Pod Save America - Trump's Versailles on the Potomac

Episode Date: June 5, 2026

President Trump announces yet another D.C. construction project — a renovation to the Lincoln Memorial dubbed "The Trump Promenade" — as well as the nominations of his former personal lawyer Todd Blanche for Attorney General and shitposter-turned-FHA Administrator Bill Pulte for acting Director of National Intelligence. Alex Wagner joins Jon Favreau to discuss the latest, including California's torturously slow primary tallies, new allegations against presumptive Maine Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner, and Scott Pelley's dramatic last stand at CBS's "60 Minutes." Then, Jon reveals how he was accidentally invited to the UFC fight on the White House lawn.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, episode title, and episode date

Pot Save America is brought you by Simply Safe. Summer travel season is officially here, which means it's time to pack your bags, double check your itinerary, and panic about whether you remember to lock up the house before you left or if you're like us, you can arm your simple safe and head out completely stress-free. I've set up a Simply Safe, incredibly easy to do. I customize it to my house and it came in the mail. I set it up. Customer support. Great. App, great. Highly recommend it. With Simply Safe, you can customize your system to fit your needs. They ship fast directly to your door. The app guided setup is simple and there's no drilling required. so you can install and arm your system in under one hour,

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And I'm Alex Wagner. In studio in LA. I came to cast my ballot. Just kidding. I'm here. We'll still take it. Still being counted. See you in 2020.

How many do you want to drop off? Several. All for Heidi Montag. Just trying to get on the five. It's good to see you. It's great to be here. I'm always so thrilled to be in person with you guys. I hear that we're doing this two weeks in a row because Mr.

Fiper is out. Oh my God. Next Thursday as well. Wow. I know. I'm so glad that you're in control of the calendar. I had no idea. Barely.

I feel very blessed. I just found that out yesterday. I'm sorry everyone who wants Dan Pfeiffer on the show, which is probably most people, but sometimes Dan has to Dan. It's rare that Dan takes a break from anything. Well, I mean, I don't think he's contractually allowed to, right? Yeah, that is true. He's working in a gulag somewhere.

Well, we're very happy to have you. And on today show, we have lots to talk about whether the insurrectionist slush fund is really dead and why Republicans just refuse to kill it for good when they had the chance. We're also going to talk about Todd Blanche's promotion to attorney general. Congratulations. Bill Pulte's promotion to America's spy chief. The latest results from Tuesday's primaries in Iowa and California. Yet more Graham Platner news.

The meltdown at 60 minutes. And finally, for the first time ever, I will reveal a secret I've been keeping and tell the story of how I was invited, actually invited to the White House UFC fight. A deep tease. Oh, yes. That is a same. The TV industry. That is a deep tease. It's happening.

Before we start, if you want to find out the real story, you'll have to subscribe. No, just kidding. But you should subscribe if you haven't subscribed already. Come on. What are you doing? To Cricket. You could become a friend of the pod. Cricket.com slash friends.

You get ad-free episodes of all your favorite pods. I mean, there's really nothing better than that. Isn't it nice to listen to this and all your other Cricket pods ad free? We love our advertisers, Sean. Of course we love our advertisers, but some people like the advertisers. Some people just want that free. They don't want to get right to the meat. And you know what? If you do like ads, there's a lot of other benefits, too. There's subscriber-only shows like Polarcoaster with Dan Pfeiffer. That's a must listen. Our special extra secret episode of Pod Save America called Pod Save America Only Friends.

Oh, I mean, and it is really an inside scoop. Inside scoop. It's an inside scoop. And lots of substack newsletters these days. And you get to support an independent, proudly pro-democracy media company that Barry Weiss can't murder. And Scott Pelley is soon to join the roster, right? That's right. That's called 153 minutes. That's the name of his podcast. That is quite long. Cricket.com slash friends, check it out. All right, Alex. The Republican Congress has been hard at work this week,

trying to shovel another $70 billion of our money to Donald Trump so that ICE can keep rounding up immigrants and locking them away in barbaric detention camps. Trump wants even more, of course, a billion dollars for his ballroom, and $1.8 billion for a slush fund he could use to make cash payments to convicted criminals who stormed the Capitol on January 6th. Republicans denied him the ballroom money in this bill,

but they did on Thursday block a Democratic amendment that would have killed the J6 slush fund. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said this week that they wouldn't be moving forward with the slush fund. But when Trump was asked about that, he gave an answer that surprised absolutely no one. I love it. I think it's so important. On Thursday, he did a clean coal event in the Oval Office, where we all thought he'd elaborate on the future of the slush fund, but instead he dozed off several times in between his home renovation updates, which today included an announcement of yet another brand new construction project. Let's listen. This is now open. You see the size of that compared to some of the biggest buildings in the country, actually the biggest. Hi, Peter.

And we have it finished. water is pouring in as we speak. This is from just a little while ago. Nice clean water. The Lincoln Memorial, the front was supposed to be the back. The back was supposed to be the front. It never got built because they built two roadways behind it after it was built, and it shut off the gateway to the water. That was really going to be the main entry, and we're going to be doing that. We're going to just call the promenade. It'll be the promenade. They want to call it the Trump Promenade,

but I don't know if I want to do that. What the fuck is happening? It's, we really need to talk about how unwell this man is. Yeah. First of all, was there a penis also on that, that, like, that charge of big things that Trump's obsessed with? I don't know. You know, this is, I don't, we should,

this is not super important, but this is the second day now. He has led off an event in the Oval by holding up a, a chart to show that the reflecting pool is bigger than most buildings. Yes. But like it's not even something that he can brag about like he did it. He didn't lengthen the reflecting pool. It was built in 1920.

Right. He just put in, he just painted it and renovated it. But now he's obsessed constantly with like holding up a billboard of how it's big. What that? What? It's a sort of, I mean, it's, it's legacy by way of phallic imagery. I think it's just an obsession with size. It is inversely proportional to his approval ratings, right?

So as he sinks in the polls, he needs to erect or claim the erection. I'm sorry, I keep saying these sort of penile vocabulary, but it is all, I mean, it's all intermingled. And it's the only way he believes he'll have a legacy is brick and mortar. And even if it's not his own brick and mortar. I mean, he's destroyed, he is destroying the country. he's lost the faith of maybe his even his own party in Congress or is losing it. He has a colossal, a bloodletting ahead of him in November, which is going to leave him even more castrated. And so what's his recourse?

I guess reflecting coals and promenades. Yeah, big penis pool. And now we're doing a promenade around the Lincoln Memorial? I mean, are we, though? Are we going to get those Mar-a-Lago yellow umbrellas like we have in what used to be the Rose Garden, R-I-P? I don't know that any of this is going to come to pass. I mean, truly, first of all, he's over budget and over time on all the projects that are already underway. Republicans in Congress have gotten very fatigued of, I think, the ego and the vanity projects.

And, you know, they're not giving him a billion for the ballroom. I just, I think this is all, first of all, a distraction from what's really happening. And we should talk about what's unfolding in Congress right now. But, like, I don't know. How fast can you build a promise? The thing they're doing in the reflecting pool isn't even fixing the leaks. It's going to be covered in mold in like a year or a couple months. And the arch.

Don't forget about the arch. I don't know. I don't know. I just hope all of them become intake processing centers for newly arrived migrants. Like that's just the only good. Drain the pool and let me make it, you know, put bedding down. Let people sleep there. Like just make it something useful for this increasingly poor and destitute country that he's running into the ground.

I absolutely loved the John Os offline from over the weekend about all this where he's said, yeah, he's building all these monuments to himself because after he's gone, no one else will. Yeah, that is absolutely true. Devastating. That is, and Aesoff has been so good on reinforcing the narrative that this is all kind of Louis XIV, the 14th style corruption and self-service. Versailles and the Potomac.

That's what I've been on. Exactly. I mean, it is. It's Leitat Semois. That means the state, it's me. Oh. Spanish, not French. Thank you for, thank you for moving that one forward.

It's a disaster of epic proportions in terms of. of one man's ego, but I am skeptical that it actually comes to fruition, the Trump Promenade at least. Let's hope so. What did you make of the dead or alive drama around the slush fund and the Republicans' refusal slash failure to kill it for good? Because some tried today, but they could not get their caucus on board. Some tried to save their own asses.

Some not all. I think, number one, it is important that there be specific written language passed by Congress. that outlaws the slush fund. It is quite clear to me, especially based on Trump's suggestion that he love, not explicit declaration that he loves the fund, Todd Blanche will do anything Donald Trump wants. If Todd Blanche says on Monday, the slush fund is gone and Trump says on Tuesday, I love it. That means by Wednesday the slush fund could be up and running. It is imperative that the legislative branch shut this thing down, right?

So I think the movement to attach an amendment to this reconciliation bill that's, being voted on right now is essential. What is the point of Bill Cassidy? Bill Cassidy is a senator in his, he's the Republican who upon which this like the future of this slush fund in large part hinges, right? He was the holdout today. He delayed, delayed, delayed. People thought, oh my God, he's going to kill this thing. And then decided at the last minute after three hours of deliberation, you know what, I need this to be a Republican effort and not a Democratic effort. Bill Cassidy gave the country a revolution. Raccoon testicle-obsessed, Health and Human Services Director, who is an anti-vaxxer, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., he, a doctor, Bill Cassidy, gave us a lunatic at HHS. He was the pivotal vote. This was the one chance Bill Cassidy had to redeem his reputation, his stature as a statesman. And like, what did he do with it? What's the point of mounting resistance for three hours and then saying, on partisan grounds, I can't, I can't accept this amendment. I need Republicans to author it. Yeah, so just to catch people up on what happened here, Democrats offered an amendment to say,

it's nice that Todd Blanche said that we're not moving forward with the fund, but we're going to kill it statutory. We're going to put it in law to make sure that it's gone for good. And Schumer offered the amendment. And they got Collins and they got Dan Sullivan in Alaska, who's Mary Peltola is running against. Who sees the chips falling where they may. And John Husted. Husted? Husted. Hoasted? Who's did? Who did? Who did? Yeah. Exactly. Anyway, he, he He's the guy that Sherrod at Brown's running against in Ohio who Fox News poll came out yesterday that shows him trailing Sherrod Brown by 8. Sherrod's best poll. Awesome. But anyway, those three, just coincidentally, voted.

They voted. Yeah, they voted to kill it as Republicans. But you're right, Cassidy and Tillis thought they would be cutesy. And they decided not to vote for that amendment. They introduced their own, which was to say, you can't use the slush fund in the way that Trump wants to use it. It has to be used for the anti-fraud initiative that J.D. Vance is. running, which is basically like, you know, robbing states of Medicaid funding if they find someone committing fraud somewhere. They just sort of collective punishment for the rest of the

people who were on Medicaid. So they introduced that amendment. And obviously, Democrats weren't going to support that because it's crazy. And the anti-fraud initiative is bullshit. So they got like, I don't know, seven, eight, nine Republicans on that one. But that one didn't pass either. So now we have now we have no language. We have no language to kill the fund. And I say this. It's like, fool me once, shame on you. Ful me twice. Shame on me. For me 17 times, I should stop talking. And that's how I feel about Republicans in Congress. It's like, I can't believe I'm even still fucking entertaining the idea that they'll do the right thing on this, that they'll actually deliver on something they say they're so against, which is the slush fund. But I stupidly hold out hope that Bill Cassidy will get

something done, that Tom Tillis will find a backbone. And that Susan Collins, Susan Collins, for whom there's a specific place. And you know what? Like, it doesn't count what Susan Collins. No, of course not. It's a gimmie. And Sullivan did because if it really counted and they really didn't want the fund, they could vote against the final bill.

It doesn't count when any- They could vote against the final bill. They're all on their way out. Tom Tillis and Bill Cassidy are out. It's a joke. It's a fucking joke. At the same time, it's really important that this get done. I know.

Because we cannot have a $2 billion taxpayer slush fund given to insurrectionists. Like, that is not. So someone, I mean, I don't know. I don't know. So I'm outraged. I'm incensed by the existence of Bill Cassidy. And I, you know, I look for redemption. I hope there is some for them. What's your level of concern that there hasn't been more drama around the ICE funding itself, which is sort of not even being talked about as much, partly because I think it was baked in that it was going to pass way back when, you know, the government shutdown happened or the DHS shutdown happened. I know you covered ICE detention centers on runaway country this week. I interviewed Andy Kim on Tuesday's pod, Senator, from New Jersey about the horrific conditions at the detention center in Newark. I mean, this is one that has been like making me quietly sick every time I see more stories because it's like I'm very aware that we finished the episode of Trump's America

where there was the battle of Minneapolis and then Christy Nome was fired and then they pulled back and Stephen Miller was sort of like, you know, had to go back in his cave for a little bit. And so everyone moved on and thinks, okay, now things are good and things are not good. No, there may be fewer expenditures on expensive horse rental under Mark Wayne Mullen, the new DHS Secretary, but things are as dastardly as ever. Let's just, I mean, just for people who have not paid attention to what's going on in terms of detentions, Caitlin Dickerson, who we have on the show on Runaway Country this week, has been doing some essential reporting from on the ground. The idea of family separations still happening. By her estimate, I think 200,000 parents have been deported and separated from their children,

some of whom have ended up in foster care, some of whom have ended up with other relatives or strangers. There's no tracking for that part. And they can't get their kids back. In many cases, they're in dangerous places where they have no home. They're facing threats of gang violence. Their children are locked in the United States. It is a devastating situation. So there's that reality. And then when you talk about what's happening inside the detention centers, I mean, there, I think 50 people have died in detention since Trump took office. The standard of care in these detention centers is appalling. You're talking about medical concerns like people needing to see doctors for routine, small issues that when they aren't treated, become life-threatening issues. The lawyer that we spoke to Melissa Shepard from immigration defenders talked about someone who had a hang nail that

was left untreated and couldn't see a nurse, couldn't see a doctor, and eventually was at risk of dying from sepsis because of this, right? These are, I mean, then you talk about just basic, you know, basic, basic, basic, basic levels of care, including clean water. They're being given moldy food or not enough food or contaminated water. The latrines aren't being cleaned. Detainees are volunteering to clean up and create shifts because nobody else is cleaning the facilities. I mean, these are pregnant women, children, elderly people who need their medicine. John, these are people that have been living in the United States for like 20 years. Yes, that's the other. That used to go to CVS to get their prescriptions. Like this is, and that

doesn't, it doesn't make it easier. It doesn't make it better if they weren't to those people, but they were integrated into American society. And even if they didn't have the paperwork, they were living like we are. And they have been shunted into a just dark and unimaginably depressing, devastating environment from which there seems like no escape. These private prisons, these private detention centers are being run by for-profit companies like the Geo Group from which the Trump administration is cherry-picking executives and making them the new head of ice. Tom Holman was a consultant to the Geo Group. A.G. Bondi back in 2019, another consultant to the Geo Group. It's a revolving door where, you know, the snake is eating its own tail. And as a result,

there are, you know, Geo Group has made, I think, an 800% increase in profits between 2024 and 2025. It's really lucrative business to cram a bunch of people with no legal representation into subhuman conditions and charge the government a lot of money for it. And that's what's happening. And now we're about to dump another $72 billion in ICE and CPP's lap. And like, we've both interviewed people who've been caught up in this and people who probably like have more means and Maybe they're like Canadians that got caught up in it. But right? And they will say like it's not even like they're just deporting people, right?

Like that's what I think people have this image of, oh, Trump wants to deport people and he wants to deport, you know, the worst or the worst or maybe just undocumented immigrants. And obviously it's gone beyond that. But it's beyond just deportation, which in some cases would be more humane than what they are doing to people in these detention centers. Some people are like begging to be deported somewhere. Yes. Well, that's the point. I think one of the things they're doing is making.

the life so abominable that people just decide I'm going to give up on my case. I mean, and by the way, half the time they can't be in touch with their lawyers. They're shipped around from detention center to detention center. They're lost in the system. And they give up hope. I mean, it's an incredibly emotionally traumatic thing to be snatched off the street. Kids. Children taken or children themselves. Imagine like kids are eight, our kids age. Well. And like what happens after you spend a month in a detention center like that? I mean, I mean, there's no oversight into any of this. And you see Andy Kim, who you had on, I mean, when you have congressional representatives who are, you know, tasked with oversight trying to do their job, they are pepper sprayed.

They are arrested. They are charged with crimes. I mean, and we have no idea what's happening in Dilley detention, which is where all the kids are. I will tell you, when I was talking to Andy Kim, I was thinking about, remember that he was, he was like a brand new, new to Congress time of January 6th. and he was in the Capitol picking up the trash. And, like, I remember interviewing him after that. And he was, like, so, still so, like, hopeful, even though that had happened because he was like. And, you know, when I interviewed him on Tuesday, he seemed, like, beat down.

Yeah. Like, when you see something like that, it's like, and he's not the type of, he's not the type of politician who's like, hair on fire, partisan, this, that. He just, he saw something. And you can tell he, like, can't even believe what he saw. You can't unsee it or unlearn it. And I have to say one of the advantages of the way the government is handling deportations right now is it's happening in large part behind. The worst parts of it are happening behind closed doors. When Alex Priddy and Renee Nicole Good were killed, it alarmed the entire country because it was happening in broad daylight. And now the abuse and dehumanization of people is just happening behind closed doors. And they're brown people and they have fewer rights and there's less mainstream media coverage. And the federal government makes it very difficult to get information. Nonetheless, I mean, you know, this is happening. in our name. And we are doing this to people who were once integrated members of our society

who contribute to our economy and to the fabric of our democracy. And I just think, you know, it's devastating for anybody that works on it. But we should be, I mean, we should be all more publicly devastated by it. And in the context of this funding, you know, these gibronies in Congress doing whatever they're doing, we shouldn't forget that the essential fight here, the reason this bill is happening through reconciliation is because Democrats didn't want to fucking fund, and CPB without reforms because what they're doing is an abuse of power. It is not constitutional. And that should always be the sort of end note for any discussion about whatever Congress ends up doing on reconciliation. Did you, one more thing on this, did you see on Wednesday Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen refused to rule out his crazy ass plan to basically shut down, not basically it would, shut down international travel at airports in sanctuary cities by removing customs and border patrol officers.

So here, L.A. I mean, the first threat was Newark because there were the protests outside the Delaney detention facility. And that is like, I don't know whether to be like that is completely insane and scary and what are we going to do or like, go for it. Touch the stove. Shut down international travel in this economy to the United States. That's going to work. Yeah, no Republicans fly though, right? They only, they travel by pony. What the fuck? Can you imagine the hit to the economy? It would be so bad. It's such an example of this idiot-ass administration cutting off its nose despite its face. I mean, good job, guys. Like make gas a trillion dollars a gallon and then shut down air travel. Way to make America great again. I mean, and Mark Wayne Mullen in his, you know, notes on this plan suggested that it's something they've been cooking up for a while and they're ready to execute on it until and unless ICE officers are respected. Well, you know, on some level, I have to say, John, maybe doing that, I mean, setting aside the hit to the economy, is. It's like at least people would be reminded that this is an ongoing fight. That's a, it's a touch and stove moment. This podcast is sponsored by Squarespace. Squarespace is the all-in-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.

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Name number one by wirecutter. You can save now by visiting AuraFrams.com. For a limited time, listeners can get $35 off of select frames. with Code Cricket. That's A-U-R-A-Frams.com promo code crooked. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout terms and conditions apply. So good news for the brains behind the J-6 slush fund. Trump announced this week that he intends to officially promote acting attorney general Todd Blanche to permanent attorney general Todd Blanche. The president's former personal defense lawyer has been on a role since

he took over for Pam Bondi. In addition to coming up with the slush fund, Blanche has brought a second indictment against Jim Comey for his seashell art picture. And he's also stepped up an investigation into John Brennan. Blanche's nomination will have to go through the Senate Judiciary Committee, whose Republican members include John Cornyn and Tom Tillis. Are we going to be stuck with Todd Blanche for as long as we're stuck with Donald Trump? Well, first of all, I mean, no matter what Tom Tillis intends on doing, there is the reality that Todd Blanche can stay acting AG till Trump is out office. And I don't know if this is a time to mention the Julie Sue situation, but under Biden

in 2022, he could not get his acting or his deputy labor secretary confirmed to be labor secretary, in large part because of Joe Manchin and Kristen Cinema. We'll set that aside for a rainy day. Another ranch. But effectively set, and I don't want to say set the precedent because I think what's happening in here is much more nefarious, but opened the door to a mechanism by which a deputy secretary can become acting secretary for a largely indefinite period of time, assuming that the sort of paperwork. around that is taking care of every year. And Republicans are looking at that or the Trump administration, I would assume, is looking at that and saying, well, if you could do that with your Labor Secretary, Julie Sue, we can do that with our wannabe AG ring kisser extraordinaire, Todd Lynch. And this is sort of, I mean, it's been the law forever and it's sort of like the Vacancies Act,

without getting into all of the details on this. Yes. If you are confirmed to be a deputy, something something at a cabinet agency. And you're going to be acting. It is pretty easy to just restart the clock. Every year. Every year. Now we're withdrawing the nomination. We're doing it again.

They're going to get a vote. They didn't get a vote. Now we're going to take you down. So, like, you can just play with the paperwork and Todd Blanche can serve forever. Thank God. For as long as we have Donald Trump. I don't know. I guess good job, Todd.

Like, what didn't you bow and what didn't you scrape in order to get that nod? Yeah. No, he's got it. That's for sure. But and yet he's not the worst, I think, of the nominees that have been proposed this week. Well, here we go. I'm doing it up for you, John. The Blanche News did briefly overshadow the appointment of Bill Pulte.

Yes, the same Bill Pulte who's been using his perch atop the Federal Housing Finance Administration to manufacture mortgage fraud allegations against people on Trump's enemies list. Don't worry, he apparently still gets to keep that job, too. He's doing such a good job. Good, yeah. Can he be the viceroy of Venezuela as well? Probably. We only have a couple people to do all the jobs now. No one else wants to work there.

This is also the same Bill Pulte who Scott Besson threatened to punch in his fucking face. And it does seem like even Republicans and other Trump administration colleagues may not be super thrilled with making this dofus America's top spy chief. Let's listen. Do you think that Bill Pulte has the experience to be the acting DNI? I'll defer to the chairman on that. Senator Cotton, you want to speak to that? We have four more weeks with Director Gabber. as the DNI, and I look forward to implementing

last year's Intelligence Authorization Act with her. I have no observations on the matter. Have you ever, specifically in the context of the intelligence community, heard the name Bill Pulte? In the context of intelligence? That's what I sell. Did he mean like the intelligence community

or just intelligence generally? That's my question. Tom Cotton, saying, I have no observations on the matter. I know. That is all we got. Oh, Tom. You speak for all of us.

Trump was asked about this one in the Oval when he was given us his renovation updates. And here's his explanation. Why do you think, Mr. President, he's the best person for the job? Well, he's very smart. He's a person who's got high integrity. And it's an acting position. It's not a permanent. He's not going to be permanent because, you know, I don't think he'd want to be permanent.

And you may find out some things about the rigged elections, et cetera, et cetera. Does he have been necessary? me, Mr. President, the necessary national security experience to take on that position? Well, I do. And I think he does, actually, because he's smart. That's it. Trump says you're smart. You have all the experience. What's your level of concern on this one? Hi. Very high. Hi, high. I think even, and especially the fact that he's just serving for a specific window to find election interference right ahead of the midterm elections. What could go wrong? I will draw everybody's attention, like, as if you didn't give us enough

examples of this person be clowning himself in life. Will Summer at the poor. I'm so glad you brought this up. Oh my Donna. It's such a good story. It's such a good story. Everyone go read it. Pulti spent like much of 2023 trying like as a meme stock investor trying to get people to invest in like worthless shares of bed, bath and beyond. Yes. And as part of that. This was his sole mission. Yeah. That's all he did. And like he basically they will will talks about how he organizes an event in December of 2023 at a Florida hangar, I guess like an airplane hangar

that was dedicated to the conspiracy that bed, bath, and beyond never actually went bankrupt. With Pulte sitting on stage, one promoter slapped a grateful supporter in the face with a green dildo, which was apparently a powerful symbol in their inscrutable online subculture.

He uncovers what that inscrutable dildo symbolism means, and it's just as heinous as you would imagine it to be. This is the person that Trump wants to put in charge of our intelligence infrastructure. Do you see what he got at that event? So he was sitting there while the dildo incident occurred. Someone else got slapped in the face with the green dildo.

And then Pulte was given a little trophy with a T-Rex on it. And it said, it said, Pulte only fucks the young. Well, okay. I think they were on two. It was two different sides of the trophy. But yes, if you put all the sentence together, that's what I would do. Oh, Pulte fucks only the, it's, yeah. It's only the young and he fucks.

It's just, but they did it as a joke. He fucks is on one side and I believe only the young. The Cracker Jack fact-checking team here at Potein. He fucks only the young. He fucks only the young. It is all, I mean, I just, we have to go back to the phallic obsession of this administration. It is all just about dick swinging. And like he proved himself to be both at once willing to be castrated by Donald Trump, but having some kind of dick to swing around at some point, or at least a dildo.

I'm sorry that this has gotten so lewd. I mean, it's not our fault. It's not. It's the new acting director of national intelligence's fault. Who reportedly gave Trump the you are the, you are Jesus JPEG? Yes. The guy. He's the originator. He brings behind AI Jesus.

And the 50 year mortgage boondoggle. Like, we're really talking about this guy. I mean, not only does he have, I mean, it's almost like the fact that he has zero qualifications for the job or an afterthought. He is completely morally and like, I would say, ethically, corrupt. He's a joke. And I would hope that Trump's suggestion that he'll only be in the office temporarily is some kind of hat tip to the fact that he knows that he's a joke. But that should not calm anybody's fears because, you know, it's quite obvious. I mean, he's being put in there

for one reason only. And that is to help Trump find a reason to say that the results of the 2020 election were fraudulent and potentially to say that the results of the 2026 midterms should not give Democrats to gavel. And, you know, we just talked about why it's challenging to prevent the president from putting someone in a temporary position and, yeah, for, you know, for as long as he wants. Section 702 warrantless wiretapping authority is up for renewal. That old chestnut. And both parties have negotiated, surprisingly, an agreeable solution to that. So they were going to put that up for a vote. But now Democrats are saying, we're not going to reauthorize that if the person in charge of it is this fucking doofus. And they're wondering if enough anti-Poltee Republicans would join along,

try to use that as leverage. I think I saw maybe Collins, Murkowski, and Tillis voted for an amendment that would prevent Pulte from being a DNI chair that they added. But I don't think any of the other Republicans voted for it. I don't think it passed. I can't believe you have to bait them. I know. You have to sweeten it. Like, we know he's a clown. We know he's a maniac.

We know he's completely untrustworthy and could do crazy damage to the democracy. But if that's not enough, we're going to hold 702 FISA wiretapping reauthorization hostage. Like, it's insane to me that Democrats have to add a sweetener to attract more Republicans when this person is so categorically unqualified for this job. It's shameful. I wonder what John Ratcliffe thinks, who is the CIA director and, like, not my cup of tea. But like a professional. And, you know, I know that the org chart there is a little loosey-goosey, but he still has to, like, this is the director of national intelligence. Maybe they just cut him.

I bet they cut him out of all the important stuff. And then when Trump wants really bad shit done, then Pulte gets access to everything he wants. Which is what he's already doing, digging up, you know, he's rummaging around mortgage files trying to find fraudulent mortgage application so that he can tag Letitia James. and Jim Comey. I mean, this is all so utterly embarrassing. And yet what's crazy is we don't know what happened. Like, we don't know if the FISA reauthorization is going to be sufficient enough to get Trump's party to shut down the nomination of someone who could do grave damage, not just to do the democracy, but even to them. You know what I mean?

Once you cross Trump, once you're no longer in office, anything's fair game. Like, they're in peril as much as anybody else. You know, there's a lot that if Democrats take Congress that they can achieve in two years with Donald Trump as president because he's still got veto power. But these are the kinds of things, especially Pulte, where if Democrats have control of Congress, you haul this guy in for questioning. You send subpoenas, not just for him, but for documents. You can make stuff happen if you control Congress with appointments this horrendous, for sure. It makes Tulsi Gabbard look like J. Edgar Hoover. Doesn't it?

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Helixleafed. One more congressional development of note before we leave Capitol Hill. Four House Republicans, including Thomas Massey, joined Democrats on Wednesday and passing a war powers resolution directing the president to end military operations in Iran. Democrats and Republicans in the Senate advanced a similar measure a few weeks ago. This is all largely symbolic, however, because Trump can just veto the rest of. resolution, which he's not too happy with. He responded on Thursday by calling the war powers vote unpatriotic, the Republicans who voted

for it grandstanders and the Democrats, Democrats, which seems to be his new nickname of choice. We haven't played a clip yet of this on this program, but he has said now multiple times. He tells this story, and he's like, no, a lot of people don't know that dumb has a bee at the end. This is what he's been saying, and like straight face. And he's like, I call them the Democrats. Ask not for who the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.

People don't know all this time. You know, there's a B at the end of dumb. Meanwhile, there seems to have been zero progress this week and actually ending the war in Iran, which Trump said Wednesday is, quote, not a big thing. Not a big thing for the U.S. It's a detour. I'd like to read you some rave reviews about the Iran War in the Wall Street Journal today, Thursday. Quote, it has achieved enough to produce a far better Middle East.

Quote, reaching no deal is fine. And, quote, this is a new. day in the Middle East. Care to guess the author? I'm going to say, who, who, who, John, who loves ill-conceived regime change? More than someone from the George W. Bush administration. Could it be Condoleezza Rice? It's Condoleezza Rice. Pops her head up to just give a ringing endorsement of our progress on Iran. Which is less welcome? The Jill Biden memoir or the Condoleezza Rice op-ed? Honestly, the Jill Biden memoir.

That's saying something. But only because the Condi Rice one is like, what is this going to do? Also, what are you doing? What are you doing? Let me burnish my reputation by defending a failing president in a wildly misguided war. That is commitment to the bit. That, like, she is a true, true neocon till the end. I read this and I was like, are you kids?

kidding lady. The war, first of all, she writes about it in the past tense. And I'm like, wait a second. It drew America, Israel, and Arab states closer through defense cooperation and intelligence. What? Didn't draw the region closer? It also showed that although Iran can close the straight of Hormuz, that leverage is limited.

Is it? It doesn't seem like it. His approval rating is like negative one million right now. And he's about to hemorrhage any. leverage she has in Congress. Like, what in the fuck are you talking about? Also, and she's like, and do we need the enriched uranium? Sure, but that can be a tomorrow problem.

Yeah. Yes, John, there are large dockpiles of highly enriched uranium somewhere in Iran, but this is a problem for the future. Not today. Really? Well, and then goes on to just like spout pure conjecture about like, anyway, their ways of enriching it are probably dismantled or destroyed. Trust me. What?

I don't, like. Hindsight is. negative 2020. Like the whole thing is just like we have learned. I mean, I just the hubris, the foolishness. Anyway, I delighted in it actually. It was a nice break. It was a palate cleanser. I was trying to figure out what it was. And buried in there is her saying like, you know, no deal is fine. And that's better than a bad deal. And she said under no circumstances, can we be lifting any sanctions and giving them money? And so she is doing the classic anti-antrault, Republican thing of being like, I think we can play him, right? Because we'll tell him that the war

went great, but what we really don't want is pellets of cash to Iran. And they don't want a deal where we unfreeze sanctions and unfreeze funds for them in exchange for getting rid of the nuclear material, which was the whole reason that we started the war in the first place ostensibly and opening the straight of Hormuz, which was open at the beginning of the war. And so she's like, yeah, I understand all that, but things aren't that bad. And so what she really wants is a deal to open the straight, no money to her on, and then just cut and run. Right. I don't know how you negotiate that deal and nobody seems to be able to.

But like, I guess, nice try, Condi. You're totally right that it's like we will stroke the dog will come running at us with saliva foaming at its mouth. And we will stroke the dog right between the eyes, right between the eyes. And we will calm the dog down. And then we will get it into the cage. And it's like, now that dog's going to fucking bite you. It's going to buy you. That dog is rabid.

All right. Let's talk about the big elections we had this week. Oh, I'm going. In Iowa, Josh Turrick beat Zach Wallace to become the Democratic Senate candidate. He'll be squaring off against Ashley Hinson in November in a race that Cook Political Report has now shifted from likely Republican to lean Republican. So, Iowa Senate in play. In Montana, a Bernie AOC-backed smoke jumper and union leader named Sam Forsstag beat two moderate Democrats to become the nominee in the state's first congressional district, which Republican, Republican, Ryan Zinke is vacating.

Hot fireman dude. Smoke jump. We need more fucking smoke jumpers. I'm sorry to curse something. We need more smoke jumpers. Please delete the fucking. We need more smoke jumpers in this party. I just look up what a smoke jumper was.

I did. I actually just assumed it was fire related. It is fire related. I'm glad that it's not some acrobatics that I was unaware. I'm like park for fire. No, it's like it's definitely fire related. And here in California, we're still counting votes as we will be potentially for another week or two? So embarrassing. I know. It is embarrassing. As of right now, the governor's race shows Republican

Steve Hilton and Democrat Javier Bacera in lead, though there's a small chance that Democrat Tom Steyer could catch Bacera as more ballots are counted. He's currently about 6% behind. In the mayor's race, Karen Bass is headed to the runoff in November. And currently, Republican reality TV douche Spencer Pratt is in second, but there's also a chance that progressive challenger Nithia Rahman could catch him. She's currently 7% behind. Election analysts say that in the past, the ballots got bluer, the later they were counted. And that may be especially true in this election since a lot of undecided Democrats held their ballots until the very end. Like the people who usually sit at this table. Like the people who usually sit at this table.

I mean, I decided late before these guys, but I did, I turned it on Monday. Yeah, that's still considered late in my book. That's pretty late. Yeah, I dropped it in, I dropped it in a box on Monday. So who knows when it finally got to the may not have. Yeah. While we have you here in LA, what have you made of our California primaries? Because you need to fucking count your boat a lot faster. I know. There are machines that will help you. I am, you know, we focused actually on both Texas and California and last week's

runaway country, and we had the inimitable Daniel Pfeiffer on. And it worries me as someone who would like to see a changing of the guard in 2028 about what this could portend for the Democratic Party writ large. That's a good point. just because there's, I mean, I think the gubernatorial race is a little different. It was hit with obviously the Swalwell revelations or accusations or whatever we're calling them. And that upended, I guess, the race. But there's a real lack of enthusiasm, no coalescing. It's what exactly the party wants to do in terms of like its priorities for like arguably one of the most, the most important state in the union. I'm a New Yorker, so I can't really give you that. But, you know, there's no clear agenda. There's a lack of enthusiasm. There's a sense that everyone's votes are very scattered and it's based on strategy. And that's not how you win a national election. And I worry that some of that can trickle down to what is going to be a very crowded primary field and where I think the order of the day is going to be electability, which is so what the fuck is that.

And I guess it makes me. Super important. Super hard to define. Exactly. Very subjective. And self-determining. Not totally subjective though. That's the, you want to be like, well, you can't dismiss it totally and be like, well, it's all subjective.

if no one knows electability. Yeah, you can kind of tell, but it's also not perfectly objective either. Yeah, and the mayoral race really worries me. Yeah. In many ways, the gubernatorial race, I will set aside to like sort of strange dynamics, but the mayoral race seems like an area

where Democrats are having a really hard time articulating a message that is addressing people's deep-seated concerns so much so that a no-nothing reality TV star sounds familiar has somehow vaulted to the head of the pack. I mean, that's, That's not good. That means there's real desperation inside, you know, one of the bluest cities and the bluest states in the country. So what does that mean for the country where it's not as blue and it's not as concentrated? I just, I worry. I don't like what I'm seeing here. And I genuinely love this state. I have been like grumbling about this to anyone who listen. But all the Democrats running in California in these primaries, mayor and governor, who's the really inspiring communicator? Yeah.

who's good, who gets, who's good at getting attention by just talking and not spending $200 billion, $200 million, like Tom Steyer did. Not a lot of them. And then you have someone, Katie Porter is a good example. Here's someone who in 2018, Rising Star, great communicator, policy wonk, but also someone who's like, like, explain it an accessible way, had the whiteboard. And then she has a personal character issue, right, with staff. So then you got that.

And that becomes a theme in the Democratic Party as well. there, right? So you got that kind of person. You got your Nithias like this and a lot of other folks who are running too who are like good at the job. You can tell they're going to be good at the job and they're brilliant people. But like, were they born to be campaigners? Not really. We've had a lot of that in the Democratic Party. Yeah. Right. And then you have the Baceres, the Karen Basses, who their claim to fame is just sticking around long enough. And just hanging around Democratic politics and being part of the establishment and making enough connections in the establishment that suddenly people are ready to rally behind you. And do you have good intentions? Yeah, I'm sure.

I'm sure Karen Bass had great intentions when she took the job. And same with, I assume that of Javier Berser, because I like to always assume well about people. But Karen Bass didn't adequately communicate in the last couple of years on this job. She didn't show the kind of urgency you need to show to be mayor of a city this large, even though it's a week. That actually means you have to work even harder to communicate in a weak mayor system. And, you know, I don't, that doesn't surprise me because in Congress, as a member of Congress, which she was for so long, you can just kind of hang out in Congress and take your votes. But like, we need leaders.

Yeah. We need people to like stand up and point somewhere and say, this is where we're going and this is how we get there and get behind me and we're going to get excited. And it's like, where is that? Well, and the party by nature doesn't lend it. It's sort of antithetical to be standing up. and guiding everything in the Democratic Party, which is much more of a consensus-oriented group of people, right?

And it's much more inclusive and expansive in thought and agenda and all the rest. But that is a sort of structural problem for a party that desperately needs leadership and, like, executive-style leadership. Yes. And it bumps me out to say it because, first of all, it is really hard to run for office. And it's a lot of sacrifice. And especially in this environment, it's like, why does anyone want to go through that? Right.

And there are so many people who are going through it right now who are wonderful candidates who people will maybe never hear about because they're just putting their head down and trying to win their races. And they're not as flashy as some of the other candidates we talk about. And like, God bless them. But when we get to president, this is going to be the challenge. Yeah, this is why it's like, it's spook in me. Because you can do that in a congressional race. You can do that, probably even in a Senate race, as you get to governor in the state or as you get to a mayor or now, especially when you get to president, it's going to be a lot tougher to do that. Just sort of fake it.

Yeah. You need the real talent there. That's true. I know that talents come from California. JK. J.K. It's a great state. It is a great state.

A lot of great people here. A lot of great people. Favro, 2028. Yeah, right. Okay. Right as we were, speaking of all this, right as we were preparing to record this, the much rumored second New York Times story

on Graham Platner's problematic behavior dropped. This one talks about his relationships with his past girlfriends. Several of them spoke of him fondly. three others the time spoke to described quote toxic relationships that were unsettling i'm going to try to quote as much as i can here because it is it's a lot to untangle in this piece yeah um the most prominent voice uh in the piece is a long time conservative activist he dated between 2013 and 2015 so i guess this is when he was in dc um and she said that while platner quote never hit me um he once yanked her out of a cab by her wrist

and also during one argument, twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom, and told her to remain there until she was calm. Platner strongly disputes any claims of physical intimidation or altercations. This is all according to the times. Seems like every time you're on the show, there's a big turn in the Platner story. So welcome back. Coincidence or not. What did you think of this one?

I feel like I get the Graham Platiner hot potato landing. You really do? I really do. And there's not even Dan here to, you know, create some levity around the absurdity of all of this. Dan never gets it, by the way. I feel like every time, well, it's just a quiet sort of rivalry that Dan and I have. Yeah, right, right. Like Platner v. Mills.

I will say there's another part of the piece, again quoted, a quote or retold by this conservative activist, former girlfriend, where she says that Platner had what she described as a warrior ethos and would fantasize about killing people he deemed a threat. She said that he told her that rape was about power. It was something that stuck with her through the years, she said. He said this a lot. If anybody ever broke in here, I would rape them, she recalled, saying that he added it would not be in a sexual way, not in a gay way. He was like, I would rape them to show them that I'm dominant. Yeah. I mean, okay, this is where it's like, This is really, this fucking sucks.

Yeah. I want to be a person that has learned the lessons of, of like, if you have multiple people accusing the one person of very similar behavioral patterns, like, there's a good chance. There's something there. This story goes, I mean, they go out of their way in the Times piece to quote girlfriends who were like, he was a gentle giant. I have nothing bad to say about him, but then there are a handful of women that were like, you know, his behavior was sometimes made me feel not safe. And then this one in particular, this one ex-girlfriend has the most distressing and in my mind disqualifying things to say about him. And I think like, we can't, this can't be brushed aside. He has to, he has to, you know, tackle this head on.

And if this was a Republican, everybody would say, no fucking way. Yeah. I mean, that's just the truth. Like with all of this, she also suggests. And then they'd be elected. Right. Well, fine. And ultimately, this isn't up to you and me.

This is up to the voters of Maine. And this is a really interesting study. I mean, so much of what Platner represents was the left's answer to the toxic masculinity of the right. And what's really fucking unfortunate is that this kind of masculinity, if this stuff is true, is just as fucking toxic as everything being served on the right. And there has to be a difference. There has to be a difference between what the. the left is proposing men and strength can look like and what the right is because otherwise we as women and its citizens of a democracy are completely fucked.

So I would love to hear a lot more from Grand Platner on this. Like getting into these allegations, she also suggests that he taught her the name of his Nazi tattoo and knew very much that it was a Nazi tattoo called the Toten TOTA. My Totenka. My Totenka. Which makes me, is the exact language that was used in Andrew Kaczynski's piece about this because Andrew did, who's a great reporter, said this on two. Tuesday, basically reported that an acquaintance of his said that he had told her my Totenkov before.

So I was like, the language was the same. So I wonder if it was the same source. But regardless, look, I said on Tuesday show that Platner's biggest issue going forward is trust. Yeah. And there are allegations in this story about the SS symbol and when he found out and what he knew. And, you know, after that, he got more questions about, you know, were there any more skeletons in your closet. He said no. Then the sexting story came out. He got more questions about whether there are additional allegations coming out from Democratic senators this week. And he said nothing like the rumors that have been circulating. I'm not going to show the rumors here, but the rumors have been, they have been actually much, much worse than what the New York Times ended up with. And he said,

no, nothing like those rumors that we've been hearing, which may be technically true, but now there's this story, right? And even if he is completely telling the truth, and this is it, and he really is a different, better person who, and he says in the story, I was a bad boyfriend, I drank too much, he has said all kinds of things about how horrible he was before he tried to turn his life around, even if he is telling the truth about that, which I can't judge, you can't judge, none of us can judge. The problem is it's going to be really hard to blame voters who wonder whether they can believe it. No, you can't blame voters.

But also, it's not even beyond just trust. And that sucks. Is this a person who does this stuff? I mean, that's a financial question. I mean, like, it is hard. It is like very difficult. Well, that's what you like, given how how absolutely asymmetric, the asymmetrical the value system is here.

That Democrat, you know, like that a person who otherwise has adopted a very sort of strong set of beliefs and policies that would help a large part of this country and seems very much like he believes those things could be shut down based on this. But if this is true, I mean, you can't, it's amoral. You can't behave like this. You can't talk about women and do things like this to them. You can't talk about rape like that. I mean, you just, you cannot fucking do that. That is, those are not the morals of a sensible party. And I, I, I don't know, I, I, I got to say, because I, I mean, I remember the, I under, and I understand. the repulsion of like having the DSCC involve itself in a Senate race.

But everybody was like, Janet Mills is too old. And I remember talking to Dan about this. And I was like, I mean, yeah, she's old. But like, Graham Platner has a lot of fucking question marks, guys. Yeah. Well, I mean, here's the thing about that is two things can be right. Yes, fine. But I do think.

Like, I think like people have, you know. But all I'm saying is, and I see that, like, there was so much interest in the fact that he could be a new kind of masculinity for the left. And it's like, I'm sorry that she's old and that she's a woman and that she was governor. But she was tough at her. I'm not a Mills person. I'm not a Mills person. But I'm not like an anti.

Like if they, if, you know, if they decide tomorrow, like they're going to replace them with Mills and Mills. It's like, I'm not going to be like, oh, no. Like, great. We need to win the fucking seat. That's the most important thing. It's not about, like, it's not about grand platinum. Right. It's about winning the seat.

It is. And you know what? It's a good fucking thing. I was back on the map, I guess is the, is the net. I do try to separate like this is a political situation and this is like a personal situation, right? Like imagine if we were talking about this person and he wasn't running for office, okay? Just as an experiment here because I think this is what has like been bothering me about it is like I do very much believe in the ability to redeem oneself and to change and to become a better person. And I still think it is very possible that this is the case with him, that all that stuff in the past is true.

Yeah. And that somewhere along the line, as he says, he was like, my life is really fucked up. And, you know, people say like he's blaming the war. But like, you know, every time, every person who's fucked up is a product of their environment and their own choices. It's both, right? And so his own choices, his environment led him to this moment where he was really fucked up. He gets help. He tries to, you know, work in his community, organize people, tries to turn over a new leaf.

And then someone's like, you should run for office. He's like, me? What the fuck? And then he's like, okay, I guess, but what am I my past? You can do it, right? You're a changed person. And then he does it. And then this is what happens. Now, no, no, I'm just saying. Yeah. The more of these, I'm telling you what I feel like, like, the more of these stories come out, the more I'm like, yes, that could all be true. But there's a bigger, there's a bigger, there's more at stake here than your personal redemption story because we need the sense. So that's where I'm landing, but I'm just saying like. Can I say one thing to that though? Yeah. I don't think, I mean, I think at. essence, I wouldn't divorce the personal from the political in this, in part because there's been such an assault on women in this country, whether it's denying them basic reproductive health, continuing to drag feet on basic, you know, maternal health questions, especially in low-income communities or on paid family leave. You know, they're essential questions about how much you

value women and families. Like, these are questions that senators are going to have to answer if Democrats have power again. Like, there needs to be legislation to address the wrongs and the assault on women's lives. And, you know, you want people that see women as co-equals. You want people that see families as, you know, an important unit of American society and believe in the, I don't mean to sound like some family values Democrat, but I think, you know, it is, this is the reason this stuff bleeds into the politicals because those are your, you know, these are organizing principles. And if you're living your life in such violation of some of those principles that you then need to turn into legislation, it makes you question how effective someone's going to be in office if they get there.

I mean, that's all I'll say about it because I don't know if any of this is true. No, I don't either. I don't think the reasoning that he's given this far is sufficient to paper over this new reporting, I guess is what I would say. And I guess I'm just saying like, don't we want people who change and who are like, I what I thought back then, what I said back then was fucking wrong and I actually mean it. and like whether it's a someone who voted for Trump and who supported Trump, whether it's a fucking oyster man in Maine, whether it's, um, we're a party who wants to rehabilitate people who serve time in prison and give them a second chance who were murderers. And we get attacked for that by Republicans.

We say no, we think it's important to do, you know, rehabilitation. And again, I don't, people are going to take this out of context. I'm not saying that therefore grand plan must get a seat. We must do it for him. I am just saying that on an individual level as a party, sometimes I think that one of our, and maybe this is just me, but like, I want to believe well about people. And then I want to believe that when people fuck up and do something horrible and are genuinely sorry and genuinely want to change, that they are able to do that and that people can accept them for doing that. No matter who they are, what they believe, what their background is fucking Donald Trump. No, not Donald Trump.

Yeah. But you know what I'm saying? Todd Blanche. No, not Todd Blanche. That is like, that's just like me therapyizing this and just like talking about like this is, this is divorcing it from the like, I do think this is a huge fucking problem right now. We want people who've made mistakes because life is full of mistakes.

But there are mistakes. There are patterns of behavior that suggest that lessons are, have not been learned. And then there are mistakes that you make and move past. And I just don't know which one this falls into. Yeah. And also it's like, and again, how many can. Can you add up and pile up if you want to be a United States senator? Now, I also think that it's a – the other challenge is, you know, contrary to what people

online have said, like, the guy generated an impressive amount of support in Maine. This is why it doesn't fucking matter what we say. I mean, we already know that, but like it really doesn't. Like, it will be very interesting to me as someone who's interested in kind of the social currents. I mean, I say this as an armchair sociologist, but whether this is an issue for him. I mean, it's entirely possible that he can move past it, I guess. It's also, too, like, it's, you know, for all the, what did Chuck Schumer and the DSCC do with Janet Mills? Or what did the left do forcing Graham Platner on?

It's like, no one forced Janet Mills on anyone. No one forced Graham Platner on anyone. Maine, Maine chose. Graham Platner decided to run and a bunch of people showed up. Chuck Schumer wanted Mills to run, and she said, sure, and she ran a campaign. And then the people of Maine came out, and you know what? We have a primary on Tuesday. And I do think, like, I mean, she's on the ballot still.

There's, like, one other candidate as well. You expect him to get, like, if he was a normal candidate without scandal in a situation like that, 85, 90% of the 80%. If he's down to, like, 60, 65, it's a real fucking problem. Or if, and like, I don't want to just, because you don't want to just base it on polls, but, like, you know, we haven't seen any polls post the sexting scandal, except for their internal, which had him only up for a while. but like there's going to be plenty of polls that come out. Yeah. And we'll see what happens in the primary, but the party has till, I believe, July 13th

if he drops out to replace him with someone else. So there's some time here. There's another month of pain. I don't want to do this show until this primary is over. Same. Get me out of this seat. Same. But like you said, we'll end up where you begin.

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60 minutes. Meltdown at 60 minutes. Oh, we should. We could go forever. This isn't, as you said, this show isn't called 60 minutes. This is 190, whatever we want. As you know by now, ever since Trump paled David Allison put contrarian conservative columnist Barry Weiss in charge of CBS, she's taken a special interest in 60 minutes. Last week, Weiss fired the show's executive producer along with several correspondents and hired Nick Bilton, a tech journalist with no broadcast experience to run the program at Bilton's introduction meeting, which Weiss did not attend.

Maybe the funniest part of the whole story. I know. Veteran correspondent Scott Pelly accused Weiss of trying to try and. to, quote, murder the show, and according to recordings of the meeting that have circulated. Shortly after that, Pelley was fired. And then on his way out, publicly accused Weiss and CBS leadership of instructing him to, quote, inject falsehoods and bias in unverified assertions into, quote, a politically sensitive story. You worked at CBS News for a while. I did.

I know you've been writing about this story a bunch on your excellent substack. How the Hell with Alex Wagner? Perfect title. Oh, the hell. a great name for a substack. Care to uncork on this one? Yeah, I do. How much time we got.

Can you hear the sound of me rubbing my hands together? Please do it. So, I have so much to say about this, but I know I can't spend an hour on it. I can't spend 60 minutes on it. It's appalling what Barry Weiss is doing. It is all part of a project that Barry Weiss is a small player in a larger machine, which is for the Ellison's. I mean, I actually don't think David Ellison,

who I refer to as Lord Collagen on my substack. Have you noticed how just it's like too ripe, but also just ripe the ripeness of his cheeks and lips. A little shiny. Very collagen filled, but not. I think he's naturally just peach-like. Anyway. Sure.

We'll go with that. He, I don't really, I mean, I think they're conservatives. This is, I mean, they are, they want to make a lot of money. And the way they're going to do that is by currying favor with the Trump administration by any means possible. And they've figured out wisely that the best way to do that and ensure that they can proceed with the Paramount Warner Brothers Discovery merger, which is supposed to happen as soon as next month, is to show Trump that they have no compunction about gutting legendary news institutions and destroying the fourth estate if it's inconvenient to this precedent. And that's what's happening here. And, you know, Barry Weiss is a fool, I will say that. This is foolish, bad, amoral, unethical behavior.

She is hollowing out this institution that was one of the last, you know, we talk about this moment in American life when people used to gather around and watch things on the television. 60 minutes is like the last bit of appointment television we have in the news industry. We've had a real monoculture problem in this country the last 10 years. And it's, I don't think much is going to exist of it at the end of all of this. And that's a real travesty because I don't think you. you ever get those viewers back. I mean, that's the problem with broadcast. It's an iceberg that melts. And once it's melted, there's no refreezing. And so, you know, what I would love to see

in all of this is the people who count in terms of the Ellison's life and financials say something about it, which means I sit here in Los Angeles, California. And the thing that the Ellisons are interested is television and movies. That's their bread and butter. That's what makes money for the Ellisons and Paramount. And like, it is one thing for Alex Watt's. and John Favreau to stand in solidarity with Scott Pelly and the staff of CVS and 60 Minutes. It's another thing for everybody who's on a Taylor Sheridan or Tyler Sheridan show to say, hey, you can't gut the fourth estate just because you want to make money on entertainment. It's like where are all the people that have movies made by Paramount?

Where are the people that have TV shows made by Paramount? I think this is their fight too because this is an issue of free speech. And until and unless they stand up, it's not going to make a difference. News doesn't fucking make money. News is an afterthought. This is an inconvenience for the Ellison's. The only thing they care about is making money through entertainment. And until the entertainment world stands up and says, you can't do this.

A crime against one of us in terms of free speech is a crime against all of us. This goes nowhere. You can tell that Nick Milton, did you see like his long note that he put out today where he was like, and I, you know, we're committed to transparency and honest journalism. And I've talked to Leslie Stahl and the remaining correspondence. You know, you can tell there's a little, he's a little worried. Yeah, he should be a lot worried. A lot worried.

And they promoted Maria Gavilovic to senior producer, who's, we both know. I know I haven't known for a while, and she's fantastic. When I worked at CBS News, we were not allowed to cross the street to go over to 60 minutes. You had to like that. Oh, wow. It was a separate office with better lighting, better everything. I think it was like soundproofed, so you never knew what was happening. You know what's really annoyed me about this?

I mean, a lot of it. Everything you said is like right on. The sources that are saying to media reporters about this, you know, the culture was kind of bad at 60 minutes. And it's not everyone, you know, all you TDS think it's all politics, but there was a culture problem that needed to be solved. And this is just maybe a bit of a rough way to do it. Fuck off. I mean, yeah. Drives me nuts.

Well, and as someone who, I was on the fucking, the farm team over at CBS, right? I was doing CBS this morning, CBS this morning on the weekends. Like, I was the bottom feeder and you'd look enviously across the street. But there was a reason you were envious because the quality of investigative research and reporting they were doing was bar not. I mean, there was just nothing like it. And they deserved to be an island under themselves because of the rigor of what they were doing. And the audience that they commanded. You know what I mean?

Sorry that they were on top and sorry that it sucked for everybody else. And especially the CBS News Division, which was starved into obsolescence and left to eat. you know, moldy green beans in the cafeteria from 1976. That was literally something that I did on a daily basis. But like, they, they earn that reputation for a reason. And the Schadenfreude around this among news industry veterans and people who once work there, fuck off. This is not about like a dick swinging contest about who got what resources. This is about attacks on the free press. And this administration, through the, the lackeys that it has put in its corner, disassembling like one of the last great institutions.

It's also it's like, you think there's a culture issue, you think it's a fossil, you think it needs to be updated for the digital age, fine. Think about all the ways to do that that are not this. Because if you wanted to do that, you'd have to be really fucking incompetent to do it this way. And like, you're not going to tell me, like Barry Weiss is a lot of things. You're not going to tell me that she and Nick Bilton and all the rest of them are this fucking dumb that they think that this was the best way to change. change the culture at 60 minutes. It's totally vindictive and none of them have any qualifications. Like, show me the media companies that either one of them have turned around.

Show me the experience they have in television or broadcaster news. They got nada. It's bad. Goose egg, baby. All right. It's been a long show, but before we go, before we go, I have to... The deep tease. All right, so I'm just going to, you know some of this.

You know some of this. I only, I kind of had two martinis when you tell me of this. That's true. That's true. I did tell you that. I'm just going to read aloud to all of you, an email I received on March 25th, a couple months ago now. Oh, my God. It's from TKO events.

TKO events sent it to me, John Favro. And the subject line of the email is UFC Freedom 250. God, I love it. John, we are honored to invite you to UFC Freedom 250 on Sunday, June 14th, a special evening celebrating our country. This once-in-a-lifetime event marks a history. historic moment, and we would love to have you join us. This invitation is non-transferable and does not include a plus one. We need your RSVP by Tuesday, March 31st, as there are significant logistics with the White House.

More details to follow. So I saw this, and it was like, is this a joke? Did someone prank me? Why am I invited to the White House? And then I looked, and in the CC line of TKO events was Ari Emanuel, who owns TKO events. And then I looked up TKO events. I'm like, oh, and they own UFC. And then I did a little digging.

I was like, oh, so Trump had all his tickets. There's 4,000 tickets. Trump gets most of them. Some go to the military. 200 go to R.E. Emanuel at TKO events. 200 go to Dana White. And Ari chose me because what I thought is he thinks I was the other John Favro. Iron Man, John Favro.

Yes, because way back when I was represented at WME, and I believe that Ari was John Favro. agent and I think John must like UFC fights or whatever. But anyway, I RISVPed, yes, because I thought, fuck it, I'm going to the White House. Yeah, you fucking are. And I'm going to go in there with a and I'm going to check it out. Maybe I'll see my buddy Stephen Miller or my friend J.D. Vans and chat them up. Like, possibly. You're going to climb the octagon. Possibilities were in this. So I RSVPed. I got this follow up on April 2nd. Your ticket to UFC Freedom 250 in Washington, D.C. on June 14th is confirmed. No.

ticketing and arrival details surrounding your visit will be sent from TKO events during the week of June 8th. Please reach out with any questions and let us know if you're no longer able to attend. Thank you. So I'm like, okay, it's still happening. A few weeks ago on May 11th, I got another email. Ahead of your trip to Washington, D.C.

For the historic UFC Freedom 250, we are collecting identification details from each guest due to the heightened level of security that will be in place throughout the weekend. The information is required to ensure there are no issues with ticket distribution. So I gave them all my info on May 27th. I got more details, including suggested dress code, business formal, a reminder to bring my government issued ID, instructions of how to get my ticket the week of the fight, a whole, whole thing. So I had, I made plans.

You bought a ticket? To D.C. To D.C. Like booked a hotel. Had a whole meeting here with her. Baby's going to the UFC fight. Had a whole meeting here with everyone. It was, it's Sunday, June 14th.

The next day I was going to Chicago for the Obama Library opening. Heard of it. Heard of it. Probably not too many people going to both of those things. Nada. Very excited. Trying to figure out like, how am I going to play this? What if I get right?

What's going on? And then today. No. Another email from TKO events. Too good to be true. Hi, Jonathan. Now, when I gave all my info, of course, I gave my real info, which is Jonathan Edward Favro.

And the only thing that's different between me and the other John Favro is our middle name. You know, he's, he's J-O-N-2, but he's K, John K-Faver, and I'm John E. And I think, because then also they went with my full name, I think that they probably, when they saw that, they finally checked the list. Our sincerest apologies. No. But we've just discovered there was a miscommunication about our allotted number of guest invitations for UFC Freedom 250 on June 14th. Unfortunately, as a result, we are under-allotted and no longer able to accommodate your attendance. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Thank you for your understanding. we would love to host you at a future event. Yes, perfect. For the third inaugural. Fuck. I was so close. They got me. You know what? I knew something must have gone awry because you certainly wouldn't be broadcasting this.

No, I was going to keep it all secret. I wasn't going to say anything until I was safely out of there. No way was I going to say anything. Perhaps I'm devastated. To anybody who's listening to this, you should be watching it on YouTube because Favro's like the way his eyes dance when he talks. talks about this. It was so, it was such a fun story. Oh my God, it's like watching a balloon take flight, like the glee. I will say though, it was like, it's such a fun story, but as I was getting closer, I'm like, what is this going to be like? What am I going to do? Oh, we, I mean,

I really was like, can we put a GoPro in your trench coat? Can we put love it in your trench coat? Well, I started to figure out because I'm like, you know, went to White House events and inside the White House, they always take people's phones for, or at least we did. Yeah, well, but who knows what this, these people. Anything goes. But on the South lawn, and I know it's high security, and I'm like, I bet people are going to be taking pictures all over the place in the South line. So I didn't think they were going to be taking my phone. But also I was like, what if I get recognized? Are they going to kick me out? What's going to happen? Like, am I going to talk to someone? I'm not the type who's going to go up and like yell at someone. You know, maybe. Maybe your

shrink bill will be less because you had to have a lot of contingencies. But I mean, really, the service you could have done in our country. Again, climbing the octagon, unfurling, you know, a let them eat cake banner over the, over the White House portico. I mean, there were so many possibilities. What if it was a, what if, what if, what if, what if, what If they, who, I was like, is there going to be a lawyer on hand? Listen, precautions could have been taken. We would have gotten. The ex-exville team could have gotten you out.

Like, ICE was there. So it's a lot of ways this could have gotten wrong. Listen, I mean, I just hope that the mistakes continue with their mailing list. This is a lot like, I mean, maybe you'll be invited to perform at Freedom 250 because they confuse you. Which is now just a Trump rally, apparently. Well, apparently he's the greatest performer in American history. I do hope that other John Fabro gets his invite now. Other John Favro, this is a Holly, you have a Hollywood audience.

Yes. If someone out there can talk to John Favro. And I, well, I did, I, I know John Favro, but like, I've only met him a couple times. Are you close to him? Well, clearly not close enough that I was going to tell him I got his invite. Exactly. You were going to take his, now he hates you. I'm sure, yeah.

Someone. He'll understand. It's a great story. If I showed up and just like sat next to Vince Fawn, whatever. Well, that would have been interesting. Someone, Robert Downey Jr. Are you out there? Like, have other Favro give this Favro his ticket.

That's a good idea. Yeah. No plus one. So yeah, I would have to take it. Anyway, I'm glad that I shared that out with you. Got it off my chest. What a beautiful dessert. Beautiful dessert. Beautiful dessert. Beautiful dessert. That is our show for today. Tommy will be back in the feed on Sunday with a conversation with the bulwarks Will Summer about the MAGA Media ecosystem and all the latest drama. So check that out. Have a great weekend. Thanks, Alex. Pleasure to be here, buddy.

Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. Our show is produced by Austin Fisher, Saul Rubin, McKenna Roberts, and Faris Safari with Reed Jirlin, Elijah Cohn, and Adrian Hill. Our team includes Matt De Groat, Ben Hefcoat, Jordan Cantor, Charlotte Landis, Kirill Pellevieve, David Tolls, Mia Kelman, Ryan Young, and Naomi Single. Our staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East.