1 00:00:00,640 --> 00:00:04,160 Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics, 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:07,160 Speaker 1: where we discussed the top political headlines with some of 3 00:00:07,160 --> 00:00:12,200 Speaker 1: today's best minds, and Donald Trump says Ukraine President Zelenski 4 00:00:12,640 --> 00:00:16,720 Speaker 1: has a four percent approval rating when it is in 5 00:00:16,800 --> 00:00:20,439 Speaker 1: fact over fifty percent. We have such a great show 6 00:00:20,520 --> 00:00:25,200 Speaker 1: for you today. Media Matters, Angelo Kirasne stops by to 7 00:00:25,440 --> 00:00:29,040 Speaker 1: talk about the missed opportunities when it comes to communicating 8 00:00:29,200 --> 00:00:32,199 Speaker 1: and fighting back against Trump's agenda. Then we'll talk to 9 00:00:32,320 --> 00:00:35,919 Speaker 1: Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse about how the Senate can 10 00:00:35,960 --> 00:00:38,640 Speaker 1: fight back against DOJE and Trump's many aggressions. 11 00:00:38,640 --> 00:00:43,559 Speaker 2: But first the news, SAMII. Another one of that crystal 12 00:00:43,560 --> 00:00:47,120 Speaker 2: ball we had called actually Reading Project twenty twenty five. 13 00:00:47,200 --> 00:00:52,640 Speaker 2: Another one of the prophecies has come true, Unified Executive theory. 14 00:00:53,280 --> 00:00:55,840 Speaker 1: I know, I'm shocked that everything Trump said he was 15 00:00:55,880 --> 00:00:56,840 Speaker 1: going to do he's doing. 16 00:00:57,200 --> 00:00:58,360 Speaker 3: Just shocked by the way. 17 00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:01,080 Speaker 1: I want to point out vote did say during the 18 00:01:01,120 --> 00:01:03,640 Speaker 1: election that he wouldn't actually do this stuff that he 19 00:01:03,680 --> 00:01:05,240 Speaker 1: said he was going to do. So I think the 20 00:01:05,280 --> 00:01:08,000 Speaker 1: big question is when they see him doing the stuff 21 00:01:08,120 --> 00:01:10,960 Speaker 1: that he said he was going to do, will they rebel? 22 00:01:11,040 --> 00:01:13,920 Speaker 1: And we don't know the president's new executive order will 23 00:01:13,920 --> 00:01:18,880 Speaker 1: give him control over independent agencies. FYI, none of this 24 00:01:19,160 --> 00:01:22,320 Speaker 1: is how it's supposed to work, testing a once fringe 25 00:01:22,600 --> 00:01:23,400 Speaker 1: legal theory. 26 00:01:23,920 --> 00:01:25,399 Speaker 3: Lawsuits are sure to follow. 27 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:29,919 Speaker 1: But again, remember this isn't about succeeding one hundred percent. 28 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:33,000 Speaker 1: This is about succeeding twenty percent. This is about succeeding 29 00:01:33,040 --> 00:01:36,480 Speaker 1: ten percent. This is about changing the paradigm. This is 30 00:01:36,520 --> 00:01:39,480 Speaker 1: about moving the needle. The sweeping order, which claims to 31 00:01:39,560 --> 00:01:44,160 Speaker 1: promote presidential supervision and control of the executive branch, which 32 00:01:44,720 --> 00:01:46,839 Speaker 1: is not how any of this is supposed to work, 33 00:01:47,480 --> 00:01:52,360 Speaker 1: would affect independent agencies like the Federal Election Committee, the 34 00:01:52,400 --> 00:01:57,320 Speaker 1: Federal Communications Committee, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Securities 35 00:01:57,360 --> 00:01:59,880 Speaker 1: and Exchange Commission. So this would mean he would cont 36 00:02:00,280 --> 00:02:04,400 Speaker 1: what's on the air, how the dollar works, trade security 37 00:02:04,520 --> 00:02:07,040 Speaker 1: is the now. I mean, this would be a lot 38 00:02:07,120 --> 00:02:10,840 Speaker 1: more power. The order appears to be designed to test 39 00:02:10,880 --> 00:02:15,320 Speaker 1: a once fringe legal theory dubbed the unitary executive theory. Again, 40 00:02:15,560 --> 00:02:19,560 Speaker 1: the goal here is to get this the Supreme Court 41 00:02:19,600 --> 00:02:21,840 Speaker 1: and have them sign off on it. It reflects the 42 00:02:21,919 --> 00:02:24,959 Speaker 1: growing influence of Trump's budget chief, and we've talked about 43 00:02:25,040 --> 00:02:28,880 Speaker 1: him a lot Russ Vatt, who has basically said that 44 00:02:28,960 --> 00:02:31,480 Speaker 1: the president should be the boss and the Congress should 45 00:02:31,560 --> 00:02:36,079 Speaker 1: basically just be a group of attractive people and not 46 00:02:36,320 --> 00:02:40,239 Speaker 1: have the power of the purse. The order is going 47 00:02:40,320 --> 00:02:42,639 Speaker 1: to be swiftly met by a lot of legal challenges. 48 00:02:42,680 --> 00:02:45,560 Speaker 1: But remember we have a very conservative Supreme Court. Three 49 00:02:45,720 --> 00:02:50,680 Speaker 1: of the members were installed by Donald Trump. These regulatory 50 00:02:50,720 --> 00:02:56,640 Speaker 1: agencies currently exercise substantial executive authority without sufficient accountability to 51 00:02:56,680 --> 00:03:01,000 Speaker 1: the president. These are the ideas in this executive order. 52 00:03:01,160 --> 00:03:05,239 Speaker 1: It's bad, hopefully will get struck down. It's very scary, 53 00:03:05,320 --> 00:03:07,840 Speaker 1: and again this is what we talked about. The order 54 00:03:07,919 --> 00:03:10,680 Speaker 1: proceeds to outline how Vaught, the Director of the US 55 00:03:10,720 --> 00:03:15,520 Speaker 1: Management and Budget, would supervise agencies in establishing performance standards 56 00:03:15,520 --> 00:03:18,840 Speaker 1: and management objectives. So the idea here is that Russ 57 00:03:18,919 --> 00:03:23,960 Speaker 1: Vaught and Donald Trump will run all of the other agencies. 58 00:03:24,240 --> 00:03:27,760 Speaker 1: This is completely insane and not how any of this 59 00:03:27,919 --> 00:03:28,720 Speaker 1: is supposed to work. 60 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:32,359 Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm provided back to August of twenty twenty 61 00:03:32,400 --> 00:03:35,400 Speaker 2: four when Russ Fought was caught on a camera saying 62 00:03:35,440 --> 00:03:37,560 Speaker 2: that when Trump said he has no ties to Project 63 00:03:37,880 --> 00:03:40,960 Speaker 2: twenty five, it was a lie. Yeah, there we go. So, 64 00:03:41,440 --> 00:03:43,720 Speaker 2: since we're one of the more crude podcasts out there, 65 00:03:44,080 --> 00:03:47,560 Speaker 2: agree and titling, this next section does shit because the 66 00:03:47,640 --> 00:03:50,440 Speaker 2: facts they're putting out our bunch of kin to talk shit. 67 00:03:50,520 --> 00:03:53,480 Speaker 2: We have a wholey of total bullshit that they've been doing. 68 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:57,000 Speaker 1: Elon Musk, Department of Government Efficiency claim to be saving 69 00:03:57,120 --> 00:04:00,480 Speaker 1: eight billion dollars on termin eight contracts this week. But 70 00:04:00,960 --> 00:04:03,640 Speaker 1: you will be shocked to know that these poly maths, 71 00:04:03,720 --> 00:04:04,800 Speaker 1: what they meant. 72 00:04:04,520 --> 00:04:08,720 Speaker 3: Was eight million dollars. Reading is fundamental. 73 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:11,440 Speaker 2: Team polymath The math part be jumbo shrip. 74 00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:16,560 Speaker 1: Yes, the error represents about fifteen percent of the total 75 00:04:16,640 --> 00:04:19,960 Speaker 1: fifty five billion dollars that Doge has claimed it has 76 00:04:20,040 --> 00:04:24,839 Speaker 1: made to date. Look, this is so insane. The inconsistency 77 00:04:24,920 --> 00:04:28,040 Speaker 1: is in addition to the slew of contracts listed as 78 00:04:28,080 --> 00:04:32,479 Speaker 1: having US savings of zero, Doge's accounting has called it 79 00:04:32,520 --> 00:04:36,720 Speaker 1: into question, as Musk keeps claiming he has saved Americans 80 00:04:36,800 --> 00:04:39,000 Speaker 1: tens of billions more. By the way, I just want 81 00:04:39,040 --> 00:04:42,640 Speaker 1: to point out two things about Doge. One is that 82 00:04:42,800 --> 00:04:44,520 Speaker 1: he's the richest man in the world. He could just 83 00:04:44,560 --> 00:04:46,640 Speaker 1: pay for all this stuff himself if he wanted. He 84 00:04:46,640 --> 00:04:49,960 Speaker 1: could end world hunger, right, He could make every public 85 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:52,839 Speaker 1: school in America incredible. He could do all that stuff, 86 00:04:52,839 --> 00:04:56,159 Speaker 1: but instead he wants to save taxpayers money. Why does 87 00:04:56,160 --> 00:04:59,800 Speaker 1: he want to save taxpayers money. Why because he wants 88 00:04:59,880 --> 00:05:01,800 Speaker 1: to cut taxes for him in his round. 89 00:05:02,120 --> 00:05:04,000 Speaker 2: I have some news for you. It seems like they've 90 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:06,679 Speaker 2: also done some other fuzzy math with this one hundred 91 00:05:06,720 --> 00:05:09,640 Speaker 2: and fifty year olds who are collecting Social Security. 92 00:05:09,960 --> 00:05:14,080 Speaker 1: I know, shockingly, this was a great thing when I 93 00:05:14,120 --> 00:05:17,520 Speaker 1: saw him doing it, because it was like, I thought, 94 00:05:17,800 --> 00:05:20,120 Speaker 1: that can't possibly be right, and I thought, well, maybe 95 00:05:20,160 --> 00:05:20,600 Speaker 1: it's right. 96 00:05:20,680 --> 00:05:23,120 Speaker 3: You know, he's Elon Musk, He's very smart. He's wrong. 97 00:05:23,360 --> 00:05:26,359 Speaker 1: So he claims that he's found rampant fraud in the 98 00:05:26,400 --> 00:05:29,359 Speaker 1: Social Security administration. You'll remember he said that in the 99 00:05:29,400 --> 00:05:30,640 Speaker 1: oval with Donald Trump. 100 00:05:30,800 --> 00:05:32,640 Speaker 3: There is no one. 101 00:05:32,600 --> 00:05:36,000 Speaker 1: Hundred and fifty year old collecting Social Security benefits. 102 00:05:36,279 --> 00:05:37,919 Speaker 3: It's just so crazy. The programmer. 103 00:05:38,120 --> 00:05:41,160 Speaker 1: Elon claimed the one hundred and fifty number was evidence 104 00:05:41,200 --> 00:05:45,120 Speaker 1: of fraud. But it's actually a weird quirk of the 105 00:05:45,240 --> 00:05:49,080 Speaker 1: Social Securities benefit system, which is written in Cobalt, which 106 00:05:49,120 --> 00:05:52,200 Speaker 1: is a six year old programming language, which grids the 107 00:05:52,800 --> 00:05:57,160 Speaker 1: Social Security database, and it just doesn't so one hundred 108 00:05:57,240 --> 00:06:01,160 Speaker 1: and fifty is actually like ninety six right or a 109 00:06:01,160 --> 00:06:04,679 Speaker 1: little bit less. So this is like the big question 110 00:06:05,080 --> 00:06:10,080 Speaker 1: with Elon is he lying or is he just making 111 00:06:10,120 --> 00:06:10,760 Speaker 1: a mistake. 112 00:06:11,120 --> 00:06:11,599 Speaker 3: I don't know. 113 00:06:11,920 --> 00:06:14,640 Speaker 2: I think it's that Jesse Waters quote that they know 114 00:06:14,839 --> 00:06:18,200 Speaker 2: that once their shit ecosystem of media circles that the 115 00:06:18,240 --> 00:06:20,760 Speaker 2: correction will be quieter than what they said. 116 00:06:20,800 --> 00:06:22,200 Speaker 3: Right, So it doesn't matter. 117 00:06:22,440 --> 00:06:26,520 Speaker 2: Yeah, So Trump just endorsed sweeping Medicaid cuts even though 118 00:06:26,720 --> 00:06:29,840 Speaker 2: he said he wouldn't do that on the campaign trail. 119 00:06:30,360 --> 00:06:31,960 Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm shocked. 120 00:06:32,279 --> 00:06:35,920 Speaker 1: I am shocked that Donald Trump is doing all the 121 00:06:35,960 --> 00:06:37,240 Speaker 1: stuff he said he would do. 122 00:06:37,640 --> 00:06:40,839 Speaker 3: I'm just shocked. Who could have seen this? 123 00:06:41,520 --> 00:06:44,600 Speaker 1: So basically, there are these budgets that are coming and 124 00:06:44,800 --> 00:06:48,719 Speaker 1: in order to cut taxes so that Trump's enormous tax 125 00:06:48,760 --> 00:06:51,560 Speaker 1: cut doesn't expire, they're going to have to cut Medicare. 126 00:06:51,880 --> 00:06:54,120 Speaker 3: They're going to have to cut Medicaid. He just said. 127 00:06:54,480 --> 00:06:57,400 Speaker 1: Basically, Trump said, the House and the Senator are doing 128 00:06:57,400 --> 00:07:01,480 Speaker 1: a spectacular all Caps job before together as one unified, 129 00:07:01,600 --> 00:07:05,599 Speaker 1: unbeatable team All Caps. Now that's actually not true because 130 00:07:05,760 --> 00:07:08,240 Speaker 1: this setate has two bills. The House has one bill. 131 00:07:08,360 --> 00:07:11,480 Speaker 1: It's been back and forth, but either way. This bill 132 00:07:11,680 --> 00:07:16,000 Speaker 1: will cut two trillion dollars the budget, including eight hundred 133 00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:19,880 Speaker 1: and eighty billion dollar cut to critical health programs, in 134 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:22,920 Speaker 1: order to pay for a tax cut for rich people. 135 00:07:23,960 --> 00:07:27,120 Speaker 1: You'll be shocked to hear that this is all a 136 00:07:27,320 --> 00:07:31,080 Speaker 1: big scam to pay for tax cuts for rich people. 137 00:07:31,400 --> 00:07:34,520 Speaker 1: Congratulations all of us, and. 138 00:07:34,800 --> 00:07:35,920 Speaker 3: We knew it was coming. 139 00:07:39,720 --> 00:07:43,680 Speaker 1: Angelo Kiasone is the CEO of Media Matters. 140 00:07:44,240 --> 00:07:48,840 Speaker 3: Welcome back to Fast Politics. Angelo, Thanks for having me. 141 00:07:48,960 --> 00:07:51,160 Speaker 1: I was just saying before this, I didn't even want 142 00:07:51,200 --> 00:07:54,480 Speaker 1: to miss a minute of you talking about what's going on, 143 00:07:54,520 --> 00:07:57,960 Speaker 1: because I just feel like there is so much going 144 00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:01,560 Speaker 1: on and it's funny. You and I did so many 145 00:08:01,800 --> 00:08:06,880 Speaker 1: podcasts this summer about like Project twenty twenty five and 146 00:08:06,920 --> 00:08:09,520 Speaker 1: what it would look like if he won, and what 147 00:08:09,560 --> 00:08:12,480 Speaker 1: it would mean to dismantle the federal government. And I 148 00:08:12,560 --> 00:08:16,600 Speaker 1: remember thinking to myself, twenty one, Okay, he's going to 149 00:08:16,600 --> 00:08:17,840 Speaker 1: dismantle the federal government. 150 00:08:17,880 --> 00:08:19,880 Speaker 3: I wonder how that's going to affect my life. 151 00:08:20,120 --> 00:08:23,560 Speaker 1: Like you know, I don't get disability checks, I don't 152 00:08:23,560 --> 00:08:27,600 Speaker 1: get Social Security, but I do benefit from many many 153 00:08:27,640 --> 00:08:32,040 Speaker 1: things the federal government does. It is super interesting to 154 00:08:32,160 --> 00:08:35,600 Speaker 1: watch the way that they have done this, So talk 155 00:08:35,640 --> 00:08:37,320 Speaker 1: to me about what it looks like. 156 00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:40,120 Speaker 4: Yeah, I'll just talk about with the personal and expand 157 00:08:40,160 --> 00:08:42,040 Speaker 4: out because I said I went through a similar thing, right, 158 00:08:42,080 --> 00:08:44,840 Speaker 4: which is obviously you care about other people, and that's 159 00:08:44,840 --> 00:08:46,760 Speaker 4: a big point of it. But I think democrats and 160 00:08:46,840 --> 00:08:49,480 Speaker 4: sometimes liberals feel bad about being selfish, and I think 161 00:08:49,480 --> 00:08:51,599 Speaker 4: that's important. We should be a little selfish, like we 162 00:08:51,840 --> 00:08:54,520 Speaker 4: should understand the stakes for ourselves and encourage others to 163 00:08:54,559 --> 00:08:54,880 Speaker 4: do that. 164 00:08:55,160 --> 00:08:57,760 Speaker 1: And we should be able to message that because I 165 00:08:57,800 --> 00:09:00,680 Speaker 1: think that one of the problems is there's a group 166 00:09:00,720 --> 00:09:03,760 Speaker 1: of people who think, well, this will just affect poor people, 167 00:09:03,840 --> 00:09:07,440 Speaker 1: which in itself is upsetting, but this is larger than that. 168 00:09:07,840 --> 00:09:10,400 Speaker 4: Yeah, And so for me the moment, it was really early, 169 00:09:10,600 --> 00:09:12,080 Speaker 4: in the first couple of days, I think about how 170 00:09:12,080 --> 00:09:15,440 Speaker 4: it affects me. My family has really really really high 171 00:09:15,440 --> 00:09:18,760 Speaker 4: pink credic cancer rates, like extremely high, way off the charts. 172 00:09:18,920 --> 00:09:20,960 Speaker 4: It's a very very high likely that I, either Io 173 00:09:21,040 --> 00:09:22,800 Speaker 4: or my sister are going to get pank credit cancer. 174 00:09:22,920 --> 00:09:25,000 Speaker 4: So I pay very close attention, weirdly to the paint 175 00:09:25,040 --> 00:09:27,720 Speaker 4: credit cancer community. And I obviously thought, although they got 176 00:09:27,760 --> 00:09:29,000 Speaker 4: to cut all the funding and that's going to be 177 00:09:29,080 --> 00:09:30,720 Speaker 4: terrible and it's going to slow things down. But there 178 00:09:30,720 --> 00:09:33,200 Speaker 4: was a really specific moment the first couple of days 179 00:09:33,200 --> 00:09:36,480 Speaker 4: of DOGE, after they started freezing all those payments and grants. 180 00:09:36,720 --> 00:09:38,679 Speaker 4: There was a doctor who had been working on a 181 00:09:38,679 --> 00:09:40,600 Speaker 4: big study for pank credit cancer. He was on an 182 00:09:40,640 --> 00:09:43,440 Speaker 4: airplane on his way to California to do the final 183 00:09:43,480 --> 00:09:46,680 Speaker 4: pro former meeting before his grant goes through for a 184 00:09:46,840 --> 00:09:50,240 Speaker 4: really new treatment for stage through pank cretic cancer. On 185 00:09:50,280 --> 00:09:52,800 Speaker 4: the plane that cancer the meeting, I mean, it was done. 186 00:09:52,840 --> 00:09:54,520 Speaker 4: It was just to check off the box thing before 187 00:09:54,559 --> 00:09:56,840 Speaker 4: the money gets released and he gets to complete the 188 00:09:56,880 --> 00:09:58,800 Speaker 4: study on the sort of this next phase of his treatment, 189 00:09:58,800 --> 00:10:00,480 Speaker 4: and the whole thing got shut down. And that was 190 00:10:00,480 --> 00:10:02,120 Speaker 4: the moment where I'm like, oh my god, this is like, 191 00:10:02,480 --> 00:10:03,840 Speaker 4: you know, that's almost. 192 00:10:03,480 --> 00:10:04,640 Speaker 5: Invisible, but I could. 193 00:10:04,720 --> 00:10:06,320 Speaker 4: I felt it, I saw it, and I think that's 194 00:10:06,320 --> 00:10:08,440 Speaker 4: something we should all do. And the reason why I 195 00:10:08,480 --> 00:10:10,720 Speaker 4: say that is because when you think about it at scale, 196 00:10:10,840 --> 00:10:12,840 Speaker 4: the enormity is too much to understand. It's like trying 197 00:10:12,840 --> 00:10:14,960 Speaker 4: to have a conversation about the universe. You know, a 198 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:16,959 Speaker 4: million billion sons stolar. 199 00:10:16,600 --> 00:10:18,120 Speaker 5: Systems, Like what that's so big? 200 00:10:18,160 --> 00:10:19,880 Speaker 4: I don't know, and it's so it's hard, and I 201 00:10:20,120 --> 00:10:22,560 Speaker 4: think people need to do need to think about it 202 00:10:22,559 --> 00:10:24,880 Speaker 4: from that perspective, which is how is it going to 203 00:10:24,920 --> 00:10:26,960 Speaker 4: affect me? And not just so they can get upset, 204 00:10:27,040 --> 00:10:28,520 Speaker 4: But I think some of them actually needs to know 205 00:10:28,880 --> 00:10:31,160 Speaker 4: so they can prepare. But I also think that's how 206 00:10:31,200 --> 00:10:32,960 Speaker 4: they see that they have skin in the game and 207 00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:35,880 Speaker 4: that there are some stakes here that requires some engagement now. 208 00:10:36,080 --> 00:10:38,240 Speaker 4: And the reason and I'm again I'm not a cockyde 209 00:10:38,240 --> 00:10:40,560 Speaker 4: optimist about everything, but we should not lose sight of 210 00:10:40,559 --> 00:10:42,839 Speaker 4: the fact that they have a very very very slim 211 00:10:42,840 --> 00:10:45,840 Speaker 4: majority in the House some four votes, only four people 212 00:10:45,880 --> 00:10:48,160 Speaker 4: like Leader jeffries Or I don't make it a habit 213 00:10:48,200 --> 00:10:49,920 Speaker 4: of sort of like ripping on Democrats because I get 214 00:10:49,920 --> 00:10:53,360 Speaker 4: that that's kind of an easy thing to do. And yeah, 215 00:10:53,480 --> 00:10:55,320 Speaker 4: you know, it's like all right, but you know, he 216 00:10:55,400 --> 00:10:58,040 Speaker 4: made it this comment last speak where he said, what 217 00:10:58,080 --> 00:10:59,120 Speaker 4: do you want? What do you want me to do? 218 00:10:59,160 --> 00:11:02,400 Speaker 4: I have we have no leverage? What No, Actually, you 219 00:11:02,440 --> 00:11:04,360 Speaker 4: do have leverage. That's the whole point. You have to 220 00:11:04,360 --> 00:11:06,160 Speaker 4: find the leverage in tweak it. There's plenty of it, 221 00:11:06,200 --> 00:11:08,679 Speaker 4: and one of the leverages is their small margin and 222 00:11:09,200 --> 00:11:11,880 Speaker 4: that to me, was so frustrating because the leverage, in 223 00:11:11,960 --> 00:11:14,920 Speaker 4: part is getting people to understand and connect those dots. 224 00:11:14,960 --> 00:11:16,680 Speaker 4: And the last thing I'll say on this, and I 225 00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:18,679 Speaker 4: really am troubled by it, is that, you know, there 226 00:11:18,760 --> 00:11:22,160 Speaker 4: was this thing with Democrats and the media to a 227 00:11:22,200 --> 00:11:24,280 Speaker 4: degree over and over and over again during Trump's first 228 00:11:24,320 --> 00:11:27,720 Speaker 4: term and then again in the interregnum period where they said, Okay, well, 229 00:11:27,720 --> 00:11:29,760 Speaker 4: mother's going to take him down, you know, and now 230 00:11:29,800 --> 00:11:32,040 Speaker 4: this special prosecutor is going to take him down. 231 00:11:31,920 --> 00:11:34,480 Speaker 3: And somebody's going to come and rescue us from this. 232 00:11:34,720 --> 00:11:36,640 Speaker 4: Yes, and now it's the course. All the courts are 233 00:11:36,640 --> 00:11:38,160 Speaker 4: going to do it. You know, they're going to make 234 00:11:38,200 --> 00:11:40,320 Speaker 4: sure no, you need to do it. The media is 235 00:11:40,320 --> 00:11:43,400 Speaker 4: not the opposition party. The Democrats of the opposition party, 236 00:11:43,440 --> 00:11:45,360 Speaker 4: and they need to act that way, and right now 237 00:11:45,360 --> 00:11:47,960 Speaker 4: they're not. And that's the part that I think people 238 00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:49,480 Speaker 4: are generally frustrated about it. 239 00:11:49,559 --> 00:11:51,840 Speaker 1: The media is not the opposition party. They are meant 240 00:11:51,840 --> 00:11:55,640 Speaker 1: to be narrating what's happening. Democrats are the opposition party, 241 00:11:55,679 --> 00:11:58,040 Speaker 1: and they cannot be passive. I want to go back 242 00:11:58,040 --> 00:12:02,960 Speaker 1: to what you're saying before. The grants are still not unfrozen, 243 00:12:03,320 --> 00:12:06,640 Speaker 1: so even though the courts have said they must be unfrozen, 244 00:12:07,080 --> 00:12:09,960 Speaker 1: they are still not unfrozen, and some are unfrozen, and 245 00:12:10,040 --> 00:12:12,720 Speaker 1: drips and drabs are coming out. The chaos is in 246 00:12:12,800 --> 00:12:14,000 Speaker 1: fact the point. 247 00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:17,240 Speaker 4: Yes, And what happens is because these are really big attractions. 248 00:12:17,320 --> 00:12:20,360 Speaker 4: You know, thousands of employees here, you know, sixty billion 249 00:12:20,400 --> 00:12:22,840 Speaker 4: dollars in grants there. You know, these things get lost 250 00:12:23,040 --> 00:12:25,640 Speaker 4: and it's it is hard to understand. But it's also 251 00:12:25,720 --> 00:12:28,680 Speaker 4: for things that are very important. And what I am 252 00:12:28,800 --> 00:12:32,559 Speaker 4: concerned about so far is that these are really sympathetic things. 253 00:12:32,559 --> 00:12:33,840 Speaker 4: They're not controversial things. 254 00:12:33,880 --> 00:12:36,480 Speaker 3: These are not the truth is on their side. 255 00:12:36,559 --> 00:12:36,760 Speaker 1: Right. 256 00:12:36,880 --> 00:12:39,280 Speaker 3: People want cancer research. 257 00:12:39,200 --> 00:12:39,680 Speaker 5: That's right. 258 00:12:39,760 --> 00:12:42,440 Speaker 4: There are hospitals right now, you know, and children's hospitals 259 00:12:42,480 --> 00:12:45,160 Speaker 4: in particular got hit really hard by these freezes. 260 00:12:45,400 --> 00:12:47,880 Speaker 3: Children's cancer hospitals. 261 00:12:47,559 --> 00:12:48,040 Speaker 5: That's right. 262 00:12:48,120 --> 00:12:50,679 Speaker 4: Like there's sick kids. And I don't understand why we're 263 00:12:50,720 --> 00:12:53,080 Speaker 4: not seeing that, and we're not seeing that because why, well, 264 00:12:53,240 --> 00:12:55,680 Speaker 4: no one's doing anything asymmetrical to be there. You know, 265 00:12:56,120 --> 00:12:58,720 Speaker 4: some Democratic senators are having a coffee clotch in their 266 00:12:58,760 --> 00:13:01,000 Speaker 4: office every few days and saying, you know, and they 267 00:13:01,040 --> 00:13:02,960 Speaker 4: talked to some person as a podcast and that they 268 00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:06,160 Speaker 4: think they're doing new media. Go there, make the media. No, 269 00:13:06,320 --> 00:13:08,320 Speaker 4: maybe the first time you go, they won't follow you. 270 00:13:08,360 --> 00:13:09,319 Speaker 4: That's okay, go again. 271 00:13:09,520 --> 00:13:13,440 Speaker 1: The attitude that Democrats have and again is that they 272 00:13:13,679 --> 00:13:16,720 Speaker 1: should get the same level of coverage as Trump, which 273 00:13:17,160 --> 00:13:19,520 Speaker 1: in itself is self defeating. 274 00:13:19,640 --> 00:13:19,840 Speaker 3: Right. 275 00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:22,319 Speaker 1: One of the reasons why Trump gets so much coverage 276 00:13:22,400 --> 00:13:24,199 Speaker 1: is two reasons. One is because he knows how to 277 00:13:24,200 --> 00:13:27,920 Speaker 1: play the media, and two is because he participates with media. 278 00:13:27,960 --> 00:13:32,000 Speaker 1: He's always leaking, he's always planning, he's always talking to people. 279 00:13:32,360 --> 00:13:35,199 Speaker 1: So I was talking to someone from the Biden White 280 00:13:35,240 --> 00:13:39,600 Speaker 1: House and I sent him the thing about the Hannity 281 00:13:39,840 --> 00:13:42,360 Speaker 1: interview last night, and I said, you know, if Biden 282 00:13:42,440 --> 00:13:46,640 Speaker 1: had been doing this the entire time, you guys would 283 00:13:46,679 --> 00:13:48,240 Speaker 1: not be in the shit show you are. 284 00:13:48,800 --> 00:13:50,840 Speaker 4: And he said, yeah, that's. 285 00:13:50,679 --> 00:13:52,120 Speaker 1: A good idea. I'm trying to get them to go 286 00:13:52,160 --> 00:13:56,440 Speaker 1: on podcasts. No, go on everything. Don't go on podcasts, 287 00:13:56,480 --> 00:13:59,520 Speaker 1: go on everything all the time. The Hannity interview I'm 288 00:13:59,520 --> 00:14:03,800 Speaker 1: talking about is yesterday Elon the first Buddy or perhaps 289 00:14:03,840 --> 00:14:07,320 Speaker 1: the real President and Donald Trump did an interview where 290 00:14:07,320 --> 00:14:10,400 Speaker 1: they both were like, no, he's so great, No, he 291 00:14:10,480 --> 00:14:12,160 Speaker 1: is so great. They did they sat down with their 292 00:14:12,200 --> 00:14:15,360 Speaker 1: friend John Hannity and did you know whatever an hour 293 00:14:15,440 --> 00:14:18,840 Speaker 1: of PR and their people were like, everything is great. 294 00:14:19,120 --> 00:14:20,200 Speaker 4: By the way, I just want to. 295 00:14:20,200 --> 00:14:23,320 Speaker 3: Point out just I'm actually very animated about this. 296 00:14:23,480 --> 00:14:25,920 Speaker 1: That Republicans are trying to figure out how to pass 297 00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:29,560 Speaker 1: these budget amendments and new budget, but Elon is just 298 00:14:29,680 --> 00:14:34,160 Speaker 1: quietly like shiving the federal government. So he's fired all 299 00:14:34,160 --> 00:14:36,720 Speaker 1: these people. He has no congressional approval to do that. 300 00:14:37,280 --> 00:14:39,960 Speaker 1: And in the end, did they get rehired or does 301 00:14:40,000 --> 00:14:42,280 Speaker 1: it not matter or I mean, talk me through that. 302 00:14:42,760 --> 00:14:45,120 Speaker 4: I mean, this was always part of the strategy. And 303 00:14:45,160 --> 00:14:47,240 Speaker 4: this is why I think it is very fair to 304 00:14:47,240 --> 00:14:49,920 Speaker 4: be frustrated with the Democrats, because they were very transparent 305 00:14:49,960 --> 00:14:52,360 Speaker 4: about the plan here, which was to do so much 306 00:14:52,400 --> 00:14:55,280 Speaker 4: so fast, so that it was overwhelming, and that even 307 00:14:55,320 --> 00:14:58,520 Speaker 4: if a few things either get reinstated by force because 308 00:14:58,560 --> 00:15:00,800 Speaker 4: of some legal thing or because they mess up and 309 00:15:00,800 --> 00:15:02,960 Speaker 4: they have to rehire the people, which is a part 310 00:15:02,960 --> 00:15:03,320 Speaker 4: and part of. 311 00:15:03,360 --> 00:15:04,760 Speaker 3: Right like with the nukes. 312 00:15:04,840 --> 00:15:08,040 Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, you'll still get the majority of what you wanted. 313 00:15:08,120 --> 00:15:10,520 Speaker 4: And so the thing that I remind everyone about is 314 00:15:10,560 --> 00:15:13,400 Speaker 4: that this is only phase one. All these determinations right 315 00:15:13,440 --> 00:15:17,200 Speaker 4: now which feel very overwhelming, and they're gutting every so 316 00:15:17,280 --> 00:15:20,240 Speaker 4: many parts of government, making them not functional or totally 317 00:15:20,240 --> 00:15:23,920 Speaker 4: hollowing them out. This is only phase one and probationary employees, 318 00:15:23,960 --> 00:15:25,520 Speaker 4: I think there's a misnomer. I think the media has 319 00:15:25,520 --> 00:15:27,520 Speaker 4: done a very bad job and Democrats have also done 320 00:15:27,520 --> 00:15:30,760 Speaker 4: a very bad job here. Probationary employees are not just 321 00:15:30,960 --> 00:15:34,640 Speaker 4: new hires. It's also people that have been there that 322 00:15:34,720 --> 00:15:38,040 Speaker 4: got recently promoted or transferred to a different department, meaning 323 00:15:38,280 --> 00:15:42,280 Speaker 4: experienced people, people that get rewarded. They also getting pushed out. 324 00:15:42,480 --> 00:15:44,600 Speaker 4: The second wave will be all the schedule lef termination, 325 00:15:44,720 --> 00:15:47,440 Speaker 4: So once they're done with the probationary ones, then they'll 326 00:15:47,480 --> 00:15:51,000 Speaker 4: go through and reclassify another thirty to fifty thousand key 327 00:15:51,040 --> 00:15:55,760 Speaker 4: positions as political and then terminate them. And those are combined. 328 00:15:55,960 --> 00:15:59,960 Speaker 4: Is a substantial sort of impact. And that doesn't even 329 00:15:59,920 --> 00:16:02,480 Speaker 4: get into the other effects, which are grants and contracts 330 00:16:02,520 --> 00:16:05,560 Speaker 4: and the chaos that will ensue, and the downstream effects 331 00:16:05,560 --> 00:16:09,640 Speaker 4: of course on the economy and on individuals, on individual communities. 332 00:16:10,040 --> 00:16:10,560 Speaker 5: And this is. 333 00:16:10,480 --> 00:16:13,360 Speaker 4: Where I think it's important. Where the urgency comes from, 334 00:16:13,440 --> 00:16:17,120 Speaker 4: and the reason why there's urgency now is that it's 335 00:16:17,160 --> 00:16:19,280 Speaker 4: not just a cheap political trick. Oh, this is this 336 00:16:19,400 --> 00:16:21,280 Speaker 4: is the way to get to him, you know, Hey, okay, yeah, 337 00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:24,440 Speaker 4: this will help. This has political benefits, I suppose. But 338 00:16:24,840 --> 00:16:28,000 Speaker 4: it's more important than that is that if Democrats are 339 00:16:28,040 --> 00:16:32,400 Speaker 4: not able to successfully explain and connect the dots between 340 00:16:32,680 --> 00:16:35,680 Speaker 4: the harms that people are experiencing and the actions that 341 00:16:35,680 --> 00:16:37,560 Speaker 4: the administration are taking. If they're not able to do 342 00:16:37,600 --> 00:16:40,400 Speaker 4: that now once it reaches a fever pitch, because of 343 00:16:40,440 --> 00:16:43,640 Speaker 4: the narrative dominance that Donald Trump has and the administration has, 344 00:16:44,080 --> 00:16:46,400 Speaker 4: and their willingness to lie, all they're going to basically 345 00:16:46,440 --> 00:16:49,040 Speaker 4: do is take all of that anger and frustration that 346 00:16:49,160 --> 00:16:51,600 Speaker 4: exists out there and flip it around. They're going to say, well, 347 00:16:51,600 --> 00:16:53,400 Speaker 4: we didn't need to do any of those things. That 348 00:16:53,560 --> 00:16:56,920 Speaker 4: was just malicious implementation. That was just Democrats and the 349 00:16:56,960 --> 00:16:59,920 Speaker 4: deep state and the media sort of doing this to 350 00:17:00,080 --> 00:17:02,000 Speaker 4: hurt you. So you need to give us more power 351 00:17:02,400 --> 00:17:04,880 Speaker 4: so that we can fix it. And so they need 352 00:17:04,920 --> 00:17:08,520 Speaker 4: to do this urgently so that they actually don't end 353 00:17:08,720 --> 00:17:13,520 Speaker 4: up giving this sort of runaway administration more influence and 354 00:17:13,560 --> 00:17:16,439 Speaker 4: more power when a lot of the harms of the 355 00:17:16,600 --> 00:17:19,240 Speaker 4: of their actions even you know, start to materialize. 356 00:17:19,520 --> 00:17:19,800 Speaker 3: Yeah. 357 00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:23,800 Speaker 1: No, And I also think it's like even more than that, 358 00:17:24,480 --> 00:17:26,160 Speaker 1: why are we here? 359 00:17:26,520 --> 00:17:27,800 Speaker 3: These things are not popular? 360 00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:35,720 Speaker 1: Cutting cancer treatment for children, cutting the NIH, cutting the FDA, 361 00:17:36,160 --> 00:17:40,160 Speaker 1: cutting air travel for ten hours this weekend. They had 362 00:17:40,240 --> 00:17:43,160 Speaker 1: fired the people in charge of the nukes, Like this 363 00:17:43,280 --> 00:17:46,560 Speaker 1: is stuff, and you know, like somebody was like more 364 00:17:46,680 --> 00:17:51,600 Speaker 1: eggs less plane crashes, and that is honestly, that's better 365 00:17:51,760 --> 00:17:56,040 Speaker 1: messaging than Donald Trump is Captain Chaos. I mean, that is, 366 00:17:56,160 --> 00:18:01,760 Speaker 1: oh my god, your eggs less plane crash. We should 367 00:18:01,760 --> 00:18:06,160 Speaker 1: not have just fired the people at the CDC who 368 00:18:06,400 --> 00:18:10,679 Speaker 1: study infectious diseases, Like we just had a pandemic and 369 00:18:10,760 --> 00:18:15,520 Speaker 1: some of the hostility towards the pandemic, which again I 370 00:18:15,680 --> 00:18:19,400 Speaker 1: understand they didn't like it, but stopping knowing about other 371 00:18:19,520 --> 00:18:23,439 Speaker 1: pandemics will not prevent another pandemic. Like I feel like 372 00:18:23,480 --> 00:18:27,680 Speaker 1: there's a fundamental sort of misunderstanding of how the world 373 00:18:27,760 --> 00:18:30,840 Speaker 1: works here. And even like one of the things you 374 00:18:30,920 --> 00:18:34,000 Speaker 1: see when you're on X is like a lot of 375 00:18:34,080 --> 00:18:36,080 Speaker 1: magas and probably some of those people are bots, but 376 00:18:36,080 --> 00:18:38,600 Speaker 1: some of those people are real who are like celebrating 377 00:18:38,640 --> 00:18:41,080 Speaker 1: cutting the federal government, and it's like, why are you 378 00:18:41,080 --> 00:18:45,320 Speaker 1: celebrating waiting longer for a passport. Why are you celebrating 379 00:18:45,720 --> 00:18:49,919 Speaker 1: making sure that the FDA has less inspections. Why are you, 380 00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:53,040 Speaker 1: like explain to us what there is to celebrate there. 381 00:18:53,200 --> 00:18:55,639 Speaker 1: This is for tax cuts for very rich people, and 382 00:18:55,680 --> 00:18:58,959 Speaker 1: I think that they don't understand why the federal government 383 00:18:59,040 --> 00:19:00,600 Speaker 1: is being cut like that. 384 00:19:00,600 --> 00:19:03,120 Speaker 4: That's right. And a couple of things here, because well, 385 00:19:03,160 --> 00:19:04,600 Speaker 4: this has always been a hobby horse of the writer, 386 00:19:04,760 --> 00:19:06,800 Speaker 4: is that you try to, you know, dismantle government as 387 00:19:06,880 --> 00:19:09,920 Speaker 4: much as possible. And we shouldn't confuse what's happening now 388 00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:12,639 Speaker 4: with sort of like the standard right wing Oh, we 389 00:19:12,720 --> 00:19:14,560 Speaker 4: just need to hollow out governments so we can actually 390 00:19:14,600 --> 00:19:17,120 Speaker 4: privatize those functions. I mean, that was honestly the dirty 391 00:19:17,119 --> 00:19:19,480 Speaker 4: secret of Republicans fifteen years ago, is they wanted to 392 00:19:19,480 --> 00:19:21,760 Speaker 4: hollow out governments that they could privatize the functions and 393 00:19:21,840 --> 00:19:24,040 Speaker 4: fleece it more. Which I'm not celebrating, but it's like 394 00:19:24,080 --> 00:19:26,240 Speaker 4: they still wanted to do most of the things. They 395 00:19:26,280 --> 00:19:28,600 Speaker 4: just wanted to screw everybody in the process and get 396 00:19:28,600 --> 00:19:31,280 Speaker 4: their friends richer. What's happening right now is not just 397 00:19:31,320 --> 00:19:34,840 Speaker 4: a transformation of government. It's that it's using the instruments 398 00:19:34,960 --> 00:19:38,600 Speaker 4: of government to have a massive cultural change, and that 399 00:19:38,720 --> 00:19:40,879 Speaker 4: everything else comes downstream from that. And so how we 400 00:19:40,960 --> 00:19:43,800 Speaker 4: got here is basically a country that has been pickled 401 00:19:43,800 --> 00:19:46,600 Speaker 4: in right wing misinformation and rage for three decades. You 402 00:19:46,720 --> 00:19:49,600 Speaker 4: do that and you build a pretty rotten core that 403 00:19:49,960 --> 00:19:53,200 Speaker 4: can spread rot spreads. And you know, the weird thing 404 00:19:53,280 --> 00:19:54,959 Speaker 4: is in all of this, and you talked about the 405 00:19:55,240 --> 00:19:57,760 Speaker 4: unpopularity of some of these policies, and it's true, most 406 00:19:57,800 --> 00:20:00,520 Speaker 4: of these things are deeply unpopular. It's not what Americans 407 00:20:00,520 --> 00:20:03,440 Speaker 4: actually want. And the other thing, too, is that there's 408 00:20:03,440 --> 00:20:05,240 Speaker 4: a lot of cruelty, you know, almost as you know 409 00:20:05,280 --> 00:20:07,399 Speaker 4: it in the celebration, and that's been a feature and 410 00:20:07,440 --> 00:20:09,879 Speaker 4: a shift of the fever swamps in recent years is 411 00:20:09,880 --> 00:20:12,320 Speaker 4: the bloodthirst. And you know, there's a reason why Trump 412 00:20:12,440 --> 00:20:16,040 Speaker 4: announced his camp his reelection campaign in Wago, Texas, which 413 00:20:16,119 --> 00:20:17,880 Speaker 4: it's a symbol of anti government attacks. 414 00:20:17,920 --> 00:20:18,600 Speaker 3: I just want to. 415 00:20:18,600 --> 00:20:21,920 Speaker 1: Add that there have been historically a lot of Republicans 416 00:20:21,960 --> 00:20:25,520 Speaker 1: have done this. All of this rhymes maybe it rhymes 417 00:20:25,560 --> 00:20:29,280 Speaker 1: with Jim Crow, maybe it rhymes with McCarthy maybe, but 418 00:20:29,520 --> 00:20:32,280 Speaker 1: it all rhymes like America has. I mean, one of 419 00:20:32,320 --> 00:20:35,480 Speaker 1: the I think the biggest mistakes in twenty seventeen that 420 00:20:35,560 --> 00:20:39,080 Speaker 1: the narration of trumpsm did was they were saying, like, 421 00:20:39,160 --> 00:20:40,120 Speaker 1: this is not who we. 422 00:20:40,080 --> 00:20:42,520 Speaker 3: Are, Like this is absolutely who we are. 423 00:20:43,040 --> 00:20:43,440 Speaker 5: That's right. 424 00:20:43,520 --> 00:20:44,920 Speaker 4: We had to grapple with that reality. 425 00:20:44,960 --> 00:20:46,639 Speaker 5: There's there's a lot of people that are like that. 426 00:20:46,840 --> 00:20:50,159 Speaker 4: And the one thing that is clear is that, aside 427 00:20:50,160 --> 00:20:53,239 Speaker 4: from people not understanding this connective tissue because again the 428 00:20:53,240 --> 00:20:55,760 Speaker 4: news media and the mediat larger are telling the story, 429 00:20:55,760 --> 00:20:57,720 Speaker 4: but you need to have characters in it, and Democrats 430 00:20:57,760 --> 00:20:59,120 Speaker 4: are a key part. 431 00:20:58,920 --> 00:21:00,320 Speaker 5: Of that and they're not helping you that. 432 00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:03,399 Speaker 4: The on part here, which is more visceral, is you know, 433 00:21:03,840 --> 00:21:06,159 Speaker 4: there is something before I even before I think we 434 00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:08,320 Speaker 4: get into the policy stuff, which is an important part 435 00:21:08,359 --> 00:21:12,080 Speaker 4: of it, that there is something unsettling right now about 436 00:21:12,080 --> 00:21:14,679 Speaker 4: what's happening. Even if you are sort of leaning conservative, 437 00:21:15,200 --> 00:21:18,359 Speaker 4: watching sort of some of these figures, you know, Steven 438 00:21:18,400 --> 00:21:21,040 Speaker 4: Miller screaming, the way that Musk and Trump are always together, 439 00:21:21,280 --> 00:21:23,800 Speaker 4: the types of the things they're doing, there's something off 440 00:21:23,840 --> 00:21:26,080 Speaker 4: about it then uncomfortable. Even if you don't really know 441 00:21:26,119 --> 00:21:28,639 Speaker 4: anything about politics, you can have a visceral reaction to that. 442 00:21:28,720 --> 00:21:30,080 Speaker 4: You know, if if you were in a room and 443 00:21:30,119 --> 00:21:31,840 Speaker 4: you had to sit at a table, you know, with 444 00:21:31,880 --> 00:21:34,720 Speaker 4: your lunch tray. You know, you probably choose to sit 445 00:21:34,800 --> 00:21:36,480 Speaker 4: at a table that had nobody at it, then one 446 00:21:36,480 --> 00:21:38,359 Speaker 4: that had Musk and Stephen Miller. You know, if you 447 00:21:38,400 --> 00:21:40,120 Speaker 4: if you were in you know who they were right, 448 00:21:40,119 --> 00:21:42,560 Speaker 4: because there's something off and I think a lot of 449 00:21:42,600 --> 00:21:45,080 Speaker 4: people really feel that, and we shouldn't discount. 450 00:21:44,840 --> 00:21:45,800 Speaker 5: The significance of that. 451 00:21:45,880 --> 00:21:47,679 Speaker 4: There's a reason why people like that, and you know, 452 00:21:47,760 --> 00:21:50,040 Speaker 4: are are having away at Musk as well. Part of 453 00:21:50,040 --> 00:21:51,560 Speaker 4: it is self interest, but a lot of it is 454 00:21:51,600 --> 00:21:54,440 Speaker 4: that it's true they are There is something off here, 455 00:21:54,760 --> 00:21:56,760 Speaker 4: and I do think people can pick up on that, 456 00:21:56,800 --> 00:22:00,560 Speaker 4: and we should not shy away from reminding people that, 457 00:22:00,680 --> 00:22:02,399 Speaker 4: because I think it's important to get in the circle 458 00:22:02,440 --> 00:22:04,679 Speaker 4: and say, wait before I tell you why you need 459 00:22:04,720 --> 00:22:06,720 Speaker 4: to oppose this, but can we just agree that there's 460 00:22:06,720 --> 00:22:07,800 Speaker 4: something uncomfortable. 461 00:22:07,920 --> 00:22:10,359 Speaker 1: And one of the best moments in the twenty twenty 462 00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:13,800 Speaker 1: four cycle, which of course the consultant class shut down 463 00:22:13,960 --> 00:22:16,760 Speaker 1: right away, was when Tim Walls said that these guys 464 00:22:16,760 --> 00:22:17,200 Speaker 1: are weird. 465 00:22:17,480 --> 00:22:20,080 Speaker 4: That's right, And the reason why it resonated so well 466 00:22:20,160 --> 00:22:24,280 Speaker 4: was not because of something specific about Tim Walls. It's 467 00:22:24,359 --> 00:22:27,080 Speaker 4: that it resonated because people felt it. And this has 468 00:22:27,119 --> 00:22:29,800 Speaker 4: been my critique of a lot of the communications broadly 469 00:22:29,800 --> 00:22:31,600 Speaker 4: is that you can talk to people in one of 470 00:22:31,680 --> 00:22:34,160 Speaker 4: three ways. You could talk to people's head, their heart, 471 00:22:34,280 --> 00:22:37,320 Speaker 4: or their gut. And the majority of conservative thinking and 472 00:22:37,400 --> 00:22:39,760 Speaker 4: right wing sort of nonsense is to people's guts. And 473 00:22:39,880 --> 00:22:41,880 Speaker 4: that gets into your point about this is who we are. 474 00:22:42,200 --> 00:22:45,560 Speaker 4: They tap into that really deep core and give people 475 00:22:45,560 --> 00:22:48,840 Speaker 4: a permission structure to behave in ways that maybe they 476 00:22:48,840 --> 00:22:50,880 Speaker 4: feel very request about. That's why you sort of see 477 00:22:50,880 --> 00:22:53,040 Speaker 4: this burst of energy from so many of these just 478 00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:56,320 Speaker 4: reprehensible figures. But Democrats on balance don't really talk to 479 00:22:56,359 --> 00:22:58,960 Speaker 4: people's gut. And I do think that when they said 480 00:22:59,040 --> 00:23:01,320 Speaker 4: the weird thing, you know the consultant, people thought, oh, 481 00:23:01,320 --> 00:23:03,159 Speaker 4: it's because he said a cute insult, so like, you know, 482 00:23:03,200 --> 00:23:05,320 Speaker 4: we should do captain chaos because of prec no right. 483 00:23:05,359 --> 00:23:07,720 Speaker 4: People weren't responding to the insult. They were responding to 484 00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:10,040 Speaker 4: the fact that it tapped into their core. They felt 485 00:23:10,040 --> 00:23:13,240 Speaker 4: it too. And I think broadly, speaking to me, that's 486 00:23:13,240 --> 00:23:15,320 Speaker 4: the important part is to connect with a whole bunch 487 00:23:15,320 --> 00:23:17,680 Speaker 4: of people that I would connect with on just say hey, 488 00:23:17,680 --> 00:23:19,439 Speaker 4: we at least gree there's something weird about this, right, 489 00:23:19,520 --> 00:23:21,200 Speaker 4: uncomfortable and unsettling. 490 00:23:21,480 --> 00:23:22,200 Speaker 5: It's uneasy. 491 00:23:22,320 --> 00:23:24,399 Speaker 4: And then beyond that is to actually get people to 492 00:23:24,480 --> 00:23:26,680 Speaker 4: think a little more selfishly about how this is going 493 00:23:26,720 --> 00:23:29,720 Speaker 4: to affect them, and then to not similar inpotency, to 494 00:23:29,800 --> 00:23:33,119 Speaker 4: recognize that there is such a very thin political margin 495 00:23:33,160 --> 00:23:35,439 Speaker 4: and we should we should make some noise about it, right. 496 00:23:35,400 --> 00:23:37,800 Speaker 1: I mean that is a thing too, like, well, we're cooked. 497 00:23:37,800 --> 00:23:40,320 Speaker 1: There's nothing we can do, you know. And the truth 498 00:23:40,400 --> 00:23:43,000 Speaker 1: is most of the country does not like this. A 499 00:23:43,040 --> 00:23:45,160 Speaker 1: lot of the people who voted for Donald Trump didn't 500 00:23:45,200 --> 00:23:47,440 Speaker 1: think he was going to do the stuff he said he. 501 00:23:47,440 --> 00:23:47,919 Speaker 3: Was going to do. 502 00:23:48,280 --> 00:23:51,359 Speaker 1: We know this because we'd talked to voters and you 503 00:23:51,400 --> 00:23:53,000 Speaker 1: would say, you know, he's going to do this, and 504 00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:55,680 Speaker 1: they'd say, oh, no, he's not going to do that. 505 00:23:55,680 --> 00:23:58,640 Speaker 3: That would be terrible. So like he's doing that. 506 00:23:58,800 --> 00:24:02,960 Speaker 1: He is doing the stuff that these voters, these trumpy voters, 507 00:24:03,040 --> 00:24:05,399 Speaker 1: said he wasn't going to do because they thought it 508 00:24:05,440 --> 00:24:06,080 Speaker 1: would be bad. 509 00:24:06,440 --> 00:24:08,720 Speaker 4: Yeah, And that's you know, that's the point too, is 510 00:24:08,760 --> 00:24:11,840 Speaker 4: that their coalition is you know, very volerable. You know, 511 00:24:11,880 --> 00:24:14,720 Speaker 4: they they organized and built power on what used to 512 00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:17,639 Speaker 4: be considered the fringes. What they pulled together is something 513 00:24:17,640 --> 00:24:21,159 Speaker 4: that is deeply vulnerable, and being able to identify those 514 00:24:21,240 --> 00:24:24,919 Speaker 4: betrayals and fracture points and fissures is significant. And I 515 00:24:24,960 --> 00:24:27,879 Speaker 4: think on balance, liberals, Democrats, the media are doing a 516 00:24:27,920 --> 00:24:30,239 Speaker 4: good job of like not making the right feel like, oh, 517 00:24:30,240 --> 00:24:33,200 Speaker 4: they're owning us. I don't think we're stepping on any 518 00:24:33,200 --> 00:24:34,720 Speaker 4: of the bear traps that we have in the past. 519 00:24:34,920 --> 00:24:37,720 Speaker 4: But the leadership is frozen. That is a problem because 520 00:24:37,800 --> 00:24:39,720 Speaker 4: I think there's this idea that maybe we'll wait it out, 521 00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:42,320 Speaker 4: or there'll be a catalyzing moment or people will see it, 522 00:24:42,359 --> 00:24:43,560 Speaker 4: and that is ridiculous. 523 00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:47,440 Speaker 1: And I also think ultimately, like there is a bravery 524 00:24:47,560 --> 00:24:52,919 Speaker 1: issue here, Like I understand that if you're a Democrat 525 00:24:52,960 --> 00:24:55,720 Speaker 1: who ran for office forty years ago, you thought you'd 526 00:24:55,720 --> 00:24:59,120 Speaker 1: be fighting against Bob Dole and not Donald Trump, right, 527 00:24:59,200 --> 00:25:01,879 Speaker 1: you didn't think they're be like a group, you know, 528 00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:06,199 Speaker 1: a group text filled with MAGA influencers tweeting out you 529 00:25:06,240 --> 00:25:10,040 Speaker 1: know how to attack you. But here we are, man like, 530 00:25:10,160 --> 00:25:11,879 Speaker 1: this is where we are. So if you don't want 531 00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:15,359 Speaker 1: to fight for democratic values, I mean, I think of 532 00:25:15,400 --> 00:25:17,720 Speaker 1: this as a very easy moment in American life, right, 533 00:25:17,760 --> 00:25:18,920 Speaker 1: there's not a lot of nuance. 534 00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:19,159 Speaker 3: Right. 535 00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:22,720 Speaker 1: There have been moments, especially in politics, where you had 536 00:25:22,720 --> 00:25:24,880 Speaker 1: to take a real nuanced look, you've had to say 537 00:25:24,920 --> 00:25:27,919 Speaker 1: things that maybe would make people upset. You'd had to. 538 00:25:28,200 --> 00:25:31,040 Speaker 1: But this is not that there's no nuance here. It's 539 00:25:31,119 --> 00:25:33,480 Speaker 1: just a question of being brave and a lot of 540 00:25:33,520 --> 00:25:36,480 Speaker 1: these people are not up for it, which is fine, 541 00:25:36,640 --> 00:25:39,840 Speaker 1: but then they need to go because this job, it's 542 00:25:39,880 --> 00:25:40,800 Speaker 1: not the Supreme Court. 543 00:25:41,080 --> 00:25:42,520 Speaker 5: A couple things on the bravery front. 544 00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:45,240 Speaker 4: One, I totally agree, and I feel at firsthand, right, 545 00:25:45,280 --> 00:25:47,920 Speaker 4: I mean, I'm under horrible and how from Musk and 546 00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:50,920 Speaker 4: Twitter and all these threats from goverment officials and people 547 00:25:50,960 --> 00:25:52,760 Speaker 4: that now have govermt officials that a few years ago 548 00:25:52,800 --> 00:25:54,879 Speaker 4: are writing media figures and you have to have a 549 00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:58,600 Speaker 4: stiff spine. I understand why others may feel the sensitivity there, because, 550 00:25:58,680 --> 00:26:01,200 Speaker 4: in a weird way, while solid seems like a through 551 00:26:01,240 --> 00:26:04,480 Speaker 4: line on the left, it's not true. Fear and vulnerability 552 00:26:04,880 --> 00:26:06,720 Speaker 4: tend to make people on the left duck and cover. 553 00:26:06,880 --> 00:26:09,040 Speaker 4: Why so many people ran away from the repro movement. 554 00:26:09,160 --> 00:26:10,760 Speaker 4: We could go back twenty years ago and be like, look, 555 00:26:10,760 --> 00:26:13,240 Speaker 4: we should even more than that when they started to 556 00:26:13,280 --> 00:26:16,040 Speaker 4: target abortion providers that used to be inside hospitals so 557 00:26:16,119 --> 00:26:18,320 Speaker 4: they can get the clinics to be standalone, so that 558 00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:20,359 Speaker 4: then they could divide and conquer. Right, that should have 559 00:26:20,359 --> 00:26:22,840 Speaker 4: been the moment. Like liberals have a tough time with 560 00:26:22,920 --> 00:26:25,879 Speaker 4: this concept of solidarity when they're under pressure. It's just 561 00:26:25,920 --> 00:26:28,640 Speaker 4: it's fear, and I appreciate that, but this is it. 562 00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:30,679 Speaker 4: There is it is too as you know, it's a 563 00:26:30,720 --> 00:26:33,720 Speaker 4: clear choice. And to that point about bravery and consideration, 564 00:26:34,040 --> 00:26:35,280 Speaker 4: the part that I think is a little bit of 565 00:26:35,320 --> 00:26:37,440 Speaker 4: a connective issues that I think it's just about thirty 566 00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:39,520 Speaker 4: percent of the federal workforce is veterans. 567 00:26:39,600 --> 00:26:41,159 Speaker 3: Yeah, and they're all getting fired. 568 00:26:41,440 --> 00:26:41,680 Speaker 5: Yes. 569 00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:44,399 Speaker 4: If we think about the types of people that you know, 570 00:26:44,600 --> 00:26:45,840 Speaker 4: we always talk to me and they get the board 571 00:26:45,840 --> 00:26:48,600 Speaker 4: airplanes early, right, and we always talk about them, and 572 00:26:48,640 --> 00:26:50,959 Speaker 4: we thank them for their support, and we make all 573 00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:53,320 Speaker 4: these cultural nons to them, right, And I think that 574 00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:56,480 Speaker 4: at minimument democrats, if they don't feel like they should 575 00:26:56,520 --> 00:26:58,600 Speaker 4: do it for themselves at least, I don't want to say, 576 00:26:58,680 --> 00:27:00,760 Speaker 4: hide behind, but at least stand behind the thing that 577 00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:04,159 Speaker 4: you're always popping up as an example of heroism and 578 00:27:04,200 --> 00:27:06,840 Speaker 4: support and that should be an easy story for them 579 00:27:06,880 --> 00:27:09,560 Speaker 4: to tell because so many veterans are being affected by 580 00:27:09,560 --> 00:27:12,359 Speaker 4: this too. And I understand the fear, but you know, 581 00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:13,960 Speaker 4: I mean, I do only have all these lines. We 582 00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:15,560 Speaker 4: only think to fear is fear itself, Like we all 583 00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:17,960 Speaker 4: have all these historical touchstones. None of this is new. 584 00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:21,080 Speaker 4: It's literally history repeating itself. Just you're the cheat codes, 585 00:27:21,160 --> 00:27:23,480 Speaker 4: and I feel like one of the cheat codes is 586 00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:25,600 Speaker 4: not to succumbent to that fear. 587 00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:27,240 Speaker 5: And also that a little bit. 588 00:27:27,119 --> 00:27:30,479 Speaker 4: Of courage is extremely contagious and we need some of that. 589 00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:35,000 Speaker 3: Yes, correct, I think that's exactly right. Thank you, Angela, 590 00:27:35,440 --> 00:27:35,840 Speaker 3: Thank you. 591 00:27:38,240 --> 00:27:41,280 Speaker 1: Sheldon white House is the junior senator from the state 592 00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:46,520 Speaker 1: of Rhode Island. Welcome back to Fast Politics, Senator Sheldon 593 00:27:46,560 --> 00:27:47,359 Speaker 1: white House. 594 00:27:47,400 --> 00:27:49,520 Speaker 5: Thank you so much. I'm very glad to be on 595 00:27:49,560 --> 00:27:49,840 Speaker 5: with you. 596 00:27:50,200 --> 00:27:53,080 Speaker 3: Project twenty twenty five is here. It's real. 597 00:27:53,720 --> 00:27:58,080 Speaker 1: Today Trump signed an executive order that's going to try 598 00:27:58,119 --> 00:28:01,119 Speaker 1: to get to the Supreme Court, likely to test unitary 599 00:28:01,280 --> 00:28:02,360 Speaker 1: executive theory. 600 00:28:02,560 --> 00:28:05,359 Speaker 3: It's so annoying. But tell us where you are with us. 601 00:28:05,680 --> 00:28:10,399 Speaker 5: I completely misjudged Doggie. Yes, I thought that was the 602 00:28:10,480 --> 00:28:13,240 Speaker 5: place where the Trump's chief of staff had figured out 603 00:28:13,240 --> 00:28:16,440 Speaker 5: to put these two eccentric billionaires like the Toddler pen 604 00:28:16,680 --> 00:28:19,199 Speaker 5: where they could think deep thoughts about government reform, but 605 00:28:19,240 --> 00:28:22,840 Speaker 5: they had no power whatsoever. They weren't decision makers of 606 00:28:22,880 --> 00:28:26,200 Speaker 5: any kind. And then ramas Fani got the boot, and 607 00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:30,040 Speaker 5: then Musk left alone, burst out of the doggy pen 608 00:28:30,200 --> 00:28:35,120 Speaker 5: and started rampaging through the government. And you see, first 609 00:28:35,160 --> 00:28:39,960 Speaker 5: of all, just massive destruction with no logic to it, 610 00:28:40,160 --> 00:28:43,080 Speaker 5: just trying to break whatever stuff they can. You see 611 00:28:43,080 --> 00:28:44,920 Speaker 5: a mad rush to try to stay ahead of the 612 00:28:44,920 --> 00:28:48,000 Speaker 5: courts because what they're doing is illegal and they know it, 613 00:28:48,040 --> 00:28:53,560 Speaker 5: so they're rushing forward. And you see, given the chech 614 00:28:53,600 --> 00:28:57,880 Speaker 5: billionaires who were with Trump at the inauguration and favorite 615 00:28:57,920 --> 00:29:01,600 Speaker 5: seating out of his own cabinet, given that they live 616 00:29:01,800 --> 00:29:06,080 Speaker 5: off of data, that data is immensely valuable to them. 617 00:29:06,120 --> 00:29:09,000 Speaker 5: It's the coin of their realm. The fact that their 618 00:29:09,080 --> 00:29:14,200 Speaker 5: pal Elon Musk is rummaging his muskrats around in our 619 00:29:14,280 --> 00:29:20,280 Speaker 5: data systems and potentially leaving tax data, healthcare data, social 620 00:29:20,320 --> 00:29:27,240 Speaker 5: security data available to big data interests is an alarming, 621 00:29:27,480 --> 00:29:31,480 Speaker 5: alarming prospect that has not at all been ruled out. 622 00:29:31,920 --> 00:29:35,240 Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't understand he won't even sort of give 623 00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:38,160 Speaker 1: us an answer as to what he's doing in there. 624 00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:41,240 Speaker 5: Right, Oh, I mean, it's all as vague as can be. Frankly, 625 00:29:41,360 --> 00:29:44,880 Speaker 5: they won't even accurately describe who he works for and 626 00:29:44,960 --> 00:29:48,520 Speaker 5: whether he's running the muskrats in the doggy pen, or 627 00:29:48,680 --> 00:29:52,200 Speaker 5: like how that is all working. It's at this point 628 00:29:52,320 --> 00:29:55,520 Speaker 5: just a huge destructive mess. If you remember the Cat 629 00:29:55,560 --> 00:29:58,760 Speaker 5: in the Hat, Yeah, remember that book. Yes, and Thing one, 630 00:29:58,920 --> 00:30:01,880 Speaker 5: Thing two come in and up the house. Musk and 631 00:30:01,920 --> 00:30:04,880 Speaker 5: his little muskrats are like a whole fleet of Things 632 00:30:04,960 --> 00:30:08,280 Speaker 5: one and Thing two is running about the government, destroying 633 00:30:08,320 --> 00:30:10,600 Speaker 5: as much as they think they can get away with. 634 00:30:10,840 --> 00:30:12,720 Speaker 5: I think with the theory that at some point the 635 00:30:12,800 --> 00:30:15,040 Speaker 5: cat and the Hat drives in his machine and puts 636 00:30:15,040 --> 00:30:17,320 Speaker 5: it all back together, or maybe they just leave. 637 00:30:17,200 --> 00:30:21,480 Speaker 1: It wrecked, broken, because that supports Project twenty twenty five, 638 00:30:21,720 --> 00:30:23,959 Speaker 1: the idea of dismantling the federal government. 639 00:30:24,040 --> 00:30:26,400 Speaker 5: If you reduce the federal government, you make it less 640 00:30:26,400 --> 00:30:30,520 Speaker 5: expensive and less helpful to people, and with less funds 641 00:30:30,600 --> 00:30:34,240 Speaker 5: blowing through it, that opens up the all important space 642 00:30:34,680 --> 00:30:37,760 Speaker 5: for tax cuts for millionaires right. 643 00:30:37,600 --> 00:30:40,680 Speaker 1: And privatization of what little is left of the federal government. 644 00:30:40,840 --> 00:30:43,040 Speaker 1: You serve with these people in the Senate, You've known 645 00:30:43,080 --> 00:30:45,760 Speaker 1: them for a million years. Are you surprised that nobody 646 00:30:45,840 --> 00:30:47,840 Speaker 1: has a spine to stand up to like a cash 647 00:30:47,920 --> 00:30:51,080 Speaker 1: patal who will totally weaponize the department? 648 00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:53,280 Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean it's obvious he has said, so why 649 00:30:53,320 --> 00:30:54,400 Speaker 5: would you not believe him? 650 00:30:54,480 --> 00:30:55,840 Speaker 3: He's working on him right now. 651 00:30:55,880 --> 00:30:58,400 Speaker 1: He fired a couple of people while he's not even 652 00:30:58,440 --> 00:30:59,080 Speaker 1: in there yet. 653 00:30:59,360 --> 00:31:03,440 Speaker 5: Yeah. And the Attorney General Pambondi has already allowed the 654 00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:07,120 Speaker 5: department to be weaponized to do, for instance, a fake 655 00:31:07,480 --> 00:31:11,480 Speaker 5: grand jury investigation in order to be able to assert 656 00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:17,360 Speaker 5: that Biden funding at the EPA is somehow potentially criminal 657 00:31:17,400 --> 00:31:20,120 Speaker 5: or fraudulent, and you need to get a seizure order 658 00:31:20,160 --> 00:31:22,640 Speaker 5: to prevent it from being distributed to the groups and 659 00:31:22,720 --> 00:31:26,400 Speaker 5: the states to whom it's already been legally obligated. She's 660 00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:30,120 Speaker 5: completely had her little sidekick Bovi's back on that, which 661 00:31:30,120 --> 00:31:34,960 Speaker 5: has led to yet another career senior DOJ person doing 662 00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:40,120 Speaker 5: a noisy exit and a resignation to protest the corruption. Yes, 663 00:31:40,160 --> 00:31:43,200 Speaker 5: you're right, something has happened. There's been a general spinal 664 00:31:43,240 --> 00:31:45,680 Speaker 5: evaporation among Republican senators. 665 00:31:45,960 --> 00:31:49,760 Speaker 1: You have very few levers, right except screaming about what's 666 00:31:49,760 --> 00:31:53,400 Speaker 1: happening and narrating it because otherwise, you know, there is 667 00:31:53,440 --> 00:31:58,400 Speaker 1: no mainstream media anymore. There are very few options for anyone, right, 668 00:31:58,800 --> 00:32:01,800 Speaker 1: and they're narrating this cutting medicaid. I mean you saw, 669 00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:05,920 Speaker 1: I mean, you have seen their two bills. The Lindsey 670 00:32:05,920 --> 00:32:09,120 Speaker 1: Graham budget is cuts medicaid. I mean, talk to me 671 00:32:09,160 --> 00:32:11,120 Speaker 1: about the budget that they want to pass. 672 00:32:11,440 --> 00:32:12,240 Speaker 3: By the way, So. 673 00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:16,360 Speaker 1: They're passing a budget even though they are unconstitutionally shredding 674 00:32:16,600 --> 00:32:19,720 Speaker 1: the federal government with just this guy wasn't elected. 675 00:32:20,160 --> 00:32:23,760 Speaker 5: Yeah, what they're doing is the reconciliation process. It's not 676 00:32:23,880 --> 00:32:26,320 Speaker 5: so much the budget. It goes through the Budget Committee, 677 00:32:26,360 --> 00:32:29,320 Speaker 5: but what it is is a reconciliation bill. And what's 678 00:32:29,320 --> 00:32:32,840 Speaker 5: important about reconciliation is that by law, it's the one 679 00:32:32,880 --> 00:32:36,800 Speaker 5: thing that can go through the Senate with only fifty votes, 680 00:32:36,840 --> 00:32:39,640 Speaker 5: the majority can drive it through. That's how we passed 681 00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:42,920 Speaker 5: the Inflation and Reduction Act. We drove that through, and 682 00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:45,240 Speaker 5: we did that to deal with climate change and to 683 00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:49,960 Speaker 5: provide like a boost to the clean energy sector and 684 00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:53,000 Speaker 5: make the transition that will keep the world safe. We 685 00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:55,920 Speaker 5: weren't taking care of ourselves. Most of the jobs went 686 00:32:55,960 --> 00:32:59,120 Speaker 5: to red states. We did it for a good purpose. 687 00:32:59,360 --> 00:33:01,680 Speaker 5: They're coming in and they're doing it to slash and 688 00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:05,880 Speaker 5: crash through the federal government in order to fund more 689 00:33:05,920 --> 00:33:09,800 Speaker 5: tax cuts for billionaires who already pay preposterously low tax 690 00:33:09,880 --> 00:33:12,000 Speaker 5: rates if they pay any taxes at all. 691 00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:14,760 Speaker 1: You know, there's so many places in these bills where 692 00:33:14,760 --> 00:33:18,480 Speaker 1: they're just cutting tax cuts or wealthy people cutting corporate taxes. 693 00:33:18,680 --> 00:33:21,800 Speaker 1: None of this is popular, but for whatever reason, they're 694 00:33:21,880 --> 00:33:24,000 Speaker 1: able to message it as popular. 695 00:33:24,520 --> 00:33:26,800 Speaker 5: Well, at the moment, none of it is real. You know, 696 00:33:26,880 --> 00:33:29,840 Speaker 5: at this age in the Senate budget process, all that's 697 00:33:29,880 --> 00:33:33,000 Speaker 5: being voted out of the Budget Committee is an instruction 698 00:33:33,400 --> 00:33:37,920 Speaker 5: to the actual authorized committees how much money they're supposed 699 00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:41,920 Speaker 5: to either save or add. But there's no policy component. 700 00:33:42,040 --> 00:33:45,720 Speaker 5: It's just numbers. You can deduce from those numbers what 701 00:33:45,800 --> 00:33:48,280 Speaker 5: they're coming after. That's why people are talking about a 702 00:33:48,400 --> 00:33:51,880 Speaker 5: forty percent cut to medicate. It's the deduction you draw 703 00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:55,320 Speaker 5: from what they and their House colleagues are doing. But 704 00:33:55,400 --> 00:34:00,320 Speaker 5: the real hit comes when the instructions to the committee 705 00:34:00,760 --> 00:34:05,920 Speaker 5: are responded to by the committees and the actual legislative 706 00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:10,840 Speaker 5: language comes back and an actual bill passes into law 707 00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:14,640 Speaker 5: and it's there that you see for sure exactly how 708 00:34:14,680 --> 00:34:17,080 Speaker 5: much they want to cut Medicaid, whether they're going to 709 00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:20,759 Speaker 5: attack social security, you know what the actual array is 710 00:34:20,880 --> 00:34:25,080 Speaker 5: of cuts that they're using to fund the billionaire x breaks. 711 00:34:25,320 --> 00:34:27,800 Speaker 5: And that's where it really is going to get painful 712 00:34:28,160 --> 00:34:32,520 Speaker 5: for Republicans who have huge Medicaid footprints in their states, 713 00:34:32,760 --> 00:34:36,120 Speaker 5: for things like childbirth, for things like granny in the 714 00:34:36,200 --> 00:34:40,160 Speaker 5: nursing home, for things like your cousin's opioid addiction, and 715 00:34:40,320 --> 00:34:43,480 Speaker 5: if you're going to slash through that, it's really really painful. 716 00:34:43,520 --> 00:34:46,640 Speaker 5: For now, it's just a lot of happy talk and politics, 717 00:34:46,760 --> 00:34:49,160 Speaker 5: but it's about to get really real and really ugly 718 00:34:49,239 --> 00:34:49,640 Speaker 5: for them. 719 00:34:49,840 --> 00:34:52,399 Speaker 1: So I want you to talk about impoundment because part 720 00:34:52,480 --> 00:34:55,520 Speaker 1: of what's happening here. They are like about fifteen things 721 00:34:55,560 --> 00:34:57,520 Speaker 1: happening at once. But one of the things is that 722 00:34:57,719 --> 00:35:01,000 Speaker 1: Elon Musk, you know, he's firing ten of a workforce. 723 00:35:01,040 --> 00:35:04,400 Speaker 1: He can't fire so probably and the courts have stopped 724 00:35:04,480 --> 00:35:07,400 Speaker 1: him to some extent, or they will, but when it 725 00:35:07,440 --> 00:35:10,239 Speaker 1: comes to impoundment, So for example, I'm thinking of these 726 00:35:10,320 --> 00:35:11,400 Speaker 1: NIH funds. 727 00:35:11,560 --> 00:35:13,040 Speaker 3: There are these NIH funds. 728 00:35:13,160 --> 00:35:15,200 Speaker 1: Elon had this brilliant plan that he was going to 729 00:35:15,280 --> 00:35:19,359 Speaker 1: cut the indirect expenditure to fifteen percent because he's never 730 00:35:19,400 --> 00:35:20,960 Speaker 1: written a scientific grant. 731 00:35:20,760 --> 00:35:23,040 Speaker 3: So why does he care. Let's just cut it to 732 00:35:23,120 --> 00:35:26,600 Speaker 3: five percent. And now this money a court said that 733 00:35:26,600 --> 00:35:26,960 Speaker 3: they had. 734 00:35:26,920 --> 00:35:30,480 Speaker 1: To unfreeze it, but now the money is maybe still 735 00:35:30,520 --> 00:35:31,760 Speaker 1: not being released. 736 00:35:32,160 --> 00:35:35,759 Speaker 5: Yeah, so two things. First, they're going through what I 737 00:35:35,840 --> 00:35:40,240 Speaker 5: call the fog bank exercise, in which nobody will actually 738 00:35:40,760 --> 00:35:44,560 Speaker 5: say no to distributing the funds, because a hard no 739 00:35:44,800 --> 00:35:47,560 Speaker 5: from a named official is something that you can attach 740 00:35:47,560 --> 00:35:50,839 Speaker 5: a court order to and say, oh, okay, no, you're 741 00:35:50,880 --> 00:35:53,840 Speaker 5: in violation because you said no. So instead of saying no, 742 00:35:53,960 --> 00:35:56,520 Speaker 5: they've retreated behind a fog bank where they don't answer 743 00:35:56,600 --> 00:35:59,959 Speaker 5: phone calls, don't answer emails, say that they don't know yet. 744 00:36:00,360 --> 00:36:04,879 Speaker 5: It's all just confusion and no answer. But the guys 745 00:36:04,920 --> 00:36:07,960 Speaker 5: from Moscow Central who are in all these agencies that 746 00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:11,279 Speaker 5: are controlling this, are telling people the money does not 747 00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:13,640 Speaker 5: go out, the money does not go out, and they're 748 00:36:13,719 --> 00:36:17,480 Speaker 5: hiding in the fog bank from the judicial repercussion of 749 00:36:17,640 --> 00:36:20,520 Speaker 5: breaking the law, which is what they're actually doing. But 750 00:36:20,600 --> 00:36:22,840 Speaker 5: I think courts are going to catch onto that pretty quickly, 751 00:36:23,040 --> 00:36:25,320 Speaker 5: and so we'll have to fight our way through the 752 00:36:25,800 --> 00:36:29,879 Speaker 5: fog bank to impoundment. Impoundment. There's actually been a law 753 00:36:29,960 --> 00:36:32,480 Speaker 5: passed on that saying you can't do it, and if 754 00:36:32,520 --> 00:36:35,000 Speaker 5: you want to, you've got to come to Congress first 755 00:36:35,040 --> 00:36:37,680 Speaker 5: with thirty days noticing here's what we intend to do 756 00:36:37,760 --> 00:36:41,040 Speaker 5: with respect to the funds that Congress under its Article 757 00:36:41,080 --> 00:36:45,160 Speaker 5: one Constitutional authority said, need to go here. They are 758 00:36:45,160 --> 00:36:48,200 Speaker 5: going to do as much impoundment as they can. The 759 00:36:48,239 --> 00:36:51,080 Speaker 5: President has said that he thinks the law is unconstitutional 760 00:36:51,200 --> 00:36:53,400 Speaker 5: and that he has this right, never mind Article one 761 00:36:53,440 --> 00:36:56,600 Speaker 5: of the Constitution. Russell Vote, who is the kind of 762 00:36:56,760 --> 00:36:59,520 Speaker 5: crank who's in charge of the Office of Management and 763 00:36:59,560 --> 00:37:02,319 Speaker 5: Budget and is making these decisions, and said, well, I 764 00:37:02,360 --> 00:37:04,480 Speaker 5: think it's unconstitutional too, and by the way, I'm going 765 00:37:04,520 --> 00:37:07,440 Speaker 5: to do with the President and my lawyer say is 766 00:37:07,480 --> 00:37:10,240 Speaker 5: the right thing to do, which brings us to his lawyer, 767 00:37:10,520 --> 00:37:14,280 Speaker 5: who is a character named Mark Paoletta, who has written 768 00:37:14,320 --> 00:37:17,600 Speaker 5: in a tweet impound baby, impound And if you don't 769 00:37:17,640 --> 00:37:21,040 Speaker 5: know who Mark Paoletta is, you might recognize the painting 770 00:37:21,080 --> 00:37:24,760 Speaker 5: that was done of the billionaire Harlan Crowe. Oh Yes, 771 00:37:24,840 --> 00:37:29,920 Speaker 5: with Justice Clarence Thomas and the court fixer Leonard Leo 772 00:37:30,200 --> 00:37:33,960 Speaker 5: all sitting around of Harland Crowe's estate giving justice Thomas 773 00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:36,400 Speaker 5: Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. The other guy in 774 00:37:36,440 --> 00:37:39,560 Speaker 5: that painting is Mark Paoletto. So he's been like in 775 00:37:39,600 --> 00:37:43,680 Speaker 5: this whole court capture scheme neck deep all along. Now 776 00:37:43,719 --> 00:37:49,239 Speaker 5: he's switched over to the counsel to the Omb. So 777 00:37:49,280 --> 00:37:53,240 Speaker 5: the fix is really in on the executive branch taking 778 00:37:53,280 --> 00:37:55,880 Speaker 5: over the Article one function of it belongs to the 779 00:37:55,920 --> 00:37:57,160 Speaker 5: people and to Congress. 780 00:37:57,480 --> 00:37:59,879 Speaker 1: And Russ Vought I think it's important to mention here 781 00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:03,080 Speaker 1: authored chapter of Project twenty twenty five. 782 00:38:03,360 --> 00:38:05,399 Speaker 5: He's one of the prime authors of twenty twenty five, 783 00:38:05,640 --> 00:38:06,200 Speaker 5: and he. 784 00:38:06,239 --> 00:38:09,600 Speaker 1: Is a person who is pushing unitary executive theory. So 785 00:38:09,960 --> 00:38:12,680 Speaker 1: I just wonder when we talk about this, the thing 786 00:38:12,760 --> 00:38:16,080 Speaker 1: that keeps me up at night more than the cuts 787 00:38:16,640 --> 00:38:19,759 Speaker 1: is the slashing and sort of giving up on that. 788 00:38:19,960 --> 00:38:23,080 Speaker 1: This crew does not give a fuck about the constitution, 789 00:38:23,480 --> 00:38:23,960 Speaker 1: clearly not. 790 00:38:24,440 --> 00:38:26,439 Speaker 3: Yeah, so what what can you guys do? 791 00:38:26,920 --> 00:38:31,680 Speaker 5: Well? Immediately, litigation matters. Although it takes a little bit 792 00:38:31,719 --> 00:38:34,600 Speaker 5: of time compared to having Thing one, Thing two up 793 00:38:34,680 --> 00:38:38,000 Speaker 5: to like Thing five hundred smashing and smashing all around 794 00:38:38,040 --> 00:38:42,040 Speaker 5: the government. We are winning in essentially every single case 795 00:38:42,040 --> 00:38:45,760 Speaker 5: that's brought before the courts because it is so obviously illegal. 796 00:38:45,800 --> 00:38:48,520 Speaker 5: These are not close cases, it's really obvious. They're just 797 00:38:48,680 --> 00:38:52,440 Speaker 5: racing ahead of how quickly a court can respond. Eventually 798 00:38:52,480 --> 00:38:55,640 Speaker 5: the court process catches up. So that's one thing. The 799 00:38:55,680 --> 00:38:58,440 Speaker 5: second is to keep public pressure on because at some 800 00:38:58,520 --> 00:39:01,160 Speaker 5: point Republicans are going to have to grow a spine. 801 00:39:01,280 --> 00:39:04,000 Speaker 5: They've learned a tragic lesson when they stood up, one 802 00:39:04,040 --> 00:39:06,360 Speaker 5: by one and put their heads above the parapet to 803 00:39:06,440 --> 00:39:10,399 Speaker 5: express concerns about these defective Trump nominees, that they got 804 00:39:10,400 --> 00:39:14,239 Speaker 5: slaughtered by Trump's political hit men, that they got threatened 805 00:39:14,440 --> 00:39:17,800 Speaker 5: by Musk with millions to be spent against them. 806 00:39:18,040 --> 00:39:21,760 Speaker 1: Right, I mean Jony Earnst, remember Jony Earnst? Oh yeah, 807 00:39:21,800 --> 00:39:22,840 Speaker 1: and tail us. 808 00:39:23,040 --> 00:39:25,120 Speaker 5: Yeah. What I call the flying monkeys of the Maga 809 00:39:25,200 --> 00:39:27,520 Speaker 5: right wing are the people who threatened anonymously on the 810 00:39:27,560 --> 00:39:30,560 Speaker 5: Internet to kill your children and stuff. That whole thing 811 00:39:30,680 --> 00:39:33,080 Speaker 5: falls in on you. And if you're the one person, 812 00:39:33,480 --> 00:39:36,080 Speaker 5: every single one of them got down to one has caved. 813 00:39:36,360 --> 00:39:38,440 Speaker 5: But let's say it's nine of them. Let's say it's 814 00:39:38,480 --> 00:39:41,320 Speaker 5: ten of them, and they quietly go to their leader, 815 00:39:41,400 --> 00:39:43,319 Speaker 5: John Thune and say you've got to tell the White 816 00:39:43,360 --> 00:39:45,719 Speaker 5: House that this has to stop. We can't vote for this. 817 00:39:46,160 --> 00:39:49,440 Speaker 5: They can't really torture ten of them that way. And 818 00:39:49,520 --> 00:39:52,440 Speaker 5: at some point there's going to be a group resistance 819 00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:55,600 Speaker 5: that forms, but it's going to form in response to 820 00:39:55,719 --> 00:39:58,560 Speaker 5: public pressure in their states, which is why it's important 821 00:39:58,840 --> 00:40:02,319 Speaker 5: to be talking about first how regular people are going 822 00:40:02,360 --> 00:40:05,200 Speaker 5: to be hurt by things like slashing medicaid, and second 823 00:40:05,400 --> 00:40:10,240 Speaker 5: behind essentially every curtain is a corrupt interest. The corruption 824 00:40:10,440 --> 00:40:13,520 Speaker 5: just runs entirely through the whole operation. 825 00:40:14,120 --> 00:40:16,960 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a really good point, and I think that 826 00:40:17,320 --> 00:40:21,040 Speaker 1: when you say that, it's definitely true that this group 827 00:40:21,239 --> 00:40:25,600 Speaker 1: can because there are people like I've seen Seasan Collins 828 00:40:25,920 --> 00:40:29,440 Speaker 1: and Lisa Murkowski complaining about that all of this stuff 829 00:40:29,480 --> 00:40:32,240 Speaker 1: that's frozen in their states. And I mean the irony 830 00:40:32,320 --> 00:40:35,400 Speaker 1: with Murkowski is that Alaska is, you know, a hugely 831 00:40:35,480 --> 00:40:39,560 Speaker 1: wealthy state that needs federal money but also makes you know, 832 00:40:39,640 --> 00:40:42,919 Speaker 1: pays in so to see them getting screwed. I want 833 00:40:42,960 --> 00:40:46,600 Speaker 1: you to talk for a minute about why Thune is 834 00:40:46,800 --> 00:40:48,600 Speaker 1: actually not Mike Johnson. 835 00:40:48,960 --> 00:40:52,480 Speaker 5: Well, first of all, he has a very different constituency 836 00:40:52,520 --> 00:40:55,839 Speaker 5: in the Senate. They don't all have an election coming up. 837 00:40:55,960 --> 00:40:58,440 Speaker 5: They're on a six year cycle. Some just got elected, 838 00:40:58,640 --> 00:41:01,040 Speaker 5: some are never going to run again, so it's hard 839 00:41:01,080 --> 00:41:06,280 Speaker 5: to frighten them with political retribution. And an individual senator 840 00:41:06,320 --> 00:41:10,600 Speaker 5: has far more ways to foul things up in the 841 00:41:10,640 --> 00:41:14,640 Speaker 5: Senate than an individual member of Congress does. So Congress 842 00:41:14,719 --> 00:41:18,480 Speaker 5: is much much, much more tribal than the Senate. Granted, 843 00:41:18,520 --> 00:41:21,920 Speaker 5: we've moved a lot towards being as tribal as the House, 844 00:41:22,160 --> 00:41:26,279 Speaker 5: but the House is still more tribal. And even in 845 00:41:26,280 --> 00:41:28,400 Speaker 5: that environment, they're still having trouble trying to figure out 846 00:41:28,400 --> 00:41:30,680 Speaker 5: how they're going to do the budget stuff. But what 847 00:41:30,840 --> 00:41:34,799 Speaker 5: Pone has is a lot of important individual senators who 848 00:41:35,040 --> 00:41:37,560 Speaker 5: are chairs of important committees that he needs to get 849 00:41:37,600 --> 00:41:39,400 Speaker 5: things out of. And if they really want to make 850 00:41:39,480 --> 00:41:41,759 Speaker 5: life hard for him, they can do that. But I 851 00:41:41,800 --> 00:41:45,080 Speaker 5: think his key role here is as a fairly calm, 852 00:41:45,160 --> 00:41:48,320 Speaker 5: sober and respected member of the Senate. He's the person 853 00:41:48,360 --> 00:41:51,200 Speaker 5: to whom they can come ten or twelve strong and 854 00:41:51,239 --> 00:41:54,439 Speaker 5: say we want to be doing appropriations again. This guy 855 00:41:54,440 --> 00:41:57,240 Speaker 5: can't go through and wreck everything. You can't keep sending 856 00:41:57,360 --> 00:42:02,040 Speaker 5: us these patently disqualified and outrageous, badly behaved nominees and 857 00:42:02,200 --> 00:42:05,960 Speaker 5: expect us to keep doing this or whatever the thing is. 858 00:42:06,160 --> 00:42:08,239 Speaker 5: But clearly, if you're a one off and you put 859 00:42:08,360 --> 00:42:11,120 Speaker 5: one head above the parapet, they come after you. But 860 00:42:11,160 --> 00:42:14,360 Speaker 5: if you're ten or twelve, that's where I think John 861 00:42:14,400 --> 00:42:17,560 Speaker 5: has a chance to be a break on the runaway 862 00:42:18,000 --> 00:42:18,680 Speaker 5: doggie train. 863 00:42:19,040 --> 00:42:21,640 Speaker 1: Have you talked at all, because it seems like there's 864 00:42:21,680 --> 00:42:23,800 Speaker 1: something interesting happening with Mitch McConnell. 865 00:42:24,080 --> 00:42:26,720 Speaker 5: Yeah, And that's strange. It's like, after all these years, 866 00:42:26,719 --> 00:42:27,920 Speaker 5: he suddenly got a conscience. 867 00:42:28,320 --> 00:42:30,600 Speaker 1: Well, and I also feel like, you know, he knows 868 00:42:30,600 --> 00:42:32,840 Speaker 1: he only has two more years left in the Senate, 869 00:42:33,160 --> 00:42:36,520 Speaker 1: and he knows that trump Ism will ultimately survive him. 870 00:42:37,160 --> 00:42:39,880 Speaker 1: And you know, you guys don't do this job because 871 00:42:39,880 --> 00:42:44,120 Speaker 1: it's so lucrative. You do it because it's about this 872 00:42:44,440 --> 00:42:49,640 Speaker 1: larger governing zeitgeist or whatever. And so I wonder if 873 00:42:49,760 --> 00:42:51,840 Speaker 1: you think there's something happening there. 874 00:42:52,040 --> 00:42:56,160 Speaker 5: There clearly is. Some of these nominees just hit his 875 00:42:56,239 --> 00:42:58,560 Speaker 5: gag reflex, which I didn't actually know he had, but 876 00:42:58,600 --> 00:43:01,640 Speaker 5: they obviously did. And I think the test coming up 877 00:43:01,760 --> 00:43:05,799 Speaker 5: is going to be Ukraine. Trump's flat out lies right 878 00:43:05,840 --> 00:43:10,840 Speaker 5: now about Ukraine that match perfectly with Putin's flat out 879 00:43:10,880 --> 00:43:15,360 Speaker 5: lies about Ukraine signal two things. One, Trump Russia was 880 00:43:15,400 --> 00:43:18,920 Speaker 5: not a hoax. Trump Russia was real, always was real, 881 00:43:19,080 --> 00:43:23,240 Speaker 5: still is real, and is going to continue to be real. 882 00:43:23,600 --> 00:43:27,680 Speaker 5: But also it really annoys McConnell because McConnell was pretty 883 00:43:27,680 --> 00:43:30,359 Speaker 5: sturdy on Ukraine. I just got back from the Munich 884 00:43:30,440 --> 00:43:34,240 Speaker 5: Security Conference with a whole bunch of Republican centers, very strong, 885 00:43:34,600 --> 00:43:38,280 Speaker 5: very supportive of Ukraine. So what's coming up on Ukraine 886 00:43:38,360 --> 00:43:40,960 Speaker 5: is going to be the first real test of whether 887 00:43:41,480 --> 00:43:45,040 Speaker 5: like ten or twelve can get together and say, hey, 888 00:43:45,400 --> 00:43:49,040 Speaker 5: you're on the wrong side of this, and we're going 889 00:43:49,120 --> 00:43:51,240 Speaker 5: to put some kind of a check on your ability 890 00:43:51,280 --> 00:43:55,479 Speaker 5: to lie about what is going on, sell Ukraine down 891 00:43:55,520 --> 00:43:59,360 Speaker 5: the river and rob it of its assets for the 892 00:43:59,360 --> 00:44:01,479 Speaker 5: benefit of and putin JD. 893 00:44:01,600 --> 00:44:05,400 Speaker 1: Vance really shocked that group in Munich with his talk. 894 00:44:05,600 --> 00:44:09,080 Speaker 1: It was very much outside of the political norm you 895 00:44:09,280 --> 00:44:13,320 Speaker 1: served with Vans in the Senate. He's obviously very smart, 896 00:44:13,400 --> 00:44:16,760 Speaker 1: where he's written books, He's you know, was never Trump. 897 00:44:16,800 --> 00:44:19,080 Speaker 3: But what do you sort of think is going on there? 898 00:44:19,440 --> 00:44:22,760 Speaker 5: I think that particularly in the wake of Trump having 899 00:44:22,880 --> 00:44:26,880 Speaker 5: said very bluntly that JD. Vans is not his successor 900 00:44:27,160 --> 00:44:31,719 Speaker 5: there is a whole group of people around Trump who 901 00:44:31,760 --> 00:44:36,239 Speaker 5: are desperately trying to suck up to him, suck up 902 00:44:36,280 --> 00:44:39,480 Speaker 5: to the people around him who influence him. They're fighting 903 00:44:39,520 --> 00:44:43,800 Speaker 5: for primacy. And in my view, that speech, which absolutely bombed, 904 00:44:44,080 --> 00:44:46,520 Speaker 5: the only speech that got a colder reception ever was 905 00:44:46,520 --> 00:44:50,160 Speaker 5: Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign minister, when he spoke there. 906 00:44:50,440 --> 00:44:53,719 Speaker 5: He bombed like that because they weren't the audience. There 907 00:44:53,760 --> 00:44:56,359 Speaker 5: was an audience of one, and that audience of one 908 00:44:56,840 --> 00:44:59,920 Speaker 5: was Trump and trying to appeal to all of his 909 00:45:00,239 --> 00:45:04,040 Speaker 5: eccentricities and sort of venalities. That's what I think was 910 00:45:04,120 --> 00:45:06,560 Speaker 5: going on there. The problem is that in the real world, 911 00:45:06,840 --> 00:45:11,200 Speaker 5: NATO matters, the Atlantic Alliance matters. Putin is actually a 912 00:45:11,320 --> 00:45:15,680 Speaker 5: murderous and aggressive tyrant who actually is in another country, 913 00:45:16,040 --> 00:45:20,799 Speaker 5: you know, bombing children's hospitals and slaughtering families. And to 914 00:45:22,040 --> 00:45:24,279 Speaker 5: not deal with any of that, or deal with in 915 00:45:24,280 --> 00:45:28,320 Speaker 5: the way that degrades all of that is really harmful. 916 00:45:28,400 --> 00:45:30,959 Speaker 5: This isn't just fun and games any longer. This isn't 917 00:45:31,040 --> 00:45:36,240 Speaker 5: just political posturing and sucking up. Real words have real consequences. 918 00:45:36,280 --> 00:45:37,920 Speaker 5: Once your Vice President. 919 00:45:37,800 --> 00:45:40,879 Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you, thank you, thank you. Senator White, house 920 00:45:40,920 --> 00:45:42,760 Speaker 1: so important and interesting. 921 00:45:43,000 --> 00:45:46,160 Speaker 5: Good to be with you. Remember, always look behind the 922 00:45:46,200 --> 00:45:50,280 Speaker 5: curtain for the corruption. It's always going to be there 923 00:45:50,400 --> 00:45:51,600 Speaker 5: no moment. 924 00:45:53,000 --> 00:45:55,360 Speaker 3: Jesse Cannon by John Fast. 925 00:45:55,400 --> 00:45:58,360 Speaker 2: So I was driving through to work this morning in 926 00:45:58,400 --> 00:46:02,840 Speaker 2: Midtown Manhattan paid congestion pricing since I know I should. 927 00:46:03,080 --> 00:46:06,040 Speaker 2: By the time I left Manhattan, I had seen that 928 00:46:06,239 --> 00:46:09,480 Speaker 2: our King had saved us from congestion pricing. 929 00:46:09,840 --> 00:46:17,520 Speaker 1: Yes, King, that is correct, Donald Trump, who then tweeted 930 00:46:18,920 --> 00:46:23,400 Speaker 1: that King Donald would save us from congestion pricing. We 931 00:46:23,560 --> 00:46:27,560 Speaker 1: have First, he's installed this puppet mayor, right who's not 932 00:46:27,600 --> 00:46:31,960 Speaker 1: a real mayor and who basically serves at the pleasure 933 00:46:32,200 --> 00:46:36,160 Speaker 1: of Tom Holman, the head of Ice, and now here 934 00:46:36,200 --> 00:46:39,400 Speaker 1: we are that Trump is now going to make sure 935 00:46:40,040 --> 00:46:41,360 Speaker 1: that congestion pricing. 936 00:46:41,600 --> 00:46:44,240 Speaker 3: He has no jurisdiction over in New York City. 937 00:46:44,440 --> 00:46:48,279 Speaker 1: I mean New York City's federalism for me, but not 938 00:46:48,440 --> 00:46:49,840 Speaker 1: federalism for thee. 939 00:46:50,239 --> 00:46:53,759 Speaker 2: Yeah. The thing I just keep thinking about, too, is 940 00:46:53,800 --> 00:46:56,080 Speaker 2: that Eric Adams, at the time this recording, had not 941 00:46:56,160 --> 00:46:58,640 Speaker 2: made a statement about it. Why is that money not 942 00:46:58,680 --> 00:47:02,000 Speaker 2: allowed to no been in court all day? 943 00:47:02,080 --> 00:47:04,439 Speaker 1: Yeah, he's also not allowed to do you think he's 944 00:47:04,440 --> 00:47:07,320 Speaker 1: allowed to go against the guy's keeping him out of jail. 945 00:47:07,480 --> 00:47:07,640 Speaker 5: No. 946 00:47:07,640 --> 00:47:11,400 Speaker 2: No, I figured he'd make a statement and say this 947 00:47:11,560 --> 00:47:15,520 Speaker 2: is base, this rules. I figured something was coming, but no, 948 00:47:15,800 --> 00:47:16,839 Speaker 2: he's in court. 949 00:47:17,080 --> 00:47:21,439 Speaker 1: That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in 950 00:47:21,760 --> 00:47:27,200 Speaker 1: every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday to hear the best 951 00:47:27,280 --> 00:47:31,600 Speaker 1: minds and politics make sense of all this chaos. If 952 00:47:31,600 --> 00:47:34,680 Speaker 1: you enjoy this podcast, please send it to a friend 953 00:47:35,120 --> 00:47:36,720 Speaker 1: and keep the conversation going. 954 00:47:37,200 --> 00:47:38,320 Speaker 3: Thanks for listening.