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 the percentage of voters with significant
Speaker 1: levels of confidence in the Supreme Court has dropped to
Speaker 1: its lowest point since NBC began polling on this question
Speaker 1: in two thousand. Just twenty two percent of respondents say
Speaker 1: they have confidence in the Court. We have such a
Speaker 1: great show for you today. Notice his own Evan mc morris.
Speaker 1: Santoro steps by to talk about the hopefully doomed Save Act.
Speaker 1: Then we'll talk to Financial Times and loose about what
Speaker 1: the Iranian war means for Americans at home. But first
Speaker 1: the news.
Speaker 2: So, Molly, big big news out of Marjorie Taylor Green's
Speaker 2: district last night, an election where the Democrat got more votes,
Speaker 2: which everybody was told could never happen in that But
Speaker 2: there's some people saying, if you give to this Democrat
Speaker 2: for this frontoff, you're an idiot. We need this money
Speaker 2: for the Senate races. I'm curious what you think, but
Speaker 2: it really does feel like Dems can't stop winning.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I was on my way home from something.
Speaker 1: I was like, let's check in at that special election
Speaker 1: for Marjorie Taylor Green seat, which is like a ruby
Speaker 1: red district. I mean, there's a reason that that is
Speaker 1: the district that sent Marjorie Taylor Green to Congress. Right
Speaker 1: Jewish space lasers qan one. You'll remember she used to
Speaker 1: not be so refined. So I looked at it and
Speaker 1: I thought the Democrat would be losing by less than
Speaker 1: what the Democrats historically lose by in that district, and
Speaker 1: in fact, the Democrat was winning. Now this advances to
Speaker 1: a runoff because there are multiple candidates. It were multiple
Speaker 1: Republican candidates, and that is how the Democrat got more votes.
Speaker 1: Do I think a Democrat will win Marjorie Taylor Green's seat, No,
Speaker 1: I do not. But why this is relevant is because
Speaker 1: this is a seat that Donald Trump endorsed to candidate.
Speaker 1: The candidate did not immediately win. That is important. That
Speaker 1: is an important data point because it means that Donald
Speaker 1: Trump is a president who has a cult of personality
Speaker 1: around him. That means he can do things like do
Speaker 1: things that are not what he ran for president on,
Speaker 1: if that makes sense. So he does things like he
Speaker 1: goes to war when saying he's against wars, but his
Speaker 1: cult of personality only works if there's a cult, and
Speaker 1: the fact that he could not get this Republican in
Speaker 1: a Ruby red district over the finish line means that
Speaker 1: the cult is not as powerful as it's been previously,
Speaker 1: and that means that trump Ism is not as powerful
Speaker 1: as it was, and that is a very good sign
Speaker 1: for Democrats. So should you pour all your money into
Speaker 1: a special election in a Ruby red district. I don't
Speaker 1: think it's the best use of your cash. I think
Speaker 1: you're better off giving money to Shared Brand in Ohio.
Speaker 1: I even think you're better off giving money to Marry Perota.
Speaker 1: I don't think this is the best use of your cash.
Speaker 1: But if you want to throw a little cash that way,
Speaker 1: you're certainly welcome to. It will go to a runoff,
Speaker 1: and the point again with these runoffs is that it
Speaker 1: means that the Republicans have to spend more money. And
Speaker 1: just like the Texas Senate primary runoff, which we talk
Speaker 1: about later, these runoffs are good because they make Republicans
Speaker 1: spend Yeah.
Speaker 2: And the list of how many times though Democrats, because
Speaker 2: particularly last night, they flipped a district in New Hampshire,
Speaker 2: this list is just so impressive and really gives a
Speaker 2: lot of hope. And I know we like to be
Speaker 2: reminded since you and I can get a little down
Speaker 2: at times, and we have to remember things are going
Speaker 2: well when we hit the ballot box.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I'm going to just read a few of
Speaker 1: these numbers so people can see these special legislative flips.
Speaker 1: This is from interactive polls. So Texas's state District nine
Speaker 1: was over performance by a Democrat by thirty two points.
Speaker 1: So if you think about that, if you think about
Speaker 1: thirty two points would mean the entire map flips to Democrats.
Speaker 1: We had. Mississippi's House District twenty two was a D
Speaker 1: plus eight, which means that Democrats overperformed by eight points.
Speaker 1: That's still is humongous. Now, will the midterms be like
Speaker 1: special elections? It's possible, But it does mean that if
Speaker 1: you could get showings like this, you could do You
Speaker 1: could flip the House, you could flip this Senate. Will
Speaker 1: we I don't want to say no, but I certainly
Speaker 1: know that Donald Trump is pushing really hard for the
Speaker 1: Save Act and there's only one reason for.
Speaker 2: That, yep. So we try to keep it domestic policy here,
Speaker 2: but I think it becomes very relevant to domestic policy
Speaker 2: when we start talking about the cover ups at home
Speaker 2: and Trump is pretending a tomahawk missile we sent didn't
Speaker 2: hit a girls school that killed one hundred and seventy
Speaker 2: five people. Molly, do you have any interest in hearing
Speaker 2: how bad his defense of this was.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I actually heard his defense of this because I
Speaker 1: watched the press conference.
Speaker 2: Well and I play for the listeners.
Speaker 3: Then, Yeah, you just suggested that Aron somehow got its
Speaker 3: hands on a tomahawk and bombed its own elementary school
Speaker 3: on the first day of the war. But you're the
Speaker 3: person in your government saying this. Even your Defense secretary
Speaker 3: wouldn't say that when he was asked standing over your
Speaker 3: shoulder on your plane on Saturday. Why are you the
Speaker 3: only person saying this?
Speaker 4: Because I just don't know enough about it. I think
Speaker 4: it's something that I was told is under investigation. But
Speaker 4: tomahawks are used by others, as you know, numerous other
Speaker 4: nations have tomahawks they buy him from US. But I
Speaker 4: will certainly whatever the report shows. I'm willing to live
Speaker 4: with that report.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's nice that he's willing to live with it, But.
Speaker 2: It turns out the report showed it that it's our fault.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think it was pretty clear that this
Speaker 1: was going to come out being our fault because tomahawks
Speaker 1: are our missiles and we were in a fight. The
Speaker 1: other side didn't have them. And so when you saw
Speaker 1: Pete head sth unable to defend, you know, their only
Speaker 1: job is North Korean sycophants. And so the fact that
Speaker 1: he couldn't defend it was really a moment to take
Speaker 1: a pause and know that he probably knew, and probably
Speaker 1: this weekend they knew that it was theirs, and Donald
Speaker 1: Trump still kept going defending it.
Speaker 2: So Molly, I really love when Republicans just give up
Speaker 2: on trying to defend Trump's ridiculous policies. I mean, he
Speaker 2: does put them in a place I would personally not
Speaker 2: like to be. But when Senator Roger Marshall says freedom
Speaker 2: isn't free, about why you're about to pay double for gas,
Speaker 2: it's just chef's kiss.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So this is the new message. The message last
Speaker 1: week was we're not at war. Everything is fine this
Speaker 1: week because gas is you know, teetering at one hundred
Speaker 1: dollars of farrell. I think it went down, but it's
Speaker 1: still quite expensive. Now they have to say something because
Speaker 1: they've learned that the worst thing you can do is
Speaker 1: be like nobody cares. Don't be a cock.
Speaker 2: That would make a great ladside BALI you should copyright
Speaker 2: that immediately.
Speaker 1: But it's true. I mean, like, you know, we've seen
Speaker 1: and look, this is a problem the Biden administration had
Speaker 1: too write m h. Don't tell them the economy is good.
Speaker 1: If they can't afford eggs. They don't want to hear that.
Speaker 1: So this is this new Republican pivot. And the thing
Speaker 1: they say now is short term pain for long term gain. Now,
Speaker 1: I want to point out, nobody knows why we are
Speaker 1: in this war to begin with, so the gain would
Speaker 1: be that what the gain would be more war in
Speaker 1: the Middle East, killing a bunch of girls in a school.
Speaker 1: I mean, what's the gain here? Because I don't see
Speaker 1: any gain right there in my mind. I understand that
Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia and Israel both wanted America to go into this,
Speaker 1: but I see no gain anyway. The new thing short
Speaker 1: term pain for long term gain, which means they know
Speaker 1: it's going to be a summer of high gas prices. Luckily,
Speaker 1: this administration has funded so much solar and wind just
Speaker 1: kidding anyway, I don't know what to tell you.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, even de incentivized electric cars. Great stuff. So,
Speaker 2: speaking of defending the indefensible, the queen of it, Carolyn
Speaker 2: Levitt had to admit today that the Save Act will
Speaker 2: make it harder for married.
Speaker 5: Women to vote.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I'm shocked. I didn't know she was
Speaker 1: allowed to admit things. But yes, she accidentally admitted what
Speaker 1: opponents of the Act have long warned against. She's that
Speaker 1: married women will need to update their identification documentation in
Speaker 1: order to vote if the Save America Act passes Congress.
Speaker 1: According to White House Press Secretary Carolyn Levitt, look Levitt,
Speaker 1: one of the things I love about her is nothing.
Speaker 1: But I am impressed that she really does double down.
Speaker 1: You know, how dare you? Press? And Trump is the handsomest, youngest,
Speaker 1: most virile anyway, All of this Save Act is to
Speaker 1: make it so that people can't vote, so that Donald
Speaker 1: Trump doesn't get impeached, so that they don't lose the House.
Speaker 1: Because he knows that if Democrats retake the House, donald
Speaker 1: Trump is getting impeached. Now will he get removed? Probably not.
Speaker 1: They probably don't have sixty votes to get rid of him.
Speaker 1: In the Senate. But his life is going to be
Speaker 1: a trial after trial after trial after trial. You probably
Speaker 1: will be that anyway, but you.
Speaker 2: Know, one trial after another.
Speaker 1: That's all right. We have exciting news over at our
Speaker 1: YouTube channel. The third episode is out now from our
Speaker 1: series Project twenty twenty nine, Reimagining, where we examine what
Speaker 1: went wrong with democrats approach to policy and how we
Speaker 1: can correct it and deliver changes for the American people.
Speaker 1: The first episodes dove into campaign finance, reform, anti trust
Speaker 1: and regulation. Our newest episode is on how we solidify
Speaker 1: reproductive rights for women. We talk to the smartest names
Speaker 1: in the field like Abortion every Day is Jessica Valenti,
Speaker 1: the Center for Reproductive Rights, Nancy Northam, UCLA, is oh
Speaker 1: and Mary Ziegler, and the gout Macher Institute's Kelly Badden.
Speaker 1: Republicans were prepared for when they got the levers of power.
Speaker 1: Democrats need to be too. So please head over to
Speaker 1: YouTube and search Molly John Fast Project twenty twenty nine
Speaker 1: or go to the Fast Politics YouTube channel page and
Speaker 1: you'll find it there. Help us spread the word. Evan
Speaker 1: McMorris Santorro is a reporter at Notice.
Speaker 5: Evan Mallie, how are you.
Speaker 1: So great, so good? So Evan, we need to talk
Speaker 1: about the Save Act. Donald Trump has decided that because
Speaker 1: he cannot wait. I mean, basically this is he looked
Speaker 1: at the polls and he was like, I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: him paged again. He looked at his thirty five thirty
Speaker 1: six favorability rating and was like, we gotta make it
Speaker 1: harder to vote because otherwise we're all in a lot
Speaker 1: of trouble.
Speaker 6: Discuss Well, I think that what's going on with this,
Speaker 6: right is he has a long term project heading into
Speaker 6: these mid terms to really question the way elections work
Speaker 6: in the country. I mean, you know, he has active
Speaker 6: investigations going on in Georgia and Arizona, the places that
Speaker 6: he lost in twenty twenty and then still sort of
Speaker 6: carrying a torch for saying he got robbed from that
Speaker 6: they're doing that. There have been calls from some folks
Speaker 6: in his you know, in Maga world, that he should
Speaker 6: declare an emergency so he can like take over elections.
Speaker 5: He's he talked about taking over elections and then.
Speaker 1: Say their business because he knows he can't win, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's not doing this because American elections, Like
Speaker 1: a million different courts have said his own dej that
Speaker 1: he did not win.
Speaker 5: Well, yeah, I mean that's right. I mean he didn't
Speaker 5: win the election in twenty twenty.
Speaker 6: He lost the election in twenty twenty, and then the
Speaker 6: thing is the best way to come back and that
Speaker 6: is to win the following one, which he then did.
Speaker 6: So it's confusing as to why we're still talking about
Speaker 6: twenty twenty. But I will say, look, I don't know.
Speaker 6: This is all about the majority in the House and
Speaker 6: the Senate, which, like you know, it does look at risk.
Speaker 6: His poll numbers are very, very bad. It's not going
Speaker 6: well for them. Yeah, but this really is a long
Speaker 6: term Trump project has been undermining.
Speaker 1: The American elections.
Speaker 6: Yes, like since try beginning, I mean even before twenty sixteen.
Speaker 6: Right the lock up to that was a lot of
Speaker 6: questions like are you going to accept the results, you know,
Speaker 6: if they if they don't go your way? He's like,
Speaker 6: I don't know if I'm going to or not. Of
Speaker 6: course he did go his way, then he of course
Speaker 6: accepted them. But then when they didn't go his way,
Speaker 6: he didn't accept them. January sixth, et cetera. This whole
Speaker 6: thing is like of the whole piece. And what's fascinating
Speaker 6: about it is that you have seen a lot of
Speaker 6: Republicans get very upset about some of the stuff that
Speaker 6: he was talking about. When he was out there talking
Speaker 6: about Republicans should take over elections, and he listed to
Speaker 6: several states those lessons that they should take over. Republicans
Speaker 6: pushed back, They're like, well, well, you know, this is
Speaker 6: a state sovereignty issue.
Speaker 5: We run them.
Speaker 6: We don't need to do this. We don't need the
Speaker 6: federal government coming in there and telling us how to
Speaker 6: run our elections. And on this issue of the Save Act,
Speaker 6: you know, the bill itself that does a lot of
Speaker 6: things that you know sort of have are already the
Speaker 6: law changes some other things, but the main thing is
Speaker 6: the senators, the Republican senators are not letting him do this,
Speaker 6: do this bill. They don't want to blow up the
Speaker 6: legislative filibuster, which senators really like. Literally, the only people
Speaker 6: in America who like the filibuster are senators. It's one
Speaker 6: of the strangest things in the world. Anybody you ever
Speaker 6: go anywhere.
Speaker 5: Who likes it.
Speaker 6: But then today you saw the thing, you know, where
Speaker 6: like John Fornyan running you know in that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, primary, So let's stop for a second and talk
Speaker 1: about the Texas primary. So this is John thun who
Speaker 1: is the new leader of the Senate. He is very
Speaker 1: tall and tan and affable, and he is like great
Speaker 1: a Senate guy, and he does not want to blow
Speaker 1: up the filibuster because he knows that no matter how
Speaker 1: much fuck up elections, eventually Democrats will in fact win
Speaker 1: and then we will all have free breakfasts for children,
Speaker 1: which everyone knows must be stopped. We cannot feed those
Speaker 1: poor kids when that money could be better spent on
Speaker 1: movies of Christy Nome riding horses and flying around in
Speaker 1: her jet with a bedroom. So I want to talk
Speaker 1: about you know, I'm right, You know I'm right that
Speaker 1: money better spend.
Speaker 6: It isn't just about the next cooming election. I mean
Speaker 6: I think that's true. Will you talk to senators from
Speaker 6: both parties. They like this thing. This is this is
Speaker 6: the think is a key component of what makes their
Speaker 6: legislative body different other legislative bodies.
Speaker 5: And they're the very excited.
Speaker 6: There's always a vocal minority of people who want it gone.
Speaker 1: And now yes, and now now we run into the
Speaker 1: Texas Republican Senate primary, which pits Ken Paxton, a man
Speaker 1: who has been impeached but not removed just like Donald Trump,
Speaker 1: and John Cornyn, a man who is slightly less nuts,
Speaker 1: are running in a runoff for the primary, and so
Speaker 1: both of them have now decided that the Save America
Speaker 1: Act is the only way to suck up to Trump
Speaker 1: to get the Trump endorsement, which you need, at least
Speaker 1: theoretically to win this runoff.
Speaker 6: I have never seen an election about one person as
Speaker 6: much as this one is. This is this is like
Speaker 6: the movie with Kevin Cotun They made like swing voter
Speaker 6: or whatever, and they off to go down there and
Speaker 6: like campaign like what happened was Cornyn does surprisingly well
Speaker 6: in the first in the first vote, come down on top,
Speaker 6: you know, which is not supposed to happen. This sort
Speaker 6: of shifts the winds that he's gonna get this endorsement
Speaker 6: from Trump. Trump sort of previews saying I'm gonna endorse
Speaker 6: somebody and then make the other person drop out. Pastons
Speaker 6: of the brilliant idea of like, yeah, I'll drop out
Speaker 6: if you if they pass the Save Act. And Trump
Speaker 6: loves that, and so now the whole thing is reset
Speaker 6: and I got Cordon, a longtime supporter of the Senate,
Speaker 6: a long time supporter of the Senate filibuster, and who
Speaker 6: is kind of running as kind of like, look, I
Speaker 6: like Trump, but I'm an independent guy, you know me.
Speaker 5: It's kind of what his whole thing.
Speaker 6: Is is that like I'm Baxton is like this weird
Speaker 6: wild card who loves Trump so much and who knows
Speaker 6: I'm like a normal Texan.
Speaker 5: I go my own way if I have to, guy uh, and.
Speaker 6: Now what he's doing this weird tick a fantic like
Speaker 6: I do think we should blow up the filibuster and
Speaker 6: that we should pass the Save Act.
Speaker 5: The problem is, there isn't that much time. There's twelve weeks.
Speaker 5: It's a really long runoff, but that's not that long
Speaker 5: in legislative calendar time.
Speaker 6: So like it's pretty likely that the philibuster will not
Speaker 6: be blown up nor the Save Act passed by the
Speaker 6: end of this thing, but has put the race in
Speaker 6: stasis effectively until something happens.
Speaker 5: It's it's like, because the whole thing about what Trump
Speaker 5: going to do.
Speaker 6: I mean, meanwhile, there are like millions of Texans who
Speaker 6: have to vote and make this decision, but like nobody
Speaker 6: seems to be talking to.
Speaker 5: Them very much.
Speaker 6: Right now, they're only talking to Trump, which is an
Speaker 6: interesting way to go about it.
Speaker 1: It is an insane story. I also want to add,
Speaker 1: my favorite part of this story is that in order
Speaker 1: to pass the Save Act, what Donald Trump wants to
Speaker 1: Save Act to say is not what the Save Act
Speaker 1: says in the House. So the Save Act that they
Speaker 1: passed from the House has vote by mail voting, which
Speaker 1: Donald Trump wants to get rid of in his new
Speaker 1: Save Act. Because part of this is that Donald Trump
Speaker 1: is very incoherent, so he wants a lot of shit
Speaker 1: taken out of there, which in itself is wild.
Speaker 5: I mean, the bill just simply as written right now
Speaker 5: cannot pass. And that's sort of the way it is.
Speaker 5: And this happens. I mean, I know we were going
Speaker 5: to talk.
Speaker 1: About maybe go back to the House either.
Speaker 5: Way, Yeah, it would have to go back to the House.
Speaker 5: I mean, this is the whole thing.
Speaker 6: This is an issue where the electorate in Texas is
Speaker 6: very interested in keeping you know, the republic Actor wants
Speaker 6: to keep this seat Republican. Some of them say they
Speaker 6: can do it by having this Kent Action. There's a
Speaker 6: real bomb thrower right wing guy. Something they got to
Speaker 6: do it by having this sort of died in the
Speaker 6: wall establishment John Corning guy. But you when you go
Speaker 6: out there, if you talk to people who are running,
Speaker 6: who are voting in that election, you know, I have
Speaker 6: Friendsho been doing that.
Speaker 5: My colleagues have been doing that. They're not talking about
Speaker 5: the Save Act. This is this is again another.
Speaker 6: Thing where we're spending all of this time talking about
Speaker 6: something that is really legilate, the enterteric. It's very very important,
Speaker 6: as I mentioned, with everything I have you do with elections.
Speaker 6: But in terms of an electoral strategy, you've got a
Speaker 6: Democrat running around talking about affordability, Tallerico who just won
Speaker 6: We're talking about afordability, bringing people together, bipartisan solutions, and
Speaker 6: you've got a Republican primary that's frozen to see whether
Speaker 6: or not this esoteric bill that has nothing to do
Speaker 6: with prices will get passed in the Senate. It's a
Speaker 6: very very strange circumstance, not what anybody who is like
Speaker 6: a strategist in Texas would design, and I think it's
Speaker 6: a tough one for them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thoughts, prayers, Okay, So let's talk about leadership on
Speaker 1: the Democratic side. So right now, we have a House
Speaker 1: that has a one vote majority for Republicans. Okay, one
Speaker 1: Mike Johnson has lost his caucus. The women are so
Speaker 1: mad they are talking. I mean your seat, Nancy May.
Speaker 1: These Maga women are furious, right, They're furious. You see
Speaker 1: them furious. They say they're fearious. Marjorie Taylgreen laughed. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just you know they are mad. Then you have
Speaker 1: Thomas Massey also mad. Then you have Don Bacon people
Speaker 1: who are retiring. You have such a huge group of
Speaker 1: disaffected Republicans caucusing with Republicans being run by Mike Johnson.
Speaker 1: So answer me this because I asked a member of
Speaker 1: Congress this and she punted and wouldn't answer. But why
Speaker 1: can't Hakeem get one of these people to either become
Speaker 1: an independent and caucus with him. What can he offer?
Speaker 1: Why can't he get somebody on board? Why can't he
Speaker 1: flip the House right now?
Speaker 6: Well, I will say that when you talk to Republicans
Speaker 6: about being Republicans in this era of Trump being elected,
Speaker 6: at probably this era of Trump, they have spoken about
Speaker 6: physical safety, like they get worried that if they get
Speaker 6: put on blast by Trump, do a certain enough they
Speaker 6: become persona on Grada enough that it could really put
Speaker 6: their at them at actual physical risk.
Speaker 5: This is the thing that they have talked about.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, so I don't really know like the
Speaker 6: mechanics of doing something like that. I think it's a
Speaker 6: thing of like would that get you you know, you'd
Speaker 6: have to request that, like they had they tried to
Speaker 6: re elect you. You know, the Democrats right now are like,
Speaker 6: we're just gonna keep steam rolling ahead. Everything's working for us,
Speaker 6: and we're just gonna take this thing and when when
Speaker 6: we can. But like that kind of maneuvering, we are
Speaker 6: in that kind of weird type Yeah, yeah, slat a
Speaker 6: place where strange things can happen. But really where it's
Speaker 6: come down on mostly at this point has been on Johnson.
Speaker 6: And we had reporting and notice this morning about the
Speaker 6: House retreat that was supposed to be a legislative strategy
Speaker 6: session planning for the you know, the full year ahead,
Speaker 6: and really none of the moderates attended this thing. Uh
Speaker 6: and even with none of the moderates there, they still
Speaker 6: couldn't agree on anything to do. So they're a really
Speaker 6: tough spot. And that's sort of where this is all fallen.
Speaker 5: Down on right now?
Speaker 6: Is that it's like I think democrats are started sitting
Speaker 6: back and letting enjoying the show for the moment.
Speaker 1: You know, we'll change, but let's pause for a minute,
Speaker 1: because should they be like you and I, okay, whatever,
Speaker 1: we know how it works. But like, let's just say
Speaker 1: right now, thirty percent of Democrats are being primaries. There
Speaker 1: is a kind of rage in the base. If you
Speaker 1: talk to normal people, they are so mad at Jeffries,
Speaker 1: they are so mad at Schumer. They do not feel
Speaker 1: that leadership is doing for them what they want. Now,
Speaker 1: you and I know there are certain things leadership is
Speaker 1: doing that is really good, right, getting Mary Parota and
Speaker 1: Alaska to run for Senate, like Chuck Schumer has a
Speaker 1: mass some wins and hakeem too, right the Ebstein files release.
Speaker 1: There have been certain things, but like if you look
Speaker 1: at if you just talk to Democrats on the street,
Speaker 1: they are furious. So are Democrats rolling along and doing
Speaker 1: the right thing or do you think they should be
Speaker 1: doing more?
Speaker 5: Well, it's truly not what I think.
Speaker 6: I do think there's a thing of what you're hitting
Speaker 6: on is very very important, which is that we are
Speaker 6: in a situation where things feel very much the same.
Speaker 6: I know, you know we're having a war right now.
Speaker 6: You have some lawmakers, right you have guys like Chris
Speaker 6: Murphy and stuff who are thinking already for president and
Speaker 6: thinking about tapping in to this Democratic rage. They're saying,
Speaker 6: this war needs to end. Cut it off, cut off
Speaker 6: the funding, end it, end it now, just like, get
Speaker 6: out of this thing. We shouldn't be in the first place.
Speaker 2: End it.
Speaker 5: And you've got other people in.
Speaker 6: The Democratic Caucus and they're sort of falling over themselves
Speaker 6: in very different ways. You know, we did a lot
Speaker 6: of reporting about this idea of maybe Trump might ask
Speaker 6: for supplemental budget for this build that he did not
Speaker 6: ask Congress Ford to do in the first place, and
Speaker 6: it becomes to ask for this money they're a Democratic trip.
Speaker 6: But maybe we do it, I don't know, maybe maybe
Speaker 6: at the sitt of CEE, maybe it's possible that we
Speaker 6: would do it. The public is sort of it's very
Speaker 6: much against this war. Yes, the public is very much
Speaker 6: against a lot of this stuff that's going on. And
Speaker 6: the Democratic leadership is the same leadership that disappointed a
Speaker 6: lot of them during the shutdown time.
Speaker 7: Right.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that now that's book backed on is now like,
Speaker 6: oh that which is kind of big. You know, we
Speaker 6: did pretty well there, We kind of won some stuff.
Speaker 6: This DHS shutdown has been very successful in terms of
Speaker 6: party unity and sort of getting the party on one
Speaker 6: page about an issue that was tough for them.
Speaker 5: Immigration.
Speaker 6: But it is true that these things are happening, and
Speaker 6: the you know what you hear from folks is that
Speaker 6: the leadership sort of sounds the same. They're very careful
Speaker 6: around talking about this conflict, and you know, those of us.
Speaker 5: Who remember the Iraq War, it sounds a lot like that.
Speaker 6: It sounds a lot like, well, we don't want to
Speaker 6: I don't want to be in the wrong side of this.
Speaker 6: And just in case somehow this breaks out in like
Speaker 6: democracy emerging in Iran, it's our new best friend, it
Speaker 6: all works out great, we don't want to be on
Speaker 6: the wrong side of that. This is a delicate area.
Speaker 6: But I'm not sure that they have at all figured
Speaker 6: out how to deal with their angry base. I mean,
Speaker 6: you look in Maine, for example, where Democrats are still
Speaker 6: hammering tongs against this guy cram Plattner, who polls show
Speaker 6: is like crushing their chosen candidate, Janet Mills they have
Speaker 6: not figured out how to harness that and calm that down.
Speaker 6: I think that because we're in a moment now where
Speaker 6: in a two party system, dependulum, the screening away from
Speaker 6: the party in power. It feels good, but we got
Speaker 6: a lot of primaries to go, and they need voter
Speaker 6: enthusiasm and this ske problem of what do you do
Speaker 6: with these base voters who are really really upset.
Speaker 5: They have not figured that out, that's clear.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, behind the scenes, there are all these
Speaker 1: house races that are flipp the ball. There are all
Speaker 1: of these Senate races that are pretty heavy left. But
Speaker 1: if we're if we see the kind of kind of
Speaker 1: blue wave that we've seen in the specials, which we
Speaker 1: may not right because specials tend to be even more
Speaker 1: exaggerated though who knows. I mean, there is a real
Speaker 1: scenario where leadership can't necessarily tamp down the anti incumbent sentiment. Right.
Speaker 6: Well, the question is should they I mean, should they
Speaker 6: tamp be on anti numbers?
Speaker 1: So they should do, but they might, but they will
Speaker 1: want to.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think I think they do want to.
Speaker 6: I think I think I think it's a natural tendency
Speaker 6: in in Washington and in politics to sort of, you know,
Speaker 6: do that go. You know, it's it's a safe thing.
Speaker 6: We all saw it was Biden, right, that was the
Speaker 6: Biden thing. He's president already. This is a great idea.
Speaker 6: Let's stick with the guy who's president already. Politics is
Speaker 6: moving in a very different direction and things are moving
Speaker 6: around very very quickly. You think about these districts that
Speaker 6: have been redrawn. Many of these incumbents are running with
Speaker 6: all new with many new voters they have.
Speaker 5: Never had before.
Speaker 6: So they're making a case as incumbents to some of
Speaker 6: these voters. That's that's a tough one. But really it
Speaker 6: is a thing that you know, when these moments come
Speaker 6: along like we're dealing with now, where you look at
Speaker 6: the polling about something like, for example, public support for Israel,
Speaker 6: right our partner in this war in Iran, both sides
Speaker 6: of the Aisle have seen that support for that country
Speaker 6: shift in big ways, especially in certain demographics. Younger demographics,
Speaker 6: for example, has shifted away from supporting that country in
Speaker 6: the way that we've supported it in the past as
Speaker 6: an American, you know, as a country.
Speaker 5: And those voters where are they going to go?
Speaker 6: Do they totally know where they're going to go right now,
Speaker 6: I don't know how angry are they're going to be.
Speaker 5: What are they going to do?
Speaker 6: No parties really sort of reaching out to them at
Speaker 6: this moment or trying to sort of deal with them
Speaker 6: and talk to them that much. And this is a
Speaker 6: real it's it is a real wildcard for the midterms.
Speaker 6: But it's also a wildcard for the Democratic Party going
Speaker 6: forward because you know what can happen is they they
Speaker 6: could win in twenty twenty six and they could immediately
Speaker 6: face plant when they're in power. They need to build something.
Speaker 6: This is this is a party that had its reputation
Speaker 6: and its brand absolutely trashed in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 5: They need to rebuild it.
Speaker 6: And I have not talked to a lot of strategists
Speaker 6: and folks involved who feel like they have rebuilt it.
Speaker 5: They think that they're getting some chances to right.
Speaker 6: I mean, you know the way that they won in
Speaker 6: New Jersey, way they won in Virginia in twenty twenty five,
Speaker 6: those are good wins for them. They say that they
Speaker 6: can rebuild, but overall I haven't seen them stamp down
Speaker 6: this anger among their own supporters.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we shall say, right, Evan, will you come.
Speaker 5: Back anytime, of course. I love coming to this show.
Speaker 5: It's the best show so far, Y's the best.
Speaker 1: Ed Loos is the Financial Times chief US commentator and
Speaker 1: the author of Za Big, The Life of the Big
Speaker 1: New Brazinski, America's great, powerful profit edless. Welcome to fast politics.
Speaker 7: Such a pleasure to be with you. Money.
Speaker 1: So the war expenditures. Donald Trump's DoD, which is actually
Speaker 1: now the Department of War, is at war multiple different countries.
Speaker 1: But there are also a war with fiscal conservatism discuss.
Speaker 8: Yeah, well, the war with fiscal conservatism is the war
Speaker 8: that the DoD will win.
Speaker 7: The war where they run is one.
Speaker 8: I'm afraid it doesn't look like winning a strategic victory.
Speaker 8: The money, it's about a billion dollars a day. If
Speaker 8: it ends after a couple of weeks, might be manageable,
Speaker 8: although you know, the cost of quotation marks place following
Speaker 8: unilateral declaration of victory or some kind of off ramp
Speaker 8: that Trump fashions for himself that wouldn't be cost free either,
Speaker 8: because Iran has a vote on whether the war ends,
Speaker 8: and it's got every incentive to keep the strait of
Speaker 8: Hormus closed in order to give Trump a price signal
Speaker 8: there that the cost of war is too high, do
Speaker 8: not go back to war with US. And so those
Speaker 8: fifty thousand troops who are in the Middle East, those
Speaker 8: three aircraft carriers, when the USS Georgia hw Bush arrives,
Speaker 8: it'll make three the couple of hundred of jets. I mean,
Speaker 8: this all costs hundreds of billions a day. So that
Speaker 8: costs not going to go away even if Trump declares peace.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about what's going on here, because we have
Speaker 1: Trump in a war that has really spiraled out of control. Though,
Speaker 1: I think if he had just read a few articles
Speaker 1: about the possible danger like the Straits of her Mouth.
Speaker 1: That's something I've been hearing about, right, twenty percent of
Speaker 1: all oil and gas in the world goes through the straits.
Speaker 1: It seemed like an easy way for the Iranians to
Speaker 1: really make trouble and make life very expensive for everyone
Speaker 1: they are fighting, Like I feel like like the Ukrainians
Speaker 1: just to stay alive, right, I mean, are there parallels there?
Speaker 7: Yeah, They're backit to the wall.
Speaker 8: I mean, this is a regime that if it didn't
Speaker 8: get struck by the remnants of it struck by Israel,
Speaker 8: and I'm sure the new Ayatollah Mujtaba, you know, is
Speaker 8: taking every single possible precaution. But if they didn't get
Speaker 8: struck by Israel, they'll be sort of consumed by their
Speaker 8: own people. They've just killed tens of thousands off them,
Speaker 8: so their mindset is existential. And if Iran knows how
Speaker 8: to do one thing, it's to mess with the Strait
Speaker 8: of Hormuz. This is the world's number one energy choke point,
Speaker 8: number one, and it is within range of the Red
Speaker 8: Sea and the Sewers Canal, which are up there in
Speaker 8: the top five as well. The idea that Trump didn't
Speaker 8: foresee this or couldn't have foreseen this, Rather, he didn't
Speaker 8: foresee this, but the idea that he couldn't have is
Speaker 8: manifestly absurd. I mean Iran, it takes the rumors of
Speaker 8: Somali pirates to give the frights to these tankers and
Speaker 8: to the insurance companies or an RPG from Yemen.
Speaker 7: From the huties.
Speaker 8: This, you know, is a waterway that is accustomed to
Speaker 8: suddenly closing off. And Trump now has handed Iran this
Speaker 8: magic weapon. It doesn't need ballistic missiles for this, doesn't
Speaker 8: need enriched uranium, just needs some drones and then.
Speaker 1: There's this question of whether or not there are military
Speaker 1: escorts that are escorting ships. Yesterday there was a tweet
Speaker 1: that said it was and then it was taken down.
Speaker 1: What do you think was going on there?
Speaker 8: I cannot imagine why the Energy Secretary Chris Wright would
Speaker 8: tweet out something so market sensitive without having confirmed whether
Speaker 8: it was true or not.
Speaker 7: But it turns out it wasn't true.
Speaker 8: Now, I think everybody who works for Trump is always
Speaker 8: looking out for ways of confirming that he makes great decisions.
Speaker 8: And Trump had announced a few days earlier that we'll
Speaker 8: solve the strait of one moves. Well, we'll back up
Speaker 8: the insurers, we'll send US naval patrols and that'll fix it.
Speaker 8: And it turns out A they just don't have the
Speaker 8: intensity of ships in the region to do that. B
Speaker 8: Under US law, you can only provide convoy protection to
Speaker 8: American ships, and see, you know, the insurers you cannot
Speaker 8: with American taxpayers money under right global and so he's
Speaker 8: not going to be able to do this. But Chris
Speaker 8: Wright was clearly on the lookout for affirmation it was
Speaker 8: still a brilliant, you know, decision by Trump, which it
Speaker 8: wasn't And the old prices sawed ten dollars, and then
Speaker 8: when the White House said it actually there had been
Speaker 8: no US naval escort through the Strait, then it regained
Speaker 8: ten dollars in that gyration, in that wild move, Iran
Speaker 8: has all the knowledge it needs.
Speaker 1: I wonder if you could talk about Donald Trump's relationship
Speaker 1: with Putin, because he talked to Putin, and Putin sort
Speaker 1: of gave him an off ramp. Explain what the hell
Speaker 1: is going on here? Please?
Speaker 8: So, yeah, he had an hour's conversation with Putin which
Speaker 8: he didn't The White House didn't issue a statement or
Speaker 8: summary of we know this because the Kremlin issued a
Speaker 8: summary of it.
Speaker 1: Is that normal, by the way, for the Kremlin to do.
Speaker 8: That, No, the normal thing is for everybody to do it,
Speaker 8: and usually some coordination. But that was a very interesting timing,
Speaker 8: that one out call, because it was in between Trump
Speaker 8: indicating in a telephone interview to a CBS reporter that
Speaker 8: the war was pretty much won and done, and then
Speaker 8: a speech that he gave to the Republican Caucus down
Speaker 8: in Florida in which he said well, and then followed
Speaker 8: by a press conferences, said well, yeah, we're almost achieved
Speaker 8: all our aims, but we're not going to end yet.
Speaker 8: And then he was asked by a reporter very sort
Speaker 8: of clear question. Hegsas says, we're only at the beginning.
Speaker 8: You say we're almost done. Which is it? And Trump says, well,
Speaker 8: it could be both. That doesn't clear anything up, but
Speaker 8: it shows I think put In. The Putin call had
Speaker 8: an impact on his mindset. And Putin has been providing
Speaker 8: the Russia have been providing around with target They've been
Speaker 8: providing them with satellite imagery to help Iran target American assets.
Speaker 8: He made no public I don't know what he said
Speaker 8: on the phone to put him, but he made no
Speaker 8: public complaint about that. He has been complaining though about allies,
Speaker 8: including Britain.
Speaker 7: Day in and day out.
Speaker 8: Early a day goes by where he doesn't complain about
Speaker 8: Britain not being fully on board with this war.
Speaker 1: What do you think Putin said to him on the
Speaker 1: phone during that hour long call.
Speaker 8: It's an I mean remember an hour is really half
Speaker 8: an hour because you need thirty minutes for the interpreters. Nevertheless,
Speaker 8: it remains, with all of Trump's engagements with Putin, including
Speaker 8: this latest one, a mystery that he almost never calls
Speaker 8: Putin out even when he is actively helping the adversary,
Speaker 8: the enemy, to target American troops in a war that
Speaker 8: you know, Russia is not formally engaged in. Wit Cooff,
Speaker 8: Steve Witcoff, Trump's or, one of Trump's envoys, said that
Speaker 8: he had been assured by Putin because he spoke to
Speaker 8: Putin that Putin wasn't targeting American assets. And he said,
Speaker 8: I have no reason not to believe him. I mean,
Speaker 8: I've never heard such a naive statement in my life.
Speaker 8: I mean, Putin is the world's most accomplished purveyor of disinformation.
Speaker 8: There's really nobody who quite masters the Russian art form
Speaker 8: there of which he is maestro. He's a KGB officer.
Speaker 8: The idea that Wickkoff would have no reason to disbelieve
Speaker 8: what he was telling him is stunning to me.
Speaker 1: We're twelve days into this war, so like about twelve
Speaker 1: billion dollars into it to replace Ayatola Kahmani with Iatola Kameni,
Speaker 1: the younger, angrier version of the father who has many
Speaker 1: more years to live. And like, what's coming out more
Speaker 1: and more is that this war was maybe caused because
Speaker 1: Wikoff and Kushner thought it was a good idea. Maybe
Speaker 1: because the Israelis rolled them, maybe because the Satis rolled them.
Speaker 1: Do you think these people should be making our foreign
Speaker 1: policy decisions.
Speaker 7: Yeah, no, I do not.
Speaker 8: And bear in mind that Trump quoted Jared Kushner as
Speaker 8: having told him that what Jared Kushner took back from
Speaker 8: the final talks with Iran in Geneva was that Iram
Speaker 8: was about to make an imminent attack, and no evidence
Speaker 8: has been provided at this attack. It is dispute by
Speaker 8: the Foreign Minister of Oman, who was mediating these talks
Speaker 8: and who flew to Washington the day before took the
Speaker 8: war to convey the Iranian offer on uranium, and Richmond
Speaker 8: to the White House because he did not trust Witkof
Speaker 8: or Kushner to convey that the implication being this war
Speaker 8: was already predetermined and the.
Speaker 7: Talks were just theater.
Speaker 8: The State Department has made severe cuts to its nuclear expertise,
Speaker 8: as has other parts of the federal government, some of
Speaker 8: this deliberately, some of this to do with DOJE, but
Speaker 8: even with the reduced expertise were critically important for national
Speaker 8: security at a time like this. Even with that reduced expertise,
Speaker 8: Wikoff and Kushner chose not to bring one nuclear expert
Speaker 8: with them to the talks, not a single one. Now,
Speaker 8: it is very hard even for people who are you know,
Speaker 8: really up to date with the physics of nuclear weapons
Speaker 8: making a uranium and Richmond and the whole cycle, even
Speaker 8: for IAA inspectors to keep up with everything, because this
Speaker 8: is very complex and very technical and extremely oriented to detail.
Speaker 8: Kushner and Wikoff do not have the grasp of the detail,
Speaker 8: and even accomplished the most accomplished diplomats in America's modern
Speaker 8: history have not gone into nuclear talks of any kind,
Speaker 8: or weapons talks anything within the ballpark without a whole
Speaker 8: raft of experts accompanying them. They went in essentially naked
Speaker 8: to the negotiating chamber and came out with this completely
Speaker 8: phony imminent attack line that it's hard to believe the
Speaker 8: Amanis or anybody else would want to mediate.
Speaker 7: Ever again, I was.
Speaker 1: On Morning Joe this morning, and Joe had this really
Speaker 1: good point about how when Bush I and Bush two
Speaker 1: both went to war, they went and put together a
Speaker 1: consortium of countries, and even if you pushed even a
Speaker 1: bit further like bush on, there was an imminent issue
Speaker 1: in Kuwait and then Bush two was after nine to eleven,
Speaker 1: so it was not just like they were foreign adventuring, right,
Speaker 1: there was something else going on. And this is really
Speaker 1: a radical, radical change.
Speaker 8: It says, I would sort of separate Gulf War one
Speaker 8: from Gulf War two, and people recording this one Gulf
Speaker 8: War three. So yeah, I think Bushenia went to the
Speaker 8: United Nations, got an international coalition to enforce the law,
Speaker 8: which was that you cannot seize another country. You can't
Speaker 8: just radically change borders by force. And he conformed to
Speaker 8: a fault to that UN mandate, which is to get
Speaker 8: Iraq out of Q eight. I'd say Bush two was
Speaker 8: a little bit more adventurous. This was more of a
Speaker 8: war of choice. I think what differentiates Trump from that
Speaker 8: is that Bush two still tried to get the United
Speaker 8: Nations behind He failed, but he still went through the
Speaker 8: effort of doing that.
Speaker 7: He did have some allies with him.
Speaker 8: The Coalition of the Willing, you know, included countries out
Speaker 8: Britain and Australia and Poland that provided considerable ballast. Trump
Speaker 8: didn't attempt to get any legal permission, either from the
Speaker 8: United Nations or from Congress, or even from his own
Speaker 8: Department of Justice.
Speaker 7: He didn't even pretend.
Speaker 8: He didn't marshal public opinion, he didn't prepare public opinion.
Speaker 8: He didn't even build up America's strategic petroleum reserves a
Speaker 8: basic sort of precautionary measure. This is a war of wim,
Speaker 8: not a war of choice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a really good point. It's a
Speaker 1: war of whim, not a war of choice. So talk
Speaker 1: me through what happens next, because there are some off ramps.
Speaker 1: There's some feeling that Donald Trump will get bored with this.
Speaker 1: We do have this Cubad situation which is wild. What
Speaker 1: do you think is sort of the map looks like
Speaker 1: at this moment?
Speaker 8: I mean, so really in any sort of changing sentiment
Speaker 8: on that question that you've just asked, Molly sends markets
Speaker 8: wildly in one direction or the other. I mean, everybody
Speaker 8: wants to know what is the end? How does this end?
Speaker 8: This around war? Because you know, as as we were
Speaker 8: saying at the beginning, you can take a couple of
Speaker 8: weeks some damage, but if this goes on for months,
Speaker 8: who you're looking at a global recession. So the difference
Speaker 8: between the two is enormous. And therefore people that have
Speaker 8: to know how this ends. What's the off ramp. And
Speaker 8: the problem here is that, you know, Israel has been
Speaker 8: This is the fourth Israeli war with Iran in two years.
Speaker 8: The first two Israel was alone, the second to the
Speaker 8: United States has led them the twelve Day war last summer,
Speaker 8: and then this one, and there's about eight months between them.
Speaker 8: Iran has not won another war eight months from now,
Speaker 8: unlike last time, all the previous ones, it has no
Speaker 8: incentive to agree to a cease fire because this time
Speaker 8: feels regime changes on the line, and it's been given
Speaker 8: this weapon. It's been handed this tool by Trump, which
Speaker 8: it can see Trump responds to instantly at is oil prices,
Speaker 8: and when they went one hundred and twenty dollars at
Speaker 8: the end of last weekend, the next day, Trump's talking about,
Speaker 8: you know, ending the war and that it's all over
Speaker 8: and it's a success, and the oil price is dropped
Speaker 8: down again. They know exactly what the tool is to
Speaker 8: shape Trump's behavior. They have every incentive to make Trump
Speaker 8: pay for this well beyond he's declared unnatural victory. And
Speaker 8: so market's trying to guess, or investors trying to guess,
Speaker 8: or people who'se you know, family are deployed to the Gulf.
Speaker 8: Trying to guess when this ends from Iran's point of view,
Speaker 8: that's the big question and it's very hard to answer.
Speaker 7: And meanwhile, as.
Speaker 8: You said, Molly, he's talking about Cuba and he's saying, well,
Speaker 8: maybe we'll maybe we'll occupy Cuba, maybe we won't. Again
Speaker 8: this sort of you know, maybe we're at peace, maybe
Speaker 8: we're at war. Maybe it's at the beginning, maybe it's
Speaker 8: at the end. He has no ability to focus and
Speaker 8: there's clearly no strategic plan there, so we're stuck with
Speaker 8: reacting wildly like sort of you know, manic depressive to
Speaker 8: everything that he says.
Speaker 1: I think it's worth pointing out too, is we're in
Speaker 1: the middle of a conflict, but we no longer take refugees,
Speaker 1: and if anything, we have refugees in our country who
Speaker 1: we are trying to revoke their refugee staff. So usually
Speaker 1: when a country like America, which is theoretically at least
Speaker 1: trying to sort of sell itself as a soft power,
Speaker 1: you know, up until pretty recently, Donald Trump was sending
Speaker 1: refugees to the Middle East.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I've got friends that you do sort of outside
Speaker 8: of America, all over the place, countries I've lived in,
Speaker 8: like India, the Philippines, and then friends you know from
Speaker 8: countries I haven't lived in, but people in what we
Speaker 8: might call the global self. It's a rather annoying phrase,
Speaker 8: but the majority of the world, and they watch Pete
Speaker 8: Hegseth delight in language like lethality and kill the pleasure
Speaker 8: he takes in it. They see Trump talking about his
Speaker 8: power of life and death, something he clearly values. They
Speaker 8: know he had other options here and that war ought
Speaker 8: to be the last option, after all the others have failed,
Speaker 8: but the talks hadn't failed.
Speaker 7: They know this. They see the videos the White House
Speaker 7: puts out.
Speaker 8: Mashing up scenes of you know, miss strikes on Iranian
Speaker 8: missile sites or whatever it might be, or electricity grid
Speaker 8: and interspliced with flips from action movies. Is if this
Speaker 8: is sort of some kind of teenage video game that's
Speaker 8: going on. The global South watches this. I cannot put
Speaker 8: a measure on the damage this does to American soft power.
Speaker 7: It is reckless. It is a.
Speaker 8: Vandalism of America's standing in the world, and it's very
Speaker 8: hard to put a price on it. Long after the
Speaker 8: oil prices are stabilized. Whenever that is, these images cannot
Speaker 8: be unseen ed loose.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, go to the airport, goodbye, goodbye.
Speaker 8: Thanks so much money, and I'm sorry to stand so
Speaker 8: to prising.
Speaker 1: Now I think that's just what we call accurate.
Speaker 2: Jesse Cannon, Mali Jung Fast. The DHS is trying to
Speaker 2: seize a massive government database with Americans info. We know
Speaker 2: how bad this goes, yet it keeps going.
Speaker 1: Well. Remember DHS as most recently having spent two hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty million dollars for Christynome to ride horses and
Speaker 1: do videos of herself. Now she's out and Mark Wayne
Speaker 1: Mullen is going to replace her. Look, they will do
Speaker 1: anything anything they can, and this is one of those things.
Speaker 1: The Department of Homeland Security wants to access the Federal
Speaker 1: Parent Locator Service, which is considered to be the government's largest,
Speaker 1: most detailed database. This is really good reporting from Pro Publica.
Speaker 1: And it's a people finder for the US government. Why
Speaker 1: do you think they want a people finder for the
Speaker 1: US government? You want to guess it.
Speaker 2: Does it have something to do with the porting people?
Speaker 1: It might, or it might have something to do with
Speaker 1: trying to knock people off the voter rolls, or it
Speaker 1: might have something to do with trying to hunt the
Speaker 1: president's enemies. I mean, there are a lot of choices here,
Speaker 1: but none of them are trying to help people. None
Speaker 1: of them are trying to give poor kids free breakfast.
Speaker 1: They're all things that are nefarious and things that our
Speaker 1: federal government should not be doing.
Speaker 7: Well.
Speaker 2: You know, when you get poor kids free breakfast, you
Speaker 2: just get people driving by your house yelling really stupid words.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's right, like the Ursler. That's it for this
Speaker 1: episode of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday,
Speaker 1: and Saturday to hear the best minds and politics make
Speaker 1: sense of all this chaos. If you enjoy this podcast,
Speaker 1: please send it to a friend and keep the conversation going.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.