Trump Honors Dead Friend, Restarts War

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com. That's half off at com. There's no safe like SimpliSafe. [01:09] Music. [01:30] Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Jon Lovett. I'm Tommy Vitor. I'm back, guys. Welcome back. It's good to be back. We missed you. And we missed you guys. And you were gone. I was gone. I was gone. You guys did a great job. Great job holding up the fort here. [01:44] Um... [01:45] On today's show, Lindsey Graham is dead and Mitch McConnell is alive. We'll talk about Graham's legacy and McConnell's proof of life photo and how the absence of both men is affecting Republicans' agenda in Congress.

We'll also get into Trump's latest war on the press after the White House and Kash Patel subpoenaed four New York Times journalists over there reporting on Qatari Force One. And whether RFK Jr. has a lid on what's become an explosive outbreak. [02:11] of diarrhea. [02:13] then love it sounds like that's not about your vacation sort of more of a personal thing yeah I was going to say [02:21] see if he can help me out. Then Lovett talks to our pal Brian Tyler Cohen about his brand new book [02:27] The day after, how to wield power in a post-Trump world.

Fun to fantasize, I guess. Yeah, champagne bottle. [02:34] Okay, Brian. All right, but first, let's get to the top story this week. It appears as though the ceasefire with Iran fell apart last week while I was gone, and now we're back to full-scale war. RIP the MOU of Versailles. Trump officially notified Congress that military action has resumed. He also says he's reinstating the naval blockade of Iranian ports and that, quote, [02:57] The USA will be, from this point forward, [03:00] known [03:01] is the guardian of the Hormuz Strait. It really rolls off the tongue.

Just say, look, guardian of the Hormuz Strait. That's what we've always wanted to be. [03:09] USA was kind of boring. [03:10] What do we call it? The Guardian of the Hormuz Straight. Not the first time, uh... [03:15] An agreement signed at Versailles after a war ended poorly, hopefully not as badly as the last time. Good job, D. Vance. Good job. Yeah, really nailed it. We're also apparently going to start charging a 20 percent toll on all cargo that goes through the strait, according to Trump, which seems like it's a violation of international law.

That's according to Marco Rubio last month. Yeah. [03:40] Ticketmaster's like, why so little? [03:44] They're just trying to get their beaks wet. And the Ruby Oak isn't just like, oh, this is illegal. It would be a contagion that would spread across the globe. Yes, looking forward to him talking about that now. Meanwhile, Iran continues to fire off rockets at S. targets across the Middle East and openly threaten revenge on America. [04:01] Not to worry, Trump's got this whole thing under control. Here he is calling into Fox & Friends... [04:05] this morning.

[04:06] We're going to keep the straight and we'll probably run it. We'll become the guardian of the straight. Maybe we'll call it the guardian angel of the straight. And we should be reimbursed for that. Obama was the worst of all because Obama actually went to their side. Obama. [04:21] Because, you know, he's a... [04:23] Um... [04:24] Let's not say, let's leave that for another time. [04:28] Muslim? Is that what he was going to say? I don't know. Socialist. Traitor. Socialist foreigner or something in that vein? An Ayatollah? He's such a dick.

Um... [04:38] Tommy, how feasible do you think it is for the S. to become the guardian angel slash toll booth operator for the Strait of Hormuz? Paging Curtis Lewa, right? Guardian angels. Could we stand up a mission to permanently escort boats to the Strait of Hormuz? Yes. They could do a formal escort mission. It would require a lot of Navy resources. It could last a long time, maybe permanently. I was going to say indefinitely. Yeah, in perpetuity. Hey, another forever war, everybody. It would cost a lot of money, and it would be really, really risky because, again, [05:08] can hit you with drones, missiles, naval mines, God knows what else.

And the whole thing unravels if one gets through. So I don't think that a permanent escort mission is going to get you back to pre-war shipping traffic levels because there's limitations on how many Navy destroyers you have. Fewer companies are going to want to try this because it is inherently more risky. And then a lot of companies are not going to pay a 20% surcharge. That's a pretty big vig [05:38] No. [06:00] No, that's official. Yeah, it's very Hegsethian to me, but it suggests that they viewed sort of what's happening as a time limited and temporary battle with the Iranians.

Also feels like just a way to try to get attention. It's like it's like he's trying to act up Hegseth and they've named all the other missions and they didn't get enough attention. So now we're just going to bitch slap. Yeah, this was this is someone on background for what it's worth. But it feels Hegsethian. There's also a great Wall Street Journal piece about how there's some poorly worded language in the ceasefire MOU that's being interpreted by Iran. [06:30] So great work. As you said, D. Vance, Steve Wachoff and Jared Kushner, like just big picture.

It's just worth remembering. This is going to be a four to five week operation to deal with Iran's nuclear program. And now we're well over four months and we're talking about how to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. I just would add one thing to your list of reasons that this is not a good idea. One other would be that it is not traditionally in the conception of Americans, the role of the S. military to be the permanent security detail for oil tankers. [07:00] through the Gulf to protect the investment of large multinational corporations and the infrastructure by which they transmit fuels.

That's why we got to take a cut, Lovett. I was just doing some math on this. About 20 million barrels a day go through the strait, usually. $80 a barrel, that's $320 million a day, 20% of that. [07:30] charge a toll for people moving through straight or her moose. And as a, as a consequence, we are going to charge a toll for moving through straight and there's this episode of Sopranos where this poor gardener is stuck between a war between Feech Lamanna and Pauly Walnuts. And he just gets the ever loving shit beat out of it over.

At the end of it, Pauly Walnuts is like, you're going to pay me and I did you a favor. I protected you from the other guy and you're going to have to do some lawns for free. That's Trump with this. And they're like, like the, uh, that, that meme of the, uh, [08:00] They're barbarous murderers. And it's like, our blessed protection services, your barbarous protection racket. I saw the Iranians, one of them tweeted out, you know, you're right. Someone needs to control that. But we're going to do it for much less.

Hey, the Iranians, you can get a better deal than Trump. Let me get you into the straight. I'll only take 10%. If I take 20%, I'll get you through the straight in 10%. So stupid. [08:26] It seems to me like Trump's chances of negotiating that MOU into a long-term deal with Iran may have dropped precipitously over the last week or so. But I don't know. What do you think, Tommy? I mean, the Wall Street Journal has reported that the Trump administration thinks a nuclear deal is increasingly unlikely. I wonder why they would think that.

So if you can't get to abide by the 60-day MOU, I don't know that you're going to get them into a more complicated nuclear deal. [08:56] Don't overlap because Donald Trump can't accept a deal that's not demonstrably better than the Obama deal. But the only deal that will ever be on offer is one that's demonstrably worse. Right. And everything about that MOU was about kicking the can on that fundamental problem and all the ups and downs. Like the we have a deal, we have an impasse. These people are bastards who can't work with.

I've never met more reliable partners. [09:26] the fundamentals, which have been terrible from the beginning. Well, and the Trump administration was betting that they could offer Iran a bunch of economic incentives and get them to not want to go back to war. But for Iran, they're like, we just survived a war against the US in Israel. This is our moment to like assert our dominance over the entire region. And they're betting that Trump doesn't want to go back to war before the midterms. And I think they are right, because Trump tells us as much all the time.

So Trump did a little interview with Tommy, [09:56] Do you plan to oust the Iranian regime? And Trump says, well, I think they're a little cuckoo. They all are. To them, deals are made to be broken. They're extremely unreliable people. Hugh, was the MOU that your negotiators brought back built to fall apart? What does that mean? I don't know. Trump says it was built to test. It was a test. We didn't know. Look, memorandums of understanding when you're dealing with sleazebags don't mean much. It is like to your. How many times was Trump like this new group of people?

They're so reasonable. We can make deals with them. [10:26] out there being like, it's really cool for the first time in 47 years that we have all these channels to the Iranians and they just want to chat. And it's just, it's been so cool. [10:35] Yeah, the friends we make along the way. And yeah, the Hugh setup question is like, [10:39] Is it possible, Mr. President, that things are going exactly as you planned? Why, yes, Hugh, I think they might be. I think you're right, exactly as we planned. Huzzah! [10:50] Also, I noticed that Trump at NATO was like, we've already got the nuclear material because it's so far underground, nobody's going to be able to get it except us.

So why did we go to war in the first place? Wasn't the whole point to get the nuclear material? You're going to drive yourself crazy trying to find any sort of internal logic. [11:09] It's so stupid. It is funny that the MOU... [11:13] It formalized the ceasefire. That's gone. It ended the blockade. Blockade's back. Reopened the Strait of Hormuz. Closed again. Sanctions relief. Oil waiver. That's gone now. And now a 60-day clock to negotiate the permanent deal. [11:26] That's August 16th. We are well on our way. Yeah. [11:30] Good stuff.

Good stuff. Well done, everyone. [11:33] Before we move on, I kind of missed this when I was gone, the story about the Iranians, the Israelis – [11:39] giving the S. intelligence that the Iranians are trying to kill Trump again? What's going on there? [11:45] Oh, yeah. Well, apparently they did that. [11:47] Yeah, they are. The Iranians, apparently the Israelis passed along intelligence to the S. claiming that Trump was on some there's some new effort to assassinate him. And Trump went and bragged to the press about how he's like number one on the Iranian hit list.

And that maybe is why he switched from the old Air Force One to the new Air Force One on the way home. We're going to talk about this later. Yeah. But also maybe why he started bombing again. So I'd be probably pretty pissed if D. Vance keeps talking about how cool the Iranians are. [12:17] between two members of a mob family, Corleone gets shot outside that fucking orange stand. It's like, a little too much daylight inside the family, guys. It did make me feel, too, like the Israeli intelligence Netanyahu is probably like, oh, you're not bombing enough lately?

See? See? They're trying to kill you. It's just such a mark. Of course they're trying to kill you, man. You killed Qasem Soleimani, and then you bombed their country for like a month. They like you now? Right. [12:41] Democrats in Congress haven't really had the ability to rein in Trump and Iran, but they may have a chance this week. [12:47] said he's voting no on the annual defense bill known as the NDAA, citing Trump's request for a 50 percent increase at the Defense Department. [12:57] This is separate. This is in addition to the extra $67 billion, I think, in funding that Hegseth's asking for by August and a separate supplemental bill.

[13:08] You guys think every Democrat will see this as an easy call like shots? No, they won't. I mean, maybe they should, but they won't. So this is not appropriations and authorization. Right. So this is about how the Congress is directing money to be spent, but it doesn't actually appropriate the money. [13:27] process for reasons that make sense if you, I don't know, roll call on the toilet, as many great Americans do. But I wonder, because so it's had similar debates in the past about holding something up that actually includes the reforms that Democrats want, right?

So there is an argument that you [13:52] continue to have this pass with a huge super majority. It also raises incomes for the troops, that kind of thing. It has some reforms that Democrats want. Yeah, we should say that everything's in here. Everything's in there. So Ukraine, like the whole defense movement, [14:06] The department strategy, everything for the whole year and not passing it doesn't hamstring the administration to fight the war at all, because it's not actually authorizing any it's not actually appropriating any money. It's just kind of proving how money can be spent.

And then you have a fight that's coming over the supplemental, which was which is what Hegseth really wants and Trump really wants, which is, I think, to me. [14:26] I look at the Senate and be voting no on fucking everything. They fought a fucking insane, stupid war that's hamstringing the global economy without any kind of justification. [14:34] The appropriations is the money he needs and is kind of the, I would say is like the real [14:40] back-end [14:41] authorization of the conflict. Yeah, it seems like if you're, it seems like the reason to target this one, even over the appropriations is the is you could probably do a supplemental.

If they do this, it would be a reconciliation bill. So you only need 51 votes. And this, it seems like they need the full, this is not a 51 vote margin. This is the full. So Democrats. [15:01] probably have if they all banded together they have the votes to block yes but nothing about not passing this prevents them from doing the appropriate look i i'm just that this is this is something that traditionally passes like 80 20 which is a like you know a huge majority because it's for like kind of the broad support of the military and all kinds of rules that they've been trying to fight for yeah i think the the status like the congress has passed an neaa every year for i think 60 plus years so this is usually a thing they get done in a bipartisan fashion i do [15:31] another request for up to 350 billion.

So for 1.5 trillion total, which is what Trump wants, which is an insane amount of money. There's a 42% increase on current levels, which is just not necessary or justified or in interest. And there was some polling that a recent poll found 60% of Americans think that that budget request is too high. And majorities think the Iran war was dumb and unnecessary. And they probably won't be thrilled if they were to learn that it's ramping back up again. So I like easy, no, I think this is an easy no for me.

But there's a lot of Democrats, [16:01] voting against all of the underlying things within this bill and voting against authorizing Pentagon spending is bad politics for them. Again, I think that's a dated view of politics in the world, but I think that's why you'll see majorities vote for it. Yeah, there's a view among some, I'm sure, that [16:16] uh, it's bad politics for sort of the reasons you're getting at, which is like weak on national security, not supporting the troops. There's also like a bad local politics angle, like a slotkin was asked about it and she said, Oh, it's a tough vote specifically because it includes like, you know, money for a new hangar at Selfridge air national guard base.

Right. So you can imagine that there's a number of Democrats like that. Um, but I do think, look, I think it's, it's, it's meaningful that shots who's, you know, in line to be in, in leadership here, um, is, [16:46] They voted, the Democrats voted no in committee. So I don't know. I think at this point, Trump is continuing to fight this war and nothing is stopping him. And you might as well throw everything you have at it if you're in Congress to try to put roadblocks up. Or at least raise attention.

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Pod Save America is brought to you by Bombas. Summer is here and we are living for life outdoors. We've got days at the beach. [18:19] Soccer games, going to soccer games, you're watching soccer games. Ever go rucking, Tommy? We're going rucking. You ever do your rucking? We're splunking. Do you ruck? What's a rucking? Rucking, it's when you just wear a ruck set, just heavy. Wear something heavy and walk around. It's great. A lot of people in my neighborhood do that. I love it. [18:33] That seems like a fun thing to do.

We could do some parkour. Yeah. Remember when that was a thing? Yeah. Remember when planking was a thing? Yeah, well, planking is still a thing. Yeah, well, planking, I guess people were just doing it in public places and falling off of things. But don't do that in your Bombas. Yeah, don't do that. You know what's great with Bombas? Everything. Everything. So super comfortable. Bombas makes your comfiest summer staples so you can make the most out of your summer plans. They've got a whole line of pro-level, sports-specific socks. I wear them every day almost for golf, yoga, the gym, and every kind of runner.

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One purchased equals one donated with over 200 million donations and counting. Head over to com slash Crooked. Use code Crooked for 20% off your first purchase. [20:02] That's B-O-M-B-A-S dot com slash crooked code crooked at checkout. [20:09] So, Republicans will have a tougher time passing anything through the Senate right now since they're currently dealing with two absences, Lindsey Graham, who died suddenly over the weekend, and Mitch McConnell, who is apparently still very much alive. Graham was 71 and died Saturday night from what's being reported as an aortic dissection. Axios reports that a person who had spoken with Graham said the senator complained he wasn't feeling well, but didn't want to seek medical attention until after his Meet the Press appearance the next morning.

[20:37] "I can't die now. I still need to do the Russia sanctions, get Iran sorted out, and do Israeli-Saudi normalization." South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster has appointed Grand Sister Darlene to serve out the remaining months of his term. He was up this November, and Trump, of course, offered a touching tribute to the senator during his "Fox and Friends" phoner, as one does. He was a friend. He would call me all the time. He would just... [21:00] I'd say stop calling me, Lindsey. He was a great guy. He loved playing golf.

[21:06] Loved being outside. It wasn't that he was a great striker of the ball. It wasn't. [21:11] He was in... [21:12] Exactly and perfect. [21:13] He wasn't Jack Nicklaus. He was not Tiger. Now, he had one bad moment, and that was, you know, the January 6th thing when he stood up. All right. [21:21] Now I've had it. That's it. I can't do it anymore. Didn't he call me like about 40 minutes later? Did I really say that? I can't believe it. So he called me too much. He was a bad golfer.

He betrayed me, then said, just kidding. [21:36] And he did like being outside. Yeah, which is also what you say at the funeral for a golden retriever. [21:45] Love the ball. Love being outside. [21:48] it's like it's just incredible you lose someone barks bark too much get me up at night yeah uh but but a sweetheart in the end like a guy loyal a guy who is seemingly donald trump's best friend in congress dies and he calls into fox news and he just can't help but make it entirely about himself i mean it's not surprising in any way it's just it's a reminder of who he is uh lindsey [22:13] What will it be?

How about it? So I remember when I was working for Hillary Clinton, she had just come back from a trip to the Arctic with Sinbad. [22:25] With no Sinbad. I don't believe he was on that trip with Lindsey Graham, John McCain, Susan Collins. And that was at a time when Lindsey Graham was vociferous around climate change. They were he was trying to figure out how to get the GOP to change on climate change. He did a cap and trade bill with John Kerry. And then you fast forward to Donald Trump being president.

And he's trying to claw back the Inflation Reduction Act money that went towards electric vehicles on immigration. [22:55] with Ted Kennedy to write the [22:57] a comprehensive immigration bill. He is a staunch advocate for comprehensive immigration reform. Then you fast forward to the Trump era. He is not only against any kind of comprehensive proposal, he's against helping the dreamers. And he comes out in favor of ending birthright citizenship and obviously supports Donald Trump and his draconian immigration policy. And so [23:21] There was an interview that I thought was revealing where he said, I'm going to do what Mitt Romney couldn't do, and I'm going to do what McCain couldn't do.

I'm going to harness the magic. There's a dark side to Donald Trump, but there's a magic, and I'm going to be the one to harness it. And now he's dead. [23:34] And you look and say, well, what did you harness exactly? What did you harness? What did you get for your magic? Trump got everything he wanted. He got his immigration policies. He abandoned any kind of effort to tackle climate change. I suppose you got a war with Iran. Maybe there's an argument that you've slowed the abandonment of NATO, but here we are and he's threatening Greenland.

You're begging him to do what he can for Ukraine, which his heart is not in. [24:04] I think to stay relevant and to and then generously, I think, to try to turn Donald Trump as away from his, quote, dark side. And the end result is Lindsey Graham is the one who became a kind of sad and pathetic vassal. [24:20] Yeah, I think it's a cautionary tale about what happens if you're in C. too long and you get caught up and care about the wrong stuff. I don't know Lindsey Graham. I never met him.

People say he was nice and charming and kind. He was nice to his sister. Their parents passed away. He raised his sister. Who we love. We love Darlene. And we think Darlene has incredible judgment. And she's coming in. It's a hard job. But this is somebody who has her own head on her shoulders. And she's not going to get bullied by a bunch of these Republicans and Donald Trump. She's going to do what she knows is right for the people in North Carolina. [24:50] that helps saying that out loud okay we're hoping she's a secret liberal wouldn't that be funny if she was just a secret liberal i mean it would be a great twist came in anyway what i'm getting at is like there's people who think that he is kind of like a throwback to a better and more collegial time in dc and maybe that's true i guess but like i think the defining quote about lindsey graham is what he said to mark libovich in 2019 in this new york times magazine piece because mark is pressing him like how do you go from being trump's biggest hater to like desperate to be in his inner circle and graham says to try to be relevant and he also said i've never been [25:20] this much by a president in my life.

It's weird and it's flattering and it creates some opportunity. And I found that to be so sad because this is a man who over the course of his career... Credit for honesty. Credit for honesty, but he went from being defined... He defined relevance for himself... [25:34] uh, as first being John McCain's sidekick and then being Donald Trump's sidekick. And he just didn't care about the cognitive dissidents that came along with the two or the vile things that Trump said about his best friend. And, um, I mean, love it. I thought you, you ticked through all like the policy area as well.

Like the thing that seems like he got policy wise was a war with Iran. So congrats on that. But like, you know, the other thing he thinks he seems to be excited that he got was 63 appearances on meet the press. [26:04] And that's such an ephemeral definition of relevance, but it's also such an indictment of the C. establishment press that this man is a fixture on these shows because he's primarily booked on these shows to advocate for starting a war somewhere. [26:21] And so, you know, look, I'm not attacking him personally, but I think it's like what you don't want to be in Washington.

You know, you want to stand for something. You want to be care about something. You want to do something for people and not just be relevant. [26:34] you [26:34] People's motivations are complex, and when you talk to a reporter like he did about wanting to stay relevant, the generous interpretation there is, um... [26:45] Donald Trump is the president and this is where my party is. And so I'm going to try to be relevant to sort of get my policy preferences, you know, move forward in any way that I can. There's also the less generous reading of staying relevant is like, I want to be in the mix.

I like being close to power. And, you know, Peter Baker had a story about him as well. And he recalls running into Graham outside of a restaurant in C. [27:15] off the phone and he says to Peter about Trump. [27:18] He's a lying motherfucker, Mr. Graham allowed with a shrug, but also said, quote, a lot of fun to hang out with. Mr. Trump, he said, was so dominant within the party that he could do almost anything with impunity. Quote, he could kill 50 people on our side and it wouldn't matter, Mr.

Graham observed. Honestly, that is a pretty accurate, honest assessment of Donald Trump and Lindsey Graham's relationship with Donald Trump, which is he's a lying motherfucker, but I'm sure Graham had a lot of fun. But he takes me golfing. Hanging out with him. Like, that's literally what it is. [27:48] By the way, this story mentions this as well, that John McCain and Lindsey Graham had a falling out over this towards the end of John McCain's life. And John McCain was like, why do you have to golf so much with him? I get why you might want to be trying to push him in the right direction here and there.

And this is the first term, of course. He's like, but why are you golfing so much with him? And that was sort of a sad falling out. Maybe a little jealous. It's like, oh, you've made new friends at college, and now you're not hanging out with the old crew. [28:18] Um [28:19] personal politics and like he's nice to me. There's a lot of people that know better about Donald Trump who are smart, who know he's doing bad things for the country, who are like offended by ICE raids or whatever, but are like, well, he was nice to me that one time.

And I think, you know. It's like, of course, like, I believe that Donald Trump can be unbelievably charming to people. Yeah, I get it. I've fallen for that myself, you know. It's, yes. The amount of Trump to, like, John Thune gave a speech which was clearly, like, surprised and devastated by the loss of Lindsey Graham. People that, [28:49] like Lindsey Graham, really like Lindsey Graham, charming, funny, that kind of politics. [28:55] is hard in an era when someone like Trump is president. And it's like, beyond just the way in which he kind of flipped on Trump, the kind of politics he seemed to like, which was personal and kind of making deals and joking around, right?

Like, it is a democratic practice. But when [29:13] One of the people you're working with attacks the legitimacy of the other party, undermines democracy, is like hostile to – tries to prosecute his enemies. Like the jokes don't work. It doesn't make sense anymore. [29:43] at all. And, uh, [29:45] All the people lamenting the end of the era, like the era of John McCain and Lindsey Graham and that kind of, I don't know, raucous bipartisanship where you mixed it up and argued and then Lindsey Graham writes the tribute to Hillary Clinton in Time magazine.

If that's the kind of politics you're wanting, then the enemy of it is Donald Trump. [30:06] So, Graham's sister Darlene will only temporarily fill the seat. South Carolina will hold a Republican primary this August to determine who will face Democratic Senate candidate Annie Andrews this November. You guys think this is still a safe seat for Republicans, no matter who wins the primary or... [30:21] Would anyone like to argue that Dems have an outside shot here? [30:25] I mean, in such an anti-establishment year, I guess you always have an outside shot.

I don't know what that candidate looks like. [30:31] You know, like a hardcore, like, burn down both parties suck kind of. Trump wins South Carolina by 18 points. [30:40] Graham won against Jamie Harrison by 10 points. 10 points, yeah. [30:45] the swing in some of these [30:47] uh uh off-cycle elections has been around 13 points so is it hard absolutely is it impossible no [30:54] It depends on who the person is. Yeah, so there are names that have been floated. Nancy Mace, who just had a stellar performance in the gubernatorial primary.

I love her posting, just when I thought it was out, they pull me back in. Nobody's pulling you anywhere. Nobody wants you in there. It's so funny. The algorithm has pulled you back in. Yeah, it's like, oh, right, fine, I'll do it. No, no, no, no, they are the Russians. They are responsible. Ralph Norman. Cuckoo. Joe Wilson. [31:24] Joe Wilson, now seen as the elder statesman. Yes, exactly. I was just about to say that the guy who screamed you lie at Barack Obama way back when, Lieutenant Governor Pamela Yvette, all these have been floated.

Yeah, Cook rates it as a solid R. And, you know, the case for Andrews is she is a real candidate. She's a Charleston pediatrician. She's raised $8 million, $3 million cash on hand. She was actually out raising Lindsey Graham's campaign. [31:54] a really kooky Republican nominee. Who knows? But yeah, outside shot. Lindsey Graham left quite a hole. [32:01] Yeah. [32:02] So close. So close. We almost we almost get out of this. We should also talk about McConnell, who offered a proof of life photo as an attempt to finally quiet the rumors that he was dead or incapacitated after being rushed to the hospital following a collapse at his home on June 14th.

On Sunday, McConnell released a statement from himself and his physician who stated that his prolonged hospital stay was the result of a fall associated with his post polio condition and that he was also being treated for a mild case of pneumonia. [32:32] sports section of the Washington Post alongside his wife, former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao. You guys will be shocked to learn that many in the poster community are falsely claiming that the photo was reused from 2023 or AI generated. [32:48] One person who decided to buy that was Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson.

Can't believe they got Ron. Who gave an interview today saying, I just heard from a source that was an older photo. The source was Brock. Yeah, who's your source? You know it was a tweet that got texted to him. Of course. What if you guys made it the fact that so many people online, left and right, and the S. Senate are convinced that a very alive Mitch McConnell is not alive? [33:18] of someone analyzing the shirt collar. Did you watch? I watched a video. Well, I know I'm not buying it.

I just was, I was sort of interested in what the theory is. Oh, I know. Least change over here. [33:29] And like that. It's more just how you're spending your time. That the shirt was, the shirt was like kind of folded in the same way as another photo from the past and that it was sort of brought in. I don't, I don't totally buy the theory. It did look like it was different to me. It is weird that we're doing like Zapruder film breakdowns of photos in the videos that CNN posted.

[33:48] The thing that's not going to me is just like the... [33:51] You had a fall and then a mild case of pneumonia, and that's why we haven't heard anything for the last – that to me was the weird part. And no, there wasn't cardiac arrest, even though there's a lot of reporting about the audio from the dispatch in which you were found in cardiac arrest and unconscious and resuscitated before being brought to the hospital. Maybe it wasn't him. Maybe it was somebody else in that house. But part of this is he's a single photo holding the day's newspaper.

That's what hostage takers release him. Literally. To give you as little as possible. [34:21] Yeah. Right. Like, oh, you're the state. The test for a senator is not. Are you alive? Right. Yes. That's a bare minimum. [34:28] But but but not sufficient, but not sufficient. So perhaps the video might be helpful. So, of course, there's going to be a lot of speculation, especially when a lot of old politicians have been shown to be lying about their health and hiding how sick they are over and over and over again. [34:58] So, yeah, people are suspicious when they're told that an aging politician is fine.

Like, there's a conspiratorial mindset on the Internet. There is obviously paranoia on the Internet. It flourishes there. But it is, I think, not unreasonable to be skeptical when you hear from politicians that they're ancient and fine. Yeah. [35:19] Some podcast I was listening to on vacation. Maybe it was this one. You guys talked about the... I don't listen when I'm on vacation. A few things I wanted to catch up on. There was a... There's also political implications, which I think fuels the conspiracy theories, right? Which is, and I believe that it was August 3rd or 4th.

It's August 3rd, yeah. That, like, they were worried that maybe Thomas Massey would jump into a race as an independent and then tilt the race to the Democrats. And so there's some kind of machinations there. And BTC was floating the theory to me that [35:49] was concerned that Andy Beshear might run and could actually win the seat. Now, I had not heard that until I talked to BTC, but I like it. Brian Tudor Cohen, yeah. And then Andy Beshear was also saying that he is going to challenge the constitutionality of the Kentucky law that says he can't appoint a replacement because he believes that the constitution of the state is clear and that the law violates it.

[36:19] where... [36:20] They're losing a vote. You have Tillis... [36:24] And even with whether McConnell, McConnell is absent regardless right now. The four people like Korn and Tillis, Collins and Murkowski, if the Graham seat is filled and McConnell's back, those four can lead to a tie. Right. But if they all vote no right now, they can really kind of gum up the works. And the Graham seat is filled tomorrow. Yes. The Graham seat is full. That's not happening. Or Tuesday. I think it's supposed to be filled on Wednesday. But you start to think about what would happen in a lame duck.

[36:53] if there's a Supreme Court vacancy. Oh, yeah. Right? Like, that to me is where they're like, oh. Got to get that McConnell. Got to get that proof of life. I also think, like, everyone thinks every photo is AI now. [37:02] that's i sent my friend a photo of erling holland with um a stuffed raccoon holding a tequila bottle and he asked me if it was real so thanks for that fucking saml every funny photo i laugh at now i do the same thing i'm like is it real is it ai and the liar's dividend even the ai checkers now and they're like or something they do that on some of like the the writing you know they're like oh 80 that this was written by ai and you're like was it is that right is that lying like and if we're just [37:29] Let's be harsh.

Like this is 100% Mitch McConnell's office's fault. Like their boss went into the hospital on June 14th. They didn't offer any real information for weeks. And then they did this weird leak to the worst liar and asshole on CNN, Scott Jennings, and had him claim that he'd just done a 20 minute call with Mitch McConnell where they talked about NATO. That was the funniest aspect of this whole story for me. Not the conspiracies. The like, and I was saying the same thing. Or we also said the same. Yeah, because it's like, oh my gosh, you've had pneumonia, you're in the hospital.

Quick, let's talk about the strain of Hormuz. [37:59] Like a head of state readout that you would do from the White House? Also, by the way, talked about the following issues. One of the topics that came up in both their conversations, according to these reports, was the Graham Plattner story. And it's like, so you've you're talking to Mitch McConnell. You say he's your friend. You identify him as Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky senators. If we were thinking you were talking about somebody else, you think he might be dying. Your last conversation is going to be about Graham Plattner.

You know what? You know what? Before we throw too many stones for our glass house, I'm just envisioning one of you guys in the hospital and me trying to call. [38:29] pretty quick yeah did I miss anything in the news what's happening on Twitter [38:35] And he'd be like, you don't want to know, buddy. It's actually worse out here than in there. We would, though. We would probably joke about politics, unfortunately. We don't talk on the phone. We don't talk on the phone. I haven't answered my phone since 2013. You guys aren't phone friends.

If you guys are in the hospital, maybe. Maybe. We'll see. Yeah, no, but the Republican Congress. Text me. I don't want to take a call. That's true. That's true. Okay. Thank you. Noted. [39:05] Hey, Dan Taberski here. I'm a podcast host, a journalist, and now with my newest project, the author of my own manifesto. [39:12] Well, it's a manifesto about manifestos. My search for inspiration in a world that feels more infuriating, more out of its freaking mind with each passing hour. [39:22] Manifestos are a call to action, an artful scream.

They capture our anger and they try to do something with it. [39:28] This is my attempt to take the manifesto back from mass shooters and nihilists and return it to its rightful place with the warriors, the visionaries, the regular folks with just the right amount of crazy. [39:40] I compare notes with radicals, secessionists, internet trolls out for a laugh, and punk singers screaming their guts out, all trying to turn their anger into the world they want to see. Listen to Manifesto wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can binge all episodes of Manifesto early and ad-free right now.

Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts. [40:02] you [40:03] Pod Save America is brought to you by com. There's a version of your home you haven't lived in yet where the light behaves just as you want, where the rooms feel finished. [40:11] where you sleep until you decide to wake up, not when the sun does. com has spent 30 years making it easy to find the perfect fit. [40:18] With over 25 million windows covered and 50,000 five-star reviews, you can feel confident you're in good hands.

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com. We got com in our office. They came in, they installed it. Now there's shade in the afternoon when the sun comes through because we've got this corner office that gets incredible light. [40:58] It sucks. [41:01] Anyway, we love com. Right now, com is giving our listeners an exclusive $50 off. [41:06] When you spend $500 or more, just use code CROOKED to check out limited time offer. Rules and restrictions apply. See com for details. [41:18] The Republican Congress does have quite a to-do list though. They've got the Todd Blanch confirmation, AG confirmation.

They've got Jay Clayton for DNI. [41:27] The NDAA that we just talked about, the Iran War Supplemental, FISA, the whole FISA thing that we talked about before the break, that still hasn't been renewed. I think Tom Blatt is in trouble now. [41:39] I hope so. I think Todd Blanchard's in trouble. He's supposed to have a hearing this week. I will see if it continues. But like a number of questions swirling. We're going to talk about the the war against the press next. But there's that there's even though it's DHS, there's now been two other ICE killings we haven't even talked about.

[42:09] man who had complete authorization to work in this country and was shot and killed. And the [42:17] for him, apparently. And so I would imagine and hope that Todd Blanche at DOJ would get plenty of questions about what kind of investigation they're going to lead into these killings. Susan Collins just said that, you know, the DHS inspector general out of Boston is going to take over the investigation internally. But I don't really have a lot of faith in an internal investigation. [42:37] DHS investigation. Which is a report, Inspector Barry.

Right. It feels like the DOJ, or it feels like the FBI has to get involved, but again. Thumb Phyllis needs to just decide to, like, man up and fight this terrible appointment and care about stuff. I mean, he says things occasionally that are helpful, and he's critical of Trump, but, like, use your power while you can, dude. Also, with McConnell gone, I think that eliminates their one-seat majority on the Appropriations Committee, and they can't schedule hearings, and it might impact the supplemental funding requests for more Pentagon spending or something. [43:07] More broadly, it's just like it's a reminder that the margins in the Senate and the House are so thin that you have one death or one prolonged absence or one something.

It can just like completely hamstring the party in power. I got to say, I think that supplemental is never getting through. I think that before the election, even though that's 50, only 51 votes like. [43:25] You have Collins. [43:27] Houston in Ohio and Sullivan in Alaska, who are all facing very tough reelections. Yeah. You can't let all three of them go. He's awesome. And then you have Murkowski who just, you know, just out of principle. Imagine that. Right. I want to do it. But that's that's four Republicans on a supplemental to to vote for more money for war.

And then maybe you get Fetterman. But. [43:46] And also, like, the House is tricky. The House is tricky. There was a there was a even the Republicans internally are calling it a zombie Congress. Now, they just there's they have no margins. And they're all angry and they're all mad at each other, too. They're not. It's not like a well-run machine here. Let's talk about the latest front in Trump's war on the press. Late on Friday, the administration issued subpoenas to four New York Times journalists who reported that the White House, at the urging of the Secret Service, had decided to use the old Air Force One during the NATO summit in Turkey as a security precaution.

[44:16] Patel, who spent eight hours working from the White House on Friday, has been tasked with overseeing the investigation. The Times, Senate Democrats and press advocacy groups have all criticized the move, which came through the S. attorney in Manhattan, Jay Clayton, who's also Trump's nominee for director of national intelligence. The DOJ wrote on Twitter on Saturday that, quote, every administration has addressed the crime of leaking national security information, adding, quote, reporters are not the targets those leaking classified [44:46] This is just an obvious effort to punish and scare these journalists because a normal leak investigation would figure out who in the government had access to the information.

They tried to narrow it down and attempt to find the leaker that way. But instead, they sent a bunch of federal agents to the homes of these reporters on Friday night and they were like, show up to a grand jury on Wednesday. That's not the normal process. Also, the FBI is weird anecdote in the story about how the FBI was the one warning the reporters not to publish in advance. I don't know why they would be the ones or asking them not to publish in advance for security reasons. [45:16] He was going to fly to Chicago to see his girlfriend perform at a country concert.

Every story notes that it's in the parking lot of some venue, which is very funny. [45:29] Poor Cash. Couldn't go to Chicago. [45:31] He worked out of the White House for eight hours, apparently constantly updating the White House staff on this investigation into these journalists and coordinating with them. And so it's so obvious that they're trying to punish this reporting. Apparently Trump was very mad about... [45:45] The reports about Air Force One on some level, you can step back and be like, OK, reporting on security measures embedded in Air Force One, like there is a risk there.

But everyone knew about this. Like this was sort of like the conversation about the Qatari gifted Air Force One in advance was that you couldn't. [46:02] put in place these countermeasures, specifically the missile defense stuff, in time for Trump to use it. That's what happened. I mean, that was the assumption, wasn't it? That piece of [46:12] whatever countermeasures it had would be the hardest and take the longest. Yeah. And so if we already everyone was speculating once he wasn't taking that plane back, there's going to be reporting on why the why is security is if Trump is Trump is pissed now that he won't be able to use the plane, because now the the the secrets out on the fact that the plane isn't as secure as the original ones that took a decade to build.

Just another lesson by American, you know, for sure. Yeah. [46:42] uh doj putting out this statement saying oh a lot of uh classified leaks have often been investigating which seems to be confirming the story right because they're they're now saying so this there was yeah every leak investigation kind of confirms the underlying reporting but also like they're they're trying to say oh well we're just doing this sort of normal course of investigating a leak but but as tommy said the sort of the the operations are reversed but also uh [47:06] Like there's a there is an understanding that if you're trying to get information from journalists who are covering that that is a serious thing to do.

Garland put in place protections for for journalists to protect against this exact kind of thing. Pan Bondi rescinded those protections. [47:22] Yeah, I mean, going after the journalist, subpoenaing the journalist 48 hours after the story is just completely backwards. Just for all the people to be like, oh, Obama, the Obama administration did this and other administrations. It's usually the last resort is to subpoena a journalist if you absolutely have to. You don't start the investigation that way unless you just want to intimidate people. [47:52] comparative. It's just really that they're not the same in any way what happened then and now.

All right, one more explosive piece of news before we get to love its interview with Brian Tyler Cohen. The country is currently experiencing a cyclosporiasis outbreak, a parasite that causes severe intestinal illness. [48:07] and diarrhea. Cases have been found in over half the states in the country, including over 2,500 cases in Michigan alone. While cases of the intestinal illness tend to rise in spring and summer of every year, this year's outbreak has been particularly extreme, raising questions about how the administration's cuts to the FDA and CDC may be affecting the federal response.

Nicholas Florco at The Atlantic pointed out that as of Friday, CDC's case tracker of the outbreak had not been updated, reporting less than 200 cases, an obvious undercount, just Michigan alone has more [48:37] that. My only question, is RFK Jr. at fault for America getting explosive diarrhea? I think the question is worth asking. I think we don't know. But CDC has lost roughly a quarter of its workforce. They stopped requiring surveillance of cyclospora after it's been tracked for decades. Yeah. It cut one of the pathogens that they were tracking in the budget cuts.

[49:07] uh [49:08] incompetent boobs at the top of all of these agencies. There's a lot of just dogs that aren't barking, right? The kind of thing serious professionals do. It's because they have explosive diarrhea. Right, because they're sort of in a permanent squat. You know when your dog has those long poops? You know what I mean? They're like walking across the lawn because they're just in poop position for a long time. That's Michigan right now. That's pure Michigan. [49:35] There's no lettuce and tomato on the Taco Bell Supreme anymore. [49:38] That's what this country used to be.

That's what Trump has done. I was reading about this in the Wall Street Journal. Sure you were. The following sentence was, she went to her local Taco Bell on July 7th, and by the next day, her stomach was upset. I'm like, a dog bites. Yeah. It was spariasis. Yeah. Yeah. I think I've had it since I was 17. It's just, I mean, my reaction to this was what you said, Lover. Like, what disease are we not tracking? Because of Doge. Oh, my God. Because RFK thinks vaccines are causing it. Like, God help us all.

Still a screwworm on the border. Yeah. [50:08] There's a worm-eating cows in Texas. It feels like that should be a bigger deal. I was at the farmer's market this weekend. We didn't buy raspberries because Hannah had seen something somewhere that said raspberries might have it. I don't know. It's scary. Not to get darker about this, but this, for me, goes into the category of... [50:25] the high class problem that Brian writes about in his book, the after Trump, how do we willpower? Like public health agencies have been so decimated under Trump.

And this is the true with almost every agency across government. It's like, [50:37] I don't think people understand that when they leave and a new administration comes in, it's going to be incredibly difficult to replace all of these experts and officials because you can't just like people got other jobs. You can't just call up everyone that Trump fired and who had been who had all this expertise for decades and be like, oh, yeah, can you come back now? He's gone. New jobs. And so Michael Lewis wrote that book about all the the data that's being lost or there's a section of that book about the federal government that talked about all the data.

[51:07] that is not being tracked or the longitudinal studies that are that were ended, all the research that was terminated. Right. Like that's just a price we're going to pay for a very long time. And all the investments into mRNA vaccines and other things that could provide the like game changing, you know, cures of the future. Yeah. And I think the next administration is probably just gonna have to be honest about the hole that we're going to have to dig ourselves out of, because there's a political issue with that, too, where suddenly there's an outbreak.

And, you know, the next Democratic president or the CDC officials like, well, we were hamstrung by [51:37] No one's going to be like, okay, no, don't worry about that. We understand. Yeah. Like we spend on like, there's so many ways in which what we're talking about are all the kind of offensive, like not morally offensive, but, you know, proactively offensive ways in which Donald Trump is, you know, destroying institutions and, and wrecking the government and, and, you know, focused on the wrong things. Uh, [51:55] But... [51:56] up [51:57] I remember when we were working on some speech about some unrelated topic and there was a fear about swine flu.

[52:05] And so there was a meeting and it rose to the level of the president and then he gave a brief topper at some speech. Swine flu topper. Swine flu topper. And he ran through what the latest he learned from the agencies and what people needed to know. And that did two things. One, it informed the public about an ongoing public health threat. And whenever the president speaks to something, it is an organizing force inside the government. Gets people to attend to something, figure out what they're doing, explain what they're not doing, what's happening.

And none of that happens when Donald Trump is president. [52:35] of it. It's a hard to measure price because it's the cost of incompetence that just shows up in people being sick after going to Taco Bell. I think everyone here has been quite sober and serious in talking about Senator Graham and not talking about all the jokes that were being made on Twitter over the weekend, but I did need to read one, which is from an LOL GOP, which has said, they have to move the dead senators quickly so Bobby Jr.

doesn't try to eat them. Tommy, as we were talking about this, I was thinking to myself, can I [53:04] Is it too much? No. And I'm glad you did. I got you. I'm really glad you did. I'll leave that. I'm glad you did it. I'm glad it got out of the pot because it was a good one. That's a good place to leave it. Do you think he was gay? Okay. Well. I think probably, but we'll never know now. It doesn't matter. It never mattered in the end. It never mattered.

[53:21] Never mattered. You see that Trump ordered all flags in the United States to half half staff. And I know this is my only this is no one cares about this with me. He does not have that authority. He is responsible only for the flags on federal land because it's a free country. And the sovereign states of this country can decide what they do with their flags. And the sovereign citizens can decide what we do with our flags. And if we want to lower our flags for Lindsey Graham, we can do it.

I appreciate that we lowered their pride flag to have staff as a little bit of a role.