Epstein BOMBSHELL Reveals DISASTER For Trump

What this episode is about

The release of millions of Epstein files uncovers potentially damaging revelations related to former President Trump, while also highlighting recent political developments, including Trump's actions in Minnesota, the arrest of journalists, and a surprising Democratic victory in Texas. Additionally, musician Bobby Pledo discusses his decision to run for Congress, exemplifying the increasing intersection of politics and public life.

Key takeaways

• Epstein's web of influence reads like a who's who of power—fame and fortune can paper over complicity.
• Revelations about Epstein's connections prove even dark conspiracies can be mainstream; it's not just the 'crazy' corner of the internet.
• Trump deflects blame onto Democrats, showing how political survival can morph into absurdity amidst serious allegations.
• Bannon’s ties to Epstein expose the blurred lines between media, politics, and dark money—it's like a real-life political thriller.
• 3 million pages of documents reveal the disturbing reality: the rich often evade accountability while others face the music.

Who speaks in this episode?

• John Favreau (Host) · 33 min speaking
• Jon Lovett (Guest) · 22 min speaking
• Tommy Vietor (Host) · 33 min speaking
• Bobby Pledo (Guest) · 22 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 10:00: Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, John Favreau
2. 10:00 – 20:00: Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Simply Safe, Smalls
3. 20:00 – 30:00: World Liberty Financial, Nvidia, Smalls, MGX
4. 30:00 – 40:00: Donald Trump, Sean Bannon, Article, Howard Lutnick
5. 40:00 – 50:00: Article, Donald Trump, Zip Recruiter, Minnesota
6. 50:00 – 1:00:00: Minnesota, New York Times, Washington Post
7. 1:00:00 – 1:10:00: Donald Trump, Minnesota, Fulton County, Joe Biden
8. 1:10:00 – 1:20:00: Grammys, Bobby Pledo
9. 1:20:00 – 1:30:00: Joe Biden, Grammys
10. 1:30:00 – 1:40:00: Donald Trump, Grammys
11. 1:40:00 – 1:48:24: Bobby Pledo, Grammys

Notable quotes from "Epstein BOMBSHELL Reveals DISASTER For Trump"

• Worse, than you thought. we also have some stunning new corrupt dates to talk about, the status of Trump's so-called deescalation in Minnesota, his arrest of Don Lemon and other journalists/protesters, and some good news, a surprise.

  about Donald Trump · at 0:09

• Cabal, and seem to know both who they were dealing with and in some cases what he was up to. people like Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Peter Teal, Sergey Brin, Bill Gates, Prince…

  about Elon Musk · at 2:21

• Individuals. he should be held in contempt just for that. things that jumped out at me, Steve Bannon is all over the Epstein files. they are really good friends. Bannon is…

  about Sean Bannon · at 4:16

• Got every member of Congress but one to vote for it. I just like the people are saying like Joe Biden should have unilaterally taken this step through his DOJ. It's like it's a lot of collateral damage there. I think we don't think.

  about Joe Biden · at 18:00

• Sovereign wealth fund, bought a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial. the Trump family's crypto venture for $500 million with an upfront payment of $187 million going right to…

  about World Liberty Financial · at 21:05

• So it's a new arch he's constructing on the Virginia side of the PTOIC. the Washington Post reported over the weekend that the latest plan is for the monument to be 250 ft tall. Of course, that's for America's 250th anniversary, of course.

  about Washington Post · at 38:28

• Score points with Trump in the MAGA media world. last week Dan and I talked about the FBI raid on the Fulton County elections office in Georgia where a photo showed Tulsi talking on the phone in a baseball cap like a ominous seeing the head.

  about Fulton County · at 1:02:59

• He was in town to go to the Grammys because he was Grammy nominated.

  about Grammys · at 1:10:57

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Donald Trump — Person · Primary political subject (referenced) · 12 mentions · first at 0:13
  Central figure in discussion of Epstein-file mentions, alleged coverups, and multiple corruption/authoritarianism storylines (UAE crypto/AI chips, IRS lawsuit, ICE/DOJ actions).
• John Favreau — Person · Host · 1 mention · first at 0:00
  Co-host guiding the episode’s agenda: Epstein files, Trump corruption, ICE/DOJ actions, and Texas special election; participates in analysis and transitions.
  Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm John Favro.
• Tommy Vietor — Person · Co-host; interviewer · 1 mention · first at 0:24
  Leads much of the Epstein-file analysis (naming connections, process critique) and conducts the interview with Bobby Pledo.
  And some good news, a surprise Democratic special election win in a deep red part of Texas. And then Tommy talks to musician Bobby Pledo about why he decided to jump into…
• Bobby Pledo — Person · Main guest (interview subject) · 5 mentions · first at 0:26
  Interview guest discussing his decision to run for Congress in Texas, Latino voter dynamics, immigration enforcement impacts, and campaign strategy.
  Democratic special election win in a deep red part of Texas. And then Tommy talks to musician Bobby Pledo about why he decided to jump into politics and run for Congress in…
• Elon Musk — Person · Referenced elite in Epstein files · 2 mentions · first at 2:24
  Cited as appearing in Epstein documents and criticized for social ties and suggestive communications about Epstein’s island.
• Sean Bannon — Person · Referenced Epstein associate · 2 mentions · first at 4:20
  Discussed as heavily present in Epstein files and allegedly involved in helping Epstein rehabilitate his image and collaborate on projects.
• Joe Biden — Person · Referenced comparator (process/DOJ independence) · 5 mentions · first at 15:50
  Used as a foil in debate about whether a president should unilaterally release DOJ files; hosts argue that would be improper politicization.
• Bill Gates — Person · Referenced elite in Epstein files · 2 mentions · first at 2:29
  Mentioned as appearing in Epstein documents and in Trump’s attempt to deflect attention by naming others.
  What he was up to. people like Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Peter Teal, Sergey Brin, Bill Gates, Prince Andrew, and of course, Donald Trump, whose name appears more than 5,000…
• Cash Patel — Person · Referenced official/figure criticized for testimony · 2 mentions · first at 4:05
  Cited and criticized for claiming there was no evidence Epstein trafficked women to other individuals; hosts argue this is misleading given file contents and ‘smoke.’
  Looked the wrong direction. You know what I mean? It's like it's it's mindboggling. So, Cash Patel, there's another clip for him when he was saying he testifies before Congress…
• Steve Tisch — Person · Referenced business figure criticized · 1 mention · first at 5:20
  Highlighted as an NFL owner appearing in the Epstein files; hosts suggest his case is among the most serious/implicating in the documents discussed.
  Steve Tish, Steve Tish, Giants owner, worst offender. I don't know how he survives this. Jeffrey Epstein got permanently banned from Xbox Live. Did you guys catch this one? M.
• Peter Aia — Person · Referenced public figure in longevity/medicine (name likely mis-transcribed) · 1 mention · first at 9:06
  Discussed as appearing in Epstein emails and issuing a statement explaining his association; likely refers to physician Peter Attia.
  Intellectuals and scientists to have these dinners and he did it and you know what it worked. So Peter Aia who is a doctor that was recently like a longevity guy who was recently brought extremely popular book.
• Howard Lutnick — Person · Referenced business figure criticized for inconsistent account · 1 mention · first at 33:31
  Mentioned in context of Epstein connections; hosts note he claimed to cut Epstein off in 2005 but allegedly visited Epstein’s island in 2012.
  Team up. and it'll be a won't they won't they like a 100 years up a case. yeah, you mentioned Howard Lutnick. We should just mention he said he'd cut Jeffrey Epstein off in 2005. He told a really detailed story about how he and his wife.
• Peter Teal — Person · Referenced elite in Epstein files · 1 mention · first at 2:27
  Listed among prominent names appearing in Epstein documents to illustrate breadth of elite connections.
  Were dealing with and in some cases what he was up to. people like Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Peter Teal, Sergey Brin, Bill Gates, Prince Andrew, and of course, Donald Trump…
• Richard Branson — Person · Referenced elite in Epstein files · 1 mention · first at 2:27
  Named among wealthy, powerful figures appearing in Epstein-related documents as part of the episode’s ‘scope’ discussion.
  Were dealing with and in some cases what he was up to. people like Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Peter Teal, Sergey Brin, Bill Gates, Prince Andrew, and of course, Donald Trump…
• Sergey Brin — Person · Referenced elite in Epstein files · 1 mention · first at 2:29
  Named as part of the list of high-profile individuals appearing in Epstein-related documents.
  What he was up to. people like Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Peter Teal, Sergey Brin, Bill Gates, Prince Andrew, and of course, Donald Trump, whose name appears more than 5,000…
• Peggy Seagull — Person · Referenced publicist in Epstein rehabilitation efforts (name likely mis-transcribed) · 1 mention · first at 8:34
  Quoted from emails about helping Epstein re-enter society after conviction; likely refers to Peggy Siegal, a Hollywood publicist.
  Lentiousness that was appealing to them for them to step out of their lives. in 2010, Peggy Seagull, who is a publicist, was helping Epstein regain entry into society, and she…
• Peter Mendelson — Person · Referenced UK political figure (name likely mis-transcribed) · 1 mention
  Mentioned as appearing in files as a UK figure who allegedly provided Epstein market-sensitive information; likely refers to Peter Mandelson.

Companies & orgs

• World Liberty Financial — Company · Business focus · 3 mentions · first at 21:05
  Mentioned in the context of Trump's mind-blowing, absolutely shameless corruption involving an Abu Dhabi royal buying a stake in the company.
• Nvidia — Company · Referenced company · 2 mentions · first at 24:36
  Mentioned in the context of the Trump administration providing the UAE with advanced AI chips.
  Million going right to quote Trump family entities. In a complete coincidence, the Trump administration then gave the spy chic, what the UAE had long wanted but hadn't been…
• Deoid — Company · Referenced company · 2 mentions
  Mentioned in the context of companies making money from contracts at the heart of the ICE crackdown.
• Palantir — Company · Referenced company · 2 mentions
  Mentioned in the context of companies making money from contracts at the heart of the ICE crackdown.
• MGX — Company · Referenced company · 1 mention · first at 22:10
  Mentioned in the context of an Emirati backed investment fund making a $2 billion investment into a crypto company called Binance.
  The way, before this story, what we knew about this UAE AI chips deal was that an Emirati backed investment fund called MGX the last spring made a $2 billion investment into a…

Places & events

• Texas — Place · Setting · 4 mentions
  Mentioned in the context of a surprise Democratic special election win in a deep red part of Texas.
  Arrest of Don Lemon and other journalists/protesters, and some good news, a surprise Democratic special election win in a deep red part of Texas. And then Tommy talks to…
• Minnesota — Place · Setting · 6 mentions · first at 0:13
  Discussed in relation to Trump's so-called deescalation and the status of his arrest of Don Lemon and other journalists/protesters.
  Worse, than you thought. we also have some stunning new corrupt dates to talk about, the status of Trump's so-called deescalation in Minnesota, his arrest of Don Lemon and other journalists/protesters, and some good news, a surprise.
• Fulton County — Place · Setting · 1 mention · first at 1:03:02
  Mentioned in the context of the FBI raid on the Fulton County elections office in Georgia.
• Grammys — Event · Referenced event · 6 mentions · first at 1:10:57
  Mentioned in the context of Bobby Pledo attending and being nominated.

Media & podcasts

• Washington Post — Media · Referenced media · 5 mentions · first at 20:55
  Mentioned in the context of reporting on Trump's new commemorative arch.
• New York Times — Media · Referenced media · 2 mentions · first at 52:55
  Mentioned in the context of reporting on children detained by federal agents.
  Personally accompanied them home. unfortunately, Liam's case is in no way isolated. the New York Times reports over the weekend that at least 3,800 children under 18, including…

Sponsors

• Simply Safe — Company · Sponsor · 2 mentions · first at 18:10
  Owner of the Simply Safe Home Security product, sponsoring the podcast.
  Your four walls, your home should always provide a safe sanctuary for your family. Simply Safe can help provide peace of mind with proactive protection that helps to stop…
• Simply Safe Home Security — Product · Sponsor · 1 mention · first at 18:10
  Presenting sponsor of the podcast, promoting home security solutions.
  Your four walls, your home should always provide a safe sanctuary for your family. Simply Safe can help provide peace of mind with proactive protection that helps to stop…
• Article — Product · Sponsor · 5 mentions · first at 37:34
  Sponsor of the podcast, promoting furniture products.
  Dresser, if you need new bedside tables, they have a lot of great options that can fit in with a lot of styles. Article offers a curated range of mid-century modern, coastal…
• Smalls — Product · Sponsor · 4 mentions · first at 19:32
  Sponsor of the podcast, promoting cat food products.
  Your cat has zero interest in politics, but they absolutely have strong opinions about their food, which is why you need to give them Smalls. It's 2026. Do you still feed your cat like it's 1926? For.
• Zip Recruiter — Product · Sponsor · 3 mentions · first at 44:45
  Sponsor of the podcast, promoting hiring solutions.
  This program Cook had fun at the premiere me too positive America is brought to you by Zip Recruiter. Listeners, think back to a first date where you were really interested in someone. You probably asked them important questions like,.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm John Favro. I'm John Love it. Tommy Vtor. On today's show, millions of Epstein files have finally been released. So, we're going to talk about why the revelations are just as bad, if not worse, than you thought. Uh, we also have some stunning new corrupt dates to talk about, the status of Trump's so-called deescalation in Minnesota, his arrest of Don Lemon and other journalists/protesters, and some good news, a surprise Democratic special election win in a deep red part of Texas. And then Tommy talks to musician Bobby Pledo about why he decided to jump into politics and run for Congress in Texas. Just a ton of news to talk about, as there always is, which is one reason you should consider becoming a subscriber.

0:38 Good call. Every week on our subscriberonly pods and our growing number of Substack newsletters, we're going deeper on all the biggest stories uh and cover the big stories we didn't get a chance to cover. Uh here on Pods Save America, we just added a new bi-weekly subscriber only episode of Pods Save America called Pods Save America Only Friends.

0:58 Perfect name. Uh we have a It's for buys Weekly. It's for buys Weekly. Yeah. Only Friends.

1:04 Buys Weekly by Weekly. Only Friends. Uhhuh. And if you don't And if you don't like listening to things, if you still like reading things,

1:10 uh we also have a new weekly Pods of America newsletter called Open Tabs. You also as a subscriber would get free ad free episodes of all your favorite crooked pods plus bonus content like Pod Save the World Q&A with Tommy and Ben.

1:23 Wow, we're still doing that. I'm just kidding. Very fun to do. Haven't listened. We get super intense questions. I I don't think I know how to listen to the Q&A. But mostly just please subscribe because it's the most helpful thing you possibly do for us as a company trying to grow here in the independent progressive media world. So

1:37 yeah, if you if you like supporting independent pro-democracy media, this is a subscription for you. If you don't, we won't, you know, then go somewhere else. But

1:45 well, keep listening for free. But it would mean a lot to all of us here at Qriket if you considered subscribing at crooked.com/friends. All right, let's start with the uh Justice Department's congressionallymandated though very delayed release of another 3 million pages of Epstein related documents which were dumped online Friday afternoon in a fairly haphazard manner. So much so that the documents accidentally included dozens of nude photos of victims and in some cases full names and other information that could be used to identify them. Uh the biggest takeaway though was that a bunch of very rich, famous, and powerful people were close to Epstein, you may even call it a cabal, and seem to know both who they were dealing with uh and in some cases what he was up to. uh people like Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Peter Teal, Sergey Brin, Bill Gates, Prince Andrew, and of course, Donald Trump, whose name

2:34 appears more than 5,000 times in different contexts. Uh here's what Trump had to say for himself on Monday in the Oval.

2:40 The problem is that it's turning out to be the Democrats that were with and conspired with Epstein. They were working together to try and help me lose the election. And frankly the DOJ I think should just say we have other things to do because that whole thing has turned out I mean other than Bill Clinton and you know Bill Gates and lots of people that have there are a lot of questions about it but nothing on me when Epste was alive like 10 years ago nobody cared about

3:10 yeah who busy too busy who ever cared about Epstein before Trump was president anyway let's let's uh let's listen

3:15 on day one roll out the blackbook and not just that on day one roll out all of the text message communications we we were told were deleted.

3:23 We need to release the FCNE list. That that is an important thing. Just a couple of libs there.

3:28 Yeah. Classic. Um all right. Obviously 3 million pages, a lot to get through, but I know you guys have both gotten through about 95 97% of them. Uh what jumped out at you uh in the in the files? Tommy, you want to go first?

3:41 Sure. I mean, look, I just want to start by saying I'm completely redpilled on this stuff. I I like I thought Jeffrey Epstein was a a scummy guy who did bad things and then used connections to avoid accountability. I like the web of connections that this man actually has. The the clear evidence of trafficking that's in these files is stunning. It's like like Qanon was right. They just looked the wrong direction. You know what I mean? It's like it's it's mindboggling. So, um, Cash Patel, uh, there's another clip for him when he was saying he he testifies before Congress that, uh, there's no evidence that Epstein trafficked other women to other individuals. Like, he should be held in contempt just for that. Um, things that jumped out at me, Steve Bannon is all over the Epstein files. Uh, they are really good friends. Bannon is helping him rehab his image. Um, they're working on projects together. Like, it it's he's

4:30 helping him Epste's helping Bannon fund his stuff. um that that's a lot more we should learn there. You mentioned the Trump piece. I mean it's he's in 5,300 files. There's 38,000 references to Trump. Some of those are duplicative, but like he's everywhere. And in this clip, it's like we've finally gotten the files and now Trump is saying like, "Ah, who even cares about this guy? It's been a long time. He's ready to move on." And there's one email where Epstein specifically talks about whether to call Trump about Virginia.

4:57 Yeah, that was stuck out. an Epstein victim uh who wrote a book about her experience who died by suicide recently. Uh we need to learn more about that. Elon Musk uh is a scumbag. He has a social relationship with Epstein. He clearly knows what's going on. He says like, "I want to go to your island for the wildest party." Now, we don't know if he ever went there. Um but he is all over these files. There's multiple NFL owners in these things.

5:19 Steve Tish, Steve Tish, Giants owner, worst offender. Uh I don't know how he survives this. Um Jeffrey Epstein got permanently banned from Xbox Live. Did you guys catch this one? M

5:28 I've heard about that. Again, it's one of those things where in our kind of postmodern, post-truth world, is that unbelievable and true or unbelievable and false?

5:37 It's true. I think a lot of people thought it was because he was like talking to teenagers on Fortnite and it might be a new thing we learned about him. I think it's cuz he's registered as a sex offender. I also like I I was also just stunned by how truly global the scandal is. Like the crown princess of Norway was buddies with Epstein. Um, uh, in the UK, they got Peter Mendlesson, who recently was the UK's ambassador to the US, gave Jeffrey Epstein a heads up on, uh, the government's response to the EU debt crisis before it happened.

6:06 I guess he resigned, huh? Market sensitive information. He resigned. Ah, Brock is all over these files. There's audio of Jeffrey Epstein telling Ahoud Brock about Palunteer for the first time. So, it's just

6:15 Slovakia's prime minister's um, national security adviser just resigned as well.

6:20 Great. Great. Another one. So you could do a whole episode of P save the world on this

6:23 and we're Ben and I are going to do this tomorrow but like the it the just scope of it is amazing. Just lasting like you said love it like it's just the the fake news problem is so um exacerbated in a situation like this because you have 3 million files dumped onto the internet. There's stuff all over Twitter. You have no idea what's real and what is fake. It's so easy to slip something fake into, you know, the kind of social media ecosystem right now. It's just really terrible.

6:47 Yeah. So there's all the kind of like who's in it, what what does it mean? And and and we don't know, right? There's a reason traditionally you don't just release millions and millions of files that were kind of part of different aspects of an investigation

7:00 without context and without context. And and by the way, like you know, everyone was clamoring for why, you know, for DOJ to release these documents and why they had missed the deadline. And I actually see why that took them this long. It probably should have honestly taken them longer because there's tons of mistakes throughout this. If you just search, do a keyword search, you will find an email where the names are redacted every place except one. But if you missed one, well, didn't matter that you redacted the other ones. There's all kinds of other names of people unrelated to this that are inside of here with personal information.

7:29 The the other challenge is, by the way, in the names, and this is like, you know, why Trump's name is in there so many times. It appears that someone sent Jeffrey Epstein like news clips regularly. So there are so many names.

7:42 Yeah. in the SC files that are just part of the news clips that he received which is tough

7:46 but then like you do see this and it's too many people for Cabal John I think it's it's fully fledged a ring uh this ring of elites and it's why like why around this man what was the pull that this man had and I and I do genuinely believe like a lot of the men connected through this were not necessarily directly involved in sex crimes though he was a registered sex offender who had a terrible and well-known reputation so these were all despicable for getting this close to him. Uh but he had these connections. He could get things done.

8:17 He could get you to a country club. He could connect people from here. And where did that power came from? And that power came from for some subset of these people. He was a vehicle for access to women, girls, and to a kind of like lentiousness that was appealing to them for them to step out of their lives. Uh in uh uh 2010, Peggy Seagull, who is a publicist, uh was helping Epstein regain entry into society, and she was telling him, "I have no idea what the reaction will be to your re-entry into society, but take it slow and stay quiet. Your friends are there for you, and at least the house is drop deadad gorgeous. Every decorator with an immediate interest in Israel, charming, uh will be begging for a look." This was about him bringing together military people and intellectuals and scientists to have these dinners and he did it and you know what it worked. So Peter Aia who is a doctor that was recently like a

9:10 longevity guy uh who was recently brought extremely popular book extremely popular book actually like you know I I didn't know that he was in the Epstein files like I've seen clips from him and I was like oh that's interesting how real is this guy and then I saw an interview where he was like proudly referring to the second derivative as if it was a scientific term and I was like I'm skeptical. I'm skeptical. trying to seem smart in a way that I'm not trusting. But uh he had to put out a statement today explaining how he was in these emails with Ebstein even after he was a registered sex offender.

9:37 And he said everything about him seemed excessive and exclusive, including the fact that he lived in the largest home in all of Manhattan, owned a Boeing 727, and hosted parties with the most powerful and prominent leaders in business and politics. In retrospect, the presence and credibility of such venerable people in different orbits led me to make assumptions about him that clouded my judgment in ways it shouldn't have. I thought the other thing interesting about that statement too is he basically says like so obviously I knew that um he had had a a prostitution charge, right? But because it was like he served a year and it was like, you know, maybe it was a prostitution charge and he didn't know the age of the girl and he was soliciting pro, you know, and and then it's what you just said, which is no, that knowledge combined with, well, he's famous and rich and has all these connections and everyone else

10:26 who's rich and powerful likes him, so like he can't be that bad. It really like shines a light on just how like corrupt and broken and gross the system is that like the entire culture around him can make someone think like I'm not going to do my due diligence on this guy because you know it must have just been a little mishap.

10:45 Yeah. If people from the Aspen vis if people I met at the Aspen Ideas Festival would jump off a bridge why would wouldn't I?

10:52 Exactly. and and so like he kind of is able to get his reputation back. And by the way, it was a it was a strategy to only have that be what was publicly known about the charges. And now in these in this release, you find that Aosta, when he was the prosecutor, had a whole bevy of other potential charges involving uh uh uh the the um crimes and abuse and rape of girls. Yeah, the draft indictment that's in here of the 30 32 counts um from the Southern District of Florida that also includes three co-conspirators, the the draft that was never, you know, because he got the sweetheart deal from Aosta, so it never went forward. But that to me is a very fascinating document.

11:30 That deal remains kind of like the original sin of the second act of Jeffrey Epstein. If if that deal is just is about reality, about what he really did, the scope of it, I mean, I think there's no way this guy gets back into the world. But I do think he did exactly what you said, which be like, "Look, yes, I solicited a prostitute. One of them was 17 or something like that, and these guys were like just bought it."

11:49 Y a lot of how we've been looking at the scandal has been around who's involved with it, right? And like what what what did these bigname people do and what didn't they do? I think that's important and I think we still don't have all the answers and we should be fighting to get more answers. But when you dig into it, you also just find these little like artifacts of how he was actually manipulating his situation, including the girls and women that were involved. And you can't again these we're there are these little kind of I don't know snippets these sort of dis like disentangled little bits of information you can't fully understand but you see these sort of vicious back and forths with people whose names you don't know where he's saying things like um you had an apartment you had money you had an agreement many agreement promises you broke them all you acting like a spoiled child who thinks the world owes them a

12:40 living sleeping all day not helping not dancing there are these little bits of the evil at the very core of it.

12:46 And you see the emails he wrote to himself, little ideas, little things that came to him. And at the core of this whole enterprise was this disgusting man, this like vicious monster that had built all these like kind of layers around him to seem respectable. and uh like the the fact that even now we still don't really totally understand a lot of what actually happened because uh it's now being released in this half-hazard and and um uh uh confusing way where you don't know what's real and you don't know what's not. we are going to like I still think there's there that whether it's the Democrats in Congress, whether it's a Democratic presidential candidate calling for some kind of hearing and investigation like we need to have like public hearings about this about how this like to just to get the truth about it including getting the participants in it force them to speak in front of the country about what happened because I

13:39 still think we're going to live in this sort of like semi-true kind of understanding because of the way they release these documents. So the the Epstein law that passed says that the DOJ needs to turn over their internal memos, deliberations, notes on who they charged, why why didn't they make certain charging decisions. They have not done that yet. Um so they are just in violation of the law still by not doing that. And usually the Department of Justice would never turn over those notes, but that's what the law that Donald Trump signed into law and Congress just passed said. So, I do think that can shine a light on some of this because also to your point about Cash Patel, like I can't tell. Clearly, it was dishonest what he said in front of Congress, but I I don't know if you've seen anything in any of the emails. I haven't that show that like clearly there were other men who trafficked underage women with Jeffrey

14:30 Epstein. Like, I don't think any of the emails say that. Cash Patel says there's no evidence, none. If there were, I would bring the case yesterday that he Epstein trafficked to other individuals. It seems like the Steve Tish case seems like that's exactly what happened there. Maybe they were of age, but did we investigate that? I don't know. I mean, it seems like there's a lot of smoke here. Um, well, we'll find out. I mean, it's clear like the FBI like fell down on the job here. They just didn't do what they

14:51 say. It seems like there's three levels of Epstein connections here that you see in these emails. The the first level is uh knew Epstein was friendly with him and was just in the social circles and thought he was a great guy, you know? Then there was new Epstein friendly with him and was discussing like girls with him in like they were objects in the in the most grossest sort of manner. And then there were like the Tish stuff which is like yes I have girls for you basically which is like helping him find

15:18 Yeah. And there were Yeah. And and Trump in here, by the way, is through some uncor uncorroborated allegations, but like including some witness interviews with the FBI and other things, is like somewhere in between the discussing girls in a in a gross lewd manner and potentially like around him when there were girls being, you know,

15:38 Trump is saved because he does not use email. Yes. Like if we had audio of Donald Trump's conversation with the Jeffrey Epstein, I bet Jaws would be on the floor and we wouldn't believe it. The the other sort of process thing, love it, I'm glad you brought this up that I'm seeing a lot out there is like Joe Biden could have released all of this. Why didn't he? You fell down on the job. It's like actually no. This is not how the Department of Justice is supposed to work. And I think we're seeing that play out. Like it's awful. Like I hope there's accountability for the the the abused. I hope that people who did bad things go to jail. But like

16:09 Jesus Christ, like the releasing all these victim's names, the images, the like the random people. This is this is actually not good. And like no, you don't want Joe Biden to be digging through DOJ files to try to destroy his political opponents, guys. Like this is there should be a bigger principle here.

16:25 Yeah. I asked like the process of the redacting and not redacting. Are they being are they just haphazard and like injudicious? Are they being kind of making choices with what names are showing or not showing at times? I have no idea. also doing this in these giant rare rare huge dumps of information when inside of it, you know, is uh uh personal and like information about victims of crime. So, some of this is just the incompetence in the way it's being executed. But I do I actually one thing I was just when I was looking through it I really str like I was over the weekend just the the kind of the the wash of comments about it the way we were learning about it through random people posting things you didn't know what it was true and like all of it kind of some of it sort of silly and then all of it relating to monstrous crimes

17:12 some of it was fake on Twitter a lot of it was fake I really had the sort of ter it was it really gave us like a sick feeling just about where we're at and how like the the because we're DOJ you can't rely on them you can't trust them. The the the social media has been of taken over by Elon and others in a way that makes it impossible to know what's true or not true. And and this all feeds like even the fact that we're in this mess is like of like getting the information this way as a product of our kind of conspiratorial mindset. And yet I'm glad for the most like I do think that this was necessary. I think like what that that Kana and Massie were able to get this through was like ultimately the right thing to do given what we're learning. like we would never know any of this and I'm glad that we do for the most part.

17:55 Good for them that they that they wrote this law and did it the right way and got every member of Congress but one to vote for it. I just like the people are saying like Joe Biden should have unilaterally taken this step through his DOJ. It's like it's a lot of um collateral damage there. I think we don't think

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20:46 All right, in case the Epstein revelations didn't make you mad enough, uh we also got more news over the weekend about Trump's mind-blowing, absolutely shameless corruption. The Wall Street Journal reported that just days before Trump was inaugurated, an Abu Dhabi royal known as the Spy Chic, who's the United Arab Emirates national security adviser and runs the country's sovereign wealth fund, bought a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial. the Trump family's crypto venture for $500 million with an upfront payment of $187 million going right to quote Trump family entities. In a complete coincidence, the Trump administration then gave the spy chic, what the UAE had long wanted but hadn't been able to get access to when Biden was president, half a million of America's most advanced AI chips. Uh I guess the Amiradis just really believed in uh Eric Trump's business plan

21:35 uh and his crypto expertise, huh? Is that what we think? Yeah, the for a company that was um I don't think they had a product at the time and and the the 49% stake that they purchased actually didn't get you access to the future revenue on the only thing they were selling at that moment. So, yeah. No, it definitely that's what happened. I first of all, I just want to say shout out to the Wall Street Journal for getting this scoop. Like, thank God liberal billionaire Rupert Murdoch is using his power for good, right? While all these other, you know, right-wing like Jeff Bezos just turtle and buy Melania documentaries. I mean, so by the way, before this story, what we knew about this UAE AI chips deal was that an Emirati backed investment fund called MGX the last last spring made a $2 billion investment into a crypto company called Binance. And they did it using the Trump family's uh stable coin, their

22:20 new cryptocurrency, USD1, which is the from World Liberty Financial, the same company. So that came out of nowhere. It instantly made USD1 of the most highly circulated stable coins in existence. and then reportedly makes the Trump family $80 million a year in passive income. Um, then right after that, the Trump agrees to provide the UAE with these ships. So, we already knew that there was like a totally corrupt drug deal. But this report is even crazier. Like they just bought this company outright. There was no disclosure. $187 million goes to the Trump family.

22:51 Another trunch of the money goes to uh Steve Witoff's son who remember like as this is all happening Steve Wickoff is named the kind of like emissary for everything. He's going around the world. He goes to a crypto conference in the UAE and then two weeks later the contracts to make this purchase just magically appear. And so it just this confirms what we know which is that Trump and Steve they're running around the globe. They're talking to autocrats and they are steering money into their family's pot. And like Jared Kushner has gotten a bunch of money from the Emiratis. Um we also know the Emiratis were pushing Trump to uh pardon the Binance CEO. This guy CZ that obviously will help your $2 billion investment if you know that company gets right with regulators in the US. So it's like what do you do with this? This is corruption. Move the president is what you do. What are you supposed to do?

23:40 It's corruption like nothing we've ever seen in this country. And it's like a one day story. Well, and it is a great example of why impeachment is the only remedy because John Roberts uh in his court would say that uh the lifting yeah giving them the chips was official business which it was right but uh obviously we know that there is a personal stake there. And so what Roberts and the court would say in that opinion is well impeachment is the remedy if you think it was uh if it was a conflict. And the Republicans are just like, "No, no, no. It's totally fine for your family to take half a half a billion dollars and then to like literally sell America out uh by and and and one of the reasons, by the way, they didn't want to give the UAE these like very advanced AI chips, aside from the fact that it's a foreign government, but weren't they concern wasn't there a concern that they were doing deals with

24:30 China?" They're super tight. The the Sheik company in particular, I think it's called G42, was supposed to get 1/5if of the 500,000 of these Nvidia chips. They're super tight with a bunch of Chinese companies, including one called Huawei, which provides like telecom infrastructure. And the United States has spent decades telling other countries to get Huawei the out of their countries, places like the UK, because there's concern that you could do create like backdoor infrastructure to spy on them. Um, which is why there was concern in the Biden administration about selling these chips to the Amiradis. And by the way, these are not these are like the Blackwell series chips like the best of the best Nvidia chips that no other countries can really get unless you're like a super close ally and partner of the US and Yeah.

25:10 or or ownus or own almost half of world liberty financial Greece the right guy.

25:15 Yeah. It's also there's something struck struck me that it was the right before the inaugural that that before he'd even taken office for a second time he had already decided that he was going to be the most corrupt president in American history. And even saying that is an understatement really. He was going to be as corrupt as the most corrupt autocrats in the history of the modern world that he was already going to be a Putin level uh corrupt figure. And uh like what would happen in a normal time in a functioning uh civil society? Yes, of course there'd be impeachment hearings and his removal, but even maybe before that there would be a Department of Justice investigation. Uh there would be congressional hearings. There would be uh outrage that would continue that would be bipartisan. There would be Republicans going up to the White House to say that it's time to step down because the country can't survive having

26:03 a president this corrupt. Like those are the normal things, right, that you could imagine happening, how this would have worked even into previous uh Republican administrations. We've never had anything this bad. And it's, you know, when I was a kid, I like would obviously struggle with deadlines. And if I I would hit a deadline, but if I missed it, I would never just simply would never do the work, right? If I had a paper due on a Monday and I missed the Monday, it was like it never happened. weeks, months, it would be a disaster. I would do that because once you're through the once you're on the other side of the mistake, what's the point?

26:30 And I do feel like with that sort of with the Republicans, uh they've sort of they have their one impeachment is the mechanism uh or any kind of accountability. And because that is impossible, we are kind of through that. And now Trump can do anything. There's nothing they can't uh look past because they've looked past so much already. And like we we talk about this all the time. This is amazing. It's so crazy. He should be impeached and removed. that is obvious. Uh that's what should happen, but it can't. And so we sort of live in this world where uh there's no accountability yet.

27:00 It's also it's just like you can't write something this outrageously corrupt. Like you can't make something like this up. like a Middle Eastern autocrat um who also maybe does deals with the Chinese government for like a a a an American asset that has like in incredible national security implications that you're selling out for half a billion dollars for the president. Like what it's just

27:25 Yeah, those chips are how we make pictures of women with six boobs. We can't have the Chinese get control of that technology. Next thing you know, it'll be saying things with terrible mediocre writing. I mean, the the thing is the Amiradis, like they have a bit of a a DC halo because they throw a lot of money around to think tanks. They hire a lot of former generals to come give speeches or consult for their military. They have an ambassador who's been around for a long time, host a lot of events at Cafe Milano, you know, bit of a man about town.

27:57 But, um, this is also a country that has been funding the other side of a absolutely devastating civil war in Sudan for the better part of two years. They're funding this group called the RSF that is leading to the worst humanitarian catastrophe on the planet right now. So, I do think it's just worth thinking about like the foreign policy of the people that Trump did this deal with because it is really gross when you kind of get past the and the glitterati you know, appetizer course at Cafe Milano and see what's actually happening.

28:25 I don't know the foreign policy of any of the governments he's done deals with that he likes that is a good foreign policy.

28:32 Is he any good bribes? Who's he Yeah. who's he doing deals with around the world and foreign governments that uh that they're not either uh you know repressing their own people or others or causing conflict

28:42 has a type doesn't he the tensions are with the with Canada and uh NATO and the like the the connection to me between the Ebstein story and this is like these people are buying their credibility with their conferences and their and their and their you know and what comedy festivals in Saudi Arabia all the people that Trump is doing deals with um they're sort of investing in the kind of appearance of polite society to lend them credibility. And it works. People make the trip, they take the money, and they they uh uh they have they use their wealth to to kind of hide the monstrousness.

29:16 Yeah. I don't know if you guys saw that uh Trump's also looking to steal another10 billion from us, the American taxpayers. You

29:22 earned it. Uh president is suing the IRS for $10 billion with a B in damages over the leaking of his tax returns in 2019 and 2020. Uh you might remember he's also suing the Justice Department for $230 million in damages. Seems like small potatoes now. Uh over the investigations that led to multiple grand juries uh indicting Trump on multiple criminal charges. Uh and since the DOJ now does whatever Trump tells them to do, you can imagine that they may settle this case favorably uh for the president. Uh Trump basically acknowledged the conflict on the uh on Saturday night when he was talking to reporters, though he seemed to just find the whole thing rather amusing. Uh take a listen. You know, I have to work out some kind of a settlement. I'm supposed to work out a settlement with myself. I think what we'll do is do something for charity.

30:08 Well, you know, we're thinking about doing something for charity where I'll give money to charity. We can make it a substantial amount. Nobody would care because it's going to go to numerous very good charities.

30:19 So, he's going to steal $10 billion from the federal government and claim he's going to give it to charity. That's what he's saying right now.

30:24 But do the press conference on it in black tie cuz that's that's fitting. I think

30:27 he was just he was Yeah. He was at the Alpha Alpha dinner Saturday night which is a bunch of uh you know elites uh just cracking jokes.

30:35 Yeah. Yeah. Cracking jokes. How many people in that room were in the It's crazy.

30:41 I realize that it's that the corruption isn't quite as maybe it's not as brazen or as big of a deal like globally as the UAE thing that we just talked about, but just taking 10 billion dollars from the Treasury for yourself.

30:53 It's just lazy. It's I mean that I talk about like things that that I think that would piss Americans off like more. I mean 10 billion. You know what you know how much a one-year extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies cost? $30 billion. That is a third of the extension that they said that we apparently cannot afford. 20 million people are seeing their premiums go up. And yet he wants to pay $10 billion out of the Treasury to himself just so he can promise to give it to many good charities. Could have hired more ICE guys with this.

31:20 That's that. Yeah. any other many other possibil the president of the United States is filing frivolous lawsuits

31:26 against the United States so he can settle so he can use his position to settle them favorably

31:32 it's again just he should be impeached and removed from office just we're just like watching it unfold I I like when I was watching all this the Epstein files and and like all the involvement of all these people inside the Trump administration we didn't talk about like Lutnik's in there a lot of people are in there and then you look at like the the the UAE case, this lawsuit. Uh there was a um CBS got got their hands on a memo. I don't if you saw this of um the capital uh the insurrection prosecutors wrote a memo to congressional leaders.

32:02 Do you see this? No. Where they recommended uh what the what Congress can do because DOJ will obviously not do anything to investigate the immigration abuses uh to investigate ICE and and detention center abuses and other things. And they laid out all these things that Congress could do, which would be about preserving records in the case of inevitable prosecutions in the future. And the point they made is there are FBI agents and federal prosecutors who have left because they're disgusted with the politicization and the sort of the the capture of these bureaus uh that would be available to do these kinds of investigations. And I and whether it's as part of the midterms or whether it's a part of a kind of a presidential campaign, I do think talking about how Democrats are going to declare war on corruption and put a real program of like I think it should be prime time hearings, a 9/11 commission like law

32:51 that kind of says here's how we're going to investigate this abuses of the pardon and power, the capture of the Department of Justice, president, the the theft by the president, the the corrupt acts by the president, and create like a a a kind of framework for how we're going to be treating this like a really big deal in the future, whether it's in 20 whether it's while Trump is in office or after. And as part of that, bringing on prosecutors, bringing on law enforcement to help kind of lead a true uh uh kind of credible investigation through Congress, I think, is

33:19 I think Bob Muller's up to Yeah, let's get let's get that guy out of the mothballs. Uh him and Muller can him and uh uh uh Garland can team up. Uh and it'll be a won't they won't they

33:31 like a 100 years up a case. Uh yeah, you mentioned Howard Lutnick. We should just mention he said he'd cut uh Jeffrey Epstein off in 2005. He told a really detailed story about how he and his wife walked into the house, saw a massage table, thought it was gross, never spoke to him again. Turns out he went to the island in 2012. So, good job, uh Mr. Letick. Um I do enjoy Trump suing the IRS for the docu these documents getting disclosed as he's having his handpicked goon, Bill Py, use his authority at the Federal Housing Authority to dig through mortgages and try to prosecute people that Trump doesn't like. That is kind of chef's kiss. Like in some sense, in the narrow sense, Trump has a case in this instance because you can sue the government for uh breaches of privacy when it comes to IRS data. Of course, he should have released his taxes when he ran for office. Of course, 20 billion is

34:16 a absurd amount. Um, apparently he's saying the $10 billion figure is a $1,000 per disclosure disclosure level that's specified in the law multiplied multiplied by an estimate of the number of times that Trump's tax information was published or broadcast. That's how they did the math that got them to the clean 10 billion. Beloved, I was trying to think like similar to your point about Congress. Like doing this just suggests you've given up on political considerations in any way cuz nothing could be more popular than suing yourself for $10 billion suing the taxpayers for $10 billion and being on both sides of the transaction. He just clearly is so greedy that he does not care.

34:53 Yes, I think he doesn't care. And I think you know this is like they feel like they're throwing so much stuff at us every single day. I mean, this was like Bannon, you know, at the at the beginning. It's like, oh, you do you do three horrible things a day and the first two uh, you know, they can only people can only pay attention to one and the other two go under the radar, right? And I I do think you're right, like love it, Democrats should make a huge deal of this. I think it should be the challenge with the hearings and the investigations is the the country. Most people want, you know, what's on their mind most of all is like, what are you going to do for me? How you going to help me? And like, you know, do I want a bunch of I would just be like, we're getting all your money back. He stole a bunch of money from uh the country from you. He's uh and he tried to sell out a bunch of the country as well and we're getting it

35:38 all back. We're getting your money back for you. I think that's good. I think that's good.

35:41 We're going through the couch cushions and uh and all the and all the people who've gotten hurt too, you're going to be able to uh that the government is hurt under Donald Trump because he broke the law. Um we're going to make you right as well.

35:51 Yeah, I think that's right. I think I I think you'd have to tie it back to the ways in which this was ultimately about pursuing his own interest at the expense of the country. I do think any broad uh uh investigation into Trump corruption will ultimately lead to tariff decisions and the higher cost people paid. But and then then I and I do think you'd have to then like really make it clear that it's about not just sort of looking back but about the reforms you would need, right? Because you would and and you know what, some of this is not going to be like top polling message. I think there'll be popular programs, but no, not everything we're going to have to do to fix our democracy is going to be able to tie back to affordability, but like we got to figure out some kind of return to independent council. There were reasons that was allowed to expire, but man, what a different world we'd be living in

36:32 right now if three judges uh could appoint an independent council to investigate uh uh crimes by the president. Now there I don't know if the Supreme Court uh which has now believed that the president is above above the law and uh the unitary executive like I don't know what happens now. Would it be it was held up uh in a by like the vast majority of judges last time? It was in front of the Supreme Court. Would that happen again? I don't know. But constitutional amendments around the pardon power uh uh stepping up congressional oversight of the administration. Like a lot of steps that we should be talking about that are forward-looking about preventing this kind of thing from happening again and attacking the ways in which Trump abused his office. One other just, you know, talking about uh inherent contempt is too late when you've already know when the person who you're trying to get is

37:19 already not reporting. I would like to start hearing congressional leaders start talking about the fact that whatever we do to investigate the Trump administration that they will use, if necessary, inherent contempt uh to arrest and detain people who do not participate. That we need to like Congress needs to start asserting. It's it's article one. It's it's first on the list. They need to start reasserting their authority uh and and make clear that they will, if necessary, uh enforce subpoenas and hold people in contempt and and make them testify.

37:46 Yeah. And then it'll be the it'll be uh Congress's goons versus the uh the federal government's goons facing off.

37:54 Yeah. And look, I I don't know what I I just I feel like we can't play chicken with them. And I just we have to And by the way, like do I worry about that power being in the hands of Republicans? Of of course I do. Of course I do. But we have to assume that we can uh use the power effectively and make a case to the American people if we are able to to win the Congress.

38:12 Tommy, to your point of um Trump not caring about the politics, um we got a uh he talked more this weekend about the gigantic new commemorative arc.

38:21 Arch. Arch. It would be an arch. Arch, right? I think an arc would be a box. Arc would be a thinking of the arch to the gold. That's the French word. Yeah. Uh so it's a new new arch he's constructing uh on the Virginia side of the PTOIC. Uh, the Washington Post reported over the weekend that the latest plan is for the monument to be 250 ft tall. Of course, that's for America's 250th anniversary, of course. Happy birthday, America. Uh, that's tall.

38:46 It's big. It's 150 ft taller than the Lincoln Memorial. Uh, only 40 feet uh smaller than the capital, the US capital. Uh, the Lincoln Memorial will sit in the shadow of of this of the Trump Arch. Uh imagine imagine what an eyesore on the

39:06 the one in St. Louis is 630 ft tall. That's This one sounds kind of lame. Is this a good place to say that? I also think they up the World War II memorial.

39:16 Okay. No, it's not. It's not the place for this. I just think they didn't I just think like it's you know what too literal.

39:22 Okay. Yeah, you're one of the Yeah, here we are just just living through this emergency. But let's let's go back and talk about that. He also announced that he's going to be closing the Kennedy Center, uh, whose board he now controls for 2 years for a complete renovation. Uh, who knows? Maybe it has to do with the fact that, uh, no one wants to perform there anymore. Uh, so he's like, "No one, no one's coming here. You know what? Then it's closed. That's it. It's done.

39:45 We can't. My Yeah. Uh, my birthday party is canled." Right. Exactly. One Kennedy Center event that did still play uh that did uh still take place last week, the world premiere of Melania, the documentary. Uh, great box office numbers. You guys see that? I had fun. I thought it was pretty entertaining.

40:02 The the I saw it twice. I got to say on the arch. It doesn't bother me because next Democrat's going to shut this stupid thing down, right? We can't. This is not built by then. We're going to bulldoze a whole arch.

40:12 I don't How fast can you build a giant arch? I have no idea. It's a good point. It would have to go up. Especially one that's I'm sorry. Taller than the Lincoln Memorial. We're making it bigger than Lincoln Memorial. Come on. This is crazy.

40:23 Matches his ego. I care less about Trump building arches that we can perhaps tear down or stop if they don't get finished. Obviously, he says he's going to finish everything in a in a snap, but I don't know how the East Wing the East Wing ballroom's going, but it seems to be slower than than originally predicted. I am worried about the Kennedy Center in the grand scheme of Trump abuses, we it's if he up the Kennedy Center, it's a building uh we'll be okay. But uh you know they have this obsession with like neocclassical architecture, architecture that evokes like the the Greeks and the Romans and the and and and the sort of classic forms and it's sort of a vaguely fascist mindset. But the Kennedy Center is a beautiful place that I'm sure they don't appreciate. And then he's talked about wanting to build a bigger entertainment complex. Have you seen this? In one of his posts he said, "Not only we going to renovate the

41:08 Kennedy Center, we're going to build a bigger and more beautiful entertainment complex." And like that's a beautiful like UFC cage match vibe.

41:16 Yeah. And so I worry about them that up because it's harder to fix. Oh, you worry about it. You don't think they're going to nail it? You don't think

41:22 I just Yeah. I don't think I don't think I don't think that the architects are when I see that colony from me.

41:29 When I when I see what they did to the the east-wing colony, I can't imagine, you know, because you know, as they said in Beauty, it's not broke, don't fix it. You know what I'm saying? Uh, no. You know, he's going to up the Kennedy Center for sure. I do prefer him focusing on uh architecture than on the destruction of democracy.

41:47 He should be Yeah. If he woke up every day for the next three years and just focused on the arch and the ballroom,

41:51 blueprints, hard hats, and like nothing else, ribbon cutting, anything like that is is great. I agree. I agree.

41:57 Um, Melania, biggest grossing documentary in a decade. Highest for the a nonusic domestic doc. very like couched

42:07 cuz Taylor Swift's Aristo dock like opened up at like you know 10 times that. But also also when you spend seven when you spend $75 million 40 for the dock, 35 on the marketing um and you make back 8 million in the opening.

42:21 You don't make that mill. You net 3.5 cuz half goes to the theaters. I mean, yeah. All it took was 35 million in marketing and relentless promotion from the most famous person in the world and current President Donald Trump to get, you know, it sounds like a bunch of old people in Trump areas went

42:36 over women over 55 were like 70% of the audience. And they also, you know, those people got to say we're sticking it to like liberal Hollywood because people had started making fun of what was expected to be a low open. So,

42:47 we feel stuck. Trump fans parting with their money to please him. No longer a surprise to me. I just it's a bribe. I I found it just so like you all the the the there's a there was a couple people that all like they pride themselves in being kind of free speech warriors sort of like tech bros finance guys praising the 8 million saying gotcha libs and it's like I get that like you didn't like like wokeness cuz you thought it was about the feelings of people that you're not fans of but your entire operation here seems to be at the feelings of of of Donald Trump because you seem to be involved in business. Is 75 million for a movie that makes eight good business

43:24 or is that a bribe in every theater? It is funny because none of them are saying like, "Wow, what a great doc." And like our first lady is wonderful all because they only care about being able to own the libs with the documentary.

43:36 I'm pretty sure Melania had Final Cut. I mean, she was like an EP on the project. It would all apparently look staged. The the spend coincided with Amazon firing 16,000 people this year, 14,000 more last year. the thing. But for Jeff Bezos again, like what is the point of having you money if you never say you? Like what are you doing there?

43:56 I mean, he does say it to the Amazon workers all the time. That's true. That's actually big you to the Washington Post as well. He's saying a lot of you.

44:02 Yeah. Well, I guess it just not to anyone powerful. To all of society when we all got to see the the Brett Ratner uh photos spill out of the Epstein files. The director of Melania was all in the press this weekend for another reason, too. So,

44:14 another one part of the cabal was welcoming. Was it Pete Hexad today when there sort of a big kind of welcoming he's sort of staying for what

44:22 just I think he was getting a visit to uh I don't know wherever he sends up those penis rockets I think but uh uh I'm not sure check the facts on that but uh yeah there's sort of a despicable lack of uh kind of moral courage on the part of our wealthiest elites something that has come up several times during this program

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47:00 Uh, all right. It's been a week since Trump told reporters that his paramilitary squads would quote deescalate a little bit after they killed two American citizens in Minneapolis. Since then, the president has called Alex Prey an insurrectionist whose quote stock has gone way down and told reporters that he actually won't be pulling back the operation in Minnesota. A federal judge there also just declined to block Operation Metro Surge, at least for now. ICE, which had issued guidance earlier last week saying that they'd be returning to targeted enforcement operations, issued a new internal memo on Friday, giving agents the green light to arrest people without a warrant. Uh then on Saturday, Trump was asked about his announcement that federal agents would only respond to protests in Democratic le cities if they asked for help. Uh here's what he said.

47:44 Back to your post on ICE protests, what did you mean when you said people will suffer an equal or greater consequence? If they do anything bad to our people, they will be they will have to suffer. I'm sorry. Uh they they will get taken care of in at least an equal way. You know, you see it the way they treat our people. And I said, you're allowed if if somebody does that, you can do something back. You're not going to stand there and take it.

48:11 Yeah. No, I think they already know that. That's not how the justice system works.

48:14 Yeah. They did they did murder two people in public. So, I do I think they know uh that they can do whatever they want.

48:19 I think you're thinking of the original. Yeah, that's the original for listen that's like you know that's justice classic.

48:24 Yeah. Old Testament justice literally another book he has not read but yes uh how you guys feeling about the deescalation or were you deescalated?

48:36 I interpret everything through the prism of Donald Trump his personal reaction to seeing things on cable TV that he does not like.

48:44 Uh to the extent there are changes it is to discourage that from happening again. Hopefully there's uh it creates improvements on the margins for communities affected, but I just I have no hope for the underlying policy as long as Trump and Steven Miller run the show unfortunately.

48:59 Yeah, I we have homeman said there will be a reduction in forces. There's an objective way to know if they are pulling back and that's getting some of these people out of uh Minneapolis. And regardless, like I I do think whatever they were planning to do after Minneapolis, I have to think that what has happened there in the Twin Cities has changed what was going to happen next, right? Because

49:19 I mean, they did cancel Maine. They need that Senate seat even though they all hate Susan Collins.

49:23 And so Susan Susan Collins got a got a got that um word from Gnome that they were going to pull out of which they called, by the way, it was called catch of the day.

49:30 Yeah. Disgusting. Uh but whether there were rumors about them going to Philly and other places, we don't know. But um it does seem like it has at least uh whatever Trump says in the moment as Tommy said, it's like they are react they are at least aware that they need to change the the images on screen.

49:47 Uh also Christine Nome just announced body cams by everyone's going to get body cams.

49:52 It's a good thing. They're trying to get ahead of this uh now that the uh they've negotiated an extra two weeks to over DHS funding and one of the you know one of the demands was body cams. Look on the body cams thing. I'm like great, fine. But uh we have a lot of these uh we have a lot of this violence um killing and uh all kinds of other lawlessness by ICE on video and it uh doesn't seem to be working all that well. um since uh we barely got an investigation into Alex Py's death and uh the federal government has refused to open an investigation into Renee Good's uh death. So uh not great to me. This is like keep up the pressure. Yeah. Right.

50:30 Because they are they are not going to do any of this on their own. when you do pressure them and you do make a big deal out of this, you do start getting some improvements on the margins and um you can't let up because if you let up, they will just go right back to doing what they do. And you know, all the all the pressure in the world is still not going to solve the problem, but at least it's going to make some improvements.

50:53 Yeah. I also would say that body cams uh are also on when would be on in places where uh people no longer have their phones, right? There'll be a lot. And so and we there was a a report out of the Twin Cities about uh somebody that was brought to a hospital. He had uh terrible um injuries to his face and and and uh injuries to his brain like multiple fractures and uh the federal agents claimed he had run into a wall. The the nurses and and and um health uh providers like denied that didn't think that well or at least felt that seemed not credible. Uh including like someone else they had not kept their stories straight. And so we just have no idea what's going on uh behind closed doors. A lot of a lot of reports about what's happening in these detention facilities that are awful. Um and so you know I look body cams.

51:42 Well the body cams it you need like mandatory uh activation of the body cameras. You need some sort of like clear rules around retention of the footage and access to it. So like there's a lot of ways to kind of just slap a body cam on someone for it to mean nothing. I think that the results are mixed regardless. But at least there's transparency hopefully if done right.

52:01 Well, to your point, like the no amount of reform, no no protections will uh work if lawn if if the federal agents know that their bosses will protect him even when they break the law, which is why you have them lying and well, you can't trust what's coming out of ICE. You can't trust Gnome. So yeah, like like we the main problem is that the well of me one major problem regardless of what we get through law is the fact that their leadership will defend these people uh even if they commit terrible crimes against people.

52:29 Uh one piece of good news out of Minnesota is that uh 5-year-old Liam Kaneo Ramos and his father Adrian are back home with their mother and brother after a federal judge ordered them to be immediately released from a Texas detention facility in a scathing ruling that accused the government of cruelty, lawlessness, and traumatizing children. Uh, Texas Congressman Waqen Castro, who had visited Liam and Adrienne last week, personally accompanied them home. Uh, unfortunately, Liam's case is in no way isolated. Uh, the New York Times reports over the weekend that at least 3,800 children under 18, including 20 infants were arrested and detained by federal agents last year. Since March of last year, more than 1,700 children have been stuck in detention centers. Um, what did you guys make of the judge's ruling and whether all of this might help other children who are being detained under just horrific conditions right now?

53:20 I mean, I I think all of us felt like this was one of the most sickening stories you've seen in a while. I locals say ICE tried to use this kid as a bait. DHS was like attacking his father repeatedly. He's a pending asylum claim. It sounds like these are people are trying to come to the country the right way. Like Liam is out, thank God, because of a massive outcry and because of um attention to his case. Like shout out to Congressman Castro. That's incredible what he did. Like exactly how you should be using your power in this moment to draw attention to issues and also like get change at the margins. But we can't replicate that in all these cases. And you know there's the horror stories of people in detention of ICE or CBP detention in places all across the country. It's so up that like the they were picked up in Minnesota, they take them to Texas, then they just there's been releasing people in Texas

54:04 who have no connections there. Like how the hell are you supposed to get back home? You're just a migrant. You have no money. you have no connections. You don't know anyone there. Maybe you don't have your phone. Um so I don't know like I I it's I'm glad to see this little kid is out. God knows what um trauma, you know, will stick with him for life. I mean, you know, when uh Congressman Castro visited last week, his report after visiting to everyone was that Liam was depressed. He was sleeping the whole time he was there. He was sick. Um, and now we find out that the Dilly Immigration Center in Texas, where Liam was being held, there's now a measles outbreak there.

54:39 Jesus. Um, so it's real HHS and DHS really working together to uh up the country on this one.

54:45 Yeah. When when Trump did family separation, like they never successfully reunited with hundreds of kids

54:53 uh uh with their families. It's like the stories we're hearing are from people that that sometimes a lot of the stories we're hearing are from citizens whose spouses are non-citizens

55:03 and they can they're safely in the country. They can call lawyers. They can get help. But there are people that have no connections once they're picked up and they are just in the system silent. We have no idea what's going on with them.

55:12 Yeah. and and and we know that they're making mistakes, that they're uh uh losing track of people, that that they're not able to keep the records of I mean, they're standing up a mass deportation program as quickly as they can with a bunch of incompetent deuce uh on the ones and twos. So, it's just an absolutely kind of it's a mix of kind of cruelty and like the malevolence of it combined with just a gross incompetence across the board knowing that they will ne that as long as the Republicans are in power, they will never face accountability for it.

55:36 I don't know if you guys caught the Star Tribune story about the conditions inside the federal detention center in Minneapolis. I think it's Whippled. I think you guys visit it, right? Um, but there were reports of one meal a day, overflowing toilets, denial of medical care, cells so crowded that people had to take turns lying down because there wasn't enough room for everyone to sleep. Um, and you know, the the Trump administration continues to try to ban lawmakers from surprise visits uh to detention centers. A judge once again uh just blocked that policy. Judges keep saying no. The law says that they can go whenever they want. they're members of Congress and the Trump administration just pretends it's not the law. Um because for what we were saying earlier, right, like there's no no cameras inside there, right? No one's filming with their phones, there's no body cam, so we don't know what's happening in the

56:21 detention centers. They're also buying up new warehouses all across the country because they want to like build more of these detention centers. They're treating people like absolute dog in there. I mean, I think 32 people died in ICE custody last year. Uh 17 in, uh Customs and Border Patrol uh custody. And in January alone of this year, six people have already died.

56:40 There was that other case where the administration was claiming uh it was a suicide, but the evidence suggests it might not be a suicide. And

56:45 no, the the the coroner, what do they call the autopsy? The autopsy. Yeah. That it wasn't a suicide. So like we're just we're not getting the truth out of these places. They want the notice because, you know, it's like a Jesus has come and look busy situation. Like they want to have a chance to uh uh be ready for any inspections. And I just would wonder if like to people that would defend the administration on this, what if you what if Cheesecake Factory announced that that they'd only allow health inspections with a weak notice? Do you think that you would want to go eat there?

57:10 No. And corporations are making a lot of money. I mean, the Financial Times reported that companies including Palanteer and Deoid have collectively made more than $22 billion in contracts uh at the heart of the ice crackdown. So

57:22 I think I think like you said, Castro going like more more Democrats should visit these detention centers. Absolutely. I think that's a good it is a good use of your power right now. Um, so we haven't had a chance to talk about Trump's DOJ arresting Don Lemon on Friday along with uh another independent journalist named Georgia Fort and several activists, all of whom were charged in connection with the January 18th anti-ICE protest at a Minnesota church. Uh, you'll remember that both a magistrate judge and a federal judge refused to sign off on the government's initial attempt to get an arrest warrant for Lemon and his producer. uh with a federal judge ruling, quote, "There is no evidence that those two engaged in any criminal behavior or conspired to do so." But here we are. Uh how big of a deal is this

58:03 when the the Department of Justice is arresting people uh for uh doing journalism uh using a kind of specious uh application of a law because the the attorney general is a tool of the president and regardless of whether the case is upheld just trying to get a good news cycle to stay in his good graces like we are in like a a such a dangerous place. Pam Bondi is so is just such an empty vessel. What a what a what a complete like morally vacuous just an empty empty shell of a human being. And so you just look at what Pam Bondi is willing to do. Like I just don't think there's a bottom. I think she's worried about public embarrassment. I think she's worried about what Trump thinks. I think she's worried about bad headlines.

58:46 But she has no ethical compunctions. Like nothing will stop her from just like her her friend and colleague Christy Nometh and Steven Miller and all. That's why you pick a bunch of uh middling incompetent mediocrities to run your agencies. I think it's a huge deal. Like John Lemon might get out. He uh a judge might toss this case. It's an obvious first amendment violation, but the the process is the punishment. It's scary. It's expensive. It's intimidating. And it's not happening in a vacuum. The feds raided a Washington Post reporters house recently. They took our devices. Uh the Pentagon is forcing its press corps to basically try to trying to get them to sign rules that said they'd run sort stories by them before reporting. Uh he's suing half the press corps. He's intimidating people to make better coverage. I mean now the Tik Tok US operations are owned by a bunch of Trumpis. Like the uh the the state of

59:38 the free press in this country is going in a bad direction. The indictment is ridiculous, too, because it's like, you know, basically what they have to prove because they're they're charging the Face Act, um, which says that you uh, it was originally for like anti for abortion clinics, for protesting outside abortion clinics, but it's also for churches as well, right? Like you can't and it says it makes it a crime to use force, threats, or physical obstruction to intentionally interfere with anyone seeking to exercise their right of religious freedom at a house of worship or to intentionally damage the property.

1:00:06 Right? And so it's not trespassing, right? Like you have a trespassing case if you say, "Okay, this is a private church. People came into the church. We told them to leave. They wouldn't leave. Trespassing." That's not what they're charging here. They're charging this the Face Act, right? And so to make that stick, you have to you can't say that Don Lemon just came into the church with the protesters. You have to say that Don Don Lemon was threatening and obstructing and all this kind of stuff. And so they have these the indictment reads like, "And then he just starts like peppering the pastor with questions threateningly with the questions."

1:00:35 He like menacingly puts his hand out. And well, and the right, you know, I saw Scott Jennings tweeted this, but he was like, "Oh, so Democrats position now is that if you are holding your phone up and filming something that you can break any law because then you just call yourself a journalist." It's like, "No,

1:00:51 come on, man. That is They were like, he shouldn't have just he shouldn't have charged into the church." And it's like again there's like a there's lesser charges and there's lesser things to do to someone who walk into a church who is clearly interviewing the pastor, the other officials, everyone else to say that like he was physically obstructing and threatening them.

1:01:08 If it's such a ridiculous defense because if the if if Pam Bondi had not charged on them with this, it wouldn't be like he was on the outside being like Pam Bondi should charge him with this. It would never have occurred to anyone a million years. Well, and the other thing is how many ridiculous how many department how many departments of justice, right, when a magistrate judge refused to issue the criminal warrant and then it gets kicked up to a federal judge. First of all, what department of justice would say, "Oh, the magistrate judge said no criminal no arrest warrant. We really want to get this person, so we're going to go up and we're going to appeal it." So then they appeal it to a federal judge and the federal judge is like, "No, there's no evidence for this whatsoever." And then the Department of Justice is like, "Fuck that federal judge. We're going to we're going to a grand jury where we know we

1:01:47 can get an indictment much easier because the defense doesn't have to uh offer any kind of evidence whatsoever. Uh

1:01:52 you're not there for there's no judge there at all. So we'll we'll go that route. Like that is the authoritarian nature of what they're doing, right? Like that like continuing to look for ways to arrest Don Lemon even after multiple judges and federal prosecutors have quit over this too. There's another eight federal prosecutors, by the way, who are we just broke before we recording who are uh in the in the Mini Minnesota uh office who are quitting as well.

1:02:14 It's the core It's the core distinction. You you find a crime and then you look for the person who perpetrated it. You don't find a person and then look for the crime that they committed. They are doing that is what they do. That is Pam Bondi's main role. I think it might have something to do with why the uh DOJ is having to recruit on Twitter now. Uh because they everywhere every time they try to do one of these things, a bunch of people quit and uh they're trying to figure out how to replace career and seasoned professional prosecutors with bozo goons from the law.

1:02:39 If you're a blue check who's ever posted Pepe the Frog, come uh come join the Department of Justice, we need you.

1:02:44 And by the way, explicitly saying if you support President Trump Yeah. and our crime agenda, uh anti-rime agenda.

1:02:50 Well, really crime agenda. had it right the first time. But yeah, like just absolutely going

1:02:55 uh not to be outdone by Pam Bondi. Tulsi Gabbard is also out there trying to score points with Trump in the MAGA media world. Uh last week Dan and I talked about the FBI raid on the Fulton County elections office in Georgia where a photo uh showed Tulsi talking on the phone in a baseball cap

1:03:10 like a ominous ominous seeing the head of the head of national intelligence. It's like you're trying to be kind of you're trying to hide but you're not doing a very good job of it. Spy chief like baseball hat. Just stay out of the picture. It's not that hard. So now we know the New York Times reports on Monday that the day after the raid uh Tulsi facilitated a call between some of those same FBI agents and Donald Trump himself. They got a direct line right to the president. Uh the call was short according to a US official who quote compared the conversation to a pep rally or a coach giving an encouraging halftime speech to his players. Isn't that wonderful? Um this is not the it's not the only Gabbard story in the news though. Uh the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that a US intelligence official has filed a whistleblower complaint alleging wrongdoing on Gabbard's part that is supposedly so highly classified that the

1:03:58 complaint is kept locked in a safe. Uh and it allegedly implicates another federal agency as well. Uh who would like to take a stab at what the hell Tulsi Gabbard has been up to?

1:04:08 Sure, I'd love to. I I so I think the key to understanding what Tulsi is doing up to in both these cases is uh if you think back to last year, March of 2025, Tulsi testifies before Congress and she says Iran has not decided to get a nuclear weapon. A few months later, Trump decides he wants to bomb anyway. He's asked about her comments and he says, "I don't care what she thinks." Couple days later, she revises her views so that the intelligence case matches Donald Trump's opinion. It's best practices in the retail world. U fast forward to January 1st, 2026, first day of this year. Tulsi posts a photo of herself on the beach in Hawaii doing yoga and then two days later the United States invades Venezuela. She was completely cut out of the planning of that operation. Um and

1:04:49 she was she could have been working remote now. Probably not. I'm guessing not. So I think she's seen that she is like on the outs with Trump. Doesn't want to get fired.

1:04:56 Not much of a warrior pose. Yeah, she's think about it. She's hemorrhaged her policy principle. She was an anti-regime change person, right? That was her big thing. She served in Iraq. Didn't want regime change wars, hence supporting Trump. Fine with those now. Um, so now she's like whatever. I do think there's a deep state. I'm fine being like the fraud ZAR. The the IG report thing is is crazy. I think like my total speculation guess is that there's some intelligence that implicates someone close to Trump. Like a hypothetical one is you could imagine a whistleblower talking about Jared Kushner who doesn't have a clearance, not part of the government, getting access to intelligence information or sharing intelligence information with foreign officials or Steve Wickoff for flying around the world and negotiating with Vladimir Putin on WhatsApp or whatever the hell he's doing. And like the reason it could

1:05:45 be so sensitive is maybe we learned about this through collection on the other countries and it's so sensitive. I'm making all this up. Like this is just purely hypothetical, but um it's really weird. It's really weird. And uh she has an obligation when there is a whistleblower complaint like this to brief it to Congress and I think 2 weeks uh after receiving it and they haven't done that and that's a huge breach.

1:06:08 Yeah. It's not an avocado. It's not like they're waiting for it to ripen. It's not like the information in that safe is getting uh less inconvenient for them. And what's strange in the story is you see that they're kind of trying to figure out a way around sharing some of it. they were flirting with talking about executive privilege um uh and other ways of getting out of sharing all of it with Congress, but they the the sort of the lamentation like we don't know what to do with this saying defile the law,

1:06:33 show it to Congress. You don't have a choice. Also, just not for nothing, but uh the president of the United States uh talking through the intelligence director directly to the FBI agents who participated in a raid on a uh county elections office in which the president himself uh has been implicated in a crime uh way back a couple seasons ago,

1:06:58 right, that he's now trying to cover up or or or do whatever. Imagine Eril Haynes, Joe Biden's DNI, being at the Mara Lago raid, tossing her phone on speaker and Joey gives an adab boy to the troops there, you know, raiding Melania's underwear drawer or whatever the

1:07:14 Not even like not even going through cash, right? They're just going right over the whole chain of command and the FBI just right just the agents on the ground. Trump wants to cuz he's a he's like it's like a coach during halftime.

1:07:25 Yeah, I think it's wishful thinking. Yeah, it's wishful thinking to think this is part of a cover up. I think this is sort of a drumming up of something new and fake. Uh, this is about this I think this is about future election theft, not past election theft.

1:07:35 Well, it's both cuz for him he he wants to we got to set the record straight about 2020 and we got to make some arrests. So then we go then we can go to the future to he said something today to Dan Bonino who was until recently the deputy director of the FBI about federalizing uh elections in 15 of the crooked states or something like that. So yeah, he's he's got it on the mind.

1:07:55 Well, yeah, he's been on that beat. He's been on that beat. So yeah, but they will they will take whatever they found. They will use it to claim that this is the reason they there's some pretext for some some takeover.

1:08:05 He said we should take over the voting in at least 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting because we have states that are so crooked.

1:08:11 Well, yeah. The worse the polling gets, I think, the more animated they have good reason to worry. U because uh uh on Saturday, Democrats flipped a uh Trump plus 17 state senate seat in Texas uh winning it by roughly 14 points. That is a 31point swing. The Democratic candidate Taylor Remmit, a Union President and Air Force veteran, defeated the Trumpbacked candidate Lee Wamsgans.

1:08:33 I know. I saw any relation. I I was like I saw the name Wamsgams. I was like, how is that even possible? That was a madeup comedy name.

1:08:40 Yeah, the Dutch. It was It was Yeah, it was a runoff for the ninth district around Fort Worth. Again, this is a state senate district, but about a million people in that district, so big district. Um the day before and the day of the election, Trump had posted to Truth Social in support of uh Wamsgans, giving her his cherished endorsement uh and calling her phenomenal u and a quote true MAGA warrior. Uh but here's how Trump reacted to her loss on Sunday.

1:09:05 A Democrat won a special election in an area that you had won by 17 points. What is your reaction to that?

1:09:11 I don't know. I didn't hear about it. Somebody ran where in Texas special election for legislative the ninth state senate seat.

1:09:18 I'm not involved in that. That's a local Texas race. Republican. You mean I won by 17?

1:09:24 Yeah. And this person lost. Things like that happen. It's true. They do happen. Things do happen.

1:09:30 It might happen a lot more. What do you guys think about the uh a lot of hype around this? Overhyped, underhyped. What do you think? I think well I saw people making a Senate map where if this if we see we have a saw did they a Senate map where if there's a swing of 31 points or roughly 31 points uh it would mean Democrats would be able to get to 59 or more get to 60 uh senate seats. So I mean straightforward from here

1:09:51 fun to think about. Uh I look I whatever the implications of a specific special election uh at a moment of just absolute kind of Trump doldrums and sort of dissatisfaction in the country and like the the the question I had about it was though like is there really something happening with like between Alex Prey the anti-second amendment stuff uh the turn against ICE the lack of focus on affordability the endless headlines about Trump taking over the Kennedy Center and building arches like is there something deeper happening? Like is there an actual sort of weakness in his not base of support but whatever the two columns over uh like is that real and could it be lasting? Like is this a low watermark or is it the beginning of like a real unraveling? I just don't think we know.

1:10:36 Yeah, I was thrilled to see Tom Wcans's in Death by Lightning which I watched one episode of. Isn't it great?

1:10:42 It's about the president getting quite good. Yeah. But really was it was the doctors the doctors digging around in there?

1:10:48 The doctors dug doctors dug around in there. Yeah. first episode. Interesting. You can't spoil.

1:10:52 I talked to Bobby Paleo about this race in the interview today. First of all, everyone check it out. He's really cool. He was in town to go to the Grammys

1:10:58 because he was Grammy nominated. That's why the traffic careful, that's where they get you. Don Lemon. Let's ask Don Lemon about that.

1:11:03 Very interesting guy, not your traditional congressional candidate. Um, but like you know, I was talking to him about his district and, you know, the the gerrymander that's happened in Texas and whether he thinks that Republicans may have over overtoor it and uh he feels pretty optimistic that they have um uh overassumed their ongoing support with Latino voters in particular and you know this, you know, state senate seat is one little indication of that, but there might be

1:11:30 a broader set of numbers coming our way. at least three of the five seats that they squeezed out of there in the in their uh gerrymander I think could be at risk. I was listen I wanted to say that they've over gerrymandered then I was told that that was wishful thinking and now it's back to not being just wishful thinking there was a there was a consensus this is weeks ago not Nimi Twitter don't get me started on Nimi Twitter

1:11:56 unbelievable what's happening with Nimi Twitter here in Los Angeles but the point I was making is only that I think we back are we back into saying that they may have overjerrymandered that it's back to being possible because it was it was it was it was it was seen as um polyianish for a while. That's all I'm saying. It was

1:12:11 You were so right, so early. I'm not I didn't know. I'm not saying I knew. To your point about something deeper uh happening. So, this was a runoff this election. The first election was in November. Um so, the same district and all the Republican candidates combined versus the Democratic candidates combined, it was um GOP plus 5. So, it that was that was good enough for Democrats. that was plus five in a Trump 17 plus 17 district and this was then uh 14 points. So there was another like 20 point swing just between November and

1:12:46 what is it February and the Republican had way more money way out spent and so now turnout was low right turnout was about uh probably a third of what

1:12:56 seven people yeah right now so about about 100,000 voters it's about a third of what you'll get maybe people in Texas who know this kind of stuff estimate for the um for the midterms about a third of what you'll get and you know lower for a special but it wasn't um it wasn't low and then uh like highly concentrated Democrat. It was because about 50% plus of the voters were Republican primary voters. So that means that the Democrat won by a lot of Republicans or a lot of independents especially and some Republicans uh deciding to change their votes which is huge.

1:13:29 Well, luckily today in the Texas Senate race, everything seems copathetic. Everyone involved in that primary is getting a little crazy. No one is posting videos. I think it's I think it's important to take random Tik Toks and then decide that they're gospel.

1:13:42 For those who don't know what we're talking about, there seems to be some sort of beef between James Tyler Rico, the former candidate in the race and I don't know.

1:13:49 And Colin and Colin who we really like, he's been on the show. Cool guy. I don't know what's happening down there. I wish they would just pick up the phone, talk on the phone.

1:13:56 Yeah. One thing we should do is win the Texas Senate race. And so that's just that's just something everyone should be thinking about.

1:14:02 That would be I would love to or at least try try, right? We should not maybe maybe not throw the race. uh before it happens. That's one thing that we should think about.

1:14:10 I don't know. I don't know. It's just just a thought. We do need it. We do need it like win. Oh my god.

1:14:16 We need Texas. Get those electoral votes someday, too. Uh also, one day, one day those Texas electoral votes are going to come along. Yeah. Every Lucy with the football.

1:14:24 And if they don't, there won't be a Democratic president. Uh hey, hey, hey, there won't be even if either way. So,

1:14:31 just saying there's a downside. Just don't blame Texas. Speaking of Democratic presidents, as we were recording, Bill and Hillary Clinton agreed to testify in the House Oversight Committee's investigation into Jeffrey Epste.

1:14:40 I heard that. I heard they they rejected them. The Yeah, I heard they still want to they want to go forward with contempt.

1:14:46 What? It's like, hey, when they guys, can't you see you belong together? Yeah. It's like, Also, by the way, James CR, listen, I know it sounds like I'm a partisan Democrat, and I am, but like, how would some inherent contempt feel right now? Huh? Put a little pep in your step, huh, James CR? Huh?

1:15:02 Sure. I'm sure that's where they were headed. Huh. Couple sergeant arms. I'm sure that's what they I'm sure maybe that's why they're rejecting it.

1:15:06 Honestly, I don't arrest them no matter they're going to show up at the hearing at the scheduled time and the schedule room and they're still going to arrest them.

1:15:12 I don't like the cut of your jib. Arrest them and then Trump's going to do a conference call with with the whole room.

1:15:17 Yeah. And don't tell Kelsey's going to be there. Um anyway, uh when we come back, uh we will have Tommy's interview with congressional candidate Bobby Pledo. Positive America is brought to you by HIMS. ED is more common than you think and simpler to treat than ever. Through HIMS, you can connect online with a licensed provider to access personalized treatment options discreetly and on your terms. Through HIMS, you can access personalized prescription treatment options for ED if prescribed. HIMS offers access to ED treatment options ranging from personalized products to trusted generics that cost 95% less than brand names if prescribed. You shouldn't have to go out of your way to feel like yourself. Hims brings expert care straight to you with 100% online access to personalized treatments that put your goals first. This isn't oneizefits-all care that forgets you in the waiting room. It's your health and goals put

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1:18:29 He's a Latin Grammy winner and a tano music icon currently running for Congress in Texas's 15th district. Welcome to Pod Save America, Bobby Pledo. Great to see you

1:18:38 in person. Thank Yes, in person. Yes, we were. Most people don't know what the hell is. So if if you're white or or black and not Hispanic, you're like, "What is that?"

1:18:48 Well, uh yeah, it's kind of like Selena. So I tell everybody it's what Selena did.

1:18:52 I want to hear a lot more about about the music piece of this cuz you're you're in town because you went to the Grammys last night in person in Los Angeles right?

1:19:02 Correct. I was nominated. How'd it go? I lost. I'm sorry. It happens. Is that okay? Is it just Is it a thrill to be nominated?

1:19:09 I've lost more than I've won. That's for sure. And I think most have I mean you saw most of these people you see you see like Lady Gaga go in against Justin Bieber and other titans only one wins right and so

1:19:22 so uh it's it's a very hard award to win the competitive juices flow when you when you're up there you

1:19:28 you know what I won two Latin Grammys Latin Grammys which is a little not the American Grammy

1:19:34 um and it's really more pressure when they expect you to win than when you're not expecting to win.

1:19:39 Right. Right. Cuz like if you if you're not expected to win, like who cares? Who cares? I wasn't supposed to win anyway, right? But if you're supposed to win and you don't.

1:19:47 Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Yeah. There's no expectations. Like you you don't write a speech, you have a couple too many drinks, then you have a good time when you get up there and you know, kind of

1:19:55 it's your piece. See? Okay. It's work. You were we were chatting on the way in. Yeah.

1:20:00 You were telling me that no matter what the event is, it's work. like, okay, so I didn't watch uh last night because I was dealing with a three-year-old and a one-year-old. Okay.

1:20:10 Um I'm like a sporadic award show watcher. The ones where it's lots of long speeches.

1:20:17 Yeah, that seems very boring to me. But the Grammys, it's like a really cool interesting concert every time.

1:20:24 It was a good show. I liked it. Um I'm an old school guy, so I like I like the older artists. I don't really know the the younger artists, right? So, so I really like seeing Lady Gaga, I thought she was great. And um you know, Bruno Mars, I thought that was great. You know, Post Malone singing with uh with Slash and like that's cool.

1:20:44 That is cool. Yeah, that's that's cool. They do a good job like mix mixing matching.

1:20:47 Yeah. Yeah. I hate that feeling though when all of a sudden you don't know what the kids are listening to. I feel like my brain the older I get is kind of like hardening. It's like getting new music in there into stick. I guess if you see someone in in concert like that's when you create an experience I think that creates that like

1:21:04 memory that but you know there's so much talent man they're all talented there's no slouches there

1:21:09 everybody's good yeah and they work their asses off that also too yeah a lot of uh a lot of bloody fingertips on the guitar over

1:21:16 Yeah practice and stuff but people don't realize like how how hard it is to walk and to be in an award ceremony with your wife

1:21:25 why is that because she's got to wear high heels because that's what they say It looks good, but she's got to walk like 10,000 miles, right, that day

1:21:32 and she's complaining and she's in pain. And I would be I mean, it's it's work.

1:21:38 Did you wear uh boots? I wore boots and a hat and all leather. Okay. Like the SNM version of a cowboy,

1:21:45 which which that is exactly what we need, I think, to win a congressional seat in Texas. Uh all right, let's talk some politics. So, yeah,

1:21:53 a Democrat just won a major special election victory in Texas over the weekend. Um they flipped a a Texas Senate district that Trump won by 17 points in 2024. And I think this was against like a much better funded opponent, right, on the Republican side.

1:22:06 Yes. Correct. Um what do you think happened in like is it irresponsible to read tea leaves and try to divine what this says about 2026?

1:22:15 I think a little bit of both. Okay. There is a It's good news. Yeah, it really is because I mean Trump won my district by 17.9 points.

1:22:24 Oh, interesting. Wow. Right. So, don't think for a minute I wasn't looking at this and going like, "Okay, I want to see how this goes."

1:22:29 You're like, "Where's that point N?" I did not expect him to win by 14 points. I thought he may eek it out. This is a big deal. And then if you look in the Hispanic districts, he overperformed Kamla by 40 to 50 points.

1:22:46 What? 40 to 50? Yes. Wow. Yes. So, so in then the Fort Worth areas. Um, so, so this is um, it it was very surprising. I was very shocked and very encouraged. Uh, and I'm not surprised to be honest with you from what I'm seeing on the ground even where I am.

1:23:05 Well, so let's talk about that. So, you're running for the 15th district. Um, for those who, you know, don't have a map ready in their brain. It's like

1:23:14 it's as far south as you can get in Texas, right? Right on the border. And then it goes shoots up and then kind of east of San Antonio. Is that the new map?

1:23:21 That's correct. Okay. They jerry mandered it. Yeah. We'll we'll talk about that a second. So, Wikipedia tells me the district is 80% Latino. Is that right? Yep.

1:23:28 Okay. Thank you, Wikipedia. Um, you got parts of the Rio Grand Valley where Democrats got crushed in uh 24.

1:23:35 Um, right. No, no, you're touching. There's the Yeah, there's a caveat, right? Tell me the caveat. Well, they they gerrymandered it to make it seem like South Texas was red, but in our our elected representative right now, Monica de la Cruz, has never won the Valley.

1:23:51 Okay. She's never won South Texas. U even with the Trump wave, she lost. Oh, right. Okay.

1:23:56 Right. So, so where she did is she picks up the margins up in the northern and just blows it out like 8020 and that gave her the win.

1:24:04 Okay. Well, so but just on the South Texas piece, there was that big swing right there to Trump.

1:24:10 There was a there was a huge swing. Why do you think that was? Like what happened?

1:24:14 I think the candidate didn't resonate with him. I And I think I hate to play into our own stereotypes as Hispanics, but I think since I'm a Hispanic, I'm a Latino, I can I can do it.

1:24:24 Say whatever you want. If there's if there's a stereotype that's that fits us is we're very aspirational people, right? The reason why a lot of Latinos come to the United States is for a chance to work and actually make it, right? I think I think if you think most about Hispanics are hardworking, very family oriented.

1:24:42 Mhm. And they come from normally from countries that if you work really hard, you get nowhere. Nobody wants to come over here and work really hard and get nowhere.

1:24:52 Mhm. And that's where we are right now. So a lot of people in the Hispanic community were saying like we voted for Trump because we thought I could work hard and actually do something.

1:25:01 So it's economic is a big thing. And then you tack on this the cruelty that's going on right now, the fear with the raids and things like that that is also affecting the economy, then there's a huge huge backlash against it.

1:25:16 Yeah. I think you you're making an important point too, which is like I think for someone who's a political obsessive like me, I think of Trump, the candidate, but a lot of people still think of the businessman reality show.

1:25:26 Yeah. The millionaire, the billionaire, you want to be rich, right? Want to be rich. Give me some of that. Right.

1:25:30 Yeah. um when you're doing town halls, like what what are you hearing about? And then secondarily, like what's the conversation about border security and immigration policy like today as compared to maybe a year ago?

1:25:43 I think it depends. I've already visited all 11 counties. I'm not even in my primary yet.

1:25:48 So, you're working. You're out there. Been busting my butt, man. I I I my wife is the best person in the world because when you retail campaign, it's the most timeconuming type of campaigning. You're actually grassroots on the ground meeting voters. That's what we're doing. Taking their questions and and look, it depends because in the real Grand Valley, immigration is a big deal because we're in a community where 35 or 40% of the people speak Spanish. And when you see that the that that the administration is racial profiling also based on language, that's a problem.

1:26:25 Yeah. In a community with a lot of people that speak Spanish and you know uh so it it affects our businesses. We we get a lot of we we've always historically depended a lot of tourism for Mexico

1:26:36 and right now tourists don't feel welcome. Mhm. And so they're not coming and spending their money like they should.

1:26:42 You know, especially the dollar keeps declining. It's bad. The peso should be really good. They should be coming in droves,

1:26:48 right? And so the economy is not doing well and and there's going to be a big backlash about it.

1:26:53 Well, the good news is we also pissed off the Canadians, so they're also not visiting.

1:26:57 Not just the Canad, we pissed off every ally we've ever had. We're working on pissing off most of NATO. Um,

1:27:02 right. The European Union. Not a lot of flights from Greenland these days, I'm guessing.

1:27:05 No, I don't think so. like yeah the well I do want to ask you about like the economics of these this ICE crackdown because I mean you know I'm reading articles about kids who haven't gone to school in a month

1:27:19 families who can't go to a job site I know someone here in LA whose husband was uh picked up and detained for hours when he was trying to work construction job and then you know he he just like didn't have his papers on him um but then he didn't go to work that day right and it flipped out everyone around him

1:27:34 that's right so it's like what are you seeing in terms of the economic? Oh, that's a huge deal. I mean, look, the builder community right now is struggling big time. Think about it like this, right? We talked about the aspirational nature of who we are.

1:27:48 We're always trying to work. So, a lot of these construction owners of these construction companies, this is the first generation where they're actually making money because before them,

1:27:57 right, they they were be busy trying to do the work, right? Right. And or their parents were and they wanted them to now get out of that. And so now when they're barely starting to get there, they don't have a workforce.

1:28:09 Yeah. And and what do you do about that? I mean, well, that's the problem, right? And and they get really angry because people say just hire American labor. It's like, I'm putting ads out. Nobody wants to work those jobs or they don't know how to work those jobs,

1:28:21 right? So what do you do? What when once business slows and construction slows, it construction is houses get more expensive, right? And then realtors get mad because they don't have enough things to sell.

1:28:33 Mhm. And so it's just a domino effect business-wise, which historically the Chamber of Commerce vote tends to lean Republican. And right now they're very angry about this because it hasn't. And and us as Democrats, Tommy, haven't been we haven't been really good salesmen of ourselves on economics. When you go just look at our economic history, Democrats have always been better on the economy,

1:28:57 right? We historically, I mean, we've always been better and we just don't sell ourselves that way. And people think Republicans, oh, successful businessman and they're better for the economy. And that's just not true.

1:29:09 Yeah. I wonder why that is. It's just sort of a cut taxes, you know, equals good business in people's minds. I'm wondering like where this disconnect comes from.

1:29:17 You know what? That equals deficits. Yeah. That's why we're in debt. Right. Right.

1:29:21 Yeah. Our our kids kids will be That's exactly right. And it's because of Republicans to be honest with you. Well, I look, I agree with you on the Joe Biden. Um, he handled inflation, I think, better than a lot of countries did, but it wasn't good enough.

1:29:33 Correct. Correct. Correct. Well, we printed a lot of money. Yeah. Yeah. We printed a lot of money, but also, you know, I think immigration was also a big driver of votes against Biden's last cycle. And, you know, look, I'm not a uh I'm not a fan of Governor Abbott, as you would might guess. Me, Texas governor.

1:29:48 We agree. uh he seems like not the nicest guy, but I think politically speaking, he did have an enormous impact on the the national debate about immigration through this sort of sustained busing of individuals. And so, like early on, I think people probably remember Ronda Santis flies a bunch of people to Martha's Vineyard. It was so obviously a stunt and so obviously shitty um that there was a backlash, but the busing was just relentless. And again, like treating someone like a political prop or pawn, I think is like morally wrong. Agreed.

1:30:20 But there's another piece of this that's like, well, okay, why do just border communities need to shoulder the economic and kind of social burden of having a bunch of people in their communities? And I'm just wondering if you could like talk about how people you knew felt at the end of the Biden days and and how that conversation has changed. I think what it was is is there was a disappointment that for three years he didn't go there and didn't address the problem in year four. Um actually James Langford had a a deal negotiated right that Trump eventually killed

1:30:57 because he wanted to win right and so we didn't really do a good enough job educating people on on how they themselves also had a hand in this but but

1:31:07 it took too long. So, you know, you got to understand in South Texas, there's a lot of border patrol agents and they vote and so do their families.

1:31:14 And they felt I I mean, I have friends and family in Border Patrol and they felt that they had been they didn't sign up for necessarily for processing people cuz that's what it was becoming with the asylum with with the asylum seekers. And they're like, I signed up to to patrol the border, not to be processing people, right? Because that's all they were doing was just processing. And then the people would fly to wherever they wanted to fly. And that created a lot of resentment. It it really did. And and and I don't want to ever sound like inhumane about that because that's people's spirit. They always want to to look for a better life. That's that's natural. Um that's a part of what our ancestors would have done for us. So, but it took four years for him to sign an executive order which in year four that immigration slowed down considerably because of he addressed it.

1:32:08 We just took too long. Yeah, it took way too long. No, but I think you're making an important point which is like I think it's important to to hear from people like you who like live in these communities and know friends and just understand how complicated things are, right? Like

1:32:20 you have a bunch of friends in Border Patrol. They're good people. They didn't they're not trying to harm anyone. And also like look, we're all horrified by what's happening with ICE. Uh the the video of the murder of Alex Prey by two guys. Horrifying, right?

1:32:34 Horrifying. And then ProPublica just uh published their names. It seems like the two men are Latino

1:32:40 and they end up killing a uh a white protester, which I think is just the perfect example of like the scrambled racial politics of all of this, right? because the these guys are like at a organization that is recruiting people with white nationalist imagery run by Steven Miller who is an outand-out racist and it's just like nothing is what you'd expect and I think we all need to get comfortable with the complexity you know

1:33:04 I I agree Tommy but I also don't feel like I feel like we're putting a lot of emphasis on ICE and not emphasis on this administration

1:33:15 right people like right now ICE is the boogeyman last night at the Grammys Everybody was out ICE out and f ICE and it's ICE has always existed, right? I mean, whatever you want to call it, we need a force to get rid of bad actors in our country that are criminals and bad people.

1:33:33 Mhm. That that that you need that. You can't not have that. But I think when we see when we just make a focus about ICE, we take off the the focus on this administration that's actually using them in that correct in that manner, right? right?

1:33:47 The political decisions driving that's what's that's the problem. Right? It's when they tell them and they go berate them in the White House and say, "Get me 3,000 people."

1:33:56 Right? Now, you're forcing them to be overly aggressive to meet quota numbers. That's very different than saying how they campaigned, we're going to go get out the bad people. That's is not what they're doing.

1:34:07 That's absolutely right. And and and so so there those are two separate things where you say, "Hey, go get out the bad people." Nobody's going to tell you you can't do that. But when you're deporting gardeners and grandmas, right, and then you go in and you and you're violating constitutional rights, you know, fourth amendment, just like crazy.

1:34:28 Mhm. This is this is not who we are. We can't be that. Yeah. And and we have to call the administration out on it because it's easy. They're going to just go, "Well, it's ISIS's fault." Yeah, that's the boogeyman. No, it's you.

1:34:40 Yeah. Right. It it's it's it's Steven Miller. It's Donald Trump. It's it's it's the people that are enabling them that who that's who has to be called out and we can't give them a pass.

1:34:50 So it doesn't sound like you're in the kind of abolish ICE camp of the solution to this problem.

1:34:54 Look, it's been branded really poorly now. I don't know. It's a bad It's got, you know, you give love a bad name, you give ICE a bad name. Well, they did. Um but but you got to have some type of of administrative arm to get rid of the bad people. That I'm I'm for that. I don't think anybody's going to disagree with that, right? Because there are bad people in every in every walk of life.

1:35:19 But the way they're doing it, I I think that's where it's where it's bad. And and I'll tell you, look, last night was a room of of people in the industry, right? And artists, we we're emotional, man. We put we pour our heart out in the music, right? And so we are probably more emotional than most. But most Americans, especially and I live I live in a rural district. People aren't exactly that emotional. They're more okay, make make let's reason with this. Let let's find some common sense solutions to this.

1:35:50 Yeah. And and and I I I want to caution, you know, because I kind of I'm I come from both worlds. I live in a rural area and I I'm in in an industry that's very very much emotional and and we kind of have a blend

1:36:05 of of it and say like yeah I I don't think abolishing is is is the right word. I know that's the the emotional response to it because of what we're seeing and it's tragic and I hate it. I hate it as much as believe me with every fiber of my soul but we have to be smart on how to point them out and let people know why we got here. And we got here because we were sold a bill of goods and we voted for the wrong person. Not we. I did not vote for that. But I'm saying as a as a community,

1:36:32 as a country. Yeah. As a country. No, I agree with you. Look, I obviously Trump and Stephen Miller are the drivers of this. I I I I think where I kind of personally land is

1:36:40 blaming ICE is almost too simplistic. Like I do like CBP obviously has been a huge problem here. There needs reforms there. You need reforms of ICE. I also think the Department of Homeland Security is a complete and total disaster. We created it after 9/11 in this like climate of fear and we made securitized all these functions that maybe would be better in the department of justice or other places. So there's a broader rethinking that needs to happen but it's probably bigger than just ICE in my view.

1:37:06 I agree it is. I mean you see the secretary of homeland defense is it looks like it's Halloween every time she comes out. She got a different outfit, you know, cosplaying is different things.

1:37:17 I just don't see like that's not it's ridiculous. Yeah. It's not serious. It's not a not a not not a great run organization. Um let me ask you about uh Texas doing this mid decade redistricting. Uh the conversation in Washington is often like how does this impact the balance of power, right? The number of seats for Democrats, Republicans. How do human beings in Texas feel about having this forced on them? Do they know? Do they care? A lot of people don't even know. It's it's it's amazing how many people have no idea. I still to this day ask people people in the real Grand Valley tell me, "Hey, am I in your district now?" They know there was a change, but they didn't really know like a lot of people didn't know what was going on.

1:37:58 I sure as hell did. Yeah. When when I was keeping an eye on it when they were doing this and and and I'll tell you, Tommy, like from my perspective, I I looked at this and went, they're assuming they're going to win those five seats, and they're also assuming that they're going to keep everything that they have. And from my perspective, I'm like, "No, you're not.

1:38:18 Not if I have something to say about it." You think this is a mistake? Do you They kind of There's like the dummy mander, right? Where you

1:38:23 Oh, absolutely. Oh. Oh, yeah. I look, I was a political science major in college. And so I

1:38:31 The nerd in me comes out sometimes, right? I try to keep it suppressed. You're in the right place, man. I try to keep it suppressed, right? But you look at it and you say, "Okay, everybody went on 2024 Trump numbers," which is what they did, but we went on we went and researched 2022 numbers, which is a Biden midterm,

1:38:48 which favors Republicans in the opposite party is in power. And there was a candidate named Rochelle Garza from Brownsville, Texas, that ran against Ken Paxton for attorney general. She lost my district by less than one point.

1:39:04 That's not that red. No. No, that's a little red. Yeah. Right now, I looked at that and I went, "Oh." So, on one hand, I was really mad what they were doing. But if I could be honest, like from my personal perspective, I went, "Well, I don't hate it." Because because 65% of the district now is new,

1:39:25 huh, to her to the incumbent. So, she doesn't have the name ID in that district,

1:39:32 if that makes any sense. No, it makes total sense. So, so like I'm a South Texas musician. I Right. Our music is very cultural to our people, you know, in our kinsignas and barbecues. My music and music of my father, too, has been historically present. We've been there forever. So, we've toured those areas. We have friends. We have we have we have friends,

1:39:55 right? We've we know the people. And when I saw this and I went, "Oh, you're giving me Beville, Texas. It town." Well, you're they're looking at it going, "Well, they voted 75% Republican." And I'm going, "Yeah, but there are people."

1:40:09 Yeah. They see numbers. You see human beings. That's exactly right. Um that's exactly right.

1:40:14 Okay. So, your staff, how often are they trying to get you to sing at events, play music? How many events turn into concerts?

1:40:22 Man, you know what? When we go do a ranch hall, we sing them a couple of songs.

1:40:27 Okay. I go take their questions, we feed them. Uh, you got a guitar in hand. What do we What do we do?

1:40:34 No, I I I take a band. Okay. The whole band? Not a whole band. It's kind of like an acoustic set, right? It's an acoustic set. So, while they're eating food, they're hearing our music.

1:40:41 Yeah. Not my music, but our type of music. And then I go speak. I take their questions. I answer all their questions, which I might add my uh the person that we want to take down uh and and defeat, Monica de la Cruz, has never done a town hall.

1:40:57 That's how she's never answered her constituent's questions. How do you do that? I don't like you hear that sometimes about members of Congress and it's like did she just moved to DC and she never comes back? How is that possible?

1:41:07 She goes and they hide her and they and they protect her because they don't want her to expose herself.

1:41:12 So they're trying to play her safe. They're hiding her. So what I'm saying is I'm going to be the opposite. I'm going to go everywhere.

1:41:19 Take some questions and take questions from you. Bring them on. Play some bangers.

1:41:22 Yeah, play some bangers. We finished. We We close with that and man, it went everybody's happy, man.

1:41:27 Do you do covers ever or just your stuff? Do my stuff. That's fun. God. Yeah. I like sometimes we get to do live podcasts

1:41:34 and it's really cool and we've gone out in front of big audiences and it's exciting and I love doing it and I get to be with my friends, but every single time I walk out on a stage, I think to myself, God, I wish I was doing something cooler for the next hour and a half. Like I had a real talent and I was playing music or I was funny. I was doing a standup set. No,

1:41:53 but you know what? It's perspective is everything, right? It's I always took my approach to music. It's work. It's a job. How? How? So, I know you mentioned your father was a

1:42:03 My father's an a legend in the musician. It's like Hank Williams, Hank Williams Jr. but

1:42:07 Yeah. Well, so, but not racist. No, I'm just kidding. Like, but you know what I mean? Like the cultural thing.

1:42:14 Hey, look, I get it. I got there's a lot of legends in Texas. Um, we got some Willie Nelson THC drinks in the office right now. So, when you're growing up, your father's being as big as he was in in the business, did that make you want to play music? Did No.

1:42:27 What make you walk away? No, I was I was a Texas boy stater in high school. I went to Boy State. That that's like a whole government like I was a history buff. I loved government. I loved politics. And that's why I became a political science major. I got an academic scholarship to go to St. Mary's University in San Antonio. And so I did not want to be a singer. That was not in the plans. Um

1:42:50 My god. So you're walking out on that stage thinking, "God, I wish I could do a podcast right now. This is grass is always green."

1:42:55 That was my first love. Like I was all but I was not like once I had success in music. I recorded a song with my dad. That's what did it right. So I got two labels. It it really went really high and it hit and I had two labels in a bidding war. I ended up negotiating my contract and renegotiating my father's contract. In that same negotiation, I got him a 100% raise.

1:43:17 Hell yeah. Yeah. And and so I ended up trying music. I said, "Dad, I'm going to try it out and see what happens." And that ended up turned into a platinum record. And then I've been at it 30 years.

1:43:29 That's incredible. And so my music's kind of gone, my life has gone full circle. And I'm like, you know what? I'm tired of what I'm seeing right now. I'm just a guy with an opinion. I want to be somebody with my opinion matters and my I want to be a voice for my people. And yes, I would it would be taking a huge pay cut from what I'm doing right now,

1:43:50 but it's worth it. my my my life has to mean more than just music in my opinion. And and I haven't seen I've been really frustrated with the way things have been going with our political discourse. And I I I do think that I have a different perspective of of where I come from and and and I got nothing to lose. I really want to I really want to represent my people.

1:44:15 That's exciting. Well, so where if folks want to help out, contribute, where Yeah. They can go from Bobby Pledo for Texas. Um, my district is 11 counties and we're not a very we're very poor actually. My district's very poor. So, we kind of have to go fund raise out of the district.

1:44:34 Not my my I'm not going to say poor. I misspoke. My district is broke. And I say that because our our spirit down there is we don't consider ourselves poor. We consider ourselves broke.

1:44:45 It's temporary because tomorrow we're going to make it. Yep. Yep. Right. And so we're very aspirational, but we've been we've been she has like $2 million in her war chest and I have a primary and so we need to fund raise aggressively. But I feel very very confident that we're going to win

1:45:03 and we're going to flip this district. I think it's exciting. I think it's inspiring when people come from non-traditional walks of life and run for office. Like why why do we not everyone needs to be a lawyer? You know what I mean? Like it's great when people from from the entertainment industry run who have a different kind of cultural connection.

1:45:19 There's not many entertainers though. Have you seen this guy Bobby Wine running in Uganda? Check him out. He's like incredible massive music star running against an absolute country. I know

1:45:28 that's like not normal. No, it's not. It's like completely well cuz I think people are turned off because people are worried that the minute you jump into politics, you're going to polarize half your audience and maybe they won't listen to you anymore and won't buy records and it scares people. People are scared about that.

1:45:43 Yeah. You don't seem polarizing. I am not a polarizing guy, but I'll fight. Don't don't don't don't confuse the nicities for a fight.

1:45:51 I'm not I haven't gotten to fighting for 20 years, so don't worry. Yeah, but didn't end well for me. I had a giant swollen ear and it sucked.

1:45:58 Yeah, I've been I've had my fair share of bar fights, but but uh I'm a Texas boy, right? You can expect that. But um

1:46:05 look, I'll fight for for the people, and that's the bottom line. It's this is there our healthcare down there is is is a mess, man. Um she voted to cut Medicaid, Medicare, SNAP, like all the things that our district that ours really depends on, she voted to cut. And so you have to fight for what's right. Our health care system is is in shambles. I go get my healthcare in Mexico.

1:46:29 Really? Yes. Cheaper, easier. Why? Listen, musicians, all the musician community, we don't work for school districts or other things like that where you can pull it in. Health insurance is through the roof. It's It got more expensive now with his ACA subsidies that expired. So, we're on the border, but how many people that are not on the border are struggling right now?

1:46:52 It's just ridiculous. I mean, we really have to get in there. And the biggest problem we're going to face is corruption because they have their claws in these politicians.

1:47:04 Yes. And you know, somebody has to go over there and just call them out for it.

1:47:09 I love it. I love it. Well, the website again is bobby pledoforex.com. Uh great to meet you. Thank you for running. Thanks for coming in. And uh you know, next Grammys you're going to win one and then but also you're going to be a member be elected official. So

1:47:24 no new music. No Grammys. No new music. What if you get inspired one day? You're sitting in your office and you're like, you write like a

1:47:30 Well, songwriting songwriting is Johnson. Songwriting is therapy. It is. It is.

1:47:35 Yes, it is. Well, thank you for coming. Thank you, Tommy. Appreciate it. That's our show for today. Thanks to Bobby Pledo for coming on. Also, quick reminder, uh, some tickets left, not many, but some tickets left for our upcoming shows in New Zealand and Australia. Wow. Next week, guys. Next week, we're going to be in Australia, New Zealand. Uh, we're in Auckland on February 11th, Melbourne on February 13th, Brisbane on February 14th, and Sydney on February 16th. Grab your tickets at crooked.com/events. Hope to see some of you out there. And in the meantime, Dan and I will be back with a new show on Friday.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Epstein BOMBSHELL Reveals DISASTER For Trump"?

John Favreau (Host), Jon Lovett (Guest), Tommy Vietor (Host), Bobby Pledo (Guest).

What is "Epstein BOMBSHELL Reveals DISASTER For Trump" about?

The release of millions of Epstein files uncovers potentially damaging revelations related to former President Trump, while also highlighting recent political developments, including Trump's actions in Minnesota, the arrest of journalists, and a surprising Democratic victory in Texas. Additionally, musician Bobby Pledo discusses his decision to run for Congress, exemplifying the increasing…

What is mentioned in this Pod Save America episode?

33 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Donald Trump, John Favreau, Tommy Vietor, Bobby Pledo, Texas, Minnesota. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Epstein BOMBSHELL Reveals DISASTER For Trump"?

The episode runs 1 h 48 min; the transcript is about 23,345 words in 380 timestamped sections.

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