term. We had a great first term. We had the best economy ever. We had a rebuilding of the military. We had the big tax cuts and the wonderful the wonder all of the assets of the tax cuts including the one-year depreciation. We write it off in one year. Now we have better under the great big beautiful bill because we have no tips for think of this. You have no tax on tips and you have no tax on social security and you have for your workers you have no tax on overtime. It's really a middle I would say a middle of the road bill from the standpoint of who is it representing. is the workers. It's the biggest bill ever passed in the history of Congress. And I'm glad we did because we don't need any more bills. We have everything in that one. Plus, we have the deductibility every single year for 10 years. The other one had it for one year. You had a rush this year. This time, you don't. Actually, I was in favor of rushing because that's awfully good for elections, but it's not about elections. It's awfully good. So, you have deductibility. You have so many different things. We have great social programs. 50 billion dollars going to rural hospitals. So the great big beautiful bill and we got it all in one. I was very happy because we had little arguments about that. A lot of people wanted to do it in small chunks. I said if you do it in small chunks you'll never get it approved. You'll get some approved but not all of it and not even close. You get much less I would say less than 30%. So they've never done this before. it. But every single thing that I wanted for four years in one bill and we call it they some people call it different. I call it the great big beautiful bill because that's what it is. And we this will keep us what we want to manage it now. We're going to manage it. All you have to do is that. But we got it all approved. And one of the things I thought though while I do because it's so relaxing for me, real estate is relaxing. For a lot of people, real estate is a very trying business. I've always liked it. I've always done well with it. I love uh building things and this way I can build some beautiful things and this again has never been built and we're going to start that pretty soon. It's going to be great. And then the ballroom for the White House is the thing that you people have really really been very generous with and we're going to build a room that's going to be able to hold literally the inauguration if we want. Uh all of the glass on the sides is bulletproof. It's 999 people it can hold. So if we figure we have 125 people in here approximately now, which I've never seen before. I've always heard it's less than a 100, but it's amazing when you have too many people you can fit them in. You know, you can always fit a few more people in. And pardon the fact that you're a little tight at your table. That's okay. That's better than lots of room for everybody because nobody shows up, right? But uh you've been you've been so generous in your contributions. uh very substantial money fully financed. It's fully taken care of now. And in fact, we'll have money left over and uh we'll use that for something. We'll use that probably maybe for the Ark or something else that will come. But we love to fix up Washington. If you went to the Oval Office, you'd see the presidential walk of fame and you've heard about it. And with the exception of one particular picture, there's no controversy. It's just it's beautiful. It's a beautiful thing. It's a this beautiful long wall that existed for it's just literally a wall with half windows on top and that was uh originally built as a swimming pool. Now it's where the press is on the other side of the wall and it's very interesting. All these people over here with all their cameras. Uh although they've been very respectful. I'll tell you what, they've been very respectful for what's taken place over the last week. So I want to thank you. This is just a small little group. They have a big group downstairs. [Applause] They have a lot of reporters downstairs wanting to be where they are. I don't know. These I guess. Are you special? This is Doug who's the uh he won the highest awards there is in uh photography including Pulit surprises, right? He won many Pulit surprises for uh >> That is all we have for you as you continue to watch there. The president of the United States giving a speech at the White House. You can catch the rest of President Trump's remarks at the White House ballroom fundraiser uh at ntd.comlive. From the nation's capital, I'm Steve Lance. Have a great evening. We'll see you back here tomorrow. [Music]