Pod Save America - President of Peace Invades Chicago (feat. JB Pritzker)

Episode Date: October 10, 2025

Donald Trump ramps up his attacks on American citizens, fighting in court to be able to deploy national guard troops to Chicago, and declaring that Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson should be imprisoned. Jon and Dan react to Trump's threats, the deployments to Chicago and Portland, and the White House's "Antifa roundtable," where the president and his cabinet portrayed Antifa—which doesn't even really exist—as a shadowy, nationwide terrorist network that must be dismantled. Then, they discuss the politically-motivated indictment of New York Attorney General Letitia James, debate whether the Democrats are winning the shutdown message war, and react to some rare good news: the Gaza peace deal. Then, Gov. Pritzker sits down with Jon to discuss how he's fighting back against Trump's invasion of Chicago.For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email [e-mail] and include the name of the podcast.  Get tickets to CROOKED CON November 6-7 in Washington, D.C at http://crookedcon.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Pod Save America is brought to you by Uplift Desk. Tommy and John Lovett and I, we sit in an office together. We just sit on our asses, on our chairs. Yeah, it's not good. And we're just scrolling through the news, watching the downfall of America, just live tweeting it, talking about it on mics. And lo and behold, we all get uplift desks, and boy, has it changed our lives. Yeah, it's good to kind of be on your feet from time to time while you're watching the downfall of America.

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I don't know. It's just really well designed. Cup holder, which I do make use of. The all-new uplift V3 standing desk transforms your desk into a productivity engine. The V3 combines the best of uplifts V2 and V2 commercial into one stronger, smarter frame. V3 provides unmatched stability. Redesign feet and steel reinforcements. Make this the most stable standing desk yet.

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plus an extra discount off your entire order. That's U-P-L-I-F-T-D-E-S-K-K-D-E-S-K-K-D-C for this exclusive offer. It's only available through our link. Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm John Favro. I'm Dan Pfeiffer. On today's show, we're going to talk about what Oregon and Illinois are doing to fight back against the president invading their states with the U.S. military. I'm also going to talk to Governor J.B. Pritzker later in the show about everything he's doing to fight back. We're also going to talk about the fact that they just indicted Letitia James is the next political prosecution for Donald Trump. James Comey was also arraigned this week. We're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about the shutdown, which is in its 10th day as of this recording. We'll see if there's any end in sight to that. There's also a potential peace deal in Gaza, and more importantly, we'll talk about whether that means that Donald Trump will be getting the Nobel Peace Prize. So that's what matters, not an actual piece.

But let's start with the President of Peace's War Against Americans. On Wednesday, Trump hosted what the White House called a roundtable on end. What a phrase, a roundtable on Antifa, that featured Pam Bondi, Christy Noem, Cash Patel, and a slew of right-wing influencers who allegedly cover Antifa, they're journalists, which again, Antifa, not an actual organization. Nonetheless, the participants told stories about being assaulted by black-clad mobs, which then gave Trump in the cabinet an opportunity to push their favorite new conspiracy, that actually Antifa has its tentacles everywhere

and that the government will not rest until its imaginary network of funders and supporters is destroyed. Here's a sample. Just like we did with cartels, we're going to take the same approach, President Trump, with Antifa, destroy the entire organization from top to bottom.

One of the individuals we arrested recently in Portland was the girlfriend of one of the first, founders of Antifa. This network of Antifa is just as sophisticated as MS-13, as TDA, as ISIS, as Hezbollah, as Hamas, as all of them. We're going to be very threatening to them, far more threatening to them than they ever were with us, and that includes the people that fund them. These are not people that write out their signs in a basement that believe in something. These are paid anarchists. Another group right now that is behind Antifa and working with Antifa very closely based on the research that we have right now

that we're going to give to you and your team are the democratic socialists of America. It's helpful to see all these goobers together because Christine Ome is definitely the dumbest. You know? Yeah. Like, listening to her talk about like they're like, first of all,

Antifa's like ISIS, it's like, Hezvala, Trenah, Ragua, and Al-Qaeda. The girl. girlfriend of the founder of Antifa. There is no founder of Antifa. This is like having a roundtable about fascists.

Where's going to be like, how are we going to go get the fascists? I guess we have a roundtable about fascists. That was a roundtable by fascists. Two different things. But that is, it's like, it's not a, it's not a, it's not a, it's not an organization. It's an ideology.

It's a. It's not even that. It's barely an ideology. It's loosely an ideology. Yeah. Yeah, it is a... It's anti-cashist. But it's like a more...

People who are like more militant. That's basically what it is. Sort of. Sort of. Like, I guess. But it's really primarily a creation of right-wing media. Right? Like this is, I mean, might be the dumbest,

but also most dangerous event held in the White House in a very long time. As is everything. Because these people, I just have to like, I watch the car. coverage of this. I watched it in real time, which I like to thank you for, learning me that it was on. So I decided to do that. Can't miss the Antifa roundtable. You know, you really can't. Then I watched some of the coverage afterwards. Then I read some of the stories about it. And I feel like everyone is losing their mind. Like this is

like patently ridiculous. It's absurd. I'm not saying the press coverage treated it seriously. It did not. But it did not treat it unsuriously enough because you have like just you just have to step back to them to like describe what this is, right, which is the president got together his top advisors with a group of third-tier right-wing influencers to talk about how to use America's massive post-9-11 counterterrorism apparatus to take down a group they made up. It doesn't exist. Don't you remember we went through this in 2020 when like Bill Barr sort of helped out the president and saying that they were an organization?

And then there was like a few Yahoo's in Congress that were trying to designate it a domestic terrorist organization, which isn't a thing. And then Christopher Ray, the FBI director was like, no, no, no, it's not an organization. It's more like a loosely affiliated groups with different ideologies and decentralized here in the United States and all over the world. I mean, they're just creating a threat to justify oppression of people they disagree with. Yeah. And they're trying to do it so they can say, oh, you know, the mention of the DSA or the Democratic Socialists, right?

It's like, oh, your DSA, actually, you're Antifa. And so now they're going to flurred the line between that. And then they're going to say, for Democrats, oh, you say you're a Democrat, but I think you're just Antifa. Like during fucking Pam Bondi's hearing earlier this week when she said that Senator Hirono had been outside protesting with a group that had a couple Antifa next to it.

I don't even know what that means. If you are like, she's like, are you Antifa, Senator Hirono? Yes. I mean, like this is the damn, like the dumb part is these people are fucking stupid with like the barest grasp on reality of what's actually happened in the world. Like they truly, the brains are so pickled by the right wing bubble they live in that they, like, I'm confident that Christy Kno, like Stephen Miller makes a lot of shit ups in order to justify his true goals.

Christy Knoem fucking believes that Antifa is like Hesbila. And she really believes they're going to send in a seal team to hand Antifa HQ to disrupt the sleeper cells. Like, it's like, what? By the way, if you know, if you know the address of Antifa HQ, please let the federal government know because they are. They're looking. They are looking. It's like the red scare if there weren't really communists. Yes.

Yes. It's exactly right. It's the dangerous. Like, they actually stumbled ass backwards into something that is quite dangerous, potentially effective for their fascistic goals, which is, if not. no one's Antifa, then everyone's Antifa. That we don't like, that we don't like. Right, exactly. So it's just like you can make, because it's like, if you're going after a real organization,

there is like evidence as whether this person is a part of that organization, right? Like, are they a part of this mob family or this drug cartel? Like, you have to present evidence that. Here you just have to assert that they're loosely associated with this philosophy. And therefore, you can go rooting around into the financial records of their foundation. Or you can investigate them for these crimes. Or even more likely just accuse them of being part of. what, a domestic terrorist or domestic extremists, Stephen Miller has done.

Do you think we can get the Trump administration to start calling themselves profa? What's, it is, I mean, it is a little on the fucking nose. This is what I said. It's like the Antifa is short for anti-fascist. And so that really, so like, you know, you guys are clearly, they're, they're all propha. The MAGA supporters are profa. Do not call us fascists. Also, our top priorities to take out anti-fascists. It's enemies of our non-fascist state are called anti-fascists. It really is a laugh. It's a laugh or crime moment. It really is.

Like, we're all going to, the whole country's going to go down for the stupidest fucking reasons by the stupidest fucking people. This is, I mean, I don't know if I wanted more intellectually serious people to take down the country. It's not like I'm asking for that, but it is rather ironic. It's stupid. I don't know. Is it ironic? I don't even know if that's the right word. Anyway, it seems like this is more than just a threat.

Reuters dropped a big investigative report on Thursday that has AIDS from the White House, Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, talking on background about a specific plan to go after left-leaning groups. They had a list of nine groups that they shared with Reuters. Potential targets include George Soros and his Open Society Foundation, as we've mentioned before, also Act Blue, Indivisible, and Jewish Voice for Peace. And I'll quote from the article here, potential tools to defund or shut down these groups include IRS investigations to strip them of tax-exempt status, criminal probes by the Justice Department and FBI, surveillance by federal law enforcement agencies, the use of RICO statutes, typically used for organized crime and financial investigations under anti-terror laws to identify donors and funders. The person directing all of it, according to the officials, is our friend Stephen Miller, who now regularly uses the term demer. extremists to describe American citizens who didn't vote for Donald Trump. And judges, appointed by Trump in many cases. That's true.

That's true. And judges. What did you make at the Reuters piece? Well, I'd say a couple things. One, I read the whole thing, two, three, four, or five times. At no point did I find any evidence that there was any sort of left-wing conspiracy funding violence that seems to be lacking in this. We work with Indivisible.

We've worked with Indivisible for a year. They're good friends and partners. It is laughable to think that indivisible, which has also like just grassroots chapters all across the country that get together to like help register voters and go to town hall meetings and get people organized has anything to do with any kind of even close to violent activity. I mean, also the idea they're going after Act Blue,

which is a payment processor. It's a payment processor. Yes, we're going to take down PayPal next. Like, what are we doing here? And then the other sort of funny insider baseball part of this story is they talked to two different White House officials on background. And one White House official was clearly like Stephen Miller, Stephen Miller, Jason was like, this is, who says, this is how we're going to take down the Soros network.

And then the other White House official who clearly probably worked in the council's office and does not want to go to prison in a subsequent administration was like, no, we are only going to go after actual plots to fund violence. And it's like the first administration official would be back in, first white association would be back in like, no, we're taking down the lefties. And it's like, it was very, it's very clear that. In addition to being a very menacing story and like a pretty scary story, there's also like the classic bumbling incompetence that's going on in the government. You get this because, you know, Trump's twin directives on domestic political violence have caused confusion. Lawyers for the Department of Homeland Security are scrambling to figure out how to implement them legally, according to two DHS officials not authorized to speak.

publicly. So Trump also at that event with Antifa, and he mentioned this in the Reuters Trump requested participants to name groups and funders. They claim carryout violence, effectively crowdsourcing potential targets in real time. He then vowed to pursue these. Anyone got any Antifa? Any Antifa out there that's pissing you off? Pam, go get them. I mean, the, just name names. The craziest part of that hearing or that run table was when the guy is like, I have a burnt American flag, and I know the guy who burned it. And Trump was like, give his name to him so you can press charges. And then Trump gives his very strange.

This is constituent services now. So we're doing it right there in real time. But then Trump's like, well, that's why we get rid of freedom of speech. So he has now decided against all Supreme Court decisions and the Constitution itself that flag burning is now a crime punishable by a year in prison. Right. There's no law on the book that suggests that. Yeah.

Which they can't do that. It's not going to work. because it's constitutionally protected. And their legal argument, which is, I would say flimsy, but it's more than flimsy, it's fucking absurd, is that Trump tried to make it, I wouldn't say eloquently, is that burning the flag causes the people around the flag burner to become agitated and violent. Can I make a small point just, I'm not President Trump's personal attorney, but it would seem to me that if I was Donald Trump,

one thing that I would not try to encourage is prosecution of speech that leads to violence. You know, like, it's just by chance you gave us a speech on the mall. Then the participants, the attendees of that speech then marched on the Capitol and tried to hang the vice president just as one example. Well, I don't think his lawyer would tell him anything about that because John Roberts and the court gave it stamp of approval. Can't be prosecuted. Official act. Wait till prison, AOC expands the court, my friend. Jesus Christ

I mean it's really like what if anything do you like democratic leaders have been sort of quiet on the Antifa stuff you know there was initially when they put out

the EEOs when they first announced the EEOs I think there were you know the typical round of statements and you know the same people who are always speaking out or speaking out is there anything anyone can do about this

like it does seem like you don't what you don't want is to get into this situation where, so yeah, they don't go arrest everyone at Act Blue and indivisible and all these groups, open society. But suddenly they open an investigation or there's FBI surveillance of these groups or suddenly someone gets a subpoena. And it's more drip, drip, drip than it is a big event that can focus everyone's attention. And I don't know, I just worry about, I worry about that part of it. Well, it's also the shoe you never hear drop, which is so it's like Trump named Reid Hoffman, right, the founder of LinkedIn, who's a huge Democratic donor.

He's like, we'll go after Reid Hoffman. There's no allocation that Reid Hoffman's involved in anything at all. But, like, who is the other rich people out there who think, who would think about becoming donors like Reid Hoffman, who now don't want to do that because they do not want to be on the anti-Antifa task force list, right? I mean, so the question is, what do Democrats do about it? I mean, it's like, how many things can they yell about it one time, right? You have one of our, a significant part of our party, which is dealing in the government shut down.

We're talking about a minute. You have our most prominent governors who are, one is fighting and redistricting battle. The other one is having a state invaded by troops from Texas right now. I think the challenge for Democrats here, and this is a longer conversation I want us to have on a less newsy podcast at some point, but is about how you take all that's happening here and tie it into one story. Not a slogan. You came into the right place, Dan. One story about how, like what Trump is doing, why he's doing it, what it means and how it affects people. Like that is the message.

And there is like we've talked about this before. There is this like huge debate within the party about this. You put yourself in the middle of this debate by arguing the Democrats should make the shutdown about more than health care and take on all these issues. That's a debate. You and I can also have a different point. But there's a whack-a-mole element to all of these things where the way you get out of that and the way you ultimately deal with the flood the zone strategy is you need a compelling narrative about Trump, this moment, this Republican Party, and how Democrats are different, under which you could fit all of these things. So you're not just putting out of fire here. What's our anti, what's our anti-Antifa statement right now?

What's our statement on the troops? You know, all of that. Like you have, we have no, there have been some, Newsom has done some of this. Chris Murphy's done a lot of it. I was going to say, speaking of Chris Murphy, I had forgotten about this because it was a headline from, I don't know, a couple of weeks ago, which might as well have been a couple years ago, that he's donating $100,000 from his political fund to progressive organizing group indivisible.

And I do think elected Democrats coming out and standing with some of these groups that could be potential targets publicly is probably important as well. There was great news because Act blue is on all their websites. So here's what they're going to do. They're not just going to text you seven times. Act Blewling. They're going to text you 14 times in that Flewling. Yeah, actually, maybe they have no, just kidding. Yeah, that's right.

So, Trump, come talk to, Pam, come talk to me about ActBlue for a second. No. The reality is, is that the No King's rally is coming up next weekend. Which everyone should fucking go to. That is an opportunity. Indivisible, is very involved in organizing, that's a group, too. That is a number where every Democratic official should stand publicly with people. Go to it. Be proud that you're going

to it. Let everyone know, publicize it, and because I do think that's going to be a moment to show that like no one is scared and no one is backing down and yeah because this is it's getting real it's getting real this podcast is sponsored by Squarespace is the all-on-one website platform designed to elevate your online presence and drive your success Squarespace provides all the tools you need to promote and get paid for your services in one platform create a professional website to showcase your offerings and attract clients. Whether you offer consultations, events or other experiences, Squarespace can help you grow your business. Squarespace offers a complete library of professionally designed and award-winning website templates with options for every use and category. No where you start. Your website is flexible to what you need with intuitive drag-and-drop editing, beautiful styling options, unrivaled, visual design effects, on-brand AI content, and more ways to list what you offer. No experience required. Every dream needs a domain. That's what I always say. Squarespace domains makes it easy to find the best name for. your business at one fair all-inclusive price, no hidden fees or add-ons required.

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Of course, our cities are now the front lines in the battle against Antifa. The deployment of Oregon and Texas National Guard troops to Portland is still on hold for the moment. But that may not last long, a panel of judges from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, two of the three of whom are Trump appointees, seemed to think that the district judge had overstepped. If you remember, the Ninth Circuit was also the appeals court that heard Newsom and California's challenge to the deployment of troops here in LA and they basically said that it would the case hasn't been fully decided yet but they let the deployment continue because the judges decided in the Ninth Circuit it is likely that the government the federal government would win the case

because it was under it was within President Trump's statutory authority to do so to deploy those troops. So Christy Nome visited Portland on Tuesday, where she was accompanied by an entourage that included a pardoned January 6th insurrectionist. Did you know that, Dan? That was part of she had a had a jacket on that said staff on the back. That's who that's who she took with her to Portland to, I guess, monitor Antifa, which they did from a roof. They stood on the roof of an ice facility to watch the Antifa mob from a safe distance. The Antifa mob being a tiny crowd of protesters that included a guy in a chicken suit. I encourage you all to go look for that footage.

There's Christy Noem and her January 6th insurrectionists and a bunch of other goobers up on a fucking roof. And they're looking down at a guy in a chicken suit. And that's America 2025. That's the civil war that's going on right now. During Thursday's cabinet meeting, Nome told Trump that she met with when she was in Oregon, the governor, the mayor of Portland, the chief of police in Portland, the head of the highway patrol, and she called all of them lying and disingenuous and dishonest people for merely reporting to her that the protest was small, low energy, and under control, which of course it is.

She also said that DHS would be purchasing more property in Portland to operate out of and sending more federal agents. She plans to do the same in Chicago, where a federal judge on Thursday heard arguments from lawyers from the city and state about blocking the guard deployments there. Just a day after Trump posted a demand that J.B. Pritzker, well, you'll hear from in a minute. And Mayor Brandon Johnson should both be jailed, quote, for failing to protect ICE officers. The judge didn't seem overly warm to the Justice Department's arguments, but as of this recording, she had an issue to ruling. Guys, just give us a thumbs up or something if you hear it. What's your take on what's happening in these cities and who do you think is making the better argument? I think, I mean, we talked about this when it happened in L.A.

We have talked about it happened in D.C., and there is this surreal element to all of this, because this is the thing that if you said Trump was going to do, as Kamala Harris did in the campaign, then everyone would laugh at you and say, you're insane for thinking of that. You know, you have TDS. But I think what is clear, particularly in Chicago and Portland, is the pattern here in the plan, which is Trump and his administration and his right-wing goons. they make up a threat, they fabricate a threat

or they exaggerate a real problem like crime or disorder then send in massed ICE agents who essentially operate as a paramilitary organization with social media influencers in tow to capture it

to create chaos and backlash. Then they exaggerate that chaos and backlash and use that as a pretext to send in American troops. Right? And this is an A plus answer to a polysy one-on-one question about how fascism starts, right?

This is like, this is the exact formula. This is exactly what they do. It's exactly what's happening. It's happened in L.A. It's happened in D.C. It's Chicago, Portland. And it's going to be everywhere by 2026. Like that is the path we are on.

Yeah. And I think it's also important to point out, having gone through this here in L.A., it can seem like it's not a big deal at first. We didn't notice really the National Guard deployed here in Los Angeles because they were defending, like, two federal buildings, defending from no one. And, you know, they were out with ice on some raids, I guess, but, you know, you wouldn't have seen them, really. And same in D.C. people in D.C. will tell you this, too. And they were, like, taking pictures

with tourists, and they didn't have anything to do. And so they were cleaning up trash. And so I think there is this sense that, okay, the guards here, it's crazy that Trump's doing this. There's no reason for him to do this. He's clearly doing this because he is power hungry. and wants to, you know, prove a point or whatever. But is it really causing much harm? But with each deployment, it gets a little more serious. And the deployment gets bigger. And the facts on the ground are much more intense, right?

And so I think Chicago, of all the cities so far, like the way that ICE has been operating in Chicago is completely out of fucking control. And we have all seen the videos and you've heard us talk about it here. You've seen it all on our socials and we've been, you know, reposting them and all. that there's fucking they they shot a pastor in the head with a pepperball who was merely praying and actually asking the ice agents to join him in prayer doing nothing and they shot him in the head with a pepper ball and they just they dragged a woman out of her car yesterday who was she's a legal resident who was picking up her child at elementary school dragged her out of the car and this is happening There's just a million stories like this right now.

And so when you deploy troops in that situation where ISIS terrorizing neighborhoods, detaining, arresting people who are citizens, legal residents, or undocumented immigrants who are not dangerous by any measure, but using riot gear and flashbang grenades and pepperball spray and they're shooting pepper balls at journalists. And when you do that, then, and Pritzker talks with me about this, then, of course, residents and neighbors are going to get mad, and they're going to start shouting at ice. And now you deploy troops into that situation. And now you've also got Trump flirting with invoking the Insurrection Act. And I talk about that with Pritzker as well, which would suddenly give the troops on the ground law enforcement power.

So they're not just defending buildings or defending ice agents, but now they can go carry out law enforcement actions, which they are not trained to do. Now you've got a really explosive situation. Yeah. And it does, at that case, it doesn't have to be the National Guard anymore. Right. Right. Exactly. Exactly. You could see that you could actually do what Trump said he would do with the penit at the speech at Quantico with Hexeth and the generals is use U.S. cities as training rounds for the troops that he expects to fight war overseas. Yeah. And I mean, we'll see. This is how you get the Navy SEAL's kicking on the doors of Antifa HQ. Right, right, Antifa HQ, right, which is, again, let us know where it is. You see the pop's involved, woke Marx's

Pope? I mean, you don't come to his city. He's a Chicagoan. I love our American Pope. Yeah. I thought I loved Pope Francis is my favorite Pope, I think, because of Jesuit, a big Jesuit guy. But our American Pope from Chicago, who is now, and I guess he's pushing the bishops to make like a really clear moral statement on this on what's happening in the United States around immigration because he wants like unity and so he wants all the bishops on the same page which I think is a good move but he has apparently you know he had some advocates and activists immigration activists visit him I believe from Texas and was quite moved by some of these stories and like emotionally moved and I think that it's it's good to see that the Pope is getting involved in this it's crazy that

the Pope has to get involved in this, but it's good to see it. All right, so Austin just sent us this story. From Axios, President Trump is temporarily barred from sending the National Guard to Illinois to aid his immigration crackdown after a federal judge, in part, granted the state a temporary restraining order against the deployment. So, there you go. That's great news. One other major front in the war against America's enemies, the political prosecutions

of people the president doesn't like news broke right before. we started recording that a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia has indicted New York Attorney General Tish James for one count of bank fraud and one count related to false statements. All right, so this was related to another alleged mortgage fraud case, Dan, that the mortgage fraud czar Bill Pulte has been pushing for quite some time. And once again, there was reporting leading up to this that all the attorneys, all the prosecutors, who work in the Eastern District of Virginia, didn't really see a case here, didn't think there was evidence for a case, didn't think there was evidence that she broke any laws. And so when

Lindsey Halligan, Donald Trump's random staffer who never prosecuted a case before was installed, and then she indicted Comey, she went after Letitia James as well, and apparently has won an indictment from a grand jury on two charges. How strong or weak do you think this case is again? Tish James. I think the fact that Lindsay Halligan presented the indictment herself suggests that no actual qualified prosecutor in the office is willing to do so. So that says a lot about it. It's also, you know it's weak because one of the reasons Trump fired the original U.S. attorney for the U.S. District of Virginia was because he and his staff did not think there was a case you could bring here. And the third reason why we also know it's a bad case is that people are almost never, ever prosecuted for

making this mistake. It is almost always handled civilly. The only time it's ever done criminally is if it has seemed to be part of a pattern where someone has done it many times or it's part of or it's like an obvious move where they like use a fake name or a fake disguise or something like that. Something happens all the time. We know it happens all the time. It happens to a lot of people in the Trump administration because of the pro-publica reporting that looked at it. So this is absurd. But this is what Trump wants. He wants another way he can go and say he went after his enemies. And everyone else on that list, should be concerned, because even if they did not commit the fake crime in the Eastern District of

Virginia, Trump will just fire the U.S. attorney wherever he wants to bring the case, install some other crony there, and do this same thing. Like, this is where we are as a country now. This one seems even worse when you, like, look into it because it's saying that she, you know, she allegedly tried to declare somewhere her primary residence that wasn't so she could, you know, get a more favorable loan but she in this case it was like one document that a third party uh checked a box that said primary residence but in another email she she wrote this will not be my primary residence very clearly and on another form she said this will not be my primary residence so then you'd have to believe that she tried to lie about this but then told the truth about it as

well like that is just fucking insane this happens all the time this is this was a big thing in politics in the early 2000s where people who members of Congress who also owned homes in D.C. would often check a box that said they wanted to claim the homestead exemption and then people would get hammered in their districts for claiming that they live in D.C. But it's because the settlement, the people who prepare the papers just fill it out that way and everyone just signs it, right, without actually looking at it. This is exactly what happened in this case. There was reporting in the Washington Post that her, the house was, I believe, this residence was bought for her niece. Her niece actually testified to the grand jury and reportedly

gave testimony that was quite exculpatory of Letitia James. Yet they proceed. It does seem like the indictment now they're saying that the problem is that it's a rental, it was always meant as a rental property for her niece. And so she couldn't, she shouldn't, she shouldn't, she shouldn't have even said it was her second home, her second property. Because. Because then it's an investment property, which is a different thing. This stuff happens all the time. These are crimes. They are problems that have to get addressed and they are addressed with the bank. They address civilly. This is not how it happens. This is just. And it also, it always like drives me not even going into the details of the case because it's so fucking like it's a political

prosecution. Yeah. Yeah. That that career attorneys from Republicans and Democrats appointed by Republicans and Democrats over the years all said, no, this is crazy to. And then fucking Lindsey Halligan comes in after Donald Trump said to Pam Bondi, go white. what's taken so long, go prosecute my enemies, and they did. And you don't have to be a fucking genius to figure that out. You don't need a law degree. James is in good company, former FBI director James Comey, who was indicted two weeks ago, was arraigned in federal court in Alexandria on Wednesday morning.

He pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers indicated that they will seek to have the case thrown out on the grounds that the prosecution is vindictive and selective. It is, of course, both. Apparently, Lindsay Halligan and this one brought in a prosecutor from North Carolina to help her with the case, because, they couldn't find anyone in the Eastern District who would do it. I don't know if the jurors will even know about that or the judge will, but it doesn't bode well for their case, I think.

Yeah, you're right. I have no idea if that's something that a jury will ever know about, but it will, it just, it just says how weak the cases, right? Like there was plenty of ambitious Republican career prosecutors, right, who have eyes on bigger jobs, who, if there was a real case here and they, and did, they would prosecute it. The problem is there is no real case and they care about their reputation and their ethics and so they're not going to do it. Yeah. Wall Street Journal had an amazing report on Wednesday that the famous truth social post that Trump addressed to Pam, which said, you know,

delays in charge in Comey were killing our reputation and credibility, was in fact meant to be a DM. I feel vindicated. Me too. Yes. Although I would, this is what happened. I was, we were we were just hanging out with the neighbors all the kids were there uh one of my neighbors is Tommy and and I saw the newsbrook and I was like oh my god I think this was supposed to be I think this was supposed to be a DM and he's like no that's there's no way that was a DM he you know Trump he would just say Pam in a truth social post and I was like you know what you're right that's crazy to think that so I did I did give up pretty soon but I mean like anything think it's possible with Trump. But it's just, I know caring about the information security habits

of high government officials is like very 2016. But it is fucking bananas that Trump communicates with his cabinet through direct messaging on his janky social media site. I'm surprised. Like, I didn't know. He might as well BCC every foreign intelligence agency in the world. I mean, like how, think how many other DMs there are? Do you think it's just the first time he decided to DM someone was about about a political prosecution? He's, He's just like, I got to communicate him at this Watergate level crime and abuse of power. Why don't I do it by DM? No, he must be DMing people all the time, which we know he was DM people on Twitter because

that was a part of the Jack Smith investigation was subpoenaing his DMs. It's funny that you went to the OPSEC thing because my first reaction was there's not a lot that can shock me about Donald Trump, but the fact that he knows how to use the direct message function on his jinkey platform. He doesn't, obviously. Yes. I mean, not well, not well, but at least he knows. I mean, that's the one thing you can't do is do it publicly. Why isn't he texting Pam Bondi? Why isn't he calling Pam Bondi?

He is an entire military unit whose job it is to connect him on the phone with people no matter where he is. What? I don't understand it. It is just, it is the classic stringer bell, don't take notes on a motherfucking criminal conspiracy, that he wrote this down and then sent it out publicly by accident. The report has officials saying that Trump was, quote, surprised to learn it was public. I bet he was. And notes that, quote, Bondi grew upset and called White House aides in Trump, who then agreed to ascend a second post, praising Bondi as doing a great job. See, that's what I knew it was a DM was when he said the second post. That was my, that seemed definitely like, oh, I got to clean up here.

Also, notable that the Attorney General of the United States did not seem upset that the president, accidentally, publicly directed her to prosecute his enemies, but that he didn't seem to think she was doing a great job. Yes, yeah. She knows what her job is. In the post. And so what she really wanted was a follow-up that said, great job, not the president deciding not to direct her to prosecute his political enemies.

I want you to think about how this would have played out differently if he had written a memo or an email to Pampondi or an email from Susie Wiles or Stephen Miller to Pampondi that said, almost that exact same thing, and then the New York Times had gotten a hold of it. These days, I don't know. Who knows? Yeah, I think it would have been, like, at least in the traditional media role, that would have been 10x the story. Just think about the, think about the original perfect phone call to Ukraine, was right?

Because like Trump was doing crimes all the time, but when they got wind of a secret phone call through that, then they reacted that way. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, under the Obama administration, was sitting on a plane in the tarmac while the Hillary Clinton email investigation was going on and Bill Clinton was on a plane next door, got off the plane, went on to her plane, said hello, walked off the plane. And it was such a scandal that everyone was calling for her to recuse herself from the whole investigation. So, yes. And it's a couple important points here. One is Bill Clinton, not president at the time. Not president at the time. It's very important.

Like, no influence at all on what was happening. Second, that really is butterfly effect to where we are right now because that leads to her recusing yourself to Lisa Jim Comey sending the insane memo announcing the investigation of Hillary Clinton, which leaves the Donald Trump getting elected, which then leads to Jim Comey ending up in a court this week. Wow. That's a, someone should just do a documentary just on that. If you know someone who owns a media company, you should talk to them.

I guess we just did it. There's nothing else to say. That's right. The fact that that was, oh my God, it's insane. It's insane. All right, let's get to the government shutdown, which will be in its 10th day by the time you're hearing this. On Thursday, the Senate voted again on two different versions of a funding bill. Neither of them passed. Democrats are clearly beginning to feel they've got the upper hand because they have a simple message. Republicans won't budge on gutting your health care.

Republicans are more all over the place. They're going to fire federal workers. No, they aren't. They're going to deny backpaid. furloughed workers, maybe not. Trump is talking to Democrats about cutting a deal on health care. No, he isn't. Even on Thursday in that cabinet meeting, Trump tried to say that Republicans were the ones trying to save health care and also tried his tough guy approach once again. Take a listen. We'll be making cuts that will be permanent. And we're only going to cut Democrat

programs. I hate to tell you. I guess that makes sense. But we're only cutting Democrat programs. They wanted to do this. So we'll give a little taste of their own medicine. At least one prominent Republican is getting frustrated by this lack of a clear plan. Here's Marjorie Taylor Green on CNN on Thursday morning. So you're putting the blame on the leadership of your party? Absolutely. We control the House. We control the Senate. We have the White House. When it comes to hearing from senior citizens or my own friends and neighbors and my own family members and people that voted for me and they're just saying, Marjorie, we just really want somebody to do something about health insurance premiums. I don't think it's good advice that a government shutdown is going to help Republicans in the midterms.

I don't agree with that. I also don't think it's good advice that Republicans ignoring the health insurance crisis is going to be good for midterms. I actually think that would be very bad for midterms. Yeah, and on that note, are you concerned about the cost of living? Very. That the President Trump said he would lower. The inflation crushed people in the past four and a half years, and the costs have not come down. Marjorie Taylor Green

Welcome to the Resistance It's like what is happening What a world That was an out of body experience To watchers to that Yeah I mean just she was used to run around the hall Screaming at Sandy Hook victims And now she is

I mean just talking about the cost of living Someone tweeted it's just wild seeing her Like sitting on a CNN set like this Like an animal who like learn to use a knife and a fork She's just sitting there all nice with Wolf Blitzer? Just being friendly. I mean, it's truly something. So that's cool, I guess.

Yeah. Right? What does it say we're about to play another clip? But what does it say that you've got Marjorie Taylor Green now pushing for Republicans to make a deal to extend the ACA subsidies? And then someone who's like a frontliner in a vulnerable seat, Mike Lawler, who's just like, you know, yelling. at Hakeem Jeffries. Like, what is going on? I think it's notable that the 10 incumbent House Republicans in toss-up races are to the right

of Marjorie Taylor Green on health care. Yeah. The politics of these Obamacare tax credits are abysmal for Republicans. Mm-hmm. Abysmal. Right. So you have the Kaiser Family Foundation poll, which shows the 78% of people want them extended. That includes, and this is like a truly stunning number, 57% of people.

of self-identified MAGA supporters, want them extended. 57%. And it's pretty interesting as to why. Because if you look at the- Is it like three quarters of the premium increases are going to hit red states? Well, yes, because so the Kaiser Family Foundation has been tracking Obamacare approval since the law passed. And it's never been more popular.

Nearly 2,000 Americans now support it. What's interesting is that disapproval among Republicans has come down pretty sharply by about 10 points in the last four years. And that lines up pretty closely with the passage. of the enhanced premiums in 2021. And the reason why those two things are probably connected is because if you live in a state that did not expand Medicaid, you're going to be more likely to be eligible for these tax credits. And so there's been a huge increase in Obamacare enrollment since the passage of these enhanced tax credits. Most of that is in red states. Like right now,

10% of the population in Texas and Florida is on the Affordable Care Act. And so any of these tax credits will cause a massive premise spike that is going to disproportionately hit Republicans in Republican states. Somehow, Marjorie Taylor Green is the only Republican who gets that because Georgia, Georgia is a confusing case because they partially expanded Medicaid, but there is a disproportionate number of people who have signed up for the Obamacare since the tax credits in Georgia, too. So her constituents will be hit by this. Do you think that other House Republicans are just, they feel like Marjorie Taylor Green feels, but they just don't want to say anything

because they are either thinking that there will be a deal at some point or have, like, promised Mike Johnson that they wouldn't cause trouble and they'd all stay strong and stay quiet for a while. I mean, there must be some, right? There have to have some. It has to be.

Like, not because, like, they're, you don't have to guess their motivations, but they know how to read polls. I mean, you, well, like, you've talked about the poll from Tony Fabrizio, Trump's pollster, showed a massive swing in the generic ballot if the Republicans let these tax credits expire. So there have to be a bunch of people who think that, right? There are a bunch of, there are some of them who are coming up with like fake leaf solutions

to try to say there for something without actually being for something. So there are people who want it. Now there's a huge part of his caucus who are in safe seats who do not care about anything other than owning the libs and we'll let these things expire, whether you can actually get a deal that can pass the house. It's an interesting question. But there are definitely people who agree with her. And the question is, will Marjor, Marjorie Taylor Green is probably not the best person to create a permission structure for other people because I think most Republicans, uh, hate her too. But it does give some space or room for someone else to come out to come out.

I imagine that to get a deal to pass the house, you would need like mostly Democratic votes. Yeah. You, I mean, right? I mean, you're not going to, he's not going to get most of his caucus on board. He's not going to get a majority of his caucus on board. But would Johnson put a bill on the floor that violates the has to. rule is the question. The hazard rule being the rule named after the former secret of the house in prison for pedophilia, which is now an issue that Republicans are once again on the wrong side. Yeah. It all comes together. It all comes once again. But that rule says that you can't, you cannot bring a bill to the floor that doesn't have a majority of the majority. Interesting. So let's talk about how this might end. Furloughed workers are going to start missing

paychecks on Friday. Troops are going to start missing paychecks this Wednesday, the 15th. There's some reporting that that will ultimately get a gang together, bipartisan gang to figure this all out. Though there's also some reporting that even after the missed paychecks, Democrats are planning to stand firm. How are you feeling about this? How do you think this shakes out? I think this, I really have no idea, but I think the shutdown probably either comes to some sort of temporary end next week, or it's around for months, potentially. Wow. You think it's possible to do months, huh?

Well, it's really hard to see what the thing that ends it is. Now, Thune floated today an idea that we'd open the government with a guaranteed vote on these tax credits at some point. Gallego, I think, just has to be walking by reporters at the time this came up. And he said he would be open to that idea, depending on. the time. I guess he wants to make sure that the vote happens, like the vote in the in the temporary funding bill line up so the Democrats could walk away again if the Republicans didn't, you know, fulfill their end of it or whatever else. Right. So, because just to remind

people again, this is a, this is about a seven-day CR, right? Yeah. That we're fighting over. So you could say, I was wondering, apparently Gallego had said this before, something like this before and there have been no takers. But it does seem like a way for. everyone to save face, where Republicans can say, okay, well, we didn't negotiate while the government was closed. And we just said we'd work with them and promise a vote. And then they do the vote. And then if Republicans don't provide the votes to extend the tax credit, then, you know, the next, the CR only lasts a week. And then we're just back into the shutdown. You could do that to get troops paid. The other thing they could happen is in a normal world

where the Republicans were not staying out of Washington to avoid voting on the Epstein files, the House would come in, would today be voting on a bill to fund the troops. This happens every single time. And then Democrats have to make a decision, which is, do they vote for that and essentially give up some leverage in the shutdown, but also then take on the political pain of denying pay to the troops? But they can't do that because Mike Johnson won't bring the House back. Pazave America is brought to you by Armra. Why are elite athletes, business moguls, and high performers using Armour Cholostrum?

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to get 30% off your first subscription order. That's A-R-M-R-A.com slash crooked. Well, let's talk about how, in case this drags on for quite a while, let's talk about how Democrats are handling the messaging. There have been plenty of standard videos and press conferences of varying quality, but we should note that they are getting quite a bit of views, quite a bit of traction on social media. I think Peter Hamby at Puck had a,

piece about um and the firm resonate tracks this that um you know for once a lot of like the democratic created content whether by politicians or influencers or groups or whatever is just like outperforming a lot of the republican content on social media and is actually shut down content is going quite far so that's good um democrats also seem to be having real luck taking the fight to republicans in these ambush moments i guess is what's what we're calling them now that have been happening in the Capitol. In one of them, New York Republican Congressman Mike Lawler confronted Akeem Jeffries about extending the ACA subsidies. And in another, Arizona Democratic senators Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego held a press conference outside Mike Johnson's office to pressure him to swear

in newly elected Congresswoman Adelita Grahalva from their state. And Johnson walked into the middle of the press conference. Here's a taste of how both of those exchanges went. Do you get permission from your boss? Why don't we sign on right now? Did your boss Donald Trump? Did your boss Donald Trump give you? Yes, he is. You're an embarrassment. You're an embarrassment. You're not going to talk to me and talk over me because you don't want to hear what I have to say.

Oh, I'm listening. So why don't you just keep your mouth shut up? You showed up. You showed up. And so you voted for this one big ugly bill. You can extend it right now. A permanent extension of massive tax breaks for your billionaire donors. Let's be clear.

The reason I allegedly to Grahava is not here is because my Mike Johnson wants to do two things. Number one, cover up for pedophiles on the Epstein list. And number two, put his members in a really rough position when it comes to voting and extending these ACA tax credits. This is an excuse so she doesn't sign on to that. This is absurd. This is the longest time the house has been out of the Senate.

Do you want me to answer the question? If you ask questions, you're not actually answer the question. I'm not blocking her. I just told you. This is the longest time that the House of the representative has been out of session. That's not in a regular August session. This is the longest time it's taken for someone to be sworn in.

And it all happens to coincide with the fact that she's going to be the deciding vote and the discharge. Wow. That's democracy for you right there. What do you think? What do you think of all the messaging is going right now? I think that we should give Democrats credit here because they have done better than at any point. And a couple of years now, actually, at actually communicating the message, thinking about

how to get their message out, playing the game to the attention of Congress. economy. And like, I think it's, I think it's good. Like, is it perfect? Of course not. Are some of these scenes, like, really cringy and painful to watch? Absolutely. But they have done much better, and we should give them credit for it. Yeah, I totally, I agree. I agree. I think it's the right, look, it is, it is good that they made this about health care. As, as you know, I think they should made it about more. They still should. But it is clear that health care is, you know, they are right on both the substance and the politics here in health care. I guess what I hadn't anticipated is the notices that are coming out from the insurance companies that are going to

let people know that their premiums are going up are a forcing mechanism that I hadn't anticipated would be as powerful as it is, right? Because I do think that without that, like, if they were just arguing about reversing Medicaid cuts that aren't going to take effect for a couple years, I don't know that the fight would be as clearly defined as it is right now. And I think that I think what's making Republicans nervous is those notices as well, too, because this is something they're going to have to deal with very soon. And so it's more of a cliff than another fight over health care might have been. They were right to make this the fight to pick, I think. I mean, there's a world where possibly they could have stitched together the larger argument you wanted

people to make. But I don't think in this political environment with this caucus, in this media environment, they could have pulled that off. And there was real advantage in having something simple. I actually wish they would ditch all the talk about the big ugly bill and the Medicaid cuts and focus only on this because it's a one thing. They got you calling it the big ugly bill, huh? How did it get to you? Because you just didn't listen to that clip. It's funny because I've actually been part of presentations where the argument is you should just,

there's been this huge debate within the party about what you call it, right? Do you call it the big beautiful bill? Do you call it the big ugly bill? Do you call it the Republican budget plan or whatever else? And then one of the real arguments is you just use the same language they use so that you're fighting on the same territory and voters know you're talking about the same thing. And so I've been an advocate for using the big beautiful bill. So I just fucked up. That's what I'm saying. What do you think would be happening right now if Democrats said

we are not going to vote to fund the government unless we make sure that ICE federal agents cannot raid people's homes without a warrant, that they cannot hold American citizens and legal residents for more than two hours, that they cannot use military tactics and military weapons to invade communities and Black Hawk helicopters, just like basic constitutional rights, due process, no unreasonable search and seizure, focused on American citizens, legal residents, and all of these videos are out there that have gone probably more viral than the health care stuff. Of course, of course. Like, and just, and I'm just like, what do you, because I genuinely don't know, but like,

what do you think would happen? I think the challenge of that approach is twofold. One is, can you keep a caucus that spans from Jared Golden to AOC on board for that? Because you have to, right, that's one. Two is what you, this is a legislative fight, and you need a legislative solution to a legislative fight. So what, and I spend a lot of time thinking about us, I talk to some people about how you would possibly construct this. Like, let's say you wanted to, you're going to demand that funding can't go

to some of these activities. It's a very hard thing to police. Like you, you really need a specific, I think, in a shutdown fight, a specific legislative vehicle to solve the problem you want solved, right, whether that is cut Medicaid like Newt Gingrich wanted, fund a wall like Trump wanted, defund Obamacare like Ted Cruz wanted or extend these tax cuts like Democrats want. And I mean, You could just say ICE loses the extra funding it got in Trump's budget bill. I think that that's a fight you're not going to win, and unfortunately. And so you're going to have two choices. The government stays closed forever, which eventually will blow back on Democrats, I imagine,

or you're going to reopen the government by having gotten nothing. Here's my other question. If we win this fight and get the health care, the Affordable Care Act subsidies extended, do you think there is a political benefit for Democrats in the midterms or even leading up to the midterms? I think that people are thinking about the political benefit of this in a very simplistic one-dimensional way. What Democrats needed to do here was to show that they had the strength to fight to lower costs for people. And so if we can actually do that and achieve it in a moment where people are paying attention, and not enough people are paying attention yet,

to be clear. But this is a moment where we actually look at. look, have a chance to look strong and look like we are fighting for some, for people on an issue that nearly 80% of the country wants. And I think that can have benefits on how people see Democrats. Because the problem we have here is, like, if you want to understand the difference between 2018 and 2026 right now, is that Trump is just as unpopular as he was at this point in 2017. He is doing more unpopular stuff, frankly, now than he was doing then. He's, he was above water in the economy back then. He's really far underwater on the economy right now. But the reason why the generic ballot was Democrats plus seven then and Democrats plus three now is because

people don't trust us to be an alternative. And so the goal, the political benefit here, if we could pull it off, is that people have a better trust in us to be someone who can fight for them. And when you say people, do you think it helps with our voters, like people who are already Democrats who are just pissed at the Democratic Party? Or is that, I mean, because we know that, like, we know that most of the people who are actually going to be helped by this are Trump voters. or at least, you know, 75%, right? And I don't think that they're going to change their opinion of Democrats, even though they got helped by premium increases, though I hope so, maybe if you will, maybe it's

independents who are just looking for a party that actually is going to fight for something they care about. I think it's a couple different audiences. But one, this is probably not super connected to how we would do in the midterms, but it has a real chance of improving the Democratic Party's approval rating because more Democrats might like the Democratic Party, which would just be nice. spend less time talking about our brand crisis all the time. But the people who you were looking to see that are the Biden-Trump voters. You were looking at the younger voters who supported

Trump, who now whose approval rating of him has dropped significantly. You're looking at Latino voters, whose approval rating of Trump has dropped significantly since 2024. And you're looking at a sort of a wider swath of working class non-white voters. All the groups that Trump made gains with, many of whom voted for Biden in 2020. And even if they didn't vote in 2020, probably would have picked Biden if they had. Those are the voters that we have to, that we have a chance to make inroads with. And that's who we need to sell ourselves to. It's, I don't also think it's like, it's not as specific as these, you know, there are 15 million people who use these tax credits. Seven million of them are Democrats and eight million are

Republicans or five million are Democrats. And we're going to get those five million. No, I think it's more people are seeing us fight for something. And health care premiums are so confusing anyway that just being seen as the people fighting to lower them and Republicans being either opposing lowering them or being dragged to lowering them is helpful to us. Do you think we'll be able to run on this in the midterms? I think we will be able to, I think we will have to run on a lot of things. One of those things is the people who can actually address inflation in high prices. and this is a data point in that case. I don't think it's your, that we, we did something.

We did it or we fought for it and they're, or, you know, either we did it or they jacked your premiums up. Those are the two options here. And it's like a data point in that larger argument. Do I think what happens in October of 2025 is going to be top of mind in November of 26? Probably not. Although I will say the, it was much earlier in the year when Trump tried to repeal the ACA in

2017. And that was still pretty resonant when people went to vote in 2018. Yeah. I do think that even if this is about making the Democrats in Congress who took part in this feel confident that they can fight and that fighting is a good thing and that taking a risk is a good thing, then that's positive. You know, like good for them that they got positive reinforcement for taking that risk. I mean, this is like this is sort of small ball part of it, but you'll remember this from having been in the Senate at the time. But the Democrats were a fucking mess after the 2004 election. And one of the things that actually taught Democrats how to fight back against Bush was the fight to defeat Social Security privatization. This is akin to that. It created unity in the party.

It reminded the base that we can fight. It reminded Democrats in Congress that they could fight. And I think this has the potential to have a similar effect. Yeah. I'm shocked that Republicans have not looked to make a deal and get out of this at this point. Well, it's hard because Trump doesn't understand the issue. And so, like, that's the, that's the forcing mechanism. But he's the, he's probably the one with the best politics on this internally. He's got like an instinct that, because he's like accidentally saying, yeah, I want to do a deal on health care and then he has to walk it back and all that kind of shit. But like, he knows he doesn't want this issue on the table.

I would imagine not. And, and I can't imagine that, that Republicans in the House and Senate who are trying to keep the House and Senate want this on the table. And so it's like if I'm a Republican strategist, like I look for a way that it doesn't look like I lost and just gave into the Democrats, but that we can take the issue off the table and extend the fucking subsidies if I'm looking at the polling and want to win the midterms. One of the things that's keeping a deal from getting done is the lack of vulnerable incumbents in either party. Basically you have Susan Collins. Right. Who's looking for a deal? Looking for a deal.

John Osoff, who's not looking for a deal. Because you remember what ended the Waffle House shutdown of 2018 was Claire McCaskill, Joe Manchin, all these people were up in 2018 in Red States were like, get me the fuck out of this. There's just no one in that situation because the other Senate races don't have incumbents, right? North Carolina, Iowa. Texas, you have an incumbent, but that incumbent's in the middle of a primary where they're basically trying to see who could be the bigger fascists right now. So that person's not going to cut an Affordable Care Act deal. And so that's why it's hard to get a gang. together because you don't have people whose own political immediate self-interest is affected by this. Yeah, it's wild. All right, we wanted to spend just a bit of time on the good news that's being celebrated literally around the world. Hopefully, you've listened to Tommy and Ben on this already, but on Wednesday evening, Hamas accepted the first phase of the Gaza peace plan, brokered by the Trump team.

As of this recording, Israel's government was doing the same. If that happens, the IDF will pull back to a first designated perimeter, and Hamas will release the remaining hostages, which Trump says could happen as early as Monday or maybe Tuesday. He also said he'll be traveling to Israel in the coming days and that he'll meet with hostages once they return. What do you think? What do you think? How about this? I think as you mentioned, there's a lot further to do here, right? This is just a beginning of a process. But if this means that the hostages are released, if it means that Palestinian political prisoners are at least if it means that the genocide pauses if it means that more aid gets in a Gaza then this is a great thing and that everyone involved we should be grateful to people

involved who got this done even if that means Donald Trump yeah it's it's incredible news the hostages can come home and it's also incredible news if like just I mean it's a pause to all hostilities right the bombing and that's why I said that's why I said pause not right because That's the big question because, you know, releasing the hostages that, you know, that they don't really have any more leverage anymore. And, you know, you hope that Israel and Bibi Netanyahu keeps their end of the deal here and does not resume hostilities. And you hope that Hamas does not resume hostilities as well, right? And but the idea that you could stop the killing, stop the slaughter, and stop the starvation and that aid could come back. in because that's part of the deal too that immediately aid is rushed in with, you know,

no limits like it was before. It would be huge. It would be huge. This is a, this is a smaller thing, maybe a little picky, but how are you feeling about reading all the tributes to not just Trump, but Jared Kushner, Steve Whitkoff, the real estate team from New York, got it done. I'll tell you, John. I read that story about Kushner, where he just talked about how is it deal guy, and this is actually Middle East peace, a lot like doing real estate deals, and that's why he and Wiccoff could get it done. And it got about two-thirds the way through it. I decided to do something fun, which is send us to Tommy and Ben and see how they'd react to it. This is what I've been doing is because it's making me mad. And so I'm like, I can't imagine how

it's why I can now because Tommy all day is just like, the fuck. And so I've decided to stop reading them. Decided I can take a pause. I don't need this. Like we've... But it's also, and Tommy and Ben were saying this too. Like, it, Trump, and good for Trump on this, was able to put pressure on BB. Yeah. Right? Which we were told a million times that Joe Biden just couldn't do and wouldn't work. All right.

And Donald Trump came in and he took too long to put the pressure on baby way too long. And like how many more people fucking died over the last year because he wasn't, he didn't do what he did now and finally told BB, knock it the fuck off, you know. But he did and it worked. Yeah. You know, or at least we hope it works. Yeah. It is an indictment of Biden's strategy. For sure. For sure. All right, how about the Peace Prize? The Peace Prize, which is they immediately, it's basically all Trump cares about. And it's like, all right, if that's your incentive and the incentive, which is, you know, typical narcissistic incentive perverse. But if it leads to a good outcome, who are we to judge? I mean, we can judge. We can judge. But the outcome would be good, right? Not that. the outcome of him getting the peace prize, but the outcome of the war being over. That's the good

outcome. And by the time you're listening to this, we'll know. It'll be out. Yeah, because it's announced tomorrow morning. And what we did find out is the Guardian said that, I think they've like sources in the Nobel Prize Committee saying that they picked the winner on Monday. Yeah, final meeting was Monday. So before, yeah, before this whole, this whole deal came about. I'm excited for the Axio story about Trump yelling at Kushner and Wyckoff for not getting this done over the weekend so that he could get in before the vote. I'm worried for the Norwegians. Yeah, that's right. As you're listening to this, one of two things could be happening.

Trump could have the Nobel Peace Prize or we could be at war with Norway. Those are the two options. Which is, again, deeply ironic that to go to war with the country whose committee did not give you the peace prize. That would be. And if I were a Norwegian, I would just, I would not get in a boat around those fjords anytime soon if that doesn't go well. I would just say to the Nobel Prize committee, you have to keep dangling in front of him for as long as possible. You want him, so. Yes.

Because if he gets it, he's going to stop caring about peace. So he's got to, the carrot's always going to be like one foot out of his reach. So he continues. Like we still got to deal with Russia, Ukraine. There are other things in the world. Like, because even while he was trying to get the new about peace price, he has started multiple conflicts around the world and sort of just bombing boats everywhere. So if he doesn't have that incentive, what do we think is going to happen? President of peace, president of

extrajudicial executions at sea, right? It's just, it's the same thing. Peace through war, as they always say. Speaking of which, speaking of which on Thursday afternoon, final thing we'll leave you with here. On Thursday afternoon, Christy Noem. tweeted out an AI parody video all the rage these days among the Trump in the Trump administration of the loveboat theme song featuring Trump as the captain

tailor made to go viral piss off libs like us and you know what? It worked. Here it is. The drugboats now are destroyed and our ocean shown the drug boat's perfectly blown into oblivion wiping out narco terror president trump and j d vass america below

i mean it's just worth pointing out in this absurd time that that that is a very video of people being killed. Yeah. People being murdered. People being executed through with no due process, no evidence, just killed. As it set out as a joke by the Secretary of Homeland Security. And they are saying merely that they are narco-terrorists that they killed, which even if that's true, is not a legal basis to kill people.

they have not the government has not even bothered to say who they are who they were has not even bothered to like you said offer any evidence whatsoever offer the identities of the people the president of columbia uh this week said actually one of the boats was a bunch of columbian citizens in the boat and is that true we don't know because the u.s government will not provide any information about this they are just saying trust us we are murdering people at sea and we're saying they're narco-terrorists and we don't have to tell you anything

else. All we have to do is make AI parody videos to the fucking love boat which is a song that is probably on Donald Trump's iPad that he plays in the new Rose Garden Cafe and dance hall or whatever it is.

Fuck. What a world. It fights. This fucking political system sucks. The profiles have been just really, really bad. That's all I have to say. But when we come back, you will hear my conversation with Governor J.B. Pritzker,

who's wonderful. We love J.B. Pritzker. And we talk about everything's going on in Chicago. Before we get to that, two quick things. A reminder that we moved CrookedCon, aka Antifa HQ, to, That's not funny. That's not funny. That's not funny.

It's not funny. Anyway, we should perform. No? To a bigger venue. A bigger venue. The Ronald Reagan building. Unlikely place for Antifa HQ, right? The place you least expect.

It's the Reagan building. We need some lightness. Come on. A bigger venue to accommodate more speakers, more panels, more tickets. Dan and I are just going to do a one-on-one panel just all about the larger story we have to tell. I actually think I am doing a panel on that. You are doing a panel on that. Though you and I could do, we could do a whole pod on that. If only we had a weekly podcast to talk about it on. I know. We'll have to do it next time. Too much news. There's also the VSA Action Hub. Dan, you haven't had a chance to make a joke about the Action Hub yet. Care to try?

No, because I applaud people trying to save our democracy. Okay. All right. No action hub for you. Head to CricketCon.com to grab your tickets if you haven't already. Also, Lovett's got this great new limited series going in the Loveter Leave It Feed. It's called Bravo America, all about how reality TV explains the world we're living in, including our politics. Seems a little self-serving to me. You're a Bravo guy, right? I am a Bravo guy, yes.

Yeah. So you might like this. I don't know any of the people, some of the people, any of the people that he's interviewing? He only had one, right? Right, right. He gave me some other names, and I was not aware of him. It was Terry Debrough, husband of Heather Debrough of Orange County fame. Okay, okay. He was also a reality star on his own on the TV show, Batched, I think it was called.

Just not a show you want to see about plastic surgery gone wrong. Reality stars being interviewed by a reality guest star. That's right. No, he's a reality star. Yeah. Yeah, briefly. That's true. That's briefly.

That's his joke. It's his own joke from his own show. Yes. The series is full of great interviews and insights. New episodes drop Tuesdays on the Lover to Leave It Feed and on YouTube. Pots of America is brought you by article. We love article. We have article furniture all over this office.

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To claim, visit article.com slash cricket, and the discount will be automatically applied at checkout. That's article.com slash cricket for $50 off your first purchase of $100 or more. Governor Pritzker, welcome back to Potsave America. Great to see you, John. I'm glad to see that you're not in jail, despite the president's, best wishes to the contrary. He and Christy Noem were just in a cabinet meeting today. They said that the reason you're pushing back on the guard deployment is because you're scared and threatened by the anarchists and the politics of doing the right thing. Care to respond? Yeah, you know,

often when the president and his minions say anything, it's really a reflection of how they're feeling. They're just projecting on other people. So I would just say the same. right back at them. I think they're afraid. And frankly, I don't think they really understand the implications of what they're doing, some of them. And certainly, Christy Noem has absolutely no idea what law enforcement really means, and she's the head of Homeland Security. How does it feel when you see the President of United States say that you should be in jail? Like, what was your reaction to that? Well, it's never happened to me before.

I was going to say, yeah. Oh, it's a new feeling, whatever it is. Look, I, you know, the thing is we've heard Donald Trump speak about things he knows nothing about and often makes, you know, crazy assertions. And, and I mean, over time, I guess we've all become a little bit deafened to, you know, the idea that he actually means anything. because from one moment to the other, he says things that he will then change, you know, five minutes later. He knows he's lying. So you don't exactly know which one is a lie, which one is a feeling, you know, which one is something he's actually going to act on. So it's, to my mind anyway, all I can say is the rhetoric itself is dangerous.

I don't, there's no basis of. upon which to come after me or the mayor of Chicago or Gavin Newsom. I know that he's talked about jailing him or any other elected officials that I know of that he's mentioned that are just speaking out. And look, he hates everyone on the left. He hates any critic of his. And so I'm a critic. I'm going to get criticism. I don't think that it's going to have any real impact. And so I kind of thumb my nose at the guy because I just don't think that he's a serious individual. By the way, the rest of the world knows that he is not a serious individual. He's got a lot of power, and I know that too.

But as if the guy says something on a day and means it, you can't take that for granted. So he and Nome continue to describe Chicago as some kind of a crime-ridden, lawless hellhole, where, you know, brave ice agents are being a son. assaulted by anarchists. For people who aren't in Chicago, who have only seen, like, headlines and posts here and there, what's the situation on the ground right now? Well, day before yesterday, Condi Nast named us the best big city in America. So let's start with that. Look, I love Chicago. It was one of the best places I've ever lived. Thank you. And I have to say, you know, we've had truly an amazing summer. And I would point out

we've had a greater tourism than ever before in the history of Chicago and in the state of Illinois. So the idea that people are, you know, continuing to come to Chicago to visit us and yet somehow it's a hellhole and crime-ridden and, you know, people are wearing flack jackets and, you know, murders are happening right and left around you. It's ludicrous. And now, I recognize we're a big city. We've had crime in the past. I think every big city's had, you know, a wave of crime that they've had to deal with.

But, you know, four years ago to today, half the number of homicides in the state of Illinois, in the city of Chicago, rather. The state, by the way, the state of Illinois, including the city, doesn't rank in the bottom half in terms of violent crime. We're 19th. I would like to be first, best, most, you know, safest. That would be first. We're 19th safest. Yeah. So, you know, I'm working on the rest.

But the point is everything that he's saying about Chicago and Illinois is. just something that he's got drilled into his head from, I don't know when. And the man doesn't read anything. He doesn't know anything except what he gets told by Stephen Miller or by Christy Gnome or by, I don't know who in the White House, who have their own designs on, you know, on what the world order should look like with Donald Trump as their leader. Well, and what is going on in Chicago and outside Chicago seems to be, at least for the last several weeks, if not months, ICE agents sort of terrorizing neighborhoods.

It seems like there's been like some protests around the Broadview facility outside Chicago and then now. Just so you know, two blocks. Two blocks. Of people protesting. I'm talking about on the other side of the street from the Broadview facility.

Two blocks of people, that's it. I mean, now, I will also tell you that when they try to march up and down the streets, you know, in their uniform, and with their automatic weapons. And when they go into neighborhoods and try to arrest people, yeah, people are yelling at them. People, I mean, there are instant protests of just neighbors who are like, what are you doing? Like, this person is my friend.

He's lived here for 10 years. Why are you taking them away? People are really upset about this. And so they're kind of instant protests. But this idea that there's some sort of like, I don't know, fires or, you know, the, you know, Antifa with masks on or running around. It's all so completely false, and it's very upsetting to me. Sorry to interrupt you, but the idea that the protests that people are talking about, yeah, there are more and more people showing up because they're getting more and more

upset about what's happening and ISIS mistreating people, including U.S. citizens. They're running up to people who are brown. You've seen the videos, but I'm telling you, holding somebody who's brown and saying, like, I need proof of your citizenship. John, you don't carry proof of citizen. I bet. No, I do not. I don't. I mean, we have a driver's license. That's not proof of citizenship. And we've never had to do that in this country. And yet that is what is now being demanded or you will be detained and possibly arrested. And now the guard has been deployed. And he's federalized the Illinois National Guard and Texas has sent 200 troops. What is the status of that? I know that there was a court hearing today. Probably there may be a ruling by the time you're all hearing. this. But what's the status of the Guard right now? Well, I think two things. One is that they've also

deployed California National Guard to Illinois. That's news, by the way. I don't think anybody knows that yet. There are 14 of them so far from California. We found out today. The hearing that you're talking about has been going on since earlier this afternoon. They took a little break in the middle because I think that the feds needed to get some information demanded by the judge to present them. But they're coming back in about an hour and a half from now. And we're expecting that there will be a ruling, but it's hard to tell. Have you spoken to Greg Abbott at all since the deployment of the Texas National Guard to Illinois? No, he has not called me. And Greg Abbott, I want to remind you, is the same Greg Abbott who signed a letter last year to President Biden saying, do not federalize our National Guard for the purposes of using them with Space Force, that you should have very limited authority to call our National Guard, the Texas National Guard, into service for the federal government's purposes.

and therefore, you know, that's what his view was a year ago when there was a Democratic president. Seems like things have changed a year later. All of a sudden, he thinks it's just fine to federalize his National Guard to send them to another state or to have the federal government and the president do whatever they want with them. You said earlier this week that this is all a pretext for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, which, you know, I think he probably has fewer limits legally on that if he invokes the Insurrection Act than even the deployment of the guard. But how would that look different than what's happening right now?

What should people know about that? So, I mean, we're going to get into some legal matters that, although I'm an attorney, I would say I mostly play one on TV these days. But I can say this, that the Insurrection Act, let's start with, it's called the Insurrection Act for a reason. Needs to be an insurrection. Yeah, yeah. Or a foreign invasion.

I mean, we have an invasion going on in Chicago. It is by federal agents at the moment and potentially by federal troops, or federalized troops. But the Insurrection Act really can only be invoked in those circumstances, truly. a foreign invasion, an insurrection, those are basically the circumstances or something that is truly a national emergency. So he legally can't invoke the insurrection act. I know, again, he woke up this morning with a new idea, you know, or yesterday morning. So he's saying it. Meanwhile, we have to rely upon the courts to protect us from a president just saying things and then doing it, even though it's unconstitutional, illegal.

How would it look different? Well, to be honest with you, it would look different in the sense that today in court, the federal lawyers are saying that the reason they want to bring in National Guard is to protect the facilities of ICE and the ICE agents. So they're not saying the federal lawyers are not saying this is about crime, which is what Donald Trump continues to say, despite the fact that the lawyers for the federal government are arguing something completely different. So why are they sending troops in? Donald Trump is telling them to, and they're coming up with any argument that will work.

But an insurrection act, if the insurrection act were invoked, that could be for almost any purpose to repel a foreign invasion, to put down an insurrection. So it would be hard to determine any difference between protecting facilities, potentially fighting crime. You know, it would be martial law, essentially, that could be invoked in the city of Chicago or the state of Illinois under the Insurrection Act. Again, he has no right to do so. The act is there for a purpose. By the same reason, you know, separately that there's a Pasi Comitatis Act, there are reasons why these things were passed and are part of our legal lexicon. So you guys have taken legal action on the guard deployments. What are there options are you considering to help protect the people

of Illinois from ICE terrorizing the neighborhoods from everything else that Donald Trump is trying to do to Illinois and Chicago specifically? Like, you know, I'm sure you get up every day and your highest priority is to protect people in your state. And this is obviously a pretty extreme situation that it seems like Donald Trump wants to escalate even further. So do you have other options or other tools that you can consider? So look, there are limits on the power of states to, you know, to overcome what the federal government is attempting to do. So I believe me, starting on, November the 8th, we began looking at all of the things that we thought Donald Trump was capable of doing and trying to think through how we could respond, what all of the available

responses are. And still, you know, there are things we didn't imagine, you know, that are happening. And so we have to think it through constantly. And thank God, we've got a great attorney general. I've got a great general counsel in my office and terrific outside counsel. that help us as well, not to mention our teams. And there are basically a bunch of things that we've been doing. And I've often sometimes talked about, you know, Trump-proofing our state. So we've passed laws that have done things to protect people in our neighborhoods. Again, not knowing exactly what was going to happen, ice on the ground for persistent, you know, months. But here are some things that we're doing and we'll continue to do. And then, of course, there are things

we can contemplate. One is we funded something that's, I guess, we're all calling rapid reaction, which is local nonprofit organizations that when ICE comes into a neighborhood, they are texted or called by people in the neighborhood. Everybody knows how to get a hold of them in the neighborhoods where we think, you know, they're most targeted. and those folks come in from wherever they are nearby. It's, you know, they know who's nearby and they come as fast as they can. And the idea is not to interfere with ICE because you're not allowed. It's not legal to stand in the way of a law enforcement officer,

federal government, or state. But rather to make sure that people in the neighborhood generally are warned what's going on and also to help out people who are being ill-affected. You know, there's a family. I'll just take an example of a family where maybe there's a mixed status family where one person is undocumented and another person is perhaps partially documented. And another person yet still is a U.S. citizen. And ICE will come in, detain them all because they all look alike and nobody has proof

on them of their status. and then, you know, after perhaps an hour, they will have detained them in a car or perhaps remove them to another place, and then they'll let the U.S. citizen go, you know, and what have you. But the rapid reaction forces there to assist, what about the children that are there? What about the grandma who's not being arrested, but she's now left by herself? And the neighborhood is traumatized. One other thing, remember that we've got, I mean, real trauma going on where you've We've got kids, children at elementary schools nearby who's, they don't know.

You know, we all talk about whether a parent can, you know, walk their child to school because they might get stopped by ice and that's one problem. Another is the children at the school are traumatized by the idea even now that they don't know if they go home, if anybody's going to be home when they get there. And so this is the world, this is the country, the city that we're living in the country that we're living in where that can be can happen so we're rapid reaction forces there to to assist people in the neighborhoods um we've got illinois state police that are are uh working with local law enforcement in broadview that's a separate suburb it's not chicago um and it's a very small police department

there we're working with them and we've brought in the cook county sheriff's office to protect the protesters who as you've seen in some of the videos they're getting pelted with you know gas pellets with rubber bullets. Even when they're not doing anything wrong, I think everybody now has seen the, you know, the pastor just standing there praying with his arms wide open and getting pelted. So, you know, we're doing things to protect people on the ground as best we can. We've advised ICE that, you know, they're doing it wrong and, you know, and explaining that, you know, they should be coordinating and talking to us about where they're going, what they're doing. doing, not because we're going to assist them or anything like that, but rather because we want

to make sure that there isn't any misunderstanding or isn't any protest that gets out of hand in any particular location. That's what we would like. But they have done no communication with us. Okay, so you ask me, what are we doing? So the rest of it is people knowing their rights, they're not allowed to break down your door if they do not have a judicial warrant. and they almost never have a judicial warrant now the building the south shore building right probably well aware of that was you know essentially taken over like a war zone um and under the guise that that it was some headquarters of trend de aragua what what happened there i mean they give us no notice they gave nobody in the building notice okay they have to go get somebody

They had, as I understand it, they had judicial warrant on perhaps a few, two, three, Trenda, Aragua members. Instead of going after them, and, you know, we all understand police, you know, if you can isolate the apartment or area of a building, you know, they're going to go there and they're going to isolate it and make sure that people are safe who they're not looking at. Instead, they literally went in this building like they were in a Fallujah. and repelling off of Black Hawk helicopters, they ransacked the entire place. Doors are broken, windows are broken.

They kept people innocent U.S. citizens and people who were documented. They kept them detained for hours. Some of them zip-tied while they went and got the few people that they were going after. And look, I want them to get the bad guys. Please understand. Just like I want our police and the FBI. and DEA. I want them to go after gang members, whether they're Trende Aragua or anything else. But for God's sakes, the innocent people whose lives have been upended, the trauma that the

children have gone through, that shouldn't be allowed in this country. And, you know, whether they are given immunity by the President of the United States, they are going to be held accountable when there is a change in administration. They are. When there is a Democrat in office, or when the Congress takes over, the Democratic Congress takes over and actually does something, they're going to hold hearings. People are going to be held accountable. And they could be held accountable legally. And it might take a few years, which is not at all satisfying to any of us. But the people who are doing this on the ground need to know that they may feel safe now because the president and Christy Noem and Tom Homan say it's okay. But trust me, a few years

from now. This is going to hurt. I mean, you mentioned Congress. So Democrats in Congress have made the government shut down about health care. They won't vote to fund the government unless Trump and Republicans agree to reverse health care cuts that will lead to huge premium spikes for millions as well as people losing their health care. I think this is a worthy fight both on the substance. I think it's going to help people if they win. And I think it's also, and I think it's good politically. I also think that they should be saying they won't fund the government unless Trump and Republicans agree to some basic restrictions on ice. And, you know, a federal judge in Illinois just before we started talking just imposed temporary restrictions that, you know, prevent

ICE from using force or arresting journalists or nonviolent protesters or unless there's probable cause. They've committed a crime. They also prevent ICE from using riot control weapons and throwing people to the ground unless there's an imminent risk of public safety. Do you think the Democrats in Congress should be demanding reforms like these around ICE? We could name a few more as a condition for funding the government. Look, I think we should be demanding those things. But I also think that you've got to have some strategy about getting to the end of a shutdown. And so getting real results so that you can get to it at the end of a shutdown.

And I believe strongly that what you just described is something that I've talked about with some senators and congressmen before the shutdown took place. You know, what should the strategy be? What should you be going after? I, again, I think we should be fighting for, as you just said, like both sides of that, right? Health care and I guess I'll just probably say democracy. Yeah. But I do think that it's very difficult to get actual guarantees from a federal administration, especially one that's being given carte blanche by the Supreme Court. And, you know, as if they have ultimate executive power with very few limitations, it's hard to get any agreement from them that will hold.

Yeah. But what you can do is get a piece of legislation that says, you know, we're going to give people or preserve people's health care and make sure that they're not dying because they don't have health care coverage or that their premiums will be doubled. So I think there's a limit to what you can demand because otherwise, why not just put everything on the table and say we're not opening up the government until we get all of these things. So I think, you know, again, I am not suggesting that we shouldn't be very, very vocal and fight very hard to make sure that we're limiting what ICE and

CBP are doing. But I think there's just a limit to what can be done by Congress right now. And this is actually, because you raise it, I'll just tell you. It's why I think that governors are so important in this moment. And I know that sounds self-serving, but I just am saying that governors, whether it's Gavin Newsom or, you know, Morahili or Michelle Lujan Grisham, we don't talk about all those folks all the time. But governors have the ability to get things done. And we have. I mean, Tim Walls, I was just in Minnesota with him. Boy, look at the things he's gotten done. And even with a divided, you know, 50-50 legislature. Yeah. But in Washington, I mean, it's so little gets done that's positive for the American. people. And I think that it's a little bit like we need to look back to the states. We've banned

prior authorizations for mental health, for example. You know, we've expanded health care in a massive way since I've been going to. We raised the minimum wage, $15 here now from $8.25 when I took office. Just all of those things are things we got done at the state level that really do help people. While the federal government is kind of like either hurting or just sitting silent and neutral and getting nothing done, it's a sad state of affairs in the country. And I do think the 26 elections are going to be vital for determining which direction we're really going to go. For sure. And you've warned a few times now that Trump might use the military in connection with the 26 elections. What specifically are you worried about and what do you think can be done about it? Yeah.

Well, I think we're seeing something very unusual, and I guess I'm going to piece a few things together for you just to make the point. So we're seeing the agents themselves dressed as soldiers, marching in a major city, in several major cities, causing mayhem and hoping to bring in more soldiers, right? these folks, nobody knows the difference between somebody wearing camouflage and holding an automatic weapon who happens to be an ice agent and someone who's wearing the same thing, you know, who's a soldier. So the normalization of that is what's what I think their aim is. And, you know, they keep expanding more cities, more cities, right? It's easier to do it in a, in a red state, even in a blue city, but a red state than it is in a blue state. But that's, you know, so you're seeing them do it in blue states and red states. Now, that's one thing that's happening,

normalization and militarization of cities. Another thing that's happened in very few people paying attention, you probably are, which is they asked for, they demanded the DOJ did, our voter data, not just ours in Illinois. Every state's voter data. Why? They won't tell us why. And actually, what they seem to be looking for, remember back to the 2020 elections, is they want to be able to find voter fraud, which lots of organizations have been looking for voter fraud, as you know, for a long time. There's very little voter fraud going on, very little. They're calling for all these databases so that they can look through them, and yet they won't tell you when they're going to come up with any conclusion about whatever it is

they're looking for. Next year, when we have a November election, I think you're going to see two things that occur. One, you won't have had any results from this mass collection of data, of voter data. And then the second is you're going to have soldiers or people dressed as soldiers at polling places saying we're protecting your voting rights. You know, this is about voter integrity. And then the possibility that they'll be doing what Michael Flynn urged the president to do back in 2020, which is seize the ballot boxes at the polling places so that, we can have the military do a fair count. Now, if you put all the things together that are happening right now,

that wouldn't surprise me at all. Think about how hard they fought on this issue of whether the election had been stolen in 2020, right? The January 6th riot being an example of that, but lots of other things. And then all of those people at January 6th, you know, being pardoned. All of that, put all those together and ask yourself, do you think what I just said is completely ridiculous? Do you think what I just said is something that's really possible with Trump as president and Stephen Miller in the White House and, you know, and all the same people kind of advising

the president that are at the, you know, at the edges of the law? I think it's definitely possible. It doesn't sound that far-fetched. I think my concern is A, so what do we do about that? And B, it's like, I'm sure you walk this fine. line all the time, which is we want to warn people like, hey, wake up, this is happening or this could happen, but also, you don't want to scare people into staying home and depressing turnout, right? And so how do you think about, like, the way to handle that this could be coming in 2026?

They're the ones who want to scare people to stay home, right? That's the purpose of having troops. So that, I mean, that's one of the purposes. But, look, I think we've just got to make it plain. people that now is a moment when you're going to have to, you know, choose to, you know, are you going to just let democracy go? And I might remind you, because I know you're a political being as any elected officialist, too, you know, this is not how we win elections, you know, like talking about democracy. I was not a fan of what Joe Biden did at that Valley Forge.

I thought it was a great speech he gave it Valley Forge in January of 2024. But I didn't go, in part because I didn't think that should not be the theme of a campaign, and that's what he was trying to make it. And because I don't think democracy is the issue on which you win. I do think that you can't win unless you have democracy. So those of us who have any power to do anything about it need to stand up and speak out about the danger of losing democracy. And then we've also got to run campaigns all across the United States. I'm running for election, but the Congress in particular, we've got to make sure that we're running campaigns about things that really matter in everybody's life. I'll tell a quick story, if I can, about something that happened

to me when I was working on Capitol Hill. I worked for two United States senators many years ago in my 20s. I got offered the opportunity to go with this organization. You may have heard of it called the American Council of Young Political Leaders to a foreign country with, you know, half Democrats, half Republicans, young people like me at the time, where we learned about the, we got sent to Argentina to learn about their political system and they would bring people from other countries to learn about ours. We went there. We landed in Buenos Aires. And the minute we landed, strangely, there was a military coup. I promise I had nothing to do with it. And so we went to the hotel, all of us together and watched on TV what was happening. And then we had to make a

decision, or at least the leader of our group said we have to make a decision. Are we going to go to the embassy and wait it out, or are we going to go, there's going to be a democracy rally the next day in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, would we, should we go there to learn about democracy like, you know, in person in this situation? And by the way, the vote was basically half and half. The Republicans all wanted to go to the embassy. The Democrats all wanted to go to the democracy rally. We went to the democracy rally, the tiebreaker being the leader of the group. And we got to see, you know, hundreds of thousands of people carrying banners and, you know, talking about democracy, yelling, chanting, and so on. And there was a guy in the

middle of all of that with an ice cream cart selling popsicles and ice cream. And I remember that vividly. I'm 60 years old now. I was 23 at the time. I still remember it vividly because I remember thinking at the time and talking to a few of the people I was with about the the fact that that guy doesn't mostly care about what the form of government is. What he cares about is he's got to put food on that. That's the number one consideration is the food on the table, right? He's got to put gas in his car. He's got to survive.

And I think about that now, thinking about our elections coming up next year, that the number one issue in people's lives is, can I put food on the table, get to work? Can I, you know, can I feed my family or take care of them and have a home to live? And the number two issue is, you know, the form of government. And so we've got to win elections on number one. And then we've also got to fight for number two in order to have the elections. Governor Pritzker, well said. And thank you, as always, for joining Pod Save America.

Thanks, John. That's our show for today. Thanks, J.B. Pritzker, for joining. Tommy Lovett and I will be back with a new show next week. 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.

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