George Conway Goes Live From the Kennedy Center Protest

Hello everybody, welcome to I guess you could call it an emergency bulwark take. It is at the very least an extraordinary bulwark take We don't usually come in here on a on a Friday evening like this But there's so much stuff that we felt the need to talk about Donald Trump gave a press conference this afternoon That was absolutely loaded up with news a bunch of stuff on truth social has been coming out to me and as you can see from the stream here There is also an event going on in DC right now. It is a really large protest happening at the Kennedy Center in protest of Donald Trump's Winking and nodding and suggesting that he might tear the place down George Conway is reporting live from the scene for us Catherine Rampell is here to talk. I am Andrew Egger Before we go to the Kennedy Center, let's just I just want to give people a sense of what I'm talking about when I mean like Mando news dump that we got this afternoon because it really is like six different crazy stories and and and let's just rattle through a couple of them We'll talk more about them a little bit later, but but here is Donald Trump Announcing this afternoon on truth social some new stuff about them the press pool that covers him at the White House I'm proud to announce that effective immediately. I am banning fake news CNN MS now and politico From the covering the White House essentially from the pool from the White House is what he said It's a little bit ambiguous exactly what that means Trump was asked specifically what that means and he didn't seem to know which is kind of funny After he tweeted this out, but at some extent whether they're being completely removed You know having their access to the White House removed or whether they are just being kicked out of the president's traveling pool it is a sort of unprecedented level of press crackdown for Viewpoint discrimination essentially coming from the president the kind of stuff we have seen Elsewhere in this administration most notably at the Pentagon, but not yet at the White House at this level until now So that's one thing that we got this afternoon here is another thing that we got this afternoon Motion on Greenland Donald Trump tweets out breaking news I am pleased to announce that the United States of America has entered into an agreement with the Kingdom of Denmark and Greenland That gives the United States permanent control over security and all other needs in Greenland completely addressing all of our many U.S. Concerns obviously this is a story that has been you know in and out of the news cycle all the way back to Trump's first term one of the biggest pain points between Donald Trump and NATO between Donald Trump and Europe over the last year or so with his Unbelievably combative rhetoric suggesting we might go and take Greenland by military force We don't have too much on this yet other than what Trump has tweeted out and a statement from Denmark and from Greenland a joint statement from those From those two areas What what it seems to be saying going by that statement is that And this is me editorializing a little bit. I'll be interested in what Catherine has to say about this one in a second But it kind of seems like Denmark and Greenland have convinced Donald Trump to treat the status quo as a big win I mean we already had all these security agreements with Greenland. We already had a bunch of military presence there I guess Donald Trump wants to bigger eyes and maximize that to a certain degree But but but it appears that that some sort of growth or expansion of our current military agreements there is going to end up being sufficient for Trump Which is a giant shift from where he was a year ago where he was saying nothing but US ownership of that big island We'll do Catherine. Sorry. I'm talking a lot here. I'm trying to just get through these stories But but I am real quick interested in and you're very first blush take on the Greenland news Yeah, the the releases are pretty vague and ambiguous. That is my initial read of them as well And it would not be out of step for how other world leaders have dealt with Donald Trump I'm remembering back to last year When Claudia Shinebaum convinced Donald Trump that she was going to you know cave to his whims Provide these huge concessions by by making sure that she deployed Members of I whatever the equivalent of the Mexican National Guard was to crack down an immigration Which she had already been doing and similarly you had I guess it was I think it wasn't Karnie I think it was true though who had told Donald Trump that he was going to spend more money on border security in An effort that had already been announced I think before Trump even took office So any time that Donald Trump can claim status quo as victory, he will Sometimes I think it's deliberate like he just wants to get through whatever the bad news cycle is sometimes in as maybe the case in this Situation, it's not deliberate. He's like basically getting rolled which may well be what's happening here And I hope it's what's happening here because certainly that would be a better outcome than Donald Trump continuing to save a rattle against our NATO allies and our NATO allies being terrified that he might actually invade them If this is the day taunt we get and Donald Trump gets to say face I am for it in a different universe and a different era I would have said this is completely humiliating for the United States, but right now it is better than the alternatives Yeah, yeah, believe it or not there are even more crazy pieces of news that Trump broke in this earlier conference He's sort of just spontaneously informed the world that he's going to be demanding that vaccine companies break up all of the Pediatric vaccines into five separate doses just so there's less liquid going into the children at any one time There's all kinds of stuff, but we have kept George waiting long enough. We should listen in on this pretty remarkable Gathering this assembly this protest that is happening outside the Kennedy Center right now George I hope you can hear us. Let's let's let's bring you in Can you just kind of tell us what you're what you're seeing what you're hearing on the ground right now? Yeah, I'm I can I can hear you, but not when all the cheering and banging at her So it very audically I will be able to hear you, but right now we've got a series of speakers. I don't know who the keynote speaker is But they're they're warming up for the keynote speaker. I suspect it might be Kerry Kennedy, but I don't know I haven't seen the program. Oh wait, somebody is the program and But the great thing is everybody's very enthusiastic. It's a very large crowd. I won't Try to estimate it, although we'll give you a shot and a ram of the crowd if we could All the way around It's a fairly decent-sized crowd. You can't really move here Do you have a sense of who's there? You know, I heard people who are connected with the Kennedy Center or There are a couple of people have affiliated with communications unions. Somebody told me that Linda Karta, remember Wonder Woman, who I know actually And I hope you can actually track her down because he's a Has been here. There is and I want to tell you a minion is here Not one of them to get the minion a minion is here not the bad kind of minion that you have at the White House And then there's some kind of chipmunk behind the minion And I made sure to tell the chipmunk to stay away from the FBI if they're here. Okay. So That's that's what we're doing here And we're gonna try to get as many of the signs as possible because the signs are really good as they usually are for hands off and rallies and no Kings rallies. What's your favorite one so far? My favorite one so far There's donny there's you are no jfk. It was one early and let me see um We'll get to the signs later there. They're kind of people. There were more signs up early, but people kind of listening now Without justice. Um, and there will be no peace in this last night. What your country for can do for you. That's cute Can we linger on that tarp and then there was another one there's another one that says uh, I Wish there's this many people would show up when our neighbors are kidnapped, which I think is a pretty good sentiment Yeah, it's the best one. So hard to nowhere to show up. Uh, it's a nice thing about the master the master I don't know. Is it a master or mistress of such a drag queen? It's the master or mistress. So I don't want a misgender You'll speak madame. Yeah, I did misgender Okay, I like that there's some whims be there Um, have I ever talked to you guys about what's all pro Donald Trump's pronouns are Me mean, and being made and strong me me. Yeah, I do see they're going to introduce the next speaker. Let's let's listen so we know for the next person. Oh, you're gonna be brave and strong and I want to introduce on speaker DC council member and our next Well, yes, um, represented for DC and congress. Good for well, why do you mean Augustoot is the is is a DC council member who's going to be the next non-voting DC representative to the US House But we're gonna win if there's somebody really really if we a carry candidate or somebody like that we'll cut back in Yeah, so should we I don't know should should should we pull away from the from the feed here and and I I agree with your point about the the whimsie there Catherine and like I this has been such an interesting feature of so many of these protests right now is like everything is so grim everything is so dark and yet Despite how bad the news is and how bad it is that people are feeling the need to get out there I mean the the presence of these insane inflatable creatures um that you that you see everywhere the presence of the the sort of goofy signs I mean it does seem like kind of a deliberate choice to to you know Feel not bullied um by by everything that's happening. Yeah and to find some joy in the resentment existence, if you will, you know, the sort of the happy warrior-ness of it all, I think is really important and to not feel beaten down. And I think that's what this is about, that people want to show up. And they want to also, I think it also makes them look less threatening, right? It's much harder for law enforcement to claim that they feel threatened that they needed to use force if they're dealing with like an inflatable T-Rex, right? So I think that there's some strategy there as well, besides the fact that the whimsy may be good for morale and everything else, I think it's also useful to double down on the idea that this is a peaceful protest, this is an expression of first amendment rights, and this is not any sort of threat of violence, so show up as a chipmunker, a minion, or whatever. There on the, you can see there, by the way, in the shot just panned past the tarp that remains up to this day over the facade of the Kennedy Center, I mean, it's such a remarkable illustration of the weird kind of balance of power that controls the actual fact of who is allowed to physically order people to put words up and take words off of that building, where Donald Trump just threw his name up on there, and he wasn't allowed to, but he was in charge of the contractors who did it, and he told them to do it, and so they did. Then a judge said he had to take it back down, so they did take it back down, but they threw up the tarp, and no one has been allowed to see that they took it back down all that time. George, so George is pulling back a little bit from your tiny hands. >> That's the sign. >> Democracy. >> That is the sign, yeah, oh, look at that, look at that. >> You brought their sign in here. >> Yeah, you have the tiny key for that? >> No, he- >> Good, good, good, good, they don't have the key. >> Wait, George, George, ask her what brings her out, let's talk to this lady for a little bit, if she wants to talk to us. >> What brings you out here? >> The arts. >> The arts and the hands off, hands off, hands off, hands in cuffs, there we go. >> All right, you're no Jack Kennedy, okay, that's a good one, we got that one. >> Yeah. >> George, I don't know how you feel about doing the man on the street interviews, but I would love to see all two men on the street, yeah, I would just love to hear. >> Let me see who I can tap the audience, walk and see where at a decent distance we can actually hear, okay? >> They're people, we're not. >> All right. >> Oh, I see people taking photos of you. >> I know you too, hey, what brings you out here today? >> My kids. >> My kids. >> Your kids. >> Yes. >> And what about your kids? >> They got their awards here. >> Ah. >> For their high school. >> Okay. >> That's great. >> Okay. >> But also you're doing it for your kids generally though, right? >> Yes. >> All right. Good to see you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Uh-oh. Here's a hat. I'm not a hat, but a sign. This sign. We want this sign. Congratulations on your sign. Any comments? Do you want to offer, you want to offer the bullwork audience an explanation of what is this emoji? >> It is, that's a little weird. >> EOS. I can say it. This is the exact what he deserves. This is the Internet. This is what he represents to the majority of the country. I'm tired of his FAPIT, in SIPPIT monologues that he does all the time and says nothing. I want to know what happened to Ukraine, Russia. You know, you know, right? Many of us do. I want to know where our $5,000 is. I want to know where our dose checks are. I want to know where our tariff checks are. That's right. Where's your $5,000 too? Yeah, you lost it. You know, if you don't buy bananas, that's a plus, right? Don't buy bananas. Okay. All right. Okay. Look at this little guy. Hello. Oh, let's see. He hands off everything he does. This is like Rick with my friend, Rick Wilson. Everything such as dies, right? That's the same kind of the similar sentiment. Okay. What else? What else? What else we got? I like the poop time. Hi, I'm a former Clinton, I'm pointing. Oh, really? What'd you do? Hi? What's your move to from Chicago to work for Donna Shalala? Is this HHHS? So now it's like HHS. All the things. Yeah. I know. You know, we started the domestic violence hotline. We had food safety. Yeah. The highest level of childhood immunizations. I worked a lot on that. I worked on a lot of domestic violence. We were the first administration after 12 years to work on HIV AIDS. So Fauci with a little belligerent. And I said, I'm going to call you back in 15 minutes. I need three paragraphs. What's the most salient research? I don't have time to scroll around called the back. He was very polite. But a lot of eggs when we got in there after 12 years of Reagan and Bush. First one. But you know what? Everybody started working with us because we they understood. Okay. We're going to increase the budget for HIV and AIDS. We're going to increase breast cancer. We're going to start to talk about all the diseases that nobody looks at for women. And then I went to FEMA. Oh God help you. Yeah. Oh, did we freeze? No, it's girls. They should have never had a camp in the middle of a backflat plane, but I'm like, where's game on me? Okay, to see you. We're going to try to see if we can get back and hear some of the speakers and thank you for talking to us. Okay. Let's see. Are they done? No, they're walking around. They're walking around all the hands, the hands. Okay. Maybe we can talk to the chipmunk. No, we want to talk to the chipmunk in the in the. We're going to stay here because it's going to be I think people are going to do is they're going to hold hands in front of the Kennedy Center. I think I think that's what they're doing because there seems to be a movement our way. Yes, you do seem to be suddenly moving against some other way. I'm going against the wind. Hi, how are you? Good trouble. Good trouble. Yes. Yeah, take a picture. Absolutely. Watch me doing my mobile by my mobile reporter act, which I've never done before, which is unusual for a lawyer to do. Okay, we got to ask her what brings her out George. Yeah, what are you? Hi, I'm you know what I mean? She's in the car. Okay. Okay, not personally. Okay, but the chipmunk side. Oh, Raccoon. Okay. As I said, stay away from the FBI. Okay. Hello. And here's our minion. Here's our minion. As I said, a good minion. Not the bad kind of minion that's in the West Wing is a good minion. Wait a minute. I want to know though you were hanging out with that Russian guy in the movie, right? What did you do with him? He wasn't that. He wasn't. He wasn't at dawn. Junior's wedding. Was he? All right. Okay. I trust you on that. You're a good minion because you're here. You're not spying for the bad minions, right? All right. Okay. All right. Okay. Okay. Go. Go, Mr. minion. Excellent. Again. Another. Hello. Hi. There's just a lot of joy. I love it. Yeah. Okay. Again. Stay away from the FBI. There's a lot of energy. George in the comments. There's a lot of energy in our comments. We're out here down the tower. Right, yo. Close. Hey. What is doing? Okay. That's a good reason. Keep it simple. That's right. Okay. Okay. We're going to go back toward the center of activity. We're going to be by the band here. See, you got to have some arts at a protest protecting an artistic institution. Very important. And George is showing off his dancing skills. See, I love it. There's joy. There's costumes. There's dancing. There's music. I think this is the importance of the whimsy is also about showing Trump that you're not afraid. I think that's really what's what matters here. Excuse me. I don't know if George can still if we're still in his ear. I don't know if George can still hear us. If you can hear us, George, I would be interested to know how like what where people are actually add on the question of whether they think Trump is going to tear this thing down. Yeah. We're worried about that or whether this is just sort of like a good locus of protest right now. But I don't know if I'm in George's ear. So hard to say. I'm curious about that as well. We got these people here. We got to go find these people. Am I still on here? Yes, you are. Can you hear us? All right. Look at here we got. We got woman unrollably. I mean, these are nice rollerblades. There we go. Come on. Hi. I know you. All right. Did you stay? Oh, did you stay over here? Oh, all right. You got breaks on. Thank you. Thank you. Well, you're on the board. It's actually right now. Say hi. So what inspired you to get up? I've been a DC street skater since the 90s. And yeah, I just bought a pair of inline skates like hockey skates and hockey. And I'm trying to figure out where I can use them safely. Washington Road skaters. There's ways to get free lessons through them. Yeah, all I need is like I skate and I get ice hockey as a kid. So all I need to know is make sure I know how to stop. Oh, yeah. But anyway, so what do you love the t-shirt and what what brought you here today? I love the Kennedy Center. It's been a part of my life. I'm a deserian native. So it's been a part of my life my whole life. And everything from coming here to Hamilton or Samuel Beckett. What time they have? Half pipe set up and they have skateboard demonstration about a skateboarder. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love that and I'm also a big fan of the arts on the board of Washington area lawyers for the arts and Washington area lawyers for the art. Oh, you're a lawyer. Yeah, I can don't. I know how that feels. Well, anyway, thank you. Thank you, George. Can you ask people if they're wants to get that? Yeah, I'm sorry. What are you going to do? I'm going to be selfie. What's the, what did you want me to ask people? I want to know if they're worried about the Kennedy Center getting torn down. Are you worried about the Kennedy Center getting torn down? Oh, yeah, it's horrible. It's very real. Given what happened with the East Wing, you know, he has this philosophy of who's going to stop me. The courts have been either taken over or frozen and standing. I mean, you know, the standing issue, at least they have someone that's standing here. Yeah, yeah, that's the good. That's why I personally don't think he's going to be able to do anything to this. But of course, as lawyers, we can talk about standing and he's already about standing. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, this may not be standing anyway, because that's what he wants. But if he does strike it down, it'll be like Obi-Wan Kenobi and we'll come back stronger than ever. Thank you. Thank you. All right. What else we got here? Get a few more people on that question. Yeah, that's what I'm curious about. Are these people actually worried about it? Oh, contrary, okay. This is, we have a fellow, this is to their from the contrary, you know, norm, norm, norm, norm and, and, and Ben's outfit. Hello. We're going to do, I'd be like, we like, we could do like a cross live street. Okay. All right. I don't know. There's, you know, would that be like, would that create feedback for something? I don't know. All right. Oh, am I going to talk to you here? Oh, this is a great sign. Let's talk about this sign. Okay. Here. Can you read it to us? That's glorious sign. It begins with we, the people, we, the people have had enough. Remember, the constitution doesn't begin with either president. Well, you know, that's tell him that. Okay. Now let's see the other side. Yes. Epstein, bomb said, it's great. So what brought you out here today? Oh, like everyone else, I'm here to save democracy. Good. My version of the bomb. Good. And you're, I do you think you're afraid about the possibly despite being torn down? Oh, definitely, definitely. Yeah. Definitely. And why do you think he wants to do that? Oh, well, I think the narcissist would like everything named after him. What's narcissists? I don't know anything about that. I'm just joking. I'm just okay. I talk about that a little bit. A little prince. A little prince. Yeah. He's a little, he's a little, he's a little fight. Yeah, he's like those. What happens in the, oh, there are the Trump baby balloons. And he doesn't like women. No, he, well, for certain, for, for, in certain ways, they're not necessarily constructive. Okay. All right. Great. Oh, look at this. What are these? I don't know. They're like greedy people with dollar signs. Okay. I'm not sure what to make of that. Okay. But okay. Um, Trump is no JFK embarrassed American. You want to tell us why you're embarrassed? All right. No, he doesn't want to tell us why we're embarrassed. We all know why he's embarrassed. I am embarrassed. I am embarrassed. And here is the, the, the person in charge of the ceremonies. I was going to say Matt, I mean, master mistress. I don't know. Hey, hey, we need some folks to help us in reach time to fill in some animals. So if you want to move over the reach tonight, over this direction, we'll leave arms and we'll do some change and we'll come back here for a short farewell. So, nine heads. All right. It's a beautiful night. It was insane. It's a perfect night for us. So filling the reach area this way. Thank you. So if you see what they're doing here, what they're doing is they're forming, you know, the name of the protest is hands around the Kennedy Center. And let's get some people with hands out there. So are people linking arms? I can't quite tell. Yes, let's walk. Actually, we can walk past them and see all the people. Everybody happy to be here. Yeah, you got that all. That's great. Yeah, look at this. Try to get to see how far we can demolition crew through this show of force. All right. Let's see. I assume I assume that was part of the reason people were showing up or we're organizing it this way to just in case some construction equipment shows trying to fill up. They're trying to fill up. You know, I think it's more symbolic because it's not like everybody. Hello, how are you? Yeah, I think the idea is they're trying to go all the way around it right around the security perimeter. I don't think they'll go all the way to the back. But we'll take a look, actually. Hey, George, while you're there, is there a big law enforcement presence? Not really. Sorry. The Metro police have the streets blocked off. But other than that, this is private security. I assume it's Kennedy Center security. One of them just hit hello. I think they probably are sympathetic. But I do not see. I do not see very many. In fact, I don't think I've seen any Metro cops here. I don't think I've seen any, you know, federal police here. It's all very peaceful. I mean, literally, like to show you to really make the point. I mean, there are thousands of people lined up here. And there's nothing that separates them other than these barriers from the building. Hey, how are you doing? Good to see you. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay. There's, you know, there are a few security guards, you know, standing there. But that's basically it. Come here. Why don't you come here? Okay. So this is the extent of the security in front of the building. And this is the peaceful crowd adhering to the, you know, to the rules here. And it's a very sweet crowd, very nice crowd. They're having a good time. You know, they're chanting and carrying funny signs and being very nice. And that's the way it should be. And it's great. This is, this is, this is American. How long have the barriers been up? Do we know? Was this, were these put up just for the protest? No, I think the barriers have been up here for a while to keep people away from. They've been up since the tarp went up. Yeah, they designed to keep people from taking a picture of what's behind the tarp, for example, because that's a real security threat, right? Because we actually, we notice how even at this angle, even if this sharp angle, you cannot see the word Kennedy, right? That's the reason why the tarp is up there. And that's the reason why this fence is here. So that you cannot see the word Kennedy and the absence of the word Trump. That's how petty and stupid. And it's not for security reasons. There's no real, this crowd, if it wanted to, could break into this building in 30 seconds. Okay. So it's bullshit. You know, all this is all bullshit. And I don't think, and here's another piece, bullshit. Do you see anything? Follow your part? Do you see any structural damage to this building? You know, I, it's all, it's all a complete nonsense. And while you're, while you're there, George, don't do you think maybe you could incite the crowd to go and tear down the tarp or, you know, let us all see for ourselves, be a part of history, you know, something. Just be joking. So Sarah have bail money for me. Is it going to like get used to proceeds over a book to bail me out? She's out and about, you know, she's off. She's off promoting the book. She's going to do a lot of book. She's going to have to do a lot of book promotion. If she's going to bail me out. Hi, how are you guys? Why are you guys here? We're here because we want our hands off the Kennedy Center. Excellent. Excellent. Excellent. Isn't it great to be holding hands with these people? Hands off. Hands off. Yes. All right. Awesome. Right. It's time to get dark here. Can you see? Yeah, we can still see. Yeah. That's an iPhone. That's great. So we're going to go around the side here. Okay. We're, wow. You know, we're kind of like stage right to the left side of the front of the, of the center. Hello. Everyone say hi. We're increasing our bulwark audience here each and every moment. And so do you think there are enough people to circumnavigate the building? Well, we're, we're walking. We're walking around. It's kind of a gap here, but there are people there. I mean, they're not a whole whole holding hands at once, but this is, I mean, this is, this is, they're completely surrounding the building as you can see. I'm genuinely surprised by the turnout. Like I thought some people would come out. The turnout is awesome. I mean, I saw online as I was coming over here. As I was coming over here, I saw online that the protest organizers, you could, there was a link whereby you could sign up. I think what the real purpose of that is is to get a mailing list together. It's kind of like the no kings, right? But, you know, they said 950 people that's as shown up there way more than 950 be even earlier. Way more. There's no question about that. There's probably There's probably about at least 1,500 just standing in front of me right now. I'm just guessing I'm not good at that And here we are on the plaza right onto the south of the Kennedy Center. Oh, there you are. Okay, there's the camera and I've been to many event here with a tent no ballroom just the tent here on this very spot George I would love to hear you probably here. We were I want to we went to a memorial service here once right here Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Hi, and then yeah, for hi, yeah, back when there was a newspaper in town All right, so here is the person I really want to talk to sir Where can I get this balloon these balloons? I like want how much are they where did you get them? I found them on the internet the internet the internet you hear that the internet I'm that's a good tip actually I got them during the first administration from a group called mad dog pack. Oh, I know Oh, I know Claude Claude and I put up some billboards together once upon a time You got it. You know I You got to be careful though because something might come out of the diaper. So you have to I stand back Stand back you have to keep your eyes up. It's kind of like the birds except it's you know, anyway So this is service journalism right here. This is service. Wait a minute. Where's the camera? Come where you come here? This shirt this Washington national shirt has a lot more to it. Look at 34 and number 34 Really really good work here No, no, that's the great thing about these no kings and hands-off rallies as people come like prepare and that's like yeah So what brought you here today? Well to defend the Kennedy Center from tyranny of course, okay? Yeah, and how you feeling about the the crowd and it's a beautiful crowd. It's a little bit beautiful night. I'm a thousand Thousand tell me I Think there are more people here than we're at Trump's Trump's inaugural, don't you? Yeah, right? Absolutely more people. Yeah, right? Trump is gonna judge it by the number of people. We're gonna judge it by the content of their character Oh, that's night. I would you would which that's a good line. Where'd you get that just just aim to me? Okay, so all right All right, thank you. See you All right, let's see. Wow. This is really great turnout. Yeah, I wonder how many the people are here specifically for Here's one. Here's one. This is a shirt Got it It ain't gonna happen man ain't gonna happen. Why is not gonna happen? I don't know. I mean, he's probably he probably you know Bone spurs are right. Sorry. He don't know what a dd for two 14 is why he don't know what a dd two 14 I don't know what a dd two 14 if you was in everybody's in the service gets a dd two 14 when they get out Mm-hmm and most people that's in the service they know a dd two 14 means they successfully Served in the military service. Can you buy one? No, you can't buy one even Donald Trump can't buy one You have to go into the service to get it all right don't have one his sons don't have one none of his sons. We all have none you got one I have a dd two 14 God bless you and God bless America. Thank you. You're a man I want to know if people are getting this merch beyond just doing that. Oh, this merch is great. It's great Hi. Yes, absolutely picture. Oh a picture of and Donnie We got picture of of All the best people and and all the best people and our friends Jeffrey and Donald Just four pals hanging out. Well four pals. Just hanging out. Do we gonna do the date and the white man's overbiting? Hey, all right. There we go All right. Yeah. Hi. How are you? Great. Great. Hi. What is 86? It's an issue. The 86 you live in DC? No, no. Oh, it's I'm in New York now It's not 86 something Flagrod's against fraud. Okay. 86 86. All right. Okay. All right. Hi everybody. All right Orange camera orange camera. Okay. I love that George is the celebrity All right. All right. So I think I think it's yeah. There's something I guess that's what it sounded like I look it's important. I mean, this is important. Local all politics is local although I don't know I do think I do think it's interesting. I mean, like any any time you go out to one of these things It really is like, you know, oh my god. It's for smorgasbord of different causes and like people just people just want to want to show up and like Do you know how I went to the I was like no kings and and and like Um the best were the signs there were much more The signs aren't as good here as they were for no kings because they're just as not as many people But still pretty good What does that mean? Let's finish. Yeah, you got it. You gotta just gotta talk about something else, right? Well, in a minute here, I mean, I was just gonna say I'm going to want you to park somewhere so we can all break down a couple of these actual stories a little bit I'm getting a little seasick watching you just sort of it's it's good content, but uh Yeah, it's good content. Oh, look at the doggies. I'd like to get all the dogs here Yes, hello. Why are you here for the treats? Are you here for the treats? Oh I think that dog is concerned about democracy. Yeah, this is a threat. This is an entire authoritarian dog. Yes Okay, and there's another one there. Okay. All right. Well, I'm gonna figure out apart myself I'm gonna go back to we can start talking now Um, I think I want to go back to the front there to see whether or not there are any kind of like people Like celebrity types or something. You know, they're here I'm not a celebrity. I know. That's a celebrity. The dog is a celebrity I Wally Wally did dog and Wally Wally So did we figure out it or did they completely surround the center circumnavigate the center? I don't think They could circumnavigate the center because at the end of that plaza that they were on is basically barriers Yeah, and you have to you know how there's a there's a balcony or a Out over rock creek like a courtyard. Yeah, it's no it's like a walkway over Rock Creek drive and so to get there you have to go down a ramp and I think that's all back that blocked off So I think you could you could go around like three sides of the Kennedy Center. I think that's what they did George, I would love if you asked two or three more people just like specifically are are they genuinely concerned about Trump knocking this down or is this we're just Yeah, yeah, well, we got to come up here. We want to get this guy's t-shirt and Want to get your t-shirt and your button most importantly? You got it the most important. We want the button. This is my favorite button See the button. Oh, okay And the shirt is really really good. So are you are you worried that Trump and an office post? Oh, yeah, I'm worried that he's going to come in the middle right he wants to do that Um because he can't tolerate the fact that anybody has greatness and dignity when he is such a piece of crap Totally agree with that. That's it. I mean, I don't think especially complicated than that. I that's my you know Yeah, that's my that's my theory. Yeah, um totally good to see you. It's good to see you out here. All right The last time I saw you was in front of Bolton's house when they were Right it was another you're on the board live stream just as we were then Classic live stream. Yeah. All right So George, what's your theory about why it is so important for Trump to have his name specifically on this building? Look, you know, I well, I think I think they're look I think he wants his name on as anything he put his name on right because I because he's a narcissistic sociopath and he believes You know, he he can never get enough Attention or praise. There's never enough for him And he's continually being bombarded with criticism that he himself triggers So he is this endless thirst, you know, a narcissistic thirst and and for for just praise and and putting his name on things and I think this in particular This building has a particular significance to him because It represents things that he is not right it represents culture when he is not culture. It represents You know, it represents a president who fought for his country. He did not fight for his country It represents a president who is lionized. He will never be lionized. So he inherently wants To destroy this okay, and that that's that's the thing and I talked about this with Andrew the other day About you know his narcissistic sociopathy And they want to destroy narcissistic sociopath and he's a textbook one if you take a college course in in In abnormal psychology. It's like he checks every box. It's not really that hard. It's not that obfruity checks every box about Not caring about others about not having a conscience about not having any remorse About violating other people's rights about Pathologically lying every every bat. No, I mean even if you didn't have that Characterization that psychological characterization. You know, wouldn't have you don't want anybody with a significant number of these traits Unchecked or even partially checked to hold a position of power over your life So this is who this guy is and he's the people like him are inherently destructive because there's never Enough to satisfy five of them and they end up wanting to destroy what they cannot control or have it mean it's like if you ever watch the movie and I love to talk about this the movie downfall it's that German language movie but the last ten days in the fear of bunker I mean there's this whole bit about the narrow order that Hitler gave to Albert Speer to basically destroy everything all the infrastructure in Germany and and Speer's response at least in the movie I think you know he killed it his his response in his book and that he wrote it's spanned out you know is it was that but but but but but my fear are the people have to eat and he goes and then if you're and then he's well Narcissus Exocepass Park they don't care about anything about themselves and this is why we're talking about this building he wants to tear it down and that's why we're talking about this instead of the war that he created that he established that he started that's to you know making life unaffordable for Americans and that's oh they're singing mountain can you hear that can you sing oh yeah a little bit try to get closer Oh see to see I don't know the next one thank you thank you I did know something about tyrant I can't remember something yeah the second verse in it seems appropriate yeah it's okay we should have handled the board for the live sheet I am I am a member I am a member thank you who who is always right the boy most every summer is always right JBL is JBL always right or no okay he's okay yeah JBL is okay that's how is always right that's how is that okay that was diabolical George putting her on the spotlight ever the second stands of America the beautiful on the live stream I can't imagine that's yeah this isn't really nice the word I think what's important here is that this is an act of patriotism what we are seeing at this protest is an act of patriotism this is people who love America and who want to stand up for America and protect it against authoritarians and I think that's the most important takeaway from all of this there's funny signs and lots of whimsy but fundamentally this is an act of love that we are seeing people expressing their first amendment rights because they love this country and I'm sure Donald Trump tomorrow if he sees any of this footage from us or any other news outlet we'll say the opposite that these are people who hate America these are people who hate the American way of life and that's why they're out there and we have the evidence here that that is not true these are people who are singing about how they love this country they're caring signs about how they love this country and they are trying to protect this important cultural touchstone in all the ways that they know how with humor and lovely singing voices and just bringing their whole beings to this event and I love it this is the kind of thing that makes me as as embarrassed as I am sometimes by the behavior of this country these kinds of acts make me very proud I'm going to say I'm playing writing songs I'm going to say I'm gorgeous and I'm going to believe it I love this show absolutely I really do hope they do not succeed in knocking this place down I love I mean I've tried to keep my own personal biases out of the story because really it's more a story about you know Trump trampoline on the rule of law and you know not letting courts tell him what to do everything but I just I love the Kennedy Center man like I just I kind of wish I were down this is the rapid response choir do you see the signs there in that great rapid response choir I love it very creative structure yeah I think it's wrapping up oh look there's a good sign over there failure on an operatic scale the other side says what is the other side says I hope he turns they turn around let's see if we can get over to that sign I see people commenting there's more people here than we're at the RNC convention it's probably true that might be true there can we see the other side of your sign can you do the whole thing hello I feel a guy's to meet you okay okay so here we go wicked sorry DJT failure on an operatic scale this is great I love that very kind of oh thank you thank you I'm trying I'm trying so why are you here today you got to be kidding exactly nobody's going to do this for us right we are the ones we are waiting for don't think this is the one he's waiting for but we're not waiting for him yes absolutely so we're leading them God bless you God bless and you know what you you're worried he's going to actually tear this building down he's capable of anything so I think I'm slightly worried yeah I don't think it will happen no I think so either but yeah I can't stop it yeah all right hello hi I need to tell me I will go you go for the country Lincoln project thank you so much thank you thank you we see the best I love look at this guy what's this guy's name I love though I'm Rocco I know Rocco another patriotic club Rocco what do you think you want to treat he's like I want drop out of law fast yes we do we do good boy all right get that dog friends right what else we got here what else we got you're no j there's the tiny hands sign again which I liked very much I love this I'm just faking it I'm just faking it this is amazing I'm just like you know they're there must be like four five thousand people here don't you love this is civic love it's an act of love and one of the things I pointed out was there are several thousand people lined up here and they're like three security guards and it's completely peaceful we don't see any I did not see a single DC Metro police officer this is like peaceful peaceful peace and love and the first amendment and the arts and democracy and all the and a sense of community that Donald Trump is trying to take away from us all right yeah all these selfies on a live stream I love it thank you so much all right all oh oh super super cap callus fabulous racist sexist lying bonus that's good I can't I don't know if I can have to can you sing it can you sing it and you sing every fast no it's hot hello this is your young you're young to exercise your first amendment rights but this is great you gotta start early gotta start early all right all right okay reason okay let's see what else can we find here if I'm boring you you can come me off any sun no this is great this is great George dance group okay I'm like basically looking around oh look bubbles bubbles gotta have bubbles this is the only gun we've seen here today second amendment rights right there second amendment bubbles yep first amendment rights and second amendment ones much all right what can I there's a frog we have to go see the frog so we had the frog already you think that was the frog in Portland or you think is what are the what are the flags you're seeing well there's an upside down this American flag in distress I don't see other flag oh here's a flag this is this is a this is a this is a lgbtq plus flag I think if I you know updated on current current situations oh and here's Donald Trump doing what he likes to do best there he is can we show this can we show this word on on on the board I think we can it's an adult audience hey how you doing man love the sign let's see what you got on the other side there's this ready oh yeah I like that son we were pointing this sign out earlier that's a good sign all right while they didn't Minnesota they showed up yeah see all right what else we got? Do you want to ask people if this is their first protest? Are we getting people who are regulars? Hello! Hello! Hi! You are in, what is that? Am FIFA? I'm a Fabian Georgia, I'm a FIF against fascism. Okay. Listen, I'm telling all the creatures here, if you see any FBI agents stay away from them. Okay, just make sure people surround you and protect you. Okay, you know, or see Castel. You have a fan in there? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no comment, no comment. Oh, she didn't like me. Now she's attacking me. Oh, well said. And we have a bills fan. Hi, how are you? I love you on the bowl. Oh, thank you. What do you do now here? Just do it, stop. Just hanging out, show it to me. Why are you here? I'm here because we've been doing this for 10 years in Virginia. I'm an activist. Okay. And so we have to show up, stand up and speak up wherever we are. That works. No, but we're in Virginia. Okay. Women, women of that organization. I appreciate what you do. I appreciate Republicans, Miley speaking up. I hope not Republican anymore. I know you're not. Let me see how many of like just how many people here do you think they're going to their first process or just onto their first project in the last two years? No, no, no. I see a lot of my friends from across the pond and all around. But my guess is a lot of people are onboarding different ways. Yeah, the wires through their music. So I'm guessing with Candy Center people. We're probably seeing a lot of return ease because I came from stop the arch with the veterans started stopping the arch. Yeah, but I do will say this. This is waking people up. I like that teacher. I love a teacher. Let's show a thing. Look at you. Good luck. Thank you. A teacher got to show a teacher to show the audience, the full work audience with this teacher. It says. I already mentioned your friend. You got to appear before you. I'm with the bulwark. The bulwark. It's an online magazine and we do live streaming. You know, check it out. The bulwark.com. Yeah, and we're doing this live on YouTube and some other places. All right, George. Oh, thank you. Yes, sir. Sorry. I didn't mean to cut off that lady. Yeah, I was gonna say let's not let's let's let's peel you out of the crowd here and do a couple minutes. Let's find let's find a quiet spot. That is a packed audience protest not audience. They're participants. They're not audience. This lovely lady is up here to be and she wants you to see how important this event was for her. All right, we're going to get a nice view of the whole scene here. And hopefully we don't like fall down on anything. Yeah, so you've been there. You've been you've been talking to the people. Pretty good turnout. Really good turnout. Really good. Really spectacular turnout. Yeah, it seems like people are not really sure. Okay. How it doesn't seem like people are quite sure how apprehensive they ought to be about this. It's weird because like on the one hand, you know, that he has no legal right to do a single thing to this. Judges have said, you know, don't touch the Kennedy Center. He has no authority over the Kennedy Center much less even than he did over the East Wing. And yet he is a guy who has shown he's bold. He can be bold. Those are happy. He has shown that, you know, courts are one thing and you know, the people actually with their hands on the heavy equipment is a different thing. I mean, it's such a weird moment that we're in. I mean, like the energy is good, but but the moment is still so surreal. Yeah, it's so surreal because basically we've never been through a moment like this before and we don't know. I mean, look, I mean, we were talking about how predictable it was that Trump would try to tear this building down once he, you know, became clear that the court was going to let him, wasn't going to let him put his name on it and it was clear that he was basically threatening the appellate courts with tearing it down by saying that, you know, if you don't reverse this district court decision, I mean, this is basically the thrust of what he was been saying last few days. If you don't reverse this district court decision, well, obviously, we're going to have to close it and then by implication and then later more explicitly saying, we'll have to rip it down. And, you know, that's, we've never seen anything like that. Destruction for destruction steak. Destructions sake. Destruction for the ego of one man and, you know, there's no playbook for this other than this, which is to get out there and do what we can. And then there are, there are legal, legal friends like, you know, Norm Eisen is defending democracy and, and I have the group names, right? And, and the Washington litigation group, which has been litigating on behalf of the Congressman from Ohio who's on the board and brought the case in district court that got the renaming enjoined and is now, you know, the judges now issued an order that if you're going to try to demolish this building, you have to give 30 days notice at a minimum. If they, if they start without giving him that notice, then they'll be held in contempt. But if they give that notice, then he gets the whole to hearing about whether that's legal. So my question, my question for you, George, though, is weren't there supposed to be similar protections in place when it came to the East Wing? And he just brought his bulldozers in anyway. Well, the problem there from a legal standpoint was there was less of a less of a legal lever, so to speak, to bring that case. I mean, that what makes this case easier to bring is that there is somebody with what we call legal standing. Somebody with the right to sue. And that's Congressman, whose name I keep forgetting, the one from Ohio, what? Bady, the congress, congress, congressperson, Bady, who is a member of the board. And this is, you know, it's a nonprofit corporation, but it is a corporation. And one of the central aspects of corporation law is that people with an interest in the corporation, whether they be a shareholder, in this case, they aren't really shareholders, or if they are a director of the corporation, in which case, which essentially she is, she's a member of the board, they all fiduciary duties to the entities to protect the entity. And if they think that the other people who are supposed to be exercising their fiduciary duties to protect the entity are violating their duties, or if they're violating the law, here, here, there's a very specific statutes to Congress enacted about, you know, the memorial aspect of this building, they have the right to sue. And to say, listen, these people are violating their duties, they're violating the law. And I am suing essentially to vindicate the rights of this entity that I have a duty to. In the case of the East Wing, there wasn't a, you know, there wasn't a performing arts center, there wasn't a East Wing center, there wasn't a corporate body, you know, that allowed someone to sue, that gave them the sort of the inherent corporate right to sue, corporate law right to sue. And what they did was, there was a, you know, national historic preservation, something or other, which doesn't have direct control over a federal government building like that, an executive office building like that. But, you know, the, the, the, the argument was that they, that that this organization and the, and the individual who is a member of that organization had kind of an aesthetic, a interest in because they have an interest in preservation generally. Now, the Supreme Court said that's not enough because, yeah, it's just, it's just aesthetic, but in fact, it should have been enough because one of the things that the Supreme Court had held decades ago, and in opinion by Justice Scalia, in fact, was that, for example, if, you know, Congress could not create general standing for everybody to sue when a snail darter is harmed on the environment and violation of the environmental laws. But if you actually could show that you are somebody who goes out to the wilderness and you enjoy the environment and you work to protect the environment and you like snail darters, you know, that's a sufficient concrete interest for you to, that you have an interest in the litigation and that, so that creates a real case or controversy. And therefore, you have standing under Article 3 of, of the Constitution. The whole idea between of that limitation of standing is that we don't want the courts just running around just deciding things unless there's an actual concrete dispute between two parties who have a real interest and we only decide real cases. And that, you know, that principle should have been applied to the East Wing, but it wasn't because the Supreme Court decided it didn't want to follow its own law and its own case law. But here, it's a much, was a much stronger situation because you have the overlay of corporate law, you have the overlay of an entity created by Congress and with a statutory body that was directly in charge of managing the building. And so it's, I don't think there's a standing problem here, which is why, you know, Judge Cooper in the District Court was able to provide relief here and I think we'll continue to be able to and I think we talked about this the other day, I think Andrew. One of the things that might be able to, that I would do, if I were, I might not have to do the legal research, but if I were a lawyer for Representative Beatty, I would basically say one of the things we will do is, we will sue any contractor who participates in the demolition of this building because one of the things that you can do in what's, what I described as kind of lawsuit is a derivative, it's called a derivative action, you can bring by it from shareholders and a private, a private class. corporation context and a board member in this context is you can sue not just stop the board from doing something not in the interest of the corporation, but you can sue to recover damages if somebody commits a wrong onto the institution, which is a, you know, we call that tort in law. So basically what you're saying is it's not only it's not only Trump who could be scared off or order to not demolish this place, private entities would have to be hoots with him. Correct. And I would basically say, we're going to bring, we're going to try to bring this claim. And if I, if you're a, if you're a private enterprise, you know, you're going to want an indemnity. And who's trusted indemnity from Donald fucking Trump, sorry, is the language, right? So I think that would be the, that's the ultimate way you could actually protect this building. I think, I mean, I may have maybe it, maybe there's some wrinkle here that, that, that, that makes, makes my argument not valid, but I think that should work. And, and, and from an economic standpoint, from an incentive standpoint, that should stop anybody from nobody should, you know, I would be, if I were a private entity, I would be terrified of being held liable and you could be held completely liable for this for taking a bulldozer to this place and getting sued for, you know, why I can't imagine how many that's the only way I think that that's the way to fight, right? It's, it's to make sure that, yeah, I have somebody's pocketbook, I'm not theory out there. I've, absolutely, absolutely, because Donald Trump, Donald Trump is never going to make you whole. Yeah. We had, we had originally started out sort of teasing a gigantic pile of news that the president has been up to, you know, breaking this afternoon about Greenland and about kicking people out of the press pool and all these sorts of things. Eventually, it just turned out that the crowd was too interesting and we just, you know, we had a good time hanging out with George hanging out with all of them. So I guess we're going to have to put a pin in all of that stuff and, and you're going to have to tune in. No, I don't know. They're not going home. Oh, we can start this again in the morning if they're still here. Yeah. You're going to camp out all night. I don't, it's a beautiful night. It's not, it's, it's probably like 72, 73 degrees. It's not human at all. It's a little human, but not too much. It's really perfect whether for a protest, I have to say, yeah, yeah, well, they're, they are not going to bed, but unfortunately, my kids are. So I have to, I have to get and get over there and help out with that in a minute or two here. So we, we're going to, we're going to end up. We're going to do a closing shot of the American flags. God bless. God bless America. And God bless you guys. God bless the board and Sarah's always right. George, thanks a lot for hanging out with the people out there. Thanks for thanks to everybody. I love the people. We love the people. We are the people. That's true. Yeah, we count. We count, too. Don't we? Thank you, Catherine, too, for, for coming and hanging out. Everybody who is watching, thank you guys for hanging out with us on a Friday night or whatever it is. You happen to be watching this. We really do hope you will subscribe to the channel wherever you're watching it, whether that's on YouTube or on substack. It genuinely does help us out so much. It is what helps us grow. It is the lifeblood of our continued reach and our continued success. It's, it's, it's very easy for you to do and very impactful for us in our works. We hope you will subscribe to the feed if you are not already. Like the video, share it with your friends, all that stuff, but especially subscribe to the channel. Thanks, everybody out there. We're going to keep following this story. We're going to keep talking about it all. We're going to keep tabs on the Kennedy Center and everything else. This administration is up to thank you all and we'll see you all next time.