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 Utah State reps said Nazi flags can fly in Utah schools, but not Pride flags. We have such a great show for you today, talking Feds. Harry Littman stops by to talk about all the criming. Then we'll talk to Congressman Eric Swawell about protecting citizens from DOGE and doge's many unlawful aggressions on your data. But first the news.
You know, there's very few bipartisan things in this country, but you know what, I think we all agree on the people over seeing nuclear weapons should have jobs and do them and show up to work each and every day.
I mean, many people are saying, look, Elon Musk is taking a sledgehammer to the federal government. He has no government job. He's one of Trump's rich donors. He has about as much business cutting the federal government as Marion Adelson does. I mean, you might as well just invite her in there, right, because this is just very rich donors going to town on the federal government. No congressional approval, no congressional appointment, this is just we are in fantasy
land here. Trump's administration has laid off between twelve hundred and two thousand employees at the Department of Energy. By the way, I love that. They can't even tell you how many, right, it's just a lot. And from the Nuclear Security Administration, the Loan's office. Two sources familiar with the decision told Reuters, by the way, we have that we have layoffs at the VA. You know, the VA,
which provides healthcare for veterans. You know, veterans, the people that Republicans pretend to like, right, pretend to care about. But those people, they're healthcare getting cut off, getting curbed. Right. By the way, those NIH grants a lot of that still paused. That's cancer research just paused because Elon needs a tax cut. But by the way, not just the VIA,
there's other stuff. Democratic lawmakers confirmed to the outlets that layoffs could impact workers at national laboratories, hydroelectric plants, cold War era nuke sites. You really don't need people working in those places, do you really? I think it's fine.
Get some interns, listen the blind. They should have security jobs that are nuclear sites. That seems like a good place for them. To work.
The Department of Energy employs approximately fourteen hundred federal workers and oversees ninety five thousand contractors across various energy and security sectors. Well, now they employ less. According to two sources, the layoffs followed the arrival of three representatives from billionaire
Muss Department of Government Efficiency at the agency. One source revealed that approximately three hundred and twenty five employees had been dismissed from the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the US nuclear weapons fleet and works to secure radiological materials worldwide. We never needed them, they're cocks.
Yes, it wasn't everyone losing their mind just a few months ago thinking that radiation had gone loose in New Jersey and there's drones flying everywhere to find it. Really, it's not a thing we're concerned about. But Bally, one of the things I think about a lot is everybody talks about national security. You know what really says security the doose people who are getting access to every single part of this government, who can't even secure their own website.
This is web literacy most high school students have these days.
Yeah, in case you're wondering, things are going great over a Doge. So basically the doge website has been defaced because anyone can edit it. So there's a website created to document how Elon Mush his team is eveserating the US federal government and it is open anyone can edit it. This is the same Doge organization that has gained unprecedent access to sensitive US financial systems with data on millions of Americans. You and me, our social security numbers are
being looked over by a guy. You'll remember him as Big Balls, that guy. My favorite part of this whole story is that these are young people who have very similar ideological peccadillos to Elon Mush. They are young, they are some of them have had serious ethical problems at their jobs, and now they are paging through our data and also making mistakes. If that weren't enough, will doge dot gov displays a banner describing itself as an official
website of the United States government. The developers say it feels like it was completely slapped together and doesn't appear to be running on government servers. Even better, you love it. Love it.
So since we last spoke, there's been more evidence of woke Mitch McConnell running aloof through the Capitol. He had some choice words after R. FK Junior was confirmed as h Secretary the other day.
Yes, hero of the resistance, Mitch McConnell, who installed not one, not two, but three Supreme Court justices to dismantle American democracy. That guy does not like RFK Junior. Senator Mitch McConnell issued a blistering indictment of Robert F. Kennedy Junior on Thursday. Yes, yes, Queen, the Kentucky Republican.
Did not have a big oldcard at twenty twenty five, Molly jug Fast, Yes, Queening Mitch McConnell.
Well, he's not happy. You know, he did have polio. By the way, Trump then said maybe he didn't have pull and he wasn't totally sure. But I don't think Again, many people aren't saying right two seconds on, I really think Mitch McConnell had polio. I don't think he's lying. I'm just gonna go out a limb, hear. I don't think that Mitch mcconald has spent his entire life faking a limp and lying that he had polio in order
to stick it to RFK. Junior. I just don't The seneconfirmed the longtime anti vax activist and really let us be honest and complete in any number of reasons deplorable human being to the Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday by a vote of fifty two to forty eight. We're all going to die. McConnell was the only Republican to vote no. Because we have hit end times. Yes, I have nothing good to say about this except pray.
Yes, I have sort of to say, quarantined that area in Texas that has all the beasles, but that's a story.
Yeah.
Well, luckily vaccine. You know, viruses don't spread, so it should be fun maybe to get some leeches in there and will be okay.
Oh I like that.
So message discipline usually a thing you want out of a new administration. Yes, it's sadly not going so well over around the Defense Department and with Vice President JV.
Dance.
Yes, everyone's favorite JD. JD stands for whatever. JD Vance has issued a stark warning. Okay, so we got Hegseth saying for NATO that Ukraine can't join. HeiG Seth goes out there and says NATO's off the table for Ukraine, a very good position when you've started negotiating to immediately take the one thing that Ukraine had out of the equation. Then Van says stark warning to Russia, threatening the potential
deployment of US troops. By the way, Vance also went out to the Security Forum, which is like very serious Europeans being very serious together. Harris went, it was extremely serious and important. She thought of it as sort of like one of her highlights of her career as vice president. Well, Vance rolls in there and he tells them all that they should do more to protect themselves, that America is really busy with China right now, and he basically gives
the ur on your own speech. But while also doing that, and he makes everyone really upset, and all of these Europeans are pretty offended by this Vance speech. And while that's going on, Vance also manages to disagree with Fox and Friend Weekend host and now Defense Secretary Pete Hexas. Congratulations to all who celebrate. Harry Littman is a former US attorney and the host of the podcast Talking Fads.
Welcome to another law politics mash up with Me Harry Ligman and Molly Jong Fast on what seems to me like a pretty crazy wild day in law and politics. I nevertheless want to take a second besides saying hi to Molly and everyone knows, special correspondent for Ranny Fair, host of the podcast Fast Politics.
And we ran into each other last week in California.
In California, we hung out, we both talked to Chris Hayes. But again, the big headline here is you've got a new book coming out in June. You want to just give us a quick skinny on that.
I mean, I have a new book coming out in June, but it's miles away, but yes, it's called How to Lose Your Mom. It'll be interesting.
We'll come and talk about then. And this it's really important to me. I'm totally obsessed, as you won't be surprised to hear with what's happening at DOJ. And it's totally clear to me, as a DOJ alum and someone steeped in that culture that this is huge and very
very clear. But my question slash concern is, Mollie, do you think this penetrates the public mind and kind of comes home in a way that people can really see the clear line between corruption and rule of law and it has purchased or is this one of three stories this week?
So let's just set the table for those who are not completely read in. I live in New York City where we have a curse. It's called the mayoral curse, and it is real, and we have our most recent mayor is a man called Eric Adams, who it seems as if he's shockingly corrupt. Now, perhaps it is just normal business as usual with Turkey and not corrupt, but he had many There were a couple of years where it was like he's going to get into and he's going to get indicted. Then eventually he did, in fact
manage to get indicted. And now there is a bizarre situation where Trump World did this. Tom Holman, the head of ICE, went on Fox and Friends, which is Donald Trump's favorite show, and he sort of threatened the mayor and said, well, you know you're in trouble, but we're going to pause it as long as you do what we want you to do. It was, by the way, it's worth watching because I don't think there's ever been something like this in America.
The jocularity of it, right, yeah, crazy, right, And.
Also like just you know, you can't threaten people on television. I mean, just the sheer criminess of the whole thing. Like you know, at every point I was watching and thinking, oh, I'd actually read reporting man, and I thought, oh, that can't possibly be right. And then I started watching and
I was like, oh, wow, yeah, just shocking. The mayor now is in this sort of detente where he thinks he is going to get pardoned or not pardoned, but he's going to have his prosecution basically possimist, yes, without prejudice, so it could come back if he displeases Donald Trump and his cronies, which I don't think there's any precedent. It's like Watergate, if Watergate were smoking angel dust. And you know, I mean, it's just so incredibly beyond the pale.
Our Governor Kathy Hochel, who is very cowardlay, could dismiss the mayor tomorrow.
I've in fired him, not dismissed yet.
Right, yeah, be like, this is ridiculous. You're not going to drag the city through this. She will not do that, at least not yet. She is known to be quite cowardly. This would fit her personality. I would be shocked if she did it, is that what you were asking. I can't even remember what you were asking.
Not really, So there's two things that are happening.
So there's this shit show here. I mean, I think everyone is hort you.
On angel dust, but you agree that said though, the way it really rings home to me, Molly is what's going on within the Department of Justice, where Trump's handpicked acting Deputy Attorney General has basically tried to hold guns to successive heads, saying you must dismiss this case even though the facts and the law I admit are fined. That's the same as saying you must violate your oath,
as doj attorneys. And we're now up to you mentioned Saai massacre that was three people involved, We're now up to something like seven or eight, three or four in Southern District of New York. Then they bring it to main Justice and really high level people are resigning rather than doing this. So to me, it's seismic in some ways bigger than what happened in either Stai massacre or
twenty twenty one. Here's my question in a sentence, is will this ring home to people as a clear this weaponization by the Trump folks.
Yes, you're not going to have anyone working in the government. I mean, this is the accelerationist case for trump Ism is the idea that the Justice Roberts Justice John Roberts versus the Voting Rights Act. You know, if you cut away in it, that is much more dangerous than if you just set fire to the whole thing. And I mean, look, are we going to be able to come out of this thing and have a normal functioning democracy? That I don't know, right That I think is a real open question.
There are a number of different things that could happen.
This out tell them the regular people.
Yeah, Like these are just government agencies. I mean that's the thing that I think is so striking about Elon. It's like a lot of this stuff Elon is doing, if you were a little quieter, he could get away with it without the same you know, like they could legislatively cut I mean they control all yeah, right, I mean they could cut everything, they could make just but
the thing is they're not such good legislators. So we find ourselves in a situation where we just have this Elon's and the computers trying to fire everyone, and it's hard to imagine that doesn't get people's attention.
Okay, your turn, but quick legal footnote. You mentioned Roberts, who might really matter here. The person who resigned today with a blistering letter as a John Roberts clerk who had two tours of duty in a rock. Yes, it's so good, guys, bad guys.
Yeah, right, And the person who resigned yesterday was a Scalia clerk. I mean you don't think of Scolia.
As you know.
I mean we're like, we're almost to Aldo Clerks and Thomas Clerks.
Right, this is a nightmare cast of characters for Deer.
Yeah. I think what's important here to remember, and this is like people don't go into these businesses. They don't go into the law to make money, right, They do it because they think it's right. And I think that's what we're looking at with these government employees too. They are in it to do what's right, whereas the tech billionaires are in it to make money. So like Elon
is in it to make money. And even like all of these billionaires who have like back down and kissed the ring with trump Ism, and even a lot of these Republican politicians, I mean, maybe they're afraid of getting primary or getting death threats. But like when you look at these billionaires, you see these people are willing to do anything to protect their bottom line. CEOs billionaires, and so you really do see these career law people are not in it for the cash.
I mean, they're in it for the pride of what they do. And the thing that I hope people recognize is they've told them to stand up and violate their ows and lie. They're at the absolute marrow of who they are as professionals. These are guys who you know, are on a fast track to judge ships and stuff, and they're just letting it go.
Yeah, and I mean I think that that is correct. Let's go to where we are here with the legality of all of this. We're seeing a lot of Trump administration not doing the money they were supposed to not you know, freezing funds that were impounded. So you have Congress allocating funds for things, and the Omb freezing it and not paying them out. I talked to some academics this week who said that a lot of the NIH funds are not flowing right. Even though a court has
ordered them to start paying, they're still not paying. So what happens now?
Okay, First, is it illegal? You bet? This is third grade stuff. Congress passes laws, and in their laws they say give X money, We've appropriated it to these people. That's not something now for the executive that executes the laws that he wasn't around for third grade to just ignore. There have been other administrations that are pushed on the envelope. They're just saying, screw you, we don't follow the law, Make us do it. So what happens now? Lawsuits? There
are forty of them. There's been injunctions entered in six of them, and I think the ones you mentioned will in fact be enjoined. We put the freeze on it for three days so we can then have a trial. They have a trial. I think it does eventually play out, Molly, and they have these very aggressive assertions of executive power. I don't care what Congress says, I can do whatever
I want. That one of them reaches the Supreme Court, and if the court surprises us, as it did with immunity, then they unlined everything and they get away with it. But I think in the short term it gets enjoined. And the immediate crisis question is does Trump ignore what courts tell them. That would be the sort of ultimate constitutional crisis. But I think for now it goes to courts, district courts who have to take the law as it is and they enjoy it, so enjoin it means why
I'm sorry. They say you can't do this, they put a freeze on it. Then the executive is supposed to appeal that, which they've done in a couple instances. Of course, if they instead, and this is like JD. Vance's whispers say screw you, we're gonna do what. We're gonna impound anyway, right, which is what.
Jd Vance has been tweeting about.
Yeah, gone, this never happened. Whatever people say. I just had a subset about this. If we go through the historical parallels, it's never happened, and we would be really really and up against it exactly right. Constitutional crisis.
Say they're like, no, what can the courts do?
The courts can absolutely order them. And there are cases in which not the president, but like in the Civil Rights era, Governor Faubus of Arkansas said no, and the courts that we mean it, and all nine of us sign it, and you know what, he knuckled under and the courts will say it very firmly, and I think they will, by the way, even this Supreme Court. Then Trump says, fuck you. I'll take that as a talking fed's vulgarity, not a faster politics one. And we are
up against it, like way way up against it. It's like, you know, military force and popular sentiment. We are. This is exactly what the framer's worn about. Not to get two pointy headed, but if the executive says, I don't care you said that, but I'm not going to do it anyway. This is the soul of an authoritarian society, right.
Pretty scary.
Well, you know, I always love looking at your stuff in preparation for this, even though so much is happening now. But I did want to talk to You've had a couple of Vanny Fair articles about Elon Musk, just on some journalistic level, what a weird and crazy figure. But you said, most recently that he's ushered in a new regime, one that defies Bill Gates's spirit. By the way, new book from him, we should uh, we'll be checking out of capitalistic largest. Basically, he seems kind of like Trump
to be not just indifferent too, but contemptuous. Of humanitarian impulses, aid, you know that that is not only feels like the right thing to do, but seems to be administration after administration has concluded in our national interests. The strong sense that comes through as we're in a new era to the extent about capitalism itself, to the extent Musk is defining it? Is that right? And what conversation should we
be having about Musk? That maybe is getting lost in just the sheer spectacle of his dancing around and insulting people and doing crazy stuff.
What should not be lost is why is he in the computers? Why does he need to go into computers if he wants to have an audit? Why not have an audit? Why does he need to bring his ideological young coders, many of whom he shares ideological affiliations with, Why are.
They in the cat stay far right?
Yeah?
Why? Why? Like, just explain to us why, because nobody can tell us why? Right? The admin won't tell us why. He won't tell us why he's fighting fraud. He has yet to find any fraud. What he's found are things that he doesn't like, which, well, he doesn't think that USA should spend money on HIV prevention. He may not like that, but that's not fraud. That's just something he doesn't like. So the question is what are we doing here?
And the fact that we can't get an answer, and the fact that the answers we're getting are either completely divorced from what sounds reasonable. I mean, like that is the thing that gets me. That is the big question is like why does he need to get in those computers? Is he training AI? Because we've seen there's so much stuff to train AI on, it hardly seems necessary to train it on the federal on all of our federal information. So what are we looking at? What is he doing? Why is he in there?
We would need some financial information among other things that he had so far he hasn't given, right, Yeah.
Yeah, So that I think that's a big question. And then I mean I have other thoughts, Like he does use this anti democracy language as pretends that he's spreading democracy. You know, he says, I want to restore a democracy. He's mad at judges for checks and balances. He says America can't be a democracy if judges have checks and balances. I mean, he uses a lot of that Orwellian double speak that is pretty destructive, but it's also just quite strange.
And like I think about yesterday when Mody, the President of India, tweeted out a photo and on one side is him and all of his advisors, and the other side is Elon his third wife maybe wife, maybe not wife, and many of his children. And I understand having kids. I have a lot of kids. I have them in my twenties, but you know, there's also places to bring
your kids and places not to bring your kids. And when you're negotiating with the President of India, first of all, by the way, why he's negotiating with the President of India when he's not an elected official, Okay, but even still, like I mean, just the idea that a Republican donor, because that's that's all he is, right, is involving himself in just dismantling the federal government. I think that's a big deal.
I get off the train right there. But I'm you know, legal, yeah, but.
I mean, I'm not entirely sure at his polling. Trump is in this honeymoon period where his polling is as good as it's ever been. But even in this honeymoon period, Elon's polling is not great. You know, he's still underwater about nine points and there is no world in which there are you know, he's a billionaire. He's not even fucking from here, right, he is from South Africa, his parents,
you know. I mean, they're just so many reasons why American voters unless I mean, I don't know, maybe TikTok and the algorithms can do something to make this guy seem likable, But in my mind, I think they have a real uphill climb.
So you think he's going to crash and burn at some point.
I think someone who doesn't sleep at all is heading for right, Yeah, number one. I mean I personally need to sleep at least six seven hours a night, So that is number one. But also, we've had this American experiment and it has never involved a really rich guy from somewhere else coming.
In richest in the world.
Yeah.
Really, it does seem unprecedented and not what certainly not what people voted for. I kind of thought he was just a sort of mincing little supporter there and all of a sudden he's running the joint. Okay, your turn.
Yeah, so I want you to talk to me about, like, is what Elon Musk is doing it's is it illegal? And if it is illegal, how could that be prosecuted.
It's a great question because what it really is is like mind blowing, what the what are you even thinking? And but then you take a deep breath and get down to law. And he was sued twice yesterday on a theory Molly that is legal and nerdy, but I think has teeth and it's one that conservatives have always loved.
And this is themocratic attorneys generals doing.
This well in general, you see the the you know, nineteen twenty twenty two, democratic age's really stepping up. But here's a creative lawsuit and off hand Larry Tribe others seems pretty good to us. Jeff Bladner, here's the deal. There are three kinds of people who work in the executive brands. Principal officers like, cabinet infier officers like but they're important US attorneys and then everybody else. The law
is clear for infeeror officers. You can appoint them if you're a president, but Congress has to authorize you to do it. That's what is happening with the whole was happening with the old Jack Smith thing. Principal officers have to be nominated by the president and confirmed. That is the appointments clause, which the conservatives are so into, saying, you can't mess with the president's power. And what makes a principal officer or infeeror officer. It's a little loosey goosey.
It's based on responsibility and lines of authority. But who the hell is this guy? He is now I think been clearly put above the cabinet. The cabinet people are all sort of reporting to him. He and this is the lawsuit. Really seems like he's been made a principal officer and if that's right, got to nominate him and confirm them. So that's a very interesting legal challenge. Then everything else. Trump is trying to get away with it, saying, oh,
he's given advice and we're adopting it. Different parts of that advice are illegal, like don't spend the money that Congress told you to spend. But the general attack on Musk himself that your question, what is he doing here? And who is this guy? I think the best legal garb for that theory is you've given him that kind of authority, you got to treat him differently under the Constitution.
Right, And I mean it just seems so incredibly shocking.
I mean that's part of It's like, oh, it's got to be illegal one, But then what do lawyers do. They got to like take that feeling, go in the law books and figure out something that'll have purchase in the courts. But I think this is a good one. It's not the only one, but it's the best one i've heard. We'll see how it goes. As I say, two of them were filed just yesterday. Great, all right,
My last one to you. In the SDNY thing, you have Trump, you know, trying to say we're not weaponizing government. They were, and now it doesn't hunt. You had him in the campaign Molly saying, oh I'm not for Project twenty twenty five, And sure as hell, here he is. And it's just page after page of Project twenty twenty five. And as you've pointed out, the guys at his highest
rating ever. Do we think that not only his weird anti charisma, charisma, whatever the hell it is, Trump factor, it's not just that, but actually the Project twenty twenty five kind of pretty extreme, mean spirited principles have now attracted the support of the majority of the American people.
No, I think what's happening is that they haven't seen any even in action. In some ways, I think Democrats were very much a victim of their own success when it came to Trump. So they prevented a lot of what Trump wanted, right, Like he wanted to repeal Obamacare, he was not able to do that. You know, there were all these different things he wanted to do that he wasn't able to do. And in the end of
the Trump Aadmin. Government spending was way up. Now it was because of the pandemic, but it was so Democrats were like, oh, he's going to do Project twenty twenty five. And people were like.
Yeah, the book at the convention, right right, right.
But they were like, yeah, maybe, but last time he didn't. I think it was very hard to make the case that that was going to happen because there wasn't a lot of precedent for it. So what I think now, as we look onto this, you're seeing cuts at the VA and cut for Medicare, And these are cuts. These are not even legislatid cuts. These are just elon fork in the road email cuts. So those cuts, if they're
really accurate. And again they you know, I don't know how I mean, but even just like the freeze, the NIH freeze, right, the NIH funding freeze, these things are not popular, right, Like people don't like the reason why billionaires have had to spend billions and billions of dollars trying to promote tax cuts and stuff like that is because voters don't like it, right, They don't like tax cuts for corporations. Who is that for corporations? Not shareholders?
So Republicans. So I think that as it goes through, people are going to see like, oh I used to have this and now I don't. Oh who's president? I mean, you know, I think that is definitely going to happen and be real. And you're already seeing like cuts to snap. These are Trump voters, right, These red states are not filled with affluent people.
Yeah, now people in Alabama now can't pay their electric bills right.
Right, And even like in Alabama is a really good example because the University of Alabama is the biggest employer in that state. So you have funding frozen to the largest employer in a red state. I'm sorry, but like, sooner or later, that's going to catch up with you. So now the question, I think the real question will be how much can this sort of maga media complex cover for this. How much can they spin? Can they spin you used to get two hundred dollars a week,
Now you get one hundred dollars a week. Can they spin that? Maybe they can. I don't know. I'm not a psychic, but I think that's where we're going to get to.
Got it? Yeah? Trump said the other day, Oh, there now will be paying it first.
Elon said that. I mean, you know, you're taking stuff away from people. But again, like Democrats keep saying they're going to do this, and Trump voters are like, no, we are out of time. Thank you, thank you, thank.
You always great Another Molly mashup coming next month. Thank you very much. Men O Man heavy time for both of us.
Thank you, Harry Lentman. That was really good. Congressman Eric Swahwaw represents California's fourteenth district. Welcome back to Fast Politics, Congressman Eric.
Swahwell, Hey, Molly, what's happening?
I am without words today. I was on the internet and I noticed that the federal government took eighty million dollars of FEMA money back from the UH from New York. What can they do that? Also, what are we doing?
No, they can't do any of the shit right.
It's mostly just this shock and awe campaign and the courts are just catching up with them on it. The courts don't move at the speed of their corruptionism. Yes, the courts are catching up. That's the good news. And we're winning in the courts.
Also.
The good news now they'll be appealed and ultimately will be in front of the Supreme Court and we're going to see is this the Supreme Court that said that Trump had to be sentenced before the inauguration when he tried to escape that, or is this the Supreme Court that gave him absolute immunity. It's been quite a you know, schizophrenic court, and so it's hard to tell what they'll do. But the good news is like this stuff is being paused and that one's probably going to be paused as well.
And then in the House, you know, look, we have government funding coming up.
On March fourteen.
These geniuses have never been able to fund the government on their own. The majority of the votes have always come from Democrats. Spoiler alert, they're not going to be able to fund the government on their own again. And so I promise you, my Democratic colleagues and I we are not going to fund a government that they have already shut down, and we are in a government down right now. We're not going to be a part of anything you know, that funds like further shutting down of services.
And so that's the leverage I see us as having here.
So I'm really glad you said that, because that is what everyone wants. I mean, what you just said was exactly the thing that I think a lot of us have been ringing our hands about, which is there's one piece of leverage that Democrats have left, right, which is that Republicans cannot legislate their way out of a paper bag. So you have this funding shutdown, and then you have that Republicans, who care so much about fiscal responsibility want to raise the debt ceiling four billion dollars.
And they didn't want to do this when they saw it as a way to own Joe Biden over a year ago, when Democrats were seeking, you know, to do a shorter term debt ceiling raise, which is essentially just paying our bills. But and Trump was tweeting at the time that Republicans absolutely should not do it again.
He just wanted to, you know, fuck over Joe Biden.
That was the only thinking behind it, and reeding to do with making sure we pay our bills and that we don't default upon our credit. And now that it's Trump, he's like, well, I can't give away these big that's me.
You want to pay out to the billionaires.
So I can't give away all this money to the billionaires without raising the dead ceiling.
That's why he needs to do that.
But you know, Molly, we have to be careful just pointing them out as hypocritical, that doesn't work anymore. I've priced in that these guys, you know, just because they said A on Tuesday and they're saying Z on Wednesday, that doesn't matter. We need to boil it down to you were promised cheaper eggs and all you've gotten is cheaper talk, you know, from the Republican And that's really all that's going to matter.
And by the way, I went to the grocery store to die and there was like a little sign that's like our eggs are more expensive. I want you to explain to us the New Vogue Conversation topic in political circles is that Democrats are not doing enough. I actually think that you guys are starting to really kick it into gear. So tell us what you guys are doing.
A big part of this is just being present, letting our be heard, and I've tried to update my constituents every couple days with an Instagram Live. I'm doing a town hall on Tuesday next week in Union City, the heart of my congressional district. But just being accessible right now, I think is really important so that people know that
you know you're listening. Every week or so, I'm doing this under the Dome, a series where I do about a five to six minute behind the scenes of what we're working on that week, so people know that I'm in the fight and I'm trying to draw them in as well. So I've just recommended my colleagues be as accessible is possible. Always on as a model right like of social in the community on television. Just be always on right now so people know you know that we
have not shrunk in our duties. But I also say to people who are on the sidelines right now and they're demoralized and they're upset about what happened in the November election.
I tell them, I understand.
If you are not yet ready to join the fight, and when you are ready, I'm ready to hold your hand and go to battle with you. So just tell me when you're ready, and I'll fight for you, and others will fight for you.
But I'm all in.
Right now, Let's talk about sort of what Democrats can do. So there's going to be a dead ceiling fight, there's going to be a government shutdown fight. You don't have control of the House, but you have sort of some control of the House. So talk us through. Can you guys do hearings? What kind of oversight can you guys do.
We can kick ass in these congressional hearings. And I think you're seeing us rise to the occasion in that regard. Like you know, watch rober Garcia, a sophomore member from Long Beach, you know, Marjorie Taylor Green first day ever with the Gabble today doing this doge hearing, and he was great. He was responding, landing points, using demonstrative evidence to make his points to it.
It was good.
He was working in all all forms of media to do it. And I'm just excited about this next generation of leaders that we're seeing, for example, on the Judiciary Committee, we added Jasmine Crocket and Dan Goldman and Jared Moskowitz. I mean, these were people who really shined in the Oversight Committee last year and now they're on Judiciary under Jamie Raskin's leadership. And so yeah, it's also hearings we
hold them accountable. And then we have our own legal strategy that Leader Jeffries is starting to roll out to show you know, what we can do as well to join the legal fight, you know, to stop you know, the worst of the Trump administration so.
We're not we're not helpless.
And then, by the way, we need to show the country who are the people on the Republican side that are making the decisions about your life, who are most likely to be thrown out of office if they make the wrong decision, And so that you know, you give them a homework assignment so they know who are the twenty to thirty people who we should start organizing and mobilizing around to beat if they were to take away your health care or increase the cost of it.
So you're going to hit frontliners on the GOP side.
We have to.
This is important only because right now and I can say this is somebody who ran against an incumbent myself when I got elected. This is the period of time where candidates are deliberating over whether they want to run for office. And we'll know by early fall who are the candidates running and the seats that we are the best shot at winning, and the caliber of those candidates
is going to matter. And so what we can do on the inside right now in Congress is to create an environment where the waters are worn and they feel like, Okay, I'm going to make this big sacrifice, put my family through hell, have to ask all my friends for money, knock on one hundred thousand doors, and will it be worth it? Is there a shot for me to win? So we can create the environment where they see that it's worth it, so that we attract the best who
can give us the best shot to win. And if we win the House, Molly, we cut our time in hell and half right.
And if you win the House, you can do oversight. One of the things I've been struck by is watching members of the Doge Committee but opening the door again. What I don't understand is you've got Republicans want They're saying that they want to cut waste, but really they want to cut the government subsidies the kind of thing I mean, don't They just want to cut the social safety net and they're saying that the safety net is fraud. I mean, explain this, gass.
The only way you know to pay for these tax cuts that they're proposing, you know, would be cuts to the Affordable Care Act, Social Security or Medicare and Medicaid. That there's no way around it. And so that's what they're going to have to do. And by the way, we are seeing as Doge cuts, the government under Trump is going to spend you know, more on Musk's government funded projects.
Right, So he's in these systems.
I would put him on a top five list of individuals who benefit the most in America from government spending. And he's in there making cuts as his contracts expand.
So that that is right. Concert.
Do you know what Elon Musk and his merry band of early twenty year olds are doing in all those government computers.
They're in your data, they're in my data, they're in the data of Americans.
And what are they doing in there?
They're going through to see, you know, how they can change the way that government funded programs are funded. And we've seen this because of the filings that these departments and agencies have had to do under court order. And we learned, you know, yesterday that one of these doge bros.
He was supposed to.
Be in what's called a read only part of the Treasury Department's data, but that he was given accidentally. They said, you know, the ability to edit and to take affirmative acts. Whether they are acting maliciously with our data or whether through mistake, these unvetted, untrusted individuals are getting access to our data, it's still a shit show, right. I don't care if it's malice or unintentional. I don't want these unvetted individuals to have access to our data.
It just seems like a big violation of our priduice.
Also, why do they want the data? Like, that's what I don't totally understand, Like, tell me what the sort of what they say the excuses for doing it.
They would argue that they're trying to look at how the government spends money and who the recipients are and whether there's cuts that can be made. Now, of course, if they're like chat gpten this thing, they're essentially looking for any anything that has to do with climate change,
anything that has to do with the verse city. We had one massive government agency whistleblower come to our office and tell us that a particular project was told get rid of everything on your website and in your materials that refers to climate change. So there's this just practice of identifying government programs that help people that don't align with what Donald Trump wants. And these are ones that are already funded by Congress and deleting them and ending them.
And you know, the good news is is I said, the courts are not going along with this right now, but that is their aim.
What can you do in Congress to sort of put the brakes on? Are you guys willing to do more sort of blocking doors and forcing them to do whatever they can do? I mean, what else can you guys do?
My vote is the most powerful tool that I have. I am going to block a further government shutdown. So I'm not going to support anything that keeps the government shut down, which is what they're doing right now. My voice is the other effective tool, and so I'm going to continue to update my constituents, tell them what they can do in the fight as well, and who they should be holding accountable and so that we socialize, you know, with.
The public what the cost is of all of this.
But I think at the end of the day, Molly, what this really has to be about is what the fuck.
Does any of this have to do with lowering.
The cost of your groceries. That's what I promised he had a mandate to do that. He never manage to go look at our data, you know, with people that don't work for the government. You have a mandate to put the most violent people who have ever you know, attacked the government and put them on our streets. Hen to have a mandate to fire FBI agents who combat terrorism and public corruption and money laundering. He didn't have a mandate to do any of that, but that's where
his focus, you know, seems to be. And then anything that goes wrong he just blames Dei. That's what he says. If there's an airplane crash, it was DEI. If there's a fire in La it was Dei, Which means to me that the next time he says something was caused by DEI, that to him, DEI stands for didn't ever investigate, Because that's just an alibi for them to not be held accountable for what's happening on their watch.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Eric, of course, thank you all.
No, momentlefut, Jesse, Cannon, Molly, we know this stuff is coming. North Dakota is going to try to ban the morning after pill, because that's smart.
I never saw this coming. I never ever ever saw this coming. I never ever, ever, ever ever saw this coming. Yes, who could have seen that the Republicans who wanted to ban the abortion pill would take their banning powers to the morning after pill. Look, the whole idea is that Republicans believe that a sperm and an egg is a person and that that person should have more rights than
you do. And that is how we got here. So, yes, North Dakota, the Republicans are going to do this personhood bill HB thirteen seventy three, which would make abortion of crime that can be prosecuted similar to murder and assault. But that said, if you murder a woman, you're probably okay. It defines an unborn child is an egg innisperm. Does
this pass? I mean there's no reason why it won I mean, these guys are out of control, by the way, I just want to point out this is what Project twenty twenty five wants to do, and if you don't see that birth control is next, then I don't know what to tell you. 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.