JD Vance Thinks You're Very Stupid...

What this episode is about

The discussion centers on the controversial funding of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the implications of individual votes by lawmakers, particularly those who supported funding despite the agency's controversial actions. The conversation highlights the political risks associated with such votes, emphasizing that the decision impacts both current and future operations of DHS, raising concerns about accountability and public perception.

Key takeaways

• Funding DHS isn't just about today; it’s the bet on tomorrow’s morality. Spoiler: history often disappoints.
• Seven Democrats backed ICE funding, risking their electoral futures. If only their political crystal balls worked better!
• An 'administrative warrant' is like magic paper—looks official, but does it hold water? Or just hot air?
• JD Vance claims context is key. Funny how selective context can turn legality into convenience. #LegalGymnastics
• Democrats might want a big tent, but funding the 'Gestapo' is a dangerously questionable way to invite guests.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Sam Seder (Host) · 10 min speaking
• J.D. Vance (Guest) · 3 min speaking
• Matt Dus (Guest) · 1 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Jared Golden, Tom Suis, ICE, Mary Glucen Camp Perez
2. 3:00 – 6:00: J.D. Vance, Department of Homeland Security, Jared Golden
3. 6:00 – 9:00: Department of Homeland Security
4. 9:00 – 12:00: J.D. Vance
5. 12:00 – 14:00: Center for International Policy Research, Undiplomatic

Notable quotes from "JD Vance Thinks You're Very Stupid..."

• The big thing is that Jeff did not whip this vote. Only seven Democrats voted for the funding. it is unclear and probably unlikely that Democrats could have stopped it in the House anyways. There were there could have.

  about Akim Jeff · at 0:25

• And if we look at the progression of ICE over the course of the past 10 months, the idea that you're going to bet in 10 months out that this is a you can defend funding this agency to the majority of.

  about ICE · at 1:27

• Piece about how to defeat Trumpism of people who should have just as much say in the Democratic party's future, Glucen Perez and Jared Golden as Bernie Sanders and Zoron…

  about Mary Glucen Camp Perez · at 2:29

• Now Jared Golden's not running for re-election. I mean I don't I mean I hope he doesn't think that he has any future in Maine politics because this is pretty poorly timed. we're going to play u footage coming out of Maine.

  about Jared Golden · at 3:20

• An imminent threat of their lives. But what we've said and what ICE has proposed, what the Department of Homeland Security really has proposed in the Department of Justice is…

  about Department of Homeland Security · at 6:24

• Right. I'm reminded of when Vance earlier this year was at a press conference and was asked about the War Powers Act and he said, quote, that it's a fake fundamentally a fake and.

  about J.D. Vance · at 11:52

• Exactly. in a minute we're going to be talking to Matt Dus, executive vice president of the Center for International Policy and the co-host of the Undiplomatic podcast for what we about what we saw this.

  about Center for International Policy Research · at 12:45

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• J.D. Vance — Person · Referenced public official / main target of critique · 3 mentions · first at 3:41
  Discussed as a prominent administration surrogate defending (or reframing) ICE/DHS use of 'administrative warrants' and warrant exceptions; hosts characterize his remarks as deceptive damage control.
• Jared Golden — Person · Referenced lawmaker (one of the 7 Democrats) / subject of criticism · 3 mentions · first at 1:55
  Listed among Democrats voting to fund DHS; later discussed as not running for re-election and facing political consequences in Maine.
• Tom Suis — Person · Referenced lawmaker (one of the 7 Democrats) / subject of criticism · 2 mentions · first at 1:12
  Named as a Democrat who voted to fund DHS; used as an example of a politically risky vote tied to ICE actions over the coming months.
  Y, he's voting to fund everything that DHS is going to do over the course. presumably, let's just, he's doing this for electoral reasons.
• Mary Glucen Camp Perez — Person · Referenced lawmaker (one of the 7 Democrats) / subject of criticism · 1 mention · first at 1:55
  Named among Democrats voting to fund DHS; also referenced as someone Ezra Klein argued should have influence in the party's future.
• Congresswoman Angie Craig — Person · Referenced lawmaker / example of backlash · 1 mention · first at 1:46
  Cited as having political trouble after signing a pro-ICE statement ('thanks for ICE thing'), used to illustrate electoral downside of aligning with ICE/DHS.
  Yeah. Look at how Angie Craig's having trouble after signing on that thanks for ice thing now up in Minnesota.
• Don Davis — Person · Referenced lawmaker (one of the 7 Democrats) / subject of criticism · 1 mention · first at 1:55
  Listed among Democrats voting to fund DHS; included in the set of seven singled out for enabling ICE/DHS actions.
  Jared Golden, Don Davis, Tom Suis, as you mentioned, Laura Gillan, Vincente Gonzalez. Those are the seven that voted to fund the agency that is currently reaping wreaking…
• Vicente Gonzalez — Person · Referenced lawmaker (one of the 7 Democrats) / subject of criticism · 1 mention · first at 2:00
  Listed among Democrats voting to fund DHS; likely refers to U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (spelling differs), included in the criticized group of seven.
  Jared Golden, Don Davis, Tom Suis, as you mentioned, Laura Gillan, Vincente Gonzalez. Those are the seven that voted to fund the agency that is currently reaping wreaking…
• Ezra Klein — Person · Referenced journalist/commentator · 1 mention · first at 2:26
  Mentioned as having written a piece about defeating Trumpism and suggesting certain Democrats should shape the party; hosts criticize that framing in light of the DHS funding vote.
  To the ground as he says that he's legal and harassment in Maine. It's it's horrendous. By the way, two of those were Ezra Klein's suggestions in his piece about how to defeat…
• Laura Gillan — Person · Referenced lawmaker (one of the 7 Democrats) / subject of criticism · 1 mention · first at 2:00
  Named among the seven Democrats who voted to fund DHS; used to personalize and enumerate the vote.
  Jared Golden, Don Davis, Tom Suis, as you mentioned, Laura Gillan, Vincente Gonzalez. Those are the seven that voted to fund the agency that is currently reaping wreaking…
• Bernie Sanders — Person · Referenced political figure (contrast point) · 1 mention · first at 2:35
  Used as a benchmark for influence within the Democratic Party, contrasted with more conservative/centrist Democrats cited by Ezra Klein.
  People who should have just as much say in the Democratic party's future, Glucen Perez and Jared Golden as Bernie Sanders and Zoron Mandani. It's a big tent. we need to include…
• Akim Jeff — Person · Referenced internal actor (show/political process context) · 1 mention · first at 0:25
  Mentioned as not having 'whipped' the DHS funding vote; likely a staffer/leader referenced by first name only, insufficient to disambiguate.
• Zaran Mandani — Person · Referenced political figure (contrast point) · 1 mention · first at 2:35
  Mentioned alongside Bernie Sanders as part of a contrast to Ezra Klein's suggested party-influence figures; name appears likely misspelled, making identification uncertain.
  People who should have just as much say in the Democratic party's future, Glucen Perez and Jared Golden as Bernie Sanders and Zoron Mandani. It's a big tent. we need to include…

Companies & orgs

• ICE — Company · Business focus · 1 mention · first at 1:27
  Central to the discussion about funding and controversial practices under the Trump administration.
• Department of Homeland Security — Company · Business focus · 2 mentions · first at 4:06
  Discussed in the context of funding and its role in immigration enforcement policies.
• Center for International Policy Research — Company · Referenced expert · 1 mention · first at 12:52
  Mentioned as the affiliation of a guest discussing international affairs.

Media & podcasts

• Undiplomatic — Media · Secondary owned · 1 mention · first at 12:54
  Mentioned as a podcast co-hosted by a guest appearing on the show.
  Matt Dus, executive vice president of the Center for International Policy and the co-host of the Undiplomatic podcast for what we about what we saw this week at Davos, perhaps what's also going to happen this.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 You know, it's been a very, very long three weeks. Now, we are three weeks into um January, really just uh one year into the Trump administration uh almost to the day. And um uh we'll be talking about this vote uh later in the program to fund the DHS in the uh House. Uh the big thing is that uh Jeff did not whip this vote. Only seven Democrats voted for the funding. Um it is unclear and probably unlikely that Democrats could have stopped it in the House anyways. There were there could have been maneuvers uh you know earlier on in the way that they structured or or attempted to structure these bills that might have uh helped the vote in some fashion. But, uh, it's really going to come down to the Senate. And the, um, the thing to keep in mind is when someone like, uh, Tom Swisy votes to fund the DHS, he's not just voting to fund today's DHS.

1:12 Y, he's voting to fund everything that DHS is going to do over the course. I mean, presumably, let's just, you know, he's doing this for electoral reasons. everything they're gonna do for the next 10 months. And if we look at the progression of ICE over the course of the past 10 months, the idea that you're going to bet in 10 months out that this is a you can defend funding this agency to the majority of your voters, I'd say, is a pretty bad bet.

1:46 Yeah. Look at how Angie Craig's having trouble after signing on that thanks for ice thing now up in Minnesota.

1:53 Yep. Here are these seven. I just want to say their names. Mary Glucen Camp Perez, Jared Golden, Don Davis, Tom Suis, as you mentioned, Laura Gillan, uh Vincente Gonzalez. Those are the seven that voted uh to fund the agency that is currently um reaping wreaking havoc, shooting mothers in the face, kidnapping children. We're seeing videos out of Minnesota of them tackling a little boy to the ground as he says that he's legal and uh harassment in Maine. It's it's horrendous. By the way, uh two of those were Ezra Klein's suggestions in his piece about how to defeat Trumpism of people who should have just as much say in the Democratic party's future, Glucen Perez and Jared Golden as Bernie Sanders and Zoron Mandani. It's a big tent. we need to include the people that have decided to fund the Gestapo in this country.

2:45 I mean, putting aside like just sort of like even the the sort of the the moral aspects of it from an electoral perspective, like this is just seems to be an incredibly bad bet. Um, and certainly it would be uh even more so if more Democrats were to do it. I mean, you know, uh the the idea that these people are trying to burnish their uh uh law enforcement bonafites. I not performing law enforcement. That's exactly the point. And it makes it much harder to communicate that. So, um and now Jared Golden's not running for re-election. I I mean I I I don't I mean

3:27 I hope he doesn't think that he has any future in Maine politics because this is pretty poorly timed. Uh we're going to play

3:35 u uh footage coming out of Maine uh later in the program. But um all right, we will talk more about that in a bit, but let's get to um uh JD Vance. the uh yesterday Emma talked uh extensively about this memo that came out whistleblower and it's not like as a lawmaker you can't say you didn't have a heads up as to what's going on where the agency basically is uh telling its ICE agents that you don't need to follow the fourth uh amendment of the constitution. Essentially, the case law and the the constitution itself um calls for a warrant to enter someone's home. And a warrant is a specific thing.

4:39 And uh and maybe like you know we we shouldn't even have anything called like a an administrative warrant because theoretically we could issue administrative warrants.

4:51 Yeah. Here's a piece of paper. It's that's worth it as just as much like a piece of paper if I were to write I can break into your house. That's the equivalent of what an administrative warrant is.

5:01 It doesn't it doesn't mean anything. The whole point is that uh you're supposed to have a judge look at it and determine whether the request to enter someone's home is warranted. And uh but here is um JD Vance in Minnesota. They send him in, it appears, just because he is the most shameless liar of the bunch. Mhm.

5:26 And um well, let's listen to what he's he there there's there's a multitude of lies in this uh comment. Um but let's listen to him respond to this question. The

5:44 Washington Post reported today that an ICE memo allows agents to enter people's houses without a judge's warrant. What do you say to people who say who are concerned about this violating the Constitution? and how much is this tactic being used?

5:56 Yeah. So, I I I saw that story and the story is like so much that I read in the mainstream media, it's missing a whole lot of context. And when you appreciate the context, it makes sense. No one is saying, look, there there are exceptions. For example, a crazy exception. If somebody is fired at from inside a house, they don't need a warrant to go inside that person's house. There are very narrow exceptions to the warrant requirement where law enforcement officers don't need a, you know, a warrant if, for example, they're an imminent threat of their lives. But what we've said and what ICE has proposed, what what the Department of Homeland Security really has proposed in the Department of Justice is that we can get administrative warrants to enforce administrative immigration law. Now, it's possible, I guess, that the courts will say no. And of course, if the courts say no, we would follow that law.

6:43 Pause it. literally the functional equivalent of of of saying, "Listen, we're going to sign warrants

6:52 so we can go into people's houses and force them uh set their, you know, force them to subscribe to the majority report."

6:59 Yep. And now it is possible that a judge may find that that we're not allowed to do that, but you know, it's I just want us to put that out there. Um

7:08 Yeah. And it it really is telling too that I mean I was talking about this on the show yesterday like when the Bush administration was forced and then the Obama administration to get warrants for their warrantless wiretapping. They at the very least were going through these FISA court judges that were yeah rubber stamping it. Of course that process was corrupt in and of itself. This isn't even that. They're circumventing the judiciary in the way that the administration is has effectively made the legislature so inept and and is like, "Yeah, we can rescend whatever money we want when Congress passes the budget or whatever." Uh they're doing the same thing with the judiciary.

7:47 And and we should say immigration judges do not issue administrative warrants. Yep.

7:53 That is it's definitional. Mhm. The administrative warrants are just like essentially internal documents for

8:02 ICE for ICE that are generated by ICE, right? The ad they would be if they were issued by a judge, they wouldn't be called administrative warrants. They'd be called uh judicial warrants.

8:14 And he's a lawyer and he knows this. Obviously, he's lying. But the point is they they can issue an order of removal that is not the same as a warrant to enter a home. He also, I think, calls immigration judges administrative judges.

8:28 And I think that's to conflate the use of administrative warrants. Warrant an administrative judge,

8:36 right? Yeah. Because she says a judge's warrant, which is how you should phrase that when they're doing the administrative warrant

8:42 Mhm. In the Department of Justice, is that we can get administrative warrants to enforce administrative immigration law. Now, it's possible, I guess, that the courts will say no. And of course, if the courts say no, we would follow that law. But nobody is talking about doing immigration enforcement without a warrant. We're talking about different types of warrants that exist in our system. Typically, what happens, not always, but typically in the immigration system, those are handled by administrative law judges. So, we're talking about getting warrants from those administrative law judges. And then, of course, with other cases, you get judges or you get warrants.

9:17 We're not talking about that at all. These are not signed by judges. That's the point. He can he can like create all these sort of like new categories or sort of like um vague categories of of judges and and and but they're not signed by a judge.

9:36 Warrants are a land of contrast. This sounds like a used car salesman trying to explain to you why the price is $10,000 more than he originally stated.

9:46 It it really is like that. Um, but it also I is this a retreat too? Are they basically kind of saying that they're going to maybe go through some sort of pretense at this point? Because because at least publicly because like what we in that Associated Press article, it's incredibly damning. They said that this memo was issued in May or something like that of 2025 and then from that period on it was they couldn't take the documents with them when they were showing these ICE agents and one of the whistleblowers couldn't make a copy of it. It was just verbal from there on out. So, they know they're hiding something.

10:21 And And I think I mean I think look, Vance's visit to uh Minneapolis is a show of weakness. They he would not have be there if this was going the way they wanted it to. Uh that doesn't mean that they are weak. They are not. They have a ton of money. They have a ton of weapons. they have uh a bunch of thugs uh working for them. Uh but it it does show on some level that they feel like they need to do some type of uh you know damage work or crisis uh work or whatnot. And so they send the this guy who's a a really a worldclass liar. I mean, he does it with a with um an ease that is disturbing. Go ahead.

11:16 Talking about doing immigration enforcement without a warrant, we're talking about different types of warrants that exist in our system. Typically, what happens, not always, but typically in the immigration system, those are handled by administrative law judges. So, we're talking about getting warrants from those administrative law judges. And then, of course, with other cases, you get judges or you get warrants from a judge. That's very consistent with the practice of American law. I'm sure the courts will weigh in on that, but we're never going to enter somebody's house house without some kind of a warrant, unless of course somebody's firing on an officer where they have to do something in order to protect themselves. Go ahead.

11:52 Right. Um, I'm reminded of when Vance earlier this year was at a press conference and was asked about the War Powers Act and he said, quote, that it's a fake uh fundamentally a fake and unconstitutional law. Um, there's no such thing as fake laws.

12:11 Yeah. I mean, I mean, sure, but like for for for him like that you don't just get to call a law fake and not abide by it. But I guess this administration that's the lesson they learned uh from the first goound and I guess currently.

12:26 So um he's there or was there yesterday I guess just trying to do damage control. Uh meanwhile we've seen ICE agents enter into h homes without uh without even their administrative warrant. But the administrative warrant is again like uh

12:44 it's like a janitorial warrant. Exactly. Um, in a minute we're going to be talking to uh Matt Dus, executive vice president of the Center for International Policy and the co-host of the Undiplomatic podcast for uh what we uh about what we saw this week at Davos, perhaps what's also going to happen this weekend in regards to Iran and uh really the the final nail or just sort of like the the dawn lights on Marblehead, the international uh the so-called international rules-based order um the mirage of it in the has been I guess revealed. I don't know how maybe we come up with better uh language for that on some but the the drapes have dropped from the eyes. Is that what it is?

13:39 Scales. Scales. Right. I knew there was something that fell from the eyes. Hey folks, don't forget to hit the subscribe button and check out our daily show. We do it every day at 12:00 p.m. Eastern for about 2 and a half hours. We even take phone calls. You should check that out.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "JD Vance Thinks You're Very Stupid..."?

Sam Seder (Host), J.D. Vance (Guest), Matt Dus (Guest).

What is "JD Vance Thinks You're Very Stupid..." about?

The discussion centers on the controversial funding of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the implications of individual votes by lawmakers, particularly those who supported funding despite the agency's controversial actions. The conversation highlights the political risks associated with such votes, emphasizing that the decision impacts both current and future operations of DHS,…

What is mentioned in this The Majority Report w/ Sam Seder episode?

16 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including J.D. Vance, ICE, Department of Homeland Security, Jared Golden, Tom Suis, Mary Glucen Camp Perez. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "JD Vance Thinks You're Very Stupid..."?

The episode runs 14 min; the transcript is about 2,275 words in 34 timestamped sections.

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