Shankar Vedantam (1:37)

All. This month we'll bring you the latest installment of Our popular your 2.0 series. The focus will be on the self doubt and anxiety that many of us grapple with when charting a new path. Whether you're struggling with self criticism, a lack of patience, or finding the courage to make a big change, we've got your back. That's U 2.0 from Hidden Brain all through the month of January. Join.

Jon Favreau (2:04)

Us. Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon.

Dan Pfeiffer (2:35)

Favreau. I'm Dan.

Jon Favreau (2:36)

Pfeiffer. On today's show, Donald Trump says the only limit on his power isn't international law, but his own morality. Womp, womp, sleep well. He's also thinking about paying off the people of Greenland to join the United States. Little carrot, little stick. You know, maybe we won't invade you, we'll just give you some money. We'll also talk about how Republicans in Congress are starting to assert themselves just a little bit in passing a new war powers resolution with Democrats and joining Democrats in extending the ACA subsidies, at least in the House so far. Then Zoran Mamdani talks to Tommy about the new deal he struck on universal childcare in New York. And Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry talks to Dan about the horrific ICE shooting in his city. So let's start there and I will try to do this without yelling or crying. By now you've heard about the killing of Renee Good, a 37 year old mother of three who was shot to death in her car by an ICE officer as she was on the way home from dropping off her six year old at school. Her family says she wasn't an activist, though others who knew her say she was part of a local group that warns people when ICE shows up. Either way, at some point Good came across several ICE officers and this is where everyone's relying on eyewitness videos that are are all over social media, though many have been verified by media outlets. What you can see for sure is that Good's car is blocking a residential street. Then the car moves forward a bit. Then she stops and waves by other drivers who are trying to pass. Then more ICE agents show up in a truck, get out and according to an eyewitness, one told her to leave and two others told her to get out of the car. One agent walks around the car to the front while filming the encounter on his phone and then another tries to open her car door. At that point, she reverses the car and you can see the wheels turn away from the officers as she tries to get away. This is when the agent filming the encounter who is now in front of the vehicle yells stop, grabs his gun with his free hand, shoots her once through the front windshield and then two more times point blank into the driver's side window. The agent then walks away unharmed. And I would encourage everyone to watch the really well done New York Times analysis of the videos which we will put in the show notes. Now, the ICE agent claims he shot her in self defense because he thought the vehicle was going to run him over. The Times analysis shows that his feet are clearly away from the vehicle when he takes the first shot. But regardless of what you think, looking at the videos, in a normal world, law enforcement and government officials of either party would simply say there will be an investigation into this tragic incident that they don't want to prejudge. And in fact, that's what Trump borders are. Tom Homan of all people, said in an interview before later he had to put out a statement that sort of walked back because I'm sure the administration pressured him to, because that's not what Trump said, that's not what Kristi Noem said, and it's certainly not what the vice President of the United States said who came out to the White House briefing room on Thursday to throw a bitchy little.

J.D. Vance (6:00)

Tantrum. That woman is part of a broader left wing network to attack, to dox, to assault, and to make it impossible for our ICE officers to do their job. Who has been repeating the lie that this is some innocent woman who was out for a drive in Minneapolis when a law enforcement officer shot at her? You should be ashamed of yourself. This is classic terrorism. You guys are meant to report the truth. How have you let yourself become agents of propaganda of a radical fringe that's making it harder for us to enforce our law? She tried to run somebody over with her car and the guy defended himself when that happened. Next question. There's a part of me that feels, feels very, very sad for this woman. Not just because she lost her life, but because I think she is a victim of left wing ideology. I would appreciate everybody saying a prayer for that. That agent, he deserves a debt of gratitude. And I think the media prejudging and talking about this guy as if.

Jon Favreau (6:53)

He'S a murderer is one of the.

J.D. Vance (6:54)

Most disgraceful things I've ever seen for the American.

Jon Favreau (6:56)

Media. He deserves a debt of gratitude. A man who no one disputes shot a woman three times, twice at close range. Keep in mind, earlier on Thursday, Vance tweeted that Renee Goode was a, quote, deranged leftist. I just imagine what JD Vance would have said or done about a Democratic politician who called Charlie Kirk deranged the day after he was assassinated. I don't know any reaction to what I thought was one of the most despicable performances by a Trump official maybe.

Dan Pfeiffer (7:30)

Ever. You said you were going to do this without crying or yelling. I cannot make those promises. It was in the 10 years since Trump came down the escalator that might be the most angry, infuriated and Disgusted. I've been at something a Trump official, including Donald Trump himself, has done or said in this time. J.D. vance is disgusting. He lies with such ease, with such little compunction. He is unburdened by decency, morality, shame, any concern about, possibly by the truth. He does it with confidence and arrogance. And even more inferiorly, he does it well. He's a sophist in the truest sense of the word. He can make any argument sound clever, at least on the surface. And it's truly, truly just to have such little humanity after someone was killed, regardless of what you think actually happened there. And if you want to make the argument this officer legitimately thought they were shooting us on defense, that's not an argument borne out by the evidence that I've seen. But even if you were to take that point, to just dismiss this person, to call them a deranged leftist, a domestic terrorist, part of some shadowy left wing group, which department, which J.D. vance said in the press conference, should be investigated by the Department of Justice without any evidence? And the thing that makes me so angry about it, and this is true of J.D. vance, Kristi Noem, Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, is that they lie with no fear of getting caught. Because they believe that even if evidence comes out, video evidence, documentary evidence, circumstantial evidence that says what they said was wrong, they can just blow right through it and bend reality to their will without a care in the fucking.

Jon Favreau (9:24)

World. It is. Yeah, I was shaking with anger watching it because. And you know, he's been tweeting a bunch of shit about it, so I sort of knew it was coming, but the way he did it and just sort of the anger and smugness from him. I just want to add a few things that the Vice President neglected to mention. Here's the government's use of force policy that applies to dhs. I'll quote from it. Firearms may not be discharged at moving vehicles unless the vehicle is operated in a manner that threatens to cause death or serious physical injury to the officer or others. And no other objectively reasonable means of defense appear to exist, which includes moving out of the path of the vehicle, which is an option that that agent took. He moved out of the path of the vehicle, which is why his feet weren't run over by the car, which is why he's standing there afterwards, which is why both of his feet are on the ground and not near the car when he's firing the shots, which is why he walked away unharmed, even though they're like, oh, he went to the hospital and was treated for his injuries. I'm sure they made him go to the hospital. He didn't have any fucking injuries. He was walking around fine. Crooked's DC correspondent Matt Berg talked to a former FBI investigator about this policy who said, this, quote, in prior administrations, this shooting would have been entirely outside the scope of the use of force policy and would have been unjustified. Multiple current DHS officials also expressed, quote, shock to CNN over the department's response so far. These are current DHS officials telling CNN they cannot believe that so many administration officials are prejudging the outcome of investigation. And that's what really, I think that is what has shocked me, angered me more than almost anything else. Like, it is a fucking tragedy that this happened. I have watched all the videos, but like, it shouldn't be up to the public piecing together and the media piecing together all these different eyewitness videos and then trying to have an argument about who did what. That's what investigations are supposed to be for. That's what the legal system is supposed to be for. But we are all left to do that now because this administration has decided they don't give a fuck about the legal system in this country, that they are above the law, that they are above accountability. And so the rest of us are left trying to piece together fucking videos and have arguments online with, you know, right wing assholes about who saw what in a video. And clearly that's what J.D. vance was doing. J.D. vance doesn't care about the actual fucking investigation. J.D. vance's head is in his fucking Twitter feed all day long. And I see the people he follows. I follow a lot of those people on MAGA media too. Where that came from, that press conference that he gave was from all of the shit that's been on right wing media. They're all saying the same things as him. They're worse than him, in fact. But that is his only source of information. And that is why he is so outraged. Because I, ironically, as he's talking about, I do feel sad that that woman was brainwashed. He's the one who's fucking brainwashed by his algorithm because he's just parroting all the fucking bullshit that's already been debunked by a whole bunch of other people who actually know the.

Dan Pfeiffer (12:35)

Facts. See, I disagree with that. I do not think he's brainwashed. I don't think that he is a victim of a toxic media ecosystem that he stumbled backwards into that information ecosystem, those tweets he's seeing he is then using that as data to make a decision about what is best for his personal ambitions. And that the way to get support, approbation, enthusiasm as he seeks power in this country is to make those people happy. So he did. This was a performance for them. I think if they've said the opposite, he'd do the.

Jon Favreau (13:07)

Opposite. I think this is giving him too much credit. I think he actually hates immigrants. I think he actually hates leftists. I think he actually wants to see us all in jail and I think he actually wants to see them all out of the country. And I think he actually thinks that this woman, as tragic as it was, deserved.

Dan Pfeiffer (13:22)

It. I don't think he's a good person pretending to be a bad person for power. I think he is a person who changes on a dime. He is the vice president to a man. He called Hitler eight years ago or.

Jon Favreau (13:32)

Whatever. Ten years ago, he blurted out that his best friend in the White House and the person he'd most want to be on a flight across the country with is Stephen Miller, which that.

Dan Pfeiffer (13:42)

Is the greatest lie ever told. But that's because that's good for him to say.

Jon Favreau (13:46)

That. Yeah, I don't know. I think it's true. I think this is. Anyway, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what's in his head. It's disgusting what he said. This is also, by the way, and the reason that you can't fucking take ICE's word for it, or DHS or JD Vance or the federal government. This is not the first time that ICE has shot someone or killed someone and lied about it and then was caught later lying about it. But the entire media had moved on at that point. And so you have to go back and like, you know, there's some story that pops up, oh, DHS was lying and then no one cares. So, in fact, this is the ninth time ICE has shot someone since September and it's the second person they've killed. First person they killed was a man named Silvero Gonzalez. He's a 38 year old undocumented father of two who DHS claimed tried to drive his car into agents and then dragged one agent causing, quote, severe injuries. Then surveillance video comes out, shows that Gonzalez was actually just trying to back up and drive away and that the agent was caught on video saying that his injuries were no big deal, nothing major. This was in Chicago. This was during the Midway blitz. DHS also got caught lying about their shooting of Miramar Martinez, that's another U.S. citizen. They originally claimed she ran their cars and threatened them with a semi automatic weapon, which forced them to shoot her, and that she was then totally fine and drove herself to the hospital. Turns out when all the facts came out and all the body cam footage came out, she didn't have a gun, she didn't threaten them. She was taken by ambulance to the hospital and the body cam footage shows the officer saying, do something, bitch, before opening fire. And when that came out, all the charges against her were dropped. Was anyone held accountable? No, they weren't. Was there a big media uproar? No, there wasn't. There was a couple stories about it. And you know, if you're wondering, well, why didn't this woman just. Why didn't this woman just get out of the car, why did she stop or why did she try to drive away, she's putting the whole thing in danger, all this. I interviewed George Reddes, who we remember is the US citizen veteran who was yanked from his car in Camarillo here, just north of la, and imprisoned for three days without access to a lawyer or due process before they realized that they had fucked up or didn't realize it. Maybe they realized it before and then just decided to let George go. And when he tells his story, and of course you can see this on video footage as well, he, he basically says the same thing as what might have happened to Renee Goode, or at least according to one eyewitness, which is that one DHS agent. One ICE officer is telling you to get the fuck out of the car. The other one's telling you to drive away. So you become confused. You see a bunch of masked agents with guns all around you, telling you different things. You're in a car. What the fuck are you supposed to do, right? And so like, I just am. I am not a lot shocks me. I am shocked by just how the administration has handled this when they could have so easily. They could have so easily been like, we believe, we have our own opinions, we think that was self defense, but we'll let the investigation play out. But they're like doubling and tripling down, which I guess is what they do. It's never no apologies from the Trump administration, ever. But I also think it's a signal to everyone that we're gonna do whatever the fuck we want. We have the guns, we have the legal system, and the rest of you can fuck.

Dan Pfeiffer (17:25)

Off. Yeah, they can never admit fault, particularly when it comes to ice. To ever suggest one single time that one single ICE agent did one single wrong thing is in their minds too, would collapse the whole effort, which is an absurd way to think about it, but that is how they think about it. So they can never do it. And it's just the opposite of the way. Yeah, it's so unserious, I guess is the way I'd say it. Like deadly. Unserious, I guess is how I would describe this administration. Because just you're responsible for these people. You're responsible for what happens. You're responsible for the citizens, the residents, the people in the United States who interact with ICE agents. And you do not care what actually happened. You just have to prove yourself to be right even when you're wrong, no matter what the evidence says. It's such a unserious, ridiculous behavior, but it comes with life or death consequences, as it did this week in.

Jon Favreau (18:20)

Minneapolis. And like they always. They do this whenever it's an undocumented immigrant. You know, they say it's an alien, it's a criminal alien, it's a violent alien. And now, you know, they can't do that. Cause it's an American citizen. It's this, you know, especially she's a domestic terrorist, right? Mom of three. So they have to say domestic terrorist, deranged leftists. It's so important that they link her to an activist group. Who the fuck cares if she's an activist or not? She was a mother dropping her kid off at school who is now an orphan because the. The child's father had died a couple years ago as well. So she is a mother dropping. Whether she was also part of an. An ICE activist group. That. That doesn't mean you get shot. Not like trying to speed away from a crime. Doesn't mean that you get fucking shot by police.

Dan Pfeiffer (19:03)

Officers. They're specifically not supposed to shoot them. In that case, like that is a.

Jon Favreau (19:07)

Seizure. As you said, the number of fucking people who are just not. They're not just online influencers. They are Republican politicians who think that if you disobey a police officer, that if you drive away, that if you like, if you block a driveway, if you protest, if you're an activist, that that should get you shot and killed. That's not the fucking law. But they don't think that we live in a country of laws anymore. They think that power is the only thing that matters. They have power. No one else does. Fuck the laws. We get to do what we want. That is how they're.

Dan Pfeiffer (19:41)

Governing. All these things are connected. It's like when I was listening to the interview with Mark Kelly from the POD earlier this week. That's Exactly. It. He said something you don't like. So we're gonna take his rank and his pension. Right? If you disagree with the state, if you disagree with the regiment, then you will suffer any measure of consequences from losing your livelihood to using your. To losing your life. And the crime is not what you actually did. The crime is a disagreement with the.

Jon Favreau (20:10)

Regime. The Hennepin County Attorney's office thinks that they can maybe still charge this officer, though. We'll see. You know, the feds believe that he has immunity. And from talking to George Reddes, who's trying to even just sue federal agents, it is tough the way that the law is right now. This is a problem that federal agents have a lot of immunity from both criminal and civil charges. But we'll see what happens with the Hennepin county attorney. But I do think that the problem here is I think when this first started happening, I'm like, well, someday someone's gonna sue and they're gonna go to court and the truth is gonna come out, and then these people are gonna look like assholes, which is what happened, by the way, with J.D. vance again and Kilmar Abrego Garcia, when he was like, he's Ms. 13 terrorist, blah, blah, blah. And we've seen what happens there. Is this could go to court. All the truth could come out. We could find out that there could be footage of this woman clearly turning the wheel, saying, please, whatever it may be, and they would still find ways to say that it was her fault, which is what JD Van said. They don't care. Or they'll just have moved on. It'll be like months from now, and they'll just be like, oh, whatever, we don't.

Dan Pfeiffer (21:22)

Care. I mean, it's like, you and I have been in government. There are things happen, and you know what? You want the answer to be right, but then you don't go out and say it right away for fear that you don't know everything. And therefore something could come out that could contradict what you said. And therefore, you have burned credibility. You have been, you know, even if not intentionally, you will be portrayed as me having been dishonest to the American people. They do not care about. They didn't have any of the facts. In fact, most of the things that Kristi Noem said were disproven by the video. Like, she, I don't probably assume, had not even seen the video, just heard a second or third hand report of what happened, immediately reflexively said all the talking points that they say every time something like this happens and feel like they suffer no penalty for.

Jon Favreau (22:03)

Lying. And now they just the ease with which they throw around the term domestic terrorism. Democrats are domestic terrorists. The party's domestic extremist. This woman's a domestic terrorist. Like just labeling people domestic terrorists. And Christine yesterday saying, oh, I'm going to get the DOJ to charge, bring domestic terrorism charges. There are no domestic terrorism charges. It's not a statute, first of all, you dumb shit. But like there's the ease with which they lie and they don't care. They just don't care. They don't care because you're right. Like they don't think they're going to get caught or they do think they're going to get caught, but then they think, yeah, catch me lying. What's going to happen? Nothing, because I have all the power and I have the guns. So obviously we're hearing a very different story from elected leaders in Minnesota who've been very outspoken about this tragedy, to say the least. Understandably so. One of those leaders is Mayor Jacob Fry of Minneapolis. Dan, I know you spoke to him earlier this afternoon. We'll listen to that interview right after the break. Positive America is brought to you by Smalls. January is when we all try to reset. We set health goals to improve our diet nutrition. So why not also do the same for your cat? It's 2026. Do you still feed your cat like it's 1926 for a limited time? Get 60% off your first order plus free shipping when you head to smalls.com crooked smalls cat food is protein packed recipes made with preservative free ingredients you'd find in your fridge and it's delivered right to your door. That's why cats.com named Smalls their best overall cat food. Still not a believer in Smalls? Forbes ranked Smalls the best overall cat food, while Buzzfeed said, my cats went completely ballistic for this stuff. After switching to smalls, 88% of cat owners reported overall health improvements. That's a big deal. And the team at Smalls is so confident your cat will love their product that you can try it risk free. That means they'll refund you if your cat won't eat their food. Make 2026 your cat's healthiest year yet. Take advantage of their New Year's special and get 60% off your first order plus free shipping when you head to smalls.com crooked one last time. That's 60% off your first order plus Free Shipping when you head to smalls.com Cricket Cricket this episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. The New Year doesn't require a new you. Maybe just a less burdened you. John Therapy can help more easily identify what weighs you down by offering an unbiased perspective to better understand your relationships, motivations and.

Tommy Vietor (24:26)

Emotions. Unbiased.

Jon Favreau (24:27)

Perspective. Who wants.

Zoran Mamdani (24:29)

That? No.

Tommy Vietor (24:30)

No. You need it. I know you need it. I need.

Jon Favreau (24:33)

It. I'll tell you who's not going to give you that. Your.

Tommy Vietor (24:36)

Chatbot. No. ChatGPT thinks I'm doing a great job. Absolutely crushing.

Jon Favreau (24:41)

It. BetterHelp has quality therapists who, according to a strict code of conduct and are fully licensed in the US BetterHelp does the initial matching work for you so you can focus on your therapy.

Tommy Vietor (24:49)

Goals. You're not exhausted, you're more powerful than ever. Don't think of it as not being able to sleep. Think of it as having more time to focus on your.

Jon Favreau (24:56)

Anxieties. A short questionnaire helps you identify your needs and preferences and their 12 plus years of experience and industry leading match fulfillment rate means they typically get it right the first time. If you aren't happy with your match, switch to a different therapist at any time from their tailored racks. With over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is one of the world's largest online therapy platforms, having served over 5 million people globally. And it works with an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 for a live session based on over 1.7 million client reviews. BetterHelp makes it easy to get matched online with a qualified therapist. Sign up and get 10% off@betterhelp.com PSA that's betterhelp.com P S.

Dan Pfeiffer (25:33)

A. Joining me now is the Mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Fry. Mayor, welcome to Pod Save.

Jacob Frey (25:40)

America. Thanks for having me.

Dan Pfeiffer (25:42)

Dan. So earlier Today, Vice President J.D. vance referred to Renee Good, the 37 year old woman who was killed by ICE agents yesterday as a deranged leftist, said that she was there to obstruct law enforcement, suggested she might be part of some sort of left wing network that the Department of Justice should investigate. What can you tell me about her, why she might have been there and what happened on that.

Jacob Frey (26:04)

Day? I don't know a lot about her. What I do know is that she's a victim and doesn't appear to have been doing anything wrong. She went through a two to three point turn, clearly trying to leave the vicinity where the ICE agents were located. And you've got this narrative that is coming out of this Trump administration that is immediately saying one that the ICE Agents were acting in self defense, and two, that the victim was a domestic terrorist. That's a load of bullshit. Anybody who watches that video could come to that conclusion. You don't need a law degree. And to the extent they're trying to cover up the actions that we all knew were inevitable, I find disgusting. Because, you know, the chief and I have been saying now for over a month, not just privately, but very publicly, that something like this was going to happen. Either a civilian resident police officer or an ICE agent was going to get badly injured or even killed. And tragically, the latter of those two conclusions happened, and it should have never taken.

Dan Pfeiffer (27:13)

Place. You told ICE to get the fuck out of your city. They don't seem to be going anywhere. Obviously. What levers do you have to pull or what can you do to try to protect your citizens from what's going on here? Is it just giving them sort of advice about how to stay out of the way? Just like you're obviously, you want to protect your citizens. You have this, what you believe to be a very dangerous element in your city. What do you.

Jacob Frey (27:34)

Do? Obviously, if I had the immediate authority to get ICE out of here, they would have never been here to begin with. The way they are behaving is completely and utterly unconstitutional. And what is clear to me is that the Trump administration is looking for some excuse to cause additional chaos and deploy even more military force in our city. I mean, right now, as far as I'm aware, we've got somewhere in the range of 2,270 agents in some form. That's ICE, that's HSI, that's Border Control, and they're located in the region beyond Minneapolis as well. But there's no doubt in my mind that they're looking to have some form of political performance that goes well beyond where we're at in this moment. And so the message that we are putting out, and by the way, the message that our community is righteously reiterating again and again, is that we are not going to take the bait. We are going to keep the peace. We're going to demand justice. We're of course, going to express First Amendment rights and freedom of speech and protest and all the rest. But we're not going to give them the bullshit excuse that they're already trying to create to come into our city. There's no doubt in my mind that the reason that ICE is here is not about safety, it's not about driving down crime. Here's the thing. We've worked with federal agencies substantially in the past to successfully drive down crime. We've worked with the DEA, the ATF, the FBI, the U.S. attorney's office. And crime on the north side specifically, and shootings are at the lowest level on record. And so if the goal is to go after murderers, yeah, we're anti murder. We're all for that. If the goal is to go after violent crime, absolutely, count us in. That's not what this is about. This is about targeting specifically Latino and Somali immigrants. This is discriminating only on the basis of are you a Latino or are you a Somali person? And then indiscriminately plucking people off the street thereafter. This is not okay. It's not constitutional. Everybody, Democrat or Republican, should be speaking up loud and clear that this is a threat to the endurance of our.

Dan Pfeiffer (29:57)

Republic. Since the shooting, have you had any contact with anyone in the administration? The Secretary, Noem, someone from DHS or isis? Have they spoken to you or members of your.

Jacob Frey (30:08)

Administration? We have been working a number of different channels to try to make inroads to get the point across. We've got correspondence that's going out. We are, look, pulling any levers that we've got. Because, look, priority number one is to keep our city safe. Priority number one here is to make sure that the residents of our city are able to get through this. We're resilient, we're tough. We've been knocked down seven times and we'll get back up eight. And we don't need to deal with this kind of chaos that they are very intentionally creating in our.

Dan Pfeiffer (30:48)

City. Speaking of the chaos, people keep describing what's happening on the ground there as Minneapolis being a tinderbox that everyone's worried about. School's been canceled for the next two days, I presume, out of fear of some sort of public unrest. How are things actually there? How are you thinking about keeping the peace over the next couple of days.

Jacob Frey (31:07)

Here? Look, we're keeping the peace. Thus far, the message has been widely received by the community that, hey, if you want to, and I know they do want to stand up and protect our immigrant communities here in Minneapolis, let's not give the Trump administration an excuse to deploy more force and individuals. This is importantly, not just coming from me. This is coming from activists. This is coming from leftists, this is coming from moderates. This is coming from most people throughout our city, speaking with a very common accord here that we owe an obligation to the people that we purport to want to help. And that's those that are being.

Dan Pfeiffer (31:51)

Targeted during his press conference today, which was truly quite a performance, JD Vance declared that the officer had, quote, unquote, absolute immunity. And there are also reports that the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are refusing to cooperate with at least state law enforcement officials. What do you like? What's your reaction to that and any sense you have about the ability of the state or the county or the city to investigate and potentially seek justice.

Jacob Frey (32:16)

Here? So ICE agents have absolute immunity? I have not heard this one.

Dan Pfeiffer (32:22)

Yet. Yeah, that's what he declared.

Jacob Frey (32:23)

Today. Isn't that guy a.

Dan Pfeiffer (32:24)

Lawyer? Yale Law School graduate? He is.

Jacob Frey (32:28)

Yes. Good Lord. I had a lot of respect, and I hopefully still do for those Yale grads. I don't think I could have gotten in there, but that. That is comical. You don't get absolute immunity by way of being a federal employee anymore. You get absolute immunity being a city employee. That's some wild stuff, man. And, yeah, obviously it's deeply concerning that the DOJ is boxing out the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in the state of Minnesota from being part of this investigation. The way this was initially presented was that the BCA was going to be working with the DOJ on investigating exactly what happened with no predetermined outcome.

Dan Pfeiffer (33:15)

You know, and that would be the normal course of this. Yeah.

Jacob Frey (33:18)

That'S. That's pretty. Pretty standard, you know. And by the way, you know, the BCA is, Is. Is not some, like, wild, radical group. This is a group of, I think, like a lot of police officers. And otherwise, I mean, they're gonna do an investigation. There have been times in the past where they've come to a conclusion that there was not culpability on the side of the police officer. There's other times where the investigation led to some form of charge, you know, and again, based on truth and facts, not some sort of garbage narrative that's being spun up by the President of the United States. So, yeah, to those that are concerned about the legitimacy and the fairness of a Pam Bondi investigation from the doj, I'd say that that concern is well placed.

Dan Pfeiffer (34:06)

Any. As you sort of think about this and think about everything that's happened. You know, Minnesota's been in Minnesota and Minneapolis have been in the national conversation with Republicans for a long time. You know, a lot happened in 2020 with George Floyd. Sort of. How are you thinking about your city and how you persevere through, you know, these sorts of.

Jacob Frey (34:23)

Moments? We do not retreat. We don't give up. And here's the thing. Our city's coming back. I mean, I know these Republicans out there wanna talk about the city as this, like, wild, apocalyptic place, but look, man, crime is way down. Crime is down in virtually every category, virtually every neighborhood. The economy is coming back. Small businesses are opening. We just got, like, the best restaurant in the entire world award. It's a spot called Diane's Place, just across the river. Ridiculously good, by the way. And so, like, the city is rocking along. You know, do we have big city challenges? Of course we do. And at the same time, it's coming back. And here's another thing. I personally, as mayor, and we collectively as a city, have learned a lot in the last five years. I'm not the same mayor as I was in May of 2020. I am not the same person. I have learned lessons that have made me a better mayor and a better leader. And I use those experiences every day, especially during some form of emergency or crisis just like this. Moreover, I know there are countless people in the city that have also learned a lot, have also taken a practice of. Let's take a beat. Let's figure out what the best strategy is for dealing with this bizarre hellscape that is the federal administration, and then figure out how to move on together in unity together. And I think that's a big part of the message that's going out. It's unification. It's putting down our silly individual grievances that we might have. You know, we're a city of, like, I don't know, 85% Democrat or something like that. And it's moving forward to figure out what's the best thing to do for the city as a whole. It's loving our country more than our ideology. And I think that's what the entire city is feeling right now as we.

Dan Pfeiffer (36:22)

Unify. Well, Mayor, thank you so much for joining us. Good luck in these coming days. We really appreciate.

Jacob Frey (36:27)

You. You got it. Thanks for having me. Thanks for the work you're.

Tommy Vietor (36:30)

Doing. Pod Save America is brought to you by Wild Alaskan company. What challenges do you face when buying seafood? There's so many. You have to go into the supermarket. Sometimes you can't park because you're going on your way home from work. And then you're like, wait a.

Jon Favreau (36:51)

Second, I got Ubering some.

Tommy Vietor (36:53)

Seafood. I got a raw fish in my car for this drive home. You get home, you're like, I don't know, it feels a little. You just like, how quickly can you get the fish home? But with wild Alaskan salmon, you take it, you put it in your fridge overnight, and Then it's ready to cook the next day you can have salmon. It's really great. Wild Alaskan Company is the best way to get wild caught. Perfectly portioned, nutrient dense seafood delivered directly to your door. You haven't tasted fish this good. I've been using it. It's awesome. First of all, it really does make you have more fish. It's really easy to do. All you literally need to do is say, you know what, let's have fish tomorrow. You take it and you put it in the fridge. And then the next day you can make salmon or whitefish or all kinds of fish. It's nutrient rich and full of flavor because it's frozen off the boat to lock in taste, texture and nutrients like omega 3s. It's sustainably sourced, every order supports sustainable harvesting practices and your membership delivers flexible shipments, expert tips, and truly feel good seafood. If you're not completely satisfied with your first box, Wild Alaskan Company will give you a full refund. No questions asked, no risk, just high quality seafood. Not all fish are the same. Get seafood you can trust. Go to wildalaskan.com cricket for $35 off your first box of premium wild caught seafood. That's wildalaskan.com crooked for $35 off your first order. Thanks to Wild Alaskan Company for sponsoring this.

Jon Favreau (38:02)

Episode. Positive America is brought to you by Mint Mobile. Now that the holidays are over, you might be feeling like you've got a big spending hangover. The drinks, the holiday food, the gifts, it all adds up. Luckily, Mint Mobile is here to help you cut back on overspending on wireless. This January, with 50% off unlimited premium wireless, Mint Mobile's end of the year sale is still going on, but only until the end of the month. Cut out big wireless, bloated plans and unnecessary monthly charges with 50% off 3, 6 or 12 months of unlimited. All plans come with high speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest 5G network. Use your own phone with any Mint Mobile plan and bring your phone number along with all your existing contacts. Crooked Media's favorite Mint Mobile subscriber, Nina, dropped by the studio recently to tell us in person just how much she loves Mint Mobile. People have not been able to stop talking about.

Tommy Vietor (38:51)

That. They can't stop talking about.

Jon Favreau (38:51)

It. What an appearance by.

Tommy Vietor (38:52)

Nina. It's breaking all the. It's breaking the.

Jon Favreau (38:56)

Internet. If you're listening to this ad and you're like, why isn't Nina reading more ads? Write it. Write.

Dan Pfeiffer (39:00)

Us.

Jon Favreau (39:00)

Yeah. Cause we can make that happen. She said she tells everyone how great the service is and that she saved a ton of money since she made the switch this January. Quit overspending on Wireless with 50% off. Unlimited premium wireless plans start at $15 a month at mintmobile.com crooked that's mintmobile.com crooked Limited time offer upfront payment of $45 for three month, $90 for six month or $180 for 12 month plan required, which is $15 a month equivalent taxes and fees. Extra initial plan term only over 50 gigabytes. May slow when network is busy. Capable device required. Availability, speed and coverage varies. See mintmobile.com. Okay, so the President just granted an almost two hour interview about his quest for hemispheric domination to his favorite publication, the New York Times. In the interview, Trump said, quote, I don't need international law. And that he believes the only limits on his power are my own morality, my own mind. It's the only thing that can stop me. Jesus. Trump also said that the US could be running Venezuela for years. Years. And that our government will be, quote, using and taking their oil. He also said that owning Greenland is necessary, quote, because that's what I feel is psychologically needed for success. I think that ownership gives you a thing you can't do with a lease or a treaty. He's like talking about fucking buying a.

Dan Pfeiffer (40:30)

Car. I think he's, this is like, how the reason if you rent your house, you can't redo the bathroom. If you own your house, you have full control of redoing the.

Jon Favreau (40:39)

Bathroom. And of course he's saying this because the Times reporters push him and are like, well, the US Already has a military base in Greenland. They have the right. The US under the treaty, has the right to open more military bases. Denmark has said, hey, we'll do more cooperation with you. You can be more involved in Greenland. We'll do treaties, we'll do economic development, all this kind of stuff. And the Danes are like, why does the US Just keep rejecting that and say they want to own it by force? Because Trump just wants to own it. He doesn't know why, because it makes him feel psychologically, some people are.

Dan Pfeiffer (41:08)

Renters, some people are owners. He wants to be an.

Jon Favreau (41:10)

Owner. So this all comes as Reuters reports that Trump is considering sending each Greenlander a lump sum of potentially $100,000 per person of our tax.

Dan Pfeiffer (41:24)

Dollars. See, John, you're missing it. It's not gonna be our tax.

Jon Favreau (41:26)

Dollars. Oh, I'm sure it's Venezuelan oil. Venezuelan oil, right. Yeah. Or I was gonna say it's either that or I'm sure he's gonna say, oh, the minerals, they got great minerals in Greenland. We're gonna mine the minerals, we're gonna sell them, and then we're gonna use that to pay the.

Dan Pfeiffer (41:39)

People. Or it's the tariffs. Could be the.

Jon Favreau (41:40)

Tariffs. Yeah, I'm getting off the tariff.

Dan Pfeiffer (41:42)

Shelves. Tickets from the Trump Kennedy Center. We don't know where this money is coming from, but it's not going to you, I'll tell you that. American.

Jon Favreau (41:47)

People. Yeah, well, yeah, if you're in Greenland, you could be getting $100,000, which is gonna help make the President feel psychologically successful, I guess. What was your reaction to this fascinating insight into the mind of our greatest geopolitical.

Dan Pfeiffer (42:02)

Thinker? Man, reading the interview and reading all the color around the interview about how Trump acted with these reporters and just watching him over the last several days here is. It is very clear that Trump and the people around them are drunk on power. They are higher on their own supply. They are so impressed with themselves because of what happened in Venezuela, because the Delta Force was able to pull off this pretty astounding mission and have really convinced themselves that all that matters is power. And even if you think that is true, that the US Is so powerful, that our military is so strong, that our special operators are so skilled that we can do almost anything we want, it is such short term idiotic thinking. These international agreements, these treaties, these international institutions exist for a reason. The rules exist for a reason. They are to protect everyone. Not just the United States, not just the weaker countries, everyone. Cuz it leads to a more stable world. So the world that Trump envisions in here is might makes right. Right. That the strongest countries do whatever they want and that could benefit the United States in the short term. We could just go take Greenland. Right. Like there's this article in the Atlantic that goes, that talks to the folks in Denmark. They've already figured out how Trump's gonna take Greenland. If he doesn't invade it, he's just gonna declare on true social that it's part of the United States and just act.

Jon Favreau (43:23)

Accordingly. And that's like the thing he's going to do to Greenland what he did to the Kennedy.

Dan Pfeiffer (43:26)

Center. Yeah. The Institute of Peace or whatever else. He could doge himself to some additional territories, but that could work in the short term. But in the long term, that's going to make the United States less safe, less secure because the world is going to be more chaotic. There's going to be more conflict, there's going to be less cooperation, and that is bad for us. The best times for the United States domestically have been the periods of greatest tranquility. Right. And so we are in this area of destabilization with China and Russia and everywhere else, because we've decided to throw everything overboard so we can get Venezuelan oil and the minerals of Greenland is going to make. It's truly idiotic. It's just deciding that because other smart people figured one way out, we're going to do the dumb thing because that must be.

Jon Favreau (44:13)

Better. Also for all the. Well, it's good that Maduro's out because he's a bad guy. You know, in the interview, he's talking about Delsey Rodriguez, who's Maduro's number two and is now president of Venezuela, interim president of Venezuela. And they're asking about elections and they're asking about her. And he's like, well, she's given us everything we need.

Dan Pfeiffer (44:32)

Oil.

Jon Favreau (44:33)

Yeah. So nothing else, you think he's concerned that anything else is going to change in Venezuela? You think that they are on a path to elections anytime soon? And of course, Marco Rubio was saying, well, obviously you can't do it right away and give it some time, whatever. Trump's talking about years of managing Venezuela and taking their oil. And he also, he's, oh, yeah, we're gonna, we're gonna give them some of the money, too. I'm sure that's gonna get to them. So we are now. We are now managing Venezuela with no end date. He doesn't seem like he wants to put boots on the ground, but he's not ruling it out. And none of the political issues in that country have been solved, to say the least. The repression is still intense, if.

Dan Pfeiffer (45:15)

Maybe worsened in the last couple days.

Jon Favreau (45:17)

Here. Yeah, there were some reports that, like, maybe they're gonna. Agreeing to release some political prisoners soon, but we'll see what happens there. I don't know. And then the Greenland thing seems.

Shankar Vedantam (45:26)

Real.

Jon Favreau (45:27)

Yeah. Like he. I would take that very seriously. As some Republicans in Congress are. They were very nervous. A few Republicans in Congress then over the last couple days have suddenly remembered that they represent an equal branch of government. And. And they've decided that they're not entirely sure that the sole arbiter of US Foreign policy should be Donald Trump's sense of morality. So because there was some jitters about Greenland, Marco Rubio was sent to calm some Republicans who aren't thrilled about the idea of invading a NATO ally. He insisted that Trump Just wants to buy the territory from Denmark, I guess, for, you know, $100,000 per person. Per person. Right. Even though Denmark has already made it clear a billion times that it's not for sale. So I don't know where that goes then. On Thursday, five Senate Republicans voted, along with every Democrat to advance a war powers resolution that would prohibit Trump from taking further military action against Venezuela without congressional authorization. The Republicans were Rand Paul, who co sponsored the resolution with Tim Kaine, as well as Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Josh Hawley and Todd Young of Indiana. Trump responded by calling the War Powers act unconstitutional, blasting these Republicans stupidity and saying that they should, quote, never be elected to office again. Nice. What did you make of the war powers vote? Big deal that these Republicans joined Democrats. How much does this matter at all? Who.

Dan Pfeiffer (46:52)

Knows? I think it is meaningful in the sense that there is a majority of Trump skeptical Republicans, like true or wannabe true America Firster isolationists like Josh Hawley and Democrats can get you there. And you know, the fact that these people would vote against Trump right in the wake of a, quote, unquote successful military operation is notable. The other way of looking at it is if you had just like a few years ago, asked how do you think Congress would vote on a resolution trying to stop the President from sending troops to Venezuela to protect the US Oil interests after a regime change war, you think you'd get more than 54 votes for that or 55 votes or whatever it was. The reason it's not super consequential is maybe it passes the House, maybe it doesn't. I'm sure there is a majority in the House. People could vote a huge party.

Jon Favreau (47:45)

Fire up another discharge petition, but it's.

Dan Pfeiffer (47:48)

Not enough to override Trump's veto under any scenario. So it's can't. I think it is symbolic of something, of how far out on a limb Trump is with his new global adventures. It's symbolic of I think the sort of the growing weakness he has as a lame duck president with very poor approval ratings staring down the barrel of losing the House and maybe the Senate. But it doesn't necessarily indicate a real opportunity to hold him accountable or change his policy in the short.

Jon Favreau (48:15)

Term. Yeah, I think the ability of Congress to constrain him on these foreign adventures, I mean, just, you know, statutorily, constitutionally is fairly limited though Congress is the body that declares war. That isn't in the Constitution. But of course we've talked about that. You know, Donald Trump certainly doesn't care and even the authority that Congress has, has been whittled down over the many decades by various presidents. So that's a challenge. And I think that part of the New York Times interview was Donald Trump saying, like, I don't say whatever you want, Congress, I don't give a fuck. Yeah, you know, he didn't miss an opportunity to blast the Republicans who voted against him, including Susan Collins, who he very much needs to win reelection.

Dan Pfeiffer (49:00)

Again. She won't be putting that truth in an ad.

Jon Favreau (49:02)

Though. I know, I was going to say that probably helps her more than anything else. That's the other thing is some of these Republicans, and we'll talk about this with the aca, are probably breaking with Donald Trump because like, hey, want to save our own asses here? Like, they're not, they don't, they don't think it's actually going to constrain them, but it's like a free vote to they can run an add on. Speaking of which, some Republicans in Congress are finally trying to do something, anything about the massive premium hikes that Trump and other Republicans have forced on 20 million Americans who get their health insurance through the Affordable Care act. On Thursday, 17 Republicans, 17 voted with Democrats in the House to pass a clean three year extension of the ACA subsidies that expired on December 31st. Over in the Senate, a few other Republicans are close to a deal with Democrats that would extend the subsidies for two years, include income caps for eligibility, require minimum payments and offer an option to divert your subsidy into a health savings account if you are an idiot. A sticking point in all of this is the for all the idiots out there that want to do that, a sticking point in all of this is the Hyde amendment which bans federal money from being used for abortions. A lot of ACA plans do cover reproductive care. And even though there are protections in place that are supposed to keep the funding stream separate, how's that for some DC Speak? Some conservatives and other groups are pushing for any subsidy extension to include new Hyde language. Bring this up because this seems like the final sticking point here on a deal that seemingly might pass Congress. Trump told a gathering of House Republicans on Tuesday that they need to have some, quote, flexibility on Hyde as part of a broader pitch on trying to take the initiative on health care to avoid getting wiped out in the midterms. Here's a sampling on health.

Kevin McCarthy (50:49)

Care. It's never been our issue. It should be our issue. You can own health care. Let figure it out now. You have to be a little flexible on Hyde. You know that you got to Be a little flexible. You got to work out something. Wish you could explain to me what the hell's going on with the mind of the public. Because we have a. We have the right policy. They don't. They have horrible policy. They do stick together. They're violent. They're vicious. You know, they're vicious.

Jon Favreau (51:16)

People. Speaking of clips to put in an ad, I don't what's going on with the mind of the public. You always want to blame the voters. Dan, the first rule of.

Dan Pfeiffer (51:26)

Politics. Yes. The we're right, the voters are wrong is a message that has truly never failed in the history of American politics. And I would. I think the Republicans should adopt it and run on.

Jon Favreau (51:34)

It. Yeah, I love that message. That's all the way to the midterms. So what do you think's going on here? It seems like Trump has finally come around on what I had expected him to do. And I'm sure you did for, like, I don't know, months ago, which is like, okay, why not just take this issue off the table and get the subsidies passed? And finally, now that we've passed January 1st, now he's suddenly decided that maybe he should get on board here, or do you think he's not really on.

Dan Pfeiffer (52:04)

Board? He's been very busy, Jon. He's had a lot on his plate. He's trying to get.

Jon Favreau (52:09)

Greenland. As you said, healthcare is not really his issue.

Dan Pfeiffer (52:11)

Usually. Yes. He's got multiple interior design projects going. He's personally sourcing marble for the armrests. Did you see that over the holidays? I know you guys talked about the marble armrest. Did you see he actually went to the marble store as a photo.

Jon Favreau (52:25)

Op. I did not see the marble store.

Dan Pfeiffer (52:27)

Trip. He went specifically looking for it. He went to check out the marble.

Jon Favreau (52:29)

Himself. Did you see the architect today?

Dan Pfeiffer (52:31)

What? The architect said he's gonna add a third floor to the west.

Jon Favreau (52:34)

Wing. To the west wing? Yeah. Because it's now. He wants. The new ballroom is now gonna be the same height as the main residence. So then they need the west wing to be the same height as well. So I guess we're going to add. Isn't it a fourth floor? Well, I guess if you're kind of the ground floor. The.

Dan Pfeiffer (52:49)

Basement. There's. Yeah, there's. There's the basement. There's the first.

Jon Favreau (52:53)

Floor. That's where I hung.

Dan Pfeiffer (52:55)

Out. Yeah, there was. There was. There was. There was where your office was. There was where my office was. And then there's the second floor. There's a floor on top of that.

Jon Favreau (53:01)

Right. So there's already. Yeah, and then there's a, there's a third.

Dan Pfeiffer (53:03)

Floor. So they would add a floor on top of that. Like, honestly, you need more space in the West Wing, but that's neither here nor.

Jon Favreau (53:07)

There. It really, it's getting so close to just looking like Trump Tower. That's where, that's where we're going to end up. It is. The fuck. We did this. We mocked this up for one of the correspondence dinners in like.

Dan Pfeiffer (53:18)

2011. Yeah, let's not bring, let's not bring that up today of all.

Jon Favreau (53:22)

Days. It's the.

Dan Pfeiffer (53:26)

Worst. So here's the thing. He doesn't seem particularly engaged here. It feels like he had to. That last comment there, the one about the voters being wrong, suggests that he's kind, that despite all the bravado, he kind of is dialed in at least to the fact that things aren't looking great, both for him or Republicans. And so maybe he's just a little surprising. But if he was really dialed in here, he'd bring them all down to the White House. He'd want to broker this deal himself. He's very half involved and he doesn't really care. And I really think the Hyde Amendment thing is someone briefed him in the car on the way over that the Hyde Amendment was an issue. I don't think he could probably identify it or what it stands for. I'm sure he spells it H I D E instead of H Y D E. And so he just sort of mentioned it and he doesn't. He cannot answer one single follow up question on.

Jon Favreau (54:12)

It. I mean, I saw some reporting that Senate Republicans involved in this were privately saying that they're fine letting Hyde go, which seems like a more. I mean, the Senate Republicans that are trying to do this deal, it seems like you still gotta get the Susan Collins of the world. I could see that. But it does feel trickier in the House though. Now they have 17 Republicans who voted for a clean extension. So maybe this gets done. I can't. If it gets done, I can't see Trump vetoing it, can.

Dan Pfeiffer (54:44)

You? No, I mean, I guess he did just veto infrastructure bill for Colorado because he's mad about someone in jail and he's mad at Lauren Boebert for the exiting discharge petition. So, I mean, who.

Jon Favreau (54:55)

Knows? She voted for. She was one of the 17 votes for the extension of the.

Dan Pfeiffer (54:59)

ACA. Did she change her vote though? Did she change her.

Jon Favreau (55:01)

Vote? Oh, I don't.

Dan Pfeiffer (55:02)

Know. Yeah, I don't.

Jon Favreau (55:03)

Know. So what do you think this Gets.

Dan Pfeiffer (55:04)

Passed. I don't know. It feels it's the easiest way to pass it. If Republicans really just wanted to be done with this and let it go would be to just pass what? Pass the take up. What do they do with the dish position on Epstein? Take it, pass it, be done with it, give it. Take the win on it. The hard part is now you're going to send a competing bill back to the House that is worse than this one. There's going to be no discharge petition for that one because it's worse than the thing that's already passed. So why would Democrats negotiate with himself? And so I think there's a lot of obstacles before it can actually get done here. But it has a shot, I'd say. And I think we should just stipulate that the shutdown in this case, even if this does not work, the shutdown brought this closer to actual completion than anything possible. And we said this before the break, but Jeffries played his cards very, very well here on the discharge positions, held out for the stronger one, forced the Republicans to come his way. And I think he just did a good job there. And we've been critical of the leaders, but this is one case where they, I think, did a very good.

Jon Favreau (56:08)

Job. If you are a. If you were running a Democratic House or Senate campaign in the midterms and this thing passes, what are you thinking and what are you.

Dan Pfeiffer (56:22)

Saying? I think that you are. If you are, you are. It depends. So if you're an incumbent, you're taking credit for this and if you're a challenger against a Republican, you are probably running against Republican who just voted for it. And you're talking, therefore you're then talking about all the other ways in which the prices are.

Jon Favreau (56:41)

High. Yeah. So. But it's good for.

Dan Pfeiffer (56:45)

People. Yeah. The thing was, is you're. If you're gonna. If you're gonna. This is where Jefferies.

Tommy Vietor (56:51)

Was.

Dan Pfeiffer (56:51)

Right. If you're going to solve the pro Republicans political problem for them, then you're gonna have to get something very real that helps lots of people, which. This would be the three year straight extension. Is that the Senate thing? I have a lot more questions about whether that's actually worth going out to see what the actual language is. But now you put income caps on. It's two years, not three years. Who knows what happens with Hyde. That seems like a less worthy. That's a harder deal to take given the politics when you're going to come back next year and hopefully have a ton more leverage because you control The House and maybe the.

Jon Favreau (57:25)

Senate. We should also say that because the deadline has passed, it's not impossible to implement this. It's like.

Dan Pfeiffer (57:31)

Doable. It is.

Jon Favreau (57:32)

Doable. I think it's also tougher to do if it's not a clean extension.

Dan Pfeiffer (57:36)

Right? Yeah, I think that's right. Because basically it's clean extension. What would happen here is just, you could retro actively just go back to. To make the tax credits to January 1st the in the federal plans. You could just give start, take all that money, push it forward, lower everyone's premiums automatically. When the original tax credits were passed, it was in March when it went into law after the open enrollment period was over. So they just did it for people who qualified. You could do it here, but now you have a bunch of state exchanges for the places who have their own. Their own exchange. Those states will have to make their own decision about how they do it. The reason why, so you can help people. The downside here is the people who opted out because it was too expensive. It's very hard to get them back in in this.

Jon Favreau (58:20)

Scenario. Especially with a government that really doesn't want to make healthcare.

Dan Pfeiffer (58:23)

Work. Yeah, exactly. Biden was able to make this work because he wanted to make it work. It's hard to see the Trump administration doing what it would take to actually help people.

Jon Favreau (58:31)

Here. All right, well, we'll keep an eye on that and what happens in the next couple weeks. All right, couple announcements before we get to Tommy's interview with Zoran Mamdani. Exciting news. We just launched a new weekly newsletter from the executive editor of Pod Save America, Aron Reed Churlin. It's called Pod Save America. Open tabs and it drops every Thursday morning. Here. It says in brackets, hosts to riff on Reid's physical beauty and intellectual.

Dan Pfeiffer (59:00)

Prowess. Do you think Reid put that in there? He does edit this right before it.

Jon Favreau (59:06)

Goes. And I will say that is his.

Dan Pfeiffer (59:09)

Job. I was in the Google Doc and I did see Reed get right into the housekeeping. So I think he must have added that in. That's the kind of wit and humor you will get at open dabs as well as a lot of insight. It was for me. This was the first post. It came out before our morning Thursday calls with Reid to talk about the show. I never felt more prepared for that call in my life because I knew what Reid was thinking. You can be that prepared in your daily life.

Jon Favreau (59:33)

Too. For those of you who don't know Reid, Reid works with us in the Obama White House, worked with Tommy in the press office way back when. And so, you know, just part of the Obama mafia working here at Crooked.

Dan Pfeiffer (59:46)

Media. I have worked with Reed for off and on now for 22.

Jon Favreau (59:51)

Years.

Dan Pfeiffer (59:52)

Wow. Hired him in 2004 I.

Jon Favreau (59:55)

Believe. It's my carpool buddy. Me, Reid and Tommy just driving to the White House every morning, taking.

Dan Pfeiffer (60:00)

Advantage of your top notch parking spot right outside the West.

Jon Favreau (60:04)

Wing. I'd pick those guys up, I'd have Dunkin Donuts coffee waiting for.

Dan Pfeiffer (60:08)

Them. Of course you are. You are a true and courteous.

Jon Favreau (60:11)

Bostonian. Anyway, Open Tabs. It's fantastic. It's a behind the scenes look at how we put the show together, what's coming in the next episode, and all the stories rattling around in our heads as we wait to get into the studio, including, hence the name of the newsletter, some open tabs that didn't make it into the show, but really interesting stories that we've been thinking about and talking about. So check out the first issue of open tabs@crooked.com substack the first issue is free for everyone and if you're already a subscriber on Substack or Supercast, you'll start getting it every week. For the rest of you, sign the fuck up. Become a subscriber crooked.com friends we're gonna have a lot of great stuff behind the paywall in 2026 here. New shows, new newsletters. We've already got ad free episodes of all your favorite Crooked shows. We already have some great subscriber only shows like Polar Coaster with Dan Pfeiffer, the one and only. The one and only. And all kinds of fun stuff that you get and you get to be proud of yourself for supporting independent media that is not going to fold to the Trump administration. So sign up@cricket.com friends become a subscriber. Join us. It's a fun community. Speaking of Polar Coaster, first episode of 2026 is out now. What'd you guys talk.

Dan Pfeiffer (61:31)

About? So we talked. Carolina and I talked about all the polling around Venezuela, how the voters are reacting to what Trump did, and why it has been a big dud for Trump thus.

Jon Favreau (61:42)

Far. Nice. And the world. To hear the full conversation or to ask Dan a question yourself, imagine subscribe to friends of the pod@crooked.com friends when we come back, Tommy talks to Zoran.

Tommy Vietor (61:56)

Mamdani. Pod Save America is brought to you by AG1AG1 is the Daily health drink that combines your multivitamin, pre and probiotics, superfoods and antioxidants into one simple green scoop it's one of the easiest things you can do to support your body every day. The New year is often a time when we commit to building better habits or refocusing or improving our health. AG1 can help you work toward those goals by supporting energy, digestive regularity, immune defense, and a healthy mood. Most resolutions are hard to maintain, but one scoop of AG1 every morning is one of the easiest things you can do to add to your routine to keep you on track this new year. There's no better time than now to kickstart your journey to Better Health with AG1 Next Gen AG1 Next Gen is a daily health drink clinically shown to support gut health and fill in the common nutrient gaps. With 75 plus ingredients, including five probiotic strains, AG1 replaces the need for multivitamin probiotics and more it's so hard to know you're getting all the right things. And it's, you know, some days you do, some days you don't. But if you start every day with, say, a smoothie and you put AG1 in it, you know you're starting every day knowing you're getting those.

Jon Favreau (62:57)

Things. It's true. It's really.

Tommy Vietor (62:59)

True. AG1 is their best offer ever. If you head to drinkag1.com crooked, you'll get the welcome Kit, a morning person hat, a year's supply of vitamin D3 plus K2, an AG1 flavor sampler, and you get to try their new sleep supplement AGZ for free, which can be a game changer for your nightly routine. That's $126 in free gifts for new subscribers. That's drinkag1.com.

Shankar Vedantam (63:18)

QuickBooks the start of a new year is a natural moment to set new goals and shake up old habits. But doing so can also feel a little daunting. If you've ever reached the end of January feeling a bit cynical or discouraged about the hopes and resolutions that had seemed achievable just a few weeks earlier, the Hidden Brain Podcast is here to help all this month we'll bring you the latest installment of our popular U 2.0 series. The focus will be on the self doubt and anxiety that many of us grapple with when charting a new path. Whether you're struggling with self criticism, a lack of patience, or finding the courage to make a big change, we've got your back. That's U 2.0 from Hidden Brain all through the month of January. Join.

Interviewer (64:11)

Us. I'm excited to be joined today by a man who President Trump says is much hotter than he expected him to be mayor. Mamdani, welcome back to Pod Save.

Zoran Mamdani (64:30)

America. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. And it's a unique.

Interviewer (64:33)

Intro. Yeah, How'd that go for you? Were you like, sir, eyes up here. I'm not a piece of meat. Anyway, we'll get to the substance. We are talking because earlier today, Thursday, you and Governor Hochul made a major announcement about your plan to expand free childcare for New Yorkers. Can you tell us the details of what you guys just.

Zoran Mamdani (64:51)

Announced? Absolutely. So we just announced just a couple of hours ago that we will be receiving a $1.21 billion investment in making universal childcare a reality in New York City. And what that means in a tangible level is that we're going to be fixing 3K here in New York City and delivering universal 2 care for every single 2 year old across the city in the next four years. And this is something that will transform the ability for working families to actually raise their kids here. Because it's a city where up until today, childcare has cost an average of $22,500 a.

Dan Pfeiffer (65:21)

Year.

Interviewer (65:22)

Wow. Yeah. As a, as a father of a three year old and an almost two year old, I can tell you it's wildly expensive. I suspect you're going to get a lot of questions about the cost of this program, how you're going to pay for it. During, I believe during the campaign you talked about a longer term vision to provide universal childcare from age 6 months to age 5. That could cost up to $6 billion a year. Will this plan require new taxes or do you anticipate having to kind of move money around or that this, this funding might constrain your ability to, to fund other.

Zoran Mamdani (65:51)

Priorities? So the funding of this, the $1.21 billion is coming directly from the state. It's in partnership between Governor Hochul and myself and it's being done using existing revenues. And what it does is it starts the process of universal childcare here in New York city. We have pre K, we have 3K, but the 3K that we have, you have a family in bedside that's being told they can have a seat, but the seat is actually in Astoria. So this investment, it fixes the 3K and it starts to deliver two care across New York City. And then by the end of the first term in office, we will have delivered universal 2 care. And then in the second term we will be delivering one year and then below.

Interviewer (66:27)

That. Got it. And I will say like a few months ago, there were a lot of People saying, you know, this is impossible. This is one of the many lefty campaign promises that's going to hit a buzzsaw political reality once you take office. There were others questioning whether you could work with Governor Hochul, given that you come from, you know, pretty different ends of the political spectrum within the Democratic Party at least. How did you guys find common ground on this issue in particular? And are there lessons you think that Democrats nationally can take away from that.

Zoran Mamdani (66:54)

Experience? Well, frankly, I think this is something that so many New Yorkers have actually willed into reality today is the result of New Yorkers who made more than a million phone calls, who knocked on more than a million doors, who were told again and again, like you said, that to believe in a city that would be affordable was to believe in a myth. When in reality their work has made that into the life that we are living here in New York City. And the governor said in her state of the state last year that she was going to be fighting for universal childcare. This has long been an area of shared interest. And as she said today, the era of empty promises is over. The things that we said in the campaign, those were not just slogans. Those were in fact, exactly what we were going to fight for. And now on day eight of this new administration, we are delivering on one of the signature priorities of our campaign, which is universal childcare for New Yorkers across the five.

Interviewer (67:43)

Boroughs. Yeah, well, it's nice to see Democrats getting some dubs, putting some wins on the board. Not a lot of that happening in this country at the.

Zoran Mamdani (67:49)

Moment. Universal dub care.

Jon Favreau (67:51)

Next. Yeah, that's.

Interviewer (67:52)

Right. Before you go, I wanted to get your reaction to this horrible ice shooting in Minnesota. I think by now listeners have probably seen the video. The Victim is a 37 year old woman named Renee Macklin Goode. She's a mother of three. She described herself on social media as a poet, a writer, a wife and a mom. And yet in the aftermath of the shooting, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called her a domestic terrorist. Vice President J.D. vance called her, quote, a deranged leftist. They both lied about what actually happened, despite there being video evidence that we all could see with their eyes. I think I'm really struggling with a few things. First, on a human level, like just the lack of humanity in those kinds of statements about an American citizen, a mom who's now deceased and is leaving behind kids without a mother to care for them. The second is the willingness we've seen from a lot of Americans to put a higher standard on citizens to avoid getting killed by federal agents than they put on the federal agents themselves, the ones pulling the trigger. And then finally just kind of like knowing the big picture, Stephen Miller and some people in the White House, like, they want confrontations between ICE and people in blue states because violence, like, kind of helps them justify their crackdown. So I'm just wondering, how are you processing this and what is your message to New Yorkers about how to stay safe and about how New York officials can help them stay.

Zoran Mamdani (69:14)

Safe? I mean, this is heartbreaking to have watched that video, to read the news, to read of her father in law describing that now orphaned.

Jon Favreau (69:26)

Child.

Zoran Mamdani (69:26)

Yeah. There is no other way to respond to this. And there's no amount of official mischaracterizations that can ever force us to look away from that very video. And I know that there are many New Yorkers who watched that video and felt even greater anxiety about what it means to be an immigrant in this city. And so I am making it clear to each and every person who calls this city home, each and every person who is a New Yorker across these five boroughs, that ours is a city government that will stand with them. Ours is a city government that will stand with immigrants today and for every day hereafter. And it's also a city government that's going to follow the law and actually follow our sanctuary city policies. You know, a few weeks ago, I sat down for 12 hours and listened to New Yorkers as they came up and shared their stories with me. And a few of them were undocumented New Yorkers. And they told me of the fear that they live with each and every day, the anxiety when they say goodbye to a loved one, of whether it'll be the last time. And it is my job as the mayor of New York City to take care of everyone who calls the city home. And just to think about the family of that woman who was murdered, it's to understand just one glimpse into what has been a year of cruelty. And I've said it directly to the President, and I'll say it directly as well to anyone who will listen, which is that these ICE raids are cruel and inhumane, and they do nothing to actually serve the interests of public.

Interviewer (70:40)

Safety. And I know that Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey's message to ICE was, you know, get the fuck out of Minneapolis. I mean, I don't know that that's something that he can deliver on in practice. Right. I mean, you can't force ICE to leave. But are there ways you think that city officials can steps they can take to protect people or I don't.

Zoran Mamdani (70:58)

Know. I think there are a number of ways. I think the first and foremost is to actually inform New Yorkers of their own rights. There are so many New Yorkers who live in the city who do not know all the rights that they actually have by being a New Yorker. And so we have been doing a number of Know youw Rights outreach as well as just information that we're sharing directly with New Yorkers. The other is to inform New Yorkers of the safety that they have. Because we are a city that follow sanctuary city policies. That means we will have a police department that does not assist ICE in their operations. That means that city employees, when they are at a city property, or even a property of a city contractor, they will not allow ICE agents into that premise unless they can provide a judicial warrant signed by a judge. And this, sadly shouldn't be something we have to remind New Yorkers. But for a long time there wasn't a level of clarity as to what their rights actually were and whether city government was willing to stand up for those rights. That clarity is now returning to City.

Interviewer (71:50)

Hall. Well, that's very important to hear. Mayor Mamdani, thank you so much for joining the show today and congrats on the big.

Zoran Mamdani (71:55)

Announcement. Thank you so much, my friend. Pleasure to be.

Jon Favreau (71:57)

Here. That's our show for today. Thanks to Zoran Mumdani and Jacob Fry for coming on. I'll be back in the feed on Sunday with a conversation with our own Alex Wagner about our biggest questions for 2026. Have a good weekend.

Dan Pfeiffer (72:14)

Everyone. Bye.

Jon Favreau (72:14)

Everyone. If you want to listen to Pod Save America ad free and get access to exclusive podcasts, go to crooked.com friends to subscribe on Supercast, Substack, YouTube or Apple Podcasts. Also, please consider leaving us a review that helps boost this episode and everything we do here at Crooked. Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. Our producers are David Toledo, Emma Ilick Frank and Saul Rubin. Our associate producer is Farah Safari. Austin Fisher is our senior producer. Reed Churlin is our Executive editor. Adrian Hill is our head of news and politics. The show is mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Jordan Kantor is our sound engineer with audio support from Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landis. Matt de Groat is our head of production. Naomi Sengel is our executive assistant. Thanks to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Hayley Jones, Ben Hefcoat, Mia Kelman, Kiril Pelaviev, David Toles and Ryan Young, our production staff is proudly unionized with the writers Guild of America East. Hey, I'm Paul.

Paul Scheer (73:20)

Scheer. I'm June Diane.

Jon Favreau (73:21)

Rayfield. And I'm Jason Manzoukis. And we're the hosts of how did this Get Made? A comedy podcast where we deconstruct, make fun of and celebrate the best worst movies ever made. Have you ever seen a movie that's so bad that it's actually good? That's what we're talking.

Paul Scheer (73:34)

About. From blockbuster franchises and made TV.

Jon Favreau (73:37)

Romances to bonkers 80s action flicks and obscure sci fi musicals, we cover it all. You can find how did this get Made? Wherever you get your podcasts and don't forget to follow the show so you never miss an.

Shankar Vedantam (73:48)

Episode.

Paul Scheer (73:49)

Idiot. Not sure if you have the experience to start your dream job. Good news these days it's the skills that Count Udemy can help you get those in demand. Skills? Want to be an AI mastermind? Learn with us Game Developer. We've got you covered. AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner. We can help you prep. You'll learn from real world experts who love what they do so that you can love what you do. Go to udemy.com for the skills to get you started and get set for your dream.