What A Day - How Trump Got In The Way Of His Own Bill

Starting point is 00:00:00 It's Friday, May 22nd. I'm Jane Koston, and this is What a Day. The show deeply inspired by President Donald Trump's total disinterest in Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding. Here he is on Thursday. I said, you know, this is not good timing for me. I have a thing called Iran and other things. That's one I can't win on. If I do attend, I get killed. If I don't attend, I get killed.

Starting point is 00:00:27 By the fake news, of course, I'm talking about. Now, but he's got a very person I've known for a long time, and hopefully they're going to have a great marriage. Interesting how the war in Iran is so important that Trump can't go to a son's wedding. But not so important that Trump can't say, get distracted by ballroom construction. Or golf. On today's show, Trump's potty mouth is getting worse, and the Democratic National Committee finally released its autopsy with no conclusion, quote, provided by the author. But let's start with Congress. specifically Senate Republicans. Republicans had a filibuster-proof immigration bill that would contain

Starting point is 00:01:14 $70 billion for immigration enforcement and finally fully reopened the Department of Homeland Security. It was going to be awesome. But then Trump got involved. First, he wanted $1 billion for security for his beloved beautiful ballroom. That did not go over well with Republicans, especially after the White House argued that approving that money would be the same as Congress approving of the ballroom which Congress did not do. Here's Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy making some observations to CNN on Wednesday. There's no architectural plans. There is no environmental.

Starting point is 00:01:51 There's no engineering. There's no sense of, when we ask, how did it happen to cost exactly a billion? I also have this question. That same day, Senate Republicans removed that budget request from the immigration bill. Problem. solved, but then there's that $1.776 billion slush fund for Trump's allies. A slush fund, one Republican senator called, quote, stupid on stilts. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche met with Senate Republicans to try and make the case for the slush fund on Thursday.

Starting point is 00:02:24 The result, everyone got so mad that Senate Majority Leader John Thune gave up on getting a vote together for the immigration bill and sent everyone home for the holiday. Great work, Republicans. So to talk more about the reconciliation bill mess, I spoke to Pennsylvania Democratic Representative Brendan Boyle. He's the ranking member of the House Budget Committee. Representative Boyle, welcome to White Day. Yeah, good to be with you. So the House was supposed to vote today on this long-awaited reconciliation bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, among a bunch of other things. And it seemed like things were going great for Republicans.

Starting point is 00:03:02 And that didn't happen. Instead, Senate Republicans push the vote to June. How did everything go horribly wrong for Republicans? Boy, I asked myself that question pretty much every week about all sorts of things. So this latest episode, you're correct. I mean, there's no question. They had the votes, in all likelihood, had the votes for what they nicknamed Reconciliation 2.0, essentially a massive amount of funding for the Department of Homeland Security,

Starting point is 00:03:32 specifically CBP and ICE, look like the votes were there. That's what we were going to vote on. But then suddenly, Donald J. Trump, their dear leader, threw them a curveball. In fact, two curveballs. One, the billion dollar ballroom and insisting that that would be added to the reconciliation bill. And then number two, this disgraceful $1.8 billion slush fund for thugs. And Right now, as we speak, the White House is insisting that both of those things be added to the reconciliation bill. It appears, and there aren't too many times that I've been able to say this, it appears that enough Senate Republicans so far are standing up to the White House that they don't have the votes to move forward. And so the whole thing got pulled down. I have to ask, the most striking thing about this anti-weaponization.

Starting point is 00:04:32 slush fund for January 6 letters. I'm using air quotes in case you're listening to this. It wasn't even in the reconciliation bill. So what actually was in this bill? Do you even know what you would be voting on when this vote comes back around in June? Well, the answer to that is no, but it's not because of a lack of work or preparation on my part. It's because they haven't produced what exactly the it is because they're having issues with the Senate parliamentarian. This can get really in the weeds, but basically, as we know, reconciliation is a way in which the majority party in the Senate can get around the filibuster to make it so that you can pass something with a simple majority, 51 votes, instead of 60 votes.

Starting point is 00:05:16 But there are all of these quirky, kooky rules with reconciliation, what counts, what doesn't count. And they've taken two stabs now at trying to, at the very least, include the $1 billion for Trump's precious ballroom. And both times the parliamentarian has said, no, that does not comply with the rules of reconciliation. So they're currently trying to work on a draft that both would clear muster with the parliamentarian and also get the 51 Republican votes they need. As we mentioned, back in April, Republicans had a clear shot to pass this bill along party lines. Lindsay Graham was talking about how they don't need Democrats to do this. But Trump basically got greedy and slamming.

Starting point is 00:06:02 dunked his way to complete failure. And what gets me is that you're starting to hear congressional Republicans, especially in the Senate, talking about how this slush fund is a terrible idea. This slush fund is, you know, it's reckless. And what do you think that means for his relationship with congressional Republicans right now? Because it seems not great. Well, they have to be looking at Donald Trump's approval rating among a general election audience. But, you know, I, I, I, don't want to overstate this because I have lived through now the first four years of Donald Trump being president and saw how Republicans behaved and I've lived through the last almost year and a half. For five and a half years, the examples of congressional Republicans

Starting point is 00:06:48 standing up to this president have been few and far between. So I'm not going to quite, I mean, it's great that we're at the moment able to celebrate a victory thanks to their own gross incompetence. and its incredible greed in passing up what would have been, I think, a win for him and going for the billion dollar ballroom and going for this slush fund for his January 6 mob and criminals. That said, though, knowing how strong Trump is in a Republican primary electorate, as he's displayed over the last couple weeks, let's just say I'm not going to bet my future, my mortgage, on the strength of the spines of congressional Republicans.

Starting point is 00:07:32 I'm curious, though, to your point about the recent primaries, you now have a host of people in the Senate, a host of Senate Republicans who they have no reason to help Trump do anything. If you're Senator Tom Tillis, if you're Senator Bill Cassidy, you don't have to help Trump with anything, including the ballroom, including the slush fund. Do you think that changes the calculus a little bit here? Yeah, you could almost call them the YOLO caucus. I mean, if you're Cassidy, you know that you're leaving, thanks in large part to Donald Trump coming so viciously after him and opposing him for re-election. It does appear as if Cornyn is about to join Cassidy in that club. You have McConnell who can't stand Trump and is obviously retiring. The same with Tillis.

Starting point is 00:08:22 That's four right there. And then when you add to it, Murkowski and Collins, that would be six Republican senators that could stand up and say, no, we've already seen. since last Saturday night, less than a week ago, Cassidy loses his primary, he has come out and said that he wasn't going to vote for three different Republican priorities. That's more no votes from Senator Cassidy announced this week than the previous six years. So I hope that it continues. Frankly, I don't know why someone like Cassidy and Cornyn would do anything, would lift a finger to help the president who just stuck a knife into their backs. In your view, why was it this, the slush fund and to a lesser extent, the ballroom?

Starting point is 00:09:09 Why is it these issues that seem to have been, for now, to your point, the final straw for congressional Republicans? Well, so first, in terms of why the president's going this direction, Donald Trump is a very easy person to figure out. He's all about the griffs and the grudges. That's what he spends most of his time on. It's got to be some sort of grift to get his name on something or be honored in some way or just basically get a big bag of cash. So that's pretty clear where his motivation is. In terms of why the Senate Republicans are acting out now about this, why are some congressional Republicans even saying some negative things about it, I do think that the closer we get to this November election and it looks like the shalacking. is coming for congressional Republicans and the lower President Trump's approval rating gets,

Starting point is 00:10:07 I think that actually increases the likelihood that finally Republicans are able to step up and speak out about something. I'll also say this. I mean, you see Donald Trump's low approval ratings of the economy, the lowest of any president since George W. Bush at the height of the Great Recession, mind you, 20 years ago. You see the overall increase in the cost of the government. of goods, cost of gas, et cetera, to then turn around and have to vote, not for anything that would help the American people deal with those increased costs, but instead vote for a billion

Starting point is 00:10:42 dollars of taxpayer money for a stupid ballroom. It is just so grotesque and beyond the pale. I think that is also part of the reason why at least a few and enough so far Republicans are balking and saying no. I mean, let's talk about November. You are the ranking member on the House Budget Committee, let's say Democrats win the House in the midterms, then you will become chair of the Budget Committee. What do you want to do with that power? Yeah, well, it's, I'm superstitious enough, or I'm not superstitious, but I'm a little stitious. So I'm not going to get too much ahead of myself with grand plans. But as you can imagine, you can't just plan something like that come November. So I already have gone about

Starting point is 00:11:25 talking about what would be a few of the priorities. And I think I would look at a sort of like parallel tracks. The first would be doing everything we possibly can and using every piece of leverage over the budget to stop the excesses and the craziness of this administration. We have to use every single piece of leverage we have to stop this president in his tracks. I've seen this before. In many ways, this would be history repeating itself because that's what we did in 2019, 2020, when Democrats took back the House after the first Donald Trump midterm. But then the other track would be okay, we have a Republican president, a Democratic House. If there's a possibility of some permanent, real meaningful budget reforms, this would be the sort of calculus and the sort of

Starting point is 00:12:14 math that would achieve it. So areas like the debt ceiling, which I continue to worry that we will one day breach, which would plummet the worldwide economy. I mean, it would make the great recession look like a field day if we were ever to breach the debt ceiling. Also, the fact that how many government shutdowns have we had over the last decade, more than we can count? I think the number is over 10. We need permanent budget reform so that way we can finally end these shutdowns once and for all that really don't benefit anyone. So I look at it as that way. There's the primary job of keeping this administration in check as much as possible, yet at the same time trying to build a bipartisan consensus to do these big, meaningful things. And those two

Starting point is 00:12:59 that I just mentioned, I actually think would be in Donald Trump's narrow short-term interest where perhaps we could get his agreement. Representative Boyle, thank you so much for taking the time. Oh, thank you. That was my conversation with Pennsylvania Democratic Representative Brendan Boyle. This podcast does not cost a billion dollars, and we will not give nearly two billion to mega weirdos. So if you're into that, make sure to subscribe, leave a five-star review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Watch us on YouTube and share with your friends.

Starting point is 00:13:27 More to come after some ads. What a day is brought to you by Quince. Lately, I've been more intentional about what I wear day to day, leading into pieces that feel effortless, comfortable, and still put together. It just makes getting dressed simpler. Quince has been my go-to. The fabrics feel elevated, the fits are flattering, and everything just works without overthinking it.

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Starting point is 00:14:22 Quince.com slash wad today is brought to you by Americans United for separation of church and state. This hasn't gotten a lot of airtime. President Trump's Religious Liberty Commission has been meeting regularly, not to focus on religious liberty for all, but rather how to further a Christian nationalist agenda in the U.S. Religious freedom is meant to protect individuals' rights to hold and practice their beliefs without interference, so long as they don't harm others, including children. Pretty sure we can all agree on that. Yet that's exactly what has happened, when taxpayer-funded adoption and foster care agencies

Starting point is 00:14:53 deny kids a loving home that treats them with dignity. Religion is also being used as a tool to discriminate and only allow people who are of the right religion to serve as foster parents. That's exactly what's happened to multiple of Americans United's clients. Liz and Gabe Rutan Ram, a Jewish couple in Tennessee, were ready to foster to adopt a child until a state-funded agency refused to work with them because they are Jewish. Amy Madonna, a Catholic mother of three, was rejected because she did not agree to an evangelical Protestant statement of faith. Fatma Morrow and Bryn Esplan were turned away because they are a same-sex couple. If you believe religious freedom should protect everyone, not be weaponized to turn away,

Starting point is 00:15:30 qualified families looking to foster and adopt children, we need you to join the fight now. Visit AU.org slash crooked to learn more and become a member today. This fight is far from over and every one of us has a part to play. When thirst strikes and your energy begins to fade, one hero rises above the rest. Introducing the superpower smoothie from Zhu Booster. A bright sun-charged burst of mangoes, bananas, and blue spirulina. An out of this world smoothie Just in time for the new Supergirl movie

Starting point is 00:16:02 Discover your power and channel your inner superhero Fly into your local Zhu booster And experience it for yourself today And see Supergirl Only in theaters June 26 Here's what else we're following today Head Alimes The Vice President mentioned me every day

Starting point is 00:16:22 There would be a combination They were willing to make a combination with the Iranian field. Could you kind of extend on those possible combinations? Does that include... When you say combination of what? A combination. He's talking about accommodations as far as making the deal going.

Starting point is 00:16:37 I don't know. I can't tell you. Right now we're negotiating. And we'll see. But either we're going to get it one way or the other. They're not going to have a nuclear weapon. President Trump on Thursday told reporters something we already knew. He can't tell you what's going on with negotiations with Iran.

Starting point is 00:16:53 Iran is reviewing the U.S.'s latest piece. proposal, according to Iranian state media. But the two countries still seem pretty far away from each other on a number of issues. For one, Iran is reportedly speaking with Oman about setting up a toll system for the Strait of Hormuz. There's also the issue of Iran's highly enriched uranium, which neither side is budging on. On Thursday, Trump said, quote, we'll probably destroy it after we get it, but we're not going to let them have it. The Trump administration is easing restrictions on planet warming super pollutants used in air conditioners and refrigerators. Trump's team is framing the issue as a way to lower grocery prices.

Starting point is 00:17:31 Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldon spoke during the signing session in the Oval Office on Thursday. Many Americans were expressing a lot of frustration and anger of this rushed, frantic, reckless sprint by the Biden administration to phase out reliable equipment for grocery stores, for restaurants and for homes. No, they weren't. And fun fact, Trump signed a lot in its first term that aimed to reduce these harmful planet-warming super pollutants.

Starting point is 00:18:03 The DNC finally released its autopsy into what went wrong in the 2024 election. It's riddled with errors, missing entire sections, and raising new questions about Chair Ken Martin's leadership. For those of you who aren't political sickos, here's a refresher. Martin initially promised to release the report before suddenly changing his mind.

Starting point is 00:18:25 But the public pressure became too much after Martin sparked backlash by defending his reversal on Potsave America. In a blog post on Thursday, Martin wrote that he isn't proud of the report and that's why he didn't release it. Been there, buddy, but I was in high school at the time. The report dodges major controversies of the 2024 election, including the Biden administration's handling of Israel's war in Gaza. The words Gaza and Israel also don't appear in the report, despite the DNC reportedly finding that former Vice President Kamala Harris, lost votes because of the issue. As activist David Hogg told me on Thursday, the report was, quote,

Starting point is 00:19:01 much less an autopsy and more than anything, a eulogy. You can watch the full interview on our YouTube channel. Colorado Democratic Governor Jared Polis was censured by the state's Democratic Party after the governor freed a 2020 election denier who was serving a prison sentence for tampering with voting machines. Former county clerk, Tina Peters, was serving a nine-year sentence for breaching a voting system in 2021 to, quote, prove that the 2020 election had been stolen from Donald Trump.

Starting point is 00:19:30 Trump, naturally, was a big champion of Peters, reportedly even moving U.S. Space Command from Colorado to Alabama in protest of her sentence. Polis commuted Peters' sentence last week. On Wednesday, the Colorado State Democratic Party passed a motion to censure Polis with nearly 90% support. In his first press conference, since freeing Peters, Polis did not answer any questions about his decision. But he did eat a carrot. Trump's use of profanity in speeches has become increasingly

Starting point is 00:20:01 profane, according to a Washington Post analysis. The post looked at the first year and a half of both of his terms. According to the analysis, Trump cursed or used vulgar and insulting language at least once 40% of the time in Trump term one. This time around, however, his colorful language has appeared in 93% of speeches. Hear that, parents, block your kids' ears anytime you see this guy on television, if you haven't been doing that already. And that's the news.

Starting point is 00:20:30 Before we go, if you're looking for a smart, funny, slightly rage-induced breakdown of the week's most overlooked headlines, hysteria has you covered. This week, Aaron Ryan and Alyssa Master Monaco get into a rare piece of good news on abortion medication access, Trump's deeply unsurious Garden of Heroes proposal, and what is going on in California politics. Then, Rushma Zunjani joins the show to talk about the culture war targeting moms

Starting point is 00:21:06 and her new documentary, no country from others. Listen to hysteria wherever get your podcasts. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review. Take some time to relax this weekend and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading, and not just about how this week has been a lot.

Starting point is 00:21:24 We've had primaries and slush funds and lots of Trump talking next to various aircraft. So this Memorial Day, spend some time outside doing something nice. Like me. What a day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at perka.com slash subscribe. subscribe. I'm Jane Koston, and happy Memorial Day. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. Our show is produced by Caitlin Flummer, Emily Four, Erica Morrison, and Adrian Hill. Our team includes Haley Jones, Greg Walters, Matt Berg, Joseph Dutra, Johanna Case, and Desmond Taylor. Our music is by

Starting point is 00:21:54 Kyle Murdoch and Jordan Cantor. We had helped today from the Associated Press. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. When thirst strikes and your energy begins to fade, one hero rises above the rest. Introduce. the superpower smoothie from Zhu Booster. A bright sun-charged burst of mangoes, bananas, and blue spirulina. An out-of-this-world smoothie. Just in time for the new Supergirl movie. Discover your power and channel your inner superhero.

Starting point is 00:22:34 Fly into your local Zhu Booster and experience it for yourself today. And see Supergirl, only in theaters, June 26th.

What A Day - How Trump Got In The Way Of His Own Bill

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