Welcome back Speaking on Meet the Press yesterday, president-elect Trump
confirmed that he plans to follow through with mass deportations
once he takes office next month.
The president-elect also vowed that he would end birthright citizenship,
which remember, is something that is guaranteed through the 14th
Amendment of the Constitution of the Constitution.
Well, I think you have to do it and it's
a, it's a very tough thing to do.
It's but you have to have, you know, you have
rules, regulations, laws, they came in illegally.
You know, the people that have been treated very unfairly
are the people that have been online for 10 years
to come into the country.
We have to get the criminals out of our country.
We have to get people that were taken out of
mental institutions and put them back into their mental institution,
no matter what country it is.
Let me ask you about another group of people, the
estimated 4 million families in America who have mixed immigration
status.
So I'm talking about parents who might be here illegally,
but the kids are here legally.
Your borders are talking about separation.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, there are two aspects to this.
Your border, Zara.
Tom Holman said they can be deported together.
Is that the plan?
That way you keep the.
Well, I don't want to be breaking up families.
So the only way you don't break up the family
is you keep them together and you have to send
them all back, even kids who are here legally.
Well, well, what you're going to do if they want
to stay with the father?
Look, we have to have rules and regulations.
You can always find something out like, you know, this
doesn't work.
That doesn't work.
Like, you promised to end birthright citizenship on day one.
Is that still your plan?
Yeah, absolutely.
The 14th Amendment, though, says that, quote, all persons born
in the United States are citizens.
Can you get around the 14th Amendment with an executive
action or maybe have to go back to the people?
But we have to end it.
Joining us now, special correspondent at Vanity Fair and host
of the Fast Politics podcast, Molly Jung Fast.
Molly is also an MSNBC political analyst.
Molly, let's let's just talk about this for a few
minutes.
I mean, this is an amendment to the Constitution, birthright
citizenship that he's talking about overturning.
And these mass deportations, which he is not suggesting they'll
be limited.
He is suggesting they will not just be limited to
targeting criminals.
They could be sweeping this.
What he is proposing would fundamentally change US culture and
society.
Yeah.
And also the Constitution, which you'll remember the, the look,
there's a very conservative Supreme Court at this point, and
they are supposed textualists who love the Constitution.
So here's their guy, right?
The guy who installed three of them saying that he's
going to edit the Constitution on day one.
Look, you know, our Constitution is pretty much all we
have at this point, right?
It is and Republicans pretend to love it.
So if he goes in there and and the party
as it has often acquiesced to him and says, you
know, you want to edit the Constitution, go for it,
buddy.
First of all, I don't there's going to be tons
of legal challenges and and very likely as in with
the 2016 admin, he probably, he probably lose a lot
of them as he did the first time.
But this is like mind blowing stuff.
I mean, this is not normal.
So you, you obviously have your, your finger on the
pulse of, of, of Democratic politics, liberal angst.
You know, there's a lot of despair, right?
And also this idea of almost like tuning out, I
can't bear to look at it.
We're seeing it engagement, social media down, TV ratings down.
People just don't want they don't want to face it.
This here, though, if he does follow through with this,
particularly in those early days administration, is that the moment
that would change things, do you think would sort of
electrify that protest movement that we saw back in 20,
2017, but has been has been off stage so far
this time around?
Yeah.
You know, I spend a lot of time thinking about
why are people tuned out and what would make people
tuned in and what that looks like.
And, and I mean, I think we both know none
of us know the future, but we both know what
what Trump has said he will do is pretty seismic.
And so the question is what do the American people
do, right?
Do they go along with this?
Did they say okay to deportation camps?
I mean, if we look at just very recent history,
the last time America did deportation camps during World War
2, they were wildly unpopular.
They were sort of one of the darkest moments in
American, recent American history.
So have we changed so much that we no longer
are, you know, people who are are moved and upset
by seeing people in camps?
I, I don't know.
And lastly and briefly, is there some frustration also from
those on the left about what President Biden is doing
right now in his last few weeks, not just the
pardon, perhaps, but as he ceded the global stage to
Donald Trump?
Yeah.
And also, I would say there's, I think a lot
of frustration about there are still judges, right?
The Senate can still, you know, confirm, and there's been
some, you know, deals made about not staying late and
not confirming as many judges as possible.
And I think if you're going to say democracy is
on the line and then you're going to say, but
we need to take Fridays off, like those two messages
do not jive.
Yeah.
Now there's a lot of anger about that.
Ma Jong Fast.
Thank you, as always.
We appreciate it.