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Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics,

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Speaker 1: where we discussed the top political headlines with some of

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Speaker 1: today's best minds. And a Pew Research poll has that

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Speaker 1: in the last six months, Donald Trump has lost twenty

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Speaker 1: three percent approval among eighteen to twenty nine year olds.

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Speaker 1: We have such a great show for you today, the

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Speaker 1: Jim Acosta Shows. Jim Acosta stops by to talk about

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Speaker 1: Trump's escalating authoritarian actions. Then we'll talk to Democracy Dockets

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Speaker 1: Mark Elias about how they are pushing back legally against Trump.

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Speaker 1: But first we have the stories the media is missing.

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Speaker 2: Bie. I have to tell you JB.

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Speaker 3: Pritzker really really, really impressive speech yesterday. I was shocked

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Speaker 3: to hear earlier that it blew you away as much

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Speaker 3: as me.

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Speaker 2: Let's take a listen to it.

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Speaker 4: I want to speak plainly about the moment that we

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Speaker 4: are in and the actual crisis, not the manufactured one

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Speaker 4: that we are facing in this city and as a

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Speaker 4: state and as a country. If it sounds to you

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Speaker 4: like I am alarmists, that is because I am ringing

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Speaker 4: an alarm one that I hope every person listening will heed,

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Speaker 4: both here in Illinois and across the country. Over the weekend,

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Speaker 4: we learned from the media that Donald Trump has been

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Speaker 4: planning for quite a while now to deploy armed military

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Speaker 4: personnel to the streets of Chicago. This is exactly the

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Speaker 4: type of overreach that our country's founders warned against, and

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Speaker 4: it's the reason that they established a federal system with

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Speaker 4: a separation of powers built on checks and balances. What

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Speaker 4: President Trump is doing is unprecedented and unwarranted. It is illegal,

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Speaker 4: It is unconstitutional, It is un American. No one from

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Speaker 4: from the White House or the Executive Branch has reached

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Speaker 4: out to me or to the mayor. No one has

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Speaker 4: reached out to our staffs. No effort has been made

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Speaker 4: to coordinate or to ask for our assistance in identifying

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Speaker 4: any actions that might be helpful to us. Local law

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Speaker 4: enforcement has not been contacted. We have made no requests

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Speaker 4: for federal intervention. None. We found out what Donald Trump

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Speaker 4: was planning the same way that all of you did.

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Speaker 4: We read a story in the Washington Post. If this

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Speaker 4: was really about fighting crime and making the streets safe,

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Speaker 4: what possible justification could the White House have for planning

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Speaker 4: such an exceptional action without any conversations or consultations with

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Speaker 4: the governor the mayor or the police.

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Speaker 2: Let me answer that question. This is not about fighting crime.

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Speaker 4: This is about Donald Trump searching for any justification to

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Speaker 4: deploy the military in a blue city, in a blue

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Speaker 4: state to try and intimidate his political rivals.

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Speaker 2: That's my man, right there?

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Speaker 1: Are you crying?

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Speaker 2: Not this time? That was earlier.

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Speaker 1: Jesse's a crier, which I respect. I am just a

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Speaker 1: rage crier, so I only cry when I'm mad. But

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Speaker 1: this is a really great speech. I want to talk

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Speaker 1: about the first paragraph. I want to speak plainly about

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Speaker 1: the moment we are in and the actual crisis, not

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Speaker 1: the manufactured one we are facing as a city, as

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Speaker 1: a state, and as a country. It sounds like if

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Speaker 1: it sounds like, if it sounds to you like I

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Speaker 1: am an alarmist, that is because I am ringing an

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Speaker 1: alarm one that I hope every person listening will heed,

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Speaker 1: both here in Illinois and around the country. So I

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Speaker 1: just think, like later in this podcast you will listen

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Speaker 1: to more Archalias, and I talk about the idea that

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Speaker 1: the mainstream media, what little is left of it, is

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Speaker 1: unable to explain how unprecedented this is and how deeply

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Speaker 1: alarmed we should all be by what is taking place

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Speaker 1: in DC, maybe in Illinois, maybe not. Like what Pritzker

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Speaker 1: is able to explain is that we are in this

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Speaker 1: squishy middle right between democracy and whatever this is. And

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Speaker 1: it's not Russia, but it's not great. And you know

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Speaker 1: is you and I were the same age. We have

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Speaker 1: lived through a lot of shit, right nine to eleven,

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Speaker 1: a pandemic, but this is something that is difficult and

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Speaker 1: disturbing in a completely different way. And I think that

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Speaker 1: Pritzker does, in fact, he is able to sort of

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Speaker 1: thread that needle in I think an important way. And

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Speaker 1: you know, you are not going to see stories about

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Speaker 1: this in the mainstream media because there's a lot of cynicism,

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Speaker 1: and I think there's a lot of feeling that we

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Speaker 1: shouldn't be alarmist, even though what's happening is alarming.

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Speaker 3: I think to a lot of what alienates people in

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Speaker 3: my group chats from the chattering class that we're a

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Speaker 3: part of, is that they don't hear people like Hakeem

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Speaker 3: Jeffries talking with the seriousness that this moment brings up

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Speaker 3: in all of us.

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Speaker 2: And that is it. It feels as serious as it is.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Hakim has a real problem being able to communicate

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Speaker 1: just exactly what this moment really is. You're going to

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Speaker 1: listen to this the next day. But basically the news

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Speaker 1: on Tuesday. This podcast comes out on Wednesday. But on Tuesday,

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Speaker 1: the big news was that on Monday night, Donald Trump

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Speaker 1: fired a woman called Lisa Cook. He has no constitutional

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Speaker 1: authority to do this. He wanted to take her off

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Speaker 1: the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Now, basically what's happened

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Speaker 1: is why America has such a good among other things,

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Speaker 1: is because the FED is independent. Donald Trump doesn't want

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Speaker 1: the FED to be independent anymore because he's put these tariffs.

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Speaker 1: The tariffs are inflationary. He knows the inflation numbers are

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Speaker 1: going to fuck up the market. He wants the Fed

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Speaker 1: to cut rates because if the Fed cuts rates, he

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Speaker 1: thinks it'll juice the economy. And since Donald Trump has

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Speaker 1: got a sort of goldfish brain, he can't see that

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Speaker 1: this is ultimately going to end up in disaster. So

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump basically fired someone he has no right to fire.

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Speaker 1: He can't fire them constitutionally. It's not okay, it's just not.

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Speaker 1: He doesn't have any legal basis to do it. It's

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Speaker 1: like me saying I'm president and putting my hand on

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Speaker 1: a Bible and saying I'm president. Now, I have no

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Speaker 1: legal basis to claim that, but it's just hooey. But Keim,

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Speaker 1: who is the de facto leader of that Democrats in

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Speaker 1: the House of Representatives, put out a statement. I'm going

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Speaker 1: to read it to you because I just think that

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Speaker 1: this important conversation we're having here Jesse about this. So

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Speaker 1: Hakim says, he puts out a statement and says, doctor

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Speaker 1: Lisa Cook is the first black woman ever to serve

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Speaker 1: on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. True, but not

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Speaker 1: the headline. Donald Trump is trying to remove her without

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Speaker 1: a shred of credible evidence that she has done anything wrong.

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Speaker 1: Also true, but not the headline. To the extent anyone

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Speaker 1: is unfit to serve in a position of responsibility because

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Speaker 1: of the deceitful and potentially criminal contact it is the

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Speaker 1: current occupant of the White House. True, but also not

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Speaker 1: the headline. The American people are not buying your phony

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Speaker 1: projection and slander of a distinguished public servant. Also possibly true,

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Speaker 1: maybe not true, but also not the headline. The headline

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Speaker 1: should have been. Donald Trump can't fire Lisa Cook because

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Speaker 1: he doesn't have the authority to period paragraph. If he

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Speaker 1: wants to go to court and try, we will fight him.

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Speaker 1: And then I would have said something to the effect

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Speaker 1: of this is not about Lisa Cook, right, this is

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Speaker 1: about Donald Trump trying to wrestle control of the Federal

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Speaker 1: Reserve Board of Governors, which is supposed to be independent

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Speaker 1: from the President. I think that what has happened here,

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Speaker 1: whychem is so has so much trouble really messaging, is

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Speaker 1: because there is like an unprecedented nature to all of

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Speaker 1: this that makes it very hard to see.

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Speaker 4: Right.

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Speaker 1: It's not orange man bad, it's this is not normal,

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Speaker 1: not okay, and also more importantly illegal. And I think

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Speaker 1: that unless you know what Pritzker does really well, there

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Speaker 1: is he says not precedented, not okay, not legal.

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Speaker 3: And matches the tone of seriousness that a lot of

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Speaker 3: us feel it does, whereas when you say nothing during it,

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Speaker 3: it doesn't feel like you're taking this situation seriously.

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Speaker 2: Would you say, I wrote a strongly worded letter.

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Speaker 1: Well, and what he Keem is doing here is almost

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Speaker 1: every sentence in that very statement is irrelevant. Doesn't matter

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Speaker 1: that she's black, doesn't matter that she's a woman, doesn't

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Speaker 1: matter that people don't like the slander doesn't matter. None

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Speaker 1: of that matters if you are able to see the

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Speaker 1: real first line, the first line that we know it

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Speaker 1: should be, which is he has no right to do.

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Speaker 1: This is illegal, it's unconstitutional. And again, that is the

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Speaker 1: fundamental problem with where the Democrats are right now, is

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Speaker 1: that it is not Orange Man bad. It is this

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Speaker 1: is not okay, it's not legal, and it's not constitutional.

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Speaker 1: And I think that is where we get into where

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Speaker 1: we've gotten into some trouble. But it's good to see,

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Speaker 1: we really do see. We have two people, two Democrats.

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Speaker 1: You don't have to like them, you don't have to

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Speaker 1: vote for them, you don't have to think they're going

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Speaker 1: to be president. I'm not saying any of that. I'm

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Speaker 1: just saying that we're seeing two effective governors pushing back.

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Speaker 1: One is Gavin Newsom, and he's doing two things right.

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Speaker 1: He's trolling Trump back and then he's just doing this massive,

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Speaker 1: massive pushback against the laws. And then the other one

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Speaker 1: is Pritzker, who is also just punching a bully in

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Speaker 1: the face metaphorically, not physically. And so it's good to

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Speaker 1: see that there is some ability there to make the

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Speaker 1: case for why we should not abandon our democratic republic.

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Speaker 2: All right, Molly, let's shift gears to big balls.

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Speaker 3: There's a whistleblower who's warning of a massive social security

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Speaker 3: data risk, and it's from the Dose boys playing around

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Speaker 3: and being reckless.

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Speaker 1: Yep, so let's talk about this. This is all stuff

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Speaker 1: we absolutely when it was happening. I thought, right when

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Speaker 1: it was happening, we were like, I.

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Speaker 2: Could have written this headline for six months from now.

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Speaker 1: Right when it was happening, I was like, you know,

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Speaker 1: there's no way this doesn't end up being a massive

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Speaker 1: social security data risk. And in fact, I think we've

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Speaker 1: interviewed people on this podcast who said as much like

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Speaker 1: I think we did interview someone.

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Speaker 2: We did an interview with someone from Wired about.

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Speaker 1: It right where they said the worst case scenario. But

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Speaker 1: I also had a terrifying dinner conversation where someone said

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Speaker 1: to me, you know, the worst case scenario is that

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Speaker 1: all all of our social security numbers just to end

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Speaker 1: up on the dark web, like just all of them,

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Speaker 1: like all of our data ends up unencrypted out there.

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Speaker 1: I'm going to digress for a minute, because we're just

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Speaker 1: digressing today, and also because I feel like, since you're crying,

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Speaker 1: I can take advantage of you. The Lisa Cook story

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Speaker 1: right where Trump accuses her of mortgage fraud, and he

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Speaker 1: did this also with Letitia James, and he also was

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Speaker 1: accused of mortgage fraud. So remember it's always projection. We

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Speaker 1: haven't seen reporting on this yet, full reporting on this,

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Speaker 1: but I think it's coming. I want to know why

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump is finding their mortgages, like how he's finding

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Speaker 1: information about their mortgages. And my guess is, and again

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Speaker 1: this is just a guess, is that Trump has this

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Speaker 1: person he put in charge of HUD who is a

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Speaker 1: scion of a real estate family and a friend of Trump's.

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Speaker 1: His name is Bill Pulti, and he is the person

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Speaker 1: who keeps discovering quote unquote these mortgage regularities. I think

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Speaker 1: there's like a very high chance that he is getting

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Speaker 1: this information from someone who is getting this data illegally.

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Speaker 2: Sounds about right with that crew.

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Speaker 3: So in more and more fuck receince, you know, that

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Speaker 3: segment just spills to this one.

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Speaker 2: Every day.

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Speaker 3: We also have HHS threatening states sex education funding over

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Speaker 3: quote unquote gender ideology.

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Speaker 1: I mean, this is the whole thing, right, This is

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Speaker 1: why you can't cave to him, because once you cave

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Speaker 1: to this administration, we just go down a rabbit hole

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Speaker 1: of like it's gender and ideology, it's this, it's that.

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Speaker 1: And look when you listen to that North Korean style

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Speaker 1: cabinet meeting today that would have Kim Jong would have

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Speaker 1: been like, no, no, guys, this is too much like

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Speaker 1: we got to dial it back. A guy called Howard Lutnik,

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Speaker 1: not to be confused with any other nickname, who is

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Speaker 1: a New York guy who a lot of people in

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Speaker 1: my circle know who sucks, Like who really sucks. That

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Speaker 1: guy was like, we give billions of dollars to universities.

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Speaker 1: We don't fucking give it. Those are our tax dollars.

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Speaker 1: Like the idea that Lutnik is talking about this like

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Speaker 1: it's you know, a gift team made to the Gougenhein

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Speaker 1: or something, was just infuriating to me. But you're going

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Speaker 1: to see more of this, right that Donald Trump and

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Speaker 1: Howard Lutnik and this crew have decided that they are

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Speaker 1: gentlemen making genteel donations to states. No, no, these are

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Speaker 1: our fucking tax dollars. And again this goes back to

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Speaker 1: this idea that you cannot cover these people in the

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Speaker 1: way they want you to cover them. You cannot narrate

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Speaker 1: what they're doing in a way that is, you know,

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Speaker 1: it's all democracy dies in narration. Jim Acosta is the

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Speaker 1: author of a sub stack, The Jim Acosta Show, and

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Speaker 1: author of the New York Times bestseller The Enemy of

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Speaker 1: the People, A Dangerous Time to Tell the Truth in America.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Past Pond's Hi Molly, Hi, We did Trump

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Speaker 1: one point zero? Yes, in a different way. I mean,

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Speaker 1: when you started at CNN, how many people watch CNN

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Speaker 1: at night? Like no, but I'm serious, Like we don't

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Speaker 1: think about this, but like lots of people, like millions,

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Speaker 1: like five million, six million, right, I don't know if

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Speaker 1: it was that many.

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Speaker 5: I mean I know that well, for example, January six,

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Speaker 5: I think was the highest viewership.

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Speaker 6: In the history of the network.

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Speaker 5: And then we was trapped in their homes during COVID,

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Speaker 5: and that was a high viewership time for us. There

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Speaker 5: were millions like two million, three million here and there

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Speaker 5: kind of thing.

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Speaker 1: So now it gets like a four or fifth of that, right. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I'm not saying this shit on CNN because it's true

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Speaker 1: of all the cable news networks, and it's true of

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Speaker 1: all the of the network networks. Not even table. Like

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Speaker 1: people are not getting their news that way.

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Speaker 6: No, they're not.

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Speaker 5: And corporate media is in a bad place right now.

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Speaker 5: I mean this, and it's their own doing, right And

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Speaker 5: I don't like to go after my friends in the press,

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Speaker 5: but you know, ABC and CBS, you guys kind of

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Speaker 5: started this crap. There were some other networks whose names

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Speaker 5: I won't mention that may have played a role in

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Speaker 5: this too, but folks have just buy and large said,

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Speaker 5: you know what, I'm going to go to independent media.

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Speaker 5: I'm going to watch PBS no matter what Donald Trump

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Speaker 5: does to it. I'm going to read my newspapers, yes,

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Speaker 5: and I'm just going to get my news on social media.

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Speaker 5: And they're they're just they're they're just moving on.

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Speaker 1: See, this is what I wanted to talk I actually

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Speaker 1: just want to talk about this because it's like in

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Speaker 1: this podcast. In this episode, I also talked to Mark

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Speaker 1: Olias about the redistricting and about all sorts of other things.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, one of the things that he talks about

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Speaker 1: is just the inability. And this really I think is

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Speaker 1: particularly apropos today because Donald Trump fired this woman that

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Speaker 1: he really does not have the constitutional authority to fire.

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Speaker 6: No, is not no, that's true.

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Speaker 1: And again it's like yet another time where Donald Trump

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Speaker 1: has done something they like. You know, it's like me

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Speaker 1: saying I am the Queen of England. Right, it's not.

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Speaker 1: You can say it, but it doesn't make it true. Oh.

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Speaker 6: I mean he was just saying.

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Speaker 5: He was just saying that half the restaurants were closed

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Speaker 5: until he sent him the National Guard into Washington, d C.

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Speaker 5: Which is complete bullshit. I mean I have been saying

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Speaker 5: this thing, Molly, and maybe you and I haven't had

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Speaker 5: this conversation.

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Speaker 6: As much as I love the fact checkers, as.

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Speaker 5: Much as I love people like Daniel Dale, I think

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Speaker 5: they're doing amazing work, I'm not so sure it's all

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Speaker 5: of that helpful to spin our wheels fact checking somebody

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Speaker 5: who clearly is never going to adhere to the facts

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Speaker 5: and it is just going to just bullshit his way

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Speaker 5: through everything in life. So I think we should be

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Speaker 5: focusing more on tactics in the way he's blowing up

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Speaker 5: the constitution. I think we have a constitution check team.

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Speaker 1: I think that's what we might. But I actually think

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Speaker 1: that's right. I mean twenty sixteen was this sort of

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Speaker 1: like the thought that Trump was an apparition right that

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Speaker 1: he was a singular activity that wouldn't you know Trump's

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Speaker 1: second election we got to see that the patient does

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Speaker 1: not well right that American democracy. You don't do this

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Speaker 1: American democracy. I'm not going to speculate about his health,

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Speaker 1: which is another another.

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Speaker 6: Thing that people in his hands. I don't know people

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Speaker 6: love to.

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Speaker 1: Do around the fifteenth of every month. But who's I'm

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Speaker 1: certainly not taking keeping.

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Speaker 6: I'm not doing that.

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Speaker 1: I'm not going to talk about talking about that. But

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Speaker 1: but and the concealer that they put on on top

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Speaker 1: to make it.

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Speaker 5: They did not go to rite aid for the concealer

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Speaker 5: to put on the hands. Can they get some it's

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Speaker 5: the blending, it isn't it?

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Speaker 1: Then I think Michael Jackson gloves or the answer for him,

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Speaker 1: it'll be more subtle.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, he'll be even more of like the man from Monopoly,

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Speaker 5: the board game than a little.

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Speaker 1: Rhyme stoned by the way, can you imagine? I mean,

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Speaker 1: I want to talk about, like you know, Trump radicalized

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Speaker 1: his base. We got into a world where the mainstream

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Speaker 1: media had to sort of say, none of this is normal.

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Speaker 1: The problem is then they tried to cover Biden like

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Speaker 1: things were normal again.

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Speaker 5: Yes, and I think and we moved past that that conversation, right,

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Speaker 5: we've we've just lasted our way past that conversation. There

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Speaker 5: shouldn't be any more like he's busting the norms of democracy,

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Speaker 5: all the truth. No shit, He's got National Guard in Washington,

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Speaker 5: DC armed for no goddamn reason. He's doing it to

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Speaker 5: arm He can just he can just crush these democratic

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Speaker 5: cities and make a misschief and it could be a

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Speaker 5: warm up for what he plans to do to try

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Speaker 5: to putin our last our midterms. And I just you know,

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Speaker 5: I think people need to be focused on the constitution,

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Speaker 5: the law breaking, the corruption. That's what we should be

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Speaker 5: focusing on our not the norms of the president. And

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Speaker 5: see and you know.

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Speaker 6: That's out the window.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, No, I think that's right. And I and you're

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Speaker 1: in DC right now, and I would love you to

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Speaker 1: talk about this because it is like it's a it's

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Speaker 1: so much of trump Ism was either like Trump's first

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Speaker 1: term and I see this now too, was like Trump

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Speaker 1: creating a crisis, yes, right, and like any number of

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Speaker 1: different things. And right now I feel like Trump is

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Speaker 1: trying to distract from Ebstein. And he's also trying to

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Speaker 1: distract from the tariffs, right, like we already pan.

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Speaker 6: Youah, policies have it's so destabilized things.

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Speaker 1: Yeah right, I mean Japan is not mailing stuff to

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Speaker 1: anymore to us. There are a bunch of different countries

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Speaker 1: that no longer mail to the United States, like.

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Speaker 5: And stuff is starting to get expensive. Oh, if you

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Speaker 5: go to the grocery store, there's a handful of items

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Speaker 5: that already like really getting really expensive.

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Speaker 1: Fruits and vegetables forty percent increase. That's like insane, I mean.

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Speaker 6: It's insane cold. This is beginning.

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Speaker 5: He is like that one relative in your family who well,

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Speaker 5: he cannot admit when he's wrong, except he's the president

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Speaker 5: of the United States, and he's just going to try

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Speaker 5: to drive everybody nuts. And the stuff that he's doing,

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Speaker 5: sending the National Guard into DC, threatening to do it

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Speaker 5: in Chicago. If he does it in Chicago over the

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Speaker 5: wishes of the governor, we're right back where we were

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Speaker 5: where we were with Los Angeles and California, and he's

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Speaker 5: gonna if he tries to do in Maryland. Can you

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Speaker 5: imagine what this country is going to look like to

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Speaker 5: the rest of the world if we have National Guard

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Speaker 5: troops and multiple democratic cities like this is bond fape

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Speaker 5: dictator shit stuff.

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Speaker 6: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: My favorite thing though, is that Donald Trump is like

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Speaker 1: obsessed with trying to get a know about Peace prize.

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Speaker 1: So he's like bringing in all these countries and being like,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to make peace for you, and it's like, dude,

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Speaker 1: there are troops in the district of Columbia carrying guns.

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Speaker 1: Worry about what's happening at home, Like that is going

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Speaker 1: to undermine your Nobel Peace Prize at well.

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Speaker 5: And it was just reported today by one of the

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Speaker 5: local stations that some of those National Guard troops apparently

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Speaker 5: it was a busload of National Guard troops were in

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Speaker 5: Lafayette Park across from the White House picking up trash.

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Speaker 5: They were picking up the garbage and lofy at park.

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Speaker 5: This is what he This is what they think of

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Speaker 5: the National beautify. They're beautiful, but on the on the

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Speaker 5: Nobel Peace Prize. I'm so glad that you brought that up,

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Speaker 5: because it is something that is so laughable to me

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Speaker 5: that he would ever be considered for a Nobel Peace Prize.

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Speaker 5: First of all, look what's happening in Gozl, Look what's

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Speaker 5: happening in Ukraine. What is he keeps saying I've solved

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Speaker 5: seven wars. Again, he's one flew over the Cuhu's nest time, folks.

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Speaker 5: He has not solved seven wars. And I will say this,

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Speaker 5: If the Nobel Peace Prize folks give him the peace prize,

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Speaker 5: that should just be the last one. They should just say,

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Speaker 5: you know what, the Nobel I've been Norway a couple

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Speaker 5: of times. Love the folks there. The Nobel Peace Prize

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Speaker 5: folks should just call it a night. We're out and

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Speaker 5: just just that's a peace out.

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Speaker 6: We're done.

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Speaker 5: There should be no more peace prizes issued by these

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Speaker 5: folks in Norway, these nice folks, in no way if

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Speaker 5: they give one to Donald Trump. That's my position off.

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Speaker 1: But it's it's a group of Norwegians like who are

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Speaker 1: scholars right? Those people are never giving Donald Trump a

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Speaker 1: peace prize, no matter how loud he screamed.

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Speaker 5: Well, And the thing for him is it's not really

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Speaker 5: about having a peace prize. I mean, I guess it

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Speaker 5: is sort of gold looking, and it would it would

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Speaker 5: match the Day Core and the Trashy Day Corps in

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Speaker 5: the Oval Office. It is that he wants that scalp

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Speaker 5: of having strong armed the Nobel Peace Prize people in

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Speaker 5: the Norwegians into giving him one. That's what gives him satisfaction,

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Speaker 5: like a pornographic satisfaction, to be able to put those

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Speaker 5: folks over a barrel and force them to give him

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Speaker 5: a Nobel Peace prize when he absolutely does not deserve one.

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Speaker 5: And to me, they need to, like in any way,

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Speaker 5: shape or form, just resist placating this guy.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 6: It worries me a great deal is all these.

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Speaker 5: Foreign leaders, all these Tim Apple types, you know, Tim

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Speaker 5: Cook types, Tim Apple, Yeah, growing up with gold gifts

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Speaker 5: and what is this?

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Speaker 1: This like Biblical times? Would the Tim Apple stuff just

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Speaker 1: for a minute. Clearly Trump has just careening through norms,

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Speaker 1: careening through any of this sort of social fabric that

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Speaker 1: used to exist that kept our government from being a

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Speaker 1: complete kyptocracy. These do people think? Do these billionaires think?

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Speaker 1: And do these Republicans? I mean clearly they do and

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Speaker 1: academics and president do they think that event if they

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Speaker 1: just placate him for long enough, he'll forget? I mean,

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Speaker 1: what's the end game here?

436
00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:45,520
Speaker 6: I think?

437
00:23:45,760 --> 00:23:47,600
Speaker 5: But you know, going back to Trump one point, Oh,

438
00:23:47,720 --> 00:23:51,520
Speaker 5: remember Molly, the Republicans. This is what the Republicans did, right,

439
00:23:51,560 --> 00:23:54,080
Speaker 5: they were the first to go, you know, they were

440
00:23:54,119 --> 00:23:56,159
Speaker 5: the ones during the first term we said, you know,

441
00:23:56,280 --> 00:23:59,120
Speaker 5: if we just playcat them and ride this out, we'll

442
00:23:59,160 --> 00:24:00,800
Speaker 5: all come out on the other end.

443
00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:02,000
Speaker 1: Is it decade a dow?

444
00:24:03,080 --> 00:24:06,000
Speaker 6: It is a decade with our hides still in place

445
00:24:06,040 --> 00:24:06,480
Speaker 6: and so on.

446
00:24:07,080 --> 00:24:10,199
Speaker 5: How is in my thirties going Yes, And he's just

447
00:24:10,320 --> 00:24:14,920
Speaker 5: replicating the same process, the same meek grind or routine

448
00:24:15,240 --> 00:24:18,320
Speaker 5: with every other person that comes into his in who

449
00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:22,639
Speaker 5: his view, And that to me is why and this

450
00:24:22,760 --> 00:24:25,399
Speaker 5: is why I'm on inventive media now. I suppose I

451
00:24:25,480 --> 00:24:27,920
Speaker 5: tear my hair out on a daily basis, just wondering,

452
00:24:28,240 --> 00:24:30,600
Speaker 5: my god, why do you think this is going to

453
00:24:30,720 --> 00:24:32,600
Speaker 5: change his behavior? Or why do you think you're going

454
00:24:32,640 --> 00:24:34,719
Speaker 5: to come out of the other end of this with

455
00:24:34,880 --> 00:24:37,920
Speaker 5: your dignity intact? You're not now, you're not. This is

456
00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:40,560
Speaker 5: your standard be countered moment. Don't let us down, stop

457
00:24:40,600 --> 00:24:41,439
Speaker 5: screwing us.

458
00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:45,320
Speaker 1: If you're a billionaire, if you're if you have whatever,

459
00:24:45,480 --> 00:24:49,320
Speaker 1: fifty twenty even one billion dollars, even if you're just

460
00:24:49,320 --> 00:24:52,800
Speaker 1: a single billionaire, a sad billionaire with just a single

461
00:24:52,840 --> 00:24:55,639
Speaker 1: billion dollars, sad, Yeah, you still have more money than

462
00:24:55,680 --> 00:24:58,600
Speaker 1: you can ever spend. You have enough money so you

463
00:24:58,760 --> 00:25:01,240
Speaker 1: don't need to fucking more about Donald Trump. And yet,

464
00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:05,280
Speaker 1: and yet, I want to talk to you about what's

465
00:25:05,320 --> 00:25:10,960
Speaker 1: happening in the White House because I think it is

466
00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:12,600
Speaker 1: such a Metapaul.

467
00:25:12,280 --> 00:25:15,520
Speaker 6: Gold everywhere the car dealership flags, which part.

468
00:25:15,160 --> 00:25:19,200
Speaker 1: I was thinking about, paving over the rose garden and

469
00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:24,160
Speaker 1: putting in restaurant styled tables, Yeah.

470
00:25:24,080 --> 00:25:26,359
Speaker 6: Put in an all garden. Yeah.

471
00:25:26,400 --> 00:25:29,240
Speaker 5: Why, Okay, there's there's a part of it, part of

472
00:25:29,240 --> 00:25:32,639
Speaker 5: it that makes me wonder if this is And somebody

473
00:25:32,680 --> 00:25:33,919
Speaker 5: made this point to me the other day, and I

474
00:25:33,920 --> 00:25:37,200
Speaker 5: feel terrible because I'm now stealing this without giving credit.

475
00:25:37,600 --> 00:25:40,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, but because you can't remember what I told you, right,

476
00:25:40,760 --> 00:25:41,200
Speaker 1: story in.

477
00:25:41,160 --> 00:25:44,120
Speaker 5: My life, well, I know this is my short term

478
00:25:44,160 --> 00:25:48,160
Speaker 5: memory issues. No, whether you know they're just giving Grandpa

479
00:25:48,320 --> 00:25:51,119
Speaker 5: things to do to keep them occupied. I've heard this

480
00:25:51,200 --> 00:25:54,000
Speaker 5: interpretation of things that we just give Grandpa some things

481
00:25:54,040 --> 00:25:54,880
Speaker 5: to keep him occupied.

482
00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:57,400
Speaker 6: He won't blow up the world. Okay, that's fine, that's

483
00:25:57,440 --> 00:25:58,120
Speaker 6: all well and good.

484
00:25:58,400 --> 00:26:02,200
Speaker 5: That's a ballroom in the ballroom and walking around on

485
00:26:02,240 --> 00:26:05,000
Speaker 5: the roof, and the car dealership flags and all the

486
00:26:05,400 --> 00:26:08,440
Speaker 5: ship all over the walls in the Oval office, the

487
00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:13,680
Speaker 5: rose garden is especially egregious. The Jackie Kennedy installed rose

488
00:26:13,720 --> 00:26:15,639
Speaker 5: guard that should I mean, there are parts of the

489
00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:17,840
Speaker 5: White House grounds that should be pristine. And the last

490
00:26:17,840 --> 00:26:19,959
Speaker 5: time that I checked, and I think watching most New

491
00:26:20,040 --> 00:26:22,159
Speaker 5: York Times do a story on this. They're supposed to

492
00:26:22,160 --> 00:26:25,879
Speaker 5: be a process, right, you can go into the National

493
00:26:25,920 --> 00:26:27,680
Speaker 5: Park and put in a water burger, you know what

494
00:26:27,720 --> 00:26:30,520
Speaker 5: I mean. There's supposed to be a process for changing

495
00:26:30,560 --> 00:26:33,560
Speaker 5: the damn grounds to the White House. Again, like this

496
00:26:33,640 --> 00:26:38,600
Speaker 5: is this is what agenda im z in the you know,

497
00:26:38,720 --> 00:26:41,600
Speaker 5: inferno that is engulfing our democracy. So we can't really

498
00:26:41,640 --> 00:26:44,760
Speaker 5: focus on him, you know, turning the White House.

499
00:26:44,560 --> 00:26:45,879
Speaker 6: Grounds into a water burger.

500
00:26:46,520 --> 00:26:49,280
Speaker 5: And I think, you know, they're they're supposed to be

501
00:26:49,320 --> 00:26:51,080
Speaker 5: a process for it, but who in the who is

502
00:26:51,119 --> 00:26:53,200
Speaker 5: going to stand in this way? I mean, I would

503
00:26:53,240 --> 00:26:56,439
Speaker 5: love to do it because that property should be treated

504
00:26:56,440 --> 00:26:57,040
Speaker 5: with respect.

505
00:26:57,400 --> 00:27:00,960
Speaker 1: And he's It's like it's like the archives. Remember when

506
00:27:01,119 --> 00:27:07,280
Speaker 1: Trump took the classified documents and the archivist they call them,

507
00:27:07,359 --> 00:27:10,159
Speaker 1: they wrote them letters, they negotiated with the lawyers, and

508
00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:13,760
Speaker 1: in the end they had, you know, a raid. But

509
00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:16,040
Speaker 1: like they had tried and tried and tried and you know,

510
00:27:16,080 --> 00:27:20,600
Speaker 1: there's someone like that who who is matching the historical

511
00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:23,960
Speaker 1: renovations of the White House to how they're supposed to

512
00:27:24,040 --> 00:27:26,359
Speaker 1: be because it is like one of the great historic

513
00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:27,520
Speaker 1: buildings of all time.

514
00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:30,159
Speaker 5: Yeah, and there's a White House Historical Society. They are

515
00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:33,760
Speaker 5: wonderful people who are there. It is like a folks

516
00:27:33,880 --> 00:27:37,320
Speaker 5: who remember the geography of you know, the grounds of

517
00:27:37,359 --> 00:27:38,959
Speaker 5: the White House and what's around it and so on.

518
00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:42,440
Speaker 5: Where lafi Atte Park is Lafayette Square. There are these

519
00:27:42,480 --> 00:27:45,520
Speaker 5: other buildings that are sort of around that square. Slowly

520
00:27:45,560 --> 00:27:47,680
Speaker 5: but surely, those buildings have been pulled into the White

521
00:27:47,680 --> 00:27:48,200
Speaker 5: House complex.

522
00:27:48,280 --> 00:27:50,080
Speaker 6: Are kind of like it's sort of like Blair House.

523
00:27:50,280 --> 00:27:52,360
Speaker 5: These buildings are supposed to be part of I think

524
00:27:52,600 --> 00:27:54,240
Speaker 5: it's called Jackson Place, supposed to be part of the

525
00:27:54,240 --> 00:27:57,119
Speaker 5: White House Complex. The White House Historical Association, where you

526
00:27:57,160 --> 00:27:59,880
Speaker 5: can get your little White House Christmas ornaments that during

527
00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:02,720
Speaker 5: the holidays and whatnot that is in that little area

528
00:28:02,840 --> 00:28:06,480
Speaker 5: right on Lafayette Square. Those people, my understanding is, are

529
00:28:06,480 --> 00:28:09,919
Speaker 5: supposed to be consulted when it comes to tearing the

530
00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:11,760
Speaker 5: shit out of the grounds of the White House.

531
00:28:12,480 --> 00:28:16,920
Speaker 1: I don't think they were consulted, and they're just not yes. Again.

532
00:28:16,960 --> 00:28:20,119
Speaker 5: Here's the other thing we talked about. The one theory, Molly,

533
00:28:20,160 --> 00:28:22,480
Speaker 5: which is that we just have to get Grandpa things

534
00:28:22,480 --> 00:28:25,240
Speaker 5: to the other theory is, and it's much more plausible,

535
00:28:25,359 --> 00:28:28,080
Speaker 5: is that he ain't going anywhere, or at least he doesn't.

536
00:28:27,800 --> 00:28:30,640
Speaker 1: Intend or he doesn't want to go, and again does

537
00:28:30,680 --> 00:28:32,640
Speaker 1: not want to go. He does not want to go anywhere.

538
00:28:32,760 --> 00:28:36,320
Speaker 1: I thank god he is seventy nine years old. But

539
00:28:36,520 --> 00:28:39,280
Speaker 1: he right, he's done the want again, not that I'm

540
00:28:39,280 --> 00:28:43,320
Speaker 1: saying it right, but he doesn't want to go anywhere.

541
00:28:43,520 --> 00:28:46,760
Speaker 1: And I think it's fair to assume he doesn't want

542
00:28:46,800 --> 00:28:48,959
Speaker 1: to go anywhere. I mean, I think working on that

543
00:28:49,040 --> 00:28:51,680
Speaker 1: assumption because he didn't want to go anywhere the last

544
00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:54,959
Speaker 1: time he lost, remember, so I mean we have to

545
00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:58,920
Speaker 1: behave just like he did. That he has want that

546
00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:01,840
Speaker 1: this term is his life, last term because the constitution

547
00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:04,840
Speaker 1: says you're only allowed to do two terms. And yet

548
00:29:04,840 --> 00:29:08,240
Speaker 1: that's how it goes, you know, that's how it goes.

549
00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:11,240
Speaker 6: And it's but at some point.

550
00:29:12,600 --> 00:29:14,840
Speaker 1: He'll take the plane with him and likely a lot

551
00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:19,720
Speaker 1: of the silverware I mean, right, and the Emstein files,

552
00:29:19,720 --> 00:29:21,760
Speaker 1: which you know when we'll ever get those Epstein files.

553
00:29:23,400 --> 00:29:25,320
Speaker 1: How much do you think the Epstein files are still

554
00:29:25,400 --> 00:29:29,000
Speaker 1: because I have definitely heard from people that they that

555
00:29:29,080 --> 00:29:32,640
Speaker 1: the Epstein files is something that is still well. MAGA

556
00:29:32,760 --> 00:29:35,080
Speaker 1: influencers have gotten the message. They're not supposed to talk

557
00:29:35,080 --> 00:29:38,200
Speaker 1: about it. The megabase still is bothered by it.

558
00:29:38,560 --> 00:29:39,560
Speaker 6: They're bothered by it.

559
00:29:39,640 --> 00:29:42,520
Speaker 5: And I you know, I I see anecdotal evidence, and

560
00:29:42,560 --> 00:29:46,440
Speaker 5: here's an anecdotal evidence on almost a daily basis that

561
00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:50,680
Speaker 5: that MAGA still cares about this. I mean, remember, and folks,

562
00:29:50,720 --> 00:29:54,480
Speaker 5: I mean, this is worth reminding ourselves. July seventh is

563
00:29:54,480 --> 00:29:57,200
Speaker 5: when they put out the bullshit memo that said, oh,

564
00:29:57,240 --> 00:29:58,120
Speaker 5: there's nothing to see here.

565
00:29:58,120 --> 00:29:59,720
Speaker 6: We're going to sweep this under the rug.

566
00:30:00,080 --> 00:30:02,480
Speaker 5: It was in May, nearly two months before that, where

567
00:30:02,480 --> 00:30:05,360
Speaker 5: they told him you're in the Epstein frials multiple times.

568
00:30:05,480 --> 00:30:06,560
Speaker 6: We still don't know why.

569
00:30:07,080 --> 00:30:10,680
Speaker 5: We know one of those instances maybe the birthday book

570
00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:13,560
Speaker 5: to Jeffrey Epstein for the birthday that the Wall Street

571
00:30:13,640 --> 00:30:17,400
Speaker 5: Journal reported on, but we don't know the other instances.

572
00:30:17,760 --> 00:30:21,120
Speaker 5: So we just never going to find out. Yeah, it's

573
00:30:21,160 --> 00:30:22,959
Speaker 5: sort of like we're never going to find out why

574
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:24,600
Speaker 5: Trump cowchous to pootin all the time.

575
00:30:24,720 --> 00:30:26,680
Speaker 6: There's gonna be a damn good story about it.

576
00:30:27,120 --> 00:30:29,760
Speaker 1: Here's a question for you about the birthday book. What's

577
00:30:29,840 --> 00:30:33,480
Speaker 1: the birthday book page end up with a Wall Street Journal? Now,

578
00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:36,080
Speaker 1: what was the timing of that?

579
00:30:36,080 --> 00:30:39,440
Speaker 6: That's a very good question, very good question.

580
00:30:40,080 --> 00:30:43,960
Speaker 1: Like everything. For example, today which will be tomorrow when

581
00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:46,520
Speaker 1: people are listening to this, there was a whistleblower came

582
00:30:46,520 --> 00:30:49,800
Speaker 1: out to say that all this social security information that

583
00:30:49,960 --> 00:30:55,040
Speaker 1: DOGE had, they had exposed us to a massive, massive date.

584
00:30:55,480 --> 00:30:58,160
Speaker 1: You're shocked to hear that Big Balls was not the

585
00:30:58,440 --> 00:31:01,200
Speaker 1: kind of we had thought he would be a star

586
00:31:01,240 --> 00:31:02,640
Speaker 1: warth of our data.

587
00:31:02,680 --> 00:31:04,520
Speaker 6: But you know, are we sure he wasn't beaten up

588
00:31:04,520 --> 00:31:06,440
Speaker 6: by a little old lady? But anyway, I.

589
00:31:06,320 --> 00:31:10,640
Speaker 1: Mean exactly, but so real, fast and loose here today.

590
00:31:11,240 --> 00:31:15,120
Speaker 1: But but but these are a lot you have to

591
00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:18,920
Speaker 1: wonder why are you getting this information and what like?

592
00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:23,480
Speaker 1: For example, there was recently a story in the Times

593
00:31:23,640 --> 00:31:27,160
Speaker 1: where the journal I think about how Tiffany's husband was

594
00:31:27,320 --> 00:31:31,040
Speaker 1: like had sort of taken some money. The implication was

595
00:31:31,080 --> 00:31:34,600
Speaker 1: that he had stolen money from Jared, right. Like, these

596
00:31:34,680 --> 00:31:39,000
Speaker 1: kind of stories don't just pop up, they don't just appear.

597
00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:43,800
Speaker 1: Somebody is giving this information to journalists and so when

598
00:31:43,840 --> 00:31:50,080
Speaker 1: you're reading stories, you can wonder who Jared is giving

599
00:31:50,120 --> 00:31:54,600
Speaker 1: this story to journalists about Jared being out three and

600
00:31:54,600 --> 00:31:57,680
Speaker 1: a half million dollars, or for example, who is leaking

601
00:31:57,840 --> 00:32:00,360
Speaker 1: you know? So, why did you.

602
00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:03,400
Speaker 5: On my mom's sofa watching episodes of Dynasty and knots

603
00:32:03,480 --> 00:32:05,880
Speaker 5: Landing watching this second administration?

604
00:32:06,280 --> 00:32:11,360
Speaker 1: It's true, But so the real question is, like, why

605
00:32:11,760 --> 00:32:15,640
Speaker 1: did that Epstein birthday book page get leaked to the

606
00:32:15,640 --> 00:32:16,480
Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal?

607
00:32:16,600 --> 00:32:19,120
Speaker 6: That I think it's a it's a really good question.

608
00:32:19,640 --> 00:32:22,040
Speaker 6: It's a really good conversation piece.

609
00:32:22,640 --> 00:32:24,960
Speaker 5: I mean, I will answer your question by saying I

610
00:32:24,960 --> 00:32:27,280
Speaker 5: don't know, but I will also answer it by pointing

611
00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:29,240
Speaker 5: to the fact the other day that they tried to

612
00:32:29,280 --> 00:32:31,360
Speaker 5: fire or they are in the process of firing forty

613
00:32:31,400 --> 00:32:34,680
Speaker 5: percent of the staff at the department or the Director

614
00:32:34,720 --> 00:32:38,760
Speaker 5: of National Intelligence until Gabbard's office. Oh you know, in

615
00:32:38,800 --> 00:32:41,640
Speaker 5: the normal universe, that story would have been huge news.

616
00:32:42,040 --> 00:32:43,720
Speaker 6: That is the office that was set up to.

617
00:32:43,760 --> 00:32:46,640
Speaker 5: Prevent another nine to eleven and forty percent feeling But

618
00:32:46,680 --> 00:32:48,680
Speaker 5: what it said To take it back to your point

619
00:32:48,760 --> 00:32:51,560
Speaker 5: your question, Molly, they are and I can trace this

620
00:32:51,640 --> 00:32:54,520
Speaker 5: back to my own reporting and what I experienced witnessing

621
00:32:54,560 --> 00:32:58,520
Speaker 5: this during the first term. They are so neurotically freaked

622
00:32:58,560 --> 00:33:01,720
Speaker 5: out and paranoid about leak at all times that I

623
00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:04,640
Speaker 5: think this is part of the reason why this massive

624
00:33:04,720 --> 00:33:07,480
Speaker 5: purge of the federal government is still going on largely uncovered,

625
00:33:07,840 --> 00:33:11,160
Speaker 5: because they are paranoid that there are people leaking stuff

626
00:33:11,200 --> 00:33:13,959
Speaker 5: to the press on the crap that they're doing on

627
00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:18,080
Speaker 5: a daily basis. And I assume that the birthday book

628
00:33:18,320 --> 00:33:23,400
Speaker 5: was some sort of calculated leak to say about Donald

629
00:33:23,440 --> 00:33:26,200
Speaker 5: Trump and the Epstein files. And guess what is pre

630
00:33:26,360 --> 00:33:31,560
Speaker 5: damn damning When he says something about wonderful the thing

631
00:33:31,560 --> 00:33:33,720
Speaker 5: that I wish people would focus on more, he says

632
00:33:33,720 --> 00:33:35,680
Speaker 5: something about wonderful secrets or something like that.

633
00:33:35,720 --> 00:33:39,640
Speaker 1: At the end of that wonderful secret are wonderful secret secrets?

634
00:33:39,720 --> 00:33:45,680
Speaker 5: Never age something along those lines, And it's like, again, hmm,

635
00:33:46,320 --> 00:33:49,720
Speaker 5: isn't that interesting? What's that all about? Wish we knew

636
00:33:49,720 --> 00:33:52,920
Speaker 5: more about that? Ye, guess what he's in charge of

637
00:33:52,920 --> 00:33:56,080
Speaker 5: those documents, you know, And the fact that he hasn't

638
00:33:56,080 --> 00:33:57,960
Speaker 5: put him out, I mean, what does that tell us?

639
00:33:58,360 --> 00:34:02,600
Speaker 5: You know, I'm sorry, guys, got something to hide? And

640
00:34:02,920 --> 00:34:05,600
Speaker 5: you know, until he does these political problems that he's having,

641
00:34:05,640 --> 00:34:08,120
Speaker 5: not just with the basement, with the whole country.

642
00:34:08,200 --> 00:34:08,560
Speaker 1: World.

643
00:34:08,800 --> 00:34:11,320
Speaker 6: Yeah, in the world are not going to go away.

644
00:34:11,640 --> 00:34:14,719
Speaker 5: The polls show that people aren't buying this stuff and

645
00:34:14,760 --> 00:34:15,920
Speaker 5: they want to know what's going on.

646
00:34:16,760 --> 00:34:19,080
Speaker 1: Jim Acosta, will you come back?

647
00:34:19,560 --> 00:34:22,600
Speaker 6: Of course? Will I be invited back?

648
00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:27,680
Speaker 1: You will always be invited back. Mark Elias is the

649
00:34:27,760 --> 00:34:32,239
Speaker 1: founder of Democracy Doctor. Welcome back to Fast Politics.

650
00:34:32,560 --> 00:34:35,200
Speaker 7: Mark, thank you for having me back. I've been waiting me.

651
00:34:35,920 --> 00:34:39,840
Speaker 1: You were like, you know, we're you know what. Listeners

652
00:34:39,840 --> 00:34:41,560
Speaker 1: hate it when I say this, so I won't say it,

653
00:34:41,600 --> 00:34:46,279
Speaker 1: but I we're friends, Okay, I will actually text we

654
00:34:46,320 --> 00:34:49,200
Speaker 1: actually and it's true, and I like, don't. I mean,

655
00:34:49,520 --> 00:34:51,120
Speaker 1: people make fun of me for saying this, but I

656
00:34:51,120 --> 00:34:53,520
Speaker 1: don't really feel like I have so many friends, especially

657
00:34:54,200 --> 00:34:58,440
Speaker 1: in this extremely there's something like very isolating about this

658
00:34:58,520 --> 00:34:59,640
Speaker 1: moment in American life.

659
00:35:00,600 --> 00:35:03,440
Speaker 7: Absolutely, I mean, how could you not feel isolated. There

660
00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:08,239
Speaker 7: are federal officials who believe that I don't know if

661
00:35:08,239 --> 00:35:10,040
Speaker 7: he's talking to the cabinet, the cabinet.

662
00:35:11,360 --> 00:35:12,880
Speaker 1: I saw some Yeah, you know.

663
00:35:12,960 --> 00:35:17,960
Speaker 7: There are federal officials who believe that Donald Trump is

664
00:35:18,160 --> 00:35:21,560
Speaker 7: deserves a Nobel prize. Donald Trump is like talking about

665
00:35:21,560 --> 00:35:24,000
Speaker 7: how he you know, how a lot of people want

666
00:35:24,040 --> 00:35:27,000
Speaker 7: him to be a dictator, people say people many people

667
00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:30,600
Speaker 7: are saying. And meanwhile, you know, he is rolling troops

668
00:35:30,640 --> 00:35:34,959
Speaker 7: down the cities of of of the United States. Uh,

669
00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:38,200
Speaker 7: there are federal agents masked who are grabbing people and

670
00:35:38,239 --> 00:35:42,480
Speaker 7: disappearing them. So it is kind of a very worrisome

671
00:35:42,520 --> 00:35:44,319
Speaker 7: and lonely and isolating time.

672
00:35:44,600 --> 00:35:46,640
Speaker 1: I mean, I think you we can both agree that

673
00:35:46,719 --> 00:35:51,000
Speaker 1: he's successfully captured the zeitgeist in a way that has

674
00:35:51,120 --> 00:35:54,120
Speaker 1: helped him. That he has written to the presidency twice,

675
00:35:55,120 --> 00:35:58,440
Speaker 1: and part of that is just putting everything on television.

676
00:35:58,800 --> 00:36:03,600
Speaker 1: So those meetings that are pretty much would make Kim

677
00:36:03,680 --> 00:36:07,880
Speaker 1: Jong un say, back off, guys, it's not believable, are

678
00:36:08,080 --> 00:36:11,200
Speaker 1: part of this secret sauce. Right, absolutely.

679
00:36:11,520 --> 00:36:18,960
Speaker 7: I mean, he has turned governing into a spectacle reality show,

680
00:36:19,000 --> 00:36:22,520
Speaker 7: and he's turned a spectacle reality show into governing. I mean, right,

681
00:36:22,920 --> 00:36:25,759
Speaker 7: it's kind of it reinforces itself in both directions.

682
00:36:25,960 --> 00:36:29,359
Speaker 1: First, let's talk about the arms race, the redistricting arms

683
00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:34,160
Speaker 1: race that started last week. Because you have filed, you're

684
00:36:34,320 --> 00:36:38,520
Speaker 1: intimately involved in both the legal and also writing about

685
00:36:38,560 --> 00:36:42,239
Speaker 1: it and explaining it. So I want you to. You know,

686
00:36:42,400 --> 00:36:47,960
Speaker 1: last week, Abbot says, Trump says wants five seats. Abbot ambitious,

687
00:36:48,040 --> 00:36:51,800
Speaker 1: thinks he's going to be president next Paxton running for Senate.

688
00:36:51,880 --> 00:36:54,520
Speaker 1: The crew gets together to give him five seats. What

689
00:36:54,560 --> 00:36:57,439
Speaker 1: does this open the door to talk us through how

690
00:36:57,560 --> 00:36:58,719
Speaker 1: unprecedented this is.

691
00:36:59,040 --> 00:37:00,719
Speaker 7: Yeah, so let's just talk about it. Texas was second,

692
00:37:00,760 --> 00:37:02,759
Speaker 7: and I'll tell you what this opens the door to.

693
00:37:03,200 --> 00:37:05,759
Speaker 7: So in Texas As exactly as you said, Donald Trump

694
00:37:05,840 --> 00:37:09,080
Speaker 7: said I want five seats. Greg Abbott said, great, five

695
00:37:09,120 --> 00:37:12,440
Speaker 7: seats it is. Texas Republicans said, great, five seats it is.

696
00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:17,640
Speaker 7: They finally, after some democratic efforts to prevent it, were

697
00:37:17,680 --> 00:37:20,279
Speaker 7: able to pass that map. That map got passed by

698
00:37:20,280 --> 00:37:24,760
Speaker 7: the state Senate at about two am on Saturday morning.

699
00:37:24,880 --> 00:37:27,520
Speaker 7: By eight am Saturday morning, my law firm had sued

700
00:37:28,280 --> 00:37:32,200
Speaker 7: to block this from going forward. We filed an amended

701
00:37:32,239 --> 00:37:34,360
Speaker 7: complaint and then on a Sunday we filed for a

702
00:37:34,400 --> 00:37:38,000
Speaker 7: pliminary injunction. And you know, we'll see where this goes.

703
00:37:38,440 --> 00:37:42,640
Speaker 7: You know, I think that what they did here is

704
00:37:42,719 --> 00:37:47,000
Speaker 7: deeply vulnerable to legal charge obviously, and I think people

705
00:37:47,040 --> 00:37:49,720
Speaker 7: should not be surprised. They should not be settling into

706
00:37:49,760 --> 00:37:52,880
Speaker 7: the idea that Republicans have pulled this off. So that's right,

707
00:37:53,120 --> 00:37:53,480
Speaker 7: number one.

708
00:37:53,600 --> 00:37:55,040
Speaker 1: I just want to pause for a second because that

709
00:37:55,080 --> 00:37:59,200
Speaker 1: gets to the really important sort of propaganda aspect of this,

710
00:37:59,360 --> 00:38:02,960
Speaker 1: which is like Trump can say he's fired that's right,

711
00:38:03,080 --> 00:38:05,840
Speaker 1: Lisa Cook. He can say he's fired her, but he

712
00:38:05,880 --> 00:38:08,960
Speaker 1: doesn't actually have the authority to do it. Just like Texas,

713
00:38:09,120 --> 00:38:11,280
Speaker 1: there's so much of this sort of like I say

714
00:38:11,400 --> 00:38:14,279
Speaker 1: I can do it, so I've done it, whereas it's

715
00:38:14,320 --> 00:38:17,840
Speaker 1: actually not necessarily legal. So that's a really important distinction.

716
00:38:18,040 --> 00:38:20,719
Speaker 7: That's exactly right, And I think that you've put your

717
00:38:20,760 --> 00:38:27,400
Speaker 7: finger on one of Donald Trump's greatest skills is that

718
00:38:28,680 --> 00:38:32,400
Speaker 7: institutions in this country, whether it is judges in the courts,

719
00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:38,520
Speaker 7: whether it is the legacy media, that there is a

720
00:38:38,840 --> 00:38:43,920
Speaker 7: presumption that when the federal government says it's done something,

721
00:38:44,520 --> 00:38:47,319
Speaker 7: that is like the baseline from which we start. So

722
00:38:47,400 --> 00:38:51,160
Speaker 7: like if a president says I have fired someone, the

723
00:38:51,200 --> 00:38:54,520
Speaker 7: baseline operating assumption is that he has fired the person.

724
00:38:55,400 --> 00:39:00,000
Speaker 7: And the problem is that that isn't true in Trump's world,

725
00:39:00,320 --> 00:39:02,360
Speaker 7: Like the truth is, Donald Trump says a lot of

726
00:39:02,400 --> 00:39:06,239
Speaker 7: things that are just fought out lies, and so we

727
00:39:06,320 --> 00:39:08,319
Speaker 7: need to pause. I mean, this is also true about

728
00:39:08,320 --> 00:39:11,879
Speaker 7: the John Bolton raid. You know, we pause and when

729
00:39:11,960 --> 00:39:15,880
Speaker 7: Donald Trump says you know that, or jade Van says,

730
00:39:15,880 --> 00:39:19,080
Speaker 7: we used, we alt talk about what the FBI did. Like,

731
00:39:19,239 --> 00:39:22,120
Speaker 7: everyone needs to take a step back and not assume

732
00:39:22,719 --> 00:39:24,520
Speaker 7: that the thing that they are saying is on the

733
00:39:24,560 --> 00:39:26,640
Speaker 7: up and up, because it's probably on the up and up.

734
00:39:26,640 --> 00:39:29,040
Speaker 7: And that is true in Texas thing I mean, essentially,

735
00:39:29,120 --> 00:39:32,960
Speaker 7: the state of Texas announced that it was going to

736
00:39:33,120 --> 00:39:37,279
Speaker 7: comply with the Department of Justice's letter to say that

737
00:39:37,400 --> 00:39:41,640
Speaker 7: they needed to dismantle districts because they thought that they

738
00:39:41,719 --> 00:39:45,359
Speaker 7: were that they didn't like the racial composition of them.

739
00:39:46,160 --> 00:39:46,560
Speaker 7: The state.

740
00:39:46,760 --> 00:39:49,280
Speaker 1: That was a letter from Lena Habba.

741
00:39:49,600 --> 00:39:51,880
Speaker 7: No, this was actually a letter not from Haba. This

742
00:39:52,040 --> 00:39:55,720
Speaker 7: was a letter from Pambondy and Harmie Dillon.

743
00:39:56,239 --> 00:39:58,160
Speaker 1: Right, oh, Harmeiat Dylan, sorry.

744
00:39:57,960 --> 00:40:00,040
Speaker 7: Erect it's I know it is hard to keep the

745
00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:04,040
Speaker 7: election and I are straight, but alas we have to

746
00:40:04,080 --> 00:40:08,840
Speaker 7: keep the Trump lawyer, the former Trump lawyers, the Department

747
00:40:08,880 --> 00:40:12,840
Speaker 7: of Justice, the visual election attires straight. So but so

748
00:40:13,520 --> 00:40:15,640
Speaker 7: you know, Harmeid Dillon sends this letter to the State

749
00:40:15,719 --> 00:40:19,960
Speaker 7: Texas saying you have racially Joey managered your districts by

750
00:40:20,440 --> 00:40:24,560
Speaker 7: giving minority voters too many rights essentially. But the thing is,

751
00:40:24,600 --> 00:40:26,960
Speaker 7: the state of Texas had already told federal judges that

752
00:40:26,960 --> 00:40:29,600
Speaker 7: it didn't use race at all in drawing those districts,

753
00:40:29,680 --> 00:40:32,200
Speaker 7: like it literally is under oath. Ken Paxton put a

754
00:40:32,200 --> 00:40:36,000
Speaker 7: witness on the stand and reiterated that the districts that

755
00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:38,520
Speaker 7: were drawn were not drawn based on race. And so

756
00:40:39,080 --> 00:40:44,880
Speaker 7: now Greg Abbott has dismantled districts that his own department,

757
00:40:45,040 --> 00:40:48,960
Speaker 7: his own Attorney General said were drawn race neutral. And

758
00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:51,680
Speaker 7: so they have essentially screwed over black and Latino voters

759
00:40:52,239 --> 00:40:54,799
Speaker 7: in response to this letter. But their only rational for

760
00:40:54,840 --> 00:40:56,879
Speaker 7: doing so is to screw over black and Latino voters. Well,

761
00:40:56,880 --> 00:40:59,560
Speaker 7: that violated constitution. So I don't think they're going to

762
00:40:59,600 --> 00:41:01,120
Speaker 7: get away with this, is the bottom line. I don't

763
00:41:01,120 --> 00:41:02,560
Speaker 7: think you're going to go away with in Texas. But

764
00:41:03,120 --> 00:41:04,799
Speaker 7: this is now going to spread. We're going to see

765
00:41:04,840 --> 00:41:06,520
Speaker 7: Republicans try to do this in Florida. We're going to

766
00:41:06,560 --> 00:41:08,680
Speaker 7: see Republics try to do this in Missouri. We're going

767
00:41:08,719 --> 00:41:11,280
Speaker 7: to see Republicans perhaps try to do this in Indiana.

768
00:41:11,280 --> 00:41:13,160
Speaker 7: And I'm not sure it ends there, you know, Kelly

769
00:41:13,239 --> 00:41:15,080
Speaker 7: ay Out, the governor of New Hampshire, says we're not

770
00:41:15,120 --> 00:41:18,040
Speaker 7: doing it. Maybe maybe a lot of Republicans tell Donald

771
00:41:18,080 --> 00:41:21,440
Speaker 7: Trump no as an opening gambit, but then wind up caving.

772
00:41:21,800 --> 00:41:24,360
Speaker 7: And on the Democratic side, you know, we have California,

773
00:41:24,360 --> 00:41:28,799
Speaker 7: Gavin Newsom has managed to get a ballot measure on

774
00:41:28,920 --> 00:41:33,520
Speaker 7: the special yeah special action in November to essentially redraw

775
00:41:33,520 --> 00:41:36,560
Speaker 7: them up there and do five seats. Back my posture, Molly,

776
00:41:37,160 --> 00:41:40,239
Speaker 7: just so you're clear when this all started before Gavin

777
00:41:40,280 --> 00:41:42,160
Speaker 7: Newson announced what he was doing is the Democrats ought

778
00:41:42,160 --> 00:41:45,239
Speaker 7: to jerry mander thirty seats in response to Texas and

779
00:41:45,560 --> 00:41:50,120
Speaker 7: might actually dissuade Republicans from going forward. I worry, as

780
00:41:50,200 --> 00:41:52,200
Speaker 7: much as I appreciate what Governor Newsom was doing, and

781
00:41:52,239 --> 00:41:55,160
Speaker 7: I think it's great, I'm worried that if all we're

782
00:41:55,160 --> 00:41:57,760
Speaker 7: doing is tung Republicans we will match them. It actually

783
00:41:58,160 --> 00:41:58,960
Speaker 7: is a disincentive.

784
00:41:59,160 --> 00:42:02,400
Speaker 1: Do you think there's a chance that again, like this

785
00:42:02,520 --> 00:42:05,160
Speaker 1: Supreme Court is so in the tank for Trump in

786
00:42:05,200 --> 00:42:08,799
Speaker 1: a really kind of craven and choking way. But I

787
00:42:08,880 --> 00:42:13,000
Speaker 1: do wonder, like clearly Abbott is opening the door for

788
00:42:13,120 --> 00:42:17,239
Speaker 1: an arms race that will ultimately negate all of you know,

789
00:42:17,400 --> 00:42:20,680
Speaker 1: why even draw congressional districts if you're just going to

790
00:42:20,760 --> 00:42:23,920
Speaker 1: have states use that you know, I mean, do you

791
00:42:24,000 --> 00:42:26,680
Speaker 1: think there's a world in which the Supreme Court steps

792
00:42:26,719 --> 00:42:29,239
Speaker 1: in and says like this is just too stupid. You

793
00:42:29,239 --> 00:42:30,400
Speaker 1: guys have to stop doing this.

794
00:42:30,920 --> 00:42:33,839
Speaker 7: So it's a really important question, and it's one that

795
00:42:34,640 --> 00:42:38,000
Speaker 7: if you look at our lawsuit, we raise the question

796
00:42:38,360 --> 00:42:40,640
Speaker 7: or not raise the question. We make a claim that

797
00:42:40,800 --> 00:42:45,000
Speaker 7: essentially the mid cycle redistricting process that everyone thinks it's

798
00:42:45,040 --> 00:42:48,319
Speaker 7: legal is in fact not legal. And that is in

799
00:42:48,400 --> 00:42:50,560
Speaker 7: part to see whether the Supreme Court does want to

800
00:42:50,560 --> 00:42:53,520
Speaker 7: put a hold on this craziness.

801
00:42:53,400 --> 00:42:57,040
Speaker 1: Because ultimately it is supposed to be tied to a

802
00:42:57,120 --> 00:42:59,520
Speaker 1: census and not tied to vibes.

803
00:43:01,840 --> 00:43:05,319
Speaker 7: How charming of you, how charming of you. Yes, it

804
00:43:05,360 --> 00:43:09,920
Speaker 7: is unsupposedly. Tycho says this, it like constitutionally as psyched

805
00:43:10,040 --> 00:43:13,040
Speaker 7: right right, And you put your finger on the claim

806
00:43:13,120 --> 00:43:15,440
Speaker 7: that we are making in this Texas case, which is

807
00:43:15,440 --> 00:43:19,440
Speaker 7: that these districts are now way malapportioned because they're not

808
00:43:19,560 --> 00:43:23,680
Speaker 7: being drawn there like the current the data. The whole

809
00:43:23,800 --> 00:43:26,440
Speaker 7: theory is you have a census, then you immediately draw maps.

810
00:43:26,560 --> 00:43:29,680
Speaker 7: When you draw maps later they're not going to be

811
00:43:30,400 --> 00:43:34,000
Speaker 7: equal population because people have moved and so like, that

812
00:43:34,280 --> 00:43:35,600
Speaker 7: is part of the problem here.

813
00:43:37,000 --> 00:43:39,160
Speaker 1: But part of the problem here is just we've gotten

814
00:43:39,280 --> 00:43:43,080
Speaker 1: so far afield from how all of this was meant

815
00:43:43,160 --> 00:43:47,360
Speaker 1: to be right that were you know, like during Trump's

816
00:43:47,400 --> 00:43:52,400
Speaker 1: first term, which was unprecedented but still seems quaint compared

817
00:43:52,440 --> 00:43:55,320
Speaker 1: to now, there was a lot of talk about how,

818
00:43:55,640 --> 00:43:59,560
Speaker 1: you know, the founders never imagined anyone with a chainsaw

819
00:44:00,080 --> 00:44:03,080
Speaker 1: ripping through what they had built. I mean, I think

820
00:44:03,120 --> 00:44:05,240
Speaker 1: that's even more true now, right.

821
00:44:05,080 --> 00:44:09,000
Speaker 7: Yeah, So, look, this is where I am extremely critical

822
00:44:09,040 --> 00:44:12,040
Speaker 7: of the courts, and particularly the Supreme Court, because I

823
00:44:12,080 --> 00:44:18,840
Speaker 7: actually think that there are two misconceptions that are empowering Trump.

824
00:44:19,480 --> 00:44:22,080
Speaker 7: The first is that we have three co equal branches

825
00:44:22,120 --> 00:44:24,560
Speaker 7: of government. As Jamie Raskins said, co equal is not

826
00:44:24,560 --> 00:44:30,640
Speaker 7: even a word the Constitution. The Constitution envisioned that Congress

827
00:44:30,719 --> 00:44:33,840
Speaker 7: would be the most powerful branch. So like, part of

828
00:44:33,880 --> 00:44:37,759
Speaker 7: what is broken down here is that actually the framers

829
00:44:37,760 --> 00:44:41,880
Speaker 7: thought the presidency would be a relatively weak institution because

830
00:44:42,080 --> 00:44:46,080
Speaker 7: Congress would have the power to enact laws, to impeach,

831
00:44:46,239 --> 00:44:50,160
Speaker 7: to remove, to confirm judges, or not to confirm or

832
00:44:50,200 --> 00:44:55,200
Speaker 7: not confirmed cabinet officials. It assumed that Congress was going

833
00:44:55,280 --> 00:45:00,120
Speaker 7: to be this huge check And in fact, John Thune

834
00:45:00,760 --> 00:45:04,719
Speaker 7: and Mike Johnson wake up each day and text each

835
00:45:04,719 --> 00:45:08,000
Speaker 7: other to say, who is going to lick Donald Trump's

836
00:45:08,040 --> 00:45:09,000
Speaker 7: boots this morning?

837
00:45:09,360 --> 00:45:09,640
Speaker 1: Right?

838
00:45:09,800 --> 00:45:12,279
Speaker 7: And John Thune says, please let it be me, and

839
00:45:12,320 --> 00:45:15,080
Speaker 7: Mike Johnson says no, no, no, I've already licked them clean.

840
00:45:15,480 --> 00:45:15,640
Speaker 3: Right.

841
00:45:15,719 --> 00:45:18,520
Speaker 7: So, like part of it is a design problem there.

842
00:45:18,560 --> 00:45:24,160
Speaker 7: But the second misconception is that the founders never envisioned this.

843
00:45:24,640 --> 00:45:29,000
Speaker 7: Oh yes they did. They kept they left the king right.

844
00:45:29,080 --> 00:45:33,320
Speaker 7: Like the entire creation of the American system of government,

845
00:45:33,360 --> 00:45:36,359
Speaker 7: The entire theory behind the American system of government was

846
00:45:36,560 --> 00:45:39,560
Speaker 7: that we would not have a king, we would not

847
00:45:39,719 --> 00:45:42,680
Speaker 7: have a strong executive, we would not have a president

848
00:45:42,840 --> 00:45:46,080
Speaker 7: who had much power. I mean, if you read the Constitution,

849
00:45:46,239 --> 00:45:49,080
Speaker 7: what the president. The power of the presidency is the

850
00:45:49,120 --> 00:45:51,799
Speaker 7: following number one, to take care that the laws are

851
00:45:51,840 --> 00:45:55,520
Speaker 7: faithfully executed, and number two, to be the commander in

852
00:45:55,560 --> 00:45:56,920
Speaker 7: chief of the armed forces.

853
00:45:57,280 --> 00:45:57,640
Speaker 6: That's it.

854
00:45:58,200 --> 00:46:01,000
Speaker 7: That's the power of the presidency. So everything he is

855
00:46:01,000 --> 00:46:03,440
Speaker 7: doing is under that first piece or ninety percent of it.

856
00:46:03,640 --> 00:46:06,279
Speaker 7: To take care that the laws are faithfully executed, and

857
00:46:06,360 --> 00:46:09,520
Speaker 7: the courts have kind of read that to mean the

858
00:46:09,560 --> 00:46:11,640
Speaker 7: current Supreme Court has kind of read that to mean

859
00:46:12,320 --> 00:46:17,719
Speaker 7: that he gets to take care however wants. Faithful is

860
00:46:17,760 --> 00:46:20,680
Speaker 7: whatever he thinks X is when he likes it.

861
00:46:21,239 --> 00:46:25,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I mean I think that's right. So and

862
00:46:25,040 --> 00:46:27,960
Speaker 1: that is you know, that is the question. I mean,

863
00:46:28,000 --> 00:46:32,360
Speaker 1: I think the biggest the immunity decision was the moment

864
00:46:32,800 --> 00:46:36,040
Speaker 1: where they were like, fuck it, yep, let's go.

865
00:46:36,520 --> 00:46:38,440
Speaker 7: That's where I think we jump off the rails. I

866
00:46:38,520 --> 00:46:41,400
Speaker 7: think that that whether it was intentional or it was unintentional,

867
00:46:41,440 --> 00:46:44,560
Speaker 7: we can have a huge debate about you or not debate.

868
00:46:44,600 --> 00:46:46,919
Speaker 7: We have a huge discussion, and maybe someday we'll learn

869
00:46:46,920 --> 00:46:51,040
Speaker 7: in the memoirs of the papers whether it was what

870
00:46:51,080 --> 00:46:55,560
Speaker 7: did Donald Rumsell call it a no, no not known?

871
00:46:55,800 --> 00:46:58,680
Speaker 7: Like was this like did they know that this was

872
00:46:58,760 --> 00:46:59,880
Speaker 7: well it's going to happen.

873
00:46:59,719 --> 00:47:04,680
Speaker 1: Or they Jesse knows because I often invoke Don Rumsfeld

874
00:47:04,760 --> 00:47:07,560
Speaker 1: in the great irony of whatever this is that it's

875
00:47:07,640 --> 00:47:10,920
Speaker 1: a no not known? I think, right like his taxes?

876
00:47:11,400 --> 00:47:15,800
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, I mean, is this it did the Supreme

877
00:47:15,840 --> 00:47:22,800
Speaker 7: Court if you ask them today, would they say, yeah,

878
00:47:22,800 --> 00:47:25,479
Speaker 7: this is exactly what we thought, or would they say, man,

879
00:47:25,680 --> 00:47:27,839
Speaker 7: this is not at all what we thought. Yeah, either way,

880
00:47:27,880 --> 00:47:30,720
Speaker 7: I think that that decision is that is that pivot

881
00:47:30,719 --> 00:47:37,080
Speaker 7: point in which we created a president that is literally

882
00:47:37,120 --> 00:47:40,400
Speaker 7: above the law. And therefore, what does it mean for

883
00:47:40,480 --> 00:47:42,680
Speaker 7: a president to have to take care that the laws

884
00:47:42,680 --> 00:47:46,239
Speaker 7: are faithfully executed if in fact, there are no consequences

885
00:47:46,280 --> 00:47:46,799
Speaker 7: if they don't.

886
00:47:46,880 --> 00:47:52,320
Speaker 1: Right, And that's where we are right now. Right Trump

887
00:47:52,400 --> 00:47:56,360
Speaker 1: rolls into the district of Columbia. It's not a city,

888
00:47:56,400 --> 00:47:59,360
Speaker 1: it's not a state. He can do whatever he wants.

889
00:47:59,400 --> 00:48:02,839
Speaker 1: He then arms these guys talk us through. Like the

890
00:48:02,880 --> 00:48:05,360
Speaker 1: one sort of bright spot in this story in my

891
00:48:05,560 --> 00:48:08,320
Speaker 1: mind is that Trump says, I'm going to Chicago next,

892
00:48:08,360 --> 00:48:11,319
Speaker 1: and Pritzker says, the fuck you are, and then dellal

893
00:48:11,360 --> 00:48:13,680
Speaker 1: Trump says, maybe I'm not going to Chicago next.

894
00:48:13,880 --> 00:48:16,120
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean J. D. Pritzkirt deserves a huge amount

895
00:48:16,160 --> 00:48:18,440
Speaker 7: of credit. I mean, boy, that was a hell of

896
00:48:18,480 --> 00:48:21,600
Speaker 7: a speech. Yeah, a hell of a speech.

897
00:48:21,800 --> 00:48:25,160
Speaker 1: I actually had his h I actually got a copy

898
00:48:25,200 --> 00:48:27,879
Speaker 1: of it because I wanted to read it because it's

899
00:48:27,920 --> 00:48:30,719
Speaker 1: so good, and it's really good. I'll send it to you.

900
00:48:30,840 --> 00:48:32,799
Speaker 1: It's really good. Like I was like, Wow. I was

901
00:48:32,800 --> 00:48:34,440
Speaker 1: like reading it to one of my kids. I was like,

902
00:48:34,480 --> 00:48:36,120
Speaker 1: this is how you write a speech. Yeah.

903
00:48:36,160 --> 00:48:39,359
Speaker 7: No, I wrote about it an essay on democracy. Don't

904
00:48:39,400 --> 00:48:42,759
Speaker 7: get that posted today. And the two parts that I

905
00:48:42,880 --> 00:48:48,399
Speaker 7: highlight are number one, he basically validates my thesis that

906
00:48:49,239 --> 00:48:51,640
Speaker 7: you know, this is to interfere with the elections, which

907
00:48:51,640 --> 00:48:54,440
Speaker 7: I think is yeah. And then the second thing is

908
00:48:54,760 --> 00:48:58,200
Speaker 7: you know as you know and oftentimes Molly and I

909
00:48:58,280 --> 00:49:02,320
Speaker 7: are going back and forth on this in our text exchanges,

910
00:49:02,760 --> 00:49:05,560
Speaker 7: like Keith sort of says in more polite terms than

911
00:49:05,600 --> 00:49:07,400
Speaker 7: I do, but like the media needs to get its

912
00:49:07,400 --> 00:49:10,200
Speaker 7: head out of its ask yees covering this has not

913
00:49:10,320 --> 00:49:12,760
Speaker 7: a both side story, but as a one side story.

914
00:49:13,080 --> 00:49:13,560
Speaker 2: Yeah.

915
00:49:13,920 --> 00:49:16,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, any And I mean he said like, I'm not

916
00:49:16,239 --> 00:49:19,240
Speaker 1: an alarmist because you should be alarmed.

917
00:49:19,920 --> 00:49:20,240
Speaker 6: Yeah.

918
00:49:20,360 --> 00:49:22,480
Speaker 7: I think he kind of has like the right demeanor

919
00:49:22,520 --> 00:49:23,480
Speaker 7: for delivering it too.

920
00:49:23,920 --> 00:49:27,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, he has a gravitas. Clearly. We're in a moment

921
00:49:27,080 --> 00:49:30,600
Speaker 1: where there are just very few where I think I

922
00:49:30,640 --> 00:49:33,000
Speaker 1: think of this like we're in that squishy moment that

923
00:49:33,160 --> 00:49:37,800
Speaker 1: where we're not a democracy anymore, but all is not lost.

924
00:49:38,200 --> 00:49:40,759
Speaker 1: And I would love you to talk because this is

925
00:49:40,760 --> 00:49:43,600
Speaker 1: what I spend like all my time obsessing about is

926
00:49:43,640 --> 00:49:46,000
Speaker 1: like when you read all these books about autocracy, one

927
00:49:46,040 --> 00:49:48,080
Speaker 1: of the things they sort of say is that you know,

928
00:49:48,200 --> 00:49:52,959
Speaker 1: everything counts, everything matters. Any any win is actually a win.

929
00:49:53,120 --> 00:49:56,840
Speaker 1: Any you know it. This doesn't happen just like turning

930
00:49:56,920 --> 00:50:00,400
Speaker 1: off a light. It happens in increments. So what are

931
00:50:00,440 --> 00:50:03,560
Speaker 1: the things that are making you sort of less despairing?

932
00:50:04,000 --> 00:50:05,840
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean I think Look, I think they fall

933
00:50:05,920 --> 00:50:09,920
Speaker 7: into three categories. The first is we are seeing, despite

934
00:50:10,000 --> 00:50:13,560
Speaker 7: all of the you know, the the complaining and all

935
00:50:13,640 --> 00:50:17,200
Speaker 7: of the you know, one step back to one step forward,

936
00:50:17,200 --> 00:50:21,560
Speaker 7: two steps back, we are seeing an emerging culture of

937
00:50:21,640 --> 00:50:25,919
Speaker 7: fight among Democrats. Right what you what you are seeing

938
00:50:25,960 --> 00:50:29,160
Speaker 7: in California is fight. What you are seeing from JB.

939
00:50:29,239 --> 00:50:34,200
Speaker 7: Pritzkert is fight. And like we are seeing an emerging consensus.

940
00:50:34,200 --> 00:50:36,480
Speaker 7: If in the beginning, you know, I think you and

941
00:50:36,520 --> 00:50:40,000
Speaker 7: I talked about this, like in you know, in January,

942
00:50:40,040 --> 00:50:44,239
Speaker 7: there were like these competing visions within Democrats of do

943
00:50:44,280 --> 00:50:47,600
Speaker 7: we stand up and fight or do we say we

944
00:50:47,640 --> 00:50:49,879
Speaker 7: will agree with him where we will agree and work

945
00:50:49,920 --> 00:50:50,640
Speaker 7: with him where.

946
00:50:50,440 --> 00:50:52,800
Speaker 6: We can, and disagree where we must.

947
00:50:52,920 --> 00:50:56,440
Speaker 7: And I think like that debate is now pretty favor

948
00:50:56,719 --> 00:50:58,800
Speaker 7: in war, there's much more fight. So I think that's

949
00:50:59,000 --> 00:51:00,200
Speaker 7: that's a reason for goodness.

950
00:51:00,280 --> 00:51:02,759
Speaker 1: And the people who thought we should agree with him

951
00:51:02,760 --> 00:51:06,440
Speaker 1: where we were where we can, which is me, we're wrong.

952
00:51:06,640 --> 00:51:09,360
Speaker 1: And the people who are like, we have to resist everything,

953
00:51:09,520 --> 00:51:13,480
Speaker 1: which worked pretty well in twenty sixteen and in some

954
00:51:13,520 --> 00:51:15,160
Speaker 1: ways were right.

955
00:51:15,719 --> 00:51:19,120
Speaker 7: Yeah, And look, I wrote a piece for Democracy Docket

956
00:51:19,320 --> 00:51:21,440
Speaker 7: before he took office saying that what we need is

957
00:51:21,480 --> 00:51:23,920
Speaker 7: not a resistance, we need a new opposition movement and

958
00:51:24,400 --> 00:51:26,520
Speaker 7: that you know, I spelled it out, like this is

959
00:51:26,560 --> 00:51:30,759
Speaker 7: not going to be the kind of like Breezy, we protest,

960
00:51:30,840 --> 00:51:35,200
Speaker 7: we we disagree, and then he retreats that we have something,

961
00:51:35,440 --> 00:51:37,600
Speaker 7: as you say, and you put your finger on it,

962
00:51:37,680 --> 00:51:40,200
Speaker 7: democracy is broken, Like it's not. It's not like on

963
00:51:40,400 --> 00:51:42,759
Speaker 7: pause like the resistance was, like we resisted, and then

964
00:51:43,200 --> 00:51:44,960
Speaker 7: he goes away and then it comes back like we

965
00:51:45,000 --> 00:51:47,600
Speaker 7: need an opposition movement because this is going to go

966
00:51:47,680 --> 00:51:49,719
Speaker 7: on for a while, Like this is not even if

967
00:51:49,760 --> 00:51:53,560
Speaker 7: Donald Trump believes the scene, what he has wrought is

968
00:51:53,680 --> 00:51:57,680
Speaker 7: now in the politics, and we need a permanent opposition

969
00:51:58,040 --> 00:52:00,320
Speaker 7: against yea. So I think that that's that. Try the

970
00:52:00,400 --> 00:52:02,799
Speaker 7: other things that they give me hope is that we

971
00:52:03,000 --> 00:52:08,279
Speaker 7: are seeing the courts still hold against the worst of

972
00:52:08,320 --> 00:52:12,640
Speaker 7: his worst. I mean, earlier, a federal judge in who

973
00:52:12,680 --> 00:52:16,200
Speaker 7: was appointed by Donald Trump excoriated the Department of Justice

974
00:52:16,719 --> 00:52:21,719
Speaker 7: for their effort to to sue essentially all of the

975
00:52:21,800 --> 00:52:25,320
Speaker 7: judges in Maryland over their immigration.

976
00:52:26,320 --> 00:52:29,000
Speaker 1: You got a real crack team there. That's like, we're

977
00:52:29,000 --> 00:52:30,680
Speaker 1: going to sue all the judges in the.

978
00:52:30,800 --> 00:52:32,640
Speaker 7: Ran which is not a thing. Right, you don't get

979
00:52:32,640 --> 00:52:34,080
Speaker 7: to suit. It's actually a good example of what we

980
00:52:34,080 --> 00:52:36,759
Speaker 7: were talking about earlier, like when when he when they

981
00:52:37,000 --> 00:52:40,080
Speaker 7: sued the judges, Like a lot of the mainstream media

982
00:52:40,120 --> 00:52:43,760
Speaker 7: were like today Donald Trump sued the judges or the judges,

983
00:52:43,760 --> 00:52:45,960
Speaker 7: and I was like, you don't fucking get to suit judgment,

984
00:52:46,360 --> 00:52:48,560
Speaker 7: Like that isn't a thing, Like what do you How

985
00:52:48,560 --> 00:52:50,719
Speaker 7: are you all reporting that this is like a thing,

986
00:52:51,200 --> 00:52:55,279
Speaker 7: Like it's not a thing? Were in it that way?

987
00:52:55,560 --> 00:52:58,480
Speaker 7: But anyway, so you know we saw that earlier today

988
00:52:58,520 --> 00:53:00,840
Speaker 7: also my and I'm proud of my law firm on

989
00:53:00,880 --> 00:53:03,719
Speaker 7: behalf of our clients. We want a big case in

990
00:53:03,760 --> 00:53:07,520
Speaker 7: the Third Circuit on undated and misdated ballots in Pennsylvania.

991
00:53:07,520 --> 00:53:10,480
Speaker 7: Remember that whole Michigan the court said those ballots have

992
00:53:10,520 --> 00:53:13,880
Speaker 7: to count going forward. No more rejecting ballots in Pennsylvana.

993
00:53:14,120 --> 00:53:15,960
Speaker 6: They're not dated or misdated.

994
00:53:16,239 --> 00:53:22,040
Speaker 7: So look, we're having these incremental victories, and as you said,

995
00:53:22,160 --> 00:53:24,880
Speaker 7: like they all matter, right, Like we're not going to

996
00:53:24,920 --> 00:53:26,960
Speaker 7: get saved by one big thing. We're gonna get saved

997
00:53:27,000 --> 00:53:29,200
Speaker 7: by a lot of little things exactly. And I think

998
00:53:29,239 --> 00:53:32,520
Speaker 7: that is the point. Mark, Will you come back? Will

999
00:53:32,560 --> 00:53:35,080
Speaker 7: you can we I'm going to call you. We have

1000
00:53:35,160 --> 00:53:37,279
Speaker 7: to talk more because I want to talk to more.

1001
00:53:37,640 --> 00:53:39,880
Speaker 7: All right, I'll be I'll be back anytime and you

1002
00:53:39,880 --> 00:53:41,480
Speaker 7: can recall in text.

1003
00:53:41,840 --> 00:53:49,560
Speaker 1: Thank you. No moment, Jesse Cannon Smalley.

1004
00:53:49,840 --> 00:53:53,680
Speaker 3: Trump's silly authoritarian takeover of DC.

1005
00:53:54,160 --> 00:53:56,360
Speaker 2: It has no bounds of how stupid it gets.

1006
00:53:56,440 --> 00:53:58,879
Speaker 3: I will tell you my group chat of DC friends

1007
00:53:58,880 --> 00:54:01,200
Speaker 3: today was complaining about how it parking they're taking up

1008
00:54:01,440 --> 00:54:04,440
Speaker 3: now it takes to park when they get We got

1009
00:54:04,440 --> 00:54:07,160
Speaker 3: some real fucking complaints in this dystopia, okay.

1010
00:54:07,360 --> 00:54:11,759
Speaker 1: Yeah. And also they were guarding a Krispy Kreme yesterday.

1011
00:54:12,160 --> 00:54:14,640
Speaker 2: That's that's a little that's a little lot that does

1012
00:54:14,960 --> 00:54:16,120
Speaker 2: on the nose. Yeah.

1013
00:54:16,160 --> 00:54:18,680
Speaker 3: Anyway, they're now going to be seeking the death penalty

1014
00:54:18,719 --> 00:54:20,600
Speaker 3: for anyone who kills somebody in the capitol.

1015
00:54:20,960 --> 00:54:24,600
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna say again, Donald Trump says he's going

1016
00:54:24,640 --> 00:54:28,439
Speaker 1: to seek the death penalty for anyone who kills someone

1017
00:54:28,520 --> 00:54:30,560
Speaker 1: in the capitol. Why do you think Donald Trump wants

1018
00:54:30,600 --> 00:54:34,480
Speaker 1: to do that? Right? Like this is all authoritarian you know,

1019
00:54:34,640 --> 00:54:37,960
Speaker 1: he wants you to think he's an authoritarian. Remember yesterday

1020
00:54:38,040 --> 00:54:40,080
Speaker 1: he said this thing where he said, you know, a

1021
00:54:40,120 --> 00:54:42,040
Speaker 1: lot of people want me to be a dictator. A

1022
00:54:42,120 --> 00:54:43,920
Speaker 1: lot of people don't think it's that bad that I

1023
00:54:43,920 --> 00:54:46,080
Speaker 1: could be a dictator. You know, this is this thing

1024
00:54:46,120 --> 00:54:49,640
Speaker 1: where it's like they say it's humor. They say they're kidding,

1025
00:54:49,880 --> 00:54:53,920
Speaker 1: they say it's a joke, but what they mean is no,

1026
00:54:54,040 --> 00:54:57,560
Speaker 1: we're gonna fucking do it, right, And so Trump is like,

1027
00:54:57,680 --> 00:55:00,400
Speaker 1: isn't it funny? People think they want me to be

1028
00:55:00,400 --> 00:55:03,920
Speaker 1: a dictator? Hilarious? And then you say Donald Trump wants

1029
00:55:03,920 --> 00:55:07,080
Speaker 1: to be a dictator and they say, no, libtard, he's

1030
00:55:07,200 --> 00:55:10,800
Speaker 1: just kidding. No, No, we're going to take him seriously now,

1031
00:55:10,960 --> 00:55:13,000
Speaker 1: and this podcast we're going to take him seriously.

1032
00:55:13,400 --> 00:55:15,440
Speaker 3: We need to pay attention to what he does, not

1033
00:55:15,520 --> 00:55:18,719
Speaker 3: just what he says. And sure is quacking like that duck.

1034
00:55:19,480 --> 00:55:25,040
Speaker 1: Yeah. That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune

1035
00:55:25,120 --> 00:55:30,759
Speaker 1: in every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday to hear the

1036
00:55:30,800 --> 00:55:35,040
Speaker 1: best minds and politics make sense of all this chaos.

1037
00:55:35,320 --> 00:55:38,160
Speaker 1: If you enjoy this podcast, please send it to a

1038
00:55:38,239 --> 00:55:42,200
Speaker 1: friend and keep the conversation going. Thanks for listening.