'Scum,' 'crooked' elections and 'corrupt' media. What Trump said inside the Justice Department

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'Scum,' 'crooked' elections and 'corrupt' media. What Trump said inside the Justice Department

2025-03-15 21:36 Last Updated At：21:41

President Donald Trump delivered what sounded like one of his typical meandering, grievance-laden campaign speeches on Friday, but it was where he did it — inside the U.S. Department of Justice — that mattered.

The appearance marked Trump’s clearest exertion yet of personal control over the country’s federal law enforcement apparatus, which is normally run by appointees who keep at least an arm’s length from the president to avoid the appearance that politics are governing prosecutorial decisions. Trump, instead, embraced the notion of the agency as his own personal tool of vengeance.

“As the chief law enforcement officer in our country, I will insist upon and demand full and complete accountability for the wrongs and abuses that have occurred,” Trump told the audience, with Attorney General Pam Bondi (who is technically the country’s chief law enforcement officer) and FBI Director Kash Patel in the audience.

One of Trump's favorite campaign songs, “YMCA,” played after he wrapped up his nearly hourlong address inside the department's ceremonial Great Hall.

Here’s a look at what Trump said, what the reality is and the significance of his words.

“The same scum you have been dealing with for years. Guys like Andrew Weissmann, deranged Jack Smith. There’s a guy named Norm Eisen, I don’t even know what he looks like. His name is Norm Eisen of CREW; he’s been after me for nine years.”

Trump named lawyers and a legal nonprofit that he has tangled with over the years, which could serve as a roadmap for people he would like prosecuted by the officials in the room with him.

Trump named lawyer Eisen, but misidentified him as running the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which unsuccessfully sued to block Trump from running for reelection due to his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Eisen was with the organization during part of Trump’s first term but has since left.

Trump rained vitriol on CREW as well as Eisen, who remains staunchly opposed to Trump and co-founded an online publication, The Contrarian, to take on the new administration. Still, Trump claimed Eisen has been “violent,” which is laughable. He’s a lawyer who’s never used physical force toward Trump.

Weissmann was a prominent prosecutor in the investigation into the Trump campaign’s dealings with Russia during Trump’s first term. One of the people convicted in that probe, Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, watched the speech and was warmly introduced by Trump himself.

Trump also name-checked Smith, who was the special prosecutor who filed charges against Trump for his attempt to overturn the 2020 election and for hoarding classified documents at his Florida resort.

Notably, the president didn’t name a single possible crime these lawyers or CREW committed other than opposing him.

“I believe that CNN and MSDNC, who literally write 97.6% bad about me, are political arms of the Democrat Party. And in my opinion, they are really corrupt and they are illegal. What they do is illegal.”

This was a remarkable moment — the president of the United States telling his Department of Justice that he believes the media are illegal because they write bad things about him.

Needless to say, CNN and MSNBC (which Trump tweaked by changing its initials) are not actually part of the Democratic Party. No matter if you think their coverage leans in that direction, there’s no actual, legal connection.

Even if there was, the First Amendment allows political groups to criticize a rival politician. It certainly allows the media to do so, regardless of any perceived ideological bias.

"What a difference a rigged and crooked election had on our country, when you think about it. And the people who did this to us should go to jail. They should go to jail.”

This is one of Trump's favorite subjects — how he didn't really lose the 2020 election. He did, though.

Trump has claimed falsely that widespread fraud cost him the 2020 election, but the evidence says otherwise. Trump lost dozens of court challenges, including some before judges he appointed, his own attorney general at the time said there was no evidence of fraud on a scale that could have tipped the election, and reviews, recounts and audits in the battleground states where Trump contested his loss all affirmed Biden’s win.

It's unclear who “the people who did this” are in Trump's threat, but when a president says someone should go to jail while addressing the Department of Justice — especially about something that never happened — that's significant.

“I pardoned hundreds of political prisoners who had been grossly mistreated. We removed the senior FBI officials who misdirected resources to send SWAT teams after grandmothers and J6 hostages. And it was a great honor for me, a great honor to fire James Comey.”

Trump claimed he'd end what he called “weaponization” of the Department of Justice, but then quickly boasted of pardoning those who attacked the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn his election loss on Jan. 6.

Trump also boasted of firing Comey, who was the FBI director in his first term. It was one of Trump's most controversial acts then, but seems almost quaint now. The man whom Trump nominated to replace Comey, Christopher Wray, stepped aside in December after years of being targeted by Trump, who has now replaced him with Patel, a loyalist who never worked in the bureau.

The president boasting of firing top FBI officials is a clear signal to those inside the Department of Justice.

“They wanted to scare the hell out of the judges. And they do it. How do you stop it? ... What do you do to get rid of it? You convict Trump.”

Trump has personally singled out judges who ruled against him for attack since he first ran for president in 2016. But, remarkably, Trump implied that the adverse legal decisions against him have been because his opponents are threatening judges.

In reality, the judge who presided over Trump’s criminal in New York, Juan Merchan, received threats after Trump repeatedly attacked him and his family. Judicial organizations have reported a sharp rise in threats as Trump increasingly complained the legal system was “rigged” against him as he fought four separate prosecutions during his campaign.

Trump did accurately note negative coverage that conservative justices on the nation’s highest court have received over some of their rulings and conduct. He has reason to want those justices to be sympathetic to him because several of his administration’s initiatives are tangled up in litigation headed straight to the Supreme Court.

This story has been corrected with the spelling of Andrew Weissmann's last name and to reflect he was a prominent prosecutor in the Russia investigation but not the lead one.

Monster storm across the US sparks threat of tornadoes in US South; At least 5 dead

2025-03-15 21:36 Last Updated At：21:41

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — At least five people have been killed in a monster storm sweeping across much of the U.S.

At least two people were killed in Missouri after a tornado struck the Bakersfield area. The Missouri State Highway patrol said Saturday via social media that multiple people were also injured.

It would bring to at least five the number of people who have died as a result of weather since Friday. Authorities also say that three people were killed in car crashes during a dust storm in Amarillo County in the Texas Panhandle.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The threat of tornadoes moved east into the Mississippi Valley and Deep South on Saturday, a day after a massive storm system moving across the country unleashed winds that damaged buildings, whipped up deadly dust storms and fanned more than 100 wildfires.

Multiple tornadoes were reported in Missouri on Friday, just some of the extreme weather that was forecast to affect an area home to more than 100 million people. Winds gusting up to 80 mph (130 kph) were predicted from the Canadian border to Texas, threatening blizzard conditions in colder northern areas and wildfire risk in warmer, drier areas to the south.

The National Weather Service issued multiple tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings early Saturday morning for areas in Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana and Texas.

Three people were killed Friday in car crashes during a dust storm in Amarillo County in the Texas Panhandle, according to Sgt. Cindy Barkley of the state’s department of public safety. One pileup involved an estimated 38 cars.

“It’s the worst I’ve ever seen,” Barkley said, calling the near-zero visibility a nightmare. “We couldn’t tell that they were all together until the dust kind of settled.”

Evacuations were ordered in some Oklahoma communities as more than 130 fires were reported across the state. The State Patrol said winds were so strong that they toppled several tractor-trailers.

“This is terrible out here,” said Charles Daniel, a truck driver hauling a 48-foot (14.6-meter) trailer along Interstate 40 in western Oklahoma. “There’s a lot of sand and dirt in the air. I’m not pushing it over 55 mph. I’m scared it will blow over if I do.”

Forecasters said the severe storm threat would continue into the weekend with a high chance of tornadoes and damaging winds Saturday in Mississippi and Alabama. Heavy rain could bring flash flooding to some parts of the East Coast on Sunday.

Experts say it's not unusual to see such weather extremes in March.

“What’s unique about this one is its large size and intensity,” said Bill Bunting of the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma. “And so what that is doing is producing really substantial impacts over a very large area.”

The weather service said at least five tornadoes were reported in Missouri on Friday, including one in the Saint Louis area. Several buildings were damaged.

The Storm Prediction Center said fast-moving storms could spawn twisters and hail as large as baseballs, but the greatest threat would come from straight-line winds near or exceeding hurricane force, with gusts of 100 mph (160 kph) possible.

“Potentially violent” tornadoes were expected Saturday in parts of the central Gulf Coast and Deep South into the Tennessee Valley, according to the National Weather Service.

The Storm Prediction Center said parts of Mississippi including Jackson and Hattiesburg and areas of Alabama including Birmingham and Tuscaloosa would be at a high risk. Severe storms and tornadoes were also possible across eastern Louisiana, western Georgia, central Tennessee and the western Florida Panhandle.

Wildfires in the Southern Plains threatened to spread rapidly amid warm, dry weather and strong winds, and evacuations were ordered Friday for some communities in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and New Mexico.

A blaze in Roberts County, Texas, northeast of Amarillo, quickly blew up from less than a square mile (about 2 square kilometers) to an estimated 32.8 square miles (85 square kilometers), the Texas A&M University Forest Service said on X. Crews stopped its advance by Friday evening.

About 60 miles (90 kilometers) to the south, another fire grew to about 3.9 square miles (10 square kilometers) before its advance was halted in the afternoon.

High winds also knocked out power to more than 300,000 homes and businesses in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, according the website poweroutage.us.

The National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for parts of far western Minnesota and far eastern South Dakota starting early Saturday. Snow accumulations of 3 to 6 inches (7.6 to 15.2 centimeters) were expected, with up to a foot (30 centimeters) possible.

Winds gusting to 60 mph (97 kph) were expected to cause whiteout conditions.

Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia, and Golden from Seattle. Associated Press journalists from across the U.S. contributed.