The Majority Report with Sam Seder - 3627 - Trump's Crooked Fed Chair Nominee; GOP Plotting Next Supreme Court Pick? w/ Elie Mystal

Episode Date: April 21, 2026

It's News Day Tuesday on The Majority Report   On today's program:   Senator Liz Warren challenges Trump's pick for the Fed chair, Kevin Warsh, to exhibit independence from the president and he fails miserably. Warsh cannot name a single piece of Trump economic agenda that he disagrees with; he cannot even admit that Trump lost the 2020 election.   Elie Mystal, justice correspondent and columnist at The Nation magazine, joins the program for a conversation about Justice Alito's future and other recent Supreme Court activity.   All that and more   New host of Info Wars, Tim Heidecker joins the show to discuss IW's new vision.   Sean Hannity has left the Catholic Church over the Pope's refusal to endorse the war in Iran. Hannity also blames the Mets losing streak on Zohran Mamdani cursing the team by hugging Mr. Met.   A Florida student is facing 15 years in prison for making an obvious joke about Netanyahu in a group chat.   Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) and Benny Johnson have an incredibly racist conversation about Somalis and Haitians.   To connect and organize with your local ICE rapid response team visit ICERRT.com The Congress switchboard number is [phone]. You can use this number to connect with either the U.S. Senate or the House of Representatives. Follow us on TikTok here: https://www.tiktok.com/@majorityreportfm Check us out on Twitch here: https://www.twitch.tv/themajorityreport Find our Rumble stream here: https://rumble.com/user/majorityreport Check out our alt YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/majorityreportlive Gift a Majority Report subscription here: https://fans.fm/majority/gift Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here: https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord! https://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store: https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!: https://majority.fm/app Go to https://JustCoffee.coop and use coupon code majority to get 10% off your purchase Check out today's sponsors: PROLON: ProlonLife.com/majority Get 15% off plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe to their 5-Day Program. FAST GROWING TREES: Get 20% off your first purchase.  FastGrowingTrees.com/majority SUNSET LAKE CBD: Head on over to SunsetLakeCBD.com and use coupon code 420 to save 30% sitewide Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattLech On Instagram: @MrBryanVokey Check out Matt's show, Left Reckoning, on YouTube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning Check out Matt Binder's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder Subscribe to Brandon's show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse Check out Ava Raiza's music here! https://avaraiza.bandcamp.

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And now for the show. with Sam Cedar. It is Tuesday. April 21st, 2006. My name is Sam Cedar. This is the five-time award-winning majority report. We are broadcasting live steps from the industrially ravaged Gowanus Canal in the heartland of America, downtown Brooklyn, USA. On the program today, Ellie Mistal, justice correspondent, and calmness that the nation magazine

on when Alito leaves and the shadowy shadow docket. Trump now saying no ceasefire extension with Iran, but that was an hour ago, so maybe he's saying something different now. Meanwhile, Trump fires his third, I'm sure, coincidentally, a female cabinet secretary, surprise, Labor Secretary. Cash Patel sues the Atlantic for reporting on his incredible drunkenness.

I think it's not on video or anything. It's not like we've actually seen him jumping up and down drinking champagne. VA votes today on a Jerry, Virginia votes today on a gerrymander worth four new Democratic seats. fired British foreign office head testified testimony to that he was pressured to approve Epstein-Chun Mandelson as U.S. ambassador has Kirstarmer treading water.

California AG releases documents showing Amazon allegedly colluding to price fix. Meanwhile, Maryland to ban dynamic pricing. Federal Chair nominee Kevin Warsh to promise to be strictly independent on rates. Senate gearing up to laugh. Our revolution backs Steyer in California governor race. Meanwhile, Katie Porter's ex-staff issue a defense of her work. Trump using the Defense Production Act to pump more oil.

And Republican lawmakers launch a marriage. marathon Bible reading event this week. The old Andy Kaufman bit. Exactly. It is also week seven for American journalist Ahmed Shihabab, Eldon. Elder, his detention in Kuwait for merely for reporting on a U.S. fighter crash. All this and more on today's majority report. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. It is, what is today?

Newsday, Tuesday. Newsday, Tuesday, says Emma Vigland. Here, let me just adjust this a little bit. We're not talking about it. We're not talking about the Knicks. I was at the game, spent my money to go to that game last night, and we're not talking about it further. Already, I got to be honest.

That was my birthday gift. It was my birthday gift. Oh, but speaking of your birthday gifts, why don't you tell people the good news? news. Oh, yeah. Actually, that is true. I'm not. I was going to wait, but I mean, there's no, there's no, because I do believe that Dr. Lubani is going to send us a video thanking the audience. But like, I'm really just blown away by this. Apparently, you know, for my birthday, I kind of asked if people would donate to the Glea project, which is, you know, an organization that we've supported before, but Dr. Tariq Lubani is a part of it. They help support Gaza's physicians and they do so with open source medical tools, solidarity work and all of that. And Dr. Lubani reached out and told me that it's been a thousand donations. That's amazing. And that because of this audience's generosity, they've raised enough money to run the wound

care service for a full month. That's 30 nurses and health care providers along with supplies and equipment. So, I mean, I'm just blown away. Thank you all so much. And if you want to support the Glea project, you can go to gleea.org and continue to support their incredible work in Gaza. That's awesome.

Awesome. Congratulations to you. And thank you to the audience. Really impressive stuff. We'll play the video. We can do both. When he sends it. He's in Gaza, so I'm trying not to hound him.

Does he have more important things to do? Some important stuff going on there. Yeah. All right. Well, meanwhile, on the hill today, Kevin Warsh, who is a, he is a on the board, the Federal Reserve, but he is being nominated to be chair, I believe. Here he is being grilled. Let's start with, well, let's just start with, should we start with 1A, as it were, on the election? because the ostensibly, I mean, this is the way that it was written up in the news, was that he is going to be independent. Because the concern is that Donald Trump is going to get this guy to lower rates because that juices the economy short term. Now, of course, we are fighting inflation because of Donald Trump's tariffs, although now he's having to give that money back.

Now, every American, it is estimated, every American family paid $1,000 worth of tariffs. But because they did, we don't know which products they paid because some importers absorb some of that, we're not going to see any of that money when the Treasury gives out the $160 billion some odd dollars that it collected in tariffs back as a rebate to these companies. So we're fighting inflation on that front. We're fighting inflation because, of course, food prices. are probably going to skyrocket because of Iran. Oil prices have gone through the roof because of Iran

and everything that's downstream from those things. Chips because of nitrogen because of the are a war with Iran. And so Trump wants him to juice the economy, even though that might create even more inflation because, of course, he wants to see if he can maintain some chance in 2026 to retain the House and the Senate and not get impeached. So Warsh has promised to be independent.

Does this sound like independence? Let's play number 1A. I'll take that as a no as well. So Donald Trump has made clear that he does not want an independent fed. In fact, he has said, and I quote, anybody that disagrees with me will never be fed chairman. And he's made clear that you are his sock puppets saying last week that interest rates will drop, quote, when Kevin gets in, yeah, I think they do.

Not when economic conditions change, we'll get lower rates. Not when the economy needs it. Nope. He said when my guy, Kevin Warsh, is in there. We'll get the interest rates that I, Donald Trump, wants. So independence takes courage. Let's check out your independence and your courage. We'll start easy.

Mr. Warsh, did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election? We try to keep politics if I'm confirmed out of the federal reserve. I'm just asking you a factual question. I need to know, I need to measure. Your independence and your courage. Senator, I believe that this body certified that election many years ago. That's not the question of this. I'm suggesting you can't answer that.

Your huge inflation problem and you certified the election. So let me ask for another question out of monetary policy. In our meeting. I mean, the guy can't even answer if he won the 2020 election. I mean, if he wants to stay out of politics. politics. Why is he talking about certification? I refuse to answer because it's a political question. It's an

assessment of a political question. But is it really an assessment of a political question? Did the sunrise yesterday? How about that? Let's start with that easy fact. I don't want to get into geology, to astronomy.

Right. Well, but Warren was smart there to lead with that because we know you know that that is trump's like number one litmus test question for anybody that's like at the top of the list of his hazing ritual this is going to come up when we talk to ellie mistel uh in a moment but uh there have been members of the democratic uh members of the senate judiciary committee who have um not asked this question of a lot of lifetime appointees to to the judicial and this seems to be an incredibly important litmus test as to just like how much people are willing to twist reality for the sake of staying in Donald Trump's good graces. And so if a war here will not

answer that question. He has also answered the question of his independence. Here's another one where Elizabeth Warren. She makes it and then she says, okay, I'm going to make it about the economy then let's go if that's the only thing you're going to answer and spoiler alert he can't demonstrate independence from trump even in that instance it has been plagued by deeply disturbing ethics scandals in recent years involving at least six fed officials so it's critical that the next chair have no financial conflicts none uh you have more than a hundred million dollars this is this is one not that you have refused to disclose Oh, yeah, I'm sorry.

Let's do number two. Yeah. In our meeting, you said you would be independent because you're, quote, a tough guy. Those were your words, tough guy. And you will be able to stand up to President Trump. So let's try it again. Name one aspect of President Trump's economic agenda with which you disagree. Well, Senator, the Federal Reserve in recent years has wandered outside of its remit, wandered into other areas.

for something that's not something I'm prepared to do. If I'm confirmed the federal should stay in its lane. Just one. Just one little place where you disagree with Donald's. Well, I do have a disagreement, actually, Senator, with the president. I think even this morning, he said that he thought I was out of central casting. I think central casting, I'd look older, and maybe show up here with a cigar of sorts. Quite a terrible. But you know, we need. a Fed chair who is independent. That's the only way we've reserved the independence of the Federal Reserve. If you can't answer these questions, you don't have the courage and you don't have the

independence. I agree with you on independent, Senator. Yeah, the thing is, is Trump said I was hot, but I'm so humble that I'm going to tell you I'm not that hot, okay? Well, I'm too young. What was that last thing, though, he said? I disagree with you on the independence. No, I agree. I agree. Oh, you need to have, oh, so he doesn't agree that you need to have courage. Maybe not that part, right. I mean, let's run himself off the hook there. Yeah. He is deep in bed with Silicon Valley. I hadn't realized this. There's a really good CNBC article that came out yesterday that laid this out. But in 2022, he was going on Alex Carp's podcast, you know, the Palantir, the head of Palantir. He, has ties to Peter Thiel, Yahoo founder Jerry Yang, Mark Andresen. His connection with him goes back decades to college at Stanford. He made a bunch of tech investments as well in his disclosures. It's shown that he has at least nearly $200 million in terms of his net worth, potentially more.

He's invested in Palantir. He did so when he was working with another billionaire, with a billionaire Stanley Drucken Miller. He's invested in crypto, AI, a company that produces a robotic barista that automatically serves a latte. So this is somebody who would be the wealthiest Fed chair ever. And like all of these Trump nominees, the distinction between public service and enriching yourself privately is non-existent. There's no ethics there. Also, you know, if he's one of those tech bro guys, then one more reason to believe that there may not be the independence that we might want out of the Fed chair. All right. In a moment, we're going to be talking to Ellie Mistal, a justice correspondent and columnist at the Nation magazine. First, a couple of words from our sponsors.

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Offer is valid for a limited time. Terms and conditions may apply. We'll put the link in the podcast and YouTube description. Quick break and when we come back, Ellie Mistal, Justice Correspondent and columnist at the Nation magazine. We are back, Sam Cedar, Emma Vigland on the Majority Report. Always a pleasure to welcome back to the program. style justice correspondent and calmness at the nation magazine ellie um well here we are we're still

standing uh barely um but um there's a couple of things i want to talk to you about the supreme court uh one is uh maybe maybe we should start with let's start with this piece that you wrote last week and because i am convinced as you are uh as to your conclusion about this and i would even extended to Clarence Thomas. And that is Donald Trump has the sense, and I think more than Donald Trump have the sense that there's a chance the Democrats could take the Senate in the fall, and in which case, the clock is ticking for Donald Trump to replace two of the oldest justices on the court. Tell us about that. Yes, first, thanks for having you, Sam. Nice to see you, Emma. Yeah, so look, Sam Alia was 76 years old. And, you.

he notoriously does not like Washington, D.C. His wife notoriously does not like Washington, D.C., right? He is in that area where it is time for him to retire, and he would most likely want to retire under a Republican president because Alito is exactly that political. He wants to be replaced by somebody who's going to carry on his legacy. He does not want to make the Ruth Bader Ginsburg mistake, all right? So that's where we, that's, that's the, that's the stage, right? As we head towards the midterms, if the Republicans are confident that they will hold on to their lead in the Senate, they have a 53 vote for majority in the Senate right now, because Mitch McConnell already killed the filibuster when it comes to Supreme Court appointments, you only need 51 votes or with J.D. Vance, 50 votes to confirm a Supreme Court nominee. So as long as the Republicans hang on to the Senate, Alito doesn't have to worry about 2026.

But if there's a chance that they don't, then it becomes somewhat politically imperative for them to really think about retiring. Now, I piece together that Alito has a new book coming out, and that book is coming out on October 3, 2026. That's interesting, because you know what happens on October 2nd, 2026? That's when the Supreme Court term starts, right?

The book comes out on a Tuesday. the Supreme Court starts on the first Monday and October. It is weird. It is weird for a justice to release a book right at the beginning of the term. If you go back and you look at the last four or five books released by sitting Supreme Court justices, they happened in September. They happened the month before the Supreme Court starts. They happen when people are talking about the upcoming turn, but they're not busy. They're free to fly around the country and come on shows like this and do interviews.

and do book talks and sell their books. So it seemed to me that with an October release of his book, Alito wasn't planning on having a real job come October, right? Then you have all this other heat from the Senate, right? You have John Thune and Chuck Raston saying, you know, just by the way, FYI, Sam, we're ready to appoint your successor. We got Donald Trump saying, I'm ready, I'm prepared to nominate a successor. You have all this heat from the Republicans that, to me, are signaling to Alito, hey, the time to get out is now.

Basically, the Republicans are doing everything that the Democrats, you know, didn't do in 2014 with RBG, right? So they are trying to ease Alito into that long good night, into that lucrative retirement that he surely has awaiting for him before the midterms. and that tells me that Republicans are not 100% confident of their position in the upcoming midterm. So that's where I think the field of play is. Now, since I wrote that, Alito's people have come out and said he's definitely not retiring. He is talking. Oh, well, I'm sorry we invited you on. The case closed.

Right? We don't need to. Well, Republicans never lie, Sam. So like, what's that? Look, he has hired clerks, which is an interesting thing. Basically, the Supreme Court gets four helpers, research assistants, law clerks per term. By the way, the most important job to get out of law school there, that's the job that sets you up for your future legal or judging career. So he's hired four of them already.

It's a little bit early to hire clerks. Now, justices have retired after hiring clerks before, but that is a sign pointing to the fact that he might well be, you know, all in it to win. it in 2026, 2027. So that is a legit piece of information that cuts against my point. But the politics of it all is really what's driving this issue and the fact that we know Sam Alito cares about politics. We know that Sam Alito reads the papers. We know that Sam Alito watches Fox News. He calls into the Wall Street Journal editorial board. He is more politically aware, let's say, than the average justice, or at least he's willing to show that he's more politically aware than the average justice. And given the realities of the upcoming midterms, it makes kind of logical

political sense for him at 76 years old to retire before the midterms and let Trump appoint somebody just as awful as him, but 30 years younger. And I will say the other sort of, I guess, piece of evidence, I would suggest that he plans to retire, particularly because he must be aware that, I mean, he may have, I think if there wasn't a potential for a Democratic takeover of the Senate, if it was, you know, if it was like any other year and there wasn't all of these signs that the Democrats could actually literally pick up four seats, maybe more even, in this environment, I think you'd probably wait until the second half of this term. But here's why I think he will go.

Virgonia. When Alito's wife was recorded talking about all of the you know the horrible

LGBT flag across the lake or whatever it was, she said something to the effect of like you know, the statute of limitation, we're going to get out before the statute of limitations or something and I'm going to be able to talk.

And that was like, you know, that was a couple years ago. And so I think she's planning, she was always planning to have a Leto retire during Trump's term. But that was presumed that they would maintain the Senate. And so I think that he's going to, I don't think there are any tea leaves to read. I think he's gone. And here's the only one question I have for you, though. That Thune said it publicly, and you mentioned this in your piece, is interesting because, it suggests that, A, Thune's not talking to Alito directly or even back-channeling it, which is interesting.

Like, he doesn't want to pressure Alito because these guys are so full of themselves. But he's basically, forgive me, he's raising a flag, as it were, and letting Alito know. At 100%. Because, look, there was no reason for Thune to say that. What Thune sent, for those who don't know, Foon essentially said, the Senate is ready to confirm a nominee before the midterms. Yeah, no, no duh, John Thune. Everybody who's paying attention knows that if there is an opening in June,

the Republicans will shove through a nominee before November. Everybody knows that they're going to do that or at least try to do that. So Thune doesn't have to come out and say, we're going to try to do this. Yeah, everybody paying attention knows that. So why does he say anything at all? If anything saying something risks, and I know this is a small possibility, but risks alerting Democrats to the problem.

I mean, you know, it's sometimes hard to wake up the Democratic Party. It's sometimes hard to wake up, hey, Chuck Schumer, you got this fight coming. If anything's Thune saying that only tells Chuck, oh, by the way, this is happening, when Chuck might honestly not be paying attention or might not know. So that's the downside of Thune saying something. What's the upside? the upside is putting pressure on Alito. The upside is letting Alito know that the water is fine.

It's also potentially, this is what I'm saying, about Thune having access to polling data that San Alito does not. And so it could also be a way of Thun saying, like, hey, we're not as confident about 2026 as we were six months ago, eight months ago a year ago, right? We might need you to do this now just to be sure, just to be safe,

because 2026 is up in the air. I personally, the map, I just, I think Republicans are going to hold on to the Senate. I still think that, you know, you're betting money is that they'll lose the House and they'll hold on to the Senate. But Thune knows what I, do know those things that I don't know.

That made me a bet that I'm willing to take with you. But that aside, what about Thomas? Like, because it seems to me that Thomas has been on Harlan Crow's payroll for 20 years now, or 24 maybe more 22 since he basically said like i need more money i can't stay on the court like he was going to leave in what 2004 and he just started telling um uh you know all his federal society but he's like

i'm broke i need to go out and make some money and then all of a sudden he has a new best friend harland crow a billionaire and his you know mom has a new house and his kid goes to private school and It gets to fly on jets and, et cetera, et cetera. What about Harlan Crow coming in and going, hey, Clarence, I got a job for you, a no-show? Look, if Harlan Crow changes his money situation, that is something that might change his decision-making matrix. But here's the thing, Sam. There really are two kinds of Supreme Court justices. They're the ones who love being a justice, who just love the job, love the power, love the attention.

attention, and they're ones who like the job, who like the power, but don't actually like the job, don't actually like the attention, the scrutiny, the vergonia of it all, right? And Thomas is in the other camp, right? Thomas is one of those people who loves being a justice. I personally think Clarence Thomas is leaving a coffin. I don't think he will ever willingly retire from that job. there's the possibility that he could get really, really sick, and, you know, as as octogenarians sometimes do, and simply not be able to do the job. But as long as he is able to stand upright and redocuments, I think Thomas is in it to win it. Unlike Alito, I don't think Thomas is this crazy. I don't think that he cares about being replaced by a Republican as much as one might think he does.

I don't, he's living his own best life, and I don't think this is a man that gives a damn. particularly what happens after he dies. That's certainly nothing about his personality suggests that he has any kind of empathy or care for what comes after him. He's all about him in the moment, right? There's another, like, but there's another, like, literal stat here

that's worth pointing out. Clarence Thomas, if he hangs on to 2028, sometime in 2028, he becomes the longest serving Supreme Court justice ever. That's a, he becomes the longest, the longest serving Supreme Court justice ever if he's there in 2020. And I believe that is a record he wants. He recently said, I don't even count the years that I've been here.

Liar, liar, liar, I know you're counting. I know there's a big X on the date on your calendar. Like, he wants that record. I don't think there's any chance he's retiring before the midterms because he doesn't get the record if he does that. He gets the record before the 2020. election, right? He gets the record before a Vance v. whoever, or if that's even Trump view,

whatever we do in 2028. So there's a bigger chance that he retires in 2028 than 20, I think there's no chance he retires in 2026. Because he wants the record, because it's, you know, put like this. Clarence Thomas is only going to be in the African American Museum of History in the sometimes it be your own people

section, right? It's always, he's only going to be in the Sam L. Jackson, Stephen from Django section of that museum. But longest serving Supreme Court justice, that is a title that you can never take away from him. And I think he wants it. Well, so let's just talk briefly about the Democrats being on top of this. Yeah, so you said Democrats by dogs that are barking. There you go. Fair enough. Well-trained dog. The producer emeritus of this program, Josh Orton, Demand Justice, has been ringing this bell for a couple of months. Like, you got to get ready for this.

Because it seems to me just, I would bet, I mean, I'm not a betting man, but I would bet a lot that Alito is going to retire and somebody's going to make it worth his while. Like he's going to, he's going to have a sinecure. I mean, part of the way that justices were encouraged to retire 100 years ago was to create pensions for them so that they could actually go and retire and live a, live their best life. What would Democrats, assuming for a moment, and this is a big assumption, and maybe this is too steep of a thought of experiment, but that's a way.

we had competent Democratic leadership in the caucus, how would they prepare for this? Like, what would they be doing right now? What would the members of the Judiciary Committee? What would the Democratic leadership be doing? What would they be doing? Okay. So, first of all, full disclosure, I'm actually also on the board of demand justice. Oh, well, there you go. I am deep in this world. I care about this deeply. So just so your viewers know that. What would they do? Well, I got some ideas, and the key is this is a time for education. Right now, most people don't know the judges or potential justices that Trump might not name, right? And this is the time that if I was in charge, I would be doing everything I can to educate first my own caucus and then the American people about who these people are. What I notice, and I point this out in one of my nation posts. When I was trying to get people

to care about this because Andy Oldham is coming, Jennifer mascot is coming, and James Ho is coming. People are just like, oh, God, that sounds bad. Anyway, Iran. When Chuck Rasserly said, we should nominate Ted Cruz, my social media blew up. Just liberals. Just out, oh, my

God, we can't let Ted Cruz be the next people understand who Ted Cruz is. People understand why Ted Cruz is a problem. People would organize and activate around stopping Ted Cruz from becoming a Supreme Court justice, right? And partially it's because Ted Cruz is odious and punchable. But also, he's a public figure that people know. People don't know Jen mascot. People don't know that I would rather have Ted Cruz than Annie Oldham. They don't know why. They would certainly

rather have Ted Cruz than James O. And people have no idea why a reasonably intelligent person would say that. And it's because the people aren't educated as to how potentially bad these potential justices are. You'll get a lot of heat like Eileen Cannon, oh no, because again, and she's kind of famous, but the people most likely to get the job, our people don't know about them. And not just our people, our Democrats in Congress in the Senate don't know about most of these people. I have that opportunity off the record to speak with some of these senators. And their knowledge of anything happening at the lower, at the circuit court level is light, let's say, right? They know more about taxes than I do.

I know more about Jen Nascot than they do, right? Like, that's kind of how it works. But you need to educate your people right now so that a public information campaign can be raised against them. So that when Trump says, it's going to be Jim Ho. There's already, you know, there are already people in place who understand what that means and are willing to fight it. So that's right now, while Alito still has the job, that's the number one job educating people and getting them ready to go. Now, ready to go do what? because of what McConnell did with the filibuster,

there was shockingly little procedural power the Democrats have to be able to stop a Supreme Court nominee. They literally cannot even filibuster. All you can do are stunts and protests and that kind of stuff. But I always go back to Brett Kavanaugh. We really almost stopped him. We really almost stopped him.

I honestly think that if Diane Feinstein had, had publicized the allegations earlier in the process, we might have stopped him. The Senate is used to being able to smooth roll these justices with relatively speaking minimal complaint. Just relatively speaking, you know, the Kavanaugh protests were the biggest they ever saw. And that's kind of nothing. even the Kavanaugh protests were minimal compared to like what this country is able to do when they want to, let's say, protect Obamacare. You know, when senators are going home back to their districts, they're not getting peppered with questions. Why are you confirming this judge? Why are you

thinking about that? That's not happening. If that starts to happen, if, if, because with the truncated timeline, Trump is only going to get one shot at replacing a Sam Alito before the midterms. And if he picks the wrong person and we have enough public outrage, outcry protest, senators are getting called every which way. It can't be this guy. It can't be this guy. That's your only hope. And again, it's the Gandalf.

It might be a fool's hope. Like it's not, I don't want to give false hope. It is a slim chance. Right. But there is a slim chance that overwhelming public outcry against a justice could stop that justice from being confirmed before the midterms. There's a chance. Let me ask you this question.

And this is like we're deep into hypothetical territory. But, and I guess it's really a function of who the nominee is, right? I mean, because in the context of Kavanaugh, I mean, it was both because we were in an era, a Me Too era that I think those charges resonated. And it was also because he was so clearly obviously lying at different parts. of his, I mean, I distinctly remember a moment, and I think it was like, you know, when he was describing what they wrote in the yearbook about, and I can't remember her name. Oh, Christine Blazy Ford.

Yes. And it was so clear to every single person, I can't remember specifically what was written, but he was characterizing it in such a blatantly dishonest way that every single person, his wife sitting next to him, the senators on the Dias, everyone in the audience, they all knew he was blatantly lying. And he almost was like the first person to do what Trump had did, which is if you just refuse to back down from that blatant lie, you, that, you get credit for telling the truth. Like, that's basically it's like, if you can maintain that lie, you, it was a Renata alumnius, I think it was, was who was written against. And that blatant lie, I was like, oh, we have

moved into a different era. This is where the Trumpism, but with that aside, my point, that, that was a long-winded way of saying, what elements do you think that might be almost generically in these, the background of these nominees, in terms of the way they've ruled in particular, that might be the most fertile ground to get people to rail against them. Yeah, well, I'm going to answer kind of your long win at part first, because I think one thing that I have sadly learned about this country and about the Republican Party, it's not that they don't believe sexual assault occurs. It's that they don't care.

Right. I think that's what we've learned from Trump. I think that's what we've learned from Kavanaugh. When you looked at the senators, when you asked the senators in real time, most of the senators believe Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. They just didn't care. They just don't care. And so as I think about stopping future horrible people, what I realize is that convincing

them, yeah, sorry, my dog has decided that they're squirrel. I wasn't laughing at that. I was laughing a little at the dog who's out of frame, but is padding on the window. Very cute. Very much trying to get the squirrel. What I've learned is that, so when I think about going out, after the future people, sexual assault is not going to be the thing because the Republicans have already onboarded that as an okay thing for Republican men to do, right? However, some of the

ways that they treat people is, I think, still fertile ground. I think corruption still is fertile round. So like when I look at a James Ho, and we're talking about how Clarence Thomas is on Harlan and Crow's payroll, you know where James Ho, the current Fifth Circuit Judge James so, you know where he was sworn in to be a Fifth Circuit judge in Harlan Crow's library by Justice Clarence Thomas, right? And so when you start making the corruption connections to some of these guys, and Eileen Cannon has, you know, her Mar-a-Lago is-ishness, right? I think that is something that the public will not accept.

I think that whatever you think about the justices in terms of their political views and their judicial views, there is an expectation that they are on the level. And if you can show that they're not on the level, if you can show that they're bought and paid for, I do think that the public will act particularly negatively to that. So I think that is, that is a place where, you know, pro-publica will find it. Like, it ain't going to mean me. But like, when one of these people gets, like, whatever dirt that person has, pro-publica is going to find out. And then bringing that to the fore and making that the thing that you stand on, I think that has some legs. I think when there are a couple of justices, ho is one, Andy Oldham is another, when you look at what

they actually write and take their opinions, their logical conclusion, I mean, Andy Oldham is out here basically fighting the 10th crusade. I mean, he is that level. Everybody's talking about how Amy Coney Barrett's a Christian conservative crazy. That's Andy Olden to a Tate, right? And I think that the religiosity is something that you can, especially in this current environment, that you can kind of bring out of them. So I would love to say that that personal lying is enough, but Republicans don't care. What about, what about, I wonder if there is enough in this populist moment to look upon these justices. I mean, Joe Biden was the first Democratic president we've had in a long time, who brought in a,

array of candidates to sit on the federal judiciary. I personally think Katanji Brown Jackson is the best Supreme Court nominee that we've gotten from a Democrat, from anybody, really, for that matter, in like decades, at least in terms of, you know,

my politics. Public defender, not a part of the private system, you know, defense system. Not a corporatist. I mean, also has just like a, I mean, just also a brilliant person, but not a corporatist, you know, and much of like what we see from the federalist society is to support an oligarchy or any of that type of stuff. I wonder how much you think that could resonate as a, you know, tied in with like sort of the Epstein class type of situation.

I think it could. I think it should. Look, Joe Biden, I always give him credit for this. He was, he is the most impactful nominator of judges that we have ever had. His record is better than any the other 45 guys to come before him, just straight up. Biden was that good when it came to appointing judges, because not just do you have the racial and gender diversity, you have all the experiential diversity, right? As Emma was saying, you know, Katanji Brown Jackson comes from a line of public defenders. There are a lot of judges that Biden nominated that come from that more public defense line as opposed to criminal prosecution line, which is new. He appointed judges for more law schools than any other president ever has.

Like, the breadth of law schools was great. So, like, I think Biden was great on that. I would hope that the next Democrat continues in the Biden tradition in terms of appointing judges. Republicans, look, they're, and I guess this is going to sound reductive and a little bit racist, but whatever. There are three Republicans. Like, they're three Republican, they're two Republican men and one Republican woman,

and they just rotate around. And at some point, they all look the same to me. Like there are three archetypes of Republicans. You've got the super Christian warrior Republican. You've got the super business. I'm on Epstein Islands Republican. And I'm not saying those two are mutually exclusive, right? And then you got the Mar-a-Lago Face Woman Republican.

Like those are your, you know, the internalized patriarchy Republican. Like those are your three. And they just kind of like, you know, pick one of the three. I think they throw a dart on the board and be like, oh, it's time for the Mar-Wago face. Okay, it's time for, like, and they just throw them out there, right? And they're all the, it's like, they're all on the island, right? They're all the same, they're all the same person.

And I would like to think that at some point America gets sick of these three people running everything, right? But so far, I haven't seen a lot of evidence of that. I haven't seen a lot of evidence that America is yet sick of the three Republicans. that we are regularly treated to. All right. Lastly, I want to, I want to be able to talk about the shadow docket. But Leonard Leo, he was not necessarily the head of the Federal Society, but essentially the titular head, if you will.

And he was the one who basically created, along with Mitch McConnell, the sort of like judicial landscape we have today. The Federalist Society is this group that started in the 90s, I think it was. that basically provided discipline to conservative and Republican want to be judges and basically said, like, here's the things that you have to do, and here's how you have to rule, and here's how you have to write publicly, and here's the ideas you have to adopt.

It created a lot of, like, mushy thinking, you know, mushy because they were just told what doctrines to accept without having to rationalize or justify them. them in any way. But they also basically provided a great placement, you know, job placement function. But supposedly Trump had a falling out with Leonard Leo a while back because some of his judges ruled against Trump. And Trump is not as concerned with conservative doctrine as he is, like whatever benefits Trump doctrine. Leonard Leo has gone off to spend a billion dollars, literally, on some type of organization, shadowy organization. We don't know. But what of the Federalist Society, what of the lack of Leonard Leo here?

Yeah, I think that that makes, whenever Trump gets a new appointment, I think that makes it one of the more interesting appointments in recent memory because the Federal Society has controlled Republican judicial picks going back to George H.W. Bush. And now they're kind of on the outs. So I got two answers for that in the time we have left. One, the new guy to look out is Mike Davis. He's a former Neil Gorsuch clerk. he was formerly Chuck Grasserlees,

who's the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He was his guy picking clerks. He is an odious man. He's a mean person. I personally do not like him. He is probably the person who is going to be in Trump's ear the most when it comes to the next Supreme Court appointment

because he's got kind of like Federal Society bona fides, but he's also one of these MAGA-Trump, Trumpers might makes right, we have to support the president right or wrong kind of guys in a way that Leo and his people weren't. So I follow Mike Davis, even though I think he's an odious human being because I feel like he is going to be a person with an insight track on who it's going to be and how Trump is thinking on the one hand, right? So that's something to look at. The other thing to look at, though, is, you know, is, as you say, Trump is so burnt, felt so burned by the Supreme Court rejecting his 60 election denying lawsuits. So burned right now by

Taras. Like he's so burned by John Roberts. That whole thing that Republicans, they don't stick together. They do like 98% of the time. But like his, he only cares about loyalty to Trump and that's it. And so I do think that whoever ends up rising above the fray will be the person who comes into the Oval Office and licks Trump's boots the best, like genuflex to Trump the best, shows Trump their drawers the best. And it's hard to know who's that going to be because it's hard to know who has no pride and dignity. Like you know. Like you read these people and you read these opinions, it's hard to know who in the final analysis has no pride and will bend to me. Potter, Ellie. I mean, that's really what the tiebreaker is going to be. You are not wrong to ask that question because that is a legit question when it comes to Donald Trump. He wants a judge to look a certain way. Put on this robe and spin around. The male judges have to have square jaws. The women judges have to have the Mar-a-Lago face. And one of the, okay, this is going to sound like I am crazy, but I am not.

not. Jennifer Mascot, who is a lower circuit judge who has been getting a lot of hype and heat and whatever, look her up. Look up her makeover. Go look, go Google a picture of Jennifer Mascot from 50 years ago. Go look at a picture of her net, right, Emma, right?

I'm not crazy. Jennifer Mascot. And, yeah, Matt's going to pull her up. But, okay, how old is she? She's 50, and it's a little old. But she's got the Trump makeover, hasn't she? Hasn't she?

Jennifer Mascot, we want a photo of this this blonde lady. So one of the reasons I've been like, wait, mascots like a dark horse candidate for this job. Look, Jennifer Mascop. So don't tell me that Trump, right? There's the picture, right? Yeah. And on Google images, it's even blonder.

And that's not how she looked five years. Folks, that is not how she looked five years ago. That is not how she looked eight years ago. So what, what, Trump's desire for a judge to look like a certain kind of person? I mean, that's going to be our next Supreme Court justice. I feel like that's,

but although do women judges? I don't know about that. Maybe, maybe she should be, maybe she's the next attorney general. Look, he appointed Amy Coney Barrett. Like he,

he does, he appointed Amy Coney Barrett. We know Eileen Cannon. in the mix? Like, I don't think he has a problem with women judges. I think he has a problem with seeing women as people, but that's a different...

But again, he doesn't see judges as people. Gotta be a seven. I'm not going to appoint. I got to be a seven. It's got to be a seven. Exactly, right? I can't appoint less than eight is like how he'll think about it. But like, since he doesn't actually think judges are people either, he thinks they're functionaries in his regime.

I don't think his sexism is going to be a problem in that way. I think sexism is going to be a problem in terms of who he thinks looks the part for a judge. So, Emma, you might have met that question as a joke, but I'm telling you. No, I'm not joking. I mean, we just opened the show with clips from, you know, of Elizabeth Warren talking to the Kevin Warsh, the questioning him, the Fed nominee, Fed chair nominee, and he, the central casting thing, that's what Trump said to him. He said, like, you know, you're straight out of central casting, and that's why I'm picking you. So he, he,

he thinks it is such a state that we are in in this country where like that is legit a thing he's the kind of guy who goes to a baseball game and signs a player based on his jaw line as opposed to his on-base percentage like that that is where we are in this country so yeah i think that matters i actually think that that's a big knock against ho against jim ho because he's a bit pudgy like you know it's like jim ho if he wants to be a Supreme Court just as he needs to get that Wagovy, right? He needs to get all that goes epidemic. And I hate to say that as a guy who's on the GLP1, but like, that's what you got to do

to get this job with this man, with this crazy man in the White House. It is a sad state of affairs, but I don't think that I'm wrong to bring it up because I do think that that is part of the calculus here. All right. Well, we went longer on this than I had anticipated. But honestly, it is the most important thing right now. I think, at least in terms of like what people can make the educate themselves and educate and educate and tell their senators. This is important because this is coming down the pike.

But just briefly, your reaction, there was a piece in the New York Times. There was a leak of memos around the 2016 decision that the Supreme Court faced in regards to the clean power plant. essentially regulation that the EPA did right in the waning days of the Obama administration. And it was, it went to the Supreme Court. It's, they skipped essentially any other, a subsidiary court and looked for an emergency stay on this because if, presumably if the air gets too clean, people might like freak out or something. And so just, and the memos reveal the birth of both like the major questions doctrine, I guess, arguably, and the use of the shadow docket and the way they were justifying it. Just what's your, you know, your broad stroke?

The 90 second take here is that what those leaks show is that the very birth of the shadow docket that we are now all living with starts because John Roberts had a political problem with. a Barack Obama policy. If you look at those memos that Roberts leaked out, that have been leaked out from Roberts's pen, there's no law in there at all. It's all politics. It's all economics. What Roberts is arguing over is that it's going to cost his buddies billions of dollars if they let the clean power plan go into effect even for a day. This is what John Roberts saying that legally they'll probably get rid of it in a couple of months. We know, in fact, that with Trump coming into office, the clean power plan would be dead on arrival anyway before it really took effect. But John Roberts was so worried about his rich buddies losing some money in the interim that he

changed the entire way the Supreme Court operates. So what I want people to go back and read that story and take away from that is that you see how at the very crucible of all things, it was all political and was all economics. There was no law at all in that decision-making process. And can I just bounce this off you? You tell me if I'm right around quickly. That to me seems like, you know, when Brandeis had his famous Brandeis brief and was arguing the social, the outcome implications of law, that has been a 100-year project to say like that type of critical legal studies where you actually look at what the result of this law was when there's a question, when it's not sort of like very explicit, has been derided by the right for a hundred years. and they just did it.

Those memos show that Roberts was doing it, but 10 times worse, because they're not even an argument about the validity of his assumption what the outcome was going to be. 100% they were doing the exact same thing, but you know what this difference between Roberts and Brandeis?

Roberts was doing it for money. And he was doing it in secret. Brandeis, you know, put his argument in writing and gave it to the court. There was no argument here. It's just like it's going to cost the money. why that's bad. Can't risk all this money being taken away from my buddies,

was Robert's fundamental legal argument in that case. And that's why I want people to take away from it. Like Roberts gets a, relatively speaking, such a clean riding press, such a Roberts gets almost no heat in the press because everyone wants to pretend that he's this moderate, cares about the court's reputation. No, y'all, he cares about the bank.

He cares about the dough, and you see it in the leak memos. And your guess as to who leaked those memos? I think it's Kennedy. I look, usually the people who leak are the people who are not currently on the court. I think there's all this talk about the shadow docket. I think Anthony Kennedy outside looking in is like, I got some information to how the shadow docket early started. I think it's a Kennedy.

I think it's unlikely to be Breyer, although some of the back and forth was to Breyer, so that's another possibility. But I think it's one of the guys who is alive but not on the court, much more likely than anybody who's on the court. The only thing I'll add is that we know Sam Alito was a big leaker and could always be Sam. Like I never want to put anything past Sam. But my guess is it's Kennedy or Breyer just because they're on the outside. Well, I want to talk to you about that in the future.

But Ellie Mistal, thank you so much for, I know you, we held you very long. I appreciate it. Always a pleasure to talk to you about this stuff. We will link to your piece that inspired this conversation. Really appreciate it. Thanks so much, Sam, and sorry about the dog. Thanks a lot, Emma. Oh, thanks so much.

Don't worry. All right, folks. We're going to head into the fun half, wherein we will have fun and maybe take your phone calls and read your IMs. Just a reminder, it's your support that makes this show possible. You can become a member at Join the Majority Report.com. When you do, you only get the free show free of commercials. You also get the fun half, and you can I AM us on the fun half.

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it's growers in Chiapas or in East Africa. Check them out, just coffee dot co-op. Matt, what's happening in the Matt Leckian media universe? Yeah, coming up right after the show today on Left Reckoning, and got two interviews, one with Matt McManus talking about when their right gets honest about how they think you should kill people like Socrates because they're rabble rousers. And also Kylie Chong talking about the Pink Pill Pipeline.

how the right is using celebrity news and gossip and lifestyle content to smuggle in anti-abortion and other types of right-wing ideas that's coming up. I also talk about the strokes and their protest, or at least not really protests, and their final song at Coachella where they called out American Empire. And I couldn't play it because apparently they're really copyright striking that stuff, which is disgusting because copyright is against a... First Amendment. But nonetheless, Patreon.coms us left reckoning

check out the show at 2.30 Eastern Time. Did you see that, Sam? Did you see what the strokes at Coachella? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Incredible. Oh, yeah. That's closer to my era. So I still haven't figured out what Chella is. But I saw the videos

of it. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Just think like Woodstock. All right. Of course. Yeah. No, of course. Yeah, there you go. All right, folks. See you in the to have three months from now, six months from now, nine months from now. And I don't think it's going to be the same as it looks like in six months from now. And I don't know if it's necessarily going to be better six months from now than it is three months from now. But I think around

18 months out, we're going to look back and go like, wow. What? What is that going on? It's nuts. Wait a second. Hold on for, hold on for a second. Emma, welcome to the program. Hey. On the room. Fun. What is up, everyone? Fun.

No, me, Keene. You did it. Fun pack. Let's go Brandon. Let's go Brandon. Fun app. Bradley, you want to say hello? Sorry to disappoint.

Everyone, I'm just a random guy. It's all the boys today. Fundamentally false. No, I'm sorry. Women's... Stop talking for a second. Let me finish. Where is this coming from, dude?

But, dude, you want to smoke this? A. Yes. Yes. It is you. I think it is you. Who is you? No sound.

Every single freaking day. What's on your mind? We can discuss free markets and we can discuss capitalism. I'm going to guess how life. Who libertarians? They're so stupid though. Common sense says, of course. Gobbled e-gook.

We fucking nailed him. So what's 79 plus 21? Challenge met. I'm positively clovery. I believe 96, I want to say. 857. 21. 35.

501. One half. Three-eighth. Nine-eleven for instance. $3,400. $1,900. $6.5, $4.3 trillion sold. It's a zero-sum game.

Actually, you're making me think less. But let me say this. Poop. You can call it satire. Sam goes to satire. On top of it all? My favorite part about you is just like every day, all day, like everything you do. Without a doubt.

Hey, buddy. We've seen you. Obviously. Yeah. Sun's out. Guns out. But you should know. People just don't like to entertain ideas anymore.

I have a question. Who cares? Our chat is enabled, folks. I love it. I do love that. Look, got to jump. I got to be quick. I get a jump.

I'm losing. The clock, we're already late, and the guy's being a dick. So screw him. Sent to a gulaw? Outrage. Like, what is wrong with you? Love you. Love you.

Bye-bye.