Lovett or Leave It - Autoerotic Obstruction of Justice

Episode Date: June 9, 2018

DOJ refuses to defend Obamacare. Trump floats a self-pardon. Dems perform well in the California primaries. Lou Dobbs is not well. And poor JR Smith, said Lovett who just found out what happened. Erin Gibson, Bryan Safi, Brenda Gonzalez, and Professor Kimberly West-Faulcon join Jon to break down the week’s news. Plus Bryan and Jon develop some very exciting straight-guy characters. What a week.

What is up Los Angeles? Back at the improv, you don't miss a show anymore. I see you all the time. You're coming to the Late Show too, okay cool. What are you doing in between? I don't care. I got a red nose, somebody's been to a CVS, they're at the register for something unrelated to this. All right, before we get... What does this say?

Pick me for the game, parens. I need the parachute gift card. Hashtag pundit is an angel. Did you just say pundit barks too much? Sir, I couldn't help but notice two things. One, you're wearing a blazer over a t-shirt. But the t-shirt is friend of the pod.

So we may let it slide. Let me ask you this question. If it's too personal, you don't have to answer. What year were you born? I'm probably born in 1961. 1961. Sounds like it's part of a, kind of a, I don't know what you'd call it.

It was a surge in births that followed World War II. Started 1945, ended around 1965. You know what? When somebody shouts out a very specific border between generations, it's a way of saying,

I don't care what you people say, I'm Gen X. I'm not Frasier, I'm Friends. A little boomer attitude. My dog barks, huh? You have a dog? Yes, we do. Mm-hmm.

He barks a lot. Is your dog at home right now? He is. And when did you buy that home? What year? 1994. 1994, you son of a bitch. We made a bunch of money.

You made a bunch of money. You know what? You're going to hear all of us barking soon. Bro. 1994. Houses skyrocketed in value. What'd he do with all that wealth? I don't know. Blazers and attitude.

Pod tours America in Love It or Leave It. We're gonna be in Nashville. We're gonna be in Durham. We're gonna be in Atlanta. Durham and Atlanta sold out, but not Nashville. There's still tickets for Pod Save America and for Love It or Leave It, the late show. So get those tickets. Nashville people and those in the environs.

Scott Pruitt. Scott Pruitt is actually, I think it's really ultimately good, and here's why. He is testing the proposition of what happens when someone who really, really, really should quit doesn't quit.

Because now the congressional Republicans are leaking nasty stuff about him. The White House is leaking nasty stuff about him. His own staff seems to be leaking nasty stuff about him. And he's like, I'm not going anywhere. There's one thing you need to know about Scott Pruitt. He does not turn down a paycheck. You're going to have to drag me the hell out of here.

You're going to have to drag me and the lotion I steal from the Ritz-Carlton and the application my wife submitted to Chick-fil-A the hell out of here. And the used mattress. Did you see this? Did everyone saw the used mattress did you see this? did everyone saw the used mattress thing? why did he need it?

you never ever ever need a used hotel mattress no one ever needs one you never ever ever need one

a used hotel mattress is disgusting and you know what? No one ever needs one. You never, ever, ever need one. A used hotel mattress is disgusting. And you know what? Like, okay, he's a grifter, and he's corrupt, and he wants extra money. But is he also out of money? Like, what is going on? He's a cabinet appointment. They make a decent salary. It's got six figures in it.

People making six figures don't need to take mattresses from outside a neighbor's house. Usually. Usually. Depending. Depending on some other issues. All right. We have got a great show tonight.

Tonight's panel includes Charlie Kirk, Scott Pruitt's yogurt butler, and the entire 2018 Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. Alright, she is a former undocumented immigrant from

Mexico, now living in Los Angeles, and the co-host of the Tamarindo podcast. Please welcome Brenda Gonzalez. Hi, Brenda. Go right here. She's the co-host of the Throwing Shade podcast and her first book, Feminasty, The Complicated Woman's Guide to Surviving the Patriarchy

Without Drinking Herself to Death, is out September 4th. She's a writer and comedian. Please welcome Erin Gibson. Hi. Hi, Erin. Hi. Hi, Brenda.

Hello. I forgot that I'm supposed to do the part where we talk for just one second. Oh. Oh. So the audience at home can register the voices. Okay. Is this registered?

I think. Does it sound different? I think it's different enough. You know, I think people will get it. He's the co-host of the Throwing Shade podcast. You've seen him on Modern Family and Big Bang Theory, and he hopes one day to be a men's warehouse model. Please welcome Brian Savvy.

Hi, Brian. I asked John upstairs. I thought that he didn't like me very much, but he said that he did. Well, what I actually said was, if you ask somebody, do you like me, right before you're about

to do a show together, there's no answer other than yes. Yeah, there's no honesty. What about during the show? I mean, we can really get into it. There's the danger of being in front of people. That's true. I do like you, Brian. I know, I like you too. I believe you.

Yeah, of course. I could tell by the hug. Let's get into it. What a week. We're going to start with some news that isn't getting much attention. There is a new insane plan by the White House to once again try to eliminate the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Late Thursday night the Department of Justice asserted that key provisions of the law are unconstitutional and refused to defend it in court against a legal challenge brought by 20 red states. The administration is specifically taking

aim at the ACA's protections for Americans with pre-existing conditions who are guaranteed access to health insurance at standard rates thanks to Obamacare. Trump is basically saying he wants insurance companies to be able to deny or overcharge Americans for an asthma inhaler, mild anxiety, toe fungus, high blood pressure, birth control, being pregnant, or being 50.

I'm not that much against the charging people for being 50. But the other shit sucks. All right. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll in June of 2017 showed that 70% of those polled, including 59% of Republicans, wanted Washington to continue barring insurers from charging people with pre-existing conditions more for their coverage.

Brenda, why are Republicans so hell-bent on going after people like this and bringing health care back as a topic of debate when it seems like they've touched this hot stove a bunch of times? I don't understand. I mean, it seems totally tone-deaf because it's the one issue where both sides can rally behind that we want everybody to have access to health care. So I'm surprised. I mean, on the one hand, it's actually, you know it's actually a reminder of just how far they'll go to get rid of Obamacare because it's like a pretty frivolous lawsuit at the same time we're about to head

into a campaign and one of the things I think a lot of Democrats have been wondering is how do we get healthcare back in the front of people's minds not because it shouldn't be but because there's a lot of other shit going on. The president is the head of the world's most successful and stupid crime family. You know, there's a lot.

There's never been a crime family as dumb or as successful. Face facts. Face it. The dumbest, the most successful. Yeah, you don't like it. A true American family. Sure. Yeah, you don't like it. A true American family.

Brian, Republicans are incredibly persistent, despite the fact that they have failed to repeal Obamacare in large measure, though they have tried to sabotage it for the better part of two years. Have you ever been this persistent at something that wasn't going well for you? Only trying to be your friend. That's the only thing I'm committed to. We're hanging out. I'm coming on your vacation. Cool, cool, cool.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love that this is happening. I feel like ride this train until it shuts down because more and more people are going to just stop listening to your party completely. I have never failed so many times at something and then tried it again. And maybe that's because I don't have willpower. But honestly, I'm just not stupid. And this is just a mark of utter stupidity. The lawsuit is basically saying because the Trump tax cuts also got rid of the health care mandate,

the justification that the Supreme Court used to say that Obamacare is constitutional is that technically these provisions were enforced with a tax, because if you didn't get health care, you paid a fine. The fine was basically a tax. Through the tax cuts that Trump passed, because they hate Obamacare and they wanted to sabotage the system, they lowered that penalty to zero, and therefore now the argument would be, well, the tax is zero, so it's not a tax. Therefore, the entire Obamacare architecture has to come crashing down. But even DOJ's own lawyers refuse to go along with this. Even people who are opposed to Obamacare have condemned this at frivolous.

Not a lot of experts believe that this will be successful at the Supreme Court. And yet, not only did the Trump administration get behind this, the Trump administration has taken the extraordinary step of refusing to defend Obamacare in court, which is a very big deal and happens very rarely. Even if you disagree with a law, we expect the administration of the opposing party, when they come in, to defend those laws in court. Because if there is a lawsuit brought against the government and the party in power decides we don't like that law because the other party wrote it, so we're not going to defend it, it undermines our system. One conservative said this about the president refusing to defend a law in court. Quote, it is a transparent attempt to shirk the department's duty to defend the laws passed by Congress. This is the real politicization of the Justice Department when the personal views of the president override the government's duty to defend the law of the land. However, that is actually Representative Lamar Smith, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee in 2011, when the Obama administration decided it could not defend

the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act because it was unconstitutional. So a lot of people are pointing to this and saying, well, other parties have done this in the past. Brenda, do you think that this is another example of Trump undermining the rule of law? Or is this an example of Trump doing what any Republican would do, which is try to do everything they can to undermine something they sincerely view? I mean, Trump doesn't sincerely view anything, but conservatives sincerely view Obamacare as wrong. I mean, anything to do with Obama, they're going to try to just reverse. But when you were first describing this I was thinking maybe this is a nice gift to the Democrats like oh we can talk about health yes that's for us but after how long it took

for you to explain it I realized that this is a trap. This is a trap. They're setting us up to try to defend it and then people are gonna be like tax snoring and not understand what's going on. The point is healthcare is back in the news. We gotta win the fucking Congress. Alright, let's move forward. Earlier this week

primary elections were held in a whole bunch of states including right here in California. If you've been following along we are all pretty worried that California's insane top two labyrinth peekaboo primaries could have locked out Democrats from seats we needed to flip the House. But luckily for Democrats, we solved the riddle, paid the troll under the bridge. People knocked on doors and came out and vote. And in every single district that is in play, we got a Democrat on the November ballot.

And, you know, I saw some people saying, once again, everybody got us all nervous, but it all worked out. It worked out because we got nervous. We really could have been locked out. And it's a good example of, even in these primaries where not a lot of people turned out and not nearly as much people turned out

as what we want to see in November, given the kind of turnout we need to take back the House. Even still, sounding the alarm did the work, got people to rally behind candidates, and made sure, in some cases, by not very many votes, we were able to get somebody on the ballot in every district. And Swing Left did a lot of good work.

Indivisible did a lot of good work. The Democratic Party did a lot of good work. The National Democratic Organizations did a lot of good work. And it wouldn't have happened without that. And it's a good recipe for what we have to do in the fall. Yes. Be talking, be communicating, making sure we're

making hard decisions. It was good. Guys, it was good. You know, Brenda, we hear people talking about a blue wave. At the same time, I think what we saw was positive. Not insanely positive. Not historic.

Not the country rejecting Trump en masse. Do you think that people out there are even now too complacent about the fact that Democrats are going to win in the fall? What do you think? In California? Yes. Across the country? No, I don't think they're complacent. I think there's some really exciting races going on. There were some surprises.

I was surprised to not see Villaraigosa advance. I did not vote for him, but I was just surprised that he didn't advance. So I would have liked more voter turnout, more Latino voter turnout. Those are the folks that I want to see coming out in November. Aaron, do you think that even at this moment where the Trump administration is corrupt beyond measure, the House Republicans have totally capitulated, even with that, we did not see any kind of extraordinary turnout. We need more people

to show up in November. What do you think is missing for people? What are people not getting about this? Better stickers. They were too big. Oh gosh, they were so big. I sat at my computer, researched everybody over three glasses of wine,

and then I mailed itiled i had to do nothing nothing at all i don't understand why people aren't i don't know if it's people are overwhelmed by the prospects i mean definitely there was there was a lot of people on the ballot and there was a lot of decisions to be made i always tell people like if you don't know how to vote then cheat find someone who's smarter than you and ask them who they're voting for and just copy them. You don't have to do what I did and sit on a computer in your hole-ridden pajamas.

It's not like you were trashed. This sounds like a lot of fun, actually. I voted for whoever had the funnest name. You just made a smiley face in the Scantron and sent it in. Brian, what do you think about voting? You think it's good?

I think it's awful. I would never, I discourage all my children and grandchildren from doing it. No, I think, you know, there's one election that I didn't vote in in my life. I regret it every fucking election. I think about that, I beat myself up over it. What was it?

It was in New York when I was in college and it was the Bloomberg, and I can't remember the Democrat's name, running for mayor, and I didn't vote. And Bloomberg won. Of course, lied to everyone. What?

By one vote. He won by one vote. Yeah. I do think that it's very difficult to motivate people that the country has been completely deaf to and barely acknowledges as human. And then you have some fucking straight white dudes

knock on your door and say like, dude, you're going to the wrong party. You know what I mean? Like, I don't know. I feel like that, a good motivator might be if people are spoken to in a human way. Elijah and John and I knocked on doors

and that's what they sound like. They are straight guys who sound like Do you vote yet? Hi I'm here from the Democrats We're here to take You vote for taxes yet? You vote for taxes and gay bathrooms yet? You fucking roll a joint

You pull up to the polling place You walk in, punch some buns And then you fucking roll a joint, you pull up to the bowling place, you walk in, punch some buns, and then you fucking get a hot dog. Honestly, we cannot go anywhere where you need to actually pass.

It is not safe for us. I'm about to go somewhere where I'm required to. Do you remember when those, when the Wayans brothers played White Chicks? Oh, yeah. That was what we just did

for straight guys. Yeah. I love White Chicks. I did. It was so good. You guys gonna, I hear LeBron, hey, I can't believe

that guy didn't know what the score was. John, I'm begging you. I'm begging you that we do an Instagram story series of just two bros asking people to vote. We should do that. All right, well, that'll solve it. That'll solve it.

We solved it right here. When we come back, OK Stop! Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. I love three things. I like voting. I like buffalo wild wings. And I like boobs.

I love black leather couches. I love halogen lamps. I like it when your jeans flare out at the bottom. I think that's cool. I saw a boot cut jean in 1998 and I said forever. That forever.

Lady's got to get to it. I like it when your jean back pocket buttons on the outside. So cool. Bro, why not pick carpenter jeans for your wedding?

I don't know. I'm so horny right now. I can't tell who I want to fuck. Yeah. Well, I guess we're already back. And we're back! Now for a game we call

Okay, Stop. We'll roll a clip, and then we can say Stop, Okay, Stop at any point to talk about it. Earlier today, Robert Mueller charged Paul Manafort

with two more criminal charges. Honestly, at a certain point, at a certain point, will we start to feel bad? How many crimes Honestly, at a certain point, at a certain point, will we start to feel bad? How many crimes can one man's... You know, at a certain point, he's a Christmas tree. There's no more place for ornaments.

Charging you with this, charging you with this. I think Robert Mueller is just sort of like, you know, like sometimes you like, there's rituals you do to just kind of get yourself back in the, you know, it's like, he knows how to charge Paul Manafort with crimes.

It's like when you have writer's block and you're just like, you know what, why don't I go back to a part where I felt like I knew what was happening? He's like, I'm a little stuck. I'll charge Paul Manafort again. And then things will unclog. I'll just get out of that headspace because I'll be like, oh, right, I know how to do this.

Anyway, Paul Manafort was charged with two more criminal charges and there was an indictment for a new Russian agent whose name I will not pronounce. This marks the witch hunt's 75th criminal charge filed against 20 different witches that have been indicted or admitted guilt.

But if you love conspiracy theories and oversized ties, then you are very familiar with Fox Business Channel. And earlier this week, Lou Dobbs sat down with Florida Republican congressman and friend to white nationalism Matt Gaetz to talk about how Paul Ryan is handling the Russia probe. Let's watch. Lou, I've come on your show before and defended Paul Ryan when I've agreed with him, but there is no defense today.

Okay, stop. I've never seen a non-paget person with flippers, but I'm living for this guy's teeth. Do you know what those are? Yeah, I know. It's when children put fake teeth in so they have like perfect smiles. Those are not real?

I misread the crowd. I just think he sounds like one of your bros to go voting. He does. These bros live for toddlers in tiaras. For Paul Ryan siding with the FBI and Department of Justice against those of us in the Congress who are working for transparency and accountability.

Devin Nunes, for example, has been asking for a year for the documents that go to the very heart of this Trump-Russia hoax. Stop. I mean, first of all, he and Ryan are identical twins, just like a before and after in terms of fitness.

But also... But also, and this is so specific to Fox News, they managed to make everything look so fucking hideous. The Lou Dobbs tonight, the tonight in the corner, the hashtag Dobbs, these hideous words. I don't know how much it will help us in the inevitable Civil War, but we've got the good graphic designers.

We do! People need to be inspired. You need good graphics to be inspired. And this is another looks thing, but he does look like every guy who wouldn't go down on me in high school. Like now. You know what I mean?

Oh, I see. I'm sorry. All the teachers who wouldn't go down on her. I begged. All the vice principals who refused her. Mr. Cisneros. So just to return to substance for one second. You asked the wrong people on.

No, it's good. I love referring to it as the Trump-Russia hoax. Because as we noted, 75 charges. 20 people, including several who have pled guilty. Nobody pleads guilty to a hoax. Yeah. Maybe Mike Flynn is just super committed. He's like, it's improv everywhere.

And Mike Flynn does not break. Mike Flynn is just super committed. He's like, it's improv everywhere. And he's like, and Mike Flynn does not break. Mike Flynn will finish the, he will finish the scene. All right. Our speaker standing with us and putting the focus on the FBI's refusal to turn over documents so that we could perform our oversight duties. Instead, he was defending the FBI. And that's deeply frustrating to me. And we need the speaker to be an institutionalist. Instead, he was defending the FBI. And that's deeply frustrating to me, and we need the speaker to be an institutionalist for the country.

Okay, stop. All I wanted to know was that this show comes on at four in the afternoon West Coast time on the Fox Business Network. That is truly the most depressing thing I've ever heard in my life. This is... They have just...

They have put Lou Dobbs in there. I believe Lou Dobbs was sealed into some kind of a sarcophagus that does have one... It has one camera in, and then it's airtight. And he's just going to mummify in there. And in the spirit

of Fox and the Pharaohs, he does... He will be buried with his production assistants. He is, and they will die, and they will die kneeling facing him as a show of... Adoration? Sure. Yeah. Not to be a defender of the deep state. Oh, okay, stop.

Let's also just keep in mind what we're talking about here. We are talking about the nonsense allegation that the FBI was secretly spying on the Trump campaign to hurt the Trump campaign, even though they didn't. They helped him by keeping it secret and then doing press conferences saying that his opponent was an on-again, off-again criminal two days before everybody voted.

It really stuck in people's minds. And then they made Trump president. Then they still didn't tell anybody at all. Then they still didn't tell anybody. At all. And then Trump fired the FBI director. And then a special counsel was appointed. And then we found all this out.

Because 75 people were charged. 75 crimes were charged against 20 different people. So far. Thank you. Deep state. The House Intelligence Committee stood up and said that there was no evidence of collusion. We need the speaker to do the same. Another area, Lou, is to have real accountability. Okay, stop.

Lou Dobbs for sure is getting hard right now. Look at his... He's like, I love everything that you're saying. That is definitely the face that he gives you from across the room of like, I got a dick and it knows how to work. And the silence from our very own speaker is deafening. Speaker Ryan needs to step up. Okay, stop.

I'm just happy to see Lou Dobbs not targeting illegal immigrants and Mexicans for once. Yeah, it's weird to turn on Paul Ryan. Try that out. Yeah. Infighting is good for us. That they destroy each other like a pack of fucking old wolves.

You're right though, Brenda. A bold new fresh take for Lou Dobbs. Yes. He needs an update. You should note that what this is about is Paul Ryan taking the most modest step towards some kind of disagreement with Trump and saying he agrees with Trey Gowdy. Trey, you noted liberal firebrands. Trey Gowdy, the hero of the resistance, Trey Gowdy, in saying that Spygate is total fucking bullshit, and Paul Ryan saying that he agrees with Trey Gowdy about it, is enough to make these guys say, we should get rid of Paul Ryan,

someone who is not going to be Speaker in, what, six months, because he's stepping down anyway. They're like, we need to get rid of this guy. And it's a reminder that Paul Ryan played this game, and so many Republicans spent so long kowtowing to this right-wing base that now they caught a ride on a tiger. Another tiger is, I don't know, trying to eat them. Too little, too late. Analogies.

Wouldn't you like to see Paul Ryan lose that leadership? Yes. Well, I'm of two minds. Obviously, Paul Ryan, I want to see him ignominiously thrown out of politics and then make millions of dollars in the speaking circuit. That's my hope for him. And no fairness in this world. But it is satisfying to take the gavel from him if we win the House. And it is a little less satisfying to take it from Kevin McCarthy. But give me time and emotionally I can get ready for taking it from Kevin McCarthy

who is worse than Paul Ryan and like more grovelly, right? Like he's the one that Trump calls my Kevin. Oh God. Ew. Did you see that video where Trump takes a bottle of water and puts it on the ground and then immediately

Mike Pence does it as well for no reason? If Kevin McCarthy's at that table, it's a third bottle of water going to the ground. And that's OK Stop! When we come back, a game about pardons! Don't go anywhere.

Love it or leave it, there's more on the way. And we're back! Earlier this week, Donald Trump tweeted, I have the absolute right to pardon myself, but why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong?

He means it like pardon me, madam. Right. You beg your pardon. Pardons are such a bizarre and confusing injection of politics into our justice system that we got to thinking, what other insane pardons have happened in the past? So we thought we'd explore the history of controversial pardons in a game we're calling Pardon My Pardon. And to help us play the game, we want to invite to the stage an expert on the topic. She's the James P. Bradley Chair in Constitutional Law at Loyola's Law School,

where she teaches classes on the topic. Please welcome Kimberly West-Falkin. Hi. You go here. How are you tonight? I'm very good. Thank you for being here. Thanks for having me.

So, would someone out there like to play the game? Great. She made a sign. Let's go over here. Hi, what's your name? My name is Grace. Where are you from, Grace? I'm from Nashville and I have so far talked 10 people into coming to see your show in Nashville. Awesome. Are you ready? I'm so ready. All right. Question number one. Just seven months into his administration, Donald Trump issued his first pardon when he fully pardoned Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a man who has not only refused to follow the judge's orders, but also committed insane amounts of deeds, including forcing inmates to live outside in the sweltering Arizona heat. How did Trump's pardon of Arpaio stray from presidential norms?

Is it A? It's unprecedented to pardon a sheriff without first forcing him to beat you in a duel. Is it B? Sheriff Joe committed so many crimes

that the White House printer ran out of ink halfway through printing. But after Trump saw his long list of crimes, he congratulated him on doing such big numbers. Is it C?

He hadn't filed a petition. He hadn't served any time despite the fact that the DOJ requires you to serve five years to file a petition. He hadn't accepted any sort of responsibility for his crimes. The DOJ wasn't in the loop, and it wasn't for any of the traditionally accepted reasons for a pardon, including mercy, restore tranquility, or to correct a miscarriage of justice. Also, isn't it weird we use the word miscarriage there? It almost makes me feel a little uncomfortable to say, frankly, it did.

Or is it D? Arpaio tricked Trump into pardoning him by showing him a get-out-of-jail-free Monopoly card. Ooh, what do you think, Grace? C. It is, it's C. Question number two. Over the course of American history,

there have been a bunch of controversial pardons usually carried out during the end of a president's last term. Which of these is a real presidential pardon? Is it A? Warren G. Harding once pardoned a mob enforcer who was suspected of killing 60 different people. Or B. George W. Bush once pardoned a turkey

who was suspected of killing 60 different people. Was it C? Or is it D? Or is it D? Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon, but not the Richard Nixon you're thinking of. Some other guy named Richard Nixon who's not allowed to commit one Watergate because you pardoned by name, not the person, right? We got into a lot there on D.

I'm going to go with A? Correct. Correct. It'd be funny if there was one guy out there named Richard Nixon who gets one free Watergate. Question three. Grace, a week ago, Rudy Giuliani went on television and said that Donald Trump has the right to pardon himself. What did he say about Bill Clinton's power to pardon after Clinton pardoned a sketchy commodity trader named Mark Rich?

Is it A? The whole thing is an outrage. There's no justification for that pardon. It was a disgrace and a scandal. The man was under investigation for massive fraud. Then all of a sudden he gets a pardon. Is it B? There's a process for getting a pardon.

You go out, you do an investigation, how the person has straightened themselves out. None of that was done here. Is it C? He worked it out directly with the White House, which is exactly what you're not supposed to do. You're not supposed to have direct contacts like that. Or is it D?

He's never paid his dues to society in any way, and he's never indicated that he's straightened himself out. I don't know on what basis on which you would give him a pardon. What do you think, Grace? All of the above, because Giuliani's crazy. Well, he wasn't crazy then. It was all of the above. You got it.

Bonus question. What other controversial person did Bill Clinton pardon in his last month in office? I will give you a hint. His last name is Clinton. I mean, I want to say Hillary, but he wouldn't have pardoned Hillary Clinton.

No, he wanted her to rot in jail. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He didn't give a fuck about Hillary. It was Roger Clinton. Roger Clinton. Who had been charged with cocaine possession. Within a year of the pardon, Roger had already gotten a DUI and a disorderly conduct arrest. You didn't get the bonus, but you got the rest.

Everybody, give it up for Grace. Who has won the Parachute Give Card. Also, she's moving a lot of tickets to Nashville, which is more than the rest of you people can say. Give it up for Grace. Yay! Before I let you go, Professor, so can I call you Professor? Do I call you Kim?

What do you think? I go by a lot of things. Professor West Falcon is what they call me in the law school. But Kim, Kimberly, Professor West Falcon, any of the above. You really get the choice. What do you think? What do you guys think? Kim! Professor Kim would be different. Professor Kim. So I just wanted to, because I think there's been a lot of talk about pardons,

and I think we're going to be talking about them for a while, because Trump figured out that it's something that he can make a lot of fun with. Why is the pardon power in there at all? It always feels like something that it's hard to explain and hard to understand why the president gets to step inside of the justice system in this one peculiar way. That's a really good question. I think the framers had it in mind as a way to be a check on an otherwise imperfect criminal justice system. They were acutely aware that it's a kind of power that a king normally has. So that's the tension. That's the tension we all have with it, that it's an act of grace. It's an act of mercy.

It's not consistent with a democratic sort of system, yet our system has checks and balances. And so it's supposed to be a check on a judicial system that's failed. And so originally there's the idea that there were judges who were forced by really extreme sentencing requirements. I'm talking during the framers era, so 1700s. And they could go to a president, maybe President Jefferson, and say, this person needs to be pardoned. It's not appropriate for them to stay in jail this long, or you've got people who have rebelled, and you need to resolve things after a war. There are a lot of reasons like that. And what would the framers have said

about Trump asserting that he could pardon himself? I think they would have thought it was the most asinine assertion possible. Why is that? Because only someone who has absolute power, which is really what he's asserting, would think that they can pardon themselves for something like a crime, in my view. That the entire point of the Constitution was to create, again, this structure where there are checks and balances. And they were close to obsessed with creating a type of government where you wouldn't have a tyrant. I mean, that was everything they talked about.

And to me, it would be the essence of being a tyrant, that you could commit crimes and then pardon yourself for them. So it's taking a little bit of text of the Constitution and ignoring the rest of the entire document and its structure and its purpose. So what happens when a president uses the pardon power to obstruct justice? Well, your question included your knowledge that we don't have a case that's on point. So it was a good question. And you can be impeached for virtually anything, right? High crimes and misdemeanors. We don't have a definition of that. So arguably, yes, you could definitely impeach a president for misusing the pardon power. And I think why you have Trump asserting that he can self-pardon this way is that we law professors on some level, guess what, never anticipated a Donald Trump president. We didn't anticipate that. So we have long said in law schools that

the pardon power is a highly discretionary power. And we use it as a hypothetical with our students and say, well, this is the only thing the court would never review because it is squarely within the power of the president. But that goes to the core of it being something that's about mercy and an assumption that you're forgiving someone. And again, Trump has put us in a box we never thought of, right? Someone who would think of, well, I'll forgive myself. And then where we're adding is for a crime. And so we do have a case on point and it is it involves Richard Nixon that Richard Nixon took it all the way to the Supreme Court whether he could exert executive power and refuse to comply with the subpoena and the Supreme Court said he had

to comply with the subpoena that he couldn't exert his power and his privilege as the president in the context of a criminal case now had he been exerting that privilege to preserve some sort of national security interest, maybe it would have been a different outcome. But if it's a crime, we do have a case that says that there's not a reason to think a president can exert these king-like powers if you're committing a crime. So while we don't have a case directly on point, and that's because we haven't had a president assert such a horrible thing and do such a horrible thing that when you put these two precedents together and the precedent we do have, it would seem that it would be absurd. And as some members of Congress have said, you would fire a lawyer who would tell you, hey, if you commit a crime, you can pardon yourself

for it later because we would hope the Supreme Court would step in. If Trump were to pardon himself, what happens next? Does it get tested by prosecutors? Does it get brought up as an objection? What happens with it? Where does it go? Who prints it? Well, there is a big problem. The primary check on the pardon power was envisioned to be us, the voters, the people.

So you were talking earlier about whether you show up to vote. So if the people don't get concerned enough about a misuse of a pardon, I mean, you could be upset about pardons he's made already that aren't of himself. And the idea would be you're the check on him because you don't vote him back into office or you don't vote the people who support him back into office. So, again, we don't have a clear remedy except someone suing, and that could be arguably anyone. And the court could say, well, we don't want to hear it because they don't have standing. Or the court could hear it because they did hear the case against President Nixon. So it would be a lawsuit, and we would hope that the Supreme Court would step in. But the Supreme Court's not going to step in and rule in a way that it doesn't think the people are behind.

court's not going to step in and rule in a way that it doesn't think the people are behind. So big picture, the check on him doing something like this is being either impeached or the people thinking that this is just not something we can tolerate from a president. I just, before I let you go, I do want to make one pitch, which is that the legal maneuver of self-pardoning to evade a crime. I want to call it auto-erotic obstruction of justice. Just something for you to noodle on. Guys, give it up for Professor Kimberly West-Falken. Thank you so much for being here and for playing. When we come back,

The Rand Wheel. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. And we're back! Now for a segment we call the rant wheel. This week on the wheel we have Carrie Bradshaw. Exciting. Gilligan's Island.

Martha McSally. J.R. Smith. Howard Schultz. The Americans. Temptation Island. And whenSally, J.R. Smith, Howard Schultz, The Americans, Temptation Island, and when people say, quote, this is why people hate politics. Let's spin the wheel. It has landed on Carrie Bradshaw, a suggestion by Brian. Take it away.

Well, my main thing was the 20th anniversary of Sex and the City. And people always... Yeah, it's a fucking great show. People always... You're judging me. People always talk about

how selfish Carrie is. And I don't know why she wouldn't be when it's about her love life. And I think what drives me the craziest about shows like this and it goes into a bigger thing, I looked up a list of every show that people call a guilty pleasure. Nearly,. And I think what drives me the craziest about shows like this, and it goes into a bigger thing, I looked up a list of every show

that people call a guilty pleasure. Nearly like, I think 19 out of 20 of them were led by women. And yeah, it's like Pretty Little Liars, Scandal, Jane the Virgin. Oh, that's a great show. I know. Blasphemy.

Naughty. Grey's Anatomy, the Housewives franchise, The Bachelorette, like all this stuff, inscripted or unscripted. And it was frankly, it just felt very misogynist. You would feel guilty for watching a show with a female lead is so repulsive to me. And I have to imagine it's mostly men that voted for that

who probably are like, oh, my dumb girlfriend likes this show. But you know what? Look, at first I was skeptical, but then I started watching started those gals are funny yeah and they kind of and they curse

yeah it's a great show and I also also just a quick tag on that rant it's driving me crazy in this week of real tragedy

with two major figures taking their own lives that the thing has been if you have a problem talk to someone fuck that if you see something say something it's not something someone's already suffering and depressed it's not their job it's not their job to be like hey i need help because they might not know they do

and so i just think really it's like it's like when people experience death and someone's like do you need anything i don't know bring me something and I'll tell you. Yes. Yeah, I think that's right. I'm here for you. Thank you. I think that there really is this divide between people that have experienced depression and people who haven't because it's a hard thing to understand if you haven't experienced it. And I think one of the pernicious things is that it's not sadness, it's something else. And that one of the consequences of being depressed and needing help is the feeling that either you don't deserve help you can't actually get help nobody wants to help you and also just an inability to do the work to get the help you need

and so I do think when people are like if you need help reach out there's people who will reach out and that's good and it's a good message to get out there for people but it's also important to remember that there are people who can't reach out because they're so deep in it that they need somebody to reach down to help them out. Well because I don't know where else we're gonna talk about Anthony Bourdain I just want I just want to say a quick line of obviously a very tragic news today but one thing that I think a lot of people respect about him is the way he he spoke about the Latino community and the folks that make the food that we eat that are probably making the food you're eating right now and so

that is definitely something that I've seen people mention and that I want to make sure we also recognize today yeah and what a turn for the Carrie Bradshaw rant and I and I will also say Anthony Bourdain was someone who's so thoroughly stuck behind and encouraged and supported Asia Argento, who was one of the accusers against Harvey Weinstein and was someone who faced absolutely vicious attacks in the Italian press that none of us saw, but that were vicious and followed a lot of the reporting and faced blowback that even as hard as it was in the United States, she faced even worse. And he really stood by her and was such an advocate for that kind of story and for women speaking out. So it is really sad. Let's spin it again. It has landed on J.R. Smith. Do you guys want to know who won the NBA Finals? Does anybody not want to know? Anybody got a T vote?

You one guy half raised his hand. I'm going to tell you. You didn't want it. You didn't stop me. You didn't give a shit. The Warriors won the NBA Finals. Steve Kerr. Steve Kerr. Friend of the pod. All been in a friend of the pod team. Steve Kerr! Steve Kerr!

Friend of the pod! What'd I do? Did I say it wrong? We love Steve Kerr. Sorry, I'm always afraid that I said something incorrect sports-wise, but a victory for the friend of the pod. I think it's related.

A week of friend of the pod related victories. I was recently updated on the whole J.R. Smith thing. And I just want to say that I feel bad for J.R. Smith. And I, look, I was in fourth grade. And I was small. I was yay high. I was small for fourth grade. I'm small now.

I'm five foot six and 3 quarters but the nurse said under oath I could say 5'7 but at the time even smaller and now I was not athletic at all

I was more like a veal you know tender tender kept it small well fed somewhere between a veal, you know? Tender. Tender, kept it small, well-fed. Somewhere between a veal and a foie gras goose. Just plump and sad and full and weak.

Adorable. But I was on the basketball team as I was on the baseball team and I was on the soccer team because I was in denial, my father was in denial. It's fine. It's fine. Use it. Use it. Let it motivate you.

It's fourth grade. Here's the thing about being on the basketball team in fourth grade. I have the strength to horizontally to get it where the basket is and I had the strength vertically to get it above the rim but I did not have the strength for the vector you needed to add both horizontal and vertical so

that I could both get it high enough and forward enough that when it came down, it was above the rim. We're in the last game, the finals of the league. It's a big game. I believe we were tied. It's the final moments of the game. There's 10 seconds left. I'm basically dead weight out there. I'm standing at the free throw

line. The ball just gets lost from some of the very talented children who were... And the ball just falls down and rolls down in front of me. And it's like slow motion. And I pick it up. And I'm at the free throw line. There's not an opponent

in sight. And I look up at that ramp and I take all my energy and all my strength and I throw it as hard as I can. And it goes up. And it comes down and

rolls out of bounds. And I just want to say that nobody can make J.R. Smith feel worse than how J.R. Smith already feels. So maybe everybody could give him a break. Aww. John. It's not a question. Let's spin it again.

John, I really want you to write a depressing children's book. Okay. And I want it to be that story. It has landed on Martha McSally, which you suggested. Tell us about it. So Martha McSally McFloppy is what I'm going to call her. She is running for Senate in Arizona. And today there was news that she had a video in which,

an old video in which she was supportive of DACA and a path to citizenship. She quietly had that video removed. But the internet is forever, so we all know about that right now. And I thought you all should know about another spineless Republican walking back their convictions, a la Marco Rubio.

Great. How dare her put an MC in front of a first name? Yeah. Absolutely. Bunch of McBullshit. McSally? No.

McSally. It's not a name, lady. It sounds delicious, though. Let's spin it again. Woo! Oh, another island. All right, we'll leave it here. It has landed on Temptation Island. I understand that it's coming back.

I don't fully understand what it is, but I do put it in the category of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette and The Bachelor in Paradise, which many call guilty pleasures, Brian, but what I call horrible. And I don't... I watch garbage, all right? Name one garbage show you watch.

I watch My 600-lb Life, Brian. Oh, yes, but it's motivating. All right, come at me. That's fine. Come at me. No, I'm impressed. I watch a Come at me. That's fine. Come at me. No, I'm impressed. I watch a lot of it. Okay, good.

I've seen many episodes of My 600-lb Life. I appreciate the journey. I also used to watch Hoarders, but honestly, Hoarders is a gateway drug to My 600-lb Life. Because Hoarders

is just My 600-lb life on the outside. You know? Yes. Think about it. Right. Think about it. And they both have the same thing that happens at the beginning,

which a doctor says, what happened here? And a person says, just got out of hand. So I watch garbage. I respect you now. However, those shows make me so sad. And some of my friends watch The Bachelor every Monday night. And I don't understand it. It's so awful.

It is. It's really gross. And I just think, that guy, what's his name? Who's the host of The Bachelor? Chris Harrison. Chris Harrison. He looks like he's got some darkness behind those eyes. He's going to be on hoarders next.

I don't know. He's seen some shit. Let's go lock some, let's go lock 20 dental hygienists in a room with nothing but alcohol for three weeks and see if any of them get married at the end. You're selling the show to me. Honestly, I think all those shows are so watchable and I don't give a fuck. Come at me. I'm there for them.

I love them all. I actually think The Bachelorette is kind of feminist, to be honest with you. The men crumble in ways that the women don't and it's fascinating. Fascinating. But Temptation Island specifically is just please fuck as soon as possible, right? I don't and it's fascinating. Fascinating. But Temptation Island specifically is just please fuck as soon

as possible, right? I don't remember. I think it's, I think they just cut all the fucking bullshit. There's no hand gliding expeditions or like ice campaigns

or whatever the fuck they do. They go right to fucking. See, I used to love The Amazing Race because it had a kind of, I don't know, 19th century hot air balloon, let's see the world and go on an adventure.

And then Temptation Island's like, let's get some people on camera, let's get them drunk, and then let's destroy the last shreds of whatever connected morality and sex before, I don't know, Bill Clinton came along. The best twist on that show would be that the Shyamalan of it all

would be that they're like, the last episode is just the boat leaving, and they're just like, bye guys, you're here forever. And that's the rant wheel. Now for a segment we call Ending on a High Note. As we mentioned earlier,

there was a primary on Tuesday and we did an incredible job in California. But outside of California, a lot of really cool things happened too. In Johnson County, Iowa, bellwether for Democratic-based enthusiasm. Turnout in the primary eclipsed 20%, breaking the previous record.

Democrat Laura Arthur won a special election for a state legislative seat by 19 points in a Missouri district that went for both Donald Trump and Mitt Romney by 4 points. Outside of California, Democrat turnout was up 71% over the 2014 midterms, while GOP turnout was only up 5%. A baby boomer is asking me to speak slower. You're right, I should speak slower. You know what's interesting? A lot of people listen to podcasts at 1.5 speed,

and I'm like, try it. Deb Haaland, a Democrat from New Mexico, won her primary and is expected to become the nation's first ever Native American congresswoman. Not only that, but she's endorsed the elimination of ICE, universal health care, and abortion rights. The point is, a lot of really cool, a lot of very cool people won some races. The enthusiasm is there. Everything we did for the last 18 months now leads to the next few

months where we have to do everything we can. It all leads up to these next few months as we head into the fall. Democrats are doing a good job in their primaries, but it's not earth-shaking. It's not earth-shattering. The turnout is good, but we have to do better. And I just wanted to leave it there because all signs say that we can win the House. We can pick up seats. We can take back some state legislatures. But we just have to do the work. And I just thought that would be a good place to leave it. I want to thank Brenda Gonzalez, Erin Gibson, Brian Zabby, Kimberly Westphalgen. Thank you all for coming out tonight. If you're here for the late show, I'll see you then. Have a great night. Thank you.