We Can Do Hard Things with Glennon Doyle - Finally Some Good News! Wisconsin Deals Big Blow to Elon & Trump | Jessica Yellin

Episode Date: April 3, 2025

399. Finally Some Good News! Wisconsin Deals Big Blow to Elon & Trump | Jessica Yellin Amanda and award-winning journalist Jessica Yellin break down this week’s biggest political stories—from elections to immigration to authoritarian warning signs—and what it all means. -How the Wisconsin election served as a clear rejection of Trump’s policies and Elon Musk -What this week’s revelations about forced removals mean for the future. -Why Republicans and Democrats are unexpectedly joining forces over the by proxy bill -The health risks we’re all facing due to Trump administration cuts and policies -Why Republicans may be thinking about breaking from Trump  Jessica Yellin is the founder of News Not Noise, a pioneering Webby award-winning independent news brand -- dedicated to helping you manage your  “information overload.” She is the former chief White House correspondent for CNN and an Emmy, Peabody and Gracie Award-winning political correspondent. You can follow her on Instagram at Jessica Yellin.

And also, to get real time, clear and brilliant reporting, go to substack.com and search for her page newsnotnoise and subscribe there. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There's something about the spring that just makes me crave a getaway. I'll never forget one of my favorite trips with friends a couple of years ago when we headed to the mountains in the spring. The flowers were blooming, the air was crisp, and we stayed in this cozy Airbnb cabin. It had huge windows with the most beautiful views of the landscape, and the kitchen was perfect for cooking up a big breakfast together, we had all the space we needed to relax and unwind much more than a hotel could ever offer. Spring is the perfect time to plan a trip with your family or friends, especially if

you want more space and privacy. Whether you're looking for a quiet getaway or a place to celebrate together, Airbnb gives you the chance to stay in the best local spots where you can truly soak in the season. For your next spring getaway, book one of the most loved homes on Airbnb for a truly memorable stay. Trust me, it's the perfect way to experience the seasons in style. Hello, we can do hard things. This is a special day because Jessica Yellen and I have been coming to you with the news you need to know this week for the last many weeks, because we're trying to save you from the torment of riding the roller coaster all week long,

while still staying engaged enough to know what you need to know to fight for what you need to fight for, and giving us tips to do that. And today is a very delightful day because we have some good news and some hopeful news, in addition to some that isn't, but this is a step in the right direction.

So thank you for being here. We promise to deliver you some little shots of hope. Jessica Yellen, always a damn joy to be with you. Such a pleasure, Amanda. And I want to wish you a very happy Liberation Day. Oh, yes. Are you feeling liberated? I mean, I feel liberated,

a little liberated by Musk's humiliation, but I don't think that's what you're referring to. Fair. No, but it is a good moment to take a beat and say Democrats for the first time had a good day this week. Yes. And we are recording on a day that Donald Trump has declared Liberation Day. And he will unveil why at an event he is calling Make America Wealthy Again.

You can't make it up. Yeah. It's like, how many words can we fit after Make America blank again? They're going to run out of words because that's the move. So this is the tariff day, right? This is the day where he is going to run out of words because that's the move. So this is the tariff day, right? This is the day where he's going to tell us all of the reciprocal tariffs in the world, which are- Yes. Right. And that's gone well so far for America.

I would say, yeah, you know, it's like, I can't remember. The stock market has lost some unprecedented amount of gains this year. There's like a lot of talk in the business community that what Trump is really doing is he's giving CEOs a chance to negotiate opportunities to have carve outs and tariffs, which is a form of, can we say it together, corruption? Oh, that's the theory behind it. One piece of the theory. That like he's telling this so that CEOs will come to him and say, spare me. Yes.

And here's dollars for that. So that's like what he's doing to the law firms. Like, I will extract a hundred million dollars in concessions from you to not. He would say that's cutting deals and negotiating because he's an amazing deal mate. That's the art of the deal. Okay.

If you're in the mafia. But anyway, we don't know what, because we're talking before the announcements are coming out, but that, the announcement keeps getting rolled back and back and back. And one of the conversations I coming out. But that, the announcement keeps getting rolled back and back and back. And one of the conversations I'm hearing behind closed doors is it's because they're working out the deals.

Trump has said, I'm very open to deals. So we'll see. All right, so Liberation Day is not our good news, but we did have a good night yesterday. Tell us what happened yesterday in Wisconsin and our heroine there who got it done. Isn't she lovely? So Wisconsin was maybe the most closely watched and certainly most expensive race since Donald Trump was elected for state Supreme Court and the liberal backed judge,

Susan Crawford won and she won handily. And this is despite the fact that Elon Musk poured more than $20 million between himself and his allies into trying to get her opponent, the conservative back judge elected. Musk wanted the conservative on the court because this seat decides the direction of the court. Wisconsin is the swingiest of swing states.

Trump won it. And let's just bottom line it. For Musk, the motivation seems to be foremost of all the possible reasons that Wisconsin has this rule that says car manufacturers can't sell their own cars in the state. And so Tesla is not allowed to sell Teslas through dealerships there, and he wants that overturned. So there is a personal monetary reason for his interest there.

And that court case is before the court now. Tesla filed the case, and I think it was three days later. Musk started tweeting about this election and started pouring his money into it. Which he, by the way, said is the most, I'm gonna, this is paraphrasing, most important election for the future of humanity. An obscure state Supreme Court election in Wisconsin. Love to all Wisconsinites, important election. Will it decide the future of humanity? I guess Elon Musk said he felt it would. Or at

least the fate of his stock price. Maybe those two are the same for him. I mean, it's so interesting about the Tesla court case was a clear conflict of interest, but it's also this kind of role of him as the central bank of MAGA and the kind of kingmaker where he was pivotal in making Trump the president. Well let's get to that. So there's two things. One is Schimel, the candidate Musk backed,

lost by 10 points. That's a lot. That's an ass-kicking. That's a huge defeat. And Wisconsinites are really googly-eyed about this because they always point out, our elections are always razor thin. Or as they would say, wafer thin. There's never a landslide win.

So when there's a landslide, it's remarkable. There's never a landslide win. So when there's a landslide, it's remarkable. It's a real repudiation by the voters. Just on the substance, it's also worth noting that the Wisconsin Supreme Court is deciding cases related to reproductive rights, union rights, important union organizing case, and they help decide the districts, how gerrymandered things are. And as a vital swing state, they'll have a say in election results and election procedures. So if the GOP were able and Musk were able to control that core, it could swing not just elections in Wisconsin, but nationally. So there are larger implications than just Tesla dealerships.

Now to your point that, so Musk went to town and he didn't just say this was important. He didn't just give money to the races. He also held that town hall where he showed up, wore a cheese head, and gave out million dollar checks to two different people. A reprise of the role he played in Pennsylvania during Trump's election that seemingly helped Trump win in November. Just a few months later, Musk doing the same thing not only didn't help his candidate win, but politicos from the state say voters came out to defeat Musk. His involvement actually drove turnout for the opponent. And so what you're getting at is like, it seems that this magic touch that Musk was

supposed to bring to Republicans is actually the opposite and he could actually be toxic. They will still want his money, but they're not going to want his presence. And it's not clear that you can get one without the other. That's so interesting. And what do you, I mean, the implications, especially on a judicial election, because this is, as you said, it was the most expensive judicial election in United States history. There was $90 million in this election, 20 million of which was Musk brought either individually with his groups. It seems especially offensive to have the purchasing of an election for a judgeship.

And again, she had raised multimillion dollars too, but do you think the idea, I mean, they were calling him, what did they call him? The knee pad Brad that he was like on his knees in deference to Trump and Elon. This idea that like he had already said that he would vote in favor of the anti-abortion law. You know, a judge is supposed to do the case before them. And so is this idea that like, okay, you can buy an election, but to buy a judge feels like real antithetical to our state's right to be represented

by who we actually choose, not who your money picks. Yes, I mean, the judge dressed as Trump for some, in a costume as Trump. The voters, you could hear them say it over and over in interviews, the campaign was very much about Musk and Trump. So all the ads had Musk and Trump in them. So it wasn't just, you're electing this guy, Brad,

or not electing him. It was a referendum on the administration so far. And Musk made it. Even if Democrats had tried that, Musk made sure that was the case, right? He gave them that gift. And voters would say, I need balance. I don't like what Doge is doing. I'm a social security recipient. I'm scared about my social security.

I don't want Musk in that business. And so this was a real repudiation of Doge and the Trump policy so far. And it has a couple of implications, like there's the immediate implication for the court there. There's the reverberations in Capitol Hill telling members of Congress, hey, if you thought Trump can do all these unpopular things and Musk has some magic wand or he can swoop in and ensure that you get reelected despite it all, here's evidence that's not true.

And then, you know, he in fact pissed off Wisconsinites by talking down to them wearing the stupid cheese head. They said, he's playing us for dumb. We get it. Right, right. Right? And then we should talk about the results of the election in Florida as well, where there were two House seats that were up for reelection

in districts Republicans won by huge, huge, huge margins in November. You know, what did Trump win by? I think it was 30 points in the seat that was vacated by, was it Gates's seat? So it was one of the seats that was up for election was Matt Gates, who, whoopsie daisy, had to resign in disgrace. Gates who, whoops-a-daisy, had to resign in disgrace. And the other one was our Mr. Walls, who you might know from the recent signal debacle. So it was those two seats.

And they were, I think, on average, like 30 points up for Trump. John King on CNN was talking about the numbers as they were coming in. And somebody said, so where are the blue parts of this district? And he laughed, he said, there are no blue parts. This is just all Republicans in these districts. And Republicans did win the elections

in each of those races, but they won it by 15 points less than Trump, right? So they shedded 15% of the support that had been there is gone. Yeah. So they cut their margin by 50%. So half, right? That's not insignificant. And I heard Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic minority leader of the House, you know, saying that there are 60 Republicans in the House, six zero, who are in districts that Trump won by 15 points or less. And he said, now there's a target on all their backs.

Oh, right. Because if it goes down 15 percent. They've lost that support. And so now you wake up today, a member of Congress in the Republican Party, knowing that Donald Trump is executing on a suite of policies that's wildly unpopular with the American people, including your constituents, that your party has eroded 15 points off the support. So you are now at neck and neck race or underwater where today all things being equal,

a Democrat would be ahead. And you were counting on Elon Musk and his magic wand to come in and somehow make that go away. You've just seen that the voters are not having it and that that magic wand doesn't exist. Do you rethink your approach after today? And do you think about flexing a little muscle and resisting and will we start to see more cracks in the Republican wall?

So if the defense of the Constitution and the defense of the federal government was not motivation enough for these people, which it clearly has not been, you're saying that the political reality that your king is not going to save you, in fact, he's hurting you, might actually be motivation for some kind of pushback. It's political survival. If nothing else, and everybody was banding together in silence because of their own political survival, the evidence is mounting that saving your own professional skin requires rethinking your strategy. A, breaking with Trump or breaking with the party or standing up to the most

unpopular policies and not counting on Elon Musk to save you. ["The Journey to the Future"] Even when it's been hard, I have always loved my work. The journey that you're on with us now, including on this podcast, started out with Glennon, Allison, Liz, and me 15 years ago. We were an author who was not yet an author, a couple of lawyers, and a development person.

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Find your pulse today. Learn more at CanAmMotorcycles.com. This episode is brought to you by FX's Dying for Sex on Disney+. Based on the podcast of the same name, Dying for Sex tells the story of Molly, who is diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. Determined to feel everything she can before she can't feel anything, she decides to leave her unhappy marriage to explore her sexuality with some encouragement from her best friend Nicky.

FX's Dying for Sex, streaming April 4th only on Disney+. Sign up now at DisneyPlus.com. ["Dying for Sex"] You know what felt like a wave of relief to me last night? Not only because Judge Crawford, God bless her, she fought so hard. And I'm so thankful that she's gonna represent those folks. It was also like, we've just been watching

decisions be made by people who are unaccountable. I mean, Musk has been unaccountable. There's been no oversight of him, just making whatever decisions they wanna make with really, besides the court, no pushback, no consequences from Congress, no way for the people to have a voice in it. And then to have Elon come in and be like, I'm buying this election.

This is me. I will make it so because this is the new reality. I do whatever I want. And then to see that actually the people have the power. The people have more power than him and can determine an outcome that is different than the one he dictates is a really was like, oh wait, yes, that's still the case in America.

That's America. Yeah, it was really, really a nice reminder. And I thought that Justice Crawford, I'm calling her that, her acceptance speech was so beautiful. And she said to Wisconsin voters, you've shown America how it's done. You fended off an attack on democracy.

She said, justice cannot be bought. And it was such a lovely message. And then just a visual contrast to what else is happening in Washington. She was on stage surrounded by women. Exclusively. Not just surrounded, only women standing behind her. And frankly, let's just, women in their 50s,

adult women in some cases a lot. And she went around and said, I want to thank them by name, each of them justices who were elected. And it just is such a stark contrast and reminder that there is this other version of America that is alive and rising. Amazing. And so when you're like,

maybe the Republicans will rethink whether this is in fact the politically best approach for them to just never say boo to Trump's policies. Tell us what happened in the House on Tuesday, where there were a few Republicans breaking with Dems. So this was fascinating and didn't get enough coverage in my estimation. There's a woman in Congress, Representative Anna Paulina Luna. She is 35 years old. She had a baby two years ago. She is a very conservative Republican. She was a member of the

Freedom Caucus until she quit abruptly over the situation I'm going to tell you about. So, Luna decided that she felt that as a mother of a young child, Congress should be more accommodating of young parents. They want a generational change, you want young voices in there. And she teamed up with some Democrats to push for a measure that will allow members, elected members of Congress, who are new parents, men and women,

whoever is having a baby, to take time away from being in Washington and to vote by proxy around the time their kids are born. So what that means is for the 12 weeks around your child's birth, you can be in your home district because if you live in Arizona or California, flying back and forth for votes is a huge burden. And you don't want to expose your brand new infant

to like all the germs of a plane at week one so that you could stay home and vote by proxy. Meaning if you're in Washington and I'm home, I'd call you and say, cast my vote no on this and you do it for me. So that was allowed during the pandemic. During COVID, voting by proxy was standard. So it can be done. They figured it out and they said, we want this implemented

and they have the votes and Republican leadership led by Speaker Johnson said, no way, bright line. This is so offensive and so wrong. We will go to the mat on this. No. And she's like, let's just give it to a vote of the Congress. If this is all about protecting the sanctity of the vote, shall we put this to a vote? To a vote. And Representative Luna wanted this to come to a vote, as you're saying. And he said, absolutely not. So what happened? Speaker Johnson used these elaborate procedural moves to try to prevent Congress from voting on allowing parents to vote by proxy. And this was a shenanigan that happens in Congress all the time. Usually when the speaker

flexes their muscle in this way, they just get away with it and railroad the other side and the vote never happens. But instead, nine Republicans broke with Speaker Johnson and broke with leadership, voted with all Democrats to say, uh-uh, we demand a vote on this issue. We want a vote on having parents have the right to vote by proxy. And because of the weird procedures of Congress, because the Republicans broke and this issue failed, there's no vote on the House all week. The House action is frozen.

So there's no votes on any of the bills that Speaker Johnson wanted to pass this week, which includes a measure that would have blocked federal judges from putting injunctions on Trump's policies and even the SAVE Act, which is that separate bill that will make it harder for everyone to vote, but especially married women, that's not getting a vote this week. Everything's frozen on the House floor until Monday because Speaker Johnson was so opposed

to allowing parents to have this proxy vote. One more thing, I'll tell you why. Speaker Johnson said it's unconstitutional to allow them a proxy vote, even though it happened during the pandemic. And other members of the Republican leadership said, if we allow parents to vote by proxy, who's to stop cancer patients from voting by proxy from their hospital bed? Real thing, he said. He also said, and what's to stop other members from voting from their boat? The measure clearly says it's only for parents of newborns

for the 12 weeks around birth. What do you take from this? Clearly those nine Republicans who broke, that is a thing. Yeah. That's a very big thing. We're seeing for the first time a little bit of Republican resistance to their own leadership.

So you saw these members saying, this is so unreasonable, we're willing to flex our muscles and say no. It's a gender issue again, right? This impacts women more than men. It applies to male members as well, but let's be real. And if you're a young woman in Congress of childbearing age, you got to wonder why does my leadership so hostile to me being able to be a mom and do my job? It's almost as if this is the point. It's literal patriarchy like exercised on the floor of the house. It's just, there's no way to

read it except overt hostility to women of childbearing age holding a job in Congress, right? And it's also a generational thing. House has more young members than the Senate, so it's no surprise that you're seeing this fight take place in the House rather than the Senate. But these are just old dudes who don't get it enforcing their will in a way that reflects some stuff we're going to talk about later, just an absolute lack of understanding of what people need in their lives to function. Or a very, very clear and accurate understanding of what people in their lives need to function and therefore removing what you need to function so that you cannot function in that role.

Right. So you're seeing the unified Republican front start to fracture. I'd add, you know, last week we saw it with Signalgate where a number of members were like, uh-uh, this is unreasonable. We're gonna hold a line on this. Not much has come of that,

but they did push for this investigation in the Pentagon. So we're starting to see these fracture lines, more and more of them start to show up and grow. We'll see how much the Elon Musk failures will actually accelerate that. Can you talk a little bit, because when you're saying the fracture lines, I thought it was interesting this week

that you even saw in connection with some of the horrors of the forced removals that the administration is doing, that you had some folks who had enthusiastically endorsed Trump in the influencer space really come down in a anti the tactics that are being done here. So Joe Rogan came and said, this is horrific what's happening and they are making mistakes and it's horrible. And even Ann Coulter was like, wait, I'm all for deportations, but how is this not a very clear violation

of the first amendment? It was interesting. So tell us what we learned about the deportations this week. And obviously, they're not deportations because that's a legal process that was not followed. So they're forced removals. They are not deportations. Yeah, so Donald Trump's immigration policy

is turning out to be a big political loser for him. In addition to being morally offensive, horrific violation of American basic rule of law and civil rights, human rights, it's a loser. So much so that Donald Trump himself is backing away from it a little bit. So what happened? So this week, the administration went to court and said in court, these are the judges, these are lawyers for Trump who are defending Trump's deportation policies, admitted in court that because of a quote,

administrative error, their words, a man with no criminal record was forcibly removed off the streets of America and put into that torture prison in El Salvador. And they told the judge that they either have no ability or no desire to help get him out. We can talk about all of that and who this man is and the horror of this. It's one of the most chilling stories I've ever read about or had to report in America.

But what's interesting is since this news has come out, not only you see Ann Coulter has spoken out, Joe Rogan has spoken out, and he was taken under the assumption that the Alien Enemies Act is in play. Donald Trump said, oh, I didn't sign that. That was Marco Rubio who signed that, which is ridiculous. There was an executive order that Trump used his big Sharpie pen and signed and held up. He's like, he signed the Alien Enemies Act and now he's a little bit distancing himself from it. The numbers on this actual thing are really negative because Americans understand that what happened here and it's happening to students in a different way. But in this case, The Atlantic reported that

this man came here in 2011 fleeing gang violence in El Salvador. He has no criminal record. He has a disabled child who is nonverbal. He was picking up his disabled child from child care when he was surrounded by ICE agents. He had to call his wife to come take his child. Who is an American citizen. The wife and child are American citizens. Yes. Child and wife are Americans. And this man had a protected status in America.

He had previously, years prior, gone before an immigration judge who said you are protected from deportation because of the risk of gang violence if you are sent home. Specifically also to El Salvador. Even if you were deported, you may not be deported to El Salvador. Despite all that, these ICE agents surround him and he has now been taken to that torture prison in El Salvador. And I call it that because it's well documented that prisoners routinely die there from excessive

violence, outright torture, and what's been called quote, unhealthy conditions. And so he is in this hellhole with no access to lawyers, no hope for escape, and no criminal record. And he's one of five men that I know of whose lawyers have presented very documented evidence that their clients have no criminal record and are in a similar situation. And in his case, uniquely, the Trump administration acknowledges that he was wrongly taken because of a quote administrative error and they have no desire or interest in getting him out. So what's really significant here is many things. One of which is that we know of at least five

because those are the people who retained lawyers who are able to speak on their behalf. God knows how many of these people, if their people had the resources, would be able to document this kind of situation. Also, the only reason that they're admitting it in this case is because of this wild fluke of a situation where they actually had a judicial order that said this man specifically may not be deported to El Salvador. So since that is on record and they removed him to El Salvador, they have to admit it. But that doesn't mean that the other cases, they were not egregious errors.

It just means this rare one has that. And the other thing that is so shocking is that I feel like when everyone has been talking about the Elon stuff and the government just kind of going in with a sledgehammer instead of a scalpel and making these very, very costly consequential decisions, that there will be a way to remediate any injustices. There will be a way, surely the courts will come back and say you couldn't do that. Surely there will be consequences that restore people their rights. And in the court document,

the Trump administration said, we don't have jurisdiction. We actually, even if we wanted to, can't get this guy back because they gave him to El Salvador. So they are washing their hands of it and saying, oops, our bad, it was an error. But people's lives and families are not errors. Right. I mean, in essence, they're condemning this man to death. error, but people's lives and families are not errors.

Right. I mean, in essence, they're condemning this man to death. He was taken off the streets of America, disappeared into a hole, and they're essentially condemning him to either a life that's unthinkable or actual death. And his lawyer has argued that the US should be required to withhold payment, tells Salvador, because the US is paying the prison about $6 million a year to hold these people that they should withhold payment to get them back. Obviously, the government can get them back if they choose to. They're claiming that they don't have jurisdiction. Right. And I just want to underscore that he and these other men, in fact, all the men who are there, were deprived the most

basic foundation of our legal system, which is due process. That nobody is sent to their death or to prison or to torture or out of the country without being able to be told what the charges are against them, mounted defense in court with legal representation. Our whole legal system's based on that. If we don't have that, we're living in an authoritarian state where anybody can be thrown into jail for any reason. And they have just shown that they're willing to do that. This is happening at the same time that they're saying

this judge has no right to even weigh in on this, that our judicial system doesn't matter. And this is about as chilling a sign that they want to lean into authoritarian control as there could be. And that people without any charges, basically if they can do it to him, what else are they willing to do? Yes. It's a test. And the other thing about this is that now that they're admitting that when they say that they have identified these people as part of a gang, that one of their main indicia

to do that, to identify these people as gang related, is their tattoos. So the people, if they have crown tattoos, they are assuming that they are affiliated with this gang and deporting them. And there are also lawyers coming forth that are like, my client's favorite soccer team is Real Madrid and that crown is for Real Madrid. It's just the flimsiest of support for these claims that would never would be laughed out of court. If you said, well, he's part of a gang because did you see his tattoo, his crown tattoo? It's wild. It's wild and really scary. Yes. you're listening to and hit play on your next adventure. Stay two nights and get a $50 Best Western gift card. Life's the trip. Make the most of it at Best Western. Visit bestwestern.com for complete terms and conditions.

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Speaking of wild and really scary things, that we should just make sure that folks know this week that as of Tuesday, the administration has halted all of Title X funds. And this is important and I would refer you all to Jessica Valenti's Abortion Every Day coverage of this. Follow her first. She follows everything abortion. It's very, very important,

but her whole idea is that you do not even need a law that says abortion is illegal if you make abortion inaccessible. And this is part of the Project 2025 plan to eliminate Title X funding. So Title X is the only federal family planning program. So it's not just reproductive care, it is birth control, it is sexually transmitted infection testing, it's cancer screenings. It is for

six out of ten women who go to a publicly funded clinic that is their source of medical care. And overnight, starting on Tuesday, California, Hawaii, Maine, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Tennessee, and Utah will now receive zero funding of Title 10 dollars. And Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Alaska, Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia are also impacted by these cuts. I think we should talk more about that another day when we focus more on these things, but this is the way towards the ultimate goal of like, keep your eyes on the prize, follow the money, because if you make accessing a right impossible, you don't even have to

make it illegal. And this is part of what is happening there. It's just one of the ways they're going at our basic healthcare. I mean, that's, I'd say that's of a piece with what we're seeing more broadly with the tax on women and women's healthcare, but not just, you know, it's also this motion we saw on the floor of the house where they don't want moms to be able to be moms and work. There is this undeniable hostility to women's freedom right now.

And by the way, this isn't to save money. These Title X funds are going towards fertility awareness 10 funds are going towards fertility awareness and holistic family planning, healthy marriage education, and to fight what they're calling religious discrimination, which means that they are going to now be giving the money to those so-called crisis pregnancy centers, which are the ones who have the big billboards to lure women in and say crisis pregnancy centers, and then they tell them that abortion is a sin and they do not give them the information or the access for it. And these are run by churches, these organizations. Chilling.

What else on the health front are you seeing? So you know, I go back and forth with, you know, this is the biggest story that I've seen since Trump's in office, and then every day a new one is. But what just happened to HHS this week, I think is one of the most momentous and devastating things that's happened since he's taken office. And it's so hard to fully wrap your mind around it. It's not getting the attention it deserves. RFK, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, announced 10,000 jobs are eliminated at HHS.

And the people he's removed from office, the jobs he's axed, have eliminated entire divisions, projects, areas of health coverage that are essential to our well-being are gone. The former head of the CDC, the former head of the FDA has spoken out in ways saying they can't personally convey how momentous and far reaching this is. I asked my audience because I was struggling for like, how do I help people understand what's gone on here? And I asked for specific examples of things that are going away. They've cut out entire sections of the Centers for Disease Control and the FDA. And some people have written in to say, so the division on asthma, on lead poisoning, on radiation damage that measure the health

effects of extreme heat are gone. HIV and injury prevention infectious disease surveillance have been gutted. Infectious disease surveillance? Surveillance. Cuts to programs affecting, protecting workers' health, like the Firefighter National Cancer Registry that monitors whether firefighters are getting cancer at higher rates from the toxins they're exposed to.

The FDA had major cuts. FDA studies not just are new medicines, but they also are the ones who decide if this medical device, like the thing the dentist is putting in your mouth, the tube the surgeon is using to scope you out, right? All these things, are they designed to keep you safe? Will they puncture you? The entire staff of parts of these divisions are just gone. It's hard to understand a large percentage of egg inspectors right now, egg inspectors, the team that monitors outbreaks after natural disasters is gone. I could just keep reading to you, loss of Lie Heap.

It's the division that has, I think it's $6 billion that is spent to subsidize payments for low-income people to have heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer. The clinical trial division, the folks who are in charge of if you're under clinical trial that it's actually safe for you to be part of that? Yes. That entire thing that's measures whether if you're a human volunteering to be in a clinical trial, will this trial kill you or permanently damage you or is it safe for you? That monitoring is

gone. National Institutes for Occupational Safety and Health, like is your workplace going to kill you? Massive cuts there. There's also entire sections that impact infant safety. Oh yeah, all the SIDS, the sudden infant death syndrome, that's gone. So let us be clear to connect the dots here is that we are cutting the funding for any kind of reproductive care because it's so important that you have your babies. And also we are cutting all of the infant SID care. Because that's not important after you have your babies. And also we are cutting all of the infant SID care. Because that's not important after you have your baby. So the entire office of infectious diseases and HIV AIDS policy was laid off.

I just wanna help people understand, yes, there's already medicine for some things, but diseases evolve and change, right? They morph, viruses change. We have to have people who are monitoring how the virus has changed so we can adjust some medications. We wanna see if there's new interactions with medications that are just coming on the market.

These things are live, agile, moving parts, pieces. And our health establishment from the government is monitoring all that to make sure we are aware of what's changing moving parts, pieces. And our health establishment from the government is monitoring all that to make sure we are aware of what's changing and that we have best current practices and then gets that out to all doctors and health officials. That background activity, like it's your background refra, you know how your app on your phone

is constantly needing a download? These are the people who are finding out where the downloads are needed and getting it out. And it's sort of not there anymore. Yeah, I'm struggling. You can see I'm struggling for the language because it's so hard to conceive of. Somebody put it to me, like,

imagine you walked into a hospital and just willy nilly said 24% of you are fired. And then one of you goes in for tests and those people are still working, but another of you comes in with a wound that's gushing and those people aren't working. So, oh well. It's really scary. And I think it's an important thing for people to be aware of because I think that we have started to see these cuts as, wow, that's really, really sad and awful for those 10,000 workers who have devoted their lives to a very important work,

and I feel bad for those 10,000 people. And that is true. And also we need to connect what those 10,000 people do to our lives every day and how we are less safe. And our parents, I mean, they eliminated the Parkinson's things. It's like, there will not be improvements to ourselves and people that we love

because those people aren't working. It isn't just the loss of jobs, it's the loss of services, the loss of research, the loss of protection from corporate overreach that we're losing. Right, so what's the effect of all this? Part is the impact on you, the human at home that needs health coverage and healthcare, right? The other is just the total elimination of regulations or regulatory apparatus that could

slow down business, right? So it means that some of these businesses can run wild in what they try to sell us if they're irresponsible. Now, a lot of these companies don't want that because if you're a big pharma, you have to sell your meds globally. Other countries do have standards, so you can't go messing around. You want an apparatus that's predictable and actually does the adequate testing. RFK is a person who just hates the medical establishment. They're basically saying, it's a failed system and so we're just acting on the failure that's already there.

There's not a visible or demonstrated plan to replace any of this. Congress has now called for RFK to testify. People in Congress are trying to figure out how to, you know, flex their muscles to force some of this to go on pause. There'll be court action. But as of today, the courts have said that these reductions in force are legal. So I'm not quite sure, you know, who's going to stop this if there's not a public outcry

and public demand on members of Congress that they do something. So that's something that we should do if we care about this. I mean, to your point about the corporate stuff, I don't think it is a coincidence that the division that's in charge of making sure that people aren't marketing cigarettes to kids is also removed. I mean, there are connections here that's like, I wonder why we wouldn't care about that. What do we do?

I mean, this is a good one where you call your member of Congress and say, this is, you know, unreasonable, you need to do something. And I also think this is a Democrat-Republican issue. You know, if you have Republican friends who are sort of feeling nervous, this is a Democrat-Republican issue. You know, if you have Republican friends who are sort of feeling nervous, this is a good issue to say, hey y'all, we need to pay attention to this, this affects all of us.

And frankly, if you're a person who is sympathetic to RFK's message and concerned about the safety of our food supply and what's in our medications, all that, you're worried about toxins, these actions will without doubt make us less safe, more exposed to toxins we're not aware of and give irresponsible marketers and companies the opportunity to pollute our foods and air and water

and medication with substances that we don't want in our bodies. So we call our members of Congress this week and tell them that this is not okay and keep your paws off of our health and bodies and restore these vital services. And then also this Saturday, April 5th, a progressive coalition organizing under the name Hands Off. So that's funny that I just said pause off our health and bodies. Hands Off is having rallies and more than a thousand events across the country. It's a national day of action. A place you might want to consider looking into if you want to get involved in this day of action

is handsoff2025.com. And there are ways that you can find out about local actions near you. And this is the kind of, I feel like moment where, you know, circle back to the top where we're talking about remembering that the people are the ones with the power, not withstanding all evidence to the contrary for the past couple months, that what the people do really, really matters. And so if

you want to get involved on Saturday, handsoff2025.com has all those details. And speaking of what matters, should we end with Senator Cory Booker? Yeah. God love him and keep him. He's made history and he defeated a record set by segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond in the 1950s by giving the longest speech on the floor of the Senate.

He spoke for 25 hours without leaving the Senate floor. You're not allowed to eat. You're not allowed to go to the bathroom. And he spoke out against Trump and Musk's attack on the government, their attacks on our allies, their violations of the rule of law. And he spoke so beautifully and compassionately reading the stories of regular Americans who are writing in with their concerns about what's happening to their lives.

And he did it to demonstrate what protest and resistance looks like. And some people have said to me, well, what's the point? What can it do? It's not gonna change a lot. It's not gonna roll back a policy. But it's important to remember that the voters did not give Democrats the power to change laws or the majority to set

an agenda. But what Democrats do have is the bully pulpit, and they have the ability to use their position to stop action on the floor of the Senate, which he did, and to use their platform to raise awareness and speak. And one of the things I've been wondering for weeks is why the fuck aren't they doing it? Forgive me. And Cory Booker showed how to do it. And one note on that is there's a remarkable turn in history here because the record that was set for the longest speech until now, as I said, was set by Senator Strom Thurmond to block passage of the Civil Rights Act.

Because he stood against everything that Cory Booker now is, a black man elected to office who can use his full voice and spirit and life experience to represent Americans who want justice and equality in America. And he spoke for that and he changed history in a moment. He ended his speech with a tribute to John Lewis when he was talking about how he was standing there in the spirit of making good trouble.

And I think it's a good reminder to all of us to be using our voices as well and that it matters, that it really matters. And what a beautiful poetic turn of the record. Thank you, Senator Booker. It was lovely. And you can find some of those clips if you wanna look for them on social media.

It's worth taking a minute to find them. Okay, y'all, this is what I do during the week in between these conversations when I am having a panic attack and need to understand the context and what is actually happening versus what I fear is happening, which thankfully sometimes is different.

You go to Substack and you look up Jessica Yellen or look up News Not Noise, either one will get you to her, Y-E-L-L-I-N, subscribe to her Substack, and you will get into your inbox newsletters that synthesize the news. You will get posts, you will get live conversations that she's having with all of the people who know all of the news, you will get posts, you'll get live conversations that she's having with all of the people who know all of the things, and you get so up to speed on what is actually

happening and this I recommend to you. Thank you. Strongly. Thank you. This week I'm interviewing an amazing professor who works in agriculture who's going to explain the impact of tariffs on our food supply and food prices and sort of what you can do. Fantastic people. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You have done your duty. You know what you need to do. Thank you, Wisconsin. Thank you, Wisconsin. We love

you. Thanks for the good fight. And we will meet back here next week. We can do hard things. Bye. to take 30 seconds to do these three things. First, can you please follow or subscribe to We Can Do Hard Things? Following the pod helps you because you'll never miss an episode and it helps us because you'll never miss an episode. To do this, just go to the We Can Do Hard Things show page on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Odyssey,

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we would be so grateful. We appreciate you very much. We Can Do Hard Things is created and hosted by Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, and Amanda Doyle in partnership with Odyssey. Our executive producer is Jenna Wise Berman and the show is produced by Lauren LaGrasso, Alison Schott, and Bill Schultz.