Brooks and Capehart on the partisan redistricting battle

The U.S. Justice Department dropped its probe into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

After admitting it lacked evidence, and voters in Virginia approved Democrats' redistricting

efforts for all of that and more, we turn now to the analysis of Brooks and K-PART,

that is the Atlantic's David Brooks, and Jonathan K-PART of MSNOW, it's always great

to see you both.

So, the DOJ dropped its probe, as we said, into Fed Chair Jerome Powell, and parked to clear

a path for the confirmation of Kevin Worsh as his successor.

But also because the Federal judge effectively crippled U.S. Attorney Jeanine Piro's investigation,

David, what do you see as the takeaways?

Who would have thought, lack of evidence, hurts the prosecution?

You know, I think, first of all, Donald Trump, like every president, frankly, would love

to have a Fed Chair do what he wants, because he can juice the economy at the right time

for the election.

Trump is obviously the only one who would actually act on that.

And it should be said, we should appreciate the fact the Federal Reserve System is one

of the crown jewels of our country.

It was passed, obviously, in the progressive era.

But you look at Greenspan, what Bernanke did was miraculous.

I think Powell has been an excellent Fed Chair.

The fact that we have these independent agencies who are doing their job with civil servants

doing their job is just something we should be proud of.

And the fact that it's under threat and still under threat should still alarm us, even

if we've had to reprieve on this.

The second point is that Tom Tillis, the senator who is retiring, who is holding up the

war's nomination, it would be interesting to see if other senators who are not retiring

start doing that kind of thing, standing up to Trump.

Now there's approvals in the thirties and not in the forties.

And I anticipate that a few more senators will discover some courage when it comes time

to standing up to the administration that they have lacked for the last eight years.

Do you think about that, Jonathan?

And as President Trump's approval rating starts to soften, do you think more Republicans

will use leverage or wherever they can find it?

One can only hope.

You know, Senator Tillis, he won this particular war because he made it clear for weeks.

He's not voting for anybody's confirmation until that lawsuit went away.

And you know, look, give the president a little bit of props here in that he's just,

okay, fine, fine.

And prosecution is over, I'm going to get my guy in and maybe he will do what I want

him to do in interest rates, but we'll have to take Mr. Warsch at his word that he says

that he's not going to be a puppet of the president.

We'll see.

And Powell's term ends next month.

Does this episode change the dynamics around his departure or the search, the appointment,

the confirmation, the expected confirmation of his successor?

Well, if you're Powell, you're worried that they're going to come after you again.

And I think that's one of the reasons he's reluctant to leave because he won't have some

certain protections.

But I think he kept on doing his job no matter what.

And there's just a very tricky economy with inflation's rising, and it was not expected

that he would be able to drive down inflation without a recession.

And he did it.

That's amazing.

And I thought what Kevin Warsch is the best possible pick that Trump could have had.

I've seen him speak at conferences for years, and he's a serious guy who a normal Republican

might have picked, which is not always the case with the Trump administration, substantive

guy.

So I think all things that are that part of the government is in reasonably good shape.

And they have a gigantic new building.

That is true.

And look, the Fed has spent decades really trying to guard its independence from political

pressure.

Has that wall held or has something shifted in all of this?

Well, it's held in for all the reasons that David was just talking about.

But now it's going to be tested with Kevin Warsch.

And you talked about he's serious and substantive, and that is all great right now.

But how many serious and substantive people in the before times have gone into Trump 2.0

and have done exactly what the president wants to do that is, in contravention of everything

that they've said before.

And I'm thinking specifically of Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a lot of ways.

Will a Fed governor Warsch still be serious, still be substantive, and still have been

the good graces of the president?

Let's shift our focus to Virginia, because Virginia voters this week approved a democratic

redistricting plan that could allow the party to pick up as many as four new seats in the

upcoming midterm elections.

David, what do you take away from that result?

Well, Jonathan may recall, I hate this whole thing.

You know, I hate it when Texas did it, I hate it when California did it, I hate it when

Virginia did it.

I believe in elections.

I would like there to be districts where both parties have a shot of winning, and the

number of those districts in this country is now vanishingly small.

I understand why the Democrats did the Republicans started, that's all fair.

But we're just become a less good democracy.

But for the Republicans, the lesson is, be careful what you start.

And it's weirdly like Iran.

In this case, and in Iran, Trump did not anticipate that the other side would take some reaction.

He couldn't see like one step ahead.

I don't expect to see three steps ahead, one step ahead.

And so it was pretty inevitable once they did Texas, California would do this, and Virginia

would do this.

And on that, the Republicans are probably worse off than they were before this whole thing

started.

The one thing I'll add, and why Democrats should mute their enthusiasm, is the 2030s coming.

And then you get a real redistricting, based on where populations are flowing.

And populations, nine out of the ten fastest states are Republican states.

Nine out of the ten fastest, shrinking states are Democratic states.

People are flowing to Texas and Florida and all those Republican states.

And it could be the case in 2030, even with all this, the Democrats will be in rough shape,

because it will be very hard for them when the electoral college, as the electoral college

and House votes go to red states.

You mentioned Florida, a Jonathan, Florida Republicans are apparently considering redistricting

and redrawing their maps.

What do you make of this?

Is this just hardball politics, or is there something more corrosive happening here?

Yes, it's hardball politics.

And we have the president to thank for it.

I'm surprised you did not, maybe he's older than the singing demographic that you usually

quote.

But I think of James Brown and his song, Static.

And there's a great line in it that says, don't start none, won't be none.

And had the president not gone to Governor Abbott and said, give me five seats, then you

wouldn't have had Governor Newsom jump out there and say, oh, wait, what?

No, we're going to do something.

So as much as we say that the president started this, I want to give kudos to Governor Newsom

for having the backbone and the spine to stand up and say, this is not going to happen.

As bad as Jerry Mandering is, and election should determine who elected officials are,

and one side is trying to cheat before our eyes.

We have to do something in response, and I'm glad he did.

In the time that remains, let's talk about Iran, because President Trump extended the

ceasefire with Iran, but he also said he's in no rush and wants to take his time.

Is that measured patience, or does it reflect the absence of a clear end game?

Craziness.

I thought he wanted an off ramp, and he doesn't seem to be asking.

He should be desperate for it.

This is an issue that could destroy or severely damage the Trump administration, the way Iran

contra severely damaged the Reagan administration.

Second, this is weirdly turning into the Suez crisis.

In 1956, the British, it wasn't over the Straits of Armouz, it was over the Suez Canal.

They said, they're going to turn a block to the canal, we won't let them.

And then the boy dies an hour in the U.S. said, too bad, too bad, you're a weak power.

You thought you were a super power?

Those days are over.

And a lot of people around the world are saying to the America, you think you're a super

power?

You can't even open those Straits of Armouz.

Your days are super hours over.

So Donald Trump should be eager to get the hell out of this fight.

How do you see it, Jonathan?

Similarly, I mean, watching this whole thing, I've been confused from the moment the bomb

started dropping on Iran, because I don't know why specifically the president took this

action.

I don't know what his game plan was, has been, or will be.

And it says if he's trying to, he thinks of a closing a diplomatic deal is the same as

closing a business deal that you can just do it overnight or one blustery performance

and, you know, you get people to the table to agree to your terms.

That's not how this works.

I keep thinking about the Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA.

You had five nations involved in this, plus the European Union, I believe.

And it took months and months of negotiation.

Where's the Wendy Sherman?

Where's Secretary Kerry?

Where's Ernest Moniz, the Secretary of Energy?

These were all people, plus the Treasury Secretary.

These were all people who painstakingly negotiated the Iran nuclear deal.

And instead, what we have from the Trump administration is Steve Wicoff and Jared Kushner, who

happens to be one, the president's son-in-law, and two, has major financial interests in

the region.

How on earth does anyone expect for the Trump administration to come to a deal that will

be lasting in the interests of the United States and that will put a lid on the damage

that's being done in the Middle East right now?

In adding to the perceived confusion, the Secretary of the Navy was also ousted reportedly

having nothing to do with performance in the field, but because of his closeness to President

Trump and over a shipbuilding dispute with Pete Hegseth, Secretary Hegseth, what does

a leadership shake up like that signal, especially given that there's an ongoing naval blockade

in Iran?

Well, he was part of the ground ups.

He was a successful business person who probably knows how to run an organization and probably

had his own ego as successful as he's been to say, like, I kind of know what I'm doing.

I'm not going to do a Pete Hegseth and do whatever Donald Trump tells me to do.

I'm not going to do a Pete Hegseth and basically be a fool on stage.

And so he tried to stand up for the strategy.

He thought was the right strategy.

And that's in the Trump second term, that doesn't get you very far.

I'm very struck by, it's not only people like him, I'm struck by how many of the more

intellectual Trump supporters are really upset about this.

He's lost a lot of people, not only Tucker, Carlson and people like that, but there's

a writer named Chris Caldwell, who in that world is probably the smartest and the most

intellectual he's fiscated.

And they're all like, it's not only, this was a bad idea.

But even regular Trump voters are saying, where's the thinking process here?

You had a red line and then you walked right through it.

David Brooks, Jonathan Capehart.

See you here next Friday.

Take care.

Have a good weekend.