Democracy at Stake + No Kings with Rep. Jamie Raskin

Summary

Podcast Summary: Bleep! with Ana Navarro

Episode: Democracy at Stake + No Kings with Rep. Jamie Raskin
Date: April 6, 2026
Host: Ana Navarro
Guest: Rep. Jamie Raskin

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Episode Overview

In this deeply candid and often irreverent episode of "Bleep! with Ana Navarro," Ana explores the themes of democratic resilience, political accountability, and the endurance of hope in the face of demagoguery. In conversation with Congressman Jamie Raskin, a leading defender of constitutional democracy and a vocal critic of Donald Trump, Ana examines the stakes of the upcoming midterm elections, the importance of public protest, the state of congressional oversight, and the role of personal tragedy in public service. The episode also dives into headline-grabbing political scandals—delivered with Ana’s signature blunt humor.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The No Kings Protest & The Power of Public Demonstration

[02:31-08:04]

• Ana and Raskin reflect on their participation in the nationwide "No Kings" protests, a movement against authoritarianism and Trump's abuses of power.
• Ana describes how these protests restore her sense of hope and community:
  Quote: "It was people refusing to be silent, refusing to be intimidating, refusing to be afraid and coming out and doing what Americans do, protesting against dictatorship …" (Ana Navarro, [03:32])
• Protests have had concrete political results, such as flipping Republican seats in 30+ special elections.
• Ana highlights the humor and creativity of protest signs, reading some of her favorites.

2. What’s At Stake in the 2026 Midterms?

[12:08-15:37]

• Ana ponders the tangible changes if Democrats retake the House, mainly via placing Raskin as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
• Raskin underscores the mission to "rescue our Constitution and our Bill of Rights from people who would destroy every single aspect of it…" ([12:46])
• He stresses that "No Kings Day" protests are a renewal of democratic vows: Quote: “It is a renewal of our democratic vows that we pledge to each other our sacred honor ... to make sure that we're going to live in a society without kings and queens and dictators and lords and emperors and bullies and despots.” (Rep. Jamie Raskin, [13:30])

3. Congressional Oversight & the Epstein Files

[15:37-19:59]

• Raskin recounts Attorney General Pam Bondi’s evasiveness before the Judiciary Committee concerning the unreleased Jeffrey Epstein files.
• Republicans have abdicated their oversight responsibilities, according to both Ana and Raskin.
• Notable discovery: Raskin, one of few to review unredacted documents, shares an email implying that Trump misled the public on his relationship with Epstein: Quote: "Donald Trump has been saying ... that he got rid of Jeffrey Epstein ... but this would suggest he never kicked him out..." (Rep. Raskin, [18:00])
• Potential for legislative action if Democrats control the committee.

4. Restoring Accountability: ICE, DHS, and Political Corruption

[20:28-28:50]

• Ana pushes for investigations into abuses by ICE and names specific high-profile cases of violence and assassination.
• Raskin assures that a Democratic majority could launch thorough investigations "into everything that you're talking about, the violence committed against US citizens, the violence committed against immigrants, the dozens of deaths that have occurred in ICE custody." ([21:22])
• Discussion of potential corruption involving Kristi Noem and her staff, as well as Corey Lewandowski and DHS vendor shakedowns.
• Raskin remarks on the unprecedented scale of corruption and personal enrichment under the Trump administration: Quote: "Trump himself has made at least a billion and a half dollars ... The White House into an instrument of corrupt self-enrichment..." ([23:00])

5. National Security & Vetting Failures

[24:06-28:50]

• Ana asks about Kristi Noem's husband’s scandal and the implications for national security.
• Raskin relates Trump-era failures in vetting officials, drawing parallels to prior scandals: Quote: "He just kind of ran roughshod over any of the rules and regulations ... taking the position that he was a king." ([25:09])
• The conversation delves into the systemic dangers of such failures—blackmail, extortion, compromised security.

6. The Courts, the Rule of Law & the Supreme Court’s Role

[28:50-30:29]

• Raskin praises district and appellate courts for upholding constitutional checks, but warns the Supreme Court has been "packed and stacked" by MAGA:
  Quote: "Our problem is the Supreme Court, which has been sliced and diced and packed and stacked and gerrymandered by MAGA." ([29:19])
• The Garland Supreme Court nomination, manipulated for partisan gain, is cited as emblematic.

7. Personal Loss, Democracy Summer & Holding onto Hope

[31:07-36:28]

• Raskin discusses his Democracy Summer initiative to educate young people on political and moral philosophy.
• He reflects on the death of his son Tommy and how honoring Tommy's values sustains his activism: Quote: “We try to live in his honor and do the kinds of things that he would have considered significant and important…” ([33:15])
• On hope, Raskin recalls his father’s words: Quote: “When everything looks hopeless, you’re the hope… Go out and engage and be the hope for somebody else.” ([35:02])

8. Threats to Election Integrity & Fighting Authoritarianism

[37:40-39:37]

• Ana expresses public anxiety over possible insurrections and threats to election integrity in 2026 and beyond.
• Raskin validates these fears, outlines ongoing Republican attempts at voter suppression, but notes that election administration is largely state-run: Quote: “It’s going to be a fight in every single state.” (Rep. Jamie Raskin, [39:15])
• Both agree that the path forward is protecting voting rights and mobilizing record turnout.

9. Viral Political Scandals: The Kristi Noem Saga

[44:20-52:48]

• Ana wraps the episode with an unfiltered, brash segment on the scandal surrounding Kristi Noem’s husband and its hypocrisy, hilarity, and national security implications.
• She lampoons Noem’s hypocrisy on LGBTQ+ and drag issues compared to her private household.
• Notable zinger:
  Quote: “She keeps asking me, are you sure this is true? It’s just so weird. Are you sure it’s not AI? No, it is not AI.” (Ana Navarro, [44:20])
• Ana reads off viral Internet quips about the story, underscoring the political irony and human cost of Noem’s policies.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Ana Navarro [03:32]: "It was people refusing to be silent, refusing to be intimidating, refusing to be afraid and coming out and doing what Americans do, protesting against dictatorship …"
• Jamie Raskin [13:30]: “It is a renewal of our democratic vows… to make sure that we're going to live in a society without kings and queens and dictators and lords and emperors and bullies and despots.”
• Ana Navarro [15:37]: “Republicans have completely ceded that duty … and are just not performing that.”
• Jamie Raskin [18:00]: "…this would suggest he never kicked [Epstein] out, and there was no big breach behind it."
• Jamie Raskin [23:00]: "Trump himself has made at least a billion and a half dollars ... The White House into an instrument of corrupt self-enrichment..."
• Jamie Raskin [25:09]: "He just kind of ran roughshod over any of the rules and regulations ... taking the position that he was a king."
• Ana Navarro [44:20]: “She keeps asking me, are you sure this is true? It’s just so weird. Are you sure it’s not AI? No, it is not AI.”
• Jamie Raskin [35:02]: “When everything looks hopeless, you’re the hope… Go out and engage and be the hope for somebody else.”

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Timestamps of Important Segments

• [02:31-08:04] — Ana’s opening: The spirit and impact of the No Kings protest.
• [12:08-15:37] — Raskin on the stakes of Democratic control in Congress.
• [15:37-19:59] — Oversight battles: The Epstein files and Pam Bondi.
• [20:28-28:50] — ICE abuses, DHS scandals, and systemic corruption.
• [28:50-30:29] — Courts, the Supreme Court, and the fight for rule of law.
• [31:07-36:28] — Raskin on Democracy Summer, personal grief, and hope.
• [37:40-39:37] — Election integrity and threats from Trumpism.
• [44:20-52:48] — Ana’s deconstruction of the Kristi Noem scandal: hypocrisy, memes, and security risks.

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Tone & Style Notes

• The episode is frank, unsparing, and frequently laced with Ana's dark humor and irreverent critique.
• Both Ana and Raskin emphasize courage, resilience, and practical hope—refusing to succumb to either despair or denial.
• Language is bold and unfiltered, especially when skewering hypocrisy and abuses of power.

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Conclusion

This episode offers a sobering but energizing look at the struggle to defend democracy—with a fierce insistence on accountability, community, and humor in the process. Rep. Jamie Raskin emerges as both a sharp constitutional scholar and a figure of personal resilience; Ana Navarro’s candid, comedic style makes the heavy subject matter accessible and galvanizing. For anyone concerned about America’s democratic future, this is required listening.

Transcript

[Bob Pittman]

Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia, and I'm kicking off a brand new season of my podcast, Math and Stories from the frontiers of Marketing. Math and Magic takes you behind the scenes of the biggest businesses and industries while sharing insights from the smartest minds in marketing. Coming up this season on Math and Magic, CEO of Liquid Death, Mike Cesario.

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People think that creative ideas are like these light bulb moments that happen when you're in the shower where it's really

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You're constantly just chipping away and refining.

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Take to interactive CEO Strauss Selnick and her own chief Business officer, Lisa Coffey. Listen to math and Magic on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

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Then she says, have you seen a

[Ana Navarro]

photo of my son? And I'm like, who is this person?

[Host of Boys and Girls Podcast]

Welcome to the boys and girls Podcast. Arranged marriage is basically a reality show and you're auditioning for your soulmate. And who's judging? Only your entire family. I sacrificed myself to this ancient tradition, hoping to find love the right way, and instead I found chaos, comedy, and a lot of cringe. Listen to boys and Girls on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Dr. Maya Shankar]

Hey, I'm Dr. Maya Shankar, a cognitive scientist and host of the podcast A Slight Change of Plans, a show about who we are and who we become when life makes other plans.

[Cheryl Strayed]

I wish that I hadn't resisted for so long the need to.

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We have to be willing to live with a kind of uncertainty that none of us likes. You can have opinions, you can have,

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like, a strong stance, and then there's

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your body having its own program.

[Dr. Maya Shankar]

Listen to A Slight Change of plans on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Host of Eating While Broke Podcast]

It's Financial Literacy Month and the podcast Eating While Broke is bringing real conversations about money, growth, and building your future. This month hear from top streamer Zoe Spencer and venture capitalist lakeisha Landrum Pierre as they share their journeys from starting out to leveling up.

[Ana Navarro]

There's an economic component to communities thriving. If there's not enough money and entrepreneurship

[Dr. Maya Shankar]

happening in communities, they fail.

[Host of Eating While Broke Podcast]

Listen to Eating While Broke from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Ana Navarro]

Hello, everyone. Welcome to bleep. This week we have a great show for you. Thank you so much for being here and for giving us a listen. So this week we have as a guest Congressman Jamie Raskin. I was with him in Florida a few days ago at the no Kings protest. He spoke there, I spoke there. And listening to him speak just made me think about how different Congress would be, how different life for the Trump administration would be and for Americans if Jamie Raskin was the chairman of the Judiciary Committee instead of the ranking member and in the minority. And that could very well happen this November. And you know, I want to talk about what, as somebody who participated in the no Kings protest, this is not my first. I suspect it won't be my last. You know, I always talk about things that bring hope for me. Being part of those protests brought me hope and just fill my tank with joy and this feeling that I'm not just sitting in my house alone, doom scrolling and watching terrible news on tv. And, and this was a spectacular display of democracy and action by the American people. There were over 3,300 protest rallies all over the country, all over the world. It was in all seven continents. I saw pictures of four people in Antarctica riding in the snow. It was people refusing to be silent, refusing to be intimidating, refusing to be afraid and coming out and doing what American do, protesting against dictatorship, protesting against authoritarianism and saying, hell no, we're not going to take it. And part of the reason that I feel so good every time I go to one of these is because you see people of every color, every ethnicity, every age group, every creed, together doing what Americans do and defending American values to together. So it's that sense of community and knowing that you're not alone that I think it's so important to keep this fight going. And you know, I get asked a lot, well, okay, but these protests, what are they good for? Are they going to translate into anything? Hell yes. They're translating into things. They're translating into flipping former Republican seats. There's been over 30 special elections where seats held by Republicans are now held by Democrats. And I'll tell you something else that I love about these protests, the signs. Turns out liberals. You know, I'm a lifelong Republican. I've gone to a ton of Republican events and protests throughout my life. And Republicans just don't hold a candle to liberals and Democrats when it comes to making signs. And as you know, the name of this podcast is bleep. And the reason it's called BLEEP is because there's things I can say here that don't get bleeped out that I couldn't say on the View or on cnn, on network tv. So one of the things I'm going to do for those of you who may not have gone to the no Kings protest. I'm going to read some of my favorite signs from those protests because they are just. They're just so creative and so damn funny. So let's go. My favorites. I pray big beautiful bill will be the name of Trump's cellmate. Trump. He's giving off small dictator energy. Imagine losing our country to a fat bitch that can't even blend his makeup. Veto the Cheeto. If Kamala was in charge, we'd all be at brunch. God knows that's true. I've seen better cabinets in Ikea. They're eating the checks. They're eating the balances. There is so much to protest. I couldn't decide what to put on this sign. Elect a sexual predator. Prepare to be fucked. The devil wears floor shine. And my favorite, because it's so important, Grab him by the midterms. So there you have it. One of the many reasons why I think these protests are such chicken soup for the soul. And as I said, I was in Miami at the protests, and I was along with our guest, Congressman Jamie Raskin, which is why I'm so happy to have him here today. I wanted him to give us the message that he was giving in Miami. I'm sure you all know who Jamie Raskin is because he's a real leader in Congress. He represents Maryland's 8th congressional district. He is the ranking member in the Judiciary Committee. He was a House manager in the Trump second impeachment. And he's been an outspoken, outspoken leader against Trump and an outspoken critic of Trump's abuses of powers. So when we come back, we will have Congressman Jamie Raskin speaking with us. So stay with us.

[John Green]

I'm John Green. You may know me as the author of the Fault in Our Stars. And now, I guess also as the co host of the Away End, a brand new world soccer podcast.

[Daniel Alarcon]

I'm Daniel Alarcon, a writer and journalist, and John and I have known each other since we were kids. My first World cup was Mexico. 86. I was nine years old. I watched every game and I fell in love. On our new podcast, the Away End, we'll share with you the magic of international football all leading up to the 2026 World Cup.

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For U.S. soccer. Football is a story we've shared for over 30 years, since Daniel was the star player on our high school soccer team.

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Very debatable.

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And I was their most loyal and sometimes only fan. I love this game. I love its history, its hope, its heartbreak, and above all, its beauty.

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Together, we'll find out why. Of all the unimportant things, football, soccer is the most important.

[John Green]

Listen to the away end with Daniel Alarcon and John green on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Cheryl Strayed]

Hi everyone. I'm Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things. I'm excited to share that I have a new podcast called Mind Over Mountain. In each episode, I interview athletes, adventurers, and adrenaline seekers to discuss the inner landscapes and life experiences that informed and inspired their extraordinary feats. I also bring a bit of advice into the mix so we, too, can better understand how to face our own seemingly insurmountable challenges.

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You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna pull out what you already have inside. We're coming into this world fighting for our lives. All I'm gonna do is pull out what you already got inside.

[Dr. Maya Shankar]

We're there to support and celebrate each other, and that is not like a your story versus my story.

[Cheryl Strayed]

You're gonna walk up and over that dang mountain. You're not just gonna put your mind over it.

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Yep, yep, exactly. And if I can't walk up and over it, I'm gonna go through it.

[Cheryl Strayed]

Listen to Mind Over Mountain every Thursday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Kristen Davis]

I'm Kristen Davis, host of the podcast Are youe a Charlotte? In 1998, my life was forever changed when I took on the role of Charlotte Yorke on a new show called Sex and the City. Now I get to sit down with some of my favorite people and relive all of the incredible moments this show brought us on and off the screen. Like when Sarah Jessica Parker shared that she forgot we filmed the pilot episode. You forgot about it in the very long time they took forgot about it.

[Host of Eating While Broke Podcast]

And when the show was picked up, I panicked.

[Kristen Davis]

And Cynthia Nixon reveals if she's a Miranda. We both feel confident about our brains, but that's kind of where it ends. Plus, Sex and the City superfan Megan thee stallion doesn't hold back on her opinions of the show.

[Ana Navarro]

Carrie will literally go set New York on fire and then come back and type about it at the end of the day like half of it wasn't her fault.

[Kristen Davis]

Listen to Are you a Charlotte? On the the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Unidentified speaker (possibly related to Ceno show)]

I went and sat on the little ottoman in front of him.

[Congressman Jamie Raskin]

I hi dad.

[Unidentified speaker (possibly related to Ceno show)]

And just when I said that, my mom comes out of the kitchen and she says I have some cookies and milk. This is badass. Convict me just finished five years. I'm gonna have cookies and milk at mall. Yeah.

[Host of the Ceno show podcast]

On the Ceno show podcast, each episode invites you into a raw, unfiltered conversations about recovery, resilience, and redemption. On a recent episode, I sit down with actor cultural icon Danny Trejo. Talk about addiction, transformation and the power of second chances. The entire season two is now available to binge, featuring powerful conversations with guests like Tiffany Adish, Johnny Knoxville, and more.

[Unidentified speaker (possibly related to Ceno show)]

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Open your free iHeartRadio app, search the Cino show and listen now.

[Ana Navarro]

So, hello, everyone. We have a real treat for you all this week. We have Congressman Jamie Raskin on. I'm not even going to go through an introduction for him. You all know who he is, and we have limited time, and I want to get right into it. Jamie, it's so good to see you again. We just saw each other a few days ago, March 27, in Miami. We were both at the no Kings protest in Miami, and we ran into some technical difficulties. The mic stopped working, and you had a speech that you were ready to give, and you had to cut it short. What was your message for people that day?

[Congressman Jamie Raskin]

Well, it is great to be with you, Anna. It was awesome to get some. To get to spend some time with you down in Miami at the no Kings protest. And, you know, look, my major message to people today is that, you know, we're in the fight of our lives, and we're right now embarked on a project that we cannot lose, which is to rescue our Constitution and our Bill of Rights from people who would destroy every single aspect of it and turn the clock back on all of the progress that the American people have made, not just over the decades, but over the centuries. So I basically wanted to detail a little bit that process, but then talk about once we get through this nightmare, where we're going. So, for me, the no Kings Day is a very important public holiday and protest because it's a renewal of our democratic vows that we pledge to each other our sacred honor and our lives and our property and our fortunes to make sure that we're going to live in a society without kings and queens and dictators and lords and emperors and bullies and despots. This is both a very dangerous time, as you know, Anna, but it is a time that is exhilarate, exhilarating and exciting also, because we are going to be embarked upon renewing our democracy and recreating so many institutions and programs that have been wrecked by Donald Trump.

[Ana Navarro]

And you talk about the end of the nightmare, of course, that hopefully comes at the end of Trump's term. But there's a chance to make a big change in these midterms. We're what? We're six months away from the midterm. And I want people to understand just what a huge, dramatic difference it will be to have Democrats in charge, to have Democrats in the majority instead of the minority. One of the big changes will be that you will go from being ranking member of Judiciary Committee to being the chairman of Judiciary Committee. So can you explain to people what that difference would mean in terms of oversight, in terms of investigations, in terms of pushback, in terms of doing your job and providing some checks and balances, which Republicans have completely ceded that duty and abdicated that duty and are just not performing that. So what will it mean if, if Democrats retake the House? What would that actually mean?

[Congressman Jamie Raskin]

Well, you got it. If you think back to when Attorney General Pam Bondi came before the House Judiciary Committee, you recall that she was acting in complete contempt of the Democratic members of the committee. She did not answer a single question from any of the Democratic members. She literally changed the subject where she would begin railing about what's going on in our districts. She was doing everything she could to filibuster and, you know, if we were in control, we would have held her in contempt. At that point, we were exercising oversight for the American people. Were asking her about the Epstein file and why they have been blockading and obstructing our access to getting the files. The federal law requires that they release all 6 million documents, and she's only released 3 million. So there are 3 million she's withholding without any legal basis for that. And then of the 3 million she released, there are tens of thousands of pages that have been redacted. And we're having a very difficult time pouring through them all because there are only four computers that have been made available to us at a Department of justice annex for hundreds of members of Congress. And we're not allowed to send our staff members over. So if we're in hearings and voting, it's very difficult for us to go and spend the hours wading through all of these documents. I mean, it's only a small fraction we've been able to get through to see the.

[Ana Navarro]

Janet, I don't think I've told you this, but I've known Pam Bondi for decades. I knew her from Florida when she was attorney general in Florida. And the person that I see in front of your committee, that person doing this performative Lady Macbeth type speech, is a completely different person than the woman I knew in Florida 15 years ago. And it brings me such sadness to see how many people have completely compromised their principles just to be in the circle of power, just to be close to Donald Trump and have put loyalty above anything else. But back to the Epstein files. You are one of the few people that have seen the unredacted files. Is there anything there that. That has really shocked you or surprised you?

[Congressman Jamie Raskin]

Well, remember, I've only seen a tiny fraction of it because of the way this thing is set up. But the very first thing I saw was interesting to me, which led me to believe that there are a whole bunch of interesting things in there. But it was an email that Jeffrey Epstein had forwarded to Ghislaine Maxwell from his lawyers where they reported to him the results of a telephone interview with Donald Trump. And they said that they were had not been able to to do a deposition. They worked out a telephone interview, and they seemed to like that. And they said they reported to Epstein, who sent this on to Maxwell, that Trump said that the Jeffrey Epstein was not a member of his club, but he was always welcome there, and he was never barred from the club or told he could not come. And they seemed to be pleased with that outcome. But you'll recall that Donald Trump has been saying to us publicly during this whole period that he got rid of Jeffrey Epstein, that he kicked him out. I mean, his story has changed numerous times as to why he allegedly kicked him out. But this would suggest he never kicked him out, and there was no big breach behind it. So that was just, I think, the first or second thing that I saw when I looked into it. So I think there's interesting stuff in there. And if that was something they didn't consider worth censoring and hiding, it leads me to believe that there are far more revealing and incriminating things in there.

[Ana Navarro]

So, last question. In Epstein files, if you retake the House, if you become the chairman of Judiciary Committee, can you actually compel Pam Bondi to release all the files?

[Congressman Jamie Raskin]

Well, it remains to be seen it might require us to pass an amendment to the legislation that we passed, the Epstein File Transparency act, to allow us to go to court to do just what you're saying, to compel the production of everything they haven't produced. We can try and do it regardless and say that that power is implicit in the statute as it exists, and we can use the other means at our disposal, once we're in control of the committee.

[Ana Navarro]

There's so much that has happened, you know, since, since Trump took office that has not been investigated. And I think one of the things that has brought me so much outrage and so much pain, and I think many Americans feel the same way, is no oversight of ICE and their abuses of power. Immigration is under your committee, is one of the subcommittees under the Judiciary Committee. I wonder if you retake the House or when you retake the House, let me manifest it out there. Are you going to be able to go back and investigate things like the Alex Preddy assassination, the Renee Good assassination, the assassination of the young man in Texas, the shooting of the young woman, the teacher's aide in Chicago? I mean, are we going to see any accountability regarding ICE and those abuses of power?

[Congressman Jamie Raskin]

All of it. All of it. I mean, we did what we could in those five minute snippets we had with Pam Bondi, but we will be able to call as many hearings as we want. And, you know, Jim Jordan was part of, you know, there were a dozen different investigations going on into Benghazi. They just didn't leave it alone. I mean, tons of committees and subcommittees, dozens of hearings and huge mobilization of staff time, of course, they didn't find anything. But absolutely everything that you're talking about, the violence committed against US Citizens, the violence committed against immigrants, the dozens of deaths that have occurred in ICE custody, all of those things can and must be part of what we look into when, if and when we take the majority, especially because the Department of Justice is not doing its job.

[Ana Navarro]

You know, I'm pissed off about so many things that have been reported and that the Republicans have just kind of shrugged their shoulders and said there's nothing to see here. And Kristi Noem and her men have been in the news a lot in the last few days. And one of the things that was reported and nothing seems to have been done about was that there might have been a shakedown of DHS vendors, Department of Homeland Security vendors, by Corey Lewandowski, her special employee, amongst other things. Is that something that can be looked into?

[Congressman Jamie Raskin]

Absolutely. I mean, there's profound money corruption pervading the administration. Of course, the example is set at the top. Trump himself has made at least a billion and a half dollars in the year and three months that have taken place since he came back into office, which is extraordinary. I mean, it's, it's just an order of magnitude, way beyond anything any other president has done. In fact, all the other presidents combined, it's, you know, thousands or tens of thousands more money than they ever made in office because nobody else ever treated it as a money making opportunity. And they converted the White House into an instrument of corrupt self enrichment, whether we're talking about crypto or getting money directly from corrupt autocrats and kings and princes abroad, or taking money from federal government departments themselves, which also is unconstitutional, just like taking money from foreign governments.

[Ana Navarro]

So I can't believe I'm going to ask you this question, but, okay, I assume you have seen the story about Kristi Noem's husband and the, Let me see if I can say this word out loud, bimbofication fetish that he was involved in. And okay, it's weird, it's kinky, all of those things, but it's also a national security threat because if you have a spouse, if you have something that can lead to blackmail and extortion from anybody who may have hacked into that email or into those communications, that means that our Secretary of Department of Homeland Security, who's supposed to be keeping us safe, keeping the homeland safe, was. Could have been subject to blackmail and extortion. So my question to you is, whose job was it to vet this woman, and how in the hell is it possible that something like this could have been missed?

[Congressman Jamie Raskin]

Well, it's a great question, Anna. You know, we saw the same kinds of circumvention and manipulation of the vetting of the White House vetting process back in the first administration where there were huge problems with Jared Kushner, huge problems with Michael Flynn, and all of them were just smoothed over. I mean, from the moment Donald Trump got anywhere near the White House, he basically took the position of, you know, the unitary executive. He's control. He's in control of everything. And he just kind of ran roughshod over any of the rules and regulations, including those embodied in law, taking the position that he was a king.

[Ana Navarro]

But this guy was sending tens of thousands of dollars, allegedly, to sex workers with whom he was having these conversations through PayPal and things like that. I mean, this is now reported in the press. I cannot understand how FBI vetting didn't pick up on this. I can't understand how the Senate didn't ask a question like this. I remember that. I think she was in the House. I think it was in the House. Kristi Noem was categorically asked, are you having an affair? Are you having a sexual relationship with your special employee Corey Lewandowski? And she refused to answer. So it's. It's really, I mean, it's sorted, but

[Congressman Jamie Raskin]

it's, it's terrible oversight of the vetting process and how either the FBI fell down on the job or the White House fell down on the job, or there was just collusive activity that took place in order to suppress these things. All of that will be a subject of legislative oversight. We need to get to the bottom of that. It is very dangerous, as you say, just like all of the bribery and corruption is very dangerous because it means that the people who are engaged in the bribery and the payoffs and the illegal foreign emoluments have an advantage over our government. Not only are they having their way directly with the politicians, but they also know about the corruption that could be so explosive if it went public. So, but we're, you know, Donald Trump has a staph infection and we're dealing with a pervasive corruption. And at every level, you know, anywhere you turn, like when Kristi Noem came in. And then you know what we learn about the PR contracts she got because she did that Mount Rushmore horseback photo scene but that was part of a $220 million contract, almost a quarter billion dollars they gave to one PR firm. And of course it ends up being linked to, to the husband of her right hand person at the Department of Homeland Security. So they're just these overlapping networks of corruption. And again, they're just following Donald Trump. They view it as a money making opportunity. And so these elections in November that you invoked, I mean, they're presenting a very stark contrast to the American people. You can vote either for a vision of government as an instrument for the common good for everybody serving the people, or a vision of government where it's an instrument for the self enrichment of the guy who gets in and his family and his friends and his party and everybody else can basically go to hell and forget about getting any mileage out of their tax dollars.

[Ana Navarro]

So in your former life, one of the hats you wore, you were a constitutional law professor. And we have seen the courts actually pushing back on Donald Trump just in the last few days. There was a judge who ordered that he stop construction on that ginormous eyesore of a ballroom that he's obsessed with. What role do you see the courts playing? And are they playing the role that they are meant to be played under the Constitution?

[Congressman Jamie Raskin]

The district courts and the circuit courts of appeal are definitely playing the role that was envisioned. And they are acting as a real judicial legal watchdog against government violations of the rights and liberties of the people. And government violations of the rule of law. Our problem is the Supreme Court, which has been sliced and diced and packed and stacked and gerrymandered by maga. And they have appointed six of the nine members despite the fact that they lost the popular vote in two of the last three elections and have, you know, lost a lot more presidential elections recently than they've won. But they've been able to put the fix in through Mitch McConnell in the Senate. Like my constituent Merrick Garland, who, you know, became Attorney General, of course, for Biden, he had been nominated to the Supreme Court by Barack Obama, but they said because it was 10 months before the election, that was too close to the election and they would not allow him to have a judicial confirmation hearing, much less a vote.

[Ana Navarro]

I thought he did a God awful job, Merrick Garland as Attorney General. And I'm as I.

[Congressman Jamie Raskin]

He was not meant to be Attorney General.

[Ana Navarro]

No, he wasn't. I think he was afraid of looking political politicized and of taking action because of politics. And I think because of that there's a lot of things that he did, he shouldn't have done and that he didn't do, like release the Epstein files that he should have done. How different it would have been if these files had been released under Biden instead of under Trump, who's in them thousands and thousands of times. I wanna, you just mentioned that you're writing a new book. Can you tell us a little about what the book's about?

[Congressman Jamie Raskin]

Well, you know, I do this project every summer called Democracy Summer, and it's for young people, high school and college kids. And, you know, amazing number of them read the last book that I wrote called Unthinkable, which was about January 6, the violent insurrection, the attempted political coup. And it was about the loss of our beloved son, Tommy Raskin, who died on the last day of 2020. But anyway, a lot of the young people, you know, kept saying to me, you know, what, what would you have us read in terms of political philosophy, in terms of moral philosophy, moral theory and all this kind of stuff. And I decided, you know what, I'm going to write another book, a little book, not a big book, that one was like 350 pages, but a book of maybe about a hundred pages, 120 pages that will be an introduction to them to the most important intellectual influences in my life. And so, you know, I'm working on a chapter now about Tom Paine and Benjamin Franklin, but it's going to go all the way up through the 21st century and the people who I've considered very important and why I hope you'll

[Ana Navarro]

come back on with us and when you release that book. But you. You just mentioned your son. Your son Tommy, who died by suicide December 31, 2020. And, you know, my. My parents lost a son. My brother died at the age of 38 from a heart attack. And it was such a devastating loss and. And just left this hole in our entire family. So I'm wondering, you know, I see you working and out there for my. For my parents. I don't know that they were ever the same or anybody can be the same after losing a child. We are kind of in the, you know, midst of holidays right now. Passover, Easter. It's. It's the times when I miss him the most, when I miss my brother the most. What message would you have for families that have an empty seat at their table and in this gaping hole in their hearts?

[Congressman Jamie Raskin]

Yeah. And we, of course, live with the same kind of terrible absence every single day. We miss Tommy sharply every single day. But we try to live in his honor and do the kinds of things that he would have considered significant and important. And in his case, we have a memorial fund that's called the Tommy Raskin Memorial Fund for People and Animals because he's very passionate about human rights. He was very passionate about animal rights and welfare. He was a vegan. But he cared deeply about politics. And he. You know, he was somebody who felt so much the injustice and the pain of the world. And so it's important for all of us to be engaged in the fights for freedom and democracy and human rights. That would have been important to him. And so for us, you know, I'm not sure I have any real advice to render to anybody else, but for us, it's just been important to keep going the things that he believed in. And we lost Tommy when he was 25, but he was in his second year at law school. He wrote a lot of stuff. He wrote a lot of poetry. So his, you know, internal emotional and political and intellectual life are available to us. And, you know, and we have a very clear sense of kind of the trajectory he was on.

[Ana Navarro]

And it's. I have one last question, because I know you have a. And thank you for sharing that with us, because I. I know how much it hurts to talk about these things, but it's a. It's a season of spring, of rebirth, of Easter, of Passover. What is giving your heart a rebirth? What is bringing you hope right now?

[Congressman Jamie Raskin]

Well, you know, when. When we were Little. My dad used to say to us, when everything looks hopeless, you're the hope. So we've all kind of grown up with that sense, like, go out and engage and be the hope for somebody else, and then you get, you get hope back in return in equal or greater measure. And I feel that. So I've been traveling, as you know, around the country. I was in Florida most recently, but I was in Oregon and Washington, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Texas. I've been out there and I'm campaigning to try to win back the Congress and also to work with young people. And to me, you know, we've got to defeat the dictators and the fascists all over the world. There's just no choice. And we can't let America go. America is too important. Like Tom Paine said, the cause of America is the cause of all mankind. By which he meant part of it is America itself would be an asylum to humanity. Not an insane asylum, but a place of refuge for people seeking freedom. But also that America would be a demonstration model for what it would mean to build a government around the rule of law, protecting the freedom and the rights of the people, as opposed to the selfishness and the power seeking of the people who get in. Those are just two radically different ways of thinking about what government does.

[Ana Navarro]

Well, I'll tell you what brings me hope. The thought that there's going to be a Chairman Jamie Raskin in charge of the House Judiciary Committee come next January, and that there's going to be finally some oversight, some pushback, some investigation and some checks and balances. So thank you so much for joining us. I, I admire you greatly. We got to know you. I think the country got to know you during the second impeachment hearing when you were an impeachment manager. Damn, if only it had gone the other way, maybe this nightmare would have not. We would have not had a part two of it. But here we are fighting the fight. Thank you for leading the way. Thank you for bringing us hope.

[Congressman Jamie Raskin]

Well, I appreciate that so much. And remember, we did get 57 of 43 in the Senate, but it wasn't enough. We needed 67 votes with the 2/3 threshold. But people can take solace that at least a commanding majority in the Senate found him guilty. I know Donald Trump was brandishing the newspapers. He was proud that only 57% of the Senate thought that he had waged war against his own government, essentially by inciting an insurrection.

[Ana Navarro]

I have a last question I want to ask you, because you just talked about inciting an insurrection. I think a lot of people are really afraid about the integrity of the elections in the midterms and even more so the next presidential elections, and that he could do another insurrection. And at this point he would be in charge of the military, he would be in charge of all the powers that be. What do you tell people who are afraid of the integrity of election integrity?

[Congressman Jamie Raskin]

Well, I think that they're being smart, they're being realistic. They've obviously demonstrated they will stop at nothing, including violence, as a way to block the loss of their power. And it's clear that with their terrible tariffs and this disastrous war, everything that's going on, that they, they don't have a program that will appeal to people. So they will try to set up obstacles to voter registration, voter suppression techniques and different ways of trying to manipulate the elections. The good news is that under our system, for centuries, the states have been in control of the elections. That means the State Board of Elections, the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the governor, and we just have to be working with them. A lot of them are committed to a free and fair election. Some of them may not be. You know, Trump has been really trying to put the squeeze on them. But you remember what happened in Georgia in 2020 where he called the Secretary of State Raffensper and said, just find me 11,780 votes.

[Ana Navarro]

Right?

[Congressman Jamie Raskin]

That was Donald Trump trying to commit electoral fraud there, claiming he was going to stop it. But they've been able to replace a lot of those people, not all of them. So where that's happened, we're developing strategies both legislatively and politically and litigation wise to try to be there to stop the stealing of the election. But it's going to be a fight in every single state.

[Ana Navarro]

Well, I think, I think the result of his voter suppression efforts is going to be record breaking people showing up to vote. I think people refuse to have our right to vote taken away from us. And I think you're going to see that in November. Thank you so much for your time and thank you for being a leader and a statement. Thank you, Jamie.

[Congressman Jamie Raskin]

Thank you so much, Anna. Anytime. And I hope to see you soon either back in Florida or on zoom.

[Ana Navarro]

Thank you all.

[Congressman Jamie Raskin]

Best,

[John Green]

I'm John Green, you may know me as the author of the Fault in Our Stars and now I guess also as the co host of the Away End, a brand new world soccer podcast.

[Daniel Alarcon]

I'm Daniel Alarcon, a writer and journalist and John and I have known each other since we were kids. My first World cup was Mexico 86. I was nine years old. I watched every game and I fell in love. On our new podcast, the Away End, we'll share with you the magic of international football, all leading up to the 2026 World cup for us.

[John Green]

Soccer. Football is a story we've shared for over 30 years, since Daniel was the star player on our high school soccer team.

[Daniel Alarcon]

Very debatable.

[John Green]

And I was there most of the loyal and sometimes only fan. I love this game. I love its history, its hope, its heartbreak, and above all, its beauty.

[Daniel Alarcon]

Together, we'll find out why. Of all the unimportant things football, soccer is the most important.

[John Green]

Listen to the Away End with Daniel Alarcon and John green on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Cheryl Strayed]

Hi everyone. I'm Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things. I'm excited to share that I have a new podcast called Mind Over Mountain. In each episode, I interview athletes, adventurers, and adrenaline seekers to discuss the inner landscapes and life experiences that informed and inspired their extraordinary feats. I also bring a bit of advice into the mix so we too can better understand how to face our own seemingly insurmountable challenges.

[Unidentified supportive speaker with Cheryl Strayed]

Do you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to pull out what you already have inside. We come into this world fighting for our lives. All I'm gonna do is pull out what you already got inside.

[Dr. Maya Shankar]

We're there to support and celebrate each other, and that's not like a your story versus my story.

[Cheryl Strayed]

You're gonna walk up and over that dang mountain. You're not just gonna put your mind over it.

[Unidentified supportive speaker with Cheryl Strayed]

Yep, yep, exactly. And if I can't walk up and over it, I'm gonna go through it.

[Cheryl Strayed]

Listen to Mind Over Mountain every Thursday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Kristen Davis]

I'm Kristen Davis, host of the podcast Are youe a Charlotte? In 1998, my life was forever changed when I took on the role of Charlotte York on a new show called Sex and the City. Now I get to sit down with some of my favorite people and relive all of the incredible moments this show brought us on and off the screen. Like when Sarah Jessica Parker shared that she forgot we filmed the pilot episode you forgot about in the very long time they took about it.

[Host of Eating While Broke Podcast]

And when the show was picked up, I panicked.

[Kristen Davis]

And Cynthia Nixon reveals if she's a Miranda. We both feel confident about our brains, but that's kind of where it ends. Plus sex and the City super fan Megan Thee stallion doesn't hold back on her opinions of the show.

[Ana Navarro]

Harry will literally go set New York on fire and then come back and type about it at the end of the day, like, like half of it wasn't her fault.

[Kristen Davis]

Listen to Are you a Charlotte? On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Unidentified speaker (possibly related to Ceno show)]

I went and sat on the little ottoman in front of him.

[Congressman Jamie Raskin]

I said, hi, dad.

[Unidentified speaker (possibly related to Ceno show)]

And just when I said that, my mom comes out of the kitchen and she says, I have some cookies and milk. This is badass, convict, right? Just finished five years. I'm gonna have cookies and milk at mall. Yeah.

[Host of the Ceno show podcast]

On the Cine show podcast, each episode invites you into a raw, unfiltered conversations about recovery, resilience, and redemption. On a recent episode, I sit down with actor cultural icon Danny Trejl, talk about addiction, transformation and the power of second chances. The entire season two is now available to binge, featuring powerful conversations with the guests like Tiffany Adish, Johnny Knoxville, and more.

[Unidentified speaker (possibly related to Ceno show)]

I'm an alcoholic, and without this problem, I'm gonna die.

[Host of the Ceno show podcast]

Open your free iHeartRadio app, search the C show and listen now.

[Ana Navarro]

So we're back. And at this time during the podcast, I usually call out my hero of the week week and my Coward of the week. But this week, this week, I got to talk about something else because this story was just so crazy. I. I kid you not, I had to convince my producer to let me talk about Kristi Noem's husband because she just thinks this story is so weird, she can't believe it's true. She keeps asking me, are you sure this is true? It's just so weird. Are you sure it's not AI? No, it is not AI. And we're going to talk about it. So of course I'm talking about it. And if you don't know about this story, you need to put down whatever you're doing and go Google this right now. We are talking about Brian Noem. That is Deportation Barbie's husband. And so if you didn't see the story, turns out that Brian Noem is a cross dresser with a bimbofication fetish. Yes, that is a thing, a bimbofication fetish. And it is where people dress in exaggerated feminine features as part of their feet, their fetish. So here he was having these calls, these zooms and facetimes with sex workers where he was in full fetish mode wearing these two huge balloons mimicking women's breasts and doing pouty lip poses and having conversations with these sex workers. So my friend Mark Caputo, who's from Miami, he used to be in the Miami Herald, he's now at Axios, got the story pitched to him by a lawyer representing one of the sex workers who allegedly is an immigrant, maybe even an undocumented immigrant in this country. So this woman claims that she. The T in this is just so good. She claims that she mistakenly but called the number back that Jason, that was the name that Brian Noem would use, that she made this call and got Noem Insurance company. And when she Googled that, she saw pictures of Brian Noem with Kristi Noem and then came to the realization that this was Kristi Noem's husband. And because she's an immigrant and because she might be an undocumented immigrant, she's pissed as hell with the terrorizing by Kristi Norm's department of immigrants. And as revenge, she pitched this story wanting this story known. And listen, I'm gonna tell you this. Usually I wouldn't be into this type of story because I think people's kinks amongst consenting adults is their business. And also because I realize that this is causing a lot of hurt to the Noam children. Well, they're not children. They're adults. They're full grown ass adults. And to Kristi Noem. But I'm making an exception in this case, and I'll tell you why. Because Kristi Noem has displayed incredible cruelty and lack of grace when it comes to the families of Alex Preddy, of Renee Good, and of so many immigrants whose lives have been destroyed because of her actions. And what's happened under dhs, under her leadership, just in the recent weeks, we have seen and months, we've seen Donald Trump relish the death and celebrate the death of Robert Mueller. Kristi Noem didn't say shit. We saw him relish and celebrate the death of Rob Reiner and his wife. Kristi Noem didn't say shit. And so now she's asking for privacy and prayers. If she didn't give that privacy to the families of Alex Preddy and Renee Goode and to the families and didn't demand the same privacy and prayers for the family of Rob Reiner and Bub Mueller when her boss was relishing their deaths, I'm not about to give her privacy and prayers now. It's a little too late. It's a little too hypocritical. It's a little too convenient for her to be asking for privacy and prayers. And also, listen, I think We've got to talk about. Yes, this is kinky. This is freaky. This is weird. I'm convincing JB Here that this is not made up. It's also a national security threat, guys. So let's just think about what it could have meant, or what it may have meant, that the spouse of the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security was sending thousands, tens of thousands of dollars to sex workers, engaging in these zoom calls while wearing two huge bazookas under his shirt. You know what that means? It means that he and she could have been blackmailed. We just saw in the last few days that Kash Patel's emails were hacked and leaked, supposedly by a group sympathizing with Iran. Well, what the hell do you think could have happened if people had been able to hack into his PayPal account and see the tens of thousands of dollars being paid to sex workers or hacked into some of these zoom calls or these FaceTime lives that he was doing with sex workers? It means that our secretary of the Department of Homeland Security was subject to and could have been subject to, and vulnerable to blackmail and extortion by foreign foes, by domestic foes. It could have led to a complete and absolute disaster. I cannot believe that this was not caught by the people who vetted this family when she was going through Senate confirmation. And because I am kind of relishing the story, and I'm relishing it again because of the hypocrisy. This is the same Kristi Norm who was governor and as Secretary of State, has berated the transgender community, the drag queen community banned drag shows in South Dakota all the time, while her husband is a cross dresser doing these kind of things. And there have been some amazing memes because the Internet never fails. And some amazing things that have been written in the Internet. Some amazing comments. So let me give you some of them. I don't know that I can say this without laughing, but I'll try. You remember Kristi Noem who shot her dog, right? Her dog, Cricket. So one of these Internet posts says about his huge bazookas. Those puppies are so big. It's too bad she didn't shoot them. Somebody else says privacy and prayer. For what? Big, fake tits? Another one says, Kristi Gnome's husband. Could be just a shakeup RuPaul's Drag Race is looking for. I would have thought Kristi Noem was not the biggest boob in her household. And then there was one that said, fortunately for him, given her history in shooting animals, he wasn't also a furry. So, yeah, okay, that's what we're ending with this week. I thought it needed some. You needed to hear this tea and we needed to talk about it. So thank you again for joining us on BLEEP with Ana Navarro. Thank you to Congressman Jamie Raskin for being part of this episode this week, and thank you all for listening. Please leave me your comments, Leave me your thoughts. Listen, I know there was a lot of curse words in this episode, but people, I mean, really, we had to do it. We had to do it today. Bleep with Anna Navarro is a Hyphenate Media Group production in partnership with iHeart's Micultura Podcast Network. For more of your favorite shows, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Bob Pittman]

Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia, and I'm kicking off a brand new season of my podcast, Math and Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing. Math and Magic takes you behind the scenes of the biggest businesses and industries while sharing insights from the smartest minds in marketing. Coming up this season on Math and Magic, CEO of Liquid Death, Mike Cesario.

[John Green]

People think that creative ideas are like these light bulb moments that happen when you're in the shower where it's really

[Ana Navarro]

like a stone sculpture.

[John Green]

You're constantly just chipping away and refining.

[Bob Pittman]

Take to interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick and her own chief business officer, Lisa Coffey. Listen to Math and Magic on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Cheryl Strayed]

Then she says, have you seen a

[Ana Navarro]

photo of my son? And I'm like, who is this person?

[Host of Boys and Girls Podcast]

Welcome to the boys and Girls Podcast. Arranged marriage is basically a reality show and you're auditioning for your soulmate. And who's judging only your entire family. I sacrificed myself to this ancient tradition hoping to find love the right way, and instead I found chaos, comedy, and a lot of cringe. Listen to boys and Girls on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Host of Eating While Broke Podcast]

It's Financial Literacy Month and the podcast Eating While Broke is bringing real conversations about money, growth, and building your future. This month, hear from top streamer Zoe Spencer and venture capitalist lakeisha Landrum Pierre as they share their journeys from starting out to leveling up.

[Ana Navarro]

There's an economic component to communities thriving. If there's not enough money and entrepreneurship

[Dr. Maya Shankar]

happening in communities, they fail.

[Host of Eating While Broke Podcast]

Listen to Eating While Broke from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Dr. Maya Shankar]

Hey I'm Dr. Maya Shankar, a cognitive scientist and host of the podcast A Slight Change of Plans, a show about who we are and who we become when life makes other plans.

[Ana Navarro]

I wish that I hadn't resisted for

[Cheryl Strayed]

so long the need to change.

[Ana Navarro]

We have to be willing to live with a kind of uncertainty that none of us likes. You can have opinions, you can have,

[Cheryl Strayed]

like, a strong stance, and then there's

[Ana Navarro]

your body having its own program.

[Dr. Maya Shankar]

Listen to A Slight Change of plans on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ana Navarro]

This is an iHeart podcast, Guaranteed Human.