Pod Save America - Trump Bans Crooked Media

Episode Date: September 22, 2026

Major television networks halt White House pool coverage after Trump announces that he's banning journalists from CNN, MS NOW, and Politico. Jon and Tommy react to Trump and JD Vance's justifications for the decision, before breaking down the details of the Ellisons' deal with the California attorney general that will allow the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger to proceed. They then discuss the Iran war expanding to other countries, the president's call for an "AI Force" as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent negotiates with China, the Republican Party's growing cash advantage in the midterms, and Trump's announcement that his triumphal arch will now also serve as a military installation. Then, Cait Conley, the Democratic nominee in New York's 17th District, stops by the studio to talk to Dan about her race to unseat Republican Rep. Mike Lawler.Hate listening to ads? Become a Friends of the Pod subscriber for ad-free episodes of Pod Save America, Pod Save the World, Lovett or Leave It, Runaway Country, Offline with Jon Favreau, and more—plus exclusive content, including bonus episodes of Pod Save America. Subscribe now at crooked.com/friends, on Apple Podcasts, or through the Pod Save America YouTube channel.You can request a transcript by emailing [e-mail]. Include the podcast name, episode title, and air date. Please allow 48 hours for delivery.

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All you got to do is fill it out and send it back in. Don't miss this chance to shape the future. Don't delay. Vote from abroad.org. Welcome to Potsave America. I'm John Favre. I'm Tommy Detour. Lovett is off today because he generously volunteered to punch up jokes for a very important midterm speech. Let's listen. And because we need somebody who will fight back against the fart left, we need Michael Watley in the United States Senate. Now, you may not have even heard that, but I actually, I usually don't misspeak. But I just called them the fart lefts, not the fart left. I promise that was an accident.

What do you think? It's just love its best line since Pokemon Go to the Poles. The sign of a good joke is when you say to the crowd, you might not have noticed that I just told a joke. Yeah, remember like 30 seconds ago when I said something, none of you laughed, none of you noticed it. I said the word fart by accident. My three and two year old would have loved that joke.

He is so, he's like, what is the opposite of charisma? It's like negative. He's like a black. hole for Riz. He just get him on the campaign trail more.

Demolishes it. Guys, he's a 28. Guys, I said fart. I don't usually misspeak. But I didn't, I didn't mean it. But I said fart by accident.

Wow. All right. So on today's show, we're going to talk about Trump banning journalists from the White House, the ever-expanding war. He started in the Middle East,

why his focus on AI is limited to renaming it. how the midterm polls are finally getting to him and why he wants to put snipers, drones, and ammo right near D.C.'s airport. Then you'll hear Dan's interview with Kate Conley, the Democrat running against one of the most vulnerable House Republicans in the country, Mike Waller.

But first, CricketCon is almost here, and today we're announcing the first batch of guests who will be joining us in D.C. We hope you will too. I think you'll see some of your favorites on the list if you go over to CricketCon.com, where you can check out the lineup so far and get your tickets before our early birthday.

sale ends on October 6th. So get those tickets now. They're going fast. And stay tuned for more lineup announcements. We have a lot more great names to share with you soon. All right, let's get to the news. Trump's latest strategy to deal with the media coverage of his extremely unpopular war, tariffs, presidency, is to simply forbid journalists from entering the White House.

On Friday, Trump announced that he is, quote, banning CNN, MS now and Politico for, quote, constantly reporting fake news. By Saturday, reporters from all three outlets had their credentials confiscated and were physically turned away from the White House complex. On Monday, the three organizations sued the administration, arguing that the government cannot revoke access to journalists just because the president doesn't like their coverage. ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox also announced that they would not supply a replacement television crew after the White House kicked CNN out of its scheduled pool rotation, which means the may

major television networks will not have pool coverage of the president, and they're saying they will keep that up until this gets resolved. J.D. Vance, when he's not telling jokes, offered an insultingly dishonest defense of Trump's move Monday morning, only to be rebutted by Trump himself at a press conference with Zoran Mamdani later that afternoon. Do you think it's appropriate for the president to be banning media outlets just because he doesn't like what they report? Well, I take some issue with the premise, so he's not banning media outlets. What he's doing

is saying, we're not going to give you special access to the White House if you engage in what is effectively propaganda. Sir, you talked a lot about free speech over the years. How is it not an attack on free speech? Politico is as anti-Trump as Breitbart was anti-Obara or anti-Biden. Now, why on God's green earth would Donald Trump be expected to give Politico special access when nobody in the media expected the Biden administration or the Obama administration to give Breitbart special access? It's about basic fairness. If they're fake news, I really think I have an obligation not to allow them into another very special house.

This is a special house, Gracie Mansion. Well, the White House is the most special of all houses, I have to say. I told the president that we're going to have all of the members of the press here on the lawn, and that is something that I believe in is everyone, no matter the opinion or the critique, that we engage, Mr. President. It's interesting because they said they were going to boycott me, but they never boycott me. So I wasn't very worried about that. Look at all that press. What is Jamie talking about?

It's not special access. It's just like a credential to get onto the White House grounds that he's talking on. And also, maybe no one in the media expected the Biden White House to give Breitbart a press pass. But that's what they did. Bright Bart did have access to the White House just like all the other journalists. He just could not be more wrong. He's just a liar. The people you give special access to are the propagandists who prop up your agenda.

They get special interviews and scoops and things. Also, J.D. Van's being like, he's not. I mean, I take issue with the premise. He's not banning them. And then Trump's truth says, I am banning the following news outlets. He's like, I ban those motherfuckers. And then again, with Mom Dany, it was like, oh, yeah, I'm not letting them in the White House because they're banned. They're banned.

I ban these losers. I am struggling with this one because it's obviously a clear violation of the First Amendment. It's an assault on press freedom. But also the image of Natalie Harp showing him a supercut of like MS now anchors dunking on Trump is so funny. Like, Lawrence O'Donnell just like hitting him with some. norms. I know, I want, I mean, Mika from the top rope. I feel I'm happy that the Wall Street Journal got

that reporting, that it was Natalie showing him an MS now. I need the video. Anchor. No, no, yeah, I want to know which segment, which anchor, who gets the special prize there? Please leak us. They upset Grandpa because Natalie was like, hey, hey, I got something to show you. Watch this.

She's useful. She's useful. Oh, I can't believe Ossoff brought her up. How dare he do that when she just caused a fucking First Amendment violation And that's not on her. She showed him the video. The presidents who cut it off. I mean,

it's the saddest thing ever, though. Like, I think the White House staff knows that this is not a winning issue for them. I mean, the press office apparently was caught off guard. Chief of staff, Susie Wiles, was out of town getting chemo treatment, I think. And this is seemingly how this all went down. Announcing she's cancer-free now. Yeah. And Trump's like, Natalie Harps like, okay, now I run the White House and they're kicking out the press.

Long term, it's bad and it's a big deal. I do think short term there's an opportunity for Democrats. to message this. The fact is the press will recover this a lot because it's about them and they tend to cover things about themselves. And I think we just have to frame this as like this is a weak feeble president lashing out because he doesn't want you to know about high gas prices or the Iran war going terribly or why his family is getting rich. Yeah, or just, you're right. So the president is going to talk about this all the time and people who are already pissed that Trump is not focusing on anything they care about are going to be thinking of themselves like, why the

fuck is he spending all this time banning the press and not focusing on anything else. Yeah. So there's that too. It's like it goes along with the ballroom and everything else that he's talking about. In the short, short term, maybe this helps him because no one was able to see the press avail of the new heliport he rolled out today. Oh, well, let's. Which is incredible.

Yeah. So this is what happens. The White House tried to live stream. By the way, the White House just tweeted they're announcing Trump TV. tonight at starting at 7 p.m. live, which I think is like, isn't it just the Whitehouse.gov? Like they are, Whitehouse.combe always has live streaming of White House events, has since the above administration. So I don't quite understand what that's all about. But anyway, the White House tried to live

stream Trump's ribbon-cutting event for his stupid helipad. But here's what happens when there's no press pool. This is Newsmax coverage of it. I should say for our audio-only listeners. So there is no microphone because there's no microphone because the pool cameras aren't there. So maybe, Tim, this is one example of it backfiring just a little bit. Sounds like a swarm of bees. Just a little bit. Backfiring just a little bit.

One interesting thing there in the Mamdani press conference is apparently Momdani's office made sure that when they were going to report for questions, both CNN and MS now. reporters got to ask some questions. Nice, smart move, which is great. That's clever. What do you make up how the rest of the White House press corps has been handling this, the unity among Fox, ABC, everyone? Way better than in previous attempts to go after them by the Trump administration. I mean, so right out of the gate, the TV network said they're not going to be covering events

that are designated as pool coverage until CNN is a lot backed in. That is a sense of collective action in solidarity that there just hasn't been in previous instances. It's also interesting timing because this is UN General Assembly Week. Chinese president Xi Jinping is coming to the White House. So there's some big news. It does make me wonder a little bit how long the solidarity will last given that. I also wonder like to what extent, like I don't know what we'll find out, I guess, what Trump TV is. I also don't know to what extent that like the MAGA media world can cobble together what they need to create a new pool. Like could you get like real America's voice or like My Pillow TV or whatever to come together. Do they have like literally

like the technical infrastructure and equipment? Like I don't know. Ultimately though, I think this is about an audience of one. This is about what Trump thinks and how he feels. He is obsessed with mainstream TV coverage of himself. He watches CNN. He watches, you know, Scarborough and, you know, Morning Joe. If his events suddenly are not covered or if they just have, you know, a swarm of bees as audio, he's going to be upset about it. So, you know, in the long run, they could probably find a way around the media. In the short run, we'll see. Like, I think they're hoping that the court case saves them from themselves here, is my guess.

Yeah, maybe. I think they, first of all, I think the press can't back down now, the White House press score, right? Like, they have to, they've started this boycott and they have to just take it as far as it goes. I'm sure they also think that the courts will rule for them, which, you know, we can talk about that in a second. I imagine, you know, tomorrow and in some outlet we'll see Republicans be like, this is a genius fight he picked with the press because no one likes the media. But again, I think that's too cute by half in this instance because all people are going to hear is that Donald Trump got pissed that he was getting bad coverage and decided to kick reporters out

of the White House. And I don't think anyone is going to buy that that's some kind of a brilliant move. You got to frame it. Like, it's got to be about him being weak or some sort of attack on him. Because the Pew polling on this is not quite as cut and dry as you would like. So there's Pew research from 2026. 73% of adults see press freedom is extremely or very important to society. But 53% of Americans think it's okay for the government to limit press freedom if it prevents inaccurate reporting, especially if it has to do with national security stuff. So if Trump tries to make it some sort of national security issue, which occasionally he does,

but it doesn't really have the discipline to do all the time. Maybe this could be effective. I'm mostly where you are, though. I think he just looks like an idiot. I talked to a bunch of reporters today, White House and other. Most of them said that they were relieved that the TV networks took collective action with the pool. Most of them are worried about that solidarity and how long it'll last. And then one reporter said this person wished there was a little more like some sort of organized protest or boycott of print or photojournalists, et cetera.

And they could escalate a bit. Which I think they're starting to do. Did you see the post and the Times said that they're not going to put out any photos that they had taken today? So I think, and throughout the course of the day, I keep seeing more media outlets put out their PR statements on this saying that they're like standing in solidarity. So I think that will probably keep going. But again, I think this all comes down to where this goes legally. The three outlets are asking a federal court to restore their access. The case has been assigned to Judge Timothy Kelly, who was appointed by Trump and also just happened to oversee the Jim Acosta case back in Trump's first term. They tried to revoke Jim Acosta's press credential. and then they were restored, basically Trump administration backed down, and the judge ruled that, like, there was no due process on that. So any hints on how this is going to go legally? I mean, I know what you know, which is that it seems like given that precedent, this guy should rule the exact same way because the process here was Natalie Harp showing a hype video of Lawrence O'Donnell's Smackdowns or whatever. But we'll find out.

Yeah, just so people know, like the legal case on this, you know, Cheryl versus Ninthews. is a 77 DC Circuit case, right? And so this is sort of like the foundational ruling on this, which is once the White House voluntarily opens press facilities to journalists, it cannot exclude them arbitrarily or based on content. Denying a credential, which would have been the case in just Jim Acosta's case, requires a legitimate justification plus notice, an opportunity to respond and a written explanation. And the court explicitly said First Amendment interests are implicated in White House news gathering. So, basically, Basically, none of that stuff happened, both on the process argument, that no one got any kind of notice.

There was no reason other than, I don't like your shit. And then on the substance, the fact that Trump has admitted that they're being banned because he doesn't like their viewpoints and not because they did anything wrong, not because of a national security issue. Nothing means, like, I don't, there's no way he's going to win this case. They're going to reinstate it. It's hard to imagine. And it's nice to think that there are some Trump judges on the courts that came from a, earlier time when they weren't just nagified. And Trump just continues to lean in on this and talk about it.

Like, he's already assuming he had another truth right before we recorded that this judge is going to rule against me because he ruled in favor of Jim Acosta, who now seems to have disappeared from the planet. So mean. So mean. And he's like, and he's a Trump judge. That's sad and disappointing. But like, I have to keep these people out of the Oval Office, which should be always treated

with decorum, respect and decent. dignity because that's decorum and respecting dignity is what you think of when you think of Trump and the old. And it's like this comes on the heels of them making a bunch of changes to the way the pool rotation works to put more conservatives in there to begin with. So it's already like the pool events are already not what they used to be. Back in the day, they were just normal wire reporters and normal print reporters in their former often asking the president tough questions. Now it's like, you know, Marjorie Taylor Green's boyfriend was in there every other day asking questions. It's a bunch of right-wing conservatives asking very Trump-friendly questions, and he can't

even take that. He's that pathetic and weak. And I will say, like, good for Fox. Yeah, I'm glad they, I'm glad they we'll see how long it lasts, but like good for Fox for joining on this. Pots of America is brought you by Policy Genius. It's so annoying when you learn that those little things everyone recommends you do to set yourself up for success, like meal prepping, resetting your space, or putting out your workout clothes before bed, really do make life easier. A quick act of preparation can make all the difference. So before the season gets even busier, check off one to-do that can safeguard your family's future. Quickly find free life insurance quotes tailored to your family's needs with PolicyGenius. Searching for the right life insurance policy can be complicated and confusing.

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are you serious? Do you really use that stuff? I say, yes, I pay for it. I got a shipment yesterday. Just give it a shot. I had a few drinks last night and I forgot. Oof. It's not worse. I've just been dragging it. That is the worst. I'm really mad. Don't be like John. Try for yourself today. And if you're unsatisfied, they'll refund your entire order. No questions asked. Head to zbiotics.com slash crooked. Use code. Crooked for 15% off your first order. That's Zbiotics.com slash crooked, code crooked. One person we haven't heard from yet is CNN's soon-to-be new owner, David Ellison,

who's surely been busy celebrating the news that his Paramount Skydance Conglomerate reached a settlement Monday with California and 11 other states that had sued to block its $110 billion acquisition of Warner Brothers Discovery. So the agreement would create independent editorial boards for both CNN and CBS News and require the company to release at least 30 movies a year with a $30 million penalty for each film if it falls short. The deal still hasn't formally closed, but the settlement removes one of the biggest remaining,

maybe the last remaining obstacle. Thoughts on California's Rob Bonta and the other state AGs deciding to settle and do those independent editorial boards make you feel any better about the merger? I don't think Bonta ultimately had a top. ton of leverage here. Ellison was threatening to move the studio out of California, I think, to Texas. And then it was clear through some media leaks that Gavin Newsom and Bacera, Javier Bessara,

who's likely to be the next governor of California, wanted a settlement. So he seemed like his hand was forced, and that his legal options never quite matched up to his rhetoric. Yeah. Elements of the settlement should help California. Like you mentioned some of it, he got them to agree to additional spending on film development to increase the share of movies made in America to keep both the studio lots here in L.A. That's a big deal. But big picture, mega mergers like this are just terrible for the industry. They're terrible for writers and directors and actors and electricians and set designers and caterers and the L.A. economy generally and anyone who works in these movies, I think it'll be bad for us, people who like choices,

like movies to watch that are good. Back in the day, there was just much more getting produced. They were cross-company productions. You know, 21st Century Fox could make a show that airs on ABC or whatever. And now it's studios tend to air stuff that comes up through their own pipeline. So if you're Disney, you're only making stuff that you air on Hulu or whatever. And the last big acquisition like this, the last big merger like this, was Disney acquiring 21st Century Fox, which led to thousands of people losing their jobs. So I think for the industry is just terrible.

I guess it's good that there will be an editorial board. what they say, it's like five current or former journalists with 10 years of experience. But like who appoints them? Ellison stuff. What power do they have? Like what happens if they have an issue with the cover? The devil's in the details here. It also doesn't take a lot to distort coverage.

Like you fire a few people there. You hire a couple over here. It's an entirely new network. Yeah. So the Ellison's, their board gets to appoint the board. And I guess no more than two on the board, maybe affiliated with the same political party, so there's that. But you're right, there's zero word on what authority they actually possess, whether the Ellison's can ultimately override them if they find something. What are they

looking at? What are they finding? Like, it seems kind of bullshit. Even the, like, just to get into the settlement, I noticed Reuters reporter on this point, but Paramount itself is already projecting about 28 movies this year. So getting to 30 isn't exactly forcing David Ellison to reopen the back lot. And I are like a bunch of screenwriters. So, yeah, I don't know that I think Bonta just didn't have the, and the AGs just didn't have the love. He's kind of stuck.

One reminder before we move on, the impending Ellison takeover of CNN is a perfect time to support one of the last independent pro-democracy outlets left in America. Cricket Media. We promise we'll never sell to the Ellisons. Never. Never. And if you subscribe today, we will thank you by giving you ad-free episodes of all your favorite crooked shows, subscriber-only bonus shows, and all of our substack newsletters.

join today, keep independent media growing, cricket.com slash friends. So the place where American television networks won't be covering Trump this week is New York for the UN General Assembly, just in time for the Iran War to expand to even more countries. Iran's Houthi proxies in Yemen have been attacking Saudi Arabia, including the capital of Riyadh over the weekend. Apparently, the Saudi Crown Prince begged Trump to launch strikes against the Houthis, which Trump reportedly went back and forth on before ultimately deciding to hold off for now. On a completely related note, U.S. diesel prices have now climbed above $6 a gallon, I think we're at $6.50.

We're in record territory for fuel that basically touches every part of the economy, trucking, farming, construction, shipping. How big of a deal is the Saudi-Houthi conflict and us potentially getting involved? I know we've done strikes before there. Yeah, it's a big deal. I mean, the Saudi-Houthi conflict is a good example of how when you have a war that just kind of drags on like this, they tend to metastasize and expand and spread and reignite old conflicts in ways that make everything worse and harder to end ultimately. And so we have talked

on the show now for months about the Strait of Hormuz and the way the Iranians have restricted oil flows through the Strait of Hermuz. That's the choke point in and out of the Persian Gulf. Now the Houthi rebels have taken all this territory in the western coast of Yemen along the Red Sea and they've seized control of the Babelmandep Strait, which is the even narrower choke point in and out of the Red Sea. And in normal times, that waterway, I think roughly one-third of the world seaborne oil trade goes through those two waterways. That's a lot of oil and gas going through there. And so- I love doing shows about this and hearing you pronounce. Babel-Mand-Dub. Yeah, that's good. It's a lot of fun straight. Now I know, otherwise I wouldn't have known. There's a little island in the

middle of the Babel-Mand-up strait, and they grab that so now they can just attack everyone from all these sides. It's also, it's only 20 miles from our base in Djibouti. That's the part of this. It's crazy. They could fire like drones and missiles at us if they want. Anyway, so then on top of that, like there are these Iranian-linked Shia groups in Iraq that it fired at the Saudi pipeline that they've been using to export oil west across the country to get around this trade of Formos. I think it's 4% of supply, global oil supply per day goes through this pipeline, which is offline for weeks now. So long story short, like the war has huge implications for global energy supplies. And then there's the humanitarian geopolitical implications for the

Saudis and other Gulf leaders. Just like very quick backstory on this. 2014, right after the Arab spring, the Houthis take control of Sana'a, the capital of Yemen. In 2015, the Saudis launched this offensive with the Emirates to try to take it back. It's a disaster. The U.S. participates at first. Then Obama pulls off support, but then Trump goes back in and gives more support. Long story short, it's like hundreds of thousands of people die. The Houthis are not fully displaced, and it just ends in this kind of ceasefire in 2022 that

freezes the conflict in place. but because of the reignitination of the conflict with Iran, the Saudis bombed this Houthi-controlled airport in July and things spiraled ever since. And now the Saudis are just like stuck. They know they can't win the war without us, but they can't get Trump to help them because he doesn't want to get sucked back in wisely. So just again, imagine, like I don't have a lot of sympathy for Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi Crown Prince, but imagine you're him.

You bribe Trump and his kids with the golf courses in the hotels. You bribe Jared Kushner with all the money to the investment fund. He comes to the U.S. He promises to invest like $1 trillion, $2 trillion, $10,000 to the $1,000 trillion in the United States economy. Then Trump starts this war he doesn't want with Iran. His country gets bombed over and over again. Now the, you know, the Houthis are going after them. He calls Trump for support and Trump's like, nah.

Maybe. Trump's like, well, apparently at one point he was like, yeah, I'm in. No, I'm not in. No, I'm not. I'm in. I'm a drama queen. But like, I guess the Houthis, the Houthis are only targeting Saudi-elink ships. and said they wouldn't go after U.S. interests.

So Trump's like, well, they're nice to me. It also shows because I know that, you know, there's been other reports that the U.S. is succeeding at, like, getting more oil through Hormuz. But it's like you get one win over here, and then it's not going to stop the war, right? Like the Iranians and the Houthis, they're not just going to, like, put their arms down

because why would they at this point? Did you see Alex Ward just posted a story with Wall Street Journal that Trump wants to invest $5 billion in a new, fund to help Middle Eastern countries rebuild energy infrastructure that was damaged during the war that he started. Yeah, no, this is all great. This is a good use of money and a good use of time. Unless it's top money.

Think back to like the campaigns we used to work on in like the early 2000s and now the President of the United States is actually like building. It used to be like, you know, let's not be dependent on Middle Eastern oil. Let's like create energy here. Now it's we're literally going to rebuild with our money energy infrastructure in the Middle least because we started a war that was so fucking stupid. Meanwhile, gas diesel prices are like through the roof here. Also, are we, we're rebuilding the energy infrastructure. The war's not over. So it's like, what are we rebuilding so we can get bombed again? I think what it demonstrates

is the very long-term concern about oil and gas flows. I mean, what that is planning for is a future where the Iranians continue to control the Strait of Formuz. You need an end run around them somehow. And that's a lot of money. And also, we're also going to have to be planning for a future where we're probably pushed out of a lot of our bases in the Middle East, both militarily, like the military bases are all damaged. There was a Pentagon IG report that said buildings and other infrastructure were damaged or destroyed at U.S. bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, and Jordan. And there was $184 million of damage to diplomatic facilities in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE as well. And that was only through the period through June 30th.

Like, all the shit we don't know about is crazy. I was going to say, can you imagine what the next president is going to walk into if it's a Democratic president and like just the shit that hasn't been reported yet? In the Washington Post had a piece last week that said the Pentagon was basically hiding the true death toll. I saw that. The Iran war. Yeah. And all heckseth could say was that it was fake news. Fake news. That's why. The other big international story this week is talks between the U.S. and China, especially around the existential risks from AI. After meeting with China's vice premier, Scott Besson announced that the U.S. and China are discussing a, quote, incident line.

It's like basically an AI version of the nuclear hotline so the two countries can communicate if there's some kind of dangerous AI event. Good luck on that line. Is this really China or is this the AI agent pretending to be? Yeah. Besson also said the two sides are planning another meeting about AI in Shenzhen in about two months. Not sure what the incident line is really for, though, since Trump assured us, again, over the weekend that concerns about AI safety are, just like climate change and Russian interference in our

elections, a Democratic hoax. He did, however, announce the creation of an AI force modeled after Space Force. And he also said he's going to appoint a new AI czar. No word on what either of these things would actually do. But per usual, the president is focused mainly on the branding of AI. He thinks that's the issue. He posted a poll asking people whether we should change the name of artificial intelligence to, here are your choices. Superior intelligence, extreme intelligence, or supreme intelligence. There was a follow-up about 12 hours after he posted the poll. Supreme Intelligence is out.

It was losing. Trump attributed that to everyone hating the Supreme Court because the Supreme Court's been ruling against Donald Trump. And so now we're down to superior intelligence, extreme intelligence. By the time you guys are listening to this, he may have already picked, but I don't know what your favorite is. Extreme intelligence kind of sounds just like X games. Yeah. It's like sponsored by Mountain Dew. I'm surprised he didn't go with like Trump intelligence.

Yeah. Just T.I. Just to, I guess that exists. Seems like, so it seems like he's taking this pretty seriously. Are you at all hopeful about the best in announcement? No. I mean, it's very funny. It's not funny at all, but it's terrible.

It's like all the AI experts are like, please God regulate us and do it immediately. And Trump is like, well, what we could do is set up a new branch of the military. We just need 18 months to hammer out the legal framework and a couple of years to cobble together all the resources. And all the AI people are like, well, now the recursive self-improven is happening now. And we could achieve artificial general intelligence by, I don't know, next year. And by the way, these things are already breaking the law and lying to us and hacking its companies and maybe creating biological weapons. But yeah, name is Tsar, some sort of industry stewed. She was probably a donor.

The Tsar's job is apparently going to be to spearhead the AI rebranding effort. Oh, it's only a rebranding. It's a rebranding effort because Trump wants everyone to think that it is just economically beneficial for everyone. Also, there's this huge New York Times store over the weekend that basically reported exactly what you said last week, which is the only reason that Trump is like let it rip is because he is afraid that any kind of regulation will hurt the economy. There's just no clearer example of this administration being out of ideas than floating an AI force like Space Force.

It said it caught all of his advisors by surprise. I bet. So no one knows what it. They haven't been able to answer any questions about what it is or what it does, which is why we're not explaining more to you. Again, like you said, it's like it's so incoherent. Like if all these concerns are a hoax, why do we need a czar and then another branch of the military, I guess, to deal with that? I wonder which random donor floated this idea. Because a lot of the AI kind of maximalists, the people who have the most money invested,

all just think it's a branding problem. Yes. It's not. David Sachs, who was the president's AI advisor, still is unofficially. He left the White House. This is who's being replaced. He said that basically the reason the polls are like they are about AI is because the media has bought into the doomer narrative. The doomer narrative has been seated by some combination of the system.

CCP and the effect of altruists. Oh, yeah, yeah. And so they've funded this narrative. The media has bought onto it. And that's, and then now people are just watching the fake news. And that's the only reason people could be concerned about AI. Yeah, that are the fact that the models are hacking into companies and stealing stuff. That seems to be an issue as well. Look, I hope the best, I hope the incident line works. Like, I hope that they have a more productive meetings with China, but they're going to have to take some kind of a real step on those. Yeah, I would love for them to, you know, figure out a landline connected between the two. And they're going to need a code word.

I was going to say it's going to have to be kind of old school, you know, maybe like, you know, two cans and a string. You don't want to do this as VOIP if we're talking about AI. Like on the China piece, so Xi Jinping is coming to the U.S. this week. I was talking to our old, our friend and former colleague Danny Russell, who's a top Asia expert. Yeah. He's pretty skeptical that there's going to be a big focus on AI because, um, Trump doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about.

Trump thinks it's a hoax and doesn't care. I think Trump is likely to get Xi, to stop supporting Iran in some way. Like, you know, the Chinese buy like, I think 80 to 90% of the Iranian oil exports. So maybe he'll get them to try to curtail that or some sort of sanctions thing. But like, I don't think the Iranians are going to go along with that because they don't care. And then she will try to get Trump to stop supporting Taiwan, which he's proven to be pretty effective at kind of chipping away in that resolve. The focus will be the pageantry.

I think Trump is meeting him at the airport. Yeah. There's going to also, Melania just announced like there's going to be a flyover. Okay. You love flyover. You'd love a flyover. Maybe Trouple, a shiny shoes or something, carry his bag. I bet they will, what they will certainly do is make a bunch of economic announcements that they've already made and that never came to fruition the first time.

It'll be like soybeans and Boeing jets. And then. Trump will exaggerate them and say, they promised a trillion dollars and to give us the best deal possible and they're going to create a billion jobs. A gazillion. trillion Boeing jets and then the win will be announcing an extension of the trade war truce that we never needed to start and then maybe like a summit on you know was she at APEC or like another AI thing yeah the other AI challenge with China is I and I talked to Helen Toner who's was on the board of open AI and she's an AI expert and also a China expert

when I was on offline this weekend but she she said the problem too is that in China like she and the rest of the government there they're just behind behind us not only on the technology, but because they're behind on the technology, they're also behind on worrying about the existential risks because they're not seeing them in their labs yet because their models aren't quite as advanced as ours. And so they don't know if it's just like, you know, propaganda from us or whatever else. And so they're not quite there yet. So it's like pretty nerve-wracking that that's where we are right now.

Yeah, they're also not big on freedom of expression or thought really. So they're not going to let their models do anything. They don't tell them what to do. Right. The Chinese are also more focused on kind of practical implications. of AI, like the robotics piece for manufacturing and stuff that they can, you know, use in their economy, although their economic problems are high youth unemployment and housing bubble and a bunch of other stuff that will not be solved by AI. So both leaders have some big problems.

Yeah. I don't know that they're going to solve them this week. Pod Save America is brought to you by Hymns. Ed is more common than guys talk about, isn't it, Tommy? It is. The good news, getting real treatment is simple. And through HIMS, it's 100% online. Hymns connects you with licensed healthcare providers online, giving you simple access to legitimate ED treatment options from home. No awkward appointments, no pharmacy lines. Just complete a simple online intake, and a provider will review your information to determine if treatment is right for you. If prescribed your treatment ships directly to your door. That includes sedentphil, also known as generic for Viagra, available through Hymns at up to 95% less than the brand-name version.

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that according to one advisor, quote, he's unpopular and things aren't looking great for the midterms. The Wall Street Journal has a similar story detailing the president's frustration with his political headwinds, including the recent mail-in ballot loss at the Supreme Court and his hand-picked Federal Reserve Chair's decision to increase rates. But according to one administration official, what has Trump upset the most is that no one in Washington has, quote, publicly thanked him for trying to overhaul the Kennedy Center. Can we pause on that part for a minute? Yes.

Why would anyone be happy about him potentially demolishing the Kennedy Center? He thinks it's just dilapidated and he's going to try to rebuild it. And he doesn't understand why people aren't like, thank you, Mr. Trump for rebuilding the Kennedy Center. Did you read the story about how I guess there was some bad weather and like a big chunk of something fell from the ceiling? Yeah. And it landed on the ground instead of just like cleaning it up.

They left it there for days and days and photographed it. Oh, I did not. Chalk outlines like it was like a crime scene to just, I don't know, show to the world how terrible this place was. Yeah, if you don't maintain it, the Kennedy Center will turn into a mess. It is telling that that is what he's most upset about, though. I mean, I'm wondering, like, you know, we've talked before about, do you think Trump knows the polls are bad?

Do you think he's just, like, in a bubble? And I wonder if, like, reality finally piercing his bubble is going to change his behavior at all or does he just not give a shit of Republicans lose? What do you think? My assumption has been that he just genuinely doesn't care. I think I'm there too. It would not surprise me if he's been getting bad information for months and months and months and now something has gotten in front of him that is a surprise. I mean, we talked about Natalie Harp earlier. Her job, she's the human printer. She follows him around and gives him news that he likes. But I guess ultimately like if Republicans, he doesn't have a legislative agenda to begin with, really.

Right. Probably like a tax cut. But like if Democrats take the Senate or the House, the oversight stuff will annoy him. But what his team will do is obstruct and refuse requests and then know that Trump doesn't have to worry because he has immunity thanks to the Supreme Court and he can issue pardons to whomever he wants and everyone will be fine. I guess the X factor is he's got a $400 million super PAC. I think he's reserved, what, 130?

million you said. He could double that. The thing that's changing, I guess, is he's starting to spend from that. We talked about how he didn't want to touch it for a while. So he's starting to spend, and he is, you know, committed to campaigning. I don't know if that's a plus, though, for all these Republicans that Trump is going to go campaign with them. I think the real plus would be him not doing crazy shit every day, like, you know, complaining about the Kennedy Center and threatening to tear it down and threatening to, and banning press from the White House. Like, probably what would help is, you know, him trying to end the war and actually focus on bringing people's costs down. The smartest thing he could do would be just to cut a deal to end the war in Iran, at least through the midterms.

Yes. And call off the trade war. Yes. But all he can do is, today, his idea of helping everyone out was a big announcement today that he said, well, he said an announcement's coming on potash, which I guess we're going to buy it from Belarus now, a Russian satellite state. And so because we're paying too much to Canada. And it's really going to help farmers, which it does in the United States. It's important to farmers. But like we were buying it from Canada now because we've pissed them off. He's going to announce a deal with Belarus for Potash. And I think initially we used to get it from the Russians, but that that supply got cut off after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. So then we turned to Canada, but then we started a trade war with Canada.

So right now we're back to basically buying it from the Russians. It's all kind of full circle. It's a fertilizer, by the way, for people saying, what is a potash? And Republicans are starting to break with him on the campaign trail. Tom Tiffany, he started the year by saying, you know, make Wisconsin great again, 2020 election denier. He's recently criticized Trump on renaming Lake Ontario, Data Centers, Beef Import Policy. In Iowa, Ashley Hinson skipped J.D. Vance's event.

Today she, like, called for an end to the war. Mike Rogers is calling for an end to the war now and AI guardrails. Real quick on Ashley Hinson. Yeah, yeah. Today she called for an end to the war with Iran, but I think I can't. a couple days ago, she voted against a war powers resolution that would have actually ended the war. So, come on, Ashley. Also, like, yeah, Mike Rogers.

Yeah, that's the guy for AI guardrails who was fucking, you know, like, responsible for the Patriot Act. Johnny Deep State. Loves the surveillance state more than anyone else running. Yeah, he's way, he's too deep state for Tucker Carlson. That guy is of the, of the establishment. Things are so bleak for Republicans that they're starting to act like Democrats and anonymously voice their concerns to any reporter. who listen. So we're getting one Republican described the president as kryptonite for GOP candidates.

Love it. And the journal has strategist warning that the enthusiasm gap could put both Iowa, as we just talked about, and Kansas in play for Democrats this year, if the Republican nominees in those races don't begin to distance themselves from Trump. Republicans do have one thing going for them, though, a fuckload of money. Republican Super PACs spent around $204 million. This is just in the first half of September. That is two weeks. And Trump's super PAC alone has now reserved more than $130 million in additional advertising. As you mentioned, Elon Musk's America pack has quietly spent $3 million in the Texas Senate race. He's trying to stay under the radar for obvious reasons. Fair Shake, the pro-crypto pack, which spent over $40 million against Sherrod Brown in 2024, is up with a new

$30 million spend against Sherrod in the Ohio race. And all that spending combined with the RNC's major cash advantage has Democrats now warning that they don't have enough money to keep up and they're worried that it could result in a smaller majority or maybe losing the Senate or not flipping the Senate. Let's start with the cash advantage. Like how worried are you about Democrats being outspent? Very, very, very, very, very, very, very. I mean, things we are going to get outspent. We're going to get drastically on. I mean, the crypto stuff is so gross. Like, first of all, what has your industry built or created since we all started to hear about this hype cycle that has done anything to create jobs or help?

this country besides like make a, Don Jr. and Hunter got some. Yeah, make a couple Winklevye rich, you know, the Winklevoss twins. I don't know. They'll probably cite some made up figure at us, but I just don't believe it. I'm sure you like I am starting to get lots of calls and texts from people on campaigns who are like, hey, our internals have us up a little or within the margin of error, but our greatest fear is getting outspent drastically in the closing days.

And so, like, there are some candidates out there who are able to raise money at such a clip that hopefully they're going to, like, kind of battle to even. Like, John Ossoff is a great fundraiser. He's got some cash on hand. His opponent sucks. He'll probably still get outspent. But I was talking to someone working on the governor's race in Wisconsin today. So Democratic candidate is David Crowley, young, exciting candidate who got in really late, as we all remember, and won this surprise upset in the primary. His team thinks he could win.

He thinks they could even get a trifecta in Wisconsin legislature. if they're successful, but they're getting outspent almost everywhere. And part of the problem is that Tom Tiffany, the Republican, is getting millions of dollars from literally three people. It's like three billionaire Republican megadoners, like the U-Line family and then like the Hendrix. Diana Hendricks is the other one who have put in like, you know, well over half of their money. So like there's all this late cash coming in. Elon Musk's money will come in late and they're just going to dump horrible attack ads on the heads of all these Democrats. And I guess, we will see if those ads are effective in an environment where everyone is just furious about the price of gas.

But that is the real risk, plus gerrymandering. Yeah. I mean, to look for the upside here, you know, they've been spending, some of these candidates have been outspent like 30 to one over the last several months. And, you know, their polling has held up. Well, was there one you mentioned in Texas? Gina Inohosa, who's running against Greg Abbott and has not been had the polling that Telarico has been. is getting closer. She's been out spent 39 to 3. Jesus Christ. And her polling is closing. Like, she's doing better. So, like, there, you know, I think there is a, I talked to Sarah Longwell

about this when she was on the pod. Like, I have this theory that there's like a diminishing utility to just a ton and ton of money on ads because hopefully, people are just like, it's too much. I don't want to see them anymore, especially like this late. I will say in some races, though, like, if you are a lesser-known Democrat, if you have not run for office before, people don't know you, like, that's when I worry about the spending because then you get defined without everyone, like a Troy Jackson in Maine. I worry about people like that who are just trying to get known. Or David Crowley, like you said, in Wisconsin, who is well-known in Milwaukee, but not maybe

through the whole state. So that kind of worries me. But, you know, on the other side, too, I just saw that one Republican Super PAC is pulling out of North Carolina. Yeah. And the Senate Leadership Fund, which is the big Republican Senate PAC, is now warning donors that they could lose Iowa. So they are worried about Josh Turrick in Iowa, which is good. But for anyone who wants to contribute and who can contribute, like, and you're wondering where you should contribute, vote save America.

If you guys just go to vote save America.org, like, we have a Senate fund and a House fund. And what the VSA team does is they put like the races that need the most money that are most competitive in each fund. and your donation just gets split between all the races. And we continue to, like, update the list every once in a while. So someone has enough money or the race is no longer competitive, it drops off the list, just so your money's not being wasted. So it is a really good time now if you can contribute to, like, go and donate to these candidates. Yeah, I think you're right.

I think there is a diminishing marginal return to an attack ad. Like, when you're sitting at home and you're watching LSU Old Miss and you see the same attack ad for the 20th time, it just annoys you by the end, although that probably means it's like seeped into your brain. It's like, are you even watching at that part or you're like, I'm going the bathroom and getting a beard? Some candidates by now will have name ID and people will have some sense of who they are. Someone like a James Talleyico in Texas, right, has been a bit of a national figure, has gotten press, has been able to run ads. But Shane Goldmucker at the New York Times reported that Republicans are outspending Democrats in Texas Senate this week, 25.9 million to 1.1 million. That is a massive margin. So it's going to be just a real uphill battle for a lot of these.

candidates and then yeah the lesser known ones when you know it's low information voters who were deciding in the last two weeks and they go into the polls and like the only guy they've heard of is the one who you know had some horrible attack had run against him or her for the last couple weeks like that's not a good setup what do you make of the uh kansas like i don't know what to make a kansas i have not put enough time and attention into it i do think that we have a really really good chance in Iowa, and that is very real. I think Rob Sand is winning, if not by a comfortable margin at this point, like he could very well win. I think that Josh Turrick has a real shot at winning that race, and then down ballot, there's a lot of targeted house races and other

statewide races we can win. And presumably, if you could win in Iowa, you could win in Kansas. I just don't know the demographic lay down as well. Yeah. And again, I think, like, for people listening, the distinction is like you can watch the Kansas, race unfold and be like really hopeful when you see a poll and like wow would it be great if you know we could pull that one out but if you have you know a hundred dollars to give and right thinking about like where's my money going to go the furthest and have the maximum impact like i'd probably go to an iowa before i went to a kansas you know because we'll probably have a better shot at that if we're winning kansas then we've won we've probably won iowa and ohio and alaska and all of them

you know um all right one last thing uh before dan's interview with kate kum If you thought DC has been in need of more national monuments that double as military installations and weapons depose, you're in luck. Trump just announced that the giant arch he plans to build near Arlington National Cemetery will now be transformed into a, quote, top grade military complex that will, quote, house, store and have the rapid ability to use large numbers of drones plus snipers on both the roof and plaza areas. What the fuck? He went on to say the military requested this, which seems extremely believable. Yeah, I think that we should put a bunch of weapons and explosive devices in a gigantic, very tall, very easy to spot and target monument.

The more, you know, the more recognizable from the air, the more easy to hit with a drone yourself, I think, the better. The Pentagon is almost literally next door. You can see it. You can see it. This is in like highly controlled airspace near Reagan National Airport. Apparently, the FAA asked the arch designers to put like a torch on it so that planes would more easily see it as they're taken off and landing from DCA. Yeah, I saw this. I was like, you are so fucking brain dead and stupid if you believe this or if you report uncritically on this claim.

Absolutely no one in the military is asking him to store drones in the arch. Why would you need snipers on the arch? Who are they aiming their guns at? It's not near the White House. The people who are visiting the tomb of the unknown soldier? Are we firing at Arlington National Assembly? What are you talking about? Also, why are we storing ammo inside a tourist monument?

People are going to come take pictures and there's just going to be like a whole bunch of fucking missiles inside? Like, what are we doing? It's the dumbest most made up thing ever. Clearly what happened is he started to build the ballroom because he wanted a place to have parties and then someone told him that the national security arguments were polling better. So we started highlighting the fact that like, you know, there's a Pentagon blessed bunker deep in the bottom of it or whatever it is.

And I was trying to apply that same rationale to the arch, but it just doesn't make any sense. Just going ahead with the arch, going ahead with the can't. It is like, if we don't win in this fucking environment, we're never winning. Do you see the people who surrounded the Kennedy Center and created like a human shield to prevent the demolition? Like, shout up to them. It is pretty good.

There was a good, yeah. Like, it's hard for me to get worked up about the cultural stuff. But then you read about the Kennedy Center. And like, I think it was actually Eisenhower's idea. they pitched it to Kennedy as just an American cultural center. The Kennedy family championed it. Then Kennedy was assassinated. So they named it the Kennedy Center.

It's this like living monument to an American president who was gunned down. And Trump is like, let's bulldoze that thing. Yeah, it's one of those things that you see the headline and you're like, well, this is silly. Like it's bad, but it's. And then it doesn't like not caring about it doesn't really survive one read of a story where you read that's like people's job. performances, the business. Like, it's a cultural monument in D.C. And then you start getting really mad about it.

It's just, it's so strange of a thing to focus on. Like, I'd love to know at what point in Trump 2.0, he got pointed in that direction. I bet someone, maybe Natalie Hart, maybe Rick Cornell, started showing him clips or headlines that came out of Kennedy Center performances by artists that didn't like him or something. Yeah.

And he, like, decided to blame the building that housed them. I also think Ossoff kind of nailed him on this when he was like, he's building all these monuments because no one will do it when he dies. Trump agree.

And then Trump's like, yeah, that's exactly what I'm doing. Like, I think that's really why he's, like, this is going to be my legacy. He's facing the end of his life.

He knows this is it. And he's like, he wants to be able to tell himself and then have a bunch of shit named after him. And like that's going to be his legacy. Yeah. He wants like, he wants tangible things to point to not like,

you know, And I had this accomplishment that helped people. Right. No, he doesn't care about helping people. Yeah, he cares only about himself and how he's remembered. I'm sure you've noticed that some of our friends over at the bulwark, they've had a long conversation. JVL is very focused. He's basically a single-issue voters on who the Democrats running in 2028 will bulldoze the ballroom.

And I'll be honest, like when I hear that conversation, I find myself kind of indifferent to that, but also aware of what the politics will probably be like in that prime. Mary and that will have, you know, a debate stage full of Democrats trying to outdo each other in the ways they will firebomb or otherwise take down the Trump ballroom. But then you think, well, Trump's totally fine with bulldozing a Kennedy ballroom, a Kennedy event space. No, my, I just had this idea during our last pod with, with Dan and Alex on Friday. And I think my view of this is, you know, next president, this is the Democratic president, day one, you have your, afford. agenda, you're talking about cost of living, like relentlessly, like your like your Zoran Mamdani, right, for like the first month. But quietly, there's just a special office set up in the White House, and that person's job is to remove Trump's name from everything. Yeah. All over America, every government office, every official, just we're going to erase Trump from history as much as we can. We're going to rename all the shit that he built.

We're going to knock down what we can. And we're not going to talk about it or brag about it, because people are going to be like, why are you focused on this and not focused on me? It's just going to happen in the background. Yeah, I think that Xi Jinping did this to Hu Jintao. He just quietly erased him from the Communist Party history. That's what we're doing. All in favor of that. Although, honestly, if I'm the next president and that ballroom is built, I'm using that thing. Yeah, and we're going to name it one there with the Barack H. Obama.

Yeah, the DEI. Perfect. All right. When we come back, Dan talks to the Democratic nominee in New York 17th district, Kate Conley. Ponsive America is brought to you by Helix. If you're like me, sleep is very, very important to your life. If you get a good night's sleep, you're better at work, you're happier at home, you're more productive, you feel better, your body feels better. And if you get a bad night's sleep, all bets are off. Real sleep starts with a right mattress.

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Register or get tailored support at vote from abroad.org. Look, state deadlines are super close, So don't waste another second. Go to vote fromabroad.org now and click request my ballot and ask to receive it by email. All you got to do is fill it out and send it back in. Don't miss this chance to shape the future. Don't delay. Vote fromabroad.org. If you miss some of your favorite crooked pods this week, don't worry,

you can now catch up on the week's best moments on MS Now on Saturday nights. MS Now is streaming an episode of highlights from your favorite crooked pods, packing as much analysis, funny moments, and 100% correct opinions into 40 minutes, as humanly possible. Crooked on MS Now airs every Saturday at 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific. Joining me now is a Democratic nominee in New York 17th District, Kate Connolly. Kate, welcome to Positive America. Thanks so much for having me. And thanks for all you guys are doing to bring these conversations to light. We got one hell of a fight ahead of us. No, as we just said 47, 40, less than 50 days to go is where we are. 47 or so. Okay, Kate, you've been a lot of very

serious and dangerous things in your life. You've been a military police officer. You've been a special operator, you've deployed to combat zone six times, you've hunted down terrorists. Let me ask this question. Why the hell are you running for Congress? So there is a saying in the special ops world, run to the sound of the guns. And what that means is when there is a fight out there, that's where you belong. Like, that's where you're needed. Go to where you can help. Go to where you can solve problems. And right now, for this country, for my family, for the Hudson Valley, this is the fight that I know means the most and makes the most difference for the future. When I was doing research for this interview, I learned that

you and I actually have something in common. We have both been permanently banned from Russia. Get it. So what did you do to piss off Vladimir Putin? I don't think I can talk about it. Okay. But it was a it is a badge I proudly wear going back to, you know, I start. of my military career after 9-11 with West Point and then spend the majority of my military career 16 years, start off as an MP officer of military police, but then in the special ops world. And so a lot of counterterrorism, a lot of going after and hunting down truly the world's most dangerous terror groups that were trying to kill Americans and all over the world.

And then we did some strategic competition work too. But yeah, it just goes back to look, 21st century, there's some very real threats that are adversaries pose. And Russia is certainly one of them. I know you can't talk about it, which, It's even more evidence of whatever you did is much cooler than what I did, which was... What did you do? I want to know what you did. So I was in the Obama administration at the time, and I happened to be scheduled to go and meet the press right after Russia invaded Ukraine the first time.

Crimeeer the first time. Yeah. Crimeeer the first time. And I read the very aggressive talking points written for me by Ben Rhodes in the NSC. And I angered some people. And so I ended up on the list when they did the first sanctions. And I checked before I came here. Still permanently banned.

I mean, listen, I would say you should be very proud of the work you've done. And if only our federal government would continue to call out Russia for the wrong it is doing. I always joke with my wife that if she ever says she's interested in visiting Russia, I know we have some real problems. Okay. So we talk, we make a lot of fun of Mike Lawler around here. He is on, Front Save America. As you should. As we do.

Crooked dozen. Yours is perhaps the most competitive race in the country. It is an incredibly important one. It is one that we need to get the majority. And so I thought that maybe the best way to sort of show the core contrast in the race, we'd play one of your ads and one of Waller's ads back to back. Let's take a look and I'll get your reaction. In the special ops community, there's the saying,

run to the sound of the guns. That's what I've done my entire life. Joining the Army after 9-11, combat zones like Iraq and Afghanistan, hunting down brutal terrorists. Protecting what makes this country great is why I'm running now. Because the politicians who created this mess are not going to be the ones who fix it. How do you tolerate what's being done to our country to New York? The answer is you don't.

I fought for my country, fought to protect our democracy, and now I'm ready to fight for New Yorkers. Let's fucking go. I'll do whatever it takes to get things done. I stood up to both sides to get salt back and make things more affordable. I had to take on the left and the right. I call it Mr. Salt. He didn't stop.

This guy was a pain of the... Kate Conley opposed increasing salt. Jacking up our taxes $4,000 a year. Yeah, I'm not going to let that happen. I'm Mike Lawler. And I approve this message. I will let you get your response to the actual accusation this ad in a second, but I want to begin by pointing out that whoever dressed Mike Lawler that morning hates him with the passion of a thousand sons. Like, I don't know what is up with those pants in that shirt, but it's not a good fit.

I will say that so you don't have to. But the other thing I was going to ask you is, in Michigan, Abdul al-Sayed is repeatedly challenging Mike Rogers to line up and play some football. Yeah. I imagine you would probably enjoy either a pull-up or a push-up competition with Mike Lawler. I would get so much joy from that, so much joy. Any day. Do you want to respond to what Lawler says about Saltzance?

It was a big issue in your district. So just going back to the biggest difference between me and Mike Lawler. We are about the same age, grew up like 30 miles apart. We are fundamentally different people. He is a lifelong political operative and politician who has found every way possible to profit off of democracy while I was defending it. And you see that in the values he demonstrates or lack thereof, where his biggest argument this cycle is about a lie. So when we look at salt, right, the federal income tax was created in 1913. For 104 years, we never had a cap on state and local tax deductions.

Donald Trump, to punish blue states like New York, like California in 2017 implemented the first ever cap on state and local tax deductions to deliberately double tax democratic states. In his own tax bill, that was ending. The cap was ending entirely in 2025. The best thing Mike Lawler could have done last year is absolutely nothing for salt and it would have ended. But instead, Republicans to continue to punish blue states, reinstated the salt cap and this time made it permanent. And this temporary bump up that he talks about from 10 to 40K goes away in five years when he's off running for governor or Senate or whatever the heck he's going to do next. And what he fails to talk about is how his decisions, his votes on so many things like the tariffs eight times, Iran war six times, have jacked up the cost of living for families in the Hudson Valley so much that anything he's trying to claim is so grossly inadequate to the cost they're paying because of Trump and Mike Luller.

and their incompetence. In this ad, you can see that Lawler is trying to position himself as a Republican who works with Democrats, who stands up to Trump periodically. And he has, you know, found some moments to show a little difference like he voted for the ACA subsidies to be extended. But can you talk a little bit about how Lawler and his relationship with Trump are hurting your district? Yeah, and even those subsidy extensions, that was after he voted to end them with the one big

ugly bill. So this is the con artist that he truly is, where he shows up. He does like this, this big act to pretend like he's standing up for the people of the Hudson Valley. But really, his actions themselves show you that he doesn't care. He's inflicting harm. And so this goes back to his voting record with Donald Trump is actually 100%. He was the deciding vote in the one big ugly bill that kicked nearly half a million New Yorkers off of their health insurance. And when you look at who Mike Lawler is, honestly, Dan, it's just follow the money.

It is loyalty to Trump and then his own politically ambition. That's how he votes. And he was going to run for governor until Trump twisted his arm to have him run for re-election in his seat again, right? Yeah. No, when Trump told him to sit down and instead go home, I would have paid to have watched his face. But that goes back to representing New York 17 isn't what Michael Aller wants to do. It's his consolation prize. And we've seen it in his conduct where he is jacked up.

His literal votes have increased the cost of living in our district on families that are just struggling to make ends me in a way that's unforgivable. Another big issue in your race, and frankly, races around this country is data centers. You know, you have said that you were open to data centers if they are more of a net positive, net negative for communities. There's a massive data center of the Hudson Valley. There's an expansion of that that's coming. You can talk a little bit about your policy on data centers and how it differs from that of Michael Lawler and Donald Trump. So on Mike Lawler's watch, there were five data centers built in his home county of Rockland County, mostly benefiting financial services companies from which he took tens of thousands of dollars.

There's three more that are scheduled to be built also in the same county. When you look at how Mike Luller has voted on this issue, last year going back to when this issue when this issue actually came up, He voted to reduce restrictions on data center construction to give data center companies $80 billion in tax breaks, as big tech has pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into his campaign. And now what we're seeing with Elon Musk and Donald Trump is tens of millions in dark money. My position on data centers is very simple. If they're going to be built, they need to be a net positive for the communities they are built in. That means they're not exploiting them. They're not exploiting their infrastructure.

they're not jacking up energy rates or water bills. Do it responsibly. Do it the right way. And this is where I do believe government has a role to ensure that's what's happening. Because what we're seeing from these corporations is they're not choosing the right way for people, for communities. And so government needs to ensure that they do. And that's where I support Kathy Hokel's current moratorium. Let's take a pause and figure out how to make sure these companies are doing it right. The broader conversation about AI has really sort of jumped really into the public sphere in the last week or so with Dario Amadei and the heads of the frontier labs, warning about risk and warning additional regulation, the anthropic researcher who resigned and said that he thought that we were,

AI can kill all humans within 10 years, which was not what I wanted to hear. And so now there's a big debate in Washington that's going to lead to nothing because Michael, although, the Republicans, have gone home to offer the election. Yeah, God forbid they do their job. I know, exactly. Actually looking at it for this country. But have you thought about the kind of AI regulation bills that you would support? if you're in Congress next year?

100%. And I talk a lot about my military career, but my last two years in federal service was actually at the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency or SISA, where we were already doing work on how do we help build guardrails and regulate AI when it comes to our critical infrastructure

to make sure that we are protecting the American public's security and safety and ensuring that these systems that are so critical are done the right way, properly tested, properly vetted, ensuring that they can't do physical harm to people. And it's that kind of approach that government should be taking and ensuring, again, that these companies, where we have seen over the years how tech companies are not putting public

safety and security first, right? Look at software. We have to constantly update our systems because features and speed to market's always been the priority. Look at social media and the harm that it's done to our country, to our kids. And so for us to think that suddenly AI companies are going to do the right thing is beyond naive. We have a responsibility to go in. and set guardrails to make sure, again, that this technology is being harnessed for net good, and public safety and security is built in. And for people who try to say that that's mutually exclusive from, you know, being the world leader or regulating, I push back wholeheartedly. We're America. We can do hard things. We can be the world leader in AI and also regulate responsibly to make sure

that we are doing this the right way. Given your time in serving in uniform, I really want to talk to you about Pete Higsef and what he has done at the Pentagon. But let's start with where you think things in the Iran war and the execution of that war by this president in his cabinet. Just saying his name makes my neck veins talk a little bit. This guy is such a disgrace to the office and should never have been confirmed. And I do believe should be impeached. Every day, every decision he's making is making America less safe. And our brave men and women in uniform deserve a hell of a lot better than this guy. So what do we do? You know, this administration got us into a reckless war of choice in Iran pursuing the worst course of action imaginable. This goes back to

like this plan, this course of action that they executed. It wasn't new. Like this option was on the table for prior administrations, Democratic and Republican. And it was never chosen because in every war game and tabletop exercise, it never ended well then. Never. It ended like this. Exactly. It's like, not good. Yes. And so this just goes back to the irresponsibility of this administration. And the fact that Pete Higset is sitting there lying about the real conditions on the ground, the real impacts of national security.

We are degrading the readiness of our force. You know, we were talking about the USS Lincoln that was redirected from the Pacific Theater to the Middle East in deplorable conditions. We're not even talking about the damage that's been sustained to our forward operating bases in the region. And what that means for long-term national security. It is so screwed up. It is so incompetent. The American people should be outraged. We're not any safer because of this.

And on top of it, now we're watching gas prices and diesel skyrocket, where I literally have families in my district having to decide between do I fill up the gas tank to get to work or the grocery cart. In addition to the execution of the war, Hexed at the committee made a whole bunch of changes to sort of the physical requirements to serve. There was a report in the Wall Street Journal this week that he is just demanding, I think, and I'm using a quote from one of the United States, It was an most impeccable grooming standards for people who serve the military. What do you make of all of those changes, what they're about and what impact they may have on our readiness and the men and women who serve? What he has done, removing some of the best leaders and our generation from the military, you know, the best commander, the best boss I ever served under General Donahue, was just forced into early retirement. what we are seeing play out where the American people deserve the best military in the world, right?

That means the best talent. And this administration led by Pete Hegseth, enabled by Congress, because I don't think Congress is getting enough accountability here either. They're letting this play out. They are literally firing anyone who stands up to do the right thing. And this goes back to being in the military. Like, I swore an oath to the Constitution. you go out there and you stand shoulder to shoulder with men and women every day putting your life on the line to serve a country. It's never, never about politics, right?

It's you put country over party over any person. And those are the ethical standards that we should be expecting. And this administration, because of its security, because of its corruption, is literally firing our best leaders who demonstrate that. That's so fundamentally wrong. It's fundamentally on American, you know? On a less serious note, I was texting. with someone who knows you and works with you and I ask like, what are some interesting things about Kay Cahunley other than her very, very interesting and fascinated bio?

And this person told me, and I quote, that you recently discovered ice cream. How is that possible? It is, it is true. On the trail, as you can imagine, my normal eating standards and workout standards have not been met. And so it is really been a matter of whenever possible eat what you can. It honestly reminds me of the, deployments. Like, there's like these rules on deployments where it's like, always go to the bathroom when you see a bathroom, always eat when you can eat, always sleep when you can sleep, right?

Campaigning is the same way. It's the exact same rules when you're on the campaign trail. It's real. And so, no, look, I used to be more disciplined where I wouldn't let myself, you know, eat a lot of these things. And now I, I'm kind of an addict when it comes to ice cream. Yeah, like just, yeah, can we wait at all this time of your life to discover ice cream? I will say it has been a game changer. I got to do a little more cardio. to level it out now. When Brockabomboe used to campaign, he is also a very assiduous eater, you know, with he of the apocryphal seven almonds story. But he's,

you know, that's the thing you do on the campaign trail. You visit restaurants. You know, you order the local stuff. And he would often, and he would have a sweet too sometimes, but if he didn't want to eat it,

he would have two bites, bring it into the car and hand it to a staffer. You know, like, here you go, guys. It's really good. That's right. Enjoy.

It's not my kind of good. It's good. Yes. That is too funny. When you and I were talking before this began, you were saying that your race is now seeing a massive influx of super PAC money being spent against you to support Mike Lawler. Talk a little bit about that. And then also for people who are listening to this interview who, you know, are compelled

by you, understand the stakes of your race. Where can they go to help? Yeah. So, you know, as a reward for Mike Lawler's loyalty, Donald Trump and his buddies are hooking him up, you know. Mike Lawler's voted with Donald Trump 100% of the time, like we talked about earlier, six times the Iran War we were just talking about doing nothing to rein them in. He also went over to Dallas last week and was a keynote speaker. I was very struck by that. It is surprising to me. It speaks to your point about his

ambitions is that in the money is that a lot of people in battleground states and districts stayed as far away from Dallas as it possibly could. Here is someone who's in a district that Kamala Harris won, albeit narrowly, but still going to Dallas. This race is really, I think, the embodiment of what is fundamentally wrong in our politics, where if this was just really about me and Mike Lawler and giving voters the options of who we are, I would crush him, absolutely crush him. But what you see happening, and this goes back to like ending Citizens United, I've promised to not take corporate PAC money while he's taken millions.

Like, we've got to get this money out of politics. but our race is a great example of the only path Mike Luller has to winning in November to beating me is by having Donald Trump save him and Elon Musk and pour all this money in. In 2024, Mike Luller was the number one recipient in the House of Elon Musk's dark funds. And so we're seeing that again this cycle. They're pouring it in to try to save Mike Loller, their little puppet, but we're not going to let it work. And so that goes back to like, this really is a fight. I do believe not just about right versus left, but right versus wrong.

And what is happening right now in this country is wrong. This isn't what I fought for. This is what I lost friends for. And so we got to fix it. But with that, it's a fight that I know I can win. But given what we are seeing, I can't win alone. And so certainly need all the help we can get to fight back to make sure we send Lawler packing and off to his next career and get him the hell out of Congress.

So please check us out. it's Kate Conley.com. We would love to have you on the team. Kate Connolly, thanks so much for joining us. Good luck in the selection. Thanks so much. Looking forward to kicking his ass. That's our show for today.

Thanks to Kate Conley for stopping by the studio. Dan and I will be back in your feed with a new show on Friday. Pod Save America is a Cricket Media production. Our show is produced by Austin Fisher, Saul Rubin, McKenna Roberts, and Ferris Safari with Reed Jirlin, Elijah Cohn, and Adrian Hill. Our team includes Matt DeGroote, Ben Hethkoat,

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