Scandals Involving Brian and Christy Gnome

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I was gonna say, peop people need to know that Dan ha has been in Disneyland and then I think you're doing universal. And this was like a stop in between. That's how committed you are to the pod. It is our Wally World Spring Break. We are here. We had a great time in Disneyland. We saw lots of friends of the pod in Disneyland. All very nice. Incredible. And here we are. I picked a great week to not be able to do anything other than look at wait times on my app. I have to say, Dan, you were gone this week on family vacation, Tommy. It's like it's getting lonely in some of my text chains about the news. Yes. And Ben else everyone else sleeps normal hours. Yes. Not getting those same responses as fast from Love It or No, no, no, no. And you never know what time zone Ben is in. No, that's also true. All right. On today's show, Pam Bondi's out, and we're gonna talk about why Trump fired her and who might replace her. We're also going to dig into Trump's primetime address on the war. He doesn't seem to know how to get out of, as well as a comment he made in what he thought was a closed-door event that could end up in every Democratic ad this fall. Uh we'll also cover the Supreme Court hearing on Trump's executive order to end birthright citizenship, his new executive order to take control of voting from the states, the possible end of the DHS shutdown, and of course, the moment we all learned what bimbofication is , you know exactly what it is now, right? Uh I learned about it this morning. From the Daily Mail. Um Actually from an email from you. Quick reminder, it's a it's a perfect time to remind everyone to please consider becoming a subscriber to Crooked Media if you haven't already, so that you don't miss out on any of the great content we're putting out for our friends of the pod. You get more on bimbofication. Uh subscribers also get a new extra episode of Pod Save America called Pod Save America Only Friends. 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So head to crooked.com/slash friends and subscribe. All right, Dan. As forgettable as it may have been, the president did just deliver a primetime address to the nation on Wednesday about Operation Epic Fury, the war in Iran he got us into that has now dragged on for more than a month. The 19-minute speech contained no news, no exit strategy, and no coherent rationale or even coherent sentences to explain why 50,000 American troops are still deployed in a conflict that has already cost us tens of billions of dollars and sent gas prices through the roof. Other than that, fine showing by Donald Trump. Uh here are the highlights. We're now totally independent of the Middle East, and yet we are there to help. We don't have to be there. We don't need their oil. We don't need anything they have, but we're there to help our allies. America has plenty of gas. We have so much gas. The countries of the world that do receive oil through the Hormones Strait must take care of that passage. They must ch erish it. They must grab it and cherish it. They can do it easily. And in any event, when this conflict is over, the strait will open up naturally. It'll just open up naturally. We've done all of it. Their Nyav is gone . Their Air Force is gone. Their missiles are just about used up or beaten. There's never been anything like it militarily. Everyone is talking about it. And tonight I'm pleased to say that these core strategic objectives are nearing completion over the next two to three weeks. We're going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong. In the meantime, discussions are ongoing. If there is no deal, we are going to hit each and every one of their electric generating plants very hard and probably simultaneously. We have not hit their oil, even though that's the easiest target of all. But we could hit it and it would be gone, and there's not a thing they could do about it. The whole world is watching and they just can't believe what they're seeing. They leave it to your imagination No, that is that is very true. Uh don't know really where to begin there. Some good highlights, right? It's that summarizes it all right there. naturally, but you gotta grab you gotta grab grab the straight of four moose. I already made the joke in my YouTube react with Ben, so I was like, also we'll bond them to the Stone Age. But I can but negotiations are ongoing. I laughed out loud when I first heard that . I mean i w because I think he he I think he probably adlibbed a bit of the the Stone Age thing from his truth, obviously, 'cause he originally said but I think and then he s he's in the prompt or like, oh, but discussions are ongoing. I guess I'm supposed to talk about diplomacy. So your message box take on the speech is that uh Trump declared victory but admitted defeat. Say more about that. Sure. So I tried to treat the speech seriously. Which was hard, I would say that that.. I did too. Yeah It was very difficult. But it is the president of the United States addressing the nation at a time of war in economic chaos. So we should at least try to look at it from that point of seriousness. And so to the extent that Trump's had ha speech a message or a strategy, I believe it was to say the war was coming to an end and declare victory. Right. And he went through, he just said we saw that in that clip, all of our strategic core strategic objectives that have been met. He went he went into into great detail what we've destroyed, the Navy, the missiles, all of that. But at the end of the day, what he was really saying is this thing's gonna wrap up in the next two to three weeks. And when we leave, however we leave, we are going to leave the same Iranian regime in place, although likely more anti American and radicalized than before. Iran will continue to have all of their nuclear material. Which we'll basically monitor uh with like Google Maps, Google satellite. But which we could look at it. But we could have done before. We bombed them. It's in the same place it was before. They still have it. And now as a special bonus to Iran for participating in this war, they get to treat the world's most strategic water passageway as a toll road, whatever they want . And so he is he wants this war to be over. He knows this is bad for him politically, he knows it's bad for the economy. He's trying to declare victory when what he's actually doing is simply waving the white flag of surrender. I think that's true. And I also it explains the incoherent conflicting messages because he also can't like for the Strait of Hormuz, he knows that we need the Strait of Hormuz open. He he understands, at least the people around him understand, that uh oil is a commodity'.s Th a globereal oil market. Just because we have a bunch of oil doesn't mean that we're not going to be paying more for it if there is a disruption in the Strait of Hormuz. He can't plead with our allies to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, because then he looks weak and he already pissed them off anyway by starting the war without consulting them and insulting them basically every single day since. He has clearly decided that a US military operation to reopen the strait or to take control of the strait is too risky, so he's not doing that. But he also knows like he he does so he doesn't know what to do. So basically he's gonna say, we don't need it, but then he's now negging Europe and other countries to reopen it for us and saying uh and like making himself sound tough because he can't say the truth, which is we're fucked, we have no idea how to open the Strait of Hormuz, and we're just gonna pretend that some other countries will open it and it'll or it'll open fucking naturally, and then we won't have to worry about anything. Yeah. And that's just one example Well it's in the the the conflict is in the part we just mentioned where he will bond them to the stone age, but also he we won't have diplomatic negotiations ongoing with their new you know the president or whatever he is but he sort of made up in his head who was a good ally. And again it's like both both a threat and a negotiation require you to demand something. Yeah. What are we demanding? Because in that speech we won. We bombed everything. We don't care about the Strait of Hormuz. We don't care that the nuclear material is still in Iran. We don't care that the regime is still in place because it's a new regime according to Donald Trump. We've destroyed their military. So why are we threatening to bomb them into the Stone Age? And why are we continuing to hope that they will make a deal? What is the deal? Yeah, he's like he's trying to nothing makes sense. Yeah, it's totally illogical. It's complete confusion. The he also by I like it's not even clear who he's speaking to. When he says we don't need the street of Hormuz, he is saying that to Iran . If he's saying it to the American people, then that doesn't really matter because the the price of oil is the price of oil. And so as they could as they could see it uh going up while speaking. Yes. And that that to me is actually a incritically important part of what this speech says about where Trump is right now, which is he like he almost didn't just admit defeat on the war. He's admitting defeat on his entire second term here because what really powered Trump, like he hasn't passed any laws. Right? He he big beautiful. Don't forget the big beautiful bill. I mean he hasn't mentioned that in months. I hope he talks about it more on the way to the way of the election. But like we he has succeeded in in in implementing his agenda in this second term through the force of his words. He's threatening, control ling universities, law firms, media companies. And here you have the president, the president of the United States in a national television address at wartime trying to send a message to not just the American people, but also the markets. This thing is coming to an end. And they took the exact opposite approach. They did not believe what he was saying. They did not take him seriously. Oil went up. The stock market went down. So if if his go hisal goal was, I believe, and it's hard to tell, but was to suggest that this is coming to an end so everyone can chill out. And they took because of the way he did it, it delivered this base speech, because the way he's acted erratically over the last several months, not to mention less Do you think like why did they do this speech? I was wondering. Like and like I get that he j sounds like an idiot all the time when he's off the cuff and does his thing and he does the weave and he has got all those, you know, crazy ticks. But this was a prime time address that he was reading off the prompter. You imagine that some number of people in the White House, perhaps in the State Department, the Defense Department, other agencies, took a look at the speech and it just was like I mean, the speech was all over the place. The written, prepared speech was all over the place. What the fuck were they do ing? It may be they're bad at their jobs. Yeah. Well I mean like you have it you have a you do have an erratic, stubborn president who is getting bad information. There was a report today that Susie Wiles has been telling other aides that that they're they are only giving Trump good information about the war. And they're not being honest with they're not being honest with him about what's happening militarily or economically. And so that's feeding his mentality. This communications team has no idea how to do serio us stuff. Yeah. Like if it if you want to do memes and at and attack people and quote tweet them, like that, that's their game and that can work in a campaign to a certain extent. But this is like serious shit. And they are they are unserious people. And that is coming. It's like so obvious to bear here. And I'm like, why did he do it? The question is like, what what makes him do it? They didn't they haven't done it for a month. His approval rating is now under 40% in the Nate Silver model. He is taking on water. His you know, he's been dropping for a while, you know, since basically for a year, since a year yesterday, which was Liberation Day. But he has uh that drop has been more has been steeper since the war started. And so I think they're trying to they're lashing about trying to find a solution to their political problem. And they actually have not really a political problem, they have a substantive problem. Right. And I'm sure they're hearing from because you know someone was talking to Steve Bannon before the speech and he wasn't right on this, but he was like, Yeah, the messages, we're gonna wrap this up, it's over. Like he's probably hearing from people in his base or his orbit that like you gotta you gotta communicate that this thing's almost over. Yeah. Um and we know this from whenever we w worked in the White House whenever there was like bad political things. Speech will fix it. Where's the speech? Yeah. Race speech for the Strait of Four Moose. Remember the uh remember the oil spills or I was talking to Rhodes about that because I was like, that is a crazy, crazy speech. I'm like, it does remind me of the oil spill speech. But for for those of you who are too young or don't remember that, uh 2010, there was an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and uh no one could figure out how to stop the oil spill. The oil just kept coming out into the Gulf of Mexico. And every cable news channel in the corner of the of the television, you could just see the oil coming out into the spilling out into the Gulf of Mexico all day long, 24 hours a day, and everyone was like, Obama, you should fix it. You've got you're the president. Why haven't you fixed it? And the solution was he will give an Oval Office address about the oil spill. And it sucked. Yeah, it was it was the worst. Because somehow we decided that it was like a good time to talk about climate change in that speech. A standing speech in the East Room was insufficient for the moment of the oil spill from a private company. If only I had known though that I could have just like farted out a bunch of crazy talking points and that could be of that's like it was it it it was a speech that was panned that didn't work out well, but I st we still worked really hard on it. Yeah. No one worked hard on this one. There's some fascist John Favre over there just angerly reading politico right now. Back to the real substance of it. Because I was trying to think uh like Donald Trump is sensitive to the market , to what's happening on like he he knows that he has a problem with the Strait of Hormuz . And I'm guessing that his Kakamami plan here is or hope is that we walk away from this after a couple weeks, we say we've bombed everything.yt Ehingver's great, we've destroyed them. We won so badly. They're begging us for they're begging us for a deal, but whatever. We're walking away. We don't need them anymore. We don't need the oil. And then he hopes that the Europe ans and the Chinese and maybe anyone else like cuts their own deals with Iran for the strait and then that allevi ates sort of the the crisis around the world and obviously we don't cut a deal with the Iranians, the Israelis don't. The Israelis are probably still at war with them. But if enough countries do, then you know, maybe prices are a little high, but he can sort of blah blah blah his way past that. I think that's a that's what he's hoping. I think that's a little more chest than he gets credit for. I think that is one approach of what could that is what could happen here. Um, you know, and all the other countries on the world who are meeting about this, uh, and having a conversation without the United States about how to open this up. I think it's a little more like I'm sure you've done this is when you have an older child and a younger child, and the younger child wants the toy the older child has. I would always tell Kyla, our daughter, just pretend like you don't want it for two minutes and they'll let it go. Now, the only downside in that theory is I'm pretty sure that Trump was not deeply involved in litigating the disputes of his children. Couldn't maybe he saw nanny do it. I don't know. Yeah, I think that's uh well that's that's definitely a dumber theory for offer Trump because the Iranians are like fine Iranians right now have to feel great. They're the like the regime. Right. No I'm not the Iranian people, but from a leverage from a leverage point. From a leverage point, like, yeah, a bunch of the leadership got assassinated, but the ones who are still surviving are like, I mean, we we can control the Strait of Hormuz. The w the the United States is eventually going to give up and run because they're giving us billions of dollars to sell our oil. Yeah. We've lifted the sanctions too. So that's something. So that's that. Uh in my humble opinion, uh Trump gave a much better speech earlier on Wednesday at a White House Easter lunch with evangelical leaders that was somehow live streamed, even though the event was supposed to be closed to the press and the public. Uh the White House eventually deleted the footage, but not before clips were posted all over the internet . Um that include such memorable moments as Trump's spiritual advisor comparing him to Jesus Christ, Happy Easter. Trump comparing himself to Jesus Christ, Trump calling all Somali Americans low IQ bad people, and Trump saying that Christians like Israel more than Jews, actually. But somehow none of that was as newsworthy as what the President said about his priorities for America. That has to be up to a state. We can't take care of daycare. We're a big country. We've got 50 states. We have all these other people. We're fighting wars. We can't take care of daycare. You gotta let a state take care of daycare, and they should pay for it too. They should pay. They have to raise their taxes. But they should pay for it. And we could lower our taxes a little bit to them to make up for but we it's not possible for us to take care of daycare. Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. They can do it on a state basis. You can't do it on a federal We have to take care of one thing military protection. We have to guard the country. I would not have done as good a job as that. It is wild And a lot of time like Trump says things that should end people's political campaigns all the time. Like his remarks on a daily basis are more politically damaging or should be more outrageous, more scandalous than Mitt Romney's forty seven percent mark comments that were uh so critical in the twenty twelve election for people who don't remember, Mitt Romney was caught basically blaming forty seven percent of the country for mooching off the government. But one of the theories as to why Trump's comments don't get sufficient like converse like drive enough conversation or coverage is because he just says them out loud, loud. They're not secret, right? In the press low secret. This is a just like the mid-Rommy thing, this is a a s private videotape that was essentially leaked by the White House, but leaked. By their own idiocy. Yes. So it's like we get to see the things Trump is saying behind closed doors to political supporters. And the president says that because we're so busy fighting wars that he started, we can't pay for daycare, state should raise taxes. And he seems to say at the end that we can't afford that states should do Medicare and Medicaid. Yeah, it throws in Medica that was the amazing thing, is like the daycare is bad enough. Yeah. To th to throw in Medicaid and Medicare. Yeah. Which is not when that's a national program. That's a federal program. So he wants to he wants to block grant everything, basically. He wants to give all the he wants to have like all the states fend for themselves. So he's basically telling people if you want health care or child care, um, you're gonna have to pay higher taxes in your state because I'm over here very busy paying for bombs on Iran. Yeah. And other places in the war too. Like we don't we don't know what's happened in Cuba. That the Venezuela operation probably ran up a pretty big tab. I mean there,'s also a Bloomberg story this morning because the budget's coming out, uh, Trump's budget, and the headline for this is Trump budget to focus midterms messaging on defense boost. President Trump is preparing to release a fiscal year 2027 budget plan on Friday that will frame his party's midterm election message around a massive defense buildup, partially paid for by cuts to domestic agencies like health and science. John, I've not only been in the president's talking points, I've also been in the OMB documents. What are they doing? Yeah. I don't I I mean, and it's not just him. Like we talked I don't know if you and I talked about it or I talked about in the other pot, but like the uh the Axios story about the House Republican or the Republicans in Congress are thinking of paying for the the military supplemental the two hundred billion dollars for Iran by cutting healthcare. Yeah. Also, and just not for nothing, we didn't Trump didn't even mention his Twitter that he needs Congress to pay for this thing. He did not mention that. Uh we should talk about that because I I haven't heard much about that at all, and now we'll talk about it when we get to DHS, but like now they're talking about a budget reconciliation bill that just funds ICE. So like when are they gonna when are they gonna v vote on the two hundred billion dollars that's supposed to pay for Iran? It's a great question. I mean, who knows? But uh maybe we're all supposed to pay for it. Maybe it's just gonna be higher taxes for everyone. The state you know who's gonna do it? The states. The states. The states. They're gonna get rid of their daycare, their health care, their Medicaid, their Medicare, because everyone's gotta pay for the bombs. We're a little we're like because we're because we just bombed a uh uh the biggest bridge in Iran uh that's civilian infrastructure for what reason we don't know but uh Trump bragged better than trees no no bridges in the Stone Age No bridges in the Stone Age that's right so we gotta we gotta blow Potsave America is brought to you by Blinds.com. If you've ever thought about upgrading your window treatments but didn't want the hassle, Blinds.com is here to change the game. They're the only company that lets you shop custom blinds and shades online, then backs it up with professional in home measures You would at other high-end stores, but at a fraction of the price, samples are sent directly to your door, fast and free. 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Yes. Does she like belong to him forever? I think this is because in the Peter Ducey interview with Trump, it seems like Trump told Peter Ducey that she would be getting another job in the administration. Oh so we had to clear up. He got her transitioning around. Yeah. So it looks like Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, president's former defense lawyer, personal lawyer, will now be the acting attorney general. Um during uh Pam's year plus as attorney general, she distinguished herself by uh one weaponizing the DOJ to go after her boss's perceived enemies , two, executing that vision poorly, and three, bungling the release of the Epstein files so badly that it became a massive political liability for the president that stayed in the news for longer than maybe any other scandal of the Trump era ? Oh, for sure. Not even close. Close to Russia, but Russia had a lot of twists and turns. This was just this was like sustained. This lasted longer than Trump's involvement in an armed insurrection that almost murdered members of Yes, I do remember that. I recall that did vaguely happen. Not too long before he was elected president again, but it did happen. So I guess my question is why now on Bondy? I remember when we were in Australia in February. Yeah. And that's when she did the big hearing where she talked about the dial above fifty thousand. Since then went below forty went below fifty thousand and now she's out. So there you go. There you go. But I remember talking about like, is he gonna fire her now, whatever. It seems like a w it's a month and a half later . She hasn't been in the news all that much. Yeah, so I think there are a couple things going on here. First, I think the orderly fascism of Trump's second term has been has reverted to the chaotic fascism of Trump's first term. He like he he knows things are not going well. He's sort of lashing out all over the place. He's doing sort of crazy things left and right . And I think fir ing people is that's real first term Trump behavior. So that's one comfort food. Yeah, exactly. That so that's one. Uh it's kind of it's his it's his blanky. It's his blanky Yes. And then this but I think the second thing going on here is that no one pulls a band-aid off slower than Donald Trump. And so what he tends to do is Yeah, there have been stories about him on thinking about Kenny River for like a month. And so what he like Chris like Christy Nome is what happened with Christy Gnome is very similar to happen to Pampani, which is the a massive scandal happens. Trump sticks with him through the scandal, takes on all the water of that scandal, waits till the scandal is out of the news, and then fires them, bringing the scandal back in the news, but getting none of the actual credit for responding to the scandal and holding someone accountable. Like if Trump had fired Christy Gnome right after the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and the smearing of them, that would have gotten a little bit more. He would have seemed responsive to something. Instead, he gave him a pat on the back, said he was sticking with him, waited till later, and fired him. And same thing with Pambonti. I also think the here the congressional hearing probably helped her. That probably bought her time. No, I I saw some detail in one of the stories that um that he actually thought that she was he liked that she was combative with the Democrats. Yeah. After all, they were like, oh, is this gonna be the end for Pan Bon? You know, it's like no, he liked it. Yeah, she knows she was doing there . Uh I saw I think the New York Times story said that she spent much of the last day making her case to stay. What a sad pathetic thing. Just imagine selling every bit of your integrity to Trump. Every bit. Every bit. And then getting fired for not executing on his corruption well enough. Which I think I'd say this. In Pam Bondi's defense, by the way , like I do not think she um failed to execute uh Donald Trump's agenda at DOJ just because of her own incompetence. I'm not saying that she is competent, but like the problem goes beyond anything that Pam Bondi or any of the stooges he installed at DOJ can fix. The problem is the judges and the juries who are like, these cases are crazy. You don't have a case against any of these people. You just hate them. Yes. Like on that part of that is true. The other thing that happened in the news recently that probably got her in hot water with Trump again was the announcement that the Department of Justice was gonna stop prosecu was gonna stop trying the case on the law firms. Oh yeah. Yeah, and let all the law firms off the hook who did not agree to the Trump settlement. And then Trump got very mad about that and then like an hour later they had to announce they were going back in to continue to fight that case. You see the ProPublica story last week, too, that the uh DOJ uh has basically uh under Bondy and Trump um just stopped prosecuting 20,000 criminal cases because they 've spent so much time on all of Trump's fucking weird priorities, whether it's, you know, uh getting his you know, going after his enemies, all the other bullshit of the DHJ. So, yeah, immigration stuff. Yeah, that was that was most of it. Sorry. Uh so it's like yeah, they've there's still you know, good time to be a criminal if you're not uh if you're not an immigrant. Good time to be a certain type of type of criminal. Right, a certain type of crime, yeah, white collar criminal for sure. Yeah. There's some reporting that what finally uh did Bondi in was an allegation that she tipped off Congressman Eric Swalwell, who's running for governor in California, about an FBI investigation concerning him. Now, this is a very old FBI investigation from 2015. Basically, the FBI notified Swalwell that an associate of his might be a suspected Chinese spy. When he was notified, he broke ties with that person. And then the FBI investigated and nothing ever came of it. This was what, ten years ago? I guess they' trreying to they were gonna release the files. Yeah. It's clearly I mean it's so obviously oh he's running for governor, let's release the files. Maybe there's something in the files that will embarrass him because we couldn't bring a criminal case against him. Aaron Powell I find this one hard to believe because it in the story it says that uh it there's a I think I think it's in the independent, I can't remember, but but the story says that a source close to the White House says that Bondi notified Swalw dueell to their personal friendship. Yeah. She's intervening in those matters. The White House wasn't pleased she was intervening due to her personal friendship with Swalwell, the source said. Clear why Bondy would have intervened, but it is believed that Bondy and Swalwell have a friendly relationship. There is not a chance that someone like Pam Bondi, who would carve out her own soul with a spork for Donald Trump, is going to feel so loyal to Aaron Powell I don't know if I believe that one either. And Swalwell uh his office put out a statement saying absolutely not, no one tipped us off, no one in the government let us know this was happening at all. And honestly the best thing that could happen to Eric Swallow is he runs for governor cra in a crowded primary in California is being targeted by Donald Trump. For sure. Yeah just ask Senator Adam Schiff how that went how that went for him. I also noticed that the House Democrats are saying she still has to test. She has a scheduled appearance uh in the House Oversight Committee about Epstein. And uh they're saying she's she still has to do it. Yeah, and I and I kind of imagine that Comer will want that too. Yeah, probably. So that's he had to subpoena her and subpoena her to get her there, so let's talk about Bondy's potential replacement. I've seen reports that Trump wants EPA administrator Lee Zeldon. Uh I've heard Janine Pierrot might be an option. Uh I saw a report that some Republican senators want Mike Lee, God help us. Um, what do you think the chances are that there will be a real confirmation fight for whoever this is in the Senate and do you have ideas on why he might want any of the people I just named or who it might be. Well let's l first let's start with how long Blanche can serve. Blanche can stay as acting for two hundred and ten days. Oh boy. Now here's what I would say to that. One is I'm not sure who enforces the vacancies act, but I'm not sure. Sounds like it's probably Todd Blanche. Yeah, so I think that he could probably stay longer than that if he wants. And there is actually some legitimate questions about whether that 210-day clock applies to the Attorney General because in the specific language around the Department of Justice Lee Zeld in was a Jack officer in the military during his career, but he's never actually worked in traditional prosecution and law enforcement. So he would have very little experience for the job. Cool. Um so I'm not sure he would be there's not anything. Well, well he's hated it for a long time. not really clear. It's not really clear what Trump wants to say. It's in all the stories that he has mentioned Lee Zeldon. None of the stories say why he's mentioned Lee Zeldon. I'm sure Trump doesn't fully understand. I'm sure it's how he looks. I mean. He probably did like one good thing that's stuck in Trump's adult. And that good thing is an interview on Fox News. Um Mike Lee, I think that is directly related to Republican centers wanting to spend less time with Mike Lee. That's funny. It's a it's joke I saw from a lot of it from earlier YouTube. But the same reason other Republican centers keep wanting to put Ted Cruz on the Supreme Court. I mean well the Mikeley thing is funny because I just read a story, I don't know, a couple weeks ago that uh Republican colleagues in the Senate are like pissed at Mike Lee because he's fucking crazy. These two things are exactly related. Because you know what that you do when you're in the Senate? You have to have lunch with your colleagues every single week. Yeah, so definitely definitely promote that person to a position of uh near absolute power uh as as Trump's attorney general. That's responsible. You know what? It's gonna be a it's gonna be a bad person under all scenarios. You might as well stop having I mean, in terms of the confirmation fight, like you got Tillis who uh you know he's got a very powerful position in this. He's already said um what is he blocking because the of Powell and Jerome Powell investigations? The the new Fed chair. The new Fed yeah. Oh, there's a new Fed chair. That's what it is. Yeah. And uh I think he could stand in the way of this. There's you know, if it's a real crazy person, does Susan Collins want to vote for the crazy person? I think she's an election year this is a Mark Wayne Mullen you think so I think the next the person who places Pam Bonnie's gonna get the job this the same way Pam Bonnie got it, which is being somewhat other than the purpose before them because never Pan the only reason Pam Bonnie got confirmed easily is because she's not Matt Gates. Yeah. And so Mark Wayne Mull he's had a a long line of attorney generals, attorneys general he's been uh un unhappy with. You got your Bill Bars, your uh who's that Jeff Sessions. Jeff Sessions. Oh my gosh. I forgot that was that was the original. Yeah, Jeff Sessions to that interim guy to uh do you think it's the something that all these people have in common? Or is it you? It's it's look, it's bad luck. You know? It happens. Well the other thing is like I don't Lee Zeldon's not gonna be able to get the justice Department to prosecute the people that he wanted Pam Bondi to prosecute that she hasn't been able to prosecute yet. Yeah, it does all of this stuff is interesting, but not that significant. Yeah. Like who is it this we talk about this with Christy Noam and Mark Wayne Mullen. It's probably true that Mark Wayne Mullen is not having an affair with Cory Lundowski. So that's not gonna be an issue in this situation. But other than that, it's still the same policies. But if it's that if that's what it took to get the job , he would. Okay. Allegedly. Allegedly. Yes. It's just my opinion. There was a story this morning in The Guardian that um Trump might be looking uh to fire Tulsi Gabbard next. Since we talked about discussing this one, advisors close to Trump told Jennifer Jacobs at CBS uh that uh originally he had that Trump had the idea of moving Bondy to director of National intelligence. But now Trump said he wants Tulsi Gabbard to stay in that position, and then I think the White House through Stephen Chung just put out a statement that was like, it's all it's a lie. Of course we want to keep Tulsi Gabbard below. Well, if Stephen Chunks said. But it was more it was not like the um the lukewarm Pam Bondi statement from yesterday that like she is good. She did a good job. This one this one was more a little punchy. Yeah. I I 'm confident that neither Trump nor anyone around him likes Tulsi Gabbard. I just think the job is fake. It's it's a job created after 9-11. It doesn't, I don't think it really has to matter that much in this situation. So if you just want to ignore the DNI as he has done, like she doesn't go to anything, he doesn't meet with her, doesn't talk to her. We went to war without speaking to her. Um he invaded Venezuela while she was on a beach. A lot of those post nine eleven moves really coming back to bite us in the ass now. Yeah. You mean like the Iraq War, yes DHS, DNI, yeah, all of it . Pod Save America is brought to you by the Break Fake Rules Podcast. If you're a listener of PSA, this is a podcast you might enjoy. Hosted by Glenn Gallage, CEO of the Stoopski Foundation and a rotating cast of co-hosts. Break fake rules, change big giving for good, is about how we give specifically when it comes to philanthropy. It's a challenge to the self-imposed rules that shape the flow of money, power, and resources in America. Hear conversations with rule breakers in philanthropy, nonprofits, government, and more. If you care about how extreme wealth shapes our society and how to fix it, this is the show to listen to. In one recent episode, co-hosts Eric Brown, Jamie Allison, Ralph Lewin, and Dr. Cameron Rojas took the reins for a deep dive into Glenn's new book, Control: Why Big Giving Falls Short. Their conversation was more than just a review, it was a candid reflection on their own professional journeys and a provocative look at how traditional philanthropy can sometimes fail the very communities it intends to lift up. To listen to break fake rules, search for breakfake rules in your podcast app. That's break fake rules. So Trump's reverence for uh for the law and the legal system was on full display this week when he gave himself a literal front row seat to the Supreme Court hearing on his executive order to end birthright citizenship. The first president ever to attend a session of the High Court, presumably to intimidate the justices he recently accused of treason. Not sure it worked. Here are some of the Conservative justices peppering Trump's solicitor general with pretty sceptical questions uh during oral argument Aaron Powell Do you think Native Americans today are birthright citizens under your test and under your friends' test? Do you think they're birthright citizens? We're we're in a new world now, as Justalita pointed out to, where we're eight billion people are one plane ride away from having a a child who's a U.S. citizen. Well, it's a new world. It's the same constitution. Burn. Take that. That's the close thing you get to a real burn from John Roberts. Were you surprised by anything in the uh oral arguments? Oh surprised that Trump went. Yeah, let's start there. Let's start there. Like think about What a fucking bozo though. Well, this is my like I saw that and I was like, this is the worst thing. But I'm like, you know what? Go for it, man. You think these fuckers who have lifetime appointments are uh going to be intimidated by the 35% approval present lame duck second term president. It probably just go let's go through the decision making process here, which is we're at war , gas prices are high, people are really mad about the economy, and when you decide that your high profile public appearance that day should be to attend a Supreme Court hearing on birthright citizenship that almost every legal expert in the world says you're going to lose. You know what I love about it? Is just so crazy it could work. No. It's that I bet anything that the person who convinced him to do this was Stephen Miller. And I bet when he walked out of that courtroom, Donald Trump, he probably said to himself, or maybe said it out loud to Stephen Miller, what the fuck did you make me do Because there's no way Donald Trump left thinking that what he did was that was a good idea. Aaron Ross Powell Well he left in the middle. So he probably listened first of all, he probably couldn't understand a lot of the words they were saying. But um he was telling Yeah, even he could probably figure that out. And then um so that's the political communications aspect of the decision. Let's talk about the legal aspect of the decision to do it. Do you remember when the fate of the Affordable Care Act hung in the hands of Justice Anthony Kennedy? Mm. And Barack Obama used to make a joke all the time how he was gonna mow his lawn, wash his car. And then someone, I don't think they heard directly from Kennedy, but they sort of knew Kennedy s told Obama to stop making that joke because that like being seen as if you were trying to seen he made that joke in public? All the time, yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. And so uh, or at least in enough places like not just in the office. He was making that events, and so enough that it would get back to Kennedy. And so this person who was close to Kennedy told Obama that's a bad idea, because if it looks like you're trying to unduly influence the court, it's probably going to push them in the opposite direction. So we stopped making that joke. And that is like a tiny little bit humorous bit of putting your thumb on the scale. Here you have Trump sitting in the front row trying to stare them down like when you know in the in a wire reference, like when Avon Barksdale would go to the hearings and just like look at the witnesses, like the same thing. And that's obviously not going to work. So if you're sitting on the fence of your justice, so like, am I really gonna go down this pretty ridiculous path? And now it's gonna look not only like I don't understand the law, it look like I did Trump's bidding because he was there? Not gonna work. Not gonna work. Uh yeah, it doesn't seem like uh it's gonna go well for them. You know, I think the justices also a especially some of the conservative justices also asked um the ACLU's lawyer some like tough questions as well. But you didn't have to listen to much of it or even be a a legal expert to to know that it was it was going badly, just because like the unworkability of what they're asking for here, right? Like at one point they're like, okay, well you say that the executive order is prospective so that anyone born from here on out now, there's no birthright citizenship. But like how do you make that work for all the people before? Like what what do you So now everyone is just gonna have to go prove their citizenship and prove that they were born before like what is w this is it is the most unworkable, crazy fucking executive order. And I just can't I mean, I I'm sure you'll get like Alito or Thomas or whatever, but I don't know or or maybe some partial victory from from the dissenting judges, I guess. But like I don't know how anyone looks at that and thinks that like you know you can just overturn the 14th Amendment. And not for nothing. It's been a while since I've seen polling on this, but when Trump first proposed this last year, it was a 75, 80 percent opposition to the idea. I mean, as as Roberts asked, he's like, so the cases that you're talking about, which is like birth tourism or uh, you know, what happens if there's an invading army and a child born from a member of the invading army? Are they essentially he's like, it strikes me as some quirky examples. Yes. It's like, yeah, no, I think that's probably right So Trump sent out his his usual bitchy truth about the court uh right after he left, but he reserved his angriest reaction for another court um when a judge appointed by George W. Bush ruled later in the day that Trump can't start construction on his White House ballroom, his pride and joy, the only thing he cares about, unless Congress approves it first. The judge said, quote, No statute comes close to giving the president the authority he claims to have. You just say that about anything in Trump presidency. How badly do you want to see Republicans in Congress take that vote? I would love just love to see them vote on it. They would flee town to a vote. Put it in the supplemental. Put it in the uh the $200 billion for Iran when you're cutting healthcare. Just throw it in that one. I mean, these fucking Yahoos who clearly want to be in the minority so bad probably would propose cutting ACA funding to pay for the ballroom . I didn't think that the ball I didn't think that anyone would stop him on the ballroom, but like I don't know. It's I I was looking, I'm like, okay, maybe this could be a pr I th I assume he would this is one court order that he might just ignore. What I mean he already knocked down the East Wing. It's a little bit like putting the toothpaste back on the tube. Yeah, we should maybe respond a little faster here quartz. What is the remedy? Yeah. I I guess well then maybe the remedy is that Congress would have to approve something . They would have to come to some kind of agreement on what they could build in that in that space, besides the fucking eyesore of a uh of a monstrosity that uh that Yeah, I don't I don't know. It's uh but just leaving the hole there for a while will be fun. Yeah, that'll be good. Uh and by the way, I'm I'm now on board with the the next Democratic president Bulldozing the whole thing. Oh no, that's no, no. I just after seeing that, after seeing what it looks like in the in the Times and like the stairs to nowhere and the windows that aren't windows, and like the fact that it's like three times as big as the actual White House residence. Like this isn't like, oh, Trump did it, but it's a ballroom and it's a good space and whatever else and it looks fine. Like, let's leave it. Who who cares? This is like what? Come on. It's the White House. You're gonna just build like a a another White House three times as big stacked onto the side, except it's like super tacky because it's from Donald Trump . I don't I don't know. Not top of my agenda. Are you gonna make it a litmus test for Democrat primary candidates. Yeah, it's like APAC. Yeah, yes. You're gonna you have demolish the ballroom. First and foremost. we can do a crooked questionnaire. That's perfect. That's perfect. No feel sended in with third. Eliminate eliminate the filibuster, demolish the ballroom. Uh so Trump's other passion project as of late is uh making it harder for Americans to vote. Uh and now that the Save Act isn't passing Congress anytime soon, uh, he did what we all expected, and he just signed an executive order version of the law, which isn't how this works, but nevertheless, uh, the EO directs the Department of Homeland Security to create a list of eligible voters using social security data and send each state their list before every federal election, it then directs the Postal Service to send mail-in or absentee ballots only to the names on that list, states that don't comply with loose federal funding, Constitution, explicitly gives states the power to run their own elections. But at the signing ceremony, uh Trump seemed pretty confident about this move. Take a listen. You got a lot of rogue judges. Very bad, bad people, very bad judges. But that's the only way that can be changed and hopefully we'll win an appeal if it is, but I don't I don't see how anybody can challenge it So Oregon and Arizona uh immediately said they'd be suing the challenges happened right away. A bunch of other groups, Democratic Party, everyone's challenging it. Earlier this year, Trump said Republicans should uh nationalize and take over elections. What do you think about this? Like I this did not strike fear uh into my heart like maybe it should have, but I was just like this is gonna be immediately rejected. Aaron Powell Yeah. This doesn't strike fear in my heart as well. It seems pretty clearly in line with all the other things the courts have thrown out that Trump has wanted to do. And my general fear about election interference from Trump is not grand gestures from the White House like nationalized elections, canceling elections, banning mail ballots via executive fiat. It's smaller scale use of ICE or to intimidate voters, having ice do patrols in certain precincts. Like you c if the Texas Senate race is close, you can see ICE all of a sudden showing up in the Latino precincts of Houston or San Antonio or in the Rio Grande Valley counties and all of the above. You know, and I'm worried about them seizing the machines. That's my thing. On the back end. Um I'm worried about most of the back end stuff. Yeah, and the and the other the thing that I worry about a lot is and this used to have to be a very narrow, narrow house majority for it to matter would be the failure to seat um a member of Congress over like this is to the extent that this stuff matters, it's all the claims of fraud leads to an environment where they can , you know, say that they'll the in this close race, there's enough clouds that we, the Republican majority, won't seat the one individual who would give Democrats the majority. Yeah. But that's a very uh black swan event to get to the one seat holding us from a majority. Yeah, I feel like this should be this will be struck down in short order. Today's show is sponsored by Strawberry.me. You don't have to be unhappy at work to want something more. Success doesn't just happen, and the most successful people in the world don't just figure it out alone. They have mentors, coaches, and people guiding them every step of the way. That's where Strawberry.me career coaching comes in. Career coaching through Strawberry.me can help you get unstuck, uncover what you really want, identify obstacles holding you back, develop a step-by-step plan, and turn your goals into a reality. You might not have a career coach, but you've we've all had a mentor or someone we worked for or with who taught us a lot of things, helped us overcome tough times. I had this great coach once and um when he didn't like the job we were doing, uh, he would just throw a folding chair. Nice. Uh and it was um Indiana basketball. Yeah, yeah. And it was like, wow, like boy, I don't want to have a chair thrown at me. No, I'm gonna do a good job. That's but there's all kinds of coaching. Now maybe not the best one. That's a great mentor. You have some help you uncover a blind spot or maybe just come to an important realization. Uh that person is really meaningful to you. That that is mentorship that you take with you your entire life, and it's truly invaluable. If you want someone like that in your life, go to strawberry. me slash crooked and find out if career coaching is right for you. That's strawberry.me slash crooked to get fifty percent off your first session. Strawberry.me slash crooked to get fifty percent off your first session. Quick update on what appears to be a fittingly stupid end to the partial shutdown of Department of Homeland Security that's caused chaos at airport security lines. Last time we checked in, House Republicans had just rejected the Senate's plan, which passed by unanimous consent, to fund all of DHS except immigration enforcement. Then Congress left town for a two week recess, and then they were followed around everywhere they went by TMZ. Uh now just a few days later, House Republican leaders apparently decided to cave. Don't notice I said of House Republican leaders apparently decided to cave, saying that they'll go along with the Senate's partial funding plan and then try to fund ICE and Customs and Border Patrol with a budget reconciliation bill, which only needs Republican votes, which was of course the Senate's plan all along. Only problem is the Congress is still in recess until April 14th. So Trump announced on Thursday that he would, quote, soon sign an order to pay all of the incredible employees, the Department of Homeland Security, and not just TSA. Although right before we were recording, I heard that Mike Johnson on a call with his caucus , he's just facing an uproar. Hardliners, moderates, everyone el everyone's just pissed because uh Mike Johnson called it a crap sandwich um before just last week and now he's saying I don't know what else we can. do Sometimes you have to eat the crap sandwich. That's part of being in Congress. How did they fuck this up so badly? Mike Johnson's the one person in America who could like make Kevin McCarthy look like a competent legislator. I mean he's just he's Mike Johnson is both dumb and weak. Yeah. Like what's all it's worth remembering, he's an accidental speaker. He wasn't even particularly high up in leadership or had any real role. He just happened to be a guy so inoffensive that you could get an exhausted majority to vote for him. Yeah. And so you end up with lowest common common denominator leadership. And so he listened to the far right , rejected this thing, had no plan for what came next. It was obviously the only way to solve this problem was to do what the Senate did. Yeah. And instead he decided, you know what? I know the Democrats are the ones who shut down the problem of Him and Security. I know that there are lines everywhere. People are really pissed about it. I am going to take full ownership of this and then go on recess. I'm wondering now if he can put down the rebellion that he's or just like quiet No, there's no there's no there's no other plan. This is it. They're gonna have to do it. They went through all the iterations and if they don't do it, it just they're not I mean I think the reason why they that it Johnson caved is like they tried to blame this on the Democrats and were like Senate Republicans who who went along with this plan, I think they're having regrets now. I think they're having second thoughts, but like there's no way to pin this on the Democrats. Yeah. So they're they would just own the shutdown. Yeah. The Democrats. I do think like the Democrats won the shutdown, right? Yes. I think it's fair to say Democrats won the political battle over the shutdown. Yeah. They what they said from the beginning was fun one, we're not gonna fund ICE unless unless you do reforms. We will, however, fund the rest of DH S and do that, do that probably say no, we won't do that, we won't do that, we won't do that. Democrats won that battle. The thing that they have not won are reforms to ICE. Right. Right. So like politically it's again . It's not surprising because like you can't the only way you can reformize is if you have the votes to reformice and we don't have a majority in either house. So all we can do is say, if you don't make our reforms, then we're not going to vote to fund it. And which is what we did. And what matters in the end here is that we win the majority and therefore have a ton of leverage because a bill can't leave the house without a a speaker Keem Jeffries allowing it to come to the floor. Yes. And if we win the House this is a completely different dynamic, even if it's over the same general issue. Yep. And I do think it just it goes to s to show both Trump and the Republicans' weakness. Just imagine this scenario a year ago. Yeah. Seven months or whatever it is before the election, the Democrats shut down the Department of Homeland Security. Probably because probably because I was and and I would have been for it, you know, and you would have been like, You're an idiot. Well then it was would've been true. But but to defund to not defund, but to like they shut down Department of Homeland Security over ICE funding, would have thought that that was the Democrats doing the dumbest thing possible, and they end up with the political high ground here. It says a lot about just how the politics have changed. All right. Two final very important items to discuss. Uh the first is a huge update um that I'll just let you hear about The mail posted several of these photos and writes Brian Gnome allegedly sent women in the community $25,000 in virtual payments. conversations but says he never put national security at risk. All kinds of stories today. I had not watched that clip. I saved it for this and fuck, that was good. All kinds of stories today. Absolutely. So uh since the release of the Daily Mails reporting on Tuesday, um at least one performer specializing in quote sissy sub and bimbo fication uh has publicly come forward to claim she was paid five thousand dollars by B rian Bry n's Brian, but it's B-R-Y-O-N. I I heard Tim Tim Miller calling him Brian the whole time and now I can't get out of my head. Um, over the last two years, telling the Daily Beast, quote, there was no way in hell that Christy Gnome didn't know. Heard the Daily Beast, uh, Brian Gnome uh wanted the performer specifically to quote instruct him to bend over Arch's back, spank himself. Oh, you guys didn't need to put all this in and show off what she describes as the largest prosthetic breasts she's ever seen on a client. Okay . A lot of different ways we could take this. Um I I've I've told you before I would not king shame you for bimbofication, because I know this is a thing for you. Oh a word I learned from you this morning. I d you didn't know what it was before, right? No. I didn't even I I know I'd I had no way I read this right, I was like, what is this? I don't believe is this a thing? I didn't I hadn't I knew that there was a cross-dressing scandal with Brian Gnome via Yes. In the in the last forty eight hours or whatever it was. But I did not read any of them. Oh yeah. And then just when I looked at the outline for this morning, it just had a subject line that said bimbufication. And I was like, I didn't know it was the same thing. So I'm learning of I learned about it in real time. I will say my take on this is you're the spouse of a homeland security secretary and uh you're getting into stuff that if it's public can embarrass you, your spouse . Even if it's just em like public embarrassment, like you're y you just you you can't be doing that stuff, you know. But aside from that, m you know, she's the one who she's the one who put him in this horrible place. She's been clearly cheating on him, allegedly. Yes. And we're almost having to drop allegedly at this point. Uh but she like for just openly the whole like country knows. For years. For years. She was asked about it at a at a hearing where he was sitting right behind her. So he's dealing with that and now he's dealing with this. So you get you f you feel a little bit for for Brian. Yeah. Um but not so much Christine Own because like she I want her to be more embarrassed. Yeah, what about Thoughts and Prayer? Well she's thoughts and prayer sucks. Yeah. She's the one who like, you know, sent people to a fucking torture chamber in El Salvador and then fucking posed for a picture in front of it. Yeah, I have some questions about the vetting process at the White House and the FBI and the Senate. Yeah, I was gonna say that. I guess they did I don't checks. I think F the Trump would not let the FBI do background checks on his nominees because he thought that they were too anti-insurrection. I'm not sure I'm entirely sure. Wow. I Trump was asked about it too, which is I want I I I would love to hear someone explaining bimbofication to Trump. So if you're that mole who's posting the live streams, can we get one of those? I would like yeah. He was asked briefly about it, and he was just like it is interesting how they like Christy Nome and everything like I'm I'm asking for prayers and privacy at this time. It's very um like why not all of them just be like, no, we're not responding to the story, like get away, nothing, and just like that leave it at that This is her chance to bring her Corey Lewandowski alleged relationship to the forefront. Maybe it was Lewandowski that that that pushed this whole thing around. Allegedly. Theoretically. We don't know. That's why I said maybe. Maybe. Anyway, we'll just leave that there. Yeah. Poor Brian. Um finally, uh title this pod be Brian Song . Uh so you may have seen the viral videos of Kid Rock saluting and clapping on the pool deck of his mansion outside Nashville as two Apache Helic attack helicopters hovered just overhead, apparently attempting some kind of counter programming to the No Kings march happening nearby. Um those helicopters appeared to be from Fort Campbell, an army base over the border in Kentucky, and the Army immediately said it would look into it, later announcing that the two crews had been suspended as the investigation continued. Kid Rock told local reporters, I think they're gonna be all right. My buddy's the commander in chief, of course. Uh, sure enough, Trump got a question about it in the Oval Office, said he'd take a look because they like Kid Rock. I like Kid Rock. Maybe they were trying to defend him at his mansion in Nashville. A couple hours later, Pete Heggseth posted, thank you, Kid Rock. U.S. Army pilot suspension lifted. No punishment, no investigation. Carry on Patriots with an American flag emoji. What a fucking asshole. Such a goober. I don't know. What do you think of this story? I I like it did not register as a big deal to me until Reed wanted us to cover it. And then I started reading about it. I'm like, yeah, this is really fucked up and crazy. And the fact that it barely registers, including with me, someone who talks about the news all the time, just goes to show like how down the rabbit hole we are. I would just say as a piece of advice to Kid Rock, those helicopter pilots all on the right, that it if you perhaps your response to a rally that suggests that Trump wants to be a king and dictator should not be a show of military force. Yeah. Also, what kind of goobers were like, we gotta find Kid Rock? I think his mansion's up here. Let's like fly by and maybe maybe he'll wait. Is that what the think is that it was like uh that just they were just hoping it was like a Hollywood star tour? He was on the pool he was on the pool deck they just thought it was hoping he was on the pool deck? Yeah, like what if he wasn't? But did he know that did he know they were coming? That's what I don't know. I'd love to do that. Democratic majority. You think this is a good one? You know what? Gonna f send someone to South Dakota, and get to the bottom of all this. I did on this South Dakota thing did see uh there was like a clip of the Reason podcast, I think, like expressing um libertarians expressing some sympathy for Byron Gnome on this. And then Dave Weigel quote-tweeted and said, It was right sympathy that helped fuel Hillary Clinton's run for Senate in 2000. There is an acting governor of South Dakota right now, Larry Roden. So Oh they could not oh wow it's yeah, it's because it's uh replaced Gnome when Gnome Oh interesting. So maybe Byron can get his sweet revenge by running for governor. You know what? I hope he like has anot another her a turn of the wheel as like a MAGA influencer with some so you know or or or maybe not. It it it is true that I I heard some people say this like, Oh yeah you can't feel too bad for him because he was uh stayed married to Christine Ohm as she went on this reign of terror as uh as the as the ice queen um and never said anything uh as as people's rights were being trampled. So there is that with Yeah, yeah. But you know, I'm saying he did show up at the hearing to to support his wife. Well so I was you know, I was gonna say sitting in the cuck chair. I feel bad. The guy's just you know whatever. Whatever. Whatever. We're done. Kid Rock, bad. Byron. Yeah. Okay. That's our show for today. Love we'll be back in the feed on Sunday with a conversation with Senator Corey Booker. You think he's gonna ask Senator Booker about Bimbification? Given the uh volume of laughter happening outside the studio as we were recording, perhaps it was raised. Yes. Well, tune in Sunday to find out. Uh have a good weekend, everyone. Bye everyone . 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