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 a data for Progress. Paul found that fifty two percent of Americans believe that President Trump was motivated to take military action against Iran to distract from the Epstein files. Wow, we have such a great chow for you today. Emma's Now. Steph Rule stops by to talk about Trump making up a story about an ex president backing his war in the Middle East. Spoiler
there is then ex president is him. Then we'll talk to Boltz Magazines Alex Burness about the Supreme Court election in Wisconsin. It could be one of the year's most important elections. But first, the news.
BII all the time the Trump administration tells on themselves, says the quiet part out loud, But this one, I want to enter it into the Greatest Hits album of absolute Toewing on themselves quotes that truly I was laughing.
So but the fact is that the US economy is fundamentally sound and that if it were to be extended this it wouldn't really disrupt the US economy very much at all. It would hurt consumers, and we'd have to think about, you know, if that continued, what we would have to do about that. But that's like really the last of our concerns right now, because we're very confident that this thing is going ahead of schedule.
Kevin has to bally friend of the pod. Justin Wolfers calls him happy happy Kevin, not.
To be confused with handsome Kevin.
Handsome Kevin. Happy Kevin is still happy. So he's saying that they don't care the gas prices are going up. This is from Donald J. Trump. Literally, all he did was complained about gas prices while Biden was president.
Can I give you a gas price report from my corner. It went up forty cents since our last episode two days ago. Really, gas prices on average are up over a dollar now.
In Brooklyn, a fifth of all oil and Jack goes through the straits of our mouse. That's a lot of oil and gas and it's not going through those straits. There's nothing in there except lots of minds and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So here's the question when we look at this, which is gas is going to get more expensive, food is going to get more expensive. Money could get more expensive. I mean, this is just a super bad thing. And it's also worth pointing out that.
I think it's worth pointing out just for a minute here that Trump said he was going to make things cheaper. Trump is now just laser focused on not doing that in any way, shape or form. And so Kevin has said he's happy, but he shouldn't be.
I don't think he should be happy anymore when there's lots of catch up, big throat in his direction.
He should be anxious.
Kevin.
So by the big, big news that really shook everybody today is a guy everybody thought that was in the Trump camp on foreign policy. Joe Kent worked as a US counter terrorism center ahead. He has resigned over this bullshit Iran war in the premises upon which we have entered Iran.
Yeah, I want to take a moment here to remind all of us nothing good is going on here. Okay, no one is like trying to be a good person, But Joe Kent has decided that Israel got this administration
into the war. That's the same thing that Marco Rubio said. Now, why is that relevant, Well, it's relevant for any number of reasons, and Again, this is this sticky part of the situation, which is if you are anti Israel, of which there are many people, and look, Israel has not behaved in a good way, and especially because they've been run by Nenya, who is basically running the country in order to stay head of jail. So you can see
where this is going. But Joe Kent has said that he does not think that this administration was going America first, and you know, look, he's right, right, if you were most concerned about America first, you would not have attacked a country with ninety eighty ninety million people filled with religious extremists and opened a Pandora's box which has led to higher gas prices and will soon lead to all sorts of other second order, third order effects. So I
do think that he is both right. And also I'm always a little itchy in Trump world when people start becoming anti Zionists, because there's also a section of MEGA that is profoundly anti Submitta. So I'm not saying that's what's going on here, but I'm also saying that there is a schism in MAGA that's being revealed here, which is the Erica firsts and then the anti Israel crewe and then there's this really scary vein of anti Semitism
in the party too. Now I'm not saying this is going on here, but I would also like to say that it's a big deal that Joe ken is resigning and writing a real resignation letter. This administration rarely has people do things that aren't just like, oh, mister Trump, you are the most handsome. So in that way, it's also a big deal, and it's meaningful for different reasons. Also, by the way, can we just pause for a second.
The fact that Trump World then immediately went after him and Tyler Budowitch, a Trump advisor, said that Kent is a crazed egomaniac who just wants to make us splash before getting canned is pretty amazing because like who hired Kent?
Yeah, yeah, I think this is always the thing is it's like we could just predict this Steve Chung pattern every time that it's like, Okay, what is the insult to insult this person's past work and their motivations with It's every time. It's motivations and past work every time. Just fill in the madlib. Yeah, so we had a great guest from Pro Public con last week Doug back Clark, who talked about the plots to steal the midterms election and the people in Maga who are working to do us.
New York Times Today has a lot of color on this story called Trump's cutting of election security fuels worries of midterms.
Yeah, and again we're worried. I think that we're worried, and rightly so. Election officials in Arizona opened their online candidate portal last summer. It was immediately clear and have been hacked. The photos of aspiring public servants had been replaced by red and black images of Ayodtola Kumani Rand for Supreme Leader. That's a bright spot. Yeah. So a lot of our wars are now fought to cyber. Right. I think Donald Trump was the first person to say
this about cyber. It's very complicated cyber and we need our federal government to make sure that things are safe, that our technology is safe, which they are planning not to do.
Yeah. Speaking of these efforts, Trump has admitted that jd Vance will target blue states in his fraud task force. Yeah.
I mean that's what they did in Minnesota. Right, Why did they go to Minnesota because of fraud. Who found the fraud? Nick Shirley, Well, really, who found the fraud? The inspector generals from twenty twenty and in fact, the people who had committed the fraud were already in jail. So they are going to do more stuff like that.
Trump administration wants to run on fraud the problem. And maybe Trump one point zero could have run on fraud, but Trump two point zero has embraced fraud in such a profound and disturbing way, like let us look no further than everyone's favorite cowgarall Christy No, Christy Nome? What did Christy Nome do?
She I could get past the idea for being my favorite cowboy EPs.
But the reason that she ultimately is now leading the American Shield of not existing is because Senator John Kennedy asked her wherethy two hundred and twenty million dollars went? And she couldn't answer. Okay, So, if you're running on fraud and your Homeland Security secretary has inhaled two hundred and twenty million dollars, not great, strong and great. We
have exciting news over at our YouTube channel. The third episode is out now from our series Project twenty twenty nine are 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, antitrust, and regulation. Our newest episode is on how we solidify reproductive rights for women.
We talk to the smartest names in the fields like Abortion every Day is Jessica Vlenti, 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 two. 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. Steph Rule is the host of the Eleventh Hour with Stephanie Rule, airing weeknights at eleven pm EEST on ms now. She's also the co host of ms now as YouTube live series It's Happening with Belshie and Rule. Welcome, Welcome, Steph for all.
Thank you, thank you, Molly Jong, how are you doing great? Overwhelmed. There's so much news to cover. I mean, there's just so much. There's so much news. I mean there was before the war, and the war has thrown just the war impacts almost every other thing that we cover, and I think, unlike just covering the US economy, the average person doesn't think about foreign policy. The average person doesn't
vote on foreign policy. And so just even getting to basics, right, lots of us were in the news business are now like knee deep in national security and foreign policy, but most people aren't. And so just every day, even getting to the point of zero of like what's the history of Iran? How did we get here? Why did we get here? And where do we go from? Where do we go from here? Is so difficult because the administration has yet to articulate why we got here and even what we're doing.
Yeah, I wanted to talk about that because it feels like this is sort of this war with Iran was always like the third rail, right, Like there were so many Republicans who had sort of they had sort of toyed with this. I mean John Bolton is a great example. You have John Bolton who is like missed. If you think of a person who loves war like in this, you know, in this decade which is not a very you know, a decade where we sort of had gotten over foreign adventurism, or at least we thought we had,
and Donald Trump had. He even has said it's like almost enough at this point, which is a terrifying idea.
It really is about strategy, not even execution, because we've got, you know, the greatest military in the world. But I cover a lot of guys who are sort of George Bush, Conda, Leeza Rice loving Republicans who you know, at the beginning of this were like, I love this, I wanted this forever. Do you know how horrible Iran is? And you're like, yes, totally. But now here we are eighteen days in and they're
like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa whoa. Right, just think about this, the president who's been beating up on our NATO allies in every possible way, both in Trump on point zero but especially in Trump two point zero. It was just a few weeks ago our European allies had to put troops in Greenland because Trump wanted to take it.
Right.
Yeah, we dis heard from Germany's Foreign Minister Finance minister yesterday, when the President is saying, you guys better show up, NATO allies, you better help us, or you're going to face consequences, they basically said, this is not our war. And I think one of the reasons they're saying it not that they're not our ally and they don't come
to our aid. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday the President knew beforehand the calculation that if we decided to strike Iran, there's a really good chance they would f with the straight of horror moves, they would shut it down. The President knew this and decided I'm going to go forward anyway. So I think one of the main frustrations, besides that you've been beating us up in every possible way since you've been in office, Like besides like the
emotional aspect of it. From our foreign allies, they're like, where's the strategy, bro? You knew this could happen with the straight of horror moves. But you know, Trump is always like, I'm the biggest, I'm the baddest, I'm the best. I'm gonna steal your lunch money and you're still gonna
give me your homework. And they're like, we all saw this coming and sort of while closing the straight of horror moves doesn't hurt us as much as let's say it would have in the seventies and the eighties, because we're far more oil independent, it hurts the whole world, right, they would say, like when the US, you know, sneezes, the rest of the world gets the flu. That's parts of South Asia right now, who are saying people should work from home, we need to close schools because they're
so dependent on that oil. And just watching the president or the administration say we're going to guarantee the tankers are going to be safe going across the street. We're gonna have navy escorts. All it takes is one mind, right, these tankers are such easy targets, and trying to convince these companies sure. I mean the President last week was basically like, boys, don't be chickens. You better get on that butt and go court. Don't be chickens.
Come on now, well, also, don't be chickens. And also there's no one who is going to ensure that the oil, which is the reason you're doing it, which is why the ship would blow up. Anyway, I want to pull back and talk to you about something that you and I have talked about before. Majohn, Yes, Majohn No.
That's why I'm here.
No, the idea that this administration was an administration crafted by the rich for the rich. And there was a time right before the right in the summer running up to twenty twenty four life, where you and I had many a talk where we both it was clear it for me, and I'm sure it's clear to you that we've both been talking to very rich people, maybe the same very rich people, may be different very rich people,
and they had all been like, this is it. We're gonna get the government we want and they're gonna fixed right, and they're gonna fix book, and they're gonna do all the stuff that we have been secretly wanting them to do. So go on that.
So I would say two things. So on one level, this administration was crafted by the super rich for the super rich. And you see it in every way possible. Right, It's why I think you do not see the president doing rallies. President Trump doing rallies used to be one of his favorite activities. Right drop down on the plane, You're in an open field, thousands of people coming like you're my boy, bro. Finally we've a president who's gonna
bring jobs back to the rust belt. Like I can talk the way I want to talk, I can live the way I wanted to like, don't tread on me. President's on two rallies total. Instead, he goes from the White House to mar Lago. Mar Lago, go to the White House? Why because he is in a guilded, gilded cage. This administration are completely beyond serve with the pleasure of this president. There is no one to push back on
him at all. When you're wondering, how come but the exception of Christy Noam, how come none of these cabinet members get bounced they're failing at their jobs. It has nothing to do with failing at their jobs. They serve President Trump. They don't say no to him. They follow his every whim and he likes that. Now, when you think about who he's spending his time with, go to mar a Lago. Right the night we struck a ram, they still held a multimillion dollar fundraiser and the press
secretary said it was super important to do it. So the president is now surrounded by people in the business community who are who are wildly profiting from this information. I mean, excuse me from this administration. Either it's they get information and able to invest on a fury and slipt. They get information and they're able to invest on it. They're getting government contracts. There's lots of people that I cover who don't like the president, who think the president
is dangerous. However, they have figured out that he's completely transactional and they know how to work him.
Right.
Last year, as devastating or as complicated or as problematic as the tariffs were, the President Howard Lutnik, I would argue, even with the Supreme Court striking the tariffs down, I would argue, they still wouldn't have it any other way because every single day last year, fixers were getting paid to get business people and foreign leaders meetings with the
Commerce Secretary, meetings with the president, meetings with the Treasury secretary. Right, they would come in and the answer, you know, trying to get an exemption from the tariffs, And the answer is great, what are you gonna give me? And on every possible turn, those businesses, those foreign leaders were giving gifts, favors, presents, business opportunities to administration. And so I think that the idea that this was going to be an America first administration.
I would say the president wanted to implement ideas around the America. His America first policies in Trump one point zero right close the border was all about like America first. What you're seeing now is truly Trump first, right. Donald Trump Junior is an advisor to both Calshie and Polymarket, the two prediction markets.
Right.
We've got people betting day in and day out about the war. John Junior is now an advisor in a drone company. The President signed an executive order what was it eight weeks ago, We're not buying Chinese drones anymore. Lots of people have always gotten the ick over presidential pardoning power. The dick has gone so far off the reservation. There's tons of reporting on we know how a full like lobby and cottage industry just focused on having part
super wealthy people unpardoned. And remember when people are unpardoned, they're not just getting out of jail. In the cases of white collar crimes or the cases of fraud where they then are expected to pay millions of dollars to the individuals who they wronged. That disappears so It's not just this person's you know, get out of jail. Think about all of their victims who are not being made whole. And so what I find interesting though, is now we're
at war. Now we have a press secretary who has not said that we wouldn't employ a draft.
So for all of.
These super wealthy people who are like, you know, I'm going to get this guy wrapped around my finger, or who didn't like them, but they said, if you can't beat him, join them, or they love what their stock portfolio is doing, or they love the tax reefunds they're getting. What are they going to do? Build a moat around their castle with a drawbridge. We're now at war.
Yeah, for sure. I think there was a fair amount of not thinking through the second order of facts. I'm being like, you know, in Straits of Her Moves is a really great example of that. Like anyone who had read a book knew that that was what Iran had, that that was the thing they could do that would cut you know, twenty persist.
Welcome to trading one oh one. You've got guys who are great investors who think I'm a great stockpicker. You know, I understand how markets work. And they believe that transitions into deeply understanding the complications of war. No, you don't. Okay, that's like you don't, and so exactly like the second order effect is where all these people are like, oh, but the problem is the second order effect impacts our military,
it impacts our country, it impacts our budget. If you're just an investor, you can buy it all today, and you can sell it all tomorrow and then hop on your plane and head to Palm Beach. Just think about the fact that this war is costing US a billion dollars a day.
Yeah, let's talk about the third order effect here. So in New York, you and I have a mayor who are very rich friends. I've never seen that more agitated. In fact, I have had friendships and over the mayor because they're so upset. I'm not entirely sure why, but they're very mad. The mayor has so far, you know, for a New York City mayor, you know, which is largely a job that's not ideological but management, He's done
a pretty good job unless I'm missing something huge. So my question is there is there is clearly a backlash to a government cryptocracy, And my question is what happens next with that.
So you know, it's funny, like we'll see. It's hard to say because we don't know in terms of what has mom Donnie done so far? Well, like, sure, it's great they've picked up this note. You feel good about that. I think that the other shoe hasn't dropped yet with what is he going to do about taxing New Yorkers?
Right?
New Yorkers already pay a ton of money in taxes. I think that's the whole thing. However, this idea that people are leaving New York in droves is just not the case. Right, We've seen it. We see it in California. Like this idea in California that they're going to have the billionaire sax. I'm not even saying whether I like it or not, But what I am saying is, if you think you're going to get billionaires in California to suddenly fork over a giant amount of money, they're not.
Here's the thing about being a billionaire. You're not worried about leaving your house empty in New York City. You're not worried about where your kids go to school. If you're a billionaire, you're going to pick up stakes and you're gonna go somewhere else and you're gonna bring your tutors and your kids. So this idea that like they're going to scoop up the billionaires there, I don't know how they're possibly going to do that. I'm not saying
whether they should or they shouldn't. Butt if they interpreted that, it's just going to be hard to do.
Yeah, I do.
Like, guess what nobody is better at swan diving through a loophole than billionaires. They can pick up a move most people can't. However, this idea that people are leaving New York in droves is bot loaning here. Case in point, try to get into a restaurant in New York City, you cannot.
Go to get into a private school in New York City.
Try to get it okay, getting into private school, getting into kindergarten, and getting into private kindergarten in New York City. This past February was possibly the hardest year we have seen to date. We now have private clubs that cost tens of thousands, in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars popping up all over in New York City. Right six years ago, you probably had, you know, soho house, a few like Union League Club doubles kind of places uptown now all over the place.
Right.
I was just speaking to like a major, major restaurant tour who said, you cannot get into any restaurants at this point. And so this argument that the wealthy are fleeing, the wealthy are not fleeing.
Right.
What we are seeing is school of young people saying, I don't understand. I've worked my tail off and and I simply cannot afford New York City. And those young people are how Dora Mamdani was elected right, right, And many of these young people aren't super radical, they're simply saying this doesn't add up. When you grew up here, I didn't, but you know, when I got out of school, it was expensive. Young people moved to New York City, like you moved to New York City and you didn't
have to donate plasma on your way home from work. Right, there's always an expensive city.
Theoretically eventually by something.
Yes, but I mean even even as a renter, right, like you could come to New York it was possible. And now young people are saying it's simply not possible. And Listen, there's lots of reasons people feel the way they feel about Zora Mamdani. I'm just speaking economically. If we do end up seeing major taxation, I think it's
going to have an impact. But between then this idea, right, I think I think part of the narrative of people saying, look, everybody's leaving in droves, I think it's being led by like real estate brokers who sell properties in Greenwich. Like I just I don't there's not evidence of it.
I want to get back to this idea of what's happening right now with Trump because he knows what he's doing is not popular. And I think he knows it because any time he talks about the mid Trumps, he talks about the Save Act. And I think that that that his pivot to the Save Act is a real case and point of why right. And we even hear other Republicans say things like, you know, if we don't pass the Save Act, debt da da da dead.
So just think about this. He's not trying to do anything in terms of serving the American people, whether it's on healthcare or the price of He literally is just.
Throwing the hail Mary pass No, No, no, no.
No, It's got to be the Save America Act because I need to I need to suppress voting.
Now.
Do I think he's devastated, I don't. I think the Save Act is like his last ditch effort and he doesn't want to get smoked in the midterms. However, however, I don't think he's nearly as upset about it as he would have been in Trump one point zero. I had a chance to be the president. I had a chance to see the president ago. I had the tribe,
and it's a privilege. I'm not complaining about it. I had the privilege of going to the White House for lunch on the day of the State of the Union, and I would argue, one of the things settled, not that I've Listen, you can feel however you feel about the president, if you want to cover him getting a front row seat and getting to spend an afternoon of them. I'm not saying, you know, we were sipping diet cokes, having the same I'm not saying we had two straws
and one diet Coke. I'm not saying, you know, we've played back Ammon in the in the in the in the Lincoln bedroom, but if you want to cover the president, getting to sit across from him and listen, listening to him talk for three hours, it was to me there was a huge value in it.
That's why I really still the leader of the free world. You don't have to like him, but he has that correct.
But that's where I really started to see. I'm like, this guy is in a gilded cage. Yeah, we can't. We can't stress enough how much money he's making. Okay, his family is now worth billions and billions of dollars. Okay more than if you argue that his life here of political hero is Vladimir Putin, look no further than Trump's wealth, right, Vladimir Putin was once a KGB agent. He now despite the fact that that Russia's economy has been severely handicapped for years, He's one of the richest
people in the world. Trump could end up in that situation, right, Don Junior and Eric. Look, Jared, Jared is in the Middle East as a chieved negotiator while he's raising money for his fund.
Yes, I can't. You know, also, who doesn't invest in that fund? He is making the policy that you can this is it.
But this is it who doesn't invest in that fund. He directly impacts everything at this point, and I just to economy and he can yes, yes, So I'll just go back to to is the president worried about the midterms? Sure, but I don't think to the extent people. So he's like, yes, let's get this Save America Act thing through so we can make sure not enough people vote. But beyond that, girl, he can just tune out because inside that wonderland at the White House, he's got you know, scores of servers
there with his diet coke. He's got an entire administration saying when did you get great at being perfect? And then he heads down to mar A Lago where people are saying, can I please pay five million dollars for five minutes of your time? He likes that.
Yeah. It does seem like from yesterday's presser that where he said he had talked to another president.
I was just about to say this girl, I was.
That he might be losing a step. I don't want to get to.
He's in the presser and he's like, let me tell you. I can't. I can't tell you which president it was. You know it might be bad for him. No, no, no, no, no. But one president called me instead, I wish I did it.
You're doing it.
I wish I did it right. And within minutes Bill Clinton not me, right, Barack Obama not my team? George went, don't they get me to call him from our squad?
Like?
What is like? Like who are in saying?
Called you?
Bo?
Like like like I'm sorry, what what are are you talking about? But guess what the president says that that sound bite gets clipped, and there are without a doubt news organizations that are now going to push to their audience. A former president called him and said it was a good idea, okay, and those same news organizations are not going to follow that up with But wait a minute. We all reached out to the living president's teams and nobody and they all said, not it. That part is
not going to get to that audience. And that is a gift.
To the Louise Rule.
George Bush Republicans out there who were saying, you know, he heard from another president. I'm sure it wasn't Barack Obama. I'm sure it wasn't Bill Clinton. It was probably George Bush. You know, he's down there and he's down there in Texas. He's his wonderful wife. She's a reader. He turned Trump behind closed doors. Great job, right.
God, you really do have a Republican mother. And it's also right. I mean, it's what is both demented and also very small about Trump.
There is because there knows that it.
Will get repeated by the CBS's of the world in a way that's not fact checked, and it will be a little nod and a wink to those to that group that is a sort of swingish, not really swingish.
Or not, they're not swingish, but it's a group of people who are looking for something to hold on to, to say, look, this makes sense, right. So so like my mom, who can talk about gas prices and food prices until her head falls off like this obviously makes it difficult because.
Gas prices are up, food prices are signa rize. What is she going to I haven't spoken to her in last twenty of our hours, but what is she going to hang on to? She's gonna say, I'm pretty sure George Bush, because it was kind of Liza a week and a half ago who said that she likes this idea.
Right.
I don't know how she feels today, but Louise Rule. Will will will pull on those two strings, and that's get to be the lily pad that she floats on to say, like, see, don't you go telling me like he's out there doing something crazy nobody wants. George Bush told him it was a good idea, and so the president does this. But I will say this, like when you said the CBS is of the world. Yes, but at the same time, you've got Petegs who's mad at
the press. You've got Brendan carr is mad at the press, the President who certainly is hot.
Damn.
Journalists are killing it right now. This weekend alone, just last week, I mean, saw CBS do some great reporting, but great retournal Washington Post, New York Times, I mean the wallh Ret gneral reporters. I'm not sure when they ate showered or bust their teeth. This weekend. The most extraordinary thing to me, PETEGSF kicks everybody out of the Pentagon Press Corps unless you unless you signed a document that says we're only going to report on your press release,
We're only going to push your advertising. Right and the last week exist and last, I don't like how my double chin is looking which I feel that I don't like how my double chin is looking. Let's get these photographers out of here. While that is happening, you've got calls from the inside, from the outside, from upside down, from in the basement, calling reporters saying this is no bueno.
No no, no, no no.
The President knew the risks in Iran and did it anyway right. Think about the jumbled communication last week about the potential that we did unintentionally strike that girls' school in Iran. Just think about how great the reporting is. And every time I read another one of these well sourced, super important stories, I feel grateful for all those journalists doing it out there. Steph Rall, thank you, Thank you. Sister.
Alex Berness is a staff writer at Foltz Magazine. Welcome Alex to Fast Politics.
Thank you for having me.
It's a great state of Wisconsin. Explain what the how is going on?
Well, what I'm about to say might feel familiar to listeners, because it feels like we've had so many world's most important elections in Wisconsin for the state Supreme Court. At least, people will almost definitely remember in twenty twenty three when liberals were trying to flip the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and it was fifty million dollars plus that was spent on that race, and Janet Protoso, it's won that race and
she did flip it. And then last year we had another race where Liberals were trying to defend one of their seats. They needed to win this race in order to maintain that four to three edge, and they did. So here we are in twenty twenty six. The Wisconsin State Supreme Court is a four to three advantage for liberals. This has been a particularly big deal in the space that I write most about, which is democracy and voting
rights and election administration. And one of the first moves that this liberal majority did was to toss out some pretty aggressive Republican state house jerrymanders that helped that party stay in power for a long time there. And so in April and April seventh, there's going to be yet another election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. This time, the seat that's coming open is one that is held currently by a conservative justice, staying Rebecca Bradley. She's resigning, right, Yeah,
she's decided not to seek re election. Okay, So where does this leave conservatives they need to win that seat just to stay in the four to three majority. Democrats, on the other hand, have a chance here to go on offense. If they win, they have a five to two majority, which really seemed I mean, as of pretty recently wild.
Right, It's totally wild.
I mean, we looked at it, and at least since the nineteen seventies we can say there hasn't been a liberal majority on this court of at least five seats, so modern history, this would be unprecedented, and it would make this court. It would cement this court as one with a liberal majority through at least twenty thirty, which is an especially big deal if you consider, well, among other things that are gonna happen between now and then,
we have a twenty twenty eight presidential cycle. So here's a chance, long story short, for liberals to expand their majority on this court and in so doing lock down the majority through the next presidential cycle and even beyond.
So let's talk about this because it's important for any number of reasons. If you think about Wisconsin, like this is the home of Ron and on Ron Johnson, like the most insane Zealodus senator. So it is really a land of contradictions. There was another Supreme Court seed this last election, the one we were just talking about, the
very expensive one. What we saw, which I think is really interesting and I'd love for you to talk for a minute about it, was that a guy called the Elon Musk pretty much bored gazillions of dollars into that race. Democrats were able to run against Mosque. Can you just talk about that dynamic, as I think that's interesting.
Well, they did so.
I mentioned that the twenty twenty three race ended up with more than fifty million dollars spent, which was easily a record at the time. The twenty twenty five race, the one that Musk decided to get involved in, almost doubled that amount. We're talking about one hundred million dollar plus elections. Completely wild, completely unprecedented.
You could just give people money with that much money, I mean, there aren't even that many people in Wisconsin, like just give them a path.
Yeah, you could do a lot of things with one hundred million dollars.
Yeah.
And by the way, it didn't even particularly work.
If anything, it probably worked in Liberal's favor because they were able to make him the face of this race. I think you can read between the lines in how the candidates are running this year. The concern candidate Maria lazar who's a Court of Appeals judge. Her opponent, by the way, the liberal Chris Taylor, is also a judge
on the Wisconsin Court of Appeals. Lazarre, though she has quite a conservative track record, including support from key figures in Trump world, some of whom were important players in efforts to overturn twenty twenty election results.
Despite that record, it's.
Really interesting if you go on her website, she doesn't list any endorsements. And I mean when she ran for the Court of Appeals set in twenty twenty two, she was happy to list endorsements, including, like I said, for people who had tried to overturn the twenty twenty election. So I think conservatives seem to have gotten the message. I infer that anyway, that okay, if we tie ourselves too much to MAGA, whether it's Musk or Trump or just the movement itself, we're going to get creamed again
in this election. I mean, particularly in this year. If the blue wave that people expect comes to pass. So there's no Musk this year. There also isn't anywhere close whether from him or anybody else to the amount of spending we've seen in twenty three and twenty five. And that is no doubt a result of the fact that the majority is not directly on the line. But that doesn't mean that this is one to be slept on just because the court doesn't have a chance of completely
flipping next month. This is a court that is guaranteed to hear really important cases in the years to come on any of a number of potential topics, including redistricting, abortion, labor rights, all voting rights is a huge one.
You know, this one really matters.
And just because there isn't a ton of money, and just because Elon Musk isn't flying into hold rallies, I mean we still have to look at it the same way.
Can we talk about that cheese hat. Do you remember Elon Musk with the cheese hat?
I do remember that?
Yeah, yeah, my man, Elon Musk so likable, so human, And I want you to talk about what else you're watching in this hyperlocal map.
So this stuff really is local.
And the stuff that is on the line in this election in Wisconsin and on this court can seem like technical sort of nerdy stuff that has huge impacts and that would give people well outside of Wisconsin a reason to care. And I'll give you an example. You'd shouted out Ron Johnson moments ago. Let's go back to twenty twenty five, to that Lon Musk election. The conservative in
that race, the guy who lost was Brad Schimmel. Brad Shimmel had defended voter ID laws in Wisconsin, exceptionally harsh voter ID laws in Wisconsin an example of a local policy that the average listener here probably hasn't thought of
or doesn't even know exists. And he had touted proudly not in this particular campaign he was running because judges tend to tighten up a bit when they're on the ballot, But before he was a candidate for the state's court, had defended voter ide and touted it as a successful
tool for Republicans to hold onto power. And if you go back and look at some really interesting research that was done out of the University of Wisconsin, it found that voter ID laws there had successfully blocked thousands, like twenty five thousand plus voters in Milwaukee and Madison, disproportionately super liberal areas and disproportionately black and low income voters from voting. That alone was enough to swing the twenty
sixteen election in Trump's favor. So that's the kind of thing that this court and this state House are talking about. These are things that are in active conversation and that really matter, yes, locally, but then end up reverberating in these humongous ways.
I would love if we could talk just for a minute or two about what else you're seeing in the other sort of state in the run up to the midterms.
In Wisconsin or beyond beyond.
The thing it bolts is that we're interested in the down ballot, and by that I mean virtually anything that isn't federal, though we do keep an eye on that stuff.
I'll name one thing.
You know, We're extremely interested in sheriffs, who have serious power to be force multipliers or obstacles if they so choose to Trump and the mass deportation plan. And we have seen across the country a surge of sheriff's offices partnering with ICE to deputize local officers to act as
federal immigration enforcement agents. Just to give you a sense of what I mean when I say that there's been a surge when Trump came into office, there were one hundred something about one hundred and thirty local offices who were partnered with ICE to do ICE as bidding on the ground. Now there's more than one thousand, three hundred. The majority of these are in sheriff's offices, and the majority of the roughly three thousand sheriffs in this country
are elected. So I would encourage anybody who's interested in ICE and in their local politics to check if you have a sheriff on the ballot. There's a bunch that we keep particularly close eyes on. I'm located in DC, and for example, we have a guy, a Republican sheriff in Frederick, Maryland, which is a blue leaning area that
has this Republican sheriff who's partnered with ICE. There's a handful of people in that position too, sheriffs and Harris Counties, counties that Harris carried, that is, who are Republicans partnered with ICE. We're going to be interested in whether those offices flip this year. But even beyond that, I expect immigration to be a really important feature of local sheriff phrases.
And we could talk about a whole bunch of other offices I'm just highlighting that one, but that's one that I'm guessing is under the radar for a lot of readers. And i'd encourage you to check out Boltz's guides to when your state and locality elects sheriffs and you know, go from there, because there's a lot to watch.
Yeah, and that's a really easy you know, that's a race that people don't think about much. It's not super expensive. I mean, it depends on where it is, but it's not like as much as a congressional embrace, and sometimes it just falls under the radar just because of people's distraction.
Right, Yeah, absolutely, And I think also because the mechanics of the immigration enforcement system and of what ICE does can be hard to see and hard to understand. A lot of this collaboration takes place literally behind closed doors, behind locked doors, inside of jails, and you know, we all see and can determine for ourselves how we feel about you know, viral clips of ICE descending on Minneapolis or even just random neighborhoods around town, you know, a
mile from where I live. We've had that happen here in DC, pulling people from workplaces or intercepting them at courthouses or at schools and like that's well documented and that is important to watch dog. However, if you're ICE, you have just this direct pipeline in local jails, which in most cases are overseen by sheriffs, where you can
just scoop people up as they're being intercepted. So when and where sheriffs are working with ICE in this way to say, hey, just so you know, on you know, X date, this guy's going to get released, we can hold him for an extra couple of days for you.
Do you want to come get him? Like that's easy money for ICE.
And on the other hand, when sheriffs decline to collaborate in that way, it doesn't strip ICE, of course of all of its potency, but that seriously inhibits how much it can get done at the local level. And for that reason, repeating myself here a bit, but for that reason, those are offices that really really matter and that are important to watch. Obviously, you know, in twenty twenty six, but you know, kind of always.
So one of the things that like Blue States are doing are banning local contracts with ICE. Can you talk to us about that?
Yeah, I mean, this is a fast moving thing where there are sixteen Democratic trifecta states, that is, states with Democrats in charge of both chambers at the state House and the governor's office, and we're up to a majority of them ten. I believe that formally ban what's called
two eighty seven G agreements with ICE. These are two eighty seven G is the program through which ICE deputizes local officials to act on its behalf, which can mean questioning people based on immigration status during normal interactions where they wouldn't otherwise be empowered to do so. It can mean collaboration like I was just talking about it at jails where they'll detain people for a couple extra days
so ICE can come and scoop them. As much as we're seeing red states on so many fronts, not just immigration, I mean, gosh, writing about voting all the time. This is something I see all over the place in Republican led states. But you know now basically signing up to do Trump spidding and to sign off on the mega agenda. As we see that, we are seeing examples of resistance in blue states, and the two eighty seven G bands are a part of that. So I mentioned a second
ago there's ten out of the sixteen Democratic trifecta. States now banned these two eighty seventy agreements. I mean that's up from seven just a few weeks ago. Maine, Maryland, New Mexico have all just recently passed these bands. Right before you and I got on here, I was talking to somebody in Virginia where they're considering limiting two eighty seven g agreements.
And that's important.
I mean there's literally dozens of Virginia counties that are signed up in this way to assist ICE, and thus depending on what Virginia might pass here in the last few days of its session, we could see dozens of local ways in which ICE ends.
Up being, you know, limited.
So we do have a story about this movement, by the way, a Bolts that went up pretty recently that I wrote if people are interested in learning more. But yeah, there's been a lot of action in blue states lately on the two eighty seven g front, and like I said, we might be saying some more soon.
Can you just do a minute for me on what's happened with Massachusetts and ICE.
The Massachusetts situation is a particularly interesting one. I think people who don't live in Massachusetts or don't follow that state's politics closely, would know the very top line that everybody knows about Massachusetts politics, which is this is just a you know, soundly blue state. The idea of this state putting in a presidential election for Trump is like
virtually unthinkable. But trump Ism lives in that state in at least one significant way that I looked into recently, which is that the Massachusetts Department of Correction still partners with ICE through two eighty seven G. This means that when non citizens are about to be released from prison, Massachusetts is a matter of policy, funnels them directly into
ICE's hands. These are people who have done their time, who in many cases, you know, even though they are technically immigrants and they are not citizens, have lived in the US virtually their whole lives, at least since since they were kids. You know, we talk about departments of
correction and you know, second chances and rehabilitation. I've talked to some of these men in Massachusetts who were victims of this two eighty seven G program, who had completely turned their lives around, and who had served time for mistakes they'd made when they were much much younger.
But nevertheless, Massachusetts has this policy through two eighty seven g of funneling people into ICE's hands when they leave prison and what happens after that can be utterly tortuous.
And some of these guys I've talked to, it's not just like you know, ICE comes and gets to it, like your life is radically changed. They're funneled around to various states that they've never been to. They'll spend I talked to a guy who is in Massachusett prison for fifty plus years. On his release date, he gets intercepted by ICE because that's what the DOC does, hands people over, and he gets brought to Maine. Then they take him out west for seven months. Then he gets put in
a van and dumped in the middle of Mexico. He knows nobody. He's not even Mexican, he's Cuban. So this is what Massachusetts is facilitating. And earlier I'd talked about how many states, how many Democratic trifecta states like Massachusetts have taken steps, including recently to ban two eighty seven geer agreements, to say this type of collaboration that the Massachusetts' prisons are doing, we don't allow that here.
It is notable.
Thus that Massachusetts still has this on the books.
It is unique.
In fact, it is the only state that Harris carried or there's a Democratic governor that has a state level two eighty seven g agreement. And the Massachusetts prison system fought me for months trying not to release data because I was asking what is the impact of this program?
And I ended up having to go through some rounds of appeals, and I won that fight and got some data just recently, actually, a few days ago, that showed that since two thousand and nine, across Democratic and Republican administrations, Massachusetts is sent more than two thousand people directly into ICE's hands from its state prisons.
So this BGRAHAM has not been a small deal.
It's not some minor detail that it remains on the books, but it does. And Mori he Lee and legislative leaders there have been pretty defensive of it.
So I'm guessing it's not going anywhere for a bit.
Alex, Alex, thank you. I hope you'll come back.
I appreciate you having me on. I enjoyed it.
There no moment, Jesse Cannon.
So Molly, let's just remember postmaster Joy.
Yeah, what happened to Joy?
I feel the joy Lists every time I think of him.
Funny, funny guy.
That's right, that's right, That's what I'm here for. So but now we have a Postmaster General, David Steiner, and he has testified that this is the end of the Postal Service as we know it.
Yeah.
Look, they have to support themselves. This is one part of the government that has to support itself. They are borrowing and they're hitting the limit. And by the way, we shall see this in the rest of the federal government soon. Yes, which delivers to more than one hundred and seventy million US addresses six days a week, has a borrowing cap of fifteen million dollars and has already hit that limit. If only they could just get some
money from Homeland Security. From Greg Bovino, who is retiring at fifty five years old, do you.
Think he's pursuing his career in his passion fashion?
I think Greg Vino is going to do a line of Nazi clothing.
Right the world?
What would error jacket?
What would make you think he likes that stuff?
Boy, I don't know Greg Blevino. By the way, the fact that he's only fifty five just blew my mind.
What also blew my mind is his middle day wasn't lockjaw?
What is his middle name?
I forgot, but it's Lockjaw.
Anyway. The point is the way the post Office is funded is totally for COCTA, and they should get a line of credit from the federal government. And then we should take all of that money that was allocated to ice and use it for pay for things that we should be paying for, like the mail.
I mean, they just also need to undo the retirement funding for the Post Office and this would all be solved.
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.