Trump's Versailles on the Potomac

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Welcome to Pod Sabre America. I'm John Fabro. And I'm Alex Wagner. In studio, in LA. I came to cast my ballot.

Just kidding. I'm here. We'll still take it. Still being counted. See you in 2020.

How many do you want to drop off? Just several. All four Heidi Montag. Just trying to get on the five. It's good to see you.

It's great to be here.

“I'm always so thrilled to be in person with you guys.”

I hear that we're doing this two weeks in a row because Mr. Fighters out. Oh, my God. Thursday as well. Wow. I know.

I'm so glad that you're in control of the calendar. I had no idea. I just found that out yesterday. I'm sorry everyone who wants Dan Fight for on the show, which is probably most people, but sometimes Dan has to Dan.

It's rare that Dan takes a break from anything. Well, I mean, I don't think he's contractually allowed to, right? Yeah, that is true. He's working in a Gulog somewhere. Well, we're very happy to have you.

And on today's show, we have lots to talk about whether the insurrection is slush fund is really dead and why Republicans just refused to kill it for good when they had the chance. We're also going to talk about Todd Blanch's promotion to returning general. Congratulations. Bill Paltty's promotion to America's spy chief.

The latest results from Tuesday's primaries in Iowa and California yet more grand platinum news.

And melt down at 60 minutes and finally, for the first time ever, I will reveal a secret

I've been keeping and tell the story of how I was invited, actually invited to the White House UFC fight. What a deep teeth. Oh, yes. That's the same.

The TV industry. That is a TV. It's happening.

“Before we start, if you want to find out the real story, you'll have to subscribe.”

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Public in Congress has been hard at work this week, trying to shovel another $70 billion

of our money to Donald Trump so that ice can keep rounding up immigrants and locking them away in barbaric detention camps. Trump wants even more, of course, a billion dollars for his ballroom. And $1.8 billion for a slush fund he could use to make cash payments to convicted criminals who storm the capital on January 6th.

Republicans denied him the ballroom money in this bill. They did, on Thursday, block a democratic amendment that would have killed the J6 slush fund, acting attorney general Todd Blanch said this week that they wouldn't be moving forward with the slush fund. But when Trump was asked about that, he gave an answer that surprised absolutely no one.

I think it's so important. On Thursday, he did a clean, cold event in the Oval Office, where we all thought he'd elaborate on the future of the slush fund. But instead, he dosed off several times in between his home renovation updates, which today included an announcement of yet another brand new construction project.

Let's listen. This is now open, and you see the size of that compared to some of the biggest buildings in the country. Actually, the biggest, I Peter and we have it finished. The water is pouring in as we speak.

This is from just a little while ago. It's a nice clean water. The Lincoln Memorial, the front was supposed to be the back, the back was supposed to be

the front, the never got built, because they built two roadways behind it after it was built,

and it shut off the gateway to the water. That was really going to be the main entry, and we're going to be doing that. We're going to go to the promenade, probably the promenade. They want to call it the Trump promenade, but I don't know if I want to do that. The fuck is happening.

It's um, we really need to talk about how unwell this man is. Yeah. First of all, was there a penis also on that, like, that charge of big things that Trump subsessed with? I don't know.

I don't, we should, this is not super important, but this is the second day now. He has led off an event in the oval by holding up a chart to show that the reflecting pool is bigger than most buildings. Yes. It's not even something that he can brag about, like, he did it.

He didn't lengthen the reflecting pool. It was built in 1920. Ray, he just put in, he just painted it and renovated it, but now he's obsessed constantly with, like, holding up a billboard of how it's big. What the, what?

It's a sort of, I mean, it's, it's legacy by way of falloch imagery. I think it's just an obsession with size. It is, uh, it is inversely proportional to his rate, his approval ratings, right? So as, as he sinks in the polls, he needs to erect or claim the erection. I'm sorry, I keep saying these sort of, you know, the vocabulary, but it is all, I mean,

it's all intermingled.

“And it's the only way he believes he'll have a legacy is brick and mortar.”

And even if it's not his own brick and mortar. I mean, he's destroyed. He is destroying the country. He's lost the faith of maybe his even his own party in Congress or his losing it. He has, you know, a colossal, a bloodletting ahead of him in November, which is going

to leave him even more castrated. And so what's his recourse? I, I guess, reflect his will in prominence, yeah, big penis cool. And the, now we're doing a promenade around the Lincoln Memorial. I mean, are we, are we going to get the, are we going to get those Marlaco yellow and

brothers? I mean, having the, what used to be the Rose Garden RAP? I, I don't know that any of this is going to come to pass. I mean, truly, first of all, he's over budget and over, over time on all of the projects that are already underway.

Republicans in Congress have gotten very, fatigue of, I think, the ego and the, the vanity projects.

And I, you know, they're not giving him a billion for the ballroom.

“I just, I think this is all, first of all, a distraction from what's really happening.”

And we should talk about what's unfolding in Congress right now. But like, I don't know how fast can you build a promenade. The thing they're doing in the reflecting pool isn't even fixing the leaks. It's going to be covered in mold in like an air or a couple months. And the arch, don't forget about the arch.

I don't know. I don't know. I just hope all of them become intake processing centers for newly arrived migrants. Like that's just the only good, you drain the pool and let, you make it, you know, put bedding down, let people sleep there.

Like, just make it something useful for this increasingly poor and destitute country that he's running into the ground. I absolutely loved the John Ossoff line from over the weekend about all this where he said, yeah, he's building all these monuments to himself because after he's gone, no one else will. Yeah.

That is absolutely true. That is, and Ossoff has been so good on reinforcing the narrative that this is all kind of Louis XIV style, corruption, and self for science or atonement. Exactly. I mean, it is.

It's the late time Simwa. That means the state. It's me. Oh, Spanish, not French. Thank you for.

Thank you for moving that one further. It's a disaster of epic proportions in terms of one man's ego, but I am skeptical that

it actually comes to fruition, the problem is not at least.

That's up. So, what did you make of the, the debtor alive drama around the slush fund and the Republicans refusal slash failure to kill it for good because some tried today, but could not get their caucus on board, some tried to save their own asses. Some not all.

“They think, number one, it is important that there be specific written language passed”

by Congress that outlaws the slush fund. It is quite clear to me, especially based on Trump's suggestion that he, not, it not explicit

Yeah. If Todd Blanche blanche says on Monday, the slush fund is gone and Trump says on Tuesday, I love it. That means by Wednesday, the slush fund could be up and running.

“It is imperative that the legislative branch shut this thing down, right?”

So, I think the movement to attach an amendment to this reconciliation bill that's being

voted on right now is essential.

What is the point of bill capacity? Bill Cassidy is a senator in his, these, the Republican who upon which this, like, the future of the slush fund in large part hinges, right? He was the holdout today, he delayed, delayed, delayed people thought, oh my god, he's going to kill this thing and then decided at the last minute after three hours of deliberation.

You know what? I need this to be a Republican effort, and not a Democratic effort. Bill Cassidy gave the country a raccoon, testicle, obsessed, health and human services director who is back and anti-vaxxer, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He, a doctor, Bill Cassidy, gave us a lunatic at HHS.

He was the pivotal vote. This was the one chance Bill Cassidy had to redeem his reputation. His, his, his stature as a statesman, and like, what did he do with it? What's the point of mounting resistance for three hours and then saying on partisan grounds, I can't, I can't accept this amendment.

I need Republicans to author it. Yeah, so just to catch people up on what happened here, Democrats offered amendment to say, it's nice that Todd Blanche said that this, we're not moving forward with the fund, but we're going to kill it. Statutor, that we're going to put it in a lot to make sure that it's gone for good.

And Schumer offered the amendment and they got Collins and they got Dan Sullivan in Alaska, who's Mary Peltola's running against. Who steers the, uh, and chips falling where they may. And John Husted, uh, Husted, who stood? Who stood?

Who stood? Yeah, who exactly? Anyway, he's the guy that shared it, Brown's running against in Ohio, who, uh, Fox News Paul came out yesterday that shows him trailing Sheridan by eight Sheridan's best poll. Awesome.

Anyway, those three just coincidentally, um, voted. Yeah, they voted, um, to kill it, uh, as Republicans, but you're right, Cassidy and Tillis thought they would be cutesy and they decided not to vote for that amendment. They were introduced their own, which was to say, you can't use the slush fund in the way that Trump wants to use it.

It has to be used for the anti fraud initiative that JD Vance is running, which is basically

like, you know, robbing states of Medicaid funding if they find someone committing fraud somewhere that just sort of collective punishment for the rest of the people who were on Medicaid. So they introduced that amendment and obviously Democrats weren't going to support that because it's crazy and the anti fraud initiative is bullshit. So they got like, I don't know, seven, eight, nine Republicans on that one, but that one didn't

pass either. So now, we have no language, we have no language to kill the fund. And, and I say this, it's like, for me, once, shame on you, for me twice, shame on me, for me, for me, 17 times, I should stop talking.

“And that's how I feel about Republicans in Congress.”

It's like, I can't believe, I mean, even still fucking entertaining the idea that they'll do the right thing on this, that they'll actually deliver on something they say they're so against, which is this slush fund. But I stupidly hold out, oh, the Bill Cazardy will get something done at Tom Tillis will find a backbone and that Susan Collins, Susan Collins, for whom there's a specific place.

And you know what, like, it doesn't count, Susan, what Susan Collins and Sullivan did because if it really counted, and they really didn't want the fund, they could vote against the final bill. They could vote against the final bill. They're all on their way out.

Tom Tillis and Bill Cazardy are out, it's a joke, it's a fucking joke, at the same time.

It's really important that this get done because we cannot have a $2 billion tax payer

slush fund given to insurrectionists, like, that is not. So someone, I mean, I don't know, I don't know, so I am outraged, I am incensed by the existence of Bill Cazardy. And I, you know, I look for redemption, I hope there is some for them. What's your level of concern that there has been more drama around the ice funding itself,

“which is sort of not even being talked about as much, partly because I think it was baked”

in that it was going to pass way back when, you know, the government shutdown happened or the DHS shutdown happened. I know you covered ice detention centers on runaway country this week. I interviewed Andy Kim on Tuesday's pod, Senator from New Jersey about the horrific conditions at the detention center in Newark.

I mean, this is one that has been like making me quietly sick every time I see these more stories because it's like, I'm very aware that we finished the episode of Trump's America, where there was the battle of Minneapolis, and then Kristi Nome was fired. And then they pulled back and Steven Miller was sort of like, you know, have to go back in his cave for a little bit.

And so everyone moved on and thinks, okay, now things are good and things are not good. No, there may be fewer expenditures on expensive horse rental under Mark Wayne Mullin, the new DHS secretary, but things are as dastardly as ever. Let's just, I mean, just for people who have not paid attention to what's going on in terms

been doing some central reporting from on the ground.

“The idea of family separations still happening by her estimate, I think 200,000 parents”

have been deported and separated from their children. Some of whom have ended up in foster care, some of whom have ended up with other relatives or strangers, no, there's, there's no tracking for that part, and they can't get their kids back. In many cases, there are dangerous places where they have no home, they're facing threats

of gang violence, their children are locked in the United States, it is a devastating situation. So there's that reality. And then when you're talking about what's happening inside the detentions centers, I mean, there, I think 50 people have died in detentions since Trump took office, the standard of care in these detentions centers is appalling.

You're talking about medical concerns like, people needing to see doctors for routine

small issues that when they aren't treated become life-threatening issues.

The lawyer that we spoke to Melissa Shepard from immigration defenders talks about someone who had a hang nail that was left untreated and couldn't see a nurse, couldn't see a doctor and eventually was at risk of dying from sepsis because of this, right? These are, I mean, then you talk about just basic basic basic, basic, basic levels of care including clean water.

They're being given moldy food or not enough food or contaminated water. The litreens aren't being cleaned. Detainees are volunteering to clean up and create shifts because nobody else is cleaning the facilities. I mean, these are pregnant women.

Children, elderly people who need their medicine. John, these are people that've been living in the United States for like 20 years. They used to go to CVS to get their prescriptions. This isn't, it doesn't make it easier, it doesn't make it better if they weren't those people but they were integrated into American society and even if they didn't have the

paperwork, they were living like we are and they have been shunted into a dark and unimaginably depressing, devastating environment from which there seems like no escape. These private prisons, these private detention centers are being run by four-profit companies, like the geogroop from which the Trump administration is cherry picking, executives, and making them the new head of ice.

Tom Holman was a consultant to the geogroop, a geobondy back in 2019. Another consultant to the geogroop, it's a revolving door where, you know, the snake is eating its own tail and as a result, there are, you know, geogroop is made I think an 800% increase in profits between 2024 and 2025. It's really lucrative business to cram a bunch of people with no legal representation into

subhuman conditions and charge the government a lot of money for it and that's what's happening.

And now we're about to dump another $72 billion in ice and CPBs laugh.

And like, we've both interviewed people who've been caught up in this and people who probably like have more means and maybe they're like Canadians, they got caught up in it but, right, and they will say, like, it's not even like they're just deporting people, right?

“Like that's what I think people have this image of or Trump wants to deport people and he wants”

to deport, you know, the worst of the worst or maybe just undocumented immigrants and obviously it's gone beyond that. But it's beyond just deportation, which in some cases would be more humane than what they are doing to people in these detention centers. Some people are like begging to be deported.

Yes, well, that's the point. I think one of the things they're doing is making the life so abominable that people just decide I'm going to give up on my case. I mean, and by the way, half the time they can't be in touch with their lawyers, they're shipped around from detention center to detention center, they're lost in the system. And they give up hope.

I mean, it's an incredibly emotionally traumatic thing to be snatched off the street. Kids children take in or children themselves. My kids are a, our kids age. Well, and like what happens after you spend a month in a detention center like that? I mean, I also mean that there's no oversight into any of this and you see Andy Kim, who

you had on. I mean, when you have congressional representatives who are, you know, tasked with oversight, trying to do their job, they are a pepper spray, they are arrested, they are charged with crimes. I mean, and we have no idea what's happening in Delhi, with detention, which is where

all the kids are.

“I will tell you, when I was talking Andy Kim, I was thinking about, remember that he was”

like a brand new, uh, brand new to Congress, 10 of January 6th, and he was in the capital picking up the trash. Yes. And like, I remember interviewing him after that, and he was like, so still so, like, hopeful, yeah.

Even though that had happened because he was, and you know, when I interviewed him on Tuesday, he seemed like beat down, like when you see something like that, it's like, and he's not the type of, he's not the type of politician who's like, hair on fire, partisan, this, that, he just, he saw something, and you can tell he can't even believe what he saw. You can't unsee it or unlearn it, and I have to say, one of the advantages of the way the

government is handling deportations right now, is it's happening in large part, the worst parts

Yes.

When Alex Predany and Renee Nicole, good were killed at alarmed the entire country, because

it was happening in broad daylight. And now the abuse and dehumanization of people is just happening behind closed doors. And they're brown people, and they have fewer rights, and there's less mainstream media coverage, and the federal government makes it very difficult to get information on the less. I mean, you know, this is happening in our name, and we are doing this to people who were

once integrated members of our society who contribute to our economy, and to the fabric of our democracy. Yes. And I just think, you know, it's devastating for anybody that works on it, but we should be, I mean, we should be all more publicly devastated by it, and in the context of this

funding, you know, these jibronies and Congress doing whatever they're doing, we shouldn't

“forget that the essential fight here, the reason this hat bill is happening through reconciliation”

is because Democrats didn't want to fucking fund ICE and CPB without reforms, because what

they're doing is an abusive power, it is not constitutional, and that should always

be the sort of end note for any discussion about whatever Congress ends up doing on reconciliation. Did you, uh, one more thing on this, do you see on Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Marc Mullen refused to rule out his crazy ass plan to basically shut down, not basically it would, shut down international travel at airports in sanctuary cities by removing customs and border patrol officers.

So here, LA, I mean, the first thought was Newark because there were the protests outside the Delaney detention facility, and that is like, I don't know whether to be like, that is completely insane and scary, and what are we going to do, or like, go for it, touch the stove, shut down, shut down international travel on this economy to the United States. That's going to work.

Yeah, no Republicans fly though, right? They only, they travel by pony. What the fuck? Can you imagine the hit to the economy? It would be so bad.

It's such an example of this idiot ass administration cutting off its nose despite its face. I mean, good job guys, like make gas a trillion dollars a gallon, and then shut down air travel. Wait, wait, make America great again. I mean, and Mark Wayne Mullin in his, you know, notes on this plan suggested that it's

something they've been cooking up for a while, and they're ready to execute on it until an unless ice officers are respected. Well, you know, on some level, I have to say, John, maybe doing that, I mean, taking the setting aside the hit to the economy. It's like at least people would be reminded that this is an ongoing fight.

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to officially promote acting attorney general Todd Blanche to permanent attorney general Todd Blanche, president's former personal defense lawyer has been on a roll since he took over for Pam Bondi.

In addition to coming up with a slush fund, Blanche has brought a second indictment against

Jim Komi for his C-Shell art picture and he's also stepped up an investigation into John Brennan. Blanche's nomination will have to go through the Senate Judiciary Committee whose Republican members include John Coranan and Tom Tillis.

“Are we going to be stuck with Todd Blanche for as long as we're stuck with Donald Trump?”

Well, first of all, I mean, no matter what Tom Tillis intends on doing, there is the reality that Todd Blanche can stay acting, A-G, till Trump is out of office. And I don't know if this is a time to mention the Julie Sioux situation, but underbite in 2022, he could not get his acting or his deputy labor secretary confirmed to be labor secretary in large part because of Joe Manchin and Kristen Sinema will set that aside

for any day. But effectively, I don't want to say set the precedent because I think what's happening here is much more nefarious, but opened the door to a mechanism by which a deputy secretary can become acting secretary for a largely indefinite period of time, assuming that the sort of paperwork around that is taking care of every year.

And Republicans are looking at that or the Trump administration, I would assume, is looking

at that and saying, well, if you could do that with your labor secretary Julie Sioux, we can do that with our want to be A-G, ring kisser extraordinaire, Todd Blanche. And this has sort of, I mean, it's been the law forever and it's sort of like the vacancies act without getting into all of the details on this. Yes.

If you are confirmed to be a deputy, something something at a cabinet agency, and you're going to be acting is pretty easy to just restart the clock every year. Every year, we're now we're withdrawing the nomination, we're doing it again, it's going to get a vote, they didn't get a vote, now we're going to take you to, you know, so like you can just play with the paperwork and Todd Blanche can serve forever.

Thank God. For as long as we have dollars. I don't know, I guess good job Todd, you like what, what, what, what didn't use bow and what didn't you scrape in order to get that nod? Yeah, no, he's got it, that's for sure.

“But and yet he's not the worst, I think, of the nominees that have been proposed this week.”

Well, here we go.

I think you get up for you, John.

The Blanche news did briefly overshadow the appointment of Bill Pulti, yes, the same Bill Pulti who's been using his perch, a top, the federal housing finance administration to manufacture mortgage fraud allegations against people on Trump's enemies list. Don't worry, he apparently still gets to keep that job, too. Does he doん such a good job?

Good, yeah. Does he be the vice-warri of Venezuela as well? Probably. We only have a couple of people to do all the jobs now, no one else wants to work there. This is also the same Bill Pulti who's Scott Bessent threaten to punch in his fucking face.

And it does seem like even Republicans and other Trump administration colleagues may not be super thrilled with making this doofus, America's top spy chief. Let's listen. Do you think Bill Pulti has the experience to be the active DNI? I'll defer the chairman on that, Senator Cotton won't speak to that.

We have four more weeks with Director Dabbard as the DNI, and I look forward to implementing last year's intelligence authorization act with her. And Pulti, I have no observations on the matter.

“Have you ever specifically in the context of the intelligence community heard the name Bill Pulti?”

In the context of intelligence? That's what I sell. Do you mean like the intelligence community or just intelligence generally? That's my question. Tom Cotton saying I have no observations on the matter.

I know. That is all we got. Oh, Tom, you speak for all of us. Tom was asked about this one in the oval when he was given us his renovation updates. And here's his explanation.

Why do you think Mr. President he's the best person for the job? Well he's a very smart, he's a person who's got high integrity, and it's enacting position and son of a part of it. He's not going to be permanent because, you know, I don't think he'd want to be permanent. And you may find out some things about the regulations, et cetera, et cetera.

Does he have any necessary, and you're going to be Mr. President, the necessary national security experience to take on that. Well, I do. I think he does, actually, because he's smart. That's it.

Trump says you're smart. You have all the experience. What's your level of concern on this one? Hi. Very high.

Hi. Hi. I think even, and especially the fact that he's just serving for a specific window to find election interference right ahead of the midterm elections, what could go wrong? I will draw everybody's attention.

Like, as if you didn't give us enough examples of this person be clowning himself in life. Well, some are at the bar. I'm so bad. You brought this home. It's such a good story.

It's such a good story. Everyone go read it. Pulti spent until, like, much of 2023, trying, like, as a meme stock investor, trying to get people to invest in, like, worthless shares of bedbath and beyond.

And as far as this is his soul mission. Yeah. That's all he did. And, like, he basically, they, will, will talk about how he organizes an event in December of 2023.

The floor to hangar, I guess, like an airplane hanger that was dedicated to the conspiracy

that bedbath and beyond never actually went bankrupt with Pulti sitting on stage.

One promoter slapped a grateful supporter in the face with a green dildo, which was apparently a powerful symbol in their inscrutable online subculture. He uncovers what that inscrutable dildo symbol is a means. And it's just as heinous as you would imagine it to be. This is the person that Trump wants to put in charge of our intelligence infrastructure.

You see the, what he got at that event? So he was sitting there while the dildo incident occurred. Someone else got slapped in the face with the green dildo. And then Pulti was given a little trophy with a T-rex on it. And it said, it said, "Pulti only fucks the young."

Well, okay. He, I think they were on two, it was two different sides of the trophy.

“Yes, if you put all the sentence together, that's what we're saying.”

Oh, Pulti fucks, only the, it's, yeah.

It's only the young and he fucks.

So they, but they did it as a joke. There on he fucks is on one side and I believe only the young. Yeah. He, yeah. He fucks, only the young.

He fucks, only the young. It is all, I mean, I just, we have to go back to the phallic obsession. This administration, it is all just about dick swinging. And like he proved himself to be both at once willing to be castrated by Donald Trump, but having some kind of dick to swing around at some point, or at least a dildo.

I'm sorry that this has gotten so lute. I know it's a family part. I mean, it's not our fault. It's not. I mean, it's the new acting director of national intelligence as false.

“Reportedly, gave Trump the, you are, are you are Jesus, JPEG?”

Yes. This is a guy that he's the, brain behind AIG. And the 50 year mortgage boom dawgle, like, we're really talking about this guy. I mean, not only does he have, I mean, it's almost like the fact that he has zero qualifications

for the job or an afterthought. He is completely morally and like, I would say, ethically corrupt. He's a joke. And I would hope that Trump's suggestion that he'll only be in the office temporarily is some kind of hat tip to the fact that he knows that he is a joke.

But that should not call him anybody's fears because as, you know, it's quite obvious. I mean, he's putting being put in there for one reason only. And that is to help Trump find a reason to say that the results of the 2020 election were fraudulent and potentially to say that the results of the 2020's six midterms should not give Democrats the gamble.

And, you know, we just talked about why it's challenging to prevent the president from

putting someone in a temporary position and, yeah, for, you know, first-long as he wants,

Section 702 warrantless wire tapping authority is up for renewal. That'll chestnut. And both parties have negotiated surprisingly, a, a, an agreeable solution to that. So they were going to put that up for a vote. But now, Democrats are saying, we're not going to reauthorize that if the person in charge

of it is this fucking doofus. And they're wondering if enough anti-polte Republicans would join along, try to use that as leverage.

“I think I saw maybe Collins, Mercowski and Tillis voted for an amendment that would prevent”

the penalty from being DNI chair that they added, but I don't think any of the other Republicans voted for it on the past. I can't believe you have to bait them. I know. You have to sweeten it.

Like, we know he's a clown. We know he's a maniac. We know he's completely untrustworthy and could do crazy damage to the democracy. But if that's not enough, we're going to hold 702 fights a wire tapping around authorization hostage.

It's insane to me that Democrats have to add a sweetener to attract more Republicans when this person is so categorically unqualified for this job. It's shameful. I wonder what John Ratcliffe thinks, who is the CIA director and not my cup of tea, but like a professional and, you know, I know that the org chart there is a little loosey

goosey, but he still has to, like, this is the director of national intelligence, maybe they just cut him. I bet they cut him out of all the important stuff. And then when Trump wants, really bad shit done, then Polty gets access to everything. Which is what he's already doing.

It's just digging up, you know, he's rummaging around mortgage files trying to find fraudulent mortgage applications so that he can tag Latisha James and Jim Komi. I mean, he, this is all so utterly embarrassing and yet what's crazy is we don't know what happened. We don't know if the FISA reauthorization is going to be sufficient enough to get Trump's

party to shut down the nomination of someone who could do gray damage not just to do the democracy, but even to them, you know what I mean? Once you cross Trump, once you're no longer an office at anything's fair game, like

You know, there's a lot that if Democrats take Congress, but they can't achieve in two years

“with Donald Trump as president because he still got veto power.”

But these are the kinds of things, especially Polty, where if Democrats have control of Congress, you haul this guy in for questioning, you send subpoenas, not just for him, but for doc, you can, you can make stuff happen if you control Congress with appointments this horrendous for sure. Thanks.

Tulsi Gabbard, look like Jake or Hoover. Doesn't it?

I guess in the, in the best possible way.

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And has been better than other mattresses I've gotten in the past, so I recommend it. Helix Sleep.com/cricket for 20% off site, Helix Sleep.com/cricket for 20% off site-wide, Helix Sleep.com/cricket. One more congressional development of note before we leave Capital Hill. Four House Republicans including Thomas Massey joined Democrats on Wednesday and passing a war powers resolution directing the president to end military operations in Iran. Democrats and Republicans in the Senate advanced a similar measure a few weeks ago, this is all largely symbolic, however, because Trump can just veto the resolution, which he's not too happy with.

He responded on Thursday by calling the war powers vote unpatriotic, the Republicans who voted for it, grandstanders and the Democrats, Democrats, which seems to be his new nickname of choice. We haven't played a clip yet of this on this program, but he has said now multiple times, he tells the story and he's like, "No, a lot of people don't know that dumb has a B at the end." It's what he's been saying, and like straight face, and he's like, "I call them the Democrats, but not for who the bell tolls. It tolls for thee."

People below know all this time, since there's a B at the end of dumb, meanwhile, there seems to have been zero progress this week and actually ending the war in Iran, which Trump said Wednesday is "not a big thing, not a big thing for the U.S. Toor." I'd like to read you some rave reviews about the Iran War in the Wall Street Journal today. Thursday, quote, "It has achieved enough to produce a far better Middle East." "Reaching no deal is fine," and quote, "This is a new day in the Middle East." "Care to guess the author?"

"I'm going to say who John loves ill-conceived regime change, more than someone from the George W. Bush administration. Could it be Condolese Rice?" "It's Condolese Rice. Pops are head up to just give a ringing endorsement of our progress on Iran." "Which is less welcome?" The Jill Biden Memoir or the Condolese Rice Off Ed.

"But the only because the Condolese Rice when it's like, "What is this going to do?" "What are you doing?" "What are you doing?"

“"Let me burnish my reputation by defending a family president."”

"That is a highly misguided war." "That is commitment to the bit." "That, like, she is a true, true neocon till the end." "I read this and I was like, are you kidding, lady?" "The war." First of all, she writes about it in the past tense.

"And I'm like, wait a second. It drew America Israel and Arab states closer through defense cooperation and intelligence." "What?" "It drew all the region closer." "It also showed that although Iran can close the straight-up for moves, that lever just limited." "Is it?"

"It doesn't seem like it."

"His approval rating is like negative 1 million right now."

"And he's about to hemorrhage any lever she has in Congress." "What in the fuck are you talking about?" "And do we need the enriched uranium?" "Sure, but that can be a tomorrow problem." "Yes, John. There are large stockpiles of highly enriched uranium somewhere in Iran.

"But this is a problem for the future, not today." "Really?" "Well, and then goes on to just like spout pure conjecture about like..." "Anyway, their ways of enriching it are probably dismantled or destroyed." "Trust me."

"What?" "I don't like." "Hindsight is negative 2020, like the whole thing is just like, we have learned..." "I mean, I just, the hubris, the foolishness." "It, anyway, I delighted in it, actually."

"It was like, it was a break and Tyler cleanser." "I was trying to figure out what it was." "And buried in there is her saying, like, you know, no deal is fine, and that's better than a bad deal." "And she said, under no circumstances, can we be lifting any sanctions and giving the money?"

“"And so, she is doing the classic anti-anti-Trump Republican thing of being like, I think we can play him."”

"Right? Because we'll tell him that the war went great, but we really don't want..." "It is pellets of cash to Iran, and they don't want to deal where we unfreeze sanctions and unfreeze funds for them in exchange for getting rid of the nuclear material."

"Which was the whole reason that we started the war in the first place, ostensibly, and opening the state of formus, which was open at the beginning of the war."

"And so, she's like, yeah, I understand all that, but things aren't that bad, and so what she really wants is a deal to open the state, no money to Iran, and then just cut and run." "Right, I don't know how you negotiate that deal, and nobody seems to be able to, but I guess nice try, Condy." "You're totally right that it's like, we will stroke the dog will come running at us with saliva, phoning at its mouth, and we will stroke the dog right between the eyes." "Right between the eyes, and we will calm the dog down, and then we will get it into the cage."

"And I'm like, no, that dog's gonna fucking bite you." "That dog's gonna bite you." "All right, let's talk about the big elections we have this week." "No, I'm going." "And Iowa Josh Turck beats Aquals to become the Democratic Senate candidate. He'll be squaring off against Ashley Henson in November."

"In a race that could political report has now shifted from likely Republican to lean Republican." "So Iowa Senate in play in Montana, a Bernie AOC backed smoke jumper and union leader named Sam Forstag beat two moderate Democrats to become the nominee in the state's first congressional district," "which were Republican rinds and keys vacating." "Hot fireman dude." "We need more fucking smoke jumper."

“"I'm sorry to curse, we need more smoke jumpers. Please delete the fucking."”

"We need more smoke jumpers." "I just look at what a smoke jumper was." "I actually just assumed it was fire related." "It is fire related." "It is fire related."

"It's not some acrobatics that I was unaware of." "I'm like hardcore for fire." "No, it's like it's definitely fire related." "And here in California, we're still counting votes." "As we will be potentially for another week or two."

"So embarrassing." "I know, it is embarrassing." "As of right now, the governor's race shows Republican Steve Hilton and Democrat Javier Bessera in lead." "Though there's a small chance the Democrat Tom Styer could catch Bessera as more ballots are counted." "He's currently about 6% behind."

"In the mayor's race, Karen Bass is headed to the runoff in November."

"And currently, Republican reality TV douche Spencer Pratt is in second."

"There's also a chance that progressive challenger Nithia Rahman could catch him." "She's currently 7% behind." "Election analysts say that in the past." "The ballots got bluer." "The later they were counted."

"And that may be especially true in this election." "Since a lot of undecided Democrats held their ballots until the very end." "It's like the people who usually sit at this table." "Like the people who usually sit at this table." "And I mean, I decided late before these guys, but I turned it on Monday."

"I still considered late. I dropped it in a box on Monday, so who knows when it finally got to the?" "We may not have." "Yeah." "While we have you here in LA, what have you made of our California primaries?"

"Cats need to fucking count your vote faster."

"We've focused actually on both Texas and California and last week's runaway country." "And we had the inimitable Daniel Fyferon." "And it worries me as someone who would like to see a changing of the guard in 2020." "about what this could portend for the Democratic Party writ large." "It's a good point."

"Just because..."

“"I mean, I think the gubernatorial race is a little different.”

It was hit with, obviously, the Swallwell revelations or accusations or whatever we're calling them." "And that up ended, I guess, the race." "But there's a real lack of enthusiasm, no coal, less saying." "What exactly the party wants to do in terms of, like, its priorities for, like, arguably one of those...

the most important state in the Union?"

"I'm a New Yorker, so I can't really give you that." "But, you know, there's no clear agenda. There's a lack of enthusiasm. There's a sense that everyone's votes are very scattered, and it's based on strategy." "And that's not how you win a national election." "And I worry that some of that can trickle down to what is going to be a very crowded primary field."

"And where, I think the order of the day is going to be electability." "Which is so what the fuck is that?" "I mean, I guess it makes you..." "Super important, super hard to define." "Exactly." "Very subjective." "Not totally subjective, though."

"You want to be like, well, you can't dismiss it totally and be like, wow, it's all subjective." "No one knows electability." "Yeah, you can kind of tell, but it's also not perfectly objective either." "Yeah, and the mayoral race really worries me." "Yeah."

"In many ways, the gubernatorial race I will set aside to, like, sort of, strange dynamics." "But the mayoral race seems like an area where Democrats are having a really hard time, articulating a message that is addressing people's deep-seated concerns so much so, that a no-nothing reality TV star sounds familiar.

“Has somehow vaulted to the, like, the head of the pack?”

I mean, that's, that's not good. That means there's real desperation inside, you know, one of the blue-estities in the blue-estates in the country. So what does that mean for the country where it's not as blue and it's not as concentrated? I just, I worry, I don't like what I'm seeing here. And I genuinely love this state.

I have been, like, grumbling about this to anyone who listen, but all the Democrats running in California and these primaries, Mayor and Governor. Who's the really inspiring communicator? Yeah. Who's really good, who gets, who's good at getting attention by just talking and not spending

$200 billion to $200 million, like Tom Steier did. Not a lot of them. And then you have someone, Katie Porter is a good example. Here's someone who, in 2018, rising star, great communicator. Policy won't, but also someone who's, like, explained it in accessible way, had the whiteboard.

And then she has a personal character issue, right? Yeah. And that, that becomes a theme in the Democratic Party as well, now, right? So you got that kind of person. You've got your, uh, nithias like this.

And, um, a lot of other folks were running to, who, like, good at the job. You can tell they're going to be good at the job and they, they brilliant people. Like, were they born to be campaigners? Not really. We've had a lot of that in the Democratic Party.

Yeah. Right. And then you have the basarras, the Karen Basses, who their claim to fame is just sticking around long enough. Yeah.

And just hanging around Democratic politics and being part of the establishment and making enough connections and the establishment that suddenly people are ready to rally behind you. And do you have good intentions? Yeah. I'm sure.

I'm sure Karen Bass had great intentions when she took the job.

I'm, I'm, I assume that of Havier Berserra, because I like to always assume well about people.

Um, but Karen Bass didn't adequately communicate in the last couple years on this job.

“She didn't show the kind of urgency you need to show to be mayor of a city this large.”

Um, even though it's a week mayor, that actually means you have to work even harder to communicate, uh, in, in a week mayor system. And, you know, I don't, that doesn't surprise me because in Congress, as a member of Congress, but she was for so long, you can just kind of hang around in Congress and take your votes. But like, we need leaders. Yeah.

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

And it's much more inclusive and expansive and thought and agenda and all the rest. But that is a sort of structural problem for a party that desperately needs leadership and like executive style leadership. Yes. And it, and it, it bunking up to say it because, first of all, it is really hard to run for office.

It's a lot of sacrifice and especially in this environment. It's like, why does anyone want to go through that, right? And there are so many people who are going through it right now, who are wonderful candidates,

who people will maybe never hear about because they're just putting their head down and trying to win their races.

And they're not as flashy as some of the other candidates we talk about and like, God bless them. But when we get to president, this is going to be the challenge.

Because you can, you can do that in a congressional race.

“You can do that, probably even in a Senate race.”

As you get to governor in this day, or as you get to a mayor, or now, especially when you get to president, it's going to be a lot tougher to do that, just sort of fake it. You need the real talent there. And it's true.

And all that talent's come from California.

J.K. J.K. It's a great state. It's a great state. It's a great state. We're here. A lot of great people. Fabro 2028. Yeah, right. Um, okay. Right as we were speaking of all this, right as we're preparing to record this, uh, the much rumored second New York time story on Graham Platner's problematic behavior dropped. This one talks about his relationships with his past girlfriends. Uh, several of them spoke of him fondly. Uh, three others.

“The time spoke to described quote toxic relationships that were unsettling. I'm going to try to quote as much as I can here because it is, it's a lot to untangle in this piece.”

Yeah. Um, the most prominent voice, uh, in the piece is a long time conservative activist. He dated between 2013 and 2015. So I guess this is when he was in DC. Um, and she said that while Platner quote never hit me, um, he once yanked her out of a cab by her wrist, and also during one argument twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom and told her to remain there until she was calm. Platner strongly disputes any claims of physical intimidation or altercations. This is all recording to the times.

Seems like, uh, every time you're on the show, uh, there's a big turn in the Platner story. So welcome back. Oh, incidents or not. Uh, what do you think of this one? I feel like I get the Graham Platner hot potato land. I really do and there's not even Dan here to, you know, create some levity around the absurdity of all of this. Damn, Dan never gets it by the way. I feel like every time great. Well, it's just a quiet sort of rivalry that Dan and I have like Platner V mills of uh, I, um, I will say there's another part of the piece.

Again, quoted, uh, a quote or a retold by this conservative activist, former girlfriend, where she says that Platner had what she described as a warrior ethos and would fantasize about killing people he deemed a threat. She said that he told her that rape was about power. It was something that stuck with her through the years. She said he said this a lot. If anybody ever broke in here, I would rape them. She recalled saying that he added it would not be in a sexual way, not in a gay way. He was like, I would rape them to show them that I'm dominant.

Yeah. I mean, okay. I, this is where it's like, this is really this fucking sucks. Yeah. I, um, I want to be a person that has learned the lessons of like, if you have multiple people accusing the one person of very similar behavioral patterns like there's a good chance there's something there. This story goes, I mean, they go out of their way in the times piece to quote girlfriends who were like, he was a gentle giant. I have nothing to say about him. But then their handful of women were like, I, you know, his behavior was sometimes made me feel not safe.

“And then this one in particular, this one ex-girlfriend has the most distressing and in my mind, disqualifying things to say about him. And I think like, we can't, this can't be brushed aside.”

He has to, he has to, you know, tackle this head-on. And if this was a Republican, everybody would say, no fucking way.

Yeah. I mean, that's just the truth. Like with all of this, and then they'd be elected. Right. Well, fine. And ultimately, this isn't up to you or me. This is up to the voters of Maine.

And this is a really interesting study. I mean, so much of what Platner represents was the less answer to the toxic masculinity of the right. And what's really fucking unfortunate is that this kind of masculinity, if this stuff is true, is just as fucking toxic, is everything being served on the right. And there has to be a difference. There has to be a difference between what the left is proposing men and strengths can look like and what the right is. Because otherwise, we, as a women and citizens of a democracy are completely fucked. So I would love to hear a lot more from Gran Platner on this.

Like getting into these allegations. She also suggests that he taught her the name of his Nazi tattoo and knew very much that it was a Nazi tattoo called the Toto-Totent-Totent-Kov. My Toto-Totent-Kov. Which makes me, is the exact language that was used in Andrew Kazinski's piece about this. Because Andrew did, who's a great reporter. And said this on Tuesday. We're basically reported that an acquaintance of his said that he had told her my Toto-Totent-Kov. So I was like, I want, the language was the same as I wonder if it was the same source.

But regardless, look, I said on Tuesday show that Platner's biggest issue going forward is trust. And there are allegations in this story about the assessment bowl. And when he found out and what he knew.

He said no. Then the sexting story came out. He got more questions about whether there are additional allegations coming out from Democratic senators this week. And he said nothing like the rumors that have been circulating. I'm not going to show the rumors here. But the rumors have been, they have been actually much, much worse than what the New York Times ended up with. And he said, no, nothing like those rumors that we've been hearing, which may be technically true. But now there's this story, right? And even if he is completely telling the truth, and this is it.

And he really is a different, better person who, and he says in the story, I was a bad boyfriend. I drank too much. He has said all kinds of things about how horrible he was before he tried to turn his life around. Even if he is telling the truth about that, which I can't judge, you can't judge none of us can judge.

The problem is it's going to be really hard to blame voters who wonder whether they can believe him.

You can't blame voters. But also, it's not even beyond justice. And that sucks. Is this a person who does this stuff? I mean, that's a financial question. It is like, it is like very difficult.

“Well, that's what you like to do. Given how absolutely asymmetric the asymmetrical the value system is here,”

that Democrats, you know, like that a person who otherwise has adopted a very sort of strong set of beliefs and policies that would help a large part of this country and seems very much like he believes those things could be shut down based on this. But if this is true, I mean, you can't, it's a moral. You can't behave like this. You can't talk about women and do things like this to them. You can't talk about rape like that. I mean, you cannot fucking do that. That is, those are not the morals of a sensible party.

And I, I don't know. I, I, I got to say because I, I mean, I remember the, I, and I understand the repulsion of like having the DSCC involve itself in a Senate race. But everybody was like, Janet Mills is too old. And I remember talking to Dan about this. And I was like, I mean, yeah, she's old. But like, Graham Platner has a lot of fucking question marks, guys.

Yeah, well, I mean, here's the thing about that is two things can be right.

“Yes, fine. But I do think, like, I think like, people have, you know, I've been.”

But all I'm saying is, and I see the, like, there was so much interest in the fact that he could be a new kind of masculinity for the left. And it's like, I'm sorry that she's old and that she's a woman and that she was governor. But she was tough at her. I'm not a Mills person. I'm not a Mills person. But and I'm not, I'm not like an anti, like, if, if, if, if, you know, if they decide to Mara, like, they're going to replace him with Mills and it's like, I'm not going to be like, oh,

no, like, great. We need to win the fucking seat. That's the most important thing. I just, like, it's not about, like, it's not about Graham Platner, right? It's about it's about winning the seat. It is. And, and, and, you know, what? It's a good fucking thing. I was back on the map, I guess. Well, it's also like, I do try to separate, like, this is a political situation and this is like a personal situation, right? Like, imagine if we were talking about this person and he wasn't running

for office. Okay. Just as a, just as an experiment here, because this is, I think this is what has like been bothering me about it is, like, I do very much believe in the ability to redeem oneself and to change and become a better person. And I still think it is very possible that this is the case with him that all that stuff in the past is true and that somewhere along the line, as he says,

“he was like, my life is really fucked up and, you know, people say, like, he's blaming the war,”

but like, you know, every time every person who's fucked up is a product of their environment and their own choices, it's both, right? And so his own choices, his environment, led him to this moment where he was really fucked up, he gets help, he tries to, you know, work in his community, organize people, tries to turn over a new leaf and then someone's like, you should run for office and he's like, me, with the fuck, and then he's like, okay, I guess,

but what about my past, you can do it, right? You're, you're changed person and then he does it and then this is what happens. Now, now I'm just saying, yeah. The more these, I'm telling you what I feel like, like, the more these stories come out, the more I'm like, yes, that could all be true, but there's a bigger, there's a bigger, there's more at stake here than your personal redemption story because we need the sense. So that's where I'm landing, but I'm just saying.

Can I say one thing to that though? Yeah. I don't think, I mean, I think at essence, I wouldn't divorce the personal from the political in this, in part because there's been such an assault on women in this country, whether it's denying them basic reproductive health, continuing to drag feet on basic, you know, maternal health questions, especially in low-income

communities or on paid family leave, you know, there are essential questions about how much you

value women and families. Like, these are questions that senators are going to have to answer if Democrats have power again. Like, there needs to be legislation to address the wrongs and the assault on women's lives. And, you know, you want people that see women as co-equals, you want people that

mean to sound like some family values Democrat, but I think, you know, it is, this is the reason

this stuff bleeds into the political is because those are, you know, these are organizing principles. And if you're living your life in such violation of some of those principles that you then need to turn into legislation, it makes you question how effective someone's going to be in office if they get there. I mean, that's all I'll say about it because I don't, I don't know if any of this is true. No, I don't need that. I don't think the reasoning that he's given

“this far is sufficient to paper over this new reporting. I guess that's what I would say.”

And I guess I'm just saying, like, don't, don't we want people who change, and who are like, I, what I thought back then, what I said back then was fucking wrong and I actually mean it, and like, whether it's a someone who voted for Trump and who supported Trump, whether it's fucking Oysterman and Maine, whether it's where a party who wants to rehabilitate people who

serve time in prison and give them a second chance, who mortars. And we get attacked for that

by Republicans. We say, no, we think it's important to do, in rehabilitation. And again, I don't, the people are going to take this out of context. I'm not saying that, therefore, Grandplatter must get a sense that we must do it for him. I am just saying that on an individual level as a party, sometimes I think that one of our, and maybe this is just me, but like, I want to, I want to believe well about people, and then I want to believe that when people

fuck up and do something horrible and are genuinely sorry and genuinely want to change, that they are able to do that and that people can accept them for doing that, no matter who they are, what they believe, what their background is, fucking Donald Trump, no, not Donald Trump. Yeah. Um, Peter, I'm saying like, that's like, that is like, that is like, that's just like me they're reprising this and just like talking about like, this is this is divorcing it from the like,

I do think this is a huge fucking problem right now. We want people who've made mistakes because

“life is full of mistakes, but there are mistakes, there are, there are patterns of behavior that”

suggest that lessons are have not been learned and then there are mistakes that you make and move past, and I just don't know which one this falls into. Yeah, and also it's like, and again, how many can you add up and pile up if you want to be a United States senator. Now, I also think that it's the other challenges, you know, contrary to what people online have said like the guy generated an impressive amount of support in me. But this is why it doesn't fucking matter what we say.

I mean, we, we aren't, you know that, but like, it really doesn't like, it will be very interesting to me as someone who's interested in kind of the social currents that, you know, I say this as an armchair, so it's theologist, but whether this is an issue for him, I mean, it's entirely possible. Well, and it also think he can move past it, I guess. It's also to like, it's, you know, for all the what a Chuck Schumer in the DSCC do with Janet Mills or what

did the left do forcing Graham platter on? It's like no one forced Janet Mills on anyone, no one forced Graham platter on anyone, Graham platter decided to run and a bunch of people showed up Chuck Schumer wanted Mills to run and she said, sure, and she ran a campaign. Like, and then the people of Maine came out and you know what, we have a primary on Tuesday. And I do think like, I mean, he's, she's on the ballot still, there's like one other candidate as well.

You expect him to get like, if he was a normal candidate without its scandal in a situation like that, 85, 90% of the voting percent. If he's down to like 60, 65, it's a real fucking problem. Or if, and like, I don't want to just, because you don't want to just base it on polls, but like, you know, we haven't seen any polls post the sex in Seattle, except for their internal, which had him only up for for a while. But like, there's gonna be plenty of polls that come out. Yeah.

“And we'll see what happens in the primary, but the party has till I believe July 13th,”

if he drops out to replace him with someone else. So, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's another month of pain. I don't want to do the show. It's primary so far. Same. Get me out of the seat. Same. It's, but like you said, we'll end it where you begin. It sucks. It fucking sucks. It sucks.

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, and we're going to do a few more questions. One other big topic to get to. Oh my gosh, I can't believe we're just here now. 60 minutes melt down at 60 minutes. Oh, we show. We can go forever. This show isn't called 60 minutes. This is 190. As you know by now, Ever since Trump held David Ellison put "contrarian conservative columnist Barry Weiss in charge of CBS," she's taken a special interest in 60 minutes.

Last week, Weiss fired the show's executive producer along with several correspondence and hired Nick Bilton, a tech journalist with no broadcast experience to run the program.

At Bilton's Introduction Meeting, which Weiss did not attend,

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

Ted. I know you've been writing about the story a bunch on your excellent sub-stack. How the hell with Alex Wagner? Perfect title. Oh, that hell. Perfect great name for a sub-stack.

“Care to uncork on this one? Yeah, I do. How much time we got? Can you hear the sound of me rubbing my hands together?”

Please do it. So, I have so much to say about this, but I know I can't spend an hour on it to sit, I can't spend 60 minutes on it. It's appalling what Barry Weiss is doing. It is all part of a project that Barry Weiss is a small player in a larger machine, which is for the elephants. I mean, I actually don't think David Ellison, who I refer to as

"Lord Collagen" on my sub-stack. I mean, notice how just... Not moving that face a lot. But also just ripe the rightness of his cheeks and lips. Well, shiny. Very collagen-filled, but not. I think he's naturally just peach-like. Anyway. Sure. We'll go with that. Um, he... I don't really... I mean, I think they're conservative. This is... I mean, they are... they want to make a lot of money. And the way they're going to do that

is by curing favor with the Trump administration by any means possible. And they've figured

“out wisely that the best way to do that and ensure that they can proceed with the paramount”

Warner Brothers Discovery merger, which is supposed to happen as soon as next month, is to show Trump that they have no compunction about gutting legendary news institutions and destroying the fourth estate if it's inconvenient to this precedent. And that's what's happening here. And, you know, Barry Weiss is a fool. I will say that. This is foolish, bad, a moral, unethical behavior. She is hollowing out this institution that was one of the last...

You know, we talk about this moment in American life when people used to gather around and watch things on the television. Sixty minutes is like the last bit of appointment television we have. It's monoculture. We had a real monoculture problem in this country last 10 years. And it's... I don't think much is going to exist of it at the end of all of this and that's a real travesty because I don't think you ever get those viewers back. I mean, that's the problem with

broadcast. It's an iceberg that melts and once it's melted, there's no re-freezing. And so, you know, what I would love to see in all of this is the people who count in terms of the elicens, life and financials say something about it, which means I sit here

That's their bread and butter. That's what makes money for the elicens and paramount.

And like, it is one thing for Alex Wagner and John Favreau to stand in solidarity with Scott Pellie and the staff of CVS and a 60 minute. It's another thing for everybody who's on a Taylor Sheridan, our Tyler Sheridan show, to say, "Hey, you can't gut the fourth estate just because you want to make money on entertainment." It's like, where are all the people that have movies made by paramount? Where are the people that have TV shows made by paramount? And this is their fight,

too, because this is an issue of free speech. And until and unless they stand up, it's not going to make a difference. News doesn't fucking make money. News is an afterthought.

“This is an inconvenience for the elicens. The only thing they care about is making money through”

entertainment. And until the entertainment world stands up and says, "You can't do this, you know, a crime against one of us in terms of free speech is a crime against all of us. This goes nowhere." You can tell that Nick Wilton, did you see his long note that he put out today where he was like, "And I, you know, were committed to transparency and honest journalism, and I've talked to Leslie Stahl on the remaining correspondence." And, you know, you can tell

there's a little, he's a little worried? Yeah, he should be a lot worried. A lot worried, and they promoted Maria Gavralovic to see your producer, who's, we both know, I know, I have them for a while, and she's fantastic. When I worked at CBS News, we were not allowed to cross the street to go over to 60 minutes. You had to, like, that's how they were. Wow, there's a separate office

with better lighting, better everything. I think it was like soundproofed, so you never knew what

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

I mean, yeah, drives me nuts. It will, in a somewhat new year. I was on the fucking, the farm team over at CBS, right? I was doing CBS this morning, CBS this morning on the weekends. Like, I was the bottom feeder, and you look, and, obviously, across the street, but there was a reason you were envious because the quality of investigative research and reporting they were doing was, was barnaut. I mean, there was just no nothing like it. And they deserved

to be an island under themselves because of the rigor of what they were doing. And the audience that they commanded. You know what I mean? Sorry that they were on top and sorry that it sucked for everybody else, and especially the CBS news division, which was starved into obsolescence and left to eat, you know, moldy green beans in the cafeteria from 1976. That was literally something that I did on a daily basis. But like, they, they earned that reputation for a reason.

And the shot in Florida around this, among news industry veterans and people who once worked there, fuck off. This is not about like a dick swinging contest, about who got what resources. This is about attacks on the free press. And this administration threw the, the, the lackeys that it has put in its corner disassembling like one of the last great institutions.

It's always, it's like, you think there's a culture issue? You think it's a fossil? You think

it needs to be updated for the digital age? Fine. Think about all the ways to do that. Yes. That are not this. Because if you wanted to do that, um, like, you'd have to be, you'd have to be really fucking incompetent to do it this way. And like, you're not going to tell me, like Barry Waste is a lot of thing. You're not going to tell me that she and Nick

“built and all the rest of them are this fucking dumb that they think that this was the best way to”

change the culture at 60 minutes. It's totally vindictive and none of them have any qualifications. Like, show me, show me the media companies that either one of them have turned around, show me experience they haven't television or broadcasts or news. They got Nava. Bad. Goosex, bad. All right, it's been a long show, but before we go, before we go, I have to, um, the deep teeth. All right, so I'm just going to, um, you know some of this. You know some of this. I only,

I've got it had two martinis when you do that. That's true. That's true. I did tell you that. I'm just going to read aloud to all of you an email I received on March 25th. Come on. So go now. It's from TKO events. TKO events, uh, it sent it to me, John Favron, and the subject line of the email is UFC Freedom 250. John, we are honored to invite you to UFC Freedom 250 on Sunday, June 14th, a special evening celebrating our country. This once in a lifetime

event marks a historic moment and we would love to have you join us. This invitation is non-transferable and does not include a plus one. We need your RSVP by Tuesday March 31st as there are significant logistics

“with the White House. More details to follow. So I saw this and it was like, uh, is this a joke?”

Did someone prank me? I'm why am I invited to the White House and I'm, and then I looked in the CC line of TKO events was Ari Emmanuel who owns TKO events and then I looked up TKO events. I'm like,

so Trump had all his tickets. There's 4,000 tickets. Trump gets most of them. Some go to the military.

200 go to Ari Emmanuel at TKO events. 200 go to Dana White and Ari chose me because what I thought is he thinks I was the other John Favron. Ironman, John Favron. Yes, because way back

“when I was represented at WME and I believe that Ari was John's agent and I think John must”

like UFC fights or whatever. But anyway, I RSVP. Yes, because I thought, fuck it. I'm going to the White House. And I'm going to go in there with a go. I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to check it out. Maybe I'll see my buddy Steven Miller or my friend J.D. Vance and chat them up. I'm like, you're going to climb the octagon possibilities were in the so I RSVP. I got this follow up on April 2nd. You're ticket to UFC Freedom 250 in Washington,

DC on June 14th is confirmed. No. Ticketing and arrival details surrounding your visit will be sent from TKO events during the week of June 8th. Please reach out with any questions and let us know if you're no longer able to attend. Thank you. So I'm like, okay, it's still happening. A few weeks ago on May 11th. I got another email ahead of your trip to Washington DC for the historic UFC Freedom 250. We are collecting identification details from each guest due to the heightened level of

security that will be in place throughout the weekend. The information is required to ensure there are no issues with ticket distribution. So I gave them all my info on May 27th. I got more details, including suggested dress code, business formal, a reminder to bring my government issued ID instructions of how to get my ticket the week of the fight, a whole whole thing. So I had I made plans. You bought a ticket? bought a ticket to DC to DC, like booked a hotel, had a whole meeting

here with everyone. It was, it's Sunday, June 14th. The next day I was going to Chicago for the Obama library of it, probably not too many people going to both of those things. Nadda. It's very exciting. Trying to figure out how am I going to play this? What if I get right? What's going on? And then today? No. Another email from TKO events. Hi, Jonathan. Now, when I gave all my info, of course, I gave my real info, which is Jonathan Edward Favreau,

“and the only thing that's different between me and the other John Favreau is our middle name.”

You know, he's, he's, he's J.O.N. too, but he's K. John, K. Favreau and I'm John E. And I think, because they also, they, they went with my full name. I think that they probably,

when I saw that, they finally checked the list. Our sincerest apologies, but we've just discovered

there was a miscommunication about a hard, a lot of number of guest invitations for UFC freedom to 50 on June 14th. Unfortunately, as a result, we are under-allotted and no longer able to accommodate your attendance. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Thank you for your understanding. We would love to host you at a future event. That's perfect for the, for the, for the third and all. Fuck. I was so, they got me. I knew, you know what? I knew

something must have gone awry because you certainly wouldn't be broadcasting this. No, I'm going to keep it all secret. I wasn't going to say anything until I was safely out of there. Yeah, no way. It was like, I gotta say anything. I'm devastated. I tell anybody who's listening

“to this, you should be watching it on YouTube because Favros, like, the way his eyes dance,”

when he talks about this. It was so, it was such a fun story. Oh my god, it's like watching a balloon take flight. Like the glee. I will say though, it's such a fun story, but as I was getting closer, I'm like, what is this going to be like? What am I going to do? Oh, we, I mean, I, really was like, can we put a GoPro in your trench coat? Can we put, can we put love it in your trench coat? Well, I started figuring out because I'm like, you know, we went to White House events

and inside the White House, they always take people's phones for at least weeded. Yeah, well,

but who knows, but these, these people. Anything on the self-lawn. And I know it's high-scurry, and I'm like, I bet people are going to be taking pictures all over the place in the self-lawn. So I didn't think they were going to be taking my phone. But also I was like, what if I get recognized and they're going to kick me out? What's going to happen? Like am I going to talk to someone? I'm not type is going to go up and like yell at someone, you know, maybe your shrink bill will be less.

Because you had to have a lot of contingencies, but I mean, really, the service you could have done in our country, again, climbing the octagon, unfurling, you know, a let them eat cake banner over the, over the White House portico. I mean, there were so many people out there. What if it was a trap? What if, what if they, if we, I was like, is there going to be a lawyer on hand? Listen, precautions could have been taken. You, we would have gotten, the X, X fell team could have

gotten you out. Like ice was there. So that's a lot of ways it's going to go unwrong. Listen, I mean, I just hope that the mistakes continue with their mailing list. This is a lot like, I mean, maybe you'll be invited to perform at Freedom 250 because they confuse you. Which is now just a Trump rally. Well, apparently he's the greatest performer in America. I do hope that other John Favreau gets his invite now. Other John Favreau, this is a Hollywood

audience. Yes. If someone out there can talk to John Favreau. And I, well, I did, I, I know John Favreau,

I was going to tell him I got his invite. Technically, you were going to take us now. He hates you.

I'm sure. Yeah. Someone. He'll understand. It's a great story. If I showed up and just like sat next to Ben Spawn,

“would I? Yes. Well, that would have been interesting. Someone, Robert Downey Jr. Are you out there?”

Like, have other Favreau give this Favreau his ticket? That's a good idea. No plus ones. Yeah,

I would have to take it. Anyway, I'm glad that I shared that. I'll, you've got it off my chest. What a beautiful dessert. Beautiful dessert. Fantasticly depressing episode. That is our

show for today. Tommy will be back on the feed on Sunday with the conversation with the

bulwarks Will Summer about the mega media ecosystem and all the latest drama. So check that out.

“Have a great weekend. Thanks Alex. Ah, pleasure to be here, right?”

Pots of America is a cricket media production. Our show is produced by Austin Fisher, Saul Rubin, McKenna Roberts and Ferris Safari, with Reed Turlin, Elijah Cone and Adrian Hill. Our team includes Matt Degroat, Ben Hethcote, Jordan Canter, Charlotte, Landis, Carol Peleve, David Tolz, Mia Kelman, Ryan Young, and Naomi Single. Our staff is probably unionized with the writer's Guild of America East.

“Quick question. Are you politically engaged and spiritually exhausted?”

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