Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics,
Speaker 1: where we discussed the top political headlines with some of
Speaker 1: today's best minds, and Donald Trump is now the least
Speaker 1: popular newly elected president since World War Two. We have
Speaker 1: such a great show for you today. The Washington Post
Speaker 1: Dana Milbank stops by to talk about the republicans chaotic
Speaker 1: confirmation hearings. Then we'll talk to MSNBC's Alex Wagner about
Speaker 1: Trump's immigration shogunaw.
Speaker 2: But first the news so Mali yesterday there was a lot,
Speaker 2: a lot, a lot of shokunaw. But the thing that
Speaker 2: we didn't get to yesterday was that the Trump administration
Speaker 2: offered roughly two million federal workers a buyout to resign
Speaker 2: and that they would pay their salary forward for seven months.
Speaker 2: This did not include a lot of people, for example,
Speaker 2: congressional employees, people and like the CBO, things like that,
Speaker 2: but it did include a lot of federal employees that
Speaker 2: they think they could do without. What are you seeing here?
Speaker 1: I'm going to read a tweet thread from an ABC
Speaker 1: reporter who noticed that this email looks suspiciously like a
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two email that Elon Musk wrote to Twitter
Speaker 1: employees after he bought the company and fired almost all
Speaker 1: of them. The memo sent to government employees this evening,
Speaker 1: offering them buyouts very closely mirrors and email Musk sent
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two down to the same subject line
Speaker 1: of fork in the Road. The twenty twenty two email
Speaker 1: tells Twitter employees only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.
Speaker 1: Compare that to the memo, the federal workforce should be
Speaker 1: comprised of the best America has to offer. We insist
Speaker 1: on excellence at every level, and another similarity. The same way,
Speaker 1: the OPM memo requires employees to only respond resigned to
Speaker 1: the email. To seal the deal, Musk as Twitter's employees
Speaker 1: to click yes on this link below if they wanted
Speaker 1: to stay on a Twitter. Look, this is clearly the
Speaker 1: brainchild and I mean brain very loosely of the Office
Speaker 1: of Government Efficiency. We don't know if this is legal
Speaker 1: right to do this. We don't know if they have
Speaker 1: the money for this. I mean, this is all like
Speaker 1: cooked up in the middle of the night fever dream thing.
Speaker 1: But again, you know, this is the Donald Trump, move
Speaker 1: fast and break things presidency, so we'll see what happens.
Speaker 1: We did see Tim Kaine come out and say, do
Speaker 1: not agree to this. They don't have any standing. Just
Speaker 1: ignore them, and we're going to probably see, as you're
Speaker 1: telling me from your friends, we're probably going to see
Speaker 1: a lot more of government employees just ignoring the stuff
Speaker 1: that's coming from on high.
Speaker 2: Yeah. A lot of people I were speaking to is
Speaker 2: like almost no one qualifies for this. As well. There's
Speaker 2: a tweet from Amanda Littman front of the show from
Speaker 2: Run for Some that shows a lot of people are like, hell, no,
Speaker 2: I'm staying here to make sure things don't go to hell.
Speaker 1: It's funny because it's like, it's not funny now, this
Speaker 1: is funny.
Speaker 3: It's fucked up.
Speaker 1: But it's interesting to see that it's so easy to
Speaker 1: squander any kind of respect to have so quickly. Trump
Speaker 1: had an opportunity to go in there and you know,
Speaker 1: have a connection to federal employees and inspire them to
Speaker 1: do well right by him.
Speaker 3: Of course he wasn't going to do that, and now
Speaker 3: we have a.
Speaker 1: Federal workforce that is furious and is likely going to
Speaker 1: leak like a sieve and create a lot of secondary.
Speaker 3: Problems that he probably wasn't expecting.
Speaker 1: I would stay tuned on this, I think we'll see
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff. By the way, Carolyn Levitt, who
Speaker 1: is the new Trumpy Press secretary, she is also blonde
Speaker 1: and in her twenties, she said that American taxpayers pay
Speaker 1: for the salaries of federal government employees, and therefore deserve
Speaker 1: employees working on their behalf actually show up to work
Speaker 1: in our federal office buildings, also paid by taxpayers. Again,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of these people have been remote
Speaker 1: working for a long time, and some of them have
Speaker 1: been asked to remote work because their offices have been
Speaker 1: closed or because it just works better that way. So,
Speaker 1: you know, again a blunt object to try to do
Speaker 1: too much. We'll see what happens. This probably will be
Speaker 1: pretty bad. Speaking of bad, let's talk about Mark Milly.
Speaker 2: Yes, so Pete hegg Saith has decided to remove his
Speaker 2: security detail, which really seems just spiteful and like most
Speaker 2: of these things, stupid.
Speaker 1: It's not just that he wants to remove his security detail.
Speaker 1: Pete hegg Seth wants to punish Mark Milly. Now, Mark
Speaker 1: Milley has already gotten a pardon from Biden. He was
Speaker 1: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for four years,
Speaker 1: under Trump, and also he was a holdover under Biden,
Speaker 1: so he took away the security detail of Milly, Foulton,
Speaker 1: oh and Fauci. He's taken away a lot of people
Speaker 1: security detail as a way of punishing them by making
Speaker 1: them afraid for their safety.
Speaker 2: That's very trumpy, making sure they can't see the the
Speaker 2: level of fucker either about it engagement, right.
Speaker 3: It's not good.
Speaker 1: But I want to point out that there's also another
Speaker 1: thing happening here right, which is Haigseth is going after
Speaker 1: Milly because Milly was the source for these books and
Speaker 1: Trump is mad at him. So they're going to say
Speaker 1: that this is this is against the chain of command,
Speaker 1: and they're going to try to prosecute him, take away
Speaker 1: one of his stars, mess with his pension. But I
Speaker 1: think it's important to realize, like, these are anti democratic
Speaker 1: things that are happening in Trump world. These are the
Speaker 1: sort of Project twenty twenty five, for lack of a
Speaker 1: better shorthand, this is the autocratic stuff that democrats warned
Speaker 1: you was coming. So going after retired military generals is insane,
Speaker 1: not the norm, anti democratic, and it is part of
Speaker 1: this attacker se thing we see in Trump world. So
Speaker 1: just keep your eye on it. It's bad and it's
Speaker 1: probably just the beginning.
Speaker 2: As you and I are speaking right now, RFKA Junior
Speaker 2: is going through his confirmation hearing. I'm sure the worm
Speaker 2: is doing the talking anyway, brainworm.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, yes, you may have to put anyway go on.
Speaker 2: Yes, So we have here Maggie Hassan doing some question
Speaker 2: from them in play agree upon.
Speaker 4: I am really hardened to see that one area where
Speaker 4: we agree on is on women's reproductive freedom.
Speaker 3: In your own.
Speaker 4: Words, it's not the government's place to tell people.
Speaker 3: What to do with their bodies.
Speaker 4: You said that, correct, yep.
Speaker 5: Mister Kennedy.
Speaker 4: In twenty twenty three, you came to New Hampshire and said, quote,
Speaker 4: I'm pro choice. I don't think the government has any
Speaker 4: business telling people what they can or cannot.
Speaker 3: Do with their body.
Speaker 4: So you said that right, yes, yep. But you also
Speaker 4: said we need to trust the women to make that choice,
Speaker 4: because I don't trust government to.
Speaker 3: Make any choices.
Speaker 5: She said that too, right.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 4: It is remarkable that you have such a long record
Speaker 4: of fighting for women's reproductive freedom, and really great that
Speaker 4: my Republican colleagues are so open to voting for a
Speaker 4: pro choice HHS secretary.
Speaker 1: So this was smart. This was really fucking smart. And
Speaker 1: we talk about how Democrats can be smart.
Speaker 3: This is it.
Speaker 1: Right. She's not using it to yell at him, she's
Speaker 1: not using it to talk about something weird.
Speaker 3: She's not using it to moralize or.
Speaker 1: Grand you know, like we have seen hearings where Democratic
Speaker 1: senators have lectured the nominee. That's not what's happening here.
Speaker 1: What's happening here is she is highlighting the fact that
Speaker 1: RFK Junior doesn't believe in anything, and she does.
Speaker 3: It really well.
Speaker 1: It's really smart, and it's really focused. And I think
Speaker 1: that in my mind, the more these questionners can be
Speaker 1: focused and they don't have to cover every subject, and
Speaker 1: the more they can work together and be like I'm
Speaker 1: going to talk about abortion, you should talk about data DA,
Speaker 1: the better these things are going to be. And so
Speaker 1: again this is my plea to elected democrats. Work together,
Speaker 1: divide and conquer, stay focused, don't let these leaders avoid accountability.
Speaker 3: That was really great. Bravo, Maggie Hassen.
Speaker 2: All right, Molly, here, I have an unlikely a tech
Speaker 2: dog here for you. But I'm kind of shocked because
Speaker 2: Senator Michael Bennett here in the RFK confirmation. Hearing this
Speaker 2: at tech dog Barkin and I don't usually see him bark.
Speaker 6: Did you say that COVID nineteen was a genetically engineered
Speaker 6: bioweapon the targets black and white people but spared Ashkenazi,
Speaker 6: Jews and Chinese people.
Speaker 2: I didn't say it was deliberately targeted.
Speaker 7: I just I just quoted an NIH funded, an NIH
Speaker 7: published study.
Speaker 6: Did you say that it targets black and white people
Speaker 6: but spared I.
Speaker 3: Quote, I quoted an study that show I.
Speaker 6: Take that as I have to move on. I have
Speaker 6: to move on. Did you say that lime disease is
Speaker 6: is highly likely a materially engineered bioweapon. I made sure
Speaker 6: I put in the highly likely. Did you say lime
Speaker 6: disease is a highly likely militarily engineered bioweapon?
Speaker 5: I probably did say that.
Speaker 6: Did you say that that's developer. I want all of
Speaker 6: our colleagues to hear mister Kennedy, I want them to
Speaker 6: hear it.
Speaker 2: You said yes.
Speaker 6: Did you say that exposure to pesticize causes children to
Speaker 6: become transgender?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 2: I never said that.
Speaker 6: Okay, I have the record that I'll give to the
Speaker 6: chairman and he can make his judgment about what you said.
Speaker 2: Did you in your book?
Speaker 6: And it's undeniable that African African AIDS is an entirely
Speaker 6: different disease from Western AIDS. Yes or no, mister Kennedy.
Speaker 6: I'm not sure if I'll give it to the chairman,
Speaker 6: mister Kennedy. And my final question, did you say on
Speaker 6: a podcast and I quote, I wouldn't leave it abortion
Speaker 6: to the States. My belief is we should leave it
Speaker 6: to the woman. We shouldn't have the government involved, even
Speaker 6: if it's full term. Did you say that, mister Senator?
Speaker 5: I believe that every abortion is a tragedy.
Speaker 6: Did you say it? Mister Kennedy just matters. It doesn't
Speaker 6: matter what you come here and say. That isn't true,
Speaker 6: that's not reflective of what you really believe that you
Speaker 6: haven't said over decade after decade after decade, Because unlike
Speaker 6: other jobs we're confirming around this place, this is a
Speaker 6: job where it is life and death for the kids
Speaker 6: that I used to work for in the Denver public
Speaker 6: schools and for families all over this country that are
Speaker 6: suffering from living in the richest country of the world
Speaker 6: that can't deliver basic healthcare and basic mental health care
Speaker 6: to them. It's too important for the games that you're playing,
Speaker 6: mister Kennedy. And I hope my colleagues will say to
Speaker 6: the President, I have no influence over him. I hope
Speaker 6: my colleagues will say to the President, out of three
Speaker 6: hundred and thirty million Americans, we can do better than this.
Speaker 3: Incredible.
Speaker 2: That was a dog barking in a fight, and I
Speaker 2: like to see it.
Speaker 1: That's what we need, man. And way to go, Michael Bennett.
Speaker 1: Incredible stuff. Good for him.
Speaker 2: So some good news. We have our first special election
Speaker 2: of the year. Democrat Mike Zimmer has won the special
Speaker 2: election for ias thirty fifth Senate district seat.
Speaker 1: No one helps Democrats more in elections than Donald Trump.
Speaker 3: He is not on the ballot.
Speaker 1: Donald Trump is really helpful to Democrats. And that's because
Speaker 1: Donald Trump is not a Republican. He is his own thing,
Speaker 1: and the people who turn out for him do not
Speaker 1: necessarily turn out for regular Republicans. Zimmer will replace a Republican.
Speaker 1: It's small, but it's meaningful. A lot of the craziest
Speaker 1: shit comes out of the state House, especially in places
Speaker 1: like Iowa, so you can dismiss this, but let's not
Speaker 1: let's just enjoy that Iowa's thirty fifth Senate district seat
Speaker 1: is now held by a Democrat. Data Milbank is a
Speaker 1: columnist at The Washington Post and the author of Fools
Speaker 1: on the Hell, the Hooligans, Saboteurs, Conspiracy Theorists, and Dances
Speaker 1: who Burned Down the House. Welcome Back, Too Fast, Politics,
Speaker 1: Data Melbank.
Speaker 5: Thank you, Molly. It is always a pleasure to be
Speaker 5: with you.
Speaker 1: I'm so happy to have you here. Before I came here,
Speaker 1: I was watching my favorite channel. And I don't just
Speaker 1: say this because they actually have gifted me a fleece recently,
Speaker 1: but Caesman is my favorite channel as well it should be,
Speaker 1: and I was watching it because I'm incredibly old on
Speaker 1: my cable television.
Speaker 5: Wow, how does that work?
Speaker 1: If you're over fifty, you know exactly how cable television works.
Speaker 3: But if you're under you do not.
Speaker 8: No.
Speaker 5: I cut the cord myself.
Speaker 3: Oh Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Anyway, Watching the beginning of the hearing, the tanniest person
Speaker 1: ever to occupy Washington, DC, someone who really gives Donald
Speaker 1: Trump a run for the money. RFK Junior is about
Speaker 1: to begin his hearings discuss.
Speaker 7: I'm a little sad because they actually have like ten
Speaker 7: columnists writing on it today at the Washington Post. Why
Speaker 7: didn't you just hold off for day two and cash
Speaker 7: battel tomorrow? I mean, it is sort of an embarrassment
Speaker 7: of riches. Truth is, I would rather do the cash
Speaker 7: btel one that's going to be Zanier. But man, I
Speaker 7: was not expecting Caroline Kennedy to come out the way
Speaker 7: she did.
Speaker 5: He's been great entertainment so far, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's important not to be a nihilist about this,
Speaker 1: but yes, we can enjoy the horror of it to laugh,
Speaker 1: to keep from crying, but yes.
Speaker 7: Go on, yes, And then then does he become Secretary
Speaker 7: of Health and Human Services and the Avian flu comes
Speaker 7: to get us all, and they've imposed a blackout so
Speaker 7: we won't actually know what the government is saying about anything.
Speaker 7: We've we're pulling out of the WHO, and you know,
Speaker 7: withdrawing funding even before we formally pull out of the WHO,
Speaker 7: so the whole you know, we sort of paralyzed the
Speaker 7: United States government. We're paralyzing the world's public health response,
Speaker 7: and we're not getting basic even childhood vaccines here. Although
Speaker 7: I guess I guess he's come out for the polio vaccine.
Speaker 1: So yeah, well you got it. I can't imagine why
Speaker 1: he's come out for the poli vaccine when going for
Speaker 1: a vote in front of someone who has still suffers
Speaker 1: from the effects of polio. I guess that he can't
Speaker 1: quite say that polio was a hoax yet No.
Speaker 7: And then you know, then of course Trump came out
Speaker 7: for these both the vaccine, and you.
Speaker 5: Know with his line, it sounded like Frederick Douglas.
Speaker 7: He's like, yeah, Jonahsock did some great work and he's
Speaker 7: being recognized more and more.
Speaker 1: Yeah, watching these Republicans and again, look Friday, we saw
Speaker 1: this hegseth vote. It was you know, all we have
Speaker 1: in Trump world is the sort of history of Trump
Speaker 1: one point zero where Democrats were able to prevent Republicans
Speaker 1: from doing a lot of the worst stuff, right Like
Speaker 1: they wanted to appeal the ACA. They didn't want to
Speaker 1: repeal ACA. They wanted to repeal Obamacare. Turns out that
Speaker 1: was the same thing. But there were a lot of
Speaker 1: tries at doing things, but a lot of stuff they
Speaker 1: were they wanted to do, they couldn't do. So now
Speaker 1: the whole sort of premise of Trump's second term at
Speaker 1: least according to the people behind the scenes who are
Speaker 1: writing what little policy there is is to really do
Speaker 1: that stuff this time.
Speaker 3: And so that's kind of what we're watching unfold.
Speaker 5: Yes and no, I mean I think it.
Speaker 7: You know, where Democrats blocked Trump the first time was
Speaker 7: in Congress. So let's you know, realize. I mean, Congress
Speaker 7: hasn't done anything yet. I mean, I guess there's the
Speaker 7: Lake and Riley Act, right, which is symbolic, and he'llsale
Speaker 7: sign that.
Speaker 3: Right, which is crime's bad.
Speaker 7: Yeah, crime is, crime remains bad. It's just as bad
Speaker 7: and maybe even more bad than it was yesterday.
Speaker 1: Right, Murdering a very good looking white person especially bad.
Speaker 5: Yes, well you got you got it right.
Speaker 7: You get an extra extra time in the pokey for that,
Speaker 7: you know. I mean, what Trump is trying to do
Speaker 7: is say, you know, the hell with Congress. I'm going
Speaker 7: to act by executive FIAT to do the things I
Speaker 7: couldn't do last time. So you know, that's what we've
Speaker 7: had so far with these three hundred executive or and actions.
Speaker 7: So I mean, none of them is the law of
Speaker 7: the land, right, all easily undone eventually, you know, by
Speaker 7: a future administration, because it's not legislation, and hopefully a
Speaker 7: lot of them to be undone in court. You know,
Speaker 7: already his attempt to sign a piece of paper that
Speaker 7: eliminates the fourteenth Amendment. And now you see the zany
Speaker 7: freeze of everything.
Speaker 9: Three trillion dollars of the federal government. Now that's right, now,
Speaker 9: that's that's on hold. So once you know, it's shocking,
Speaker 9: it's overwhelming what we've seen over the last ten days
Speaker 9: or so, and I think we do need, you know,
Speaker 9: not just outrage, but concerned action in terms of court action.
Speaker 9: But you know, it has to be remembered at the
Speaker 9: same time that there is only so much he can
Speaker 9: do by executive order, and he's he's seizing powers that
Speaker 9: he doesn't have right now. So presumably that ultimately doesn't last,
Speaker 9: and even this frum friendly Supreme Court won't allow it
Speaker 9: to happen. Of course, you know, if the Trump friendly
Speaker 9: Supreme Court decides you don't actually need a legislative branch
Speaker 9: and the president can do whatever he wants, well, then
Speaker 9: we're in a different Then we're in a different place.
Speaker 9: But you know we'll cross that bridge. Will we get
Speaker 9: to it?
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Trump friendly Supreme Court, We're going to do
Speaker 1: two minutes on the impoundment stuff.
Speaker 7: Because any any more than that and everybody would stop listening.
Speaker 1: Yes, exactly, because not only will you unsubscribe, but you
Speaker 1: will block me from your feet. But what I want,
Speaker 1: why I want to talk about empowerment is because so
Speaker 1: empoundment means there's money that Congress appropriates for things.
Speaker 3: That's how it works.
Speaker 1: Congress is theoretically supposed to control the purse. But what
Speaker 1: Nixon did, and you'll remember Nixon as the closest thing
Speaker 1: to Trump, I do remember, mintion is yes, this was
Speaker 1: way before Jesse and I were born, because we're very young. Basically,
Speaker 1: he used the money that Congress appropriated as a kind
Speaker 1: of carrotenstick for stuff he wanted and favors the kind
Speaker 1: of oligarch autocrat shit that they do in Russia. And
Speaker 1: now ross vat at omb did this in the first
Speaker 1: Trump administration. That's why he got impeached for Ukrain. Now
Speaker 1: we're in the second Trump administration. Rusvat is still not
Speaker 1: Senate approved yet, though he probably will be because nobody
Speaker 1: has any bravery whatsoever. But the question here is will
Speaker 1: Republicans be able to impound the money?
Speaker 3: Will they keep it will this law.
Speaker 1: The nineteen seventy four Impoundment Act put to prevent this
Speaker 1: put into law to prevent this, will that be upheld?
Speaker 1: Or is some of the purpose of this to create
Speaker 1: a constitutional crisis, to bring this law up to the
Speaker 1: Supreme Court and to assume that Trump's justices will do
Speaker 1: what he wants.
Speaker 7: I assume that is what they're up to here. I mean,
Speaker 7: you know, to listen to russ vote and his confirmation hearings.
Speaker 7: They say, well, you know, he's asked about the Empowerment Act.
Speaker 7: I say, well, you know, President Trump says it's unconstitutional
Speaker 7: and President Trump campaigned against it. Well, if you campaigned
Speaker 7: against it and you won, so I guess that means
Speaker 7: you don't have to follow that particular law. So clearly
Speaker 7: it's it's they're planning a flagrant violation of the law,
Speaker 7: which already has been upheld by the Supreme Court. And
Speaker 7: the assumption has to be that this particular Supreme Court
Speaker 7: is going to be friendlier. But that's quite a ways
Speaker 7: to go. Then why bother giving Congress the purse strings?
Speaker 7: If ultimately the president is going to decide which money
Speaker 7: will get spent and which money won't get spent.
Speaker 5: But you know, I mean there's a lot of that.
Speaker 7: You know, take saying you know, the law is what
Speaker 7: I say it is, whether it's with the impoundment of
Speaker 7: the fourteenth Amendment or you know, firing a dozen Inspectors
Speaker 7: General without the notice, you know, eliminating career civil servant protections.
Speaker 7: I mean, all of this is in flagrant violation of
Speaker 7: the law. So clearly they're trying to precipitate either a
Speaker 7: constitutionetional crisis or just wiping out laws by you know,
Speaker 7: the Supreme Court blessing the wiping out of laws by
Speaker 7: this a stroke of the penet of the president.
Speaker 3: Right, there is a real question.
Speaker 1: And I mean I always think that cynicism is the
Speaker 1: worst thing we can have here. As much as you
Speaker 1: and I are very cynical, there have been times when
Speaker 1: this Supreme Court has not completely rubber stamped Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: And I'm thinking about the sentencing opinion, right, even though
Speaker 1: it was an insane thing to send up to the court,
Speaker 1: because the truth is, there's no reason why this man
Speaker 1: should not have had to sit for the sentencing. But whatever,
Speaker 1: it was still Roberts and Barrett who went with the liberals.
Speaker 1: So here's a question for you. If it gets kicked
Speaker 1: to the Supreme Court, what do you think that means?
Speaker 7: Well, I'm glad you asked me, because I am a
Speaker 7: constitutional scholar. Known to me, I do still hold out
Speaker 7: some hope that Barrett and Roberts and even Kavanaugh, you know,
Speaker 7: still have some sense of some basic fealty to the
Speaker 7: constantutione and are not interested in rewriting things for political purposes,
Speaker 7: as say, you know, Alito or Thomas or Gorsuch. Maybe
Speaker 7: I guess in the broader sense, yes, that would be
Speaker 7: a constitutional crisis, and the impact, of course, would be
Speaker 7: devastating if the Supreme Court, you know, sent this country
Speaker 7: in an entirely different direction after two centuries.
Speaker 5: I think until we get to.
Speaker 7: That point, which is still pretty far off, what really
Speaker 7: matters is not the outrage over he's destroying institutions and
Speaker 7: norms and he's precipitating a crisis. What's going to matter
Speaker 7: is people are going to say, wait a second, I
Speaker 7: voted for this guy to reduce prices, and all he
Speaker 7: is doing is picking fights and vengeance and taking away
Speaker 7: people's security details. And now he's taking away my medicaid
Speaker 7: benefits and meals on.
Speaker 5: Wheels for old folks.
Speaker 7: So that's what's going to matter, is when people see
Speaker 7: and head start, Yeah, things going badly for them and
Speaker 7: people around them. President not delivering what he was supposed
Speaker 7: to do and instead he's all about settling personal scores
Speaker 7: and trying to pick fights with the Congress in the
Speaker 7: Supreme Court, right, and.
Speaker 1: That I think is that that will be the big question.
Speaker 1: So here we are, we have more confirmation hearings. I mean,
Speaker 1: Cash Bettel, Tulsea Gabbard, RFK Junior. You know, I saw
Speaker 1: rfk's former vice presidential whatever, Nicole Shanahan, doing a video
Speaker 1: about how if anyone votes against him, she will fund
Speaker 1: primary challengers. We've seen other billionaires do this. As a
Speaker 1: favorite of Elon's too, or as we like to think
Speaker 1: of him, Leon, what's your take on this? I mean,
Speaker 1: does this work? I mean I guess it does, right.
Speaker 7: Yes, but it's sort of you know, redundant. I mean,
Speaker 7: you know, there's already automatic primary challenges to anybody who
Speaker 7: defies Trump for anything, so they don't need any additional
Speaker 7: funding from Nicole Shanahan or Elon Musk or anybody else,
Speaker 7: you know, So I think those threats are kind of ludicrous.
Speaker 7: I mean, there already is lockstep discipline, or at least
Speaker 7: there has been so far. I mean, look, you could
Speaker 7: have knocked me over with a feather when McConnell actually
Speaker 7: voted against xact or maybe he knew that he was
Speaker 7: going through anyway.
Speaker 1: I'm going to stop you for a minute because you
Speaker 1: are a real DC person. And again and everyone who's
Speaker 1: so cynicals like, oh McConnell, whatever he knew, I don't
Speaker 1: think he knew.
Speaker 3: First of all, I think that.
Speaker 1: Tillis was a no until they went and talked to
Speaker 1: him for two hours.
Speaker 3: God knows what they said to him.
Speaker 1: The fact that he's voting against nominees I think is
Speaker 1: really meaningful. Say more about why you think it's meaningful.
Speaker 7: Well, because for ten years now, I've been thinking, oh,
Speaker 7: this is the moment when McConnell will actually stand up
Speaker 7: to Trump when it matters. At each time it's been
Speaker 7: you know, Charlie Brown in the football. So I mean,
Speaker 7: maybe it didn't matter this time since it was going
Speaker 7: through anyway, But.
Speaker 1: It's meaningful because McConnell was the leader, and like mcconnald's
Speaker 1: vote means more than a regular center vote.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I suppose, or maybe it means more in public.
Speaker 7: I mean, he's been so discredited in Maga eyes as
Speaker 7: you know, the old crow. I'm not actually sure it
Speaker 7: matters that much to the Trump faithful.
Speaker 5: But look, it's a numbers game.
Speaker 7: And if you got Murkowski and Collins are somewhat more
Speaker 7: reliable no on the most zany outrages and abuses, and
Speaker 7: if McConnell, then all right, you're down to your tiebreaker.
Speaker 7: And then you know who's the next guy who's going
Speaker 7: to develop a spine? It may it looked like that
Speaker 7: on the hegseth. That might be Tom Tillsey even had
Speaker 7: what was it his excess. Former sister in law urged
Speaker 7: her to come out publicly because he said that could
Speaker 7: tilt the balance. She comes out publicly and he still votes.
Speaker 7: Thanks a lot, dude.
Speaker 5: So you know, will he grow a spine or a pair?
Speaker 7: As they say, I'll be pleasantly surprised when I see it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But I mean I do think it's meaningful. And
Speaker 1: again I understand that I'm the boy whistling in the
Speaker 1: dark to keep myself from being afraid.
Speaker 5: But this is all we have that's right, Well, on
Speaker 5: to something.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: So the frozen federal budget is now there's a court injunction.
Speaker 1: We're going to see that play out. We've got more hearings.
Speaker 1: I mean, what else are you watching here?
Speaker 5: It's a little bit of ADHD. I should try to
Speaker 5: focus on anything.
Speaker 7: I mean, yeah, I mean last week I was focusing
Speaker 7: on Trump not seeming to know what his own administration
Speaker 7: is doing, and clearly his press secretary doesn't know either.
Speaker 7: I'm focusing more on his vengeance this week. She seems great,
Speaker 7: by the way, Oh she's brilliant. Yeah, yeah, just yet
Speaker 7: another really, I mean, just another star in the making.
Speaker 7: I threw in a line about her wearing a purple
Speaker 7: jacket and across of the type most commonly seen repelling vampires,
Speaker 7: and I thought I would get a lot more blowback
Speaker 7: than I did.
Speaker 5: But you know, people are anti vampire.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I mean what I'm watching for.
Speaker 7: Is I alluded to a moment ago is where he's
Speaker 7: actually doing things that are going to hurt people, forcing
Speaker 7: up prices, shuttering programs, precipitating international crises, you know, things
Speaker 7: that people are going to notice and feel in their
Speaker 7: lives and say, hey, wait a second, this is not
Speaker 7: what I voted for. That's what's it's going to matter,
Speaker 7: because you know, the election unfortunately, did prove that for
Speaker 7: a lot of people, you know, talking about he's destroying
Speaker 7: our constitutional system and our democracy.
Speaker 5: It just didn't wash for them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that is that fundamental problem with Trump,
Speaker 1: isn't which is when you try to explain that he's
Speaker 1: planning on doing all this stuff, people would be like, well,
Speaker 1: he didn't do it last time.
Speaker 5: Yeah, right, because he tried and he couldn't.
Speaker 7: But it looks like he may well be able to
Speaker 7: get a lot of this done this time, you know,
Speaker 7: and in a sense like yeah, you know, the federal
Speaker 7: judge saved him from himself with this you know, temporary
Speaker 7: to till February third, whatever, you know, suspension of the
Speaker 7: of the pause, the pause and the pause. But you know,
Speaker 7: I mean at some point, yeah, they're going to stop
Speaker 7: the head start and meals on wheels and medicaid or
Speaker 7: some equivalent crisis, and people are going to actually say,
Speaker 7: wait a second, this is not what I thought I
Speaker 7: was getting.
Speaker 3: Right exactly, this is not what I thought I was getting.
Speaker 3: Dana Melbank.
Speaker 5: I hope he'll come back anytime.
Speaker 1: Molly Alex Wagner is the host of MSNBC's Trump Land
Speaker 1: with Alex Wagner. Welcome to Fast Politics, Alex Wagner, thank
Speaker 1: you for having me.
Speaker 10: Molly John passed.
Speaker 3: I'm so excited. I'm thrilled you're doing this really interesting thing.
Speaker 3: Explain to us what you're doing now.
Speaker 10: Well, listen.
Speaker 11: I think when Trump was reelected there was thinking that, like,
Speaker 11: we got to do something differently this time. We got
Speaker 11: to be eggrective in our coverage. We got to look
Speaker 11: under each stone, and there are many stones. But we
Speaker 11: also need to be enterprising in terms of what we're
Speaker 11: covering because obviously Trump is the master of distraction and
Speaker 11: there's really important stuff that happens that we often don't
Speaker 11: get it to really talk about our analyze because we're
Speaker 11: dealing with a daily onslaught of controversy. So we have
Speaker 11: the inimitable Rachel Mattow sitting at the desk five days
Speaker 11: a week, and we have me out in a country
Speaker 11: reporting on the big stories of each week and talking
Speaker 11: to people that honestly, you don't usually see on television,
Speaker 11: having conversations that you don't normally hear on television. And
Speaker 11: the idea is we got to do something differently, like
Speaker 11: I said, and we're going to be as tenacious and
Speaker 11: as aggressive and as you know, resourceful as the moment demand.
Speaker 10: So that's what I've been doing.
Speaker 11: And like I started last week outside of DC jail
Speaker 11: talking to January sixth inmates, and this week I've been
Speaker 11: speaking to migrants who are working to know their rights
Speaker 11: and figure out a strategy and a battle plan for
Speaker 11: mass deportation, which seems to be very clearly at the
Speaker 11: top of the President's list of things to do.
Speaker 3: So I have a lot of questions.
Speaker 1: First, I want you to talk about the January sixth
Speaker 1: talking to those people, because that is a really interesting
Speaker 1: group that I mean, and I don't mean this to
Speaker 1: elevate them, because I know there's a lot of really
Speaker 1: problematic stuff for the larger like four democracy, But I'm
Speaker 1: wondering if you could talk just a little bit about
Speaker 1: what it was like with the group out there and
Speaker 1: sort of what their expectations were and what their feelings
Speaker 1: were about Donald Trump.
Speaker 11: Yeah, I mean, I wanted to have the conversations with
Speaker 11: them because I think it's important to know the sort
Speaker 11: of to understand the stories of the people who are
Speaker 11: at the center of the news, and I was eager
Speaker 11: to hear first of all their thoughts about Trump and
Speaker 11: also kind of like where their allegiance stands now that
Speaker 11: they're free, because I think a lot of people wonder
Speaker 11: how Trump is going to carry out some of his
Speaker 11: most draconian plans. You know, standard of lawlessness or lawfulness
Speaker 11: is and they are a great bell weather for that.
Speaker 11: So you know, the first thing that struck me. I mean,
Speaker 11: perhaps it's not surprising that they are so intensely loyal
Speaker 11: to Donald Trump in a way that I think eclipses
Speaker 11: even their sense of allegiance on January six. Like, I
Speaker 11: talked to one father who had two children in jail.
Speaker 11: He himself was also there at January six, and he
Speaker 11: said to me, with tears in his eyes, I would
Speaker 11: die for this now.
Speaker 3: So they don't feel like Trump put them in this position.
Speaker 11: No, And I told you a woman who was involved
Speaker 11: in the riot and was pardoned by President Trump. She said,
Speaker 11: I don't understand why I was ever in jail. And
Speaker 11: Anthony Fauci and Liz Cheney warrant, Oh wow. The sort
Speaker 11: of conspiracy theory narratives that have been spun around prominent
Speaker 11: resistance figures and resistance is like does people who are
Speaker 11: still tethered to reality and care about the future of
Speaker 11: a you know, our American democracy. That sort of poison
Speaker 11: is like deep in the veins, especially for January six ers,
Speaker 11: even though they may have been in you know, federal
Speaker 11: kind of tenuries during the like most of the last
Speaker 11: couple of years. They are angry, but they are also
Speaker 11: intensely hopeful about what President Trump can establish and accomplish,
Speaker 11: and they're ready to go for him. I mean, I
Speaker 11: asked a number of them, if he asks you to
Speaker 11: go do something, will you go do it? And almost
Speaker 11: to a person, they said, hell, yeah, Like he hasn't
Speaker 11: given up on us. We would never give up on him.
Speaker 11: The other thing is so speaking Molly, is so many
Speaker 11: of them have talked directly with Trump. Either they were
Speaker 11: at mar A Lago, you know, if they were family
Speaker 11: members of Jason, or they've spoken on the phone to
Speaker 11: him numerous times. I mean, as a matter of like
Speaker 11: constituent outreach. Donald Trump is a machine. Like the fact
Speaker 11: that this guy has focused so much of his attentions
Speaker 11: on this group of people should tell you a lot
Speaker 11: about how important they are to him. In his second presidency, and.
Speaker 1: If we look historically at autocrats who craft their own
Speaker 1: militias or their own it never.
Speaker 3: Ends well, you never want an autocrat.
Speaker 10: To have a bunch an army, right.
Speaker 3: De facto army.
Speaker 1: That is never a good sign for democratic norms.
Speaker 11: Well, and it's not just the fifteen hundred people he
Speaker 11: pardoned or community the sentences of it's the signal that's
Speaker 11: sent to any other militia member. I mean, I talked
Speaker 11: to militia memories before the twenty twenty election who may
Speaker 11: not have actually been there on January sixth, but were
Speaker 11: inclined to think about extra judicial solutions to a broken
Speaker 11: government or a broken.
Speaker 10: You know, election. They you know, there are a lot
Speaker 10: of people.
Speaker 11: Who weren't active around January sixth, but have been entranced
Speaker 11: by Maggot in the intervening years. And like the pardoning
Speaker 11: is a huge signal to all of them that if
Speaker 11: you do Trump spitting, he's got your back.
Speaker 3: Yeah. No, I think that's right.
Speaker 1: And that is, if you think about it, quite worrying
Speaker 1: for any number of reasons. And the fact that they
Speaker 1: consider themselves to be sort of the bizarro doctor Fauci
Speaker 1: is just can you talk me through that?
Speaker 11: Thinking, they believe that there are actors who are trying
Speaker 11: to destroy the country. I mean, this is where the
Speaker 11: q Andon like the snake, the q Andon snake begins
Speaker 11: eating the Maga tail right right, the like there was
Speaker 11: no mention of pizza.
Speaker 3: Game, right. Oh, well, that's something, you know.
Speaker 11: The vast conspiracy that exists in the deep state is
Speaker 11: something they absolutely believe in. They believe, to a person
Speaker 11: that the twenty twenty election was stolen. I asked a
Speaker 11: number of them, well, if twenty twenty was stolen, why
Speaker 11: we let him win in twenty twenty four, and they said,
Speaker 11: because it was too big to rig. His margin was
Speaker 11: just too big to rig, and that's the only reason
Speaker 11: the system wasn't set up against him. But they believe that,
Speaker 11: you know, Lias Cheney is a trader. I mean, they
Speaker 11: believe that Mark Milly is a trader. They believe that
Speaker 11: Anthony Fauci is the architect of our national despair. And
Speaker 11: the question is the degree to which Trump sort of
Speaker 11: tries to point them in that direction and actually calls
Speaker 11: for them to do something to those people. I mean,
Speaker 11: of course I hope that never happens, but it seemed
Speaker 11: to me that a number of them were ready to
Speaker 11: do what you know, they needed to do because this
Speaker 11: was bigger than just them, This was bigger than jail time.
Speaker 11: This was a central part of what they understood to
Speaker 11: be their American identity, which is wild.
Speaker 3: You know it's wild, right, I think that's really important.
Speaker 1: We interviewed this academic who I'm kind of obsessed with
Speaker 1: at Harvard called Thetis Scotch Paul, and she was talking
Speaker 1: about how often post a pandemic people will have a
Speaker 1: certain amount of memory holding, like they just won't be
Speaker 1: able to keep the memory of the experience in their
Speaker 1: head because it's so traumatic. How does that make sense
Speaker 1: with this just like amateur psychiatrists for me, for a second.
Speaker 10: Gary, amateur, Like didn't go to med.
Speaker 3: School, I didn't even go to college.
Speaker 10: So well, but you're you're what is it, You're naturally brilliant.
Speaker 11: I'm not sure, but anyway, yeah, listen, I totally agree.
Speaker 11: I feel like so much of our national unpacking needs
Speaker 11: to happen around COVID because I do think it's like
Speaker 11: a lacuna and people were filled with so much rage
Speaker 11: and loneliness and despair and it compounded. And I really
Speaker 11: believe this you know what Vivick Murphy, the Surgeon General,
Speaker 11: once called like at the epidemic of loneliness and what
Speaker 11: you know, Michael, there's so many people that sees on
Speaker 11: this this is all connected, right. People feel alone, they
Speaker 11: feel disconnected from community. They're angry about their their particular situation,
Speaker 11: whether economically, culturally, financially, socially whatever, and they look for
Speaker 11: an outlet for that, and for these kind of jan
Speaker 11: sixers and so the Maga diehards. I think COVID was
Speaker 11: this incredible inflection point where they had no outlet for
Speaker 11: the loneliness, They had no one to turn to, and
Speaker 11: here comes a strong man suggesting that all of this
Speaker 11: is a fabrication. That all of the pain that they
Speaker 11: felt and that they've gone through and that lies ahead
Speaker 11: for them, can you know, be either erased or vanished
Speaker 11: from the horizon if they just believe in him. I mean,
Speaker 11: I think it also speaks to the decline of like
Speaker 11: religion in this country, like are you know, the public
Speaker 11: spare has gone away and people just want to believe
Speaker 11: in someone and something and Trump, you know, sort of
Speaker 11: I think the dawn of perhaps the most the more
Speaker 11: poisonous stage of Trump ism that coincided with the COVID pandemic,
Speaker 11: and I just think that there's a lot that that
Speaker 11: stirred up, that there's a direct line you can draw
Speaker 11: between the sort of venomous force of MAGA and what
Speaker 11: everybody went through during the COVID pandemic.
Speaker 10: I mean, you know, like I think all of.
Speaker 11: Us liberals, centrists and you know, conservatives, we've all had
Speaker 11: to kind of move past it in a way because
Speaker 11: life goes on, right.
Speaker 10: But it was intensely scarring.
Speaker 11: I mean, and you know people who lost their loved
Speaker 11: ones in the hospitals and had to say goodbye on zoom.
Speaker 11: I mean, these are dehumanizing moments that the just being
Speaker 11: apart from each other, which is against the natural order
Speaker 11: of humanity. I mean, we haven't come to terms, I think,
Speaker 11: with just absolutely how disruptive and devastating those those several
Speaker 11: years were.
Speaker 1: You know, it's as you're talking about this, what I'm
Speaker 1: struck by is I was on Morning Joe, not that
Speaker 1: we're doing MSPR here, but we can, but we can.
Speaker 3: There's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1: I was talking to Read Hoffman and he was saying, like,
Speaker 1: AI is going to be so great, and I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, it seems like there's going to be unintended consequences.
Speaker 1: Can you talk about the unintended consequences? Because that's something
Speaker 1: that is really right at the top of my mind
Speaker 1: when we talk about Trump is because they're always you know,
Speaker 1: move fast and break things, means you actually break things.
Speaker 3: And I said him, what are the unintended consequences?
Speaker 1: And he was like, well, after the printing press there
Speaker 1: was you know, one hundred years of war, and I
Speaker 1: just was thinking about how advances, how these terrifying unintended consequences.
Speaker 1: Though I think with the Rioters this is actually an
Speaker 1: intended consequence.
Speaker 11: Yeah, I mean I think we underestimate how cathartic ragees.
Speaker 11: You know, having an enemy to pin your disappointments on
Speaker 11: can be just a hugely relieving thing, you know, and
Speaker 11: if you're living with pain or you're living in a
Speaker 11: dark place, I mean there is something to be said
Speaker 11: for like you go, I've been to a number of
Speaker 11: Trump rallies, right, yeah, and they take on the air
Speaker 11: of a religious revival, right they fill this hole. And
Speaker 11: I mean, like not to get super like therapy on you,
Speaker 11: but like there is something incredibly intoxicating about anger, right,
Speaker 11: It's like a fueling feeling. And yeah, like I just
Speaker 11: I feel like after a period of hurt, whether it's
Speaker 11: just COVID or the preceding years, to just be able
Speaker 11: to live in a state of rage, can be electrified.
Speaker 10: And I think that's part of the appeal here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's right.
Speaker 1: And I also think it's so interesting talk to me
Speaker 1: about the next week. You go to a radically different
Speaker 1: place with a radically different group of people.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 11: Well, I mean, I think the idea is to get
Speaker 11: into the muscle of all of this because we taught
Speaker 11: so much of the consequences and the players. All that
Speaker 11: exists in the abstract. So we talk about immigration, We
Speaker 11: hear about these immigration rates as like what's going on
Speaker 11: with the immigrants?
Speaker 9: You know?
Speaker 10: And what I found was just an extraordinary amount of fear.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 11: I talk to a number of people who are terrified
Speaker 11: and maybe keeping their children home from school. They don't
Speaker 11: know what their future next week is. But I also
Speaker 11: found a community of people who are trying to understand
Speaker 11: what their constitutional rights are. There's a series of seminars
Speaker 11: called no Your Rights the Borders Are. Tom Holman calls
Speaker 11: them how to escape arrest seminars, but they're run by
Speaker 11: various community groups, and they're these kind of workshops where
Speaker 11: immigrants go, they can ask questions, they get kind of
Speaker 11: a strategy for how to deal with ICE agents if
Speaker 11: they come in and try and arrest them. And you know,
Speaker 11: they do what is called a role playing exercise where
Speaker 11: one migrant will be the migrant and one will be
Speaker 11: the ICE agent, and they kind of do this acting
Speaker 11: exercise effectively to run through, did you a dry run
Speaker 11: a test run of what it would be like to
Speaker 11: be on the verge of deportation?
Speaker 10: And it was so.
Speaker 11: Fascinating, Molly, because on some level, these people are confronting
Speaker 11: their greatest fear right, it's very scenario that their life
Speaker 11: in America is on the precipice of ending right and
Speaker 11: shattering everything that they've built. And the other level, they're
Speaker 11: confronting it right most directly and in that way that
Speaker 11: this is like one long therapy session.
Speaker 1: No, it's good, I feel very very helpful to me anyway,
Speaker 1: go on.
Speaker 11: Yet, confronting your fears is a way of gaining.
Speaker 10: Strength and feeling empowered.
Speaker 11: And what you would see in the course of these
Speaker 11: workshops is that people would start to laugh and people
Speaker 11: started engaging, and they felt like they were united as one,
Speaker 11: and they felt like you know when you look fear
Speaker 11: right in the eye and say, Okay, I got this,
Speaker 11: I can do this.
Speaker 10: I know what I'm going to do. I have a plan.
Speaker 11: It's the only way to manage what is right now,
Speaker 11: especially an unmanageable, chaotic and totally unprettict situation. Right like
Speaker 11: people don't know whether they can go to the grocery store,
Speaker 11: and ge don't know whether the kids can go to school.
Speaker 11: They're just like they're terrified. But if you can say
Speaker 11: I know what I'm going to do, you know, it's
Speaker 11: like stop, drop and roll. It's like this is the
Speaker 11: order of things. It offers some sense of empowerment, it
Speaker 11: offers sense of agency, and it was like, actually a
Speaker 11: totally remarkable thing to see how this group of very
Speaker 11: marginalized people who are largely under assault from the Trump
Speaker 11: administration is managing this moment of profound fear. And in
Speaker 11: a lot of ways it was weirdly hopeful, right Like
Speaker 11: nobody's suggesting they're not going to get deported, but just
Speaker 11: in terms of the human struggle, looking at the resilience
Speaker 11: of these people, right, the people who worked their butts
Speaker 11: off to come to America and continue to work their
Speaker 11: butts off as the economic backbone, and who want to
Speaker 11: stay in America to continue to contribute to society and
Speaker 11: say almost to a person, we still love this place,
Speaker 11: we still believe in this place, we believe we are equal,
Speaker 11: and we know we have rights. It was really like
Speaker 11: an extraordinary experience to see how they're coping with this moment.
Speaker 1: I mean, there is hope in this And I also
Speaker 1: think that the stories of people and their real experience
Speaker 1: are the only way we can get into what's actually happening,
Speaker 1: because you know, the statistics don't really tell the story
Speaker 1: that people know.
Speaker 10: No, they did. Yeah, And also I think it's really important.
Speaker 11: The right has a very well oiled like social media
Speaker 11: machine and messaging machine around getting the garbage out, which
Speaker 11: is what the arkham Mansecurity Secretary called undocumented migrants in
Speaker 11: this country, and like the left has largely I think
Speaker 11: because they were cowed by the twenty twenty four election results.
Speaker 11: They feel like they don't have their immigration platform worked out.
Speaker 11: But the vitriol that's coming from the right, the mischaracterization
Speaker 11: of who these people are is being met with utter
Speaker 11: silence on the left, and so honestly it's left to
Speaker 11: the media to go and say, oh, but this is
Speaker 11: actually who these people are.
Speaker 10: They are not there.
Speaker 11: I mean, it's a vanishing percentage that are actually violent criminals.
Speaker 11: This majority of these people are people that are making
Speaker 11: the country hup. And it's important to remind everybody of
Speaker 11: the real actual narrative here and not what Trump and
Speaker 11: his allies would have you believe.
Speaker 1: Let's have two seconds on Tom Holman, because this guy
Speaker 1: is such an interesting character and what he's doing right
Speaker 1: now is absolutely atrocious. But he comes from Obama world, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, he has had this strange transition he was retired.
Speaker 11: Yeah, I think there's something that happens when you're in
Speaker 11: a kind of incarceratory position.
Speaker 10: Where in order to do the work.
Speaker 11: You kind of need to dehumanize the people that you
Speaker 11: are arresting and incarcerating. You have to begin to look
Speaker 11: at them as the enemy that needs to be caught.
Speaker 11: I mean, I think that's just kind of a natural
Speaker 11: progression of things, right, I mean, I think cops sometimes
Speaker 11: have to de humanize people. They have to think in
Speaker 11: blanket terms, like I'm sure prison guards kind of do
Speaker 11: the same thing, and I think if.
Speaker 10: Your borders are you often do that.
Speaker 11: The issue with Holman is he seems to have drunk
Speaker 11: from the fountain of Maga, and the dehumanization has taken
Speaker 11: on a level of cruelty and sort of like shamelessness.
Speaker 11: It is a stunning portrait of like our darker selves. Right,
Speaker 11: there's a zeal for capture and enthusiasm for punishment and
Speaker 11: a wartlessness that seems really like a byproduct of someone
Speaker 11: who's I don't know. It's gotten very dark in tom
Speaker 11: Home and Land in the intervening years between Obama and
Speaker 11: it's I think unfortunate that we have someone so seemingly
Speaker 11: incapable of seeing the humanity in these people, who's running
Speaker 11: the entire program.
Speaker 10: I mean, I think the same of Stephen Miller too.
Speaker 1: Yes, Steven Miller. Find someone who loves you, like Steven
Speaker 1: Miller hates immigrants. Thank you so much, Alex, really appreciate you,
Speaker 1: and may till you want to come back and talk
Speaker 1: about your report.
Speaker 3: It would be really great.
Speaker 10: I will come back whenever you'll have me.
Speaker 8: Molly, no moment, Andon Jesse Cannon, So Molly, yesterday we
Speaker 8: got a first taste of a press briefing by Caroline Lovett, and.
Speaker 2: The taste was Korean from the northern region of the
Speaker 2: region in my Tastes.
Speaker 1: Carolyn Levitt, Trump's new press secretary for as long as
Speaker 1: she lasts, did a lot of the kind of stuff
Speaker 1: we saw previous Trump press secretaries do whenever they would
Speaker 1: have press briefings, which was not that often. You know,
Speaker 1: it's funny because it's like, I think of all the
Speaker 1: people in Trump World, like, will she end up going
Speaker 1: against Trump and will I end up interviewing her on
Speaker 1: this podcast or will she go along with and end
Speaker 1: up on Fox News. It's a real choose your own
Speaker 1: adventure for Carolyn Levitt. She is at this job to
Speaker 1: humiliate the press, to elevate right wing figures, to spread lies,
Speaker 1: to be hostile. You know, she has this job for
Speaker 1: one reason, right, So we shouldn't be surprised, you know,
Speaker 1: this is what happens and so but she is our
Speaker 1: moment of fun Gray.
Speaker 2: Can I make a third wager on where she ends up? Yeah?
Speaker 2: This is my wild card televangelist.
Speaker 3: Very nice, not impossible.
Speaker 1: That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in
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Speaker 3: Thanks for listening.