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- [00:00]
A
Best thing that's ever happened to you financially. Go easy. Sold my car on Carvana. Amazing offer, really. I hit 200 on a scratcher. Did the scratcher come to your house and hand you a check?
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B
No.
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A
How many scratchers did you hit to get that? I hit a button on Carvana.com once.
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B
Okay, that's fair.
- [00:17]
A
It's like the lottery, except you always win. Not like the lottery at all, actually. Exactly. Inexplicably good offers worth bragging about. Sell your car today on Carvana. Pick up. Fees may apply. I love that Pete Hegseth is encouraging gender affirming care in the military. I love that in the video that he spoke about this, he had on a full face of makeup. The MAGA men are laser focused on masculinity because all they think about are men. And now we've reached the next layer of this where we know they're thinking about penises. It's just like, you know, the band aid just keeps getting ripped off and they're revealing more about themselves as they feel more emboldened in their fascist regime. Much like Trump's cognitive exams, Pete Hegseth has found himself with a needle in his arm saying, why won't my penis work, Doc? Let me know.
- [01:17]
B
I'm Joanna Coles. This is the Daily Beast, and we have a new feature to the podcast, which I want to tell you about immediately. We have a phone number three finally for you to leave your voice messages and your questions for me or Michael Wolf or David Rothkop or Jen Welsh, any of our regular guests, leave us a comment. Leave us a question and we may raise it on the Daily Beast. Here is the number. 929274, 3577. That's 929-274-3577. You can leave us a comment, you can leave us a question, and we will play them on the show. And you may well leave question questions for our next guest, Jen Welsh. We are going to be talking about Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, and of course, Pete Hegseth. Where does she stand on high T, low t. I suspect Jen has more testosterone in her little toe than the entire of the American military. Let's get into it. Before we do, quick reminder. Please subscribe to the Daily Beast wherever you get your podcast. The reason we can have independent conversations is because we are independent media. But that means we rely upon your support and one of your ways to show that is to subscribe. So now, finally, let's get into it with Jen Welsh,
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A
Introducing Meta Glasses.
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B
Hey, Meta, any last minute tables for two tonight?
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A
Sure. There's a great Italian restaurant 15 minutes away.
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B
Hey, Meta, where's the nearest flower shop?
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A
Five minutes away, straight down Broadway, past the bodega there. Lilies are trending on Instagram. Just saying.
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B
Hey, Meta, am I forgetting anything else?
- [03:09]
A
How about setting a calendar reminder for next year? Meta glasses available in more than 20 styles.
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B
Oh my goodness. You are the scourge of the Department of Education. Jen Welsh is back on the podcast and she has pissed off the head of the education department, Linda McMahon. Jen, explain everything before we get into discussing Hegseth. Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham. All of them. Yes. Let us first discuss you and how you upset the Department of Education.
- [03:42]
A
Okay, so on my podcast, I've had it. My co host and I were discussing homeschooling and how a lot of homeschoolers do this because they want to teach creationism and in the homeschooling pamphlets, talk about dinosaurs living with man. At the same time, discourage critical thinking. And I said, this is trickle down stupidity. The people, the dumbest people she knew in college were homeschooling their kids. And so this is trickle down stupidity. This is maga on steroids. This is Maha, this is trad wife. This is unvaxxed and unjacked and all that shit.
- [04:17]
B
Trickle down stupidity. I wish that I had thought of that line. It's such a good line. And it is of course, what homeschooling is. Okay, I know some of you out there have been homeschooled. You can leave us a comment. But I think homeschooling isn't good for the kid or the parent.
- [04:32]
A
It's not. And my point was that the parents can't critically think. They're very scared of the world. They're very fear based people. They've been encouraged to be blindly obedient. And so I called it trickle down stupidity. They chop it up. New York Post, Fox News, bedwetting, hand wringing, pearl clutching, losing their mind. I get really excited about this because it's so easy to just poke them because they're so scared of and the liberal white Jennifer Welch really terrifies them so much to my surprise.
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B
You terrify all of us. I'm just putting it out there. You do.
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A
Touche, terrify, touche. But they, Kylie, our producer said, jen, the Department of Education just tweeted about you and it was like they quoted the New York Times Post and it was like, homeschooling is great, blah, blah, blah, all of these platitudes. Meanwhile, it's important to note that of course, they piled onto this because part of the fascist project is Christian nationalism. And Christian nationalism, an antidote to that is education. Trump likes the poorly educated. So of course there's, as he said, he's openly. These are his words.
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B
I love the uneducated.
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A
He wants Linda McMahon to close down the Department of Education because fascism can thrive if you have a dumbed down, trickle down stupidity electorate. And so of course they've clamored onto this.
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B
Did you just do that? Trickle down stupidity.
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A
Trickle down stupidity.
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B
This could be a meme. This could be a gesture that we all start doing.
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A
Trickle down incompetence. You can say it with so many things.
- [06:07]
B
Yes, you can. So where are we now? Has someone come to you and asked you to start a school? I would send my children to the Jen Welsh School of Life, the Genoa School of Life.
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A
Glenn Beck just posted on Instagram that he is. He would like pumps and me to debate a 15 year old homeschooler on his show.
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B
I hope you said yes.
- [06:32]
A
No, of course I'm not going to do it. I mean, a 15 year old homeschooler, because as a mother like this 15 year old has been wildly indoctrinated, probably thinks that the earth is 5,000 years old and here's the thing.
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B
And they probably live with a dinosaur pterodactyl.
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A
Yeah. And I don't want to intellectually bully a child. Now, Glenn Beck, I would love to intellectually bully, but you should do a
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B
debate with Glenn Beck about it. Glenn, if you're watching, the challenge is
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A
laid down in person.
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B
In person. Possibly naked. Not naked.
- [07:09]
A
I don't know that there's a bottle of vodka big enough that would entice me to see Glenn Beck naked.
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B
All right, so unitards then. Unitards. I do think a wrestling, a debate. I mean, actually it was the thing that Charlie Kirk said he loved to do. Right. Debate. You know, take me on and we'll argue it out. Although he had pretty extreme positions too. So where does this end, Jen?
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A
I mean, the news cycle will run amok. New tomorrow they will be scared, terrified of somebody else. You know, these are the people that are scared of Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, drag queens, books, Jennifer Welch, podcasters. These people live in a constant state of heightened fear. So while I am scaring them today, fret not. Tomorrow some new scary person will come out and scare the shit out of them tomorrow. And then they'll just repeat the hysteria all over again. And that's what life is like inside the Maga cult.
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B
Okay, so Side note, as we are both the mother of two sons.
- [08:11]
A
Two sons?
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B
Yeah, two sons. Could you imagine anything worse than homeschooling them?
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A
No, I couldn't. And I don't think they could imagine anything worse.
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B
Right. I know the idea of my two sons being trapped with me for 50, 15 years as I was distractedly trying to teach them math, geography, all the things. What a disaster.
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A
That would be a complete disaster. And I don't know about you, but when my kids, sometimes they're like, hey, mom, can you help me with my homework? And I'd sit down, it was like algebra. And I'm like straining, like, I don't remember this.
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B
It's been math. No. I remember my best friend's husband used to be on homework duty from time to time. She said it was always a disaster because he would just end up shouting at them, why don't you understand? Why can't you do this? And it's just some of us are not born to teach.
- [09:04]
A
Exactly. We're not born to teach. But the MAGA movement also has weaponized all of this against teachers who are wonderful people, who are underpaid, and they have made teachers out to be a boogeyman. And so they are encouraging this homeschooling. And so that's why they have just completely latched on to what I said. Because it is a mirror. It is a mirror up to how stupid their plans are for the Department of Education.
- [09:29]
B
Okay, well, we've got off to a flying start with Jen Welsh. A flying start. Amazon Health AI presents Painful thoughts.
- [09:39]
A
Why did I search the Internet for answers to my cold sore problem? Now I'm stuck down a rabbit hole filled with images of alarmingly graphic sores in various stages of ooze. I can clear my search history, but I can never unsee that.
- [09:57]
B
Don't go down the rabbit hole. Amazon Health AI gets you the right care fast. Healthcare just got less painful. Okay, so, you know, my next question obviously is testosterone. I suspect you have more testosterone in your little finger than the entire of the American military. What do you think of health Hegges decision, our Secretary of forever wars, that there should be compulsory testing for testosterone in the military.
- [10:29]
A
I love this. I love that Pete Hegseth is encouraging gender affirming care in the military. I love that in the video that he spoke about this, he had on a full face of makeup with multiple camera angles.
- [10:46]
B
Why was he doing that thing where he looked into the middle distance? I thought that was very strange. Because he starts by looking directly at you and then there's suddenly a shot where he's talking over and you're like, where have you gone?
- [10:57]
A
I immediately noticed that as well. This is an unserious person. We don't have to look that far into Freud's teachings to understand and deduce what's happening here. The MAGA men are laser focused on masculinity because all they think about are men. And now we've reached the next layer of this where we know they're thinking about penises. It's just like the, you know, the band aid just keeps getting ripped off and they're revealing more about themselves as they feel more emboldened in their fascist regime.
- [11:29]
B
So. So what is it about, though, the quest for more testosterone?
- [11:34]
A
Because I don't think they have much. I think this is the governing of low T people. People that have high testosterone, number one, probably don't even know it because they've never had to test it. The fact that he's thinking about this tells me, much like Trump's cognitive exams, Pete Hegseth has found himself with a needle in his arm saying, why won't my penis work, Doc? Let me know. And then they, oh, buddy, you've got low T. You need testosterone injections. I think when the history books are written about all of this and all the tell all memoirs, after, you know, who kicks the bucket, it's going to be revealed that all of these broken men have caused a ripple effect by their uniting into keeping. Try to keep their secrets, you know, covered up. When I think we know a lot of them are in the closet. A lot of them are probably bisexual.
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B
So you have experience with addiction. Pete Hegseth has had problems with alcohol. He left his two jobs running veterans affairs organizations with accusations by whistleblowers and by former colleagues that he was intoxicated on the job. When he went through his hearings, he promised that he would not be drinking on the job. Do you think this is another aspect of his issue with substances?
- [13:00]
A
Absolutely. I don't think he's ever received treatment. My husband, as you mentioned, is in recovery and people that are in recovery, it requires rigorous honesty, which precludes any addict currently in the Trump regime that may be in active addiction. It precludes them from seeking treatment because the number one rule is you have to be rigorously honest and you can't have secrets. The whole Trump regime is about secrets and lies. So of course, he's either not sober or he is a raging, dry drunk. This is not a person in recovery. This is not a person who's gone through therapy. We may remember that he was accused of sexually assaulting a woman, paid her hush money. His mother wrote him a letter begging him to stop assaulting women and treating women like shit.
- [13:47]
B
Yeah. She said, you are an abuser of women.
- [13:50]
A
Yes. And I think that a lot of the problems with these men are the secrets they keep. And in Pete Hexa's world, he is a really crazy Christian. And you probably heard his pastor talk about women not having the right to vote and all of this stuff. And Pete Hegseth probably tries to solve his problems by saying, jesus, please forgive me. And this is the, this is how where Trumpism and Christian nationalism completely dovetail. Trump has been able to commit all of these crimes and do unethical things, and the public has forgiven him without any accountability. Well, that's what evangelical Christianity promotes, forgiveness without accountability.
- [14:36]
B
Okay, so let me ask you something, because looking at the Washington Post Ipsos poll last week, the only real people now full throatedly supporting Trump are Catholics, Roman Catholics, and white evangelicals. Where does someone like Lindsey Graham fit in that mix? Right.
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A
So again, it goes to the secrets. I grew up in Oklahoma, which is very, very evangelical Christian. Oklahoma City and the state of Oklahoma. The predominant religion is evangelical Christ, Christianity. And these people, my mother would always say, my mother, lifelong atheist, 83 years old, she'd always say, how did she
- [15:21]
B
even end up in that mix? How did you end up in Oklahoma? What was your family doing there?
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A
We're from Dallas originally. And then my dad bought some businesses and we moved to Oklahoma. And so she would always say, well, Jennifer, the bigger the Christian, the bigger the secret. And it was always true. My friends that were recruiting me the most that were like, you've got to go get saved. You've got to get saved, that were just like, manic about it, their families. I'd go spend the night and I'd notice one night the mom kind of had a black eye. And I would say, heather, why does your mom have a black eye? She's like, oh, my dad and mom got in a fight the other night. Well, it turns out her dad was banging the secretary. And mom found out, confronts him, he roughs her up. But these were the people that told me that my family was gonna burn in hell forever because we didn't go to the church that they went through. So how do they atone for that? Jesus, please forgive me. I screwed my secretary and I punched my wife.
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B
Poof.
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A
You're forgiven. Who does that sound like? Trump starts an insurrection. All of the things Supreme Court. You have immunity.
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B
Poof.
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A
No accountability. So people ask me this all the time. How can evangelicals support Trump? It's the exact same thing. Authoritarian religion has accountability, forgiveness without accountability, and authoritarian government. They both require blind obedience and picking up the rug, sweeping things under and putting them out.
- [16:51]
B
He does seem to be using the military for as his own personal trainer. I mean, you see him pushing sleds. He's always doing weights. He's doing pull ups.
- [17:00]
A
He's attempting to do pull ups. Have you seen them? Well, it makes the case for low T. Right, but have you seen him trying to do the press, the bench pressing, and the pull ups? I could do better than he could do.
- [17:13]
B
Well, that Glenn Beck should challenge the two of you to Hegseth versus Jennifer Welch.
- [17:19]
A
I'll do it. I'll take it.
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B
And then RFK Jr should be the referee. He should deduce.
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A
He can actually. He's actually pretty fit. I have to give credit where credit is due.
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B
The bottom half is pretty high. I haven't seen the bottom half.
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A
I'll just never get over. He and kid rock climbing in that bathtub, drinking milk together. That was some weird shit.
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B
That was so weird. And that thing where he's on his bicycle in the swing.
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A
So weird.
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B
So strange. And then he's out with Dr. Oz climbing up things, and then Dr. Oz gets stuck.
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A
They're so weird.
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B
It's very, very odd. But I think that Pete Hegseth has transferred his passion for alcohol to a passion for exercise, which is why he's always working out with the troops. He's pushing his sled. I just think that now he's getting into high tea. Low T, whatever the tea it is. Michael Wolff says that this is Pete Hegseth's throwing his hat in the ring to be president in 2028, that he realizes that J.D. vance and Marco Rubio have got a head start. J.D. vance was out doing Joe Rogan last week. He was doing everything with his book. And Pete Hegseth is, whoa, what's happening? And Marco's running Venezuela. He's National Security Advisor. He's Secretary of State. And Pete Hegseth, this war isn't going very well. And what I call myself the Secretary of War. He should have stuck with Defense. Now he's Secretary for ever wars. So this is him saying, hey, over here. Free T injections for the brosphere. Thoughts? Do you think that might be plausible?
- [18:46]
A
Yes, because I think most of the men in the Maga movement are. They feel 10 foot tall and bulletproof And I think that they like dunking on things. They know that they have failed forward and that life has come at them too easily. And so, of course, Pete Hagseth, who is breathtakingly incompetent, who is an impulsive thinker, an impulsive actor, of course he thinks he would have the hubris and the arrogance and the delusion of grandeur to think that he could be President of the United States. So, yeah, I can buy into that. I hope he does run. I hope he does run.
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B
I hope he runs, too. I hope he does, because we all need some fun. We need some entertainment.
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A
Yeah, I want him to run.
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B
I want him to run, too. Okay, good. All right, so we'll be behind him. And also, they can. I always think he looks like an American Girl doll. He does his little pocket chief. He does his little socks and his Stars and stripes accessories. I think there could be other whole line.
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A
American Doll. Yes.
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B
American Boy doll, I think this is.
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A
Joanna and I are endorsing on the Republican ticket for 2028, Pete Hegseth.
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B
Pete Hegseth.
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A
Our American Doll boy.
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B
Yep. Perfect. Okay. So Mitch McConnell, dead or alive? I'm sorry, but. Oh, that's such a good response. Both.
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A
I think we've got a situation where we have a veggie boy propped up. I think his brain is cooked.
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B
This is such bad taste.
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A
I know it is, but you know what? But I don't care, because Mitch McConnell had. I intend to treat Mitch McConnell the way he treated the American electorate, the way he has treated American women, the way he has treated our Constitution. So, yes, I'm going to bask in the bad taste of bashing Mitch McConnell because women in my home state don't have a right to abortion and are dying because of Mitch McConnell. And we could go on and on about all the horrible things that he's done, but am I sad that he's in the hospital at 80? God only knows how much. I mean, I feel like we've been watching this man die for five years.
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B
Every time it's clear he's not been well. Would you, if you were his wife? And that is a scenario I'm struggling to imagine. I wasn't gonna say, would you pull the plug? I was going to say, would you have come back from your trip to China, where you were meeting the vice president of China, to see your husband, who'd fallen and been unconscious, taken to hospital, and the emergency call had CPR on it. They said, oh, you know, patient is undergoing cpr. He's taken to hospital in an ambulance. We know because he's told us. He was unconscious. His wife, Elaine Chow, was away. If you were married to Mitch McConnell, would you have come back? I know that's a hypothetical.
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A
If I was married to Mitch McConnell, would I come back? No.
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B
Okay.
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A
If my current husband cpr, I would immediately get back at wild horses. Couldn't keep me from getting to his side. But if I was married to Mitch McConnell. No, I'd. Elaine Chowett.
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B
You'd. Elaine Chow. It's a new verb, isn't it? Yeah. Okay, fair. So you think he's in. Are you with Laura Loomer on this? That he's in a persistent vegetative state?
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A
Why do you have to put me in such. That is diabolical.
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B
Okay. Diabolical company. She.
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A
I kind of am. I kind of am with her. I kind of am on this issue. I am finding myself in strange bedfellows with Laura Loomer. I do not think that this man is of sound mind. The photograph that he took from an American hospital as though he were a hostage of Al Qaeda or ISIS is breathtaking.
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B
Clutching the newspaper.
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A
Clutching the newspaper and trying to smile. I'm calling bullshit on all of it. And I think Andy Bershear needs to grow a pair and do what Mitch McConnell would do and call the election, just start it. He would definitely do it. And then let Mitch McConnell come out and say, no, I'm here. I'm completely fine. What are y' all doing? This is crazy.
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B
Why has Nobody put Mitch McConnell on just a knife, a 10 second video to reassure people that he actually.
- [23:11]
A
Because he's in a vegetative state.
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B
His chief of staff, his main advice gets paid quarter of a million dollars. He hasn't figured out how to actually reassure people that Mitch is still compos mentis.
- [23:29]
A
Right. I just. This is serious. He is a United States senator. How many people on both sides of the aisle, whether it's RBG or What was the lady in California?
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B
Dianne Feinstein.
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A
Dianne Feinstein or Donald Trump?
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B
Kay Granger, congresswoman in Texas, who it turned out, had moved into a residential care home.
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A
Exactly.
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B
Alzheimer's. And was still congresswoman.
- [23:54]
A
Exactly. And this is just the Senate. The Senate is ours. The Senate is the people's. And these. This club of crusty old senators have made it theirs. And we need to demand the way Mitch McConnell would demand. I mean, he had power and he wielded it even when he was the minority leader of the Senate. And I think that Andy Beshear needs to man up and call the election right now. Do it.
- [24:21]
B
Andy Boucher probably needs to call Pete Hegseth and get a shot. Get a shot of high tea, courtesy of the.
- [24:30]
A
Courtesy of the U.S. military.
- [24:32]
B
Do you think that this is a good moment for Andy Beshear? I mean, what would Gavin Newsom be doing if this was happening in California?
- [24:40]
A
I think we would see him. Gavin makes bold moves. I mean, that's one thing that he does. He likes to be provocative towards Trump. I do. I think it could really be a game changer for Andy Brashear. I interviewed him in person once in Oklahoma, and he's like, straight out of central casting. He's Southerner, choir boy, nice, progressive on a lot of issues. Good looking, really good looking. I mean, just. And you can just tell he's like a good person. Like, he came in, I was like, he's just a good person. This for him to show the kind of cojones to do something like this, I think it would put him right up there in the talk for 2028.
- [25:17]
B
Right.
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A
Because the electorate is craving people that fight. We want our politicians to fight for us. The way MAGA is fighting to tear everything down. The way MAGA is fighting to plunder. We want our politicians to fight for us. And I think if Andy were to do this, it could be a seismic shift in his political future.
- [25:37]
B
But if he were to do that, does that put him at odds with of Republican state that has voted for him? And of course, his father was governor, too. Right. So in a sense, does he end up. He's got to kind of straddle a line in terms of. I think a lot of his voters are actually normally Republican. Or people who voted for Mitch McConnell have also voted for Andy Beshear.
- [26:02]
A
I think that he. I think that now is not a time to straddle either fight fascism or don't. But the straddlers are the silent people that are capitulating. And so I'm tired of the straddlers. I would rather sit down with somebody that's batshit crazy MAGA than a moderate right now.
- [26:22]
B
Wow.
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A
Yeah, I would.
- [26:23]
B
Wow.
- [26:24]
A
Because right now, in the face of what we're seeing, it is either you're gonna fight this with everything you can or you're gonna fight for it. People are. I had a professor on the podcast yesterday, and he was like, I'm just in the middle. And I'm like, in the middle of fascism. What does that look like? What does it mean to be in the middle of this? And I Think we need to be clear eyed with our full chest that we oppose this, we oppose the crime syndicate that is planted in the executive branch right now.
- [26:54]
B
So where are you on Todd Blanche?
- [26:58]
A
He's a compulsive liar. He is a pedophile protector, he is a criminal enabler. He goes in to his hearings with two active bar complaints. That's never happened. I mean, you know, everybody's like, oh, we're living in unprecedented times. I'm like, I really want precedented times. My husband was on my podcast earlier and he said, I never thought I'd say this, but give me back Jeff Sessions. That's how low the bar is.
- [27:26]
B
Right? And Jeff Sessions, yet another of of Trump's people who worked slavishly for him, recused himself over Russia, as we all remember, and of course has never really gotten back on his feet after that.
- [27:38]
A
No. No. And that's the price. That's why all of these men will debase themselves to Trump. And you know what it is? I've just figured the whole thing out. You know how the tradwide movement is popping off all over the place. All of these MAGA men, Little Moses, Mike Johnson, Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, all of them could put on a masterclass on how to be a trad wife. We are governed by submissive men that are trad wives to Donald Trump.
- [28:11]
B
Donald Trump's cabinet is actually a trad wife.
- [28:13]
A
Cabinet cabinet. It's a trad wife cabinet.
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B
Trad wife cabinet. That is a reality.
- [28:17]
A
They are so submissive, and he finds
- [28:19]
B
them boring because he falls asleep in his own cabinet meetings.
- [28:22]
A
If everybody agrees with you all the
- [28:24]
B
time, it's a snooze festival to snooze first.
- [28:27]
A
Okay.
- [28:28]
B
All right, helipad. Will you be flying your helicopter to the new helipad on the South Lawn?
- [28:34]
A
Of course. Of course. When I take my helicopter, I'll.
- [28:38]
B
I think there's a helicopter in your future, Jen, the way that you're going. So I still can't help thinking it should be Jen Welsh for Senate. Come on, Jen, you've got to find a safe seat.
- [28:49]
A
We've gone over this, Joanna. You know, I would rather earn my money on my back than be a politician. I'd rather it just be cleaner, more defined, less nuanced. Yeah, no, I think that the reflecting pool, the all of the gold medallions. I know you probably saw the crazy glue that was on Trump's desk the other day. All of these things we can dive down and talk about, but I decided I don't give a shit about any of these things. I don't care about the East Wing. I don't care about the ballroom. I don't care about the arch. I don't care about the reflecting pole. I don't care about the helipad. We can fix all of that. We can fix every single bit of that. He is turning upside down the rule of law. He is appointing people that met with Ghislaine Maxwell privately and told her, look, I'll move you and here's a pardon. This is what I'm deducing from this. I don't know if this is true or not. This is just my hypothesis, and when it's politically convenient, I'll roll it out for you. Just keep your mouth shut. Don't say anything else to the Wall Street Journal.
- [29:53]
B
Do you think she'll be pardoned as Trump leaves office? Assuming she can't be. She can't be pardoned before then, yes. Do you think that Trump actually has won the Epstein files?
- [30:04]
A
No. They're pesky. They have a. They. They just don't ever completely go away, do they? We think, oh, they kind of ebb and flow. I think there's too much there. There's just an overwhelming amount of evidence there. And the more they cover it up, the more public opinion turns on him regarding that on both sides.
- [30:29]
B
So there's still 3 million more files to come out that haven't come out, but there doesn't seem to be any pressing call for them to come out. I mean, we had Andrew Weissman, the former general counsel of the FBI, on the podcast last week, and he was saying there is a smoking gun in those 3 million files that haven't yet come out. There's obviously a smoking gun, otherwise why wouldn't they release them? And that's one of his reasons why he thinks Todd Blanche should never be Attorney General. But I wonder, I can't help wondering if the fire has gone out of the Epstein files.
- [31:05]
A
I don't think so. I really don't. I. I just don't think that that is going to completely die. I think that every single time I open up my phone, there's some story related to it and the. The survivors and their bravery and always putting themselves in the news. They showed up to Todd Blanche's confirmation hearings and he's refusing to meet with them. And the Democrats need to.
- [31:32]
B
Did you think the Democrats did a good enough job of interrogating Todd Blanche?
- [31:38]
A
I didn't see all of it, but typically I would say The Democrats should be the first in line to get some of these low T shots. And I'm a Democrat, I am a Democrat, but I wish that they would get rid of their give effect meter and just start fighting. Their approval rating is low because they don't fight hard enough. It's not because people disagree with them, it's because they don't fight hard enough. And now is the moment where Andy Brashear, as good a man as he is, he needs to go gangster.
- [32:13]
B
I was surprised during the top Blanche hearings that it was actually John Cornyn, who, as we know has been primaried by Trump in Texas. But it was his dissection of the slush fund, the $1.8 billion slush, that seemed to hang around Todd Blanche the most. And then there was the moment when John Kennedy, senator from Louisiana, asked him, are you a friend of Mr. Trump? And he goes, well, I'm his lawyer. I mean, I was his lawyer. I was his lawyer. I'm the acting attorney general. And you thought, oh, John Kennedy yet again caught someone else out. Do you remember when he went after Christine Ohm and just sliced and diced?
- [32:53]
A
Yes.
- [32:54]
B
When he said, you know, you spent quarter of a billion on that ad campaign. Did Mr. Trump know you were spending that money? Yeah, and I'm sorry, I can't resist it. I love his accent. I love those southern accents. But he got effectively, he got rid of Kristi Noem. And I can't help wondering if by accident, I don't think it was on purpose, he managed to get Todd Blanche to trip on his own shoes.
- [33:20]
A
You know, I think that it's really. You bring up a really interesting point. Republicans by nature are, they fight a little bit harder. And when I think about the people who are now disassociated from MAGA that are still Republicans, Thomas Massie, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Cornyn Tillis, who's leaving, they seem to outflank Democrats in their critique of Republicans. Incredible. If you hear Thomas Massie or Marjorie Taylor Greene talk about United States policy with Benjamin Netanyahu's government, they outflank Schumer and Jeffries on this. And even though the Democratic Party, the base, our leadership doesn't ever listen to the base at all. And so you have sometimes these very bad actors, I think, in Marjorie Taylor Greene or Tucker Carlson and some of the others who end up outflanking Democrats in their critique of Donald Trump. I mean, Marjorie Taylor Greene went on some rant the other day about the war in Iran and people being war hog she bat. I mean, just completely eviscerated Lindsey Graham, that he was a war hog, he was a warmonger, and all of this stuff. And then all the Democrats are like, Cory Booker's like, you know, he was really a hero. Cory Booker referred to Lindsey Graham as a hero. I'm like, what are we doing? What are we doing here? Lindsey Graham was a piece of shit, objectively. This is a man who, you know, was clearly gay and ran a.
- [34:59]
B
And voted against gay issues all the time.
- [35:02]
A
A complete warhawk. Homicidal, really. And we can't be calling him a hero. What are we doing?
- [35:11]
B
Okay, so you got a huge response to one of your posts after Lindsey Graham died holding a drone. Can you just describe for us?
- [35:23]
A
Okay, so I was very intrigued when I got online and somebody posted a photograph and said, this is Lindsey Graham's last known photograph, and he was in Ukraine, and he's holding a drone. And listener and viewer. The drone was black, and it looked like a big, giant penis. This is poetry in motion. Of course, MAGA loses their mind. Jennifer Welch said Lindsey Graham liked penis. I have so many LGBTQ friends, and I see from living in a red state how closeted men, closeted Christian family guy, Republicans, ostracize, demean, diminish these people during the day and then fetishize them at night. I don't know if you saw actress James Rose on Instagram. She did a video where she. And she has tripled down on it. She alleges that Lindsey Graham, she's a sex worker, paid her a stack of cash, and Lindsey was wearing red lingerie. She performed all sorts of sex acts on Lindsey Graham. Now, here's the thing. If Lindsey Graham's kinky and likes to wear red panties, I don't care. But when you're voting against gay stuff, then it's relevant. It is a relevant issue.
- [36:45]
B
He was in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act.
- [36:48]
A
Exactly, exactly. So he's, you know, anti gay during the day and then doing a bunch of gay stuff at night. And so I don't. I mean, this whole idea that when somebody dies, we have to reinvent who they were is insane to me. Like, Trump doesn't do that. He hated Robert Mueller. He goes after him. Now, I don't want to completely go after Lindsey Graham, but I go after him just as much in his death as I did when he was alive. His death is not going to make me go, oh, Lindsay died. I don't. I can't call him gay anymore, because whether he's alive or dead. Lindsey Graham was a closeted gay man.
- [37:24]
B
Jen Welsh, it's always good to see you. It is always good to see you. And you're about to go off on holiday, so I'm so glad we got squeezed onto your stomach.
- [37:33]
A
I knew I had to. I knew I had to. I knew we had to reunite.
- [37:37]
B
We did. We did have to reunite. Jen Welsh, thank you so much for coming into the studio and I want to see you the minute you get back from Italy.
- [37:45]
A
Of course it will happen.
- [37:46]
B
Excellent.
- [37:47]
A
Thank you.
- [37:52]
B
Is there anything that Jen Welsh doesn't have a strident opinion on? It's why I love talking to her, because she's got such sort of lateral ideas and funny phrases from trickle down stupidity to her fascination with how difficult it is to be gay in the evangelical community. And of course, they form Donald Trump's base. Anyway, I love having her on. She'll be back again soon, the moment she gets back from her Italian holiday. If you have been, thank you for joining us and don't forget to subscribe to the podcast. Don't forget to call our new phone number, 9292-7435-7792-9274-3577 and leave us a comment or a question for any of our regular guests. Big thanks to our production team, Ryan Murray, John Romero, Heather Passaro, Rachel Passer, Neil Rose and House and Max the Interne. So the good news is we have so many Beast Tier members now there are too many names to read out and we really appreciate your support.