Hi there, everybody. It's 4 o'clock in New York. We are in the midst of a uniquely alarming moment, right?

A moment where the president of the United States sees an unfolding situation as a political opportunity, one for him to advance his goal

of strengthening and fortifying his grip on power, because what's happening in Los Angeles is not

just about immigration. We all know that. President Barack Obama carried out more deportations

than his eight years in any administration

at a pace quicker than even Donald Trump's first term. Do you remember ice raids in the middle of

cities by men wearing paramilitary gear and then Obama sending in the National Guard over the

objections of governors? Yeah. Neither do I. Because that never happened.

Do you know why it never happened? It never happened because carrying out a legal and orderly

ineffective immigration policy isn't at all what Trump is doing. Trump seems from the outside to be producing theater.

And maybe it's to distract.

Maybe it's to distract us from talking about Elon Musk's tweet with his unsubstantiated

allegations about Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, something we on the outside have

seen no proof of.

Maybe it's to distract from his plunging approval ratings on the economy, trade, inflation, even immigration.

Maybe he's trying to distract us from covering his stalled agenda in Congress.

That's actually what the big fight with Elon Musk started over.

Maybe he wants to distract us from covering the debacle of a trade war he started,

or the debacle of 90 deals and 90 days to which there is 0.5, like 0.5 deals.

0.5.

Former ICE official Jason Hauser tells the New York Times this, quote, right now the government is burning thousands of federal law enforcement hours on operations that

privilege political objectives over public safety, attacking constitutional protections like due process

...