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MAGA Revolts Over Epstein List Reversal · Pod Save America

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  Speaker 1: slash crooked. There's no safe like SimpliSafe. Welcome to Pod
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: I'm Tommy Vitor.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Love It is off this week, so I guess we're
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: going to do our best to fill the 30 or
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: 40 minutes of insight we typically get from him.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Wow. Okay. Apparently you didn't like his joke about your, uh,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: your Twitter habits when you were on vacation.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Look, it was a big piece of legislation.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: It was, it was a big, beautiful bill.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: And my tweets did not matter as we, as we
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: found out at all. They did nothing. Fortunately, we do
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: have a lot to cover today. We're going to talk
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: about what's next for Trump's big shitty bill. Now that
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: it's a, big shitty law. Talk about ICE becoming bigger
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: than most countries' militaries as part of the bill. Elon
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Musk's New America Party.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Can't wait to join.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Launched on July 4th weekend.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: It's like the innovation party. It is. Deep cut.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: I was wondering who would make the innovation party joke first.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Me too. It was you.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: And Mago World turning on Trump over the latest Jeffrey
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Epstein revelations or lack thereof, I guess. So we will
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: dig into that as well. We do want to start
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: with the horrific floods that hit Kerr County, Texas over
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: the weekend, which is a county just northwest of San Antonio.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: As of late Monday afternoon, at least 89 people have died,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: including 27 campers and staff from Camp Mystic, which is
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: an all-girls summer camp that was essentially washed away by
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: the floods. Many more people are missing as of right now.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: It has been absolutely just gut-wrenching to see photos of
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: these eight and nine year old girls who died to
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: hear their parents talk about them, to hear from the
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: parents who are like just still at this moment looking
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: for their kids. It's just an unimaginable tragedy. This is
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: now one of the deadliest floods of the last century.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: And this area of Texas in particular is one of
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: the most dangerous regions in the country for floods. So
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: naturally there've been plenty of questions about whether anything could
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: have been done to get people out of harm's way earlier.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: The Trump administration is getting criticism for the doge cuts
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: to the National Weather Service, the NWS, where 10% of
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: the staff has been fired, including meteorologists, and two of
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: the offices that now have vacancies are in the area
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: of the flood. The NWS has also had to delay
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: weather balloon launches across the country, and those help forecast storms.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: All that said, the National Weather Service did issue timely
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: warnings about this flood. The problem was that those warnings
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: didn't get to the people who were in danger. This
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: is known as the last mile problem. Apparently, Kerr County
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: opted against investing in a flood warning system back in
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: 2017 because they thought it was too expensive. So Trump
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: responded to some of the criticism over the weekend when
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: he took questions from reporters at his golf club in
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: New Jersey. Here he is accompanied by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
• 4:26
  Speaker 5: Investigating whether some of the cuts to the federal government
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: left key vacancies at the National Weather Service or in
• 4:30
  Speaker 5: the emergency coordination?
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  Speaker 3: The President They did not. The President No, no, they didn't.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: I'll tell you, if you look at that, what a
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: situation that all is. And that was really the Biden setup.
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: That was not our setup. But I wouldn't blame Biden
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: for it either. I would just say this is a
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: 100-year catastrophe. and it's just so horrible to watch.
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  Speaker 5: In light of the floods, do you think that the
• 4:56
  Speaker 5: federal government needs to hire back any of the meteorologists
• 4:59
  Speaker 5: who were fired.
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  Speaker 3: In the last.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: Month?
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  Speaker 3: I wouldn't know that. I really wouldn't.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: I would think not. Still planning to phase out FEMA?
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: Well, FEMA is something we can talk about later, but
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: right now they're busy working.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: What the fuck is the water situation? The water setup?
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: I could blame Biden, but I won't blame Biden, but
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  Speaker 2: I just did blame Biden.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: For the water setup.
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  Speaker 2: I just, I've found the political fighting over this pretty
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: tough to stomach or really engage with. Like it's just,
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: you know, you watch these interviews with some dad combing
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: through like this rubble trying to find his kids. And
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: it's just like sort of all you can think about.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: It does sound like what you said was right. Like
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: the last mile problem, getting the warnings to people who are,
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: in rural areas with no cell service in the middle
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: of the night. That does sound like that was the
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: broader problem than predicting the flood. But I thought the
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: letters or the questions in Chuck Schumer's letter were appropriate
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: and important.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: We should say that on Monday morning, Chuck Schumer sent
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: a letter to the inspector general at the Commerce Department
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: demanding an investigation. So that's the letter. What was he
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: asking in the letter?
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  Speaker 2: Basically, if cuts to the National Weather Service slowed down
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: things or put people at risk. I think that's an
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  Speaker 2: important question going forward. I could have done without the
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: instant leap to blame, name your political opponent for this
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  Speaker 2: tragedy on Twitter. I think that stuff's just gross. Yeah.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think the really gross stuff was I
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: saw some people be like, well, Texas, you voted for
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Trump and this is what you get.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: And you're like, what the fuck? We're all Americans. Don't
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: do that shit.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: I think that two things can be true. The Doge
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: cuts to the National Weather Service in this case had
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: nothing to do with the tragedy. It seems like the
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: National Weather Service, like I said, did send out a
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  Speaker 1: timely warning. It just didn't get to people. And that's
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: not the Trump administration saying that. That's independent meteorologists and
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: experts have all said this. But it is true that
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: we are now facing worsening climate disasters. That's just a fact.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: Whether or not you believe in climate change, it's still
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: a fact. You can look at the record. It's recorded now,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: which is like the hurricanes, floods, droughts, you name it,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: they've been more frequent and more intense over the last
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: couple decades. And so now, you know, we need to
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: figure out what to do about that. And there's two
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: things you can do about it, aside from efforts to
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  Speaker 1: combat climate change. But in the immediate, you can figure
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: out how to prepare for these disasters, and you can
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: figure out how to respond to them. On the preparation side,
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: you know, you cut 10% of the national weather staff
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  Speaker 1: Much of meteorologists were not predicting. You have meteorologists way
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: before this hit saying like, we're about to head into
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  Speaker 1: a hurricane season where we can't predict storms as well.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: And we're all flying blind here. It's like really bad.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: So it's horrible that they made those cuts. And then
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  Speaker 1: on the other end, you know, Trump had been talking
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: about getting rid of FEMA. They installed a director at
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: FEMA who told the FEMA staff when he got there
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: that he wasn't aware that we had a hurricane season.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: That seems bad. Yeah, we probably should have thought twice
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: about shooting down that Chinese balloon. Could have used that thing.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: That's right. You know what I'm saying? Now, back in February,
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  Speaker 2: the Trump administration fired hundreds of FEMA employees, and they
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: offered buyouts to hundreds more, maybe thousands more. So yeah,
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  Speaker 2: they're definitely gutting FEMA. They also rescinded grants that are
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: designed to help communities prepare for climate disasters, which seems
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: like a very bad idea. They disbanded all these FEMA
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: advisory councils made up of actual professionals who understand disaster relief,
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  Speaker 2: and then they put in place new politicized entities to
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  Speaker 2: in their stead. And to your point, yeah, Trump now
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  Speaker 2: wants to get rid of FEMA after hurricane season. He says,
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: you know, you'll disperse those responsibilities to the states, but
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: I have no confidence that'll happen.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: And states don't have the same money. They don't have
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: the same resources to do it.
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  Speaker 2: And they have finite resources. So, you know, they're going
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: to put it to the things that are most acute
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: political need for whoever that leader is. And then the great,
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: the big, big picture stuff is we're pulling out of
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Paris climate accords. We are gutting tax credits for renewable
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: energy in this big, beautiful bill. where Trump's doing everything
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: he can to prioritize oil and gas and coal, which
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: will exacerbate climate change. And there's just, Republicans can't seem
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: to agree on the fact that this is exacerbating climate
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: disasters in their communities as well.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: And it's just, it's hard because when Doge was doing
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: what Doge did, you know, there were almost too many cuts,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: too many stories, too many horrors to focus on any
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: one of them. but I remember the national weather service cuts.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: I remember thinking that was crazy.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: It seemed crazy.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: And we didn't really talk much about it at the time.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: And there was a bunch of like meteorologists, uh, who
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: are usually not partisan types, like local meteorologists, some of
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: them on during their broadcast being like, Hey, by the way,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: usually I can tell you there's this guy in Florida.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: It was like, usually I can tell you when the,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: when the hurricane is going to turn, if it's going
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: to turn, I actually can't tell you now we don't know.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: And so again, like we, you don't want to talk
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: about it, you know, in the midst of tragedy, especially
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: if it doesn't directly have to do with the tragedy,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: but a couple of weeks from now are people who's
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: going to be talking about the national weather service cuts.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: I know it's hard because you don't want to be
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: like Trump. You don't want to be the guy who
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: is literally attacking California elected officials and for the LA
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: fires while they were still burning. That is disgusting. You
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: don't want to be like him and claiming that he
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: turned some valve in Northern California and thus saved all
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: of us by allowing the water to flow down. But
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: it is beyond frustrating that the fires, extreme weather events,
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: all of this is going to get worse because of
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: Trump's climate policies. And yet we can't seem to get
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: people to tie the last two together. I guess we
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: just have to keep making the case.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: And on the micro level- you know, there's the 2017
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Kerr County first, you know, thought about and then ultimately
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: rejected this like warning system, right? And part of that
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: was because a couple of years earlier, there had been
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: a flood, a deadly flood too. And there was a
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: county next door that actually did have this system in place.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: And this is a kind of system where, you know,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: right now you can get alerts on your phone, but
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: if you are out of cell phone range or it's
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: the middle of the night like it was here.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: Your phone off.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, your phone off or you're going to see like, oh,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: flash flood alert, you know. But they have things like
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: they can have sirens like they do for tornadoes. They
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: have these systems they can do. And this county, right, is,
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: you know, was probably like, I don't think taxpayers want
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: to do that because, you know, no one, especially sometimes
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: in red states and red state officials, like they don't
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: want to pay for the things that you have to
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: pay for because government's always inefficient and government's stupid. But like,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: you know what? When we're going to be facing many
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: more climate disasters and they're going to become more extreme,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: they're going to become more frequent. Like, yeah, I think
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: it's like time to make a case that investing in
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: government preparedness and response is really fucking important.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. It's a tragedy.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Pod Save America is brought to you by Strawberry.me. We spend, what,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: about a third of our waking hours working?
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: And yet, so many people feel stuck in jobs they've
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  Speaker 1: We've heard it all.
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  Speaker 4: We've heard it all.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: What if the next move is even worse? I've already
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: put years into this place.
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  Speaker 4: The president's trying to kill me and I just was
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  Speaker 4: doing what I thought was right.
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  Speaker 1: I can't afford to take a wrong step. Who am
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  Speaker 1: I without this title?
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  Speaker 2: I think about that one. I know.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Isn't everyone kind of miserable at work?
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  Speaker 4: And look, those feelings, your feelings are valid.
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  Speaker 1: you actually want. All right, let's talk about Donald Trump's
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: economic plan, which the Republican Congress passed and the president
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: signed into law at a 4th of July ceremony at
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: the White House that obviously included a B-2 bomber flyover.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: The next big fight now will be overselling the wildly
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: unpopular law to a very skeptical public, and it appears
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: that the administration's primary strategy is to just keep lying
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: about what the law does, who it harms. Scott Besson
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: was out on the Sunday shows peddling the bullshit that
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: the only people affected by the trillion-dollar cut to Medicaid
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: will be able-bodied adults who choose not to work, despite
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: the fact that only 8% of Medicaid recipients fit this description.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: Here's a clip of Besson.
• 13:59
  Speaker 6: Putting a work requirement is, by definition, a change to benefits. No,
• 14:04
  Speaker 6: there are no change in benefits. There is a change
• 14:06
  Speaker 6: in requirements to get the benefits. Able-bodied Americans are not
• 14:11
  Speaker 6: vulnerable Americans. People can get off Medicaid and get a
• 14:15
  Speaker 6: job that has good health care benefits. It is a
• 14:18
  Speaker 6: group of Democrats who unfortunately seem to think that poor
• 14:22
  Speaker 6: people are stupid. I don't think poor people are stupid.
• 14:24
  Speaker 6: I think they have agency.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: To be fair, I think he thinks we're all stupid.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: I think he does too. He is really dishonest. Not
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: a very good messenger.
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: No.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: I don't think I've really heard him talk that much.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: He was terrible there. I mean, the truth is experts
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: think 17 million people are going to lose their health
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: insurance because of this bill. Most of that is because
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: they're going to use red tape and bureaucracy to undo
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: a lot of the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act,
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: basically provisions that allowed the working poor to get Medicaid.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: And they're just going to do it through red tape
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: because they know that if you're on Medicaid and you're
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: trying to cobble together a bunch of part-time jobs to
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: pay the bills, it's going to be difficult to prove
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: that you worked 80 hours that month or volunteered for
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: 80 hours. They also know most Medicaid recipients are already working.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: And you mentioned the 92% stat. The way that breaks
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: down is two-thirds of adults age 19 to 64 on
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: Medicaid are working. This is according to a Kaiser Family
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: Foundation study. And then nearly three in 10 were not
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: working because their caregivers were are sick or have disabilities
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: or attending school. And otherwise they qualify for exemptions. So
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: that means, well, we're going to ring this much savings
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: out of 8% of the expansion population. No, what's going
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: to happen is what's happened in Arkansas when they put
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: in place a policy like this, where 18,000 people lost
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: coverage because of work requirements. And there was no increase
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: in employment because those people were already working. They just
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: got pushed out of the system because they couldn't do
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: the bureaucracy.
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: I just, it was the first time I caught this
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: in that clip. is Scott Besson being like, I think
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: people can get off Medicaid and get a job. There's
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: been this, you hear it from Besson, you hear it
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: from Trump people, MAGA people, that they're like, everyone's sitting
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: home collecting Medicaid benefits. That's not how Medicaid works because
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: you don't get a check. It's not benefits. You go
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: to the hospital and you have health insurance or you
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: go see a doctor, you have health insurance. And just
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: like people who don't have Medicaid have health insurance when
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: it gets paid for when you go to the doctor, right?
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: Or sometimes you have to have a copay, which by
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: the way, copays are going to be raised as part
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: of this as well. So it's not just the work requirements.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: But this idea that people are just sitting there collecting
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: Medicaid benefits is just fucking ludicrous.
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: It makes no sense.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Apparently only 31% of the cuts, Steve Ratner had a
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: piece about this in the New York Times, only 31%
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: of the cuts to Medicaid are due to the work requirements.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: So even as unfair as it is that you just
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: mentioned that, all the work requirements and how onerous they
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: are and how they're going to result in a lot
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: of people losing it, that's still only 31% of the
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: trillion dollar cut there. So the rest of it is
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: just Medicaid cuts that have nothing to do with work requirements. Uh,
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: Annie Lowry had a great piece about this in, uh,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: the Atlantic. Um, and she made the point that other
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: people have made, which is, this is not really a
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: work requirement. It's a work reporting requirement.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: And it's the reporting. That's the bullshit. And you, you
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: think to yourself, okay, well, if you're working, um, shouldn't
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: you just, don't you just like check a box and
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: say I'm working and that's it? It's like, no, no, no.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: You have to like create an ID and a login
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: and then upload verification documents and You have to collect
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: the documents. And if you miss a call from a caseworker,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: you lose your health care. And, like, this is how
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: this works. The other state you mentioned, Arkansas, that has
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: these requirements is Georgia has this. Georgia pays. The states also,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: by the way, have to now set up and pay
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: for these verification systems for Medicaid. So Georgia pays $ 9
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: in overhead for every $ 1 it spends on care. for
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: its Medicaid program just to do the verification thing, which again,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: hasn't led to more people working and has just kicked
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: people off the program.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: And they're talking about this because they know it's popular.
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: Like the, again, Kaiser Family Foundation did a poll, 68%
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: of voters supported Medicaid work requirements as described by the
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: House bill. But once you'd informed them that the majority
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: of Medicaid recipients were already working and you explained to
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: them sort of the risk of losing coverage that we
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: just talked about via bureaucracy, the support for Medicaid work
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: requirements dropped as low as 35%. So a 33-point decrease
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: in support for that policy when people really understand it.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: The hard part is getting people to understand it.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: So those are the work requirements, but obviously there's a
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: lot more in the bill that passed. I don't know.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: I wasn't here last week, and I know you haven't
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: got a chance to talk about the bill broadly yet
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: since it passed, at least on this podcast. What did
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: you make of the bill now that you've had a
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: few more days to digest what's actually in it?
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's sort of a combination of the
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: worst of like Reaganomics anti-social safety net with like old school,
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: disgusting pork barrel politics. Like if you look at the
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: tax cuts, here's some people who get or people or
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: entities who get a tax cut thanks to this big,
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: beautiful bill. The bill eliminates a $ 200 firearm registration fee
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: when you purchase a gun silencer. So good news for you.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: I know you're in the market. That's crazy. There's a
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: tax break solely for Alaskan fishing boats and processing plants.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: Uh, there's also a special deduction for Alaskan whaling boat captains.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: So thank God we're finally helping other people killing whales.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: There's a specific tax break for the, uh, venture capital industry.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: That's going to cost the rest of us $ 17 billion,
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: $ 2 billion tax break for the rum industry, uh, oil
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: and gas industry gets exempted from paying the bare minimum
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: 15% tax on big corporations. Um, if you're worth up
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: to $ 30 million, you no longer have to pay the
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: estate tax if you're a couple. Individuals that's exempted up
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: to 14 million. Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos get a
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: special $ 1 billion provision that will allow them to sell
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: tax-exempt bonds to build spaceports. Very important.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: What a great gift for Jeff Bezos for his wedding.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: You're welcome. Yes.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Over the weekend where he spent $ 50 million to rent Venice.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: Was it 50 million?
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: $ 50 million where they basically took over Venice and flew
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: a bunch of private jets there, had a big wedding.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: The split screen of that Because it's like most people
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: in the country, like, I don't know, were they paying
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: attention to the bill or were they paying attention to
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: like all the pop culture entertainment coverage of the Bezos wedding?
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: Well, no, no one was paying attention to the bill
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: because you weren't staring at cable like we were. It
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: was all Diddy coverage. And then the Idaho murder case,
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: like zero coverage of this bill is actually very depressing.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: There's also a huge tax break for business owners and
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: people who get paid through pass-through business entities like S-Corps
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: and stuff. That costs $ 800 billion today. So, yeah, I mean,
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: this thing is just like your classic special interest corporate
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: tax break bill, along with the cruelest Medicaid cuts. And
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: then he's just idiotic gutting of renewable energy companies.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: Trump is now he's got to sell the bill, you know,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: so he's got Besson out there and everyone else lying
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: about the work requirements stuff. They also he's, of course,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: he's also enlisting the federal government in this whole effort,
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: the propaganda campaign, which, you know, used to be something.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: and violated some kind of law. And now we're just like, oh, whatever.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: He had the Social Security Administration, supposed to be just
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: a bunch of civil servants and a nonpartisan entity, the
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: Social Security Administration. They sent an email to all Social
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: Security beneficiaries, quote, celebrating the passage of the one big,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: beautiful bill, a landmark piece of legislation that delivers long-awaited
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: tax relief to millions of older Americans. That, I guess,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: is referring to the provision that temporarily provides a $ 6, 000
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: senior deduction, which is meant to fulfill Trump's campaign promise
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: to end taxes on Social Security, which the bill doesn't do,
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: even though Trump and the White House keep saying it does.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: Just stating his fact that it does. It's a lie. Yeah.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: It's a lie.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: Do you think shit like that works? And just talk
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: about the Social Security thing. And then in general, like
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: how easy or difficult do you think it'll be for
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: Trump to make this law popular using the bully pulpit
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: and sort of, I guess, the entire federal government?
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: I mean, I wish I could scoff at like that
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: social security email or have faith that people eventually learn
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: that it's a lie when they get their tax bill.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: But I always think back to how powerful it was
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: for Trump to put his name on the stimulus checks
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: and how much that stuck with people. And just like
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: a word that this was an official government communication that
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: went to 71 million people, 71 million people got a
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: total lie from the U S government. Um, and like
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: this policy, like so many policies in this bill, does
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: nothing for the poorest seniors. It'll help out ones that
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: are wealthier. So some challenges for him in terms of
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: selling this bill, it's like the 2017 tax cuts were
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: extended in this bill. I would imagine that in 2018
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: or 19, people like saw that their tax bill went down.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: That won't really be the case here if it's just
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: an extension. So maybe that'll help us fight it. It's
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: useful that like the Cato Institute is saying this is
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: gonna add 6 trillion in debt. to the company, like
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: that's really bad. And it's going to cost us up
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: to $ 1. 9 trillion in debt servicing alone by like 2036.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: It's nice to see, you know, voices. You don't always
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: see attacking Trump talking about this, but like Elon Musk
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: being out there calling it a disaster, utterly insane and destructive.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: Like that was a verbatim quote I think is, is
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: really helpful. It does suck though. Like in terms of
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: just helping people feel the impact, like The no tax
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: on tips provision, some of the things Trump really wants,
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: they go into effect right away. But the cuts to
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: Medicaid are delayed a couple of years. So we're going
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: to have to help people understand how bad those are
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: going to be before there are elections.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: I think that there's two parts to this, to the
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: selling of this and how people feel about it, I think.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: One is which narrative you buy about the bill, whether
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: Trump's or what the Democrats are going to say, what
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: we're all going to say. And part of that is
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: dependent on who makes the better case for some of
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: the stuff that doesn't happen until later. Then there's just,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: you know, I was calling it his economic plan, which
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: I kind of think, we go back and forth and like,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: should we call it the bill, the beautiful bill, this bill,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: that bill? But it's like, it's his economic plan, right?
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: And Trump and Republicans, they went all in on it.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: They said, this is our plan to, we ran for,
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: Trump ran for president, Republicans ran for office to say
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: they're going to bring down costs because everyone was very
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: pissed about high costs. And this is the plan to
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: do that. And so now In 2026, people can ask themselves,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: do I feel like I can afford things again? Do
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: I think the prices are down? Do I think that
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: I can afford a house? You spend $ 4 trillion at
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: a time of high interest rates, high prices that haven't
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: come down, high costs that haven't come down, partly because
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: he has just also levied a sales tax, essentially, with
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: tariffs on everything we buy from all over the world,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: just as we recorded this today. He announced another like 25%.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: He sent a letter to South Korea and Japan each
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: telling them like, oh, I'm going to levy 25% tariffs
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: on both of your countries.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: Why not?
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: And there's going to be more. I guess Tunisia got
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: a letter too.
• 25:10
  Speaker 6: Tunisia?
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: Tunisia got a letter.
• 25:11
  Speaker 6: Yeah. Okay.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: There's going to be more of these now. And so
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: you're going to have people paying slightly higher taxes. Well,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: it depends on the product, on all the stuff they buy.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: And you have inflation that has come down, but you
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: still have prices that are high. Interest rates are not
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: coming down anytime soon, which is why he's yelling at
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: Jerome Powell and threatening to fire him, right? And so
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: I think that you can make a case, whether or
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: not some of these provisions go into effect, that like, hey,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: in 2026, are you happy with your cost of living?
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: Are you happy with what you're able to afford? If not,
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: then I thought Donald Trump was supposed to fucking fix it.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I do think there's a lot of macroeconomic factors
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: that will determine how people feel about him in 2026
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: and then Hopefully not him, but maybe J.D. Vance in 2028, right?
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: If inflation is still high, it is very, very bad
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: for him. And just in terms of like kind of
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: feeling the impact on healthcare, you are starting to see
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: reports of rural hospitals closing or not getting reopened. I
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: imagine we're going to see a lot of that because
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: those rural hospitals are going to be the ones who
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: are the most financially impacted by these changes. And that's
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: going to really impact people's lives. If there's no hospital
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: within 50 miles of you all of a sudden, you
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: can't live like that.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that is happening now. There's a New Times
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: piece about a county in eastern North Carolina that's been
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: trying to reopen their one hospital with Medicaid money, which
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: they almost certainly won't be able to do now. The
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: key quote from a local real estate agent who's leading
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: the charge said, quote, not having the hospital here is
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: costing lives. This is the most important thing for us.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: One clinic in rural Nebraska has already closed. The guy
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: who runs it said in a statement that the expected
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: Medicaid cuts are a reason why they're closing. This is
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: what I got in a fight with Don Bacon about.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Because Don Bacon was like, liberals hate work. That's what
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: he tweeted. He goes, liberals hate work. That's why they're
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: mad about the work requirements. And I was like, work
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: requirements aside, someone in your own state is saying they're
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: closing a hospital. He's like, how could you say the
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: hospital's going to close? The cuts haven't even gone into
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: effect yet. The bill hasn't even passed. And I was like,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: I'm not the one who said it. It's the fucking
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: Nebraskan who runs the rural county hospital.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: That's so frustrating.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: And I think these stories are why these stories of
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: these rural hospitals closing. And this is why before the
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: bill passed, Republicans in Congress were saying stuff like this.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: The White House has made a commitment.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: The president said over and over and over, we're not
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: going to touch Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid. We've made
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: the same commitment.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: I am fully committed and I'm leading legislation to make
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: sure that, you know, whatever cuts take place in Washington.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: That Medicaid recipients don't bear the brunt of that.
• 27:40
  Speaker 6: I've been very clear.
• 27:41
  Speaker 7: I will not support cuts to eligible beneficiaries on Medicaid.
• 27:46
  Speaker 5: If during this budget reconciliation process they're going to try
• 27:49
  Speaker 5: to cut rural health care, I.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: Am not on board.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: So much for that.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: Tough quotes. Tough quotes there from all those frontline Republicans.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: So, you know, you mentioned some of the Medicaid cuts
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: don't take effect until after the midterms. Others don't hit
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: until 2028. How do you think that's going to affect
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: Democrats' ability to make this an issue for voters in 2026?
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, this is the hard part. I mean,
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: Priorities USA did some polling. They found that half of Americans,
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: nearly half, hadn't heard anything about the big, beautiful bill,
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: and only 8% of all Americans named Medicaid cuts as
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: the detail of the bill they had heard about. That
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: suggests we have a big, big messaging challenge. I just
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: do think this is going to have to be, we
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: just have to find a way to talk about this
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: every single week, the Democratic Party. I mean, this has
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: got to be relentless. Because Trump is going to try
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: to make it about immigration and ICE funding. And you
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: saw J.D. Vance's tweets, right, about how actually the Medicaid
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: cuts and all this, you know, renewable energy, that is immaterial,
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: I think was the word he used. What really matters
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: is getting all these migrants out of the country and
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: that somehow that's going to have an economic benefit. That's
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: what they want to talk about. We have to make
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: sure people understand the reality.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: I also think, you know, we mentioned the rural hospitals
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: closing down. Part of this is he owns the healthcare
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: system now, right? Just like we owned the healthcare system
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: when we passed the Affordable Care Act. And even though
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: something would happen in healthcare, you know, costs would go
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: up or premiums would go up and everyone would blame Obamacare.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: And we'd be like, no, it was actually, that wasn't Obamacare.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: This hasn't been implemented yet. And like, people like, I
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: don't fucking care what you're saying.
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: They blame you in charge.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: So when bad things happen, and some of them, by
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: the way, like these rural hospitals closing will be because
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: of the law, ACA premiums, Um, which, you know, one
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: of the things that happened, you've mentioned this on the
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: show before the ACA subsidies that people were getting to
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: bring down their premiums or to help them pay for
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: insurance on the exchanges, they were not extended. So those
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: ACA premiums, Axios reported this, will probably increase by more
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: than 7.5% on average starting in January.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: Talk about inflation.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: So that's like January of 2026. So that's like a
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: big talking point. And actually that probably affects a lot
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: more midterm voters, fortunately, than some of the people who
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: were on Medicaid that will lose their Medicaid much later.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: And a bunch of hospitals will be doing what those
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: two hospitals we just mentioned do. And a bunch of
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: states are going to have to start making budget decisions
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: about Medicaid. sooner rather than later. And so that's going
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: to start bringing all these effects in a little bit earlier.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: But I do think that we just have to make
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: them own everything about healthcare and everything about the economy.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: There's also a couple of other things we haven't talked
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: about in this bill, like the SNAP cuts. Most people
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: don't know what SNAP is, but it's food assistance. There
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: was a Politico story I saw. It says food banks
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: aren't ready to handle all the people who will now
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: need them. So we're cutting food assistance for a bunch
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: of people food assistance, just like people are going to
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: go hungry. And so they're going to have to turn
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: to fucking food banks. And now food banks aren't going
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: to have the capacity to help people. Some of these
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: nonprofit organizations have estimated that six to nine billion meals
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: will be eliminated. And much like the rural hospitals, grocery
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: stores in low income rural areas, they rely on money
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: from people who have food assistance.
• 31:06
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: You see it advertised.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And so if they lose that money, then some
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: of those grocery stores, they're worried, could now close as well.
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: This bill is just so cruel on the merits. And
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: I also think that there are changes, at least in
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: the House version of the bill, that disaggregated eligibility for
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: SNAP and Medicaid. Like some states, you just sort of
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: had to apply for one and you were eligible for both.
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: And they split that up to make it just harder
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: to get food or harder to get health care. So
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: everything about this is just like bureaucratic cruelty, which it
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: does speak to why the votes around the bill, you
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: saw a lot of agonized Republicans. Um, they all voted
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: for it, but a lot of people were like on
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: the merits, this thing was just awful.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: No one really, no one's excited. No one, no one's
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: excited about this except like Trump and the biggest sycophants there.
• 31:51
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: And like, you know, big industries.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: It's also a, a bill that really sort of robs
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: from future generations. Cause I just thought about this with
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: the senior provision, the $ 6, 000, uh, senior deduction, which as
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: you pointed out, doesn't even go to the poorest seniors,
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: but for kids, for young people, especially like Trump did
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: so well with Gen Z in this election, college loans
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: are going to become more expensive, right? Because they cut
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: college loans. So the typical loan recipient with a college
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: degree and an annual income of $ 80, 000 is going to
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: have to pay $ 3, 000 more per year now. So we're
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: giving seniors, wealthier seniors, are going to get a little
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: bit of a tax deduction that only lasts until 2028.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: But people just starting out looking for jobs are going
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: to be paying more on college loans.
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: And it'll also make Social Security insolvent a couple years earlier. Yes.
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: And then, of course, adding to the debt means that
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: our children and grandchildren are going to end up paying
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: higher interest rates and have to pay this off later.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: It's bad. One good piece of news is that our
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: friends at Vote Save America are launching a really cool
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: new program on candidate recruitment for local offices. We'll have
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: more on the details of that a bit later in
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: the show, but it seems pretty clear that we need
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: more people fired up and running for office. Any other
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: ideas before we move off of this on how Democrats
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: can keep this bill in people's minds over the next
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: 16 months? I'm very cognizant of the fact that it
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: seems like a big deal now. Even if the midterms
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: were this November, we're sitting here, what, it's July? This November,
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: it would be hard to keep people remembering this. We
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: have 16 months to make this election about this bill.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's going to be very difficult. I mean, first
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: of all, I just want to say on this candidate
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: recruitment idea, A midterm election like this is a really
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: big opportunity, I think, for Democrats. We need candidates running
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: at every level for every single office. The odds are
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: there will be headwinds for Trump and the Republican Party.
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: The odds are we'll win elections we might not otherwise
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: be competitive in. So if you're thinking about running, check
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: out Votes of America site and consider this being the
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: year you do it because it's really, really, really important.
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: I just think, you know, Yes. In 60 months, God
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: knows what we'll be talking about, right? There could be
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: a war. There could be a terrorist attack. There could
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: be who knows what. I do think just continuing to
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: highlight the stories we talked about, the community hospitals closing,
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: the individuals who get hurt, the people who lost their
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: food stamps or their coverage, like personalizing this kind of
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: wonky policy story is going to be the key in
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: just doing events and talking about this. Like Democrats have
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: been great over the last few months about doing town
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: halls in Republican districts, you that's a great way to
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: make sure that some of those constituents at least are
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: hearing about these terrible votes. I hope Democrats are going
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: to every one of the like targeted districts all the
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: time and talking about this bill and just kind of
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: pounding it.
• 34:39
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: And I think the one thing we have going for
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: us is, you know, you're trying to flip the house.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: These are district level campaigns. So, you know, the problem
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: that we run into in presidential elections is, there's a
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: whole bunch of voters who just don't pay much attention
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: and it's hard to reach them because they're not following
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: the news. You know, you're running a campaign in a
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: house district. You could reach a lot more people. And
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: so I think, you know, Vote Save America has the list,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: but this is the list of people we were trying
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: to get everyone to call. Like, you know, David Valadao
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: in California, who has, you know, more Medicaid recipients in
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: his district than anyone else in the country. And also,
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: by the way, represents a a lot of farmers, people
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: in the agriculture industry who are getting deported. So I
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: think whoever runs against, whoever ends up running against David Valadao,
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: that's a pretty solid campaign you can run there.
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: So Hockey and Jeffrey's office put out some specific stats
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: on the impact district by district. David Valadao, they've estimated 65,000
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: people would lose access to healthcare from this bill. 60,000
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: households could lose access to food assistance and then 3,600
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: energy jobs could be lost. So that's pretty specific about
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: the bill and the district and worth just hammered.
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: And I do think, like you said, every piece of
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: bad news directly related to this bill or not, whether
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: it's with the economy, healthcare, we still have the doge
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: cuts that are taking effects and stuff like that. We
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: just got to make them own it from now until
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: the midterms. So we mentioned earlier that Vote Save America
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: is launching a drive to recruit candidates for local races.
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: Here's the deal.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: This is a pilot program that they're launching, trying to
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: recruit candidates from our audiences in Arizona, North Carolina, and Texas.
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: We mean you.
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: You, listener.
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: This is a program where we are hoping that some
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: of you who listen to this, who live in Arizona,
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: North Carolina, and Texas, think, you know what? I should
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: run for office. And it doesn't have to be House, Senate, President.
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: You don't have to run against Ted Cruz. You can
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: run for school board, city council, county commissioner, town clerk,
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: state legislature. There's hundreds... maybe even thousands of races where
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: no Democrat runs. Look, 2026, we hope, will be a
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: big year for Democrats. We hope there are headwinds for
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump. We hope we win a lot of races.
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: And if we're not running in places, we can't win.
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: So we're hoping you will consider taking this next time.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: The team picked Arizona, North Carolina, and Texas because these
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: are three states that, you know, they're purple states. Texas
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: is always out there as we're hoping that we can turn.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: But look, if we want to have a majority in
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: this country, majority in the Senate, If we want to
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: have a majority in electoral college, if we want to
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: actually just build power in these states, these are three
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: states that we have to flip. And flipping them is
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: not just like on the presidential level or on the
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: Senate level. Like it starts by winning these local races.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: And to win these local races, we need good candidates.
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: And one of the biggest things that Votes Save America
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: heard from all the partner organizations they worked with in
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: these states after 2024 was, is that there's just a
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: lack of candidate quality across the whole ecosystem. And we
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: just need more candidates to run. And that's where all
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: you come in.
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: And this is how you recruit talent. I mean, this
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: is how we build the base of the Democratic Party.
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: You run for these small offices, school boards, city council,
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: et cetera, and you get good at the job and
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: you learn and you build a political base and supporters
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: and learn how to fundraise and do all the things
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: that are required to take the next step. And those
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: are the future leaders of the party in the country.
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: So we hope you'll consider taken the plunge, you've knocked doors,
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: you've volunteered, you've donated. Why not run for office?
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: Why not run for office? I think it's easier than
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: you think. And you will feel like, you know, we
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: both know many people who've run for office and some
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: have won and some have lost. But all of them,
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: like the experience is really meaningful. And I think a
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: lot of people believe it's easier than they thought it
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: would be. To get started. It's pretty grueling once you
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: do it, but it is a, it's, it's the best,
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: most effective way to get involved. And this isn't just
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: Vote Save America, like saying, go do it. Like they
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: have great partners on the ground in these states who
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: have identified the races that need candidates and they are ready,
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: these organizations to help you run for office. So you
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: can learn about the program and sign up at votesaveamerica.com
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: slash run. If you're interested, you'll be paired with partner
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: organizations in your state and they will help you figure
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: out the next steps. The program launches today, July 8th.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: And I think, Tommy, you're hosting a kickoff call with
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: some of these partner organizations on July 16th.
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: Damn right. So sign up soon.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, sign up. Listen to Tommy on July 16th. Check
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: it out. And again, if you're interested, votesaveamerica.com slash run
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: to learn more. Pod Save America. is brought to you
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  Speaker 1: of $ 100 or more. One part of the bill we
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: haven't talked about as much is the $ 170 billion it
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: spends to supercharge Trump's mass deportation regime. ICE will now
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: become the country's largest federal law enforcement agency. Bigger than
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: the FBI. Bigger than the DEA. Stephen Miller gets to
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: hire 10,000 new ICE agents that he's basically responsible for.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: They basically report to him since Christine Ohm is like,
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: you know, just the face of the Department of Homeland Security.
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: But Miller's really the boss.
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: And same thing is true, I guess, with the Department
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: of Justice. Jason Zengler had a whole piece about Stephen
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: Miller in the New York Times where everyone's saying that
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: he's the real power center, that all these cabinet secretaries,
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: they're just sort of there to go on TV.
• 41:42
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: Miller gets to hire 10,000 new ICE agents. They're going
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: to build enough new detention centers to hold more than 100,000 people.
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: ICE's new budget will be larger than most of the
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: world's militaries, including Israel's. The idea that we're going to
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: have ICE that has a bigger budget than.
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: The IDF is... It's a little scary.
• 42:01
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: It's pretty scary. And this is all so that they
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: can hit Stephen Miller's goal of 1 million deportations per year,
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: which they're trying to reach by arresting Every immigrant they
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: can find, even people without criminal records, even people who
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: are here legally. This is certainly what some Trump voters wanted,
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: but not all of them. Here's one prominent Trump supporter
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: from a few days ago.
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: It's insane.
• 42:23
  Speaker 7: We were told there would be no. Well, there's two
• 42:26
  Speaker 7: things that are insane. One is the targeting of migrant workers,
• 42:31
  Speaker 7: not cartel members, not gang members, not drug dealers, just
• 42:38
  Speaker 7: construction workers showing up in construction sites and raiding them.
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: Gardeners.
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 42:44
  Speaker 7: Like, really?
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: That, of course, was Joe Rogan.
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: I love it.
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: On a recent episode of his podcast. So I know
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: Democrats haven't been talking as much about this part of
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: the bill because they the Medicaid cuts and the tax
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: cuts for the rich are much more unpopular, at least
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: according to the polls. I still think it's maybe the
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: most alarming part of the new law.
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: What do you think? It's terrifying. I mean, the idea
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: of this just sort of like hybrid militarized police force
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: running through our cities, it's very scary. I also think,
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: I think it's a real opportunity to talk about ICE
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: agents wearing masks. I think blue states need to pass
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: laws requiring ICE agents to show their faces, show proper ID,
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: I would love to force a big fight over that
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: because like who, who disagrees with that idea?
• 43:26
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: But I also think like, you know, there was early
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: on Democrats were very, um, unsteady when talking about immigration.
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: I just think they have to understand that the ground
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: has shifted a bit. Like Pew just had a big
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: survey last month on a bunch of immigration stuff that
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: was useful. 54% of voters disapprove of increasing ice rates
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: on workplaces. Uh, 60% of Americans oppose suspending most asylum applications.
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: 59% oppose ending TPS for immigrants who fled war or
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: natural disasters. 65% of the country says there should be
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: a way for immigrants to stay in the country legally
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: if they're meeting certain requirements. And 61% of Americans disapprove
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: of sending immigrants to prison in El Salvador. So the
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: original fight we're having about this that everyone was worried about, like,
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: oh no, should we be talking about Kilmer Obrego Garcia
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: or these Venezuelan men who were sent to El Salvador? Like,
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: A vast majority of the country thinks that's fucked up
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: and wrong and shouldn't happen.
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: I don't know if we're seeing this more just because
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: we live in Los Angeles, but the videos of these
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: ice raids that- Is.
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: There one today? Yeah. Which one? There's one in California,
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: in Los Angeles.
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: Oh, at MacArthur Park, I think. Yeah, I guess Karen
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: Bass went down there too.
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: I think so.
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: But there's nothing Karen Bass can do, right? She's there
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: to witness it, but there's nothing else you can do.
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: They're hitting up all the car washes. And there's these
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: people who've worked there for, like, 20, 30 years. They're
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: just grabbing them. And it's the masks, like you said.
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: It's also the... They're in plain clothes often. They're always
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: in unmarked vehicles, almost. My Instagram feed is filled with
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: these videos. My TikTok feed is filled with these videos. And,
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: you know, I always double-check them, too, to see if they're,
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: you know, if they're real or not. Are you worried
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: about that? But most of them are from, like, local
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: news broadcasts. Which, by the way, like, I do... You know,
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: you go on social media and you, as you and
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: I do a lot, tweet about this and you get
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: a bunch of like MAGA crazies that are like, this
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: is what we voted for to the poll numbers that
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: you just mentioned. People who are home watching the local news,
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: which is some news, sometimes that's the only news people
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: are getting. They're not paying attention to nationalists. They're just
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: watching their local news, are seeing these raids all the time.
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: And I bet that they're fucking terrified.
• 45:36
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: I mean, like the stories of the guy who got
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: the shit kicked out of him. I think it was
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: in San Diego, and then three of his sons served
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: in the Marines. I mean, stories like that offend everyone.
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: The number of people I know and know of here
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: in Los Angeles who are, they're documented, they're legal residents.
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: They may not be citizens, but they're legal residents, and
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: they are canceling plans, afraid to leave the house, afraid
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: to go to work.
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: Afraid to go to student graduations.
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: Afraid to go to graduations because of this is wild.
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: That is the real story of these rates. It is
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: communities being terrorized, mostly Latino communities. And Trump wants us
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: to be brave law enforcement agents versus the sanctuary cities
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: who oppose them and coddle criminals. The reality is very,
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: very different. It is people going to Home Depot, kicking
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: the shit out of people who may or may not
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: be undocumented. There's been some really high profile mistakes. I
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: think we just have to constantly lift up those examples
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: and talk about them.
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: And I think the truly scary thing about this is
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: on the arrest side, you know, it's like warrantless arrests with,
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: you know, guys with masks on and their arms, stuff
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: like that. But then on the judicial side, it's not
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: like a real judicial system half the time, right? Like
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: they're thrown into detention centers. Um, and it's, you know,
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: eventually you can get a lawyer and you can get
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: into court or whatever, but they're just, you know, alligator Alcatraz.
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: They're just like building, they have, they have the national
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: guard now helping to like run the immigration judicial system
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: in the, in these quasi judicial system. And, alligator Alcatraz
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: and some of these fucking detention centers.
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: It's wild.
• 47:11
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: The alligator Alcatraz thing is just so weird. I mean,
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: the way Republicans are sort of like fetishizing it too.
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: Do you think that fucking creep, Benny Johnson, second time
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: we mentioned him on the show showing off his alligator
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: Alcatraz merch. And then Trump was joking with reporters that, uh,
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: if you escape, you need to learn to run in
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: a zigzag fashion. So you don't get eaten by an alligator.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: Uh, And again, it's like... Laura Loomer, I think you
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: brought that.
• 47:37
  Speaker 3: One to my attention.
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Laura Loomer essentially tweeted like 65 million more to go,
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: which is the aggregate number of Latinos in this country.
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: And more to go about like alligators eating them.
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, suggesting we should send them all to jail and
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: then have them eaten. And like less than 10% of
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: people arrested or booked by ICE are accused of violent crimes.
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: And suggesting that they should go to a prison where
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: they get eaten by an alligator. Like I think most
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: people are just like, what the fuck? What are you
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: talking about? And, you know, obviously we've already... We're seeing
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: the dangers of giving Stephen Miller and ICE this much power.
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: On Monday, the Department of Justice told Judge Paula Zinnis
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: that if Kilmar Obrego-Garcia gets released on bond in his
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: criminal case in Tennessee, they will deport him to a
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: third country, which the Supreme Court officially cleared the way
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: for them to do in a pair of recent rulings,
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: one of which allowed the administration to send eight men
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: to South Sudan, even though only one of them is
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: from there. So now the floodgates are open to deporting
• 48:30
  Speaker 2: people to third countries. And a third country, by the way,
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: is a country that's not your country. So you're deported
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: from the United States, not to the country where you
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: came from, but just somewhere you probably have never been before.
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: So that can happen now. Last week in a court filing,
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: Abrego Garcia's lawyers also alleged that he was subject to
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: severe beatings and psychological torture during his time in El
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: Salvador's Seacott mega prison. And the administration also just made
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: another 50,000 legal residents eligible for deportation by terminating temporary
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: protected status for Honduran and Nicaraguan immigrants. This is status.
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: They've had temporary protected status for those two countries since 1999. Yeah,
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: these people have been here for decades. The administration seems
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: to think shipping people off to foreign torture prisons and
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: war-torn countries they've never been to will deter other immigrants
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: from coming here illegally. That might be true. Certainly, border
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: crossings have almost completely stopped. But what happens when people
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: from Honduras or Nicaragua or Venezuela or Haiti, who've been
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: here legally for years, get their temporary protected status revoked?
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: And end up in Seacott or South Sudan or one
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: of these countries.
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: Or alligator Alcatraz.
• 49:41
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: I mean, I just, uh, quickly on the Sudan thing,
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: South Sudan became a country in 2011, within like two years,
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: the country descended to civil war. There was like a
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: fragile ceasefire power sharing agreement in 2018. But then in 2023,
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: there was a civil war in Sudan, their, their neighbor
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: to the north. So that led to an exodus of
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: refugees and fighting in like intertribal and ethnic warfare. And
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: basically in 2025, there was a political crisis and clashes
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: between the government and opposition forces that led the UN
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: peacekeeping mission there to warn that they were on the
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: brink of a full-scale civil war. And we're just sending
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: migrants who have no connection to South Sudan to a
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: country where they know no one, have no opportunity, where
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: 10 million people are on the brink of starvation, where
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: it's about to descend into civil war.
• 50:31
  Speaker 3: Why? Why?
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: To scare a few more people from going up like
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: the Darien gap.
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: And that would be horrific enough, you know, but now
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: because they are stripping people of the, of their temporary
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: protected status, right? So people who have been here, like
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: I said, 1999. So they have, they're working here. They're
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: living here. They have families here. They know no other country.
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: So what happens to them when they get rounded up
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: by ice? Maybe they go to alligator Alcatraz. Maybe they
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: go to some other detention center. Maybe they get deported
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: to Seacott. Maybe they get deported to South Dan. We
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: don't know because it's all a fucking black box once
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: ICE gets you, right? Like, the idea that we're just
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: going to do this now and send these people to
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: these fucking torture prisons, the document that Brego Garcia's lawyers
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: filed to describe what he's been going through in Seacott, like,
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: turned my stomach.
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: It's horrifying. I mean, he arrives and he's told, welcome
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: to Sakot. Whoever enters here doesn't leave. He was forced
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: to strip naked. He had his head shaved. We've seen
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: those images. And then when he wasn't putting on his
• 51:30
  Speaker 2: clothes fast enough, they were beating him. They made him
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: kneel for nine hours from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: If you fell over from exhaustion, you were then beaten.
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: You were denied bathroom access. So he soiled himself. He
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: lost 31 pounds in two weeks. He said you could
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: hear gang members and other cells like violently harming each
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: other and no one did anything. And remember, again, CBS News,
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: reviewed the backgrounds of all these men sent to El Salvador,
• 51:58
  Speaker 2: 75% of them had no criminal record in the US
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: or in Venezuela or anywhere else. These are just people
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: who got swept up into the system.
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you saw that in the filing
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: to Judge Zinnis, the Department of Justice has now gone
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: back to acknowledging that they mistakenly sent Abrego Garcia there,
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: which flies in the face of everything that Stephen Miller
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: and Pam Bondi and Kristi Noem are trying, and Trump,
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: I guess, too, if he knows the fucking details, which
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: it doesn't seem like he does, are trying to spin
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: because they have to make Abrego Garcia a monster. And
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: to your point about South Sudan, they were very quick
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: to say, oh, the eight people that we sent to
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: South Sudan were the worst of the worst. And they
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: had like their rap sheets and it's like, you know,
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: child rapist and murder and stuff like that. And sure,
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: some of the people... that they're rounding up and that
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: they're sending people have committed horrific crimes, right? But if
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: they admit publicly that Abrego Garcia was just caught up
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: mistakenly and sent to Seacott space, then everyone's going to
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: start saying, well, what about Andre Hernandez?
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: It just unravels.
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: What about everyone else? And then suddenly we're like, oh,
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: now we're sending people to these torture dungeons to deal
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: with what he just dealt with, what you just read about,
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: And all they've done is either, I don't know, overstayed
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: a visa or tried to come to the country for
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: a better life or had temporary protected status.
• 53:22
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: And remember, you know, Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador,
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: he cut this deal to accept these men down in
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: El Salvador because in part he wanted to get back
• 53:31
  Speaker 2: a bunch of hardened senior MS-13 leaders who were being
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: prosecuted in New York and who could provide evidence about
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: his government's deals with the gangs. So he wanted to
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: get those guys back. So they couldn't be, you know,
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: testify against him. So that's, that's the background of this
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: whole thing. Meanwhile, our president is so stupid that he thought, uh,
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: Abrego Garcia had the letters MS and the numbers 13
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: tattooed on his hand when it was like the worst
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: Photoshop MS paint job you've ever seen. Meanwhile, like the,
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: according to this filing by Abrego Garcia, they separated out
• 54:09
  Speaker 2: prisoners with gang tattoos and put them in one cell
• 54:11
  Speaker 2: and everybody else in another. He was in the non-gang
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: tattoo cell. And in fact, one of the guards told him,
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: your tattoos are fine. Like they know this guy is
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: not a gang member. It's only our moron president who
• 54:23
  Speaker 2: seems to think he literally had MS-13 written on his hand.
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: Did you see how Bukele responded to the filing?
• 54:28
  Speaker 6: No.
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: So Bukele responded to this by posting a video of
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: Abrego Garcia in his cell in the prison that they
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: transferred him to. Because remember when Van Hollen went down,
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: they had transferred Abrego Garcia from Seacott to another prison.
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: And at the time, by the way, everyone had reported, oh,
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: this prison is a better prison with better conditions. I
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: think Van Hollen said that once he went down there.
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: So they have videos of him in there. And they
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: have a video of him watching TV. They have a
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: TV on. And he's fully clothed. And he doesn't have
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: a uniform on. He's just wearing his clothes. And he's
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: sitting with Van Hollen for a drink. And all these
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: fucking MAGA people... they're just buying it. They're like, see,
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: or they're just in on the lie, I guess.
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: Either or.
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: But like, yeah, so they're trying to just make it
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: a propaganda thing. They're like, oh, no, no, he's fine.
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: He's just lying in this court filing. But it's like, yeah,
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: we know that's a different fucking prison.
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: These are the same idiots who believed it when Bukele's
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: thugs put margaritas in front of Abrego Garcia and Van Hollen, right? Like,
• 55:25
  Speaker 2: he's a clown. He's a marketer. Like, this is how
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: he rose to power. He's just good at PR and
• 55:29
  Speaker 2: all this bullshit. I hope, like, some of the Bitcoin
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: people that cut deals with him early on, because like,
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: El Salvador kind of really exploded onto the map a
• 55:37
  Speaker 2: few years ago because Bukele decided to really embrace Bitcoin.
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: And he wanted to make it like this crypto future city.
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: And he talked about like building an entire Bitcoin city
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: powered by volcano, like the dumbest shit you've ever heard
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: in your life. But all these Silicon Valley idiots embraced him.
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: And I hope they're doing a little bit of soul
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: searching on this.
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: I have been watching that. And, you know, they're basically...
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: pissed about two things, three things in Trump 2.0 now.
• 56:05
  Speaker 2: Taxes.
• 56:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, right.
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: No, the debt, the deficit because of the bill and
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: tariffs and this immigration stuff is actually bothering some of them.
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: Some of them like it, but you see some of
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: the all-in guys are like, I don't know about this.
• 56:21
  Speaker 2: This is bad. Because those morons had Trump on their
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: show and they thought they baited him into saying that
• 56:26
  Speaker 2: tech founders... Or like foreign students who are really high
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: performing who get diplomas in the United States would then
• 56:32
  Speaker 2: get a pathway to citizenship. And of course he just
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: told them whatever they wanted to hear. Yeah.
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: And you, I know you and Lovett mentioned this on,
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: on last Tuesday's show, but the denaturalization thing now is
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: another big fucking flag. There is this, you know, fucking
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: provision in a law left over from the Joe McCarthy
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: era where now they can take citizens, United States citizens
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: who became citizens and put them through denaturalization proceedings. And, yeah,
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: do I think like that ends up at the Supreme
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: court and the Supreme court's like, this is fucked up.
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: I'd like to hope so, but we have, you know,
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: alien enemies act is proof that we have these really
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: dumb fucking old laws on the books and the court's
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: job is to interpret the law and they could be like,
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 57:13
  Speaker 2: I have no confidence in the courts anymore. Not the
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: Supreme court. Yeah. It's really scary. And you know, it's,
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: it was very clear early on that they decided to
• 57:21
  Speaker 2: go after pro Palestine protesters. It's kind of a test
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: to see how much they could curtail free speech and, uh,
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: intimidate opponents. And, uh, it was pretty effective.
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: Just to wrap this up. Like I do think I realize,
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: you know, you could pull this a million different ways
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: and you, you pointed out how the polling has changed
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: on immigration, but like, yes, let's talk about the Medicaid cuts.
• 57:42
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: Talk about tax cuts for the rich. Like those are
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: at the top of the list, but just from a pure,
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: I think it's the right thing to do. Obviously we're
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: obviously outraged by all the deportations and the immigration stuff.
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: But if you just wanted to be purely political about it,
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: people seeing their communities torn apart because masked men are
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: just raiding their workplaces and ripping their colleagues away and
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: disappearing them somewhere, that's going to be fucking unpopular. That
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: is worth talking about from now until the midterms.
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: I agree. Also, there's 483 days until the midterms. We're
• 58:18
  Speaker 2: going to talk about a lot of stuff, everybody.
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: In 18... you know, we've talked about how immigration's gone
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: back and forth. In 18, talking about immigration worked. It was,
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: Trump was very, child separate, family separation was very unpopular.
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: The caravan bullshit didn't work for him, you know? So
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: I just think it's a different, immigration is a catch-all
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: for a lot of different shit and people feel differently
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: about different aspects of it. What he's doing is not popular.
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: Pod Save America is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. Typically,
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• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: the smartest way to hire. All right, one last consequence
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: of the president's bill passing that we have to talk about.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: The big, beautiful breakup between Elon Musk and Donald Trump.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: Over the weekend, Elon claimed on Twitter to have launched
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: his new political party, the America Party, which he had
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: vowed to do if the bill passed. He apparently had
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: not filed any paperwork for the new party as of
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: Saturday afternoon. Surprise, surprise. But he did say it would
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: be active in elections next year. On Sunday, Trump responded
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: in typical fashion.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 2: Let's listen.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 3: I think it's ridiculous to start a third party. We
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 3: have a tremendous success with the Republican Party. The Democrats
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 3: have lost their way, but it's always been a two
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 3: party system. And I think starting a third party just
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 3: adds to confusion. It really seems to have been developed
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 3: for two parties. Third parties have never worked. So he
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 3: can have fun with it, but I think it's ridiculous.
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 2: That's the confusion. What is this third thing?
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: Trump also wrote a long screed on Truth Social that
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: opened with the sentence, I am saddened to watch Elon
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: Musk go completely off the rails, essentially becoming a train
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: wreck over the past five weeks.
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 2: He's not wrong.
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 6: I know.
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: What's your current assessment of Elon's power in exile?
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 2: Rising? Falling? I mean, gutted, right? He's burned every bridge
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 2: he had in the White House. I'm sure there's elected
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 2: officials that would love to take his call still because
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 2: they want his money, like J.D. Vance or Speaker Johnson.
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 2: But it doesn't seem like he's very popular with Trump.
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 2: And then Tesla's stock price goes down every time he
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 2: picks a fight with Trump. SpaceX and Starlink are still
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 2: extremely dependent on government contracts. Tesla, a lot of their
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 2: revenue isn't selling cars. A lot of it is selling
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 2: regulatory tax credits that are designed to encourage automakers to
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 2: make low emission vehicles That money is going to dry
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 2: up over time because other automakers are going to make
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 2: more EVs and things that and they won't need to
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 2: purchase the credits. But also Trump could fuck with them there.
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 2: So he's in a bad spot, I think.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: He also has no juice. Did he get a single
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: Republican to vote against the bill after he was like,
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: you're all going to get primaried if you vote against
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: the bill? The Freedom Caucus, they all folded. No Chip Roy.
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 2: None of them.
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: None of them listened to Elon. Elon made zero difference
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: during any of the debates.
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I, I, yeah, I was looking at, I asked
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 2: Chris Murphy about that, hoping for a little hope and
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 2: like told him about it in real time. He was like,
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 2: come on, man, we just did that. Like no one
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 2: cares what Elon Musk thinks anymore. It's just, what do
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 2: you think about the third party maneuver? Do you think, uh,
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 2: do you think this is ever going to happen? He's
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 2: so full of shit. I don't believe it for a second.
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 2: Like spraying $ 300 million on pro Trump ads in Pennsylvania
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: or whatever. And like jumping up and down like an
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 2: idiot at rallies. Like that's, that's easy. That's fun. Building
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 2: a political party from scratch, that's hard. That's a slog.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 2: You're talking about ballot access and creating rules and bylaws
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 2: and policy positions and this and that. I don't think
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 2: he's got the time or attention for this.
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: It's just like every other fucking tech billionaire who thinks
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: they could run the government better than every other politician.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: And then sure enough, as soon as you get into it,
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: you're like, oh, this is a little more complicated than
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: I thought. Just like when Elon did Doge. And all
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: of a sudden lefters being like, oh, it was much
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: harder to cut government than I thought. He's going to
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: realize that creating a fucking political party is pretty hard
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: because it's not a national thing. It's state by state.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: So every state has their own rules. Like you said,
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: he still hasn't filed with the FEC. But like the
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: state level regulations can be really burdensome. They're burdensome even
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: for the third parties that are on the ballots that
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: we see. The Green Party, the Libertarian Party, like they
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: still have to get access every election cycle.
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 2: Ask RFK.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: Exactly, right? Like in Georgia, apparently, it's got one of
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: the stricter laws. You need 27,000 signatures per district if
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: you're running for Congress. And so no third party candidate
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: has been on the ballot in Georgia since 1985 because
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: it's so difficult. So like the idea that Elon Musk
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: is going to spend, forget about the money, the time,
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: and like have a political platform and a program that
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: appeals to enough people, I just don't see it.
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 2: Also, like he's, let's be honest, he's not creating a party.
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 2: He's trying to create a cult of personality. And who
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 2: is Elon Musk currently appealing to? Like he's burning all
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 2: the MAGA people now. All the liberals hate him. They're
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 2: putting like stickers on their Teslas. It's like, I bought
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 2: this before he went crazy. Like, I guess like you're
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 2: seeing exactly who you'd expect to kind of be like,
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 2: sign me up for this. Like the Scaramucci, you know,
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 2: kind of like the rich sort of squishy middle centrist,
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 2: you know, low tax rich guys.
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: But yeah, it's like the people who are going to,
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: it was like the Howard Schultz party.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 7: Remember?
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: Remember Howard Schultz flirting with us? It's like, We need some, well,
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: it used to be, we need someone who's like financially,
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: you know, moderate on economics and centrist financially, but like
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: socially liberal. But Elon Musk isn't even socially liberal anymore.
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 2: He's not socially liberal. And he's sort of, I mean,
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 2: the defining image of his time at Doge is him
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 2: waving around a chainsaw on stage. Like no one thinks
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 2: he's kind of got all his marbles.
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: As he made it possible to kill like thousands and
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: millions of poor children all over the world. So I don't,
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: I don't.
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: He did say that it might just be a few districts, right?
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: Like if it's a close house race and close Senate race,
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: maybe he picks one or two candidates to primary a
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: Republican who voted for the bill in a couple districts.
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: I don't know if that's maybe you can. have a
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: party in just one or two states that works, but
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: I still think he loses interest in this.
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 2: I just think it's a stupid strategy. If you want
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 2: to primary people, primary them.
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: Is it just to like piss off Trump?
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 2: It's not at all clear.
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 2: And Trump will punish him, right? Like Trump has been
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 2: quite clear. I will punish you if you do this. Yeah.
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: Denaturalize him.
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 2: Put up or shut up, buddy.
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: Remember he's going to, yeah. I forgot the whole cycle.
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: I guess I was gone, but he was going to
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: deport Elon.
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, Bannon's trying to look into it.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: He's going to look into deporting Elon Musk. So that's,
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: he's going to work. He's going to doge Elon. Maybe
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: the surest sign of how punchy Elon's feeling came in
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: the form of a tweet. At 1.02 a.m. on Monday,
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: Elon's post featured an image of a digital countdown clock
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: reading zero across the board and labeled, the official Jeffrey
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: Epstein pedophile arrest counter. I didn't know that was a thing.
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: Elon added the caption, what's the time? Oh, look, it's
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: no one has been arrested o'clock again. Elon, of course,
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: tweeted during the initial breakup that Trump hasn't released the
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: Epstein files because Trump himself is in the Epstein files.
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: The likely trigger for this post is, was the news
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: that Trump's FBI and DOJ have determined that there is
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: no Jeffrey Epstein client list, there's no evidence that Epstein
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: blackmailed any of his very prominent friends, like Donald Trump,
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: and there's no evidence that Epstein was the victim of
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: a murder and cover-up. MAGA influencers haven't been taking this well,
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: partly because back in February, Attorney General Pam Bondi told
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: Fox News that Epstein's client list was, quote, sitting on
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: my desk right now to review. Here's how Caroline Lovett
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: tried to explain away the misconception to Fox News' Peter Doocy.
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: during Monday's press briefing.
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 6: So what happened to the Epstein client list that the
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 6: Attorney General said she had on her desk?
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 5: Well, I think if you go back and look at
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 5: what the Attorney General said in that interview, which was
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 5: on your network on Fox News, she was saying the
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 5: entirety of all of the paperwork, all of the paper
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 5: in relation to Jeffrey Epstein's crimes. That's what the Attorney
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 5: General was referring to, and I'll let her speak for that.
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: Well, they should put all the conspiracies to rest, don't
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: you think?
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 2: Not going to cut it. John and I did a
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 2: long YouTube exclusive on the Pod Save America account where
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 2: we dug into just this for about 15 minutes. If
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 2: you want a lot more detail, I highly recommend it.
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 2: Also subscribe to Pod Save America on YouTube because we're
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 2: trying to build a democratic counterbalance to all the right-wing
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 2: garbage you find on YouTube when you search political news.
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 2: But I have to say, I watched a bunch of
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 2: right-wing podcasts and media today. I watched a lot of
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 2: Alex Jones and they are melting down. They are losing
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 2: their minds.
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: Like, You think this is one that stays?
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 2: I think so. Sticks with him. Because it's not going
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 2: to go away. Like this is still a thing that
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 2: they claim to care deeply about because they think that
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 2: it would lead to the taking down of some evil
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 2: satanic cabal of Democrats led by Jeffrey Epstein, Bill Clinton, blah, blah, blah.
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 2: But like Alex Jones, like he's sort of built an
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 2: audience and a career off of this. He's not going
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 2: to let this go just because Trump says so. I mean,
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 2: they certainly didn't when Dan Bongino and Kash Patel first
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 2: said Epstein didn't uh, that Epstein did kill himself like
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 2: a month or two ago. Like that just poured gas
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 2: on the fire.
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 2: They are really upset. I mean, Alex Jones referred it to, uh,
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 2: the DOJ committing seppuku, which is jamming a sword into
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 2: your stomach and then up into your heart. And, um, it's,
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 2: you know, he weaves this like crazy conspiracy theory about
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 2: how actually Trump is using this to neutralize the deep states.
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 2: They don't kill him. And now he can really go,
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 2: it's insane. But, um, It's not going over well. It
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 2: is not going over well on the far right.
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: I realize it's not funny because at the heart of
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: this is a horrific scandal. Jeffrey Epstein did horrible, horrible things.
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: But these fucking idiots who have been pushing this conspiracy
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: theory for however many years, and it was always a
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: little bit ridiculous to think that Jeffrey Epstein would sort
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: of document all the people he was blackmailing on a
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: list and just kind of keep it in his pocket
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: waiting for the day where if he was somehow murdered,
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: and covered up that someone would be able to reveal
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: the list and that it wouldn't leak until then, until
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump ascended back into the White House and gave
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: the okay. But like, you know, of course, of course,
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: even when they get their own conspiracy theorists in positions
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: of power, the most power you could have running the
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: federal government, running federal law enforcement agencies, even when they
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: get there and say, no, by the way, there's nothing here,
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: it's still not going to convince them.
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 2: Trump is always the strong man who can take care
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 2: of everything, but also the victim of the deep state
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 2: when anything goes wrong. And it drives me absolutely insane.
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 2: I mean, the conspiracy.
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: You got to say, grievance politics requires that you're always
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: the victim, even if you have all the power humanly possible.
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 2: All the power in the world. I mean, the conspiracy,
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 2: the Epstein's ties with people in power have always been
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 2: hiding in plain sight. Like in a 2017 interview with
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 2: Michael Wolff, Jeffrey Epstein claimed that at one point he
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 2: was Trump's closest friend. Trump's first secretary of labor, Alex Acosta,
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 2: is the guy who gave Epstein the sweetheart deal back
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 2: in the late 2000s that allowed him to basically serve
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 2: almost no time and do a six day a week
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 2: work release and get immunity from future prosecution. And so
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 2: like the lawyers for Epstein were Alan Dershowitz, Trump's good buddy.
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 2: It was Ken Starr. It's like the conspiracy is right there.
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 2: Like this is a terrible human being who victimized like
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 2: a thousand young women in got away with murder because
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 2: he was rich and powerful and connected. And that is
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 2: the story. It's not, I mean, as far as we know,
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 2: it is not that he's like secretly working for the
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 2: Mossad and MI6 and the CIA and the deep state
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 2: somehow is running this prosecution. Like, sorry guys, it's just not,
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 2: it's not as interesting as that.
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: I want, I want Alex Jones and all those people
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: to know that the list is probably.
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 2: Still out there.
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: It could, I mean, I think they probably think it is.
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: I would not, I would not give up.
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 2: Good luck finding it. Donald Trump promised you he'd release it.
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 2: And JD Vance said it was a very important to do.
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: And also hold Caroline Levitt's feet to the fire. Next
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: time you go into that briefing room, you're one of
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: those bloggers or those, whatever fucking the lunatics they got there.
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: Keep asking her this. Don't, don't let up.
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 2: I do think the professional class, like the Alex Jones
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 2: is they'll figure out a way to move on, but
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 2: there will be a lot of regular people who went
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 2: down a rabbit hole and about Jeffrey Epstein, they probably
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 2: truly believe that there's a cabal of like evil pedophiles
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 2: in charge of the world. And the fact that Donald
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 2: Trump is not doing anything about it.
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: How do you let go of that? Let me tell you,
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: those people aren't so regular anymore. That's our show for today.
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: I will be back on Friday with a new show
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: with a special guest host since Dan's going to be
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: on vacation. I'm going to be talking with MSNBC's Alex Wagner.
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: So talk to you all then. If you want to
• 1:12:07
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• 1:12:09
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• 1:12:22
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• 1:12:29
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