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Jessica Charlev
Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Jessica Charlev. It's Friday, so Aaron Parnas is here with me and for sure but double woo woo woo. Forbes 30 under 30. Erin Parnas. Congratulations.
Aaron Parnas
Thank you. Thank you. It's been a fun week.
Jessica Charlev
Yeah. Like actually. Yeah. People see it, right?
Aaron Parnas
Well, yeah, I mean that was fun. But it's also December and I tell everyone if I ever ran for office, my first bill would be to give December off to everyone. Kidding. Not kidding. So I, I, I kind of live in them. Embody that and relax in the summer.
Jessica Charlev
Okay. I like it. You know Scott does Scot Free August. Yeah, I'm. You're working up to it?
Aaron Parnas
Yeah, essentially.
Jessica Charlev
Okay. I mean we all are. We're not at Scott level. Well, congratulations. It was very cool. I was psyched when I saw that you got in. And Ed Ellison, Prof. DMarkets host, also got in all the babies.
Aaron Parnas
Oh, that's exciting.
Jessica Charlev
Yeah, really exciting. Pleased to know all you young superstars. I want to talk about politics though. Obviously really, really bad week for Pete Hegsas I might be even like underestimating how terrible it is. We now have confirmat from the Pentagon's IG report that the Defense Secretary was basically live blogging a military strike in a signal group chat. Can you talk us through what was in the IG report? The responses we've heard so far and it seems like there were literal timestamps of when the Bombs were gonna be dropped. Does that level of specificity mean anything is going to come from it, or is this just kind of washed into the general deluge?
Aaron Parnas
Yeah. So I'm a nerd, and I actually read all that's why you pages, because.
Jessica Charlev
You'Re a Forbes 30 under 30 nerd.
Aaron Parnas
No. I mean, yeah, I'm a nerd, but I read all 84 pages. The top lines, the biggest takeaways for me are a few things. The first is that Pete Hegseth actively put American troops in danger. That's what the IG found by essentially revealing classified information on this unsecured network, which is Signal. The second top line is that he didn't properly declassify the information as he was sending it. So the IG finds that, being that he's a secretary of defense, he has the power to declassify information kind of in real time, just like the president does. If they want to declassify something, they can, just given their position. But Pete Hegseth didn't do that in a proper way. And in fact, he sent this on his, like, personal phone on a personal network. It wasn't. It wasn't secure at all. It wasn't properly declassified. So that's the second thing. The third thing is Pete Hegsett didn't really cooperate with the investigation. Yes, he sent over the Pentagon sent over copies of his phone in terms of the screenshots of the messages and things like that, but he didn't actually refuse to sit down for an interview with the ig. But with all that being said, what kind of frustrated me at the end of this was that the IAG's conclusion was just, like, senior Pentagon leaders need more technical training. Like, okay, I got it. They're old. They need to learn more. But this isn't about, like, technical training. It's like, military 101. Don't share classified information on unsecured networks. I spoke to Congressman Pat Ryan literally right before we got on this call, and he told me. He was like, well, I was served in the army as an intelligence officer. If I did what Hegseth did, I'd be serving time behind bars right now. And like, this double, triple, quadruple standard that we're seeing is just. It's wrong.
Jessica Charlev
Yeah. I mean, on top of it. And the Signal chat scandal seems so long ago, considering what we've gone through since then. I mean, part of the problem as well is how many people were on this chat. Like, over 20 people in, including, obviously, Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of the Atlantic, who was invited into it by mistake by Mike Waltz, who also served and should have known better. Yeah, I mean, Mike is now the ambassador to the UN instead of being the national Security advisor. So they're, I guess, you know, ahead to proverbially roll. But he still has a great job and no one is serving time for any of this. So I guess your expectation is that it'll turn into a nothing burger for President Trump.
Aaron Parnas
I mean, I. Listen, I think it's a, by definition, a high crime and a misdemeanor. Right? It is, it's. It's. Sharing classified information on an unclassified server is an illegal act, and Pat Ryan kind of admitted to that when I was talking to him. It is a high crime and misdemeanor. It is an impeachable offense by definition. And so I think that if and when Democrats take the House in next year, one of their first responsibilities, assuming Hegseth is still in office, which I don't know if he will be, I actually don't think he will be, would be too, in my opinion, conduct a full throated investigation and potentially impeach Hegseth. I mean, that has to be done at this point purely on signal gate, and I'm not even talking about the boat strikes, because that's a whole nother situation. But based on signal gate, the definition of a high crime and misdemeanor, in a lot of ways, based on legal analysis and past impeachments, is a crime. And Hegseth committed a crime based on what the IEG found. So it's kind of black and white to me.
Jessica Charlev
Okay. And you already teased the next topic, which is the Caribbean boat strikes. Admiral Bradley, widely respected by those on the right and on the left, appears to be a bit of the fall guy for what happened. Yeah, he was briefing both the House and the Senate. Little plug. Check out my conversation with the top Democrat on the Intel Committee, Jim himes, on our YouTube channel. Whose takeaway was that? It was one of the more disturbing things that he's heard and seen. There's only video footage of the first first strike, not the second that took out the two survivors from the first round. Can you give me your top line thoughts on what we know, I guess from Bradley's testimony and where you think it goes from here.
Aaron Parnas
So we don't know much still, but what we do know, him said it like you said, it's one of the most disturbing things he's seen in public service. I think, truth be told, the White House and hagseth made a major mistake by kind of throwing Bradley under the.
Jessica Charlev
Bus here, you think?
Aaron Parnas
Because I think Bradley, if anyone knows this person, he has served the United States military with distinction, served for a long time, has a lot of fans in the military. Right. This is not like some disgruntled officer. This is someone who's been there for a long time and has a lot of honor and respect. And by throwing him under the bus, they made it all the more likely, in my opinion, that someone in the military is going to a, leak the video of the boat strikes. B, if and when there is an impeachment inquiry into someone or some type of congressional inquiry, you're going to have people willing to testify against the White House and against Hegseth. Remember, these military service officers, they have loyalty to the Constitution. They don't have loyalty to Pete Hegseth or Donald Trump. They have loyalty to the Constitution and the oath that they swear to. So I think by throwing one of their kind of career military service members under the bus like this, it's gonna make it all much worse for Hegseth, all much worse for Trump. And ultimately, I mean, I don't. I think heads have to roll. I don't know whose right. I still don't know whether Hegseth gave the order or not. But to me, I don't know what's worse. Hegseth giving the order to kill everyone or to conduct the second strike or Hegseth not knowing that right under him on the first day of these strikes, this happened. Like, what's worth. You have an absent secretary of defense or an intentional, I guess, murder? I don't know.
Jessica Charlev
Yeah, I mean, it's been overwhelming, and it feels like there hasn't been a story in a bit where there's so much incoming and there's so many people making comments about it. And I don't mean just like talking heads. I'm talking about sitting members of Congress and the Senate, like Rand Paul. GOP Congressman Mike Turner was on Morning Joe talking about this, and he said, no matter what it was, like, we don't have capital punishment for what these guys are accused of doing anyway. So it does get into the category of murder. Like, we could just stop there. You don't even have to be talking about whether you thought that they were contacting other members of the cartel, because that's the news story. And NBC was running with it and abc. And I saw a lot of people on the right, I think, maybe even including members of the administration, using Martha Raditz's report to say that they were exonerated by it. Because the idea was that these two guys who survived the first strike were on the boat and contacting somebody to help them. And so they were saying, oh, here, you know, they were still engaged in the illegal activity. And then Mike Turner just, you know, said, absolutely not. You don't murder people anyway for trafficking cocaine. You put them in prison.
Aaron Parnas
Yeah, for sure. I mean, I, so I studied international law. I took multiple classes on the international law of arms conflict. We had situations like this. Obviously not exact, but you look through history and there have been similar situations in armed conflict when countries, militaries kill individuals who pose no threat to that country, to that military. And to me, this is a clear cut example of a situation where you have a shipwrecked boat in the middle of the high seas. I mean, this is not like on the beach, right? This is the middle of the Caribbean, hundreds of thousands of feet of water. Their boat is literally on fire. Who cares if they can get up and call someone? That's not, I mean, that's not the standard. Whether or not they can. Even if they can get up on that boat and call for more cartel members to come and rescue the drugs and rescue them and continue on that, even if that were true, which we don't know if it's true or not, even if that were true, that would still not be enough to justify a second strike. Why? Because in that moment, they did not pose a threat to the United States of America. They were on a shipwrecked boat. And a shipwrecked boat, by definition under international law, cannot be targeted. And that is exactly what happened here. I, I, it doesn't make sense. Like, who cares if they can call for help? Like with what phone? Honestly, like, this boat's on fire. Like it's literally like on fire in the middle of the ocean. And you want them to get up on some smoldering wood because these are like little dinghies and call with what service? I mean, it just doesn't make any sense.
Jessica Charlev
No. Well, we'll be watching that one closely. We're going to take a quick break. Stay with us.
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Jessica Charlev
Welcome back. I want to make sure that we get to some more of the big news from this week. We had a special election on Tuesday that was very closely watched. Tennessee's 7th district, it became a national election which I think hurt the Democrats a lot there, but it was still a big over performance, 12, 13 points. Matt Van Epps, who is the new Republican congressman for the district, won a seat that was Trump plus 22 in just 2024. So Democrats are running around touting this as, you know, a harbinger of good things to come and a big win. I was really focused on the primary, the Democratic primary that took place because there were three moderate candidates in that primary and so they kind of all split the vote. Bain, who was the candidate, super far left Democrat, socialist, DSA member I should say. You know, had bad previous tweets saying like defund the police, et cetera, never apologized for them. Ended up winning because the moderates all split each other and so she ran away with it. I think we probably could have done even better with one of the more centrist candidates considering how conservative Tennessee is. But what, what's your read on the special election and what it means for the midterms and beyond.
Aaron Parnas
I mean, I think it's a, it spells trouble, obviously. And I mean, I can give you the generic, like, yes, this is. Spells trouble.
Jessica Charlev
Well, don't. I didn't invite you here for generics. Yeah, I mean, obviously, 30 under 30. Aaron Parness.
Aaron Parnas
It shifts to the left. The district shifted 10 points. Blah, blah, blah. Heard it. All right, my question, and I want to ask you, and I want to put you on the spot a little bit here, because this is raging moderates. Do you think a moderate would have done better? I mean, like, do you think that. Yeah, right. Yeah, I, I do. I mean, I think that. Listen, Afton Bain, I interviewed her. I thought she was a great person. I don't know that she was the best candidate in the race for the district. Right. Like, she got attacked for hating country music, for attacking Nashville, and then the whole Bachelorettes. The bachelorettes. But also, like, defund the police issue. I mean, you can, when you say something that you may not fully believe anymore or say something that's not fully politically advantageous, you could say, like, hey, I don't believe that fully anymore. Like, we're gonna walk that back to win in a district like this. I don't know. I, I, I don't. I think it also is a major sign for the midterms that you gotta run good candidates everywhere. You can't just run a candidate and expect to win.
Jessica Charlev
Yep.
Aaron Parnas
And I think that when you're looking at, like, races like, for example, Wisconsin's third, which I talk about all the time, Afton Bain, running in Wisconsin's third against Derek Van Orden, would lose by 20 points. But you have a great candidate actually right now for Democrats, and Rebecca Cook, who's lived there, who's worked on a farm, like family farm, all that, and, like, has the endorsement of Bernie Sanders and, like, Ezra Klein, like, the center and the left.
Jessica Charlev
Yeah.
Aaron Parnas
That's who you need running nationwide, in my opinion.
Jessica Charlev
Yeah, I agree with you. I mean, the candidate quality is going to be the name of the game. And it has been always, consistently. I like that the Democrats are trying to kind of rehash the 2018 camo wave. A lot of military recruits, which I think is a very good look for my party. But I totally agree with you. I think also the nationalization of the race really hurt her. And I don't want to be in a position where high turnout means Democrats do worse. Because that's what happened in 2024. Right. Like, if less people had voted, Democrats would have done better.
Aaron Parnas
Yeah.
Jessica Charlev
Which is a bummer because you want the most people possible to exercise the constitutional rights and you also want to be the party that the majority of people want to support. So in agreement there. When she said on election night she was on cnn, Afton Bain and said, yeah, no, I'm definitely thinking about running again. I was like, maybe not in this particular district, but there are going to be DSA members that are running in primaries all over the country. One just announced for the D.C. mayor since Muriel Bowser isn't going to run again. And, you know, people have to win primaries but also have to be strategic and smart about it. Like, if there are three people who basically have the same platform in the race, somebody has to go and consolidate.
Aaron Parnas
Yeah, I agree. I mean, I will also say, like, if Afton runs again in this district, okay, that's fine. Like, she can run. This is not a district that Democrats will win in 2026. Even if she won last night or in two nights ago, we wouldn't have won it in 2026. It just, it's not a district that in a regular election cycle would go blue. And there's. There shouldn't be any hope that it would. The only opportunity that Democrats had to flip this was because it was a special election in a anti Trump kind of environment heading into 2026. It's not going to be a special election. It's going to be a general midterm. Very anti Trump, sure. But it's not going to be the same kind of headwinds that we saw.
Jessica Charlev
One of the major headwinds that's been working against the Republican Party is obviously this dismissal of the quote, unquote, affordability issue. I don't know why Donald Trump keeps running into this wall saying that affordability isn't real. But a big part of that is obviously healthcare. We'll see what happens with the ACA subsidies vote. But I saw that just this morning. M. Johnson has said that the Republicans are going to put up their own health care bill and get a vote on it by the end of the year.
Aaron Parnas
Yeah.
Jessica Charlev
A, do you believe him? And B, what do you think a Republican health care bill that could actually get support looks like?
Aaron Parnas
I don't know because I don't think he even knows. Like, I think if you asked him today, give me an example of like some part of this bill, he won't give you an answer because he doesn't even know. I don't think. I mean, do I believe him that there could be a text of a bill ready for A vote next week. Sure, there could be a text that ChatGPT can write it today, plug it in, say Republican healthcare bill, and pump something out. But the party doesn't know where it's at in terms of healthcare. Trump wants Obamacare Lite, as some in the Republican caucus have called it. So, like, I don't know, I think ultimately what, the only way healthcare is saved, in my opinion, is if Trump wakes up one day and is like, you know what? I need the house in 2026. Health care is going to be on the ballot. Let me just put pressure on Republicans and say, you know what? Screw it. Like, you have to do this, and if you don't do it, I'm going to go to the Democrats and get it done with them. But I don't see that happening either.
Jessica Charlev
So, okay, so nothing. I harp on this perhaps too much, but it is a frustration of mine that it feels like on health care that Democrats tend to defend the status quo, which is still better than what Republicans would offer, but still not good enough. And I'm curious if, A, you agree with me on that and B, if you think that this new. You've heard this, I'm sure, like, strong floor, no ceiling that Hakeem Jeffrey is, is using and Dems are talking about, which I think makes sense. Like, we need a social safety net, but also we want to make sure that you can have the best possible life. And if you want to earn a lot of money, that's your prerogative. And we're going to be safe, supportive if you think that that's going to work for us. I guess going forward into the midterms.
Aaron Parnas
Could, I don't know. I mean.
It could. I, I, I'm not like, I don't know. I, I, how do you think the.
Jessica Charlev
Midterms are going to go? Because you do not seem that positive right now.
Aaron Parnas
So if I think if the midterms were held today, Democrats would win 250, 260 seats in the House. Like, it would be a monstrous win for Democrats. But we have 11 months to go. And ultimately, the way I believe elections go is the way the economy goes and if prices somehow start falling and if the Supreme Court says, you know what, Screw you, Trump, you can't do these tariffs. And he has to roll back the tariffs. And now he says, well, look, prices are down again and the market's good and people are, and the job market somehow recovers. I don't know where we're gonna be in 11 months. And I don't Know what the midterms will look like then? So I think it's. It's definitely not in the bag for Democrats. Do I think the Democrats will win the House? Yes. The question is by how much? That's kind of where I'm at.
Jessica Charlev
Okay, that seems reasonable. I felt for a couple days like Democrats could win the Senate, too, actually. But I'm back on that right now.
Aaron Parnas
People keep telling me that, and, like, they get mad at me when I say I don't think they're gonna win the Senate. And I'm like, but look at the map. Like, we.
Jessica Charlev
No, the map's really hard. But I do think, to your point about candidate quality, and obviously, there are a few primaries that we don't know how that's gonna shake out, but I feel good about the quality of candidates that are in the tough races.
Aaron Parnas
I mean, it's about, let's see who comes out of these primaries and go from there.
Jessica Charlev
Fair. All right. Well, we have many Fridays to go. Before that, I want to ask you about all the pardons. Trump has been on a spree of pardons and commutations. Some of them just seem like normal cronyism or whatever. Like the private equity guy who defrauded 1.6 billion from, like, farmers and veterans and teachers and things like that. Um, you have the former Honduran president who trafficked enough cocaine into the United States to kill millions of people, which I guess Trump doesn't care about when someone Roger Stone likes does it. Henry Cuellar stuck out to me, the Democratic congressman. Yeah. What did you think about that? Did it surprise you? And why do you think all of this is happening right now?
Aaron Parnas
It's surprising because I didn't think he had to do it. I mean, if anyone knew the facts of Henry Cuellar's case, I actually, based on what I read and what a lot of legal experts have been saying, I think the judge was going to throw out the charges in April when the motion to dismiss hearing, like, I, I, I thought that the case was a little shaky on legal grounds.
Jessica Charlev
Hakeem Jeffrey said that, too. He said that he thought that it was thin.
Aaron Parnas
Yeah. And most legal experts thought it was thin. And I, like, I didn't think Trump had to do this, but part of me was like, is this Trump's, like, way of saying, well, I pardon Democrats and Republicans. Is Bob Menendez next? Maybe. Who knows? He could be next. But I think the one that really shocked me out of all of the pardons was, I forget it was like, some kind of Live entertainment dude, the guy who.
Jessica Charlev
They prosecuted Justin in July.
Aaron Parnas
Yeah, correct, that one. They indicted him in July and now they pardoned him in December. That makes no sense to me. Like, this is your own doj. Why indict him if you're going to go ahead and pardon him?
Jessica Charlev
I mean, Emile Beauvais was the one who started the prosecution of the former president of Honduras.
Aaron Parnas
There you go.
Jessica Charlev
You're probably not going to be interested in this, but are you following the Olivia Nuzzy Ryan Leza stuff?
Aaron Parnas
I watched the Bulwark interview.
Jessica Charlev
Me too. I thought Kim handled the crying super well. Like, I almost want to show it to my husband to be like, this is what you. How you should behave when I'm crying.
Aaron Parnas
Maybe I'll show it to my wife and be like, this is how I will behave.
Jessica Charlev
Yeah, you should do that.
Aaron Parnas
It's such an odd story.
Jessica Charlev
Well, it's an odd story, but I appreciate that everyone is focusing on what I think is the most important part of it, which is the issue of journalistic ethics, which we've all been bemoaning that nobody cares anymore. And obviously she went beyond the normal pale, right? Like having affairs with people that you're covering. I mean, reading the strategy memo that she created for RFK Jr. Where she was advising him on how to win an election while writing, I would say, the definitive article about Joe Biden that ended up sinking his campaign in the pre debate world or post debate world, I should say. Do you think that this will matter in any way? Or it's just something we're paying attention to for 20 minutes?
Aaron Parnas
It's the most DC insider thing like that I've seen in a long time. This is not going to matter to anyone. I mean, you ask, I think you ask a hundred Americans who Olivia Nuzzi is, maybe one will say they know her. I mean, like, this is not. That's why I was even surprised Tim interviewed her. I didn't think that, like, it was even worth platforming her in any respect. Um, but alas.
Jessica Charlev
Okay. Well, I hope that it does make people think about the way that our media works at this particular moment and how everything is driven by clickbait. And we saw rage bait, obviously, as the word of the year from the Oxford dictionary. And I feel like this is like a really endemic problem that something like this could happen. And then also that you still get a Simon and Schuster deal, though it seems like the book isn't selling particularly well. Yeah, but who knows? I was in jfk. It was number nine. Allegedly on the Bestseller list. But than I read. I think it was just on the wrong shelf. But either way. And I don't want to give bad juju because I have a book coming out next year and I'm really nervous about it. So I don't want to talk badly.
Aaron Parnas
About anyone's going to do great.
Jessica Charlev
It's going to do amazing. All right. What's one thing that makes you rage? One thing we should all calm down about.
Aaron Parnas
One thing that makes me raged. AI. AI is making me rage lately. Because I was scrolling on TikTok the other day and I saw a video that looked like Anderson Cooper talking, but it was actually my voice and my, like, video just with Anderson Cooper's face on it. And it was like, AI generated. And that makes me rage. And then also at the same time, like, I saw another video of me speaking French fluently, and I was like, huh, I don't.
Jessica Charlev
Well, was that exciting, though? Do you speak French?
Aaron Parnas
No, I don't speak French at all. It was interesting, but it makes me rage because people don't really realize that they're getting so much misinformation out there. And then one thing that everyone should calm down about is.
That's a good question, actually.
Jessica Charlev
Well, you knew it was coming because I ask you every Friday.
Aaron Parnas
I do. And then every time I put on the spot, and I don't even know what. I don't remember what I said last week, but I've been saying a lot that people should calm down about the fact that we're never going to get the Epstein files. We will. I think I said that last week. We're getting more Epstein files. But I think something else that people should calm down about is working during the holidays.
Jessica Charlev
Oh, like, it's not that bad. Or people should just get the time off.
Aaron Parnas
Get the time off.
Jessica Charlev
Right. Well, December is Aaron Parnas month off, Correct?
Aaron Parnas
Exactly.
Jessica Charlev
Well, I'm thrilled that you still spent a few minutes with me during your time off. Of course. It was great to see you.
Aaron Parnas
And likewise.
Jessica Charlev
I'll talk to you next week.
Aaron Parnas
Talk to you next week.
Episode: Is Pete Hegseth’s Strike Scandal an Impeachable Offense?
Date: December 5, 2025
Guests: Aaron Parnas (Forbes 30 Under 30), Jessica Tarlov
This episode dives into the political fallout from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's "Signal-gate" scandal, explores the legal and ethical implications of recent U.S. military strikes in the Caribbean, and critiques the selection of candidates in recent elections. Jessica Tarlov and guest Aaron Parnas approach the latest stories from a pragmatic centrist angle, offering insights into how political missteps and intra-party conflict influence the broader fight for the “moderate middle” in American politics.
[02:14 – 06:16]
The Scandal:
The Pentagon’s Inspector General found that Secretary Pete Hegseth disclosed classified information regarding military strikes via Signal, an unsecured messaging platform, and failed to properly declassify that information.
Security Breach:
Lack of Accountability:
Impeachability:
Lack of Consequence for Others:
[06:16 – 11:20]
Admiral Bradley as Fall Guy:
Ethical and Legal Analysis:
Political Consequences:
Broader Reaction:
[13:23 – 18:05]
Democratic Overperformance:
Issues with Candidate Selection:
Strategic Takeaway:
Primaries & Nationalization:
[18:05 – 21:14]
Republican Health Care Bill:
Democrats’ Response:
Midterm Prospects:
[21:14 – 21:45]
On Military Standards:
“If I did what Hegseth did, I’d be serving time behind bars right now. And like, this double, triple, quadruple standard that we’re seeing is just... it’s wrong.”
— Congressman Pat Ryan (via Aaron Parnas), [03:54]
On the Boat Strikes:
“...in that moment, they did not pose a threat to the United States of America. They were on a shipwrecked boat. And a shipwrecked boat, by definition under international law, cannot be targeted. And that is exactly what happened here.”
— Aaron Parnas, [10:35]
On Elections & Moderates:
“You gotta run good candidates everywhere. ...You can’t just run a candidate and expect to win.”
— Aaron Parnas, [15:50]
On GOP Healthcare Strategy:
“...the party doesn’t know where it’s at in terms of healthcare. Trump wants Obamacare Lite.”
— Aaron Parnas, [18:41]
On the Unknowns for 2026 Midterms:
“It’s definitely not in the bag for Democrats. Do I think the Democrats will win the House? Yes. The question is by how much?”
— Aaron Parnas, [21:14]
[21:45 – 24:33]
[23:26 – 25:35]
[25:44 – 26:53]
Raging:
Aaron: “AI is making me rage lately. ...people don’t really realize that they’re getting so much misinformation out there.” [25:44]
Calming:
Aaron: “People should calm down about working during the holidays... get the time off.” [26:44]
For listeners seeking independent, centrist, and sharp political analysis, this episode delivers an unvarnished view of current scandals, political strategy, and the stakes of moderation in American politics.