Pod Save America - Bondi Gets the Boot

Episode Date: April 3, 2026

Trump fires Attorney General Pam Bondi and announces that Todd Blanche, his former personal attorney, will serve in the interim while he waits to appoint her replacement. Jon and Dan react to Bondi's ...sudden ouster and discuss the president's incoherent national address about his war with Iran. Then, they check in on Trump's long-shot bid to overturn birthright citizenship at the Supreme Court, his attempt to restrict mail-in voting via executive order, and what appears to be the endgame for the Department of Homeland Security shutdown — a deal House Republicans could've passed before they went on recess. Finally, Jon introduces Dan to 'bimboification' as they discuss Fox News' reaction to Kristi Noem's husband's double life.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
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Starting point is 00:01:19 There's no safe like SimpliSafe. Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm John Fabro. I'm Dan Fifer. Dan in studio. Middle Spring break right here. Stopped on the way back. I was going to say, people need to know that Dan has been in Disneyland and then I think you're doing Universal.
Starting point is 00:01:56 I am. And this was like a stop in between. That's how committed you are. It is our Wally World Spring Break. We are here. We had a great time in Disneyland. We saw lots of friends of the pod in Disneyland. All very nice.
Starting point is 00:02:07 Incredible. And here we are. I picked a great week to not be able to do anything other than look at wait times on my app. I have to say, Dan, you were gone this week on family vacation. Tommy. It's like, it's getting lonely in some of my text chains about the news. Yes. And Ben, everyone else sleeps normal hours.
Starting point is 00:02:24 Yes, yes. Not getting those same responses as fast from Lovett or. No, no, no, no. And you never know what time's on Ben is in. No, that's also true. All right, on today's show, Pam Bondi's out. And we're going to talk about why Trump fired her and who might replace her. We're also going to dig into Trump's prime time address on the war.
Starting point is 00:02:41 He doesn't seem to know how to get out of, as well as a comment he made and what he thought was a closed-door events that could end up in every Democratic ad this fall. We'll also cover the Supreme Court hearing on Trump's executive order to end birthright citizenship, his new executive order to take control of voting from the states, the possible end of the DHS shutdown. And of course, the moment we all learned what bimbofication is. You know exactly what it is now, right? I learned about it this morning. From the Daily Mail. Actually, from an email, from you. Quick reminder, it's a perfect time to remind everyone to please consider becoming a subscriber to Crooked Meade.
Starting point is 00:03:19 if you haven't already so that you don't miss out on any of the great content we're putting out for our friends of the pod. You get more on bimbofication. Subscribers also get a new extra episode of Pod Save America
Starting point is 00:03:30 called Pod Save America only friends. Other subscriber only shows like Polar Coaster with Dan Pfeiffer. I said there was a new Polar Coaster episode this week too. There was. We recorded it on Friday. It was a mailback episode.
Starting point is 00:03:42 And the Pod Save America News Curse hit Polar Coaster. Because our one fun question was about Kyle Coaster. and Amanda Betula at Summerhouse. And then there were a major revelations since then and Caroline Reston had to come in and record a special addendum to the podcast to address the new news
Starting point is 00:04:01 and Amanda Batula and West Wilson are dating. You might as well have just said that in a foreign language. Called pop culture. But now I feel like I should... Called American. Now I feel like I should start watching. You also get access to all of our excellent substack newsletters like Pod Save America Open tabs,
Starting point is 00:04:14 add free episodes of all your favorite cricket pods, and you get to feel good about supporting one of the few independent, proudly pro-democracy media outlets left in Trump's America. So head to crooked.com slash friends and subscribe. All right, Dan, as forgettable as it may have been, the president did just deliver a primetime address to the nation on Wednesday about Operation Epic Fury, the war in Iran he got us into that has now dragged on for more than a month. The 19-minute speech contained no news, no exit strategy, and no coherent rationale or even
Starting point is 00:04:46 coherent sentences to explain why 50,000 American troops are still deployed in a conflict that has already cost us tens of billions of dollars and sent gas prices through the roof. Other than that, fine showing by Donald Trump. Here are the highlights. We're now totally independent of the Middle East, and yet we are there to help. We don't have to be there. We don't need their oil. We don't need anything they have, but we're there to help our allies. America has plenty of gas. We have so much gas. We have so much gas, the countries of the world that do receive oil through the Hormone Strait must take care of that passage. They must cherish it. They must grab it and cherish it. They can do it easily.
Starting point is 00:05:28 And in any event, when this conflict is over, the strait will open up naturally. It'll just open up naturally. We've done all of it. Their Navy is gone. Their air force is gone. Their missiles are just about used up or beaten. There's never been anything like it militarily. Everyone is talking about it, and tonight I'm pleased to say that these core strategic objectives are nearing completion. For the next two to three weeks, we're going to bring them back to the Stone Ages where they belong. In the meantime, discussions are ongoing. If there's no deal, we are going to hit each and every one of their electric generating plants very hard and probably simultaneously. We have not hit their oil, even though that's the easiest target,
Starting point is 00:06:16 of all, but we could hit it and it would be gone and there's not a thing they could do about it. The whole world is watching and they just can't believe what they're seeing. They leave it to your imagination, but they can't believe what they're seeing. No, that is, that is very true. Don't know really where to begin there. Some good highlights, right? It's, that summarizes it all right there. It'll open naturally, but you got to grab, you got to grab the straight of four moose. I already made the joke in my YouTube react with Ben So also we'll bond them to the Stone Age But negotiations are ongoing
Starting point is 00:06:52 I laughed out loud when I first heard that I mean Because I think he I think he probably adlibbed a bit of the The Stone Age thing from his truth obviously Because he originally said But I think And then he's in the promter like
Starting point is 00:07:05 Oh but discussions are ongoing I guess I'm supposed to talk about diplomacy So your message box take on the speech Is that Trump declared victory But admitted defeat Say more about that. Sure. So I tried to treat the speech seriously, which was hard.
Starting point is 00:07:19 I would say that. I did that too. It was very difficult. But it is the president of the nation at a time of war and economic chaos. So we should at least try to look at it from that port of seriousness. And so to the extent that Trump's speech had a message or a strategy, I believe it was to say the war was coming to an end and declare victory. Right. And he went through.
Starting point is 00:07:41 He just said we saw that in the clip. All of our strategic. core objectives that have been met. He went into great detail what we've destroyed, the Navy, the missiles, all of that. But at the end of the day, what he was really saying is the thing's going to wrap up in the next two to three weeks. And when we leave, however we leave, we are going to leave the same Iranian regime in place, although likely more anti-American and radicalized than before. Iran will continue to have all of their nuclear material, which we'll basically monitor with like Google. Google Maps, Google Satellite.
Starting point is 00:08:15 Yeah. But we could look at it. But we could have done before. We bombed them. It's in the same place it was before. They still have it. And now is a special bonus to Iran for participating in this war. They get to treat the world's most strategic water passageway as a toll road, whatever they want.
Starting point is 00:08:32 And so he wants this war to be over. He knows this is bad for him politically, knows it's bad for the economy. He's trying to declare victory when what he's actually doing is simply waving the white flag of surrender. I think that's true. also it explains the incoherent conflicting messages because he also can't like for the straight of Hormuz he knows that we need the straight of Hormuz open he he understands at least the people around him understand that oil is a commodity there's a global oil market just because we have a bunch of oil doesn't mean that we're not going to be paying more for it if there is a
Starting point is 00:09:09 disruption in the straight of Hormuz he can't plead with our allies to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz because then he looks weak and he already pissed them off anyway by starting the war without consulting them and insulting them basically every single day since. He has clearly decided that a U.S. military operation to reopen the strait or to take control of the strait
Starting point is 00:09:35 is too risky. So he's not doing that. But he also knows like, so he doesn't know what to do. So basically he's going to say, we don't need it, but then he's now negging Europe and other countries to reopen it for us and making himself sound tough because he can't say the truth, which is we're fucked, we have no idea how to open the straight of Hormuz, and we're just going to pretend that some other countries will open it or it'll open fucking naturally, and then we won't have to worry
Starting point is 00:10:04 about anything. Yeah. It's just complete, and that's just one example of the many contradictory conflicting messages in that speech. Well, it's in the conflict is in the part we just mentioned, where he will bond them to the Stone Age, but also we want to have diplomatic negotiations ongoing with their new, you know, the president or whoever he has been, he sort of made up in his head who was a good ally. And again, it's like both both a threat and a negotiation require you to demand something. Yeah. What are we demanding?
Starting point is 00:10:30 Because in that speech, we won. We bombed everything. We don't care about the Strait of Hormuz. We don't care that the nuclear material is still in Iran. We don't care that the regime is still in place because it's a new regime, according to Donald Trump. We've destroyed their military. So why are we threatening to bomb them into the Stone Age? And why are we continuing to hope that they will make a deal?
Starting point is 00:10:52 What is the deal? Yeah, like he's trying to. Nothing makes sense. Yeah, it's totally illogical. It's complete confusion. He also, by, like, is not even clear who he's speaking to? When he says we don't need the straight of Hormuz, he is saying that to Iran, if you say into the American people, then that doesn't really matter because the price of oil is the price of oil.
Starting point is 00:11:15 As they could see it going up while he was speaking. Yes. And that to me is actually an incredibly important part of what this speech says about where Trump is right now, which is he almost didn't just admit defeat on the war he's admitting defeat on his entire second term here because what really powered Trump. He hasn't passed any laws, right? He, he is... Don't forget the big beautiful bill. I mean, he hasn't mentioned that in months. I hope he talks about it more on the way to the election.
Starting point is 00:11:46 Me too. But, like, he has succeeded in implementing his agenda in the second term through the force of his words. He's threatening, conjuring universities, law firms, media companies. And here you have the president, the president of the president of the president of the United States in a national teleph address at wartime trying to send a message to not just American people, but also the markets. this thing is coming to an end, and they took the exact opposite approach. They did not believe what he was saying. They did not take him seriously.
Starting point is 00:12:13 Oil went up. The stock market went down. So if his goal was, I believe, and it's hard to tell, but was to suggest that this is coming to an end so everyone can chill out. And they took because of the way he did, it delivered this speech because of the way he's acted erratically over the last several months, not to mention the last several years, they took the opposite approach. Like the world is tuning him out.
Starting point is 00:12:33 Do you think, like, why did they do this speech? I was wondering, and like, I get that he sounds like an idiot all the time when he's off the cuff and does his thing, he does the weave and he has got all this crazy ticks. But this was a prime time address that he was reading off the prompter. You imagine that some number of people in the White House, perhaps in the State Department, the Defense Department, other agencies took a look at the speech. And it just was like, I mean, the speech was all over the place. The written prepared speech was all over the place. What the fuck were they doing? It may be either bad at their jobs.
Starting point is 00:13:10 Yeah, well. I mean, like, you have it, you do have an erratic, stubborn president who is getting bad information. There was a report today that Susie Wiles has been telling other aides that they are only giving Trump good information about the war. And they're not being honest with him about what's happening militarily or economically. And so that's feeding his mentality. This communications team has no idea how to do serious stuff. Yeah. Like if you want to do memes and attack people and quote tweet them, like that, that's their game and that can work in a campaign to a certain extent. But this is like serious shit. And they are they are unserious people. And that is coming. It's like so obvious to bear here. And I'm like, why did he do it? The question is like, what makes him do it? They didn't, they haven't done it for a month. His approval rating is now under 40% in the Nate Silver model. He is taking on water. He's, you know, he's been dropping for a while, you know, since basically for a year, since a year. yesterday, which was Liberation Day. But he has, that drop has been more, has been steeper
Starting point is 00:14:09 since the war started. And so I think they're trying to, they're lashing about, trying to find a solution to their political problem. And they actually have not really a political problem. They have a substantive problem. Right. And I'm sure they're hearing from, because, you know, someone was talking to Steve Bannon before the speech and he wasn't right on this. But he was like, yeah, the messages, we're going to wrap this up. It's over. Like, he's probably hearing from people in his base or his orbit that, like, you got to, you got to communicate that this thing's almost over. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:14:34 And we know this from whenever we worked at the White House, whenever there was like bad political things. Speech will fix it. Where's the speech? Yeah. Race speech for the straight of four moose. Remember the oil spills? You know, I was talking to Rhodes about that because I was like, that is a crazy, crazy
Starting point is 00:14:50 beach. I'm like, it does remind me of the oil spill speech. But for those of you who are too young or don't remember that, to do this in 10, there was an oil spill on the Gulf of Mexico and no one could figure out how to stop the oil spill. the oil just kept coming out into the Gulf of Mexico. And every cable news channel in the corner of the television, you could just see the oil coming out into the, spilling out into the Gulf of Mexico all day long, 24 hours a day. And everyone was like, Obama, you should fix it.
Starting point is 00:15:17 You've got, you're the president. Why haven't you fixed it? And the solution was he will give an Oval Office address about the oil spill. And it sucked. Yeah. It was the worst. Because somehow we decided that it was like a good time to talk about climate change in that speech. It had to be an Oval Office address.
Starting point is 00:15:33 Like, that was how stupid the conversation was. A standing speech in the East Room was insufficient for the moment of the oil spill from a private company. If only I had known, though, that I could have just, like, farted out a bunch of crazy talking points. And that could be a speech. Like, it was a speech that was panned that didn't work out well, but we still worked really hard on it. No one worked hard on this one. There's some fascist John Favre over there, just angrily reading Politico right now. Back to the real substance of it.
Starting point is 00:16:00 Because I was trying to think, like, Donald Trump is sensitive to the market to what's happening. Like, he knows that he has a problem with the straight-of-ormuz. And I'm guessing that his cockamamie plan here is, or hope, is that we walk away from this after a couple of weeks. We say we bombed everything. Everything's great. We've destroyed them. We won so badly. They're begging us for, they're begging us for a deal, but whatever.
Starting point is 00:16:26 We're walking away. We don't need them anymore. We don't need the oil. And then he hopes that. the Europeans and the Chinese and maybe anyone else, like, cuts their own deals with Iran for the straight. And then that alleviates sort of the crisis around the world. And obviously, we don't kind of deal with the Iranians. The Israelis don't. The Israelis are probably still at war with them. But if enough countries do, then, you know, maybe prices are a little high,
Starting point is 00:16:52 but he can sort of blah, blah, blah, his way past that. That's what he's hoping. I think that's a little more chess than he gets credit for. I think that is one approach that what could, that that is what could happen here. You know, in all the other countries in the world who are meeting about this and having a conversation without the United States about how to open this up. I think it's a little more like, I'm sure you've done this is when you have an older child and a younger child. And the younger child wants the toy the older child has, I would always tell Kyla, our daughter, just pretend like you don't want it for two minutes and they'll let it go. Now, the only downside in that theory is I'm pretty sure that Trump was not deeply involved in litigating
Starting point is 00:17:28 the disputes of his children. That's good name. Maybe he saw a nanny do it. I don't know. Yeah. I think that's a, well, that's definitely a dumber theory
Starting point is 00:17:38 for offer Trump. Yeah. The Iranians are like, Iranians right now have to feel great. They're like, yeah, the regime. Right.
Starting point is 00:17:45 No, I'm saying not the Iranian people, but like, from a leverage, from a leverage point. Like, yeah, a bunch of the leadership got assassinated, but the ones who were still surviving are like,
Starting point is 00:17:53 I mean, we can control the straight of Hormuz. The United States is eventually going to give up. and run. And they're giving us billions of dollars to sell our oil. Right, yeah. We've lifted the sanctions too. So that's something. So that's that. In my humble opinion, Trump gave a much better speech earlier on Wednesday
Starting point is 00:18:10 at a White House Easter lunch with evangelical leaders that was somehow live streamed, even though the event was supposed to be closed to the press and the public. The White House eventually deleted the footage but not before clips were posted all over the internet that include such memorable moments as Trump's spiritual
Starting point is 00:18:26 advisor comparing him to Jesus Christ, Easter, Trump comparing himself to Jesus Christ, Trump calling all Somali Americans low IQ bad people, and Trump saying that Christians like Israel more than Jews, actually. But somehow, none of that was as newsworthy is what the president said about his priorities for America. United States can't take care of daycare. That has to be up to a state. We can't take care of daycare.
Starting point is 00:18:56 We're a big country. We have 50 states. If all these other people were fighting wars, we can't take care of daycare. You've got to let a state take care of daycare, and they should pay for it, too. They should pay. They have to raise their taxes, but they should pay for it. And we could lower our taxes a little bit to them to make up, but it's not possible for us to take care of daycare. Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things.
Starting point is 00:19:21 They can do it on a state basis. You can't do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing, military protection. You have to guard the country. I mean, I need to know if you have somehow been able to infiltrate the White House and are now writing talking points for Donald Trump. I would not have done as good a job as that, because that is so obviously on the nose, the Democratic argument.
Starting point is 00:19:45 It is wild. And a lot of times, like Trump says things that should end people's political campaigns all the time. like his remarks on a daily basis are more politically damaging or should be more outrageous, more scandals than Mitt Romney's 47 percent mark comments that were so critical in the 2012 election for people who don't remember. Mitt Romney was caught basically blaming 47 percent of the country for mooching off the government. But one of the theories as to why Trump's comments don't get sufficient like, like drive enough conversation or coverage is because he just says them out, wow, they're not secret, right?
Starting point is 00:20:21 And the press is a secret. it. This is a, just like the mid-romat making, this is a private videotape that was essentially leaked by the White House, but leaked. By their own idiocy. So it's like we get to see the things Trump is saying behind closed doors to political supporters. And the president says that because we're so busy fighting wars that he started, we can't pay for daycare. States should raise taxes. And he seems to say at the end that we can't afford, that states should do. Medicare and Medicaid? Yeah,
Starting point is 00:20:53 throws in Medicare. That was the amazing thing. It's like the daycare is bad enough. Yeah. To throw in Medicaid and Medicare, which is not, when that's a national program, that's a federal program.
Starting point is 00:21:04 So he wants to block grant everything, basically. He wants to give all the states to fend for themselves. So he's basically telling people, if you want health care or child care, you're going to have to pay higher taxes in your state because I'm over here, very busy paying for bombs on a,
Starting point is 00:21:22 Yeah, and other places in the war, too. We don't know what's happened in Cuba. The Venezuela operation probably ran up a pretty big tab. I mean, there's also a Bloomberg story this morning because the budget's coming out, Trump's budget. And the headline for this is Trump budget to focus midterms messaging on defense boost. President Trump is preparing to release a fiscal year 2027 budget plan on Friday that will frame his party's midterm election message around a massive defense buildup partially paid for by cuts to domestic agencies. like health and science. John, I've not only been in the president's talking points,
Starting point is 00:21:56 I've also been in the OMB documents. What are they doing? Yeah. I mean, and it's not just him. Like, we talked to, I don't know if you and I talked about it or I talked about the other pot, but like the axiostory about the House Republican,
Starting point is 00:22:11 or the Republicans in Congress are thinking of paying for the military supplemental by cutting health care. Yeah. also and just not for nothing we did Trump didn't even mention his 20 that he needs Congress to pay for this thing in this he did not he did not mention that we should talk about that because I I haven't heard much about that at all and now we'll talk about it when we get to DHS but like now they're talking about a budget reconciliation bill that just funds ice so like when are they gonna when are
Starting point is 00:22:41 they going to vote on the 200 billion dollars that's supposed to pay for Iran it's a great question I mean who knows but maybe we're all supposed to pay for maybe it's just going to be higher taxes for everyone. The state, you know who's going to do it? The states. The states. They're going to get rid of their daycare, their health care, their Medicaid, their Medicare, because everyone's got to pay for the bombs.
Starting point is 00:22:59 We're like, because we just bombed the biggest bridge in Iran that's civilian infrastructure. For what reason? We don't know. But Trump bragged better on truth. No bridges in the Stone Age. No bridges in the Stone Age. That's right. So we got to blow up someone else's bridge.
Starting point is 00:23:14 So no money for bridges here. Cool. That's what we're doing. Pot Save America is brought you by Blinds.com. If you've ever thought about upgrading your window treatments but didn't want the hassle, blinds.com is here to change the game. They're the only company that lets you shop custom blinds and shades online, then backs it up with professional in-home measure and installation services.
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Starting point is 00:25:36 Now available in Canada too. Go to Q-U-I-N-C-C-E.com for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com slash cricket. Trump didn't make any news in his Iran speech, but he certainly did the next morning when he announced in a phone call to Fox News, as one does, that he had just fired attorney General Pam Bondi. Follow that up with the true social post where he said, quote, we love Pam.
Starting point is 00:26:03 And she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector to be announced at a date in the near future. Not for nothing. I just find it very funny that he has to announce her private sector jobs. Does she like belong to him forever?
Starting point is 00:26:18 I think this is because in the Peter Ducey interview with Trump, it seems like Trump told Peter Ducey that she would be getting another job the administration. Oh, so we had to clear it up. He had to clear that up, yeah, because Peter Ducey reported
Starting point is 00:26:30 would be in the administration, and then... He got her transitioning wrong. Yeah. So it looks like Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, president's former defense lawyer, personal lawyer,
Starting point is 00:26:40 will now be the acting attorney general. During Pam's year plus as Attorney General, she distinguished herself by, one, weaponizing the DOJ to go after her boss's perceived enemies, two, executing that vision poorly,
Starting point is 00:26:54 and three, bungling the release of the Epstein files so badly that it became a massive political liability for the president that stayed in the news for longer than maybe any other scandal of the Trump era? Oh, for sure. Not even close to Russia, but Russia had a lot of twists and turns. This was just this was like sustained. This lasted longer than Trump's involvement in an armed insurrection that almost murdered members of Congress. Yes, I do remember that. I recall. It did vaguely happen not too long before he was elected president again, but it did happen. So I guess my question is why now on Bondi, I remember when we were in Australia in February.
Starting point is 00:27:31 And that's when she did the big hearing where she talked about the Dow above 50,000. Since then, went below 50,000, and now she's out. So there's fair, there you go. But I remember talking about, like, is he going to fire her now, whatever? It seems like it's a month and a half later.
Starting point is 00:27:48 She hasn't been in the news all that much. Yeah, so I think there are a couple things going on here. First, I think the, orderly fascism of Trump's second term has been has reverted to the chaotic fascism of Trump's first term. He's like he he knows things are not going well. He's sort of lashing out all over the place. He's doing sort of crazy things left and right. And I think firing people is that's real first term Trump behavior is so that's one. It's like comfort food. Yeah, exactly. So that's one. It's kind of it's his, it's his, it's his blankie. Yes. His plan. It's because he's going back to
Starting point is 00:28:23 apprentice thing that's the way he knows you know and then this but i think the second thing going on here is that no one pulls a band-aid off slower than don't trump and so what he tends to do is yeah there's been stories about him i'm thinking about getting rid of for like a month and so what he like christianoma is what happened with christianoma is very similar to pampton which is a massive scandal happens trump sticks with him through the scandal takes on all the water of that scandal waits till the scandal is out of the news and then fires them, bringing the scandal back in the news, but getting none of the actual credit for responding to the scandal and holding someone accountable.
Starting point is 00:29:00 Like if Trump had fired Christy Noem right after the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretty and the smearing of them, that would have, he would have gotten a little. He would have seemed responsive to something. He held someone accountable. Instead, he gave a pat on the back, said he was sticking with him, waited until later, and fired him. Same thing with Pam Bondi. I also think the here, the congressional.
Starting point is 00:29:21 hearing probably helped her. They probably bought her time. No, I saw some detail in one of the stories that he actually thought that she was, he liked that she was combative with the Democrats. After all, they were like, oh, is this going to be the end for Pan Bondi? No, he liked it. Yeah, she knows she was doing there. I saw, I think the New York Times story said that she spent much of the last day making
Starting point is 00:29:41 her case to stay. What a sad, sad, pathetic thing. Just imagine selling every bit of your integrity. to Trump. Every bit. Every bit. And then getting fired for not executing on his corruption well enough. Which I think I'd say this.
Starting point is 00:30:03 In Pam Bondi's defense, by the way, like, I do not think she failed to execute Donald Trump's agenda at DOJ just because of her own incompetence. I'm not saying that she is competent. But like, the problem goes beyond anything that Pam Bondi, Or any of the stooges he installed at DOJ can fix. The problem is the judges and the juries who are like, these cases are crazy. You don't have a case against any of these people. You just hate them.
Starting point is 00:30:33 Yes. Like on that part of that is true. The other thing that happened in the news recently that probably got her in hot water with Trump again was the announcement that the Department of Justice was going to stop prosecuting, was going to stop trying the case on the law firms. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And let all the law firms off the hook who did not agree that Trump settlement. And then Trump got very mad about that. And then, like, an hour later, they had to announce they were going back in to continue to fight that case.
Starting point is 00:30:57 You see the ProPublica story last week, too, that the DOJ has basically, under Bondi and Trump, just stopped prosecuting 20,000 criminal cases because they've spent so much time on all of Trump's fucking weird priorities, whether it's, you know, getting his, you know, going after his enemies, all the other bullshit of the DOJ. Yeah, immigration stuff. Yeah, that was most of it. sorry. So it's like, yeah, there's just a, you know, good time to be a criminal if you're not, if you're not an immigrant. Good time to be a certain type of criminal. Right, a certain type of, yeah, white-collar criminal for sure. Yeah. There's some reporting that what finally did Bondi in was an allegation that she tipped off Congressman Eric Swalwell, who's running for governor in California, about an FBI investigation concerning him. Now, this is a very old FBI investigation
Starting point is 00:31:43 from 2015. Basically, the FBI notified Swalwell that an associate of his might be a suspected Chinese spy when he was notified, he broke ties with that person. And then the FBI investigated and nothing ever came of it. This was what, 10 years ago now? I guess they were going to release the files. Yeah, it's clearly. I mean, it's so obviously, oh, he's running for governor. Let's release the files.
Starting point is 00:32:06 Maybe there's something in the files that will embarrass him because we couldn't bring a criminal case against him. I find this one hard to believe because in the story, it says that there's a, I think it's the independent, I can't remember, but the story says that a source close to the White House says that Bondi notified Swalwell due to their personal friendship? Yeah, it's the Daily Mail. Yeah, she's intervening in those matters. The White House wasn't pleased she was intervening due to her personal friendship with Swalwell, the source said added.
Starting point is 00:32:36 It is, and then it says it is unclear why Bondi would have intervened, but it is believed that Bondi and Swalwell have a friendly relationship. There is not a chance that someone like Pam Bondi who would carve out her own soul with a spork for Donald Trump is going to feel so loyal to Eric Swalwell that she's going to tip him off on something like this. I don't know if I believe that one either. In Swalwell, his office put out a statement saying, absolutely not. No one tipped us off. No one in the government let us know this was happening at all. And honestly, the best thing that could happen, Eric Swalwell, as he runs for governor in a crowded primary in California, is being targeted by Donald Trump.
Starting point is 00:33:11 For sure. Just ask Senator Adam Schiff how that win for him. I also noticed that the House Democrats are saying she still has to test. She has a scheduled appearance in the House Oversight Committee about Epstein. And they're saying she still has to do it. Yeah. And I kind of imagine that Comer will want that too. Yeah, probably. So that's fine. Because he had to subpoena her to get her there. So let's talk about Bondi's potential replacement. I've seen reports that Trump wants EPA administrator Lee Zeldon. I've heard Janine Piro might be an option. I saw a report that some Republican senators want Mike Lee, God help us. What do you think the chances are that there will be a real confirmation fight for whoever this is in the Senate. And do you have ideas
Starting point is 00:33:52 on why he might want any of the people I just named or who it might be? Well, first let's start with how long Blanche can serve. Blanche can stay as acting for 210 days. Oh boy. Now, here's what I would say to that. One is, I'm not sure who enforces the Vacancies Act, but I'm not sure. Sounds like it's probably Todd Blanche. Yeah. So I think that he could probably stay longer than that if he once. And there is actually some legitimate questions about whether that 210 day clock applies to the attorney general because in the specific language around the Department of Justice, that 210 days on there. But either way, in a normal course of business, he could say for about an acting sexualized, I can say for about 210 days. Not really sure why Trump wants Lee Zeldon.
Starting point is 00:34:33 Lee Zeldin was a JAG officer in the military during his career, but he's never actually worked in traditional prosecution and law enforcement. So he would have very little experience for the job. Cool. So I'm not sure he would be. There's not any amics. I'm like the deep wall of experience he has with the environment. Well, he's hated it for a long time.
Starting point is 00:34:55 That's true. Yeah, okay. So it's not really clear. It's not really clear what Trump wants there. It's in all the stories that he has mentioned Lee Zeldon. None of the stories say why he's mentioned Lee Zeldon. I'm sure Trump doesn't fully understand. I'm sure it's how he looks.
Starting point is 00:35:08 Yeah. Or he probably did like one good thing that's stuck in Trump's adeline. And that good thing is an interview on Fox News. Mike Lee, I think that is directly related to Republican senators wanting to spend less time with Mike Lee. That's funny. It's a joke I saw from Lovett from earlier YouTube. The same reason the Republican senators keep wanting to put Ted Cruz on the Supreme Court. I mean, well, the Mike Lee thing is funny because I just read a story, I don't know, a couple weeks ago that Republican colleagues in the senator like pissed at Mike Lee because he's fucking crazy.
Starting point is 00:35:34 Yeah, these two things are exactly related. Because you know what you do when you're in the Senate? You have to have lunch with your colleagues every single week. Yeah. So definitely promote that person to a position of near absolute power as Trump's attorney general. That's responsible. You know what? It's going to be a bad person under all scenarios.
Starting point is 00:35:52 You might as well stop having lunch with Mike Lee. I mean, in terms of the confirmation fight, like you got Tillis, who, you know, he's got a very powerful position in this. He's already said, what is he blocking because of the Jerome Powell investigation? The new Fed chair? Yeah. Oh, there's a new Fed chair. That's what it is. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:36:09 And I think he could stand in the way of this. There's, you know, if it's a real crazy person to Susan Collins want to vote for the crazy person. I think this is a Mark Wayne Mullen. You think so? I think the next, the person replaced is Pan Boney is going to get the job the same way Pam Bandy got it, which is being someone other than the purpose before them. Because the only reason why the only reason he got confirmed easily is because she's not Matt Gates. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:36:29 And so Mark Wayne Mollett. He's had a long line of attorney general, attorneys general. He's been unhappy with. You get your Bill bars, your, who's it? Jeff Sessions. Jeff Sessions. Oh my gosh. I forgot that was the original.
Starting point is 00:36:42 Yeah, Jeff Sessions to that interim guy to... Do you think it's something that all these people have in common? Or is it you? Look, it's bedlock, you know? It happens. Well, the thing is like, I don't... Lee Zeldin's not going to be able to get the Justice Department to prosecute the people that he wanted Pam Bondi to prosecute that she hasn't been able to prosecute yet. Yeah, it does.
Starting point is 00:37:03 All of this stuff is interesting, but not that significant. Yeah. Like, who... We talk about this with Chrissy Noem and Mark Wayne Mullen. It's probably true that Mark Wayne Mullen is not having an affair with Corrie Lunadowski. So that's not going to be an issue in this situation. But other than that, it's still the same policies. But if that's what it took to get the job, he would.
Starting point is 00:37:25 Okay. Allegedly. Allegedly. It's just my opinion. There was a story this morning in The Guardian that Trump might be looking to fire Tulsi Gabbard next since we talked about. discussing this one, advisors close to Trump told Jennifer Jacobs at CBS that originally he had the Trump had the idea of moving Bondi to director of national intelligence. Maybe this is what Peter Ducey was talking about. But now Trump said he wants Tulsi Gabbard to stay in that position. And then
Starting point is 00:37:54 I think the White House through Stephen Chung just put out a statement that was like, it's all, it's a lie. Of course we want to keep Tulsi Gabbard below. Well, if Stephen Chung said it. But it was more, it was not like the, the lukewarm Pam Bondi statement from yesterday that like she is good. She did a good job. this one was more a little punchy. Yeah, I, I'm confident that neither Trump nor anyone around him likes Tulsi Gabbard. I just think the job is fake. It's a job created after 9-11. It doesn't, I don't think it really has to matter that much in the situation.
Starting point is 00:38:24 So if you just want to ignore the DNI, as he has done, like she doesn't go to anything, he doesn't meet with her, doesn't talk to her, we went to war without speaking to her. He invaded Venezuela as she was on a beach. A lot of those post-9-11 moves really coming back to bite us in the ass now. Yeah. You mean like the Iraq War? Yes. DHS, DNI, yeah, all of it.
Starting point is 00:38:53 Pod Save America is brought to you by the Break Fake Rules podcast. If you're a listener of PSA, this is a podcast you might enjoy. Hosted by Glenn Gallich, CEO of the Stoopsky Foundation, and a rotating cast of co-host. Breakfake rules change big giving for good is about how we give specifically when it comes to philanthropy. It's a challenge to the self-imposed rules that shape the flow of money, power, and resources in America. Hear conversations with rulebreakers and philanthropy, non-profits, government, and more. If you care about how extreme wealth shapes our society, and how to fix it. This is the show to listen to. In one recent episode, co-hosts, Eric Brown,
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Starting point is 00:39:59 presumably to intimidate the justices he recently accused of treason. Not sure it worked. Here's some of the conservative justices peppering Trump Solicitor General with pretty skeptical questions during oral arguments. Do you think Native Americans today are birthright citizens under your test and of your friend's test? I think so. I mean, obviously, I'm granted. Citizenship by statute. Put aside the statute. You think they're birthright citizens. We're in a new world now, as Justice Alito pointed out to,
Starting point is 00:40:25 where 8 billion people are one plane right away from having a child as a U.S. citizen. Well, it's a new world. It's the same constitution. Burn. Take that. That's the closest thing you get to. A real burn from John Roberts. Were you surprised by anything in the oral arguments?
Starting point is 00:40:40 I was surprised that Trump went. Yeah, let's start there. Let's start there. Like, think about... What a fucking bozo, though. I saw that. And he's like, this is the worst thing. I'm like, you know what?
Starting point is 00:40:50 Go for it, man. You think these fuckers who have lifetime appointments are going to be intimidated by the 35% approval, lame duck second term president. It probably had just go with, let's go through the decision making process here, which is we're at war. Gas prices are high. People are really mad about the economy. And when you decide that your high profile public appearance that day should be to attend a Supreme Court hearing on birthright citizenship,
Starting point is 00:41:19 that almost every legal expert in the world says you're going to lose. You know what I love about it? Just so crazy it could work? No. It's that I bet anything that the person who convinced him to do this is Stephen Miller. And I bet when he walked out of that courtroom, Donald Trump, he probably said to himself, or maybe said it out loud to Stephen Miller, what the fuck did you make me do that for? Because there's no way Donald Trump left thinking that what he did was that was a good idea. Well, he left in the middle.
Starting point is 00:41:46 Because he's probably listened. First of all, he probably couldn't understand a lot of the words they were saying. But he was really, I bet he could tell it wasn't going well. Yeah, even he could probably figure that out. And then, so that's the political communications aspect of the decision. Let's talk about the legal aspect of the decision to do it. Do you remember when the fate of the Affordable Care Act hung in the hands of Justice Anthony Kennedy? And Barack Obama used to make a joke all the time out he was going to mow his lawn, wash his car.
Starting point is 00:42:15 and then someone, I don't think they heard directly from Kennedy, but they sort of knew Kennedy told Obama to stop making that joke because that, like, being seen as if you were trying to. Does he make that joke in public? All the time, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And so, or at least in enough place, like not just in the office,
Starting point is 00:42:32 he was making that events. And so enough that it would get back to Kennedy. And so this person who was close to Kennedy told Obama, that's a bad idea because if it looks like you're trying to unduly influence the court, it's probably going to push them in the opposite direction. And so we stopped making that joke. And that is like a tiny little bit humorous bit of putting your thumb on the scale. Here you have Trump sitting in the front road trying to stare them down like when, you know, in a wire reference, like when Avon Barksdale would go to the hearings and just like look at the witnesses, like, say the thing.
Starting point is 00:43:05 And it's obviously not going to work. It makes the justices look ridiculous. And so if you're sitting on the fence of your justice, so like, am I really going to go down this pretty ridiculous path? And now it's going to look, not only like I don't understand the wall, look like I did Trump's bidding because he was there. Not going to work. Not going to work. Yeah, it doesn't seem like it's going to go well for them. You know, I think the justices also, especially some of the conservative justices, also asked the ACLU's lawyer some like tough questions as well. But you don't have to listen to much of it or even be a legal expert to know that it was going badly. just because like the unworkability of what they're asking for here, right?
Starting point is 00:43:42 Like at one point, they're like, okay, well, you say that the executive order is prospective so that anyone born from here on out now, there's no birthright citizenship. But like, how do you make that work for all the people before? Like, what are you? So now everyone is just going to have to go prove their citizenship and prove that they were born before. Like, what is, this is, it is the most unworkable, crazy fucking executive order. And I just can't. I mean, I'm sure you'll get like Alito or Thomas or whatever, but I don't know or maybe some partial victory from the dissenting judges, I guess.
Starting point is 00:44:18 But like, I don't know how anyone looks at that and thinks that like, you know, you can just overturn the 14th Amendment. And not for nothing. It's been a while I've seen polling on this. But when Trump first proposed this last year, it was a 75, 80 percent opposition to the idea. I mean, as Roberts asked, he's like, so the cases that you're. talking about, which is like birth tourism or, you know, what happens if there's an invading army and a child born from a member of the invading army is there. They essentially, he's like, it strikes me as some quirky examples. It's like, yeah, no, I think that's probably right.
Starting point is 00:44:54 So Trump sent out his usual bitchy truth about the court right after he left, but he reserved his angriest reaction for another court when a judge appointed by George W. Bush ruled later in the day that Trump can't start construction on his White House ballroom, his pride and joy, the only thing he cares about unless Congress approves it first. The judge said, quote, no statute comes close to giving the president the authority he claims to have. You just say that about anything to Trump presidency. How badly do you want to see Republicans in Congress take that vote? I would love, just love to see them vote on it. They would flee town to reward it. Put it in the supplemental. Put it in the 200 billion for Iran when you're cutting health care,
Starting point is 00:45:34 just throw it in that one. I mean, these fucking Yahoo's who clearly want to be in the minority so bad probably would propose cutting ACA funding to pay for the ballroom. I didn't think that the ballroom, like, I didn't think that anyone would stop him on the ballroom, but like, I don't know. I was looking at him like, okay, maybe this could be, I assume this is one court order that he might just ignore.
Starting point is 00:45:56 I mean, he already knocked down the east way. It's a little bit like putting the toothpaste back on the tube. Yeah, we should maybe respond a little bit. a little faster here, quartz. I'm not really sure what the remedy is here, just we have to leave a hole in the ground. What is the remedy? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:46:09 I guess then maybe the remedy is that Congress would have to approve something. They would have to come to some kind of agreement on what they could build in that space besides the fucking eyesore of a monstrosity that we saw in the New York Times last week. Yeah, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:46:27 But just leaving the hole there for a while will be fun. Yeah, that would be good. And by the way, I'm I'm now on board with the next Democratic president bulldozing the whole thing. Oh, no, that's no. No. After we're seeing that, after you're seeing what it looks like in the times and like the stairs to nowhere and the windows that aren't windows and like the fact that it's like three times as big as the actual White House residents. Like this isn't like, oh, Trump did it.
Starting point is 00:46:53 But it's a ballroom and it's a good space and whatever else and it looks fine. Like let's leave it. Who cares? This is like, what? Come on. It's the White House. You're going to just build like another White House three times as big stacked on to the side, except it's like super tacky because it's from Donald Trump.
Starting point is 00:47:10 I don't know. Not top of my agenda. Are you going to make a litmus test for the primary candidates? Yeah, it's like A-PAC. Yeah, you've demolished the ballroom. It's first and foremost. Filibuster. Oh, we can do a crooked questionnaire.
Starting point is 00:47:24 That's perfect. That's perfect. We'll send it in with third way. Eliminate the filibuster, demolish the ballroom. So Trump's other passion project as of late is making it harder for Americans to vote. And now that the SAVE Act isn't passing Congress anytime soon, he did what we all expected and he just signed an executive order version of the law, which isn't how this works. But nevertheless, the EO directs the Department of Homeland Security to create a list of eligible voters using social security data and send each state their list before every federal election. it then directs the Postal Service to send mail-in or absentee ballots only to the names on that list.
Starting point is 00:48:03 States that don't comply would lose federal funding. Constitution explicitly gives states the power to run their own elections. But at the signing ceremony, Trump seemed pretty confident about this move. Take a listen. I don't know how it can be challenged. I'll probably challenge it. You may say to find a rogue judge. You've got a lot of rogue judges.
Starting point is 00:48:21 Very bad, bad people, very bad judges. But that's the only way that can be changed. and hopefully, well, we don't appeal if it is, but I don't see how anybody can challenge it. I don't see how they can challenge it. So Oregon and Arizona immediately said they'd be suing the challenges happened right away, as well, a bunch of other groups, Democratic parties, everyone's challenging it. Earlier this year, Trump said Republicans should nationalize and take over elections. What do you think about this?
Starting point is 00:48:49 This did not strike fear into my heart, like maybe it should have, but I was just like, this is going to be immediately rejected. Yeah, this doesn't strike fear in my heart as well. It seems pretty clearly in line with all the other things. Of course, I've thrown out that Trump has wanted to do. And my general fear about election interference from Trump is not grand gestures from the White House, like nationalized elections, canceling elections, banning mail ballots via executive fiat. It's smaller scale use of ICE or to intimidate voters having ICE do patrols.
Starting point is 00:49:25 in certain precincts. Like if the Texas Senate race is close, you can see ICE all of a sudden showing up in the Latino precincts of Houston or San Antonio or in the Rio Grande Valley counties and all of the above. I'm worried about the seizing machines. Yeah, on the back end.
Starting point is 00:49:42 I'm worried about most of the backend stuff. Yeah, and the other, the thing that I worry about a lot is, and this usually have to be a very narrow, narrow house majority for it to matter would be the failure to seat a member of Congress over, I think this is, to the extent that this stuff matters, it's all the claims of fraud leads to an environment where they can, you know, say that in this close race, there's enough clouds that we, the Republican majority, won't seat the one individual who would give Democrats the majority. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:50:10 But that's a very black swan event to get to the one seat holding us from a majority. Yeah, I feel like this will be struck down in short order. Today's show is sponsored by strawberry.me. You don't have to be unhappy at work to want something more. Success doesn't just happen, and the most successful people in the world don't just figure it out alone. They have mentors, coaches, and people guiding them every step of the way. That's where Strawberry.Me career coaching comes in. Career coaching through strawberry.
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Starting point is 00:51:11 Yeah, yeah. And it was like, wow, like, boy, I don't want a chair thrown at me. I'm going to do a good job. But there's all kinds of coaching. That maybe not the best one. That's a great mentor. Some help you uncover a blind spot or maybe just come to an important realization. That person is really meaningful to you.
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Starting point is 00:51:52 Department of Homeland Security that's caused chaos at airport security lines. Last time we checked in, House Republicans had just rejected the Senate's plan, which passed by unanimous consent, to fund all of DHS. except immigration enforcement. Then Congress left town for a two-week recess, and then they were followed around everywhere they went by TMZ. Now, just a few days later, House Republican leaders apparently decided to cave,
Starting point is 00:52:16 though notice I said of House Republican leaders, apparently decided to cave, saying that they'll go along with the Senate's partial funding plan and then try to fund ICE and Customs and Border Patrol with a budget reconciliation bill, which only needs Republican votes, which was, of course, the Senate's plan all along. The only problem is that Congress is still in recess until April 14th.
Starting point is 00:52:36 So Trump announced on Thursday that he would, quote, soon sign an order to pay all of the incredible employees, the Department of Homeland Security, and not just TSA. Right before we're recording, I heard that Mike Johnson on a call with his caucus. He's just facing an uproar, hardliners, moderates. Everyone's just pissed because Mike Johnson called it a crap sandwich before just last week. and now he's saying, I don't know what else we can do. Sometimes you have to eat the crap sandwich.
Starting point is 00:53:04 That's part of being Congress. That is true. Do you think, like, how did they fuck this up so badly? Mike Johnson's the one person in America who could make Kevin McCarthy look like a competent legislator. I mean, he's, Mike Johnson is both dumb and weak. Yeah. Like, I was worth remember he's an accidental speaker.
Starting point is 00:53:22 He wasn't even particularly high up in leadership or had any real role. He just happened to be a guy so inoffensive that you could get an exhausted majority. to vote for him. Yeah. And so you end up with lowest common denominator leadership. And so he listened to the far right, rejected this thing, had no plan for what came next. It was obviously the only way to solve this problem was to do what the Senate did. Yeah. And instead, he decided, you know what, I know the Democrats are the ones who shut down the problem of criminal insecurity. I know that there are lines everywhere. People are really pissed about it. I am going to take full ownership of this
Starting point is 00:53:59 and then go on recess. I'm wondering now if he can put down the rebellion that he's, or just like quiet the anger right now? Because like, again, I don't know how else they would fund DHS if they don't go along. No, there's no, there's no other plan. This is it. They're going to have to do it.
Starting point is 00:54:18 They went through all the iterations and. And if they don't do it, they're not, I mean, I think the reason why they, that Johnson caved is like, they tried to blame this on the Democrats and were like, Senate Republicans who win along with this plan, I think they're having regrets now. I think they're having second thoughts, but like there's no way to pin this on the Democrats.
Starting point is 00:54:35 So they would just own the shutdown. Yeah, the Democrats won the shutdown, right? Yes, I think it's fair to say Democrats won the political battle over the shutdown. Yeah. What they said for the beginning was fun. One, we're not going to fund ICE
Starting point is 00:54:50 unless you do reforms. We will, however, fund the rest of DHS. And do that, do that. Do that. probably said, no, we won't do that, we won't do that, we won. Democrats won that that battle. The thing that they have not won are reforms to ICE. Right. Right. So like politically is again, it's not surprising because like you can't, the only way you can reform ICE is if you have the votes to reform ICE and we don't have a majority in either house. So all we can do is say,
Starting point is 00:55:17 if you don't make our reforms, then we're not going to vote to fund it and which is what we did. And what matters in the end here is that we win the majority and therefore have a ton of leverage because a bill can't leave the House without a speaker of King Jeffries allowing it to come to the floor. Yes. We won the House. This is a completely different dynamic
Starting point is 00:55:33 even if it's over the same general issue. Yeah. And I do think just it goes to show both Trump and the Republicans' weakness. Just imagine this scenario a year ago. Yeah. Seven months or whatever it is before the election that Democrats shut down
Starting point is 00:55:45 the Department of Homeland Security. Probably because I was, and I would have been for it, you know, and you'd have been like, you're an idiot. Well, then it would have been true. But to defund, not defund, but like they shut down Department of Homeland Security over ICE funding, would have thought that that was the Democrats doing the dumbest thing possible. And they end up with the political high ground here.
Starting point is 00:56:07 It says a lot about just how the politics have changed. All right. Two final, very important items to discuss. The first is a huge update that I'll just let you hear about from trusted newsman, Brett Baer. Christy Knoem is asking for privacy and prayers tonight. she's said to be devastated by a report alleging her husband has been what is being called a cross-dressing double life. Senior national correspondent Rich Edson has details tonight. Good evening, Rich. Good evening, Brett.
Starting point is 00:56:34 Daily mail alleges it obtained hundreds of messages between Brian Nome and three women involved in a site where men cross-dress. The mail posted several of these photos and writes Brian Nome allegedly sent women in the community $25,000 in virtual payments. The publication says Brian Nome did not deny the explicit conversations but says he never put national security at risk. All kinds of stories today. I had not watched that clip. I saved it for this and fuck that was good. All kinds of stories today. Absolutely. So since the release of the Daily Mail is reporting on Tuesday,
Starting point is 00:57:15 at least one performer specializing in quote, Sissy Sub and Bimbofication. has publicly come forward to claim she was paid $5,000 by Brian. His name's Brian, but it's B-R-Y-O-N. I heard Tim Miller calling him Brian the whole time, and now I can't get out of my head. Over the last two years, telling the Daily Beast, quote, there was no way in hell that Kristy Noem didn't know. Per the Daily Beast, Brian Noem, wanted the performer specifically to, quote,
Starting point is 00:57:44 instruct him to bend over Arches back, spank him. You guys didn't need to put all this in. And show off, which he describes as the largest. prosthetic breasts she's ever seen on a client. Okay. A lot of different ways we could take this. I've told you before I would not kinkshame you for bimbification because I know this is a thing for you.
Starting point is 00:58:08 A word I learned from you this morning. You didn't know what it was before, right? No. I didn't even. I didn't know. I read this story. I was like, what is this? I don't believe.
Starting point is 00:58:16 Is this a thing? I didn't. I knew that there was a cross-dressing scandal with. Brian Noam via some texts I got because I was not really reading the news. Just not not not not not before the story. No, no, no, no. Are you the source? Yes.
Starting point is 00:58:33 In the last 48 hours, whatever it was. But I did not read any of them. Oh, yeah. And then just when I looked at the outline for this morning, it just had a subpoohelang said, Bimbovification. And I was like, I didn't know it was the same thing. So I learned about it in real time. I will say my take on this is you're the spouse of a Homeland Security Secretary.
Starting point is 00:58:51 and you're getting into stuff that if it's public can embarrass you, your spouse. Opportunity for blackmail. Even if it's just like public embarrassment, like you can't be doing that stuff, you know? But aside from that, you know, she's the one who she's going to put him in this horrible. She's been clearly cheating on him, allegedly.
Starting point is 00:59:14 Yes. And we're almost having to drop allegedly at this point. But she's like for just openly, the whole like country knows. years. For years, she was asked about it at a hearing where he was sitting right behind her. So he's dealing with that. And now he's dealing with this. So you get you feel a little bit for for Brian. But not so much Christy known because like she I want her to be more embarrassed. Yeah. What about thoughts and prayers? What about thoughts and prayers for Brian? Really sucks. Yeah. She's the one who like, you know, sent people to a fucking torture chamber in El Salvador and then fucking posed for a picture in front of it. Yeah. I have some questions about the vetting process at the White House and the FBI and the Senate. Yeah, he was going to say that. Like the FBI, I guess they, I don't think they did background checks. I think the Trump would not let the FBI do background checks on his nominees because he thought that they were too anti-insurrection. I'm not entirely sure.
Starting point is 01:00:04 Wow. Trump was asked about it too, which is, I would love to hear someone explaining bimboification to Trump. So if you're that mole who's posting the live streams, can we get one of those? I would like, yeah, he was asked briefly about it and he was just like, it is interesting how, like, like, Christine Ome and everything. Like I'm asking for prayers and privacy at this time. Yeah, what about him? Yeah, what?
Starting point is 01:00:26 It's very, like, why not all of them just be like, no, we're not responding to the story, like, get away, nothing and just like that leave it at that. This is her chance to bring her Cori Lewandowski alleged relationship to the forefront. Maybe it was Lewandowski that pushed this whole thing around. Allegedly. Theoretically, we don't know. That's what I said, maybe. Maybe.
Starting point is 01:00:46 Anyway, we'll just leave that there. Yeah. Poor Brian. Finally, You may Title this pod be Brian's song So you may have seen The viral videos of Kid Rock
Starting point is 01:01:02 Saluting and clapping on the pool deck of his mansion outside Nashville As two Apache attack helicopters Hovered just overhead Apparently attempting some kind of counter programming to the No Kings March happening nearby. Those helicopters appear to be from Fort Campbell
Starting point is 01:01:18 an army base over the border in Kentucky and the army immediately said it would look into it, later announcing that the two crews had been suspended as the investigation continued. Kid Rock told local reporters, I think they're going to be all right. My buddy's the commander in chief, of course. Sure enough, Trump got a question about it in the Oval Office,
Starting point is 01:01:36 said he'd take a look because they like Kid Rock. I like Kid Rock. Maybe they were trying to defend him at his mansion in Nashville. A couple hours later, Pete Higseth posted, Thank you, Kid Rock. U.S. Army pilot's suspension lifted. No punishment, no investigation. Carry on Patriots with an American flag emoji.
Starting point is 01:01:55 What a fucking asshole. Such a Cooper. I don't know. What do you think of this story? I, like, it did not register as a big deal to me until Reed wanted us to cover it. And then I started reading about it. I'm like, yeah, this is really fucked up and crazy. And the fact that it barely registers, including with me, someone who talks about the news all the time,
Starting point is 01:02:17 just goes to show like how down the rabbit hole we are. I would just say as a piece of advice to Kid Rock, those helicopter pilots, all on the right, that if perhaps your response to a rally that suggests that Trump wants to be a king and dictator should not be a show of military force. Yeah. Also, what kind of goobers were like, we got to find Kid Rock. I think his mansion's up here. Let's like fly by and maybe he'll wave.
Starting point is 01:02:46 Is that what the thing is? it was like they were just hoping it was like a Hollywood star tour he was on the pool deck. They just thought it was hoping he was on the pool deck. Yeah like what if he wasn't there
Starting point is 01:02:55 were they were they just like. But did he know that did he know they were coming? That's what I don't know. I'd love to know all about this. You know what? We're not going to Democratic majority.
Starting point is 01:03:01 You think this is a good one? You know what? I'm going to send someone South Dakota. I'm going to send someone to Nashville and get to the bottom of all this. I did on this South Dakota thing. Did see there was like a clip
Starting point is 01:03:12 of the reason podcast I think like expressing libertarians expressing some sympathy for Byron Nome on this and then Dave Weigel quotes tweeted and said it was right sympathy that helped fuel Hillary Clinton's run for Senate in 2000 there is an acting governor of South Dakota right now Larry Rodden so
Starting point is 01:03:34 Oh they could not oh wow yeah it's because it's replaced Nome when Nome oh interesting so maybe Byron can get his sweet revenge by running for governor You know what? I hope he has another turn to the wheel as like a MAGA influencer or maybe not. It would be nice if he like came over to the good side
Starting point is 01:03:54 but you know, I hope that Byron found some of the plan's happiness. I hope he can live his life. The thoughts and prayers for Byron. It is true that I heard some people say this like you can't feel too bad for him because he stayed married to Christine Ome as she went on this reign of terror
Starting point is 01:04:10 as the ice queen and never said anything as people's rights were being trampled. So there is that with... Yeah, yeah. But, you know... I'm not saying he did show up at the hearing to support his wife.
Starting point is 01:04:24 Well, I was, you know, I was going to say sitting in the cuck chair, I feel bad. The guy's just, you know... Yes. Whatever. Whatever. Whatever.
Starting point is 01:04:32 We're done. Kid rock, bad. Byron. Yeah, okay. That's our show for today. Love will be back in the feed on Sunday with a conversation with Senator Cory Booker.
Starting point is 01:04:41 You think he's going to ask? Senator Booker about bimboification. Given the volume of laughter happening outside the studio as we were recording, perhaps he did. Perhaps it was raised. Yes. Well, tune in Sunday to find out. Have a good weekend, everyone.
Starting point is 01:04:54 Bye, everyone. If you want to listen to Pod Save America ad-free and get access to exclusive podcasts, go to cricket.com slash friends to subscribe on Supercast, substack, YouTube, or Apple Podcasts. Also, please consider leaving us a review that helps boost this episode and everything we do here at Cricket. Pod Save America is a Cricket Media production. Our producer is Saul Rubin.
Starting point is 01:05:16 Our associate producer is Farah Safari. Austin Fisher is our senior producer. Reid Churlin is our executive editor. Adrian Hill is our head of news and politics. The show is mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Jordan Cantor is our sound engineer with audio support from Kyle Seiglin and Charlotte Landis. Matt DeGroote is our head of production. Naomi Sengel is our executive assistant.
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