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 Utah State reps said Nazi flags
Speaker 1: can fly in Utah schools, but not Pride flags. We
Speaker 1: have such a great show for you today, talking Feds.
Speaker 1: Harry Littman stops by to talk about all the criming.
Speaker 1: Then we'll talk to Congressman Eric Swawell about protecting citizens
Speaker 1: from DOGE and doge's many unlawful aggressions on your data.
Speaker 1: But first the news.
Speaker 2: You know, there's very few bipartisan things in this country,
Speaker 2: but you know what, I think we all agree on
Speaker 2: the people over seeing nuclear weapons should have jobs and
Speaker 2: do them and show up to work each and every day.
Speaker 1: I mean, many people are saying, look, Elon Musk is
Speaker 1: taking a sledgehammer to the federal government. He has no
Speaker 1: government job. He's one of Trump's rich donors. He has
Speaker 1: about as much business cutting the federal government as Marion
Speaker 1: Adelson does. I mean, you might as well just invite
Speaker 1: her in there, right, because this is just very rich
Speaker 1: donors going to town on the federal government. No congressional approval,
Speaker 1: no congressional appointment, this is just we are in fantasy
Speaker 1: land here. Trump's administration has laid off between twelve hundred
Speaker 1: and two thousand employees at the Department of Energy. By
Speaker 1: the way, I love that. They can't even tell you
Speaker 1: how many, right, it's just a lot. And from the
Speaker 1: Nuclear Security Administration, the Loan's office. Two sources familiar with
Speaker 1: the decision told Reuters, by the way, we have that
Speaker 1: we have layoffs at the VA. You know, the VA,
Speaker 1: which provides healthcare for veterans. You know, veterans, the people
Speaker 1: that Republicans pretend to like, right, pretend to care about.
Speaker 1: But those people, they're healthcare getting cut off, getting curbed. Right.
Speaker 1: By the way, those NIH grants a lot of that
Speaker 1: still paused. That's cancer research just paused because Elon needs
Speaker 1: a tax cut. But by the way, not just the VIA,
Speaker 1: there's other stuff. Democratic lawmakers confirmed to the outlets that
Speaker 1: layoffs could impact workers at national laboratories, hydroelectric plants, cold
Speaker 1: War era nuke sites. You really don't need people working
Speaker 1: in those places, do you really? I think it's fine.
Speaker 2: Get some interns, listen the blind. They should have security
Speaker 2: jobs that are nuclear sites. That seems like a good
Speaker 2: place for them. To work.
Speaker 1: The Department of Energy employs approximately fourteen hundred federal workers
Speaker 1: and oversees ninety five thousand contractors across various energy and
Speaker 1: security sectors. Well, now they employ less. According to two sources,
Speaker 1: the layoffs followed the arrival of three representatives from billionaire
Speaker 1: Muss Department of Government Efficiency at the agency. One source
Speaker 1: revealed that approximately three hundred and twenty five employees had
Speaker 1: been dismissed from the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees
Speaker 1: the US nuclear weapons fleet and works to secure radiological
Speaker 1: materials worldwide. We never needed them, they're cocks.
Speaker 2: Yes, it wasn't everyone losing their mind just a few
Speaker 2: months ago thinking that radiation had gone loose in New
Speaker 2: Jersey and there's drones flying everywhere to find it. Really,
Speaker 2: it's not a thing we're concerned about. But Bally, one
Speaker 2: of the things I think about a lot is everybody
Speaker 2: talks about national security. You know what really says security
Speaker 2: the doose people who are getting access to every single
Speaker 2: part of this government, who can't even secure their own website.
Speaker 2: This is web literacy most high school students have these days.
Speaker 1: Yeah, in case you're wondering, things are going great over
Speaker 1: a Doge. So basically the doge website has been defaced
Speaker 1: because anyone can edit it. So there's a website created
Speaker 1: to document how Elon Mush his team is eveserating the
Speaker 1: US federal government and it is open anyone can edit it.
Speaker 1: This is the same Doge organization that has gained unprecedent
Speaker 1: access to sensitive US financial systems with data on millions
Speaker 1: of Americans. You and me, our social security numbers are
Speaker 1: being looked over by a guy. You'll remember him as
Speaker 1: Big Balls, that guy. My favorite part of this whole
Speaker 1: story is that these are young people who have very
Speaker 1: similar ideological peccadillos to Elon Mush. They are young, they
Speaker 1: are some of them have had serious ethical problems at
Speaker 1: their jobs, and now they are paging through our data
Speaker 1: and also making mistakes. If that weren't enough, will doge
Speaker 1: dot gov displays a banner describing itself as an official
Speaker 1: website of the United States government. The developers say it
Speaker 1: feels like it was completely slapped together and doesn't appear
Speaker 1: to be running on government servers. Even better, you love it.
Speaker 1: Love it.
Speaker 2: So since we last spoke, there's been more evidence of
Speaker 2: woke Mitch McConnell running aloof through the Capitol. He had
Speaker 2: some choice words after R. FK Junior was confirmed as
Speaker 2: h Secretary the other day.
Speaker 1: Yes, hero of the resistance, Mitch McConnell, who installed not one,
Speaker 1: not two, but three Supreme Court justices to dismantle American democracy.
Speaker 1: That guy does not like RFK Junior. Senator Mitch McConnell
Speaker 1: issued a blistering indictment of Robert F. Kennedy Junior on Thursday. Yes, yes, Queen,
Speaker 1: the Kentucky Republican.
Speaker 2: Did not have a big oldcard at twenty twenty five,
Speaker 2: Molly jug Fast, Yes, Queening Mitch McConnell.
Speaker 1: Well, he's not happy. You know, he did have polio.
Speaker 1: By the way, Trump then said maybe he didn't have
Speaker 1: pull and he wasn't totally sure. But I don't think Again,
Speaker 1: many people aren't saying right two seconds on, I really
Speaker 1: think Mitch McConnell had polio. I don't think he's lying.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna go out a limb, hear. I don't
Speaker 1: think that Mitch mcconald has spent his entire life faking
Speaker 1: a limp and lying that he had polio in order
Speaker 1: to stick it to RFK. Junior. I just don't The
Speaker 1: seneconfirmed the longtime anti vax activist and really let us
Speaker 1: be honest and complete in any number of reasons deplorable
Speaker 1: human being to the Department of Health and Human Services
Speaker 1: on Thursday by a vote of fifty two to forty eight.
Speaker 1: We're all going to die. McConnell was the only Republican
Speaker 1: to vote no. Because we have hit end times. Yes,
Speaker 1: I have nothing good to say about this except pray.
Speaker 2: Yes, I have sort of to say, quarantined that area
Speaker 2: in Texas that has all the beasles, but that's a story.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, luckily vaccine. You know, viruses don't spread, so it
Speaker 1: should be fun maybe to get some leeches in there
Speaker 1: and will be okay.
Speaker 3: Oh I like that.
Speaker 2: So message discipline usually a thing you want out of
Speaker 2: a new administration. Yes, it's sadly not going so well
Speaker 2: over around the Defense Department and with Vice President JV.
Speaker 4: Dance.
Speaker 1: Yes, everyone's favorite JD. JD stands for whatever. JD Vance
Speaker 1: has issued a stark warning. Okay, so we got Hegseth
Speaker 1: saying for NATO that Ukraine can't join. HeiG Seth goes
Speaker 1: out there and says NATO's off the table for Ukraine,
Speaker 1: a very good position when you've started negotiating to immediately
Speaker 1: take the one thing that Ukraine had out of the equation.
Speaker 1: Then Van says stark warning to Russia, threatening the potential
Speaker 1: deployment of US troops. By the way, Vance also went
Speaker 1: out to the Security Forum, which is like very serious
Speaker 1: Europeans being very serious together. Harris went, it was extremely
Speaker 1: serious and important. She thought of it as sort of
Speaker 1: like one of her highlights of her career as vice president. Well,
Speaker 1: Vance rolls in there and he tells them all that
Speaker 1: they should do more to protect themselves, that America is
Speaker 1: really busy with China right now, and he basically gives
Speaker 1: the ur on your own speech. But while also doing that,
Speaker 1: and he makes everyone really upset, and all of these
Speaker 1: Europeans are pretty offended by this Vance speech. And while
Speaker 1: that's going on, Vance also manages to disagree with Fox
Speaker 1: and Friend Weekend host and now Defense Secretary Pete Hexas.
Speaker 1: Congratulations to all who celebrate. Harry Littman is a former
Speaker 1: US attorney and the host of the podcast Talking Fads.
Speaker 3: Welcome to another law politics mash up with Me Harry
Speaker 3: Ligman and Molly Jong Fast on what seems to me
Speaker 3: like a pretty crazy wild day in law and politics.
Speaker 3: I nevertheless want to take a second besides saying hi
Speaker 3: to Molly and everyone knows, special correspondent for Ranny Fair,
Speaker 3: host of the podcast Fast Politics.
Speaker 1: And we ran into each other last week in California.
Speaker 3: In California, we hung out, we both talked to Chris Hayes.
Speaker 3: But again, the big headline here is you've got a
Speaker 3: new book coming out in June. You want to just
Speaker 3: give us a quick skinny on that.
Speaker 1: I mean, I have a new book coming out in June,
Speaker 1: but it's miles away, but yes, it's called How to
Speaker 1: Lose Your Mom. It'll be interesting.
Speaker 3: We'll come and talk about then. And this it's really
Speaker 3: important to me. I'm totally obsessed, as you won't be
Speaker 3: surprised to hear with what's happening at DOJ. And it's
Speaker 3: totally clear to me, as a DOJ alum and someone
Speaker 3: steeped in that culture that this is huge and very
Speaker 3: very clear. But my question slash concern is, Mollie, do
Speaker 3: you think this penetrates the public mind and kind of
Speaker 3: comes home in a way that people can really see
Speaker 3: the clear line between corruption and rule of law and
Speaker 3: it has purchased or is this one of three stories
Speaker 3: this week?
Speaker 1: So let's just set the table for those who are
Speaker 1: not completely read in. I live in New York City
Speaker 1: where we have a curse. It's called the mayoral curse,
Speaker 1: and it is real, and we have our most recent
Speaker 1: mayor is a man called Eric Adams, who it seems
Speaker 1: as if he's shockingly corrupt. Now, perhaps it is just
Speaker 1: normal business as usual with Turkey and not corrupt, but
Speaker 1: he had many There were a couple of years where
Speaker 1: it was like he's going to get into and he's
Speaker 1: going to get indicted. Then eventually he did, in fact
Speaker 1: manage to get indicted. And now there is a bizarre
Speaker 1: situation where Trump World did this. Tom Holman, the head
Speaker 1: of ICE, went on Fox and Friends, which is Donald
Speaker 1: Trump's favorite show, and he sort of threatened the mayor
Speaker 1: and said, well, you know you're in trouble, but we're
Speaker 1: going to pause it as long as you do what
Speaker 1: we want you to do. It was, by the way,
Speaker 1: it's worth watching because I don't think there's ever been
Speaker 1: something like this in America.
Speaker 3: The jocularity of it, right, yeah, crazy, right, And.
Speaker 1: Also like just you know, you can't threaten people on television.
Speaker 1: I mean, just the sheer criminess of the whole thing.
Speaker 1: Like you know, at every point I was watching and thinking, oh,
Speaker 1: I'd actually read reporting man, and I thought, oh, that
Speaker 1: can't possibly be right. And then I started watching and
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, wow, yeah, just shocking. The mayor
Speaker 1: now is in this sort of detente where he thinks
Speaker 1: he is going to get pardoned or not pardoned, but
Speaker 1: he's going to have his prosecution basically possimist, yes, without prejudice,
Speaker 1: so it could come back if he displeases Donald Trump
Speaker 1: and his cronies, which I don't think there's any precedent.
Speaker 1: It's like Watergate, if Watergate were smoking angel dust. And
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, it's just so incredibly beyond the pale.
Speaker 1: Our Governor Kathy Hochel, who is very cowardlay, could dismiss
Speaker 1: the mayor tomorrow.
Speaker 3: I've in fired him, not dismissed yet.
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, be like, this is ridiculous. You're not going
Speaker 1: to drag the city through this. She will not do that,
Speaker 1: at least not yet. She is known to be quite cowardly.
Speaker 1: This would fit her personality. I would be shocked if
Speaker 1: she did it, is that what you were asking. I
Speaker 1: can't even remember what you were asking.
Speaker 3: Not really, So there's two things that are happening.
Speaker 1: So there's this shit show here. I mean, I think
Speaker 1: everyone is hort you.
Speaker 3: On angel dust, but you agree that said though, the
Speaker 3: way it really rings home to me, Molly is what's
Speaker 3: going on within the Department of Justice, where Trump's handpicked
Speaker 3: acting Deputy Attorney General has basically tried to hold guns
Speaker 3: to successive heads, saying you must dismiss this case even
Speaker 3: though the facts and the law I admit are fined.
Speaker 3: That's the same as saying you must violate your oath,
Speaker 3: as doj attorneys. And we're now up to you mentioned
Speaker 3: Saai massacre that was three people involved, We're now up
Speaker 3: to something like seven or eight, three or four in
Speaker 3: Southern District of New York. Then they bring it to
Speaker 3: main Justice and really high level people are resigning rather
Speaker 3: than doing this. So to me, it's seismic in some
Speaker 3: ways bigger than what happened in either Stai massacre or
Speaker 3: twenty twenty one. Here's my question in a sentence, is
Speaker 3: will this ring home to people as a clear this
Speaker 3: weaponization by the Trump folks.
Speaker 1: Yes, you're not going to have anyone working in the government.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is the accelerationist case for trump Ism
Speaker 1: is the idea that the Justice Roberts Justice John Roberts
Speaker 1: versus the Voting Rights Act. You know, if you cut
Speaker 1: away in it, that is much more dangerous than if
Speaker 1: you just set fire to the whole thing. And I mean, look,
Speaker 1: are we going to be able to come out of
Speaker 1: this thing and have a normal functioning democracy? That I
Speaker 1: don't know, right That I think is a real open question.
Speaker 1: There are a number of different things that could happen.
Speaker 3: This out tell them the regular people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like these are just government agencies. I mean that's
Speaker 1: the thing that I think is so striking about Elon.
Speaker 1: It's like a lot of this stuff Elon is doing,
Speaker 1: if you were a little quieter, he could get away
Speaker 1: with it without the same you know, like they could
Speaker 1: legislatively cut I mean they control all yeah, right, I
Speaker 1: mean they could cut everything, they could make just but
Speaker 1: the thing is they're not such good legislators. So we
Speaker 1: find ourselves in a situation where we just have this
Speaker 1: Elon's and the computers trying to fire everyone, and it's
Speaker 1: hard to imagine that doesn't get people's attention.
Speaker 3: Okay, your turn, but quick legal footnote. You mentioned Roberts,
Speaker 3: who might really matter here. The person who resigned today
Speaker 3: with a blistering letter as a John Roberts clerk who
Speaker 3: had two tours of duty in a rock. Yes, it's
Speaker 3: so good, guys, bad guys.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, And the person who resigned yesterday was a
Speaker 1: Scalia clerk. I mean you don't think of Scolia.
Speaker 3: As you know.
Speaker 1: I mean we're like, we're almost to Aldo Clerks and
Speaker 1: Thomas Clerks.
Speaker 3: Right, this is a nightmare cast of characters for Deer.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think what's important here to remember, and this
Speaker 1: is like people don't go into these businesses. They don't
Speaker 1: go into the law to make money, right, They do
Speaker 1: it because they think it's right. And I think that's
Speaker 1: what we're looking at with these government employees too. They
Speaker 1: are in it to do what's right, whereas the tech
Speaker 1: billionaires are in it to make money. So like Elon
Speaker 1: is in it to make money. And even like all
Speaker 1: of these billionaires who have like back down and kissed
Speaker 1: the ring with trump Ism, and even a lot of
Speaker 1: these Republican politicians, I mean, maybe they're afraid of getting
Speaker 1: primary or getting death threats. But like when you look
Speaker 1: at these billionaires, you see these people are willing to
Speaker 1: do anything to protect their bottom line. CEOs billionaires, and
Speaker 1: so you really do see these career law people are
Speaker 1: not in it for the cash.
Speaker 3: I mean, they're in it for the pride of what
Speaker 3: they do. And the thing that I hope people recognize
Speaker 3: is they've told them to stand up and violate their
Speaker 3: ows and lie. They're at the absolute marrow of who
Speaker 3: they are as professionals. These are guys who you know,
Speaker 3: are on a fast track to judge ships and stuff,
Speaker 3: and they're just letting it go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean I think that that is correct.
Speaker 1: Let's go to where we are here with the legality
Speaker 1: of all of this. We're seeing a lot of Trump
Speaker 1: administration not doing the money they were supposed to not
Speaker 1: you know, freezing funds that were impounded. So you have
Speaker 1: Congress allocating funds for things, and the Omb freezing it
Speaker 1: and not paying them out. I talked to some academics
Speaker 1: this week who said that a lot of the NIH
Speaker 1: funds are not flowing right. Even though a court has
Speaker 1: ordered them to start paying, they're still not paying. So
Speaker 1: what happens now?
Speaker 3: Okay, First, is it illegal? You bet? This is third
Speaker 3: grade stuff. Congress passes laws, and in their laws they
Speaker 3: say give X money, We've appropriated it to these people.
Speaker 3: That's not something now for the executive that executes the
Speaker 3: laws that he wasn't around for third grade to just ignore.
Speaker 3: There have been other administrations that are pushed on the envelope.
Speaker 3: They're just saying, screw you, we don't follow the law,
Speaker 3: Make us do it. So what happens now? Lawsuits? There
Speaker 3: are forty of them. There's been injunctions entered in six
Speaker 3: of them, and I think the ones you mentioned will
Speaker 3: in fact be enjoined. We put the freeze on it
Speaker 3: for three days so we can then have a trial.
Speaker 3: They have a trial. I think it does eventually play out, Molly,
Speaker 3: and they have these very aggressive assertions of executive power.
Speaker 3: I don't care what Congress says, I can do whatever
Speaker 3: I want. That one of them reaches the Supreme Court,
Speaker 3: and if the court surprises us, as it did with immunity,
Speaker 3: then they unlined everything and they get away with it.
Speaker 3: But I think in the short term it gets enjoined.
Speaker 3: And the immediate crisis question is does Trump ignore what
Speaker 3: courts tell them. That would be the sort of ultimate
Speaker 3: constitutional crisis. But I think for now it goes to courts,
Speaker 3: district courts who have to take the law as it
Speaker 3: is and they enjoy it, so enjoin it means why
Speaker 3: I'm sorry. They say you can't do this, they put
Speaker 3: a freeze on it. Then the executive is supposed to
Speaker 3: appeal that, which they've done in a couple instances. Of course,
Speaker 3: if they instead, and this is like JD. Vance's whispers
Speaker 3: say screw you, we're gonna do what. We're gonna impound anyway, right,
Speaker 3: which is what.
Speaker 1: Jd Vance has been tweeting about.
Speaker 3: Yeah, gone, this never happened. Whatever people say. I just
Speaker 3: had a subset about this. If we go through the
Speaker 3: historical parallels, it's never happened, and we would be really
Speaker 3: really and up against it exactly right. Constitutional crisis.
Speaker 1: Say they're like, no, what can the courts do?
Speaker 3: The courts can absolutely order them. And there are cases
Speaker 3: in which not the president, but like in the Civil
Speaker 3: Rights era, Governor Faubus of Arkansas said no, and the
Speaker 3: courts that we mean it, and all nine of us
Speaker 3: sign it, and you know what, he knuckled under and
Speaker 3: the courts will say it very firmly, and I think
Speaker 3: they will, by the way, even this Supreme Court. Then
Speaker 3: Trump says, fuck you. I'll take that as a talking
Speaker 3: fed's vulgarity, not a faster politics one. And we are
Speaker 3: up against it, like way way up against it. It's like,
Speaker 3: you know, military force and popular sentiment. We are. This
Speaker 3: is exactly what the framer's worn about. Not to get
Speaker 3: two pointy headed, but if the executive says, I don't
Speaker 3: care you said that, but I'm not going to do
Speaker 3: it anyway. This is the soul of an authoritarian society, right.
Speaker 1: Pretty scary.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I always love looking at your stuff
Speaker 3: in preparation for this, even though so much is happening now.
Speaker 3: But I did want to talk to You've had a
Speaker 3: couple of Vanny Fair articles about Elon Musk, just on
Speaker 3: some journalistic level, what a weird and crazy figure. But
Speaker 3: you said, most recently that he's ushered in a new regime,
Speaker 3: one that defies Bill Gates's spirit. By the way, new
Speaker 3: book from him, we should uh, we'll be checking out
Speaker 3: of capitalistic largest. Basically, he seems kind of like Trump
Speaker 3: to be not just indifferent too, but contemptuous. Of humanitarian impulses, aid,
Speaker 3: you know that that is not only feels like the
Speaker 3: right thing to do, but seems to be administration after
Speaker 3: administration has concluded in our national interests. The strong sense
Speaker 3: that comes through as we're in a new era to
Speaker 3: the extent about capitalism itself, to the extent Musk is
Speaker 3: defining it? Is that right? And what conversation should we
Speaker 3: be having about Musk? That maybe is getting lost in
Speaker 3: just the sheer spectacle of his dancing around and insulting
Speaker 3: people and doing crazy stuff.
Speaker 1: What should not be lost is why is he in
Speaker 1: the computers? Why does he need to go into computers
Speaker 1: if he wants to have an audit? Why not have
Speaker 1: an audit? Why does he need to bring his ideological
Speaker 1: young coders, many of whom he shares ideological affiliations with,
Speaker 1: Why are.
Speaker 3: They in the cat stay far right?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Why? Why? Like, just explain to us why, because nobody
Speaker 1: can tell us why? Right? The admin won't tell us why.
Speaker 1: He won't tell us why he's fighting fraud. He has
Speaker 1: yet to find any fraud. What he's found are things
Speaker 1: that he doesn't like, which, well, he doesn't think that
Speaker 1: USA should spend money on HIV prevention. He may not
Speaker 1: like that, but that's not fraud. That's just something he
Speaker 1: doesn't like. So the question is what are we doing here?
Speaker 1: And the fact that we can't get an answer, and
Speaker 1: the fact that the answers we're getting are either completely
Speaker 1: divorced from what sounds reasonable. I mean, like that is
Speaker 1: the thing that gets me. That is the big question
Speaker 1: is like why does he need to get in those computers?
Speaker 1: Is he training AI? Because we've seen there's so much
Speaker 1: stuff to train AI on, it hardly seems necessary to
Speaker 1: train it on the federal on all of our federal information.
Speaker 1: So what are we looking at? What is he doing?
Speaker 1: Why is he in there?
Speaker 3: We would need some financial information among other things that
Speaker 3: he had so far he hasn't given, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So that I think that's a big question. And
Speaker 1: then I mean I have other thoughts, Like he does
Speaker 1: use this anti democracy language as pretends that he's spreading democracy.
Speaker 1: You know, he says, I want to restore a democracy.
Speaker 1: He's mad at judges for checks and balances. He says
Speaker 1: America can't be a democracy if judges have checks and balances.
Speaker 1: I mean, he uses a lot of that Orwellian double
Speaker 1: speak that is pretty destructive, but it's also just quite strange.
Speaker 1: And like I think about yesterday when Mody, the President
Speaker 1: of India, tweeted out a photo and on one side
Speaker 1: is him and all of his advisors, and the other
Speaker 1: side is Elon his third wife maybe wife, maybe not wife,
Speaker 1: and many of his children. And I understand having kids.
Speaker 1: I have a lot of kids. I have them in
Speaker 1: my twenties, but you know, there's also places to bring
Speaker 1: your kids and places not to bring your kids. And
Speaker 1: when you're negotiating with the President of India, first of all,
Speaker 1: by the way, why he's negotiating with the President of
Speaker 1: India when he's not an elected official, Okay, but even still,
Speaker 1: like I mean, just the idea that a Republican donor,
Speaker 1: because that's that's all he is, right, is involving himself
Speaker 1: in just dismantling the federal government. I think that's a
Speaker 1: big deal.
Speaker 3: I get off the train right there. But I'm you know, legal, yeah, but.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not entirely sure at his polling. Trump
Speaker 1: is in this honeymoon period where his polling is as
Speaker 1: good as it's ever been. But even in this honeymoon period,
Speaker 1: Elon's polling is not great. You know, he's still underwater
Speaker 1: about nine points and there is no world in which
Speaker 1: there are you know, he's a billionaire. He's not even
Speaker 1: fucking from here, right, he is from South Africa, his parents,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, they're just so many reasons why
Speaker 1: American voters unless I mean, I don't know, maybe TikTok
Speaker 1: and the algorithms can do something to make this guy
Speaker 1: seem likable, But in my mind, I think they have
Speaker 1: a real uphill climb.
Speaker 3: So you think he's going to crash and burn at
Speaker 3: some point.
Speaker 1: I think someone who doesn't sleep at all is heading
Speaker 1: for right, Yeah, number one. I mean I personally need
Speaker 1: to sleep at least six seven hours a night, So
Speaker 1: that is number one. But also, we've had this American
Speaker 1: experiment and it has never involved a really rich guy
Speaker 1: from somewhere else coming.
Speaker 3: In richest in the world.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Really, it does seem unprecedented and not what certainly not
Speaker 3: what people voted for. I kind of thought he was
Speaker 3: just a sort of mincing little supporter there and all
Speaker 3: of a sudden he's running the joint. Okay, your turn.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I want you to talk to me about, like,
Speaker 1: is what Elon Musk is doing it's is it illegal?
Speaker 1: And if it is illegal, how could that be prosecuted.
Speaker 3: It's a great question because what it really is is
Speaker 3: like mind blowing, what the what are you even thinking?
Speaker 3: And but then you take a deep breath and get
Speaker 3: down to law. And he was sued twice yesterday on
Speaker 3: a theory Molly that is legal and nerdy, but I
Speaker 3: think has teeth and it's one that conservatives have always loved.
Speaker 1: And this is themocratic attorneys generals doing.
Speaker 3: This well in general, you see the the you know,
Speaker 3: nineteen twenty twenty two, democratic age's really stepping up. But
Speaker 3: here's a creative lawsuit and off hand Larry Tribe others
Speaker 3: seems pretty good to us. Jeff Bladner, here's the deal.
Speaker 3: There are three kinds of people who work in the
Speaker 3: executive brands. Principal officers like, cabinet infier officers like but
Speaker 3: they're important US attorneys and then everybody else. The law
Speaker 3: is clear for infeeror officers. You can appoint them if
Speaker 3: you're a president, but Congress has to authorize you to
Speaker 3: do it. That's what is happening with the whole was
Speaker 3: happening with the old Jack Smith thing. Principal officers have
Speaker 3: to be nominated by the president and confirmed. That is
Speaker 3: the appointments clause, which the conservatives are so into, saying,
Speaker 3: you can't mess with the president's power. And what makes
Speaker 3: a principal officer or infeeror officer. It's a little loosey goosey.
Speaker 3: It's based on responsibility and lines of authority. But who
Speaker 3: the hell is this guy? He is now I think
Speaker 3: been clearly put above the cabinet. The cabinet people are
Speaker 3: all sort of reporting to him. He and this is
Speaker 3: the lawsuit. Really seems like he's been made a principal
Speaker 3: officer and if that's right, got to nominate him and
Speaker 3: confirm them. So that's a very interesting legal challenge. Then
Speaker 3: everything else. Trump is trying to get away with it, saying, oh,
Speaker 3: he's given advice and we're adopting it. Different parts of
Speaker 3: that advice are illegal, like don't spend the money that
Speaker 3: Congress told you to spend. But the general attack on
Speaker 3: Musk himself that your question, what is he doing here?
Speaker 3: And who is this guy? I think the best legal
Speaker 3: garb for that theory is you've given him that kind
Speaker 3: of authority, you got to treat him differently under the Constitution.
Speaker 1: Right, And I mean it just seems so incredibly shocking.
Speaker 3: I mean that's part of It's like, oh, it's got
Speaker 3: to be illegal one, But then what do lawyers do.
Speaker 3: They got to like take that feeling, go in the
Speaker 3: law books and figure out something that'll have purchase in
Speaker 3: the courts. But I think this is a good one.
Speaker 3: It's not the only one, but it's the best one
Speaker 3: i've heard. We'll see how it goes. As I say,
Speaker 3: two of them were filed just yesterday. Great, all right,
Speaker 3: My last one to you. In the SDNY thing, you
Speaker 3: have Trump, you know, trying to say we're not weaponizing government.
Speaker 3: They were, and now it doesn't hunt. You had him
Speaker 3: in the campaign Molly saying, oh I'm not for Project
Speaker 3: twenty twenty five, And sure as hell, here he is.
Speaker 3: And it's just page after page of Project twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3: And as you've pointed out, the guys at his highest
Speaker 3: rating ever. Do we think that not only his weird
Speaker 3: anti charisma, charisma, whatever the hell it is, Trump factor,
Speaker 3: it's not just that, but actually the Project twenty twenty
Speaker 3: five kind of pretty extreme, mean spirited principles have now
Speaker 3: attracted the support of the majority of the American people.
Speaker 1: No, I think what's happening is that they haven't seen
Speaker 1: any even in action. In some ways, I think Democrats
Speaker 1: were very much a victim of their own success when
Speaker 1: it came to Trump. So they prevented a lot of
Speaker 1: what Trump wanted, right, Like he wanted to repeal Obamacare,
Speaker 1: he was not able to do that. You know, there
Speaker 1: were all these different things he wanted to do that
Speaker 1: he wasn't able to do. And in the end of
Speaker 1: the Trump Aadmin. Government spending was way up. Now it
Speaker 1: was because of the pandemic, but it was so Democrats
Speaker 1: were like, oh, he's going to do Project twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: And people were like.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the book at the convention, right right, right.
Speaker 1: But they were like, yeah, maybe, but last time he didn't.
Speaker 1: I think it was very hard to make the case
Speaker 1: that that was going to happen because there wasn't a
Speaker 1: lot of precedent for it. So what I think now,
Speaker 1: as we look onto this, you're seeing cuts at the
Speaker 1: VA and cut for Medicare, And these are cuts. These
Speaker 1: are not even legislatid cuts. These are just elon fork
Speaker 1: in the road email cuts. So those cuts, if they're
Speaker 1: really accurate. And again they you know, I don't know
Speaker 1: how I mean, but even just like the freeze, the
Speaker 1: NIH freeze, right, the NIH funding freeze, these things are
Speaker 1: not popular, right, Like people don't like the reason why
Speaker 1: billionaires have had to spend billions and billions of dollars
Speaker 1: trying to promote tax cuts and stuff like that is
Speaker 1: because voters don't like it, right, They don't like tax
Speaker 1: cuts for corporations. Who is that for corporations? Not shareholders?
Speaker 1: So Republicans. So I think that as it goes through,
Speaker 1: people are going to see like, oh I used to
Speaker 1: have this and now I don't. Oh who's president? I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, I think that is definitely going to happen
Speaker 1: and be real. And you're already seeing like cuts to snap.
Speaker 1: These are Trump voters, right, These red states are not
Speaker 1: filled with affluent people.
Speaker 3: Yeah, now people in Alabama now can't pay their electric
Speaker 3: bills right.
Speaker 1: Right, And even like in Alabama is a really good
Speaker 1: example because the University of Alabama is the biggest employer
Speaker 1: in that state. So you have funding frozen to the
Speaker 1: largest employer in a red state. I'm sorry, but like,
Speaker 1: sooner or later, that's going to catch up with you.
Speaker 1: So now the question, I think the real question will
Speaker 1: be how much can this sort of maga media complex
Speaker 1: cover for this. How much can they spin? Can they
Speaker 1: spin you used to get two hundred dollars a week,
Speaker 1: Now you get one hundred dollars a week. Can they
Speaker 1: spin that? Maybe they can. I don't know. I'm not
Speaker 1: a psychic, but I think that's where we're going to
Speaker 1: get to.
Speaker 3: Got it? Yeah? Trump said the other day, Oh, there
Speaker 3: now will be paying it first.
Speaker 1: Elon said that. I mean, you know, you're taking stuff
Speaker 1: away from people. But again, like Democrats keep saying they're
Speaker 1: going to do this, and Trump voters are like, no,
Speaker 1: we are out of time. Thank you, thank you, thank.
Speaker 3: You always great Another Molly mashup coming next month. Thank
Speaker 3: you very much. Men O Man heavy time for both
Speaker 3: of us.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Harry Lentman. That was really good. Congressman Eric
Speaker 1: Swahwaw represents California's fourteenth district. Welcome back to Fast Politics,
Speaker 1: Congressman Eric.
Speaker 4: Swahwell, Hey, Molly, what's happening?
Speaker 1: I am without words today. I was on the internet
Speaker 1: and I noticed that the federal government took eighty million
Speaker 1: dollars of FEMA money back from the UH from New York.
Speaker 1: What can they do that? Also, what are we doing?
Speaker 4: No, they can't do any of the shit right.
Speaker 5: It's mostly just this shock and awe campaign and the
Speaker 5: courts are just catching up with them on it. The
Speaker 5: courts don't move at the speed of their corruptionism. Yes,
Speaker 5: the courts are catching up. That's the good news. And
Speaker 5: we're winning in the courts.
Speaker 4: Also.
Speaker 5: The good news now they'll be appealed and ultimately will
Speaker 5: be in front of the Supreme Court and we're going
Speaker 5: to see is this the Supreme Court that said that
Speaker 5: Trump had to be sentenced before the inauguration when he
Speaker 5: tried to escape that, or is this the Supreme Court
Speaker 5: that gave him absolute immunity. It's been quite a you know,
Speaker 5: schizophrenic court, and so it's hard to tell what they'll do.
Speaker 5: But the good news is like this stuff is being
Speaker 5: paused and that one's probably going to be paused as well.
Speaker 5: And then in the House, you know, look, we have
Speaker 5: government funding coming up.
Speaker 4: On March fourteen.
Speaker 5: These geniuses have never been able to fund the government
Speaker 5: on their own. The majority of the votes have always
Speaker 5: come from Democrats. Spoiler alert, they're not going to be
Speaker 5: able to fund the government on their own again. And
Speaker 5: so I promise you, my Democratic colleagues and I we
Speaker 5: are not going to fund a government that they have
Speaker 5: already shut down, and we are in a government down
Speaker 5: right now. We're not going to be a part of
Speaker 5: anything you know, that funds like further shutting down of services.
Speaker 5: And so that's the leverage I see us as having here.
Speaker 1: So I'm really glad you said that, because that is
Speaker 1: what everyone wants. I mean, what you just said was
Speaker 1: exactly the thing that I think a lot of us
Speaker 1: have been ringing our hands about, which is there's one
Speaker 1: piece of leverage that Democrats have left, right, which is
Speaker 1: that Republicans cannot legislate their way out of a paper bag.
Speaker 1: So you have this funding shutdown, and then you have
Speaker 1: that Republicans, who care so much about fiscal responsibility want
Speaker 1: to raise the debt ceiling four billion dollars.
Speaker 5: And they didn't want to do this when they saw
Speaker 5: it as a way to own Joe Biden over a
Speaker 5: year ago, when Democrats were seeking, you know, to do
Speaker 5: a shorter term debt ceiling raise, which is essentially just
Speaker 5: paying our bills. But and Trump was tweeting at the
Speaker 5: time that Republicans absolutely should not do it again.
Speaker 4: He just wanted to, you know, fuck over Joe Biden.
Speaker 5: That was the only thinking behind it, and reeding to
Speaker 5: do with making sure we pay our bills and that
Speaker 5: we don't default upon our credit. And now that it's Trump,
Speaker 5: he's like, well, I can't give away these big that's me.
Speaker 4: You want to pay out to the billionaires.
Speaker 5: So I can't give away all this money to the
Speaker 5: billionaires without raising the dead ceiling.
Speaker 4: That's why he needs to do that.
Speaker 5: But you know, Molly, we have to be careful just
Speaker 5: pointing them out as hypocritical, that doesn't work anymore. I've
Speaker 5: priced in that these guys, you know, just because they
Speaker 5: said A on Tuesday and they're saying Z on Wednesday,
Speaker 5: that doesn't matter. We need to boil it down to
Speaker 5: you were promised cheaper eggs and all you've gotten is
Speaker 5: cheaper talk, you know, from the Republican And that's really
Speaker 5: all that's going to matter.
Speaker 1: And by the way, I went to the grocery store
Speaker 1: to die and there was like a little sign that's
Speaker 1: like our eggs are more expensive. I want you to
Speaker 1: explain to us the New Vogue Conversation topic in political
Speaker 1: circles is that Democrats are not doing enough. I actually
Speaker 1: think that you guys are starting to really kick it
Speaker 1: into gear. So tell us what you guys are doing.
Speaker 5: A big part of this is just being present, letting
Speaker 5: our be heard, and I've tried to update my constituents
Speaker 5: every couple days with an Instagram Live. I'm doing a
Speaker 5: town hall on Tuesday next week in Union City, the
Speaker 5: heart of my congressional district. But just being accessible right now,
Speaker 5: I think is really important so that people know that
Speaker 5: you know you're listening. Every week or so, I'm doing
Speaker 5: this under the Dome, a series where I do about
Speaker 5: a five to six minute behind the scenes of what
Speaker 5: we're working on that week, so people know that I'm
Speaker 5: in the fight and I'm trying to draw them in
Speaker 5: as well. So I've just recommended my colleagues be as
Speaker 5: accessible is possible. Always on as a model right like
Speaker 5: of social in the community on television. Just be always
Speaker 5: on right now so people know you know that we
Speaker 5: have not shrunk in our duties. But I also say
Speaker 5: to people who are on the sidelines right now and
Speaker 5: they're demoralized and they're upset about what happened in the
Speaker 5: November election.
Speaker 4: I tell them, I understand.
Speaker 5: If you are not yet ready to join the fight,
Speaker 5: and when you are ready, I'm ready to hold your
Speaker 5: hand and go to battle with you. So just tell
Speaker 5: me when you're ready, and I'll fight for you, and
Speaker 5: others will fight for you.
Speaker 4: But I'm all in.
Speaker 1: Right now, Let's talk about sort of what Democrats can do.
Speaker 1: So there's going to be a dead ceiling fight, there's
Speaker 1: going to be a government shutdown fight. You don't have
Speaker 1: control of the House, but you have sort of some
Speaker 1: control of the House. So talk us through. Can you
Speaker 1: guys do hearings? What kind of oversight can you guys do.
Speaker 5: We can kick ass in these congressional hearings. And I
Speaker 5: think you're seeing us rise to the occasion in that regard.
Speaker 5: Like you know, watch rober Garcia, a sophomore member from
Speaker 5: Long Beach, you know, Marjorie Taylor Green first day ever
Speaker 5: with the Gabble today doing this doge hearing, and he
Speaker 5: was great. He was responding, landing points, using demonstrative evidence
Speaker 5: to make his points to it.
Speaker 4: It was good.
Speaker 5: He was working in all all forms of media to
Speaker 5: do it. And I'm just excited about this next generation
Speaker 5: of leaders that we're seeing, for example, on the Judiciary Committee,
Speaker 5: we added Jasmine Crocket and Dan Goldman and Jared Moskowitz.
Speaker 5: I mean, these were people who really shined in the
Speaker 5: Oversight Committee last year and now they're on Judiciary under
Speaker 5: Jamie Raskin's leadership. And so yeah, it's also hearings we
Speaker 5: hold them accountable. And then we have our own legal
Speaker 5: strategy that Leader Jeffries is starting to roll out to
Speaker 5: show you know, what we can do as well to
Speaker 5: join the legal fight, you know, to stop you know,
Speaker 5: the worst of the Trump administration so.
Speaker 4: We're not we're not helpless.
Speaker 5: And then, by the way, we need to show the
Speaker 5: country who are the people on the Republican side that
Speaker 5: are making the decisions about your life, who are most
Speaker 5: likely to be thrown out of office if they make
Speaker 5: the wrong decision, And so that you know, you give
Speaker 5: them a homework assignment so they know who are the
Speaker 5: twenty to thirty people who we should start organizing and
Speaker 5: mobilizing around to beat if they were to take away
Speaker 5: your health care or increase the cost of it.
Speaker 1: So you're going to hit frontliners on the GOP side.
Speaker 4: We have to.
Speaker 5: This is important only because right now and I can
Speaker 5: say this is somebody who ran against an incumbent myself
Speaker 5: when I got elected. This is the period of time
Speaker 5: where candidates are deliberating over whether they want to run
Speaker 5: for office. And we'll know by early fall who are
Speaker 5: the candidates running and the seats that we are the
Speaker 5: best shot at winning, and the caliber of those candidates
Speaker 5: is going to matter. And so what we can do
Speaker 5: on the inside right now in Congress is to create
Speaker 5: an environment where the waters are worn and they feel like, Okay,
Speaker 5: I'm going to make this big sacrifice, put my family
Speaker 5: through hell, have to ask all my friends for money,
Speaker 5: knock on one hundred thousand doors, and will it be
Speaker 5: worth it? Is there a shot for me to win?
Speaker 5: So we can create the environment where they see that
Speaker 5: it's worth it, so that we attract the best who
Speaker 5: can give us the best shot to win. And if
Speaker 5: we win the House, Molly, we cut our time in
Speaker 5: hell and half right.
Speaker 1: And if you win the House, you can do oversight.
Speaker 1: One of the things I've been struck by is watching
Speaker 1: members of the Doge Committee but opening the door again.
Speaker 1: What I don't understand is you've got Republicans want They're
Speaker 1: saying that they want to cut waste, but really they
Speaker 1: want to cut the government subsidies the kind of thing
Speaker 1: I mean, don't They just want to cut the social
Speaker 1: safety net and they're saying that the safety net is fraud.
Speaker 1: I mean, explain this, gass.
Speaker 5: The only way you know to pay for these tax
Speaker 5: cuts that they're proposing, you know, would be cuts to
Speaker 5: the Affordable Care Act, Social Security or Medicare and Medicaid.
Speaker 5: That there's no way around it. And so that's what
Speaker 5: they're going to have to do. And by the way,
Speaker 5: we are seeing as Doge cuts, the government under Trump
Speaker 5: is going to spend you know, more on Musk's government
Speaker 5: funded projects.
Speaker 4: Right, So he's in these systems.
Speaker 5: I would put him on a top five list of
Speaker 5: individuals who benefit the most in America from government spending.
Speaker 5: And he's in there making cuts as his contracts expand.
Speaker 4: So that that is right. Concert.
Speaker 1: Do you know what Elon Musk and his merry band
Speaker 1: of early twenty year olds are doing in all those
Speaker 1: government computers.
Speaker 5: They're in your data, they're in my data, they're in
Speaker 5: the data of Americans.
Speaker 1: And what are they doing in there?
Speaker 5: They're going through to see, you know, how they can
Speaker 5: change the way that government funded programs are funded. And
Speaker 5: we've seen this because of the filings that these departments
Speaker 5: and agencies have had to do under court order. And
Speaker 5: we learned, you know, yesterday that one of these doge bros.
Speaker 4: He was supposed to.
Speaker 5: Be in what's called a read only part of the
Speaker 5: Treasury Department's data, but that he was given accidentally. They said,
Speaker 5: you know, the ability to edit and to take affirmative acts.
Speaker 5: Whether they are acting maliciously with our data or whether
Speaker 5: through mistake, these unvetted, untrusted individuals are getting access to
Speaker 5: our data, it's still a shit show, right. I don't
Speaker 5: care if it's malice or unintentional. I don't want these
Speaker 5: unvetted individuals to have access to our data.
Speaker 4: It just seems like a big violation of our priduice.
Speaker 1: Also, why do they want the data? Like, that's what
Speaker 1: I don't totally understand, Like, tell me what the sort
Speaker 1: of what they say the excuses for doing it.
Speaker 5: They would argue that they're trying to look at how
Speaker 5: the government spends money and who the recipients are and
Speaker 5: whether there's cuts that can be made. Now, of course,
Speaker 5: if they're like chat gpten this thing, they're essentially looking
Speaker 5: for any anything that has to do with climate change,
Speaker 5: anything that has to do with the verse city. We
Speaker 5: had one massive government agency whistleblower come to our office
Speaker 5: and tell us that a particular project was told get
Speaker 5: rid of everything on your website and in your materials
Speaker 5: that refers to climate change. So there's this just practice
Speaker 5: of identifying government programs that help people that don't align
Speaker 5: with what Donald Trump wants. And these are ones that
Speaker 5: are already funded by Congress and deleting them and ending them.
Speaker 5: And you know, the good news is is I said,
Speaker 5: the courts are not going along with this right now,
Speaker 5: but that is their aim.
Speaker 1: What can you do in Congress to sort of put
Speaker 1: the brakes on? Are you guys willing to do more
Speaker 1: sort of blocking doors and forcing them to do whatever
Speaker 1: they can do? I mean, what else can you guys do?
Speaker 5: My vote is the most powerful tool that I have.
Speaker 5: I am going to block a further government shutdown. So
Speaker 5: I'm not going to support anything that keeps the government
Speaker 5: shut down, which is what they're doing right now. My
Speaker 5: voice is the other effective tool, and so I'm going
Speaker 5: to continue to update my constituents, tell them what they
Speaker 5: can do in the fight as well, and who they
Speaker 5: should be holding accountable and so that we socialize, you know, with.
Speaker 4: The public what the cost is of all of this.
Speaker 5: But I think at the end of the day, Molly,
Speaker 5: what this really has to be about is what the fuck.
Speaker 4: Does any of this have to do with lowering.
Speaker 5: The cost of your groceries. That's what I promised he
Speaker 5: had a mandate to do that. He never manage to
Speaker 5: go look at our data, you know, with people that
Speaker 5: don't work for the government. You have a mandate to
Speaker 5: put the most violent people who have ever you know,
Speaker 5: attacked the government and put them on our streets. Hen
Speaker 5: to have a mandate to fire FBI agents who combat
Speaker 5: terrorism and public corruption and money laundering. He didn't have
Speaker 5: a mandate to do any of that, but that's where
Speaker 5: his focus, you know, seems to be. And then anything
Speaker 5: that goes wrong he just blames Dei. That's what he says.
Speaker 5: If there's an airplane crash, it was DEI. If there's
Speaker 5: a fire in La it was Dei, Which means to
Speaker 5: me that the next time he says something was caused
Speaker 5: by DEI, that to him, DEI stands for didn't ever investigate,
Speaker 5: Because that's just an alibi for them to not be
Speaker 5: held accountable for what's happening on their watch.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 4: Eric, of course, thank you all.
Speaker 2: No, momentlefut, Jesse, Cannon, Molly, we know this stuff is coming.
Speaker 2: North Dakota is going to try to ban the morning
Speaker 2: after pill, because that's smart.
Speaker 1: I never saw this coming. I never ever ever saw
Speaker 1: this coming. I never ever, ever, ever ever saw this coming. Yes,
Speaker 1: who could have seen that the Republicans who wanted to
Speaker 1: ban the abortion pill would take their banning powers to
Speaker 1: the morning after pill. Look, the whole idea is that
Speaker 1: Republicans believe that a sperm and an egg is a
Speaker 1: person and that that person should have more rights than
Speaker 1: you do. And that is how we got here. So, yes,
Speaker 1: North Dakota, the Republicans are going to do this personhood
Speaker 1: bill HB thirteen seventy three, which would make abortion of
Speaker 1: crime that can be prosecuted similar to murder and assault.
Speaker 1: But that said, if you murder a woman, you're probably okay.
Speaker 1: It defines an unborn child is an egg innisperm. Does
Speaker 1: this pass? I mean there's no reason why it won
Speaker 1: I mean, these guys are out of control, by the way,
Speaker 1: I just want to point out this is what Project
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five wants to do, and if you don't
Speaker 1: see that birth control is next, then I don't know
Speaker 1: what to tell you. That's it for this episode of
Speaker 1: Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday
Speaker 1: to hear the best minds and politics make sense of
Speaker 1: all this chaos. If you enjoy this podcast, please send
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Speaker 1: for listening.