Full Episode - Trump’s Deadline To End The War? + Taking The Pardon Power Away From The President

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Hello there and welcome to the Thursday edition of the chucktodcast.

We got a lot going on this episode.

I've obviously got a lot going on in this feed over the last week,

the launch of Thinastic.

My new sports history podcast with J.A. Donde.

We are just incredibly moved by the initial response,

amazing number of downloads already, terrific feedback.

And we are, it has only made me more motivated to find more nuggets and stuff

you didn't ever know about when it comes to our next topic for Dynastic,

which is the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Obviously, you can find Dynastic.

And it's in my audio feeds here and you can find it wherever you find your podcasts

or on the iHeartRadio network as well.

As for this episode, first let me give it to you in my guest.

My guest is a Baltimore area congressman.

And it's a congressman on a topic that you know I have been obsessed with,

which is updating our constitution, new constitutional amendments

to sort of update our democracy.

Specifically, this is the congressman, Johnny Olochesky,

known by his political friends as Johnny Oloch,

no relation to the shirt manufacturer.

He's the one that introduced the bill to create essentially a,

an opportunity for Congress to,

to deny, to nullify a presidential pardon,

if enough, if essentially a two thirds majority has reached in both the House

and the Senate with a few things.

He's creating sort of a veto override provision in the Constitution

for presidential pardons considering what both Biden did.

And at the end of his term and what Trump's been doing pretty much in a weekly basis,

a pretty blatant pay for play pardon process that he's created.

I think this is a real opportunity for bipartisan support on this.

Don Bacon, retiring Republican from Omaha, Nebraska is already signed on.

It's just the type of thing that I think if you're a Republican trying to show some,

some distance wanting to, to tell independence that you're not a mega person.

This is probably as I was telling you in yesterday's episode, right?

The Republican party's brand is actually in better shape than the mega brand.

But Trump and mega are one and the same.

And Trump is the brand these days of the Republican party.

So if you want to show distance, this actually might be an opportunity.

Realistically for this bill to pass for what it's worth.

I would circle December on your calendar.

Lane duck periods are when controversial bipartisan things usually can make it through.

Even in this polarized Congress, a lot of it will have to do with how if there is a big democratic wave in November,

then I actually imagine there'll be a lot of Republicans who might be on the ballot in 28,

who will be more interested in being on the pro ethics side of the democracy movement in general.

And that's where you might have an opportunity.

So I think a couple of events have to happen for this to take place.

You need a big, big sort of wave, if you will.

And then in that lame duck period where Republicans still have control,

that's where something like this.

This is, this is what happened when the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell.

Big, a big, you know, Democrats didn't want to do it before the election.

There's this big Republican wave.

And that December lame duck, frankly, is one that Obama ends up using to set up his reelection eventually.

But it's perhaps the most effective lame duck that first term presidents ever had.

And it was in that December period that they were able to get the votes to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell.

That was back in, like I said, December of 2010.

So lame duck periods are the best time to get things like this to sort of frankly sneak them through, if you will.

Sort of clean, clean the, clean the barn stalls.

Clear out the barn is another expression that gets you.

So that's the guest, Johnny, oh, it's itching.

And I encourage you to pay attention.

We spend a lot of time on this on the issues of updating the, the, the constitution.

We definitely need update.

We know this.

We need to modernize it.

We need to modernize our infrastructure and the democracy.

And I think we're, we're, we're going to get there right now.

We need to take a few steps back, like all this ridiculous, gerrymandering, referendums that we're dealing with.

But it actually, I feel like the appetite for reform is growing, even if the current situation feels like it's a setback.

So that's a why I'm highlighting these number one and B.

Why I think you should pay attention.

As for Johnny, oh, pay attention to him.

He may be a freshman member of Congress, but he was two term county exec in Baltimore County.

That is one of the power centers of Maryland politics.

Bottom line.

He's hoping to become governor, Johnny, oh, someday.

He doesn't say it, but I'll tell you, he's hoping to become governor, Johnny, oh, in 2030, perhaps.

And so keep an eye on him.

And by the way, pay particular attention to the answer he gave me when I asked him about a Westmore presidential campaign.

I'm just going to, not going to, not going to give away the store on this one.

But it wasn't an obvious answer.

And I'll just leave it at that.

A few more headlines that I'm going to get into in this podcast.

Number one, a quick update where we are on the war.

I think we have a new potential end date.

And I'll tell you about that in a minute, or at least a, a potential goal to try to where I think the president is going to try to wrap up the Rand War.

Although his ability to wrap up this war, I think is, is very minimal.

But the biggest news of the week is not, has not taken place in Washington, Tehran.

It has taken place in two courtrooms, one in Santa Fe and one in Los Angeles.

And that is the first signs that the tobacco application, if you will, of the social media companies has begun massive court losses by meta and YouTube meta twice this week.

Once in New Mexico, second time in LA, YouTube part of the LA one.

The, this is going to be, I think, an escalating story.

I'm going to get to that in a minute.

And we also want to, it was a tale of two parties all within the same party.

It was the best of times.

It was the worst of times.

That's pretty much a tale of the Democratic party that we want to discuss also in this episode.

And then finally, happy opening day.

I'm wearing my Washington Nats shirt.

I'm really open when game one, because if we win game one, it's probably the only time we're going to have a winning record here in that space ball.

I fear we're looking at 100 losses or more.

This is a disaster.

But there's always hope, right?

We've got the upside is rooting for these young kids and getting to know them, whether it's Brady House, James Wood.

So I have a little bit of baseball and a modest proposal to bring back the fun and the NCAA tournament and satisfy the major powers all at the same time.

This is a simple solution, folks, but you're going to have to wait until the end of the episode to hear that solution.

But let's get started with the serious stuff.

So IT is the idea that we now have an end date.

The new deadline for the president to wrap up the war.

According to my friends at CNBC just before I began taping.

That the Chinese and the United States have agreed on a new date for President Trump's visit to Beijing.

It will now take place May 14th and 15th.

We'll see a reciprocal visit.

Both the first family will host Xi and his wife, Madame Peng Li Yuan, at a yet to be announced date later this year.

But the reason I say that May 14th and 15th, one of the reasons why they delayed the April meeting was this ongoing war, which means if there is not resolution, if we are not directionally headed to a conclusion to this war of some sort,

one would assume this either gets delayed or we're going to start normalizing this war and this war has no end in sight.

So the point being is that we now apparently you can in the next 50 days, approximately from where we are today, to May 14th, somehow we either are going to find out one of two things.

We're going to have a glide path to figuring out what an uncomfortable ceasefire looks like, which appears to be politically where the president is feeling the desperation.

You can see it at the same time he's getting pressure not to not to essentially give the regime a win and anything short of regime change or no control of the straight of hormones is going to give this regime the ability to say they stood down the Americans.

Because who's begging to stop right now, it isn't the Iranians, it is the United States and why why does President Trump desperate for an exorbitant because this thing is politically out of control for him.

He has hit another all time low in his weekly average on approval, he has got more problems with the energy markets.

He's got even the most bullish banks and financial analysts when it came to I think Goldman finally flipped and said, now it is now even if everything stops today, these energy markets are going to take months to recover.

In fact, in some cases years, yes, the United States is going to be in better shape than pretty much every other region around the world.

During this heightened energy crisis because we get less of our oil from this region, but the markets on the markets and everybody's going to be impact and this tax on Trump voters.

Remember, this is the biggest problem.

And frankly, the Iranians are a lot more sophisticated about our political issues than I think we give them credit for certainly this administration gives them credit for.

And they're fully aware that the voters that are currently feeling the worst parts of this war so far, the fallout from this war are Trump voters.

Again, if you drive more miles than a given day and just by it, if you live in rural or exorbitant America, you just drive more.

This is something you, this is something I learned over the years, you know, living in Florida.

Florida is a place you're driving all the time, and that was in Miami.

And in fact, I just in a, in a small way, just to understand, I think why sometimes people in DC are totally immune to the gas price issue is actually how few miles you have to travel if you live in the DMV.

It is a very compact area. You could be stuck in, I'm not saying you're not going to, it's not going to take you an hour to go 15 miles.

Okay, that is, you know, ditto with New York City.

You can have plenty of ways that it takes you forever, but your actual mileage travels very minimal.

So you, you think a gas goes far.

And, you know, talk to anybody that leases cars.

Okay, if you lease a car, and I will tell you, I'm a, I lease a car.

I don't, you know, I own, we don't, I own a car.

In some cases, I lease a car, right?

You, whatever makes financial sense.

But if you lease a car, you can put your lease payment down.

If you agree to a minimum, you know, like, I'm not going to drive more than 15,000 miles in a year, 12,000 miles in a year, 10,000 miles in a year.

Well, in Florida, if you lease a car, and you would think you're going to drive less than 10,000 miles, you're a moron.

It's almost impossible.

You got to drive everywhere.

There's no public transportation.

Nobody, you know, you're always driving.

So when you lease a car, you're always in the 12,000 to 15,000 range in a year, and likely more, you know, 15 to 20,000 miles in a given year.

Every time I've leased a car in this area, I have, I've always been paranoid to do the 7,500 mark, thinking, oh, I'm going to, I'm going to go over that.

And I never go over it.

And yes, you could say, well, you have the luxury of living inside the boat, but that's the point.

It is a compact area.

And most of official Washington lives in a compact area.

So the, we here are in a gas bubble.

Gas price bubble.

We don't feel it the way you will feel it in a Texas, in a Florida, in an Iowa, in a Kansas.

You get my point.

So this is the political pressure.

The absolute political pressure that the president is feeling that is domestic.

Sort of those that those of his advisors that are more worried about the current political environment than they are the geopolitical environment.

Now, at the same time, the president is getting cross pressures now at the moment from the, from the Saudis and UAE.

And they are petrified now that this, this is, he is going to retreat too soon.

It's going to keep essentially nothing will change for them.

Right.

They have not wanted the Iranians to have this leverage over the region and they will still have leverage in the region.

The leverage over the Strait of Hormuz.

Yes, they are a weakened state.

Yes, in theory, what's in America's best interest might turn out to be we might get everything we want out of this in the medium term.

But the region will not.

Which means we are not going to have stability.

We are not going to have peace and you're going to continue to have low grade proxy fights.

And they'll probably be proxy fights that the United States government isn't interested in.

And that is why I'm not saying I agree with what the Saudis and UAE saying, but I understand their point of view from this.

And they figure the minute the U.S. bails on this and pulls the plug, they are not coming back into quote unquote mode along.

Right.

This idea that somehow every once in a while the U.S. and Israel will just whatever military ramp up the regime in Iran does that they will just mow it down again.

That worked with Saddam for a while.

Right.

I mean, it was just sort of it felt like we had, you know, we had airstrikes about every six months against Saddam after the first Gulf War.

Right.

Taylor and a bush.

I think it felt like about every three to six months it was probably further gaps than that.

But that you would have, you know, just a consistent degrading of what Iraq was trying to do.

So I'm not sure that there is going to be that kind of appetite for something like that.

So once again, in some ways, nothing has changed in this situation from where, when he got into this war, he's boxed himself in.

It's, it's all bad options.

And the question is, what is he going to prioritize?

Is he going to prioritize risking negative political fallout first party in the midterms here in this country?

Or is he going to risk his personal family's business interests with two of the most important patrons in the Gulf to him, the Saudis and UAE?

I know some people wouldn't put, you know, the whole point of this podcast is to sort of be straightforward with you.

Right. This is, he's got his own personal.

They have that they have the Saudis in UAE have personal business leverage over Trump and his family.

And they want one thing.

The current political climate has its own and the markets have its own version of leverage over Trump, right?

He doesn't want to be a loser and he doesn't want to suddenly lose support.

I know, I know what some of you are thinking.

If he's going to pick a side, he's going to pick them upside down money.

I certainly would make that the three point favorite if you were to make it a point spread.

Yeah, it's probably 52, 48. He's more likely that he will listen to his financial patrons and his family's financial patrons.

More than he's necessarily going to listen to the polls into the public.

But I don't think I think it's a much closer call than even the most cynical sort of person about Trump being a club, you know, sort of running a kleptocracy here, right?

Probably, you know, so I once, like I said, he's in a box and he's going to make some entity and he's trying to, there's no needle to thread here.

There just isn't. And that's the situation he's in.

So at this point, there's really not a lot more to say about this, but it will be, it is interesting to see, well, Trump talks a big game about trying to have talks and they've traded absurd proposals for each side, right?

We continue to send ground forces into the region, ready to be deployed.

82nd Airborne now has joined some Marines that are already over there. So it does feel as if, and I, you know, I, I think if he decides he needs to finish the job, ground troops are inevitable.

The only way we can take control of the only way they can manage a situation is to take control of the straighter hormones and the only way to take control of the straighter hormones but boots on the ground in the shorelines.

And so it's, you know, either we're accelerating towards either way.

I want to circle back to what I said before, circle may 15th and 15th on your calendar and figure that that is the window that he is going to, if he can get out of this,

he is going to try to get out of this.

Let's just say I'm mostly skeptical that he can do that in that timeframe.

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So I want to pivot now to sort of my tale of two parties and it's really not a tale of two party. It's a tale of one party with the Democrats.

Things have never been better and yet the party feels leaderless, directional and the voters don't have a lot of confidence in it.

Even as they're ready to vote for pretty much any Democrat if they're going up against a mega Republican, right?

The big news from Tuesday night was the Democrats won a couple more special elections 30 and 0 right now in flipping state legislative seats and Trump took off this.

Meaning the Democrats have flipped 30 across the country, count them, three zero state legislative seats held by Republicans.

And the Republicans have flipped exactly zero Democratic held seats in that same time period.

So that's a pretty impressive as my friend Crystal is a point out 30, you know, that is and that is as he pointed out there's a lot of noise and politics right now, but that is a signal.

And we know that this is this is where this looks like 2018 all over again, which led to a 40 seat house game.

Obviously with redistricting, gerrymandering, everything, you know, 20 seats is the new 40 seats, right?

You know, and any to me, anything 20 or above is the definition of a wave in this in this reapportionment and this era of reapportionment that we have.

So things have never looked better on the opportunity front.

And I will take it a step further.

The Democrats have orchestrated two shutdowns now of the government, one apart, you know, one or more, a more a larger shutdown over healthcare that started before the 2025 election day and went through those elections.

And then the one that we're currently in with the just the partial shutdown of the HS, which is being felt most acutely at our airports.

And Democrats are winning both shut down and it's actually very, I mean, to just show you what this is a sign of just how unpopular Trump is nine times out of 10, 99 times out of 100.

The party that forces a shutdown eventually gets blamed.

And so far in both cases, Democrats forced the first shutdown, not only did they not get blamed, they got healthcare from center.

In this second shutdown, which was arguably triggered by the actions, the illegal and unconstitutional actions that I stood in Minneapolis, the death of two American citizens.

By murdered by ICE agents, certainly I think drove the party to do what they did.

And largely the public has been with them on this.

And we've hit a point in this shutdown and I hinted at it a couple, I hinted at about a week ago, I said, you know, the Democrats have probably gotten everything they're going to get out of this politically.

We got the Republicans begging to make a deal.

And you know, at some point, you know, they're crying uncle, they got to say, okay, let's go. You got to deal.

Because there's a risk where this suddenly, it just becomes about the pain being inflicted on TSA and travelers and less about ICE.

I do think the administration and the Republicans did the Democrats a huge favor by deploying ICE agents in their ports.

I don't think that does what they think it does. It may make their base happy.

But think about this idea that the White House believes that ICE has become such a negative that it can be used as leverage to scare travelers

and scare Democrats in a cutting a deal.

Like they now know they've created a menacing agency.

Like that's what that's what's so surreal about this decision.

They're accepting the premise that the Democratic Party's description of ICE is what the public thinks and is what it is and that they can somehow leverage that for their gain.

Oh, they fear ICE. Wait, will we put ICE at the airports?

You're just like, I mean, it really is. I know I keep reusing this old movie metaphor, but it blazing saddles when the sheriff pulls the gun at himself.

He says, don't anybody come near. I might shoot.

I mean, it reminds me of a version of that. It is a, it is a strange, it was just, I think a strange tactic.

And I don't think it does the Republicans any good and certainly doesn't help ICE's image at all.

But the bigger thing is the Democrats have accomplished a lot with this shutdown.

When this shutdown began, Christy Nome was the Secretary of Homeland Security.

She is no longer the same. There's already been a confirmed new secretary.

And Mark Wayne Mullin has essentially agreed that there should be body cameras.

He seems to be open to getting rid of the masks, you know, beyond essentially unless you're at the border, which I think was a fair proposal.

Right. You know, if you're dealing with the cartels, they don't want to show their face because those cartels do try to assassinate people.

But outside of that, they have to abide by the exact same laws that all law enforcement agents have to abide by in this country hard stop.

So the body camera, the point is is that it did, it does seem as if the Democrats have gotten a lot out of this shutdown.

The long if they, you know, and look, I get that they're not going to get everything they want at ICE.

And there's some things they can, I mean, the problem the Democrats have is they don't have that much leverage over the ice funding, right?

Because it was done as part of the big, beautiful bill. That stuff was already leveraged in at best.

And I understand why they're hesitant to take the deal that's on the table because they want to codify these changes to ice protocols without just taking word for it and things like that.

So I understand the hesitance of the big picture here.

All of the coverage on this now in whatever's left of legacy media is just focused on the harmits doing the TSA agents and the burden it's putting on, untravelers.

This is no longer about ice.

So the point is when you get to a situation, when you sort of you're playing a little politics here with the government and you're playing politics with the budget, there's that fine lie.

And you know, there's some look ultimately, I think it's ridiculous that a political dispute somehow disrupts all travel.

Right? Like we've got to figure out how to insulate travel, insulate the public from this nonsense.

You know, this is I am, I am more than convinced that a sort of quasi privatization of TSA.

What do I mean by quasi that essentially TSA works for these airport authorities period and the airport authorities get reimbursed for the security from the government.

But essentially they're making payroll. They're they're keeping consistent. There is no skipping paid checks because a couple of members of Congress want to want to stand on ceremony for a variety of reasons.

And you're minimizing the impact on the public. And I know some of you may argue, but no, forcing the public to get irritated and to focus their iris is part of the problem.

I I hear you on that, but I don't think at this point the iris going to be a focused iron. Right. And the Democrats probably ought to take this deal before the weekend ends.

And I anticipate that a deal is going to get done before the next time you hear me on this. I kind of think they they have to what's interesting here is is is what is how I think one of the reasons why Democrats have yet to take a deal is they don't really have a leader at the moment.

Chuck Schumer has never seemed more unsteady on his feet than he does at the moment. He does absolutely, you know, at all.

And I don't know how much of it is connected, but I think a lot of this is connected to a fascinating Wall Street Journal piece from last week that got went into the weeds on the effort to push Chuck Schumer aside from leadership.

And I encourage you I encourage you to read the story in full in the Wall Street Journal, because it what was amazing about it is how kind of open everybody is about the various factions now in the Senate Democratic conference.

And and this sort of the reality check right it the piece in the Wall Street Journal opens with an anecdote of Chris Murphy Democratic senator from Connecticut at a dinner with a bunch of progressive activists who's you know they're having this dinner and they're saying OK.

And they're basically pushing Murphy and Murphy is somebody who may run for president more on the progressive side of things.

And they're pushing Murphy we got to deal with the elephant in a room. What about you know we got to got to get rid of Chuck Schumer.

And what surprised apparently folks at that dinner and of course what leaked out and then Murphy basically owned up to the comments without being overly critical is Schumer the person for what it's worth.

What what he said was well look a bunch of us have essentially done some vote counting and the votes aren't there to get rid of Schumer which doesn't surprise me and you're certainly not going to see this in an election year.

But what you're starting to see is the fact that this is being talked about openly like there's a pressure campaign to get him not to run for leader after November to he simply accept the premise that this is his last year as leader.

They seem to be hoping against hope that he will decide not to seek real announced that he's not going to seek reelection in 28 and that he will not stand in essentially just like Mitch McConnell did right Mitch McConnell decided not to seek reelection in 2026 but chose to step aside as leader at the end of 2024.

Allowing new leadership to take over and he would essentially be there as the as a as a as a as a Godfather at a meritus of sorts all out with Nancy Pelosi although she.

You know she she's been there a few cycles but essentially similar to how Pelosi handed over the reins to Jeffries on that front we've had smoother transitions there than we did of course with what the House Republicans have done.

What look I think what makes this story amazing number one is how public everything is in when this leaked out Murphy certainly seem to admit that they've done some nose counts right and he's on the side you've got Elizabeth more what this piece did was clarified who's behind the it's time for Schumer to go.

So it appears to be Chris Murphy appears to be Elizabeth Warren.

It appears to be retiring Senator Tina Smith from Minnesota that mildly surprised me that she was a part of this.

Then you have folks that are sort of in the category of they don't want to tick Schumer off but they want to be there ready to replace him right Brian Shatz is in that column.

And in fact it looks like Shatz has played his cards so well that according to this piece Schumer or Schumer's allies are are you know if they have a say in who replaces them they'd like to see Shatz that might be a kiss of death but

Shatz went on a limb and win ahead and defended Schumer and he said.

Chuck Scott broad and deep support even as detractors would have to admit that we have an extraordinary class of candidates for the Senate and that wouldn't have happened without him he's referring to Roy Cooper he's referring to Janet Mills.

But one could argue that in three of the most important and and Mary Patola in Alaska and the question is does he get credit for Taloriko I think he does he seemed to be on the side of of those consultant worlds that was trying to get Taloriko in there so.

But they're these huge primaries there's basically one faction in the Senate wanting to see the grand partners of the world win wanting to see a gentleman by the name of Zach Walls win in Iowa instead of Schumer's pick of Josh Turek and of course you have the Michigan.

And of course you have the Michigan primary that is a three way race between sort of strong establishment one that straddles progressive and establishment and one that is super progressive and you do have a group of senators that are basically running against Schumer's candidates and endorsing whoever Schumer's not for they seem to be endorsing and vice versa.

On that front but the fact that this went public and apparently one of the beefs and I got to share with you this one anecdote because the story itself and the way Schumer responds to the story in this Wall Street Journal piece I think is a is a tell that he is both slightly out of touch a bit stubborn about this and is probably going to fight and is not going to roll over here but

but we shall see oh one other this was this was really telling according to the Wall Street Journal story about Schumer and Schumer agreed to do an interview with here almost as a way to sort of push back on this narrative that he was two week to lead.

The journal points out a number of democratic senators provided the Wall Street Journal with interviews or statements in support of the leader they included shots Catherine Cortez Masto Sheldon White House Kiersten Gillibrand she's the Diet current DSCC chair Chris Coons and Tim King right those are sort of everybody's been there.

Essentially more than a term when you look at these folks right these are this is what you would expect that it would be more of the establishment types more that have always run more center left campaigns Catherine Cortez all of these folks you know I'm old enough to remember in Kiersten Gillibrand represented an upstate New York seat

and wanted a pretty good NRA rating Chris Coons very middle of the road kind of guy in Delaware always involved with any bipartisan talks and Tim King has always straddled that that fence as well so it's notable who would put their name on the record and it's of course notable who chose not to do that right you didn't see some others because there's quite a few senators what Schumer's problem is he is he seems to be in the middle of the road.

He's at that moment where he's so paranoid of leaks and he doesn't know who to trust that he doesn't share information enough and of course that pisses people off.

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And in fact they share an anecdote and I'm going to talk about this anecdote here because it leads into an amazing.

Trump ask Chuck Schumer moment so here it is I'm going straight from the article here tensions among Senate Democrats over Schumer style reached a tipping point during the lengthy government shutdown last fall.

In a closed door meeting with top Senate Democrats the day after the parties November election wins you'll remember right we're in the middle of the shutdown Democrats have a huge November 2025 right double the chick victories in Virginia New Jersey just killed it everywhere right.

The mood wasn't celebratory in this closed door meeting with top Senate Democrats why senators Jeff Merckley and Maggie Hassan were arguing over whether the victories gave Democrats new reason to continue the shutdown.

Their leverage for extending health care subsidies they believe the election was a chance to essentially double that when senator Gary Peters who's a retiring the retiring senator from Michigan that's the big Michigan primary is the open seat is that is trying to replace him.

He stepped into note that a breakaway group of Democrats had already initiated a quote secret deal with Republicans to end the shutdown.

This was according to people in the meeting apparently Elizabeth Warren then replies who's also in this meeting with the Merckley and Hassan.

Wait they didn't negotiate anything and then she apparently turns to Schumer and Elizabeth Warren says Chuck you told me no one was negotiating.

Then the leader of this breakaway centrist group of Democrats that didn't negotiate with the Republicans genie Shaheen who of course she's retiring from the the New Hampshire Open see she responds that they had kept the leader meeting Chuck Schumer abreast of the developments.

Warren one of the Senate you know one of the folks on the side of fighting much harder here and has been pretty critical of Schumer responded well that's not what Chuck told me.

And then Merckley admits in an interview with the journal that he was in shock when he heard that this group was going to strike a deal he goes.

It was all news to him now they eventually have a all Democratic senator meeting and Merckley said he thought eventually Schumer heard him.

But it was clear that Schumer wasn't telling everybody what was happening with you right and.

The incident as the journal points out was seen as a quote prime example of the leader trying to appease all sides by telling senators what they want to hear.

And apparently some current and former senate staffers are calling it getting shunned meaning they thought they had one they thought they do what was happening and then all of a sudden out of nowhere Schumer's working with some other entity has a deal stories over oh my god i've been shunned.

Right now here's my favorite part of this article.

And again maybe you have to be me covering Schumer for nearly 30 years to appreciate this moment but any of you and I know a bunch of you listening actually used to work for Schumer and I think you will guys will laugh at this too.

Schumer with this you know again he does this interview with the journal.

Schumer said he wasn't familiar with the current usage of the term getting shunned.

But then Schumer offers up to the journal reporters the following antidote he said actually getting shunned originated in New York and it used to refer to Schumer's rush to be the first to show up at a press conference to tout a new issue to reporters.

Says Schumer to the reporters I would be ahead of everybody else someone would be thinking of something but I'd be out there with a press conference.

I understand what Schumer was up to right but if you want to this is like to me this is the moment this is sometimes you got to understand some text when you read these stories look the reporters are there's they include this anecdote in here for obvious reasons are like going yeah he is not fully plugged in to what people really think of him in the Senate.

He is got there is a loss of trust and he is sort of in his own bubble here right and there's still a lack of self awareness even in this piece.

You offer up an alternative definition of getting shunned because he it's very truck best right let me tell you when it was a positive.

Is that what this piece is about at the moment really oh that you're really smart about getting out in front of some viral issue just as it's going viral so it looks like you're on top of things these are these famous Sunday press conferences back when Schumer was a back bench house member then a back bench senator.

And this is the you know this is the part of Schumer when he had as fastball.

And I think now it's clear he is absolutely constantly nervous about you know he's looking over his left shoulder at AOCs looking over his shoulder apparently now at Chris van Hollen and Brian Schatz and you know how he's orchestrated he's hoping to at least.

He heard me my message senator Schumer and anybody that wants to talk to him and to say look you've been an incredibly successful democratic leader he really has you know he is a he is not a policy guy he's a politics guy.

And he you know starting with 2006 frankly starting with his own politics I mean he outmaneuvered and outsmarted everybody in his 98 Senate race you know he won that race by basically being the only guy to campaign in Buffalo before anybody else was doing it and then worked his way down it was brilliant strategy.

Sort of was the first to come up with the 10 second ad before 10 second ads were harder harder to make happen but he stretched his money.

Look it is it is it is like watching Willie Mays play with the Mets you know I don't want to see him field flyballs right you don't you don't want to see it right you don't want to see Mickey Mantle strike out.

And I think that Schumer is at this moment where he's just look part of it is there's nothing he can do about it he is sort of the last them standing from the previous era right.

So he is he is the stand in for Biden frustrations about Biden he's the stand in for Clinton frustrations about Clinton right he's just the stand in for the establishment because he's the most familiar face left.

So some of this is not about him and his decision making some of this is just simply it's about that wing of the party right the sort of what you want to call it pragmatic wing.

But if he cares about trying and look he has a theory of the case right he is a theory of the case and the type of candidates he nominates he's you know and who he's encouraging to run right he wants a Josh Turek to be the nominee in Iowa rather than his act walls that walls is a bit more progressive I think you can make the case it is interesting the NRSC and Republicans.

All what want the progressive to win to they they're all excited about that and you know Schumer's touting another candidate now progressive activities get frustrated that he wants to put his thumb on the scale in the primary well guess what so does Bernie Sanders want to put his thumb on the scale in the primary so so you know people that get upset that somebody's playing favorites are really upset that they're not the ones being favored if that makes sense meaning most people complain that they're not the ones being favored if that makes sense.

Meaning most people complain that they're not getting the extra help or the extra attention they're actually not arguing for fairness.

But let's set that aside if Schumer cares about that wing of the party he cannot be seen as essentially fighting the progressives and then losing.

The best way for him to beat the progressives is to stand down and hand and then he has more saying who replaces him.

And he might be able to preserve you know it's sort of like McConnell you know had he pushed the envelope more than he risk losing to a Rick Scott and then suddenly that wing of the party is running the Senate Republican conference instead he put himself in a he got out just in time where he knew essentially he can hand the reins over.

To a Jonathan and that's the situation Schumer's in right now he's got to make and this is not going to be easy for him Schumer has had success charting his own path.

And he is kind of at times bulldozed his way and he has overcome skepticism whether it's from mainstream media Washington the Midwest you name it.

You know you talk to a Claire McCaskill or John tester and they will tell you Schumer always understood their electorates almost as well as they did I mean he in this stuff I you know I'm not trying to use this as a way to beat up on Schumer.

But it is pretty clear it is he is past it is it is time to move on.

And if he wants more say in how this works and if he wants to control this process he probably only has a couple more months before he sort of loses that ability to do it.

And I think I think ever you could sort of see you know obviously it would be a fool's air and if somebody tried to overthrow Schumer now there's really not a mechanism the way the Senate works and it.

And it would blow up in their face. But it is clear that you have a chunk of senators worry that Schumer is waiting to see that if they get the majority he's going to want it.

And that's where this you know you don't want to begin the last thing you want to do if you're the Democrats is is right now there is a bunch of infighting well in some ways let the infighting happen now.

Because if you're infighting after the elections after you succeed then it looks worse take Abigail Spamberg right she is starting and I think this has been a nightmare way for her to start she tried it she's there's an interview on the Washington Post this week.

You know she ran as a a bit you know as a basically like look she's a Democrat but she went a partisan right that that was the vibe she gave off that she was a pragmatist.

And and yet what does she have to do she starts her gubernatorial term and she only gets one having to make the most political fight any governor would have to do which is this which is pushed for this ridiculous redistricting amendment.

And I say it's ridiculous because it runs counter to everything Abigail Spamberger stands for right the original concept was fairness and maps to take politics out of things.

That is the that is the Abigail Spamberger platform if you will that she ran on it's been sort of her political identity from the very beginning when she ran for Congress.

And she's having to make the case just like watching Barack Obama uses political capital to sell what they're doing that this is a way to make it more fair compared to Texas.

Leaving out the part that it makes it incredibly unfair essentially to all voters in Virginia right there is no good argument you can come up with to me to give me to say that this is a good idea because I would argue you actually want if Republicans win competitive districts.

Then it you're more likely to have a Republican who's more likely to buck the crazy mega win and it actually is healthier for democracy if you have it in that way.

So the point being is fair districts will get you a better quality member of Congress period when you have unfair districts that are overly partisan then you get partisan hacks whether they're on the left or the right because all you have to worry about is winning a primary.

And then you have this absurdity where you know where literally you know Don buyer is currently my congressman and in the new map you will not be because Arlington is going to get divided into two.

And and essentially south Arlington is going to be in buyers district and it's going to go all the way to the northern neck okay which is which is sort of on the the where the bay Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean and the northern neck and the river.

Now they are all sort of coming to one.

As you can see I'm not that familiar with that area I've been there a few times.

It is if we're a slightly shorter drive that would be an ideal place to have a vacation home and I know some people who do it's it's it's I've chosen to I've chosen the state of Florida for mine but it is a great place.

I remember I looked out there we enjoyed it we liked it a lot but it is almost nothing in common with Arlington and you have those communities are all going to be in the same district.

You know the it's basically Virginia is going to turn into this weird sort of.

I guess you could call it like a half octopus where the body is all northern Virginia and then all of the districts you know a tentacle a tentacle to the west a tentacle to the southwest a tentacle do south etc.

And then like and then there's this blob you know that will be the one Republican district.

It's probably going to pass but I don't think this is going to pass like California and you could just hear Spamberger in this interview.

And you know she's you know she has been pushing back on the democratic legislature on some business taxes and some things like that.

So she's still trying to sort of keep her pro business credentials which in you know sort of basically in line with what Tim how Tim came was his governor Mark Warner was his governor on term of call up like it's a it's not unique.

You know the democratic governors of the 21st century in Virginia have all been have all all wanted to make sure they Virginia stays in the top five places to do business in the CNBC rankings which they have for pretty much all of the 21st century.

So but she's she's now having to be the face of the her and Barack Obama are having to be the face of this at campaign for redistricting and you know I'll tell you this I like I said I think they went.

But I think the Democrats are giving up something here that they're going to wish they have back.

And I do think one reminder I'm going to leave you with and then we're going to go into my conversation with Johnny O.

The base of the Republican party is larger than the base of the democratic party and what does that mean Democrats need more moderates to get to 50%.

The good news for Democrats is a majority of moderates lean left on some social issues.

And they want they are on more uncomfortable siding with the Republicans and the Democrats liberal moderate conservative this is what I'm referring to when I say when you have the idea lot polling ideological service.

But those moderates sort of like actually believe you know they've been siding with the Democrats because they're the the pragmatic ones are the normal ones if they start behaving.

No you know ends justifies the means type of politics.

I think the Democrats are endangering that part of their brand.

Right now look they're using two people who I think plenty of people in the center politically in this country.

See as pragmatist Barack Obama Abigail Spamber.

But they're advocating for something that's frankly indefensible.

And it just is going to chip away it doesn't happen overnight.

And but but you know Democrats have to realize they're 30 and only special election things are going great for them on paper.

They're on track to win the house with a decent majority.

And frankly it's probably getting close to a coin flip per cent of control.

Because I also believe Lisa Murkowski if it's 50 50 she's going to flip.

And again I have no other evidence I'm not you know I'm not I'm no inside knowledge in this I'm just that's a tea leaf.

Okay I'm I am I am reading a tea leaf incredibly carefully in this one but I'm pretty confident of it especially if Mary Patella wins that's in it.

I think it's a gift if that's it it's almost a given.

Murkowski hands the Democrats the Senate majority couldn't be going swimming.

And yet what did we see in that Marquette Polarly this week?

The Democratic brand had a lower favorable rating in the Republican Party and mega.

So that's that you know in this that bill will come to in 28 if they're not careful.

But how 26 goes how they govern how they resolve these internal fights how messy does this get?

Right all of this is going to be determined I think in the next three to six months.

All right we're going to sneak in a break and when we come back my conversation with Johnny O and what could be the 28th amendment to the US Constitution.

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So a few months, a few weeks back, I spent a lot of time talking to you guys here in the...

In fact, I did a sub-stack about this that I said, you know what, the age of reform is coming and the question was just sort of when it would begin.

And I used the bipartisan endorsement, the first Republican to endorse my next guest Bill, a constitutional amendment that he is proposing.

It's Democratic Congressman Johnny Olchewski from Baltimore.

And it was Don Bacon became the first Republican to sign on and it's essentially a pardon nullification constitutional amendment.

It uses in some ways the same structure of a congressional override of a presidential veto.

It's very similar in its structure.

But it was... I saw it as an opportunity because it was...

This was done in such a way that it didn't feel specifically targeted to one president.

We know we've had abuses of the pardon power, but by both this one and the previous one and you could argue multiple presidents going forward, going backward.

And there's some arguments that the pardon clause in our constitution is the biggest...

You might say loophole, there is between a small the democracy and a small authoritarian regime.

And so with that, I thought it would be nice to hear from the author of this amendment himself.

Congressman Johnny Olchewski, he says we can call him Johnny Olchewski.

We'll find out if I'm going to have to start having, you know, use the code.

My friend Tony Cornheiser, Congressman Loves, Johnny Olchewski, Polo shirts.

And they advertise on him.

So maybe at this point, people will think it's you advertising.

It's the number one gift I get when I talk to chambers of Congress, etc.

Yeah.

Johnny Olchewski.

You know, they have that third button, right?

But that's what, what's what guys like?

It's like, it's a three button polo rather than sometimes the two button polo.

So there is something about, you know, it is a nice brand.

It's a nice constitutional amendment here.

There you go.

It's a mighty fine constitution you have there.

It might be a shame.

Might find Republican.

Have there be shame if we lose it.

Look, I want to bring you on on this.

But look, we'll talk, I want to talk a lot about sort of how to make Congressman, Congress functional again.

But this is an important step.

Because constitutional, you know, I am one of the reasons I'm long term optimistic, even if I'm short term pessimistic about the direction of our republic.

Is that when we've had moments like this before, we've used the tools in our toolbox.

We haven't done it very often.

We need to use them more, but we don't.

We're in and around the civil war we did in and around Teddy Roosevelt throughout the hour we did.

And I think we're in one of those periods again.

And you update your constitution to the same reason why you put a new roof on your house.

You know, sometimes, you know, you realize, oh, it's kind of an old structure.

That's going to have leaks.

We kind of need to put new technology in here.

And so the updating of the constitution, I think it is necessary.

But I'm curious, where are we?

Do you have more than Don Bacon on board?

The poor amendment.

And since I've been rambling on here.

Am I missing a piece of the amendment that you think is important for my listeners and viewers to know?

I think you pretty much hit it.

We have a part of it where the petitioning for review is a pretty narrow approach.

20 members of the House, five members of the Senate can petition for that vote.

And so part of it is just by having the ability to review it.

Our hope is that presidents will think twice before issuing these egregious pardons.

But yeah, this is very much modeled after a veto override, which I thought it was a modest,

but important step forward to say some of these pardons that really are beyond the pale,

especially under this president, are in need of that kind of reform.

And so I appreciate Don stepping on and really stepping into this in a moment where we're so polarized.

But that's why we structured that way.

And I think that as a new member of Congress having someone who's a veteran,

who really I think understands the institution and why this is important.

We are now actually this week.

We're going to be opening up for co-sponsors.

And so we're hoping to see Democrats and Republicans alike join.

I know it's going to be harder because I think people view it as going after President Trump.

And in some ways, like his has been especially worse in my opinion.

But as you pointed out, I think the preemptive pardons were terrible.

I mean, there's really no defending the preemptive pardons.

And what he did.

And I might have empathy for Tony Fauci on a personal level,

Liz Cheney on a personal level, there's no doubt that there could be attempts.

But what really set me off about those pardons were the get out of jail free cards for his family members.

That felt like what are you doing to prevent what you think the next president is going to do.

You just gave him precedent to do it with his own family.

And I suspect he will.

And I think what will he say when he does it?

Just like the previous president.

That's right.

Absolutely.

And I think this is part of the larger issue.

This is one of many places where I think Americans are so frustrated with all of us

because the wealthy and the well connected and those who are in power or privileged

are getting away with, you know, literally crimes.

I don't want to say murder, but like they're getting away with pretty serious crimes.

They're lining their pockets and everybody else is getting crushed.

And so I think it's past time, especially in this space,

to look at the Constitution and say,

this is you can drive a truck through this loophole.

I like to think that our founders had some better sense that the better angels

of those who were presidents would not have used it in these ways.

But here we are.

And, you know, I'm a Democrat who can say that.

Presidency.

I didn't Clinton.

Others also abuse this, whether it was Clinton's half-brother.

Did you know any research on this as to why I mean, what about favor it?

I find the pardon.

I inclusion in the Constitution.

One of the biggest head scratchers.

Like if I could go into a time machine,

because here's a group of men.

And it was obviously we know it was all men.

Who were so concerned about a monarchy.

And about preventing a monarch as the leader of our country.

That they wrote this pretty incredible document that has stood the test of time.

But created a loophole right out of a monarchy.

And it is one of those.

How the heck did this get into the Constitution in the first place?

It's it's pretty wild considering all the checks and balances

that are otherwise written into the Constitution.

I mean, they were so deliberate about to your point preventing a return of the monarchy.

And I think that they would be surprised by the amount of presidential authority being exhibited today generally.

I think that the inclinations of those founding fathers were actually have a strong legislative branch that could sort of help dictate and set the pace for our governance.

So I did not go that far back in terms of my history on the pardon.

But I was intrigued to learn that there actually was a very similar amendment put forward following the pardon of Richard Nixon.

Almost exactly the same in terms of a two third.

What happened to it?

It's all right.

Obviously, but like, why do you did you get no?

But did you get some understanding who stalled it?

Why did it stall?

This was a not a super majority of democratic majorities, but pretty close in 76 and 78.

My sense is that it ended up not being bipartisan, which is why we were so deliberate starting this out.

I didn't want to drop this legislation, this constitutional amendment until we had a Republican on board.

And, you know, having done agree to do this was a game changer.

And it's really open doors to my Republican colleagues in a time where it's really hard for us to have conversations about anything.

But I like to think that both he and I approach our work in a way where we may have.

Pretty strong philosophical differences on any number of issues, but that we treat each other in our colleagues with some decency and respect and that we can approach.

This issue with the serious test that it deserves and we're hopeful that.

If not under this Congress that in a subsequent Congress, we actually do get this stock because this is more than just Trump.

I mean, I want to see this done beyond.

Right.

I assume your goal is you'll introduce this assuming the voters of Baltimore send you back that you will do this every Congress until you get.

That's right.

Yeah.

One of many reforms that we should be looking at.

I mean, the fact that we can't get a decent stock band past, for example, is sort of beyond beyond me.

These are things that are supported by 80% of the voters out there, Republicans and Democrats alike.

And so I'm a firm believer that one of the things we have to do, whether it's as Democrats or as members of Congress is have people believe in the institution again.

And that's sort of holding ourselves to a higher standard and living that standard a little bit.

So this is one place where I had a chance to step in and lead and sort of.

It is a modest.

I mean, I'll just be honest.

It is a somewhat modest proposal.

I, you know, I don't know if one individual should have this kind of power.

And whether you thought of creating a pardon board, you know, that might be made up of.

You most senior justices, the attorney general, maybe the chairs of the Senate judiciary and House judiciary, whatever you could create.

We could just in the same way we have the gang of eight for Intel briefings that administration.

You know, you could put together a pardon board where you would just like anything.

I mean, I think plenty of states have taken the power away from the governor and created these boards with the governor having ultimate sort of thumbs up thumbs down.

Sign off, essentially, they will sign off or they won't sign off.

Did you think about adding that or would you fearing that was too complicated that it would sort of.

Sort of take the eye off the the focal of the focal point air, which is just putting a check on his pardon power.

That was simplicity and and aligns with the check that already exists in Congress on other bills where there's a conflict between the two branches.

And frankly, the other piece is most other boards.

I guess it depends on the state, but you sort of get into the questions of does the governor or the president still have the ultimate authority?

And if they do for me, it doesn't actually address the problem. And if they don't over the board, then I think it could have been more challenging to get Republicans on board to this idea.

I'm especially under this train. I'm just going to be real under this administration, taking away.

The decision making of the president is not something that is looked favorably by my colleagues in the Republican party right now.

So when I think about the history of tough things that need bipartisan support to get through.

It's amazing how often they happen in the month of December.

Right.

Don't ask don't tell was repealed the month after the 2010 midterms.

And I remember if somebody told you Democrats just got shalacked in the 2010 midterms.

You know what they're successfully going to do next? They're going to repeal don't ask don't tell.

And nobody would have seen a company. Now, was it paired up with solidifying the Bush tax cuts?

Yes, right. There was certainly, you know, this is what we expect Congress to do, right?

A little bit here, a little bit there. And that's how that's how a compromise happens. And that's how progress happens.

This screams December vote to me, meaning, you know, if you could attach it to a must pass bill that you would see.

You know, do you have a strategy yet in your head of how you want to get this pass?

Or right now, is it if you build that they will come mindset?

Big at this point, it's building the coalition and helping to tell the story about why this is important,

and why it's needed and why it's not a partisan proposal.

But I will say, actually, I love the idea of this being a December gift to the American people.

So I think that that's something that, as we're, you know, as we're having the conversations, people will at least say,

that's a great idea. We have to, we have to do something about this.

Yeah, let me ask this. Have you had anybody say, well, that's a terrible idea. And here's why.

No, if anything, it's, I can't sign on that because, right? And so I think to your point, right?

Nobody say it's a bad idea. They're just deciding whether they want to put their name on it.

Well, because what we've seen is indefensible, right? You can't defend.

Juan Orlando Hernandez pardoned and outdoors. You can't defend the CZ crypto con artist who gave millions of dollars to the Trump cryptocurrency.

You can't defend the pardon shopping industry where people are now paying upwards of half a million and a million dollars to seek a pardon from people close.

It's indefensible. And so it's more a question of like, I don't, I'm not worried about passing if it's giving a vote.

It's just the function of right. How do we find a legislative vehicle or a pathway to make sure this actually gets?

I mean, look, the reason I look at December is sort of your up, probably an opportune time.

The house is going to change hands. And there is going to be some cleanup. They're going to want to get some votes out the door before they lose their majority.

And they want to be able to say that that, you know, maybe that's when you get the stock band, right? That's where you could picture how those that have survived want to be able to say, hey, we, we hear you, we heard the message.

And this is a way to respond. I mean, it's, it's like, look, I'm just, I'm full confess. I just want to see, I want to see this work.

We need to prove that we can use constitutional amendment. I do think there's a lot of people who feel powerless at the moment that they look at the democracy and they think, it's rigged and I have no say in this.

The thought that a constitutional that Congress could propose a constitutional amendment, it passes the house and the Senate and it then heads to the state legislatures.

I mean, it's, you know, civics 101, right? Like how, how an amendment becomes, it comes to be, would be a healthy exercise because it's one of those things.

So once we, once we teach the country had a fish, I think they're keep trying to fish. I'm just, you know, it's nice to actually see a person in me.

Yeah, it'd be nice to actually see what I told my kids in ninth grade government class when I was a teacher before I got into politics that yes, this stuff actually works.

And this is how it's how things happen because that has not been my experience.

You really haven't passed a meaningful constitutional amendment arguably since the Kennedy assassination with the 25th Amendment, right? That that was a meaningful.

Oh, we have a what if the president had lived, right? That was it. That to me was at least responding to something. Hey, we hadn't dealt with this.

Yeah.

And perhaps we ought to deal with this scenario.

We really haven't had a meaningful one since then and it worked.

Well, that's close to 60 years now.

I know we've had a few things on pay raise and and and lowering the age from 2018, but to me, this wasn't a dealing with something that was structurally broken inside the republic.

Well, and to your point, I think people want to have something to believe in again and to say this is something that like transcends our partisan politics and that we can look at our structures and how we function as a nation.

And I would love to give that hope to I think a very weird, a weary nation right now.

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You said something else a few moments ago.

Then on more skeptical, frankly, that is going to be easy to prove.

And that is that you can prove to the country that Congress can be an independent

branch of government again.

And if Democrats get to house back,

some people are going to think they've got a mandate to go and teach Trump.

And some are going to say they have a mandate to just simply oppose all things Trump.

And some will say, no, we have a mandate to make Congress a functional branch again.

The problem is, and you know, I'm just speaking reality.

Your own caucus probably is divided in three like this now,

which is, you know, what should be the focus?

What it takes to create more belief in the independence of the legislative branch

which might not be in the best interests of the hard core base of the Democratic Party.

So how do you navigate that?

The same way I think about all of this is it's sort of the,

I approach politics as a Maslow's hierarchy.

And as a party and as an institution, we should be focusing on addressing people's

base needs first. And as we were saying earlier,

I feel like we've failed at that miserably.

Cost of living was supposed to be the number, you know, day one President Trump said he would address it.

Any number of my colleagues and I ran on lower the cost of living.

And I always say if people can't put food on a table and provide for a roof over their head,

they don't really care about any of the other issues.

And so I think that we can hold the President accountable.

And if there aren't impeachable offenses, we can look at pursuing that.

But we have to also provide for Americans,

whether it's a fair wage, whether it's addressing the health care crisis that is, you know,

I think the average Marylander is paying over $4,000 more a year if they're still in the Affordable Care Act.

But we have to also, I guess we're trying to say is like prove that we can govern with integrity.

And so whether it's the millions of files that still haven't been released on Epstein,

that's the insider stock trading that Constitution, it's all these things that make people feel like.

From a policy perspective, they see people getting rich off of these bets on war in Iran.

They see members of Congress trading stock and becoming millionaires while we're serving.

And then we're cutting food benefits were making health care more expensive.

We're not addressing that the housing costs that people are experiencing.

And so I think just delivering delivering on those basic needs, doing so in a way that has some level of ethics and integrity.

I think provides the space that if you were operating in good faith,

you can then say we're going to also do this impeachment or whatever else needs to happen as Democrats.

Look, what you say seems pretty rational and normal.

And yet that isn't what ends up being what people hear and they see coming out of Congress.

Right. I mean, it gets partisan quickly.

And it's going to be even harder.

If you guys take control immediately, there's going to be a presidential campaign starting.

And that is always even harder on.

You know, especially if you were the majority in the house and you've got a bunch of people running around.

Iowa, South Carolina, with Democrats next year in the name going, Washington's terrible and dysfunctional.

Congress doesn't know what it's doing.

You know, it will like create this weird negative feedback loop that I think is going to be quite hard to navigate.

You know, and oh, by the way, you're still dealing with potentially a runaway executive branch.

I mean, right now it is true. We are dysfunctional.

This is one of the least productive Congresses, I think, in the history of Congress.

It's helping people is that at the end of the day, Congress is an institution that is made up of people.

And maybe this is me being a little polyannish as a new member and someone who hasn't been jaded by decades of service.

But at the end of the day, I don't think any one person is beyond redemption.

And so if you have an institution full of people, you have to believe that the institution isn't beyond redemption, it can also change.

And so I commanded as someone who, like my friend, assessor, Dr. Bruce Berger, was a local executive before coming here.

And I had a split council. We had four Democrats. We had three Republicans.

We passed gun safety legislation. We passed police reform. We passed balanced budgets. We both cut, cut spending and found new ways to raise revenue.

I mean, it was just there's a way to do it.

Well, it's funny, though, you're actually in the minority in the house, aren't you, of former executives serving in the legislative branch, right?

There's a few more executives in the Senate, right?

A few more former governors are in this.

But I think we'd be stronger if there were more of us.

I mean, I'm trying to think, you know, you've got, you've got Carlos and Menes, who's a former mayor of Miami, Dave County, you've, you've got your county exec.

And Ricardo Rick Stanton.

That's right. Stanton mayor of, mayor of Phoenix.

It is, you know, it's funny. Anybody who spent time as a mayor, right?

Knows you can't be a nighty log.

It, you know, and to me, I know county exec county judge in some states, you know, but it's essentially we call it our county mayor as a mayor in Florida.

Here, it's a county exec and I know you give Texas its judge, right, which gets really confusing.

But I mean, it is, you know, it's easy to be a partisan when all you have to do is legislate, isn't it?

Yeah, governing is hard.

And if you want to find, I think your challenges as to is these chambers constantly are shifting back and forth.

And we can, we can like, we can complain this game where it's constantly we win.

And then we just sort of like bash away everything.

The last group did and then we built something and they, they take it.

Well, look at HR, I think about this.

And I don't think you were there for HR one, but you had Democrats who had their like Christmas tree wish list when it came to what they.

How they would like to see our voting rules.

Well, guess what? The Republicans came in and they have their like wish list of.

And neither one is reality based, right?

They're both.

Some things seem reasonable and some things seem a bit aspirational, right?

On each side.

And whenever I hear somebody say, well, it's all of it or nothing, then I'm like, oh, you're not interested in passing any legislation then.

Right. I mean, if Republicans were serious about voter ID, then they'd only make it about voter ID.

And I promise you, they'd probably get it passed.

Yes.

I think there's 40% of the Democratic caucus that would probably vote for vote ID.

And once it got that high, it might be all of everybody.

You know, we both know how that stuff works.

And if Democrats had just simply wanted to guarantee a minimum standard for early access to voting.

And that's all they want it.

They would have gotten bipartisan support for that, right?

You know, the inability somehow to, you know, go find the slice of bread that everybody wants and let's.

Let's share it.

Well, those are the solutions that are sustainable, right?

Because you force that compromise and that consensus.

And they don't last forever necessarily.

Sometimes you'll have a big package that undo, undo it.

But I think by and large, the decisions are better.

And they're more sustainable when you take that approach.

As opposed to President Trump voting today by mail in Florida rules for the not for me.

But here's another challenge.

I think you guys are going to have if you get control the house is.

I take it at that as a minority.

You don't feel like the majority is treated you very well.

Do you feel that way?

Very fair assessment.

Right.

With the exception of especially my small business committee, Roger Williams.

Maybe it's the baseball connection because he's the coach of the Republican team.

And I play for the Democrats.

But we've passed like three bipartisan bills out of that committee to get a small business.

That it's a reminder, right?

There's certain.

There are certain committees that can get stuff done.

Ag has usually been one that also can get stuff done in a bipartisan.

But you generally know we've not been treated very well by it by the majority or.

Because I say that because it then becomes really hard to then say, oh no.

We're unlike how you treated us.

We're going to treat you better because the golden rule everybody lives by the golden rule in politics.

And.

But they always live on it more defensively than offensively.

Meaning well, you did this to me.

So I'm going to do it to you, right?

Everything.

It's more biblical Old Testament biblical justice, right?

I for an I.

That's not going to solve the longer term problem of Congress's dysfunctional dysfunctionality.

And yet you and I both know leadership will get a lot of grief.

If you know from the base and maybe from donors.

If they don't punish the other side.

Here's how it gets described.

Let me.

I get it.

You're trying.

This is not a simple question to answer.

And maybe this is a better way to deal with this debate.

There's some that argue that hey, when Democrats have power, they ought to use their power.

Look at how those guys use.

They they have power because of a three vote majority, but they behave like they have a 60 vote majority.

We should behave the same way.

Do you feel that?

I think that's why they're losing so bad.

It's because of their both acting like a 60, but they're not incorporating what I think are oftentimes good democratic ideas, which might win support on some legislation.

And they're allowing themselves to go so extreme, particularly with this president sort of dictated the terms of what they're pursuing.

And they're not sort of showing any of that.

Independent.

So I actually want to be controlling here.

I think of Democrats.

And we shouldn't compromise our values.

I think we can compromise about compromising where our core values are as Democrats.

But if we're willing to at least on a good number of items.

If you have an idea that is worth listening to, for example, and it can win, win your support to help, you know, move this piece of legislation forward.

We'll hear you out.

I mean, my frustration going to rules any number of times has basically been if Virginia Fox, the chair, who's actually a very nice person.

We don't agree on anything, but we've we've gotten to know each other.

But she's not one there.

Like there's not even a conversation.

It's sort of.

Any idea is the spakers committee for a reason.

And it operates that way.

But again, like things don't.

You've you've covered this and been around this a lot more.

I just.

I just really think that there is there is a crop of new members, especially in the Democratic side, but also some Republicans.

I think who see a different way forward.

And so I think depending on who comes in and replaces the members who are departing there, there might be, I think some space for.

Maybe not a 180 degree turn, right?

But just maybe like a 30 degree turn towards.

Well, all right.

Let me make.

I appreciate your optimism on that.

But let's be realistic.

The Republicans that are likely to lose are the ones that are like your co-sponsor on the pardon build on bacon.

Right.

These are the ones, you know, it is.

Those that are not.

Hardcore maga that are more likely to lose.

And then so you may have fewer Republicans in the house next year.

But by percentage in devotion to maga, you may have a greater majority of maga adherence.

And so, and that look, this is due to this redistricting.

And so, you know, I don't see why more redistricting in blue states makes this better.

You couple partisan redistricting with partisan elections.

That's what you're going to get, right?

And so.

That's I think a much harder reform is that I think that people will defend those systems more than say the pardon.

Situation that we would we open with.

But yeah, like I think you have to may see.

More progressive Democrats come again in addition to the crop.

Right.

Who are not going to be interested.

I mean, look, I've talked to plenty of progressive.

Who says I want my own Donald Trump.

That, you know, it's sort of.

We're going to live if if if the world is ends justifies the means.

All right.

Then let's go get our version of Donald Trump.

Look, I obviously don't think that that's the.

You would turn.

Yeah, idea.

But in when you live in a reactionary political environment, which is the one I think we're living in in the moment.

It's almost inevitable.

We're going to see a version of this.

It's a good chance that we're going to see that right.

I think that there is a.

But.

The most important thing is someone who can win.

And so I don't know that.

Elections are unique to the candidate.

The circumstance.

Timing.

And so you're going to certainly I think see candidates in that vein.

Yeah.

The obviously I think might do better in the respected primaries.

But I think also.

I think that.

I think that.

At least for Democrats.

I think we we're coming to a reckoning where it's like.

If we don't win, none of it matters.

Right.

So.

And look, you and I.

I'm guessing even if it's Baltimore.

You've seen the redistricting ads that Obama's.

The spokesperson for quite a bit.

I'm sure, right?

If you've watched the NCAA tournament.

I feel like I've seen it.

I'm seeing Barack Obama as much as I'm seeing.

Rick Patino.

On my screen at the moment.

And.

It.

It is hard.

You know, you sit there and you're like, okay, hey.

In order to create fairness with Texas, we're going to have to be unfair in Virginia.

Right.

And look, Maryland is contemplated this.

And you've got some Democrats in the state legislature.

Like, you know what?

They're worried about the long term consequences.

I'm empathetic to the fight fire with fire mindset.

I get it.

Right.

And if you do believe, right?

There are some, you know, Gavin Newsom says it out loud.

And maybe I'll.

Right.

You know, he believes if Democrats don't win the House this year.

There won't be a fair 2028 election.

Now, I don't happen to believe that.

But I respect people that believe that.

Like, you know, I might be wrong.

And they may be right.

I don't know if you want that level of concern.

I'm.

Deeply concerned about the efforts with like the same act, for example.

I do think that.

The Senate's going to probably.

If not narrow, stay the same.

And so I think it's going to be hard at least as, as envisioned to pass what they're trying to get through.

I am actually concerned about having lived through it.

And having seen it, I'm actually concerned about the certification.

So I am, I am concerned in obviously working to help elect a democratic majority in 2026.

But knowing that the House and Senate have to certify the elections in 2028.

I think having at least one of those chambers.

Be a democratic majority is actually the thing that I'm more interested in so that we have.

And we don't have any shenanigans around contesting the election results and.

Are you confident that this house, you know.

The House Republicans, I've had, you know, some.

The House Republicans will still have the majority in December when elections get certified.

And people don't really fully realize this, but Congress can decide.

Whether a House race is.

Who's sort of.

Yeah, it's actually not something that's done by the state.

What's your level of concern that that that.

That the speaker is going to get involved after the election.

As we sit here today.

I don't think the speaker is plotting to do that.

I think that.

Having led a local election agency and partnered with election.

Like they do incredible work at the state and local levels around these elections and.

Over turning and challenging.

An election is a pretty.

Pretty big step.

And.

Let look.

Last time Congress did it.

One could argue.

Anyone.

New King Rich.

You can go back in history.

It's called the.

It's an incident that's referred to as the bloody eighth and was an Indiana eight congressional district in 86.

With it a year later.

Democrats overturned the recount.

The House Administration Committee.

And sat, the,

and sat the candidate that had lost the recount.

And it was a arguably, I've had people say, you know,

was the moment that gave life to Newt Gingrich and that when he was the backbencher, ready

to throw bombs at the time, well, I look, my level of concern on that is only if it's

a really tight margin, right? If we're looking at, if we're looking at three seats again,

but this time it's three seats on your side and said to the other side, then yeah, I think

every, I think everything's a knife fight. If it's a 20 seat gap, I don't see it.

Well, the seat gap and the margins of the elections themselves, I think if it's a three

seat gap, but Democrats, Republicans have blown, you know, one by 15 points in those elections

and it's harder, I think, to justify. And yeah, I'm learning a lot as a new member here

about sort of the ways in which we govern ourselves and the honest, do you miss, do you miss

it being in local government? There are parts of this job that I enjoy and I choose

to focus on them. I definitely miss getting things done. I mean, that was, that was the

thing every day. It was like, we, and this is why like, I'm in politics. Every day was

a chance to make somebody's life better. And yeah, and if we talk to, what's frustrating

is I know the resources this government has and the tools that are disposal. And if

we actually channeled them in a way that was targeted and thoughtful and productive, it

would be, I mean, we could transform, we have transformed this country before, right?

You know, rail, interstate, highways, clean drinking, like, there's so much we could do,

but instead we're yelling at each other on social media. And so I think that's what's really

unfortunate about all of it.

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I think sometimes in reporting, I've always thought it was really important to change beats.

Now, I never did. But having a fresh set of eyes joined me on any beat was always helpful.

What have I gotten used to that isn't normal, but I'm treating as normal? You're a fresh set of eyes.

What is Congress treat as normal that you're like WTF? I mean, this is insanity. Give me a

few things like that. Well, you already talked about the stock trading. I think you can look through

any number of the ethics reports that are at least now public that in any other environment,

even what's already publicly made available would lead to the dismissal of members.

It's disconnect. This is why people are like, you can get away with anything if you're elected

or if you're rich or if you're well-connected. Meanwhile, I can't pay my damn mortgage.

I can't find a job. That's what the heck is all of this good for me, not for the or if you know

the presence people you can get apart and if I have to say, both as a kid who grew up in a

steel town that shut down, like I feel that and it's frustrating. It's hard to see.

Because I think there are so many good people who are there for the right reasons.

Well, and let me ask you this. Is the following statement true that 90% of the work you do in

Congress, there's 90% agreement on?

90% of the work that we do. I don't think so currently. No.

You think it's the you think that what we're fighting over is more than 10% of these days.

And I look at it, you can move the number of suspension bills that we pass every week,

right? So like if you look at it from a pure bill number perspective, yes.

But I think about all of it, in my opinion, the terrible things that we're put into reconciliation,

the debt increase, the health care changes, they're taking away food supports, the

transfer of tax cuts to the wealthiest of the country. And those are like, I weigh those so

much more heavily in terms of like big things, things that are impactful to this country,

that like renaming a post office, I can't sort of give the same, I got you. Wait. So like in terms

of like number of bills, sure, in terms of like impact or the magnitude of the issues, not so much.

Well, that's, it is because there is such a, what I try to convey to folks outside of

Washington is that, you know, there's the stuff that gets the most attention is still only 10%

of the, of like, I always say there's two Washington's. There's like a Washington that's

consistently having to get things done enough to let everything function. And then there's the

performance art political theater of Washington. And I feel like the House of Representatives,

those that have, whose names are the most famous are the ones that do the least.

I think there's a lot of truth to that. And that's a choice, right? I think at the

end of the day, you get to choose like, do you want to try to get stuff done? Or do you

try to go viral? All right, let me get at a couple of things here. Redistricting in Maryland,

is something that you were supportive of politically, but glad it didn't happen? Or do you think

it should happen? I think it reinforces why we should be doing national reforms. I mean, if

if Republicans and Democrats, and we both yell at each other about how terrible it is in all

these states, then like, let's again, let's come together and do something bipartisan and roll it

back everywhere. You know, yeah, that was a simple way to solve this to potentially mitigate this

issue. So my reform obsession is something that Congress regularly did until 1920,

which was expand the size of the House. And you know, because of a fight between the two parties

about how much we should reapportion and how many new seats should be added to Congress.

In 1930, they shut it down. 435 became the number. And we went from, you went from representing

one per 350,000 to now one per 800. And it's on its way to one to a million. And that was not

the founders intent. And the bigger these congressional districts are, ironically, the easier it is

to use a faction to win them, right? And if you actually narrowed them, and if you had more of them,

you know, essentially, we went back to one per 350. And I think you could do this as constitutional

amendment, if you wanted to, and sort of mandate that the House had to expand, make sure that

no congressional district was bigger than .03% of the population, which is the math that would get

you to about one per 400,000. That you may not need to gerrymander. You know, and look, it would

fix the electoral college discrepancies because it would raise the numerator, right? And you would

have less likelihood. There'd still be a chance that the popular vote in the electoral college would

go differently. But it's like a one-charter chance. Yeah. That where we are now, which is somewhere

in that 10 to 15% range, which is destabilizing to the democracy. It just is. I think we all can,

you have a, you have enough elections in a row where the majority is, you know, then people lose

faith. I mean, we've seen that in Israel dealing with this. So majority hasn't been, that government

hasn't been a majority government in 30 years. You know, and you sort of see what happens there.

Any appetite inside the House to uncap the House as the, as a storky kids who would like to,

who would like to see this happen, call it? Nothing that I've heard. I hear more rumblings about

things like rain, choice voting, frankly, and that's mostly from the democratic side of the House.

I haven't really heard much appetite other than folks who have been impacted

in public participating by the redistricting. Well, that's been the dirty little secret is the

people that hate this the most are the actual members of the US House. They are literally

be treated like pawns in this game again between Trump and the Democrats, right?

Yeah. And so I understand why Democrats punch back, why there was a response.

But I try to lean back into like I was ready to run anywhere. But it's a chance for us all to say,

we've all said this is wrong. We've said it's wrong in Texas. We said it's wrong. You know,

Democrats criticize Texas Republicans criticize California. So then we agree. So let's do something

about it. Well, eventually, at least not yet.

What's your advice to came Jeffries if he becomes speaker?

Keep it keep it simple. Focus on that kitchen table. You know, let's raise wages. Let's provide

opportunities for people to find jobs or get trained for jobs. Let's lower costs through

ending tariffs. Let's make healthcare affordable by pushing the ACA tax credit extension.

Let's lead with our values. Let's lead with integrity. Let's pass the Parton Integrity Act.

And let's fix the Partons. Let's ban stock trading by members of Congress.

Six or seven things that people understand and get. Let's try to put it on the President's desk and

let him say no. What's interesting there is you didn't say anything about impeachment or accountability.

It doesn't sound like you'd like to see that be a top priority.

I mean, look, I voted to advance the articles of impeachment this term against this press.

So I think he certainly have done any number of things that are worthy of impeachment.

And so I'm prepared to do that. I'm prepared to hold this President accountable.

At the end of the day, I also understand math. And so even if we impeach the President

in the House, I don't see the numbers or the math changing in the Senate. And so

maybe it's an important signal. Well, that's a question. You know, it's funny. I had this

conversation with George Conway, who's running for Congress on this issue, which in some ways,

I appreciate the honesty about it, right? The transparency, right? What mandate do you want?

Here's the mandate I want. You voters decide whether you give it to me.

There's two schools that thought here on a third impeachment, right? One school says,

you have to show you're going to try to hold them accountable because you got to send a message

to the next president. And the next person that may hold office. Another says, if you shoot the

if you go for the if you shoot the king again and miss again, have you made it where that

tool in the toolbox is no longer a usable tool? I can I can I can argue both sides of this if you

should. Yeah. Made me do it. Where do you fall? I fall on I want to actually have accountability

where we can. And so part of the reason why I think taking the House is so important is really

the oversight hearings and the subpoenas that we can do and actually getting information out to

the public that makes it harder for this president to keep operating in what I think are often

lawless ways and passing the legislation that in my opinion, for example, is the common sense

reforms to ICE that are both best practice and that are overwhelmingly supported by Americans.

And so I'm not opposed to impeachment. I'm in fact was affirmatively for it. But I think at the

end of the day, accountability means that we're changing what's happening in people's lives and

we're changing the restraints on this president and future presidents. And so I'm for whatever does

that is sort of my focus on all this. All right. Let me get you out of here on on on the on West

more for president. He has said he's not running for president in 2028. And I think it's

actually true. He is currently not running for president in 2020. Yes. That I'm aware of. If he

chooses to run in 2028, is there any hesitation on your part to endorse him? I'm looking forward to

broad coalition of I think exceptional Democrats that we have. I am not pre-committing to endorse

any of them. Look forward to seeing what they all have to offer for America. The governor's

been a great partner here in Maryland. I think he would be a viable candidate should he change

from now to striking the now part of the answer. But I think that if especially in this moment,

the Democrats need to put all of our voices forward. And I think have a robust discussion about

what the future of our party is going to be who's best equipped to lead as lead us. And I think

it'd be great to have governor more be part of that conversation, but not at a point where I'd

be endorsing any any particular candidate at this point. What does electability mean to you?

How do you define it? I don't know why that's going to be the quite the debate in 2028. Who's

electable and what's electability? I mean, and obviously it's true of census who who can win.

I think I think it's someone who has policies that resonate with the American people and someone who

can be cool and fun. And I feel like that's one of the places where Democrats have fallen.

You do think there's got to be a little bit of a personality test here.

Yeah, we've fallen fat flat on our faces as Democrats. We've lost the sort of swagger and the

coolness of our our presidential candidates in particular. It hasn't. And as a part of not just

President Obama had their own level of cool when they were in office. Yeah, even by the first time,

you know, the aviators and the ice cream. It was it was a little bit of a swagger and a thing. And

so figuring out as a party, how we get back to having both someone with the right policies.

Who can I think speak to those working. Interesting. So you really think the Democrats need to find

what one what the kids might call it the main character. They need to find. They need to find,

you know, I find my one of my favorite lines during the 2020 presidential debates was for Michael

Bennett. And he said, you know, if you like me, President, you may go three weeks without hearing

from me. And I thought, Hey, there's I like that. But I realize I'm not I'm not the majority. I

think. So the point is is you're saying that is not what you think the country's going to be

looking for is is is somebody to be a care to a sort of Gerald Ford. And I say that with show me

some show me some rings, man, like as as as my daughter and her friends would say, show.

Yeah, I think you have to be able you can have the best vision and ideas in the world.

But if you can't and look Trump is a hell of a salesman, he puts on a hell of a show.

I don't agree with most of his policies. I think they're garbage for this country,

but he puts on a great show. And he did it at the state of the union, right? Didn't didn't talk

about around it all, but but the show and the spectacle was was impressive. And so we need I think

we need someone who both can speak to our values and touch our hearts, but also can do it in a way

that people like, yeah, I think let's go. Congressman Johnny Olchewski. How'd I do? Am I getting it?

Okay. Yeah. Olchewski. Yeah. Olchewski. Johnny. It's high. They think, man, you got it. Johnny. Oh,

I mean, it's going to be you ever run for statewide office that you definitely have to be Johnny. Oh,

that's easy on the bumper sticker, right? I think that's it. That's the sticker now.

We're going to just make a transition. Well, I enjoyed this, enjoyed getting to know you.

Likewise. Let's see if the you're going to is, are the Orioles going to make Camden Yards a hot

ticket again? Tina Lonzo was a great free agent pickup. The fact that we option Dean Kramer to the

minors tells me that we have a starting rotation that actually looks pretty good this year. So

I'm a big fan of our new ownership team. Yeah. No, I don't know. I'm jealous. I wish he bought the

nets. I was I was hoping that David. I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, we took Baltimore.

We lost David Rubenstein. But you're right. You do have a good owner. Yeah. A great

owner. Great team. Ori Park is quintessential like the new era. So yeah, I'm always big. Also,

like it's hard to be Johnny L and not be for those. So you got to be for the O's, right? Yeah,

you never know who. Right. So yeah, I can just see the the black and orange Johnny O hats there for

you. So anyway, Congressman, great to get to know you. Thank you. I appreciate it.

Texas privacy policy in terms of conditions posted in Texas in terms of U.S.

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Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based

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by public advisors LLC, SEC registered advisor. Generated assets is an interactive analysis tool,

output is for informational purposes only, and is not an investment recommendation or advice,

complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures.

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All right, I hope you enjoyed that conversation, but now, hey, it's the weekend. It's time to turn

to the Chuck Todd sports page here, if you will. I want to start with a modest proposal for the

NCAA basketball tournament. By the way, this applies to men and women, what I'm about to propose.

Here, but it is more of a reaction to the results of the men's tournament, right? There's a big,

let's call it what it is. There's kind of a disappointment that there are no,

right, that it's all major conference teams that are left. There's no mid-major Cinderella. We have

no FA, Florida, Atlantic, no George Mason, no St. Peters, frankly, not even a Gonzaga, although

they were a three-seed, but still, they're kind of at least from a non-power four-and-a-half conference.

I say four-and-a-half. I'm going to put the Big East in the power side of the conferences,

but I think it's pretty clear that St. John's in Yukon are like power schools, and we know

Villanova aspires to be, Georgetown aspires to be. Let's just say the Big East basketball now

reminds me of where Big East football was right before Miami left for the ACC.

I could argue as a GW guy and an A-10 advocate that the Big East is closer to catching,

the Big East is closer to the A-10 than it is to catching what would be the fourth best conference

this year. I guess you would put it, I guess you would say the number four conference was

the ACC given the results of the tournament, right? I think the Big East is closer to the A-10 that it

is to the ACC. If you're asking, I think I'd go Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, ACC this year, just sort of in

your power order of the conferences in college basketball. But there's a huge disappointment,

there's just, it's all power for schools, that dark courses are like Iowa, Nebraska,

or an 11-seated Texas that was seen as a top 10, 20 school earlier this year.

And I think there's always been this conundrum about the NCAA tournament.

In that, we love upsets in the first round, and the last thing we want to see are these

schools actually in the final four. We think we do, but once they appear in the final four,

nobody watches these games, right? When Butler or Mason or Gonzalez, it's not like

Florida and Lanark, they've not been ratings juggernauts, right? What we want is we want them to get

almost there. We want them to get to the, we love them in the sweet 16. We like them in the eight,

and then we want Duke playing UConn in the final, right? Or you know, fill in your top to your school.

So, you know me, I don't want to sit here and just identify problems, whether it's in our politics,

or in our sports fandom. I am here to propose solutions, and have I got a solution for you?

And I'm going to begin telling you my bias. I went to GW. So in this case, my bias is for the

mid majors. And I'm going to explain why it's good for everybody involved. When GW made the sweet 16

and 93, I know for some of you, maybe listening to his podcast, weren't born then. Do you know what

happened to applications the following year? I went up like 50%. And GW went to the NCAA tournament

seven out of 10 years in the 90s. And just making the NCAA tournament one sweet 16 appearance,

couple around a 32s, consistently playing big time schools. So they were suddenly they were in the

mix and they were in the conversation. And it had huge implications for GW's status as a top

to university. One good argue that GW, which is now an AAU school, R1 university, important

distinction in the in the world of academics, they didn't want to go out there without that

investment in the basketball program. And there are stories like this all around the country.

Shoot this happens even with the powerful school University of Miami applications have gone through

the roof since Miami made it to the NCAA title in football. Georgia and Clemson, the current

president in GW, Ellen Grandberg. I'm a huge fan of. I just think she's brought an energy to

the place that that is that I'm just I haven't felt it like this since the track Denver days for

those of you that really know GW's politics. So I'm a huge I'm really supportive of her. I'm really

rooting for she tells a great story about she was Provost Clemson during the rise of Dava.

And she said that it wasn't just you didn't just improve the quality of student you got.

You know, you got they got applications went up, which meant they got they got they got to they got

to have a higher accept, you know, basically a lower acceptance rate, which means you're getting

a higher quality student. They had more out of state students or more diversified

student body. More out of state students means she can give more scholarship money in state. There's

all sorts of benefits that come with it. And then she said one other thing. It improved. It was a

differentiator when doing interviews with professors. And they could just kind of better quality of

professor who saw the excitement around the football program as a feature. You know, you sometimes

hear, you know, University, you get academic. You'll get the academic faculty faculty

senate will fight investments into sports programs because they think it's being taken away from

academics. But I think more and more modern faculties understand that success in athletics

actually indirectly translate to success in academics because it allows it. It creates more

interest in the pro in the school. You get more applications that in turn gets more donor

dollars into the school. It just it is truly rising tide.

So why do I say all this before I give you my this preamble here before I give you my proposal

to fix the NCAA tournament and to bring back everything that we love about it and keep

what we love about it and have it benefit everybody. It's my proposal to expand the tournament

to 96 teams because it's clear now with NIL the situation we're in.

Which is look, it is gravity. It is it is allowed that all the great mid major players all are

and they are all going to end up in power four schools. Right. You just have to look. You

look at any of the top programs. I mean, I was a great example. Right.

They're coach and point guard started together in division two. They had success at Drake

together. Now they're in Iowa and they knock off Florida. So all the great mid major players

are are still having a huge impact in the NCAA tournament. They're just doing it with bigger

brands. A bigger a bigger brand on their jersey. But there's over 320

division one basketball programs and right now only 68 slots for those 320 basketball programs.

That's actually arguably too small of a cut and even if you if so if you expanded 96 you're still

less than one third. Major league baseball has 12 out of 30 teams that make football has 14 out of

32 basketball now has 20 out of 30 if you count the playing games.

So having college basketball allow less than a third but nearly a third of their programs into

their postseason isn't diluting the product. It's probably arguably fair and more importantly

by expanding to 96 I'm going to get to the logistics here in minutes. I've solved all your logistics

problems here. Okay. I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to borrow a page from my friend Colin

Calvert. I am giving you the answer. Hopefully the NCAA is smart enough to just accept my proposal

as is and just implement it. It is a it is it is not going to dilute the product. It will enhance

all of these universities. It it this is a good thing to do for students. It is a good thing to do

for academics. It is a good thing to do for recruiting everyday Americans to want to go to school

wherever. So it has a net positive across the board for higher education. I really believe this

and I just laid out a couple of examples to reinforce this notion. And I know look I understand

the real cynics. Hey, there's these people that get paid to play college sports aren't even going

to class. Yeah, there's always going to be those examples. But a lot of this still funnels back

to the university and only raises only raises the everybody's floor. All right. So without further

ado, this is the simplest. This is an easy way to implement a 96 team tournament. So let me give

you the structure. It's pretty simple. Four regions just like we have now. Currently you have four

reasons with what do we do with 70 essentially 17. What do we have every not every region. So right

now 68 teams make it with the first four. But we have four regions 16 plus two. So I think

I guess it's 18. I can't be right. Excuse me. So basically we're averaging not each region has

has the 18 teams in it. So this current. So I know I'm confusing things there. So right now we're

four regions 16 teams. And then of course we have two round of 16 plans. So we have 616 seeds and

611 seeds. My proposal would have four regions 24 teams in each region giving you your 96 teams.

If you have a seed of one through eight, there's only one team in each of those regions. So eight

teams per region. So only so that you'll have four one seed still four two seeds or eight seeds.

Right. Oh wait one through eight four of each seed seeds nine through 16 in each region.

Would have two teams on that line. There'd be two nine seeds in each region two 10 seeds right 16

teams. Seated nine through 16. All who would play each other eight teams seeded one through eight.

The first round the playing games would also be done on Tuesday Wednesday just like they are now

with the first four right now. There are two games on Tuesday night two games on Wednesday night.

So now in order to have all these nine through 16 plans in the four regions you'd have to have 32

playing games to instead of what we have now which is four. And you would have 16 of them on Tuesday

and 16 of them on Wednesday. And you still start your tournament one through 64 on Thursday

and the next first round game set of games on Friday. So the math is pretty simple. We've already

done this. Now know all these games wouldn't be in Dayton. What you would simply do is whoever the

first round host city is instead of hosting Thursday Saturday or Friday Sunday they host Tuesday

Thursday Saturday Wednesday Friday Sunday. So you're cutting down in the travel right and you

seed everybody and if you're asking right the one through 96. All the nine seeds are ahead of all

the 10 seeds if you're doing the S curve all the 10 seeds are ahead of 11 seeds and look you you

you might make slight adjustments here there to maybe prevent playing game rematches you know maybe

you can't prevent rematches in the first in the in the in the round of 64 or the round of 32. But

you'd do your best in the round of 96 to do this. But here's what it would give you

more basketball we like more basketball more inventory more one and done 96 teams look we have it

now arguably right you want to know what the other 32 teams are just go to the NIT right and you

it would be teams like Auburn maybe my GW makes it maybe they don't I don't think they do but Dayton

probably gets in. But it probably would you know improve you know the eight ten probably becomes

four five or six to bid Lee yeah the SEC maybe becomes a 14 bid Lee 12 bid Lee who knows right

but you give a chance to the mid majors yes the obstacle is higher

there's more inclusivity there's we have plenty of talent right the NBA is expanding

while I while you could argue they have a couple of weak franchises now that they ought to

probably move rather than add teams but they can they act the reason the NBA is expanding is there's

enough talent around the world to fill it and we're now learning there's enough talent to we have

there you absolutely the 96 team is no it would be the same as what you see now with the with the

16 seeds but take the 81st team in that thing the difference between the I'll tell you right now I

think it's Nevada is playing Auburn in an NIT game to I think decide who goes to the NIT semis

Nevada is it's probably as competitive as sleut there they could be you know you could put

them in a nine seed or you could say they just you know weren't quite good enough to to get in and

be in that and on 11 seed playing but they're not that far out of it you know and they'd done

better in their conference tournament they may have ended up as an 11 seed playing I think when

you look at the teams seeded nine through 12 okay in particular the difference between those 16

teams and the 32 teams that are in the NIT is negligible so all you don't is expanding that pool

and you know what you're given shots to these mid majors to do what they're going to do

it gives the mid majors the exposure and a national setting

everybody makes more money oh did I leave that part out right the answer to all your questions

as money sometimes your problems as money everybody would make more money

you can still go back to the 64 if you wanted to do that you have the fun little there's just

it is only going to be more fan friendly it will you it who cares about the arguments between 97

98 99 who's left out right nobody cares about those teams at that point anymore

you know the best teams are getting a shot at this tournament this tournament is semi random

but it does seem the best does flow to the top you're still likely going to have the top conferences

dominate the final four when all is said and done but you're given the mid majors more shots

and guess what more shots on goal mean more pucks might go into the goal and you're going to have

and it brings back that long shot it brings back the opportunity of more cinder relis

and at the same time it gives an advantage to the power conferences because most of them

are going to get essentially a a a a a first round by so whoever they face and yes sometimes those

teams with fresher legs are going to win a first round game but guess what if you lose a first

round game to somebody you're not supposed to lose you probably weren't going to win the whole

thing anyway so we've gotten you out of the way anyway this is the answer it needs to go to 96

it takes more look my goal in all of sports is to take the subject take as much subjectivity out of

the situations as you possibly can leave let the committees do seating this minimizes how much

the committees decide who gets in and who gets out and you sort of get rid of all of that issue

because once you hit 96 you're just not it's the you can have arguments about seating and who gets

to nine seed who gets the eight seed becomes really important right who avoids the first four

first two day you know the round of 96 and who doesn't that's kind of fun

but I think that this would solve a lot of problems and essentially be

ultimately good for everybody good for the future of college basketball good for smaller schools trying

to elevate their brands good for basketball players you don't feel like they have to go to the super

powerful conferences in order to get some attention in the tournament it might keep people playing

closer to home um and it guarantees that you'll always have the best teams and that they that

I think ultimately making it towards the end or at least the hottest teams on that front so

there's your answer um give me a 96 team and CWA tournament I think in some ways NIL is

demanding it in the one nut I five years ago I might have argued against it because the quality

in the net and that in that distinction from 64 to 96 was shit that's not the case anymore

that's not the case at all it's just there is a lot more talent out there a lot more and

the entire globe is being recruited now not just for the pros but for college it's widening MBA

can comfortably add two more 15 man rosters the talent is there to do this

now they may not have the right markets maybe Memphis needs to be they move the Memphis team

to Nashville maybe New Orleans needs to go to another place um but Seattle and Vegas also are

pretty good places to do this and who knows maybe um and and we're getting we're awfully close as

soon as we figure out how to speed up air travel um London and Madrid and Paris are coming

so we know this is going you know the talent is there um this isn't difficult to do

there is really no logistic barrier here and with so many media partners out there looking

for a piece of the mid march madness action I promise you there's more money to be made too

so Charlie Baker there it is there's you don't have to change a thing

there's your proposal it's all wrapped up in a nice bow let's get it implemented in the next

couple of years um today's opening day it's the most hopeful time of the year um no I have no clue

how the hell I'm supposed to watch the gnats I know I will figure it out um there's a great article

in the athletic that I would love to tell people about and they just use the Yankees at an example

if you wanted a guarantee to watch every single Yankee game is going to be available on TV it would

cost you eight hundred dollars in subscriptions between prime cable for the yes network MLB peak

cock everything that you would have to buy to see every Yankee game I thought that was a pretty

good exercise that they did essentially about 800 bucks to see everything um hey MLB you need to fix

this a set I have no clue how the hell I'm watching the gnats I assume I have to pay some fee

directly to the gnats of an extra ten bucks a month whatever it's going to be it's really

going to irritate me as a season ticket holder I don't think I should have to pay any extra money

to watch them on TV I think that ought to be a perk of season ticket holders mr learner um

that all access to gnats games should be available to season ticket holders and perhaps you

already have that somewhere maybe you wait for us to ask but that should be an obvious perk how

this whole thing works um it certainly should be because right now there's no good reason to have

season tickets so in some ways using access to television coverage as adding that in as a perk

um probably makes it may will make it a lot easier to still continue to convince people to buy

season ticket packages um because those things matter um so look I've got two fantasy baseball

dresses weekend so I'm obviously knee deep in baseball um but I did a fun little thing I've been

going through all the rankings and I thought so I used AI I put the top 600 rankings uh in in uh

in the clawed and I said hey divide this up by team so I know which teams have the most you know

in the top 600 and I thought it was a fun little exercise well it is the Dodgers one the Yankees

two the Cubs three the Phillies four and the Mariners five all of them were playoff teams right um

six through ten or the Braves Mets Red Sox in the Guardians and Brewers and it's the next five

that I'm the most curious about and these are the teams because I don't have a team to root for

this year that I know is going to be a playoff team I'm just hoping the Nationals don't lose

honor games all right I am just you know please please please please please please win 63 games

it's all I'm asking they they had a couple of 71 win seasons a couple of years ago I thought oh we're

on our way to 80 this point just give me 63 please don't embarrass us be on that and by the way

my god right I think it is funny how Dan Snyder covered up the inequities of sports owners in

DC but he did but I digress if I were you know the dark core what I'm interested in we know Dodgers

Yankees Blue Jays Mariners that feels that feels like you know you know probably tigers are in

there right those are your those are your world series contenders but sort of the under you

know somebody's going to come from out of nowhere under the radar right was arguably the Mariners

and the and the Blue Jays were were two of those teams so the hot under the radar team that I'm

pulling for is the pirates so I always try to have a young team that I'm pulling for that I just

I love schemes um they have a really young team I love the history of the pirates I love

uh that community as you know dynastic my new sports history podcast with jay and danday our

first episode about the Dodgers our second episode is going to be about Pittsburgh Steelers um but

before they were the Steelers the most successful Pittsburgh franchise was the pirates um it's been

a debacle the last 40 years but it was you know up until Barry bonds left it with the pirates were

consistently one of the better franchises in baseball um I certainly hope this is a year that

because I think if they can get to the playoffs then those owners will finally spend some money

and then maybe the pirates can can can can behave and and like a major market team um but the teams the

sort of I'm going to be look I'm going to be sort of you know rooting for the Orioles they're in the

region um they have all the talent in the world um I have way too many Adley Rushman rookie cards

that I can't get rid of so I'd really love to see him uh uh get his uh get get his get his

get his mojo back um uh we'll see if he does because he's got some motivation there's a catcher

behind him sam basalo I believe his name who who put overtake him but that's sort of the fun to me

for this season we know who the top teams are going to be who's a team we're not expecting that's

going to break through right and my candidates are Orioles uh Royals um the hated San Francisco

giants I'm a former Dodger fan I still hate the giants um and I'm going to go with the Sacramento

A's this is their last year in that band box park so they're going to have I mean I love the A's

is at any time you need a fantasy hitter just grab an A grab a Sacramento A because they're going

to hit more homers than they should right last year I was all over Jacob Wilson one dollar short

stop turned out to be brilliant near rookie the year Nick Kurtz is on that team so those are my dark

courses um but I'm just excited about having baseball back um because there's nothing like

what I love is coming you've done with the day yeah you have your relaxation drink whatever your

choice is if you're going to get soul you get soul if you're going to get glass of red wine you do

that and you put on the ball game now of course we just have to figure out where the hell we find the

ball games this year but when we find them um that rhythm the evening rhythm nice to an hour and 20

minute game I love it so like my big hope nationals have to go one and oh so I have one happy day in

baseball this year

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all right first question comes from Steve Vernon Hills Illinois and he says he's writing in

reaction to my top five all time Illinois statewide campaigns and he writes hey the 86

coverage with Adelaide the third deserves to be on the list as an Adelaide fan since 1970 i

banged on doors for his first set of campaign in high school it was especially painful i

suppose the Lincoln Douglas 1858 campaign needs to be number one you're not the only one that

asks me about 1858 i'll get to it in a minute best debates and it made a a a president love the

podcast but almost too much don't have time for out frankens anymore and i'm retired oh hey

al i don't know if you still listen franken and i were supposed to do a home and away in our pods

and i think we're going to hopefully get that done soon but uh no don't don't make don't make

album unhappy but you know i appreciate that i'm the lead pod for you there uh let me tell you why

it'd include 1858 and why i just i i just made this decision when i put the research together for

that book i told you this was research i did for a book about thirty years ago and i just decided

not to include any campaigns that were not resolved by the voters right and the 1858 senate

campaign yes it's the Lincoln Douglas debate so it's it's it's it's iconic and and maybe because of

that it should if there is an exception that would be the lone exception but it was simply because

it's a campaign that the state legislature right because Lincoln won the campaign but he didn't

right you know i mean yes the debates mattered the right that mattered in some ways more than the

result itself um but a very very very fair question i asked you weren't the only one

and i was glad to get that so that's why i didn't include it but you know i already made one

exception of Illinois to include a presidential where i don't want to include any presidential but

that one felt iconic because it's been used it's been so weaponized in our politics to this day right

next question comes from joss p he writes really enjoying your podcast thank you for all the hard

work involved i meet the press this morning referring to march 22nd treasury secretary scott best

and told uh christian welker we are energy self-sufficient we get no oil from the straight of

hormones if this is true why have our gas prices risen a dollar or more since we started bombing

around thank you josh p well i think you know the answer the markets of the markets and that

and it and it's you know when when 20 20% of you know yes where do we get our oil we get our oil more

from you know we are more energy independent than we even were 30 years ago um but 20% of the world

particularly asia gets it from and when you start right it just raises it it's a market right when

you suddenly deny supply in one part of the world um then people start looking where there is supply

and they start bidding it up because they're desperate for it so um our you know unless we

decided to manipulate our market or uh have state you know this this is where you would have

state controls and and stuff i don't think anybody would be in favor of that so um

it is all scott best and and essentially would make in the case for us that our economy isn't

going to crater because we don't get and that is true but we're all going to get taxed on this

and essentially we're all going to pay an extra fee for the inability of oil

to get through the state of hormones to asia so um it's just you know there's there you know

unless when you want price controls on this uh from the government which i think long term

uh nobody would want to see that happen next question comes from Donovan from Maryland he says

hey Chuck huge fan of the podcast looking forward to the commanders getting a solid draft pick next

month the m it's all about Jeremiah love right that's all the all the new draft experts are going

there if you believe that the commanders don't need it offensive lineman i'd love to see

Jeremiah love on that team anyway many Americans feel that national politics has become so

dominant that it drowns out the local officials who actually shape our daily lives our mayor's

county executive state legislatures how do you think constituents can actively work to

rebalance that power dynamics so that Washington handles the big picture issues like defense trade

and foreign policy while local leaders are empowered to address the issues that directly affect

our communities well look i i think this is this is a incredible great question

what i love about it is that it's going to allow me to rant about the loss of local media

because ultimately that's the issue so i think this is a couple things have happened

right you got rid of right a man named correct decided classifies ought to be free yada yada yada

we suddenly had no more local news and when what what happens is when you don't have anybody covering

locally um when local residents are upset about something happening locally they're none from

they're not familiar with who their local officials are because there's nothing to follow locally

so they're more likely to know who the national officials are or who their congressional officials are

so they end up gravitating towards the federal office holders towards the names they know towards

their senators or congressman because i hear this you know you get i teach these these in you know

i usually have these students that i teach at USC a lot of them are interns on the hill and they're

basically they're they're they're the first line of defense meaning they're answering the phones

and they'll get a lot of questions sometimes that have nothing to do with congressional with federal

policy but they're complaints about something happening locally that they didn't know how who else to

call so you have that issue right you you got out local news in it and it and you have a less informed

local community who doesn't know why certain things are happening there was a great academic study by

the way i believe it came out of Stanford um that noted that um that when local news

organizations disappear essentially within a couple of years the low that community tax bill goes

on essentially when you get rid of the local watchdog government the easy to death and they can

sneak in stuff because nobody notices all of a sudden you're like huh there's now a fee to do what

they just added a new recycling fee to my bill here they did this to my water bill they did

all these little things and you're like and you know it's a 5% surcharge here 3% surcharge there

things that if somebody knew about it there might be enough people upset about it

that there'd be enough of a groundswell that the local politician the local city councilman

the local mayor etc would say oh better not do this um but there is a direct correlation

between the lack of local news and government essentially abusing its residents with more tax

and fee hikes um and i think that is the and that and that gets it to the core of the of the what

your folk which you're right i think that it is i i guess my diagnosis is when you lose local news

you you deny the population essentially access to who all of their government officials are

and the irony is that a local elected official has more direct impact on the cost of you of your

life financially than a member of congress does or us senator does or frankly even a president

and you know because you know one of your biggest bills that you pay every year is your property

tax bill well that's usually decided by a county official a county executive or sometimes a city

um that's a big deal right your state income tax your state fees you know all the things

all the little things you know whether it's to register your dog whether it's to you know get

a permit to put up a fence right all of this is money you pay to your local government directly

so you interact more with government that are impacted by people that are elected within county

districts or city districts then you are with government that's elected between congressional

districts or statewide and i think that that unfortunately i think look have we always over index

on covering federal and national politics at least this century we have our i think that was the

biggest 9-11 effect i know this is a weird way of set of of invoking that but you know 9-11 really

also was an accelerant to nationalizing all news including local news became sort of derivative

of national news um because it was like we were in the shared you know the shared environment so

it's just the nationalization of of news consumption really sort of arguably really accelerated

right after 9-11 and um you know i think that that we need to really sort of that that's that's

where my that's what that's what the efforts i've been trying to make remember local news days april

ninth um well basically an awareness day is the more people get back to following finding ways

to follow local news but more they're going to realize how much more their lives are impacted by

these local officials as you point out ton of it so terrific question thank you for

next question comes from Sean Kane Colorado Sean asked now with Kristi known being kicked to the

curb i was wondering if she has or had ambitions to run for president in 2028 i got the impression

that with all her ads that dhs and taxpayers paid for it was more than just educating people on

immigration and airport security but positioning herself so that she could draw interest as a candidate

i mean seeing her wear dhs caps cowboy hats and riding horses during her commercial struck me that

she was trying to brand herself as a bad ass woman did you did you get that impression and do

you think that now she's out of trumps orbit she may have squandered her chances love your podcast

keyed in coming uh man a thousand percent i mean there's no doubt you know Cory Lewandowski who

was her chief political aid and some would argue more than just a chief political aid um

was absolutely as somebody who was the first campaign manager for Donald Trump um

you know he was also the chief advocate of christie gnome to be Donald Trump's running

made in 2024 fact he made no secret he had gotten polling can done and he shared it with me and he

shared it with a lot of reporters in 2024 that showed he he had polling that showed christie

gnome adding more a Trump gnome ticket performing better against Harris than a Trump dance ticket

so he would be there absolutely this was always about that there was some chatter that maybe she'd

primary mic rounds um who's up for reelection uh this cycle in 2026 i believe that's not going to

happen um and especially the way she was kicked to the curb and it's all you know he gave her a job

remember he moved her technically she's got some made up job that he created um about the western

hemisphere i think that was just designed to um not have her wandering around unemployed

talking trash about the Trump administration or Stephen Miller or others to reporters um so i do

think her presidential ambitions are derailed but i will tell you this if john thune decides not to

seek reelection in 2028 and i i will say this i i have no reason to think that he's not going to

seek reelection but if senate if the democrats won the senate and thunes and it's somehow cost

thune is leadership post after the 26 midterms then i don't think he seeks election 28 then i would

say that's the most likely landing spot for her would be the us and um in an open seat if john thune

chose not to run in 20a but um look i think she wants to run for president i think she has that ambition

um i just think that the realistic paz are blocked for her and i think if she is if she wins

office in 2028 it's more likely to be a open u.s. senate seat in south of cota then it is an open

presidential seat uh in a national election all right next question robert are he says like your

podcast and the new one as well excellent dynastic check it out with j down there also we tried

wild grain and are now going to subscribe man hey wild grain look at that use the code people

product is great appreciate your comments on it you're like shack and dors things in dors

things you use dors things you use question do you think trouble invade or run robert are uh

yes you're right i am more comfortable that it has always been um you know look i am i'm not naive

to how the business of independent media works i'm not shy i'm a capitalist um i am uh they're

you know i i am i'm not going to let crook sponsor me i'm not going to let unethical people sponsor me

but you know i i hope you know i'm not going to guarantee that every sponsor i have is a sponsor

i use is a product i use but um we do we do our best to vet these folks uh that's for sure um

we'll trumpet around well that was i guess in some ways you're you're asking a question

that i left uh you an open answer at the start of this podcast right

i think it's a i think it's more likely that there are some boots on the ground

to deal with the straight or moves than him completely pulling out if you were to ask me

which is more likely um now i think we will we will having debates whether what he does

is an invasion or not is it boots on the ground or is it simply boots on the straight of

coastline on the straight of hormones right like that sort of business i think that's

it is do i think we're going to be

marching on the streets of taeran i do not but i think the likelihood that there are american

boots on Iranian territory is pretty high um so i guess if i could draw that distinction

no one taeran yes on the coast near the straight of hormones um next question comes from

mike and han alubu he says uh really appreciate the comments and how the aran war continues to unravel

and demonstrate uh strained if not damage relationships with allies and what feels like a low

attention of decades uh two decades of scenario planning in the region also saw wall street journal

coverage of the american board citizen one carlos valenciade is alas taking over mexico's most

powerful drug cartel and so wondering how degraded our intelligence community is and who is advising

the administration on probable outcomes that have a far reaching impact thanks for your work mike

han alubu well mike i have a bigger problem in the intel community and i i'm not going to i don't

i want to be careful i don't want to get any of my sources in trouble on this but it's pretty clear

to me that um we have two things simultaneously happening in the intelligence community at the

moment number one is they do not paint the full picture for this president whether it's because

they don't want to tell them things he doesn't want to hear i think that's most likely the reason

when you look at it's also gabbard john ratcliffe ratcliffe at the cia gabbards at d and i these are

two people who do not want to be in it you know who who are more accustomed to telling that they

got to where they got because they tell trump what he wants to hear so you have that issue issue two

within the i c meaning the intelligence community is you have professionals who've been there for

decades work sources for decades um we don't trust the political leaders in charge of their departments

um i think that they follow the law and they report what they believe they need to report to their

superiors but i think that if you told me that they're not getting the best work because of the

lack of trust because they're fear that their sources will get exposed for the wrong reason

so i just my concern and i have more than just speculative concern about this which is going to

leave it at that my concern is that it that we've had that the fault that you've had the following

impact on intelligence gathering it's clear trump is seen as an irresponsible

actor when it comes to intelligence he shares it with everybody he doesn't respect

classifications right it is he is a he is a in he uses no secure phones he's just a he is a he is

just a walking um target you know every single major intelligence agency that is semi adversarial

and some who are friendly have access or ties to trump both electronically or literally

bought people off inside his circle you know it is it is so you so you have that issue so what does

that mean what it means is the strength of the american intelligence community has been its

sources in other countries and its relationships we have the best intelligence agencies in the globe

and in part of it is because we work in tandem with so many other excellent intelligence agencies

whether it's with the uk the at the five i's program candidate uk and he's in Australia

you've got msad you know but you know these other intelligence agencies that we rely on

for a lot of our work you know it's not just what we do it's some some shared with key allies

they're well aware that Donald trump's a leaker they're well aware that there are way too many

rogue actors who have classified security clearances who can't be trusted and so

it's just what you what you have is a slow it's sort of a slow motion train wreck

right it starts with our own rank and file being skeptical right first it starts with like

it could the cycle right you have the you have the people in charge who briefed the president

were a slightly sick of panic and already are curating i mean my god they have to make a video of him

every day to show the a random war they can't give him a verbal briefing they have to show him

pictures i'll let you make your joke about that um so it begins there right gabbert and raccliffe

aren't going to tell him bad news raccliffe and gabbert aren't going to get the professional

they're getting a limited view from their rank and file because their rank and file want to protect

their sources and so there's some limitations of what's making its way to them then our professional

rank and file their counterparts are also withholding from them maybe not because they don't trust

their american counterpart but they don't trust what happens once that intelligence makes it into

the american system so you tell me i am you know if of course we're missing things left and right

in this administration because i don't believe the intelligence community do i believe we still

have the ability to have world class intelligence and know exactly what the hell's going on all over

the world yet god damn right i do but when you look at all the different choke points that likely

limit important information getting to the commander in chief sometimes intentionally other times

unintentionally you see where this becomes a problem so is it a shock to me that we're kind of

blindsided whether it's about an american taken over a cartel we're not a hundred percent sure of

that or you know us not knowing you know the fact that she's family members have family members

that live in the united states and seems to be something our intelligence community is not that

interested in anyway i throw all this out there it's a terrific question but it's something

that really concerns me and if you told me we're going into the likelihood that we get

blindsided by some attack somewhere has never been higher and it's because we've alienated

allies we've created distrust and there's sort of built in skepticism and we know this president

doesn't trust the intelligence community anyway so you throw i mean they could give them all the

briefings in the world and he may not accept the premise because he thinks they're all secretly

out to get him anyway so put all that together and you draw your conclusions do you think the

president's getting the best intelligence briefings that are to be gotten i think we know the answer

next question comes from brand and see i'm old enough to remember the 1994 midterms and the

republican contract with america and since then control of congress is one back and forth quite

a bit given the lack of a clear democratic policy alternative to mega style conservatism right now

do you think democrats could benefit from putting forward a similar platform ahead of an election and

if so what kinds of policies would actually be most politically effective to include you know

brand and i hope you listen to the johnny o interview he basically offered up something like this

that he you know i said when you know that there needs to be some tangible ways you know and he

seems to be somebody that doesn't want to just make it all about trump if they get power back

that instead it's you know it's sort of an agenda that is bills you could pass in the moment

that may be trump signs and then bills that you're essentially setting up to be the 2028 platform

to take through the american people for for i don't know call it project 2029 right if democrats

think they're going to get the trifecta by them um but i do think some sort of clear agenda

um but i don't know if it's going to be possible because i think you're going to have some

democrats running hard on trump hard on accountability of trump hard on we're going to you know

feet that a fire all that business impeached bondy impeached trump impeached this impeached that

i do think you're going to have some democrats are not a majority of the candidates running but

but but enough that it kind of gums up the messaging like i don't think you're going to have and

i might argue that this party because it goes back to my opening monologue in today's episode

that i think you have a party that that you know the establishment's not trusted so if they put out

some sort of contract would it be embraced or would it be seen as why is watching and trying to

tell us what to do with the voters these days right so i just don't know if it's if it's

organized or i mean do i think it would be smart to have you know 26 you know here's

26 is probably too many i remember democrats are telling six and oh six you know

you could do eight and eighteen right i guess you could do six and twenty six or

um you could do twenty six bills if you wanted um

um but some sort of tangible pledge maybe it's a maybe it's on social media something on

social media and tech on jobs something on cost of living something on accountability maybe

you know he's obviously wanting to see a vote on the on the pardon amendment right you know

an accountability that's more institutional rather than personal so i think you know

combination of ethics cost of living and democratic infrastructure you know have sort of a pledge

pledge on that um it it certainly wouldn't hurt but i guess i'm skeptical this party's

organizable right now around something like that i think what grand platner wants to see who

maybe the nominee and main is different than what taloriko wants to see is different than what

say sack walls are or josh terkel in i won't want to see so i think that i think that would be

too difficult all right i'm gonna stop here i went along on this episode uh if you're listening

to it soup the nuts it's a long one bay it's the weekend episode so you have an extra day or two

to listen to it enjoy the opening enjoy and we are spoiled right now we got great basketball

and opening weekend and baseball enjoy hope the weather cooperates

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