
In this episode of 10 Minute Drill, we cover the biggest stories the media would rather you ignore: Trump vs. DC Crime – President Trump vows to “take back our capital” and make it safe again. Democrats and the media dismiss the effort as a...
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Host 1
President Trump is taking on crime in Washington, D.C. we've got an update on the gerrymandering and redistricting fight around the country. And we're going to talk about some brand new data about the elites in America who have driven so many unique public policy decisions in America. All of that and so much more today on 10 Minute Drill. Everybody get up. Get up.
Host 2
The story of America is the story of an adventure.
Beto O'Rourke
I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you.
Host 2
We are a nation under God, and.
Host 1
I believe God in intended for us to be free. Yesterday, President Trump made a major announcement that he was going to take on the massive growing crime problem in Washington, D.C. we're going to take back our Capitol.
Host 2
We're going to make it beautiful again, but we're going to make it more importantly, safe again.
Host 1
The media and the left are not happy about it. First, a bat signal seemed to go out to a number of liberals on Twitter calling it a distraction from other issues. Also, talking heads from the left were not happy about this.
Political Analyst
And he's actually trying to give his base red meat to get them off of the Epstein story. And it's on the backs of citizens in Washington, D.C. he's gonna undermine the democratic process in the District.
Host 1
Only Donald Trump could get reporters who live in Washington, D.C. and see crime around them every day to argue that the murder rate that has doubled, doubled in the last decade is not a big deal. We can talk about tactics, about things like having the National Guard out in American cities, things like that. I think that's a very fair conversation to have. However, don't look us in the face and tell us the crime in D.C. is not a big deal. I think that's outrageous. And I think President Trump's gonna get a lot of support over this because it is a national embarrassment that the murder rate in Washington, D.C. is so much higher than the murder rate in a place like Bogota, Colombia. Over the last few weeks, we've been covering this growing fight about gerrymandering and redistricting in a number of states. First, when Texas announced were going to revisit their maps to try and get congressional maps that were more representative, particularly after the influx they've had in the last few years of people fleeing from blue states like California. And then, of course, the Texas Democrat legislators who fled their state to Illinois. Now, that has continued to be an issue for Democrats to attempt to defend. First, here's JB Pritzker.
JB Pritzker
You talk about preserving democracy. How do you preserve democracy if you're using the same tactics that you've criticized Texas Republicans for.
Political Commentator
But as I say, what they're talking about is a distraction. The reality is that the violation of people's voting rights is what Texas is attempting to do.
Host 1
You'll notice there JB Pritzker, who has talked fairly openly about wanting to run for president, having a very difficult time defending his own state's actions on gerrymandering as he tries to pretend the voting rights of people in Texas are being violated by this action when his state has gone so much worse. What we call J.B. pritzker's explanations are not word salads in the form of Kamala Harris. We call them word sausages because you don't know what's in them. You don't know where they're going, you don't know how they're gonna make you feel after they're from Chicago. And also, I think that J.B. pritzker has probably not been associated with the word salad. But also at the same time, Kathy Hochul had a very difficult time explaining how what New York just did with an out of cycle redistricting was different than what Texas is attempting to do.
James Carville
So your state's highest court at the time, all the judges appointed by Democratic governors, they threw the maps out. So fair to say Democrats have done what they're now accusing Republicans of doing?
JB Pritzker
No, we followed the rules. We do it every 10 years. We basically said you didn't follow the rules. Well, we did follow the rules. So the court was wrong. Well, we followed the rules.
Host 1
So for one thing, this fight is exposing the Democrats are not necessarily sending their best into this fight. But also one of the best arguments Democrats have thought they had was the fact that Texas is going out of cycle with this redistricting. Normally they're done once a decade. However, New York just did that one year ago in an attempt to get more seats for themselves. So Hochul coming out to defend this is opening up again another front that Democrats are having a very, very difficult time explaining away. So first, Texas Democrats going to Illinois turn this entire conversation into a referendum on Illinois's insane congressional map, which here's a look at it. Just kidding. That is a picture of my son coloring in church yesterday. Here's the real map. So it's a referendum on Illinois's insane gerrymandering, but it's also now a referendum on New York and other blue states attempting to go so far out of line to gerrymander themselves and then trying to argue that it's an attack on democracy when red states attempt to do the same thing at the same time. Fights like this tend to bring out some of our favorites in these red versus Blue fights. Here's Beto o'. Rourke.
Beto O'Rourke
Next time we win power, we're going to drive that car like we stole it. We're going to legalize every dreamer, every dreamer's parents, every hard working American doing backbreaking work that makes this country so God great in the first place. Even greater as US Citizens.
Host 1
If you're wondering where Beto has been for the last few years, he's likely been shoved in a locker since the last time he was out in public talking about his policy ideas.
Beto O'Rourke
Hell yes, we're Gonna take your AR15, your AK47.
Host 1
For Beto to come out and use this moment to remind everyone that Democrats hold incredibly unpopular positions on things like immigration is an incredible gift to Republicans. But not to be outdone, here's the Ragin Cajun, James Carville also bringing in a number of other issues into this discussion.
Host 2
They are just gonna have to unilaterally add Puerto Rican and District of Columbia states. They're going to have to. The Congress does give the Constitution gives Congress power over federal elections. I don't think they can redistrict, but the things they go do, they're going.
Host 1
To have to do it.
Host 2
They're just going to have to do it. And they may have to expand the court to 13 members.
Host 1
So again, as you have some Democrats attempting to say Republicans are attacking norms and are hurting traditions, James Carville comes out and says actually let's keep with what we've been doing about destroying norms and traditions, again making it much more difficult for Democrats to have a sort of aligned front in their messaging. We've talked quite a bit in 10 minute drill about the litigation that left wing climate groups have brought in an attempt to destroy oil and gas companies. We talked about Hawaii and the fact that the city of Honolulu has tried to force oil and gas companies to pay for all sorts of infrastructure updates in their city. Blaming them, attempting to blame them for things like rising sea levels because they say oil and gas causes climate change. Climate change is driving up sea levels. Sea levels are causing them damage. Oil and gas companies should pay for it. It is absurd banana republic nonsense, but it has not stopped from going forward. In Colorado, the city of Boulder has their own absurd lawsuit. Boulder sued in 2018 alleging the companies violated various state laws and created a public and private nuisance by misleading the public about the role their fossil fuel products played in exacerbating climate change, Boulder argues they should be forced to pay the cost it will incur to prot its community from climate change. Again, this is an absurd argument that courts at the state level that are largely populated by activist appointees have allowed to go forward with the Honolulu case. We've talked about the fact that the members of the Hawaii Supreme Court are absolute lunatics who write things into their opinions like we must protect the spirit of Aloha. Those are the people that are making these decisions that would have billion dollar impacts on oil and gas and their own the people in their state's ability to get oil and gas. And so Boulder similarly is being advanced by lunatics on the Colorado Supreme Court. And now oil and gas companies are petitioning the US Supreme Court to step in and prevent this massive, absurd miscarriage of justice from taking place. Politico is reporting that Democrats want to use higher utility bills against Republicans in the upcoming midterms and the media looks ready to help them out. First, from the Washington Free Beacon, mainstream media reports cite nonpartisan research firm to trash Trump's appeal of green energy subsidies. Its leader helped Biden write those subsidies into law. The organization Energy Innovation is led by a former Biden advisor who helped write the energy subsidies into the Inflation Reduction Act. Energy Innovation CEO Sonia Agrawal, a Biden climate advisor who argues that phasing out climate subsidies and ending EV tax credits will drive up the cost of utility bills. You'll recall that the climate movement, as well as congressional Democrats approach to getting more people to adopt wind and solar in order to fight climate change has focused on getting rid of coal, natural gas and basically all the reliable alternatives they've always used to power their electric grids. Now that they've actually gotten rid of those in so many states and utility bills are rising, they're trying to use this to say President Trump is actually driving up those energy bills because he's not giving the further subsidies and tax benefits relied on to make those sources work. Now we pivot to New Jersey. Our friend Bethany Mandel has an incredibly important piece in the New York Post about New Jersey's electric bills. While Democrats are attempting to pretend getting rid of absurd subsidies for things like wind and solar is driving up energy costs, Bethany gets to the real root of it. States like New Jersey have been shutting down electricity generating plants with no plan to back them up or backfill their energy. They took generation off before they brought generation on, one energy expert told me, pointing to the state's aggressive shutdown of coal powered plants under Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy and the closure of the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in 2018. The result, a shrinking energy supply at a time when demand is exploding. So, in summary, Democrats have said, let's get rid of reliable energy sources that power our grids. People in those states, like New Jersey, said, whoa, our utility bills just tripled. How did that happen? And Democrats are pointing fingers trying to say, we're all trying to find the guy who did this. I think we all know exactly who did this. We're talking about new polling today conducted by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity. They wanted to look at who actually is driving some of these crazy governing decisions we saw from the last four years under Joe Biden. So they conducted a poll that allowed people to separate out the elites. Now, here's how they define elite. The elites are defined as those having a postgraduate degree, a household income of more than $150,000 annually, and living in a zip code with more than 10,000 people per square mile. They also tested with people holding Ivy League degrees to see how people from those different experiences, those different subsets of the American population differ on how they view political issues. So first, does the United States provide too much individual freedom, too much government control, or is the balance about right? When you talk to normal voters, they 57% believe the government has too much control, whereas the elites, 47%, believe that we have too much freedom and only 21% believe that government has too much control. And when you look at Ivy League graduates, 55% believe that we have too much freedom, 15% believe that the government's exerting too much control to fight climate change. Would you favor or oppose the strict rationing of gas, meat and electricity? Normal voters, 63% say no. When you talk to the elites, 77% favor rationing gas, meat and electricity. Ivy Leaguers 89% favor rationing gas, meat and electricity. When President Biden started talking about banning gas stoves and banning gas powered cars, everyone's like, who's actually for that? We have found to fight climate change. Would you favor banning each of the following? Normal voters, only 25% are okay with the idea of banning gas stoves, 69% of the elite and 80% of Ivy League graduates. When it comes to banning gas powered cars, only 24% would support banning it, 72% of Elite would ban it, and 81% of Ivy League graduates would support banning it. Banning non essential air travel, 22% of regular voters support banning it, 55% of the elites support banning it, and 70% of Ivy League graduates support banning it. Private air conditioning. Now, this is one of the biggest differences between the U.S. europe and everybody else's. We have access to air conditioning, which makes us more comfortable. But the left argues we need to be more like Europe and get rid of air conditioning. Here's what the polling says. Only 13% of people would support banning private air conditioning, whereas 53% of the elite and 68% of Ivy League graduates would support banning private air conditioning. What this poll shows us is that the biggest divides in America right now are not necessarily between red versus blue or on racial lines or gender lines or anything like that. It is the elite versus everybody else and the people that believe others should have to suffer or lose the choice of their goods, their cars, their appliances for the good of fighting climate change. We'll continue to track this, but I think this poll is incredibly illustrative for who is driving the Democrat Party right now. And as you see them push for ideas and proposals that feel so out of line with normal people. This polling tells us we are right. You can't make it up. Segment today. We've got this clip from Bravo star, whatever that means.
Jennifer Welch
Jennifer welch, I've had it with white people that triple trumped. Yeah. That have the nerve and the audacity to walk into a Mexican restaurant, a Chinese restaurant, an Indian restaurant, go to perhaps their gay hairdresser. I don't think you should be able to enjoy anything but Cracker Barrel.
Host 1
First off, dear sweet Jennifer, Cracker Barrel doesn't need to be catching any strays there. But also let me remind you that we have years of polling showing that some of the strongest supporters of President Trump's deportation agenda are the legal immigrants, many of which might run restaurants in cities around the country because they have friends and family trying to go through the legal immigration system that gets backed up and delayed by illegal immigrants that have been promoted and supported by people like Gavin Newsom who have incentivized it by giving free health care to illegal immigrants, by giving free SNAP benefits to illegal immigrants, it made it more difficult for people to wait in line and come through the normal process. But this is what every Democrat's been doing for the last year and a half, which is saying, who's going to pick my food? Or as Hunter Biden said, clean up after me in my hotel rooms. It's an ugly thing. And it's not helping Democrats sell their opposition to President Trump's immigration agenda any more effectively. That is all the time we have for today. Thanks so much for joining us on 10 Minute Drill. Please subscribe. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, anywhere else. Thanks so much for joining us.
Host: Matt Whitlock
Release Date: August 12, 2025
In this episode of 10 Minute Drill, veteran political strategist Matt Whitlock delves into three pressing issues shaping the current political landscape: President Donald Trump's initiative to combat rising crime in Washington, D.C., the ongoing battles over gerrymandering and redistricting across various states, and newly released data shedding light on the influence of American elites in public policy decisions.
President Trump has recently announced a bold strategy to address the escalating crime rates in Washington, D.C., declaring, “we’re going to take back our Capitol” (00:30). This move has stirred significant controversy, drawing sharp criticism from the media and progressive factions.
Host’s Analysis: Whitlock highlights the backlash from liberals, who view Trump's focus on crime as a diversion from other critical issues such as the Epstein scandal. A political analyst comments, “And he's actually trying to give his base red meat to get them off of the Epstein story. And it's on the backs of citizens in Washington, D.C. he's gonna undermine the democratic process in the District” (01:02).
Crime Statistics: The murder rate in D.C. has reportedly doubled over the past decade, a statistic Whitlock emphasizes as a “national embarrassment” by comparing it unfavorably to places like Bogota, Colombia (01:16).
Public Reaction: Whitlock anticipates strong support for Trump’s initiative among those concerned about public safety, despite dismissive attitudes from some Washington-based reporters who downplay the severity of the crime rates.
Gerrymandering remains a hotly contested issue, with significant developments unfolding in Texas and New York.
Texas Reexamination: Texas has announced plans to revisit its congressional maps in response to demographic shifts, notably the migration of individuals from traditionally blue states like California. This action comes amid criticism as Texas Democrat legislators have relocated to Illinois, complicating Democrats' efforts to defend their redistricting strategies.
New York's Out-of-Cycle Redistricting: Unlike the typical decennial redistricting process, New York conducted its redistricting a year ago to gain more congressional seats. Kathy Hochul has struggled to differentiate New York’s approach from Texas’s, leading to further scrutiny and criticism.
Democratic Response: Whitlock criticizes JB Pritzker, Illinois Governor and potential presidential contender, for defending Texas’s gerrymandering efforts while his own state faces similar accusations. Pritzker is quoted saying, “You talk about preserving democracy. How do you preserve democracy if you're using the same tactics that you've criticized Texas Republicans for” (02:19).
James Carville’s Commentary: The renowned political strategist James Carville remarks on the hypocrisy of Democrats, stating, “So fair to say Democrats have done what they're now accusing Republicans of doing?” (03:23).
Implications: This redistricting conflict not only exposes internal Democratic inconsistencies but also turns state-level gerrymandering battles into broader national debates about democratic integrity.
A recent poll by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity reveals significant disparities in political attitudes between the general populace and American elites.
Defining “Elites”: The study categorizes elites as individuals with postgraduate degrees, household incomes exceeding $150,000 annually, and residing in densely populated zip codes. An additional subset includes those holding Ivy League degrees.
Key Findings:
Interpretation: Whitlock suggests that these findings indicate a growing divide between the general public and elites, with policy-making increasingly influenced by a small, highly educated and affluent segment of society. This shift is evident in the Democrat Party’s push for progressive climate policies that clash with mainstream American values and priorities.
The episode also explores the aggressive legal strategies employed by left-wing climate groups to hold oil and gas companies accountable for climate change.
Lawsuits in Honolulu and Boulder: Cities like Honolulu and Boulder have initiated lawsuits against fossil fuel companies, alleging that these companies are responsible for infrastructure damages due to rising sea levels and other climate impacts. Whitlock describes these actions as “absurd banana republic nonsense” driven by “activist appointees” in state courts (09:30).
Supreme Court Involvement: In response to these state-level lawsuits, oil and gas companies are petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene and halt what they describe as “massive, absurd miscarriage of justice” (11:00).
Implications for Energy Policy: These legal battles reflect the broader tension between environmental activism and the fossil fuel industry, with significant economic and regulatory ramifications for energy production and infrastructure.
The discussion shifts to the rising utility bills in states like New Jersey, with an examination of the underlying causes beyond the elimination of green energy subsidies.
New Jersey’s Energy Crisis: Bethany Mandel of the New York Post highlights that New Jersey’s skyrocketing utility bills are primarily due to the shutdown of reliable energy sources like coal and nuclear power without adequate replacements. Governor Phil Murphy’s aggressive moves to close coal plants and the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant have led to a shrinking energy supply amidst increasing demand (12:00).
Democratic Blame: While Democrats attempt to blame Trump’s policies for the rise in energy costs, Whitlock argues that the true cause lies in the state-led dismantling of traditional energy infrastructure.
The episode concludes with a segment addressing controversial statements made by public figures regarding immigration and social integration.
Jennifer Welch’s Remarks: The podcast features a clip from Jennifer Welch, who expresses disdain for cultural diversity by stating, “I don't think you should be able to enjoy anything but Cracker Barrel” (13:24).
Host’s Rebuttal: Whitlock counters Welch’s comments by highlighting the irony that many proponents of strict immigration policies are themselves immigrants or run businesses that rely on immigration. He points out the complexities of immigration reforms and criticizes Democratic policies that, in his view, complicate the legal immigration process (13:50).
Matt Whitlock wraps up the episode by reinforcing the central themes discussed: the political maneuvering surrounding crime in D.C., the contentious and often hypocritical battles over gerrymandering, and the influential role of elites in shaping progressive policies that may not align with the broader American populace. He underscores the importance of these issues in the upcoming political climate and encourages listeners to stay informed and engaged.
Matt Whitlock on Trump's Crime Initiative: “Don't look us in the face and tell us the crime in D.C. is not a big deal. I think that's outrageous.” (01:16)
JB Pritzker on Gerrymandering: “You talk about preserving democracy. How do you preserve democracy if you're using the same tactics that you've criticized Texas Republicans for.” (02:19)
James Carville on Democratic Practices: “So fair to say Democrats have done what they're now accusing Republicans of doing?” (03:23)
Beto O'Rourke on Democratic Policies: “Next time we win power, we're going to drive that car like we stole it. We're going to legalize every dreamer...” (04:49)
Jennifer Welch on Cultural Integration: “I don't think you should be able to enjoy anything but Cracker Barrel.” (13:24)
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this summary are based on the content provided from the podcast transcript and do not represent any personal endorsements or stances.