Latest / Pod Save America / Trump White House Secrets Revealed

Transcript

Trump White House Secrets Revealed · Pod Save America

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Pod Save America is brought to you by Mint Mobile.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: You know you don't have to let big wireless and
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: your overpriced phone bill suck the joy out of the
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: holidays this year because right now all of Mint Mobile's
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: unlimited plans are 50% off. You can get 3, 6,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: or 12 months of unlimited premium wireless for $ 15 a month.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: It's their best deal of the year and it makes
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: it real easy for you to give your expensive wireless
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: bill the Scrooge treatment. Mint Mobile's best deal of the
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: year is happening right now. Get a 3, 6, or
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: 12 month unlimited plan for $ 15 a month. All Mint
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: plans come with Hi, Nina. Hi.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: I'm so excited to be here.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Tell us about Mint Mobile. Okay.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: I actually love Mint Mobile. I tell everyone about it.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: I'm saving hundreds of dollars.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: It's amazing.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: And I feel like I always tell people I have
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: Mint Mobile and then they go, what? And I go,
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: it's amazing. And I try to persuade them. And so
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: I feel like I wanted to come on here today
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: to maybe persuade you guys.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: I love that you're an evangelist for Mint Mobile.
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: That was great.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Turn your expensive wireless present into a huge wireless savings
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: future by switching to Mint. Shop Mint Unlimited plans at mintmobile.com
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: slash crooked. That's mintmobile.com slash crooked. Limited time offer, upfront
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: payments of $ 45 for three months, $ 90 for six months,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: or $ 180 for 12-month plan required, which is $ 15 a
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra, initial plan term only.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Over 35 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. Capable
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: device required. Availability, speed, and coverage varies. See mintmobile.com. If
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: you didn't see, the other day while I was in
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: New York, I had the pleasure of going on the
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: I've Had It podcast. If you're not already a listener,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: and if you like getting fired up about the news,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: you should check it out. Jennifer Welch and Angie Sullivan
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: are quite funny and quite hilarious. They also land great
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: guests like Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, and AOC.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: New episodes drop every week, so go listen to I've
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Had It wherever you get your podcasts or watch full
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: episodes on YouTube.
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: Thanks for watching!
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: I'm Dan Pfeiffer.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: On today's show, we'll talk about the fallout, or lack thereof,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: from the 11 extremely candid interviews White House Chief of
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Staff Susie Wiles did with Vanity Fair. We'll also cover
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Trump explicitly making the case that we might go to
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: war with Venezuela to take their oil. His executive orders
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: banning gender-affirming care for young people and relaxing marijuana restrictions.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Mike Johnson losing control of the House over Obamacare subsidies.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: the DNC's plans to bury its 2024 autopsy report, and
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Trump's latest home decorating project, personally writing the copy for
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: a new set of presidential plaques designed to troll his predecessors. Lovely. Lovely, Dan.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: But let's start with Trump's decision to interrupt the Survivor
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: season finale Wednesday with a primetime address that sounded like
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: an angry old man who'd taken too much Adderall yelling
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: at us about how the economy is actually great. And
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: if you don't believe that, it's Joe Biden's fault. If
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: you have the good sense to skip it, here's a
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: taste of how it went.
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: Good evening, America.
• 3:35
  Speaker 5: 11 months ago, I inherited a mess and I'm fixing it.
• 3:40
  Speaker 5: We had men playing in women's sports, transgender for everybody.
• 3:45
  Speaker 5: Our country was laughed at from all over the world.
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: But they're not laughing anymore.
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: Much of this success has been accomplished by tariffs.
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: My favorite word, tariffs.
• 3:57
  Speaker 5: I negotiated directly with the drug companies and foreign nations
• 4:01
  Speaker 5: to slash prices on drugs and pharmaceuticals by as much
• 4:05
  Speaker 5: as 400 500 and even 600%. One year ago, our
• 4:11
  Speaker 5: country was dead. We were absolutely dead. Our country was
• 4:15
  Speaker 5: ready to fail. Totally failed. Now, we're the hottest country
• 4:21
  Speaker 5: anywhere in the world.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Needs more Garland.
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: It's very festive there at the White House.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Fucking jungle. So, Marist poll from this week. Guess which
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: percentage of Americans have some degree of concern about the
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: impact of tariffs on their financial situation?
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: Would it be two-thirds of Americans, Dan?
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: It would be two-thirds of Americans, Dan. That's the host
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: of Polar Coaster right here. Go check it out. Subscriber-only show, Crooked.com.
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: Oh, an organic plug. I love it.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: You know, I should have named this as one of
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: my New Year's resolutions. Around 60% oppose the tariffs, and
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: he just... It's like... The main policy he implemented that
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: is causing people to feel that prices are too high
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: and that they can't afford life is the one he
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: keeps bragging about in the speeches where he's supposed to
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: allay people's concerns about affordability.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: He can't help himself. He can't help himself.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: What'd you think of the speech? What'd you think of
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: the speech? He didn't start like an old man on
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Adderall yelling, but if you could tell by the last
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: couple of clips we did, he really picked up some
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: steam there. He was trying to get it done by
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: 20 minutes and God help him, he did.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: I have a lot of thoughts on this, but just
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: from a basic strategic point of view, this is an
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: epic disaster. It serves no purpose. If the goal was
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: to improve his political standing, if it does anything, it
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: does the opposite. Because you just can't tell people You
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: have two-thirds of Americans who think prices are too high.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: Two-thirds of Americans are unhappy with the direction of the country.
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: Two-thirds of Americans who are unhappy with the economy. Majorities
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: who disapprove of his economic performance, which is now in
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: the 30s in most polls, and even lower than in
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: the low 30s when it comes to inflation. You can't
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: tell them that things are good. He might as well
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: just go around and just stick his thumb in the
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: eye of every persuadable voter in America, because that's what
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: he's doing. From a strategic point of view, it makes
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: no sense. It is an absolute disaster. Poorly delivered. I
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: got a lot of thoughts on the networks giving him
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: the time for this.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: They kind of got snowed, huh? First of all, it's hard,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: as we know, right? You've actually asked networks for time,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: I imagine. It's hard to get time from the networks
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: for a primetime speech that interrupts their primetime programming, particularly
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: the three-hour season finale of Three hours? Wow. Season failure
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: of Survivor. I know.
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: Imagine if we had to watch Love It for three
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: hours in that finale.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: I was going to say.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: It's quite hypothetical, I'd say that.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: Lucky for us, that was about three minutes.
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: Imagine if we had to watch me in the NBA finals.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so they don't like to give that up. They
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: especially don't like to give up prime time to presidents
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: when they make purely political speeches and have, in fact,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: turned down Presidents.
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: President Obama, in fact.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: For speeches that they deem too political. And this one
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: is like, you know, Joe Biden was a senile old
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: man and he fucked up the country. And, you know,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: it's like, what is he doing?
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, there was no news. We'll get to the fake
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: news in here in a minute, but there was no
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: real news in the speech. There's no purpose. Like, to
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: get this time, and this time was obviously much more
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: valuable in the 2010s than it is now. But still,
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: this is around the Survivor finale. It's CBS's biggest, I
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: would assume, non-sports night of the year. Yeah. And normally
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: you need to be responding to a national tragedy, declaring war,
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: like a major piece of legislation that is passing. Maybe
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: it's very like in the first hundred days of your presidency,
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: but it's just a year-end wrap-up rally speech is not
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: something you would get time for. And even in the past,
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: if they gave it to you, they would have given
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: a response time to the other party, whereas like a
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: Hakeem Jeffries or Alyssa Slacker or whoever else could have responded.
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: So they just gave it to them. And that does,
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: I think, speak to the way in which Trump has
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: intimidated major media companies, right? Like you think CBS in
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: the midst of the, you know, trying to get control
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: of Warner Brothers Discovery is going to turn them down?
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: Do you think the Disney company wants another fight with Trump,
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: so they're going to turn down ABC? Comcast, which is
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: also looking at various mergers, you think they're going to
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: turn them down for NBC? No, this is where Trump
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: has bullied the president, giving him something they would not
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: have given another president.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And, you know, their fault for doing it, but
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: also Kind of glad they did.
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, do it again. Here's my thing. On a purely
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: principled point of view, it's absurd they gave it to him.
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: Do it again. Do it tomorrow.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Once a week.
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: Once a week. Every Wednesday.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Let's go back to like Fireside. It's the Fireside chat
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: of 2026. Old Donnie Trump. Every once a week he's
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: going to come. He's going to yell at us about
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: how good everything is and why we should be mad
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: at Joe Biden if we're not happy. and just, you know,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: yell some more, and that's great. And all these people
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: who've tried to tune out Donald Trump and aren't paying
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: too much attention to politics, when he jumps into their
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: screen and starts yelling at them, you know, maybe they'll
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: think about that when they go to vote in the midterms. So, yeah,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: rule number one, you don't give a speech when you
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: have nothing to say. You didn't have anything to say.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: The only nugget of news, I guess you could call it,
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: is he announced that there would be a bonus, a
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: bonus stipend.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: For troops?
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: For all the troops. All of our troops getting a
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: bonus stipend. Do you know how much that bonus stipend is? $ 1, 776.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: What are the odds of that? Get it? Because it's
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: the 250th anniversary coming up. 1776.
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: That guy, he's a marketer.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: I know. First of all, for the average salary that
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: someone in the military makes, that's like a 2% to
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: 3% bonus. So, nice bonus. Very generous. And then we
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: found out, actually... Where's he getting the money from this? Well,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: he's getting the money from the housing sector. that Congress
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: appropriated for the troops. Yeah.
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: So he's robbing Peter.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Once again, once again, just, you know, once a scammer,
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: always a scammer.
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: And that, I mean, that was the only news in
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: the speech. Like, like Carolyn Levin had teased- Literally nothing else.
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: I mean, we did think, and we'll get to this later,
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: but like there, all the rumors were, and this goes
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: to the gravity of getting the national time, is that
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: if Trump was getting the national time, it probably meant
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: we were going to war with Venezuela. Instead, we were
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: going to war with Joe Biden and the facts.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Which honestly makes sense from a political perspective for the
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: White House, which is like, do we want to make
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: our insane case for war with Venezuela or should we
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: just do it? and have him just lie to people
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: about how good the economy is instead.
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, except the lying to... Neither are good choices. But just,
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: I really can't emphasize enough how politically negative it is.
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: It's toxic to when people are mad about the economy
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: to tell them that things are great. I said this before,
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: you and I have watched focus groups where people have
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: literally tried to flip the table over. They're so mad
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: when you give them a message that suggests that they're
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: wrong and things really are good. And he's just, he seems...
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: which I think is true, out of touch and delusional
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: with how people actually feel. Because it's all golden age
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: of America, pat ourselves on the back, more progress than
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: anyone has ever seen before, done more than every president
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: ever in the history of time. And no one, even
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: other than his true fanboys and the true MAGA base,
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: no one believes that. The majority of people who voted
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: for him don't believe it. And so you sound crazy
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: when you say it.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: And a big part of it is his delusional narcissism.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: But I think all presidents can find themselves in a
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: bubble once they're in the White House. And, you know,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: at the end there, that last clip he was talking about,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: you know, all these foreign leaders come up to me
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: and say, the country's so hot, it's never been better.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: It's like, you know who used to say that, actually?
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: It's Joe Biden. All the foreign leaders tell me that
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: we're doing a great job, that we're coming back and
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: all this kind of stuff. And it's like, yeah, first
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: of all, one of the reasons that the foreign leaders
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: might be telling you that is because they are kissing
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: your ass because you're the American president. And so they
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: are telling you nice things. And also they probably have
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: the same frustrations with, uh, their people. And so they're
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: all like, they're all defensive foreign leaders, all talking to
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: each other. Like, Oh, we're doing so good. And look
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: at all the great decisions we're making. And why aren't
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: people happier with us? It is like Joe Biden.
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: Would not have given a national televised address like this.
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: That would not have happened. Um, But there is similarities
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: in both their economic message and the way they frame
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: their presidency. And this is even– and the way they
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: frame their presidency, it's less Biden and more the people
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: around Biden who just would insist on calling him like
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: the greatest president since LBJ or FDR at every time.
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: Which like you can believe that, but no, and you even,
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: maybe even have some sort of case based on your
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: legislative record if you want to make that case. But that's,
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: that just rings so hollow to voters who are giving
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: you a 41% approval rating at the time. Like you just,
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: you just sound crazy. You sound absolutely crazy then. More
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: of a show not tell thing, you know?
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: That's a, these are two very core speech writing rules,
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: which is don't give a speech if there's nothing to say,
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: more showing, less telling.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: That's right. So the reporters that were in the room
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: for the speech said that after it was over, Trump
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: turned to Susie Wiles and said some version of, quote,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: Susie told me I had to give an address to
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: the nation, which is notable for a few reasons. One
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: being that Susie Wiles still has a job and influence
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: with the president after her Vanity Fair tell-all was published
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: this week. In case you have not heard yet, Wiles
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: spoke to writer and historian Chris Whipple on the record, knowingly,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: 11 separate times over the last year, which resulted in
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: candid observations like, J.D. Vance, quote, has been a conspiracy
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: theorist for a decade. Pam Bondi, quote, completely whiffed on
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: the Epstein files. Russ Vogt is an, quote, absolute right-wing zealot.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: Elon Musk is an, quote, avowed ketamine user. As for
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: her boss, Donald Trump, while said that he has an
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: alcoholic's personality, admitted that revenge is his motivation for trying
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: to prosecute Tish James and James Comey, that she was
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: aghast at Elon feeding USAID to the woodchipper. that, quote,
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: overzealous border patrol agents might be responsible for mistakenly deporting people,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: and that Trump did in fact fly on Epstein's plane.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Trump and nearly every senior administration official have decided to
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: respond to the piece by defending Wiles in a series
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: of very embarrassing tweets. They also are all blaming Vanity
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: Fair for the crime of printing the words that she
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: said to them. which were also recorded on audio tape.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: And just for fun, the piece was accompanied by a
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: glossy photo shoot that included some horrifying close-ups of Wiles, J.D. Vance, Marco,
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Stephen Miller, and Caroline Levitt. Dan, putting your old White
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: House communications director hat on, what did you think watching
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: all this play out?
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: Just what an absolutely amusing, enjoyable disaster. How does this happen?
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: How do you do 11 on-the-record interviews? I guess we've
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: seen people do this before, and we've seen Trump aides
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: do this before. This is what brought down Steve Bannon
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: and Scaramucci when they worked for Trump, is they begin
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: treating these reporters as something between a confidant and a therapist.
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: And you start having these conversations and it's, it's, it
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: is like, basically this is the White House chief of staff.
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: Like there has been nothing but praise for how savvy
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: and smart she is. And like, she obviously did a
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: good job running that campaign, but like she, like she
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: would have failed the test at the end of the
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: first week of press secretary school, by the way, she
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: handled this interview. It was just like absolutely embarrassing. The
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: other part about this is, and we can get into
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: the individual revelations and what they mean, but just from
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: a pure communications perspective and just looking at them as
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: The idea that they all hate the press is such bullshit.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: Susie Wiles obviously is talking to Chris Wilbel because she
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: wants to shape her own legacy as a chief of staff.
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: That's why she would do this. But here you have
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: these people like Stephen Miller and J.D. Vance and Marco
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: Rubi who go on cable or go on Fox and
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: they shit all over the press. And J.D. Vance just
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: the other day tweeted about how terrible the mainstream press was.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: And then they get the fucking glam squad, to show
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: up in the White House and do their hair and
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: makeup for a photo shoot for Vanity Fair, a publication
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: that has the word vanity in it. They absolutely thirst
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: for the approval of the mainstream media establishment stuff that
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: they love to just, in a professional wrestling-like fake way,
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: trash on TV. It's just so revealing about how vacuous
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: the whole shtick is.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: You know how long the photo shoot took?
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: I don't. Tell me.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: An entire day.
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: For all of them?
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: So the Wall Street Journal has sort of details on
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: how this all came together and why she decided to
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: do the interview and the photo shoot and all that.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Photo shoot took an entire day. I'll just read you
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: one paragraph from the story. White House officials said there
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: was no Machiavellian master plan by Wiles to participate in
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: the interviews with Vanity Fair writer Chris Whipple. After coming
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: to like Whipple... She agreed to talk to him regularly
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: about what was going on in the White House, often
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: on the weekend. She told others that it was for
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: a historical project. The conversations weren't minded by a White
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: House press staffer. Yeah, no shit. Wiles told others that
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: she respected Whipple and was upset by the final stories
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: that were published on Tuesday. Unbelievable.
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: Is this the point at which you and I are
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: required for journalistic purposes to disclose that we participated in
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: this very same Vanity Fair photo shoot in 2009?
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: We sure did. We sure did, Dan. Didn't take an
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: entire day though. Probably took an entire day for everyone
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: that they, because they did the whole, they did like,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: there's like eight, 10 different pictures or something.
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and they did the cabinet, they did a bunch
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: of different staffs. They, yeah, a whole bunch of people.
• 18:10
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: But I think it probably took 15 minutes is the
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: full extent of it. I don't think we got hair
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: and makeup either, which they have the picture, which.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: Definitely not.
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: Well, it does not suggest that we did. I'll tell
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: you that.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: Had my shaved head and it was me, you, Alyssa,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: and Bobby Gibbs. That's right.
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: And Ellen Moran.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: That was our. That was our picture.
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: Well, no, ours was, Alyssa was in ours.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: Oh, no, we didn't have Alyssa in ours.
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: We didn't have Alyssa, yeah. Alyssa was in with the
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: scheduling people.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: The scheduling. Yeah, no, we did it. Well, we didn't
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: shit all over Vanity Fair. I think it was like right,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: was it the first week we were.
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: At the White House? I think it was, so we
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: were in the transition headquarters. I think we were in
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: the transition.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. So they also talked to the photographer. Someone
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: interviewed the.
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: Chris Anderson photographer.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: This guy is great. He pointed out that, or he revealed,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: I should say, that Caroline Levert has her own personal
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: groomer that was there. And, I don't know if you've
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: seen any, anyone go check it out. If you're, if
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: you're feeling brave, the, the closeup of Caroline Levitt. Yeah, that's,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: I mean, it looks like there was some lip filler,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: which I'm saying this because it was all over the
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: internet and Chris Anderson was asked about it in his interview.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: And he said, well, what can I say? That's the
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: makeup she puts on. Those are the injections she gives herself.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: If they show up in a photo, what do you
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: want me to do?
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: Did you see the, I saw this, this is like
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: unverified because I just saw this on Instagram, but the
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: conversation between the photographer and Stephen Miller.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: I have it right here.
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: Please go ahead. Read it.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: Real anecdote. Real anecdote. This is just, it's just fun
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: for us. We deserve this. He said, I'll give you
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: a little anecdote. Stephen Miller was perhaps the most concerned
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: about the portrait session. He asked me, should I smile
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: or not smile? And I said, how would you want
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: to be portrayed? We agreed. We agreed that we would
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: do a bit of both. And then when we were finished,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: he comes up to me to shake my hand and
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: say goodbye. And he says to me, quote, you know,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: you have a lot of power and the discretion you
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: use to be kind to people. And I looked at
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: him and I said, you know, you do too.
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: That's so fucking good. So good.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: He didn't look great.
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: He didn't look great. I mean, like, don't.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Never does.
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: Don't put, like, what photographer could.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying. The guy's only human. Pod Save
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: America is brought to you by HIMSS. Confidence shouldn't be complicated.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: Through HIMSS, you can skip the guesswork and get access
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: to care that actually fits your lifestyle.
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: You might say all things are possible through HIMSS.
• 20:31
  Speaker 6: Straight.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: Straightforward stress-free and designed around you through hymns you can
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: access personalized prescription treatment options for ed like hard mints
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: and sex rx plus climax control what if prescribed don't
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: get too excited yet hymns offers access to ed treatment
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: options ranging from trusted generics that cost 95 less than
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: brand names to hard mints if prescribed Thank you. Thank you.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: Thank you. Online access to personalize affordable care for ED,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: weight loss, and more. Visit hymns.com slash crooked. That's hymns.com
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: slash crooked for your free online visit. hymns.com slash crooked.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: Actual price will depend on product and subscription plan. Featured
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: products include compounded drug products, which the FDA does not approve,
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: or verify for safety, effectiveness, or quality. Prescription required. See
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: website for details, restrictions, and important safety information. Pod Save
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: America is brought to you by Z-Biotics Pre-Alcohol. Christmas parties,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: holiday dinners, Late night gift wrapping with a glass of eggnog.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: It's the season for celebration. Just don't forget the Z-Biotics
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: pre-alcohol probiotic drink. Z-Biotics pre-alcohol probiotic drink is the world's
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by a PhD
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: scientist to tackle rough mornings after drinking. Here's how it works.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: When you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: in the gut. It's a buildup of this byproduct, not dehydration,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: that's to blame for rough days after drinking. Pre-alcohol produces
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: an enzyme to break this byproduct down. Just remember to
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: make pre-alcohol your first drink of the night. Drink responsibly
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: and you'll feel your best tomorrow. We just had our
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: cricket holiday party and there was a big box of
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: Z-Biotics out for everyone. And you know what? Everyone took it.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: And I felt great the next day. In fact, I
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: said that Z-Biotics made my parenting possible on Saturday morning.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: So thank you, Z-Biotics. Make the most of every toast
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: this holiday season. Just don't forget to bring pre-alcohol along
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: for the ride. Go to zbiotics.com. slash crooked to learn
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: more and get 15% off your first order when you
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: use crooked at checkout. Zbiotics is backed with 100% money
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: back guarantee. So if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: refund your money. No questions asked. Remember to head to zbiotics.com
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: slash crooked and use the code crooked at checkout for
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: 15% off. So of all the, back to the substance
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: of this, of all the, of all the Wiles revelations,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: what do you think was the most damaging?
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: So I think there's probably a couple different ways to
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: answer this question. In the short term, the way she
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: talked about the political vengeance campaigns, particularly against Letitia James
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: and Jim Comey, if they can ever get indictments in
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: those cases, which is an open question, but she's going
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: to end up in a court filing for that. So
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: there are short-term consequences to that or could prevent them
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: from getting an indictment.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: Over the.
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: The long term, I think it's calling J.D. Vance a
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: longtime conspiracy theorist. That's the kind of thing you're going
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: to hear if and when he is the Republican nominee
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: in 2028. The White House chief of staff said he
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: was a conspiracy theorist, so I think that's powerful. And
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: then I think the most revelatory one with the most
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: implications for the way the White House runs is just
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: Susie Wallace herself basically calling herself an enabler. which I
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: thought was very revealing about how she viewed her job,
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: which is not to protect Trump from himself. It's to
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: let Trump do whatever he wants, which helps also explain
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: why those people all defended her because, like, you know,
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: I said this to Jen Psaki on MSNBC the other night,
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: but it's the same reason why my kids want their
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: grandparents to watch them because there are no rules. So
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: it's like, you know, we got to keep Suzy around
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: because the next guy might try to stop us from
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: doing all this crazy stuff. You're like, may not like
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: really let the deputy chief of staff try to wage
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: war in Venezuela as far as one example.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: Also she's like not too savvy a move to do
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: the interview in the first place, but I feel like
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: the interview itself reveals that she might run a good campaign,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: but isn't so savvy when it comes to governing. Um,
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: because there was a lot of like, Oh, and I,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: you know, at first, uh, Elon, uh, broke up USA
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: ID and I was aghast and I couldn't believe it
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: cause I thought they do such good work. And then
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: they all convinced me that it was, you know, it
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: was fine, but the process was bad. And Oh, what, what,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: Were people mistakenly deported? Well, I imagine that must be
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: some overzealous border patrol agent. But, yeah, we should probably
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: double check that. And then, you know, later they're talking
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: about the boats and Venezuelan blowing up the boats. And
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: she's saying, oh, that they know that, you know, they
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: know the people on the boats. She's like, you know,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: you'd be one of the great untold stories of government
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: is how much the CIA knows about people.
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: Really?
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Did you just show up?
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: It goes to why she was such a poor decision
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: as chief of staff. One, she doesn't fully understand the job.
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: And two, you really need someone who– like the chief
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: of staff has to be able to do most of
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: the following things. Run the White House staff, like be
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: an actual manager of the White House and the bureaucracy.
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: And maybe she can do that or not. I don't know.
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: Be sort of an expert in Congress, right, to help
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: the president pass their legislative agenda. And or be an
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: expert in how the bureaucracy works, like how to use
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: the federal government to enact the president's agenda. She doesn't
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: know how to do any– or the last one is
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: maybe be like a very savvy communicator, spokesperson, principal who
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: can represent the president in places. She certainly does not
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: do that. Like she really insists on being behind the
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: scenes and not in photos. So the only thing she
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: does really is just tell Trump yes. And that is
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: by definition a bad sheet of stuff.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: The other big one I thought was she– he asked
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: her about Ghislaine Maxwell. being moved to, uh.
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: This is, this is another one.
• 26:25
  Speaker 6: Yes.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: From like a real prison to club fed this cushy
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: prison that she sits in now. And Whipple asks about
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: that decision. So, yeah, I had no idea. And, and,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: and Donald Trump was, the president was very unhappy about that.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Very unhappy. And it's like, well, then who, who did it?
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: We don't know, but I can, and she's like, I can,
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: I can get back to you. I can find out.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: And she never, she never got back to him on
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: that point. So this means that somewhere, someone, made the
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: decision to transfer Ghislaine Maxwell. That person exists in the
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: federal government somewhere. And either this person is going to say, well,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: I got the order from someone else higher up, or
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: we are led to believe that the White House chief
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: of staff and the president of the United States have
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: no idea how this extremely prominent prisoner was moved to
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: a minimum security prison known as Club Fed.
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: Well, in defense of Donald Trump, he is a firm
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: believer in the independence of the Justice Department. And you
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: can see he would not even allow someone on his
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: staff to dig into that sort of decision. I mean,
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: here's the guy who's fucking firing line prosecutors in the
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: Eastern District of Virginia so they can prosecute specific people.
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: And he's like, well, this is a decision.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: I'm just an observer here. I don't want to ask.
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: It's not really my job to ask. It's nuts. She
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: is either lying or is being willfully ignorant on this
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: question because she doesn't want to know the answer.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: Why do you think they're making such a point of
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: rallying around her?
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: Like I said, because I think they want the chief
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: of staff that lets them do whatever they want.
• 27:59
  Speaker 6: I don't know what I mean.
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: Like, Trump defended her, but in that original, that first, like,
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: it was a New York Post interview, I believe, he
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: said he hadn't read the story yet, which, so, I mean,
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: they all look ridiculous defending it. They all sat down
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: for the photo shoot. They all did the interview. She
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: said the thing she said. They can't even, they don't
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: even have a complaint. But, like, the complaint really comes
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: down to, the picture, the photos were too, were too,
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: were too close because they're not, she's not saying she
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: didn't say those things. She tried it first and then
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: he produced the tapes. She's not saying he violated off
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: the record or anything like that. Yeah. She's just saying
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: context was left out, which is, you know, it's absurd.
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: I guess they're defending her because they did.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I, it just, I think if you,
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: if you really look at each revelation, each newsy part
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: of it, none of them really make Donald Trump a,
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: look too bad in donald trump's mind yeah you know
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: what i'm saying like there's not she she's pretty loyal
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: to him in the interviews and to the parts where
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: she says you know like i didn't always agree with
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: them on the january 6 people like he doesn't care
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: about that yeah that she didn't agree with him and
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: he doesn't really care that she called jd vance a
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: conspiracy theorist or um or that she's you know like
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: i just don't know if any of the revelations are
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: hurt Donald Trump's image of Donald Trump to himself.
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's right. And he, a lot was
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: made right away about her saying that he has an
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: alcoholic's personality.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: That's nothing.
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: And like, it did seem quite damaging. And then when you,
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: this is the one place where you actually hear him
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: say that he said that before. And it kind of,
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: it's honestly one of the more self-aware things Donald Trump
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: has ever said about himself. Like that one person. doesn't
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: bother him. And so, yeah, I guess from his perspective.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: We should say for people who haven't read it, she
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: meant alcoholic's personality in the context of, because her father
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: was an alcoholic. And she said, alcoholic sometimes, you know,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: alcoholism sort of magnifies the personality that exists. And also
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: they think that there's nothing they can't do.
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: And Donald Trump is someone who thinks there's nothing he
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: can't do. And of course, it's public. And she knows
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: and everyone knows that he doesn't drink. And so it's not,
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: I didn't find that as bad.
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: It probably doesn't bother him.
• 30:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: You just never know where things are going to see.
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: If they continue on the political trajectory they're on, this
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: could be the putative reason why they make a change.
• 30:19
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: But in the moment, just they'd much rather. And they're all,
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: the other thing is all the president's top aides are
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: all guilty here. They're all in on it. This isn't
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: like she was just having these conversations with Chris Wilbel privately.
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: They all stood in a room, apparently for one entire day,
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: with foundation and mascara on to get their pictures taken together.
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: So it's kind of hard to throw under the bus
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: when you have all the deputy chiefs of staff, the
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: senior advisor, the secretary of state, and the vice president
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: all holding the same embarrassing bloody knife.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: It was news, I believe, that Trump flew on Epstein's
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: plane Yeah. And I feel like he has been saying
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: that Bill Clinton was on the plane a bunch of times,
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: and he's never said he was on the plane. I
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: wonder if he knows that revelation was in the piece.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: That's one that I could see him being a little
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: annoyed by.
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: And saying that they were young, single playboys in Palm
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: Beach together.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, in his 50s.
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he was 50.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: Young playboy. Slow down there, buddy. One of the most.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't call us playboys, that's for sure. One of
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: the most damning comments from Wiles in the story was
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: an admission that Trump, quote, wants to keep on blowing
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: boats up until Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, quote, cries uncle.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: So we are murdering people with cocaine in their boats
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: as a way to overthrow a regime that Trump doesn't like.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: Pretty stunning, because I guess it's not about the drugs.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: I thought it was about the fentanyl. It's not fentanyl
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: because it's cocaine that was coming to America, to our shores,
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: that were killing 25,000 people with every boat. But apparently not.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: Apparently we're murdering people in boats so that I guess
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: Nicolas Maduro is like, no, I can't traffic drugs anymore,
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: so now I will leave Venezuela. That doesn't seem like
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: a plan to me. Well, if you were looking for
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: another insane rationale for war, Trump posted on Tuesday that
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: Venezuela is, quote, completely surrounded by the largest armada ever
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: assembled in the history of South America, which will, quote,
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: only get bigger until such time as they return to
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: the United States of America, all of the oil, land
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: and other assets that they previously stole from us. The
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: post said Trump was ordering a, quote, all caps, of course,
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers. Going
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: into and out of Venezuela, he then repeated the threat
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday. Let's listen.
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: Remember, they took all of our energy rights.
• 32:57
  Speaker 4: They took all of our oil from not that long ago.
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: As you know, they threw our companies out and we
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: want it back.
• 33:06
  Speaker 4: Getting land, oil rights, whatever we had.
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: Stephen Miller, who is reportedly the brains behind this entire
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: operation yet again, delivered the uh fascist gpt version of
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: the rationale for war on twitter uh his tweet said
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: quote american sweat ingenuity and toil created the oil industry
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: in venezuela its tyrannical expropriation was the largest recorded theft
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: of american wealth and property what the fuck is he
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: talking about what are what are any of them talking.
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: About okay so i looked into this because why not
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: And it's just, here's the context, which is Venezuela has
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: some of the largest oil reserves in the world.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: U.S.
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: Companies have been developing oil in Venezuela since 1900 and
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: did for a very long time.
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: And other foreign companies, by the way.
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, lots of other people. But yes, all over the world, people,
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: all kinds of foreign countries were pumping oil and exporting it,
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: oftentimes to the United States, but also elsewhere. And then
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: in 1976, Venezuela nationalized their oil industry and took the
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: entire oil industry and put it under one state-owned oil company,
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: kicking out all the US companies. Over the course of time,
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: there was some backsliding there, back and then 15, 20
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: years ago, further US companies were kicked out, including ExxonMobil.
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: And so now there is this one– all of Venezuela's
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: oil is pumped out by one by this one state-owned company.
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: And although they do have some deals with the US
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: company Chevron, who does some work for them, but it
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: is a nationalizing. Now, the most important thing here is
• 34:51
  Speaker 3: in international law, the oil is, was, and always will
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: be Venezuela's. The national resources belong to the country itself.
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: This is a principle in international law that goes back
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: to after the world wars, when we were dealing with
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: the end of colonialism around the world. And when countries
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: kicked out the colonizers, they got to keep the stuff.
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: It didn't matter which country dug the mine or put
• 35:20
  Speaker 3: the oil rig in the ground. The people in charge
• 35:22
  Speaker 3: of that country, the citizens of that country, the government
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: of that country, they owned the natural resources. And so
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: it is not a legal basis for us to invade Venezuela,
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: to take back oil. That is Venezuelan.
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: I'm almost laughing because I'm just imagining telling the American
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: people that we're going to war in Venezuela to defend
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: the honor of Exxon Mobil and Chevron.
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: From 50 years ago.
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: And all of our brave oil companies. Because it's not
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: really going in there to take the... Even if American companies...
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: First of all, it's so fucking stupid that we have
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: to go down this path and explain this, but... Even
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: if American companies are allowed back in Venezuela to pump oil,
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: that oil is not necessarily just going to America. They're
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: American oil companies that sell oil all over the fucking
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: world on the world oil market.
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: Yes, it's not coming to us. It's most likely not
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: coming to us. It's going elsewhere.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: It is literally invading a country so that ExxonMobil can
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: start pumping again.
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's so.
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: So fucking stupid.
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: Amazing.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: And then and then like broadening it to be like
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: in the land. What land? There was no land. Like
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: you're talking about assets. Yeah. Maybe someone leaves like a
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: fucking an oil derrick there. And it was like, oh,
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: that's that's Exxon's oil derrick from the early 1900s. We're
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: taking that back. But like what land are you talking about?
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: You fucking idiot.
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: There is just like such a mask off moment here,
• 36:55
  Speaker 3: which is all throughout the early two thousands. The argument
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: of a lot of liberals was we went to war
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: in Iraq for oil.
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: And even the Bush administration was the protest sign.
• 37:04
  Speaker 6: Yeah. Right.
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: And, and even the Bush administration was so scared of,
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: of even anything that would suggest that they wouldn't even
• 37:11
  Speaker 3: use the oil revenues from Iraq to pay for stuff.
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: Cause they thought that would be, that would validate the
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: critique that we were going there for war for oil
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: instead of war for a non-existent WMDs and democracy. Um,
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: that Trump's just like, we're invading Venezuela, a country that
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: I would bet that large majority of Americans have no
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: idea has oil. So just imagine if like Trump had
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: given the speech on, the speech that Tucker Carlson, the
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: other side he was going to give on Tuesday night,
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: Tuesday night, Tuesday night, and had said, we're going to
• 37:39
  Speaker 3: war in Venezuela for oil.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: Like what, like Wednesday night, Wednesday night. Today's Thursday.
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: Today's Thursday.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: Thursday.
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: Was that speech last night?
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: You're listening to this on Friday.
• 37:48
  Speaker 3: And that speech was last night.
• 37:49
  Speaker 6: Yes.
• 37:49
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: Last night.
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: Fuck, nothing matters anymore. Time, like, I've had a sick
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: kid at home. I truly have no idea like what,
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: what day it is. Like we can be doing the
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: Tuesday pod now for all it did Christmas happen. I
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: don't know. Um, but just, it's just, it's so, it's
• 38:03
  Speaker 3: like an unbelievable silly, stupid thing, substantively. And it's insane politically.
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: And it would, it's just so confusing for the American
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: people to even imagine that this could be happening.
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: What, uh, you think this is going to be popular
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: with folks? Because, uh, I saw the, the YouGov has
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: a pullout today. Just the most recent. Ask people what
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: they think about using military force to invade Venezuela. 18%
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: support doing so. 18. 66% oppose. Now, in fairness to
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump and the administration, they did not ask, do
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: you support the U.S. using military force to invade Venezuela
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: so that ExxonMobil can make more money next year?
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's true. That's true.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: You know? So if you throw that in, it might
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: change the messaging a little bit. It might change the
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: support levels.
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: It's also funny that Trump's out lying about how low
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: gas prices are at the same time he wants to
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: invade a country for oil. It's like just very.
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: Did you see the Post story about how Stephen Miller
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: originally wanted to do these boat strikes? Also known as
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: just extrajudicial killings, war crimes, murders on the high sea.
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: He wanted to do it against Mexican cartels. And then
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: when Mexico started taking care of things on their own,
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: he needed a new target. So they just shifted. They
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: just picked Venezuela.
• 39:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the story is truly unbelievable because there's– originally what
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: they– like the theory that Stephen Miller has is that
• 39:34
  Speaker 3: if you could break the cartels, then that would lessen
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: the number of migrants coming to the U.S. because one
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: of the things the cartels do is they traffic migrants
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: to the U.S.
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: Border.
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: Mexico starts doing the things that we wanted them to do.
• 39:49
  Speaker 3: He did want to use special forces and the CIA
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: to do covert attacks. The Congress and the administration and
• 39:58
  Speaker 3: some people in the administration opposed that, so he couldn't
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: do that. Then Mexico kind of solved the problem to
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: the extent that the problem could be solved. So then
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: he goes looking for somewhere else to attack. Picks Venezuela,
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: which is– and the theory then is if you could–
• 40:12
  Speaker 3: I mean, this is so crazy. He picks Venezuela just
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: because he wants a place to attack. Then– and we
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: do have migrants that come from Venezuela. I don't know
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: why launching war there would help stem the flow of migration.
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: History would suggest no. But it's this comedy of errors
• 40:26
  Speaker 3: where he then picks Venezuela, but it's about drugs. But
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: then he hangs out maybe at the photo shoot, I
• 40:34
  Speaker 3: don't know, with Marco Rubio, who has long wanted to
• 40:37
  Speaker 3: overthrow Maduro because he thinks that would help overthrow Castro
• 40:41
  Speaker 3: in Cuba.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: And so now we've transitioned from drugs overthrowing Maduro. Pete
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: Hegseth is like, I need a win. So maybe, yeah.
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: Former official familiar with Miller's thinking said, Pete very much
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: wanted to keep Stephen in his good graces and also
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: the president, which just tells you everything you need to know.
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: And so because this was post-Signalgate fallout and Hegseth's like, fuck,
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: I need to, Stephen Miller's the guy really running the government.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: And so if he wants to kill some people in
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: boats- and my buddy Marco wants to overthrow this dictator,
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: I'm in.
• 41:15
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 41:16
  Speaker 3: And now we're on the cusp of war with Venezuela
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: because three fucking morons got together looking for something to do.
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: It's un-fucking-believable. The execute order, the legal rationale to kill
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: these people on these boats, contains targeting instructions that do
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: not require positive identification of any individual, but rather reasonable
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: certainty that adult males are members of or affiliated with
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: a designated terrorist organization.
• 41:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: You don't want to be too precise when you are
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: murdering people on boats.
• 41:50
  Speaker 6: No.
• 41:50
  Speaker 3: And also there's no legal authority to name these organizations,
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: terror organizations.
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: I just, uh, Wiles admitted to Vanity Fair that, that
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: Trump would need congressional approval for any land strikes. Uh,
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: though Trump forcefully denied that in the Oval on Thursday.
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: Does Congress try to get involved here? Like I, It
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: seems like Trump is thinking to himself, well, I'm not
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: going to send troops in. I'm going to like lob
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: some missiles. Maduro hopefully leaves. Maybe we can get him
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: out without the missiles. Maybe he's just going to be
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: scared by the armada because we use the word armada
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: now because it's like the 1700s, I guess.
• 42:30
  Speaker 6: And so.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: He's hoping Maduro leaves. At worst, you know, he does,
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: you know, he bombed Iran and we're, you know, everyone
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: just sort of moved on. Maybe we can bomb Venezuela
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: and that's that. Like, I don't, I think he believes
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: this is very low risk.
• 42:46
  Speaker 5: Oh yeah.
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: I think, I think he is, and he's, he's pretty
• 42:49
  Speaker 3: right that the, that anything absent ground troops, the US
• 42:55
  Speaker 3: population has a pretty high tolerance for, right? If we're
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: just locked drones, missiles, we are, that is, I mean,
• 43:01
  Speaker 3: it's terrible. This is the case, but it's been true
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: for a very long time. It's when people start getting
• 43:07
  Speaker 3: killed or wounded from your community is when everyone turns,
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: as what happened in Iraq when we sent National Guard
• 43:12
  Speaker 3: troops all over Iraq. Absent that, Congress is not going
• 43:16
  Speaker 3: to want to get involved here. I mean, there will
• 43:17
  Speaker 3: be a coalition of Democrats and a small handful of
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: Republicans who do not like this, which is probably like
• 43:22
  Speaker 3: Rand Paul, Tom Massey, and maybe like one other one.
• 43:25
  Speaker 3: But Congress has no interest in getting involved in something
• 43:29
  Speaker 3: like this. They're not going to try to stop them.
• 43:31
  Speaker 3: They'll file war power reports and feel like he is
• 43:35
  Speaker 3: adhering to the War Powers Act, and that'll be that.
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: Well, at least there's no history of American wars of
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: choice and regime change coming back to bite us in
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: the ass years later.
• 43:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, what could possibly go wrong from starting a... Look,
• 43:50
  Speaker 3: if you want to keep the border secure and stop
• 43:52
  Speaker 3: the flow of migrants, I can't think of anything better
• 43:54
  Speaker 3: than turning Venezuela into a failed state.
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: Do you think There's no way Trump could pick out
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: Venezuela on a map, right?
• 44:03
  Speaker 3: Not a chance.
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: Doesn't know the capital.
• 44:05
  Speaker 3: I don't think he would be able to answer the
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: question what continent.
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: It's in. That's the next cognitive test. Map of South America,
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: and he has to point to Venezuela. Then he has
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: to point, we just make him point to some country
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: since the new Pax Americana here is we're going to
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: create an American empire in the Western Hemisphere. It stretches
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: from Greenland to Venezuela. I mean, it's not really a joke.
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: It's kind of their theory. And I guess he thinks
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: that's what's going to get the Nobel Committee to call.
• 44:38
  Speaker 3: Nothing will lock up the Nobel Peace Prize like bombing Venezuela.
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: Pod Save America is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. Talk
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: about your favorite classic holiday movie plots.
• 44:58
  Speaker 3: Die Hard. He's got to rescue everybody. He's only got shoes.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: To make these holiday favorites, it takes a team of
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: talented people.
• 45:06
  Speaker 3: No shoes.
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: From actors to editors to props people, the sound crew.
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: And when it comes to building such a team, whether
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: it's for the entertainment industry or a wide range of
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: other industries, you need to hire the right people. The
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: best way to do that is with ZipRecruiter. Right now,
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: you can try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash Cricket.
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: How does ZipRecruiter help you round up the brightest team? Well,
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: ZipRecruiter's matching technology works fast to find top talent so
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: you don't waste time or money. You can find out
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: right away how many job seekers in your area are
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: qualified for your role. With ZipRecruiter's advanced resume database, you
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: can instantly unlock top candidates' contact info and then stalk them.
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: No wonder ZipRecruiter is the number one rated hiring site
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: based on G2. Make your hiring a little merrier with ZipRecruiter.
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: a quality candidate within the first day. Just go to
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: this exclusive web address right now to try ZipRecruiter for free. ZipRecruiter.com
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: slash crooked. Again, that's ZipRecruiter.com slash crooked. ZipRecruiter is the
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: smartest way to hire. So Trump made those most recent
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: comments about strikes on Venezuela at an Oval Office event
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: where he signed an executive order accelerating the reclassification of
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: marijuana from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3, which would allow
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: it to be studied for medical uses. But before you
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: get too excited, Trump made it clear that he has
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: zero plans to legalize marijuana recreationally under federal law anytime soon. Unsurprisingly,
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: this decision came about not because of any change of heart,
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: but because of heavy lobbying from the weed industry, which
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: has poured millions into Trump-aligned political groups. In fact, aside
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: from the research, one of the other benefits of this is,
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: I believe, a lot of tax breaks for businesses that
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: sell marijuana. So good for them. Thursday's other executive order
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: came from RFK Jr., this one was much worse, who
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: announced a new set of rules that would cut off
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: Medicaid and Medicare funding to any hospital that provides gender-affirming
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: care to children under 18, which would essentially, if it
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: holds up to legal scrutiny, shut down hospitals that refuse
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: to follow the order since Medicare and Medicaid account for
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: nearly half the money spent on hospitals. And I guess
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: the big question is, how likely is it that since
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: he signs a million executive orders a day and many
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: of them are just blatantly not legal, how likely is
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: it that this, uh, takes effect and how long until
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: it takes effect?
• 47:34
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 47:34
  Speaker 3: I mean, that is, there is a, there's like a, uh,
• 47:37
  Speaker 3: I think it's a 60 day review period comment period.
• 47:39
  Speaker 3: So there, there are, there are many months that go
• 47:41
  Speaker 3: through the process of signing the order to actual implement
• 47:43
  Speaker 3: to the actual like proffering of the regulation in place. Um,
• 47:48
  Speaker 3: And as you point out, there are a lot of
• 47:49
  Speaker 3: legal questions about whether he has the authority to do this.
• 47:52
  Speaker 3: There are courts seem to believe that questions around gender
• 47:56
  Speaker 3: affirming here for minors are to be decided by the
• 47:58
  Speaker 3: state because they've allowed states to ban them, which conversely
• 48:01
  Speaker 3: would suggest that they would allow states to allow it
• 48:04
  Speaker 3: as well if it's a state decision.
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: And it was a very recent decision. It was a
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: 6-3 decision because Tennessee has a state ban and they
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: upheld Tennessee's state ban and Roberts wrote in the majority
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: in part because- He's like, we're not taking a position
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: on the policy itself. We're saying that these are decisions
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: much like they did in Dobbs. These are decisions that
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: should be decided by the people and their elected representatives
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: through the legislative process. So very difficult to square that
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: with now allowing an executive order that's not even a
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: piece of legislation. to supersede blue states that allow gender-affirming
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: care for minors in their hospitals.
• 48:41
  Speaker 3: I think there would be a question of whether a
• 48:42
  Speaker 3: federal legislation, which the House actually did just pass something similar,
• 48:46
  Speaker 3: but that has no chance in the Senate, could do it.
• 48:49
  Speaker 3: But you're relying on basically one line in the Social
• 48:53
  Speaker 3: Security Act that gives you to do this and some
• 48:55
  Speaker 3: real questions about what is in the Medicare and Medicaid
• 48:58
  Speaker 3: legislation that would prohibit the federal government getting this involved
• 49:02
  Speaker 3: in healthcare decisions and using Medicare and Medicaid funding as leverage.
• 49:06
  Speaker 3: The example people are using is the Hyde Amendment, which
• 49:08
  Speaker 3: prevents the spending of federal funds for abortion services, but
• 49:12
  Speaker 3: that is an actual law. That's not a regulation.
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: And this, by the way, goes, this would go further
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: than Hyde.
• 49:18
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: Because that's like money that's specifically appropriated for Medicaid and
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: Medicare to then go towards abortion care. This is basically
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: saying- If you do this- We're not saying that you
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: can't spend Medicaid and Medicare money on gender-affirming care. We've
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: already said you can't do that. And some hospitals all
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: over the country have already stopped gender-affirming care for children
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: because they rely so much on– because they do a
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: lot of Medicaid and Medicare funding. This is just like
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: if you're a hospital that gets Medicare and Medicaid funding
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: for any reason, which is all hospitals pretty much, you
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: can't do it, which.
• 49:52
  Speaker 3: And so this is the– it would probably take a
• 49:55
  Speaker 3: long time for the court to act. The question is
• 49:57
  Speaker 3: what do hospitals do? And we've already seen a bunch
• 49:59
  Speaker 3: of hospitals and academic centers shut down their– their clinics,
• 50:05
  Speaker 3: their practices here. And this is all part of the
• 50:09
  Speaker 3: larger horrifying Trump project of basically defining trans people out
• 50:14
  Speaker 3: of existence. Whether it's what's on the passport, it's every
• 50:18
  Speaker 3: policy that you have no legal status, no cultural status,
• 50:21
  Speaker 3: we will not recognize you. And it's horrifying. This is
• 50:26
  Speaker 3: a cruel and capricious federal government turning its sight on
• 50:29
  Speaker 3: the most vulnerable population possible and bullying them essentially.
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And especially, I mean, one of the pieces about this,
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: like we're talking about kids who are already either transitioned
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: or already using gender affirming care and are now having
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: to like ration the care that they have worried that
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: it's going to like run out or be blocked or
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: be eliminated. And so it is just, it's pretty horrifying.
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: It's so horrifying. On the weed one. What do you
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: make of this? He doesn't seem like he's going to
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: it doesn't seem like as big of a deal as
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: I thought it was when I first heard it. It
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: seems like it's mostly for research. And so it's kind
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: of a it's I think it's a it's good. I mean,
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: it's it started Biden first did this and then it
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: like got basically the process was held up. And so
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: it just kind of got held up in the bureaucracy
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: and then. Trump finally finished it, but it doesn't seem
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: like a big, big deal, but it's a good step
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: in the right direction.
• 51:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah. It's one of the few things he has done
• 51:27
  Speaker 3: that's not horrifying, so we'll take it. As you point out,
• 51:31
  Speaker 3: this is a minor step. This is not full legalization.
• 51:34
  Speaker 3: He cannot do that. It would require Congress to do that.
• 51:37
  Speaker 3: But the reason, I think, is you've nailed it, which
• 51:39
  Speaker 3: is not some epiphany about libertarianism or the potential benefits
• 51:44
  Speaker 3: of cannabis use. It is corruption, right? It's just the
• 51:48
  Speaker 3: right people got money in the right people's pockets and
• 51:50
  Speaker 3: therefore Trump did it.
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Trump got a bunch of questions at the signing
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: event for the marijuana EO, including whether he wants Congress
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: to do something to extend the expiring ACA subsidies. Here's
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: his non-answer.
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: But do you want Congress to extend these ACA subsidies?
• 52:05
  Speaker 4: Well, I'd like not to be able to do it.
• 52:06
  Speaker 4: I'd like to get right into this and not ask
• 52:09
  Speaker 4: Oz this question in particular, but I'd like to see
• 52:12
  Speaker 4: us get right into this. I don't know why we
• 52:14
  Speaker 4: have to extend This could be done rapidly if the
• 52:16
  Speaker 4: Democrats would come along. We have a problem. The insurance
• 52:20
  Speaker 4: companies own the Democrat Party.
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: They own it.
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: I love Dr. Oz walking close to the president like
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: he was about to say something and then realizing he
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: should run back away. Also, I don't. What was that answer?
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: I don't think he. Maybe you think he knows much
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: about this policy?
• 52:40
  Speaker 3: No, it doesn't seem like it, no.
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: You think this is another one where he's not really
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: in the details? The reason that Trump was asked about
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: this is that, lo and behold, four House Republicans have
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: signed onto a Democratic discharge petition to force a vote
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: on a clean three-year extension of the subsidies, which means
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: the vote will happen, but not until Congress returns in
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: January after the subsidies expire. And it's still unclear what
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: can pass the Senate. John Thune said, no, on the
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: clean three-year extension, but that maybe the Collins proposal for
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: a two-year extension with some new income eligibility limits is possible.
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: Who knows? And as we just heard, even if that
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: works out, it's still unclear if Donald Trump signs it
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: or not. Nevertheless, it was a tough week for Mike Johnson,
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: who has now lost so many Republicans to discharge petitions
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: that he got this question from a reporter on Wednesday.
• 53:34
  Speaker 3: I have not lost control of the house.
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: That's a sign that you have lost control.
• 53:37
  Speaker 6: If you have to answer that question, you've lost control
• 53:40
  Speaker 6: of the house.
• 53:41
  Speaker 2: So funny.
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: So funny.
• 53:42
  Speaker 3: What do you think's going on here? First of all,
• 53:45
  Speaker 3: let's start with Mike Johnson losing control of the house,
• 53:48
  Speaker 3: which he has.
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: This is now, I've lost count of how many discharge petitions.
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: Discharge petitions used to be a thing where you had
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: to be like a real fucking congressional nerd to know
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: what they are, and they rarely, if ever, did anything.
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: But now, if you have a majority of people in
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: the House sign this discharge petition, then it forces a vote.
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: We recently learned this for the first time with the
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: Epstein files in this season of Trump. And now, suddenly
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: Republicans are feeling their oats and there's discharge petitions all
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: over the place that Republicans are signing left and right.
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: And Mike Johnson can't do anything about it because he
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: is trying to keep all of these votes from coming
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: to the floor, but he's failing.
• 54:44
  Speaker 3: The narrowest majority thing, excuse, does not help at all
• 54:47
  Speaker 3: with the discharge petition.
• 54:49
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 54:49
  Speaker 3: You're still losing people. That's the point. And so I
• 54:53
  Speaker 3: think there are a couple of things going on here. One,
• 54:55
  Speaker 3: before I say it again, Mike Johnson is kind of
• 54:56
  Speaker 3: a doofus. Like he's just, he's not up for this
• 54:59
  Speaker 3: task is one. Two, He owes his entire job to
• 55:03
  Speaker 3: Donald Trump. And so he is always protecting Trump's flank
• 55:07
  Speaker 3: as opposed to his members. His members know that, so
• 55:10
  Speaker 3: they're starting to break from him in various things. And
• 55:13
  Speaker 3: this part is, I guess, where the narrow majority defense
• 55:16
  Speaker 3: works is he's always in danger of losing his job
• 55:20
  Speaker 3: because some conservative Republicans leave him. And so he is
• 55:23
  Speaker 3: optimizing the House's strategy for unity among all of the
• 55:28
  Speaker 3: caucuses as he has it today. And not trying to
• 55:31
  Speaker 3: protect the vulnerable members so he has a majority tomorrow.
• 55:34
  Speaker 3: Because if you were doing this for what was best
• 55:37
  Speaker 3: for the 28 House Republicans who are in seats that
• 55:42
  Speaker 3: Trump won by less than 10 points, you would have
• 55:45
  Speaker 3: passed this thing. Or you would have given them a
• 55:48
  Speaker 3: real thing to vote. Not this absurd health savings account.
• 55:51
  Speaker 3: We're going to give you money so you can just
• 55:52
  Speaker 3: buy your own insurance thing. They voted on a health
• 55:55
  Speaker 3: plan that the CBO looked at and said would.
• 55:58
  Speaker 3: Mean less people will be insured and healthcare would be
• 56:00
  Speaker 3: more expensive. Like a truly insane thing. You would have
• 56:03
  Speaker 3: just voted on a two-year extension, a one-year extension with,
• 56:07
  Speaker 3: you know, costs. You know, he would have done some
• 56:09
  Speaker 3: things that made it unpalatable. You give them a vote,
• 56:10
  Speaker 3: but he can't do that. And so his members like
• 56:14
  Speaker 3: Mike Lawler look at the polls, they see where they are,
• 56:16
  Speaker 3: they see what their district is, and they are bolting
• 56:18
  Speaker 3: for safer waters.
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: Now, for the first time, especially when I heard that
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: Trump sort of non-answer, I started thinking like, I could
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: see a scenario where the subsidies get passed. The extension
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: gets passed when they come back.
• 56:34
  Speaker 3: Trump would have to care. Yeah.
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: Or he, I mean like the way to, cause the
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: thing he's not going to want to do is say
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: that he like, you know, the Democrats won this one, right?
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: Like if it goes to the Senate, passes the house,
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: goes to the Senate and you know, they change it.
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: So it's only two years and it's got some limits
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: on it. He can say like, I, you know, I
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: didn't really want to do this, but whatever. It's like, I'm,
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: you know, I think we should replace healthcare. I'm going
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: to have a great plan, but we'll do the extension
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: for now. And the Republicans did some good things in
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: the Senate. I don't know. That would be the smart
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: thing to do.
• 57:05
  Speaker 3: I think it only happens if Trump tells the Senate
• 57:06
  Speaker 3: to do it because you're not, like the Senate majority
• 57:09
  Speaker 3: is such, and they really only have one vulnerable incumbent.
• 57:13
  Speaker 3: And so they can have these votes every day until
• 57:17
  Speaker 3: the election and Susan Collins can keep voting for the
• 57:20
  Speaker 3: extension and they're fine. From that perspective, there aren't eight
• 57:23
  Speaker 3: Republicans who need to come over to the Democrats to
• 57:27
  Speaker 3: get– whatever. There aren't enough Republicans to do it. So
• 57:29
  Speaker 3: unless Trump were to get in a room and say,
• 57:31
  Speaker 3: if we don't do this, we're going to lose the
• 57:32
  Speaker 3: House majority. Figure it out. I know you guys can't
• 57:34
  Speaker 3: do three years. I'm going to bring everyone to the
• 57:36
  Speaker 3: White House. We're going to do two– we'll do two
• 57:38
  Speaker 3: years and something. But absent that, it's not going to
• 57:41
  Speaker 3: happen on its own because the House will not pass anything.
• 57:44
  Speaker 3: Or they'll pass it and it will go to the
• 57:45
  Speaker 3: Senate and it will die unless Trump gets involved. And
• 57:47
  Speaker 3: he doesn't seem to even know what it is or
• 57:49
  Speaker 3: to care about. You know, he's too busy, like, building
• 57:52
  Speaker 3: ballrooms and doing other dumb shit. So, like, there's no
• 57:56
  Speaker 3: momentum within Congress absent Trump saying, I need this for
• 57:58
  Speaker 3: the majority.
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true. That's true. I have to say, though,
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: nice job, Hakeem Jeffries, for shepherding this strategy through the House,
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: because basically some Democrats, one of the problem solvers, were
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: floating around some bipartisan proposals, like a one-year extension, a
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: two-year extension, that then got some Republicans on board. And
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: Hakeem was basically like, no, no, no, no, no. I'm
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: not backing that. I'm not having Democrats sign on to
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: those discharge petitions. It's three-year or nothing. And the Republicans
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: that had signed on to the one-year and two-year finally
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: were like, well, I don't like the three-year clean extension,
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: but if it's the only game in town, I'm going
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: to do it.
• 58:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he played his cards very well. And frankly, when
• 58:40
  Speaker 3: you look back at this discharge petition, the fact that
• 58:42
  Speaker 3: everyone on the Republican side is scrambling to come up
• 58:44
  Speaker 3: with a health care affordability plan The shutdown worked from
• 58:47
  Speaker 3: a political perspective.
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: It worked.
• 58:49
  Speaker 3: Healthcare affordability is on the agenda. It was not even
• 58:53
  Speaker 3: being talked about before. The Republicans are twisted in knots
• 58:56
  Speaker 3: about their inability to do anything. They are floating Obamacare
• 59:01
  Speaker 3: repeal plans. Trump's saying insane things. This is a moment
• 59:05
  Speaker 3: we talk all the time about how hard it is
• 59:07
  Speaker 3: for Democrats to set the issue agenda in America. politics.
• 59:11
  Speaker 3: And they did it with a shutdown. They changed the
• 59:14
  Speaker 3: contours of the race and they made an issue that
• 59:16
  Speaker 3: is better for us near the top of the agenda.
• 59:18
  Speaker 3: And kudos to them. And Jeffrey's, so kudos to all
• 59:22
  Speaker 3: the Democrats, Schumer's included, on how the shutdown was played out.
• 59:25
  Speaker 3: But then On the discharge petition, Jeffries has played his
• 59:28
  Speaker 3: cards very, very well and put the Democrats in a
• 59:31
  Speaker 3: position of maximum leverage here.
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: I will also say, I think someone asked Schumer today
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: about whether when government funding expires at the end of January,
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: would they shut the government down again if they don't
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: extend the subsidies? And I think he said, like, no.
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: And I will just say, I get it. Like, I don't... Because...
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: if they shut the government down again over this, then
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: the debate becomes about Democrats shutting the government down and
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: the government being shut down and not about the fact
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: that Republicans will not extend the subsidies. And I think
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: that will actually give the Republicans an excuse to not
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: do anything about the subsidies because then they'd be forced
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: into it by the mean old Democrats who we don't
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: want to give a win to. And the only chance
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: that you might get some kind of extension passed is
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: now the Republicans feeling pressure themselves in their own districts,
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: which clearly some of the house members did that signed
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: onto the petition and some of the people in the Senate, uh,
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: who proposed, you know, other types of extensions and still
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: doesn't mean it's going to happen. And probably, like you said,
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: the chances are, you know, it may be low on this,
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: but I think it's a better chance of happening than
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: if Democrats shut the government down.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 3: I think shutting it down, the government would ensure that
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 3: there could be no, nothing would pass because it would
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 3: negative negatively polarize everyone against it. And now it becomes,
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 3: you can't give in in the midst of the shutdown.
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 3: And just from a purely practical point of view, those
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 3: members who threw in the towel when they did, they're
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 3: not signing back up for this again.
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 6: No. No.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: No, they're not. Okay, lots more when we come back
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: from break, but first, a quick reminder, we got the
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: perfect last-minute gift for you, a Friend of the Pod subscription.
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: They'll get access to all the good stuff. You get
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: ad-free episodes, ad-free of all your favorite Crooked shows, exclusive
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: content like Polar Coaster with Dan Pfeiffer, We've got some
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: other great shows coming that are going to be just
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: behind the paywall. Awesome shows. Hilarious. Entertaining. Informative. You're not
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: going to want to miss it. So you're going to
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: want to subscribe. And also, you're helping to support independent media,
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: which we love. Give it to your friends, your family.
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: If you're not a subscriber yet, grab one for yourself.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: And we'll have a lot more subscription offerings coming in
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: the new year. Head to crooked.com slash friends now. This
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Rewriting traditions. Therapy. You know,
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: therapy can give you the space to create new meaningful
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: traditions around this holiday season.
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 3: Maybe a tradition of telling somebody how you feel instead
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 3: of just sitting there in a kind of Broken silence.
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 3: Kind of a silence that's loud, you know?
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: Wouldn't that be a wild addition to family traditions?
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 3: Institute that one. Hey, we're going to try this. And also,
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 3: I don't know, cookies.
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: The holidays are a time of traditions. Some people have
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: many in their family and some have none or are
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: just beginning their own. Now's the time to reflect on
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: what they mean to you or to rewrite those traditions
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: and make your own. Incorporating therapy into your new or
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: existing traditions can help ensure you take time for yourself
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: during what can be a very joyful but sometimes hectic
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: and lonely time of the year. BetterHelp has quality therapists
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: who work according to a strict code of conduct and
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: are fully licensed in the U.S. BetterHelp does the initial
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: matching work for you so you can focus on your
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: therapy goals. A short questionnaire helps identify your needs and preferences,
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: and their 12-plus years of experience in industry-leading match fulfillment
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: rate means they typically get it right the first time.
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: If you aren't happy with your match, switch to a
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: different therapist at any time from their tailored recs. With
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is one of the world's largest
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: online therapy platforms, having served over 5 million people globally,
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: and it works effectively. with an average rating of 4.9
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: out of 5 for a live session based on over 1.7
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: million client reviews. This December started a new tradition by
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: taking care of you. Our listeners get 10% off at BetterHelp.com
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: slash PSA. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash PSA. Well, unfortunately,
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: not all Democrats deserve praise this week, Dan. We've talked
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: before about the DNC's much-anticipated 2024 postmortem, also known as
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: an autopsy, unless you're talking to DNC Chair Ken Martin.
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: who calls it a, quote, after action report. According to
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: NBC News, Martin told reporters after he won the DNC
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: election back in February that he would make the final
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: report public. And he even criticized the party then for
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: not releasing the 2016 postmortem as an example of why
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: he was going to release the 2024 postmortem if he
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: won the election, which he did. And here he is
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: talking to me about the importance of the report back
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: in August.
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 6: We're finishing our after-action review to really dig into this,
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 6: to give people a sense who invested so much time, energy,
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 6: and money, what happened and why we lost. $ 10 billion
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 6: spent in the ecosystem last year. What we're looking at
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 6: is the campaign, the party, of course. We're looking at
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 6: the tactics, the spending, the messaging, the timing, you know,
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 6: all of it. There are no sacred cows. What we're
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 6: looking at right now is everything.
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: No sacred cows, Dan. Well, on Thursday... The DNC announced that,
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: just kidding, they won't be releasing the report after all.
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: Martin said, quote, here's our North Star. Does this help
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: us win? If the answer is no, it's a distraction
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: from the core mission. You want to just, you want to,
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: you want to take it? Well, I just sit here
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: and seethe and then I'll go. If you miss anything.
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 3: This is such an infuriating decision. On so many levels. One,
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 3: we should know what happened. Especially if you did all
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 3: the work. There have been some really good reports that
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 3: have come out. There was Deciding to Win. We talked
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 3: about a bunch. Way to Win has a report that
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 3: came out last week or the week before. Very useful
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 3: to read. The DNC report wasn't going to settle all
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 3: the debates in the party, but it would. They have
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 3: the most access to the funders, the operatives, the donors.
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 3: This would have been a very, very valuable thing.
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: Tons of people, hundreds of people.
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 3: I think there were 300 interviews.
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, on the Biden campaign, Harris campaign, states, the super
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: PAC people, where the money was spent, the polling, all
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: of it they had.
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 3: And so like very valuable, both for like the direction
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 3: of the party to like tactical things about door knocking
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 3: and peer-to-peer texting that'd be valuable for people running for
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 3: a state legislator or city council. The fact that the
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 3: two reasons that the DNC is not releasing this report
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 3: one said, one unsaid, just are so emblematic of everything
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 3: that is wrong with the Democratic establishment. The first is
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 3: we don't want to mess with their momentum. This has
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 3: been a good year for Democrats. We won in blue states.
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 3: We've lost by less in red states. Trump's not doing great.
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 3: But the idea that these victories in an off year,
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 3: when we're supposed to do well, suggest that we've solved
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 3: our problems is just a repeat of the fatal error
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 3: the when we took the results of a midterm that
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 3: just happened to happen three months after the Supreme Court
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 3: overturned Roe v. Wade, where we did better in the
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 3: Senate than we thought, but still lost the House and said,
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 3: pat ourselves on the back and said, we're going to
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 3: ask no hard questions, have no difficult conversations about running
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 3: an unpopular 80-year-old for reelection in this political environment. It
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 3: is pure complacency.
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: In fact, and then anytime someone suggested in 2024 that
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: the polling might be making us a little anxious- And that, oh,
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: maybe we have some problems. And maybe there was a
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: chorus of the same people who would say, oh, you
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: told us there was going to be a red wave.
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: Remember all the pollsters that said there was going to
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: be a red wave in 2022? And there wasn't, which
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: first of all, no, people did not say there was
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: going to be a red wave. And also, it wasn't
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: a blue wave. It just wasn't as big a red wave.
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 3: And then the second reason, which is, this is the
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 3: unsaid reason, I think, is The report was obviously going
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 3: to piss some people off in the coalition. It was
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 3: going to piss off some donors. It was going to
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 3: piss off some of the groups. It was going to
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 3: piss off members of Congress. Because any report worth its
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 3: salt was going to look at how money was spent.
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 3: It was going to look at our positions on issues.
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 3: Immigration was going to almost certainly have to dig into
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 3: the role that Biden's Gaza policy played in this election.
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 3: And no matter which way the report came down, it
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 3: was going to piss off one of the two sides
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 3: of a very contentious thing. And this is a huge
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 3: problem within our party for a very long time now,
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 3: which is an unwillingness to anger parts of our coalition
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 3: or even have difficult conversations with them. We treat our
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 3: allies as children, unable to have an adult conversation about
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 3: where the party goes. And so we're so afraid of
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 3: that that we would rather shelve the report. And when
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 3: your entire being is to anger no one, offend no one,
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 3: then you automatically have lowest common denominator strategic thinking. Like
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 3: you can't be good, you can't be sharp, you can't
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 3: be incisive because you're just trying to do no harm.
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 3: Like you're not taking the fucking Hippocratic oath, you're trying
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 3: to win. The last point here that I will make
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 3: is that I think it is very, like even if
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 3: you look at all of our success in 2025, do
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 3: you know what the approval rating of the Democrats in
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 3: Congress is right now in the most recent Quinnipiac poll?
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: Was it 20?
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 3: We're 55 points underwater. 55 points underwater. The Democratic Party brand,
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 3: still worse than the Republican brand on most issues, including
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 3: some of the key issues of this election are going
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 3: to be centered around. The generic ballot average today is 2.9 points,
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 3: much less than it was at this point in 2017.
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 3: And it is very possible that we could change nothing
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 3: do the exact same thing, run the same playbook in 2026,
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 3: and win a narrow House majority. Trump is that unpopular.
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 3: The economy is that infuriating people that we could win.
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 3: But we should be thinking much bigger than that. We
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 3: should be thinking about how to have a bigger majority.
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 3: We should be thinking about how to win the Senate.
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 3: And most importantly, we have to recognize that the demographics
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 3: of this country are changing in a way that is
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 3: going to make it impossible for the Democratic Party to
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 3: win the Senate and win a presidential election unless we
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 3: reshape our coalition. We become more popular with young people.
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 3: We rebuild our coalition with Latinos. And if all we're
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 3: thinking about, there's this short-termism that is, if we can
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 3: just win this next election and we can all pat
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 3: ourselves on the back and be happy without thinking about
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 3: how to actually think big and think long-term, then we
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 3: are going to be doomed to fail here. This is
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 3: an infuriatingly stupid and self-defeating decision because of cowardice and
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 3: caution and complacency.
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: One of the reasons that we do what we do
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: and especially, you know, whether it's Messagebox with you and
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: Polar Coaster or Wilderness or any of the things we
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: do here at Crooked, is I think there's a group
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: of democratic establishment pollsters, strategists, staffers, officials, many of whom
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: we've worked with, many of whom are very smart, great people,
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: heart in the right place, who do all this research,
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: have all this data, have all this experience, have been
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: on all these campaigns, and there's this sort of hoarding
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: of information that they don't share with the rest of
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: the public, which I think comes from an old-school model
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: of what happens when there's too much information released and
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: you get bad press forward or whatever else. And then...
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: the people that are not providing everyone else with the
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: information that they have are the same people that then
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: yell at and disparage activists and organizers and other volunteers
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: online or elsewhere who are like saying stupid shit or
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: don't get the politics or don't get this. And the
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: reason that they don't get it is because they don't
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: have the same information as the people in the, in
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: the democratic establishment. And, One thing we try to do
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: is to talk to a lot of these people that
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: will talk to us and share polling and share the
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: information with people so that we can like make the
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: audience who wants to also, by the way, volunteer and
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: help on campaigns smarter. So when they're talking to voters,
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: they know what's working and what's not. And just hoarding
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: this information, hiding stuff from people, it's not only like counterproductive.
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: it also feeds the distrust people have of the Democratic Party.
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: And they think it's a fucking cabal. And you know what?
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: On days like this, I agree. Because it seems like
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: they're just, it's like, if you're in the club, you
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: get the report and you get the information. For all
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: you plebs out there, we think this is going to
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: hurt the party. And so we don't want you to
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: have the information. We just want us to have the information.
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 3: The danger here isn't that the DCCC is going to
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 3: get insight into the best way to win the election, right?
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 3: Or the DSCC. Like the value of this is it
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 3: is the person running the state legislative campaign in Ohio.
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 3: It is the person running, starting a long shot congressional
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 3: bid in a Trump plus 15 district that we might
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 3: be able to win here. It is the people who
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 3: run local indivisible in swing left chapters. It's the people
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 3: who are thinking of, they may want to run, you know,
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 3: they're thinking about signing up on the Run for Something website.
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 3: Those are the people who would benefit from this information.
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: I have talked to, House candidates, House candidates that are like,
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: you know, working with the DCCC. And they're like, oh,
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: we listen to Pod Save America. We read the message
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: box because you don't get a lot from the DTRIP
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: or the DNC on messaging and what you're supposed to do.
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: You're kind of on your own. And those are candidates.
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 3: It's just, this is just like to do all of
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 3: the work and then just shelve the report. It's just like,
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 3: it's just, it's an insane choice. If the report sucks
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 3: and you realize the report sucks, say that. To say
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 3: the idea we did a great job, we have all
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 3: the answers, but we're going to put them in a
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 3: secret crypt somewhere is because we don't want to upset
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 3: our momentum from losing a congressional race by 13 points
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 3: less than we thought.
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: This is a small point, but the idea that the
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: public backlash from a report that is somehow embarrassing or
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: bad or could cause some kind of fight is going
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: to be worse than the public backlash from keeping a
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: report secret. Here in the age of the Epstein files.
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: What are we doing? That's a good idea. Hey, this
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: report that I've been talking about for the full year,
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: we're keeping it secret. And I'm letting everyone know.
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 3: All right, DNC Chair Pam Bondi, what are we doing here?
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 3: Hakeem Jeffries, you know what? Get us a discharge petition.
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 3: Let's get this thing out.
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: Anyway, look, we've talked to Ken Martin. We reached out.
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: Hopefully he can come on and talk to us about
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: this and we can have a have a civil argument
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: about it because it really pissed me off a lot today.
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm quite angry about this.
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: More than I expected it would. All right, one last
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: thing before we go. In case you're worried that the
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: president's tireless focus on affordability is taking him away from
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: his true passion, interior design, fear not, Dan. He's been
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: working on something special that you're sure to find both
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: aesthetically pleasing and hilariously entertaining. You might remember the back
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: in September... Trump added gold framed portraits of all the U.S.
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: presidents along the White House's West Colonnade, which he is
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: now calling, quote, the presidential walk of fame. Again, this
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: is an outdoor walkway. Now we're just hanging stuff up
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: on it. The great joke at the time was that
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: Joe Biden's portrait was a photo of an auto pen.
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 3: Which was funny, I would say.
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 3: Mean, offensive, but funny.
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: Very offensive but funny. But apparently there's more where that
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: came from in the comedy category. Trump has been personally
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: writing out captions to go on engraved plaques below each
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: presidential photo, which he unveiled on Wednesday. The Biden plaque begins, quote,
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: Sleepy Joe Biden was by far the worst president in
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: American history. And it goes on from there. Keep in
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: mind some of these plaques, the captions were so long
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: that Trump himself wrote they needed two plaques. To get
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: all the caption. So the Biden one went on for
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: two plaques. Barack Obama's reads, quote, Barack Hussein Obama was
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: the first black president, a community organizer, one-term senator from Illinois,
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: and one of the most divisive political figures in American history.
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: It also mentions the, quote, unaffordable care act. Bill Clinton's
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: says that his wife later, quote, lost the presidency to
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: President Donald J. Trump. Even Ronald Reagan's. says that Reagan was, quote,
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: a fan of President Donald J. Trump long before President
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: Trump's historic run for the White House. Time well spent, Mr. President.
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: Who is this shit for? Who is that for?
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 3: I truly have no idea. It is stunning the lengths
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 3: to which they will go to not work on making
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 3: people's lives better. Ballrooms. They read it in the Kennedy
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 3: Center after Trump today, just as another thing they did.
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: You think he's just like sitting there in the Oval
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: just dictating the caption? He's not writing anything. He's not typing. Yeah, no.
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 3: He doesn't type. I don't think he uses a pen.
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: Other than a Sharpie. He's got his former golf caddy
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: turned whatever he is now, Dan Scavino. Wasn't he in
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: the Vanity Fair? He was in the photo shoot too, yeah.
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: So maybe they, long day at the photo shoot, they
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: finish up and they're like, we gotta, you know, this
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: is a tough job, the White House. There's no off days.
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: There's no off hours. So we're gonna stay up late
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: working these captions for all the presidents because we're only
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: at Millard Fillmore and we gotta get all the way
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: to the end So then he's just, this is what
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: they're doing? This is what they're doing with their time?
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: It's wild. So that they can unveil it to reporters
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: in hopes that we get mad, I guess? Barack Obama
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: gets mad, Joe Biden gets mad, and then what? It's
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: just so stupid.
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 3: It really is the entire philosophy of the Republican Party
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 3: over the last decade is just own the libs at
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 3: all costs. And I think this is just a Like,
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 3: I don't feel owned as a lid myself. Like, don't
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 3: I care?
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 4: No.
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: I feel like embarrassed for the country, which I feel like,
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: I mean, he does a million things every day. So
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: it's not like high on my list of things that
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: make me embarrassed for the country. But, you know, it's
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: one of them. It's just, it's so. I don't feel mad.
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: I just feel like you're a pathetic fucking.
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 3: It's pathetic. It's just the whole thing is pathetic.
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: It's like, what are you doing? Relatedly, did you see
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: the wonderful news that the board of the Kennedy Center.
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: which is of course made up of handpicked Trump supporters
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: chaired by Trump himself, has taken a vote. Now this
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: surprised Trump. He didn't know this was going to happen.
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 3: Not at all.
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: Can't believe they did this. And they're renaming it the
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: Trump Kennedy Center. Even though that is not legal to do.
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: Because it is named the Kennedy Center by law in
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: a statute that was passed by Congress. And so much
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: like the Department of Defense and the Gulf of Mexico. Um,
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: we now have the, uh, Trump Kennedy center, which is
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: not really the Trump Kennedy center.
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 3: Do you, wouldn't it be funny if that was the
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 3: thing that took him down? The illegal renaming of things?
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 3: It's like, January 6th, the crypto schemes.
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: Official act. So, you know, John Roberts says it's okay.
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just... Also, it's interesting that they just didn't
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 3: go full tilt in his name at the Trump Center.
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, they wanted to. I think because.
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 3: He's for RFK.
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: That's... Well, no, I think that somehow makes it more,
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: like they think that will troll people more to keep
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: Kennedy in there. It's almost like it's like, fuck you,
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: Kennedy family, because we're going to remind you that you're
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: still part of it, but now Trump comes first. Who knows?
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: Who the fuck knows?
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 3: Like, are they going to change the signs, I guess?
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: It's already changed on the website. They changed the website.
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 3: I mean, that's not surprising, but like there's a lot
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 3: of signage at the Kennedy Center.
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah. The other website that changed this week was the FCC,
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: which called itself- an independent commission because it is an
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: independent commission. And then when Brendan Carr was getting grilled
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: by Congress and he refused to say that it's independent anymore,
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: he couldn't say that. Then 20 minutes after he said that, boom,
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: independent came off the page.
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 3: I would love to just see the email traffic or
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 3: text traffic around that where he said it. They're like,
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 3: to the website, get it to the website, get it down.
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: There's still one thing left.
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 3: Once again, more dumb, pointless shit.
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: Also like Democratic president, gets to the White House, God willing. Like,
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: I also feel bad for the people that are going
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: to have to undo all this because it's going to
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: be like a first week thing. You're scraping all the
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: plaques off the wall and the sign outside the Oval
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: Office and all the other fucking bullshit. You're taking the
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: au bon pont, the yellow fucking umbrellas off the Rose Garden.
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: And what else? There's a lot of shit.
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the ballroom.
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: The ballroom. That's a tough one.
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I have publicly, I've angered a lot of my
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 3: message back subscribers by publicly arguing that we should not
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 3: tear the ballroom down. But we should definitely rename the
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 3: Kennedy Center and back the Kennedy Center. We should take
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 3: a lot of the other stuff down for sure.
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: And then we should figure out some ways to troll
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump if he's still kicking.
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 3: I mean, we could leave his, what we do, keep
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 3: the wall of presidents, put his mugshot up.
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: No, he'll love that. You know what we do? We
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: put up the image of him that's been used on
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: South Park this season where he is naked except for
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: his teeny tiny little penis.
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 3: Oh, the micropenis one.
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: That's a good one. Or, and Austin just pointed the
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: picture of him and Jeffrey Epstein. We could put that
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: one up.
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 3: Oh, that's another good one.
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: Which we have here in our office. We look at
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: all the time.
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 3: We could like rename federal prisons after Trump. The Trump-Epstein prison.
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's a good one. Yeah, rename Rikers.
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 3: Or rename the Club Fed where he sent Glenn Maxwell.
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of options.
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 3: You know what? When the transition comes, President Newsom, Shapiro, AOC, whoever,
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 3: call me. This is what I want to work on.
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 3: Petty shit.
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: We will undergo an after-action report on this, interview a
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: lot of people, come up with some ideas, and we
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: pledge to release it.
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 3: This is a great idea. We're going to need some
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 3: content in early 2029. All right, Dan.
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: That's our show for today. It's our last show of
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: the year.
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 3: You and me, yeah.
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: Austin, yeah, Austin's shaking his head. I know, I know.
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 3: There's a last one that you and I already recorded.
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: I know, we've got a Sunday show.
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 3: We've already recorded some other ones that are coming, but yes.
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: We've recorded 5,000 shows this week so that y'all got
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: plenty of content in your feeds over the two weeks.
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: But for the two of us, Dan, we're off until January.
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 4: Wow.
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: I know.
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 3: A lot of time.
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: Exciting. And happy birthday. Happy early birthday. December 24th birthday.
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 3: Thank you. Happy birthday to Teddy.
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: And yeah, yeah, Teddy's the 22nd. Tommy's going to be
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: back on the feed on Sunday with a conversation with
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: Rahm Emanuel. Speaking of potential 2028 contenders, there's a chief
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: of staff who ran a tight ship. As he'll tell you.
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 1: And then we'll be back on Tuesday with the 2025 Pundies,
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: which we just recorded yesterday. Very fun. So check that out.
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: And everyone have a wonderful holiday. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year.
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: Happy Hanukkah. And talk to everybody soon.
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 6: Bye, everyone.
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: If you want to listen to Pod Save America ad-free
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: and get access to exclusive podcasts, go to cricket.com slash
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: friends to subscribe on Supercast, Substack, YouTube, or Apple Podcasts. Also,
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: please consider leaving us a review. That helps boost this
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: episode and everything we do here at Cricket. Pod Save
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: America is a Cricket Media production. Our producers are David Toledo,
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: Emma Illich-Frank, and Saul Rubin. Our associate producer is Farah Safari.
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: Austin Fisher is our senior producer. Reid Cherlin is our
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 1: executive editor. Adrian Hill is our head of news and politics.
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: The show is mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Jordan
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: Cantor is our sound engineer with audio support from Kyle
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: Seglin and Charlotte Landis. Matt DeGroat is our head of production.
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 1: Naomi Sengel is our executive assistant. Thanks to our digital team,
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: Elijah Cohn, Haley Jones, Ben Hefcote, Mia Kelman, Carol Pellevive,
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: David Tolles, and Ryan Young. Our production staff is proudly
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: unionized with the Writers Guild of America East.