Neera Tanden: Absolute Power Corrupts

Hello and welcome to the Bullard Podcast. I'm your host Tim Miller. Glad to welcome back to the show,

the president and CEO of the Center for American Progress. She's domestic policy advisor to Joe Biden.

It's worked for a lot of other Democrats. She is not at all polarizing on the internet.

You might have heard of our it's near it's near it. Tandon. How you doing, Nira?

I just want to say polarizing means people like you too. Yeah, right. Polarizing.

I always said that I was a polarizing child with teachers. I always made this case to my mother

because she'd be upset because she'd go to parent teacher conference. There'd be like two teachers

that really hate me. And I'd be like, yeah, but there are five that really that I'm their favorite.

You know, I just I'm a polarizing figure. I'm hoping for that same ratio.

No, I think that feels about right to me. Good news. Good news for you. Good news for listeners

because you we've had some downer podcasts recently. There's a lot of shot in Florida out there

today for the Trump administration. Things aren't going great for the Trump administration,

which also means things aren't going great for the American people. So that part sucks.

Yeah, that part's bad. We're going to try to focus on the political side of it and the problems

for Trump. And we want to start with, I think, the most joyful element of shot in Florida. And

that is Christy Nome and her lover, Hillary Lewandowski, have been expelled from the government.

Donald Trump posted yesterday that he has pleased to announce that Mark Wayne Mullin will become

the US Secretary of Homeland Security Effective March 31st. That's not actually how things work.

He got to be confirmed in the Senate. Anyway, he says that Christy Nome who served as well and had

numerous in spectacular results, especially in the better, I'm sorry, on the border. We'll be

moving to special envoy for shield of the Americas. This is a made up thing that's being announced

at Trump's golf club on Saturday. So she gets a made up job for that Trump's at Dural.

Totally made up. I mean, I have to say, like, you can almost tell how made up something it is by

like just the title, right? So like the crazier of the title, the more made up it is. And

I mean, I have to say, like, I have been in administration where you want to move someone out of a job.

And like, they are basically being fired. And then you give them something else, but usually

it's an actual job. And if you're smart enough, you negotiate for an actual job. And the fact that

they've just like, totally made up shield of the Americas, which is like, I don't even know what

that would possibly mean. I guess it's like defending Latin America from Russian attack,

who knows? Anyway, just a fascinating, just like one to I'm open to the possibility that

Christie wanted that job, you know, gets her away from family, you know, assume it'll be

in a tropical locale. Yeah, maybe who knows? That's one theory. But she's gone. We can enjoy that.

We have we've finally just as for cricket her dog. I want to talk about the negative part of

this, which is Mark Wayne Mullin. But do you have any other Christie gnome grave dancing you want

to do before we do that? Well, I mean, I look, there's a lot whenever something like this happens.

And you know, we should acknowledge this is the first time a cabinet sector. And this is a

cabinet made of, you know, multiple people competing for the worst people in their jobs ever. So,

but I do think it's the first time he's fired someone. And we should know like firing someone

for this administration. Why has he resisted it? Because he believes no one should make him do

anything. And everyone has had carte blanche to be as incompetent or as horrifyingly cruel as

possible. So, I do think it's important to acknowledge that the political system in some

way, shaper form is impacting Republicans who then have become much more critical of her. So,

we should, you know, I know a lot of people are like, oh my god, he's so much worse than she is.

It doesn't matter because it's Stephen Miller. But I do think we should all acknowledge there

is a victory in her going. Ice has not changed. The policies did not really come from her.

But it is an important thing that the Trump regime needed to act politically in response

to political pressure. Yeah. And the Republicans did. I mean, this was John Kennedy, my

Senator from Louisiana, who's a phone and a clown. Like the fact that he felt like he had to be the

one to really go at her and put pressure on her. And he publicly said in other settings recently

that they'd gone overboard on some of their tactics. And if the Louisiana Republican Senator is

saying that, like that is a sign that they at least have felt some political pressure and realize

they need to recalibrate. We'll see how much they actually recalibrate. But yeah, absolutely.

I agree with that. Let's talk about Mark Wayne Mullen. Here's the things to not be excited about

about this trade. And he's kind of the male Christie. Yeah. And they're pretty similar. I think

they're just makeup, SAT scores, like the level. They also compete on psycho fancy. Like, I mean,

he's just like, yeah. And also the fact that he's named after he has this episode where he

comes to the reporters and says, like, you know, the war is going well. And literally 30 seconds

later, there's no war. It's just like, you know, I mean, you know, like we're not talking about,

like a men's set leader here or so. No, it's not a men's a leader. And he's, and he has not

been critical of any of the policies. Christie now put forth. And just I just want to read a couple

of things that he said, Mark Wayne Mullen, after Alex Pretty died, he called him a deranged individual

who wanted to cause massive damage with a loaded pistol with an extra mag. That was completely

loaded. Obviously, this is ridiculous. He did not want to cause massive damage on Renee Good.

Said she was interfering with police activity. There's no question about that. They had the right

to defend themselves on the masks. He says that Democrats want reforms because they want to

dox the agents. What do you want to do? Expose their faces so you can intimidate their families.

So, you know, he threatened to fight a union head. He once said that he thinks that there'd be less

fake news if there would be duels between reporters and Congress people like in the old days. So,

you know, we're not pivoting back to Atom Ridge at the Department of Homeland Security.

I mean, look, we're talking about the Trump administration.

I don't think we should expect rationality. I think what's actually a little interesting

about this is that the governor of Oklahoma is actually a rational, seemingly more rational

Republican and he will get to learn. He's offered substantive critiques on the immigration issue

in particular, which is interesting since he'll be able to put in a temporary senator. We'll see

if he puts his money where his mouth is on that. But it's a little bit of a risk for the Republicans

that in theory, he could put in a senator for like five or six months that is less crazy.

Yeah, he's not going to be Tim Miller, but maybe maybe that he is sympathetic to some DHS reforms

or something. We'll see. I think the thing about this that's interesting and, you know, who knows

what will happen. You know, it's not like I like to like bet my house on the ethics and morals

of the Republican Party these days. But I do think that it's possible. Governor Stitt puts in a,

you know, just a more rational Republican who could create some breaks, not just on immigration,

but a whole host of policies. And I mean, I think if you're like thinking of the array of

buffoonery that's just on the field, it might be we have one less around us in this situation. So,

you know, I try to be optimistic in these very dark times.

Here's another optimistic thing. I'll give you another element for vatoism. So his

confirmation, which still has to happen, Donald Trump thinks he can decree the date that he comes

in. But as you know, there is a confirmation process. I am familiar with the fact that you need

confirmation. Yeah. And a bunch of Republicans and even a couple Democrats did not want to confirm

you because you had said mean things about them. Yes. And so there's an interesting subplot to this,

which is that the chair of the committee that he'll have to be confirmed through is Rand Paul.

And here's something that Mark Wayne Mullin has said about Rand Paul in the past. I respect Bernie

Sanders because he's a socialist. And you know that he's a communist to see know what you're getting.

Rand Paul is a freaking snake. And I understand completely why his neighbor did what he did.

The neighbor beat up Rand Paul for people who don't remember.

I would like to know this is much meaner than anything I've ever said. I was going to say,

did you ever cheer a senator getting their ass kicked physically? I don't think so.

I don't think so. I think I called Mark Wayne. I mean, I think I called Ted Cruz Voldemort.

But I don't think this is worse actually. That holds up. I think it's I mean, he's again,

he cheered an assault. I know exactly. So we'll see how Rand Paul handles it. But I think that

there's at least some possibility that it's not quite as friendly as a of a confirmation as it

could have been had, you know, it's been one of the other Republicans for whom Mark Wayne Mullin

has not supported physical violence against. I mean, it also he could just slow everything down.

That's like it's a favorite tactic of senators. Rand is not like super excited about the DHS

funding bill. This is all happening in that context as well. In part because of just his

libertarianist, he's like against most spending bills. It's a little bit less about the principle

of the of the behavior of the agents and all that. But like, it complicates things.

Kind of credit to Senator Paul in the aftermath of the shooting of killing murder of Alex

Freddie. You know, he said, and I think this is basically, you know, animated by his concern about

a federal government, we almost unlimited power against citizens. You know, he basically said,

like he had concerns that the lies of DHS, the lies of Christina, the lies of, you know,

the entire White House, really, you know, should make people concerned. I mean, he was one of the

senators in the days after that that in like Tom Tillis yesterday or two days ago in the hearings

who said, we could see this video. And then we heard you lie about what happened. And, you know,

I mean, I don't, again, don't want to like actually, we've we've had a lot of disappointments from

senators, Republican senators over the last year. But you know, my own view actually is we are

beginning to see more and more cracks in the Republican coalition. And the true libertarians

recognize that Donald, I mean, who should be most concerned about an authoritarian federal government?

It is the libertarians. Right. Unless you are a complete hypocrite, you should be very worried

about a incredibly armed DHS that is shooting citizens on the streets of American cities.

And I hope Rand Paul asks, you know, Senator Mullen, like some questions about this whole situation.

And I'd also just give people more opportunity. I mean, just having this confirmation hearing will

give people more opportunity to air all the problems, Democrats to air all the problems that

have happened at DHS. So I think, you know, I mean, again, I don't want to overstay. But you do see

some Republicans who within the blithering attacks are actually stand again. And Rand has gone on,

like, I can't remember if he's gone on Fox, or Chris says, no, I believe so. He definitely did

on the Venezuelan strikes. And he has since the Iran war started. So anyway, we'll watch Rand

on this one in particular. All right, everybody just recently got a package from our friends at

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around the country. We're going to get to Iran. We have another news item this morning, which is

the jobs numbers came out. And it was a big miss for the economy 92,000 jobs lost. Just

I want to read a couple of items for you. Here's Nate Silver on top of the 92,000 jobs lost.

Also 69,000 and downward revisions from December and January. Not nice. Manufacturing jobs minus 12,000

transportation warehouse minus 11,000 construction minus 11,000. So this was going to be a

renaissance for the forgotten man blue collar man doesn't doesn't seem like it.

Ron is in sun over at CNBC said since liberation days since the tariffs workers have been liberated

from the yoke of work net 19,000 jobs lost since last April. The labor force participation rate has

erased all the gains of the last four years. Law inflation advances. It's that. Yeah, I think the

last point is really crucial. Donald Trump became president in January. And since April,

we have not had job gains. And I just want to just to remind everybody that in the previous four

years, we were averaging about 200,000 jobs created a month. So it is a radical break from what

we've been experiencing in the first Trump administration. It was basically 100,

150,000 on average until we got to COVID. Of course, with COVID, big job shock. But then as we

came out of COVID and, you know, not just in the immediate aftermath, but, you know, through last

year, we were seeing significant job creation across the country and not just in health care,

but in manufacturing and jobs kind of throughout various sectors. And the most important thing is

in there aren't like other forces in the universe. I mean, we have to see what AI is doing. But

it's the policies of this administration that are creating headwinds for the economy. I mean,

people, a big reason why we're seeing these job losses is because Donald Trump decided himself

to create a terror regime that just made everything a lot more expensive and made imports into

the country to make things more expensive. That's why it's so, you know, that is why we're having

a manufacturing problem in the country. It's like the whole idea of his tariffs were to make,

you know, to help us compete. And actually, they are like a lot of things this guy does,

boomeranging into hurting the very people he said he would help, which is working class people.

Yeah. And it's like, what's going to get better? Like, that's the big question. It's like, what are we

doing? I mean, maybe we'll spend hundreds of billions of dollars on this war and we'll get some

people to work in like defense contractors. But what is on the table here to actually improve

the economic conditions? This is a two point. Yeah. And it was self-inflicted.

Totally self-inflicted the job losses. And there's no plan. It's not as if that there's this bill

going through Congress like the job's act where they have a plan where they're going to, you know,

support certain industries or cutter. There's no idea. I mean, that's like just to step back.

What I thought was so amazing about the state of the union, which I know feels like it was seven

years ago, but it was really last week. Was it really last week? I don't remember those two weeks

ago, but it wasn't. I mean, but now, you know, where the problem with time is like none of us can

remember what happened last week because it's like last month. But the thing that I thought was

fascinating about the state of the union is, I mean, I've worked on a couple of these and

the idea of the state of the union is that you're supposed to put out ideas about solving problems

that compete with the other side. And there was nothing that President wanted to do in Congress

because, you know, basically, I don't think he cares what Congress does. He just wants to do executive

actions. And it really wasn't weren't ideas there on like how are you solving the job's problem

because he can't admit there's a jobs problem. I mean, his whole problem is he kind of adopted

one of the strategies of the Biden administration, which I'm here to tell you,

did not work so well, is to say actually tell people the economy is really awesome. And what

is horrifying is right after they say the economy is awesome. Like the next jobs report is pretty

devastating. And he can't even blame some woke BLS administrator because he got rid of that person.

So anyway, I think just like just like looking at a couple of the sectors, right? So maybe

AI is having a fact on this. Derek Thompson, we're talking about this yesterday. But, you know,

in like the sectors that you would think, you're kind of information services, that's, you know,

thing, I, it's like minus 11,000 jobs. So it seems like maybe there's an effect on in these kind

of white collar jobs. But like, that's just a small piece of this. I mean, like huge losses in

hospitality, health care, manufacturing, warehouse, this is not AI. This is a really important point.

I mean, what is, what is really terrible about this jobs report is that the jobs we're losing are

jobs. Again, disproportionately working class people are in manufacturing jobs, hospitality jobs,

service jobs. And you're absolutely right. Their areas that we know are most impacted are

computer programming, financial services. And we're not seeing that. So you can't even blame.

Financial services is the best sector plus 10,000. I assume that's because of crypto. I don't

know. It doesn't. They don't break it down. But there's a lot of crypto crime jobs out there. We've

got a couple of booming sectors, crypto crime, private prisons, you know, just anything involved

in bribery. It's like, you know, I don't have to object to read these days. So I mean,

I don't even know who's a rational actor in the White House. But the whole thing about serving

in government is you look at data like this and you have to think about what to do about it. And

the fact that we have this from an economic perspective, the fact that we've launched a

Middle East war that is spreading throughout the region and is as like basically shut down

the Strait of Hormuz while increasing gas prices. You're also, and like basically creating a

choke point on global trade, not particularly helpful to economic growth either.

Yeah. Well, let's talk about the economics of the war. They won't get to the rest of it. But

just as you mentioned, so we have from this week since the war started, gas prices up 11 percent,

oil prices up 20 percent. So seems like gas prices were room to grow there. Catherine

Rampal wrote about this if you want to get economic dorky for us called more flation. So we've

got some more flation coming. And then a subtext of this story is Susie Wiles. There's a leak

that Susie Wiles got mad. It's so interesting. We've never heard that Susie Wiles got mad. I mean,

we killed American citizens. I don't think she was mad. We were sending people to foreign

gulags, not mad, but like mad about about gas prices. She's mad. She was yelling at them to

find ways to lower prices. Apparently, idea number one, because this is the only thing they've

done was the US Treasury eased sanctions on Russia and Putin. They can now sell oil to India and

other countries in Asia without the same level of sanctions that we put on them. So that was

the idea one. We not shocked that their go-to was helping Russia and the war. I found it

personally just like I read it and I was like, oh my god, this is so radically different than

everything else they do is helping out Vladimir Putin in any in some form or shape or form.

I mean, just to note that they are basically easing the sanctions on Russia while Russia is helping

Iran target US forces in the war. Why? Because they're allies with Iran. So I just want to just

for all the America first people, we are making it easier for Russia to have economic wealth.

You know, this is like a whole issue for their economy, whether the sanctions exist on their oil

and resources. And while they are actively working against our military operations. So,

you know, very odd. But I guess, you know, one thing that I also want to say about just

the utter incompetence of this White House is, I don't know about you, but to me,

it was kind of predictable that when you started a war with Iran, it might have some pressure

on gas prices. I mean, I'm not. I don't have, I don't have an anthropic

cloud system like gaming out or to me. But for me, it occurred to me that that could happen.

And you know, one thing you might do, if you were thinking of having a war with Iran,

was to ensure your strategic petroleum reserve was actually full. So if gas prices went off,

you would actually have some escape valve to, you know, increase production into the market to

ensure that, you know, people were insulated, not this group of cracker-jack thinkers.

Did not fill the strategic petroleum reserve. So they can't do what governments have done. Like

Republican and Democratic governments, which is when you see an oil shock,

you could actually tap the reserve to mediate the price. Nope, don't have that option,

because these geniuses didn't think to actually increase the reserve. So I mean,

this is the problem with having a war in like a weekend, you know? I mean, generally speaking,

you plan these things out, you look at various contingencies and you decide to

emeliorate kind of the harms. But this group is perfectly fine with all of us paying more for gas

other than Susie Wells. They seem perfectly fine. All this means more for gas. We're all paying for

this because it's a billion dollars a year. And they're adding the 15% tariff back on.

Yes, we're going to pay more in tariffs and we're paying higher gas prices. So, so far,

a lot of costs. It's interesting. You say that about the timing because there's kind of mixed

reporting out there. And we've seen some reporting that I've been thinking about. They've been

planning this for six months and an industry that we moved resources after I mean, over there,

on the other hand, there's been some reporting that like BB and Trump had a call. I guess what

have been a week and a half ago now where they were like, Hey, we've got the intelligence on

that all these guys. Yeah, it's hola and all of them are going to be in the same place. Like,

this is our opportunity to go. This was not something that was urgent. It is not as if there's

any reporting that's like, Hey, they are about to shoot a ballistic missile at Maine. That was

not on the table. That is ridiculous. If they felt like this was an important strategic

imperative, which they haven't really made the case for, but if they felt that way, they could have

done it whenever. The only timing constraint here was allegedly that there was intelligence

provided that they had this opportunity to get these guys on Saturday. And so they went in.

But it's like, OK, well, if it's that critical, you know, that you go on the BB time table here,

then like they're going to be these other externalities, like people stuck over in the Middle East,

like gas prices going up. And it doesn't feel like they gave a fuck about that. Look, I think the

RECWAR was just a generational disaster. But there was a buildup over a long period of time and

just think of the differences. OK, number one, look at the harms people haven't. You know,

it seems like some of these soldiers were killed that should have had warnings about the war

so that they could, you know, basically be protected. Number two, we have, you know,

thousands of people in the Middle East stranded. The embassies haven't pulled people out.

Usually when we go to war, we pull people out of embassies, you know, that happened before.

And, you know, the Strategic Purit oil reserve wasn't filled. We didn't engage with our allies

really at all in Europe. I mean, I still consider them allies. I know this administration doesn't.

But now those allies are basically on their own choosing to help various sides in this war.

I know there's like a lot of kind of important talk about how the militaries doing great job,

degrading around and sure. And that is true. And it is an important

acknowledge. But the things around this in my lifetime, the height of support for a military

engagement, a war is the days after the first bombing start going off. The fact that the president

has never been able to make the case as to why we have to do this. And, you know, I'm being a

little clip, but at least the Bush administration had the dignity of lying to us.

These people are like one day, it's come any the other day. Now they're like, they were a

batch of bombers in two weeks. And, you know, that would have been maybe compelling if you said it

before the war, but you didn't. So I just we have an updated missive on what the plan is. Are you

ready? Donald Trump completed about this this morning. Here it is. There will be no deal with

Iran except unconditional surrender. After that, in the selection of a great and acceptable leader,

we and many of our wonderful and allies or tirelessly to bring Iran back. Iran will have a great

future. Make Iran great again. Miga. I mean, we're doing regime change and democracy promotion.

And Donald Trump said to Axios, who are his favorite sources for his war planning. So we have to

take this at face value that he gets to pick. Yeah. So that's the plan. We're going to bomb the

fuck out of them. We're going to bomb a school. We'll get to that next. And we're going to bomb all

the leaders. We're going to bomb the second and third tier leaders that we thought we were going to

put in. They're all dead. And now we're just going to say, Hey, you guys surrender. I mean,

I would say. Okay. What's like, you know, obviously so much terrifying about this whole situation

is it does feel like they thought Iran would be another Venezuela and Iran has been engaged

in essentially, you know, its own version of hot slash cold wars in the Middle East for decades.

And, you know, it's not like they, I think when Trump came in, they thought their future was so safe.

So, you know, they've done a range of planning. So they have leaders. I mean, you can take out a

bunch of leaders and there still will be another leader. Like the regime is operational. And,

you know, I guess I on top of all of this, the fact that we are relying for the, you know,

this war operation on Pete Hegseth and this tomorrow. I mean, I know that there are generals there

with who are thinking rationally about all this. And that's probably why they were leaking last

week that they didn't really want to do this war and definitely leaking earlier this week.

That it was like essentially the White House who wanted to do all this, that, but I mean,

I think we should just be genuinely panicked that they don't seem to have any kind of plan.

I mean, I worked in an administration, I pushed it not, I mean, excuse me, Joe Biden did not actually

start. Okay, the blab. Now we know what the left is, we're going to say about you, no difference.

I was against zero record from the get-go, just what I get my street grid of that.

It's a protest. I was against in 2006. I got to fight it over Thanksgiving with my mother

about that over 2006. So three years too late, but okay, better than some of the other Republicans.

Yes, that's true. But anyway, I just think the fact that, you know, usually you need discipline

talking points on your goal strategy, et cetera, that the fact that there have been seven

different aims and goals of this operation since Saturday. So just, you know, one more than the

days of the week is, you know, I think we should be, you know, hyper stressed. And I think that's

reflected in the fact that the public does not support what's happening. You know, I mean,

essentially, this is the lowest support of any military engagement that the country has

experienced in this early in the process. I mentioned the school. There's some good reporting

as New York Times couple of other outlets that are still doing reporting unlike the Washington

Post. And all the evidence appears to be that it was us. There's a lot of smoke around the fact

that maybe this was related to the AI, you know, because AI was doing the packaging for us. We

don't, I don't, I don't want to make any accusations there, but they're, you know, there's

among the reporting, there's like some evidence pointing to that. You know, look, I got on the one

level this, this is what war is, right? Like innocent people accidentally get killed during war.

Innocent people got accidentally killed and we're leaving Afghanistan because I like the Biden

administration thought that they were, that there was a terrorist in a car. You remember the story

that they drowned people that were innocent. Like this happens like in war. But in this particular case,

I think it is, it is especially gone because of all we've been talking about, which is like,

we don't even know why we're doing this. So we don't have a plan for the war. And now it is

our like American material that resulted in the death of hundreds of innocent young girls.

And now we want to go in and tell them that we want Amiga. You know, like the whole thing,

it is, it's a farce. It's like really, I mean, it's wrong. And, and it's a war crime,

it's also a farce. I mean, I think this will be a, an action that, you know, the military will

be living the kind with the consequences of for a long time. And I personally think it will have

the kind of impact of oligrib. And I was thinking about that too. You know, just let's say we

were attacked on 9-11. And we, the American military went in with soldiers. They didn't

nuclear bomb the mountains of Afghanistan. They went in with soldiers to try to capture places.

There were incidents of civilian deaths in Afghanistan, you know, a wedding party hit.

We did not bomb entire schools of children during Afghanistan or Iraq.

And if you talk to the Iraq and Afghanistan, so there's just to put a word in for that. Like,

well, Selber, he's right for us and others. Like, they went out of their way to not. Like,

it doesn't mean that there weren't a case of civilian deaths. Like, of course, they were,

the plan was, they knew actually killing civilians made the population much more oppositional.

I mean, just think about this week. Trump is basically telling the Iranians, you know,

rise up against community or the community regime. Community was a horrifying figure. But

it's a little hard to, for people to be like super sympathetic to the Americans when they just

killed a school full of children. So this is why you do it. I mean, the military goal of avoiding

civilian deaths is to ensure that the population does not work against you. And it took America

months to pacify Mosul. Why? Because we didn't just bomb the whole area or kill, like,

basically we had to do strategic hard work with people, you know, our soldiers going, like,

basically blocked by block in order to not kill so many civilians. And, you know, and just as

to remind Pete Hegset with all of his rhetoric, we're not going to, like, limit the military anymore.

And we're, I mean, just think about what that means. It means things like this are more likely

to happen. And the fact is that the whole world can see that the United States chose to have a war.

It was not, it was a word of choice. There was no imminent threat to the United States.

And we weren't attacked. We weren't attacked. They're post-talk rationalization for all.

This is like, well, we've finished. We've always been at war with East Asia. You know, it's like,

what? This, you know, but also it's like, and that's, you know, I mean, just to say,

those kids are killed in our name. I mean, that's the horrifying aspect of all this. It's like,

I don't sign up for any of this. And what's even worse is, okay, if he even said he was going to

have wars and he got elected, sure, but he told everybody he wasn't going to do things like this,

and got elected. What is the island of people who are justifying this at this point? Because,

you know, again, mass deportation, so you could say the guy can't be in on it. But he said he

was going to be the peace president. And we're like on war number 27 in the first year.

I have a guest, I'm going to talk about this with the next week who's on the mega side of this.

But he's like, the people that are for this are kind of like the never-tumbers that state Republicans.

That's like the opposite side of the corner for me, right? You know, it's like the hawks.

It's like the right wing hawks that hated Trump, like in all the sudden, at the Mark Levin's and

the Ben Shapiro's. And now they're backfilling this. And like, they're the only ones for it. Like,

well, it isn't the court Trump voter that was for this.

John Bolton is like, peace out on this. I mean, even he's like, you know, I mean, I think he's

been fantasizing about working the ran for his entire adult life. And even he's like, I'm not sure

this is like, well planned. I mean, I think the problem, honestly, is absolute power corrupts.

Like, there have been no guardrails on this president because the Republican Party in the Supreme

Court also made up of Republicans who refused to give him guardrails. He had success in Venezuela.

So he kind of decided to just like start a global war. And this is at bottom, the reason why

you try to find a rational adult to be president of the United States. Because when you do not,

they have a lot of toys that could really hurt not just America, but like global peace.

Yeah. And I do not sleep easily at night knowing these people are in charge of

and ever expanding more in the Middle East. You're getting, you're getting a matter of matters.

We talk about this. But I can also just to speak to the like, I'm not trying to get you less

mad. But it is, it is a culture like you talk about absolute power corrupts, right? But that's

where we are. It's a culture of corruption and no accountability. Like this is a thing.

There are no limits. Like nobody is telling this guy know. Like nobody, and when nobody tells you

know, and honestly, like you fire anybody who's not psychophantic and you spend all your power

trying to just discipline any institution, whether it's Netflix and losing out or any other group,

then, you know, then, then like the problem is you, you don't think I can make mistakes. I mean,

I really was genuinely, you know, a little surprise that he decided to do this because in the past,

he has seemed to be constrained by the idea of American soldiers dying overseas.

No, he said it again today. More people will die. Whatever. Some more times that's a time. Some

people will die. Some people will die. If there's no constraints, if everyone in there has already

been so corrupted, right? That they decided that like, I've signed up for this. This guy, we know

this guy is bad, but I'm going in there because I think on balance, I prefer him or because I'm

nagged or because I'm also whatever, like everybody that is going in there made the determination

that if you sign up for this, like you're signing up for it all. And so that is created like a culture

that we haven't had in government for a long time. Like you mentioned Abu Ghraib, which is horrible

and horrifying. But like there were whistleblowers, right? I mean, there were whistleblowers within

the military. They were speaking out against Rumsfeld and felt like that they had to and the policies.

And then there were political people that whistleblowers and quits got me clueless and quits.

And it would be like Carolyn Levitt quittic. Like he was a White House spokesperson. He quitt

over it, right? And so it doesn't make what happened in Abu Ghraib better or right, but it's a

system in a process. Yeah, it's a system in a process that works. That's not happening here.

They're not lying still. They're not even admitting they killed the girls at the school.

Like they're still lying about it. Like forget having whistleblowers or constraints or

internal investigations. They fired all the Jags. We don't even have military lawyers anymore.

Like it's fucking sick. Look what happened in the first couple of months of the

administration. I think the administration, which has been incompetent in every possible way,

has demonstrated policy, created creativity and two arenas. One, how do they come to power and

basically eliminate all possible oppositional voices? So that's why they fired a bunch of

admirals and generals in the first couple of days. And they've fired a bunch of people,

some of whom are now running for office, but they fired basically hatcheted a bunch of

military leaders who I think they thought would offer some opposition and not just go online.

And that sends a message to everyone else in the military, which is that if you say anything,

you will be fired from your job. So that's an area where they've had some policy

creativity and the other isn't ranked corruption. But the truth is in government,

in every administration, when you serve the public, you are supposed to serve the public.

And all of us who've served in jobs in the White House or in the administration or in the executive

agencies, you have to ask yourself every day, you know, are you truly serving the public? And

you know, I mean, I didn't feel like I had that many conflicts on that, but you know, like when I

was serving, but in the first term, there were of the Trump administration. As a new mention

in the Bush administration, there are people in government who think I am a Republican appointee

and I am an American who is supposed to serve the country. And when there were conflicts,

they chose to be Americans who serve the country, you know, John Kelly, others who were trying

to constrain this president. And he has systematically eliminated everyone. But you know,

you mentioned Susie Walsh earlier and it is her job as White House Chief of Staff to tell the

president he should not or cannot do something for the country. His White House Council is supposed

to not just tell him how he gets to do things, but when he's doing something unconstitutional or

illegal, that he should not do it. It is your job not to just serve as the president's ego,

but actually to serve the country. And when people are doing it, when you're the president is doing

something gravely crazy. I mean, how does Marco Rubio escape being any accountability here?

He could have gone to the president and told him, this is like, you know, kind of nuts what you're

doing. And you know, what we've I've heard is that he was sort of like, yeah. And so, you know,

I mean, I think they all just tell themselves he's a president. He's a man who's elected. But,

you know, they are there in those jobs not to just do his bidding, but like previous administrations

serve as some kind of constraint. Because right now, the scariest thing in the world is

Donald Trump is in charge of like, you know, essentially whether this war spirals out of control

or not. And the first week does not seem to be any kind of, you know, reassurance. Like, if you

can't protect American citizens in the Middle East to get out of there, how do we think we're

going to handle this war in three weeks, four weeks, five weeks, for six months?

I wouldn't move on to politics and the Senate map. I've been saying for a while that I

the Democrats could not consider this to be a good midterm or a blue wave unless they also take

the Senate like the taking the House is not sufficient. They're going to take the House just because

of structural forces almost certainly. The Senate is where the fight is. I've been pretty skeptical

of the Senate map for a while. But now you're believing. Now you're believing. The economy has me

starting to believe a little bit. So I want to talk about a little bit. I want to put the main

Senate race over here into a side bucket. And we're going to come back to that at the end. Oh

great. I'm so excited to talk about the main Senate race. Let's focus on the

get away from that. Let's focus on the rest. As long as possible now.

We're going to make it to the main Senate race. We can have an extra long podcast if you want.

I know the film on screen won't save you. You can do the thing where you pretend your

audio can win out if you want. The Democrats need to win four seats. Three would be

okay. The Republicans will still be in control. But it kind of put Murkowski in an interesting

pickle. But they really need to win four, not four seats. North Carolina is a race we don't

talk about that much because the Democrats have been acting competently. They've nominated a

popular governor, former governor that fits the state. And he's winning in the polls. And we'll

see how that shakes out. There are also some states that Democrats need to hold.

Michigan. Yeah, Michigan, Georgia. But in this theory, like we're going to assume they've held

them or else this is this conversation boot. So now you start to look into the expanded states.

Where do you get some other states out of? In Texas, you had the primary this week.

Telleriko wins over Crockett. I want you to take on that. You look at Alaska is one that I'm

looking at. Mary Paltola is a great recruit. Fantastic recruit. Fish family freedom.

Fish family in freedom. Now you start to get into okay. Ohio shared browns a little bit of a

retread. Iowa candidates are okay. Montana then comes on to the map this week, which is exciting.

Steve Daines drops out three minutes before the filing, which is an attack on democracy and embarrassing

and sick. And they just they squeak in some guy though. But he's a prosecutor. He's never run

for office. He hasn't been tested. Kurt Almy, the Democrats, it seems like you're going to do

the thing that they did in Utah with Evan McMullan and kind of a line behind an independent candidate.

John Tester's been pushing this guy. He's a former college president. I like the independent

candidate thing in theory. I know nothing about this guy. I worry a little bit. You know,

colleges aren't really that popular at least. Swing voters. I mean, he's a he's a veteran.

So yeah, hopefully it's got some other parts. We'll see how that works out. Then you have Nebraska

also with an independent and Dan Osborne. It's been on the show interesting candidate. So

the map is getting a little bit more interesting. I'm wondering, I just going to want you to take

me through what you got your eye on and your thoughts on Texas. Well, I, you know, I think the

truth is you, as you said, you have to win four of Maine, North Carolina, Ohio, Iowa, Texas,

Alaska. So, you know, Montana, Nebraska. So basically, you know, you have to win four of

those multitudes. And they're all hard. You know, I'm not, I'm not arguing. They're not hard.

I guess I would say, you know, you and I have been in a few cycles in our time. And a sign of

a wave is that where the map goes in the cycle itself. Is it expanding or contracting? And the fact

that you have, I mean, I just think it's amazing. Steve Danes was like, I'm not running again.

And it's not just he decided not to run. Brian Zinke, the House member decided not to run. So

that's a lot of Republican incumbents in a state choosing not to run for re-election in a time

where Trump has a 37% approval rating or 38% in the country. Obviously, it's higher in Montana. But

I think at a very high level, what we're seeing is the reflection of an incumbent president

with a below 40, probably approval rating. And that means Republicans are, you know, understanding

that it's going to be a really tough election cycle. The reason why the Senate matters the most,

or not the most, these both matter, the House and Senate matters. He needs the Senate to approve

any nominees. And Supreme Court, if you take the Senate, if you take the Senate, you can, you're

check on the courts. He won't get radically crazy nominees through. And you can just say no

to nominees, right? So, so I think it is really important to aim for both. And, you know, what I say

about the race in Texas, as Talleriko is an incredibly talented person, Jasmine Crocker, also very

talented. They're like, and I thought what was great about this is, there was a primary.

Did you think that race demonstrated a lot of talent?

You know, I think like she came into this race late and she didn't, like, wasn't able to create

a, the kind of campaign that he'd been building for a long time. But, you know, I mean, I will say,

Jasmine Crocker lost Tuesday night. She goes the next day to DHS and has amongst the most

effective questioning to the DHS hearing with Christy Nome. And like, you know, that's a woman

who was rolling with the punches. That was very, she was really effective. And that's a real

strength. You could assault, you could have pouted. And I'd like, she's also really good at that.

Yeah, she's really good at different things. Yeah. Honestly, the fact that I've been through

primaries where it's a rough primary and it makes a candidate better. And James Telleriko is a

better candidate today because he had to go up against Jasmine Crocker. And I personally think

this race is in, within reach in John Cornyn and Greg Abbott. Greg Abbott is going for his

third term in Texas. Okay. And Cornyn is going for sixth term. So it's Cornyn, sixth term,

Cornyn or Paxton. I think both of them have flaws against a candidate with just, you know, a

fresh way of speaking. He's like not been there forever. Actually is really trying to build a

big tent and has a lot of messaging that doesn't just start like yesterday. But over years of

trying to create, you know, a pathway for Trump voters, Harris voters, Democrats,

independent center Republicans. I worry just about a little bit of the incentives there because

there's so much attention on it. And you mentioned Fish Family Freedom. I always bring this up.

Like Mary to Peltola has no pressure to like appeal to any constituency except for Laskins.

Like left writer center. I'm not even going to make an ideological point. Like she's just like,

I'm going to run this race focused on the Laskins. I do feel like Telleriko and Crockett because

the race has had so much focus on it. And there's, you know, like there was this pressure to like

appeal to various factions and interest groups within the Democratic side. Like when you look at

this, all this states like the Montana, Nebraska, I like, I like James Deleriko and I hope to

talk to him on this and and have him refute this worry. There's a lot of woke posting in 2020

from him with some weird stuff, you know, about white skin and having a virus. And you know,

it's just like talking about racism. It's just the way he was talking about it is not really the

way that they're talking about it in Midland is all. And I'm just trying to win a Texas center race.

And I just, I do worry a little bit like these races could cut up in the discourse. It's like

candidates are really on the left are really trying to appeal to the people tweeting at them. And like

rather than trying to appeal to the 58 year old that didn't go to college that is the swing voter

in these red states, I don't think that they're part of a discourse.

Well, first of all, I would say I think it is really important for people to remember that

working class people care a lot about higher costs. I guess to just pull back, I think a real

opportunity in these Senate races and for Democrats writ large is we have never had a president

who has just screwed over working class people as much as Donald Trump. I mean, like there's Ronald

Reagan, George Bush, nobody, none of them took healthcare away from 20 million working people.

Okay. None of them added basically a tax increase, basically a version of a national sales tax

on everybody and who pays the tariffs disproportionately working class people.

So I think at a very high level, there is an area of opportunity to kind of realign voters.

And you're seeing who are the groups that have fallen away from Trump. I mean, people have talked

a lot about Latinos. They've also talked a lot about young people, young men, but like really

struggling working class people and people making less than 30,000 are moving away from him as well.

And I think that's an area of opportunity. What's important for people to remember is that working

class people actually care a lot about security. They care about reducing crime because working class

people experience it at a higher rate than college-educated people. They care about, they still care

about the border. I'm with you on all this. Is this part of the telebuster to get away from talking

about the race? No, it's actually a cap promotion, which is that is why I deserve to remember Congress.

Great. I love promoting cap.

As but for ideas that I hope, you know, James Telerico and people in Canada, it's all

across the country. We'll look at it because we also have to offer ideas on how do we secure the

border and secure the border while not having a DHS. You don't have to, you know, you could

basically secure the border without threatening everyone's rights. That's an area of opportunity

for him to talk about. We can reduce crime without mass incarceration. So I, you know, so I think

it's important for them to have ideas in those spaces. And I think James Telerico, look,

we've seen candidates recently, you know, in various places who are charismatic, who can, you

know, kind of show away from past positions. And I think he needs to explain his views. And then,

you know, early and often, and I have a lot of confidence and his ability to communicate.

AmericanProgress.org. People can go look at those policies and you have a great corruption

tracker as well. We have to talk about, man, because we find ourselves in a very strange position,

which was me as the former Republican being like, I think some of these nitpicks of platners

visits to these podcasts and Reddit posts, like they just, they feel a little, they feel like

nitpicky to me. And I have people on the internet yelling at me, they're like, he's a Nazi. He

isn't a Nazi. And I'm like, does anybody actually think grand platners are Nazi? Does anybody think

that grand platner wants to put people on the, I'm just going to make my point. Does anybody think

that he wants to put people in concentration camps now? Does anybody think if he gets in the

Senate, he would want to advance policies that hurt Jews or that due to Jews, what this administration

is doing to Palestinian activists or Venezuelans, they're smelling. It's like, of course not.

Like, of course not. So now, does that excuse? So I kiss past comments like, no, like we should

talk about that. But I just, I get a little bit frustrated with that. Like, there's a little bit of,

well, you're kind of strong manning the, the, the, I'm not really here. Let me, I just want to say

at the beginning of this, any discussion of this, I will love whoever the people have made pick.

Okay. Is really important to take this race and whoever people pick, I am like a thousand percent

supporter of. So I don't really want to say much here to like, that could be used against anybody

in the future and by anybody. But I guess I'd say at a very high level, you know, I take seriously

the idea that the Democratic Party is very focused on racism, sexism, and homophobia. And I think

we should be sensitive to any concerns about anti-Semitism. That doesn't mean that anything that's

happened here is Hitler or Nazi-ask or anything like that. But I think you could have like a

it's a safe thing to say that was really not great. Okay. And not say this person is a Nazi. Okay.

Like I think there's a reasonable place to say I have some concerns. And maybe you could say,

like sometimes we sort of go on the off on the like we're too nitpicky. But I, I guess from my

perspective, I think it's reasonable to say, hey, that stuff was not so great. I would also say,

you know, I don't think it's fascinating about this race, which I will like really like to avoid

talking about. But if you actually look at the coalition behind Janet Mills and Graham Planner,

the funniest irony to me, not funny, but like the people who are supporting like at very high levels

Graham Planner are people who are making like over $100,000 in Maine. She's doing better with where

he loves people. He's doing better with the college-educated people who think that he who

that's working class people like him. So, you know, I mean, I just think this is like a funny

aspect of all this. Hopefully it all worked out. I'm glad you brought that up. Okay. Great. I

agree with that. I want to go through the cross tabs now. I have 20 more minutes worth of talk

about this race before I go. It isn't this deep irony, right? That Graham Planner is appealing

to like Colby College, right? The people are like, this is what working class people want,

right? And meanwhile, me as the former Republican is defending the leftist. You are

defending the 79-year-old centers that you think I'd be for. I just wish that we had another choice.

I wish that we would have had somebody that was not either 79. But yeah, and so this is a

problem with politics. Unfortunately, we don't. The choices are Susan Collins, who is

reporting and funding the terrorizing of brown people in her state. And I guess this is what I

just keep coming back to on Planner. And why I just want to keep picking this fight with people

is like, if you show me, to my point, is like, if you show me that he wants to do something like that,

then I'm against him as I'll be I'll be at the front of the line being like, fuck you. But I just,

you know, but your choice right now isn't between Graham Planner and Susan Collins. You

defect that you're like. Well, you're choice is Susan Collins. Well, you're choice is

to think that I'm a 79-year-old that might. Yes, yes, and you honestly, at the end of her term,

it's crazy. It's a crazy run. As Susan Collins is 76 and Janet Mills is the right. Well, it's crazy

for her to run. That's why I want the beer guy to get back in. Why can't the beer guy get back in?

I just want a normal 45-year-old Democrat. Can I just why can't I have that? Unfortunately,

I can't. These are the options, I guess. I think the thing to think about is what is the case

Susan Collins is going to prosecute against Janet Mills and what is she going to prosecute

against Graham Planner? And is she going to prosecute a case that Janet Mills is too old when she's

three years older? Maybe she will. I don't know. That's like a great, she could. Like, you know,

she's a wily, I mean, the only thing I'd say to people. She'll probably prosecute against

the court. The race will be she's pro-trance. Yes, but they're, you know, they're both very pro-trance,

just to say. It's one of his claims to fame and it is like a very decent thing that he was

defending. And let's go to where he is talking about how he was wrestling against girls in high

school 20 years ago. I mean, now you're just definitely like way more into this race than I am,

but you know what's going on? I don't think that's true. My, I guess my, my take, that's the

thing for everyone to think about. And, you know, like, again, I will love in campaign or whatever,

or not campaign, whatever is helpful for whoever wins. Sometimes keeping Mira out is better.

That's, you know, like, maybe in Florida, but anyway, um, I'm, you know, I think that's the

thing to think about that race. And I just don't know. I don't either. This is why it's interesting

to talk about. It's frustrating to talk about and people don't like it. The one thing I would say

about this race is like, I know the Democratic Party is definitely like, and I like, I get it 100%

like, definitely not down with the olds. Okay. But I have no problem with old people. She's going

to be 85 at the end of her turn. But Maine is pretty, Maine is pretty old. Yeah. Pretty old. You know,

and that's again, I'd say like the, like, the Democratic Party is just like the DSCC. Like, why are we,

anyway, whatever we are where we are? Yeah. We are where we are. I mean, I mean, shouldn't we talk

more about jumping terrible? It's fun to talk about it. It's not really fun to talk about it

because everybody gets very mad no matter what your opinion is about it. It's a lot of high

emotions about a state that almost nobody lives in or has been to. The commenters are very

passionate about it. There are people who I greatly respect who are, who are in Maine who are like,

this is the candidate, Green Platter, and like, like, maybe they're right. Sadly, it's a very

important race. And that is, I guess, why I was so dementia. That's the thing. We wouldn't even

talk about this. If this was a primary in Florida or whatever, like, who cares? They're probably

not going to need to try and win the race. But like, they're going to have to win. So figuring

out who's strong. They do have to win. But just also, you know, like in 2020, that was a very tough

race. She won by it. Collins won by 10 points against a very well-funded opponent. So this is

like important to think about every aspect of that race. We're way over. But I have a final thing

I want to leave you with. Not about Green Platter. There was an investigation. The administration

keeps looking into new people. They're trying to jail people. They've wanted to jail Obama.

They wanted to jail Tim Walls and Jacob Fry. They wanted to jail Jim Comey. They wanted to

jail Tish James. They wanted to jail the sandwich guy. They're struggling to jail. They're political

foes. Another person, people thing that they wanted to jail was Joe Biden and the auto pen and

anyone who worked alongside the auto pen. Yeah. And that investigation seems to be fizzling.

And I'm just wondering if you can talk about this. If you're concerned at all, if you're

concerned having been in the administration, do you think that are you shaking in your boots,

thinking about Pam Bondy and judge box of wine coming for potentially you and other auto pen

related staffers? Yeah. So I should say to everyone, I was Staff Secretary and I oversaw the auto

pen. And the most important aspect of this, which I told the House Oversight Committee that

asked me about it last summer is every time I authorize the use of the auto pen and any kind

of decision I had a memo signed off by the president for that. Now my suspicion since the only

president I'm familiar with who has denied he knew anything about a decision that an auto pen

was just used for was Donald Trump himself last spring. There was a tariff action that was taken

and it was taken at like Friday at five auto pen when used I assume it was an auto pen and not a

signature would be more worrying if it was his actual signature and he couldn't remember he did it

like and he said he didn't know anything. Didn't he also do this with the pardon with the pardon of

the crypto? Yeah. Yeah. So he did do that. There was an actual auto pen used for this or a

signature for this. And so my suspicion is that that occurred to the people at the actual

precipitators that the only person that we know in America has had auto pen used without their

awareness as president was Donald J. Trump. So I have not been quaking in my boots because I would

feel perfectly happy to make that case to anyone in America. And there's no aspect of what I did

as staff secretary or anything in which I acted it anyway without the president's full knowledge.

And we actually talked to the president about things we do and stuff like that. So I never,

you know, I feel I've never quaked in my boots on this. So you think that you and the pen will

continue to walk free. Yeah. I mean, it's funny. I feel like I feel like it's almost good

honestly because there's all these crazy wacky conspiracy theories. And I kind of think honestly

it's actually better when they're DOJ. Now I'm going to like induce them to prosecute me.

But like when they're DOJ is like we can't find evidence, you know, like that. It's like it's

a pretty good for the likes of Scott Jennings. And you're a tainted free woman. They can't get you

baby. They can't get you. They're struggling on their effort for political revenge. I appreciate

you very much. Thanks for being on the show. That was a blast. That was a blast. We're going to take

people out. We had a little vote in our internal production team whether or not to do this. And

we're going to take people out with just a little bit of my favorite line from Corey Lewandowski,

no longer a member of the administration. We'll see everybody on Monday. Bye. Hey, this message is

from Mickey. Mickey, your daddy Papa Dickie reached out to me and told me that you're toilet training.

You must be a very special little boy. But I hear that you're starting to use the big boy toilet.

So congratulations. And you're doing a great job with your poopies. Congratulations. I know your

mom is going to be so happy for you. And I want to thank you in advance for being a Donald Trump

supporter when you get older. All the best from your daddy Papa Dickie. The board podcast is

produced by Katie Cooper with audio engineering and editing by Jason Brough. Jason Brough.