TACO Tuesday in Tehran

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1:01you can install it pretty quickly. The app is really reliable and great. The customer support was really reliable and great and it's peace of mind. You know what, you think you have too much of that? No. These days? No, that's why you can never get too many pieces of mind. Right now, our listeners can get 50% off their new simply safe system at simplysafe.com slash crooked. That's simplysafe.com slash crooked. There's no safe like simply safe. Hey, love it or leave it listeners. It's me, the titular john love it. Here to tell you that I'm coming back to Washington DC for love it or leave it live at the Lincoln theater on April 23rd. That's right. Spring in DC is all about cherry blossoms and love it or leave it bringing you a stack lineup of guests. That's what makes it America's number one late-night gay live comedy political podcast. We're so excited to be back in DC. It's a tradition now that we come around the time of the car response and or even though the car response center really no longer has comedians. Probably there's going to be some kind of a magician or a mind, mind-meldor. Yes, a magician. Yeah, I'm a mentalist. A mentalist, because I guess Trump would enter. Trump's also going. Yeah, yeah, that's in there. Yeah, there's a mental case and then

2:05Trump is also going. That's what it is. Tickets won't last long. They're so I'm pretty fast. So get yours now while you still can at crooked.com slash events. Very excited for the DC show. Got some big guests. Pretty exciting, maybe. Crooked.com slash events. Welcome to Paz de America. I'm John Favre. I'm John Love it. I'm Tommy DeTore. On today's show, we got Trump seemingly making up stories about negotiating with Iran to calm the stock market after he threatened to blow up their power plants. ICE agents being deployed to airports because Trump refuses to fund TSA unless Congress passes a law making it harder for people to vote. Democrats fantasizing about a sumerless future and hotter candidates. And the president celebrating the death

3:08of Bob Mueller. Then Love It Talks to Strict scrutiny's Leah Lippman about the Supreme Court's latest assault on mail-in voting and lots more. But first, some exciting news guys. Thanks to all of you listeners. We are, as of this recording, just 484 subscribers away from having 50,000 friend of the pod subscribers. So if you're having it subscribed, please consider doing so, not just to help us hit 50,000, but so that you don't miss out on all the crooked content we're putting out for subscribers only. Friend of the pod subscribers get our new extra episode of Paz de America called Paz de America. Only friends. Other subscriber only shows like Polar Coaster with Dan Pfeiffer. Access to all of our excellent sub-stack newsletters like Paz de America Open Tabs. Add free episodes of all your favorite crooked pods. And you get to feel good about supporting one of the few independent pro-democracy media outlets left in Trump's America. And you're saying that Tommy at 50,000 you'll show feet? That's right. I do have a wiki feet. I could add to it.

4:09Add to? Okay. Tommy will show feet. I wouldn't say they're my best feature. I was going to say we'll give the 50,000 subscriber Trump's phone number. Oh, you should go get my phone. Well, we'll call him. Yeah, yeah. Ask him about his tweet. Let's check in. Oh, that's a good one. Or should we ask him if he thinks the new IOTO is hot? Oh, yeah. This is probably like he's getting to the witching hours, you know. He's sundown. Probably calling like during his favorite show. Oh, yeah. Is this Hannity? Is Hannity's the eight, right? Yeah, maybe this is the same girl. He likes the little he hates Newsmax. Please leave your name and number. I got a little excited for a second. I get a little nervous. Me too. I get a little nervous. I know that I feel comfortable that Tommy has a plan, but I do. I mean, I have to do the Tom B. Turner recorded line. I was going to tell him how positive America were bigger than

5:09men's Shapiro. And then I wanted to ask him if the new Supreme leader is Robin Williams from the birdcage gay or Nathan Lane from the birdcage gay. Oh, wow. Or Scott Bezos gay or Lindsey Graham gay. He's more Lindsey Graham gay of anything. If Lindsey Graham is gay, which we can't know for sure. We can't know for sure, but we can ask Trump. Maybe a Trump. We can ask Trump. All right, let's get to the news. Roughly 36 hours after Trump threatened to obliterate Iran's power plants unless they reopen the state of Hormuz, which caused oil prices to soar is around threatened to retaliate by destroying energy, water and communications infrastructure across the Middle East. The president backed down just in time from markets to open, claiming that negotiations to end the war are underway, which Iran said isn't true at all. Here's Trump talking to reporters about this Monday morning. Tomorrow, morning sometime, there time, we were expected to blow up their largest electric generating plants that cost over $10 billion to build. One shot, it's gone.

6:12It collapses. Why would they want that? So they called, I didn't call, they called, they want to make a deal. We're doing a five day period. We'll see how that goes. And if it goes well, we're going to end up with settling this. Otherwise, we'll just keep bombing our little hearts out. You said there's many points of agreement with Iran right now. What can you give us up? Like 15 points. 15 points. Well, they're not going to have a nuclear weapon. That's number one. That's number one, two and three. They will never have a nuclear weapon. They've agreed to that. Hormuz is going to be in control of Iran. That would be opened very soon if this works. How soon? And who's in control of it? Well, Iran still will be able to control the flow. Be jointly controlled. Maybe me. Maybe me. Me and the Ayatollah, whoever the Ayatollah is, whoever the next Ayatollah. Me and Ayatollah, TBD. The calling it the Tehran, Takao, guys. Are they calling in that? No, no, I hope not. I bet they are. Yes, somewhat, somewhere.

7:17I realize the simplest answer here is nobody knows because the president has undiagnosed mental disorders. What do you guys think is going on here? How did we get from Trump threatening an escalation that would likely constitute a war crime just on Saturday night to a seemingly fabricated story about a possible deal to end the war? Tommy? Yeah, we went from zero enrichment, regime change to joint custody of the straight-armus. Is that where we're at? Maybe Marco. That's in Marco's job. Maybe Rubio will be the chairman of the straight-armus. He's the bridge. He's the he's the troll that sits at the straight-of-war moves. That's a good petex at the time. He does like a kind of a rhyme scheme, speaking stuff. In between, the price of oil exploded, the stock market fell way off its highs. And I think Trump woke up Monday morning. He saw the Asian and European markets in, you know, way down. S&P futures were way down and decided to send up the old Takao, that signal. And it's predictable, right? I mean, we know Trump cares about two things. It's

8:17TV coverage and bad moves in the stock market. And the only criticism he probably gets in personally is from billionaires and CEOs and bankers who can afford to go to his country clubs who will see him and be like, I'm worth a billion less than I was yesterday, sir. And so I think that's what happens with the move. That's why Bessent was out. Scott Bessent, Treasury Secretary over the weekend. Like that's not normally the guy that would you'd have talking about air strikes on IRGC targets, right? It's only about market manipulation. And so this will get him through the short term, longer term. I don't believe a word he said in that clip. Like, the Iranians know they have leverage. They're going to use it because they don't want to wake up in six months with the Israelis once again bombing them, bombing going for regime change, trying to kill off their leaders. Iran has denied that there have been substantive talks. And I've also seen a list of demands from Iran that could include simultaneous ceasefire in Iran, Lebanon, and Iraq. Iran continuing its missile program. Iran codifying its rights in nuclear enrichment. Iran getting payments for damages in the war. Reparations. Reparations. And then some

9:18sort of de facto recognition of their control of the strait, which Trump kind of preemptively grants there. So I don't know, man, JD Vance, maybe he's going to lead these talks. I think that'd be a good thing. Like we should get Steve Wyckoff and Jared Kushner away from these talks because they're morons. But also the US Marine contingent gets there on Friday. So yeah, I see about that. I have a question because I read some reports that they're all headed to Islamabad in Pakistan for talks. And JD Wyckoff and Kushner are going to meet the I guess the speaker of the Iranian parliament's there. I saw Pakistan, the official, I said this to Reuters too. But like question about this. If you're the speaker of parliament in Iran and you're probably next on the Israeli's list for targeted assassination, you just pop in your head up now, hopping on a plane and going to Islamabad. Is that is that something that you think the probably safer out of country than in there's moment when Trump was asked who exactly he is negotiating with. It's actually very similar sort of geometrically to when he was asked which president he was talking to

10:21and then didn't want to say and then they all deny it. So Iran saying these talks aren't happening, Trump's saying they are, but he won't say with who. Why? Because he suggests if he says who the US is talking to Israel might kill them, which also gives you a little bit of a concern about what the negotiating posture can be about promising an end to the conflict when you can't promise that your chief allies won't step in and escalate when you choose not to. But this is kind of joking, but also they have killed a bunch of top Iranian officials now, assassinated them. Every time the Iranians have negotiated, we have bombed them or attacked during the negotiations. If you're the Iranians, why do you try to go negotiate it all at this point? They were complying with the JCPOA, the Iran nuclear agreement, when Trump pulled out of it in 2018. Then the US and Iran were negotiating when the Israelis started the 12-day war and then we were negotiating again. Apparently, the last round of talks before the most recent war was the most productive yet, then we bombed them. And then Trump and the press has bragged about how we use talks as substitute to trick the

11:24Iranians, right? So now the Iranians are dumb. They know there's 7,500 plus Marines heading to the Middle East right now. The Israelis have killed a lot of people who have been our interlocutors in talks. They can kill the speaker of parliament. The power structure in Iran is the IRGC. It's the military. So that's who's going to be calling the shots here. I don't know. Trump could be like, oh, I have a secret source. I don't buy it. I saw that a bunch of Trump officials just told political to. They're doing the Delce Rodriguez thing again with the speaker of parliament. They're like, this is what he's looking for. And one official said that the speaker of the Iranian parliament, he's a hot option right now. That's the quote. He's a hot option. What does that mean? People are talking about him a lot. They think they think he's someone that they can deal with. He's a hot option, but they got to test him out. They got to test him out first. That's what they said. Is he hot? Do we look? We're not at that part of the show yet. Don't skip ahead to our hot candidate section. Hot Iranians. Hot Iranians section. Yeah. The administration has gotten

12:27several Iranian generals up to like 3,000 or 4,000 degrees. So there's that. I do think that the trouble for Trump here is that taco speak aside. He doesn't just get to cancel the war. He canceled some of his tariffs. The Iranians and the Israelis kind of can do whatever they want and keep this thing going in a way that really wreaks havoc on the global economy and our own for as long as they want. Yes. Look, what an extraordinary couple of weeks this has been. First, a war launched without Congress, without clear goals. Goals that evolved over the basically over the course of that weekend. They didn't really land on. If there's one set of goals that kind of landed on repeatedly, it's the Rubio version, which is no nuclear capabilities to destroy the Navy, etc. But they had talked about regime change. They're the regime's inability to project power. Then they closed the straight of Hormuz at which point Trump began begging our allies to join the fight after the fight had already begun.

13:31And they said, no, thank you. We'll continue to not be part of this war we weren't consulted on and want nothing to do with, especially after even bullying us for a year. And then Trump said, actually, we don't need you because it's going so well. And then he saw the markets tank and is now trying to end it this way. And yeah, he's not in control of events and he wants to be in control of events. But really, there's no, I saw a piece of analysis about this, which is it's actually ironically a place where there's not much nuance either the straight of Hormuz is open or it's not. If it's not, you have a huge set of knock on consequences that Trump is not able to solve, he has to get it open. Iran has a saying whether or not it's open. And that's what puts him in this position. And you can kill a bunch of leaders over and over. And you could create opportunities for promotion, but it doesn't deal with the underlying problem. Yeah, like I want this a war over today. And if not today tomorrow, I think that's the best outcome, the sooner the better. But we should be clear, if the war ends today, it is a failure. We lost like the 900 pounds of

14:31highly enriched uranium still sitting in Iran. The regime is still in place. In fact, their position is hardened because we replaced an 86-year-old named Hamine with a 50-something-year-old named Hamine, who is apparently much more angry at us because Trump killed his dad, his wife, his kid, and some others. And by the way, 86-year-olds tend to die on their own accord and create power vacuums that are not made by the United States. He was going to regime change himself, and then maybe the protesters who were out in the streets in December and January could have helped exercise a better option. And then Iran has now fully realized its economic leverage through the Strait of Hormuz. And it sounds like they intend to continue to exercise that leverage. Why wouldn't they? Why not? Trump was also asked about his decision to lift sanctions on 140 million barrels of Iranian oil that's already sitting at sea, which could be worth about $14 billion to the Iranians. The move was intended to ease what has now become a global crisis that the head of the International Energy Agency said is worse than the 1973 and 1979 oil shocks combined. U.S. and Israeli officials have also started forecasting a battle for Hormuz

15:35that will likely involve the 2,500 Marines headed towards the Middle East right now, though there doesn't seem to be much clarity on what that would entail, at least based on what various officials are saying in public. Here's soybean farmer Scott Bessent and a horny warmonger Lindsey Graham on the Sunday shows. Is the president in the process of winding down this war again they're not mutually exclusive. Sometimes you have to escalate to de-escalate the sanctions were in place to prevent Iran from getting any of the money they will have access to some of that again Kristen you're missing the point. In essence we are jujitsuing the Iranians we're using their own jujitsuing against them. Here's why I tell president Trump keep it up for a few more weeks. Take car golem. We did Ayojima. We can do this. They're really sending their best. I guess we're funding both sides of this war now. 14 billion dollars for the Iranians. I don't totally understand how this brings in the the art of jujitsu and who's doing jujitsu.

16:37I don't even understand what the is it that? Or even the type of speech that he was referring to. Was it of he was jujitsuing them with the Iran? With their own oil. I guess it's that the idea being that if you if you remove the sanctions you lower the price of oil and therefore lower the amount of money Iran gets but the Iran was currently getting zero dollars. So I think 14 billion is I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm not you know treasury sector right but 14 billion is more than zero dollars. Yeah and what the the pallets of cash that Obama gave Iran in the nuclear deal that was what 1.5 billion altogether and it was just their own assets on frozen. Yeah the pallets of cash was 400 million was part of the bigger settlement. The data back to the total budget. Yeah the data back to the 1970s was the Carter administration there was an arms deal with the Shah of Iran that obviously ended when the Iranian revolution happened and then it wound its way through these various courts and we had to pay them back and that's how I ended up doing it and that became like the biggest deal ever Donald Trump talks about to it's day but yeah that um that pissy cadaver they put out

17:38to fucking on the Sunday shows. Scott doesn't he had a tough tough interview. Yeah because he's suggesting that giving around 14 billion that they can use to fund a war against us or new nuclear infrastructure or more weapons for Hezbollah or the Houthis is jujitsu which I would disagree with he gets very angry at Kristen Welker for suggesting we should talk about how to pay for the war as they're primed to request 200 billion dollars in funding. So like everything about his interview there he was fucking terrible. That just seems like a lot of money. They were also I don't know if you saw that when they were talking about like the Iranians want reparations as part of any negotiation to and the war Trump official was like well obviously we're not going to give them reparations but maybe we can just like unfree some of their assets and it just depends on what we call it I'm like oh so you might you might unfree some of their assets and then and then say that that oh interesting for a nuclear deal. Nuclear deal. But it's different when Trump does it. It's Trump's given them even more money. I don't know who is receiving less genuine feedback more

18:42Donald Trump or Lindsey Graham at this point. He's out there frothing at the mouth comparing Carg Island to fucking Iwo Jima. Seven thousand Americans at Iwo Jima 20,000 wounded. Oh I are you saying what your goal is to have one of the great battles of fucking world war two in the Middle East right now like that's your goal. That's what you think we should be that's the that's the good analogy here. Yeah we've got to give them we first we got to give them the let them sell the royals so they can make 14 billion dollars so they can fortify their defenses on Carg Island against the invasion that we're about to launch for what for oil for more oil to sell I guess. I'm still I think so then we can sanction it again I don't know who knows. I'm still you know I still want to take the over on corruption being the way out of this thing got wickoff and Kushner they can make some kind of a deal suddenly the straighter hormones is open and everybody's making money and that's that that to me is and that that all of the escalation talk is a threat towards some kind of a deal it's not impossible to imagine we live in that world.

19:45Suddenly you can play 18 holes on Carg Island. Yeah it's beautiful. And what's it? January the straighter hormones is beautiful it actually is go look at pictures go look go look a picture straighter. This is a beautiful mountain. Did you read the straighter hormones in Mark reporting over that we never going to want to come back. Oh yeah and by the way two weeks ago Megan Kelly was saying Lindsey Graham is a homicidal maniac with a bloodlust that is insatiable that's before that interview. It doesn't seem like it's been satiated at all. Not satiated. Shout out to representation though look at this administration Scott Besson out there Lindsey Graham out there huh. Yeah. Marsha P Johnson through that brick and here we are all years later. It's a beautiful thing. Why do you think why do this brings up a good question? Why do they only have Besson to get like you said the treasury secretaries out there on the Sunday shows they got Graham out there. Hegg Seth doing his briefings they're all selling the war like you know is the White House really sending their best where's where's Marco where's JD?

20:45No I mean I do think that Besson is out there purely to talk to the markets because they were freaking out and it's just like his lack of answers is just the sign of how poorly they play on like I read over the weekend that the strategic petroleum reserve was only 60% full at the start of the war like they clearly all thought this was going to be quick and over by now. But I heard from somebody over the weekend that Trump is basically the only one who likes Pete Hegg Seth anymore and everyone else thinks he's a clown and an idiot and that he sucks on TV and that he's doing badly at the job so they're like happy to throw him to the wolves. That's awesome. And have him just kind of own this policy and it's not like Trump's kind of there too right you heard him Monday of the policy was like Pete you're the one who told me to do this war. Pete I think you were the first one to speak up and you said let's do it. That's right. Pete was sitting next to him in Tennessee today at an event. I have to say there was that's actually to me the most revealing and chilling thing I've learned in quite some time about the way this decision was made because so they're the first person to chime in to say we should do this is Pete Hegg Seth and we were off to the races from there. Yeah well I mean if you're counting like US officials I'm sure

21:48it would be I think we got BB well probably inside the administration is Hegg Seth and then you got Lindsey Graham and then you got Netanyahu I mean I think those are the big war mongers. I think over the course of the first four years and then the first you know 100 days of the Trump administration 2.0 a lot of people try to talk Trump into going to war with Iran and he waived them off where he got waived off it and then he saw the Midnight Hammer operation and then he saw Venezuela and it was like we're invincible we can do anything in here we are and so like you know I've watched all these Hegg Seth briefings like he's he's actively harmful right he's like the reading war crime limericks and then poor Dan Cain the chairman of the joint chiefs is like let me like try to be a fucking adult here Admiral Cooper from the Sencom is pretty good but Rubio advance are in like witness protection like like remember Marco Rubio after Venezuela he did meet the press he was doing press conferences he was everywhere I have you guys seen him on TV he popped up to say he popped up to say Israel made us do it yeah and then we haven't heard from him since and then JD Vance just sort of runs around trying to talk about anything else and then when anyone asked him about the war he was like I'd go to jail if I told you about the classified

22:53info the advice that I gave the president about this war there is one more person I saw reported over the weekend that convinced Trump this was a good idea Rupert Murdoch Bloomberg report tracks what we got yeah it totally tracks that you've got Netanyahu Murdoch Lindsey Graham and Pete Hegg Seth that's that seems like the right crew for this speaking of Vance and Rubio this is sort of a non sequitur but I just thought you guys would like this do you see the St. Ancelum pole from New Hampshire that just came out they started doing 28 primaries on the Republican side so they did their last one in October since then Vance is at 46 but he's down 11 from October faves I don't know that this is the horse race on the Republican side 46 46% he's down 11 because you know who is at 27 marker Rubio up 18 points that makes me happy and then DeSantis is at five fight it out for DeSantis down to from the archival pole and everyone else is in single digit so but that is interesting that the Vance and Rubio the have switched a little bit Trump also said on Monday he still wants Congress to send him another 200 billion dollars of our tax dollars

23:55to fund this war we've talked about why this should be an easy no vote for Democrats now it seems like some Republicans are also a blocking at the price tag Senator John Kennedy says he won't vote for any amount of funding until Congress holds hearings on the war Tom Tillis said that a 200 billion dollar request would need to pass the Senate with 60 votes and over in the House Lauren Bobert said last week she's already a no on any additional war funding so Trump and you know various pundits keep saying that Republican voters are fully behind this war you think these Republicans and Congress are finally reading some of the same polling we are I just I was struck by the Bobert statement because she said I will not vote for a war supplemental no I am a no I have already told leadership I am a no on any war supplemental I am so tired of spending money elsewhere I'm tired of industrial war complex getting all of our hard on tax dollars and I was like seeing that I was like wow that is better than a lot of Democrats have been able to come out with and say

24:56clearly that there are no on any self men as all these Democrats seem to be playing a hand at her got it but all these Democrats that are talking themselves into believing that this is a nuanced situation or it's complicated or if that you're not supporting the troops Lauren Bobert managed to find her way to a statement that I agree with I'm wondering why it's so hard for some of these other Democrats to do the same but I didn't mean to take your question about Republicans and turn it to it sounded like authentic yeah emotional in real it was a good answer I mean what will we just drop it in right here I will not vote for a war supplemental no I am a no I've already told leadership I am a no on any war supplemental I am so tired of spending money elsewhere I am tired of the industrial war complex getting all of our hard on tax dollars I have folks in Colorado who can't afford to live we need America first policies right now and that I'm not doing that but yeah I mean like this funding request went from like a rumored possibility to Politico had a leak of 50 billion now it's up to 200 billion and I was very worried

25:56from the very beginning the Democrats of you this or that kind of like a rock war lens about supporting the troops and you're a Jake Tapper literally say that won't to Chris Murphy won't to be accused of not supporting the troops but now we got into the point where I think the war's going so badly the number is so high that I think this is a political opportunity for Democrats and that we should not only loudly oppose it but we shouldn't make it a big thing because voters do not want to spend 200 billion to drop bombs on Iran there was some recent polling about funding 56% of voters oppose more funding for the war 41% strongly opposed for only 15% who strongly support 61% of independence opposed more funding and then CBS and their poll like 60% disapprove of the Iran war 67% of Americans say we should not be willing to pay more for gas during the Iran war so like people will not feel in the time for collective sacrifice message also that CBS poll like you know they had recently pulled on March 3rd so just a couple weeks ago war approval was 44 56 then now it's 40 60 also it mirrors Trump's approval and

26:58disapproval now Trump's drop approval and that poll was 40 disapproval of 60 the argument just also released a poll as well that has very similar numbers to the CBS poll and all the other polls but they also did a generic ballot test for the midterm and they have Democrats leading 54 46 and if you do probably definitely vote likely voters 55 45 that's 10 points that would be larger than the vote in 2018 depending on budgets already over a trillion dollar stories recently about at the end of the last fiscal year they were racing to spend what money they had because there was more than they knew what to do I think including buying grand pianos and Herman Miller chairs for people they also have Sean Duffy out there we're going to talk about what's happening at security at their reports you had a collision at LaGuardia of FAA problems all across the country got Sean Duffy walking around begging for another 20 billion to pick the FAA to modernize air traffic control recruiting of air traffic controllers can't get that money through Congress but Trump's going to get $200 billion to pay for his war basically to legalize

28:00and authorize it after the fact of what are we doing here yeah there already I was thinking they would do this last week and I think best and started it over the weekend and then Trump today was talking about it too which is like oh what's you know we need the 200 billion to sort of backfill for for all the munitions that we've already used and for future threats and we always need the money for our defense and they're going to try to decouple this $200 billion war funding requests from the war that they're asking yeah I did it that that this several weeks requires a basically upping the Pentagon budget by 20% sell outrageous sell outrageous yeah and the thing you mentioned a minute ago that the administration will try to argue that this funding request vote is de facto congressional authorization of the war and everyone should just know that that is how your vote will be viewed by history you will be like all these Democrats after 2004 2003 trying to explain how oh actually we just voted to authorize George

29:00W. Bush to go to the UN to put more pressure on the Iraq you know you will be seen as voting for the war and for the funding fucking vote against it I will say hearing Lauren Bober to say that knowing that there are other Republicans who are going to be knows on this like I now feel more confident that Democrats are going to vote the right way even if some of them at the very beginning of this process were thinking of maybe supporting it like I don't know I mean explaining your vote is tough enough for it's like a 200 billion dollar war funding request for a war that's not going well that no one asked for but like supporting that when Lauren Bobert voted no and a couple other Republicans like you know I just don't see it I hope so positive America is brought to by article article makes it effortless to build a home that lasts without the boutique markup they're curated collections of mid-century coastal and scandy furniture are designed to mix and match perfectly so you can create a cohesive designer look that will stand the test of time no filler no compromises just quality craftsmanship stylish

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31:04in the discount will be automatically applied to check out that's article dot com slash cricket per fifty dollars off your first purchase of one hundred dollars or more this podcast is sponsored by squarespace squarespace is the all-in-one website platform designed to elevate your online presence and drive your success squarespace provides all the tools you need to promote and get paid for your services in one platform whether you offer consultations events or other experiences squarespace get help you grow your business create a professional website to showcase your offerings and attract clients no matter where you start your website is flexible to what you need with intuitive drag and drop editing beautiful styling options unrivaled visual design effects and more ways to list what you offer no experience required squarespace domains make it easy to find the best name for your business at one fair all-inclusive price no hidden fees or add-ons required every squarespace domain comes with advanced privacy and security tools included to ensure your domain remains online and protected with squarespace email campaigns all the tools you need to engage clients promote your services and grow your business or built-in set up email automations to say connected nurture

32:04leads kind of nurture those leads is a nature nurture with leads they they won't they wonder it's nurture with the leads head to squarespace.com for a free trial when you're ready to launch go to squarespace.com slash crooked to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain that's squarespace.com slash crooked if you're traveling in America anytime soon here are a few fun developments you should probably be aware of one flights are much more expensive because the war and around has spiked fuel prices to obscene levels so you're you're your tickets going to cost a lot more. Number two you might end up waiting in the airport security line for more than four hours because Trump is now refusing to pay TSA agents unless congress passes a bill that would require showing a passport or birth certificate to register to vote and three while waiting in that security line you may see armed ice agents in full tactical gear milling about the airport looking for something to do or someone to arrest this last stroke of genius came from the president himself who couldn't stop bragging about it to reporters on Monday mine that was mine

33:10I was like the paperclip you know the story of the paperclip 182 years ago a man discovered the paperclip it was so sick and everybody that looked at it say why didn't I think of that ice was my idea they're able to now arrest illegals as they come into the country that's that's very fertile territory now you know I'm a big believer that they should be able to wear masks when they go and hunt down you know murderous criminals and others but for purposes of the airport I've requested that they take off the mask I don't like it for the airport the mask not at the airport but they need to do it when they're out in the country the people coming into the airport typically speaking aren't murderous killers drug dealers etc they made me a few of that but but they are coming in illegally because that is that is the the easiest way for people to come in illegally to the country is to just book a plane ticket show up at the airport what he is and his brain in there is some sort of a fact about how this one Christmas border policy is that a

34:12lot of people who come in through the country are legal are people who overstay their visas after coming through flying it legally right right yeah you have to stay a while skipping the overstaying for sure no I'm not I'm not saying it's a smart point that he's making so backstory here is that Democrats have been trying to fully fund TSA and all non-immigration parts of DHS for a week now over a week now Senate Republicans initially said no they were blocking these bills but then over the weekend John Thune reportedly called Trump and said you know Republicans are ready to join Democrats in like funding everything except for ICE and then Thune said maybe that just Republicans would try to fund ICE with like a party line reconciliation vote or something you know let's end this crisis the airport lines are getting long whatever Trump says no to John Thune he says that he will keep TSA and all of DHS closed unless Democrats passed the save act and that he's deploying ICE agents to the airports this seems like

35:13both a terrible idea and terrible politics what do you guys think did you guys hear the the back CNN report on the back story of the ICE agents thing apparently it was it was literally a random woman a radio caller named Linda from Arizona pushed the idea to Clay Travis on his radio show Friday then Clay went on Fox News to talk about it Trump must have seen that because he then announced his plan the next day so that's inventing the paper clip and now and now we have ICE agents just milling about the airport the lot the lines today are still just as long as they were why because they're not trained to be TSA agents and so they're just walking there's you see these AP photos of them just like sitting there looking with like nothing to do yeah they're just there preventing the floor some flying up and hitting the ceilings that the this is sort of like we're at this place where oh no no don't do that it's too stupid that's too stupid of a thing to think would help you they are not trained they're not going to be able to do anything at the airport they don't know how to use the machines they're not they haven't taken the training to scan what's

36:14in the documents they don't even know how to read them do the idea machine those machines seem complicated to me they probably learn something for a while they're just going to end up standing there so we shouldn't do that that's too stupid but nobody is going to tell this guy know no it's like oh great idea sir great idea mr president there on their way you say it's Sunday we'll have them out we'll have them out there at at the airports by Monday doing what it doesn't matter it's what you wanted and it's an image of the ICE agents there and that's cool you're doing something it's to own it's to own the lips basically Trump said Trump said it drives Democrats crazy that's what Jim Comer said probably in the house on the Sunday shows too this is like a line that we're hearing now that it's we're that it's driving the Democrats crazy having the ICE agents there it's like rather than being airports than like terrorizing communities it's like it's not going to be no harm but like it yeah no it's so it's like let's get them doing all kinds of tasks unrelated to their duties so whatever you want I know so so Democrats have been demanding to take ICE agents off the streets and to take their masks off that's what you did we're getting Starbucks at LaGuardia now like okay do it don't not run for the TSA guys like I look great like stand there fucking what are

37:18we doing here the the other like we're in this like purely symbolic fight too because we're like what was before Trump added on top of it and we got to do say back and the trans people can't do sports if I'm not going to reopen the government what was happening utilization right mute what was actually happening the the DHS was shut down right but the reason Trump can deploy ICE is because ICE has this other pool of funding a 75 to 80 billion dollar pool of funding that they're just gonna run off of right so this is a symbolic effort to say we're not sending any more money to ICE that's why the government shutting down then the negotiations are we'll open everything up but ICE right even that will have no impact actually on ICE Democrats came out in favor of that Republicans fear that Trump doesn't want to do that he wants to add all these things on top of it ironically right like any resolution that would have a positive impact on what ICE is able to do or not to would be the result of even more concessions on both sides over a negotiation of actually funding ICE the only way to actually limit what ICE will do in the next few years is through a negotiation that's not about not funding ICE that's actually about getting to funding ICE but

38:20just so far from where we're at right now because we're having this sort of purely symbolic conversation about ICE in the airports and whether or not we'll let TSA agents get paid well now it's just I mean now Trump has just decided to own the whole thing yeah just decided to torpedo any chance of blaming anything on Democrats because he's like you know John Thune Ted Cruz was out there saying he would just fund TSA like I love to travel exactly Ted Cruz out there and then and then Trump's like no you got to pass the SAV Act which the Republicans John Thune in response told the reporter it's just not really he's like look we all like the SAV Act because they're also supposed to say that even though some of them probably don't want to pass the SAV Act because again it would probably prevent a lot of Republican voters from registering to vote but but he said it's not realistic to tie the SAV Act to this funding battle and you actually see a couple like I saw one of the Ohio senators say this Ted Cruz is saying it so like I'm actually surprised pleasantly so that some Republicans are like okay this idea from Trump little crazy but I don't

39:22know I don't know if it goes anywhere I just keep thinking back to the political story from January about how Donald Trump's going to travel the country weekly ahead of the midterms touting for a political message now we're like to be waiting whether or not like we're going to co-own the straight-of-form moves with the Iranians and have ice ages in the airport like they're so 500 extra dollars to fly to Cincinnati and you're going to wait for three hours at the airport welcome to the golden age did you guys watch the Tennessee thing today the Tennessee event he did just the beginning it was like a cabinet meeting in that like they're all these staffers just kind of doing their ritualistic dick sucking and like they at one point I forget who was it was um it was Stephen Miller like really went to town and Trump was like wow I don't know if you can top that cash and then cash would tell us up and he did his little you know glazing session it was it's just terrible Trump Trump said that the Trump also said that the the Senate should

40:23kill the filibuster to pass the save act they should cancel their Easter recess if necessary because this one's for Jesus to pass the save have you heard the good news this one's for Jesus has to save act this filibuster he actually saved this one's for Jesus yeah he said do it for Jesus do it for Jesus mm-hmm Jesus would want you to present your passport or birth certificate to your local election office in order to register to vote by these midterms um which is again is something that would probably disenfranchise not just democratic voters but plenty of Republican voters which is probably why most Republicans in Congress don't really care that much about passing it so that's where we are I don't know how I don't I don't just gonna have to back down in this one because there's gonna be pressure at the airports there's gonna the lines are gonna be crazy he doesn't have this yeah I think he cares I like he'll find a way to like look like IRGC guys are doing TSA security work yeah look I was talking to the IRTola they got some great ideas for what we can do to get these airports running more smoothly like Jesus some security guys

41:24take it on us I'm fucking believable uh well ready revolutionary guy and honestly I think we'd all make sure there's no liquids in our back back yes yeah I wouldn't do it they said it would not I am the welcome message goes from Christy Nome at the airports to the new the speaker of the Iranian parliament yeah hot option uh funded or not speaking of DHS appears that they're gonna have a new secretary in play shortly uh Rand Paul's the only Republican voting against Mark Wayne Mullin and two Democrats are voting for him we talked about John Federman voting yes and as of Sunday Martin Heinrich of New Mexico uh said he's voting yes he said Mullin is a friend and will stand up to bullying by Stephen Miller Heinrich also noted that in Mullin's confirmation hearing he quote recognized the necessity of judicial warrants um which also supports reporting from the New York Times over the weekend that before his nomination Mullin had been working behind the scenes uh with uh democratic congressman Josh Gottheimer to hash out a compromise on reopening DHS that included requiring judicial warrants

42:25in most cases wondering what you guys make of of Mullin's relatively easy path to confirmation um not just the yes votes from Federman and and Heinrich but just not a lot of intense opposition from the Democrats seems to be based partly on a belief that DHS will be slightly less chaotic and more humane under Mullin's leadership than it was under Nome and Lewandowski what do you guys think yeah the Heinrich statement has a real kind of bros before host energy to it the uh so you gotta assume right Mullin's getting through with Republican votes because uh Rand Paul was the only know he's about mattered on the committee Federman helped him get out of the committee but he would have had the votes to get through so I suppose the argue would be giving him a yes creates a relationship in which you have kind of a more a better opportunity to put pressure on having to have real conversations with someone you worked with closely but that also I think works so well with Rubio I was about to say it depends on um sort of ignoring what the actual reality is of the Trump administration and what happens once people are in there and the pressure

43:28they're under because whatever relationship you had before they become no matter what they're saying behind the scenes beholden to Stephen Miller and Donald Trump the inability to be publicly critical of them the inability to defy them and all the consequences after that and so you have people that have expressed their regrets about voting for home and you have people that have expressed their regrets about voting for Rubio uh yet not learning that lesson uh from their colleagues when they decide they're going to vote for this guy so uh uh I think it's I think you not holding a line against these people is it's always something people regret yeah the the consensus is that Christina was a disaster and I think there's kind of been anybody but her vibe even with Republicans um also senators tend to kind of coast through in these settings so we'll see I mean I do think it's part policy part personal like that he does Mark Wayne Mollett does sound like he was genuinely willing to be more moderate than the Trump administration on judicial warrants um and also it sounds like he has some genuinely good relationships which is surprising because he did try to beat up yeah from the teamsters at a hearing one time but now that guy from the teamsters is sitting

44:29behind him at his confirmation hearing because they're boys also you knew also they're Josh Godhammer yeah uh the Democrat from New Jersey um and so uh like the tea like this sounds ridiculous but he runs a popular workout group um for he does for members of congress and senators yeah uh he's teaching a Pilates I've heard members talk about this and that it's really good exhale through the drug through the drive phase that's a reference that's uh that's just don't even worry about it uh and just for the three of us I literally know it's for us that's right um uh it's so I just there's some personal politics here he's he's you're right though he's gonna be a disaster yeah he's gonna be a disaster but he's spotted them he's helped them really kind of crush their lats yeah and their delts by stress it's not even like you're like it's not even a personality thing why he could be like when he's a DHS there's one way to lose his job and it's by pissing off Stephen Miller Donald Trump yeah and the senators can't hurt him anymore once he's a DHS right now they can they can cost him the nomination right but once he gets there it doesn't really matter so

45:31um but look I think if you wanted to make a the the the better argument for why you don't put up a fight is you can only fight so many things he has the Republican votes anyway and so like what are you gonna do you gonna do big you know it seemed impossible to to strike down this nomination I do think what you can do the most the more important thing is in these negotiations to reopen DHS and as Mullins getting confirmed you you try to codify the rules about a judicial warrant or all this other stuff which is the the reason that the Democrats tried to use DHS funding as leverage in the first place as as you mentioned and now we've come so far field that we've got ICE agents running around the airports speaking of Lewandowski Dan and I briefly mentioned the NBC story about him openly demanding bribes from a private prison company uh on Saturday the times also published a big investigation into Lewandowski's time at the department that is just full of enraging details on Monday Democrats on the House Oversight Committee launched an investigation into the bribery allegations what do you guys think good use of time and energy if Dems get the House back yes the the shocking like a brazen corruption scheme where people are either

46:36obliquely or directly suggesting that if you want a government contract but Corey Lewandowski has to get his be quit they'll deny it but they have a lot of a lot of sources including sources of the White House that are validating this story I remember as an NBC or in the or in the times but I thought one telling point was people inside the White House or inside the administration considering whether or not to do an investigation or take some kind of action are worried that if they do Trump will publicly come out in defense of Lewandowski this was this was my concern that I expressed down Friday's part crazy you know I I was like let's not maybe let's not talk about it until after Trump leaves office if we're going to go after Lewandowski and we should everyone should just quiet down until he can't pardon him right the pardons loom over over the whole thing and then there's the fact that Lewandowski seems to be getting the presidential daily brief absolutely nuts that blew my mind why not he's basically a volunteer government employee getting the PDB he's not a full-time employee and he's getting the PDB and he's holding meetings in Kristi Nome's office when she's in other realms and doing a lot of things in her office

47:39when she's around I think go after him like whether or not we're able to prosecute this guy I don't know maybe there'll be a state charge we can go after but like put a fucking head on a pike man like do some oversight try to scare some other people out of doing this shit because like we've talked about a lot of newfangled corruption here there's the Emirati's buying your barely existing you know crypto company or like selling some malania shit going to somebody for all the markets the guitar he's giving you a jet the jet didn't didn't get the return on that investment no no they did not they could have used that jet back here it was a jet make sure make sure everything goes our way yeah heads up by the way yeah we'll send up we'll send some caulk over to fix the fucking rosewood guitar we get a fucking refund on that I got some I got some good guys for countertops to fix the fairmont unbelievable the Lewandowski stuff it's such old school corruption like I need to kick back I need to be a special advisor on the contract for this like fuck that you know when trump white house officials are going on background to NBC and

48:43being like this was brazen and crazy we didn't like that for even trump is apparently annoyed with Lewandowski which might maybe he won't give him the part that that's why it's like let's not assume he's going to pardon everybody like maybe he will maybe he won't but like make him do it oh yeah but I don't want I think you're like if he does pardon me pardon him but we got to just pretend we have to live you that's a concession to him before we even begun you got to go into get the documents this episode is sponsored by better help whether you're dealing with anxiety depression conflict in relationships or simply need an impartial third party to help you deal with daily stress better help is there to connect you with the support you need I want my third party's partial that's what I prefer I don't know if I'm just judging me yeah I actually think objective standard I think the ideal therapist is partial that's part of what it is they're they're they're helpful yeah there yeah they're on your side that's what you're paying them for yeah better help therapists work according to a strict code of conduct fully licensed in the US

49:45better help does the initial matching work for you so you can focus on your therapy goals a short question here helps identify your needs preferences and then 12 plus years of experience an industry leading match film and rate means they typically get it right the first time if you aren't happy with your match switch to a different therapist at any time from their tailored wrecks with over 30,000 therapists better help is the world's largest online therapy platform having served over six million people globally and it works with an average rating of 4.9 out of five for a live session based on over 1.7 million client reviews when life feels overwhelming therapy can help sign up and get 10% off at better help dot com slash psa that's better h-e-l-p dot com slash psa hey lover leave the listeners it's me the titular john love it here to tell you that i'm coming back to washington dc for lover leave it live at the link in theater on april 23rd that's right spring in dc is all about cherry blossoms and lover leave it bringing you a stack lineup of guests that's what makes it america's number one late night gay live comedy political podcast we're so excited to be back to dc it's a tradition now that we come around the time of the car response and or

50:46even though car spunison are really no longer has comedians not believe there's going to be some kind of magician or a mind mind melder yes a magician yeah my I'm a mentalist a mentalist uh because i guess trump wouldn't know it's also going yeah yeah yeah that's in there yeah there's a mental case and then and trump is also going yeah tickets won't last long there's someone pretty fast so get yours now while you still can at crooked dot com slash events very excited for the dc show got some big guests pretty exciting maybe quicky dot com slash events on the topic of uh democratic strategy uh wall street journal has a big story about a possible revolt brewing against chuck schumer from within the senate democratic caucus it leads with an anecdote about chris murphy uh musing over a dinner about the number of senators who want new leadership goes on to say that murphy tina smith and Elizabeth Warren a part of a group known as fight club uh who complained about schumer on a signal group chat uh particularly his strategy of

51:49favoring more centrist candidates in the midterm primaries would you guys think of this piece so murphy then says actually that's misremembering what the conversation was in fact what i was simply saying is while there are people that are frustrated schumer has a sport of targets and i support schumer there there's something uh Elizabeth Warren was less so less so for sure she was she was like uh i'm not gonna i'm not gonna say whether i support her not a fan here's what i got to the end of it right and i think like you're other the the the idea that he's supporting more centrist candidates i do think is like a new line of criticism or newer than some of the others but the rest go back to the to the shutdown and his ability to communicate and what i can tell is according to people that have a problem with schumer would a different leader produce different outcomes or would a different leader be a better communicator about the same outcomes and i think that inability to like kind of clearly answer that question is why whatever friction there is or desire for a new leader culminates in just people bitching in a signal group chat yeah i there's like the inside game the outside game right like the inside stuff we don't really see

52:53it's like what how he keeps members on sides and organizes things and deals with the caucus like there are democrats there are senators who we like and respect will call you after this episode properly and say chuck's really good at that stuff the outside stuff like we see the media the candidate recruitment the fundraising um then clearly chuck schumer's not the best messenger i think he would can see that and he's tried to put forward other younger leaders but that kind of meets leads the question well why not just have one of them be the leader right the fundraising is clearly off um i think that the candidate recruitment is a thing that's bothered a lot of people because it feels like he's thumbing the scale in ways and states that is unnecessary if not antagonistic to voters like let those voters in those states decide and it makes you wonder if this is about who can really win in these states or who will endorse chuck schumer as leader in these states if they win um because a lot of the new members are not doing that and so there's also the basic like gerontocracy issues like the guys really old and like he was able to recognize with that

53:55with joe biden chuck schumer famous so you're right drove the delloware told joe biden to drop out age was the reason behind that um but he's not really to look in the mirror there and like i do think you're right though the counter argument is people are really mad about Donald Trump they want someone to blame so you blame the leaders we have but that doesn't necessarily take into account their actual capacity to stop Donald Trump when he has a trifecta could someone do more with the same cards i don't know to me this boils down to one question which is like i do not expect anyone to house chuck schumer between now and november nor do i think i was doing chuck schumer between now november would lead to any kind of appreciable difference in any of the outcomes for democrats i do think and i remember having this conversation with dan on some pod probably many times like if you know if if the democrats don't take back the senate then you almost expect uh democrats to have a new leader right between twenty what six and twenty eight

54:56but he was like dan said oh but if we win if the democrats somehow win the senate then maybe like schumer stays on and begin his majority leader one last time until he potentially retires in twenty eight or something else that i think is worth a serious conversation about even if tenet democrats even if democrats win the senate is chuck schumer really the guy that you want to be leader uh between the midterms and the presidential because like i think that is a perfect time for a new leader and you don't have to and you don't have to go back and you know debate whether you could have had this outcome or that outcome based on the various shutdown things and all that all i have to say is like look we're heading towards twenty eight is the most important thing to elect a democratic president we need our best messengers out there is leaders and chuck schumer is getting up there and do we really need and more two more years let alone six more years of chuck schumer is democratic leader at that point yeah i i think it's like a no brainer we do not want to go into the most important presidential election uh since the last one with right a leader that

56:00represents like we need to be representing change he will not represent change ironically though i think it's senate democratic senate candidates in at least thirteen states have either come out against chuck schumer refuse to endorse schumer the more successful we are in these midterms the more people that will be in the senate that have either explicitly said they will not support them or even under pressure knowing that they want schumer support people like tell rico uh have refused to say they would endorse him now i i think at a certain point you want people that are willing to just say no i'm not going to be for a chuck schumer we need somebody different just because that's the kind of like i don't know want people that are already worrying about how to kind of keep everybody on side but uh at the very least there's a huge problem in success or failure and like i think that the complaints about the recruitment you know goes both ways like i i i think chuck schumer getting Roy Cooper to run in north carolina when maybe he didn't want to at first was like a big win getting married paltola and laska to run great now if he wanted to recruit hailey stevens and michigan and jennett mills and main like that's fine it's not the recruitment necessarily it's the

57:03putting your thumb on the sales which he may not be explicitly but kind of he couldn't certainly for mills he is jennett mills like the like yeah i think actually recruiting jennett mills is great and and a coup for him and credit to him but yeah they they formed a joint fundraiser in committee with the dscc and and hailey stevens is similar like i i think there's a lot of good candidates in that field it is not clear to me that she is the strongest candidate by any means but i'm almost positive that there have been like dscc or party events and fundraisers that have included her or her campaign and you just have to wonder why and i will say that this is not i mean chuck schumer it gets a lot of the blame for this but you know you uh you wait into the the online wars and there's a lot of democratic strategists out there who just us we're just assuming assuming that mills and and stevens are the most electable candidates and the strongest candidates on those races and it's like not even a question to them and i'm like really are you that short it didn't yeah didn't that's my take like everyone's gonna be like oh you guys are you know endorsing grand platter no like we're saying let the voters of main vote let people in michigan vote

58:07that will help us determine who the strongest candidate are is if you can't win the primary you're probably not the strongest candidate have a have just have a just a just a dose of humility after you've worked on several of the presidential campaigns over the last decade that haven't come up a little short is what i would say speaking of giving a democratic leadership a glow up lawry nigan at the bulwark is that with a piece headlined thirst traps over think tanks dems want hotter candidates on the ballot uh she has a bunch of democrats musing to her about how we need more uh lookers i didn't we need we need hotter candidates like john asaf and aoc on the ballot Tommy you recently referred to asaf as a piece of ass on the show uh agree with Lauren i stand by that i said again he's a piece of ass look the man's uh way taller in person than i expected it's got a jawline that you could use as a ruler uh great hair great great great to meaner great hair uh huh look i i like zekko all the way out the legs to go all the way up is the key to winning uh

59:11quote run more hot people like the article says maybe i look counterpoint donald trump i know i know not hot not hot i think we look i think there's a big space between someone between say a hollywood ten and adela were eighty six you know what i'm saying and the the the problem right like uh uh there's like talk about damn like that there's a strange there's a strange like like the way like hotness and ideology like there are like the the the like bernie uh beloved figure right uh i'd say he's look uh you know i don't think he would call artificially hot you know right now where he's at now maybe he's a young man still handsome handsome yeah he's seen some of those pictures he's handsome he's handsome but uh uh pete egzeth would be traditionally considered to be good looking one would say i don't find him particularly he's a hot to me i think it's yeah i think it's like one asset out of many right like you can clearly clearly you can win the presidency without being hot donald trump but i do think because you because he's so fucking charming you know and i think loren say it's

1:00:13in her piece that there's like political science around this that attract him as does help candidates yeah you know who is hot sit on mousain look at google young sit on you could get it uh cast row famously hot yeah yeah you could you could help you guys his son in Canada electives oh yeah or uh now with Katy Perry take the coup but maybe you're a bad leader i there is some truth to this right i mean like how many times if you had friends in your life or just normies would be like oh yeah Gavin Newsom he's the good looking one or whatever many have said about rock obama rock obama clearly benefited from being perceived as young and good looking and cool and that was part of the appeal bill clinton as well um yeah now stuff has clearly has had a glow up no doubt at the last several years it is funny that no one in the story would go on the record saying that aoc is hot there's a sort of a reverse gender thing people are so really she's beautiful yes and i don't know why it's like weird for people to say that it's just a compliment i get i get the people don't want to like objectifier and there's generally there but like she's yeah she's beautiful objective by john asaf and i have no problem what does

1:01:14that i mean right i think it's sort of in the context of our conversation but i think you don't know what the article is and someone's like uh talk about it hey hi i'm a journalist from the bulwark talk about aoc's appearance oh no thank you uh let me know how the piece goes because we can talk about it here because we're giving ourselves the context of saying all the guys are hot until that's clipped all the guys are just look at all these eminently fuckable guys you're on bernie's best ass i did how did you feel sitting across from Josh Shapiro what look i'll just say uh you know i i asked him about this i think there's a lot of uh Jewish mothers uh uh that would love to have their daughters bring home a uh a a guy like Josh handsome knows how to dribble a basketball does he uh up yeah okay do you guys play hoops you know it's obviously a quick game i came up in the book i did not come up in the actual experience okay it would be an interview though uh when i was on the uh fourth grade basketball team i didn't have the arm strength i could get the ball high enough to hit the hoop and get i can

1:02:16obviously pitch you forward but i couldn't get that parabola going right probably because you were thinking you need to get a parabola going and that's our most bad discovery did you see that um jb pritzker uh spoke at the gridiron dinner and he's he's on the shot i got it you hear his joke that he puts the gov in wikovi yeah he puts the gov in wikovi good for him good job for him here's the thing every time i read an article about the gridiron and it's like and then the journalist did something something set to the something from Chicago i'm like how is this a thing that still exists in the world this sketch is part of that event is insane it's crazy a bunch of journalists get together with politicians and they make up skits and songs and they perform them it's like what the fuck is that it's white tie white what is white tie you just means tails i guess right it's it's the most it's a longer coat with tails never it's technically you're supposed to have a different kind of shoe you can't just have a touch you would have to you would have to that's a dinner jacket you would have to drug me to go to that event you know you'd have to you'd have to

1:03:17mature me to go there you just yeah you just you just wake up and in white tails of the taxpayer what's going on that's a mature you get a mature how did i get here guys just down your door and all of a sudden you're a gridiron here put this on yeah watching you're fucking John's hot guy didn't watch lint sweet sing well it worst of all we're that we're a pro lint sweet podcast for sure for sure for sure yes the person who came to mind the gridiron a lot of these traditions began before television yeah and it used to be at night it just got dark in your house and maybe you'd read a book and so people went out more yeah you know the gridiron okay um i'm gonna yell down my segue to this next uh section was ruined by our conversations so i'm just gonna say um on the subject of the midterms great perfect if hey if we can't if we can't find hot candidates this is not to say that we don't have plenty of hot candidates running in the midterms yeah uh it's a good time to remind everyone about project 218 which is votes of america's big push to help take the house back again with candidates who are hot not hot

1:04:20anywhere between to recap we're asking you to get five people you know to sign up for vsa so that they can get the best info about how to make the biggest difference we've had more than three thousand sign up so far but we need more head to vote saver america calm to learn more and while you're at it uh one more plug here do you know the next uh no kings day is this Saturday march 28th there are thousands of events to attend and as we've seen it's it's very very important to show up and be counted and be heard uh so head to no kings dot org to find an event near you and make a plan to go bring friends post some pictures i told you so that'll be a sign we'll see some of that i told you stream change begins at home if you if you've kept your sign from two thousand and four about bush and your rock worth you can dust it off and bring regime change begins at home i think i've i still think there's like a bumper sticker i think man laws have it it's a sad but very true statement yeah that's been around for a long time all right one last thing before we get to love its conversation with lia um we got to talk about

1:05:21Donald trump dancing on rubber rubber muller's day if we do after the news on saturday that the former FBI director and special counsel died at eighty one after a fight with Parkinson's disease trump and his white house posted the following statement good i'm glad he's dead he can no longer hurt innocent people uh incredibly that wasn't the only depraved comment trump made involving death and one of his perceived enemies when he was asked monday morning about the resignation of his former counterterrorism chief jokent the president said quote i'm not a fan of the guy his wife was killed he remarried fairly quickly i feel like trump might not be a good person uh we think have we all just grown numb to this now just just real quick jokent's wife was killed while serving the u.s military in syria by a suicide bomber so that's the context yeah in which he made that comment got married too quickly just like he said that about tomas massi this is from a guy who would bring a date to melania's funeral no right yeah for sure 100% yeah walker by the golf course

1:06:23grave of his previous wife that's where i put that one i just i i saw i saw the trump's comment and i was like my first reaction was you know bob muller died and now like all of the stories about his death have to include the president of the states issuing this jackass fucking comment so his family and friends have to all deal with that number two and now everyone's going to do like the charlie of course we all lived through the charlie clerk thing and jadey vance just told people to fire you know people who work for them and who uh you know said celebrated charlie curk's death and you know there was a whole government wide effort to hunt down people and cost them their jobs over potentially celebrating or not grieving properly for charlie clerk and now we're doing this again yeah can i and i i feel like it's actually very been quite helpful to be consistent through all of us which is not celebrating any deaths right and and by the way like not not celebrating death is not an act of civility i'm not saying i feel happy when my enemies die

1:07:26but i pretend not to as a means of projecting the morals i think we should have but i'm not judging people for what they're actually feeling what i my my feeling of what i what i see when people kind of celebrate someone's death is actually like when someone dies and and they did bad things i'm not talking about people that are that are actively in the midst of doing horrible things their death relieves people of pain and abuse and tyrants whatever but but like to celebrate someone you know like dying is to act as if dying is a kind of justice that they're getting justice but that can't be true because everybody dies and what you're really doing when you celebrate the death of your enemies you're actually just avoiding facing the injustice that happened when they were alive you're coping with the fact that you don't believe they faced what they deserved when they walked among the living and so like i think about what happens when Donald Trump will inevitably die and there will be a crazy debate befitting Donald Trump in which our whole country caught up in this very kind of notion of it's okay that people are happy that he's dead and celebrating in the streets feel like feel like that that Bob Mueller tweet from Trump will be back

1:08:29in the rotation when this happens but but the truth is i think a lot of what will people will be feeling that kind of like will be a kind of a a grief about all the damage that was done and our failure to stop it and to get justice when somebody was walking around and so like to celebrate death is to act as if it won't come for all of us and that's just bad for the soul and it's bad for the world and so i i just want no part of it whoever dies that's my that's my take on this and they might they might express that feeling with um like a party hat and one of those like you know but like that's what they're thinking yeah i'm not looking look i'm not gonna say i'm gonna i'm gonna go out it's just look i look you've been consistent on this like you took a day off when the io told it was killed you didn't come in that day and i think that's you know that's commendable yeah look i you're grieving i laden yeah stop stop stop stop you see those tweets go through and you're just like we need you just know the cycle we're all gonna know it's so it's so exhausting it's like exhausting he you know what i'm at the fun i'm at this point when i'm like sage want to say i

1:09:31guess like he's the biggest he's the worst person in the world he happens to be our president he's dancing on the grave of like a purple heart winning you know american citizen who serves as FBI director that's self evidently terrible you know the hypocrisy is exhausting like you know fox News did a month of coverage of Charlie Kirk insults and yet fox as far as i can tell like did not air a single story about Donald Trump's tweet and then you know the daily wire today unironically had up a story uh with the headline red head and deja vu Sarah Sanders kicked out of Arkansas restaurant flipped off by staff for those who weren't as termally online as we are in 2018 a restaurant called a red hen asked Sarah Huckabee Sanders to leave the restaurant because there are a bunch of i think LGBT employees who didn't want to surfer and this became a huge thing right so like the civility please come out whenever democrats do anything republicans in their silent when republicans do things to democrats and it's just like it's so exhausting in

1:10:33frustrating to even have the call out hypocrisy and i just i don't know i the thing i thought was interesting about this one and this is all similar to one about rob reiner is it is so indefensible so what you end up with is a lot of anger and outrage at Trump's direction and all these people deflecting but i saw like brit humes had something which was like this is what makes people not just opposed Trump but hate Trump and i think that's true it is true but but even that is a kind of like this is bad strategy this is bad politics and it's actually what this also does is prove all the people that oppose him and hate him that he that they're right and that really you've done something terrible by embracing someone so obviously morally unfit so so kind of broken in his soul forgotten about the rob reiner thing jesus so many examples like this and it's also it's like it is i think it's tempting for those people to be like oh he says things and he's an asshole but like no no no the the same thing in trump that makes him post that about bob muller or about rob reiner is the thing that makes him talk about war right now in Iran as like we

1:11:33like sinking the ships the navy love with its fun to sink to the world and we'll bomb the more and it's funny and we're going to kill another one and like when you someone who devalues human life like trump obviously does who has the power that trump has was his finger on the fucking button yeah that's that's it all it's all connected guys how many how many of you have quoted margaret that you're saying character is destiny i i stupidly internalize that i've come to believe that there's truth in that that character is destiny that over time your character reveals something important about you and becomes what your life amounts to i actually stupidly thought you agreed on the iron lady for some reason the thing that got me even angrier was just he's scott best in getting asked about it on me the press no oh my god oh he'll get so he's she you know welcome asked him about it and he's like well i think people have to understand what bob muller put Donald trump through i mean she's like i'm sorry but what do you you agree with the same he's like i think the people just need to all he could say is he put through trump a lot like the fact that you're like a fucking grown man who had a real like what and this is what you're

1:12:37reduced to sitting on meet the press and like just just dismissing this the trump administration made bob baller the special counsels you guys selected him but it's just need to look what what what trump said about bob muller what he said about jokhan it's sort of like equally despicable and the common thread is uh those were people who opposed Donald trump in some way and jokhan as of like five days ago was Donald Trump's employee and he just like you know it doesn't matter what bob muller did to Donald trump over the course of several years of investigation it's binary it's like you're with me or you're against me i got a little excited maybe i shouldn't thinking about someone some journalist sitting down with jadey vance and starting the question by reminding him of what he said after Charlie Kirk died and what he said about people who were celebrating and then asking him about trump and bob muller and see seeing what jadey vance says see how he gets out of this slippery prick he'll he'll start scolding and yeah this is what you want to talk about with everything else that's going on you can't just be shouted question because he'll just you know i want like a good a good sit down with someone where he's like stuck for 20 minutes with the

1:13:40interview i like i know it's just like i you're right that it kind of needs almost like you maybe it does at this point need to be actually explained why rooting for people's death is bad maybe we do need collectively to actually talk about it or no i like that i'm with you i think it's bad too no i know you do that's what yeah we were we were all there for Charlie Kirk and we got we got shit for but it's almost like i actually want the convert i want someone to talk to jadey vance about like the worth of a human soul and like what happens after we die and what we root for like what is the purpose of being alive and like who gets to be celebrated and what lives are worthy it's just that we were at like a kind of first principle thing because the president of the united states is a moral fucking monster yeah yeah a whole bunch of people are working for him all right when we come back from the break strict scrutiny's lee litman pottev america is brought to you by zip recruiter what's the latest trend in hiring skills based hiring which emphasizes capabilities over education and direct experience who needs education anymore according to experts this leads to faster hiring and better job performance

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1:15:45bringing you a stack lineup of guests that's what makes it america's number one late night gay live comedy political podcast we're so excited to be back in dc it's a tradition now that we come around the time of the car response and or even though the car is honest in a really no longer has comedians i believe there's going to be some kind of a magician or a mind mind melder yes a magician yeah i'm a mentalist a mentalist uh because i guess trump wouldn't know it's also going yeah yeah yeah that's it there yeah it'll be there yeah there's there's there's a man there's a mental case and then and trump is also going there's tickets won't last long they're selling pretty fast so get yours now while you still can at crooked dot com slash events very excited for the dc show got some big guests some pretty exciting babies haha quicker dot com slash events joining me now to discuss today's supreme court hearing on male in voting is strict scrutiny's lia litman lia welcome back to the pot thanks for having me so the supreme court heard oral arguments today for watson v rnc it's an elections case where

1:16:46the republican national committee is arguing that federal law prohibits ballots received after election day from being counted even if they're postmarked before or on election day can you tell us a bit about how this case reached the court and what the rnc is arguing sure so the rnc brought this case challenging a Mississippi statute that allows the state to count ballots that are cast i e post marked honor by election day so long as they're received within five days of election day a lower court trial judge said get the fuck out of here right that argument is ludicrous it would literally call into question early voting election law practices for the last two hundred years et cetera and then the geniuses on the u s court of appeals for the fifth circuit three of Donald trump's court of appeals appointees said you know what actually federal law does make it illegal to count absentee ballots that are received after election day that theory would destabilize election laws in more than half the states i think twenty nine some states

1:17:49and so because their ruling had such sweeping implications the supreme court basically had to take this case and that's how it got up here the argument is federal law that just says the Tuesday next after the first monday in november is established as a day for the election their theory is that federal law makes it illegal for states to count ballots that are cast by election day but not received until a few days after and part of this is grappling with whether or not that would also mean votes cast before election day would be counted also it's not clear if election day is the day if you can count votes say after midnight if you turn into a gremlin if you count votes after midnight i mean they are gremlins so i think that's kind of non-unique but short now are the officials in mississippi defending this case not also republicans they are and part of what is so striking is that you have the prospect that both the federal government and i think at least three justices

1:18:50through republican appointees if not more are more anti voting rights than the state of mississippi that is the state of our union so there was some dissenses between the conservative justices what was what was the the the kind of arguments you were hearing from say elito and thomas versus what you were hearing from say kavanaugh and barrett so elito thomas and gorsuch seem to be totally magapill'd like their brains had just been marinating in fox news and we're regurgitating anti absentee ballot talking points so justice elito referred to you know the confidence you can have once you turn your ballot over to the postal service and whatnot honestly justice kavanaugh sounded like he was more in that camp than in the middle so he was throwing out concerns about if the apparent winner the morning after the election ends up losing due to late arriving ballots won't that undermine confidence and shouldn't we fashion a rule based on that again eating up the

1:19:53kind of talking points from the 2020 presidential election and then you had justices barrett and the chief saying some of that but then also saying well federal government rnc wouldn't your theory also call into question the ability of people to cast early ballots early in person voting wouldn't it also call into question why states can even continue to count ballots after election day even if they were received on or before election day like why does it have to be that receipt happens on or before election day but nothing else has to happen then like that's just non-sensical so they seem to be the ones that are going to dictate the outcome in that case and I will breathe a sigh of relief if they end up rejecting the federal government and the rnc theory but it is just so scary that we are living in a world where it is possible that the supreme court at the end of june is going to announce this decision that could again nullify voting laws

1:20:58and practices just a few months before the midterms in over half of the election and craft a rule that would have disenfranchised almost a million voters in the 2024 election didn't kavanaugh though question whether doing that would be feasible didn't he raise some concerns about about that are my am I being too optimistic tell me I think your interpretation is very generous I think what kavanaugh was doing was a tell me why I'm right tell me why this isn't a concern question because what he asked the lawyer for the rnc was would there be a problem under the so-called per cell principle if we announced this decision for the upcoming midterms the per cell principle is this idea that the court has selectively invoked that suggests courts shouldn't change the rules too close to an election less they risk voter confusion and whatnot but the advocate for the rnc said no no problem right just like hand out this bad boy the end of june and up end election rules for an election that's going to happen in November no big deal and justice kavanaugh didn't push back on that

1:22:02and the reality is this court has really selectively invoked that principle so it has invoked per cell when courts try to protect voting rights basically it's always too close to an election to do something that protects voting rights but it's never too close to an election to do something that would help republicans you know they allowed the eleventh circuit to change the voting rules in florida almost a week you know before that states primary they have allowed you know other you know decisions to go into effect that again were likely to benefit republicans but not decisions that actually improve multi-racial democracy or made it easier to cast a ballot so it's hard for me to think that he's actually going to apply that principle in a more even handed way so i agree that when california takes forever to count ballots and during that process suddenly you go from a republican winning to a democrat winning that that creates an impression that leads people to question uh uh weather things are fair even if they are entirely fair and there is no evidence to just they aren't fair but presumably it's a bad policy it's a bad policy but presumably

1:23:06the supreme court doesn't believe federal law should be made to a swage false concerns they're trying to interpret what the law says are they suggesting that we've that the elections we've been running uh have all been a foul of federal election law or are they just ignoring this all to get involved uh spring out now i hear you so yes i mean this theory would suggest that many elections over the last 200 years have been conducted in illegal ways and you know you express surprise at the idea that they would indulge the suggestion that these false claims or false notions of voter fraud could actually alter the election rules when the reality is they've actually embrace that idea before you know in a decision from seven years ago about the voting rights act justice elido writing for all of the republican appointees said states have an interest in protecting the appearance of legitimacy in an election even if there's zero actual evidence of fraud and that

1:24:12was the same idea that you had justices kavanaugh and elido reverting back to a bunch during this argument about absentee ballots well isn't it fair for the state to basically adopt rules or the federal government to adopt rules in order to combat the appearance of impropriety even again if that's not rooted in reality um but you know that's not how you usually interpret federal statutes you know under our constitutional system states are supposed to be able to be the primary rule setters on elections and they seemed willing to kind of abandon federalism to abandon textualism you know in favor of something like what aboutism right well because the state has an interest in making their elections fair it would the state would be the one trying to protect their electoral interest perhaps one way they're trying to make sure the elections are fair is by counting people to vote right you know that and that would be there that would be right this is this is about usurping the states prerogative to oversee the elections but but you basically what you saw today leads you to think that this is right now on the edge but there could be five votes to

1:25:16protect the counting of absentee ballots and the fact that it's close is incredibly terrifying that's what I heard I think that's what other Supreme Court watchers also heard and just to pick up on one thing you said you know of course the fact that states take so long to count ballots that's not a good thing but the reality is invalidating these state rules that allow the counting of absentee ballots that's not going to fix the problem because it still takes states a lot of time to count ballots that are received honor before election day you know we need to be able to invest more resources in order to give states the ability to process the counting of ballots you know some states don't even allow officials to begin counting ballots until a certain point and so this decision is not going to address all of the bogeyman and the fears they're trotting out it is just straight up voter suppression speaking of straight up voter suppression presidents on a tear here he's trying to get the congress to pass the save act a restrictive voter

1:26:18ID bill to require Americans to provide proof of citizenship at the moment it seems unlikely that the bill can pass congress it's even as of today trump was trying to get some of the funding measures tied to the save act trying to get everything all together the senate leaders are throwing cold water on that because there aren't the votes to pass this one part of the contention has been around what this would do to i believe it's pronounced women women who are married uh... now on one side they say well uh... their democrats are spreading misinformation about this on the other it's truly not clear what happens uh... to women whose birth certificates and legal name are not the same because they got married uh... what actually happens if this becomes law and uh... what would what would be the odds that it would face a lot of legal hurdles to actually going into effect yeah i mean happy women's history month ladies you might not be able to vote very uh... soon uh... but yes so you know various provisions of the law require you to be able to present

1:27:20an identification you know that matches um... your name when you go to vote and so married women who changed their names you know when they get married might have an identification where their birth certificate or their passport you know doesn't align with their married name and so they would be prevented from voting under the save act but it's not just married women you know a lot of people change their names for a variety of reasons uh... same sex couples you know they change their names when they get married uh... individuals you know change their names for family personal reasons and this law just threatens to disenfranchise large swaths of the population and that seems to be the goal you know i'm glad you put the save act together with this case because i think we should understand this as really all a coordinated effort to suppress voter turnout make it more difficult to vote you know this is part of their mid-cycle redistricting right a set of rules that allows them to retain power the save act is part of that uh... suing for voter data and potentially

1:28:23deploying ice agents right those are also voter suppression tactics um... the pending case about the future of the voting rights act that's another voter suppression measure and so they are trying to throw everything they can you know at the wall in order to hold on to power because they recognize that nobody fucking likes them yeah yeah uh... speaking of uh... people who are not being liked i wanted to talk to you about this story so last weekend and you talked about this a bit on uh... strict scrutiny a federal judge abide in a point he absolutely tore into some DOJ attorneys in new jersey in a courtroom uh... basically uh... had a uh... a trump lawyer removed from court threatened to have him dragged out of the court then gave that that that uh... lawyer a second opportunity to leave on his own volition opportunity he uh... uh... took what happened and is it now resolved because of what took place today

1:29:27i cannot begin to convey the insanity of what has been happening in the u.s. attorney's office for new jersey um... imagine gtl but like on ketamine and it's like the legal version of that so you know they appointed jim tan lawyer you know exactly yeah jim tan lawyer um... they appointed liana haba u.s. attorney federal judges said no that's illegal then they created this new leadership structure that they referred to as the trifecta or the triumvirate where three individuals were supposedly running the office another federal judge said no no no that's illegal and the problem with making all of these illegal appointments is if you have an illegally appointed prosecutor than the cases that they bring have to be thrown out and so it was jeopardizing public safety law enforcement law and order and so all of these judges were like guys just fucking get your act together and accept you know the lawfully appointed u.s. attorney because under federal law the judges basically have the power to select uh... u.s. attorney for a district after a certain period

1:30:30of time and that was what the trump administration was resisting so in this particular case it involved defendant who had been indicted for a child pornography offense and because the u.s. attorney's office is just not functioning apparently the u.s. attorney's office entered into a plea deal with this defendant without actually searching the defendant's phone they agreed to ascendance before actually looking at all of the defendant's phone and once they looked it had even more child sexual abuse material on it but because they had entered this plea agreement they were kind of stuck to it and this judge was pissed off he was like what are you doing and also why are you insisting on imposing ascendance when you are running a u.s. attorney's office that might not even be lawfully structured so this transcript was basically my ASMR I would strongly recommend to people reading it for themselves you know at the end of the transcript the judge basically says in a single year you have squandered all of the credibility that the department of justice has

1:31:32built up over decades and it does seem to have been resolved in the sense that the u.s. attorney's office in New Jersey is now being run by the individual that was selected according to the statutory procedures by these federal judges and so what that would mean is now there's a lawful structure in place and so all of these plea agreements all these criminal cases aren't going to be called into question you know as to whether the individuals who stayed at the u.s. attorney's office including you know some individuals who came in under Trump you know can dot their eyes and cross their teeth and do law remains to be seen but this does actually solve some of the problems at least yeah just so people understand basically if the the role of u.s. attorney is vacant because it's a conformable senate conformable position the law says that if it's open there can only be a temporary appointment by the administration for so long before the judges appoint someone in their stead because there are real powers that are associated with job and they

1:32:36have to go somewhere and you have to know who that person is and Trump is trying to get around this by kind of continuously appointing temporary people and the fear would be that those prosecutions uh not only was this usurping congress and the judge in the role of the courts and what they what they've what congress has assigned to the courts but it would mean that these prosecutions could ultimately be in jeopardy they were fighting and fighting and fighting it seems like they've as of today as it is recording basically given up the fight it is it does seem like a genuine victory for the federal courts over the Trump administration it really does and this is an area where the federal courts held the line and basically refused to back down and you know in a game of chicken the chicken always loses and the Trump administration lost as they should have and so hopefully they actually stick to this and are willing to accept you know the statutory procedures and other u.s attorney's offices as well Leah before we go one last question uh Donald Trump uh over the weekend said that he uh uh was happy into that Robert Mueller had died he said

1:33:40good oh my god because he didn't like him do you ever allow yourself to root for the death of people that you don't like or do you know how bad that is for the human soul what where are you at you know I have some sense that that is bad for the human soul because basically when I saw that tweet I forced myself to think about okay when Donald Trump inevitably dies like what will you say and what will you think and nothing remotely like the truth he posted about Robert Mueller remotely entered into my lexicon even though this is someone whose policies and behavior have affected vast suffering right on told deaths human consequences and still like I just don't think that is a normal human reaction it's sociopathic yeah yeah yeah death is injustice we all die you know that's how I feel about it it comes for everybody so how do you celebrate it you just have to stay on the same trend you know um but uh while while we walk among the living

1:34:45subscribe to strict scrutiny because these cases are coming down they are huge cases that will affect the elections will affect all of us and if you want to know what's happening if you want to be prepared if you want to understand and do it in a way that uh is um entertaining uh even joyful at time even in these dark moments uh please please please subscribe to strict scrutiny leo living thank you so much good to see you thank you for having me that's our show for today thanks to leo for coming on dan and i will be back with a new show on friday if you want to listen to pod saver america ad free and get access to exclusive podcasts go to crick-a-dot-com slash friends to subscribe on supercast sub stack youtube or apple podcast also please consider leaving us a review that helps boost this episode and everything we do here cricket pod saver america is a cricket media production our producer is Saul Rubin our associate producer is Farah Safari Austin Fisher is our senior producer read churland is our executive editor

1:35:48Adrian Hill is our head of news and politics the show is mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick Jordan Cantor is our sound engineer with audio support from Kyle Seglund and Charlotte Landis Matt DeGroat is our head of production Naomi Sengal is our executive assistant thanks to our digital team Elijah Cohn Haley Jones Ben Heffcoat Mia Kellman Carol Pellevive David Tolls and Ryan Young our production staff is proudly unionized with the writer's guild of america east hey lover leave listeners it's me the titular john love it here to tell you that i'm coming back to washington dc for lover leave it live at the link in theater on april 23rd that's right spring in dc is all about cherry blossoms and lover leave it bringing you a stack lineup of guests that's what makes it america's number one late night gay live comedy political podcast we're so excited to be back and you see it's a tradition now that we come around the time of the car response and or even though the car response center really no longer has

1:36:49comedians that believe there's going to be some kind of a magician or a mind mind melder yes a magician yeah my I'm a mentalist a mentalist uh because i guess trump wouldn't know it's also going yeah yeah yeah that's right there yeah it'll be there yeah there's there's there's a there's a mental case and then and trump is also going there's tickets won't last long they're selling pretty fast so get yours now while you still can at crooked dot com slash man's very excited for the dc show got some big guests some pretty exciting maybes quicker dot com slash events