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- [00:01]
Michael Popak
From unsolved mysteries to unexplained phenomena, from comedy gold to relationship fails. Amazon Music's got the most ad free top podcasts included with prime. Because the only thing that should interrupt your listening is, well, nothing. Download the Amazon music app today. Look at him eating whatever he wants, never gaining a pound, while I'm stuck with the boring special and can't lose an ounce. How's your lunch, man? Amazing. Yours? So good. Oh, I'm so happy for you. Cool, buddy.
- [00:38]
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- [00:44]
Michael Popak
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- [00:48]
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- [00:55]
Michael Popak
It's the midweek and you're on legal AF on the Midas Touch Network with Karen Freeman McNiffalo and Michael Popak. We sit at the intersection of law and politics. So you don't have to. And so much to catch up on, which is why we invented the Midweek edition. We were like, God, we can't cover it all on a Saturday. We gotta, we gotta do a Wednesday. Here we are, Karen. Let's kick it off with the war in Iran and we'll, we'll double back to the intersection of law and politics. You've got 167 to 12 year old girls who were slaughtered by an errant Tomahawk missile fired by the U.S. you've got a president who has either tried to cover it up, blame the Iranians for a US Missile system being used, or now playing dumb, which apparently is his implausible deniability about it. And you have new reporting about how flat footed and how misconceived the war in Iran has been, about its impact on the global economy and energy. While 32 of our allies, the ones that we've been busy bashing, joined together and released 400 million barrels of oil to bail out Donald Trump and the American economy. So let's kick it off with, we got some other things to talk about. Democrats are winning. They're winning big. They're, they're taking it to Donald Trump on voting even before midterms start. And then I want to talk about Pam Bondi and all of that, but let's. You know, I haven't really heard you talk too much yet about the Iranian war, the planning of it, the aftermath of it, what was the plan and the impact on the economy and of course the death of 160 innocent girls at a school in the fog of war created by Donald Trump.
- [02:57]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
I mean, I have to start with the girls who were tragically killed, which appears it was an accident, but a completely foreseeable accident given the lack of preparation for this war. And I mean, if we haven't, first of all, it's just such a tragedy. It's so awful. I can't imagine what those families are going through. I can't imagine what that was like. I really think we all have to think long and hard about how misguided and how unprepared this really seemed like an impulsive war is that Donald Trump has now got us into. According to the reports, the reason this school was hit was because they had old data about what was in that building. They had old intel and old maps and the school was in a different location before and then it moved. And again, that just speaks to the lack of preparation and the lack of preparedness for going to war. And so let's just start there, number one. Number two, have we not learned in just our life in my lifetime how just ridiculously ill conceived these wars are? So much so that one of the reasons I think Donald Trump was reelected was because he promised no more foreign wars, no more endless wars, no more of these terrible wars because no good comes of it. What does winning even mean in these wars? Because in the end we're all losers. Even if it's 20 years from now where you have a new breed of American haters that are going to grow up because we've destroyed Iran. And we saw what happened on September 11th with that when these were people who have just hated us for so long because we go out and indiscriminately kill and we go and do these senseless, ridiculous wars. And so just the bigger picture, we should have learned something. But if, if for you know, I can't tell why we started this war. I've heard regime change, I've heard that Donald Trump was going to be attacked first. I heard that because they were both, we both obliterated, obliterated their nuclear program and they were days away from having a nuclear program that was going to hit the United States. You just keep hearing different things. It's a war, it's not a war depending on what day of the week it is and who is speaking and it's just flip flopping. And the biggest takeaway is we just weren't prepar and we had absolutely no idea A, what we're doing it, B, why we're doing it and C, how to do it. And so we're just flailing. I mean, we're just indiscriminately out there killing people and bombing people and bombing buildings and creating havoc and saying, okay, Iranian people, now you can go rise up and we're giving you the regime change. Well, you can't do that. I mean, how. How are they prepared to do that? You're not working with them to prepare to fill the vacuum. And so the vacuum is going to be filled with someone wor. Someone who now has a complete vengeance against us because of what we've done and what we're doing. We are getting all of the Middle east involved because they're the ones bearing the brunt of a lot of the counterattack, a lot of the response from Iran. I think from what I can tell, we're doing this just because Israel wants us to. And it just doesn't make any sense whatsoever. And then the byproduct of it, again, totally predictable. This is not a surprise. Anyone who takes five minutes to think about what could possibly happen, gee, let's look at where Iran is. What comes from the Middle East? Oil. Things about oil drives the economy, gas prices, things that people care about. And it sits right by the Strait of Hormuz, which is like a quarter, I think, or 20% of the oil ships go through there. And Iran, they know that. We should have known that. And they have choked the vessels from being able to transport the oil. Oil prices are going crazy, and Iran is basically giving us the middle finger, saying, yeah, you know what? We're not negotiating and we'll stop and we'll be done. When we say it's done, I mean, you know, it's not just. It's reckless, it's dangerous, it's inhumane. And you might not like Iran, or I should say the regime that was there, which I understand, and a lot of Iranians, and I have a lot of Iranian friends in the United States who are actually really happy that the senior Khomeini is no longer there and would love nothing more than a regime change. But this is not a plan. This just looks like somebody had a temper tantrum and dropped some bombs, has wreaked all sorts of havoc. And here we are again in this mess of a war, and service members are being killed. We've lost, I think seven service members over 130 have been seriously injured with burns and other very serious, other serious injuries. Many are still in the hospital. I mean, this has real life consequences. I want to see is Donald Trump gonna sign Barron up to go fight in this war. I mean, look what he's asking American people to. And again, another one of these not put America first wars where nobody understands why we're there and what we're doing. And the ramifications are being felt by everybody, both economically, but in real terms, the cost of human lives, not just American lives, but, you know, these, again, these children in Iran and others. And I also can't imagine what it's like living in Israel right now where people are going in and out of bomb shelters 20 times a day. I know they're used to it, but I just can't imagine that this is what people want and that this is the way we have to do it. But yet here we are.
- [08:50]
Michael Popak
Well, nobody voted for this. In fact, they voted, as you pointed out, for the opposite of this. We tolerated and bit our tongues in June when they bombed the nuclear facilities. Not all of them anywhere, setting it back anywhere between three months and three years, depending upon who you spoke to and the damage assessments. But there was no reasonable and credible intelligence that the Iranians, having suffered the losses that they suffered in June, were about to fire first at the Americans. That is in the fevered imagination of Donald Trump, based on intelligence. And that word is doing a heavy lift provided to him by his son in law and Steve Witkoff, two middling real estate developers with no diplomatic or intelligence community experience at all. The Iranians know that one of the reasons that they were playing games with Trump is because he didn't send real diplomats in to do the heavy lift and hard work of negotiating. And they took full advantage of the fact that these were two novices, neophytes when it came to negotiating. And then, of course, they want to act tough in front of daddy. So Jared Kushner says, I don't know, he might fire first, Daddy. And then here we go. Now we got to do, pardon me, now we got to do regime change, because Donald Trump is flailing and failing at home. That's what we're watching. This is a Nixonian moment where he's trying, Donald Trump's trying to bomb and war abroad his way out of a big mess that he's made in America with domestic policy. He's hated in America in terms of polling. We'll talk about some elections that demonstrate that fact that have happened since he's been in office. And so he's trying a Nixon. Let me see. No, Nixon was like, well, let me see if I could get peace with China. Let me just let me bomb Cambodia. Is that helping with My numbers. No, it's not helping with your numbers. And what the New York Times and others are reporting, which is obvious, is that they miscalculated the inner circle for Donald Trump, led by Donald Trump on what the Iranian reaction would be and the impact on the energy markets. You can't literally. You cannot fuel the economy, our economy included, first among them, without oil. And they interviewed about 10 days before the Feb. 28 start of the war. They interviewed the energy secretary about. Because there were drumbeats about war. They said, what do you think that's going to do the energy markets? Oh, I think it'll be a temporary blip. And they used as a model the June nuclear reactor bombing. And that's when Iran did, frankly, did very little in retaliation. This time. You take out the leader. Yeah. They've hit 17 different US military and ally targets. Okay. Not. But put that aside for a minute, which they miscalculated. They shut down the Strait of Hormuz, which you noted 20% of the world's oil goes through the Strait of Hormuz. You do an aerial shot right now as we're on the air. You know what the Strait of Hormuz looks like a parking lot. Nothing is moving. Donald Trump saying, we're going to use naval warships to do escorts to. To break the blockade. He hasn't done that at all. His energy secretary announced out loud that one naval ship was able to bring an oil tanker through. The stock market went crazy. Turned out that was a lie. They had to take it down. And that never happened because they never anticipated the blockage of. I don't know how. I mean, seriously, how would you not anticipate that that would be the move for the Iranians. So who's had to bail out Donald Trump? Talk about irony of all irony. Thank God we've got friends in high places. Thank God the allies and the 32 nations that make up Western Europe and the rest, thank God they didn't hold it against us that they were abused and berated throughout the first year of the administration by J.D. vance and Marco Rubio and Donald Trump. You got to clean up your act. You got to clean up your immigration. You got to become more like us. You know, what are you. You gotta be a MAGA in your own country. And, like, what are you even talking about? So they just released 400 million barrels of oil, about 20 or 30 days worth, to stabilize the markets so that the American economy doesn't crash. So do you hear Donald Trump's, which any other president would do. Do you see Donald Trump up at a podium. Thank you to our European allies, to the global nations that have come to our rescue. No, it's so bad that Zelensky, of all people, and good on him, showing leadership, has stepped forward and saying, hey, we heard you got a drone problem coming out of Iran with these 17, 18 military installations hit us by drones. We know how to do drones, and he's volunteering their expertise. Look, Ukraine coming to the US's rescue. What that further demonstrates is what we've always knew, if you have two brain molecules, is that we are a global economy. We are a global community. We can't pull in our oars as the nation's leading country. From a economic and security standpoint, we can't go America first. All right? Because it's just that. I'm sorry, we're not living in the 1920s, pre depression, when you can just make your own stuff and consume your own stuff and you don't need global markets. That's over.
- [14:46]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
I'm surprised that our allies are jumping in to our rescue, given how Donald Trump talks about them, mocks them, and treats them like crap.
- [14:54]
Michael Popak
Because whether they like it or not, and they're holding their nose here on this one, they need the American economy to survive, because if the American economy stalls out because Donald Trump has literally cut the fuel line, they're dead. They're dead. And so they know it. Even they don't need Donald Trump to ask them. Lord knows if. See, he has no diplomacy. Karen, behind the scenes, who's calling? Jared Kushner's calling. Macron in France, who's leading the oil reserve distribution. Hi, can you do us a favor? Could you release more oil and all of the allies that Donald Trump loves in the Arab world because he invests there with his companies, they're trying to screw us. Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, they shut down the oil production right at the moment when we need it, because they're like, well, $100 a barrel is good for the family fortune. It's just this. This. I mean, right before they. I mean, the day of the bombing, the jobs report came out that Donald Trump's economy not only didn't make one job in the month of February, it lost 90,000. What do you think, Karen, March is gonna look like?
- [16:03]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
This is a jobs report that came out from his administration. These are his numbers.
- [16:09]
Michael Popak
That means it's probably double. It's probably double that.
- [16:11]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
That's what's crazy, right? His own numbers are showing that this all feels like a giant smokescreen. So that we don't pay attention to things like Epstein and Trump's involvement there or the economy or anything else, so
- [16:25]
Michael Popak
that he can grow homeland security.
- [16:28]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
Right. So he can create an actual emergency, because that's what is going to happen if we get into World War iii. So he can then declare martial law and take over the midterm elections. I mean, that seems like a very plausible
- [16:43]
Michael Popak
ginning up a war. Look, you can say many things about Donald Trump, but he decided on the way in, along with his Cabinet, his advisors, that he was going to be a wartime president whether there was a war going on or not. He was going to declare a war domestically, everywhere. A war against narco terrorists to expand the ability to do deportations and put people in jail without due process. Right. Declare war against liberals and moderates and First Amendment speech. He figured out that the most robust way to expand presidential power is to declare a war or a foreign policy or national security issue, which gives him the outer, outer, outer boundaries of his power. He's. He's been a wartime president since the day he took office.
- [17:30]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
I know. You know, I hesitated calling the Department of Defense the Department of War, you know, and kept calling it the Department of Defense. I think it is the Department of War, because that's what Donald Trump has created. He's created this war machine, and he's going out and making wars that are unnecessary and these are not defensive. You know, we weren't about to be attacked. I mean, this is just really an emergency of our own making. Of his own making.
- [17:55]
Michael Popak
Yeah. Yeah. And. And the polling numbers are terrible for him. Nobody supports this war. Somebody asked me in my Intersection podcast last night, pop, do you think. You think he's going to call up a draft? There is no. That would be. I mean, he's already committing political suicide, but there's no political will to support a draft to go in his son.
- [18:15]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
He's not going to do it because his son will have to.
- [18:17]
Michael Popak
Oh, hell no. The son of his son. What do you mean? His son inherited the flat feet or the Achilles heel of his father. He'll be 4F, obviously. Obviously.
- [18:29]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
So, by the way, speaking of feet, did you see.
- [18:33]
Michael Popak
Wait, stop right there. That might be the funniest segue in the history of legal af. Continue.
- [18:40]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
Did you see the reporting that Donald Trump is obsessed with men's shoe size?
- [18:47]
Michael Popak
Yeah. Oh, he just gave Marco Rubio shoes that apparently.
- [18:51]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
You can see there's a gap because they're too big. Because everyone lies about their shoe size to Donald Trump. Because Donald Trump Actually said out loud that you can tell a lot about a man by their shoe size. And so he gives out Florsheim shoes. I didn't even know Floor Shime's shoes. He gives them to all the men who are around him. He asks them a picture of all
- [19:15]
Michael Popak
the $145 pair of shoes.
- [19:18]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
Salty. Find the one that shows Marco Rubio. It shows a gap that it doesn't fit him and that people are afraid not to wear the shoes that Trump is giving out. And like I said, they lie about their shoe size because of him. This is who our president is. It's just bananas.
- [19:37]
Michael Popak
You notice he doesn't hand out gloves. Those tiny hands he does have, he
- [19:43]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
has unusually small hands. Look at that. That's mar. That's the Florsheim shoe that was given to him. They look beat up, but it's clearly too big. And that's what was reported.
- [19:58]
Michael Popak
Did you hear? We'll talk about it later. During Pam Bondi segment. Did you hear that Marco Rubio and at least Marco Rubio and Pam Bondi have been living in military barracks recently?
- [20:10]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
I sure did.
- [20:11]
Michael Popak
They don't even live at home. They live in a barracks. She's so not liked that they have to stick her in an army barracks.
- [20:19]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
I wonder who's paying for that.
- [20:21]
Michael Popak
You and me.
- [20:22]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
Yeah, exactly.
- [20:23]
Michael Popak
You and me. So let's talk about how this is playing at home. This, this. I'm gonna bomb my way to popularity. How's it going? Not well. Not well. So we just had a series of primaries and other things in the last week. Another, another time for America to. Who's got a pent up demand to vote to get into a voting booth and vote in Georgia of all places. In New Hampshire of all places. I want to put this in perspective. Yesterday, 17 people in an open primary ran for Marjorie Taylor Greene's seat. Congressional District 14. Northwest Georgia. Couldn't be any redder, couldn't be any more MAGA. Okay? Donald Trump won that district by 37 points. Okay. 17 people run, 12 are Republican. Three. Three only are Democrat. The rest are independents. Okay. And there's a runoff. The candidate that Donald Trump supports, Clay Fuller, who's a district attorney up there somewhere, he got 34% of the vote. But Brigadier retired Brigadier General Sean Harris got almost 40% of the vote. He's a black Democrat in Northwest Georgia and he's in the runoff. Okay. In a district where Trump won against Kamala by 37 points. New Hampshire, okay. In a district that had not gone Democrat in 10 years, went Democrat yesterday by 10 or 12 points. But look, look, let's listen to these numbers, Karen. In 283 races of various types, State supreme Court, state legislature, Congress, you know, Assemblyman, whatever, whatever it is. In 283 races since Trump's been president, the Democrats have overperformed, meaning they beat whatever Kamala Harris did and not by a little, by a lot. In 253 out of 283 races, in nine state House races for the state legislature, the Democrats are nine and oh, in flipping seats, not one Republican has been able to flip a Democratic seat in that time period. In all races, The Democrats are 27. And, oh, they haven't lost yet in special elections or elections since Donald Trump has been elected. And that scares the shit out of the Republicans at the midterms. What's your takeaway about how people are voting when they get the opportunity to in opposition to Donald Trump?
- [23:15]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
I mean, I think it's crystal clear that right now, and if the midterms were held today, I think that we would flip the House for sure and potentially flip the Senate. I mean, I think people see that he's out of control, that this is not what they voted for. Prices are not going down and he's covering up for pedophiles. They're not doing real investigations, they're not going after real criminals. They're deporting people who, you know, who are not only productive members of society, but really just people who are members of the community and they're going in heavy handed. American citizens are getting shot and it's just, they are so unpopular, out of control. Rogue got us into this war that nobody asked for. And I think people are turning against him, including Republicans. You know, there are a lot of Republicans who are turning against this president. I mean, Kristi Noem with her $220 million glossy campaign, that is. I couldn't believe it when someone I was reading about how blockbuster movies, Top Gun 2, didn't even cost $220 million to make. Okay, just to put it in perspective, that you can take some of the biggest films that look like they would be quite expensive to make and they did not cost that much, $220 million so that she can put herself on horseback and do her hair and makeup and run all over the place. And Republicans are just sick and tired of seeing this and seeing the waste and the abuse that's going on at all levels, whether it's covering up the Epstein stuff and covering up for their friends and for potentially for members of this administration and for wealthy people, whether it's only going after Trump's enemies and not prosecuting real crime, lying to the American people, taking credit for things that didn't actually exist, strong arming, whether it's universities or law firms or others, just to do what they want, taking over the media and really trampling on First Amendment rights. And frankly, trampling on Second Amendment rights. Right. What did they say when Alex Preddy and Renee Good. When Alex Preddy was shot and killed in Minnesota, what did they say? They said, oh, well, a protester shouldn't bring a gun to. If it was a peaceful protest, he shouldn't bring a lawful gun, even if he's allowed to carry it. Oh, gee. Interesting. They've never said that before, right? They've never claimed that.
- [25:56]
Michael Popak
What was Kyle Rittenhouse doing?
- [25:58]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
Exactly. What was Kyle Rittenhouse doing? Look at Jan6. How many of those guys were armed? And those are wonderful, peaceful people. So I think the American people. Trump can try to say whatever he wants. People can see with their own eyes exactly what this administration's about. It's about enriching themselves, enriching their friends and families, going after his political enemies and. And getting us involved in things that nobody wanted. Meanwhile, prices are going up, jobs are going down, and we have no faith or trust in our government anymore. And I think people are, just to answer your question, where are we today? I think people are realizing the one most important power they have is this ability to vote. Despite the fact that Trump is trying to take that away from people. He's threatening to not sign any new bills into law until the Save America act is passed. Right. This is the bill that he wants to pass that essentially will eliminate almost all mail in ballots and absentee voting. And it's because he is worried that if you let people actually vote, if you give the American people the ability to vote, and you don't take over the elections and you don't militarize the elections, you don't federalize and make them national, and you allow people to vote however they can, however they choose, however the states choose to allow. I think that we'll see that they are going to. The Republicans are gonna lose and lose big, and they know it and they're saying it out loud, and they realize what trouble they're in among all voters, among all people. Of course, there's the, you know, the die hard MAGA who, no matter what, you know, all I'm hearing them say, when people confront them and say things like, but what about the fact that you said no new wars or what about the fact that gas prices have gone up. Their only response? Well, it's still better than what Biden did. Right? That's their only talking point. The tried and true MAGA people, but they're really losing a lot of the people who voted for Donald Trump and they know it, they see it. These elections that you just talked about, Marjorie Taylor Greene and there's one in New Hampshire and others that are clearly going to give them a run for their money. People are voting Democrat and voting against MAGA and voting against the Republicans. I mean, Congress has given up their job. Even if you don't like Donald Trump and you still want to be somewhat of a Republican or be conservative, they're not going to allow that to happen in Congress anymore because Congress has been completely co opted and taken over by this president. They do nothing that is independent anymore. I was surprised that a Republican senator, or I'm sorry, a Republican congressman is the one who actually asked that question of Kristi Noem about the $220 million ad campaign that she said was approved by the president directly, which got her fired before she could get off the stand that day. Even Republicans are giving up and saying we've had enough because it's that rogue out of control and just not what the American people want.
- [29:07]
Michael Popak
Absolutely. Well, I know what they do want. I think they like supporting Midas Touch and Legal af and we're so glad that you're here on the Legal AF midweek edition. The there's so many different ways to support what we do here on independent media like this one. We've got as part of the ecosystem Legal AF, the YouTube channel where we do about a dozen now videos a day, all sorts of amazing contributors. Adam Klassfeld, All Rise News. We've got Shan Wu, former general counsel for the Attorney General, Sean Wallensten, Sydney Blumenthal with Court of History. Dina Dahl does a show with me called Unprecedented about the United States Supreme Court Court Accountability Action, American Civil Liberties Union, a democracy forward all under one pane of glass over on Legal AF YouTube channel. And now's the time to support us by just becoming a member and a free member at that. If you can swing paid membership, that's great too. 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And let's take our first break for our sponsors. Well, I was getting ready to talk about the news and politics today and my cat Chanel decided she was the headline. She doesn't care about politics, but she has extremely strong opinions about her food. If this show ever runs late, it's because she refuses to let me talk about law and politics until her Smalls cat food is handled first. It's 2026. Do you still feed your cat like it's 1926? This podcast is sponsored by Smalls. Smalls is protein packed cat food made with preservative free ingredients you'd actually recognize, delivered right to your door. And cats.com named Smalls their best overall cat food. Last time I fed my cat Small, she destroyed the bowl and followed me around like I changed her life. I even did a legit taste test. No, not that kind. Two bowls side by side and she immediately chose Smalls. Her fur is softer, her breath is better, and she honestly handles the news better than I do. 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The cleaning experience feels noticeably fresher and more effective compared with relying on toilet paper alone. Tushy bidets can also help reduce irritation, prevent micro tears caused by wiping, and many people who switch end up using up to 80% less toilet paper. Make going to the bathroom the most comfortable thing you do all day. For a limited time, our listeners get 10% off their first bidet order when you use code LEGAL AF at checkout. That's 10% off your first bidet order at hello Tushy.com with promo code LEGAL AF. Again, for a limited time, our listeners get 10% off their first day order when you use code LEGALAF at checkout. That's 10% OFF at hello Tushy.comwith promo code LEGAL AF. Welcome back to Legal AF at the Midweek with Karen Freeman, Nick Nifflo and Michael Popak. The Democrats. Speaking of Democrats, a couple of things that'll kind of fit together. One, as you mentioned earlier, the SAVE act, that's dead. That's dead on arrival. John Thune, who's the Senate majority leader, has made it clear, especially given the current polling, that he has no interest whatsoever of eliminating, you know, 150 year, 200 year tradition of the filibuster, which is the power of the minority, the party and minority, which could be, which he knows could be the Republicans very soon to block a bill or a law that they don't agree with. By back in old timey times, like Mr. Smith goes to Washington, you literally went to a podium for like days on end and you gave a speech or you read the phone book or whatever you needed to do to fill in for a week's worth of time. You read the entire Pickwick Papers or whatever you did and that was a filibuster. And then hopefully the voting would. You don't have to do that anymore. You can just say you're going to filibuster. And if you're going to filibuster, the Democrats would say that now as the party of minority, in order to get the vote on the SAVE act passed by the House already, which, as you noted, Karen, would require people to come up with citizenship papers. Many people, 20, 30% of the people, especially women, don't have, which is show us your Birth certificate or show us your birth certificate and your driver's license match in terms of names. Well, they don't for many. Many. Or show us your passport. Many people don't have passports or other citizenship cards that frankly don't even exist. And all that's gonna do is make people who tend to vote Democrat have a difficult time voting. It's also a takeover of the state role in federal elections. See, there's a reason our framers and our founders, who did not trust the new federal government, did not want the federal government running its own election, and they gave it to the states. So now the feds are like, no, we want to be able to purge the voters from federal election. Yeah, that's exactly the reason why the founders didn't want you doing that.
- [36:32]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
Why? It's in the Constitution.
- [36:33]
Michael Popak
It's in the Constitution. It's a little bit murky in the Constitution, but generally you're right. And then of course, that combined with the 10th Amendment, powers that are not with the federal government or reserved to the states and, and 200 years of precedent, you know, we got going for us. So they wanted, they want to, of course they want to penalize transgender people again. I mean, can we get off the back of transgender Americans? You know, it's an obsession. It's an obsession. They're point. They're like 1% of the population. They are disadvantaged to begin with. Their fragile population to begin with. Do you really need to keep heaping all of this? Yes, because Donald Trump thinks that's a winning strategy for him. So between all this voter ID bullshit and voter role purging, it got out of the House, but now the Senate. Where I was going with this long winded story is that in order to get the vote to that Senate floor, which would be able to pass with just the simple majority which they have in the Senate, you got to get it past the filibuster, which means you have to have 60 out of 100 votes, which the Republicans don't have to implement what's called cloture. C L O T U R E to kill the filibuster and then let the thing. So that's like the weird, the weird thing. You need 60 votes in order to take it to a simple majority vote on. On the Senate floor. Thune has said, I'm not. He's effectively said, I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it, because he's afraid that. And people like Mitch McConnell has whispered in his ear, we're going to be the minority Party soon. It could be any day now. And we need the filibuster when the Democrats are in power and have all three houses, all three, all three branches of government. He's not going to do it. No matter how much Donald Trump is whispering at him at State of the Union addresses and all this other bullshit and all Mag has gone crazy. Elon Musk, the end of American democracy. If we don't remove the filibuster. We have the SAVE Act. I mean, he's barely an American voter. And the most ironic one was I read that Mark Meadows is back, who just avoided barely being indicted by Jack Smith for being an insurrection as the chief of staff for Donald Trump in January 6, who also was charged with voting twice. He fraudulently voted himself. So this is this moment to pop back into the public consciousness about, you know, along with these other wackos. So that's, that's gonna die. So that's good. You know, we're trying to. Okay, so you got that. Then you've got the one you and I have talked about. Talk about the Democratic National Committee bringing a lawsuit to smoke out, whether Trump is gonna try to use the military to scare the shit out of people during Election Day.
- [39:24]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
Yeah, well, Trump has said out loud several times that essentially we should nationalize or federalize the election. And people are worried. What does that mean? And so the Democratic National Committee has. They've sent these Freedom of Information act requests, which is how a lot of lawsuits start. You get information from the government and you file these requests for. It's a Freedom of Information act request. And government agencies are required to respond. There's certain exceptions and things they can keep out. When I worked in government, we used to get them all the time. And you have to actually go through your records and see what do we have to give over and what are we allowed to keep out. And some agencies have entire departments that are devoted and staff devoted just to Freedom of Information act requests because they're so voluminous. And truly, any person can file a Freedom of Information act request. It doesn't have to be someone big or someone from a big organization or entity. You and I can file it. Anyone can. Average Joe citizen can. And so many whistleblower and other types of actions begin with information that's gleaned from the Freedom of Information Act. Of course, news agencies are one of the biggest, one of the biggest sources of Freedom of Information act requests of the government that they then analyze and report on. And the Democratic National Committee filed, I think, four each for Various departments, including the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense. And they served, several of them to them, asking for information about potential employment of federal agents and troops to polling places, to drop boxes and to election offices. And they said, these records may not exist, but if they do exist, either tell us and respond, or if they don't exist, tell us. And most of them went ignored. I think one was answered that said, oh, it's going to take time, we can't get back to you for six more months. But the rest were ignored. And so they brought a lawsuit in D.C. in federal court, essentially driven by this fear that Trump is going to follow through with these statements and these suggestions that they're going to take over the midterms. And there's so many different ways he can do it. He can do it out loud by declaring some kind of national emergency and martial law and sending the troops in to seize voting machines, like they've done in Georgia and now after the fact. And recently a grand jury subpoena was issued, and the same thing happened in Maricopa county in Arizona, taking those voting machines and ballots and things like that. So they're already sort of figuring out how to do this and what to do. But this lawsuit is to try to find out and demand information so that Democrats can prepare in advance for what Trump has in mind. Cuz we know he has something in mind, we just don't know exactly how he's gonna do it. Is he gonna do it by deploying military polling places? What about ICE agents to try to scare people off from coming out to vote? Are they going to do that? You know, which is why they asked the Department of Homeland Security, are they going to have military planes fly over and scare people from going out to the polls? Are they going to use, you know, subpoenas and other things to steal the ballots after the fact? Are they going to somehow declare, like I said, this is some kind of emergence so that they stop the elections altogether? I mean, we know that they're contemplating and considering all of these things, do they have a plan for what they're doing? I would actually probably argue, given how they've gone into Iran, they probably don't have a plan yet because they're not very good planners. But they are testing and seeing where the pressure points are and where the opportunities are. Because if there's any places where the Republicans lose, lo and behold, you're going to see them claiming fraud. You're going to see them claiming some kind of emergency or some kind of issue that requires federal intervention. And so this is a lawsuit that was filed by the Democratic National Committee to try and get this information and, you know, really try to stop this in its tracks in advance.
- [44:06]
Michael Popak
Yeah, I think that's the right move by the Democratic National Committee, because we don't want to wake up on the day of the election and see troops there. Let's, let's, you know, you know, the Trump administration, there's an email somewhere where they're planning something or an executive order or something like that. So, you know, there's three different, or three or four different ways that we can make sure that the vote isn't stolen. And the Democrats are on to all of them. One of them is, is to defeat the SAVE act in, in the Senate by threatening the filibuster. That seems to be effective. The other one is to make sure that under the current rules that Trump doesn't try to do, you know, military flyovers, you know, you just see in Philadelphia or Georgia, you know, like the Blue Angels just suddenly appear, pissing everybody off. I mean, do I have a legitimate fear that they're going to open fire on people in the line? No, but, you know, if it keeps one person home, three people home, five people home, who don't want to, you know, be subjected to it. I voted my whole life. I find it very uncomfortable whenever I see a cop with a gun hanging around a polling place. You know, even, even if it's within the law, it's just, you know, you're just there to exercise your most privileged responsibility and right to vote and to see law enforcement there, you know, one way or the other. It takes on it sometimes, unfortunately, even if they're just there to vote, it takes on sort of an ominous quality. That's why there's laws against it. There's actually, it's actually federal law that says that an officer or anybody in the military can't be at a polling place or use unless they're there to repel the enemy, a foreign enemy. But, you know, we've talked about all the various ways, and the Democratic attorneys general are ready. They're doing tabletop exercises about Donald Trump's instincts, about how he could try to seize voting machines or use the National Guard again. Or the good part is, you know, some of what he's done, he did too early. Like, we know the National Guard trick, and we've got good case law now at the Supreme Court level on it. But, you know, ICE and Border Patrol are still roaming around. There's federal Security Officers still roaming around. You got, you know, Carolyn Levitt Levette who won't, you know, we won't. I love her. She just put on her gravestone one day. We won't rule out anything. We won't rule out the president, will not rule out using ICE troops, you know, or ICE forces around election and polling places. Why can't you rule that out? I don't understand. Why can't you say that you're not going to violate the law of the daily election? But with all of these shenanigans, you know, I just get the sense, Karen, I want to see what you think from talking to people, because you and I interact with a lot of people. I think people are willing right now to crawl through chicken wire on their bellies in order to vote against Donald Trump. That's my sense.
- [46:59]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
Yeah, I think you're right. I agree with you. I have a question for you. Speaking of the Supreme Court, what do you make of the fact that the Voting Rights act decision has not come down yet?
- [47:10]
Michael Popak
Yeah, that's the third thing that's in our favor for the election because. Well, let's, let's frame it. October, they have a second oral argument about a case that we call Calais out of Louisiana, where Mike Johnson's from, about whether redrawing the map to make black representation consistent with the demographics of the state violates the Voting Rights act or not, or the 14th Amendment. Now, the MAGA 6, including Roberts, has been, it has been just itching to throw away the Voting Rights act came out of the Great Society and President Johnson, Martin Luther King and all the great leaders just throw it, just throw it into the trash, trash bit of history. And they've been chipping away at it and section two of it. And we're afraid that that decision is going to allow and give license to states in the Deep south to redraw their maps, claiming that, oh, no, oh, no, it looks like we're getting rid of all the black people. That's not what we're doing. We're just increasing the Republicans see and put blinders on. These are the same states that were monitored under federal oversight and had to have all their maps approved for decades because of systemic and historic racism in those very same states. Now, freed of that, they've gone back to doing historic and systemic racism again. And the fear when they said that case was going to be heard in October is that there was going to be a way for Donald Trump to have those maps redrawn and pick up like 20 seats out of the 435 on the electoral, on the congressional map for midterms. But even though they held the oral argument in October, we're now in the middle of March, they were so cocky, the states of the Deep south, that Louisiana called a special session of their legislatures in end of October in case that ruling went their way to redraw the map. And when it didn't come out in October, nor November, nor December, they said, they said effort. We're going back to the old maps and now we're in March, really April, and it's just, it's just too late. So one of a couple of things happened in my view. Donald Trump bashing the Supreme Court justices that he needed like Amy Coney Barrett and Gorsuch and saying that they were embarrassments to their family on the way into the State of the Union address may have backfired. Certainly didn't make any friends on the court on decisions that had not yet been made. So I don't think they're bending over backwards to help Donald Trump at this midterm. One of the ways to tamp down an out of control president is to make him lame duck at the midterms and have a wipeout. So that's one theory and I think that's, that's not a bad one. The second one is that the, it's going to be a bad decision against voting rights and that the justices in the minority, no pun intended, like Katanji Brown, Jackson and Kagan and Soto Mayor, are taking their sweet time, which they're allowed to, to write their dissents and until the dissents are done, that the opinion doesn't come out. That's why most major, most major decisions do not come out in February, notwithstanding the tariffs. They usually come out at Earl, maybe March, more like May and June. June. I gave an example, the Dobbs decision to take away a woman's right to choose and destroy Roe versus Wade. It was officially published in June, like the last opinion on their way out for summer vacation. But it leaked. A draft leaked in March. Right. And then it sort of hardened positions and it ended up being ultimately the final, the final decision. But it didn't come out officially till June because it was circulating in March with all these different pieces and parts. So if I'm the three liberals, the moderates, I'm taking, I know I'm on the losing end. Fuck it, I'm not gonna help. I'm not gonna get it done fast.
- [51:30]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
When's it too late though, for the states to wreak havoc and redraw the maps and reclaim these seats. I mean, when is it like. Because, you know, people are primaries already.
- [51:40]
Michael Popak
We've had primaries already. We've had three rounds of primaries. Some would argue that this is too late. March, now, April, certainly. Unless the. Unless the red states are going to rerun primaries and redraw maps and have candidates scrambling and even that chaos. Trump doesn't have the power. The red states are like, oh, yeah, we're not doing that. So we're in the mode now. Most observers believe that this is it. The maps are the way they are. Five plus Texas, maybe five plus California to compensate. A couple here, a couple there, with one exception, Virginia, the great Commonwealth of Virginia goes to the polls in April about their maps, and that could be plus 10 Democrats. Wouldn't that be ironic if after all of this, the one that got the bulk of the new seats were the Democrats?
- [52:32]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
Absolutely.
- [52:33]
Michael Popak
Isn't that great?
- [52:34]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
Yeah.
- [52:34]
Michael Popak
So. And even with. Even within the plus fives and minus fives, political scientists and others that have looked at elections say it's not that simple because you may have so pissed off the electorate, like in Texas, they may have thought they made five new Republican seats, but they might have endangered what was once a Republican stronghold that now becomes purple or blue because people are so pissed off. So it doesn't end up being a net plus five. Maybe it's a net plus two because while making five new, they lost three over here. Right. And California, like, maybe it's not plus five. Maybe it's plus 10 because people are so animated to vote. You know, this is a wave election, a tidal wave election, which people think it's going to be based on the data. Then we can end up. Democrats can end up with 240, 250 seats in the House. They could get not only the majority in the Senate, but, like, who know, they could get a lot of seats in it. We don't know what's going to happen. We've never had this terrible. Of an administrator, maybe Jimmy Carter of an administration coming into the midterms in terms of economy, consumer confidence, right direction, wrong direction, favorability. You put all out all that. You run that race a thousand times. Donald Trump gets wiped out in the midterms if we vote. As long as we vote. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah. So why don't we.
- [54:01]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
I was just gonna say from your lips. From your lips.
- [54:05]
Michael Popak
That's it. Now our lips to our. Our audience's ears. We're so glad you're here together. This is the community and fellowship that we've worked so hard to build. And I'm glad we get together twice a week with Legal AF for short. Other ways to support what we do We've got, Of course, the YouTube channel come over there, 12 videos a day at the intersection of law and politics. I think you'll really enjoy our other commentators as well and contributors. Legal af, the substack where I'm doing live reports on a daily basis. Bring in guests sometimes as well. And then we've got our Pro Democracy sponsors and here and here's a word from them. Well, this episode is brought to you by IQ Bar, our exclusive snack, hydration and coffee sponsor. IQ Bar Protein Bars, IQ Mix, Hydration Mixes and IQ Joe Mushroom Coffees are the delicious low sugar brain and body fuel you need to win your day. The Ultimate Sampler Pack is the easiest way to try it all. 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The only way to get 20% off is to go to JoinDeleteMe.com legalaf and enter code Legal AF at checkout one more time. JoinDeleteMe.com legal af code legal af welcome back to the midweek edition of Legal AF. Pam Bondi, Karen is heading for a roasting of her own making at the Oversight Committee hearing about Jeffrey Epstein. I don't think she's personally long for the Trump administration. I think the firing of her buddy Kristi Noem demonstrates that Donald Trump, to save his own ass, will fire anybody at any time. The only difference is whereas Kristi Noem may have lined her own pocket or those of pockets around her with this $220 million ad campaign, Pam, Pam Bondi has not personally, as far as I know, within the administration, benefited financially. And she does know we're all, as Ben Mysellis put it on Saturday, know where all the bodies are buried. So maybe he holds on to her a little bit longer. But she's doing terribly. She's lost a lot of the Republicans, I mean, in order for her to be forced to appear before the Oversight committee about the Epstein scandal and her cover up involvement related to it, five Republicans, not just a couple, five Republicans crossed over and joined the Democrats to issue that subpoena, which is not a great sign for her that she is once, that's one thing you say about Trump, once he thinks a cabinet member has lost support from mainstream Republicans or those that support him, you know, the, you know, the, the, his, his view of them and therefore their longevity in the Cabinet, you know, is not great usually after that. And now we got new reporting that Bondi's doing so poorly and she needs protection from who knows who, that she's had to move into like a military barracks, like an army barracks because of, because of threats against her. Well, when you're the most corrupt attorney general of all time, more so than even Nixon's attorney general, he went to jail. This is, these things are going to happen. You know, it's ironic if she is being threatened by foreign entities because of her role like in Maduro, she wasn't even there in the press conference. This was not a Department of justice operation taking out Maduro in Venezuela or the Ayatollah. That was not the Department of Justice. That was barely the Department of Defense. You know, and Donald Trump's own erratic behavior, what can we expect, Karen, with Pam Bondi and how long, let's just make a bet here. Do you think she makes it the second year of his administration?
- [60:16]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
I mean, you know, I don't have a crystal ball, but she does not seem to be doing well. She's not at many of the press conferences that you would think she would be in. She doesn't seem to be in his inner circle. She hasn't accomplished the task of going after Trump's political enemies. She hasn't been able to install United States attorneys effectively throughout the United States to keep getting rejected. Indictments are getting thrown out. And, of course, the handling of the Epstein files has just been a thorn in the side of Donald Trump. Trump, it's one of his biggest criticisms. He is the number one person who appears in those files. And the victims aren't happy, and Republicans aren't happy and Democrats aren't happy. They're losing a lot of Republicans to this issue because of how it's being handled. And we know that Trump likes to blame others. Right? That's sort of how he is. And he's completely disloyal, no matter how loyal you are to him. And I think she seems like she's going to be the next fall guy after Nome. Could be Pete Hegseth, but I thought, I didn't think he'd last as long as he's lasted. And she is going to have to testify before the, before Congress soon. And I think she has a lot of questions to answer. She did horribly at the last hearing that she testified at, where she answered questions that were not relevant to the questions that were being asked. She attacked members of Congress. She had these burn books with her. She was doing surveillance on members of Congress looking up what files they looked at in the Epstein files. Right. Because they have to go to a portal to go look at the unredacted files that members of Congress have access to. And what did Pam Bondi do after they left? She went in and had people go and search and look and see
- [62:21]
Michael Popak
what
- [62:21]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
were they looking up, what were their search history. I mean, that's, you know, they were mad at Jack Smith for ordering, you know, toll records, ordering phone records of members of Congress just to see what numbers they called in and out and for how long. Try going and looking at their search history and seeing what they're looking up in the Epstein files. I mean, that is surveillance. That is the kind of thing that, frankly, prosecutors need a search warrant for. You can't just go in and do that. So I don't think they're going to like that. I hope they've come much more prepared this time. You know, last hearing that she testified at, I was actually really disappointed with the questioning. Members of Congress, including the Democrats, especially the Democrats, many of them spent a lot of their time just giving speeches, essentially using the time that they have for their questioning to give their talking points and give speeches and not ask many questions. And the Republicans did the same thing. And when they did ask questions and she, quote, unquote answered, she didn't answer, she went on the attack. She called them names. She called, she called Jamie Raskin a washed up lawyer. He's actually a constitutional scholar. She accused them of all sorts of things and it was really offensive. And I think she really, I think hopefully members of Congress, especially the Democrats, are going to be much more prepared this time now that they've seen what she's like and what she does. And I was actually reading something this morning that was put out by Barb McQuaid. She writes a column for the Cafe Insider. She's a former United States attorney from, I think, Michigan. She's just an excellent lawyer and really smart and former prosecutor. And she wrote this thing about essentially how should Congress handle Pam Bondi's testimony about Epstein. And she pointed out what I just said about how don't spend your time, don't waste your time giving speeches. Let's get some real answers. And frankly, if she doesn't answer a question, the next person should continue to ask the same question. Right? If you use up your time and she's not answering a question and it's a really good question, then the next member of Congress should follow up and ask it. If you ask it one way and she won't answer it, ask it another way, ask it a different way, come up with the questions that we really want answered and don't let her off the hook. And she also points out about perjury, you need to be very specific and precise with perjury to be able to bring a perjury prosecution. If someone lies, if they say they don't remember or if they give an opinion that's not perjury. So you have to really be artful on how you ask those questions. And so she was sort of talking about that and gave some examples of a list of questions that House members should ask. One, who is the person at the DOJ who's responsible for all final decisions regarding redaction? Number two, in February 2025, you said in an interview with Fox News that an Epstein client list was sitting on my desk right now to review. Did such a list ever exist? If so, what list were you referring to? Has it been produced? If so, please identify where it appears in the database. If such a list exists and has not been produced, why not? If such a list does not exist, why did you publicly claim that it did? And she gives several more questions like that. But it just really shows. I think we need to get to the bottom of certain things. We really need to get answers. And members of Congress need to work together to. When she. Because, you know, she will. When she refuses to answer or she kind of dissembles or avoids or talks about the stock market, you know, which I don't know if she can talk about anymore, or prices of things or starts to attack, then the next person should do it. Don't let her off the hook. You know, people who know how to ask questions, cross examiners, litigators like me and you, who have done hundreds, if not more cross examinations. I mean, it's an art. And there's a lot of lawyers there. And if they're not members of Congress, they certainly have them on their staff. They really need to, I think, come up with the questions, look at Barb McQuaid's list and be precise and get the answers from Pam Bondi once and for all so that we can figure out exactly what happened and start to get to the bottom of it. Because we can't sit here and be the only country you've got. The UK taking royal title away from Prince Andrew and demoting the current Prime Minister is in trouble because the person that he, Keir Starmer, is in trouble because the person he made diplomat to the United States appears in the Epstein files and frankly, a lot more than he said he did, you know, but yet there's no accountability here. There's no one's getting arrested here. Yes, some people are losing their jobs or getting publicly shamed, but there has to be real accountability. And there has to be. There's a sprawling network that needs to be looked at, and potentially prosecutions need to be brought. You know, we know, for example, that there's a prosecution memo that listed several people that should have been charged along with Epstein and Maxwell. Where is that? Who are those people? What happened to. To. To that. Those investigations, et cetera. So I really think that. That this is an opportunity. We have a second chance. And I think we really need to get to the bottom of. Of a lot that's going on.
- [68:06]
Michael Popak
Yeah. And listen, what I told people as an independent commentator and, and journalist is I don't know whether the 13 or 14 year old who's now an adult was forced to perform oral sex on Donald Trump and she bit him and, and, and he, he hit her. But you know who else who doesn't, doesn't know if that's true or not? The FBI. And that's the point. I don't know whether there are bodies buried at the New Mexico ranch that was owned by Epstein, but neither is the FBI. And that's the point. I mean, you can't just clear by press conference Donald Trump of all wrongdoing every time there's a, a bad document in there. There's so many bad documents in there for Donald Trump and still claim that you're doing your job as the chief law enforcement officer. I agree with you. I hope that the inquisitors of the Senate and the House are, are prepared. I, I had Senator Blumenthal from Connecticut on between her first appearance and her second appearance. And I basically said, I called him out in a nice way. I said, senator, your former attorney general, lawyer, all that, you know, are you ready? You know, you know, she's got the burn book and she's going to try to distract and dissemble. Are you ready to do hard hitting cross examination? She said, michael, we are ready. And they did do a better job the second time around. I mean, look, Ted Lieu came out and said you should resign during this hearing because you just lied under oath. And to give people some comfort and confidence as we end the show tonight, the statute of limitations for lying under oath to Congress, which we call a 1001 charge, is five years. This is 2026. That means if she lies at that next hearing, we have until a new, hopefully Democratically led Department of justice has until 2031 to bring a case against her. And that is the high wire act that we're watching those closest to Donald Trump perform. It is remarkable to me. Listen, I've been close to power. I've never been power drunk and I've certainly never been in the, in the White House or in the inner, inner, inner circle of the White House. But something happens to these people who had decent resumes. I mean, Todd Blanch had decent resumes before they got into these positions. But they've just become inebriated with power and magical thinking is the rule of the day. I mean, I, things that I would in my private life and private practice would be like, I'm not doing that. That would risk jail or losing my law license. When you get in there in that hermetically sealed world of Donald Trump, it's just throw caution to the wind. We're having so much fun.
- [71:09]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
Whee.
- [71:10]
Michael Popak
Like, is it really we. She's so worried about losing her bar license, she's creating new rules to try to give the Department of Justice the first bite at the apple about whether somebody like her committed an ethical violation. But one day, and that day is coming soon. Not soon enough, but that day is coming relatively soon. Pam Bondi, the other Department of Justice personnel who are complicit, not the ones that are still standing strong, the leadership of the Department of Justice, from the Attorney General, the deputy attorney general, the assistant deputy Attorney general, going. The number three, the number four, all going down the line. All of them will be judged. Right. Not by their maker, but by bar regulators. Right. By federal prosecutors in the next administration. And they act like that. They enjoy the immunity, protection and insulation that their boss does. I just don't understand it.
- [72:18]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
Maybe they've been promised pardons. Who knows?
- [72:21]
Michael Popak
Well, maybe. But that's not going to stop them from losing their bar license.
- [72:24]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
Yeah.
- [72:25]
Michael Popak
And being. And being shut down and put. Put out of business. And. And they may. And they may be. Maybe all of them. Listen, anybody that's going to sign the first day in office and let 1600 people out of jail and out of being Jan 6 insurrectionists, I. Maybe, maybe in your welcome package into the White House, along with your WI
- [72:47]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
FI password and your military housing.
- [72:49]
Michael Popak
And military housing. Maybe there's a sheet there that says
- [72:52]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
this in your Florsheim shoes.
- [72:55]
Michael Popak
Florsheim shoe gift certificate. Then you've got the. You've got the pardon sitting on you. I don't know. Maybe. And you may be right about that because they are acting like they got nothing. They don't have a care in the world. Right.
- [73:09]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
Yeah, it's amazing.
- [73:10]
Michael Popak
It's amazing. And you've been close to power. You've been in power, but it didn't. It didn't drive you mad.
- [73:17]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
No, I mean, I'm the opposite. I love being, you know, number two. I love being the one behind the scenes. I love being the one who, you know, gets shit done and let the other people deal with, you know, all that stuff. So it's the. I'm the opposite of that. I don't have that. That genetic. I don't have that fiber.
- [73:37]
Michael Popak
Yeah. I mean, I know people. We've talked about it before on the show. I know people that were close to Todd Blanche, friends, lunch buddies, and they don't recognize this person. That is the number two in the Department of Justice.
- [73:50]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
Yeah, I've heard the same thing.
- [73:52]
Michael Popak
Yeah. They're just, wow. I mean, Rudy Giuliani went crazy. And I know people that were close to Rudy that were just like, who is this guy? But something happened when you get in close proximity, you fly too close to the sun and you get into this presidential world. People know I worked for and with Howard Lutnick back when he wasn't the commerce Secretary, and I don't recognize this guy. I know people that work for him or worked for him that don't recognize this guy.
- [74:19]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
I think I would be starstruck, though, if I met Barack Obama. I think just thinking, I'm thinking of, like, who could I possibly meet that I would be. Have a. Have a hard time formulating a sentence and getting the smile off my face and, you know, being starstruck. And I think it might be him.
- [74:34]
Michael Popak
Yeah. And if I worked for him, Lord knows what I would do. Right. Okay, Barack. Okay, boss. Maybe that's what happens. You just get so. But I think you're right. There's something else going on. And maybe, maybe it is the pardon thing.
- [74:47]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
But that won't get the welcome package. I love that.
- [74:49]
Michael Popak
Right. Wi Fi password and, oh, look, a part of the. It's right in my package. But I'm so glad you're here, Karen, with me every week. And our audience is here with us. Thank you for supporting us.
- [75:01]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
Yeah, we missed you, Popak last week. We missed you. But you were. You were on Disney cruise and couldn't get the. Couldn't get good Wi Fi.
- [75:08]
Michael Popak
No, Wi Fi sucks at sea. I'll just let you know that now. And of course, thank you for being here. The podcast does great because of our audience and we're so blessed and so honored for your support. Come over to where you get your audio podcast from. If this is where you get your audio podcast from. Apple and Spotify. Five star reviews and comments always very, very helpful. YouTube ranks us separately, so the watches are really important, the views are really important. Sending it off to friends and family, asking them to continue to join our audience. Really important. And our audience here, of course, our fervent support from our audience. And then You've got Legal AF, the YouTube channel. Right. It's kind of a brand extension, if you will, and dozen videos there about every hour over on as new content over on the YouTube channel. You can become a member, you can become a paid Subscriber. There's different ways to support what we do. And then you've got the legal AF sub stack as well. If you don't know about substack, not just for legal af, any interest in your life, any hobby, avocation, something that you've always wanted to learn, you know, go over to substack. There's an expert over there that's really interesting and really fascinating. That's writing about something you've always wanted to know. And hopefully you'll find that, you'll find that with us on legal af. So we appreciate you being there and thank you again to our pro democracy sponsors. Karen, you know what, you know, you know what time it is. It's time for feet. I mean, for the last word.
- [76:48]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
You know, it's funny, my mother is this unbelievable crocheter and I think I'm gonna head over to sub stack to see if there's a crochet substack so I can learn. Because I need to learn these things, right? My mother didn't teach me, so I'm gonna head over there. I didn't realize the breadth of what you can learn at substack and what the topics are. So. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna do that and, and give a shout out to my, my wonderful mother and, and try to learn, learn her skills.
- [77:17]
Michael Popak
Are you about to announce crochet af?
- [77:22]
Karen Freeman McNiffalo
Settle down. You know, we'll see. We'll see. You know, we'll see if I have the patience.
- [77:30]
Michael Popak
So, yeah, it's. Seriously. So glad you're here. So glad our audience is here. And until Saturday with Ben Meisellis and me, shout out to the Midas mighty and illegal efforts. The wrongs we must right, the fights we must win. The future we must secure together for our nation. This is what's in front of us. This determines what's next for all of us. We are marines. We were made for this.
- [78:09]
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Karen Freeman McNiffalo
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Michael Popak
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Karen Freeman McNiffalo
What do I do?
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Michael Popak
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Karen Freeman McNiffalo
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Karen Freeman McNiffalo
I'm so relieved.
- [78:57]
Michael Popak
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Karen Freeman McNiffalo
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Michael Popak
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