I Called a Former Trump Official a Liar TO HER FACE. And I’d Do It Again.

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I was back on NewsNation Thursday night, debating immigration on Katie Pavlich’s show. Sitting across from me was Tricia McLaughlin, former DHS spokesperson and one of the most prolific liars to ever grace the American government. Which, if you’ve been paying attention, is really saying something.

And Tricia did what Tricia always does. She lied her ass off about immigrants in this country.

I’ve debated a lot of professional liars over the last year. I’ve come to expect it. But something about sitting next to Tricia McLaughlin on Thursday set me off, because I simply could not put up with her bullshit for one more second.

So I called her a liar to her face. And I reminded the American people exactly who and what she is.

She called it “character assassination.” Maybe I’d feel bad about that if I thought she had a character to assassinate.

So let me remind you who Tricia McLaughlin is.

She’s a woman who stole $220 million in taxpayer money by secretly funneling it to her own husband’s firm. That alone should have ended her career. Instead, she gets to go on TV and feel important/

And as a taxpayer-funded spokesperson, here’s a partial list of what she lied about:

• A Chicago mom shot five times by Border Patrol. Tricia said the woman rammed agents. The body cam shows the agent swerved into her. The government admitted it in court. Her tweet is still up.
  

• Renee Good and Alex Pretti, killed by federal agents in Minneapolis. Tricia called them domestic terrorists who wanted to massacre law enforcement. Video showed Pretti never drew his gun. It was dissent. Even this administration backed off. She didn’t.
  

• A grieving mother who miscarried in ICE custody. Tricia smeared her as a wanted criminal. Court documents prove the warrant had been thrown out. She never corrected it.
  

• A teenage girl violently detained on camera. Tricia claimed it was year-old footage of Chicago PD arresting a burglar. It wasn’t.
  

• A TV news producer. Tricia said she threw objects at Border Patrol. Bystander video contradicted her. The woman was never charged with anything.
  

• And her signature line, that ICE targets “the worst of the worst.” ICE’s own numbers: 73% of people booked since October had no criminal conviction.

This is a person who lies the way the rest of us breathe.

The reason she worked for Donald Trump is because she lies the way he does and she steals the way he does. That’s the whole job description. He surrounds himself with people who have already decided that proximity to power and money is worth whatever’s left of their soul. Tricia made that trade a long time ago. Now she gets to go on TV and keep lying, keep grifting, keep doing the thing she was hired to do, except now she’s doing it on a cable network instead of from you.

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I tweeted the video out. Katie Pavlich was not happy about that. She responded that Tricia is welcome on her show anytime to talk about “violent illegal aliens,” and that she wants guests who will call out anyone who commits heinous crimes like murder, rape, or trafficking.

For a second I thought she was talking about the Trump administration. Or the Epstein files. Or the Tate brothers.

But no. She was talking about immigrants who were living here peacefully.

Look, I’m in favor of removing anyone who commits a violent act. Of course I am. Who isn’t? I’m in favor of securing the border. I think Democrats have, at times, not been strong enough on it, and I’ve said so. But the immigration policies of this administration are indefensible. That’s precisely why people like Tricia McLaughlin have to lie about them all the goddamn time. You don’t need to fabricate a story about a mother who miscarried in custody if the truth is on your side.

There is no reason for her to be on television. It is irresponsible to hand a microphone to someone who lies this brazenly. But they’re going to keep booking her, because she’ll sell whatever racist slop they come up with to scare people. That is the service she provides. And we should all be outraged by it.

And that’s the thing. This comes back to the thing at the core of this newsletter, the thing I keep coming back to with all of you: there is no accountability for anything that happens in Washington.

There is zero gravity in DC. You can say whatever you want. Do whatever you want. Steal whatever you want. Hurt whoever you want. Nothing ever lands. Nobody ever falls.

In fact, the only accountability coming out of Thursday night is that I probably won’t be invited back on Katie’s show. And that’s fine. I’ve got plenty of shit to do. I appreciate the opportunity, and I love a lot of people at NewsNation. But that segment was ridiculous, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise.

If we’re going to live in a civil society, if we’re going to save this democracy, if we’re ever going to get back to a place where we don’t hate each other, then not handing airtime to people who stole from the American taxpayer and lied to the American people on the taxpayer’s dime is probably a good fucking start.

People need to be held accountable for the lies they tell. For the lives they ruin. For the crimes they commit. I don’t think that’s a radical idea. I think it’s supposed to be the basis of this entire country. Instead we’ve become a goddamn banana republic, and it’s disgusting.

None of this is new. And it’s hard to stay this angry all the time when there’s so much to be angry about.

That’s the plan, by the way. They’re hoping the anger either overwhelms you until you have to quit for your own sanity, or that you go numb. A lot of us have gone numb. There are days I’m numb too.

But I refuse to let them win that way. I’m not going to forget what they’ve done. And I’m going to keep turning my anger into something useful.

This morning at my studio, we’re hosting an event to make hygiene kits for kids dealing with housing insecurity here in Chicago. That’s how I’m spending my time today. I’m writing this to check in with all of you before I head over, because I hope you’re out there doing something like that too.

Find a way to be useful in your community. Spend time with your family. Hug your kids. Whatever it is. I want that for you.

We don’t have to hate each other. And we don’t have to accept that these shitty people keep getting put into positions of power, and then, when they’re done, walk straight into a TV studio to keep being shitty on live television.

This system needs to be fixed. It needs to be torn down and rebuilt. And it’s going to take a lot of us saying enough is enough to get there.

I’m saying it. I hope you’ll say it with me.

With urgency,

—Mike

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