Latest / Normally / Normally Podcast: Iran Escalation, Joe Kent Resigns, SAVE Act Showdown & Crime Hits 125-Year Low

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Normally Podcast: Iran Escalation, Joe Kent Resigns, SAVE Act Showdown & Crime Hits 125-Year Low · Normally

0:07
Speaker 1: I'm normally it's so, but normal if it takes for
0:09
Speaker 1: women's game, weird.
0:11
Speaker 2: I am Americay, and I'm Carol Marka. How's it going, America, Catherine?
0:15
Speaker 1: It's going all right. We've we've got toddlers on the
0:18
Speaker 1: run over here. They've decided to let themselves out of
0:20
Speaker 1: their room in the morning now, so we couldn't. We
0:24
Speaker 1: could only keep them locked in for so.
0:25
Speaker 2: Long, right right?
0:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you you made it longer than most
0:29
Speaker 3: people we tried. The next step is you just have
0:33
Speaker 3: to get them to serve themselves breakfast, and then you're
0:36
Speaker 3: you're really, you know, in a good place.
0:38
Speaker 1: We are. We've actually got the big sisters for that,
0:40
Speaker 1: and that worked out seamlessly this morning.
0:42
Speaker 2: So hey, that's what you want, That's what I My parent.
0:46
Speaker 1: Advice has always been like, oh, do you feel overwhelmed?
0:49
Speaker 1: Have your kids do it everything but the taxes they
0:53
Speaker 1: can do around here.
0:54
Speaker 3: Absolutely, And let's you know, I don't think taxes is
0:57
Speaker 3: that far of a stretch either day. All right, let's
1:02
Speaker 3: get into it. Iran continues to exist. Dude, Israel killed
1:13
Speaker 3: a key figure today in Iran, an intelligence head, and
1:18
Speaker 3: Iran is very unhappy about it and has vowed retaliation.
1:23
Speaker 3: They've already launched missilin john strikes across the Gulf region.
1:28
Speaker 2: They are.
1:30
Speaker 3: Still blocking the Strait of hermos Oil prices continue to
1:35
Speaker 3: go up and people are worried about it. And I
1:38
Speaker 3: completely understand that the message from the Trump administration seems
1:43
Speaker 3: to be this will all be over soon. They're not
1:47
Speaker 3: talking about a long war here. I am curious how
1:51
Speaker 3: they're planning to wrap this up.
1:53
Speaker 1: However, Yeah, it's important that a couple of very high
1:57
Speaker 1: level security guys were killed this week in the strikes.
2:03
Speaker 1: You know, one of the guys, several of them instrumental
2:05
Speaker 1: in For instance, when the Green Revolution happened in two
2:08
Speaker 1: thousand and eight, they just sort of massacred their way
2:11
Speaker 1: out of it because our administration at the time, the
2:14
Speaker 1: Obama administration, did not do much in support of them,
2:16
Speaker 1: and then later handed over literal palettes of cash to
2:19
Speaker 1: the people who had administered the massacring of the Green
2:23
Speaker 1: Revolution civilians. And so I just don't think that approach
2:27
Speaker 1: of gentle parenting the MIDI is a good idea and
2:31
Speaker 1: just handing them things for killing a bunch of people. Yeah,
2:34
Speaker 1: this is the opposite where they are met with retribution.
2:37
Speaker 1: It appears that Israeli intelligence is just out of this world.
2:44
Speaker 1: Is exactly what I was going to say. The Wall
2:45
Speaker 1: Street Journal reports that the journal reviewed the contents of
2:49
Speaker 1: one call between a senior Iranian police commander and agent
2:52
Speaker 1: of the Masad, Israel's foreign intelligence service. Can you hear me?
2:55
Speaker 1: A Masad agent can be heard speaking in Farsi. We
2:58
Speaker 1: know everything about you. You are on blacklist and we
3:00
Speaker 1: have all the information about you. Okay, the commander said
3:03
Speaker 1: in the recording quote, I called to warn you in
3:05
Speaker 1: advance that you should stand with your people's side, the
3:08
Speaker 1: Massad agent said, and if you will not do that,
3:10
Speaker 1: your destiny will be as your leader. Do you hear me?
3:13
Speaker 1: And then the guy responds basically like I have no
3:15
Speaker 1: quarrel with you. Please can't help us. I am not
3:18
Speaker 1: your enemy.
3:18
Speaker 2: Yeah I am now your enemy.
3:20
Speaker 3: Is a big line from that guy, and it's unbelievable, unreal.
3:27
Speaker 1: And it is gratifying, I'm sure to Iranians in Iran
3:31
Speaker 1: as well, to see retribution handed out to those who
3:34
Speaker 1: have done just incredibly awful things. I know we don't
3:39
Speaker 1: hear about them on TikTok because those incredibly awful things
3:42
Speaker 1: are not important to the algorithm or the people who
3:44
Speaker 1: control it over there, or the influencers who create the content,
3:47
Speaker 1: but truly awful things. And so this is a very
3:52
Speaker 1: different approach. I am with you, Carol, and I'm not
3:54
Speaker 1: exactly sure what the end game looks like. Yeah, Biban
4:00
Speaker 1: at Yahoo was speaking to the people of Iran this
4:04
Speaker 1: week saying basically, we're watching over you now. We have
4:07
Speaker 1: air supremacy, we know where all these guys are, so
4:10
Speaker 1: sort of encouraging them to take the reins and to
4:12
Speaker 1: move forward, coming out into the open.
4:14
Speaker 2: Which is what's going to have to happen.
4:16
Speaker 3: And look, I get that we are, you know, once
4:20
Speaker 3: bitten twice shy about intervention in the Middle East.
4:23
Speaker 2: I will just.
4:24
Speaker 3: Say that Iraq was not Iran, and those are very
4:28
Speaker 3: different countries, very different populations. It still might be ineffective.
4:34
Speaker 3: We still might end up with you know, an Iotola
4:38
Speaker 3: like figure. Anything could happen, This could all have been
4:40
Speaker 3: for not you know, I'm ready to be pessimistic, I
4:43
Speaker 3: really am, But I don't think it's the same situation
4:47
Speaker 3: as Iraq, because Iran did have a Western, normal ish
4:54
Speaker 3: educated populous as recently as the late seventies, and I
4:59
Speaker 3: think they still exist and we're going to need to
5:01
Speaker 3: see them step up and take the reins here. If
5:04
Speaker 3: that happens, it really will be a changed Middle East
5:07
Speaker 3: and a change world.
5:09
Speaker 2: So you know, I'm rooting for it.
5:10
Speaker 3: I'm staying optimistic because every day just seems to be
5:14
Speaker 3: more wins for the good guys. But yeah, it's hard
5:18
Speaker 3: to envision what a long term plan here looks like
5:22
Speaker 3: without the Iranian people becoming.
5:24
Speaker 1: The lead autos. That is key, I mean it is,
5:28
Speaker 1: it's obviously not without risk. I do think that there's
5:31
Speaker 1: a chance to change the face of how we do
5:34
Speaker 1: things because past Middle East conflicts have been sort of
5:37
Speaker 1: like Israel dealing with Gaza in the past, they call
5:40
Speaker 1: it mowing the grass, where they would go in and
5:42
Speaker 1: like clear everybody out in minor ways for very short
5:45
Speaker 1: periods of time, and then of course it would all
5:47
Speaker 1: flood back and it culminated in October seventh because you
5:50
Speaker 1: were not really getting to the root of the problem,
5:52
Speaker 1: which is that a ra On funds all of these
5:54
Speaker 1: exact all of these proxies. And I think that's partly
5:57
Speaker 1: our issue in the Middle East, is you're we were
5:59
Speaker 1: not only not dealing with the head of the snake.
6:02
Speaker 1: We were funding the head of the snake while they're
6:06
Speaker 1: doing battle against us in all these theaters and hurting
6:09
Speaker 1: and maiming and killing many American soldiers and many American assets.
6:14
Speaker 1: And so I don't want to ignore that part of it.
6:17
Speaker 1: That is the part that Joe Kent would like to ignore,
6:21
Speaker 1: who just dramatically resigned from the Trump administration as the
6:25
Speaker 1: director of the National counter Terrorism Center, his reason being
6:30
Speaker 1: that Iran posed no eminent threat to our nation and
6:33
Speaker 1: it is clear that we started this war due to
6:35
Speaker 1: pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby. It took
6:38
Speaker 1: him two sentences to get to Israel and lobby.
6:42
Speaker 2: The powerful American lobby. Yeah.
6:45
Speaker 3: You know, the thing is he's director of the US
6:48
Speaker 3: National counter Terrorism Center. We had several attempted terrorist attacks
6:53
Speaker 3: on US soil, and he's silent. And this is where
6:57
Speaker 3: we first learned about the existence of Joe Kent, and
7:00
Speaker 3: this is where the American people first hear from him,
7:03
Speaker 3: is he is personally not in favor of the war
7:08
Speaker 3: that his commander in chief has launched in Iran, and
7:11
Speaker 3: so he resigns in protests, and of course goes immediately,
7:14
Speaker 3: and I mean, look, you read his resignation letter, and
7:17
Speaker 3: you're like, you could have just sent an email to
7:19
Speaker 3: Tucker Carlson directly.
7:20
Speaker 2: You didn't have to do this.
7:22
Speaker 3: So of course he's going on Tucker today as we're
7:25
Speaker 3: recording this, he's also planning to go on Candice Owens. Obviously,
7:31
Speaker 3: you know what good expose yourself be who you RESI
7:35
Speaker 3: let's let's.
7:36
Speaker 2: Learn who these people are.
7:37
Speaker 1: If you can't do the job and back the commander
7:41
Speaker 1: in chief, you have to resign. One of the paragraphs
7:43
Speaker 1: in this resignation letter is early in this administration, high
7:46
Speaker 1: ranking is really officials and influential members of the American
7:49
Speaker 1: media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your Trump
7:54
Speaker 1: Trump's American First platform and sewed pro war sentiments to
7:58
Speaker 1: encourage a war Iran. This echo chamber was used to
8:01
Speaker 1: deceive you into believing that Iran posed an eminent threat
8:04
Speaker 1: to the United States and that you should strike now
8:07
Speaker 1: there was a despite no clear path to us with
8:10
Speaker 1: swift victory. He has in the past. Jean Kent in
8:12
Speaker 1: twenty twenty advocated for taking out Iran's nuclear and missile capabilities,
8:20
Speaker 1: but we're in a different place now.
8:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I.
8:24
Speaker 3: Looked up his ex profile and he saw that he
8:27
Speaker 3: was following me, and I was like, that's weird. But
8:29
Speaker 3: it turns out he used to be a completely normal
8:32
Speaker 3: ish guy who you know, would have agreed with this
8:36
Speaker 3: war in Iran. There's this like a lot of chatter
8:40
Speaker 3: about the fact that he his wife. Actually he mentions
8:43
Speaker 3: it in the in the letter his first wife died
8:46
Speaker 3: in Syria fighting Isis. He blames that on Israel somehow,
8:50
Speaker 3: as if like that was anything to do with Israel.
8:54
Speaker 3: But allegedly his second wife is far left. There's kind
8:58
Speaker 3: of this thing in the conservative world and a conservative
9:01
Speaker 3: guy is only as conservative as the woman he's married to.
9:05
Speaker 2: I kind of see that, I do, even though his.
9:08
Speaker 1: Current wife writes for works for grey Zone, which is
9:11
Speaker 1: Max Blumenthal's outlet, which is Yeah, Joe Kent has been
9:18
Speaker 1: around for a while. I knew about him because he's
9:20
Speaker 1: lost twice in Washington State running for the House of Representatives.
9:24
Speaker 1: He primaried Jamie Herrera Butler in twenty twenty two because
9:29
Speaker 1: of her vote to impeach Trump after January sixth incident,
9:34
Speaker 1: and he beat her in the primary. But then lost
9:37
Speaker 1: to Maria glosen camp Perez, who is that charmingly sort
9:41
Speaker 1: of like odd woman. Yeah, who's like a bit of
9:46
Speaker 1: a moderate Democrat who speaks sense sometimes from Washington State.
9:49
Speaker 1: He's lost to her twice. That was a seat that
9:52
Speaker 1: would have been Republican had he not primaried Butler. And
9:56
Speaker 1: then he got himself this slot in the Trump administration,
9:59
Speaker 1: and then what a year into it, he's just self
10:04
Speaker 1: immolating on this thing with a bunch of stuff that's
10:07
Speaker 1: not even true, like the idea that his very heroic
10:11
Speaker 1: cryptologist Navy cryptologists wife Shannon was killed somehow by Israel. Yeah,
10:18
Speaker 1: when she was in Syria in a civil war situation
10:22
Speaker 1: with isis there to do suicide bombings. I mean, yeah,
10:26
Speaker 1: that's not what you're saying it is. Nor is the
10:29
Speaker 1: misinformation campaign that you allege Trump has been misled by, right, And.
10:32
Speaker 3: It's just it's so obvious that these people have fallen
10:36
Speaker 3: for something, I mean, or are purposefully you know, heading
10:41
Speaker 3: down this path.
10:42
Speaker 2: I mean. Donald Trump posted on truth Social a tweet
10:45
Speaker 2: from Joe Kent in twenty twenty where he tweets at
10:49
Speaker 2: real Donald Trump, so he's Kent is tweeting at Trump,
10:53
Speaker 2: and he says, we should not sit and wait for
10:55
Speaker 2: the next attack, wipe Iran's ballistic capability out and get
10:59
Speaker 2: our troops out of there are only targets now, No
11:02
Speaker 2: US killed in action in the tribute to the professionalism
11:06
Speaker 2: of our military and intel professionals, not Iranian restraint. He
11:10
Speaker 2: was so for this, and now he's like, no, no more,
11:13
Speaker 2: I'm not for this anymore.
11:15
Speaker 3: Israel is lying to us. Israel has kind of petitioned
11:19
Speaker 3: the American government to get us involved in this. They
11:22
Speaker 3: have forced us into it. It's just nonsense. It's just nonsense.
11:26
Speaker 1: Well, and a couple things too. And I think this
11:27
Speaker 1: is something you and I point out about Trump hiring.
11:30
Speaker 1: Being pro Trump should not be enough to put you
11:34
Speaker 1: in an important position. There should be more to it.
11:37
Speaker 1: And if you do make that the criteria, then you
11:40
Speaker 1: end up elevating people that you maybe shouldn't elevate, like
11:44
Speaker 1: Joe Kent, who again I would point out, lost twice
11:47
Speaker 1: in this district and perhaps that should have been a
11:49
Speaker 1: flag for Trump. And then the same goes for the media,
11:54
Speaker 1: where being anti Trump should not make Joe Kent a
11:57
Speaker 1: guy you thought was a total kook. Until five minutes ago,
12:02
Speaker 1: your new massacre of great integrity, Right, please join MTG
12:09
Speaker 1: in the green room. That's what's going to happen. He's
12:11
Speaker 1: going to be everywhere. He also very much looks the part.
12:14
Speaker 1: He's a handsome guy, he's a Special Forces veteran, he's
12:17
Speaker 1: a gold star spouse. Like, I get it. But when
12:21
Speaker 1: people flipped this quickly, as MTG did and as Joe
12:25
Speaker 1: Kent has, I would just treat that with some weariness, right.
12:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, And there's also you know, on the right,
12:34
Speaker 3: same thing. All the people who basically demanded loyalty to
12:39
Speaker 3: Trump from people like me and you, for example, are
12:43
Speaker 3: now like okay with somebody like Joe Kent openly opposing
12:47
Speaker 3: Donald Trump.
12:48
Speaker 2: And we talked about last.
12:49
Speaker 3: Episode, Tucker releasing a clip from his show where he
12:52
Speaker 3: says Pete Hegseth, Marco, Rubio, Huckabee, they're all basically in
12:58
Speaker 3: the service of Israel that it's okay to say now,
13:01
Speaker 3: I mean, where are the people on the right who
13:03
Speaker 3: used to police this so carefully that you couldn't step
13:05
Speaker 3: out of line and you couldn't disagree.
13:07
Speaker 2: With Trump at all?
13:08
Speaker 3: Now this guy's trashing the Trump administration and you're all
13:11
Speaker 3: sitting by quietly and not saying anything. He's saying, Cash
13:14
Speaker 3: Patel is in the service of Israel. I mean, come on,
13:18
Speaker 3: say something.
13:19
Speaker 1: By the way, some have wondered where Tulsea Gabbard stands
13:23
Speaker 1: on all of this, because she is someone who's more
13:25
Speaker 1: reluctant to use American power, has been against intervening in
13:28
Speaker 1: Venezuela and Iran in the past. Jim Garretty noted she
13:31
Speaker 1: used to on her campaign site sell no War in
13:34
Speaker 1: Iran t shirts and you know some She's going to
13:37
Speaker 1: be testifying on the Hill this week, so we'll see
13:39
Speaker 1: what comes of that, getting some tough questions. However, I
13:43
Speaker 1: sort of admire that she is if she disagrees with
13:46
Speaker 1: the president, has been doing her job, apparently by giving
13:49
Speaker 1: him briefings, maybe trying to convince him, but when he
13:52
Speaker 1: makes a decision, saying that's the decision. She has kept
13:56
Speaker 1: a low profile recently, and perhaps that is imposed by
13:59
Speaker 1: the Trumpet administration, but when she tweets or shows up,
14:02
Speaker 1: she's saying, this is what we're doing. I believe in
14:04
Speaker 1: the President's plan.
14:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's what you want from administration members. There's
14:09
Speaker 3: also this and again a lot of this is, you know,
14:12
Speaker 3: rumors or speculation, but that Kent played some role in leaks.
14:17
Speaker 2: Out of the administration.
14:18
Speaker 3: And the reason that people believe this is Carolyn Levitt
14:21
Speaker 3: was on TV saying.
14:23
Speaker 4: This, Telta Gabber, the Director of National Intelligence will be
14:26
Speaker 4: testifying this morning.
14:28
Speaker 1: Does the President still have full confidence in her?
14:32
Speaker 5: He does, yes, and we look forward to watching the
14:35
Speaker 5: director's hearings today.
14:37
Speaker 2: And I think that anyone who.
14:39
Speaker 5: Has been a suspected of leaking or is proven to
14:42
Speaker 5: be a leaker, will not be welcome in this administration.
14:46
Speaker 5: I know that for a fact, because I've heard the
14:48
Speaker 5: President say it myself. There are investigations underway into leakers
14:52
Speaker 5: in this administration, and people will be held accountable for that.
14:55
Speaker 5: It's unacceptable and it cannot be tolerated.
14:57
Speaker 3: It's interesting because again, the take that I hear is
15:01
Speaker 3: that she's not talking about the traditional leaking to the
15:05
Speaker 3: New York Times. She's talking about leaking to people like
15:08
Speaker 3: Tucker Carlson. So we'll see where this plays out. I
15:12
Speaker 3: hope they go after the leakers.
15:14
Speaker 2: To any outlet.
15:15
Speaker 3: I think that that's really important. I think you need
15:18
Speaker 3: the lock box, you need the steel trap that doesn't
15:21
Speaker 3: exit the administration. I think that that's really important for
15:24
Speaker 3: national security. And if somebody is leaking to podcast to stand,
15:29
Speaker 3: you know, we need to put a stop to that.
15:32
Speaker 1: I want a note on the Kent front of Bernard
15:34
Speaker 1: Stanford put this well, and I think it applies to
15:36
Speaker 1: you know, various personalities, says Joe. Kent illustrates how disrupting
15:40
Speaker 1: the grifter pipeline into Republican politics is a do or
15:44
Speaker 1: die issue for the right. Kent went from tweeting to
15:47
Speaker 1: getting Trump's endorsement, to slop to losing a likely our
15:51
Speaker 1: seat twice, to getting a sinecure and then blowing it
15:54
Speaker 1: up at the first opportunity, like at some point in
15:56
Speaker 1: that process, someone needs to go. This doesn't look promising
16:02
Speaker 1: despite the jaw line like we gotta yeah.
16:05
Speaker 3: I miss when we held people to account based on
16:09
Speaker 3: their policy ideas.
16:10
Speaker 2: And I missed when.
16:12
Speaker 3: We would enforce conservative values on our candidates and have
16:18
Speaker 3: them know what they're talking about. I don't think that
16:20
Speaker 3: was that long ago, and I think it might be
16:22
Speaker 3: a good system to go back to.
16:24
Speaker 1: Well, And I would note that when you and I
16:26
Speaker 1: say somebody like, oh, I don't know, for instance, Lori
16:28
Speaker 1: Chaves Derrimer, who disagreed with us on labor policy and
16:32
Speaker 1: is to live for this administration and ended up as
16:35
Speaker 1: Secretary of Labor and then ended up with a big
16:37
Speaker 1: old scandal. We were right, yeah, listenbe we should judge
16:41
Speaker 1: that way, right.
16:41
Speaker 2: It's not a bad system. It actually quite works out.
16:44
Speaker 3: People who are into the ideology, who are part of
16:48
Speaker 3: the conservative movement are just generally not always because it happens,
16:53
Speaker 3: but generally not going to blow themselves up in that manner.
16:56
Speaker 2: It's a helpful gauge, it really is. We're going to
16:59
Speaker 2: take a short and come right back with more on normally.
17:05
Speaker 2: We are back on normally.
17:07
Speaker 3: Where the Senate continues to consider the SAVE Act. It's
17:12
Speaker 3: short for Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, and it's a
17:16
Speaker 3: proposed federal law to tighten voter rules and specifically to
17:22
Speaker 3: make sure that only US citizens can vote in federal elections. Now,
17:27
Speaker 3: we're often told this never happens. Illegal immigrants never vote
17:30
Speaker 3: in our elections. But of course there's stories all the
17:34
Speaker 3: time about it happening.
17:35
Speaker 2: There was one just this week. And what SAVE does
17:38
Speaker 2: is it requires proof of US citizenship to vote.
17:42
Speaker 3: That could be a passport, birth certificate, naturalization papers, and
17:47
Speaker 3: it makes citizenship status a little bit more strictly so
17:53
Speaker 3: to me, an.
17:53
Speaker 1: Important distinction is that it requires that proof of citizenship
17:57
Speaker 1: at the point of registration. It does not require it
18:00
Speaker 1: every time you go.
18:01
Speaker 2: You don't need to carry around papers.
18:03
Speaker 1: Yeah I carry that around now. But at the point
18:06
Speaker 1: of registration, where normally you would catch a lot of
18:08
Speaker 1: people who probably aren't eligible and say, oh, I don't
18:10
Speaker 1: know vot voter. Where you go to the dmctuation or
18:13
Speaker 1: as an ellegal lately and your driver's license to drive
18:16
Speaker 1: the giant eighteen wheelers that we're apparently letting people drive,
18:19
Speaker 1: then you get pushed into voter registration. So in this
18:22
Speaker 1: case you would have to say proactively, I am a citizen.
18:26
Speaker 1: Now you can register me.
18:28
Speaker 2: Right absolutely. So.
18:29
Speaker 3: I mean, my daughter just got her driver's license like
18:31
Speaker 3: last week, and she pre registered to vote in Florida.
18:34
Speaker 3: She's only sixteen, but when she turns eighteen, her voter
18:37
Speaker 3: editation will kick in. I hope at that time when
18:39
Speaker 3: you didn't have to produce any citizenship papers or you know,
18:43
Speaker 3: passport or berth certificate or anything. But I assume there
18:46
Speaker 3: is something in the system that protects against that. I
18:48
Speaker 3: don't know for sure, and that's really what I think
18:51
Speaker 3: this act is all about.
18:52
Speaker 1: Now.
18:53
Speaker 3: The thing is, and I you know, I've been kind
18:56
Speaker 3: of loosely following this story. A lot of people are
18:59
Speaker 3: mad at Republicans in the Senate for not pursuing this,
19:03
Speaker 3: and it becomes a bigger issue when Republicans in the
19:07
Speaker 3: Senator saying things.
19:09
Speaker 2: Like, oh, it won't pass. It won't pass, So what
19:12
Speaker 2: put it.
19:12
Speaker 3: Up to a vote? See who stands with you? See
19:14
Speaker 3: who does it it. I don't think that election integrity
19:18
Speaker 3: is a Republican only issue, and if all the Democrats
19:21
Speaker 3: vote against it, that's a big tell to the American
19:24
Speaker 3: people who want secure.
19:26
Speaker 2: Elections and who doesn't.
19:27
Speaker 3: And so, you know, to me, I think it's very
19:30
Speaker 3: easy to say, put it up to a vote. Anyway,
19:32
Speaker 3: see what happens us. Senator John Fetterman, who has become
19:36
Speaker 3: you know, the greatest Democrat of all.
19:38
Speaker 2: Time somehow, is in support of this bill. He says, eighty.
19:42
Speaker 3: Three percent of Americans agree on voter I D. Seventy
19:45
Speaker 3: one percent of Democrats agree on voter I D. Keep
19:48
Speaker 3: it basic photo ID to vote. Stop turning this into
19:51
Speaker 3: a Christmas list and attacking vote by mail, and he's
19:54
Speaker 3: blaming Republicans here for not, you know, not just to
19:56
Speaker 3: having it be the one issue. And I agree, if
19:59
Speaker 3: GOP won real reform over a show vote, put out
20:02
Speaker 3: a clean, standalone bill, and I'm an, I great, let's
20:06
Speaker 3: do it.
20:06
Speaker 1: Yeah. So yes, because there's a couple things going on here.
20:09
Speaker 1: There's the proof of citizenship, which is slightly deeper than
20:13
Speaker 1: just showing up with your ID, which I think most
20:16
Speaker 1: states would do well to impose. And again, eighty three
20:19
Speaker 1: percent issue. Nobody's mad about it, except for Democrats who
20:22
Speaker 1: run elections interestingly. So it is a little bit more
20:27
Speaker 1: than that. Trump is threatening to add or to want
20:31
Speaker 1: to demand this amendment that would say basically, mail in
20:34
Speaker 1: ballots don't work anywhere anymore, we're not going.
20:36
Speaker 2: To do this.
20:37
Speaker 1: I don't like that because that's federalizing elections in a
20:40
Speaker 1: way that I think is a bad idea. Then there's
20:43
Speaker 1: all this talk about should you get rid of the filibuster,
20:46
Speaker 1: go nuclear on the legislative filibuster in order to get
20:50
Speaker 1: this passed, And I think that's a bad idea, at
20:52
Speaker 1: least in the judicial filibuster, which Harry Reid blew up.
20:56
Speaker 1: We made them blow it up first before we then
20:59
Speaker 1: use that tool. They had to take the political heat
21:01
Speaker 1: for it, and it was intense. People did not like
21:03
Speaker 1: that large change in the system when Harry redid it,
21:06
Speaker 1: and Harry Reid paid for it, not just electorally, but
21:08
Speaker 1: with all those judges on the Spring Court. So we
21:11
Speaker 1: should tread lightly there. There's also talk of a talking filibuster,
21:15
Speaker 1: like let's just make them give speeches forever. And I'm
21:17
Speaker 1: not going to bore you with the details, but there's
21:19
Speaker 1: a great National Review piece about the talking philibuster quagmire
21:23
Speaker 1: that explains how basically we would end up with just
21:26
Speaker 1: ninety four speeches by Democrats over and over and over
21:29
Speaker 1: again until we die. So that's the synopsis of that
21:36
Speaker 1: how that would not probably work out well. But yeah,
21:39
Speaker 1: I do think it's worth to the greatest extent possible
21:42
Speaker 1: getting people on the record about right this kind of thing.
21:47
Speaker 2: Absolutely. I don't love vote by mail. I understand the
21:51
Speaker 2: argument against it.
21:52
Speaker 3: I've had people say to me things like, oh, I
21:55
Speaker 3: voted for my wife.
21:56
Speaker 2: Like that's illegal, dude, Like don't do that, ye do that, But.
21:59
Speaker 3: That's a very common thing it's it is something that
22:03
Speaker 3: does happen, and vote by mail, but that could be
22:06
Speaker 3: a separate issue. That could be a separate question right now.
22:09
Speaker 3: I think it's a good idea to get this part
22:11
Speaker 3: done and then focus on other issues with things like
22:15
Speaker 3: vote by mail. I mean I personally, I problem I
22:19
Speaker 3: have with vote by mail is I think a lot
22:20
Speaker 3: of snowbirds vote in Florida's elections while living elsewhere, and
22:23
Speaker 3: I don't like it because it keeps my state a little.
22:26
Speaker 2: Bit more blue than it should be.
22:28
Speaker 3: So fair, you know, I yeah, I think if you're
22:30
Speaker 3: going to vote, you got a common person and vote,
22:33
Speaker 3: and if you you want to vote by mail, you
22:34
Speaker 3: should have a real good reason for it.
22:36
Speaker 2: It can't just be I don't actually live there.
22:39
Speaker 1: I also prefer it when there's actually a reason for it.
22:43
Speaker 1: And I just think that it would be a poison
22:46
Speaker 1: pill if you're sticking that amendment into this bill and
22:49
Speaker 1: you're definitely not getting anything past at that point. And
22:53
Speaker 1: I'm comfortable with states sort of regulating that in Republicans
22:57
Speaker 1: trying their best to play catch up, which they've had
22:59
Speaker 1: to do for many years now on those kinds of things. Meanwhile,
23:03
Speaker 1: DHS remains closed. We've had four g hoty attacks in
23:08
Speaker 1: two weeks, and the Department of Homeland Security is proactively
23:11
Speaker 1: shut down by Democrats because they're attempting to get ICE reforms,
23:16
Speaker 1: despite the fact that ICE funding went out the door
23:18
Speaker 1: with the one big beautiful bill. Hats off to whoever's
23:21
Speaker 1: idea that was, because that was smart, and so they're
23:24
Speaker 1: not making a difference on the thing they want to
23:26
Speaker 1: make a difference song, But they are making sure that
23:28
Speaker 1: TSA agents are unpaid and there's a bunch of, you know,
23:32
Speaker 1: cascading effects from that, including delays at airports, and that
23:36
Speaker 1: various parts of Department of Homeland Security are not funded
23:42
Speaker 1: while we have Ghati attacks happening once a week. That
23:46
Speaker 1: seems like if it were the other way around, right,
23:49
Speaker 1: there might be a lot of grilling of these lawmakers
23:52
Speaker 1: about it. Instead, what you get is House members like
23:55
Speaker 1: Representative Greg Sezar. He's from Texas. Do you remember he's
23:59
Speaker 1: the one who sat outside the capitol that one time
24:01
Speaker 1: and did a hunger strike for like six hours.
24:03
Speaker 2: He's between lunch and dinner.
24:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, so he's very theatrical. He goes to a Texas airport,
24:09
Speaker 1: runs into John Cornyan, who's bringing food lunches by for
24:13
Speaker 1: the TSA agents while they're not getting their paychecks and
24:15
Speaker 1: say there's like you people should pay the TSA agents.
24:19
Speaker 1: My dude, yeah too, y'all are the ones who closed
24:22
Speaker 1: down DHS. And Democrats are trying to say, like we
24:25
Speaker 1: want to split it up into different but it's already passed, guys. Yeah,
24:28
Speaker 1: it's already passed the House as a bill. Ice isn't
24:32
Speaker 1: in it, right, Ice funding isn't in it. Just do it, yeah,
24:37
Speaker 1: or you know, press ask them some questions.
24:38
Speaker 3: About right, obviously, this is the front page of the
24:40
Speaker 3: New York Times every day. Right, national security is at risk,
24:43
Speaker 3: and you know, I mean, look, you know, we can't
24:47
Speaker 3: wait for the media to be fair. But I just
24:49
Speaker 3: hope one of them gets caught up in a long
24:51
Speaker 3: line at the airport, and that's how it's going to
24:53
Speaker 3: get fixed.
24:54
Speaker 1: That's how we get the story.
24:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, a top New York Times editor gets into a
24:57
Speaker 3: long line at the airport that's just getting done.
25:00
Speaker 1: Sorry, yeah, well it'll certainly turn into somehow it was
25:04
Speaker 1: Trump's fault time show, of course, of course, but I
25:07
Speaker 1: would suggest they just you know, fund it.
25:10
Speaker 2: Let's take a short break and be right back with
25:12
Speaker 2: more on normally.
25:16
Speaker 1: All right, we are back on normally with some just
25:19
Speaker 1: really good news. Our friend Klay Travis cites the Wall
25:23
Speaker 1: Street Journals reporting on the homicide rate down to a
25:28
Speaker 1: perhaps one hundred and twenty five year low on murder
25:33
Speaker 1: in the United States last year. This isn't the first
25:35
Speaker 1: I've heard about this, but I do think it's something
25:37
Speaker 1: that Trump and Republicans would do well to tellt more often,
25:40
Speaker 1: because that's insane.
25:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's amazing, because it really is such an astonishing number,
25:48
Speaker 3: one hundred and twenty five year low. I had somebody
25:51
Speaker 3: in my comments when I posted this thing it's because
25:54
Speaker 3: teenagers sit at home on screens, nothing to do with Trump,
25:57
Speaker 3: And I was like, were they not on screens in
25:58
Speaker 3: the last ten years?
25:59
Speaker 2: And that person said it got worse during in post COVID.
26:02
Speaker 2: There's literally a term for it now, bed riding. And
26:04
Speaker 2: I was like, but murder spike during COVID when we
26:07
Speaker 2: were all at home on our streets.
26:10
Speaker 1: Make it makes sense? It would be It would be
26:13
Speaker 1: an an accomplishment even for us to have moved out
26:17
Speaker 1: of the COVID era spike, right, even if you had
26:20
Speaker 1: just gotten it down that much, that would have been great. Also,
26:22
Speaker 1: as a counter to this, I would add that increased
26:26
Speaker 1: police presence and guard presence in Washington, d C. Gave
26:29
Speaker 1: us like the best three months with as little murder
26:32
Speaker 1: as we've seen in forever in the city and no
26:36
Speaker 1: rioting and looting and all sorts of craziness down at
26:39
Speaker 1: Navy Yard, which is this built up area where a
26:41
Speaker 1: lot of people like to go, but there's also a
26:43
Speaker 1: lot of young people not bed riding instead out harassing people.
26:49
Speaker 1: And it's so funny. As soon as the police presence
26:51
Speaker 1: went down, the groups of young people out at Navy
26:55
Speaker 1: Yard went up again. So it's just it seems logical
27:00
Speaker 1: to me.
27:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, that Trump's.
27:02
Speaker 1: Emphasis on police presence, on making sure makes a different
27:06
Speaker 1: criminals are punished on Oh, I don't know, deporting a
27:10
Speaker 1: lot of violent criminals is making a difference, and that
27:15
Speaker 1: that is something he should sell to voters.
27:17
Speaker 2: Yeah.
27:18
Speaker 3: Look, last week you and I our last episode, You
27:20
Speaker 3: and I talked about how certain police precincts and blue
27:25
Speaker 3: cities are being told to cover crime in a different way,
27:28
Speaker 3: to code it differently. But murder is murder, Like, it's
27:32
Speaker 3: not like they're going to turn murder into a petty crime,
27:34
Speaker 3: like they just they can't. So it's one of those
27:38
Speaker 3: situations where the numbers are the numbers and people because
27:42
Speaker 3: again I've gotten comments in my thing like oh, they're
27:45
Speaker 3: just not reporting it, Like I'm sorry, they are reporting
27:48
Speaker 3: dead bodies when they come across those dead bodies.
27:51
Speaker 2: Yes, it's a whole thing.
27:53
Speaker 1: There was another report in Axios a couple of months
27:55
Speaker 1: ago on this same type of stat of the thirty
27:58
Speaker 1: five cities reporting homicide rates, thirty one solid declines. Murders
28:02
Speaker 1: plummeted forty one percent in Denver and fell forty percent
28:05
Speaker 1: in Washington, d C. In Omaha Ebrasca. This is important
28:08
Speaker 1: partly because it was the year of twenty twenty five
28:12
Speaker 1: when this was established. So it's hard to I know,
28:16
Speaker 1: there can be many factors. Yeah, Biden's certainly not one
28:19
Speaker 1: of them, like democratic national leadership ain't one of the factors.
28:24
Speaker 1: And to the extent that they are a factor, it's
28:26
Speaker 1: because in places like my town here, they keep murderers
28:30
Speaker 1: from being sent home, which is what Abigail Spaanberger and
28:32
Speaker 1: my liberal prosecutor are currently doing with a murderer of
28:36
Speaker 1: a forty one year old mother in my town.
28:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm blue areas they're still struggling. I don't know
28:43
Speaker 3: what to say to those people who continue to push
28:47
Speaker 3: the bad policies in those places or vote for people
28:49
Speaker 3: who support those policies. My ex governor Kathy Hochel, she's
28:54
Speaker 3: suddenly realized that her tax base has left for Florida,
28:58
Speaker 3: and she had this to say.
29:00
Speaker 4: And being conscious of the facts that I need people
29:03
Speaker 4: who are high net worth to support the generous social
29:07
Speaker 4: programs that we want to have in our state. Right now,
29:11
Speaker 4: there are some patriotic millionaires. We've stepped up. Okay, cut
29:16
Speaker 4: me the checks, they just if you want to be supportive,
29:19
Speaker 4: But maybe the first step should be go down to
29:21
Speaker 4: Palm Beach and see what you can bring back home.
29:24
Speaker 4: Because our tax base has been eroded. So I philosophically
29:27
Speaker 4: don't have a problem. It is like I have to
29:29
Speaker 4: look at the fact that we are in competition with
29:31
Speaker 4: other states who have less of a tax burden on
29:35
Speaker 4: their corporations and their individuals, And I would say remote
29:38
Speaker 4: work changed everything. There are people who could only work
29:41
Speaker 4: in an office in Manhattan and work in New York State,
29:44
Speaker 4: and they were captives to our state.
29:45
Speaker 2: There within a state.
29:47
Speaker 4: We saw that that's not the case. I mean, you
29:49
Speaker 4: know Wall Street businesses looking at Texas. They're not going
29:54
Speaker 4: there because they have a nicer governor. I know that
29:56
Speaker 4: for sure, But they're going there because of the tax Right.
29:59
Speaker 4: We have to be smart about this, and but we
30:01
Speaker 4: can fund what we want to fund with what we
30:04
Speaker 4: already are taking.
30:05
Speaker 2: It's amazing.
30:06
Speaker 3: It's so amazing because in twenty twenty two, Kathy Hokel
30:10
Speaker 3: famously told Republicans in New York to jump on a
30:13
Speaker 3: bus and head down.
30:15
Speaker 2: To Florida, where you belong.
30:17
Speaker 3: Many of us were either already here, which I was,
30:21
Speaker 3: or heading that way. And yeah, they lost this tax
30:24
Speaker 3: base because of people like her.
30:27
Speaker 2: She called Florida overrated at that time. She said that
30:30
Speaker 2: these people were not New Yorkers, and these people heard
30:33
Speaker 2: her loud and clear. My favorite part of that clip
30:36
Speaker 2: is that she's imploring the rich people who are supporting
30:40
Speaker 2: her to go and get their friends back, like she's
30:44
Speaker 2: like basically blaming them. Like you want to do something,
30:47
Speaker 2: go get your rich friends back.
30:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, you chase them away, Kathy.
30:52
Speaker 4: Yeah.
30:53
Speaker 1: The watching it dawn on a Democrat soday, middle finger
30:57
Speaker 1: to the people you want to support seventy percent of
31:00
Speaker 1: what you're doing with their hard earned money is a
31:04
Speaker 1: bad approach. Is hilarious. She also just straight up says
31:09
Speaker 1: we are unable to hold them captive anymore to our
31:12
Speaker 1: crappy system, and you must therefore convince them it's their
31:16
Speaker 1: duty to come back. I don't think that's gonna work.
31:19
Speaker 1: Florida has great weather and a great setup now, and
31:22
Speaker 1: indeed she cannot hold people captive anymore. And I would
31:25
Speaker 1: also just like to note that when it comes to
31:26
Speaker 1: shoes or skincare, I'm going to be using the line
31:29
Speaker 1: I need people who are high net worth to support
31:32
Speaker 1: the things that I want to pay for. Amazing, tell
31:38
Speaker 1: my children, But tell my children, I need high net
31:41
Speaker 1: worth people. Okay, yeah, same, same.
31:45
Speaker 2: Oh it's so good. This is such a high note
31:47
Speaker 2: to end the show on.
31:48
Speaker 3: Because Kathy Hokeel finally realizing what she's done.
31:52
Speaker 2: Chef's kiss.
31:53
Speaker 1: Newsome's going to be doing the same thing later this year.
31:55
Speaker 3: Maybe maybe, or he's not gonna be governor anymore, and
31:58
Speaker 3: he's gonna be like, it's somebody else's problems.
32:00
Speaker 2: I did what I could. They left under you.
32:02
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, indeed, someone else's fault always always well.
32:06
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to Normally. Normally airs Tuesdays and Thursdays,
32:09
Speaker 2: and you can subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts.
32:12
Speaker 3: Get in touch with us at normally theepod at gmail
32:15
Speaker 3: dot com. Thanks for listening, and when things get weird,
32:18
Speaker 3: act normally