Latest / Pod Save America / Trump Honors Dead Friend, Restarts War

Transcript

Trump Honors Dead Friend, Restarts War · Pod Save America

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Today's presenting sponsor is SimpliSafe Home Security. Most home security
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: systems wait for a smashed window or kicked in door.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: That's already way too late. With SimpliSafe Active Guard Outdoor Protection,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: AI-powered cameras detect outside parties and then a live agent
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: intervenes to send them running before a break-in even begins.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: With SimpliSafe, you can customize your system to fit your needs.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: It's more than just a security camera. It's a comprehensive
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: system of sensors, indoor and outdoor cameras, and 24-7 professional monitoring.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: The app-guided setup is simple and there's no drilling required,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: so you can install and arm your system in under
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: an hour. There are no long-term contracts or cancellation fees.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Monitoring plans start at around a dollar a day. John
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Lovett set up a SimpliSafe system himself. You bet I did.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Very easy to do. Customized it.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Set it up.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Worked perfectly. App is great. Customer support great.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Really reliable.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Gives you peace of mind.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Peace of mind. We want you to experience the peace
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: of mind of real home security, which is why we
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: partnered with SimpliSafe to offer an exclusive discount to our
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: listeners today. Right now, you can get 50% off your
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: new system by visiting simplisafe.com slash crooked. That's half off
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: at simplisafe.com slash crooked. There's no safe like SimpliSafe.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: I'm Jon Lovett.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: I'm Tommy Vitor.
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: I'm back, guys.
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: Welcome back. It's good to be back.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: We missed you.
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: I missed you guys.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: And you were gone.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: I was gone. I was gone. You guys did a
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: great job. Great job holding up the fort here. On
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: today's show, Lindsey Graham is dead and Mitch McConnell is alive.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: We'll talk about Graham's legacy and McConnell's proof of life photo.
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: and how the absence of both men is affecting Republicans'
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: agenda in Congress. We'll also get into Trump's latest war
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: on the press, after the White House and Kash Patel
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: subpoenaed four New York Times journalists over their reporting on
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: Qatari Force One, and whether RFK Jr. has a lid
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: on what's become an explosive outbreak of diarrhea. Sounds like,
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: that's not about your vacation.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: It's sort of more of a personal thing.
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I was going to say, see if you can
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: help me out. Then Love It talks to our pal
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: Brian Tyler Cohen about his brand new book, The Day After,
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: How to Wield Power in a Post-Trump World. Fun to fantasize,
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: I guess.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Champagne problem.
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: Okay, Brian. All right, but first, let's get to the
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: top story this week. It appears as though the ceasefire
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: with Iran fell apart last week while I was gone,
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: and now we're back to full-scale war. RIP the MOU
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: of Versailles. Trump officially notified Congress that military action has resumed.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: He also says he's reinstating the naval blockade of Iranian
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: ports and that, quote, the USA will be, from this
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: point forward, known as the guardian of the Hormuz Strait.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: Really rolls off the tongue.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Guardian of the Hormuz Strait.
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: That's what we've always wanted to be. USA was kind
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: of boring. We want to be called the guardian of
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: the Hormuz Strait.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Not the first time an agreement signed at Versailles after
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: a war ended poorly. Hopefully not as badly as.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: The last time.
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: Good job, J.D.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Vance. Good job. Yeah, really nailed it.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: We're also apparently going to start charging a 20 percent
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: toll on all cargo that goes through the Strait, according
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: to Trump, which seems like it's a violation of international law.
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: That's according to Marco Rubio last month.
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: Ticketmaster's like, why so little? They're just trying to get
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: their beaks wet. And the Rubio isn't just like, oh,
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: this is illegal. It would be a contagion that would
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: spread across the globe.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: Looking forward to him talking about that now. Meanwhile, Iran
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: continues to fire off rockets at U.S. targets across the
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: Middle East and openly threaten revenge on America. Not to worry,
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: Trump's got this whole thing under control. Here he is
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: calling into Fox & Friends this morning.
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: We're going to keep the straight and we'll probably run it.
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: We'll become the guardian of the straight. Maybe we'll call
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: it the guardian angel of the straight. And we should
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: be reimbursed for that. Obama was the worst of all
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: because Obama actually went to their side. Obama, because, you know,
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: he's a, well, let's not say, let's, let's not say,
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: let's leave that for another time.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: Muslim.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Is that what he was going to say?
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: Socialist, socialist, socialist, foreigner or something in that, in that vein.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: An Ayatollah.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: He's such a dick.
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: Tell me, how feasible do you think it is for
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: the U.S. to become the guardian angel slash toll booth
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: operator for the Strait of Hormuz?
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Paging Curtis Lewa, right? Guardian angels. Could we stand up
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: a mission to permanently escort boats to the Strait of Hormuz?
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: They could do a formal escort mission. It would require
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: a lot of Navy resources. It could last a long time,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: maybe permanently.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: I was going to say indefinitely.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: In perpetuity. Hey, another forever war, everybody. Uh, it would
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: cost a lot of money and it would be really,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: really risky because again, it's a 30 kilometer choke point
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: and Iran can hit you with drones, missiles, naval mines,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: God knows what else. And you know, the whole thing
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: unravels if one gets through. Um, so I don't think
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: that a permanent escort mission is going to get you
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: back to pre-war shipping traffic levels because there's like limitations
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: on how many, you know, Navy destroyers you have. Uh,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: fewer companies are going to want to try this because
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: it is inherently more risky. And then a lot of
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: companies are not going to pay a 20% surcharge. That's
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: a pretty big fig on the shipping fee. So my
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: guess is that this is an empty threat designed to
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: create leverage from the White House. And they'll probably walk
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: the whole thing back in a couple of days. I
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: just can't see how this will actually get implemented. Remember
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: the last time Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudis were like, no,
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: you're not using our airspace. You're not doing an escort mission.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: What are you even talking about? And then I saw,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: did you see the New York Post reported that the
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: White House is calling this latest operation, Operation Bitch Slap?
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: No.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: Is that a joke?
• 6:00
  Speaker 5: No, no.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: That's official?
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: It's very Hegsethian to me, but it suggests that they
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: viewed sort of what's happening as a time-limited and temporary
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: battle with the Iranians.
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: It also feels like just a way to try to
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: get attention. It's like he's trying to act up Hegseth,
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: and they've named all the other missions, and they didn't
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: get enough attention, so now we're just going to bitch slap.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, this was someone on background, for what it's worth.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: But it feels Hegsethian. There's also a great Wall Street
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Journal piece about how there's some poorly worded language in
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: the ceasefire MOU that's being interpreted by Iran as meaning
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: they now control the Strait. So great work, as you said, J.D. Vance,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner. Just big picture, it's just
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: worth remembering this was going to be a four to
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: five week operation to deal with Iran's nuclear program. And
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: now we're well over four months and we're talking about
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: how to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: I just want to add one thing to your list
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: of reasons that this is not a good idea. One
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: other would be that it's not traditionally, in the conception
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: of Americans, the role of the U.S. military to be
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: the permanent security detail for oil tankers moving through the
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: Gulf to protect the investment of large multinational corporations in
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: the infrastructure by which they transmit fuels.
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: That's why we got to take a cut.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Love it.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: I was just doing some math on this. About 20
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: million barrels a day go through the strait, usually. $ 80
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: a barrel, that's $ 320 million a day, 20% of that.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: It really did remind me, Trump's saying, look, we've got
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: to stop these Iranians from trying to charge a toll
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: for people moving to the Strait of Hormuz. And as
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: a consequence, we are going to charge a toll for
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: moving to the Strait of Hormuz. And there's this episode
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: of Sopranos where this poor gardener is stuck between a
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: war between Feech Lamana and Polly Walnuts, and he just
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: gets the ever-loving shit beat out of him over. At
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: the end of it, Polly Walnuts is like, You're going
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: to pay me, and I did you a favor. I
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: protected you from the other guy, and you're going to
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: have to do some lawns for free. That's Trump with this.
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: And they're like, that meme of the, you know, our
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: blessed ships, they're barbarous murderers. And it's like, our blessed
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: protection services, your barbarous protection racket.
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: I saw the Iranians, one of them tweeted out, like,
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: you know, you're right. Someone needs to control that. It's good.
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: But we're going to do it for much less.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: Hey, the Iranians can get you a better deal than Trump.
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: Let me get you into the straight. I'll only take 10%.
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: Are you going to take 20%? I'll get you through
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: the straight in 10%. So stupid. It seems to me
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: like Trump's chances of negotiating that MOU into a long-term
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: deal with Iran may have dropped precipitously over the last
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: week or so. But I don't know. What do you think, Tommy?
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: I mean, the Wall Street Journal has reported that the
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: Trump administration thinks a nuclear deal is increasingly unlikely.
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: I wonder why they would think that.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: So if you can't get them to abide by the
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: 60-day MOU, I don't know that you're going to get
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: them into a more complicated nuclear deal.
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: I feel like when we first talked about this, we
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: talked about the fact that there's a fundamental problem, which
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: is that the two circles of the Venn diagram don't
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: overlap because Donald Trump can't accept a deal that's not
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: demonstrably better than the Obama deal, but the only deal
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: that will ever be on offer is one that's demonstrably worse.
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: Everything about that MOU was about kicking the can on
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: that fundamental problem and all the ups and downs. We
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: have a deal. We have an impasse. These people are
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: bastards we can't work with. I've never met more reliable partners.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: All of it has been a high-dudgeon dramatic Trump show
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: on top of the fundamentals, which have been terrible from
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: the beginning.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: The Trump administration was betting that they could offer Iran
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: a bunch of economic incentives and get them to not
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: want to go back to war. But for Iran, they're like,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: we just survived a war against the US and Israel.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: This is our moment to assert our dominance over the
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: entire region. And they're betting that Trump doesn't want to
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: go back to war before the midterms. And I think
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: they are right because Trump tells us as much all
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: the time.
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: So Trump did a little interview with Tommy, your friend,
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: Hugh Hewitt.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: I caught that.
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: Did you see that? So Hugh had asked him, do
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: you plan to oust the Iranian regime? And Trump says, well,
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: I think they're a little cuckoo.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: They all are.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: To them, deals are made to be broken. They're extremely
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: unreliable people. Hugh, was the MOU that your negotiators brought
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: back built to fall apart?
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: No. What does that mean?
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: Trump says, it was built to test. It was a test.
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: We didn't know. Look, memorandums of understanding when you're dealing
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: with sleazebags don't mean much. How many times was Trump like,
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: this new group of people, they're so reasonable. We can
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: make deals with them.
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: J.D.
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: Vance is out there being like, it's really cool for
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: the first time in 47 years that we have all
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: these channels to the Iranians and they just want to chat.
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: And it's just, it's been so cool.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the friends we make along the way. And yeah,
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: the huge setup question, it's like, Is it possible, Mr. President,
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: that things are going exactly as you planned? Why, yes, Hugh,
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: I think they might be. I think you're right. Exactly
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: as we planned. Huzzah!
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: Also, I noticed that Trump at NATO was like, we've
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: already got the nuclear material because it's so far underground.
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: Nobody's going to be able to get it except us.
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: So why did we go to war in the first place?
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: Wasn't the whole point to get the nuclear material?
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: You're going to drive yourself crazy trying to find any
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: sort of internal logic. Yeah, and he's calling it the
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: nuclear dust now because it's so stupid.
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: It is funny that the MOU, it formalized the ceasefire.
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: That's gone. It ended the blockade. The blockade's back. Reopened
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: the street of Hormuz. Closed again. Sanctions relief. Oil waiver.
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: That's gone now. And now a 60-day clock to negotiate
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: the permanent deal. That's August 16th. We are well on
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: our way. Good stuff.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Good stuff. Well done, everyone.
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: Before we move on... I kind of missed this when
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: I was gone. The story about the Iranians, the Israelis
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: giving the U.S. intelligence that the Iranians are trying to
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: kill Trump again. What's going on there?
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Well, apparently they did that. Yeah, they the Iranians. Apparently
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: the Israelis passed along intelligence to the U.S. claiming that
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Trump was on some there's some new effort to assassinate him.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: And Trump went and bragged to the press about how
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: he's like number one on the Iranian hit list. And
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: that maybe is why He switched from the old Air
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Force One to the new Air Force One on the
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: way home. We're going to talk about this later. But
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: also maybe why he started bombing again. I'd probably be
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: pretty pissed if J.D. Vance keeps talking about how cool
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: the Iranians are. Last time there was that much daylight
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: between two members of a mob family, Corleone gets shot
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: outside that fucking orange stand. It's like a little too
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: much daylight inside the family, guys.
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: Did make me feel, too, like the Israeli intelligence Netanyahu
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: is probably like, oh, you're not bombing enough lately? See?
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: See?
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: They're trying to kill you.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: It's just such a mark. Like, of course they're trying
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: to kill you, man. You killed Qasem Soleimani and then
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: you bombed their country for like a month. Do they
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: like you now?
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: Right. Democrats in Congress haven't really had the ability to
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: rein in Trump on Iran, though they may have a
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: chance this week. Brian Schott said he's voting no on
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: the annual defense bill known as the NDAA. citing Trump's
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: request for a 50% increase at the Defense Department. This
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: is separate. This is an addition to the extra $ 67 billion,
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: I think, in funding that Hegsat's asking for by August
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: and a separate supplemental bill. Do you guys think every
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: Democrat will see this as an easy call like shots?
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: No, they won't. I mean, maybe they should, but they won't. First,
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: so this is not an appropriations, it's an authorization, right?
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: So this is about how the Congress is directing money
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: to be spent, but it doesn't actually appropriate the money.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: That's a separate process for reasons that make sense if you,
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: I don't know, read Roll Call on the Toilet, but
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: as many great Americans do. But where else are you
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: going to read it?
• 13:40
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: But I wonder, because so we've had similar debates in
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: the past about holding something up that actually includes the
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: reforms that Democrats want, right? So there is an argument
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: that you continue to have this pass with a huge
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: super majority. It also raises incomes for the troops, that
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: kind of thing. It has some reforms that Democrats want.
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we should say that everything's in there.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: Everything's in there.
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: So Ukraine, like the whole Defense Department strategy, everything for.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: The whole year.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: And not passing it doesn't hamstring the administration to fight
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: the war at all because it's not actually authorizing any.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: It's not actually appropriating any money. It's just kind of
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: proving how money can be spent. And then you have
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: a fight that's coming over the supplemental, which is what
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: Hegseth really wants and Trump really wants, which is, I
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: think to me, I look at the Senate to be
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: voting no on fucking everything. They fought a fucking insane,
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: stupid war that's hamstringing the global economy without any kind
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: of justification. But the appropriations is the money he needs
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: and is the kind of the, I would say is
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: like the real backend authorization of the conflict.
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it seems like if you're, It seems like the
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: reason to target this one, even over the appropriations, is
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: you could probably do a supplemental. If they do this,
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: it would be a reconciliation bill. So you only need
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: 51 votes. And this, it seems like they need the full.
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: This is not a 51 vote margin. This is the full.
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: So Democrats probably have, if they all banded together, they
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: have the votes to block this.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: Yes, but nothing about not passing this prevents them from
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: doing the appropriate. Look, I'm just, this is something that
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: traditionally passes like 80-20, which is a huge majority because
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: it's for but kind of the broad support of the
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: military and all kinds of rules that they've been trying
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: to fight for.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the stat is like the Congress has
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: passed an NDA every year for, I think, 60 plus years.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: So this is usually a thing they get done in
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: a bipartisan fashion. I do like this authorizes 1.15 trillion.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: I think there's going to be another request for up
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: to 350 billion. So for 1.5 trillion total.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: Which is what Trump wants.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: That's what Trump wants, which is an insane amount of money.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: There's a 42% increase on current levels, which is just
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: not necessary or justified or uninteresting. And there was some
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: polling that a recent poll found 60% of Americans think
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: that that budget request is too high. And majorities think
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: the Iran war was dumb and unnecessary. And they probably
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: won't be thrilled if they were to learn that it's
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: ramping back up again. So like- Easy no. This is
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: an easy no for me, but there's a lot of
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: Democrats who I think will have a lot of muscle
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: memory that says voting against all of the underlying things
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: within this bill and voting against authorizing Pentagon spending is
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: bad politics for them. Again, I think that's a dated
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: view of politics in the world, but I think that's
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: why you'll see majorities vote for it yeah there's a
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: view amongst them i'm sure that uh it's bad politics
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: for sort of the reasons you're getting at which is
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: like weak on national security not supporting the troops there's
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: also like a bad local politics angle like slotkin was
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: asked about it and she said oh it's a tough
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: vote specifically because it includes like you know money for
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: a new hangar at selfridge air national guard base right
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: so you can imagine that there's a number of democrats
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: like that um But I do think, look, I think
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: it's meaningful that Schatz, who's in line to be in
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: leadership here, is saying that he's voting no and that
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: the Democrats voted no in committee.
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: So I don't know. I think at this point, Trump
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: is continuing to fight this war and nothing is stopping him.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: And you might as well throw everything you have at
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: it if you're in Congress to try to put roadblocks up.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: Or at least raise attention.
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: Pod Save America is brought to you by Armour Colostrum.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: When you prioritize your body's baseline, you're better equipped to
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: show up with focus and energy no matter what the
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: day holds. Armour Colostrum is a simple nature-inspired addition to
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: your daily wellness routine. While many turn to probiotics for
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: gut support, they often only focus on one part of
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: a complex system. Armour Colostrum works differently for providing comprehensive
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: nourishment for your gut's natural barrier. It's designed to help
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: sustain your microbiome and support your body's natural defenses against
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: the stressors of modern life. Elevate your self-care from the
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: inside out. Armor Colostrum provides a blueprint of nutrients that
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: complement your body's natural renewal processes from supporting skin and
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: hair vibrancy to assisting with daily recovery. It's the ultimate
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: tool for those looking to optimize their well-being at the
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: cellular level. Researchers have shown that Colostrum can be a
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: powerful ally for your active life. It supports the body's
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: natural ability to absorb nutrients and maintain lean muscle. We've
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: worked out a special offer. For our audience, receive 30%
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: off your first subscription. Go to Armour.com slash Crooked or
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: enter Crooked to get 30% off your first subscription order.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: That's A-R-M-R-A dot com slash Crooked.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: Pod Save America is brought to you by Bombas. Summer
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: is here and we are living for life outdoors. We've
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: got days at the beach. Soccer games, going to soccer games,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: you're watching soccer games.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: Ever go rucking, Tommy?
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: We're going rucking.
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: You ever do any rucking?
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: Or splunking?
• 18:27
  Speaker 5: Do you ruck?
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: What's a rucking?
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: Rucking, it's when you just wear a ruck set, just heavy.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: Wear something heavy and walk around.
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: It's great.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: A lot of people in my neighborhood do that.
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: I love it.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: That seems like a fun thing to do. We could
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: do some parkour.
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Remember when that was a thing?
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: Remember when planking was a thing?
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, planking is still a thing. Yeah, well, planking,
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: I guess people were just doing it in public places
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: and falling off of things, but don't do that in
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: your Bombas.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, don't do that. You know what's great with Bombas? Everything.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: Everything. They're super comfortable.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: Bombas makes your comfiest summer staples so you can make
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: the most out of your summer plans. They've got a
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: whole line of pro-level, sports-specific socks. I wear them every day, almost,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: for golf, yoga, the gym, and every kind of runner. Plus,
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: they're airy, sweat-wicking. My feet feel good at the end
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: of the day as they did at the start. They
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: also make the best soft and supportive compression socks, perfect
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: for all your summer travel. The thing about compression socks
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: is normally they've got like a hospital vibe to them,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: but Bombas do not. They keep your legs feeling fresh
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: on a long flight, but they also look cool. They
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: come in vibrant summer colors. Do you know what EVA
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: stands for?
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: I don't.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: Neither do I. I just know that Bombas makes their
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: sandals and slides from the super lightweight, cushy, waterproof EVA foam.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: It's like walking on marshmallows, if that's the kind of
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: thing you're into.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: I was wearing my Bombas Friday slides over the weekend,
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: July 4th, and I said out loud, I'm not wearing
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: any other kinds of, this was not part of an ad.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: I'm not wearing any other kinds of flip-flops. These are
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: my sandals. I'm only wearing these.
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: You're just doing IRL reads.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: I was. I was doing a host-endorsed read in the
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: world by the pool.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: And for every item you purchase, an essential clothing item
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: is donated to someone facing housing insecurity. One purchased equals
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: one donated with over 200 million donations and counting. Head
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: over to bombas.com slash crooked. Use code crooked for 20%
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: off your first purchase. That's B-O-M-B-A-S.com slash crooked. Code crooked
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: at checkout.
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: So Republicans will have a tougher time passing anything through
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: the Senate right now since they're currently dealing with two absences,
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: Lindsey Graham, who died suddenly over the weekend, and Mitch McConnell,
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: who is apparently still very much alive. Graham was 71
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: and died Saturday night from what's being reported as an
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: aortic dissection. Axios reports that a person who had spoken
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: with Graham said the senator complained he wasn't feeling well
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: but didn't want to seek medical attention until after his
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: Meet the Press appearance the next morning. Graham apparently joked, quote,
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: I can't die now. I still need to do the
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: Russia sanctions, get Iran sorted out, and do Israeli-Saudi normalization.
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster has appointed Grand Sister Darlene
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: to serve out the remaining months of his term. He
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: was up this November, and Trump, of course, offered a
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: touching tribute to the senator during his Fox & Friends phoner,
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: as one does.
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: He was a friend. He would call me all the time.
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: I'd say, stop calling me, Lindsey. He was a great guy.
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: He loved playing golf, loved being outside. It wasn't that
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: he was a great striker of the ball. He wasn't
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: exactly a perfect striker. He wasn't Jack Nicklaus. He was
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: not Tiger. Now, he had one bad moment, and that was,
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: you know, the January 6th thing when he stood up.
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: All right, now I've had it. That's it. I can't
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: do it anymore. And then he called me like about
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: 40 minutes later, and he said, did I really say that?
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: I can't believe it.
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: So he called me too much. He was a bad golfer.
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: He betrayed me, then said just kidding, and he did
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: like being outside.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, which is also what you say at the funeral
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: for a golden retriever. Love the ball, love being outside.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: It's just incredible.
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: You lose someone. Bark too much, get me up at night.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: But a sweetheart in the end. Like a guy loyal.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: A guy who is seemingly Donald Trump's best friend in
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: Congress dies and he calls into Fox News and he
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: just can't help but make it entirely about himself. I mean,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: it's not surprising in any way. It's just, it's a
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: reminder of who he is.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: Lindsey Graham's legacy. What will it be?
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: How about it?
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: So I remember when I was working for Hillary Clinton,
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: she had just come back. from a trip to the Arctic.
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: With Sinbad?
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: With, no Sinbad. I don't believe he was on that trip.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: With Lindsey Graham, John McCain, Susan Collins. And that was
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: at a time when Lindsey Graham was vociferous around climate change.
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: He was trying to figure out how to get the
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: GOP to change on climate change. He did a cap
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: and trade bill with John Kerry. And then you fast
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: forward to Donald Trump being president and he's trying to
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: claw back the Inflation Reduction Act money that went towards
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: electric vehicles. On immigration, he works with Ted Kennedy to
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: write a comprehensive immigration bill. He is a staunch advocate
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: for comprehensive immigration reform. Then you fast forward to the
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: Trump era. He is not only against any kind of
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: comprehensive proposal, he's against helping the dreamers. And he comes
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: out in favor of ending birthright citizenship and obviously supports
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump and his draconian immigration policy. And so you know,
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: you look at like, there was an interview that I
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: thought was revealing where he said, you know, I'm going
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: to do what Mitt Romney couldn't do. And I'm going
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: to do what McCain couldn't do. I'm going to harness
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: the magic. You know, there's a dark side to Donald Trump,
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: but there's a magic and I'm going to be the
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: one to harness it.
• 23:33
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: And now he's dead. And you look and say, well,
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: what did you harness exactly? What'd you harness? What'd you
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: get for your magic?
• 23:38
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: Trump got everything he wants.
• 23:40
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: He got his immigration policies. He, he, he, he abandoned
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: any kind of effort to tackle climate change. I suppose
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: you got a war with Iran. Maybe there's an argument
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: that you've slowed the abandonment of NATO, but here we
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: are and he's threatening Greenland. You're begging him to do
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: what he can for Ukraine, which his heart is not in. So,
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: you know, Lindsey Graham sold his soul to try, I think,
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: to stay relevant and to, and then generously, I think,
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: to try to turn Donald Trump as away from his, quote,
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: dark side. And the end result is Lindsey Graham is
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: the one who became a kind of sad and pathetic vassal. Yeah,
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: I think it's a cautionary tale about what happens if
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: you're in D.C. too long and you get caught up
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: and care about the wrong stuff.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: I don't know Lindsey Graham. I've never met him. People
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: say he was nice and charming and kind. He was
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: nice to his sister. Their parents passed away. He raised
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: his sister.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: Who we love.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: We love Darlene.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: And we think Darlene has incredible judgment. And she's coming in.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: It's a hard job. But this is somebody who has
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: her own head on her shoulders and she's not going
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: to get bullied by a bunch of these Republicans and
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump. She's going to do what she knows is
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: right for the people in North Carolina.
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: I think that helps saying that out loud.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: Okay. We're hoping she's a secret liberal. Wouldn't that be
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: funny if she was just a secret liberal?
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: I mean, it would be a great twist.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: She just came in. Anyway, what I'm getting at is like,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: there's people who think that he is kind of like
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: a throwback to a better and more collegial time in DC.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: And maybe that's true, I guess. But like, I think
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: the defining quote about Lindsey Graham is what he said
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: to Mark Leibovich in 2019 in this New York Times
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: Magazine piece, because Mark is pressing him like, how do
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: you go from being Trump's biggest hater to like desperate
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: to be in his inner circle? And Graham says to
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: try to be relevant. And he also said, I've never
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: been called this much by a president in my life.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: It's weird and it's flattering and it creates some opportunity.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: And I just I found that to be so sad
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: because this is a man who over the course of
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: his career.
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: Credit for honesty.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Credit for honesty. But he went from being defined. He
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: defined relevance for himself as first being John McCain's sidekick.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: and then being Donald Trump's sidekick. And he just didn't
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: care about the cognitive dissidence that came along with the
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: two or the vile things that Trump said about his
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: best friend. And I mean, love it. I thought you
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: ticked through all like the policy area as well. Like
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: the thing it seems like he got policy wise was
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: a war with Iran. So congrats on that. But like,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: you know, the other thing he thinks he seems to
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: be excited that he got was 63 appearances on Meet
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: the Press. And there would have been a 64th this Sunday.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: And it's just such an ephemeral, definition of relevance but
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: it's also such an indictment of the dc establishment press
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: that this man is a fixture on these shows because
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: he's primarily booked on these shows to advocate for starting
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: a war somewhere um and so you know look i'm
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: not attacking him personally but i think it's like what
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: you don't want to be in washington you know you
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: want to stand for something you want to be care
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: about something you want to do something for people and
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: not just be relevant.
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah i mean People's motivations are complex. And when you
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: talk about to a reporter like he did about wanting
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: to stay relevant, the generous interpretation there is Donald Trump
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: is the president and this is where my party is.
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: And so I'm going to try to be relevant to
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: sort of get my policy preferences, you know, move forward
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: in any way that I can. There's also the less
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: generous reading of staying relevant is like, I want to
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: be in the mix. I like being close to power.
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: And You know, Peter Baker had a story about him
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: as well. And he recalls running into Graham outside of
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: a restaurant in D.C. And Graham was on the phone
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: with Trump at that point. And he gets off the
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: phone and he says to Peter about Trump, he's a
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: lying motherfucker.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: Mr.
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: Graham allowed with a shrug, but also said, quote, a
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: lot of fun to hang out with.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: Mr.
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: Trump, he said, was so dominant within the party that
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: he could do almost anything with impunity. Quote, he could
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: kill 50 people on our side and it wouldn't matter, Mr.
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: Graham observed. Honestly, that is a pretty accurate, honest assessment
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: of Donald Trump and Lindsey Graham's relationship with Donald Trump,
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: which is, he's a lying motherfucker, but I'm sure Graham
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: had a lot of fun.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: But he takes me golfing.
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: Hanging out with them.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: Like, that's literally what it is.
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: And that was, by the way, you know, this story
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: mentions this as well, that like, John McCain and Lindsey Graham,
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: you know, had a falling out over this towards the
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: end of John McCain's life. And John McCain was like,
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: why do you have to golf so much with them? Like,
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: I get, I get why you might want to be
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: trying to like push them in the right direction here
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: and there. And this is the first term, of course. Um,
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: he's like, but why are you golfing so much with them? And,
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: you know, that was sort of a sad falling out.
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: Maybe a little jealous, you know, it's like, Oh yeah. Oh,
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: you've made new friends at college, you know, and now
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: you're not hanging out with the old crew.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: It helps. It just speaks to the power of, um,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: personal politics and like he's nice to me there's a
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: lot of people that know better about donald trump who
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: are smart who know he's doing bad things for the
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: country who are like offended by ice raids or whatever
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: but are like well he was nice to me that
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: one time and i think.
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: You know it's like of course like i i believe
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: that donald trump can be unbelievably charming to people.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah i get it i've fallen for that myself you know.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: But it's yes the the the amount trump to like
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: the john thune gave a speech was clearly like i'm
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: like surprised and devastated by the loss of lindsey graham
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: people that like Lindsey Graham, really like Lindsey Graham, charming, funny,
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: that kind of politics is hard in an era when
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: someone like Trump is president. And it's like, beyond just
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: the way in which he kind of flipped on Trump,
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: like the kind of politics he seemed to like, which
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: was personal and kind of making deals and joking.
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: Around, right?
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: Like it is a democratic practice, but when one of
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: the people you're working with attacks the legitimacy of the
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: other party undermines democracy, is hostile to, tries to prosecute
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: his enemies. The jokes don't work. It doesn't make sense anymore.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: The thing that you think you're doing, you're actually not
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: doing anymore because you're practicing, I do think, like genuinely
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: like practicing what you view as the best way you
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: do democracy in a, uh, with a, with a, with
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: a collaborator who actually doesn't believe in it at all. And, uh,
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: like all the people lamenting the end of the era,
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: like the era of John McCain and Lindsey Graham and
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: that kind of like, I don't know, like raucous bipartisanship
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: where you mixed it up and argued. And then Lindsey
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: Graham writes the tribute to Hillary Clinton and time magazine.
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: Like If that's the kind of politics you're wanting, then
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: the enemy.
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: Of it is Donald Trump. So Graham's sister Darlene will
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: only temporarily fill the seat. South Carolina will hold a
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: Republican primary this August to determine who will face Democratic
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: Senate candidate Annie Andrews this November. You guys think this
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: is still a safe seat for Republicans, no matter who
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: wins the primary? Or would anyone like to argue that
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: Dems have an outside shot here?
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: I mean, in such an anti-establishment year, I guess you
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: always have an outside shot. I don't know what that
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: candidate looks like. You know, like a hardcore, like, burn
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: down both parties suck kind of person.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: Trump wins in South Carolina by 18 points. Graham won
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: against Jamie Harrison by 10 points.
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: 10 points, yeah.
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: The swing in some of these off-cycle elections has been
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: around 13 points. So is it hard?
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. Is it impossible?
• 30:54
  Speaker 4: No.
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: It depends on who the person is.
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so there are names that have been floated. Nancy Mace,
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: who just had a stellar performance in the gubernatorial primary.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: I love her posting just when I thought it was out,
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: they pull me back in. Nobody's pulling you anywhere. Nobody
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: wants you in this.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: It's so funny.
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: The algorithm has pulled you back in.
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like, oh, right, fine, I'll do it.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: No, no, no, they're the Russians. Oh, they're the Russians.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: They are responsible.
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: Ralph Norman.
• 31:22
  Speaker 6: Cuckoo.
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: Joe Wilson. Joe Wilson now seen as the.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: Um, elder statesman. Yes, exactly. I was just about.
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: To say that the guy who screamed, you lie at
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: Barack Obama way back when, uh, Lieutenant governor Pamela Yvette,
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: all these have been floated.
• 31:36
  Speaker 4: Uh, yeah.
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: Cook rates it as a solid R. Um, and you know, the,
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: the case for Andrews is she is a real candidate.
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: She's a Charleston pediatrician. Um, she's raised $ 8 million, $ 3
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: million cash on hand. Um, she was actually out raising
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: Lindsey Graham's campaign. Um, and so, you know, enough of
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: a shift, uh, You get a really kooky Republican nominee,
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: who knows? But yeah, outside shot.
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: Lindsey Graham left quite a hole.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: So close.
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: So close. We almost get out of this. We should
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: also talk about McConnell, who offered a proof-of-life photo as
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: an attempt to finally quiet the rumors that he was
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: dead or incapacitated after being rushed to the hospital following
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: a collapse at his home on June 14th. On Sunday,
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: McConnell released a statement from himself and his physician saying,
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: who stated that his prolonged hospital stay was the result
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: of a fall associated with his post-polio condition and that
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: he was also being treated for a mild case of pneumonia.
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: There was also a photo of McConnell sitting in a
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: hospital bed holding the Sunday sports section of the Washington
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: Post alongside his wife, former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao. You
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: guys will be shocked to learn that many in the
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: poster community are falsely claiming that the photo was reused
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: from 2023 or AI-generated. One person who decided to buy
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: that was Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: Can't believe they got Ron.
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: Who gave an interview today saying, I just heard from
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: a source that was an older photo.
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: The source was Brock.
• 33:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: Who's your source?
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: That's so funny. You know it was a tweet that
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: got texted to him.
• 33:07
  Speaker 4: Of course.
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: What have you guys made of the fact that so
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: many people online, left and right, and the U.S. Senate
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: are convinced that a very alive Mitch McConnell.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: Is not alive?
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: Uh, I watched a video of someone analyzing the shirt collar.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: Did you watch it? I watched it. Well, I know
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: I'm not buying it. I just was, I was sort
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: of interested in what the theory is.
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: And like that, it's more just how you're spending your time.
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: The shirt was, the shirt was like kind of folded
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: in the same way as another photo from the past
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: and that it was sort of brought in. I don't,
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: I don't totally buy the theory. It did look like,
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: It was different to me.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: It is weird that we're doing Zapruder film breakdowns of
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: photos in the videos that CNN posted.
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: Well, here's the thing.
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: The reason that.
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: The thing that stuck out to me is just like the...
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: You had a fall and then a mild case of
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: pneumonia and that's why we haven't heard anything for the last...
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: That to me was the weird part.
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: And no, there wasn't cardiac arrest even though there's a
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: lot of reporting about the audio from the dispatch in
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: which you were found in cardiac arrest and unconscious and
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: resuscitated before being brought to the hospital.
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: Maybe it wasn't him.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: Maybe it was somebody else in that house. But... uh,
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: like part of this is he's a single photo holding
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: the day's newspaper. That's what hostage takers release to give
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: you as little as possible, right? Like, Oh, you're the
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: state that the test for a Senator is not, are
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: you alive?
• 34:27
  Speaker 6: Right?
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: Like, yes, that's a bare minimum, uh, but, but, but
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: not sufficient, but not sufficient. So perhaps a video might
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: be helpful. So of course there's going to be a
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: lot of speculation, especially when A lot of old politicians
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: have been shown to be lying about their health and
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: hiding how sick they are over and over and over again.
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: Jill Biden saying she thought Joe Biden was having a stroke.
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: A lot of reporting about the concealing of how he
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: was aging. Mitch McConnell disappeared for three fucking weeks. They
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: were rolling Dianne Feinstein to the Senate after she was
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: no longer copus mentis. So yeah, people are suspicious when
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: they're told that an aging politician is fine. Like there's
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: a conspiratorial mindset on the internet. There is obviously paranoia
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: on the internet. It flourishes there. But it is, I think,
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: not unreasonable to be skeptical when you hear from politicians
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: that they're ancient and fine.
• 35:18
  Speaker 3: Well, and I think some podcast I was listening to
• 35:20
  Speaker 3: on vacation, maybe it was this one. You guys talked
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: about the.
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: I don't listen when I'm on vacation.
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: A few things I wanted to catch up on. There
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: was a- There's also political implications, which I think fuels
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: the conspiracy theories, right? Which is, and I believe that
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: it was August 3rd or 4th that they were worried
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: that maybe Thomas Massey would jump into a race as
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: an independent and then tilt the race to the Democrats.
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: And so there's some kind of machinations there.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: And BTC was floating the theory to me that there
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: was concern that Andy Beshear might run. and could actually
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: win the seat. Now, I had not heard that until
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: I went to BGC, but I like it. Well, I'll
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: see it.
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: If not, I'll hear about it later. And then Andy
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: Beshear was also saying that he is going to challenge
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: the constitutionality of the Kentucky law that says he can't
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: appoint a replacement because he believes that the constitution of
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: the state is clear and that the law violates it. Also,
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: the implications of what would happen in a Senate for
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: just those several weeks where They're losing a vote. You
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: have Tillis. Even with whether McConnell, McConnell's absent regardless right now.
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: The four people like Cornyn, Tillis, Collins, and Murkowski, if
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: the Graham seat is filled and McConnell's back, those four
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: can lead to a tie. But if they all vote
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: no right now, they can really kind of gum up
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: the works.
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: And the Gram seat is filled tomorrow.
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: Yes, the Gram seat's full.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: That's not happening.
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: Or Tuesday. I think it's supposed to be filled on Wednesday.
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: But you start to think about what would happen in
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: a lame duck if there's a Supreme Court vacancy.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: Like that to me is where they're like, oh.
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: Got to get that McConnell. Got to get that proof
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: of life.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: I also think like everyone thinks every photo is AI now.
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: I sent my friend a photo of Erling Haaland with
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: a stuffed raccoon holding a tequila bottle and he asked
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: me if it was real. So thanks for that, fucking Samuel.
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: Every funny photo I laugh at now, I do the
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: same thing. I'm like, is it real?
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: Is it AI?
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: The liar's dividend.
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: Even the AI checkers now, when they're like, they do
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: that on some of the writing. They're like, oh, 80%
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: that this was written by AI. And you're like, was it?
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: Is that right?
• 37:26
  Speaker 3: Is that lying?
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: Like, and if we're just, Let's be harsh. Like this
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: is 100% Mitch McConnell's office's fault. Like their boss went
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: into the hospital on June 14th. They didn't offer any
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: real information for weeks. And then they did this weird
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: leak to the worst liar and asshole on CNN, Scott Jennings.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: and had him claim that he'd just done a 20-minute
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: call with Mitch McConnell where they talked about NATO and Iran.
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: And that was the funniest aspect of this whole story
• 37:48
  Speaker 3: for me. Not the conspiracies, the like, and was Phineas
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: saying the same thing?
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: Barrasso said the same.
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: They're like, yeah, because it's like, oh my gosh, you've
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: had pneumonia, you're in the hospital. Quick, let's talk about
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: the Strait of Hormuz.
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: It was like a head of state readout that you
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: would do from the White House. The two leaders talked
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: about the following issues.
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: One of the topics that came up in both their conversations,
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: according to these reports, was the Graham Platner story. And
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: it's like, So you're talking to Mitch McConnell. You say
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: he's your friend. You identify him as Mitch McConnell, the
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: Kentucky senator, as if we were thinking you were talking
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: about somebody else. You think he might be dying. Your
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: last conversation is going to be about Graham Platner?
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: You know what? Before we throw too many stones from
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: our glass house, I'm just envisioning one of you guys
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: in the hospital and me trying to call you.
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we pivot pretty quick from the emotional stuff.
• 38:31
  Speaker 4: Tommy, how's it going?
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: You'd be like, did I miss anything in the news?
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: What's happening on Twitter?
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: And he'd be like, you don't want to know, buddy.
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: It's actually worse out here than in there.
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: We would, though. We would probably joke about politics, unfortunately.
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: We don't talk on the phone.
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: We don't talk on the phone. I haven't answered my
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: phone since 2013. You guys aren't phone friends.
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: If you guys are in the hospital, maybe.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: Maybe. We'll see.
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, the Republican Congress.
• 38:53
  Speaker 5: Text me.
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: I don't want to take a call. That's true. That's true.
• 38:55
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 38:56
  Speaker 4: Noted.
• 39:05
  Speaker 7: Hey, Dan Taberski here. I'm a podcast host, a journalist,
• 39:08
  Speaker 7: and now with my newest project, the author of my
• 39:11
  Speaker 7: own manifesto. Well, it's a manifesto about manifestos. My search
• 39:15
  Speaker 7: for inspiration in a world that feels more infuriating, more
• 39:19
  Speaker 7: out of its freaking mind with each passing hour. Manifestos
• 39:23
  Speaker 7: are a call to action, an artful scream. They capture
• 39:26
  Speaker 7: our anger and they try to do something with it.
• 39:29
  Speaker 7: This is my attempt to take the manifesto back from
• 39:31
  Speaker 7: mass shooters and nihilists and return it to its rightful
• 39:34
  Speaker 7: place with the warriors, the visionaries, the regular folks with
• 39:38
  Speaker 7: just the right amount of crazy. I compare notes with radicals, secessionists,
• 39:43
  Speaker 7: internet trolls out for a laugh, and punk singers screaming
• 39:46
  Speaker 7: their guts out. all trying to turn their anger into
• 39:48
  Speaker 7: the world they want to see. Listen to Manifesto wherever
• 39:51
  Speaker 7: you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can binge all episodes
• 39:55
  Speaker 7: of Manifesto early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in
• 39:58
  Speaker 7: the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts.
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: Pod Save America is brought to you by Blinds.com. There's
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: a version of your home you haven't lived in yet
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: where the light behaves just as you want, where the
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: rooms feel finished, where you sleep until you decide to
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: wake up not when the sun does. Blinds.com has spent
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: 30 years making it easy to find the perfect fit.
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: With over 25 million windows covered and 50,000 five-star reviews,
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: you can feel confident you're in good hands. Whether you
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: want to go full DIY, bring in a licensed and
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: vetted pro to handle the measure and install, or land
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: somewhere in between, you're always in control, need help picking
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: the right style, book a free consultation with one of Blinds.com's
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: award-winning design experts, leaving ship samples to you or to
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: our fasted-free Choose from a huge variety of style options
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: at prices that fit any budget. Everything is backed by Blinds.com's
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: 100% satisfaction guarantee. Because at Blinds.com, the only thing they
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: treat better than Windows is you. I love Blinds.com. We
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: got Blinds.com in our office. They came in, installed it.
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: Now there's shade in the afternoon when the sun comes through.
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: Because we've got this corner office that gets incredible light.
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: It sucks.
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: Anyway, we love Blinds.com.
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: Right now, Blinds.com is giving our listeners an exclusive $ 50 off.
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: When you spend $ 500 or more, just use code CROOKIE
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: to check out. Limited time offer. Rules and restrictions apply.
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: See blinds.com for details.
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: The Republican Congress does have quite a to-do list, though.
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: They've got the Todd Blanch confirmation, AG confirmation. They've got
• 41:25
  Speaker 3: Jay Clayton for DNI. The NDAA that we just talked about.
• 41:29
  Speaker 3: The Iran war supplemental. FISA. The whole FISA thing that
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: we talked about before the break. That still hasn't been renewed.
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: I think Todd Blanche is in trouble.
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: I hope so.
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: I think Todd Blanche is in trouble. He's supposed to
• 41:41
  Speaker 3: have a hearing this week. We'll see if it continues.
• 41:43
  Speaker 3: But like a number of questions swirling. We're going to
• 41:46
  Speaker 3: talk about the war against the press next. But there's that.
• 41:50
  Speaker 3: There's even though it's DHS, there's now been two other
• 41:54
  Speaker 3: ICE killings we haven't even talked about. There's a man
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: in Houston that ICE killed. And now just today as
• 42:01
  Speaker 3: we're recording on Monday in Biddeford, Maine, where I just was. Um,
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: there was a, it seems like a 26 year old
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: Colombian man who had complete authorization to work in this
• 42:12
  Speaker 3: country and was shot and killed. And the warrant that
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: ICE had was not even for him apparently. Um, and
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: so I would imagine and hope that Todd Blanch at
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: DOJ would get plenty of questions about what kind of
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: investigation they're going to lead into these killings. Susan Collins
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: just said that, you know, the DHS inspector general out
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: of Boston is going to like take over the investigation internally, but.
• 42:34
  Speaker 3: I don't really have a lot of faith in an
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: internal DHS investigation. Which is a report that they'll bury.
• 42:40
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: It feels like the DOJ or it feels like the
• 42:43
  Speaker 3: FBI has to get involved.
• 42:44
  Speaker 5: But again.
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: Thumb Phyllis needs to just decide to like man up
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: and fight this terrible appointment and care about stuff. I mean,
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: like he says things occasionally that are helpful and he's
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: critical of Trump. But like use your power while you can, dude.
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: Also with McConnell gone, I think that eliminates their one
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: seat majority on the appropriations committee.
• 43:01
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: And they can't schedule hearings and it might impact the
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: supplemental funding requests for more Pentagon spending or something more broadly.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: It's just like, it's a reminder that the margins in
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: the Senate and the house are so thin that you
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: have one death or one prolonged absence or one something.
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: It can just like completely hamstring the party in power.
• 43:17
  Speaker 3: I got to say, I think that supplemental is never
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: getting through. I think that because before the election, even
• 43:22
  Speaker 3: though that's 50, only 51 votes, like you have Collins.
• 43:27
  Speaker 3: Houston in Ohio, and Sullivan in Alaska, who are all
• 43:30
  Speaker 3: facing very tough re-elections. You can't let all three.
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: Of them go. You also have Murkowski.
• 43:35
  Speaker 3: And then you have Murkowski, who just, you know, just
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: out of principle.
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: Imagine that.
• 43:38
  Speaker 3: I don't know how to do it, but that's four
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: Republicans on a supplemental to vote for more money for war.
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: And then maybe you get Fetterman, but.
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: Also, like, the House is tricky. The House is tricky.
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: Even the Republicans internally are calling it a zombie Congress now.
• 43:54
  Speaker 4: They just.
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: They have no margins. And they're all angry. They're all
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: mad at each other, too. This is not like a
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: well-run machine here.
• 44:02
  Speaker 3: Let's talk about the latest front in Trump's war on
• 44:03
  Speaker 3: the press. Late on Friday, the administration issued subpoenas to
• 44:06
  Speaker 3: four New York Times journalists who reported that the White House,
• 44:09
  Speaker 3: at the urging of the Secret Service, had decided to
• 44:11
  Speaker 3: use the old Air Force One during the NATO summit
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: in Turkey as a security precaution. FBI Director Kash Patel,
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: who spent eight hours working from the White House on Friday,
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: has been tasked with overseeing the investigation. The Times, Senate Democrats,
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: and press advocacy groups have all criticized the move, which
• 44:27
  Speaker 3: came through the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, Jay Clayton, who's
• 44:31
  Speaker 3: also Trump's nominee for director of national intelligence. The DOJ
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: wrote on Twitter on Saturday that, quote, every administration has
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: addressed the crime of leaking national security information, adding, quote,
• 44:40
  Speaker 3: reporters are not the targets. Those leaking classified information are.
• 44:45
  Speaker 3: What did you guys make of this one?
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: This is just an obvious effort to punish and scare
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: these journalists because a normal leak investigation would figure out
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: who in the government had access to the information. They
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: tried to narrow it down and attempt to find the
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: leaker that way. But instead, they sent a bunch of
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: federal agents to the homes of these reporters on Friday night,
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: and they were like, show up to a grand jury
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: on Wednesday. That's not the normal process. Also, the FBI,
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: there's a weird anecdote in the story about how the
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: FBI was the one warning the reporters not to publish
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: in advance. I don't know why they would be the ones,
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: or asking them not to publish in advance for security reasons.
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: And as you mentioned, the Kash Patel gets summoned. He
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: was going to fly to Chicago to see his girlfriend
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: perform at a country concert that every story notes that
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: it's in, um, the parking lot of some venue, which
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: is very funny. Um, but instead poor cash couldn't go
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: to Chicago. He worked out of the white house for
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: eight hours, apparently constantly updating the white house staff on
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: this investigation into these journalists and coordinating with them. Um,
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: and so I just, it's so obvious that he's trying to,
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: they're trying to punish this reporting. Apparently Trump was very
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: mad about the reports by air force one on some level,
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: you can step back and be like, okay, reporting on, um,
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: security measures embedded in Air Force One, like there is
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: a risk there, but everyone knew about this. Like this
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: was sort of like the conversation about the Qatari gifted
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: Air Force One in advance was that you couldn't put
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: in place these countermeasures, specifically the missile defense stuff, in
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: time for Trump to use it. And it sounds like
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: that's what happened. I mean, that was the assumption, was
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: that piece of whatever countermeasures it had would be the
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: hardest and take the longest. Yeah, and so if we already,
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: everyone was speculating once he wasn't taking that plane back,
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: there's going to be a reporting on why. If the
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: why is security, if Trump is pissed now that he
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: won't be able to use the plane because now the
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: secret's out on the fact that the plane isn't as
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: secure as the original ones that took a decade to build.
• 46:34
  Speaker 3: Just another lesson by American, you know?
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: Yes, for sure. Yeah. And then the DOJ putting out
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: this statement saying, oh, a lot of classified leaks have
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: often been investigating, which seems to be confirming the story, right?
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: Because they're now.
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: saying, so this, there was.
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, every leak investigation kind of confirms the underlying reporting.
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: But also like they're, they're trying to say, oh, well,
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: we're just doing this sort of normal course of investigating
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: a leak. But, but as Tommy said, the sort of the, the,
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: the operations are reversed, but also, uh, like there's a,
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: there is an understanding that if you're trying to get
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: information from journalists who are covering that, that is a, uh,
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: a serious thing to do. Garland put in place protections, Yeah.
• 47:22
  Speaker 3: I mean, going after the journalists, subpoenaing the journalists 48
• 47:25
  Speaker 3: hours after the story is just completely backwards. Just for
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: all the people to be like, oh, Obama, the Obama
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: administration did this and other administrations. It's usually the last
• 47:34
  Speaker 3: resort is to subpoena a journalist if you absolutely have to. Um,
• 47:39
  Speaker 3: you don't start the investigation that way, um, unless you, uh,
• 47:42
  Speaker 3: just want to intimidate people.
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: And like half of the leak investigations under Obama were
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: holdovers from the Bush administration. Like there's, there's all these
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: caveats to this. Look, I understand the criticism of it,
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: but anyway, it's just not comparative. It just really, they're
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: not the same in any way what happened then and now.
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 47:56
  Speaker 3: One more explosive piece of news before we get to
• 47:59
  Speaker 3: love its interview with Brian Tyler Cohen. The country is
• 48:01
  Speaker 3: currently experiencing a cyclosporiasis outbreak, a parasite that causes severe
• 48:06
  Speaker 3: intestinal illness and diarrhea. cases have been found in over
• 48:09
  Speaker 3: half the states in the country, including over 2,500 cases
• 48:12
  Speaker 3: in Michigan alone. While cases of the intestinal illness tend
• 48:15
  Speaker 3: to rise in spring and summer of every year, this
• 48:17
  Speaker 3: year's outbreak has been particularly extreme, raising questions about how
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: the administration's cuts to the FDA and CDC may be
• 48:24
  Speaker 3: affecting the federal response. Um, Nicholas Florco at the Atlantic
• 48:28
  Speaker 3: pointed out that as of Friday, CDC's case tracker of
• 48:31
  Speaker 3: the outbreak had not been updated, reporting less than 200 cases,
• 48:34
  Speaker 3: an obvious undercount, just Michigan alone has more than that. Um,
• 48:38
  Speaker 3: My only question, is RFK Jr. at fault for America
• 48:41
  Speaker 3: getting explosive diarrhea?
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: I think the question is worth asking. I think we
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: don't know. But CDC has lost roughly a quarter of
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: its workforce. They stopped requiring surveillance of cyclospora after it's
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: been tracked for decades.
• 48:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it cut one of the pathogens that they were
• 49:01
  Speaker 3: tracking in the budget cuts.
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: And it's also just hard to measure the cost of having.
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: Like just incompetent boobs at the top of all of
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: these agencies. Like there's a lot of just dogs that
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: aren't barking, right? The kind of thing like serious professionals do.
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: It's because they have explosive diarrhea.
• 49:19
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: Cause they're, yeah, they're, they're sort of in a permanent squat.
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: You know, when your dog has that, you know, a
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: dog sort of has that, those long poops, you know,
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: they're just, you know what I mean? They're like walking
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: across the lawn cause they're just in poop position for
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: a long time. That's Michigan right now. That's pure Michigan.
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: They're not even having, there's no lettuce and tomato on
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: the Taco Bell Supreme anymore. That's what this country used
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: to be. That's what Donald Trump has done.
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: I was reading about this in the Wall Street Journal.
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: Sure you were. And the following sentence was, she went
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: to her local Taco Bell on July 7th, and by
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: the next day, her stomach was upset. I'm like, uh,
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: it's like a dog bites me. It's like a psoriasis. Yeah.
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: I think I've had it since I was 17.
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: It's just, I mean, my reaction to this was what
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: you said, Lovett. Like, what disease are we not tracking?
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: Because of Doge. Oh, my God. Because RFK thinks vaccines
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: are causing it. Like, God help us all.
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: Still a screwworm on the borders.
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the variants. There's a, there's a worm eating cows
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: in Texas. It feels like that should be a bigger deal. Also,
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: I mean, I was at the farmer's market this weekend
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: and we didn't buy like raspberries because Hannah had seen
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: something somewhere that said raspberries might have it. It's like,
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: I don't know. It's scary. It sucks.
• 50:21
  Speaker 3: Not to get darker about this, but this for me
• 50:23
  Speaker 3: goes into the category of like the high class problem
• 50:26
  Speaker 3: that Brian writes about in his book, the after Trump,
• 50:29
  Speaker 3: how do we willpower? Like public health agencies have been
• 50:33
  Speaker 3: so decimated under Trump. And this is the true with
• 50:35
  Speaker 3: almost every agency across government. It's like, I don't think
• 50:38
  Speaker 3: people understand that when they leave and a new administration
• 50:41
  Speaker 3: comes in, it's going to be incredibly difficult to replace
• 50:45
  Speaker 3: all of these experts and officials because you can't just
• 50:47
  Speaker 3: like people got other jobs. You can't just call up
• 50:49
  Speaker 3: everyone that Trump fired and, And who had been, who
• 50:53
  Speaker 3: had all this expertise for decades and be like, oh yeah,
• 50:56
  Speaker 3: can you come back now?
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: And it's gone.
• 50:58
  Speaker 3: And so.
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: Michael Lewis wrote that book about all the data that's
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: being lost. Or there's a section of that book about
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: the federal government that talked about all the data and
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: that is not being tracked or the longitudinal studies that
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: were ended, all the research that was terminated, right? Like
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: that's just a price we're going to pay for a
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: very long time.
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: And all the investments into mRNA vaccines and other things
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: that could provide the like game changing, you know, cures
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: of the future.
• 51:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 51:21
  Speaker 3: And I think the next administration is probably just gonna
• 51:23
  Speaker 3: have to be honest about the hole that we're going
• 51:24
  Speaker 3: to have to dig ourselves out of because there's a
• 51:27
  Speaker 3: political issue with that too, where suddenly there's an outbreak and, uh,
• 51:31
  Speaker 3: you know, the, the next democratic president or the CDC
• 51:34
  Speaker 3: officials like, well, we were hamstrung by all the cuts
• 51:36
  Speaker 3: in the Trump administration. No, one's going to be like, okay, no,
• 51:38
  Speaker 3: don't worry about that. We understand.
• 51:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: Like we spent on, like, there's so many ways in
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: which what we're talking about are all the kind of offensive,
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: like not morally offensive, but, you know, proactively offensive ways
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: in which Donald Trump is, you know, destroying institutions and,
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: and wrecking the government and focused on the wrong things.
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: But I remember when we were working on some speech
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: about some unrelated topic, and there was a fear about
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: swine flu. And so there was a meeting, it rose
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: to the level of the president, and then he gave
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: a brief topper at some speech.
• 52:12
  Speaker 3: Swine flu topper.
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: Swine flu topper. And he ran through what the latest
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: he learned from the agencies and what people needed to know.
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: And that did two things. One, it informed the public
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: about an ongoing public health threat. And whenever the president
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: speaks to something, it is an organizing force inside the government.
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: Gets people to attend to something, figure out what they're doing,
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: explain what they're not doing, what's happening. And none of
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: that happens when Donald Trump is president. None of it.
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: And it's hard to measure price because it's the cost
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: of incompetence that just shows up in people being sick
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: after going to Taco Bell.
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: I think everyone here has been... uh, quite sober and
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: serious and talking about Senator Graham and not talking about
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: all the jokes that were being made on Twitter over
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: the weekend. But I didn't need to read one, which
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: is from an LOL GOP, which has said they have
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: to move the dead senators quickly. So Bobby Jr. Doesn't
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: try to eat them.
• 52:59
  Speaker 3: Tommy. Um, as we were talking about this, I was
• 53:02
  Speaker 3: thinking to myself, can I read that tweet? Is it
• 53:05
  Speaker 3: too much?
• 53:05
  Speaker 4: No.
• 53:06
  Speaker 3: And I'm glad you did.
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: I got you. Thank you.
• 53:09
  Speaker 3: I'm glad you did. I'm glad it got out of
• 53:10
  Speaker 3: the pot.
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: Cause it was a good one.
• 53:11
  Speaker 3: That's a good place to leave it. And do you
• 53:13
  Speaker 3: think he was gay?
• 53:14
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: Well, I think probably, but we'll never know now.
• 53:18
  Speaker 3: It doesn't matter.
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: It never mattered in the end.
• 53:20
  Speaker 3: It never mattered.
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: It never mattered.
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: Did you see that Trump ordered all flags in the
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: United States to half staff? And I know this is
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: my only, no one cares about this but me. He
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: does not have that authority. He is responsible only for
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: the flags on federal land because it's a free country
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: and the sovereign states of this country can decide what
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: they do with their flags and the sovereign citizens can
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: decide what we do with our flags. And if we
• 53:41
  Speaker 2: want to lower our flags for Lindsey Graham, we can
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: do it. I appreciate that WeHo lowered their pride flag
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: to have staff as a little bit of a troll.
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: They did.
• 53:47
  Speaker 3: Did they really?
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: And the American flag, both of them together, which I
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: thought was a little bit of a moving troll.
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
• 53:55
  Speaker 3: Moving troll.
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: But I hate when Donald Trump orders everyone to lower
• 53:58
  Speaker 2: the flags. It's a free country as far.
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: As I'm concerned. All right.
• 54:01
  Speaker 3: Well, on that note, after the break, Love It's Conversation
• 54:04
  Speaker 3: with Brian Tyler Cohen.
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: About all of this and more.
• 54:06
  Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: Positive America is brought to you by Mint Mobile. There
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: are things in life that you don't want to be transparent,
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: like your swimsuit or your search history. But when it
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: comes to your wireless billing, transparency is everything. That's why
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: Mint Mobile's wireless plans have no gimmicks and no gotchas,
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: just high-speed data and reliable coverage on the T-Mobile 5G network.
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: And right now, all plans are $ 15 a month, even unlimited.
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: Mint Mobile took what's wrong with wireless and made it
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: right with premium wireless for 15 bucks a month. All
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: plans come with high-speed data and unlimited talk and text.
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: delivered on the nation's largest 5G network. You can even
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: bring your current phone and your number. Choose from three, six,
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: or 12-month plans and say goodbye to a monthly bill.
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: Ditch overpriced wireless with Mint Mobile.
• 54:53
  Speaker 3: It's so easy.
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: Sign up online and get three months of premium wireless
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: service for 15 bucks a month. To get your new
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to mintmobile.com
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: slash crooked. That's mintmobile.com slash crooked. Cut your wireless bill
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: down to 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com slash crooked.
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: That's it. There's no catch.
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: Upfront payment of $ 45 for three months, $ 90 for six months,
• 55:15
  Speaker 2: or $ 180 for 12 months. Plan required $ 15 per month
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: equivalent taxes and fees. Extra initial plan term only greater
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. Includes
• 55:25
  Speaker 2: up to 20 gigabyte hotspot capable device required availability. Speed
• 55:29
  Speaker 2: and coverage vary. See mintmobile.com. Joining us now, he's progressive
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: host and author of the new book, The Day After,
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: How to Wield Power in a Post-Trump World, which is
• 55:43
  Speaker 2: out today. YouTube's best boy, Brian Tyler Cohn. Welcome to
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: the show.
• 55:49
  Speaker 5: Love it. Thanks for having me.
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: So you have your new book out, which we will
• 55:53
  Speaker 2: talk about. But before we do, I wanted to get
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: your reaction to what we're seeing right now in some
• 56:01
  Speaker 2: right-wing media. I want to start with Tucker Carlson, who.
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: Has become increasingly critical of Trump. Let's let's roll a clip.
• 56:10
  Speaker 8: You betrayed us. And it's the betrayal that makes it
• 56:12
  Speaker 8: so bitter for people like me and maybe you who
• 56:15
  Speaker 8: voted for Trump. And I campaigned for and with him.
• 56:18
  Speaker 8: You know, it's like, really, we really believe that you
• 56:22
  Speaker 8: were going to at least try. And in the end,
• 56:24
  Speaker 8: it's all about cryptocurrency scams and wars for Israel. I mean,
• 56:28
  Speaker 8: I can't believe you did that. Hiding the Epstein stuff.
• 56:32
  Speaker 2: So he goes on in that video to say that
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: you can't even ask questions about Butler. So there's a
• 56:39
  Speaker 2: mix of his America First stuff, the anti-Israel stuff, and
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: the conspiratorial stuff in there. What do you make of
• 56:48
  Speaker 2: Tucker's turn against Trump lately?
• 56:51
  Speaker 5: I don't know that it's so much.
• 56:55
  Speaker 6: This virtuous stand as it is Tucker recognizing.
• 57:00
  Speaker 5: Not where the puck is, but where the puck is going.
• 57:03
  Speaker 6: And he can see how unpopular Trump is, how he's
• 57:05
  Speaker 6: losing popularity even within his own base. And it's because
• 57:09
  Speaker 6: he has defied his own campaign promises. I mean, nobody
• 57:13
  Speaker 6: forced Trump to engage in a foreign war in the
• 57:15
  Speaker 6: Middle East after promising no new wars in the Middle East.
• 57:17
  Speaker 5: That was him.
• 57:18
  Speaker 6: Nobody made Trump suppress the Epstein files after they all
• 57:22
  Speaker 6: campaigned on releasing the Epstein files. Nobody forced Trump to
• 57:25
  Speaker 6: launch a trade war against all these foreign countries that
• 57:28
  Speaker 6: would raise the prices of everything.
• 57:30
  Speaker 5: That was That was him.
• 57:31
  Speaker 6: And so obviously that's rubbing the Republican base the wrong
• 57:35
  Speaker 6: way because it's completely diametrically opposed to everything that Trump
• 57:39
  Speaker 6: campaigned on. Tucker wants to retain relevance in that base.
• 57:44
  Speaker 5: That is his audience.
• 57:45
  Speaker 6: And so he can both give himself a little bit
• 57:48
  Speaker 6: of independent cred by going after Trump on stuff that's
• 57:51
  Speaker 6: already unpopular and kind of recognize that Trump is not
• 57:55
  Speaker 6: going to be there forever, but he wants to have
• 57:58
  Speaker 6: a longer career than I think than I think what
• 58:02
  Speaker 6: spans just Donald Trump's specific tenure in office. And I
• 58:06
  Speaker 6: think that's, look, he is a savvy operator. I think
• 58:08
  Speaker 6: that's what makes him a little bit more savvy than
• 58:10
  Speaker 6: a lot of other people in that space who only recognize, okay,
• 58:14
  Speaker 6: right now I have to tie my fortunes to Donald
• 58:17
  Speaker 6: Trump and whatever he does, I have to blindly defer
• 58:20
  Speaker 6: to him and that's it. And I think that that's
• 58:22
  Speaker 6: going to drag a lot of people down because they're
• 58:24
  Speaker 6: only focused on today and not tomorrow.
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's interesting. You know, Tucker is a challenge for
• 58:29
  Speaker 2: Trump because Tucker has fuck you money and seems to
• 58:33
  Speaker 2: be pretty happy wherever he's ensconced making his shows from
• 58:37
  Speaker 2: his home. So he's not on the I mean, he's
• 58:40
  Speaker 2: on the take. He's on the take, but he doesn't
• 58:43
  Speaker 2: need Trump in the same way that, say, like a
• 58:45
  Speaker 2: bunch of other either media figures still feel like they
• 58:48
  Speaker 2: need Trump or or members of Congress or others in
• 58:52
  Speaker 2: the conservative ecosystem. who are afraid to be on Trump's
• 58:55
  Speaker 2: bad side in part because they don't feel like they
• 58:58
  Speaker 2: have a, they need them, they need them, but also be,
• 59:01
  Speaker 2: they don't feel like they have a, a, an independent
• 59:04
  Speaker 2: trusted relationship with the base. You know, you see, you
• 59:09
  Speaker 2: see the, uh, the Republicans just wanted to have an
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: event with Trump to sign the housing bill. Trump allows
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: the housing bill to become law, but doesn't sign it
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: as a fuck you to the Republicans because those Republicans
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: want their event with daddy. They want to take the
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: picture because his imprimatur on the bill does more than
• 59:27
  Speaker 2: any words they can say because they don't have that
• 59:29
  Speaker 2: kind of relationship. And Tucker does seem like he's in
• 59:31
  Speaker 2: a different category.
• 59:32
  Speaker 6: Like their brand is just kind of glomming on to
• 59:35
  Speaker 6: whatever Trump does. And frankly, there are no we've seen
• 59:39
  Speaker 6: there are no longstanding principles. There are no core beliefs
• 59:42
  Speaker 6: or core values. It's just whatever Trump says becomes gospel
• 59:45
  Speaker 6: for these people who are hangers on for Trump. I mean,
• 59:49
  Speaker 6: these people were anti-war during the campaign and now they're
• 59:52
  Speaker 6: all explaining why actually what Trump is doing is completely fine.
• 59:55
  Speaker 6: They have the ability to reign him in. They're a
• 59:57
  Speaker 6: co-equal branch of government, but instead they just day by
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 6: day contract all of their autonomy over to him. And
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 6: so whatever stance he adopts, whatever errant synapse fires in
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 6: his brain and words fall out of his face, that
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 6: becomes gospel for this GOP. And you're right, Tucker doesn't
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 6: abide by that same principle.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 5: He doesn't need to.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 6: It's not like Trump can post a mean tweet and
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 6: end his career in the same way that he can
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 6: for somebody like Bill Cassidy or John Cornyn. But really
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 6: what it does is just destroy the Republican brand.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 5: But that's what Trump wants.
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 6: He wants the brand to just be slavish devotion to
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 6: him and whatever he.
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 5: Says and does.
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's also the ways in which Republican politicians, Trump,
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: media figures deal with the conspiratorial mindset in their audience,
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 2: whether they ignore it, embrace it, fight against it. You've
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 2: even seen right-wing figures like Chris Ruffo talking about the
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 2: danger of this kind of thing. You hear that in
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 2: a lot of what Tucker has been doing. You also
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 2: hear it in Candace Owens. And Ben Shapiro, let's just
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 2: roll the clip without any introduction. Today.
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 3: Today.
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 9: We are going to uncover the real murderer of Charlie Kirk.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: It's time.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 9: We've been working for months on a deep and detailed investigation.
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 9: It's not who you think. Today, we are going to
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 9: discuss who was really behind Charlie Kirk's assassination, Candace Owens.
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 2: So Candace Owens has obviously been saying unhinged shit about
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 2: the killing of Charlie Kirk. And Candace Owens has also
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 2: been at war with Ben Shapiro. I think this is
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 2: his way of striking back with some parody about it.
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 2: It's also coming at a time in which maybe in
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 2: part because of the conspiratorial turn on the right, like
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 2: Ben Shapiro has lost some relevance, lost some audience. What
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 2: do you make of that little civil war?
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 6: I mean, look, the The reality is that when it
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 6: comes to conspiracy theories online, that's the currency of the internet.
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 5: That's even more pervasive in right-wing circles.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 6: But the interesting part of this is, in large part,
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 6: that's what Republicans tapped into as it relates to Epstein.
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 6: And that brought a lot of people into the political process.
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 6: It's why a lot of people voted. They believed that
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 6: there was this basically upper echelon of politicians and people
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 6: who can commit heinous crimes with impunity.
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 5: That gained a lot of traction.
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 6: And when we saw that that was in large part
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 6: what happened with the Epstein files, it backfired on Trump
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 6: because now you have people who believed it. And it
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 6: was largely borne out in what we saw. And Trump
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 6: decided not to release anything other than half of the files,
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 6: deigned to release half of the files, but continues to
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 6: hold on to the other half. And so in this instance,
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 6: you have people who kind of bought into what felt
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 6: like a conspiracy theory It ended up being in large part,
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 6: I mean there were obviously elements of it that were untrue,
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 6: but in.
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 5: Large part accurate.
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 6: And now it's turning against Trump because he continues to
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 6: suppress these files instead of release them. So I think
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 6: that's one instance in which you have a political party
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 6: that is already prone to this stuff and it's going
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 6: to create a lot of, I think, disaffected voters on
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 6: the right because this is where they operate, this is
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 6: where they live. they can see that Trump has no
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 6: interest in actually delivering on that specific point.
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 2: The Epstein files as this way of signaling that you're
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 2: willing to take on the powers that be, right? Whatever
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 2: that means. But also part of it too is like
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 2: the comfort of some far off enemy that is truly
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 2: the ones responsible. That's a lot of what Trump does
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 2: more broadly. It's this idea that what is the source
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 2: of our ills? It's not structural, it's not systemic inequality
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 2: or broken systems or the failure to build housing or
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 2: just the ordinary, quote unquote, ordinary dangers that lurk for
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 2: children everywhere, that there is some super plot of super elites.
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 2: And that's the real threat. Now, two things can be true, right?
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 2: There was and is now a big cover up around Epstein.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 2: There was a network of connected people who supported this
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 2: person even after he was exposed. There's clearly nefarious doings
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 2: and how he got such a slap on the wrist
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 2: when he was first brought up on charges. And obviously,
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 2: Trump has been covering up for him. But that a
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 2: lot of right wing media is about this sort of
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 2: comfort of like, you are the folk, you are the
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 2: good people in the good communities. And the enemy is
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 2: it's the immigrants or the trans people or the cabal
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 2: of Jews operating a pedophilia ring.
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 2: When when actually the real challenges and problems in your
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 2: life are closer to home, but it's much harder to
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 2: face that. And a lot of right-wing media is just
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 2: about stoking that feeling and telling people over and over
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 2: again that like, hey, keep at it, keep at it.
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 2: Once we get rid of these trans swimmers and Jewish cabals,
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 2: then everything's gonna be coming up America.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 5: You know, we've seen this as a recurring theme for
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 5: so long.
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 6: I mean, I remember elections where it was migrant caravans,
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 6: and then it was gay marriage, and then it was
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 6: trans people. And it's, you know, they're really effective at
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 6: finding some boogeyman to vilify as the source of all
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 6: of society's woes. I think that they're going to run
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 6: up on a wall in this election cycle, because obviously
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 6: they're all trying to do it again. You know, they
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 6: run the same playbooks over and over and over again.
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 6: In some ways, Republican elections from the early 2000s look
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 6: identical to what they're saying today. But they ran an
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 6: entire election cycle based on culture wars in 2024 and
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 6: trying to perpetuate this idea that, okay, if only we
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 6: can get they, thems out of swimming, then everything will
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 6: be solved. And in fact, now these people, the Republicans,
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 6: have full control of government. They have the House, they
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 6: have the Senate, they have the White House. They even
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 6: won the popular vote on that message. And what do
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 6: they have to show for it? There's no Democrats in
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 6: control to gum up the works. So what Republicans have
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 6: to show for it right now is a country that
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 6: is sicker, poorer, and hungrier than it's been before. A
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 6: country where prices are not going down, they're going up.
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 6: Inflation's not going down, it's going up. Healthcare is not
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 6: more expansive. It's been contracted.
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 5: Food assistance is the same.
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 6: We have not fewer wars, but more. The Epstein files
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 6: are not released. They're being suppressed. And so given the
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 6: fact that there's no Democrats to blame for any of this,
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 6: Republicans are going to have to confront the fact, and
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 6: especially their their base confront the fact that, hey, maybe
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 6: if I keep voting on these culture war issues, especially
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 6: issues where like 10 people in the NCAA are at
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 6: the heart of our entire national discourse, then, you know,
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 6: that's not going to result in better outcomes for regular Americans.
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 6: That's just going to be more culture war issues that
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 6: allow Republicans to consolidate power and then just do with
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 6: that power what they want.
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 2: And Trump kind of unable to grapple with the actual
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 2: problems he claimed he was going to fix is distracted
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 2: by the reflecting pool in the ballroom. He's doing pit
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 2: stops on the lawn. He's doing challenger campaigning. He's doing
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 2: the kinds of things you do when you're out of power,
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 2: complaining about the things you complain about when you're out
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 2: of power. But of course, he has the controls. So
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 2: now let's talk about what happens if And I believe
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 2: they're called Democrats. That's how you pronounce it. I've never,
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 2: I've only read it. I haven't heard it said, I've
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 2: never seen one, but.
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 5: These Democrats, very elusive, an elusive creature.
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 2: These Democrats. And they're, I think they're nocturnal.
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 5: Uh, no, but, but, uh, their main weapon is the
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 5: strongly worded letters.
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 2: Strongly worded letters. So look, the hope, right. Is that
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 2: we can win the house. Uh, the Senate is not
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 2: off the table. I want to get to what you're
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 2: talking about, what you hope for Democrats in a post-Trump world,
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 2: but Before we get there, Democrats would have to model
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 2: what it looks like for them to be in power
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 2: if they win the House. What do you think a
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 2: Democratic House majority that has control of committees and subpoena
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 2: powers but can't legislate without getting things signed by Trump,
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 2: what does that look like to you?
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 6: It looks like investigating what we can investigate right now,
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 6: which is the rampant corruption that we're seeing across the government.
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 6: I mean, my God, Trump's kids are taking in millions,
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 6: hundreds of millions of dollars in government contracts, DOD contracts.
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 6: We're seeing short sales five minutes before some major White
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 6: House announcement that makes somebody a millionaire a hundred times over.
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 6: We're seeing these foreign investments via World Liberty Financial into
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 6: Trump's meme coins and stable coins and cryptocurrency. All of
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 6: this stuff is happening in broad daylight. It's clear that
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 6: it is beyond illegal, but there is this sense that
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 6: crime is just legal in the Trump era so long
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 6: as a Republican commits it or you're willing to pay
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 6: Trump the requisite amount, a million dollars to get a
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 6: pardon or whatever you need. So I think that in
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 6: this rare sliver of time where hopefully when Democrats have
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 6: the gavels, they'll use that time. Obviously, you can't legislate,
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 6: but you can use that time to investigate this stuff.
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 5: And by getting a lot of this stuff out there and.
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 6: Starting these investigations, hopefully you pave the way for the
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 6: DOJ to pick up, a Democratic DOJ to pick up
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 6: where they've left off. I mean, the January 6th committee
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 6: in large part was able to inform the prosecutions that
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 6: came afterwards. Now, I would argue that those prosecutions came
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 6: too little later. too little too late, and the fecklessness
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 6: of Merrick Garland's DOJ is in large part why we're here.
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 6: But the reality is that we can use this time
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 6: not only to win the messaging war, because this stuff
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 6: obviously resonates. I mean, restoring the rule of law against
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 6: a corrupt government is in large part what Trump himself
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 6: ran on against the Democrats, except he's doing it a
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 6: thousand times bigger. But it also has some practical effects
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 6: because then you can have a DOJ that uses a
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 6: lot of what Congress was able to find on these
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 6: fact-finding missions to actually move forward and prosecute some of
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 6: this illegality. So we can get back to a world
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 6: where law and order actually exists.
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 2: So there's a lot of polling about views of Democrats.
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 2: And Democrats, it is a deeply tarnished brand. It is unpopular, obviously,
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 2: among Republicans, but also Democratic voters are deeply frustrated by
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 2: the Democratic Party. We've seen insurgent campaigns defeating incumbents. What
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 2: does it look like to have a Democratic Party after
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 2: Trump that you think meets the moment and meets the
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 2: expectations of the most engaged Democratic voters?
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 6: So I think if Trump has shown us anything, it's
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 6: that a lot of the institutions that we take as
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 6: sacrosanct are not.
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 5: I mean, Trump has barreled through everything.
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 6: He doesn't listen to the law, the Constitution, the courts, attorneys,
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 6: any other branch of government.
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 5: He just does whatever he wants.
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 6: I mean, you would not find a Democrat ever who
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 6: would get into office and then raise the East Wing
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 6: of the White House to the ground.
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 5: It just wouldn't happen. There's so much deference to norms
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 5: and traditions and institutions.
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 6: Trump has shown that if there's a will, there's a way. Now,
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 6: he's done it for self-enrichment, He's done it so that
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 6: he can enshrine the Oval Office in gold and build
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 6: a ballroom for himself and launder money through foreign countries
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 6: into his own pockets and his family's pockets and build
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 6: up his real estate portfolio.
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 5: So he's doing it for bad reasons.
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 6: My argument is that Democrats should look at what Trump's
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 6: doing and use that for virtuous reasons, to deliver Medicare
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 6: for all. It is long past time that we have
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 6: universal health care in the richest country in the world.
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 5: It's crazy that we don't.
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 6: To combat climate change, the existential issue of our time,
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 6: to expand voting rights, especially at a time when they're
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 6: contracting across the country amid the fall of the Voting
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 6: Rights Act.
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 5: There are so many things that we can do that we.
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 6: Allow these norms and traditions to block us from doing.
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 6: But I think we have to get past this idea
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 6: that even the smallest speed bump is going to be
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 6: an obstacle for us. Our Democratic officials are not in
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 6: government so that they can pay deference to the institutions
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 6: of government. They're there so that they can deliver outcomes
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 6: for people. And if that means they have to find
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 6: a way to circumvent these hurdles, these processes.
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 5: Then so be it.
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 6: Because the reality is, I think we're going to have
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 6: a small window of time where we already know that
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 6: there was a largely disillusioned with Democrats block of voters.
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 5: That's why they went over to Republicans.
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 6: Now we have a disillusioned block of Republican voters because
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 6: Trump lied about everything that he was going to do.
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 6: already trusting government is at extreme lows. We have a second,
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 6: I think, I believe, we're going to have a second
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 6: bite of the apple here where we can bring people
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 6: back into this tent. But if we don't deliver, if
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 6: it's good enough that Democrats can just notch symbolic victories
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 6: and get caught trying before eventually something inevitably goes wrong,
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 6: then I think you're just going to lose large swaths
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 6: of the population. And when you have an electorate that's
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 6: that disaffected, I think that's the conditions in which autocracy thrives.
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 2: I think it does start to become about what it
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 2: looks like. I agree in the sense that Democrats need
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 2: to need to take from Trump a willingness to push
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 2: harder against the lawyers, basically. And we have better lawyers
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 2: than they have. But you got to sometimes, you know,
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 2: push your lawyers fine. Like I think Democratic administrations have
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 2: been too differential to the lawyers, especially around questions that
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 2: are kind of I would say more like philosophical rather
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 2: than like kind of on the page. But at the
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 2: same time, the Supreme court has had, uh, has given
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 2: him immunity, which was a terrible decision. Uh, they've ruled
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 2: with him more often than they haven't, but he has
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 2: been stymied by the courts in part because especially the
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 2: lower courts in part because they have been so hamfisted
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 2: and so aggressive in trying to do things that are just, uh, uh,
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 2: run against the plain language of the law. So I, I,
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 2: I do want us to learn the lesson from Trump
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 2: that we can be more aggressive and move faster and
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 2: try things based on what we believe are like solid
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 2: legal grounds, even if they might be questioned by the courts.
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 2: But at the same time, like he's cheating. We're trying
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 2: to prove the game's worth playing, right? Like we're playing
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 2: against cheaters, but we believe in the sport. We like
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 2: the rules of the sport. We are we you know,
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 2: we're trying to make sure people like, you know, like
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 2: we We're watching them get away with murder and bribing
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 2: the refs and all the rest, but we're trying to
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 2: make a case to people that democracy is a game
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 2: worth playing. As you have in the book, in the
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 2: conversation with President Obama, we have a tougher job than
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 2: they do. In part, we do believe that part of
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 2: democratic practice is understanding that laws are made by people
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 2: and not one person deciding what the law is.
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 6: Right. I'm definitely not advocating for tearing down or democracy,
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 6: I'm advocating for making it work for people, making it
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 6: a more efficient process. You've spoken at length, whether it's
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 6: something so granular as housing right here where we are
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 6: in Los Angeles, or whether it's these big issues like
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 6: Obama's ultimate goal was to get single-payer healthcare. That's what
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 6: the ACA was initially.
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 5: Viewed as being. So I think that that in either one.
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 6: Of those scenarios, either when you're looking at a local
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 6: level or big ticket ideas on a federal level, it's
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 6: not necessarily a matter of tearing government down. It's a
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 6: matter of making it work for actual people and delivering
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 6: outcomes so that you're not just allowing yourself to be
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 6: stymied by what Republicans view as the smallest speed bumps
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 6: ever and what Democrats view as just immovable impasses.
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 2: Speaking of immovable, Uh, they, uh, prop Mitch McConnell up
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 2: holding up the newspaper like he's a hostage. Uh, did you,
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 2: do you find that reassuring? What do you, like, uh, like, uh,
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 2: are we meant to, he's not speaking. He's just a statement.
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 2: There's a picture of him. He is alive. I don't
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 2: think that's the only question people have for their senators. Uh, what,
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 2: what do you, what do you think is going on
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 2: with Mitch?
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 6: I'm really skeptical of conspiracy theories, but I mean, he
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 6: looked really good in that picture.
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 6: Like, I think if you've just been unconscious for like
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 6: three weeks. maybe you would have less color in your face.
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 6: So look, again, I try not to spread conspiracy theories.
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 2: We don't want to do conspiracy theories. We're responsible people.
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 2: We're responsible people, but.
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 6: But we live in an era where it's easy to
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 6: fake stuff. And he looked damn good in that hospital bed.
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 5: So I'll just leave it at that.
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 2: We'll just leave it at that. I think conspiracy theories
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 2: thrive online because it rewards people who are... It rewards
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 2: kind of paranoid and kind of cynical sentiments, but it also,
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 2: I think, speaks to something about this era where you
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 2: don't need to be a conspiracy theorist to have a
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 2: lot of questions about a senator checking into the hospital
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 2: on June 14th. There being audio from the dispatch saying
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 2: someone was unconscious and in cardiac arrest. The only statements
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 2: are coming from his staff, and then the only sign
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 2: of life is a single picture of uh, posted, uh,
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 2: without any video or comment directly from the Senator. So, uh,
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 2: part of it is it's, um, the internet makes people
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 2: not trustworthy, but so do these fucking people.
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 6: I mean, look that, that you cannot, if you're a Republican,
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 6: you can't be surprised when, when this is the, this
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 6: is the environment you have to contend with the same
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 6: environment that, that you in large part created and nurtured.
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 6: is now kind of turning against, well, one of their
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 6: own in Mitch McConnell.
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 2: And hopefully this fall we can, you know, defeat some
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 2: of them and then eventually have power and then we
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 2: can wield that power. Brian, thanks for joining. The book
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 2: is The Day After How to Wield Power in a
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 2: Post-Trump World. It is out today. Everybody should pick it
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 2: up and everybody should subscribe to Brian's YouTube where he
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 2: is getting good information to people and competing with, as
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 2: we're all doing, competing with the right on the internet
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 2: to try to, you know, get some wins in that algorithm. Brian,
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 2: good to see you.
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 4: That's it. Love it.
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 5: Thanks so much.
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 3: Thanks to Brian Tyler Cohen for coming on the show.
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 3: Dan and I will be back with a new show
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 3: on Friday. Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production.
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 3: Our show is produced by Austin Fisher, Saul Rubin, McKenna Roberts,
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 3: and Faris Safari with Reed Cherlin, Elijah Cohn, and Adrian Hill.
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 3: Our team includes Matt DeGroat, Ben Heathcote, Jordan Cantor, Charlotte Landis,
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 3: Kiril Pellevive, David Tolles, Mia Kelman, Ryan Young, and Naomi Single.
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 3: Our staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 3: America East.