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Smerconish

Impact Of Trump's Unsubstantiated Blame Of DEI For Crash; Trump DOJ Aims To Potentially Fire Thousands Of Jan. 6 Prosecutors; Rep. Byron Donalds, (R-FL), Is Interviewed About Trump's Firing Of January 6 Prosecutors, Tariffs on Canada, Mexico, China; Tariffs On Canada, Mexico, China Now In Effect. Medevac Jet With Six People On Board Crashes In Philadelphia; Bill Maher: "Trump Is Cool Now." Aired 9-10a

Aired February 01, 2025 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:00:31]

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN ANCHOR: Air tragedy strikes again, this time very close to home. I'm Michael Smerconish here in Philadelphia. A medical jet carrying six people crashed into a Philly neighborhood, causing a massive explosion that affected nearby homes and vehicles. The small plane was carrying a pediatric patient and her mother, along with four crew members, a pilot, copilot, doctor and medic. At this time, authorities cannot confirm any survivors from the crash.

We're awaiting a news conference, perhaps this hour from here in Philadelphia. As we get updates, we'll bring them to you.

This all coming after the tragic Black Hawk and American Airlines collision that killed 67 people near Reagan National Airport on Wednesday night. A chilling collision above the Potomac upended after the consoler in chief pivoted and began playing the blame game and speculating while providing no evidence that diversity and hiring policies of prior administrations somehow caused this tragedy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The FAA's website states they include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism, all qualify for the position of a controller of airplanes. The FAA website shows that the agency's guidance on diversity hiring were last updated on March 23 of '22. They wanted to make it even more so. And then I came in and I assume maybe this is the reason.

The FAA, which is overseen by Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a real winner.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMERCONISH: Remember now, the effort had just changed from rescue to recovery. Bodies were still being pulled out of the Potomac when he said that. Kaitlan Collins then pressed the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: You haven't yet know the names of the 67 people who were killed and you are blaming Democrats and DEI policies and air traffic control and seemingly the member of the U.S. Military who was flying that Black Hawk helicopter. Don't you think you're getting ahead of the investigation right now?

TRUMP: No, I don't think so at all. I don't think with the names of the people, you mean the names of the people that are on the plane? You think that's going to make a difference?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMERCONISH: Despite any evidence supporting his conjecture, the president doubled down. And with the support of the vice president, the secretary of defense, the secretary of transportation, he produced a shiny object, DEI, which dominated the Thursday news cycle. Debate over DEI now filled airspace that would otherwise have been focused on the confirmation hearings occurring that day on Capitol Hill feels featuring the most controversial remaining nominees of President Trump. There was Tulsi Gabbard, tapped to be Trump's director of National Intelligence who refused to say whether or not she thinks Edward Snowden is a traitor. FBI director nominee Kash Patel, who fielded questions about a retribution and enemies list.

RFK Jr., Trump's nominee to be the next secretary of Health and Human Services, seemed to struggle a bit when answering a basic question about Medicare. Three nominees who could potentially be in charge of our security and health. They all took a back seat to a torrent of unproven rhetoric and speculation. That night, President Trump's unfounded speculation about DEI was welcomed on Fox News and no doubt many Americans working jobs with limited bandwidth to verify their information, they went to bed thinking 67 people died because of a government initiative which they think discriminates against whites and had caused some unfit minority to get hired for a job resulting in negligence and costing lives.

I'm too cynical to accept coincidence. I think President Trump wanted to own the news cycle like he wants to own every news cycle. And this time he sought the added political benefit of raising questions over whether a minority was at fault for the D.C. catastrophe. It brings me today's poll question@smerconish.com. Do you believe President Trump's blaming of DEI for the Washington crash was a deliberate attempt to shift focus from the congressional confirmation hearings?

And now let me tell you a story of how caught in the ensuing crossfire was an American soldier, Jo Ellis. She's a service member who has dedicated her life to defending this country, spent 15 years in the Virginia Army National Guard, is a chief warrant officer, a combat gunner, a UH60 Black Hawk pilot. Jo has deployed to Iraq, Guatemala, and Kuwait. She's also a transgender woman who transitioned while in service and coincidentally once worked as the digital media manager for smerconish.com.

[09:05:22]

Now go back to Monday. On Monday, President Trump signed an executive order directing newly confirmed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to implement a policy to come up with the means to preclude transgender personnel from the U.S. Military, arguing that being transgender is not consistent with military ideals. When I read that, I invited Jo to be a guest on my Sirius XM radio program. On Tuesday, she wrote a moving piece about her experience. We published it on my website.

And then on Wednesday, she joined me for a national radio interview on Sirius XM. It was that night that the tragedy occurred on the Potomac. And by Thursday night and Friday morning, Jo Ellis was falsely accused of piloting the Black Hawk helicopter that collided with the American Airlines jet. And then absolutely horrific headlines like this offensive conspiracy fueled tweets ensued that went viral. Jo Ellis was the number two most trending topic in the United States on X late Friday morning with more than 90,000 posts, according to Trends24, a website that tracks trending topics.

I suspect the visibility that came from the radio interview along with the article we published at smerconish.com put Jo's name in play such that she became an easy target for some of the twisted voices that have outsized influence online. Jo became collateral damage, linked blamed via high speed Internet to a tragedy with which she had nothing to do, collateral in the President's unfounded theories and attempt to divert attention away from real conversations about who's going to lead our country and what truly happened in the crash. And now she'll forever represent a cautionary tale of how the combination of loose talk and trigger fingers on keypads can sully a person's reputation and subject them to online ridicule, scorn and threats.

Joining me now is Jo Ellis. Nice to see you, Jo. How did this all happen from your perspective? Where were you? What were you doing when you found that you were being blamed for the Washington catastrophe?

JO ELLIS, TRANSGENDER NATIONAL GUARD BLACK HAWK PILOT: Thank you for having me, Michael. I want to reiterate that I'm speaking in a personal status, not representing the National Guard, U.S. Army or Department of Defense. My heart goes out to the families of the victims and they don't deserve these rumors. I learned of this at 4:30 a.m. Friday morning from a text message of a close friend that a bot account was commenting on his Facebook post asking if he knew Jo Ellis who killed those people in the D.C. crash. Then someone sent me a link to a Pakistani newspaper article naming me in the crash.

And then I received a Daily Mail phone call asking if I was alive and if I knew what was happening to me.

SMERCONISH: What sort of threats, what sort of ridicule, what scored -- sort of, I mean, pain have you been put through as a result of this process?

ELLIS: Well, Michael, I was not surprised by the hate. This is my reality. And now that I'm more visible, more comes. The false claims put me and my family at risk. I was surprised by the outpouring of love and support, though, from strangers all over the world sending messages. And I believe love shines brighter than hate.

SMERCONISH: So, I don't believe in coincidence. You know that about me. I see causal connection. I don't think that Jo Ellis would have been wrongly blamed for the D.C. catastrophe, but for the comments that the President made in that press conference where, without foundation, he tossed DEI into this conversation. What's your reaction?

ELLIS: My reaction, Michael, is that I've heard anecdotes from many of the trans community saying that they have been targeted since the comments of the president, and they -- their safety is at risk. And I am very fortunate from a very privileged position, but other people are not so much, and this is really putting people's lives at risk.

SMERCONISH: Relative to your backstory, I'm going to put on the screen some of what you wrote earlier in the week, "I've had symptoms of what I now know to be gender dysphoria since I was five years old. I learned early to hide these symptoms from my family because I thought they meant I was a bad person. This led to healthy and not so healthy coping mechanisms. I thought that if I could just be more religious, more successful, more manly, that I would cure my condition. I got married, bought a house, helped raise a stepdaughter, played drums in the church band, adopted a dog.

[09:10:16]

All the things I believed a good man should do. And I really wanted to do those things, but I also secretly hoped it would fix me. It didn't work." You come from a family with a rich tradition of military service. You know now that your future service is at risk.

Speak to the controversy that surrounds whether transgender individuals such as yourself should be able to serve.

ELLIS: Well, I believe in a meritocracy, and I have met all of the standards to serve. I came out while it was allowed and part of policy. So I did what I believe was totally legal while serving to come out and to serve openly. And in my mind, I still meet those standards today. And any deviation from the standard it should be what decides if a person should be fit to serve or not.

Changing the standards to target a very specific group is very different.

SMERCONISH: Jo, let's talk now about something you'd probably rather be addressing, which is your actual experience in flying helicopters. You know the corridor. You obviously were not involved in any flights there this week, but you know the corridor. Talk to me about your reaction to this catastrophe based on your knowledge.

ELLIS: Yes, Michael, I've flown those routes. Like many pilots I've seen on the news, many people speaking to this, I've always felt safe operating in that airspace, thanks to the rigorous army training that I've received and the helpful air traffic controllers that guided me along those corridors. I'm not an accident investigator, and I'm not really qualified to speak about the crash specifically. SMERCONISH: Is it a particularly -- I get that and I respect it. Is it a particularly difficult area, from your perspective as a helicopter pilot in which to fly, as compared to other places you've been? You've flown all over the globe.

ELLIS: I would say that it is busy like many areas that have busy airports. There's FAA training that is required to fly into those areas. And we take all the necessary precautions anytime we fly into that area.

SMERCONISH: What has been the reaction from those with whom you have served to, A, your transition and B, the way in which wrongly you were injected into this controversy this week?

ELLIS: Overwhelming support, Michael, from my battalion commander, from the adjutant general of Virginia, from up and down, left and right of the ranks, from civilians, from veterans. I've received messages from South Africa, from places all over the world supporting me and serving me open -- allowing me to serve openly.

SMERCONISH: And finally, I described what happened to you, Jo, as a cautionary tale for all of us of how just someone who is in service, in your case, in service to their country, going about their private life, all of a sudden gets thrust into the public domain. In a prior era, you know, your injury to reputation would have been limited by how many voices could tell a story, whisper down the lane. But in this instance, when you were the number two trending subject on X yesterday, it's all just a send key away. Final thought.

ELLIS: Final thought is my Army training has prepared me to handle the unexpected. And so I reacted in that way and I made preparations and contacted the proper people to keep my family safe, to keep me safe. And nobody deserves this kind of false rumors and attention.

SMERCONISH: Jo Ellis, thank you. Thank you for your willingness to tell this story. I'm sorry it all happened to you this week.

ELLIS: Thank you, Michael.

SMERCONISH: What are your thoughts? Hit me up on social media. I will read some responses throughout the course of the program. From the world of YouTube, rumored is not a word that should be used in a journalistic publication.

M3, I don't know that these were really journalistic publications, but they don't have to be. I mean, this is really the sad part, given the fragmentation of the media. Say what you will when the world was controlled by, you know, the legacy or dominant or mainstream media, but one of the problems with proliferation of other platforms is that it doesn't matter where it comes from. You know, I have any number of the clips here about Jo and they look online as reputable as CNN or some other legacy media outlet. Pick your poison.

[09:15:05]

You could say Fox News, I don't care. But they're not. And yet they're followed. They have individuals with hundreds of thousands of followers were spreading lies about Jo. And I got to say this all -- you know, made easy the road was paved by the president making this an issue of DEI where based on the evidence that we know today, it's not.

I want to know what you think. Go to my website at smerconish.com, answer today's poll question, do you believe that President Trump's blaming of DEI for the Washington crash was a deliberate attempt to shift focus from congressional confirmation hearings? I mean, it was like the trifecta of congressional hearings where that day and all the conversation wasn't about Bobby, it wasn't about Tulsi Gabbard, it wasn't about Kash Patel. It's all about like DEI, DEI.

Up ahead, more athletes and rappers appear to be flocking toward President Trump's MAGA movement. Did Democrats unintentionally make Trump the new cool kid on the block? Bill Maher says yes. Plus, Trump's administration looking to potentially fire thousands of FBI agents and other officers involved in the January 6th investigations. Florida Republican Congressman Byron Donald is here to weigh in on the matter.

Make sure you sign up for my newsletter at smerconish.com for which Rob Rogers just drew this.

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[09:20:39]

SMERCONISH: We're following breaking news out of Washington. President Trump's Department of Justice looking to potentially fire thousands of law enforcement officers who at any time worked on the January 6th or other Trump related investigations. Last night, more than a dozen January 6th prosecutors were already fired.

Joining me now is Florida Republican Congressman Byron Donalds. Remember, he was on that short list to be the president's vice president. Nice to see you again, Congressman.

The Trump administration, they apparently want the names of those at DOJ who worked on the investigation of January 6th. So it sounds like a purge is underway. And my question to you is why should a rank and file FBI agent who was assigned to investigate the events of January 6th, why should they be given their walking papers?

REP. BYRON DONALDS (R-FL): Well, it's good to be with you. I think what they're doing right now is you're having to go through and right size this agency, let's be very honest with the American people. It is without a doubt that the Department of Justice under Jo Biden was weaponized against Donald Trump and weaponized against conservatives. That is a fact.

You can even look at the charges that went on to people who just were walking through the Capitol at January 6th, people who weren't even violent on January 6th and they were supercharging those individuals to make a political point. Donald Trump talked about this on the campaign trail, that they were going to clean out the rot that is in the Department of Justice, in the FBI. And so this is the beginning of that process.

At the end of the day, what we need are these institutions to not be a respecter of persons because of their political viewpoints or because of who they support, but that the only thing they are concerned about is equal justice under the law. If you look at the last four years of these institutions, that has simply not been the case, especially if you are a conservative or an America First supporter of Donald Trump in America, those institutions have been weaponized against you. The president has a responsibility to clean them up, and this is the start of that process.

SMERCONISH: OK, I'm going to accept, for the purpose of this discussion, what you've just said as being accurate. Let's assume that it's accurate. Why, if I'm an FBI agent and I was given an assignment, I never made the decision as to how I'd spend my time, I'm somewhere further down in the food chain, I'm given an assignment to go out and run down some lead relative to January 6th, my name now shows up on a list and I'm going to get fired because I was simply carrying out my responsibility? That doesn't seem right.

DONALDS: Well, I mean, look, the first thing that's happening is what's going on in the political brass. That's why Kash Patel going over to be the next FBI director is critically important, because the political brass is where, to your point, a lot of these decisions were made. Now, if you're a rank and file, there's going to be an additional process for that. But you've got to start somewhere. If you're going to clean out any institution you have to figure out where the rot begins and where it ends and that has to be your scope.

And that's not just about FBI, it's not just about the Department of Justice, that's what would happen at any institution if they were getting off of their core mission, and especially if they were not being responsive to the community or the customers that they serve. That is a simple proposition that would happen anywhere in America. It has not happened in the Department of Justice or FBI, which is one of the reasons why those institutions have been rotting and getting off of their core mission, especially over the last four years. But we can go as far back as the Obama administration.

SMERCONISH: Congressman, surely you recognize the chilling impact in all of this. Who in the world in the FBI, if this takes place, is going to be willing to investigate any malfeasance alleged within this administration? People are going to say, if I now pursue what is reported as someone breaking the law, who works for this president, I'm going to lose my job.

DONALDS: No, that's simply not true. Because there's a difference between you have actual evidence that would lead towards an investigation versus a no pun intended, trumped up evidence, which is exactly what took base as far back as the Russia collusion scandal. They lied to the FISA courts knowingly to open up an investigation into President Trump's first presidential campaign. They lied to the FISA courts. They were using misinformation.

[09:25:04] They were letting laundered, doctored evidence into that situation, and we have all the proof for that. Then you have to deal with the fact that, yes, during this current presidential campaign, the Biden administration and the Department of Justice were either working with or allowing these indictments, which were silly. Everybody knew they were political, but they were allowed to continue. They brought in Jack Smith, they raided Mar-a-Lago. I mean, I can go on.

You cannot allow our system of justice to be degraded to such a degree, basically for politics and then I let it --

SMERCONISH: I hear you.

DONALDS: So it's not a chilling --

SMERCONISH: Let me just --

DONALDS: Real quick, and I want to add this point. I would add for the rank and file FBI agents who do their job every single day, they were shaking their heads too, saying, what the hell is going on? We need this place to be cleaned up.

SMERCONISH: OK.

DONALDS: So I would say for those agents, they were (inaudible) of this.

SMERCONISH: That just so you know -- just so you know, I myself have been plenty critical of Merrick Garland and Jack Smith and this whole process over several years. I'm not thinking about them. I'm thinking about a woman, a man in the D.C. field office who played no policy role, was given an assignment to go out and conduct an investigation, whose name now shows up on a list, it sounds awfully McCarthy like, and they might lose their job.

But I want to ask you about something else. The president now is going to impose tariffs on Mexico and on Canada and on China. The Wall Street Journal, not exactly a left wing oracle, put up on the screen. Here's their lead editorial. They say if this takes place, this will be the dumbest trade war ever.

Aren't we going to bear the cost for whatever tariffs he's imposing on them? And won't it be tit for tat where they respond in kind on orange juice or bourbon, which is what the Canadians did the last time?

DONALDS: Well, I will tell you that the cost of the American people for rampant illegal immigration and for the illicit drug trade that has started with precursor materials in China to fentanyl being put together south of our border in Mexico and then trafficked into the United States, those costs have been significantly more damaging to the American people than this proposed possible trade war. At the end of the day, we what President Trump is doing is that he wants China and Mexico and Canada to take our national security interests just as seriously as they take theirs.

And when it comes to fentanyl, let's be very clear, the precursor material is from China. The tablets are assembled in Mexico. They come into the United States. And they are the number one killer of Americans between the ages of 18 and 45. So Donald Trump told everybody on a campaign trail he's going to use every tool available to secure this nation, and this is a part of it.

SMERCONISH: Come back, I got to item two on my list. There were seven other things. So I hope you'll come back and we can discuss more in the future. All right? Thank you, Congressman.

DONALDS: Anytime. Anytime.

SMERCONISH: Social media reaction. From the world of X, what do we have? You give Trump too much credit. He is not planning anything. He just shoots from the hip and does whatever chaotic thing that comes into his head at any given moment. So Pep Contreras is responding to the poll question of the day today, which asks whether it was all deliberate when he came out and threw DEI into the mix.

My opinion is twofold. Number one, he wants to own every news cycle and he's very good at it. No matter what the subject is, he wants to own it. But there was an added advantage to him owning the catastrophic news cycle. The aftermath of what just happened in D.C. because it was the trifecta.

It was the hat trick of congressional hearings for the remaining three most controversial of his picks, Bobby Kennedy, Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel. And so, while everybody was chasing that shiny object of DEI that day, those hearings were amazing. I watched most of each of the three and the exchanges, I could spend the hour just showing you a highlights reel. And I argue that 98 percent of Americans have no idea what took place in those hearings. But the DEI debate, oh, yes, that they're familiar with.

Still to come, your social media reaction by commentary and early polling shows that, listen to this now, President Trump is up 10 points compared to where he was during his first time, first term. Is Bill Maher right in saying, you know what, he's become cool. I also want to remind you, go to the website. You just heard me reference it. Answer today's poll question, do you believe President Trump's blaming of DEI, that it was all deliberate to take away our focus from the congressional hearings? When you're there, sign up for the daily newsletter at smerconish.com for which Jack Ohman drew this.

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[09:34:19]

SMERCONISH: You're looking at a live shot of northeast Philadelphia, the Great Northeast, as we locals call it. The aftermath of last night's air catastrophe. The second in 48 hours that the nation has seen a medical jet having crashed in northeast Philadelphia.

I'll just say this, knowing the area as well as I do, so dense with so many row homes. It will be a miracle if the fatalities are limited to those who were aboard that flight. Sad, sad morning in Philadelphia, and we're still waiting on the press conference. And if it should happen, we'll make sure that we take it live for you. Here's some more of what has come in thus far this week in terms of social media on today's program.

[09:35:01]

What do we have? From the world of X. This stuff is only going to get worse. The people running social media no longer care about falsehoods and distortions.

So, David is responding to me telling the story, at the outset of the program, how someone well known to me, we used to work together, got caught up and was actually blamed for the D.C. air catastrophe, and the story took off. And this individual, Jo Ellis, she became the number two trending item on X yesterday.

And -- somebody should write a book about it. I mean, it's such a window into so much that is wrong with social media. Not that I'm a Luddite. I'm reading from social media right now.

But the point is, you don't need to be from a reputable source. You can still have tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of followers, and when a subject gets put into play there's like -- there's no calling it back.

And my concern for Jo, among other things, is that years from now someone will Google her name and they're still going to come up with a story that says, oh, she was the pilot of the Black Hawk helicopter that crashed with the American Airlines flight and killed 67 people. A lie, just a total lie. But the people who retweeted it were all rewarded because they picked up clicks along the way.

Another social media reaction. What do we have time for? Yes.

Robert F. Kennedy -- under Joe Biden, his agencies were ripe with bias. It's time to clean out the rotten. Smerconish at Robert Kennedy Jr. under Joe Biden his agencies --

OK. So, this gets to the subject of the purge that I was just discussing with Byron Donalds. I'm really troubled by it because according to the accounts, and CNN was leading with this when I looked earlier today, there's a purge in progress And the purge is reaching potentially any FBI agent investigator who played any investigatory role relative to January 6th.

That's a horrible outcome, right? That's a horrible outcome because -- just envision someone who's in the D.C. or the Philly field office, wherever it might be, Baltimore, and they're given an assignment to investigate someone who participated in breaching the Capitol on that day. And because they carried out that order, which is part of their job, they're now going to be purged from government.

And who do you think within the government will ever investigate this administration, if that's the takeaway? Were there excesses in prosecution of Donald Trump? I believe there were. But this is not the solution. This is scary.

Still to come, the unfavorable view of the Democratic Party has hit a 16 year high. Bill Maher is saying, the Democrats effed up so bad that Donald Trump is now cool. How did that happen?

Don't forget to vote on today's poll question at Smerconish.com. Do you think that the president was shining the flashy object of DEI so as to take everybody's attention away from those congressional hearings? I do.

Go vote. And while you're there, sign up for the newsletter for which Scott Stantis -- come on. That says a lot, doesn't it? Scott Stantis just sketched that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:42:27]

SMERCONISH: The refrain from opponents of President Trump is a giant, I told you so. All of their worst nightmares are coming true, just as some feared from the Project 2025 blueprint. The abandonment of DEI, the firing of inspectors general, the reduction of the federal workforce, elimination of DOJ prosecutors who once prosecuted Trump.

I could spend this entire hour listing things that President Trump has done in the first 12 days of his second term that are inflaming opponents. So, why did Bill Maher just say, here's how bad the Democrats effed up. Trump is cool now. And he's not alone.

In a story about the cultural acceptance of MAGA, the "Wall Street Journal" noted, instead of taking a knee to call for social justice, NFL players are doing the Trump dance in the end zone at football games.

Mainstream entertainers, among them country star Carrie Underwood and the rapper Snoop Dogg, agreed to perform at events celebrating Donald Trump's inauguration, something music stars largely shunned eight years ago.

And speaking of Snoop, Salon.com observed that eight years ago he was singing a different tune, literally. It was a protest song called "FDT." As in F Donald Trump. But earlier this month, Snoop attended an inaugural event called the Crypto Ball, where he headlined with Rick Ross and Soulja Boy.

Derrick Darby, a philosophy professor at Rutgers who studies hip hop and political philosophy, attributed Trump's increased influence to his possession of what many aspire to, namely money, power and influence. So, what happened? How did Trump go from, as Bill Maher said, he used to be a joke to now being the 78-year-old cool guy who has the respect of rappers and athletes.

Derrick Darby joins me now. Professor, I'm going to show the audience some film footage of Donald Trump circa late 80s, early 90s. You know, the Mike Tyson era when Trump is king in Atlantic City. I remember this era well because I used to go to all those fights. Should I show it, Catherine? All right, show it. Put up this still image. This is yours truly in that era. Oh, my God. Trump looks good. I look ridiculous.

The point is, I remember him then. And based on what I saw those many nights he had the respect and admiration of a lot of people of color in that scene. And then it -- then it faded, and now he seems to have gotten it back. What happened?

DERRICK DARBY, PHILOSOPHY PROFESSOR, RUTGERS UNIVERSITY: Good morning, Michael. Thanks for having me on this first day of Black History Month. And it's so appropriate because you showed those clips, because that's an important part of our history.

[09:45:01]

What happened is that hip hop is the lifeblood of American popular culture. It has been. And if Donald Trump is cool again, it's because he's got that blood coursing through his veins.

To understand Trump's cultural relevance right now and his rise to power, we got to understand hip hop. Tyson was the hip hop boxer, right? It was all about the hip hop. Trump is cool again is because Trump 47 is basically the gangster version of an American president. With every executive order that he signs, with every press conference, all we can really do is say, damn, that was gangster.

He bought the gangster to the White House. So, if he's cool, that's why he's cool. And as far as --

SMERCONISH: Is it aspirational? Is it -- yes, go ahead.

DARBY: No. It's for real. It's just -- it's just what's happening right now. We can't soft pedal it. This is not the time to soft pedal it or to be boxed in about how to make sense of it. We got to really consult the wisdom of hip hop to know how to respond, to know whether to say amen to what he does, to cry foul, or to call for fighting the power.

It has been less than two weeks, Michael, since Trump was inaugurated. And what are we talking about today? We're talking about Trump and Snoop.

Snoop is an icon of hip hop and has been. And what we're arguing about is whether hip hop is turning to the right, because Snoop and other artists decided to go get their bags at the ball and get paid.

America is built on money. That's what we do. We make money. Rather than thinking about how hip hop creates a moment now for us to have a conversation about America's leadership, where we are and what we can do about it.

Snoop carried the torch at the Olympics, and we got to thank him for carrying the torch now and pumping up the volume again on hip hop so we can really talk in a real way about what's happening. "Nuthin But A G Thang," you know that, Michael. That's that -- that's that "Chronic" coming at you, right, 1992. That Tyson-Spinks fight was 1988. You remember that.

Snoop put the G back in gangster. Gangster. What's a gangster? Irreverent, rebellious. You love them or hate them. They're going to tell you what's on their mind. And they're not going to give a damn about what you think.

Has long been in the crosshairs of America's critical culture, it has been villainized for keeping it real. Don't use the N word. Don't glorify violence. Pull up your pants. You're being anti-patriotic.

But whatever you think is going to tell you like it is. So, if Trump is cool, he's telling it like he sees it. Now we got to decide how we respond to that and we got to stop soft pedaling it. And we got to stop trying to box people in left and right.

Michael, if you and I want to cross the street, we got to look left and right to make sure we don't get hit. It's not about left and right.

SMERCONISH: OK. Professor, I'm limited on time. I want to say two things. Number one, I was there that night for all 90 seconds of Tyson-Spinks. I'll never forget it.

Based on your insight, what counsel do you give to his opponents? I'm not saying that you are one, but they don't seem to have a clue as to how to take him on. Give me the 32nd version.

DARBY: Well, they better go back to the crates and they better get some inspiration. They better start digging. They better go back to Public Enemy. They better go back to Dead Prez. They go -- they go back to Queen Latifah.

They go back to the classics and listen to the wisdom of hip hop, because it's going to give you some insight about how to realize that people have the power. This is our country. We got a system of government, a federal system. We got the Feds. We got the state. We got the local government.

But more importantly, we got ourselves. And we got to understand how to come together, how to organize and make our demands for what we want. And it's not about your politics. Some people want strong military to go around and claiming countries and taking stuff.

Some people want groceries. They want cheap food. They want affordable housing.

We got to figure out what we want, organize and go make our demands. Let's go back and dig in them crates for inspiration.

SMERCONISH: Professor Darby, thanks for all your insights. I really do appreciate it. We'll do this again.

DARBY: Thanks for having me. Take care.

SMERCONISH: Social media reaction. From the world of X real quick. I know I'm limited on time. What do I have? While I may not agree with all he is doing, his swagger and willingness to take on the establishment/norms is impressive or cool as the kids --

Right, MB. That's what Derrick Darby was just saying. That's what Professor Darby was simply explaining. All that which causes so many of his opponents to say, my God, how could he say, how could he do, is earning respect in other quarters. Or as Maher would say, is making him cool.

You still have time to vote on today's poll question at Smerconish.com. Do you believe President Trump's blaming of DEI this week for the D.C. crash was that all a deliberate attempt, a shiny object to take our eyes off the congressional hearings?

[09:50:07]

Subscribe to my newsletter when you're there. You're going to get exclusive editorial cartoons like -- come on, this is great. Look what Steve Breen just illustrated.

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SMERCONISH: All right. There's the voting so far at Smerconish.com. Wow, round numbers, 70 over 30, yes. Nearly 40,000 have voted. Agreeing with me that the whole injection into the conversation of DEI in the aftermath of that catastrophe was just a shiny object to take our attention away from the Capitol Hill hearings.

I'm not often in the majority on my polls. I'm not even sure what to say right now. Social media reaction. You can find me on all the usual platforms.

What do we have? Why don't they disclose the identity of the air traffic controller so that we can rule out DEI?

[09:55:01]

We know the identities of the white male pilot. Equal treatment.

Well, Nicholas, come on because -- because, Nicholas, if you see that the air traffic controllers are minority, you're going to immediately assume, oh, it's DEI, and they weren't really qualified. In fact, I meant to say this earlier in the program, do you know that relative to the Black Hawk helicopter, we know the identity of two -- there's a headline on this from "The New York Times."

Can you guys put that up? We know the identity of two of the pilots, two males. The female, we don't know. You know why? Because the family doesn't want her identified.

Do you know why they don't want her identified? I'm sure because she will be treated posthumously as horribly as Jo Ellis was treated. And this is all nuts, right?

I mean, what's the real basis for making this a DEI issue? I'm OK with having a DEI conversation. I just don't think that it applies here.

Damn it. I'm out of time. All right. See you next week.

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