Co-hosts Jared Yates Sexton and Nick Hauselman discuss how Stephen Miller and GOP lawmakers flirt with suspending the very foundation of democracy: habeas corpus. Meanwhile, Trump accepts a $400 million jet from Qatar as if it's not corruption at its highest level. Arizona senator Ruben Gallego inserts himself into a possible presidential run, which would tilt the Democratic party farther right (ugh), and cancel culture clearly has a shelf life as disgraced former New York governor Andrew Cuomo is a front runner to become Manhattan's next mayor.
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Nick, we have to start, unfortunately, with a correction.
It turns out the Chicago Pope is not a Cubs fan.
He's a White Sox fan, which I hate to report that as a Cubs diehard.
It is upsetting.
Do you believe his brother when you hear that?
Report?
He was caught at a 2005 World Series game for the Sox.
I believe it.
I hate it.
But, you know, it is what it is.
It's on brand.
It is what it is.
Everybody, we have an absolutely packed show.
I can't believe...
How quick things are happening at this point.
Actually, three of the things that we have to talk about today, Nick, are like high-water marks for American authoritarianism and corruption.
Just on a random Tuesday show, it's just like the first three things that we have to talk about.
Reminder.
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Nick, we got to start with one of the more alarming things that I've heard in a very long time.
Slender man Stephen Miller got in front of cameras late last week, and he had this to say, which I found concerning.
Well, the Constitution is clear, and that, of course, is the supreme law of the land, that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion.
So to say that's an option we're actively looking at.
Look, a lot of it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not.
At the end of the day, Congress passed a body of law.
So, by statute...
The courts are stripped of jurisdiction from overruling a presidential determination or a secretarial determination on TPS when the Secretary of Homeland Security makes that determination.
You know, he's trying to get into the weeds here and make it really hard to follow what he's doing, and he's doing a good job.
Yeah, and, you know, it's alarming any time that an American president is talking openly about suspending habeas corpus.
But, you know, there's a part of it that I resent that I have to hear Stephen Miller make the case, but of course it would be an asshole like Stephen Miller that makes the case.
So this is apparently in the works around the Trump administration.
I have my thoughts about why they're making this announcement, and we'll talk about the fallout from it in a couple of seconds.
Nick, how do you feel about living in an America where habeas corpus could possibly be suspended?
I mean, it could be happening.
Right.
I mean, just so we're clear exactly what habeas corpus is, it's you produce the body, you gotta actually have some evidence to detain somebody.
It's only the bedrock of what democracy is supposed to be, right?
Nick, do you know when the writ of habeas corpus was established?
The 12th century.
Like, everybody wants to say it's the Magna Carta.
No, it predates the Magna Carta.
Well, you know, I'm so glad you're here because we need some history context on this one, because whenever Stephen Miller says the Constitution is clear, that's a big red flag.
I love it every time someone says the Constitution's clear.
That's always where I tune out.
I'm like, you're not a serious person.
But by the way, it is clear.
So he's not lying in that sense of how you're supposed to be able to get rid of habeas corpus temporarily.
Which would be, in the time, like you said, of an invasion.
But it's not the president's decision to do this.
Who is the decision determined by?
Well, technically, everything is supposed to be determined by Congress, but, I mean...
It's supposed to be a congressional approval here.
Or a Supreme Court.
Yeah, and you name it.
And, like, it is what it is.
Right.
Now, you are aware, I believe, of the current situation we're in if we're talking about immigration.
I think we all understand.
I've got to wrap our head around it.
Let's look at a couple other times when they've suspended habeas corpus.
Sure, let's go.
Well...
Our old buddy Abraham Lincoln did it.
What was happening around that time again?
Can you remind me?
You know, I'm a student of history, but I can't exactly remember what was happening around the time where Abraham Lincoln decided to...
Dip his toe into the habeas corpus situation.
Brother against brother, some sort of war going on.
I think I've heard something about that, yeah.
So, you know, Civil War, I can see how that, you know, he wanted to make sure some sympathizers with the South.
I mean, by the way, it doesn't sound great.
You probably know a lot more about that than I do as far as who they were detaining in the North, right?
Wasn't that a bit of a problem?
Oh, there was hardly any end to the people who were being detained on both sides, within, without, all of it.
And for the record, Like, Abraham Lincoln suspending habeas corpus actually has been, like, historically debatable.
Like, whether or not that was the right move or not, or whether or not it was an authoritarian move.
And now we're just willy-nilly with Stephen Miller on, like, a random afternoon.
Right.
Because my point is, okay, Civil War, 2025.
Like, I'm not sure I see any kind of comparison.
We've also had it during the Japanese-American internment in 1922.
Some would say a stain on America.
Yeah.
Yeah, and that is one of the deepest, darkest, blackest stains on the American Constitution we've ever had, you know, in terms of decisions that are made by the Supreme Court included.
So this is most definitely, does not even come close to resembling any situation that would require any kind of action like this.
But we knew they were going to do this, right?
They were always going to be able to pretend that this is some sort of invasion.
And by the way, have you seen the immigration numbers recently?
I've been keeping an eye.
We talked about this before, I think, in the last episode.
They're really low, you know?
Approaching, like, maybe historical lows.
So how can you say, well, we're really doing a great job on the border now, and yet we're still having an invasion to the point where we have to violate everyone's rights?
Like, this is why this doesn't make sense.
But it's also intelligent enough or requires enough intelligence that, like, the general public will simply tune out.
Well, and I mean, we're already seeing that.
I want to say, before we get into the ins and outs of why this is happening, I do want to put on the record because as we talk about this, and as we cover what's happening in this administration, we have to continually remind people as we go down the rabbit hole, the President of the United States of America is openly flirting with suspending habeas corpus.
And what's happening, Nick?
People are talking about all kinds of other shit.
Like, this isn't even, like, necessarily, like, on the front page, like, every single day.
This should be an ongoing crisis in conversation.
It speaks to the cultural conditions, the political conditions, you name it.
But with this, Nick, bringing this up and the way that Miller says it is very specific, you'll notice how much he mentions the courts here.
This is the Trump administration, again, firing a shot over the bow of the judiciary.
Which is, if you continue to get in our way, and if you continue ruling and saying that you're in violation of the Constitution, or you're in violation of the Court, well, guess what?
We already have a plan to get rid of habeas corpus.
And yes, everybody will hear this, and they'll think immediately they're going to do this to Americans, because of course they are.
They'll just go ahead and deem everybody not just a criminal but a terrorist and the enemy of the state, which is something that we've been talking about.
And that is one reason that people should care.
But also understand that authoritarian takeovers are a back and a forth, right?
It's trying to do things, testing the boundaries.
When you come across a little bit of resistance, you push back as hard as you possibly can.
This is about telling the judiciary, fine, if you want to keep doing your job, maybe you're not going to have a job to do.
And the judiciary is going to cite law and precedent, and they're going to say, oh, you're not agreeing with us.
You've made us now do the horrible and violate people's rights.
And let's not forget, like, being thrown in any kind of detention is life-altering.
Yes.
It would change anyone's path irrevocably, right?
It changes everything.
It changes everything.
And I just need to state again, because in all this we need to remember it, this is the Trump administration taking advantage of a bunch of emergency powers that the presidency has been gifted in the past.
That's the entirety of this.
They're using the tools that were there that every other president that came through in the modern era has had those tools.
It just so happened that we worked on like an honor system.
That they wouldn't do this, or that Congress would vote to end, you know, an emergency or whatever it was.
That's where this is coming from.
This is a giant, giant red line.
And Nick, on...
Make the mistake real quickly, you know, even though you're supposed to require Congress to approve a suspension of habeas corpus, I know that what they're thinking is, well, we have control over both the House and the Senate.
They would just pass this, so why do we have to go through the red tape?
And that's probably true, right?
Well, I mean, whether it's true or not, it's wrong.
I mean, that's what it comes down to.
So let's look at the fallout from this, Nick.
Luckily, the Democratic Party is a serious resistance party.
One of its leaders, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, went on Meet the Press this weekend to address this situation.
And I have to imagine before we listen to this clip, Nick, that she's going to take this seriously.
But to me, you know what?
That isn't really the issue.
The issue is that Stephen Miller brings that up on a Friday just to throw it out there.
You heard the reaction of John Barrasso.
This is not what they're talking about in Congress.
Why is he doing that?
So you ask me about it on a Sunday show.
I'm telling you right now, he's doing it because they don't want to focus on what's really in front of them and that they have created havoc in our economy.
Economy that was improving and now we have people out there.
They're scared to death that they're not going to be able to get their social security because people aren't working there to answer their calls.
They're not going to be able to get their Medicaid and be able to have their mom in assisted living.
And yeah, their small businesses are folding.
That's what's happening right now, and they don't want to deal with it.
So they keep throwing out these things just so we all talk about them for four days.
And I am frankly tired of it because, no, they're not going to reverse habeas corpus in the Congress.
Nailed it, Amy.
Absolutely nailed it.
And she's referring to an earlier interview on Meet the Press with Wyoming Senator John Barrasso, who did not rule it out and basically went ahead and said, yeah, you know what, we might very well be open to it.
I don't know what you would do, though.
Would you support suspending habeas corpus?
I don't believe this is going to come to Congress.
What I believe is the president is going to follow the law.
He has said it repeatedly.
Senator Barrasso, thank you.
Cool.
Great.
Okay.
The president's going to take care of it, which is basically what every Republican has said, and they don't even care if he goes through Congress.
Nick, this Klobuchar thing, it nearly melted me down on Sunday when I saw it.
And I think it's almost like the Rosetta Stone of the modern Democratic Party.
I would love to hear what you have to say, because I probably need to take a couple of, like, deep breaths in order to not scream in everyone's ears.
But she's telling the truth.
She's right.
Is that what you're saying?
No, no, she is not correct.
Oh, I think that there's no question.
Well, okay.
They're always looking to try and, you know, make us think about one thing and then distract us and then for something even worse, right?
So I think maybe your point is there isn't anything much worse than what the hate is.
My point is that this, first of all, there's a reason why Klobuchar said this.
It's because it's the strategy that the Democratic Party has decided to focus on.
And what have we covered now for months, which is every time the Trump administration violates the Constitution, disappears people.
Every moderate and centrist and rank and file Democrat is like, don't take your eye off the ball.
The only thing that you can talk about is the economy.
Right.
So everything else becomes a distraction, which what have we seen in online spaces for the past 10 years, Nick?
Everything's a distraction.
Everything is trying to keep you from this.
And as a result, it keeps them from talking about everything during a deluge of authoritarian actions.
Right.
Also, I think what is rubbing you wrong is that it just kind of reeks of, oh, he's not really going to do that.
He likes just to talk about it, right?
But how many times have we said that and then he actually does do what he says he's going to do?
So, yes, I mean, you're right.
What she needs to be doing is calling him out as a traitor to the country, as an authoritarian, all those different things, and warning us that it will happen.
I mean, listen, we're going to talk about what's going to happen to a mayor of a big city in America.
What?
Klobuchar and other rank-and-file Democrats are reflecting is a completely delusional reality at this point.
They are not meeting the moment in any serious way.
There are a few Democrats who are and who are talking about it.
We'll talk about Ras Baraka here in just a second.
Like, people who are doing what needs to be done, but the leadership of the Democratic Party, I'm sorry, the President of the United States of America officially went on the record through a spokesperson saying that they're looking into ways to suspend habeas corpus.
It's not a joke.
You have to take him seriously.
And how many times have we seen Democrats at this point say, oh, he's not going to do that, and what does he do?
He immediately does it.
And they just continually kick the can down the road and say, well, who could have known?
Who could have ever predicted this?
And then it happens, and then they don't do anything about it.
It is an enabling party at this point.
Yeah.
I mean, what's frustrating is that, you know, in theory, let's just play this out down a little bit farther down the road, where they start to put people in prisons for protesting or for standing up for the government, right, for expressing their First Amendment rights.
I mean, they're already doing that, but right now it's students at Columbia and a couple of other places.
So they've been doing that, but when it becomes more widespread.
Yeah, it becomes more widespread, so suddenly you might know somebody directly, right, who has been affected by this, right?
Well, we've seen it in some respects play out where you've seen American citizens who have had loved ones deported.
And I don't even see them saying, oh, maybe this was a mistake.
Like, right?
Like, I still feel like there's full-thorted support for Trump.
And, you know, even though they never thought it would be anyone they knew.
So the worry ends up being is that instead of that even sending a scare and people, like, you know, trying to behave, they, I mean, I think that's what it will be.
It won't even be like an uprising, whatever.
It'll just end up forcing more and more people just to sort of...
Be too intimidated to do anything about the Constitution.
That is what happens if there isn't some sort of a pushback.
And again, I keep saying this, the Democratic Party as presently constituted is not going to do this unless they're forced to do it.
There's an internal schism within the party that has to win out on the side of the people who are willing to fight.
And the only way that that happens is if we are in the streets, we're pushing, we say, you know what, Democratic Party, you're not doing the job, somebody else needs to do it.
And what you just laid out, Nick, is one of the very, very predictable and traceable paths of authoritarianism, which is if a resistance does not rise up in time, it simply becomes normal.
And then all of a sudden, Americans are being disappeared.
And for the record, we shouldn't just worry about Americans.
We should be worried about immigrants who are being disappeared.
We should be worried about people with protected status who have been disappeared.
We should be worried about this in every regard.
But if what inspires you to take action is the idea that it could happen to you or your loved one, please use that.
Like, get inspired by that before it gets to that point.
Thank God you're here to make that point that I tried to make.
You made it much more clear.
It's not even that it's the intimidation factor.
It'll just become normal.
It'll be normal.
Just a shrug and be like, oh, well, and then we're going to all be hiding in our houses where we live, afraid to go out and afraid to do anything.
If they suspend habeas corpus, we become a country where habeas corpus has been suspended.
It's no longer unthinkable.
It's no longer very, very large.
It's just the reality that you live in at that point.
Right.
And by the way, even if they think that, oh, it would be rubber-stamped by the Congress as it is to get habeas corpus suspended...
Put them on the record.
Let's get all these people to vote on it, and let's see where they really stand, because that would be important as well.
Oh my God, the idea of watching a vote to suspend habeas corpus.
Holy shit.
In a related story, and as Nick has already mentioned, the mayor of Newark, Ross Baraka, was looking at an ICE facility, an ICE detention center.
Accounts are unclear about exactly how this happened, but ICE arrested Baraka and held him in detention for a while.
Here we have a Democratic politician who has been arrested by the administration.
Nick, another point of gigantic escalation.
And good for the mayor.
This is what they need.
Good for him.
Now, the other thing you have to be worried about is that the instigation of all these things is from ICE so that they can then pretend that they were assaulted and they can arrest people, right?
That doesn't sound far-fetched.
We've heard that before.
So, you know, because it's conflicting, we don't know.
Even the video is confusing to me.
If you watch the video, I can't figure out what's happening, honestly.
Yeah, I mean, it's mass chaos.
Yeah.
And, you know, because they're saying, the mayor is saying, and the congressman people are saying that they were in.
They were inside the facility to view it, which they're allowed to do unannounced as elected officials.
And then afterwards, on the way out, is when suddenly this became a thing as if, you know, I mean, listen, this could be conspiracy, but...
ICE had called down to whoever, Trump, the White House, said, hey, this is happening here.
They are in, whatever.
And, you know, we'll take care of it.
Don't worry.
You know, and then as soon as they leave, well, hey, run into that guy, push him around, may stumble a little bit, and then we'll be able to arrest somebody.
And again, you have the chilling effect of intimidation of local officials.
They can get anybody, anywhere, anytime.
That's the entire point of this, is to send out a message that that can happen.
And, you know, it's Barack's right as mayor of that town to inspect buildings.
Like, that is the right of the mayor.
He had every right to be there.
There is absolutely nothing.
And I don't care if he went in there and, like, he wasn't allowed to.
Like, again, this is the thing that should be happening.
Every Democratic politician, quite frankly, should be detained and getting arrested.
Like, that's what should be the bottom line.
And one last thing, or I guess two last things on ISNIC.
One, if you are a Democratic politician and you are not openly calling for the abolishing...
Of ICE at this point, which has turned into a private military, like, law enforcement arm of the President of the United States of America, grabbing people and leaving their children in cars, breaking into houses, stealing shit.
If you are not, like, if you don't have the courage right now to, say, abolish ICE as a politician, I don't want anything to do with you.
The second thing, and I want to get this on the record, Nick, because it might be a couple of days before this comes out, and I want it to be clear.
You know how they're all wearing masks constantly?
And have you noticed that there's no real uniform for them?
Like, it's whatever they want to wear.
Like, that is in part because this is a ramshackle operation, and these people don't want to be identified because they're fuckers, and they don't want to have the consequences of those actions.
I'm going to call it right now, Nick.
There is going to be a point in the near future where we find out that they are doing things like deputizing white nationalist and paramilitary groups.
I see that coming a mile away, and it's what all authoritarian regimes do.
When they start merging the state apparatus with the on-the-ground radicals, that's when shit starts really popping off, and I think that we are very, very close to that happening.
Yeah, and this is my point, was it already ready to be made before you brought that up, is I was watching, I believe it was the footage in New Jersey.
I mean, there's been so much footage now of people getting disappeared.
It's so awful.
But what you see is, and I wanted to take your take on this, is, you know, when they don't have the uniforms and they have the masks on.
That says a lot.
Now, part of what they'll argue is that when they dress like plain clothes, then they won't tip anybody off, right?
And it's easier to apprehend people because we're in plain clothes, cars, or whatever.
No one starts to run.
But here's the thing.
Some of these guys have such a ridiculous cosplay gear on.
Yep.
Even, like, the Han Solo gun holster thing.
Yep.
Like, that can't possibly be any kind of normal law enforcement person who doesn't dress like that, right?
Like, you know what I'm talking about?
Have you seen these things?
Oh, no.
I mean, that is what's at the heart of a lot of this, Nick.
It's a bunch of people, and quite frankly, this is at the heart of a lot of law enforcement.
It's a bunch of people who want to live that fantasy.
And so they're having the time of their lives.
Disappearing people and intimidating people and, like, carrying out this sort of violence.
It is a little bit of cosplay that goes into reality, for sure.
Yeah, and my point would be it looks just like the Oath Keepers and all those people who wear, like, the big flak jacket stuff on there.
And, again, there's nothing identifying.
Some of these people now have, like, it doesn't look like real, like, ice.
You know, it looks like they made these Oath Keepers up and put them on their uniforms or on their clothes.
So, but when you see, it's like they got, like, a bat belt on.
You know what I mean?
That's what it looks like, Batman belt or something out of Star Wars.
And so I'm like, this can't possibly be, you know, a normal- Standard issue.
Yeah, people who are trained don't dress that way and don't wear their stuff like that.
So, yes, I have no doubt someone's going to have to blow the lid off of that story and find out that- I see that coming a mile away.
And I have one last thing before we move on to the next topic, Nick, because it's something that is like- I can't shut off this feeling inside of me that ICE and this government, the way that they are attacking people, the brutality, the sneaking up on people, doing the stuff, like the raids, you name it.
I feel like we are reaching the point where we're going to start seeing some retaliatory violence, where all of a sudden these people are not going to just do this without people fighting back.
And I think that the moment that that happens, history tells us that we enter a new chapter in this.
Does that resonate with you?
Because I feel it coming.
Yeah.
No, that's what I think I was even talking about.
I saw another one of these things where...
They're in a parking lot somewhere.
And yeah, people have their phones out, and I wouldn't necessarily say they're aggressive physically, but certainly verbally, the innocent bystanders who have me walking by are trying to get in the way a little bit and try and voice something in the sense of people who are just being whisked away.
Again, unmarked cars, unmarked people doing this.
It is chilling.
So I would not be surprised, especially if you got into a situation where they were in a neighborhood where the people they're trying to accost are popular and are friendly and everyone knows them, right?
And people are going to stand up for them.
And yeah, there might end up being people who are willing ultimately to obstruct this and deal with those consequences in the name of, you know, something.
Now, what really, really sucks is if I were like a January 6th person, you know, and I knew, oh, I'm going to get pardoned.
I do January 6th because I know I'm going to get pardoned sooner than later.
Like, that was the timeline.
So in some weird twisted way, if it was closer to the 28th election, right, you almost feel like you could do it knowing I just get pardoned then.
I don't think people are going to wait.
I feel, Nick, you know this as well as I do.
It's like when the weather gets hot, if you have protest movements or resistance movements, that's when they really, really take off.
It feels like the summer is set up for some stuff, doesn't it?
For sure.
And by the way, I don't want to minimize the notion of anybody standing up for innocent people who shouldn't be disappeared.
But I also know that people have their own lives as well and aren't necessarily willing to spend three years in prison.
Man, we are living in weird times.
Speaking of weird times, Nick, I can't believe...
What I'm getting ready to talk about is the most blatant corruption by a United States president that we've ever had, and it's segment two.
It was announced this weekend that Qatar has offered Donald Trump a $400 million Boeing 747-8 to use as Air Force One.
This is colloquially known as the palace in the sky.
And in a really cool twist that isn't disturbing or upsetting at all, it will belong to Trump.
As long as he is the President of the United States of America and then when he leaves office, supposedly the ownership will be transferred over to his presidential library and I assume he would never use it after that.
Nick, this is a stunning, stunning...
Piece of corruption.
Easily the highest bribe that has ever been offered to the President of the United States of America and ever taken.
It's almost to me, Nick, I don't know how you feel about it, it's almost like when I first saw the Grand Canyon, and I just sort of stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon, and it's so big, and it's so large, and majestic, that like, it's almost like you can't, your brain won't let you take it in.
Right?
This thing is so massively corrupt that it almost hurts to look at it and, like, actually wrap your mind around it.
Jared, why do you hate America?
I would love an America where this isn't possible.
Well, we just went from a president who says, you know, maybe you shouldn't have $30.
To a guy saying, I'm not going to wait another few years for a new thing to be built from Boeing.
Like, that's really what he's saying, right?
In a way.
But he's also saying, I can't stand it that other countries have nicer airplanes than me.
He's also saying, you know, the thing is 35 years old, right?
So, okay, I get it.
Which is why this was ordered years ago to replace.
They had a fleet that's supposed to be replacing the fleet, and it'll take another few years, right?
And then taxpayer money, whatever.
So, I mean, that's what his argument is.
And by the way, he said, I'm not going to use it, you know, after when it goes to my library.
But what does that mean?
Does it mean they're going to park it and you can go in and walk through it?
It's like the Reagan library, where when they do the debates, the old Air Force One is like hanging over them.
How dare you ask me if I've ever—I don't even want to acknowledge the Reagan library.
But that's what they're saying it's going to be.
But you know if Donald Trump does not, like, die in office or go to prison, like, if he gets—if he ever relinquishes control, you know that he's keeping this plan.
Now, one other thing.
He's making a big deal about how it's free, so we don't have to pay for it or whatever, right?
But it's not.
It's going to cost $400 million to trick it out to make it, you know, safe for presidential security, yada, yada, whatever, right?
A. And also the paint job.
So here's the thing.
The order that Trump himself put in to replace these things that was going to take a whole bunch more years existed when Biden took over.
And he actually calls out Biden for delaying it even longer.
But do you know why the order got changed, but the Biden administration changed about it?
Is it because how terrible Boeing has become?
Well, no, it was really because of the way they wanted it painted.
The way that Trump wanted it painted was going to add so much more time and money that the Biden administration said, well, screw that.
It's not worth it.
Just do whatever you can do that makes it quicker and cheaper.
And that's what they were going to do.
And that's why they were in the middle of doing all that.
You know, it's not easy to build.
You know what I just had?
And I have other thoughts on this, but Nick, it just, you know, you know, sometimes when you're looking at all of this, it's almost like a water cooler, like a bubble bubbles up.
And it's a realization.
This motherfucker is going to put his face on the plane.
Ooh, yeah, for sure.
He's going to put his face on Air Force One.
That's where this is going.
And if he doesn't, it'll be the greatest restraint that he's ever showed.
You know, you just brought up, like, fitting this to be Air Force One.
There's a reason why the Air Force Ones that are in use were manufactured in the United States of America.
It's security.
Right.
This, and I don't know that this is the case, this could be the modern Trojan horse.
Yeah.
Period.
This could literally be a gift of surveillance and possibly even sabotage.
We don't know.
There's a reason why countries don't gift Air Force Ones.
And, you know, you actually take a look at, like, what this whole thing does.
Nick, are you aware of how Pam Bondi made her money in part before she became Attorney General?
Enlighten me.
She lobbied for a country.
Do you want to take a guess of what country she lobbied for?
Don't say it's Qatar.
It was Qatar, and they paid her a paltry sum of $115,000 a month as they were trying to secure the World Cup.
So now Pam Bondi, who is in charge of making the legal case for the biggest...
The person who previously worked for Qatar is now in charge of greenlighting Qatar giving over this $400 million plus bribe.
Well, at least she wasn't cheap for the Will Cup because she was really cheap for Trump when he paid her, like, $25,000 to get that case dismissed in Florida.
So, like, that is awful, horrible.
But the Trojan horse thing is interesting.
Remember when Lavrov, the Russian ambassador Lavrov, first made his appearance in the White House after Trump won in 2017?
There was something bugged that he left.
Oh, no.
It was only filmed and only recorded by Russian media in the Oval Office.
And I think that they had evidence that they were bugging or trying to put bugs in the White Oval Office while they were there.
So, yes, that plane will be a bug.
It will be a gigantic flying bug if it doesn't have sabotage.
Man, it's almost hard to talk about this.
Also, by the way, I don't know if you've paid attention to this, Nick.
Unfortunately, as part of my job, I have to pay attention to the right-wing environment.
The MAGA diehards are pissed about this.
I mean, like Loomer, I guess, right?
Well, more than Loomer, like, a lot of them are very, very pissed off about this because they want to have, like, first of all, this anti-Arab sort of sentiment, right?
Like, you don't want to...
They've been pissed off every time he's gone to Saudi Arabia, pictures of him with globes and things like that, like scepters or whatever it is that they give him.
They're pissed off about this.
And I think that this is, quite frankly, not just...
It's not just corruption.
That's the thing, Nick.
It's shamelessly corrupt.
That is the thing, is like how openly corrupt this is.
The only people who are actually trying to sort of like, you know, put a veneer over this is the Trump administration itself and our media.
Our media is reporting on this and they're like, there could be ethical concern.
Are you kidding me?
There could be ethical concerns.
You have the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, and he's gifted a $400 million plane.
Like, come on, man.
Those are the only people who are actually trying to legitimize this, the Trump administration and American media.
And he already talked about this in February.
He had said that somehow they're going to replace the planes with somebody earlier.
Where the fuck is Crew?
Where is Mark Elias?
Why aren't these lawsuits being filed today?
I hope that they are.
Right, because first of all, the habeas corpus thing should be an easy one.
We already, the birthright citizenship should be like a slam dunk.
But the case needs to be against Trump, violating the emoluments clause.
And it needs to force the Supreme Court to be face-to-face with an official act that is illegal.
You know, they keep saying he's immune from official acts.
And by the way, you're only immune from an official act, obviously, if it is illegal.
Why else would you be immune from that?
So they have to have some sort of crisis where they have a case that forces them to have to rule on that, where it's clear, cut and dry, black and white.
They violated the law.
You can't be immune from someone when you violate the law.
And maybe they finally take that away, and then maybe they'll be more constrained on the presidency.
But why they haven't done that, it's beyond me.
It remains to be seen, and I'm not putting a lot of faith in them.
Speaking of weird developments, today is Monday, May 12th.
I woke up, grabbed my coffee.
First headline I see is that in a surprise move, the United States and China have agreed to lower their tariffs back to the regular levels for the next 90 days as they continue negotiations.
I've been hearing a lot of rumors about this over the course of the day.
Nick, what are your reactions to this?
It's the same market manipulation we've seen.
And he told everybody to buy more stocks the other day.
So, you know, blow up a trade deal, make all this shit up, and then pretend that they're going to get an agreement to get another big boost in the stock market.
That's all this is.
There isn't an agreement.
Nothing's been signed.
It's a framework of an idea or something.
But, you know, 90-day pause, it's ridiculous, horrible.
And by the way, we'll be right back where we started.
I have no doubt that whatever agreement we ended up having will be where we started.
I mean, it goes back to this.
China has held the cards in all of this.
The scuttlebutt around Washington, D.C. is that Trump was pressured by business leaders to goose the stock market.
To basically, like, try and head off what we've been talking about, which was a major consumer loss of goods.
You know, we are a few days away from basically starting to see the shock of not getting Chinese imports.
And the word on this, and this is...
This is how it works in an authoritarian, oligarchical sort of relationship.
At times the authoritarian leads and the oligarchs follow along.
At times the oligarchs lead and the authoritarian follows along.
It's a back and forth.
It teeters back and forth.
It's a push-pull type of dynamic.
And that's all that took place here.
And I think you're right.
I don't know what kind of agreement they're going to end up with, if they end up with anything.
I don't think the tariffs are going to stay back at their original levels.
I have to admit that there will be carve-outs for the international companies like Apple or whatever Musk is doing over there at this point.
There will be carve-outs for them.
We've already seen that putting in place, but I don't think that this is going to be some sort of special sea change.
And by the way, for everyone listening, enjoy the rollercoaster ride on the stock market.
It's fun, isn't it?
This is how economies are supposed to work, where you have, like, record drops and record highs.
Like, that's good for the economy.
That works out.
It makes everyone feel great.
It almost makes me feel like they want to delay it enough so that all the big business people can hedge in the 90 days for when it does really drop.
And if he does want to put these numbers up.
Can you imagine being, like, an import director for one of these big box stores right now?
Can you even imagine what your day is like today?
Like trying to stock up and hoard for what could possibly be something in like 90 days?
Yeah.
By the way, people working below that were probably excited about having chill days with not much to do.
But, you know, again, the ultimate endgame here is that the Chinese have us over a barrel because no matter what we do, any kind of replacing of Chinese goods would take a decade.
To get that going in any kind of numbers that we're...
Well, I mean, again, if you do it the quote-unquote right way, yes.
And otherwise, you just throw immigrant labor and working class labor at it.
All right.
Well, okay, fine.
Then you can do it in four.
Man, that's a great question of exactly what an expedited reindustrialization, like how fast it could get up.
I mean, maybe if you basically, you know, it's like at the old movie ranches where they used to have like the veneer of like a barn and behind it, it's just like wood holding it up.
I guess if you made factories like that, I guess maybe a year.
Yeah, but then how many bodies are going to be piled up behind them?
Well, there's the question in there.
That's the question.
How many bodies are going to be buried behind it?
Yeah.
Awful.
Well, let's return back to the Democratic Party because we have a couple stories to close out this episode.
For starters, Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego was in Pennsylvania making a very, very hard push for what a lot of insiders are now calling a potential presidential run in 2028.
Amid the things that Gallego is pushing forward is the idea that the Democratic Party needs to move to the right.
And also this morning, Nick, he unveiled his new border plan.
And guess who's going to give Trump a run for his money on being tough on the border?
Yeah, Gallego.
Yeah.
Listen, I want to give him credit.
Because he recognized how to win in Arizona?
Sure.
I mean, it couldn't have been that hard.
Kirsten Sinema did it.
Fair enough.
Fair enough.
And then she turned everybody against her pretty quickly anyway, so that was not hard, right, to run against a pariah.
But, yeah, I mean, this is what your biggest fear is, right?
You've been talking about this the whole time.
The more they pivot back to the right, the worse it's going to be.
Gallego is an absolute piece of shit.
And Nick, just to get everybody on the same page, because as we're sort of making our way through this time period, we need to make clear who people are, like your governor, Gavin Newsom, who made homeless encampments illegal today and expedited getting rid of them.
We need to understand who these people are as they make their cases.
Gallego is completely bought and sold by the crypto industry.
That is his entire purpose in all of this.
and there's a reason why he is the guy consistently telling the Democrats that they need to be more like the Republican party and be less outraged and all this stuff and move away from social concerns and worrying about other people.
He's a really, really shit member of the Democratic Party.
And I could totally see as the schism within the party takes shape that he could become like one of the chosen people to really try and carry that flag.
Okay, interesting.
As we see, like, David Hogg, you know, go on Marr and light people on fire a little bit here.
And it's funny because you can clearly sense the pushback against someone like that, a young guy who wants certainly much more of what you're looking for in terms of progressive candidates who care about the constituents versus what Gallego represents, which is just...
He's probably to the right of Clinton.
Would that be safe to say?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, I think the people that he represents, they're further to the right of Hillary Clinton, which is a wild thing to say, and Bill Clinton's presidency, which effectively puts them just, like, sort of standing at the border of MAGA world and just sort of waving and being invited in.
And John Fetterman, who, more and more meltdowns.
What did we see this morning?
It's just, like, rank-and-file Democrats being like, we're really concerned about his safety.
We'll ask him to resign then.
Yeah.
Get him out of there.
And of course, Gallego is another one of those people.
Aside from any of the innuendo or whatever's coming out about the Fetterman, you know, camp.
He doesn't go to any meetings.
He doesn't go to any of the votes either.
He's not really doing his job as he's supposed to do it anyway.
So that's another level.
No, it's another problem.
Speaking of problems within the Democratic Party, Nick, we'll talk more about this as we move forward.
But I wanted to highlight very quickly that former disgraced governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, has emerged as the frontrunner for the New York City mayorship.
He has also announced, and this will be fun to keep an eye on, Even if he wins the Democratic primary, he will be running on a ticket for the, quote, fight and deliver party.
How do you feel about that?
You know, I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that no one's political career is ever dead.
No one ever dies.
I thought people were canceled, Nick.
I thought that they were pushed out basically on an ice shelf to be waved goodbye to.
Andrew Cuomo with multiple sexual harassment allegations.
Like, I thought he was canceled.
How is it possible that he could become the leading contender for this job?
You know, with enough, you know that you hire those companies that will help your Google search results, you know.
Basically come in an eternal sunshine of the spotless mind.
Yeah, I mean, it takes a little time, but you can kind of tap it down under the surface low enough where people are like, eh, I remember him.
You know, they remember the face a little bit, and that's all.
It's amazing!
I mean, everyone from him to Louis C.K., Kanye West is out releasing, like, albums that have, like, not just, like, pro-Nazi songs on them, but actual clips of, like, Hitler speeches.
It's weird.
I was led to believe that cancel culture was the strongest force in the universe and had to be destroyed at all costs.
Well, it is.
It was, is what you're saying, right?
Something along those lines.
Let's also not forget that Andrew Cuomo was also the person during COVID that everybody was pretending that he was going to be the savior.
And meanwhile, the shit that he did with the nursing homes in his state, like we still haven't wrapped our heads around that.
I do want to ask, because this is something I've been wrestling with.
How is it that Cuomo...
Could still be the favorite for this job.
What's happening, do you think, with the Democratic Party as we're sort of emerging from that past era, the one that saw Cuomo have to resign from his office?
Like, how is that even possible, do you think?
I mean, after, like, the Al Franken stuff and whatever, there's enough regret about it towing this line of being ethical and being, you know, good people.
That's the fear, right?
I mean, because remember, like, we can easily say, just be like the Republicans, right?
Anything we can do to get into power, which suddenly turns us into what Trump loves to accuse the Democrats of, and which I severely kind of enjoy, you know, vicariously hearing him describe the Democrats as being bloodthirsty and whatever.
But there's this...
How bad would it be if both parties end up turning into the exact same thing?
It'd be the worst!
It's the worst possible situation, and I think part of it is driven that you have another candidate in Zoran Mamdani who is a democratic socialist who seems on the up and up.
It seems like he would make a good candidate, but it's what always happens with centrists and moderates.
They would much rather go ahead and move further to the right and accept what would otherwise be unacceptable as opposed to giving someone like a democratic socialist a try.
And so as a result, it really doesn't matter what Andrew Cuomo did as long as he defends the status quo or supposedly does, even if it pushes us further to the right.
Counterpoint.
Maybe it's not what Cuomo is or who he is.
It's what the country is now and how it's shifted.
So it's possible that he's simply reflecting where the majority or whatever that number would be is.
And that's another really concerning thing because...
We've been drugged.
The culture has been drugged in that direction.
Yeah, yeah.
And it's how far is really where we're at now.
How far have we been drugging?
How can we stop it before it gets too far?
That's really what's frightening to me.
Again, the midterms are what I keep my eye on, because if Trump increases his electorate size in the midterms, when you're not supposed to traditionally, even though we can't even use anything in the past to apply to now, but if he does, when we would normally assume that he would lose seats, that would be indicative of either A, the...
The ballots are fraudulent or that the actual country wants it.
And it could happen if the Democratic Party doesn't change that.
Like, if they don't offer something other than Trump and they just continue to normalize this, like talking about Gallego with his border plan, like continuing to fight in that realm as opposed to trying new things just gives him legitimacy.
And what you just laid out, like, it almost makes the mind real, the idea that he could, like, gain.
In a midterm, if we have midterms, like the idea that he could gain, the only way that's possible is if the resistance party doesn't offer something else.
That's it.
That's the only way that that happens.
And it could.
It could happen if these centrists and assholes continue doing what they're doing.
We need more of the good trouble.
We need more.
We need way, way more.
All right, everybody, that's going to do it for this edition of the Muckrake Podcast.
We will be back with the weekender on Friday.
A reminder, go over to patreon.com slash muckrakepodcast, become a patron, gain access to that, our Discord, live shows, special opportunities, all that good stuff, and support the show.
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