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One of the great things about
Donald Trump no longer
being president is that so many
of the people that he picked to
serve with him are also not around.
It's great to not have
Stephen Miller, that's amazing.
One of the most reprehensible
villains in his administration was
certainly Betsy DeVos.
And so I think a lot of people felt
pretty good once she was
booted out of DC.
You might feel a little bit less
good when you find out that she's
leaving having earned so
much money while she was in office.
She's reportedly worth more than $2
billion.
Which, as an aside,
nobody should be worth, but
she apparently is.
Reported outside earnings from
dividends, interest and rents of at
least $225 million, potentially
over $414 million, just during her
time in the Trump administration.
And when I look at her on her way
out, I think,
that's someone who did a couple
hundred million dollars worth
of work over those couple of years.
That's what I think.
Anyway, the figures were found
through an analysis of three of her
financial disclosure forms
conducted by CREW.
The organization notes that it's
difficult to know her exact income
as it's reported in broad ranges.
Many assets are listed as being
over $5 million or over $1 million
instead of giving exact figures.
At the most modest end of her
reported income,
she would have earned more than
$158,000 every day for the 1,422
days she was in the position.
That's more than $6,500 per hour.
And if I was slightly better
with numbers, I can tell you
by the minute, you get close.
Anyway, that's so much money, day
after day, week after week, month
after month, year after year, for
dividends, and interest and stuff.
She didn't have to do
anything to earn that money, Jayar,
how frustrating.
>> Actually, as a matter of fact,
it's probably even more,
but it's easier for
her not to do anything.
If she did something,
she might have done it wrong.
because I don't know,
I don't see much expertise here.
I don't see much of a mastermind of
a business nature
where she can generate all this
money because of her genius.
So it's really based on doing
nothing.
It's based on who you are, and
who you're married to, and
who you're connected with,
and which businesses, because okay.
Betsy DeVos is a garbage person,
bottom line.
So outside of that- >> Maybe
this week.
>> [LAUGH] Outside of that, though,
all it is is just her being
a cog in the machine.
So if there's a company or
corporation that she associated
with that's making hundreds of
millions of dollars over a couple
years or so, Betsy DeVos is not
the driving force behind that.
She's just one of
the beneficiaries of it.
So it's not like she could go in
there and be like, okay,
we're going to stop everything.
This is capitalism, bro.
One person isn't going to go in and
stop a machine of a corporation
that has been making this kind of
money regularly, and
then suddenly they're just going to
stop doing it.
So honestly, and
this is where maybe I'm a bad guy,
people that are in these types of
positions are not are not qualified
to hold government positions.
That's just the way it is, bro.
You got your hundreds and
hundreds of million dollars.
I'm sorry, your $2 billion,
you've got that.
What are you being appointed
a government position for,
to help who?
And when we see you're not helping
anyone, in fact, making more money
because the corporation that you're
associated with does nothing but
make money.
That's their job.
Why are you here?
We don't need you and
you don't need us.
All that's going to happen is a bad
relationship here.
And maybe that sounds like it's bad
to limit people from having a job
or a government position because
they want to serve their country,
but it's impossible.
It doesn't work that way.
Associated with a capitalist
corporation like this,
you cannot serve the people.
You just can't do it,
even if you want it to.
because your company, and
your business holdings, and your
family are still making tons and
tons of money.
So it's a direct
conflict of interest,
even if it's not your fault.
It's just the way it is.
Well, and the US Constitution has,
at least technically on the books,
some concern for how money can
influence you coming in from like
foreign nationals or something.
But what about just the natural way
that you'll be influenced by all
of what goes into you being able to
earn hundreds of thousands
of dollars every day, passively,
through your investments?
And we don't even need
to speculate, hypothetically,
how that could influence you or
how that could provide a conflict
of interest.
She and her husband provide perfect
examples of that.
So she had a stake in Neurocore,
a brain performance company aimed
at children.
As well as her husband's political
donations, which she pledged he
would stop making when she was
entering government.
But then she remembered, wait,
we make more money if we don't
do that because they'll give
us what we want.
DeVos did not recuse herself from
matters involving Neurocore that
brought up potential conflicts of
interest and her husband continued
to make political donations in
the 2018 and 2020 election cycles.
So are we supposed to believe that
that had no influence?
That, as head of the Department of
Education, she didn't do anything
that would benefit Neurocore?
Not because that's what's best for
America's children, but
because that's what's best to make
her marginally more insanely
wealthy than she already is?
We don't have any sort of
requirement that people to serve
have below a certain net worth or
that they get rid of their
investments.
But it seems like it makes a lot
of sense to do one or both,
honestly, >> Actually, sadly,
I think a lot of times there
are requirements in the opposite,
that people have certain wealth,
certain business holding,
certain associations and
certain connections in order to
be considered to run.
That's just the way
historically it's been.
So the rich and powerful, why would
they choose a poor nobody to run
and help represent the things
that they've been representing?
When people hold power,
it's not the top of their agenda
list to give it up.
[LAUGH] So a lot of people that get
appointed to these positions
are ones that continue this,
this continues.
We talked earlier about Mitch
McConnell, he was calling Democrats
in the Senate wanting to change
rules so we can have voting rights.
He called it a power grab, because
that would make him lose power,
because American people wouldn't
vote for him.
It's a power grab because
he would lose power.
That's the problem.
It's a bunch of people who want
ultimate power, and they're calling
the other one a power-grabber.
Each of you is doing
the same thing.
It's just a matter of
who's going to grab the power, so
it's such a false argument to make
in the first place.
That's the whole point, powerful
people want to keep their power,
and then they'll do anything they
can, like people like Betsy DeVos
who don't know anything,
to continue to hold that power
because they have no other choice.
She's just another bolt in
the machine.
>> Yeah, yeah, 100%.
Did a lot of damage, comes out,
made a ton of money.
She was going to be fine either
way.
Why would you want these people
serving?
Well, if you wanted
the Department of Education
to not- >> No one actually does.
No one wants those people to serve
except for the people who- >> No
actual people.
Yeah, it's so weird, you would
expect that this incredibly wealthy
person using their position in
government to get even wealthier.
>> Damn the interests of the state.
That's the sort of thing that
a populist news show
like Tucker Carlson, in theory,
could be influenced in.
But I have a feeling he's not
going to have an interest in that.
He'll talk generally about
the ruling class and the elites,
but he's not going to identify
the actual ones.
Certainly not those that served
under Republicans.
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