Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics, where we discussed the top political headlines with some of today's best minds. And the percentage of voters with significant levels of confidence in the Supreme Court has dropped to its lowest point since NBC began polling on this question in two thousand. Just twenty two percent of respondents say they have confidence in the Court. We have such a great show for you today. Notice his own Evan mc morris.
Santoro steps by to talk about the hopefully doomed Save Act. Then we'll talk to Financial Times and loose about what the Iranian war means for Americans at home. But first the news.
So, Molly, big big news out of Marjorie Taylor Green's district last night, an election where the Democrat got more votes, which everybody was told could never happen in that But there's some people saying, if you give to this Democrat for this frontoff, you're an idiot. We need this money for the Senate races. I'm curious what you think, but it really does feel like Dems can't stop winning.
Yeah, So I was on my way home from something. I was like, let's check in at that special election for Marjorie Taylor Green seat, which is like a ruby red district. I mean, there's a reason that that is the district that sent Marjorie Taylor Green to Congress. Right Jewish space lasers qan one. You'll remember she used to not be so refined. So I looked at it and I thought the Democrat would be losing by less than what the Democrats historically lose by in that district, and
in fact, the Democrat was winning. Now this advances to a runoff because there are multiple candidates. It were multiple Republican candidates, and that is how the Democrat got more votes. Do I think a Democrat will win Marjorie Taylor Green's seat, No, I do not. But why this is relevant is because this is a seat that Donald Trump endorsed to candidate.
The candidate did not immediately win. That is important. That is an important data point because it means that Donald Trump is a president who has a cult of personality around him. That means he can do things like do things that are not what he ran for president on,
if that makes sense. So he does things like he goes to war when saying he's against wars, but his cult of personality only works if there's a cult, and the fact that he could not get this Republican in a Ruby red district over the finish line means that the cult is not as powerful as it's been previously, and that means that trump Ism is not as powerful as it was, and that is a very good sign for Democrats. So should you pour all your money into a special election in a Ruby red district. I don't
think it's the best use of your cash. I think you're better off giving money to Shared Brand in Ohio. I even think you're better off giving money to Marry Perota. I don't think this is the best use of your cash. But if you want to throw a little cash that way, you're certainly welcome to. It will go to a runoff, and the point again with these runoffs is that it
means that the Republicans have to spend more money. And just like the Texas Senate primary runoff, which we talk about later, these runoffs are good because they make Republicans spend Yeah.
And the list of how many times though Democrats, because particularly last night, they flipped a district in New Hampshire, this list is just so impressive and really gives a lot of hope. And I know we like to be reminded since you and I can get a little down at times, and we have to remember things are going well when we hit the ballot box.
Yeah, And I'm going to just read a few of these numbers so people can see these special legislative flips. This is from interactive polls. So Texas's state District nine was over performance by a Democrat by thirty two points. So if you think about that, if you think about thirty two points would mean the entire map flips to Democrats. We had. Mississippi's House District twenty two was a D plus eight, which means that Democrats overperformed by eight points.
That's still is humongous. Now, will the midterms be like special elections? It's possible, But it does mean that if you could get showings like this, you could do You could flip the House, you could flip this Senate. Will we I don't want to say no, but I certainly know that Donald Trump is pushing really hard for the Save Act and there's only one reason for.
That, yep. So we try to keep it domestic policy here, but I think it becomes very relevant to domestic policy when we start talking about the cover ups at home and Trump is pretending a tomahawk missile we sent didn't hit a girls school that killed one hundred and seventy five people. Molly, do you have any interest in hearing how bad his defense of this was.
Yeah, I actually heard his defense of this because I watched the press conference.
Well and I play for the listeners.
Then, Yeah, you just suggested that Aron somehow got its hands on a tomahawk and bombed its own elementary school on the first day of the war. But you're the person in your government saying this. Even your Defense secretary wouldn't say that when he was asked standing over your shoulder on your plane on Saturday. Why are you the only person saying this?
Because I just don't know enough about it. I think it's something that I was told is under investigation. But tomahawks are used by others, as you know, numerous other nations have tomahawks they buy him from US. But I will certainly whatever the report shows. I'm willing to live with that report.
Yeah, it's nice that he's willing to live with it, But.
It turns out the report showed it that it's our fault.
Yeah, And I think it was pretty clear that this was going to come out being our fault because tomahawks are our missiles and we were in a fight. The other side didn't have them. And so when you saw Pete head sth unable to defend, you know, their only job is North Korean sycophants. And so the fact that he couldn't defend it was really a moment to take a pause and know that he probably knew, and probably this weekend they knew that it was theirs, and Donald Trump still kept going defending it.
So Molly, I really love when Republicans just give up on trying to defend Trump's ridiculous policies. I mean, he does put them in a place I would personally not like to be. But when Senator Roger Marshall says freedom isn't free, about why you're about to pay double for gas, it's just chef's kiss.
Yeah, So this is the new message. The message last week was we're not at war. Everything is fine this week because gas is you know, teetering at one hundred dollars of farrell. I think it went down, but it's still quite expensive. Now they have to say something because they've learned that the worst thing you can do is be like nobody cares. Don't be a cock.
That would make a great ladside BALI you should copyright that immediately.
But it's true. I mean, like, you know, we've seen and look, this is a problem the Biden administration had too write m h. Don't tell them the economy is good. If they can't afford eggs. They don't want to hear that. So this is this new Republican pivot. And the thing
they say now is short term pain for long term gain. Now, I want to point out, nobody knows why we are in this war to begin with, so the gain would be that what the gain would be more war in the Middle East, killing a bunch of girls in a school. I mean, what's the gain here? Because I don't see any gain right there in my mind. I understand that Saudi Arabia and Israel both wanted America to go into this,
but I see no gain anyway. The new thing short term pain for long term gain, which means they know it's going to be a summer of high gas prices. Luckily, this administration has funded so much solar and wind just kidding anyway, I don't know what to tell you.
Oh yeah, even de incentivized electric cars. Great stuff. So, speaking of defending the indefensible, the queen of it, Carolyn Levitt had to admit today that the Save Act will make it harder for married.
Women to vote.
Yeah, I mean, I'm shocked. I didn't know she was allowed to admit things. But yes, she accidentally admitted what opponents of the Act have long warned against. She's that married women will need to update their identification documentation in order to vote if the Save America Act passes Congress. According to White House Press Secretary Carolyn Levitt, look Levitt, one of the things I love about her is nothing. But I am impressed that she really does double down.
You know, how dare you? Press? And Trump is the handsomest, youngest, most virile anyway, All of this Save Act is to make it so that people can't vote, so that Donald Trump doesn't get impeached, so that they don't lose the House. Because he knows that if Democrats retake the House, donald Trump is getting impeached. Now will he get removed? Probably not. They probably don't have sixty votes to get rid of him. In the Senate. But his life is going to be
a trial after trial after trial after trial. You probably will be that anyway, but you.
Know, one trial after another.
That's all right. We have exciting news over at our YouTube channel. The third episode is out now from our series Project twenty twenty nine, Reimagining, where we examine what went wrong with democrats approach to policy and how we can correct it and deliver changes for the American people. The first episodes dove into campaign finance, reform, anti trust and regulation. Our newest episode is on how we solidify
reproductive rights for women. We talk to the smartest names in the field like Abortion every Day is Jessica Valenti, the Center for Reproductive Rights, Nancy Northam, UCLA, is oh and Mary Ziegler, and the gout Macher Institute's Kelly Badden. Republicans were prepared for when they got the levers of power. Democrats need to be too. So please head over to YouTube and search Molly John Fast Project twenty twenty nine or go to the Fast Politics YouTube channel page and
you'll find it there. Help us spread the word. Evan McMorris Santorro is a reporter at Notice.
Evan Mallie, how are you.
So great, so good? So Evan, we need to talk about the Save Act. Donald Trump has decided that because he cannot wait. I mean, basically this is he looked at the polls and he was like, I'm gonna get him paged again. He looked at his thirty five thirty six favorability rating and was like, we gotta make it harder to vote because otherwise we're all in a lot of trouble.
Discuss Well, I think that what's going on with this, right is he has a long term project heading into these mid terms to really question the way elections work in the country. I mean, you know, he has active investigations going on in Georgia and Arizona, the places that he lost in twenty twenty and then still sort of carrying a torch for saying he got robbed from that
they're doing that. There have been calls from some folks in his you know, in Maga world, that he should declare an emergency so he can like take over elections.
He's he talked about taking over elections and then.
Say their business because he knows he can't win, right. I mean, he's not doing this because American elections, Like a million different courts have said his own dej that he did not win.
Well, yeah, I mean that's right. I mean he didn't win the election in twenty twenty.
He lost the election in twenty twenty, and then the thing is the best way to come back and that is to win the following one, which he then did. So it's confusing as to why we're still talking about twenty twenty. But I will say, look, I don't know. This is all about the majority in the House and the Senate, which, like you know, it does look at risk. His poll numbers are very, very bad. It's not going well for them. Yeah, but this really is a long term Trump project has been undermining.
The American elections.
Yes, like since try beginning, I mean even before twenty sixteen. Right the lock up to that was a lot of questions like are you going to accept the results, you know, if they if they don't go your way? He's like, I don't know if I'm going to or not. Of course he did go his way, then he of course accepted them. But then when they didn't go his way, he didn't accept them. January sixth, et cetera. This whole
thing is like of the whole piece. And what's fascinating about it is that you have seen a lot of Republicans get very upset about some of the stuff that he was talking about. When he was out there talking about Republicans should take over elections, and he listed to several states those lessons that they should take over. Republicans pushed back, They're like, well, well, you know, this is a state sovereignty issue.
We run them.
We don't need to do this. We don't need the federal government coming in there and telling us how to run our elections. And on this issue of the Save Act, you know, the bill itself that does a lot of things that you know sort of have are already the law changes some other things, but the main thing is the senators, the Republican senators are not letting him do this, do this bill. They don't want to blow up the legislative filibuster, which senators really like. Literally, the only people
in America who like the filibuster are senators. It's one of the strangest things in the world. Anybody you ever go anywhere.
Who likes it.
But then today you saw the thing, you know, where like John Fornyan running you know in that.
Yeah, primary, So let's stop for a second and talk about the Texas primary. So this is John thun who is the new leader of the Senate. He is very tall and tan and affable, and he is like great a Senate guy, and he does not want to blow up the filibuster because he knows that no matter how much fuck up elections, eventually Democrats will in fact win and then we will all have free breakfasts for children,
which everyone knows must be stopped. We cannot feed those poor kids when that money could be better spent on movies of Christy Nome riding horses and flying around in her jet with a bedroom. So I want to talk about you know, I'm right, You know I'm right that money better spend.
It isn't just about the next cooming election. I mean I think that's true. Will you talk to senators from both parties. They like this thing. This is this is the think is a key component of what makes their legislative body different other legislative bodies.
And they're the very excited.
There's always a vocal minority of people who want it gone.
And now yes, and now now we run into the Texas Republican Senate primary, which pits Ken Paxton, a man who has been impeached but not removed just like Donald Trump, and John Cornyn, a man who is slightly less nuts, are running in a runoff for the primary, and so both of them have now decided that the Save America Act is the only way to suck up to Trump to get the Trump endorsement, which you need, at least theoretically to win this runoff.
I have never seen an election about one person as much as this one is. This is this is like the movie with Kevin Cotun They made like swing voter or whatever, and they off to go down there and like campaign like what happened was Cornyn does surprisingly well in the first in the first vote, come down on top, you know, which is not supposed to happen. This sort of shifts the winds that he's gonna get this endorsement from Trump. Trump sort of previews saying I'm gonna endorse
somebody and then make the other person drop out. Pastons of the brilliant idea of like, yeah, I'll drop out if you if they pass the Save Act. And Trump loves that, and so now the whole thing is reset and I got Cordon, a longtime supporter of the Senate, a long time supporter of the Senate filibuster, and who is kind of running as kind of like, look, I like Trump, but I'm an independent guy, you know me.
It's kind of what his whole thing.
Is is that like I'm Baxton is like this weird wild card who loves Trump so much and who knows I'm like a normal Texan.
I go my own way if I have to, guy uh, and.
Now what he's doing this weird tick a fantic like I do think we should blow up the filibuster and that we should pass the Save Act.
The problem is, there isn't that much time. There's twelve weeks. It's a really long runoff, but that's not that long in legislative calendar time.
So like it's pretty likely that the philibuster will not be blown up nor the Save Act passed by the end of this thing, but has put the race in stasis effectively until something happens.
It's it's like, because the whole thing about what Trump going to do.
I mean, meanwhile, there are like millions of Texans who have to vote and make this decision, but like nobody seems to be talking to.
Them very much.
Right now, they're only talking to Trump, which is an interesting way to go about it.
It is an insane story. I also want to add, my favorite part of this story is that in order to pass the Save Act, what Donald Trump wants to Save Act to say is not what the Save Act says in the House. So the Save Act that they passed from the House has vote by mail voting, which Donald Trump wants to get rid of in his new Save Act. Because part of this is that Donald Trump is very incoherent, so he wants a lot of shit taken out of there, which in itself is wild.
I mean, the bill just simply as written right now cannot pass. And that's sort of the way it is. And this happens. I mean, I know we were going to talk.
About maybe go back to the House either.
Way, Yeah, it would have to go back to the House. I mean, this is the whole thing.
This is an issue where the electorate in Texas is very interested in keeping you know, the republic Actor wants to keep this seat Republican. Some of them say they can do it by having this Kent Action. There's a real bomb thrower right wing guy. Something they got to do it by having this sort of died in the wall establishment John Corning guy. But you when you go out there, if you talk to people who are running, who are voting in that election, you know, I have Friendsho been doing that.
My colleagues have been doing that. They're not talking about the Save Act. This is this is again another.
Thing where we're spending all of this time talking about something that is really legilate, the enterteric. It's very very important, as I mentioned, with everything I have you do with elections.
But in terms of an electoral strategy, you've got a Democrat running around talking about affordability, Tallerico who just won We're talking about afordability, bringing people together, bipartisan solutions, and you've got a Republican primary that's frozen to see whether or not this esoteric bill that has nothing to do
with prices will get passed in the Senate. It's a very very strange circumstance, not what anybody who is like a strategist in Texas would design, and I think it's a tough one for them.
Yeah, thoughts, prayers, Okay, So let's talk about leadership on the Democratic side. So right now, we have a House that has a one vote majority for Republicans. Okay, one Mike Johnson has lost his caucus. The women are so mad they are talking. I mean your seat, Nancy May. These Maga women are furious, right, They're furious. You see them furious. They say they're fearious. Marjorie Taylgreen laughed. I mean, it's just you know they are mad. Then you have
Thomas Massey also mad. Then you have Don Bacon people who are retiring. You have such a huge group of disaffected Republicans caucusing with Republicans being run by Mike Johnson. So answer me this because I asked a member of Congress this and she punted and wouldn't answer. But why can't Hakeem get one of these people to either become an independent and caucus with him. What can he offer? Why can't he get somebody on board? Why can't he flip the House right now?
Well, I will say that when you talk to Republicans about being Republicans in this era of Trump being elected, at probably this era of Trump, they have spoken about physical safety, like they get worried that if they get put on blast by Trump, do a certain enough they become persona on Grada enough that it could really put their at them at actual physical risk.
This is the thing that they have talked about.
Yeah, you know, so I don't really know like the mechanics of doing something like that. I think it's a thing of like would that get you you know, you'd have to request that, like they had they tried to re elect you. You know, the Democrats right now are like, we're just gonna keep steam rolling ahead. Everything's working for us, and we're just gonna take this thing and when when we can. But like that kind of maneuvering, we are in that kind of weird type Yeah, yeah, slat a
place where strange things can happen. But really where it's come down on mostly at this point has been on Johnson. And we had reporting and notice this morning about the House retreat that was supposed to be a legislative strategy session planning for the you know, the full year ahead, and really none of the moderates attended this thing. Uh and even with none of the moderates there, they still couldn't agree on anything to do. So they're a really
tough spot. And that's sort of where this is all fallen.
Down on right now?
Is that it's like I think democrats are started sitting back and letting enjoying the show for the moment.
You know, we'll change, but let's pause for a minute, because should they be like you and I, okay, whatever, we know how it works. But like, let's just say right now, thirty percent of Democrats are being primaries. There is a kind of rage in the base. If you talk to normal people, they are so mad at Jeffries, they are so mad at Schumer. They do not feel
that leadership is doing for them what they want. Now, you and I know there are certain things leadership is doing that is really good, right, getting Mary Parota and Alaska to run for Senate, like Chuck Schumer has a mass some wins and hakeem too, right the Ebstein files release. There have been certain things, but like if you look at if you just talk to Democrats on the street, they are furious. So are Democrats rolling along and doing the right thing or do you think they should be doing more?
Well, it's truly not what I think.
I do think there's a thing of what you're hitting on is very very important, which is that we are in a situation where things feel very much the same. I know, you know we're having a war right now. You have some lawmakers, right you have guys like Chris Murphy and stuff who are thinking already for president and thinking about tapping in to this Democratic rage. They're saying, this war needs to end. Cut it off, cut off the funding, end it, end it now, just like, get
out of this thing. We shouldn't be in the first place.
End it.
And you've got other people in.
The Democratic Caucus and they're sort of falling over themselves in very different ways. You know, we did a lot of reporting about this idea of maybe Trump might ask for supplemental budget for this build that he did not ask Congress Ford to do in the first place, and it becomes to ask for this money they're a Democratic trip. But maybe we do it, I don't know, maybe maybe at the sitt of CEE, maybe it's possible that we would do it. The public is sort of it's very
much against this war. Yes, the public is very much against a lot of this stuff that's going on. And the Democratic leadership is the same leadership that disappointed a lot of them during the shutdown time.
Right.
Yeah, that now that's book backed on is now like, oh that which is kind of big. You know, we did pretty well there, We kind of won some stuff. This DHS shutdown has been very successful in terms of party unity and sort of getting the party on one page about an issue that was tough for them.
Immigration.
But it is true that these things are happening, and the you know what you hear from folks is that the leadership sort of sounds the same. They're very careful around talking about this conflict, and you know, those of us.
Who remember the Iraq War, it sounds a lot like that.
It sounds a lot like, well, we don't want to I don't want to be in the wrong side of this. And just in case somehow this breaks out in like democracy emerging in Iran, it's our new best friend, it all works out great, we don't want to be on the wrong side of that. This is a delicate area. But I'm not sure that they have at all figured
out how to deal with their angry base. I mean, you look in Maine, for example, where Democrats are still hammering tongs against this guy cram Plattner, who polls show is like crushing their chosen candidate, Janet Mills they have not figured out how to harness that and calm that down. I think that because we're in a moment now where in a two party system, dependulum, the screening away from
the party in power. It feels good, but we got a lot of primaries to go, and they need voter enthusiasm and this ske problem of what do you do with these base voters who are really really upset.
They have not figured that out, that's clear.
Yeah, you know, behind the scenes, there are all these house races that are flipp the ball. There are all of these Senate races that are pretty heavy left. But if we're if we see the kind of kind of blue wave that we've seen in the specials, which we may not right because specials tend to be even more exaggerated though who knows. I mean, there is a real scenario where leadership can't necessarily tamp down the anti incumbent sentiment. Right.
Well, the question is should they I mean, should they tamp be on anti numbers?
So they should do, but they might, but they will want to.
Yeah, I think I think they do want to.
I think I think I think it's a natural tendency in in Washington and in politics to sort of, you know, do that go. You know, it's it's a safe thing. We all saw it was Biden, right, that was the Biden thing. He's president already. This is a great idea. Let's stick with the guy who's president already. Politics is moving in a very different direction and things are moving around very very quickly. You think about these districts that
have been redrawn. Many of these incumbents are running with all new with many new voters they have.
Never had before.
So they're making a case as incumbents to some of these voters. That's that's a tough one. But really it is a thing that you know, when these moments come along like we're dealing with now, where you look at the polling about something like, for example, public support for Israel, right our partner in this war in Iran, both sides of the Aisle have seen that support for that country
shift in big ways, especially in certain demographics. Younger demographics, for example, has shifted away from supporting that country in the way that we've supported it in the past as an American, you know, as a country.
And those voters where are they going to go?
Do they totally know where they're going to go right now, I don't know how angry are they're going to be.
What are they going to do?
No parties really sort of reaching out to them at this moment or trying to sort of deal with them and talk to them that much. And this is a real it's it is a real wildcard for the midterms. But it's also a wildcard for the Democratic Party going forward because you know what can happen is they they could win in twenty twenty six and they could immediately face plant when they're in power. They need to build something.
This is this is a party that had its reputation and its brand absolutely trashed in twenty twenty four.
They need to rebuild it.
And I have not talked to a lot of strategists and folks involved who feel like they have rebuilt it.
They think that they're getting some chances to right.
I mean, you know the way that they won in New Jersey, way they won in Virginia in twenty twenty five, those are good wins for them. They say that they can rebuild, but overall I haven't seen them stamp down this anger among their own supporters.
Yeah, and we shall say, right, Evan, will you come.
Back anytime, of course. I love coming to this show. It's the best show so far, Y's the best.
Ed Loos is the Financial Times chief US commentator and the author of Za Big, The Life of the Big New Brazinski, America's great, powerful profit edless. Welcome to fast politics.
Such a pleasure to be with you. Money.
So the war expenditures. Donald Trump's DoD, which is actually now the Department of War, is at war multiple different countries. But there are also a war with fiscal conservatism discuss.
Yeah, well, the war with fiscal conservatism is the war that the DoD will win.
The war where they run is one.
I'm afraid it doesn't look like winning a strategic victory.
The money, it's about a billion dollars a day. If it ends after a couple of weeks, might be manageable, although you know, the cost of quotation marks place following unilateral declaration of victory or some kind of off ramp that Trump fashions for himself that wouldn't be cost free either, because Iran has a vote on whether the war ends, and it's got every incentive to keep the strait of Hormus closed in order to give Trump a price signal there that the cost of war is too high, do
not go back to war with US. And so those fifty thousand troops who are in the Middle East, those three aircraft carriers, when the USS Georgia hw Bush arrives, it'll make three the couple of hundred of jets. I mean, this all costs hundreds of billions a day. So that costs not going to go away even if Trump declares peace.
Let's talk about what's going on here, because we have Trump in a war that has really spiraled out of control. Though, I think if he had just read a few articles about the possible danger like the Straits of her Mouth. That's something I've been hearing about, right, twenty percent of all oil and gas in the world goes through the straits.
It seemed like an easy way for the Iranians to really make trouble and make life very expensive for everyone they are fighting, Like I feel like like the Ukrainians just to stay alive, right, I mean, are there parallels there?
Yeah, They're backit to the wall.
I mean, this is a regime that if it didn't get struck by the remnants of it struck by Israel, and I'm sure the new Ayatollah Mujtaba, you know, is taking every single possible precaution. But if they didn't get struck by Israel, they'll be sort of consumed by their own people. They've just killed tens of thousands off them, so their mindset is existential. And if Iran knows how to do one thing, it's to mess with the Strait
of Hormuz. This is the world's number one energy choke point, number one, and it is within range of the Red Sea and the Sewers Canal, which are up there in the top five as well. The idea that Trump didn't foresee this or couldn't have foreseen this, Rather, he didn't foresee this, but the idea that he couldn't have is manifestly absurd. I mean Iran, it takes the rumors of Somali pirates to give the frights to these tankers and to the insurance companies or an RPG from Yemen.
From the huties.
This, you know, is a waterway that is accustomed to suddenly closing off. And Trump now has handed Iran this magic weapon. It doesn't need ballistic missiles for this, doesn't need enriched uranium, just needs some drones and then.
There's this question of whether or not there are military escorts that are escorting ships. Yesterday there was a tweet that said it was and then it was taken down. What do you think was going on there?
I cannot imagine why the Energy Secretary Chris Wright would tweet out something so market sensitive without having confirmed whether it was true or not.
But it turns out it wasn't true.
Now, I think everybody who works for Trump is always looking out for ways of confirming that he makes great decisions. And Trump had announced a few days earlier that we'll solve the strait of one moves. Well, we'll back up the insurers, we'll send US naval patrols and that'll fix it. And it turns out A they just don't have the
intensity of ships in the region to do that. B Under US law, you can only provide convoy protection to American ships, and see, you know, the insurers you cannot with American taxpayers money under right global and so he's
not going to be able to do this. But Chris Wright was clearly on the lookout for affirmation it was still a brilliant, you know, decision by Trump, which it wasn't And the old prices sawed ten dollars, and then when the White House said it actually there had been no US naval escort through the Strait, then it regained ten dollars in that gyration, in that wild move, Iran has all the knowledge it needs.
I wonder if you could talk about Donald Trump's relationship with Putin, because he talked to Putin, and Putin sort of gave him an off ramp. Explain what the hell is going on here? Please?
So, yeah, he had an hour's conversation with Putin which he didn't The White House didn't issue a statement or summary of we know this because the Kremlin issued a summary of it.
Is that normal, by the way, for the Kremlin to do.
That, No, the normal thing is for everybody to do it, and usually some coordination. But that was a very interesting timing, that one out call, because it was in between Trump indicating in a telephone interview to a CBS reporter that the war was pretty much won and done, and then a speech that he gave to the Republican Caucus down in Florida in which he said well, and then followed by a press conferences, said well, yeah, we're almost achieved all our aims, but we're not going to end yet.
And then he was asked by a reporter very sort of clear question. Hegsas says, we're only at the beginning. You say we're almost done. Which is it? And Trump says, well, it could be both. That doesn't clear anything up, but it shows I think put In. The Putin call had an impact on his mindset. And Putin has been providing the Russia have been providing around with target They've been providing them with satellite imagery to help Iran target American assets.
He made no public I don't know what he said on the phone to put him, but he made no public complaint about that. He has been complaining though about allies, including Britain.
Day in and day out.
Early a day goes by where he doesn't complain about Britain not being fully on board with this war.
What do you think Putin said to him on the phone during that hour long call.
It's an I mean remember an hour is really half an hour because you need thirty minutes for the interpreters. Nevertheless, it remains, with all of Trump's engagements with Putin, including this latest one, a mystery that he almost never calls Putin out even when he is actively helping the adversary, the enemy, to target American troops in a war that
you know, Russia is not formally engaged in. Wit Cooff, Steve Witcoff, Trump's or, one of Trump's envoys, said that he had been assured by Putin because he spoke to Putin that Putin wasn't targeting American assets. And he said, I have no reason not to believe him. I mean, I've never heard such a naive statement in my life. I mean, Putin is the world's most accomplished purveyor of disinformation. There's really nobody who quite masters the Russian art form
there of which he is maestro. He's a KGB officer. The idea that Wickkoff would have no reason to disbelieve what he was telling him is stunning to me.
We're twelve days into this war, so like about twelve billion dollars into it to replace Ayatola Kahmani with Iatola Kameni, the younger, angrier version of the father who has many more years to live. And like, what's coming out more and more is that this war was maybe caused because Wikoff and Kushner thought it was a good idea. Maybe because the Israelis rolled them, maybe because the Satis rolled them. Do you think these people should be making our foreign policy decisions.
Yeah, no, I do not.
And bear in mind that Trump quoted Jared Kushner as having told him that what Jared Kushner took back from the final talks with Iran in Geneva was that Iram was about to make an imminent attack, and no evidence
has been provided at this attack. It is dispute by the Foreign Minister of Oman, who was mediating these talks and who flew to Washington the day before took the war to convey the Iranian offer on uranium, and Richmond to the White House because he did not trust Witkof or Kushner to convey that the implication being this war was already predetermined and the.
Talks were just theater.
The State Department has made severe cuts to its nuclear expertise, as has other parts of the federal government, some of this deliberately, some of this to do with DOJE, but even with the reduced expertise were critically important for national security at a time like this. Even with that reduced expertise, Wikoff and Kushner chose not to bring one nuclear expert
with them to the talks, not a single one. Now, it is very hard even for people who are you know, really up to date with the physics of nuclear weapons making a uranium and Richmond and the whole cycle, even for IAA inspectors to keep up with everything, because this is very complex and very technical and extremely oriented to detail.
Kushner and Wikoff do not have the grasp of the detail, and even accomplished the most accomplished diplomats in America's modern history have not gone into nuclear talks of any kind, or weapons talks anything within the ballpark without a whole raft of experts accompanying them. They went in essentially naked to the negotiating chamber and came out with this completely phony imminent attack line that it's hard to believe the Amanis or anybody else would want to mediate.
Ever again, I was.
On Morning Joe this morning, and Joe had this really good point about how when Bush I and Bush two both went to war, they went and put together a consortium of countries, and even if you pushed even a bit further like bush on, there was an imminent issue in Kuwait and then Bush two was after nine to eleven, so it was not just like they were foreign adventuring, right, there was something else going on. And this is really a radical, radical change.
It says, I would sort of separate Gulf War one from Gulf War two, and people recording this one Gulf War three. So yeah, I think Bushenia went to the United Nations, got an international coalition to enforce the law, which was that you cannot seize another country. You can't just radically change borders by force. And he conformed to a fault to that UN mandate, which is to get Iraq out of Q eight. I'd say Bush two was a little bit more adventurous. This was more of a
war of choice. I think what differentiates Trump from that is that Bush two still tried to get the United Nations behind He failed, but he still went through the effort of doing that.
He did have some allies with him.
The Coalition of the Willing, you know, included countries out Britain and Australia and Poland that provided considerable ballast. Trump didn't attempt to get any legal permission, either from the United Nations or from Congress, or even from his own Department of Justice.
He didn't even pretend.
He didn't marshal public opinion, he didn't prepare public opinion. He didn't even build up America's strategic petroleum reserves a basic sort of precautionary measure. This is a war of wim, not a war of choice.
Yeah, I think that's a really good point. It's a war of whim, not a war of choice. So talk me through what happens next, because there are some off ramps. There's some feeling that Donald Trump will get bored with this. We do have this Cubad situation which is wild. What do you think is sort of the map looks like at this moment?
I mean, so really in any sort of changing sentiment on that question that you've just asked, Molly sends markets wildly in one direction or the other. I mean, everybody wants to know what is the end? How does this end? This around war? Because you know, as as we were saying at the beginning, you can take a couple of weeks some damage, but if this goes on for months, who you're looking at a global recession. So the difference between the two is enormous. And therefore people that have
to know how this ends. What's the off ramp. And the problem here is that, you know, Israel has been This is the fourth Israeli war with Iran in two years. The first two Israel was alone, the second to the United States has led them the twelve Day war last summer, and then this one, and there's about eight months between them.
Iran has not won another war eight months from now, unlike last time, all the previous ones, it has no incentive to agree to a cease fire because this time feels regime changes on the line, and it's been given
this weapon. It's been handed this tool by Trump, which it can see Trump responds to instantly at is oil prices, and when they went one hundred and twenty dollars at the end of last weekend, the next day, Trump's talking about, you know, ending the war and that it's all over and it's a success, and the oil price is dropped down again. They know exactly what the tool is to shape Trump's behavior. They have every incentive to make Trump
pay for this well beyond he's declared unnatural victory. And so market's trying to guess, or investors trying to guess, or people who'se you know, family are deployed to the Gulf. Trying to guess when this ends from Iran's point of view, that's the big question and it's very hard to answer.
And meanwhile, as.
You said, Molly, he's talking about Cuba and he's saying, well, maybe we'll maybe we'll occupy Cuba, maybe we won't. Again this sort of you know, maybe we're at peace, maybe we're at war. Maybe it's at the beginning, maybe it's at the end. He has no ability to focus and there's clearly no strategic plan there, so we're stuck with reacting wildly like sort of you know, manic depressive to everything that he says.
I think it's worth pointing out too, is we're in the middle of a conflict, but we no longer take refugees, and if anything, we have refugees in our country who we are trying to revoke their refugee staff. So usually when a country like America, which is theoretically at least trying to sort of sell itself as a soft power, you know, up until pretty recently, Donald Trump was sending refugees to the Middle East.
Yeah, I've got friends that you do sort of outside of America, all over the place, countries I've lived in, like India, the Philippines, and then friends you know from countries I haven't lived in, but people in what we might call the global self. It's a rather annoying phrase, but the majority of the world, and they watch Pete Hegseth delight in language like lethality and kill the pleasure he takes in it. They see Trump talking about his
power of life and death, something he clearly values. They know he had other options here and that war ought to be the last option, after all the others have failed, but the talks hadn't failed.
They know this. They see the videos the White House puts out.
Mashing up scenes of you know, miss strikes on Iranian missile sites or whatever it might be, or electricity grid and interspliced with flips from action movies. Is if this is sort of some kind of teenage video game that's going on. The global South watches this. I cannot put a measure on the damage this does to American soft power.
It is reckless. It is a.
Vandalism of America's standing in the world, and it's very hard to put a price on it. Long after the oil prices are stabilized. Whenever that is, these images cannot be unseen ed loose.
Thank you, thank you, go to the airport, goodbye, goodbye.
Thanks so much money, and I'm sorry to stand so to prising.
Now I think that's just what we call accurate.
Jesse Cannon, Mali Jung Fast. The DHS is trying to seize a massive government database with Americans info. We know how bad this goes, yet it keeps going.
Well. Remember DHS as most recently having spent two hundred and twenty million dollars for Christynome to ride horses and do videos of herself. Now she's out and Mark Wayne Mullen is going to replace her. Look, they will do anything anything they can, and this is one of those things. The Department of Homeland Security wants to access the Federal Parent Locator Service, which is considered to be the government's largest, most detailed database. This is really good reporting from Pro Publica.
And it's a people finder for the US government. Why do you think they want a people finder for the US government? You want to guess it.
Does it have something to do with the porting people?
It might, or it might have something to do with trying to knock people off the voter rolls, or it might have something to do with trying to hunt the president's enemies. I mean, there are a lot of choices here, but none of them are trying to help people. None of them are trying to give poor kids free breakfast. They're all things that are nefarious and things that our federal government should not be doing.
Well.
You know, when you get poor kids free breakfast, you just get people driving by your house yelling really stupid words.
Yes, that's right, like the Ursler. That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday to hear the best minds and politics make sense of all this chaos. If you enjoy this podcast, please send it to a friend and keep the conversation going. Thanks for listening.