Breaking News from Pod Save America - Trump Dealt Humiliating Loss in Major Court Case

Episode Date: August 28, 2025

Tommy Vietor and Brian Tyler Cohen break down the week’s biggest stories — from Trump’s embarrassing court loss to talk of a possible Democratic National Convention ahead of the 2026 midterms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Start selling on Deepop, where Taste recognizes taste. Brian, a dangerous criminal is still on the loose on the streets of Washington, D.C. Let's watch. Liberal Tears is brought to you by acorns. The commentary killed me. Oh. That was Sean Dunn, a 37-year-old former Justice Department employee who was not happy about Trump's takeover of Washington, D.C., and he was ready to use his voice and his hoagie to make his displeasure known.

As you saw, he drilled a Customs and Border Patrol officer with that delicious sandwich. Fun fact, that happened right by my old apartment in D.C. Oh, very fun. How fun is that? Yeah. Awesome. How are we having fun? But Brian, the story is a twist.

So on Tuesday, federal prosecutors failed to persuade a grand jury in D.C. to approve a felony indictment against Dunn. And that is pretty shocking because prosecutors almost always are able to get indictments in these grand jury cases. Aaron Blake, reported the Washington Post, tweeted that from October 2009 to September 2010, federal prosecutors pursued 193,000 cases, prosecuted 162,000. And of the 30,000 cases they didn't prosecute. only 11 were because a grand jury didn't return an indictment. So, Brian, that suggests this grand jury is not thrilled about the National Guard taking over Washington?

What is it they say, Tommy, that you can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich and in a situation where they literally had to indict somebody overthrowing a sandwich, they couldn't do it. Very nice. Yeah, this is, look, I think that this is some rare glimmer of hope that with the folks who comprise the grand jury, they weren't sold on what the Trump administration he's trying to do by like weaponize the government to the high i think they sent in something like 20 people to uh 20 cops 20 cops to raid this guy's apartment once they found out who he actually was

yeah and so clearly it's not about the thing like you don't send 20 cops to raid somebody's apartment over a sandwich like it's about making an example of him which which by the way is the same strategy that they're employing with comar abragal garcia now that they've just landed on somebody they know that they need to double triple quadruple down and make make an example out of these people because it's about protecting their ego, not about actually doing proper, you know, law enforcement. The other delicious part about this is the new U.S. attorney for D.C. is Judge Chenine Perra, who you guys probably know better from being wine drunk on Fox News. That's right.

It's primarily. Yeah. So she's not going well for her. But yeah, you're right. So this done, this young man, the sandwich thrower. Hero, one might say. He wasn't arrested the night of the hokey assault. They just let him go.

But then I think on Wednesday he found out there was a warrant against his arrest, but didn't have time to turn himself in because you said 20 fucking cops showed up at his house. But you know, these grand jury processes are so difficult for defendants because the prosecution decides what information the grand jury gets to hear. The defendants aren't a lot of a lawyer in the room when the evidence is presented. So the deck is stacked against you. And for this grand jury to not return an indictment is pretty great. So Brian, we're laughing about this because we live in L.A. We had our own National Guard deployment here. It's not funny.

It's not fun. It's pretty scary, actually. But mocking them is all we have left. And I'm sure voters probably noticed in that video that this was a rather low-speed chase. That's actually the first thing I noticed. I was like, oh, damn, he's running so slow. They're going to get him for sure. And I was like, oh, damn, they're running slower than him.

But I mean, you know, these law enforcement officials are being recruited via, like, you know, for Chan and so it's like you know it's not exactly not exactly waiting outside track meets to get these people No, I was supposed to do, he was playing Call the Duty. Yeah, if I was in charge at the Department of Homeland Security, I would be a little bit worried about my agent's closing speed. I'd be doing some 40 times

maybe some shuttle drills. Well, you've got what's his name? Superman who's just struggling to get over those walls? Well so Brian, you're judging by the ICE their recruiting pipeline. I think things are going to get worse, not better as you just suggested. Let's watch. This time Dean Kane isn't flying there. He's going through that

obstacle course and training to be an honorary ice agent. He was working hard out there. And this is exactly what those recruits will do as they're picked one by one. And they're at the federal law enforcement training center in Brunswick, Georgia. This time, Dean isn't flying. Yeah, we noticed. I do like that part of ICE training is just dragging what I'm almost positive as a sex doll for like 11 feet. For those who don't know what we're talking about. That was former actor Dean Kane. He is training to join ice in some capacity. He's best known for playing Superman on the 90s TV show called Lois and Clark, the new adventures of Superman. Did you watch that show? I didn't. No. I was, I don't think I was,

I was too young for it. These days, Dean Kaine is preparing to chase undocumented people and relevance. That's right. Here's the thing. Look, I have some sympathy because I've been in the entertainment industry. I moved here to work in the entertainment industry. And porn specifically. But we're going to get it together. Sorry, you were saying. So I have some sympathy for folks who work in the entertainment industry. It's hard out there. It's hard to find roles. And And somebody offers you 50 grand. I mean, that does not come around often. Join next.

It's the greatest role he's ever had, you know what I mean? So I get it. I mean, I've done much more degrading commercials for a lot less money than $50,000. So if you're Dean Kane, I kind of get it. Yeah, I get that money. The Atlantic reported that ICE is preparing to make commemorative Superman coins with Dean Kane's likeness on them. It feels a little premature.

That's right. Let's see if you can get out of basic training first. He's not even going over the monkey bars. He's walking through them at this point. Anyway, yeah, it's terrible. I really don't want more National Guard members deployed to cities. I don't want more ICE people, you know, chasing people through liberal cities. It's very, it's quite scary out there.

Yeah, and look, he's, he's continuing. Trump is continuing to use this threat in other Democratic, you know, bastion, stronghold, Chicago. He's threatened Westmore to send the National Guard into Baltimore. And this is, this is during Westmore. Like, Westmore is standing there explaining how crime is reducing every single year, that he's been in office. And Trump is just so focused on vilifying any Democratic stronghold, any blue city that he's like, you know what, let's just send the military into Baltimore, too, if Westmore doesn't say nice things about me.

Just talking sandwiches all over D.C. Causing problems. All right, Brian. So also on this week, on Tuesday, Donald Trump hosted a three-hour cabinet meeting, three hours. All of it open press. We had to watch it so you guys at home didn't. I think calling in a meeting is kind of misleading. It was more of just a ritualistic sucking session.

Yeah, I believe the official governmental term is a circle jerk. Yeah, here's what I mean. If you all haven't stopped by the Department of Labor, Mr. President, I invite you to see your big, beautiful face on a banner in front of the Department of Labor because you are really the transformational president of the American worker. Working for this government, for you, is the greatest honor of my life. I tell it to everybody, and I really do feel that way, and I thank you. You have breathed life back into the profession of law enforcement.

This is just such a great opportunity really to recognize your leadership as a true champion for working people. Mr. President, first of all, thank you for the opportunity to work for you. Our country has never been so secure thanks to you. You have brought us back from the edge. And there's only one thing I wish for that that noble committee finally gets its act together and realizes that you are the single finest candidate since the noble piece. this Nobel Award was ever talked about. Nobel.

The Nobel Peace Prize, dude. That's the issue you have, Tommy? Jesus Christ, who put the music over that? We couldn't afford Sarah McLaughlin? Arms of an angel is, yeah, that's the price of the, I mean, Tommy, Tommy, I am old enough to remember when the Republicans impeached the Democratic president for a job in the Oval Office. Now they're out there giving him away.

As Brian alluded to, every president gets sucked up to. They stand up when you walk in the room, right? Like every joke you tell is hilarious. no one wants to tell you bad news. But I think most presidents, most human beings kind of roll their eyes at that stuff after a certain amount of time. Trump just demands more of it. Three hours.

There was a great moment where I believe Howard Lutnik was explaining the blockchain. It took a moment off of just heaping undying praise and slavish devotion and servility to Donald Trump and started mentioning the blockchain. And you could just see Trump's eyes glazed over because they're not talking about him. And like, yeah, just. That was not a sound effect. That was actually Brian. Yeah.

It's all I'll have left. That's really good. In the near future. It's really good. It's a gift. You should share it with the world. Yeah. Well, this is it.

This is it. Things are grim. This is, at least I have one thing going for me. Same. So I would do a little research here. George Washington was the first president to convene the cabinet. That, like, set a precedent that most other presidents follow. But it's not in the Constitution.

There's no obligation to hold a cabinet meeting. Dwight Eisenhower let photographers in. Ronald Reagan made it kind of a made-for-recent. TV event with like a pool spray, a couple minutes of video at the front. But then Donald Trump has just made it into a farce. These are never useful meetings. Like the cabinet didn't really like kind of all get around a table and decide Brady Affairs of State. Fix the country's problems. Yeah, at least like there were real updates about like kind of what the what people are working on. The amazing thing about this is like this is supposed to be the the Doge government, right? This is like governmental

efficiency. Four fucking hours. Like heaping, heaping praise onto Donald Trump because he has to go around the table and hear nice things about himself because he has the thinest skin in the world and he is nothing if not the faberge egg ego of a man four fucking hours of the day with the president of the United States like the purported leader of the free world just hearing compliments about himself that's the best use of time the president should have something better to do as should his entire leadership of the entire government like who's running the show when this meeting is happening we have no idea they also got a journalist in on the act you see this one woman came forward and talked about how she had been pistol whipped in Washington which is obviously awful but then it turned

into like another example of her saying like thank you for your leadership, you're cleaning up the streets. Like the journalists are doing this now? Yeah. Not just like, just the political people? I mean, that's the, that's the goal. It's to it's, it's really, I mean, for them, it's all about optics, right? Like, it's not about actually doing the thing because if it was about doing the thing, we wouldn't have a four-hour jerk off session with Donald Trump getting praised from all of his, all of his people. It's surrounding himself with people that can convey the optics that Donald Trump is doing something important. And so by banishing the AP, for example, but, but filling, even the, even the press corps with like devotees and loyalists, this is what's going to happen.

And so like it's, it's like textbook fascist behavior is to surround yourself with, with people who are just going to give the optics that, that you're doing what you said you would do. Yeah, and Fox News played it all day long. Liberal Tears is brought to you by Acorns. Did you know that your money could grow on its own? No, it's not magic. It's called compounding.

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fealty to him? Oh, do I. Was the gang at South Park. I believe we have a clip from last week's episode. Mr. President, you have so many great ideas. Your leadership is truly beyond anything we have ever had in this country. And you do not have a small penis. Ah, thanks, Gant.

On behalf of the state of Florida, I'd like to give you this. gift, a silver-plated space shuttle. Next. Mr. President, your ideas for the tech industry are so innovative and you definitely do not have a small penis. Ah, thank you! Please accept this gift on behalf of Apple. Next? Mr. President, your ideas incredible. You do not have small penis.

Look at what some dipshit tech CEO gave me. I was thinking maybe we could try to shove it up your ass. Yes. Been a great season of South Park so far. You know, the amazing thing is, I'm glad that they're doing this for two reasons. One, I think mockery is important. Obviously, like, that's not our only tool. And I think that we just...

Getting there, though. We're getting there. That's true. I don't want to, like, resistance libs ourselves into thinking that, like, all we have to do is, like, make fun of Trump on Twitter, and then we'll get him this time. But I think it's also important that they focused on these people who are doing the capitulating. Because it's just like it's humiliating for them to. Everybody expects it from Trump. We know who Trump is, which is, by the way, not to absolve him, but it's baked into the cake that he is a fascist piece of shit.

But like, when you kind of memorialize this and put Tim Cook in there doing what he did, it's humiliating. So I hope that that serves as some disincentivization to not do this stuff because, yes, it's going to be easy for these people to capitulate because they think that that's the path of least resistance. But it shouldn't be. And the South Park stuff, like for as funny as it is, it's also important because it does have cultural heft. And like, that's the other, that's the flip side of that coin. Oh, yeah. I hope, I bet you that every single person at Apple has seen that episode. Yeah, all talking about it.

Totally. And it's fucking embarrassing. Yeah, it's embarrassing. Yeah, it's embarrassing. Yeah, it's embarrassing. It's embarrassing. It's terrible. Speaking of embarrassing, Brian, let's talk about the Democrats.

Axios reported this week that senior officials in the Democratic Party are considering holding a national convention before the 2026 midterms to kind of make news, Breakthrough the Trump noise, showcase young leaders in the party. This would be similar to the conventions that are held in presidential years, but a smaller scale. We here at Cricket Media, we're able to use our connections with the DNC to get some exclusive footage of what this mini-DNC might look like. Oh, God. Here's a clip. Pepsi Prebiotic Cola in original and Cherry Vanilla. That Pepsi taste you love with no artificial sweeteners and three grams of prebiotic fiber.

Pepsi prebiotic cola unbelievably Pepsi What do you think? I mean honestly it'd be better than better than what we've got right now That was the 1996 D&C I believe. Okay so that's a joke obviously

jokes aside I'm a little I'm undecided on how I feel about this idea like on the one hand I support creativity I want new ideas I want Democrats to make news on their own terms maybe this could help. On the other hand, I worry about conventions kind of get watched by partisans, like Democrats, watch the DNC, Republicans, watch the RNC. I also will worry a bit about any meeting

of Democrats devolving into a fight about Gaza or some other contentious issue. But what do you think? I'm split here, legitimately. I think that any opportunity that Democrats have to own the narrative on the media cycle is a good thing. And I think Trump has benefited from that hundreds of times over, thousands of times over where he gets to dictate what people talk about. Those, the conventions are an opportunity where we know that we have the stage. If for no other reason other than, you know, there's a convention we paid for it and, and, you know, and you're kind of dictating what that coverage is going to be. The flip side of that is it feels very top-heavy, like top-down.

And I don't think that that's, I don't think that's the move right now. I feel like the direction of the party right now is kind of coming, more from, and should come more from the grassroots and not kind of like be dictated down from like leadership or the DNC or these like nebulous like groups that are supposedly in charge of the whole like pro-democracy movement. And so, you know, I'm loath to say like, yes, let's have them step. Like people often complain about the DNC, but really the DNC is a fundraising apparatus. They have no power. They have no power and aren't the ones who dictate messaging and shouldn't be the ones who dictate messaging. Or policy.

or policy, and I think we confer a lot of power to them just by virtue, because often those people are looking for somebody to blame. Exactly. You know what I mean? And I think that we have to have more of a focus on kind of the grassroots space as opposed to like relying on the DNC to get some action. That's sort of the debate I'm having in my head too. Like when something becomes like a convention or like a DNC like event and get things

to get approved, they kind of get pretty sanded down, right? They're pretty consensus. They're not. offensive to anyone, right? And so you could get a lot of, like, things that feel like talking points. I agree with you, like, just optically, if it's just a big venue and a big stage with lots of production, like, that could read as very inauthentic in missing the moment where, you know, you look at New York, right?

You have someone like Zoran Mamdani, like just walking around the streets, talking to people, like making videos, do a vertical video. I do think the Mamdani sort of approach to media is the way. You know, the Axios said that, like, mini conventions like this were routine for Democrats in the 70s and 80s. They ditched them in 1986 when party leaders were like, hey, this is a waste of time and money. I kind of worry, we might end up at that place again. But I don't know, man, like breaking through in the Trump era is really, really hard. You either tweet like a lunatic, like Gavin Newsom or no, and here's what you say. So what do you think? If you had gun to your head,

yes or no, do we do a mini convention, what would you say? I would say, if we do a mini convention, I could be for it, but it has got to be a mini convention for like the TikTok era. It's got to be about reaching people where they're consuming news. It's got to be about like sort of all digital stuff. It can't be an effort to get a network to take it. Like, I don't care about any about that. I don't care about stage production. Yeah. But if you can get a bunch of Democrats to all agree to come together and deliver a focus message at a certain time and date that actually tells people who we are. Because do you think we have a huge, look, we have a huge brand problem as Democrats. Like Republicans are flailing. Trump's approval is way down, but the Democratic Party's

approval and brand is not doing well. Right. And we are not going to do well in the midterms if the choice is between like Republicans that they don't like and Democrats that they may be like even less. So we need to be more clear about who we are, define ourselves, find some great leaders, put them forward, and maybe this could be that. That's my concern about doing this right now, like before 2026. I think we're in a moment right now where the party in 2024 is not going to look the same as the party in 2026. I think there will be, and I hope there will be a whole new wave of elected officials who are going to take the place of a lot of folks who are in the party who are either too old, too impotent, you know, too focused on compromise, whatever it may, too out of touch

with people, whatever it may be, to establishment. And so it feels weird to like spend money and spend time and expend resources right now on something before what I think is going to be a big wave, like maybe a Democratic Tea Party year. Like I think that until we have those people, it's weird to spend money kind of promoting the Democratic brand, which I think is poised for a big shift after these midterms, yeah. Well, hopefully we get to have them. Uplifting close. That's right.

Uplifting close. Here's a real close, and that is that one of the most important spaces that we have to be fighting on, not just the courts, not just at the ballot box, but in this media space. And the media space is where the vast majority of people are building up their worldview so that they can determine, you know, whether they're going to vote for Democrats or Republicans. So we are at, you know, a huge disadvantage on the left. The right has spent the last 10 years investing time, energy, and resources into building up their independent media infrastructure.

But a big step that everybody could take that's super simple is to subscribe to Potta of America's YouTube channel. That's the channel that you're watching on right now. Help elevate the voices of Tommy and everybody else at Crooked as they continue to do the work every day of getting this stuff into the ecosystem so that when people sign on to YouTube, they're not automatically sorted into right-wing content. So again, small step that everybody can take. It's completely free and it's a great way to elevate these voices. And subscribe to Brian's channel. We'll put the link on the screen right here. Here?

I don't know. I don't know where the link's going to go. Do you know? I do. I do, but I'll let you drown. Subscribe.