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 a data for Progress. Paul found
Speaker 1: that fifty two percent of Americans believe that President Trump
Speaker 1: was motivated to take military action against Iran to distract
Speaker 1: from the Epstein files. Wow, we have such a great
Speaker 1: chow for you today. Emma's Now. Steph Rule stops by
Speaker 1: to talk about Trump making up a story about an
Speaker 1: ex president backing his war in the Middle East. Spoiler
Speaker 1: there is then ex president is him. Then we'll talk
Speaker 1: to Boltz Magazines Alex Burness about the Supreme Court election
Speaker 1: in Wisconsin. It could be one of the year's most
Speaker 1: important elections. But first, the news.
Speaker 2: BII all the time the Trump administration tells on themselves,
Speaker 2: says the quiet part out loud, But this one, I
Speaker 2: want to enter it into the Greatest Hits album of
Speaker 2: absolute Toewing on themselves quotes that truly I was laughing.
Speaker 3: So but the fact is that the US economy is
Speaker 3: fundamentally sound and that if it were to be extended
Speaker 3: this it wouldn't really disrupt the US economy very much
Speaker 3: at all. It would hurt consumers, and we'd have to
Speaker 3: think about, you know, if that continued, what we would
Speaker 3: have to do about that. But that's like really the
Speaker 3: last of our concerns right now, because we're very confident
Speaker 3: that this thing is going ahead of schedule.
Speaker 1: Kevin has to bally friend of the pod. Justin Wolfers
Speaker 1: calls him happy happy Kevin, not.
Speaker 2: To be confused with handsome Kevin.
Speaker 1: Handsome Kevin. Happy Kevin is still happy. So he's saying
Speaker 1: that they don't care the gas prices are going up.
Speaker 1: This is from Donald J. Trump. Literally, all he did
Speaker 1: was complained about gas prices while Biden was president.
Speaker 2: Can I give you a gas price report from my corner.
Speaker 2: It went up forty cents since our last episode two
Speaker 2: days ago. Really, gas prices on average are up over
Speaker 2: a dollar now.
Speaker 1: In Brooklyn, a fifth of all oil and Jack goes
Speaker 1: through the straits of our mouse. That's a lot of
Speaker 1: oil and gas and it's not going through those straits.
Speaker 1: There's nothing in there except lots of minds and et cetera,
Speaker 1: et cetera, et cetera. So here's the question when we
Speaker 1: look at this, which is gas is going to get
Speaker 1: more expensive, food is going to get more expensive. Money
Speaker 1: could get more expensive. I mean, this is just a
Speaker 1: super bad thing. And it's also worth pointing out that.
Speaker 1: I think it's worth pointing out just for a minute
Speaker 1: here that Trump said he was going to make things cheaper.
Speaker 1: Trump is now just laser focused on not doing that
Speaker 1: in any way, shape or form. And so Kevin has
Speaker 1: said he's happy, but he shouldn't be.
Speaker 2: I don't think he should be happy anymore when there's
Speaker 2: lots of catch up, big throat in his direction.
Speaker 1: He should be anxious.
Speaker 4: Kevin.
Speaker 2: So by the big, big news that really shook everybody
Speaker 2: today is a guy everybody thought that was in the
Speaker 2: Trump camp on foreign policy. Joe Kent worked as a
Speaker 2: US counter terrorism center ahead. He has resigned over this
Speaker 2: bullshit Iran war in the premises upon which we have
Speaker 2: entered Iran.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to take a moment here to remind
Speaker 1: all of us nothing good is going on here. Okay,
Speaker 1: no one is like trying to be a good person,
Speaker 1: But Joe Kent has decided that Israel got this administration
Speaker 1: into the war. That's the same thing that Marco Rubio said. Now,
Speaker 1: why is that relevant, Well, it's relevant for any number
Speaker 1: of reasons, and Again, this is this sticky part of
Speaker 1: the situation, which is if you are anti Israel, of
Speaker 1: which there are many people, and look, Israel has not
Speaker 1: behaved in a good way, and especially because they've been
Speaker 1: run by Nenya, who is basically running the country in
Speaker 1: order to stay head of jail. So you can see
Speaker 1: where this is going. But Joe Kent has said that
Speaker 1: he does not think that this administration was going America first,
Speaker 1: and you know, look, he's right, right, if you were
Speaker 1: most concerned about America first, you would not have attacked
Speaker 1: a country with ninety eighty ninety million people filled with
Speaker 1: religious extremists and opened a Pandora's box which has led
Speaker 1: to higher gas prices and will soon lead to all
Speaker 1: sorts of other second order, third order effects. So I
Speaker 1: do think that he is both right. And also I'm
Speaker 1: always a little itchy in Trump world when people start
Speaker 1: becoming anti Zionists, because there's also a section of MEGA
Speaker 1: that is profoundly anti Submitta. So I'm not saying that's
Speaker 1: what's going on here, but I'm also saying that there
Speaker 1: is a schism in MAGA that's being revealed here, which
Speaker 1: is the Erica firsts and then the anti Israel crewe
Speaker 1: and then there's this really scary vein of anti Semitism
Speaker 1: in the party too. Now I'm not saying this is
Speaker 1: going on here, but I would also like to say
Speaker 1: that it's a big deal that Joe ken is resigning
Speaker 1: and writing a real resignation letter. This administration rarely has
Speaker 1: people do things that aren't just like, oh, mister Trump,
Speaker 1: you are the most handsome. So in that way, it's
Speaker 1: also a big deal, and it's meaningful for different reasons. Also,
Speaker 1: by the way, can we just pause for a second.
Speaker 1: The fact that Trump World then immediately went after him
Speaker 1: and Tyler Budowitch, a Trump advisor, said that Kent is
Speaker 1: a crazed egomaniac who just wants to make us splash
Speaker 1: before getting canned is pretty amazing because like who hired Kent?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think this is always the thing is
Speaker 2: it's like we could just predict this Steve Chung pattern
Speaker 2: every time that it's like, Okay, what is the insult
Speaker 2: to insult this person's past work and their motivations with
Speaker 2: It's every time. It's motivations and past work every time.
Speaker 2: Just fill in the madlib. Yeah, so we had a
Speaker 2: great guest from Pro Public con last week Doug back Clark,
Speaker 2: who talked about the plots to steal the midterms election
Speaker 2: and the people in Maga who are working to do us.
Speaker 2: New York Times Today has a lot of color on
Speaker 2: this story called Trump's cutting of election security fuels worries
Speaker 2: of midterms.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and again we're worried. I think that we're worried,
Speaker 1: and rightly so. Election officials in Arizona opened their online
Speaker 1: candidate portal last summer. It was immediately clear and have
Speaker 1: been hacked. The photos of aspiring public servants had been
Speaker 1: replaced by red and black images of Ayodtola Kumani Rand
Speaker 1: for Supreme Leader. That's a bright spot. Yeah. So a
Speaker 1: lot of our wars are now fought to cyber. Right.
Speaker 1: I think Donald Trump was the first person to say
Speaker 1: this about cyber. It's very complicated cyber and we need
Speaker 1: our federal government to make sure that things are safe,
Speaker 1: that our technology is safe, which they are planning not
Speaker 1: to do.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaking of these efforts, Trump has admitted that jd
Speaker 2: Vance will target blue states in his fraud task force. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean that's what they did in Minnesota. Right, Why
Speaker 1: did they go to Minnesota because of fraud. Who found
Speaker 1: the fraud? Nick Shirley, Well, really, who found the fraud?
Speaker 1: The inspector generals from twenty twenty and in fact, the
Speaker 1: people who had committed the fraud were already in jail.
Speaker 1: So they are going to do more stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Trump administration wants to run on fraud the problem. And
Speaker 1: maybe Trump one point zero could have run on fraud,
Speaker 1: but Trump two point zero has embraced fraud in such
Speaker 1: a profound and disturbing way, like let us look no
Speaker 1: further than everyone's favorite cowgarall Christy No, Christy Nome? What
Speaker 1: did Christy Nome do?
Speaker 2: She I could get past the idea for being my
Speaker 2: favorite cowboy EPs.
Speaker 1: But the reason that she ultimately is now leading the
Speaker 1: American Shield of not existing is because Senator John Kennedy
Speaker 1: asked her wherethy two hundred and twenty million dollars went?
Speaker 1: And she couldn't answer. Okay, So, if you're running on
Speaker 1: fraud and your Homeland Security secretary has inhaled two hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty million dollars, not great, strong and great. We
Speaker 1: have exciting news over at our YouTube channel. The third
Speaker 1: episode is out now from our series Project twenty twenty
Speaker 1: nine are reimagining where we examine what went wrong with
Speaker 1: democrats approach to policy and how we can correct it
Speaker 1: and deliver changes for the American people. The first episodes
Speaker 1: dove into campaign finance, reform, antitrust, and regulation. Our newest
Speaker 1: episode is on how we solidify reproductive rights for women.
Speaker 1: We talk to the smartest names in the fields like
Speaker 1: Abortion every Day is Jessica Vlenti, the Center for Reproductive Rights,
Speaker 1: Nancy Northam, UCLA is oh and Mary Ziegler, and the
Speaker 1: gout Macher Institute's Kelly Badden. Republicans were prepared for when
Speaker 1: they got the levers of power. Democrats need to be two.
Speaker 1: So please head over to YouTube and search Molly John
Speaker 1: Fast Project twenty twenty nine or go to the Fast
Speaker 1: Politics YouTube channel page and you'll find it there. Help
Speaker 1: us spread the word. Steph Rule is the host of
Speaker 1: the Eleventh Hour with Stephanie Rule, airing weeknights at eleven
Speaker 1: pm EEST on ms now. She's also the co host
Speaker 1: of ms now as YouTube live series It's Happening with
Speaker 1: Belshie and Rule. Welcome, Welcome, Steph for all.
Speaker 5: Thank you, thank you, Molly Jong, how are you doing great? Overwhelmed.
Speaker 5: There's so much news to cover. I mean, there's just
Speaker 5: so much. There's so much news. I mean there was
Speaker 5: before the war, and the war has thrown just the
Speaker 5: war impacts almost every other thing that we cover, and
Speaker 5: I think, unlike just covering the US economy, the average
Speaker 5: person doesn't think about foreign policy. The average person doesn't
Speaker 5: vote on foreign policy. And so just even getting to basics, right,
Speaker 5: lots of us were in the news business are now
Speaker 5: like knee deep in national security and foreign policy, but
Speaker 5: most people aren't. And so just every day, even getting
Speaker 5: to the point of zero of like what's the history
Speaker 5: of Iran? How did we get here? Why did we
Speaker 5: get here? And where do we go from? Where do
Speaker 5: we go from here? Is so difficult because the administration
Speaker 5: has yet to articulate why we got here and even
Speaker 5: what we're doing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I wanted to talk about that because it feels
Speaker 1: like this is sort of this war with Iran was
Speaker 1: always like the third rail, right, Like there were so
Speaker 1: many Republicans who had sort of they had sort of
Speaker 1: toyed with this. I mean John Bolton is a great example.
Speaker 1: You have John Bolton who is like missed. If you
Speaker 1: think of a person who loves war like in this,
Speaker 1: you know, in this decade which is not a very
Speaker 1: you know, a decade where we sort of had gotten
Speaker 1: over foreign adventurism, or at least we thought we had,
Speaker 1: and Donald Trump had. He even has said it's like
Speaker 1: almost enough at this point, which is a terrifying idea.
Speaker 5: It really is about strategy, not even execution, because we've got,
Speaker 5: you know, the greatest military in the world. But I
Speaker 5: cover a lot of guys who are sort of George Bush, Conda,
Speaker 5: Leeza Rice loving Republicans who you know, at the beginning
Speaker 5: of this were like, I love this, I wanted this forever.
Speaker 5: Do you know how horrible Iran is? And you're like, yes, totally.
Speaker 5: But now here we are eighteen days in and they're
Speaker 5: like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa whoa. Right, just think about this,
Speaker 5: the president who's been beating up on our NATO allies
Speaker 5: in every possible way, both in Trump on point zero
Speaker 5: but especially in Trump two point zero. It was just
Speaker 5: a few weeks ago our European allies had to put
Speaker 5: troops in Greenland because Trump wanted to take it.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we dis heard from Germany's Foreign Minister Finance minister yesterday,
Speaker 5: when the President is saying, you guys better show up,
Speaker 5: NATO allies, you better help us, or you're going to
Speaker 5: face consequences, they basically said, this is not our war.
Speaker 5: And I think one of the reasons they're saying it
Speaker 5: not that they're not our ally and they don't come
Speaker 5: to our aid. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday the
Speaker 5: President knew beforehand the calculation that if we decided to
Speaker 5: strike Iran, there's a really good chance they would f
Speaker 5: with the straight of horror moves, they would shut it down.
Speaker 5: The President knew this and decided I'm going to go
Speaker 5: forward anyway. So I think one of the main frustrations,
Speaker 5: besides that you've been beating us up in every possible
Speaker 5: way since you've been in office, Like besides like the
Speaker 5: emotional aspect of it. From our foreign allies, they're like,
Speaker 5: where's the strategy, bro? You knew this could happen with
Speaker 5: the straight of horror moves. But you know, Trump is
Speaker 5: always like, I'm the biggest, I'm the baddest, I'm the best.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna steal your lunch money and you're still gonna
Speaker 5: give me your homework. And they're like, we all saw
Speaker 5: this coming and sort of while closing the straight of
Speaker 5: horror moves doesn't hurt us as much as let's say
Speaker 5: it would have in the seventies and the eighties, because
Speaker 5: we're far more oil independent, it hurts the whole world, right,
Speaker 5: they would say, like when the US, you know, sneezes,
Speaker 5: the rest of the world gets the flu. That's parts
Speaker 5: of South Asia right now, who are saying people should
Speaker 5: work from home, we need to close schools because they're
Speaker 5: so dependent on that oil. And just watching the president
Speaker 5: or the administration say we're going to guarantee the tankers
Speaker 5: are going to be safe going across the street. We're
Speaker 5: gonna have navy escorts. All it takes is one mind, right,
Speaker 5: these tankers are such easy targets, and trying to convince
Speaker 5: these companies sure. I mean the President last week was
Speaker 5: basically like, boys, don't be chickens. You better get on
Speaker 5: that butt and go court. Don't be chickens.
Speaker 1: Come on now, well, also, don't be chickens. And also
Speaker 1: there's no one who is going to ensure that the oil,
Speaker 1: which is the reason you're doing it, which is why
Speaker 1: the ship would blow up. Anyway, I want to pull
Speaker 1: back and talk to you about something that you and
Speaker 1: I have talked about before. Majohn, Yes, Majohn No.
Speaker 5: That's why I'm here.
Speaker 1: No, the idea that this administration was an administration crafted
Speaker 1: by the rich for the rich. And there was a
Speaker 1: time right before the right in the summer running up
Speaker 1: to twenty twenty four life, where you and I had
Speaker 1: many a talk where we both it was clear it
Speaker 1: for me, and I'm sure it's clear to you that
Speaker 1: we've both been talking to very rich people, maybe the
Speaker 1: same very rich people, may be different very rich people,
Speaker 1: and they had all been like, this is it. We're
Speaker 1: gonna get the government we want and they're gonna fixed right,
Speaker 1: and they're gonna fix book, and they're gonna do all
Speaker 1: the stuff that we have been secretly wanting them to do.
Speaker 1: So go on that.
Speaker 5: So I would say two things. So on one level,
Speaker 5: this administration was crafted by the super rich for the
Speaker 5: super rich. And you see it in every way possible. Right,
Speaker 5: It's why I think you do not see the president
Speaker 5: doing rallies. President Trump doing rallies used to be one
Speaker 5: of his favorite activities. Right drop down on the plane,
Speaker 5: You're in an open field, thousands of people coming like
Speaker 5: you're my boy, bro. Finally we've a president who's gonna
Speaker 5: bring jobs back to the rust belt. Like I can
Speaker 5: talk the way I want to talk, I can live
Speaker 5: the way I wanted to like, don't tread on me.
Speaker 5: President's on two rallies total. Instead, he goes from the
Speaker 5: White House to mar Lago. Mar Lago, go to the
Speaker 5: White House? Why because he is in a guilded, gilded cage.
Speaker 5: This administration are completely beyond serve with the pleasure of
Speaker 5: this president. There is no one to push back on
Speaker 5: him at all. When you're wondering, how come but the
Speaker 5: exception of Christy Noam, how come none of these cabinet
Speaker 5: members get bounced they're failing at their jobs. It has
Speaker 5: nothing to do with failing at their jobs. They serve
Speaker 5: President Trump. They don't say no to him. They follow
Speaker 5: his every whim and he likes that. Now, when you
Speaker 5: think about who he's spending his time with, go to
Speaker 5: mar a Lago. Right the night we struck a ram,
Speaker 5: they still held a multimillion dollar fundraiser and the press
Speaker 5: secretary said it was super important to do it. So
Speaker 5: the president is now surrounded by people in the business
Speaker 5: community who are who are wildly profiting from this information.
Speaker 5: I mean, excuse me from this administration. Either it's they
Speaker 5: get information and able to invest on a fury and slipt.
Speaker 5: They get information and they're able to invest on it.
Speaker 5: They're getting government contracts. There's lots of people that I
Speaker 5: cover who don't like the president, who think the president
Speaker 5: is dangerous. However, they have figured out that he's completely
Speaker 5: transactional and they know how to work him.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 5: Last year, as devastating or as complicated or as problematic
Speaker 5: as the tariffs were, the President Howard Lutnik, I would argue,
Speaker 5: even with the Supreme Court striking the tariffs down, I
Speaker 5: would argue, they still wouldn't have it any other way
Speaker 5: because every single day last year, fixers were getting paid
Speaker 5: to get business people and foreign leaders meetings with the
Speaker 5: Commerce Secretary, meetings with the president, meetings with the Treasury secretary. Right,
Speaker 5: they would come in and the answer, you know, trying
Speaker 5: to get an exemption from the tariffs, And the answer
Speaker 5: is great, what are you gonna give me? And on
Speaker 5: every possible turn, those businesses, those foreign leaders were giving gifts, favors, presents,
Speaker 5: business opportunities to administration. And so I think that the
Speaker 5: idea that this was going to be an America first administration.
Speaker 5: I would say the president wanted to implement ideas around
Speaker 5: the America. His America first policies in Trump one point
Speaker 5: zero right close the border was all about like America first.
Speaker 5: What you're seeing now is truly Trump first, right. Donald
Speaker 5: Trump Junior is an advisor to both Calshie and Polymarket,
Speaker 5: the two prediction markets.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 5: We've got people betting day in and day out about
Speaker 5: the war. John Junior is now an advisor in a
Speaker 5: drone company. The President signed an executive order what was
Speaker 5: it eight weeks ago, We're not buying Chinese drones anymore.
Speaker 5: Lots of people have always gotten the ick over presidential
Speaker 5: pardoning power. The dick has gone so far off the reservation.
Speaker 5: There's tons of reporting on we know how a full
Speaker 5: like lobby and cottage industry just focused on having part
Speaker 5: super wealthy people unpardoned. And remember when people are unpardoned,
Speaker 5: they're not just getting out of jail. In the cases
Speaker 5: of white collar crimes or the cases of fraud where
Speaker 5: they then are expected to pay millions of dollars to
Speaker 5: the individuals who they wronged. That disappears so It's not
Speaker 5: just this person's you know, get out of jail. Think
Speaker 5: about all of their victims who are not being made whole.
Speaker 5: And so what I find interesting though, is now we're
Speaker 5: at war. Now we have a press secretary who has
Speaker 5: not said that we wouldn't employ a draft.
Speaker 1: So for all of.
Speaker 5: These super wealthy people who are like, you know, I'm
Speaker 5: going to get this guy wrapped around my finger, or
Speaker 5: who didn't like them, but they said, if you can't
Speaker 5: beat him, join them, or they love what their stock
Speaker 5: portfolio is doing, or they love the tax reefunds they're getting.
Speaker 5: What are they going to do? Build a moat around
Speaker 5: their castle with a drawbridge. We're now at war.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. I think there was a fair amount
Speaker 1: of not thinking through the second order of facts. I'm
Speaker 1: being like, you know, in Straits of Her Moves is
Speaker 1: a really great example of that. Like anyone who had
Speaker 1: read a book knew that that was what Iran had,
Speaker 1: that that was the thing they could do that would
Speaker 1: cut you know, twenty persist.
Speaker 5: Welcome to trading one oh one. You've got guys who
Speaker 5: are great investors who think I'm a great stockpicker. You know,
Speaker 5: I understand how markets work. And they believe that transitions
Speaker 5: into deeply understanding the complications of war. No, you don't. Okay,
Speaker 5: that's like you don't, and so exactly like the second
Speaker 5: order effect is where all these people are like, oh,
Speaker 5: but the problem is the second order effect impacts our military,
Speaker 5: it impacts our country, it impacts our budget. If you're
Speaker 5: just an investor, you can buy it all today, and
Speaker 5: you can sell it all tomorrow and then hop on
Speaker 5: your plane and head to Palm Beach. Just think about
Speaker 5: the fact that this war is costing US a billion
Speaker 5: dollars a day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's talk about the third order effect here. So
Speaker 1: in New York, you and I have a mayor who
Speaker 1: are very rich friends. I've never seen that more agitated.
Speaker 1: In fact, I have had friendships and over the mayor
Speaker 1: because they're so upset. I'm not entirely sure why, but
Speaker 1: they're very mad. The mayor has so far, you know,
Speaker 1: for a New York City mayor, you know, which is
Speaker 1: largely a job that's not ideological but management, He's done
Speaker 1: a pretty good job unless I'm missing something huge. So
Speaker 1: my question is there is there is clearly a backlash
Speaker 1: to a government cryptocracy, And my question is what happens
Speaker 1: next with that.
Speaker 5: So you know, it's funny, like we'll see. It's hard
Speaker 5: to say because we don't know in terms of what
Speaker 5: has mom Donnie done so far? Well, like, sure, it's
Speaker 5: great they've picked up this note. You feel good about that.
Speaker 5: I think that the other shoe hasn't dropped yet with
Speaker 5: what is he going to do about taxing New Yorkers?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 5: New Yorkers already pay a ton of money in taxes.
Speaker 5: I think that's the whole thing. However, this idea that
Speaker 5: people are leaving New York in droves is just not
Speaker 5: the case. Right, We've seen it. We see it in California.
Speaker 5: Like this idea in California that they're going to have
Speaker 5: the billionaire sax. I'm not even saying whether I like
Speaker 5: it or not, But what I am saying is, if
Speaker 5: you think you're going to get billionaires in California to
Speaker 5: suddenly fork over a giant amount of money, they're not.
Speaker 5: Here's the thing about being a billionaire. You're not worried
Speaker 5: about leaving your house empty in New York City. You're
Speaker 5: not worried about where your kids go to school. If
Speaker 5: you're a billionaire, you're going to pick up stakes and
Speaker 5: you're gonna go somewhere else and you're gonna bring your
Speaker 5: tutors and your kids. So this idea that like they're
Speaker 5: going to scoop up the billionaires there, I don't know
Speaker 5: how they're possibly going to do that. I'm not saying
Speaker 5: whether they should or they shouldn't. Butt if they interpreted that,
Speaker 5: it's just going to be hard to do.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I do.
Speaker 5: Like, guess what nobody is better at swan diving through
Speaker 5: a loophole than billionaires. They can pick up a move
Speaker 5: most people can't. However, this idea that people are leaving
Speaker 5: New York in droves is bot loaning here. Case in point,
Speaker 5: try to get into a restaurant in New York City,
Speaker 5: you cannot.
Speaker 1: Go to get into a private school in New York City.
Speaker 5: Try to get it okay, getting into private school, getting
Speaker 5: into kindergarten, and getting into private kindergarten in New York City.
Speaker 5: This past February was possibly the hardest year we have
Speaker 5: seen to date. We now have private clubs that cost
Speaker 5: tens of thousands, in some cases hundreds of thousands of
Speaker 5: dollars popping up all over in New York City. Right
Speaker 5: six years ago, you probably had, you know, soho house,
Speaker 5: a few like Union League Club doubles kind of places
Speaker 5: uptown now all over the place.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 5: I was just speaking to like a major, major restaurant
Speaker 5: tour who said, you cannot get into any restaurants at
Speaker 5: this point. And so this argument that the wealthy are fleeing,
Speaker 5: the wealthy are not fleeing.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 5: What we are seeing is school of young people saying,
Speaker 5: I don't understand. I've worked my tail off and and
Speaker 5: I simply cannot afford New York City. And those young
Speaker 5: people are how Dora Mamdani was elected right, right, And
Speaker 5: many of these young people aren't super radical, they're simply
Speaker 5: saying this doesn't add up. When you grew up here,
Speaker 5: I didn't, but you know, when I got out of school,
Speaker 5: it was expensive. Young people moved to New York City,
Speaker 5: like you moved to New York City and you didn't
Speaker 5: have to donate plasma on your way home from work. Right,
Speaker 5: there's always an expensive city.
Speaker 1: Theoretically eventually by something.
Speaker 5: Yes, but I mean even even as a renter, right,
Speaker 5: like you could come to New York it was possible.
Speaker 5: And now young people are saying it's simply not possible.
Speaker 5: And Listen, there's lots of reasons people feel the way
Speaker 5: they feel about Zora Mamdani. I'm just speaking economically. If
Speaker 5: we do end up seeing major taxation, I think it's
Speaker 5: going to have an impact. But between then this idea, right,
Speaker 5: I think I think part of the narrative of people saying, look,
Speaker 5: everybody's leaving in droves, I think it's being led by
Speaker 5: like real estate brokers who sell properties in Greenwich. Like
Speaker 5: I just I don't there's not evidence of it.
Speaker 1: I want to get back to this idea of what's
Speaker 1: happening right now with Trump because he knows what he's
Speaker 1: doing is not popular. And I think he knows it
Speaker 1: because any time he talks about the mid Trumps, he
Speaker 1: talks about the Save Act. And I think that that
Speaker 1: that his pivot to the Save Act is a real
Speaker 1: case and point of why right. And we even hear
Speaker 1: other Republicans say things like, you know, if we don't
Speaker 1: pass the Save Act, debt da da da dead.
Speaker 5: So just think about this. He's not trying to do
Speaker 5: anything in terms of serving the American people, whether it's
Speaker 5: on healthcare or the price of He literally is just.
Speaker 1: Throwing the hail Mary pass No, No, no, no.
Speaker 5: No, It's got to be the Save America Act because
Speaker 5: I need to I need to suppress voting.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 5: Do I think he's devastated, I don't. I think the
Speaker 5: Save Act is like his last ditch effort and he
Speaker 5: doesn't want to get smoked in the midterms. However, however,
Speaker 5: I don't think he's nearly as upset about it as
Speaker 5: he would have been in Trump one point zero. I
Speaker 5: had a chance to be the president. I had a
Speaker 5: chance to see the president ago. I had the tribe,
Speaker 5: and it's a privilege. I'm not complaining about it. I
Speaker 5: had the privilege of going to the White House for
Speaker 5: lunch on the day of the State of the Union,
Speaker 5: and I would argue, one of the things settled, not
Speaker 5: that I've Listen, you can feel however you feel about
Speaker 5: the president, if you want to cover him getting a
Speaker 5: front row seat and getting to spend an afternoon of them.
Speaker 5: I'm not saying, you know, we were sipping diet cokes,
Speaker 5: having the same I'm not saying we had two straws
Speaker 5: and one diet Coke. I'm not saying, you know, we've
Speaker 5: played back Ammon in the in the in the in
Speaker 5: the Lincoln bedroom, but if you want to cover the president,
Speaker 5: getting to sit across from him and listen, listening to
Speaker 5: him talk for three hours, it was to me there
Speaker 5: was a huge value in it.
Speaker 1: That's why I really still the leader of the free world.
Speaker 1: You don't have to like him, but he has that correct.
Speaker 5: But that's where I really started to see. I'm like,
Speaker 5: this guy is in a gilded cage. Yeah, we can't.
Speaker 5: We can't stress enough how much money he's making. Okay,
Speaker 5: his family is now worth billions and billions of dollars.
Speaker 5: Okay more than if you argue that his life here
Speaker 5: of political hero is Vladimir Putin, look no further than
Speaker 5: Trump's wealth, right, Vladimir Putin was once a KGB agent.
Speaker 5: He now despite the fact that that Russia's economy has
Speaker 5: been severely handicapped for years, He's one of the richest
Speaker 5: people in the world. Trump could end up in that situation, right,
Speaker 5: Don Junior and Eric. Look, Jared, Jared is in the
Speaker 5: Middle East as a chieved negotiator while he's raising money
Speaker 5: for his fund.
Speaker 1: Yes, I can't. You know, also, who doesn't invest in
Speaker 1: that fund? He is making the policy that you can
Speaker 1: this is it.
Speaker 5: But this is it who doesn't invest in that fund.
Speaker 5: He directly impacts everything at this point, and I just
Speaker 5: to economy and he can yes, yes, So I'll just
Speaker 5: go back to to is the president worried about the midterms? Sure,
Speaker 5: but I don't think to the extent people. So he's like, yes,
Speaker 5: let's get this Save America Act thing through so we
Speaker 5: can make sure not enough people vote. But beyond that, girl,
Speaker 5: he can just tune out because inside that wonderland at
Speaker 5: the White House, he's got you know, scores of servers
Speaker 5: there with his diet coke. He's got an entire administration
Speaker 5: saying when did you get great at being perfect? And
Speaker 5: then he heads down to mar A Lago where people
Speaker 5: are saying, can I please pay five million dollars for
Speaker 5: five minutes of your time? He likes that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It does seem like from yesterday's presser that where
Speaker 1: he said he had talked to another president.
Speaker 5: I was just about to say this girl, I was.
Speaker 1: That he might be losing a step. I don't want
Speaker 1: to get to.
Speaker 5: He's in the presser and he's like, let me tell you.
Speaker 5: I can't. I can't tell you which president it was.
Speaker 5: You know it might be bad for him. No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 5: But one president called me instead, I wish I did it.
Speaker 4: You're doing it.
Speaker 5: I wish I did it right. And within minutes Bill
Speaker 5: Clinton not me, right, Barack Obama not my team? George went,
Speaker 5: don't they get me to call him from our squad?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 5: What is like? Like who are in saying?
Speaker 6: Called you?
Speaker 1: Bo?
Speaker 5: Like like like I'm sorry, what what are are you
Speaker 5: talking about? But guess what the president says that that
Speaker 5: sound bite gets clipped, and there are without a doubt
Speaker 5: news organizations that are now going to push to their audience.
Speaker 5: A former president called him and said it was a
Speaker 5: good idea, okay, and those same news organizations are not
Speaker 5: going to follow that up with But wait a minute.
Speaker 5: We all reached out to the living president's teams and
Speaker 5: nobody and they all said, not it. That part is
Speaker 5: not going to get to that audience. And that is
Speaker 5: a gift.
Speaker 1: To the Louise Rule.
Speaker 5: George Bush Republicans out there who were saying, you know,
Speaker 5: he heard from another president. I'm sure it wasn't Barack Obama.
Speaker 5: I'm sure it wasn't Bill Clinton. It was probably George Bush.
Speaker 5: You know, he's down there and he's down there in Texas.
Speaker 5: He's his wonderful wife. She's a reader. He turned Trump
Speaker 5: behind closed doors. Great job, right.
Speaker 1: God, you really do have a Republican mother. And it's
Speaker 1: also right. I mean, it's what is both demented and
Speaker 1: also very small about Trump.
Speaker 5: There is because there knows that it.
Speaker 1: Will get repeated by the CBS's of the world in
Speaker 1: a way that's not fact checked, and it will be
Speaker 1: a little nod and a wink to those to that
Speaker 1: group that is a sort of swingish, not really swingish.
Speaker 7: Or not, they're not swingish, but it's a group of
Speaker 7: people who are looking for something to hold on to,
Speaker 7: to say, look, this makes sense, right. So so like
Speaker 7: my mom, who can talk about gas prices and food
Speaker 7: prices until her head falls off like this obviously makes
Speaker 7: it difficult because.
Speaker 5: Gas prices are up, food prices are signa rize. What
Speaker 5: is she going to I haven't spoken to her in
Speaker 5: last twenty of our hours, but what is she going
Speaker 5: to hang on to? She's gonna say, I'm pretty sure
Speaker 5: George Bush, because it was kind of Liza a week
Speaker 5: and a half ago who said that she likes this idea.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 5: I don't know how she feels today, but Louise Rule.
Speaker 5: Will will will pull on those two strings, and that's
Speaker 5: get to be the lily pad that she floats on
Speaker 5: to say, like, see, don't you go telling me like
Speaker 5: he's out there doing something crazy nobody wants. George Bush
Speaker 5: told him it was a good idea, and so the
Speaker 5: president does this. But I will say this, like when
Speaker 5: you said the CBS is of the world. Yes, but
Speaker 5: at the same time, you've got Petegs who's mad at
Speaker 5: the press. You've got Brendan carr is mad at the press,
Speaker 5: the President who certainly is hot.
Speaker 1: Damn.
Speaker 5: Journalists are killing it right now. This weekend alone, just
Speaker 5: last week, I mean, saw CBS do some great reporting,
Speaker 5: but great retournal Washington Post, New York Times, I mean
Speaker 5: the wallh Ret gneral reporters. I'm not sure when they
Speaker 5: ate showered or bust their teeth. This weekend. The most
Speaker 5: extraordinary thing to me, PETEGSF kicks everybody out of the
Speaker 5: Pentagon Press Corps unless you unless you signed a document
Speaker 5: that says we're only going to report on your press release,
Speaker 5: We're only going to push your advertising. Right and the
Speaker 5: last week exist and last, I don't like how my
Speaker 5: double chin is looking which I feel that I don't
Speaker 5: like how my double chin is looking. Let's get these
Speaker 5: photographers out of here. While that is happening, you've got
Speaker 5: calls from the inside, from the outside, from upside down,
Speaker 5: from in the basement, calling reporters saying this is no bueno.
Speaker 1: No no, no, no no.
Speaker 5: The President knew the risks in Iran and did it
Speaker 5: anyway right. Think about the jumbled communication last week about
Speaker 5: the potential that we did unintentionally strike that girls' school
Speaker 5: in Iran. Just think about how great the reporting is.
Speaker 5: And every time I read another one of these well sourced,
Speaker 5: super important stories, I feel grateful for all those journalists
Speaker 5: doing it out there. Steph Rall, thank you, Thank you. Sister.
Speaker 1: Alex Berness is a staff writer at Foltz Magazine. Welcome
Speaker 1: Alex to Fast Politics.
Speaker 4: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: It's a great state of Wisconsin. Explain what the how
Speaker 1: is going on?
Speaker 6: Well, what I'm about to say might feel familiar to listeners,
Speaker 6: because it feels like we've had so many world's most
Speaker 6: important elections in Wisconsin for the state Supreme Court. At least,
Speaker 6: people will almost definitely remember in twenty twenty three when
Speaker 6: liberals were trying to flip the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and
Speaker 6: it was fifty million dollars plus that was spent on
Speaker 6: that race, and Janet Protoso, it's won that race and
Speaker 6: she did flip it. And then last year we had
Speaker 6: another race where Liberals were trying to defend one of
Speaker 6: their seats. They needed to win this race in order
Speaker 6: to maintain that four to three edge, and they did.
Speaker 6: So here we are in twenty twenty six. The Wisconsin
Speaker 6: State Supreme Court is a four to three advantage for liberals.
Speaker 6: This has been a particularly big deal in the space
Speaker 6: that I write most about, which is democracy and voting
Speaker 6: rights and election administration. And one of the first moves
Speaker 6: that this liberal majority did was to toss out some
Speaker 6: pretty aggressive Republican state house jerrymanders that helped that party
Speaker 6: stay in power for a long time there. And so
Speaker 6: in April and April seventh, there's going to be yet
Speaker 6: another election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. This time, the
Speaker 6: seat that's coming open is one that is held currently
Speaker 6: by a conservative justice, staying Rebecca Bradley. She's resigning, right, Yeah,
Speaker 6: she's decided not to seek re election. Okay, So where
Speaker 6: does this leave conservatives they need to win that seat
Speaker 6: just to stay in the four to three majority. Democrats,
Speaker 6: on the other hand, have a chance here to go
Speaker 6: on offense. If they win, they have a five to
Speaker 6: two majority, which really seemed I mean, as of pretty
Speaker 6: recently wild.
Speaker 4: Right, It's totally wild.
Speaker 6: I mean, we looked at it, and at least since
Speaker 6: the nineteen seventies we can say there hasn't been a
Speaker 6: liberal majority on this court of at least five seats,
Speaker 6: so modern history, this would be unprecedented, and it would
Speaker 6: make this court. It would cement this court as one
Speaker 6: with a liberal majority through at least twenty thirty, which
Speaker 6: is an especially big deal if you consider, well, among
Speaker 6: other things that are gonna happen between now and then,
Speaker 6: we have a twenty twenty eight presidential cycle. So here's
Speaker 6: a chance, long story short, for liberals to expand their
Speaker 6: majority on this court and in so doing lock down
Speaker 6: the majority through the next presidential cycle and even beyond.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about this because it's important for any
Speaker 1: number of reasons. If you think about Wisconsin, like this
Speaker 1: is the home of Ron and on Ron Johnson, like
Speaker 1: the most insane Zealodus senator. So it is really a
Speaker 1: land of contradictions. There was another Supreme Court seed this
Speaker 1: last election, the one we were just talking about, the
Speaker 1: very expensive one. What we saw, which I think is
Speaker 1: really interesting and I'd love for you to talk for
Speaker 1: a minute about it, was that a guy called the
Speaker 1: Elon Musk pretty much bored gazillions of dollars into that race.
Speaker 1: Democrats were able to run against Mosque. Can you just
Speaker 1: talk about that dynamic, as I think that's interesting.
Speaker 4: Well, they did so.
Speaker 6: I mentioned that the twenty twenty three race ended up
Speaker 6: with more than fifty million dollars spent, which was easily
Speaker 6: a record at the time. The twenty twenty five race,
Speaker 6: the one that Musk decided to get involved in, almost
Speaker 6: doubled that amount. We're talking about one hundred million dollar
Speaker 6: plus elections. Completely wild, completely unprecedented.
Speaker 1: You could just give people money with that much money,
Speaker 1: I mean, there aren't even that many people in Wisconsin,
Speaker 1: like just give them a path.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you could do a lot of things with one
Speaker 4: hundred million dollars.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And by the way, it didn't even particularly work.
Speaker 6: If anything, it probably worked in Liberal's favor because they
Speaker 6: were able to make him the face of this race.
Speaker 6: I think you can read between the lines in how
Speaker 6: the candidates are running this year. The concern candidate Maria
Speaker 6: lazar who's a Court of Appeals judge. Her opponent, by
Speaker 6: the way, the liberal Chris Taylor, is also a judge
Speaker 6: on the Wisconsin Court of Appeals. Lazarre, though she has
Speaker 6: quite a conservative track record, including support from key figures
Speaker 6: in Trump world, some of whom were important players in
Speaker 6: efforts to overturn twenty twenty election results.
Speaker 4: Despite that record, it's.
Speaker 6: Really interesting if you go on her website, she doesn't
Speaker 6: list any endorsements. And I mean when she ran for
Speaker 6: the Court of Appeals set in twenty twenty two, she
Speaker 6: was happy to list endorsements, including, like I said, for
Speaker 6: people who had tried to overturn the twenty twenty election.
Speaker 6: So I think conservatives seem to have gotten the message.
Speaker 6: I infer that anyway, that okay, if we tie ourselves
Speaker 6: too much to MAGA, whether it's Musk or Trump or
Speaker 6: just the movement itself, we're going to get creamed again
Speaker 6: in this election. I mean, particularly in this year. If
Speaker 6: the blue wave that people expect comes to pass. So
Speaker 6: there's no Musk this year. There also isn't anywhere close
Speaker 6: whether from him or anybody else to the amount of
Speaker 6: spending we've seen in twenty three and twenty five. And
Speaker 6: that is no doubt a result of the fact that
Speaker 6: the majority is not directly on the line. But that
Speaker 6: doesn't mean that this is one to be slept on
Speaker 6: just because the court doesn't have a chance of completely
Speaker 6: flipping next month. This is a court that is guaranteed
Speaker 6: to hear really important cases in the years to come
Speaker 6: on any of a number of potential topics, including redistricting, abortion,
Speaker 6: labor rights, all voting rights is a huge one.
Speaker 4: You know, this one really matters.
Speaker 6: And just because there isn't a ton of money, and
Speaker 6: just because Elon Musk isn't flying into hold rallies, I
Speaker 6: mean we still have to look at it the same way.
Speaker 1: Can we talk about that cheese hat. Do you remember
Speaker 1: Elon Musk with the cheese hat?
Speaker 4: I do remember that?
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, my man, Elon Musk so likable, so human,
Speaker 8: And I want you to talk about what else you're
Speaker 8: watching in this hyperlocal map.
Speaker 4: So this stuff really is local.
Speaker 6: And the stuff that is on the line in this
Speaker 6: election in Wisconsin and on this court can seem like
Speaker 6: technical sort of nerdy stuff that has huge impacts and
Speaker 6: that would give people well outside of Wisconsin a reason
Speaker 6: to care. And I'll give you an example. You'd shouted
Speaker 6: out Ron Johnson moments ago. Let's go back to twenty
Speaker 6: twenty five, to that Lon Musk election. The conservative in
Speaker 6: that race, the guy who lost was Brad Schimmel. Brad
Speaker 6: Shimmel had defended voter ID laws in Wisconsin, exceptionally harsh
Speaker 6: voter ID laws in Wisconsin an example of a local
Speaker 6: policy that the average listener here probably hasn't thought of
Speaker 6: or doesn't even know exists. And he had touted proudly
Speaker 6: not in this particular campaign he was running because judges
Speaker 6: tend to tighten up a bit when they're on the ballot,
Speaker 6: But before he was a candidate for the state's court,
Speaker 6: had defended voter ide and touted it as a successful
Speaker 6: tool for Republicans to hold onto power. And if you
Speaker 6: go back and look at some really interesting research that
Speaker 6: was done out of the University of Wisconsin, it found
Speaker 6: that voter ID laws there had successfully blocked thousands, like
Speaker 6: twenty five thousand plus voters in Milwaukee and Madison, disproportionately
Speaker 6: super liberal areas and disproportionately black and low income voters
Speaker 6: from voting. That alone was enough to swing the twenty
Speaker 6: sixteen election in Trump's favor. So that's the kind of
Speaker 6: thing that this court and this state House are talking about.
Speaker 6: These are things that are in active conversation and that
Speaker 6: really matter, yes, locally, but then end up reverberating in
Speaker 6: these humongous ways.
Speaker 1: I would love if we could talk just for a
Speaker 1: minute or two about what else you're seeing in the
Speaker 1: other sort of state in the run up to the midterms.
Speaker 4: In Wisconsin or beyond beyond.
Speaker 6: The thing it bolts is that we're interested in the
Speaker 6: down ballot, and by that I mean virtually anything that
Speaker 6: isn't federal, though we do keep an eye on that stuff.
Speaker 4: I'll name one thing.
Speaker 6: You know, We're extremely interested in sheriffs, who have serious
Speaker 6: power to be force multipliers or obstacles if they so
Speaker 6: choose to Trump and the mass deportation plan. And we
Speaker 6: have seen across the country a surge of sheriff's offices
Speaker 6: partnering with ICE to deputize local officers to act as
Speaker 6: federal immigration enforcement agents. Just to give you a sense
Speaker 6: of what I mean when I say that there's been
Speaker 6: a surge when Trump came into office, there were one
Speaker 6: hundred something about one hundred and thirty local offices who
Speaker 6: were partnered with ICE to do ICE as bidding on
Speaker 6: the ground. Now there's more than one thousand, three hundred.
Speaker 6: The majority of these are in sheriff's offices, and the
Speaker 6: majority of the roughly three thousand sheriffs in this country
Speaker 6: are elected. So I would encourage anybody who's interested in
Speaker 6: ICE and in their local politics to check if you
Speaker 6: have a sheriff on the ballot. There's a bunch that
Speaker 6: we keep particularly close eyes on. I'm located in DC,
Speaker 6: and for example, we have a guy, a Republican sheriff
Speaker 6: in Frederick, Maryland, which is a blue leaning area that
Speaker 6: has this Republican sheriff who's partnered with ICE. There's a
Speaker 6: handful of people in that position too, sheriffs and Harris Counties,
Speaker 6: counties that Harris carried, that is, who are Republicans partnered
Speaker 6: with ICE. We're going to be interested in whether those
Speaker 6: offices flip this year. But even beyond that, I expect
Speaker 6: immigration to be a really important feature of local sheriff phrases.
Speaker 6: And we could talk about a whole bunch of other
Speaker 6: offices I'm just highlighting that one, but that's one that
Speaker 6: I'm guessing is under the radar for a lot of readers.
Speaker 6: And i'd encourage you to check out Boltz's guides to
Speaker 6: when your state and locality elects sheriffs and you know,
Speaker 6: go from there, because there's a lot to watch.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's a really easy you know, that's a
Speaker 1: race that people don't think about much. It's not super expensive.
Speaker 1: I mean, it depends on where it is, but it's
Speaker 1: not like as much as a congressional embrace, and sometimes
Speaker 1: it just falls under the radar just because of people's distraction.
Speaker 6: Right, Yeah, absolutely, And I think also because the mechanics
Speaker 6: of the immigration enforcement system and of what ICE does
Speaker 6: can be hard to see and hard to understand. A
Speaker 6: lot of this collaboration takes place literally behind closed doors,
Speaker 6: behind locked doors, inside of jails, and you know, we
Speaker 6: all see and can determine for ourselves how we feel
Speaker 6: about you know, viral clips of ICE descending on Minneapolis
Speaker 6: or even just random neighborhoods around town, you know, a
Speaker 6: mile from where I live. We've had that happen here
Speaker 6: in DC, pulling people from workplaces or intercepting them at
Speaker 6: courthouses or at schools and like that's well documented and
Speaker 6: that is important to watch dog. However, if you're ICE,
Speaker 6: you have just this direct pipeline in local jails, which
Speaker 6: in most cases are overseen by sheriffs, where you can
Speaker 6: just scoop people up as they're being intercepted. So when
Speaker 6: and where sheriffs are working with ICE in this way
Speaker 6: to say, hey, just so you know, on you know,
Speaker 6: X date, this guy's going to get released, we can
Speaker 6: hold him for an extra couple of days for you.
Speaker 4: Do you want to come get him? Like that's easy
Speaker 4: money for ICE.
Speaker 6: And on the other hand, when sheriffs decline to collaborate
Speaker 6: in that way, it doesn't strip ICE, of course of
Speaker 6: all of its potency, but that seriously inhibits how much
Speaker 6: it can get done at the local level. And for
Speaker 6: that reason, repeating myself here a bit, but for that reason,
Speaker 6: those are offices that really really matter and that are
Speaker 6: important to watch. Obviously, you know, in twenty twenty six,
Speaker 6: but you know, kind of always.
Speaker 1: So one of the things that like Blue States are
Speaker 1: doing are banning local contracts with ICE. Can you talk
Speaker 1: to us about that?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, this is a fast moving thing where
Speaker 6: there are sixteen Democratic trifecta states, that is, states with
Speaker 6: Democrats in charge of both chambers at the state House
Speaker 6: and the governor's office, and we're up to a majority
Speaker 6: of them ten. I believe that formally ban what's called
Speaker 6: two eighty seven G agreements with ICE. These are two
Speaker 6: eighty seven G is the program through which ICE deputizes
Speaker 6: local officials to act on its behalf, which can mean
Speaker 6: questioning people based on immigration status during normal interactions where
Speaker 6: they wouldn't otherwise be empowered to do so. It can
Speaker 6: mean collaboration like I was just talking about it at
Speaker 6: jails where they'll detain people for a couple extra days
Speaker 6: so ICE can come and scoop them. As much as
Speaker 6: we're seeing red states on so many fronts, not just immigration,
Speaker 6: I mean, gosh, writing about voting all the time. This
Speaker 6: is something I see all over the place in Republican
Speaker 6: led states. But you know now basically signing up to
Speaker 6: do Trump spidding and to sign off on the mega agenda.
Speaker 6: As we see that, we are seeing examples of resistance
Speaker 6: in blue states, and the two eighty seven G bands
Speaker 6: are a part of that. So I mentioned a second
Speaker 6: ago there's ten out of the sixteen Democratic trifecta. States
Speaker 6: now banned these two eighty seventy agreements. I mean that's
Speaker 6: up from seven just a few weeks ago. Maine, Maryland,
Speaker 6: New Mexico have all just recently passed these bands. Right
Speaker 6: before you and I got on here, I was talking
Speaker 6: to somebody in Virginia where they're considering limiting two eighty
Speaker 6: seven g agreements.
Speaker 4: And that's important.
Speaker 6: I mean there's literally dozens of Virginia counties that are
Speaker 6: signed up in this way to assist ICE, and thus
Speaker 6: depending on what Virginia might pass here in the last
Speaker 6: few days of its session, we could see dozens of
Speaker 6: local ways in which ICE ends.
Speaker 4: Up being, you know, limited.
Speaker 6: So we do have a story about this movement, by
Speaker 6: the way, a Bolts that went up pretty recently that
Speaker 6: I wrote if people are interested in learning more. But yeah,
Speaker 6: there's been a lot of action in blue states lately
Speaker 6: on the two eighty seven g front, and like I said,
Speaker 6: we might be saying some more soon.
Speaker 1: Can you just do a minute for me on what's
Speaker 1: happened with Massachusetts and ICE.
Speaker 6: The Massachusetts situation is a particularly interesting one. I think
Speaker 6: people who don't live in Massachusetts or don't follow that
Speaker 6: state's politics closely, would know the very top line that
Speaker 6: everybody knows about Massachusetts politics, which is this is just
Speaker 6: a you know, soundly blue state. The idea of this
Speaker 6: state putting in a presidential election for Trump is like
Speaker 6: virtually unthinkable. But trump Ism lives in that state in
Speaker 6: at least one significant way that I looked into recently,
Speaker 6: which is that the Massachusetts Department of Correction still partners
Speaker 6: with ICE through two eighty seven G. This means that
Speaker 6: when non citizens are about to be released from prison,
Speaker 6: Massachusetts is a matter of policy, funnels them directly into
Speaker 6: ICE's hands. These are people who have done their time,
Speaker 6: who in many cases, you know, even though they are
Speaker 6: technically immigrants and they are not citizens, have lived in
Speaker 6: the US virtually their whole lives, at least since since
Speaker 6: they were kids. You know, we talk about departments of
Speaker 6: correction and you know, second chances and rehabilitation. I've talked
Speaker 6: to some of these men in Massachusetts who were victims
Speaker 6: of this two eighty seven G program, who had completely
Speaker 6: turned their lives around, and who had served time for
Speaker 6: mistakes they'd made when they were much much younger.
Speaker 4: But nevertheless, Massachusetts has this policy through two eighty seven
Speaker 4: g of funneling people into ICE's hands when they leave
Speaker 4: prison and what happens after that can be utterly tortuous.
Speaker 6: And some of these guys I've talked to, it's not
Speaker 6: just like you know, ICE comes and gets to it,
Speaker 6: like your life is radically changed. They're funneled around to
Speaker 6: various states that they've never been to. They'll spend I
Speaker 6: talked to a guy who is in Massachusett prison for
Speaker 6: fifty plus years. On his release date, he gets intercepted
Speaker 6: by ICE because that's what the DOC does, hands people over,
Speaker 6: and he gets brought to Maine. Then they take him
Speaker 6: out west for seven months. Then he gets put in
Speaker 6: a van and dumped in the middle of Mexico. He
Speaker 6: knows nobody. He's not even Mexican, he's Cuban. So this
Speaker 6: is what Massachusetts is facilitating. And earlier I'd talked about
Speaker 6: how many states, how many Democratic trifecta states like Massachusetts
Speaker 6: have taken steps, including recently to ban two eighty seven
Speaker 6: geer agreements, to say this type of collaboration that the Massachusetts'
Speaker 6: prisons are doing, we don't allow that here.
Speaker 4: It is notable.
Speaker 6: Thus that Massachusetts still has this on the books.
Speaker 4: It is unique.
Speaker 6: In fact, it is the only state that Harris carried
Speaker 6: or there's a Democratic governor that has a state level
Speaker 6: two eighty seven g agreement. And the Massachusetts prison system
Speaker 6: fought me for months trying not to release data because
Speaker 6: I was asking what is the impact of this program?
Speaker 6: And I ended up having to go through some rounds
Speaker 6: of appeals, and I won that fight and got some
Speaker 6: data just recently, actually, a few days ago, that showed
Speaker 6: that since two thousand and nine, across Democratic and Republican administrations,
Speaker 6: Massachusetts is sent more than two thousand people directly into
Speaker 6: ICE's hands from its state prisons.
Speaker 4: So this BGRAHAM has not been a small deal.
Speaker 6: It's not some minor detail that it remains on the books,
Speaker 6: but it does. And Mori he Lee and legislative leaders
Speaker 6: there have been pretty defensive of it.
Speaker 4: So I'm guessing it's not going anywhere for a bit.
Speaker 1: Alex, Alex, thank you. I hope you'll come back.
Speaker 4: I appreciate you having me on. I enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: There no moment, Jesse Cannon.
Speaker 2: So Molly, let's just remember postmaster Joy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what happened to Joy?
Speaker 2: I feel the joy Lists every time I think of him.
Speaker 1: Funny, funny guy.
Speaker 2: That's right, that's right, That's what I'm here for. So
Speaker 2: but now we have a Postmaster General, David Steiner, and
Speaker 2: he has testified that this is the end of the
Speaker 2: Postal Service as we know it.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Look, they have to support themselves. This is one part
Speaker 1: of the government that has to support itself. They are
Speaker 1: borrowing and they're hitting the limit. And by the way,
Speaker 1: we shall see this in the rest of the federal
Speaker 1: government soon. Yes, which delivers to more than one hundred
Speaker 1: and seventy million US addresses six days a week, has
Speaker 1: a borrowing cap of fifteen million dollars and has already
Speaker 1: hit that limit. If only they could just get some
Speaker 1: money from Homeland Security. From Greg Bovino, who is retiring
Speaker 1: at fifty five years old, do you.
Speaker 2: Think he's pursuing his career in his passion fashion?
Speaker 1: I think Greg Vino is going to do a line
Speaker 1: of Nazi clothing.
Speaker 2: Right the world?
Speaker 1: What would error jacket?
Speaker 2: What would make you think he likes that stuff?
Speaker 1: Boy, I don't know Greg Blevino. By the way, the
Speaker 1: fact that he's only fifty five just blew my mind.
Speaker 2: What also blew my mind is his middle day wasn't lockjaw?
Speaker 1: What is his middle name?
Speaker 2: I forgot, but it's Lockjaw.
Speaker 1: Anyway. The point is the way the post Office is
Speaker 1: funded is totally for COCTA, and they should get a
Speaker 1: line of credit from the federal government. And then we
Speaker 1: should take all of that money that was allocated to
Speaker 1: ice and use it for pay for things that we
Speaker 1: should be paying for, like the mail.
Speaker 2: I mean, they just also need to undo the retirement
Speaker 2: funding for the Post Office and this would all be solved.
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