Debating Trump's Age and Fitness

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Just search Sum Up MTD Online . Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm John Favreau. I'm John Lovett. Tommy Vitor . On today's show, we're gonna break down the new gold standard New York Times poll that shows Democrats opening an 11-point lead in the midterms. Let's have that election today, huh? Please hurry it up. Uh, we'll also talk about how Trump's revenge tour came for Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy and is coming for Congressman Thomas Massey in Tuesday's Kentucky primary. There's also some fresh new corruption to discuss. Trump's new taxpayer-edfund bil li$2on slush fund he'll use to reward his favorite criminals, and revelations that he's basically been day trading in his spare time, 3,700 stock trades in just three months. That's so many trades. So many trades.. Just bad advice Just put it in an index file. Just kidding. Yeah. Uh we also got a new Iran taco brewing and uh renewed interest in Cuba and Greenland, which is just one of the reasons we'll also dive into the latest debate over how much Democrats and Cong Speaking old man. Check out four us over here. He's gonna sit here with this guy's got his fucking nerd's got his glasses on.. I was waiting for you to do it Sorry, I sc I scratched my eye. That's don't don't don't get used to it, everyone. Hopefully. Uh but first, before we start, tickets for Crooked Con 2026 are on sale now for everyone. Come hang with us November 5th through 7th in Washington, D.C. for live shows, panels, and a big fun party to celebrate and or mourn the 2026 midterms. See? I added mourn because uh Dan. Dan's so uh superstitious, you know. Cricket's Friends of the Pod get a subscriber only price, so if you want a subscription loaded with exclusives and a discounted CrookedCon ticket, be sure to join Friends of the Pod. There's all kinds of benefits that come with that . No more ads when you're listening to any of these, any of your favorite crooked pods, plus you get exclusive subscriber-only shows like Polar Coaster with Dan Pfeiffer, Only Friends, which is our extra episode of sounds like our secret extra episode of Pod Save America that we do and a whole bunch of other stuff. Substack newsletters, everything. Get the tickets for CrookedCon and all the info you need at CrookedCon.com. Go to crooked.com slash friends to subscribe to Friends of the Pod. And uh we can't wait to see you at CrookedCon. All right. Donald Trump and the Republican Party have been shitting the bed in nearly every poll for the last few months, but now Nate Cohn and the New York Times have come down from the mountaintop with a stone tablet that confirms how screwed they are. Trump's approval is at 37% in their new poll. That is a record low for him in for both terms in all New York Times Sienna polls. Um, and uh the and midterm voters also favored Democrats by 11 points, 50 to 39 percent over Republicans. Uh president's biggest liability in the poll remains his handling of the cost of living, which his political strategists keep hoping he'll pretend to care about, as evidenced by Monday's White House event on his uh his discount drug website, Trump RX. Uh let's see how it went. I think outside of maybe a cure itself, it's the biggest thing to happen to health care and everything having to do with medical in any in any way, shape or form, there's never been anything like this. Trump R X is the biggest thing in medical thing in medical. Biggest thing in medical. You could tell because there's a doctor here. You could tell he didn't like the event because he cut it really short. Where were they? It looked like TEDx Toledo or something. It was just like Joe Gebby in front of a giant screen. The whole thing was embarrassing. Mark Cuban was there. Trump RX, uh, by the way, it's not a platform for buying medications. Do you know that? It's just uh it's it's a it's a facilitator. You go to the website, it directs you to the other websites to buy the drugs and sometimes it gives you coupons. Just redirects you? Yeah, basically. And then and then Amazon and and and Cuban's thing, what what what's his thing called? Cost plus drugs. Cost plus drugs. Um you know, they work with the federal government to have some discounts on some extra drugs. But also if you have insurance doesn't help you, meaning it's cheaper to buy the drugs if you have insurance because the insurance covers the drugs. So really it's for people who don't have insurance, sometimes get some discounts on some drugs . So it's not a bad thing, but it's not a it's not weird. It's not it's certainly not the biggest thing since medical. No. Um what stood out to you guys in the New York Times poll? So whenever we're talking about a poll that looks good for Democrats, you got to go down and find the part where it's terrible for Democrats. And there's a this was a new one, I think. They said, Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the Democratic Party? And I'm used to seeing that voters maybe are really unhappy with Republicans in planning to vote for Democrats, but then are ultimately not super satisfied with Democrats either. I was surprised to see that uh 70% of people say they are dissatisfied with the Democratic Party, and only five percent are very satisfied, which is a third of the number of people that are very satisfied with Trump. And I I get being look, Republicans are in power. This is representing people that hate Democrats, it's represented by people that wish Democrats would fight more, it's represented by Democrat everyone who has a criticism of the Democrats is represented in that number. But the fact that Where would you be in that when there's someone asks you? I would be somewhat I would be unsatisfied. I'm unsatisfied, baby. I'm unsatisfied. But then but then when they gave me the generic ballot thing, I'd be I'd be right there. I'd be right there. But just the fact that like right now, if this whole big beautiful country of ours, there's only five percent of people that just love the Democratic Party, like we talk a lot about Who are those people ? Right. Who are those five percent? I love everything they're doing. Can't wait to see them on tour. Like s like some of the some of the staffers, maybe? I don't know some stuff relatives. Couple folks on Blue Sky. Mm-hmm. I don't know. Um so anyway, that was that's what stood out to you. That stood out to me. And then there was uh uh there was uh a number on AI that I thought was just interesting that only sixteen percent of people think I AI is more good than bad. The vast majority are either undecided or think it's more bad than good. Uh so it comes in a weekend where there's all these commencement addresses where students are booing the mere mention of AI by the speaker. Which I love. You can tell there's a something afoot there. Yes, there is. Yes there is. Tommy, what'd you think? Um I liked that. I didn't I liked that. I I noticed that sixty four percent in the Times poll said they think that going to war with Iran was the wrong decision, including 73% of independence. Uh, that is pretty clear-cut, and it's not going to get better as this thing kind of drags out and the Strait of Hormuz remains closed and the price of gas goes up. 76% rate economic conditions today is only fair or poor. Uh that is quite bad. And then, you know, the glass half full thing of the Democratic Party was fifty percent say they will vote Democrat, thirty nine percent say they will vote Republican in the midterm. So it's one of the better numbers of that nature, I think we've seen in a while. We've been saying uh Trump bad for so long now that uh when there's a poll this bad, it's sort of har it's almost like there's a there's a crying wolf thing. Yeah, yeah. Um, or like you know, not Trump's I mean, Trump's always been bad, but like this is it for Trump. Things that the walls are closing in. But uh Nate Cohn points out in his write-up of the poll, no president's approval rating has been under thirty eight percent for more than a few days in the last seventeen years, according to our average. Now we got Donald Trump. And then you realize 17 years is George W. Bush, which just makes us really old. Um, but that is the last president to be this unpopul ar for this long. Like it is r uh the fact that this is this is worse than January 6th now for him. Well, the economic indicators are just so bad. I mean, 76% say they're concerned about their personal finance. This is a CBS poll. 67% say they're stressed. Like both of those have ticked up at the last year. Only 29% in the CBS recent CBS poll said the economy is good. 77% say their income is not keeping up with inflation. So like gas prices are just killing everybody. Yeah, the the to me like you look at it too, what's hidden is just how many people have just they're done. Right. You could look at this poll and it's basically almost half, not quite half the country., The theyy don't approve on Iran. They don't approve on the economy. They don't approve on cost of living. They don't approve on immigration. They are done. And the number of people who now say Trump has personally made their economic circumstances worse. has gone up by like eight points since the last time. Like so it's gone up from about a third of the country, it's rising up to nearly half, or no longer saying just I don't just disapprove. Like I'm feeling personally that he's not doing what he said he was going to do. So that to me was uh uh stood out. One other thing that stood out just uh about about what's happening with Iran that you know we got a lot of uh internet debates about the you know the anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism and the Democrats' position on Israel. Meanwhile, opposition to economic and military support to Israel has gone from 38% to 57 % over the last two and a half to three years. Support has gone from 54% to 37%. And so a lot of people is Trump's approval. And so a lot of hands- Support for Israel, financial aid, support for Israel is the is just about as popular as Donald Trump in this country. Trevor Burrus And so look , this is not uh an argument that's being lost on the margins, and it's not an argument that's being lost based on who gets platform ed and who doesn't. There's a huge shift that has happened. I think you can uh uh lay that at the feet of Benjamin Netanyahu and Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Uh but the sooner people make this less about the specific individuals they dislike, often with good reason, and more about the deeper shift that is happening. I think the sooner people can actually reckon with what is a real and lasting damage uh that has happened to America's relationship with Israel. Aaron Powell Yeah I mean Axios wrote a story this morning about some just the horrific uh anti-Semitism being directed towards uh members of Congress and voicemails and threats and all that and it's it's it's horrible. And I would just say that like it I do think it's important to separate like like virulent anti Semitism from people who are pro Israel and making the case for supporting Israel. Like we I think we talked about this last week, but like Josh Gottheimer's op-ed about anti-Semitism and my party has a problem too. Like it starts with talking about actual anti-Semitism and then halfway through it suddenly veers into, oh, and also Democrats are voting against funding uh you know military aid to Israel. Which is now a majority position. That's that should not be in the same op-ed. Well Nan Yahoo and says that he wants to wean off military support for Israel. So yeah. Right. I wish I would say the uh the only other thing that stood out to me is on the generic ballot , there's real movement just within the times poll, right? Because every poll is it's a single poll, snapshot in time, but you take a poll over time and it was D plus two to D plus five for the beginning part of Trump's uh term, second term, in the Times Sienna polls, and now it's D plus 11. Like it's a big shift. And then when they take it to only almost certain or very likely voters, it's D plus fourteen. So even that D plus eleven is like may not be what we ultimately see because, you know, the most uh motivated voters end up turning out in a midterm more so than in a general election. So um that's it's pretty big. And it's late May. You know, not a not a lot not a ton of time left. Knock on wood. Yeah. Well, I mean look, Trump still has time to become a different person. Uh the bigger news from the White House on Monday was the announcement that President Trump's Justice Department is settling Donald Trump's lawsuit against the IRS for $1.77 6 billion . Get it? Get it? Get it? Uh that is money that will be taken directly from taxpayers and funneled into a slush fund that apparently exists to pay Trump supporters who were investigated or indicted or convicted during the Biden administration, or I guess none of those things, because there's really no guardrails whatsoever. Um, it seems like they did this so Trump wouldn't be attacked for directly pocketing taxpayer dollars, but I'm not sure this move is as uh as clever as they think. What about you guys? This is a Trump's second term is a political smash and grab job where he and his family and the people around him and people who do his bidding just take what they want and get rewarded. They take it from taxpayers, they trade on poly market , they front-run the stock market. And I think the fact that Trump is doing this before the midterms just shows that he doesn't give a shit about politics anymore. It's all about money and it's all about building monuments to himself and ingratiating you know, to enriching himself. And they made an end run around the judge in this case and they just cut a deal with another political employee that he had named to create the slush fund. And do you do you think they thought it was cute saying it was one point seven seven six? Doesn't that just make the whole thing feel like made up and arbitrary more than anything else? They think it's like, oh, we've got patriotism and America's two fifty is coming up, and so if we call it a patriotic fund for patriots, then no one will no one will get mad at us. Shouldn't a a fund to pay out restitution to people harmed be based on like metrics and not like the amount of what where's the number coming from telling someone with the the how many how much earnings did you lose when you were at the Capitol on January 6th when you clicked you know I will say Congress passed a law to give the Department of Justice basically an unlimited fund for restitution for anyone who sues the federal government. And so that's how they ended up doing this. So it's like it is a one of those technically legal, but extremely cru pt things that we have because of a stupid law that was passed that no one no one thought to themselves maybe there'll be an administration that just has the fun being unlimited because the president will sue himself, will sue his own coverage. In fairness to the people that wrote that law, you would also assume that if it were to be so completely and obviously and brazenly abused by a president who's basically just going into the treasury and stuffing his pockets and leaving that there might be a Congress that would care about that, uh, which we we don't have. Just like to Tommy's point, the judge was like, hey, before this lawsuit by Trump against his own administration, which is unprecedented, that's being administered by his uh personal attorney, former personal attorney at the Department of Justice. I wanna you to come in and explain to me how you're actually parties in opposition, how you're not on the same side of this thing. And they're like, She's like in the deadline's May twentieth. That's when now it's May eighteenth that we're recording basically proving the point that the judge was worried about, uh, they have decided to reach a reach a deal beforehand. Now, the Justice Department, uh, if it was actually advocating on behalf of taxpayers of the American people, which is what it's supposed to do, it would fight this thing to the bitter end, or at the very least, settle for zero dollars, which has happened in in not exactly similar, but cases that are akin to this in the past. But instead they're doing this Ken Griffin. Doing yeah, doing this exactly. Settle the same c Uh because he didn't pay any you know, that's just a that is a that is something that could have come of this, but it said no, they are proving that this they are in cahoots here by doing this kind of a settlement. We have they're they're using a ridiculous justification based on something that happened in the Obama administration, which even conservative legal scholars have t have have have batted down because it had that had actual specific people who were harmed by an actual specific policy on like this. My pitch is James Comey, Tish James, Lamonica McGyver, Lisa Cook, Jerome Powell, they should all be submitting when this thing comes out. They should put their names in to get money from this fund. And if they do not receive a fair hearing, they should sue the federal government. Like there are people that are being politically prosecuted by the government. As far as we know publicly, nobody on that list would not be kind of uh uh at least potentially uh um uh uh included in the people hurt uh that could receive from this seventeen hundred and seventy six. We d well yeah, I don't to be clear, I don't think James Comey should get money from the federal government, but I think we should take this, put this thing through its paces. This is fucking yeah, well they're not gonna I mean Trump appoints the board, it's five people, he gets to hire and fire the board, it's just gonna be five cronies dishing out money. They don't look this isn't't this thing doesn even have to be like, oh, and here was my case and it was tried incorrectly. Like someone's just can go to fucking whoever Todd Blanche puts on the commission and be like, hey, I want $1,000 because I donated to the president and I'm mad that Joe Biden sent the FBI after me. Do you have proof of that? No, but I just know they were watching me. It's crazy. That's what the census is . I mean, they're stealing. I mean, like this is it's just they're at the point where they're just saying we're gonna take money from the treasury, give it it to to whoever we're going to give our friends, particularly people who are who are maybe criminals. Yeah, but he was asked at the press conference today, well w would could this potentially go to people who committed violence in January sixth? He said, Oh, it's going to be up to the committee. Absolutely those people would be eligible, could totally receive money from this fund. He pretends he doesn't know about it. Also it's a it's it's a danger going forward too as we're heading into twenty twenty eight and and Donald Trump and JD Vance or whoever the fuck it is tries to stay in the White House after they lose an election and a bunch of people uh do their bidding for them to help them out. What do you think they're gonna think? They're gonna be like, Well, if he stays in there and I help 'em out, I'm gonna be okay. I'm gonna get a pardon, might get paid. Great. You guys don't like my idea that James Comey tries to get into that fund? Come on. Yeah, I mean I I see what you're saying. I think he should write out the amount he wants on the case. Yeah, in shells. Yeah. Any shell based crime should apply. Pots of America is brought to you by Smalls. Smalls makes fresh human-grade food for cats. It's made from the same stuff you or I would eat, but formulated specifically to help cats thrive. Cats are obligate carnivores who need lots of real meat to stay healthy. But most cat foods out there use meat byproducts and cut their food with cheap grains, fillers, and artificial ingredients. Boy, you don't want that. You don't want that. You don't want cheap grains or fillers. Not for your little not for your feline friends. Basically stuff that isn't great for your cat. With smalls, I just put I took a scoop for me and a scoop for my cat Chesterfield. 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They can't you can't just have somebody who has like all the right skills, but they well, they they, you know, they then then it's like they owe you you owe them a favor. You know what I mean? That's that's how I behave. You know, that's my that's my role here. If you're hiring, you want a candidate who's passionate about the role , but you can't get that insight from a resume unless you post your job on ZipRecruiter, ZipRecruiter's powerful matching technology finds quality candidates quickly. And ZipRecruiter has a new feature that shows you the most interested qualified candidates first. So you meet the right people faster. Candidates can tell you in their own words why they're interested in your job. No wonder ZipRecruiter is the number one rated hiring site based on G2. Find candidates who really want your job on ZipRecruiter. Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. Try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash Crooket. That's ZipRecruiter.com slash Cricket Uh speaking of Trump allies getting away with crimes, uh what do you guys make of Jared Pol is, Governor of Colorado, Democrat, commuting the prison sentence of election denier Tina Peters. She is the former county clerk from uh Mesa County, Colorado. She was in jail for orchestrating a security breach of her county's voting system. Trump has been um publicly and privately pressuring polis to pardon her completely. They also tried to like transfer her from state prison to federal prison so that Trump could pardon her, um, didn't do that , but now Polis has commuted her sentence. She was sentenced to nine years. He cut it to four and a half years um with parole next month. I have to be honest, I know this is not a great answer for the purposes of a talk show. I just couldn't give less of a shit. I I know people are like outraged about this. I read JVL's long piece on this. I don't give a shit. I don't care. I have so much to be outraged or to worry about. I just can't even get myself to engage with this person. I might even go a step further. I think Polis might have done the right thing by cutting her sentence down. Wow. I gotta go. Excuse me, boys. Uh if you need me, I'll be at the fucking bulwark. Where the where the real libs are now. Uh go on. I'm not I don't feel strongly I'm I'm more into I'm closer to Tommy's camp, but like here's the thing. Um she was sentenced to nine years, right? She's so she's a nonviolent first time offender . And uh three appellate judges who were appointed by a Democrat, they were Democratic judges, they all just ruled that they threw out the sentence, the nine-year sentence. So that was never gonna happen. And the reason they threw it out is because they thought that the judge basically in giving her a nine-year sentence as opposed to a smaller sentence violated her free speech rights because the judge basically said the reason I'm making your sentence longer is because you spouted election conspiracy theories. Um which is a horrible thing to do spouting election conspiracy theories, but that is protected first amendment speech. I think we have to be consistent. But anyway, I I appreciate that, but we understand that if someone were to say um hit somebody with their car uh and then publicly say that bitch deserved it, that that is free speech. You have the right to say that, but it does potentially inform the sentence. Sorry. Does it? Of cour of course it does. Of course we we allow remorse in people's uh uh uh uh uh motivations and feelings about the crimes they committed, what they've learned from it. That's the uh Well she was she was I mean, but the no remorse thing was already factored in because she didn't she she was not remorseful when she was sentenced. But that's he didn't say you didn't show remorse. He said it's because you have these these theories. I just say that just first amendment. I agree that people have the right to believe elections are stolen. I'm just saying it's a little bit more than just first. Continue. Sorry. I guess I'm saying if we believe that uh that there is an incarceration problem in this country and that people are incarcerated for too long, and that prison is um it is a deterrent and yes, people should be jailed and should they should be kept from society, but that unusually long sentences are bad, especially for first-time nonviolent offenders. Like don't we have to extend that belief to people whose political beliefs we det Aaron Powell So I would say the answer is we should allow a process to play out. That she would have been resentenced. Why is why did this become a big public controversy? It is because the President of the United States is publicly pressuring the governor of Colorado to commute uh Tina Peterson's. Now, uh look, I am sure Jared Polis would say that the pressure had nothing to do with it. Obviously, the fact that Donald Trump was threatening Colorado unless he did something, right? Donald Donald Trump was saying this woman should be pardoned. He is saying it's some kind of press pushback against Trump, that it's only a commutation. She has kind of done the bare minimum of acknowledging that what she did was wrong. But if you go to her Twitter feed, her allies were saying I it's as recently as I believe last week, I have to go look the exact timing that if Trump that if that if Tina Peters isn't released, uh Trump should invade the state of Colorado. It is a nonviolent offense. Yeah, I mean I don't think that should happen. Well, right, but it just it goes to like the the the the reason somebody who even commits a nut look, there are a lot of first-time offenders who do something that are part of a that that are part of something so dangerous that you have to say, wait a second, yes, is this a non violent offense, but it goes to the core of what we are as a society, the safety of our democracy. And so he has given into that pressure from Trump rather than let the process play out. So that I think is a like a a huge problem. Like it just I don't know that we'd be having this conversation if if Donald Trump hadn't personally intervened to try to get the governor to do something. And then it seems as though he did it. I still don't give a shit. No. I might I might care less actually than when we seem to be able to do it. It is interesting. I would say that it's yeah, um it's more interesting to me and that like I think that I think he might have done the right thing. I do think I would like to hear Jared Polis answer the question, why don't you just wait for the resentencing of the three appellate judges? Like what made you not want to just wait for their decision if they were gonna throw out the sentence anyway? I'd also say too that the the Republican prosecutor uh was against this and said that you should talk to the people that were impacted by Tina Peters schemes before you'd make the decisions that also a prosecutor. Or just how prosecutors are but community but the uh there's also a defendant who pled guilty to almost the same charges in the Georgia Rico case and was sentenced no time and probation? Yeah. I mean look, there's all kinds of unfairnesses and unequal application of sentences all across the country all the time. Like that if that were the case, you'd go and say, Oh, well, there's somebody else who was given less. You can commute most most sentences that way. But but I think look in this one. It wasn't her. He commuted like, you know, thir it was like thirty-five or fifty commutations or something like that in the same day. I think he has to answer for whether or not he gave in to Trump's political pressure. And we are in a moment where like Donald Trump is is threatening elections again. Like this is a grave threat to the Republic. Why does our generos ity, our sense of justice, our our empathy turn for Tina Peters when there are so many others who have who deserve it? That's all. Yeah. I don't and I don't think it should I don't think it should. I don't think we should g be generous or empathetic at all. I think we should just be like what is the what is the standard? Like is there a process to reach the decision and it did it meet a standard? I do think that like criticizing Poles for it is completely fine. Like you can criticize them for it it. You can say's fine. Some people are and people who I I I like in politics too and support are like calling for his impeachment over this. And I'm like, I don't I just I do not think it rises to the level of a initiative. Everybody's at nine all the time these days. I d I can't get there. I can get there. I can get I can get to like your criticism for sure. I I can't get to we he shouldn't be pee impeached over this. I don't know if you guys saw that uh Trump's latest financial disclosures show that he andor his financial advisors made more than 3,700 stock trades in the first quarter of this year. Bought $1 million each in companies with business before his administration, like NVIDIA, Oracle, Microsoft, Boeing, and Pal antir, which he bought right before he praised the company on Truth Social in a post that if you recall, even included the company's ticker symbol. Now I know this may look suspicious, but the White House did say that Trump's assets are in a blind trust managed by his children. So there are quote no conflicts of interest. Seems fine, right? This is did they really I thought there was no blind trust. I thought they'd already previously said there was no blind trust. Either way, managed by your children. Yeah, but that's not how a blind trust works. Again, this is part of the political smash and grab job. I mean, they're making money everywhere. Crazy. Like so Bloomberg reported um Trump had trades that involved Tesla, NVIDIA, Apple, Meta, Visa, City, Boeing, Qualcomm, and GE. Top executives from all of those companies were on his trip to Beijing to meet with Chinese president Xi Jinping. So you don't think he's getting insider information? Having that access, talking to them, cutting deals with them. Uh he what the sum of the stock trades included up to 680 grand worth of Eli Lilly, right as the administ ration was preparing policies that would benefit their GLP1 business. He took a huge position, a couple huge positions in NVIDIA right before they announced major news. There was a one to five million dollar position a week before they announced a partnership with Meta, then there was a half a million to a million dollar position a week before the commerce department announced some determinations to do with NVIDIA. They're buying and selling Intel stock, which the U.S. government took a 10% stake in the company. This is insanity. I think it's such a coincidence. Paul Pelosi somewhere is like, what the fuck, man? I could have been doing this so much better. I like we're sort of every sing well, Jesus. I'm like Jim Kramer now. Do you see the clip of Jim Kramer? Yeah, I I put uh Uh train. Got nothing to say. Alright, don't worry. We're not having technical difficulties here everybody. What's funny about the Jim Kramer clip is that it's like people are like, oh wow, he's so st he's stammering because he can't figure out what to say about this. But uh when I was watching, it's like, is he stammering because he can't figure out what to say about this, or is he making a joke about how it's so beyond the pale, but he doesn't want to be critical of Trump in this moment. Like I didn't know what are we what are we what why is he stammering? He knows what's going on. But can't get in Jim Kramer's head. But we're just no no don't live in r live and run free inside of Jim Kramer's head. But the the like the break we're at a new level of brazen corruption because it every step along the way, nobody has stopped him to get to this point, right? Like he can't the the thing that I find stunning about all this is that there's no um like the level of brazenness is going up, but the dollar amount isn't always. It's like why are we doing five hundred grand stock trades, billion dollar crypto theft, and the watches? Like why like why you know what I mean? Like, that bothers me too. It just it's all of it's like left over from uh the old world.. Right You had to just do corruption with like the watches. Remember the hotel rooms? We're getting you the Trump phones, but they're not coming. Yeah, that part doesn't make sense. But the aggregate stock trades was a range between two hundred and eleven and six hundred and eighty seven million dollars. So that's a pretty good quarter. Uh Bloomberg interviewed this guy, Eric uh Dyton, who's the president, manager, director at the at the Wealth Alliance, and he said, I'm baffled. In the forty plus years of my time on Wall Street, this is an unusual amount of trading by any standards. We need to see the actual trades to try and understand why anyone would want to do that much trading. So the practical way in which this is being done. Like is there a team that is doing this? Is it sons through their like it feels like they've got like um uh like uh uh Christopher Moltasante trying to like push Whipistics? Like he's got like some fucking back office in New Jersey somewhere with computers doing trade. Aaron Trump in the outer oval with a shitload of Adderall and like the extra. Yeah, just like minority reporting it. Like I can see the future. I know what's going to happen at the commerce meeting next week. I know the new I have the BLS down. That's just because he's got the briefing book. But again, like they took like uh seven transactions related to Boeing. One was between one to five million dollars. Like the biggest deliverable of the China trip was to get the Chinese to buy a bunch of Boeing planes. And by the way, the announcement was so underwhelming that the stock went down because they did a shitty job. We're still uses proof that C. We see it wasn't a good announcement. It's like yeah you you thought it was you tried to trade on inside information. It just turns out you suck at diplomacy. Like that was the problem. You're you're good at the crimes, you're bad at the diplomacy. Um All right, so Trump's also doing his best to uh drag the Republican Party down with him. Uh on Saturday he sent yet another message that dissent will not be tolerated when his chosen primary challenger, Congresswoman Julia Letlow, took out Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, whose sin was voting to convict Trump in the January 6th impeachment trial. Cassidy went down in flames. He got third in Louisiana's primary, the first time an incumbent senator has come in lower than second place since 1944. Trump's next target is Thomas Massey, who is trying to unseat in Tuesday's Kentucky primary. Massey has been the uh the strongest and kind of the only Republican in the House breaking with Trump on Epstein, Iran, and the big beautiful bill. Uh Trump has been posting about Massey nonstop. I think right before we recorded, he did like a a video from the oval, which is very legal and normal, uh to just to just tell people to vote against Thomas Massey. Pete Heggseth was doing an event in Kentucky today. His personal capacity. In his personal capacity. And then Trump announces that he's delayed an imminent military assault on Iran that was supposed to happen tomorrow. Yeah, what was Pete gonna do? That seems like bad timing. Maybe you don't . Maybe you don't. Who's gonna drink the booze? Too early to say what will happen in the uh in the Massey race, but it certainly seems like Massey himself is staying loose. Uh here he is on Sunday doing his best Trump impression. Whenever I call him, I gotta schedule a minute for the first thing he tells me every time I call him. Massy, you're a sharp cookie, you went to MIT . You know my professor was uh my uncle was Professor John G. Trump. He was at MIT 41 years. It's a record . And you know I went to Wharton, which is basically the hardest school in the world to get easier I kinda get even better genetics than you. I didn't know . I kinda wanted to lose now. I was rooting for him until just then. I'm too listening. There's just too many people doing it and it's too it's too it's too big a target. Anyway, anyone have thoughts on the primary? Yeah, a look I mean how big of a deal this is on Bill Cassidy, like fuck that guy. I you know like he he thought he could like appease MAGA by voting for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and end up kind of like selling his soul and his credentials as a doctor and it being worst of all worlds. And he knew better and we know it because he told us as much before he flip flopped. And so would I rather have him in the Senate than his replacement? Yes, I would. But uh ultimately I don't make a big difference. Thomas Massey is a different story. Like he's the reason we have the Epstein files because he worked with Rokana to get him released. He's a principal vote against wars and militarism and lots of other things. I don't agree with him on everything and on, you know, like it we don't share the same worldview. I don't send out, you know, Christmas cards with me and my kids with machine guns like I think he did one time. But um you know, it would be a big loss. And I think it tells you everything you need to know about Donald Trump's political worldview that he will not lift a finger to help his party build , but he will take down anyone who criticizes him. It is all about punishing his own critics and the cult of personality and protecting his personal power and not about the party or doing anything with it. Right. I think he's far more passionate about defeating his enemies than he is about uh helping his friends. Yeah, with Cassidy, uh you go back to that, to him uh uh uh approving RFK Jr. and accepting his fake assurances in his private meetings, pretending that RFK didn't believe what he obviously believed. And like, no, you can't, you can't sell half your soul. It doesn't work like that. They're not divided, they're not divisible in that way. And so these guys that end up being reluctantly for Trump. They don't they're not better politicians, they're just worse whores, you know? Yep. Uh so uh are you know, good riddance, I suppose. I will say this is uh there's a lot being made 'cause we had Indiana and then Cassidy and then and then Massey. But this is sort of the last gasp of this. I mean it's too like what do you expect this is Trump's last midterms. Right. And do we think he's gonna spend he's gonna be spending time in twenty eight going around doing primary challenges. I mean maybe but like also does it lose its force at some point, right? Like that Trump's like a an he's already a lame duck, like he clearly has the juice to do it now. But as we get to twenty eight and then beyond that, like what is So it's what we what did we learn from the same thing prick who only cares about himself and you know I think we also learned that like you know the uh not nothing's breaking the fever in the Republican Party. The party's broken, and you've just got to massively defeat them at every level because all the ones who are left are completely loyal to dear leader. And that's about that. And I do think also he might have he might have 'Cause now you got angry Cassidy who's still got votes uh left to take between now and the end of the year. Massey too, Massey loses. Tillis has already been doing it. And so they can make his life more difficult. Um, and I I do wonder now, between now and November, if this makes it like harder for Republicans to break away from Trump, even though primaries are over, because they'll they're they're they gonna worry that they're gonna get punished. I don't know. It's just it look, it remains sort of extraordinary, right? Bill Cassidy like uh uh could not persuade his own voters to voted for him multiple times in the past to stick with him once Trump turned, right? Like it just tells you something about the the the vote the voters showing up in these Republican primaries and what they what they want. And there was no the fact that Cassidy was a vote for impeachment and that Trump had fully turned against him, there was nothing he could do to convince them that he was worth saving. Nothing. Yeah. Pot ta America is brought to you by HIMS. ED is way more common than most guys think. Millions of guys deal with it at some point, and that's exactly why HIMS offers a straightforward way to handle it. Providers online giving you simple access to legitimate ED treatments from home. I want some illegitimate ED treatments for those. That's terrible. Yeah. Shame on you. No awkward appointments with HIMS, no pharmacy lines. Everyone's looking for their boner pills. Yeah. It's wild. That's right. Just complete a simple online intake and a provider will review your information to determine if treatment is right for you. 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Sildenafil is the generic version of Viagra. Viagra is a registered trademark of Viatris Specialty L C. Hims is not afiliated with or endorsed by Viatris . I'm Dan Pfeiffer. For years I've heard from candidates, activists, and political staffers who turn to PodSafe America for political strategy and messaging advice because they don't have access to a political consultant or a pollster. That's flattering to hear, but it's a huge problem. If we're going to defeat MAGA and protect democracy, we need everyone to have access to the best information and advice possible. That's why I recently launched MessageBox Pro, a subscription consulting product for people working at every level of politics. Subscribers get weekly strategy memos, data-driven messaging insights, and polling analysis. Plus, you get access to an incredible community of smart, committed political pros. Whether you're running for office, staffing a politician, organizing your community, or working in commun ications at any level, MessageBox Pro is built for you. To learn more or sign up, go to messageboxpro.com . Make this May half term legendary at Westfield Stratford City. Grab the squad for a family package at All-Star Lanes or buy one get one free golf at Gravity Max. Refuel with kids eat free deals at the Real Greek and Berber et Pizza. From big thrills to delicious bites, it's the ultimate day out for the whole family. Don't miss out, visit Westfield Stratford City this May half term. Terms and conditions apply . It's been a bit since we talked about the uh the stalemate in Iran. Uh Trump posted on Sunday that quote the clock is ticking for Iran to make a deal, but by Monday, the clock apparently restarted. Trump posted that the US quote will not be doing the scheduled attack of Iran tomorrow, aka Tuesday, the day you're listening to this, because the leaders of uh Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE asked him to hold off due to serious negotiations that are now taking place. Trump did add that the U.S. is prepared to attack Iran, quote, on a moment's notice, in the event that an acceptable deal is not reached. On Monday, it was also reported that Iran sent its latest peace proposal through Pakistan to the US, which the White House seems likely to reject, even as the Pentagon and Israel are, quote, engaged in intense preparations, the largest since the ceasefire took effect for the possible resumption of attacks against Iran, according to the New York Times. What do you make of the back and forth here, Tommy? Like any any chance that Trump's latest threat to destroy Iran got them closer to a deal, scared them into it? Uh I don't think so, but first can we just talk about these statements where he name checks a bunch of autocrats? They're so weird. You don't have to do that. But he's always like, on behalf of the great and highly respected field marshal Asam Munir, I've decided not to like exterminate Iran. You know what the delivery date for that plane, uh is was supposed to be the fourth, but he wants moved up for his birthday. So he's he wants the Qataris to get that plane there fast. It's the same way that he does the like uh you know uh personality stuff with G like he enjoys the idea that governing doesn't involve anyone except the people in the room. Like there's no people deciding, right? They're just great men making big decisions together out of collaboration and friendship. And so he's not doing it for the good of the country. He's doing it because he was he has this great rapport with these uh uh leaders. The Pakistanis in particular, like they cut a big crypto deal with World Liberty Financial, so that's why he likes them. But like you do five seconds of research into the great and respected field marshal and you find the UK authorities have charged him with torture and crimes against humanity. That's the guy he's like name checking. But regardless, of course. Um there's no I don't think they're any closer to a deal. I like I don't know. I I I assume we're in the same place, Iran thinks they have a lot of leverage 'cause they can close the straight or moose. They know Trump is weakened politically. They know that he wants out of this. He doesn't want to go back to war. And so they're gonna wait for the United States to walk back some of the more maximalist positions or just get sick of the shit and move on. Um just imagine uh sort of some sort of Iranian underling kind of going down the stairs into the into the bunker where the where the n the the recuperating Ayatollah is like pointing at the Siena numbers and saying, like, look, look, we got him. We got him right where we got together . Yeah, and diving into cross tabs. Iran, apparently there's all these leaks still. Like Iran reportedly has up to 75% of its missile stockpile, but all of its basically almost all of its infrastructure along the Strait of Hormuz is operational for them to shut it down. So I they could always make things worse. Straight of Hormuz also now has its own Twitter account. Does it see that? Yeah. Like uh Carl the Fog in San Francisco? No, they yeah, they that's the they're calling it you know something more official, but Oh, it's Iranian government doing it. They just made an official Twitter account so we can get updates from the straight. Just personifying the straight, I guess. Yeah. Cool. With like sort of red, green, yellow. A lot of red. Like sort of when you get the like sig alerts in like California traffic, it's like, oh my god, the the straighter moves is red today. Fuck. I'm gonna be late. Honey, I'm gonna be late. I'm gonna have traffic helicopters over reporting on the nines and fives. Uh NBC reported last week that the administration is considering changing the name of the war from Operation Epic Fury to Operation Sledgehammer. We have to get a little more phallic again. Uh, or something else This idea that you know the World War Powers Act is such a weak piece of legislation that you can just do like a bureaucratic tweak and get around it. I mean, it's just crazy. It's obviously the same conflict. Like changing the name doesn't matter. Every president since next in has claimed that the War Powers Act is uncon stitutional, they all hate it, but it was enacted over Nixon's veto in nineteen seventy three. And so Congress has leverage here if they want to use it. Um maybe they'll man up now, but we'll see. Trump also wants us to know that he's not just focused on wars far away from home. He's focused on wars right in our own backyard still. Um there have been a bunch of rumblings about the long rumored regime change move in Cuba. Sources told the AP last week that the administration is looking to indict former Cuban president Raul Castro, brother of Fidel, even though he's no longer in power. Then over the weekend, Mark Caputo reported that according to classified U.S. Intel, Cuba has over three hundred drones and has recently considered launching them against US military targets in even Key West Florida, which could serve as a handy pretext for an invasion. Uh, Cuba's current president Miguel Diaz Canal responded on social media on Monday, writing the quote: Cuba poses no threat, nor does it have aggressive plans or intentions against any country, including the US, and that a US attack would quote trigger a bloodbath. Uh what do you make of the Cuba stuff? It seems like he's uh seems like he's gearing up. You want to kick us off on Cuba? I don't think we should go to war with Cuba right now. Uh in the in the Times poll there was a question that was something like when do you believe the US uh should launch war against countries uh that have not attacked us? And think we're like seventy percent or like d Whatever Trump had come to believe about killing Solomon, the getting Maduro out of Venezuela, and how fun that was, uh he sees the polls showing how unpopular the war in Iran is. I hope that that has at the very least chastened them from their kind of idea that they can be uh regime topplers without it kind of consuming their politics. But it's terrifying. It's terrifying to imagine that they were gonna see what they're doing in the Middle East and decide that uh it needs to be brought closer to them. Yeah, I mean look, I I'd read the story. It was such an obvious pretext to me. But I mean, look, I I don't doubt the Intel like uh is Cuba acquiring drones? Well, it's 2026 and every military has or is acquiring drones. That would be like not getting rifles or you know machine guns in World War One. So it it also says like the intelligence suggests the Cubans would respond to a US attack with drones. I was gonna say this axios story, you have to get way down to reality check, which is three paragraphs, four paragraphs from the bottom, till you find out that oh, by the way, the the intel is that it's retaliatory. This is not a a preemptive strike on Miami. This is what they would do if we attacked them 'cause we all know if they did a preemptive strike on Miami, that would be suicidal 'cause you would fucking flatten the country. So I also just would like to think that if we are on the verge of going to war with another country that the evidence would not be laundered through anonymous sources into a daily tip sheet that perhaps there'd be more information. But that was the New York Times. Sorry you're right, you're right. Um I I do think though every indicator light is flashing when it comes to possible regime change operations because there's this leak, which creates the pretext of this being an imminent threat. There was CI director John Ratcliffe just went to Cuba and had this message from Trump. There is the indictment, the rumored indictment of Raul Castro, which was a very important part of the case for why they had to do what they did against Maduro, which was extract him from Venezuela and bring him to New York for prosecution. Um, there's been all these reports of a huge increase of um intelligence overflights, uh by the U.S. So I would be very worried if I were a Cuban official. And meanwhile, if you're a Cuban human being or citizen, like the United States has a blockade on that's allowed no oil and gas into your country, and people are starving to death. They have one to two hours of electricity a day. Hospitals can't operate. Like what we are doing is criminal. It is absolutely evil. You're starving a population of people to death. And the most likely outcome is that the government collapses and there is a mass exodus and migration crisis to the United States, which MAGA has told us they do not want to happen. So I don't understand what these lunatics are fucking doing gear, but it is just it is utterly immoral, just a horrific, horrific policy right now. I think that the insane thought running through Donald Trump's head is uh his response to launching a disastrous war in Iran that is unpopular, that has cost us billions of dollars, that it's spiked gas prices everywhere is I gotta launch a war that's more popular and easy. I gotta go back to the Venezuela model because they all think that Venezuela was some big fucking success, right? And so it's like that was an easy one. So I gotta get my mojo back by going to invade Cuba now that Iran's a big fucking mess. Which is insane. Did you see uh uh Rubio in his Maduro tracks? Yes, like it's all just a game. it It''s alls all just trolling, content. I don't think it was that flattering. No, I think it was I I talked to this and love or leave it, but I do think um uh Maduro wore it better. But the uh like I'm not even joking, like it just looked more comfortable, like Rubio looked like the suit was wearing him, but I I was like looking at that, I was like, Why are you doing this? Like forget like he was a little posed too. It wasn't very difficult. but like I was I was looking at it, I was like, What what are we supposed to okay, look what what is this meant to put boy you're tough, you're wearing the same clothes. Like who it what what what was the message? And I I now I'm like, oh, it was this about how how like what happened we'll do this again, like we're gonna do this. Is it a Cuba thing? Like what the fuck was the outfit? What what am I meant to take from this photo Yeah, that's a good question. I I I I agree with you. I do think Trump wants to change the channel and kind of get us onto a new topic that isn't that makes him sound tough again. I do think though that Cuba falls in the Venezuela, Iran , Cuba accessive evil bucket of like neocons telling him, Sir, you'll be a historic figure, sir, if you make big changes here. Right. And he's down to it will gargle your balls. Uh well I mean you don't need to do something else to get that . That's already happening. That's priced in. But you know, he's also in Florida surrounded by a bunch of very like rich hardline, you know, Miami Cubans who, you know, have been waiting for this for a long time and you know, want their real estate assets back on the island. So I don't I hope I'm wrong. Maybe a fucking cubano or you know, like whatever Wall Street will make up a new term for it. Stupid, but I like it does seem like it it it's nerve wracking. Well, if we d if he doesn't do Cuba, then there's always Greenland. Uh remember the critical national security issue of Greenland? Uh a quick refresh for the back in January after threatening to invade Trump did a did a taco and announced the quote, framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and in fact the entire Arctic region. Well the New York Times is now reporting that the negotiations around that framework have Greenlandic officials, quote, worried, as U.S. proposals quote, amount to a major imposition on Greenland's sovereignty. Yeah, I bet. Greenland specifically concerned about Trump's June 14th birthday and July 4th as upcoming dates where Trump's attention could swing back around to them as he starts thinking about his legac What do you think? A those concerns well founded? What do you what do you think about the the uh the the Greenlandic concerns expressed in the New York Times piece? Let's just pause and sit in the idea that uh the Danes are concerned that the that Trump will s will get more bellicose around his birthday. That's where we're at. That's what we do. It's turning eighty. You never know. America's turning two fifty. Yeah. They're not gonna be content with just the fireworks. No, no. You're gonna want to get to the city. No, they want Greenland. Somebody's gotta give him a little he wants it. He wants a the great at the end of his name. He knows that the that when the when the when the Russians got more territory, they got to be the great. So we just gotta find some fucking chunk of land . Get me Cuba, get me Greenland. Just something. Make Venezuela the fifty first state. He's just something. We gotta expand the map. I can't believe we're talking about this again. This sucks. It's sucks. It's so crazy. It's like the do you guys see the the Tim Dillon bit? We said we're the high school bully anymore. We're the weird kid who may or may not have a gun. Yes. Yeah. We're not the quarterback. We're not the jock. We're the college kid who keeps going to high school parties who might be a pet of freaked out by us and has a gun. That is us, as a country. Good work, everybody. That is it. That is it. I think we made a mistake electing this guy. Yeah. Yeah, well This podcast is sponsored by Squarespace. 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Subscribers get weekly strategy memos, data-driven messaging insights, and polling analysis. Plus, you get access to an incredible community of smart, committed political pros. Whether you're running for office, staffing a politician, organizing your community, or working in communications at any level, MessageBox Pro is built for you. To learn more or sign up, go to messageboxpro.com . Now that we just talked about Trump uh potentially trying to conquer several additional nations, uh, possibly because it would look cool on a map. It's probably a good time to mention that there's been a revival of the debate about Trump's age and fitness for the job and whether Democrats should be making a bigger deal about it. Uh Lauren Egan at the Bulwark and Jonathan Lamar at the Atlantic are both out with big pieces, arguing that it's time for Democrats to make it a bigger issue. We get subscriber questions about this a lot. We also see a lot of folks on social media making the argument that if you're not making as big of a deal about Trump's age, as you were about Biden's, you're being hypocritical. So in the spirit of open dialogue, I guess we're gonna debate it. Let's debate it. Let's debate it. Uh uh Austin, Austin's bringing out a vote save America mug with three positions in it. So I'm gonna let's I'm gonna look till we all let's all open at the same time. Pro, meaning it's something we should talk about more, anti , you can guess what that means, and moderator. Okay, great. Ugh . I am the moderator. I am anti. Wow. I'm pro. Let's go, bitch. I'm about to get fucking owned. Um, can I get a little uh bum bum bum bum bum bum bum like MB MBC music? Tonight. Uh all right. Uh uh I'll be moderating this debate. Uh John, you will be arguing that Democrats must make a greater issue out of Donald Trump's age. Tommy will take the con . Uh it you have the opening statement, you have thirty seconds. Uh did Joe Biden uh lose the last election or have to drop out of the last election because he was too old? Yes. Yes. Was it the biggest concern of every voter everywhere because everyone made a big issue and Republicans made a big issue of his age. Yes. Yep. So Donald Trump's hands are falling off right now. He looks like he looks like it was like a fucking bad uh morgue job on his hands before he got in the casket. Sure. He's basically melting before our eyes. He's got all kinds of bruises all over the place. Aaron Rupar's feed's full of it. All it's just purple. Okay. Just all per and yet and yet Democrats are out there just talking about affordability and not talking about the fact that the president of the United States is decomposing before our eyes, and Democrats won't talk about it, even though these were the same Democrats that tried to push Joe Biden out of the race. Wow. A powerful argument. Tommy, you're counter. Um, John, you ignorant slut. Uh I don't want to get in between you and Aaron Rupar's feed and your little uh hand job issue there with uh the Trump. Um but Trump is not good. Trump is not running again, so none of this matters. Democrats have zero credibility on this issue after spending years pretending that they couldn't see Joe Biden's physical decline as he was shuffling around in sneakers and falling over sandbags. Every minute we spend talking about makeup on this decrepit old man's hands is a minute we are not spending talking about stock trades, the ballroom, Medicare cuts, things that actually matter to people. And uh yeah, the napping is weird, admittedly. It's also very funny when the White House uh says that he blinked for 10 seconds. Yeah, long blanks. These are long blanks. Admittedly, that's weird, but he still does a lot of events. He's out there all the time. He's doing rallies. He looks vibrant. He's a big looks vibrant. What are you talking about? You can't even stand up and make him a martyr. All right. So let me let me just throw some questions in uh in each of your directions. I'll start I st'artll with you , Tommy. Uh, you do notice that there's a significant decline in how he communicates from today to how he communicated even four or eight years ago. That that his cadence has changed, that he's not as clear. He is more meandering, he's posting all hours of the night. Like these are things that are should be a liability. I think he's always done these things. I think he's always been kind of incoherent. I think he's always posted he's never slept. But I but I I I'm curious how you would explain the difference, right? Like he is, yes, you're right. He has always been this way, but I think it's indisputable that it is all worse. Like he is rambling more. He is uh it's the weave. But the weave is getting worse. Do you think it's getting like he is changing? Depending on it. Or better. Um, I think I I gen like jokes aside, I think I don't know that I notice him that much more rambly than he used to be, because I think he's always been rambly. The like he does look tired. He's legitimately falling asleep in events. It's noticeable. The hand stuff is weird. And by the way, they're clearly lying about the hand stuff because they initially they said it was his hand shaking hand, and then the other hand had the bruising too. So He also he also keeps going to the dentist and no one is Dude, how many annual dentist trips? Yeah. He's doing a lot of physical and things that no one's telling uh no one's telling us why his health is the way it is. And there's no one's asking questions about And there's a doctor's office in the West Wing. So you would only go to Walter Reed or Bethesda or wherever he's going now to get like specialized equipment. There's also dental, there's also the dentist's office in the White House. So he's got to go to a special dentist. So John, question to you: how would a Democrat who was somebody who defended Joe Biden's ability to run again, uh, make this argument without seeming like they're full of shit. I was wrong about Joe Biden and I should have said something earlier, and that's what I'm doing this time around, because Donald Trump is in bad shape and he should not be leading the country. And any Republican that still supports him and that doesn't want to, you know, pressure the cabinet to invoke the twenty fifth amendment, then they are just uh feeding into this cover-up for Donald Trump's age and his dementia, and he is just putting us all at risk, and Republicans won't do anything about it. And so when we, even though he's not running again, when we go into the midterms, we know that Donald Trump's approval rating is uh highly correlated with how Republicans are going to do in the midterms. And by talking more about how he has dementia and he is losing his marbles, then we should we could get his approval even lower and that Democrats can then do better in the midterms. Last question for you, Tommy. Joe Biden's age and Joe Biden's disapproval on the economy became linked. The fact that the economy was bad was a sign he wasn't for the job. The fact that he was up for the job made people doubt that he could fix the economy. Uh we were trying to make an argument that Republicans, we have to win the House and the Senate, and that Republicans refuse to tell the truth about Donald Trump. Shouldn't the fact that Donald Trump is to put decomposing before our eyes, rambling at all hours, falling asleep in meetings, shouldn't we be saying these Republicans won't be honest about that. That who why are they not telling the truth about this? What are we not knowing about this? Shouldn't we be making this one of the lines of argument that we use when we try to accuse Republicans of of not holding Trump accountable? Yeah, so allow me to flip-flop on the issue to respond to your leading question. Um clearly they're covering up something, right? Like the guys, the multiple annual doctor visits, like this is crazy. It's all a pretext. We should push for more information. Um there is muscle memory here, right? Like I think if we get people to like a critical mass of concern about this, they can they will care. I also just like I think trouble hate it. If we call him a sad sick old man, he would hate that. So it's just working that in there could be fun. Now you now you argue the other side. Yeah, no, I'll I'll argue the other side. 'Cause I I think Tommy's best point was he's not running again. Like and so what difference as Hillary Clinton once said, what difference does it make? If if he's if he is decrepit, if they are covering something up. He's like the reason this was a potent argument against Joe Biden is because Joe Biden was asking voters for four more years in office. Donald Trump will never ask voters for four more years in office. He might try to stay- No, he won't. He might try to stay in off ice, but he's not going to ask voters for four more years. I mean he might run for a third term. That's not C B. He's gonna try to he's gonna try to just sit there and be like, I got the military in the park. Yeah, there's the no one's gonna let him run. Um but so he's not gonna ask four years. So what is the purpose of tr what is the if we're trying to win a midterm, what is the story we're trying to tell about Donald Trump that is most true? And the story that is most true is what you said at the beginning of this uh this episode, which is this whole term is a smash and grab. He wants to make as much money as he can. He he's a meglamaniac who thinks that now he he needs this legacy in history where he like conquers half the globe. And he doesn't give a shit about people. He doesn't give a shit about people. And he's never given a shit about people. And that's a consistent story through time. And whether he has dementia now or he's losing his marbles or not, like doesn't really matter. So I think the way that I would square this is I think that's right. Democrats . Democrats paid a political price for defending Joe Biden uh and when people had concerns about his age, even after he dropped out, because it came to be evidence that Democrats couldn't be trusted more broadly. And my argument would only be: uh no, age should not be the central argument we make against Donald Trump. But if we can uh uh make the fact that Republicans refuse to be honest about not just Trump's corruption and and and unaccountability and brazen theft, but also just his rambling and crazy nonsense. And you make every time he does that part of a story about how he's unfit, in including because he's getting old, then that's part of why these Republicans can't be trusted. That's the best I'm not that's the best I can do for you. But even even that as you say that, like you you kinda just like threw in corruption there, but it's like so he's he doesn't know what he's doing, he's crazy, but he's also smart enough to be out there stealing all the money he's gonna think like the the incoherence is priced in. Like the the we