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The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell

Lawrence: Trump letting Musk intrude into Treasury is biggest, most important data breach ever

The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell

NBC News

Policy, Msnbc, Politics, President, Washington, Congress, Government, Senate, News

4.45.9K Ratings

🗓️ 4 February 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Tonight on The Last Word: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent grants Elon Musk unprecedented access to sensitive data. Also, Donald Trump releases water in California, but floods areas unaffected by wildfires. Plus, prominent attorneys warn the Trump Justice Department against publicly releasing the names of purged officials. Norm Ornstein, E.J. Dionne, Sen. Adam Schiff, Frank Figliuzzi, and Andrew Weissmann join Lawrence O’Donnell.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Who has the nuclear codes?

0:04.4

Think about it.

0:06.6

The only answer to that question, the only honest answer to that question tonight for the first time in history is,

0:15.5

we don't know.

0:17.8

We don't know who has the nuclear codes.

0:25.6

We don't know who has the nuclear codes. We don't know who has what inside the Trump government. We don't know who is doing what inside the Trump government.

0:31.6

But we do know they are doing things that have never been done before and that are illegal. We know that those

0:39.9

things are not legal. We know that Donald Trump has given Elon Musk, the domestic equivalent

0:47.6

of the nuclear codes, the keys to the Treasury of the United States of America.

0:58.6

In the biggest, most important data breach in the history of the world,

1:04.5

Elon Musk has gone where no political operative has ever gone before.

1:10.2

He has gone where no Treasury Secretary has ever gone before. And that is to the innermost sanctum of the United States

1:15.8

Treasury, where your money is collected and spent, where your name is collected, where your

1:22.7

social security number is collected, where your baby's social security number is collected on day one of your

1:30.2

baby's life. Most people working for the Treasury Department don't even know where that is.

1:38.3

No one in politics, which very much includes every Treasury Secretary because they are appointed by politicians,

1:46.1

has ever even shown an interest in trying to get at the actual payment mechanisms

1:54.4

operated by the United States Treasury.

1:57.7

And of all the horrendous things that have happened in the Trump regime just in the last weekend,

2:05.6

nothing is potentially more dangerous than that.

2:11.8

Nothing is more corrupt than that.

2:15.1

Donald Trump's Treasury Secretary is now the first Treasury Secretary in history

...

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