This is Brian Lair's Daily Politics podcast from WNYC Studios.

It's Wednesday, June 17th.

I'm Bridget Bergen, WNYC's City Hall and Politics reporter, filling in for Brian today.

Today we're joined by someone who has a record

of speaking his mind to curb police misconduct, and that's Chuck Rosenberg, currently an MSNBC

legal analyst and host of the podcast, The Oath with Chuck Rosenberg, but also the former acting

head of the Drug Enforcement Agency, or DEA, that stepped down from

his position a few weeks after emailing a statement to all employees in his agency, explaining

how President Trump condoned police misconduct. Police misconduct has been a hot-up button

issue in the U.S. for years, but especially these past few weeks.

We have protests all over the country, over the world, statues being toppled, and legislation

being written, all to try and address the problem.

To talk about the protests, the Trump administration, his podcast, and more is Chuck Rosenberg.

Welcome to WNYC, Chuck. Thank you, Bridget.

So let's get to it. You stepped down as the acting head of the DEA in 2017 after President

Trump told law enforcement officers, please don't be too nice when handling suspects of crime. Why did

that strike a chord with you?

I've spent my career in law enforcement, Bridget, as a federal prosecutor at the FBI and

ultimately at the DEA. And we take a lot of time and spend a lot of effort trying to build bridges

with the communities that we serve. We're not perfect.

You know, we falter at times. But overall, you know, it's really important to those of us in

law enforcement to build those ties, maintain those ties. And what the president said, and by the way,

...