Why Donald Trump's medical records say more than he realizes

Speaker 1 This episode is presented by Planned Parenthood Federation of America. This year, lawmakers have attacked our rights, stretched the truth, and taken away access to health care.

Speaker 1 Through it all, Planned Parenthood has been on the front lines, providing care, defending patients, fighting back.

Speaker 1 But the Trump administration and Congress passed a law to defund Planned Parenthood, putting care for 1.1 million patients at risk. Planned Parenthood isn't backing down.

Speaker 1 They're still here, protecting access to birth control, cancer screenings, abortion, and more. Visit plannedparenthood.org/slash defend and donate today.

Speaker 4 Now's the time to start your next adventure behind the wheel of an exciting new Toyota hybrid.

Speaker 5 With the largest lineup of hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and electrified vehicles to choose from, Toyota has the one for you.

Speaker 8 Every new Toyota hybrid comes with Toyota Care, two-year complementary scheduled maintenance, an exclusive hybrid battery warranty, and Toyota's legendary quality and reliability.

Speaker 12 Visit your local Toyota dealer today.

Speaker 13 Toyota, let's go places. See your local Toyota dealer for hybrid battery warranty details.

Speaker 14 Really happy to have you here. So, this was Mesa, Arizona today.

Speaker 14 Protesters outside the Mesa Gateway Airport today.

Speaker 14 They were protesting specifically against a company called Avello Airlines, A-V-E-L-O.

Speaker 14 Avello Airlines is a small, low-budget airline that flies people out of places like Daytona Beach, Florida, and Wilmington, Delaware, and New Haven, Connecticut, and some other mostly small airports.

Speaker 14 Avello Air, also, as of today, is flying deportation flights for Trump's immigration agencies. And because they are doing that, this is now what it looks like outside everywhere Avello flies.

Speaker 14 Trying to walk the walk.

Speaker 15 If our country is a country that values life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, you know, we all say liberty and justice for all, then we need to act like it.

Speaker 16 We feel like this is being done in our name. And as far as I'm concerned, this is absolutely wrong.
They're doing this illegally. They're doing this without due process.

Speaker 16 Everybody in this country deserves due process.

Speaker 14 That was at the protest at, again, Mesa Gateway Airport in Mesa, Arizona today.

Speaker 14 This was New Haven, Connecticut today, outside Tweed Airport in New Haven, where recurring protests against Avello Airlines for flying these Trump deportation flights, these recurring protests at the Tweed Airport in New Haven just have been getting bigger and bigger every week.

Speaker 14 Avello Airlines was scheduled to start its deportation flights for the Trump administration today. And indeed, the New York Times reports tonight that

Speaker 14 Avello had a plane today, leave Mesa, Arizona, and fly to the airport in Alexandria, Louisiana. And that is quite near those two

Speaker 14 basically black site immigration prisons that ICE is running in Basile and Gina, Louisiana.

Speaker 14 State legislatures in New York and Connecticut have basically been having buyers' remorse when it comes to Avelo Airlines.

Speaker 14 They moved heaven and earth to get Avello Airlines to operate passenger flights at these small airports in their states.

Speaker 14 Now, state legislatures in both of those places are considering taking away those incentives and taking away those favors from that airline in protest of them doing these deportation flights for Trump.

Speaker 14 In the state of Delaware, Avello Air is literally the only commercial airline that serves any airport in the whole state of Delaware at the Wilmington airport.

Speaker 14 But now because of Avello's decision to fly Trump deportation flights, the governor of Delaware, Matt Meyer, says that he now supports the protests against the airline and he supports the calls to boycott the airline.

Speaker 14 He says he and his family personally have joined the boycott against Avello.

Speaker 14 So we're watching that today. We are continuing every week, frankly every day, to see protests against Donald Trump and against his top campaign donor, Elon Musk.

Speaker 14 We are expecting a really big day of protest on June 14th. That's the day Trump is holding that big military parade in Washington.

Speaker 14 But even with that kind of red letter day on the calendar a month from now, expecting large protests against Trump that day.

Speaker 14 Honestly, every weekend, every weekday, there are protests all over.

Speaker 14 There were protests this weekend at Tesla dealerships in Silver Spring, Maryland, and in Rochester, New York, and in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Speaker 14 They held up the big banner hunk for democracy in Sunnyvale, California, and in Berkeley, California, and in Cordomadera, California, where they put up the big boycott Tesla sign on the highway overpass.

Speaker 14 In Austin, Texas this weekend, there were two simultaneous anti-Elon Musk protests at two different Austin, Texas Tesla dealerships.

Speaker 14 A lot of the protests this weekend were mom-centric for Mother's Day, like this one in Arlington, Virginia, moms against fascism.

Speaker 14 Also, these folks in Rockville, Maryland celebrate moms, M-O-M, as in Mothers Oppose Musk.

Speaker 14 In Madison, South Dakota, people this weekend protested at Dakota State University when Trump's Homeland Security Secretary, Christy Noam, gave a graduation speech there.

Speaker 18 Protesters lined Washington Avenue along the way to the Dakota State Field House, each with signs to express their displeasure with honoring their former governor, disagreeing with her actions as DHS secretary.

Speaker 19 We don't think that she is somebody that deserves any sort of honor from anybody.

Speaker 19 She's currently, right now, violating the Constitution, deporting people to foreign detainment centers without any due process.

Speaker 20 I think that recently she's shown herself to be a tool of the Trump administration and implementing policies that go against the Constitution of the United States.

Speaker 14 I don't know if Secretary Noam felt like doing an event in her home state of South Dakota was going to be more of like a welcome home kind of vibe, but that was definitely not the vibe.

Speaker 14 I mean, looking at the local press in South Dakota this weekend, the headlines, you know, Noam's honorary degree sparks protest. Meanwhile, a student she's trying to deport earns a doctorate.

Speaker 14 Headline, Madison, South Dakota residents, Dakota State students protest as Secretary Noam receives honorary degree.

Speaker 14 With the honorary degree they gave her for doing the graduation speech, she essentially was able to collect, you know, another nice costume to wear.

Speaker 14 But outside, you know, here's this guy, a doctorate in graft, I could understand.

Speaker 14 For this person,

Speaker 14 quote, prison without due process is a concentration camp.

Speaker 14 On Saturday, there was a big anti-Trump protest in Missoula, Montana. On Saturday also, there was a really big protest in Bethesda, Maryland at the headquarters of the NIH.

Speaker 14 Hundreds of people there, including Democratic U.S. Senator Angela Olsa Brooks.

Speaker 13 I'm calling on

Speaker 14 Secretary Kennedy to resign.

Speaker 21 America's exceptionalism is based on our strength as a science powerhouse, and the cuts at NIH and other places literally are making us sicker.

Speaker 14 On Sunday for Mother's Day, there were anti-Trump protests in places like Irvine, California at City Hall, a big boisterous one in downtown Lawrence, Kansas.

Speaker 14 I'll tell you, though, that we've been covering these protests for months now. And I sort of feel like because we've been covering them

Speaker 14 for a long time, I feel like you can sort of see themes emerging. If you cover this stuff regularly, you can see new types of protests and new catalysts for protests emerge over time.

Speaker 14 And right now, what I think is emerging is that we're really seeing people all over the country, red states and blue states everywhere,

Speaker 14 step up more and protest more vociferously over what Trump is doing to immigrants.

Speaker 14 You may have seen late last week that really disturbing scene in Worcester, Massachusetts. This was Thursday in Worcester.
A mother and her daughter both both arrested.

Speaker 14 One of her daughters holding a baby,

Speaker 14 caught up in what just turned out to be a violent scrum in the middle of the street in Worcester as Trump's massed immigration agents

Speaker 14 were definitely trying to seem tough, but they really seemed to have no idea what they were doing or how to handle this situation.

Speaker 14 The whole neighborhood responded when they acted chaotically and when they swooped in on this woman and the children and the baby. And people were just furious on scene.

Speaker 14 And And they have been furious in a sustained way since.

Speaker 14 And they're furious, not just with Trump's federal agents, but also with Worcester police, with local police for showing up and appearing to help Trump's federal agents as well.

Speaker 14 After there was this totally out-of-control scene on the street in Worcester on Thursday, this was the next day. This was Friday in Worcester.
Hundreds of people turned out and protested.

Speaker 14 People protesting on Friday, marching to Worcester City Hall, demanding answers from their city about why local police didn't protect them and instead joined in.

Speaker 14 Then over the weekend, Worcester turned out again, a big protest on the town common. Keep your hands off our moms.
That was the theme. The name of this protest was hands off Worcester Mothers.

Speaker 14 People again demanding their local authorities answer for not protecting them.

Speaker 14 You see the sign there, Worcester PD, Traitors to Democracy.

Speaker 14 Protesters in Worcester say they're going to be back and in considerable numbers tomorrow, Tuesday, for the city council meeting in Worcester. They say they want answers.

Speaker 14 They want that local mom back, for one.

Speaker 14 But

Speaker 14 you're seeing this kind of pushback, this kind of response, kind of emergency response in the moment, and then a sustained angry response after everywhere.

Speaker 14 People are being snatched off the street by Trump's agents. I mean, this is what the local news looks like now all over the place.

Speaker 23 Let's go to Framingham next, where another protest took place.

Speaker 23 Dozens of people on the steps of City Hall, they were calling out the increased ICE activity in the city and the detention of Daniel Oreana.

Speaker 23 Oreana was picked up by ICE on Monday on his way to work and reports show that he has no criminal record. Protesters say the community is scared and due process is being ignored.

Speaker 24 Our neighbors are terrified. People are afraid to go to school.

Speaker 14 They're afraid to go to work.

Speaker 24 I would want someone to stand up for me. I live in Framingham.

Speaker 24 I'm really anxious and hoping that our legislature, both local and state, will step up and come out and stand up for these people like Danielle Orlano, who's been taken off the streets.

Speaker 14 It's terrifying.

Speaker 23 ICE has yet to comment on the arrest.

Speaker 14 It's Framingham, Massachusetts.

Speaker 14 There were protests in Portland, Oregon this weekend outside the ICE building in South Portland.

Speaker 14 After the mayor of Newark, New Jersey was arrested at the immigration prison in his city on Friday.

Speaker 14 there were protests there afterwards, both at the site where he was arrested, at this prison that ISIS operating in Newark, also protests in response to that arrest in New York.

Speaker 14 Today in Newark, there were faith leaders there at that site leading protesters in prayer.

Speaker 14 You know, and I will tell you, as insane as it was that Trump's immigration agents manhandled three members of Congress, outside the gates of this facility and arrested the Newark mayor there on Friday.

Speaker 14 Today, Newark city officials went back there in person, back to the gates of that facility again.

Speaker 14 They once again served notice that that federal ICE facility is not legally operating according to the city of Newark.

Speaker 14 So, Newark city officials went back there today, serving the same papers, again, demanding the same access.

Speaker 14 Again, you can arrest the mayor, you can create a violent scrum outside those gates, but Newark is not giving up.

Speaker 14 And, you know, here's just something to know, something to kind of stick a pin in here.

Speaker 14 By now, of course, you have seen how

Speaker 14 chaotic and panicked the scene was at the Newark immigration prison on Thursday.

Speaker 14 The actions of those federal agents are definitely disturbing in terms of how violent they were, the fact that many of them had their faces covered, the fact that indeed they were in the middle of arresting an elected official and shoving around members of Congress.

Speaker 14 But you'll admit, in looking at this, it also kind of looks like amateur hour, doesn't it?

Speaker 14 I mean, these federal agents really appeared to have no idea what they were doing or how to handle this situation.

Speaker 14 The agents who carried out this chaotic, shambolic arrest were from HSI, Homeland Security Investigations, previously a very, very low-profile law enforcement organization.

Speaker 14 But you now see HSI everywhere in this Trump term, particularly in like newsworthily violent moments. And we don't know why Trump is using HSI agents for things like this now.

Speaker 14 and for so many of the arrests and actions that keep making news because of how violent and chaotic they are. But it's just worth paying attention to that.

Speaker 14 And it's worth knowing that if it looks like these HSI agents don't really know what they're doing in situations like this,

Speaker 14 it might actually be because they really don't know what they're doing. They are not trained for this.

Speaker 14 This is not what they are supposed to do as law enforcement organization, as a law enforcement organization.

Speaker 14 A former assistant director at HSI with decades decades of experience in the agency told us this today, quote, HSI special agents are trained and equipped to be skilled investigators, targeting complex schemes employed by sophisticated transnational criminal organizations.

Speaker 14 Crowd control is not something HSI special agents are routinely trained or equipped to do.

Speaker 14 Asking them to do so creates an officer safety issue, as well as raises the potential for personal and professional legal liability for HSI agents.

Speaker 14 Again, a former senior official at HSI telling us that today. And

Speaker 14 yeah, definitely, I understand the point about an officer safety issue being created by these guys doing stuff that they're not trained to do.

Speaker 14 But I would also mention a public safety issue, not just an officer safety issue, but a public safety issue.

Speaker 14 Since they keep using agents from this particular agency for clusters like this.

Speaker 14 I mean, presumably at some point, we're going to get members of of Congress and senators looking into what appears to be the quite considerable distance between what exactly it is that HSI is doing under the Trump presidency versus what they're actually trained to do under the law.

Speaker 14 Because I think there's a reason that this particular agency keeps ending up on your local news

Speaker 14 and on social media. and right at the middle of all of the most infamous actions of this administration in American streets.

Speaker 14 This is not what they are trained for. Why is it that they are the agency that again and again is being tasked with doing it?

Speaker 14 So we got a lot to get to tonight.

Speaker 14 This, for example, was tonight on the United States Senate floor. This was Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz.

Speaker 25 No president should take a $400 million gift from a foreign country.

Speaker 25 I shouldn't have to explain why, but it is a high principle literally enshrined in the Constitution because

Speaker 12 people

Speaker 25 who we have representing us should know, not think, but know that their representatives are focused on them and this country only.

Speaker 25 That our loyalties are not divided, that our minds are not wandering elsewhere. The Emoluments Clause in the Constitution.
It's a fancy phrase, but a simple idea.

Speaker 14 No foreign gifts.

Speaker 25 If foreign government offers you anything, but especially something close to a half a billion dollars worth,

Speaker 25 the answer is no, thank you. End of story, very simple.
In one fell swoop, Trump is selling out one of the most iconic symbols of American power that we have.

Speaker 25 And what people will now see is the most powerful man on earth flying around in a plane, paid for by a foreign government.

Speaker 14 It's disgusting.

Speaker 14 It's disgusting. It's wildly corrupt.
Senator goes on to say, just because they are doing the corruption in plain sight does not make it any less damning or sad or gross.

Speaker 14 Senator Brian Schott speaking on the Senate floor tonight. We are now really hitting our stride on the kleptocracy part of what's going on here.

Speaker 14 While important parts of the federal government that serve the public just collapse under Trump, while Trump's FAA, for example, finds that it is no longer capable of keeping air traffic control systems reliably up and running at, say, Newark airport, at one of the airports serving the nation's largest metropolitan area, as Trump's Pentagon has just dropped not one, but two F-18 fighter jets into the sea, just slipped right off the aircraft carrier, and oops, that's gone.

Speaker 14 Nevertheless, in true kleptocratic fashion, the dear leader has his plane.

Speaker 14 He has just arranged for himself, as Senator Schatz was just talking about there, he has just arranged for himself a gift of a $400 million plane for himself that he wants to use while he's president, and then he plans to keep using it himself after he leaves the presidency as well.

Speaker 14 As if he's ever planning on leaving the presidency.

Speaker 14 For us, the public, we've got, you know, airline CEOs emailing customers today saying, oh, God, geez, this air traffic control thing. Woo, please keep flying.
We swear we're being as safe as we can.

Speaker 14 That's what the public is contending with. But, you know, what does Trump care?

Speaker 14 He's getting his own $400 million personal plane as a gift from a foreign country that he's going to go do some deals with as president of the United States, heading out today on this big Middle Eastern trip.

Speaker 14 I mean, for us, the public, we're all dealing with the cancellations and the delays and the reduced number of routes and the panic from the remaining air traffic controllers who have been put in this situation by whatever is going on at Trump's FAA.

Speaker 14 We, the public, are wondering what it meant when these guys insisted on putting in Starlink at the FAA.

Speaker 14 They started inexplicably using equipment from the company run by the president's top campaign donor to supposedly upgrade our air traffic safety systems a few weeks ago without a normal contracting process, right after that same donor demanded the resignation of the head of the FAA.

Speaker 14 We're all left wondering as the FAA is apparently no longer able to reliably keep air traffic control systems running at major airports, should we be worried that they did that right before this all started falling apart?

Speaker 14 I mean, that's how it's going for us, the flying public.

Speaker 14 But for him, awesome flying palace he gets to keep. So long, suckers.

Speaker 14 In the shadow of the plane debacle tonight, that sort of textbook example of how a kleptocracy works, where the guy at the top

Speaker 14 converts the assets and functions of the nation and its government for his own purposes and everybody else gets nothing. Like that's how kleptocracy works.

Speaker 14 In the shadow of that plain debacle still unfolding tonight, we've got another story for you this evening about Trump doing something for himself while apparently making sure that nobody else in the country can get that same thing.

Speaker 14 We've also got news tonight on Trump's apparently illegal efforts to fire people and shut down parts of the federal government that he doesn't actually control.

Speaker 14 He is, of course, the head of the executive branch, and that gives him a reasonable amount of power over what happens in the executive branch, but it doesn't doesn't give him power over the other branches of government, right?

Speaker 14 The other two branches are the courts and the Congress.

Speaker 14 How can you tell if some part of the government is not part of the executive branch and instead it's controlled by one of the other branches?

Speaker 14 Sometimes it's hard, sometimes it's not that easy to tell, but sometimes it's right there. Sometimes it's in the name.

Speaker 14 When, for example, it's called the Library of Congress, that's a hint that it's of Congress. It's not the Library of the United States.
It's certainly not the Library of the President.

Speaker 14 Can you imagine? No, it's the Library of Congress. That's a hint that that's part of the whole Congress thing.

Speaker 14 Trump has still purported to fire the librarian of Congress, and he's trying to install people as staff beneath that top job as well.

Speaker 14 Today, some of those people turned up at the Library of Congress and demanded to be let inside. The staff said no.

Speaker 14 The staff at the Library of Congress said, no, you don't work here. They called their lawyers and they called the cops.

Speaker 14 And those officials that Trump had sent over to the Library of Congress to bust in, they did not get in.

Speaker 14 Trump in the last several days has tried to fire the director of the Copyright Office, which is housed at the

Speaker 14 Library of Congress. Also the vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.
Also the commissioners at the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Speaker 14 I say he's tried to fire them because for some of these people, it really does not seem like he is legally allowed to fire them.

Speaker 14 We are going to talk tonight with one of them who is absolutely fighting back, is not going along with it, does not concede that she has been fired at all.

Speaker 14 And

Speaker 14 that's kind of the theme at this point, the fight back, which is understandable because if you look at the polls, they are not popular. And if you look at their actions, they are not smart.

Speaker 14 And if you look at the headlines, they are doing things that are flagrantly and obviously corrupt.

Speaker 14 And every single day, on top of being unpopular, unsmart, and obviously corrupt, they are continually doing things that have zero constituency.

Speaker 14 Doing things for which literally no one is in favor, except for the proverbial cartoon villain twirling his mustache somewhere. Right.

Speaker 14 I mean, the headlines just today, Trump administration halts research to help babies with heart defects.

Speaker 14 Who Who is the constituency for that? Who voted for that?

Speaker 14 Or this one, federal purge guts infant death prevention campaign.

Speaker 14 Alarming doctors.

Speaker 14 Who voted for that? Who wants that? Who's the constituency for that? That thing that Trump just did.

Speaker 14 Today we learned that Trump cut off the funding for the medication used by horses that are ridden by national park rangers.

Speaker 14 Who's in favor of that?

Speaker 14 Seriously. He cut off the funding for toner cartridges for the printers at the Social Security Administration.
Because yeah, that's waste. That's fraud and abuse, right? That they can print.

Speaker 14 This comes after he plans to cut Narcan. Narcan does nothing except keep people alive if they overdose.

Speaker 14 He's cutting Narcan. This comes after he cuts Meals on Wheels.
Who's against Meals on Wheels? It comes after he cuts Head Start preschool.

Speaker 14 Because who among us didn't think that the preschool kids were the ones who were getting it too good? And making America great again was about putting them back a few notches?

Speaker 14 I mean, honestly, these guys every day are doing things that have zero political constituency, that do nothing other than harm the country and harm the people in this country who are least able to articulate for themselves the pain that train that Trump is causing them.

Speaker 14 Every day they are doing things that have zero political constituency, that obviously hurt the country, while they are already historically unpopular, making headlines for really radically flagrant corruption, and while there are already people in the streets protesting against them every single day of the week in every single state of the country.

Speaker 14 That is how we are starting the second hundred days of the Donald Trump presidency. Total debacle.

Speaker 14 Stay with us.

Speaker 26 This message comes from the International Rescue Committee. Co-founded with help from Albert Einstein, the IRC has been providing humanitarian aid for more than 90 years.

Speaker 26 The IRC helps refugees whose lives are disrupted by conflict and disaster, supporting recovery efforts in places like Gaza and Ukraine, and responding within 72 hours of crisis.

Speaker 26 Donate today by visiting rescue.org slash rebuild.

Speaker 1 This episode is presented by Planned Parenthood Federation of America. This year, lawmakers have attacked our rights, stretched the truth, and taken away access to health care.

Speaker 1 Through it all, Planned Parenthood has been on the front lines, providing care, defending patients, fighting back.

Speaker 1 But the Trump administration and Congress passed a law to defund Planned Parenthood, putting care for 1.1 million patients at risk. Planned Parenthood isn't backing down.

Speaker 1 They're still here, protecting access to birth control, cancer screenings, abortion, and more. Visit planned parenthood.org/slash defend and donate today.

Speaker 4 Now's the time to start your next adventure behind the the wheel of an exciting new Toyota hybrid.

Speaker 5 With the largest lineup of hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and electrified vehicles to choose from, Toyota has the one for you.

Speaker 8 Every new Toyota hybrid comes with Toyota Care, two-year complementary scheduled maintenance, an exclusive hybrid battery warranty, and Toyota's legendary quality and reliability.

Speaker 12 Visit your local Toyota dealer today, Toyota.

Speaker 13 Let's go places. See your local Toyota dealer for hybrid battery warranty details.

Speaker 14 So I'm about to talk about something I feel a little oogy talking about

Speaker 14 because it seems personal.

Speaker 14 But it turns out the reason I'm going to do it, the reason

Speaker 14 I feel okay about it actually, is that it's explicitly not personal in the end. It's about the country, it's about policy, it's about the health of literally tens of millions of Americans.

Speaker 14 It does start in a kind of personal place. So

Speaker 14 again, slight oog factor here, but work with me. Here it is.

Speaker 14 We have had on this show many times before, former FDA commissioner Dr. David Kessler.
He's a big deal. He has served multiple presidents, Democrat and Republican.

Speaker 14 As I said, former commissioner of the FDA. He was most recently a very senior science advisor to President Biden.
David Kessler has been the dean of the medical school at Yale and at UC San Francisco.

Speaker 14 David Kessler, as I say. a very big deal.
And as a medical doctor, Dr. Kessler recently looked at the report from President Trump's own annual physical last month.

Speaker 14 And to him, that report told a story, a good news story, that he thought more Americans should know about.

Speaker 14 This is from a piece that Dr. Kessler wrote for The Atlantic.
It has just published in the past few minutes.

Speaker 14 He says, quote, during his first term, a scan showed signs of plaque buildup in President Trump's coronary arteries, which put him at risk of a heart attack.

Speaker 14 In 2020, his BMI, his body mass index, was just over the threshold for obesity. That combination would have made him a candidate for a GLP-1 drug, that is a weight loss drug like Ozempic or Wegovi.

Speaker 14 Quote, and indeed, throughout his 2024 campaign, people speculated that he was taking one.

Speaker 14 Then, last month, Trump's latest physical showed that he had dropped 20 pounds, which moved him from obese to overweight.

Speaker 14 Trump has never publicly said he is on a GLP-1, and when reached for comment, the White House did not address questions about how the president lost the weight.

Speaker 14 Press Secretary Caroline Levitt said Trump is, quote, in peak physical and mental condition.

Speaker 14 I'll tell you, we also reached out to the White House for a comment. We got that exact same response about what a brilliant specimen of man he is.

Speaker 14 But Dr.

Speaker 14 Kessler goes on to say this, quote, the most revealing aspect of the president's medical report was the list of drugs he is taking, which includes a combination that amounts to what doctors call intensive lipid-lowering therapy, a treatment usually reserved for patients who are at significant risk of cardiac disease.

Speaker 14 That drug regimen seems to be working. His LDL, the bad cholesterol, has dropped dramatically in recent years.

Speaker 14 So what Dr. David Kessler says he sees in President Trump's medical report is a success story,

Speaker 14 success against conditions that tens of millions of Americans struggle with, namely obesity and cardiac disease.

Speaker 14 And that success, that progress in the president's own health report appears to be be largely thanks to medical science.

Speaker 14 The president is on these two cholesterol-lowering drugs, this intensive lipid-lowering therapy for people at risk of cardiac disease. That treatment really appears to be working for him.

Speaker 14 We do not know if the president's documented weight loss is thanks to Ozembic or Wigovi or any similar drug. Certainly no shame if it is.

Speaker 14 Any such drug is not listed in his medical report. The White House will not say one way or another when they are asked.

Speaker 14 And I know I said this was a little oogy to talk about because this feels personal, but the point of this is not necessarily the president's personal health.

Speaker 14 The point here is that the president of the United States appears to be improving his own health through access to great medical care and great medical science. That's what he gets.

Speaker 14 Simultaneously, his administration is doing so much to hurt regular Americans' opportunity to achieve those same good health outcomes the same way.

Speaker 14 The National Institutes of Health, the government research agency that produces much of the science for these specific drugs and countless others, Trump has slashed its budget

Speaker 14 and nearly $2 billion in research grants there have been canceled. The FDA shepherds drugs to market and make sure they are safe.

Speaker 14 The FDA is reeling from huge staffing cuts, and the staff that is there can't complete basic tasks because, among other things, their government credit cards have been frozen.

Speaker 14 Trump and his allies in Congress are currently debating how many hundreds of billions of dollars they're going to cut from Medicaid, which provides health insurance to tens of millions of Americans.

Speaker 14 And as for those GLP-1 weight loss drugs that can be a lifesaver for so many people,

Speaker 14 well, Trump has rescinded. a Biden administration proposal to have those drugs covered by Medicare.

Speaker 14 Even as the White House says, maybe weight loss drugs will get a big price cut. They'll solve it with deals, if you want to believe that.
But they're undoing the plan to have them covered by Medicare,

Speaker 14 which puts at risk the opportunity for tens of millions of Americans to benefit from those kinds of drugs.

Speaker 14 President Trump is personally benefiting in his own health from the scientific and medical infrastructure the U.S. government has built up over decades.

Speaker 14 He is simultaneously in the process of destroying that infrastructure for everyone else.

Speaker 14 Joining us now is former FDA Commissioner Dr. David Kessler.
He has a new book that is coming out tomorrow. It's called Diet, Drugs, and Dopamine: The New Science of Achieving a Healthy Weight.
Dr.

Speaker 14 David Kessler, congratulations on the book. First of all, let me say

Speaker 14 I brought home the galley when I last saw you. I read it.
My partner read it. We then handed it to a neighbor who also wanted to read it.

Speaker 14 I really appreciate you writing this, particularly given your expertise in this field and so many others. Thank you.

Speaker 27 Thank you for having me, Rachel.

Speaker 14 So first, let me just ask you if I accurately represented your take on the President's medical report and

Speaker 14 why you think it's worth understanding in terms of how he is governing, how he is managing health policy in the country.

Speaker 27 You know, weight is such a fraught subject. There's so much stigma attached to it.
But it's not about weight. It's really about health.
You got the facts exactly right.

Speaker 27 Let's just go through them. The president had a cardiac scan that showed some plaque buildup, and they put him on two lipid-lowering drugs.

Speaker 27 What no one has said about those two lipid-lowering drugs is what those are called is intensive lipid-lowering therapy,

Speaker 27 azetamide or suvastatin, and they're working. His lipids drop dramatically from 143

Speaker 27 to 51.

Speaker 27 That reduces the risk of heart attack, that prolongs life. But the key, as you said, is the science of those drugs was worked out by research funded by the NIH and shepherded by the FDA.

Speaker 27 The president is destroying those institutions that gave birth to the drugs that are benefiting him.

Speaker 14 I think we tend to think of drug development as the province of private private companies, of pharmaceutical companies.

Speaker 14 Can you explain to an audience that may not understand the sort of weight of what you just said, can you talk about the federal government's role in researching and creating drugs and getting them to the American people?

Speaker 14 The part of it that can't happen without the U.S. government?

Speaker 27 So a drug has to work on a certain target. And while the drug companies will chemically synthesize the drug and do the clinical trials, the identification of that target, the receptor.

Speaker 27 I mean, that was done by research funded. It was Nobel Prize winning work by Brown and Goldstein.

Speaker 27 They identified, you know, through NIH funding, because no drug company has that capability.

Speaker 27 They identified the receptors that the drugs can work on. It was also true for the current weight loss drugs.
The GLP-1 drugs were done by a number of research labs, including

Speaker 27 a great research lab up at Harvard at Mass General Hospital.

Speaker 14 When you were last here, Dr. Kessler, you said something that got a very large response from our audience.
People continue to ask me about it.

Speaker 14 You talked about when President Trump himself had COVID during his first term and he was very ill. We learned later just how seriously ill he was.

Speaker 14 And you talked about his treatment, the very successful treatment at Walter Reed when he received monoclonal antibody infusions.

Speaker 14 And you broke the news on our show that the doctor who made it possible for Trump to get that treatment, which very well could have saved his life,

Speaker 14 is one of the officials at FDA,

Speaker 14 one of the officials in the federal government who Trump had fired. And it seems like it's following the sort of same lines that you're describing here today.

Speaker 14 Something which he's benefiting from, which may have indeed saved his life, is something that he's cutting off in terms of the ability for that expertise to continue to benefit not just himself, but the American people.

Speaker 14 I feel like I'm seeing continuities between those two stories, but I wanted to ask you if you see it that way.

Speaker 27 I think you've, you know, you got it exactly. I was told this weekend that there are six, 700 recusals

Speaker 27 today at FDA. That means

Speaker 27 recusals, you have to submit those when you're looking for jobs. So there is an exodus.
That kind of expertise, those nights that I was on with you when we were facing COVID, we got through those.

Speaker 27 because I was able to rely when I was co-leading Operation Warp Speed on a great deal of expertise. The Trump administration is going to need to rely on those expertise.

Speaker 27 They just haven't figured that out yet. There are going to be moments where they're going to turn around and find no one is there with that kind of expertise.
And that should concern all of us.

Speaker 14 Dr. David Kessler, former FDA commissioner and so much else, a long record of service in our government at the highest levels of our health infrastructure.
Dr. Kessler's new book is out tomorrow.

Speaker 14 It's called Diet, Drugs, and Dopamine, The New Science of Achieving a Healthy Weight. Dr.
Kessler, as always, it's an honor to have you here whenever you can be here. Thanks for being here tonight.

Speaker 27 Thank you, Rachel.

Speaker 14 All right. More news ahead here tonight.
Stay with us.

Speaker 28 Running a business is hard enough. So why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other? Introducing Odo, the only business software you'll ever need.

Speaker 28 It's an all-in-one, fully integrated platform that makes your work easier. From CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, and more.

Speaker 28 And the best part, Odoo replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. That's why over thousands of businesses have made the switch.
So why not you? Try Odoo for free at Odu.com.

Speaker 28 That's ODOO.com.

Speaker 4 Now's the time to start your next adventure behind the wheel of an exciting new Toyota hybrid.

Speaker 5 With the largest lineup of hybrid, plug-in, hybrid, and electrified vehicles to choose from, Toyota has the one for you.

Speaker 8 Every new Toyota hybrid comes with Toyota Care, two-year complimentary scheduled maintenance, an exclusive hybrid battery warranty, and Toyota's legendary quality and reliability.

Speaker 12 Visit your local Toyota dealer today, Toyota.

Speaker 13 Let's go places. See your local Toyota dealer for hybrid battery warranty details.

Speaker 29 Welcome to Walgreens. Looking for a holiday gift?

Speaker 4 Sort of.

Speaker 30 My cousin Freddie showed up to surprise us.

Speaker 29 Oh, sounds like a real nice surprise.

Speaker 9 Exactly.

Speaker 30 So now I have to get him a gift, but I haven't gotten my bonus yet. So if we could make it something really nice, but also not break the bank, that'd be perfect.

Speaker 14 How about a Keurig for 50% off?

Speaker 8 Bingo.

Speaker 22 Savings all season. The holiday road is long.
We're with you all the way.

Speaker 27 Walgreens.

Speaker 22 Offer valid November 26th through December 27th. Exclusions apply.

Speaker 14 This looks a little bit like a backpack, like when you take camping, but it's actually a way to carry a baby. on your back.

Speaker 14 It's a little baby carrier, a little chair you strap to your back. But the neat thing about this one is it has a little kickstand.

Speaker 14 So if you've got to take the baby off your back and you want to put the baby down for a bit, you could put the carrier on the floor and pop out the kickstand so it sits upright.

Speaker 14 Cool idea, but that's where things went wrong. Quote, recall.

Speaker 14 Due to fall hazard, the hinges on the foldable rear kickstand support leg can crack or break

Speaker 14 with the baby in there? Obviously, that is an uncool safety hazard for the aforementioned baby.

Speaker 14 And so some models of this baby chair that were made in the last two years have been recalled, recalled, because of that problem.

Speaker 14 also check out this very nice looking drink cooler looks nice it has wheels looks kind of friendly I don't know looks appealing maybe I'm just thirsty but don't be fooled this one might cut your fingers off recall the manufacturer igloo expands its recall to nearly 1.2 million coolers because of fingertip amputation and crushing hazards The toe handle can pinch consumers' fingertips.

Speaker 14 Man, you can't put the baby in the thing. You can't put the beer in the thing.
It's very stressful. You might want to relax, maybe play some music at home.
No, recall.

Speaker 14 Yamaha recalls AC power adapters for digital pianos and music workstations because they can overheat and ignite,

Speaker 14 causing burn and fire hazards.

Speaker 14 Now, each of these companies that makes each of these products, they of course issue their own recall notices. But these specific alerts, you see that the logo in the upper left corner there?

Speaker 14 That is the Consumer Product Safety Commission of the United States, CPSC. The Consumer Product Safety Commission is an independent agency of the U.S.

Speaker 14 federal government and they perform a very basic, very important function of our government. They make sure the stuff we buy won't kill us.
They make sure the stuff we buy is safe for us to use.

Speaker 14 And when it's not safe for us to use, they let us know, recall.

Speaker 14 And this is, again, a very basic function of the government, right? And it's just also a nonpartisan concept, right?

Speaker 14 And I think everybody can agree they don't want their beer coolers to cut off their fingers or their electric pianos to burst into flames.

Speaker 14 Nevertheless, in his infinite wisdom, Donald Trump has just fired most of the leadership at the Consumer Product Safety Commission. There's five commissioners,

Speaker 14 two Republicans, three Democrats. He just fired all three Democrats.

Speaker 14 And

Speaker 14 seriously? You're against the agency that recalls beer coolers that cut off people's fingers? Seriously?

Speaker 14 But beyond that, firing the commissioners like this is also pretty obviously illegal.

Speaker 14 Federal law is explicit that commissioners at this agency can only be removed from their jobs for neglect of duty or malfeasance, which absolutely does not seem to be the case here.

Speaker 14 But that's why these product safety commissioners who were just fired inexplicably by Trump, they are now fighting back.

Speaker 14 We're told that in the immediate aftermath of their firings, at least one of the commissioners and his staff tried to just show up at work anyway.

Speaker 14 Oh, sure, Trump says I'm fired, but Trump doesn't get to fire me.

Speaker 14 They showed up at their office, but were not allowed into the building.

Speaker 14 All three commissioners say they're planning to challenge their firings in court, and at least one of them says she just has no intention of abiding by her firing at all.

Speaker 14 As far as she's concerned, she has not been fired and she will not behave as if she has been. Her name is Mary Boyle.

Speaker 14 She's worked at the CPSC for more than a decade before becoming a commissioner a few years ago. Her term is supposed to extend until this October.

Speaker 14 But because Commissioner Boyle doesn't think the president had the legal authority to fire her, she says she's not going anywhere.

Speaker 14 She intends to keep doing her job until her term lawfully expires, no matter what he says.

Speaker 14 She says, quote, until my term as commissioner concludes, I will insist on following these time-tested safety principles, and I will use my voice to speak out on behalf of safety.

Speaker 14 Commissioner Boyle joins us here live next. Stay with us.

Speaker 14 So this was the headline. Trump fires Democrats on Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Speaker 14 And that's the headline, sure, but that really does seem to be illegal. These commissioners are confirmed by the U.S.
Senate.

Speaker 14 According to federal law, they can only be removed for neglecting their duty or some kind of malfeasance. That hasn't even been been alleged here.

Speaker 14 That's why these commissioners are challenging their firings. They're saying in the meantime, they're going to continue to do their jobs.
Joining us now is one of them, Mary Boyle.

Speaker 14 She's one of the commissioners. The president just fired from the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Commissioner Boyle, I really appreciate you taking time to be here tonight. Thank you.

Speaker 31 Thank you for having me.

Speaker 14 So I understand the argument that your firing may have been improper or indeed illegal.

Speaker 14 It seems like the structure of the agency and the structure of your particular position doesn't give the president the option to just fire you for no cause.

Speaker 14 How do you plan to challenge it? And what do you plan to do in the meantime?

Speaker 31 That's correct. Our statute is very clear.
It says that we can only be removed from office for neglect or malfeasance, as you reported.

Speaker 31 And I can say categorically, there was no neglect or malfeasance. And in fact, the president did not allege anything of that sort.

Speaker 31 I got a two-sentence email from someone at the White House who told me that I was being terminated effectively immediately and thanking me for my service.

Speaker 31 So the fact that there was absolutely nothing alleged only confirms that this was totally an illegal firing. And so what we plan to do is to challenge this action in court.

Speaker 31 And there are certainly other cases of a similar nature.

Speaker 31 And we believe it's important not only to get ourselves reinstated to the positions that we hold and to fulfill our duties, but also because we think it's in the interest of the American people.

Speaker 31 I really liked how you set up the introduction because that's exactly right. All the types of products, it affects every single American what we do.
And it's 15,000.

Speaker 31 product categories in your home and everyone is affected by what we do. And I've been at the agency for 15 years, actually.

Speaker 31 Before I was a commissioner, I was a civil servant. I only was appointed in a a political position three years ago by President Biden.

Speaker 31 I had been the general counsel of the agency and the executive director. And in my entire time at the agency, safety has always been considered non-partisan.

Speaker 31 Sure, we've had disagreements that would reflect differences in outlook and political parties, but by and large, mantra from everyone at the agency for as long as I've been there is that safety is nonpartisan and that we would execute our jobs that way.

Speaker 31 It was only since since January where that has changed, the tenor at the agency has changed, where people were talking about their political affiliations and the election and things that I had never heard at the agency before.

Speaker 31 And I just don't think that's what the American consumer expects.

Speaker 31 Their lives are too busy. There's so much going on.

Speaker 31 They want someone just looking to make sure, as you say, products are safe and that they can go about their busy lives without worrying that their beer cooler is going to cut off their fingers.

Speaker 14 That's exactly right. There's absolutely nothing partisan about wanting to make sure that my toaster isn't going to burn down my house.
Mary Boyle, who is a commissioner on the

Speaker 14 commissioner on the Consumer Product Safety Commission,

Speaker 14 despite President Trump's apparently illegal efforts to fire you. Commissioner Boyle, I know this is going to be,

Speaker 14 I imagine, a stressful fight and a difficult time. Thank you for helping us understand it tonight and good luck to you.

Speaker 31 Thank you so much.

Speaker 14 All right. We'll be right back.
Sit with us.

Speaker 14 All right, that's going to do it for me tonight. I'll see you again next Monday at 9 p.m.
Eastern here on MSNBC.

Speaker 14 Before I go, a reminder that we here at the Rachel Maddow Show have a newsletter, and you can receive it if you'd like to. It's free.

Speaker 14 It just gives you all sorts of updates and info on news that you've seen here on the show.

Speaker 14 You can sign up for it using the QR code that's on your screen right now, or you can just go directly to msnbc.com/slash maddow newsletter. Like I said, it's free, no strings attached.

Speaker 14 We just email it to you if you'd like to receive it, and that's it.

Speaker 4 Now's the time to start your next adventure behind the wheel of an exciting new Toyota hybrid.

Speaker 5 With the largest lineup of hybrid, plug-in, hybrid, and electrified vehicles to choose from, Toyota has the one for you.

Speaker 8 Every new Toyota hybrid comes with Toyota Care, two-year complementary scheduled maintenance, an exclusive hybrid battery warranty, and Toyota's legendary quality and reliability.

Speaker 12 Visit your local Toyota dealer today.

Speaker 13 Toyota, let's go places. See your local Toyota dealer for hybrid battery warranty details.