Breaking News from Pod Save America - Trump and MAGA FALL APART Over Devastating New Ad

Episode Date: February 4, 2026

Alex Wagner joins Dan Pfeiffer to break down NEW Political Ads against Trump and MAGA. CHECK OUT OUR SPONSOR - http://zbiotics.com/CROOKEDNEWS CODE: CROOKEDNEWS CHAPTERS 0:00 - Trump Furious About New Ad 01:36 - No Money for Murderers 06:51 - Ad Break 07:51 - Susan Collins Attack Ad 13:13 - Gov. Janet Mills Ad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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See you on the roof. The target audience here is not swing voters, like a lot of ads we look at on this show. it is to rile up Democrats to call their members of Congress. I like that they close on a close up of her face because it's like, own that, own that sister. Own your age, own your experience, own your wisdom, own your scar tissue. Welcome to Political Experts React. I'm Dan Pfeiffer.

Joining me today, we should leave that in. Welcome to Political Experts React. I'm Dan Fifer. And I'm Alex Wagner. Alex Wagner, how are you? You know, Dan, every time you say political experts react, I'm like, ooh, I can't wait for the political expert to react. Who's that going to be? We wait every week for that person to show up. We'll still be waiting this week, Dan. We'll let the viewers judge. So over the course of the

last many months in your time here at Crooked Media, we've had the opportunity to talk about many things, but we talked about nothing more than the main Senate race. I've never not been thinking about Susan Collins. We're not here to talk about the main Senate race per se. Per se. What I really want to talk about is messaging around ICE, how Democrats respond to it, how the party is Faithful is pressuring members of Congress to act on it. And it happens to be, by coincidence, that there is a lot of activity on the air and in digital and television ads on ICE stuff, mostly in Maine because for all the attention that Minnesota is getting, ICE is also terrorizing the people of Maine as we speak. And it is playing into the Senate primary of which we were all barely glancingly discussed today. We'll touch on it.

We may not even hear the words Graeme Platner in this podcast today. I think we just, well. After that one, after that one. Okay. The first ad we're going to watch is pressuring Democrats on ICE funding. Let's take a look. You read all these stories about ICE. You'll understand they're doing a hell of a job.

Why? I'm not mad for it? Because we can't have those people in our country. And we're getting them out. They're doing a hell of a job. This is paid for a Democratic group called protecting democracy. The context of this is that the Democrats in Congress are negotiating with the Trump administration around some reforms around ICE tied to funding in the Department of Homeland Security Bill.

There is a real pressure among some of the base to have Democrats go as far as they possibly can, even to try to defund ICE. We can talk about why that's not actually possible in this moment we're currently in. But what did you think of the ad and what do you think it says about our politics right now? I thought the ad was brutal and totally effective. Trump's words are always disturbing to me, but then you overlay his rhetoric on the video of these people being executed on the street and it's just gutting. I think it's incredibly powerful.

I think the idea of no money for murderers is tough, tough stuff, right? Like, tough stuff. We're talking about Department of Homeland Security funding. Obviously, there's a lot that goes into this funding that is not just ICE, but they have become, and Border Patrol has become the flashpoint here. And to be calling them murderers is not incorrect. It is also a pretty stunning indictment of. of what this group of people has done to the American public,

that that's now. You know, you can just say no money for murderers. I think he says the word ICE wants. He does, yep. I was in Minneapolis for my podcast on Crooked Runaway Country, and I saw Alex Preddy's Memorial. You really feel the weight of it. Not that you wouldn't, if you just saw it on videotape,

but the humanity is so present even as he's dead. You know, there's so much, it's so emotionally weighted. And then you see the video and it never, for me, it never doesn't have an impact. So I think it's really powerful. I will say, and I think this, for some reason this video really brought it home to me, there are people of color who are killed in brutal ways on streets and behind closed doors. Terrible things are happening to people of color. And it is a painful reminder that when white folks and admittedly like wonderful,

principled white folks are murdered in broad daylight, it impacts. the country differently than when people of color are. And that makes me very sad. And that shouldn't chore change the brutality of Alex Prady and Renee Goods deaths. But it is true that, you know, like there are videos of horrible things happening to people of color and there isn't the same grassroots movement to reform the systems that allow them to be murdered like that. So I just want to say that because the ad brought that home for me. So just some context here in the sense that Congress, in the vote they're going to take in the coming weeks cannot defund ICE. Ice gets most of its money from the quote-un-unquote big, beautiful, big ugly bill, whatever you want to call it that passed last year.

Because of the funding in that bill, ICE is the most highly funded law enforcement agency in the country. Because of that bill, overall immigration enforcement is better funded than every military in the world other than the American and the Chinese, which I think is a fact that people should know as they think about how money is spent. We're in a world in which we don't have money for cancer research or education or to keep rural hospitals open, but we can have this massive mass deportation forces doing these things. And massive defense spending that is like bonkers, just full bonkers. I think this ad is obviously incredibly effective. The target audience here is not swing voters like a lot of ads we look at on this show. It is to rile up Democrats, to call

members of Congress and to essentially move the Overton window on immigration funding, not just for this fight, I think, but broadly to something in the neighborhood of abolish ICE, right? And I think when you watch this and you see how powerful that video is, you see the videos, right? When it is overly with Trump's words, the horror of both what happened and their response is bared right there. And it does make me think that how like challenging and emotional, the politics of this are going to be in the Democratic primaries happening this year, but particularly in the 2028 primary. Because look, people can take a position they want to take in the 2026 Senate and House primaries, but Trump's still president. He's still going to be able to be able to veto

any bill that abolish ICE. There's not going to be a veto-proof majority. But when someone's running for a president, and they're the ones who are going to be making these decisions about what goes in the budget, how to allocate resources, how to open a department or close the department. You know, I can't imagine it's not going to be a huge part of the conversation in sort of a very, very emotional and understandably heated ways. Yeah, and that's, you know, we got a couple more years of this guy in office. Yeah. With no signs of diminished interest in mass deportation. So buckle up. Pod Save America Breaking News is brought to you by Zbiotics pre-alcohol.

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Huge fans. I'm actually thinking over the weekend that I want to pack some for the Australia. I think you can. It just looks funny. I won't have an alcohol drink without Z-biotics first because it's just not worth it. Same. Ready to try it? Go to Zibiotics.com slash crooked news now. You'll get 15% off your first order when you use crooked news at checkout. Plus, it's backed by 100% money back guarantee. So there's no risk. Subscriptions are also available for maximum consistency. Remember to head to zbiotics.com slash crooked news and use the code crooked news at checkout for 15% off. Our next ad is an attack ad against Susan Collins.

In Minneapolis, innocent citizens gun down. Here in Maine, ICE agents detaining local law enforcement. And Susan Collins is giving ice even more. more power. This head of the committee that controls spending, Collins wrote the bill to increase ICE funding with no restrictions, no restraints, letting massed agents enter homes without warrants, raid churches and classrooms. Tell Susan Collins to stop towing the party line and start holding ICE accountable. What do you think of this one? Substantively, I think it's important to get on the record about how Susan Collins is involved in ICE funding. She negotiated that spending deal before Alex Freddie was murdered. But after Alex Freddie was murdered, it's not like she was like,

hold up, we got a reform ice. You know, she has gone to RDHS Secretary Kristy Knoam, and she personally made a plea to get ICE out of Maine, her state. And I think that's after the feds arrested 200 people in Maine. She's, you know, I wouldn't say gone to the map, but I think she understands that she's vulnerable on the topic of ICE and maybe she actually, you know, ethically doesn't agree what they're doing to Mainers. It's such a low bar for Senate Republicans, but she did call for an independent investigation into Alex Prady's death in Minneapolis, which is more than, well, I don't know, the president of the United States was willing to do. She took issue with Chrissy Noam describing Alex Prady as a domestic terrorist, right?

Like, this doesn't make her a fighter in terms of reform. And the fact of the matter is Susan Collins tends to do the bare minimum to skate by as a moderate. You know, I think it's great that it puts pressure on her as a piece of cinema, a television cinema, they're not breaking the mold, but I like the single issue. I guess I like the single issue focus. And I think, look, if you're looking for a reason to not like Susan Collins and if you're on the fence, holding ICE accountable is like not abolishing ice. It's an appeal to, you know, people who do not think of themselves necessarily as partisans, but are disturbed by this chapter in

American politics. But it does toe the line of like, you know, outrage directed on a specific issue towards someone who I think is, you know, going to be vulnerable. So as a piece of political theater, I think it's effective. Yeah, like, once again, it is a very typical ad. They probably did find and replace scripts, you know, in the script from other, you know, it's just it's not, there's no creative genius happening here. I think from a strategic point of view, there are a couple of things that are interesting. One is you, you listed all the things Susan Collins has done to appear like she is different

than Trump and the Republicans on ice. She also voted against the big, beautiful bill. therefore she did not, she can say she did not vote for the massive increase in funding, although she has written the bills that fund ICE on its yearly appropriations level. Like there is this challenge of running against Susan Collins, which is, as you point out, she does the bare minimum. And so she does all these symbolic things that suggest that she is different than a tropical Republican.

She's not as pro-Trump as others. But the end result is the same. Brett Kavanaugh. Right. Brett Kavanaugh is where she actually did vote for her. But in these cases where she is voting against people, but she's allowed to do that because her vote is not needed. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. And so you have to make the case that by being a Republican in that seat, Susan Collins is facilitating what is happening. Even if she has a

symbolic vote that suggests she disagrees, her disagreement is doing no good for the people have made. The reason she's allowed to even be the no vote is because she knows it's safely going to pass. Yes. When it ever, whenever it matters, like Brett Kavanaugh, she'll side with the Trump administration. This is one of the things that was one of the real problems of getting the Republicans getting into 53 Senate votes was it allowed Collins to have a free pass every single time. So she can vote against all the bad cap numbers. She can vote against this bill and the bill still passes. Then the other thing is interesting is the toe the party line.

Like one of the things Susan Collins has this nonpartisan reputation, which is always worth noting. She won a 19 point swing, I think it was, in 2020 when she was reelected by double digits when Biden was winning the state by nine. So she's hard to beat. So you have to make her be a Republican. And this is how you always beat those last few remaining senators who are in states that vote for the other party for president by large numbers. Right.

It's how it's what they did is Sherrod Brown, John Tester. What it would have happened to Joe Manchin if he hadn't left. And it's what we have to do, just as Collins. They have to see her as a Republican. And as a Republican, she is therefore complicit in what is Trump is doing no matter what she says or how she votes. The reality is the same. Smoke and mirrors. Smoking mirrors.

The S stands for smoke and mirrors. The election year is here. And I'm not going to tell you this is the most important election. in history, you've heard that before, but I will tell you it is a damn important election. This November is our best chance to send a message to Trump that what is happening in Minnesota, Maine and elsewhere is unacceptable, to actually get a real check on his power. And in my newsletter in the message box, we're going to be covering this midterm election on a near daily basis.

I am going to dig into the races that matter, help you understand the political trends that are going to decide the election, and perhaps most importantly, give you real advice about how you can make a difference. campaigns to support, which candidates have the best chance of winning, and how you can make an impact. So if you go to the link in the show description to sign up for Message Box. If you sign up now, you get your first 30 days free. It's an election year special. If you like this show and you like Potsday America, I'm confident you'll love the message box.

The last ad we're going to watch is the first ad from Maine governor, Janet Mills, who is running in the primary against a guy who was an oyster farmer. What is his name? I'm not going to say it. It's Grand Platner. Either way. So let's check out this out. Governor Janet Mills, she blasted ice. A federal government that has deployed mass law enforcement onto the streets, including here in Maine, stoking fear in our communities,

and killing American citizens in Minnesota. It's ridiculous and outrageous and unconstitutional. We will not be intimidated. We will not be silenced. I will defend you with everything I have. If you seek to harm Maine people, you will have to go through me first. I'm Janet Mills, and I approve this message.

All right, what do you think? She's a fighter, Dan. Was that the implication of this? It was subtle. Yeah, super subtle. I didn't realize they were called Maine people. I thought they were called Mainers. I think it's, I have always heard Mainers too.

I can't get over Maine people. It makes them sound like aliens. I am not going to say bad things about Janet Mills, Dan. Even though you're trying to try and bait me into saying. I'm not doing that. I think she had to do this ad. She's up against someone who's calling, I think, outright for the abolishment of ICE and saying it can't be reformed.

Yeah, I don't know if he's used the term he may have, but that's essentially been his argument. I think it should absolutely be abolished. Yeah. There's the slogan and then there's the policy. Sure. There are a lot of people out there who are using the policy, but not the slogan right now. Right. I get that.

And I get that it's fraught. It's very fraught. But he is being very clear that he wants ICE to be abolished or go away or never exist or whatever the word. Yes. Some part of me doesn't even want to like put my foot in this bear trap because. because I just think this is a 2028 discussion, but for now, I mean, having said that, I guess in a primary, Grand Platner is better positioned because he is more strident and he is more

clear and he is very outspoken and he is a better perhaps interlocutor. Having said that, Janet Mills is actually running the state. She's engaged in all of this stuff. And yes, she is older. But I do think that they're, you know, it's good. I thought it was her launch video was great when you see her in the White House castigating or saying, see you in court Donald Trump, and I do think it's good to see her in this mode of, you know, battle ready and to some degree battle tested. She looks like she's been through it, right? And I think that that is, I like that they close on a close up of her face because it's like, own that, own that, own that sister, own that. Own your age, own your experience, own your wisdom, own your scar tissue.

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That's Verizon. Best network based on root metrics, best overall mobile network performance U.S. second half 2025. All rights reserved. It must provide a recent consumer mobile bill in the name of the person redeeming the deal. Additional terms, conditions, and restrictions apply. Yeah. So I think this is a good spot. I think it's smart to run it now. I think more candidates should run spots tied to the things.

that are dominating the conversation because it's so hard to get your message out. And so if you are just like watching TV and you just see a generic ad about something you're not already talking about, you're on your phone, you're going to the bathroom, you're not paying attention. Hopefully not at the same time. But if it's something that you're thinking about, it's dominating the conversation, that you're also seeing online, you're talking to your friends about, and then you see an ad, that ad has a greater chance of being recalled than having an impact.

So I think that is smart. I mean, it's obvious what her strategy is here. Her brand is fighting Trump. That's certainly her national brand because of that viral moment you mentioned from the governor's meeting back in 2025. She, I think being a fighter has been her brand in Maine. I think it is her natural personality. This is not something she's adopting for the purposes of the campaign. One of the things that an older candidate has to do is show strength, right?

Biden failed to do that. I don't know where she was the other day, but she said, I'm not Joe Biden very explicitly when asked a question about her age, which is very, I mean, everyone ages differently. Women tend to do better than men in their old age. In literally every field. But she said, someone who's close to her, who advised her campaign told me months ago that made very clear that he spent someone, they spent time with Biden, they spent time with her, not the same. And I believe that.

So I think it's a good spot. Like she is under heat in Maine because this is happening while she's the governor. And she is, it's not her fault, but it's feel, but to people there, she's unable to stop it. Right. She has no power to stop it. Just ask to walls. It's hard. Right.

Exactly. You're the mayor, you're the governor. You people are mad because you're in charge, right? Or the president, right? And so, like, getting out there showing that she is trying to stop it is the smart thing to do. Yeah. For both the people she's governing now and those she would like to represent later. Yes, exactly.

I will be curious to see how she talks about ICE, not in the context of this, like, invasion of her state right now, but like ICE going forward. and, you know, I can't imagine she would be as strident or as aggressive as Platner has been. Because part of this is she is a DSCC endorsed candidate. She is Chuck Schumer's candidate. Okay, here we go. No, no, it's not even an attack. I'm not attacking Janet Mills. You're under this impression.

Oh, no, you're right. It's important to point out her ties to the establishment that very much wants her to be a candidate. But the point I'm going to make here is the point I'm going to make is the DSCC usually gives people advice on how to handle issues, these. Usually that advice is to sand the edges down on polarizing issues. So I'm just to be curious how she will approach that. She is not a moderate or a centrist in the typical form. She's just more moderate than Grand Platner. So I'm just like I think it's very interesting to see how she will handle, we have a lot of primaries where you have multiple candidates, you know, like in Michigan or you have a primary in Texas where you have two candidates, neither of whom is the DSCC candidate per se,

although I imagine they might have a preference. And here's one where you clearly have a candidate preferred by the establishment in Washington. Because look, and this is not to say that her opponent who I won't name. You just said it. Just said it's third time. God damn it. It's so hard. It's all on Ham Natner.

Graham G. or G. Platner, either one. Graham P. Graham P. Dan Flattner. Dan Flattner. The contours of the conversations. we have about this is that I am vehemently anti-Janet Mills and vehemently pro

grand platinum and that is not I just said his name but that is actually not my position don't dumb it down my position is I don't think the DSCC should have endorsed a candidate fair enough and I have concerns about the political judgment that would lead someone to be so sure of what voters want that you would put sure after 2024 that you would endorse a establishment government governor, establishment politician who is older. I'm just here to defend old women, of which I am one, older women as being hail and Hardy in a way that men are not. And she is a writer.

I, I, 100 belief. I believe she's tough as nails. I believe she is. Grand Platter is compelling, interesting, passive baggage. It has a lot of baggage. The point is they both have baggage. They both have very real baggage. And the voters were going to have to, they are going to have to figure it out.

but not before we have 17 more podcasts on the main. Don't worry. It's not until, is it in August? I can't remember. I think it's a very, then probably 20. I mean, it's a very long time for now.

Twice a month. We should go back to this. What if we just did a pod save main show, you and I once a week? Pod save Maine. Yeah. I'm in. I'm all the way in.

Pod save the main people. All right. All right. That's all the main. Nailed it. Nailed it. Okay. Alex Wagner.

Thank you for joining us. Everyone go listen to Run to My Country. Subscribe to Alex's Substack. How the Hell? Oh, bless you. Thank you, Dan. And I will talk to you guys soon. You're the best.