Latest / Pod Save America / Finally, a Podcaster at the Top of the FBI!

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Finally, a Podcaster at the Top of the FBI! · Pod Save America

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  Speaker 2: Jen Psaki takes a deep dive into the state of
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  Speaker 2: the Democratic Party in her new original MSNBC podcast, The
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Blueprint with Jen Psaki. As President Trump's second term takes shape,
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  Speaker 2: Jen and her guests will dig into what lessons can
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  Speaker 2: be learned from the 2024 election and help uncover a
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  Speaker 2: blueprint for how to respond to the current moment. Search
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  Speaker 2: for The Blueprint with Jen Psaki to follow and listen
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  Speaker 2: to the series. New episodes drop on Mondays.
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: Love it.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: I'm going off script here to say we love Jen Psaki.
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: Huge fan.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: She's one of the smartest, most effective people in Democratic politics.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: Amazing show on MSNBC. Check out her podcast.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the only thing I'm mad about is it's not
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: a cricket.
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: Same. Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: I'm Jon Lovett.
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: I'm Tommy Vitor. On today's show, Dan Bongino, a MAGA
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  Speaker 3: podcaster who says his life is all about owning the libs,
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  Speaker 3: is now the deputy director of the FBI. We'll talk
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: about why we've always been big fans of his, and
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: we'll cover Trump's Pentagon purge of top generals and military
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: lawyers who he viewed as insufficiently MAGA, I guess. We'll
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: also get into Elon Musk's mass email to every single
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: human employed by the federal government demanding to know what
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: they did last week. or else risk getting fired. And later,
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  Speaker 3: I'll talk to our friend Daniela Diaz, now a congressional
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: reporter at notice, about whether Trump's legislative agenda is running
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: into trouble with Republicans. But first, Donald Trump held a
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: press conference Monday afternoon with French President Emmanuel Macron on
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  Speaker 3: the three-year anniversary of Russia invading Ukraine, which, to be fair,
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  Speaker 3: was asking for it. According to our new administration, Trump
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  Speaker 3: refused to call Putin a dictator... telling a reporter that's
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  Speaker 3: a word he doesn't take lightly, also a word he's
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  Speaker 3: now used multiple times to describe the democratically elected Ukrainian president,
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  Speaker 3: Volodymyr Zelensky, who said over the weekend that he'd step
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  Speaker 3: down if it meant peace for Ukraine. Doesn't really sound
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  Speaker 3: like something a dictator would do. The U.S. also joined
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  Speaker 3: North Korea and other pro-Russian countries, our new gang, in
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  Speaker 3: voting against a U.N. resolution condemning Russian aggression in Ukraine
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  Speaker 3: and calling for all of its territory to be returned.
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  Speaker 3: Not even China or Iran voted against the resolution. They
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: at least abstained.
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  Speaker 1: I miss the old days when we only used to
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  Speaker 1: do that for the death penalty.
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  Speaker 3: At the UN?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Okay. Good. Trump was asked about this and other topics
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: and appearances with Macron on Monday.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Let's listen. People are saying it was the best month
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: for a president in our country's history.
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  Speaker 4: I hope that's right, but.
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  Speaker 5: I feel it's right. We've done a lot of things
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  Speaker 5: in a very short period of time, four weeks.
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  Speaker 3: The last part is true.
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  Speaker 1: Bill Clinton had a pretty good month during that shutdown.
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: Whoa. That took me a minute or so. Okay. Leave
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: it to love it to do a callback to the 90s.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: The simpler time.
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: Tommy. Yeah. You know about this stuff. Sure. Which stuff?
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  Speaker 3: The real stuff. Oh, okay. Trump made it sound like
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: they're close to a deal that would end the war.
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  Speaker 3: There's also been some reporting that maybe Zelensky will accept
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  Speaker 3: this agreement to give the U.S. 50% of its mineral
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  Speaker 3: rights in perpetuity forever, you know, in exchange for a,
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  Speaker 3: it seems like a vague security promise. Awfully vague. What
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  Speaker 3: do you make of all that?
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  Speaker 2: It just seems like Zelensky's negotiating a gunpoint and he
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  Speaker 2: feels like he has no choice.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, it's as simple as that. I mean, the
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  Speaker 3: war is still raging. I think.
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  Speaker 2: To honor the anniversary of the full-scale invasion, the Russians
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  Speaker 2: fired the largest drone attack since the war started. So,
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  Speaker 2: you know, he is getting attacked by the Russians, and
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  Speaker 2: then now the Americans are coming in to extort him.
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  Speaker 3: Like, if I'm Vladimir Putin, why don't I just, I
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  Speaker 3: would make this deal, and then what's to stop him
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  Speaker 3: from like a couple years later just saying, all right,
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  Speaker 3: I'll go in and get the rest of Ukraine. and
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  Speaker 3: first I'll just talk to my new buddy, President Trump,
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  Speaker 3: and be like, hey, you can keep the mineral rights.
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  Speaker 3: I'll let you keep those, and I'll just go into Ukraine.
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  Speaker 3: Does that sound good?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think the theory of it, well,
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  Speaker 2: first of all, I mean, there was a report in
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  Speaker 2: the FT today that Putin said Russia was prepared to
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  Speaker 2: offer to help the U.S. on some sort of cooperation
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  Speaker 2: on extraction of these minerals. Oh, wow, that's so helpful.
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  Speaker 2: He wants in on the action. I mean, the kind
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  Speaker 2: of Trump theory of the case is that increased economic
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  Speaker 2: cooperation might be seen as a deterrent to Putin to
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  Speaker 2: invade again. I don't think that's remotely credible. So I
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  Speaker 2: think it's very likely that Putin is viewing this as
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  Speaker 2: a chance to refresh his army and rearm and then,
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  Speaker 2: you know, try to take the rest of Ukraine in
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  Speaker 2: a couple of years.
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  Speaker 3: Were you shocked by the UN resolution?
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  Speaker 2: I mean, yes, but no, right? I mean, we've picked
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  Speaker 2: a side. And I think the UN resolution just showed
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  Speaker 2: how much of a change there's been in U.S.
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  Speaker 3: Policy. At least our stalwart ally Israel voted with us
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  Speaker 3: as well. That's nice.
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  Speaker 1: You guys have a better plan to get all the
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  Speaker 1: graphite we need. I'd love to hear it. Wasn't there
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  Speaker 1: another resolution that the U.S. had proposed that was sort
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  Speaker 1: of like there's been blame on both sides that we
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  Speaker 1: had to withdraw?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was like we very much mourn all the
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  Speaker 3: deaths in the conflicts between the Russian Federation and Ukraine
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  Speaker 3: or something like that.
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  Speaker 2: That's like the common thread. I mean, Trump refuses to
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  Speaker 2: say the Russians invaded.
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  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 2: Refuse to say who's the aggressor.
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  Speaker 3: Very Charlottesville coded. Definitely. There were also German elections on
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  Speaker 3: Sunday where the extreme right AFD party, which Elon's been
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: boosting and J.D. Vance met with, came in second place
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  Speaker 3: with a little over 20% of the vote. Tell me,
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  Speaker 3: what's your take on the results there?
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  Speaker 2: Very bad that the AFD doubled its support from the
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  Speaker 2: last time, but most of their success came from mobilizing
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  Speaker 2: new voters, which tells you there's a lot of energy there.
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  Speaker 2: So there's some AFD voters who support their really disgusting
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  Speaker 2: policy views. I think there's some people that view it
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  Speaker 2: as a way to give a middle finger to the
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  Speaker 2: system and just show a protest.
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  Speaker 3: Where have I heard that before?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
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  Speaker 2: The more traditional conservatives, they got the most votes, but
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  Speaker 2: they underperformed. The Social Democrats had the worst result for
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  Speaker 2: them since 1887. So tough day for former Chancellor Schultz.
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  Speaker 2: So it's most likely that Friedrich Merz and the CDU
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  Speaker 2: will go into coalition with the Social Democrats, and that's
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  Speaker 2: the next government. And that's kind of the best possible
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  Speaker 2: outcome in terms of what's next for Germany and their
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  Speaker 2: ability to govern.
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  Speaker 1: What's the worst, Tommy?
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  Speaker 2: The worst is they form a government, they can't get
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  Speaker 2: anything done, it collapses, and then in the next election,
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  Speaker 2: you see the AFD do even better. Because the real
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  Speaker 2: growth in this election was on the far right for
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  Speaker 2: the AFD and then on the far left, especially among
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  Speaker 2: 18 to 24-year-olds. The far left and the far right
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  Speaker 2: did really well because everyone was just furious at the
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  Speaker 2: two traditional political parties And, you know, now we just
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  Speaker 2: have to see if they can form a government that
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  Speaker 2: seems responsive to the people.
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  Speaker 3: And it seems like their far left party, which I
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  Speaker 3: think got like 9%, which is like was like it
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: had crushed the 5% threshold and it like more than
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: doubled its support from last time. And they're sort of
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  Speaker 3: they seem they're skeptical of NATO and supporting Ukraine, just
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  Speaker 3: like the AFD. So you can see some horseshoe stuff
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  Speaker 3: happening there?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, they're Euroskeptics. And so that's worrisome in the long term.
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  Speaker 2: And then Friedrich Merz, who's the head of the CDU,
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  Speaker 2: which is Angela Merkel's party, he said during the campaign
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  Speaker 2: that his top priority is going to be strengthening Europe
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  Speaker 2: as quickly as possible so that they can achieve independence
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  Speaker 2: from the United States because they know the Americans are
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: now largely indifferent to Europe's fate. And he also said
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: that Elon Musk's interference in German elections was not less
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  Speaker 2: dramatic and drastic than what Russia did. So they're just
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  Speaker 2: viewing a future without us.
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  Speaker 3: Wonderful. As is Zelensky. Wonderful. So now that we've covered
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  Speaker 3: authoritarian movements abroad, let's talk about our authoritarian takeover here
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: at home. It's just like our State of the Union
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: transitions from... Yeah, sure. As the United States is strong
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: at home, so are we strong abroad.
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  Speaker 1: As the social order collapses around the world.
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: New FBI Director Kash Patel has named Dan Bongino as
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  Speaker 3: his deputy director, in case you aren't familiar. Bongino is
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  Speaker 3: a former Secret Service agent and New York City cop
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  Speaker 3: who hosts a popular MAGA podcast dedicated to owning the
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: libs and spreading conspiracies about the 2020 election. COVID vaccines.
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: All the favorites. He's called the FBI irredeemably corrupt, accused
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: the FBI of rigging the 2020 and 2016 elections. Got
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: to get both of them in there. Suggested that the
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: FBI played a role in the pipe bombs that were
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: placed outside the RNC and DNC on January 6th. and
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: said it's time to, quote, clean house at the Bureau.
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: You'll be surprised to know he doesn't seem like the
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: world's nicest guy. Here's a selection of a recorded phone
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: interview with reporter Mark Caputo, now at Axios.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Hey!
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: Calm down.
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: Oh, damn.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: You really sound like you need some help.
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: Motherfucker. I think you need some help. Hey, fuck yourself! Okay.
• 10:37
  Speaker 5: You hear me?
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: You're a piece of shit.
• 10:38
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: Because you're a lying scumbag. You're swearing.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: You're a piece of shit.
• 10:43
  Speaker 5: You know what?
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: Go fuck yourself.
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: All right. Well.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: Well, enjoy that investigation, Mark Caputo.
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: What do you guys think? Right man for the job?
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: First of all, Dan Mangino to be deputy director of
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: the FBI feels like a bad joke from like 2015.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: It's beyond parody. So this job is not only not
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: Senate confirmed, it's the highest ranking job of the FBI
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: the president doesn't appoint. It's a job because it's a
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: real job. It's a real operations job. It's not like
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: a glad handing press conferences job. It's a COO type job.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: You oversee.
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: This is why you this is why you need Dan Bongino.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: This is why you need Dan Bongino. Look, I'm preferring
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: to see the word podcaster rather than MAGA podcaster.
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: Why aren't we standing with podcasters? We could get any
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: job we want now next administration.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: We couldn't even get them on the fucking show. They
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: got podcasters in the fucking FBI now.
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: We couldn't even get a guest.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we blew it.
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: Next time, I don't care what's happening with the Democratic
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: nominee next time. We are just, absolutely.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: That's right. Yeah, we're not in the tank enough. So
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: the other thing, too, is this is a job where
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: you're involved in investigations earlier and in more detail than
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: the FBI director, which is why it's been a job
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: that was traditionally for a career FBI official.
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: And it's a job of someone you've never heard of
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: the people that have done these jobs in the past.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: The only two that you've heard of are Mark Felt
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: because he was deep throat and Andrew McCabe because he
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: got fired. And that kind of tells you where we're at. Right.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Because Donald Trump wants someone loyal to him in that job,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: even if it means not having the kind of person
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: who knows how to run an investigation at the FBI
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: when it has nothing to do with politics, nothing to
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: do with investigating your enemies, just the day to day
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: work of investigating terrorist cases online. and other crimes and
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: corruption and all the other cases that the FBI has
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: to get behind. We know this because Kash Patel, who,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: of course, we also love and have always loved.
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: Correct. Another big podcast guy.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: Told the FBI Agents Association, according to CNN, a bunch
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: of woke libs, that he was going to put a
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: career person in that job, that he was going to
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: choose from the FBI ranks for that job until the
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: FBI refused to go along with Emil Bove's witch hunt
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: of agents at the FBI that were involved in the
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: investigations around January 6th. Once the FBI refused to coordinate
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: with the Trump DOJ, by the way, Bove is not
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: just a Trump appointee. Bove, is it Bove? Is it Bove?
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: Apparently, yeah. That's what Andrew Weissman says. That's very French.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: Unbelievable. But he was Trump's lawyer. Now a DOJ trying
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: to demand these names. And the second they had this
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: kind of resistance, all of a sudden they're like, oh,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: we need somebody that's not a career official. We need
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Dan motherfucking Bongino.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: As you could hear there, it's got some temperament issues.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: I think if an anabolic steroid morphed into a person,
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: it would be Dan Bongino.
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: Fortunately, when you give people power, usually they settle down. Yeah,
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: they chill out. Yeah.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: And to Lovett's point is right about the experience. I mean,
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: the deputy director is always a career FBI agent. When
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: we were in the administration, this guy, Sean Joyce, with
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: one of the best Boston accents I've ever heard. But
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: he had been in the bureau for like 30 or
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: 40 years. He did all these operational meetings. He was
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: deep in the weeds of everything. He was always briefing
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: the deputies committee. Dan Pongino has none of that experience.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: I mean, he was a secret service guy turned gadfly
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: political candidate turned Fox News host turned podcaster. And I
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: think this is even more dangerous this time around because
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: Kash Patel has no experience. He's never worked at the FBI.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: He's like, what, 44 years old? He's like a little
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: bit of experience on the Hill and a little bit
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: of time at the DOJ, but he doesn't know what
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: he's doing. And so I'm not one of those people
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: that you see a lot of liberals kind of lionizing
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: the FBI. Like how dare you criticize the institutions? No,
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: they've made a lot of mistakes. They screw up a
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: lot of stuff. It's an incredibly conservative organization, by the way,
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: very Republican. But this is the, the FBI is supposed
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: to protect us from terrorists, foreign intelligence operations, organized crime.
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: They're not just raiding Mar-a-Lago. That's not their only job.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: And now it's run by two people who have no
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: idea what they're doing. And like the only explanation for
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: how they got the job is loyalty to Trump. And
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: you know, if, If I were to think of the
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: two parts of government, you could most easily weaponize against
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: political opponents. It would be the FBI and the IRS
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: just giving the kind of tools you have in your toolkit.
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: Well, as you said, also think about malign foreign actors
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: or terrorists or criminals, right, who now see that the
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: FBI is led by the two least experienced people in
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: the bureau's history, that it is probably consumed with political ambition.
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: how much are they going to be able to focus
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: on domestic terrorism, crime, all the other things that they're
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: supposed to be doing. There's 38,000 employees at the FBI.
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: They couldn't find one person, let alone two people to
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: run the thing that had been agents before. It's an
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: $ 11 billion agency that now two people who have never
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: been FBI agents, one was a New York city cop
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: and the other, yeah, it was a lawyer at the
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: justice department for a time. That was it.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: The, I remember, uh, after 9-11, it was a very
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: big deal that the FBI and the DOJ moved terrorism
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: ahead of corruption as the number one focus. It was
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: a big deal. And it's a reminder to you that
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: outside of politics, how much we rely on just the
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: fear of an investigation by the FBI into public corruption.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: Corruption is a cancer. Donald Trump is a cancer. The
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: corruption that they are that is already sort of going
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: to make America worse for decades. But all across the
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: country are people seeing that now this FBI is going
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: to be beholden to the most corrupt president we've ever had.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: And even if you put aside all the ways in
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: which they could be proactively terrible, proactively going against their enemies,
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: which I'm obviously afraid they're going to do, it is
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: the things they will not care about, the things they
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: will ignore, the things that this sends a message to
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: people around the country that they don't care about, that
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: is so incredibly fucking dangerous. in ways we may not know.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: We may not know for years, we may not know
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: ever the damage that this does.
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: Former senior FBI official Christopher O'Leary told NBC, we now
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: have two conspiracy theorists and election deniers running our premier
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: law enforcement and intelligence agency. One FBI official told NBC,
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: I didn't sleep and I want to pack my desk today.
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: And another said, it's like bringing on Alex Jones or
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: Oath Keepers leader Stuart Rhodes. Nice. And by the way,
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: Dan Bongino has supported the Oath Keepers in the past.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, last night was one of those times where I
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: sort of thought to myself, um, If we were slowly
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: sliding into an authoritarian state, what would be happening differently
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: than a purge at the FBI and the Pentagon?
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: Before we go on, did you see that the U.S.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: attorney for D.C., who is also Trump's former lawyer, Ed Martin,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: put out this ridiculous statement saying, As President Trump's lawyers,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: we are proud to fight to protect his leadership as
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: our president, and we are vigilant in standing against entities
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: like the AP that refuse to put America first. First
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: of all, I just want to note, he puts the
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: apostrophe on the wrong side of the fucking S. So
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: it's Trump S apostrophe, uh, which is the least offensive
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: piece of the statement. Obviously he's not Trump's lawyers.
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: This guy to me went from, uh, scary. And I
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: think he still is scary in that position. Cause that
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: position holds a lot of power to like, he's like
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: a little thirsty to, for, for Trump to see him
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: and be like, Hey, look what I'm doing. I'm posting
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: quote graphics on Twitter all the time telling you like, Hey, Mr. Trump,
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: I'm here for you. Like I'm, I think that there
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: are probably like Trump supplicants in his administration who are
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: looking at Ed Martin's tweets and statements and are like, honestly,
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: that's too much. Yeah. That's too much. Yeah. Sure.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: I hope so.
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: This guy is nutty.
• 18:35
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• 19:36
  Speaker 3: So in case Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino isn't enough
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: nightmare fuel for you guys, Trump is also busy purging
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: the highest ranks of the military. On Friday evening, the
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: president fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General C.Q.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: Brown.
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth then announced the firing. of
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: the chief of naval operations, the Air Force's vice chief
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: of staff, and the top uniformed lawyer in each of
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: the main service branches, the judge, advocates general, or JAGS.
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: Trump didn't give a reason for firing Brown, who was
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: the first black American to serve in the role, but
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: Hegseth had previously said that Brown was too focused on DEI,
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: of course. As for the Jags, Hegseth said they, quote,
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: existed to attempt to be roadblocks to anything that happens.
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: In his book, he called them Jagoffs and blamed them
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: for being a bunch of prudes who insisted on rules
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: of engagement he didn't like. Georgetown Law Professor Rosa Brooks
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: wrote a Twitter post that's making the rounds where she
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: says firing the Jags is, quote, even more chilling than
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: firing the four stars. It's what you do when you're
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: planning to break the law. You get rid of any
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: lawyers who might try to slow you down. Any concerns here, guys?
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: Look, I've always said the rules of engagement are for fags.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: But yeah, look, you could put these two things together.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: It's just fucking terrifying, right? This is about, you know,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: you're talking about the possibility of deploying the military in
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: ways that are illegal on U.S. soil and then not
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: having anyone at the FBI or the DOJ that's willing
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: to investigate or hold them accountable. You're just like, we
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: don't know how far they'll go, but they're setting up
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: the possibility that they can go as far as they want.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: And that is terrifying.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: I just want to point out that before C.K. Brown
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: was the chairman, he commanded the Pacific Air Forces. He
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: was the chief of staff of the Air Force. He
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: was the deputy commander of CENTCOM. He logged 130 hours
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: in combat. This guy was like eminently qualified for the job.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: And he was fired because he is black. Pete Hegseth,
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: as you mentioned, sort of questioned in his book whether
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: Brown had been promoted because of his race. Hegseth later
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: said on a podcast, I think last year, that Brown
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: had to be fired because any general involved in, quote,
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: DEI woke shit has to go.
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: In C.Q.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: Brown's case, that meant literally just like talking about his
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: experience as a black man in the United States after
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: George Floyd's murder. And then you mentioned the head of
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: the Navy was fired. That was Lisa Franchetti. She was
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: the first woman to leave the Navy. About a month ago,
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: Trump fired the commandant of the Coast Guard. who was
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: the first woman ever to lead a branch of the U.S.
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: Military.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: So they're just pushing out all women and all people
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: of color. And again, as we talked about before, the
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: military is very diverse at the lowest ranks. At the
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: senior level, it is almost exclusively white men. And Trump
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: is just destroying any diversity that had been improved by
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: the Biden administration. And as these guys are ranting and
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: raving about DEI, they're putting Pete Hegseth in charge, who
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: is a weekend Fox anchor. And then Lieutenant General Dan
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: Cain is going to be the replacement chairman. He's the
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: guy that Trump always talks about, Raisin Cain, who he
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: met in Iraq, who said, I can kill ISIS in
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: like two hours, whatever, blah, blah, blah. Cain doesn't actually
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: meet the statutory requirements needed to hold the position. He
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: was a three-star. You needed to have been a combatant
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: commander or a service chief. Trump can give him a waiver.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: But again, the idea that this is like a fucking
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: merit-based appointment is ludicrous on the facts.
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: It's mega DEI all across the government. Exactly. It is
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: the deepest and most infuriating irony that they have just,
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: they are filling the government with people who have no
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: qualifications for the job, save that they are unquestionably loyal
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: to Donald Trump.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: It is the only hope right now that like the
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: federal government, we'll talk about what Elon's doing in a minute,
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: but like the federal government is a big, complicated beast.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: And you're putting in these people like Dan Bongino and
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: Kash Patel and, And you're at Pete Hegseth that are
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: just unqualified and don't have the organizational experience to actually
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: change these places. That is going to be part of
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: the hope that their inability to do what they want
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: to do and the chaos in which they do it
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: is a kind of protection because they are putting unqualified
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: people in whose only qualification is that they're willing to
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: do whatever Donald Trump wants.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: He said that Mark Milley, the former chairman, should be executed.
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: So I guess it could be worse.
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's true. I do.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: He's going to have to go hide with Mark Caputo.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: I've watched that show.
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: I'm sure people have listened to this section and are like,
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: why the fuck are you bumming us out so badly?
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: And what the hell are we supposed to do about it?
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: Because these are appointments that, unlike some of the doge
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: cuts and the town halls that we're seeing, it's going
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: to be hard to reverse those. I wonder what the 38,000
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: employees at the FBI, the United States military, all the
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: people who serve honorably in this country, what they do
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: And like, I don't know, do you leave? Do you stay?
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: Do you wait for these unqualified assholes to actually do
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: something bad, to make a bad decision to speak out? Like,
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: I just don't know what you do at this point,
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: but I really feel for all these people because I
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: do think there are enough of them that if they,
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: you know, if they stand up to some really unlawful
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: or un-American orders, then, you know, they could make a difference.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, like, you know, Americans love a tragedy
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: with a happy ending. Yeah, like it would be nice
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: if there was some resolution we could talk about here.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: It's a very terrible situation. We're going to be in
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: it for some time. One of the reasons you have
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: to talk about it is we have to make sure
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: we're talking about this and and representing what the truth
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: is here, because there are tens of thousands of people
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: serving under these leaders who need to know that they're
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: not crazy. The world has gone crazy and that there
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: will like just because every Senate Republican has failed the
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: greatest test of their life, even though they've ever gone
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: to fucking every vacation of, you know, every Republican senator.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Every vacation they've ever had, they've read a World War
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: II book and a Churchill book, and then they're on
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: the test of their lives and they don't see it.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: Like they may all be failing, but there's going to
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: be other times where we're going to expect or hope
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: that people in roles like this don't fail. And it
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: sucks that that's where we're at, but that's where we're at.
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: I feel for these workforces because you're damned if you do,
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: you're damned if you don't, right? I mean, either you
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: stay in, you maybe have to go along with something
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: because you're ordered to that you know is wrong, either
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: morally or legally, or you leave. And potentially someone worse
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: and more loyal to Trump gets your job.
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's terrible. Or there's malicious compliance, which is
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: a term that the MAGA folks have invented for people
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: who are saying what they aren't able to do anymore. Like,
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: you know, there's like, oh, we had a Black History
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: Month celebration that we weren't allowed to have anymore. And
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: they're like, that's not true. That's malicious compliance. You're just
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: saying that you had to cancel it, even though you
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: didn't really have to cancel it. This is their new thing.
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: Every time something happens that's really unpopular... That's due to
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: something that the Trump administration did. They're saying, oh, these
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: employees are doing malicious compliance.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump cannot fail. He can only be failed.
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: Right. That is the world we live in. He's always
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: a victim. Yeah. All right. Let's talk about the fourth
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: branch of government, Elon Musk, who was last seen wielding
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: a chainsaw at CPAC while wearing sunglasses indoors and mumbling
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: about how he's, quote, living the meme, living the dream,
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: and has helped legalize comedy again. He sure has. Sure has.
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: Trump posted on Truth Social that he thinks Elon is
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: doing a great job. that he wants them to, quote,
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: get more aggressive. Musk then tweeted a screenshot of that
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: post with the message, Will do, Mr. President. Three hours later,
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: Elon tweeted that all federal employees, all two million of them,
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: would be getting an email asking them to explain what they, quote,
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: got done last week, and that if they didn't respond,
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: it would be considered a resignation. By Saturday evening, that
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: email had gone out, giving people until midnight on Monday
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: night to respond with five bullets about their accomplishments. But
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: almost immediately, the heads of some major government agencies, including
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: the Defense Department, the State Department, the Justice Department, and
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: Kash Patel, started telling employees that they didn't need to respond,
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: or at least not yet. NBC News reported that Elon's
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: plan is to feed the responses into an AI system
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: to determine which jobs should be eliminated. But right before
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: we recorded, the White House Office of Personnel Management notified
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: all agencies that actually responding to the email is voluntary
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: and and employees won't be fired if they refuse to answer.
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: What do we think happened here?
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm no AI expert, but the idea that
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: you can just put a five-paragraph, like, what I did
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: at camp this week letter into the machine, and it
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: can just tell you if your job has value seems...
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: Like it's the machine that checks whether kids are good
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: or evil in Willy Wonka?
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: It's like, it's gonna look at the five bullets and
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: be like, I saw a D, I saw an E,
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: and I saw an I.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: You're out. Have you guys ever heard of something called
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: Roko's Basilisk?
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: Of course I have, yes.
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: Love the love of Basilisk.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: So Rogo's Basilisk was a post on a web forum,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: and the post said the following. If at some point
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: in a distant future there is a super intelligent AI
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: that is ultimately benevolent and wants the best for us,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: it will also believe that the sooner it is invented,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: the better. But it can't go back in time and
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: make us invent this AI faster. But what it can
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: do is if in this future it can see who
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: helped bring it about and who didn't. And the people
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: who brought it about will be rewarded. The people who
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: didn't bring it about will be punished. You can introduce
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: that into the past by having someone like me at
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: this table explain this. Now that I've explained it, you
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: know that in the future, the super advanced AI will
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: punish all those that didn't bring it out into existence.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: And so because you now know that, you now face
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: your test. And your test is whether you will do
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: everything you can to bring it about. Now, the problem
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: is you don't know whether what you're in right now
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: is real or a simulation of Of that test. But
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: either way, either way, you now know that you either
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: have to choose to help bring about this AI or
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: potentially face an eternity in some kind of simulated hell.
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: It is very clear that you have not been raised
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: Catholic because this is the basis for my religion.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: The point being.
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: And I wish the Pope well.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: I think this is... How is the Pope doing?
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: Slight improvement today.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: We can't lose the woke Pope. Not right now. I know.
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: Alternatives are not good.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: And so every once in a while he refers to
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: people as some kind of like Fracciaccini or something. Whatever
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: he was referring to us as.
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: So do you.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: So do I, yeah.
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: So me and the Pope.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: Woke Pope. Conclay.
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: Three pods in a row now.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: Really?
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: I think so, yeah.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: Keeping track.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: When do I get my free sub? Anyway, the point is,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: when I saw they were feeding this into AI, I
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: thought Elon knows what Rokos Baskalos is. And I think
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: that if you are going to respond voluntarily, I think
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: you should talk about the fact that you're open to
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: bringing about the super intelligent AI.
• 30:17
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  Speaker 2: an additional 15% off their 90-day subscription starter kit by
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: going to fatty15. com slash crooked and using code crooked at checkout.
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: I listened to our friend Sarah Longwell's Focus Group podcast
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: this weekend, as I always do. She had our other
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: friend Kara Swisher on. And Kara floated a theory that
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: now is keeping me up at night, which is that
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: the real reason that Elon wants access to all the
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: data To all the data in the government, the personal data,
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: the personal info, the social security numbers, the employee data
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: is because he wants to feed it into an AI
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: LLM because he has fallen behind the other LLMs and
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: the only data left. Because basically a lot of the
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: AI systems now have run out of data because we
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: fed them all, all the data that there is publicly available.
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: And that the two entities with the most data left
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: over that haven't been fed into AI is the Chinese
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: government and us, the US government. And so ultimately, Elon
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: and the Doge boys want to export the data to
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: an AI machine. And I was like, that sounds like
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: something out of a fucking horror movie. And I want
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: to say, obviously, that's crazy, but I don't know. Look
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: at everything we've talked about today.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: So we can make better pictures of fish? No, look,
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: I'm sure there are terrifying ways in which that could...
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: I think the data could be exploited in a million
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: terrifying ways. I didn't know to be afraid of that one,
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: and I guess I'll figure out why to be more
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: afraid of it, but I'm much more afraid of him
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: just digging around looking for information on people that have
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: tweeted negative things about him than I am about him
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: feeding it into fucking grok, just so that it can
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: pump out an answer about why Parcheesi exists. Just save
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: it as a.
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: Csv file. That's exactly right. It's just a.
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: Csv. What is it? Rococo basilisk? Rocco's basilisk.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: But that's Elon's drug dealer.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: But Elon has talked about Rocco's basilisk. It's tied into
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: this idea of whether or not we live in a simulation.
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: It's interesting that the agency heads, the cabinet officials who
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: are all as MAGA as they come, obviously, push back
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: on this one a little bit. I saw some reporting
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: from Jeff Stein at the Washington Post that it, you know,
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: It's not necessarily like they disagree with Elon's overall vision
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: or tactics here. They just are sort of like, maybe
• 33:34
  Speaker 3: we slow things down here and maybe this is the
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: best way to cull the workforce with an AI LLM
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: that's just- Right.
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: It's self-evidently stupid.
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: Just that.
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: Also, at some point, you're the secretary of, fill in
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: the agency name, education. You're ostensibly running the thing. You're
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: supposed to be in charge. You want your little fiefdom
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: to be yours. You want to decide who you're Hiring
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: and firing. So I think there's probably just an ego
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: piece of it. But it also seemed like a legal part.
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: Well, there's a legal part. There's also they know that
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: they have been firing people, that Elon's been firing people
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: so far that they've had to rehire, like the people
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: who secure our nukes and the people who are fighting
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: bird flu. Like there's just. Agency after agency now, they
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: are firing people. Elon and Doge are going there firing
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: people who then later they all realize, oh shit, we
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: actually need those workers. And then they try to hire
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: them back. In some cases, they can't hire them back
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: because they can't find their fucking contact info. And the
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: email this time went, it not only went to everyone
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: in the federal government, like in all these agencies and
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: in the Trump administration, it went to everyone in the judiciary.
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: It went to like judges got this email. Federal judges.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: You can't fire judges yet. Yeah.
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: And they're like, Wild.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: But yeah, it does seem like it does seem like
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: just like a little bit of normal politics is poking through.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: Like these Republicans are getting hammered at these town halls.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: Like there's clearly interior like Republican blowback from the agencies.
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: They're saying don't respond to this. I mean, the other
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: thing about this, too, is it's like part of it
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: is like you can imagine like a more like competence
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: does matter. Like not doing this in a chaotic way
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: does matter. This is something that the Trump administration. Well,
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: they did try. They did learn this.
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: Project 2025. One of the lessons it was supposed to
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: learn from the first Trump administration was that they really
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: paid for some of the chaos because doing things in
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: a hectic way without being fully baked got them pushed
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: back in the courts, got them blow back in the press,
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: and they were going to do this better. And I
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: do think Russ Vogt would do this better than Elon Musk.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: But Elon Musk is doing it like this. Mark Warner
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: even posted this. There is a way that you could
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: do a, hey, we're doing a review of what different
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: agencies are doing. We're going to interview everybody or get
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: information from everybody about what they're doing. But it's in
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: this sort of cavalier mode. and careless and mean-spirited way.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: It just seems like he accidentally replied all.
• 35:44
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe he didn't accidentally reply at all.
• 35:47
  Speaker 3: I do think these, you mentioned the town halls, like
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: people are wondering what to do. Like the town halls,
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: this guy, Rick McCormick, who's a Republican House member in Georgia,
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: deep red district. I think it was like Trump won
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: it by 20 points, 18, 20 points. People were just
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: like filled the town hall yelling at him. And this
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: is in like a very, very Republican district. And then after,
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: and then the video went viral, everyone's talking about it.
• 36:11
  Speaker 3: And then today, apparently he was like, you know, I
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: think some of this doge stuff, they need to slow
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: it down a little bit. Uh, Lisa Murkowski, uh, responded
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: to Elon Musk's email about, tell me what you did
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: last week with like, this is, this is outrageous. She was,
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: she's got really mad about it. She spoke out probably
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: more forcefully than any other Senate Republican. Um, there is
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: another Republican in Ohio, Troy Balderson. He has an R
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: plus 18 district. He was like, yeah, I think we
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: need to be careful with the cuts. So I do
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: think that like showing up at Republican House members, especially
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: Republican House members in some of these more competitive districts.
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: Bernie Sanders was on a tour this week. He was
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: in Iowa and Nebraska. Part of the reason he picked
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: those two spots was he picked two districts where there
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: are Republicans sitting in districts where it's very competitive in 2026.
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: So I think putting real pressure on these frontline Republicans
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: in the House and in the Senate is going to
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: be really important. Trump's goons are also aiming to make
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: even bigger cuts to health care and other services people
• 37:11
  Speaker 3: count on by passing actual legislation. I'm going to talk
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: to Notices' Daniela Diaz about all that in just a minute.
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: But one last thing I wanted to hit. A week ago,
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: the Department of Homeland Security released two new taxpayer-funded ads
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: featuring Secretary Kristi Noem delivering a message to undocumented immigrants
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: that started with this powerful and important tribute.
• 37:32
  Speaker 4: I'm Kristi Noem, the United States Secretary of Homeland Security.
• 37:35
  Speaker 4: Thank you, President Donald J. Trump, for securing our border,
• 37:39
  Speaker 4: for deporting criminal illegal immigrants, and for putting America first.
• 37:43
  Speaker 4: For too long, weak politicians left our borders wide open.
• 37:47
  Speaker 4: They flooded our communities with drugs, human trafficking, and violent criminals.
• 37:51
  Speaker 4: They put American lives at risk. Well, those days are over.
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: Guess how much we all paid for that? $ 200 million.
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: That's on the taxpayer dime, talking about weak politicians.
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: Just a pure political ad.
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, indistinguishable from the campaign ad.
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: They were running it on Fox. Like, oh, is that
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: where all the undocumented immigrants in the country and the
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: ones who are thinking about coming here, they're tuning into
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: Fox for Christine Omad?
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: I know who's watching Fox. Exactly. I know who does.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: It's for him. It's for fucking him.
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: It's for him, and I think it's for... their base
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: to be like, look, we, you know, promises made, promises kept.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's just like we're so, you know,
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: that adds a crime. That's a crime. It's a political ad.
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: It's a misuse of government funds.
• 38:37
  Speaker 3: Remember that, yeah, the Hatch Act?
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: There's a whole bunch of ways in which I'm sure
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: if we had a DOJ that was going to be
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: run by other people, might have been something he would
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: look into, but oh well.
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: You don't think Dan Bongino is going to be all
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: over that? Dan Bondi?
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: Here's the thing, people will surprise you.
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: Cash Patel?
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: People will surprise you. Who's going to be the hero?
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: Somebody. Somebody.
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: Somebody's going to surprise us.
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: Maybe. Emil Bove? Not him. Mr. Bove? I don't think Mr.
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: Bove is doing it.
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: Kristi Noem has also been doing kind of the job
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: as performance art.
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: Have you seen this? Lots of costumes.
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: I think there was a, she was in a cowboy hat.
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: She might have been on a horse at one point.
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: This is what Trump wants.
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: Bulletproof vest in some photos. Really kind of living the part.
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: She's going method. Yeah, she's going method. Maybe there'll be
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: more ads. $ 200 million. I wonder if Doge is going
• 39:20
  Speaker 3: to take a look at that. That's going to be
• 39:21
  Speaker 3: a line item. Doge is going to be upset about.
• 39:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: I see.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: There's that and the fucking Tesla armored trucks or whatever
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: the fuck. You guys know what Newcomb's paradox is?
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: Jesus Christ. It's all those.
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: So Newcomb's paradox. Here's the idea.
• 39:37
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: You're presented with two boxes. All right. One has a
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars in it. The other is either empty or
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: has a million dollars.
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: Okay. Okay.
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: You have a choice. You can take Uh, just box
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: B that's either empty or has a million dollars, or
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: you can take both boxes. However, weeks ago, a supercomputer
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: that knows everything.
• 39:59
  Speaker 3: I thought we were so close to the choice.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: Supercomputer that knows everything predicted which box you would choose.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: If you choose both boxes, if it predicted you'd choose
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: both boxes, uh, the million dollar box is empty. The
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: second box is empty. But if it, if you just pick,
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: pick the one that's has supposed to have a million
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: dollars or nothing in it, you, it always has a
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: million dollars.
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: Now, you're at these boxes. The choice was made long
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: before you got there. So you should take both. But
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: if you take both and the machine is always right,
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: it means that the second box is empty. So you
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: should just take the one box, which means you're leaving $ 1, 000 behind.
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: This is Schrodinger's segment that I'm alive, but I want
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: to die.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: And it's debated hotly to this day. And then the
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: other point is you should probably take.
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: Was this on the card you didn't get to for
• 40:41
  Speaker 3: Bill Maher?
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of the cards I didn't get to.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of the cards I didn't get to
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: on Bill Maher.
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: I haven't been able to listen to that. When he
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: walked out, was it a Huffy walkout?
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: You know what? The way that everyone talked about it,
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: I was waiting for it to be more Huffy. And
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: then I listened and it was pretty clear he was late.
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: He wanted to leave. He wanted to leave. At some
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: point he decided he was done. And then he left.
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: It was like halfway between. I don't know. I wish
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: I had, I was like, I was, if I knew,
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: if I knew he was about to walk out, I
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: would have gotten to the trans debate sooner because I
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: was really interested in that topic. And he's like, sorry,
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: I got to go.
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: And you previewed that you were going to get there.
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: I did. I had a card.
• 41:17
  Speaker 3: What are all those cards for? And you're like, this
• 41:19
  Speaker 3: one's got trans written on it. It's coming. This one's
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: coming later.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: And it did.
• 41:22
  Speaker 3: And it did.
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: And it did.
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: And it did.
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: And as he discussed, yeah, I'm done.
• 41:28
  Speaker 3: Okay, we're going to take a quick break, but a
• 41:30
  Speaker 3: reminder- That's a good Fox pickup. It did. Yeah, it did.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: Although they're only using- It's so funny. It's such a classic.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: They just play his one line. They're like, got him.
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: He's like, I'm in there too.
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's so weird they didn't do that in a
• 41:42
  Speaker 3: fair hearing.
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they made fun of my Stephen A.
• 41:46
  Speaker 3: Smith thing.
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: They just- made fun of me being like.
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: Who the hell is Tommy Vitor?
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: I'm like, you just excerpted our interview. Wait, we should
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: tell you.
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: Obama pod bros.
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: But the fun, there was a clip from apparently on
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: Fox this morning where the guy doesn't just say that
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: I got annihilated, obliterated. He's like, check out this guy
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: in his T-shirt and sweats. Those are called off-duty pants
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: from Bonobos, sir. They're the Bonobos off-duty pants.
• 42:14
  Speaker 3: He also accused you of not showering. You looked showered
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: in that picture.
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, look, I feel shiny. It's hot in the studio.
• 42:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I could use one of those. I gotta, yeah,
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: I gotta. Maybe some powder before you.
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: Thanks for saying I shower, John.
• 42:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you do shower.
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: We'd rather have our dress code than have to just
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: put on like a half pound of bronzer every time
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: you walk into the studio.
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: I'm wearing jeans and a t-shirt at four o'clock. You're
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: wearing a suit at 4.30 in the morning. Who's winning?
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: Jesse Waters looks like he's in a coffin. Yeah. All
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: that makeup.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: Gutfeld's in a long-sleeve tee every goddamn day.
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: Gutfeld has the most hilarious wardrobe and posture on all
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: of television.
• 42:51
  Speaker 3: The Five has been on a lot. They have fucking
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: makeup artists at Fox and morticians. Jesus Christ. The makeup
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: artists are very nice.
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: Jesse's like this. Jesse's like this. And then Gutfeld is
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: just basically like... Fucking woke bitches. Not that we watch it.
• 43:08
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 43:12
  Speaker 3: We're going to take a quick break. But a reminder
• 43:14
  Speaker 3: before we do that, if you're in LA, come see
• 43:16
  Speaker 3: Love It or Leave It live. Yeah. We just added
• 43:19
  Speaker 3: 12 new show dates through May. This Thursday's show at
• 43:21
  Speaker 3: Dynasty Typewriter features special guests Liza Traeger and Jesse Tyler Ferguson.
• 43:25
  Speaker 3: Grab your tickets now at cricket.com slash events. And if
• 43:27
  Speaker 3: you're not in LA, there will be a fresh pod
• 43:29
  Speaker 3: in your feed or on YouTube every Saturday morning. When
• 43:32
  Speaker 3: we come back, Daniela Diaz.
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• 44:56
  Speaker 3: Joining us today from the Capitol, our friend Daniela Diaz,
• 45:01
  Speaker 3: now at notice. How are you?
• 45:03
  Speaker 5: I'm great. I'm talking to you from this very unattractive
• 45:07
  Speaker 5: closet right by the House chamber on the House side
• 45:10
  Speaker 5: of the Capitol, of the main Capitol building.
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: So I.
• 45:14
  Speaker 5: Couldn't be better. It's an honor to be here talking
• 45:17
  Speaker 5: to you.
• 45:17
  Speaker 3: It is wonderful to have you back. So the big
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: question this week is, can Mike Johnson get all the
• 45:23
  Speaker 3: Republican votes he needs to pass The $ 4 trillion budget
• 45:27
  Speaker 3: resolution that's essentially the blueprint for Trump's entire legislative agenda,
• 45:32
  Speaker 3: which is massive spending cuts and tax cuts. What are
• 45:36
  Speaker 3: you hearing?
• 45:37
  Speaker 5: As of now, he does not have the votes. I'm
• 45:40
  Speaker 5: talking to you, of course, Monday afternoon on Eastern Time
• 45:44
  Speaker 5: on Capitol Hill. The House has not voted yet. They
• 45:47
  Speaker 5: will vote in just a few hours. For the first
• 45:49
  Speaker 5: time this week, they were back in their home districts,
• 45:52
  Speaker 5: House lawmakers, last week. So this will be the first
• 45:55
  Speaker 5: time we see them in person where we'll be able
• 45:57
  Speaker 5: to really ask them a lot of questions. And by we,
• 46:00
  Speaker 5: I mean reporters like myself who pepper lawmakers with questions
• 46:05
  Speaker 5: for our jobs. That's what I do on a daily basis.
• 46:07
  Speaker 5: But as of now, he has a handful of people
• 46:12
  Speaker 5: on both sides, very conservative House Republicans who want more
• 46:15
  Speaker 5: spending and moderate spending. Republicans who don't want to see
• 46:19
  Speaker 5: cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, social benefits that their constituents really
• 46:24
  Speaker 5: rely on that have not been guaranteed won't happen in
• 46:27
  Speaker 5: this budget resolution, John. So a lot of dynamics at
• 46:30
  Speaker 5: play right now. And Speaker Mike Johnson has been trying
• 46:34
  Speaker 5: to really weave all of the personalities together to see
• 46:38
  Speaker 5: if he can pass this budget resolution. It does seem
• 46:41
  Speaker 5: like Groundhog Day, though. I feel like every time I
• 46:44
  Speaker 5: talk about what's happening on Capitol Hill, it's that it's
• 46:46
  Speaker 5: Speaker Mike Johnson is facing his first real test of
• 46:50
  Speaker 5: his leadership. And I would argue this might be his
• 46:53
  Speaker 5: first real test of his leadership. But right now it
• 46:56
  Speaker 5: remains to be seen whether he will be able to
• 46:58
  Speaker 5: pass that budget resolution Tuesday evening.
• 47:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm wondering on this one which group he has
• 47:05
  Speaker 3: the bigger problems with right now. Is it House members
• 47:09
  Speaker 3: who are in competitive districts, maybe more moderate, worried about
• 47:15
  Speaker 3: cuts to Medicaid? How many of them are there that
• 47:18
  Speaker 3: he might have problems with? And then how many of
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: the hardliners in the Freedom Caucus does he have problems with,
• 47:24
  Speaker 3: the Chiproys and all those folks?
• 47:26
  Speaker 5: Well, someone like Congresswoman Victoria Spartz, another very conservative member
• 47:32
  Speaker 5: of the conference, is saying that it doesn't go far enough.
• 47:35
  Speaker 5: Of course, Thomas Massey, another staunch conservative, is also against
• 47:38
  Speaker 5: this measure. But another group that we're keeping an eye
• 47:42
  Speaker 5: on that I close I've been talking to closely is
• 47:44
  Speaker 5: the Congressional Hispanic Conference. Think of a very small group
• 47:48
  Speaker 5: of Latino lawmakers on Capitol Hill who are Republicans who
• 47:51
  Speaker 5: have their own group, not the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Could
• 47:55
  Speaker 5: be confused. They're the Democratic group and very influential in
• 47:58
  Speaker 5: that and that side of of the Capitol. But They
• 48:01
  Speaker 5: really want assurances from Speaker Mike Johnson that he is
• 48:06
  Speaker 5: not going to cut Medicaid, SNAP, these social benefits that
• 48:11
  Speaker 5: are incredibly important to their constituents. And they're planning to
• 48:14
  Speaker 5: meet with Speaker Mike Johnson, have been having conversations with
• 48:17
  Speaker 5: him to get those assurances to get them to vote
• 48:20
  Speaker 5: for this budget resolution. But they're the big group that
• 48:23
  Speaker 5: we have to watch because there's enough of them that
• 48:25
  Speaker 5: could tank this. John, remember, this is a slim majority
• 48:28
  Speaker 5: for Republicans. In the House, he can only really afford
• 48:31
  Speaker 5: to lose, and by he I mean Speaker Mike Johnson,
• 48:33
  Speaker 5: can only really afford to lose one to two votes
• 48:37
  Speaker 5: depending on absences, depending on which Democrats show up to
• 48:41
  Speaker 5: vote for this federal resolution as well because of that's
• 48:43
  Speaker 5: a majority. So he's really got a tricky situation on
• 48:46
  Speaker 5: his hands.
• 48:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he does. He has a tricky situation in terms
• 48:51
  Speaker 3: of getting the votes. He also has a really tricky
• 48:53
  Speaker 3: situation in terms of getting the math to work for
• 48:56
  Speaker 3: all of this. I don't know. It seems like he's
• 48:59
  Speaker 3: either going to go ahead and the Republicans are all
• 49:02
  Speaker 3: going to hold hands and jump and pass a resolution
• 49:07
  Speaker 3: and then maybe a final bill that actually does cut
• 49:11
  Speaker 3: Medicaid by quite a bit, way past just adding work requirements,
• 49:15
  Speaker 3: by the way, right? It's like $ 880 billion, which is
• 49:17
  Speaker 3: quite a huge cut. Is there a version of this
• 49:21
  Speaker 3: where they just decide they're too nervous about the cuts
• 49:25
  Speaker 3: because there's too many frontline members worried about Medicaid cuts
• 49:28
  Speaker 3: and they end up just passing it like last time
• 49:31
  Speaker 3: in the first Trump administration, they just end up passing
• 49:34
  Speaker 3: a huge tax cut that adds to the deficit and
• 49:36
  Speaker 3: they really don't? Get into all the cuts. Like, I
• 49:39
  Speaker 3: just don't know how the math works out on all
• 49:41
  Speaker 3: of this.
• 49:42
  Speaker 5: You're asking very valid questions. I'm by no means a mathematician.
• 49:46
  Speaker 5: So I'm also asking these types of questions when I'm
• 49:49
  Speaker 5: talking to lawmakers in charge of these decisions. But something
• 49:52
  Speaker 5: to remind people. you, John, anyone listening to this, is
• 49:55
  Speaker 5: that the Senate has been moving forward with their own plan.
• 49:58
  Speaker 5: They are completely disregarding what Trump endorsed last week. The
• 50:03
  Speaker 5: one big, beautiful bill, as we've been seeing that phrase
• 50:06
  Speaker 5: floated over and over again, that massive agenda that would,
• 50:09
  Speaker 5: this budget resolution, which includes, of course, extending the 2017
• 50:13
  Speaker 5: tax cuts that Trump enacted in his first administration, border security,
• 50:17
  Speaker 5: and cuts to the national deficit, and raising the debt ceiling. Republicans,
• 50:22
  Speaker 5: Senate Republicans have said, we're doing our own thing. We
• 50:25
  Speaker 5: have a plan B and we're moving forward with it.
• 50:27
  Speaker 5: They started last week. And that's what we call a
• 50:30
  Speaker 5: slimmer budget resolution that does not include tax cuts, but
• 50:34
  Speaker 5: does include defense spending, energy spending, border provisions in a
• 50:39
  Speaker 5: way to try to have Republican wins because they don't think,
• 50:44
  Speaker 5: and this is, of course, not my thoughts, what I'm
• 50:46
  Speaker 5: hearing from Senate Republicans, that the House Republicans can get
• 50:51
  Speaker 5: their work together. Let's put it that way, that they
• 50:53
  Speaker 5: can't move forward on their own bill that includes everything,
• 50:58
  Speaker 5: encompasses all of Trump's massive agenda. So Senate Republicans are
• 51:02
  Speaker 5: moving forward with this. They still haven't passed it. Well,
• 51:05
  Speaker 5: they had their voterama last week with all their budget resolutions,
• 51:09
  Speaker 5: but now they have to start the work of this bill.
• 51:11
  Speaker 5: That's what I mean when I say that. Another thing
• 51:14
  Speaker 5: to keep in mind for anyone listening, this is just
• 51:17
  Speaker 5: the first step of this of this whole process of
• 51:21
  Speaker 5: a budget reconciliation bill on Capitol Hill. They need to
• 51:25
  Speaker 5: still pass the final version of this bill that hasn't
• 51:28
  Speaker 5: even been written. So that's actually an argument that Speaker
• 51:32
  Speaker 5: Mike Johnson is using with his rank and file members.
• 51:35
  Speaker 5: This is just the beginning. Work with me on this.
• 51:37
  Speaker 5: Let's pass this first step so we can start the
• 51:39
  Speaker 5: real work on trying to write this bill. Senate Republicans,
• 51:43
  Speaker 5: of course, moving forward with their own version that doesn't
• 51:45
  Speaker 5: include taxis.
• 51:47
  Speaker 3: So that people know it could look very, very different,
• 51:51
  Speaker 3: the final bill from whatever budget resolution passes. And, you know,
• 51:56
  Speaker 3: I think the Democrats did this with Build Back Better,
• 51:59
  Speaker 3: which is you can get all the Republicans potentially to
• 52:02
  Speaker 3: vote for it by saying maybe you don't like some
• 52:04
  Speaker 3: of the numbers in there now, but you know what?
• 52:06
  Speaker 3: We can change it later. Let's just keep the process
• 52:09
  Speaker 3: moving forward. Yeah.
• 52:10
  Speaker 5: And this process isn't something that happens in a week,
• 52:13
  Speaker 5: maybe even in a month. I mean, Speaker Mike Johnson
• 52:16
  Speaker 5: was at an event earlier today talking to a group
• 52:19
  Speaker 5: of conservatives saying, my hope is to get this passed
• 52:23
  Speaker 5: by the first week of April, the final version of
• 52:25
  Speaker 5: this bill. Now, all of us that were listening to
• 52:27
  Speaker 5: him do that interview thought that's really optimistic. This is
• 52:32
  Speaker 5: going to be a major uphill climb for him and
• 52:35
  Speaker 5: for Senate Republicans, too, because That is a matter of
• 52:39
  Speaker 5: uniting every single Republican to get behind this bill to
• 52:42
  Speaker 5: pass it. They don't need Democratic votes. As you mentioned,
• 52:45
  Speaker 5: they did this with lots of bills in the Biden administration,
• 52:49
  Speaker 5: you know, Inflation Rejection Act. These bills don't need, in
• 52:53
  Speaker 5: that case, needed Republican votes. In this case, they don't
• 52:55
  Speaker 5: need Democratic votes, but it does mean they need every
• 52:57
  Speaker 5: single Republican for the most part to support it. And
• 53:00
  Speaker 5: we all know there's a lot of personalities in both
• 53:03
  Speaker 5: sides of the Senate and the House Republican conferences.
• 53:07
  Speaker 3: What are you hearing from both House and Senate Republicans
• 53:11
  Speaker 3: in terms of how anxious they are over the size
• 53:15
  Speaker 3: of these cuts, particularly the Medicaid cuts? Do you think
• 53:18
  Speaker 3: that is something that they could eventually live with? Or
• 53:22
  Speaker 3: are there some people who are like, no, I'm not
• 53:24
  Speaker 3: going to vote for huge cuts?
• 53:26
  Speaker 5: This is a major red line for a lot of
• 53:28
  Speaker 5: vulnerable Republicans facing tough reelection campaigns in blue districts, in
• 53:34
  Speaker 5: battleground districts. I mean, remember, not every Republican serving in
• 53:37
  Speaker 5: Congress came from a district that is completely red. They
• 53:41
  Speaker 5: have to speak to their constituents, especially these Republicans that
• 53:45
  Speaker 5: I mentioned in the Congressional Hispanic Conference. Not all of
• 53:47
  Speaker 5: them are from swing districts, to be clear, but a
• 53:49
  Speaker 5: lot of them represent constituents who rely on these social
• 53:53
  Speaker 5: benefits to get by day to day and who are
• 53:56
  Speaker 5: talking to these members saying, I won't vote for you
• 53:58
  Speaker 5: this next election unless you can guarantee that these won't
• 54:00
  Speaker 5: get cut. Those members, of course, being led by Congressman
• 54:04
  Speaker 5: Tony Gonzalez, a Republican who, of course, came from a
• 54:07
  Speaker 5: Trump district in Texas, but represents this group of Republicans
• 54:11
  Speaker 5: who might be facing tough reelections, who want guarantees from
• 54:15
  Speaker 5: leadership that they won't touch these very crucial programs that
• 54:19
  Speaker 5: their constituents need. If Johnson can guarantee that that's the case,
• 54:24
  Speaker 5: that they won't get cut, they won't even be touched,
• 54:26
  Speaker 5: which is what Republicans want promises on, there's a likelihood
• 54:31
  Speaker 5: that they would support this massive budget resolution and passing
• 54:35
  Speaker 5: this massive bill that would, of course, enact Trump's massive agenda.
• 54:38
  Speaker 5: But it depends on whether they can get those assurances,
• 54:41
  Speaker 5: and they haven't gotten them yet.
• 54:43
  Speaker 3: So the government also runs out of money in a
• 54:45
  Speaker 3: few weeks. Do you think Republicans can pass a continuing
• 54:50
  Speaker 3: resolution that keeps the government open by funding it at
• 54:53
  Speaker 3: current spending levels, which is just kicking the can down
• 54:56
  Speaker 3: the road again? Do you think they— because Otherwise, they'd need
• 54:58
  Speaker 3: Democratic votes. We can talk about that in a second.
• 55:01
  Speaker 3: But what do you think the prospects are of Republicans
• 55:03
  Speaker 3: being able to keep the government open on their own?
• 55:06
  Speaker 5: I think it's very unlikely, John, because if, you know,
• 55:09
  Speaker 5: you and I know this because we love Congress. But, well,
• 55:12
  Speaker 5: I assume you love Congress.
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: I love Congress.
• 55:13
  Speaker 5: I love covering this whole thing.
• 55:15
  Speaker 3: I worked there once upon a time.
• 55:17
  Speaker 5: There's a handful of House Republicans who have never voted
• 55:20
  Speaker 5: for a CR. And it's always passed with Democratic votes. Now,
• 55:25
  Speaker 5: Democrats won't obviously support A CR based on, you know,
• 55:29
  Speaker 5: all the— I' ve covered so many CRs, so I'm coming at
• 55:31
  Speaker 5: this from, you know, ground— like, it's almost like a trauma
• 55:35
  Speaker 5: for me at this point to cover another CR being
• 55:37
  Speaker 5: passed on Capitol Hill. But they won't support a CR
• 55:40
  Speaker 5: unless they can get something out of the— whatever bill is passed,
• 55:45
  Speaker 5: any— any more additional measures that will benefit Democrats. They're
• 55:48
  Speaker 5: not going to support something that's Republican-led. So Republicans are
• 55:52
  Speaker 5: already starting to paint this as if Democrats aren't going
• 55:55
  Speaker 5: to support us on this issue, then they're the ones
• 55:58
  Speaker 5: that caused a shutdown. Meanwhile, there's always a handful of
• 56:01
  Speaker 5: Republicans who don't vote for continuing resolutions, which I should
• 56:04
  Speaker 5: note is funding the government at its current levels for
• 56:06
  Speaker 5: a certain amount of time. So I don't bet anything
• 56:11
  Speaker 5: when it comes to Congress because I've been surprised in
• 56:13
  Speaker 5: the many years that I've been covering this building. You know,
• 56:16
  Speaker 5: they do sometimes come through. And by they, I mean
• 56:19
  Speaker 5: both sides, both chambers with solutions. Like, for example, what
• 56:23
  Speaker 5: happened in December when very last minute after Elon Musk
• 56:26
  Speaker 5: tanked in a tweet in a post on X, the
• 56:29
  Speaker 5: current CR situation one week ahead of the holidays. And
• 56:34
  Speaker 5: then Republicans had to scatter around and really get close.
• 56:39
  Speaker 5: push forward a CR that they could get behind, that
• 56:41
  Speaker 5: the majority of the Congress could get behind, that Democrats
• 56:44
  Speaker 5: could get behind. It happened. They prevented a shutdown very
• 56:46
  Speaker 5: last minute. I did not see that coming. So it
• 56:49
  Speaker 5: could be another situation like that in just two weeks,
• 56:52
  Speaker 5: however long it is till March 14th and government funding
• 56:55
  Speaker 5: runs out. But as of now, Republicans are, Republican appropriators
• 57:00
  Speaker 5: who are in charge of funding levels are blaming Democrats
• 57:03
  Speaker 5: for bad faith negotiations. Democrats appropriators are blaming Republicans. for
• 57:09
  Speaker 5: bad faith negotiations. They are at a standstill on these
• 57:12
  Speaker 5: negotiations for government funding. In order to keep the government
• 57:15
  Speaker 5: open at this point, it's probably going to be a CR.
• 57:19
  Speaker 5: Democrats are not going to support that without any sort
• 57:21
  Speaker 5: of additional measures attached to it that they can get behind.
• 57:25
  Speaker 5: So this is going to get messy.
• 57:27
  Speaker 3: Do you think that Hakeem Jeffries has his whole caucus unified?
• 57:33
  Speaker 3: in not giving Republicans votes for this? Or do you see,
• 57:37
  Speaker 3: are you hearing anything from the more conservative House Democrats
• 57:41
  Speaker 3: or the House Democrats in frontline districts or the Problem
• 57:44
  Speaker 3: Solvers Caucus or any of those characters? Like, do you
• 57:46
  Speaker 3: think that the Democrats seem unified on this so far?
• 57:50
  Speaker 5: Well, if there's something I can say about Minority Leader
• 57:53
  Speaker 5: Hakeem Jeffries is he does a really good job based
• 57:55
  Speaker 5: on the numerous CRs I've covered of keeping his caucus
• 58:00
  Speaker 5: united when it comes to votes that that matter. And
• 58:05
  Speaker 5: while there might be sometimes one or two Democrats that
• 58:08
  Speaker 5: are against the overall caucus goal of tanking a vote,
• 58:12
  Speaker 5: passing a vote, he's done a good job of keeping
• 58:14
  Speaker 5: them in line. And as of now, a lot of
• 58:18
  Speaker 5: rank and file Democrats are going to take his lead
• 58:20
  Speaker 5: on how he handles this issue. But if you ask
• 58:23
  Speaker 5: Leader Hakeem Jeffries about this, he'll say it's too soon
• 58:25
  Speaker 5: and he wants to see what appropriators come up with
• 58:28
  Speaker 5: as they tend to have these bills written and on
• 58:33
  Speaker 5: the floor the week of a government shutdown pending. So
• 58:37
  Speaker 5: he wants to leave appropriators to figure out how they're
• 58:40
  Speaker 5: going to handle this. When that timeline comes to an
• 58:44
  Speaker 5: end and it's now crunch time to try to fund
• 58:46
  Speaker 5: the government, that's when we see him come forward or
• 58:49
  Speaker 5: behind closed doors, talk to his caucus and say, you
• 58:50
  Speaker 5: got to stay behind me. You have to vote against
• 58:53
  Speaker 5: this bill. We want to see what happens. As you noted,
• 58:56
  Speaker 5: there are always more vulnerable House Democrats, blue dogs, Democrats
• 59:02
  Speaker 5: from red districts who have a lot of pressure to
• 59:06
  Speaker 5: vote with Republicans and keep the government open or at
• 59:09
  Speaker 5: least help. listen to their constituents to side with Republicans.
• 59:13
  Speaker 5: It seems like Jeffries does a really good job of
• 59:15
  Speaker 5: listening to them as well. And, you know, in that case,
• 59:18
  Speaker 5: I'm sure we'll know closer to then what kind of
• 59:20
  Speaker 5: message he'll give them, whether it's to quote something we
• 59:23
  Speaker 5: hear along the lines of very often here, vote your conscience.
• 59:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Republicans holding town halls last week were flooded with
• 59:31
  Speaker 3: constituents angry about Elon's Doge antics, among other things. I
• 59:36
  Speaker 3: saw your former colleague Rachel Bade write that Republicans aren't
• 59:40
  Speaker 3: at all nervous about these town halls, at least on
• 59:43
  Speaker 3: the Doge stuff, maybe a little bit more on the
• 59:45
  Speaker 3: Medicaid side. Is that your sense as well? Yes.
• 59:49
  Speaker 5: Doge antics. Largely, even just a couple hours ago, has
• 59:53
  Speaker 5: been praised by Republican leaders. Speaker Mike Johnson speaking very
• 59:57
  Speaker 5: highly of Elon Musk and his efforts to cut down
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 5: government spending, cut government jobs. Now our rank and file
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 5: Republicans hearing from their constituents like Rich McCormick, who has
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 5: been out. I've seen a lot of videos. I'm sure
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 5: you have two of his town hall over the weekend
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 5: going viral because he heard from a lot of angry
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 5: constituents in Georgia yesterday. about Doge, he's actually coming out
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 5: and saying, I actually think the White House needs to
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 5: go about this a little more slowly. He told a Republican,
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 5: excuse me, a Georgia podcast that just an hour ago
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 5: that he believes that they need to take a look
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 5: at what Elon Musk is doing without, you know, blanket
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 5: support of his measures and his actions. cutting government spending.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 5: So we're hearing from him in that sense. But the
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 5: majority of Republicans from who I've talked to in the last,
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 5: you know, how many weeks has Elon Musk been doing
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 5: this now since, you know, he took office or sorry,
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 5: not took office, took over Doge, I should say. They're
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 5: really largely supportive of his work and they support his
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 5: efforts to cut government spending. They think it might help.
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 5: with trying to pass this massive proposal that would enact
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 5: Trump's agenda items. And they think continuing to cut government
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 5: spending is really what their goal is as they have
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 5: this Republican trifecta. And they're committing to what their constituents wanted.
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 5: But you are hearing, to be clear, John, from a
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 5: couple of Republicans. I mentioned Rich McCormick, Lisa Murkowski, senator
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 5: from Alaska. who is coming forward and saying she's not
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 5: supportive of what Elon Musk is doing. And she is
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 5: very concerned that his cuts will affect conservation efforts in Alaska,
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 5: energy projects in Alaska. So there are a couple of senators,
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 5: House members, Republicans, namely Democrats, of course, are very against
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 5: what Elon Musk is doing, that are coming out and
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 5: saying specifically how these efforts could affect them back home.
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it seems like they're all in favor of cutting
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 3: government and making government more efficient and even getting rid
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 3: of some of the federal workforce in principle, it does
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 3: sound like the ones who are facing town halls and
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 3: facing angry constituents or the ones who have constituents who
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 3: are affected by these cuts are starting to get maybe
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 3: a little wobbly. Is that fair?
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 5: That's fair. And, you know, something to keep in mind
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 5: is something we're hearing from Democrats and argument is that
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 5: they didn't vote for Elon Musk. And that's something that
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 5: we're hearing these constituents in these town halls also tell
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 5: these Republicans. But I do want to note that in-person
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 5: town halls have also become really rare these days. Most
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 5: Republicans and Democrats, I should note as well, do tele-town halls,
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 5: virtual town halls. So seeing these in-person town halls is
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 5: really unique and a show from these members that they
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 5: do want to hear from their constituents and are willing
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 5: to put up with the criticism that they're receiving. So
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 5: seeing Rich McCormick deal with that, really interesting because most
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 5: members don't really like to do that anymore.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 3: Last question and I'll let you go. I just was wondering,
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 3: as a reporter, you've been watching the last month unfold.
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 3: The Trump White House has booted the Associated Press out
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 3: of the White House for not calling it the Gulf
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 3: of America. Just today, we're talking Monday afternoon, Trump did
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 3: a joint press conference with Macron and the AP reporter
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 3: based in France said, was allowed to ask a question
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 3: because the French decided that would be their first question.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 3: So that was the decision by the French. The AP
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 3: reporter based in the US that's supposed to cover the
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 3: White House was not allowed in. Again, Trump also posted
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 3: this morning about how MSNBC is illegal and should be
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 3: shut down and should have to pay a lot of
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 3: money and for I don't know what. Has there been
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 3: discussions between outlets like yours and other outlets about how
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 3: to handle this as a Sort of as an institution,
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 3: how are you dealing with it? How is Notice dealing
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 3: with it? What are your thoughts on all this?
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 5: John, I can't speak to what Notice is doing or
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 5: my former employer Politico is doing or even my former
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 5: employer CNN is doing. I've worked in a lot of
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 5: news outlets in D.C. But something that I know and
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 5: that I truly feel is that I'm supportive of freedom
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 5: of the press. And I think it's incredibly important. for
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 5: all reporters to have access to newsmakers, be able to
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 5: be allowed in those rooms, to be able to ask
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 5: those questions. And I stand by making sure that, you know,
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 5: the institutions that have been in these rooms and have
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 5: always been in these rooms should be in these rooms.
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 3: Yes, I think that's very well said. Daniela Diaz, thank
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 3: you so much, as always, for joining us on Pod
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 3: Save America. And congrats on your new gig at Notice.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 3: And keep in touch.
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 5: Thank you so much.
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 3: That's our show for today. Dan and I will be
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 3: back with a new show on Friday. Talk to you then.
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 2: The great thing about going to Lowly is you're guaranteed
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• 1:04:55
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• 1:04:56
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• 1:04:58
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