Trump Slams Politico, Doesn't Recognize Star Reporter, as He Returns to Face Democrats on Showdown

Summary

2WAY Morning Meeting — Episode Summary

Episode Title: Trump Slams Politico, Doesn't Recognize Star Reporter, as He Returns to Face Democrats on Showdown
Date: October 14, 2025
Hosts: Mark Bednar (with Mark Halperin), Sean Spicer, Dan Senor
Guests: J.D. Vance, Stephen (caller), Haley (caller), others

---

Overview

This episode captures the key "morning meeting" of America’s TV news execs and veteran political observers as they dissect the news cycle and preview the day’s key developments. Anchored by the dynamics of President Trump returning from his Middle East diplomatic trip, the hosts probe international politics, media relations, domestic shutdown strategy, and the accelerating culture war between the Trump administration and legacy media. Notably, they analyze new White House-media flashpoints, Trump’s continued unpredictability, and the magnetic effect of recent political events on both party bases.

---

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. White House & Geopolitical Developments

• President Trump’s Middle East Return

  • Trump returned late from the region after facilitating a contentious hostage-prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas.
  • Ceremony planned for the posthumous awarding of the Medal of Freedom to Charlie Kirk, which hosts expect may energize MAGA and Turning Point’s base (22:55).

• Ceasefire and Peace Fragility in Gaza

  • Mixed reports on the ceasefire holding; ongoing violence, prisoner exchanges remain tense sticking points (05:00–06:52).
  • Spicer: “Those are the things that kind of can become a tinderbox and can blow up.” (06:52)

• Trump’s Strategic Ambiguity

  • Trump refuses to publicly commit to a one-state or two-state solution on Israel/Palestine (08:00).
    • Bednar: “He has no fetish about taking positions … he’ll decide when he needs to decide.”
    • Senor: “At some point...there's gotta be a, like, okay, X is going to put some troops on the ground...and we're going to start this process.” (08:13)

• International Fallout: Europe, Canada, and Leverage

  • Discussion on how pre-swap recognitions of Palestine by EU and Canada may impact Trump’s leverage, and whether those governments misplayed their hand (09:03–10:53).
  • Sean Spicer: “Trump does not forget these things. If peace holds, he will constantly remember you are the guys who said this.” (10:27)

---

2. US Domestic Politics and Shutdown Impasse

• Capitol Gridlock

  • “Longest shutdown in ever”—Congress stalling; Dem/Rep press conferences scheduled, but consensus remains out of reach (03:00–04:00).
  • Shutdown dynamics: White House bets renewed—are Dems prepared to let Republicans "own" premium spikes (18:21)?
    • Senor: “The premiums going up will be a Democratic talking point, as it should be.” (19:45)
    • Spicer: “This is insanity … Republicans need to be holding Democrats’ feet to the fire more.” (20:03, 20:47)

• 2025 Gubernatorial Races (New Jersey & Virginia)

  • Both states trending Republican, with Dem candidates (by hosts’ description) “not particularly good at answering hard questions, which is part of the job.” (39:07)
  • Spicer: “If Democrats lose both Virginia and New Jersey...the DNC is gonna be a shell shock.” (38:08)

---

3. Trump vs. the Media: Confrontations & Commentary

• J.D. Vance vs. George Stephanopoulos

  • Vance deflects persistent questions about alleged bribes by a border czar. He pivots:
    • Vance: “Here’s why fewer and fewer people watch your program and why you’re losing credibility.” (28:09)
  • Stephanopoulos: “It’s not a weird left-wing rabbit hole. I didn’t insinuate anything. I asked you whether Tom Homan accepted $50,000...” (29:08)

• Trump Snubs Politico’s Dasha Burns

  • On Air Force One, Trump doesn’t recognize the reporter and publicly dismisses Politico:
    • Trump: “Politico has gone bad.”
    • Dasha Burns: “Politico has been so wrong about everything.”
    • Trump: “Let’s get somebody else to ask some questions.” (30:16)

• Media Strategy: Offensive Mode

  • Senor: “In 2.0, the entire team has adopted Trump's mentality...just when you don’t like the questions, go on the offense and attack in very personal and aggressive terms.” (31:32)
  • Ongoing debate: Should Democrats emulate Trump's combative press tactics? Senor: “You need to be who you are. Trump is an authentic bully...the base is going to demand the same punch-in-the-face attitude.” (35:34)

---

4. MAGA Energy & Political Mobilization Post-Charlie Kirk

• Activism and Youth Motivation

  • Spicer (22:55): “The number of signups...the enthusiasm at [Turning Point] rallies...isn’t just about the short term. It’s about the long term.”
  • Senor relays reporting on young voter engagement, with Charlie Kirk’s assassination described as a “sleeping giant” moment for the right (24:24).

• Culture Shift

  • Spicer: “Now you walk down the streets and the vendors in D.C. sell MAGA stuff. The sea change, the culture is so different. These kids...there's a sense of like, I'm going to wear my MAGA hat with pride.” (25:01)

---

5. Pentagon Press Restrictions

• Reporter Mutiny
  • Most major news organizations refuse a new Pentagon anti-leak pledge; OANN signs, others balk.
  • Bednar: “If the Pentagon’s not going to be covered by the NYT...and Fox...there’ll be no reporters covering the Pentagon.” (26:52)

---

6. Tech & Section 230 Debate

• Caller Thomas raises liability for social media platforms and the accountability gap compared to legacy journalists.
  • Spicer: “The tech lobby is...right up there with pharma, big food, [and] the gun lobby, as a force...We need serious reform.” (47:18)
  • Senor: “News is no longer just ABC, CBS, and Fox...The tech companies would just argue that trying to shut down everybody is impossible.” (49:05)

---

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• “He has no fetish about taking positions…”
  —Mark Bednar on Trump’s intentional ambiguity over the Israel/Palestine 2-state question (06:52)

• “Trump does not forget these things.”
  —Sean Spicer on Trump’s future dealings with European allies (10:27)

• “Band name or book title? Weird left wing rabbit hole.”
  —Light moment after Vance’s media clash, turning a Stephanopoulos exchange into a running joke (29:36)

• “If you were in a corporate setting and you behaved that way, you would be in trouble.”
  —Dan Senor on aggressive White House press tactics (32:29)

• “Now you walk down the streets and the vendors in D.C. sell MAGA stuff.”
  —Sean Spicer on the post-Charlie Kirk right-wing youth culture wave (25:01)

• “I wish we could have done this without Trump... If you actually care about lives and humanity, then why do you care who solved it?”
  —Sean Spicer on the lack of praise from the “ceasefire now” faction after the Middle East deal (53:11)

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [05:00] Gaza ceasefire, ongoing violence concerns
• [08:00] Trump’s evasion on Israel/Palestine statehood question
• [09:03] International fallout: Europe/Canada recognition
• [12:00] Holding back the real story of the deal—White House closes ranks
• [18:21] Shutdown, Democratic strategy, health care premiums
• [22:55] Charlie Kirk Medal, Turning Point/MAGA energy
• [26:52] Pentagon press boycott
• [28:09] J.D. Vance v. Stephanopoulos showdown
• [30:16] Trump dismisses Politico’s Dasha Burns
• [35:34] Should Dems “attack the media” like Trump?
• [39:07] Political potpourri—NJ & VA races, Dems’ candidate woes
• [47:10] Section 230 & tech platform accountability debate begins
• [52:22] Listener question: Why are “ceasefire now” groups silent after Trump brokered a deal?
• [54:36] Israel-Hamas swap, cost and consequence: murderers-for-hostages

---

Listener Engagement & Open Q&A

• Stephen: Critiques media bias in interviews, sparks a debate about fairness vs. confrontation (40:32–45:54)
• Thomas: Raises Section 230, platform liability, and media accountability (46:25–51:00)
• Haley: Questions silence of “ceasefire now” groups post-deal (51:17–56:57)

---

Tone and Style

• Collegial yet combative; candid, unscripted, and packed with inside-baseball banter.
• The hosts needle each other, yet meaningfully disagree, with frequent attempts to illuminate the logic behind each party/side's strategy.

---

Conclusion & Forward Look

This "Morning Meeting" episode was a revealing, nearly hour-long deep dive on the day's fast-moving political and international events, notable for its robust look at Trump’s strategic ambiguity, White House-media hostilities, and the ways MAGA's base is energized post-Charlie Kirk. On the domestic front, the group sees a likely Republican surge in battleground gubernatorial races and continued deadlock in Washington. Insightful caller questions and candid host exchanges round out an episode rich in context for both political professionals and news junkies alike.

Transcript

[Dan Senor]

Foreign.

[Mark Bednar]

Everyone. Keep your smack to yourself. Keep it out of the chat. That's what the kids say. Thank you for joining the morning meeting. Sean, Dan and I are here for you. Run through the daybook, run through the news, and then delighted to take your questions, comments, concerns, recommendations, or to tell us how good Dan and Sean look today in their fairway and green outfits. And any or all, as long as there's peace, love and understanding in your heart, the presumption of grace extended to all. Thank you for your attention to these matters. Gentlemen, good morning.

[Sean Spicer]

Good morning.

[Mark Bednar]

It's the. It's the day after. How are you doing? The day after, we're great.

[Dan Senor]

How was your flight home? Did you get back into the city okay?

[Mark Bednar]

I did. I did. My Wisconsin experience ended right before the brewers losing streak began in the midst of the weird double play. You both look great. Dan, you wear that. You've worn that one before. You still don't know what color it is, but Sean knows. Sean, tell them what you're wearing.

[Sean Spicer]

Well, Mark, I'm wearing one of the nice, beautiful, comfortable, sleepable fairway and green polos with the morning meeting logo emblazoned on the left sleeve. This one, you can get them on either sleeve. The front doesn't matter. But you can always go to Two Way TV Fairway. And, Mark, if you use code TWOWAY20, you can get 20% off any item on the entire fairway and green site, whether that's a beautiful pullover, a quarter zip, or one of these lovely polos. The entire site 20.

[Mark Bednar]

And, Dan, update us on how your boys are doing stealing your stuff. Is that still an ongoing problem?

[Dan Senor]

Yeah, it is. And also, as I put up on X on Sunday, my wife got got stuff, and she wears it now, too, so.

[Mark Bednar]

And what is. What does she say about quality, value, comfort?

[Dan Senor]

Loves it. She doesn't wear stuff she doesn't like. As she would tell you, she's the boss of her and she wears what she wants.

[Mark Bednar]

Go to Twoway TV fairway, get stuff. It's all very nice. And again, you can get the Two Way logo. You get the morning meeting logo. You can get our catchphrases emblazoned on your sleeve. Be the talk of the town, the envy of all you see. And dressed like Dan and Sean, which for many, the expression used to be think Yiddish, dress British. Now it's dressed like Sean and Dan. Thank you again for your attention to this matter. The President got home at like 3am I was. I was up when he got home. I saw him walking across the lawn. It was pretty exciting. Don't ask me if I was still up or up already because I'm not saying he was supposed to arrive at 102 50. I think it was a little later than that. Sleeps in at one o', clock, greets the President of the Argentine Republic. Open press stakeout, bilateral lunch, closed press. And then four o' clock an event participating in giving the Medal of Freedom to Charlie Kirk posthumously on what would have been Charlie's 32nd birthday. We'll talk about that in a minute. Certain the Vice President will be at that event but no other public events for him. House is out. Speaker Johnson, another 10am Press conference. If it's 10am It's a speaker Johnson press conference. He's been doing that pretty much daily during the shutdown. Senator Van Hollen is having a press conference with Democrats representing Maryland, Virginia to discuss the mass federal worker firings. House Republicans having a group call for the conference at 11:30. Hakeem Jeffries 2 o' clock press conference. Senate is working at 3 o' clock on another test vote on the government funding. No one expects it to solve the shutdown amidst the speaker saying yesterday he thinks this will end up being the longest shutdown in ever. Perhaps that vote is 5:30 is when they're expected to vote there. And House Democrats coming back in for an in person caucus meeting at six o'. Clock. Live coverage on two way tonight at six o'. Clock Supreme Court hearing a couple cases starting at ten. Charlie Kirk National Day of Remembrance Today Erica Kirk will be amongst those attending the ceremony at the White House. It's going to stream live on the Turning Point USA YouTube channel. You can at 4 o' clock you can see the link in my sub stack. Hillary Clinton and others are celebrating women at 10 o' clock this morning at Georgetown. It's the annual Hillary Rodham Clinton awards ceremony. Dan, you ever been to that thing?

[Dan Senor]

I have not I first I've heard of it.

[Mark Bednar]

Yeah. 12:10 very precise time. Jerome Powell talking about the economy at a meeting of the national association of of Business Economists. Business economics rather shine. You ever, ever been to one of their events there?

[Sean Spicer]

I'm a subscriber.

[Mark Bednar]

Left riot. All right, lots to get to. And again if you want to be in on the conversation, you're here on the two way platform, please raise your hand. There's. There's mixed reports about what's going on in Gaza, about whether people are going back to their homes, about infrastructure being crudely rebuilt here and about violence. Reports that some Hamas forces are killing what they consider to have been collaborators with the Israelis in Israel. There continues to be extensive coverage, obviously, of the homecoming of the hostages and demands that the remains of those hostages who were killed or died in captivity be returned. Not really clear where that stands. So the President said lots of cryptic things yesterday about what other countries had done, what he had done, what his team had done, and skepticism amongst people like David Sanger of the New York Times about what the next phase will be, how difficult will be. So, Sean, just to be forward looking here, what are you looking for next as signs of whether the plan piece is holding or not? Where are the weak links that you're looking at or the strong links to say, yes, the President's right, that this is not just a ceasefire but a comprehensive peace deal?

[Sean Spicer]

I mean, I think the aforementioned things that you just mentioned, does violence ensue, like, are there skirmishes? Does it, does it escalate? Does the accountability of the prisoner swap into Gaza from Israel get agreed upon? Meaning do they say, yup, this is what you guys said we do. Because there's some question about whether that happened likewise on the bodies of the, of the hostages. There's going to be, I think you didn't give me what you said you were going to give me. And the question is how extensive is that? And how deep is that? Is that, hey, it's an accounting thing. You screwed this up or we're, we can't find it because I know Hamas is claiming some of the bodies are buried under rubble. Those are the things that kind of can become a tinderbox and can blow up. And so I think that's going to be, are they, do they go, do they bubble up bigger or are they kept at a low sort of ember?

[Mark Bednar]

Dan One of the underappreciated things about Donald Trump that's so smart that I bet you appreciate because even though you don't support most of Trump's policies, you're not so inflicted by Trump derangement syndrome that you can't appreciate things he does that are smart is he has no fetish about taking positions on things that if you're a politician, elected official, you're supposed to take position on. He here's Donald Trump, charmingly straightforward as far as I'm concerned, on a two state solution where amongst the things he gabbed about on Air Force One on the flight home last night, this 106, please. Oh, sorry, President, Mr. Prime Minister is not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for Trump on Air Force One, I think it's 106. Maybe I'm looking at the wrong, the wrong list here, but I don't think so. Do you have it? If you don't have it, I'll just say what he said. Anyway, Trump basically said in response to reporter's question, I might be for a two state solution, I might not. I might be for one state. You know, I'll decide when I need to decide. And, and of course that allows him to continue to what he did in order to get the deal, which is try to be friends with everybody. If he takes a position on a two state solution, he's going to have some enemies. So what are you looking for, Dan, in terms of pressure on Trump to make moves next?

[Dan Senor]

Well, I think keeping the two sides at the table. So to follow up on what Sean said, I think there's no doubt there will be skirmishes and there's no doubt that there was a part of Netanyahu's coalition that didn't want the deal because they don't think the job is done. And there's a part of Hamas that didn't want a deal because I think frankly it's bad for business. Like as long as there's an enemy and as long as there's resistance, they kind of can keep fundraising and keep doing what they're doing. So when these skirmishes come up, does Israel remain restrained and do the Arab partners continue to say to Hamas, we're staying at the table? So then the question to you, as you said, is ambiguity is good. But I think at some point between now and the end of the year, there's gotta be a, like, okay, X is going to put some troops on the ground to stabilize it and money is going to come in and we're going to start this process.

[Mark Bednar]

Yeah, really well said. So Sean, I was listening to my friend Dan Senor, your friend too, on podcast this morning. He's on, he's on next up later today. So I was doing like a little, a little homework and, and Dan was asked by Gall Galloway, Scott Galloway, who are the winners and losers of, of the deal. And amongst his losers were Europe and Canada and, and it's kind of crazy, the Europeans and the Canadians right before the deal, without any demanding any concessions from Hamas, recognize the Palestinian state. And yesterday I thought the body language the president had towards all the world leaders, if you didn't watch the whole event in Egypt, it was incredible. He kind of called everybody out and he did like running commentary and I thought pretty chilly towards the Europeans all things considered, is there any fallout going forward of the President's relationship with the Europeans or will the Europeans now bend over backward to be supportive of Israel? Because Dan's view is they bet wrong on this thing.

[Sean Spicer]

You know, it's interesting I, I mentioned this last night on my show. Like, I find it fascinating that he didn't drill it. I, he, he teased Starmer a little yesterday, but I was surprised.

[Mark Bednar]

Macron too.

[Sean Spicer]

Yeah, I, I, I was a little surprised that he didn't rub it in their face a little bit more. Those guys ran for the hills as quick as they could, Canada in particular, the way Mark Carney and I actually, anyway, I, I, will they pay a.

[Mark Bednar]

Price going forward or will they bend.

[J.D. Vance]

Over backwards towards Israel?

[Sean Spicer]

Look, he won't forget. Trump does not forget these things. And so I think the question is if the peace holds, he will constantly remember you are the guys who said this. He will continue to tease them. But I think this is a wait and see how it plays out.

[Dan Senor]

What did you say though? That the Europeans and Canadians doing that helped Trump's leverage on Netanyahu?

[Mark Bednar]

Well, it's a totally good question. It's the same with public opinion in the U.S. right? Yeah, those two things I'm sure. And the other thing Dan said was that the Israeli bombing of Hamas in Qatar helped get the deal done because all the countries in the region are like, well, Israel's unrestrained by Trump and nuts. They'll bomb anybody. We can't, you know, we can't have this in our neighborhood. So I don't know. And Trump yesterday, very close mouthed, very, gave a lot of credit to his staff. Rubio tweeted and said, you know, someday maybe the story will be told. And he said that several times. But, but make sure everybody should know. The President did a lot of this. Sean, why are they being so closed mouthed about, are they, are they saving it for their books? Are they going to tick tock it to, to some, to me or some other reporter? Like why are they not telling the story about what happened? Because, because they're hinting that there's an incredible story here, including, including Jared and Wyckoff meeting face to face with Hamas, which we know happened, but we don't, but we don't have the details of any of this.

[Sean Spicer]

Yeah, I don't think it's, I mean, normally, as you know, we all know, frankly, it's not some hidden secret of the last eight years. There's always plenty of people to tell what's going on. But if you notice Last week, we announced a deal with Qatar to do some work at an airbase here. I mean, there is some stuff that I think we are.

[Stephen]

Dan. Shaken.

[Sean Spicer]

I mean, there's a lot of things that are happening that I think. I think part of this, to answer your question, is everybody's like, look, we can't tell everyone what we gave away until we know if this works. And that's what everybody has to agree to. We're all jumping into the trust tree together, because if this doesn't work and we gave some stuff away, we're going to get killed. So we all need to agree no one talks about this until, like, 30 days when we know it worked. But there's a lot of little Easter eggs that have been dropped around.

[Mark Bednar]

I agree, but I. But I can tell you, if this were the Biden administration having done this deal, you'd be seeing backgrounders to Tom Friedman and David Sanger about all the great, amazing things they did to get the deal done. And, you know, as a reporter, I love more information, but very admirable, that part.

[Sean Spicer]

Oh, but I don't think it's. Look, I think part of it is a factor. All those people that you just mentioned, we don't have people on the right. That we can drop. Those two in the same.

[Mark Bednar]

Not. You could. You could. You could disagree.

[Dan Senor]

I. I actually think it's because. And, and again, I give them credit. It all worked so far.

[J.D. Vance]

Yeah.

[Dan Senor]

The Arabs are some unsavory characters and they're very transactional. And I think, as Sean just said, we quietly announced we were providing Qatar with an unquestioned military protection net.

[Mark Bednar]

Big. Yeah.

[Dan Senor]

On like a Friday night. Because the AI deal with Saudi Arabia.

[Stephen]

Because.

[Mark Bednar]

Because I love you. I'm going to give you a chance to revise and extend. You said the Arabs are unsavory characters. Do you want to. Do you want to clean that up a little bit? Are you good with that?

[Dan Senor]

Well, I mean, I think they're very, very transactional. They.

[Mark Bednar]

Maybe some of them are.

[Stephen]

You're not saying.

[Mark Bednar]

You're not saying all Arabs are unsavory?

[Dan Senor]

No, I'm saying that the leadership of a lot of these countries do business with whoever will do business with them.

[Stephen]

Yeah.

[Dan Senor]

And I think, again, it worked for Trump, but I'm not sure they want it all out there.

[Mark Bednar]

Yeah. All right, I hear you. All right. Lots going on with China and Ukraine. Again, if you're familiar with my view of the American presidency, the whole goal is to have leverage over Netanyahu, Xi and Putin. That's the whole game. And Trump, one of the things we don't know all the details of is he did have leverage over Putin here, over, over Netanyahu here. Zelensky is coming on Friday to meet with the President. They say there's some things they want to talk about that they can only talk about in person. And amongst the things they're talking about is long range missiles for Ukraine. And on China, Scott Bessant is currently playing both good cop and bad cop. On the one hand saying the President's still likely to meet with Xi, saying there are talks going on, that there's some Chinese people coming, government officials coming to the US to meet. On the other hand, he continues to say, you know, the US has weapons to fight back. So Sean, how does the Middle east settlement, if at all impact the President's attempts with Ukraine and China? Do they give him sway, momentum, something or unrelated?

[Sean Spicer]

I think on Ukraine, yes, there's a sense of empowerment, a sense of, you know, we're riding high right now. I think that makes him feel good. I think he feels like a dealmaker. He saw Europe get behind him and feel like, hey, this, this goes back to the previous question. See, I told you guys I know what I'm doing and now it's hey, let me, let me show you I can do it again. I know how to leverage Putin. Just give me some more time. Let me talk about the Tomahawks, the intel share, the intelligence sharing, etc. So I think in, in that case, yeah, on China, not so much. I don't think China cares. I mean China's not like, hey, you guys got a deal in Israel? So like, wow, we're worried this is an economic thing more than anything else. But I will say that at the end of the day, we need this meeting to happen in Korea. On the sidelines. I don't think this is to me a first step. It's not the, it's not going to be a full summit where you get 18 deliverables. But I do think you'll get some breadcrumbs to say we agree to talk about this, we pause the tariffs on this until we meet. But they need that meeting to happen. We cannot escalate the way on both ends on the rare earth minerals or on the export controls. Neither of those things are good for either of our economies. Both know it. And I think getting a way to say we, we agree to a three month pause until we can meet in Beijing or wherever is going to be important. So, but I don't think China cares about what just happened as much as. As probably Putin does, because Putin says, this guy now feels strong and emboldened, and he's got a lot of things that he can use, and he's about to give away the store to show Europe that he played me.

[Mark Bednar]

Dan.

[Dan Senor]

Well, I think that the. It goes to the question in Ukraine that we've always said, which is, how do you get leverage over Putin? And I don't think Putin believes that Trump really wants to keep this war going. So I think the question is, does Trump now start leaning on Zelensky again to cut a deal to end this, or does he say, you know, look, I got to get leverage somehow over him, and I'm going to give him, like, the Tomahawks.

[Mark Bednar]

Yeah.

[Dan Senor]

And I think in China, it's, as Sean said, we both have leverage on each other. And I actually would say, Sean, China's the opposite, which is they don't want to give Trump more victories because they see it as a threat, as a struggle between the two countries, and it can't be good for both of us. So if Trump's successful on the world stage, it's not good for China.

[Mark Bednar]

Mandatory exit question. By Christmas, will Ukraine have hit Moscow with US Supplied Tomahawk missiles? Yes or no, Dan? Danny boy Tarantine.

[Dan Senor]

Not Moscow. That's a bridge too far, Sean.

[Mark Bednar]

Spicy spice. Spicer, no.

[Sean Spicer]

Spice latte. I concur.

[Stephen]

No.

[Sean Spicer]

Not hitting Moscow. Definitely not.

[Mark Bednar]

The correct answer is yes.

[Sean Spicer]

You hit Moscow with Tomahawks? Yeah, we're suiting up.

[Dan Senor]

I think they hit a military base near Moscow.

[Mark Bednar]

Well, they're gonna hit. They're gonna hit something. They're gonna hit something in the Moscow Metroplex with no. No human beings in it. Maybe some. Some unfortunate cleaning. Cleaning staff who work overnight. That's what I. That's what I think they're going to do.

[Dan Senor]

Wowzers.

[Mark Bednar]

Master. Moscow Metroplex. It's the only way to try to end the war at this point. And this president is a peacemaker. I don't know if you've heard that. All right. The shutdown continues unabated. It appears now that all the leverage points we talked about aren't going to be leverage points. Standard. The military is going to get paid. The president doesn't seem to care about firing federal workers. And now there's a new thought. Thought process in the Democratic Party that says, well, okay, let's lose this fight and, and make it clear that we fought for health care for people. Let the premiums go up, and then. And then have The Republicans own that in the midterms. In other words, not try to fix the problem, but. But let the voters decide. Dan, where are you today on the most likely place and time and manner in which this ends?

[Dan Senor]

I think it's the end of this month still. And I think what's so remarkable is, like in past shutdowns, the party shutting it down was never going to get what they wanted. Obama was never going to agree to Ted Cruz's demand to undo the aca. What's so kind of comical about this is everybody, I think, knows what's going to happen, which is you're going to reopen the government and you're going to do an ACA deal. I think when a couple more paychecks get missed and let's say TSA starts to incrementally have more problems and delays, it's undone. And I think the premiums going up will be a Democratic talking point, as it should be.

[Mark Bednar]

Yeah, Sean.

[Sean Spicer]

Yeah, I pretty much agree. I mean, look, the Republicans are going to address healthcare. There's no way in on God's earth they're gonna give a straight up extension. These were Covid subsidies. This is, I mean, the idea that we're like, I still can't believe that Democrats wanna hang their hat on this. A bunch of payoffs to big insurance companies, increased premiums due to Covid. I mean, this is insanity. And I think that if Republicans are smart, the they recognize how to sort of go in surgically and say, we're dealing with the premiums, we're gonna make sure that people don't, you know, have a huge gap or phase it in. So it's a 200%, you know, in the first year, and it kind of titrates down over the next couple or something. But, like, there's a solution to be had here. And I think if Democrats went the other way, as you proposed initially, that would be fantastic. Open the government back down, let us solely fix the thing. Pick off 5, 10 Democrats on the Senate side. That would be part of the solution. Win, win, win. I mean, I'm great with that. But I will say once again, the Republicans need to be holding the Democrats feet to the fire more. This idea of like, we're gonna vote every three days, like this is the 1800s and we've gotta wait a fortnight in between so that we can go home to Mrs. Lincoln is insane. Noon should be holding a vote every single hour. Right. And making this painful for them instead of being like, if you'd like to go home for the weekend to go to a fundraiser. We'll see you back here Tuesday afternoon. This is. I just. I find it ridiculous that Republicans are not putting more pressure on them.

[Dan Senor]

It's also wild that, like, they fired those CDC people on Friday night, and they rehired them on Sunday night. It's just. And they're like, oh, we're going to pay these people. We're going to pay these people. Like, you can tell the White House is super sensitive to the optics of hurting people.

[Stephen]

Yeah.

[Dan Senor]

So I think it just continues.

[Mark Bednar]

Okay, I need you both to put your. Your hands up so we can see them. And I need neither of you to utter the word Siri or Alexa. I don't want any searching going on. Who's the youngest person ever to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom? And how old were they? Davy Crockett is an excellent guess, but not right. Dan.

[Dan Senor]

The youngest person.

[Mark Bednar]

All right, here comes the hint. It was an athlete or it is an athlete.

[Sean Spicer]

Tiger Woods.

[Dan Senor]

Yeah. Wait, no.

[Mark Bednar]

Who?

[Dan Senor]

Mary Lou Retton.

[Mark Bednar]

These are. These are. Those are both great guesses for a variety of reasons. It is a gymnast.

[Stephen]

Oh.

[Dan Senor]

Natalie Simone Biles.

[Mark Bednar]

Simone Biles. Correct. Sean Spicer wins. Dan, you got to buy Sean a piece of fairway and green merchandise. Sean, what would you like? I recommend the boxers.

[Sean Spicer]

Listen, I'm telling you, the quarter zip is so the boxers.

[Mark Bednar]

Dan, buy him some boxers there.

[Dan Senor]

He's getting off cheap.

[Mark Bednar]

All right. Today, on what would have been his 32 birthday, 32nd birthday, Charlie Kirk will be awarded that honor. Sean, what's the status of the political momentum for not just Turning Point, but for MAGA because of people being energized by the assassination of Charlie Kirk? Is that. Is it too soon to say, or do you see signs that it's having a tangible impact on the movement in a positive way?

[Sean Spicer]

I think it's too soon to say the full impact. There is no question. When you look at the rallies that Turning Point's having and the number of people that are coming out and the enthusiasm at those rallies, the number of signups. Remember, in this political environment, data is king. Being able to track somebody, to follow up with them is everything. It saves you a ton of money. It creates an imprint on your voter file. So we know what you care about, what motivates you. What's going on now, I think, isn't just about the short term. It's about the long term. Being able to get these people activated, motivated, and engaged for potentially decades. So I think the full impact is still to be seen. But this has been big, big, big. And the thing is, today will continue that. So the more that this event today just reminds people what's going on, we're 20 something days out from two elections. I know from the anecdotal conversations I've had in both Virginia and New Jersey, people say that there's a sign of motivation among young people in particular that they haven't seen in the past. So I think it's short term and potentially really impactful in the long term.

[Mark Bednar]

Dan? I've not pressed them, although I've asked, but I've seen no reporting anywhere about how much money they've raised killed. But I think they've raised both from small donors online, but also from large donors. So that's kind of a, again, just think about the politics of the implications of politics. That's a sleeping giant, right?

[Sean Spicer]

Yeah.

[Dan Senor]

And I don't think the White House, at least in the short run here, and probably through Vance's reelection or Vance's election, is going to allow Turning Point to just, you know, totally collapse. Selena Zito and I have actually exchanged messages on this very topic because that is the question that I wonder is by next summer, into the fall, with time, is the energy still there? And she, she sent me some photos of like in Western Pennsylvania, just young people meeting. And she's like, I'm telling you, it's real. They've been touched, they're moved, they're engaged. And she's like, I really don't think this is going to dissipate soon.

[Sean Spicer]

So, you know, I, I said this a while ago, but when I was at the RNC and we would send interns out, they would be like, hey, you know, we'd say, hey, can you go take these T shirts? There's a Hillary rally at George Mason University. We want you to go out and hold these signs. And they'd be like, can we put everything in a bag and wait till we get off the metro? Like, you would never want to be seen in the, we call it the dmv. The District, Maryland, Virginia, in like any Republican garb. None. And now you walk down the streets and the vendors in D.C. sell MAGA stuff. Right? The shift, the sea change, the culture is so different. And these kids on college campuses, we talked about a few earlier, you know, a couple weeks ago, after the death of Charlie. But like, there's a sense of like, I'm going to wear my MAGA hat with pride. And that's a very different signal that's going on.

[Mark Bednar]

When I was a kid in D.C. even, even the elephants at the National Zoo were a little embarrassed.

[Sean Spicer]

They were.

[Mark Bednar]

There you go. Okay, those of you who wish the show were just about the relationship between politics and media, you'll enjoy this segment. We're at the day when Pentagon reporters are supposed to sign Pete Hagsett's pledge not to leak information. Almost every news organization is going to decline to sign it, which means unless the Pentagon backs down, there'll be no reporters covering the Pentagon.

[Sean Spicer]

For legacy.

[Mark Bednar]

Well, no, it's not just legacy. News outlets broadly reject Pentagon rules before deadline for signing. There are some non legacy organizations also. But, but you know, if the Pentagon's not going to be covered by the New York Times and the Washington Post and the networks and Fox, including Fox, Fox and Newsmax. So there you go. One American news so far is the only one who said they're signing. And you see there the long list of folks who aren't. If you're watching, if you're listening on the, on the podcast, trust me, it's, it's not signing as a long list including Newsmax, the Washington Times, the Washington examiner and a few others on the.

[Dan Senor]

Right, Fox isn't on there, but they have said they're not signing it.

[Mark Bednar]

Exactly. So we'll see where that goes. Over the weekend, two leading figures in the Trump administration had confrontations with the media, one on Sunday. You've probably seen this, but for those of those who haven't, you'll, you'll find it interesting. I think this is this Vice President Vance. There's a long running late motif, a through line since George Stephanopoulos left the Democratic politics to go be an anchor at ABC News. Often if a Republican's feeling maybe a little under the gun or they don't like George's questions, they just lash out at George. Now, J.D. vance did not say, hey, George, former Clinton adviser, but he all but said that in this confrontation at the very end of George's interview with Vance, where George spent the vice president's right a great deal of time asking him the same question over and over about the border czar's alleged acceptance of $50,000 of taxpayer money. I don't know why George didn't make the point about it being taxpayer money. That seemed to me to be the most important thing. But here's the end of that exchange.

[Sean Spicer]

So you don't what was caught on the tape. You're saying right now you don't know whether or not he kept that money.

[J.D. Vance]

I don't know what tape you're Referring to George, I saw media reports that Tom Homan accepted a bribe. There's no evidence of that. And here's George, why fewer and fewer people watch your program and why you're losing credibility because you're talking for now five minutes with the Vice President, United States about this story regarding Tom Holman, a story that I've read about, but I don't even know the video that you're talking about. Meanwhile, low income women can't get food because the Democrats and Chuck Schumer have shut down the government. Right now we're trying to figure out how to pay our troops because Chuck Schumer has shut down the government. You are focused on a bogus story. You're insinuating criminal wrongdoing against a guy who has done nothing wrong. Instead of focusing on the fact that, that our country is struggling because our government shut down, let's talk about the real issues. George. I think the American people would benefit much more from that than from you going down some weird left wing rabbit hole where the facts clearly show that Tom Homan didn't engage in any criminal wrongdoing.

[Sean Spicer]

It's not a weird left wing rabbit hole. I didn't insinuate anything. I asked you whether Tom Homan accepted $50,000, as was heard on an audio tape recorded by the FBI in September 2024, and you did not answer the question. Thank you for your time this morning.

[J.D. Vance]

No, I said that I don't.

[Sean Spicer]

Up next. We'll be right back.

[Mark Bednar]

Steamroll's right over. Guys, a quick question before we show one more piece of tape. Is this a better band name or book title? Weird left wing rabbit hole. Band name or book title? Dan? Band name or book title?

[Dan Senor]

Band name.

[J.D. Vance]

Band name.

[Mark Bednar]

Band. I think it's a good book title. All right, here is Donald Trump. Also on Sunday on Air Force One, he's talking to Dasha Burns, former NBC News correspondent hired by Politico to host their Sunday podcast. They call it a Sunday show, I think. And she's asking the President a lot of questions. And all of a sudden the president realizes he claims he doesn't know who Dasha Burns is and he doesn't like her questions. And then he expresses his macro view of the Politico. Roll that, please.

[Sean Spicer]

Are you considering walking up? Who are you with? Politico. Dasha Burns, sir.

[Dasha Burns]

Dasha.

[Stephen]

Politico.

[Sean Spicer]

Politico has gone bad.

[Dasha Burns]

They've been so wrong about everything.

[Dan Senor]

Politico. No, no.

[Dasha Burns]

Politico has been so wrong about everything.

[Sean Spicer]

Let's get somebody else to Ask some questions.

[Dasha Burns]

You mind?

[Sean Spicer]

Is that all right, Ms. Politico?

[Dasha Burns]

Is fake news.

[Mark Bednar]

The president's also very unhappy with Time magazine. This was. This is the least surprising Trump story I've ever reported. The president very happy to be on the COVID because he loves being on covers, but he doesn't like the picture. Time magazine wrote a relatively good story about me, but the picture may be the worst of all time. They disappeared my hair and then had something floating on top of my head that looked like a floating crown, but an extremely small one. This is a true social post. Really weird. I never liked taking pictures from underneath angles, but this is a super bad picture and deserves to be called out. What are they doing and why? And the headline is his triumph. It's very favorable story. The president yesterday at one of his media events in the Middle east, said he'd been watching a lot of the coverage on the plane and he liked the coverage of the trip. But again, this is from Hegseth to. To Vance to Trump. Dan, what's the state of the Trump administration's relationship with what this reporter calls the dominant media?

[Dan Senor]

Well, I. Look, it's. I said, I think in 2.0, the entire team has adopted Trump's mentality, you know, which is just when you don't like the questions, go on the offense and attack in very personal and aggressive terms. And I just. You always ask yourself if you behave that way at work or you behave that way in front of your kids, how would you feel? To me, it's an unprofessional, like, jerk move. It just is. Like they. In Pam Bondi in her hearing, right. Whether it's J.D. vance, Donald Trump, of course, he. He knows who Dasha Burns is. It's to belittle. It's to make her feel small. It's to make her feel irrelevant. It's to hit her and put her down. And I thought J.D. vance, you know, it's the same thing. He's just trying to insult him and put him down. I mean, look, it is what it is. They're not going to change. But nobody would, Sean, if we behaved that way. If you were in a corporate setting and you behaved that way, you would be in trouble.

[Sean Spicer]

I thought he was very polite to Dasha, by the way.

[Mark Bednar]

Yeah. Do you know what?

[Stephen]

You know what?

[Mark Bednar]

You know what Monty Burns would say about Dasha Burns, right? She'd say, dasha Burns, eh, Doesn't ring a bell. That's what he'd say.

[Sean Spicer]

Well, first of all, I. I don't know why it's somehow we're supposed to just sit back and take it, like, you know, here's another but.

[Mark Bednar]

But George. George was asking the vice president here, you have a senior member of the. Well, but he never answered. The senior management member of the administration, reportedly. And I haven't heard anybody dispute the reporting. It's not the worst Mr. Burns invitation ever. My son's is worse. Thank you very much. I glanced at the chat. I should have done it. He got $50,000 reportedly caught on audio tape from my tax money. My tax money paid for that 50 grand. So it wasn't a private bribe. It was. It was a setup. It was a sting. So I want to know, as just my former colleague George STEPHANOPOULOS, where's my 50,000? Is it still in the pocket of Tom Homan or did he return it? It seems like a legitimate question.

[Sean Spicer]

Okay, first of all, fair enough. Right? So you can ask a question. If I tell you at some point, and there's plenty of stuff like people issues, I'll say, hey, that's an interesting question. I don't know. He said, I haven't seen the video. I don't know. And he goes, but you have to answer this question. And what JD said is, here's what I do know. He was cleared. So that's what I cared about.

[Dan Senor]

Not true. But not true that he's been.

[Mark Bednar]

Well, he wasn't charged.

[Dan Senor]

He wasn't sure even.

[Mark Bednar]

But. But the FBI said that if you're a reporter. If you're a reporter. If you're a reporter and you ask a question and you don't get an answer, you face a choice about how long to persist. Right. And usually my role is how many rules.

[Stephen]

Yeah.

[Sean Spicer]

We're all watchers of. Of that show and of other Sunday shows.

[Dasha Burns]

Yeah.

[Sean Spicer]

Name one time a Democrat has been followed up with more than twice on any question before the host moved on. JD Made his point. He didn't know what the video was.

[Mark Bednar]

He didn't want to answer the question. He.

[Sean Spicer]

Stephanopoulos wanted a soundbite. I would have said, when he chose to answer the question at the end, he cut him off.

[Mark Bednar]

Yeah. Greg Kelly is texted me to say that the money comes from federal seizures, not from the tax money. But I say to you, Greg, all money is fungible. All money is fungible.

[Dan Senor]

Look, I just think it's a bad.

[Mark Bednar]

I would like the vice president to be a guardian of our money. I don't care if it came from seizures. I want to be a guardian of our money. He should be curious about where that money went. Not dodging the question.

[Dan Senor]

Look, I'll say this dodged questions to Brett Baer. The right went nuts.

[Mark Bednar]

Yeah, right.

[Stephen]

Yeah.

[Dan Senor]

Just again, does bully ball.

[Mark Bednar]

Let me ask you, let me ask you this. To close out our media section, which is again, they're wildly popular with the, with the community, with the kids. Should Democrats, if you're running For President in 2028, should you adopt this as part of your arsenal to go after the media when, when they, when you don't like what they doing, should that.

[Sean Spicer]

Be part of what they're part of your party? So if you want to.

[Mark Bednar]

But they aren't any. But they are less and less.

[Dan Senor]

That's not.

[Mark Bednar]

Yeah, they are less and less.

[Dan Senor]

I mean, look, my advice is you need to be who you are. Right. Trump is an authentic bully, like, so his whole team is bullies because it's an audition for one. Well, sadly, Mark, I think you're right. I do think that the base is going to demand the same punch in the face attitude. Again, I think it's just unprofessional.

[Mark Bednar]

But if you do it, but if you do it on the merits, I think it's okay. So for instance, Sanders does it, Bernie Sanders, if you ask him superficial questions, if you ask him a gossip or, you know, personality, he'll say, you know, quite frankly, you know, you know, you should be asking me about, you know, poverty. And the mood of the Sanders wing of the party is the press is horrible.

[Dan Senor]

So I agree.

[Mark Bednar]

I don't think it has to be like inauthentic. I think it can be.

[Sean Spicer]

But, but the difference between the right and the left is the folks on the left think that the media isn't enough in their pocket. That's the problem. That's the big difference. Sometimes they think like, you're against us. They're like, you don't like us enough.

[Mark Bednar]

Sometimes they think they're not tough enough on Trump or they're too corporate or as Sanders does, that they're not focused enough on the right issues. And, and all of those have some, have some truth to them. Raise your hand if you want to get in the conversation, particularly if you've never raised your hand before on this program. Lastly, a bunch of stuff going on continue to be private polling and some public polling in both the New Jersey and Virginia races that are making Democrats nervous. Mondami had a big rally last night.

[J.D. Vance]

That.

[Mark Bednar]

What'S her name spoke at Tisha James, Letitia James, and she was defiant about her indictment in Maine. Democrats got their candidate the Former governor, but she may not win her primary. And what's the other big political development I wanted to mention? Don't recall, gentlemen, any in our political potpourri category. Anything you want to weigh in on?

[Dan Senor]

I think, by the way, the other thing might have been Louisiana. The former governor passed on to be the fourth to see potentially. Yep.

[Mark Bednar]

Yeah. But Schumer got most of this.

[Sean Spicer]

I'll just say, look, I continue to believe Virginia is trending the right way, I think in from bottom of the ticket up Miaris outside the margin of error. John Reed tied, winsome down a little, but the wave is moving in the right direction for them. The question is, can they keep their foot on the pedal long enough to get them over the finish line the final 20 days? But. But I will say that the one thing that we, as we always wanted to before looking at several months back, we talked about the state of the DNC and Ken Martin as chairman, if Democrats lose both Virginia and New Jersey, I got to imagine that that. Okay, frame that shot. Take that right now.

[Stephen]

Ready?

[Dan Senor]

Yeah. Go.

[Sean Spicer]

Because here's what's going to happen if that happens, which I still believe we're in. I, I am a believer that that's very, very possible if not likely right now. If that happens, I gotta believe that. That that day after at the DNC is gonna be a shell shock.

[Mark Bednar]

Dan, who's the favorite to win the New Jersey governor's race right now?

[Dan Senor]

Republicans.

[Mark Bednar]

Yeah.

[Sean Spicer]

Yeah.

[Dan Senor]

No, I mean, they just, you talk to people, the trend lines are bad. She can't seem to kind of get back on, off. She's still on defense, watching football and stuff this weekend in New York City, obviously, is the media market for northern New Jersey. It's all against her. And, and I think the interesting thing, by the way, just for me, is Maine, can Janet Mills win the primary? Because usually when Schumer gets a big recruit like this, it kind of like the opposition peters out because everyone gets on board.

[Mark Bednar]

Yeah.

[Sean Spicer]

You mentioned for Republicans.

[Mark Bednar]

You mentioned opposition. It's going to be interesting to see who provides opposition research on these two particular candidates in the race. They've never run before. They run small businesses. You know, I'm sure, I'm sure there's stuff that could be fodder for negative mail and negative planted news stories. We'll see if that backfires on New Jersey and Virginia. I will say it wasn't that long ago when the sort of conventional wisdom of the Democratic Party was, well, all of our current leaders are horrible, but these two ladies are going to win, they're going to be candidates for president or at least vice president in 2028 and now, I mean, it's to some extent because they both turned out to not be particularly good candidates. They're not particularly good at answering hard questions, which is part of the job. All right.

[Dan Senor]

I think what you also see, Mark, is neither has proactive, positive ideas. It's all negative.

[Mark Bednar]

They have some on the economy. They both have some ideas in the economy. They do.

[Sean Spicer]

I agree with Dan.

[Dan Senor]

Very, very small, very small.

[Mark Bednar]

They're not great, but they're, they're actually more than most. I give them credit. All right, time for your questions here. If you're on the two way platform, please raise your hand. If you'd like to get into the conversation. We'll bring you in. You'll say where you are, geographically, you can, city, county, planet, whatever specificity you want to share with us. And then, and then ask what you want. And we start with Stephen. Stephen, welcome in Unmute. Love the shirt, love the beard. Love it, love it.

[Stephen]

Hey, thanks.

[Mark Bednar]

Good morning, Sean.

[Dasha Burns]

I just got to give a quick apology real quick to Sean. The last time I was on here, I said I hated you. But what I was saying was when you were in the White House, as a result of me being a liberal now I'm absolutely in love with you.

[Mark Bednar]

And I think you're the best.

[Dasha Burns]

So I'll take it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just want to clean up my mess for my side of the street.

[Mark Bednar]

That's all right. Thank you.

[Dasha Burns]

Just to jump up, to jump on the media question, like what you brought up earlier. I think what's interesting is if, if you go back and you just watch the way that reporters of all news networks, for the most part in the mainstream, speak to Democrats, they allow them so much time, like just go look at like Senator Warren, for example, like, well, what do you think about this? And then she'll over talk them. They won't fight back during that talk back and then give her a 2 minute diatribe about some kind of crazy nonsense that has nothing to do with the question. That's just railroading the fact that Republicans are shutting down. It's like just complete nonsense. And if J.D. vance makes any kind of comment or anybody on the right makes a comment just to make their own point, they're like pushback, pushback, pushback, pushback, pushback. And I think if you just go watch it and try to count the amount of times that they try to follow up and push back on Republicans making a point versus the diatribes that they allow the Democrats to make the point. Dan, I think it shuts your point down. I mean, to Sean's point, the Democrats don't think they're in their pocket enough and they clearly do not allow Republicans to speak their mind for the most part. And so what's your honest answer to that, Stephen?

[Mark Bednar]

Based on the, based on that performance, I'd like you to take over the show. That was.

[Dasha Burns]

For a show for you, Mark. I'm in.

[Mark Bednar]

Okay. Okay. That was awesome. Dan, high energy response, please.

[Stephen]

Yeah.

[Dan Senor]

Look, I don't disagree with you that if you go on abc, CBS or NBC as a rule, it is favorable for Democrats. They're going to give you kind of time and space. And as a Republican, you're going a little bit into the lion's den. Right. Just like if a Democrat goes on Fox News, you know, it's, it's going to be a little more hostile than if, you know, J.D. vance went on. Bret Baier. Right. I think in my personal opinion, there's a way to do it, that you're not a jerk and it's not a nasty personal insult when you push back. I've seen candidates do it and I hear you. Right. I mean, sometimes you just get frustrated. We're all human. If it happened once or twice, I'd say, okay, they just snapped. It's live tv. They had had enough. But when I look at a lot of the Cabinet secretaries in hearings, Donald Trump, J.D. vance, to me it's, they're all adopting the same thing, which is just punch right in the face with a personal insult. And that's not how I operate on how I would want my kids to operate. And I'll go back to if you're in a company and you were in a meeting or with a client and you talk to them like that, you would be in trouble. And after a while, you'd be fired.

[Dasha Burns]

So I have, I have two things to say to that. First of all, those two people you mentioned, Donald Trump and J.D. vance, are fine American patriots. Just to let you know, damn, you.

[Dan Senor]

Can be a jerk and a fine patriot at the same time.

[Dasha Burns]

Second of all, the kind of people that we're talking about, J.D. vance and Donald Trump, are not the kind of people that work inside corporations. They're the kind of people that build businesses. And that's a fact. And so the kind of people that build businesses are the kind of people that speak their mind and speak the truth to power. And I think that's what we find the People that work inside those corporate media hubs are people that are guided by an insight or sort of a lane that drives there. I don't want to use the word agenda because it's so, you know, conspiracy, theorial or whatever, but like, there is a left wing bias. And I think that if everybody would just sit up and say, hey, look, I'm Kamala Harris and I agree that ABC is on my side in some small way, but make it obvious that we all understand, then maybe the Democrats could start to gain some trust. Now, you don't really need our trust because my son basically has become a communist and my mom is a far left wing liberal and I'm, you know, Mr. Maga. And so it's like, do we really need it? Right. Everybody has an audience. But when you think about cnn, abc, you want those people to tell the truth and you want them to ask straight up questions to everybody and give the same pushback to Senator Warren's diatribe on whatever the case may be that she wants to get across when they're asking her a question about some bad policy that she's interested in.

[Stephen]

Right.

[Dasha Burns]

It's just not fair news if that's fair.

[Dan Senor]

Well, look, unfortunately the media is tribal now and it's the same exact thing on the Right. It's the same exact thing.

[Dasha Burns]

Right. So we can all agree to that.

[Dan Senor]

Right.

[Dasha Burns]

So like for the people in the chat, right, there's a couple of people that. And this is literally just for our show here, but like, we can admit that the media is tribal and so we can admit that George Stephanopoulos is trying to push an idea that Republicans are shutting the government down or that Tom Homan is a, is a criminal.

[Dan Senor]

Right.

[Dasha Burns]

Instead of allowing people to speak and talk about the merits of the questions and allow people the same pushback. I appreciate your honesty. That's why I love this show. That's why I love you. Dan, I think you're great. I would love to have you over for a fine cup of coffee one day and I could tell you about all the bad policy problems that you promote.

[Dan Senor]

Sean, we might not use alcohol for that.

[Dasha Burns]

I think you're a fine American patriot also, sir.

[Mark Bednar]

Sean, anything you want to say?

[Sean Spicer]

I think I'm good.

[Stephen]

Okay.

[Mark Bednar]

Stephen, thank you. Grateful to have you.

[Dan Senor]

Thanks.

[Dasha Burns]

God bless you guys.

[Mark Bednar]

Appreciate it. Thank you. All right, Thomas, welcome in. Tell folks who don't know. Hold on, Haywire, here we go. Thomas, thank you for joining. What's on your mind for Dan and Sean, man, this is bad day here. Oh, Up. My apologies. Already getting complaints. Thomas, you're good. Unmute, please. Can you do that? One more? There you go.

[Stephen]

Sure. I want to change subjects a little bit with the section 230. When do you think that we should take media platforms liability off the table and hold them accountable as well as people to post and kind of, you know, basically bully on the media platforms and don't hold anybody accountable. So I know this has created a lot of problems and suicides and so forth. So when do you think that the American, and I guess maybe a law or so forth, take it off. What are your thoughts about that?

[Mark Bednar]

Sean M. Spicer.

[Sean Spicer]

I'm sorry. So is the question to reform 230?

[Stephen]

Yes, sir.

[Sean Spicer]

I think it needs big reform for obvious reasons because of how it was initially how we defined these folks as publishers and not content providers. So, I mean, I think the problem is, and Mark has brought this up in the past, I think Dan would agree. The tech lobby is right up there with pharma, big Food, the gun lobby, like, as a force. And I would be interested in my colleagues ranking because I would say to some degree they might be number one. If not, I mean, pharma and big food are somewhere in there. But I think the impact of MAHA has diminished them just a little bit. And so I think as much as it deserves it, it's hard to break through because these guys will go to members of Congress to make it clear how many jobs are in their district, how many companies and blah, blah, blah. And you saw like even this morning, Instagram, the head of Instagram was out on the Today show trying to claim that somehow all these reforms that they're making are making it safe for kids. They're doing what they can but to make it go away. But we need serious reform in that. And I think too many lawmakers are, are willing to do what they can to adhere to big tech.

[Stephen]

But my point though, John, is that on TV or newspaper, you cannot, unless it's opinion, lie about things you cannot don't hold and you hold them accountable. And I don't know why we're not doing that.

[Sean Spicer]

Because. Because 230 won't give you the right. Now they the same way that you have to prove malice under Sullivan, that if you wanna go up to the Washington Post or something and say that they actually had, you have to show it. It costs a lot of money to do that. A lot of lawyers. And so they have a huge amount of legal protection.

[Dan Senor]

Well, and look, the challenge is that news is no longer just abc, cbs, and you know, fox. Right. When I was a kid, you just turned the dial on the television. Now it's, you get news through social media, you get news through cable. We just talked about, or we've talked a lot about how Democrats treated the media during COVID Right. The Biden administration reaching out and saying, shut down these, what they thought were conspiracy theories about the vaccines. Well then it turns out a few years later, maybe they weren't conspiracy theories. So it's always a question of kind of who, you know, what are the facts and the facts as you see them. And I think the tech companies would just argue that they trying to shut down everybody is impossible. I sat in a meeting where Al Franken and a tech CEO got into a fight over this because Al Franken was like, I'm the only senator who's created content. Right? You guys need to regulate this. And the CEO argued, no. And he said, you do it for China.

[Stephen]

Japan is basically holding them accountable, a way of regulating them, self regulating them.

[Dan Senor]

Well, look again, when you say holding them accountable for what? Conspiracy theories, for half truths. I mean, look, you watch content across all platforms and as a Democrat, I see some of the things said in various places and online about Democrats that are just not true.

[Stephen]

Exactly.

[Dan Senor]

Yeah. You start saying that everyone who tells a half truth has their license. Or are you going to license cable news?

[Stephen]

Well, here's my, my follow up question. How do we do our FCC licensing? Should that change? Do we give it.

[Sean Spicer]

I think that's a great question. I love that. Yeah.

[Stephen]

Yeah.

[Mark Bednar]

Okay, so that's.

[Stephen]

Thank you. Yeah, thank you.

[Mark Bednar]

Thank you.

[Dan Senor]

Great, great question.

[Mark Bednar]

Yeah, really good question. Thank you. Okay, Haley, welcome in. Haley, put that thing away. I'm not putting you on camera with that thing. That thing away. All right, unmute.

[Dan Senor]

You're gonna blow away outside. Haley.

[Haley]

Oh, it's so cold, guys. What happened to New York? It's freezing. First of all, it's a great, great day. I was not here yesterday because I was awake till like the start of two way, watching all the homecomings of all the hostages and just what a fantastic day yesterday was. Even all the way here, just watching, listening to everybody in Israel. So I couldn't be happier today waiting to take this off for the last 24. But my question is, I was actually, when the deal was implemented, like on Friday, Thursday, Friday, I was very, I was waiting to see out of the people who were calling for a ceasefire. I was waiting to see some kind of response, some kind of acknowledgment that this is an amazing thing that's happening, that. Not even giving credit to President Trump, because I knew that that was never going to happen. But why? I don't know if this was talked about on your other shows, and I apologize for asking the question again, but why is the.

[Mark Bednar]

Not.

[Haley]

Is the ceasefire now crowd completely silent? And I want to know if you guys have any insight as to why.

[Mark Bednar]

Yeah, you know, it's an interesting question because one could attribute it to psychology or tactics or strategy or just a. They just don't ever give Trump credit. I don't know what the answer is. It's some combination of those things, but it's. It's phenomenal. It's phenomenal. Now, if you want to give. The most charitable thing I could say is they still believe there was genocide, and so they're still upset about a genocide that, you know, and you don't get over that easily, even if there's. Even if the genocide stops. But it's incredible. It's. It's totally incredible. Sean, thoughts?

[Sean Spicer]

I'm with you. I sort of. I. There was one woman that sent out a tweet that had a pretty decent following the other day that said, I wish we could have done this without Trump or something. Like, we need to do it. And I'm like, why? If you actually care about lives and humanity, then why do you care who solved it? Like, you want peace, you want the destruction to stop, and yet there's such tds that people are like, yeah, I don't want people to die, but I just don't want Trump to be the guy that does it, that's so sick and deranged that you care about who stopped the depravity. So, anyway, I think it's a great question. I share Mark's like, intrigue as to, like, why this is the case, but I think it's probably all the aforementioned things he said.

[Mark Bednar]

Dan, you're in charge of those people.

[Stephen]

What.

[Mark Bednar]

What are they doing?

[Dan Senor]

Look, I think you guys both said it pretty well. The other thing, I'll just add, and I've said this in kind of the macro war can be good for certain people's business. It gin up outrage to constantly have an enemy to point at and say they're the reason life is terrible, that they have to be stopped, whether it's Hamas or, you know, Trump or whatever. And if there's peace, it's like, now what do we do? You know, like, you gotta look in the mirror. We have to take responsibility for our actions. We have to rebuild Right. So the issue now for the Palestinians is who's going to govern, build a civil society, not, you know, terrorism and trying to destroy Israel all day long.

[Sean Spicer]

A new way of life.

[Mark Bednar]

I'll give you, I'll give you another one that really is just incredible to me that that is not just about the left. It's also about the press. I've always been troubled, but that Israel, the unfairness of Israel having to free like 2, 000 people to get one person back.

[Sean Spicer]

Right.

[Mark Bednar]

But, but then in this case, the Israelis are getting back innocent people who were kidnapped and held in unhuman, inhumane conditions. And, and the Israelis are releasing murderers.

[Haley]

Yes.

[Mark Bednar]

Like, it's not just the numbers, a disparity. It's, it's the, it's the nature of the people. The, the people on the left should be outraged that killers are being released, but instead they just silence.

[Dan Senor]

Well, I think even, even Israel, they made a deal. Right. And I think there was I watching some of the coverage, some of the hawks in Israel are livid about that. Yeah, how could we do that Again? When you make a deal, part of the problem.

[Mark Bednar]

And again, Dan Senior mentioned, mentioned this on the Galloway podcast. Israel does this thing where they build up the hostages. This time more than ever, but always Israel doesn't downplay the hostages. They, they, they publicize the biographies. They humanize them. And that makes them more valuable to Hamas or whoever's taking the hostages. So that's part, Israel brings part of this on themselves by choosing a much different strategy than most governments take regarding when they're, when their people are taken hostage.

[Sean Spicer]

I can't believe, I mean, to me, the strength of the people of Israel to watch people who committed these atrocities get let out while in return they're getting back innocent hostages. 20 to me, I just can't some of the stories and Michael yesterday mentioned a couple like people who are personally connected to this, watching people who did this get freed while in return innocent civilians and the bodies of people that were killed.

[Haley]

Israel didn't release any terrorists that took place, took part in October 7th. So October 7th, all the prisoners that were released were not from the October 7th Nakba. They were from Intifada and from terrorist attacks like before. From what I know, Israeli reports, reporters saying nobody that was committed on October 7 was released in this prisoner swap. So if that's true, I hope that.

[Mark Bednar]

That'S true because I'm not sure that's true. I don't know. Haley, thank you.

[Dan Senor]

Grateful to you all.

[Mark Bednar]

Thanks for coming on. Sean M. Spicer, what do you have tonight?

[Sean Spicer]

Well, New Jersey, Virginia polling, plus obviously New York City and others. Jim McLaughlin, one of the president's pollsters, he's going to be with us tonight to break it all down and see if, if I'm way off, if everyone doesn't think that this can be pulled off, but I need Jim to reaffirm me or tell me I'm off track.

[Mark Bednar]

Yeah. Two Way tonight, six o'. Clock. Mark Bednar will join Republican strategist, Wisconsin native and others. We'll see at 6. And we'll have full coverage of the day's events, including Charlie Kirk's service or the Freedom Medal, Presidential Medal. At 4. Also at 4, David Boston will join me for another one of our conversations. We're going to focus on the AI's impact on the economy. Four o' clock today. It's only for the two way community private event. You can't watch it on YouTube. So if you want to join and ask David questions about AI or about the economy in general, investment advice, go to Two Way TV tbd. Sign up now for the event. You can also sign up there for David's newsletter. Many of you have done that already and are enjoying it, as you tell me regularly called the Dividend Cafe. Again, you can sign up for both the event and the newsletter at 2way TV at TBG. The newsletter is free, comes out daily and it's excellent. Then at 7 o' clock tonight, Michael Moynihan is joined by the great Steve Krakauer, who is a one of the best media analysts around, also produces Megyn Kelly's programs. Joining for that. And then later today, my Megyn Kelly Show. Next up, we'll drop my guests are Dan Senor, my dad, Morton Halpern, former senior government official. We'll talk about the fallout from the the peace deal. And my reported monologue is on the I think what are way too underappreciated aspects of why President Trump was able to make that deal, the things he does well that people even, even reporters who aren't hostile to him for some reason. I've never seen someone about whom so much is written and so little of it hits the mark about what he's actually like, what makes him good at what he does. So join me for that.

[Sean Spicer]

Yeah, you wanna, I know you did all your research on dancing or.

[Mark Bednar]

Yeah.

[Sean Spicer]

Since you got Mark Bendar on, do you want your, you want a little intel for him?

[Mark Bednar]

Yeah, go ahead.

[Sean Spicer]

Tomorrow it's his birthday, so a little, little heads up, you might want to butter him up.

[Mark Bednar]

Okay, I'll do.

[Dan Senor]

This is.

[Mark Bednar]

This is where I. I'd like to get him a Brewers win after last night's heartbreaking 2 to 1 defeat. Because if they go down to nothing at home. Dan, how many times have a major league team won a seven game series after going down to nothing at home?

[Sean Spicer]

The Red Sox did it, right?

[Mark Bednar]

Yeah, happens occasionally. Not a lot.

[Dan Senor]

Yeah, 20.

[Mark Bednar]

I think the answer's not a lot. No, not that high. Thank you all who've emailed in and asked to inquire about investing in two Way Again. Please don't be upset at us if we don't get back to you right away. We're not starting a new round of investment quite yet, but we've got your names and we'll be in touch. And if you'd like to sponsor the program. And again, I've heard from some of you this week, so I'll remind folks, if you want to be a sponsor of this program or any other program in 2way, send us an email at sponsors at 2way TV. Sponsors at 2way TV. Let us know what business you're in. Be nice if you let us know what. What kind of budget you have, at least. At least tentatively, and we'll be in touch if, if we think it can work out. Thank you for your attention to that matter and to everything else. And we'll see you in 23 hours right back here. Have a great day, everybody.

[Stephen]

Bye.