Breaking down the timing of Leavitt's exit as White House Press Secretary

One of President Trump's fiercest offenders is leaving the White House at the end of this month. The news of Caroline Leavitt's departure as White House press secretary comes the same week that the DOJ issued a memo arguing the president can assert executive privilege not just over communications with White House staff, but with private advisors outside of government too. And the president confirmed Leavitt will be exactly that, an outside advisor. Amanda Tamadaio and Lisa are all back with me. Okay, you have made the argument to me that the timing of this memo had everything to do with Boris Epstein and pending legal cases. And you and I have been talking about the fact that while that may be true, it opens, begins to open the aperture of protections for others. Do you think it could apply here? Absolutely. I mean, I think it could apply with respect to honoring the memo. The memo is not a legal document. It is the department's own interpretation of its policy. And it remains to be seen whether a court will say that its construction of who is entitled to executive privilege is valid or not. But at least as DOJ considers it, is Caroline Leavitt an outside advisor when she leaves the presidential administration and continues to talk to Trump on the phone and give him advice? Absolutely. Because that memo defines the term private advisor in a breathtakingly broad way. It's basically anyone that the president calls, or anyone that even his direct staff calls and solicits advice from, can be a private advisor to the president. It doesn't matter what like walk of life you come from. You could be an academic, you could be a union leader, you could be a titan of industry. One of the examples in the memo is literally a conversation between a president and JP Morgan himself. So I heard Jake Sherman on our air the other day talking about, well, this doesn't apply to the corporations that have been bestowing massive gifts on the president's pet projects. Actually, by its plain terms, it does. That's what they wanted to cover. They wanted to cover any time the president picks up the phone and says, hey, Alicia, what do you think about that? Right. Part of what is so tricky is it's very common for people to go from these roles to being outside advisors. I think what is interesting to me is the fact that it is happening in the shadow of this memo, where now it feels a little bit like that Oprah moment. You get a car, you get a car, you get a car. Now it's like you're a private advisor, you're a private advisor, because they now have a legal shielding that they did not previously have. I mean, let's just talk about how absurd it is to think that anybody the president talks to or seeks advice from is protected by executive privilege. You know, by my understanding, that is supposed to cover like sensitive matters like national security, legal advice. But what Trump is trying to do here and through this OLC memo is shield any kind of accountability that may come later. I view this as a kind of preemptive strike against any accountability that might come after the midterm elections. He wants to shield all his communications from anyone he seeks advice. Think about the universe of people. And then you add on top of that the idea that he is monetizing the White House and vast new innovative ways. Just look at his cryptocurrency schemes. I mean, this is a kind of dark money that we have never seen before. There are people you could be sitting on your laptop anywhere in the world, dumping money into Trump family accounts while at the same time receiving favors like pardons, regulatory favors. And so what if he just says all these crypto investors are advisors on this new currency protected? No, there is absolutely no way we should accept that. Here's where I want to lace all of this together, which is Caroline Leavitt has defended all of that, and she has done it with a smile on her face. And that is why she has well regarded by the president of the United States. Take a listen to the president lauding her. Caroline, be replaced. That's up to you, sir. It'll never happen. Nobody wants to. Thank you, Katie. And those lips, they move like a machine gun, right? Who who wants this job? I mean, given the fact that it is an open door to monetize your career in any way you'd like. Now, I don't read a lot into Caroline Leavitt leaving and this OLC memo coming out. I think it's coincidence, but it's a huge incentive for people to go in the White House, serve a short time and have that open door to President Trump, because if you are protected for all your communications and they are trading on everything. I mean, you look at the prediction markers. I mean, the corruption coming out of this White House is unlike anything we have ever seen before. And that is what this OLC memo is about, is trying to shield all those communications. So it's a lockbox. So we never find out what they're doing. Speaking of lockbox, you know, it is interesting to listen to that sound of the president where he's like, no one does it better than her. She's never going to leave because a lot of times what she did was simply not say anything at all. Take a listen to that. If there were peaceful protests on Saturday for the military parade, President Trump would allow that. Of course, the president supports peaceful protests. What a stupid question. You're a biased reporter with a left wing opinion. What do you want me to do? Yeah, because you're a left wing hack. You're not a reporter. You're posing in this room as a journalist. And it's so clear by the premise of your question. And you and the people in the media who have such biases but fake like you're a journalist, you shouldn't even be sitting in that seat. It's an attack dog that is not a press secretary. If she were to be shielded from congressional investigation by this claim of executive privilege, how much more difficult does that make the job of, let's say, Robert Garcia, should Dems win the House back in November? He holds the gavel on House Oversight Committee come January. How much more difficult does it make his job? You know, I think it does. But she's not really the example that I'm most concerned about. I mean, she is someone who was actually in the administration and is serving an official role. What is was advising the president. And I could see the argument as to why someone that role should be protected. So I'm not so much concerned about that. That to me is more in the traditional kind of scope of the privilege. But the concern becomes, I would say, twofold. One, if the American people have no way of getting into how the president is getting information. Right. So that's you have all these sources coming in, the private sector, all that. And that's all protected. There's no transparency. And then coupled with that is if you have an administration that does not believe in preserving records. So, for example, you have President Trump, who may be receiving a text message from someone. They're not preserving these things. You have Secretary Hexheth, who's on Signal talking about war plans not being preserved. So now when you couple that together, communication is now being preserved and a privilege, which is almost a belt of suspenders of an ability to then go into that. You have a population. We don't know how our leaders are making decisions, what's informing them, why they're doing that. And we're left out. Thank you so much. Will you come back, please? So fun to have you on set. Lisa Rubin, as always, my everyday girl. Thank you so much for being with us.