When you're ready to ride Metro, we want you to know we're ready for you. Here are just a few of the people at Metro to tell you how we're doing our part to keep writers safe. We're cleaning like novel before you found half sound of sound of statist, no mask, no Metro need one. We have a few extras at Metro. We're doing our part to keep the DC area moving. Find out more at Well nota dot
com slash doing our part. Deborah J. Saunders is the White House correspondent for the Las Vegas Review Journal and joins us. Hello, Debor, how are you? How are you doing good? We're just talking about the Nancy saying impeachment not a good idea, and various people are reacting and all we're trying to figure out all so earlier, what percentage of it was cold hearted political calculation and what part of it was being a good American realizing we
shouldn't just impeach you know, Willie Nelly. All of it was cold political calculators. That's what Joe say man Man did that land with with with with a with a with a bang in in the DC world last night. Or we're not people were talking about why did she do this, which sort of surprises me because it seems pretty clear. For one thing, there's no way that the Senate is going to convict Donald Trump if he's impeached.
That's right, that's right, exactly so. And we've seen this movie before with Bill Clinton, and we know what it did. It was not the most helpful thing for the Republicans. They had to walk around with it for a long time. So Nancy Pelosi sees the writing on the wall. She knows that she's got some people who really want impeachment and she's not going to do too much to rain them in. But she's given cover for moderates and she's told them, yeah, you know, not a good idea. And
everyone knows him. Every Democrat knows that the going after Donald Trump to impeach him is a mistake. They may be doing overplaying the investigation card. I think they are. So I think it's a really savvy thing for her to say she's a smart. Look at she She didn't get where she is and stay where she is by being an air head. She's a very smart political operator, right right, Yeah, I suppose we could talk about the
whole um over investigating thing. And if they found out if Trump passed passed some bad checks, you know how American reacts. I don't think it's gonna be that, but it's gonna be the over inflating the value of his properties to borrow and then you know, then lying about misleading, making statements that aren't accurate about the value for taxes. I could yeah, or I could definitely see him getting some oddly inflated rents from Russian oligarchs in the nineties,
that sort of thing. But how does America care? I don't know. Oh, he was a New York real estate developer. He has problems in his past. I don't think there's any question. I think people had a good idea about that during the elections. I don't so. I think you have to find something new that people didn't know that has the material effect on how he governs it or how he got there, and that just hasn't happened. So we can touch on the budget really quickly. It's a
political document, right, It's an expression of our priorities. The budget the White House just put out. Yes it is. I mean, it's I don't even know why they worked so hard on it. I don't know why either. I think every year when every president puts these out and gets way too much attention in the in the belt Way crowd. But why is that, Debra? I mean I I recently asked someone about that who was in a position to know, and it was in the off the
record session. But I mean it just so let me just say, that's something I keep trying to figure out. And I guess I guess they're donors like it is. That's not an answer I got. That's my what I surmise from an answer that I got off the record, fair enough. So it's sort of like me announcing once a year, you know, if I can do anything I want, I would eat all all vegetables and fruits, and I would run thirty miles a week, and I get a gym membership, and I'd start going to church. Very admirable,
can you Fancia? And then then nothing ever happens, super okay, fair enough. So it's it's like a campaign speech in effect, the issuing of the budget. This these are our priorities. But they're not even pretending that they care about the depthicit anymore. I mean, they're gonna you know that the Trump campaign that you can get rid of it in eight years, first two budgets, ten years now at fifteen,
so even the charade is wearing thin. What what amount of time there in the White House do they spend dealing with the impeachment investigations all that sort of sort of stuff versus trying to accomplish some of the things you want to accomplish as president. Well, you know, I think that the question here is how much does Trump
spend thinking about it? Because there's a whole room full of lawyers who are supposed to handle that, and one would like to think that with that happening, that uh, the O. M D people can just deal with the budget and you know, all the other departments can work that way. But we but we have as a president who just can't let it go. And that's the problem. He'd be watched less TV because the cable news channels, you know, are not a reflection of what's actually going
on in the world. Yeah, right, I mean it to Donald Trump. Try you've got better access than us. Debra J. Saunders, White House correspondent for the Las Vegas Review Journal. On the line, you mentioned in your little notes that there's a briefing health or there's going to be what happened. There was a briefing yesterday, the first since January. It's pretty exciting. Um, I mean there, as you know, there
used to be a daily briefing. Then it sort of whittled down during the mid terms, and uh, the government shutdown and basically we get them I don't know once every month or two. So, um, it's I got a question in yes, what was your question? I'll pretend to be Sarah Sanders and answered, you can say I can't hear you because I have laryngitis and it was worse yesterday.
She speak up. Well. I asked her why they put funding for to realize in the Yucca Mountain in the skinny budget or this they don't call it a skinny budget this year, but why they put it in and what's the thinking was? That's the nuclear storage facility in Nevada, in Nevada. That's where I'm sorry, Thank you for explaining that. And that's a big that's a big question for the readers of my paper because here and here's I mean, so a lot of people think of this as a
very parochial issue. Um, and that, but what bothers me about This issue is that Donald Trump has never really gone on the record and said what he really thinks.
During the campaign in he said, I'll let you know, I'm gonna really look into and all that, you know, never did then we see it in his budget, right, And then he was campaigning and I'll go Nevada for Senator Dean Heller who did not win re election the Republican and he said, you know, I'm rethinking this whole duck a Mountain saying, and now it's back in the budget. So to me, it's it's not just an issue about Yucca Mountain, is also an issue about the Trump White
House what it's thinking. M M. Interesting, And he thoughts on the Tucker Carlson mess, we're gonna be talking about that a little bit later on. Well, so Tucker Carlson is somebody Donald Trump loves to watch on table TV. And Tucker has irritated not just the left, but he's also irritated a lot of sort of the people who think through, the big thinkers on the right, the never trumpers. And so you've got two different groups who are really just ready to pounce on him, and they want they
want him to go. But I don't you know. I conna tell you, the third most watched show on all of cable news, so he'd probably bringing in some revenue. And you know, some of the stuff he said ten years ago I find offensive, But you know, but you know what else I find offensive trolling through somebody's record for what they said ten years ago. And it didn't make a big stink ten years ago when he said it. And he worked for MSNBC at the time exactly, which
is extra delicious, that's right. So then it was okay, But now they're going to go after it. I mean, it just looks that's the kind of opportunism that I think leaves a lot of people cold. Well, and I tell you what, my favorite analysis, And I wish I could remember who said this, because I like to give people credit. But the idea that, well, it doesn't matter
that it was ten twelve years ago. Well if that were the case, then if they caught the governor of Virginia in black face today, he would still be the governor tomorrow because ten years ago matters there, twenty years ago matters the same as right now. No, it doesn't, It just doesn't. So there is no statute of limitation onwards. That's what they're that's what that's what, That's what these folks are saying. And we just know, we just know that there it's just so devoid of any principle that
they don't really mean it. And you're absolutely right. If you look at Virginia, if you look at the governor, and you look at the attorney general and all of this stuff, you can just see that that women and black face and certain kinds of words are just issues that they used to throw at you, and they don't really mean it. White House, correspondent in Las Vegas Review Journal. Thanks Devra, good to talk to. Thank you, Thank you. When you're ready to ride Metro, we want you to
know we're ready for you. Here are just a few of the people at Metro to tell you how we're doing our part to keep riders safe. We're cleaning like never before. Half to the great clean. You've found hand sund of signs of statist no mask, no Metro need one. We have a few extras at Metro. We're doing our part to keep the DC area moving. Find out more at well mata dot com. Slash doing our part