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 Dems have won the empty congressional
Speaker 1: seat in New Mexico, giving them the final signature for
Speaker 1: the discharge petition for the Epstein files. We have such
Speaker 1: a great show for you today, talking fed's own Harry
Speaker 1: Litman stops by to explain to us why when you
Speaker 1: lose the public's trust you can never get it back.
Speaker 1: Then we'll talk to Congresswoman Haley Stevens about her run
Speaker 1: for the open Senate seat in Michigan and her plans
Speaker 1: to impeach RFK Junior. Plus, we have a bonus conversation
Speaker 1: with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer about his plan for
Speaker 1: this upcoming government shutdown showdown. But first the news, Molly,
Speaker 1: we're all Argentina.
Speaker 2: Now we are bailing them out.
Speaker 3: And turns out psychotic libertarian text breaks as for the rich,
Speaker 3: don't save an economy, Yeah, whether there's just a bad
Speaker 3: haircut running around with a chainsaw.
Speaker 1: So why we are going to bail out Argentina with
Speaker 1: a twenty billion dollars swap line to help contain financial
Speaker 1: upheaval and support presidently. I don't know why. I don't
Speaker 1: understand why. I don't think we should. I'm against bailouts.
Speaker 1: If we're going to spend money, why don't we spend
Speaker 1: it on cancer research and food stamps and rural hospitals.
Speaker 1: This is just completely stupid. It makes no sense. We're
Speaker 1: going to buy Argentinian dollar bonds FYI. Meanwhile, the dollar
Speaker 1: has had its worst year in decades and decades, such
Speaker 1: as stupid, stupid, shortsighted. I don't even know what we're
Speaker 1: doing here, but needless to say, it's stupid, so the
Speaker 1: Trump administration wants to do it.
Speaker 3: I think it's really kind of poetic that libertarians, who
Speaker 3: hate croni capitalism more than anything, they were championing this guy.
Speaker 3: His stuff fails, and now he's getting saved by checksnotes
Speaker 3: cardi capitalism.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know. I mean, this is all so bad,
Speaker 1: by the way. It's like, at every point this administration
Speaker 1: always does the stupidest possible thing, and whether it's cutting
Speaker 1: funding for research and science and healthcare and weather. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, we read Project twenty twenty five, so we
Speaker 1: knew this was coming. And yet still and I remember
Speaker 1: thinking when we read it, we did that documentary on it.
Speaker 1: I remember thinking like, what do I get from the
Speaker 1: federal government? Like I remember thinking like what will go
Speaker 1: away when Trump is in office? Like I remember thinking, well,
Speaker 1: my kids, my kids don't go to public schools. That's
Speaker 1: Department of Education. So like just going through the sort
Speaker 1: of mass on what I personally get from the federal
Speaker 1: government besides like streets, and what I think is like,
Speaker 1: there's so much stuff that we get from the federal
Speaker 1: government that you don't know you're missing until you're gone,
Speaker 1: like safety, air quality, water quality, accurate weather. You know,
Speaker 1: there are all these billionaires who are really excited for
Speaker 1: a kind of federal government that doesn't really do anything
Speaker 1: for anyone because they think that somehow, like they'll pay
Speaker 1: less taxes and they'll get by. But you can't privatize
Speaker 1: air quality testing, you know. I mean, I guess you could,
Speaker 1: but we're not at that moment. It's so shortsighted of
Speaker 1: these people to think that somehow they can swap out
Speaker 1: the federal government for some kind of like tax bone.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just such an incredibly dystopian and depressing
Speaker 1: view of the federal government and Ultimately, we're going to
Speaker 1: see why we have all these things in place sooner
Speaker 1: rather than later. I am afraid.
Speaker 3: Well, Wiley, that's so nice of you to queue me up,
Speaker 3: because our next news story is about how the Trump
Speaker 3: administration has had to rehire hundreds of federal employees that
Speaker 3: were laid off by dose.
Speaker 1: Yeah. My favorite part about this is like this is costing.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not my favorite part, but it is.
Speaker 1: The great irony is it's costing them so much money. Right,
Speaker 1: they're firing people, they're re hiring them, they're paying for
Speaker 1: them to have like these paid leave. They just don't
Speaker 1: understand what the federal government does. So what they do
Speaker 1: is they keep like firing people and then learning that
Speaker 1: these are things they can't somehow farm out. It's incredible.
Speaker 3: Yeah, some of the details in here of like the
Speaker 3: least cancelations and all these things, it's just like it's
Speaker 3: so much stupid administrative work and just so ridiculously dumb.
Speaker 1: It's just ridiculous, and it's also you know, it's expensive.
Speaker 1: There are ways to make the government work better. This
Speaker 1: was never about that. This was always about just trying
Speaker 1: to like disassemble the federal government and now it turns
Speaker 1: out that a lot of these things you actually need right,
Speaker 1: and FYI was fraud and abuse was actually just like
Speaker 1: stuff we don't like, helping poor kids.
Speaker 3: Yeah, another pattern we're really seeing these days is people
Speaker 3: jumping to conclusions fast. Yesterday there was an incident where
Speaker 3: there was both a broken telet prompter and a broken
Speaker 3: escalator at the UN for mister Trump and Jesse Waters
Speaker 3: of Fox News joke that they should bomb and gas
Speaker 3: the UN. You know, it is one of those things
Speaker 3: where I hesitate to label to joke where he kind
Speaker 3: of just says a really dumb thing and then they
Speaker 3: kind of just smirk about it because they really don't
Speaker 3: care enough to get anything right. But it seems between
Speaker 3: this and this the latest shootings, that we never know
Speaker 3: anything early and no one's learning the lessons of the past.
Speaker 3: They're just spinning out takes as fast as they can
Speaker 3: and for their own advantage.
Speaker 1: You know. One of the things we see with Trump
Speaker 1: is like he had all these remember when he was
Speaker 1: trying to get a Nomo Peace Prize. I mean, he's
Speaker 1: still trying to get a Nomo Peace Prize, but he
Speaker 1: was trying harder and he had all these people come
Speaker 1: to the White House, and then he ended up alienating
Speaker 1: India because he was like, they were so mad when
Speaker 1: he said you made peace between India and Pakistan, which
Speaker 1: wasn't true, but he made them so mad. I feel
Speaker 1: like this is what it is like. You can either
Speaker 1: be a poster and there's honor in being a poster.
Speaker 1: Well maybe not honor, but you know, or you could
Speaker 1: run the federal government. But you actually cannot both post
Speaker 1: real time events and run the federal government. I mean
Speaker 1: it's like Trump when he you know, when he saved
Speaker 1: the reveal of who killed Charlie Kirk for Fox and Friends.
Speaker 1: Remember that they had known before. I mean it was
Speaker 1: a whole week ago, right, they had known before, but
Speaker 1: he wanted to wait until it was all teed up.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. Like, you either run the federal government or
Speaker 1: you break news. You cannot do both.
Speaker 3: Speaking of his posting, he absolutely lost it over Jimmy
Speaker 3: Kimmel's return last night.
Speaker 1: This is not super surprising, though it is interesting and
Speaker 1: a lot of people noted this online. Basically, he has
Speaker 1: no deniability. Now, the White House was told by ABC
Speaker 1: that his show was canceled, so this makes it sound
Speaker 1: as if the White House is colluding with ABC to
Speaker 1: cancel Jimmy Kimmel's show, which means that the White House
Speaker 1: can no longer deny that they had the inside track
Speaker 1: on this, which means that if Jimmy Kimmel wants to sue,
Speaker 1: I mean, like, at every point, Donald Trump's posting kind
Speaker 1: of undermines any of the other stuff he's doing here.
Speaker 1: So if they want a deniability, if they wanted to
Speaker 1: get kim off the air, if they wanted this not
Speaker 1: to blow up in his face, you know, you wouldn't
Speaker 1: have had Brendan Carr on Benny Johnson's podcast being like,
Speaker 1: we can do this the easy way, or we can
Speaker 1: do this the hard way. That's what this is, like
Speaker 1: Donald Trump's I can't believe ABC, fake news gave kim
Speaker 1: all his job back. The White House was told by
Speaker 1: ABC that his show was canceled. Something happened between now
Speaker 1: and then, because so there you go. But it is
Speaker 1: funny though he just is so mad about talent and
Speaker 1: audience ratings.
Speaker 3: Friend of the Show Swin's assessment of Caddy stage Mom
Speaker 3: Rings in my ears every single day is.
Speaker 1: Trill is incredible. Harry Lipman is a former US attorney
Speaker 1: and the host of the podcast Talking Fads.
Speaker 4: Hello, Hello Loo, everyone, Welcome to this month's Molly Harry
Speaker 4: mash Up Politics and Law, in which I get to
Speaker 4: ask Mally dong Fasts political questions she gets to parry
Speaker 4: with some legal ones. Maully dong Fast. I gotta say
Speaker 4: A needs no introduction. B is often short on time,
Speaker 4: so I think we should just jump right into it.
Speaker 4: I got a Kimmel question for you, if I could
Speaker 4: start there, Mollie. So, Trump reacts to the suspension with triumph,
Speaker 4: though we know in court he would say, oh, it's
Speaker 4: not us, but he certainly seems to take credit for it.
Speaker 4: But now that Kimmel has been reinstated, Trump is chagrined,
Speaker 4: but it's not clear he has any cards to play. Still,
Speaker 4: does it play as a loss for him with the base?
Speaker 4: And does he need now somehow to try to scramble
Speaker 4: to do directly get kim off the air what he
Speaker 4: tried to support or do obliquely before.
Speaker 1: So here's what I would say about the kim Ol situation.
Speaker 1: I don't see a clear way out of this for Trump.
Speaker 1: Either he forces Kim off the air, which will be
Speaker 1: the world's biggest lawsuit, huge pain for him, signs of
Speaker 1: authoritarianism and.
Speaker 4: A flat out First Amendment violation, no two ways about it.
Speaker 1: But we'll go back besides that, and they'll come careening
Speaker 1: into the Supreme Court where the Supreme Court will have
Speaker 1: to stand up to Trump, which they don't want to do,
Speaker 1: which is inevitably coming. But there's no way that the
Speaker 1: MAGA crew on that court is going to be like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you can just take stuff you don't like off the air.
Speaker 1: I mean even they will be like no. So it's
Speaker 1: hard for me to see where the off ramp is
Speaker 1: for this, But I think probably Trump just goes on
Speaker 1: and ignores it, and you know, does some mean tweets.
Speaker 1: I think it's hard for me to see him keeping going.
Speaker 1: I mean, the good news for him is that when
Speaker 1: things happen that he can't deal with, he just distracts
Speaker 1: from them. That's my take.
Speaker 4: Well declares victory and moves on.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, right, I want you to talk to us
Speaker 1: about you used to be in such demand, but now
Speaker 1: that we have an administration that no longer cares about
Speaker 1: the law, it doesn't matter what the law is, because
Speaker 1: whatever right.
Speaker 4: I'm a man without a country. That's right.
Speaker 1: I mean, don't you feel like there's so many moments
Speaker 1: where you're like, well, obviously this is a legal bot discuss.
Speaker 4: You know, I don't. I wish I felt that way
Speaker 4: a little bit more. Every week there are legal outrages.
Speaker 4: And I've said this to you before, Mollie. My main
Speaker 4: job I think of as trying to educate, explain the
Speaker 4: dangers and the like. And you know, this week alone,
Speaker 4: Kimmel and the prospect of censorship home and the prospect
Speaker 4: of two tier or three tier justice, the Supreme Court
Speaker 4: just coming in and without making it clear, just nevertheless
Speaker 4: overruling a ninety year precedent. I actually find legally, You're right,
Speaker 4: they don't care. You know, I've totally kind of changed
Speaker 4: the stuff. But I'm really all about the new kind
Speaker 4: of independent channel of substack and YouTube, and I do
Speaker 4: just a little bit of TV. But I think the
Speaker 4: lost stuff is flying at us fast and furious. It
Speaker 4: will continue to fly at US fast and furious because
Speaker 4: what Trump is doing is basically corrupting different areas of
Speaker 4: law everywhere. Humphrey's executor, that's a pretty darn legal arcane thought.
Speaker 4: From nineteen thirty five, you got to explain it, and
Speaker 4: it's a huge deal practically, and my kind of my
Speaker 4: feel is a little bit the hounesome. My feel is
Speaker 4: this authoritarianism is like a little boring. But it's my
Speaker 4: job to say, well, this was a big one. Firing Seabert,
Speaker 4: this was a big one. And I find there's still
Speaker 4: like plenty to talk about, even as I also feel
Speaker 4: that like we are just trudging on into the end
Speaker 4: of the Constitution and we're gonna have a showdown, just
Speaker 4: as you said in about a year with the Supreme Court.
Speaker 4: Do people still want to hear the legal outrages of
Speaker 4: the week, but they are there these legal outrages, So yeah,
Speaker 4: I don't feel like under utilized.
Speaker 1: Right, there's a shooting at an ice facility. They killed
Speaker 1: these immigrants, no law enforcement, but they found these bullets
Speaker 1: maybe cash Betel tweeted a picture of the bullets. Talk
Speaker 1: us through this. And also it seems to me, like
Speaker 1: what I keep going back to is it feels like
Speaker 1: this administration and Trump more generally, has squandered any kind
Speaker 1: of benefit of the doubt.
Speaker 4: Exactly right, And man, oh man, think about that for
Speaker 4: a minute. So yesterday is it the White House formal
Speaker 4: representative says, Homan never did this, and then other people
Speaker 4: say they did. Before Trump, you'd at least say wow,
Speaker 4: there's just saying, you know, flat out, you give them
Speaker 4: maybe the benefit of the doubt or a better word
Speaker 4: that I think applies a lot to prosecutions Molly, presumption
Speaker 4: of regularity. They did it. The case came out, the
Speaker 4: grand jury said, so we presume regularity and we take
Speaker 4: it from there. Let's see your proof. Guess what, there's
Speaker 4: no presumption of regularity. And judges are calling that out.
Speaker 4: Grand juries in DC are saying we're not going to
Speaker 4: actually give you a true bill, which is stunning. It's
Speaker 4: happened to me once in my career. They did it
Speaker 4: like seven times last week. They don't trust them, and
Speaker 4: they don't trust them for a very good reason. They've
Speaker 4: been ten times burned. Of course, there was going to
Speaker 4: be that picture of the Epstein in the Epstein birthday book, etc.
Speaker 4: So I just want to say, there's a lot of
Speaker 4: things that you know as a DOJ type, and that
Speaker 4: is where my stripes are. I get really sad about
Speaker 4: what's happening, but this you just can't can't but be
Speaker 4: morose because people over decades build up this advantage. So
Speaker 4: when you go and say, Molly Jong fast for the
Speaker 4: United States, it really means something. Guess what it is
Speaker 4: all squandered now and a whole big thing. I hope
Speaker 4: maybe you'll join. I want to think about at least
Speaker 4: to give some kind of alloy to people who are,
Speaker 4: you know, relentlessly down. What might it look like to
Speaker 4: try to clean this humongous mess up on the other side.
Speaker 4: But that's a good one, right, It doesn't You're not
Speaker 4: going to like, oh Trump goes and now you stand
Speaker 4: up and everyone's gonna trust you. They are besides breaking
Speaker 4: the law, breaking the constitution, being completely unfair, they have
Speaker 4: absolutely squandered generation's worth of goodwill from the Department of Justice.
Speaker 4: And it's just not the kind of thing that you just,
Speaker 4: you know, start up again with once the if the
Speaker 4: bad guys leave town. Okay, I got so much for Molly,
Speaker 4: but here's a little, a short one. I love these
Speaker 4: Trumps from back on. Everyone says, Everyone says, it was
Speaker 4: a perfect call. Everyone says, so here's his Everyone says,
Speaker 4: Everyone says that I should get the Nobel Peace Prize
Speaker 4: for each one of these achievements. And I guess my
Speaker 4: question to you politically is this will sound like it's
Speaker 4: not serious. It is? Which is is he serious?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 4: Is the space now looking for this is? Are think
Speaker 4: going to agitate when surprise surprised he doesn't get the
Speaker 4: Nobel Peace Prize, And I don't know what he'd get
Speaker 4: it for, right, you know, just yesterday totally switches directions
Speaker 4: on Ukraine. He's no leader in the Middle East, Ukraine, China,
Speaker 4: anywhere else, but real fantasy, What the what the what
Speaker 4: the heck? He's going around saying, everyone says I should
Speaker 4: get the Nobel Peace Press.
Speaker 1: This is such a good topic because actually I was
Speaker 1: reading the Washington Post earlier though. Jesse just sent this
Speaker 1: to me where it says it twenty two percent of
Speaker 1: all Americans think Trump deserves it Nobel Peace Price. But
Speaker 1: I don't think this is not for the base, right,
Speaker 1: the Nobel Priests prize stuff. They don't care, is that right?
Speaker 1: I don't think there's any world in which they care.
Speaker 1: It's like his obsession with Hollywood. I mean, I get
Speaker 1: that he feels that politics is downstream of culture. But ultimately,
Speaker 1: what I think we're seeing here is he's seventy nine
Speaker 1: years old, and he has certain things he's very stuck
Speaker 1: on from living in New York, and they include Deborah
Speaker 1: Messing Ratings Award shows, stuff that isn't necessarily stuff that
Speaker 1: I think the base really cares about. And then there's
Speaker 1: stuff the base really cares about. The Nobel Prize is
Speaker 1: I think he hates Obama. He's mad when people laugh
Speaker 1: at him. Obama did this thing where he remember he
Speaker 1: spoke at the White House correspondence dinner. I mean, look,
Speaker 1: the irony is maybe it's not the original sin because
Speaker 1: Trump was on the birth certificate thing before Obama, so ultimately,
Speaker 1: really Trump did start it. But the point of this
Speaker 1: is that he hates being laughed at. And so I
Speaker 1: think part of the part of where we are at
Speaker 1: this moment is that he's kind of trying to get revenge.
Speaker 1: And human said that when he was running for president,
Speaker 1: remember and like people be like, no, no, You're not
Speaker 1: going to seek revenge, and he was like, no, no.
Speaker 4: I am yesterday. I hate my opponents.
Speaker 1: Right, Charlie. I loved his opponents, but I hate them.
Speaker 1: So I think this is, you know, he wants to
Speaker 1: win a Nobel Peace Prize because he feels like then
Speaker 1: people will stop laughing at him. It goes back to
Speaker 1: this what we saw at the UN where the first
Speaker 1: time Trump spoke at the UN, he was laughed at,
Speaker 1: and this time he spoke at the UN and he
Speaker 1: was basically like, I'm so powerful. I've you know, I'm
Speaker 1: more powerful than the institution. I can cut all this forlornade.
Speaker 1: You have nothing to laugh at because it's so scared.
Speaker 1: I think that's real. I think that drives a lot
Speaker 1: of where we are right now.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're trying to.
Speaker 1: Trump fired this guy in the Eastern District because he
Speaker 1: wanted him to prosecute his enemies, and maybe because the
Speaker 1: Komi case is about to be out of statute of
Speaker 1: limitations right that if they want to prosecute it. It's
Speaker 1: now basically what we've seen is these people like they
Speaker 1: don't want to they don't want to go forward with
Speaker 1: fake cases, which is what Trump wants, but they will
Speaker 1: dismiss cases that are against Trump's people, so like the
Speaker 1: Eric Adams case. So it seems like we have a
Speaker 1: real disconnect here with the stuff where the administration just
Speaker 1: wants to make stuff up versus wants to let stuff go.
Speaker 1: So do you think Trump is going to be able
Speaker 1: to find So now he's going to put maybe he's
Speaker 1: going to try to put a one of his you know,
Speaker 1: parking lawyers or one of his you know, the people
Speaker 1: who don't know better in that job. But do you
Speaker 1: think that we're going to see a world where they
Speaker 1: start just making up stuff? I mean, what do you
Speaker 1: think that looks like? And also do you think that
Speaker 1: there's a mechanism for that, right? Because there are grand juries.
Speaker 1: I mean, there are a number of hurdles that you
Speaker 1: have to get past if you're making up fake stuff.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so glad you asked this question, what does it
Speaker 4: look like the ninth circle of hell Mala. We hear
Speaker 4: about all these different outrages, doj and I'm here to
Speaker 4: tell you nothing, nothing, Nothing could be worse than making
Speaker 4: shit up against an innocent person in order to just
Speaker 4: bring criminal charges that aren't there against a political enemy.
Speaker 4: Start with the first principle in the US Attorney's Manual,
Speaker 4: Start with the constitution. Making stuff up, it's like a
Speaker 4: quarter inch away from just taking people and disappearing them.
Speaker 4: This is the soul of autocracy. And even though it
Speaker 4: is also a complete dereliction of the same rule to force.
Speaker 4: The dismissal of a righteous case still better ten guilty
Speaker 4: walk than one innocent person. So the combination of stuff
Speaker 4: here no facts and you can't no facts. I can't
Speaker 4: tell you how far fundamental that you know DNA here
Speaker 4: that when Seabird and its worst assistants say no facts,
Speaker 4: no facts. Even now right in the White House, Levitt said, well,
Speaker 4: what do they do? They weaponized the justin That's not
Speaker 4: what's your federal crime. The federal crime is make shit up.
Speaker 4: It's just couldn't be worse. And because it's a Trump enemy,
Speaker 4: now just very quickly to the practical question, will they
Speaker 4: be able to do it? I mean, he's so imbecilic.
Speaker 4: He's given a huge bat to Komy Schiff, for James,
Speaker 4: anybody who's indicted to say this isn't bona fide. So
Speaker 4: you know, if this happens, A, I think they're very vulnerable,
Speaker 4: and B it's the most nauseating, bottom bottom, bottom, rock
Speaker 4: bottom thing that can happen. I wrote a sub a
Speaker 4: couple of days ago. You know, Donald Trump in the
Speaker 4: ninth circle of hell.
Speaker 1: But it also when you see that kind of thing
Speaker 1: where you no longer trust what the administration is trying
Speaker 1: to do as I think we're seeing Trump sort of
Speaker 1: say the quiet part out loud when we talk about
Speaker 1: the Kimmel stuff.
Speaker 4: Which nobody ever ever has that because you can't say
Speaker 4: it because it's the same as saying, you know, all
Speaker 4: get rid of our democracy. Right, So stunning to former prosecutors.
Speaker 4: What happened to your molly? And I know that office,
Speaker 4: I worked in that office, and yeah, unbelievable.
Speaker 1: So with the tweet where he said, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: firing this guy because you won't find the stuff I want,
Speaker 1: and then he said with the Kimmel stuff, you know,
Speaker 1: we were told it was canceled and now it's not.
Speaker 1: Both of these things are technically admissible in court.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 1: Can you talk us through that? What that means?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I just very briefly, they've got an absolute golden
Speaker 4: set up motion. It probably doesn't go to the jury,
Speaker 4: it goes to the judge, and you say, up front, judge,
Speaker 4: throw this shit out. Now, it's so obvious selective prosecution.
Speaker 4: You put all this stuff up, you maybe get to
Speaker 4: depose some people. The disconnect here, Molly, is that for
Speaker 4: all his peak and all the way said, nobody is
Speaker 4: making a claim that any of these guys committed a
Speaker 4: federal crime, you stand him up in front of the
Speaker 4: court and swear you know, this guy did these things,
Speaker 4: and but you don't have a federal crime. So it's
Speaker 4: a lie, and the most serious, unjust kind of lie
Speaker 4: that a prosecutor can tell. So I you know, I
Speaker 4: think Trump did that thing where he actually had a
Speaker 4: sort of email a bondy, but it came out as
Speaker 4: a truth. Social you read that, you're going to set
Speaker 4: up They're going to be motion after motion. That's going
Speaker 4: to make this harder. But I just want to start
Speaker 4: with you know that my head going three hundred and
Speaker 4: sixty degrees, and that of any former prosecutor I know
Speaker 4: doesn't get worse. Okay, my quick question to you another topic. Look,
Speaker 4: we're always told you don't understand maga well enough you
Speaker 4: look down at them, you really have to think of them,
Speaker 4: and they're and they're you know, true concern et cetera. Yeah,
Speaker 4: maybe there's five percent who are nuts, et cetera, butt autism,
Speaker 4: RFK thailand al in pregnancy, right, I mean it's like
Speaker 4: bleach cures COVID. It's so bad people will probably die
Speaker 4: as you analyze and discern his base. Do we think
Speaker 4: that that that I assume you'll say a lot of
Speaker 4: people don't care or just do it. Do we think
Speaker 4: there's I don't know twenty percent thirty percent who say
Speaker 4: I support Trump or I hated Kamala Harris, but I
Speaker 4: am not anti science, and this is you know, he's
Speaker 4: a yoko, it's a joke. Or for all his base
Speaker 4: do the okay, you know, thailandol and pregnancy whatever.
Speaker 1: Here's what I would say, talent on and pregnancy whatever.
Speaker 1: I think this makes more sense if you think of
Speaker 1: RFK as like a political actor and not as a
Speaker 1: public health person. So he has a base he wants
Speaker 1: to me cappy. Trump has a base he wants to
Speaker 1: make happy. Some amount of trump Ism is maha, probably
Speaker 1: not as much as we think because they're pretty loud
Speaker 1: and very online. Vaccines are an eighty twenty issue, so
Speaker 1: maybe there are seventy thirty issue. I think this hurts
Speaker 1: more than it helps. Also, Tile and all, I mean
Speaker 1: like Johnson and that family was huge drump doners do,
Speaker 1: which is hilarious. And I just don't think that's the
Speaker 1: boogeyman they want it. There are all sorts of reasons
Speaker 1: why it's very destructive to tell women they caused autism
Speaker 1: by digging tile in all, which.
Speaker 4: Is not because not just I mean, they're children, right, geez.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And also that there's not any evidence to support it.
Speaker 1: That's also a problem. But I don't know that it
Speaker 1: scratches the itch the way that they are hoping it does.
Speaker 1: I do think like Trump really did was very negative
Speaker 1: on vaccines, and he said things like we're going to
Speaker 1: break it up, it's too much liquid. I mean, that
Speaker 1: stuff was crazy, but it was also maybe what Magabase wants.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, it's hard for me to see.
Speaker 1: This is another thing which I think is like kind
Speaker 1: of a boondot while that he's going to get stuck in.
Speaker 1: You tell people not to vaccinate their kids, their kids
Speaker 1: will die. You're gonna have outbreaks even with the measles stuff.
Speaker 1: So you can keep people happy with that live for
Speaker 1: only for so long before the bill comes due. So
Speaker 1: I just think it's a very tough line to walk.
Speaker 1: RFK Junior is very good at speaking in a way
Speaker 1: that's just very good at obfuscating in a way that
Speaker 1: Trump maybe even isn't. Like Trump just says stuff, but
Speaker 1: he gets away with it because people think he's funny
Speaker 1: or because whatever, because we've all lost our minds. But
Speaker 1: RFK is able to say things about things that never
Speaker 1: answer the question in a way that I think it
Speaker 1: works very well for him. But ultimately I think I
Speaker 1: don't know how he does this, And ultimately I think
Speaker 1: you're going to see RFK really come into closion with
Speaker 1: Trump because these are both very ambitious people. I don't
Speaker 1: think Trump is ready to a point, and heir apparent,
Speaker 1: especially not one that is named Trump.
Speaker 4: Those are my questions. So fun always to talk to
Speaker 4: you and get our quick back and forth. Boom boom boom.
Speaker 4: Shall we call it for September and yeah around Halloween.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think we're good. Congresswoman Haley Stevens represents Michigan's
Speaker 1: eleventh district and is a candidate for the Senate in Michigan.
Speaker 1: Welcome to past politics, Congresswoman.
Speaker 5: Haley Stevens, Thank you, Mollie.
Speaker 1: You have some news you want to tell us about.
Speaker 1: Talk to us about what you're introducing right now. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Look, it is very clear that we have a quack
Speaker 5: at the head of Health and Human Services, as a
Speaker 5: Senate confirmed secretary who is endangering the lives of Americans,
Speaker 5: our children, our elderly. He is listening to conspiracy theories.
Speaker 5: He is spouting conspiracy theories. He is cutting cancer research
Speaker 5: and scientific research programs, and enough is enough. He has
Speaker 5: allied to senators to get confirmed and in addition to
Speaker 5: calling on RFK to resign, I am going to be
Speaker 5: introducing articles of impeachment.
Speaker 1: Molly, let's accept to both and it. Let's yos for people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: let's talk about articles of impeachment. Vaccines are an eighty
Speaker 1: twenty issue. We all know that from that would spring
Speaker 1: the idea that impeaching RFK Junior would actually be possible.
Speaker 1: Tell us what it looks like to put out articles
Speaker 1: of impeachment. I'm drafting them and I'm calling for it
Speaker 1: because I'm truly sick and tired of this mess. What
Speaker 1: we saw yesterday accusing tail and all of causing autism,
Speaker 1: the pain that I am hearing from medical professionals who
Speaker 1: I know, from constituents who are impacted by this. It's
Speaker 1: just not right.
Speaker 5: And the fact is it was on record that he
Speaker 5: lied to senators and he is continuing to lie. He
Speaker 5: is firing people who disagree with him. I want to
Speaker 5: bring this debate forward because I'm a sitting member of
Speaker 5: Congress on behalf of the great people of Michigan who
Speaker 5: only see their costs going up, ACA subsidies going away.
Speaker 5: Seven hundred thousand Michiganers might lose their healthcare. RFK Junior
Speaker 5: creating all this conspiracy. It's not working for people. It
Speaker 5: needs to be called out. And there are authorities that
Speaker 5: I have access to as a member of Congress, and
Speaker 5: I want to say enough is enough, and I want
Speaker 5: to get this out there, and that's why I'm introducing
Speaker 5: these articles.
Speaker 1: So the senator you're talking about is doctor Bill Cassidy,
Speaker 1: who is the doctor and who really was the deciding
Speaker 1: vote in his nomination made RFK sort of promise that
Speaker 1: he wasn't going to go after the vaccines. What happened
Speaker 1: during that insane tialinal announcement was that, in fact, Donald
Speaker 1: Trump went after the vaccines. But RFK has really undermined
Speaker 1: a lot of the infrastructure when it comes to MR
Speaker 1: and a research and the NIAH is lying to a
Speaker 1: senator an impeachable offense, and if so, is their way
Speaker 1: to use that for the impeachment.
Speaker 5: I believe it is. And I also believe endangering the
Speaker 5: health and safety of Americans is impeachable as well. And
Speaker 5: what we are getting over and over again is just
Speaker 5: not serving us. It's not acceptable when you ignore decades
Speaker 5: of scientific research and the ways in which doctors, true scientists,
Speaker 5: true medical professionals have put forward research. What authority does
Speaker 5: he have to cut this off? And Look, this moment
Speaker 5: calls for bold leadership, and that is what I am
Speaker 5: looking to bring to the people of Michigan and to
Speaker 5: this country to write the ship. It's even been reported
Speaker 5: that the President has felt a little shaky with RFK
Speaker 5: and we've called on him to resign. This has become
Speaker 5: a big distraction. He continues to stand by him. We've
Speaker 5: got coequal branches of government. We only are seeing this
Speaker 5: administration abuse their power. And I've got to act within
Speaker 5: the prism of the reality that I am in right
Speaker 5: now as a lawmaker. And that's why I'm introducing these
Speaker 5: articles of impeachment.
Speaker 1: Can you get Republican support?
Speaker 5: Well, Look, I have been named consistently an effective lawmaker.
Speaker 5: I was just named the most effective Democratic lawmaker for
Speaker 5: Michigan last term in a Republican Congress, and this has
Speaker 5: got to be common sense, and I do believe that
Speaker 5: putting this forward is certainly going to make people question.
Speaker 5: And I don't see why the entire Republican conference is
Speaker 5: going to stand by this, just as they're standing by
Speaker 5: cuts to people's healthcare, rising costs on people. I've also
Speaker 5: introduced legend that I'm hoping to get Republicans on board
Speaker 5: with on a different topic. But this is no tariffs
Speaker 5: on food legislation that I have written, because guess what,
Speaker 5: the costs are only going up at the grocery store, Mollie.
Speaker 5: We've got one point three trillion dollars of credit card
Speaker 5: debt in this country. People are putting the grocery bill
Speaker 5: on the credit card. These should be a bipartising conversation
Speaker 5: to lower costs on people and RFK Junior, in addition
Speaker 5: to wreaking havoc on public health protocols, his leadership is
Speaker 5: also causing costs to go up for people in terms
Speaker 5: of their healthcare.
Speaker 1: It looks like there's a shutdown's going to happen. It
Speaker 1: looks like Democrats want it. What is the thinking care?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I can tell you exactly what I'm thinking, which is,
Speaker 5: as these costs are continuing to go up. Seven hundred
Speaker 5: thousand Michiganders at threat of losing their health care the
Speaker 5: premiums because the ACA subsidies have gone away. I've talked
Speaker 5: to employers and providers about this, who have had to
Speaker 5: tell their employees that their healthcare costs are going up.
Speaker 5: This is not acceptable. I need the deal for Michiganders
Speaker 5: in any budget. And when this administration just acts outside
Speaker 5: of the bounds of the lawmaking process over and over again,
Speaker 5: why should we be expected to go along with it?
Speaker 5: I certainly can't on behalf of the people of Michigan,
Speaker 5: and that's what I'm pushing for.
Speaker 1: But a government shutdown will give the executive brand more power.
Speaker 1: There's an argument to be made that respot executive brand
Speaker 1: wants the government shut down because they can do a
Speaker 1: lot of crazy extra judicial stuff. There aren't you worried
Speaker 1: about that?
Speaker 5: Well, I'm worried about Michiganders and what's happening before my
Speaker 5: very eyes. I'm running for United States Senate in Michigan.
Speaker 5: I spent this summer on a tour all across my state,
Speaker 5: hearing real impact stories people who didn't expect to be
Speaker 5: put in this position. And so what I can push
Speaker 5: for in this moment is the best deal for my state.
Speaker 5: This administration needs to come to the table, period, full stop.
Speaker 5: We can't sit by while people are being pushed around
Speaker 5: because we're doing tax cuts for the five billionaires that
Speaker 5: exists in my state at the expense of everyone else.
Speaker 5: We've got rising unemployment, rising costs. It's not working and
Speaker 5: we need better. And the only wake up is for
Speaker 5: the folks to come to the table. And I'm coming
Speaker 5: to the table each and every single day for Michigan.
Speaker 1: I don't know how you negotiate with someone who's not
Speaker 1: negotiating in good faith. So they shut down the government. Right,
Speaker 1: there's an ask for this healthcare money. Explain to us
Speaker 1: what the ask is and sort of where we are
Speaker 1: with this shutdown.
Speaker 5: We can take immediate steps to lower costs. We are
Speaker 5: seeing this be by partisan on the Affordable Care Act,
Speaker 5: getting rid of the subsidies have cost people immediately. There
Speaker 5: is the future point around Medicaid and cuts to Medicaid
Speaker 5: which will strip Michiganders. What I can do in this
Speaker 5: moment and why I'm running for Senate, why I'm working
Speaker 5: so hard as a member of Congress on behalf of
Speaker 5: people of Michigan is I am standing up for my people.
Speaker 1: And that's what I.
Speaker 5: Can articulate to those who will be in that in
Speaker 5: that lawmaking table. I took a vote in the House,
Speaker 5: and they know they need us. If they need us,
Speaker 5: they need to give us something. This has been an
Speaker 5: unbelievable abuse of power. Why should it be rubber stamped
Speaker 5: at the expense of hard working Michiganders, people who's earned
Speaker 5: benefits are on the line. What's happening to food assistance?
Speaker 5: It's outrageous, It's outrageous.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I agree. So leadership, Democratic leadership made a
Speaker 1: day to meet with Trump. Trump canceled at who knows why.
Speaker 1: Right now, the polling sort of shows that the shutdown
Speaker 1: will be more on Trump than on Democrats, but we
Speaker 1: don't it is it always is on Trump. What is
Speaker 1: Donald Trump doing to cut a deal for Michigan. Let
Speaker 1: me let me narrow this down for you for a
Speaker 1: minute outside the budget conversation, because you're going and I
Speaker 1: understand what you're saying, which is what's just a question?
Speaker 5: Yeah, and well, and he doesn't want to negotiate. I mean,
Speaker 5: he's not working with his own lawmakers, you know, which
Speaker 5: is out of his own party, you know, and you
Speaker 5: can't act like this. But take take another example here,
Speaker 5: these tariffs, these blanket excessive tariffs that change by the minute.
Speaker 5: Fifty five announcements in one hundred days, in the first
Speaker 5: one hundred days, they're still coming. Now we see this
Speaker 5: president out there on the world stage, you know, trying
Speaker 5: to push everybody around, claim he's cutting a deal here
Speaker 5: and there. I right now in the state of Michigan,
Speaker 5: in witnessing some of the fastest growing unemployment in the Union.
Speaker 5: Just another announcement this morning of more manufacturing jobs lost.
Speaker 1: Molly.
Speaker 5: I represent a really unique part of this country in
Speaker 5: terms of what drives Michigan is economy, and that's our
Speaker 5: industrial base. It is a precious sector that needs to
Speaker 5: be treated with care and respect. That is not happening
Speaker 5: right now. So you know what I have said to
Speaker 5: this administration is I can't go along right now. I
Speaker 5: can't give you my vote on this stuff until you're
Speaker 5: willing to come to the table. The same thing is
Speaker 5: at play right now on healthcare. He needs us. This
Speaker 5: is a wake up moment for Donald Trump and his
Speaker 5: outrageous leadership style, which has been an abuse of power,
Speaker 5: and so really nice for him to say, Okay, I'm
Speaker 5: not going to sit down with the Democratic leaders He's
Speaker 5: not going to sit down with Michigan and Ers. He
Speaker 5: and JD. Vance come here. They have these things, own rallies.
Speaker 5: They're not talking to the small businesses. It's not working.
Speaker 5: And so you know what this is called accountability. We
Speaker 5: didn't have this shutdown in the previous administration.
Speaker 1: I guess. But the question I think is who are
Speaker 1: the stakes higher for? And I don't know, but Democrats
Speaker 1: have not pulled ahead in this, like I think the
Speaker 1: base is mad, and I'm curious about two things. One is, so,
Speaker 1: why do you think the base is unhappy? And what
Speaker 1: do you think leadership can do to win them back?
Speaker 1: And do you think that leadership is just not meeting
Speaker 1: the moment.
Speaker 5: Well, I can tell you what I'm doing, which is
Speaker 5: I'm out here running for a very competitive US Senate
Speaker 5: seat Mike Rogers, who came very close last time, who's
Speaker 5: been very clear that he wants to rubber stamp the
Speaker 5: Trump agenda, who has already been endorsed by Donald Trump,
Speaker 5: raking in billions of dollars from Texas oil tycoons and
Speaker 5: the like, that needs to be stopped. That's not going
Speaker 5: to work for the people of Michigan. In my legislative
Speaker 5: role right now, what I am doing as I am
Speaker 5: putting up my hand and I am introducing legislation stop
Speaker 5: Trump's abuse of power, the Taxpayer Data Protection Act to
Speaker 5: put guardrails up on Elon Musk going into the private
Speaker 5: taxpayer database. I'm also introducing legislation called no tariff on food,
Speaker 5: just introduced one, standing up, how do you come again?
Speaker 5: This is a leadership moment for me in the Michigan
Speaker 5: and I am absolutely in a rigorous dialogue with voters
Speaker 5: whose trust I am seeking to earn. I do that
Speaker 5: by listening and leading. You know, I have certainly flip
Speaker 5: seats one tough elections, stood up time and time again.
Speaker 5: That's the role that I can play in terms of
Speaker 5: the other dynamics right now. You know, look, there's a
Speaker 5: lot of pundits who've got a lot of thoughts. But
Speaker 5: I invite everyone to come to Michigan. See Hailey Stevens
Speaker 5: on the campaign trail for United States Senate. Get involved,
Speaker 5: Hailey BRETMI dot com.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so when you were saying that people you meet
Speaker 1: on the trail are happy with leadership and they feel that.
Speaker 1: I mean, my question is more of a question, not
Speaker 1: you know, it strikes me the people who I talk
Speaker 1: to seem really mad at leadership and they feel like
Speaker 1: they're not being led. Now, I think your impeachment of
Speaker 1: RFK Junior are trying to do that. That's the kind
Speaker 1: of stuff people want, right and they want Democrats to try.
Speaker 1: They want them to try. That's what I hear from everyone.
Speaker 1: So this seems to very much be in line with that.
Speaker 1: But my question for you is more like Senate seats
Speaker 1: are precious. If you're going to be a senator, are
Speaker 1: you going to go in there and be like we
Speaker 1: I've seen some senators go in there and be a
Speaker 1: complete disaster. I'm thinking about Fetterman, just a complete disaster.
Speaker 1: If you're going to get this precious Senate seat from
Speaker 1: a very pretty blue state, like, will you take that
Speaker 1: and really fight for your constituents? I mean, will you
Speaker 1: make the hard calls to your friends? You know? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And I can't.
Speaker 5: I can tell you that I had a tour this
Speaker 5: summer called maid in Michigan, and I was meeting folks
Speaker 5: where they were at in their places of work, at picnics,
Speaker 5: in the neighborhoods. And the number one concern that I
Speaker 5: have heard over and over and over again is people
Speaker 5: are freaked out about rising costs and an administration that
Speaker 5: isn't doing anything about it. Let me give you an example.
Speaker 5: In the first month of the Trump administration, a fully
Speaker 5: paralyzed veteran reached out to me through a mutual friend,
Speaker 5: asking me if he was going to lose his benefit check.
Speaker 5: I have heard from retirees who are telling me that
Speaker 5: it is hard to make the choice about Cocona Meala
Speaker 5: home or going you know, going out to eat, because
Speaker 5: it's burning a hole in their pocketbook. That is a reality,
Speaker 5: and that transcends this other political dialogue that's going on.
Speaker 5: I am running for Senate to fight for my people, Molly.
Speaker 5: My life has been defined by putting up my hand
Speaker 5: for Michigan in tough moments. I worked on the campaign
Speaker 5: at two thousand and eight. I was there when Obama
Speaker 5: was getting sworn in. I said, if I'm going to
Speaker 5: do one thing in this administration, I've got to do
Speaker 5: something for my people in Michigan. The Auto Rescue Steve
Speaker 5: Ratner needed achieve its staff. I'm pretty sure you know
Speaker 5: it was. It was, you know, kismet. We met in
Speaker 5: the halls of transition. We set forward to make sure
Speaker 5: that the auto companies didn't liquidate, that two hundred thousand
Speaker 5: Michigan jobs were protected. We brought in organized labor. I
Speaker 5: ran for United States Congress to flip a seat based
Speaker 5: on all these values of being honest, being transparent, and yes,
Speaker 5: taking positions. What you talking about is leadership and I
Speaker 5: get that with these Senate seats. You said, oh, the
Speaker 5: Senate seats precious. So is Michigan. So is what Michigan needs.
Speaker 5: I'm running to be my state's chief lawmaker to lower costs,
Speaker 5: to deliver and to stand up to this reckless administration
Speaker 5: in this mold.
Speaker 1: So you have a large Muslim population in Michigan, lot
Speaker 1: of voters. It's the place where Uncommitted came from. What
Speaker 1: is your feeling about APAC About APEC has I think
Speaker 1: gotten very unpopular in the party, certainly for the base.
Speaker 1: What is your position on that Paris lost the state.
Speaker 1: They did not make any overtures towards the uncommitted movement.
Speaker 1: There were no Muslim speakers at the DNC. I mean,
Speaker 1: do you think that was the squandered opportunity. Where are
Speaker 1: you on this topic.
Speaker 5: Now, I can absolutely tell you where I am. It's
Speaker 5: been heartbreaking. This war has gone on way too long.
Speaker 5: The pain and suffering that is very palpable here in
Speaker 5: Metro Detroit that we are seeing in Gaza is impacting
Speaker 5: us all. It's certainly something that I have stood up for,
Speaker 5: which is humanitarian aid. I have called on Israel and
Speaker 5: the United States to work together to get more aid
Speaker 5: and to alleviate some of the suffering that has gone on.
Speaker 5: It's heartbreaking, it takes your breath away. I've called for
Speaker 5: this war to end. We do need to see him
Speaker 5: as surrender. We do need to see hostages come home.
Speaker 5: We do need a lasting ceasefire that brings peace to
Speaker 5: the people of Israel and Gaza. And so that is
Speaker 5: where I stand on that issue.
Speaker 1: Schumer is the Minority leader and the senior senator from you.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Fast Politics, Senator Schumer.
Speaker 2: Great to be with you once again, Molly.
Speaker 1: So talk us through the shutdown. Democrats don't control any
Speaker 1: branches of the federal government. You are in a moment.
Speaker 1: You had the chance to do it before. Now you
Speaker 1: feel it's really the thing. Tell us why we are
Speaker 1: careening to a government shutdown, and how you can use this.
Speaker 2: We're kreening to a government shutdown, as you said, because
Speaker 2: Donald Trump is an incompetent president who wants to be king,
Speaker 2: and he is not doing what the American people need.
Speaker 2: The bottom line is that all we want to do
Speaker 2: with Donald Trump. We've demanded that he sit down and
Speaker 2: talk to us because we need to fight for the
Speaker 2: healthcare needs of the American people.
Speaker 1: And this is this deductible. So without this tax credit,
Speaker 1: Obamacare premiums will go up twenty percent, yeah.
Speaker 2: More than that for many people. Many things will happen,
Speaker 2: but Obamacare premiums will go up and average a four
Speaker 2: four one hundred dollars a person per month, So that's
Speaker 2: five thousand dollars a year. How much can the average
Speaker 2: family afford five thousand dollars is a heck of a lot.
Speaker 2: Even if you're not on Obamacare, your premiums are going to.
Speaker 1: Go up because of the deduction, because they'll lose a tax.
Speaker 2: Deduction because people will lose the tax credit, and then
Speaker 2: the healthcare health insurance companies will charge everyone more. And
Speaker 2: also with some of the other things they've done, rural
Speaker 2: hospitals are going to close. Community health centers which provide
Speaker 2: such good health the poor people will close, and we
Speaker 2: will have lots of people just lose healthcare all together.
Speaker 2: In New York State, for instance, over four hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty thousand people will lose healthcare because of the New
Speaker 2: York state laws, and another four million will lose health
Speaker 2: care on the ACA. So it's devastating, and frankly, Molly,
Speaker 2: the American people are on our side.
Speaker 1: You set up a time to meet with Trump and Jeffries,
Speaker 1: he cancels it. The House is out of session, like
Speaker 1: there's no negotiating happening here.
Speaker 2: Huh yeah, Well, let me tell you what happened. Let
Speaker 2: me give you a little background here. Starting in late July,
Speaker 2: Jeffries and I first wrote the two Republican leaders Boone
Speaker 2: and Johnson to sit down with us and talk about
Speaker 2: the budget. And we said we wanted to talk about healthcare.
Speaker 2: That's how it's always done. We said it to them
Speaker 2: several times, and what did we get back? Crickets zero.
Speaker 2: And then we learned why Donald Trump actually publicly stated
Speaker 2: we don't need democrats, we should do this ourselves. The
Speaker 2: problem is he doesn't know math, you need sixty votes
Speaker 2: in the Senate to pass anything, and they have fifty three.
Speaker 2: So what we did is we wrote Donald Trump, Jeffries
Speaker 2: and I and we said, sit down with us, negotiate.
Speaker 2: That's how you get these things done. We have some
Speaker 2: real needs in healthcare and we want to fight as
Speaker 2: hard as we can to get them done. And frankly,
Speaker 2: lots of your Republican senators want and congressmen want to
Speaker 2: get these things done because their constituents are losing the
Speaker 2: same things we talked about, four hundred dollars going up
Speaker 2: rural health. Rural hospitals are going to close under this bill.
Speaker 2: Most of them are in Republican districts. So we sent
Speaker 2: him sit down and talk with us. And then they
Speaker 2: called us back and said, okay, we'll do it. How
Speaker 2: about Thursday at three pm? We said yes. Well, I
Speaker 2: said to Donald Trump, we'll come to the golf course
Speaker 2: Nico and sit down and try to get these things done.
Speaker 2: So they said yes, And then all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: yesterday yesterday was rant day for Donald Trump, not that
Speaker 2: he doesn't rant every day. He ranted the UN and
Speaker 2: alienated half the world, but he ranted about us. He
Speaker 2: said we are radical, and so you know what I
Speaker 2: want to ask him, Molly right on your show. What
Speaker 2: is radical about trying to have people have adequate healthcare?
Speaker 2: What is radical about preventing their premiums going up from
Speaker 2: five thousand dollars a year? What is radical about keeping
Speaker 2: rural hospitals well may be the only hospitals in the
Speaker 2: whole community. And he's allows the negotiator, or he's afraid
Speaker 2: to negotiate with us, and he backed off one of
Speaker 2: the there's some story one of today's papers is that
Speaker 2: thun and Johnson didn't want them to negotiate because he
Speaker 2: thought we'd out negotiate them. But we're going to keep
Speaker 2: pushing forward on this. We are but pushing.
Speaker 1: So if you keep pushing forward, the calculus here is
Speaker 1: that the American people will that either you'll get this
Speaker 1: healthcare subsidy, which would actually help Republicans in the midterms.
Speaker 2: Right, oh, well, help everybody, but it's good for people.
Speaker 2: We can't. This is so important. It's estimated by the way,
Speaker 2: if their whole big beautiful bill, which is a big,
Speaker 2: ugly betrayal, pass it, at least fifty one thousand people
Speaker 2: will die. This is not politics.
Speaker 1: This is people right, but there are groups, there are
Speaker 1: Republican groups lobbying for them to do these Obamacare credits too,
Speaker 1: because they think they'll lose the.
Speaker 4: House on it.
Speaker 1: Oh, yes, we're right, right, So this is like a
Speaker 1: really actually pretty non partisan ask because Republicans could in
Speaker 1: fact use this their advantage. Fine, if it's the right
Speaker 1: thing to do, I understand the moral calculus. But the
Speaker 1: larger question is will Democrats be blamed for a shutdown
Speaker 1: which we can't possibly.
Speaker 2: Now here's three reasons that we believe it's a Republican shutdown,
Speaker 2: and God forbid it happens, they will be blamed for it.
Speaker 2: Number one, it's obvious they're in charge. There's no divided government.
Speaker 2: They have the presidency, they have the Senate, they have
Speaker 2: the House. It's their responsibility to get this to work.
Speaker 2: You know, Molly, when I was majority leader and we
Speaker 2: had the majority for four years between twenty twenty and
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four, there were no shutdowns. Why were there
Speaker 2: no shutdowns? We sat down with the Republicans and we
Speaker 2: came to an agreement and it worked. Trump does not
Speaker 2: want to sit down, as you saw, he's not sitting
Speaker 2: with us. And then Johnson goes along and says, we're
Speaker 2: not even going to come back till after the shutdown
Speaker 2: might start. So it's a Republican shutdown number one. They're
Speaker 2: in charge. Number two, And this really matters to the
Speaker 2: American people. They don't want to sit down and negotiate
Speaker 2: the average American. You don't have to be a big
Speaker 2: liberal or whatever. You just say to yourself, WHOA why
Speaker 2: won't they sit down and negotiate this and listen to
Speaker 2: this when we are Our research shows that when people
Speaker 2: hear that Republicans won't we're going to sit down with us,
Speaker 2: who do they blame for a shutdown? Fifty nine percent
Speaker 2: blame Trump, thirty one percent blame Democrats. So that's number two.
Speaker 2: But number three and maybe most important, as you correctly
Speaker 2: and as usual astutely pointed out, this is something that
Speaker 2: people from both parties want, and it's the ACA premiums,
Speaker 2: but rural hospitals. These Republican congressmen and senators are hearing
Speaker 2: from their rural hospitals that they could very well close.
Speaker 2: They're the only health care provider in that count People
Speaker 2: would have to drive hundreds of miles maybe to get
Speaker 2: health care. And they're the biggest employer in the county,
Speaker 2: and people will lose their jobs. So you've got so
Speaker 2: many people and one other thing's happening. So some of
Speaker 2: Medicaid goes to help people pay for people who are
Speaker 2: nursing homes in assisted care living. A lot of the
Speaker 2: nursing homes will close. I was on Staten Island on
Speaker 2: a very nice nurse home. Staten Island's quite Republican, and
Speaker 2: he said, I may well have to close if these
Speaker 2: cuts go through. I have three hundred people who are
Speaker 2: my patients. They're all going to lose their homes. They're
Speaker 2: going to lose their they will have to leave because
Speaker 2: we close. Where are they going to go. They're families
Speaker 2: who might be middle working class, middle class people on
Speaker 2: Staten Island. They don't have an extra room to put
Speaker 2: them in. They do can't give them the healthcare. So
Speaker 2: the third reason I believe that we are the American
Speaker 2: people are on our side and will blame the Republicans
Speaker 2: because they see what they are doing is this healthcare
Speaker 2: is not partisan. It's needed by everybody. We all need
Speaker 2: health care.
Speaker 1: So talk me through the Russ Vought question. Because there's
Speaker 1: a thinking that if there's a government shut down, Republicans, Democrats, whatever,
Speaker 1: it will mean that the president will have more power. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean he won't. It won't be legal, but again
Speaker 1: things being legal don't necessarily matter. But even legally, he
Speaker 1: has expanded presidential power in a shutdown. Russ Vought is
Speaker 1: the king of doing this kind of stuff where he
Speaker 1: underminds Congress for spending. How worried are you about that scenario?
Speaker 1: Are there any checks and balances you can have there?
Speaker 2: I am really worried about Russ vote in general because
Speaker 2: his project twenty twenty five is just what cut the
Speaker 2: government in half send America into recession. Creat I think
Speaker 2: it would create a great depression with all the job
Speaker 2: loss and money loss in everything else. But he's doing
Speaker 2: it anyway, even before there's a decision shutn He's doing
Speaker 2: these things called recisions. He takes the money back. He's
Speaker 2: doing something call impoundment. Take one thing on healthcare that
Speaker 2: is so non political research, cancer research, you know, all
Speaker 2: this medical research, he's withholding them even though Congress appropriated
Speaker 2: in the last year's budget, he's holding it back. So
Speaker 2: Russ vote is a danger. We have to fight him
Speaker 2: in the courts. We have to fight him as best
Speaker 2: we can legislatively, and there is a proposal to put
Speaker 2: in the negotiations that he can't do this. It would
Speaker 2: be illegal, particularly the pocket recisions. But he's going to
Speaker 2: go ahead, whether there's a shutdown or not and try
Speaker 2: to do this, and we're going to have to fight
Speaker 2: him either way.
Speaker 1: RFK Junior really scary. Has basically gone back on everything
Speaker 1: he said to Senator Cassidy, like do you see any
Speaker 1: wiggle room there or people sort of or now.
Speaker 2: Well, first, we need your listeners and the American people
Speaker 2: to call their Republican congressmen and senators and say, sit down,
Speaker 2: get us better health care, negotiate with the Democrats. But
Speaker 2: when you talk to the Republicans privately, a lot of
Speaker 2: them are very scared. Fifteen House members I think it's
Speaker 2: fifteen or twelve House members in Republican districts sent a
Speaker 2: letter to Johnson saying, we have to restore these ACA
Speaker 2: credits that you have talked about. We hear it from
Speaker 2: other senators. Lisa Murkowski voted against you know, we all
Speaker 2: voted against their proposal because they wouldn't negotiate, but she
Speaker 2: voted with us as well. So yes, there are some
Speaker 2: fissures in the Republicans, but they have to show the
Speaker 2: guts that, you know, whats to say to Trump. I'm
Speaker 2: representing my people, not what you want. And Trump scares
Speaker 2: a lot of them. But Trump is getting weaker and
Speaker 2: weaker and weaker because the American people know how bad
Speaker 2: this guy is, and we keep fighting him every day
Speaker 2: on all kinds of different issues, but healthcare above all,
Speaker 2: and so are the tariffs too. Have made him so
Speaker 2: much weaker because they're raising costs on everybody and everybody
Speaker 2: knows it. So hopefully our Republican colleagues will realize that
Speaker 2: they are better off siding with their constituents than siding
Speaker 2: with Trump, who is losing support with the American people
Speaker 2: for good reason.
Speaker 1: So do you think in the end you're going to
Speaker 1: get a meeting? Johnson sent the Congress home, So it
Speaker 1: seems like we're careening towards us. I mean, is there
Speaker 1: any kind of way to pull the emergency break?
Speaker 2: Well, the bottom line is, you know, you'd have to
Speaker 2: ask our Republican friends. Of course, friends quote unquote, but
Speaker 2: you'd have to ask them because it's up to them.
Speaker 2: As I said, we're ready to sit down anywhere anytime
Speaker 2: to start talking. Go to the golf course. Trump is
Speaker 2: watches TV. I'm telling him, show off the TV and
Speaker 2: sit down and negotiate. You know, that's what a president
Speaker 2: should do. And he is not up to the job.
Speaker 2: He wants to be a king and do everything himself.
Speaker 2: But we're fighting him every step of the way.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you, Senator Schumer.
Speaker 2: Molly, you're great. Keep up letting people know the truth
Speaker 2: and look forward to coming on the next day, the
Speaker 2: next time. Thank you, no moment.
Speaker 1: Jesse Cannon, so Molly.
Speaker 3: Alex Jones a classic American figure. He interestingly started to
Speaker 3: turn a little sour on mister Trump after many many
Speaker 3: a thing that he does not like, government overreaches, pedophilia, cabals,
Speaker 3: and so. Funny enough, a top DOJ official met with
Speaker 3: him and then threatened Sandy Hook first responders with a
Speaker 3: criminal probe.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so, so, so bad. And again the Sandy
Speaker 1: Hook stuff, like, first of all, there's only like Alex Jones,
Speaker 1: torture these people, okay, period paragraph and now Ed Martin,
Speaker 1: the head of the DOJ's vague weaponization task Force, which
Speaker 1: we should just basically.
Speaker 3: Call favors for friends of the administration.
Speaker 1: Right threaten to open a criminal investigation into a now
Speaker 1: retired FBI special agent who sued the Firewright conspiracy theorist.
Speaker 1: So basically like this is revenge. People who Alex Jones
Speaker 1: doesn't like get targeted by this government because that's how
Speaker 1: they do it. And it's wrong. It's bad, it's unbelievably crazy,
Speaker 1: and it's not only as its supposed to work. That's
Speaker 1: it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday,
Speaker 1: Thursday and Saturday to hear the best minds and politics
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Speaker 1: please send it to a friend and keep the conversation going.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.