MS NOW host Luke Russert laid out on Monday's edition of "The Weeknight" how the newest grift by the Trump family dwarfs the corrupt deals that had Republicans enraged with the Biden family — by three orders of magnitude.
Specifically, they brokered a mining deal in Kazakhstan through the federal government, from which members of the Trump family could reap hundreds of millions of dollars due to personal stakes.
"This is something that I have been shocked about ... I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why the country has not gone apoplectic about the level of corruption going on in this administration, just by the numbers," said Russert.
For comparison, he said, "I have a lot of what you call the socially liberal, fiscally conservative friends ... and they will blow up my DMs, you'd be like well, look what Hunter Biden, did I want to show what Hunter Biden did. Hunter Biden sold paintings for $1.5 million. There have been 10 buyers of his art who have paid $1.5 million under the agreement; the galleries receive 40 percent of the sales, while Biden takes 60 percent. That's what Hunter Biden did with his art. Also had a job for a company in Ukraine. Got a million-dollar retainer fee."
In contrast to all of that, said Russert, in Trump's second term, he got "$1.4 billion, with a B. This is not comparable. Look at the numbers."
"So next time you get a DM from your 'socially liberal, fiscal conservative' friends" deflecting with rants about the Biden family, Russert added, "just show the numbers. This is a completely corrupt racket that the Trump family is running, and they're doing it at your expense."
"Yeah, they're strip-mining as much as they can from wherever they can get it," agreed co-anchor Michael Steele, a former GOP chairman. "Kazakhstan, the United States, Europe, Africa, wherever they can go, wherever they can land, the Middle East ... somebody has got to get their heads out of dark places and focus in on what's happening here. The grift is unconscionable."