Arizona AG Kris Mayes Exclusive Interview on Legal Battle Against Trump and Musk’s 'Coup'

Speaker 1 The lawsuits are here. One, two, three, four, at least five major lawsuits that are being filed by state attorney generals throughout the country.

Speaker 1 Five filed by the state attorney general of Arizona, Arizona Attorney General Chris Mays. Let's welcome her onto the Midas Touch Show.
Attorney General Mays, five lawsuits.

Speaker 1 Tell us generally what these are about, these lawsuits against Elon Musk and Donald Trump.

Speaker 2 Yeah, thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 The state AGs have filed multiple lawsuits against the Trump administration and Doge and Elon Musk,

Speaker 2 you know, for a number of different reasons. We filed against his executive order on birthright citizenship, which is obviously unconstitutional and violates the 14th Amendment.

Speaker 2 We now have two lawsuits against Doge, essentially.

Speaker 2 One when Doge infiltrated the Treasury Department. we have one

Speaker 2 alleging that Elon Musk and President Trump are violating the appointments clause of the Constitution.

Speaker 2 We've fought back and filed a lawsuit to stop the federal funding freeze that would have devastated basically all of our states

Speaker 2 by

Speaker 2 freezing federal funding. We got a TRO

Speaker 2 against Trump in essentially all of these cases, almost all of these cases, we have gotten a TRO to stop him.

Speaker 2 And essentially what's going on, and

Speaker 2 I've said this before, I'll say it again. You know, this is a coup.

Speaker 2 This is a coup by Donald Trump against our Constitution, against our way of governing ourselves, because they are violating over and over and over again, not only the separation of powers, but also violating the court orders that we are getting.

Speaker 2 We have multiple federal judges who are saying to Donald Trump and Elon Musk, stop this now, and yet we believe they're violating those orders.

Speaker 1 So, what do you do when there's a coup that is violating the structure, the express language, the spirit, all of that of the Constitution?

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 we, pro-democracy, law and order people, are playing by the rules. They're not playing by the rules.
And they're the federal government, and they run the Department of Justice.

Speaker 1 So, if a federal judge orders them in contempt, what are they just going to pardon their people? I mean, how do you combat a situation where, as in your words, a lawless coup is taking place?

Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean, it's a great question. It's something that the AGs, I'll tell you, are discussing.

Speaker 2 I mean, these are, first of all, let's just take a step back, Ben, and think about just how unprecedented this is.

Speaker 2 This is a territory in waters we have never

Speaker 2 been in before as a country, and I think we've never been in a more dangerous place than we are today, at least since the Civil War.

Speaker 2 And I truly believe that, and that's why I'm using language like this is a coup.

Speaker 2 You know, we're going to see where this goes. We're going to continue to prosecute these cases.

Speaker 2 I think it's going to be up to federal judges to take the next step if they believe that their orders are being violated. There's civil contempt, there's criminal contempt potentially.

Speaker 2 And as you know, a lot of these cases are going to wend their way, find their way all the way to the United States Supreme Court.

Speaker 2 And the United States Supreme Court is going to have to decide whether they are in favor of America or not. Do they believe in the separation of powers or not?

Speaker 2 Are they going to stand up for our Constitution or not?

Speaker 2 But I'll tell you, listeners,

Speaker 2 that the AGs of this country, the Democratic AGs of the country, have every intention of continuing to stand up for our Constitution and for America, and we will not stop fighting until we make sure that that happens.

Speaker 2 And I think we have a duty to all the previous generations

Speaker 2 who fought and died for this very Constitution to stand up for it. And we're going to do that.
And we also have a duty as the top law enforcement officers of each of our states.

Speaker 2 We each took an oath of office that said

Speaker 2 we will protect the Constitution of Arizona or Michigan or California, and we will protect the Constitution of the United States.

Speaker 1 One of the aspects of fighting in the context of litigation after a lawsuit is filed, after a TRO is or isn't granted, you get into the discovery phase and document requests, depositions, interrogatories.

Speaker 1 Can you tell us a little bit about that? I know a lot of people who speak to us say, why isn't Elon Musk being deposed? We want to see him subpoenaed.

Speaker 1 He's running around at these conferences with chainsaws, talking about how he's a meme and mocking the American people and posting all of these lies on social media.

Speaker 1 And people are like, get this guy under oath.

Speaker 1 If spineless Republicans in Congress aren't going to bring him before their own Doge subcommittee, you know, what are the Attorney General going to do there?

Speaker 2 Yeah, great question. And I'm going to get to, I'm going to answer your question directly, but can I just also pause and

Speaker 2 let's talk about that visual of Elon Musk with

Speaker 2 the ridiculous chainsaw?

Speaker 2 You know, I don't think Elon Musk has probably ever actually used a chainsaw in his life. I don't know what that was, some lame attempt to make himself look manly.
But

Speaker 2 at the same time, what he is doing is devastating people's lives.

Speaker 2 I mean, here in Arizona, we now have firefighters who are being laid off, you know, hot shot crews that are being laid off right before wildfire season.

Speaker 2 The federal funding freeze for a moment right before we got the TRO against it

Speaker 2 meant that we were not able to continue with our efforts to go after the Mexican drug cartels and fight the fentanyl crisis. I mean, it's insane.
Our rural hospitals were put at risk.

Speaker 2 Our Head Start programs, meals on wheels, and yet there goes Elon Musk bragging about it with his chainsaw at CPAC or wherever he was.

Speaker 2 You know, it's just nonsense. But to answer your question directly,

Speaker 2 we'll see where we get with that. I mean, the case where we will be asking for

Speaker 2 documents, we'll be asking for documents likely and information and testimony, and witness testimony, and a lot of these cases.

Speaker 2 The case where this may come to fruition the soonest is the appointments clause case that I brought along with I think 12 other state AGs.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 look, I mean, Elon Musk was bragging about being the guy who was going to put USAID in the wood chipper and

Speaker 2 eliminate entire agencies,

Speaker 2 CFPB,

Speaker 2 RIP. These are all things that he said.
So we're going to want to find out what Elon Musk knows,

Speaker 2 what he did, and how he did it.

Speaker 2 And I'm not going to probably reveal

Speaker 2 all of our strategy here on the show, but

Speaker 2 clearly he's been involved in all of this.

Speaker 1 Let's talk about something you mentioned there too, because the federal state drug task force to stop the cartels relies on federal grant money that was part of this freeze.

Speaker 1 So when Trump and MAGA Republicans talk about stopping the cartels, what they were doing in your state, and I think people in Arizona very much know this, was they were actually promoting the cartels while hampering federal resources.

Speaker 1 Do I have that about right?

Speaker 2 I mean, you can make that argument, absolutely. I mean, yesterday I did a press conference with the DEA,

Speaker 2 Phoenix Police Department, and other federal partners in which we announced that we had seized more than, I think, a million and a half fentanyl pills, a whole bunch of methamphetamine, a lot of guns, and a lot of cash under what's called the high-impact drug trafficking area programs.

Speaker 2 If Elon Musk and Donald Trump had gotten their way, that entire program, those efforts to go after the Mexican drug cartels would have been eliminated, defunded.

Speaker 2 And it just goes to the sort of you know,

Speaker 2 ham-handed, hap, you know, and completely incompetent way that they're going about this. Number one, as I said, it's unconstitutional.

Speaker 2 If the president wants to do this, he needs to go to Congress to get Congress, which has the power of the purse, to do it.

Speaker 2 Number two, the way they're doing it is harming even their own stated objectives. You know, Donald Trump campaigned on securing our border.
I agree with him on that. We need to secure the border.

Speaker 2 But the way you do that is not by defunding the very

Speaker 2 law enforcement officers that are out there putting their lives on the line. You know, you do not improve public safety by firing firefighters in the middle of fire season in Arizona.

Speaker 2 And now we have a budget that's been put forward by the Republicans that potentially will slash Medicaid and maybe even elements of Social Security.

Speaker 2 And then, of course, as you know, Americans and a lot of Arizonans are really upset about the intrusion into their personal information that is happening by Doge.

Speaker 2 I can't tell you how many phone calls, well, I probably could because we've been quantifying it, how many phone calls we have gotten into this office from Republicans, Democrats, and Independents who are really mad about the fact that their personal data has apparently been accessed by Doge and some teenage hackers that Elon Musk hired.

Speaker 1 What do you say to them or what does your office communicate to them? I mean, look,

Speaker 1 everyone knows your background. You're a former Republican.
You left the party because Trumpism no longer represented your values and views, especially with the abandonment of law and order.

Speaker 1 You know, a Democratic prosecutor. And so

Speaker 1 for you, yes, you're a Democrat, obviously, that's your party.

Speaker 1 But I would say, and correct me if I'm wrong, when I think about Attorney General Chris Mays, I think about law and order as the kind of primary foundational principle.

Speaker 1 So when people are run, then when I think about Arizona from being there litigating cases there in my past, privacy, privacy, privacy, and kind of keep the federal government away from these things.

Speaker 1 So now they're giving billionaires access to people's data and tax records and medical files across the country. And then they're saying out loud, trust me, bro, we're billionaires, billionaires.

Speaker 1 We don't do anything. We're so rich.
Why would you not trust us? So what do you tell the people of Arizona? What's being communicated about what's being done?

Speaker 2 Well, it's a great question. And the first thing I'll tell you, and it's kind of breaking news here on your show, but the Democratic AGs are going to do

Speaker 2 a series of town halls all over the country to gather up information to allow people to tell us what they think about this and how

Speaker 2 these cuts are impacting their lives,

Speaker 2 what they're worried about with regard to their data.

Speaker 2 And, you know, yeah, I mean, people, what I what I would say to people is that's what these lawsuits that we are filing are all about.

Speaker 2 It is unacceptable that these teenage hackers inside of Doge are being allowed this

Speaker 2 access to people's personal data. It's unacceptable there's even the possibility that Elon Musk and Doge could be hoovering up this data.
We really don't know what's going on inside these agencies.

Speaker 2 But we also,

Speaker 2 in addition to the AGs doing these lawsuits, we need people to help us by speaking out. Come to our town halls, to our listening sessions.

Speaker 2 Get out there, talk to your members of Congress if they're having town halls. If they're not having town halls, demand that they have a town hall

Speaker 2 and make your voice heard. Call their offices.

Speaker 2 Let them know that you're not okay with what's going on right now in Washington, D.C., that you're not okay with the federal government and especially this unelected billionaire, weirdo billionaire,

Speaker 2 having access to your personal information. That all makes a difference.
And yeah, you're absolutely right.

Speaker 2 Here in Arizona, we have a very strong libertarian streak in our state, and people are not okay with what's happening.

Speaker 1 You're hearing it from everyone. I mean, I want to make sure I'm not living in my own bubble.

Speaker 1 You tell me from Arizona, because what I'm seeing are town halls across the country in Republican areas, too, with people saying, What?

Speaker 1 You know, and I see Republican members of Congress communicating back to them like they're on the platform X or like a social media. And in the real world, people are like, No, no,

Speaker 1 no, I'm not okay with this. Tell us about, you know, as we conclude this interview, like, what are you seeing? Is it bipartisan at this point in terms of the people? What's going on?

Speaker 2 Yeah, no, absolutely. And Ben, as you know, your experience in Arizona, our state is a third, a third, and a third.
I mean, we couldn't be more evenly divided as a state.

Speaker 2 One-third Democratic, one-third Republican, and one-third Independent.

Speaker 2 And across the board, we're getting phone calls into my office, and I'm talking to constituents from people who are saying, hell no, I don't want this. This is not not what I signed up for.

Speaker 2 As you know, Arizona did narrowly vote for Donald Trump, but I believe Arizonans voted for a better economy and a secure border. They didn't vote for a dictator and they didn't vote for a coup.

Speaker 2 And Americans and Arizonans still believe in America and we still believe in our Constitution. And it's time for all of us to fight for it.
We need to fight for it before it's gone.

Speaker 1 Attorney General Chris Mays, we hope you come back on and keep us updated on the status of these lawsuits. And if you do take that deposition of Elon Musk, maybe break that news here.

Speaker 1 But I don't want to get into your legal strategy.

Speaker 1 As a former practicing lawyer, I get it. You can't reveal the strategy.
Thank you so much for joining us.

Speaker 2 Thanks for having me. Appreciate you.

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