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- [00:00]
Commercial Narrator
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- [02:00]
Charlie Sykes
Your call has been forwarded to an
- [02:02]
Commercial Narrator
automatic voice message system.
- [02:03]
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- [03:03]
Charlie Sykes
I'm Charlie Sykes. Welcome back to a special episode of the to the Contrary podcast because it's just me and your questions and we have some more horrific poll numbers for Donald Trump. We'll put those into some context. And a deal that might let Mohammad bin Salman, Prince BoneLaw and Jared Kushner's business partner become a nuclear power. What could possibly go wrong? At the same time, we're at war with Iran to prevent them from developing a bomb, we're also going to war with our dangerous enemy to the north, Canada. And for some reason we're imposing more massive tariffs that will be paid for by American consumers. So that's not going to bring down the cost of living anytime soon or before the midterm elections. And by the way, the Canadian response is awful. Interesting. And since we live in a vortex of deja vu, Congressional Republicans look like they're going to cave into Donald Trump again. The DC Media is also getting set to party again with Donald Trump. So brace yourself for another rant about that. And we should talk about the culture war fights that remind us why we can't have nice things and more questions about competence, grift and excuse me, explosive diarrhea. But before we get started today, just a quick reminder that subscribers to my daily newsletter to the Contrary get to listen to the podcast, watch the YouTube videos without ads, ad free now, there's no paywall, at least for now. But just like the rest of the independent, non corporate media, we do rely upon the kindness of strangers. We really appreciate and frankly count on those of you willing to become paid subscrib. And I certainly and the dogs appreciate it very, very much. And speaking of subscribers, let's dive into all the things that you wanted to talk about. So for this solo podcast, first of all, I wasn't expecting to be here today. I don't know whether you saw this in my newsletter, but I was scheduled to fly to New York last night to do a live segment with Stephanie Rule on Ms. Now and sat in the airport. And of course, you know how that works. They say, well, we're delaying the flight that, you know, the, your 118 flight is now going to be at 145. And the guy comes on and says, yeah, I don't think we're going to be going at 145. There are some storms out east. And 145 becomes 2:30 and nothing still storms out east. The crew is there, the pilot is there. I'm very, very patient because I figure I'm going to get to New York, right? So at 2:30 they announced, we're not leaving until 4:30. At this point, I'm becoming a little bit skeptical, especially when you look on the board and it says that the next flight to New York has already been canceled. And you're starting to see canceled, canceled, canceled on all of the east coast flights. So I, of course, did what any Wisconsinite would do. And I went to the bar, had a beer. We're all sitting around here. I could see all the other New York guys. And we're not getting any text messages or any notices or anything. Except if you go on the website, it says your flight's canceled. So I go over to another guy and I said, have you got any word about what's happening with our flight? And he says, no, but I just looked on the website and it said canceled. And we walk over to the board and it says canceled. So we started to see other people coming by and they're saying, yeah, we can't even book an alternative flight because there are no other flights that are either canceled or they're all booked. And so, make a long story short, here I am in my bunker in Wisconsin. I was thinking that I was going to have to do this podcast from midtown Manhattan. Would have been entertaining, but I'll be really honest with you, I kind of felt like I won the lottery because I get to be home with the dogs. And I got, you know, Eli, who is under the desk. And people know I always start off right before we start taping any of our podcasts. I tell the guests, I say, just a warning, I have 140 pound dog right under the desk. If you hear snoring, it's not because I'm bored or anything, it's because it's Eli, and we might have some interruption. So where do we start today? So it looks like the US Senate is going to confirm Jay Clayton to be Donald Trump's next Director of National Intelligence, now that he will replace Tulsi Gabbard, who had the permanent job, and the incredibly, completely unqualified Bill Pulte. So we'll talk about the politics of this, but I just wanted to go back because I've watched this several times and I know you've seen it, I know you've heard about it, but it's worth dwelling on. Just For a moment, this is the questioning between Georgia Senator John Ossoff and Jay Clayton, who is going to be the Director of National Intelligence. And Ossoff is pressing him on whether he is. He's an election denialist. Keeping in mind that we know that Donald Trump is weaponizing the Department of Justice. He's weaponizing the FBI. The Tulsi Gabbard showed up at that weird search of polling places in Fulton County, Georgia. So he is going to play a role in all of this. So it's a significant issue. It's not a side issue. But I want you to listen to it because, well, again, there's Ossoff and Jay Clayton.
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Senator John Ossoff
Who won the 2020 election?
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Jay Clayton
You know, I'm not going to do this with you.
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Senator John Ossoff
This is a job interview. We have established that you have an obligation to be honest and forthright with the committee. Yes. You do have an obligation to be honest and forthright with the committee.
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Jay Clayton
Yes.
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Senator John Ossoff
Who won the 2020 election?
- [08:46]
Jay Clayton
Like I said, I'm not. I'm not going to get into that
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Senator John Ossoff
with you, but you do have an obligation to be honest and forthright with the committee.
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Jay Clayton
Is anything that I just said not honest or forthright?
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Senator John Ossoff
Yes. You're not being honest or forthright. Who won the 2020?
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Jay Clayton
I think I've asked the question. We can keep doing this.
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Senator John Ossoff
Well, we're going to keep doing it because you're not being honest and forthright.
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Jay Clayton
I'm not going to engage in the theater.
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Senator John Ossoff
It's a simple question, Mr. Clayton, and I've answered. Who won the 2020 presidential election?
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Jay Clayton
I've answered it.
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Senator John Ossoff
You're here asking for the support of senators to lead America's intelligence community. We've established that you have an obligation to be honest and forthright with this committee and with the American public. But you refuse to answer a simple matter of fact about the 2020-20-20 election. Is that right?
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Jay Clayton
No, that's not right.
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Senator John Ossoff
Then answer the question. Who won the 2020 election?
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Jay Clayton
I have answered the question.
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Senator John Ossoff
Answer it. What is your answer?
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Jay Clayton
I've given you my answer.
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Senator John Ossoff
What is your answer? You refuse to answer a basic question about who won a presidential election, but you asked to lead America's intelligence community. Isn't it humiliating to be unable to answer this question, to have to indulge the president's delusions? We know, you know, everybody in this room knows the truthful answer to that question. Why can you not give it?
- [10:17]
Jay Clayton
I think I gave you the answer.
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Charlie Sykes
Okay. That's just extraordinary. I mean, we get a lot of these sound Bites.
- [10:23]
Dan Snow
But.
- [10:24]
Charlie Sykes
But that struck me as kind of an iconic moment. Now, I'm not gonna say that it's, you know, at the level of the Army McCarthy hearings, where they said, you know, have you, at long last, no shame? But it was the perfect encapsulation of the culture here where he can't even answer the question. And his willingness to humiliate himself on behalf of Donald Trump to get this job is kind of a marker. Okay? So some of the politics of all of this, he's been passed through the committee. They're going to confirm him. And, you know, one of the arguments that you hear as well, Jay Clayton is better than Bill Pulte, because, you know, I mean, Pulte is such a hack, is so completely unqualified that anybody is better, and so they're going to confirm him. But I actually, when I was on Stephanie Rule's show earlier, we were talking about this, and I said, you know, I think that's the wrong question. Is Jay Clayton better than Bill Pulte? Because anybody's better than Bill Pulty. I mean, you know, a ham sandwich is better than Bill Pulte. I feel that's an insult to ham sandwiches. And normally, personnel is policy, but in the Trump 2.0 administration, I think that we see that the only policy, to the extent there is any policy at all, it's Donald Trump and the willingness to do anything for Donald Trump. And, you know, if you think about the trajectory of this administration, all of the grownups are gone. All of the experts are gone. All of the people who could have told Donald Trump no or this is a bad idea are gone. And he surrounded himself with chodes and loyalists and most importantly, people who will never tell him no, no matter what he wants to do. So, as you know, I keep sounding the alarm bell about what I think Donald Trump wants to do and is prepared to do and is capable of doing about the election. I think you have to be incredibly naive not to think that Donald Trump, who is busily sowing doubt about the legitimacy of the election, might try to, well, interfere with the election, but perhaps even overturn the election, by which I mean, have, you know, push Republicans in Congress and others not to certify elections if they lose. Now, is he capable of doing this? Of course he is. One of the failures that I think that we've had during the Trump era is the failure of imagination. But how can we still have that failure of imagination when we've seen the level of corruption, when we've seen the fact that here's a guy who actually already has orchestrated one attempted overthrow of an election. I mean, this is Donald Trump and he has now surrounded himself by people who will say, yes, sir, what do you want me to do? You think that Cash Patel is ever gonna tell him?
- [13:14]
Senator John Ossoff
No.
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Charlie Sykes
You think this guy Jay Clayton is ever gonna tell him?
- [13:17]
Dan Snow
No.
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Charlie Sykes
Do you think that Todd Blanche, his own personal attorney, probably one of the most corrupt and compromised individuals in American history to be nominated to this position, think he's ever going to tell him? No. So I think we need to see this in this context of what Donald Trump is trying to do about the elections and the way he has shaped and molded and distorted the Republican Party into this, into this self gelding party that has embraced the big lie. And again, this is not an historical question. The reason I played that OSS off. This is not an historical question about something that happened in the past. This is what's happening right now and what will happen in the Future in the 2026 election and the 2028 elections. O By the way, I teased some new polls. I think they're important. I'm gonna get to Prince Bonesaw getting the nukes in a moment, but I don't usually spend a lot of time on polls. But I do think that it's important to put things in context once in a while. This is the new American Research Group poll that came out just before I began taping today, putting Trump's overall job disapproval. Listen to this. At 67%. His disapproval on handling the economy now at 70%. This tells me that the vast majority of Americans are seeing through his bullshit, including, believe it or not, some of the MAGA folks. We'll get to that in a moment. A total of 30% of Americans say they approve of the way Donald Trump is handling his job. That's fewer than one in three. 67%. More than two in three say they disapprove. Now, back in July, he had a 37% approval rating, 57% disapproval rating. So that trend line is negative. When it comes to Trump's handling of the economy, only 28% of Americans say they approve. Put this in some context. Back in July 2018, before the midterm elections in Trump 1.0, he had a 42% approval rating on the economy. So he's gone from 42% down to 28%. I actually think these numbers in some way are, in some ways are probably worse than they look because we're not just talking about how generally, you know, Americans or registered voters feel. About Donald Trump. You know, in November, we're gonna see what the most motivated voters think about Donald Trump. And the most motivated voters are obviously not going to be voting for Donald Trump. Speaking of polls, there's a new political poll out yesterday, Politico, on the war. I mean, obviously, this should be our dominant story. What's happening in the Middle east is the United States seems to be trending back toward a total war. And I said this on Stephanie Rule's show as well. I went back and I started rereading. I shouldn't have done this, but other people should. How many wars have started by not just incompetence, but miscalculations? And I was rereading the Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman about the beginning of World War I, where one country, one leader after another, miscalculated what was going to. Nobody saw what was happening. And that's the real danger. That's always been the danger, particularly in an administration that is, shall we say, not vetting the possibilities, not gaming out all the possibilities. I mean, it's possible that the Iranians miscalculated what Trump would do. I think maybe they thought that he was willing to surrender. Why? Because he actually did surrender, because he had no plan. The markets may be miscalculating because they just simply assume that, well, of course we're not going to have an ongoing war that would lead to economic catastrophe. I mean, he's going to taco out, right? Well, what if he doesn't? What if, in fact, we do have all that? And of course, Donald Trump doesn't really always calculate at all. Meanwhile, in terms of what's happening with this war where, you know, are we going to have, you know, endless bombing? Are we going to have boots in the ground? They have not ruled that out. The death toll continues to rise. Oh, you know what? I'm sorry, I got to do this. The death toll continues to rise. Donald Trump went to that dignified transfer of the. Was it three or four Americans who were killed? But he puts out this bleed. I'm holding it up so you can see it. We're not going to have it on screen, but where it says Afghanistan war, 2000 dead. Iraq war, 4600 dead. Vietnam war, 58,000 dead. Going on Venezuelan war, one day. One day, zero dead. Iran, military conflict, four months, 18 dead. As if. See, there's just. It's not that big a deal. Imagine being one of the families of one of the dead servicemen and waking up and seeing that this is what the President is doing. That he's basically saying, yeah, it's only 18, it's not, it's not that bad. Well, public isn't buying this. Ready the overall poor. So here's the poll from Politico. Half of Donald Trump's MAGA base two months ago, half of the base thought the Iran war was worth its economic costs. Okay, that's a lot of erosion that you know, that even MAGA did not think the war was worth it. Well, now only a little more than a third do. That is a precipitous 13 point drop in just two months, according to this new political poll reveals how the President's most die hard supporters are starting to agree with the majority of Americans who have Long opposed the U.S. involvement in the war. Meanwhile, Pete Hegseth has taken a break from worrying about beards and doing pull ups on camera to come out with an estimate of $37.5 billion that the war costs $37.5 billion so far. That's obviously a down payment if we continue to escalate. It's a down payment if the war widens. It's a reminder that endless wars and empires are very, very expensive. And this one is becoming expensive for American families but for the budget. And of course now Trump is going to be putting a ginormous shit sandwich in front of Republicans in Congress asking them to vote to fund this with taxpayer money before the midterm election. So Republicans in Congress who were not asked their opinion about this war have very little oversight about what's going on in this war, are going to have to vote to spend massive amounts of taxpayer money. Really an open ended check for a war that the American public is going what is this actually about? And by the way, if you're wondering what is this about, Donald Trump has one line which is that, you know, it's worth it because we're preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon over and over and over again. Now, there's no indication that Iran was close to getting a nuclear weapon, that it was an imminent threat. Then there's no indication that the bombing so far has caused them to blink. The Iranians have shown a remarkable amount of resilience, but also patience, particularly looking across at, at Donald Trump and seeing what he's willing to do. So here we have a little bit of cognitive dissonance that if we're fighting this war and Americans are dying because we want to prevent nuclear proliferation in the Mid east. How do you explain the big story on Wednesday, which was the US Deal with Saudi Arabia to allow them to dramatically enhance their nuclear capabilities. This is bizarre on so many levels. I mean, first of all, my understanding is that Saudi Arabia doesn't need enriched uranium because, you know, the United Arab Republic's uae. I'm sorry, United. I'm sorry, UAE already has the enriched uranium. They can import it anytime they want. But also, at this point, we are also letting the Saudis dramatically expand their nuclear capabilities under a deal that would limit the ability of international inspectors to go to various sites to determine whether or not they're turning it into a weapon. So reporters were asking Trump, well, I mean, we're asking Rubio yesterday, well, why wouldn't we have a gold standard deal with Saudi Arabia? Are we going to agree with that? Agree to that? And Rubio kind of punted the whole thing. I'm not even sure how involved he is. Okay, so a lot of questions about this. I think there are several default questions that we always have to ask anytime we see a deal like this. For those of you who've been asking me about this, number one, what could possibly go wrong? Have they thought through all of the, you know, possibilities of a nuclearized Saudi Arabia? The expansion of nuclear proliferation in the most volatile, dangerous part of the world. So that's number one, what could possibly go wrong? Number two, how could we believe anything that the administration is saying about this? How do we know that what they're saying about the deal is true? What are the winks and nods? What are the side deals? That's number two. And number three. And Ron Fournier asked this, will Trump get paid to make Saudi Arabia a nuclear state? And he had some really good, he had some good points about all of this. You know, this is the deal that potentially opens the door for Prince Bonesaw to become a nuclear state, which is a major concession to an authoritarian regime linked to terrorism. And the reason he's called Bonesaw, the brutal assassination of an American journalist and Trump's ongoing financial self dealing. Now, this is a 30 year deal. It's worth tens of billions of dollars, at least according to the Wall Street Journal. And as Fournier notes, it is not known whether Trump and his family will benefit financially from the agreement, but it's fair to suspect that he'll find a way. No shit. Because the Trumps, the Trump crime family has struck at least nine deals with Saudi investors, pushing millions into the President's golf properties, tens of millions of dollars into his licensing businesses, and billions of dollars into private equity funds. And this would be, according to Forbes magazine, just in 2024 alone. Trump and his family collected an estimated $50 million from Deals Connected to Saudi Arabia. The bad news is that, you know, despite bipartisan misgivings, people are going, well, this police seems like a dangerously bad idea. It's, you know, overwhelmingly likely that the deal will go through because Trump, because we'll go through Congress, because Trump has the votes to sustain a veto. So you'd need a 2/3 vote of Congress to overturn this particular deal. And look, there are plenty of reasons not to trust the Saudis and not to trust Trump to actually be a break on the Saudis. You know, everybody's been focusing on how much influence does Israel have on the Trump administration, which was considerable, obviously got us into the war with Iran, at least in part. The influence of the Saudis on Donald Trump may be even more tawdry and significant. So the Saudis are claiming, you know, as everybody does, that our intentions are peaceful. But it is important to note that Bin Salman has been very clear. He's been saying this since 2018, that if Iran ever develops a nuclear weapon, he would do so. Now, again, what prevents him next week from saying, you know, Donald Trump's been saying that Iran is a nuclear power and developing it, so therefore, based on that, we're going to be developing a nuclear weapon. And obviously, this, this, this strengthens their hand rather, rather dramatically. Okay, so back to some of your other questions here. There are so many of them. Oh, do you want to talk about lettuce or about. Or about Canada? Lots and lots of questions about the lettuce, the explosive diarrhea. In my newsletter yesterday, I had a couple of very, very interesting links about this story and what it says about the competence and the way the federal government is operating. I mean, a couple of points that I want to make here, and I link to Adam Kinzinger, who points out that the, the firm that is at the center of this, you know, Taylor Farms, is. We're big MAGA supporters, big donors to the Trump campaign. And so when we had the story that they had a positive test on their letters from the fda, and then a day later, everybody saying, no, no, no, that was a fake test. The question was, okay, is this real? Is this science or is this influence peddling? Did they go to the White House and cut a sweet deal? Now, the fda, in fairness, is still saying that Taylor Farms is the source of this, and they're still putting up a red flag. But there's a long record of Taylor Farms having political influence, including through the Christian nationalist movement, which I'm not going to dive into. Except to say that if you want to read more about it, I do have a link to Kathryn Stewart, who talks about the Farm's involvement with evangelical groups that have very, very specific ideas about how Christian nationalists should play a larger role in the government. So this is one of those stories that, again, I wrote about this yesterday, and there's so many that remind us of the same thing. It reminds us about the competence problem of Don. And again, if you read my newsletter, you know that I sort of ran through what I called the big myth. I mean, the big lie. Donald Trump's big lie is what? The big lie is that he won the election. The big myth has been that Donald Trump is a competent businessman. And I have to say that in the last 10 years, very few things have frustrated me as much as that big myth, because Donald Trump is the guy that we could run through this. He's, you know, presided over the fiasco of Trump University, the failure of Trump vodka, Trump steaks, Trump shuttle, Trump the game, Trump mortgage. We could go in. This is a guy that actually bankrupted casinos. And yet there was this perception. Well, he's a very, very savvy businessman. Well, things have gotten even when he never was, but things have gotten exponentially worse since he's been purging the government of people who know stuff, purging the government of experts, purging the government of anyone who was not a personal loyalist. And this, this is, I mean, again, it is typical of authoritarian regimes, but it's also, let's be honest about it, it's the big vulnerability. It's the Achilles heel of authoritarian regimes that they surround themselves with loyalists who may or may not be incompetent. We also know that Elon Musk Doge went through the government destroying much of the infrastructure, including the infrastructure for public health. Now, what role that plays in all of this, we do not know. But I think that people ought to focus on the sort of big picture irony of all the attention on cutting government spending and cutting foreign aid and cutting food stamps to save this money here and then this gusher of cash that we're now having to pay out for Trump's war of whim with Iran, not to mention the taxpayer funding for Donald Trump's vanity projects, whether it is the Reflecting Pool fiasco turned it into the Green Swamp or the, or the ballroom or the Arch, or all of these other things that seem more about Donald Trump's ego than they do about the problems of average, ordinary citizens. Okay, Charlie, what do you make of the Canada deal. All right, of all of the stories of the last year and a half, the. The war with Canada is the strangest. I mean, think about it. This used to be a South park cartoon joke, right? That, yes, we're going blame Canada for all of our problems because we're all mad at Canada. And I've spoken at a number of events with Canadians and I've done Canadian radio shows and spoken, you know, to groups. And the one thing I always say is, I just want to assure you that I don't know any American who's mad at Canada. I don't know anyone who's ever said, you know, I'm gonna vote for Donald Trump because I want to teach those damn Canadians a lesson. This just never comes up. And yet Donald Trump has this absolute obsession, in part because Canada and its Prime Minister, Carney are just not willing to get on their knees and kiss his ring by which is a euphemism. And so he's lashing out again at Canada, which is one of our major trading partners, and again, a country that we have never had problems with. This week, he announced 50% tariffs on a whole bunch of stuff, including Canadian hockey sticks. Now, in theory, this is in retaliation for the fact that many Canadians don't want to drink American bourbon and whiskey, which, again, is their choice.
- [32:09]
Nick (Best One Yet Podcast Co-host)
Right?
- [32:11]
Charlie Sykes
But Trump is using a 1930s power law that's never been tested before, never been used before. The Supreme Court has limited his ability to put on tariffs by whim. It's not clear whether that would apply to him. But Justin Wolfers made the point. Look, this is a very, very big deal because this is like a new. A new phase in Trump's tariff wars. I mean, first of all, the size of it and the fact that we had a trade agreement with Mexico and Canada. You remember, we had nafta, which he hated, and he threw out and then replaced it with his own deal. And now he's decided that he's going to ignore his own deal, which is significant because it basically says to every country in the world, if you cut a trade deal with the United States of America, it's only good as long as the President wants to go along with it. He could just change his mind. He could wake up in the morning and decide to ignore the deal. I mean, this is gonna have long term implications. So there are many, many goods that in the past were exempted from the tariffs because they were covered by this trade agreement that Donald Trump's administration signed. But this time around, there is no such, There are no such exemptions. So it is going to hammer Canada. It is a big deal for Canada. It will have an effect on American consumers. It will raise. You know, again, a reminder to all of your MAGA friends that tariffs are paid for by American consumers and American companies. Whatever Donald Trump says, whether he understands that or not, I'm not clear. So the question is, so what's Canada gonna do? I mean, this is, this is really designed to like take a bat to the head of Canada. I mean, it will have a minor effect on the American economy, but it's a very, very big deal there. The Canadians are not blinking. And this is interesting. And I think that people, look, Americans don't pay a lot of attention to what's going on in Canada. I do understand that. But this is worth paying attention to. And I'm reading. I will put a link to this, but a link to a Canadian substack newsletter describing how Canada responded to this 50% tariff by delivering a cold, synchronized and deeply satisfying response to Donald Trump, which is basically fuck around and find out. In a matter of 48 hours, Canada formally canceled the planned joint Canadian US ribbon cutting celebration for the brand new $6.4 billion Gordie Howe International Bridge. Interesting. Concurrently, nine provincial premiers gathered in Charlottetown to execute an historic game changing agreement to smash internal trade barriers in Canada and open Canada's borders to direct to consumer sales of domestic beer, wine and spirits. Since allegedly this was all about the fact that Canadians were not drinking American bourbon. Now, this bridge will still open to traffic on July 27. Trucks will still move goods across the Detroit river because basically basic geography and supply chains still are functioning. But Canada made it crystal clear that Washington does not get to threaten our economy on Friday and then stand next to us for a smiling photo op on Monday. The handshake is officially off the table. So, you know, once, once again, the middle powers are showing that they are not simply going to be crushed when Donald Trump, you know, changes his mind. Okay, I want to talk to you about the US Deal with Iran and the coverage of that story. Look, obviously everyone, including me, has lots of opinions about this deal. But if you also want to get down to the facts of the story rather than getting lost in the hype of the headlines, there's an app and a website that can help you do that. It's called Ground News. And they have great tools to help you avoid getting caught in a bias bubble and avoid blind spots. For each story. They'll show you how the left, right and the center cover the Nobel Peace center even called Ground News an excellent way to stay informed, avoid echo chambers and expand your worldview. Take for example this story, a judge denied Joe Biden's bid to block release of transcripts linked to a special counsel inquiry. On the left you'll see headlines like US Judge Rejects Joe Biden's Lawsuit, Asking to withhold Memoir Recordings. And on the right you'll see headlines like what is the former President trying to hide? But then you can go to each source and see who's funding them and their factuality rating that shows how subjective or objective the source is. Ground News also has a blind spot feed that shows stories disproportionately covered by either side of the media. So if you want access to stories you may otherwise never see and the necessary context to make up your own mind, visit groundnews.com tc to get 40% off their unlimited access. That's groundnews.com tc so they know that I sent you. I believe that if you like this podcast and what we do here, you'll like their mission. Visit groundnews.com tc today.
- [37:36]
Dan Snow
Hi, it's Dan Snow here from Dan Snow's History and today we're highlighting what might be behind your stomach issues. Gas, bloating, diarrhea or oily stools after eating could actually be exocrine pancreatic insufficiency or epi. A prescription medicine like Creon is used to treat people who cannot digest food normally because their pancreas does not make enough enzy times. Creon is the number one prescribed treatment for epi.
- [38:01]
Creon Medication Voice
Creon may increase your chance of fibrosine colonotherapy, a rare bowel disorder. Tell your doctor if you have a history of intestinal blockage or scarring or thickening of your bowel wall, if you are allergic to pork or if you have gout, kidney problems or worsening of painful swollen joints, call your doctor if you have any unusual or severe gastrointestinal symptoms or allergic reactions. Take Creon as directed by your doctor and always with food. Do not chew capsules, as this may cause mouth irritation. Other side effects may include blood sugar changes, gas, dizziness, sore throat and cough. These are not all the side effects of Creon.
- [38:26]
Dan Snow
If it's EPI, call your doctor about Creon. Call 1-800-633-9110 or visit creoninfo.com that's C R E O-N-Info.com
- [38:38]
Charlie Sykes
we have a lot of other things a lot of people have you know, asked about culture wars. They've asked about, they got questions about the dsa. And I'm not going to spend a lot of time on that today because I've written about it, the Democratic Socialists of America. But, but I am, I am struck by the amount of wishful thinking about that that's going on. And maybe we'll get to that. People have asked me what's going on in Michigan and Wisconsin, how I react to that. And I think I use the term, I'm trying to avoid using the term scared shitless for what's happening in my home state of Wisconsin. And let me get to that in a moment. But meanwhile, I had a rant, I've had many, many rants about the White House Correspondents association having their dinner and featuring Donald Trump as an honored guest. And he will speak there. We know that they had the dinner back in April and it was disrupted by, I mean, it was brought to a nearly tragic end by a gunman. And the White House correspondents decided, okay, we're gonna do a do over. It was controversial the first time, but it's even more controversial the second time because of what's going on. I mean, right now, Donald Trump is criminally threatening reporters for the New York Times for writing what appears to be a completely accurate story about the Qatari jet, the big bribe. Turns out that it's a white elephant. He was deeply embarrassed when he took this gaudy gilded jet. And it turns out, yeah, it doesn't have the stuff that you actually need to ferry around the president in a time of war. So in case you missed it, they've grounded it. They're putting it in mothballs for a month. They're going to repair it for about a month. Month to max it up. In other words, make it functional as opposed to simply a flying palace in the sky. But any case, White House correspondents going ahead with this dinner, getting together to hobnob with officials, politicians, other hangers on and limpets of Washington, D.C. and of the Trump regime this Friday, despite the fact that a week ago Donald Trump was threatening media outlets with government retaliation, pulling their licenses because they did not want to air his primetime election lies. Well, 500 plus journalists are formally requesting that the White House Correspondents association speak truth to power when Trump attends that dinner on Friday, whatever that means. Okay, so I'm with them on this, but it's a two page memo. And the journalism group argues this is just a group, an informal group of journalists who don't want to suck up to Donald Trump don't want to platform him. They argue the administration's attacks on journalists and press freedom have become even more egregious. The President's Department of Justice has subpoenaed journalists in their phone records and the phone records of their parents. I mean, in some cases, President Trump has threatened to revoke licenses of broadcasters who refused to acquiesce to his demands. Yet the White House Correspondents association still plans on hosting the President at its rescheduled dinner because, hey, let's all pretend that things are kind of normal and we all want access. This memo urges leaders of the Correspondents association to, quote, forcefully stand up for freedom of the press in front of the president, publicly defend the journalists he attacks and vow to resist his administration's concerted effort to undermine the First Amendment. In an interview yesterday, former ABC reporter Lisa Stark told Scott McFarland, we want them to speak out and not stay silent. She said, if you're going to have this dinner, there's a perfect opportunity to call out the President and the administration for these egregious attacks on journalists personally and press reporting more gently generally. Well, I agree with all of that. Are they going to do this? I'm skeptical. You remember back in April, in a move that was widely mocked, at least by me, some of these journalists said that, well, we're going to speak truth to power because we're going, we'll have like these pocket squares with the text of the First Amendment and maybe we will have tote bags and we will do these various things, which I thought was, seriously, people, this is so pathetic. You're supposed to be the institution that speaks truth to power and this is what you're going to do. I mean, the entire setup of this seems designed not to push back against Donald Trump. Right? I mean, they didn't even have a comedian because we know that the thin skinned President hates being laughed at. So they have a mentalist instead, which is, as far as I can tell, completely pointless. We don't know whether the Ellisons and Bari Weiss will have another cozy dinner with Donald Trump to show that, you know, how, you know, that we're buddies and we're on the same page. But what an embarrassment. And again, if the press, and this is supposed to be, here's the irony, this dinner, what's the point of the dinner? It's supposed to be a celebration of the First Amendment. And so who's going to be the featured speaker? Donald Trump. Who's going to use it to attack the people in the room, attack journalism accuse them of peddling fake news and to implicitly or explicitly justify his weaponization of the government, from the FCC to the Department of Justice against press freedoms. Not to even mention all of his mention even all of his many, many lawsuits, the billions of dollars that he has sued for which he has sued, you know, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, and pretty much everybody has been sued. And again, nobody thinks who's looked at this? Nobody thinks those lawsuits are about the truth or about fairness. Those lawsuits are specifically intended to intimidate and threaten these corporate media outlets to cave into him. And they've been remarkably successful. So that's the context you have to see the dinner in. Okay, lots of questions here about what's going to happen with Todd Blanch, nominee for Attorney general. It only takes one vote now on the Judiciary Committee to tank that nomination. There are at least two Republicans. John Cornyn, who was defeated in his primary by Donald Trump, and the deeply deplorable Ken Paxton has raised questions. And Thom Tillis, of course, who has been forced into retirement. They are both furrowing their brows. They are both really, really concerned about Todd Blanche. It's not clear to me what they're going to do because where do we get this story? I'm holding it up here from Politico. Cornyn and Tillis in discussions with White House to get Blanche across the finish line. We have seen this play before, haven't we? So here we have these senators who really objectively have nothing to lose by doing the right thing, going to the White House and trying to cut a deal. And what is that deal gonna look like? Who the hell knows? Now, the Politico story shows, says these meetings show that the balance of power, at least in this high stakes confirmation battle, has shifted for the two outgoing lawmakers. And how Cornyn and Tillis both know it because they have this power. Yeah, well, does he want to get confirmed or not? Was Cornyn's response when asked whether he would be able to extract concessions from Blanche, given his previous reticence to amend a controversial settlement agreement he entered into on President Trump's behalf. This, of course, is the slush fund and the incredibly corrupt sweetheart deal with the irs. Cornyn said Monday he is currently discussing with the Trump administration two main components of the settlement that Blanche brokered with the IRS. One, shielding Trump and his family from IRS, the audits. The other, launching the $1.8 billion Anti Weaponization Fund, which of course was the goon squad slush fund. Those are Issues we're continuing to discuss with the administration to see whether we can get a modification of the settlement agreement. Folks, how many times will these guys let themselves be rolled and scammed? These senators have already, you know, said, well, I got various concessions from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. How'd that work out for Senator Cassidy? Or. Or I got promises from Tulsi Gabbard or Pete Hegseth or Pam Bondi. And what are they worth? They're worth absolutely nothing. And yet they keep doing it because what, they're afraid of having to go into exile, they're afraid that they won't have a lobbying profession, I don't know. But the Blanche nomination, I think is the key vote. This is the one to keep your eye on, because if the Senate votes to confirm him, every Republican senator that votes for Todd Blanche is doing so with her eyes open, with complete knowledge of who and what Todd Blanche is capable of doing. It is an endorsement and it is an embracing of the weaponization of the Department of Justice. A Department of justice that has lost 16,000 lawyers. Somebody said that to me the other day and I was like, wait. I knew it was about 16,000 lawyers that has indicted the former head of the FBI, Jim Comey, for seashells spelling out, you know, 46, 80, you know, seashells. This is a Department of justice that has been discredited over and over again in the eyes of the federal judiciary. In fact, just last week you had a federal judge that, you know, just referred to Blanche for, you know, potential disciplinary action from the Bar association because of the stupid way they've handled the sweetheart IRS deal with Donald Trump. But also they're doing so, understanding exactly what the Trump playbook is with the fall elections and the next elections. They know that Donald Trump, Trump is weaponizing. And I started off with this with the, you know, the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI, the Department of Justice, that he is capable of deeply interfering with the elections, perhaps trying to overturn some of the elections. And you can't say afterwards, if you vote to confirm him, oh, I didn't see this coming. I was thinking about this the other day. This would be like the United States Senate voting to confirm Richard Nixon's Attorney General, John Mitchell, after the Watergate scandal, after you knew everything that had happened with Watergate, after you'd seen all of that. Think of all of the corruption, think of all of the self dealing, think of the abuses of power, the attacks on press freedom, the attacks on other critics. Think about the way in which Todd Blanche is using the Department of Justice to serve Donald Trump's personal interests. Think about the destruction of the Department of Justice in the last year and a half, 16,000 attorneys who have left, how weakened the Department of Justice and the FBI have been. And yet every vote for Todd Blanch is a vote to ratify all of that. I mean, this is a key thing. And so Tillis and Cornyn, again, deja vu. How many times have we seen this over the last 10 years? Republicans were saying, okay, well, this is the bright line. Even Lindsey Graham said, I'm done. And what do they do in the end? They all buckle, they all cave, they all give Donald Trump what they want. By the way, if you haven't seen it, I did something. I think it's kind of interesting. I don't know whether you think it's interesting or not, but I was going back through some of my old papers, since this is July of 2026, and I was looking at some of the old pictures from July of 2016. I have. My radio producer was sending me pictures. It was ten years ago this week. Ten years ago, the Republican Party first nominated Donald Trump. And I was there at the Cleveland convention. And look, I knew it was going to be bad, but to be honest, as I wrote yesterday, it turned out to be a lot worse. And I didn't, certainly did not expect it would last as long as it did. But one of the constant themes was the Republicans who could have drawn a line, who didn't. The Republicans who could have taken an off ramp but didn't, the Republicans who could have stood up to Donald Trump and done the right thing, but decided to cave in over and over again. And I found a piece that I'd actually forgotten about that I wrote not 10 years ago, eight years ago this week. It was actually published on July 21, 2018, in a different life. So eight years ago. And it was a piece that I wrote after the fiasco with Helsinki where Donald Trump basically was sucking up the Vladimir Putin about election interference. And it was, hey, Republicans, stop. Stop with the outrageous tweets. Actually do something. And, you know, actually went through all the things that Republicans could have done in 2018, 18, to stop some of these abuses. And it actually makes for kind of creepy reading because you think, well, what if they would have done those things? How much would have been prevented? But none of it happened. Senator Bob Corker, whose name you probably only vaguely remember, had broken with Trump and is quoted in the article as saying, well, the dam is breaking right now. And as I put in as an editor's note, the dam did not break. None of these things actually happened. So the pattern of Republicans, you know, saying, okay, you know, we recognize how bad this is, and they're all saying this in private. And then when it comes to the votes, absolutely nothing. And it feels like we've been through this over and over and over again. Okay, some brief comments on these things. In the time that we have left, I got a couple of comments from people saying, charlie, we don't understand why you keep fear mongering about these socialists who are winning the primaries. Why are you so afraid of these Democratic socialists? You know, aren't they just sort of liberals in a hurry? And maybe this is what the Democratic Party needs, new ideas, fresh ideas. Couple of points. Number one, socialism is not a fresh idea. It has been around a very, very long time. That's number two. As number one. Number two, as I constantly am trying to point out, the Democratic Socialists of America are not the socialists you necessarily think. And I think a lot of voters who are disengaged with politics now are going to be learning a lot about them because this has handed the Republicans the issue. What is the fear mongering? The fear mongering is not that I'm afraid of the socialists. The fear mongering is afraid the socialists are going to elect MAGA Republicans. This is the key. What does it what is the prime directive of our politics in 2026? Is it to scratch our ideological aid? Is it to elect, you know, the most extreme left wing nominee, to have the most extreme left wing nominee? Or is it to beat Republicans and block Donald Trump? And here's my concern. In both Michigan and Wisconsin, I think it's very possible that Republicans, I mean the Democrats will squander crucial races because in the primary they elect Democratic socialists. I'll be real blunt. I've talked about this before. Wisconsin Democrats. The there's no establishment mainstream Wisconsin Democrats. The kinds of people who've actually won elections in the past, who actually know how to win in a closely divided state are frankly close to panic about the possibility that a young socialist far left candidate named Francesca Hong from probably the most left wing assembly district in Wisconsin might win with a minority of the vote, might win the Democratic primary for governor. If she does, it almost guarantees that the very MAGA election denying Republican candidate for governor, whose name is Tom Tiffany, will be elected. Why do I say that? Because as I told Ben Wickler, the former chairman of the Wisconsin Party the other day on this podcast, I know lots of people who are so fed up with Donald Trump that there's no way they will vote for Republican for governor. They'll vote for any of the Democrats. They voted for Tony Ever, who is the incumbent Democrat. They will not vote for Francesca Hong. And in a state in which the votes are generally decided, the elections are decided by less than 1%, that could be decisive. So the stakes are huge here because the governor is the official that will certify the 2028 election. And Tom Tiffany, who is the Republican, if he's the governor, that creates a big question mark, especially in a state where things are so evenly divided. And I have to tell you that the Republicans are extremely confident this year, even though it looks like a Democratic year. And he's running a pretty effective campaign. And I don't have time to get into it. But I think a similar dynamic is taking place in Michigan, where, quite frankly, that primary has become very, very toxic. And there's a point that I think that, that people need to understand that winning primaries is not the same as winning general elections. This is crucial. You can win a primary with a candidate who is unelectable this year. That's a luxury that I'm not sure that either political party should afford. When people were asking me about the Arizona election, now the Republicans have their own problem. I mean, they're nominating a bunch of complete nut jobs who are unelectable in Arizona, by the way, where they've lost one election after another by nominating election denial. What did they do? They just nominated another election denier. Okay, it's fine. Colorado, the candidate for governor is. Well, let's just say that he's so strange that he's actually has said in the past that when he was seven years old, he murdered somebody. Well, I'm just leaving that aside. So these guys, you can say that, wow, these are tremendous triumphs. Look, Donald Trump got his candidates nominated in these very various places and yet may assure defeat in November. The Democrats have a similar problem, and they need to acknowledge this. Now, again, I understand that people are disillusioned with capitalism, with oligarchy and billionaires and millionaires, and I share that frustration. I think this is a huge problem. But. And I, and I think that the Democratic Socialists of America have been very, very effective in exploiting those dissatisfactions. But I would urge people to read Jimmy Kirkchik's if I pronounce that piece in the Atlantic where he talks about how the DSA is a parasite here, that this is a hostile takeover. They are very, very clear that Their goal is not to revitalize the Democratic Party. Their goal is to take it over and to use it for their own purposes. And I'm just saying in terms of electability. And I know that a lot of people who are kind of sleepwalking into this saying that, hey, you know, socialism is not that bad. It's about people being nice and kind to one another and about government doing things for people. You need to read their actual platform, what they're actually talking about, you know, open borders, completely abolishing prisons, defunding the Department of Defense, abandoning NATO, abandoning Ukraine. Don't sleepwalk into this. These are kind of extreme. Okay. I didn't have a chance to get to some of the culture war. I was just gonna comment on two things. Number one, Donald Trump showing up and embarrassing himself at the World cup, which again, was one of those iconic moments. And the maga, you know, setting their hair on fire over the casting of certain people in the Odyssey, the, the new movie, which I have not seen, so I'm not gonna go into detail, except to point out that it is so important, I think, in our culture to have places that are politics free. And, you know, one of the problems is with Donald Trump. He wants to be, and I said this the other day, he wants to be the bride at every wedding, the star of every show, the turd in every punch bowl. You know, the World cup was a wonderful event. It could have united the country, could have united the world. But Donald Trump has to make it about himself. So the Odyssey is one of the great works of literature. It's, you know, I don't, I haven't seen the movie. You know, whether it's, it's a complete success or not, I'm definitely going, going to see it. But we need to be able to step outside this political world and be human beings again. In fact, to the extent that there's hope, it's when you go out of, you know, get out of your basement, including my basement, and, or step out of social media and deal with people on a non political basis, you know, go to a little league game, go to a minor league game, you know, go to the store, you'll find out that people have senses of humor, they have a certain amount of common sense. For some reason, we lose all of that. We lose that kind of shared narrative when it gets to politics. So anytime we can take two or three hours out of our lives and just, I don't know, admire the sunset, watch a great game, watch a great movie, it is a good thing and it is tragic when it is inshidified by the people that want to make us mad at one another or outraged all the time. So again, resist it whenever possible. Spend some time this weekend not doom scrolling. Remember that Donald Trump is a small, shrinking, fading man. He's dangerous. I'm not saying ignore him, but also look around you and realize that there are good things in the world that we can spend time with. As opposed to, as opposed to Donald Trump trying to put his face wherever he possibly can. He wants to put his in his, make his image absolutely unavoidable. We ought to resist that. Okay, we have a lot more questions. I apologize for the ones that I did not get to. A quick reminder. If you have not yet subscribed to my daily newsletter, please consider doing it. We, you know, we do this every single day. It is devoted to the principle of. The principle of reminding ourselves that we are not the crazy ones. And I don't know of any greater message that we could put out right now that with all of the insanity, you know, we are not, we are not the crazy ones. And whether we chose it or not, and we did not choose it, this is the fight over lifetime. This is the challenge of our generation. And that's why I'm here. That's why I'm doing this and why I am so grateful for all of your support. Thank you.
- [63:20]
Nick (Best One Yet Podcast Co-host)
Hi, I'm Nick, co host of the Best one yet. You optimize your workouts, your portfolios, and that rando startup idea that hit you in the middle of the shower. But if you're not hydrated, you're already playing catch up. So we keep a stash of Liquid IV in our studio. One stick mixed into 16 ounces of water is clinically demonstrated to hydrate faster than water alone. With three times the electrolytes of the leading sports drink, plus eight vitamins and nutrients. Whether you're traveling, exercising or podcasting, the best business news ever, Liquid IV makes it easy to stay hydrated wherever life takes you. So shop now@liquidiv.com Liquid IV hydration that goes wherever life takes you.
- [63:54]
Dan Snow
Hi, it's Dan Snow here from Dan Snow's History. And today we're highlighting what might be behind your stomach issues. Gas, bloating, diarrhea, or oily stools after eating. Could actually be exocrine pancreatic insufficiency or epi. A prescription medicine like Creon is used to treat people who cannot digest food normally because their pancreas does not make enough enzymes. Creon is the number one prescribed treatment
- [64:18]
Creon Medication Voice
for epi, Creon, may increase your chance of fibrosine colonotherapy, a rare bowel disorder. Tell your doctor if you have a history of intestinal blockage or scarring or thickening of your bow w wall, if you are allergic to pork or if you have gout, kidney problems or worsening of painful, swollen joints. Call your doctor if you have any unusual or severe gastrointestinal symptoms or allergic reactions. Take Creon as directed by your doctor and always with food. Do not chew capsules as this may cause mouth irritation. Other side effects may include blood sugar changes, gas, dizziness, sore throat and cough. These are not all the side effects of creon.
- [64:44]
Dan Snow
If it's epi, call your doctor about Creon. Call 1-800-633-9110 or visit creoninfo.com that's C-R-E-O-N info.com All new drinks are now at
- [64:57]
Charlie Sykes
McDonald's with refreshers like the Strawberry Watermelon
- [65:00]
Dan Snow
Refresher and the Mango Pineapple Refresher with Popping Boba to crafted sodas like the Sprite Berry Blast with berry flavors and cold foam. Who knew ice cold drinks could be so fire six? All new drinks are here now at McDonald's. Refreshers contain caffeine.