BONDI'S OUT - STEVE SCHMIDT, ELECTION EXPERT DAVID BECKER, AND THE ATLANTIC'S TOM NICHOLS

Summary

The Jim Acosta Show

Episode: BONDI'S OUT - STEVE SCHMIDT, ELECTION EXPERT DAVID BECKER, AND THE ATLANTIC'S TOM NICHOLS

Date: April 2, 2026
Host: Jim Acosta

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Overview

This episode opens with the dramatic firing of Attorney General Pam Bondi by President Trump, following her controversial tenure marked by the alleged cover-up of the Epstein files, widespread criticism, and ethical failures. Jim is joined by political strategist Steve Schmidt, election expert David Becker, and The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols for a deep dive into the Bondi saga, Trump’s erratic cabinet shuffling, escalating chaos in the DOJ, challenges to democracy and elections, and the catastrophic unfolding of the Iran war. The conversation highlights the collapse of Trump’s administration, its implications for the upcoming midterms, and the broader existential threat to American democracy.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Pam Bondi’s Firing and Legacy

Guests: Jim Acosta, Steve Schmidt
[00:00–10:14]

• Bangkok-Style Dismissal:
  Jim Acosta opens by describing Bondi’s firing as a major event, underscoring her failed attempts to cover up the Epstein files on Trump’s behalf and her public humiliation during hearings.

• Schmidt’s Take:

  • On Bondi’s Legacy:
    “She is a contemptible...one of the greatest villains in American history and now defenestrated and out of power, she begins a long period of being investigated, being held accountable en route to being a disbarred and fully disgraced attorney.” (Steve Schmidt, [01:36])
  • Cultural Rot:
    Bondi’s tenure described as symptomatic of a broader “rot that has so seeped into...the American republic.”
  • Future Prosecution:
    “All the privileges are gone now. All the perks are gone...it’s just beginning.” (Steve Schmidt, [04:58])
  • Political Death Timestamp:
    The exact moment of Bondi’s firing is marked by the Dow at 46,364.66 at 1:11pm, becoming a symbol of political downfall.

• Political Implications:

  • The firing is interpreted as a scapegoating maneuver by Trump to distract from failures—including the disastrous Iran war and rising oil prices.
  • Bondi’s replacement, Todd Blanche (Trump’s defense attorney and the man who helped Ghislaine Maxwell), exemplifies cronyism and deepening corruption in the DOJ.

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2. Trump’s Inner Circle: Chaos and Corruption

[05:16–10:14]

• Cabinet as a Circus:
  Schmidt likens Trump’s cabinet to a “Star Wars bar scene of broken toys...broken children from Misfit Island.”
• Loyalty and Blame:
  Trump’s unwillingness to engage with reality, surrounded only by sycophants, is highlighted:
  “Nobody can tell him, no, nobody can tell him he’s wrong. And no one can explain how it can be other than through lies.” (Steve Schmidt, [07:21])
• Pattern of Disposability:
  Schmidt predicts the culling of more Trump loyalists, especially women like Tulsi Gabbard, with humiliation and “midnight strikes” awaiting Trumpworld’s elite.
• Autocracy in Practice:
  The party operates like an “autocratic regiment,” with feuds and humiliations common as Trump’s power wanes and paranoia rises.

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3. Trump’s Economic and Social Policy Missteps

[10:14–18:54]

• Easter Speech Fallout:
  Trump’s admission there’s not enough funding for Medicare, Medicaid, and daycare due to war expenditures is called out as a catastrophic midterm gaffe.
  • Quote: “The United States can’t take care of daycare...we have all these other people we’re fighting wars with...It’s not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things.” (Trump, [11:02])
• Political Suicide:
  Acosta and Schmidt deride the political stupidity of such statements before an election where voters care deeply about healthcare and social safety nets.
• Broken Promises:
  Trump’s 2016 anti–forever war rhetoric is contrasted with his now disastrous war in Iran, making George H.W. Bush’s “read my lips” gaffe look minor.

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4. Collapse of MAGA and Evangelical Support

[17:58–25:49]

• Fragmenting MAGA Movement:
  Reports from CPAC and youth attendees declare “MAGA is dead,” showing a generational shift away from Trumpism.
• Cult of Personality:
  Shocking footage of Paula White comparing Trump to Jesus Christ highlights the depths of sycophancy in Trump’s circle:
  • Quote: “No one has paid the price like you have paid the price. It almost cost you your life. You were betrayed and arrested and falsely accused.” (Paula White, [18:54])
  • Schmidt Ridicule:
    “If there is a rank for whack job, she’s like a nine star general.” ([20:14])
  • Psychodrama and Dangers:
    Trump is depicted as emotionally detached—even contemptuous—of his fervent supporters and religious flatterers:
    “He has no common touch point with any of this. It’s just astonishing to watch it as a psychodrama, knowing how unhealthy it is...” (Steve Schmidt, [24:56])
• Danger of Radicals:
  As the movement shrinks, its core becomes more extreme and dangerous—“the hardcore Trumpists who are left...could do the most damage to this country.” (Jim Acosta, [25:49])

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5. Threats to Election Integrity

Guest: David Becker
[29:00–42:18]

• Trump’s Executive Orders:

  • Trump attempts to nationalize elections, dictating mail-in voting processes and seeking to involve the Postal Service—efforts which Becker asserts are blatantly unconstitutional and ultimately ineffective.
    • Quote: “It is not a sign of strength to sign a piece of paper with a Sharpie that has no legal effect...” (David Becker, [30:05])
  • Federal courts have repeatedly blocked Trump’s orders, affirming only states and Congress have this authority, not the president.

• Building the ‘Stolen Election’ Narrative:

  • Trump’s real aim: to delegitimize the upcoming midterms in anticipation of Republican losses.
  • “He’s been spreading disinformation and...trying to delegitimize elections for a long, long time.” (David Becker, [34:02])
  • Despite these efforts, Becker reassures that election security and transparency are higher than ever.

• ICE and Polling Places:

  • Becker dismisses threats to deploy ICE at polling stations, citing clear federal laws barring this and emphasizing it’s just fearmongering.
    • “It is very clear it is not only a crime for troops to be there, it is a crime to order troops to be there.” ([36:40])

• Mail-in Voting Fraud Claims:

  • Trump’s hypocrisy is laid bare: “Calling mail-in voting ‘mail-in cheating’ while also casting a mail-in ballot himself.” (Jim Acosta, [39:25])
  • Becker notes genuine mail-in voter fraud is “really close to zero,” with less than 1,000 cases over billions of ballots.

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6. Disarray in Foreign Policy and Leadership

Guest: Tom Nichols
[42:20–59:00]

• Trump’s Iran Speech & War:

  • Nichols and Acosta dissect Trump’s disastrous nationally-televised speech on the war in Iran:
    • “He seemed lost...not a guy going out there and saying, listen, I know it’s been a tough four weeks...this is why we fight.” (Tom Nichols, [43:01])
    • Trump’s rhetorical style is described as rambling and overly reliant on platitudes.
    • Disjointed war messaging and a president who seems “tired,” “corpse-like,” and “defeated” (referenced from earlier by Schmidt).
  • Lack of Strategic Leadership:
    • Nichols highlights the absence of any competent national security advisor or process; power is consolidated among unqualified loyalists like Rubio and Hegseth.

• Macron’s Rebuke:

  • The episode features a pointed quote from President Macron: “When we’re serious, we don’t say the opposite of what we said the day before every day. And maybe one shouldn’t speak every day.” ([50:31])

• Military Dysfunction:

  • Firing key generals mid-war (e.g., Army Chief of Staff) is portrayed as reckless and demoralizing, sowing chaos within military ranks.

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7. Concluding Satire & Reflections

[59:00–End]

• Trump’s Social Media Meltdown:

  • The show closes with comedic commentary on Trump’s attack on Bruce Springsteen’s appearance, mocking the President’s own image and the “batshit crazy” online behavior of his administration and sycophants.

• Call to Action:

  • Jim closes with thanks to viewers for supporting independent media, a preview of lighter days ahead (baseball break), and a reminder of the importance of holding to the truth amidst chaos.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Steve Schmidt on Bondi:
  “One of the greatest villains in American history...destroyed utterly, completely the credibility of the Department of Justice and thus the rule of law in the United States on her watch.” ([01:36])
• Schmidt, on the Trump Cabinet:
  “Star wars bar scene of broken toys...from Misfit island, all of them.” ([05:53])
• Paula White’s Easter Blessing:
  “Mr. President, no one has paid the price like you have paid the price. It almost cost you your life. You were betrayed and arrested and falsely accused.” ([18:54])
• Trump’s Medicare Gaffe:
  “We have all these other people we’re fighting wars with. We can’t take care of daycare...Medicaid, Medicare...They can do it on a state basis.” ([11:02])
• David Becker on Election Law:
  “The President has zero power over elections except that which Congress has expressly authorized.” ([31:30])
• Tom Nichols on Trump’s Leadership:
  “Trump has one of the worst speechwriting shops in White House history. The speeches, if he sticks to them, suck.” ([45:06])
• Macron’s Rebuke:
  “When we’re serious, we don’t say the opposite of what we said the day before every day. And maybe one shouldn’t speak every day.” ([50:31])

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Pam Bondi’s firing / Bondi legacy: [00:00–05:00]
• Trump’s chaotic cabinet, parallels to autocracy: [05:00–10:00]
• Trump’s anti-social state comments / Medicare remark: [11:00–14:00]
• Comparisons to failed leaders / MAGA’s collapse: [14:00–19:00]
• Evangelicals & cult rhetoric (Paula White): [18:54–25:00]
• Trump’s shrinking, radicalizing base: [25:49–27:45]
• Trump’s election meddling & Becker’s legal breakdown: [29:00–36:00]
• ICE polling scare & mail-in voting fraud myth: [36:00–41:54]
• War in Iran / Tom Nichols on Trump’s speech: [42:20–49:00]
• Allied frustration / Macron’s critique: [49:49–50:38]
• Military leadership chaos / General firing: [54:17–58:14]
• Trump’s Springsteen rant and satire wrap-up: [59:00–End]

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Summary

This episode paints a vivid portrait of the Trump White House in late-stage crisis, marked by scapegoating, dysfunction, and a slide toward authoritarianism. The firing of Pam Bondi serves as a springboard for profound discussions about the corrosion of institutions, the dangers of shrinking but radicalizing movements, and the continued threat to democratic norms and free elections. Through caustic wit and expert commentary, Jim Acosta and his guests warn against the normalization of political madness—and urge listeners to “hold on to the truth. And hope.”

Transcript

[A]

Foreign. Welcome to the Jim Acosta Show. It's another day that ends in Y and the chaos unleashed by Donald Trump in America. Trump has fired the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, who embarrassed herself as the country's top law enforcement official as she attempted to cover up the Epstein files for a president who proceeded to throw her under the bus. Let's discuss with Steve Schmidt of Save America. Steve, great to see you.

[B]

Great to see you, Jim.

[A]

And there's the infamous photo of Pam. Bonnie I mean, I think this is the image that we'll never forget of Pam Bondi when she was testifying at that hearing. And the Epstein survivors were just glaring at her with, with disgust, well deserved disgust. And I guess we were just talking about this before we went on, on the show here today. You were wondering where was the Dow? I guess we can report where the Dow was when she was fired.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

This is at about 1:11pm which is right around the time she was fired. Remember, Pam Bondi family famously said at the, at the hearing, The Dow was at 50, 000 while the Dow was at 46. 364.66 at 1:11pm in the afternoon on this April 2, the year of our Lord 2026. Your thoughts on all of this, Steve.

[B]

That's a historic certification there. Jim Acosta.

[A]

Yeah, historic the way it was. That's the way it was when she was fired.

[B]

It was pimp. Listen, she is a contemptible, and I mean contemptible figure, one of the greatest villains in American history and now defenestrated and out of power, she begins a long period of being investigated, being held accountable en route to being a disbarred and fully disgraced attorney. That's Pam Bondi's future. There's no official that has ever so arrogantly comported themselves as she did in that hearing. It was a true sign of the rot that has so seeped into the fabric, the woodwork of the American democracy, the American, the American republic. An appalling, appalling figure who in the period of time between January 20th of 2025 and April 2nd of 2026, in that, in that time period that, that tenure, that woman destroyed utterly, completely the credibility of the Department of Justice and thus the rule of law in the United States on her watch, her fault and in the end fired tonight, which she is, was a person who became the Attorney General of the United States because she was like Mikey from the cereal commercial who would eat anything.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Who gave away her dignity and became a protector of and covering up for Pedophiles.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

That's her legacy.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

They tried to pay a very high price.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

For the years of accountability coming her way. Another Kristi Noem. And things are working out great for Kristi Noem. And we've talked about this for months now. Right. The day of reckoning, that comes for all these people and now it comes for Pam Bondi.

[A]

That's right.

[B]

The dream is dead.

[A]

That's right. I mean, Pam Bondi, who spent her time, her tenure as Attorney General, going after the likes of James Comey and Letitia James, but not pedophiles who raped children and were exposed in the Epstein files and spent much of her time spinning her wheels trying to cover up for Donald Trump and keeping those files from being released to the public. And there's still millions of files, apparently, that have not been released. The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Robert Garcia, has already released a statement saying, pambonda, you may be fired, but we still expect you to, to appear before this committee and tell us what you know. So she's not out of the woods by any stretch.

[B]

It's just beginning.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

All the privileges are gone now. All the perks are gone. And so we'll see how her arrogance racks up the next time she's before that committee. We'll see. See if she loses a little bit of the chip on her shoulder.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

A disgraceful, disgraceful woman.

[A]

Well, and Steve, the other thing.

[B]

Unethical.

[A]

Yeah. Well, and, and to me, what speaks to the level of corruption that we're dealing with right now is that Trump has fired Pam, Bonnie, but he's put Todd Blanche, his defense attorney, in as the Attorney general. The same Todd Blanche who went in and sprung Ghislaine Maxwell from her prison and put her in a minimum security club Fed.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

That.

[A]

He's the guy now that is in charge of law enforcement in this country. Insane.

[B]

He's another reckless lightweight super from the cast of Nitwits. This Star wars bar scene of broken toys, broken children from Misfit island, all of them. But I think it's important to recognize here that Trump, even like a mark Wayne Mullen, I don't think is going to make a move to try to nominate another attorney general or even to up him because he can't deal with the confirmation hearings at any level. So we're going to roll with a acting Attorney general now who's the deputy who's utterly corrupt, implicated completely in this Epstein file. You look at his public appearances, you look at his performances, they're Rife with contradictions. They're. They're rife with dishonest double speak. This is another corrupt lawyer running a corrupt department. But. But behind him is who, and behind them is who? What you're seeing at this point is a president who's insulated from reality, surrounded by sycophants. Nobody can tell him, no, nobody can tell him he's wrong. And no one can explain how it can be other than through lies that people are saying. He's at a 30% approval level, and so some concession has to be made. And the concession is, well, people screwed something up. He at least is intuitive enough to know that. And so his blame instinct is kicking in, and it's time to start throwing over the fruitcakes he's put around him. And Tulsi Gabbard is going to be out soon enough next, and so all the crazy women around him are going to be out, none of the crazy men at all.

[A]

Right.

[B]

He will be dislodged. But this is a, this is a moment that all of these top Trump people can look forward to, the moment of their humiliation. The moment where midnight strikes and the ball is over and the glass slipper disappears.

[A]

Yeah. And my sense of it was when I, when I woke up this morning and I saw some of these rumors that Pam Bonnie was going to get fired, and we used to have this sort of theory about Trump during the first administration that he sort of had fires, you know, firings in the quiver ready to go for when he really needed to break the emergency glass and do something like this. And last night, he had such a disastrous speech to the nation on the Iraq or the Iran war up that he was going to wake up this morning and, and probably need to do something dramatic, you know, with the price of oil going through the roof. You know, barrel of oil is, is going through the roof right now. I mean, Trump needed a distraction, and it seems to me he fired Pam Bondi to, to, you know, throw everybody off the scent of what a disaster the Iran war has become.

[B]

ABS Absolutely. He is, he is arbitrary, he is capricious, he is volatile, and he is in the corner. And so it is time for the knives to come out. And that's what you're seeing play out. And this is a feature of any type of autocratic regiment. The feuds that are playing out across maga, the people that are falling, the humiliations that are following. It's a, it's an incredible thing to, to watch. But I'll tell you this much. He's. He's 215 days out from, from an election and wow, is he going to get crushed. He's going to be crushed in this midterm election.

[A]

Yeah. And apparently there was this Easter event over at the White House where I guess the press wasn't there the whole time, but the, the White House had a recording of it and they put some of that video out. Accident. They didn't mean to put out all the video, but they did. And so folks were going in there and of course, you know, the Internet lives forever for. So folks were, were saving this video and posting clips and one, and speaking of the election that you just referenced, one of the things that Donald Trump said during this event should absolutely be turned into a TV ad by pro democracy forces by Democrats heading into the midterms where Trump said because of the war, because he has wars to fight, there's not enough money for Medicare, Medicaid and daycare in this country. And that the states should just run things like Medicare and so on. Let's watch this and talk about it.

[B]

The United States can't take care of daycare. That has to be up to a state. We can't take care of daycare. We're a big country. We have 50 states. We have all these other people we're fighting wars with. We can't take care of daycare. You got to let a state take care of daycare. And they should pay for it too. They should pay. They have to raise their taxes, but they should pay for it. And we could lower our taxes a little bit to them to make up, but it's not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. They can do it on a state basis. You can't do it on a federal.

[A]

How dumb of a comment is that? In a midterm cycle.

[B]

There's so many different ways to look at that, for sure. Yes. Incredible. In a midterm cycle. It's not the first time I saw the clip, but this time when I'm watching it, what jumped out to me is his total decrepitude. The slurring of the words, the dropping of the consonants at the end of the word, the, the morbidity of his expression, of his, of his, of his, of his power. It's just, it's, it's pale, it's, it's corpse. Like.

[A]

Yeah, there's almost like a funeral director waiting in the wings.

[B]

Yeah. And you can't, you, you, we get a vote on this. The American people get a vote and if everyone would just kind of be still in their space and just focus on their vote, not what every other person's vote was in the past and how we got here. But you just look at that on its own merits in this moment in time with the question being should we put a check on him? That's coming up in the election. The overwhelming majority of the country is going to vote to put a check on him because he is and the people around him are out of control. And when he talks about the price of things, the insanity of it is that everyone in a, in a real sense, why the while the while the really the Caligula party down at Mar a Lago never, ever stops. Everybody knows, everybody feels how much more expensive everything is, including gas for his war that he started at a cost of billions of dollars a day. That's now part of the broken political promise of all time.

[A]

Exactly.

[B]

Legacy that he has achieved. Your greatest broken political promise in history. A capriciously started, mendaciously started war of choice.

[A]

That's right. That's right. And, and, and Steve, I was talking about this the other day. I mean, George Bush's read my lips, no new taxes pales in comparison to Donald Trump's repeated promise to the American people that he would not get into these kinds of wars of choice, these kinds of forever wars. The New York Times wrote about this today. They, they write about this saying during his first run for the White House, Trump assailed his predecessors for wasting trillions of dollars on unnecessary wars in the mid and argued that the money could have been used for the benefit of the United States. We could have rebuilt our country twice, Trump said in a 2016 speech in Charlotte, North Carolina, arguing that costly American military adventures served only to further to destabilize the region. No shit. That Donald Trump should talk to this Donald Trump, because this Donald Trump has gotten the US Into a war in the Middle east that he obviously can't get America out of, based on his performance last night. And it's costing a billion dollars or more a day. And so when he says we can't afford Medicare or Medicaid, you know, that. Could you make a more toxic statement heading into a midterm cycle when people do vote on health care in these

[B]

kinds of cycles, he's become George W. Bush, but less competent.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And I think it's really important to understand the craziest thing that Anyone said in 2016, the entire election cycle, was Jeb Bush, who gets a question in a debate, and the question is basically knowing Then what we know now, would we have invaded Iraq again? And Jeb Bush's answer to that question is basically, well, yeah, the world's a much safer place because Saddam is gone. And Trump's response to that was like, what's wrong with you? That's crazy. Trump won the Republican nomination by breaking the orthodoxy in the party that held what everybody knew to be a very stupid thing to have done. Certainly by 2016, everybody knew was stupid.

[D]

Yep.

[B]

But you could not say it out loud. And this, by the way, is an incredibly important lesson for Democrats as we approach 2028, particularly if you have candidates on the ballot like Kamala Harris, who saw every day of what Biden's fitness was, because that question will be asked again, awaiting somebody to speak an obvious truth that, that everybody already knows, but is waiting for somebody to have the guts and basic integrity to tell them the truth about. And Trump has always done that throughout his career. He's always told some uncomfortable truths, but now the truth he's told is the lie that's going to bring him down. And this lie has shattered his coalition. And all you need to do is look at Megyn Kelly and Mark Levin and the great feud among the whole whack job caucus out there in the MAGA entertainment sphere and. And all of that that's going on right now.

[A]

Yeah, no, The New York Times wrote a dispatch from CPAC in the last several days where they had some of the kids there saying MAGA is dead, that they're ready for the next thing. And so, you know, Trump's. Trump's days are numbered, politically speaking. But yet, Steve, he still has the cult of Trump around him. I mean, we need to show this video. It is stunning footage. This is again from that, that video that I guess the White House didn't realize they put out. And then people were downloading it and saying, hey, than much. We'll save this for later. Where the lady that this evangelical pastor who serves at his. As his political advisor or spiritual advisor, Paula White Kane, she's a senior advisor to the White House faith office, and she says that Trump's life trajectory follows a quote, familiar pattern that our Lord and Savior showed us. She compared Trump to Jesus Christ right before Easter. We should watch this.

[D]

Jesus taught us so many lessons through his death, burial and resurrection. He showed us great leadership. Great transformation requires great sacrifice. And Mr. President, no one has paid the price like you have paid the price. It almost cost you your life. You were betrayed and arrested and falsely accused.

[B]

It's a familiar pattern that Our Lord

[D]

and Savior showed us. But it didn't end there for him, and it didn't end there for you. God always had a plan. On the third day, he rose.

[B]

He defeated evil.

[D]

He conquered death, hell and the grave. And because he rose, we all know that we can rise. And, sir, because of his resurrection, you rose up. Because he was victorious.

[B]

You were victorious.

[D]

And I believe that the Lord said

[B]

to tell you this.

[D]

Because of his victory, you will be victorious in all you put your hand to.

[A]

Wow. Happy Easter, everybody.

[B]

Happy Easter. So.

[A]

I believe the Easter Bunny more than I believe that I'll tell you that right now.

[B]

There was a whack job Olympics, right? She's. She's my Mary Lou Retton, right? If, if there's, if there is gold, if there is a, if there's a rank for whack job, she's like a nine star general. This is. Do I.

[A]

More like Tanya Harding, maybe.

[B]

But anyway, she can only be fully appreciated when you see her leading the congregation, when she's speaking in tongues, it is unbelievable. She's another one, you know, she's banging that Pastor Benny hen in the white suit, the faith healer. She's something else. And should we say allegedly there just to be. You know, I don't know. Right? I don't know. The Lord told me.

[A]

Oh, okay.

[B]

So I'm pretty sure. Listen, all of these, all of these grifters, all these people around him, when you, when you think about this, you just try to take the politics out of it. You look at Trump, it's obviously mentally unwill, unwell. He's decomposing at some level. Do you imagine the cauldron of insanity that bubbles and boils around this Oval Office? These people in there day and night, no one can tell them. No, no one can tell him he's wrong. Everyone has a knife in one hand for the back in front of them. They're all in there shiving each other. He's in there polling each person he talks to about who to fire, who to, not who to blame. No one will tell him the truth about anything that's going on. Total madness. 24. 7 on believable. Unbelievable.

[A]

No, it is. It's Jonestown and they're down to Kool Aid drinkers and next of kin. These, these, these days, it seems to me, and I, I, you know, when I watch this, what goes through my mind is, does Donald Trump believe this stuff? Because I don't think he believes this stuff. I think what he has going on in the back of his mind Is, Wow, this lady's really full of. I can't believe I really pulled one on her. What a sucker. I think that's what's, you know how he talked the other day about how he likes to hang out with losers? I'm pretty sure he thinks of her as a loser, one of the losers who worships him. And he thinks it's stupid. That's my guess. Because I think he's more Antichrist than Christ. And that's what the Antichrist would think.

[B]

Well, for, for sure. I mean, he is, he is. He is it the great, the, the great thing about Trump? Such, such as that there might be a great thing there. And I think that there is only one great thing.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And it's, it's that you do not have to pretend, not, not for a nanosecond, that these people, the Jerry Falwell Juniors, the Franklin Grahams, the Pastor Paul, all the snake. That all of these people, that any of these people are on the level. You, you have a supposed pastor, a Christian pastor, who's comparing a guy who's in the Epstein files, right, a million times to Jesus Christ. And, and then they're all going to lay their hands on them in the, in the Oval Office. And so at some level they're bored. He's bored with it, right? With the, with the adulation. I think what he gets off is the domination that he has over these people, the contempt that he must feel for them and the domination that he, that he has over them. You can see his boredom with it. He's from Queens, New York. He's not from an evangelical culture of fraudulence and grift. He has no common touch point with any of this. And so it's just astonishing to watch it as a psychodrama, knowing how unhealthy it is for, for a person who's very much, I think, enamored right now of killing people, of waging war, of the idea that he holds the power to bomb countries back to stone ages, so on and so forth. Psychologically, it's just a jarring thing to watch.

[A]

Yeah. And, and to me, you know, it speaks to, I think, a real serious danger that the country is in right now, that you have these kinds of characters running the country and these kinds of characters blowing smoke up Trump's backside, that he's some sort of Christ like figure. And I just, you know, I think it's a sick fantasy that, that, that has some pull. I mean, it has, it has some influence over people. And, you know, it may Be, you know, if you look at the poll numbers, you know, the, you know, support is dwindling big time all around the country. But as we, as we see that that level of support shrink and shrink and shrink, I think that the hardcore Trumpists who are left, those are the most dangerous people who could do the most damage to this country.

[B]

I think that this is probably the most important thing to understand analytically about this, about this moment in time. And it's, and it's got, it's got two parts to it. The first one is that as Trump's popularity goes down, his level of power stays constant and in fact, his ability to use it may increase, and that creates a number of disastrous, disastrous types of scenarios. I think the important thing to appreciate is that there's, there's some, there's some astronomy involved here to help, to help people maybe with a science background understand the political physics of this.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

If you think about a white star, a giant star, as it collapses, that star gets smaller. As it gets smaller and smaller, it gets denser. As it gets denser, it gets hotter. Just like a political party, as it gets smaller, right? Smaller and smaller, it gets denser and hotter and crazier and more extreme. While unpopular, it still has power. And the people who are left or the extremists who use the power that exists to argue for the use of more power and more power and more power with increasing levels of bad judgment until you have a true catastrophe. And that's exactly where, that's exactly where we are. That's exactly where we are with these people.

[A]

No question about it. Well, Steve, always great to see it, man. Thank you so much. Great conversation. And you have a happy Easter, despite what we saw.

[B]

Happy Easter.

[A]

And there's a moment right there. You asked for it, you got it.

[B]

Pass over to all who are celebrating. Look at that. This was Easter dow at the moment Pam Bondi was fired. And you can talk about, from, from that moment, really any moment below 50,000, you could talk about the Epstein files again. But for sure, at, at this moment, at 46.504.73, that's the firing moment for Pam Bondi. That's unbel. Unbelievable.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, that is, that's the time of political death, I guess you could say.

[B]

Time of death. 46,000 something.

[A]

Yeah, there it is. One. It was around 1:11pm So 46.364.66. Not exactly 50,000, Pam body. But we'll still remember that moment.

[B]

Well, to Tallahassee for Pam Bondi, that's it. And a big private sector job. Private. She could be working for Trump Coin before we know it.

[A]

I think so. Or the Trump Library. It's gonna be one of the boys

[B]

companies running the Trump Library in Miami.

[A]

A bright future for her.

[B]

Do you imagine if she's the greeter in the lobby?

[A]

Oh, gosh, she, she'd do a hell of a job. She would be all in on that, I think. No question. Right there next to the golden statue. Steve, great to see you, man. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it. And you know, Steve and I were just talking about the prospects for the midterms. Trump has already done tremendous damage to himself. We know up until this point he did even more damage to himself in that comment about how the country has to pay for wars and it can't pay for Medicare and Medicaid. But of course, he is still going to try to meddle in the upcoming midterms. And that's why it's good that we're going to turn to David Becker, elections expert. And David, great to talk to you. And you know, one of the reasons why we wanted to reach out, you know, Trump tried to do this, this executive order earlier this week where, you know, he was basically trying to national. I mean, he's been told he can't nationalize the elections, but he's going to try to do it anyway. He's going to try to get the post office involved. I mean, your thoughts on obviously you're folks like you are going to say this is unconstitutional, this is illegal. There's no way he can do it. But that doesn't mean he's not going to try.

[C]

I mean, it's not only unconstitutional and illegal and will have no effect on the election. I'll be honest, I think it's somewhat hilarious. It is not a sign of strength to sign a piece of paper with a Sharpie that has no legal effect rather than try to persuade Congress that certain laws are required. And he's failed at that. The Save America act is not going to pass. Congress has left.

[D]

And

[C]

it's unfortunate that he continues to listen to conspiracy theorists and embrace some of these conspiracy theories. And he was. Unfortunately, he hasn't learned the lesson from his first executive order. It was almost exactly a year ago that President Trump signed an executive order that purported to dictate to the states when they could receive mail ballots, how voter registrations were done, and even what voting machines they could use. And that invited a slew of lawsuits. And three different federal courts blocked that, all on the same grounds. And those grounds are very simple. It's that the Constitution, Article 1, Section 4. Jim, you and I have talked about this before. The elections clause says that the states get to regulate the time, place and manner of elections. It also gives Congress some power to do that as well, but it does not mention the President. And that is by design. The framers were very wise. They had just fought a war against a monarch.

[B]

They.

[C]

If you look at the entire Constitution, one thread that runs through the whole thing is the, the limits on executive power. And they carved elections out specially and said the President has zero power over elections except that which Congress has expressly authorized. And so despite that, he's signed this new executive order. It seeks to tell DHS to create a national citizen slash voter list.

[A]

Yeah, that sounds insane.

[C]

I mean, it's insane. And it's illegal. I mean, it's not. It's not only unconstitutional, it violates the Privacy act and doj, as they've been trying to seize this voter data from all of these states. It's now up to 30 states in D.C. they've been telling those courts, we're not trying to create a voter list. There was a DOJ lawyer, the acting voting chief just last week, who told a court, we're not creating a national voter list. And then the, then the President comes in and says, hold my beer. I mean, like, we are creating a national voter list. Then he tries to tell the Postal Service, you can't deliver ballots to any voter that we haven't blessed at the federal government level. We're going to tell the Postal Service what packages to deliver and what packages not to deliver. That's not a power the President has. It's illegal. It even tries to say, we're going to design the mail voting envelopes, which the states have been spending years perfecting. And they're different in different states depending on, you know, the rule. Elections. Yeah, so it's, I mean, this is a, you know, it's a fever dream of an executive order. It has the same legal effect as if I had written it out on a napkin and crayon. I mean, it's going to be, it's going to be stopped very soon. And unfortunately, the election officials are still trying to deal with this. They're dealing with the uncertainty of possible federal interference. And I talk to them every day. I'm holding a webinar for them tomorrow. But the message I'm going to tell them is, don't worry about this. This is, this is a distraction. This has nothing to do with important work you're doing, it's not going to be law. If. If the president wants something like this to be law, he has to go through Congress.

[A]

Well, and it seems to me what he's also trying to do is undermine credibility. He's trying to undermine faith and trust in the election process. So when he gets his clot cleaned and when the Republicans get voted out of power in the Congress, that he can cry foul and say, see, I told you all these things are going on. We need to investigate this. I mean, it seems to me that's where we're headed, where you can have the President of the United States declare that the midterms were not legitimate. And I know that has no legal bearing either, but he is going to plunge the country into a. Into a. He's going to attempt to plunge the country into a crisis.

[C]

Yeah. There's no question. I mean, there is a. It's not just this executive order. He's been doing that for more than 14 months. He's been spreading disinformation and. And trying to delegitimize elections for a long, long time. And I don't know. I'm not gonna make predictions on what the outcome of the election will be. I don't know if Republicans are gonna do poorly or how poorly they might do. But it does seem like the president thinks Republicans are gonna do poorly.

[A]

Right.

[C]

And whether he's pressuring states to try to squeeze out one more possible Republican district in Congress, or whether he's trying to interfere with the processes, the states are doing a very good job of running. That seems designed, actually not so much to have a change policy or have a legitimate conversation about how we can run elections in the United States, but more to prepare his base for the argument that the election was stolen, when the reality is our elections are more transparent and secure than they've ever been. And whatever happens, people can be confident that the election officials have done their job and it will stand scrutiny. Just like the 20, 20, 22 and 24 elections withstood all the scrutiny that was applied.

[A]

Yeah, And I keep coming back to this. You know, the fact that he won in 2024, and he didn't have a problem with that election there. There were no complaints. They were. Let's go check the ballots. Let's open up these boxes and see if there are bamboo ballots.

[C]

Look at the ballots in America.

[A]

Venezuelan, Italian. Conspiracy theory with lasers and satellites or whatever crazy cockamamie stuff he was alleging in 2020. There. We didn't. I didn't hear any of that stuff when he won in 2024. And the other thing that I want to ask about, David, is Trump has named Todd Blanche the interim attorney general after firing Pam Bondi. And if I'm not mistaken, Todd Blanche recently said, what's the big deal with having ICE at polling stations? Steve Bannon has been saying this lately. What are your thought? Because we saw ICE being deployed to the airports and there was a lot of speculation that, well, this is a dry run for the elections. How much of that could have an effect on our elections this fall if, if they do try to do something like that?

[C]

So what we see repeatedly is the president trying to flex his muscles over elections and failing. And here, similarly, it's what the president might try or think about doing and what he can actually do. And he, and I will just tell you it's not going to happen. It is flat out illegal. 18 USC592 prevents any armed force, armed men or troops from being at any voting location. It is very clear it is not only a crime for troops to be there, it is a crime to order troops to be there. And a governor could say, this is

[A]

a crime, a crime committed.

[C]

Yeah, they don't have the capacity to be at the millions of polling places we have or even in these areas. But I do think there are some people who are very scared of the voters, some people who hate American democracy that want us all to believe that ICE or others might be at the polling place and want us to be afraid. And so it's really important that everyone understand they are not going to be at the polling place. If they're dumb enough to try, it will be blocked immediately by the courts. It might have a backlash effect. And the best way to respond to all of this is not to worry and wring our hands and despair. The best way is to embrace the celebration of democracy that each election is find 10 people, bring them out to vote, check your registration, make sure you can vote, Vote however you want to. It's convenient in person, early mail voting if you want, on election day. But this is not going to succeed. And the reason that, you know, it's not going to see and they're not succeed and they're not going to do it is because they talk about it endlessly. Yeah, I mean, if they really troops, do you think they'd give us all warning they were going to deploy troops and just constantly banging the drums? They're not going to do it.

[A]

And one of my favorite things recently is that, you know, Trump was calling mail in voting, mail, in cheating. And then it turned out that he had been. He had been voting by mail himself. You know, Trump was voting. Voting by mail while calling it mail and cheating up. Did you lose me, Tom or David?

[C]

Did you.

[A]

David, did you lose me? He might have lost me.

[C]

I'm sorry, Jim. I'm not getting audio right now.

[A]

You're not hearing the audio right now? Oh, no, it dropped out all of a sudden. Well, if you can't hop out, hop back in. If not, maybe we'll just.

[B]

We'll.

[A]

We'll table that last question for next time. Goodness.

[C]

All right, look.

[A]

Nope, might not have them. All right, why don't we, why don't we move on to Tom? Yeah, we'll move on to Tom and if we can communicate to David to jump back in at some point or we'll, we'll have. Tomorrow, we'll have David next time. Sorry, Tom. David going back and forth. My head. That's David Becker. Let's see. Maybe if David could drop out and jump back in, I'll just ask him that last question. Let's see here. If he drop. If he jumps back in, we'll get him going. Because I do think that that would be a great question to ask, and it's important to hear an election expert like David Becker talk about why Americans should be so confident that this is going to work out okay come this fall, because there's been a lot of, a lot of consternation, a lot of concern that these midterms are not going to go smoothly because Trump is going to try to meddle in these upcoming midterms. And so, forgive me, I'm stammering for time here. Let's see. David, I'm back.

[C]

I can hear you now. Sorry.

[A]

Okay. I was stalling and stammering there at all at the same time. Not my best performance of all time. But I was just gonna ask you. Lastly, David, while we were ironing out that technical glitch, Trump was complaining the other day about mail in voting and calling it mail in cheating while also casting a mail in ballot in a local election in Florida. I'm sure you saw all of that. You have all the, the data and, and the expertise on this. How prevalent is fraud that is, that is conducted, that. That goes on with mail in voting? It seems to me it happens almost never.

[C]

Yeah, that's right. As with fraud generally, I mean, you're quite right. He chose to cast a mail ballot in Palm beach county, where his residence is, even though he was physically present in Palm Beach County. There was early in person voting going on that day, that weekend that he was down in Palm Beach. And it's very easy to vote early in person in Palm Beach. It's very easy to vote by mail in Palm beach and throughout Florida and much of the United States. He chose to take advantage of a way of casting a ballot that he is trying to take away from every other American voter. And the president has no special privileges when it comes to voting. The president is a citizen like the rest of us. With regard to fraud, look, we know how much fraud there is in the United States in elections. There are many who would like to say we have no clue. It's this vast underground capacity conspiracy. No, we actually know very well it's not zero, but it's really close to zero. Fraud is one of the election. Fraud is one of the easiest things to catch. I say this as a former voting lawyer with the doj. There's a huge, you know, paper trail of evidence, voter registrations, presenting yourself physically to witnesses. If you're impersonating someone, if you're signing an envelope, you know you've got a signature and you've got a document there with all of this evidence. We know how much there is. Even conservative groups who've looked at this for decades. The Heritage foundation has looked at elections since 1980, and out of tens of billions of ballots cast during that time, I believe they've documented a total of 1000 possible cases. I mean, that's just a remarkably small number. It's a real testament to the American people. And then just look at what Trump has done in his 14 months. I mean, they've had 14 months of total control of the federal government, total control of the doj. And how many fraud prosecutions have they brought? Hardly any.

[A]

Yeah, and he sent Tulsi Gabard down to Georgia. And I would assume by now we would have heard something if there was something two months ago popped out of the bag of ballots that they grabbed, you know, Exactly. And you just can't make this stuff up. Well, David, I'm glad you're on the case. Please come back. And next time, for some reason, the audio hopefully won't drop off at the very end of the interview. But thanks for sticking around for that last question. Really appreciate it. Good to see you.

[C]

No problem. Great to see you, Jim.

[A]

All right, thanks, David. Let's quickly now go to Tom Nichols. I want to talk about Trump's speech last night on the war in Iran. Tom, good to see you, man.

[D]

Hey, Jim. Good to see You.

[A]

Hey, thanks a lot for coming on. I mean, I was talking about this with Steve Schmidt earlier when he fired Pam Bondi. I thought that was basically to distract everybody from his disastrous speech last night on the war. And it seemed to me I was. I mean, I'm not underwhelmed much when it comes to Trump, but I was, like, legit underwhelmed because I thought there was going to be some news to a prime address to the nation, and there just. There just wasn't anything. It was just rambling, lying, you know, talking points.

[D]

Yeah. And I wonder, you know, the speech was so disjointed. I wonder if it. If there was a section in there about, I don't know, you know, pulling out a NATO or ground forces or something. And they finally just tackled him around the legs and said, like, can't just get on there and reassure the American public, which he didn't do. I mean, you know, as I said in the piece, to use Trump's own terms, he's kind of low energy.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

And he. He seemed lost. Yeah, he seemed lost. And he was kind of griping and complaining. I mean, this was not a guy going out there and saying, listen, I know it's been a tough four weeks. We've lost some people, but we're winning this war. Here's what we're gonna do, here's why we're doing it. This is why we fight. You know, every president's done that during military. For military operations a lot more constrained and smaller than this. And they usually sit. I mean, the whole thing was just weird. I mean, I didn't put this in there because I don't want to. You know, I didn't want the piece to go on for 9,000 words, about a really weird 19 minutes.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

But I. You know, you and I both know, normally presidents sit behind the. In the. In the oval behind their desk, lean forward, they say, good evening. I'm here to talk to you about something important. Trump did this thing at the podium with the flags next to him, and,

[A]

you know, he was holding on to the podium. There was no podium.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

I mean, he just didn't look well. He sounded tired. He was slurring and slushy. There was that whole kind of digression at the beginning. He tried to congratulate the Artemis mission, which almost seems like somebody had, you know, kind of pasted that to the top of the top of his speech. I mean, it was just a mess. Look, Trump, as somebody who used to write speeches for a politician, Trump has one of the worst speechwriting shops in White House history. I mean, the. The speeches, if he sticks to them, suck.

[A]

They're terrible.

[D]

Reads them as. As written. They suck. But then he riffs and he. He started to. He started to lean on those verbal tics like no one's ever seen. You know, the greatest in history, the biggest ever.

[A]

Barack Hussein Obama. He had to throw that in.

[D]

Barack Hussein Obama. You know, I think he. He really came across as kind of defeated. I don't mean America being defeated, but just kind of defeated and down. And if you were an American looking for information or reassurance, and certainly if you're a military family watching to find out what's going on with your loved ones, you. You could not have come away from that 19 minutes feeling good. And, you know, it was the title of the piece. I think he'd have been better off. I criticized him. A lot of us have criticized him for not speaking to the American people and making the case. In this case, I think he'd have been better off just saying nothing.

[A]

Yeah, no, and I think this has been a problem from the, from the get go because it's been a war of choice based on false pretenses that he now can't get out of with in any kind of clean sort of way. He's, He's. He seems to be previewing escape hatches that he might go for with different reporters who will call him and get comments. He seems to be saying he might go ahead and leave Iran's nuclear program. Basically where it stands right now. He may leave the Iran. He claimed that he had regime change last night, but it sounds as though he's. He's gonna.

[D]

We don't need regime change. That wasn't what the war was about.

[A]

Right.

[D]

And of course that's what the war was about.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

You know, that, that's. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. No, no, no, but, but I mean, that's the. You know, one of the things that. That is really crazy making about this is he, is this war was obviously about regime change from night, the first night. The way he addressed the Iranian people who now have been left hanging, you know, left in the lurch. And so I think what happened. There are reports starting to emerge now that he really did think this. He pulled a kind of Vladimir Putin moment. This will be over in a week, you know.

[A]

Right.

[D]

Rotten regime will just collapse. But also, you know, years of watching Donald Trump, we all know that the way Trump deals with problems is he tries to Speak things into reality. Right? Yeah, he tries to manifest things. He says markets are going to go up, you know, it's all good. Covet's gonna go away. And he.

[A]

That's what it reminded me of last night when he was talking about, well, it's naturally going to reopen. The Straight of Hormuz is naturally going to. It reminded me of COVID It's going to, it's going to disappear. It'll be like. It'll be like a miracle.

[D]

And he, I mean, he does it, I think, for two reasons. One, I think he really believes in all that positive thinking stuff. If I just say, kind of manifests into reality, but also because he's speaking to his base and he knows that just hammering a simple message over and over again. You know, I'm sure that the MAGA folks who watch that came away and said, well, everything's gonna be fine. Straight horror movie is gonna open. I'm. I'm reminded of a friend whose dad, his, his MAGA dad, he watched a Trump speech that was, you know, the usual. Sharks, electrocution, my uncle, you know, all that stuff. And he said, dad, you know, how can you. And he said, I know what he meant. I know what he meant. And I think that address last night was. The only people that are going to really get anything out of it are the people watching. Said, I know what he meant. I understood what he was saying. For the rest of us, I mean, two to three weeks, two weeks is reflex, answered everything.

[A]

It's always two weeks.

[D]

It's always two weeks. And I don't think, I think when you said, I think you're right when you said, he doesn't know how to get out of this in any clean way. All of his options now stink. There is no version unless the regime spontaneously combusts tomorrow. Which, you know, I guess could happen with enough bombing and enough people being killed. But it's a big country and there's a lot of big cities spread across that country. And I don't, you know, this isn't like a snatch and grab of Nicholas Maduro. So absent that all of his options are bad. There is no way that we come out of this with something that we. And that, that was the other thing. It's like, what do you. When he said, well, we're going to hit them extremely hard, and in two, three weeks this will be over. What do you think is going to happen in two or three weeks that's going to be different from where we are now?

[A]

It's so true. No. And to me, you know, when he said to the allies last night, what he basically, what he said in his Truth Social the other day, which is just go get the oil that you need. I mean, one of the things that I think is important, and I know there are a lot of people in MAGA who just say, allies, who needs them? I mean, New York Times put it this way. Mounting European frustration with Trump in defiance of his wishes on the war with Iran bubbled over on Thursday when President Emmanuel Macron of France lashed out at the American leader for his shifting war goals and his undermining of the NATO alliance. And this is what Macron said, quote, when we're serious, we don't say the opposite of what we said the day before every day. And maybe one shouldn't speak every day.

[D]

That was my favorite part.

[A]

Macron told reporters, if you create doubt every day about your commitment, you hollow it out.

[D]

Well, you know, that was my favorite part of what Macron said, and it reminds me of the other great source of political wisdom in the world. The Simpsons were where someone once said to Bart, you know, it's okay to have thoughts you don't express.

[A]

That's right.

[D]

You know, I had somebody tell me

[A]

once, somebody told me once, you're the master of the unspoken word. And I wish I'd taken it to heart. I don't take it to heart enough, but it's so true.

[D]

I think he's, you know, I think there's a certain amount of panic going on, and the problem is there's no one in the room who can say, all right, let's, you know, Rubio is probably the closest thing they have can say, all right, look, let's everybody take a beat. Let's think about where we go next. The problem is there's no independent national security advisor. This is the moment, by the way. And this is going to be a little bit inside baseball, if you want to know how Washington works. Jim, you know, this stuff for your viewers. Normally you have a Secretary of State, a secretary of Defense, CIA, odni, all those people. And the national Security advisor is the President's personal guy who says, listen, let me direct some traffic here. Let's. Let's get all this input, then you and I take a walk. Let's think about it. You know, there. That doesn't exist. Yeah, Rubio is the sec, is the Ruby. The last guy that did this was Kissinger during Vietnam. How did that go?

[A]

So not well.

[D]

Not well.

[A]

Not well.

[D]

You know, there's no honest broker in that room. Who can say. Thank you, Secretary Hegseth. Thank you, Director Gabbard. Now if everybody can please leave. President, I, you know, we're gonna have a talk. There's no, you know, Brzezinski or, you know, trying to. His name just went on my head. Reagan had a very good national security advisor for a while.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[D]

There's no. There's nobody in that room who can say now, let's sort this out. Instead, it's a bunch of sycophants, you know, dancing while their. Their hats. Hat bells jingle, trying to keep the president's attention and not get fired.

[A]

Right. Bush had this and like Brent Scowcroft and those. Those types. And Trump, you're right, doesn't have that. And he has Marco Rubio who wants to. It sounds like, wants to run for president. And having somebody who wants to run for president as your national security advisor may not be the best idea who's also mean lighting a secretary of state,

[D]

you know, and there's a reason national security advisor isn't Senate confirmed. He's supposed to be the president's personal advice. Condi Rice or hater. But George Bush trusted her, you know, and I think it's just the collapse of any process and the absence of any adults in the room is really becoming evident now that we're in a real crisis, you know, where the Iranians have basically proven that they own the strait, at least for now.

[A]

That's right.

[D]

That they've held off, you know, regime collapse for four weeks under u. S. Israeli attack. Our allies are all pissed at us. You know, it. The. The collat. It's all fun and games when you're. You're playing around with, you know, trying to harass Columbia University. It's another thing entirely. When you're at war with 92 million people, you need some serious people in the room. And these are, you know, to take the Logan Roy line from succession. These are not serious people.

[A]

Not at all. No, it's. And it's a very unserious bunch. I mean, evidence by the fact the

[D]

army chief of staff.

[A]

I just saw that Pete Hexeth apparently fired the army chief of staff in the middle of a war that is. That's been a whole other show over there, you know, and. And Pete Hegseth, you know, swans around the briefing room and just speaks in these ridiculously sophomore platitudes that I don't. I don't see how any serious people at home can watch this and have any confidence in what is happening. You know, I Think they're.

[D]

I think a lot of them. I think a lot of the presidents. Well, the. My favorite line about Pete Hegseth was somebody who said he always looks like a high school kid trying out for the play.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

You know, like he's always doing line reading lines and making sure the hand gestures, you know, and the P square is just right.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

You know, I mean, you can tell that. I mean, look, he's the product of media. He's a talk show host. People keep saying, well, he was a warrior. He's a passed over major. You know, there are. There are a lot of people, a lot more military experience. What Pete Hegseth is as a creature of the media with a lot of media training, and he's been using that to great effect on Donald Trump.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Maybe not on a lot of other people, but on Donald Trump. But you're right. This kind of swanning around and chest thumping. These are people that are trying to keep their jobs rather than think about how to run a war. I'm sure General Kane and others are trying to keep this together. But since we're apparently thinking about some kind of ground incursion, firing the army chief of staff while you have forces in the field or, you know, it's not like there was some giant failed operation or something. My guess. I'm gonna take a complete flyer here, Jim, and say, I wonder if George squat, because General George said nothing in public. This whole time he's been the good soldier. And I say that not as a compliment. You know, there were things that. That he really should have spoken up about, like the very partisan activities, a place like Fort Bragg and things like that. But okay, he kept his head down. I wonder if this has to do with Hegseth intervening in the army investigation and suspension of those pilots.

[A]

Interesting. Yeah. Over the Kid Rock thing. Yeah, that was totally insane.

[D]

That's something that internal to the army, you know, as you know, I taught military officers for 25 years. Internal to the Army. That's the kind of thing that would really piss a lot of people off that, you know, the sec Def sets policy and he's the public base of the Pentagon and serves the pleasure of the President and all that. But when you're disciplining pilots for some bone, you know, some. Some boneheaded move like, you know, buzzing a rally and then going and cavorting about in the air for Kid Rock, the army wants to be. They, they, they. The military has its own processes for dealing with that kind of headed stuff. And they wanted to Suspend those pilots and investigate. And heck, Seth waved a magic wand and said, they're back on duty. Well done, patriots. And I'm gonna guess that pissed off a lot of people in the Army. Now, whether that is anything, whether Randy George spoke up, interesting, the timing. You know, I hate to be, I hate to be Colombo here.

[A]

Yeah, well, it was, but it's one day later. Because you're right. Hegseth tweeted it out yesterday and was trying to act like Donald Trump and say, you know, I'm just going to wave my magic. I'm just going to tweet out my command here to the military that this suspension has lifted investigation over. And yeah, I think he did say something like, carry on, patriots. It was very inform. Yeah, it was just. Obnoxious juvenile investigated. You shouldn't fly an Apache helicopter to Kid Rock's house.

[D]

Apache helicopters are not toys. Nor should you do a low pass over a partisan demonstration.

[A]

Yeah, apparently that happened, too. That was, that was sort of an uncovered undercovered element of this, that they were flying around the no King stuff.

[D]

And the army just, you know, in the same way that the Navy didn't like Trump reaching down into those war crimes trials or fighting, that a Navy SEAL should get his trident back. I'm sure there were people in the army who said. But again, like I said, it's come doing my Colombo thing here, you know.

[A]

Yeah, well, we'll see.

[D]

But I, I don't know if they're related.

[A]

Well, next time you're on, Tom, if this comes to pass, you will get a gold star. So thank, thank you very much, Tom. Tom, great to see you, man. Thanks for coming on.

[D]

Good to see you, Jim. Thanks.

[A]

All right, good to see you. We'll do it again soon. And I do want to just close it out by pointing out, you know, if, if, if things are going so well over at the White House right now, if Trump's speech last night was going over so well, if his, if his cabinet picks were panning out in any sort of decent way, he would not have been tweeting about Bruce Springsteen. Did you guys see this? He put out a truth social post. Bad and very boring singer Bruce Springsteen, who looks like a dried up prune, who has suffered greatly from the work of a really bad plastic surgeon, has had a long and horrible and incurable case of Trump derangement syndrome, sometimes referred to as tds. This guy's a total loser who spews hate against a president who has won a landslide election. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay, I Just want to go back to this. He says Bruce Springsteen looks like a dried up prune who has suffered greatly from the work of a really bad plastic surgeon. Okay, this is. Donald Trump is saying this. Donald Trump is saying this. That Bruce Springsteen. Bruce looks like a dried up prune. No, I don't think so. And maybe we shouldn't be talking about anatomical enhancements this week. You know, when the whole Kristi Noem thing came up. Do we have any of those pictures still lying around with, are any of the memes available? There were some memes I was sending back and forth with the team.

[B]

Oh, no,

[A]

this is, and by the way, folks, for, for any of you, you know, really, you know, you know, very, very particular types who are concerned that we shouldn't enhance things on the show. I took this off the Internet, but this is it. This is apparently AI enhanced image of the President of the United States. There he is right there. Apparently he and, and Brian Gnome. Oh, noam. Going to the same, I don't know, balloon shop. Party usa Party city, usa. Anyway, so I, you know, you can see the kind of mood that we're in right now, which brings me to this point. The team and I, we've been, we've been really crushing it. I feel like over these last several weeks we've been putting in some long hours, putting in some long weeks, put in some great shows. I think today's show was another example of just a really fine program that we, that we're able to do because of you, the folks at home who support independent media. But we're going to take a day off tomorrow and I'm taking the team to a baseball game. We're going to go see the Nats play the Dodgers over at Nats Park. So if you're in D.C. and you see me walking by, come up and say hi and tell us that you watch the show. We'd love to hear that. The team would love to hear that. But I, I probably will hop on tomorrow morning and do a Ask Me anything one of those AMAs for the viewers, for the Substack viewers. So for those of you who watch on Substack, we're going to do a little paid subscriber exclusive tomorrow morning before I head to the ballpark. But I couldn't go without taking, I mean, of all the people to talk about dried up prune and bad plastic surgery, why is Donald Trump talking about this? This seems like maybe not the, not the right time and place to make those kinds of comments given the condition that he is, I'll just put it this way very diplomatically, the condition that he is in right now. Yes, he has been anointed as the next coming of Jesus by his batshit crazy spiritual advisor. That doesn't mean he is that way to the rest of us. We know what Donald Trump looks like and it is very much like a dry up front but not with gigantic breasts. Not, not like that, which I saw on the Internet this morning and I had to share with all of you. But anyway, it's been, it's been a long week and I wanted to end the program with, with a few chuckles and, and give everybody a little heads up that unless barring current events, we probably won't do a full show tomorrow. We're going to take the team to a ball game and, and we'll send some pics from the ball game. Maybe I'll do a quick live outside the park or something like that. We'll see how it plays out. But I don't want to work these guys. We're trying to buy them a beer and tell them thanks. But in the meantime, thank you for what you do supporting this program day in and day out. We haven't taken a day off in a while from a full show, so please don't, you know, get mad at us. But in the meantime, if you can support independent media, it does make a huge difference. Subscribe, like, share this program, all of those things. It really does go a long way in supporting the program. Whether you watch on Substack and you're a subscriber there, that, that helps tremendously. If you're on YouTube and you're watching on YouTube, all of that helps a lot. And if you're listening on Apple Podcasts or one of those places where you can listen to us, try to go to YouTube or go to Substack and become a subscriber because those kinds of things do help us put these kinds of programs on every day. Think about the guests that we've had on this week. Jennifer Welch, Steve Schmidt, Tom Nichols, David Becker, who we had on today, Larry Sabato, Ty Cobb. We had Ty Cobb on a few days ago and, and made a lot of news. Katie Fang, we've had a lot of great guests this week. Sharon McMahon, new guest on the show, hadn't had her on before. We'll definitely want to have her back. So lots and lots of great people on this week and it's all possible because of what you guys do in supporting this program. So really, really appreciate it. Thank you so much. For all that you do for all of us. But in the meantime, still. Reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. I'll see you next time.