No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen - Trump fumbles the ball heading into 2026

Episode Date: December 7, 2025

Trump fumbles the ball on his ONLY job heading into the midterm year. Brian interviews Jamie Raskin, Mark Warner, and Pod Save America's Tommy Vietor. Shop merch: https://briantylercohen.com/shopYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/briantylercohenTwitter: https://twitter.com/briantylercohenFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/briantylercohenInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/briantylercohenPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/briantylercohenNewsletter: https://www.briantylercohen.com/sign-upWritten by Brian Tyler CohenProduced by Sam GraberRecorded in Los Angeles, CASee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Trump fumbles the ball on his only job heading into the midterm year, and I have three interviews, Jamie Raskin, Mark Warner, and Pod Save America's Tommy Vitor. I'm Brian Tyler Cohen, and you're listening to No Lie. Trump has arguably the easiest job he's ever had right now if he wants to keep his majority heading into midterms. It is to do exactly what he did heading into 2024 and keep his focus on affordability. That's it. He and his party ran an entire-ass campaign predicated on that exact issue. And in the Democratic races, where they've run on affordability, they won. So the winning formula is right there, right in front of everybody's faces.

But here's where the problem comes in. If Trump or Republicans run on making America more affordable, that would come with it a tacit admission that they've failed at achieving affordability. And, you know, Trump would rather cut off a limb than admit failure. And so instead, the alternative for Trump is that he has to pretend that he's already succeeded and that America is the most affordable it's ever been. And because the rest of the GOP, of course, exists to offer nothing but slavish devotion to the God King,

they too have to pretend that they've all succeeded and the economy is great. Nothing could be better. And so now it would be bad enough if you had a GOP that was pretending that they were presiding over a gangbusters economy when in fact they're presiding over the most expensive economy in modern American history.

That would be bad enough. But what's worse is that they ran expressly on lowering costs. So if anyone should understand the potency of this specific issue, It's the Republicans. They spent four years railing against Biden and the Democrats for doing the thing that they are doing right now. So not only are they inept, they're also hypocrites. And as for Trump, despite watching Democrats route the Republicans on Election Day just a few weeks ago,

and despite his momentary pivot to affordability and a few, you know, random posts on truth social, now this is what's coming out of the White House. It's a conjunct. I think affordability is the greatest conjective. They look at you and they say, affordability. They don't say anything else. Everyone says, oh, but the word affordability is a Democrat scam. And it's a Democrat hoax, a Democrat scam. Again, because he's too proud to ever admit fault, he's thrust himself into a position where he's forced to

defend basically the indefensible, which is the high price of everything. And just to show you what a brutal side of the fence this is to be on, according to the most recent political poll, a staggering 46% of Americans, nearly half, say that the cost of living in the U.S. is the worst they can ever remember it being. And that's a view held by 37% of Trump 2024 voters. Americans also say that the affordability crisis is Trump's responsibility with 46% that it is his economy now and his administration is responsible for the cost that they struggle with. So not only is it the worst economy for almost one and two Americans, but Trump also has the distinct honor of shouldering the blame for it. And while most Republicans dare not acknowledge that objective reality, plenty of them are going to talk off the record and complain about it to reporters. According to NBC News, nearly two dozen Republican senators, House members, strategists, and congressional aides share their concerns about their party's handling of affordability in interviews with NBC News. Even some of the most MAGA Republicans are calling for a pivot. Senator Josh Hawley said it's not enough to fix the message. He said Republicans can only improve their standing by delivering real results to lower costs and grow wages. Quote, people aren't dumb.

They know when they go to the grocery store what it costs and what it doesn't. They know what their rent costs. They know what their prescription drugs cost. All that stuff is too high and they can't afford it. And they know that. So we've got to deliver. But as for Republican leadership, if you're wondering whether they're heating these warnings, this is what Mike Johnson said.

Again, according to NBC News, quote, we are exactly on the trajectory of where we've always planned to be. Steady at the wheel, everybody. It's going to be fine, Mike Johnson said. Our best days are ahead of us. Americans are going to feel a lot better in the early part of next year. So that's the message, relax. I can't imagine that doesn't work out swimmingly.

And then, of course, you know, there's one final element of all of this that really just adds fuel to the fire. And that is the fact that while prices are up, while Republicans refuse to acknowledge as much, that the sole focus for the president of the United States continues to be turning the White House into the love child of the Kremlin and Liberace. Trump's sole focus is building a $350 million ballroom, renovating the Lincoln bathroom in marble, paving over the road. his garden and crusting the Oval Office in gold, retrofitting a Qatari jet to the tune of a billion dollars paid for by us, on buying Christy Nome, a couple of Gulfstream jets to the tune of

172 million, hosting crypto dinners where he casually doubles his net worth. This guy is so far from a populist, I doubt he's interacted with any human being not worth a million dollars in the last six months. And let's be clear, the GOP is saddled with all of that, because part of being a Republican today is showing blind devotion to the God King at every turn. So the ballroom, the jets, the golds for the elite class who thinks that the very real affordability issues are a scam. That is the perfect portrait of today's Republican Party, the entire Republican Party. And that's their message headed toward November 26. Next up are my interviews with Jamie Raskin, Mark Warner, and Tommy Vitor.

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Receive 30% off your first subscription order. Go to Armour.com slash BTC or enter BTC to get 30% off your first subscription order. That's A-R-M-R-A.com slash BTC. I'm joined now by Congressman Jamie Raskin. Congressman, thanks for your time. I'm delighted to be with you, Brian. So it looks like Cash Patel's luck might have run out a little bit. Can you explain the new investigation that you and your committee have just launched into him?

Well, you know, it's the oldest story in the book. He's just... looting public funds for private use. So he's been using a government jet for personal flights and lavish vacations. He's been taking his girlfriend on overnight dates on a $60 million government jet that's supposed to be used for government purposes. He's done a Scottish golfing excursion with his buddies. Again, on a government jet. He's taken a trip to a luxury hunting retreat called unbelievably Boondoggle Ranch, which I think of is the name of the whole scam. I mean, basically, the guy who was the least qualified FBI director in history and has utterly

politicized the department and turned it into a weapon against Trump's political enemies is just abusing all of the the privileges of the office for personal use. Now, in terms of the investigation itself, obviously Democrats are in the minority. And so to what extent can you investigate this without buy-in from Republicans? And I guess as a corollary to that, are there any Republicans who are joining in on this effort to investigate Cash Patel? Well, we just got back after the little Thanksgiving recess. Brian. And so I've not had an opportunity yet to talk to the Republicans, but when we hit the

floor this evening, I will definitely be approaching colleagues on the Judiciary Committee, people from the Oversight Committee, to see whether they would join us, because it's just a scandalous situation. And I think we need to raise the stakes for this kind of misconduct. Trump obviously sets a dreadful example for his administration by treating public property, like private property and just bulldozing the White House and then deciding to build out his big ballroom and taking a $400 million jet airplane from the Qataris and so on. So the rest of the administration gets the message. It's just like Mardi Gras, let's say like Bontan Roulet, whatever you can get away with it.

And even though the Supreme Court, which is under Trump's spell, has given him certain kinds of immunities, those immunities don't extend to everybody else in the government. And we have to try to uphold the rule of law at every term. Best case scenario, what do you hope that this investigation will lead to? Well, we want him to release all of the relevant information and all of the relevant documents. We want him to stop ripping off the taxpayers, but he's already shown himself basically to be unrepentant. And so, you know, Trump may end up getting rid of him, but that's not sufficient for us if other

members of administration continue to abuse their public offices for private gain. And again, that goes all the way up to the top. I mean, it starts with Donald Trump, but it certainly filtered down to a lot of the other members of his cabinet, just as well, including Secretary Nome at Homeland Security, and a bunch of the other ones are engaged in the same kind of misconduct and exploitation of office. I'm not sure if you've had the opportunity to read this, but there's a new report out from active duty and retired FBI agents, and it kind of shows that what you're investigating

cash Patel for is a small part of a larger hole. there was an instance where Cash Patel, it was the day after Charlie Kirk had been shot and killed, went out to Provo to begin the investigation, and wouldn't leave the plane until he got an FBI jacket. And then even still, once he got an FBI jacket from a female member of the FBI, wouldn't leave the plane until he was able to borrow some patches from other FBI agents that wouldn't leave him patchless where there were spaces on his jacket to put those patches on. And so it really goes to show that what he's using the office for is not to lead first as a law enforcement agent, but rather to get himself Instagramable moments and to make sure that he's the center of attention.

I don't know whether he wants to use this to launch himself into some big, glossy social media career in the aftermath of this. But in any case, what was your reaction to hearing a little bit about that report that came from active duty and retired FBI agents? It's all spectacle, performance, entertainment for them. Meantime, he's been doing everything in his power to cover up Jeffrey Epstein's crimes and the crimes that took place as part of that massive international billion-dollar global sex trafficking ring and child abuse ring. So he said he wanted all the documents released when they were running and they got in, and he's doing everything he can to sweep all of it under the rug and the call it a demonstration.

Trump, along with Donald Trump. Meantime, they're taking the taxpayers for a ride in every way, you know, using the jet planes for their romantic dates, for their buddy golf weekends, for all of their boondoggle ranch outings. And they're not serving the American people. It's just a complete performance. The good news, Brian, is that Trump is sinking like a... stone in the polls. And so he'll probably end up purging a bunch of these people who are basically

just imitating him because their crimes are so glaring and so obvious. In meantime, he's in league with every, you know, corrupt mob state leader around the world and is in the process of pardoning Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former president of Honduras, who's a convicted cocaine trafficker who was bringing cocaine into America, 400 tons of cocaine, 800,000 pounds of cocaine he was bringing in. And Trump is going to pardon him because he's another right-wing dictator who has all the right friends in the Trump circles while they're just blowing up boats in Latin America at the high seas saying these people are narco-traffickers without bringing any charges, without any due process at all, without any declaration of war.

So it doesn't make sense either as a legitimate act of war or as a legitimate act of police enforcement. So it's just an utterly lawless, careening sequence of events that we're witnessing. On that point really quick, there was concern over the weekend that Pete Higgseth was one who ordered that second strike. And of course, the second strike would be the one that would be constituted as a war crime because, you know, within the manual that our own military adheres to, it gives the example of if someone is shipwrecked for some reason, that's a legitimate justification to not attack them or to not kill them. And that's exactly what happened. It seemed this afternoon that that blame had been diffused off of Pete Higgseth

and onto somebody below him. And so what was your reaction to seeing what very much looks like an effort to protect Pete Hegeseth? Right. Well, even if the original attacks on these so-called drug boats were legitimate acts of war, which I think clearly they were not, but even assuming they were, the so-called second tap attacking the people who now were hanging on for dear life to the wreckage of the boat, was a war crime. It is a war crime to attack people who are survivors, who are defenseless, and have no military recourse. It's just like killing prisoners of war.

It's killing people who no longer are a threat. So even if you assume, I think, against all the evidence that the original tap was a lawful effort just to destroy a drug boat, that we were at war with, even though Congress hasn't declared any war and there are no military hostilities. The attack on the desperate survivors who are trying to hang on to the flotsam and jetsam and wreckage of the boat is clearly a war crime. It's either a war crime if you're using a military paradigm or it's murder if you're thinking of it as law enforcement. Yeah. Because these people, again, were constituted. no threat to anyone.

Do you think that this administration had covered up for Hegsseth so that they could preserve him while still throwing somebody below him under the bus? Well, we're waiting to see. We're trying to find that out. I mean, scandalously, the administration has been defending these, you know, non-international law hostilities, hostilities. I mean, they're coming up with the most tortured neologistic syntaxes. It's just murder at the high seas.

That's basically what it is. Yeah, I mean, it's not an act of war. Congress hasn't declared war. We're not inactive military hostilities. They say, we think that's a drug boat. We don't know who's on it, but we think everybody who's on it is guilty. And we're just going to blow up the drug boat. And then when two people survived the wreckage, kill all of them, is punitively, allegedly,

one of the orders that came down. So we've got to get to the bottom of this because, of course, the logic of these attacks is unlimited. In other words, if this is allowed at the high seas, why is it not just allowed on the highways of America? Right, right. And if they can go without a declaration of war from Congress, without any military provocation, and without any proof that these are drug dealers, why can't they just blow up trucks that are driving down a highway?

Right? And so you can see how there's an infinitely elastic logic to what they're doing. And when it merges with the deployment of military against Los Angeles and, Portland and Chicago and D.C. It's a very dangerous situation. Yeah, I completely agree. And we'll finish off with this. You had mentioned before the extent to wish Cash Patel and, of course, by association, Donald Trump, are involved in this cover-up of the Epstein files. You have pushed forward a measure, introduced a measure that's intended to put a bunch of Republicans on record here as it relates to the prospective pardon of Epstein's accomplice, Galane Maxwell. Can you speak a little bit about that?

Yeah. Well, look, Donald Trump parted in 1600 convicted January 6th, which included hundreds of people who violently assaulted police officers. He did it on the first day of his administration, so the new Congress had no opportunity to say anything. They are clearly involved in very elaborate relationship and seduction of Galane Maxwell. All she has to do is, is utter the right words, and then she gets transferred out of a higher security, tougher prison to a prison camp in Texas with a very gentle environment. And even there, she gets treated to some extraordinary perks and differential treatment. She gets room service in herself. She gets to work out and have exercise privileges when she wants to. She can have visitors come in who get to use computers, unlike all the other visitors. And she appears to be involved in a commutation application. So she's setting up her pardon, commutation, clemency action from the Trump administration. We know about it. We in Congress have got to act now. And so that is the purpose of this resolution,

putting Congress on record, as opposing any clemency for the conviction. child sex trafficker and offender, Galane Maxwell, who was sentenced in Judge Allie Nathan's courtroom to 20 years in prison for recruiting and grooming and prostituting children across state lines, participating in the trafficking and the abuse of the children. If anybody is unqualified for a pardon, it's got to be Galane Maxwell, who refused to. to testify at her trial, refused to own up to her crimes, has been completely unrepentant, has been completely unremorseful, continues to lie about the girls and the women who were abused, continues to denigrate the victims and disparage the victims of her crimes in Jeffrey Epstein's crimes,

and she continues to deny that Epstein engaged in any sexual offense. against children. Why should she be pardoned? So that strikes me as an elementary and moral and legal proposition and we should all put our names to it. And if you voted to release all the Epstein files, certainly you should be voting also to say there should be no pardon for Galane Maxwell. In terms of getting this resolution on the floor, which is obviously important getting these members of Congress on record in terms of where they stand on this issue, do you have to rely on Mike Johnson to bring it to the floor? Is there some other avenue that can force this resolution to be voted on?

Well, remember, this is what we did with the discharge petition. I would hope that we would immediately get all the Democrats on it. And we would get at least all of the Republicans who co-sponsored the discharge petition. But really, all of them who want to take a stand against this. Because, you know, the rumors are that Donald Trump could decide to issue a Christmas pardon for Galane Maxwell. This would be some active charity that would obviously cement

her determination to testify that she saw no wrong from Jeffrey Epstein and no wrong from Donald Trump and anybody else that the Trump administration is trying to protect. Remember, Trump had dispatched the number two

at the Department of Justice, the Deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanche, to go and meet with her, the day after she was subpoenaed to come testify before Congress and the oversight committee. And he went there not to get names from her about who the abusers and perpetrators were, not to figure out the full scope and dimension of this massive child sex trafficking conspiracy, but rather to make sure that she would not say anything untoward about Donald Trump.

It's pretty amazing that Republicans have been claiming to be battling this war on Christmas for the last 20 years. And finally, they win. They've got full control of government, House, Senate, White House. It's their moment to really bathe in the sacrosanctity of the holiday season and what might Trump be considering doing, releasing a pedophiles accomplice from prison. Really puts everything on full display there. With that said, Congressman, appreciate all the work that you're doing here and for your time today. Great being with you, Brian. Hanks up.

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Thanks so much for joining me. Brian, thanks for having me. So first and foremost, we're watching this Pete Hagseth situation unfold. Does it look from your vantage like Pete Hegseth is busy right now throwing Mitch Bradley under the bus to try and protect himself by basically wrapping his blame for the whole September 2nd strike in praise by saying, you know, this strike was his decision, but we stand but we stand behind him in having made that decision. You're absolutely right.

And Mitch Bradley is a decorated admiral, has been in charge of Special Forces Command for some time. And remember, this is the same Pete Hegstaff, who around the time of the strike bragged that he watched the whole thing and that he was the guy in charge. I mean, this is the macho guy who brought all our military leadership to Quantico and lectured him on being a warrior class, and it sure does seem to me that this is a guy that's also trying to run for the hills,

and frankly trash Admiral Bradley or potentially have him, you know, be the fall guy. I'm going to see Admiral Bradley tomorrow, so I'm going to hopefully get the straight scoop. But this is not a one-off with Pete Exf, as you know. You had mentioned that you're going to see Mitch Bradley tomorrow. So what will that conversation include? Will it be public? Is any of it going to be on the record? Like, what can we expect as a result of that?

He's originally going to meet with the Senate Armed Services Committee and House Armed Services Committee. Then I'm going to meet with him. I'm not sure as one of the so-called gang of eight, you know, chair now, vice chair of the Intel Committee. I'm not sure if the chair Tom Cotton's going to be there. He may have to have left town. And I'm going to ask him just tell the truth. You know, the fact is there wouldn't even be a controversy if the administration had

released the unedited video. Hegs had bragged about the whole video, then release the damn thing. The fact that they've not means they've got something to hide. I'm going to ask, you know, if did Admiral Bradley go ahead and make the order? What were the circumstances? How do you explain this? Does he feel as somebody who's been a career military professional, whether this order was legal? And I hope we can get to the bottom of this.

But it's, you know, this is not going to be a good 24 hours for Pete Hegsef because we've got this meeting with Admiral Bradley. at the same time that the Signalgate investigation report has come out, which I've had briefed to me and will be released to the public tomorrow with a small bit of redaction. Sticking with the Admiral Bradley situation for a moment, given the fact that we know that Republican chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Roger Wicker, has promised a full rigorous investigation into what happened. And is there a world where there can be both a deposition of Admiral Bradley as well as a subpoena to actually get those tapes that Trump himself, even today, said, oh, yeah, if I've got them, then we'll release them, which of course, you know, sounds an awful lot like what they said about the Epstein files 11 months ago, and here we are. Right.

I'm not sure whether we'll see if Wicker would actually go to that full of an investigation. nation. I'm glad the fact that he's promised it. Between promises and actions, I've found a lot of my Republican friends seem to lose their courage when it comes to actually acting. It's easy to say some of these things. But you got to stay hopeful. I mean, this administration's approach to the uniform military has been basically disrespectful almost since day one. And I've been waiting, whether it's people on the Armed Services Committee or, frankly, people on my intelligence committee. When are they going to have a backbone to stand up and say, that's just not the way we operate

in this country? For the folks that you work with on the Republican side and the Republican conference, is this moment, that moment? I mean, we have seen so many instances where it feels like there's no bar, where it feels like no lengths that they will go to are too far, that the administration can do anything and they're not going to be willing to speak out. And so is this that instance? Are you hearing from your Republican colleagues that they're fed up here?

Or do you feel like this is just one more thing that Republicans have done, that Trump and Heggseth have done? And, you know, it just, it is what it is because they're afraid of a mean tweet. Well, Brian, listen, I do have felt at times like a little bit like Charlie and Charlie Brown on the football. Yeah. And I think a lot of us have who, you know, I've been criticized to being too bipartisan. I've stopped being in bipartisan gangs, you know, for the last few months because I didn't feel like any of the Republicans. would step up. On top of that, I've had two or three occasions, particularly on the Intelligence Committee, where we're in a classified setting, in a skiff that more people would speak up when they

fired the head of the NSA General Tim Hawk for political reasons, when they fired the general at the Defense Intelligence Agency for his accurate report on the Iran bombing. They fired him there. when we've seen, you know, the FBI decimated, I kept thinking that at least in a classified setting, they'd raise their voices. I get a lot of, boy, Mark, you're right, boy, Mark, you're right, or boy, Mark, you're acting like our conscience. And it's really been, probably been the worst experience of my public life to see men and women that I thought would stand up for the constitution, but consistently roll over in these last very bizarre 11 months. So let's talk about you in Virginia.

You've just announced your re-election in the state of Virginia. And so why are you deciding to run again? There's two or three reasons. One, I do think as a former tech guy, technology competition with China, is the issue of our time. It's not going to be the driving issue in the election, but I do think whether it's AI, whether it's quantum, whether it's next generation wireless, biotech. making sure America stays in the game and competes is extraordinarily important. Second, I think I can be one of the most effective and have been, particularly around national

security issues, on pushing back on Trump excesses. And at some point, the system is going to have to, it's either going to break or more people are going to push back and, you know, with my record of working with some of the Republicans, I'll be one of the first people that they'll work with. And frankly, it also obviously goes to affordability. It goes to kind of classic issues we're all fighting about protecting Americans' health care. But an issue that I particularly want to bring to the table, not just in Virginia, but I think it'll be an issue, frankly, by 26 and definitely by 28 will be at the front of the debate.

And that is, you know, the economic disruption caused by artificial intelligence. I mean, I believe AI can bring a lot of positive, but there's going to be a – dark underbelly of this. And a lot of that is going to be job dislocation. You know, we've already got, for example, 9% of recent college graduates are unemployed. A lot of that is due to the fact that, you know, those entry-level jobs coming out of college are being, are the first jobs being eliminated by AI. I think that 9% number could go to 25%. That's an awful lot of young people on top of that, an awful lot of pissed off parents who are going to have sunk a couple hundred thousand dollars on college education and the kid not having a job. I think who can be the person

that can force the AI tech community to actually help us design what that three to five year transition look like and how to pay for it. I think I can add some value on that. So I've got the classic democratic issues, but I've also got where I think I can particularly add value around technology that I think is going to become more important than ever. You've also announced that this is going to be your last term in the Senate. Where did you come up with that idea? How does the issue of generational change factor in? I think it's really important to do generational change. But I also felt like as somebody who has been a governor, been a senator for a while, that I'm adding some peak value at this point. But I don't want to be, and I know it's, you know,

my staff and others say, never say you're going to not do it again. Well, you know, I'm 70 years old. still i work in the only place in america where that is actually middle-aged uh which is kind of weird but i think it i want to make clear that part of my part of my job if i'm re-hired by the folks in virginia is to make that generational transition to next generation of leaders and i think as a a senior democrat and hopefully a senate that's controlled by the democrats which i think we're going to have a much better chance than you know three months ago um being part of that shift will be an important role that I'll play. On a separate point in Virginia, the Virginia House Speaker, Don Scott, Democrat, had just

suggested that the legislature is considering drawing a 10-1 map now that we're in this kind of Cold War, this arms race to the bottom, as Trump and J.D. Vance and these Republicans redraw their maps across the country. They started in Texas. They moved over to Missouri and Ohio, North Carolina. We're seeing the process play out in Indiana, likely Florida, right after that. Democrats have responded in California, and they've started the process in Virginia as well. Of course, that takes two consecutive sessions to be able to propose an amendment to the Constitution. But what would be, what is your reaction to the prospect of a 10-1 map, considering right now this is a 6-5 congressional delegation? And I think a lot of people were.

assuming that we would be somewhere in the ballpark of 8 to 3 or maybe even 9 to 2, but 10-1, 10-1, I think, is the most extreme gerrymander that they could take to counteract what we're seeing from Republicans. Well, listen, Don Scott is a great friend. He was also the architect of picking up 13 additional seats in our statehouse. We've got 100 members. We're at 51. We're now at 64.

A lot of that is due to Don Scott. He and I've talked about this a lot. I'm going to be supportive in any way I can. you know it's a pretty funky map to get anything close to 10-1 so but you know the good thing about that is uh whatever the legislature agrees on that we can get passed and again we got to go back to the voters of virginia and and get this passed and that virginia is not california um and obviously you're going to have the incumbent democrats have views on this as well so you know whatever we can get at that that doesn't come back and and you know frankly hurt us. I mean, we've seen

in some of the overreach, especially after the Tennessee election, you know, that some of those seats in Texas that the Republicans threw may not end up being Republican seats. So, you know, I want to push it. I want to be part of something that make sure that we got as many Democratic votes as possible, but I also want to make sure it's something that we're going to be successful at. For folks who are watching right now, how can they help your campaign? as you can check out mark warner va.com you know it's love to learn more about me learn more about what my issues are um i'm proud of my record i'm excited about this campaign i'm excited about pushing back uh i never thought in my lifetime that i'd see the kind of excesses coming out of

this trump administration you know i remember the first couple of months when folks were saying well do you think we'll have elections in 26 and 28 and i thought that was overstatement i can't you Those are legitimate questions to ask right now, and we all have to be part of this fight. There's never going to be a more election, important election cycle. And the most important thing at the bottom line, I know people are complaining who's going to be our 28 candidate, or what's the one message going to be? It's got to be we've got to win. We got to beat these guys.

And I do think that is coupled not only with affordability, health care, but I also think we need as Democrats to be a forward-leaning pro-growth, pro-innovation party. and I hope to be one of the architects of that. I'm going to put your link to your website right here on the screen and also in the post description of this video. Senator, appreciate your time today. Thank you so much, Brian. No Lie is brought to you by Shopify. Now, if you've shopped online, chances are you've bought from a business powered by Shopify.

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Go to Shopify.com slash BTC. Join now by the co-host, Pot Save America, Tommy Vitor. Hey, buddy. Thanks for joining me. Thanks for having me. All right. So let's get into this because Mike Johnson's having a rough go in the house right now. It looks like there's something of a mutiny happening at the hands of not just Marjorie Taylor Green who decided to resign instead of wait for her retirement. But also now Nancy Mace, there's talk of her potentially following Marjorie Telle Green's footsteps, according to New York Times.

There's talk of Elise Stefonic calling Mike Johnson a habitual liar. Anna Paulina Luna is mad that Mike Johnson is declining to schedule a bill banning. stock betting members of Congress from trading stocks. Kevin Kylie has been speaking out against Mike Johnson. So how much danger do you think Mike Johnson is in right now in terms of retaining his speakership, which has been a recurring theme for the modern GOP? Yeah, that is one sad little Johnson, huh? One striveled flaccid Johnson. I think he's in big trouble. I mean, I think the question is, does he lose his job now or does he lose his job after the midterms? But like, no, none of these Republicans seem to like him. None of them think he's a good leader. I mean,

Elise Stefanik was like, Kevin McCarthy was better than this guy. Kevin McCarthy looked like a political genius compared to this guy. So I think we could see him go down the next few weeks even. I mean, who wants this job? After Kevin McCarthy got so utterly humiliated by that motion of vacate by Matt Gates, he was out. This is something he wanted more than anything in the world, left Congress because he was so humiliated. Now Mike Johnson gets it.

Who's going to want a job where you basically have to, You have to herd cats in a Republican conference where you're torn between showing blind deference to Donald Trump on the worst issues, on the Epstein files, on tariffing Americans, on stripping Medicaid away from people, on cutting food assistance from the most vulnerable, or actually adhering to what your members want, but then being at the wrath of Donald Trump and his mean tweets. Yeah, I mean, you're like sort of strapped to the deck of this political titanic that is the Trump administration. And you're right. Like, Trump doesn't think there are three branches of government. He thinks it's like he's in charge of everything. And by the way, like, of course he thinks that way because that's what Mike Johnson has shown him. He's shown nothing but slavish devotion, like blind loyalty to Trump all this time.

And what's it gotten him? I mean, again, to listen to that list of things, it's like you've gotten a really pissed off electorate because now you are just completely complicit in an effort to cover up the Epstein files, an effort to rip food assistance. away from people, cut health care away from people, tariff the absolute hell out of people and raise their costs, all of that heading into an election year. Yeah, and it's not looking like it's going to be a great election for Republicans. Like, look, we don't want to predict anything. Like, a lot of can happen between now and November of 2026. But, you know, I think a lot of these Republicans are looking at the special election that

just happened in Tennessee and how close the margin was in a Trump plus 22 district. And they're thinking, uh-oh, that means a lot of us could be in. serious, serious trouble. And maybe they have time to course correct. But like you said, Trump is, Trump's orders to them are cover up for Jeffrey Epstein, for me, cut Medicaid, eat these tariffs, allow health care prices to skyrocket. And also, you know, when I'm asked about this, when I'm asked about the thing everyone cares about, which is economic affordability, I'm going to say it's a hoax. I'm going to say it's a hoax created by Democrats. Meanwhile, there's a poll in Politico today where I think 46% of voters said the affordability crisis is

the worst it has ever been in their lives. Yeah, which is ironic because that's what this administration and this Republican Party exploited to get themselves in the power. So it's not like they don't know. If anybody recognizes the potency of this issue, it is the party that right now has full control of government power because of this very issue. Yeah, this is the poll. 46% at the cost of living in the U.S. is the worst they can ever remember it being a view

held by 37% of 2024 Trump voters. Yeah. Well, that explains why we're seeing so much. affection. I mean, you know, in this in this past election cycle on November 4th this year, there was something like 7 to 12 percent of Trump voters who crossed over and voted either for Democratic candidates or for the California Prop 50 redistricting ballot measure. And, and that's the result of the fact that, you know, again, this guy ran on something very specific. He was attacking Biden and Kamala Harris for the cost of living for affordability over and over and

over. So he had a very clear idea of what he wanted to accomplish while he was in office. And not only did he not accomplish that, not only did he not fix that, but he exacerbated those problems. And so he's creating this new class of people, this new class of swing voters that didn't even exist before because the electorate had been so calcified in their polarization that we were going after like just a few tens of thousands of people in like five states. And now there's so many more voters up for grabs because they're so disillusioned by the by the con that they've been sold by this Republican Party. Yeah, it's also speaks to the double-edged sword of redistricting, right?

So Trump demanded that Texas do this mid-century or mid-decade redistricting. So California followed suit. Now it's like set off this domino effect. And ultimately what that means for Republicans and states where they're trying to create more Republican districts is you're taking, they hope, like the same amount of voters and spreading them out a little more thin. Yeah. And in a way of election, that means Democrats will have an easier time. winning back seats that otherwise would have been challenging for us. So a lot of these Republicans quoted in some of these stories are people that Trump has personally screwed by

demanding that the maps be redrawn. And I think that, so that's called a dummymander. And so it's when they're drawing these maps so thin and moving over enough voters that they can try to squeeze out more districts and they end up losing a whole swath of districts because now there aren't enough. And if we're seeing swings that are commensurate to what we saw in Tennessee 7th, that are commensurate to what we saw in New Jersey and Virginia, then we're looking at like a 15 point swing to the left and a lot of seats can be on the table. I mean, we're looking not at, you know, 10 seats that could be swinging. We could be looking at 20, 30, 40 that could be swinging if that, if that swing holds true for the rest of the country.

But especially potent in Texas because a lot of those districts were redrawn thinking that the Latino voters who had voted for Republicans in 2024 were a permanent part of their coalition now. But we're seeing massive swings from Latino voters across the country. We're not seeing like, you know, six or seven points to the left. We're seeing certainly double-digit swings to the left. In some places, you know, some counties in New Jersey that they were, that exit polling was showing was like 40, 50 points to the left for these Latino voters. And if you have new districts that you've drawn in Texas wholly predicated on this idea that Latino voters are a permanent part of your coalition only to see swings like that, then you're in for all. a world of hurt when midterm elections roll around. Your lips to God's ears, my friend.

Let's hope it happens. All right. Well, that isn't the only, you know, sense of disarray that we're seeing in the Republican Party right now. There's also a lot of issues right now with Pete Hagsas. So two in particular. So can you walk us through both what we're seeing in terms of the ongoing scandal with this extrajudicial killing, this war crime, this murder, whatever you want to call it,

depending on the rules that happened in, you know, just off the coast of Trinidad, but also the new news as it relates to the Signalgate scandal that was just exposed in the IG report. Yeah. So the first piece of this is are these strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific against alleged, quote, unquote, narco terrorists. There have been 21 of them so far. They've killed 83 people. At issue is the first one of these strikes, which we've recently learned, involved two missiles. The first strike killed all but two people. And then the second strike, an hour later, killed two survivors who were like, apparently. clinging to the wreckage. And there was reporting in the Washington Post that Pete Hexeth had personally ordered basically kind of a kill-em-all, it made basically like a kill-em-all order to take out everyone on this craft. So there was a briefing today on Capitol Hill, this guy, Admiral Bradley, who was in charge of these operations in Pacific brief members of Congress. Jim Himes, who is the

ranking member on the House Intelligence Community, came out afterwards and said, what I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I've seen in my time in public service. So It sounds like it was pretty frightening. In terms of the Mitch Bradley of it all, that's the part I'm especially interested in because we've seen a pretty damn transparent effort by Pete Heggseth to diffuse responsibility onto him. To what extent do you think is that going to stick? Like, I've seen the tweets by Hegset.

I've seen the appeal during the cabinet meeting, both of which he said basically the same thing, which is like, I 100% stand by Admiral Mitch Bradley in his effort to. to effectuate, carry out this plan. So he knows, you know, and he'll try to wrap it in a compliment. He's like, I want 100% stand by him. I think it was a great idea. He's a patriot to this country, blah, blah, blah. What he's doing is basically throwing him under the bus,

basically putting full responsibility for the effort onto him because it was a war crime. So to what extent do you think that matters or that this is going to stick if you're Mitch Bradley? I think it could matter a lot to Mitch Bradley. I mean, if I were him, I would lawyer up, if I were Admiral Bradley. Pete Hexeth is clearly trying to pass the buck and to blame him and to signal to members of Congress and to Donald Trump and any future judge and jury that this is the guy who made these decisions.

Now, we should say Pete Hexeth might be blaming Admiral Bradley now, but between this airstrike and today, they actually had promoted him. At the time of the strike, he was the head of the Joint Special Operations Command or J-Socc. they've since promoted him to the U.S. Special Operations Command, which oversees all the special forces. So these guys were thrilled with the way he was running things until the details of this double-tap airstrike were reported out. So, you know, a lot of ass covering happening here. Now, we'll see if it works, but I think what is going to happen is this is going to just completely erode any support for Pete Hexeth at the Pentagon and within the uniform ranks of the military, because they're not stupid.

They see what's happening. He's screwing their guy over. Well, that's the part I'm so interested in. Like, what do you think Mitch Bradley thinks the moment he hears that? I mean, it's so, it's such a slap in the face. It's so obvious. I don't know who he's performing for that doesn't see exactly what he's doing. Like, anybody, any grown-ass adult who pays attention to this can see what the point of it is.

And so isn't that even worse that it's like- It's terrible. It's not even remotely subtle what he's doing here. And it's like, you know, if you look at the guy's Twitter feed, Like, one tweet is blaming, you know, Admiral Bradley, you know, like a four-star. And then the next one is like a giff of a fucking turtle shooting people with a machine gun. Like, it's just an unserious person. And everyone at the Pentagon knows it.

That's why Pistol Pete is so insecure on the job. But incidents like this, like he's going to lose the building, I think, for good. Now, what about the IG report that, I mean, this is just adding insult to injury at this point. The IG report reveals that, that, you know, his culpability in all of this. Yeah. So there are folks probably remember. Signalgate. That was when then National Security Advisor Mike Waltz

created this group chat on Signal where they were discussing a very sensitive operation to bomb the Houthi rebels in Yemen. However, Walt accidentally included Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, which is...

Casual mistakes. Who among us? I still can't believe that happened. But the Department of Defense's Inspector General was doing a review of what happened because clearly Pete Hegseth took information from the classified servers over the Pentagon and was copy and pasting it into this group chat on an unclassified app on his personal cell phone, which is absolutely not allowed. It is illegal. It's against rules.

And he could be prosecuted for it. So they released this report today that said he put at risk service members in the field by putting this information into an unclassified setting. But basically, Hegseth is trying to create a get-out-of-jail-free card for himself by saying, look, I have declassification authority, so I get to decide if it's classified anymore, and I decided it wasn't. You know what the most egregious part of this is? The Inspector General Report says that Hegseth, quote, created risks to operational security, and his actions, quote, could have resulted in failed U.S. mission objectives and potential harm to U.S. pilots. That came out today. Yesterday, Pete Hegseth had taken a Twitter writing, no classified information, total exonerated,

case closed, Houthi's bombed into submission, thank you for your attention to this IG report. So a complete bait and switch. Like it is just straight gaslighting, straight lie. And, you know, it reeks not just of the gaslighting that we see so often, but I mean, it feels like it was written exactly by Donald Trump. These guys just morph into him. They do the exact same thing as him. Bill Barr had done the same thing in the lead up to the Mueller report being released, came out a day in advance to try and front run this thing and own that news cycle by saying that Mueller report, you know, totally exonerated Donald Trump when it showed the exact opposite.

And so, you know, this is what these guys do. It, I mean, it's just, do you think, does Trump like this? Does he want everyone around him imitating him? Like, imitating his Twitter style? I mean, I guess, yes. Yeah, of course. You remember when he was outside of the, he was outside of some courtroom. There's like this picture that's just like so indelible.

He was outside of, he was outside of a courtroom during one of his summer prosecutions. And there was like Vivek Ramoswamy, Doug Bergam, all these guys. were dressed identical to him. I remember that too, yeah. And it was just like this picture of these pathetic fucking obsequious hangars on that all dressed like him and they talk like him and they tweet like him and they just are so desperate to be him. And he's just parading around this band of fucking loser imitators. So yeah, of course they do. Yeah, I think like maybe the stuff works with Trump. Maybe it works like within MAGA. But the military is a place where accountability really matters and people expect their leaders to like take responsibility for things. And Pete

Hexeth refused to even talk with the Inspector General for this report. And so again, that's another thing that's not going to go over well in the building because every other single person who works at the Pentagon or down the ranks knows that if they had taken classified information about airstrikes that had not happened yet and they put them on their personal phone and sent them to a group chat that included their wife and some reporter, they would be court-martialed. Yeah, rules for thee, not for me. Exactly. All right, with that said, for everybody who's watching

right now, if you're not yet subscribed to Pot Save America's YouTube channel, I'm going to put that link right here on the screen and also in the post-s description of this video. If you listen on the podcast, go to the show notes. Subs for we. Subs for we. Rules for thee, not for me. My God. Thanks again to

Jamie Raskin, Mark Warner, and Tommy Vitor. That's it for this episode. Talk to you next week. You've been listening to No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen. Produced by Sam Graber, music by Wellesie, and interviews edited for YouTube by Nicholas Nicotera. If you want to support the show, please subscribe on your preferred podcast app and leave a five-star rating in a review. And as always, you can find me at Brian Tyler Cohen on all of my other channels, or you can go to Brian Tyler Cohen.com to learn more.